There has always been some doubt as to whether Bruce, who died in 1329, did suffer from leprosy.
Marjorie Bruce, Princess of Scotland and mother of the Stewart dynasty of Kings of Scots
September 18, 2014 By
Marjorie Bruce, Princess of Scotland, was the only child of the first marriage of King Robert I the Bruce with Isabella of Mar. Marjorie would suffer greatly through the Scottish Wars of Independence, surviving to marry and become the mother of the child who would go on to found the Stewart dynasty of Kings.
What’s the Matter?: Medieval Literary Theory and the Irish Campaigns in The Bruce
July 2, 2014 By
John Barbour’s Bruce, composed in the mid 1370s, is the first long poem in the Scots vernacular. It contains twenty books, the first thirteen of which trace the Wars of Liberty from their origins until triumph at the Battle of Bannockburn. At this point the Irish ‘matter’ enters the poem.
Elizabeth de Burgh, Queen of Scotland
March 12, 2014 By
When Robert the Bruce carried on his fight for the Scottish throne, Elizabeth and the rest of Bruce’s family were to suffer the consequences.
Letter from Robert the Bruce to Edward II discovered – attempt at peace before Bannockburn
June 3, 2013 By
New research has revealed a letter written in 1310 by Robert Bruce to King Edward II, presenting historians with fresh information about a pivotal time in the Wars of Scottish Independence.
Sacrilege, Sacrifice and John Barbour’s Bruce
October 13, 2012 By
The narrative accomplished on this plane is critical to the foundation, or re-foundation, of royal order after a usurpation, yet it is more than a dynastic expedient;3 rather, it is a story that, even as it bridges the gaps in credibility and legitimacy attendant upon a new royal line, primally reinforces the governing fictions of kingship as an institution.
A Question of Truth: Barbour’s Bruce, Hary’s Wallace and Richard Coer de Lion
October 13, 2012 By
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.
Robert Bruce’s Bones: reputations, politics and identities in nineteenth-century Scotland
October 13, 2012 By
‘We, on the whole, do our Hero-worship worse than any other Nation in this world ever did it before.’ Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881).
Aristocratic Politics and the Crisis of Scottish Kingship, 1286–96
October 5, 2012 By
In late 1292 the new king of Scots, John Balliol, did homage to Edward as his superior lord and during the next three years lived with the consequences of this act.
The verity of facts depicted in Braveheart
July 15, 2012 By
So our basic aim was to bring only true facts about the life of William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and the Scottish War of Independence, to compare all these facts with the film version and to enlight the mind of readers and film spectators.
Bruce, Balliol and the lordship of Galloway: south-western Scotland and the Wars of Independence
July 3, 2012 By
Overshadowed by the better documented and more closely studied Bruce campaigns in the north east, the savage civil war which convulsed the lordship between 1306 and 1314, and again from 1332 to 1356, is a neglected area of potentially great value, as it stemmed from a failure of Bruce policies.
The acts of the Earls of Dunbar relating to Scotland c.1124-c.1289 : a study of Lordship in Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
July 3, 2012 By
The thesis seeks to analyse the nature of the Dunbar lordship, uncovering its particular and essential features, yet placing and assessing it in the context of twelfth and thirteenth-century Scottish aristocratic society.
Men for all seasons? The Strathbogie earls of Atholl and the Wars of Independence, c.1290-c.1335
April 22, 2012 By
When Edward Balliol died without direct heirs in 1364, the dynastic rivalry between the Bruce and Balliol families that existed since 1290 came to an end.
The Kingship of Robert I (1306-29)
March 18, 2012 By
The year 1318 was dramatically representative of the fortunes of the kingship of Robert Bruce. It was also typical of his flint-edged and adaptable response to such fates and makes it plain that Robert’s strongest model for his own style of rule and the recasting of the office of King of Scots was surely that of his early antagonist, the formidable Edward I of England.
‘With a Vertu and Leawté’: Masculine Relationships in Medieval Scotland
February 22, 2012 By
When the subject of men in medieval Scotland is mentioned, it often conjures up images of muscular, kilted, claymore-wielding warriors intent on national independence, an image informed more by Mel Gibson’s 1995 Braveheart than by historical fact.
‘A fell coniuracioun agayn Robert the douchty king’: the Soules conspiracy of 1318-1320
November 30, 2011 By
An anlysis of the plot against Robert I, discovered in 1320, and hitherto dismissed as a scheme led by a desparate minority: this paper argues it was in fact a Balliol plot to dethrone Bruce.
The Auld Alliance (1295-1560) : Commercial Exchanges, Cultural and Intellectual Influences Between France and Scotland
April 17, 2011 By
The Auld Alliance (1295-1560) : Commercial Exchanges, Cultural and Intellectual Influences Between France and Scotland CANALLAS, MURIEL MA Thesis, UNIVERSITE DE TOULON ET DU VAR (2009) Abstract France and Scotland have always shared an obvious sense of friendship through the centuries. Few countries in history have been connected this way. One may wonder why. We can […]
Reputations in Scottish History: King Robert the Bruce (1274-1329)
February 22, 2010 By
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