Robert I of Scotland

Robert I
King of Scots
Reign	1306–1329
Coronation	25 March 1306
Predecessor	John Balliol
Successor	David II
Spouse	Isabella of Mar Elizabeth de Burgh
more... Issue
Marjorie Bruce David II of Scotland
House	House of Bruce
Father	Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale
Mother	Marjorie, Countess of Carrick
Born	11 July 1274(1274-07-11) Turnberry Castle, Ayrshire[1][2]
Died	7 June 1329 (aged 54) Manor of Cardross
Burial	Dunfermline Abbey (Body) – Melrose Abbey (Heart)

Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), often known as Robert the Bruce (Medieval Gaelic: Roibert a Briuis; modern Scottish Gaelic: Raibeart Bruis; Norman French: Robert de Brus or Robert de Bruys), was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329.

His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage (originating in Brix, Manche, Normandy), and his maternal of Franco-Gaelic.^[3] He became one of Scotland's greatest kings, as well as one of the most famous warriors of his generation, eventually leading Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence against the Kingdom of England. He claimed the Scottish throne as a four-greats-grandson of David I of Scotland, and saw the recognition of Scotland as an independent nation during his reign. Bruce is remembered in Scotland today as a national hero.

His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while his heart is buried in Melrose Abbey. His embalmed heart was to be taken on crusade by his lieutenant and friend Sir James Douglas to the Holy Land, but only reached Moorish Granada, where it acted as a talisman for the Scottish contingent at the Battle of Teba.

Contents 1 Background and early life 2 Beginning of the Wars of Independence 3 The killing of Comyn in Dumfries 4 Coronation at Scone – King Robert I 5 From Scone to Bannockburn 6 Ireland 7 Diplomacy 8 Death 9 Family and descendants 10 Ancestry 11 Monuments and commemoration 11.1 Statues 11.2 Banknotes 11.3 Aircraft 12 Legends 13 The Bruce in fiction 14 Notes 15 References 16 External links 17 House of Bruce

[edit] Background and early life

Robert was the first son of Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale and Marjorie, Countess of Carrick.^[4] His mother was by all accounts a formidable woman who, legend would have it, kept Robert Bruce's father captive until he agreed to marry her. From his mother, he inherited the Gaelic Earldom of Carrick, and through his father a Royal lineage that would give him a claim to the Scottish throne. Although his date of birth is known,^[5] his place of birth is less certain, but it was probably Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire.^[1][6][5][7]

Very little is known of his youth. He was probably brought up in a mixture of the Anglo-French culture of northern England and south-eastern Scotland, and the Gaelic culture of Carrick and the Irish Sea, French being his father-tongue and Gaelic his mother-tongue.^[8] He may have been fostered with a local family, as was the custom (Barbour mentions his foster-brother); it is suspected that his brother Edward was fostered with his second-cousin Domhnall O'Neill.^[9] Robert's first appearance in history is on a witness list of a charter issued by Alasdair MacDomhnaill, Lord of Islay. His name appears in the company of the Bishop of Argyll, the vicar of Arran, a Kintyre clerk, his father and a host of Gaelic notaries from Carrick.^[10]

In 1292 his mother died, elevating the 18 year old Robert to the Earldom of Carrick; this had the side effect of stripping his father of his jure uxoris claim to the title and lands. In November of the same year he saw Edward I, on behalf of the Guardians of Scotland, award the vacant Crown of Scotland to his Grandfathers 1st cousin, once removed: John Balliol.^[11] After a lobbying campaign known as the 'Great Cause'. Almost immediately his grandfather, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale; resigned his Lordship of Annandale to Robert's father, possibly to avoid having to swear fealty to John as a vassal lord.

Later both father and son sided with Edward I against John, whom they considered a usurper and to whom Robert had not sworn fealty.^[12]

In April 1294, the younger Bruce had permission to visit Ireland for a year and a half, and, as a further mark of King Edward's favour, he received a respite for all the debts owed by him to the English Exchequer.

In 1295, Robert married his first wife, Isabella of Mar the daughter of Domhnall I, Earl of Mar and his wife Helen.

