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Robert Bruce: Our Most Valiant Prince, King and Lord. Commemorating the seven hundredth anniversary of the enthronement of Robert I of Scotland, this book is intended as an everyman's guide to Scotland's famous hero king. The life of Bruce is one of the greatest comeback stories in history. Heir and magnate, shrewd politician, briefly 'king of summer' and then a desperate fugitive who nevertheless returned from exile to recover the kingdom he claimed, Bruce became a gifted military leader and a wise statesman, a leader with vision and energy. Colm McNamee combines the most up to date scholarship on this crucial figure in the history of the British Isles with lucid explanation of the medieval context, so that readers of all backgrounds can appreciate Bruce's enormous contribution to the historical impact not just on Scotland, but on England and Ireland too. It is designed to encourage popular reassessment of Bruce as politician, warrior, monarch and saviour of Scottish identity from extinction at the hands of the Edwardian superstate. Peeling back the layers of misconception and propaganda, the author paints an accurate, sympathetic but balanced portrait of a much beloved national hero who has fallen out of fashion of late for no good reason. Robert Bruce: Our Most Valiant Prince, King and Lord
On the Trail of Robert the Bruce. This is an illustrated story of Scotland's hero-king and freedom-fighter. The text follows the life of Robert the Bruce from boyhood onwards, with a blow-by-blow account of how he led the Scots to their victory at Bannockburn, against all the odds. On the Trail of Robert the Bruce (On the Trail of)
In the Footsteps of Robert Bruce. "On 7 June 1329 died Robert Bruce, of goodly memory, the illustrious King of Scots, at Cardross in the 24th year of his reign. He was beyond all living men of his day, a valiant knight" wrote a contemporary chronicler. Bruce's body was buried in Dunfermline Abbey, his heart removed to be taken on crusade to the Holy Land - at his dying request - but later returned to Scotland for burial, and interred at Melrose Abbey. For over 600 years, Robert Bruce has had his own place in Scottish history, his position almost that of patron saint, and that the story of his life as hero king has held the minds of the champions of Scottish nationalism for generations. Yet behind this legendary figure is a complex, and in many ways, more fascinating picture, a man who not only led his nation to a famous victory over the English at Bannockburn, and who is commemorated in his followers' national anthem "Flower of Scotland", but who overcame great odds to win power for himself in Scotland and was determined to succeed in fulfilling his family's long-held ambition for political power. This book takes the reader on Bruce's journey, from his birth in south-west Scotland to a family with strong connections in Annandale, Cumberland and north Yorkshire, to his kingship and triumph at Bannockburn. Here are the sites and settings associated with Robert Bruce in the years following the death of King Alexander III or Scotland in 1329 - the Scotland of Braveheart, of war with England in the 13th century and of political power struggles within Scotland itself. In the Footsteps of Robert Bruce |
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