Robert the Bruce

King Robert the Bruce is one of the great heroes of Scottish history. His victory at Bannockburn secured Scotland’s independence, and the day of the Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320, when the Scottish nobles and churchmen made clear that he was King of Scots by their choice, is now celebrated as Tartan Day in the USA.

 

Since 1964, the great statue of Bruce at Bannockburn by the sculptor Pilkington Jackson has become the most widely recognised image of Bruce. This little character jug, purchased recently at the Scottish Antique and Art Centre in Doune for the Smith collections, records the popularity of an earlier icon. The jug was made in the Glasgow Govancroft Pottery, probably in the early 1960s and is modelled on the face of the Bruce statue by Andrew Currie of Darnick, erected on Stirling Castle esplanade in 1877. The potter has added a spider on the handle of the jug, referring to Bruce resolving to follow the example of the spider to “try, try and try again”.

Bannockburn 23 June 1314

 

This painting shows the first blow struck at the Battle of Bannockburn. Sir Henry de Bohun (pronounced “Boon”) nephew of the Earl of Hereford recognised King Robert the Bruce and galloped against him at full speed with his lance. Bruce, mounted on a small grey horse stepped aside and swung his axe so hard that it split de Bohun’s helmet and ‘clove skull and brain’ before the shaft broke. This was the start of a two-day battle which secured Scotland’s independence after a war with England lasting nearly 20 years.

The opening blow of Bannockburn is remembered in a little rhyme used by Battleaxe Toffee in the 1930s:

Bruce and de Bohun, were fightin’ for the croon,
Bruce taen his battle-axe and knocked de Bohun doon.

The painting by the artist John Duncan (1866-1945) was an entry in the art competition of 1914 held in Glasgow to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn. It was bequeathed by the artist to the Smith.

Bruce and Bannockburn

The victory at Bannockburn, 23-24 June 1314 has been celebrated in song, poetry, theatre, and art for almost seven hundred years. In the last decade, the re-enactments on the battlefield have been extremely popular.

This painting by artist Stewart Carmichael (1867-1950) dates from 1943. It is painted in the Symbolist style, and the artist was thinking primarily of the Second World War which was raging at that time. It has one of the longest picture titles ever: ‘Robert the Bruce receiving the Wallace sword from the Spirit of Scotland in the guise of the Lady of the Lake on the eve of Bannockburn, by Stirling Castle. Painted at a time when our ancient freedoms were under threat from Nazism and Fascism’.

The painting is a recent acquisition, made possible by the generosity of the Friends of the Smith.

Bannockburn

The Battle of Bannockburn, 23-24 June 1314, was the battle which secured Scotland’s future as an independent nation. It brought to a conclusion the war with England which had lasted nearly twenty years. The victory was won by King Robert the Bruce against the invading army of King Edward II and this coming weekend, the battle will be re-enacted at Bannockburn again.

Among the images representing the battle in the Smith’s collection is this little cigarette card, issued with Mitchell’s cigarettes in the 1930s. The card was one of many artefacts gifted by the late Bob McCutcheon (1939-2002), the Stirling historian and bibliophile, to the Smith. As Scottish history was rarely taught in schools in the early 20th century, the history cards issued by Mitchell played a significant part in keeping the past in the public eye.

Stephen Mitchell’s tobacco company was established in Glasgow in 1724, and the family funded the building of the Mitchell Library. The last Stephen Mitchell owned the estate of Boquhan at Kippen. He travelled to Glasgow by train every day, as did his cook, with fresh vegetables from the estate, to prepare the master’s lunch. The community rooms in Kippen were also funded by Mitchell.

Men of Bannockburn

Drawing the armour, the heraldry and the dress of the participants on both the Scottish and English side at the Battle of Bannockburn, 23-24 June 1314, was a research and artistic project which took the Italian artist Marco Trecalli several years. He examined sources such as the chronicles of Thomas Gray, the Holkham Bible, English funeral monuments and a wide variety of heraldic works, in order to draw and illustrate the warriors at Bannockburn. His exhibition, The Men of Bannockburn, was central to the Stirling Smith Italy season, 15 July – 13 September 2009.

Born in 1974, Marco Trecalli has a Masters degree in Architecture and is employed as a graphic artist by the Italian Ministry of Defence. He is one of the most important experts and reconstructive artists working in the fields of military uniforms and equipment in the 13th and 14th centuries.

