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OTlorttF's iotst flietotfte
SCOTLAND
BY
SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.
WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER OF RECENT EVENTS
BY MAYO W. HAZELTINE
With Frontispiece
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME ONE
NEW YORK AND LONDON
THE CO-OPERATIVE PUBLICATION SOCIETY
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Scotland. Vol. I. — i
ADVERTISEMENT
The Author was invited to undertake this general
Sketch of Scottish History in connection with a similar
abridgment of English History by Sir James Mackin-
tosh, and a History of Ireland by Thomas Moore, Esquire.
There are few literary persons who would not have been
willing to incur much labor and risk of reputation for the
privilege of publishing in such society. On the present
occasion, the task, though perhaps still a rash one, was
rendered more easy by the Author having so lately been
employed on the volumes called Tales of a Grandfather,
transferred from the History of Scotland, for the benefit
of a young relation. Yet the object and tenor of these
two works are extremely different. In the Tales taken
from Scottish history, the author, throwing into the shade,
or rather omitting all that could embarrass the under-
standing or tire the attention of his juvenile reader, was
desirous only to lay before him what was best adapted
to interest his imagination, and, confining himself to
facts, to postpone to a later period an investigation of
the principles out of which those facts arose.
It is hoped, on the contrary, that the present history
may, in some degree, supply to the reader of more ad-
vanced age truths with which he ought to be acquainted,
not merely as relating to one small kingdom, but as form-
(3) .
4 ADVERTISEMENT
ing a chapter in the general history of man. The object
of the two works being so different, their contents, though
drawn from the same sources, will be found so distinct
from each other, that the young student, as his appetite
for knowledge increases, may peruse with advantage this
graver publication, after being familiar with that designed
for an earlier age; and the adult, familiar with the gen-
eral facts of Scottish history, as far as conveyed in these
volumes, may yet find pleasure in reading those Tales
which contain its more light and fanciful details.
Abbotsford, i
November 1, 1829. J"
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
The Early History of Scotland — Caledonians, Picts, and Scots —
Kenneth Macalpine 13
CHAPTER II
Kenneth Macalpine: his Successors — Malcolm I. obtains possession
of Cumberland: Successors of Malcolm — Kenneth III., and his
Successors — Malcolm II 25
CHAPTER III
Malcolm III., called Cean-mohr — Foreigners seek Refuge in Scot-
land: kindly received by the King and by his Wife — The King's
Affection for Margaret — Death of Malcolm and Margaret —
Donald Bane — Duncan — Edgar — Alexander I. — David I. — Bat-
tle of Northallerton — David's Death — His Beneficence to the
Church — His Character as a Sovereign 33
CHAPTER IV
Malcolm IV. — William the Lion: his Captivity — Treaty of Falaise:
Abrogated by Richard I. — Death and Character of William —
Alexander II.: his Death 48
CHAPTER V
Reign of Alexander III.: his Death — On the Race of Kings Succeed-
ing to Kenneth Macalpine — Nature of their Government as dis-
tinguished from that of the Celts — Grand Division of Scotland
into Celtic and Gothic; and its Consequences 59
CHAPTER VI
Schemes of Edward I. — Death of the Maid of Norway — John Baliol:
his War with England; and his Defeat at Dunbar, and De-
thronement 74
(5)
6 CONTENTS
CHAPTER VII
Interregnum — Causes of the National Misfortunes of Scotland — In-
difference of the Norman Barons — Sir William Wallace — Battle
of Stirling — Wallace chosen Governor of Scotland — Edward
invades Scotland — Battle of Falkirk — Death of Wallace ... 83
CHAPTER VIII
Bruce, Earl of Carrick — His early Life — His Claims to the Throne —
His Plot with Comyn — Death of Comyn — Bruce assumes the
Crown — Battle of Methven Park — Extremities to which Bruce
is reduced — He flies to Rachrin — Fate of his Adherents ... 96
CHAPTER IX
Bruce returns to Scotland, lands in Arran, and passes from thence
to Ayrshire — Success of his Adherent James Douglas — Capture
and Execution of Bruce's Brothers, Thomas and Alexander —
The English evacuate Ayrshire — Bruce's reputation increases —
Edward I. marches against him, but dies in sight of Scotland —
Edward II. 's vacillating Measures — Bruce in the North of Scot-
land: defeats the Earl of Buchan, and ravages his Country —
His further Successes— Defeat of the Lord of Lorn at Crua-
chan-ben — Feeble and irresolute Conduct of Edward contrasted
with the Firmness of Bruce and the Scottish Clergy and People
— Inefficient Attempt of Edward to invade Scotland — Bruce
ravages the English Borders: takes Perth — Roxburgh Castle
surprised by Douglas, Edinburgh by Randolph, Linlithgow by
Binnock — The Isle of Man subdued by Bruce — The Governor of
Stirling agrees to surrender the Place if not relieved before
Midsummer — Bruce is displeased with his Brother Edward for
accepting these Terms, yet resolves to abide by them — King
Edward makes formidable Preparations to relieve Stirling . . Ill
CHAPTER X
Preparations of Robert Bruce for a decisive Engagement — Precau-
tions adopted by him against the Superiority of the English in
Cavalry: against their Archery: against their Superiority of
Numbers — He summons his Army together — Description of the
Field of Battle, and of the Scottish Order of Battle— The English
Vanguard comes in Sight — Action between Clifford and the
Earl of Moray — Chivalrous Conduct of Douglas — Bruce kills
Sir Henry Bohun — Appearance of the English Army on the
ensuing Morning — Circumstances preliminary to the Battle —
The English begin the Attack — Their Archers are dispersed by
Cavalry kept in Reserve for that Purpose — The English fall into
disorder — Bruce attacks with the Reserve — The Camp Fol-
lowers appear on the Field of Battle — The English fall into
irretrievable Confusion, and fly — Great Slaughter — Death of
the Earl of Gloucester — King Edward leaves the Field — Death
of De Argentine — Flight of the King to Dunbar — Prisoners
CONTENTS 7
and Spoil — Scottish Loss — Scots unable to derive a Lesson in
Strategy from the Battle of Bannockburn; but supported by
the Remembrance of that great Success during the succeeding
Extremities of their History 126
CHAPTER XI
Consequences of the Victory of Bannockburn — Depression of the
Military Spirit of England — Ravages on the Border — Settlement
of the Scottish Crown — Marriage of the Princess Marjory with
the Steward of Scotland — Edward Bruce invades Ireland: his
Success: is defeated and slain at the Battle of Dundalk — Battle
of Linthaughlee: Douglas defeats Sir Edmund Caillou, and Sir
Robert Neville — Invasion of Fife, and Gallantry of the Bishop
of Dunkeld — Embassy from the Pope: the Cardinals who bear it
are stripped upon the 'Borders: Bruce refuses to receive their
Letters — Father Newton's Mission to Bruce, which totally fails
— Berwick surprised by the Scots, and besieged bj T the English:
relieved by Robert Bruce — Battle of Mitton — Truce of Two
Years — Succession of the Crown further regulated — Assize of
Arms — Disputes with the Pope — Letter of the Scottish Barons
to John XXII. — Conspiracy of William de Soulis — Black Par-
liament — Execution of David de Brechin 139
CHAPTER XII
Preparations of Edward to invade Scotland— Incursions of the Scots
into Lancashire — The English enter Scotland — Robert Bruce
lays waste the Country, and avoids Battle — The English are
obliged to Retreat — Robert invades England in turn — Defeats
the King of England at Biland Abbey — Treason and Execution
of Sir Andrew Hartcla — Truce for Thirteen Years — Randolph's
Negotiation with the Pope — Settlement of the Crown of Scot-
land — Deposition of Edward II. — Robert determines to break
the Truce under Charges of Infraction by England — Edward
III. assembles his Army at York, with a formidable Body of
Auxiliaries — Douglas and Randolph advance into Northumber-
land at the Head of a light-armed Army — Edward marches as
far as the Tyne without being able to find the Scots — A Reward
published to whomsoever should bring Tidings of their Motions
— It is claimed by Thomas of Rokeby — The Scots are found in
an inaccessible Position, and they refuse Battle — The Scots shift
their Encampment to Stanhope Park — Douglas attacks the
English by Night— The Scots retreat, and the English Army is
dismissed — The Scots suddenly again invade England — A Pacifi-
cation takes place: its particular Articles — Hlness and Death of
Bruce— Thoughts on his Life and Character — Effects produced
on the Character of the Scots during his Reign 163
CHAPTER XIII
Douglas sets out on his Pilgrimage with the Bruce's Heart: is killed
in Spain — Randolph assumes the Regency — Claims of the dis-
8 CONTENTS
inherited English Barons: they resolve to invade Scotland, and
are headed by Edward Baliol — Death of Randolph — Earl of Mar
chosen Regent — Battle of Dupplin Moor — Earl of March re-
treats from before Perth — Edward Baliol is chosen King, but
instantly expelled— Sir Andrew Moray chosen Regent by the
Royalists, but is made Prisoner — Siege of Berwick by the Eng-
lish — Battle of Halidon Hill — Great Loss of the Scots — The
Loyalists only hold four Castles in Scotland — Edward Baliol
cedes to England the southern Parts of Scotland — Quarrel
among the Anglo-Scottish Barons — Liberation of Sir Andrew
Moray — Randolph, Earl of Moray, and the Stewart are Regents
— The Loyalists are active and successful — Defence of Lochleven
— Defeat of Guy, Earl of Namur, on the Borough Moor — Earl of
Athol (David de Strathbogie) defeated and slain 186
CHAPTER XIV
King David's Character — Invasion of England — Battle of Durham
— The Border Counties are conquered — The Steward defends the
Country beyond the Forth; and Douglas recovers Ettricke
Forest and Teviotdale — A Truce with England — David II. rec-
ognizes the Supremacy of Edward; but his Subjects refuse to
do so — The Knight of Liddisdale seduced from his Allegiance:
slain by his Godson, Lord Douglas — Treaty for the King's Ran-
som is broken off by the Interference of France — Battle of
Nesbit Moor — Attempt on Berwick, which is relieved by Ed-
ward III. — He invades Scotland — The Burnt Candlemas— The
English are compelled to Retreat — King David is released from
Captivity— His petulant Temper — His repeated Visits to Eng-
land, and the Influence acquired over him by Edward — He
proposes that the Succession of Scotland should go to Edward's
Son Lionel — The Scottish Parliament reject the Proposal — In-
surrection of the Steward and other Nobles: it is subdued, and
Tranquillity restored — New Scheme of Edward and David,
which is laid aside as impracticable — David II. marries
Catherine Logie, a beautiful Plebeian — Treaty of Peace inter-
rupted by Difficulties about the King's Ransom, which are
final]}' removed — Divorce between David and his Queen — Death
of David II. — His Character— -State of Scotland during his
Reign 213
CHAPTER XV
Accession of the House of Stewart: their Origin — Robert n. and
his Family — Claim of the Earl of Douglas: it is abandoned —
Defeat of the English near Melrose — Wasteful Incursions on the
Border — John of Gaunt negotiates with Scotland: takes Ref-
uge there against the English Rioters — France instigates the
Scots to renew the War — Inroad by John of Gaunt— John de
Vienne arrives with an Army of French Auxiliaries — They are
dissatisfied with Scotland, and the Scots with them — They
urge the Scots to fight a pitched Battle with the English — The
Scots decline doing so, and explain their Motives — Invasion of
Richard: it is paid back by the Scots — The French Auxiliaries
CONTENTS 9
leave Scotland — The Scots menace England with Invasion —
The Battle of Otterbourne— Robert, Earl of Fife, Regent— Truce
with England— Robert II. dies 237
CHAPTER XVI
Accession of John, Earl of Carrick — His Name is changed to Robert
III. — The State of his Family — Feuds — Burning of Elgin — In-
road of the Highlanders, and Conflict of Glascune — Battle of
Bourtree Church — Combat of the Clan Chattan and Clan Quhele
— Prince David of Scotland: created Duke of Rothsay: exposed
to the Misrepresentations of his Uncle, who becomes Duke of
Albany — Marriage of Rothsay — Scandalous Management of
Albany: breaks Faith with the Earl of March, who rebels —
War with England — Invasion of Henry IV. — The English
obliged to retire — Murder of the Duke of Rothsay — Scots de-
feated at Homildon — Contest between Henry IV. and the
Percies — Siege of Coklawis or Ormiston — Prince James sent
to France, but taken by the English — Robert III.'s Death . . 247
CHAPTER XVII
Regency of Robert, Duke of Albany — Earl of March returns to his
Allegiance — A Heretic burned — Jedburgh Castle taken: Tax
proposed for Expense of its Demolition: the Duke of Albany
refuses to consent to it — Donald of the Isles claims the Earldom
of Ross — He invades the Mainland — The Earl of Mar opposes
him — Circumstances of the Earl's Life — Battle of the Harlaw:
its Consequences — Intricate Negotiation between Albany and
Henry IV. — Hostilities with England — Death of the Regent
Albany 260
CHAPTER XVIII
Duke Murdach's Regency — His Character — A Pestilence in Britain
— The Conduct of the Regent's Family — Treaty for the Libera-
tion of James I. — He is restored to his Kingdom — Scottish
Auxiliaries in France — Character of James I. — Execution of
Duke Murdach and his Friends — Disorders in the Highlands
repressed — League with France, and Contract of the Scottish
Princess with the Dauphin — War with the Lord of the Isles,
and his Submission — Acts of the Legislature — Donald Balloch
— Treaty with England — Proceedings toward the Earl of March
— War with England — Parliament of 1436— Conspiracy against
James — He is Murdered — Fate of the Regicides 272
CHAPTER XIX
Struggle between the Nobles and the Crown — Elevation of Crichton
and Livingston to the Government — Their Dissensions — Crich-
ton possesses himself of the King's Person; but by a Stratagem
10 CONTENTS
of the Queen he is conveyed to Stirling — Crichton is besieged in
Edinburgh Castle; reconciles himself with Livingston; quarrels
once more with him; and again obtains the Custody of the
Ki ng's Person — A second Reconciliation — Power of the Douglas
Family — Trial and Execution of the young Earl of Douglas and
his Brother — Highland Feuds — Douglas gains the Ascendency
in the King's Councils — Fall of the Livingstons — Feud of the
Earl of Crawford and the Ogilvies— Death of the Queen-
Dowager — War with England — Battle of Sark — Marriage of
James — His Quarrel with Douglas: he puts him to Death with
his own Hand — Great Civil War — The Douglas Family is de-
stroj^ed — War with England — Siege of Roxburgh Castle, and
Death of James II 295
CHAPTER XX
Roxburgh is taken — Administration during James's Minority — He
assumes the Royal Authority, by Advice of the Boyds — The
younger Boyd is created Earl of Arran, and married to the
King's Sister — He negotiates a Marriage between the King and
a Princess of Denmark, and obtains the Orkney and Zetland
Islands in security of the Dowry: is disgraced, and dies in
obscurity — Treaty of Marriage between the Prince of Scotland
and a Daughter of England, and its Conditions: broken off by
Edward IV. — Submission of the Lord of the Isles — Character of
James III. — His favorite Pursuits — His Disposition to Favor-
itism — Character of Albany and Mar, the King's Brothers —
The King imprisons them on suspicion — Albany escapes — Mar
is murdered — War with England — Conspiracy of Lauder — The
King's Favorite seized and executed — Intrigues of Albany — He
is received into his Brother's Favor; but is afterward again
banished — Peace with England — The King gives way to his
Taste for Music and Building — Conspiracy of the Southern
Nobles — Battle of Sauchie Burn, and the King's Murder . . . 880
CHAPTER XXI
Policy of the Victors after the Battle of Sauchie Burn — Trial of
Lord Lindesay — He is defended by his Brother, and acquitted —
Exploits of Sir Andrew Wood— Peaceful Disposition of Henry
VII. — Prosperity of Scotland— Short War with England in
behalf of Perkin Warbeck — Progress of the Scots in Learning
and Literature — James IV. 's splendid Court — Marriage between
him and Margaret of England — Peace between Scotland and
England— Final Forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles— Meas-
ures to promote public Improvement — Naval Affairs — James
builds the largest Ship in Europe — Affair of the Bartons — Mur-
der of Sir Robert Kerr, and its Consequences — Intrigues of
France to stir up James against England — Manifesto of James,
and Henry's Answer— James assembles the Array of his King-
dom — Omens of Misfortune— James invades England, but loses
Time in Northumberland, and differs with his Council — Battle
of Flodden, and Defeat and Death of James IV 848.
CONTENTS 11
CHAPTER XXII
Proclamation of the temporary Magistrates of Edinburgh— Mod-
erate Conduct of the English — Convention of Estates — Duke of
Albany proposed for Regent — Marriage of the Queen-Dowager
with the Earl of Angus — He attempts to get the Regency in
Right of his Wife; but Albany is preferred — His Character —
Angus and the Queen-Mother fly to England — Albany is un-
popular — Trial and Execution of Lord Home — Albany returns to
France — Murder of the Sieur de la Bastie — Feuds between the
Hamiltons and Douglases — Skirmish called Cleanse the Cause-
way — Albany returns from France, and reassumes the Govern-
ment: makes an inefficient Attempt to invade England, and
again retires to France — Surrey takes Jedburgh — Albany returns
for the third Time to Scotland: besieges Wark — Upon this Siege
being shamefully raised, he returns, dismisses his Army, and
leaves Scotland forever — Intrigues of Henry VIII. among the
Scottish Nobility — Queen Margaret once more raised to Power
— King James assumes the Government under her Guardian-
ship — Her Aversion to her Husband Angus, and her imprudent
Affection for Lord Methven — Angus returns and attains the
supreme Power — Becomes tyrannical in his Administration —
Battle of Melrose — Battle of Kirkliston — Supreme Sway of the
Douglases — Escape of the King from Falkland — The Douglases
'are banished the Royal Presence, and compelled to fly into Eng-
land — Comparison between the Fall of the House of Angus and
that of the elder Branch of the Douglas Family 874
CHAPTER XXIII
James V. chastises the Borders — Introduces Cultivation and good
Order — Institutes the College of Justice — Short War with Eng-
land — Friendship restored — James temporizes with Henry —
Marries Magdalen of France — Her early Death — James weds
Mary of Guise — Sentence of Lady Glamis — Burning of several
Heretics— Sadler's Embassy — James's wise Government — His
Faults — He is of a severe Temper, and addicted to Favoritism —
His Expedition to the Scottish Isles — Character of Sir James
Hamilton of Draphane, and his Execution — Death of the two
infant Sons of James— Considered as Ominous — Severe Laws
against Heresy — Critical Position of James on the approaching
War between France and England — He offends Henry by dis-
appointing him at the proposed Interview — War with England
— Battle of Haddon Rig— The Scottish Nobles at Fala Muir re-
fuse to advance with the King — Incursion on the West Border
—Rout of Solway Moss— James V. dies of a Broken Heart . . 393
CHAPTER XXIV
Proposed Marriage between Mary of Scotland and Edward, Prince
of Wales — The Earl of Arran Regent — An English Party formed
— Henry VIII. 's Demands — Successful Intrigues of Cardinal
Beaton — The Treaty with England broken — Incursions of the
12 CONTENTS
English — Battle of Ancram Moor — Martyrdom of Wisheart—
Murder of Cardinal Beaton — Battle of Pinkie — Treaty of Mar-
riage between Mary and the Dauphin of France — She is sent
over into France — Arran is induced to resign the Government,
and the Queen-Mother is declared Regent — Peace with England
— The Queen-Regent's Partiality for France — Her Dissensions
with the Scottish Nobles — Her Proposal for a standing Army is
rejected — Progress of the Protestant Doctrines — Hamilton,
Archbishop of St. Andrew's— Claim of Queen Mary to the
Crown of England — Bold Answer of the Protestants to a Cita-
tion of the Queen-Regent — Death of five Commissioners sent to
France — The Queen-Regent resolves to subdue the Protestants,
who take Arms— Treaties of Accommodation are repeatedly
broken — The Reformers destroy the Monastic Buildings — The
Treaty of Perth violated, and the Protestants take Arms — They
advance to Edinburgh— The Queen-Regent fortifies Leith — The
Lords of the Congregation promulgate a Resolution that she
has forfeited her Office of Regent • • » • 40V
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER I
The Early History of Scotland — Caledonians, Picts, and Scots —
Kenneth Macalpine
THE history of Scotland, though that of a country too
poor and too thinly peopled to rank among the higher
powers of Europe, has, nevertheless, attracted the
attention of the world, even in preference to the chronicles
of more powerful and opulent states. This may be justly
ascribed to the extreme valor and firmness with which ia
ancient times the inhabitants defended their independence
against the most formidable odds, as well as to the rela-
tion which its events bear to the history of England, of
which kingdom, having been long the hereditary and in-
veterate foe, North Britain is now become an integral and
inseparable part by the treaty of union.
Our limits oblige us to treat this interesting subject more
concisely than we could wish ; and we are of course under
the necessity of rejecting many details which engage the at-
tention and fascinate the imagination. "We will endeavor,
notwithstanding, to leave nothing untold which may be nec-
essary to trace a clear idea of the general course of events.
The history of every modern European nation must com-
mence with the decay of the Roman empire. From the dis-
solution of that immense leviathan almost innumerable states
took their rise, as the decay of animal matter only changes
the form, without diminishing the sum, of animal life. The
ambition of that extraordinary people was to stretch the au-
thority of Rome, whether under the republic or empire, over
the whole world; and even while their own constitution
(13)
14 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
struggled under the influence of a rapid decline, the rage
with which they labored to reduce to their yoke those who
yet remained unconquered of their unhappy neighbors was
manifested on the most distant points of their enormous ter-
ritory.
Julius Caesar had commenced the conquest of Britain,
whose insular situation, girdled by a tempestuous ocean,
was no protection against Roman ambition. It was in the
year B.C. 55 that the renowned conqueror made his descent;
and the southern Britons were completely subjected to the
yoke of Rome, and reduced to the condition of colonists, in
the year of grace 80, by the victorious arms of Agricola.
This intelligent chief discovered, what had been before
suspected, that the fine country, the southern part of which
he had thus conquered, was an island, whose northern ex-
tremity, rough with mountains, woods, and inaccessible
morasses, and peopled by tribes of barbarians who chiefly
subsisted by the chase, was washed by the northern ocean.
To hear of a free people in his neighborhood, and to take
steps for their instant subjugation, was the principle on
which every Roman general acted ; and it was powerfully
felt by Julius Agricola, father-in-law of the historian Taci-
tus, who at this time commanded in South Britain. But
many a fair and fertile region, of much more considerable
extent, had the victors of the world subdued with far more
speed and less loss than this rugged portion of the north
was to cost them.
It was in the year 80 when Agricola set out from Man-
chester, then called Mancunium ; and that and the next sea-
son of 81 were spent in subduing the tribes of the southern
parts of what is now termed Scotland, and in forcing such
natives as resisted across the estuaries of the Forth and the
Clyde, driving them, as it were, into another island. It was
not till 83 that the invaders could venture across the Firth
of Forth, and engage themselves among the marshes, lakes,
and forests near Lochleven. Here Agricola, having divided
his troops into three bodies, one of them, consisting of the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 15
ninth legion, was so suddenly attacked by the natives at a
place called Loch Ore, that the Romans suffered much loss,
and were only rescued by a forced march of Agricola to their
support. In the summer of 84, Agricola passed northward,
having now reached the country of the Caledonians, or Men
of the Woods, a fierce nation, or rather a confederacy of
clans, toward whose country all such southern tribes and
individuals as preferred death to servitude had retired be-
fore the progress of the invaders. The Caledonians and
their allies, commanded by a chief whom the Romans called
Galgacus, faced the invaders bravely, and fought them man-
fully at a spot on the southern side of the Grampian hills, but
antiquaries are not agreed upon the precise field of action.
The Romans gained the battle, but with so much loss that
Agricola was compelled to postpone further operations by
land, and he retreated to make sure of the territories he had
overrun. The fleet sailed round the north of Scotland, and
Agricola's campaigns terminated with this voyage of dis-
covery. There was no prosecution of the war against the
Caledonians after the departure of Agricola in 85. Much
was, however, done for securing at least the southern part
of that general's conquests; and it was then, doubtless, that
were planned and executed those numerous forts, those ex-
tensive roads, those commanding stations, which astonish
the antiquary to this day, when, reflecting how poor the
country is even now, he considers how intense must have
been the love of power, how excessive the national pride,
which could induce the Romans to secure at an expense of
so much labor these wild districts of mountain, moor, thicket,
and marsh.
Nor, after all, were these conquests secured. The Em-
peror Adrian, in 120, was contented virtually to admit this
fact, by constructing an external line of defence against the
fierce Caledonians, in form of a strong wall, reaching across
the island from the Tine to the Solway, far within the boun-
dary of Agricola's conquest. It is at the same time to be sup-
posed that the Romans of the second century retained in a
16 HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND
great measure the military possession of the country beyond
this first wall, as far, perhaps, as the Firths of Clyde and
Forth; while, on the further side of these estuaries, it
seems probable they did not exercise a regular or perma-
nent authority.
But in the reign of Antonine, another and more north-
ern boundary wall was extended across the island, reaching
from Carriden, close to Linlithgow on the Firth of Forth, to
the Firth of Clyde. This ultimate bulwark served to protect
the country betwixt the estuaries, while the regions beyond
them were virtually resigned to their native and independent
proprietors. Thus the Romans had two walls; the more
northern, an exterior defence, assisted by military commu-
nications and defences, to receive a first attack; and the
more southern, an internal boundary, to retreat upon, if
necessary.
