Шотландияның патшасы Роберт II (1371-1390)

King of Scots from 1371 to 1390

Robert II (2 March 1316 – 19 April 1390) was King of Scots from 1371 to his death in 1390. The son of Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland, and Marjorie, daughter of King Robert the Bruce, he was the first monarch of the House of Stewart. Upon the death of his uncle David II, Robert succeeded to the throne. Edward Bruce, younger brother of Robert the Bruce, was named heir presumptive but Edward had no children when he was killed in the Battle of Faughart on 14 October 1318. Marjorie Bruce had died probably in 1317 in a riding accident and Parliament decreed her infant son, Robert Stewart, as heir presumptive, but this lapsed on 5 March 1324 on the birth of a son, David, to King Robert and his second wife, Elizabeth de Burgh. Robert Stewart became High Steward of Scotland on his father's death on 9 April 1327, and in the same year Parliament confirmed the young Steward as heir should David die childless. In 1329 King Robert I died and his five year old son succeeded to the throne as David II under the guardianship of Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray. Edward Balliol, son of King John Balliol—assisted by the English and those Scottish nobles who Robert I had disinherited—invaded Scotland inflicting heavy defeats on the Bruce party on 11 August 1332 at Dupplin Moor and Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333. Robert, who had fought at Halidon, joined his uncle David in refuge in Dumbarton Castle. David escaped to France in 1334 and Parliament, still functioning, appointed Robert and John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray, as joint guardians of the kingdom. The English captured Randolph in July 1335 and in the same year, Robert submitted to Balliol bringing about the removal of his guardianship. His former position was reinstated in 1338 until David returned from France in June 1341. Hostilities continued and Robert was with David at the Neville's Cross on 17 October 1346 and either escaped or fled the field. David, however, was captured and remained a prisoner until he was ransomed in October 1357. Robert married Elizabeth Mure around 1348, legitimising their four sons and five daughters. His subsequent marriage to Euphemia de Ross in 1355 produced two sons and two surviving daughters. Robert rebelled against King David in 1363 but submitted to him following a threat to his right of succession. David died in 1371 and Robert succeeded him at the age of fifty five. The border magnates continued to attack English held zones in southern Scotland and by 1384, the Scots had re taken most of the occupied lands. Robert ensured that Scotland was included in the Anglo French truce of 1384 and that was a factor in the coup in November when he lost control of the country first to his eldest son, John, and then from 1388 to John's younger brother, Robert. Robert II died in Dundonald Castle in 1390 and was buried at Scone Abbey.

Robert Stewart, born in 1316, was the only child of King Robert I's daughter Marjorie Bruce, who died either in childbirth or shortly afterwards, and Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland. Robert had the upbringing of a Gaelic noble on the Stewart lands in Bute, Clydeside, and in Renfrew. Edward was killed at the Battle of Faughart, near Dundalk on 14 October 1318, resulting in a hastily arranged Parliament in December to enact a new tailzie naming Marjorie's son, Robert, as heir should the king die without a successor. The birth of a son, afterwards David II, to King Robert on 5 March 1324 cancelled Robert Stewart's position as heir presumptive, but a Parliament at Cambuskenneth in July 1326 restored him in the line of succession should David die without an heir.

