0:00:07 > 0:00:10As summer drew to a close in 1305,
0:00:10 > 0:00:15so too, it seemed, did the history of the Scottish crown.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19King Edward I of England, Longshanks, the Lawgiver,
0:00:19 > 0:00:21the Hammer of the Scots,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25could have been forgiven for thinking that the Kingdom of Scotland was dead.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27William Wallace certainly was.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30He was food for the crows.
0:00:37 > 0:00:42And as for the King of Scotland, John Balliol, he wasn't much better,
0:00:42 > 0:00:48an absentee, exiled in France, a broken and beaten man.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Whether or not the crown was his hardly mattered.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54He was neither able nor willing to wear it.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56Edward was a keen chess player.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00As far as he was concerned, this was the endgame.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Yes, Scotland was dead.
0:01:34 > 0:01:41By 1305, Scotland had been fighting to defend its independence from England for nine long years.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Edward I had secured significant victories.
0:01:44 > 0:01:50He had removed Scotland's King, John Balliol, from the throne with maximum dishonour.
0:02:00 > 0:02:06He had captured and killed Scotland's greatest military leader, William Wallace,
0:02:06 > 0:02:07with maximum cruelty.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14There were some pockets of resistance left, but they were small,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17nothing to worry about.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21So job done, Edward owned Scotland.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23Enough with the iron fist.
0:02:23 > 0:02:25He could put the velvet glove back on.
0:02:25 > 0:02:31In 1305, Edward set about what he hoped would be the final subjugation of Scotland.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34And he slipped out of character.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36He went about his business gently.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47Edward did deals with all of Scotland's leading men.
0:02:47 > 0:02:53He allowed Scotland's nobles to keep their lands as long as they swore loyalty to him as King.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05He did deals with Scotland's bishops too,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07but two of those bishops would be the very men who
0:03:07 > 0:03:12would mastermind a revolution that would restore the Scottish crown.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Bishop William Lamberton of St Andrews was a strategist,
0:03:17 > 0:03:21an intellect, a double dealer.
0:03:21 > 0:03:28And Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow had been fighting for Scotland's independence for almost 20 years.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Edward should have strung them up with Wallace.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52The story of the bishops who would rebuild the Scottish crown begins
0:03:52 > 0:03:57here in 1301, four years before Edward's final military victory,
0:03:57 > 0:04:03for it was in the tiny Italian hill town of Anagni that the Pope now made his court.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10The Pope was the highest judge on earth,
0:04:10 > 0:04:12closer to God than emperors and kings.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15All earthly power came through him.
0:04:18 > 0:04:24The Catholic Church held every Christian soul in Western Europe in its grasp.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29Its spiritual powers were politics in disguise.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33The courts and streets of Anagni would have been full, not just of priests,
0:04:33 > 0:04:37but of diplomats and lawyers from every Christian kingdom.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45No-one else but the Pope could set the final seal on Edward's success,
0:04:45 > 0:04:50so, in 1301, Edward sought the Pope's agreement that John Balliol
0:04:50 > 0:04:55was no king on the grounds that there was no Scotland to be king of.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02The very existence of Scotland's crown was at stake,
0:05:02 > 0:05:08so that summer a small party of Scottish priests were sent to Anagni to defend it,
0:05:08 > 0:05:14priests with legal expertise, led by a man called Baldred Bisset,
0:05:14 > 0:05:18handpicked to save the Scottish crown by Bishop William Lamberton.
0:05:20 > 0:05:25But it wasn't just the Scottish crown that Lamberton wanted him to save.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33English bishops largely did as they were told, and the Archbishops
0:05:33 > 0:05:37of York and Canterbury were subject to the English King.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40The English church was under Edward's thumb.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44But in Scotland there was no archbishop, and the Scottish
0:05:44 > 0:05:48crown had never fully secured control over church appointments.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53Scotland's bishops had power that was independent of the Scottish crown
0:05:53 > 0:05:57and the privilege of direct appeal to the Pope himself,
0:05:57 > 0:06:03power and independence that could disappear if Scotland became an English province.
0:06:03 > 0:06:05It all meant nothing if there was no Scottish King.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09If Scotland was to become just another English territory,
0:06:09 > 0:06:12then Scottish bishops would have to bend the knee, tug the forelock
0:06:12 > 0:06:16and pay the tithes in Canterbury or in York, and they didn't want to.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19In fact, they were determined that they would not.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23So Bisset had his work cut out.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27A crown to save, the independence of his bishops too.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35Bisset brought with him a carefully prepared document, a legal brief.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38He had three basic arguments to make.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42First, he told a story.
0:06:42 > 0:06:48The Scots were descended from Noah, they had lived in Scythia, near the Black Sea, then Spain.
0:06:48 > 0:06:54One of their ancient kings had married an Egyptian princess called Scota, hence their name.
0:06:54 > 0:07:00So the Scots were unique - not Irish, not Welsh, most of all not English.
0:07:00 > 0:07:08Second, Bisset reminded His Holiness that Scotland bore the title of Rome's special daughter,
0:07:08 > 0:07:11a status that required the Pope's protection.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16And third, Bisset turned to the recent past.
0:07:16 > 0:07:22Edward I, he said, had wickedly maltreated our legitimate king, exploited his absence
0:07:22 > 0:07:26and our resultant weakness, committed boundless atrocities against Scots,
0:07:26 > 0:07:31both clerical and lay, peasant and noble, male and female.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35Free Balliol, said Bisset, and let him return to Scotland as our King.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41The Pope was persuaded.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46It was time, said the Pope, to stop the hammering.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49He ordered the release of Balliol and let it be known
0:07:49 > 0:07:52that in his eyes he was the illustrious King of Scots.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Bisset had saved the Scottish crown.
