Stirling Castle A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Before the union with England, Stirling Castle was also one of the most used of the many Scottish royal residences, very much a palace as well as a fortress. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1542, and others were born or died there. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie
House of Stuart House of Stuart The House of Stuart, originally Stewart, was a European royal house that originated in Scotland. The dynasty's patrilineal, putatively Breton ancestors had held the office of High Steward of Scotland since Walter FitzAlan in around 1150, after arriving by way of Norman England. The royal Stewart line was founded by Robert II (a maternal grandson of Robert the Bruce), whose descendants were Kings and Queens of Scots from 1371 until the union with England in 1707. Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought up in France, where she adopted the French spelling of the name, "Stuart". Her son,