#clan macduff

It’s been a while and I hope everyone had a good new year! For my part, I’m kicking off the year with a rather well-known figure: Isabella of Fife, Countess of Buchan, one of the most famous women of the Wars of Independence (no mean feat- there are not enough famous ladies, but there are quite a lot who deserve to be). Aside from her actions in 1306 and subsequent imprisonment, Isabella is quite a shadowy figure, but she is a highly important one in Scottish history and definitely deserves a place on this blog. After all, if you can't find room in your day for a woman who defied her husband and the English king to crown Robert Bruce, I don't even know what you're following for.

It is unclear just when Isabella was born. There is even uncertainty over who her parents were- some sources say she was the sister of Duncan IV, Earl of Fife, others claim she was his aunt. That would mean she was either the daughter of Colban, Earl of Fife, and his wife the daughter of Alan Durward, or she was the daughter of Duncan III, Earl of Fife, and his wife Joanna de Clare, daughter of the Earl of Gloucester- the latter is generally thought more likely but it is an open debate. Perhaps we can vaguely put her birth date between 1265 and 1285, but given that both her (supposed) father and grandfather died young it is difficult to be sure. Earl Colban died in the early 1270s, while Duncan was murdered in 1289, leaving a similarly young son named Duncan as his heir. The younger Duncan would be considered a minor until after the end of the century- if Isabella was his sister, she cannot have been much older, though was certainly of age to be married before 1297. In the meantime, their uncle, known to us only as MacDuff (perhaps indicating that he was considered head of the kindred even if his nephew was earl) and apparently a brother of Earl Colban, caused some trouble over properties he believed had been left to him by his father. 

In any case, Isabella was daughter to the Earl of Fife, who, although he was not always the most politically or territorially powerful of Scotland’s magnates, was generally regarded as symbolically ranking first among them. We can safely say that Isabella counted among her ancestors such notable figures as Llywellyn the Great, Prince of Wales, Alexander II of Scotland (and thus through him she was descended from personages such as David I and St Margaret), and Adeliza of Louvain second wife to Henry I of England, whilst if she was the daughter of Joanna de Clare, she could also count among her ancestors Isabella of Angouleme (through the Lusignans) and Strongbow. Although Fife is now a firmly Lowland county- or kingdom- in the thirteenth century it still retained much of its Gaelic character, even though English was probably the main language of its bustling east coast burghs. The mormaers- later earls- of Fife, members of the Clan MacDuff, had been the chief lords in the area since the tenth century. Over more recent centuries they had acquired the “right” to a special role at the coronation of the kings of Scots- that of placing the king on the stone of Scone, as other kings might be placed on a throne. With young Earl Duncan still in his minority, a knight named John of St John was nominated to fill this role at the coronation ceremony of John Balliol in 1292. Nonetheless, the symbolic role of the earls of Fife, and their status as heads of the political community, was still highly respected.

(Some key locations and regions for the life of Isabella of Fife. The dots aren’t quite in their exact positions, because I’m not great at geography, but it’s just meant to give an idea.)

As the daughter of the Earl of Fife, Isabella was expected to make a profitable marriage and she wed John Comyn, Earl of Buchan before 1297. The Comyn family, especially the Badenoch and Buchan lines, were the most powerful baronial family in Scotland during the late thirteenth century. This was especially true north of the Forth where their lands stretched from Buchan in the east to Lochaber in the west, though they also had sizeable holdings south of the Forth and in England. They had played a leading role in Scottish politics during the reigns of Alexander II and Alexander III, and continued to do so during the uncertainty following the latter’s death. Their importance only grew in 1292, when John Balliol ascended to the Scottish throne, a man whose sister was married to John Comyn of Badenoch, and was mother to John ‘the Red’ Comyn. This meant that Isabella’s husband was not only one of the most important magnates in the realm and one of King John’s main supporters, but was also cousin to the man who was next in line for the throne should the Balliol line fail.

