Editing Robert III of Scotland (section)

== Early life ==
John Stewart was born around the year 1337 to [[Robert II of Scotland|Robert, Steward of Scotland]] and [[heir presumptive]] to the throne, and his wife [[Elizabeth Mure]].<ref>Weir, ''Britain's Royal Family'', p. 228</ref> Robert's mother [[Marjorie Bruce|Marjorie]] and her half-brother, [[David II of Scotland|David II]], were the children of the first Bruce king, [[Robert I of Scotland|Robert I]].<ref>Weir, ''Britain's Royal Family'', pp. 210–211</ref> 
 
Robert Stewart and Elizabeth Mure were married in 1336 by traditional marriage, recognized as legally binding but not recognized by the Church. The marriage was criticized for being uncanonical, so they married a second time in 1349, after receiving a papal dispensation from [[Pope Clement VI]] dated 22 November 1347. Therefore, although their children were legitimate, having been born after the first marriage of their parents, John, his three brothers and six sisters were legitimised by their parents' second Church-sanctioned marriage.<ref>Weir, ''Britain's Royal Family'', pp. 216–225</ref> Styled Lord of Kyle, John is first recorded in the 1350s as the commander of a campaign in the Lordship of [[Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway|Annandale]] to re-establish Scottish control over English occupied territory.<ref>Penman, ''Kings and Queens of Scotland'', p. 128</ref> In 1363, he joined his father along with the earls of Douglas and March in a failed insurrection against Robert's uncle, David II. The reasons for the rebellion were varied. In 1362, David II supported several of his royal favourites in their titles to lands in the Stewart earldom of Monteith and thwarted Stewart claims to the earldom of Fife. The King's involvement and eventual marriage with [[Margaret Drummond, Queen of Scotland|Margaret Drummond]] may also have represented a threat in the Steward's own [[earldom of Strathearn]] where the Drummonds also had interests, while Douglas and March mistrusted David's intentions towards them.<ref>Boardman, ''Early Stewart Kings'', pp. 16–18</ref> These nobles were also unhappy at the king's squandering of funds provided to him for his ransom,<ref>Penman, ''Kings and Queens of Scotland'', p. 120</ref> and with the prospect that they could be sent to England as guarantors for the ransom payments. The friction between the King and the Stewarts looked to have been settled before the end of spring 1367.<ref name="Boardman, Annabella, ODNB">Boardman, ''Annabella'', ODNB</ref>

[[Image:Arms of John Stewart, Earl of Carrick.svg|thumb|175px|left|Blason of John, Earl of Carrick]]

On 31 May 1367, the Steward resigned the [[earldom of Atholl]] to John, who by this time was already married to [[Annabella Drummond]], the daughter of the queen's deceased brother, Sir John Drummond.<ref name="Boardman, Annabella, ODNB"/> David II reinforced the position of John and Annabella by providing them with the [[Earldom of Carrick]] on 22 June 1368 and the tacit approval of John as the king's probable heir.<ref>Boardman, ''Early Stewart Kings'', p. 22</ref> A Stewart succession was suddenly endangered when David II had his marriage to Margaret annulled in March 1369 leaving the king free to remarry and with the prospect of a [[House of Bruce|Bruce]] heir.<ref>Boardman, ''Early Stewart Kings'', pp. 23–24</ref>

On 22 February 1371, David II (who was preparing to marry the Earl of March's sister, [[Agnes Dunbar (mistress)|Agnes Dunbar]]) unexpectedly died, presumably to the relief of both John and his father.<ref>Penman, ''Kings and Queens of Scotland'', p. 130</ref> Robert was crowned at [[Scone Abbey]] on 27 March 1371 and before this date had given John — now styled Steward of Scotland — the ancestral lands surrounding the [[Firth of Clyde]].<ref name="Boardman, Robert III, ODNB">Boardman, ''Robert III'', ODNB</ref> How the succession was to take place was first [[entailed]] by Robert I when female heirs were excluded; David II attempted unsuccessfully on several occasions to have the council change the succession procedure.<ref name="Boardman, Robert III, ODNB"/> Robert II quickly moved to ensure the succession of John when the general council attending his coronation officially named Carrick as heir — in 1373 the Stewart succession was further strengthened when parliament passed entails defining how each of the king's sons could inherit the crown.<ref>Barrell, ''Medieval Scotland'', pp. 141–142</ref> After the coronation [[John Dunbar, Earl of Moray|John Dunbar]] who had received the Lordship of Fife from David II now resigned the title so that the king's second son, [[Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany|Robert, Earl of Monteith]] could receive the [[Earldom of Fife]] — Dunbar was compensated with the provision of the [[earldom of Moray]].<ref>Grant in Jones et al., ''The New Cambridge Medieval History'', p. 360</ref>

A son, [[David Stewart, 1st Duke of Rothesay|David]], the future [[Duke of Rothesay]], was born to Carrick and Annabella on 24 October 1378. In 1381, Carrick was calling himself ''"lieutenant for the marches"'' sustained by his connections to border magnates such as his brother-in-law, [[James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas|James Douglas]], son of William, Earl of Douglas, whom he succeeded in 1384.<ref name="Boardman, Robert III, ODNB"/>
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