of David, Earl of Huntingdon, the youngest of King David I’s three grandsons of whom the two elder, Malcolm IV and William I, had succeeded him in turn on the Scottish throne. This marriage was to have a profound effect on the future of the Bruces.
Isobel held large estates in her own right both in England and Scotland, and when the fourth Robert died in 1245 and Isobel in 1252, the fifth Robert (the Competitor) received lands in both countries of such extent as to make him one of the most influential men in either Scotland or England.3
In 1238 a dazzling prospect opened before him. Queen Joan, the wife of Alexander II, died childless and there was no apparent heir. To safeguard the succession the King called his magnates together and in their presence and with their consent designated the fifth Robert as his heir presumptive.4 But the period of anticipation was brief. In May 1239 Alexander married again and sired on this second wife, Marie de Courcy, a son who was born in September 1241: the future Alexander III. Nevertheless, the fact that the kingdom of Scotland had once been within his grasp was deeply engraved on Robert’s mind and when, nearly fifty years later, the opportunity seemed once more to arise, the old man roused himself from his retirement to make a masterful bid for the throne.
Meanwhile in May 1240 Robert the Competitor had married Isobel de Clare, daughter of the Earl of Gloucester and niece of the Earl Marshall of England. Linked as he thus became to the innermost circles of the English ruling families, he devoted many of his abilities to the service of Henry III of England,* fighting for him against Simon de Montfort on the disastrous field of Lewes, acting as a trusted intermediary between the English and Scottish thrones, and carrying out his duties as Sheriff of Cumberland and Governor of Carlisle.5
The Lanercost Chronicle writes:
He was of handsome appearance, a gifted speaker, remarkable for his influence and, what is most important, most devoted to God and the Clergy. It was his custom to entertain and feast more liberally than all other courtiers and was most hospitable to all his guests nor used the pilgrim to remain outside his gates for his door was open to the wayfarer.6
His devotion to God and his indomitable character were made equally evident when in 1270 he resigned all his offices and at the age of sixty, accompanied by his son the sixth Robert, embarked on the long voyage to the Middle East to face the rigours of a crusader’s life in the Holy Land. When he returned in 1272 his old friend and master Henry III had died and a new vigorous monarch, Edward I, was on the English throne. It was time for him to settle quietly on the family estates and enjoy the pleasures of his second marriage to a neighbouring widow, Christiana of Ireby, which took place in May 1273, and to anticipate with confidence the benediction of the formidable Saint Malachy.
The curse of Saint Malachy had exercised his mind ever since he came to manhood. More than a hundred years earlier in 1148 Saint Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, on his way to Rome from Ireland had spent the night at the house of the second Robert in the town of Annan. Hearing that a thief had been captured shortly before and was awaiting sentence, he asked, as a boon from his host, that the man’s life should be spared. His request was granted and he blessed the household. But as he set out on his journey the next morning he saw the thief hanging from the gallows. Outraged by the duplicity of his host, he revoked his blessing and laid a perpetual curse on the family of the Bruces.7
When Robert the Competitor became heir presumptive to Alexander II, it was clear to him that steps must be taken to remove what appeared to many of the superstitious a grievous disability. He journeyed to the saint’s tomb and on his knees beside it prayed that the curse might be lifted. He repeated these visits on many occasions. Finally in 1272, on his way back from the Holy Land, he confirmed by a charter, still preserved at Clairvaux, a perpetual rent ‘to God and the Blessed Mary and to the house and monks of Clairvaux in order to maintain lights before the blessed Malachy and for the good of his own soul and the souls of his predecessors and successors.’8 He could well feel that a benediction was now his due.
LochmabenCastle, at the head of the Annandale Valley, in which he dwelt with his new wife, was a powerful stone-built fortress, sited on a promontory jutting into the waters of the loch, the embracing arms of which were joined by a canal surrounding it on all sides by water. It was some sixty miles from his son the Earl of Carrick’s castl e at Turnberry, a long day’s ride but close enough to assume that according to the ordinary pattern of family relationship there would have been constant visits between the two households and that he would have attended the christening of his first grandson, Robert Bruce.
Of Robert Bruce there is no written record from the time of his birth certificate in July 1274 until July 1286, when in the Paisley registrum his signature is appended as witness to a deed of Alexander Macdonald of Islay in company with his father the Earl of Carrick, the Bishop of Argyll, the vicar of Arran and the clerk of Kintyre as well as other personages.9 During these twelve years he would have spent much of his time with his foster brothers and sisters, children of the woman to whom, as was then customary, he would have been handed over at birth to be suckled.
Again from 1286 to 1292 there is no record, but as the child is father of the man, so from the known history of the man can be deduced the upbringing of the child.
The Robert Bruce who, when he was a hunted man, beguiled his haggard followers on the hillside by reading to them a French romance, must have had book learning in his youth. He would have spoken the Norman-French of his peers and in the Celtic household of his parents absorbed from their retainers the Gaelic language which was dominant from Galloway in the southwest up through the western Highlands to the mountains of Inverness. In his grandfather’s house too he would have heard spoken and learnt the northern English, which was to become the broad Scots of later generations and was then the common speech from the borders to Strathclyde, and from Lothian to the trading ports on the eastern seaboard. He would have become trilingual at an early age: an accomplishment most necessary for one who was to draw supporters for his struggle from all three spheres.
And since in his prime Robert Bruce was ranked with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry and Sir Giles D’Argentan as one of the three most accomplished knights in Christendom,10 it is certain that as soon as he was able he was trained in the handling of arms and the management of horses. The society in which he lived was a military one and martial prowess was sought with an obsessive passion. When knights could not exercise their skill on the field of battle, they took part in tournaments which were immensely popular all over Europe.
These combined the stimulus of risk and the possibility of profit. The defeated knight forfeited his horse and arms or had to pay ransom to reclaim them. So rich were these prizes that often knights made up teams to share the gains or dilute the losses, or wealthy backers would club together to equip a promising but indigent competitor and participate in his spoils. The reputations of consistent champions were internationally known and those in the top rank, such as Robert Bruce became, carried with them an aura of success which had a psychological effect in the clash of war.11 In the love-hate syndrome which can be detected in Edward I’s relationship to Robert Bruce, the chivalric fame of the latter may well have played its part. But their meeting was still in the future. Meanwhile the towering figure of Edward I, seven feet from mailed feet to crested helmet, was to cast a long shadow on Scotland.12
