King of Scots (1371–1390) and first monarch of the House of Stewart, a grandson of Robert the Bruce who ruled a weak but stable kingdom in his old age.
Robert II was king of Scots from 1371 to 1390 and the first monarch of the House of Stewart, the dynasty that would rule Scotland, and later all Britain, for over three centuries. A grandson of Robert the Bruce through his mother Marjorie, and hereditary High Steward of Scotland, he was heir presumptive throughout the reign of his uncle David II.
He served long years as guardian of the realm during David's captivity in England, and finally came to the throne himself in 1371, already fifty-five. His reign was peaceful but weak: an ageing king who left much of the governing and fighting to his many sons, presiding over a Scotland that had won its independence but remained poor and factious.
Robert was born in 1316, the son of Walter the Steward and of Marjorie Bruce, the daughter of King Robert the Bruce; his mother died giving birth to him. As hereditary High Steward — from which office the family took the surname Stewart — and grandson of the hero-king, Robert stood close to the throne, and when the childless David II ruled, Robert was his heir.
During David's long captivity in England after the disaster of Neville's Cross (1346), Robert twice acted as guardian of the kingdom, gaining decades of experience of Scottish government before he ever wore the crown.
Robert II is remembered as an amiable, cautious, and rather ineffectual king — a marked contrast to his warrior grandfather. Handsome and famously fertile, with a vast brood of legitimate and illegitimate children, he was better at securing his dynasty than at ruling it, and in his later years his energy visibly failed.
Contemporaries and historians have judged him a weak monarch who allowed royal authority to slacken and left the real exercise of power to his ambitious sons and the great magnates. Yet his very mildness and his long apprenticeship as guardian gave Scotland a measure of continuity and peace after the upheavals of the wars of independence. He was a survivor and a founder rather than a leader — the patient heir who at last inherited, and who planted a dynasty that would outlast every rival.
Robert came to the throne in 1371 on the death of David II, the last of the direct Bruce line, and was crowned at Scone. His reign avoided major war with England for a time, and the ransom and border pressures of David's day eased, but royal government grew slack. Increasingly infirm, Robert delegated authority to his sons, notably the earls of Fife and Buchan — the latter, the "Wolf of Badenoch", a byword for lawlessness in the north.
By the 1380s Robert had effectively been sidelined by his own heirs, who governed in his name as his powers declined, even as border warfare with England resumed.
Robert II died at Dundonald Castle on 19 April 1390 and was buried at Scone. He was succeeded by his eldest son, who took the regnal name Robert III — continuing the Stewart line.
Robert II is remembered above all as the founder of the House of Stewart, the dynasty descended from him that would rule Scotland until 1603 and then, as the Stuarts, the whole of Britain. If he was himself a weak king, his dynastic achievement was immense: through his many descendants the blood of Robert the Bruce and the Stewart name passed down the centuries to shape the history of two kingdoms.