Did It Happen: Edward I and Isabel MacDuff

It's one of the enduring legends of the Scottish Wars of Independence.  Isabel MacDuff, Countess of Buchan, crowns Robert Bruce King of Scots and pays for it by being captured by the English and kept in a cage on a castle wall for over four years. 

Did it happen?  Yes.

Particularly during the 19th century, historians of the time were eager to exonerate Edward I, quibbling over whether the word cage was to be taken literally.  However, this was the same man who devised, or approved, one of the most infamous punishments ever known-hanging, drawing and quartering.  It was first used on rebellious Welsh princes, then on William Wallace, and became the common punishment for traitors until the 18th century.  The Hammer of the Scots didn't care whether the people he was abusing were male or female.  Any Scot who fell into his hands faced a grim fate, particularly if they were connected to Robert Bruce.  Scottish custom demanded that a King of Scots be crowned by a representative of the MacDuff family.  Bruce had been crowned at Scone in March, 1306.  When Isabel MacDuff, wife of John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, arrived at Scone a day late, Bruce agreed to be crowned again by Isabel to make sure that his coronation was seen as legit by all Scots.  Isabel's husband had been a rival of Bruce's for the crown and was now a vassal of Edward.  In agreeing to perform the ritual, Isabel was defying both her husband and Edward Plantagenet and taking her life into her hands.

Robert Bruce would suffer defeat at the Battle of Methven in June, 1306.  He, his army and his family and most loyal supporters had to scramble for their lives.  His wife, Elizabeth and daughter Marjorie, his sisters Mary and Christian, along with Isabel MacDuff took refuge with the Earl of Ross, who betrayed them to Edward.  Edward had a unique revenge ready for two of his captives.  Elizabeth de Burgh Bruce had powerful relatives in England, so he sent her and Christian to a convent, turning his wrath on Mary, Margery and Isabel.  He sent Isabel to Berwick with these specific instructions. "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." Mary was dispatched to Roxburgh Castle under similar conditions and something similar was planned for 12-year-old Marjorie, though Edward relented and had her incarcerated in the Tower instead.

Sources differ as to what form the cage contraption took.  It almost sounds like a gibbet, an iron frame in which criminals were hung, either after death or to die of exposure and remain caged until their bones withered away.  It's also unclear when and how much time Isabel and Mary spent in the cages.  Were they allowed indoors or under some shelter at night, or kept in the open round the clock?  Since both women survived for nearly four years, it's likely they were allowed some kind of shelter, through probably not by much.  After four years time, when Robert Bruce was strong enough to threaten the English borders, Mary and Isabel were moved to a Carmelite convent in 1310, and later transferred again in 1313.  There, history loses site of Isabel MacDuff.  She most likely died in prison.  The Bruce women were allowed to return to Scotland in 1315.  Marjorie became the ancestress of the Stewart kings.