Not so clean-cut?

“Robert the Bruce was born in Essex, according to a new book I’m reading by Fiona Watson entitled ‘Traitor, Outlaw, King’,” says a regular reader. “Fiona Watson is right to draw attention to the fact that the Bruce had his own agenda,” he says.

“His was an Anglo-Norman or rather Anglo-Breton family with more land in England than they had in Scotland.

“I visited a graveyard in the north of England once (Guisborough?) and it had several de Brus family graves.

“Like so many noble families in those days, the Bruces sought more power, more possessions and more land.

“When it suited them, they swore allegiance to the English king, but switched sides when they saw better opportunities for advancement. Edward I’s choice of John Balliol as King of Scots, subservient to himself, was the final straw for the Bruces.

“Robert the Bruce was a great military leader, but he was also lucky being able to cash in on popular support for a nationalist cause and, most important of all, not having to face the formidable Edward I who conquered the Welsh so comprehensively, but his weak son, Edward II.

“And did Edward I not have the support of the Bruce family in his pursuit of Wallace?

“The Bruce is not the clean-cut Scottish patriot and hero of legend!”