A Question of Truth: Barbour’s Bruce, Hary’s Wallace and Richard Coer de Lion

Statue of Robert the Bruce (1929) in front of the gates at Edinburgh Castle. © Ad Meskens / Wikimedia Commons

Tempting though it is to assume that these poems are simply peculiarly Scots, to do so denies them their place in British literature. A survey of English romances, moreover, reveals what appears to be an English equivalent: Richard Coer de Lion. It is also a hybrid poem about a recent king and military leader.

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