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Dervorguilla of Galloway (c. 1210 – 28 January 1290) was a "lady of substance" in 13th century
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, the wife from 1223 of
John de Balliol John Balliol or John de Balliol ( – late 1314), known derisively as Toom Tabard (meaning 'empty coat'), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered an ...
and mother of
John I John I may refer to: People Religious figures * John I (bishop of Jerusalem) * John Chrysostom (349 – c. 407), Patriarch of Constantinople * John I of Antioch (died 441) * Pope John I of Alexandria, Coptic Pope from 496 to 505 * Pope John I, P ...
, a future king of Scotland.


Family

Dervorguilla was one of the three daughters and heiresses of the Gaelic prince
Alan, Lord of Galloway Alan of Galloway (before 1199 – 1234) was a leading thirteenth-century Scottish magnate. As the hereditary Lord of Galloway and Constable of Scotland, he was one of the most influential men in the Kingdom of Scotland and Irish Sea zone. Ala ...
. Her unusual name is a Latinisation of the Gaelic ''Dearbhfhorghaill''. She was born to Alan's second wife Margaret of Huntingdon, who was the eldest daughter of
David, Earl of Huntingdon David of Scotland (1152 – 17 June 1219) was a Scottish prince and Earl of Huntingdon. He was the grandson of David I and the younger brother of two Scottish kings, Malcolm the Maiden and William the Lion. Life Born in 1152, David was the ...
and Matilda (or Maud) of Chester. David in turn was the youngest brother to two
Kings of Scotland The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, Kenneth I MacAlpin () was the founder and first King of the Kingdom of Scotland (although he never held the title historically, being King of the ...
,
Malcolm IV Malcolm IV (; ), nicknamed Virgo, "the Maiden" (between 23 April and 24 May 1141 – 9 December 1165) was King of Scotland from 1153 until his death. He was the eldest son of Henry of Scotland, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, Henry, Earl of Huntingdon ...
and
William the Lion William the Lion (), sometimes styled William I (; ) and also known by the nickname ; e.g. Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1214.6; Annals of Loch Cé, s.a. 1213.10. ( 1142 – 4 December 1214), reigned as King of Alba from 1165 to 1214. His almost 49 ...
. Thus, through her mother, Dervorguilla was descended from the Kings of Scotland, including
David I David I may refer to: * David I, Caucasian Albanian Catholicos c. 399 * David I of Armenia, Catholicos of Armenia (728–741) * David I Kuropalates of Georgia (died 881) * David I Anhoghin, king of Lori (ruled 989–1048) * David I of Scotland ...
. Dervorguilla's father died in 1234 without a legitimate son (he had an illegitimate son
Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...
). According to both Anglo-Norman feudal laws and to ancient
Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...
customs, Dervorguilla was one of his heiresses, her two sisters Helen and Christina being older and therefore senior. Because of this, Dervorguilla bequeathed lands in
Galloway Galloway ( ; ; ) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the counties of Scotland, historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council areas of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Gallow ...
to her descendants, the Balliol and the Comyns.


