Robert de Brus, Lord of Annandale († around 1194)

Robert de Brus, Lord of Annandale (also Robert (II) de Brus or Robert de Bruce ) (* around 1120, † around 1194 ) was an English - Scottish nobleman.

Origin and land ownership

Robert de Brus came from the Brus family . He was a younger son of Robert (I) de Brus and his wife Agnes . According to a later family chronicle, his father is said to have handed over the Scottish rule of Annandale to him before 1138 . The young Brus belonged to the army of the Scottish King David I , which suffered a heavy defeat in the 1138 standard battle against the English. He is said to have been captured by his father, who had fought on the English side, and to King Stephen of Bloishave been handed over. The king handed Brus over to his mother Agnes. According to legend, the young Brus in his parents' household complained that no wheat would grow in Annandale and that he could therefore not eat white bread. Then his father is said to have left him Hart and Hartness in County Durham , where wheat could be grown. There is no evidence whatsoever in this legend, and young Brus did not spend his captivity at his parents' home in Northallerton . Presumably he received his possessions only after 1138, where he held Annandale as a Scottish Crown Fief and Hartness as a fief of the Bruce of Skelton , the older line of the family. He also owned five Knight's fees in Yorkshire , but they cannot be named precisely. He later received Edenhall in Cumbria from King Henry II of England , which he also held as a fiefdom of the Bruce of Skelton.

The ruins of Lochmaben Castle, begun by Robert de Brus

Activity as the Scottish Lord of Annandale

In 1141 Brus tried together with other northern English barons on behalf of David I and Empress Matilda to persuade the monks of the cathedral priory of Durham to elect William Cumin as bishop. Cumin was actually elected bishop of the Diocese of Durham . Little is known of Brus over the next few years. While under David I and Malcolm IV he frequently attested to royal documents, only three documents attested by Brus are known from the time of the Scottish King Wilhelm I. Perhaps Brus had fallen out of favor with William I because he had not supported William I's attempt in 1157 to become Earl of Northumberland . Before 1173, the king in Lochmaben issued a certificate in which he confirmed Bruce's possession of Annandale. However, Brus was supposed to serve the king with ten Knight's fees , this high number for Scotland was not required in earlier documents. In addition, the king emphasized his legal sovereignty over Annandale. During the rebellion from 1173 to 1174 , Brus then also supported the English King Heinrich II in the fight against Wilhelm I and Heinrich's son Heinrich the Younger .

In the 1140s Brus had Malachias, who was later canonized, as a guest in his castle at Annan . Malachias asked Brus to pardon a convicted thief, which he assured. However, when Malachias saw the thief's body on the gallows the next morning, he cursed Brus. When the Annan washed away part of the Annan Castle moth during a flood, Brus considered this to be a result of the curse. This is probably one of the reasons why Brus had the large Lochmaben Castle built as Annandale's new headquarters. To meet the cost of construction, he borrowed over £ 237 from the Jewish moneylender Aaron the Jew . In addition, Brus led a long-standing dispute with Bishops Ingram and Jocelyn of Glasgow over the rights to the churches of Annandale. According to Brus, the churches belonged to Guisborough Priory , of which he was patron saint . He was probably buried there.

Marriage and offspring

Brus had married Euphemia, a niece of Count Wilhelm von Aumale . With her he had at least three sons and a daughter.

• Robert (III) de Brus († before 1191) ⚭ Isabel
• William de Brus († 1211 or 1212)
• Bernard
• Agatha ⚭ Ralph, son of Ribald of Middleham

Robert may have had another son, Hugh , who became a clergyman. His daughter Agatha was also mistakenly referred to as his sister. Brus was still alive in 1193 and probably died in 1194, either on February 17th or August 26th. His eldest son Robert had married Isabel , an illegitimate daughter of King Wilhelm I , in 1183 , which was probably an attempt by the Scottish king to bind the Brus family closer to the crown again. However, the younger Robert died before 1191 with no surviving descendants. Therefore, Robert's second son William de Brus became his heir. Isabel, the widow of Robert the Younger, married Robert de Ros for the second time .

literature

• AAM Duncan: The Bruces of Annandale, 1100-1304 . In: Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society . 3rd Ser., 69: 89-102 (1994)

Web links

• AAM Duncan: Brus [Bruce], Robert de, lord of Annandale (d. 1194?). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ^ AAM Duncan: The Bruces of Annandale, 1100-1304 . In: Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society . 3rd Ser., 69, 93 (1994)