History Of Scotland Vol. 1 - Part 8

( Originally Published 1909 )

Bruce, Earl of Carrick—His early Life—His Claims to the Throne—His Plot with Comyn—Death of Comyn—Bruce assumes the Crown—Battle of Methven Park—Extremities to which Bruce is reduced—He flies to Rachrin—Fate of his Adherents

ROBERT BRUCE, earl of Carrick, was the grandson of that nobleman who was competitor for the crown of Scotland when John Baliol was preferred to the short-lived honor of wearing it. Since the time that he met a rude repulse from Edward, after the battle of Dunbar, ambition seems to have been mortified within the candidate. He retired to bis English estates, and lived there in such security as the times admitted. His son did not take much concern in public affairs; but the grandson early evinced a desire of distinction, which showed itself in active bursts of sudden enterprise, which were directed in a manner so inconsistent, and taken up and abandoned with so much apparent levity, as to afford little prospect of his possessing the strength of character and vigor of determination which he afterward exhibited under such a variety of adventures, disastrous or prosperous.

Robert Bruce was put in possession of the earldom of Carrick by the resignation of his father in 1293. About this time Baliol, king of Scotland, declared war against England; but none of the Bruce family joined him on that occasion. They continued to regard their own chief the elder Bruce's title to the crown as more just than that of Baliol. The eldest Bruce, indeed, as we have just noticed, nourished hopes that Edward would have preferred him to the crown on the deposition of his rival; but checked by the scornful answer of the monarch, that he had other business than conquering kingdoms for him, he retired to his great Yorkshire possessions, yielding his Scottish estates to the charge of his grandson, who showed at this early period, when a youth of two or three-and-twenty, a bold, bustling, and ambitious, but versatile disposition of mind. He had a natural spirit of ill-will against the great family of Comyn, because John Comyn of Badenoch had married Marjory, the sister of John Baliol. So that when Baliol's title was ended by his resignation, and the foreign residence and youth of his son placed him out of the question, John, called the Red Comyn, the son of John Comyn of Badenoch and Marjory Baliol, had, through his mother, the same title to the throne as that which had been preferred on the part of John Baliol: and the Comyns' claim, as Baliol's, in the last generation, then stood in direct opposition to that on which the Bruces rested as descendants from Isabella, second daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon.

But, besides the emulation which divided these two great families touching the succession of the crown, there had private injuries passed between them of a nature which, in that haughty age, were accounted deserving of persevering and inveterate vengeance. The lords who joined John Baliol in his revolt from Edward had issued a hasty order, confiscating the rich property of Annandale, because Bruce had not obeyed their summons. His domains were granted by John Baliol to Comyn, earl of Buchan, and Bruce's castle of Lochmaben was occupied by him accordingly. From these united reasons, it is probable that Robert never forgave a family whose claim had not only come between his grandfather and a crown, but who had also showed a purpose of stripping him of his paternal estate, and dared to establish one of their number as lord of his castle. The chief part of his resentment was directed against the Comyns, who took advantage by the act of confiscation, for Baliol was regarded only as the tool; and this must be considered as adding to the feudal hatred between the powerful houses of Bruce and Comyn, which afterward led to such important consequences.

