Sir Andrew Murray

Sir Andrew Murray (1298–1338), also known as Sir Andrew Moray, or Sir Andrew de Moray, was a Scottish military and political leader who supported King David II of Scotland against Edward Balliol and King Edward III of England during the Second War of Scottish Independence. He held the lordships of Avoch and Petty in north Scotland, and Bothwell in west-central Scotland. In 1326 he married Christina Bruce, a sister of King Robert I of Scotland. Murray was twice chosen as Guardian of Scotland, first in 1332, and again from 1335 on his return to Scotland after his release from captivity in England. He held the guardianship until his death in 1338. Childhood Andrew Murray was born in 1298, around Pentecost. He was the son of Andrew Moray, joint-commander with William Wallace of the Scottish army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on 11 September 1297. Murray's father was mortally wounded in that battle, dying sometime in the late 1297 before his son's birth. The identity of Murray's mother is not known. During his campaign of 1303 while Edward I was residing in Lochindorb Castle in the Moray uplands, he dispatched men to seize the five-year-old Andrew Murray as a hostage. The child would spend the next eleven years in English captivity, only returning home to Scotland in the autumn of 1314 in the prisoner exchanges after the Battle of Bannockburn. Family In July 1326 at a ceremony at Cambuskenneth Abbey, Andrew Murray married Christian Bruce, also known as Christina, sister of King Robert I, widow of Sir Christopher Seton. Some argue that Insofar as his wife may have been beyond child-bearing years at around 46 years of age, therefore it has been conjectured that his two known sons were from a previous marriage or relationship. Although her exact age or date of birth is not known, she was certainly well into her 40s at the time of the marriage.