In search of Robert Bruce, part III: medieval royal burial at Dunfermline and the tomb investigations of 1818–19

Abstract

This article challenges two orthodoxies concerning Dunfermline's medieval church and abbey. It argues that David I and Malcolm IV were buried not with Robert Bruce, his queen, and Alexander III, but with Queen Margaret (died 1093), her husband, three of David's brothers, and Alexander III's first wife, as the earliest royal burial cluster. This argument dovetails with a reappraisal of the evolution of the medieval abbey. It is concluded that when dedicated in 1150, David's abbey was largely coextensive with his mother's church, only achieving cruciform status by 1180 and Queen Margaret's first translation. Reassigning David I and Malcom IV to another burial cluster strengthens the case for identifying the incumbent of the tomb discovered and excavated at Dunfermline in 1818–19 as Robert Bruce, as also argued for in the two other articles in this series.