Читать книгу King Robert the Bruce - Alexander Falconer Murison - Страница 5

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Robert Bruce, the sixth Robert de Brus of Annandale and the seventh de Brus of the Annandale line, was the eldest son of the preceding lord and a grandson of the Competitor. He was born on July 11, 1274. The place of his birth is uncertain—Ayrshire says Turnberry; Dumfriesshire says Lochmaben. Geoffrey le Baker calls him an Englishman (nacione Anglicus), and records that he was 'born in Essex,' to which another hand adds, 'at Writtle,' a manor of his father's. Geoffrey, it is true, like several other chroniclers, confuses Bruce with his grandfather, the Competitor; and he may mean the Competitor, though he says the King. Hemingburgh makes Bruce speak to his father's vassals before the Irvine episode as a Scotsman, at any rate by descent. In any case Bruce was essentially—by upbringing and associations—an Englishman. It was probably in, or at any rate about, the same year that Wallace was born. At the English invasion of 1296, they would both be vigorous young men of twenty-two, or thereabouts. During most part of the next decade Wallace fought and negotiated and died in his country's cause, and built himself an everlasting name. How was Bruce occupied during this national crisis?

Considering the large territorial possessions and wide social interlacings of the family in England, their English upbringing, their traditional service to the English King, their subordinate interest in Scottish affairs, the predominance of the rival house of Balliol, and the masterful character of Edward, it is not at all surprising that Robert Bruce should have preferred the English allegiance when it was necessary for him to choose between England and Scotland. On August 3, 1293, indeed, he offered homage to Balliol on succeeding to the Earldom of Carrick. But on March 25, 1296, at Wark—three days before Edward crossed the Tweed—he joined with his father and the Earls of March and Angus in a formal acknowledgment of the English King; and on August 28 he, as well as his father, followed the multitude of the principal Scots in doing homage to the conqueror at Berwick.

With this political subjection one is reluctant to associate a more sordid kind of obligation. Some six weeks later (October 15) it is recorded that 'the King, for the great esteem he has for the good service of Robert de Brus, Earl of Carrick, commands the barons to atterm his debts at the Exchequer in the easiest manner for him.' But the elder Bruce continued to be designated Earl of Carrick in English documents after he had resigned the earldom to his son, and it can hardly be doubted that the debts were his. It is a small matter, indeed, yet one would like to start Bruce without the burden.

Early in 1297, Scotland was heaving with unrest. Edward, while busily arranging 'to cross seas' to Flanders, was also pushing forward preparations for a 'Scottish War.' In May, Wallace and Douglas had summarily interrupted the severities of Ormsby, the English Justiciar, at Scone, and driven him home in headlong flight. About the same time, or somewhat later, Andrew de Moray took the field in Moray, Macduff rose in Fife, and Sir Alexander of Argyll set upon the adherents of Edward in the West. On May 24, Edward had addressed, from Portsmouth, a circular order to his chief liegemen north and south of Forth, requiring them to attend certain of his great officers to hear 'certain matters which he has much at heart,' and to act as directed. Bruce was ordered to attend Sir Hugh de Cressingham and Sir Osbert de Spaldington at Berwick. But before the order could have reached him, he must have heard of the expulsion of Ormsby, and had probably conceived dynastic hopes from the aspect of affairs. Indeed, he appears to have fallen under English suspicions. For, no sooner did the news from Scone reach Carlisle than the Bishop and his advisers—the Bishop was acting governor in the absence of the elder Bruce at Portsmouth—'fearing for the faithlessness and inconstancy of Sir Robert de Bruys the younger, Earl of Carrick, sent messengers to summon him to come on a day fixed to treat with them about the King's affairs, if so be that he still remained faithful to the King.'

Bruce duly appeared with a strong following of 'the people of Galloway,' and repeated the oath of fealty upon the consecrated Host and upon the sword of St Thomas (à Becket). What more could the Bishop want or do? But Bruce went a step further. He summoned his people, says Hemingburgh, and, 'in order to feign colour, he proceeded to the lands of Sir William de Douglas and burnt part of them with fire, and carried off his wife and children with him to Annandale.' For all that, he was already in secret conspiracy with the Bishop of Glasgow, the Steward of Scotland, and Sir John of Bonkill, the Steward's brother. Douglas, indeed, presently appears as one of the leaders in the rising; but his relations with Bruce would be subject to easy diplomatic adjustment.

When the time for open action arrived, Bruce appealed to his father's men of Annandale. He repudiated his oath at Carlisle as extorted by force and intimidation, and professed a compelling sense of patriotism. The Annandale men deferred reply till the morrow, and slipped away to their homes overnight. With his Carrick men, however, he joined the Bishop and the Steward, and began to slay and harry the English in the south-west.

