Bruce welcomes The Maid
What I am about to write was not fully revealed to me by my history teachers, nor by Nigel Tranter. I was like many others told that when Alexander 111 died, jis successor was to be a young lassie, the Maid of Norway, the daughter of a Scottish princess who had married into the royal family of what was really the Auld Ally. The lassie was to marry Edward, king of England’s daughter and unite the kingdoms. What slipped under the radar was that, at the time the nobles were all waiting for the lassie to arrive, the Bishop of St Andrews, the head of the church in Scotland, a position made much of by Tranter, wrote in desperation to Edward – ‘The kingdom is disturbed…Sir Robert Bruce is come with a great following…and on that account, there is fear of a general war and a great slaughter of men unless Your Majesty apply some speedy remedy.’
Of course, all the arrangements fell apart when the lassie died on the way to Scotland and that left the throne of Scotland vacant.
The Scots asked Edward of England to judge between the claims of Robert Bruce and John Balliol both swearing fealty to Edward to influence their claim, thereby giving away Scotland’s independence. We were taught that Edward chose Balliol because he thought he would be easier to manipulate than Bruce, not that Balliol’s claim was senior, being descended from the elder of two princesses.
We never heard that Balliol had renegued on his fealty vow and gone to war with Edward long before a Bruce took on that role, yet Ballio is portrayed as some kind of fool Scotland was glad to be rid of. He’s made such a shadowy figure it’s hard to get a decent picture of the man. If Bruce had backed him the way yon Jimmy, sorry, Good Sir James, The Black Douglas, backed Bruce, would Balliol have triumphed?
Following the story in this way makes one realise the killing of the Comyn in the church wasn’t fuelled by patriotism but was part of a family feud. A kind of Wild West story instead of a grand noble quest.
Don’t get me wrong, I love heroes. I just don’t expect them to be John Wayne and squeaky clean and I don’t like needless war being glorified under the name of Patriotism.