David died childless on 22 February 1371 and was succeeded by Robert II. David was buried at Holyrood Abbey almost immediately but an armed protest by William, Earl of Douglas delayed Robert II's coronation until 26 March 1371. The reasons for the incident remain unclear but may have involved a dispute regarding Robert's right of succession, or may have been directed against George Dunbar, Earl of March (also known as Earl of Dunbar) and the southern justiciar, Robert Erskine. It was resolved by Robert giving his daughter Isabella in marriage to Douglas's son, James and with Douglas replacing Erskine as justiciar south of the Forth. Robert's accession did affect some others who held offices from David II. In particular, George Dunbar's brother John Dunbar, the Lord of Fife who lost his claim on Fife and Sir Robert Erskine's son, Sir Thomas Erskine who lost control of Edinburgh Castle. The Stewarts greatly increased their holdings in the west, in Atholl, and in the far north: the earldoms of Fife and Menteith went to Robert's second surviving son, Robert; the earldoms of Buchan and Ross (along with the lordship of Badenoch) to his fourth son, Alexander; and the earldoms of Strathearn and Caithness to the eldest son of his second marriage, David. King Robert's sons in law were John MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, John Dunbar, Earl of Moray and James who would become the 2nd Earl of Douglas. By 1375, the king had commissioned John Barbour to write the poem, The Brus, a history intended to bolster the public image of the Stewarts as the genuine heirs of Robert I. It described the patriotic acts of both Sir James, the Black Douglas and Walter the Steward, the king's father, in their support of Bruce. Robert ruled over a country that continued to have English enclaves within its borders and Scots who gave their allegiance to the king of England—the important castles of Berwick, Jedburgh, Lochmaben and Roxburgh had English garrisons and controlled southern Berwickshire, Teviotdale and large areas in Annandale and Tweeddale. In June 1371, Robert agreed to a defensive treaty with the French, and although there were no outright hostilities during 1372, the English garrisons were reinforced and placed under an increased state of vigilance. Attacks on the English held zones, with the near certain backing of Robert, began in 1373 and accelerated in the years 1375–77. This indicated that a central decision had probably been taken for the escalation of conflict rather than the previous small scale marauding attacks by the border barons. In 1376, the Earl of March successfully recovered Annandale, but then found himself constrained by the Bruges Anglo French truce. In his dealings with Edward III, Robert blamed his border magnates for the escalating attacks on the English zones; regardless, the Scots retained the recaptured lands, often portioned out among minor lords, to secure their interest in preventing English re possession. Despite Robert's further condemnations of his border lords, all the signs were that Robert backed the growing successful Scottish militancy following Edward III's death in 1377. In early February the Scots—apparently unaware of the conclusion of an Anglo French truce on 26 January 1384 that included the Scots in the cease fire—conducted an all out attack on the English zones winning back Lochmaben Castle and Teviotdale. John of Gaunt led a reciprocal English attack that took him as far as Edinburgh, where the burgesses bribed him to leave the town unharmed. Haddington, however, was destroyed. Carrick and James, Earl of Douglas (his father William had died in April), wanted a retaliatory strike for the Gaunt raid. Robert may have concluded that as the French had reneged on a previous agreement to send assistance in 1383 and then entered into a truce with England, any military action would have been met with retaliation and exclusion from the forthcoming Boulogne peace talks. On 2 June 1384, Robert resolved to send Walter Wardlaw, Bishop of Glasgow to the Anglo French peace talks, yet Carrick ignored this and allowed raids into the north of England to take place.

Robert's son, John, Earl of Carrick, had become the foremost Stewart magnate south of the Forth just as Alexander, Earl of Buchan was in the north. Alexander's activities and methods of royal administration, enforced by Gaelic mercenaries, drew criticism from northern earls and bishops and his younger half brother David, Earl of Strathearn. These complaints damaged the king's standing within the Council leading to criticism of his ability to curb Buchan's activities. Robert's differences with the Carrick affinity regarding the conduct of the war and his continued failure or unwillingness to deal with Buchan in the north led to the political convulsion of November 1384 when the Council removed the king's authority to govern and appointed Carrick as lieutenant of the kingdom—a coup d'état had taken place. With Robert sidelined, there was now no impediment in the way of war. In June 1385, a force of 1200 French soldiers joined the Scots in a campaign that involved the Earl of Douglas and two of Robert's sons, John, Earl of Carrick and Robert, Earl of Fife. The skirmishes saw small gains but a quarrel between the French and Scottish commanders saw the abandonment of an attack on the important castle of Roxburgh. The victory of the Scots over the English at the Battle of Otterburn in Northumberland in August 1388 set in motion Carrick's fall from power. One of the Scottish casualties was Carrick's close ally James, Earl of Douglas. Douglas died without an heir, which led to various claims upon the title and estate—Carrick backed Malcolm Drummond, the husband of Douglas's sister, while Fife sided with the successful appellant, Sir Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigtown and Lord of Galloway who possessed an entail on the Douglas estates. Fife, now with his powerful Douglas ally, and those who supported the king ensured a countercoup at the December Council meeting when the guardianship of Scotland passed from Carrick (who had recently been badly injured from a horse kick) to Fife. Many had also approved of Fife's intention to properly resolve the situation of lawlessness in the north and in particular the activities of his younger brother, Buchan. In March, Robert returned to Dundonald Castle in Ayrshire where he died on 19 April and was buried at Scone on 25 April.

