Customer Reviews

Robert the Bruce: Our Most Valiant Prince, King and Lord

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Robert Bruce by Colm McNamee was a refreshing yet information filled biography. Mr. McNamee uses many of the common sources for information like Bower, Duncan, and Barbour for info on the Bruce and McDonald and Young for information on the Macdonalds and Comyns. All these academic works are boiled down to something a novice or expert can enjoy in this book.

Colm McNamee mixes some chapters that set the stage or gives us a background into the current history and medieval influences on Scotland during the late 1200s and early 1300s. Then fills in with the chapters of Bruce's campaign to gain the Throne, battles with Edward I, Edward II and finally even Edward III. The final chapter addresses how he has grown into legend since his death and even faded under the shadow of William Wallace. Add to that some simple genealogical tables and simple chapter indexes and you have a great read.

I felt that this tale of the Bruce shows him as a man who made mistakes, was selfish and cruel at times. But also that he never gave up, endured terrible trials and maintained Scotland's independence. This book was like a breath of fresh air and helped take away the veil of myth and legend but also helps put things in perspective of the 14th century Scotland.

Colm McNamee is to be commended for producing a very well written and balanced biography of Scotland's greatest King, Robert the Bruce. This entertaining work is notable for the greater emphasis it places on King Robert's military operations in both Ireland and northern England rather than the usual focus on the recovery of Scotland itself from the English and the attending civil war there between the supporters of the Bruces and the Balliol/Comyn faction. This book is a more integrated work than his otherwise impressive Wars of the Bruces from 1997 and surely places McNamee in the forefront of Bruce biographers and historians of Medieval Scotland.