=10. Robert II., 1370-1390.=--David was succeeded by his sister's son, _Robert_, the _Steward_ of the kingdom. This office was hereditary, and it gradually passed into the surname of the family who held it and became common to the different branches. The stewardship was first granted to _Walter Fitz-Alan_, a Breton baron, by David. Robert was allowed to mount the throne unopposed. It had been feared that _William Lord Douglas_, who through his mother, a sister of the _Red Comyn_, represented the claim that had been resigned by the _Balliols_, would have disputed his right to the throne, but he did not. Robert was twice married. His first wife was _Elizabeth More_, by whom he had four sons and several daughters. After her death he married _Euphemia_, daughter of the _Earl of Ross_, and had two sons and four daughters. The descendants of this second marriage claimed the crown on the ground that the dispensation from Rome had not been obtained, which, as Robert and Elizabeth were near of kin, was needful to make the marriage valid, and the children legitimate. Dispensations for each marriage have since been discovered, which decide the right of Robert's first family. =11. The French Allies.=--At the end of the truce with England, in 1385, war broke out again. The French sent a body of 2,000 men, 1,000 stands of armour, and 50,000 gold pieces to the aid of their allies the Scots. _Sir John de Vienne_, Admiral of France, was the leader of the French auxiliaries. _Richard the Second_ of England, with an army of 70,000 men, invaded Scotland, and marched as far north as the _Forth_. But the country had been wasted before him, so that the only harm he could do was to destroy _Melrose Abbey_. Meanwhile the Scots had harried the northern counties of his own kingdom with their French allies. The French afterwards said that in the dioceses of Carlisle and Durham they had burned more than the value of all the towns in Scotland. But the Frenchmen despised the poverty of the Scots, and were disgusted with their way of fighting; and as the Scots in return were uncivil and inhospitable to them, they went away before long, and were as glad to get back to their own land as the Scots were to get rid of them.