697 Davy. David II. (June 7, 1329 to February 22, 1371). He scarcely deserved Barbour’s epithet “worthy.”
702 Fif yheir. In 1375 Robert was in the fifth year of his reign; he would not have “passit” it till February 22, 1376. He was born March 2, 1316, and in 1375 was in his sixtieth year. The year in Scotland, however, began on March 25, so that Barbour’s cross-dating really stands for what we should call the early spring of 1376. He was then engaged on The Bruce.
705-6 the gud King Robert. I.e., Robert I. the Bruce, dead forty-six years. It is curious to find this elaborate dating “of the compyling of this book” here, and not at the end. Evidently the mention of the marriage of the Steward, the reigning King’s father, is Barbour’s cue. There is no reason to suppose that this was a subsequent insertion, and we may conclude that the poem was completed somewhat later.
736 our-raid all Northumbirland. “They (the Scots) plundered the northern bounds of England as far as Richmond and returned, devastating the country with fire and carrying off with them many captives” (Gesta Edwardi, p. 47). Cf. Barbour, lines following. On July 1, 1314, the Bishop of Durham writes the King regarding Scottish preparations for an invasion of England, of which he has heard. On October 7, 1314, the Prior and Convent of Durham pay the Earl of Murray eight hundred marks to secure the bishopric immunity from invasion for a stated period (Letters from Northern Registers, Nos. cxliv., cxlix.). According to the Lanercost chronicler, the Scots entered by Berwick, and burned almost all Northumberland, spared Durham for a monetary consideration, penetrated to the Tees and to Richmond, and returned, via Lanercost, with a great body of cattle and captives (pp. 228, 229).
BOOK XIV.
4 Scotland to litill wes. According to the Annalist, it was the Scots who were not satisfied with their own country; but this is merely a rhetorical comment (Annals of Ireland, p. 344). The anonymous Chronicle in Stevenson’s Illustrations says that Edward Bruce, elated by the success of the Scots, aspired to the name of King (ad nomen regium aspirans, p. 3). Fordun’s version is the same as that of Barbour: “Edward Bruce was not willing to live in peace with his brother unless he got half the kingdom for himself, and for this reason the war was started in Ireland” (Gesta Annalia, cxxxiii.).
8 had treting With the Erischry. It was afterwards (1316-17) made a charge against Walter de Lacy and Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, that they had sent messengers and letters to invite Edward Bruce to Ireland. The legal documents in the case are given in Chartularies, etc., of St. Mary’s Abbey (vol. ii., pp. 407-9). This charge is also noted in the Annals of Ireland (Fragment), under February 2, 1317, where it is said that, on inquiry, the Lacys were acquitted (p. 298). Nevertheless, they and their relatives were fined £200 (Preface, p. cxxix). The Chronicle in Stevenson appears to refer to the same case, when it says that Edward Bruce was persistently (sæpissime) invited by a certain Irish magnate with whom he had been educated in his youth (p. 3).
21 Maii. “The Scots first entered Ireland on May 26, 1315” (die Sancti Augustini Anglorum, mense Maii. Annals of Ireland, p. 344). The Annals of Ulster fix his landing at the beginning of the year (ii., p. 423); as do also Annals of Loch Cé (i., p. 563). Edward Bruce had a fleet of 300 ships (Annals of Clonmacnoise, p. 268).