One very serious and very deplorable mistake has been made in modern times, in misinterpreting all these events, and, instead of seeing in them another successful Norman enterprise,—regarding them as an effort of the highest “patriotism.” Thus Bruce is described by Sir Walter Scott as “the vindicator of his country’s liberty”—as one who had adopted “the unalterable resolution, either to free his country or to perish in the attempt;”[168] while Hume unhesitatingly tells us, that “Bruce had long harboured in his breast the design of freeing his enslaved country;” and a writer of our own day styles him “the most heroic, as well as the most patriotic, monarch which Scotland has ever produced.”
It is difficult to imagine a greater abuse of language than this. Patriotism is a love of country; and a real patriot will labour and suffer, and, if needful, will die for his country; but Robert Bruce conspired against his country, fought against his country, and, in the end, inflicted upon his country the most grievous injuries. If this be “patriotism,” then words have lost their meaning.
“Bruce was an Englishman;”—we quote the words of a volume put forth by a committee of Scottish gentlemen, “Bruce by descent was an Englishman, and probably so by affection as well as interest.”[169]
The son of a great Yorkshire baron, and heir to ninety‐four English lordships and to two Scottish estates, he was born, as we have seen, in the metropolis of England, a few weeks before Edward’s coronation. We entirely accept, therefore, the statement of the _Wallace Documents_, that “Bruce was an Englishman;”—but we read with hesitation the rest of the sentence—“and probably so by affection as well as interest.” We believe that Sir Walter Scott formed a more accurate estimate of these matters when he wrote, concerning the Norman knights who were settled in Scotland, that “Two or three generations had not converted Normans into Scots; in fact, _the Normans were neither by birth nor manners accessible to the emotions which constitute patriotism_.” “The ideal perfection of the knight‐errant was, to wander from land to land in quest of renown; to gain earldoms, _kingdoms_, nay, empires, by the sword; and to sit down a settler on his acquisitions, without looking back on the land which gave him life.”[170] This vivid sketch seems as if it had been meant to describe a Robert de Brus.