The reign of Robert II has undergone a re appraisal since the works of historians Gordon Donaldson (1967) and Ranald Nicholson (1974). Donaldson admitted to a lack of knowledge (at the time he was writing) regarding Robert's reign and accepts that the early chroniclers writing near his reign found little to criticise. Robert's career before and after he succeeded to the throne is described by Donaldson as "to say the least, undistinguished, and his reign did nothing to add lustre to it." Donaldson goes further and debates the legality of the canon law marriage of Robert and Elizabeth Mure following the papal dispensation, but acknowledges that the Acts of Succession in 1371 and 1372, although sealing the matter in the eyes of Parliament, did not end the generational feud of the descendants of Elizabeth Mure and Euphemia Ross. Robert's earlier participation in combat at the battles of Halidon and Neville's Cross, according to Donaldson, had made him wary of sanctioning military expeditions against the English and that any such actions by his barons were concealed from him. Similarly, Nicholson described Robert's reign as deficient and that his lack of the skills of governance led to internal strife. Nicholson asserts that the Earl of Douglas was bought off following his armed demonstration just before Robert's coronation, and associates this with the doubt surrounding the legitimacy of Robert's sons with Elizabeth Mure. In contrast, the historians Stephen Boardman (2007), Alexander Grant (1984 & 1992) and Michael Lynch (1992) give a more even handed appraisal of Robert II's life. Robert II's association with Gaelic Scotland also drew criticism. He grew up in his ancestral lands in the west and was completely at ease with the Gaelic language and culture and possessed a potent relationship with the Gaelic lords in the Hebrides, upper Perthshire and Argyll. Throughout his reign, Robert spent long periods in his Gaelic heartlands and complaints at the time in Lowland Scotland seem to have been influenced by the view that the king was too much involved in Gaelic concerns. Boardman also asserts that much of the negative views held of Robert II find their origins in the writings of the French chronicler Jean Froissart who recorded that '[the king] had red bleared eyes, of the colour of sandalwood, which clearly showed that he was no valiant man, but one who would remain at home than march to the field'. Contrary to Froissart's view, the early Scottish chroniclers—Andrew of Wyntoun and Walter Bower (who both utilised a source that was nearly contemporary with Robert II)—and later 15th and 16th century Scottish chroniclers and poets showed 'Robert II as a Scottish patriotic hero, a defender of the integrity of the Scottish kingdom, and as the direct heir to Robert I'. Grant (1992) acknowledges that Robert II's reign in terms of foreign and domestic policy was "not so unsuccessful". As far as William, Earl of Douglas's reaction was concerned when he staged an armed demonstration before Robert's coronation, Grant does not hold to the view that Douglas was in some way demonstrating against Robert's legitimate right to the throne, but more an assertion that royal patronage should not continue as in the time of David II. Grant also advocates that the demonstration was aimed at father and son Robert and Thomas Erskine, who held the castles of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dumbarton from Robert's predecessor. Influential magnate coalitions headed by Carrick, having undermined the king's position, manipulated the Council of November 1384 to remove Robert II from any real power. Grant gives little weight to the asserted senility of Robert and suggests that the deposition of Carrick in 1388, and then the resolution to join the Anglo French truce of 1389, were both at the instigation of Robert II. Yet authority was not handed back to Robert II but to Carrick's younger brother, Robert, earl of Fife; this once again saw the king at the disposition of one of his sons. Despite this, the now unknown source whom both Wyntoun and Bower relied on made the point that Fife deferred to his father on affairs of state emphasising the difference in styles in the guardianships of his two sons. Michael Lynch points out that Robert II's reign from 1371 until the lieutenancy of Carrick in 1384 had been one exemplified by continued prosperity and stability—a time which Abbot Bower described as a period of "tranquillity, prosperity and peace". Lynch suggests that the troubles of the 1450s between James II and the Douglases (which some historians have interpreted as the legacy of Robert II's policy of encouraging powerful lordships), was a continuation of David II's build up of local lords in the Marches and Galloway—Robert was satisfied with government to leave alone the Douglas and the Stewart earls in their fiefdoms. The weakening of government if anything, Lynch suggests, came not before the 1384 coup but after it, even though the coup had at its root Robert II's favouring of his third son, Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan (known as "the Wolf of Badenoch").

Robert II has been depicted in historical novels. They include:
The Three Perils of Man; or, War, women, and witchcraft (1822) by James Hogg. The tale takes place in the reign of Robert II whose "country enjoyed happiness and peace, all save a part adjoining to the borders of England." Part of the action takes place at Linlithgow Palace, where Robert promises to marry his daughter Margaret Stewart "to the knight who shall take that castle of Roxburgh out of the hands of the English". With Margaret adding her own terms, that "in case of his attempting and failing in the undertaking, he shall forfeit all his lands, castles, towns, and towers to me." In the absence of volunteers, Margaret vows to take the Castle herself, defeating Lord Musgrave and his mistress Jane Howard. The Lords of Misrule (1976) by Nigel Tranter. It covers events from c. 1388 to 1390 and depicts the last years of Robert II and the rise of Robert III of Scotland to the throne. As the elderly king has grown "feeble, weary and half blind", his sons, daughters and other nobles campaign for power. An ungoverned Scotland is ravaged by their conflicts. Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany, and Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, are prominently featured. Courting Favour (2000) by Nigel Tranter. Follows the career of John Dunbar, Earl of Moray in the courts of David II of Scotland and Robert II. John is a son in law to the latter and serves him as a diplomat.