Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Bargello. The general effect of the whole can best be seen at the South Kensington Museum, where a complete cast is fixed to the wall. The same museum possesses a study in gesso duro for one of the panels, which appears to be the original sketch by Luca's own hand.

In May 1437 Luca received a commission from the signoria of Florence to execute five reliefs for the north side of the campanile, to complete the series begun by Giotto and Andrea Pisano. These panels are so much in the earlier style of Giotto that we must conclude that he had left drawings from which Luca worked. They have representative figures chosen to typify grammar, logic, philosophy, music, and geometry, the last represented by Euclid and Ptolemy. In 1438 Luca received an order for two marble altars for chapels in the cathedral, a third being ordered from Donatello. The reliefs from one of Luca's-St Peter's Deliverance from Prison and his Crucifixion are now in the Bargello. It is probable that these altars were never finished. A tabernacle for the host, made by Luca in 1442, is now at Peretola in the church of S. Maria. A document in the archives of S. Maria Nuova at Florence shows that he received for this 700 florins 1 lira 16 soldi (about £1400 of modern money). In 1437 Donatello received a commission to cast a bronze door for one of the sacristies of the cathedral; but, as he delayed to execute this order, the work was handed over to Luca on 28th February 1446, with Michelozzo and Maso di Bartolomeo as his assistants. Part of this wonderful door was cast in 1448, and the last two panels were finished by Luca in 1467, with bronze which was supplied to him by Verrocchio.2 The door is divided into ten square panels, with small heads in the style of Ghiberti projecting from the framing. The two top subjects are the Madonna and Child and the Baptist, next come the four Evangelists, and below are the four Latin Doctors,

are perfect models of plastic art, and are quite free from the over-elaboration and too pictorial style of Ghiberti. Fig. 1 shows one of the panels. A terra-cotta relief at Berlin and another in the South Kensington Museum are probably original studies by Luca for two of the panels of the doctors. The most important existing work in marble by Luca (executed in 1457-58)3 is the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, bishop of Fiesole, originally placed in the church of S. Pancrazio at Florence, but now in S. Francesco di Paola on the Bello Sguardo road outside the city. A very beautiful effigy of the bishop in a restful pose lies on a sarcophagus sculptured with graceful reliefs of angels holding a wreath, which contains the inscription. Above are three-quarterlength figures of Christ between St John and the Virgin, delicately carved in low relief. The whole is surrounded by a rectangular frame formed of painted majolica tiles of the most exquisite beauty, far surpassing any other existing work of the same sort. On each tile is painted, with enamel pigments, a bunch of flowers and fruit in brilliant realistic colours, the loveliness of which is very hard to describe The perfect mean between truth to nature and decorative treatment has never been more thoroughly obtained than in these wonderful tile pictures, each of which is worthy of the most careful study; and they are also of special interest as being among the earliest examples of Italian majolica. Though the bunch of flowers on each is painted on one slab, the ground of each tile is formed of separate pieces, fitted together like a kind of mosaic, probably because the pigment of the ground required a different degree of heat in firing from that needed for the enamel painting of the centre. The few other works of this class which exist do not approach the beauty of this early essay in majolica painting, on which Luca evidently put forth his utmost skill and patience.

In the latter part of his life Luca was mainly occupied with the production of terra-cotta reliefs covered with enamel, a process which he improved upon, but did not invent, as Vasari asserts. The secret of this process was to cover the clay relief with an enamel formed of the ordinary ingredients of glass (marzacotto) made an opaque white by oxide of tin,-a method practised with great success in the 13th century in Persia (see POTTERY, vol. xix. pp. 620, 628). Though Luca was not the inventor of the process, yet his genius so improved and extended its application that it is not unnaturally known now as Della Robbia ware; it must, however, be remembered that by far the majority of these reliefs which in Italy and elsewhere are ascribed to Luca are really the work of some of the younger members of the family. Comparatively few exist which can with certainty be ascribed to Luca himself. Among the earliest of these are medallions of the four Evangelists in the vault of Brunelleschi's Pazzi chapel in S. Croce. These fine reliefs are coloured with various metallic oxides in different shades of blue, green, purple, yellow, and black, It has often been asserted that the very polychromatic reliefs belong to Andrea or his sons, and that Luca's were all in pure white; this, however, is not the case: colours were used more freely by Luca than by his successors. A relief in the South Kensington Museum furnishes a striking example and is of especial

