COLOR GUIDE: For his garments:
Bascinet: Steel. Crown: Gilt. Mail: Iron. Coif lining: Colour of choice. Upper cannons and besagews: Steel with brass trim; natural or dyed leather points. Besagews may be painted. Surcoat: Yellow. Arms: Royal Scotland [Or, a lion rampant gules armed and langued azure, all within a double- tressure fleury-counter fleury gules].

Robert the Bruce, King of Scots (1274-[1306]-1329) Battle of Bannockburn, 23-24 june 1314

sculpted by Agustin J. (Augie) Rodriguez

The future king of Scotland was born 11 July 1274 in Ayr, the eldest son of Robert, 6th Lord of Annandale. Little is known of Bruce's childhood and adolescence save that he was witness to the concatenation of events that would cast him as a lead player in the Scottish conflicts that resulted from the untimely death of one king, and the rapacious resolve of another.

By the age of 18 Bruce had succeeded both father and grandfather not only to the Earldom of Carrick, but as a primary claimant to the Scottish throne. Later in 1292, these aspirations were dashed when John Balliol was appointed King of Scots by Edward I. While Edward was occupied in France and Wales, Balliol was all but deposed, and de facto rule of Scotland passed to the "Council of Twelve". There was still, however, the matter of the English viceroy and royal officials who

discharged their duties with little but contempt and disdain for their charges: rebellion, and the "Wallace War" erupted in 1297. The role of the Bruce in this phase of the Wars of Independence is not entirely clear, though it is generally accepted that it was at this time that he fully committed to the Scottish cause and was actively involved in passive interference of English efforts.

When Wallace resigned his Guardianship in 1298, Bruce and John Comyn ("the Red"), Balliol's nephew, were appointed joint Guardians of Scotland. But the Bruce would share the title for less than two years, resigning in 1300. The next five years were as tumultuous for Bruce as they are unclear to us. Following his resignation, Bruce submitted to Edward I and pledged fealty in 1302. Two years later, his father died, and in 1305, Wallace was executed.

1306 was a watershed year in the life of the Bruce. In February, he murdered his greatest rival to the throne, the Red Comyn. Despite engendering the wrath of both England and the Papacy, being outlawed by one, and excommunicated by the other, the following month, on 25 March, Bruce acceded to the Scottish Crown as King Robert, the first of that name. Within the year, all appeared to unravel: he was defeated by the English at Methven; his wife, daughter and sisters were imprisoned; and three of his brothers were executed. Bruce fled westward to the Antrim coast.

But Fortuna's wheel was not long in spinning in the Bruce's favour. In the following year, he dealt the English their first defeats at his hands, first at Glen Trool and then at Loudoun Hill. Edward I would die shortly thereafter, and Edward II was no Longshanks. Within seven years, all but Berwick and Stirling had been reclaimed by the Scots; he lay siege to Stirling in the Winter of 1313/1314, leaving his brother Edward in command of the operation. It was the latter who accepted the conditional terms of surrender from the castle's governor: if help had not arrived from England by Mid-summer's Day (24 June), he would relinquish Stirling. The stage was now set for the final denouement.

Edward II spurred into action and by Midsummer's Eve, the vanguard of an English army of 16,000 infantry and 2,500 mounted knights, with a 2-mile supply train in tow, was approaching the Bannock Burn, south of Stirling. In contrast, the Bruce's hitherto "raiding army", encamped across the Burn taking advantage of the broken landscape, numbered around 6000 men, of which only 500 were cavalry, and some 1500 were a contingent of what has come down to us as the "small folk"-lightly armed irregulars and camp-followers.

The battle of Bannockburn began when a detachment of English cavalry crossed the burn, and taking advantage of the open terrain before the Scottish main battle, charged the Scottish cavalry. The Scottish horse fell back, and the English charge was broken on unyielding schiltrons: the English were driven back with heavy losses. Along the right wing, the now famous encounter between the Bruce and Sir Henry de Bohun, the Earl of Hereford's nephew, marked the official opening of the battle. Bohun lay dead, helm and underlying skull cloven, and the English forces were driven off the open field. While the day's engagement was over, the English army still had to make their way across the burn as best they could under the cover of a fleeting darkness.

The next morning, the 24th, after an essentially sleepless night, the English stirred to find an already-assembled Scottish army. The English were allowed to cross the shallow gorge that provided a natural "fenceline" to their hasty encampment to deploy on the open field. The English, amidst obvious confusion in their lines and with no apparent direction, charged the Scottish battles-and were broken upon them. The carnage ensued as the schiltrons pressed forward, compressing the English front, pushing the retreating English into the gorge and the yet-advancing rear: the gorge was soon full of writhing men and horseflesh. Caught between the inexorable advance of the schiltrons and the bend of the burn, the English were put to rout, and many who managed to get across and through the crush of the gorge met their end in the waters of the burn and the Forth. The battle was now over and over 4,000 English lay dead, with some 100 men of rank and all their equipment falling into Scottish hands; Scottish casualties were perhaps one tenth that of the English. But Bannockburn did not mark the end of the Wars of Independence: they would drag on until the treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328. The Bruce died the following year, on 7 June, aged 54 (n.b.-while it is popularly held that he died of leprosy, it is more likely that he succumbed to syphilis, the 'disease of kings').

Although much of Robert's reign was taken up with war, he also tried to repair the royal finances, increase trade and restore law and order: among his subjects he earned the name 'Good King Robert'. He was also a generous patron of the Church, although it was not until the year of his death in 1329 that Pope John XXII lifted the excommunication, and subsequently authorized the anointing of the kings of Scots at their accession-Scottish kingship was finally recognized by Rome.

The Bruce's saga continued beyond Death. After his death, his heart was taken from his body to continue the fight- this time in the Crusades. In fulfillment of his monarch's dying wish, Sir James Douglas set out to carry his heart to the Holy Land. Sir James was killed en route fighting the Moors in Granada (Spain), but the heart was retrieved and brought back to Scotland, to be buried in Melrose Abbey, Roxburghshire.

Our rendition of the Bruce depicts the King as he would have appeared in June 1314. It is largely based on two works, both sculptural portraits. Modern reconstructions of his face show him to have a very pronounced jaw and strong, noble features accentuated by prominent cheekbones and a strong jawline-this is confirmed by the cast of the skull. It is significant to note that I have incorporated two salient features evinced by the latter: a cut in the left brow which I have depicted as a deep scar and have extended down into the cheek; and the four missing upper incisors, giving the appearance of a severe "underbite" that would have been only slightly moderated by the Bruce's moustache. His eyes were evidently dark. He is armed in a contemporary, albeit modest, panoply.

Robert the Bruce, King of Scots