0:07:56 > 0:08:01But Balliol was totally demoralised and made no attempt to resume his rule.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05He took refuge in his family's lands in France.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08The Scots were lumbered with a useless king.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17For the bishops, defending the Scottish crown was no longer the problem.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20The problem was the King himself.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22How could he be replaced?
0:08:22 > 0:08:25It was Bishop Lamberton who took steps.
0:08:25 > 0:08:29He sought a secret meeting with a renowned Scottish philosopher,
0:08:29 > 0:08:35Duns Scotus, and Scotus outlined an idea with explosive implications.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39The real root of royal authority was not inheritance.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43True kingship was a contract between King and people,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46and when a king had failed, as Balliol had,
0:08:46 > 0:08:50his people could reject him and choose someone else instead.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58At last, Scotland's bishops could begin to look for someone to replace John Balliol.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03But time was running out.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Edward was getting close to finishing his conquest of Scotland.
0:09:11 > 0:09:17Edward had no idea that Scotland's bishops were looking for a king who could resist him.
0:09:17 > 0:09:23He busied himself with the last moves in his final victory over Scotland's crown.
0:09:23 > 0:09:25He spared no expense.
0:09:27 > 0:09:32His siege of Stirling Castle was getting nowhere,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36so, in 1304, Edward took his spending spree one step further.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05He ordered a new siege engine,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09a monstrous catapult of a kind known as a trebuchet.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17He already had several, the instruments of other bitter victories.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20This new machine was christened Warwolf.
0:10:20 > 0:10:27It was the largest trebuchet ever built, and its component parts were transported in 27 separate wagons.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29It was a weapon of terror.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34For a counterweight, Edward used lead stolen from the roofs of local churches.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38The hapless defenders of Stirling Castle watched
0:10:38 > 0:10:43as this monstrosity took shape beneath their walls, and they surrendered.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Edward ignored them. He wanted to see Warwolf at work.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51He even had a little shelter built so that the ladies of the court could watch.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54The conquest of Scotland had become entertainment.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05Warwolf's first shot shattered a section of the castle's curtain wall.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09The ladies were duly impressed.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18But Edward was attacking the wrong building.
0:11:18 > 0:11:23He should have aimed at the Abbey of Cambuskenneth, no more than a mile away.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29As the walls of Stirling Castle fell, Bishop William Lamberton held another secret meeting there,
0:11:29 > 0:11:33this time with the future King of Scotland.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Two families had claims to the crown.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41The Comyns were led by John Comyn, the Lord of Badenoch.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43The Comyns had lands all over Scotland,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46but they were blood relations of John Balliol.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49And John Comyn himself was a stickler.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52A scrupulous man, a doer by the book.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56It would be difficult to get him involved in something that sounded
0:11:56 > 0:12:01dangerously like the usurpation of the throne. But there was another family, another claim.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07There was a man who nursed the secret but unshakable conviction
0:12:07 > 0:12:11that the crown should have been given to his grandfather, not John Balliol,
0:12:11 > 0:12:16and so Robert the Bruce believed that the crown was now rightfully his.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23But until now, he'd had no idea how to go about getting it.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27Like Lamberton, he was at this point a vassal of the English King,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30but his loyalty to the family claim was considerably greater.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42At Cambuskenneth, the Bruce and Lamberton signed a bond.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47"They have agreed faithfully to be of one another's counsel in all their business and affairs
0:12:47 > 0:12:50"at all times and against whichever individuals."
0:12:50 > 0:12:55There can only have been one subject discussed, one purpose for the contract.
0:12:55 > 0:13:01Lamberton and the Bruce had agreed that he should take the throne, with the Church's help.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04There was no mention of this in the contract, of course.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08Writing down such a plan would have been suicidally unwise.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Secrecy was vital.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14So the penalty for the failure of either party to keep to the terms
0:13:14 > 0:13:19was set at the fantastically high sum of £10,000.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23£10,000 - the price of silence
0:13:23 > 0:13:25until the time was right.
0:13:30 > 0:13:36But Robert the Bruce was already 29, and he was not noted for his patience.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39For just over 18 months, he managed to hold his tongue.
0:13:39 > 0:13:45Then it started wagging - to the man the church had chosen not to choose, John Comyn.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52On Thursday 10th of February 1306,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56the sheriff court was in attendance at Dumfries Castle.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Edward's sheriffs, Edward's justice.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03As for the King himself, it was widely known that he was lying ill in an English monastery.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Everyone of any importance for miles around was in attendance.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14So it was perfectly natural for the Bruce and Comyn to be in town, their seats were local.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18They could meet, and the Bruce could try to introduce John Comyn
0:14:18 > 0:14:22to a truth he wouldn't like at all - "The bishops want me to be King".
0:14:26 > 0:14:31They met at Greyfriars Church in Dumfries and embraced.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Previous meetings between the two had been less cordial.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Seven years before, they had shaken each other gently by the throat,
0:14:39 > 0:14:41so today they stood on ceremony.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44They were on their best behaviour.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49It's almost certain that the bishops suggested such a meeting.
0:14:49 > 0:14:55It made perfect sense, after all, for the Bruce to attempt to persuade John Comyn to support his claim.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17It didn't make sense for the Bruce to kill him.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23Leaving Comyn for dead, the Bruce and his men went to the sheriff's court
0:15:23 > 0:15:25to break it up, which was open rebellion.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30While he was there, the Bruce received news that the Comyn
0:15:30 > 0:15:36was not dead, so he sent a follower back to Greyfriars Church to finish him off.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45This was ugly.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48This would be hard to spin.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56He had murdered someone in a church.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58The sin alone was deadly.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03The place he had committed it, God's house, that made it infinitely worse.
