Talk:Christina Bruce

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I'm not sure what this person's name is, sources vary. Christina seems more likely than Christian, I have a sneaking suspicion the latter only became a name with the Puritans. Just to confuse matters, Bruce also had an illegitimate daughter called Christina or Christian. PatGallacher 15:57, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

The ancient earldom of Carrick was a Gaelic lordship and Christian was a Scottish Gaelic name, which could be Anglified as Christina. Scots Gaelic dictionary spells it CAIRISTÌNE which also gives a sense of the name as pronounced. There are many Christians in records from the time. (Sheena Elliot (talk) 11:50, 19 February 2013 (UTC))


 * Christina lived into the mid 14th century. That's hardly ancient. Just because a dictionary gives a Gaelic form of an English name doesn't mean it is actually a native or ancient Gaelic name (Raibeart and Robert for example). Have you read any historian state that her name was native to the region, or that it represented a Gaelic name?.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 14:01, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

1. The original writer of the article had no knowledge of the subject’s names except a three centuries’ later Puritan suspicion which I wished to dispel; as well as to introduce the Scottish Gaelic aspect of history which until recent decades has been ignored, generally, and one that was lacking in the article, yet relevant in Christian’s case with regard to her name.

2. The term ’The Ancient Earls of Carrick’ is used to separate the earlier earls from the later earls. See James Balfour Paul, The Scots Peerage, Edinburgh 1911, V2 for Carrick. Paul uses the term frequently to separate older and newer, for example in V8 the earldom of Strathearn is differentiated by The Ancient Earls of Strathearn and the Stewart Earls of Strathearn. So the usage is common and you’ve confused my usage with Christian’s name.

3. I didn’t say or imply that Christian’s name was native to the region of Carrick. The name was a popular name at this time across Scotland, and was used in the Isles and the North as well as in Carrick. I think we can take it for granted that it WAS a Gaelic name for it’s easily found. I use “Christian” as that’s what appears in most primary records and the name has no connection to anything Christian. Christina MacRuari of Garmoran and the Isles, sister-in-law to Robert I and Christian, is another example of the name, and it may be that the form of the name applied comes down simply to familial and local preferences. (Sheena Elliot (talk) 15:10, 20 February 2013 (UTC))


 * I don't think you can just assume that if someone living in a Gaelic milieu bears a certain name that this name must either be (or represent) a Gaelic name. Just look at the names of Christina's siblings and the names of her parents. Christina lived in an era when Gaelic and non-Gaelic families were increasingly adopting each others names through intermarriage. (see here for a few examples: Ethnicity and the Writing of Medieval Scottish History). Anyway, I think that Neil is the only member of her family that I've ever seen marked out as bearing a name with a real Gaelic association. Considering that her name was popular throughout Scotland, maybe we shouldn't assume that it was Gaelic. Oh well.--Brianann MacAmhlaidh (talk) 12:59, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the link ... I see Matthew Hammond's home page beyond it has a great list of articles and talks. (I can't comment on your link as I took Adobe pdf prog off my old computer, so will need to use laptop somewhere else to read them.)

My interest in Christian stems from the fact that when you look at her life and her invisible place in history that she should have a biographical article as long as her brother's, Robert I. For example, her strategically political second marriage is usually written of in terms of age, and of her being older than him, end of story. Exploration of the marriage three years before her brother's death in 1329, or its effects after his death halts there. Or at least I'm not aware of it being historically examined in the general invisibility of women's history.

I understand naming conventions is a major identifying factor in opening up family histories, but I'd have to see a Gaelic document before I'd be convinced that Marjorie, countess of Carrick was always Marjorie and did not have a Gaelic name, so her name is open for me in terms of such discussion. I've forgotten off the top of my head who her mother was which may be an influence here. It may be that Marjorie's four sisters lost to history had Gaelic names too complicated to write in Anglo-Norman or Latin. Robert VIII de Brus was named in a long line of Roberts-de-Brus and his siblings' names have reached us through the prism of Anglo-Norman 'entitlement' history though Neil/Niall does seem to be a family name rather than Anglo-Norman name.

Cynthia J Neville discusses comparative naming in Native Lordship in Medieval Scotland" The Earldoms of Strathearn and Lennox, c.1140-1365. and it seems that so called 'Anglo-Norman era' Scotland made significant accommodation to the Native Gaelic lordships of Scotland rather than the Native Lordships accommodating the new cultural influences.   (Sheena Elliot (talk) 02:29, 25 February 2013 (UTC))

Conflicting info regarding her marriage to Gartnait, Earl of Mar
The article states that:

"Christina is thought to have married Gartnait, son of Donald, Earl of Mar (died 1305), but recently scholars have debated the truth of the claim, because Christina is never described as a countess of Mar, or even described as 'of Mar.'"

However, in direct contradiction to this statement, the external link to this person's entry on the website The Peerage is given at the end of the article, in which it distinctly states that she did marry him and "was styled as Countess of Mar after 25 July 1297."

Although it's clear to see that the stated doubts about her marriage to Gartnait are taken directly from The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - to which the only other external link leads - the details found there which are used to back up this claim are not included in this wiki article.

I submit that something other than the vague "scholars have debated" be offered to the reader - such as those details listed in the ODNB article - or reference to the doubtable nature of the marriage be removed entirely.

In other words, let's not have the only two external links for this article directly contradict one another without providing the reader with sufficient information to determine their opinion on the matter. Lunarmovements (talk) 23:44, 4 November 2014 (UTC)