Bruce, Margaret (1296–1316)
Bruce, Margaret (1296–1316)
Scottish princess. Name variations: Marjory or Marjorie Bruce. Born in 1296 (some sources cite 1297); died in an accident at age 20 on March 2, 1316, in Paisley, Strathclyde, Scotland; interred at Paisley Abbey; daughter of Robert I the Bruce (1274–1329), king of Scotland (r. 1306–1329), and Isabella of Mar (died in 1296, shortly after giving birth to Margaret); married Walter Stewart or Stuart (d. 1326), 6th High Steward of Scotland, in 1315; children: Robert II (1316–1390), king of Scotland (r. 1371–1390).
In 1306, Margaret Bruce was captured by the English, along with her aunt, Mary Bruce (fl. 1290–1316), and Isabella of Buchan (fl. 1290–1310). When the king of England, Edward I Longshanks, ordered Isabella and Mary imprisoned in cages at Roxburgh and Berwick, he also demanded a cage be prepared for ten-year-old Margaret to be located in the Tower of London. Because of her age, however, he relented and placed her in a nunnery in Yorkshire. In 1314, Margaret was exchanged for English prisoners after the battle of Bannockburn and returned to Scotland; in 1315, she married Walter Stewart. The following year, a pregnant Margaret was killed when she fell from her horse; her baby, successfully delivered from her dead body, would succeed to the throne in 1371 as the first Stewart monarch of Scotland, Robert II.