'The saints of the Scottish country will fight today': Robert the Bruce’s alliance with the saints at Bannockburn

Abstract

In Walter Bower's Scotichronicon, Robert the Bruce speaks confidently about saintly help for the Scottish forces at the Battle of Bannockburn. Based on which saints are depicted elsewhere in the Scotichronicon as being helpful to Scots, which were favoured by Robert the Bruce personally, and which were popular among Scots more broadly, this paper makes an informed conjecture about how Saints Andrew, Thomas, Columba, Ninian, Margaret, Kentigern, and Fillan might have been among the saints that King Robert and his subjects were thinking about when they looked to the saints at the Battle of Bannockburn.