Robert I, King of Scots, 1274-1329; Scotland -- Kings and rulers -- Biography
The prisoners included Sir Nigel Bruce, Sir Robert de Boyd, Sir
Alexander de Lindsay, 'and other traitors, and many knights and
others.' Hemingburgh mentions the Queen; but Barbour and Fordun relate
that she and the Princess Marjory, in order to escape the siege, had
been escorted to the sanctuary of St Duthac at Tain, where they were
taken by the Earl of Ross, who delivered them to Edward. It may be
incidentally noted that some two years afterwards (October 31, 1308),
the Earl of Ross did fealty and homage to King Robert at Auldearn, and
was reinstated in his lands.
The fate of the more important prisoners demands particular notice.
Most of the captives were interned in English castles; but
'Some they ransomed, some they slew,
And some they hanged, and some they drew.'
The Queen was sent to stay at the manor of Burstwick, in Holderness,
Yorkshire. Edward certainly meant to treat her handsomely. His
directions were that she should have 'a waiting-woman and a
maid-servant, advanced in life, sedate, and of good conversation; a
butler, two man-servants, and a foot-boy for her chamber, sober and
not riotous, to make her bed; three greyhounds, when she inclined to
hunt; venison, fish, and the "fairest house in the manor."' Hemingburgh
gives two reasons. First, her father, the Red Earl of Ulster, had
proved faithful to him. Second, he was pleased with a reported saying
of hers on the coronation of her husband. 'Rejoice now, my consort,'
Bruce said, 'for you have been made a Queen, and I a King.' 'I fear,
Sir,' she replied, 'we have been made King and Queen after the fashion
of children in summer games.' Other chroniclers give the story with
slight variation. In a letter, without date, but apparently belonging
to next year, she complains to Edward 'that, though he had commanded
his bailiffs of Holderness to see herself and her attendants honourably
sustained, yet they neither furnish attire for her person or her
head, nor a bed, nor furniture of her chambers, saving only a robe
of three "garmentz" yearly, and for her servants one robe each for
everything'; and she prays him 'to order amendment of her condition,
and that her servants be paid for their labour, that she may not be
neglected, or that she may have a yearly sum allowed by the King for
her maintenance.' In autumn 1310, she was at Bistelesham; in 1311-12,
at Windsor Castle; in autumn 1312, at Shaftesbury; in 1313, at Barking
Abbey; in 1313-14, at Rochester Castle; in October 1314, at Carlisle
Castle, on her way back to Scotland, in consequence of Bannockburn.
Marjory, Bruce's daughter, had first been destined to a 'cage' in the
Tower of London, but was placed by Sir Henry de Percy in the Priory of
Watton in Yorkshire. She returned to Scotland with the Queen.
Mary Bruce, sister of the King, and wife of Sir Nigel Campbell, was
kept first in Roxburgh Castle, in a 'cage,' and then at Newcastle till
June 25, 1312, when she was probably exchanged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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