The two representatives of these two great factions of Bruce and Comyn, therefore, stood in regular opposition to each other, each having a claim to the throne, which both probably only wanted an opportunity of urging. The necessary consequence was that suspicion and hatred divided the heads of the two rival houses, and rendered it almost impossible for them to concur in any joint effort for their country's liberty, because, when that freedom should be achieved, they could not expect to agree which of them should be placed at the head of affairs. During the insurrection of Wallace, the younger Bruce acted with more than usual versatility. Being summoned by the bishop of Car-lisle to come to a council held by that prelate, who had charge of the peace of the north, he made appearance accordingly, took every oath that could be suggested in attestation of his faith to the king of England, showed his zeal by plundering the lands of William of Douglas, the associate of Wallace, carried that baron's wife and family away prisoners; and having done all this to evince his faith to Edward, he united himself to Wallace and his associates. Once more Bruce saw reason to repent the part he had taken, made haste anew to submit to the king of England, again swore fealty to that monarch, and gave his infant daughter as a hostage for keeping his faith in future. As, however, he did not join the English army, Edward determined to regard him as a cold-spirited neutral, and took into English possession his castle of Lochmaben. This created a new revolution in Bruce's sentiments, and he permitted himself to be joined in the Scottish commission of regency, of which his rival, John the Red Comyn, was a distinguished member, having commanded, as we observed, at the memorable battle of Roslin. It does not appear that Bruce was disposed to act with vigor in the same cause that was espoused and defended by his feudal enemy; and his exertions against the cause of Edward were so cold that, upon the pacification between Edward and the Scots, and the death of his father in 1304, Bruce was permitted to take possession of his paternal estates, while Comyn, as the greater delinquent in English eyes, was subjected to a severe fine. Bruce also was consulted on the measures by which Edward proposed to achieve the pacification of Scotland, while Comyn was excluded from the favor and the councils of the English monarch. It is probable that Edward, from the uncertain tenor of Bruce's conduct, was disposed to rely upon him as the person of the two rivals who might be the most easily guided and influenced, since hitherto his conduct had been ruled according to the immediate pressure of his own interest ; and the zeal which, at times, he had discovered for the freedom of Scotland, had uniformly cooled, when the effects of success in his country's cause went to exalt the house of Comyn, and render that of Bruce subordinate. Thus reckoned Edward, conceiving that self-interest was the unfailing key to regulate Bruce's motions, and allowing nothing for those strong impulses, which often change the whole human character, and give a new and nobler direction to one who has till then only appeared influenced by the passions and versatility of early youth.

In 1304, Bruce enjoyed the favor and confidence of King Edward, and was one of those in whom that sagacious monarch chiefly trusted for securing Scotland to his footstool forever. Such, however, was far from being the intention of the young Earl of Carrick. Though we can but obscurely trace what his purpose really was, this much is certain a great object now presented itself, which formerly was not open to Bruce's ambition. In the insurrection of Wallace, and the subsequent stand made after the battle of Falkirk by the commissioners of regency, the name of John Baliol had always been used as the head and sovereign of Scotland, in whose right its natives were in arms, and for whom they defended their country against the English. It was probably the high influence of the Comyns, his near connections, which kept the claims of Baliol so long in the public eye.

But, in his disgraceful renunciation, followed by a long absence from Scotland, after renouncing every exertion to de-fend his kingdom, the king, Toom-tabard (Empty Coat), as he was termed by the people, lost all respect and allegiance among his subjects, nor seems there to have been any who turned to him with any sentiment of loyalty, or even inter-est. The crown of Scotland was therefore open to any daring claimant who might be disposed to brave the fury of the English usurper; and such a candidate might have rested, with some degree of certainty, upon the general feeling of the Scottish nation, and upon that disaffection which, like a strong ground-swell, agitated both the middle classes and populace throughout the country, who were disposed, from the spirit of independence with which they were animated, to follow almost any banner which might be displayed against England, the weight of whose yoke became the more severe the closer it was riveted on their necks.

In this conjuncture Bruce entered into a secret treaty with William de Lambyrton, the primate of Scotland, binding themselves to stand by each other against all mortals, the terms of which (the king of England not being excepted) plainly inferred some desperate enterprise. It was thought necessary to discover this league to John Comyn ; or, perhaps, he had been led to suspect it, and such a communication had become unavoidable on the part of the conspirators. Comyn was given to understand that the purpose of the league was the destruction of the English supremacy in Scotland. The question was natural, "And what king do you intend to propose?" To this Bruce, in a personal conference with John Comyn, is said to have pointed out to him that their claims to the throne might be considered as equal: "therefore," said Bruce, "do you support my title to be king of Scots, and I will surrender my patrimonial estates to you; or give over to me your family possessions, and I will sup-port your claim to the throne." Comyn, it is said by the Scottish historians, ostensibly embraced the alternative of taking Bruce's large property, and asserting his claim to royalty. But in secret he resolved to avail himself of this discovery to betray the intrigues of his rival to Edward.