Engrossed in the outfitting of his expedition, Edward delegated the suppression of the Scots to Warenne, Earl of Surrey, the Guardian of Scotland, who sent ahead his kinsman, Sir Henry de Percy, with a strong force. Percy advanced through Annandale to Ayr, and, two or three days later, stood face to face with the insurgents near Irvine. There was dissension in the Scots camp. Sir Richard Lundy went over to Percy, 'saying that he would no longer war in company with men in discord and at variance.' Besides, the English force was no doubt much superior. The insurgent leaders at once asked for terms. The provisional agreement was that 'their lives, limbs, lands, tenements, goods and chattels,' should be unharmed, that their offences should be condoned, and that they should furnish hostages. Such was the humiliating fiasco of July 7, 1297, at Irvine.

So far their skins were safe; and now, on the counsel of the Bishop, they appealed to Cressingham and Warenne to confirm the agreement, and to vouchsafe an active interest in their behalf with Edward. The full flavour of their pusillanimity can only be gathered from the text of their letter to Warenne.

They were afraid the English army would attack them to burn and destroy their lands. Thus, they were told for a certainty that the King meant to seize all the middle people of Scotland to send them beyond sea in his war [in Gascony], to their great damage and destruction. They took counsel to assemble their power to defend themselves from so great damages, until they could have treaty and conference with such persons as had power to abate and diminish such kind of injury, and to give security that they should not be exceedingly aggrieved and dishonoured. And, therefore, when the host of England entered the land, they went to meet them and had such a conference that they all came to the peace and the faith of our Lord the King.

The hostage for Bruce was his infant daughter, Marjory. It would be interesting to know why Douglas failed to provide hostages. It may be that his native obstinacy was aroused by the objurgations of Wallace, who then lay in Selkirk Forest, and who is said to have displayed intense indignation at the ignominious surrender. Edward ratified the convention; but somehow it was not till November 14 that powers were conferred on the Bishop of Carlisle and Sir Robert de Clifford 'to receive to the King's peace Robert de Brus, Earl of Carrick, and his friends, as seems best to their discretion.'

Midway between the shameful collapse at Irvine and the formal submission at Carlisle lay September 11, 1297, and Wallace's memorable victory at Stirling Bridge. In this great triumph of patriotism Bruce had neither part nor lot. Neither was he present at the disastrous battle of Falkirk on July 22, 1298. The Scottish chroniclers, indeed, relate the popular story that the English victory was primarily due to Bruce, who, with Bishop Bek, stealthily caught the Scots in the rear and broke up the schiltrons. But this is a complete misconception, due possibly to a confusion of Bruce with Basset, who, with Bek, delivered the attack on the left wing, not on the rear, or with Bruce's uncle, Sir Bernard, who fought on the English side. In any case, Bruce stands clear of Falkirk. For English chroniclers relate that, when Edward withdrew towards Carlisle, Bruce burnt Ayr Castle and fled away into Carrick. Yet it seems all but certain that he was in Edward's allegiance within three weeks before the battle. He had gone over before the result reached him, possibly on learning the dire straits of Edward immediately before, or on the strength of a false report of the issue.

The stormy meeting of Scots nobles at Peebles on August 19, 1299, discovers Bruce in a remarkable attitude. One object of the meeting was to choose Guardians of the realm. The discussion was sufficiently warm; for Sir John Comyn—the Red Comyn, afterwards slain at Dumfries—seized the Earl of Carrick by the throat, and his cousin of Buchan tried a fall with de Lamberton, Wallace's Bishop of St Andrews. The outcome of the wrangle was a purely personal accommodation of an essentially momentary character. It was settled that the Bishop of St Andrews, the Earl of Carrick, and Sir John Comyn should be the Guardians, the Bishop as principal to have custody of the castles. Bruce, through the Wallace influence, had gained the upper hand. But it must have cost him a pang to consent to act in the name of Balliol.

Bruce, with Sir David de Brechin, returned to the attack of Lochmaben peel, where the Scots had been pressing Clifford since the beginning of August. They were unsuccessful in direct assault, but they seriously hindered the victualling of the place by infesting the lines of communication. Bruce would seem to have been in consultation with his colleagues in the Torwood on November 13, when the Guardians, who were then besieging Stirling, despatched to Edward an offer to cease hostilities on the terms suggested by the King of France. At any rate he is named as Guardian, and it is to be noted that the Guardians write 'in the name of King John and the community of the realm.' Edward was compelled to abandon Stirling to its fate, and Lochmaben fell in the end of the year. Warenne's December expedition to the western March was a failure. Edward, in fact, had been paralysed by his refractory barons.