All this rather long-winded scene-setting aside, as we all know, John Balliol did not have a great time as king. Eventually, with Edward I becoming increasingly overbearing, and the unfortunate King John increasingly browbeaten, a council of Scottish magnates, including the Comyns, removed the power from the King of Scots’ hands. Determined not to give in to the English king’s demands, which would have been seen as confirming Scotland’s subservient position, they continued to pursue an alliance with the French. This led to the Scottish Crown’s decision to physically support the French (and perhaps also preempt an English attack) by assembling the realm’s army, and this in turn resulted in a short war in which the Scots were quickly overcome at the Battle of Dunbar. King John fled into the north-east but was later forced to surrender and was publicly stripped of his crown, while the Comyns, like the rest of the Scottish nobility, were eventually received into the English king’s peace.

(John Balliol doing homage to Edward I of England)

It was not long before trouble broke out again in Scotland, when William Wallace and Andrew Moray rose up in 1297. The Earl of Buchan was technically supposed to be keeping the peace but, like many Scottish magnates, he seems to have cautiously remained on the fence. We have no indication of his wife Isabella’s opinion during this troubled period, except a grant that allowed her to take wood from near to her husband’s Leicestershire property, which indicates she was still in the king of England’s good books and living reasonably peacefully. Her possible mother, Joanna de Clare, was not so lucky during this troubled period, and in 1299 brought charges against a Scot named Herbert de Moreham for having ambushed, abducted, and imprisoned her upon her refusal to marry him, and then having robbed her of her possessions to the tune of two thousand pounds. Meanwhile, Isabella’s brother/nephew, Duncan, became a captive in England, though he nominally retained his title. Her kinsman MacDuff, was less easily cowed, taking part in Wallace’s rebellion and leading the men of Fife against the English, though this ended with his death at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298.

Though this long (but nonetheless very generalised) explanation of the events of the 1290s is somewhat necessary to understand the context of Isabella’s lifetime, it is to the year 1306 that we must look for her real activity. In this year, Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, shocked the political community on both sides of the border when, in Greyfriars church in Dumfries, he stabbed John Comyn of Badenoch during what was supposed to be a peace conference. By primogeniture, and with the Balliols sidelined, Comyn had a better claim to the throne, so by murdering him Bruce had, quite ruthlessly, cleared a path to the kingship. But he had also enraged both Edward I of England and the entire Comyn family network (and their many allies) who, although hitherto as flexible with their patriotism and loyalty to the king of England as any other Scottish nobles, now found themselves firmly in the English camp as Bruce claimed the throne of Scotland. The Earl of Buchan, then in England, would have been furious at his cousin’s death, and whether Isabella of Fife was with her husband or not, she would have been well aware of the implications of Bruce’s bloody attack on her marital house, an act for which he was excommunicated.

(An artist’s depiction of Scone Abbey in c.1371- not my picture, found here)

For some reason, though, Isabella seems to have viewed the situation very differently to her husband. The previous Earl Duncan of Fife may have been loosely associated with the Bruces in the past and this might have left a mark on Isabella’s allegiances. Or perhaps she viewed Bruce as a candidate who could genuinely lead the Scots to independence, regardless of his crimes. Perhaps she simply seized an opportunity to act politically in a time where women’s opportunities were limited, or felt it was her turn to look out for the interests of her birth family while the earl of Fife was in captivity and other male members of the kindred dead. Some English chroniclers even claim she harboured romantic feelings towards Bruce, and while of course this cannot ever be proved or disproved, it perhaps says more about mediaeval chroniclers’ inability to imagine a woman taking political action for any reasons other than lust. It is similarly difficult to tell if Isabella had had any contact with the Bruce faction before the murder of Comyn of Badenoch, or if it was a spur of the moment decision. Whatever the case, she seems to have had fast horses readied in advance and was merely waiting for the right moment to take action. Upon hearing of Bruce’s decision to crown himself at Scone, she promptly quit her husband’s house and rode there herself. Intending to take the place of the captive earl of Fife, she claimed the right to fulfil the ancient duty of her house by placing King Robert on his throne.

