ROBERT THE BRUCE KING OF SCOTS

Scottish King Robert I, known as Robert the Bruce. Though he had sworn allegiance to Edward I of England in 1296, a year later he switched sides, fighting for Scotland's independence. He was crowned King of Scots at Scone in 1306, though Scotland had not yet achieved independence. Making slow inroads, Bruce's victory at the Battle of Bannockburn (1314) was a major stride in achieving his goal. In May 1328, England's King Edward III recognized Scotland's independence and Bruce as its king.
Edward I, popularly known as "Longshanks" because of his 6 foot 2 inch (1.88 m) frame and the "Hammer of the Scots" (his tombstone, in Latin, read, Hic est. Edwardus Primus Scottorum Malleus, "Here is Edward I, Hammer of the Scots"), achieved fame as the monarch who conquered Wales and who kept Scotland under English domination during his lifetime. He reigned from 1272 to 1307, ascending the throne of England on 21 November 1272 after the death of his father, King Henry III of England. His mother was Queen consort Eleanor of Provence.

Robert the Bruce Timeline

• 1274 - Robert the Bruce is born Turnberry Castle, Ayrshire, the son of Robert de Bruce, 6th Lord of Annandale and Marjorie of Carrick.
• 1292 - Bruce becomes the Earl of Carrick, from his mother's Gaelic heritage
• 1295 - Bruce marries his first wife, Isabella or Mar. She dies after being thrown from her horse in 1316 while heavily pregnant. The child, the future King Robert II, survives
• 1296 - King John Balliol abdicates, leaving Scotland without a monarch
• 1297 - William Wallace beats the English army of Edward I at the battle of Stirling bridge
• 1298 - Robert the Bruce and John Comyn become joint Guardians of Scotland, following the defeat and resignation of William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk
• 1301 - Edward I launches his 6th campaign against Scotland, capturing the castles of Bothwell and Turnberry
• 1303 - Edward I invades again, marching to Edinburgh, Perth, then north to Dundee, Brechin, Montrose, Aberdeenshire, then south to Dunfermline
• 1304 - The leaders of Scotland, except William Wallace, surrender to Edward I.
• 1305 - Wallace is captured near Glasgow, and executed.
• 1306 - Robert the Bruce, who could claim the Scottish crown through both his Celtic heritage and his relationship with John Balliol, was crowned King of Scotland at Scone.
• 1307 - King Edward I dies, and is succeeded by his son, Edward II. Robert the Bruce begins a guerrilla warfare campaign in South West Scotland Bruce's first major victory against the English is at the Battle of Glen Trool, followed by the Battle of Loudoun Hill.
• Bruce leaves Dumfries & Galloway under the command of his brother Edward, and heads north, retaking Aberdeenshire, Moray and Buchan.
• 1909 - King Robert the Bruce holds his first parliament at St Andrews, and later gains the support of the Scottish clergy.
• 1311 - Bruce takes the fight to the English, in the Lothian’s and Northern England.
• 1314 - On June 23, Edward II led a force of over 20,000 men to end the Scots' siege of Stirling Castle. Bruce and 9,000 men were waiting for them. Over the next two days, Bruce secured his historic defeat over the English; it was said that the river Bannockburn was 'running red' with the blood of the English for several days afterwards. With this victory, Bruce could claim military, if not diplomatic, independence from England. There are several studies of the Battle of Bannockburn, including 1314
• 1315 - Bruce invades Ireland
• 1318 - The Scots retake the Border town of Berwick, but the English besiege it the following year.
• 1320 - Probably drafted by Bernard, Abbot of Arbroath Abbey, the Declaration of Arbroath set out to confirm Scotland's status and independent, sovereign state, with a right to defend itself against attack. It was a letter to Pope John XXII, who finally recognised Bruce as King of Scotland in 1314.. The date, April 6, was chosen for Canada and America's Tartan Day
• 1326-Bruce purchased the portions of lands of Pillanflatt from the Earl of Lennox, lying in the parish of Cardross. This land transaction is well documented in a number of primary and secondary historical sources and is perhaps the most significant piece of evidence in support of our claim that the field which is currently known as the maims of Cardross is the exact location of the Royal Manor of King Robert the Bruce. He lived in the Manor house at Pillanflatt (Pavilion of the Great Hero), until his death on the 7th June1329.
• 1328 - Edward II recognises Bruce as King of an independent Scotland.
• 1329 7th June- Aged 55, Robert the Bruce dies at Mains of Cardross modern day Renton; his viscera was buried in St Serf’s church in Levengrove park Dumbarton, his body was interred at Dunfermline Abbey and his heart was eventually interred at Melrose Abbey, after being taken to Church of the Most Holy Sepulchre in the Holy Land by Sir James Douglas, but due to a storm the fleet had to take shelter in Seville while there the Great Alfonso heard that Sir James Douglas was there and asked him and his fellow Knights to help fight the Moors the Good Sir James did not what to set foot on land as this would start his crusade, Sir James feared that he would not be able to for fill his Kings last wish and that Sir James and the heart would not reach the Church of the Most Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem but under pressure from the other knights he turned aside from his most solemn duty and led the Scottish Army into battle at the castle of the Stars at Teba. Sadly this battle was to take the life of the Good Sir James and 18 other Scottish Knights, Such was the admiration of The Great Alfonso and his army had for the Scottish warrior knights they are still considered hero to this present day and every year in the Andalusia’s village of Teba they have a Festival commemorating the Good Sir James Douglas and King Robert the Bruce.



