Bruce went to Scone and on Palm Sunday, the 27th of March 1306, raised the Royal Standard and had himself crowned King of Scots.

England's King Edward reply was to send a strong English army to Scotland under Aymner de Valence. On 26 June Bruce was heavily defeated at Methven. He spent the ensuing months in hiding in Arran and Rathlin Island and the Hebrides, in Kentail and Kintyre, in Orkney and possibly in Norway.

In the spring of 1307 he returned to find devastation and widespread demoralization. But Bruce and his followers persisted and on Palm Sunday 1307 a first victory.

By the beginning of 1309 he controlled most of Scotland north of the Forth and Clyde. He was recognized as King of the Scots.

In June 1329, at the age of fifty-three, Bruce died at Cardross, some say of leprosy.

In 1306, Bruce's supporters, a tough band of Scottish nobles and their followers, crowned him King of Scotland at Scone, because they were tired of acknowledging a foreign King. No sooner was he crowned, however, that Bruce had to flee into hiding, for the English put a price upon his head. Edward, now an ageing man, set out for Scotland with an army to punish the nobles, but he died at Burgh on Sands (1307). His son Edward II, gave up the invasion plan.

Bruce, having been crowned, now had to prove that he was King. For the next seven years he harried the English barons who had been stationed at various strongholds in the Lowlands, and at the same time began to build up a strong army with which he hoped one day to defeat the English.

That day came in 1314, when Edward II led an expedition into Scotland. At Bannockburn near Stirling, Bruce utterly defeated a huge army and scattered its leaders. Vast quantities of English treasure fell into his hands, providing him with much needed money to repair the damage done to Scotland under English rule.

Edward refused to acknowledge Scotland's independence, but the position was now very different. No longer was Bruce a wanted man, compelled to hide. He was a conqueror, and he could - and did - lead raids into English territory with great success. Towns and fortresses were stormed and more treasure was captured.

The English still refused to give in, however, and for the rest of Edward's reign, fighting continued from time to time. It was a strange situation, for Edward was really refusing to admit what had become a fact after Bannockburn, that Scotland had become a nation again.

Bruce came to terms with Edward's son, Edward III, in 1328, and the arrangement was settled when England recognized Scotland as an independent kingdom, and Bruce's son, David, was married to Edward's sister, Joanna.

Though most of his reign had been taken up with fighting, Bruce did carry out many improvement in the country. He reorganized the navy and merchant fleets and he built up the army into a tough fighting force ready to deal with emergencies. He also administered justice with a firm but fair had.

When he died in 1329, he was mourned as the liberator of Scotland, the restorer of the nation's pride and a great hero.