#the bruce

[eyecan]

[eyecan]

[eyecan]

[eyecan]

[eyecan]

[ketelakeren]

I gotchu bro

oh my god

[scotianostra]

On 7th June 1329 Robert the Bruce died at his manor near Cardross, Dumbarton.

King Robert was buried at Dunfermline Abbey, his heart was removed and embalmed. As recorded in 14th Century John Barbour’s “The Bruce”, as he requested, his heart was to be taken to Jerusalem by Sir James Douglas, known as “The Black Douglas” , accompanied by Sir William St Clair of Roslin, Sir Robert and Sir Walter Logan, Sir William Keith, Sir Alan Cathcart and Sir Symon Loccard of Lee, and one other knight unnamed. Sir James Douglas was killed at the Battle of Teba, on 25th August, 1330.

An embalmed heart, thought to be that of Robert the Bruce was discovered at Melrose Abbey in 1921, re-located in 1996 and re-interred in 1998 marked with a memorial which reads “A Nobel Hart May Have Nane Ease Gif Freedom Failye.” written by John Barbour in 1375, which translates, “A noble heart can know no ease without freedom.”

The tomb you see in Dunfermline Abbey, in the second photo, is not the original it was sadly destroyed during the reformation, the picture shows how it may have looked, contemporary sources record that his grave was by a monument commissioned prior to his death and imported from Paris.

During the building of the present parish church in 1818, workmen discovered a skeleton, believed to be that of the king. Whether or not the skeleton is actually that of Bruce, or one of the other kings known to have been buried in the abbey, is still a subject of debate. However, other excavations between c1790 and 1820 also discovered fragments of carved and gilded stone, variously described as marble or alabaster, which were identified as pieces of Bruce’s vanished monument.

These pieces are now preserved in the collections of The Hunterian, National Museums Scotland, and Dunfermline Museum.