Robert Stewart (died 1670) was a Scottish soldier who served as Governor of Londonderry and as commander of the Laggan Army during the Irish Confederate Wars.
Biography[]
Robert Stewart was the fourth son of Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney. He accompanied King James VI of Scotland to England in 1603 and escorted 800 troublesome followers of the fugitive Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone to Sweden in 1609 before being given permission to enter the service of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus. Stewart remained abroad until 1617, when he was granted lands in County Leitrim, County Cavan, and County Fermanagh in Ireland. He went on to serve under King Sigismund III of Poland in 1637 before recruiting Irish soldiers to fight for the Swedish crown during the Thirty Years' War. In 1639, he was elected MP for Londonderry, and, in 1641, King Charles I of England commissioned Stewart to raise a regiment in Ireland. He failed to prevent Felim O'Neill from capturing Strabane, but he secured Londonderry's safety by taking Raphoe. A lack of Egnland forced Stewart to exhaust his own resources, and, as leader of the Laggan Army, he defeated O'Neill at Glenmaquin in 1642 and Owen Roe O'Neill at Clones. In 1643, Stewart became Governor of Londonderry. After the collapse of the Royalist cause in Ireland, Stewart returned to Scotland, but, at the Restoration, he was given a company of foot and reappointed Governor of Londonderry. He was replaced in 1661, but he served as governor of Culmore until his death in 1670.