Robert the Bruce
Robert the Bruce killed his rival in a church, had himself crowned six weeks later with the English holding the country, lost every battle of his first year and won the one that mattered eight years afterwards, and died a king whom England had recognised, of a disease his contemporaries called leprosy. He was born in July 1274 into an Anglo-Norman family that held Annandale and Carrick and had a claim to the Scottish throne through his grandfather, the competitor whom Edward I had passed over for John Balliol in 1292. Through the wars that followed Balliol's fall the Bruces changed sides as the family's interest required, and Robert was in Edward's peace as late as 1302. On 10 February 1306 he met his rival Comyn, the other claimant, in the Greyfriars church at Dumfries to settle their rivalry and stabbed him before the altar. Excommunicated, with no choice left, he was crowned at Scone on 25 March. Edward's men beat him at Methven in June and at Dalry, his wife and daughter were captured, three of his brothers were executed, and he spent the winter hiding in the west, where the story of the spider was later attached. He came back in 1307, won at Loudoun Hill, and Edward I died on the road north that July. Against Edward II he fought the war he had learned to fight, taking the castles one by one and pulling them down, raiding Northumberland for tribute, and refusing battle until June 1314, when Stirling had to be relieved and he chose the ground at Bannockburn; the English cavalry broke on his schiltrons on the second day and Edward fled for Dunbar. The Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 told the pope that the Scots would fight for freedom alone, and would replace even Robert if he gave it up. England recognised the kingdom at Northampton in 1328 and married Edward III's sister to his son. He died at Cardross in June 1329, fifty-four, asking that his heart go on crusade; James Douglas carried it into battle in Spain and was killed, and the heart came home to Melrose.
- Lived: 1274 CE – 1329 CE
- Nationality: Scottish
- Roles: king, monarch, general