0:16:03 > 0:16:09He faced ruin, certain excommunication, expulsion from the Catholic Church,
0:16:09 > 0:16:14and if he died whilst excommunicated, he would be damned eternally.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21It was a steep price to pay for an impulsive act,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23his immortal soul.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30"I have spilt the blood of an innocent man."
0:16:41 > 0:16:44The Bruce fled here, to Glasgow Cathedral,
0:16:44 > 0:16:49to Bishop Robert Wishart, Lamberton's co-conspirator.
0:16:49 > 0:16:54Wishart will have been displeased, to say the least. It was too early.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Almost certainly the bishops had wanted to wait for Edward's death.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01The Bruce had ruined that.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02Their cover was blown.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07Nevertheless, Wishart absolved the Bruce of bloodguilt.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12He had no choice, they were in too deep.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17Then Wishart made the Bruce swear an oath,
0:17:17 > 0:17:22an oath that as King he would always remain obedient to the wishes of the Scottish clergy,
0:17:22 > 0:17:27a shameful reminder of his recent crime, a tug at the leash.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29And then...it started.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Wishart preached.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35He launched the Bruce, the church's candidate.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39He told his flock, "This Robert the Bruce will be Robert I,
0:17:39 > 0:17:41"he is your King.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46"This is a crusade," he told them, "a holy war, fight for him".
0:17:49 > 0:17:53As swiftly and as secretly as possible, Wishart and Lamberton
0:17:53 > 0:17:56planned the inauguration of the Bruce as King of Scots.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03Rumours that Scotland's upstart bishops were about to make a King reached Edward.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18Edward was angry, but he wasn't worried. He had it all sewn up.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23He'd found out everything the Scots needed to make a King and stolen it.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26He'd taken the Stone of Destiny, he'd taken the Black Rood of St Margaret.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32He'd even taken the Earl of Fife, who had the privilege of crowning Scottish Kings.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37But on March 25th 1306, the bishops went ahead regardless
0:18:37 > 0:18:39and made their King.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41Scotland had a real King once more,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44but there was no time to celebrate.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47No parties, no pavilions, no parliaments.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52King Robert returned to the Comyn lands in the south-west to secure them.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55Bishop Wishart marched to Cupar Castle in Fife.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59He took it, as the English later said, "like a man of war,"
0:18:59 > 0:19:02which is exactly what he was.
0:19:02 > 0:19:08By the end of the first week of April, Edward had appointed an agent in Scotland.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13Edward ordered him to raise dragon, the banner which signified no quarter,
0:19:13 > 0:19:18no prisoners, no mercy, no rules at all.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27And the English rode north.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29Wishart and Lamberton were swiftly captured.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33The English regained Cupar Castle and moved towards Perth.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40Robert I rode to meet them with all the forces at his disposal.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46King Robert camped in the woods above Methven on the 18th June.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50He had failed to draw the English out from Perth to a pitched battle
0:19:50 > 0:19:53in the accepted, sporting style of medieval chivalry.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55So he would try again tomorrow.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58But the dragon banner was flying.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02For the English, chivalry was by the by.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04They approached under cover of darkness.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06It was a rout, a slaughter.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20Robert and a few hundred survivors dragged themselves west.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25His wife, Elizabeth, was still with them, his daughter and his sisters too,
0:20:25 > 0:20:29so he sent the women north, hoping they might find refuge in Norway.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34But they were captured and handed over to Edward.
0:20:34 > 0:20:42Robert and his remnant suffered a further defeat at Tyndrum, a defeat that must have seemed final.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46So the King of Scotland was forced to flee still further west,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49to Dunaverty, at the very tip of the Mull of Kintyre.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53There was no land left to run to.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55He put to sea and disappeared.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10He must have sailed with the bitter knowledge that his crown was proving costly.
0:21:10 > 0:21:14Bruce's wife and daughter were confined in convents.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22He would not see his wife again for eight years.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34Back on the mainland, Edward indulged himself in an orgy of executions.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38One of the victims was Robert's brother, Neil.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Hung, drawn, quartered, as Wallace had been.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46The news of his brother's excruciating death will have bitten deep.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Perhaps this misfortune meant that God didn't want him to be King.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53For six months, Robert the Bruce remained in hiding.
0:21:53 > 0:22:01In 1828, Walter Scott pulled all the strands of myth and hearsay together and gave the Bruce an encouraging
0:22:01 > 0:22:06spider for comfort, but it was just a story.
0:22:06 > 0:22:08Where he fled to, precisely, is not known.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Ardnamurchan is the current favourite.
0:22:10 > 0:22:16But wherever he went, Sir Walter was right about one thing - the Bruce had a decision to make,
0:22:16 > 0:22:18whether to give up or go on.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23He had connections. One of his sisters was the Queen of Norway. He could have hidden there.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29But that would have left his wife, his other sisters, his daughter and all his bishops in captivity.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33It would have left his supporters, his friends and his brother dead
0:22:33 > 0:22:36and unprayed for, in purgatory, or worse.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38What sort of choice was that?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41He chose to fight on.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53He gathered a force of Irishmen and Hebrideans and landed secretly
0:22:53 > 0:22:57at Turnberry in Ayrshire towards the end of February in 1307.
0:22:57 > 0:23:02By the beginning of March, two more of his brothers were dead at English hands.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07The price of Robert's throne was rising.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12He took his forces, his anger and his grief into the broken lands of south-west Scotland.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16He wasn't hiding. He was learning how to fight.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19He had no more than a few hundred men. Hardly any knights.
