Isabella, Countess of Fife

Isabella of Fife (c. 1320–1389) was Countess of Fife from 1363 until she resigned the title in 1371. She was the daughter of Donnchadh IV, Earl of Fife, by his wife Mary de Monthermer (herself the daughter of Joan of Acre and Ralph Monthermer).

In 1332 she and her mother had been captured at Perth by supporters of King David II of Scotland. She was sent as a ward to Northumberland, where she married her guardian Sir William Felton. William Felton was styled "Lord of Fife" in right of his wife, and died on 21 September 1358. Their children were:

1. John Felton (1340–1396)
2. Duncan Felton, a priest, died after 1385.
3. Joan Felton (died before 1384), married Walter Faucomberge

Because her father had forfeited the earldom, David II granted Fife to Sir William Ramsay of Colluthie (near Cupar, Fife) in 1358, ignoring Isabel's own claim. She was not recognized as Countess until 1363. She had married for a second time to Walter Stewart, a son of King Robert II of Scotland, before June 1361. He died the following year, and she married again in January 1363 to Thomas Byset. He died by April 1366. She is said to have married for a fourth and final time to John de Dunbar, who died before 1371, but Boardman shows that this was not the case, but that rather she was prevailed upon by King David II to grant him the Lordship of Fife. She had no children by her later marriages.

Isabel resigned the earldom of Fife on 30 March 1371 to Robert Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany. She died shortly after 12 August 1389 and was buried next to Walter Stewart.

Ancestry

Sources

• Gray, Thomas. Scalacronica (pub.1911)
• Boardman, Steve, The Early Stewart Kings, Robert II and Robert III (1996), ch 1, esp p13 ff