Dr. Iain MacInnes
Appearances
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Is that a betrayal of sorts? It's certainly a betrayal of Edward I, yes. And Edward takes it very personally. Edward then summons an army to go to Scotland. Bruce challenges it when it's based at Perth. But he doesn't go about things well and the English essentially turn it into an ambush and defeat him. And one of his brothers is captured and is summarily executed.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
His wife, his daughter, his sisters are captured and are imprisoned. Two of the Bruce women, including one of his sisters, is put in a cage which is suspended from the walls of a Scottish castle. Oh no. He takes Bruce's rebellion, Bruce's betrayal, very personally. I guess we've skipped a really important point here.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
After the murder, Bruce acts very quickly. So he sends out messages trying to control the narrative, obviously trying to put across the case that he wasn't the instigator, that he was betrayed. And so it was justified. He also goes to the Bishop of Glasgow to seek absolution from the bishop for the murder. And Bishop Wishart gives him that absolution. He actually...
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
forgives him, although the Pope, when he hears about this, does not, and excommunicates Robert altogether. So in the aftermath of that, though, he goes to scone, he is inaugurated, and he leaves that as King Robert of Scotland.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Do you want to sort of walk us through his escape plan? He flees into the West, possibly to the Western Highlands and Islands and or to Ireland. We don't know for definite.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
That's not true. It's a nice story. But no, it's probably one of these things that enters into the kind of myth around Robert. He's ready to come back. So what does that mean, Ian? What is the comeback, the Hollywood comeback? He plans to come back to Scotland. He sends two of his brothers, Thomas and Alexander, as an advance party to Scotland. But they are captured by his enemies and executed.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
So he only has one brother left. But despite that, he still sails for Scotland, makes landfall and is able to raise rebellion in the southwest of Scotland. And he wins a couple of victories relatively early on at Glentroul and at Loudon Hill. We've got a new enemy to introduce the story, Mary Elaine.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
He dies just shy of the border. And he orders his son to continue his campaign into Scotland. But Edward II only spends about two weeks in Scotland and then swans off home to start planning for his coronation. From around 1310 onwards, Robert starts raiding into northern England to put pressure on Edward II.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
But as time goes on and the Scots repeat this over a longer period of time, they actually start to extract protection money and blackmail out of these communities. That's a lovely sheep you've got there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
In fairness to the English, though, they do do it at dusk, so it's relatively dark, and the English aren't expecting... No one's expecting the army to all be dressed as cows. Well, no, it's not really as cows. They just throw a cloak over themselves and just kind of, like, shimmy forward, but...
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
It is the first real large-scale Scottish battlefield victory over an English army, and it'll probably be the last one for a while as well. It's also a victory against an English king in the field, which doesn't happen very often. It is a massive victory. You can perhaps say that it's overstated in terms of what it achieves. in the long term, because the war continues, Edward II doesn't give up.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
But what the battle does do is give the Scots, give Bruce a lot of English prisoners, and he's able to use them to exchange for various Scottish captives, including his wife, including his daughter, his sisters, and he's finally able to welcome them back to Scotland.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And with the return of his wife, of course, he is able to then look to the future and start trying to produce sons, which, of course, he has yet to do.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
I think the expansion of the war doesn't go down well. The papacy, let's face it, is all about trying to ferment peace in Europe. And so Robert gets excommunicated again, yes, for extending the war into Ireland. OK, but then in 1320, we have the Declaration of Arbroath, which is a big deal.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Yeah, so by 1320, not only has Bruce himself been excommunicated, but yes, Scotland as a whole is put under a papal interdict. So no religious ceremonies can take place, services can take place at all, no baptisms, no burials. That's what that censure ensures. It's a big deal. It is. And what the papacy allows is for Scots to break their oath to Robert I and so to reject him.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And the idea there would be perhaps that he would be overthrown and replaced. But none of this effectively works in large part because the Scottish clergy on the whole is supportive of Bruce and supportive of keeping Scotland independent and keeping the Scottish church independent from the English church.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Three letters are constructed to be sent to the papacy, only one of which survives today, and that is the famous Declaration of Arbroath. And it emphasises that the Scots are the victims. It emphasises that the English are the ones who started the war and that they invaded peace-loving Scotland. And it emphasises very clearly that the Scots support Bruce as the sole and legitimate king.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Yes, with Isabella. So Edward III is not yet of age to rule in his own right, and so Isabella is essentially regent for her son. So yes, a series of agreements are made that are known collectively as the Treaties of Edinburgh and Northampton, and this arranges for a final peace between Scotland and England in 1328. Scotland and England would form a mutual alliance, This is it. This is peace.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
When did he die, Ian? So he dies eventually on the 7th of June, 1329, aged 54. We don't really know what killed him. His Italian doctor apparently complained of him eating too many eels. But I don't think that's what killed him.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Robert is an impressive figure. His is a Hollywood story, rising from the depths of defeat in 1306 to make himself king, moulding a country from the war-torn state in which it has sunk into an organised and functioning medieval kingdom again. No one would argue that. However, the popular imagination has...
