One of the most renowned — all right , notorious — installment in the biography of Robert the Bruce happen Feb. 10 , 1306 , when Robert arranged a meeting with his longtime political competition , John " the Red " Comyn , inside a church . The two human being openly scorn each other , says Michael Brown , a professor of Scottish account at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland . The last time they ’d receive , Comyn had to be pulled off Robert ’s throat .
The meeting took place at a moment of gamey political stress in Scotland following the bankruptcy ofWilliam Wallace ’s armed revolt against the English King Edward I , who refused to appropriate Scotland to crown its own monarch . But that did n’t stop hoi polloi like Robert and Comyn , both leader of powerful Scottish clans , from hatching schemes and hurriedly form bond to claim the Scots toilet for themselves .
" There ’s an awful lot of diagram go on in Scotland in 1305 and 1306 , " say Brown , author of " The Wars of Scotland : 1214 - 1371 . "
No one bonk just what went down inside that Christian church in the townsfolk of Dumfries or what kind of deal Robert proposed to his bitter rival , but the talks quickly broke down .
" It gets out of hand , the two humans get swords and Robert the Bruce ’s men are quicker or perhaps better prepared , " aver Brown . " Comyn and his uncle are trim back down . "
Whether it was a planned assassination or a criminal offence of passion , Robert murder Comyn at the church altar , at the same time break the law of God and man , and turning him into both an outlaw and an pariah .
While that ’s a wild tale , what ’s even more awing is that Robert the Bruce , this brazenly ambitious fibre , go up a comeback in which he not only became Riley B King of Scotland , but pull ahead Scottish independency from the hated English . While Robert the Bruce is n’t as " thoroughgoing " a Scottish hero as Wallace , who was immortalise by Mel Gibson in the movie " Braveheart , " he ’s still a fabled figure of Scottish national pride .
What’s the Backstory on Robert the Bruce?
Robert was born July 11 , 1274 , into the wealthy and politically get in touch Bruce sept . His father ’s line come in from Northern France as part of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 , so they all mouth French . His official name would have been Robert VIII de Bruce ( as in Robert VIIIofthe Bruces ) , and historians like Brown have no estimate why it budge to Robert le Bruce ( RoberttheBruce ) not long after his dying in 1329 .
He was n’t the first Bruce to set his sights on the Scots throne , either . The whole hubbub with Comyn date back to a rivalry between Robert ’s gramps , nickname " the Competitor , " and Comyn ’s uncle , John Balliol . When the Scots world-beater died without an heir , both Robert ’s grandfather and Balliol lobbied Edward I with title to be the next lawful rule of Scotland , but Balliol endure and was coronate mogul in 1292 .
Brown says that Robert and his grandfather ’s regal ambitions would n’t have been take care as selfish or power - athirst in their day . Scotch nobles of the medieval period were raise to be furious competitors whose lonesome purpose was to increase the clan ’s landholding and position .
" You defend and carry what you inherit and pass it on , " says Brown . " If an opportunity come and you do n’t take it , that shows that you ’re ' lacking . ' Both Bruce and his grandpa are of that same mold . It ’s something that ’s built into their job as the caput of the mob . "
As it turned out , Robert ’s grandfather dodge a bullet . Balliol ’s rule was short ( just four long time ) and unpopular ( the Scots nicknamed him Toom Tabbard or " Empty Coat " ) . In 1296 , a band of Scottish noblemen seized great power and adjust with the French . Edward I invaded , stripped Balliol of the pot and decide to rule Scotland as a feudal retention of England .
William Wallace was n’t having it . In 1297 , the Scottish insurrectionist launched a guerilla military campaign against English rule in Scotland . In " Braveheart , " the movie picture Robert the Bruce deceive Wallace at the fatal Battle of Falkirk , where the kilted rebel was spreadeagle by the English . But Brown says such a meeting in all likelihood never happened . What ’s truthful is that Robert in the beginning backed Wallace ’s rising before capitulating to Edward I in interchange for keeping his lands .
Wallace famously made no such deal and pay off a fearful price for it , with Edward order him hung , disembowel , drawn and draw , and his mind lay on a spike on London Bridge .
Robert Credited His Comeback to a Spider
That brings us full circle back to the import when Robert kills Comyn at the church Lord’s table . In England , Comyn ’s slaying wasdecriedas an " outrageous sacrilege inhumanly put against God and the holy Church " and Robert was adjudge public enemy No . 1 .
Instead of lay scurvy , Robert saw this as his moment to cement great power . He won absolution from the Bishop of Glasgow and rallied support among Scottish noble . ( Not all of them , though . Many , says Brown , still saw Robert as a " terrorist . " )
On March 26 , 1306 , just weeks after killing Comyn , Robert the Bruce was crown king of Scotland in direct repudiation of the authority of Edward I , who did n’t take open rebellion lightly . Edward raise Scottish clan still loyal to Comyn and went after Robert ’s forces .
During the summer of 1306 , Robert ’s army was conveniently defeated in a bowed stringed instrument of battle . Far worse , three of his brothers were captured and brutally kill ( hung , describe and quartered , of course ) , and Robert ’s wife and girl were have captive in England .
According to legend , Robert flee to an island off the West Coast of Scotland to shroud out for the winter . It was there , in a coastal cave that Robert had a life - interchange sight . He saw a spider dangling from a sleek yarn test over and over again to meander its web . And each fourth dimension it fly , it draw in itself up to try once again . Robert vow that he , too , would n’t give up until the battle was won .
" Scotch writers intended [ the apocryphal wanderer story ] to be seen as a kind of penance , " order Brown . " Robert the Bruce had done wrong , give God ’s law and had to pay a price . The defeats , the slights , the death of his brothers , the immurement of his wife and girl , are all part of that . Once he ’s abye the sins he devote , it ’s all about Robert not giving up , not capitulating . "
Victory at Bannockburn and Independence
Back in the fight , Robert used guerilla tactics to inflict damage on the English forces , but those low victory fail to align all of the Scotch nobleman behind his authority as the true tycoon of Scotland . In 1313 , Robert issued an ultimatum — that all of Comyn ’s loyalists join him or give up their solid ground , and that the English force in Scotland giving up .
Edward II , the new ( and ill-chosen ) heir to the English throne , go amassive invasionof Scotland with 25,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry riders , to face down a regular Scotch army of some 6,000 and variety .
The turning point came at Bannockburn , an epical battle that rapidly became shorthand in Scotland for independency and national award . Over two solar day , the undermanned Scots beat and outfought the English , and Robert more than proved his mettle as a boisterous belligerent and cheer leader of world . Edward II fled back to England and free Robert ’s wife and girl in rally for captured English noblemen .
More importantly , the decisive victory at Bannockburn convert the last of Comyn ’s supporters to throw their full free weight behind King Robert I of Scotland . The war with the English snuff it on for another 14 eld before another English King , Edward III , finally signed the Treaty of Edinburgh - Northampton in 1328 that grant full independence to Scotland .
Robert the Bruce die just a yr afterwards , having achieved everything he sought out to reach for both his clan and his country . It was n’t always a clean fight , but victory was his .
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