1 Now published with translation and notes in Duncan (ed.), Barbour, The Bruce.
2 See genealogical tables 1 Ancestry and children of Robert Bruce and 2 Siblings of Robert Bruce and their marriages.
3 Genealogical tables of the two main Comyn lineages are provided.
4 See Genealogical table 1: Ancestors and children of Robert Bruce.
5 In numbering the lords of Annandale irrespective of their Christian names I have followed Professor Duncan. Although the future king is here referred to as Robert VII, the numeral refers to his place in succession to the lordship of Annandale. He was in fact the sixth Robert Bruce of the name.
6 See the Genealogical table 3: Succession to the Scottish throne.
7 Robert Bruce VII, ‘our’ Robert Bruce, was not present.
8 The main problem surrounding this treaty is whether the English reservations nullified the guarantee of Scottish independence under the proposed union.
9 See genealogical tables 6 and 7.
10 Also present was John Comyn of Badenoch III.
11 It takes an effort to remember, in the face of such bitterness, that nationalism as we know it, did not exist in the Middle Ages. The corollary of modern nationalism is ‘popular sovereignty’, the assumption, born of the American and French revolutions, that sovereignty resides in the people. No such idea existed in the middle ages. Loyalty to one’s country certainly existed, but it was tempered by loyalty to one’s lord, and to the supra-national church. Medieval racism and prejudice were nonetheless virulent.
12 See genealogical tables 6 and 7.
13 Imprisonment of a clergyman was contrary to canon law, and Wishart’s case would bring papal disapproval upon Edward.
14 This assertion, by Fordun, is now considered to be an error, possibly intending Bruce’s father Robert VI, the Lord of Annandale. Neither Robert VI nor Robert VII appear on the Falkirk Roll of Arms. Error or not, it is a most unusal statement for a Scottish source otherwise designed to glorify the memory of Robert Bruce.
15 There was however no treaty of peace between England and France until May 1303.
16 De Thweng was unfortunate enough to be captured after Bannockburn as well.
17 This was exactly how, thirty years later, Edward III used Edward Balliol to destabilise the Bruce monarchy.
18 The fact that Bruce had not been at court in the period leading up to Comyn’s murder disproves the myth, reflected in several chronicles, that the earl of Gloucester had tipped off Bruce about imminent arrest and facilitated his escape. The tale points to two truths, however: firstly, that there had been a long-standing sympathy between the houses of Gloucester and Bruce, and secondly that Bruce was worried about his standing at court, and may have feared revelations.
19 Barbour gives a pen portrait of Douglas: ‘He was loyal in all his actions for he did not deign to have truck with treachery or falseness. His heart was set on high honour, and he behaved in such a way that all who were near him loved him. But he was not so good-looking that we should say much of his beauty. His face was somewhat pale, and, as I heard it, he had black hair, but he was well made in his limbs with strong bones and broad shoulders.’
20 The coronet was later discovered and kept by Geoffrey de Coigners after Robert’s defeat at Methven.
21 After the Bruce coup it is no longer possible to write of ‘patriots’, for Robert had irrevocably split that group of Scottish magnates. In shorthand reference to Scots co-operating with the English against the Bruces the clumsy term ‘Anglo-Scots’ is commonly used.
22 The earl’s heir was a hostage, and his other sons were in the service of Edward I.
23 Elsewhere the story is that John of Haliburton captured Robert in this fashion, but then, on recognising him, released him.
24 See Genealogical table 4: The Comyns of Badenoch.
25 These places are marked on Map 6 for greater clarity.
26 Dunaverty had actually been built by the MacDougalls and was a symbol of their lordship in the area. But MacQuillan appears to have been entrusted by Edward I with this formidable castle during the years of MacDougall rebellion. Prior to the coup of 1306, Malcolm MacQuillan gave the castle to Robert in exchange for another.
27 The letter survives as an exemplar or illustration designed to show royal clerks how letters should be phrased, but in such examples the letters A, B and C are generally used to indicate where proper names should be inserted. In this particular exemplar, the letters ‘T’ and ‘A’ are used to denote the names of the plenipotentiaries. Séan Duffy argues convincingly that the initials stand for ‘Thomas’ and ‘Alexander’, and that they are ‘our dear kinsmen’ referred to in the text.
28 Duncan places the attack on Turnberry Castle in the spring of 1306, and the attack on the billeted soldiers in the village in a subsequent attack on Galloway around September 1307.
29 This action used to be known as the Battle of Brander Pass; now the name Battle of Ben Cruachan is preferred.
30 Douglas had apparently left the forest to join the king on this expedition.
31 ‘Donald of Islay’ appears to be a scribal error or shorthand for [Angus Óg Mac] Donald, Lord of Islay.
32 Moray is described by Barbour in the following terms: ‘He was of moderate stature and well-formed in proportion, with a broad face, pleasant and fair, courteous and debonair in all respects and of assured demeanour. He loved loyalty above everything, always stood diligently against falsehood, treason and felony. He exalted honour and generosity and always supported righteousness. He was caring, even loving in company, and he always loved good knights, for, to tell the truth, he was full of spirit and made of all the virtues.’
33 Robert may of course already have had his hands on this money, requiring only ratification of the status quo. These papal tenths had been promised by popes to the king of England.
34 In the Barbour narrative the arrangement is made almost a year earlier, and Robert berates Edward Bruce for giving Edward II so long to relieve the castle. Barbour was mistaken however. Duncan recently pointed out that the campaign was not occasioned by a threat to Stirling Castle but by the decree of October 1313. The fall of Stirling became imminent only in May 1314, when the English army was already approaching.
35 In September 1314 John was said to be coursing on the Irish Sea with twelve ships, probably accompanied by his vassal Duncan MacGoffrey.
36 The Laud Annals state that the inauguration of Edward Bruce as king of Ireland took place very shortly after the feast of Saints Philip and James – 1 May – which refers to that date in 1316, or may be an error for a similarly named feast day in 1315.
37 Barbour has Crabbe work for the Scots under duress and threatened with death. There is something strange here, for if it were Crabbe, the privateering scourge of English shipping, he would neither have been on the English side, nor would he have to be forced to work against the English. But the engineer does indeed seem to have been John Crabbe the former pirate. He worked for the Scots again as engineer in Northumberland in 1327, but changed sides and worked for the English when they besieged Berwick in 1333.
38 The Declaration of Arbroath was timed to respond to a ‘withering blast of ecclesiastical censure’, partly inspired by the Cardinals insulted in 1317, partly by English diplomacy at the curia’.
39 The other illegitimate children appear to have been Margaret Bruce, who married Robert Glen, and Elizabeth, who married Sir Walter Oliphant of Gask.
40 In the event, David II died childless in 1371 and Robert Stewart succeeded, initiating the Stewart dynasty.
41 An English chronicle The Brut, alleges that Scottish churchmen were executed for failure to support Robert, but there is no reliable evidence to support this.
42 Genealogical Table 5 illustrates the close connections between the conspirators and the Comyn interest.
43 As we have seen, the Umfraville earls of Angus had been disinherited. The new earl was John Stewart of Bunkle, not yet a knight.
44 This wish is likely to have left his friends in a quandary, for the previous month in a letter Robert referred to an earlier wish that his heart be buried at Melrose Abbey. He was fortunate that both these wishes were fulfilled.