0:23:19 > 0:23:26He only had spearmen, foot soldiers, and no intention whatsoever of following Wallace to an early grave.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31So he could only wait until the English were where he wanted them to be...
0:23:31 > 0:23:33and then surprise them.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39In April, Robert and a force of 300 men
0:23:39 > 0:23:43surprised an English force of 1,500 here beside Loch Trool in Galloway.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45It was an unpleasant surprise.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48There was no room for cavalry to manoeuvre and nothing for
0:23:48 > 0:23:53the English to do except trip each other up and die. So they ran away.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58So this was victory. The Bruce enjoyed the taste.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00But was it a fluke? A one-off?
0:24:00 > 0:24:02It might be.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04By May, Robert was in Ayrshire.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09The land was full of the level playing fields that knights adored.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13The Bruce chose Loudoun Hill instead.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21The Bruce had a few more men to work with now, about 600, and he put them to work gilding the lily,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25digging trenches to further reduce the opportunities for a wide assault,
0:24:25 > 0:24:27narrowing them down to a point.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31On 10th May the English approached, 3,000 strong.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38They charged. Then they found out about the valley and the trenches.
0:24:38 > 0:24:39They lost their elbow room.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42A lot of them lost their horses as well.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47When the Bruce and his men attacked it was with such terrible violence that those English troops
0:24:47 > 0:24:51at the rear, those not yet engaged, decided not to engage at all.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54They broke and ran.
0:24:54 > 0:24:55It was no fluke.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59Robert I was a winner. God was on his side.
0:25:03 > 0:25:09God had also had enough of Longshanks, the Lawgiver, the slaughterer of Scots.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13Angered by the failure of his much larger forces to crush the Bruce,
0:25:13 > 0:25:18Edward dragged himself out of his sickbed and ordered his armies to muster at Carlisle.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21But he was iller than he thought, and older too.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28This is as far as he got, the sands and marsh of the Solway Firth.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31He died within sight of Scotland.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34But the "covetous King" did not go gently.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37He asked his son to send his heart to the Holy Land on crusade,
0:25:37 > 0:25:42but his bones would go with the army to Scotland to finish the business.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49The King is dead.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53Long live the King.
0:25:53 > 0:26:00Longshanks' bones weren't up to the task, but they weren't the problem.
0:26:00 > 0:26:01Edward II was.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04He had his father's temper, but nothing else.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Not his intelligence or his learning or his tactical gifts.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11His first act as King was to disobey his father's orders
0:26:11 > 0:26:14concerning the disposition of his various body parts.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18He simply dropped Dad off at Waltham Abbey to await proper burial.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22Then, in his own good time, he joined the English army in Scotland.
0:26:22 > 0:26:29On arrival he learned they'd been badly provisioned, so he marched them south for a good square meal.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36He would leave the Scots in peace, by and large, for the next three years.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41And now the Bruce had a job to do, Edward's job.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43He had some Scots to slaughter.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48The Comyn family and their many supporters were still loyal to the Balliol claim.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52There was only one thing to do with such opposition...
0:26:53 > 0:26:57..kill it!
0:26:57 > 0:27:01He left the borders to his increasingly trusted lieutenant, James Douglas.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06Himself, he marched north, accompanied by his brother Edward.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11The Bruce's campaign gathered momentum as he moved up the Great Glen.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20His forces were never large, although by now they had a reputation.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23His tactics were thorough and unpleasant.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26He reduced one Comyn castle after another.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31He reduced them to rubble. He killed the occupants.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34He burnt Nairn to the ground.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37A ruined castle, after all, was no use to the Comyns, no use
0:27:37 > 0:27:45to the English, if they returned, and no use to a King who had settled on a strategy, hit and run.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Right now, the Bruce had no use for castles.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52Castles meant you couldn't move.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56So, burn the castle, fill the well, move on.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59It took him just two months.
0:27:59 > 0:28:05By November, he was in the north-east, his forces now joined by those of the Bishop of Murray.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07Another man of war, Bishop Murray.
0:28:07 > 0:28:10The vestments were just for weekends.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12And then,
0:28:12 > 0:28:14the King is ill!
0:28:14 > 0:28:18The Bruce's illness was nameless, mysterious.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20It left him weak as a kitten.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24There was no medicine to hand, no doctor.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27He grew steadily weaker as the days passed.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29The King is dying.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41It was winter.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44The army was perilously close to running out of food.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47The Earl of Buchan, cousin of the murdered John Comyn,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51had gathered a sizeable force and was waiting for the moment to attack.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54The Bruce's forces withdrew into the highlands.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02The King was taken to a castle, to die, some thought.
0:29:07 > 0:29:13And then, magically, as spring came, the King recovered.
0:29:13 > 0:29:14He returned to the slaughter.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18He came here, to Barra Hill, near Aberdeen.
0:29:18 > 0:29:23The Earl of Buchan had dug himself in at the summit, amidst the remnants of an Iron Age hill fort.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30It was, he thought, an impregnable location.
0:29:30 > 0:29:35He was wrong. By now the Bruce's reputation rode ahead of him.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38The Earl of Buchan lost his cavalry to simple terror.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Then he lost the battle too.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, last of the Comyn nobility, fled to England.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48He was dead within the year.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52There were still supporters of the Comyns to exterminate.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55King Robert rode north.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59He came to Duffus Castle and the Bruce laid waste.
0:30:07 > 0:30:13Then he sent his brother, Edward, eastward into Buchan, the heartland of Comyn power.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16The Bruce did not forgive it.
