Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence/The Revolt of Robert de Brus

by Herbert Maxwell

The Earl of Gloucester.	Sir Roger de Kirkpatrick.

CHAPTER VI.

THE REVOLT OF ROBERT DE BRUS.

A.D. 1304-1306.

IT is now necessary to revert to the summer of 1304, when King Edward was besieging Stirling Castle.

On June 11th, at the very time when the Earl of Carrick was receiving the King's thanks for his services, doing fealty for his heritage, and having his debts remitted, he was in conference at Cambuskenneth Abbey with William de Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews. A secret bond was concluded between them, whereby it was agreed, "in view of future dangers," that they should in all time coming assist each other against all persons whatsoever; that neither should undertake any business without consulting the other, and that each should warn the other of any approaching danger.^[1]

This agreement with de Lamberton had such far-reaching consequences, that this is a convenient moment to tabulate the public acts of Robert de Brus up to the time of Wallace's execution. In the cold light of official records and correspondence, they present an appearance somewhat different from that given to them in what has often passed for history.

1296.	August 28: the Earl of Carrick, 22 years of age, does fealty to Edward I. at Berwick, his father, the Lord of Annandale, being the King's governor of Carlisle.
1297.	Renews his fealty at Carlisle and raids the lands of Douglas. Afterwards joins the insurgent Scots, but capitulates at Irvine, July 9, giving his daughter Marjorie as hostage for his loyalty to Edward. On November 14 he is received to the King's peace.
1298.	July 3: being in the King's service in Galloway, he writes to the English chancellor.
1299.	Is elected one of three Guardians of Scotland in the name of King John. Attacks Edward's garrison in Lochmaben Castle in the same month. November 13: he and the other Guardians, besieging Stirling Castle, write to King Edward, offering to desist from hostilities on the mediation of the King of France.
1302.	February 6: King Edward pardons a murderer on the intercession of the Earl of Carrick, who is, at the same time, appealing for aid to the King of France. April 28: comes with his tenants into the King's peace. October: attends King Edward's Parliament.
1303.	April: receives orders from the King to attend muster at Roxburgh, with forces from Galloway. July 14: receives advance of pay from King Edward. December: has been appointed King Edward's sheriff of Lanark.
1304.	January: is King Edward's constable of Ayr Castle. March 3: receives King Edward's thanks for good service. Attends the King's Parliament at St. Andrews. April: his father being dead, he goes to London to look after his succession and corresponds with the King. On the 13th he receives King Edward's thanks for forwarding engines for the siege of Stirling. June 11: concludes secret treaty with the Bishop of St. Andrews against all men; is served heir to English estates on the 14th, does homage for the same on the 17th, and his debts to the King are respited.
1305.	March 20: is with King Edward at Westminster; petitions the King to give him de Umfraville's lands in Carrick, which is granted. Attends Edward's Parliament in Lent. August: is probably a witness of the trial and execution of Wallace. September 15: is ordered by the King to appoint a keeper of Kildrummie Castle.

It is, in truth, a humiliating record, and it requires all the lustre of de Brus's subsequent achievement to efface the ugly details of it.

Having crushed his great enemy in Scotland, King Edward proceeded in September, 1305, to carry out his scheme for the government of that country, which he had already submitted to Parliament in spring. He had then caused the Bishop of Glasgow, the Earl of Carrick, Sir John de Segrave, his Lieutenant in the Lothians, and Sir John de Sandale, Chamberlain of Scotland, to announce that the Scots should elect a certain number of representatives to the Parliament he was about to hold at Westminster in July. This Parliament, however, had been prorogued till the autumn, when the following ten Scottish commissioners, chosen at a conference at Perth, attended: the Bishops of St. Andrews and Dunkeld, the Abbots of Cupar and Melrose, the Earl of Buchan, Sir John de Moubray, Sir Robert de Keith, Sir Adam de Gordon, Sir John de Inchmartin, and Sir John de Menteith, the last named being appointed, by the King's command, in place of Patrick, Earl of March, who, though elected, did not attend. To these commissioners Parliament added twenty-two Englishmen,^[2] and together they drew up a constitution, of which the chief provisions were to the following effect:

1. Sir John de Bretaine (Brittany), King Edward's nephew, to be the King's Lieutenant and Warden of Scotland; Sir William de Bevercotes, Chancellor; Sir John de Sandale, Chamberlain; and Sir Robert Heron, Controller.

2. Four pairs of Justiciaries to preside respectively over Lothian, over Galloway, over the district between the Forth and the mountains, and over the district beyond the mountains.

