Note 139 — XIII. BRUCE’S REBELLION: THE WAR WHICH FOLLOWED.—THE DEATH OF EDWARD: HIS CHARACTER.

Many of our popular histories of England, disregarding this distinction, fall into a variety of errors. Thus Oliver Goldsmith, in his larger history, says, that in 1306, the competitor, “being old and infirm, was obliged to give up the ambition of being the deliverer of his people to his son.” The fact being that the competitor had died eleven years before, and his son two years before the time of which Goldsmith was speaking. In his abridged history, which for many years was the lesson‐book in all our great schools, the statement was thus altered:—“Bruce, who had been one of the competitors for the crown, but was long kept a prisoner in London, escaping from his guards, resolved to strike for his country’s freedom.” The fact being, that neither of the Bruces had ever been “a prisoner in London,” and that the competitor, here spoken of, had died in 1295—eleven years before the period at which we have now arrived. Even Sir Walter Scott falls into a like inaccuracy, saying, “Bruce, the competitor, after Dunbar, 1296, hinted to Edward his hope of being preferred to the kingdom.” Whereas, “the competitor” had died a year or two previous.