His brother, the self-righteous Edward Bruce, Earl of Carrick, in a huff at what he sees as little more than hiring barbarous Norse/Irish Gallowglass mercenaries, can be spotted furiously polishing his sword at the opposite end of where I'm planning to locate Robert the Bruce.
I'll most likely raise the Lord of the Isles at the back-left (and Robert Bruce when he gets delivered) up by around 1cm so the heraldry on their shields can be seen better.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
On a dark and stormy night in 1286 Alexander III, King of Scots, set out from Edinburgh to visit his new wife, Yolande de Dreux. He never arrived and was found with a broken neck next day at the bottom of the cliffs at Kinghorn. After the death of his only direct heir, the seven-year-old Margaret, “The Maid of Norway” in 1290, Scotland was left without a clear successor to the throne. Thirteen rival claimants sought the Crown in what became known as the Great Cause. From among them, two main competitors emerged: Robert the Bruce’s grandfather the fifth lord of Annandale, and John Balliol the lord of Galloway.
In 1292, the Bruce claim was formally rejected in favour of John Balliol, who was duly crowned King of Scots. But Balliol’s reign was short-lived when England’s Edward I invaded Scotland in 1296. John Balliol, “The Toom Tabard”, (i.e. empty shirt), was forced to abdicate and the Bruce’s resumed their claim to the throne, although they still faced opposition from a majority of the Scot’s Lords; mainly the powerful Comyn family who had significant blood ties to the Balliol’s.
With support from the Scottish church, most notably Bishop William Lamberton, Robert the Bruce tried to rule Scotland together with John “the Red Comyn” of Badenoch for seven fractious years, but they hated each other with a passion and both had valid claims to the vacant Scottish throne.
In February 1306, Bruce finally lost his patience. Before the altar of Greyfriars church in Dumfries, he stabbed the Red Comyn to death. Six weeks later Bruce was crowned King Robert I at the Royal town of Scone.
Bruce’s actions were controversial, to say the least, and the Comyn/Balliol faction dismissed him as a sacrilegious usurper.
Claiming to be king, and actually being king, are two very different things.
Following the defeat and slaughter of many Bruce supporters at the Battle of Methven on 13th June 1306, the few survivors headed west to the Hebrides and Robert spent the winter of 1306 - 1307 sheltered by his kinswoman, Christina of the Isles, while he sought the support of the as-yet uncommitted Lord of the Isles, Angus og MacDonald.
Their allied forces landed on the mainland almost exactly one year after the murder of the Red Comyn at Dumfries and began the struggle to reclaim Robert the Bruce’s reign when they destroyed the occupying English forces of Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, at the Battle of Loudoun Hill on 10th May 1307.
Cheers the Noo...
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