0:30:16 > 0:30:22On his orders, such damage was done that the land was infertile for a generation.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25But it was not the land he damaged.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27He didn't just burn the crops.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30That would have made the land fertile in the coming year.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34He ordered the slaughter of the livestock, and not only the animals,
0:30:34 > 0:30:39but those who tended them and who grew the crops, men, women and children.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42Parts of Buchan were left barren for a generation,
0:30:42 > 0:30:44because there was no-one left alive.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56"I have spilt the blood of innocent men..."
0:31:00 > 0:31:06By March of 1309, the Bruce had crushed resistance almost everywhere in Scotland.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14In the July of the previous year, the Pope had lifted his ban of excommunication.
0:31:14 > 0:31:19So he was officially back in the fold, one of the saved, at least for the time being.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22Now it was time to get on with the business of kingship.
0:31:22 > 0:31:29Here at St Andrews, in a cathedral nearing completion after 150 years, he called his first parliament.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36It was a funny sort of parliament, by modern standards.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41It only lasted two days and only really did two pieces of business.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45Day one, Parliament replied to a letter from the King of France,
0:31:45 > 0:31:47who wanted the Scots to go with him on crusade.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52"Not just yet," said Parliament, "we're busy".
0:31:52 > 0:31:57Day two, Parliament issued an open letter, called the Declaration Of The Clergy.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01It's not a famous document, but it should be.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07The Declaration Of The Clergy published for the first time
0:32:07 > 0:32:11the ideas that Scotland's bishops had borrowed from Duns Scotus.
0:32:11 > 0:32:18With great cunning, it wove into Scotland's recent history the idea that a King could be chosen,
0:32:18 > 0:32:23and it did it as though everyone should always have known that such a thing could be.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27The clergy and the "people", seeing the virtue of Robert the Bruce,
0:32:27 > 0:32:34had "agreed" upon him, and "with their concurrence and consent", he was raised to be King.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38It's a very important document indeed.
0:32:38 > 0:32:40It sounds almost revolutionary.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44But in 1309, the "people" really meant the important people,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47the nobility, the clergy, the community of the realm,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50not the peasants or the drinkers down the pub.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54No, the declaration was written for the people, not by the people,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57because the people were meant to listen to it.
0:33:02 > 0:33:04It was preached in churches.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06It was copied, shown around, repeated.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10It was the party line from Robert's faithful support and prop,
0:33:10 > 0:33:12the Scottish church.
0:33:22 > 0:33:27The Declaration Of The Clergy was stage two in Robert's conquest of Scotland,
0:33:27 > 0:33:33an attempt to persuade the doubters, and there were still many, that Robert was indeed the rightful King.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37This was good. But was it good enough?
0:33:37 > 0:33:40The sheer scale of the Bruce's task was becoming clear.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44His kingship was still in question.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46He was not a legend yet.
0:33:47 > 0:33:53Three things needed to be done if he was going to make the throne safe for himself and for his male heir.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57One, he had to secure the loyalty of all of Scotland's nobles
0:33:57 > 0:34:00and eject the English from any significant holdings.
0:34:00 > 0:34:06Two, he had to force the English King to accept the independent status of his throne.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10And three, he had to father a male heir.
0:34:10 > 0:34:15He hadn't even finished task one, and his wife was still in English hands.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20So no chance of an heir then, or not a legitimate one, at least.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24But before all of these things, he must become unquestionable.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26He must become a legend.
0:34:26 > 0:34:31And for that, he would have to wait five years.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35He would have to wait for Bannockburn.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43By the spring of 1314, the Bruce had almost completed his first task.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47Only Stirling and Berwick castles remained in English hands.
0:34:47 > 0:34:52Edward II began raising an army to reconquer Scotland.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02Edward mustered his forces at Berwick on 10th June.
0:35:02 > 0:35:0515,000 foot soldiers, between 2,500 and 3,000 horse.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11Edward's nobles were mostly absent
0:35:11 > 0:35:14and they hadn't sent as many knights as he would have liked either.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17So not exactly a vote of confidence then, but no matter.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22Edward had more than enough confidence in himself to make up the shortfall.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24They rode north.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29The Scottish forces mustered in the Torwood, south of Stirling.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31The numbers bore no comparison.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34500 light horse, about 6,000 foot.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36But size isn't everything.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39By now, the Bruce's army was used to war.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42The men were used to each other.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45His brother Edward, James the Black Douglas,
0:35:45 > 0:35:50Thomas Randolph, the Earl of Moray, were experienced, battle-hardened men.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54And the foot soldiers of the Scottish army had learnt to fight in schiltroms,
0:35:54 > 0:35:59packed together in close order, with spears and shields permanently presented,
0:35:59 > 0:36:02like tanks, but made of human bodies.
0:36:02 > 0:36:07By Saturday 22nd June, the Bruce had chosen where to fight.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09He'd had a lot of practice by now.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13He chose wisely, the edges of New Park, near the Bannockburn.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17The trees limited cavalry action, and to the south-east the ground
0:36:17 > 0:36:21was broken by streams and burns and rills.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26On either side of the road leading to the New Park, the Bruce modified the terrain.
0:36:26 > 0:36:32Just as he had done at Loudoun Hill, he made the ground treacherous for his foes, this time by ordering
0:36:32 > 0:36:36the digging of innumerable pits, disguised with grass and branches.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39These would snap the legs of English horse.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43The English army itself made camp to the north, and night fell.
0:36:47 > 0:36:53The next morning was a Sunday, so the Scots began it with a mass.
