Robert II's policy of building up Stewart domination in Scotland through the advancement of his sons sees his eldest son John, Earl of Carrick (the future Robert III), as the preeminent Stewart magnate south of the Forth-Clyde line just as his younger brother Alexander, earl of Buchan, lord of Badenoch and Ross is in the north.

Buchan's use of cateran supporters—Highland marauders or cattle-lifters—draws criticism from Northern nobles and prelates and demonstrates Robert II's inability or reluctance to control his son and results in him losing council support.

The king's failure to take a leading role in prosecuting the war with England and Buchan's abuse of royal power in the north is the backdrop to the general council meeting at Holyrood Abbey in November 1384, where the decision is taken to sideline the king and provide the ruling powers to Carrick.

David Stewart, Earl of Strathearn and a younger son of Robert II, had become involved in a major dispute with his older half-brother, Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, who by 1385 had occupied his castle at Urquhart.

It is uncertain, but it is highly likely that Strathearn died in March 1386, and no later than 1389.

His wife appears to have been a daughter of Sir Alexander Lindsay of Glenesk, and sister of David Lindsay, 1st Earl of Crawford.

They have a daughter, Euphemia, who succeeds to the earldom.

His widow will marry secondly Sir William Graham of Montrose, by whom she will become the mother of his eldest son and heir Alexander Graham, esq., of Kincardine, father of the first Lord Graham.

Robert II is in the northeast in January 1390, perhaps to strengthen the now changed political outlook in the north of the kingdom.

He returns to Dundonald Castle in Ayrshire in March where on April 19 he dies; he is buried on April 25 at Scone.

Parliament in May 1390 grants John permission to change his regnal name to Robert, probably in part to maintain the link back to Robert I but also to disassociate himself from King John Balliol.

The four-month delay in the crowning of Robert III can be seen as a period when Fife and his affinity seek to ensure their future positions and which also sees Buchan's opportunistic attack on Elgin Cathedral, settling an old score with the Bishop of Moray and possibly also a protest at Fife's reappointment as the king's lieutenant.

Donald of Islay had spent some of his first years as Lord of the Isles suppressing a revolt by his younger brother John Mór, who resented his meagrer inheritance.

He had been recognized as heir-apparent (tànaiste) but had only received patches of land in Kintyre and Islay.

The rebellion had started in 1387 and will go on into the 1390s, and John will obtain the support of the MacLean kindred.

John and the MacLeans are eventually forced to submit to Donald, however, and by 1395 John Mór has been forced into Ireland, where he enters the service of King Richard II of England and will later establish a MacDonald lordship in Antrim.

Suppression of the revolt enables Donald to turn his attention northwards and eastwards.

Most of the area to the north and east of the Lordship, that is Skye, Ross, Badenoch and Urquhart, is under the control of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, famously known as the "Wolf of Badenoch".

The Stewarts had been building up their power in the central Highlands and north of Scotland since the death in 1346 of John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray.

Alexander had acquired control of the lordship of Badenoch, the earldom of Buchan and the Justiciarship of Scotia.

He had been appointed "Lieutenant of the North", giving him the flexibility to exercise total control over most of Scotland north of the Mounth, the range of hills on the southern edge of Strathdee in northeast Scotland.

Alexander is at once the de facto ruler of northern Scotland as well as the means by which the crown itself exercises control.

However, there had been complaints over the activities of his caterans (Highland war bands).

More importantly, Alexander's position has become threatening not only to the crown, but also to Euphemia I, Countess of Ross, her son Alexander and the titular Dunbar Earl of Moray.

Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, had late in 1388, soon after becoming Guardian of the Kingdom, deprived Alexander of the Justiciarship.