I WAS left totally bemused by the amount of interest shown in the fanciful claim that Robert de Brus was an Englishman.

The assertion he was born at Writtle in Essex is nothing new. Far from it. It has appeared in print goodness knows how many times.

It is true English chroniclers did make the claim but the likes of Le Baker and Hemingburgh (Guisburgh) were writing either long after the events of the so called Wars of Independence or to an English audience reeling from the fact that their army, seen by many as the most powerful in Europe at the time, had been torn apart by Bruce and his force probably half the size alongside the Bannockburn at Stirling. Make no mistake, that shockwave hit the ranks of the English chivalry with all the force of a tsunami.

So essentially it’s highly probable the claim originated with Edward II’s black ops department.

The fact is we have no record of where Bruce was born. But, while historians rarely venture beyond what they can find in dusty documents, there is another way to examine the situation. Look at it from the parental perspective.

King Robert’s mother, Marjorie, was, by all accounts, a formidable young woman. She was the Celtic countess of Carrick and had been raised as such from a very young age on the death of her father.

A wee story about how she met Bruce’s dad can give us an insight. Robert had been on the eighth Crusade with Marjorie’s first husband, Adam of Kilconquhar, who was killed at Acre. In Crusader fashion Bruce brought Adam’s sword home to Turnberry, but Marjorie was out hunting (a statement in itself). It is said she was so enamoured by Robert that she held him captive for two weeks and they then got married.

The origin of the Writtle claim appears to me to be related to the birth of Robert, July 11, 1274, and the coronation of Edward I, August 19, 1274. The king’s dad was at the coronation so Robert must have taken his family to Essex in time to attend the coronation. Why he did not go to the Bruce Manor House at Tottenham, much closer to London, is not discussed.

Are we really expected to believe that a heavily pregnant Marjorie would allow herself to spend up to a month in a wooden wheeled cart or on horseback, for a journey of some 400 miles into a foreign country, when a much hoped for first son was due to arrive? Would she really allow herself to give birth in a strange place surrounded by people she did not know and perhaps could not even understand?

I doubt it. Marjorie, being Marjorie, would have insisted the birth take place in the comfort of her home, Turnberry Castle, the place she had known since her own birth, surrounded by servants, friends and family she knew and loved. For me there is no question Robert was born anywhere else but Turnberry.

And PS, he was not, as some people claim, a Norman. He was seventh Lord of Annandale, a title his family had held for 150 years when he was born. He had the blood of King David in his veins and, as his forebears, was brought up in the Scottish traditions of the time. He could, apparently, speak French, Latin, Gaelic and the local dialects. What does the poor guy have to do to be given his birthright?

As for the latest Englishman claim, well a bit of controversy never did the sales of a new book any harm and, of course, trying to dent the man’s standing a bit by the Unionist camp wouldn’t go amiss given the release of the movie Outlaw King, which one critic seemingly thought might well have produced a different outcome to the 2014 referendum, had it been around.
Doug Archibald
Moniaive
Founding member and past vice-chairman of the Robert the Bruce Commemoration