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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
The life of Robert I, king of Scots, written by John Barbour archdeacon of Aberdeen is the fullest of any medieval king in the west, a chronicle of chivalry in vernacular octosyllabic couplets, on which much of our understanding of the events and ethos of the Scottish war depends. In this paper I discuss some aspects of the king's reign which Barbour ignored: pro-Balliol sentiment which lingered in Scotland and at the French and papal courts; and also aspects of the war where Barbour's narrative is incomplete or misleading, but which illustrate the growth of King Robert's military effort from that of a very uncertain factional rising to one which matched the rhetorical claims (in die Declaration of Arbroath) of a people at war. I shall be treading ground already mapped in Professor Barrow's masterly study, seeking only to point out features to which Barbour has, by omission or commission, drawn my attention.
1 The poem is some 13,500 lines long. It contains only one year date—1375, the year of composition. I cite it by book and line, using the traditional line numbers of the editions by Skeat and Mackenzie.
2 Barrow, G. W. S., Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (3rd edn. 1988)Google Scholar.
3 Stones, E. L. G. and Simpson, G. G., Edward I and the Throne of Scotland, 1290–1296, (1978), II, 187, 170Google Scholar.
4 Johannis de Fordun Chronica Gentis Scotorum, ed. Skene, W. F., I (1871), 326Google Scholar; Treaty Rolls, I, no. 376 (the truce of Asniéres); Stones, E. L. G., Anglo-Scottish Relations, 1174–1328, Some Selected Documents, (1965), no. 32Google Scholar.
5 Flores Historiarum, III, 118.
6 Rotuli Parliamentorum, I, 212–13 (the submission of 1304); 211–12 (the forma pacis, 15 October 1305); Stones, , Anglo-Scottish Relations, no. 33 (the ordinance for the government of Scotland, 09, 1305)Google Scholar.
7 History of Northumberland, XII, ‘Umfraville of Redesdale and Prudhoe’ tree identifies him as that Ingram de Umfraville who in 1279 claimed die lands of his father Robert, identified as the Robert born before 1212. It also claims that Ingram's Balliol inheritance came by marriage to a daughter of Ingram Balliol. But his name shows that his mother must have been a Balliol, and since the Guardian died after 1321, his father is unlikely to have been the Robert born before 1212. The matter is not resolved in Hedley, W. Percy, Northumberland Families, I (1968), 211Google Scholar.
8 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland [APS] I, 464–66; Regesta Regum Scottorum, V Acts of Robert I, 1306–29 [RRS, V], (1988), ed. Duncan, A. A. M., no. 58Google Scholar; 560–61.
9 APS, I, 465–66.
10 APS, I, 462, c.20; RRS, V, 412, c.20.
11 Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland [CDS], II, no. 1060.
12 Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, I, App. 1, no. 76Google Scholar.
13 Chron Fordun, I, 348–49; Scalacronica, 144; Barbour, , Brus, XIX, 76–121Google Scholar. Barbour first says that lords planned to kill the king and reign in his place; Soulis was chief of them. Then that Soulis was to reign in the king's place. He was betrayed by a lady, confessed his plot and was imprisoned. Fordun says that the countess of Strathearn and Soulis were convicted and imprisoned, Brechin and three others executed. The mild treatment of the countess and Soulis suggests that they did turn king's evidence, but makes ‘Soulis for king’ utterly improbable.
14 Cal. Patent Rolls, 1317–21, 441.
15 For these ambassadors see Barrow, , Bruce, 305Google Scholar.
16 PRO, SC1/49/70. This document was drawn to my attention by Professor Barrow.
17 Barbour, , Brus, XLX, 76–121Google Scholar. His safeconduct of 20 April 1320 was vacated and reissued on 4 October, when, however, a significant retinue was included, which he is more likely to have acquired in England than in Scotland. When this was reissued on 26 January, 1321 (Cal.Patent Rolls, 1317–21, 555) Ingram was claiming that he had never left Edward's allegiance, but had escaped from the Scots and had secured recovery of some lands (Col. Close Rolls, 1318–23, 288). At Westminster on 29 January, coming from Scotland and going to France, he had a silver gilt cup from the king (B.L. Additional MS. 9951, fo.20r). This leads me to believe his claim and to doubt Barbour's version of events.
18 Duncan, A. A. M., ‘The making of the Declaration of Arbroath’, The Study of Medieval Records, Essays in honour of Kathleen Major, ed.Bullough, D. A. and Storey, R. L. (1971), 174–88Google Scholar.
