HOME | DD

Bravery — Description

King Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286, and his daughter, his only heir, died just four years later. The two main competitors for the throne were Robert Bruce and John Balliol. The Scottish Templars feared civil war would break out between the two sides, and so they arranged for their tyrannical ally, King Edward Longshanks of England to just claim Scotland under his rule instead. Making bribes and threats to several Scottish nobles, the Templars and the English had complete control of Scotland by 1291, despite protests from former competitors. Over the next few years, the English lorded their power over the Scots. And it would eventually become too much for the Scots to take.

Revolts broke out against the English by 1297, heavily influenced by the Scottish Assassins who sought to win back freedom for the Scots. One Assassin, a warrior named William Wallace, led the Scots through several victories, such as the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Wallace continued to lead the Scots into an invasion of England itself, which the Templars tried desperately to fight off. King Longshanks himself led several fights against the Scots, and continued to order advances against them until 1304. Things only got worse for the Scots and the Assassins when William Wallace was captured and executed by the Templars in 1305.

Robert Bruce’s grandson, Robert the Bruce, continued the fight afterwards. By 1307, he had managed to swing many Scottish nobles back to their side, and they rebelled further against the English. He was crowned King of Scotland by 1307, and won a major victory in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. And by then, the Assassins’ major ally, King Philip IV of France, had annihilated most of the Templar order, and thus they lost their ability to keep up the fight in Scotland for long. By 1328, Robert the Bruce had invaded England and a treaty was finally signed between his men and Edward III of England, recognizing Scotland as an independent nation and recognizing Robert the Bruce as its king.

However, after Robert’s death, the Templars plotted again to take Scotland back. Their allies in the Scottish nobility whom the Assassins had discredited quickly planned an invasion. And throughout the 1330s, the forces of Scotland and England would be constantly waging war against each other trying to claim control of the Scottish throne. The fighting slowed when the English got caught up in the Hundred Years War with France, and when the Scottish economy started failing because of the fighting, and things had calmed down relatively by the time David II, son of Robert the Bruce, took back the Scottish throne in 1341. He started leading invasions into England in 1346, but he was eventually captured and imprisoned. The Assassins managed to get him out in 1357, but they quickly found that the King had become much more corrupt after he returned to the throne, and so they cut their ties with him.

Scotland was left in a major economic struggle after that, but at least they had managed to end the war in victory. They remained independent from England, and the Assassins worked tirelessly to rebuild what the Templars had torn down. They found it to be a bit easier after what King Philip had done to the Templar order, but there was still much work to be done. With so many other problems to deal with across Europe, they would soon find that despite their victory, they were still caught in a dark age.