3. ROBERT, son of the preceding, Earl of Car rick, and afterward King of Scotland: h. 21 March 1274; d. 9 July 1329. He acted at first as Edward's liegeman, but vacillated between the two parties, taking no very active part in the struggle between Wallace and England, but inclining to the national cause when a gleam of success enlivened the hopes of the patriots, and, at the approach of Edward, making his peace with the conqueror. He was one of those con sulted by the King in the settlement of Scotland as an English province, and was permitted to retain the extensive lands of his ancestors un alienated. In 1306, Comyn, the son of Baliol's sister, a nobleman distinguished by his efforts to recover the independence of his country, arrived in Dumfries about the same time with Bruce. By appointment he met Bruce alone in the church of the Minorites, who there stabbed him with his dagger; whether by premedi tated treachery or in a sudden fit of passion cannot now be ascertained. Bruce now as sumed the title of King, summoned the Scots to his standard, and was crowned, without any opposition, at Scone. Edward immediately sent Aymar de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, with a great army to chastise the rebels. The force of Bruce was almost immediately destroyed, six of his best knights made prisoners, and he himself, thrown from his horse, was rescued only by the devotion of Seaton. For two months, with his brothers and the ladies of his household, he wandered to and fro in the Grampian Hills, till, his party being discovered, defeated and forced to separate, he buried himself for con cealment in the island of Rathlin, on the north of Ireland. His three brothers and others were captured, and the brothers were soon after hanged at Carlisle. In the spring of 1307 Bruce returned from his retreat, surprised his own castle of Carrick, defeated small parties of English in many skirmishes and was enabled to maintain himself among the hills atid forests until Edward called out an army and marched toward the borders, but died on his way, leav ing to his son a charge not to bury his bones till he had borne them in triumph from Ber wick bounds to the utmost highlands. For three years Edward II paid no attention to his father's advice or the Scottish war, but in the autumn of 1310 he marched into Scotland as far as the Forth without encountering an enemy, for Bruce wisely declined to give him battle. In the next year he sent his favorite Gavcston to renew the war, who penetrated be yond the Forth but still gained no advantage, Bruce constantly retreating before him, keeping the hills, where he could not be assailed, and harassing the English by constant petty skir mishes in which he mostly worsted them. The
following years were passed by Edward in ignoble contentions with his Parliament, and by Bruce in gradually but surely recovering all that he had lost in Scotland, until, in 1314, the strong hill fortress of Stirling alone held out for the English, and even that the governor, Mowbray, had been forced to consent to surren der if it should not be relieved before the feast of Saint John the Baptist. This at length aroused Edward, who, at the head of a large army, encamped in the neighborhood of the beleaguered fortress, and was there met by Bruce at the head of 30,000 picked men, on the eve of the festival fixed for its surrender. The battle of Bannockburn, which succeeded, was the bloodiest defeat which the English ever suf fered at the hands of their Scottish neighbors. It fixed the crown securely on the head of Bruce and at once enabled him to exchange his prisoners, who were of the highest rank in Eng land, against his wife, his sister and his other relatives, who had long languished in captivity. After this success the Scottish people assumed the offensive and invaded Ireland, where they at first gained considerable successes, and of which island Edward Bruce was crowned King. While the dissensions lasted between Edward II and his barons. Robert Bruce repeatedly devastated the borders and all the north of Yorkshire, even to the walls of York, into which he on one occasion chased the English King in disgrace, narrowly failing to make him pris oner. In 1323 this bloody war, which had raged, with few pauses, for 23 years, was brought to a close by a truce concluded between the two kingdoms for 13 years, to remain in force even in the event of the death of one or both of the contracting parties. Four years after this Ed ward II was compelled to abdicate in favor of his son, Edward III, and Bruce, seeing his occa sion in the distracted state of England, renewed the war, with the avowed intention of forcing Edward to renounce his claim of sovereignty over the crown of Scotland. In 1328 this re nunciation was made; Scotland was declared sovereign and independent; Jane of England, the sister of Edward, was affianced to David, Prince of Scotland, and Robert Bruce paid 120, 000 sterling to defray the expenses of the war. He died the next year, having, after a life of incessant toil and warfare, secured the inde pendence of his country and won the crown, which he left undisputed to his son.