The existence of a double line of defence seems to argue
that this powerful people did not hold any permanent
possessions beyond the more northern boundary about the
year 140, when the second and more advanced rampart
was completed. No doubt, however, can be entertained,
even if the fact were not proved by roads and military sta-
tions, that the Romans restrained and overawed, if they
could not absolutely subject, the considerable provinces
overrun by Agricola in Fife and the western districts be-
yond the wall of Antonine. Camelodunum, or Camelon, a
large and strong town, was placed near Falkirk for the sup-
port of the wall at its eastern extremity, and many Roman
forts are found so disposed as to block up the passes from
the Highlands. The existence and position of military roads
and forts or camps also shows the care taken by the Romans
to maintain the necessary communications at various points
betwixt the two walls, so that the troops stationed to guard
them might act with combined movements.
Notwithstanding these martial precautions, the strength
of the Roman empire failed to support her ambitious preten-
sions to sovereignty; and, a.d. 170, the Romans, abandon-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 17
ing the more northern wall of Antonine, retired behind that
erected under the auspices of the Emperor Adrian in 120.
They doubtless retained possession of such forts and sta-
tions, of which there were many, as served the purpose of
outworks to protect the southern rampart.
Under this enlargement of their territories, and awed by
the Roman eagles, the Caledonians remained quiet till the
beginning of the third century, when, in the year 207, open
war again broke out betwixt them and the Romans. In 208
the Emperor Severus undertook in person the final conquest
of the Caledonians. It would be difficult to assign a reason
why, in the uncertain state of the empire, a prince equally
politic and cautious, raised by his talents from the command
of the Pannonian army to the lofty rank of emperor, should,
at the advanced age of threescore, commit his person and a
powerful host, the flower of his forces, to the risks of a dis-
tant contest with savage tribes, where victory, it might be
thought, could achieve little honor, and defeat or failure
must have been ruin to that reputation which constituted
his recognized title to empire. Severus was, however, tor-
tured in mind by the dissensions between his sons Geta and
Caracalla, and hastened, with the precipitation of a soldier
born and bred, to drown domestic vexation amid the din of
war. A Scotsman may also argue that the subjugation of
Caledonia was an object of no small difficulty and impor-
tance, since in such circumstances so wise a prince would
intrust to no delegate the honor which might be won in the
struggle, or the command of the powerful force necessary
to obtain it.
The Roman emperor made his invasion of Caledonia at
the head of a very numerous army. He cut down forests,
made roads through marshes and over mountains, and en-
deavored to secure the districts which he overran. But the
Caledonians, while they shunned a general action, carried
on, with the best policy of a country assailed by a superior
force, a destructive warfare on the flanks and rear of the
invading army; and the labors of the Romans, with the fa-
18 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
tigues and privations to which they were exposed, wasted
them so much that they are said by the historian Dion to
have lost fifty thousand men, equal probably to more than
half of their force. Severus, however, advanced as far as
the Firth of Moray, and noticed a length of days and short-
ness of nights unknown in the southern latitudes. In this
Boreal region the emperor made a peace, illusory on the
part of the barbarians, who surrendered some arms, and
promised submission. Severus returned from his distant
and destructive excursion, borne as usual in his litter at
the head of his army, and sharing their hardships and pri-
vations. He had no sooner reached York on his return,
than he received information that the whole Caledonian
tribes were again in arms. He issued orders for collecting
his forces and invading the country anew, with the resolu-
tion to spare neither sex nor age, but totally to extirpate the
natives of these wild regions, whose minds seemed as tame-
less as their climate or country. But death spared the em-
peror the guilt of so atrocious a campaign. Severus expired,
February, 211. His son restored to the Caledonians the ter-
ritories which his father had overrun rather than subdued ;
and the wall of Antonine, the more northern of the two ram-
parts, was once again tacitly recognized as the boundary of
the Roman province, and limit of the empire.
From this time the war in Britain was on the part of the
Romans merely defensive, while on that of the free Britons
it became an incursive predatory course of hostilities, that
was seldom intermitted. In this species of contest the colo-
nized Britons, who had lost the art of fighting for themselves,
were for some time defended by the swords of their conquer-
ors. In 368, and again in 398, Roman succors were sent to
Britain, and repressed successfully the fury of the barbarians.
In 422 a legion was again sent to support the colonists ; but,
tired of the task of protecting them, the Romans, in 446,
ostentatiously restored the Southern Britons to freedom, and
exhorting them henceforth to look to their own defence, evac-
uated Britain forever. The boast that Scotland's more re-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 19
mote regions were never conquered by the Romans is not a
vain one; for the army of Severus invaded Caledonia, with-
out subduing it, and even his extreme career stopped on the
southern side of the Moray Firth, and left the northern and
western Highlands unassailed.
In the fifth century there appear in North Britain two
powerful and distinct tribes, who are not before named in
history. These were the Picts and Scots.
I. The name of the former people has caused much, but
seemingly unnecessary, speculation. The Picts seem to have
been that race of free Britons beyond the Roman wall who
retained the habit of staining the body when going into bat-
tle, and were called by the Romans and Roman colonists the
Painted Men, a name which, at first applied to particular
tribes, superseded at last the former national name of Cale-
donians. These people inhabited the eastern shores of Scot-
land, as far south as the Firth of Forth, and as far north as
the island extended. Claudin proves that these natives act-
ually followed the custom of painting their bodies, as implied
by the expression nee falso nomine Pictos — "nor falsely
termed the Picts." There can be little doubt that, though
descendants of the ancient British Caledonians, and there-
fore Celts by origin, the Picts were mingled with settlers
from the north, of Gothic name, descent, and language.
The erratic habits of the Scandinavians render this highly
probable.
II. The Scots, on the other hand, were of Irish origin;
for, to the great confusion of ancient history, the inhabitants
of Ireland, those at least of the conquering and predominat-
ing caste, were called Scots. A colony of these Irish Scots,
distinguished by the name of Dalriads or Dalreudini, natives
of Ulster, had early attempted a settlement on the coast of
Argyleshire : they finally established themselves there under
Fergus, the son of Eric, about the year 503, and, recruited
by colonies from Ulster, continued to multiply and increase
until they formed a nation which occupied the western side
of Scotland, and came to border on a people with a name,
80 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
and perhaps a descent, similar to their own. These were the
Attacotti, a nation inhabiting the northern part of Lanark-
shire and the district called Lennox, which seems ultimately
to have melted away into the Scots.
These two free nations of Picts and Scots, inhabiting, the
former the eastern, the latter the western, shores of North
Britain, appear to have resembled each other in manners
and ferocity, and to have exercised the last quality without
scruple on the Roman colonists. Both nations, like the
Irish, converted their shaggy and matted hair into a spe-
cies of natural head-dress, which served either for helmet
or mask, as was deemed necessary. Their weapons were
light javelins, swords of unwieldy length, and shields made
of wickerwork or hides. Their houses were constructed of
wattles, or in more dangerous times they burrowed under
ground in long, narrow, tortuous excavations, which still
exist, and the idea of which seems to have been suggested
by a rabbit-warren. The Picts had some skill in construct-
ing rude strongholds, surrounded by a rampart of loose
stones. They had also some knowledge of agriculture.
The Scots, who lived in a mountainous country, subsisted
almost entirely on the produce of the chase, and that of
their flocks and herds. Their worship might be termed
that of demons, since the imaginary beings whom they
adored were the personification of their own evil pursuits
and passions. War was their sole pursuit, slaughter their
chief delight; and it was no wonder they worshipped the
imaginary god of battle with barbarous and inhuman rites.
Even over these wild people, inhabiting a country as
savage as themselves, the Sun of Righteousness arose with
healing under his wings. Good men, on whom the name
of saint (while not used in a superstitious sense) was justly
bestowed, to whom life and the pleasures of this world were
as nothing, so they could call souls to Christianity, under-
took and succeeded in the perilous task of enlightening these
savages. Religion, though it did not at first change the man-
ners of nations waxed old in barbarism, failed not to intro-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 21
duce those institutions on which rest the dignity and happi-
ness of social life. The law of marriage was established
among them, and all the brutalizing evils of polygamy gave
place to the consequences of a union which tends most di-
rectly to separate the human from the brute species. The
abolition of idolatrous ceremonies took away many bloody
and brutalizing practices ; and the Gospel, like the grain of
mustard-seed, grew and nourished in noiseless increase, in-
sinuating into men's hearts the blessings inseparable from
its influence.
Such were the nations to which the Britons whom Rome
had colonized were exposed by the retreat of those who were
at once their masters and protectors, and these two fierce
races inhabited the greater part of the country now called
Scotland.
The retreat of the Romans left the British provincialists
totally defenceless. Their parting exhortation to them to
stand to their own defence, and their affectation of having,
by abandoning the island, restored them to freedom, were as
cruel as it would be to dismiss a domesticated bird or animal
to shift for itself, after having been from its birth fed and
supplied by the hand of man. The Scots and Picts rushed
against the Roman bulwark, when no longer defended by
Romans ; it was stormed from the land by the barbarians,
or the barrier was surrounded by turning the extremities of
it with naval expeditions. Persecuted in every quarter, and
reduced to absolute despair, the provincial Britons called in
the Saxons to their aid about two years after the Romans
had left the island.
The Saxons were of Gothic descent, and to courage equal
to that of the North Briton tribes they added better arms and
a formidable discipline. They drove back both Scots and
Picts within their own limits, and even made considerable
additions of territory at their expense. Ida, one of those
northern worshippers of Odin who erected the kingdoms of
the heptarchy, landed in 547, and founded that of North-
umberland. Subduing or bringing under voluntary obedi-
353 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
ence a part of the Picts who had formed settlements on the
southern side of the Firth of Forth, this prince added for
the time to an English sceptre the districts of lower Teviot-
dale and Berwickshire, as well as all the three Lothians,
excepting some part of the western county so named.
Thus the country now called Scotland was divided be-
tween five nations, which we shall recapitulate. 1. The
Irish Scots held all the mountainous district, now called
Argyleshire, as far as the mouth of the Clyde. 2. The
country called Clydesdale, with Peebleshire, Selkirkshire,
and the upper parts of Roxburghshire, bordered on the
south by Cumberland, forming what was anciently entitled
the kingdom of Strath-Clyde, was inhabited by the descend-
ants of the British colonists, who were hence called Britons.
3. Galloway, comprehending most part of Ayrshire, was in-
habited by a mixed race, partly Scots settlers from Ireland
of a different stock from that of the Dalriads or Irish Scots
of Argyleshire, partly Picts who had acquired possessions
among them. Hence the Galwegians are sometimes called
the wild Scots of Galloway. 4. The most numerous people
in Scotland, as thus subdivided, seem to have been the Picts.
The successes of the Saxons had, indeed, driven them as a
nation from Lothian, and their possession of Galwegia was,
as just noticed, only partial. But they possessed Fife and
Angus, Stirling, and Perthshire: more north of this they
held all the northeastern counties, though in Moray, Caith-
ness, and Sutherland, there were settlements of Scandina-
vians in a state of independence. 5. Lastly, the Saxons of
Northumberland had extended their kingdom to the Firth
of Forth: so that Ida, a Saxon, occupied the March, Tev-
iotdale as high as Melrose, and the three Lothians, which
afterward became and are now accounted integral parts of
Scotland. The Saxons retained possession of these five prov-
inces under several kings, and especially under Edwin, who
founded near the shores of the Forth the castle called from
his name Edwinsburgh, now Edinburgh, the capital of the
Scottish kingdom; this was posterior to 617. In 685 a check
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 23
was given to the encroachment of the Saxons by the slaugh-
ter and defeat of their king Egfrid at the battle of Drum-
nechtan, probably Dunnichen ; and the district south of the
Forth was repeatedly the scene of severe battles between
the Picts and Northumbrians, the latter striving to hold, the
former to regain, these fertile provinces.
A much more important struggle than that between the
Saxons and Picts was maintained between the latter nation
and the Scoto-Irish inhabiting, as we have seen, the west-
ern, as the Picts held the eastern side of the island. It was,
indeed, evident that until these two large portions of North
Britain should be united under one government, the security
of the country against foreign invaders was not to be relied
on. After many desperate battles, much effusion of blood,
and a merciless devastation of both countries, some measures
seem to have been taken for settling a lasting peace between
these contending nations. Urgaria, sister of Ungus, king of
Picts, was married to Aycha IV., king of Scots, and their son
Alpine, succeeding his father as king of Scots, flourished
from 833 to 836, in which last year he was slain, urging
Borne contests in Galloway. The Pictish throne, thus thrown
open for want of an heir male, was claimed by Kenneth, son
and successor of Alpine, who, as descended of Urgaria, the
sister of Ungus, urged his right of inheritance with an army.
Wrad, the last of the Pictish monarchs, died at Forteviot, in
842, fighting in defence of his capital and kingdom, and the
Pictish people were subdued. Tradition and ancient history
combine in representing Kenneth, when victorious, as extir-
pating the whole race of Picts, which we must consider as
an exaggeration. More modern authors, shocked at the im-
probability of such an incident, have softened it down by
supposing that, on the death of "Wrad, Kenneth occupied the
Pictish throne by inheritance, as lawful heir in right of his
grandmother Urgaria. But it is a great bar to this modified
opinion, that from the time of Kenneth Macalpine's victory
over Wrad, no more is spoken in Scottish history of the
Pictish people or the Pictish crown ; while the king of Scots
24 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
and his nation engross the whole space, which before the
subjugation was occupied by both nations. In a word, so
complete must have been the revolution, that the very lan-
guage of the Picts is lost, and what dialect they spoke is a
subject of doubt to antiquarians. It was probably Celtic,
with a strong tinge of Gothic.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 25
CHAPTER II
Kenneth Macalpine: his Successors — Malcolm I. obtains possession
of Cumberland: Successors of Malcolm — Kenneth III., and his
Successors — Malcolm II.
WHEN Kenneth Macalpine joined in his person the
crowns both of the Picts and Scots, he became an
adversary fit to meet and match with the warlike
Saxons. The country united under his sway was then called
for the first time Scotland, which name it has ever since re-
tained. He strove fiercely to carry his banner of the Dalriads
into Lothian, of which he perhaps vindicated the sovereignty,
as the contested country had been part of the territory of the
Picts till wrested from them by Ida. It is besides recorded
of Kenneth Macalpine that he was a legislator ; which may
be doubtless true, although the laws published as his are
forgeries.
Kenneth might be justly termed the first king of Scot-
land, being the first who possessed such a territory as had
title to be termed a kingdom, since it would be absurd to
bestow the term of sovereigns upon the Scoto-Irish chiefs of
Argyleshire, in whose obscure genealogy historians must,
however, trace the original roots of the royal line.
Not to incur the charge of Uze majesty however, brought
by Sir George Mackenzie, the king's advocate of the day,
against Dr. Stillingfleet, for abridging the royal pedigree by
some links, we will briefly record that by the best authorities
twenty-eight of these Dalriadic kings or chiefs reigned suc-
cessively in Argyleshire, where the old tower of Dunstaff-
nage is said to have been their chief residence. Kenneth
Macalpine was the twenty-ninth in descent from Fergus the
son of Eric, the first of the race.
The descendants of this fortunate prince pass us in gloomy
'i'V Vol. I.
26 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
and obscure pageantry, like those of Banquo on the theatre.
In mentioning their names, we shall only take notice of such
incidents in their several reigns as are necessary either to
illustrate the future history of Scotland, or the manners of
the period of which we treat. We shall thus avoid the dis-
gusting task of recording obscure and ferocious contests,
fought by leaders with unpronounceable names, from which
the reader, to use the expression of Milton on a similar occa-
sion, gains no more valuable information than if he were
perusing the events of a war maintained between kites and
crows.
In 859, Kenneth was succeeded by his brother Donald;
for the mode of inheritance both in the Scottish and Pictish
royal families was favorable to nepotical succession, and the
brother of a deceased monarch was often called to the crown
in preference to the son, in order, it may be supposed, to
escape the inconvenience of frequent minorities. Of Donald
there is nothing to be said, and of his nephew Constantine,
son of Kenneth, very little. The latter died defending his
territories against an invasion of the Danes, who were now
the curse of the age; or, if tradition be believed, he was
made prisoner while alive, and sacrificed in a cave on the
seacoast in the parish of Crail, to the manes of the Danish
leader, who had fallen in the fray. The successors of Con-
stantine were Aodh, Eocha, and Grig, who reigned jointly;
after them reigned a Donald, called the fourth ; and a third
Constantine. Of the four first it is only necessary to say,
that their reigns displayed the same scenes of blood and
slaughter, with the same unsatisfactory result, which dis-
gust us in the annals of the period. Constantine the Third
is only remarkable for having confederated with the sea-
king Anlaf to invade England, and shared the defeat which
the Norsemen received from Athelstane, at the great battle
of Brunnanburgh. Escaped from the slaughter of that
bloody day, in which he lost a gallant son, Constantine
retired into a cloister, and became a chief of Culdees, in
the fortieth year of his reign, 952.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 27
Malcolm, the first of a name that is famous in Scottish
annals, enlarged his territories by a valuable acquisition.
We have not yet had occasion to mention that, opposite
to the British kingdom of Strath-Clyde, there lay another
kingdom of the same nation called Reged, also consisting
of British tribes, and much renowned in the lays of their
bards.
This separate state, consisting of Cumberland and West-
moreland, made a stout resistance to the foreigners; nor
were the Saxon princes of the period ever able thoroughly to
subdue them. Edmund the Elder, of England, wasted this
little kingdom by way of punishing its insubordination; he
put out the eyes of the five sons of Dunmail, its last British
king, and bestowed the territory on Malcolm, king of Scots,
on condition that he should become his ally, and assist him
by sea and land in defence of his kingdom. Thus by a
singular anomaly, while England was in possession of the
Lothians, at present an indubitable part of Scotland, the
king of Scots possessed Cumberland and Westmoreland,
now an undisputed part of the territories of England.
Of the reigns of Indulf and Duff, princes who succeeded
Malcolm, little is known. But the death of Culen, the third
successor of Malcolm, proves the curious fact, that the Brit-
ons of Strath-Clyde were still independent. The violation
of a British maiden of royal birth gave occasion to a war
between them and the Scots. The Britons were victorious,
and Culen fell in the year 970.
Kenneth III., son of Malcolm I., succeeded to the Scot-
tish throne. He subjected to his sway the Britons of Strath-
Clyde, and thus added materially to the strength of his king-
dom. It appears, however, that Strath-Clyde was governed
by separate though tributary princes for some time after it
was joined to the realm of Scotland. In the reign of this
prince the Danes entered the Firth of Tay with a large fleet.
They were met by the Scottish king, and a decisive battle
took place at Loncarty. The Danes fought with their accus-
tomed fury, and compelled the two Scottish wings to retire
28 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
behind the centre, which, commanded by Kenneth in person,
stood firm, and decided the fate of the day. Monumental
stones, barrows filled with the relics and arms of those who
fell, attest the truth of this battle, remembered yet for
the obstinacy with which it was fought, notwithstanding
which some historians have affected incredulity on the
subject.
Kenneth III. came to his end by female treachery. He
had put to death the only son of Fenella, wife of the maor-
mor or viceroy of Kincardineshire. Fenella, though the
execution had been a deserved one, did not the less readily
determine on revenging her son's death. She invited Ken-
neth to lodge in her house near Fettercairn in the Mearns :
here he was assassinated. The inhospitable murderess es-
caped from her castle (of which the vestiges are still visi-
ble) down a valley, still called Strath-Fenella, to a place
in the parish of Fordun, where she was seized and put
to death.
The sons of two of Kenneth the Third's predecessors
strove for the Scottish crown. One of these was Constan-
tino IV., son of Culen, who assumed the title of king, but
was defeated and slain in 995 by Kenneth IV., son of Duff,
called the Grim. He was in turn dethroned and slain by
Malcolm, son of Kenneth the Third, after eight years spent
in broils and bloodshed. This was in 1003.
The victor, Malcolm II., was an able prince and renowned
leader. He had much trouble from invasions of the Danes.
In 1010 they made a descent upon Moray, and the king of
Scots met them in battle. The fury of the Northmen pre-
vailed, and the Scots retreated to the vicinity of a chapel
dedicated to Saint Moloch. Here Malcolm, in despair of
earthly aid, threw himself from his horse, and made a vow
to found a cathedral church to the same tutelar power (how-
ever ambiguous the sound of his name) provided he should
obtain the victory by his intercession. Rising from his
knees, Malcolm fought with enthusiasm, slew the Danish
king, and gained a complete victory. The church, dedicated
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 29
to Saint Moloch, was built, and is still standing. Twenty-
three feet is said to have been selected for the length of the
chancel, that it might correspond with that of the king's
gigantic spear, for so ran an article of his vow. Several
Danish skulls, the relics of distinguished champions, were
built up in the wall of the church of Mortlach. Sueno, the
Danish monarch, renewed the attempt at invasion by de-
taching a fleet and army under Camus, one of the most
renowned of the vikingar, or kings of the ocean; but he was
defeated and slain at Aberlemno, where a tall monumental
stone, highly sculptured, still preserves remembrance of the
action.
Sueno, disheartened by so many defeats, seems to have
entered into some convention with Malcolm II. for abstain-
ing from future invasion, and abandoning a species of castle
which he had established in Moray called the Burgh-head.
It was highly to the honor both of prince and people, that
these northern warriors, who successfully annoyed the sea-
coasts of every other country in Europe, and had established
a Danish dynasty on the throne of England, were taught by
successive defeats to shun the fatal shores of Scotland. It
was, probably, the renown attendant on the victories over
the Danes, as well as a successful campaign against the
Saxons, which gained to Malcolm a large and valuable
accession to his territories. Eadulf-Cudel, earl of Northum-
berland, in 1020 ceded to the Scottish king the rich district
of Lothene or Lothian, including not only the whole of the
three provinces now called so, but Berwickshire and the
lower part of Teviotdale as high perhaps as Melrose upon
the Tweed. The condition of this cession was lasting friend-
ship, afterward apparently explained into homage, which
the Scottish kings certainly paid for this district of Lothian
as well as for other possessions in England, to the sovereigns
of that country.
Malcolm died peaceably in 1033, and was succeeded by
"The gracious Duncan," the same who fell by the poniard
of Macbeth. On reading these names, every reader must
SO HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
feel as if brought from darkness into the blaze of noonday j
so familiar are we with the personages whom we last named,
and so clearly and distinctly we recall the events in which
they are interested, in comparison with any doubtful and
misty views which we can form of the twilight times before
and after that fortunate period. But we must not be blinded
by our poetical enthusiasm, nor add more than due impor-
tance to legends, because they have been woven into the
most striking tale of ambition and remorse that ever struck
awe into a human bosom. The genius of Shakespeare hav-
ing found the tale of Macbeth in the Scottish chronicles
of Holinshed, adorned it with a lustre similar to that with
which a level beam of the sun often invests some fragment
of glass, which, though shining at a distance with the lustre
of a diamond, is by a near investigation discovered to be of
no worth or estimation.
Duncan, by his mother Beatrice a grandson of Malcolm
II. j succeeded to the throne on his grandfather's death, in
1033: he reigned only six years. Macbeth, his near rela-
tion, also a grandchild of Malcolm II., though by the moth-
er's side, was stirred up by ambition to contest the throne
with the possessor. The lady of Macbeth also, whose real
name was Graoch, had deadly injuries to avenge on the
reigning prince. She was the granddaughter of Kenneth
IV., killed in 1003, fighting against Malcolm II. ; and other
causes for revenge animated the mind of her who has been
since painted as the sternest of women. The old annalists
add some instigations of a supernatural kind to the influ-
ence of a vindictive woman over an ambitious husband.
Three women, of more than human stature and beauty,
appeared to Macbeth in a dream or vision, and hailed him
successively by the titles of thane of Cromarty, thane of
Moray, which the king afterward bestowed on him, and
finally by that of king of Scots : this dream, it is said, in-
spired him with the seductive hopes so well expressed in the
drama.
Macbeth broke no law of hospitality in his attempt on
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 31
Duncan's life. He attacked and slew the king at a place
called Bothgowan, or the Smith's House, near Elgin, in
1039, and not, as has been supposed, in his own castle of
Inverness. The act was bloody, as was the complexion
of the times; but, in very truth, the claim of Macbeth to
the throne, according to the rule of Scottish succession, was
better than that of Duncan. As a king, the tyrant so much
exclaimed against was, in reality, a firm, just, and equitable
prince.
Apprehensions of danger from a party which Malcolm,
the eldest son of the slaughtered Duncan, had set on foot
in Northumberland, and still maintained in Scotland, seem,
in process of time, to have soured the temper of Macbeth,
and rendered him formidable to his nobility. Against Mac-
duff, in particular, the powerful maormor of Fife, he had
uttered some threats which occasioned that chief to fly from
the court of Scotland. Urged by this new counsellor, Si ward,
the Danish earl of Northumberland, invaded Scotland in the
year 1054, displaying his banner in behalf of the banished
Malcolm. Macbeth engaged the foe in the neighborhood
of his celebrated castle of Dunsinane. He was defeated,
but escaped from the battle, and was slain at Lumphananan
in 1056.
