Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow (c.1240–1316): The Patriot Bishop

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

Much of what is known about Wishart comes from his enemies. English government records, Edward I's charges to the pope and an English newsletter of 1306 that called him "the bad bishop" all treat him as a chief troublemaker. That is strong evidence of his importance but not of his motives. A few vivid details, such as his speech at Norham in 1291, come from much later Scottish chroniclers. His exact relationship to Bishop William Wishart, his presence at Scone in 1306 and the date of his release are uncertain.

Family and early career

established Wishart belonged to an old east-coast family whose seat was Conveth in the Mearns, the parish now called Laurencekirk. The surname is Norman French, from "Guiscard", meaning cunning. A close kinsman, William Wishart, had been archdeacon of St Andrews, chancellor of Scotland and bishop of St Andrews, and died in 1279.

shared Barrow calls William Wishart Robert's uncle. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by A. A. M. Duncan says only that Robert was probably related to him and possibly his son. The People of Medieval Scotland database gives the same range of possibilities.

established Robert Wishart was archdeacon of Lothian from 1267 and a master of arts by 1271. He was elected bishop of Glasgow, probably in 1271, and consecrated on 29 January 1273. In 1274 he attended the Council of Lyons.

established By the 1290s his relatives and associates filled the senior posts of the diocese. The dean of Glasgow was Thomas Wishart, the archdeacon of Teviotdale Master William Wishart, and the chancellor of the cathedral Master William Lamberton, who became bishop of St Andrews in 1297. Barrow suggested that the appointment of Wishart's official, Master Alexander Kennedy, as chancellor of Scotland in place of the Englishman Thomas of Hunsingore was a sign of the bishop's influence.

Guardian, 1286–1292

established After Alexander III's death in March 1286, an assembly at Scone chose six Guardians to govern for the infant Margaret of Norway. Wishart and William Fraser of St Andrews were the two bishops. Barrow placed Wishart among the Guardians who leaned towards the claims of Robert Bruce of Annandale.

established In November 1289 Wishart was one of four Scottish envoys at Salisbury, with Bishop Fraser, Bruce of Annandale and John Comyn of Badenoch, who agreed the arrangements for bringing the Maid to Britain. He was a Guardian when the Treaty of Birgham of July 1290 guaranteed that Scotland would remain separate and free.

shared Barrow suggested that Wishart's mind was probably behind the drafting of Birgham, with its careful provisions for keeping the relics and records of the Scottish crown safe under the magnates' seals. This is an inference from his later conduct, not a documented fact.

Norham, 1291

established In May 1291 Edward I met the Scots at Norham and demanded that they recognise him as superior lord. Wishart was present. In June the claimants accepted Edward's demand, and the Guardians resigned and were reappointed in his name. On 14 June 1291 Wishart and Bishop Crambeth of Dunkeld had an official copy made, under their seals, of the promises Edward had made in return: to restore the kingdom to the rightful heir, to keep Scottish laws and to give judgement on Scottish soil. They also recorded that the claimants had acted with the Guardians' consent.

traditional The fifteenth-century chronicler Walter Bower says that Wishart answered Edward that the Scottish kingdom was held in homage to no one but God, and quoted the "Prophecies of Gildas" at him. A record of Anglo-Scottish peace talks of 1321, found at Córdoba by the historian Peter Linehan, also gives Wishart a prominent speech: that a leaderless people could not bind its future king, that the Scots should not have to prove a negative, and that attacking a divided and defenceless people would dishonour a crusading king. Barrow thought Bower drew on a record like this one. The substance is plausible; the words are not a verbatim record.

established In July 1291 Wishart, James the Stewart and Sir Nicholas Segrave were commissioned to take oaths of fealty to Edward at Ayr. At the court of the Great Cause he sat as one of the forty auditors named by Bruce. He accepted the judgement for John Balliol in November 1292, reluctantly according to Duncan.

