On this day in history - 19th April

On this day in 1390, King Robert II Stewart, King of Scots, died.

On 19th April 1390 – King Robert II Stewart, King of Scots, died at Dundonald Castle, Ayrshire, Scotland.

He was born on 2 March 1316, the son of Walter Stewart, 6th high steward of Scotland, and Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert I the Bruce, king of Scots. How he became Robert II, king of Scots was the conclusion of a chain of unlikely events. His initial survival was almost miraculous, as he was delivered by Caesarean section from the body of his mother, who had died of injuries after a fall from her horse. When he was two years old in 1318, he was acknowledged as his grandfather's heir, a position he forfeited in 1324 on the birth of the future David II.

Forty-seven years later, when against all expectations, David II had failed to perpetuate the Bruce dynasty, Robert II was crowned and anointed at Scone, although this was delayed by an armed protest by William, Earl of Douglas until 26 March 1371. The reasons for the incident remain unclear but may have involved a dispute regarding Robert's right of succession.

Perhaps a man advanced to supreme power by the delayed action of chance could not have been expected to be a very decisive ruler; but it was unfortunate that, by the standards of his time, he was well past his prime and in poor health, so that he lacked the energy required of a king responsible for every aspect of government.

About 1347, he married Elizabeth Mure, daughter of Sir Adam Mure, of Rowallan, and Joan Cunningham. They had nine children of whom three sons and four daughters would have progeny. Elizabeth died about 1355, and soon thereafter Robert married Euphemia of Ross, daughter of Hugh de Ross, 4th earl of Ross, and his second wife Margaret Graham. They had two sons and two daughters who would have progeny. Robert also had a number of children by three mistresses, of whom two sons would have progeny.

His daughter Isabella (died 1410) by Elizabeth Mure, married James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas (died in 1388) and his daughter Egidia, by Euphemia de Ross, married in 1387 William Douglas of Nithsdale.

Robert died at 9 April 1390. He was succeeded as king of Scots by his eldest son Robert III, already about 53 years old.

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Births

1808 - Douglass, Patience
1811 - Douglas, James
1837 - Douglas, Count Hugo Oskar Georg Von Sholto
1839 - Douglas, Josephine
1866 - Douglas, Elizabeth Clark
1866 - Douglas, William Wilkinson Clark
1895 - Douglas, Joseph Willmott
1914 - Douglas, Alan Armstrong
1973 - Douglas, Tracey Melissa

Births on this day

Deaths

1878 - Douglas, Dorothy
1912 - Douglas, Count Hugo Oskar Georg Von Sholto
1928 - Douglass, William Campbell
1980 - Douglas, Elma Vance

Deaths on this day

Events

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1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI of France in a proxy wedding.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
1782 – John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government.
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1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.
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1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1943 – World War II: In Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic.
1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.
1984 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
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1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six.
1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.
2011 – Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.

Events on this day