Consolidation of Stewart power and personal rule David died childless on 22 February 1371 and was succeeded by Robert II. David was buried at
Holyrood Abbey almost immediately but an armed protest by William,
Earl of Douglas, delayed Robert II's coronation until 26 March 1371. The reasons for the incident remain unclear but may have involved a dispute regarding Robert's right of succession, or may have been directed against
George Dunbar, Earl of March (also known as Earl of Dunbar), and the southern
justiciar, Robert Erskine. It was resolved by Robert giving his daughter Isabella in marriage to Douglas's son, James and with Douglas replacing Erskine as justiciar south of the Forth. Robert's accession did affect some others who held offices from David II. In particular, George Dunbar's brother John Dunbar, the Lord of Fife who lost his claim on Fife and Sir Robert Erskine's son, Sir Thomas Erskine who lost control of
Edinburgh Castle. The Stewarts greatly increased their holdings in the west, in Atholl, and in the far north: the earldoms of
Fife and
Menteith went to Robert's second surviving son, Robert; the earldoms of
Buchan and
Ross (along with the lordship of Badenoch) to his fourth son, Alexander; and the earldoms of
Strathearn and
Caithness to the eldest son of his second marriage, David. King Robert's sons-in-law were
John MacDonald, Lord of the Isles, John Dunbar, Earl of Moray, and
James who would become the 2nd Earl of Douglas. By 1375, the king had commissioned
John Barbour to write the poem,
The Brus, a history intended to bolster the public image of the Stewarts as the genuine heirs of Robert I. It described the patriotic acts of both
Sir James, the Black Douglas and Walter the Steward, the king's father, in their support of Bruce. Robert ruled over a country that continued to have English enclaves within its borders and Scots who gave their allegiance to the king of England — the important castles of Berwick, Jedburgh, Lochmaben and Roxburgh had English garrisons and controlled southern Berwickshire, Teviotdale and large areas in Annandale and Tweeddale. In June 1371, Robert agreed to a defensive treaty with the French, and although there were no outright hostilities during 1372, the English garrisons were reinforced and placed under an increased state of vigilance. Attacks on the English-held zones, with the near-certain backing of Robert, began in 1373 and accelerated in the years 1375–77. This indicated that a central decision had probably been taken for the escalation of conflict rather than the previous small-scale marauding attacks by the border barons. In 1376, the
Earl of March successfully recovered Annandale, but then found himself constrained by the
Bruges Anglo-French truce. which received Coldingham Priory as daughter house from King Robert In his dealings with Edward III, Robert blamed his border magnates for the escalating attacks on the English zones; regardless, the Scots retained the recaptured lands, often portioned out among minor lords, to secure their interest in preventing English re-possession. Despite Robert's further condemnations of his border lords, all the signs were that Robert backed the growing successful Scottish militancy following Edward III's death in 1377. In early February the Scots — apparently unaware of the conclusion of an Anglo-French truce on 26 January 1384 that included the Scots in the cease-fire — conducted an all-out attack on the English zones winning back Lochmaben Castle and Teviotdale. John of Gaunt led a reciprocal English attack that took him as far as Edinburgh, where the burgesses bribed him to leave the town unharmed. Haddington, however, was destroyed. Carrick and James, Earl of Douglas (his father William had died in April), wanted a retaliatory strike for the Gaunt raid. Robert may have concluded that as the French had reneged on a previous agreement to send assistance in 1383 and then entered into a truce with England, any military action would have been met with retaliation and exclusion from the forthcoming Boulogne peace talks. On 2 June 1384, Robert resolved to send
Walter Wardlaw,
Bishop of Glasgow to the Anglo-French peace talks, yet Carrick ignored this and allowed raids into the north of England to take place.
Loss of authority and death where Carrick's close ally, James, Earl of Douglas was killed Robert's son, John,
Earl of Carrick, had become the foremost Stewart magnate south of the Forth just as Alexander, Earl of Buchan, and was in the north. Alexander's activities and methods of royal administration, enforced by
Gaelic mercenaries, drew criticism from northern earls and bishops and his younger half-brother
David, Earl of Strathearn. These complaints damaged the king's standing within the Council leading to criticism of his ability to curb Buchan's activities. Robert's differences with the Carrick affinity regarding the conduct of the war and his continued failure or unwillingness to deal with Buchan in the north led to the political convulsion of November 1384 when the Council removed the king's authority to govern and appointed Carrick as lieutenant of the kingdom — a ''
coup d'état'' had taken place. With Robert sidelined, there was now no impediment in the way of war. In June 1385, a force of 1200 French soldiers joined the Scots in a campaign that involved the Earl of Douglas and two of Robert's sons, John, Earl of Carrick, and Robert, Earl of Fife. The skirmishes saw small gains but a quarrel between the French and Scottish commanders saw the abandonment of an attack on the important castle of Roxburgh. , where Robert II died in 1390 The victory of the Scots over the English at the
Battle of Otterburn in
Northumberland in August 1388 set in motion Carrick's fall from power. One of the Scottish casualties was Carrick's close ally James, Earl of Douglas. Douglas died without an heir, which led to various claims upon the title and estate — Carrick backed Malcolm Drummond, the husband of Douglas's sister, while Fife sided with the successful appellant,
Sir Archibald Douglas, Earl of Wigtown and Lord of Galloway, who possessed an entail on the Douglas estates. Fife, now with his powerful Douglas ally, and those who supported the king ensured a countercoup at the December Council meeting when the guardianship of Scotland passed from Carrick (who had recently been badly injured from a horse-kick) to Fife. Many had also approved of Fife's intention to properly resolve the situation of lawlessness in the north and in particular the activities of his younger brother, Buchan. In March, Robert returned to
Dundonald Castle in Ayrshire where he died on 19 April and was buried at Scone on 25 April. == Historiography ==