Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 19 on 20/3/2005.

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Clan at the cutting edge of history (Murray)

James Irvine Robertson looks at the history of the clan Murray

King David I (1084-1155) was sent to the English court when he was 11 (his sister, Princess Matilda of Scotland, had married the English King Henry I in 1100). When David inherited the throne of Scotland from his brother in 1124, he returned north with a remarkable group of men whose fathers and grandfathers had come over from France, Flanders or Normandy when William the Conqueror seized the English throne in 1066.

David gave land to these adherents and in the ensuing centuries, many of them went on to play pivotal roles in Scottish history. Walter Fitz Alan was one. His descendants became Stewards of Scotland and provided 14 monarchs for their country. Another was Freskin, son of William, a Fleming who controlled the Welsh borders.

Freskin married into the ancient Pictish royal family of Moray in northern Scotland, and his grandson William de Moravia became Lord of Bothwell in Lanarkshire. From this line came the Regent of Scotland during the minority of Alexander III.

William de Moravia’s son, Sir Andrew of Moray, was a great hero of the early Wars of Independence and fought with William Wallace. One commentator states that there is “no doubt he was, tactically, socially and politically, the greater of the two.”

Unfortunately, William was struck by an arrow while leading the Scots army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in September 1297. Both he and William Wallace were knighted and made ‘leaders of the army of the realm of Scotland’ at the Scottish Council held at Pert.....

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By James Irvine Robertson

Section : Scottish Clans

Page number : 48