William Stewart of Houston

Sir William Stewart of Houston (c. 1540 – c. 1605) was a Scottish soldier, politician and diplomat.

Life
He began his career as a soldier in the Netherlands, where he became a colonel and entered into communications with Lord Burghley on the progress of affairs. In the year 1582 he was in Scotland, where James VI made him captain of his guard. Having visited the English court in the king's interest in 1583, Stewart helped to free James from William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, and to bring back James Stewart, Earl of Arran to power; these acts largely restored the young King James's position, after the Raid of Ruthven.

He was made a privy councillor and for a time assisted Arran in governing Scotland. In 1584 he captured Gowrie at Dundee. In 1585 he and Arran lost their power, and Stewart went to Denmark and France on secret errands for the king. He became prominent in the king's marriage negotiations with Denmark, joining an embassy with Peter Young. He travelled to Norway where the Danish fleet rested and commanded the ships which conveyed James and his bride, Anne, from Denmark in 1590.

In June 1590 James VI of Scotland sent John Skene and Stewart as ambassadors to Denmark and Germany. The mission was to intended to cement a peaceful league in Europe. They met the mother of Anne of Denmark, Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow at Braunschweig, then went on to meet William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel at Rotenburg an der Fulda and Christian I, Elector of Saxony at Dresden. In April 1591 the English ambassador Robert Bowes joked with Stewart over the lack of written responses the king had received.

Twice he went on missions to the Netherlands. In 1594 he was knighted and was given lands at Houston.

John Wemyss of Logie heard in September 1595 that he had been in Mecklenburg and Braunschweig, where Christian IV of Denmark had travelled to meet his future wife, Anne Catherine of Brandenburg.

He was sent on an embassy to Denmark in May 1598, escorting Ulrik, Duke of Holstein who had been travelling in England and Scotland, and returned in July.

He died before 1606.

Stewart married in 1582, Erica or Erika (1540-1587), Countess of Batenburg in Gelderland and Manderscheid, the widow of Willem van Bronckhorst-Batenburg (1529-1573). In 1590 he married Isobel Hepburn. His only son, Frederick (c. 1590-1625), who was created a peer as Lord Pittenweem in 1609, died childless in December 1625.

Others of this name
Sir William Stewart of Houston is often confused with Sir William Stewart of Monkton (d. 1588), a brother of James Stewart, Earl of Arran, who was killed in a fight in Edinburgh in July 1588, and also with Sir William Stewart of Caverstoun.