II ~ The Bruces in Normandy
The first article in this series discussed the descent of King
Robert I, the Bruce, from his mother's line of the ancient Earls of Carrick. This
is of interest primarily because it was then deemed politically
useful to demonstrate his ancestral links to the Picts of a Scotland
more ancient than that later ruled by the Flemings and Normans,
the immigrants brought in by King David I, the Saint, to strengthen his realm's defences and to consolidate the feudalism
that would eventually recreate Scotland as a nation. (Although
Galloway in the southwest corner of Scotland was strongly Celtic,
Carrick, its northern portion, was populated mostly by descendants
of the Picts. The future king would have been raised to speak
both Gaelic and the French of Normandy.)
The tinted portion of Normandy on this map represents the area originally ceded to the Viking Hrolfr the
Ganger (Rollo) by the King of France in the early 10th century.
Traditionally, the origins of the Bruce family in the male line
have been ascribed to the Norsemen, the Vikings, and a descent
has been drawn from Lödver, a Jarl of Orkney ruling in the Northern
Isles during the 10th century. His son and successor Sigurt, who
was killed at the battle of Clontarf in 1014, is said to have
had four sons from his first wife, one of whom, Brusee, supposedly
had a son, Rognald, whose two sons, Eyliff and Ulf, have been
said to have gone to Normandy, changed their names to Regenvald
and Robert, and married respectively Felicia de Hastings and Emma
of Brittany. On Felicia Regenvald is supposed to have fathered
William de Brus, Lord of Brember in Sussex, ancestor of the Braose
family. This same legend claims that Robert's son, Alan, was lord
of Brix, a fief whose caput was five miles south of Cherbourg in the Cotentin peninsular
and served as the Bruce centre in Normandy.
This is typical of the traditional descent ~
But there are others whose earlier generations are equally nebulous,
and which arrive at William de Brus and Alan de Brix this way
~
It must be stressed that the two contradictory trees produced
above are included here only to illustrate why the early legends
are unreliable. They are not intended to represent historically
accurate facts, even though they include some genuinely historical
figures.
Here, to complete one of the lines quoted from Lödver back into
the dark ages, is an offering from a respectable 19th century
historian (who is not actually guaranteeing the accuracy of his
data but merely repeating what he has read in various books) ~
THEBOTAW, Duke of Lleswig and Stermarce, living 721, married Gundella
(of the family from which the Italian Ursinis descend) and had
EUSLIN GLUMRICE who fled from Danish tyranny into Norway and married
Ascrida, daughter of Ragenwald, the son of King Olaus, and had
a son REGENWALD, counsellor to Harold the Fairhaired, who married
Groe, daughter of Wrymund the King of Teorddin, and had a son
EYNOR, 4th Jarl of Orkney, who had a son TORFINE the skullcleaver,
5th Jarl of Orkney, who married Garliola, daughter of Duncan Earl
of Caithness, and had LÖDVER, 6th Jarl of Orkney who married Africa
(see above).
Well, Torfine the skullcleaver existed. He was Thorfinn I Hausakliffer
who became sole Jarl of Orkney when his two brothers enlisted
as pirates with King Eric Bloodaxe. His father's great-grandfather
was the famous Sigurd I Riki, "the Mighty", who cut off the head
of Maelbrigte, the Mormaer of Moray, tied it to his saddlebow,
and then, while cavorting around the battlefield, allowed Maelbrigte's
jutting tooth to sink into his leg. He died from the subsequent
bloodpoisoning. There is a lesson for all of us here, I suspect,
but have not yet deduced what it might be. However, to return
to the Bruces . . .
Although only the Brember and Cleveland branches are mentioned
above, several Bruces are believed to have arrived in England
either in 1066 or shortly thereafter. Their reward for the support
they gave the Conqueror was substantial, and by the end of the
century they had amassed around 200 manors, about half in the
counties south of the Thames. Most of the remainder were in Yorkshire,
and it is here, in the blood of Adam, Lord of Cleveland and Baron
of Skelton, that we shall be led to King Robert I, the Bruce.
In the next two articles in this series we shall look at the alternative to the Viking
descent and at the clues the arms borne by the Bruces provide.
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