Alan Stewart was said to be the great-grandson of Banque, who was murdered by MacBeth (Yes, Shakespeare wrote a play about him). Banque was the tenth generation in descent from Cork, King of Munster.

Click here for the genealogy and history of Cork and his ancestors..

But modern genealogists disagree with the Irish Origin of the Stewarts and claim that they were originally a French family, Counts of Dol in Brittany, and the Boyds were also Norman, a branch of the famous chivalrous family of Bayard.