3. Sheriffs to be appointed over every county, natives of either Scotland or England, the most sufficient men and profitable for the King and people, and for the maintenance of peace.

4. The Lieutenant, Chancellor, and Chamberlain to appoint coroners in room of those who should be found unfit, unless these held by charter, in which case the King's pleasure to be taken.

5. Provision for the safe custody of the castles of Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stirling, and Dunbarton.

6. The customs of the Scots and Brets^[3] to be prohibited and disused. The Lieutenant, on his coming, to assemble the good people^[4] of Scotland in a convenient place, and there rehearse to them the laws of King David, as subsequently amended; such laws as should be found plainly against God and reason to be amended by the Lieutenant and his council. Such matters as the Lieutenant might feel unable to deal with in so short a time, to be put in writing by certain commissioners elected by the community, with power to confer with the King and finally determine the matter.

7. The Lieutenant to have power, with the advice of the good people of Scotland, to remove en corteise manere such persons as were likely to disturb the peace, and the King might command such to remain south of the Trent.

8. Sir Alexander de Lindsay to remain six months out of Scotland.

9. The Earl of Carrick to place Kildrummie Castle in the keeping of one for whom he shall answer.

10. Sir Simon Fraser to attend the King before December 20th, and to go into exile from England and France for four years—subject to the King's recall at pleasure.

Then followed the form of oath to be taken by the commissioners of both nations, binding them by our Lord's body, the holy relics, and the gospels, to give good advice for maintaining the peace, especially in Scotland: to reveal loyally any hindrance they might know to the good government of Scotland; to suggest amendments in any law and usage dangerous to the peace of that country; neither for hatred, affinity, or other matter, oath, or alliance heretofore made, to withhold counsel to their utmost knowledge and power; to preserve absolute secrecy as to proceedings in council; to declare the names of any persons in Scotland whose residence there might be dangerous to peace; and in all things to advise what was best for the King's honour and the welfare of his lieges.

With this oath fresh on his lips, the Bishop of St. Andrews, one of the Scottish commissioners, accompanied by the Earl of Carrick, who was one of those charged to administer the oath,^[5] went to Scotland to discharge his sworn duty.

The constitution secured by the convention of Westminster must be considered exceedingly liberal according to the doctrines of that time, and as conferred on a conquered country. It must be regarded as an earnest desire of Edward's to govern Scotland as generously as England, with which he so ardently desired to see it incorporated. It is true that the term "community" was restricted to mean owners of land, but that was the extreme sense it ever could bear under a feudal monarchy. Scotland, in spite of the enormous sums it had cost to subdue her, in spite too of the provocation her conqueror had endured by reason of the repeated perjury of her barons, was to receive equal rights with loyal England; and England was to receive no indemnity for her expenditure of money and lives. Edward had vindicated the authority which he believed to be his "by the grace of God," by the frightful massacre at Berwick, by the exile or imprisonment of rebellious barons, and by the execution of Wallace. He was now going to try the effect of clemency, and no doubt he felt that the Scottish question was at length laid to rest. The lands of de Umfraville, de Seton, William de Balliol, and other lords, lately insurgent, were restored to them on their doing fresh fealty and homage.^[6] Orders were issued to the sheriffs of English counties, to the effect that, whereas the King desired that Scottish prelates, nobles, and others should be honourably and courteously treated on their journeys to and fro, any one using threats or contumelious words towards them, or refusing to sell victuals to them, should be forthwith imprisoned.^[7] Everything possible was done to let bygones be bygones, and to unite the kingdoms in sentiment, as well as by law.

But the fair prospect was shattered early in 1306 by terrible news from the north. John Comyn—the Red Comyn, as he was familiarly called—had fallen by the hand of the Earl of Carrick, and Scotland was once more ablaze.

Unfortunately, in endeavouring to trace the causes which led to this event, we are thrown back on conflicting and untrustworthy information. According to Fordun, the Earl of Carrick had returned from Scotland and was at King Edward's Court in December or January, 1306. When John Balliol abdicated, and renounced all claim to the throne of Scotland, John Comyn, the Competitor, a son of ex-King John's sister, became nearest heir of the line which Edward's award had declared to be the royal one of Scotland. Comyn the Competitor was dead, but his rights were continued in the person of his son John, the Red. But the Earl of Carrick, in secret connivance with the Bishop of St. Andrews, had resolved to revive his claim as grandson of another competitor; and thus the dispute between the houses of de Balliol and de Brus, which had been laid to rest by the award of Berwick in 1292, broke out afresh, notwithstanding that in the interval Carrick and John Comyn had been colleagues in the guardianship of the realm in name of King John.

