Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland by G.W.S. Barrow

Scott found the descriptions of Bruce at the lowest point in his career especially evocative, as the king fled westwards from his triumphant enemies in the dark winter of 1306-7, on the run like a common outlaw, with bloodhounds and assassins on his trail and traitors in his company.

The most significant figure in the modern re-use of Barbour was, almost inevitably, Sir Walter Scott, who borrowed liberally and directly from The Bruce in chapters on King Robert, Douglas and Randolph, and the battle of Bannockburn in his Tales of a Grandfather Being Stories taken from Scottish History (1828).

Scepticism about the usefulness of The Bruce as an ‘historical’ source inevitably casts doubt on the authenticity of some of the well-rehearsed stories and episodes derived from Barbour’s work which have played a significant role in securing Robert I’s wide fame and positive posthumous reputation.Ĭertainly Scottish writers, from the medieval period through to the twentieth century, were happy to pluck or adapt tales from The Bruce to illustrate the bravery, prowess and cunning of the king and his principal lieutenants, figures such as the ‘Good’ Sir James Douglas and Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, or to show the collective resolve and daring of the Scots during the Wars of Independence. Moreover, The Bruce was never intended as a straightforward ‘history’, but as an inspiring, perhaps polemical, work of literature addressing an audience for most of whom Bruce was already a semi-legendary figure, and it was inevitably shaped, in terms of structure, theme and narrative content, by Barbour’s familiarity with the conventions of a number of literary genres. īarrow’s caution in qualifying the historical reliability of Barbour’s great poem, usually now described simply as The Bruce, has been reinforced and amplified by more recent studies of the work.īarbour’s celebration of Robert the Bruce’s life and his chivalric and martial achievements was, after all, not a product of the king’s own lifetime, only being brought to completion c.1375, over forty years after Robert I’s death. Barrow’s own conclusion was that ‘We shall not be on unsafe ground if we accept Barbour’s portrait of the king, even though we must correct it by more reliable evidence wherever that is necessary and possible'. In commenting on the character and personal qualities of Robert I (1306-29) Geoffrey Barrow, one of the modern biographers of that totemic king, argued that ‘To some extent our view of Bruce will always depend on how much credence we give to Barbour’.

Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland by G.W.S. Barrow