Christian Bruce

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Christian Bruce (also Christina ) († 1356 ) was a Scottish noblewoman.

Origin and early marriages

Christian Bruce came from the Scottish aristocratic Bruce family . She was a daughter of Robert de Brus, Earl of Carrick and his wife Marjorie . She is believed to be married to Gartnait, 7th Earl of Mar , in the 1290s , with a number of reasons against it. First, it was never as Countess of Mar referred or Christian of Mar called. Their son from the marriage is said to have been Donald, 8th Earl of Mar , but when they were both in English captivity after 1306, they never made contact. According to the report by Abbot Walter Bower († 1449) Gartnait is said to have expressly married Brus' eldest daughter. Christian had several sisters and was certainly not the oldest of them. Although Christian later owned Kildrummy Castle , the center of the Earldom of Mar, it is unknown how she came into possession of the castle. What is certain, however, is that before 1305 Christian married Sir Christopher Seton , a knight with possessions in Annandale and northern England. In 1306 he supported the rebellion of Christian's brother Robert Bruce , who had declared himself King of Scots as Robert I. Seton was captured by the English and executed.

Captivity in England

Christian may have attended her brother's coronation in Scone in March 1306 . After the defeat in the Battle of Methven in June 1306, Bruce and his family fled to western Scotland. After the defeat at Dalry in July or August 1306, Bruce separated from his family, who fled to northern Scotland under the leadership of the Earl of Atholl . Atholl, Christian, their sister Mary, their niece Marjorie , Queen Elizabeth , the wife of Bruce and the Countess of Buchan first sought refuge in Kildrummy Castle . From there they fled further north, presumably to reach the safety of the Orkneys, which were under Norwegian sovereignty . Christian's sister Isabella Bruce was Queen of Norway. However, when the group reached Tain , they were captured by the Earl of Ross . Ross delivered his prisoner to the English King Edward I of. This had Christian imprisoned in the Gilbertine convent Sixhills in Lincolnshire . Negotiations about an exchange were unsuccessful. Only after the English defeat in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was Christian exchanged for English prisoners before mid-February, at the latest before March 23, 1315, and returned to Scotland.

The ruin of Kildrummy Castle, successfully defended by Christian Bruce in 1335

Marriage to Andrew Murray, later widow life, and death

After her release, Christian initially did not remarry. Her brother Robert I left her estates in Garioch , Aberdeenshire , which were part of the family inheritance of David, Earl of Huntingdon . By 1324 at the latest, Christian had a chapel built in Dumfries , where her first husband Christopher Seton was executed, in his memory. For this, Robert Bruce donated an annual mass on December 31, 1324 in memory of Seton. In early 1323, Christian may have been the king's sister to be married to the English military, Andrew Harclay, 1st Earl of Carlisle , when he was negotiating peace with Scotland. Since Harclay had acted without authorization and without the approval of the English King Edward II , the latter had him executed. Finally, in 1326, Christian was second married to Sir Andrew Murray , who was much younger than her. In 1331 she took part in the coronation of her nephew David II in Scone. When a new war with England broke out in 1333 , her husband became the Guardian of Scotland regent for the minor David II. He entrusted her Kildrummy Castle, which she successfully defeated in 1335 against the Earl of Atholl , the North Scottish commander of the England-backed aspirant to the throne Edward Balliol , defended. Her husband then moved north with an army and defeated Atholl at the Battle of Culblean . Even after the death of her husband in 1338, Christian kept the administration of Kildrummy Castle. In 1342 Queen Johanna , the wife of her nephew David II, was her guest. In order to give Christian a decent income, the king gave her, among other things, the customs income from Aberdeen . She died probably over seventy in 1356 and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 60.
  2. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 98.
  3. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, pp. 227-228.
  4. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 230.
  5. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 158.
  6. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , pp. 161-162.
  7. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 257.
  8. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 306.
personal data
SURNAME Bruce, Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bruce, Christina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish nobles
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH 1356