The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (Commonwealth English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific Style ...

Walter Stewart (died ) was a Scottish courtier, physician, and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

from 1624 to 1625. He was the father of

Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond Frances Teresa Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (8 July 1647 – 15 October 1702) was a prominent member of the Court of the Restoration and famous for refusing to become a mistress of Charles II of England. For her great beauty she was k ...

, otherwise known as "''La Belle Stuart''".

Life

He was the third son of

Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre (1555–1617) was a Scottish courtier and politician. He was Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland from 1582 to 1596 and Treasurer of Scotland from 1596 to 1599. Early life He was born , the son of Sir John ...

. Stewart was admitted to

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

on 9 March 1620 when he was a

Gentleman of the Privy Chamber A privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were noble-born servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King in private, as well as during various court activities, f ...

to James I. In 1624, he was elected Member of Parliament for

Monmouth Boroughs Monmouth Boroughs (also known as the Monmouth District of Boroughs) was a parliamentary constituency consisting of several towns in Monmouthshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliaments of England, ...

but was unseated on petition on 28 March 1624 on the objection that he was a "Scotchman" and not naturalised. However he was re-elected MP for Monmouth in 1625 without further question.W R Williams ''Parliamentary History of the Principality of Wales''
/ref> Stewart is also said to have been a qualified doctor. He left England in 1649 for France, where he was court physician to

Queen Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria of France ( French: ''Henriette Marie''; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until his execution on 30 January 1649. She was ...

. He died in or by 1657.

Family

Stewart married a dresser to

, Sophia Carew, daughter of Sir George Carew and Thomazine Godolphin. Sophia Carew had been a

maid of honour A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts. Tudors and Stuarts Traditi ...

at court and performed in the

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A mas ...

The Shepherd's Paradise ''The Shepherd's Paradise'' was a Caroline-era masque written by Walter Montagu and designed by Inigo Jones. Acted in 1633 by Queen Henrietta Maria and her ladies in waiting, it was noteworthy as the first masque in which the Queen and her lad ...

''. She was the widow of Richard Neville.Sarah Poynting, 'Henrietta Maria's Notorious Whores', Clare McManus, ''Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), pp. 163, 167. Their children included

and Sophia Bulkeley.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Walter Year of birth missing Year of death missing Members of Gray's Inn 17th-century Scottish medical doctors English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Younger sons of barons Court of Charles I of England