Robert the Bruce Monument Bannockburn
 

Fact and Fiction

In the second half of the 19th centaury, ‘Gothic Revival’ architecture had sprung up everywhere. French Gothic was by far the most favoured of the revivest styles. In Scotland alone, hundreds of churches and chapels were designed and constructed in the new architecture style. The parish churches of the period were little gems of craftsmanship, revivalist works of art in their own right. In the later 19th century it had become very much the custom to go for country walks on a Sunday afternoon – after attending church in the morning. If the family chose to walk to Cardross then back to Dumbarton. Passers by would stand and stare at ‘Bruce’s Stables’. Parents would tell their children that the ancient building was what was left of ‘King Robert the Bruce’s stable’s’ and pointing a finger in the immediate direction of Castlehill Farm on the other side of Cardross Road. The children would be informed that the farm stood at the place where the Noble Bruce had had his first great Castle. Some of the children asked daddy ‘What the King and Queen did when it was raining?’ and he would not be stuck for an answer ‘When it was raining’ says he ‘the King would be in his Country House counting his money and the Queen would be in the parlour eating bread and honey’.

At the end of the First World War in 1918, all the land between Westcliff and Dalreoch was in possession of the Laird of Ardoch. Robert Bontine Cunningham Graham was born in1852 and died in 1936. An aristocrat to his boots, the brilliant ‘Don Roberto’ was a familiar figure to the residents of Dumbarton and Cardross. Whenever he had important affairs to attend to in the Royal Burgh, who would canter his horse up from Ardoch House (and as the mood took him) break into a wild gallop down the steep brae to Dalreoch.

By 1920, council housing as we now know it had come into being. Cunningham Graham was approached by the Burgh Council with a view to purchasing about thirty acres of land for the construction of council houses. A financial settlement was finally agreed upon and construction started. The Laird still retained ownership of the two dwelling houses – the celebrated ‘Bruce’s Stables’. Brucehill came into existence circa 1925 followed by Castlehill and Westcliff in 1953. Excavations on and around the tree-topped mound at Castlehill in the late 19th centaury revealed no evidence of Bruce’s fabulous castle. No medieval artefacts, nails, beads, coins, black glass or green glazed pottery were found.

It takes time for myths to be dispelled as serious historians know to their cost. Victorian historians often turned a blind eye to facts staring them in the face. This accusation could have never be levelled at David Murny of Cardross. Doctor Murny was a lawyer and by choice a gifted historian. He was born in 1842 and died in 1928. Many years before his death he had reached the firm conclusion that the ‘Manerium de Cardross’ had never been situated at Castlehill, but at a sit close to or beside the River Leven.

‘Bruce’s Stable’s’, date from the latter part of the 18th centaury. The Scottish Episcopal Church asked the Paisley Architect John Ross to draw up plans foe a church incorporating Gothic features in the design. Ross was well ahead of his time. The Cardross Road Church served the congregation well foe many years until the new Episcopal Church in the High Street opened its doors to public worship. The old Cardross Road Church reverted back into the ownership of the Grahams of Ardoch. The church was demolished but the Gothic façade and the two dwelling houses survived.
 

