The Historicity of Barbour's Bruce By JAMES HAND TAGGART School of Scottish Studies Faculty of Arts University of Glasgow A thesis submitted'to the University of Glasgow in May 2004 for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy ii Acknowledgments Professor Geoffrey Barrow took time to discuss various aspects of Barbour's purpose in writing The Bruce. Professor Archie Duncan spent hours with me on several occasions. His knowledge of The Bruce is unsurpassed;he shared it most generously. He was patient when I questioned some of his conclusions about Barbour's work and its historicity. His edition of The Bruce, together with its extensivenotes, was invaluable for my analysis of Barbour. Drs. Sonia Cameron and Fiona Watson also gave generouslyof their time at crucial points. I am especially grateful to my supervisor, Professor Edward Cowan. He never failed to smile and brew up a coffee on the many occasionsI visited his room in the Department of Scottish History. He kept my enthusiasm going over a prolonged period, and helped to structure my work in a way that made the analyses more accessibleand the discussion more meaningful. He vigorously defendedme and my work against aggressive and unprofessional attack, and encouraged me to think rigorously at every point. I am glad, though, to observethat I finally convinced him that the carl of Carrick killed, but did not murder, the lord of Badenoch on 10 February 1306. Thanks for your guidanceand friendship, Ted. On a personal note, I am grateful to Fiona for starting me out on this journey, and to Mairi for sustaining me on the last few laps. Nothing, however, would have been possible without Jenny who has supported me in everything at all times. She typed and retyped this dissertation,and I have lost count of the number of times she proofread it. She has imbued me with her'own meticulous approach to research, though I don't always reach her standards.She has developed a better understanding than most of John Barbour'sepic poem.I dedicatethis dissertationto her with love andadmiration. iii ABSTRACT The Historicity of Barbour's Bruce This dissertation systematically evaluates the historicity of the epic poem The Bruce, written towards the end of the fourteenth century and attributed to Archdeacon John Barbour of Aberdeen. For the purposesof analysis, the poem has been divided into 119 discrete episodes,which cover 95 percent of the text. Ninety- one of these appear in other historical sources.A rigorous evaluative methodology establishesa satisfactory level of historicity of these91 episodes,significantly higher than has been allowed by many critics of the poem. The 28 episodesthat do not appear in other sources are assessedby a parallel methodology. The analyses of these two types of episode provide an original rationale for judiciously using The Bruce as a sole source. Using the battle of Bannockburn as a case study, the value of The Bruce as a source is clearly demonstrated. By implication, it may also be regarded as an indispensable source for the 1306-1329 period as a whole. However, a textual analysis of the poem indicates that at least four, and perhaps as many as six, hands were at work in the writing of The Bruce. It is suggestedthat John Barbour may have beenthe lead author and editor. The dissertation concludes that The Bruce was written as a historically accurate (insofar as the term was understood in the fourteenth century) account of the part Robert I and his lieutenantsplayed in the War of Independence.It is nationalistic in tone. Its core ideologies are chivalry and freedom of the Scots from English domination.It usesliterary devicesto makethe contentaccessible, persuasive and memorable.Thus, it may also be regardedas a fundamentally important contribution to Scottishliterature. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PageNo. Chapter I THE BRUCE AS AN HISTORICAL SOURCE Chapter2 BARBOUR AND THE BRUCE IN FOURTEENTH CEBTURY SCOTLAND 27 Chapter3 HISTORICITY AND METHODOLOGY 53 Chapter4 THE BEGINNING TO THE BATTLE OF GLENTROOL 72 Chapter 5 EDIRFORD TO BANNOCKBURN 108 Chapter 6 THE IRISH CAMPAIGN 147 Chapter 7 THE REIGN OF ROBERT I AFTER BANNOCKBURN 159 Chapter 8 WORD ANALYSIS 195 Chapter 9 BANNOCKBURN WITH BARBOUR 213 Chapter 10 BARBOUR'S PURPOSE 233 V Chapter 11 CONCLUSIONS 259 BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 APPENDICES PageNo. Appendix I USE OF INCIDENTS FROM THE BRUCE IN NINETEENTH CENTURY HISTORIES 289 Appendix 2 LIST OF EPISODES TO BE EVALUATED 291 Appendix 3 EVALUATION OF EPISODES 294 Appendix 4 COMPARISON OF BOOKS 1-13 AND 14-20 296 Appendix 5 COMPARISON OF SCOTTISH AND IRISH BOOKS 297 Appendix 6 COMPARISON OF LOW AND HIGH HISTORICITY BOOKS 298 Appendix 7 t-TEST FOR INDEPENDENT SAMPLES 299 Appendix 8 CLUSTER ANALYSIS 300 Appendix 9 NON-HIERARCHICAL CLUSTER SOLUTION Cluster members and distances from cluster Centroids 302 Appendix 10 SUMMARY OF SUBJECT MATTER OF EACH BOOK 303 vi TABLES Following PageNo. Table I SUMMARY OF RATINGS OF NOTED EPISODES 