Very slight observation will enable us to recollect how
much this simple statement differs from that of the drama,
though the plot of the latter is consistent enough with the
inaccurate historians from whom Shakespeare drew his
materials. It might be added, that early authorities show
us no such persons as Banquo and his son Fleance, nor have
we reason to think that the latter ever fled further from
Macbeth than across the flat scene, according to the stage
direction. Neither were Banquo nor his son ancestors of
the house of Stuart. All these things are now known ; but
the mind retains pertinaciously the impression made by the
impositions of genius. While the works of Shakespeare are
read, and the English language subsists, History may say
what she will, but the general reader will only recollect
32 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Macbeth as a sacrilegious usurper, and Richard as a de-
formed murderer.
Macbeth left a son, named Luach, which is translated
fatuuS) or the simple. After a few months' struggle, he
was defeated and slain at Essie, in Strath-Bogie.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 33
CHAPTER III
Malcolm III., called Cean-raohr — Foreigners seek Refuge in Scot-
land: kindly received by the King and by his Wife — The King's
Affection for Margaret — Death of Malcolm and Margaret —
Donald Bane — Duncan — Edgar — Alexander I. — David I. — Bat-
tle of Northallerton — David's Death— His Beneficence to the
Church— His Character as a Sovereign
M
ALCOLM III., son of Duncan, called Cean-mokr, or
Great-head, from the misproportioned size of that
part of his body, ascended the Scottish throne in
1056. He was a prince of valor and talent, and, having
been bred in the school of adversity, had profited by the
lessons taught in that stern seminary. His long residence
in the north of England must necessarily have given him
means of acquiring more information than if he had remained
during his youth with his ignorant subjects. In his reign,
too, a more steady light begins to dawn on Scottish history ;
rather, however, from the English annals than from any
that are proper to the kingdom itself. Malcolm had resided
long in England ; he had probably visited the capital during
the time of Edward the Confessor, to whom he had been
indebted for relief and protection. His habits and attach-
ments led him to keep up a correspondence with that coun-
try; and, excepting the Scottish short and hasty incursion
into Northumberland in 1061, nothing occurred during the
Saxon dynasty in England which could infringe the good
understanding between what may be called from this period
the sister kingdoms. The death of Edward the Confessor
somewhat shook this state of amity. Malcolm appears to
have been more indifferent to the friendship of his successor,
Harold, since, in 1066, he received into Scotland Tostigh,
34 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
brother to the English king, then hatching a conspiracy,
and projecting an invasion of Harold's territories. Tostigh
united with the king of Norway, and both were slain next
summer at the battle of Stamford Bridge.
The conquest of England by the Normans sent other
fugitives into Scotland, who emigrated in consequence of
the general change of possession occasioned by so great a
revolution. The most distinguished of these were Edgar
Atheling of England, the heir of the Confessor's race, with
his sister Margaret, one of the fairest and most accomplished
maidens in England, and who, considering that her brother
was weak both in mind and body, might be looked apon as
the hope of the Saxon royal line, so dear to the English
nation. Edgar Atheling was also accompanied in his flight
by his mother and a younger sister. Malcolm espoused the
princess Margaret, about 1067.
Allied to the Saxon royal family by this match, the king
of Scots engaged in a league against "William the Conqueror
with some discontented lords in Northumberland, and with
the Danes. The Danes, however, were repulsed, and the
Northumbrian conspirators dispersed, before Malcolm took
the field, in 1070. Exasperated by some retaliation on his
own frontiers, he swept the bishopric of Durham and adja-
cent parts with such severity, and drove away so great a
number of captives, that for many years afterward English
slaves were to be found in every hamlet and hut in Scot-
land.
The revenge of the Conqueror operated an effect similar
to that of the wrath of Malcolm. To be avenged of the
rebellious Northumbrians, William ravaged the country with
a fury which laid utterly waste the fertile possessions between
the Humber and Tees. So dolefully was the face of the coun-
try changed, says William of Malmesbury, that a stranger
would have wept over it, and an ancient inhabitant would
not have recognized it. Many thousands of the lower orders,
and also a considerable number both of Anglo-Saxons and
Normans of condition, who had incurred the wrath of the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 35
Conqueror "William, so easy to awake, and so difficult to
appease, retired into Scotland as the best place of refuge.
Malcolm, sensible of the value of the Norman chivalry,
received both them and the English with distinction, and
conferred offices, honors, and estates upon them with no
sparing hand. For example, he gave refuge to the Earl of
March, who, by a corruption of his name and title (Comes
Patricius), was called Gosspatrick, when he was banished
from England. To this powerful baron Malcolm committed
the castle of Dunbar, which might be called the second and
inner gate of Scotland, supposing the strong town of Ber-
wick to be the first. The example is only one out of many
instances in which this Scottish monarch displayed his con-
fidence in the Normans, and his desire to engage in his ser-
vice distinguished persons of that redoubted nation, who, in
that age, possessed the highest character for military skill
and invincible valor.
The course which Malcolm Cean-mohr pursued from po-
litical prudence was forwarded by his royal consort from
love to her native country, joined to the dictates of female
sympathy with misfortune. She did all in her power, and
influenced as far as possible the mind of her husband, to
relieve the distresses of her Saxon countrymen, of high or
low degree; assuaged their afflictions, and was zealous in
protecting those who had been involved in the ruin which
the battle of Hastings brought on the royal house of Edward
the Confessor. The gentleness and mildness of temper proper
to this amiable woman, probably also the experience of her
prudence and good sense, had great weight with Malcolm,
who, though preserving a portion of the ire and ferocity
belonging to the king of a wild people, was far from being
insensible to the suggestions of his amiable consort. He
stooped his mind to hers on religious matters, adorned her
favorite books of devotion with rich bindings, and was often
seen to kiss and pay respect to the volumes which he was
unable to read. He acted also as interpreter to Margaret,
when she endeavored to enlighten the Scottish clergy upon
36 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the proper time of celebrating Easter; and though we can-
not attach much consequence to the issue of this polemical
controversy, which terminated, of course, in favor of the
cause adopted by the fair pleader and the royal interpreter,
yet it is a pleasing picture of conjugal affection laboring
jointly for the instruction of a barbarous people; nor can
we doubt that its influence was felt in more material cir-
cumstances than the precise question at issue.
After the death of "William the Conqueror, and the ac-
cession of William Rufus, various subjects of quarrel and
mutual incursions took place betwixt England and Scotland.
The general cause of dispute related to the terms on which
Malcolm was to possess Cumberland and Northumberland.
These provinces, as already mentioned, had been ceded, the
first by the Saxon king Edgar, the second by a Northum-
brian earl, to the Scottish crown, under condition of close
alliance and neighborly assistance. The introduction of
feudal holdings substituted the homage and fealty of an
inferior prince to a lord paramount, instead of the loose
stipulation of friendship and occasional assistance. These
feudal conditions could only apply to the provinces of Loth-
ian, including Berwickshire and part of Teviotdale, to North-
umberland, and to Cumberland. In the first of these prov-
inces Malcolm, who, crossing the Firth of Forth, frequently
resided there, had established a fixed and permanent author-
ity. In the two English counties his tenure and his influ-
ence on the affections of the subjects were much less decided.
In 1080 William Rufus built the fortress of Newcastle, and
in 1092 that of Carlisle, both necessarily tending to bridle
and render insecure the possessions of the Scottish king in
the two northern counties. The question of homage was
fiercely agitated at this early period, as in subsequent gen-
erations, and usually arranged upon general terms, or, ac-
cording to the legal phrase, salvo jure cujuslibet.
These heart-burnings were terminated by the death of
Malcolm Cean-mohr. This enterprising prince made a hasty
incursion into England, and besieged Alnwick with a tu-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 37
multuary army. The circumstance that a fortress so near
the frontiers was not in his possession argues how imper-
fect was his authority in Northumberland. While thus
employed, he was surprised by Roger de Mowbray, a Nor-
man baron, at the head of a considerable force, and an
action ensued, on the 13th November, 1093, in which Mal-
colm Cean-mohr fell, with his eldest son. Queen Margaret,
much indisposed at the time, only lived to hear the event,
and express her resignation to the will of God. She died on
the 16th November, on receiving the fatal tidings.
After her death, Margaret was received into the Romish
calendar. A legend of a well-imagined miracle narrates that
when it was proposed to remove the body of the new saint
to a tomb of more distinction, it was found impossible to lift
it until that of her husband had received the same honor, as
if in her state of beatitude Margaret had been guided by the
same feelings of conjugal deference and affection which had
regulated this excellent woman's conduct while on earth.
The character of Malcolm Cean-mohr himself stands high,
if his situation and opportunities be considered. He was a
man of undaunted courage and generosity. A nobleman of
his court had engaged to assassinate him. The circumstance
became known to the king, who, during the amusement of
a hunting-match, drew the conspirator into a solitary glade
of the forest, upbraided him with his traitorous intentions,
and defied him to mortal and equal combat. The assassin,
surprised at this act of generosity, threw himself at the king's
feet, confessed his meditated crime, his present repentance,
and vowed fidelity for the future. The king trusted him as
before, and had no reason to repent of his manly conduct.
This story seems to show that Malcolm, the protector and
friend of the chivalrous Normans, had caught a portion of
that spirit of knightly honor and high-souled generosity
which they contributed so much to spread throughout
Europe.
A very improbable legend asserts that Malcolm formally
introduced the feudal system into Scotland. It is circum-
88 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
stantially alleged that he summoned all the Scottish nobil-
ity to meet him at Scone, and that each bringing with him,
as directed, a handful of earth from his lands, surrendered
them by that symbol to the king, who granted charters of
them anew to each proprietor, under the form of feudal in-
vestiture. The Moot Hill of Scone, or place of justice, called
Mo ns placiti, is said to be composed of these symbols of sur-
render, and thence called omnis terra. This legend is totally
incredible. But if Malcolm did not, as indeed he probably
could not, change the laws of his whole kingdom, by alter-
ing in every case the tenure on which property was held,
there is no doubt that, by various grants in particular in-
stances, he contributed to introduce into Scotland the cus-
tom of feudal investitures. It was a system agreeable to
the prince, to whom it attributed the flattering character of
superior, paramount, or original proprietor of the lands of
the whole kingdom. It was agreeable also to the Normans
whom he attracted to his court. These attached security to
a royal charter, and felt that they increased their personal
consequence, by obtaining the power of granting lands which
they could not occupy to sub-vassals, who should hold of
them, under terms of service similar to those by which they
themselves held their estates from the crown. The feudal
system was also the established law of France and England,
to which the Scottish monarch would naturally look for the
means of improving the rude institutions of his native coun-
try. Although, therefore, feudal law certainly was not in-
troduced by Malcolm Cean-mohr, we may conclude that
Scotland was in his time first prepared to receive it by de-
tached instances, and the gradual operation of concurring
circumstances.
Malcolm Cean-mohr at his death left a family under age,
but was succeeded by his brother Donald Bane, a wild Scot,
who, flying to the Hebrides on the death of their father
Duncan, does not appear to have visited his brother Mal-
colm at any period of his reign, or partaken in any of the
novelties which he had introduced. He hurried to Scotland
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 39
on his brother's decease, and, by the assistance of an army
of western islanders, took possession of the crown, to the
prejudice of his brother's children. This rough chieftain
was welcomed by many of the northern Scots, who were
jealous of the innovations of Malcolm and his preference
of strangers.
The first edict of Donald Bane was a sentence of banish-
ment against all foreigners ; a brutal attempt to bring back
all Scotland to the savage state of Argyle and the Hebrides.
It is seldom, however, that civilization, having once made
some progress, can be compelled to retrograde, unless when
knowledge is united with corruption and effeminacy. Don-
ald Bane had no permanent triumph. In 1094, Duncan, a
base-born son of the late king, collected a numerous force
of English and Normans, and, driving Donald Bane back
among the Red-shanks, took possession of his throne;
whether in his own right, or as regent for the lawful fam-
ily of Malcolm, is uncertain. After having held the sceptre,
proper or delegated, for a year, Edmund, his half-brother,
the second of the legitimate children of Malcolm Cean-mohr
(the first being a priest), procured the assassination of Dun-
can, by an earl of the Mearns, and replaced Donald Bane on
the throne, in consequence of a treaty, by which he became
bound to share the kingdom with Edmund.
Donald Bane, thus again enthroned, resumed his purpose
of destroying what his brother Malcolm had accomplished
for civilizing Scotland, and expelled anew the foreigners
from his kingdom. This produced a fresh revolution. In
1098, Edgar, the third son of Malcolm and of the amiable
Margaret, being favored by "William Rufus, received succors
from England, and making himself master of his uncle Don-
ald Bane's person, imprisoned him, and put out his eyes.
Edmund, who had been the author of this second usurpa-
tion of Donald Bane, was imprisoned, and in token of peni-
tence for the guilt he had incurred by his accession to the
murder of Duncan, ordered the fetters which he had worn
in his dungeon to be buried with him in his coffin. Not-
40 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
withstanding his cruelty to his aged uncle, the character of
Edgar seems to have been equitable and humane. He kept
peace with England ; and the amity between the kingdoms
was strengthened by Henry I., called Beauclerc, becoming
the husband of Matilda, the sister of Edgar. Edgar died in
1106, after an undisturbed reign of about nine years.
Alexander I. succeeded as next brother of Edgar. His
reign is chiefly remarkable for the determined struggle which
he made in defence of the independence of the Church of Scot-
land. This was maintained against the archbishops of Can-
terbury and York, each of whom claimed a spiritual superi-
ority over Scotland, and a right to consecrate the archbishop
of St. Andrew's, the primate of that kingdom. Notwith-
standing the hostile interference of the pope, Alexander,
with considerable address, contrived to play off the contra-
dictory pretensions of the two English archbishops against
each other, and thus to evade complying with either. Of
Alexander's personal character we can only judge from the
epithet of the fierce, which referred probably to his own
temper and manners, since assuredly his reign was peace-
ful. He died 1124.
Alexander was succeeded by David I., youngest son of
Malcolm Cean-mohr, and a monarch of great talents. He
was free from the ignorant barbarity of his countrymen,
having been educated, during his youth, at the court of
Henry I., the celebrated Beauclerc, his sister's husband.
David had entered into the views of that wise monarch
touching his succession, and had sworn to maintain the
right of Henry's daughter, the Empress Matilda, the well-
known Queen Maud of the English chroniclers, to the king-
dom of England. Accordingly he asserted her title in 1135,
and when, upon the death of Henry, Stephen, earl of Mor-
tagne, usurped the throne of England, the Scottish king
commenced war for the purpose of displacing him. But the
forces of David I. were of a character unusually tumultuary,
and afforded a curious specimen of the miscellaneous tribes
which, long mixing without incorporating, at length formed
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 41
the source from which the Scottish people of modern times
derive their descent. ' ' That accursed army, ' ' says the monk-
ish chronicler, so stigmatizing David's troops on account of
their horrible excesses, "consisted of Normans, Germans, and
English, of Cumbrian Britons, of Northumbrians, of men of
Teviotdale and Lothian, of Picts, commonly called men of
Galloway, and of Scots." Differing from each other in cus-
toms, and in a certain measure in language, these various
nations seem only to have agreed in the general use of the
utmost license and cruelty, which the English historians
candidly admit was restrained as much as possible by the
regulations of their monarch.
Stephen marched northward to repel David and his mis-
cellaneous host ; but the war languished, and gave place to
a succession of truces and hollow treaties, which were made
and broken without much ceremony. The parties were, per-
haps, more equally balanced than a Scottish and an English
king had been either before or after. The want of discipline
in David's army was compensated by the treachery subsist-
ing in that of Stephen, which every now and then showed
itself by the revolt of some of his barons. Stephen tried to
obtain peace with Scotland by surrender of the open country
in Northumberland and Cumberland, retaining, however,
the castles and strong places, by means of which the ter-
ritory which he now ceded could, in a more favorable mo-
ment, be speedily recovered. David was awake to this pol-
icy, and, well aware his single force was unequal to placing
Matilda on the throne, he, with the usual policy of auxilia-
ries, made it his object to gain what enlargement of territo-
ries he could, either by conquest or cession, though the price
should be his forsaking the cause in which he had taken
up arms. For this purpose, he invaded Northumberland, in
1138, at a time when Stephen was so hard pressed in the
south that he was compelled to abandon the northern barons
to their own defence. These brave men, however, despised
submission to an invader; or, whatever deference some of
them might be disposed to render to the king of Scots' per-
42 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
sonal merits, the atrocities of the Galwegians and other
barbarous tribes in David's army roused every hand in oppo-
sition to such an army and its leader. Thurstan, archbishop
of York, a prelate of equal prudence and spirit, summoned
a convention of the English northern barons, and exhorted
them to determined resistance. Age and boyhood were
called to the combat. Roger de Mowbray, almost a child,
was brought to the English host, and placed at the head of
his numerous vassals. Walter l'Espec, an aged baron of
great fame in war, was chosen general-in-chief . A standard
was erected in the camp, being the mast of a ship fixed on a
four-wheeled carriage, from which were displayed the ban-
ners of Saint Peter of York, Saint John of Beverley, and
Saint Wilfred of Rippon. On the top, and surrounded by
these ensigns, was a casket or pyx, containing a consecrated
host. The displaying of this standard served to give a sacred
character to the war, and was the more appropriate, as the
struggle was with the Galwegians, a barbarous people, as
sacrilegious as they were bloodthirsty and inhuman. With
this apparatus of religion mixed with war, the barons
advanced to Northallerton.
David had moved toward the same point, and not with-
out gaining considerable success. William, the son of that
Duncan, natural brother of David, who had expelled Donald
Bane from the Scottish throne in 1094, was a distinguished
leader in his uncle's army. He seems to have been a chief
of military talent, and was employed by David in command-
ing the Galwegians so often mentioned. On this occasion
he led a large body of these wild men into Lancashire, and
defeated a considerable English army at a place called
Clitherow, near the sources of the Ribble. From thence
William Mac Duncan conducted them to join King David
at Northallerton, loaded as they were with spoil and elated
with additional presumption.
David, thus reinforced, moved forward with such celerity
that he had wellnigh surprised the English army, who were
encamped on Cuton Moor. Robert de Bruce, an aged Nor-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 43
man baron, familiar with the king, and holding, as many
others did, lands in both kingdoms, was despatched from
the English camp to negotiate with David, at least to gain
time. This old warrior objected to the king the impolicy
and unkindness of oppressing the English and Normans,
whose arms had often supported the Scottish throne. He
argued with him upon the unchivalrous and unchristian
atrocities of his soldiers, and finally surrendering the land
which he held of David, he renounced all homage to him,
and declared himself his enemy. Bernard de Baliol, a York-
shire baron in like circumstances, made a similar renuncia-
tion and defiance. Bruce and the king wept as they parted.
William, the son of Duncan, called Bruce a false traitor.
Another characteristic scene took place in a council of
war held in the Scottish camp on the same evening, to pre-
pare for the battle of the next day. The king had deter-
mined that the action should be begun by the archers and
men-at-arms, who composed the regular strength of his
army. But the Galwegians, presumptuous from their late
success, were determined on leading the van, though it is
not easy to guess by what alleged right they supported such
a pretension. "Whence this confidence in these men cased
in mail?" said a Celtic chief, Malise, earl of Stratherne: "I
wear none ; yet will I advance further to-morrow than those
who are sheathed in steel." Alan de Percy, a natural
brother of the great baron of that name, and a follower of
David, replied that Malise said more than he would dare
to make good. David interfered to put an end to the dis-
pute, and yielded, though unwillingly, to the claim of the
Galwegians.
On the fated morning of August 22, 1138, both armies
drew up. The English were in one compact body, with
their cavalry in the rear. The Scottish army formed three
lines. In the first were the Galwegians, under their leaders,
Ulgrick and Dovenald. The second line was commanded
by David's son, Prince Henry, and consisted of the men-
at-arms and the archers, with the men of Cumberland and
44 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Teviotdale, both of the ancient stock of Britons. The men
of Lothian and the Hebrideans formed the third body ; and
a reserve, consisting of selected English and Normans, with
the Scots properly called so, and the Moray men, who were
chiefly of Scandinavian descent, completed the order of
battle. Here David himself took his station.
The English in the meantime received the blessing of the
aged Thurstan, conferred by his delegate the titular bishop
of the Orkneys, and swore to each other to be victorious
or die. The Galwegians rushed on with a hideous cry of
Albanigh! Albanigh! 1 and staggered the phalanx of spear-
men, on whom they threw themselves with incredible fury.
The severe and unremitting discharge of the English archery
was, however, unsupportable by naked men, and the Gal-
wegians were about to leave the field, when Prince Henry
came up with the Scots men-at-arms in full career, and dis-
persed "like a spider's web" that part of the English army
which was opposed to him. The Galwegians had begun to
rally, and the battle was renewed with fury, when a report
flew through both armies that David had fallen. It was in
vain that the king flew helmetless through the ranks, im-
ploring the soldiers to rally and stand by him. Order could
not be restored, and he was at length forced from the field
to secure his personal safety. The king availed himself of
the humiliation of the Galwegians to introduce some human-
ity into his army of barbarians, and to draw the reins of
discipline more tight.
It is obvious from this whole narrative that the battle of
Cuton Moor, or Northallerton, was a well-disputed, and for
some time a doubtful action ; and though its immediate con-
sequences seem less important, the remote effects of the vic-
tory decided much in favor of England. David, victorious
1 By this they meant to announce themselves as descended from the
ancient inhabitants of Scotland, called of old Albyn and Albania.
When they were repulsed, the English called in scorn, Eyrych, Eyrych,
"You are but Irish," which, indeed, must have been true of that part
of the Galwegians called the wild Scots of Galloway, who are undoubt-
edly Scotch Irish.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 45
at Cuton Moor, might have assured to himself and his pos-
terity the north of England, as far as the Trent and Humber ;
and what influential importance that must have given to a
Scottish monarch in future wars can only be matter of con-
jecture, or must rather have depended on the character and
talents of David's successors.
Even amid all the pride of victory, Stephen consented, in
1139, for the sake of peace, to surrender to Prince Henry of
Scotland the whole earldom of Northumberland, with the
exception of the castles of Newcastle and Bamborough, by
means of which the English monarch retained the means
of recovering the whole province when time should serve.
After this peace of Durham, as it was called, David appears
to have gone to London, in 1141, to share the short-lived tri-
umph of his niece Matilda. But this was the visit of a rela-
tion and friend, and not that of an ally. The Scottish king
found the royal lady ill-disposed to receive the lessons of
calmness and moderation which his experience recom-
mended, and returned to his own country in disgust,
leaving his niece to her fortunes.
In 1152 Scotland lost a treasure by the death of the in-
estimable Prince Henry. He left by Ada, an English lady
of quality, a family of three sons and as many daughters.
In the subsequent year the venerable David followed his
son. Having discharged all his duty as a man and a mon-
arch, by settling his affairs as well as the early age of his
grandchildren would permit, he was found dead in an atti-
tude of devotion, 24th May, 1153.
That extensive liberality to the Church which procured
David's admission into the ample roll of Romish saints,
made rather an unfavorable impression on his successors.
"He kythed," said James the First, "a sair saint to the
crowne." If indeed we contemplate with modern eyes the
munificent foundations of Kelso, Melrose, Holyrood House,
Jedburgh, Newbottle, Kinloss, Dryburgh, etc., we may be
disposed to consider David's liberality to the Church as
nearly allied to wasteful extravagance. But it is to be con-
46 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
sidered that the monks were the only preservers of the little
learning of the time ; that they were exclusively possessed of
the knowledge of literature, the arts of staining glass, gar-
dening, and mechanics ; that they taught religion to all, and
some touch of useful learning to the children of the nobility.
These things kept in view, it will not seem strange that a
patriot king should desire to multiply the number of com-
munities so much calculated to aid civilization. Let it be
remembered, also, that the monks were agriculturists; that
their vassals and bondmen were proverbially said to live
well under the crosier; that though these ecclesiastics are
generally alleged to have chosen the best of the land, its
present superiority is often owing to their own better skill
of cultivation. The convents, besides, afforded travellers
the only means of refuge and support which were to be
found in the country, and constituted the sole fund for the
maintenance of the poor and infirm. Lastly, as the sacred
territory gifted to the Church escaped on common occasions
the ravages of war, there seems much reason for excusing a
liberality which placed so much fertile land, with its produce,
beyond the reach of military devastation. It was, perhaps,
with this view that King David endowed so many convents
upon the borders so peculiarly exposed to suffer by war.
In other respects, the prudence and kingly virtues of
David I. are unimpeachable. Buchanan, no favorer of
royalty, has left his testimony, that the life of this monarch
affords the perfect example of a good and patriot king. He
was constant and active in the distribution of justice, was
merciful and beneficent in peace, valiant and skilful in war.
He wept over the horrors committed by his lawless armies,
and endeavored to atone for what he could not prevent, by
presents to the churches which suffered. Nay, so great was
his remorse for the crimes they had committed under his
rule, that it is said the king of Scotland entertained thoughts
of going a pilgrimage to Palestine, and dedicating the re-
mainder of his life to combating the Saracens. But he was
withheld from his purpose by a more rational consideration
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 47
of the duty he owed to his subjects. It is also recorded of
David, that, loving pleasure like other men, he was always
ready to postpone it to duty. If his hounds were drawn out,
his courser mounted, and all prepared for the enjoyment of
the chase, the voice of a poor man requiring justice at his
hand was sufficient to postpone the amusement, though the
king was passionately fond of it, until he had heard and
answered the petition of the suppliant.
In point of civilization, the character and habits of David
were highly favorable to the advance of those schemes which
his father Malcolm Cean-mohr had formed, with the assist-
ance perhaps of his sainted queen. In choosing his residence,
Malcolm had pitched upon Dunfermline, being the very
verge of his kingdom, as far as it was properly Scottish.