Some sources claim that Helen was the daughter of the Welsh ruler Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of North Wales, Llywelyn 'The Great' (1173–1240) and his spouse Joan, Lady of Wales, an illegitimate child of King John of England. However, as both Llywelyn and Joan were dead by 1246, that theory would most likely be incorrect. However, there are suggestions that Helen may have in fact been the daughter of Llywelyn's son Dafydd ap Llywelyn and his Norman wife Isabella de Braose, of the south Wales dynasty of Marcher Lords.

[edit] Beginning of the Wars of Independence

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In August 1296, Bruce and his father swore fealty to Edward I of England at Berwick-upon-Tweed, but in breach of this oath, which had been renewed at Carlisle, the younger Robert supported the Scottish revolt against King Edward in the following year. Urgent letters were sent ordering Bruce to support Edward's commander, John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey (to whom Bruce was related) in the summer of 1297; but instead of complying, Bruce continued to support the revolt against Edward. On 7 July, Bruce and his friends made terms with Edward by a treaty called the Capitulation of Irvine. The Scottish lords were not to serve beyond the sea against their will, and were pardoned for their recent violence in return for swearing allegiance to King Edward. The Bishop of Glasgow, James the Steward, and Sir Alexander Lindsay became sureties for Bruce until he delivered his infant daughter Marjorie as a hostage which he never did, and he was soon actively fighting for the Scots again.

Shortly after the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Bruce again defected to the Scots; he laid waste to Annandale and burned the English-held castle of Ayr. Yet, when King Edward returned to England after his victory at the Battle of Falkirk, Annandale and Carrick were excepted from the Lordships and lands which he assigned to his followers; Bruce was seen as a waverer whose allegiance could be acquired.^{[citation needed]}

William Wallace resigned as Guardian of Scotland after the Battle of Falkirk. He was succeeded by Robert Bruce and John Comyn as joint Guardians, but they could not see past their personal differences. As a nephew and supporter of King John, and as someone with a serious claim to the Scottish throne, Comyn was Bruce's enemy. In 1299, William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, was appointed as a third, neutral Guardian to try to maintain order between Bruce and Comyn. The following year, Bruce finally resigned as joint Guardian and was replaced by Sir Gilbert de Umfraville, the Earl of Angus (in right of his mother, Matilda, Countess of Angus).

In May 1301, Umfraville, Comyn and Lamberton also resigned as joint Guardians and were replaced by Sir John de Soules as sole Guardian. Soules was appointed largely because he was part of neither the Bruce nor the Comyn camps and was a patriot. He was an active Guardian and made renewed efforts to have King John returned to the Scottish throne.

In July, King Edward I launched his sixth campaign into Scotland. Though he captured the castles of Bothwell and Turnberry, he did little to damage the Scots' fighting ability and, in January 1302, agreed to a nine-month truce. It was around this time that Robert the Bruce submitted to Edward, along with other nobles, even though he had been on the side of the patriots until then.

There were rumours that King John would return as to regain the Scottish throne. Soules, who had probably been appointed by John, supported his return, as did most other nobles. But it was no more than a rumor and nothing came of it.

However, though recently pledged to support King Edward, it is interesting to note that Robert the Bruce sent a letter to the monks at Melrose Abbey in March 1302 which effectively weakened his usefulness to the English king. Apologising for having called the monks' tenants to service in his army when there had been no national call-up, Bruce pledged that, henceforth, he would "never again" require the monks to serve unless it was to "the common army of the whole realm", for national defence. Bruce also married his second wife that year, Elizabeth de Burgh, the daughter of Richard de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster. By Elizabeth he had four children: David II, John (died in childhood), Matilda (who married Thomas Isaac and died at Aberdeen 20 July 1353), and Margaret (who married William de Moravia, 5th Earl of Sutherland in 1345).

In 1303, Edward invaded again, reaching Edinburgh, before marching to Perth. Edward stayed in Perth until July, then proceeded via Dundee, Brechin and Montrose, to Aberdeen, where he arrived in August. From there, he marched through Moray to Badenoch, before re-tracing his path back south to Dunfermline. With the country now under submission, all the leading Scots, except for William Wallace, surrendered to Edward in February 1304. John Comyn, who was by now Guardian, submitted to Edward.

