The Bruce (1375), by John BARBOUR, a 14th-century Scottish poet, is a patriotic 13,000-line poem
chronicling the reign and military victories of the
Scottish king Robert the Bruce and his disciple,
James Douglas, and describing their role in gaining
Scottish independence from English domination.
The Bruce is composed in octosyllabic (eight-syllable) couplets, and so marks a break from the older
ALLITERATIVE VERSE tradition that had dominated
Scottish poetry in previous centuries. The story is
introduced as the “true” record of the history of
Robert the Bruce’s reign (1306–29), though clearly
it is historical fiction by a highly partisan Scottish
writer. For example, for reasons that are unclear,
Barbour fails entirely to mention the role of
William Wallace in the Scottish fight for independence, but spends a great deal of time relating the
exploits of the relatively less important Douglas,
possibly because of the importance of Douglas’s
family in the Scotland of Barbour’s own day. In
fact, The Bruce is less a true chronicle than a ROMANCE, in the tradition of the romances concerning the martial exploits of CHARLEMAGNE or
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, popular at the time.
The 20 books of The Bruce are impossible to
summarize in a brief space. The poem opens with
the death of King Alexander III (1286) and of his
granddaughter, the “Maid of Norway” (1290),
events that threw the Scottish succession into turmoil. The Bruce faction disputes the claims of John
Baliol, and the Scottish barons entrust the question
of succession to their “friendly” neighbor, England’s
King Edward I. The Bruce refuses Edward’s condition—that he rule Scotland as vassal to Edward.
When Baliol accepts those conditions, Edwards
moves quickly to imprison him and to set about
conquering all of Scotland. From that point, Robert
the Bruce sets out to become king of an independent Scotland. He kills his rival John Comyn and proclaims himself king, and is supported by Douglas,
whose lands have been seized by the English. At the
Battle of Methven, Robert is defeated and by the
third book has become a fugitive. But Edward I dies,
and Edward II is slow to continue his father’s attempts to subjugate Scotland. Meanwhile the Bruce
continues to elude the English, and in book eight
he wins the Battle of Loudoun Hill. He captures numerous castles, and by book 11, Edward II is prepared to bring his full force against Robert. Books
11 through 13 depict, in vivid detail, the apex of the
Bruce’s military achievements, the Battle of Ban-
nockburn. Barbour includes an account of 15,000
common folk who join the battle and help rout the
English army. After his success at Bannockburn,
Robert the Bruce can announce that all landholders
in Scotland must swear him allegiance.
In the later books of the poem, Robert’s brother
Edward Bruce strikes out on his own to win Ireland from English domination. Edward is presented as a foil to Robert—he is a bold warrior but
rash and headstrong, and his designs often end in
disaster. When, in book 18, he attacks the English
against the advice of his council, his army is overwhelmed and he is killed. The more prudent
Robert works toward peace with the English. The
young English king Edward III is persuaded by his
counselors to accept peace, agrees to a treaty that
grants Scotland complete independence, and marries his seven-year-old sister, Joan of the Tower, to
the Bruce’s five-year-old son, David.
In book 20, the ailing Bruce enacts an ordinance that establishes his line of succession
through David and Joan if they have a male child,
and through his grandson Robert Stewart (Barbour’s own patron, King Robert II) if that line fails.
In dying, the Bruce expresses a wish that his heart
might go on a crusade against the enemies of
Christ. His body is buried at Dunfermline, but the
faithful Douglas carries Bruce’s heart in an enameled box, and takes it into battle in Spain against
the Saracens. Douglas dies in the battle, but the
Bruce’s heart is brought back to Scotland and
buried at Melrose Abbey.