0:36:53 > 0:36:59The Bishop of Dunkeld presided, and when the mass was finished, he will have got his weapons ready.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06This would be the reckoning, the payment,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10for the Bruce had lost brothers and friends, family and priests.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14His wife and daughter, dear to him, had been imprisoned.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17And those who gave allegiance to him had lost still more.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22And now, the English King was here, no more than a hundred yards away.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24He would be made to pay.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26He must be made to pay.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34The English opened with their knights, as was traditional,
0:37:34 > 0:37:39a massed cavalry charge, and one of the knights, Henry de Bohun, found
0:37:39 > 0:37:43himself charging an isolated figure, off to the side of his soldiers,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46an isolated figure, wearing a crown.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50He lowered his lance and galloped forward.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54This was his chance at immortality. But the Bruce dodged it.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58He rose up in his stirrups, and with a single blow of his battleaxe
0:37:58 > 0:38:00split de Bohun's skull from crown to chin.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03With that one stroke, the Bruce became legend.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25The schiltroms held. They pushed forward.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28The English cavalry were sent in again, but the Earl of Moray's
0:38:28 > 0:38:33schiltrom forced them back, and that was the story of Bannockburn.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37For two days, the Scottish schiltroms held
0:38:37 > 0:38:41and then pressed forward, hemmed the English in for slaughter.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45And on the second day, the English had had enough.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48So they did what had now become the traditional thing when faced with a
0:38:48 > 0:38:53Scottish army, its feet and spears firmly planted on the ground.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57They ran away.
0:38:57 > 0:39:03The Scots got down to the profitable business of taking prisoners, and Edward took to flight.
0:39:03 > 0:39:09Robert had too few mounted men to send a sizeable number in pursuit, so Edward escaped.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Check, but not checkmate.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22The haul was impressive. Robert was able to trade his prisoners.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26He recovered Bishop Wishart, 74 years old and blind,
0:39:26 > 0:39:33his daughter, his sister, and best of all, Elizabeth, his Queen.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36Eight years of captivity had left their mark.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40And Robert will have known that what she'd suffered was his fault.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43All for his costly throne.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45All for his legend.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49In the history books and by the firesides,
0:39:49 > 0:39:53the scale of the victory would swell, just as the tales would grow taller.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58In fact, by the 20th century, the King himself had grown by two feet.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03But the facts were rather bleaker.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Only the task of removing the English from Scotland was near completion.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10The attempt to produce a male heir could now begin,
0:40:10 > 0:40:15but it was perfectly possible that Queen Elizabeth might prove barren.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Bannockburn had given him his legend.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21But it had changed nothing else.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35The road to Scotland's independence seemed very long, and it was blocked.
0:40:35 > 0:40:42Progress now depended on Edward II, who had no reason to make any concessions of any kind at all.
0:40:42 > 0:40:48For four long years, the Scots raided English territories in the north of England, Ireland too.
0:40:48 > 0:40:54Robert lost his last remaining brother, Edward Bruce, all in vain.
0:40:54 > 0:40:56Edward took no notice.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58He didn't need to.
0:41:00 > 0:41:02He couldn't beat the Bruce on a battlefield,
0:41:02 > 0:41:04so he'd changed the game.
0:41:04 > 0:41:09He'd started playing by the rules that Scotland's bishops used.
0:41:09 > 0:41:10He had gone to the Pope.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17And the new Pope was desperate to restore papal prestige
0:41:17 > 0:41:20by sending all the major crowns of Europe on crusade.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25Kings who caused petty national squabbles would not be tolerated.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29In 1318, the Scots discovered that the English had convinced the Pope
0:41:29 > 0:41:34that the war between England and Scotland was Scotland's fault.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Robert, his lieutenants and his bishops were all excommunicated.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46In addition, the Pope ordered that in every English church, three times
0:41:46 > 0:41:51a day, a ceremony was to be held at which the name of Bruce was cursed.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59The news will have been bitter.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03As the curses rose from every English church, the Bruce
0:42:03 > 0:42:07came to St Andrew's Cathedral for its day of consecration.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12Almost 700 years ago, the Bruce stood here,
0:42:12 > 0:42:18along with his old mentor, William Lamberton, but without Wishart, who had died two years before.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21He watched as these marks were made.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24A generous annuity for the new cathedral was announced.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27He was pious, desperately so.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29The Bruce's spending on things like this,
0:42:29 > 0:42:34churches, chantries, monasteries and chapels, was increasing.
0:42:34 > 0:42:41Generous grants were made to institutions dedicated to St Andrew, St Fillan, St Thomas, St Ninian.
0:42:43 > 0:42:45His people called him Good King Robert.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48But Good King Robert wasn't so sure.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51He wanted the saints to intercede on his behalf.
0:42:51 > 0:42:57Those English curses didn't seem quite empty, not at least to the man they were intended for.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05The fate of the Scottish crown was back in the hands of the papacy.
0:43:05 > 0:43:10And the Scottish clergy, once again, was the Bruce's only hope.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15In April 1320, a Scottish knight set off for the papal court.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17He was a postman of sorts.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19He carried with him three letters.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23All were written here, in Arbroath Abbey.
0:43:23 > 0:43:30One was from King Robert, one was from the bishops, and the third was from the nobles of Scotland.
0:43:30 > 0:43:37Only the letter from the nobles survives, and it's now known as the Declaration of Arbroath.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40It has become a very famous document.
0:43:40 > 0:43:47Some people see it as an astonishingly precocious manifesto for national and democratic freedom.
0:43:47 > 0:43:53Some Americans argue that you can see its influence in their own Declaration Of Independence.
0:43:53 > 0:43:58In 1320, it was a hard-nosed reply to English spin.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01And it spun pretty hard itself.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04Of course, it wasn't the nobles who actually wrote it.
0:44:04 > 0:44:10This was ventriloquism, with the nobles' dummy sat firmly on the bishops' knee.
0:44:12 > 0:44:17It was a potted history and a brandished fist of a document.
