Barbour, John

Related Category: English Literature to 1499: Biographies

(bär´bər), c.1316?–1395, Scottish poet. He was archdeacon of Aberdeen from 1355 until his death. His romance, The Bruce (1375), celebrating Scotland's emancipation from England, recounts the heroic deeds of Robert I and Sir James Douglas. The poem was meant to be read as history and shows remarkable accuracy. Barbour's authorship of a fragmentary Troy-Book and the Buik of Alexander is disputed.