Marta Olmos asks what role was played by fatherhood – or, more accurately, the absence of secure father-figures – in shaping the lives and reigns of both the last Bruce king, David II (r.1329-71), and the first Stewart monarch, Robert II (r.1371-90)
Fatherhood is many things. It is a set of obligations, a caring relationship and a biological imperative. It is deeply influenced by a range of social and economic factors: race, class, culture and the gender of the child can impact the development of the relationship. The significance of fatherhood is perhaps never clearer than in the relationship between a king and a prince. This is fatherhood writ large, fatherhood as a symbol for a nation. The king is responsible for leading his son, and his people, into the future by imparting values and skills that they will only be called to use after his death. The prince, meanwhile, is trapped in perpetual adolescence, waiting for his father to die. Thus, while the relationship between father and child is an important one for all famililes, this is especially true in royal families. A fracture in the relationship has the power to affect the future of the nation.
Two young princes
David Bruce, later King David II, was born on 5 March 1324. He was the only son of Robert I – ‘Robert the Bruce’ – the famed warrior-king who chased the English out of Scotland and remains a powerful symbol of Scottish tenacity to this day. David only knew his father for a few short years; Bruce passed away on 7 June 1329. Although only a child, David moved into his father’s position and was crowned in 1331. Without a father to shepherd him through the rituals and lessons of princehood, David was forced to acquire the skillset of a king from someone else.
Bruce had had another heir, though. Before the outbreak of the Wars of Independence, he had a daughter named Marjory, born in 1296. She married Walter Stewart and gave birth to Robert Stewart in 1316. She died shortly after. For the eight years between Robert’s birth and David’s, Robert was the heir to the throne of Scotland. His right to the throne came directly from Bruce, who on 3 December 1318 signed an act at parliament stating:
If it should happen, which God forbid, that the aforesaid lord king reaches the day of his death without a surviving and enduring heir male legitimately begotten of his body, Robert [Stewart], the son of the lady Marjory of honourable memory, daughter of the said lord king, legitimately begotten from her