Still following Fordun's version, we are told that Carrick made an alternative offer to Comyn: "Support my title to the crown, and you shall have my estates; or give me your estates, and I will support your claim." Comyn, preferring the certainty of solid landed property to the chance of wresting a throne from the iron grasp of the King of England, accepted the lands of de Brus and bound himself to promote his cause. A mutual oath of secrecy was taken; conditions were drawn out and sealed by both knights. But Comyn, setting no more store by the sanctity of an oath than did others whose names are written large in history, informed King Edward of the whole matter; whereupon the King sent for de Brus and put certain questions to him. Afterwards, Edward, having drunk more wine than was good for him, let out to some of his lords that he meant to put the Earl of Carrick to death. Next, the Earl of Gloucester employed a messenger to deliver to his friend and cousin de Brus, twelve pence and a pair of spurs, which de Brus rightly interpreted into a hint to fly. Other versions of the tale describe how, snow having fallen, de Brus caused his farrier to shoe his horses with the wrong ends of the shoes foremost, a somewhat shallow artifice to delude his pursuers, and started for Scotland, accompanied only by his secretary and a groom. When about to cross the Western Marches, he noticed a foot-passenger of suspicious appearance, whom he stopped and caused to be searched. He was found to be the bearer of letters from John Comyn to King Edward, urging the death or instant imprisonment of the Earl of Carrick. The unlucky messenger was beheaded on the spot; de Brus pressed forward and arrived at his castle of Lochmaben on the seventh day out of London.

It is futile to attempt to sift the true from the false in this story. It is likely enough that Comyn, who must have been aware of de Brus's pretensions, would do his best to bring them to nought, seeing that, if the crown of Scotland were to be disposed of, he himself had the better claim. But there exists one piece of evidence to show that de Brus stood high in Edward's favour up to the very eve of his crime, namely, that on February 8, 1306, the King directed that the scutage, due by de Brus on succeeding to his father's English estates, should be remitted.^[8]

Notice must be taken here of a strangely circumstantial story told by Sir Thomas Gray, differing from all other accounts of what led up to the dark tragedy about to be enacted—a story which seems to have been overlooked or intentionally suppressed by all other biographers of Robert de Brus. Gray, writing in his prison in Edinburgh in 1355, states that the said Robert sent his two brothers, Thomas and Nigel, from Lochmaben to Dalswinton, where John Comyn was living, to invite him to meet Robert at the Grey Friars church in Dumfries. Thomas and Nigel had instructions from their brother to ride with Comyn, and to set upon him by the way and kill him; but they were so hospitably and courteously received by Comyn that they had not the heart to do him any violence. They induced him, however, to ride with them to Dumfries, where they found Robert waiting.

"John Comyn," they explained, "made us so welcome and gave us such handsome gifts, and showed us such an open countenance, that we could by no means do him any injury."

"Indeed!" replied Robert, "then let me meet him."

Then, affirms this writer, Comyn and Bruce met before the altar, and Bruce made the proposal referred to by Fordun, that one of them should surrender his lands to the other, receiving in return his support in seizing the crown of Scotland.

Comyn replied that he would never be false to his fealty to the King of England.

"No?" retorted Robert; "I had other hopes of you, because of the promises made by yourself and your friends. But as you will not fulfil my will in life, you shall have your guerdon!" and with these words he struck the fatal blow.

We have here two accounts, one from a Scottish, the other from an English, point of view. They are not contradictory, although different in the details. Whatever may have been the immediate cause or the order of events, there can be no doubt about the fact that, on February 10th, de Brus came to Dumfries, where the Red Comyn was. The two barons met, either by arrangement or by chance, in the church of the Minorite friars, and engaged in conversation before the high altar. High words passed between them; de Brus drew his dagger, stabbed Comyn, and hurried out of the church. At the door he met his attendants,^[9] Kirkpatrick and de Lindsay, who, noting his agitation, asked how it was with him. "Ill," replied de Brus, "for I doubt I have slain the Comyn." "You doubt!" cried Kirkpatrick, "then I'll mak siccar";^[10] and, rushing into the church, plunged his dagger into the wounded knight's breast. Sir Robert Comyn (not Sir Edmund,

DUMFRIES.