0:44:19 > 0:44:21The Pope must have enjoyed reading it.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28First, it summarised the arguments of Baldred Bisset's brief.
0:44:28 > 0:44:29"We are an ancient people.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32"We are Rome's special daughter."
0:44:32 > 0:44:35Second, it asserted that Robert the Bruce, "by due
0:44:35 > 0:44:40"consent and assent of us all", had freed them from the English yoke.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43But if he should submit to the English, "We Scots will drive him
0:44:43 > 0:44:49"out, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54"For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we be brought under English rule.
0:44:54 > 0:45:00"It is in truth, not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom,
0:45:00 > 0:45:05"for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."
0:45:09 > 0:45:15So, the idea of Duns Scotus, that kingship is contractual, with added brass neck
0:45:15 > 0:45:20and a generous pinch of broadsword, had finally reached the papal court.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22But it hadn't finished yet.
0:45:22 > 0:45:28It added that it was the English, not the Scots, who were making excuses for not going on crusade,
0:45:28 > 0:45:33and that if His Holiness didn't do something to stop them, then His Holiness would be blamed
0:45:33 > 0:45:38by God for the slaughter of bodies and perdition of souls that would inevitably follow.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Cheeky.
0:45:49 > 0:45:51The Pope replied in August.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54The letters, astonishingly, had had the desired effect.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57The excommunications were suspended.
0:45:57 > 0:46:02Better still, Pope John wrote to Edward and told him to end the conflict and negotiate.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05Edward agreed, with an ill grace.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08The treaty negotiations were to take place at Bamburgh,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11in Northumberland, in the March of 1321.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16So in March, the envoys began to gather.
0:46:16 > 0:46:20The papacy and the French King sent agents too.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25It was a farce, a drain blocked with all the old arguments.
0:46:25 > 0:46:32The English wheeled out the ancient story of immemorial English ownership of the Scottish crown.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36The Scots replied with creaky chunks of Bisset and a generous
0:46:36 > 0:46:43helping of the Declaration, adding for good measure that the entire Norman and Plantagenet dynasty was
0:46:43 > 0:46:47illegitimate, stemming as it did from the "foreign usurpation"
0:46:47 > 0:46:53of 1066, an invasion led by someone the Scots chose to refer to as "William the Bastard".
0:46:53 > 0:46:58The true and legitimate claim on the English crown, said the Scots,
0:46:58 > 0:47:03lay with the house of Wessex, whose sole living representative
0:47:03 > 0:47:06was one Robert I of Scotland.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09The Bamburgh negotiations came to nothing.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13A letter confirming Robert's excommunication arrived a month later.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15Stalemate.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21And after that, for six years, it was Groundhog Day for Robert the Bruce.
0:47:21 > 0:47:27Every time the Scots secured concessions at the papal court, Edward successfully got them undone.
0:47:27 > 0:47:33The only day that delivered any variety was the 5th March 1324, when Queen Elizabeth
0:47:33 > 0:47:40was delivered of a healthy baby boy, someone to give Scotland to, someone of his blood.
0:47:40 > 0:47:42A miraculous male heir.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44David.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50The Queen was 35.
0:47:50 > 0:47:51The King was 50.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54For those days, it was near enough to miraculous.
0:48:05 > 0:48:07But did it matter?
0:48:07 > 0:48:12Every morning, the Bruce awoke to find the English King unchanged.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21The Bruce's Groundhog Day lasted until 20th January 1327,
0:48:21 > 0:48:25when Edward II was deposed.
0:48:25 > 0:48:30Edward was removed from the throne by his wife, Isabel of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer,
0:48:30 > 0:48:34with the tacit approval of an English nobility that was heartily
0:48:34 > 0:48:40sick of Edward's incompetence, favouritism, rumoured homosexuality, and corruption.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47His son, the Prince of Wales, just 14 years old,
0:48:47 > 0:48:51was crowned King Edward III a little less than two weeks later.
0:48:51 > 0:48:52This was good news.
0:48:52 > 0:48:58This was an opportunity. But King Robert, once again, was ill.
0:48:58 > 0:48:59He remained active.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02But sometimes he was active almost in effigy,
0:49:02 > 0:49:08carried around from place to place, paralysed, like a statue of himself.
0:49:08 > 0:49:13The illness came and went, but it came more and went less as time passed.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20An eyewitness in July said the King was so ill, he "could scarce move anything but his tongue".
0:49:20 > 0:49:25But it was time for one last effort, or this great opportunity would be lost.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29And so, miraculously, in August the King was well enough to lay siege
0:49:29 > 0:49:35to Norham Castle, while Moray and Douglas made assaults on the castles at Alnwick and Warkworth.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42All of these sieges in Northumbria sent a message loud and clear.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46The Scots, quite possibly, were about to take the north of England.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48The threat was real.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50The English folded.
0:49:51 > 0:49:57On 18th October, whilst at Berwick, Robert issued his conditions.
0:49:57 > 0:50:03The King of England must recognise his throne and the independence of the Scottish crown in perpetuity.
0:50:03 > 0:50:09To seal the deal, his son David was to marry the King of England's sister, Joan.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12The English hemmed and hawed, but there was little doubt
0:50:12 > 0:50:15that they would accept all of the important points.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18The Bruce had won.
0:50:39 > 0:50:42Queen Elizabeth of Scotland died nine days later.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47She was sure of her husband's success, but she was not alive to see it.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50The Bruce's blessings were usually mixed.
0:50:53 > 0:50:58The peace was finally concluded at the monastery of Holyrood,
0:50:58 > 0:51:01where the Bruce lay ill, on 17th March 1328.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06One of the English promises was to return the Stone of Destiny.