Robert Bruce had returned to London, and was in attendance on the English court, when a private token from the Earl of Gloucester, his kinsman, made him aware that his safety and liberty were in danger. It is said the Earl of Gloucester sent Bruce a piece of money and a pair of spurs. Men's wits are sharpened by danger, and slighter intimations have been sufficient in such, circumstances to put them on their guard, and induce them to take measures for their safety when peril hovered over them. He left London instantly, and hastened to Scotland. It is said that near the Solway Sands, Bruce and his attendants met an emissary of Comyn, who was despatched, they found, for the English court. They killed the messenger without hesitation, and from the contents of his packet learned the extent of Comyn's treachery. In five days Bruce reached his castle of Lochmaben.

It was in the month of February, 1305–6; and the English justiciaries appointed by Edward's late regulations for preservation of the peace of the country of Scotland were holding their assizes at Dumfries for that purpose. Bruce, not yet prepared for an open breach with England, was under the necessity of rendering attendance on this high court as a crown vassal, and came to the county-town for that purpose. He here found Comyn, whom the same duty had brought to Dumfries. Bruce invited his rival to a private interview, which was held in the church of the Friars Minorite; a precaution an unavailing one as it proved for the safety of both parties, and the peaceful character of the meeting. They met by themselves, the slender retinue of each baron remaining apart, and without the church. Between two such haughty rivals a quarrel was sure to arise, whether out of old feud or recent injury. The Scots historians say that at their private interview Bruce upbraided Comyn with his treacherous communication to Edward : the English, more improbably, state that he then, for the first time, imparted to Comyn his plan of insurrection against England, which Comyn rejected with scorn, and that this gave occasion to what followed. Without pretending to detail what no one save the survivor could have truly described, it is certain that a violent altercation took place, in which Comyn gave Bruce the lie, and Bruce in reply stabbed Comyn with his dagger. Confounded at the rashness of his own action, in a place so sacred, Bruce hastened out of the sanctuary. There stood without two of his friends and adherents, Kirkpatrick of Closeburne, and Lindsay, a younger son of Lindsay of Crawford. They saw Bruce's bloody weapon and disordered demeanor, and inquired eagerly the cause. "I doubt," said Bruce, "I have slain the Red Comyn." "Do you trust that to doubt?" said Kirkpatrick; "I make sure"; so saying, he rushed into the church, and despatched the wounded man. Sir Robert Comyn, the uncle of John, interfered to save his kinsman, but was slain along with him. The English justiciaries, hearing this tumult, barricaded themselves in the hall where they administered justice. Bruce, however, compelled them to surrender, by putting fire to their place of retreat, and thereafter dismissed them in safety.

This rash act of anger and impatience broke off all chance which might still have remained to Bruce of accommodating matters with Edward, who now knew his schemes of insurrection, and must have regarded Comyn as a victim of his fidelity to the English government. On the other hand, the circumstances attending the slaughter were marked with sacrilege and breach-of a solemn sanctuary, so as to render the act of homicide detestable in the eyes of all, save those who from a strong feeling of common interest might be inclined to make common cause with the perpetrator. This interest could only exist among the Scottish patriots, who might see in Bruce the vindicator of his country's liberty and his own right to the crown; claims so sacred as to justify in their eyes his enforcing them against the treacherous confidant who had betrayed the secret to the foreign usurper, even with the dagger's point, and at the foot of the altar. Bruce was, therefore, in a position as critical as if he had stood midway up a dizzy precipice, where the path was cut away behind him. The crown of Scotland hung within a possibility of his reaching it; and though the effort was necessarily attended with a great risk of failure, yet an attempt to retreat in any other direction must have been followed by inevitable destruction. Sensible of the perils of the choice, Bruce, therefore, resolved to claim the throne, with the unalterable resolution either to free his country or perish in the attempt.