19 APS, I, 459–60; for the seals, ibid. 289.
20 Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, I, 226.
21 APS, I, 289.
22 Gascon Register A, ed. Cuttino, G. P. and Trabut-Cussac, J.-P. (1975), II, 354, no. 71Google Scholar; Foedera, II, 110 = Treaty Rolls, I, no. 496, especially n. 3; Foedera, II, 79.
23 For the Council, in addition to Hefele-Leclerq, see Lecler, J, Vienne (Histoire des conciles oecumeniques, viii (Paris, 1964))Google Scholar, which thinks the crusading plans unimportant. Their significance is shown in Schein, S., Fideles Crucis, (1991)Google Scholar; see also Housley, N., The Avignon Papacy and the Crusades, 1305–1378 (1986)Google Scholar.
24 Müller, E., Das Konzil von Vienne, 1311–12, (1934), 669Google Scholar.
25 Watt, D. E. R., Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Graduates to A.D. 1410, (1977), 589Google Scholargives a full account of Wishart's difficulties at this time.
26 The full text and various addresses of Regnans in celis are in Regestum Clementis Papae V, ed. monks of Benedict, O. S. (1885–1892)Google Scholar. The summons of the three Scottish bishops is ibid. no 3631.
27 Watt, , Biographical Dictionary, 322–23Google Scholar for St Andrews; 309 for Whithom.
28 Foedera, II, 55 for the text of this bull as sent to Canterbury; Reg. Clementis V, no. 3511 for that addressed to Scotland.
29 The Spottiswoode Miscellany, II (1845) 7–16Google Scholar.
30 Faciens misericordiam, and the bull ordering restoration of the Templars' goods were addressed to the bishops in regno Scotie constituti, Regnans in celis to those per regnum Scotie constituti. Reg. Clementis V, nos. 3401, 3511, 3631.
31 Reg. Clementis V, nos. 3626—7.
32 RRS, V, 177, scribe 9.
33 The originals of these are lost; the texts, unprinted are in B. L. Harleian MS. 4694, transcripts by Sir James Balfour of Denmilne (17th century), who notes that some episcopal seals were appended.
34 SRO, SP 13/4; APS, I, 460; Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, no. 36.
35 SRO, SP 13/5; APS, I, 460–61. The bishops of Galloway and Sodor were included in this declaration, again a response to the papal letters to the bishops of the kingdom. These two dioceses were in the kingdom, but in the provinces of York and Trondheim ecclesiastically. The declaration of the clergy was first fully discussed by Marshall, D. W. Hunter, ‘On a supposed Provincial Council…’ Scottish Historical Review, XXIII (1926), 280–93Google Scholar, where he takes the view that Greyfriars was so near Dundee castle as to make it an unlikely place for the clergy to agree to the declaration. But it is likely that the bishop of St Andrews was at the Council, which would allay English concern—he was at Lindores with supporters of Robert I on 20 February 1310 (Liber S Marie de Lundoris, (Abbotsford Club, 1841) no. 10. More seriously, William Sinclair was at the curia as elect of Dunkeld, and was not yet bishop, as he is called by the declaration (Watt, , Biographical Dictionary, 496–97)Google Scholar. If King Robert used the names of absent bishops, he could well have gambled on Sinclair's consecration at Avignon, not knowing of the rival English ‘elect’.
36 Chron. Guisborough, 366.
37 The agreement was made at Cambuskenneth near Stirling, 11 June 1304 (F. Palgrave. Documents and Records illustrating the History of Scotland, no. 146). Although it was thought treasonable in 1306, Edward I did not mention it in his charges against the bishop to the pope. Barbour, , Brus, I, 484Google Scholar, says that the Bruce-Comyn agreement was made ‘as they came riding from Stirling’, that is at the time of the siege in the summer of 1304.
38 Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, no. 34. Barrow, G. W. S., ‘The Army of Alexander III's Scotland’ in Scotland in the Reign of Alexander III, 1249–1286, ed. Reid, N. H. (1990), 132–47Google Scholar.
39 Barbour, , Brus, II 187–188Google Scholar.
40 Palgrave, Documents… History of Scotland, no. 144; Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, no. 35; Neville, C., ‘The Political Allegiance of the Earls of Strathearn during the War of Independence’. SHR, LXV (1986), 133–53Google Scholar.