The laws and liberties of Scotland were to be as they had been in the days of Alexander III, and any that needed alteration would be with the advice of King Edward and the advice and assent of the Scots nobles.

On 11 June 1304, with both of them having witnessed the heroic efforts of their countrymen during King Edward's siege of Stirling Castle, Bruce and William Lamberton made a pact that bound them, each to the other, in “friendship and alliance against all men.” If one should break the secret pact, he would forfeit to the other the sum of ten thousand pounds. The pact is often interpreted as a sign of their deep patriotism despite both having already surrendered to the English.

With Scotland defenceless, Edward set about destroying her as a realm. Homage was again obtained under force from the nobles and the burghs, and a parliament was held to elect those who would meet later in the year with the English parliament to establish rules for the governance of Scotland. For all the apparent participation by Scots in the government, however, the English held the real power. The Earl of Richmond, Edward's nephew, was to head up the subordinate government of Scotland.

While all this took place, William Wallace was finally captured near Glasgow and was hanged, drawn and quartered in London on 23 August 1305.

In September 1305, Edward ordered Robert Bruce to put his castle at Kildrummy, "in the keeping of such a man as he himself will be willing to answer for," suggesting that King Edward suspected Robert was not entirely trustworthy and may have been plotting behind his back. However, an identical phrase appears in an agreement between Edward and his lieutenant and life-long friend, Aymer de Valence. Even more sign of Edward's distrust occurred when on October 10, 1305, Edward revoked his gift of Gilbert de Umfraville's lands to Bruce that he had made only six months before.^[13]

Robert Bruce as Earl of Carrick and now 7th Lord of Annandale, held huge estates and property in Scotland and a barony and some minor properties in England and had a strong claim to the Scottish throne. He also had a large family to protect. If he claimed the throne, he would throw the country into yet another series of wars, and if he failed, he would be sacrificing everyone and everything he knew.

[edit] The killing of Comyn in Dumfries

Bruce, like all his family, had a complete belief in his right to the throne. However his actions of supporting alternately the English and Scottish armies had led to a great deal of distrust towards Bruce among the “Community of the Realm of Scotland”. His ambition was further thwarted by the person of John Comyn. Comyn had been much more resolute in his opposition to the English; he was the most powerful noble in Scotland and was related to many more powerful nobles both within Scotland and England. He also had a powerful claim to the Scottish throne through his descent from Donald III on his father's side and David I on his mother's side. He was also the nephew of King John.

According to Barbour and Fordoun, in the late summer of 1305 in a secret agreement sworn, signed and sealed, John Comyn agreed to forfeit his claim to the Scottish throne in favour of Robert Bruce upon receipt of the Bruce lands in Scotland should an uprising occur led by Bruce.^[14] However any Comyn claim to the throne would be tenuous in the extreme and the claim is almost certainly a matter of Bruce propaganda.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Whether the details of the agreement with Comyn are correct or not, King Edward moved to arrest Bruce while Bruce was still at the English court. Fortunately for Bruce, his friend, and Edward's son-in-law, Ralph de Monthermer learnt of Edward's intention and warned Bruce by sending him twelve pence and a pair of spurs. Bruce took the hint,^[15] and he and a squire fled the English court during the night. They made their way quickly for Scotland and the fateful meeting with Comyn at Dumfries.

According to Barbour, Comyn betrayed his agreement with Bruce to King Edward I, and when Bruce arranged a meeting for February 10, 1306 with Comyn in the Church of Greyfriars in Dumfries and accused him of treachery, they came to blows.^[16] Bruce killed Comyn in Dumfries^[17] before the high altar of the church of the monastery. The Scotichronicon says that on being told that Comyn had survived the attack and was being treated, two of Bruce's supporters, Roger de Kirkpatrick and John Lindsay, went back into the church and finished Bruce's work but Barbour tells no such story.

