Euphemia I, Countess of Ross

Who was Euphemia I, Countess of Ross?

Euphemia I, also called Euphemia of Ross and Euphemia Ross, and sometimes incorrectly styled Euphemia Leslie and Euphemia Stewart, was a Countess of Ross in her own right.

Euphemia was the elder daughter of Uilleam III, Mormaer of Ross. She married first, by dispensation, dated 1367, Sir Walter Leslie, son of Sir Andrew Leslie, who in right of his wife became Earl of Ross. They have a charter of the earldom of Ross and of the lands of Skye dated 1370, two years before Earl William's death, in their own favour and that of their heirs male and female in reversion.

Her first husband predeceased her in 1382, whereupon she married, secondly, Alexander Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan, better known in history as "The Wolf of Badenoch." He died, without legitimate issue, in 1394. She died as Abbess of Elcho in 1398, and was buried in Fortrose Cathredral. By Sir Walter Leslie she had issue:

⁕Sir Alexander Leslie, Earl of Ross, who became Earl of Ross in right of his mother

⁕Mariota, who married Domhnall of Islay, Lord of the Isles, who in her right, succeeded to the earldom of Ross, and carried it to a new family, the Macdonald Lords of the isles