Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney — one of the most tyrannical of James VI's illegitimate half-relatives — had governed Orkney and Shetland with extreme brutality since 1593. In 1614 his son Robert Stewart led an uprising against crown authority, seizing Kirkwall Castle and holding it against a government force. The uprising was suppressed by government troops who retook the castle after a siege. Both Patrick and Robert Stewart were subsequently executed in Edinburgh. The Orkney affair was the last significant armed revolt against James VI in his Scottish territories.
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