Marjorie Bruce is remembered for a short and unhappy life, and for what came after it. She was the daughter of Robert the Bruce, and her son became the first of the Stewart kings. How much of the famous death scene is documented is another matter, so this account keeps the record apart from the tradition.
The Horror
Marjorie was born around 1296, the daughter of Robert the Bruce and his first wife, Isabella of Mar. Isabella died soon after the birth. In June 1306, after Bruce’s defeat at Methven, Marjorie was captured and handed over to the English.
Edward I planned a cage for her at the Tower of London. He reconsidered, and she was sent instead to a Gilbertine convent at Watton in Yorkshire. She stayed in English hands for about seven more years, into the reign of Edward II. She was freed in October 1314, after Bannockburn, in exchange for Humphrey de Bohun, who had been captured there.
In 1315 she married Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland. The marriage is regarded as the foundation of the House of Stewart.
By the traditional account, on March 2, 1316, Marjorie, heavily pregnant, was thrown from her horse near Paisley. She went into premature labour and died, and her son, the future Robert II, survived. That is the story as it is usually told. The exact date is not firmly established, and some accounts place her death in 1317.
The Legend
The most gruesome part of the story, that the child was cut from her body by caesarean section as she died, is a local tradition. It is recorded by the Renfrewshire historian William Crawford around 1710, some four centuries after the event. Crawford adds that the surgeon’s clumsiness injured the child’s eye and gave rise to the nickname “King Bleareie”. Authentic early references to either the eye affliction or the nickname are lacking, and the tradition seems to confuse dates and facts. It should be read as legend, not as record. The idea that a caesarean was done to a mother already dying or dead is a general medieval practice and is not documented in this case.
The Modern Relic
Marjorie is buried at Paisley Abbey. A tomb in the choir carries a much-restored female effigy that is widely believed to be hers. There is no evidence that she lies at that exact spot, though her remains are thought to be somewhere in the abbey. The tomb itself is assembled from fragments of different origins.
About two kilometres north of the abbey, at the junction of Renfrew Road and Dundonald Road, a cairn called “the Knock” marks the place where she is said to have fallen. Crawford also says a cross, “Queen Bleareie’s Cross”, was set up there and still stood in his time. Whether it survives, or has any link to the present cairn, is unconfirmed.