[graphic]

FIG. 1.-Bronze relief of one of the Latin Doctors, from the sacristy value from its great size, and also because its date is

door in the cathedral of Florence, by Luca.

cach subject with attendant angels. The whole is modelled with the most perfect grace and dignified simplicity; the heads throughout are full of life, and the treatment of the drapery in broad simple folds is worthy of a Greek sculptor of the best period of Hellenic art. These exquisite reliefs 1 Vasari is not quite right in his account of these reliefs: he speaks of Euclid and Ptolemy as being in different panels.

See Cavallucci, S. Maria del Fiore, pt. ii. p. 137.

known. This is an enormous medallion containing the arms of René of Anjou and other heraldic devices; it is

3 Gaye, Carteggio Inedito, i. p. 183.

4 It is described by Theophilus, Diversarum Artium Schedula (11th century), and by Pietro del Bono in his Margarita preciosa (1330). An example earlier than any of Luca's exists at Florence over the door of S. Egidio (in S. Maria Nuova). It is a relief of the Coronation of the Virgin executed by Lorenzo de' Bicci in 1424; see Milanesi, Archivio Storico Italiano, 1860, pp. 182-183. Contemporary writers call this enamelled clay "terra invetriata."

surrounded by a splendidly modelled wreath of fruit and flowers, especially apples, lemons, oranges, and fir cones, all of which are brilliantly coloured. This medallion was set up on the façade of the Pazzi Palace to commemorate René's visit to Florence in 1442. Another early relief by Luca, also highly polychromatic, is that of the Ascension in the tympanum of one of the sacristy doors in the cathedral, executed between 1446 and 1450, as is recorded in a document published by Rumohr (Italien. Forsch., ii. pp. 364-365). Other existing works of Luca in Florence are the tympanum reliefs of the Madonna between two Angels in the Via dell' Agnolo, a work of exquisite beauty, and another over the door of S. Pierino del Mercato Vecchio. The only existing statues by Luca are two lovely enamelled figures of Kneeling Angels holding candlesticks, now in the canons' sacristy.1 A very fine work by Luca, executed between 1449 and 1452, is the tympanum relief of the Madonna and four Monastic Saints over the door of S. Domenico at Urbino.2 Luca also made the four coloured medallions of the Virtues set in the vault over the tomb of the young cardinal-prince of Portugal in a side chapel of S. Miniato in Florence (see ROSSELLINO). By Luca also are reliefs of the Madonna and various medallions outside Or San Michele. One of his chief decorative works which no longer exists was a small library or study for Piero de' Medici, wholly lined with painted majolica plaques and reliefs.3 The South Kensington Museum possesses twelve circular plaques of majolica ware painted in blue and white with the Occupations of the Months; these have been attributed to Luca, but have no resemblance to any known works of his. Their provenance is unknown.

In 1471 Luca was elected president of the Florentine artists' guild, but he refused this great honour on account of his age and infirmity. It shows, however, the very high estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries. He died on 20th February 1482, leaving his property to his nephews Andrea and Simone. His chief pupil was his nephew Andrea, and probably also Agostino di Duccio, who executed many pieces of sculpture at Rimini, and the graceful but mannered marble reliefs of angels on the façade of S. Bernardino at Perugia. Vasari calls this Agostino Luca's brother, but he was not related to him at all.

