A ruthless politician, Albany was widely regarded as having murdered his nephew, the Duke of Rothesay, and brother to the future King James I of Scotland.

[1] Scottish politics in the late fourteenth century was unstable and bloody, and much of Albany's career was spent acquiring territory, land and titles, often by violent means.

[3][4][5] There was general approval of Fife's intention to properly resolve the situation of lawlessness in the north and in particular the activities of Alexander, Earl of Buchan, Lord of Badenoch and Ross, his younger brother.

Father and son would now work together to expand their family interest, bringing them into violent confrontation with other members of the nobility such as Donald McDonald, Lord of the Isles.

In 1401, Rothesay was accused of unjustifiably appropriating sums from the customs of the burghs on the east coast and confiscating the revenues of the temporalities of the vacant bishopric of St Andrews.

Albany certainly fell under suspicion but he was cleared of all blame by a general council, which found that "by divine providence and not otherwise, it is discerned that he [Duke Rothesay] departed from this life".

John Debrett, writing in 1805, was in no doubt of Duke Robert's motives and guilt: After Rothesay's death, the King began to fear for his second son, James, who fled Scotland for his own safety.

In 1425, the exiled King James, captive in England for 18 years, finally returned to Scotland and executed Murdoch and most of his family for treason, causing the almost complete ruin of the Albany Stewarts.

[2][16] Murdoch Stewart's sole surviving male heir was his youngest son, James the Fat, who fled to Ireland after a brief rebellion against the King over the arrest of his father and brothers.

Albany's great-grandson, James "Beag" Stewart (c. 1410–1470), would eventually secure a pardon from the King and return to Scotland, though the family would never recover their lost estates.

The Strongest Heart by Regan Walker, set between 1386 and 1412, covers the period when Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, fought Albany for the earldom of Ross.