But by the time Isabella arrived at Scone Abbey, the traditional coronation spot of Scottish kings outside the city of Perth, a coronation had already taken place. On Lady Day (25th March), at a ceremony attended by several earls and the bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, not to mention the abbot of Scone and many other nobles and clerics, Robert Bruce had been crowned in defiance of the king of England and not two months after having blasphemously murdered the rival claimant in a church. He was by no means secure on his claimed throne, but the coronation was still an impressive display of his political and ecclesiastical support. Nevertheless, the sight of the Countess of Buchan, who must have ridden a considerable way in a very short amount of time and defied her husband to boot, and the importance of tradition- or perhaps simply Isabella’s force of character- seems to have convinced the king and his counsellors to go through with a second coronation. On the 27th of March, Robert was once again proclaimed king of Scots, and satisfied tradition when Isabella of Fife placed him on the throne in the manner of her forefathers, though the stone of Scone and the earl of Fife both remained captive in England.

(The mausoleum on the Mote hill which now stands on top of where the kings of Scots were once crowned- the investiture of Scottish kings, rather like medieval weddings, probably took place outside the abbey on the Mote hill and not inside the church itself)

Unfortunately for Isabella, the start of the new king’s “reign” did not go quite so well as his coronation. An English army was raised not long after the news of John Comyn’s murder and Bruce’s coronation reached the ears of Edward I, and in June Robert’s army was defeated at the Battle of Methven, near Perth. Forced to flee to the Western Isles, Robert decided to send his female family members away to Kildrummy Castle in Aberdeenshire. This castle was at the centre of the earldom of Mar, and King Robert’s first wife had been the earl’s sister so it probably seemed like a strong place in which they would be protected. The queen, Elizabeth de Burgh, and Robert’s daughter from his first marriage Princess Marjorie, along with at least two of the king’s sisters, were sent north in the care of his brother Neil Bruce and John de Strathbogie, the earl of Atholl. The Countess of Buchan, now firmly an adherent of the Bruce cause, was also with them. However not long after they reached Kildrummy, they must have heard that an army under the command of Edward, Prince of Wales, was heading for the castle. Leaving Neil Bruce in charge of the garrison, Atholl conveyed the queen and her ladies further north still, possibly hoping to reach the safety of Orkney and then maybe Norway, where King Robert’s sister was the dowager queen. Kildrummy Castle, meanwhile, held out only a short while before the garrison were betrayed, and Neil Bruce and others were taken south to be hanged. 

Hurrying north, the fugitives stopped for shelter in the church of St Duthac at Tain. This small chapel overlooking the windy shores of the Dornoch Firth (the long estuary separating Ross from Sutherland) was a sacred place, holding the shrine of a popular local saint, and its sanctuary extended not just to the chapel but also the surrounding area. As they huddled in its walls, the party might have been forgiven for trusting to the safety of this holy spot and the name of St Duthac. Unfortunately, this trust was to prove horribly misplaced. Uilleam, the Earl of Ross and an adherent of the Balliols whose line Bruce had usurped, was not about to let such a valuable prize sit unmolested in his own territory. Breaking the sanctuary, he had Atholl and the ladies taken prisoner, and sent them south to England. Ross would later be received into King Robert’s peace, but was obliged to make an offering for Atholl’s soul at Tain which would have important implications for the town’s growth. In 1306, however, the captured women and earl faced harsh imprisonment and worse at the hands of an enraged Edward I. 

(The ruined chapel where Isabella and many others were captured after the Earl of Ross broke sanctuary.)

(The links at Tain, Ross, looking towards Sutherland over the firth. For context purposes)

