Wheeler/Ethridge/Zeller/Dunkin Family Tree » Isabella MacDuff (± 1320-1389)

Personal data Isabella MacDuff 

• She was born about 1320 in Fife, Scotland.
• She died on August 12, 1389 in Argyll, Scotland.

  Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland

• A child of Duncan V MacDuff and Mary of Monthermer

Household of Isabella MacDuff

She had a relationship with Thomas II Bisset.

Child(ren):

1. Christina Bisset  > 1360-± 1455 

Notes about Isabella MacDuff

sabella MacDuff, Countess of Fife (c. 1320–1389) was a Scottish noblewoman who was Countess of Fife from 1363 until she resigned the title in 1371. She was the only child of Duncan, Earl of Fife, by his wife Mary de Monthermer, daughter of Ralph, Lord Monthermer and Joan of Acre.

Scotland in the fourteenth century had no shortages of heiresses. The great earldoms of the country, frequently in some cases, passed through and into the hands of dowagers and heiresses at various points in the late Middle Ages. Across Europe events such as plague or ongoing warfare had an adverse effect on the male population, and so, noblewomen and their position in society, law, and politics became an increasingly urgent question. Isabella of Fife's position as a woman with significant land, wealth and potential influence was not a unique one.[1]

In 1332 she and her mother had been captured at Perth by supporters of Edward Balliol. She was sent as a ward to Northumberland.

Her first husband was Sir William Felton of Northumberland (died c. 1358) in Fife, whom she married around 1358. He died soon afterwards, leaving her with three children. She was next married, before June 1361, to Walter Stewart, second son of Robert Stewart, later King Robert II. He died without issue the following year, and she was married again in January 1363 to Sir Thomas Bisset of Upsetlington in Berwickshire. He had died by April 1366. She was married for a fourth and final time to John Dunbar, who died before 1371. She had three children by her first marriage.

Isabel was persuaded to resign the earldom on 30 March 1371 to Robert Stewart, Earl of Menteith (later Duke of Albany), who was her brother-in-law by her second marriage. She died shortly after 12 August 1389 and was buried next to Walter Stewart.
Ancestry
Ancestors of Isabella, Countess of Fife
References

Boardman, Stephen; Goodare, Julian (2014). Kings, Lords and Men in Scotland and Britain, 1300-1625: Essays in honour of Jenny Wormold. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 41.

Sources

Grant, Rev'd Alexander, "The Ancient Earls of Fife", in Sir James Balfour Paul (ed.) The Scots Peerage, Volume IV, (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 13-14
Gray, Thomas, Scalacronica (pub. 1911)
Boardman, Steve, The Early Stewart Kings, Robert II and Robert III (1996), ch. 1, esp. p. 13 ff.

Preceded by
Duncan
Countess of Fife
1363–1371 Succeeded by
Robert Stewart

vte

Mormaers or Earls of Fife
Categories:

1320 births1389 deathsClan MacDuffEarls or mormaers of FifeHouse of Stuart

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Isabella MacDuff?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Isabella MacDuff

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children