A Bruce in perplexity

After the battle of Falkirk in 1298, Robert de Bruce did something remarkable. Somehow - and we don't know how he did it - he managed to become Guardian of Scotland by the end of the year. This was immediately after the downfall of William Wallace, whose position as Guardian had rested entirely on military success.

Bruce's circumstances were deeply unpromising. His father was a lackey of Edward I, up to his eyeballs in debt to the English crown. His family had spent over a decade embroiled in a vicious feud with the Comyns, the most powerful family in Scotland. Bruce himself had not exactly covered himself with glory, surrendering at Irvine and fleeing into the Ayrshire hills when Edward came looking for him. To cap all, his own father's knights had rejected him and joined the English army.   

And yet, despite all this, Bruce emerged as Guardian. This was the first real hint of the sheer bravado and self-confidence that would eventually carry him all the way to the Scottish throne. Not, however, that he had won the argument entirely. Bruce was obliged to share power with John Comyn of Badenoch, nephew of the exiled King John Balliol. 

There was just one tiny snag. The two young men, equally ambitious and able, utterly despised each other. Their mutual hostility was in part due to the ongoing feud between their families, and partly due to personal antagonism. In short, they were too much alike.

Bruce's first recorded act as co-Guardian was to confirm certain lands to one Alexander Scrymgeour, which had previously been granted by Wallace, the former Guardian. However, nowhere did this document mention King John, in whose name Wallace had claimed to be acting in the original. For Bruce, the exiled king was a tremendous nuisance: he wanted the crown for himself, and could not afford to acknowledge Balliol's kingship. Equally, to refight the civil war over the Scottish crown risked fatally undermining the struggle against Edward I.