John, Earl of Atholl, like other male supporters of the Bruce claim, was to be executed by the humiliating method of hanging. Members of the English political community’s begged for mercy on his behalf, or at least for a more honourable death since Atholl was related to the English king, but Edward I’s reportedly refused, saying that his rank only meant that the earl would be hanged on a higher gallows. The queen, Elizabeth de Burgh, was the daughter of the Earl of Ulster, an important supporter of Edward, so was given a rather more lenient punishment in the form of house arrest, though she was still often short of funds and occasionally kept in filthy conditions. Christian Bruce, one of the two sisters of Robert I captured at Tain and the wife of Christopher Seton (hanged in August 1306), was likewise placed under house arrest in Sixhills nunnery in Lincolnshire. However her sister Mary Bruce, along with Isabella of Fife, faced a rather worse fate. The chronicle of Guisborough goes so far as to claim that Isabella’s husband the Earl of Buchan called for his wife’s execution, though ultimately this was not to occur. Instead Mary and Isabella were placed in “cages” in the castles of Roxburgh and Berwick respectively. The writer of ‘Flores Historiarum’ (this chronicle gives rather a colourful account of the Scottish situation so is perhaps taken with a pinch of salt) even places the following words in the mouth of Edward I, when deciding on Isabella’s punishment:

“Because she did not smite with the sword, she shall not perish by the sword. But because of the unlawful crowning which she made, let her be kept most fastly in an iron crown, made after the fashion of a little house, whereof let the breadth and length, the height and the depth, be finished in the space of eight feet; and let her be hung up for ever at Berwick under the open sky, that all they who pass may see her and know for what cause she is there.”

It’s a little bit unclear whether these cages were actually suspended outside the castles in full view of the public and open to the elements, as various chroniclers report, or if they were merely extreme security measures taken within the towers of the castles. The official instructions for the construction of Isabella’s cage included orders that the cage be constructed “in one of the turrets” of Berwick, and that she have “the convenience of a decent chamber” and be kept secure, but the imprisonment of the ladies at the Scottish castles Roxburgh and Berwick, rather than securely in England, must have had some symbolic purpose. In any case, conditions were harsh, and the women were not to be allowed to speak to anyone except their guards, and especially not other Scots. They were to remain in these cages for years. Fortunately for the young Marjorie Bruce, similar plans to imprison her in such a cage in the Tower of London were scrapped and she was put under house arrest in another Lincolnshire nunnery. Nevertheless, none of the women would see freedom for at least eight years, when most were released after the Battle of Bannockburn.

This freedom came too late for Isabella however. Living in a cage would have been a harsh life, and even harsher if the cage was actually suspended outdoors. Mary Bruce seems to have been removed from Roxburgh by 1311, being kept a prisoner in Newcastle until Bannockburn, (as Roxburgh was taken by the Scots in 1313, this move was probably due to strategy rather than mercy). Isabella was not similarly moved on that occasion and our last glimpse of her is in April of 1313, by which time the Scots had already made one attempt on the town of Berwick the previous year and had successfully captured Roxburgh and Edinburgh only a few weeks earlier. Then she was finally released from imprisonment at Berwick and placed under house arrest in the keeping of Henry de Beaumont and his wife Alice Comyn, her late husband’s niece and heiress to the earldom of Buchan. She does not appear in any prisoner exchanges post-Bannockburn however, and it is probable that she died not long afterwards (it has been theorised that the conditions of her imprisonment may have hastened her demise but this cannot be proven). In any case, she at least outlived her husband, the Earl of Buchan, who had died in 1308. There was no issue from their marriage and so the claim to the earldom passed to the earl’s nieces, one of whom was married to Henry de Beaumont (and, due to this, de Beaumont would cause quite a bit of trouble for the Bruces in later decades). Nonetheless, though we only have a small amount of information on her Isabella of Fife was clearly a woman with a backbone of steel, defiant and determined to make her mark, and well-deserves her place in the history books.

(A depiction of Mary Bruce in her cage at Roxburgh. Isabella would have been held similarly at Berwick, though I will not swear to the accuracy of these cages in the drawings)

References:

Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland preserved in the English archives

Acts of the Parliament of Scotland

Chronicle of Guisborough

Chronicle of Lanercost

Flores Historiarum

Scalachronica (by Sir Thomas Gray)

Chronica Gentis Scotorum (John of Fordun)

The Brus (John Barbour)

“Widows of War: Edward I and the Women of Scotland during the War of Independence”, by Cynthia J. Neville, in ‘Wife and Widow in Medieval England’, ed. Sue Sheridan Walker

Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland, by G.W.S. Barrow

The Comyns, Alan Young

The Women of the Wars of Independence in Literature and History, R.J. Goldstein