David, in imitation of his father, Malcolm Cean-mohr,
pushed southward across the broad firth, and was, it would
seem, the first Scottish king who sometimes resided at Edin-
burgh, which, from its strong fortress and neighboring sea-
port, was now become a place of consideration, and where
he founded the abbey of Holy Rood, afterward the royal
residence of the monarchs of Scotland. This choice of abode
placed him in frequent contact with the only province of
his kingdom in which English was constantly spoken, led
to the frequent use of that language in his court, and to
the increase of the civilization with which he had become
acquainted during his education in England.
48 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER IV
Malcolm IV. — William the Lion: his Captivity — Treaty of Falaise:
Abrogated by Richard I. — Death and Character of William —
Alexander II.: his Death
M
ALCOLM IV., at the age of twelve years, succeeded
to his excellent grandfather, David I., 1163. Being
a Celtic prince, succeeding to a people of whom the
great proportion were Celts, he was inaugurated at Scone
with the peculiar ceremonies belonging to the Scoto-Irish
race. In compliance with their ancient customs, he was
placed upon a fated stone, dedicated to this solemn use, and
brought for that purpose from Ireland by Fergus, the son
of Eric. An Iro-Scottish or Highland bard also stepped
forward, and chanted to the people a Gaelic poem, contain-
ing the catalogue of the young king's ancestors, from the
reign of the same Fergus, founder of the dynasty.* The
poem has been fortunately preserved, and must not be con-
sidered in the light of one of Gibber's birthday odes. On
the contrary, it was an exposition from the king to the
people of the royal descent, in virtue of which he claimed
their obedience, and bears a sufficiently accurate conformity
with other meagre documents on the same subject, to enable
modern antiquaries, by comparing the lists, to form a reg-
ular catalogue of these barbarous kings or kinglets of the
Dalriadic race.
1 The Celtic bard was usually a genealogist or scannachie, and the
display of his talents was often exhibited in the recital of versified pedi-
frees. In a burlesque poem, called the Howlat, such a character is in-
roduced in ridicule. It was written in the reign of James II., when all
reverence for the bardic profession was lost, at least in the lowlands.—
See the Bannatyne edition of this ancient poem.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 49
In Malcolm's reign the lords of the Hebridean islands,
who were in a state of independence, scarcely acknowledg-
ing even a nominal allegiance either to the crown of Scot-
land or that of Norway, though claimed by both countries,
began to give much annoyance to the western coasts of
Scotland, to which their light-armed galleys or birlins, and
their habits of piracy, gave great facilities. Somerled was
at this time lord of the isles, and a frequent leader in such
incursions. Peace was made with this turbulent chief in
1153; but in 1164, ten years after, Somerled was again
in arms, and fell, attempting a descent at Renfrew.
Malcolm IV. 's transactions with Henry of England were
of greater moment. Henry (second of the name) had sworn
(in 1149) that if he ever gained the English crown he would
put the Scottish king in possession of Carlisle, and of all the
country lying between Tweed and Tyne ; but, when securely
seated on the throne, instead of fulfilling his obligation, he
endeavored to deprive Malcolm of such possessions in the
northern counties as yet remained to him, forgetting his
obligations to his great-uncle David, and his relationship
to the young king his grandson. The youth and inexperi-
ence of Malcolm seem on this occasion to have been circum-
vented by the sagacity of Henry, who was besides, in point
of power, greatly superior to the young Scots prince. In-
deed, it would appear that the English sovereign had
acquired a personal influence over his kinsman, of which
his Scottish subjects had reason to be jealous. Malcolm
yielded up to Henry all his possessions in Cumberland and
Northumberland ; and when it is considered that his grand-
father David had not been able to retain them with any
secure hold, even when England was distracted with the
civil wars of Stephen and Matilda, it must be owned that
his descendant, opposed to Henry II. in his plenitude of
undisputed power, had little chance to make his claim good.
He also did homage for Lothian, to the great scandal of
Scottish historians, who, conceiving his doing so affected
the question of Scottish independence, are much disposed
3 ^ Vol. I.
50 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
to find the Lothian, for which the homage was rendered,
in Leeds or some other place, different from the real Lothian,
which they considered as an original part of Scotland. But
this arises from their entertaining the erroneous opinion that
Lothian bore, in Malcolm the Fourth's time, the same char-
acter of an integral part of Scotland which it has long exhib-
ited. Homage was done by the Scottish kings for Lothian,
simply because it had been a part or moiety of Northumber-
land, ceded by Eadulf-Cudel, a Saxon earl of Northum-
berland, to Malcolm II., on condition of amity and support
in war, for which, as feudal institutions gained ground,
feudal homage was the natural substitute and emblem. 1
Besides the cession of his Northumbrian possessions, Mal-
colm seems to have attached himself to Henry II. personally,
and to have cultivated a sort of intimacy which, when it
exists between a powerful and a weaker prince, seldom fails
to be dangerous to the independence of the latter. The
Scottish king was knighted by Henry, in 1159, and attended
and served in his campaigns in France, till he was recalled
by the formal remonstrances of his subjects, who declared
they would not permit English influence to predominate in
their councils. In 1160, Malcolm's return and presence
quelled a dissatisfaction which had wellnigh broken out
into open mutiny. He was also successful in putting down
insurrections in the detached and half-independent provinces
of Galloway and Moray. Malcolm IV. died in 1165, at the
early age of twenty-four years. Though brave in battle, he
seems from his intercourse with Henry to have been flexible
and yielding in council, to which, with some effeminacy of
exterior and shyness of manners, must be attributed his
historical epithet of Malcolm the Maiden. It could not be
owing, as alleged by monkish writers, to his strict continence,
since it is now certain that he had at least one natural son.
William, brother of Malcolm IV., succeeded him, and
was crowned in 1166. He instantly solicited from Henry
1 See page 29.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND SI
the restitution of Northumberland, and, disgusted with the
English monarch when it was refused him, opened a negotia-
tion with France, being the first authentic account of that
intercourse between the countries which an idle legend im-
putes to a league between Achay or Achaius, king of Scots,
and the celebrated Charlemagne, and by which the latter
monarch is idly said to have taken into his pay a body of
Scottish mercenaries.
The declared enemy of England, William took advantage
of the family discords of Henry II. to lend that prince's son
Richard assistance against his father. The Scottish king
obtained from the insurgent prince a grant of the earldom
of Northumberland as far as the Tyne. "Willing to merit
this munificence on the part of Richard, WilHam in 1173
invaded Northumberland without any marked success. In
the subsequent year he renewed the attempt, which termi-
nated most disastrously. The Scottish king had stationed
himself before Alnwick, a fortress fatal to his family, and
was watching the motions of the garrison, while his numer-
ous and disorderly army plundered the country. Meantime
a band of those northern barons of England, whose ancestors
had gained the battle of the standard, had arrived at New-
castle, and sallied out to scour the country. They made
about four hundred horsemen, and had ridden out upon
adventure, concealed by a heavy morning mist. A retreat
was advised, as they became uncertain of their way; but
Bernard de Baliol exclaimed, that should they all turn
bridle, he alone would go on and preserve his honor. They
advanced, accordingly, somewhat at random. The mist
suddenly cleared away, and they discovered the battlements
of Alnwick, and found themselves close to a body of about
sixty horse, with whom William, the Scottish king, was
patrolling the country. At first he took the English for a
part of his own army, and when undeceived, said boldly,
"Now shall we see who are good knights," and charged at
the head of his handful of followers. He was unhorsed and
made prisoner, with divers of his principal followers. The
52 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
northern barons, afraid of a rescue from the numerous Scot-
tish army, retreated with all speed to Newcastle, bearing with
them their royal captive. William was presented to Henry
at Northampton with his legs tied beneath the horse's belly;
unworthy usage for a captive prince, the near relation of his
victor. It should be remembered, however, that William's
interference in the domestic quarrels of his family must have
greatly incensed Henry against him, and that it was not a
time when men were scrupulous in their mode of expressing
resentment.
We may reasonably suppose that, with such vindictive
feelings toward his prisoner, Henry II. was not likely to
part with him unless upon the most severe terms. And the
loss of the king was so complete a derangement of the system
of government, as it then existed in Scotland, that the Scot-
tish nobility and clergy consented that, in order to obtain his
freedom, William should become the liegeman of Henry, and
do homage for Scotland and all his other territories. Before
this disgraceful treaty, which was concluded at Falaise in
Normandy, in December, 1174, the kings of England had not
the semblance of a right to exact homage for a single inch
of Scottish ground, Lothian alone excepted, which was ceded
to Malcolm II., as has been repeatedly mentioned, by grant
of the Northumbrian earl Eadulf . All the other component
parts of what is now termed Scotland had come to the
crown of that kingdom by right of conquest, without having
been dependent on England in any point of view. The Pict-
ish territories had been united to those of the Scots by the
victories of Kenneth Macalpine. Moray had reverted to
the Scottish crown by the success of Malcolm II. in repell-
ing the Danes. Galloway had also been reduced to the
Scottish sway without the aid or intervention of England ;
and Strath-Clyde was subjected under like circumstances.
A feudal dependence could only have been created by ces-
sion of land which had originally been English, or by restor-
ing that which had been conquered from Scotland. But
England could have no title to homage for provinces which,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 53
having never possessed, England could not cede, and having
never conquered, could not restore.
Now, however, by the treaty of Falaise, the king of
England was declared lord paramount of the whole king-
dom of Scotland; a miserable example of that impatience
which too often characterized the Scottish councils.
An attempt was made at the same time to subject the
Scottish Church to that of England, by a clause in the same
treaty, declaring that the former should be bound to the
latter in such subjection as had been due and paid of old
time, and that the English Church should enjoy that suprem-
acy which in justice she ought to possess. The Scottish
churchmen explained this provision, which was formed with
studied ambiguity, as leaving the whole question entire,
since they alleged that no supremacy had been yielded in
former times, and that none was justly due. But the civil
article of submission was more carefully worded; and the
principal castles in the realm, Eoxburgh, Berwick, Jed-
burgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling, were put in Henry's hands,
as pledges for the execution of the treaty of Falaise; while
the king's brother, David, earl of Huntingdon, and many
Scottish nobles, were surrendered as hostages to the same
effect. Homage for broad Scotland was in fact rendered at
York, according to the tenor of the treaty, and the king's
personal freedom was then obtained.
William had surrendered the independence of his kingdom
in ill-advised eagerness to recover his personal freedom ; but
he maintained with better spirit the franchises of the Church.
In a disputed election (1181) for the archbishopric of St. An-
drew's, he opposed with steadiness and constancy the induc-
tion of John, called the Scot, who was patronized by the pope,
Alexander III. The kingdom of Scotland was laid under an
Interdict ; but "William remained unshaken ; and a new pope,
willing to compromise the matter, gave way to the king's
pleasure, and recalled the excommunication. In 1188, Pope
Clement III. formally ratified the privileges of the Church of
Scotland, as a daughter of, and immediately subject to, Rome,
54 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
and declared that no sentence of excommunication should be
pronounced there save by his holiness or his legate a latere,
such legate being a Scottish subject, or one specially deputed
out of the sacred college. These were the principal transac-
tions of William's reign after his release till the death of
Henry II. of England, omitting only some savage transac-
tions in Galloway, which argued the total barbarity of the
inhabitants.
The frontier castles of Roxburgh and Berwick still re-
mained in possession of the English at the death of Henry
II. On the succession of his son, Richard Cceur de Lion, a
remarkable treaty was entered into between the kings and
nations, by which, after a personal interview with William,
at Canterbury, Richard renounced all right of superiority or
homage which had been extorted from William during his
captivity, and re-established the borders of the two king-
doms as they had been at the time of William's misfortune ;
reserving to England such homage as Malcolm, the elder
brother of William, had paid, or was bound to have ren-
dered; and thus replacing Scotland fully in the situation of
national independence resigned by the treaty of Falaise. All
claims of homage due to England before that surrender were
carefully reserved, and therefore William was still the king
of England's vassal for Lothian, for the town of Berwick,
and for whatever lands besides he possessed within the realm
of England. The stipulated compensation to be paid by Scot-
land for this ample restitution of her national freedom was
ten thousand marks sterling, a sum equal to one hundred
thousand pounds in the present day.
The inducements leading Richard to renounce the ad-
vantages which his father had acquired in the moment of
William's misfortune were manifest: 1. The generous nat-
ure of Richard probably remembered that the invasion of
Northumberland and the battle of Alnwick took place in
consequence of a treaty between William and himself; and
he might think himself obliged in honor to relieve his ally
of some part, at least, of the ill consequences which had fol-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 55
lowed hia ill-fated attempt to carry into effect their agree-
ment. This was, indeed, an argument which monarchs of
a selfish disposition would not have been willing to admit ;
but it was calculated to affect the chivalrous and generous
feelings of Cceur de Lion. 2. Richard being on the point
of embarking for the Holy Land, a large sum of money was
of more importance to him than the barren claim of homage,
which, in effect, could never have a real or distinct value to
an English monarch, unless when, at some favorable oppor-
tunity, it could be connected with a claim to the property
as well as the mere superiority of the kingdom of Scotland.
3. It was of the highest consequence that the English king,
bound on a distant expedition with the flower of his army,
should leave a near-bordering and warlike neighbor rather
in the condition of a grateful ally than of a sullen and dis-
contented vassal, desirous to snatch the first opportunity of
bursting his feudal fetters, by an exertion of violence similar
to that which had imposed them.
The money stipulated for the redemption of the national
independence of Scotland was collected by an aid granted
to the king by the nobles and the clergy; and there is rea-
son to think that, in part at least, the burden descended on
the inhabitants in the shape of a capitation tax. Two thou-
sand marks remained due when Richard himself became a
prisoner, and were paid by William in aid of the lion-hearted
prince's ransom, if indeed, which seems equally probable,
that sum was not a generous and gratuitous contribution
on the part of the Scottish king toward the liberation of his
benefactor.
Domestic dissensions in his distant provinces, all of them
brought to a happy conclusion by his skill and activity, are
the most marked historical events in William's after-reign.
Some misunderstanding with King John of England occa-
sioned the levying forces on both sides ; but by a treaty en-
tered into between the princes, the causes of complaint were
removed ; William agreeing to pay to John a sum of fifteen
thousand marks for goodwill, it is said, and for certain favor-
56 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
able conditions. William died at Stirling, 1214, aged seventy-
two, after a long and active reign of forty-eight years.
"William derived his cognomen of the Lion from his be-
ing the first who adopted that animal as the armorial bear-
ing of Scotland. From this emblem the chief of the Scottish
heralds is called the Lion Mng-at-arms. Chivalry was fast
gaining ground in Scotland at this time, as appears from the
importance attached by William and his elder brother Mal-
colm to the dignity of knighthood, and also from the roman-
tic exclamation of William, when he joined the unequal con-
flict at Alnwick, "Now shall we see the best knights."
William the Lion was a legislator, and his laws are pre-
served. He was a strict, almost a severe, administrator of
justice; but the turn of the age and the temper of his sub-
jects required that justice, which in a more refined period
can and ought to make many distinctions in the classification
of crimes, should in barbarous times seize her harvest with
less selection. The blot of William's reign was his rashness
at Alnwick, and the precipitation with which he bartered
the independence of Scotland for his own liberty. But his
dexterous negotiation with Richard I. enabled him to re-
cover that false step, and to leave his kingdom in the same
condition in which he found it. By his wife, Ermengarde
de Beaumont, William had a son, Alexander, who succeeded
to him. By illicit intrigues he left a numerous family.
Alexander II. 's reign, though active, busy, and abound-
ing in events, yet exhibits few incidents of that deeply influ-
ential character which affect future ages. These events are
rather to be considered in the gross than in particular detail,
and we shall revert to them hereafter, only stating here gen-
erally that Alexander's battles chiefly took place in endeavor-
ing to give currency to the law in those parts of his kingdom
which were still Celtic.
Alexander had, in 1216, a temporary quarrel with John,
which led to mutual depredations; but peace was restored,
and, in 1221, he married the English princess Joan, who was
secured in a jointure of one thousand pounds of landed rent.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 57
In 1222, the king was engaged in subduing a rebellion in
Argyle ; and, in the same year, was obliged to visit Caith-
ness, where the bishop had been burned in his house by con-
nivance of the earl of the same county. In 1228 it was the
district of Moray which was discontented and disturbed by
the achievements of one Gillescop, who was put down and
executed by the efforts of the Earl of Buchan, justiciary of
Scotland. In 1231 Caithness witnessed a second tragedy
similar to that of 1228, only the parts of the performers
were altered. It was now the bishop or his retainers who
murdered the Earl of Caithness and burned his castle. This
called for and received fresh chastisement.
In 1233 new tumults arose among the Celtic inhabitants
of Scotland. Alan, lord of Galloway, died, leaving three
daughters. The king was desirous of dividing the region
among them as heirs portioners. The inhabitants with-
stood, in arms, the partition of their country, being re-
solved it should continue in the form of a single fief. The
purpose of the king was to break the strength of this great
principality, and create three chiefs who might be naturally
expected to be more dependent on the crown than a single
overgrown vassal had proved to be. Alexander led an army
against the insurgents, defeated them, and effected the pro-
posed division of the province.
It is to be carefully noted that all these wars with his
insurgent Celtic subjects, though maintained by the king in
defence of the administration of justice and authority, tended
not the less to alienate the districts in which they took place
from the royal power and authority ; and the temporary sub-
mission of their chiefs was always made with reluctance, and
seldom with sincerity.
In 1249 Alexander II. died in the remote island of Ker-
rera, in the Hebrides, while engaged in an expedition for
compelling the island chiefs to transfer to the Scottish king
a homage which some of them had paid to Norway, as lord
paramount of the isles. He was a wise and active monarch.
He showed his integrity by the care and good faith with
68 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
which he protected the frontiers of England, when confided
to him, in 1241, by his contemporary, Henry III. Alexander
II. left no children by his first wife, Princess Joan. His sec-
ond was Mary de Couci, a daughter of that proud house who
on their banners affected a motto disclaiming the rank of
king. 1 By her he had Alexander III., who, at his father's
death, was a child of eight years old.
1 Je suis ni roi, ni prince aussi—
Je suis le seigneur de Couci.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 59
CHAPTER V
Reign of Alexander III.: his Death — On the Race of Kings Succeed-
ing to Kenneth Macalpine — Nature of their Government as dis-
tinguished from that of the Celts — Grand Division of Scotland
into Celtic and Gothic; and its Consequences
EVEN before the death, of Alexander II. some dispute
had taken place on the old theme of the homage, the
usual subject of contention. Alexander refused to
submit to pay it, unless Northumberland, for which it was
rendered, should be restored to him. Henry III. compounded
this demand by settling on the Scottish king lands in that
county to the amount of one hundred pounds per annum.
This, however, was a consideration unconnected with Scot-
land ; and though an inadequate one, according to our ideas,
yet perfectly saved the question of national independence,
Henry thereby acquiescing in the principle insisted upon by
the Scottish king and statesmen, that the acknowledgment
of dependence was to be rendered for something held in Eng-
land. Whether the estate for which fealty was due chanced
to be of great or small value could not affect the question,
since homage might be rendered for a hamlet or a manor,
as well as for a county or kingdom. The only difference
was, that the less the value of the fief, of the smaller im-
portance were the feudal prestations, and the consequences
of the feudal forfeiture were less worthy of attention. Henry
was not yet satisfied; and the insinuations of Bisset, a Scot-
tish exile, irritated him so much against the Scottish king
that he determined on an invasion of his kingdom. He
was met by Alexander, at the head of a gallant army near
Ponteland, in Westmoreland, and a peace was agreed upon
without any further discussion about the homage.
60 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
It was clear, however, that the matter lay near to the
heart of the English sovereign ; and no sooner was Alexander
II. deceased, than Henry applied to the pope, praying him
to interdict the solemn coronation of Alexander III. till he,
as feudal superior of Scotland, should give consent. The
Scottish nobility heard of this interference, and resolved to
hasten the ceremony. Some difficulty occurred whether the
crown could be placed on the head of one not yet dubbed
knight, so essential was the rank of chivalry then considered
even to the dignity of royalty. It was suggested by Comyn,
earl of Monteith, that the bishop of Saint Andrew's should
knight the king as well as crown him ; and the proposal was
agreed to. The boy was made to take the coronation oaths
in Latin and in Norman-French : this was a Gothic part of
the ceremony. That the Scottish or Celtic forms might also
be complied with, a Highland bard, dressed in a scarlet robe,
venerable for his hoary beard and locks, knelt before the
young king, while seated on the fated stone, and, as at the
coronation of Malcolm IV., recited the royal genealogy in a
set of names that must have sounded like an invocation of
the fiends.
The young king was, shortly after his coronation, married
to the English princess Margaret, daughter of Henry III.
In virtue of the interest thus obtained, Henry interested
himself officiously in the affairs of Scotland, to the great
offence of the natives. He succeeded in establishing a party
within Scotland in his interests, which was strongly opposed
by others of the Scottish regency; and various struggles
took place, in which no conclusive superiority was obtained
by either party. The young king of Scots showed, even
while a boy, much judgment and steadiness of character.
He repeatedly visited the court of his father-in-law as an
honored friend and relative; but testified while there a
steady and honorable determination to transact no affairs of
state, by which the honor of his country or its interests could
be compromised, alleging that he could not do so without
the advice of his national council. Peace was thus pre-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 61
served, the independence of Scotland guarded from hazard,
and all possibility of taking advantage of Alexander's youth
and inexperience effectually averted. During one of these
temporary residences in England, Queen Margaret became
mother of a princess, who was named after her mother. It
appears that some of these visits were made with a view
to recover payment of Queen Margaret's stipulated dowry;
and so poor was Henry's exchequer at the time (1263) that
five hundred marks exhausted its contents ; and the king of
England was fain to take more distant periods to pay the
remainder of the sum, being one thousand marks, still due.
Alexander III. was now a youth of twenty-two years
old, fit and capable to head an army. It was well he was
so, for a formidable invasion impended. This attack came
from Haco, king of Norway. That warlike prince had col-
lected a formidable fleet and army, with the determination
of supporting his interest in the Hebridean islands, which
had been gradually sinking under the efforts of the present
king of Scotland, who pursued the policy of his father, in
compelling those island lords to renounce their dependence
on Norway, and hold their isles of the Scottish crown. The
fleet of Haco was freighted with many thousands of those
same northern warriors whose courage had been felt as
irresistible on almost all the shores of Europe, and was
accounted the most formidable armament that had ever
sailed from Norway.
In 1263, the king of Norse, with this powerful army,
arrived in the bay of Largs, near the mouth of the Clyde,
and attempted to effect a landing. The weather was tem-
pestuous, and rendered their disembarkation partial, difficult,
and dangerous. The Scottish forces were on foot and pre-
pared. The Norwegians persisted in their attempt, and
Alexander and his army made equal efforts to repulse
them. The Norwegian historians have not denied that
their host suffered much from the sword of the enemy,
though they ascribe the total discomfiture of their under-
taking to the rage of the elements. The number of de-
62 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
fenders daily increased, and the efforts of the assailants
diminished; and Haco, after a long and desperate perse-
verance in attempts to land, at last withdrew from his en-
terprise, and fled with his shattered navy through the strait
between Skye and the mainland, which, since called Kyle
Haken, still retains his name. Doubling the northern ex-
tremity of Scotland, the king of Norway, after much loss
and suffering, reached the islands of Orkney, which then
belonged to him, and yielding to the effects of an exhausted
constitution, acted upon by the mortified ambition and
wounded pride of a soldier, died there within a few weeks
after his fatal disaster at Largs. In consequence of this
decisive action, a treaty was entered into, by which Nor-
way ceded to Alexander III. all islands in the western sea
of Scotland, and, indeed, all lying near to that country,
excepting those of Orkney and Shetland, for which resigna-
tion the Scottish king and his estates covenanted to pay four
thousand marks in four several sums, and a quit-rent of one
hundred marks forever.
In 1281, the league was drawn still closer by the marriage
of Eric, the young king of Norway, with Margaret, daughter
of Alexander III., by the English princess of that name.
They had one only child, named after her mother, and called
in Scottish history the Maiden of Norway, whose untimely
death forms, as we shall hereafter see, a most gloomy era in
Scottish history.
It is worth while to notice, that some dispute having oc-
curred between Alexander and his clergy, the papal legate
to England attempted to interfere, with the view of levying
a contribution for the expense of his mission. But the king
and the Scottish Church having very sagely terminated their
dispute without any need of mediation, resolved, that, as the
legate's commission extended to England only, he should
not be permitted to enter the kingdom of Scotland or exer-
cise authority there. In another instance, they showed the
same firmness. Pope Clement the Fourth having required
the Scottish ecclesiastics to pay to the king of England a
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 63
tenth part of their benefices, to aid in the expense of an in-
tended crusade, the Scottish Church held a general council,
and resisted the demand.
Scotland did not, however, escape the epidemic rage for
crusades. A multitude of her bravest barons and knights
went to Palestine, and perished there.
Desolation of the worst kind began to gather round
Alexander III. His wife was dead. His only surviving
son also died; another had not survived childhood. He
had no issue remaining except the Maid of Norway, his
granddaughter, a child, residing in a distant kingdom. To
provide against the evils of a disputed succession, for he was
still a man in the flower of life, the Scottish monarch mar-
ried Joleta, daughter of the count of Dreux. Shortly after
the wedding, as he pressed homeward by a precipitous road
along the seacoast, near to Kinghorn, in Fife, his horse fell
from a cliff, and the rider was killed.
