BRUCE, ROBERT

   1) rival with John Baliol for the crown of Scotland on the death of Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, against whose claim Edward I. decided in favour of Baliol (1210-1295).

   2) son of the preceding, earl of Carrick, through Marjory his wife; served under Edward at the battle of Dunbar for one instance; sued for the Scottish crown in vain (1269-1304).

   3) king of Scotland, son of the preceding, did homage for a time to Edward, but joined the national party and became one of a regency of four, with Comyn for rival; stabbed Comyn in a quarrel at Dumfries, 1306, and was that same year crowned king at Scone; was defeated by an army sent against him, and obliged to flee to Rathlin, Ireland; returned and landed in Carrick; cleared the English out of all the fortresses except Stirling, and on 24th June 1314 defeated the English under Edward II. at Bannockburn, after which, in 1328, the independence of Scotland was acknowledged as well as Bruce's right to the crown; suffering from leprosy, spent his last two years at Cardross Castle, on the Clyde, where he died in the thirty-third year of his reign (1274-1329).