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
grown around the belief that everything ended with the peace of 1328 and with Robert's death in 1329. And this isn't the case, unfortunately. While the king does all he can, he nonetheless ends up leaving Scotland to his five-year-old heir, David. A long minority is likely to follow, and minorities are in secure periods at the best of times, and these are not the best of times.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
There are those, as the Sewells conspiracy showed, who continue to not support Robert. They're biding their time and waiting to see what happens next. In England, there's Edward III, who hates the peace treaties agreed in his name and is itching to exert his power over his mother and his kingdom.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And there are individuals and families who are forced into exile and to abandon their claims to lands in Scotland because they refuse to support Robert. And they are also out there waiting for their chance. And these disinherited lords have a figurehead in Edward Balliol, son of King John of Scotland and an alternative claimant to the throne.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And so all of this is looming over the horizon as we look forward from Robert's death in 1329. And ultimately, his death is not the end of things. Balliol and the disinherited invade Scotland in 1332 and recommence the Bruce Balliol Civil War that Robert I had arguably started himself when he murdered John Common in Dumfries.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
This extends a year later as the English join the conflict and so the Wars of Independence recommence once more and continue for a further 25 years before the rights and independence that Robert I thought he'd won are arguably won for good. And even then, Scotland is not what it was in 1329. Parts of the borders are lost for decades.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Berwick-upon-Tweed, some periods in the 15th century apart, is lost forever. And while this is not all Robert's fault, he certainly contributed to the context in which these events ultimately occurred, and he set the scene for the years of conflict that followed.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
So, yeah, so if we start in the 13th century, the Bruce's hold lands in Scotland and in England. But Robert V, he also has a distant claim to the throne of Scotland, as his mother was the great-granddaughter of King David I. And according to the Bruce's, Robert V was promised the throne... around 1238 by the then childless King Alexander II.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And so in part because of this, Robert V is known as Robert the Competitor. However, even if he was promised it, and it seems unlikely, Alexander II does produce a son who reigns successfully until he falls off his horse and dies in 1286. And unfortunately, Alexander III is pre-deceased by all of his children and is succeeded then by a young three-year-old granddaughter, Margaret.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
She dies in Orkney on her way to Scotland. With Margaret's death, there is no clear successor to the Scottish throne. And in that context, the 70-year-old Robert V resurrects his claim to the Scottish throne. Does he get the throne, Ian? Because it sounds like no one else is around. Because of the fact that there is no obvious successor, everyone and their auntie throws their hat into the ring.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And so to avoid Scotland slipping into civil war, the Scottish guardians who are controlling Scotland in lieu of having a king look outside for help and they look to Edward I of England. Edward does think about pursuing his own claim to the Scottish throne, but instead he says, well, OK, I'll make the decision for you.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
But all the candidates have to acknowledge me as the superior king over Scotland. And so what follows is what's called the Great Cause, which is a legal process. And in that process, Robert V is unsuccessful. Oh, no. Yes, indeed. Instead, the throne goes to his rival, John Balliol.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Ian, what's the family history? So he's certainly part of the Scottish elite. His father is an Earl, the Earl of Carrick. The Bruce family are originally from Normandy and came to England in the 12th century. And so, yes, Robert would be raised to be a Lord, to be a future Earl. There is the possibility, too, that Robert spent time within the household of King Edward I of England.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
While Robert V passes his claim to the Scottish throne onto his son, Robert VI, Robert VI passes his claim onto his elder, onto his son, Robert VII. So Robert VI retains the claim to be king of Scots, but can live off his estates in England and not have to give homage to the new king, who is his enemy, John Balefield. Robert VII does. He has to go and give homage.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And he will ultimately retain that claim to the Scottish throne.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
