‘The Brus’ by John Barbour

Kevin Aitken

Introduction Written by John Barbour The Poem is 13,000 lines long detailing the

life of Sir James Douglas and Robert Bruce John Barbour was born in 1320 and died on

the 13th March 1395. ‘The Brus’ was written in 1375

Outline The poem contains many inaccuracies and

fundamental errors however. There is a lot of guesswork about the size of armies.

John Barbour’s social attitude is brought to bear on the poem also. A gender bias (against women) is also prominent throughout.

Outline continued… ‘Chivalry’ is of utmost importance and acts as

the central theme within the poem – worth sacrificing pain and death to uphold.

Throughout the poem there is a heavy emphasis on ‘freedom’ being the only outcome for Scotland.

Throughout his poem we can appreciate the ideals and principles of people from that time period.

Life of John Barbour From 1355-95 John Barbour was archdeacon*

of Aberdeen until he died in 1395. His first known job was at Dunkeld Cathedral. There is no mention of the ‘Church’ in his poem;

however ‘Churchmen’ are depicted as flawed characters.

*archdeacon = a church official whose powers were delegated to him from the bishop.

Trivia The poem is the earliest surviving work in our

‘Scottish language’ John Barbour studied in Oxford and Paris. ‘The Brus’ was written while John Barbour was

a member of Robert II court in the 1370’s. In 1377 he received a gift of ten pounds

(Scots) for writing ‘The Brus’.

Trivia continued… The text in our possession may well be an

edited copy, possibly by John Ramsay (a Perth scribe).

Conclusion The poem is a patriotic history, containing

much bias but valuable to a certain extent as it was written only 47 years after the ‘Scottish Wars of Independence’ era had ended with the ‘Treaty of Edinburgh’ in 1328.