son-in-law of the regent James Stewart, the 1st earl. He became earl in 1580 when he married the 1st earl's daughter Elizabeth, at the behest of King James VI.

A faithful Protestant, Moray was made commissioner to act against the Spanish Armada (1588) and commissioner to act against the Jesuits (1589–90). Because he was a friend and cousin-german of the 5th Earl of Bothwell, then a hunted man, and perhaps because of some intimacy with the queen, Moray aroused suspicion in the king, who at last gave George Gorden, 6th Earl of Huntly, Moray's blood enemy, a warrant to apprehend him. Moray thereupon repaired to Donibristle, the house of his mother on the Fifeshire coast, and was there besieged by the followers of Huntly. Huntly set fire to the house; Moray escaped to the seashore in darkness and was chased, found, and slashed to death. The event became the subject of a popular ballad, “The Bonnie Earl of Moray.” Moray was succeeded by his elder son, James, the 3rd earl (d. 1624).