For a long time Bruce had vacillated between the two parties; having been engaged during his youth in the service of Edward by his father, he had sworn allegiance, then violated his oath, but finally determined to observe his old professions. After the fall of Baliol, he had proposed to Comyn, surnamed the Red, a powerful Scottish lord, and one of his neighbors, that whichever of the two should establish his claim to the crown should bequeath the kingdom to the other as an indemnity. Comyn had pretended to accept the bargain, but had secretly warned Edward of the conspiracy. Bruce, who was in England, was about to be arrested, in spite of his kinship to the royal family (he had married Joan of Valence, Edward's cousin), when Gilbert de Clare sent a pair of spurs to him by a messenger. Bruce took the hint and immediately mounted his horse; he did not know what danger threatened him, or who had betrayed him, yet he was careful to conceal his traces. Meeting with a servant of Comyn, who was carrying fresh communications to Edward, he seized the missives and assured himself of Comyn's treachery, then hastened back to Scotland. A few days later, on the 10th of February, 1306, these two enemies met at Dumfries, and Bruce called Comyn into a chapel of the Minorites, in order to demand an explanation of his conduct. They were alone; the dispute became furious. Bruce drew his dagger and struck Comyn, who fell upon the steps of the high altar. Pale and agitated, Bruce left the chapel hurriedly; his haggard appearance struck his friends who were in attendance upon him. "What have you done?" Fitz-Patrick of Colesburn asked him. "I think I have killed Comyn." "You think?" cried Fitz-Patrick, "then I will make sure of it." And, re-entering the holy place, he struck the wounded man another blow; killed the latter's uncle, Sir Robert Comyn, who tried to defend his nephew, and returned to Bruce. The little band hurried away at a gallop. Bruce had only one course before him now; he was henceforth an outlaw, and the boldest action became necessary. But the fire was smouldering in all the noble hearts of Scotland. As soon as Bruce raised the standard of independence, some priests and lords gathered round him and boldly crowned him at Scone. On the day of the Annunciation (1306) Scotland had a king; Edward I. heard of it at Winchester a few days later.
In the eyes of the King of England Bruce was a rebel, and was, moreover, a man who must be punished for having committed sacrilege; he sent a small army into Scotland under the command of the Earl of Pembroke, and, tired and sick as he was, began to make extensive preparations for marching personally against the insurgents. Prince Edward, his son, was twenty-two years of age, and had not yet been knighted. On the 23rd of May, during Whitsuntide, the young man, having received his spurs from the hands of his father, conferred the same distinction upon two hundred and seventy young lords, companions of his pleasures, who were about to become his comrades in arms. All the company then met at a magnificent banquet; a golden filet was brought upon a table, containing two swans, emblems of constancy and fidelity; then the king, placing his hand upon their heads, swore to avenge the death of Comyn and to punish the rebels of Scotland, without sleeping for two nights in the same place, and to start immediately afterwards for Palestine in order to rescue the Holy Sepulchre. The young men swore the same oath as the king, and the latter made them promise if he should die during the war in Scotland, not to bury his body until the conquest should have been achieved. The prince immediately afterwards started for the frontiers with his companions. The king followed less rapidly, as he could only travel upon a litter.
Meanwhile Bruce's forces had increased rapidly; the malcontents—and they were very numerous—were beginning to declare themselves and to rally round the new king. When the Earl of Pembroke arrived in Scotland, the insurgents were in high spirits; but a battle was fought on the 19th of June, near the woods of Methven, which destroyed their illusions; many Scots were killed, the prisoners were put to death, and Bruce retired into the mountains of Athol with five hundred men. Too ill to proceed further, King Edward had been obliged to stop at Carlisle, but he was directing all the operations of his troops, and ordering the execution of the prisoners, thus bearing witness to his deep-rooted resentment against Scotland. Bruce was leading the life of a roaming knight in the forests, hunting and fishing, accompanied only by a few faithful friends; his wife, his two sisters, and the Countess of Buchan shared with him his adventurous existence, which the fine weather rendered tolerable, even in Scotland.
