Would you trash the tombstone of one of the greatest ever Scots? It's the
anniversary of his death, and be the time we're finished, you're going to know the
true value of Robert the Bruce.
Hiya, I'm Bruce Fummey from Scotland history tours.
If you're interested in the people, events and places in Scottish history, and you
want some great ideas about places to visit in Scotland, then subscribe to my
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notified every time I make a new YouTube video. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
How do you prepare for a funeral such as this? Well you need 3,000kg
of wax, purchased for funeral candles, hundreds of yards of linen and
black cloth for mourning clothes. A wooden Chapel needs to be constructed
specially, built over the tomb inside the abbey, and this is just for the funeral.
It surrounded a marble tomb made by the most famous stone worker in Paris,
and had been transported through Belgium and England to Dunfermline. There the
tomb was decorated with gold leaf. It must have been spectacular. He'd spent
his last days on a cruise down the west coast with one of his best friends.
He'd left from near here, Cardross, and visited Isle of Arran, stopped off at
Turnberry where he'd been born, and he visited his son, still a child but the
current Earl of Carrick, and future king of Scotland.iAT times the journey had been
hard, difficult, painful. It took months and many stops along the way. He knew he
was dying. At Whithorn he visited the grave of St Ninian, and the shrine erected
to the man reputed to have been the first person to brought Christianity to
what we call Scotland. Was this the pious act of a religious man. or a desperate
deed of repentance? Maybe the silver donated to the
church, and the excommunication that still hung over him gives us the clue
to the answer that.
He died on the 7th of June, and he was embalmed in the little church
that was here (St Serf's church) and then he set off from his home, a manor
house near Cardross. What not a palace? No. Not a castle? No. A single-story manor
house that's long gone without a trace. Descended from an immigrant family,
who'd initially moved to England, and then brought to Scotland to pioneer a
new life, he was the first in a line of five generations who'd held his name to
be born here in Scotland. He died as king of this independent land. He'd done
pretty well for himself, I think you'd agree. And for from Cardross
he he set off for Loch Lomond. I wonder Robert, as you passed Loch
Lomond, did your spirit reminisce of the time you had to flee across this loch,
pursued by enemies who'd taken the side of Edward and the English? Your fall had been
swift, after declaring yourself King. The glory of a Scone coronation, three
battles lost, then fugitive. An inauspicious start for the King of Scots. If only
you'd known how much worse your wife and brothers and fared. Friends and family
lost in glorious battle, or the underselling gibbet. You fled across this
loch left with nothing but your life. Many may have given up then. Few could have
faced those odds, yet still play a winning hand.
It took greatness. Your funeral train stops overnight at Dunipace, where
William Wallace was nurtured by his priestly uncle. Wallace always steadfast,
yet he had died at the hands of Edward of England; enduring, suffering a
traitor's death he didn't deserve. But here you're a stone's throw from
Bannockburn where you avenged him. Was that ever a more
glorious day in Scottish history? Had you achieved nothing more than in that day,
your life would have been complete. Hundreds of years from now they'll still
be singing of you, and the flower of Scotland who fought by your side.
Your second overnight stop is a Cambuskenneth Abbey.
Abbeys have played a key part in your life.
It was at this Abbey that you signed the mutual defence pact with the Bishop of
St. Andrews against Edward I of England, as you watched Edward bombard
the brave souls in Stirling Castle. In some ways that was the start of the
road. It was a Greyfriars, in Dumfries, that you murdered John Comyn, who had
revealed your pact to Edward I. It was at Arbroath Abbey that you, and the
nobility of the kingdom would sign a declaration, to tell the Pope that the
kingdom of Scots was free, special to God, and would never answer to the king
of England. You could never have known then (and
you will never know) that just days from now the Pope will agree, and send the
holy oil to anoint future kings of Scots. You have set Scotland free forever.
If you'd known before your passing would it have given you rest? These last year's
once you'd secured kingship, independence. the freedom for which alone your people fought,
it seemed that freedom wasn't quite enough. The one more thing you needed was
eternal rest. And for this you paid with silver, with endowments to
monasteries and cathedrals. For this you took that last cruise to Whithorn,
where St Ninian first preached the gospel to a land now Scots. For this your
heart was taken from your chest to Crusade
with good Sir James Douglas. How many years? How many years of prayer for your
eternal soul will it take, from how many monks, before you finally find rest?
How many years for going back on your oath to Edward? How many years for your
duplicity to Wallace? How many years for the murder of John Comyn on holy ground?
Brothers dead to make you King, and never lived to see what the sacrifice had
bought. How many years? And for those slain, whose names you'd never know, how
many years? At last you reach Dunfermline, the final abbey where you'll lie with your
wife as the eternal scales are weighed, the good against the bad. Scotland is
secure. There's peace with England: your son David married to the sister of English
King to cement the treaty, peace and recognition for your nation, and the
independence of the Scottish church, hopes for a long dynasty to come, but how
heavy ways the burden on the other side? The blood, the murder, the excommunication...
And so Robert the Bruce was laid to rest here. I wonder how he fared as he met
his maker. His last few days suggest that he wasn't entirely confident that he'd
pulled things back. One thing must be for sure; he must have tipped the skills of
Scottish opinion ...and yet that's not the case. His popularity waxed and waned,
possibly a bit like his own changes of heart over the years. Indeed if you go in
here, to Dunfermline Abbey, you won't find that ornate marble tomb that was brought
all the way from France. You see on the 20th of March 1560 Protestant reformers
burst in to the abbey here and with hammer, axe, and pick they destroyed all signs of
Catholic idolatry. And the frenzy of destruction included the tombstone of
one of the greatest ever Scots. It seems unthinkable that there was a
time where he would be held in such low regard. Perhaps the lives of our heroes
are measured, not on the balancing scales of divine justice, but with the
fluctuations of fickle public opinion. Not with an exact and decisive final
determining measure, but with the rise and fall of a stock market index. At the
start I said that by the time we were finished you would know the true value
of Robert the Bruce. The truth is that the value of his stock is decided by you.
Are you a buyer or a seller?
I hope you enjoyed this video commemorating the death of a warrior
king. If you did then please like and share the video with your friends. If
you'd like to see more videos from me then subscribe to my YouTube channel
Scotland history tours, and click the notification bell to find out when I
publish new videos. In the meantime, let's raise a glass to Robert the Bruce.