it's the 18th of June 1306. Robert the Bruce is about to experience
one of the most crucial, and defining days of his life. If you
want to know why and what happened, with some information
you're probably never heard of, then this is a video for you.
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 YouTube channel and click on the notification bell. That way
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YouTube video. In the meantime, let me tell you a story
OK, so i want to tell you about the events of the 18th and the 19th of June
1306. Now some of you'll know nothing about Scottish history and some
of you will be aficionados, so let's have a quick recap. Four months
ago in a church in Dumfries Robert Bruce
murdered a competitor. a competitor who'd probably grassed him
up to Edward I of England. So what had John Comyn snitched about?
Scotland no longer existed. For the first of three times that i can think of in
history it had been subsumed into England. Now if
you can think of a different number then tell me in the comment section below.
Anyway Bruce wanted to re-establish Scotland as
a country and put himself in charge as king. Now
Comyn wanted Scotland to be an independent
country, it's just that he wanted John Balliol to be king. It wasn't what
you said, it was the way that you said it.
In a medieval world with no internet or even postal service
things moved a lightning speed. On the 11th of February
Bruce kills john Comyn. By the 25th of March he's crowned King Robert I
at Scone By the 5th of April Edward I of
England has appointed Aymer de Valence earl of Pembroke
to sort out Scotland in general, and Bruce
in particular. By the 18th of June De Valance is in charge of a sizeable,
though or not insurmountable, force in the walled city of Perth.
Wow who needs high-speed railways
Now let's put some meat on the bones that will be hanging from gibbet
if you don't get this right. De Valance has arrived in Perth and he's not
dicking about. This is personal. He's Edward's cousin
and he's a brother-in-law of John Comyn, who you murdered
four months ago. Not only that, but Edwards told them to raise the dragon
banner. The dragon banner! No chivalry, no rules, no quarter.
Not only that but the majority of Scotland is on his side.
I'm talking 55 percent would rather be in vassalage
to England. Does that sound crazy? It's possibly closer to 75 percent.
Let's remember, not four months ago you murdered one of the leading nobles of
the country... from the Comyn family... the most powerful
and important family in the country... and you did it in a church. You've been
excommunicated! It's a wonder anyone supports you for goodness sake.
So how is it that Bruce managed to get support from even a quarter of the
country... and managed to be crowned at Scone, led
to the seat of inauguration by Lady Fife, the wife of another John
Comyn, whose cousin you've just
How is it that an ex-communique in the religious atmosphere of medieval Europe
is able to be crowned king? Here's the bizarre thing...
because of the church. Yes there were four bishops at his inauguration.
The Bishop of St Andrews had voluntarily rushed back from Berwick
for the event. The Bishop of Glasgow had absolved Bruce of murder and holy ground
and he'd even given them the timbers from glasgow cathedral to build siege
engines. and the bishop of Moray was up telling
his flock that supporting Robert the Bruce against Edward I
was as good as going on crusade. Find me an Arab that wants to buy some sand I've
got a salesman! It seems like that doesn't it yeah? What
does this tell you? Caught in the moral dilemma between
Edward I and Robert the Bruce the highest
churchman in the land chose the murderer who's been
excommunicated. How evil must the English be?
Now there's a very good political reason the church supported Scottish
independence, and i'll maybe cover that in another video, but you clicked to
hear about the Battle of Methven. I also promised you a detail that you
wouldn't already know. But the truth of the matter is that
Methven wasn't so much a battle as an ambush, and it's the context
that's huge in this set of circumstances.
The point is that Bruce had most of the country against him.
He'd crossed the river Forth with 60 men at arms,
60. Most Scots had supported John Balliol as king
and rather than support a murdering usurper (who we found out last week was
also a racist as well apparently) they would rather be subsumed into
England. Even McDougals, who'd supported the
patriotic cause, switch sides to the pro-English side
rather than support Bruce. People were calling him King Hobbe. Folk
were laughing at him. in the streets. In the three months since
he declared himself king the Comyns (remember)? They got their
allies together. They've been gathering strength.
Edward of England has sent a force, with more to come.
Bruce has two things on his side: the support of the church
and the momentum of that part of the population that just wants Scotland to
have its own monarch again, even if it is a murder and
excommunicate. But many of his knights who stood by him
on his side wore white surcoats. That way their coat of arms wasn't shown,
and if the cause was lost (as it probably would be) then nobody
would know it was them. That shows you how bad his position was.
