The spirited daughter of King Edward’s friend, the Anglo-Saxon Earl of Ulster, the Lady Elizabeth recoiled from the savageries perpetrated on the Scots and, against all her own interests, threw in her lot with The Bruce whom she eventually married.
Immediately following his coronation, Bruce suffered his first major defeat at the Battle of Methven. For their own safety he sent Elizabeth, his sister and daughter northwards to the care of another sister, the Queen of Norway, but they were betrayed at Tain by the Earl of Ross and handed over to the English.
Because her father Richard, Earl of Ulster, was a faithful supporter of King Edward, she was not kept in a cage as were Bruce’s Sister and 11 year-old daughter Marjorie. Instead she was sent to the royal manor at Burstwick in Holderness. As the English Crown became alarmed at the determined path of the Hero Scots King, Elizabeth was transferred further south several times, ending her time in captivity at Rochester Castle in 1314. Elizabeth was held in captivity for eight years in grievous conditions, and was only reunited with Bruce after Bannockburn when she was ransomed in exchange for captured high-born English nobles.