5

II. ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA (1435-1525), the nephew and pupil of Luca, carried on the production of the enamelled reliefs on a much larger scale than his uncle had ever done; he also extended its application to various architectural uses, such as friezes and to the making of lavabos (lavatories), fountains, and large retables. The result of this was that, though the finest reliefs from the workshop of Andrea were but little if at all inferior to those from the hand of Luca, yet some of them, turned out by pupils and assistants, reached only a lower standard of merit. Only one work in marble by Andrea is known, namely, an altar in S. Maria delle Grazie near Arezzo, mentioned by Vasari (ed. Milanesi, ii. p. 179), and still well preserved.

One variety of method was introduced by Andrea in his enamelled work; sometimes he omitted the enamel

1 The South Kensington Museum possesses what seem to be fine replicas of these statues.

The document in which the order for this and the price paid for it are recorded is published by Yriarte, Gaz. d. Beaux Arts, xxiv. p. 143. 3 It is fully described by Filarete in his Trattato dell' Architectura, written in 1464, and therefore was finished before that date; see also Vasari, ed. Milanesi, Florence, 1880, ii. p. 174.

4 His will, dated 19th February 1471, is published by Gaye, Cart. Ined., i. p. 185. 5 In the works of Perkins and others on Italian sculpture these Perugian reliefs are wrongly stated to be of enamelled clay.

on the face and hands (nude parts) of his figures, especially in those cases where he had treated the heads in a realistic manner; as, for example, in the noble tympanum relief of the meeting of St Domenic and St Francis in the loggia of the Florentine hospital of S. Paolo, a design suggested by a fresco of Fra Angelico's in the cloister of St Mark's. One of the most remarkable works by Andrea is the series of medallions with reliefs of Infants in white on a blue ground set on the front of the foundling hospital at Florence. These lovely child-figures are modelled with wonderful skill and variety, no two being alike. Andrea produced, for guilds and private persons, a large number of reliefs of the Madonna and Child varied with much invention, and all of extreme beauty of pose and sweetness of expression. These are frequently framed with realistic and yet very decorative garlands of fruit and flowers, all painted with enamel colours, while the main relief is left white. Fig. 2 shows a good example of these

[graphic]

FIG. 2.-Enamelled clay relief of Virgin and Child, by Andrea. smaller works. The hospital of S. Paolo, near S. Maria Novella, has also a number of fine medallions with reliefs of saints, two of Christ Healing the Sick, and two fine portraits, under which are white plaques inscribed-"dall' año 1451 all' año 1495"; the first of these dates is the year when the hospital was rebuilt owing to a papal brief sent to the archbishop of Florence. Arezzo possesses a number of fine enamelled works by Andrea and his sons -a retable in the cathedral with God holding the Crucified Christ, surrounded by angels, and below, kneeling figures of S. Donato and S. Bernardino; also in the cathedral is a fine relief of the Madonna and Child with four saints at the sides. In S. Maria in Grado is a very noble retable with angels holding a crown over a standing figure of the Madonna; a number of small figures of worshippers take refuge in the folds of the Virgin's mantle, a favourite motive for sculpture dedicated by guilds or other corporate

bodies. Perhaps the finest collection of works of this class | relief of the Madonna between two Adoring Angels (see fig. is at La Verna, not far from Arezzo (see Vasari, ed. 3). Long coloured garlands of fruit and flowers are held Milanesi, ii. p. 179). The best of these, three large retables with representations of the Annunciation, the Crucifixion, and the Madonna giving her Girdle to St Thomas, are probably the work of Andrea himself, the others being by his sons. In 1489 Andrea made a beautiful relief of the Virgin and two Angels, now over the archive room door in the Florentine Opera del Duomo; for this he was paid twenty gold florins (see Cavallucci, S. Maria del Fiore). In the same year he modelled the fine tympanum relief over a door of Prato cathedral, with a half-length figure of the Madonna between St Stephen and St Lawrence, surrounded by a frame of angels' heads.