Bruce hurried from Dumfries to Glasgow, where, kneeling before Bishop Robert Wishart he made confession of his violence and sacrilege and was granted absolution by the Bishop. The clergy throughout the land was adjured to rally to Bruce by Wishart.^[18] In spite of this, Bruce was excommunicated for this crime.^[19] Realising that the 'die had been cast' and he had no alternative except to become king or a fugitive, Bruce asserted his claim to the Scottish crown.

[edit] Coronation at Scone – King Robert I

Barely seven weeks after Comyn was slain in Dumfries, Bruce was crowned King of Scots by Bishop William de Lamberton at Scone, near Perth on 25 March with all formality and solemnity. The kingly robes and vestments which Robert Wishart had hidden from the English were brought out by the Bishop and set upon King Robert. The bishops of Moray and Glasgow were in attendance as well as the earls of Atholl, Menteith, Lennox, and Mar. The great banner of the kings of Scotland was planted behind his throne.^[20]

Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan and wife of John Comyn, Earl of Buchan (a cousin of the murdered John Comyn), who claimed the right of her family, the MacDuff Earl of Fife, to crown the Scottish king for her brother, Duncan (or Donnchadh) – who was not yet of age, and in English hands – arrived the next day, too late for the coronation, so a second coronation was held and once more the crown was placed on the brow of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, Lord of Annandale, King of the Scots.

[edit] From Scone to Bannockburn

In June 1306, he was defeated at the Battle of Methven and in August, he was surprised in Strathfillan, where he had taken refuge.^{[citation needed]} His wife and daughters and other women of the party were sent to Kildrummy in August 1306 under the protection of Bruce's brother Neil Bruce and the Earl of Atholl and most of his remaining men.^[21] Bruce, with a small following of his most faithful men, including James Douglas, Lord of Douglas, Bruce's brothers Thomas, Alexander and Edward, as well as Sir Neil Campbell and the Earl of Lennox, fled to Rathlin Island off the northern coast of Ireland.^[22]

Edward I marched north again in the spring. On his way, he granted the Scottish estates of Bruce and his adherents to his own followers and published a bill excommunicating Bruce. Bruce's queen, Elizabeth, his daughter Marjorie, his sisters Christina and Mary, and Isabella MacDuff were captured in a sanctuary at Tain, and sent to harsh imprisonment, which included Mary and Isabella being hung in a cage at Roxburgh and Berwick castles respectively for about four years, and Bruce's brother Neil was hanged, drawn and quartered.^{[citation needed]} But, on 7 July, King Edward I died, leaving Bruce opposed by his son, Edward II.

Bruce and his followers returned to the Scottish mainland in February in two groups. One, led by Bruce and his brother Edward landed at Turnberry Castle and began a guerrilla war in south-west Scotland. The other, led by his brothers Thomas and Alexander, landed slightly further south in Loch Ryan; but they were soon captured and like his brother Neil shared the fate of Wallace in being hanged, drawn and quartered.^{[citation needed]}

In April, Bruce won a small victory over the English at the Battle of Glen Trool, before defeating Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke at the Battle of Loudoun Hill. At the same time, James Douglas made his first foray for Bruce into south-western Scotland, attacking and burning his own castle in Douglasdale. Leaving his brother Edward in command in Galloway, Bruce travelled north, capturing Inverlochy and Urquhart Castles, burning Inverness Castle and Nairn to the ground, then unsuccessfully threatening Elgin.

Transferring operations to Aberdeenshire in late 1307, he threatened Banff before falling seriously ill, probably owing to the hardships of the lengthy campaign. Recovering, leaving John Comyn, 3rd Earl of Buchan unsubdued at his rear, Bruce returned west to take Balvenie and Duffus Castles, then Tarradale Castle on the Black Isle. Looping back via the hinterlands of Inverness and a second failed attempt to take Elgin, Bruce finally achieved his landmark defeat of Comyn at the Battle of Inverurie in May 1308, then overran Buchan and defeated the English garrison at Aberdeen.

He then crossed to Argyll and defeated another body of his enemies at the Battle of Pass of Brander and took Dunstaffnage Castle, the last major stronghold of the Comyns.^[23]

In March 1309, he held his first Parliament at St. Andrews, and by August, he controlled all of Scotland north of the River Tay. The following year, the clergy of Scotland recognised Bruce as king at a general council. The support given to him by the church in spite of his excommunication was of great political importance.