Life

The Balliol family into which Dervorguilla married was based at
Barnard Castle Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum has an 18th-century Silver Swan automaton exhibit ...
in
County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. Although the date of her birth is uncertain, her apparent age of 13 was by no means unusually early for betrothal and marriage at the time. In 1263, her husband Sir John was required to make penance after a land dispute with
Walter of Kirkham Walter of Kirkham (died 1260) was a medieval English official who held the positions of Keeper of the Wardrobe, Dean of York, and Bishop of Durham. He was elected bishop over Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, the brother of King Henry I ...
,
Bishop of Durham The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham u ...
. Part of this took the very expensive form of founding a college for the poor at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
. Sir John's own finances were less substantial than those of his wife, however, and long after his death it fell to Dervorguilla to confirm the foundation, with the blessing of the same bishop as well as the university hierarchy. She established a permanent endowment for the college in 1282, as well as its first formal statutes. The college still retains the name
Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...
, where the history students' society is called the Dervorguilla Society and an annual seminar series featuring women in academia is called the Dervorguilla Seminar Series. While a requiem mass in Latin was sung at Balliol for the 700th anniversary of her death, it is believed that this was sung as a one-off, rather than having been marked in previous centuries. Dervorguilla founded a
Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...
Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
7 miles south of
Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...
in April 1273. It still stands as a picturesque ruin of red
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
. It is claimed that she was also responsible for the establishment of the first library in
Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
. When Sir John died in 1269, Dervorguilla had his heart embalmed and kept in a casket of ivory bound with silver. The casket travelled with her for the rest of her life. In 1274–5 John de Folkesworth arraigned an
assize of novel disseisin In English law, the assize of novel disseisin ("recent dispossession"; ) was an action to recover lands of which the plaintiff had been disseised, or dispossessed. It was one of the so-called "petty (possessory) assizes" established by Henry II in ...
against Dervorguilla and others touching a tenement in Stibbington, Northamptonshire. In 1275–6 Robert de Ferrers arraigned an
assize of mort d'ancestor In English law, the assize of mort d'ancestor ("death of ancestor") was an action brought where a plaintiff claimed the defendant had entered upon a freehold belonging to the plaintiff following the death of one of his relatives. The questions subm ...
against her touching a
messuage In law, conveyancing is the transfer of legal title of real property from one person to another, or the granting of an encumbrance such as a mortgage or a lien. A typical conveyancing transaction has two major phases: the exchange of contracts ...
in Repton, Derbyshire. In 1280 Sir John de Balliol's executors, including Dervorguilla, sued Alan Fitz Count regarding a debt of £100 claimed by the executors from Alan. In 1280 she was granted letters of attorney to Thomas de Hunsingore and another in England, she staying in Galloway. The same year Dervorguilla, Margaret de Ferrers, Countess of Derby, Ellen, widow of Alan la Zouche, and Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, and Elizabeth his wife sued Roger de Clifford and Isabel his wife and Roger de Leybourne and Idoine his wife regarding the manors of Wyntone, King’s Meaburn, Appleby, and Brough-under-Stainmore, and a moiety of the manor of
Kirkby Stephen Kirkby Stephen () is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, England. It lies on the A685 and is surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, about from the nearest larger towns, Kendal and Penrith. The River Eden rises away in the pea ...
, all in Westmorland. The same year Dervorguilla sued John de Veer for a debt of £24. In 1280–1 Laurence Duket arraigned an assize of novel disseisin again Dervorguilla and others touching a hedge destroyed in Cotingham, Middlesex. In 1288 she reached agreement with John, Abbot of Ramsey, regarding a fishery in Ellington. In her last years, the main line of the Royal House of Scotland was threatened by a lack of male heirs, and Dervorguilla, who died eight months before the young heiress
Margaret, the Maid of Norway Margaret (, ; March or April 1283 – September 1290), known as the Maid of Norway, was the queen-designate of Scotland from 1286 until her death. As she was never crowned, her status as monarch is uncertain and has been debated by historia ...
, might, if she had outlived her, have been one of the claimants to her throne. Dervorguilla was buried beside her husband at New Abbey, which was christened "
Sweetheart Abbey The Abbey of Dulce Cor, better known as Sweetheart Abbey ( Gaelic: ''An Abaid Ur''), was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1273 in what is now the village of New Abbey, in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway ...
", the name which it retains to this day. The depredations suffered by the abbey in subsequent periods have caused both graves to be lost. A replica is to be found in the covered south transept.


