Early Life
John was a son of Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, son of King James II of Scotland. He was the only son of his father's second marriage, to Anne de la Tour d'Auvergne, daughter of Bertrand VI of Auvergne. The ambitious though unsuccessful Alexander had fled Scotland to France in 1479, and married Anne. He then returned to Scotland after reconciliation with his brother the king, but in 1483 fled to France a second time, being placed in Scotland under a sentence of death for treason. John was born in France, although it is unclear whether this was during his father's first or second stay there, and grew up there with his French mother.
Alexander was killed in Paris accidentally in a tournament in 1485 when John was still an infant. He had earlier been married with Catherine Sinclair, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Orkney, but that marriage had been dissolved in 1478, however having produced half-brothers to John. Question of their illegitimacy caused uncertainty in succession, but the infant John was eventually recognized as duke after his father's death. He thus inherited Duchy of Albany and Earldom of March.
On 15 February 1487 his mother married Louis de Seyssel, comte de La Chambre, who became John's stepfather.
Read more about this topic: John Stewart, Duke Of Albany
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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