Elizabeth de Burgh

Elizabeth de Burgh (c. 1289– October 27, 1327) was the second wife and the only queen consort of King Robert the Bruce. Elizabeth was born sometime around 1289, probably in Down or Antrim in Ireland.
She was the daughter of one of the most powerful Irish nobles of the period, Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster, who was a close friend and ally of Edward I, King of England. 
Not much is known about Elizabeth, despite her husband's status as one of the most famous Scottish kings and warriors. As is the case with most medieval women, records of Elizabeth are scarce; however, it is clear that she was caught up in the political turmoil that unfolded between the Scottish and the English during the reign of her husband King Robert, had to move several times to keep safe, and was eventually seized as a prisoner.
==Life==
She was born in Ireland (c. 1289), the daughter of the powerful Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster and his wife, Margarite de Burgh (died 1304). Her father was a close friend of King Edward I of England.
Elizabeth probably met Robert the Bruce, then Earl of Carrick, at the English court, By the time they married in 1302 at Writtle, near Chelmsford, Essex, England Robert was a widower with a young daughter from his first marriage. Elizabeth would have been about 14 years old, and Robert 28.
On 27 March 1306, Robert and Elizabeth were crowned as King and Queen of Scots at Scone. The coronation took place in defiance of the English claims of suzerainty over Scotland after the execution of Sir William Wallace. After his coronation, she is quoted as having said, as though anticipating a defeat by Edward I.Lang, Andrew, "A history of Scotland from the Roman Occupation"
==Capture==
After the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Methven on 19 June 1306, the king sent Elizabeth, his daughter Marjorie by his first marriage, his sisters Mary and Christina to Kildrummy Castle, under the protection of his brother Niall (also known as Nigel). thumb|The ruins of Kildrummy Castle in AberdeenshireThe English laid siege to the castle containing the royal party. The siege finally succeeded when the English bribed a blacksmith with "all the gold he could carry" to set fire to the grain store. The victors hanged, drew and quartered Niall Bruce, along with all the men from the castle. However, the royal ladies under the escort of the Earl of Atholl had already fled.
They were taken from the sanctuary of St. Duthac at Tain by the Earl of Ross, a supporter of the Comyns, and dispatched to King Edward. He imprisoned Bruce's sister Mary and Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan, in wooden cages erected on the walls of Roxburgh and Berwick castles respectively, and then sent Bruce's nine-year-old daughter Marjorie to the nunnery at Watton.
Elizabeth was held under severe conditions of house arrest in England while Edward still needed aid from her father. The Earl of Atholl was hanged and his head displayed on London Bridge.Scott, Ronald McNair, Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots, p. 87
She was imprisoned for eight years by the English. From October 1306 to July 1308 she was held at Burstwick-in-Holderness, Yorkshire, where she, only served by two elder women, wrote a letter complaining about her condition (she had only 3 clothes and no headgear or linen bed clothing), before being transferred to Bisham Manor, Berkshire until March 1312. From there, she was moved to Windsor Castle with six attendants and an allowance, where she was held until October 1312, Shaftesbury Abbey, Dorset until March 1313, Barking Abbey, Essex until March 1314, and Rochester Castle, Kent until June 1314. After the Battle of Bannockburn, she was moved to York while prisoner exchange talks took place. At York, she had an audience with King Edward II of England. She was released as part of the ransom for the Earl of Hereford who had been captured after the Battle of Bannockburn on 29 September 1314.
Elizabeth had three children who reached adulthood: Matilda, Margaret, and David (the future king David II of Scotland).Bingham, Caroline Robert the BruceBoardman, Stephen The Early Stewart Kings
==Death==
Elizabeth died aged approximately 38 years old, on 27 October 1327 after falling from her horse during a visit to the royal residence at Cullen, Banffshire.
Plans were immediately made to transport her body to Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, the resting place of Scottish kings and queens since 1093. As parishioners in Cullen were worried that her remains would not arrive intact they took the step of having her internal organs removed during the embalming process. While some sources claim that her entrails were transported separately to Fife, others state that they were buried in the parish church of Cullen. The parishioners also had Masses said to pray for her soul
.
Robert in gratitude for the treatment of Elizabeth's body and its return south for burial decreed that a chaplaincy be established at the Auld Kirk of Cullen (parish church of Cullen) and paid in perpetuity the sum of five Scots pounds to have Masses said for the soul of Elizabeth. Robert's original bequest was augmented by Mary Queen of Scots in 1543 and continued to be paid by different bodies throughout the centuries until changes and loss of records due to local government reform in 1975, led to the stopping of payments.
In 2011 the church's minister, the Rev Melvyn Wood applied to the Moray Council to have the tradition re-instated and after a lengthy investigation the Council agree to reinstate the annual payment of £2.10 and even agreed to pay for the missed installments. A prayer is now said in the queen's honor at a Sunday service which also remembers parishioners who have died in the last year.
When Robert died 18 months later his body was laid to rest next to Elizabeth who had been interred in the very centre of the abbey beneath the high altar, in an alabaster tomb decorated with gold leaf.Macnamee, Colm (2006), Robert Bruce: Our Most Valiant Prince, King and Lord, Edinburgh: Birlinn, . p. 271. Fragments of the tomb still remain and can be seen in the National Museum of Scotland. The abbey was sacked in 1560 by Calvinists during the Scottish Reformation and the tomb was lost, however King Robert's coffin was rediscovered in 1819 during construction work on the new abbey and Elizabeth's coffin was rediscovered in 1917. Both were re-interred in the new abbey.
==Issue==
Name 	Birth 	Death 	Notes
Margaret 	between 1315 and 1323	30 March 1346in childbirth 	Married William de Moravia, 5th Earl of Sutherland and had one son, John (1346–1361), who died aged twenty of the Black Death.
Matilda (Maud) 	between 1315 and 1323	30 July 1353 	Married Thomas Isak/Isaac and had two daughters, Joanna (wife of John Gallda MacDougall) and Catherine. Buried at Dunfermline Abbey
David 	March 5, 1324 	February 22, 1371 	King of Scots (13291372). Married (1) in 1328 Joan of England; no issue; married (2) in 1364 Margaret Drummond; no issue.
John 	5 March 1324 	October 1327Dunfermline Palace, Fife</center>	Younger twin brother of David II. Heir to the Crown of Scotland.
Elizabeth Bruce	Unknown 	After 1364 	Married Sir Walter Oliphant of Aberdalgie and Dupplin.
==Ancestry==
==See also==
* Wars of Scottish Independence
==References==
==External links==
* Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry
* Biography
Category:1280s births
Category:1320s deaths
Category:People from Bisham
Category:People from Dunfermline
Elizabeth de Burgh
Elizabeth de Burgh
Category:Burials at Dunfermline Abbey
Category:Scottish people of the Wars of Scottish Independence
Elizabeth
Category:Normans in Ireland
Category:Anglo-Norman women
Category:13th-century Scottish women
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Category:14th-century Scottish women
Category:14th-century Irish women
Category:Deaths by horse-riding accident
Category:Accidental deaths in Scotland
Category:Scottish royalty