Successors

Dervorguilla and John de Balliol had issue: *Sir Hugh de Balliol, who died without issue before 10 April 1271.SCOTTISH ROYAL LINEAGE - THE HOUSE OF ATHOLL Part 2 of 6
Burkes Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher, considered an authority on the order of precedence of noble families and information on the lesser nobility of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1826, when the Anglo-Irish geneal ...
. Retrieved on 2007-11-01
*Alan de Balliol, who died without issue. *Sir Alexander de Balliol, who died without issue before 13 November 1278. *King
John of Scotland John Balliol or John de Balliol ( – late 1314), known derisively as Toom Tabard (meaning 'empty coat'), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered an ...
, successful competitor for the
Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...
in 1292. *Cecily de Balliol, who married John de Burgh, Knt., of Walkern, Hertfordshire. *Ada de Balliol, who married in 1266, William de Lindsay, of Lamberton. *William de Balliol, "Le Scott," who issued John LeScott. Some sources say it is probable he was a distant cousin of this Balliol line, not a son of John and Dervonguilla. *Margaret (died unmarried) *Eleanor de Balliol, who married John II Comyn, Lord of Badenoch. *Maud, who married Sir
Bryan FitzAlan, Lord FitzAlan Bryan FitzAlan, Baron FitzAlan Knt. (died 1 June 1306) was Lord of the manor of Bedale in Richmondshire, Askham Bryan in the Ainsty, Bainton, Heworth &c., in Yorkshire, Bicker and Graby in Lincolnshire, a Justice of the Peace, J.P. &c. He was ap ...
, of
Bedale Bedale ( ), is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Bedale Beck is a tributary of the River Swale, which forms one of the Yorkshire Dales. The dale has a predominant agriculture sector and its related small traditional t ...
, Knt., (d. 1 June 1306), who succeeded the
Earl of Surrey Earl of Surrey is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created five times. It was first created for William de Warenne, a close companion of William the Conqueror. It is currently held as a subsidiary title by the Dukes of Norfo ...
as Guardian and Keeper of Scotland for
Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 ...
. Owing to the deaths of her elder three sons, all of whom were childless, Dervorguilla's fourth and youngest surviving son
John of Scotland John Balliol or John de Balliol ( – late 1314), known derisively as Toom Tabard (meaning 'empty coat'), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered an ...
asserted a claim to the crown in 1290 when Queen Margaret died. He won in arbitration against the rival
Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale Robert V de Brus (Robert de Brus), 5th Lord of Annandale (ca. 1215 – 31 March or 3 May 1295), was a feudal lord, justice and constable of Scotland and England, a regent of Scotland, and a competitor for the Scottish throne in 1290/92 in the ...
in 1292, and subsequently was King of Scotland for four years (1292–96).


Aunt and niece

She should not be confused with her father's sister, Dervorguilla of Galloway, heiress of Whissendine, who married Nicholas II de Stuteville. Her daughter Joan de Stuteville married 1stly Sir Hugh Wake, Lord of Bourne and 2ndly
Hugh Bigod (Justiciar) Hugh Bigod (c. 1211 – 1266) was Justiciar of England from 1258 to 1260. He was a younger son of Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk. In 1258 the Provisions of Oxford established a baronial government of which Hugh's elder brother Roger Bigod, 4t ...
. Her other daughter Margaret married William de Mastac but died young.Brown, William, ed.
Yorkshire Inquisitions of the Reigns of Henry III and Edward I
', Vol I, Pp 167 (Footnote a). The Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Association, 1892


See also

* ''John Balliol'' (play)


Notes


Sources

* This article originated with the 'Sweetheart Abbey' guidebook, by J S Richardson HRSA, LLD, FSA Scot., published by the Ministry of Works in 1951. * Anderson, Rev. John, editor, ''Callendar of the Laing Charters A.D. 854 - 1837'', Edinburgh, 1899, page 13, number 46, contains the Foundation Charter for Sweetheart Abbey by Devorguilla, daughter of the late
Alan of Galloway Alan of Galloway (before 1199 – 1234) was a leading thirteenth-century Scottish magnate. As the hereditary Lord of Galloway and Constable of Scotland, he was one of the most influential men in the Kingdom of Scotland and Irish Sea zone. Ala ...
, dated 10 April and confirmed by King David II on 15 May 1359, which gives relationships for this family. * Oram, Richard D., ''Devorgilla, The Balliols and Buittle'' in 'Transactions of the Dumfrieshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society', 1999, LXXIII. pp. 165–181. * Huyshe, Wentworth, ''Dervorguilla, Lady of Galloway'', 1913, has been condemned as "romantic twaddle and error" by the historians of
Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...
.


External links

* Information about th
founders of Balliol College
Oxford

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dervorguilla Of Galloway 1210s births 1290 deaths Nobility from Dumfries and Galloway History of Galloway House of Balliol Medieval Gaels from Scotland Balliol College, Oxford 13th-century Scottish nobility 13th-century Scottish women Burials at Sweetheart Abbey Mothers of Scottish monarchs