41 Barbour, , Brus, IX, 288–90Google Scholar, where two sieges of Brechin, one by John earl of Athol, are homologated into one; CDS, II, no. 1780 (Cupar); PRO, E101/13/16, fos. I5r, 21r (Dundee, showing that the castle continued to be garrisoned).
42 PRO, E101/13/16, fos. 11v–15v, esp. 13V, 15V.
43 PRO, E101/369/11 fo.97v.
44 Barren, E. M., Scottish War of Independence, (2nd edn., 1934), 224–35Google Scholar.
45 PRO, E101/13/16, fos 4–9 shows wages paid for some 50 knights, 21 esquires, 140 arbelasters, and 1960 archers.
46 Barbour, , Brus, II, 346–445Google Scholar; Chron. Guisborough, 368; Chron. Trivet, 410; Chron. Rishanger, 230; Scalacronica, 130; Chron. Fordun, I, 341–42. For the battle of Loch Tay, PRO, E101/13/16, fo.16r–v.
47 Barbour, , Brus, VII, 488–635Google Scholar; PRO, E101/612/12 m.5, mortui sunt in chacea super R.B inter Glentruyl et Glenheur ultimo die exercitus in Galwydia.
48 Barbour, , Brus, VIII, 123–358Google Scholar does not say whence Valence came, but makes him go to Bothwell again after the battle; Scalacronica, 132 says Bruce drove Valence to Ayr; Chron. Guisborough 378 does not name the battle but says few were killed. I have found no record of horses killed at Loudoun.
49 CDS, II, NOS. 1979, 1768 (1307), 1774 (1307), 1928, 1931; iv, no. 1829, and 398. Arrears for the repair of Ayr castle (reoccupied by the English on 6 October, 1306) were paid to Robert Leybourne, sheriff of Ayr, on 24 May, 1307 (PRO E101/13/26).
50 Chron Guisborough, 378; Scalacronica, 132.
51 CDS, II, no. 1774, misdated, of 1307.
52 J. Stevenson, Documents illustrative of the History of Scotland, 1286–1306, no. 611.
53 National Manuscripts of Scotland, II (1870), no. 13Google Scholar.
54 CDS, II, no. 1957. It is astonishing that Barbour gives John's force as 800 men, the figure given in this record.
55 Barbour, , Brus, VI, 480– VII, 52Google Scholar; Chronique de Jean le bel, ed. Viard, J. and Déprez, E., I (1904), 111Google Scholar.
56 Chron. Lanercost, 209–10 (which comments on the ‘multitude of people’ who adhered to Robert); Feodera, II, 8; Col. Close Rolls, 1307–13, 2.
57 Barbour, , Brus, I, 415–436, II, 99–112Google Scholar; V, 255–6.
58 Barbour, , Brus, VIII, 437–520Google Scholar. The event is dated by the reference to Lanark fair, probably held at Whitsuntide (14 May in 1307); the year is not given by Barbour, but Clifford had a grant to repair the castle on 30 May and clearly reoccupied it in the summer of 1307 (PRO, E101/369/16, fo. 4V.) For Douglas at Loudoun, see Nat. MSS Scot. II, no. 13.
59 Barbour, , Brus, VIII, 424–427Google Scholar for the withdrawal to the Forest. The massacre at Douglas Castle, the ‘Douglas Lardner’, (ibid. V, 335–419) took place on a Palm Sunday, according to Barbour before the battle of Loudoun. But it is not really possible that in March 1307 Douglas massacred Clifford's men and then in May sent them chivalrously back to him. The Douglas Lardner took place after Clifford reoccupied the castle in 1307, on Palm Sunday, 1308.
60 PRO, E101/13/34m. 25. I owe this information to Dr. Fiona Watson.
61 As late as April 1306 the chamberlain at Berwick wrote to Simon Fraser as though still loyal (PRO, E101/13/16, fo. 29r). He was captured about 10–15 August (the news arrived in Tynedale on 17 August, PRO, E101/369/11 fo. 97V) in ‘the battle of Kirkenclyf beside Stirling’ in which a Sir John Lindsay drowned (Robbins, R. H., Historical Poems of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, (1959), no. 4, lines 91–93)Google Scholar. According to another tract deriding him, he was taken at Linlithgow (Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, VII (1884–1885), 177–78)Google Scholar.
62 Barbour, , Brus, IX, 672–725Google Scholar. Douglas captured Alexander Steward and Thomas Randolph; their names are absent from the December 1307 list of English supporters (CDS, III, no. 29).
