The Scottish Rebellion against Robert the Bruce: Exiles and Traitors

July of 1331 saw the gathering of a most unusual army; its billets scattered across the modest ports of Yorkshire’s eastern coast.Its purpose, the invasion of Scotland and the overthrow of the yet inchoate line of Bruce kings.This was a task monumentally disproportionate in scale to the tiny army that sought to undertake it.It was a goal which they would ultimately fail to realise, though not before experiencing some spectacular successes and forever changing the balance of power within Scottish politics. The most notable of these triumphs were the Battle of Dupplin Moor, and the better-known Battle of Halidon Hill.Such unlikely victories lent credibility to their cause, igniting another decade of war.The army was mostly English, but its masters were the disinherited sons and grandsons of what had once been the flower of Scottish knighthood, an alliance of related Scottish nobles who had been exiled from Scotland for their ongoing refusal to accept Robert Bruce’s claim to the throne.Wh