Isabella MacDuff was the only child of Donnchadh III, Earl of Fife, by his wife Mary de Monthermer, daughter of Ralph, Lord Monthermer and Joan of Acre. In 1332 she and her mother had been captured at Perth by supporters of Edward Balliol. Isabel was the sister of Duncan III, the ninth earl of Fife.
According to tradition, one of the three special privileges claimed by the earls of Fife was that of placing the king on the throne above the Stone of Destiny. Although the Stone had been removed from Scotland by Edward I in 1296, Robert Bruce and his supporters were concerned to make his coronation conform as closely as possible to tradition in order to give his reign as much legitimacy as possible. As the representative of her birth family, it was Isabel who crowned Robert Bruce Robert I of Scotland at his second coronation on 27 March 1306.
Robert Bruce's claim to the throne of Scotland was precipitated on 10 February 1306 when he murdered John "Red" Comyn, his chief political rival and the cousin of Isabel's husband. Based on Bruce's haste to assume power in the wake of the killing, many historians believe that a rebellion was already in the final stages of planning by February 1306. Isabel might have been aware of such a plot. In any event, Walter of Guisborough says that she slipped away from her home (it is unclear whether she was in England or Scotland at the time), stealing several of her husband's warhorses, and raced to Scone, the traditional coronation place of the Scottish kings. Once there, she asserted her right as the representative of the senior Scottish earldom of Fife (her father was dead and her brother was being held in England) to assist in the coronation. Bruce's first coronation, held on 25 March 1306 at the traditional site at Scone, was attended by at least three Scottish bishops and four earls. However, as G.W.S. Barrow properly notes, without the traditional ceremony - in which the participation of the house of Fife was a crucial element - the coronation might have been challenged by the more conservative Celtic elements.
Isabel's arrival and claim to her family's rights were considered important enough by Bruce and his advisors to conduct a second ceremony on Palm Sunday, two days after the first coronation. By participating in the coronation, Isabel helped to add a much-needed aura of legitimacy to Bruce's coronation that bolstered his position in intangible, but important ways. Despite the murder and sacrilege that preceded his ascension, he was enthroned as the king of Scotland according to ancient Celtic tradition. It should be noted that not all historians accept the story of a second coronation as valid.
Bruce's rebellion ran into trouble almost immediately with a rout of his army on 18 June 1306 at Methven. In the aftermath of this defeat, Isabel and several of Bruce's female relatives went into hiding. They took refuge at Kildrummy Castle, were besieged there by Edward's forces, and managed to escape to the sanctuary of St. Duthac's Chapel at Tain, but were finally captured by Edward I's loyalists. They were removed from the sanctuary by the earl of Ross and sent to Edward in the summer of 1306.
Isabel, along with Bruce's sister Mary, was marked out by Edward for special punishment. They were both ordered confined in specially constructed cages "strongly latticed with wood, crossbarred, and secured with iron."The cages were also to be equipped with privy chambers. Walter of Guisborough adds the colorful detail that because of her role in the coronation, Isabel's cage was to be built in the shape of a crown. During her confinement, her needs were to be attended by Englishwomen who were not sympathetic to her, and she was not allowed to have contact with anyone of Scottish extraction. When the weather permitted, her cage was to be displayed outside so that all passing could see the occupant and note her punishment. Isabel was considered such an important prisoner that when Edward I died on June 1307, Edward II elected to continue her confinement, rejecting pleas for clemency on her behalf. She was confined at Berwick Castle for three years, until she was moved to a Carmelite nunnery in June 1310, probably due to ill health, and then to the custody of Englishman Henry de Beaumont. Her further fate is unknown. Although most of the women taken with her were released after the Scottish victory at Bannockburn in 1314, Isabel probably died in English custody.
Isabel of Buchan was not a soldier but was willing to take actions of great political and military significance despite the risk to herself. After all, the previous rebellion led by William Wallace had led to his horrible execution by the English in August 1305. Isabel's courage, as well as her subsequent harsh punishment, made her an inspiration and martyr in Scottish history.
Isabel was a staunch nationalist. Even though she was only about twenty years old, Isabel defied her husband in his support of the English and acted in a way that was certain to escalate the ongoing conflict between England and Scotland.
Quotes from others about the person
"Let her be closely confined in an abode of stone and iron made in the shape of a cross, and let her be hung up out of doors in the open air at Berwick, that both in life and after her death, she may be a spectacle and eternal reproach to travelers." - King Edward
Isabella MacDuff was the wife of John Comyn, count of Buchan.