The next three years saw the capture and reduction of one English-held castle or outpost after another: Linlithgow in 1310, Dumbarton in 1311, and Perth, by Bruce himself, in January 1312. Bruce also made raids into northern England and, landing at Ramsey in the Isle of Man, then laid siege to Castle Rushen in Castletown capturing it on 21 June 1313 to deny the island's strategic importance to the English. In the spring of 1314, Edward Bruce laid siege to Stirling Castle, whose governor, Philip de Mowbray, agreed to capitulate if not relieved before 24 June 1314. In March 1314, James Douglas captured Roxburgh, and Randolph captured Edinburgh Castle. In May, Bruce again raided England and subdued the Isle of Man.

The eight years of exhausting but deliberate refusal to meet the English on even ground have caused many to consider Bruce as one of the great guerrilla leaders of any age. This represented a transformation for one raised as a feudal knight. Bruce secured Scottish independence from England militarily — if not diplomatically — at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

Freed from English threats, Scotland's armies could now invade northern England. Bruce also drove back a subsequent English expedition north of the border and launched raids into Yorkshire and Lancashire.

[edit] Ireland

Buoyed by his military successes, Bruce's forces also invaded Ireland in 1315, purportedly to free the country from English rule (having received a reply to offers of assistance from Donal O'Neil, king of Tyrone), and to open a second front in the continuing wars with England. The Irish even crowned Edward Bruce as High King of Ireland in 1316. Robert later went there with another army to assist his brother.

To go with the invasion, Bruce popularised an ideological vision of a "Pan-Gaelic Greater Scotia" with his lineage ruling over both Ireland and Scotland. This propaganda campaign was aided by two factors. The first was his marriage alliance from 1302 with the de Burgh family of the Earldom of Ulster in Ireland; second, Bruce himself on his mother's side of Carrick, was descended from Gaelic royalty in Scotland as well as Ireland. Bruce's Irish ancestors included Eva of Leinster (d.1188), whose ancestors included Brian Boru of Munster and the kings of Leinster. Thus, lineally and geopolitically, Bruce attempted to support his anticipated notion of a pan-Gaelic alliance between Scottish-Irish Gaelic populations, under his kingship.

This is revealed by a letter he sent to the Irish chiefs, where he calls the Scots and Irish collectively nostra nacio (our nation), stressing the common language, customs and heritage of the two peoples:

“

Whereas we and you and our people and your people, free since ancient times, share the same national ancestry and are urged to come together more eagerly and joyfully in friendship by a common language and by common custom, we have sent you our beloved kinsman, the bearers of this letter, to negotiate with you in our name about permanently strengthening and maintaining inviolate the special friendship between us and you, so that with God's will our nation (nostra nacio) may be able to recover her ancient liberty.

”

The diplomacy worked to a certain extent, at least in Ulster, where the Scots had some support. The Irish chief, Donal O'Neil, for instance, later justified his support for the Scots to Pope John XXII by saying "the Kings of Lesser Scotia all trace their blood to our Greater Scotia and retain to some degree our language and customs."^[24]

The Bruce campaign to Ireland was characterised by some initial military success. However, the Scots failed to win over the non-Ulster chiefs, or to make any other significant gains in the south of the island, where people couldn't see the difference between English and Scottish occupation. Eventually it was defeated when Edward Bruce was killed at the Battle of Faughart. The Irish Annals of the period described the defeat of the Bruces by the English as one of the greatest things ever done for the Irish nation due to the fact it brought an end to the famine and pillaging brought on the Irish by both the Scots and the English.^[25]

[edit] Diplomacy

Robert Bruce's reign also witnessed some diplomatic achievements. The Declaration of Arbroath of 1320 strengthened his position, particularly vis-à-vis the Papacy. Pope John XXII eventually lifted Bruce's excommunication. In May 1328 King Edward III of England signed the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, which recognised Scotland as an independent kingdom, and Bruce as its king.

