25 September 2014 Fiona Watson - Bannockburn

It was a full house of members and visitors at last week's meeting.
President nominee Nick Rawlings was in the chair and welcomed four Rotarians from Auchterarder and District Club; Estelle Nicol, Ramsay Green, Alan Dougan and Matt Aitken as well as guests Sean Adams, Peter Williams and Gail Edwards.
Nick introduced Dr. Fiona Watson, who was paying a very welcome third visit to the club, as guest speaker. Fiona had spent 11 years in the History Department at Stirling University and is now an historian, writer and occasional broadcaster. She has just published a book on Robert the Bruce which is part of a series called Pocket Giants whose other titles include Jesus, Jane Austen and Brunel and is currently working on her first novel, set in the 1720's in Philadelphia and Scotland.
Fiona gave a very lively and entertaining talk on the background to the Battle of Bannockburn which she said was actually a civil war between rival Scots, following Bruce's stabbing of his great rival, John Comyn of Badenoch in 1306 in a church in Dumfries. This caused Comyn's supporters to align with the English against Bruce.

Fiona described Bruce as a military genius who was a good strategist and very adaptable. An example of this was that he exerted a very strong discipline among his troops. During the Battle of Bannockburn, rather than the custom of capturing prisoners for ransom and collecting 'booty' during the battle, Bruce enforced his strategy of no booty or prisoners while the battle was ongoing. This may help explain why there have been very few artefacts discovered at the different sites where the battle is thought  to have occurred.

After a lively question and answer session, Ranald Shepherd thanked Fiona for an excellent talk.