Bernard of Kilwinning

Bernard (died ) was a Tironensian abbot, administrator and bishop active in late 13th- and early 14th-century Scotland, during the First War of Scottish Independence. He first appears in the records already established as Abbot of Kilwinning in 1296, disappearing for a decade before re-emerging as Chancellor of Scotland then Abbot of Arbroath.

A senior figure in the administration of Scotland during the 1310s and 1320s, he is widely said by modern writers to have drafted the Declaration of Arbroath, and although there is no direct evidence for this, he nevertheless probably played a role. By early 1328, his service to the king had earned him a bishopric – the bishopric of the Isles – a position he held for three or four years before his death in 1331.

Abbot of Kilwinning

The name "Bernard abbe de Kilwynin" (abbot of Kilwinning) occurs on the Ragman Rolls, 28 August 1296, and he is recorded again in a document of Melrose Abbey on 25 December. Bernard is unrecorded as abbot of Kilwinning after this year, but it is possible that he was ejected from Kilwinning Abbey by the English king in one of the following years, probably retiring to another Tironensian monastery, Arbroath Abbey. A document dated 1296 x 1305, names one otherwise unknown Roger as Abbot of Kilwinning, meaning that Bernard had ceased to hold this position by 1305 at the latest. and has since been accepted by other historians.

Chancellor of Scotland & Abbot of Arbroath A modern photograph of Arbroath Abbey, showing distinctive sandstone colouring. From 1308, Bernard appears in the charters of Robert I, King of the Scots, as "Dom Bernard the Chancellor". It was in 1308 that Robert finally got full control over the province of Angus, where Arbroath Abbey is located. The Abbot of Arbroath at the time, John de Angus, appears to have been an English appointee, and was subsequently ejected from office. On 1 November 1309, John de Angus was "released" from the responsibility of his office by the Bishop of St Andrews, though he retained Haltwhistle as rector, a parish church in Tynedale, Northumberland, which belonged to the abbey.

Bernard was elected as the new abbot sometime in 1310, probably by August.

The fifteenth-century Lowland Scottish chronicler Walter Bower attributed to Abbot Bernard a poem in Latin about the Battle of Bannockburn, from which Bower quoted many lines. It may however have come from another Arbroath monk, as Bower appears to hint elsewhere. Professor A. A. M. Duncan doubts this however, arguing that "the skilled use of the papal cursus in that text points rather to a professional rhetorician".

Bernard's name was certainly on the Declaration of Arbroath, and as chancellor he certainly had some role. This election likely occurred between 9 November 1327 and 14 January 1328. The office of chancellor, and the accompanying salary of 200 marks, was resigned by Bernard later in the year, probably on 3 April 1328.

He was consecrated between 26 June and 12 November 1328, perhaps in Norway, where the see's metropolitan, the Archbishop of Trondheim, resided. Bernard's election was not straightforward, as some the "canons of Snizort", the seat of the diocese, had elected a different successor, Cormac Cormacii. The Chronicles of Mann further notes that he was buried at Kilwinning Abbey, his original monastery and the location where he first rose through the ranks.