[edit] Death

Robert died on 7 June 1329, at the Manor of Cardross, near Dumbarton^[26] He had suffered for some years from what some contemporary accounts describe as an "unclean ailment". The traditional view is that this was leprosy, but this was not mentioned in contemporary accounts, and is now disputed with syphilis, psoriasis, motor neurone disease and a series of strokes all proposed as possible alternatives.^[27]

His body lies buried in Dunfermline Abbey but before he died Robert requested that his heart should be removed and then carried in battle 'Against God's foes' . This was to make up for his failure to go on crusade during his life and atone for his sins, not least the murder of John Comyn in the Greyfriars church, Dumfries. Sir James Douglas was allotted the task. Bruce's preserved heart was placed in a silver casket, which Douglas then carried on a chain around his neck. When a projected international crusade failed to materialise, Douglas sailed to Spain where Alfonso XI of Castile was mounting a campaign against the Moorish kingdom of Granada. Douglas was killed in battle during the siege of Teba in August 1330 while fulfilling his promise. According to John Barbour, the heart in its casket was recovered by Sir William Keith and taken back to Scotland. In accordance with Bruce's written request, it was buried at Melrose Abbey, in Roxburghshire.^[28] In 1920 the heart was discovered by archaeologists and was reburied, but the location was not marked.^[29] In 1996, a casket was unearthed during construction work.^[30] Scientific study by AOC archaeologists in Edinburgh, demonstrated that it did indeed contain a human heart and it was of appropriate age. It was reburied in Melrose Abbey in 1998, pursuant to the dying wishes of the King.^[29]

[edit] Family and descendants

Bruce's legitimate children were, with his first wife Isabella of Mar:

• Marjorie, married Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland, their son became King Robert II.

With his second wife Elizabeth de Burgh:

• Margaret, married Robert Glen, alive as of 29 February 1364;
• Matilda
• David II, who as an infant succeeded his father to the throne.

Bruce also had illegitimate children by unknown mothers:

• Sir Robert, died 12 August 1332 at the Battle of Dupplin Moor;
• Walter, of Odistoun on the Clyde, who predeceased his father;^{[citation needed]}
• Niall, of Carrick, died 17 October 1346 at the Battle of Neville's Cross;^{[citation needed]}

Bruce's family also included his brothers, Edward, Alexander, Thomas, and Neil, his sisters Christina, Isabel (Queen of Norway), Margaret, Matilda, and Mary, and his nephews Donald II, Earl of Mar and Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray.

Bruce's descendants include all later Scottish monarchs (except Edward Balliol who Bruce loyalists would regard as a usurper) and all British monarchs since the Union of the Crowns in 1603. A large number of families definitely are descended from him^[31] but there is controversy about some claims.^[32]

[edit] Ancestry

16. William de Brus

8. Robert de Brus

17. Christina

4. Robert de Brus

18. David of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon

9. Isobel of Huntingdon

19. Maud of Chester

2. Robert de Brus

20. Richard de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford

10. Gilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford and Gloucester

21. Amice Fitz Robert

5. Isabella of Gloucester and Hertford

22. William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke

11. Isabel Marshal

23. Isabel de Clare

1. Robert I of Scotland

24. Donnchadh, Earl of Carrick

12 Cailean (Nicol) mac Donnchaidh

6. Níall of Carrick

26. Niall Ruadh Ó Néill

13. daughter

3. Marjorie of Carrick

28. Alan fitz Walter, 2nd High Steward of Scotland

14. Walter Steward of Dundonald

29. Alesta of Morggán

7. Margaret Stewart

30. Gille Críst, Earl of Angus

15. Bethóc of Angus

31. Marjorie of Huntingdon

[edit] Monuments and commemoration

[edit] Statues

The tomb of Robert I in Dunfermline Abbey was marked by the addition of large carved stone letters spelling out "King Robert the Bruce" around the perimeter of the bell tower. In 1974 the Bruce Memorial Window was installed in the north transept, commemorating the 700th anniversary the year of his birth. It depicts stained glass images of the Bruce flanked by his chief men, Christ, and saints associated with Scotland.^[33]

A 1929 statue of Robert the Bruce is set in the wall of Edinburgh Castle at the entrance, along with one of William Wallace.