[graphic]

In 1491 Andrea was still working at Prato, where many of his best reliefs still exist. One of his finest works is a large retable at Volterra in the church of S. Girolamo, dated 1501; it represents the Last Judgment, and is remarkable for the fine modelling of the figures, especially that of the archangel Michael, and a nude kneeling figure of a youth who has just risen from his tomb. Other late works of known date are a Resurrection of Christ, made in 1501 for S. Frediano at Florence (the lower half of this only exists, in the court of the Casa Mozzi), and a medallion of the Virgin in Glory, surrounded by angels, made in 1505 for Pistoia cathedral.1 Andrea's last known relief is a Nativity, made in 1515 for S. Maria in Pian di Mugnone at Florence.2

III., IV. Five of Andrea's seven sons worked with their father, and after his death carried on the Robbia fabrique; the dates of their birth are shown in the table on p. 588 above. Early in life two of them came under the influence of Savonarola, and took monastic orders at his Dominican convent; these were MARCO, who adopted the name of Fra Luca, and PAOLO, called Fra Ambrogio. One relief by the latter, a Nativity with four life-sized figures of rather poor work, is in the Cappella degli Spagnuoli in the Sienese convent of S. Spirito; a MS. in the convent archives records that it was made in 1504.

FIG. 3.-Relief of Madonna and Angels in the tympanum of the lavabo (S. Maria Novella, Florence), by Giovanni.

by nude boys reclining on the top of the arch. All this part is of enamelled clay, but the basin of the fountain is of white marble. Neither Luca nor Andrea was in the

habit of signing his work, but Giovanni often did so, usually adding the date, probably because other potters had begun to imitate the Robbia ware.5

Giovanni lacked the original talent of Luca and Andrea, and so he not only copied their work but even reproduced in clay the marble sculpture of Pollaiuolo, Da Settignano, Verrocchio, and others. A relief by him, evidently taken from Mino da Fiesole, exists in the Palazzo Castracane Staccoli. Among the very numerous other works of GioV. The chief existing work known to be by the second vanni are the large retable in the Castellani chapel of S. son LUCA is the very rich and beautiful tile pavement in Croce, a relief in the wall of a convent in the Via Nazionale the uppermost story of Raphael's loggie at the Vatican, at Florence, and two reliefs in the Bargello dated 1521 finely designed and painted in harmonious majolica colours. and 1522. The latter is a many-coloured relief of the This was made by Luca at Raphael's request and under his Nativity, and was taken from the church of S. Girolamo supervision in 1518.3 It is still in very fine preservation. in Florence; it is a too pictorial work, marred by the use VI. GIOVANNI DELLA ROBBIA (1469-1529 ?) during a of many different planes. Its predella has a small relief great part of his life worked as assistant to his father, of the Adoration of the Magi, and is inscribed "Hoc opus Andrea, and in many cases the enamelled sculpture of the fecit Joanes Andree de Robia, ac posuit hoc in tempore two cannot be distinguished. Some of Giovanni's independ- of S. Silvestro is a relief in Giovanni's later and poorer ent works are of great merit, especially the earlier ones; during the latter part of his life his reliefs deteriorated in manner dated 1520; it is a Madonna surrounded by style, owing mainly to the universal decadence of the time. angels, with saints below-the whole overcrowded with A very large number of pieces of Robbia ware which are figures and ornaments. Giovanni's largest and perhaps attributed to Andrea, and even to the elder Luca, were finest work is the polychromatic frieze on the outside of really by the hand of Giovanni. One of his finest works, the Del Ceppo Hospital at Pistoia, for which he received. quite equal in beauty to anything of his father's, from whom various sums of money between 1525 and 1529, as is the design of the figures was probably taken, is the washing of the hospital. The subjects of this frieze are the Seven recorded in documents which still exist among the archives fountain in the sacristy of S. Maria Novella at Florence, made in 1497. It is a large arched recess with a view Works of Mercy, forming a continuous band of sculpture of the seashore, not very decorative in style, painted on in high relief, well modelled and designed in a very broad majolica tiles at the back. There are also two very beauti-sculpturesque way, but a little injured perhaps by the ful painted majolica panels of fruit-trees let into the lower part. In the tympanum of the arch is a very lovely white

1 See Gualandi, Memorie risguardanti le Belle Arti, Bologna, 1845, vi. pp. 33-35, where original documents are printed recording the dates and prices paid for these and other works of Andrea.