During the next two years, while Comyn was doing his best in the field and Wallace was busy in diplomatic negotiation, there is no trace of Bruce in the records. He may have felt it too irksome to pull together with Comyn. But he reappears—in a new coat—in 1301–2. On February 16, Edward, 'at the instance of the Earl of Carrick,' granted pardon to a murderous rascal, one Hector Askeloc. And by April 28, 1302, the King had 'of special favour granted to the tenants of his liege Robert de Brus, Earl of Carrick, their lands in England lately taken for their rebellion.' And Bruce attended Edward's parliament towards the end of October.

In the next year or two Bruce manifested special devotion to the English King. When Edward was going north on the campaign of 1303, he ordered Bruce to meet him about the middle of May at Roxburgh with all the men-at-arms he could muster, and with 1000 foot from Carrick and Galloway. On July 14, Bruce received an advance of pay by the precept of Sir Aymer de Valence, the King's lieutenant south of Forth. On December 30, he is Edward's sheriff of Lanark; on January 9, he is Edward's constable of Ayr Castle. His star was deservedly in the ascendant by diligent service.

His ardour steadily increased. After the surrender of Comyn and his adherents in February 1303–4, he threw himself heartily into the pursuit of Wallace. On March 3, Edward wrote to 'his loyal and faithful Robert de Brus, Earl of Carrick, Sir John de Segrave, and their company,' applauding their diligence, begging them to complete the business they had begun so well, and urging them, 'as the cloak is well made, also to make the hood.' Wallace and Sir Simon Fraser were hotly pursued southwards, and defeated at Peebles within a week.

About this time Bruce must have received news of the death of his father, probably not unexpected. On April 4, 1304, he was at Hatfield in Essex, whence he wrote to Sir William de Hamilton, the Chancellor, asking him to direct quickly the necessary inquisitions of his father's lands in Essex, Middlesex and Huntingdon, as he wished to go to the King with them to do homage. On June 14, having done homage and fealty, he was served heir. The succession to the paternal inheritance was happily achieved.

Meantime, on his return north, Bruce had found Edward in hot eagerness to commence the siege of Stirling, and worked with the energy of gratitude that looks towards favours to come. He undertook the special task of getting up the King's engines to Stirling. On April 16, the King wrote him thanks for sending up some engines, and gave particular instructions about 'the great engine of Inverkip,' which appears to have been unmanageable for want of 'a waggon fit to carry the frame.' Bruce seems to have been at Inverkip and Glasgow, and wherever else any of the thirteen engines were lagging on the road to Stirling. His energy operated in congenial harmony with the fiery expedition of the King.

Yet there was something in the background of all this enthusiastic service. On June 11, only three days before 'his loyal and faithful Robert de Brus' did homage and fealty to Edward on succession to his father, Bruce met Bishop Lamberton at Cambuskenneth and formed with him a secret alliance for mutual aid and defence 'against all persons whatsoever.' Seeing dangers ahead, and wishing to fortify themselves against 'the attempts of their rivals,' they engaged to assist each other to the utmost of their power with counsel and material forces in all their affairs; 'that neither of them would undertake any important enterprise without consultation with the other'; and that 'they would warn each other against any impending danger, and do their best to avert the same from each other.' No particular motives or objects, of course, are specified. But the Bishop may have foreseen the likelihood of an invasion of English ecclesiastics; and Bruce would not be slow to perceive the possible value of the moral support of the Church, and of the material aid derivable from the men and lands of the religious houses of the wide episcopate of St Andrews. At such a moment neither party would affect to forget the Bruce's royal pretensions. We shall hear of this bond again.

Stirling surrendered on July 20, the last of the Scottish fortresses that held out against Edward. Wallace, the last centre of opposition, was a fugitive, dogged by emissaries of the English King. In March next year, Bruce was with the King at Westminster, petitioning him for the lands recently held by Sir Ingram de Umfraville in Carrick—a petition substantially granted—and he attended Edward's parliament in Lent. It is hardly any stretch of probability to believe that he was present, in August, at the trial and execution of the illustrious Wallace—the man that, above all others, paved the way for his elevation to the Scottish throne.

*****

Bruce was now in his thirty-second year. From his twenty-second year onwards, through the ten years' struggle of Wallace and Comyn, he was two parts of the time the active henchman of Edward, and during the other part he is not known to have performed any important service for Scotland. His action during this period—the period of vigorous manhood, of generous impulses and unselfish enthusiasms—contrasts lamentably with the splendour of Wallace's achievement and endeavour, and gravely with the bearing of Comyn. One looks for patriotism and heroism; one finds not a spark of either, but only opportunism, deliberate and ignoble, not to say timid—the conduct of a 'spotted and inconstant man.' Yet Bruce was tenaciously constant to the grand object of his ambition. In the light of his kingly career this early period has puzzled the historians very strangely; but one cannot affect to be surprised that the friendliest critic is compelled to pronounce the simple enumeration of the facts to be, 'in truth, a humiliating record.'