Page:Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence - 1909.djvu/170

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Robert the Bruce.
[1304 A.D.-

pected, for Macduff's sister, Isabella, Countess of Buchan, appeared to assert the privilege of her house, notwithstanding that, as the wife of a Comyn, she was thereby doing honour to him who had slain her husband's near kinsman.[1]

The names of others who bore a part in this great crisis in Scottish history, and were present at the coronation, have been recorded. They were: the Bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow; the Abbot of Scone; de Brus's four brothers, Edward, Nigel, Thomas, and Alexander, and his nephew, Thomas Randolph of Strathdon;[2] his brother-in-law, Christopher de Seton; Malcolm, Earl of Lennox; John, Earl of Athol; James de Douglas; Gilbert de la Haye of Errol, and his brother Hugh; David Barclay of Cairns; Alexander, brother of Sir Simon Fraser; Walter de Somerville of Carnwath; David of Inchmartin; Robert Boyd,[3] and Robert Fleming.[4] Some of these knights were to pay dearly for their share in that day's proceedings.

The news of this fresh outbreak and of the double murder at Dumfries fell on King Edward like a bolt from the blue. He was at Itchenstoke, in Hampshire, when the tidings reached him, and, with his usual prompt vigour, he issued immediate orders to

  1. A year later, March 20, 1307, Edward I., at the request of his Queen Margaret, granted pardon to Geoffrey de Coigners for concealing the coronet of gold with which Robert de Brus was crowned.
  2. Afterwards Earl of Moray. He is popularly known as Randolph, but in truth his real designation was Thomas the son of Randolph or Ralph.
  3. Ancestor of the Viscounts Kilmarnock.
  4. Ancestor of the Earls of Wigtown.