Meanwhile, winter was coming on, and it became necessary to seek more civilized quarters. Bruce's little band was attacked by Lord de Lorn, a relation of Comyn's, and a mortal enemy of Bruce. The King of Scotland's companions were falling under the battle-axes of Lochaber, when he sounded the retreat, and, clad in armor and mounted upon a good war-horse, took up his position in a defile, and defended the approach single-handed. Lorn's mountaineers hesitated, being terrified at the immovable countenance, the long sword always on guard, and the bright eyes glistening under the helmet; at length three men, a father and two sons, named Mac-Androsser, famous in their clan for their strength and courage, sprang forward together upon the royal champion; one seized the bridle of the horse, and his arm fell at his side, his hand being severed; another fastened himself to the leg of the horseman: the horse pranced about, and the unhappy warrior had his head split open by a sword-stroke. The father, who was more skilful, as well as maddened at the fate of his sons, clutched the king's cloak; he was still holding it after his death, and Bruce was compelled to leave in the hands of the corpse this token of the desperate struggle. The king had retreated without being wounded, but it was necessary to place his wife and sisters in safety, and the castle of Keldrummie afforded them a shelter, while Bruce took refuge in the Hebrides. The separation was doomed to be a sad and long one, for the castle was taken, and Nigel Bruce, Robert's younger brother, was cruelly put to death. The Queen of Scotland was sent to England, and Bruce's sisters-in-law, shut up in wooden cages, were exposed to the public sight of Berwick and Roxburgh. Every time that any of the adherents of Bruce fell into the hands of the English troops they were put to death; the king himself, who was now excommunicated and proscribed, had taken refuge in the little island of Rachrin. His retreat was unknown to his enemies, and a reward was offered in Scotland to whoever would give news of Robert Bruce, who was "lost, stolen, or strayed."
It was in the spring of 1307, that Bruce suddenly reappeared, supported by some ships which had been lent to him by Christiana, Lady of the Isles. Deceived by a false indication, he attacked Henry Percy, to whom King Edward had recently given the castle of Carrick, Bruce's own property; and, taking his enemies by surprise, he defeated them, caused great slaughter, and returned in triumph to the castle, which however he could not hold for any length of time, surrounded as he was on all sides, not only by the English forces, but by his personal enemies, and all the family of Comyn.
The capture of Carrick Castle was nevertheless Robert's first step upon the ladder of fortune; but yesterday a fugitive, he was now rejoined by his scattered supporters: after his success, warriors who had previously been undecided, embraced the cause of Bruce, whose forces became so formidable, that Edward, who was furious, resolved to leave Carlisle to march in person against the rebels. He caused his litter to be hung up in York cathedral in memory of his sickness, and was about to mount his horse when he heard that the Earl of Pembroke had been defeated on the 10th of May by Bruce at Loudon Hill; the rage of the king lent him strength for awhile; he started out for Carlisle at the head of a large corps; but the journey was cut short, and he was obliged to stop. When not more than three leagues from Carlisle, death came and chilled the proud heart and the indomitable spirit, once animated by the noblest and most chivalrous desires, but for several years absorbed in ambitious projects and cruel schemes of revenge. His last words were a recommendation to his son to finish the task which had been begun, to be good to his young brothers, and to maintain three hundred knights in the Holy Land. When he was buried at Westminster an inscription was placed upon his tomb, covered by a block of stone brought from Palestine:—
Eduardus Primus.
Edward I.
Malleus Scotorum.
The Scourge of the Scots.
1307 Pactum Serva.
1307 Keep the Covenant.
Among the sovereigns who had governed England, very few had held the power with a firmer hand than Edward I.; very few, however, saw the foundation of more liberties. In vain, in 1307, when the king had thought the conquest of Scotland assured, had he hoped to effect his deliverance from the yoke which his people had imposed upon him; in vain had he obtained from the Pope a bull on the 4th of January, 1305, which relieved him of his oaths and annulled the charters which he had ratified, forbidding any one, under pain of excommunication, to claim their fulfilment; in vain, Bohun being dead, had Edward's threats succeeded in intimidating old Bigod and his faithful ally, the Archbishop of Canterbury; the attitude taken by the entire nation had caused the king to hesitate, and he had not yet made public the Papal bull, when the insurrection in Scotland absorbed all his attention and necessitated the assistance of Parliament. The liberties acquired by the barons now had a durable guarantee; the great lords were not obliged to resort incessantly to arms. Parliaments having been instituted. We have seen the deputies of the towns summoned to Parliament for the first time by the Earl of Leicester. Under King Edward I. the barons began to hold their deliberations privately, and the knights from the shires and the deputies from the towns who were summoned less frequently, formed a second chamber. From this time dates the origin of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The most complete Parliament which had yet sat, was that of 1295, convened by King Edward before his campaign in Flanders: an Ecclesiastical Parliament had been convoked at the same time. The subsidies which were then granted, and which the king endeavored to increase by acts of extortion, were the cause of the opposition of Bigod and Bohun. At the death of Edward, the charters had been so firmly established in England, that no monarch dreamt of disturbing them again, until the unhappy days of Charles I. The liberties of the nation were assured by the frequent meeting of the Parliaments, their faithful and natural guardians. The constitution of England was founded.