No one at Scone would have been stunned if they had humphed "Bleary Bob' along to his Coronation on a stretcher. This grandson of the freedom fighter Robert the Bruce and one of the nation's less well-kent monarchs, was crowned in March 1371, and the fact that he was able to walk to the ceremony must rank as a minor medieval miracle.
Certainly Robert II was past the first flush of princely youth; he was, at 55, much nearer pensionable age. But it was his lifestyle rather than his years which threatened to take its toll.
No contemporary king I can uncover better deserves the title 0. 'Sire'. According to the best genealogical estimates, he had l2 legitimate children - five sons and seven daughters. He had also surrounded himself with a team of bastard sons, eight in all, and those statistics, combined with Bob's impressive work-rate, would seem to suggest that a squad of illegitimate daughters must also have been lurking somewhere behind the arras.
His nickname, 'Bleary Bob', therefore, seems self-explanatory Long, sleepless nights spent constructing a memorable dynasty left him little time for shut-eye. What dedication! What self-sacrifice! Hence the red-rimmed eyes which earned him his sobriquet? The explanation, alas, is less romantic.
Robert, had he lived today, would surely have been the `shades'monarch. He suffered from an inflammation of the eyes to which his biographers suggest, light and active exertion must have been painful. Froissart, who visited Robert's court, gives his usual colourful description of the king's affliction. One eye, says the chronicler, was turned up and red in colour like sandalwood. An eye for the lassies and no mistake.
The reign of Robert II - the first Stuart monarch -characterized by struggles with economic difficulties at home and political problems on the international front. Unfortunately, Robe is reckoned to have been a peaceable sort of bloke at a time when the long struggle for freedom had made his people warlike, almost by nature.
Border battles persisted throughout his 19-year reign. Otterburn where the Douglases squared up to the Percys of Northumberland in 1388, is seen by some historians as the rubber-stamp which confirmed Scottish independence. This battle is celebrated in song and ballad.
I suspect Robert II, as a lover more than a fighter, would have been drawn more to the ballad than the bloodshed. So, let's raise our glasses to Robert, hundredth successor to Fergus Mor mac Erc, 'Bleary Bob', the man who got creative kingsmanship down to a fine art.
1421
Scots and French troops, under the Earl of Buchan, defeated English forces in Bauge in Anjou.
1483
Longstanding bond of friendship and support between France and Scotland was renewed.
1781
Glasgow magistrates warned parents about children playing `tops and shinty indiscriminately in the street.
1906
Four men injured at Clydebank when a portion of the bridge of the liner Lusitania, under construction at the yard collapsed.
1912
Rioting around Kirkconne, Dumfriesshire, where some miner has been working during a coal strike - a heavy team of several hundred Ayrshire pitmen descended on the town.
Another Young Pretender
A native of Fife, David Gillies, was him main chance during the confusion of 1745 Uprising and assumed the name of Charles Stuart, Prince of Wales. He gathered a mock court around him and went about accepting favours and bestowing honours, before being caught eventually at Selkirk.
So there you have the History in Brief for this week.
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