Women in History of Scots Descent

EUPHEMIA ROSS, the 2nd wife and only queen of Robert II, was the daughter of Hugh de Ross, 4th Earl of Ross. She was probably born between about 1325 and 1330, but this is very uncertain. Her mother was the earl's 2nd wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir David Graham of Montrose. Euphemia's parents were granted a dispensation to marry, and a legitimation of past and future children born to them, 29 November 1329.

She had married 1stly, John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray, who was killed at the disastrous battle of Neville's Cross, 17 October 1346, leaving her a childless and vulnerable widow of, at the most, 21 years of age, and probably rather younger.

She married 2ndly (dispensation granted by Pope Innocent VI at Avignon, 2 May 1355), as his 2nd wife, Robert Stewart, Earl of Strathearn, who succeeded to the throne as Robert II, 22 February 1371. She gave him 2 sons and 2 daughters. See: Genealogical Notes page. She was crowned at Scone by Alexander de Kyninmund II, bishop of Aberdeen, in 1372.

She died in 1387, predeceasing her husband by about 3 years, but the exact date and the place of her death and burial seem to have gone unrecorded. She must have been a very good-natured and long-suffering lady, putting up with the numerous and flagrant infidelities of her royal husband. Her personal charm and beauty may be inferred from the fact that both her daughters possessed those qualities in a marked degree.