A statue of the Bruces stands outside Stirling Castle.

"Robert the Bruce statue in place after 130-year delay" (source http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/8454863.stm)

[edit] Banknotes

From 1981 to 1989, Robert the Bruce was portrayed on £1 notes issued by the Clydesdale Bank, one of the three Scottish banks with right to issue banknotes. He was shown on the obverse crowned in battle dress, surrounded by thistles, and on the reverse in full battle armour in a scene from the Battle of Bannockburn.^[34] When the Clydesdale Bank discontinued £1 banknotes, Robert The Bruce's portrait was moved onto the bank's £20 banknote in 1990 and it has remained there to date.^[35]

[edit] Aircraft

The airline British Caledonian, named a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 (G-BHDI) after Robert the Bruce.^[36]

[edit] Legends

According to a legend, at some point while he was on the run during the winter of 1305–06, Bruce hid himself in a cave on Rathlin Island off the north coast of Ireland, where he observed a spider spinning a web, trying to make a connection from one area of the cave's roof to another. Each time the spider failed, it simply started all over again until it succeeded. Inspired by this, Bruce returned to inflict a series of defeats on the English, thus winning him more supporters and eventual victory. The story serves to explain the maxim: "if at first you don't succeed, try try again." Other versions have Bruce in a small house watching the spider try to make its connection between two roof beams;^[37] or, defeated for the seventh time by the English, watching the spider make its attempt seven times, succeeding on the eighth try.^{[citation needed]}

But this legend appears for the first time in only a much later account, "Tales of a Grandfather" by Sir Walter Scott, and may have originally been told about his companion-in-arms Sir James Douglas (the "Black Douglas"). The entire account may in fact be a version of a literary trope used in royal biographical writing. A similar story is told, for example, in Jewish sources about King David, and in Persian folklore about the Mongolian warlord Tamerlane and an ant.^[38]

[edit] The Bruce in fiction

• The revolt of Robert the Bruce is the topic of Mollie Hunter's 1998 book The King's Swift Rider, written from the point of view of a bold young Scot and future monk who joins the rebellion as a noncombatant.
• In the 1995 film Braveheart, Robert the Bruce is portrayed by Scottish actor Angus Macfadyen. The film incorrectly showed him taking the field at Falkirk as part of the English army; he never betrayed William Wallace (despite having changed sides). Wallace is also alleged to have been a complete supporter of Robert the Bruce, but Wallace was a supporter of the Balliol claim to the throne which Bruce consistently opposed.
• Scottish author Nigel Tranter wrote a trilogy, considered largely accurate, based on the life of King Robert: Robert the Bruce: The Steps to the Empty Throne; Robert the Bruce: The Path of the Hero King; and Robert the Bruce: The Price of the King's Peace. This has also been published in one volume as The Bruce Trilogy.
• Chronicles of the reign of Robert the Bruce (or Robert de Brus) are published in a series titled Rebel King, Hammer of the Scots (2002); Rebel King, The Har'ships (2004); and Rebel King, Bannok Burn (2006). Two more volumes are planned. Historical fiction, but very close to Scottish history, this most comprehensive series on Robert's reign starts in January 1306 and will carry through Robert's death in 1329.
• Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris wrote a fantasy fiction series(The Temple and the Stone and The Temple and the Crown) linking Robert the Bruce with the Knights Templar.
• The German power metal band Grave Digger included a song called "The Bruce" on their 1996 album Tunes of War, a concept album about the Scottish struggles for independence from England.
• The third volume of Jack Whyte's Templar Trilogy, "Order in Chaos", is largely set in Scotland during the rise of The Bruce. It winds up its story just after the battle at Bannockburn. It covers a lot of the challenges and politics of that era.
• In Nellie Bly's Ten Days in a Mad-House she references the Bruce's night of watching the spider and her own attempts in staying awake.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Barrow, G. W. S. (1998), Robert Bruce & the Community of the Realm of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0852245394 .
• Bartlett, Robert (1993), The Making of Europe, Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change: 950–1350, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ISBN 069103298X .
• Bingham, Charlotte (1998), Robert the Bruce, London: Constable, ISBN 0094764409 .
• Brown, Chris (2004), Robert the Bruce. A Life Chronicled, Stroud: Tempus, ISBN 0752425757 .
• Brown, Chris (2008), Bannockburn 1314, Stroud: History, ISBN 9780752446004 .
• Dunbar, Archibald H. (1899), Scottish Kings 1005–1625, Edinburgh: D. Douglas, pp. 126–141 , with copious original source materiéls.
• Loudoun, Darren (2007), Scotlands Brave .
• Macnamee, Colm (2006), The Wars of the Bruces: England and Ireland 1306–1328, Edinburgh: Donald, ISBN 9780859766531 .
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/3754.html .
• Ó Néill, Domhnall (1317), "Remonstrance of the Irish Chiefs to Pope John XXII", CELT archive, http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T310000-001/ .
• Nicholson, R., Scotland in the Later Middle Ages .
• Geoffrey the Baker's: Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke, ed. Edward Maunde Thompson (Oxford, 1889).

