A Tale of Two Women and One Castle – The Ladies of Dunbar - Part One
(Ruins of Castle Dunbar)
In In my second blog on women, famous or infamous ancestors, and how history can
shift the view on their roles in the past or ignore them, I will be talking
about two special women and one castle.
These women, both my direct ancestors, both valiantly defended their
castle, the same one—Dunbar Castle. While a ruins today, Dunbar was one of the
strongest fortresses in all of Scotland.
Situated on a prominent position overlooking the harbor town of Dunbar
in East Lothian, this castle played a pivotal part in Scottish history throughout the medieval era. The first woman held this
castle in a siege against the king of England—and her own husband. Then,
nearly forty years later, another woman—countess of the same castle and
daughter-in-law of the first—held out against another siege by the English for
six months and won. These acts of
defiance earn one a near legend, while the other is all but forgotten by
historians.
When
I got my first computer, I was amazed at the access to research online. Instead of hands on investigations of days,
weeks, months of going to specific places to research documents (IF you were
permitted access), suddenly, you could do the same amount of work in a matter
of a few minutes. It was a researcher’s dream
come true! No more “limited access” to
vital records because of their age, no expensive traveling, and no more time
drain.
One
of the first projects I posted online was my research into Marjorie Comyn,
Countess of Dunbar and March (my 25th great-grandmother). Marjorie came from Scottish nobility on both
sides of her family. Daughter of Alexander Comyn, 2nd earl of
Buchan and Elizabeth de Quincy
(daughter of Sir Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester), Marjorie married Cospatrick Dunbar, 8th earl of Dunbar, 7th earl
of March (an ancient lineage going back to the original warrior kings of the
Scots). Cospatrick carried the nickname "Blackbeard
the Competitor" for he was one of thirteen men vying for the crown of
the Scots in 1290, after the deaths of Alexander III and his only heir the Maid
of Norway.
(Crest of Clan Comyn)
Cospatrick's strongest opposition was from Robert
the Bruce (King Robert I’s grandfather), John Balliol (who eventually won by
Edward Longshanks' decree) and John "the
Black" Comyn, Lord of Badenoch.
All had direct lines going back to David, earl of Huntingdon, who had
been prince and heir to the crown, making
this basically a family dispute! These
challengers, having rather similar lineages, each claimed they held the right
to rule Scotland. In the vacuum of no
clear path to crowning a monarch, King Edward declared himself “overlord” to
Scotland. The contenders yielded to him
on this point, each hoping he would then back their bid to be Scotland’s new
king. Without realizing the enormity and
future repercussions of the move, they made the error of going to Edward and
laying their claims before his consideration, asking him to be the judge.
Edward
was considered a great legal mind. Many
of the legal reforms that are still used today originated with him. While he might have loved the legal system,
he had one single focus above all: uniting the kingdoms of England, Scotland,
Wales and Ireland—and France—under
one crown—his. When the Scots nobles deferred to Edward to
rule who should be king of the Scots, Edward seized the opportunity to flex
that power. In the end, Edward chose
John Balliol. John Black Comyn and John
Balliol were both trying to snatch the crown, but they were also close kinsmen. Being of an incisive mind, Edward knew Black
Comyn was no man to be controlled. To further
his own aims, Edward thought by choosing Balliol he could unite the majority of
Scotland behind King John, after all Clan Comyn was one of the most powerful
clans in the Highlands. Balliol proved
as malleable as Edward assumed, and he ended up bending knee to Edward as his overlord.
If the nobles thought this would be the
end to the question of who ruled Scotland, they soon learned the English
monarch had other ideas. He used every
excuse to yank on the puppet strings attached to Balliol. Edward's excessive
demands for men and money to support the upcoming war with France placed the new
Scottish king in an impossible position. Balliol was left with little choice
but to rebel, and to seek an agreement to a mutual defense pact with
France. Edward Longshanks'
machinations and deliberate humiliations of King John would push the barons to
finally say enough! Balliol—prodded by the Comyns—found spine enough
to defy Edward (likely what the king of England wanted to happen all along,
thus giving him the excuse to invade Scotland).
