Andrew Murray (nobleman)

Family crest of Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell

Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell (also Andrew Moray , * 1298 , † 1338 in Avoch Castle ) was a Scottish military leader in the Scottish War of Independence and Guardian of Scotland .

Life

Andrew Murray's father was Andrew de Moray , who with William Wallace led the Scottish troops in the Battle of Stirling Bridge in the First Scottish War of Independence . His father died a few months before he was born from the wounds he sustained in battle.

After hostilities broke out again between England and Scotland in 1332 , Andrew Murray quickly became one of the most prominent leaders of the Scottish loyalists. From 1332 until his capture by the English the following year, he held the post of Guardian of Scotland. Already at the end of 1334 or in the spring of 1335 he was released again. Presumably Edward III hoped . and Edward Balliol at this point in time to reach a negotiated solution with the Scottish nobility and to use Andrew Murray as mediator. Indeed, Murray - reappointed to the Guardian of Scotland - held peace talks with Edward III on behalf of the remaining Scottish loyalists. However, there does not seem to have been any serious intention to reach an agreement with the English king. Rather, the loyalists were able to buy time to take action against their inner-Scottish opponents.

In 1335 Andrew Murray defeated David (III) Strathbogie , one of the most important Scottish supporters of Balliol, at the Battle of Culblean . In the following years Murray waged a guerrilla war against the English. He avoided any open field battle and attacked the English garrisons in southern Scotland. By 1338, they gradually lost almost all of their bases there. After the outbreak of the Hundred Years War between England and France, Edward III. forced to withdraw his troops almost entirely from Scotland until further notice. That same year, Andrew Murray died unexpectedly of an illness at Avoch Castle. His remains were interred in Dunfermline Abbey.

Murray had married Christian Bruce , one of Robert I's sisters . She was a few years older than him. She had at least two children with him:

• Sir John Moray, Laird of Bothwell († 1352)
• Sir Thomas Moray, Laird of Bothwell († 1361)

literature

• Ranald Nicholson: Edward III and the Scots. The formative years of a military career, 1327-1335. , Oxford University Press, Oxford 1965, ISBN 978-0198218227 .
• W. Douglas Simpson: The Campaign and Battle of Culblean, AD 1335 . In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarians in Scotland. Volume 64, 1929-30, pp. 201-217. Online edition (PDF; 1.0 MB)
• Bruce Webster: Scotland without a King, 1329-1341. In: Alexander Grant, Keith Stringer (Eds.): Medieval Scotland: Crown, Lordship and Community . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1998, ISBN 0-7486-1110-X .
• George Gregory Smith: Murray, Andrew (d.1338) . In: Sidney Lee : Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 39, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1894, pp. 348 f.

Web links

• Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell on thepeerage.com , accessed September 11, 2019.

predecessor	Office	successor
Domhnall II	Guardian of Scotland 1332-1333	Archibald Douglas
John Randolph , Robert Stewart	Guardian of Scotland 1335-1338	Robert Stewart