He retired from Dumfries into the adjoining wilds of Nithsdale, and resided in obscurity in the but of a poor man, near the remarkable hill called the Dun of Tynron. Meantime he sent messengers abroad in every direction, to collect his friends and followers through his extensive estates, and to warn such nobles as he knew to be favorable to Scottish independence. But their numbers were but few, and they were ill prepared for a hasty summons. His own family supplied him with four bold brethren, all men of hardihood and skill in arms. His nephew, afterward the celebrated Thomas Randolph, and his brother-in-law, Christopher Sea-ton, also followed the cause of their relation. Of churchmen, the primate of Scotland, the bishop of Glasgow, and the abbot of Scone, joined in the undertaking, together with the Earls of Lennox and of Athol, and some fourteen barons, with whose assistance Bruce was daring enough to defy the whole strength of England. He went from Dumfriesshire to Glasgow, where he determined to take the decisive measure of celebrating his coronation at Scone. On his road thither, Bruce was joined by a warrior, who continued till his death the best and most disinterested of his friends and adherents. This was the young Sir James of Douglas, son of William of Douglas, the heroic companion of Wallace, and, like his father, devoted to the independence of Scotland.

On the 27th of March, 1306, the ceremony of crowning Bruce was performed at Scone with as much state as the means of the united barons would permit. Edward had carried off the royal crown of Scotland : a slight coronet of gold was hastily made to supply its place. The Earls of Fife had, since the days of Malcolm Cean-mohr, uniformly possessed and exercised the right of placing the crown on the king's head at his coronation, in memory of the high services rendered by their ancestor, Macduff, to that monarch. On this occasion the Earl of Fife did not attend; but the right was, contrary to his inclination, exercised by his sister, Isabella, the countess of Buchan, who absconded from her husband, in order that the blood of Macduff might render the service due to the heir of Malcolm Cean-mohr. For this she was afterward strangely and cruelly punished by Ed-ward I.

Although the figure which Robert Bruce had hitherto made in public life was of a fickle and apparently selfish description, yet his character for chivalrous accomplishments stood high, and when he took the field many of Wallace's old followers began to join him.

Meantime Edward directed Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, under the title of guardian of Scotland, to proceed to put down the rebellion in that kingdom. He was accompanied by Lord Clifford and Henry Percy. The king himself was then ill, and scarce able to mount on horseback; nevertheless he celebrated, with feudal solemnities, the day on which he conferred the dignity of knighthood upon the Prince of Wales and three hundred young gentlemen, the heirs of the first families in England. In the course of a high festival, celebrated on this occasion, two swans, richly adorned with gold network, were placed on the table, and the king made a vow (according to the singular custom of the age) to God and to the swans, that he would forthwith set out for Scotland to punish the treachery of his Scottish rebels, as it pleased him to call Bruce and his followers, and avenge the death of Sir John Comyn. He then adjured his son, that, should he die in the expedition, his bones should be preserved, and borne at the head of the army, till the kingdom of Scotland was entirely subdued.

Meanwhile Bruce, against whom these vindictive preparations were directed, was engaged in strengthening his party without any considerable success. His enterprise was regarded as desperate, even by his own wife (according to the English authorities), who, while he boasted to her of the sovereign rank he had obtained, said to him, "You are, in-deed, a summer king; but you will scarce be a winter one." He appears to have sought an encounter with the Earl of Pembroke, who, with an army of English, had thrown him-self into the fortified town of Perth. Bruce arrived before the town with a host inferior to that of the English earl by fifteen hundred men-at-arms. Nevertheless he sent Pembroke a challenge to come forth and fight. The English-man replied, he would meet him on the morrow. Bruce retired to the neighboring wood of Methven, where he took up his quarters for the night, expecting no battle until next day. But Pembroke's purpose was different from what he expressed. He caused his men instantly to take arms, though the day was far spent, and, sallying from the town of Perth, assaulted with fury the Scots, who were in their cantonments and taken at unawares. They fought boldly and Bruce him-self was thrice unhorsed. At one moment he was prisoner in the hands of Sir Philip de Mowbray, who shouted aloud that he had taken the new king. Christopher Seaton struck Mowbray to the earth, and rescued his brother-in-law. About four hundred of. the Scots kept together, and effected their escape to the wilds of Athol. Several prisoners were made, and some pardoned or admitted to ransom ; but those of distinction were pitilessly hanged, drawn, and quartered. Young Randolph, Bruce's nephew, submitted to the king of England, and was admitted to favor.