63 RRS, V, nos 5, 387. I now think I was wrong to argue against a 1309–10 date for the latter.
64 Chron. Lanercost, 214: forestarios receperunt et reliquos de foresta.
65 CDS, III, no. 337.
66 Barbour, , Brus, XVIII, 326Google Scholar.
67 RRS, V, no. 167; Registnm Magni Sigilli, I, App. 1, nos. 36, 38.
68 RRS, V, no. 5.
69 Events in the north are known from the newsletter printed by Professor Barrow, and MissBarnes, in SHR, XLIX, 57–59Google Scholar.
70 CDS, II, 536–37; Barbour, , Brus, IX, 310–323Google Scholar; Chron. Holyrood, 179.
71 PRO E101/13/16, fo. 14v for these garrisons. Aberdeen had 55 men and Dundee 38. The constable of Forfar was John Weston, escheator beyond Forth, and his garrison was strengthened by four men on 1 April 1307 propter superuenienc' inimicorum. It is not known who these Scottish enemies were, but the country was undoubtedly disturbed.
72 SHR, XLLX, 57–59 for the reinforcing of Coull; if this is Aboyne castle, it had a garrison of 53 men in the first half of 1307. B.L Additional Ms. 35093, fo. 3v for Moubray's force.
73 Barbour, , Brus, IX, 240–293Google Scholar.
74 RRS, V, 49–50.
75 Barbour, , Brus, XIII, 56, 547–606Google Scholar.
76 Chron. Jean le bel, I, 54.
77 RRS, V, 48–49.
78 Tabraham, C., Scottish Castles and Fortifications, (1986), 16Google Scholar.
79 Newark, T., Celtic Warriors, 400B.C.–1600 A.D. (1986), 108Google Scholar.
80 APS, I, 473, c.27; RRS, V, 414, c.27.
81 Barbour, , Brus, VIII, 198Google Scholar; XI, 111; XII, 474; XIII, 341 for rangald; VIII, 275, 368; XI, 238, 420; XIII, 229 for poverale.
82 Barbour, , Brus, XIX, 158–185Google Scholar.
83 Barbour, , Brus, X, 148–250Google Scholar. At line 151 Bunnock is ‘husband[man]’ at line 172 his laden wain was led by a yeoman.
84 APS, I, 467, c.4–5; RRS, V, 407, c. 4–5.
85 Barbour, , Brus, XVII, 95–200Google Scholar. He says (line 199) that the castle held out for six days, but record evidence shows that Gray's eleven weeks is more nearly correct (Scalacronica, 144).
86 Barbour, , Brus, XII, 240–244, 305–311Google Scholar; XIII, 229–250.
87 Maddicott, J. R., The English Peasantry and the Demands of the Crown, 1294–1341 (Past and Present, Supplement 1, 1975)Google Scholar.
88 Barbour, , Brus, XVIII, 249–250, 274–290Google Scholar; APS, I, 475–76.
89 APS, I, 467, c.5.
90 Chron. Lanercost is the major source for these invasions, on which see Scammell, J., ‘Robert I and the North of England’, English Historical Review, LXXIII (1957), 385–403CrossRefGoogle Scholar. She argues that the total amount taken from the north may well have exceeded £20,000.
91 Rotuli Scotiae, I, 107–109.
92 RRS, V, no. 18.
93 Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, no. 37; RRS, V, no. 21.
94 For the 1315 invasion which seems to have raised 1600 marks from Durham for a two-year truce, see Scriptores Tres, 96; Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense, IV, 159–65; Chron Guisborough, 396–97 (under 1312). Chron. Lanercost, 230 calls the army which invaded Ireland maxima comitativa, and describes the force which assaulted Carlisle in July as Bruce's tota fortitudo.
95 CDS, III, no. 337.
96 APS, I, 464; Barbour, , Brus, XIII, 721–731Google Scholar; RRS, V, nos. 35–37.
97 Maddicott, J. R., Thomas of Lancaster, 1307–1322, 151, 157Google Scholar; Foedera, II, 237, 245.
98 In the spring of 1311; PRO, E101/378/30 fo.4r; Bodleian library, MS Tanner 197, fos. 12r, 13r.
99 Barbour, , Brus, X, 813–825Google Scholar; Chron. Lanercost, 223; Vita Edwardi II, 48–49; Scalacronica, 140, by implication.
100 David earl of Athol had come over to Robert in 1312, possibly at the siege of Dundee; he was given the constableship and held aloof from the battle of Bannockburn.
101 Scalacronica, 142.