Elizabeth de Burgh

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Robert the Bruce and Elizabeth de Burgh, from the Seton Armorial.

Elizabeth de Burgh (c. 1289 – October 27, 1327) was the second wife of Robert I of Scotland (Robert the Bruce).

She was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland as the daughter of the powerful Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster and his wife Margarite de Burgh (d. 1304). Her father was a close friend of Edward I of England.

Elizabeth probably met Robert the Bruce at the English court, and they married in 1302 at Writtle, near Chelmsford, Essex, England. Robert and Elizabeth were crowned as King and Queen of Scots at Scone on March 27, 1306. This coronation took place in defiance of the English claims of suzerainty over Scotland, and the new King sent Elizabeth, with other family members, to Kildrummy Castle for safety under the protection of his brother Nigel.

After the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Methven on 19 June 1306, the 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 corn store. The victors hanged and beheaded Bruce's brother, along with all the men from the castle. They imprisoned Bruce's sister Mary and Isabel, Countess of Buchan in wooden cages erected on the walls of Berwick and Roxburgh castles, and they sent Bruce's 10-year-old daughter Marjorie Bruce to a convent. Due to Edward's unwillingness to anger the Earl of Ulster, Elizabeth went into house arrest in England.

She did not approve of her husband's rebellion: she described him and his followers as having been "like children, playing at being Kings and Queens." ^[1]

Eight years later, after the Bruce had defeated the English at the Battle of Bannockburn, Elizabeth finally walked free in exchange for captured English nobles.

Elizabeth gave birth to two sons and two daughters: John, Matilda, Margaret, and David (the future king David II of Scotland). Elizabeth died on October 27, 1327 at Cullen Castle, Banffshire and is buried in Dunfermline. Her husband died twenty months later.