191 Table 2 FREQUENCY OF USE OF KEY WORDS, BY BOOK 199 Table 3 RELATIVE FREQUENCY (PER THOUSAND) OF USE OF KEY WORDS 199 FIGURES Following PageNo. Figure I AVERAGE RATING FOR NOTED EPISODES 191 Figure 2 TOTAL RATING FOR NOTED EPISODES 192 Figure 3 ADDITIONS TO VOCABULARY 198 Figure 4 PROPORTIONAL ADDITIONS TO VOCABULARY 198 Figure 5 TREE DIAGRAM FOR VARIABLES 202 vii Introductory Note John Barbour had produced the epic poem The Bruce by 1375, around sixty years after the main events it describes.Ostensibly, it is a record of the exertions of Robert I to establish Scotland's independenceof the English crown. In this struggle, as Barbour amply illustrates, the king's main adherentswere his brother Sir Edward Bruce, Thomas Randolph earl of Moray, and James lord of Douglas. At a deeper level, The Bruce is part history, part ideology, part chivalry and part propaganda. Compared to these aspects, any literary aim that Barbour might have held is less important, though the literary accomplishment of the poem is substantial. The relative weights of the epic's different aspects have been the occasion of much comment in the last two hundred years. Each has had its own champions, though few attemptshave been made to evaluatethem comparatively. The overall purpose of this dissertationis to carry out a systematicevaluation of the historicity of Barbour's Bruce. It will pursue this researchresult in five ways. First, episodes in the poem will be checked against other broadly reliable sources, where these exist. Second, and following from the first, it will interpret Barbour- specific material in terms of potential historical reliability. Third, it will explore the likelihood, or otherwise, that John Barbour was the sole author of The Bruce. Fourth, as a case example, it will investigate what is known of the battle of Bannockburn with and without Barbour. Fifth, it will evaluate the underlying premise of the dissertation, that Barbour's basic purpose was not simply to praise chivalry or to lionise Robert I and James Douglas. Instead, among other things, he aimed to set down in detail for his contemporaries and for future generations how military activity is to be usedto protect national freedom (political independence). Words like "free", "freedom" and "independence"should be understoodhere in viii the context that Barbour might have understood.Freedom of a nation's people was, at best, a hazy concept. As Grant' makes clear, Scottish regnal solidarity was well establishedby 1286 and, in the long run, a successionof English kings was unable to persuadeor force the Scottish nobility into loyal submission. It is, perhaps, more likely that Barbour was thinking of the kingdom's freedom under a king wielding the widest possible sovereignty, with minimal obstruction from outside interests, 2 whether secular or religious. Morton's discussion is a useful summary, and warns againstthe danger of interpreting fourteenth century notions in current terms. Since Barbour was first used as a source nearly five hundred years ago, historians have been divided on the subject of his historical reliability. Some have used material from The Bruce quite uncritically, others have used it extensively but only after some evaluation of its dependability; some have ignored it without comment, and others have condemnedit as a misleading observer of the events of 1306-29.At various times, some historians have shown a (reasonable)preference for the reliability of documentary sources, others have demonstrated a distinct (and somewhat irrational) predilection towards English as opposedto Scottish chronicle records.A secondarypurpose of this dissertation is to assessthese diverse attitudes, though it is feared that no definite conclusion may be possible. Grant,Alexander, "Scottish foundations: Late medieval contributions", in AlexanderGrant and Keith J. Stringer(eds. ), Unitingthe Kingdom?The making ofBritish Histoly, London,1995, pp. 97-108. 'Morton, Graeme,William Wallace:Man andMyth, Stroud,200 1, p. 28. I Chapter I The Bruce as an historical source "To someextent our view of Bruce will always dependon how much credencewe give to Barbourl." Historians have usedJohn Barbour's epic poem The Bruce for five hundredyears as an important source for the War of Independencefought by king Robert I and his close associatesThomas Randolph, James Douglas and Edward Bruce. As will be seen in this chapter, some have used Barbour extensively and without question, others only with careful evaluation, while some have adopted the minimalist approachto The Bruce as a store of historical knowledge. In the last two hundred years or so there has been increasing emphasis on the reliability of the historical information in Barbour's work, in line with the developing professional approachto all historical sources. The purpose of this dissertation is to carry out a systematic analysis of the historical reliability of The Bruce, and this will involve consideration of dependability, consistency,propaganda, omissions and errors.