The House of Stewart

The Stewarts descend from Walter fitz Alan, of a Breton family from Dol, who came to Scotland under David I and was made hereditary High Steward. The office gave the family its surname. Their early lands lay in Renfrewshire, East Lothian and Bute, and Highland branches later established themselves in Atholl, Appin and Balquhidder.

Walter, the 6th High Steward, married Marjory Bruce, daughter of Robert the Bruce. Their son succeeded as Robert II in 1371, founding a royal house that ruled Scotland, and from 1603 England and Ireland as well, until the death of Queen Anne in 1714. Clan Stewart itself is armigerous: no chief of the name is recognised, the Earl of Galloway being reckoned the senior cadet, while Stuart of Bute has its own recognised chief.

The Royal Stewart tartan

The Royal Stewart sett, a red ground with a multicoloured overcheck, was first published by James Logan in The Scottish Gael in 1831. The Stewart Society notes that references indicate the pattern was known by the end of the eighteenth century, and that early samples show the blue as a lighter azure than today’s. A separate Royal Stewart appears in the Vestiarium Scoticum of 1842 and is recorded distinctly from Logan’s sett.

It is treated as the personal tartan of the reigning monarch, and is worn by the pipers of several regiments. It has also become the most widely recognised tartan in the world, which is why so many people who have no Stewart connection choose it.

A note on honesty: the only firm date is Logan’s publication in 1831. There is no documentation that the Stuart monarchs of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries wore this pattern, and claims that it was worn at Culloden are not supported by evidence.

Clan facts

References

1. History of the Stewarts: Royal Stewart tartan — The Stewart Society
2. Stewart tartans — The Scottish Register of Tartans
3. Vestiarium Scoticum