The Romans were never convinced that conquering what we now know as Scotland was worth the time and trouble. The terrain was harsher than in the South and there were no clear strategic advantages to be gained. The inhabitants – Picts, Caledonians, and other Bronze Age tribes – were troublesome and unruly, their raids presenting a constant menace to the towns and villas of northern Roman Britain.
The Emperor Hadrian (117-138) constructed a defensive wall from Wallsend in the East to the Solway Firth in the West. His successor, Antoninus Pius (138-161), extended the sphere of Roman influence northwards to the Firth of Forth. But the wall that he built was abandoned after just eight years and the Roman occupation stretched no further north after that than Hadrian’s Wall.
From the fifth-century onwards, a Gaelic people from the north of Ireland – the Scots – began to colonise the western mainland and the nearby islands. This settlement grew into the powerful kingdom of Dàl Riata, and it was a Dàl Riatan king, Kenneth McAlpin (841-858), who united Scotland into one political unit in the face of persistent Viking attack.
A succession of kings ensued until 1286 when Alexander III died and his grand-daughter, Margaret, followed him into the grave four years later. The royal Scottish line came thereby to an end, and now there were no fewer than thirteen nobles staking a claim for the throne. The two most prominent were John Balliol and Robert Bruce, both of whom owned lands in England as well as Scotland and had good relations with the English king, Edward I.
The Scots, perhaps naively, asked Edward to adjudicate between the two. He chose Balliol, but then began to interfere in Scottish affairs so much that the new king was barely given chance to rule.
Perhaps this was exactly what Edward intended. An anti-English uprising predictably broke out and Edward marched north to quell the disturbance, take Balliol prisoner, and establish personal authority. He then turned his attention to affairs in France, but as soon as his back was turned the Scots were up in arms again. Led by a patriot named William Wallace, they wreaked havoc in the Lowlands and beyond and made a mockery of Anglo-Norman dominance.
Edward returned in 1298 and won a decisive victory at Falkirk. In 1305, Wallace was captured by the English, who had him hung, drawn, and quartered – his body parts then put on show around Scotland as a warning to other would-be rebels.
But Robert Bruce was not intimidated. He picked up the mantle of resistance, and stepped into history as a great man and the leader of a people. He had fought on Edward’s side in the war against Balliol as Balliol had been his rival. But he had supported Wallace, and watching how that noble Scot had been treated by the English filled him with rage and zeal and a fierce determination to fight and win and build again a free and independent Scotland.
Bruce had himself crowned King in 1306, but for years he had neither court nor retinue and no real kingdom except in his own head. He lived the life of a fugitive, harassed by the English at every turn. But little by little he began to gain a following as more and more Scots were won over by his integrity and his clarity of vision and purpose.
Bruce’s momentum was soon unstoppable. A following became an army and Edward felt compelled to march on Scotland for the third time. But he died en route in 1307 and was succeeded by his son, Edward II.
While the old Edward had been vigourous and martial, Edward II was decadent and effete. He had no stomach for war and was totally unable to inspire his generals. He was crushed by Bruce’s men at Bannockburn in 1314 and fled from the field with his tail between his legs like a beaten cur.
Bannockburn was the most significant defeat the Norman establishment had suffered since 1066. Bruce pressed home his advantage, raiding as far south as Lancashire and Yorkshire and sending forces over to Ireland in response to a request for help from the King of Tyrone, Donal O’Neill.
Here, Robert’s younger brother, Edward, took charge, and was crowned High King of Ireland in 1316. The Normans had begun their Irish invasion in 1169 and though they did not occupy the whole of the country, they had taken control of Dublin and seized vast tracts of land wherever they could, just as they had done in Wales.
Edward’s grand ambition was to expel the Normans and establish a Gaelic-speaking realm incorporating both Scotland and Ireland – a mirror image of the Dàl Riata’s original colonisation of Western Scotland. He tasted victory at the Battle of Kells in 1315, and the momentum appeared to be with him. But the further south he proceeded, the harder it became to garner the support he needed. Despite similarities in language and culture, many of the southern Irish could not see why a Scottish overlord should be preferable to an English one. The Great Famine of 1317 took its toll as well, and Edward was eventually defeated and killed at the Battle of Faughart in 1318.
So the Norman presence in Ireland continued. But the war had damaged their capabilities and they were in no shape to launch any further attacks on Scotland, either by land or sea. Robert Bruce died in 1329 and the kingdom that he had fought so hard to restore continued to flourish after his reign.
Robert and Edward Bruce were like unto the Apostles James and John – ‘Boanerges’ as Our Lord called them – Sons of Thunder. They stood up, created facts on the ground, and exposed the limitations of the Norman Conquest. They showed what could be achieved with self-belief, faith in God, and dedication to a higher cause. Others around Britain (and beyond) would take note and act in like manner when their own Kairos – their Supreme Moment – came around.