{"product_id":"9781036146238","title":"The Scottish Rebellion against Robert the Bruce : Exiles and Traitors","description":"\u003cp\u003eJuly 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. While they eagerly courted the support of the current English king, Edward III, they were no mere ciphers or puppets – their fathers and grandfathers had been amongst the fiercest proponents of Scottish freedom and independence. Edward I of England had seized upon the succession crisis that followed the death of Alexander III to insinuate himself into the centre of Scottish politics and attempt to compel the Scottish nobility into acquiescing to his claims of overlordship. Yet the following war was shaped as much by the struggle between rival Scottish dynasties as it was the imperial ambitions of successive English kings. Running parallel to the war to refute English overlordship of Scotland was an internecine conflict in which disparate factions of the Scottish nobility vied with one another to secure the throne. Both the Bruce and the Comyn family, from whom the majority of the exiles were descended, danced back and forth across the line between loyalists and collaborators in the\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pen \u0026 Sword Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49515262738659,"sku":"00000_00000_00000_00000","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0764\/3758\/6147\/files\/9781036146238-1.jpg?v=1788513725","url":"https:\/\/usa.kinokuniya.com\/products\/9781036146238","provider":"Books Kinokuniya USA","version":"1.0","type":"link"}