“His good fortune, once praised by the poets of the Midi, deserted him. He was dogged by mischance: dark forces which no judgements in parliaments, no rapid campaigns followed by conciliatory measures could overcome, gradually beset him. At one time he was driven to fall back on the law of necessity, at another to turn to the pope for sworn absolution from his own undertakings. He had no comprehension of what we call nationalism, but thought in terms of law and rights and obligation to maintain the ‘state’ of crown and realm. The French, in his view, had tricked him, the Scottish lords and prelates betrayed him, the archbishop and earls deserted him. His mood hardened. He coped with the English recalcitrants, came to terms with Philip the Fair, crushed William Wallace, and drove Archbishop Winchelsey into exile, but in Robert Bruce, whose grandfather had fought on his side at Lewes, he found a new kind of enemy. He faced him and his followers, men and women alike, in a spirit of savage and ruthless exaltation”.
Or, to quote Uhtred of Bebbanburg - Wyrd bið ful āræd (Fate is inexorable). Another historian described Bruce as Edward’s mirror image, so in the end the king struck at a version of himself: “A crowned warrior, careless of men’s lives, who meant to have his way at any price”.
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