See a document printed by Milanesi in his Vasari, ii. p. 180. It is illustrated by Gruner, Fresco Decorations of Italy, London, 1854, pl. iv.; see also Müntz, Raphaël, sa Vie, &c., Paris, 1881, p. 452, note i., and Vasari, ed. Milanesi, ii. p. 182.

See a document printed by Milanesi in his Vasari, ii. p. 193.

die ultima lulii año. Dni. MDXXII." At Pisa in the church

crudeness of some of its colouring. Six of these reliefs are by Giovanni, namely, Clothing the Naked, Washing the Feet of Pilgrims, Visiting the Sick, Visiting Prisoners, Burying the Dead, and Feeding the Hungry. The seventh,

Examples of these imitations are a retable in S. Lucchese near Poggibonsi dated 1514, another of the Madonna and Saints at Monte San Savino of 1525, and a third in the Capuchin church of Arceria near Sinigaglia; they are all inferior to the best works of the Robbia family.

The hospital itself was begun in 1514.

Giving Drink to the Thirsty, was made by Filippo Pala- | grandfather, the sixth Robert de Bruce, claimed the crown dini of Pistoia in 1585; this last is of terra-cotta, not enamelled, but simply painted with oil colours. Giovanni also executed the medallions in the spandrels of the arches under this frieze, with reliefs of the Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Coronation of the Virgin.

A large octagonal font of enamelled clay, with pilasters at the angles and panels between them with scenes from the life of the Baptist, in the church of S. Leonardo at Cerreto Guidi, is a work of the school of Giovanni; the reliefs are pictorial in style and coarse in execution. Giovanni's chief pupil was a man named Santi, who was at first apprenticed to Buglioni,1 and when the latter died in 1521 he went into Giovanni's bottega. His work is very inferior to that of his master.

VII. GIROLAMO DELLA ROBBIA (1488-1566), another of Andrea's sons, was an architect and a sculptor in marble and bronze as well as in enamelled clay. During the first part of his life he, like his brothers, worked with his father, but in 1528 he went to France and spent nearly forty years in the service of the French royal family. Francis I. employed him to build a palace in the Bois de Boulogne called the Château de Madrid. This was a large welldesigned building, four stories high, two of them having open loggie in the Italian fashion. Girolamo decorated it richly with terra-cotta medallions, friezes, and other architectural features.2 For this purpose he set up kilns at Suresnes. Though the palace itself has been destroyed, drawings of it exist.3

The best collections of Robbia ware are in the Florentine Bargello and Accademia, the South Kensington Museum (the finest out of Italy), the Louvre, the Cluny, and the Berlin Museums. Many fine specimens exist in Paris in the private collections of M. Alphonse de Rothschild, M. Gavel, and M. Dreyfus. The greater part of the Robbia work still remains in the churches and other buildings of Italy, especially in Florence, Fiesole, Arezzo, La Verna, Volterra, Barga, Montepulciano, Lucca, Pistoia, Prato, and Siena. The best accounts of the Della Robbia family are those given by De Jouy, Les Della Robbia, Paris, 1855; Bode, Die Künstlerfamilie Della Robbia, Leipsic, 1878; and Cavallucci and Molinier, Les Della Robbia, Paris, 1884, an ably-written and well-illustrated work. See also Vasari, ed. Milanesi, Florence, 1880, ii. p. 167 sq., and various works on Italian sculpture. (J. H. M.)