It's probably just a corruption of the de Bruce name that they brought from France. It is an anachronism. It is just Robert Bruce, ultimately.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
In part for a little bit. So, yes. King John is on the throne. He has an heir to succeed him. Things look reasonably straightforward for Scotland. But the bargain that Edward I struck during the Great Cause when he extracted that oath from the competitors, he calls that in. And so Scotland faces a range of demands that Scottish kings never faced before.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
So there's demands for taxation, demands to appear at English parliaments, orders for military service in France, which the Scots don't want to do. So John is rather undermined at every turn by Edward I. But the Scots ultimately make a deal with the King of France, who Edward I has been at war with recently. So Edward I doesn't take this well. He starts to gather an army to invade Scotland.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
The Scots get their revenge in force by raiding Northern England. But Edward I then takes the opportunity to use that as an excuse to invade a Saxe barrack. He wins a battle at Dunbar and he then proceeds to take the submissions of all Scots who come to him, including King John himself, who is stripped of his crown and led off into captivity.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And Edward I also takes away every sign of Scottish royalty, including documents, including the Scottish crown and the Stone of Scone on which Scottish kings are inaugurated. The Bruces are not part of the Scottish Army, which loses at Dunbar. Robert VII may actually have been part of Edward I's forces.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And when Robert VI asks Edward I for the crown, Edward is meant to have said, have we nothing better to do than win kingdoms for you?
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Yes, although no blue paint and no Australian accents. But yes, Robert VII does join in a series of rebellions which break out across Scotland in 1297. So in the north, you have Andrew Murray rising in rebellion, purging influence from the Highlands. In the south, you've got William Wallace undertaking similar activity.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Bruce does come out in rebellion himself, but may have submitted relatively quickly.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
He submits to Edward I about 1301, 1302, yes. He does surrender and basically looks to try and protect himself.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
I suppose the point is that they don't necessarily feel Scottish or English or any of those things at this point because they have a kind of cross-border mentality.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
No, no, it's not that bad. So yes, Robert has had a wife, Isabella of Mar. Where did she go? She dies in childbirth. She dies giving birth to his daughter, Marjorie. So, yeah, that's one of the other things he has to think about, that he is a widow. He doesn't have a son. He, again, has to think about his future.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
So when he's making these decisions about which side to support, he has to think about that, too, because who's going to inherit his lands if he dies? Not his daughter, apparently. Well, possibly, but perhaps not preferably.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
Yeah, so Elizabeth de Bourgh is the daughter of the powerful Earl of Ulster, who is also one of Edward I's chief supporters in Ireland. And yes, she's 13 at the time of the marriage, Robert is 28.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
No, not yet, because Edward doesn't want there to be another Scottish king. Robert, having surrendered a couple of years before, thinks he should have been rewarded by Edward by now, and so he perhaps starts thinking again, well, actually, maybe I should be king. There are two possibilities, ultimately. It's either going to be Robert Bruce or it's going to be John Comyn of Badner,
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
And it's kind of between the two of them potentially as to who might be the Scottish king in the future.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
So, yes, John Covent ends up dead. Bruce kills him. Or else he wounds him and his attendants then come and finish him off. In a church. Unsurprisingly, the English make a lot of this and say that, yes, it's premeditated Bruce slew Colman. Scottish propaganda would suggest otherwise in the idea that it's an argument that there are accusations of betrayal.
You're Dead to Me
Robert Bruce (Radio Edit)
In fact, that Colman had actually betrayed Robert's planning to Edward I, and so he kills him in a fit of anger.