Balliol's reign and the council of twelve

established Wishart served King John. In 1295 he was one of the four bishops, with St Andrews, Dunkeld and Aberdeen, on the council of twelve that took over the direction of affairs and negotiated the treaty with France. He sealed the Scottish ratification on 23 February 1296.

established After the defeat at Dunbar in 1296 he submitted to Edward I. Only three Scottish bishops are known to have done homage that year: Wishart, Henry Cheyne of Aberdeen and Thomas Dalton of Whithorn. Barrow doubted that Wishart set much store by it.

established In a mandate to the dean of Lennox, written only months before the rising of 1297, Wishart reminded him of "the liberties of the Scottish Church hitherto enjoyed and granted by our lord the king". Barrow pointed out that it is far from clear which king he meant.

The rising of 1297 and Irvine

established With the Comyns and most earls captured or discredited, the lead in 1297 passed to men who had backed Bruce's family. Chief among them were Wishart and James the Stewart, the only two Guardians of 1286 still in Scotland. The Lanercost chronicle says they plotted the revolt and urged William Wallace on to open violence. Wallace was a vassal of the Stewart.

established Wishart, the Stewart, Sir William Douglas and the young Robert Bruce, earl of Carrick, raised the south-west. In late June an English force under Henry Percy and Robert Clifford reached Ayr and found the Scots at Irvine. The Scots leaders opened surrender talks and spun them out for weeks, which helped Wallace in the meantime. They spoke for "the whole community of the realm" and argued about Scottish rights and customs. Before the end of July Wishart and Douglas were in English custody.

shared Duncan dates the collapse at Irvine to 7 July 1297; Barrow describes negotiations beginning about 10 July and dragging on for most of a month. Both agree the bishop ended up a prisoner at Roxburgh.

established Wallace's reaction showed how close he was to the bishop. Angry at the surrender, he raided Wishart's palace at Ancrum and carried off his belongings, horses and even his family. Later, when Wallace had cleared most of Scotland of English garrisons, he sent men to besiege Roxburgh specifically because Wishart was held there.

established Wishart was released in September 1300.

Submission and the settlement of 1305

established In the early 1300s Edward I's agents charged the bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow at the papal court with stirring up the Scots. When the Scottish leaders submitted early in 1304, Edward ordered that the ageing bishop of Glasgow stay outside Scotland for two or three years "on account of the great evils he has caused".

established By March 1305, however, Wishart was at Westminster. Edward commanded him, Robert Bruce and John Moubray, one bishop, one earl and one baron, to advise on a settlement for Scotland. They proposed that ten representatives be elected by the Scottish community to help draw up a constitution. Wishart seems to have been allowed home in May 1305 and, like Bruce, was not among the ten.

shared An English chronicler claimed that Wishart had done homage to Edward eight times and broken his faith each time. Barrow's summary was that again and again he "bent under English pressure, but he never broke".

1306: absolution and inauguration

established Wishart was at Glasgow four days before John Comyn was killed by Bruce and his men in the Greyfriars' church at Dumfries on 10 February 1306. The killing was done in Wishart's own diocese, and in a church. Far from excommunicating Bruce, Wishart urged his people to fight for him as if it were a crusade.

established According to an English newsletter written at Berwick, Wishart formally absolved Bruce for his part in the killing and made him swear to act under the direction and with the consent of the Scottish clergy. Barrow read this oath as a promise to protect the liberties of the Scottish church. Wishart also brought out robes and vestments fit for a king and a banner bearing the arms of the last king, which he had kept hidden in his treasury for such a moment.

shared Barrow believed that Bruce's bid for the throne had been planned in advance with Wishart and Bishop William Lamberton. Michael Brown, in his introduction to the 2013 edition, notes that the evidence can also be read as Bruce reacting to a crisis caused by the killing, then taking the throne on Wishart's encouragement. Duncan likewise calls Wishart Bruce's chief adviser in these weeks and very probably the man who persuaded him to take the crown.

shared Bruce was inaugurated at Scone on 25 March 1306. Barrow lists Wishart with Lamberton, Bishop David Murray of Moray and the abbot of Scone as taking part. Duncan states that Wishart did not attend the ceremony. The evidence does not settle the point.