The lamentation was universal; the consequences were
anticipated as most disastrous.
Old men and beldames
Did prophesy about it dangerously.
Thomas the Rhymer, a poet and supposed prophet, is
said to have predicted the calamity, under the metaphor of
a tempest the most dreadful that Scotland ever witnessed.
Others recalled an evil omen which occurred during the
festivities of Alexander's second marriage; a spectre, rep-
resenting Death, had closed a gallant procession of masks,
and being perhaps presented with too shocking an approach
to a real skeleton, had introduced grief and terror into the
mirth and pomp of the bridal revelry. This was now con-
strued into an omen of the intense calamity which was soon
to silence the public rejoicings. The common people vented
their sorrows for an excellent prince in simple but affecting
lines, deploring his virtues, and anticipating the consequences
of his death. But neither poet nor seer, in their most rapt
and gloomy moments, could anticipate half the extent of
61 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the calamity with which the death of Alexander was to be
followed in the kingdom which he ruled.
At this remarkable point in history, we pause to contrast
the condition of Scotland as it stood in 843, when Kenneth
Macalpine first formed the Picts and Scots into one people,
and in the year 1286, when death deprived that people of
their sovereign, Alexander III.
At the earlier term we know that the manners of those
descended from the Dalriads, Scoto-Irish, or pure Scots,
properly so called, must have been, as they remained till a
much later period, the same with those of the cognate tribes
in Ireland, the land of their descent. Their constitution was
purely patriarchal, the simplest and most primitive form of
government. The blood of the original founder of the fam-
ily was held to flow in the veins of his successive represen-
tatives, and to perpetuate in each chief the right of supreme
authority over the descendants of his own line, who formed
his children and subjects, as he became by right of birth
their sovereign ruler and lawgiver. A nation consisted of
a union of several such tribes, having a single chief chosen
over them for their general direction in war, and umpire of
their disputes in peace. With the family and blood of this
chief of chiefs, most of the inferior chieftains claimed a con-
nection more or less remote. This supreme chiefdom, or
right of sovereignty, was hereditary, in so far as the person
possessing it was chosen from the blood royal of the king
deceased ; but it was so far elective that any of his kinsmen
might be chosen by the nation to succeed him ; and, as the
office of sovereign could not be exercised by a child, the
choice generally fell upon a full-grown man, the brother or
nephew of the deceased, instead of his son or grandson.
This uncertainty of succession, which prevailed in respect
to the crown itself, while Celtic manners were predominant,
proved a constant source of rebellion and bloodshed. The
postponed heir, when he arose in years, was frequently de-
sirous to attain his father's power; and many a murder was
committed for the sake of rendering straight an oblique line
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 65
of succession, -which such preference of an adult had thrown
out of the direct course. A singular expedient was resorted
to, to prevent or diminish such evils. A sort of king of the
Romans, or Csesar, was chosen as the destined successor
while the sovereign chief was yet alive. He was called the
Tanist, and was inaugurated during the life of the reigning
king, but with maimed rites, for he was permitted to place
only one foot on the fated stone of election. The monarch
had little authority in the different tribes of which the king-
dom was composed, unless during the time of war. In war,
however, the king possessed arbitrary power; and war, for-
eign and domestic, was the ordinary condition of the people.
This, as described by Malcolm, is the constitution of Persia
at this day.
Such was the government of the Scots when the Picts,
losing their own name and existence, merged into that
people. It does not appear that there existed any material
difference between the Pictish form of government and that
of their conquerors, nor did such distinction occur in any of
the other nations which came to compose the Scottish king-
dom, with the exception of the Lothians. Galloway was
unquestionably under the dominion of patriarchal chiefs
and clans, as we know from the patronymics current to
this day, of which M'Dougal, M'Culloch, M'Kie, and other
races certainly not derived from the Highlands, ascend to
great antiquity. Strath-Clyde was probably under the same
species of government ; at least, the clan system of the Celts
prevailed in the south and eastern parts of the border district
until the union of the crowns ; and as, had it been once dis-
used, such a species of rule could not easily have been recon-
structed, we are authorized to suppose that it had flourished
there since the fall of the British kingdom. There occurs
a further reason why it should have been so. The clan, or
patriarchal, system of government was particularly calcu-
lated for regulating a warlike and lawless country, as it
provided for decision of disputes, and for the leading of the
inhabitants to war, in the easiest and most simple manner
66 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
possible. The clansmen submitted to the award of the chief
in peace ; they followed his banner to battle ; they aided him
with their advice in council, and the constitution of the tribe
was complete. The nature of a frontier country exposed it
in a peculiar degree to sudden danger, and therefore this
compendious mode of government, established there by the
Britons, was probably handed down to later times, from its
being specially adapted to the exigencies of the situation.
But though the usage of clanship probably prevailed there,
we are not prepared to show that any of the clans inhabiting
the border country carry back their antiquity into the Celtic
or British period. Their names declare them of more
modern date.
Those various nations which we have enumerated had
all a common Celtic descent; at least, it is yet unproved
that the Picts were any other than the ancient Caledonians,
who must of course have been Britons. Their manners were
as simple as their form of government, exhibiting the vices
and virtues of a barbarous state of society. They were
brave, warlike, and formidable as light troops; but, armed
with slender lances, unwieldy swords, and bucklers made
of osiers or hides, they were ill qualified to sustain a length-
ened conflict with the Norman warriors, who were regularly
trained to battle, and entered it in close array and in com-
plete armor. As other barbarians, the Celtic tribes were
fickle and cruel at times, at other times capable of great
kindness and generosity. Those who inhabited the moun-
tains lived by their herds and flocks, and by the chase. The
tribes who had any portion of arable ground cultivated it,
under the direction of the chief, for the benefit of the com-
munity. As every clan formed the epitome of a nation
within itself, plundering from each other was a species of
warfare to which no disgrace was attached ; and when the
mountaineers sought their booty in the low country, their
prey was richer, perhaps, and less stoutly defended, than
when they attacked a kindred tribe of Highlanders. The
lowlands were therefore chiefly harassed by their incursions.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 67
The Picts seem to have made some progress in agricul-
ture, and to have known something of architecture and
domestic arts, which are earliest improved in the more fer-
tile countries. But neither Scots, Picts, Galwegians, nor
Strath-Clyde Britons, seem to have possessed the knowledge
of writing or use of the alphabet. Three or four different
nations, each subdivided into an endless variety of indepen-
dent clans, tribes, and families, were ill calculated to form
an independent state so powerful as to maintain its ground
among other nations, or defend its liberties against an am-
bitious neighbor. But the fortunate acquisition of the fer-
tile province of Lothian, including all the country between
the Tweed and Forth, and the judicious measures of Mal-
colm Cean-mohr and his successors, formed the means of
giving consistency to that which was loose, and unity to that
which was discordant, in the Scottish government.
With some of that craft which induced the Scottish pro-
prietors of the Middle Ages to erect their castles on the very
verge of their own property, and opposite to the residences of
their most powerful neighbors, Malcolm Cean-mohr fixed his
royal residence originally at Dunfermline, and his successors
removed it to Edinburgh. Berwick and Dunbar were forti-
fied so as to offer successful opposition to an invading army ;
and to cross the Tweed, which, in its lower course, is seldom
fordable, leaving such strengths in their rear, would have
been a hazardous attempt for an English invader, unless
at the head of a very considerable army. The possession
of Lothian, whose population was Saxon, intermingled with
Danish, introduced to the king of Scotland and his court new
wants, new wishes, new arts of policy, an intercourse with
other countries to which they had formerly no access, and
a new language to express all these new ideas. We have
noticed what willing reception Malcolm, influenced by his
queen, gave to the emigrant Saxons and Normans, and the
envy excited in the ancient genuine Scots by the favor ex-
tended to these strangers. All the successors of Malcolm
(excepting the Hebridean savage Donald Bane) were addicted
68 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
to the same policy, and purchased knowledge in the way in
which it is most honorably obtained, by benefiting and
rewarding those who are capable to impart it. Of the Nor-
man barons, generally accounted the flower of Europe, Scot-
land received from time to time such numerous accessions,
that they may be said, with few exceptions, to form the
ancestors of the Scottish nobility, and of many of the most
distinguished families among the gentry; a fact so well
known that it is useless to bring proof of it. These foreign-
ers, and especially the Normans and Anglo-Normans, were
superior to the native subjects of the Scottish kings, both in
the arts of peace and war. They therefore naturally filled
their court, and introduced into the country where they were
strangers their own manners and their own laws, which in
process of time extended themselves to the other races by
which Scotland was inhabited.
The benefits received from this influx of foreigners, and
their influence, were doubtless a main step toward civilizing
Scotland; yet the immediate effect of their introduction had
a tendency to the disunion of the state. It created in these
lofty strangers a race of men acting upon different prin-
ciples, and regarding themselves as entirely a separate race
from the Celtic tribes, possessing jarring interests and dis-
cordant manners. The jealousy between these separate
races was shown in the council of war previous to the battle
of the standard, where Bruce, speaking of himself and his
compeers, as being neither Scottish nor English, but Norman
barons, upbraided David for bringing out against a chival-
rous race which had rendered him such services the wild
ferocity and uncertain faith of the Scottish tribes; while,
on the other hand, Malise, earl of Stratherne, reproached
the same monarch for trusting more to the mail and spear
of Norman strangers than the undaunted courage of his
native soldiers.
This intermixture gave a miscellaneous, and, in so far,
an incoherent appearance to the inhabitants of Scotland at
this period. They seemed not so much to constitute one
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 69
state as a confederacy of tribes of different origin. Thus
the charters of King David and his successors are addressed
to all his subjects, French and English, Scottish and Galwe-
gian. The manners, the prejudices of so many mixed races,
corrected or neutralized each other; and the moral blending
together of nations led in time, like some chemical mixture,
to fermentation and subsequent purity. This was forwarded
with the best intentions, though perhaps over-hastily, and
in so far injudiciously, by the efforts of the Scottish kings,
who, from Malcolm Cean-mohr's time to that of Alexander
III., appear to have been a race of as excellent monarchs as
ever swayed sceptre over a rude people. They were prudent
in their schemes, and fortunate in the execution; and the
exceptions occasioned by the death of Malcolm III. and the
captivity of "William can only be imputed to chivalrous rash-
ness, the fault of the age. They were unwearied in their
exercise of justice, which, in the more remote corners of
Scotland, could only be done at the head of an army; and
even where the task was devolved upon the sheriffs and
vice-sheriffs of counties, the execution of it required frequent
inspection by the king and his high justiciaries, who made
circuits for that purpose. The rights of landed property
began to be arranged in most of the lowland counties upon
the feudal system then universal in Europe, and so far united
Scotland with the general system of civilization.
The language which was generally used in Scotland,
came at length to be English, as the speech of Lothian, the
most civilized province of the kingdom, and the readiest in
which they could hold communication with their neighbors.
It must have been introduced gradually, as is evident from
the numerous Celtic words retained in old statutes and char-
ters, and rendered general by its being the only language
used in writing.
"We know there was at least one poem composed in En-
glish, by a Scottish author, which excited the attention of
contemporaries. It is a metrical romance on the subject
of Sir Tristrem, by Thomas of Erceldone, who composed it
70 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
in such "quaint Ingush" as common minstrels could hardly
understand or recite by heart. If we may judge of this
work from the comparatively modern copy which remains,
the style of the composition, brief, nervous, figurative, and
concise almost to obscurity, resembles the Norse or Anglo-
Saxon poetry more than that of the English minstrels, whose
loose, prolix, and trivial mode of composition is called by
Chaucer's Host of the Tabard, "drafty rhiming." The
structure of the stanza in Sir Tristrem is also very peculiar,
elliptical, and complicated, seeming to verify the high eulogy
of a poet nearly contemporary, "that it is the best geste ever
was or ever would be made, if minstrels could recite as the
author had composed it." On the contrary, the elegiac
ballad on Alexander III., already mentioned, differs only
from modern English in the mode of spelling.
Besides the general introduction of the English language,
which spread itself gradually, doubtless, through the more
civilized part of the lowlands, the Norman-French was also
used at court, which, as we learn from the names of wit-
nesses to royal charters, foundations, etc., was the resort of
these foreign nobles. It was also adopted as the language
of the coronation oath, which shows it was the speech of the
nobles, while the version in Latin seems to have been made
for the use of the clergy. The Norman-French also, as
specially adapted to express feudal stipulations, was fre-
quently applied to law proceedings.
The political constitution of Scotland had not as yet
arranged itself under any peculiar representative form.
The king acted by the advice, and sometimes under the
control, of a great feudal council, or cour pleniere, to which
vassals in chief of the crown and a part of the clergy were
summoned. But there was no representation of the third
estate. There was, notwithstanding, the spirit of freedom
in the government ; and though the institutions for its pres-
ervation were not yet finished in that early age, the great
council failed not to let their voice be heard when the sover-
eign fell into political errors. We have already noticed that
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 71
the liberties of the Church were defended with a spirit of
independence hardly equalled in any other state of Europe
at the time.
The useful arts began to be cultivated. The nobles and
gentry sheltered themselves in towers built in strong natural
positions. Their skill in architecture, however, could not be
extensive, since the construction of a handsome arch, even
in Alexander the Third's time, could only be accounted for
by magic ; ' and the few stately castellated edifices of an
early date which remain in Scotland are to be ascribed to
the English, during their brief occupation of that country.
Scotland enjoyed, during this period, a more extensive
trade than historians have been hitherto aware of. Money
was current in the country, and the payment of considerable
sums, as ten thousand marks to Richard I., and on other
occasions, was accomplished without national distress. The
Scottish military force was respectable, since, according to
Matthew Paris, Alexander II. was enabled, in 1244, to face
the power of England with a thousand horse, well armed
and tolerably mounted, though not on Spanish or Italian
horses, and nigh to one hundred thousand infantry, all
determined to live or die with their sovereign.
The household of the Scottish king was filled with the
usual number of feudal officers, and there was an affecta-
tion of splendor in the royal establishment, which even the
humility of the sainted Queen Margaret did not discourage.
She and her husband used at meals vessels of gold and sil-
ver plate, or at least, says the candid Turgot, such as were
lacquered over so as to have that appearance. Even in the
early days of Alexander I. , that monarch (with a generosity
similar to that of the lover who presented his bride with
a case of razors, as what he himself most prized) munifi-
1 It is to be seen in the ruins of the castle of the Marquis of Twee-
dale's park at Yester. Fordun says, it was framed arte quadam magica,
and was called Bo-hall, that is, Hobgoblin-hall. I presume the magic
consisted in the art of casting an arch, as the vault, which still exists,
has nothing else that is remarkable.
72 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
cently bestowed on the church of Saint Andrew's an Arabian
steed covered with rich caparisons, and a suit of armor
ornamented with silver and precious stones, all which he
brought to the high altar, and solemnly devoted to the
church.
Berwick enjoyed the privileges of a free port; and under
Alexander III. the customs of that single Scottish port
amounted to £2,197 8s., while those of all England only
made up the sum of £8,411 19s. ll%d. An ancient historian
terms that town a second Alexandria.
Lastly, we may notice that the soil was chiefly culti-
vated by bondmen; but the institution of royal boroughs
had begun considerably to ameliorate the condition of the
inferior orders.
Such was the condition of Scotland at the end of the
thirteenth century ; but \v e only recognize laws and institu-
tions in those parts of the kingdom to which the king's im-
mediate authority and the influence of the more modern
system and manners extended. This was exclusive of the
whole Highlands and isles, of Galloway, and Strath-Clyde,
till these two last provinces were totally melted into the gen-
eral mass of lowland or Scoto-Saxon civilization ; and prob-
ably the northern provinces of Caithness and Moray were
also beyond the limits of regular government. In other
words, the improved system prevailed, in whole or in part,
only where men, from comparative wealth and convenience
of situation, had been taught to prefer the benefits of civil-
ized government to the ferocious and individual freedom of
a savage state. The mountaineers, as they did not value
the protection of a more regular order of law, despised and
hated its restraint. They continued to wear the dress, wield
the arms, and observe the institutions or customs of their
Celtic fathers. They acknowledged, indeed, generally speak-
ing, the paramount superiority of the kings of Scotland ; but
many of their high chiefs, such as Macdonell of the isles,
Macdougal of Lorn, Roland of Galloway, and others, longed
for independence, and frequently attempted to assert it. The
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 73
king, on the other hand, could only exercise his authority in
these remote districts directly by marching into them with
his army, or indirectly by availing himself of their domestic
quarrels, and instigating one chief to the destruction of an-
other. In either case he might be the terror, but could
never be esteemed the protector, of this primitive race of
his subjects, the first, and for many years the only tribes
over whom his fathers possessed any sway. And thus com-
menced, and was handed down for many an age, the distinc-
tion between the Celtic Scot and the Scoto-Saxon, the High-
lander, in short, and Lowlander, which is still distinctly
marked by the difference of language, and was in the last
generation more strongly apparent by the distinction of
manners, dress, and even laws.
Such was the singular state of Scotland, divided between
two separate races, one of which had attained a considerable
degree of civilization, and the other remained still nearly in
a state of nature, when the death of Alexander III. exposed
the nation to the risk of annihilation as an independent people
and kingdom.
4 <% Vol. I.
74 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER VI
Schemes of Edward I. — Death of the Maid of Norway — John Baliol;
his War with England; and his Defeat at Dunbar, and De-
thronement
BY the untimely decease of Alexander III., in 1290, the
Maid of Norway, his granddaughter, remained sole
and undoubted heir to the throne. Edward I. of
England, the near relation of the orphan queen, instantly
formed the project of extending his regal sway over the
northern part of Britain by a marriage between this royal
heiress and his only son, Edward, prince of Wales. The
barons of Scotland testified no dislike to this alliance, the
most natural mode, perhaps, to effect a union between two
kingdoms which nature had joined, though untoward events
had separated them. The great nobles of that country were,
we have seen, Normans as well as the English lords : many
held land in both kingdoms ; and therefore the idea of an
alliance with England was not at that time so unpopular as
it afterward became, when long and bloody wars had ren-
dered the nations irreconcilable enemies. The Scottish took,
on the other hand, the most jealous precautions that all the
rights and immunities of Scotland, as a separate kingdom,
should be upheld and preserved; that Scottishmen born
should not be called to answer in England for deeds done
in their own country; that the national records should be
suffered to remain within the realm; and that no aids of
money or levies of troops should be demanded, unless in
such cases as were warranted by former usage. These pre-
liminaries were settled between King Edward and a conven-
tion of the Scottish estates, held at Birgham, July, 1290.
Edward promised all this, and swore to his promise ; but an
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 75
urgent proposal that he should be put in possession of all the
Scottish castles alarmed the estates of Scotland, as affording
too much cause to doubt whether oath or promise would be
much regarded.
In the meantime Margaret, the young heiress of Scotland,
died on her voyage to Scotland. A new scene now opened;
for by this event the descendants of Alexander III., on whom
the crown had been settled in 1284, were altogether extin-
guished, and the kingdom lay open to the claim of every
one, or any one, who could show a collateral connection,
however remote, with the royal family of Scotland.
Many pretensions to the throne were accordingly set up;
but the chief were those of two great lords of Norman ex-
traction, Robert Bruce and John Baliol. The former of
these was lord of Galloway, the latter of Annandale in
Scotland. Their rights of succession stood thus.
"William the Lion had a brother David, created Earl of
Huntingdon, who left three daughters: namely, first, Mar-
garet, married to Alan, lord of Galloway ; second, Isabella,
to Robert Bruce of Annandale ; third, Ada, to Henry Hast-
ings. John Baliol claimed the kingdom as the son of Devor-
goil, daughter of Margaret, the eldest daughter of David;
Bruce, on the other hand, claimed, as the son of Isabella, the
second daughter, pretending that he was thus nearer by one
generation to Earl David, through whom both the compet-
itors claimed their relationship. The question simply was,
whether the right of succession which David of Huntingdon
might have claimed while alive descended to his grandson
Baliol, or was to be held as passing to Bruce, who, though
the son of the younger sister, was one degree nearer to the
person from whom he claimed, being only the grandson,
while Baliol was the great-grandson of Earl David, their
common ancestor. Modern lawyers would at once pro-
nounce in BalioPs favor; but the precise nature of repre-
sentation had not then been fixed in Scotland.
Both barons resolved to support their plea with arms.
Many other claims, more or less specious, were brought
76 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
forward. The country of Scotland was divided and sub-
divided into factions; and in the rage of approaching civil
war, Edward I. saw the moment when that claim of para-
mount superiority which had been so pertinaciously adhered
to by the English monarchs, though as uniformly refuted
by the Scottish, might be brought forward as the means
of finally assuming the direct sway of the kingdom. He
showed the extent of his ambitious and unjust purpose to
his most trusty counsellors. "I will subdue Scotland to my
authority," he said, "as I have subdued Wales."
The English monarch, one of the ablest generals and the
most subtle and unhesitating politicians of his own or any
other time, assembled an army on the borders, and commu-
nicated to the clergy and nobles of Scotland a peremptory
demand, that, as lord paramount of the kingdom, he should
be received and universally submitted to as sole arbiter in
the competition for the crown.
If immediate feuds and quarrels could have permitted
the Scottish magnates to see more distant consequences, it
is probable that with one voice they would have resisted
this demand by an express denial of the right of supremacy,
which, though a claim to it had been often both insidiously
and covertly and more openly brought forward, had always
been repelled and resisted by the Scottish kings, except after
the treaty of Falaise, in 1174, when the supremacy was dis-
tinctly surrendered, until 1189, when the right was renounced,
on payment of a sum of money, by Richard I. But split into
a thousand factions, while twelve competitors were strug-
gling for the crown, even the best and most prudent of the
Scots seem to have thought it better to submit to the award
of one of the wisest and most powerful monarchs of Europe,
although at some sacrifice of independence, which they might
regard as temporary and almost nominal, than to expose the
country at once to civil war and the arms of England.
The Scottish barons might also remember how lately they
had been disposed, by the treaty of marriage between the
English prince of Wales and their sovereign Margaret, to
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 77
place their kingdom under the protection of England, a step
little dissimilar from that now proposed by the English mon-
arch. The nobility of Scotland therefore admitted Edward's
claim, and accepted his arbitration. Twelve competitors
stepped forward to assert their claims ; and Edward, though
he stated a right to the kingdom on his own part, as to a
vacant fief which reverts to the sovereign, yet waived his
claim with a species of affected moderation. Unquestion-
ably his views were better served by dealing the cards, and
sitting umpire of the game, than if he had mixed with the
players. And there is little doubt that, far from desirous to
insist on a claim which would have united all the competi-
tors against him, he was sparing of no art which could em-
broil the question, by multiplying the number of claimants,
and exasperating them against each other.
In 1292, the candidates, called upon to that effect, sol-
emnly acknowledged Edward's right as lord paramount of
Scotland, and submitted their claims to his decision. We
shall endeavor to explain hereafter why these Norman nobles
were not unwilling to consent to a submission which, as chil-
dren of the soil, they would probably have spurned at. The
strengths and fortresses of the kingdom were put into the
king of England's power, to enable him to support, it was
pretended, the award he should pronounce. After these
operations had lasted several months, to accustom the Scots
to the view of English governors and garrisons in their cas-
tles, and to disable them from resisting a foreign force, by
the continued disunion which must have increased and be-
come the more embittered the longer the debate was in
dependence, Edward I. preferred John Baliol to the Scot-
tish crown, to be held of him and his successors, and sur-
rendered to him the Scottish castles of which he held
possession, being twenty in number.
Edward's conduct had hitherto been sufficiently selfish,
but, perhaps, not beyond what many prudent persons would
permit themselves to consider as just. His pretence to the
supremacy, however ill-founded, was no invention of his
78 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
own, but handed down to him as a right which his ances-
tors had claimed from a very distant period ; and as a time
had now arrived when the Scottish were prevailed upon to
admit it on their side, most sovereigns would have thought
it an opportunity not to be sacrificed to the barren consid-
erations of abstract justice.
But it was soon evident that the admission of the su-
premacy was only a part of Edward's object, and that he
was determined so to use his right over Baliol as might force
either him or Scotland into rebellion, and give the lord para-
mount a pretence to seize the revolted fief into his own hand.
In order to accomplish this, the king of England encouraged
vexatious lawsuits against Baliol, for compelling his frequent
and humiliating appearance as a suitor in the English courts
of law. A private citizen of Berwick having appealed from
a judgment of the commissioners of justice in Scotland, of
which that town was then accounted part, Baliol, on this
occasion, remonstrated against the appeal being entertained,
reminding Edward that, by the conditions sworn to at Birg-
ham, it was strictly covenanted that no Scottish subject should
be called in an English court, for acts done in Scotland. Ed-
ward replied, with haughty indifference and effrontery, that
such a promise was made to suit the convenience of the time,
and that no such engagements could prevent his calling into
his courts the Scottish king himself, if he should see cause.
His vassal, he said, should not be his conscience-keeper, to
enjoin him penance for broken faith; nor would he, for any
promise he had made to the Scots while treating of his son's
marriage with Margaret, refrain from distributing the jus-
tice which every subject had a right to require at his hands.
Baliol could only make peace with his imperious master, by
yielding up, in 1293, all stipulations and promises concerning
the freedom and immunities of Scotland, and admitting them
to be discharged and annulled.
