Isabella, Countess of Fife

Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Fife (c. 1320–1389) was a Scottish noblewoman who was Countess of Fife from 1363 until she resigned the title in 1371. She was the only child of Duncan, Earl of Fife, by his wife Mary de Monthermer, daughter of Ralph, Lord Monthermer and Joan of Acre.

Isabella, Countess of Fife
Born	1320
Died	shortly after 12 August 1389 (aged 68–69)
Spouse(s)	Sir William Ramsay of Colluthie Walter Stewart Sir Thomas Bisset of Upsetlington John Dunbar
Father	Duncan, Earl of Fife
Mother	Mary de Monthermer

In 1332 she and her mother had been captured at Perth by supporters of Edward Balliol. She was sent as a ward to Northumberland.

Her first husband was Sir William Ramsay of Colluthie in Fife, whom she married around 1358. He died soon afterwards, leaving a son, but by an earlier marriage. She was next married, before June 1361, to Walter Stewart, second son of Robert Stewart, later King Robert II. He died without issue the following year, and she was married again in January 1363 to Sir Thomas Bisset of Upsetlington in Berwickshire. He had died by April 1366. She was married for a fourth and final time to John Dunbar, who died before 1371. She had no children by any of her marriages.

Isabel was persuaded to resign the earldom on 30 March 1371 to Robert Stewart, Earl of Menteith (later Duke of Albany), who was her brother-in-law by her second marriage. She died shortly after 12 August 1389 and was buried next to Walter Stewart.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Isabella, Countess of Fife

16. Malcolm, Earl of Fife 8. Colban, Earl of Fife 17. Helen of Wales 4. Duncan, Earl of Fife 18. Sir Alan Durward 9. Anna Durward 19. Marjory of Scotland 2. Duncan, Earl of Fife 20. Richard, Earl of Hertford 10. Gilbert, Earl of Hertford 21. Maud de Lacy 5. Johanna de Clare 22. Hugh, Count of Angoulême 11. Alice de Lusignan of Angoulême 23. Yolande, Countess of Penthièvre and Porhoet 1. Isabella, Countess of Fife 6. Ralph, Lord Monthermer 3. Mary de Monthermer 28. Henry III, King of England 14. Edward I, King of England 29. Eleanor of Provence 7. Joan of Acre 30. Ferdinand III, King of Castile 15. Eleanor of Castile 31. Joan, Countess of Ponthieu

Sources

• Grant, Rev'd Alexander, "The Ancient Earls of Fife", in Sir James Balfour Paul (ed.) The Scots Peerage, Volume IV, (Edinburgh, 1907), pp. 13-14
• Gray, Thomas, Scalacronica (pub. 1911)
• Boardman, Steve, The Early Stewart Kings, Robert II and Robert III (1996), ch. 1, esp. p. 13 ff.