Direct line (1371–1542) Upon the death of David II in 1371, his nephew, Robert Stewart (the son of Walter Stewart and Marjorie Bruce, herself the daughter of Robert I by his first marriage) acceded to the throne. His direct line of heirs would continue to rule until the death of his last direct male descendant, James V. James left
only a six-day-old girl as his heir, prompting his angry exclamation, "The devil go with it! [The rule of the Stewarts] will end as it began. It came with a lass, and it will pass with a lass." In this he was wrong: Mary would marry
a member of a junior branch of the Stewart family, and
the line they founded would rule not only Scotland but also England and Ireland until 1714. However, the final Stewart monarch was a woman,
Anne, Queen of Great Britain.
House of Stuart (1542–1649) In 1542, James V died, leaving his daughter
Mary as Queen of Scots. Mary was later sent by her mother to the French court, where her surname was gallicised to
Stuart. Mary married
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a member of a junior branch of the Stewart family (who had also gallicised their surname to
Stuart). Their son, James VI, established the Stuart dynasty, which would rule not only Scotland but also, from 1603, England and Ireland. The rule of this house was briefly terminated with the Civil War, in which Charles I was executed and the Commonwealth declared; thus, between 1649 and 1660, England, Scotland and Ireland were ruled by Parliament, dominated by
Oliver Cromwell. The House would be restored to the throne in 1660, with the return of Charles II.
House of Stuart (restored) (1660–1707) In 1660, Charles II, son of the executed Charles I, was restored to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Stuart rule began again. James VII, his brother, was overthrown in 1688–89 because of his Catholic faith; his daughters, Mary II and Anne, were the last Stuarts to rule in the British Isles, Anne dying in 1714. The Kingdom of Scotland, however, had already ceased to exist in 1707, when the Act of Union amalgamated the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into a united Kingdom of Great Britain. James VII's son,
James Francis Edward Stuart, refusing to accept the Act of Union, claimed the English and Scottish thrones, as did his son
Charles Edward Stuart; however, they are not considered legitimate Kings of Scotland, since they never effectively secured their claims, and so their wives are not listed here. • For the subsequent consorts of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, see
List of British consorts. ==See also==