Bruce

Clan Bruce name comes from Brix, Normandy (“willow lands”). Robert de Brus, a friend of King David I, received Annandale in 1124. His descendant, Robert the Bruce, killed John Comyn, crowned himself king, and defeated the English at Bannockburn (1314), securing Scotland’s independence. Without him, the kingdom might have been crushed. Bruce’s daughter Marjory married into the Stewarts, who later inherited the crown. A cadet branch became Earls of Elgin. The seventh Earl removed the Parthenon marbles (now the controversial “Elgin Marbles”) from Athens; they remain in the British Museum. Many Bruces settled in Ulster; from that line came Stanley Bruce, Australia’s eighth Prime Minister.

Length 9cm