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Bruce (ROBERT the greatest)

ROBERT, the greatest of the Kings of Scotland, born in 1274. He was the son of the preceding. In 1296, as Earl of Carrick, he swore fealty to Edward I., and in 1297 fought on the English side against Wallace. He then joined the Scottish army, but in the same year returned to his allegiance to Edward until 1298, when he again joined the National party, and became in 1299 one of the four regents of the kingdom. In the three final campaigns, however, he resumed fidelity to Edward, and resided for some time at his court; but, learning that the King meditated putting him to death on information given by the traitor Comyn, he fled, in February, 1306, to Scotland, stabbed Comyn in a quarrel at Dumfries, assembled his vassals at Lochmaben Castle, and claimed the crown, which he received at Scone, March 27.

Being twice defeated, he dismissed his troops, retired to Rathlin Island, and was supposed to be dead, when, in the spring of 1307, 07, he landed on the Carrick coast, defeated the Earl of Pembroke at Loudon Hill, and in two years had wrested nearly the whole country from the English. He then in successive years advanced into England, laying waste the country, and on June 24, 1314, defeated at Bannockburn the English forces advancing under Edward II. to the relief of the garrison at Stirling. In 1316 he went to Ireland to the aid of his brother Edward, and, on his return in 1318, in retaliation for inroads made during his absence, he took Hostilities continued Berwick and harried Northumberland and Yorkshire. Hostilities continued and harried Northumberland and Yorkshire. until the defeat of Edward near Byland Abbey in 1323, and though in that year a truce was concluded for 13 years, it BRUCE was speedily broken. Not until March 4, 1328, was the treaty concluded by which the independence of Scotland was fully recognized. Bruce did not long survive the completion of his work, dying at Cardross Castle on June 7, 1329. He was twice married; first to a daughter of the Earl of Mar. Mar, Isabella, by whom he had a daughter, Marjory, mother of Robert II., and then to a daughter of Aymer de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, Elizabeth, by whom he had a son, David, who succeeded him.