ROBERT I., king of France, son and successor of Hugh Capet, was born at Orleans in 971 and died at Melun in 1031. See FRANCE, vol. ix. p. 536. He is sometimes cited as Robert II., Robert I. being then taken to mean Robert, duke of France (ob. 923), the second son of Robert "the Strong" (ob. 866); comp. FRANCE, vol. ix. p. 535. ROBERT, called THE BRUCE (1274-1329), king of Scotland, was the son of the seventh Robert de Bruce, lord of Annandale in his own right and earl of Carrick in right of his wife Marjory, daughter of Neil, second earl, and thus was of mingled Norman 5 and Celtic blood. His

1 Benedetto Buglioni (1461-1521) appears to have produced enamelled ware independently of the Robbia family. In 1484 he made a relief of the Harrowing of Hell for the Servite monks at Florence; see Baldinucci, Notizie de' Professori del Disegno, Milan, 1811, vi. p. 18. 2 The Sèvres Museum possesses some fragments of these decorations. 3 See Laborde, Château de Madrid, Paris, 1853, and Comptes des Bâtiments du Roi, Paris, 1877-80, in which a full account is given of Girolamo's work in connexion with this palace.

4 For ROBERT II. (1316-1390) and ROBERT III. (d. 1406) of

Scotland, see SCOTLAND.

5 The first Robert de Bruce, a follower of William the Conqueror, was rewarded by the gift of many manors, chiefly in Yorkshire, of which Skelton was the principal. His son, the second Robert, received from David I., his comrade at the court of Henry I., a grant of the lordship of Annandale, and his grandson, the third Robert, siding

with David against Stephen at the battle of the Standard, became a Scottish instead of an English baron. The fourth Robert married Isobel, natural daughter of William the Lion, and their son, the fifth Robert, married Isabella, second daughter of David, earl of Hunting don, niece of the same Scottish king. Thus royal kin made natural the ambition to gain a crown, an object not beyond the ambition of

a powerful noble in feudal times.

of Scotland as son of Isabella, second daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon; but Baliol, grandson of Margaret, the eldest daughter, was preferred by the commissioners of Edward I. The birthplace of the Bruce-perhaps Turnberry, his mother's castle, on the coast of Ayr-is not certainly known. His youth is said by an English chronicle to have been passed at the court of Edward I. At an age when the mind is quick to receive the impressions which give the bent to life he must have watched the progress of the great suit for the crown of Scotland. Its issue in favour of Baliol led to the resignation of Annandale by Bruce the competitor to his son, the Bruce's father, who, either then or after the death of the aged competitor in 1295, assumed the title of lord of Annandale. Two years before he had resigned, on the death of his wife, the earldom of Carrick to Robert the Bruce, who presented the deed of resignation to Baliol at Stirling on 3d August 1293, and offered the homage which his father, like his grandfather, was unwilling to render. Feudal law required that the king should take sasine of the earldom before regranting it and receiving the homage, and the sheriff of Ayr was directed to take it on Baliol's behalf. As the disputes between Edward and Baliol, which ended in Baliol losing the kingdom, commenced in this year it is doubtful whether Bruce ever rendered homage; but he is henceforth known as earl of Carrick, though in a few instances this title is still given to his father. Both father and son sided with Edward against Baliol. Towards the end of 1292 the elder Robert had a safe-conduct from Edward to visit Norway with a daughter, Isabella, who married Erik, king of Norway, the widower of Margaret of Scotland, a fact marking the high standing of the family of Bruce. On 20th April 1294 the younger Robert, earl of Carrick, had Michaelmas and a year following, and a further mark of a similar safe-conduct or permission to visit Ireland till Edward's favour by a respite for the same period of all debts due by him to the exchequer. His father, having done homage to Edward, was entrusted in October 1295 with the custody of the castle of Carlisle by a patent in which he is styled lord of Annandale; and Baliol retaliated by seizing Annandale, which he conferred on John Comyn, earl of Buchan. On 28th August 1296 Robert de Bruce "le vieil" and Robert de Bruce "le jeune," earl of Carrick, swore fealty to Edward at Berwick; but (according to Hemingford), in breach of this oath, renewed at Carlisle on the Gospels and the sword of Thomas a Becket, the of Scottish independence in the name of Baliol after that young earl joined Wallace, who had raised the standard weak king had himself surrendered his kingdom to Edward. Urgent letters were sent ordering Bruce to sup port Warenne, Edward's general, in the summer of 1297; but, instead of complying, he, along with the bishop of Glasgow and the steward of Scotland, laid waste the lands of those who adhered to Edward. On 7th July Percy forced Bruce and his friends to make terms by the treaty called the Capitulation of Irvine. The Scottish lords were not to serve beyond the sea against their will and were pardoned for their recent violence, while in return they owned allegiance to Edward. The bishop of Glasgow, the steward, and Sir Alexander Lindesay became sureties for Bruce until he delivered his daughter Marjory as a hostage. Wallace almost alone maintained the struggle for freedom which the nobles as well as Baliol had given up, and Bruce had no part in the honour of Stirling Bridge or the reverse of Falkirk, where in the following year Edward in person recovered what his generals had lost and drove Wallace into exile. Shortly afterwards Bruce appears again to have sided with his countrymen; Annandale was wasted and Lochmaben taken by Clifford, while Bruce (according

