Volume 5

78
(8.) This noble baron was succeeded by his son Robert, who having ac-
companied Edward I. to Palestine in 1269, was ever after greatly regarded
by that gallant monarch. In 1283, he was appointed by Edward the keeper
of the castle of Carlisle, and in the same year sheriff of Cumberland, which
he continued to be during three years (e). But the great distinction of his life
was his marriage, in 1271, at the age of twenty, with Margaret, the countess
of Carrick, who brought him, in July 1274, his son Robert, the celebrated
assertor of his country's independence. The earl of Carrick acted during
those eventful times a very splendid part, though he was perhaps of inferior
talents to his son, who was great both as a statesman and warrior. After the
death of his wife, the countess of Carrick, in 1292, her husband resigned the
earldom, which he held only in her right, to their heir Robert de Brus, who
was still under age, on the 9th of November, 1292 (/). In August, 1296,
they both swore fealty to Edward I., with a mutual reservation, no doubt, of
their pretensions to the Scottish crown (g). During the ensuing struggles,
they both acted as their interests dictated and as circumstances allowed.
Robert le veil died in 1304, when he was nearly sixty, leaving five sons and
seven daughters; and Robert his eldest son obtained livery of his lands
from Edward I. (A).
(9.) Robert de Brus, the earl of Carrick and baron of Annandale, ascended
the throne of his ancestors on the 27th of March, 1306, when one of the
ablest of them established, after a long and bloody struggle, the independence
of the Scottish nation.
The Braces possessed in Annandale many lands and several castles.
The old castle of Lochmaben continued the chief residence of this respect-
able family during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Robert de Brus, the
is " Esto ferox ut leo." On the caparison of his horse is the Saltier, the arms of the Bruses of
Skelton. The arms of the Bruses of Annandale were, " Argent a Saltier, and chief Gules,"
which became the feudal arms of Annandale; and which the Douglases, when they became lords
of this fine distirict, quartered with their own. Nisbet on Arms, 43, 198. Most of the old
families of Annandale assumed these arms of the Bruses. Sir G. Mackenzie's Science of Heraldry,
5 ; Nisbet's Heraldry, ii. 19.
(e) Hutchison's Cumberland, ii. 595 ; Burn's Cumberland, ii. 567. In 1295 he was again
appointed governor of Carlisle Castle. Dugd. Bar., i. 450.
(f) Rym. F., ii. 614. Robert, the young Earl of Carrick, was then in the 19th year of his age.
The record states that the earldom was the heritage of his mother, Margaret, Countess of Carrick,
whose heir he is. Ib.
(g) They were then distinguished as " Robert de Brus le veil e Robert de Brus le jounene,
Counte de Carryk." Prynne, iii. 653.
(A) Dugd. Bar., i. 450, who quotes the Escheat Rolls of the 32d of Edward I. The Earl of
Carrick was buried in the abbey church of Holm Cultram.