Lilian Lancaster - Scotland - King Robert the Bruce and the Spider - 1912

by Vintage Map

Title

Lilian Lancaster - Scotland - King Robert the Bruce and the Spider - 1912

Artist

Vintage Map

Medium

Digital Art - Printed Map

Description

This Map of Scotland, designed by Lilian Lancaster for E L Hoskyn's "Stories of Old" [1912], portrays a legendary incident that took place during the the early 14th Century Scottish Wars of Independence. The then Scottish King, Robert the Bruce, after numerous military defeats and setbacks in his struggle against the English occupation of Scotland by King Edward I, in the summer of 1306 had fled the country & taken refuge on the remote Irish Island of Rathlin. Sheltering in a fisherman's hut, Bruce observed the endeavours of a spider trying to spin its web. Six times it tried unsuccessfully to attach the threads of its web to a nearby beam. Bruce realised he had been defeated six times in battles against the English. He swore that if the spider succceeded in attaching the threads of its web to the beam on the seventh attempt, he would return to Scotland to take on the English for a seventh time. The spider did succeeed and, so legend has it, Bruce immediately returned to Scotland. Over the ensuing 8 years he led the Scots in an increasingly successful counter insurgency against the English which eventually led to decisive victory at the Battle of Bannockburn, near Stirling, in 1314. The events of this period are deeply embedded in the Scottish consciousness, not least in the words of the unofficial national anthem, "Flower of Scotland".

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April 3rd, 2020

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