[ocr errors]

A parliament in London (16th September), to which Scottish representatives were summoned, agreed to an ordinance for the government of Scotland, which, though on the model of those for Wales and Ireland, treating Scotland as a third subject province under an English lieutenant, John de Bretagne, was in other respects not severe. Bruce is reputed to have been one of the advisers who assisted in framing it; but a provision that his castle of Kildrummy was to be placed in charge of a person for whom he should answer shows that Edward not without reason suspected his fidelity. Challenged by the king with the bond between him and Lamberton (according to one account discovered by the treachery of John Comyn, with whom a similar engagement had been made or attempted), Bruce secretly quitted London, and on 10th February 1306 met by appointment, in the church of the Friars Minor at Dumfries, Comyn, whom he slew at the high altar for refusing to join in his plans. So much is certain, though the precise incidents of the interview were variously told. It was not their first encounter, for a letter of 1299 to Edward from Scotland describes Comyn as having seized Bruce by the throat at a meeting at Peebles, when they were with difficulty reconciled by the joint regency.

to Hemingford), "when he heard of the king's coming, | policy of clemency to all who did not dispute his authority. fled from his face and burnt the castle of Ayr which he held." Yet, when Edward was forced by home affairs to quit Scotland, Annandale and certain earldoms, including Carrick, were excepted from the districts he assigned to his followers,-Bruce and the other earls being treated as waverers whose allegiance might still be retained. In 1299 a regency was appointed in Scotland in name of Baliol, and a letter of Baliol mentions Robert Bruce, lord of Carrick, as regent, along with William of Lamberton, bishop of St Andrews, and John Comyn the younger, a strange combination, Lamberton the friend of Wallace, Comyn the enemy of Bruce, and Bruce a regent in name of Baliol. Comyn in his own interest as Baliol's heir was the active regent; the insertion of the name of Bruce was an attempt to secure his co-operation. For the next four years he kept studiously in the background waiting his time. A statement of Langtoft that he was at the parliament of Lincoln in 1301, when the English barons repudiated the claim of the pope to the suzerainty of Scotland, is not to be credited, though his father may have been there. In the campaign of 1304, when Edward renewed his attempt on Scotland and reduced Stirling, Bruce supported the English king, who in one of his letters to him says, "If you complete that which you have begun we shall hold the war ended by your deed and all the land of Scotland gained." But, while apparently aiding Edward, Bruce had taken a step which bound him to the patriotic cause. On 11th June, a month before the fall of Stirling, he met Lamberton at Cambuskenneth and entered into a secret bond by which they were to support each other against all adversaries and undertake nothing without consulting together. The death of his father in this year may have determined his course and led him to prefer the chance of the Scottish crown to his English estates and the friendship of Edward.