(From a photograph by Valentine Bros., Dundee.)

as Barbour has it), uncle of the Red Comyn, was also slain in trying to defend his nephew.^[11]

Bruce, it is believed, returned to Lochmaben, but not to linger in such a perilous neighbourhood. The Comyns were much more puissant than he in the southwest; so, having sent out letters to summon his friends, he rode straight to Glasgow, where he was received with open arms by Bishop Wishart. This good prelate, notwithstanding that he had on six different occasions solemnly sworn fealty to Edward,^[12] not only pronounced absolution on Bruce for the murder, but caused coronation robes to be prepared for him in the episcopal wardrobe. These robes, together with a banner of the King of Scotland, which he had long kept concealed in his treasury, he sent to the abbey of Scone, in preparation for an event on which he had set his heart.

This event, the coronation of Robert de Brus, took place on March 29, 1306. It was the hereditary privilege of the Macduffs, Earls of Fife, to place the crown on a new King's head; but Duncan, the earl of that day, was in the English interest. Whereupon there befell something strange and least expected, for Macduff's sister, Isabella, Countess of Buchan, appeared to assert the privilege of her house, notwithstanding that, as the wife of a Comyn, she was thereby doing honour to him who had slain her husband's near kinsman.^[13]

The names of others who bore a part in this great crisis in Scottish history, and were present at the coronation, have been recorded. They were: the Bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow; the Abbot of Scone; de Brus's four brothers, Edward, Nigel, Thomas, and Alexander, and his nephew, Thomas Randolph of Strathdon;^[14] his brother-in-law, Christopher de Seton; Malcolm, Earl of Lennox; John, Earl of Athol; James de Douglas; Gilbert de la Haye of Errol, and his brother Hugh; David Barclay of Cairns; Alexander, brother of Sir Simon Fraser; Walter de Somerville of Carnwath; David of Inchmartin; Robert Boyd,^[15] and Robert Fleming.^[16] Some of these knights were to pay dearly for their share in that day's proceedings.

The news of this fresh outbreak and of the double murder at Dumfries fell on King Edward like a bolt from the blue. He was at Itchenstoke, in Hampshire, when the tidings reached him, and, with his usual prompt vigour, he issued immediate orders to prepare for a campaign in the north. Sir Aymer de Valence^[17] was appointed his lieutenant and commander of the forces, with power to receive the "middling" men of Scotland to the King's peace. But none who were present at, or privy to, the slaying of the Comyns, nor any of the rebellious lords, were to be dealt with without first taking the King's pleasure.^[18] De Brus's castle of Lochmaben, as well as all his lands in Annandale, were forfeited and bestowed on King Edward's son-in-law, Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex; his Durham estate of Hert on Sir Robert de Clifford; his lands at Tottenham, in Middlesex, to Walter de Bedewynde, and the rest of de Brus's English possessions to other knights. Thus the King of Scots began his reign a landless adventurer. Even his title was taken from him by the King to whom he had done homage for it; for Henry de Percy was made Earl of Carrick in his stead. The earldom of Menteith was given to John and Edmund de Hastings, and that of Lennox to Sir John de Menteith, the captor of Wallace.

Age and increasing infirmity were telling sorely on King Edward's bodily power, but his fiery spirit burns as fiercely as ever in the numerous writs and letters which he directed in the spring of 1306. On May 24th, he wrote from Westminster to Aymer de Valence, telling him that he is sending Prince Edward to the north with a large army, but that some exploit must be done on the Scots before his arrival. Two days later the King wrote again, urging, above all things, that the Bishops of Glasgow and St. Andrews should be captured, and that on no account were any terms to be offered them. The Bishop of Glasgow was taken at Cupar; and Edward wrote to de Valence from Margate expressing his delight, but charging him to secure Bishop de Lamberton, who, he was informed, was at the bottom of the whole mischief. Letters passed almost daily, sometimes more than one in a day, from the King to his "beau cosin," all of them betraying his burning impatience to be avenged on the rebels. Among others, Sir Michael de Wymes (Wemyss) was pointed out as especially obnoxious, and de Valence was commanded to burn, to destroy, and strip the lands of that knight and raze his house "where we lay," as the King had found neither good speech nor good service in him. The same, or "worse if possible," was to be done to the lands of Sir Gilbert de la Haye, to whom the King had done great courtesy when in London, but now found that he was a traitor.

An important letter was written on June 28th from Stoke Goldington, in which the King, referring to his previous orders to put to death all enemies and rebels already or hereafter taken, commanded de Valence, if he takes the Earl of Carrick, the Earl of Athol, or Sir Simon Fraser, to keep them in safe ward till his own pleasure should be known.

