Robert 1
(Robert The Bruce)
1306–1329
Born in
1274, Robert the Bruce was a descendant of David I. In the chaos following John
Balliol’s removal, he changed sides five times, sometimes supporting Sir
William Wallace, sometimes the English king. He was so disheartened by the
experience that it was only, according to legend, the sight of a spider
spinning its web that prompted him to keep trying and not to give up hope.
With no other obvious candidate for the throne, Robert was declared king in 1306. Luckily for him, Edward I of England died in 1307, to be succeeded by the weaker Edward II who abandoned his father’s plan to subjugate Scotland. Bruce began a systematic guerrilla campaign against the pro-English section of the Scottish nobility and against English garrisons in Scotland. Between 1307 and 1314 he won numerous battles against his enemies and, on a number of occasions, even invaded northern England. Edward II finally led a punitive expedition into Scotland in the spring of 1314. Meeting this invasion force at Bannockburn on June 24, the Scottish army inflicted on it one of the most disastrous defeats in the military annals of England.
Edward II refused to grant independence to Scotland, however, and the war between the two nations continued for more than a decade. During this phase of the struggle, the common people of Scotland secured representation, for the first time, in the Scottish Parliament in 1326. The war against England ended victoriously in 1328, when the regents of the young Edward III of England approved the Treaty of Northampton. By the terms of this document, Scotland obtained recognition as an independent kingdom. Robert Bruce arranged for his heart to be cut out after his death and taken on a crusade, and he died of leprosy in 1329.
David II
1329–1371
It was
David’s bad luck to succeed an outstanding father at the age of only five.
He inherited many of Robert the Bruce’s qualities, but was pitted against
a formidable English king in Edward III, who was as strong as Edward II had
been weak. David did well simply to hold on to his throne against fierce
opposition both at home and abroad.
Within four years after the conclusion of the Treaty of Northampton, Edward III renewed the struggle to reduce Scotland to vassalage. Initially, this venture took the form of support to Edward de Baliol, a son of John de Baliol and a pretender to the Scottish crown. Baliol invaded Scotland from England in 1332 and, after winning a victory at Dupplin Moor, had himself crowned king. He was quickly driven out of the country. In 1333 Edward III led an army northward and routed the Scots near Berwick-upon-Tweed. The English king thereupon occupied a large part of south-eastern Scotland. In 1337, after he became involved in the Hundred Years’ War, he abandoned Baliol and neglected his Scottish possessions; by 1341 the Scots had liberated several of the more important occupied areas, including Edinburgh. In 1346 David II, allied with France, led an invasion of northern England but was defeated near Durham and taken prisoner. A large section of southern Scotland was immediately reoccupied by the English. David was not released until 1357, after the Scots had agreed to pay an enormous ransom.
Unlike Balliol, David always refused homage to the English king, clinging resolutely to Scottish independence even after one-third of the population had been wiped out by the Black Death. David died childless in 1371.
For more than 200 years after Bruce’s death in 1329 and the accession of his infant son as David II, Scotland was the scene of almost continuous strife among the nobility. The feudal anarchy was especially pronounced because of the prevalence of the clan system in the Highlands and various other areas. In these regions, where close personal relations existed among the clan members and their chiefs, the latter were powerful and contemptuous of royal authority. The period was also marked by almost uninterrupted warfare with England and the development of Scotland’s Parliament.
The Stuart Kings
Robert II
1371–1390
David was succeeded by his nephew, a
grandson of Robert the Bruce. Robert II was almost fifty-five when he inherited
the throne — eight years older than his uncle had been. He had been
popular in his youth, but was well past his prime by the time he became king.
His father was Walter Stewart, the sixth in a hereditary line of Royal Stewarts - originally Anglo-Norman - who had served the Scottish monarchy for generations. Walter’s marriage to Robert the Bruce’s daughter had not endeared him to Scotland’s barons, who found it hard to take the Stewarts seriously as kings. After thirteen years of ineffective rule, Robert II admitted defeat and handed the government over to his son John. But a kick from a horse left John permanently disabled, almost as useless as his father. The omens did not look good when Robert died in 1390.
Robert III
1390–1406
Born in
1337, John changed his name to Robert in succeeding his father. To call himself
John II would have meant acknowledging the legitimacy of John Balliol as John
I. And the Balliols were still around, still claiming the throne…
Unfortunately, Robert had already been declared unfit to rule before he became king. The job was undertaken by his brother, the official Governor of the Realm. But the country slowly descended into anarchy, with no central cohesion and a growing division between the clan-based Highlanders and the more sophisticated, feudal Lowlanders. Robert felt so bad about the situation that he asked to be buried in a dung heap with the epitaph:
Here lies the worst of kings and most miserable of men
He died in 1406, a few days after learning that his only surviving son, James, had been captured by pirates and sold to the English.
Under the first two kings of the Stuart dynasty, Robert II and Robert III, the country was further devastated by the war with England, and royal authority was weak.
- Photos of many of the places mentioned in the text can be found in the Photo-tour.