The Bruce Story

It was now the year 1305, and a story almost too dramatic to be believed was about to unfold. A tale of daggers drawn in the sacred precincts of a church... of the pomp of a new King being crowned... and of a Scottish army cut to pieces by English knights. Yet it was to be the prequel to one of the most glorious chapters in Scottish history. And, on Ulster’s Rathlin Island, King Robert the Bruce’s refuge became his greatest inspiration, creating the legend which lives on to this day...

1305: A bargain and a betrayal
Sir William Wallace was dead. Robert the Bruce and Sir John Comyn were now the two most powerful men in Scotland, and they both had a claim to the vacant throne. As we saw in Part One, there was also bad blood between them. Nevertheless, they made an agreement aimed at defusing their rivalry. If Robert became king, Comyn would support him. In return, the Bruce would cede all his lands to Comyn. If Comyn became king, he would give all his holdings to Robert. Comyn said, on those terms, he would support Robert’s bid for kingship but, in 1305, Comyn revealed the bargain to King Edward I “Longshanks” of England.

1306: Sixpence and spurs!
Robert was summoned to London by a furious King Edward I. However, the King did not strike immediately and he and Robert seemed to be playing a deadly game of cat and mouse. Perhaps Edward was waiting for the Bruce’s family to join him in London so that he could deal with the whole brood in one stroke. Then the Earl of Gloucester, a friend of Robert’s, sent him a coded warning, a sixpence and some spurs.The sixpence was used to tip the messenger and the spurs told the Bruce that the time had come to flee or die.

Thursday 10th February 1306: Daggers at Grey Friars, Dumfries
Robert returned to Scotland, enraged by Comyn’s treachery. He arranged to meet his old foe in the Church of the Grey Friars in Dumfries on 10 February, 1306. Given what followed, was the Bruce deliberately luring his enemy to his death? It seems unlikely; a church was a place of sanctuary and would act as a reassurance against violence by either party. Whatever the intention, things soon turned nasty. Daggers were drawn, Comyn fell and Robert fled from the church ‘like a man beyond endurance and beyond himself.’

Two of his companions who had waited outside – David Lindsay and Roger Kirkpatrick – learned what had happened. Robert seemed unsure as to whether Comyn was actually dead, he fled from the building and said “I doubt I have slain the Red Comyn!”. “You doubt?”, cried Kirkpatrick.“I mak siccar!” (Scots for “I’ll make sure”). Kirkpatrick and Lindsay rushed back into into the church and finished Comyn off. They may have struck the fatal blows but Robert carried the guilt of this double misdeed – murder and sacrilege.

27th March 1306: Bruce is crowned
The Scottish bishops, supporters of Bruce, absolved him of his sin. The Pope was less understanding; Robert was later to be excommunicated for sacrilege. Nonetheless, with Comyn gone, there was no realistic rival to the throne. Consequently, Robert was crowned King of Scotland at Scone. He wore a simple gold circlet as the Stone of Destiny and the Scottish crown had been taken to Westminster by Edward I. The ceremony was attended by Scotland’s chief clergy - the Bishop of Glasgow, the Bishop of St Andrews and the Abbot of Scone. Bruce’s four brothers - Edward, Thomas, Alexander and Neil - were there, as were other Scottish nobles with names which are well known even today in Ulster - Lennox, Douglas, Haye, Barclay, Fraser, Somerville, Boyd and Fleming.

King Edward I of England retaliates - the Massacre at Methven
Edward immediately responded by sending a large army northwards. It was under the command of Aymer de Valence, the Earl of Pembroke, one of the most famous knights in Christendom. When the Scottish and English armies met, at Methven near Perth, it is said that Robert offered to settle the matter by single combat. Pembroke agreed, but asked that they wait until the following day. Then, on 19th June 1306, the English broke the agreement and attacked at dusk. The unprepared Scots army was cut to pieces. It is said Robert only survived because he was wearing a plain surplice, rather than his royal one, and was therefore able to slip away unidentified.

