The silence of Wyntoun, Fordun, and our other early Scotch chroniclers, as to the disease of which King Robert Bruce died, may not improbably be explained by their reluctance to associate the heroic monarch with an odious and degrading malady. But the King’s metrical biographer names his disease, or at least its origin; and it would be interesting to know if that disease can be identified with leprosy.
“For a malice him tuk sa sar,
That he on na wiss mycht be thar.
This malice off enfundeying
Begouth; for, through his cald lying,
Quhen in his gret myscheiff wes he,
Him fell that hard perplexite.”
—(Barbour’s Bruce, pp. 406-407. Dr. Jamieson’s edit. 1820.)
In Mr. Cosmo Innes’ later edition the passage stands thus—
“For ane male es tuk him sa sar