By 1304, the country was under submission and all of the leading Scots surrendered to Edward in February of that year, except for William Wallace, who was in hiding. A fact-check of Outlaw King reveals that this indeed happened. The movie begins in 1304 with Robert the Bruce (Chris Pine), his father (James Cosmo), and other Scottish nobles pledging allegiance to England's King Edward I (Stephen Dillane). This is why the images of his face that were digitally generated from the cast of his skull have offered the first real glimpse at how the King of Scots possibly looked.ĭid Robert the Bruce really pledge loyalty to King Edward I before eventually rebelling against English oppression in Scotland? Also, written records of the King of Scots shed no light on his appearance. There are no known reliable depictions of Robert the Bruce that were created during the time period when he was alive. Robert the Bruce's large head indicates that he was likely very intelligent. This significantly contrasts actor Chris Pine's 6-foot tall frame in the movie.
"But what the reconstruction cannot show is the color of his eyes, his skin tones and the color of his hair." The digital reconstruction revealed a large and formidable head supported by a muscular neck and a stocky body. "Using the skull cast, we could accurately establish the muscle formation from the positions of the skull bones to determine the shape and structure of the face," stated Wilkinson. He recruited the help of Professor Caroline Wilkinson, a craniofacial expert from John Moores University, to carry out the digital reconstruction of Robert the Bruce's face. "I saw an opportunity to apply the technology to the skull held here at Glasgow, first to test the credibility of its connection to Bruce and then to try to add to our knowledge of Scotland's greatest king," McGregor said.
Martin McGregor at the University of Glasgow were able to use the cast of the skull to digitally reconstruct the face of the Scottish king. Nearly two centuries after the discovery of Robert the Bruce's skull, historians led by Dr. These objects are currently part of The Hunterian collection at the University of Glasgow.
Some items were not reinterred, including a foot bone (metatarsal), Cloth of Gold shroud, pieces of the lead coffin, and the impressive white marble table-top tomb itself. A plaster cast was taken of the skull before the remains were reburied a few months later. It was encased in lead and covered by fragments of Cloth of Gold shroud. Contained inside a rotted wooden coffin was the skeleton of the King of Scots. While researching the Outlaw King true story, we learned that the tomb of Robert the Bruce (1274-1329) was discovered when part of the Abbey Church in Dunfermline, Scotland was being rebuilt in 1817. Does Chris Pine resemble the real Robert the Bruce?