[CHAPTER XIII]
THE HEART OF THE BRUCE
King Robert the Bruce died at Cardross on the Clyde, on June 7, 1329, a little more than a month before the completion of his fifty-fifth year. The cause of his death is said to have been leprosy. Barbour says it was the development of a severe cold, a benumbment contracted in the hardships of his early wanderings. Apart from specific disease, the strain of his laborious reign of nearly a quarter of a century would have shaken the strongest constitution of man.
In the last three years he had been struck by two severe bereavements: the death of his son-in-law, Sir Walter the Steward, a knight of great promise, on April 9, 1326; and the death of the queen, at Cullen, on October 26, 1327. In the latter year, indeed, in spite of increasing illness, he had taken the field in Ireland and in Northumberland. But he had been unable to attend the marriage of David and Joan at Berwick in July 1328. Still he continued to move about quietly. When, however, Douglas brought him back from a visit to Galloway in the end of March 1329, it was not to be concealed that 'there was no way for him but death.' And, accordingly, he set his house in order.
On October 15, 1328, the Pope had at last granted absolution to Robert from the excommunication pronounced by the cardinals, and, on November 5, authorised his confessor to give him plenary remission in the hour of death.
At a parliament held on November 14, 1328, at Scone, it had been settled that, in the event of David's dying without heir male of his body begotten, Robert the Steward, son of Marjory, should succeed; and that, if King Robert died during David's minority, Randolph should be regent, and, failing Randolph, Douglas. David and Joan were crowned, and David received homage and fealty.
On May 11, 1329, the King assembled his prelates and barons to hear his last wishes. He gave directions for liberal largess to religious houses, with special consideration for Melrose Abbey, where he desired his heart to be buried. He declared his long-cherished intention—Froissart says his 'solemn vow'—after bringing his realm to peace, 'to go forth and war with the enemies of Christ, the adversaries of our holy Christian faith.' As he had been unable to carry out his fixed purpose, he wished his heart to be taken and borne against the foes of God. On Douglas was laid this great and noble charge. Froissart mentions a specific instruction: 'I wish that you convey my heart to the Holy Sepulchre where our Lord lay, and present it there, seeing my body cannot go thither. And wherever you come,' added the King, 'let it be known that you carry with you the heart of King Robert of Scotland, at his own instance and desire, to be presented at the Holy Sepulchre.' Douglas solemnly pledged himself to this last faithful service.
On the death of King Robert, his heart was embalmed, and enclosed in a silver casket 'cunningly enamelled,' which Douglas bore always about his neck. Strangely enough, even in death, the King came in conflict with Rome; for the excision of his heart was a breach of a Papal Bull of 1299, involving excommunication of the mutilators, and excluding the body from ecclesiastical burial. On August 13, 1331, the Pope, at the prayer of Randolph, granted absolution to all that had taken part 'in the inhuman and cruel treatment' of the King's body.
The body was embalmed, and carried through the Lennox, and by Dunipace and Cambuskenneth, to repose with the body of the Queen in Dunfermline Abbey—since Malcolm Canmore, the last resting-place of the Kings of Scotland. Over the King's grave was erected a marble monument, which he had ordered from Paris a twelvemonth before his death. It might have been supposed that never in time would any Scotsman lay a rude hand on the sepulchre of the greatest of Scottish kings; yet on March 28, 1560, an insensate rabble of 'Reformers' razed the abbey to the ground, and broke in pieces the royal monument. In 1818, when foundations for a new church were being cleared, there were found, in a grave in front of the spot where the high altar of the Abbey Church had stood, the bones of a man whose breast-bone had been sawn asunder, and who had been buried in fine linen shot with gold thread. The probability that these were the bones of Bruce was enhanced by the surrounding fragments of black and white marble, well-polished, carved, and gilt. There lay also a mouldering skull, which five centuries agone may have held the powerful brain that dominated the field of Bannockburn.
Douglas set about his preparations. Now that peace with England was established, and Randolph held the reins of State, there was no national reason why Douglas could not be spared for a time. Nor would warriors like Bruce and his paladins have ever weighed for a moment the risks of the sacred mission. It seems a misapprehension to suggest either selfishness or ingratitude on the part of the dying King. Nor is there any substantial ground for imagining that Robert feared any lack of harmony between his two great lieutenants. Barbour's casual suggestion of petty rivalry between them cannot weigh for a moment against their constant association in scores of enterprises. Their rivalry was of noble quality. The King had made a knightly vow, and that vow he must, as far as might be, perform; it was hardly less a national than a personal obligation.
On September 1, Douglas obtained from Edward III. letters of protection for seven years, and a letter of commendation to Alfonso XI., King of Castile and Leon. On February 1, 1329–30, the day of the patron saint of his house, St Bride, he bestowed lands on the Abbey of Newbattle to secure her special intercession in his spiritual interests. Shortly thereafter he set out on his mission, with 'a noble company'—one knight banneret, seven other knights, twenty-six squires, and a large retinue. According to Froissart, he sailed from Montrose to Sluys, where he lay twelve days, thinking he might be joined by other knights 'going beyond the sea to Jerusalem'; and then to Valencia in Spain. According to Barbour he sailed from Berwick direct to Seville. In any case, he proceeded to the camp of Alfonso, then on his frontier warring against Osmyn, the Moorish King of Granada, and was received with honour befitting his fame and his mission. The knights with Alfonso were eagerly curious to see the famous Scot; and one notable warrior expressed his great surprise that Douglas's face was not seamed with scars like his own. 'Praised be God!' said Douglas, 'I always had hands to defend my head.'