Bruce, seeing his party almost totally dissipated by the defeat at Methven, was obliged to support himself and the few who remained with him, among whom were his own wife, and many other ladies, by the toils of the chase, in which it was remarked that the zeal and address of Douglas distinguished him above others of Bruce's band, by the contributions which he brought to the relief of the ladies. From Athol the noble fugitives retreated into Aberdeenshire, and from thence they approached the borders of Argyleshire. Hitherto they had been safe from enemies in the fastnesses of a desolate and thinly-peopled country, and the produce of the chase had been sufficient to sustain their wants. But they were now compelled to approach a hostile country, where battle was to be expected. Winter was approaching, and threatened not only to diminish their supplies of sustenance, but was likely, by the rigor of the weather, to render it impossible for their females any longer to accompany them. For himself, the fugitive king seems to have shaped his course under the guidance of Sir Neil Campbell, of Loch-Awe (ancestor of the great house of Argyle), who had under-taken to procure the king some refuge among the islands, or on the adjacent mainland of Cantire.

Hitherto Bruce and his companions in wandering appear to have experienced neither favor nor opposition from the in-habitants of the districts through which they rambled ; but most part of the shire of Argyle, which they now approached, was under the command of a powerful chief called Macdougal, or John of Lorn. This prince had married an aunt of the slaughtered John Comyn, and desired nothing with more ardor than an opportunity to revenge the death of his ally upon the homicide. Accordingly, when Bruce attempted to penetrate into Argyleshire at the head of his company, he was opposed by John of Lorn, who encountered him at a place called Dalry (i.e., the king's field), near the head of Strathfillan. The Highlandmen being on foot, and armed with long pole-axes, called Lochaber-axes, attacked the little band of Bruce where the knights had no room to manage their horses, and did them much injury. Bruce, compelled to turn back, placed himself in the rear of his followers, and protected their retreat with the utmost gallantry, Three Highlanders, a father and two sons assaulted him at once; but Bruce, completely armed, and excellent at the use of his weapon, rid himself of them by despatching them one after another. "Look at him," said John of Lorn, in unwilling admiration; "he guards his men from us, as Gaul, the son of Morni, protected his host from the fury of Fingal." The comparison was taken from some of the ancient Gaelic poems composed by, or imputed to, the Celtic bard, Ossian. But the reader will not find the incident in the English work of Macpherson.

Driven back from the road by which he had purposed to approach the western isles, where he had some hopes of finding shelter, Bruce labored under great and increasing difficulties, the first effect of which was to compel him to separate the ladies from his company. His younger brother, Nigel Bruce, was sent to conduct the queen and her attend-ants back to Aberdeenshire, where his brother was still master of a strong castle, called Kildrummie, which might serve them for some time as a place of refuge. We shall afterward give some account of their evil fortune.

As Bruce and his band had in their retreat before Macdougal fallen down considerably to the southward of Dalry, where they had sustained their late defeat, Loch Lomond was now interposed between them and the province of Can-tire and the western coast. A little boat, capable of carrying only three men at once, was the only means to be found for the purpose of passing over two hundred persons. To divert his attendants during this tiresome ferry, the Bruce amused them with reading the adventures of Ferambras, a fabulous hero of a metrical romance; . a legend in which they might find encouragement to patience under difficulties scarcely more romantic than those which they themselves were subjected to.

