Early Life
James Stewart was the eldest son of
Sir James Stewart (Lord Doune, created 1581). James junior was known in posterity as the "bonnie Earl", perhaps because he was both tall and handsome.
Career and Family
James assumed the Earldom of Moray on marriage to
Elizabeth Stewart, Countess of Moray, having "obtained a gift from
King James VI of the ward and marriage of the two daughters of the Regent Moray"
1, 2.
James started a family feud with George Gordon, 6
th Earl (later 1
st Marquess) of Huntly around the end of 1590, by whom he was later murdered on the 7
th of February 1591/2, when he was alone in the house bar a few servants and Dunbar, Sheriff of Moray. Per
The Scot's Peerage:
The house was set on fire, and Dunbar in rushing out was instantly killed. Moray himself succeeded in reaching the seashore, and might have escaped had not a silken tassel on his cap caught fire and betrayed him to the enemy. He was slaughtered under circumstances of extreme barbarity, and the news which reached Edinburgh next day excited the utmost popular indignation. The tale of the murder has often been told, and its memory is enshrined in a ballad which is still one of the best known of its class. He was under twenty-five years of age at the time of his death.
The ballad is "The Bonnie Earl of Moray".
If he was indeed under 25, then his year of birth must have been 1567.
Footnotes
[1]
The Scots Peerage, Ed. Sir James Balfour Paul, 1909, Volume 6, pages 316-318; see also Volume 3, pages 189-190
[2]
Debrett's Peerage, 1904, page 604
Abt 1565 - 1592 (~ 27 years)
[1] 
