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Historical person
David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, was the eldest son and heir of Robert III of Scotland. He served as lieutenant of the kingdom but became entangled in conflict with his uncle, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, and other powerful nobles.
Rothesay’s position as heir made his rivalry with Albany especially dangerous during Robert III’s weak reign. In 1402 he was arrested, confined at Falkland Palace and died there in circumstances that contemporaries and later chroniclers regarded with suspicion. His death removed the king’s eldest son and helped persuade Robert III to send his surviving heir, the future James I, abroad for safety.
In Nigel Tranter’s A Folly of Princes, His son David, Duke of Rothesay, and his brother Robert, Duke of Albany, struggle for supremacy while noble factions choose sides and the authority of the crown steadily weakens.
Series
Beginning in the later fourteenth century and continuing into the troubled reign of Robert III, the House of Stewart Trilogy follows Scotland’s first Stewart kings as they struggle to turn a disputed inheritance into a durable dynasty. The crown has come through Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the…
All books in this series