Other fugitives were not so lucky. They were hunted down and executed in the most savage manner. Many of the nobles and earls who had attended Bruce’s coronation less than three months before were now brutally killed by the English army. To many, it must have seemed as if the Scottish cause was lost.

King Robert the Bruce on the run
So soon after the glory of his coronation, King Robert the Bruce was reduced to living the life of a fugitive. He worried about his family and decided to send his womenfolk to Kildrummy Castle in Moray and thence to Orkney. In the meantime, he and his remaining followers (about 200 men) moved south-west to Dunaverty Castle on the Mull of Kintyre where they were welcomed by Angus of Islay, Lord of Kintyre.

Autumn 1306 - Manhunt!
King Edward I of England sent orders for two powerful Lords on each side of the North Channel to lead the hunt for Bruce. Sir John de Menteith (Lord of Argyll), and Sir Hugh Bisset (Lord of the Glens of Antrim) were ordered to carry out sea patrols along the coastlines of both Scotland and Ulster.

Edward commanded that Bisset should prepare “as many well-manned vessels as he can procure, to come to the Isles and the Scottish coast, and join Sir John de Menteith in putting down Robert de Bruce and his accomplices there, and in cutting off their retreat”. A powerful English lord, Sir Simon de Montacute, was appointed as commander of a fleet “for service against the rebels lurking in Scotland, and in the Isles between Scotland and Ireland”. The English fleet patrolled the waters, from Skinburness in the Solway Firth to Ayr, on a constant yet unsuccessful search for Bruce and his men.

The Bissets in Ulster
Edward’s reliance on Sir Hugh Bisset may have been ill-placed. The Bissets had arrived in Ulster just 65 years before (in 1242) having been expelled from Scotland, and they acquired lands from Hugh de Lacy, the Earl of Ulster, from Larne to Ballycastle. Bisset made Glenarm his headquarters and built a castle there around 1260, on the site of today’s courthouse. And just nine years previously, in 1298, the Bissets had prepared an army to fight alongside Sir William Wallace against the English at the Battle of Falkirk. So Sir Hugh Bisset may well have turned a blind eye to Bruce’s stay on Rathlin, in order to protect him from King Edward I’s vengeance.

The Seige of Kildrummy Castle
Bruce’s wife Elizabeth, (the daughter of the Earl of Ulster) fled to Kildrummy Castle in the north of Scotland, along with their daughter Marjorie, Robert’s sisters and a battalion of Bruce’s men to protect them. The English laid siege to the castle which fell after a fire in the stores forced to defenders to yield. Among the men captured with the castle’s fall was Neil, Robert’s brother, who was hung, drawn and beheaded.The women, accompanied by the Earl of Athol, managed to escape and fled towards Orkney. The Queen and her companions sought safety in St Duthac’s Sanctuary in Tain, Scotland’s oldest Royal Burgh. St Duthac had a connection with Ulster, having died in Armagh in 1065. His remains were then returned to his birthplace.)

The Fate of the Bruce women
If the ladies hoped for St Duthac’s protection, they were to be disappointed. The English captured them and Edward’s reputation for cruelty towards the Scots was reinforced by his treatment of Bruce’s wife, daughter and sisters. While captured knights could expect to be executed in the most cruel manner, the rules of chivalry were clear that women were to be treated with kindness and courtesy. Queen Elizabeth Bruce, was held in what was effectively solitary confinement in Holderness, Yorkshire. Mary Bruce, Robert’s sister and Countess Isobel of Buchan were confined in open cages like animals for all to see. Marjorie Bruce, Robert’s 12 year old daughter, was also displayed in a similar cage in the Tower of London. One can imagine the impact upon Robert when he learned of Edward’s viciousness towards these helpless captives.

Autumn 1306 - Spring 1307: Bruce’s Refuge on Rathlin Island
Bruce and his men stayed at Dunaverty Castle for around three days, but, knowing that the English army were on their trail, they left Scotland in September 1306 for the isolation and safety of Rathlin Island…