Robert the Bruce

Robert the Bruce was the person who completed the task of getting Scotland to freedom. He was born in 1274 and he grew up in a noble family. He did have claims to the Scottish throne through his father’s side of the family.

Robert did have connections with William Wallace but he didn’t side with him right away. William originally sided with John Bailiol because he wanted John to become king, so Robert sided with Edward I. 

Since Edward was on the English side he gathered Englishmen to help rule Scotland. It was at this point that Robert decided to then side with Scotland because he didn’t want to go against his own men. At first he had some trouble getting back on their side because they did not agree with him siding with Edward.

So after he ended up siding with William and the rest of the men William gave up a special position to give to Robert. That was the position of being guardian of Scotland.

This is when Robert met a new man named John Comyn. Robert was confident that he had a strong claim to the throne. But John also was another person who had strong claim to the throne. This brought up some controversy and they did come to an agreement. The agreement had included Robert becoming king. John unfortunately went back on his word and did not keep his agreement. So in a duel Robert killed John.

So, Robert now had the chance to claim the throne of Scotland. He ended up fighting for the throne and took over the Dumfries castle. Six weeks after that conquering of the castle he was crowned king of Scotland on March 25^th, 1306. Edward and his son Edward II did not like losing to Scotland so they wanted to fight against Robert to take over. Unfortunately the Scots did have lots of defeats but Robert was determined and he kept fighting.

There is one famous battle where Robert even accomplished getting Scotland’s freedom. That battle was the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The Scots won and accomplished getting their freedom.

England did not recognize that Robert was king of Scotland until they received a new king who was Edward III. Finally, there was a treaty made which made the war come to an end. That was The Treaty of Edinburgh-Northhampton that got signed. Scotland then was an independent country and remained all the way up until 1707.