ROBERT WISHART,
BISHOP OF GLASGOW 1271-1316

One of the most notable bishops of the diocese of Glasgow, and one time "Guardian of Scotland", Robert Wishart was active in the affairs of both Church and State during a crucial period in Scotland’s history.

Wishart belonged to an old east-country family located Conveth in Mearns, an estate which then gave its name to the parish now called Laurencekirk. The surname (Guiscard, Wiscard, Wishart, meaning 'cunning' is Norman-French).

He succeeded his uncle William Wishart, as bishop of Glasgow. He appears to have been elected in 1271,and consecrated at Aberdeen by the bishops of Aberdeen,Dunblane and Moray in January on 29 January 1273. Wishart seemed to experience some difficulties with his diocese, as letters from the pope in 1274 do not indicate that he was in his See. King Alexander III supported Wishart, who continued the building of the Cathedral, with the transept probably being completed in his episcopate. Arrangements also seem to have been made for the erection of a bell-tower or steeple and a treasury(probably the two western towers of the Cathedral. A charter granted at Partick in August 1277,by Maurice,lord of Luss, granted the bishop the necessary timber.

The death of King Alexander III at Kinghorn in 1286, compelled the calling of a Parliament at Scone in April of that year. Its purpose was to set up a provisional government, to administer the country for its new Queen, Margaret, the Maid of Norway. Six 'custodes' or Guardians of the realm were appointed - two earls, Alexander Comyn of Buchan and Duncan of Fife; two bishops, William Fraser of St.Andrews and Robert Wishart of Glasgow; and two barons, John Comyn of Badenoch and James Stewart.

Wishart played a part in negotiating the Treaty of Birgham-Northampton in 1290, which agreed the marriage of the then six-year-old Queen Margaret to Edward I's five-year-old heir, Edward of Caernarvon, which would have led to the possibility of a union of the Crowns. However, Margaret died in September 1290, leaving the way open for a competition for the Scottish throne, especially between the principal claimants, Baliol, Bruce, John Hastings of Abergavenny, and Count Florence of Holland. In this competition, known as the Great Cause, and in the court appointed by King Edward to decide which claimant had the best claim, Wishart was one of Bruce the elder's sponsors. Nevertheless, it was John Baliol who would emerge as King of Scots when King Edward I gave judgement on 17 November 1292. When war broke out between Edward I and Philip IV of France in June 1294, the Scottish leaders decided to take the opportunity to defy Edward. In July 1295, Wishart became one of the Council of Twelve, elected by a Parliament at Stirling to manage the nation's affairs, and to fight for its independence. The government was, in effect, taken out of Baliol's hands. After in 1296, having been compelled to swear allegiance to Edward I, Wishart became a friend and supporter of William Wallace, as well as of young Robert Bruce (the future King).

The Lanercost Chronicle states that Bishop Wishart and James Stewart(the Steward) plotted revolt and encouraged 'the open violence' of William Wallace, to which they dared not resort themselves. Among others who would become associated with revolt as well as Wishart and James Stewart, were Sir William Douglas, Sir Alexander Lindsay, and Robert the Bruce. In 1304, along with most of the Scottish nobility, Wishart submitted to King Edward, and was compelled at first to stay outwith Scotland 'on account of the great evils he had caused'. But in Lent 1305, Wishart along with Robert Bruce and John Moubray were commanded to advise King Edward on the settlement of 'the Kingdom of Scotland'. In the autumn of 1305 however, it is probable that Wishart, Bruce, and Bishop Lamberton of St.Andrews(a former chancellor, under Wishart, of Glasgow diocese) discussed the possibility of revolution, and a revival of Scottish kingship.

Bruce's murder of John Comyn would be committed in Wishart's diocese, but far from excommunicating Bruce, the bishop formally absolved him from his sin in being a party to the killing of John Comyn, and encouraged people to fight for Bruce. Wishart did though compel Bruce to swear an oath to abide under the direction and with the assent of the clergy of Scotland. The bishop was present at Bruce's coronation at Scone on 25 March 1306, and is reputed to have crowned him King (A canon of the church of Glasgow, Stephen of Donydour, was Bruce's chamberlain). In 1306, Wishart was taken prisoner, and sent south with Bishop Lamberton and the abbot of Scone. Edward II made strenuous efforts with the Pope to deprive Wishart of his office. In 1308 Wishart, escorted by the bishop of Poitiers, was allowed to go to the papal curia to answer the charges against him. Two years later, he was still in Rome, and in January 1311, by letter, Edward II continued to argue the case against his return to Scotland. Edward wished the appointment in Wishart's place of Stephen Segrave. Though Pope Clement V neither suspended nor deprived Wishart, he would not use his influence to have him set free and restored to his diocese. Wishart returned to Scotland after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, having been part of the ransom(including Mary Bruce(Robert’s sister), Marjorie Bruce(his daughter), and Elizabeth Bruce(his wife) to secure the release of the captured Earl of Hereford. By the time of his return, Wishart had gone blind,and he lived for only a further two years. He died on 26 November 1316, and was buried in the crypt of the Cathedral between the altars of St.Peter and St.Andrew.

Geoffrey Barrow, one of Scotland’s foremost historians, calls Wishart 'one of the great figures in the struggle for Scottish independence, the statesman of the period 1286 to 1291, the patron and friend of Wallace and Bruce, the persistent opponent of Plantagenet pretensions, an unheroic hero of the long war'.