Robert de Brus, 2nd Lord of Annandale

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Robert II de Brus (died 1194) was a 12th century Norman noble. He was the younger son of Robert I de Brus, a knight brought to Britain from northern France by Henry I of England and David I of Scotland. The elder de Brus' allegiances were compromised when David invaded England in the later 1130s, and he had renounced his fealty to David before the Battle of the Standard in 1138. The younger Robert however remained loyal and took over his father's land in Scotland, whilst the English territories remained with the elder Robert and passed to the latter's elder son Adam. Bruce family tradition has it that Robert II was captured by his father at the battle and given over to King Stephen of England.

In the 1140s, Robert II was visited at Annan by St Malachy. St Malachy asked Robert to pardon a thief, but Robert hung him anyway, and for this the River Annan destroyed part of his castle and the de Brus line received a curse from the holy man. Robert made Lochmaben the centre of his lordship and constructed a new caput there. Robert married Euphemia, a daughter of William le Gros, 1st Earl of Albemarle, and had four known children, Robert († x 1191), William († 1211 x 1212), Bernard, and Agatha.

Robert died in 1194. He was probably buried at Guisborough Priory in North Riding, Yorkshire, a monastery founded by his father Robert I de Brus. As his eldest son Robert predeceased him, he was succeeded by his second son William.

[edit] References

Duncan, A.A.M., ‘Brus , Robert (I) de, lord of Annandale (d. 1142)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 14 Nov 2006
Duncan, A. A. M., ‘Brus , Robert (II) de, lord of Annandale (d. 1194?)’, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 14 Nov 2006
Oram, Richard, David: The King Who Made Scotland, (Gloucestershire, 2004)