STEWART, John de Menteith, 'Earl of March and Earl of Lennox' (substitute) ¹

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  General Notes:

"2. Sir John (Stewart), who has achieved an unenviable notoriety as the taker or betrayer of Sir William Wallace. His history has been fully sketched by Sir William Fraser, and need not be detailed here. He was possessor of the lands of Rusky in Menteith, and perhaps also of Knapdale. He died about 1323."

from Scots Peerage (vol 6)




"Menteith took his captive, loaded with chains, to London. A month after Wallace's death on the scaffold Menteith was nominated one of the representatives of the Scots barons in the parliament of both nations which assembled at London in September. He was chosen a substitute for the Earl of March [see under Dunbar, Agnes], who had not attended, and was put upon the Scottish council, which was appointed to assist John of Brittany, Edward's nephew, the new regent of Scotland, in the English interest (Palgrave, Doc. illustrating Hist. of Scotland, p. 293). He was further rewarded with a grant of lands valued at 100l. (ib. p. 295), and on 1 June Edward ordered that the earldom of Lennox should be conferred on him, while on 15 June he gave him his Dumbarton office for life (ib. p. 305). Before October Menteith received his final grants, and was despatched to Scotland on the king's business (Cal. Doc. Scotland, iv. 488, 489).

Neither the favour of Edward nor the odium which accrued to the betrayer of Wallace kept Menteith faithful to the English alliance. He was among the Scottish magnates whom Edward appealed to in December 1307 to join him in resisting the revolted Bruce (Fœdera, ii. 22). But he had already chosen his part, and, abandoning his newly won earldom of Lennox, henceforth steadfastly adhered to the popular cause. In March 1308 Menteith was among the Scottish magnates who wrote to the king of France on behalf of the national cause (Acts Parl. Scotland, i. 13, 99)."

from DNB ^{2 3}

John married.