Euphemia Leslie (abt. 1399 - abt. 1425)

Born about 1399 in Dingwall, Ross, Scotland

Ancestors

Died about 1425 at about age 26 in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England

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Biography

Euphemia was born about 1399. She is the daughter of Alexander Leslie and Isabel Stewart.^[1] Her date of birth is uncertain although it must have occurred between 1398, when her parents married, and 1404, when he father disappears from the record. As she appears, in 1415, in an attempt to marry her it is suspected that she was born about 1399. She is generally viewed as having suffered a disability at birth, mentioned as Kyphosis. She never actually held the title to the Earldom of Ross although she was the heiress. She is included in that role for continuity.

Her father died, at some point between 1404, his last appearance on record and 1407, when her mother remarried. She, Euphemia, holding the important and strategic title to Ross became an important ward. She became a ward of the Crown and her wardship was held by her grandfather, Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, and Regent of Scotland. She was to become, unknowingly, a pawn in a political power struggle between two of the most important men in the nation of that day; Robert Stewart and Donald MacDonald, Lord of the Isles.

She appears in a precept of 11 July 1405, when it appears she was already then the ward of her grandfather, Robert, Duke of Albany, who then styles himself Lord of the ward of Ross. Clearly by this point, Alexander Leslie was either dead or incapable.

The Earldom of Ross

Her title, to Ross, can be sourced back to a Charter by David II, in 1370, to her grandfather, Walter Leslie, where he provided that the lands and titles of Ross be held to "...Walter de Leslie, knight, and Euphemia, his spouse, and the longest survivor of the two, and the heirs of this Euphemia legitimately procreated or to be procreated, so that if male heirs of this Euphemia shall not be born and perchance she shall have more daughters, the elder daughter always, whether of this Euphemia or of the heirs born of her, in the absence of male heirs, shall have all right and the entirety of the said earldom, lordships and lands with the pertinents,...". A copy of this Charter is retained. The effect of this Charter is clear; Euphemia had inherited the entire right to Ross, without division, and there was no claim, contrary to often found on the web by her aunt, Mary Leslie. It is worth noting that Balfour Paul is in error when he provides that "Mary, on the death of her brother Alexander, Earl of Ross, became heir-presumptive to her niece Euphemia in the earldom." She did not and the Charter of 1370 makes this clear.^[2]

However, before 1406, Donald MacDonald had laid claim to the title, in right of his wife. Donald signed an alliance of mutual support with Henry IV on 16 September 1405, shortly after the wardship of Euphemia was established. He renewed the alliance on 8 May 1408 shortly before he invaded Ross. The matter is also discussed in Bain's work.^[3] who goes on to say "Although, as already referred to, the whole Western Isles were many years previously transferred to the Scottish Crown, Donald still affected to consider himself a species of independent sovereign, a form of self-homage which Albany's policy, not to speak of the family aggrandisement involved, went far to mortify ; nor were there awanting at his barbarous Court those whose interests lay in ministering to these angry feelings. Conspicuous among these were emissaries from the English Government, resolved as a set-off to the losses formerly inflicted upon it by the Scottish freebooters to treat these marauders to a war of disintegration in their own country. From them Donald obtained liberal supplies of arms and money; it being from' the first understood that if he succeeded in supplanting the existing dynasty no more acceptable return could be desired for the outlays."

The Earldom of Ross extended well into the Western Isles and the Lordships of Syke and Lewis; held to the Earldom by families of MacLeod. The western gateway to Ross, based at Eilean Donan Castle was held by Mackenzie. However, in 1373, a grant of Harris, the North Isle, and part of Skye was made, by Donald MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, to Ranald, second son of John Macdonald and Amy Macruari, ancestors of the Clan Ranald family. Nominally the charter only conveyed the feudal superiority but in reality it was intended to convey the actual possession of the land. When William MacLeod died suddenly about 1402 he was followed by his eldest son Iain (John) Borb (The Fierce) Macleod. John was only 12 when his father died and under the Highland law of ascendency, that a clan could not exist without a chief able to lead them to battle, a Regent was appointed. Iain (John) Macleod (a cousin) was appointed and Donald, Lord of the Isles, struck to seize the possessions of the Macleods and his forces landed in Sleat and took possession of the castles of Dunskaith (west coast of Skye) and Camus (Knock, on the east coast of Skye), and drove out the Macleods from Sleat. The war between the MacLeod and the MacDonald continued until 1406 when the MacDonalds were defeated and a peace was mediated by Maclean of Duart, a relative to both, where Donald relinquished all seized lands except those of North Uist but Macleod was required to acknowledge the Lord of the Isles as his overlord.

With the islands secure, Donald MacDonald moved against the mainland, an action that would eventually lead to the Battle of Harlaw and eventually giving up the claim at the Treat of Lochgilphead in 1412.

A myth is perpetuated in some historical sources and on the web which suggests that Donald MacDonald was claiming his rightful inheritance (in right of his wife) in his invasion of Scotland and that, as Euphemia had "taken the veil" he was right to invade. Original source material contradicts this. Balfour Paul notes^[4] that it has been alleged^[5] that one or both of these causes prompted the attempt of the Lord of the Isles, but dates will not admit of this. His attempt was in 1411, although it had clearly commenced prior, whereas Euphemia did not resign the earldom till June 1415. Not only so, but in that year it was proposed that she should marry Thomas Dunbar, afterwards third Earl of Moray, heir-apparent of Thomas, second Earl of Moray, and could easily have had heirs. The parties applied to the Pope (Benedict XIII.) for a dispensation on the alleged ground that they were related in the third and fourth degrees of consanguinity, and that, by the advice of their kin and friends, they desired to marry. The Pope issued a commission, dated 3 June 1415, for the usual dispensation, but on 12 June, probably before the Papal writ reached Scotland, she had resigned the earldom to the Crown. On 15 June 1415 the Duke of Albany, as Regent, granted the lands, the earldom of Ross, the lands of Strathglass and others named, in favour of Euphemia Leslie herself, who is not designed Countess of Ross; and failing her, to his own second son John, Earl of Buchan; whom failing, to his own third son Robert; whom failing, to revert to the King. Although the "fairness" of this action might be disputed it was legal and common practise, indeed the exact same process was performed by David II in providing them to Walter Leslie.

On the same day Euphemia resigned the lands of Kingedward in Buchan, which were granted only to John Stewart, and his heirs.

Thus the title passed to John Stewart, who became Earl of Buchan and Ross.

Joining the church

Euphemia is not heard of after this event. She is often stated to have become a nun at the St. Mary's Priory in North Berwick.

Footnotes

1. ↑ #S-1 Balfour Paul; Vol 7, page 242
2. ↑ #S-1 Balfour Paul; Vol 7, page 242
3. ↑ #S-2 Robert Bain; pages 76 and 77
4. ↑ #S-1 Balfour Paul; Vol 7, page 242
5. ↑ He mentions the work The Clan Donald as a source but there are others that derive from this

Sources

• Source S-1 Balfour Paul. The Scots peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom. Edinburgh: Douglas, 1904. archive.org

• Source S-2 Bain; Robert. History of the ancient province of Ross (The County Palatine of Scotland) from the earliest times to the present time. Dingwall: Pefferside Press, 1899. archive.org