Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

THE FRASERS OF TOUCH-FRASER, ETC., AND COWIE. 69
Having endured this severe imprisonment for four years, Lady Mary de
Bruce at length found a termination to her sufferings. On the 4th July
1310 she was exchanged for nine nobles or gentlemen, either English, or
Scots in the English interest, who were then prisoners of war to King
Eohert. Their names were —
John de la Mouhre.
Michael de Menilevre. Eohert de Lindelles.
Gerard de la Farde. Nicholas de Cest.
Peter de Courteys. John de Boysy.
John de Baillo. William de Coupeland.
And by this arrangement she was again restored to her country and
friends. 1
It is doubtful whether she had been married to her first husband, Sir
Neil Campbell, before her captivity; but by his death, about 1315, she was
left a widow, and in 1316, as above mentioned, her hand was bestowed upon
Sir Alexander Fraser.
In 1318 Sir Alexander was one of the barons who in Parliament,
on the Sunday after St. Andrew's Day, enacted the order of succession
to the Crown, declaring that, in case of the heir succeeding while a
minor, the Earl of Moray, or, failing him, the good Sir James of Douglas,
should be Begent. 2
This settlement had become necessary in consequence of the untimely
fate of Sir Edward de Bruce, the king's brother, who had been recog-
nised as his heir, but who fell on the field of battle at Carrickfergus,
in Ireland, gallantly fighting against enormous odds, which he had en-
countered, according to his usual custom, without regard to disparity of
numbers.
About 1319 the office of " Camerarius," or Lord Chamberlain of Scotland,
which had been held by Sir William de Lindesay, becoming vacant, the
king conferred it upon Sir Alexander Fraser, who, on the 3d August in that
year, was ordered in that capacity to determine the marches between Ard-
logie, belonging to the Abbey of Arbroath, and the King's Park at Fyvie, in
1 Rotuli Scotia?, vol. i. p. 86. vol. i. p. 105. Robertson's Index, Appendix,
2 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, p. 10.