pointed out that, not all that long before, the Beaumonts had produced a
queen of Scots in the person of Isabella’s great-aunt, Ermengarde. These
links had been sustained until comparatively recently. King Alexander II
had granted Crail, in Fife, to a member of the Beaumont dynasty, and
Isabella herself would soon reclaim it.^70 Moreover, it is worth noting that
Isabella’s uncle, John, was the estranged husband of the dowager queen
of Scots and that he had been intermittently involved in English affairs,
too, since the 1250s. It is telling that this led to the latter’s role as
governor of Champagne (on behalf of the king of England’s brother,
Edmund‘Crouchback’) at almost exactly the same time as Isabella’s
wedding.^71 To sum up: it is possible to argue that Edward’s aim, in
promoting the marriage, was to bring John de Vescy even closer‘into
the family’, so to speak–and, indeed, to strengthen John’s Anglo-
Scottish credentials in the process.
Isabella’s striking qualities only really became apparent during her long
widowhood, however, which lasted for more than forty years. After two
decades in Edward’s service, John de Vescy died in 1289, leaving no
children of his own.^72 Unlike her sister Margaret, though, Isabella did
not simply go trailing home at this juncture.^73 Instead, she fought tooth-
and-nail for her share of her late husband’s inheritance, seeing off a
challenge from no less afigure than her brother-in-law, William, who
soon rose to become justiciar of Ireland and lord of Kildare.^74 It is
tempting to suggest that by the time of William’s death in 1297, Edward
was actively conniving with Isabella to ensure that much of the de Vescy
inheritance was effectively partaged between the crown and her family,
the Beaumonts. Perhaps the most revealing indicator of royal favour,
though, is what happened to a stronghold that was not even a part of that
inheritance: that is, the highly important‘frontier’castle of Bamburgh,
after the death of its castellan in September 1304. King Edward quickly
decided to entrust the fortress to his kinswoman, Isabella. This made a
great deal of sense, since her own main base, at Alnwick, was less than
twenty miles away. That said, it was a resounding gesture of confidence
in her, bearing in mind both her gender and the fact that she was a
(^70) SeeCDS, ii, no. 1670; and Stringer,‘Nobility and Identity in Medieval Britain and
Ireland’, 229.
(^71) Above,83.
(^72) Prestwich,‘Isabella de Vescy and the Custody of Bamburgh Castle’, 148. John de Vescy
had had a notable career as an envoy, above all during the‘War of the Sicilian Vespers’
(see Prestwich,Edward I, 153, 321–5). This closely involved his wife’s family, as we shall
see. Her uncle John, the former count of Montfort and butler of France, also played a
73 diplomatic role in the conflict (see Strayer,The Reign of Philip the Fair, 244–5).
As is noted in Mitchell,Portraits of Medieval Women, 103.^74 Ibid., 95 n. 13.
The Beaumonts 117