 

Arcangelo Corelli, 1697

The portrait of the composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) is one of the Italian treasurers of the Smith. Painted in Rome, it depicts the composer at the height of his powers. All later illustrations of Corelli were engraved from this work, which is by the Irish portrait painter Hugh Howard (1675-1737). Howard kept it in his London studio as his master work, to demonstrate his skills and attract other commissions.

The painting was gifted by Miss J. S. Donaldson, and although its earlier sale room history is known, how it came to Stirling is unclear. The gallery’s founder, Thomas Stuart Smith, who trained as an artist in Italy and decreed that the gallery should be built in the Italian style, would have been delighted with this work.

On 30 June 2009, a concert of the music of Corelli and his friends, presented by the Italian Cultural Institute, begins an Italy in Stirling season. Soprano Elena Bertuzzi was accompanied by Maestro Michele Benuzzi on harpsichord in a programme created for the Smith. The exhibition which followed was Men of Bannockburn by Italian heraldic and military artist Marco Trecalli, a magnificent tribute to the Scottish victory.

The Borestone

This rare watercolour was purchased recently for the Stirling Smith collections. The artist, William Greenlees, captioned and dated it carefully:

STIRLING CASTLE from the feild (sic) of Bannockburn
The stone on which BRUCE’S standard was placed.
May 10 1842.

Greenless was a well – known Edinburgh based artist, who exhibited regularly at the Royal Scottish Academy in the period 1847-1850. As a visit from Queen Victoria was planned in 1842, this work may have been done for a Stirling guide book. Two of his works are in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery collection.

This view of the Borestone shows why the Oddfellows erected the flag pole beside it in 1870. Situated in the middle of a field, it was difficult to find.

The Borestone was sought out by visitors to Stirling for generations, and so many souvenirs were taken that the land owner created the protective metal grille in 1836. Two Argylls and four others are shown inspecting it. In 1957, the Borestone was eliminated by the cairn built by Stirling Guildry, an act described in Lesley Duncan’s Stirling poem, Careless with Stones.

 

 

Bannockburn, June 1964

In 1964, Stirling was preparing to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, which secured Scotland’s independence, 23-24 June 1314. The event of the day was the unveiling of the statue of King Robert the Bruce and the inauguration of the rotunda and heritage centre by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The statue was designed by Charles d’Orville Pilkington-Jackson, Scotland’s foremost sculptor.
The photograph was taken by the late Mr. Robin Common, dentist and partner in Platt and Common, prior to the formal event of 24 June 1964.

Stirling has always celebrated this great national victory in special ways. 150 years ago on 24 June 1861, the foundation stone for the National Wallace Monument was laid on Abbey Craig, and the crowds which came to Stirling on that day have not been exceeded. Some of the excitement will be captured at the Wallace Monument this Friday, with the issue of special medals to visitors.

Times Review of our Bannockburn exhibition

The Times Travel Section (7 June 2014) gave us a surprise part in their review of Stirling /Bannockburn.

Theodore Napier (1845 – 1924)

One of the people who kept the annual celebration of the Battle of Bannockburn alive in the period 1893 – 1914 was the Australian businessman and Scottish patriot, Theodore Napier, seen in this photograph at the Borestone in his Jacobite dress, in the style of 1714 (great belted kilt and eagle – feathered blue bonnet). The outfit always guaranteed press coverage, and many hundreds of people, members of the Scottish Patriotic Association and the Scottish Home Rule Association assembled at Bannockburn every year under Napier’s guidance.

Napier was treasurer of the Scottish National Association of Victoria, and his first pamphlet, Scotland’s Demand for Home Rule, was published in Melbourne, 1892. In Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Year, he organised a monster petition to the Queen requesting that her government should stop using the terms English and England instead of British and Britain. Napier also organised the fund raising for the Wallace Monument at Elderslie, and the commemoration for the 600th anniversary of the death of Wallace in 1905.

In many respects, he was like the late David Ross (1958 – 2010) who walked in Wallace’s footsteps from Robroyston to London in 2005, and organised the funeral for the 700th anniversary of Wallace’s death in St. Bartholomew’s Church, Smithfield.