David II (1329–1371), son of the hero King of Scots, Robert Bruce (1306–1329), has suffered a harsh historical press, condemned as a disastrous general, a womaniser and a sympathiser with Scotland’s ‘auld enemy’, England. Bringing together evidence from Scotland, England and France, Michael Penman offers a different view: that of a child king who survived usurpation, English invasion, exile and eleven years of English captivity after defeat in battle in 1326 to emerge as a formidable ruler of Scotland. Learning from Philip VI of France and Edward III of England in turn, David became the charismatic patron of a vibrant court focused on the arts of chivalry: had he lived longer, Scotland’s political landscape and national outlook might have been very different to that which emerged under his successors, the Stewart kings.

But David’s was also a reign of internal tensions fuelled by his increasingly desperate efforts to determine the royal succession, overawe great magnates like his heir presumptive, Robert the Steward, and persuade his subjects of the need for closer relations with England after sixty years of war.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Abbreviations
• Maps
• Genealogical Table
• Glossary
• Introduction: The Anonymous Face of Scottish Kingship
• 1. My Father’s Glory: the Legacy of 1329
• 2. Kings’ Row: National and Civil War Anew, 1329–41
  • The Guardianship of Thomas Randolph
  • Balliol’s Revenge – David’s Exile, 1332–2
  • The Triumph of Guardianship, 1334–8?
  • ’An old man in his deeds’: Steward Guardianship, 1338–41
• 3. The Young Lions: David’s First Kingship, 1341–6
  • The King’s Return, 1341
  • Baronial Backlash, 1342
  • Building a Bruce Following, 1342–3
  • Partisan Politics, 1344–5
• 4. Reversal of Fortune: Disaster at Durham, 1346
  • The Build-up to Invasion, 1345–6
  • A Road to London: the Battle of Neville’s Cross, 17 October 1346
• 5. In a Lonely Place: the Captivity of ‘David de Brus’, 1346–52
  • The Steward’s Lieutenancy, c. 1347–50
  • The First Succession Plan, 1350–2
• 6. Ransom, 1353–7
  • Sojourn at Odiham, 1353–6
  • The Road to Berwick, 1356–7
• 7. The French Connection: a King Restrained, 1357–9
  • The First Weeks Home
  • Royal Resurgence, 1358
  • Royal Finance, 1358–9
  • The King’s Plans Checked, 1359
  • Stalemate in Scotland, June-December, 1359
• 8. Dark Passage: Plague, Jealousy, Money, Murder and War, 1360–2
  • The Murder of Katherine Mortimer
  • Death and Taxes, 1360–1
  • Faith and Force: the Build-up to Civil War, 1362
• 9. The Defiant Ones: the Three Earls’ Rebellion and the Succession, 1363–4
  • Men of Courage, Spring 1363
  • The Road to London, April-November 1363
  • Third Time Lucky? Anglo-Scottish Talks, Winter 1363–4
  • Debate at Scone, March 1364
• 10. Dead End: the Margaret Logie Years, 1364–8
  • ‘Ways’ to Progress, March 1364 to June 1365
  • A United Front, July 1365 to July 1366
  • David’s Policy Falters? July 1366 to June 1367
  • Royal Policy Unravels, June 1367 to May 1368
  • Turning Point, June 1368
• 11. All the King’s Men: 1368–70
  • The New Bruce Party, July 1368 to January 1369
  • Re-invested Bruce Kingship, February to October 1369
  • North and South, c. October 1369 to Spring 1370
  • A Change of Tack, Spring to October 1370
• 12. The Wrong Man: After David II, 1371–c. 1400
  • The Debt of Nature, 1370–1
  • The Stewart Kingdom of Scotland
• Conclusion: ‘A ruler of middling excellence’?
• Bibliography
• Index