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Militari | Book Reviews
Robert the Bruce: A Life Chronicled
Those who fret that political history gets short shrift in the study of the Middle Ages, or that Scotland gets overshadowed by England, will welcome Chris Brown’s collection of documents that help illuminate the reign of Robert I of Scotland, the famous Bruce. (Born in or around 1374, Bruce gained the Scottish throne in 1306 and died in 1329.)
Consisting of 12 chapters, Robert the Bruce: A Life Chronicled draws upon a variety of sources, nearly all rendered in modern English. Specifically, it mines the Scalacronica; the Lanercost Chronicle, and the Chronicle of John Fordoun, all covering 1296-1329; the Acts of King Robert (1306-29); extracts from the Scottish chamberlain’s rolls for 1328; items mentioning the Bruce family from English records – i.e., the Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland; and John Barbour’s monumental poem, The Bruce, written in late 14th-Century Scots-English (or “early Scots,” as A.A. M. Duncan termed it[1]). The latter aside, much of the medieval content originally was not in English, though whether the translations here are Brown’s is not immediately clear: In regard to the Scalacronica and Fordoun chronicles, written in Anglo-Norman French and Latin, respectively, he simply states that his comments are in italics while notes or additions from “the translator” are in brackets. (In his preview to the Lanercost Chronicle, he credits H. Maxwell with the translation, from 1913.) Supplying a précis to each chapter and other remarks as warranted, Brown also offers more extensive commentary on such topics as the Battle of Bannockburn (Chapters 7 and 8) and King Robert’s “people,” or 14th-Century Scottish society (Chapter 9).
Overall, his book seems eminently suitable for the classroom, especially at the undergraduate level. Brown gives students an easy and engaging way to become acquainted with primary sources, medieval Scotland, and the richness of the Scottish historical and literary tradition, without having to acquire a proficiency in Latin or Anglo-Norman French. His efforts should open doors for a whole new generation, piquing their interest and inspiring them to delve deeper – and eventually explore medieval sources in their entirety and original languages. Nor will the relevance of Robert the Bruce: A Life Chronicled stop at the university gate. Brown aptly serves those outside academia, too, among them independent scholars, writers of historical fiction, and members of the general public with a penchant for medieval Scotland or things medieval in general.
Brown rounds out the core of the book with Acknowledgements, an overview-style Introduction, short Glossary, Notes (endnotes), Bibliography, List of Illustrations, and Index, all useful as well, especially in guiding readers toward further study.
For their part, military historians will want to take a look at the treatment, both by the medieval writers and Brown, of warfare, especially Robert the Bruce’s battles, though as Brown warns, apropos Bruce’s stunning triumph of 1314, “knowledge of the three actions that comprise the Battle of Bannockburn is sparse” and contemporary accounts often prove contradictory. (p. 157)
All this is not to say that Robert the Bruce: A Life Chronicled is perfect -- although at least to this reviewer its flaws primarily fall into the sins-of-omission category. A doctoral student at the University of St. Andrews when the book was published, Brown sometimes seems to assume more knowledge on the part of his likely audience than many undergraduates and other casual readers probably possess, especially in North America. For instance, a basic biography of Bruce – perhaps only a page or two – would have been helpful, but Brown does not include one. (In a sense, the subtitle – a life chronicled – is somewhat of a misnomer, too, since the work deals almost exclusively with Bruce’s career as he claims and holds the throne.) Similarly, Brown’s brief introduction to the Lanercost Chronicle (p. 53) points out that Lanercost was in northern England but fails to give the exact location (in Cumberland, near the crucial border town of Carlisle) or say much about the priory that produced such a notable account despite its precarious site. (The chronicle – p. 60 in Brown’s book -- states that in 1312 Bruce swept in with an army, “doing an infinity of injury” and imprisoning the canons, though he later freed them, apparently unharmed.)
A bit more background, to set the literary and cultural context of many of the sources, would have been useful. Again, Brown provides a few basic details about Sir Thomas Grey (or Gray), the author of the Scalacronica, and how it came to be written (as Grey whiled away time as a prisoner of the Scots). Yet, according to Boydell & Brewer, publishers of a January 2007 translation of the Scalacronica, Grey, captured in 1355, created what became “the first known historical work to have been written in England by a member of the lay nobility since the Conquest… .” A little substantive discussion of the author, his place in literary history, and the cultural milieu would have made Brown’s work resonate even more. Likewise, the book contains several charming illustrations, but, except for two diagrams of the Bannockburn battle area, lacks maps. One or two of medieval England and Scotland – or, minimally, northern England and Scotland – would have helped set the scene.
Finally, because Brown recommends the A.A.M. Duncan edition of The Bruce, he inadvertently raises questions of why he included most of the Barbour text in his own book, omitting “only a mere handful of lines” out of thousands. Certainly, his fondness for Barbour comes through; doubtless he wants others to discover this remarkable epic, too. Nonetheless, as he declares, his survey left out many of the documents from King Robert’s own Acts; the entire series “runs to the better part of 600 items,” though he provides fewer than a dozen. Admittedly, he strove to give readers “merely a small but hopefully representative sample of the nature of King Robert’s correspondence,” but one wonders if it might have been better to feature a little less Barbour and a little more from King Robert’s own files. After all, Duncan’s edition, which Brown (p. 185) praises as “by far the best study of The Bruce,” includes an introduction and full translation in modern English, alongside the 14th-Century vernacular, as well as numerous, comprehensive footnotes.
Still, minor cavils aside,
Brown has constructed a worthy resource for a broad range of readers.
For that he deserves considerable credit.