Christina Bruce
Christian (or Christina) de Brus (c. 1278 – 1356/1357) was the daughter of Marjorie, Countess of Carrick, and her husband, Robert de Brus, jure uxoris Earl of Carrick, and a sister of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots. It is presumed that she and her siblings were born at Turnberry Castle in Carrick. Christina is thought to have married Gartnait, son of Donald, Earl of Mar (died 1305), but recently scholars have debated the truth of the claim, because Christina is never described as a countess of Mar, or even described as 'of Mar.'
Life
After defeat at the Battle of Methven on 19 June 1306, Robert Bruce headed west to the mountains. He sent his second wife, Elisabeth, his daughter Marjory, his sisters Christina and Mary Bruce, and Countess Isobel to Kildrummy Castle in the north, where his brother Neil could protect them.[1]
When Kildrummy was besieged, the women were forced to flee. Neil Bruce was captured and He was taken to Berwick to be hanged, drawn and beheaded. The women made it as far as the sanctuary of St Duthac at Tain in Easter Ross. There they were captured by a Balliol supporter, Earl William of Ross, who handed them over to Edward I’s men.[1]
Christian Bruce was sent to a Gilbertine nunnery at Sixhills in Lincolnshire,[1] while her sister Mary and Bruce's supporter Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan, were imprisoned in cages.
Her first marriage was to Sir Christopher Seton, who was born in 1278 and executed in 1306. She remarried in 1326 to Sir Andrew Murray, the posthumous child in 1298 of Sir Andrew Murray, a joint victor of the battle of Stirling Bridge along with William Wallace. Sir Andrew died in 1338.
In 1335, during the Second War of Scottish Independence, she commanded the garrison of Kildrummy Castle and successfully held out against pro-Baliol forces led by David of Strathbogie, prior to their defeat by her husband, Sir Andrew Murray, at the Battle of Culblean.
References
Sources
- Peter Traquair "Freedom's Sword"
- Fiona Watson, "Bruce, Christian (d. 1356)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004