Page "Robert the Bruce" Paragraph 16

However, though recently pledged to support King Edward, it is interesting to note that Robert the Bruce sent a letter to the monks at Melrose Abbey in March 1302 which effectively weakened his usefulness to the English king.

Apologising for having called the monks ' tenants to service in his army when there had been no national call-up, Bruce pledged that, henceforth, he would " never again " require the monks to serve unless it was to " the common army of the whole realm ", for national defence.

Bruce also married his second wife that year, Elizabeth de Burgh, the daughter of Richard de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster.

By Elizabeth he had four children: David II, John ( died in childhood ), Matilda ( who married Thomas Isaac and died at Aberdeen 20 July 1353 ), and Margaret ( who married William de Moravia, 5th Earl of Sutherland in 1345 ).