The Old Crusader

King Robert the Bruce was born in a castle but he didn’t die in a castle. In the twilight years of his reign he turned his back on castles with a vengeance. Castles in every shape and form had dominated his life from infancy to old age. In medieval times Kings, Earls, barons and Bishops all resided in castles. The chief strong hold of the Bruce Lords of Annandale was Lochmaben castle in Dumfriesshire. Lochmaben was enriched by a deep moat and the walls of the castle were ten feet thick. As a child Bruce and his brothers and sisters in the company of their parent, the Earl and Countess of Carrick would have arrived at Lochmaben for a summer holiday break with their Grandparents. At a signal the massive drawbridge would be lowered with a great creaking and moaning of the suspension chains and as soon as the family were inside the portcullis would be winced back down and the drawbridge raised. King Robert must always have retained endearing memories of childhood conversations with his warrior grandfather. He would have been ‘all ears’ when the old man asked about the pearls facing him when he took the vow to go on a crusade to the Holy Land in 1270. Stories about oriental castles being sized and stormed with a terrible massacre of the doomed inhabitants. Stories about monools and mamlukes and heaving seas and sunken ships and blood drenched swords in the soaring heat of Palestine, most of all a graphic personal collection by the old man about valiant deeds done in the dust and horrid heat of the east. When Knight Templers and crusaders joined forced together as brothers of Christ in the defence of Acre. Perhaps at Locmaben castle a young Robert Bruce was as some time in his teens the worthy owner of the very battle axe with which his marshal grandfather had crushed the skulls of Muslims in the Holy Land

 

Saint Serfs Church, Levengrove Park, Dumbarton.

Bruce chose to have three separate burials.  His internal organs and breastbone were buried beneath the high alter of Cardross Parish Church. At present a scheduled ancient monument in the care of Historic Scotland.  It received ancient monument status June 2001.

The medieval church known as Saint Serfs can be visited at Levengrove Park in Dumbarton.  A bronze plaque situated within bound of the old church.  It commemorates the burial of Bruce’s mortal remains. 

Bruce’s body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey and his heart at Melrose Abbey.

 

(Teba) Tebas de Ardales

It is recorded by Froissart, the French chronicler, that the dying Bruce made a deathbed speech.  The King stated that as a young man he had vowed to go on a crusade to the Holy Lands when he had completed the full recovery of his Kingdom from English rule.  Sadly he had not been able to accomplish his hearts desire. He fervently wished that his heart to be taken from his body following his death.

His finest Knight, Sir James Douglas had the great honour of taking the King’s heart to Jerusalem for presentation at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  In early August 1330, Sir James sailed from Berwick Upon Tweed in a small flotilla of ships in the direction of Spain.  The flotilla stopped in Flanders before crossing the bay of Bisky onto the Spanish Port of Santander en route to Cadiz in Andalusia.  The Scots Knights met up with the Spanish army under the command of the King of Castille, ‘Alphonso the Battler’.

The army camped beneath the fortress at Tebas De Ardales. Tragically, Sir James and the other Knights charged into battle against the Moorish cavalry, unaware that a battle tactic employed by the Moors was to retract. The Moorish Cavalry suddenly did an abrupt about-turn and surprised their pursuers.  Sir James and four other Knights were slain on the battle field at Teba on the morning of 25th August 1330. 

Strathleven Artizans retain a close connection with Teba (Tebas De Ardales), the small Spanish town where Sir James Douglas died in the battle against the Moors (Saracens).  We travel to Teba to take part in the ‘El Douglas’ day, which involves pipes and drums, a wreath laying ceremony at the Sir James Douglas monument in the Plaza El Douglas.

Sir James Douglas was the foremost Knight in the Kingdom. He fought alongside the King at Bannockburn 23-24 June 1314.  On the King’s last campaign in the late summer of 1327, Bruce besieged Norham Castle in England; Sir James Douglas was at his side. Norham was the last of Bruce’s military campaign. 

As a final demonstration of Bruce’s achievement, the treaty of Edinburgh, 17th March 1328, ratified at Northampton, 4th May 1328.
By the Treaty of Edinburgh the Scots won English acknowledgement of Scotland’s absolute Independence.  It marked culmination of Bruce’s search for final peace with England and recognition of Bruce’s title as King of Scots.  Securing of a marriage contract between Edward III sister, Princess Joanna (Joan of the Tower) and Bruce’s son and heir David II, 1329-1371, cemented the treaty of Edinburgh.  Sadly Bruce died 7 June 1329 at his manor house at Pailleanflath, in the village of Renton. 


 

 

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