Soon after this, Duncan, the earl of Fife, being a minor,
Macduff, his grand-uncle, made a temporary seizure of some
part of the earldom. Macduff being summoned to answer
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 79
this offence before the Scottish estates, was condemned by
Baliol to a slight imprisonment. Released from his confine-
ment, Macduff summoned Baliol to appear before Edward,
and Edward directed that the Scottish king should answer
by appearance in person before him. He came, but refused
to plead. The Parliament of England decreed that Baliol
was liable to Macduff in damages, and, for his contumacy in
refusing to plead before his lord paramount, declared that
three principal towns in Scotland, with their castles, should
be taken into the custody of Edward until the king of Scots
should make satisfaction. Severe and offensive regulations
were laid down concerning the Scottish king's regular at-
tendance in future on the courts of his suzerain in England.
In a word, Baliol was made sensible that though he might
be suffered for a time to wear sceptre and crown, it was but
so long as he should consider himself a mere tool in the
hands of a haughty and arbitrary superior, who was deter-
mined to fling him aside on the first opportunity, and to put
every species of slight and dishonor on his right of delegated
majesty, till he should become impatient of enduring it.
The Scottish king therefore determined to extricate himself
from so degrading a position, and to free himself and his
country from the thraldom of a foreign usurper.
The time seemed apt to the purpose, for discord had
arisen between the realms of France and England, concern-
ing some feudal rights in which Edward had shown himself
as intractable and disobedient a vassal to Philip of France,
as he was a severe and domineering superior to Baliol.
Catching this favorable opportunity, Baliol formed, in
1295, a secret treaty of alliance with France, and stood upon
his defence. The Scottish nobles joined him in the purpose
of resistance, but declined to place Baliol at the head of the
preparations which they made for national defence: and
having no confidence either in his wisdom or steadiness,
they detained him in a kind of honorable captivity in a dis-
tant castle, placing their levies under the command of leaders
whose patriotism was considered less doubtful.
80 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
In 1296, Edward put himself at the head of four thou-
sand horse and thirty thousand infantry, the finest soldiers
in Europe, and proceeded toward Northumberland. An-
thony Beck, the military bishop of Durham, joined the royal
host with a large body of troops. They besieged the town
of Berwick, and took it by storm, though gallantly defended.
Upward of seventeen thousand of the defenceless inha tants
were slain in the massacre which followed, and the town
(a very wealthy one) was entirely plundered. A body of
thirty Flemish merchants held a strong building in the town,
called the B-edhall, by the tenure of defending it against the
English: they did so to the last, and honorably perished
amid the ruins of the edifice.
Bruce the Competitor, the Earl of March, and other Scot-
tish nobles of the south, joined with King Edward, instead
of opposing him. The first of these vainly flattered himself
that the dethronement of Baliol might be succeeded by his
own nomination to the crown, when it should be declared
vacant by his rival's forfeiture; and Edward seemed to
encourage these hopes. While the English king was still
at Berwick, the Abbot of Aberbrothock appeared before him
with a letter from Baliol, in answer to Edward's summons
to him to appear in person, renouncing his vassalage, and
expressing defiance. "The foolish traitor!" said the king,
"what frenzy has seized him? But since he will not come
to us, we will go to him."
Edward's march northward was stopped by the strong
castle of Dunbar, which was held out against him by the
Countess of March, who had joined the lords that declared
for the cause of independence, although the earl, her hus-
band, was serving in the English army : so much were the
Scots divided on this momentous occasion. While Edward
pressed the siege of this important place, the inner gate, as
it might be termed, of Scotland, a large force appeared on
the descent of the ridge of the Lammermoor hills, above the
town. It was the Scottish army moving to the relief of
Dunbar, and on the appearance of their banners the defend-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 81
ers raised a shout of exultation and defiance. But when
Warrenne, earl of Surrey, Edward's general, advanced
toward the Scottish army, the Scots, with a rashness which
often ruined their affairs before and afterward, poured down
from the advantageous post which they occupied, and in-
curred by their temerity a dreadful defeat, which laid the
whole country open to the invader.
Bruce, after the victory of Dunbar, conceived his turn of
triumph was approaching, and hinted to Edward his hope
of being preferred to the throne which Baliol had forfeited.
"Have we no other business," said Edward, looking at him
askance, "than to conquer kingdoms for you?" Bruce re-
tired, and meddled no more with public affairs, in which his
grandson, at a later period, took a part so distinguished.
After the battle of Dunbar, scarce a spark of resistance
to Edward seemed to enlighten the general despair. The
English army continued an unresisted march as far north-
ward as Aberdeen and Elgin. Baliol, brought before his
victor, in the castle of Brechin, was literally stripped of
his royal robes, confessed his feudal transgression in rebel-
ling against his lord paramount, and made a formal sur-
render of his kingdom to the victor.
The king of England held a parliament at Berwick, in
1296, where he received the willing and emulous submission
of Scottishmen of the higher ranks, lords, knights, and
squires. Edward received them all graciously, and took
measures for assuring his conquest. He created John War-
renne, earl of Surrey, guardian of Scotland. Hugh Cres-
singham, an ambitious churchman, was made treasurer,
and William Ormesby justiciary of the kingdom. He placed
English governors and garrisons in the Scottish castles, and
returned to England, having achieved an easy and appar-
ently a permanent conquest.
This was not all. Edward resolved so to improve his
conquest as to eradicate all evidence of national independ-
ence. He carried off or mutilated such records as might
awaken the recollection that Scotland had ever been free.
82 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
The cartulary of Scone, the place where, since the conquest
of Kenneth Macalpine, the Scottish kings had been crowned,
was carefully ransacked for the purpose of destroying what-
ever might be found at variance with the king of England's
pretensions. The Scottish historians have, perhaps, magni-
fied the extent of this rapine; but that Edward was desirous
to remove everything which could remind the Scots of their
original independence is proved by his carrying to London,
not only the crown and sceptre surrendered by Baliol, but
even the sacred stone on which the Scottish monarchs were
placed when they received the royal inauguration. He pre-
sented these trophies to the Cathedral of Westminster.
This fatal stone, as already mentioned, was said to have
been brought from Ireland by Fergus, the son of Eric, who
led the Dalriads to the shores of Argyleshire. Its virtues
are preserved in the celebrated leonine verse :
Ni fallat fatum, Scoti, quocunque locatum
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.
Which may be rendered thus :
Unless the fates are faithless found,
And prophets' voice be vain,
Where'er this monument is found,
The Scottish race shall reign.
There were Scots who hailed the accomplishment of this
prophecy at the accession of James VI. to the crown of Eng-
land, and exulted, that, in removing this palladium, the
policy of Edward resembled that which brought the Trojan
horse in triumph within their walls, and which occasioned
the destruction of their royal family. The stone is still pre-
served, and forms the support of King Edward the Confes-
sor's chair, which the sovereign occupies at his coronation,
and, independent of the divination so long in being accom-
plished, is in itself a very curious remnant of extreme
antiquity.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 83
CHAPTER VII
Interregnum — Causes of the National Misfortunes of Scotland — In-
difference of the Norman Barons — Sir William Wallace — Battle
of Stirling — Wallace chosen Governor of Scotland — Edward
invades Scotland — Battle of Falkirk — Death of Wallace
THE unanimous subjection of a proud and brave nation
to a foreign conqueror is too surprising to be dismissed
without remark, especially since it was so general
that most of the noble and ancient families of Scotland are
reduced to the necessity of tracing their ancestors' names
in the fifty-six sheets of parchment which constitute the
degrading roll of submission to Edward I. It must be
generally allowed that men of property, who have much
to lose, are more likely to submit to tyranny and invasion
than the poor peasant, who has but his knife and his mantle,
and whose whole wealth is his individual share in the free-
dom and independence of the nation. But this will scarce
account for the marks of vacillation and apostasy too visible
in the Scottish nobility of this period, in these days of chiv-
alry, when men piqued themselves on holding life in mean
regard compared to the slightest and most punctilious point
of honor. The following circumstances here suggest them-
selves in explanation of the remarkable fact.
The nobility of Scotland during the civil wars had, by
the unvarying policy of Malcolm Cean-mohr and his succes-
sors, come to consist almost entirely of a race foreign to the
country, who were not bound to it or to the people by those
kindred ties which connect the native with the soil he inhab-
its, as the same which has been for ages perhaps the abode
of his fathers. Two or three generations had not converted
Normans into Scots; and, whatever allegiance the emigrated
84 . HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
strangers might yield to the monarchs who bestowed on
them their fiefs, it must have been different from the senti-
ments of filial attachment with which men regard the land
of their birth and that of their ancestors, and the princes by
whose fathers their own had been led to battle, and with
whom they had shared conquest and defeat.
In fact, the Normans were neither by birth nor manners
rendered accessible to the emotions which constitute patriot-
ism. Their ancestors were those Scandinavians who left
without reluctance their native north in search of better
settlements, and spread their sails to the winds, like the
voluntary exile of modern times, little caring to what shores
they were wafted, so that they were not driven back to their
own. The education of the Normans of the thirteenth cent-
ury had not inculcated that love of a natal soil, which they
could not learn from their roving fathers of the preceding
ages. They were, above all nations, devoted to chivalry,
and its doctrines and habits were unfavorable to local attach-
ment. The ideal perfection of the knight-errant was to
wander from land to land in quest of adventures, to win
renown, to gain earldoms, kingdoms, nay, empires, by the
sword, and to sit down a settler on his acquisitions, without
looking back to the land which gave him life. This indiffer-
ence to his native country was taught the aspirant to the
honors of chivalry, by early separation of the ties which
bind youth to their parents and families. The progress of
his military education separated him when a boy from his
parents' house, and sending him to learn the institutions
of chivalry in the court of some foreign prince or lord, early
destroyed those social ties which bind a man to his family
and birthplace. When dubbed knight, the gallant bachelor
found a home in every tourney or battlefield, and a settle-
ment in whatever kingdom of the world valor was best
rewarded. The true knight-errant was, therefore, a cos-
mopolite — a citizen of the world : every soil was his country,
and he was indifferent to feelings and prejudices which pro-
mote in others patriotic attachment to a particular country.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 85
The feudal system also, though the assertion may at first
sight appear strange, had, until fiefs were rendered heredi-
tary, circumstances unfavorable to loyalty and patriotism.
A vassal might, and often did, hold fiefs in more realms
than one; a division of allegiance tending to prevent the
sense of duty or loyal attachment running strongly in any
of their single channels. Nay, he might, and many did,
possess fiefs depending on the separate kings of France,
England, and Scotland; and thus being, to a certain ex-
tent, the subject of all these princes, he could hardly look
on any of them with peculiar attachment, unless it were
created by personal respect or preference. "When war broke
out between any of the princes whom he depended upon, the
feudatory debated with himself to which standard he should
adhere, and shook himself clear of his allegiance to the other
militant power by resigning the fief. The possibility of thus
changing country and masters, this habit of serving a prince
only so long as the vassal held fief under him, led to loose
and irregular conceptions on the subject of loyalty, and
gave the feudatory more the appearance of a mercenary
who serves for pay than of a patriot fighting in defence of
his country. This consequence may be drawn from the fre-
quent compliances and change of parties visible in the Scot-
tish barons, and narrated without much censure by the
historians. Lastly, the reader may observe that the great
feudatories, who seemed to consider themselves as left to
choose to which monarch they should attach themselves,
were less regardful of the rights of England and Scotland,
or of foreigners and native princes, than of the personal tal-
ents and condition of the two kings. In attaching them-
selves to Edward instead of Baliol, the high vassals con-
nected themselves with valor instead of timidity, wealth
instead of poverty, and conquest instead of defeat. Such
indifference to the considerations arising from patriotism
and such individual attention to their own interest being
the characteristic of the Scoto-Norman nobles, it is no
wonder that many of them took but a lukewarm share in
8(5 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the defence of their country, and that some of them were
guilty of shameful versatility during the quickly-changing
scenes which we are about to narrate. It was different
with the Scottish nation at large.
Exasperated by the contumely thrown on the country,
by the aggressions of » the English garrisons, and the extor-
tions of Cressingham the treasurer, a general hatred of the
English yoke was manifested through a people, who, being
in a semi-barbarous state, were willing enough to exchange
a disgraceful submission for an honorable though desperate
warfare. The Scots assembled in troops and companies, and
betaking themselves to the woods, mountains, and morasses,
in which their fathers had defended themselves against the
Romans, prepared for a general insurrection against the En-
glish power.
If the Scoto-Norman nobles had lightly transferred their
allegiance to Edward, it was otherwise with the middle and
lower proprietors, who, sprung of the native race of Scotland,
mingling in the condition of the people, and participating in
their feeling, burned with zeal to avenge themselves on the
English, who were in usurped possession of their national
fortresses. As soon as Edward with his army had crossed
the frontiers, they broke out into a number of petty insur-
rections, unconnected indeed, but sufficiently numerous to
indicate a disposition for hostilities, which wanted but a
leader to render it general. They found one in Sir William
"Wallace.
This champion of his country was of Anglo-Norman
descent, but not so distinguished by birth and fortune as
to enjoy high rank, great wealth, or participate in that
chilling indifference to the public honor and interest which
these advantages were apt to create in their possessor. He
was born in Renfrewshire, a district of the ancient kingdom
of Strath-Clyde, and his nurse may have soothed him with
tales and songs of the Welsh bards, as there is room to sup-
pose that the British language was still lingering in remote
corners of the country, where it had been once universal.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 87
At any rate, "Wallace was bred up free from the .egotistic
and selfish principles which are but too natural to the air
of a court, and peculiarly unfavorable to the character of a
patriot. Popular Scottish tradition, which delights to dwell
upon the beloved champion of the people, describes "William
"Wallace as of dignified stature, unequalled strength and
dexterity, and so brave that only on one occasion, and then
under the influence of a supernatural power, is he allowed
by tradition to have experienced the sensation of fear.
"Wallace is believed to have been proclaimed an outlaw
for the slaughter of an Englishman in a casual fray. He
retreated to the woods, collected round him a band of men
as desperate as himself, and obtained several successes in
skirmishes with the English. Joined by Sir "William Doug-
las, in 1297, who had been taken at the siege of Berwick,
but had been discharged upon ransom, the insurgents com-
pelled Edward to send an army against them, under the Earl
of Surrey, the victor of Dunbar. Several of the nobility,
moved by Douglas's example, had joined "Wallace's stand-
ard; but overawed at the approach of the English army,
and displeased to act under a man, like "Wallace, of com-
paratively obscure birth, they capitulated with Sir Henry
Percy, the nephew of Surrey, and, in one word, changed
sides. "Wallace kept the field at the head of a considerable
army, partly consisting of his own experienced followers,
partly of the smaller barons or crown tenants, and partly of
vassals even of the apostate lords, and volunteers of every
condition. By the exertion of much conduct and resolution,
"Wallace had made himself master of the country beyond
Forth, and taken several castles, when he was summoned to
Stirling to oppose Surrey, the English governor of Scotland.
Wallace encamped on the northern side of the river, leaving
Stirling bridge apparently open to the English, but resolv-
ing, as it was long and narrow, to attack them while in the
act of crossing. The Earl of Surrey led fifty thousand in-
fantry, and a thousand men-at-arms. Part of his soldiers,
however, were the Scottish barons who had formerly joined
88 HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND
"Wallace's standard, and who, notwithstanding their return
to that of Surrey, were scarcely to be trusted to.
The English treasurer, Cressingham, murmured at the
expense attending the war, and to bring it to a crisis, pro-
posed to commence an attack the next morning by crossing
the river. Surrey, an experienced warrior, hesitated to en-
gage his troops in the defile of a wooden bridge, where scarce
two horsemen could ride abreast ; but, urged by the impru-
dent vehemence of Cressingham, he advanced, contrary to
common sense, as well as to his own judgment. The van-
guard of the English was attacked before they could get
into order; the bridge was broken down, and thousands
perished in the river and by the sword. Cressingham was
slain, and Surrey fled to Berwick on the spur, to recount to
Edward that Scotland was lost at Stirling in as short a time
as it had been won at Dunbar. In a brief period after this
victory, almost all the fortresses of the kingdom surrendered
to "Wallace.
Increasing his forces, Wallace, that he might gratify
them with plunder, led them across the English border, and
sweeping it lengthwise from Newcastle to the gates of Car-
lisle, left nothing behind him but blood and ashes. The
nature of "Wallace was fierce, but not inaccessible to pity
or remorse. As his unruly soldiers pillaged the church of
Hexham, he took the canons under his immediate protec-
tion. "Abide with me," he said, "holy men; for my people
are evil-doers, and I may not correct them."
When he returned from this successful foray, an assembly
of the states was held at the Forest church in Selkirkshire,
where Wallace was chosen guardian of the kingdom of Scot-
land. The meeting was attended by Lennox, Sir "William
Douglas, and some few men of rank: others were absent
from fear of King Edward, or from jealousy of an inferior
person, like Wallace, raised to so high a station.
Conscious of the interest which he had deservedly main-
tained in the breast of the universal people of Scotland,
"Wallace pursued his judicious plans of enforcing general
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 89
levies through the kingdom, and bringing them tinder dis-
cipline. It was full time, for Edward was moving against
them.
The English monarch was absent in Flanders when these
events took place, and what was still more inconvenient, be-
fore he could gain supplies from his Parliament to suppress
the Scottish revolt, Edward found himself obliged to confirm
Magna Charta, the charter of the forest, and other stipula-
tions in favor of the people; the English being prudently
though somewhat selfishly disposed to secure their own free-
dom before they would lend their swords to destroy that of
their neighbors.
Complying with these demands, Edward, on his return
from the Low Countries, found himself at the head of a gal-
lant muster of all the English chivalry, forming by far the
most superb army that had ever entered Scotland. Wallace
acted with great sagacity, and, according to a plan which
often before and after proved successful in Scottish warfare,
laid waste the intermediate country between Stirling and the
frontiers, and withdrew toward the centre of the kingdom
to receive the English attack, when their army should be
exhausted by privation.
Edward pressed on, with characteristic hardihood and
resolution. Tower and town fell before him: but his ad-
vance was not without such inconvenience and danger as
a less determined monarch would have esteemed a good
apology for retreat. His army suffered from want of pro-
visions, which were at length supplied in small quantities
by some of his ships. As the English king lay at Kirkliston,
in West Lothian, a tumult broke out between the Welsh and
English in his army, which, after costing some blood, was
quelled with difficulty. While Edward hesitated whether
to advance or retreat, he learned, through the treachery of
two apostate Scottish nobles (the Earls of Dunbar and Angus)
that Wallace, with the Scottish army, had approached so
near as Falkirk. This advance was doubtless made with
the purpose of annoying the expected retreat of the English.
90 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Edward, thus apprised that the Scots were in his vicinity,
determined to compel them to action. He broke up his
camp, and, advancing with caution, slept the next night in
the fields along with the soldiers. But the casualties of the
campaign were not yet exhausted. His war-horse, which
was picketed beside him, like that of an ordinary man-at-
arms, struck the king with his foot, and hurt him in the
side. A tumult arose in the camp; but Edward, regardless
of pain, appeased it by mounting his horse, riding through
the cantonments, and showing the soldiers that he was in
safety.
Next morning, July 22, 1298, the armies met. The Scot-
tish infantry were drawn up on a moor, with a morass in
front. They were divided into four phalanxes or dense
masses, with lances lowered obliquely over each other, and
seeming, says an English historian, like a castle walled
with steel. These spearmen were the flower of the army,
in whom Wallace chiefly confided. He commanded them
in person, and used the brief exhortation, "I have brought
you to the ring; dance as you best can."
The Scottish archers, under the command of Sir John
Stewart, brother of the steward of Scotland, were drawn up
in the intervals between the masses of infantry. They were
chiefly brought from the wooded district of Selkirk. We
hear of no Highland bowmen among them. The cavalry,
which only amounted to one thousand men-at-arms, held
the rear.
The English cavalry began the action. The marshal of
England led half of the men-at-arms straight upon the Scot-
tish front, but in doing so involved them in the morass. The
bishop of Durham, who commanded the other division of
the English cavalry, was wheeling round the morass on the
east, and perceiving this misfortune, because disposed to
wait for support. "To mass, bishop!" said Ralph Basset
of Drayton, and charged with the whole body. The Scottish
men-at-arms went off without couching their lances ; but the
infantry stood their ground firmly. In the turmoil that fol-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 91
lowed, Sir John Stewart fell from his horse, and was slain
among the archers of Ettricke, who died in defending or
avenging him. The close bodies of Scottish spearmen, now
exposed without means of defence or retaliation, were shaken
by the constant showers of arrows ; and the English men-at-
arms finally charging them desperately while they were in
disorder, broke and dispersed these formidable masses. The
Scots were then completely routed, and it was only the neigh-
boring woods which saved a remnant from the sword. The
body of Stewart was found among those of his faithful arch-
ers, who were distinguished by their stature and fair com-
plexions from all others with which the field was loaded.
Macduff and Sir John the Grahame, "the hardy wight
and wise," still fondly remembered as the bosom friend
of Sir "William "Wallace, were slain in the same disastrous
action.
Popular report states this battle to have been lost by
treachery; and the communication between the Earls of
Dunbar and Angus and King Edward, as well as the dis-
graceful flight of the Scottish cavalry without a single blow,
corroborates the suspicion. But the great superiority of the
English in archery may account for the loss of this as of
many another battle on the part of the Scots. The bowmen
of Ettricke forest were faithful ; but they could only be few.
So nearly had "Wallace's scheme for the campaign been suc-
cessful that Edward, even after having gained this great
battle, returned to England, and deferred reaping the har-
vest of his conquest till the following season. If he had not
been able to bring the Scottish army to action, his retreat
must have been made with discredit and loss, and Scotland
must have been left in the power of the patriots.
The slaughter and disgrace of the battle of Falkirk might
have been repaired in other respects; but it cost the Scottish
kingdom an irredeemable loss in the public services of "Wal-
lace. He resigned the guardianship of the kingdom, unable
to discharge its duties, amid the calumnies with which fac-
tion and envy aggravated his defeat. The bishop of St.
92 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Andrew's, Bruce, earl of Carrick, and Sir John Comyn,
were chosen guardians of Scotland, which they administered
in the name of Baliol. In the meantime, that unfortunate
prince was, in compassion or scorn, delivered up to the pope
by Edward, and a receipt was gravely taken for his person
from the nuncio then in France. This led to the entrance
of a new competitor for the Scottish kingdom.
The pontiff of Rome had been long endeavoring to estab-
lish a claim, as if he had been lord of the manor of all Chris-
tendom, to whatsoever should be therein found, to which a
distinct and specific right of property could not be ascer-
tained. His claim to the custody of the dethroned king
being readily admitted, Boniface VIII. was encouraged to
publish a bull, claiming Scotland as a dependency on the
see of Rome, because the country had been converted to
Christianity by the relics of St. Andrew, although how
the premises authorized the conclusion it is difficult to dis-
cover. The pope in the same document took the claim of
Edward to the Scottish crown under his own discussion, and
authoritatively commanded Edward I. to send proctors to
Rome, to plead his cause before his holiness. This magis-
terial requisition was presented by the archbishop of Canter-
bury to the king, in the presence of the council and court,
the prelate at the same time warning the sovereign to yield
unreserved obedience, since Jerusalem would not fail to pro-
tect her citizens, and Mount Zion her worshippers. "Neither
for Zion nor Jerusalem," said Edward, in towering wrath,
"will I depart from my just rights, while there is breath in
my nostrils." Accordingly he caused the pope's bull to be
laid before the Parliament of England, who unanimously
resolved, "that in temporals the king of England was inde-
pendent of Rome, and that they would not permit his sover-
eignty to be questioned." Their declaration concludes with
these remarkable words: "We neither do, will, nor can per-
mit our sovereign to do anything to the detriment of the
constitution which we are both sworn to, and are deter-
mined to maintain." A spirited assertion of national right,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 93
had it not been in so bad a cause as that of Edward's claim
of usurpation over Scotland.
Meantime the war languished during this strange discus-
sion, from which the pope was soon obliged to retreat. There
was an inefficient campaign in 1299 and 1300. In 1301 there
was a truce, in which Scotland as well as France was
included. After the expiry of this breathing space, Ed-
ward I., in the spring of 1302, sent an army into Scotland
of twenty thousand men, under Sir John Seward, a re-
nowned general. He marched toward Edinburgh in three
divisions, leaving large intervals between each. While in
this careless order, Seward's vanguard found themselves
suddenly within reach of a small but chosen body of troops,
amounting to eight thousand men, commanded by Sir John
Comyn, the guardian, and a gallant Scotch knight, Sir Simon
Fraser. Seward was defeated ; but the battle was scarce over
when his second division came up. The Scots, flushed with
victory, re-established their ranks, and having cruelly put to
death their prisoners, attacked and defeated the second body
also. The third division came up in the same manner. Again
it became necessary to kill the captives, and to prepare for a
third encounter. The Scottish leaders did so without hesita-
tion, and their followers having thrown themselves furiously
on the enemy, discomfited that division likewise, and gained,
as their historians boast, three battles in one day.
But the period seemed to be approaching in which neither
courage nor exertion could longer avail the unfortunate peo-
ple of Scotland. A peace with France, in which Philip the
Fair totally omitted all stipulations in favor of his allies, left
the kingdom to its own inadequate means of resistance, while
Edward directed his whole force against it. The castle of
Brechin, under the gallant Sir Thomas Maule, made an ob-
stinate resistance. In 1303 he was mortally wounded, and
died in an exclamation of rage against the soldiers, who
asked if they might not then surrender the castle. Edward
wintered at Dunfermline, and began the next campaign with
the siege of Stirling, the only fortress in the kingdom that
94 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
still held out. But the courage of the guardians altogether
gave way ; they set the example of submission, and such of
them as had been most obstinate in what the English king
called rebellion were punished by various degrees of fine and
banishment. "With respect to Sir William "Wallace, it was
agreed that he might have the choice of surrendering him-
self unconditionally to the king's pleasure, provided he
thought proper to do so; a stipulation which, as it signi-
fied nothing in favor of the person for whom it was ap-
parently conceived, must be imputed as a pretext on the
part of the Scottish nobles to save themselves from the dis-
grace of having left "Wallace altogether unthought of. Some
attempts were made to ascertain what sort of accommoda-
tion Edward was likely to enter into with the bravest and
most constant of his enemies ; but the demands of "Wallace
were large, and the generosity of Edward very small. The
English king broke off the treaty, and put a price of three
hundred marks on the head of the patriot.
Meantime Stirling Castle continued to be defended by a
slender garrison, and, deprived of all hopes of relief, con-
tinued to make a desperate defence, under its brave gov-
ernor, Sir "William Olifaunt, until famine and despair com-
pelled him to an unconditional surrender, when the king
imposed the harshest terms on this handful of brave men.
But what Edward prized more than the surrender of the
last fortress which resisted his arms in Scotland was the cap-
tivity of her last patriot. He had found in a Scottish noble-
man, Sir John Monteith, a person willing to become his agent
in searching for "Wallace among the wilds where he was
driven to find refuge. "Wallace was finally betrayed to the
English by his unworthy and apostate countryman, who ob-
tained an opportunity of seizing him at Robroyston, near
Glasgow, by the treachery of a servant. Sir William Wal-
lace was instantly transferred to London, where he was
brought to trial in Westminster Hall, with as much appa-
ratus of infamy as the ingenuity of his enemies could devise.
He was crowned with a garland of oak, to intimate that he
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 95
had been king of outlaws. The arraignment charged him
with high treason, in respect that he had stormed and taken
towns and castles, and shed much blood. "Traitor," said
Wallace, "was I never." The rest of the charges he con-
fessed, and proceeded to justify them. He was condemned,
and executed by decapitation. His head was placed on a
pinnacle on London Bridge, and his quarters were distrib-
uted over the kingdom.
Thus died, in 1305, this courageous patriot, leaving a re-
membrance which will be immortal in the hearts of his coun-
trymen. This steady champion of independence having been
removed, and a bloody example held out to all who should
venture to tread in his footsteps, Edward proceeded to form
a species of constitution for the country, which, at the cost
of so much labor, policy, and bloodshed, he had at length,
as he conceived, united forever with the English crown.
Ten commissioners chosen for Scotland and twenty for
England composed a set of regulations for the adminis-
tration of justice, and enactments were agreed upon, by
which the feudal law, which had been long introduced into
Scotland, was strengthened and extended, while the remains
of the ancient municipal customs of the original Celtic tribes,
or the consuetudinary laws of the Scots and Bretts (the Scoto-
Irish and British races) were finally abrogated. This was
for the purpose of promoting a uniformity of laws through
the islands. Sheriffs and other officers were appointed for the
administration of justice. There were provisions also made
for a general revision of the ancient laws and statutes of
Scotland.
But while Edward was endeavoring to reap the fruit of
so many years of craft and violence, a crisis was approach-
ing in which his whole labors were eventually destroyed.
96 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER VIII
Bruce, Earl of Carrick — His early Life — His Claims to the Throne—
His Plot with Comyn — Death of Comyn — Bruce assumes the
Crown — Battle of Methven Park — Extremities to which Bruce
is reduced — He flies to Rachrin— Fate of his Adherents
ROBERT BRUCE, earl of Carrick, was the grandson
of that nobleman who was competitor for the crown
of Scotland when John Baliol was preferred to the
short-lived honor of wearing it. Since the time that he met
a rude repulse from Edward, after the battle of Dunbar, am-
bition seems to have been mortified within the candidate.
He retired to his English estates, and lived there in such
security as the times admitted. His son did not take much
concern in public affairs; but the grandson early evinced a
desire of distinction, which showed itself in active bursts of
sudden enterprise, which were directed in a manner so incon-
sistent, and taken up and abandoned with so much apparent
levity, as to afford little prospect of his possessing the strength
of character and vigor of determination which he afterward
exhibited under such a variety of adventures, disastrous or
prosperous.
Robert Bruce was put in possession of the earldom of
Carrick by the resignation of his father in 1293. About this
time Baliol, king of Scotland, declared war against England ;
but none of the Bruce family joined him on that occasion.
They continued to regard their own chief the elder Bruce's
title to the crown as more just than that of Baliol. The
eldest Bruce, indeed, as we have just noticed, nourished
hopes that Edward would have preferred him to the crown
on the deposition of his rival ; but checked by the scornful
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 97
answer of the monarch, that he had other business than con-
quering kingdoms for him, he retired to his great Yorkshire
possessions, yielding his Scottish estates to the charge of his
grandson, who showed at this early period, when a youth of
two or three-and-twenty, a bold, bustling, and ambitious,
but versatile disposition of mind. He had a natural spirit
of ill-will against the great family of Comyn, because John
Comyn of Badenoch had married Marjory, the sister of John
Baliol. So that when BalioPs title was ended by his resig-
nation, and the foreign residence and youth of his son placed
him out of the question, John, called the Red Comyn, the
son of John Comyn of Badenoch and Marjory Baliol, had,
through his mother, the same title to the throne as that
which had been preferred on the part of John Baliol : and
the Comyns' claim, as BalioPs, in the last generation, then
stood in direct opposition to that on which the Bruces rested
as descendants from Isabella, second daughter of David, earl
of Huntingdon.
But, besides the emulation which divided these two great
families touching the succession of the crown, there had pri-
vate injuries passed between them of a nature which, in that
haughty age, were accounted deserving of persevering and
inveterate vengeance. The lords who joined John Baliol in
his revolt from Edward had issued a hasty order, confiscat-
ing the rich property of Annandale, because Bruce had not
obeyed their summons. His domains were granted by John
Baliol to Comyn, earl of Buchan, and Bruce's castle of Loch-
maben was occupied by him accordingly. From these united
reasons, it is probable that Robert never forgave a family
whose claim had not only come between his grandfather and
a crown, but who had also showed a purpose of stripping
him of his paternal estate, and dared to establish one of
their number as lord of his castle. The chief part of his
resentment was directed against the Comyns, who took ad-
vantage by the act of confiscation, for Baliol was regarded
only as the tool ; and this must be considered as adding to
the feudal hatred between the powerful houses of Bruce
5 ^ Vol. I.
98 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
and Comyn, which afterward led to such important conse-
quences.
The two representatives of these two great factions of
Bruce and Comyn, therefore, stood in regular opposition to
each other, each having a claim to the throne, which both
probably only wanted an opportunity of urging. The nec-
essary consequence was that suspicion and hatred divided
the heads of the two rival houses, and rendered it almost
impossible for them to concur in any joint effort for their
country's liberty, because, when that freedom should be
achieved, they could not expect to agree which of them
should be placed at the head of affairs. During the insur-
rection of Wallace, the younger Bruce acted with more than
usual versatility. Being summoned by the bishop of Car-
lisle to come to a council held by that prelate, who had
charge of the peace of the north, he made appearance ac-
cordingly, took every oath that could be suggested in
attestation of his faith to the king of England, showed
his zeal by plundering the lands of William of Douglas,
the associate of Wallace, carried that baron's wife and
family away prisoners ; and having done all this to evince
his faith to Edward, he united himself to Wallace and his
associates. Once more Bruce saw reason to repent the part
he had taken, made haste anew to submit to the king of
England, again swore fealty to that monarch, and gave his
infant daughter as a hostage for keeping his faith in future.
As, however, he did not join the English army, Edward de-
termined to regard him as a cold-spirited neutral, and took
into English possession his castle of Lochmaben. This created
a new revolution in Bruce's sentiments, and he permitted
himself to be joined in the Scottish commission of regency,
of which his rival, John the Red Comyn, was a distinguished
member, having commanded, as we observed, at the memo-
rable battle of Roslin. It does not appear that Bruce was
disposed to act with vigor in the same cause that was espoused
and defended by his feudal enemy ; and his exertions against
the cause of Edward were so cold that, upon the pacification
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 99
between Edward and the Scots, and the death of his father
in 1304, Bruce was permitted to take possession of his pa-
ternal estates, while Comyn, as the greater delinquent in
English eyes, was subjected to a severe fine. Bruce also
was consulted on the measures by which Edward proposed
to achieve the pacification of Scotland, while Comyn was
excluded from the favor and the councils of the English
monarch. It is probable that Edward, from the uncertain
tenor of Bruce's conduct, was disposed to rely upon him as
the person of the two rivals who might be the most easily
guided and influenced, since hitherto his conduct had been
ruled according to the immediate pressure of his own inter-
est ; and the zeal which, at times, he had discovered for the
freedom of Scotland, had uniformly cooled, when the effects
of success in his country's cause went to exalt the house of
Comyn, and render that of Bruce subordinate. Thus reck-
oned Edward, conceiving that self-interest was the unfailing
key to regulate Bruce's motions, and allowing nothing for
those strong impulses, which often change the whole human
character, and give a new and nobler direction to one who
has till then only appeared influenced by the passions and
versatility of early youth.
In 1304, Bruce enjoyed the favor and confidence of King
Edward, and was one of those in whom that sagacious mon-
arch chiefly trusted for securing Scotland to his footstool for-
ever. Such, however, was far from being the intention of
the young Earl of Carrick. Though we can but obscurely
trace what his purpose really was, this much is certain — a
great object now presented itself, which formerly was not
open to Bruce's ambition. In the insurrection of "Wallace,
and the subsequent stand made after the battle of Falkirk
by the commissioners of regency, the name of John Baliol
had always been used as the head and sovereign of Scotland,
in whose right its natives were in arms, and for whom they
defended their country against the English. It was prob-
ably tho high influence of the Comyns, his near connections,
which kept the claims of Baliol so long in the public eye.
100 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
But, in his disgraceful renunciation, followed by a long ab-
sence from Scotland, after renouncing every exertion to de-
fend his kingdom, the king, Toom-tabard (Empty Coat), as
he was termed by the people, lost all respect and allegiance
among his subjects, nor seems there to have been any who
turned to him with any sentiment of loyalty, or even inter-
est. The crown of Scotland was therefore open to any dar-
ing claimant who might be disposed to brave the fury of the
English usurper ; and such a candidate might have rested,
with some degree of certainty, upon the general feeling of
the Scottish nation, and upon that disaffection which, like a
strong ground-swell, agitated both the middle classes and
populace throughout the country, who were disposed, from
the spirit of independence with which they were animated,
to follow almost any banner which might be displayed against
England, the weight of whose yoke became the more severe
the closer it was riveted on their necks.
In this conjuncture Bruce entered into a secret treaty
with "William de Lambyrton, the primate of Scotland, bind-
ing themselves to stand by each other against all mortals,
the terms of which (the king of England not being excepted)
plainly inferred some desperate enterprise. It was thought
necessary to discover this league to John Comyn; or, per-
haps, he had been led to suspect it, and such a communica-
tion had become unavoidable on the part of the conspirators.
Comyn was given to understand that the purpose of the
league was the destruction of the English supremacy in
Scotland. The question was natural, "And what king do
you intend to propose?" To this Bruce, in a personal con-
ference with John Comyn, is said to have pointed out to him
that their claims to the throne might be considered as equal :
"therefore," said Bruce, "do you support my title to be king
of Scots, and I will surrender my patrimonial estates to you ;
or give over to me your family possessions, and I will sup-
port your claim to the throne. ' ' Comyn, it is said by the
Scottish historians, ostensibly embraced the alternative of
taking Bruce 's large property, and asserting his claim to
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 101
royalty. But in secret he resolved to avail himself of this
discovery to betray the intrigues of his rival to Edward.
Robert Bruce had returned to London, and was in attend-
ance on the English court, when a private token from the
Earl of Gloucester, his kinsman, made him aware that his
safety and liberty were in danger. — It is said the Earl
of Gloucester sent Bruce a piece of money and a pair of
spurs. Men's wits are sharpened by danger, and slighter
intimations have been sufficient in such circumstances to put
them on their guard, and induce them to take measures for
their safety when peril hovered over them. — He left London
instantly, and hastened to Scotland. It is said that near the
Solway Sands, Bruce and his attendants met an emissary
of Comyn, who was despatched, they found, for the English
court. They killed the messenger without hesitation, and
from the contents of his packet learned the extent of Comyn's
treachery. In five days Bruce reached his castle of Loch-
maben.
It was in the month of February, 1305-6; and the En-
glish justiciaries appointed by Edward's late regulations for
preservation of the peace of the country of Scotland were
holding their assizes at Dumfries for that purpose. Bruce,
not yet prepared for an open breach with England, was
under the necessity of rendering attendance on this high
court as a crown vassal, and came to the county-town for
that purpose. He here found Comyn, whom the same duty
had brought to Dumfries. Bruce invited his rival to a pri-
vate interview, which was held in the church of the Friars
Minorite ; a precaution — an unavailing one as it proved — for
the safety of both parties, and the peaceful character of the
meeting. They met by themselves, the slender retinue
of each baron remaining apart, and without the church.
Between two such haughty rivals a quarrel was sure to
arise, whether out of old feud or recent injury. The Scots
historians say that at their private interview Bruce upbraided
Comyn with his treacherous communication to Edward : the
English, more improbably, state that he then, for the first time,
102 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
imparted to Comyn his plan of insurrection against England,
which Comyn rejected with scorn, and that this gave occa-
sion to what followed. "Without pretending to detail what
no one save the survivor could have truly described, it is
certain that a violent altercation took place, in which Comyn
gave Bruce the lie, and Bruce in reply stabbed Comyn with
his dagger. Confounded at the rashness of his own action,
in a place so sacred, Bruce hastened out of the sanctuary.
There stood without two of his friends and adherents, Kirk-
patrick of Closeburne, and Lindsay, a younger son of Lind-
say of Crawford. They saw Bruce's bloody weapon and
disordered demeanor, and inquired eagerly the cause. "I
doubt," said Bruce, "I have slain the Red Comyn." "Do
you trust that to doubt?" said Kirkpatrick; "I make sure";
so saying, he rushed into the church, and despatched the
wounded man. Sir Robert Comyn, the uncle of John, inter-
fered to save his kinsman, but was slain along with him.
The English justiciaries, hearing this tumult, barricaded
themselves in the hall where they administered justice.
Bruce, however, compelled them to surrender, by putting
fire to their place of retreat, and thereafter dismissed them
in safety.
This rash act of anger and impatience broke off all chance
which might still have remained to Bruce of accommodating
matters with Edward, who now knew his schemes of insur-
rection, and must have regarded Comyn as a victim of his
fidelity to the English government. On the other hand, the
circumstances attending the slaughter were marked with
sacrilege and breach of a solemn sanctuary, so as to render
the act of homicide detestable in the eyes of all, save those
who from a strong feeling of common interest might be in-
clined to make common cause with the perpetrator. This
interest could only exist among the Scottish patriots, who
might see in Bruce the vindicator of his country's liberty
and his own right to the crown ; claims so sacred as to justify
in their eyes his enforcing them against the treacherous con-
fidant who had betrayed the secret to the foreign usurper,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 103
even with the dagger's point, and at the foot of the altar.
Bruce was, therefore, in a position as critical as if he had
stood midway up a dizzy precipice, where the path was cut
away behind him. The crown of Scotland hung within a
possibility of his reaching it; and though the effort was
necessarily attended with a great risk of failure, yet an
attempt to retreat in any other direction must have been
followed by inevitable destruction. Sensible of the perils
of the choice, Bruce, therefore, resolved to claim the throne,
with the unalterable resolution either to free his country
or perish in the attempt.
He retired from Dumfries into the adjoining wilds of
Nithsdale, and resided in obscurity in the hut of a poor man,
near the remarkable hill called the Dun of Tynron. Mean-
time he sent messengers abroad in every direction, to collect
his friends and followers through his extensive estates, and
to warn such nobles as he knew to be favorable to Scottish
independence. But their numbers were but few, and they
were ill prepared for a hasty summons. His own family
supplied him with four bold brethren, all men of hardihood
and skill in arms. His nephew, afterward the celebrated
Thomas Randolph, and his brother-in-law, Christopher Sea-
ton, also followed the cause of their relation. Of churchmen,
the primate of Scotland, the bishop of Glasgow, and the
abbot of Scone, joined in the undertaking, together with the
Earls of Lennox and of Athol, and some fourteen barons,
with whose assistance Bruce was daring enough to defy the
whole strength of England. He went from Dumfriesshire
to Glasgow, where he determined to take the decisive meas-
ure of celebrating his coronation at Scone. On his road
thither, Bruce was joined by a warrior, who continued till
his death the best and most disinterested of his friends and
adherents. This was the young Sir James of Douglas, son
of William of Douglas, the heroic companion of Wallace,
and, like his father, devoted to the independence of
Scotland.
On the 27th of March, 1306, the ceremony of crowning
204 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Bruce was performed at Scone with as much state as the
means of the united barons would permit. Edward had
carried off the royal crown of Scotland : a slight coronet of
gold was hastily made to supply its place. The Earls of Fife
had, since the days of Malcolm Cean-mohr, uniformly pos-
sessed and exercised the right of placing the crown on the
king's head at his coronation, in memory of the high services
rendered by their ancestor, Macduff, to that monarch. On
this occasion the Earl of Fife did not attend ; but the right
was, contrary to his inclination, exercised by his sister, Isa-
bella, the countess of Buchan, who absconded from her
husband, in order that the blood of Macduff might render
the service due to the heir of Malcolm Cean-mohr. For this
she was afterward strangely and cruelly punished by Ed-
ward I.
Although the figure which Robert Bruce had hitherto
made in public life was of a fickle and apparently selfish
description, yet his character for chivalrous accomplishments
stood high, and when he took the field many of "Wallace's
old followers began to join him.
Meantime Edward directed Aymer de Valence, earl of
Pembroke, under the title of guardian of Scotland, to pro-
ceed to put down the rebellion in that kingdom. He was
accompanied by Lord Clifford and Henry Percy. The king
himself was then ill, and scarce able to mount on horseback ;
nevertheless he celebrated, with feudal solemnities, the day
on which he conferred the dignity of knighthood upon the
Prince of Wales and three hundred young gentlemen, the
heirs of the first families in England. In the course of a
high festival, celebrated on this occasion, two swans, richly
adorned with gold network, were placed on the table, and
the king made a vow (according to the singular custom of
the age) to God and to the swans, that he would forthwith
set out for Scotland to punish the treachery of his Scottish
rebels, as it pleased him to call Bruce and his followers, and
avenge the death of Sir John Comyn. He then adjured
his son, that, should he die in the expedition, his bones
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 105
should be preserved, and borne at the head of the army,
till the kingdom of Scotland was entirely subdued.
Meanwhile Bruce, against whom these vindictive prep-
arations were directed, was engaged in strengthening his
party without any considerable success. His enterprise was
regarded as desperate, even by his own wife (according to
the English authorities), who, while he boasted to her of the
sovereign rank he had obtained, said to him, "You are, in-
deed, a summer king; but you will scarce be a winter one."
He appears to have sought an encounter with the Earl of
Pembroke, who, with an army of English, had thrown him-
self into the fortified town of Perth. Bruce arrived before
the town with a host inferior to that of the English earl by
fifteen hundred men-at-arms. Nevertheless he sent Pem-
broke a challenge to come forth and fight. The English-
man replied, he would meet him on the morrow. Bruce re-
tired to the neighboring wood of Methven, where he took up
his quarters for the night, expecting no battle until next
day. But Pembroke's purpose was different from what he
expressed. He caused his men instantly to take arms, though
the day was far spent, and, sallying from the town of Perth,
assaulted with fury the Scots, who were in their cantonments
and taken at unawares. They fought boldly and Bruce him-
self was thrice unhorsed. At one moment he was prisoner
in the hands of Sir Philip de Mowbray, who shouted aloud
that he had taken the new king. Christopher Seaton struck
Mowbray to the earth, and rescued his brother-in-law. About
four hundred of the Scots kept together, and effected their
escape to the wilds of Athol. Several prisoners were made,
and some pardoned or admitted to ransom ; but those of dis-
tinction were pitilessly hanged, drawn, and quartered. Young
Randolph, Bruce's nephew, submitted to the king of England,
and was admitted to favor.
Bruce, seeing his party almost totally dissipated by the
defeat at Methven, was obliged to support himself and the
few who remained with him, among whom were his own
wife, and many other ladies, by the toils of the chase, in
106 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
which it was remarked that the zeal and address of Douglas
distinguished him above others of Brace's band, by the
contributions which he brought to the relief of the ladies.
From Athol the noble fugitives retreated into Aberdeenshire,
and from thence they approached the borders of Argyleshire.
Hitherto they had been safe from enemies in the fastnesses
of a desolate and thinly-peopled country, and the produce of
the chase had been sufficient to sustain their wants. But
they were now compelled to approach a hostile country,
where battle was to be expected. Winter was approaching,
and threatened not only to diminish their supplies of suste-
nance, but was likely, by the rigor of the weather, to render
it impossible for their females any longer to accompany
them. For himself, the fugitive king seems to have shaped
his course under the guidance of Sir Neil Campbell, of Loch-
Awe (ancestor of the great house of Argyle), who had under-
taken to procure the king some refuge among the islands, or
on the adjacent mainland of Cantire.
Hitherto Bruce and his companions in wandering appear
to have experienced neither favor nor opposition from the in-
habitants of the districts through which they rambled ; but
most part of the shire of Argyle, which they now approached,
was under the command of a powerful chief called Macdou-
gal, or John of Lorn. This prince had married an aunt of
the slaughtered John Comyn, and desired nothing with more
ardor than an opportunity to revenge the death of his ally
upon the homicide. Accordingly, when Bruce attempted to
penetrate into Argyleshire at the head of his company, he
was opposed by John of Lorn, who encountered him at a
place called Dairy (i.e., the king's field), near the head of
Strathfillan. The Highlandmen being on foot, and armed
with long pole-axes, called Lochaber-axes, attacked the little
band of Bruce where the knights had no room to manage
their horses, and did them much injury. Bruce, compelled
to turn back, placed himself in the rear of his followers, and
protected their retreat with the utmost gallantry. Three
Highlanders, a father and two sons, assaulted him at once;
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 107
but Bruce, completely armed, and excellent at the use of his
weapon, rid himself of them by despatching them one after
another. "Look at him," said John of Lorn, in unwilling
admiration; "he guards his men from us, as Gaul, the son
of Morni, protected his host from the fury of Fingal. ' ' —The
comparison was taken from some of the ancient Gaelic poems
composed by, or imputed to, the Celtic bard, Ossian. But
the reader will not find the incident in the English work of
Macpherson.
Driven back from the road by which he had purposed to
approach the western isles, where he had some hopes of find-
ing shelter, Bruce labored under great and increasing diffi-
culties, the first effect of which was to compel him to sepa-
rate the ladies from his company. His younger brother,
Nigel Bruce, was sent to conduct the queen and her attend-
ants back to Aberdeenshire, where his brother was still
master of a strong castle, called Kildrummie, which might
serve them for some time as a place of refuge. We shall
afterward give some account of their evil fortune.
As Bruce and his band had in their retreat before Mac-
dougal fallen down considerably to the southward of Dairy,
where they had sustained their late defeat, Loch Lomond
was now interposed between them and the province of Can-
tire and the western coast. A little boat, capable of carry-
ing only three men at once, was the only means to be found
for the purpose of passing over two hundred persons. To
divert his attendants during this tiresome ferry, the Bruce
amused them with reading the adventures of Ferambras, a
fabulous hero of a metrical romance; a legend in which
they might find encouragement to patience under difficulties
scarcely more romantic than those which they themselves
were subjected to.
On the banks of Loch Lomond, Bruce met with the Earl
of Lennox, who, wandering there for protection, discovered
the king was in his neighborhood, by hearing a bugle sounded
with an art which he knew to be peculiar to his master. They
met, embraced, and wept. By the guidance and assistance
108 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
of Lennox, Bruce reached the province of Cantire, then sub-
ject to Angus, called Lord of the Isles. Here the king met
with Sir Neil Campbell, who had gone before him to propiti-
ate this powerful Highland prince, whose favor was the more
easily obtained that he was unfriendly to John Macdougal of
Lorn, the personal enemy of Robert Bruce. This Angus was
also the descendant of the renowned Somerled, and head of
the sept of the Macdonalds, the most powerful scion of those
original Scots who colonized Argyleshire under Fergus, the
son of Eric, and who, seated in Cantire, Islay, and the other
western islands, had, since the death of Alexander III.,
nearly shaken off subordination to the crown of Scotland,
and paid as little respect to the English claim upon their
supremacy.
Though Bruce was received by the Lord of the Isles with
kindness and hospitality, he was probably sensible that his
residence on or near the mainland of Scotland might draw
down on his protector the vengeance of Edward, against
whom the insular prince could not have offered an effectual
defence. He therefore resolved to bury himself in the re-
mote island of Rachrin, on the coast of Ireland, a rude and
half -desolate islet, but inhabited by the clan of Macdonalds,
and subject to their friendly lord. By this retreat, he effected
his purpose of secluding himself from the jealous researches
made after him by the adherents of the English monarch,
and the feudal hatred of John of Lorn. Here Bruce con-
tinued to lurk in concealment during the winter of 1306.
