Earl Patrick followed that of his son. His titles were forfeited and he was sentenced to death, but his execution was postponed after a plea from the chaplains, who, finding him so ignorant he could barely recite the Lord's Prayer, wanted time to educate him and give him Communion. The execution eventually took place on 6 February 1615, when he was taken to the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh and beheaded. Marriage and marriage plan In 1595 King James suggested the Earl's marriage to Emilia, a sister of Count Maurice of Nassau. An envoy, Colonel Stewart, proposed the plan to the States to cement a league between Scotland and the Netherlands, but objections included the Earl's doubtful title to Orkney and Shetland, and that Emilia was unwilling to dwell so far from her home and family. Patrick had partly funded the Colonel's mission, which was resented by the Scottish resident ambassador-lieger and consul to the States General, Robert Deniston. Patrick instead married Margaret Livingstone, the wealthy widow of Sir Lewis Bellenden and a daughter of the Lord Livingston and Agnes Fleming on 19 August 1596. Margaret was a gentlewoman in households of Anne of Denmark and Prince Henry. After squandering her fortune, Patrick left her to die in poverty. They had no children, though Patrick did have several bastards: Robert Stewart, son of Marjorie Sinclair (who was present with her son at the siege of Kirkwall and was wounded in the hand) Mary Stewart Catherine Stewart, married John Sinclair of Ulbster Ancestry References Notes Citations Sources Balfour, David, ed., Oppressions of the sixteenth century in Orkney & Zetland from original documents, Edinburgh (1859) Pitcairn, Robert, ed., Ancient Criminal Trials, vol.3 issue 1, (1833), pp. 272–327. 1560s births 1615 deaths Earls of Orkney Patrick People associated with Shetland Executed Scottish people 17th-century executions by Scotland People executed for treason against Scotland Scottish princes People executed by the Kingdom of Scotland by decapitation Scottish politicians convicted of crimes