Robert the Bruce was born on July 11, 1274, most likely at Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was Robert de Brus (d. 1304), sixth Lord of Annandale. His mother was Marjorie countess of Carrick. The Bruce’s lineage was aristocratic nobility of Scotland’s highest order. His mother had been married first to Adam of Kilconquhar; he died on crusade in 1271 in Acre while accompanying the future King Edward I of England (1239-1307, r. 1272-1307). She met Robert de Brus, an erstwhile comrade of her late husband, and the two were married around 1272.
Robert the Bruce became earl of Carrick after his mother’s death in 1292 and made a claim to the Scottish throne though his mother’s side, but it was rejected and the crown given to John de Baliol (ca. 1249-1314), who was, though his mother’s side, the great-great-great-grandson of King David I (1085-1153). Baliol’s service to the English king created much discord among the Scottish nobility, however. In 1295-96 the Scottish lords staged a coup and initiated an alliance with France and its king, Philippe IV. On July 10, 1296, Baliol abdicated the Scottish throne. The Scottish wars did not please Edward I, yet it appears as if the Bruce and his father were at first loyal to their English monarch.
This fealty to Edward I changed, and suddenly. Edward had invaded Scotland and turned it into an occupied country garrisoned by English troops— essentially an English colony—and the Bruce decided to fight this English aggression. William Wallace’s insurrection began in May 1297, and for the next several years the Bruce participated in the rebellion. In 1298, the Bruce burned down the castle of Ayr so that the English would not seize it as a base for military operations. By 1298, the Bruce was made a guardian of Scotland, a post that he gave up in 1300. John Comyn of Badenoch was also made a guardian; he and the Bruce had a tumultuous rivalry. By 1302, the Bruce’s stance toward the English softened, and he was once again loyal to Edward I. At times, under the command of Edward, he hunted the Scottish rebels William Wallace and Simon Fraser.
In 1304, the Bruce made a secret agreement with Bishop William Lamber-ton of Saint Andrews to help one another in times of peril and to show no loyalty to Edward I. Stirling Castle surrendered to Edward and his army on July 20, 1304, and the Scottish lords, including the Bruce, were obliged to make their peace with the English king. Soon thereafter, however, the Bruce began a serious campaign to gain the throne of Scotland. On February 10,
1306, the Bruce and many of his allies met John Comyn, his main rival, in the Franciscan church in Dumfries in southern Scotland. A fight broke out, and in the end Comyn and his uncle were dead. Word was sent to England that the Bruce would soon become the next Scottish king, and he was crowned on March 25, 1306, at Scone. Celebrations were short-lived. Edward regarded the Bruce’s coronation as treachery; he again invaded Scotland, and the Bruce was defeated on June 19, 1306, at Methven, after which he, with a small band of followers, became a fugitive. The Bruce’s second wife and queen, Elizabeth, his daughter Marjorie, his sisters Christina and Mary, and Isabella MacDuff countess of Buchan were eventually captured by the English and sent into harsh imprisonment, which included Mary and Isabella being hung in a cage on the walls of Roxburgh and Berwick castles respectively for about four years, while the Bruce’s brother Niall (or Nigel) was executed.
Nevertheless, the Bruce’s popularity among his people only grew. Moreover, his guerrilla army began to defeat the English. The battle of Loudoun Hill around May 10, 1307, was a small but significant Scottish victory. The greatest boon to the Bruce’s increasing military success against the English before the battle of Bannockburn was certainly the death of Edward I on July 7,
1307. Still, the Bruce had to deal with internal divisiveness, as a number of mostly northern Scots were aligned against him. The Bruce’s first parliament was held at Saint Andrews in March 1309. French envoys were sent, and their king, Philippe IV, recognized Robert the Bruce as King of Scots. Over the next few years, the Bruce’s forces consolidated their power and regained strongholds that had been captured and manned by English garrisons, except for Stirling Castle.
The event that has forever marked Robert the Bruce’s life is his army’s victory against the English under King Edward II at the battle of Bannockburn, the main action of which occurred on Monday, June 24, 1314, the Feast of Saint John the Baptist. The Scottish army had between 8,000 and 9,000 men, while the English force numbered some 16,000. The Scots fought mainly on foot in schiltrons (closely knit formations, armed primarily with long pikes, that could operate both defensively and offensively)—“They had axes at their sides and lances in their hands. They advanced like a thick-set hedge and such a phalanx could not easily be broken,” as one contemporary English chronicler described the Scots. The English lines were broken, and they suffered heavy casualties. Edward II escaped to Dunbar and then took a ship to England. The victory did not gain for Scotland English recognition of its independence; however, it did establish the Bruce as the rightful (and popular) king of Scotland. For the English, the loss at Bannockburn was “a stain on their character, a defeat they took very much to heart.”1
Robert the Bruce decided next to turn his attention to Ireland. His sole surviving brother, Edward, was declared to be the High King of Ireland in May 1315. In January 1317, the Bruce took a large force to the island and proceeded, with his brother, south to Dublin. Their aim was to rid Ireland of the English; in doing so, the Scots would of course take their place. But poor weather and widespread disease forced the Scots to retreat. The Bruce’s brother remained in Ireland until his death on October 14, 1318, near Dundalk.
King Edward II of England was deposed in 1327. His successor, Edward III (1312-1377), was only a teenager, and so in the early years of his rule his mother, Queen Isabella, and her lover, Roger Mortimer, ran the government. The young king was almost captured in battle against the Scots, near Stanhope Park in 1327. As a result, the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton was drafted on March 17, 1328, and ratified by the English parliament at Northampton on May 4. Scotland was now recognized by England as a free and independent realm with its own monarch.
On June 7, 1329, at his home in Cardross, near Dumbarton, King Robert the Bruce died. He had been ill for a number of years, and it would seem the primary cause of his death was leprosy. Modern-day physicians who have examined casts of his skull support this conclusion. Because the Bruce had never taken part in a Crusade as he had wished, after embalming, his heart was removed and placed in a silver casket; thus Sir James Douglas carried it to fight against the Moors in Granada. Meanwhile the Bruce was buried in Dunfermline Abbey. After Douglas died in battle at Tebas de Ardales on March 25, 1330, the casket containing the Bruce’s heart was found next to Douglas’s body; Sir William Keith of Galston and Sir Symon Locard returned both Douglas and the casket to Scotland, where the heart was buried at Melrose Abbey.2
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