The fighting bishop

established Wishart threw himself into the war. The English had given him timber to repair the bell-tower of Glasgow Cathedral; he used it to build siege engines against the English-held castle of Kirkintilloch. He then crossed to Fife and seized the royal castle of Cupar, behaving, as the English complained, "comme homme de guerre", like a man of war.

established In early June 1306, before Bruce's defeat at Methven, English forces captured Wishart at Cupar. He and Lamberton, with the abbot of Scone, were sent south in irons. Barrow noted that only their status as clergy saved them from hanging. Wishart was held at Portchester Castle in Hampshire, at times in chains.

Captivity, 1306–1314

established Edward I and Edward II both tried to have Wishart removed from his see. In November 1308 he was handed to the bishop of Poitiers to be taken to the papal court to answer the charges against him. He was still there two years later. In January 1311 Edward II argued bitterly against his return to Scotland, and later that year asked the pope to replace him with Master Stephen Segrave. Pope Clement V neither suspended nor deprived Wishart, but he would not press for his release. By 1312 he was back in English custody.

established Meanwhile Robert I kept the diocese running. By April 1309 he had appointed his chancellor, Bernard, and Master Stephen of Dunnideer, a canon of Glasgow, as vicars of the see on Wishart's behalf.

Release and death

shared After Bannockburn the earl of Hereford, captured during the English retreat, was exchanged for Bruce's queen, his daughter Marjorie, his sister Mary and Wishart. Barrow dates the exchange to October 1314. Duncan says Wishart was moved to York and Carlisle and released early in 1315. By then he was blind.

established Between Bannockburn and Wishart's death a council of the Scottish church issued, in the names of all twelve Scottish bishops including Wishart, the manifesto supporting Bruce's right to the throne first published in 1309. Barrow saw it as marking the reconciliation of the whole bench of bishops with the king.

established Wishart died on 26 November 1316 and was buried in Glasgow Cathedral.

traditional A worn medieval effigy of a bishop in the lower church of Glasgow Cathedral is traditionally said to be Wishart's. Duncan notes that there is no good evidence for the identification.

established After his death Robert I tried to have Stephen of Dunnideer made bishop, but under English pressure the pope refused. Glasgow had no consecrated bishop in possession until John Lindsay in 1323.

Reputation

shared The historian G. W. S. Barrow, in Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (1965; 4th edn 2005), described Wishart as quick-witted, persuasive and inventive, and called him "an unheroic hero of the long war": the statesman of 1286–91, the patron and friend of Wallace and Bruce, and the persistent opponent of English claims. Duncan's verdict is warmer, calling him a man of principle who leaned to Bruce but not at the cost of his country's freedom. To English writers he was simply the "bad bishop". All agree he was one of the most important Scots of his time.

• Wishart was bishop of Glasgow for more than forty years.
• He was one of the six Guardians chosen after Alexander III's death in 1286.
• He used timber given by the English to repair Glasgow Cathedral's bell-tower to build siege engines against them.
• He kept the arms of the last king hidden in his treasury until Bruce's inauguration in 1306.
• William Wallace raided his palace at Ancrum in anger when the bishop surrendered in 1297.
• He was held for a time at the papal court while two English kings tried to have him removed.
• He was exchanged for the earl of Hereford along with Bruce's queen and daughter after Bannockburn.
• He was blind when he came home.

• Myth: Wishart crowned Robert Bruce. He supplied robes and a banner and absolved Bruce, but he did not perform the inauguration, and his attendance at Scone is disputed.
• Myth: Wishart never submitted to Edward I. He submitted several times, in 1291, 1296, 1297 and 1304, and resisted again each time.
• Disputed: his relationship to Bishop William Wishart. Barrow calls William his uncle; other historians say he may have been his son.
• Disputed: whether he was at Scone in March 1306. Barrow lists him among the clergy who took part; Duncan says he did not attend.
• Disputed: the date of his release. Barrow gives October 1314; Duncan gives early 1315.
• Disputed: whether Bruce's seizure of the throne was planned in advance with Wishart. Barrow thought so; others read the evidence as a response to the crisis after Comyn's killing.
• Disputed: the effigy in Glasgow Cathedral. It is traditionally called Wishart's, but there is no good evidence.