Euphemia was a daughter of Hugh, Earl of Ross, and Margaret de Graham, Hugh's second wife and daughter of Sir John de Graham of Abercorn.[1] She first married John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray, but the marriage was childless. Her husband died in 1346, and she remained a widow for nine years.
It appears that there was an obstacle of affinity to this second marriage, and a papal dispensation by Pope Innocent VI was required for it to be recognized by the Catholic Church. The affinity was due to her first husband, John Randolph, Earl of Moray, having been a second cousin of Robert Stewart. There also was a blood relationship, as the dispensation referenced their being related in the fourth degree of consanguinity, but this relationship has as yet not been identified.[2]
Arms of Euphemia as queen consort of Scotland
The children of Robert's first marriage to Elizabeth Mure were considered illegitimate by some due to reasons of consanguinity. Both sets of children from each marriage considered themselves rightful heirs to the throne, which constituted considerable future conflict.[3]
Euphemia and Robert were parents to four children, and grandparents to many grandchildren:
Marjorie Lindsay, married Sir William Douglas of Clan Douglas
Alexander Lindsay, 2nd Earl of Crawford (c. 1387–1438)
David Lindsay, Lord of Newdosk (1407–?); he later became a priest
Elizabeth Lindsay; she married Sir Robert Keith of Clan Keith
Elizabeth Lindsay (1407–?); married Robert Erskine, 1st Lord Erskine, of Clan Erskine; she may have been confused with her sister of the same name, and it is possible that they were one and the same person.
Isabella Lindsay (1407–?), married Sir John Maxwell of Pollok, of Clan Maxwell, and had issue.
Sir William Douglas, Knt., Lord of Nithsdale (died c.1419)
Robert II succeeded his childless maternal uncle David II of Scotland in 1371. Euphemia was then queen for about fifteen years, until her death in 1386.
^John P. Ravilious, Queen Euphemia and her ancestry, The Scottish Genealogist, June 2017, vol. LXIV(2) pp. 49–52. Prior publications including J. Balfour Paul's Scots Peerage identify Margaret de Graham in error as a daughter of Sir David Graham of Montrose.
^Andrew Stuart, Genealogical History of the Stewarts (London, 1798), pp. 420–421.
^Ashley, Mike (1999). The mammoth book of British kings and queens. London: Robinson Publishers. p. 553. ISBN1-84119-096-9.