On June 5, 1306, the dread sentence of the greater excommunication was passed on Sir Robert de Brus and three other knights. It was pronounced in St. Paul's Cathedral by the Archdeacons of Middlesex and Colchester—candelis accensis et extinctis—with candles first lighted, and then solemnly extinguished.^[19]

Edward was suffering from severe dysentery, which prevented his intended journey north. Aymer de Valence, however, succeeded in dealing what seemed a final blow to King Robert's cause. Having his headquarters at Perth, de Valence lay waiting attack by the King of Scots. Bruce, with such force as he had been able to collect, was in the woods near Methven. Hither came de Valence in search of him, on Sunday, June 26th, with a force, says Barbour, outnumbering Bruce's by 1500, chiefly composed of Scotsmen, and far better equipped and trained than their opponents. Bruce was taken by surprise, but the roughness of the ground favoured him, and his men stood briskly to arms. A fierce hand-to-hand fight took place, in which the King of Scots was unhorsed by Sir Philip de Moubray, and rescued by de Seton. His men fell into confusion and dispersed through the wood. Hugh de la Haye, Barclay, Fraser, Inchmartin, de Somerville, and Thomas Randolph were taken prisoners; the King himself, narrowly escaping, galloped from the field with his brother Edward, Athol, James Douglas, Gilbert de la Haye, and Nigel Campbell.

As Robert Wischard or Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, disappeared from public life after his capture at Cupar in 1306, this seems a fitting place to mention his subsequent fate, and to estimate his merits and the value of the part he played in active politics. He remained a close prisoner in England till his release after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. He was then quite blind, and survived his captivity only for two years. Though it is impossible to reconcile his frequent changes, his repeated perjuries and breaches of sworn allegiance to King Edward, with ordinary rules of integrity, yet his unvarying devotion to Bruce has secured him in the affectionate remembrance of his countrymen. His severest critic cannot allege that he ever calculated which side was likely to win. When Balliol renounced his allegiance to Edward, Wishart must have foreseen the hopelessness of resisting the power of England; yet he did resist it, in season and out of season, from the pulpit and from the saddle of his charger. When Bruce came to him, a solitary fugitive from justice, the warm-hearted prelate gave him absolution, and hastened to prepare for his coronation. In his eyes, all means were justifiable to secure the independence of his country. He even used the timber which King Edward gave for a new belfry to Glasgow Cathedral to make engines of war against the castles held by the English.

His deep love for the Bruce was fully returned, and King Robert gave passing expression to it in a charter of lands granted to the bishopric during Wishart's captivity, dated April 26, 1309.

"We feel in the depth of our heart the imprisonment and chains, the persecution and duress, which the venerable father, Lord Robert, by the grace of God Bishop of Glasgow, has hitherto endured and still patiently endures, for the rights of the Church and our kingdom of Scotland."

1. Palgrave, 323.
2. Bain, ii., 457.
3. Including the ordeal by battle in criminal cases, and the law of tanistry in cases of succession to landed property.
4. The term probi homines then bore a different meaning to that which it came to have in later times. It meant the vassals, i.e., men holding land of a subject-superior. The more modern equivalent phrase was "lairds."
5. Bain, ii., 457.
6. Bain, ii., 460.
7. Ibid.
8. Bain, ii., 471.
9. According to Hailes, Gospatrick de Kirkpatrick; but local tradition makes it Kirkpatrick of Closeburn. This is confirmed by heraldic authority, for the crest of this family is a hand holding a dagger, distilling drops of blood, with the motto, "I make sure."
10. "I'll make sure." It should be noted that Kirkpatrick, like other feudal Knights, probably spoke Norman French, certainly not Lowland Scots.
11. Barbour says that many others were slain at the same time—

    "Schir Edmund Cumyn als was slane,
    And othir mony of mekill mane,"

    but of this confirmation is lacking. Of the church of Greyfriars, where this tragedy was enacted, a fragment remained till after 1867, built into the premises of a public house in Friar's Vennel; but this has since been pulled down, and no trace of the church now remains, except in the name of the street.

12. Palgrave, clxxx. and 346.
13. A year later, March 20, 1307, Edward I., at the request of his Queen Margaret, granted pardon to Geoffrey de Coigners for concealing the coronet of gold with which Robert de Brus was crowned.
14. Afterwards Earl of Moray. He is popularly known as Randolph, but in truth his real designation was Thomas the son of Randolph or Ralph.
15. Ancestor of the Viscounts Kilmarnock.
16. Ancestor of the Earls of Wigtown.
17. This renowned knight was at this time about twenty-six years of age. Though he succeeded his father as Earl of Pembroke about 1296, he does not appear officially under that title until 1307.
18. Bain, ii., 473.
19. Annales Londinenses, i., 147.