E2: Barbour's Bruce

Matthew Hammond explains the oft-forgotten story of Edward Balliol, erstwhile king of Scots, whose successful assertion of his kingship prompted the 'second war of independence'. For more, see www.cotr.ac.uk/blog/scotlands-forgotten-king 

Matthew Hammond tells us about Arbroath, the place associated with the 'Declaration'. Why was Arbroath important to Robert I and how did the 1320 letter come to be dated there? For more on the Arbroath historical pageant, see www.historicalpageants.ac.uk 

John Reuben Davies takes us through the document containing the absolution of Robert Bruce, issued in 1310, following Robert's murder of John Comyn in 1306. For John's translation of the earliest surviving copy (in Dublin, Trinity College, MS 498) click here.

Dauvit Broun takes us through the Schøyen Chronicle, a sixteenth-century manuscript containing a year-by-year chronicle covering 1297 and 1327, preserving new information about William Wallace and the appointment of seven (yes, you read that right) Guardians of the kingdom. You can find MS 679 here

Matthew Hammond introduces the corpus of Robert I's charters, explaining what they can (and can't) tell us about his reign.  NLS, Charter no. 242 (Robert confirms a quitclaim of land in Angus, saving his service, issued in 1322) Image (c) National Library of Scotland and reproduced with permission

Alice Taylor takes us through the earliest piece of legislation to have survived from the parliament of Scone, issued at Scone in December 1318. For a translation of the 1318 legislation, visit: http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1318 Image (NLS, MS 34.4.2: Registrum Vetus of Arbroath Abbey) 

Steve Boardman takes us through the fascinating Irish Remonstrance, supposedly written by the king of Ulster in support of Edward Bruce's short-lived kingship of Ireland (and in defence of his campaigns in Ireland), and preserved within two histories of the Scots.  

Dauvit Broun introduces the fascinating 'Book of Pluscarden', completed in 1461, whose unknown author included TWO copies of the Declaration of Arbroath and rewrote them in different ways. What did he change and why might he have done so?  For the 'teaser' of the project's dynamic edition, which will show how the Declaration has been rewritten over time, see https://cotr.ac.uk/dynamic-arbroath/

Alice Taylor introduces us to the mysterious 'Regiam Maiestatem', the book of (supposedly) Scottish law (probably) compiled in Robert's reign which, by 1426, had become one of the main books of 'ancient law' in the kingdom. Join us to find out more about the mystery! Episode artwork: Initial 'R' from the Regiam Maiestatem in the Bute manuscript, National Library of Scotland, MS 21246, fo. 27r.

Steve Boardman takes us through Barbour's Bruce, the epic poem written generations after Bruce's death, and starting point for all later discussion of who Bruce and why he did what he did. The image is from a 14th-century MS from a treatise of the Seven Vices from Genoa, now British Library, Additional MS 28841, f. 6r. Because of the spider!