Welsh Journals

many portents of the eighteenth-century industrial revolution in the early middle ages. However, this prescience does not altogether square with some of his other judgements about the pre-Newtonian centuries. In conclusion, it must be pointed out that if the purpose of a text-book is to provide the reader with a general guide to the research of specialist historians, it appears strange that we once more have the Lynn White thesis thrust upon us without any indication of the fact that much of it has been seriously weakened by eminent English medievalists. T. H. LLOYD Swansea ROBERT BRUCE AND THE COMMUNITY OF THE REALM OF SCOTLAND. By G. W. S. Barrow. Second Edition, Edinburgh University Press, 1976. Pp. 502, 15 plates. Paperback, £ 2.00. In retrospect, G. W. S. Barrow's Robert Bruce, published in 1965, can be seen as one of the first of a small but distinguished series of books which has begun to transform the study of Scottish medieval history and to make it harder for outsiders to ignore. This new edition is most welcome. The text is substantially as it was, the biggest change coming in chapter 10, where the map has been redrawn and the narrative recast in the light of Dr. Patricia Barnes's edition of the newsletter about Bruce's activities in 1307-8. Here and there, judgements have been quietly modified: for instance, Professor Barrow is now more cautious in his handling of the story of Alexander Ill's homage to Edward I in 1278; and he is marginally less dismissive of David II, who did not share his father's luck in having Edward II for an opponent. Footnotes have been used to inform the reader of some recent publications, and occasionally to reprove critics of the first edition. Unfortunately Mr. J. B. Smith's important papers on Wales in the time of Edward II appeared too late for notice. Reviewers who eleven years ago expressed unease about Professor Barrow's emphasis on the 'community of the realm' as the political expression of the Scottish nation will find him unrepentant. For Professor Barrow, Bruce's significance lies in his willingness after 1306 to merge his own ambitions in the 'national cause' and identify himself with the communitas regni: first he leads a national revival; and then between 1314 and 1328 he seeks through war and diplomacy to persuade the ostrich English of the inevitability of an independent Scotland. A reader less con- fident of the completeness of Bruce's identification with a coherent Scottish 'cause' may wish to ask questions. What was the relationship between King Robert and the powerful men who accompanied him on the ruthless road to supremacy? How far did his influence over them depend on the ancient ability of the successful warrior to give ? Are there not clear signs that in the heady years after Bannockburn the ambitions of the group ranged beyond Scotland ? Ought we not, therefore, to see 1318 rather than 1314 as the watershed? In that year the impetus of expansion ran down: the Bruces' position in Ireland collapsed; Robert's only adult male heir was killed; and English power began to recover on the mare occidentalis.