0:51:06 > 0:51:12His earls were in attendance, his bishops too, including William Lamberton, who had chosen him,
0:51:12 > 0:51:17with whom he'd signed a very different document 24 years before
0:51:17 > 0:51:21and without whom, very likely, none of them would have been there at all.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23Lamberton died two months later.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39On 12th July, in accordance with the second of Robert's treaty conditions, David, who was only
0:51:39 > 0:51:45four, and the princess Joan, who was six, were married in Berwick Church.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Neither king was in attendance.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52One was too angry.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54The other was too ill.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59Peace at last,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02after 32 years of struggle and bloodshed.
0:52:02 > 0:52:07The Pope let it be known that he recognised the Scottish throne,
0:52:07 > 0:52:10and he lifted the ban of excommunication from King Robert.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14The Pope was onside. The gates of hell were firmly shut.
0:52:14 > 0:52:19King Robert, you might think, could be sure of salvation.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21But he wasn't.
0:52:21 > 0:52:23Guilt weighed heavily on him.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27His nameless illness assured him that he still lacked God's grace.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30The crown was his, he wouldn't be parted from it.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34But it was steeped in blood, the blood of his family and the blood of others.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38He arranged for a chaplain in Buchan to say masses for his brother Neil,
0:52:38 > 0:52:45dead since 1306, and made grants to Dunfermline Abbey, where his wife lay buried.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49The Bruce and his advisers judged the time was ripe to ask for
0:52:49 > 0:52:52something that every European monarchy of status possessed -
0:52:52 > 0:52:59an ampulla, a bottle of sacred oil, blessed by the Pope himself.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05Oil from such bottles was used to anoint kings at their coronations.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Any attempt to conquer the lands of a king who, by virtue of this oil,
0:53:10 > 0:53:13had been anointed by God, was a mortal sin.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15The English Kings had an ampulla.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20The French did too. But the Scottish Kings didn't, and they wanted one.
0:53:20 > 0:53:22It was more than any mere status symbol.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26It was a bottle full of independence from the English King.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29His illness grew worse.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31"The King is dying," people said.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34Nobody knew what he was dying of.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36But this time it was true.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39He had just three months to live, but he went on pilgrimage,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42struggled down the south-west coast of Scotland
0:53:42 > 0:53:46to the shrine of St Ninian in Whithorn Cathedral.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50Too sick to ride, the warrior King was carried on a litter.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52The journey took a month.
0:53:52 > 0:53:58When he arrived, Robert the Bruce, mortally ill and on the edge of the abyss, did penance.
0:53:58 > 0:54:02He fasted and did penance for five days.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05After all, the Church had got him his crown.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08Surely now God would take him back.
0:54:10 > 0:54:12"God forgive me.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16"I have spilt the blood of many innocent men..."
0:54:20 > 0:54:25On his return, he gathered his earls around him and he spoke to them.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27"My day is far gone," he said.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30"I thank God for giving me time to repent in this life.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33"Because of me and my wars, much blood has been spilt.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35"Many innocent men have died.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40"So I take this sickness and pain as proper penance for my sins."
0:54:40 > 0:54:45And he let it be known that after his death, he wanted his heart to be removed and taken on crusade.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50Robert knew he would never live to go himself,
0:54:50 > 0:54:55but the Scots had been promising the Pope a crusade since 1320.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58Robert died on 7th June 1329.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01He was 55 years old.
0:55:01 > 0:55:07The illustrious King of Scots was buried here, at Dunfermline Abbey, near his wife.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12The dead King, and the first King of something that had never existed before.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16The very word "Scots" meant something different.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20There was a Scottish people now, loyal to a Scottish throne.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23No more confusion, no more divided loyalties.
0:55:23 > 0:55:27The bishops and the Bruce had done their job. It was a revolution.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35The King is dead.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37Long live the King.
0:55:37 > 0:55:43His five-year-old son, David, succeeded Robert the Bruce on 7th June 1329.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47The following year, James Douglas took the Bruce's heart on crusade
0:55:47 > 0:55:50against the Moors in northern Spain, and died there.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54The heart, having fulfilled its promise, was found on the
0:55:54 > 0:55:58battlefield, returned to Scotland, and buried in Melrose Abbey.
0:56:01 > 0:56:06After his death, the legend of the Bruce did what legends do.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09It ate things up. It ate the human being.
0:56:09 > 0:56:14All that was left was Robert the Bruce, the soldier King who fought for Scottish liberty and won.
0:56:14 > 0:56:20It left a suit of armour, and this face, resolute and empty.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24The legend hid his consuming guilt.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31It rarely mentioned the bishops who'd chosen him and who had guided his every step.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34It barely muttered the names of his lost family.
0:56:34 > 0:56:39It shrunk the Scottish casualties and multiplied the English armies he'd defeated.
0:56:39 > 0:56:41It blurred the medievalness of what he did.
0:56:41 > 0:56:46It made it about liberty for all instead of a revolution
0:56:46 > 0:56:49that established a free and independent Scottish crown.
0:56:55 > 0:57:02On November 24th 1331, David and Joan were enthroned as King and Queen of Scotland.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04There was no Stone of Destiny.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07Edward III had promised to return it and hadn't.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11But at last, there was an ampulla of sacred oil from the Pope,
0:57:11 > 0:57:14the bottle of independence from the English crown,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17final proof of the Bruce's triumph,
0:57:17 > 0:57:22final proof that the Scottish crown was free and quit of English authority,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25final proof that the reign of Good King Robert
0:57:25 > 0:57:29had been worth everything, all the deaths and horror,
0:57:29 > 0:57:35freedom from the English crown at last, for ever.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38The next English invasion was in 1332.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42So much for bottles and for promises.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd