IIRC, the saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” comes from Bruce’s experience on the lam where he is alone in a cellar of sorts watching a spider try to reach something.
I wouldn’t take anything from Robert the Bruce, and don’t assume his role in the movie is an accurate portrayal. I couldn’t imagine the lot of peasants in either country, and imagine the socialism they’ve embraced over time was designed to protect the nobility from the wrath of a lower class with nothing to live for.
I watched two history channel shows, one on Wallace, one on Bruce, after this thread. Bruce and the nobles indeed left the field at Falkirk, convinced that riding in to Wallace’s aid was suicide. Wallace, on the other hand, was no Mel Gibson. He sacked English cities, his men raped, pillaged, he killed monks. I understand his anger, but it’s not like he was pure.