Ayrshire > Volume 1

ROBERT THE BRUCE 107
overran Scotland ; emerging from his seclusion, he
captured Dunoon Castle, surprised the garrison of
Dumbarton, and regained the West of Scotland ; was
appointed Regent when only nineteen years of age ;
was the chief instrument in expelling the English from
the whole of Scotland ; procured the return of David
II. from France ; was again Regent during David's
captivity in England ; and was imprisoned for several
years by that ungrateful monarch, a base reward for
the conspicuous service that he had done him. In 1371,
on David's death without issue, he ascended the throne
at the age of fifty-five.
The first wife of Robert II. was Elizabeth Mure of
Rowallan. Her birthplace is still pointed out, the
remains of what in its day was doubtless an abode of
strength, as well as a seat of happiness, standing, close
by the present Rowallan Castle, a little off the highway
between Kilmaurs and Fenwick. The two were cousins,
but many times removed, and for long years it was a
moot point in controversy whether their relationship
did not invalidate the marriage, but early last century
there was discovered, in the archives of the Vatican, a
dispensation from Pope Clement VI. granting the
pontifical sanction thought to be necessary to the
wedding. Elizabeth Mure was a woman of great personal
beauty. She was an Ayrshire lass of the purest type,
and, wedded to an Ayrshire lord, the children of the
union were unmistakably the bairns of the county.
Unfortunately, the Lady Elizabeth died before her
husband came to the throne. David II. was childless,
and so it may have been that she looked forward to royal
estate, if not for her liege lord and herself, at least for
their children. But unless this fair daughter of Rowallan
was gifted with supernatural foresight beyond the others,
it is not to be imagined that she was able to look down
the vista that was to be unrolled in such pain and
turmoil, in such stress and struggle, in romance mingling
with folly and with the baser passions, and descry even
darkly the vicissitudes that were to be attendant upon