The Story of the Stewarts

The first "authentic appearance of the Stewarts on the page of history is ... to be found in the person of Walter the son of Alan, who ... witnesses many charters, chiefly those of David I." David I named Walter as Stewart of Scotland (the first to hold that office) and he possessed much land as a result of this title. In 1157, King Malcolm IV made the office of Stewart of Scotland hereditary in Walter's family. He married Eschina. He died in 1177, leaving a son, Alan, and a daughter, Margaret. Charts provide the line of descent of Stewarts from Walter, "the union of the two senior direct male lines of the Stewarts in the person of King James VI and their extinction in his descendants", and the "connection between the dynasties, past and present, of Britain and other European countries, with the High Stewarts of Scotland".