I'm Bruce Fummey. A viewer asked me to talk about Robert the Bruce finally won
Scotland's independence, so I've brought you to Bannockburn, because this is where happened right?
What if Scotland's independence was won in a French boudoir in Paris? You're not going!
I'd need a bigger budget. Here at the Rotunda at Bannockburn, we commemorate our great Warrior King, Robert the
Bruce who gained Scottish independence after English invasion. Now this isn't exactly where
it happened, but events took place in and around here over two days, to decide who would occupy
Stirling Castle, and that's when Scotland gained its independence in June 1314 right?
If only it were so simple!
Edward the Second, the King of England, fled Bannockburn, being ignominiously pursued all the way to Dunbar
by Sir James Douglas. From then on, Sir James led numerous raids into the cowed English north, earning
himself the sobriquet of the Black Douglas that side of the border. Folks would sing their children to
sleep with lullabies, promising that the Black Douglas wouldn't come to harm them that night.
No wonder parts of the north of England are still a wee bit racist, eh
but winning the battle, seizing control, running your own affairs
wasn't independence. For that to be official, they needed Edward the Second to accept defeat, more importantly
they needed the blessing of the Pope. Now when I talk about Scotland and England, I talk
about it as if each were a single, homogeneous, unified, whole, with everyone of the same mind
and pulling together in the same direction, and of course they weren't. It wasn't like it is today!
You had Scots who wanted independence from England. You had Scots in England who were
happy with English over lordship. You had Scots in Scotland who were happy with English over lordship,
there were even those who hated Robert the Bruce, in spite of all that he'd achieved. Some complained that
he'd confiscated their lands, others said that he'd murdered a competitor on holy ground,
some said that he bore a striking similarity to a cross-dressing schoolboy in a comedy double act!
Some say that Americans won't get that joke, even with subtitles!
Of course, there would have been English, who couldn't care less whether their own masters and
overlords, were Scotland's masters and overlords as well. You would also have had English, who
distrusted their own government enough to support Scotland's quest for independence. The point is
it was nothing like today! When I say Scotland and England, it's just a convenient oversimplification.
So Robert the Bruce had won militarily, at least in the short term, but that doesn't mean that
Edward the Second was prepared to give up his claim to own Scotland. Eventually Robert the Bruce
must have realised that no amount of harrying the north of England was going to bring
Scotland's freedom. Six years after Bannockburn, nothing had changed, and that's when the Scots
wrote to the Pope in the Declaration of Arbroath. His acknowledgement of Scotland's independent
existence was crucial. Now people bang on about the high-flown rhetoric of the Declaration of
Arbroath, the eloquent prose, the impact on the wider world, the blah de blah de blah, and it is all
that, but the Declaration of Arbroath was also a recognition, and acceptance that winning the
war wasn't enough, there was a peace to be won with diplomacy, and Bruce's progeny would never
be at peace without a stable future relationship with England. Help came from an unlikely source
Did you watch Braveheart? In it Edward the Second's Queen, Isabella, was sent to negotiate with
William Wallace, suddenly she realises he's not a savage, they fall in love and have a bit of nooky,
and was her pregnancy really down to her homosexual husband, or was William Wallace truly the father
of future Plantagenet Kings and was it all bollocks to introduce a love interest and if
it had happened, then Isabella was only two years old at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, and even
Mel Gibson has his limits. What's more, William Wallace was hung, drawn and quartered in 1305,
Isabella's son, Edward the Third, wasn't born until 1312, that means for seven years somebody's
been running around with William Wallace's sperm in a bucket. Actually I have heard tell that
the reason that they built the Wallace Monument was to have some place to store the bucket.
In fact, hidden in all Braveheart's Hollywood storyline structure, there is a tiny grain
of truth. The Wallace's bucket bit I made up, but queen Isabella, the wife of Edward the Second
probably did have an affair with a rebellious Knight. Queen Isabella did negotiate with the
Scots, and Queen Isabella did give us more than her Plantagenet husband, his father, or his son
would have. Let me tell you the story. Incidentally, if you're interested in the people, places and
events in Scottish history, then why not subscribe to my channel by hitting the red button at the
bottom right of the screen. To support the channel you can click the white tab up there to become
a member or buy me a coffee with a link in the description below. Anyway let me tell you the story.
One of the reasons for our success here at Bannockburn was that the English were divided
against themselves. This was partly due to Piers Gaveston, Edward's favourite,
some might say lover, but that might be hearsay, but he did fly the rainbow banner, and his coat of arms
was fleur-de-lis around a lion and leopard-skinned trousers standing on a glitter ball,
but cliché isn't evidence. Now if you're wondering why I'm talking over my shoulder to you like this
it's because you need to be able to do that to get a job as a presenter at the BBC, and this is
like my demo tape for them. You won't get a job with the BBC talking about Scottish independence.
I never really thought that through did I? For whatever reason, Edward gave lands and titles
to Gaveston. It created a situation that was pretty near to civil war. Even after Gaveston's extrajudicial
execution by jealous Barons, there was a constant internal strife in England. Factions seeking
support from France, Isabella almost captured when our brave Sir Douglas tried to kidnap her,
a wholesale invasion and humiliating rout by Robert the Bruce at the battle of Byland, Isabella
being abandoned to capture by the Scots as Edward fled, more internal squabbles and Isabella heading
off to France, and even then, Edward still thought that he could cling on to Scotland.
They don't let go easily you know? It wasn't enough to win the battlefield, Isabella,
who never met let alone had sex with William Wallace, was now in France, where she did meet
and probably had sex with Roger Mortimer, one of the English nobles exiled in all
those civil strife shenanigans, in a French boudoir in Paris. You're still not going!
Long story short, Isabella returns to England with Mortimer and a mercenary army. They force
Edward the Second to abdicate in favour of his son, Edward the Third. Edward the Second then mysteriously disappears and
during young Edward the Third's minority, and her regency, Isabella negotiates a treaty with Robert the Bruce.
Robert the Bruce and his heirs, would rule Scotland. Robert the Bruce's son, David, would marry Isabella's
daughter, Edward the Third's sister. The border would be that which pertained during the reign of
Alexander the Third, and we would give England a hundred thousand pounds in 1328! That was a huge amount of
money. They were bought and sold for Scottish gold. The treaty of Edinburgh Northampton was signed by
Robert the Bruce in Edinburgh on the 17th of March 1328, and it was ratified by the English Parliament
at Northampton on the 1st of May in 1328, 14 years after the Battle of Bannockburn. Robert the Bruce
only survived another year, but in that final year, as he tried to put himself right with God,
he could do so knowing that he'd put his country on a stable footing for the future, even the Pope
sent precious holy oil to anoint Scottish Monarchs at their coronation as independent Kings, although
it arrived just too late for Robert the Bruce to see it himself. The white tab up there, it'll
take you to my video on 'The Death of Robert the Bruce, it's one you'd really enjoy, but just before
you do, one more thought. Robert the Bruce must have died thinking things were settled. He'd made
a signed agreement with English Crown, parchment cut down the middle with a zigzag pattern so that
each side's half could be matched without fear of underhand changes later. It was finally over,
or at the very least it was a once in a generation event, and yet they were back just five years later,
and I've got a series of three videos to tell you what happened next. If you want a thoughtful
tribute on the death of Robert the Bruce, for the story of the Second War of Scottish independence
then click the link here. Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.