Both Robert Bruce “the Competitor” and Cospatrick sought to curry favor
with the English King, each thinking to offer themselves as a replacement for
Balliol.
In
this swirling toxic mix of political strife, Marjorie’s marriage only complicated
matters. Her father was
Alexander Comyn, 6th earl of Buchan, both he and
her brother wanted the crown for themselves.
Since the men were close kin to Balliol, they eventually backed his
claim. However, the man she married, Cospatrick earl of Dunbar and March, was also a contender, and he was not
letting go of his ambition to be king so easily. He rode at Edward’s side when the king of
England came northward with his army of 10,000 infantry and 1000 heavy-horse.
Marjorie
stood on the curtain wall, waving bye bye
to her lord husband. There in the spring
of 1296, she was now commander of a fortress smack in the middle of the English
army and the Scottish army. Her husband
was in charge of part of the English forces under Balliol’s father-in-law John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey. Her brother and uncle,
and a slew of cousins, were commanders in Balliol’s army.
I
suppose Cospatrick chauvinistically assumed his lady wife would abide by his
decision to side with Edward Longshanks, and carry out his wishes. He failed to consider his wife was a true
Scots lass, bred to think and act on her own.
She was Marjorie Comyn, after
all, not Marjorie Dunbar, in the
tradition of Scottish females keeping their maiden name, instead of assuming
their husband’s surname. After the
horrible sacking of Castle Berwick, where three days of killing left the town
filled with thousands of dead Scots—men, women and children—word spread like
wildfire throughout the Highlands. Marjorie was determined her people would not
suffer a similar fate.
In
Medieval times, women often were in charge of fortresses and castles while
their husbands went off to war or the Crusades.
They had to deal with getting crops out, and harvesting them so their
people had food enough for the winter.
They were responsible for commanding the fortress troops to keep their
people safe. They had to deal law locally,
maintain the peace, and manage with taxes and more. The portrait of the damsel in distress, waving her kerchief from the castle bastion and
waiting for a valiant knight to save her, was as much a myth back then as it is
now. Women had to be capable, self-reliant,
politically savvy, able to command soldiers and have a just mind to deal with
day-to-day grievances of her vassals and villeins. With that in mind, I’m not certain why
Cospatrick failed to heed what his wife’s reaction would be to his presence at
Edward’s side when Berwick was slaughtered—especially when she knew those same
troops would soon fight her family, her clan.
Cospatrick intended she hold the castle against the Scots—her brothers, uncle
and cousins—until Edward came with his army.
There they would rest and refit before the battle brewing nearby.
April
1296 found Cospatrick in Berwick, a town littered with thousands of rotting
corpses. Edward had commanded the
defeated citizens rot in place as a warning to the Scots of what happened to a
town when they defied the mighty king of England. Cospatrick was attending the council of war
convened by Edward when tides came that Marjorie had handed over his castle to
her brother, John Comyn of Buchan. One can imagine how Cospatrick felt. He lived in a strange mix of fear and awe of
Edward Plantagenet. Edward’s view on
women was well known. Here, Cospatrick was hoping to curry favor with the
king, on the chance Edward would put the crown of Scotland on his head, to that
goal, he had pledged Dunbar Castle for Edward’s forward base of operations. The castle was vital to Edward’s plans since
it lay on the road that went straight to Edinburgh. Suddenly, the rug was yanked from beneath his
feet! His lady wife had defied him and
was supporting the Scottish forces. I am
sure Cospatrick knew his chance of ever being king of the Scots died with the
news of Marjorie’s defiance. Edward was
forced to change his plans and send John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey, and
William de Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick (the latter a veteran of Edward’s
campaigns in Wales) northward with the express purpose of retaking the castle. On the 25th of April, one-third of Edward’s force marched out of Berwick
with a brigade of 400 heavy cavalry and 4500 infantry.
