Editing Robert the Bruce (section)

=== Childhood ===
Very little is known of his youth. He was probably brought up in a mixture of the [[Anglo-Normans|Anglo-Norman]] culture of northern England and south-eastern Scotland, and the [[Gaels|Gaelic]] culture of southwest Scotland and most of Scotland north of the [[River Forth]]. [[Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway|Annandale]] was thoroughly [[Feudalism|feudalised]], and the form of Northern [[Middle English]] that would later develop into the [[Scots language]] was spoken throughout the region. [[Carrick, Scotland|Carrick]] was historically an integral part of [[Galloway]], and though the earls of Carrick had achieved some feudalisation, the society of Carrick at the end of the thirteenth century remained emphatically [[Celts|Celtic]] and [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] speaking.<ref>{{harvnb|Barrow|2005|p=34}}</ref>

Robert the Bruce would most probably have become trilingual at an early age. He would have been schooled to speak, read and possibly write in the [[Anglo-Norman language]] of his Scots-Norman peers and the Scoto-Norman portion of his family. He would also have spoken both the Gaelic language of his Carrick birthplace and his mother's family and the early Scots language.<ref>{{harvnb|Barrow|2005|pp=34–35}}</ref><ref name="Macnamee 2006 12">{{harvnb|Macnamee|2006|p=12}}</ref><ref name="Penman 2014 16">{{harvnb|Penman|2014|p=16}}</ref> As the heir to a considerable estate and a pious layman, Robert would also have been given working knowledge of [[Latin]], the language of charter lordship, liturgy and prayer. This would have afforded Robert and his brothers access to basic education in the [[law]], [[politics]], [[scripture]], saints' Lives (''vitae''), [[philosophy]], [[history]] and chivalric instruction and romance.<ref name="Macnamee 2006 12"/><ref name="Penman 2014 16"/>

Barbour reported that Robert read aloud to his band of supporters in 1306, reciting from memory tales from a twelfth-century romance of [[Charlemagne]], ''[[Fierabras]]'', as well as relating examples from history such as [[Hannibal]]'s defiance of [[Rome]].<ref name="Penman 2014 16"/>

As king, Robert certainly commissioned verse to commemorate [[Battle of Bannockburn|Bannockburn]] and his subjects' military deeds. Contemporary chroniclers [[Jean Le Bel]] and [[Thomas Grey (chronicler)|Thomas Grey]] would both assert that they had read a history of his reign 'commissioned by King Robert himself.' In his last years, Robert would pay for [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] [[friar]]s to tutor his son, [[David II of Scotland|David]], for whom he would also purchase books.<ref name="Penman 2014 16"/> A parliamentary briefing document of c. 1364 would also assert that Robert 'used continually to read, or have read in his presence, the histories of ancient kings and princes, and how they conducted themselves in their times, both in wartime and in peacetime; from these he derived information about aspects of his own rule.'<ref name="Macnamee 2006 12"/><ref>{{harvnb|Penman|2014|pp=16–17}}</ref>

Tutors for the young Robert and his brothers were most likely drawn from unbeneficed clergy or mendicant friars associated with the churches patronised by their family. However, as growing noble youths, outdoor pursuits and great events would also have held a strong fascination for Robert and his brothers. They would have had masters drawn from their parents' household to school them in the arts of horsemanship, swordsmanship, the joust, hunting and perhaps aspects of courtly behaviour, including dress, protocol, speech, table etiquette, music and dance, some of which may have been learned before the age of ten while serving as [[Page (servant)|pages]] in their father's or grandfather's household.<ref name="Penman 2014 18">{{harvnb|Penman|2014|p=18}}</ref>

As many of these personal and leadership skills were bound up within a code of chivalry, Robert's chief tutor was surely a reputable, experienced knight, drawn from his grandfather's crusade retinue. This grandfather, known to contemporaries as [[Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale|Robert the Noble]], and to history as "Bruce the Competitor", seems to have been an immense influence on the future king.<ref name="Macnamee 2006 14">{{harvnb|Macnamee|2006|p=14}}</ref> Robert's later performance in war certainly underlines his skills in tactics and single combat.<ref name="Penman 2014 18"/>

The family would have moved between the castles of their lordships{{snd}}[[Lochmaben Castle]], the main castle of the lordship of Annandale, and Turnberry and [[Loch Doon Castle]], the castles of the earldom of Carrick. A significant and profound part of the childhood experience of Robert, [[Edward Bruce|Edward]] and possibly the other Bruce brothers (Neil, Thomas and Alexander), was also gained through the Gaelic tradition of being [[fosterage|fostered]] to allied Gaelic kindreds – a traditional practice in Carrick, southwest and western Scotland, the [[Hebrides]] and [[Ireland]].<ref name="Penman 2014 18"/>

There were a number of Carrick, Ayrshire, Hebridean and Irish families and kindreds affiliated with the Bruces who might have performed such a service (Robert's foster brother is referred to by Barbour as sharing Robert's precarious existence as an outlaw in Carrick in 1307–1308).<ref name="Macnamee 2006 14"/> This Gaelic influence has been cited as a possible explanation for Robert the Bruce's apparent affinity for "[[hobelar]]" warfare, using smaller sturdy ponies in mounted raids, as well as for sea-power, ranging from oared war-galleys ("[[birlinn]]s") to boats.<ref name="Penman 2014 19">{{harvnb|Penman|2014|p=19}}</ref>

According to historians such as Barrow and Penman, it is also likely that when Robert and Edward Bruce reached the male age of consent of twelve and began training for full knighthood, they were sent to reside for a period with one or more allied English noble families, such as the [[de Clare]]s of Gloucester, or perhaps even in the English royal household.<ref name="Penman 2014 19"/> [[Thomas Grey (chronicler)|Sir Thomas Grey]] asserted in his ''[[Scalacronica]]'' that in about 1292, Robert the Bruce, then aged eighteen, was a "young bachelor of [[Edward I of England|King Edward]]'s Chamber".<ref name="Penman 2014 20">{{harvnb|Penman|2014|p=20}}</ref> While there remains little firm evidence of Robert's presence at Edward's court, on 8 April 1296, both Robert and his father were pursued through the English [[Chancery (medieval office)|Chancery]] for their private household debts of £60 by several merchants of [[Winchester]]. This raises the possibility that young Robert the Bruce was on occasion resident in a royal centre which Edward I himself would visit frequently during his reign.<ref name="Penman 2014 20"/>

Robert's first appearance in history is on a witness list of a charter issued by [[Alexander Og MacDonald, Lord of Islay]]. His name appears in the company of the [[Bishop of Argyll]], the vicar of [[Isle of Arran|Arran]], a [[Kintyre]] clerk, his father, and a host of Gaelic notaries from Carrick.<ref>{{harvnb|Barrow|2005|p=35}}</ref> Robert Bruce, the king-to-be, was sixteen years of age when [[Margaret, Maid of Norway]], died in 1290. It was also around this time that Robert would have been knighted, and he began to appear on the political stage in the Bruce dynastic interest.<ref>{{harvnb|Macnamee|2006|p=30}}</ref>