Marjory, Bruce's daughter, had first been destined to a 'cage' in the Tower of London, but was placed by Sir Henry de Percy in the Priory of Watton in Yorkshire. She returned to Scotland with the Queen.
Mary Bruce, sister of the King, and wife of Sir Nigel Campbell, was kept first in Roxburgh Castle, in a 'cage,' and then at Newcastle till June 25, 1312, when she was probably exchanged.
Christian Bruce, another sister of the King, and widow of Sir Christopher de Seton, was relegated to the Priory of Sixhill, in Lincolnshire, whence she was released on July 18, 1314, and returned with the Queen.
The Countess of Buchan was put in a 'cage' in Berwick Castle. The Earl, it is said, wanted to kill her, but Edward delivered judgment thus: 'As she did not strike with the sword, she shall not perish by the sword; but, because of the unlawful coronation she performed, let her be closely confined in a stone-and-iron chamber, fashioned in the form of a crown, and suspended at Berwick in the open air outside the castle, so that she may be presented, alive and dead, a spectacle to passers-by and an everlasting reproach.' In fact, she was placed in a room—or rather an erection of three storeys or rooms—of stout lattice-work in a turret of the castle. She was to be kept so strictly that 'she shall speak to no one, and that neither man nor woman of the nation of Scotland, nor other, shall approach her,' except her keeper and her immediate attendants. The 'cage' was simply an arrangement for 'straiter custody,' though but rarely judged necessary in the case of ladies. About a year later, the ex-Constable of Bristol Castle was reimbursed certain expenditure, part of which was for 'making a wooden cage bound with iron in the said house for the straiter custody of Owen, son of David ap Griffith, a prisoner, shut therein at night.'
A harder fate awaited the foremost knightly defenders of Kildrummy. Sir Nigel Bruce and several others were drawn, hanged, and beheaded at Berwick. The handsome person and gallant bearing of the youthful knight excited general sympathy and regret.
The Earl of Athol had escaped from Kildrummy and taken to sea, but was driven back by contrary winds and took refuge in a church, where he was captured—'the news whereof eased the King's pain.' In the end of October he was taken to London, and tried and condemned. When friends interceded for him, and urged his royal blood, 'The higher the rank,' said Edward, 'the worse the fall; hang him higher than the rest.' In virtue of his royal blood he was not drawn, but he was hanged fifty feet high (twenty feet higher than others), taken down half-dead, beheaded and burnt, and his head was set on London Bridge, again higher than the rest.
Sir Christopher de Seton had been taken at Lochore (Hemingburgh, Trevet)—if not at Kildrummy (Gray)—betrayed, says Barbour, by MacNab, 'a man of his own household,' 'a disciple of Judas.' 'In hell condemnèd mot he be!' prays the good Archdeacon. He was taken to Dumfries, in consideration of the part he played at the death of Comyn, and there (not, as Barbour says, at London) he was drawn, hanged, and beheaded. He was only twenty-eight years of age.
Sir Simon Fraser had been captured about August 24, by Sir David de Brechin, near Stirling, and conducted to London on September 6. He was tried and condemned, drawn, hanged, and beheaded; his body, having been rehung on the gallows for twenty days, was burnt; and his head was carried, with the music of horns, to London Bridge, and placed near the head of Wallace. Fraser, since turning patriot, had extorted the admiration of foes and friends alike. 'In him,' says Langtoft, 'through his falseness, perished much worth.' 'The imprisoned Scots nobles,' says another English chronicler, 'declared he could be neither beaten nor taken, and thought the Scots could not be conquered while he was alive. So much did they believe in him that Sir Herbert de Morham, handsomest and tallest of Scotsmen, a prisoner in the Tower, offered his head to the King to be cut off the day Simon was captured.' Sir Herbert's squire, Thomas du Bois, joined in his master's confident wager. Both of them were beheaded on September 7, the day after Sir Simon's arrival at the Tower.
But Edward dared not imbrue his hands in the blood of great churchmen. The Bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow and the Abbot of Scone were conducted to Newcastle-on-Tyne in the warlike guise in which they are said to have been taken. From Newcastle (August 10) they were led by stages, still traceable, to their separate places of confinement—the castles of Winchester, Porchester, and Mere. On the way they were not allowed to communicate with each other, or with anyone else, 'excepting their keepers only'; and, on arrival at their several destinations, they were loaded with irons. Edward was keenly anxious to get hold of the Bishop of Moray also, whom he believed—no doubt wrongly—to have been a party to the murder of Comyn, but who certainly adhered to Bruce. The Bishop, however, had fled to Orkney, and for a twelvemonth left Edward to negotiate with the King of Norway for his surrender.
The Bishop of St Andrews had sagaciously surrendered to Valence four or five days before Methven. He had already (June 9) warmly repudiated the charge of complicity in the death of Comyn. On August 9, he was severely examined at Newcastle. Why had he concealed his bond with Bruce when he was admitted of the Council at Sheen? He had 'entirely forgotten' it—which is not quite improbable, for, on the face of it at all events, and possibly in fact, it related to the immediate contingencies of eighteen months back. Why did he hasten to Bruce's coronation? He went to see him 'on account of grievous threats against his person and substance, and for no other reason'—but he was not so stiff as the Earl of Strathearn. Neither these nor his further answers are satisfactory. Already he was declaring himself 'heartily sorry.' On June 1, 1308, on an order dated May 23, he was released from Winchester Castle, where he had lain from August 24, 1306, but he was taken bound to remain within the county of Northampton. At Northampton, on August 11, he swore fealty to Edward in abject terms, and made oath to remain within the bounds of the bishopric of Durham. He was creeping northwards. The Pope sent a strong remonstrance in his favour, but Edward II. had anticipated it by the Bishop's release. On February 16, 1309–10, the Bishop figures at the head of a commission of seven, invested, on the urgency of the Pope, with full powers to treat with Bruce for a cessation of hostilities. On July 24, 1311, he was back in Scotland, and Edward writes to the Pope excusing his absence from a General Council holden at Vienna, on the ground that 'he is much needed to give right direction to the minds of Scotsmen, and in these days no one's exhortations are more readily acquiesced in.' Indeed, 'we have laid upon him various arduous tasks touching the state of the country, and especially its tranquillity.' Besides, 'his absence would be a danger to souls.' In a second letter of excuse, on December 4, Edward testifies emphatically to his continued fidelity. About two years later, November 30, 1313, the Bishop was still so much in favour that Edward dispatched him on an embassy to the King of France. On September 25, 1314, he 'is going abroad on business of his own, by our leave'; which implies his final release as a consequence of Bannockburn.