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ROBERT BRUCE, KING OF SCOTLAND.
BERT PE BRUS, the first on record of this race of heroes and patriots, a noble
knight of Normandy, came into England with William the Conqueror. He was of
Mich valour and so ranch confided in by William that after his victory over Harold,
he sent him to subdue the northern parts of England. Before the end of the
Conqueror's reign, Brus was owner of no less than ninety-four lordships in Yorkshire.
He lefl a son, Robert, who founded and endowed a monastery at Gyslmrn.
Soon after the accession of David I. to the throne of Scotland in 1124, he visited
tkat monarch whom he had known at the Court of Henry I., and obtained from
him the lordship of Annandale. For this princely donation Brus did homage to
David. That monarch invading England in 1138, advanced to Northallerton, where
an army was drawn up to oppose him. Bruce was sent by the English to negotiate
with David, and made an eloquent address to that monarch to induce him to withdraw
hU forces ; one of the King's attendants, however, cried "Thou art a false traitor Bruce," and
he was dismissed from the Scottish camp renouncing his homage to the King of Scots, who was
defeated in the Battle of the Standard (or Northallerton), 22nd August 1138. Robert died on llth
May 1141, and was buried at Gysburn. His eldest son Adam's male line terminated in Peter de Brus
of Skelton, who left two sons and four daughters. His second son Robert enjoyed Annandale by
the gift of his father, and thus being liegeman to King David of Scots when he invaded England in
1188, was on his side at the Battle of the Standard, where he was taken by his own father who sent
him prisoner to King Stephen, who ordered him to be delivered to his mother.
He had two sons, Robert and William ; Robert, the eldest, married in 1183, Isabel, natural
laughter of King William the Lion, and died before 1191. William, his brother and heir, died in
1215, and was succeeded by his son Robert de Brus, who married Isabel, second daughter of David,
Karl of Huntingdon, brother of William the Lion. He died in 1245. Their son, Robert de Bruce,
was in 1254-55, Governor of the Castle of Carlisle ; in 1255 he was nominated one of the Regents of
the Kingdom of Scotland, and guardian of Alexander III. and his Queen ; in 1204, with John
Cumyn and John Baliol, he led a body of Scottish auxiliaries to assist King Henry HI. against his
rebellious barons, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Lewis with that monarch. In 1284, with
the other Magnates Scotise he joined in promising to accept Margaret of Norway as his Sovereign in
the event of the demise of Alexander III. He sat in Parliament as Lord of Annandale in 1290, and
on the death of Margaret the same year, entered his claim to the crown of Scotland, as the nearest
heir of King Alexander III. King Edward I. overruled all the pleas of Bruce, and on the 17th
November 1292 adjudged the Kingdom of Scotland to Baliol. Bruce retired leaving his claim to his
on, the Earl of Carrick, and died in 1295, aged eighty-five. His eldest son, Robert de Brus, was
lorn in 1245, and accompanied King Edward I. to Palestine in 1269. He accompanied Edward into
Scotland Hgainut Baliol, and was present at the battle of Dnnbar, 28th April 1296. Edward had
promised U raise Bruce to the throne in room of Baliol, but failed to carry out this design. Bruce
retired to England remaining in obscurity, dying in 1304.
By Margaret, Countess of Carrick, his wife, he left a large family ; his eldest son, Robert de
Brus, born llth July 1274, succeeded to his fathers title of Earl of Carrick ; he asserted his claim
to the Scottish crown, and without any resources but in his own valour and the untried fidelity of a
few partisans, ascended the throne of his ancestors, and was crowned at Scome, 27th March 1306.
After many vicissitudes, the power of King Robert I. was finally cemented by his splendid and
decisive victory at Bannockburn, 1314. He died at Cardross, in Dumbartonshire, on the 7th of
Jane 132f, aged fifty-five ; he was interred in the Abbey Church of Dumfermline. His heart having
been extracted and embalmed, was delivered to Sir James Douglas to be carried to Palestine and
buried in Jerusalem. Douglas was killed fighting against the Moors in Spain, and the silver
M^Ss^jn^M^i^ heart of Bruce, was brought back with the body of Douglas and buried in the
The nresent bead of one branch of the Brnces is Victor Alexander, ninth Earl of Elgin and
lirteenth Earl of Kincardine. Braces are also Baronets of Stenhouse, 1629, and of Downhill, 1804.