On the banks of Loch Lomond, Bruce met with the Earl of Lennox, who, wandering there for protection, discovered the king was in his neighborhood, by hearing a bugle sounded with an art which he knew to be peculiar to his master. They met, embraced, and wept. By the guidance and assistance of Lennox, Bruce reached the province of Cantire, then subject to Angus, called Lord of the Isles. Here the king met with Sir Neil Campbell, who had gone before him to propitiate this powerful Highland prince, whose favor was the more easily obtained that he was unfriendly to John Macdougal of Lorn, the personal enemy of Robert Bruce. This Angus was also the descendant of the renowned Somerled, and head of the sept of the Macdonalds, the most powerful scion of those original Scots who colonized Argyleshire under Fergus, the son of Eric, and who, seated in Cantire, Islay, and the other western islands, had, since the death of Alexander III., nearly shaken off subordination to the crown of Scotland, and paid as little respect to the English claim upon their supremacy.

Though Bruce was received by the Lord of the Isles with kindness and hospitality, he was probably sensible that his residence on or near the mainland of Scotland might draw down on his protector the vengeance of Edward, against whom the insular prince could not have offered an effectual defence. He therefore resolved to bury himself in the remote island of Rachrin, on the coast of Ireland, a rude and half-desolate islet, but inhabited by the clan of Macdonalds, and subject to their friendly lord. By this retreat, he effected his purpose of secluding himself from the jealous researches made after him by the adherents of the English monarch, and the feudal hatred of John of Lorn. Here Bruce continued to lurk in concealment during the winter of 1306.

In the meantime his friends and adherents in Scotland suffered all the miseries which the rage of an exasperated and victorious sovereign could inflict. His wife and his daughter were taken forcibly from the sanctuary of St. Duthac, at Tain, and consigned to the severities of separate English prisons, where they remained for eight years. The Countess of Buchan, who had placed the crown on the Bruce's head, was immured in a place of confinement constructed expressly for her reception on the towers of the castle of Berwick, where the sight of her prison might make her the subject of wonder or scorn to all that passed. The bishop of St. Andrew's, the bishop of Glasgow, and the abbot of Scone, taken in arms, were imprisoned by Edward, who applied to the pope for their degradation, in which, however, he did not succeed. Nigel Bruce, a gallant and beautiful as well as highly accomplished youth, held out in his brother's castle of Kildrummie till a traitor in the garrison set fire to the principal magazine, when surrender became inevitable. He was tried, condemned, and executed. Christopher Seaton, who so gallantly rescued the Bruce at the battle of Methven, shared with his brother-in-law the same melancholy fate. The vengeance of Edward did not spare his own blood. The Earl of Athol had some relationship with the royal family of England; but the circumstance having been pleaded in favor of the earl, Edward only gave so much weight to it as to assign him the distinction of a gallows fifty feet high.

Simon Fraser, one of the commanders at the victory of Roslin (the other being the unfortunate John Comyn), still disdained to surrender, and continued in arms, till, being defeated at a place called Kirkincliffe, near Stirling, he was finally made prisoner, exposed to the people of London loaded with fetters, crowned with a garland in mockery, and executed with all the studied cruelty of the treason law. The citizens were taught to believe that demons, with iron hooks, were seen ramping on the gibbets, among the dismembered limbs of these unfortunate men, as they were exposed upon the bridge of London. The inference was that the fiends were in like manner employed in tormenting the souls of men, whose crimes, so far as we know them, were summed up in their endeavors to defend their country from a foreign yoke.

To add to the disastrous deaths of his friends and associates, the fate of Bruce personally seemed utterly destitute. He was forfeited by the English government as a man guilty of murder and sacrilege, and his large estates, extending from Galloway to the Solway Firth, were bestowed on different English nobles, of which Sir Henry Percy and Lord Robert Clifford had the greatest share. A formal sentence of excommunication was at the same time pronounced against him by the papal legate, with all the terrific pomp with which Rome knows how to volley her thunders.