Quote Originally Posted by Canuck of NI View Post
Bruce won the war, that's the main thing. I haven't made a close study of the period but at the time of the film it struck me that the Gibbon I mean Gibson was taking a lot of Bruce's traditional achievements and giving them to Wallace- and rightly or wrongly it didn't strike me that Braveheart was very well researched in its revisionist fervour. No matter, both men were heroes.

And no matter what his faults, I don't think Bruce should be judged too harshly for shifting positions and so on- look for instance at what happened to Wallace. Hard to achieve much after you've been disembowled just once.
That's easy to say when you're not a Comyn.

Seriously though, read Alan Young's book. Young really does an excellent job in setting the record straight about how the Comyns were not the blackhearted villians that the Bruce propaganda machine (and he discusses that as well) would have us believe. If anything, the Bruce and John Comyn were very similiar -- both had fought the English and cooperated with them when need be.

For example, few people today are aware of the Comyn's defeat of the English at the Battle of Roslin in 1303:

http://www.laird.org.uk/Scots/The_Battle_of_Roslin.htm

It's a pity they couldn't have worked together. I won't take anything away from Bruce in terms of his military achievements, but I won't necessarily paint him as a Scottish super-patriot either. He knew when to cozy up to the English when it was to his advantage.

Of course, being a Comyn descendant, I am just a wee bit biased.

T.