Almost one hundred years after, the three principal Scottish historians—Barbour, Fordun, and Wyntoun—arose in Scotland. They had to write the history of their country, but their only materials consisted of Scottish traditions and English chronicles. Barbour, the first of these, had a pension granted to him out of the Scottish exchequer, “for compiling the book of the deeds of king Robert the First.” The work assigned to him evidently was to represent the Bruce as a hero, and, as far as possible, a “blameless king.”
After him followed Fordun and Wyntoun, and, still later, Hector Boece. No one of these could pretend to be a contemporary—all gave from tradition such facts as the Scottish people demanded of them. The general result is a story of this kind:—
That Comyn and Bruce had had conferences, to discuss the prospects of a new rebellion, in which Comyn was to support Bruce, and to receive his, Bruce’s, estates as a reward. That this agreement was put into an “endentur,” and sealed. That Comyn, being in Scotland, rode off to the king (who, at the time indicated, was in Dorset or Hants) and showed him the “endentur,” and left it with him. That thereupon the king summoned a parliament, and Bruce came up from Scotland to attend it. That Edward, having Bruce in town, was about to seize him, when the earl of Gloucester gave him warning, and he fled. That, on his way to Scotland, he met a messenger, whom he killed, and on whose person he found letters from Comyn to Edward. That, thus armed, and indignant at Comyn’s treachery, he went to Dumfries, met Comyn in the church of the Friars’ Minors, where he upbraided him, and at last slew him.
Such is the story, which appeared a century after the time in which the events occurred, and from the pen of men engaged to represent Bruce as a hero. We shall give, first of all, a Scottish criticism on the whole romance—the reasonable remarks of Mr. David Macpherson, the editor of Andrew Wyntoun’s Chronicle:—
“This whole story of the transactions of Bruce with Comyn has much the air of a fable contrived to varnish over the murder, and to make it appear an act of justice in Bruce, whose splendid actions had so prepossessed the people in his favour that they were determined not to believe that he could do wrong. The story has this sure mark of fable—that the later writers give us more circumstances than the earlier ones. Barbour has nothing of the earl of Gloucester, nor of Comyn’s messenger being intercepted and put to death, which are found in Fordun. In Bower’s time the tale was embellished with the devil’s consultation, and his wise scheme of inspiring Comyn to betray Bruce; together with the fall of snow, and the ingenious device of shoeing the horses backward. It was also thought proper to augment his retinue with a groom, and to allow two days more for the journey. Nothing remained for Hector Boece but to turn the earl of Gloucester’s pennies into two pieces of gold, and to make a brother for Bruce, whom he calls David.”[153]
One or two other remarks may be added:—
1. All the Scottish writers speak of a parliament being summoned, in order to bring Bruce back to London.[154] Now we know that this is a fiction. No such parliament was ever held, or called.
2. Bruce having taken leave of the king, at the end of October, and returned home to Scotland, Comyn, whose presence in England at that time is nowhere to be traced, is said to go to the king, and to show him the “endentur.” Whereupon Bruce, who had returned to Scotland, is to be suddenly brought back again, that the king may charge him with his treason. Now the journey, at that time, occupied from fifteen to twenty days. Winchelsey, a few years earlier, described it as requiring twenty. Barbour says that Bruce accomplished it in fifteen.[155] Here we have, first, Comyn’s “riding off to the king”; then, the king’s issue of a summons, to be sent to Scotland to Bruce; then, the return of Bruce to England, to attend a parliament; and finally, Bruce’s flight back into Scotland—which last, of itself, his own historian says, occupied fifteen days. It cannot be necessary to add that all this riding backward and forward, from England to Scotland, and from Scotland to England, is a romance, not a history.
3. Had the king been warned beforehand of Bruce’s treachery, he would have spoken of it. It would have been recorded in some of the English chronicles. No reason can be imagined why such a fact, if known, should have been kept secret by any one. Bruce’s flight, too, had it ever happened, would have alarmed Edward, and precautions would have been taken. But it is quite clear that when Edward heard of Bruce’s treason, and of the assassination of Comyn, the news came upon him as a surprise. Neither he nor the people of England had any previous expectation of it. “Nothing,” says Dr. Henry, “could exceed the surprise and indignation of Edward, when he heard of this revolution.”