YOU wait for one film about Robert the Bruce, and then along come two at the same time.
It was revealed at the weekend that the actor Angus Macfadyen, who played Bruce in Braveheart 23 years ago, is the driving force behind a new film called Robert the Bruce that is described as picking up where Braveheart left off. Well, they could hardly have a proper sequel with Wallace in it, on account of him having been executed ...
It remains to be seen exactly what this film will be about. If it really is a sort of a sequel to Braveheart it will undoubtedly cover some of the same territory as Outlaw King, which is currently in production.
We can hope, but it will be slightly miraculous if either movie conveys the extraordinary courage, tenacity, tactical genius and sheer downrate doggedness which the Bruce showed in the period from 1306 to 1314.
We really only have the word of John Barbour, in his epic poem The Brus, for what happened in that period, apart from some references in English chronicles that may well have been adjusted to suit English propaganda.
Bearing in mind that Bruce knew Wallace and admired him, it may well have been that he was inspired to take the kingship of Scotland and battle for Scottish independence by the judicial murder of Wallace by Edward Longshanks. Yes, the Bruce family had paid homage to Edward in 1302 when just about every other lord in Scotland was doing the same, but by 1306, the year after Wallace’s death, Bruce knew full well that Longshanks was a tyrant who would do his best to destroy Scotland, so he embarked upon the campaign to confirm himself the King of Scots.
Presumably both films promote Bruce as a hero, so it will be interesting to see how they handle the crisis moment which made it all or nothing for him – the murder of John Comyn the Red in Dumfries in February, 1306.
Whether the future king struck the fatal blow is immaterial: he brought about the death of his main competitor for the throne and he wasted no time in having himself crowned at Scone.
It would be great for the dramatic content of both films if they were to show the setbacks that Bruce suffered at first both militarily and dynastically. His defeat at Methven, the murder on Longshanks’s orders of his brother Neil and the brutal imprisonment of his wife and sister will undoubtedly get viewers on the side of the man who really was both an outlaw and king, and who had also been excommunicated for Comyn’s killing. Expect the spider to appear at this lowest point.
Yet as we know, once Longshanks was dead in 1307 and his son Edward II proved not to be a chip off the old block, Bruce gradually began to amass an army and win success upon success in a long guerilla war that lasted for the next seven years – the capture of castle after castle will surely make stirring sights on screen.
He not only had the English to deal with, but also enemies across Scotland, particularly those in the Comyn faction. He was by no means king of a united Scotland, even after Bannockburn.
Hopefully the filmmakers will not end their movies with Bruce’s death from a leprosy-like illness in the Parish of Cardross in 1329, and instead he will go out in a blaze of glory with the Declaration of Independence at Arbroath in 1320, with all its resonances for that magical word – freedom!
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