A battle won might bring momentum. It might bring support,
it might even bring the McDougalls round.
On the other side Aymer de Valance had arrived in Perth with
an unconvincing force. Now, he had more to come and he probably felt pretty
confident that, with Scottish support, that
eventually Bruce would be hanging around waiting to be
drawn and quartered. But things were unpredictable.
One way or another this had been going on for 20 years;
and if William Wallace had taught him anything, it was that a lot of damage can
be done with a little patriotic fervour.
De Valance had to get this started quickly. The
stakes were huge on both sides.
So in the three months that he's been king Bruce has built on the sixty that
accompanied him across the Forth in the first place. Now
he had a reasonable size force. So on the 18th of June he arrives at the
gates of Perth and he challenges Aymer de Valance to
come out and fight. Aymer de Valance looks at Bruce's
force, he looks at his own force, and he says: 'No,
it's Sunday. Let's fight tomorrow.' And Bruce agrees. He takes his men and he
camps at Methven, which is walking distance from Perth. i
know because I've walked home from the berry
picking. And so the Scots make camp. They take off
their armor. They put down their weapons. They soak in
a warm Radox bath. They even put their feet in
those, you know those wee tanks with the wee fish that eat your dead skin. Oh
A third of them go off foraging for food, so when the English cavalry
surprised them with a charge through the camp, killing capturing and
devastating everything. The Scots have no order, no weapons, no
protection. The battle of Methven wasn't a battle.
At best it was an ambush. You could even say a massacre.
Those deceitful unchivalrous evil English...
or were they? They were flying the dragon banner!
Yes they were sneaky and devious, but they put up a massive sign outside the
shop warning you that they were going to be ruthless
brutal and unforgiving. It's not like when Cargill Motors in
Balbegie sells your wife a dodgy motor! I mean if they had a sign outside saying:
'We sell you cars that are criminally dangerous,
come and see our extensive range.' that would be different wouldn't it
yeah? you would know what you were getting.
They were displaying a big dragon banner! It's like flying the jolly roger when
you're going through the nothing to declare channel at customs.
You knew they were pirates! Of all the grudges that Scots hold
against the English, this should not be one of them.
Now Bruce went on to achieve great things OK,
but this must have been a low point of hubris and naivety.
To camp within walking distance of an enemy force flying the dragon banner,
allow his men to disarm, go off hunting, not post sentries.are you crazy?
You've got to know what's going to happen! Some of his best men
and his most loyal supporters were killed or captured to be executed later.
This was a disaster. Now in the confused state of things Bruce himself was
captured, was nearly captured, was captured then released, who knows?
But here's the thing that you've probably not heard of.
I hadn't heard about it until i read about it in a little book called
Battleground Perthshire. I'll leave a link below so you can go
and buy the boot OK. You can click through it'll take you
to Amazon.
Tell me in the comment section by the way below if you've heard this story.
Now remember they're all relaxed. They weren't in battle gear,
right, so apparently Bruce gets captured but the English
don't realize who he is. But once he's in custody
there was a Scottish knight fighting on the side of the English and his name
was John de Haliburton, and he knew who Bruce was.
But when he got the chance he set him free.
Now this was a truly heroic act Bruce had no chance of winning this war, and
Halliburton must have known the gory end that
awaited him if he was caught. This was an incredible feat of bravery.
Bruce fled north and west and managed to gather together a bedraggled force.
They hadn't won a battle. They'd been practically
wiped out, and now they were attacked by the MacDougals...
and then attacked again, until king hob was little more
than an outlaw on the run.
Of course the story of Robert Bruce is that of overcoming adversity;
and this must have been one of the most sobering,
one of the most tempering lessons of Robert Bruce's life.
A tempering of the cold steel brought down at Bannockburn you might say.
You see we know how the story ended but imagine
Robert the Bruce had been captured at Methven.
History is written by the victors so Bruce's history
was his story. Had he been captured at Methven
it would have been Edward's story and Bruce would have been just
another traitor to suffer the same gory death as Wallace,
and today both would be forgotten as we marched
under Saint George's cross. It's easy to over dramatise single
events in history. That's why i do it. Every battle has its
heroes, but Bruce was certainly not the hero of
this one. The real hero was on the English side.
If not for John de Haliburton...
On these moments history turns. The Battle of Methven was a defeat for Robert
the Bruce, but it was a victory for Scotland thanks
to John de Haliburton. If you've enjoyed this video please like
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Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh
Tiorridh an drasda