List of Heirs of Scotland - Heirs To James II

Heirs To James II

At the accession of James II the next male heir to the Crown was the late King's assassin

• Walter, Earl of Atholl. However, he and his grandson and accomplice Sir Robert Stewart, Master of Atholl were swiftly attainted and executed for their part in the conspiracy, 26 March 1437.

The only other unquestionably legitimate male member of the House of Stewart apart from the King was now Sir James "Mór" Stewart of Baldorran, son of the second Duke of Albany, who was in exile in Ireland. However as he was under attainder, the next heir according to the 1373 Act of Parliament was the "heir whomsoever" (i.e. including females) of King Robert II. It was still uncertain at this time as to who this would be, as the 1373 Act, while determining which of the King's sons should succeed him, had not pronounced on the legitimacy of the King's elder children one way or the other. If the children of Robert II by his first wife were legitimated by their parents' subsequent marriage (as later legal doctrine would have it), then the heir presumptive in 1437 was the King's eldest sister

• Margaret, who had married the King of France's son the Dauphin Louis on 24 June 1436. She died without children on 16 August 1444, leaving her sister
• Isabella as next heir. She was the wife of the Duke of Brittany, by whom she had two daughters. However she was displaced in the succession after her brother was married on 3 July 1449 to Mary of Guelders, who bore him the first of eight children,
• a son, on 19 May 1450 (he died the same day, but seven surviving children followed).

However, if the children of Elizabeth Mure were not legitimate, then the heir whomsoever of Robert II during the period 1437 to 1451 was

• Malise Graham, Earl of Menteith, maternal grandson of David, Earl of Strathearn, the eldest son of King Robert II by his second, indisputably valid marriage to Euphemia de Ross. The Earl of Menteith was closely related on his father's side to the conspirators that murdered James I: his uncle Sir Robert Graham of Kilpont had been one of the leaders of the plot, and his cousin Elizabeth Graham was second wife to the treacherous Earl of Atholl.

In the event this potential problem over the succession never arose, as Queen Mary gave birth to a son and heir apparent,

• James, Duke of Rothesay, on 10 July 1451.

After fathering three more sons, King James II, an artillery enthusiast, was killed by an exploding cannon while besieging Roxburgh Castle, 3 October 1460, and was succeeded by his eldest son.