Isabel (Brus) Bruce (abt. 1272 - 1358)

Born about 1272 in Carrick, Ayrshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Wife of Eirik (Magnusson) King of Norway — married 1293 in Bergen, Norge

Died 1358 at about age 86 in Bergen, Hordaland, Norge

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Isobella (Brus) Bruce was a member of Scottish Nobility. Join: Scotland Project Discuss: Scotland

Biography

Contention

Isobel Bruce is often recorded as having married Sir Thomas Randolph of Strathdon, Great Chamberlain to Alexander III, and to have been the mother by him of King Robert Bruce's faithful lieutenant Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray. This is extremely unlikely to be correct and there is no proof for this assertion. It is discounted entirely by Sir James Balfour Paul in The Scots Peerage^[1] where he provides evidence to support his position. Randolph certainly seems likely, given his position in the Scottish Wars of Independence, to have married into the Bruce family but it is not clear to which lady.

Life and Marriage

Isobel Bruce was born to Sir Robert Bruce, 6th Lord of Annandale, and his wife Marjorie (Margaret), Countess of Carrick.^[2] She is thought to have been born as a second child and after her brother Robert, later Robert I, thus after 1274. However female children were not always recorded in the correct sequence and she may have been born earlier and around 1272. Sir James Balfour Paul notes this discrepancy.^[3]

Wikipedia notes, but without a source of her age, that she, in 1293 and at the age of 21, traveled to Norway with her father and was married, at Bergen, to King Eric II Magnusson.^[4] Eric had been previously married to Princess Margaret, daughter to Alexander III but she had died shortly after giving birth to Margaret, Maid of Norway.

Eric Magnusson died in July 1299 and Isobel remained in Norway. The marriage produced one daughter, Ingeborg Eriksdottir who later married Valdemar Magnusson of Sweden, Duke of Finland, in 1312. Isabel herself arranged for her daughter's marriage.

She did not return to Scotland, although she did support the Bruce cause and provided support from Norway to her sister Christina. She is known to have remained in Bergen for the rest of her life and played an active role in internal politics and the church.

She acted as a mediator, in 1312, between Scotland and Norway over disputes regarding the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

She is known to have been alive in 1357 as she appears as one of the heirs of her daughter, Ingeborg, then Duchess of Uppland, Öland, and Finland. She died shortly after, in 1358.^[5]

Biografi

Isabella Bruce (født ca. 1272, død 1358) (også kjent som Isobel, omnämns ibland som Isabella de Brus, Isobail a Brus eller Isabella Robertsdotter Brus) var dronning i Norge 1293-1299.

Isabella var født i Skottland som datter av Robert Bruce av Annandale og Marjorie av Carrick, 3. grevinne av Carrick (hun var således søster til kong Robert Bruce med samme navn som sin far).

Isabella var knapt 12 år gammel da hun 1293 kom til Norge i følge med sin far for å feire bryllup med kong Eirik II Magnusson som var 25, enkemann og barnløs.

1297 fikk dronning Isabella og kong Eirik sitt eneste barn, datteren Ingebjørg (1297–ca. 1357).

Hun ble enke 24 år gammel ved kongens død i 1299 men hun giftet seg aldri igjen. Isabella ble boende i Bergen som enkedronning etter at ektefellens bortgang, og fram til sin død i 1358. Isabella var sterkt knyttet til bispesetet og kirkene i Bergen

Sources

1. ↑ The Scots Peerage, Sir James Balfour Paul, Vol 2, page 433
2. ↑ Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), vol. III, pages 520-528 SCOTLAND 4.
3. ↑ The Scots Peerage, Sir James Balfour Paul, Vol 2, page 433
4. ↑ See Wikipedia for Isobel Bruce
5. ↑ See Wikipedia for Isobel Bruce

See also:

• Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. IV p. 595
• https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Bruce
• Paul, Sir James Balfour; The Scots peerage : founded on Wood's ed. of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland; containing an historical and genealogical account of the nobility of that kingdom; Edinburgh (1904), Volume 2.
• DN, Vol. 2 no. 152 and 154, Vol. 3 no. 64, Vol. 7 No.. 31 and 89, Vol. 8 No.. 82, 96 and *122, Vol. 19 No.. 379, 389-390, 560 and 563, bd . 21 No.. 15
• RN, Vol. 2-6
• Isl.Ann.
• Erikskrönikan, ed. by S.- B. Jansson, Stockholm 1987
• H. Koht: "Norwegian queens" in Soga 1926
• E. Bull the "Eirik Magnusson" in NBL1, Vol. 3, 1926
• ds: biography in NBL1, Vol. 6, 1934
• H. Koht: "Magnus Eriksson" in NBL1, Vol. 9, 1940

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Bruce

• https://nbl.snl.no/Isabella_Bruce