the myth that robert the bruce offered safe haven to the templars has also crept back in in fact the most that can truthfully be said about that is that robert i perhaps didn't prosecute the templars with a lot of vigor all that business about hundreds of french templars escaping to scotland and assisting robert the bruce's armies etc is actually relatively modern mythology the reality was that there was only a handful of templars in scotland at the time the order was dissolved and robert i was not about to risk further papal censure by interfering he intended all along to eventually get back into the church's good graces and did so being reinstated with his excommunication being lifted in