Can
you imagine the embarrassment of the mighty earl of Dunbar and March? A man who dreamt of being king of Scotland, and
seeing that objective within grasp only to learn his lady wife was destroying his
ambition—not only defying him, but defying his king? Edward demanded the castle taken before the
coming battle. It didn’t happen. Marjorie refused to yield. The troops had
arrived late in the day on April 26th. Edward Longshanks and her husband were forced
to deal with being locked out. Already
undermanned due to her husband stripping the fortress of men to fight for
Edward, Marjorie used her disobedience to buy time to get her people out by the
sea. Edward ordered Cospatrick to retake his own castle. He was impatient to see the deed done before
they engaged the Scottish army.
(Dunbar Castle 1296)
I
suppose her brother and uncle hoped to catch the English in the midst of
trying to take the castle. On the sunny,
but cold spring morn of the 27th, the Scottish host was camped near Doon
Hill. Comyn, Lord Badenoch could easily
see Warenne’s army, marching on the road to Spott Village. Dust raised by the men and horses would have
signaled where the English forces were a mile away. The Comyns were confident in their numbers,
but failed to take into account they lacked heavy horse, archers, and their
infantry was hardly more than farmers with pitchforks and axes. Compared to well-seasoned warriors and shock
troops in the English army, doom rode on the horizon. The Scots didn’t stand a chance. Comyn’s single plan of battle was a full
frontal attack. The whole battle was
over in less than an hour. Hundreds —thousands, if you believe some English
historians—of Scots lay dead on the battlefield, and nearly all of Scottish
nobility was taken prisoner to be sent south for trial.
There
are only a few references to the storming of the castle, and even less about Marjorie’s
fate. The great Scottish author Nigel Tranter
featured the Dunbars heavily in several of his novels, and even made mention of
Marjorie’s defiance in his Scottish
Castles: Tales and Traditions. Still,
he made no mention of her fate. I was honored
to develop a bit of email correspondence with him on the topic, just before his
death. He was just learning the internet,
still puzzled by it, and said it might take time to answer my questions about
Marjorie’s fate. Sadly, he died before
he could reply with his thoughts.
(List of Names in Ragman Roll showing only Cospatrick of Dunbar and March)
It
was always my contention she died either in the siege of the castle or sometime
shortly thereafter. I make reference to
Marjorie’s defiance and the question of her fate in my first novel, A Restless Knight.
“What
shame for Cospatrick. He curries favor
at the English’s side, thinking Edward might consider him as the next king of
the Scots, whilst the Lady Marjorie commands Castle Dunbar. She be a Comyn born and bred, daughter to
Buchan.”
“Aye,
she sided with her brother and father, turning the castle over to the
Scots. Battle took place. Though outnumbered three times over,
Warenne’s troops are battle-hardened horsemen, veterans from campaigns in Wales
and Flanders. They held and repulsed the
Scots. After that, the Scots
crumbled. Edward ordered Cospatrick to
invest Castle Dunbar. The castle
fell...”
“And
the Lady Marjorie?”
He
hoped Tamlyn would not empathize too strongly with Marjorie Comyn, Lady
Dunbar. “No one knows for sure. Some of Dunbar’s people escaped, using
tunnels to the sea. Possibly, she
slipped out with them, and has returned north to the Comyn stronghold in the
Highlands.”
Tamlyn
shivered. “Or she was in the castle when
it was stormed? Many mislike the Earl
Dunbar. His persecution of True Thomas
be nigh well legend. Pride wouldst not
stand the disgrace of his countess handing his castle over to her kin.”
In Part two of The Ladies of
Dunbar, I will tell you of another countess of Dunbar—daughter-in-law of
Marjorie, who was just as stubborn and savvy, who once again held the castle
against the English. So until next
month, I will leave you with the Dunbar motto “In Promptu”, which means “In
Readiness”. I do believe Marjorie did
those words honor.
