The Life and Reign of Edward I.

by Robert Benton Seeley

His son, the second Robert de Brus of these three, was an intimate friend of Edward’s. He accompanied him in his visit to Palestine; he was on such terms of familiarity with him (as we have seen in a former page) as to apply to him for a loan of money; and we observe that in 1300, when the king returned from Scotland, he took up his abode “at Holme Cultram, on the border.” Now Holme Cultram is the place where this Robert de Brus lies buried. He was governor of Carlisle, and we have no doubt that it was by his invitation that Edward determined to spend some time in this home on the border. This de Brus married the countess of Carrick, and thus added another Scottish estate to his large English inheritance. He was always loyal to the English crown; and, accordingly, when the Scottish parliament of 1294–5 occupied itself in confiscating the estates of all who adhered to Edward, the lordship of Annandale was taken from de Brus. “During the contest of 1295–6, this Bruce, son to the competitor, possessed of large estates in England, continued faithful to Edward.”[140] And when Baliol resigned the crown, and Edward took possession of Scotland, he nominated “his dear and faithful Robert de Brus, earl of Carrick, and his son, to receive to his peace the inhabitants of Annandale.” A year or two later, we find him fighting in the English army, against Wallace, at Falkirk.[141] This, the second Robert de Brus of the three, seems to have lived and died governor of Carlisle, and sheriff of Cumberland, sitting in the English parliaments; and his grave, like his father’s, was made on English soil.

His son, the grandson of the competitor, was born, there seems no room to doubt, in or near Westminster, on the 11th of July, 1274.[142] This date, of itself, indicates the place of his birth, for at that time his father and mother must have been in the metropolis, waiting for Edward’s arrival and his coronation. The king was known to be approaching the coast, and, a few days after, he landed. The preparations for the ceremony and the feast had been going on for many weeks previous, and the king of Scotland, the duke of Bretagne, the archbishop, and all the barons of England, were gathered together to greet his arrival. His own personal friend, Bruce, who had accompanied him to Palestine, and who returned the year previous, could not, we may be sure, be absent. Nor was it at all probable that his vivacious lady, whose promptitude and decision had been shown, the previous year, in “taking to herself a husband,”[143] would prefer to remain in silence and solitude in her Scottish home, while one of the greatest ceremonies of the time was proceeding, in which her husband had a right to take a prominent part. Assuredly this Bruce, the second of the three, and his wife, the countess of Carrick, were in Westminster in July, 1274, and hence in that city, about three weeks before the king’s arrival, the son, who afterwards became king of Scotland, was born.

When rising out of boyhood into man’s estate, we find young Bruce in Edward’s court. His father, who was intimate enough with the king to ask him to lend him forty pounds,[144] would find no difficulty in introducing, as we are told he did, his son, when growing up, to a post in the royal household.[145] That the young Bruce often spent a summer at Turnberry, or at Holme Cultram, we can easily imagine; but his education he gained, we doubt not, as he received his birth, in or near Westminster; with occasional visits to others of the royal palaces.

But the events of 1290–1292 cannot have passed unheeded by the young scion of a Norman house. His grandfather, the inheritor of ninety‐four lordships in Yorkshire, had preferred a claim to be declared king of Scotland, and in that claim the young son of the earl of Carrick must have felt the deepest interest. It created a desire which seems never to have left the young de Brus. “The ideal perfection of the knight‐errant,” says Sir Walter Scott, “was to wander from land to land in quest of renown; to gain earldoms, nay, kingdoms, by the sword.” This idea must have been often present in the young de Brus’s mind.[146] He was empowered, as we have just seen, with his father, “to receive into the king’s peace the inhabitants of Annandale.” And from this date, 1296, until 1306, he continued to profess a loyal adherence to the crown of England. But there was an evident vacillation and hesitation in his course. He is claimed, more than once or twice, as a favourer of the insurgents who kept Scotland in commotion from 1297 to 1304. In truth, his position differed somewhat from that of his father and grandfather. In 1292 it was formally and solemnly adjudged that the right of John Baliol was superior to that of Robert de Brus. But in 1296 Baliol resigned the crown, and the king of England became king of Scotland also. The thought, therefore, could scarcely be absent from young de Brus’s mind, that if the two realms were again severed, and if Scotland became once more an independent kingdom, he, Robert de Brus, would surely be one of those who might advance the strongest title,—Baliol being now a refugee in France.