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert the Bruce

• Account of Robert Bruce & Battle of Bannockburn
• John Barbour: The Brus
• Robert the Bruce at Findagrave.com
• Robert the Bruce Heritage Centre

[edit] House of Bruce

Robert I of Scotland House of Bruce Born: 11 July 1274 Died: 7 June 1329
Regnal titles
Preceded by Marjorie	Earl of Carrick 1292–1314	Succeeded by Edward
Preceded by Robert VI de Brus	Lord of Annandale 1304–1312	Succeeded by Thomas Randolph
Vacant Title last held by John	King of Scots 1306–1329	Succeeded by David II

v • d • e Pictish and Scottish Monarchs Monarchs of the Picts (traditional) Drest I · Talorc I · Nechtan I · Drest II · Galan Erilich · Drest III · Drest IV · Gartnait I · Cailtram · Talorc II · Drest V · Galam Cennalath · Bridei I · Gartnait II · Nechtan II · Cinioch · Gartnait III · Bridei II · Talorc III · Talorgan I · Gartnait IV · Drest VI · Bridei III · Taran · Bridei IV · Nechtan III · Drest VII · Alpín I · Óengus I · Bridei V · Ciniod I · Alpín II · Talorgan II · Drest VIII · Conall · Constantine (I) · Óengus II · Drest IX · Uuen · Uurad · Bridei VI · Ciniod II · Bridei VII · Drest X Monarchs of the Scots (traditional) Kenneth I MacAlpin · Donald I · Constantine I (II) · Áed · Giric · Eochaid (doubtful) · Donald II · Constantine II (III) · Malcolm I · Indulf · Dub · Cuilén · Amlaíb · Kenneth II · Constantine III (IV) · Kenneth III · Malcolm II · Duncan I · Macbeth · Lulach · Malcolm III Canmore · Donald III · Duncan II · Donald III · Edgar · Alexander I · David I · Malcolm IV · William I the Lion · Alexander II · Alexander III · Margaret (disputed)  · First Interregnum · John · Second Interregnum · Robert I · David II · Robert II · Robert III · James I · James II · James III · James IV · James V · Mary I · James VI* · Charles I* · Charles II* · James VII* · Mary II* · William II* · Anne* * also monarch of England and Ireland.

v • d • e Mormaers or earls of Carrick Native line Gille Brigte ¹  · Donnchadh of Carrick · Niall of Carrick · Marjorie of Carrick (with 1. Adam of Kilconquhar; 2. Robert VI de Brus, Lord of Annandale) Bruce line Robert de Brus · Edward de Brus · Robert de Brus (again) · David de Brus · Alexander de Brus Stewart earls John Stewart  · David Stewart  · James Stewart ¹ Did not hold the rank of earl/mormaer, but ruled the province as a petty-king

Persondata
Name	Robert 01 Of Scotland
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 July 1274
Place of birth	Turnberry Castle, Ayrshire
Date of death	7 June 1329
Place of death	Manor of Cardross