What factors enabled Bruce’s cause to survive and prosper between 10 February 1306 and 1314?

The factors which enabled Bruce’s cause to survive and prosper between the murder of John Comyn on 10 February 1306 and 1314 are multifarious and inter-linked. However, these factors all revolve around the separate, converging movements of Bruce seeking support for the seizure of the Scottish throne and which of a patriotic cause associated with the community of the realm seeking to overthrow English overlordship claims. These movements merged as one, assisted by Robert I, due to factors including the political polarization of Scotland created by the murder of Comyn within the wider scenario of the Anglo-Scottish war. Bruce’s ability to survive and prosper depended on his political and military acumen in taking advantage of existing political divisions and the enlisting of popular support bolstered by English repression. The death of Edward I and the comparative ineptitude of Edward II were fortuitous factors which gave Bruce time and space to pursue his Scottish opponents to defeat or submission. Similarly, the settlement of the civil war allowed Robert to concentrate on the remaining vestiges of English control in Scotland and take the war into the north of England. By doing so Robert enhanced his kingship through victory. The reinstatement of Scottish kingship as the centrepiece of Scottish independence exuded by the community of the realm, support from a nationalist clergy and the use of propaganda allowed the Bruce cause to prosper, demonstrated further by parliamentary activity and international diplomacy. The final contributory factors, and the ultimate convergence of the Bruce cause with the patriotic cause, emanate from the outcome of the battle of Bannockburn.

The murder of John Comyn at Dumfries in 1306 not only plunged Scotland into civil war but also invited Edward I to strengthen his grip on Scotland by supporting the Balliol/Comyn faction. Following Bruce’s seizure of the throne at Scone some six weeks later the defeats at Loudon Hill and Methven forced Bruce into exile. The Bruce cause was thereby threatened with extinction before it had begun. Nevertheless, his cause survived, battered but relatively intact due to his political awareness of internal Scottish politics. However, he was initially unable to connect the concept of a national identity pursuing a patriotic cause for independence with the persona of himself as king. The immediate aims of the Bruce cause were therefore survival, retrenchment and harnessing support in pursuit of a kingdom. Lack of support for Bruce’s usurping of the throne is evident as it was only “attended and consented to by four bishops, five earls and the people of the land”^[1] and is not indicative of conclusive support from the community of the realm. Furthermore, King Robert’s early armies were not openly supported by the nobility but by the commons and middling folk of the country. Nevertheless, following his less than auspicious start, Robert’s subsequent flight throughout the western seaboard by Comyn and English agents was not simply a manhunt where he “hid among the bushes and thickets for fear of the English.”^[2] Robert was fully aware of the importance of the western highlands to his cause due to its strategic importance in controlling both the sea routes from a belligerent

England and trade with Ireland, together with being a source of experienced fighters and resources. Bruce was surely further aware of the short and long-term gains that he could make in the political feud between the MacDougalls and the MacDonalds in the western highlands. Comyn’s murder and the turning of his support, including the MacDougalls, towards England for assistance pushed their enemies the MacDonalds fully into Bruce’s camp. Bruce fled to the west fully aware that he would be supported by Angus Og of the MacDonalds during his exile and that this support could be nurtured to provide future aid. In addition, Bruce was supported by the anti-MacDougall MacRuaris, in particular “with the help and power of Christiana of the Isles”^[3] who was instrumental in abetting Bruce through his exile. Therefore, early factors in the survival of the Bruce cause were the political differences within the western highlands and Robert’s realisation of the importance of this to his cause.

Also, factors which enabled the Bruce cause to survive and prosper must not be viewed solely in the Scottish civil war but in the wider context of Anglo-Scottish affairs. It is in this context that Bruce began to merge his cause with that of a popular patriotic cause. As we seen above the politics of the western highlands were enmeshed in the Anglo-Scottish war. Indeed, John of Argyll, a prominent MacDougall, in beseeching Edward II for troops and money professed to “always be ready to carry out your orders with all my power, wherever and whenever you wish” with the caveat that “I am not sure of my neighbours in any direction.”^[4] Doubtless fear of his MacDonald, MacRuari and Campbell neighbours also included the threat from their ally Robert I which would ultimately become reality and lead to the demise of MacDougall power. Such was the ascendant power of the MacDonalds that they became firmly rooted in the patriotic cause and were present at the battle of Bannockburn. Further examples of local political turmoil being converted into support by Bruce for a patriotic cause are apparent from the involvement of nobles such as James Douglas. Although nobles such as Douglas may have chosen sides because of family ties, pragmatism or the search for the recovery of land – such as Douglas’s reason for joining Bruce being “throw hym I trow my land to wyn”^[5] after Clifford’s acquisition of Douglasdale. Notwithstanding the reason why nobles such as Og, Douglas, Thomas Randolph or Walter Stewart came to the Bruce cause they formed the backbone of support for Bruce as the leader of a patriotic cause and recognised him as being capable of fulfilling their aspirations. As such they provided a catalyst for cementing the patriotic cause to Bruce and were important factors in his survival.

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^[1] Guisborough quoted in Barrow G.W.S., Robert Bruce & the Community of the Realm of Scotland (1988) p. 150.

2 Bower quoted in MacNamee C., The Wars of the Bruces: Scotland, England and Ireland 1306-1328 (1997), p. 40.

^[3] John of Fordun quoted in Barrow G.W.S., Robert B ruce & the Community of the Realm of Scotland (1988), p. 170.

^[4] John MacDougall of Argyll quoted in McDonald R.A., The Kingdom of the Isles. Scotland’s Western Seaboard c1100-c1336 (1998), p. 178.

^[5] Barbour quoted in Brown M., The Black Douglases (1998), p. 15.