This thought seems to reveal itself at several stages of this history. Thus, when in 1297 Wallace raised the standard of rebellion, de Brus was called on to take his side. “His conduct,” says Mr. Tytler, “was vacillating and inconsistent.” The wardens of the marches called upon him to take his place under the king’s standard. He went, therefore, to Carlisle, and took a solemn oath to be faithful to the king. To prove his fidelity, he ravaged the estates of Sir William Douglas, who was then with Wallace; seized his wife and children, and carried them to Annandale. Having thus defeated suspicion, and saved his estates, he privately assembled his father’s retainers, talked lightly of “a foolish oath” he had taken, from which he hoped the pope would absolve him, and urged them to follow him, and join the insurgent forces.[147] During the next seven years we remark the same hesitating and doubtful course.

De Brus was an English baron; his father and his grandfather died on their English estates, and were buried in English graves. In Scotland they were men of note, men of power; but there were greater men in Scotland than they. Accordingly, when Wallace had driven the English out of Scotland, and a sort of “regency” was established, we hear of Comyn, and the earl of Buchan, and the bishop of St. Andrew’s acting as “regents,” and treating with Edward; but never do we meet with de Brus, either in the field or in the cabinet—either leading an armed force or placing himself at the head of a regency. His name, we believe, is once or twice used, but no proof is given that his concurrence had been obtained. From all open collision with the English government de Brus appears to have shrunk. And hence, when the strife of 1300–1304 came to an end, this cautious politician appeared to have saved himself from damage. Mr. Tytler observes that “Bruce, whose conduct had been consistent only upon selfish principles, found himself, when compared with other Scottish barons, in an enviable situation. He had preserved his great estates; his rivals were overpowered; and, on any new emergency occurring, the way was partly cleared for his own claim to the crown.”[148] Writers of a later date—writers whose object was to represent Bruce as a patriot—have put forward his name as concerned, with Comyn, Soulis, and others, in fighting the battle of Scottish independence; but it is very clear that Bruce himself contrived to make Edward regard him as a stedfast and sincere friend. On his father’s death, in 1304, he succeeded to the estates, and took the usual oaths of fealty; being released, by the favour of Edward, from the scutage payable to the feudal lord. And in that same year a letter was addressed to him by the king, in the following terms:—

“To our faithful and loyal Robert de Brus, earl of Carrick, and to all other our good people who are in his company, greeting:—We have heard that it is agreed between you and John de Segrave, and our other good people of his company, to follow the enemy; and that you desire we should hold you excused if you come not to us on the day appointed: know that for the great diligence and care which you have used in our affairs, and because you are thus agreed to follow the enemy, we thank you as heartily as we can; and we pray and require especially, as we confide in you, that ye put an end to this affair before ye leave these parts.”[149]

Thus, for a series of years, from 1296 to 1304, did de Brus succeed in making the king believe that, like his father and his grandfather, he was a faithful adherent of the English crown. And accordingly, when 1305 came, and all Scotland, from the Solway to the Orkneys, surrendered to the English king, he, desiring above all things peace and contentment, “placed himself chiefly in the hands of the bishop of St. Andrew’s, of John de Moubray, and of Robert de Brus.”[150] The last of the three was an Englishman, and also a Scottish baron. He was in the same position as our dukes of Sutherland of the present day, who are great lords in Staffordshire and other English counties, but one of whom, marrying a Scotch countess, added to his large English possessions almost a whole Scottish county.

That this Robert de Brus, on coming to man’s estate, and pondering the prospect before him, did often think upon his position with reference to the Scottish crown, is probable enough, and is suggested by several passages in his history. But so thinking, he would immediately discern three obstacles:—1. The declared superiority of Baliol’s claim, which had been recognized at the time of the arbitration. 2. Next, springing from the same root,—Margaret, the eldest daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon,—there stood John Comyn, a more potent baron in Scotland than he, and one who had, for five or six years past, acted as regent of the kingdom. How could de Brus expect that a Comyn would permit a descendant of David’s second daughter to take the Scottish crown in his presence?[151] But, 3, there stood in his way the de facto king of Scotland, Edward, to whom he, de Brus, and every lord in Scotland, had sworn fealty; and whose strong right arm showed, as yet, no signs of relinquishing so important an acquisition. De Brus could not forget that any appearance of treason on his part, in Scotland, would at once endanger his ninety‐four English lordships; and in spite of all that some Scottish historians have said, we feel satisfied, by Edward’s letter just cited, and by Bruce’s employment to settle “the pacification of Scotland,” that the king regarded him, up to the close of 1305, as “our dear and faithful Robert de Brus.”