This determination closes the first chapter of his life; the second, from 1304 to 1314, is occupied by his contest for the kingdom, which was really won at Bannockburn, though disputed till the treaty of Northampton in 1328; the last, from 1314 to his death in 1329, was the period of the establishment of his government and dynasty by an administration as skilful as his generalship. It is to the second of these that historians, attracted by its brilliancy even amongst the many romances of history and its importance to Scottish history, have directed most of their attention, and it is during it that his personal character, tried by adversity and prosperity, gradually unfolds itself. But all three periods require to be kept in view to form a just estimate of Bruce. That which terminated in 1304, though unfortunately few characteristics, personal or individual, have been preserved, shows him by his conduct to have been the normal Scottish noble of the time. A conflict of interest and of bias led to contradictory action, and this conflict was increased in his case by his father's residence in England, his own upbringing at the English court, his family feud with Baliol and the Comyns, and the jealousy common to his class of Wallace, the mere knight, who had rallied the commons against the invader and taught the nobles what was required in a leader of the people. The merit of Bruce is that he did not despise Prompted alike by patriotism and ambition, at the prime of manhood he chose the cause of national independence with all its perils, and stood by it with a constancy which never wavered until he secured its triumph. Though it is crowded with incidents, the main facts in the central decade of Bruce's life may be rapidly told. The fall of Stirling was followed by the capture and execution of Wallace at London on 24th August 1305. Edward hoped still to conciliate the nobles and gain Scotland by a

the lesson.

The bond with Lamberton was now sealed by blood and the confederates lost no time in putting it into execution. Within little more than six weeks Bruce, collecting his adherents in the south-west, passed from Lochmaben to Glasgow and thence to Scone, where he was crowned by the bishop of St Andrews on 25th March, the bishops of Glasgow and Moray, with the earls of Lennox, Athole, and Errol, being present. Two days later Isabella, countess of Buchan, claimed the right of her family the Macduffs, earls of Fife, to place the Scottish king on his throne, and the ceremony was repeated with an addition flattering to the Celtic race. Though a king, Bruce had not yet a kingdom, and his efforts to obtain it were till the death of Edward I. disastrous failures. In June he was defeated at Methven by Pembroke, and on 11th August he was surprised in Strathfillan, where he had taken refuge, by Lord Lorn. The ladies of his family were sent to Kildrummy in January, and Bruce, almost without a follower, fled to Rathlin, an island off Antrim (Ireland). Edward, though suffering from his last illness, came to the north in the following spring. On his way he granted the Scottish estates of Bruce and his adherents to his own followers, Annandale falling to the earl of Hereford. At Carlisle there was published a bull excommunicating Bruce, along with another absolving Edward from the oath he had taken to observe Magna Charta and the other charters on which the English constitution rests. Elizabeth the wife, Marjory the daughter, Christina the sister of Bruce, were captured in a sanctuary at Tain and sent prisoners to England. The countess of Buchan was confined in a cage at Berwick and another of Bruce's sisters, Mary, in a cage at Roxburgh. The bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow and the abbot of Scone were suspended from their benefices and sent as prisoners to the south of England. Nigel Bruce, his youngest brother, was beheaded at Berwick, Christopher Seton, his brother-in-law, at Dumfries. The earl of Athole was sent to London and hanged on a gallows 30 feet higher than the pole on which the head of Wallace still stood. Two other brothers of Bruce, Thomas and Alexander (dean of Glasgow), met the same fate at Carlisle. There were many minor victims, but the chronicler of Lanercost notes that the number of those who wished Bruce to be confirmed in the kingdom increased daily. While thus wreaking his vengeance Edward himself was summoned by death at Burgh-on-the-Sands, on the Solway,

XX.

[blocks in formation]
« EelmineJätka »