In the meantime his friends and adherents in Scotland
suffered all the miseries which the rage of an exasperated
and victorious sovereign could inflict. His wife and his
daughter were taken forcibly from the sanctuary of St.
Duthac, at Tain, and consigned to the severities of separate
English prisons, where they remained for eight years. The
Countess of Buchan, who had placed the crown on the
Bruce's head, was immured in a place of confinement con-
structed expressly for her reception on the towers of the
castle of Berwick, where the sight of her prison might make
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 109
her the subject of wonder or scorn to all that passed. The
bishop of St. Andrew's, the bishop of Glasgow, and the ab-
bot of Scone, taken in arms, were imprisoned by Edward,
who applied to the pope for their degradation, in which,
however, he did not succeed. Nigel Bruce, a gallant and
beautiful as well as highly accomplished youth, held out in
his brother's castle of Kildrummie till a traitoi in the garri-
son set fire to the principal magazine, when surrender became
inevitable. He was tried, condemned, and executed. Chris-
topher Seaton, who so gallantly rescued the Bruce at the bat-
tle of Methven, shared with his brother-in-law the same mel-
ancholy fate. The vengeance of Edward did not spare his
own blood. The Earl of Athol had some relationship with
the royal family of England ; but the circumstance having
been pleaded in favor of the earl, Edward only gave so much
weight to it as to assign him the distinction of a gallows fifty
feet high.
Simon Fraser, one of the commanders at the victory of
Koslin (the other being the unfortunate John Comyn), still
disdained to surrender, and continued in arms, till, being
defeated at a place called Kirkincliffe, near Stirling, he was
finally made prisoner, exposed to the people of London loaded
with fetters, crowned with a garland in mockery, and exe-
cuted with all the studied cruelty of the treason law. The
citizens were taught to believe that demons, with iron hooks,
were seen ramping on the gibbets, among the dismembered
limbs of these unfortunate men, as they were exposed upon
the bridge of London. The inference was that the fiends
were in like manner employed in tormenting the souls of
men, whose crimes, so far as we know them, were summed
up in their endeavors to defend their country from a foreign
yoke.
To add to the disastrous deaths of his friends and associ-
ates, the fate of Bruce personally seemed utterly destitute.
He was forfeited by the English government as a man guilty
of murder and sacrilege, and his large estates, extending
from Galloway to the Solway Firth, were bestowed on dif-
110 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
ferent English nobles, of which Sir Henry Percy and Lord
Robert Clifford had the greatest share. A formal sentence
of excommunication was at the same time pronounced against
him by the papal legate, with all the terrific pomp with which
Rome knows how to volley her thunders.
Thus closed the year 1306 upon Scotland. The king, lurk-
ing in an obscure isle beyond the verge of his dominions, an
outlawed man, deprived at once of all civil and religious
rights, and expelled from the privileges of a Christian, in
as far as Rome had power to effect it ; the heads and limbs
of his best and bravest adherents, men like Seaton and
Fraser, who had upheld the cause of their country through
every species of peril, blackening in the sun on the walls of
their own native cities, or garnishing those of their vindic-
tive enemy. But in these, as in similar cases, Heaven fre-
quently sends assistance when man seems without hope, as
the darkest hour of the night is often that which precedes
the dawning.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 111
CHAPTER IX
Bruce returns to Scotland, lands in Arran, and passes from thence
to Ayrshire — Success of his Adherent James Douglas — Capture
and Execution of Bruce's Brothers, Thomas and Alexander —
The English evacuate Ayrshire — Bruce's reputation increases —
Edward I. marches against him, but dies in sight of Scotland —
Edward H.'s vacillating Measures — Bruce in the North of Scot-
land: defeats the Earl of Buchan, and ravages his Country —
His further Successes— Defeat of the Lord of Lorn at Crua-
chan-ben — Feeble and irresolute Conduct of Edward contrasted
with the Firmness of Bruce and the Scottish Clergy and People
— Inefficient Attempt of Edward to invade Scotland — Bruce
ravages the English Borders: takes Perth — Roxburgh Castle
surprised by Douglas, Edinburgh by Randolph, Linlithgow by
Binnock— The Isle of Man subdued by Bruce — The Governor of
Stirling agrees to surrender the Place if not relieved before
Midsummer— Bruce is displeased with his Brother Edward for
accepting these Terms, yet resolves to abide by them — King
Edward makes formidable Preparations to relieve Stirling
WITH the return of spring, hope and the spirit of
enterprise again inspired the dauntless heart
of Robert Bruce. He made a descent on the
isle of Arran, with the view of passing from thence to
the Scottish mainland. A faithful vassal in his earldom
of Carrick engaged to watch when a landing could be
made with some probability of success, and intimate the
opportunity to Bruce. The signal agreed upon was a fire
to be lighted by the vassal on the cape or headland beneath
Turnberry Castle, upon seeing which, it was resolved Bruce
should embark with his men. The light, long watched for,
at length appeared ; but it had not been kindled by Bruce's
confidant. The king sailed to the mainland without hesita-
tion, and was astonished to find his emissary watching on
112 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the beach, to tell him the fire was accidental, the English
were reinforced, the people dispirited, and there was noth-
ing to be attempted with a prospect of success. Robert
Bruce hesitated ; but his brother Edward, a man of courage
which reached to temerity, protested that he would not go
again to sea, but being thus arrived in his native country,
would take the good or evil destiny which Heaven might
send him. Robert himself was easily persuaded to adopt
the same bold counsel ; and a sudden attack upon a part of
the English, who were quartered in the town, gave them
victory and a rich booty, as Percy, who lay in the castle,
did not venture to sally to the relief of his men.
This advantage was followed by others. It seemed as if
fortune had exhausted her spite on the dauntless adventurer,
or that Heaven regarded him as having paid an ample pen-
ance for the slaughter of Comyn.
Bruce was joined by friends and followers, and the En-
glish were compelled to keep their garrisons ; until Sir Henry
Percy, instead of making head against the invader, deemed
it necessary to evacuate Turnberry Castle, and retreat to
England. James Douglas penetrated into his own country
in disguise, and collecting some of his ancient followers,
surprised the English garrison placed by Lord Clifford in
Douglas Castle, and putting the garrison to the sword, min.
gled the mangled bodies with a large stock of provisions
which the English had amassed, and set fire to the castle.
The country people to this day call this exploit the Douglas's
larder.
The efforts of Bruce were not uniformly successful. Two
of his brothers, Thomas and Alexander, had landed in Gallo-
way, but were defeated and made prisoners by Roland Mac-
dougal, a chief of that country who was devoted to England.
He sent the unfortunate brothers to Edward, who executed
them both, and became thus accountable to Bruce for the
death of three of his brethren. This accident rendered the
king's condition more precarious than it had been, and en-
couraged the Gallovidians to make many attempts against
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 113
his person, in some of which they made use of bloodhounds.
At one time he escaped so narrowly that his banner was
taken, and, as it happened, by his own nephew, Thomas
Randolph, then employed in the ranks of the English.
"When pressed upon on this and similar occasions, it was
the custom of Bruce to elude the efforts of the enemy by
dispersing his followers, who, each shifting for himself,
knew where to meet again at some place of rendezvous,
and often surprised and put to the sword some part of the
enemy which were lying in full assurance of safety.
At length, after repeated actions and a long series of
marching and counter-marching, Pembroke was forced to
abandon Ayrshire to the Bruce, as Percy had done before
him. Douglas on his part was successful in Lanarkshire,
and the numerous patriots resumed the courage which they
had possessed under "Wallace. A battle was fought at Lou-
doun Hill, in consequence of an express appointment, be-
tween Bruce and his old enemy, the Earl of Pembroke, who
was returning to the west with considerable reinforcements,
the 10th of May, 1307, in which the Scottish king completely
avenged the defeat at Methven. Pembroke fled to Ayr, in
which place of refuge the Earl of Gloucester was also forced
to seek safety. By these and similar skirmishes, in which
his perfect knowledge of the principles of partisan warfare
enabled him to take every advantage afforded by the excel-
lence of his intelligence arising from the goodwill of the
country, or by circumstances of ground, weather, weapons,
and the like, the Scottish king gradually accustomed his
men to repose so much confidence in his skill and wisdom
that his orders for battle were regarded as a call to assured
victory. He himself, James Douglas, and others among his
followers, displayed at the same time all that personal and
chivalrous valor, which the manners of the age demanded
of a leader, and which often restored a battle when well-
nigh lost. It was to these latter qualities also, as well as
to precaution and sagacity, that Bruce was indebted for his
escape from several treacherous attempts to take away his
214 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
life, by the friends of the slaughtered Corny n, or the ad-
herents of the king of England. Several of such assassins
were slain by Robert with his own hand; and a general
opinion, long suppressed by the former course of adverse
events, began to be entertained through Scotland, that
Heaven, in the hour of utmost need, had raised up in the
heir of the Scottish throne a prince destined by Providence
to deliver his country, and that no weapon forged against
him should prosper.
The gradual and increasing reputation of Bruce, the re-
nown of his exploits, the talents which his conduct proved
him to possess, reached the ears of Edward the First more
and more frequently, and stung the aged sovereign with the
most acute sense of wounded pride and mortified ambition.
In fulfilment of his romantic vow to Heaven and the swans,
Edward had advanced as far as Carlisle, to open his pro-
posed campaign against the Scots, but had been detained
there during the whole winter by the wasting effects of a
dysentery. As the season of action approached, and the
rumors of Bruce's success increased, the king persuaded
himself that resentment would restore him the strength
which age and disease had impaired. It was, indeed, a
mortifying condition in which he found himself. For the
space of nineteen or twenty years the conquest of Scotland
had been the darling object of his thoughts and plans. It
had cost him the utmost exertion of his bold and crafty fac-
ulties — blood had been shed without measure — wealth lav-
ished without grudging, to accomplish this darling plan;
and now, when disease had abated his strength and energies,
he was doomed to see from his sick bed the hills of Scotland,
while he knew that they were still free. As if endeavoring
to restore by a strong effort of the mind the failing strength
of his body, he declared himself recovered, hung up in the
cathedral the horse-litter in which he had hitherto travelled,
but which he conceived he should need no longer, and,
mounting his war-horse, proceeded northward. It was too
forced an effort to be continued long. Edward only reached
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 115
the village of Burgh on the Sands, and expired there on the
7th July, 1307. On his deathbed, his thoughts were entirely
on the Scottish affairs : he made his son swear that he would
prosecute the war without truce or breathing-space ; he re-
peated the strange injunction, that his flesh being boiled
from his bones, the latter should be transported at the head
of the army with which he was about to invade Scotland,
and never be restored to the tomb till that obstinate nation
was entirely subdued. By way of corollary to this singular
precept, the dying king bequeathed his heart to be sent to
the Holy Land, in whose defence he had once fought.
Edward II., the feeble yet headstrong successor of the
most sagacious and resolute of English princes, neglected
the extraordinary direction of the dying monarch respecting
the disposal of his body, which he caused to be interred at
"Westminster (by which means the bones of Edward I. prob-
ably escaped falling into Scottish custody) ; and naming first
the Earl of Pembroke, and afterward John de Bretagne,
earl of Richmond, in his room, to be guardian of Scotland,
he himself found it more agreeable to hasten back to share
the pleasures of London with Gaveston and his other min-
ions, than to undertake the difficult and laborious task of
subduing Bruce and his hardy associates.
The English guardian, however, did his duty, and soon
assembled a force so superior to that of Bruce that the king
thought it necessary to shift the war into the northern parts
of Scotland, where the enemy could not be so suddenly rein-
forced. He left the indefatigable James of Douglas to carry
on the war in the wooded and mountainous district of
Ettricke forest.
In Aberdeenshire King Robert was joined by Sir Alexan-
der and Sir Simon Fraser, sons of the gallant hero of Roslin.
But he was opposed by Comyn, earl of Buchan, who to
party hatred added an eager desire to revenge the death
of his kinsman slain by Bruce. The time seemed favorable
for his purpose, for Bruce was at this time afflicted with a
lingering and wasting distemper, which impaired his health
116 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
and threatened his life. In this condition, he thought it wise
to retreat before the Earl of Buchan, who at length pressed
so closely on his rear as to beat up their quarters in the town
of Old Meldrum, and cause some loss. "These folks will
work a cure on me," said Bruce, starting from the litter
which he had been of late compelled to use; and rushing
into battle, though obliged to be supported in his saddle,
he was so actively seconded by his troops that he totally
defeated the Earl of Buchan ; and in reward for the perti-
nacity with which that lord had pursued him, he ravaged
his country so severely that the herrying of Buchan was
the subject of lamentation for a hundred years afterward,
and traces of the devastation may be even yet seen.
After this action Sir David de Brechin, the Bruce's
nephew, who had formerly taken part with the Earl of
Buchan, is said to have joined his uncle; yet in 1312,
nearly three years afterward, we find him again employed
by Edward; so sudden were changes of party in these un-
settled times, even among men who held a high character
for faith and honor. In the "Rotulee Scotias," as quoted
by Mr. Tytler, Edward employs David de Brechin as joint
warden with Montfichet. The citizens of Aberdeen also
declared in Bruce's favor, and adding acts to professions,
stormed and took the castle, and expelled the English gar-
rison. The citadel of Forfar was also takeo, and both fort-
resses were demolished by order of Bruce ; a course of policy
which he always observed, because, as the English were
more skilful in the attack and defence of fortified places, the
existence of such afforded them facilities both in gaining
and securing their possessions in Scotland which could not
have existed if the country had been open and not com-
manded by citadels or castles.
While victory thus attended his own banners in the north
of Scotland, King Robert despatched parties of his followers,
under his best leaders, to spread the insurrection into other
districts, and by diverting the attention of the English in-
vaders, prevent them from assembling a large force and fin-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 117
ishing the war by a single blow, as at Dunbar and Falkirk.
Edward Bruce fought and won several actions against the
English in Galloway, as well as against the natives of that
barbarous country, who had always taken part against the
Bruce's interest. He gained these successes through exer-
tion of a reckless courage which defied all the usual calcula-
tions of prudence. At length, after a severe defeat given to
the native chiefs and their southern allies on the banks of the
Dee, June 29, 1308, Edward expelled the English entirely
from Galloway, and brought that rude province into sub-
mission to his brother.
Douglas again retook and dismantled his own fortress of
Douglas, upon which he had now made three attacks, two
of which were completely successful. He then proceeded to
scour the hills of Tweedale and the forest of Ettricke. In
reconnoitring the country on the small river of Lyne, the
Douglas approached a house, in which a spy whom he sent
forward heard men talking loudly, one of whom used the
"devil's name" as an oath or adjuration. Conjecturing they
must be soldiers who dared make familiar use of so formid-
able a phrase, Douglas caused his attendants to beset the
house, and made prisoners therein Thomas Randolph, the
king's nephew, and Alexander Stewart of Bonkill, both of
whom, since the battle of Methven, had adhered to the En-
glish interest. They were well treated, and sent to the king,
who gently rebuked Randolph for breach of allegiance. "It
is you," said the haughty young warrior, "who degrade
your own cause by trusting to ambuscades instead of facing
the English in the field." "That may happen in due time,"
replied Bruce: "in the meantime, it is fitting that you be
taught your duty by restraint." Thomas Randolph was
sent accordingly to prison, where he did not long remain.
He was reconciled to his uncle, whom he ever after served
with the utmost fidelity: indeed, Douglas only, among the
followers of the Bruce, was held to equal him in military
fame.
Bruce's successes now enabled him to chastise the Lord
118 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
of Lorn, by whom, after his defeat at Methven, he had been
so severely persecuted. He marched toward Argyleshire,
and arrived at Dalmally. Here he learned that John of
Lorn and his Highlanders had stationed themselves in a
formidable pass, where the great mountain of Cruachan-Ben
sinks down upon the margin of Loch- A we, so that the road
passes among precipices on the left hand and the deep lake
on the other. But Bruce understood as well as any modern
tacitician how such difficulties were to be overcome. While
he himself engaged the attention of the mountaineers by
threatening an assault in front, he despatched Douglas, with
a party of light troops, to march round the mountain, and
turn the pass, thus attacking the defenders in front, flank,
and rear at once. They were routed with great slaughter.
The lords of Lorn, father and son, escaped by sea. Their
castle of Dunstaffnage was taken, and their country pillaged,
August, 1308.
Thus did Robert Bruce, with steady and patient resolu-
tion, win province after province from the English, encour-
aging and rewarding his friends, overawing and chastising
his enemies, and rendering his authority more respected day
by day. The profound wisdom and resolute purpose of Ed-
ward I. would have been required to sustain, against Bruce's
talents, the conquests he had made ; but the weak and fickle
character of his son was all that England had to oppose to
him.
The measures to which Edward resorted were imperfect,
feeble, hastily assumed, and laid aside without apparent rea-
son. At one time he put his faith in William de Lambyrton,
the archbishop of Saint Andrew's, whom his father had cast
into prison. This prelate being liberated and pensioned by
the second Edward, volunteered his services to promulgate
the bull of excommunication against Robert Bruce: but
if the bull had made but slight impression on the Scots dur-
ing the king's adversity, it met with still less regard whon
the splendor of repeated success disposed his countrymen in
general to blot from their remembrance the deed of violence
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 119
with which so brilliant a career had commenced. The death
of John Comyn was but like a morning cloud which is for-
gotten in the blaze of a summer noon.
The king of France, who had deserted the Scots in their
utmost need, now began to be once more an intercessor in
their behalf ; and the English king consented to offer a truce
to Bruce and his adherents ; but the Scots, on their part, re-
quired payment of a sum of money before they would grant
one. Edward's measures showed a predominance of weak-
ness and uncertainty. Commissions to six different gover-
nors were granted and recalled before any of those appointed
had time to act upon them. General musters of forces were
ordered, which the haughty barons of England obeyed or
neglected at their pleasure. All showed the marks of a
feeble and vacillating government, unwilling to resign the
kingdom of Scotland, yet incapable of adopting the active
and steady measures by which alone it could have been
preserved.
All public measures in Scotland, on the other hand, were
marked by the steadiness of conscious superiority which they
borrowed from the character of their sovereign. The estates
of the kingdom solemnly declared the award of Edward
adjudging the crown of Scotland to John Baliol was an
injustice to the grandfather of Bruce. They recognized the
deceased lord of Annandale as the true heir of the crown,
owned his grandson as their king, and denounced the doom
of treason against all who should dispute his right to the
crown. The clergy of the kingdom issued a spiritual charge
to their various flocks, acknowledging Bruce as their sover-
eign, in spite of the thunders of excommunication which had
been launched against him.
At length, in 1310, Edward, roused into action, assem-
bled a large army at Berwick, and entered Scotland, but too
late in the year for any effective purpose. Bruce was con-
tented with eluding the efforts of the invaders to bring on
a general battle, cutting off their provisions, harassing their
marches, and augmenting the distress and danger of an
120 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Invading army in a country at once hostile and desolate;
and by this policy the patience of Edward and the supplies
of his army were altogether exhausted. A second, a third,
a fourth expedition was attempted with equally indifferent
success. What mischief the Scots might sustain by these
irruptions was fearfully compensated by the retaliation of
King Robert, who ravaged the English frontiers with piti-
less severity. The extreme sufferings of Bruce himself, of
his family and his country, called loudly for retaliation, which
was thus rendered excusable, if not meritorious. The Scots
obtained money as well as other plunder on these occasions ;
for, after abiding fifteen days in England, the northern prov-
inces found it necessary to purchase their retreat.
King Robert left the borders to present himself before
Perth, which was well fortified, and held out by an English
garrison. In one place the moat was so shallow that it
might be waded. On that point Bruce made a daring
attack. Having previously thrown the garrison off their
guard by a pretended retreat, he appeared suddenly before
the town at the head of a chosen storming party. He him-
self led the way, completely armed, bearing a scaling-ladder
in his hand, waded through the moat where the water
reached to his chin, and was the second man who mounted
the wall. A French knight, who was with the Scottish
army, at the sight of this daring action, exclaimed, "Oh,
heaven ! what shall we say of the delicacy of our French
lords, when we see so gallant a king hazard his person to
win such a paltry hamlet?* ' So saying he flung himself into
the water, and was one of the first to surmount the wall.
The place was speedily taken.
The confidential friends to whom Bruce intrusted the
command of separate detachments in various parts of Scot-
land, among whom were men of high military talent, en-
deavored to outdo each other in following the example
of their heroic sovereign. Douglas and Randolph partic-
ularly distinguished themselves in this patriotic rivalry.
The strong and large castle of Roxburgh was secured by
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 121
its position, its fortifications, and the number of the gar-
rison, from any siege which the Scots could have formed.
But on the eve of Shrove Tuesday (March 6, 1312-13), when,
the garrison were full of jollity and indulging in drunken
wassail, Douglas and his followers approached the castle,
creeping on hands and feet, and having dark cloaks flung
over their armor. They seemed to the English soldiers a
strayed herd of some neighboring peasant's cattle, which
had been suffered to escape during the festivity of the even-
ing. They therefore saw these objects arrive on the verge
of the moat and descend into it without wonder or alarm,
nor did they discover their error till the shout of Douglas!
Douglas ! announced that the wall was scaled and the castle
taken.
As if to match this gallant action, Thomas Randolph
possessed himself of the yet stronger castle of Edinburgh.
This also was by surprise. A soldier in Randolph's army,
named William Frank, who had lived in the castle in his
youth, had then learned to make his way down the precipice
on which the fortress is built, by clambering over at a place
where the wall was very low. He had used this perilous
passage for carrying on an intrigue with a woman who
resided in the city, and as he had often left the fortress and
returned to it in safety, he offered himself as a guide to scale
it at that point. Randolph placed himself and thirty chosen
soldiers under the guidance of this man. As they ascended
under the cover of night, they heard the counter-guards
making their rounds, and challenging the sentinels as usual
in a well-guarded post. The Scots were at this moment
screened by a rock from the sentinels and from the counter-
watch. Yet one man of the patrol at that awful moment
called out, "I see you," and threw down a stone. But this
was only a trick for the purpose of alarming his companions,
not that he had taken any real alarm, though he had so
nearly discovered what was going forward. The watchmen
moved on, and the Scots, with as much silence as possible,
renewed their toilsome and dangerous ascent. They reached
6 <% Vol. I.
122 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the foot of the wall where it was twelve feet high, and sur-
mounted it by a ladder of ropes. The guide Frank mounted
first, then came Sir Andrew Gray, and next Randolph him-
self. The English sentinels now took the alarm in good
earnest; but the boldness of the action was the cause of its
success ; and though the garrison resisted bravely, yet, being
unaware of the very small force opposed to them, the castle
was at length taken. This was the 14th March, 1312-13.
It was not princes and warriors alone who were roused
to action on this glorious occasion. The exploit of a hardy
peasant, Binnock or Binning by name, is as remarkable as
the surprise of Roxburgh or Edinburgh. This brave man
lived in the neighborhood of Linlithgow, where the English
had constructed a strong fort. Accustomed to supply the
garrison with forage, Binnock concealed eight armed Scots
in his wain, which was apparently loaded with hay. He
employed a strong-bodied bondman to drive the wagon,
and he himself walked beside it, as if to see his commodity
delivered. When the cart was in the gateway beneath the
portcullis, Binnock, with a sudden blow of an axe which
he held in his hand, severed the harness which secured the
horses to the wain. Finding themselves relieved from the
draught, the horses sprang forward. Binnock shouted a
signal-word, and at the same time struck down the porter
with his axe. The armed men started from their conceal-
ment among the hay. The English attempted to drop the
portcullis or shut the gate; but the loaded wain prevented
alike the fall of the one and the closing of the other. A
party of armed Scots, who lay in ambush waiting the event,
rushed in at the shout of their companions, and the castle
was theirs.
The Bruce 's success was not limited to the mainland of
Scotland ; he pursued the Macdougal of Galloway, to whom
he owed the captivity and subsequent death of his two broth-
ers, into the Isle of Man, where he defeated him totally,
stormed his castle of Rushin, and subjected his island to
the Scottish domination.
HISTORY OF tsCOTLAND 123
When Bruce returned to the mainland of ITorth Britain
from this expedition, he had the pleasure to find that the
energy of his brother Edward had pursued the great work
of expelling the English invaders with uninterrupted suc-
cess. He had taken the town and castle of Rutherglen and
of Dundee ; the last of which had during the previous year
resisted the Scottish arms, in consequence, partly, of a breach
of compact, which we shall presently notice.
But these good news were checkered by others of a more
doubtful quality. After his success at Rutherglen and Dun-
dee, Sir Edward Bruce laid siege to Stirling, the only consid-
erable fortress in Scotland which still remained in the hands
of the English. The governor, Sir Philip de Mowbray, de-
fended himself with great valor, but at length, becoming
straitened for provisions, entered into a treaty, by which
he agreed to surrender the fortress if not relieved before
the feast of St. John the Baptist, in the ensuing midsum-
mer. Bruce was greatly displeased with the precipitation
of his brother Edward in entering into such a capitulation
without waiting his consent. It engaged him necessarily
in the same risk which had so often proved fatal to the
Scots; namely, that of perilling the fate of the kingdom
upon a general battle, in which the numbers, discipline,
and superior appointments of the English must insure them
an advantage, which experience had shown they were far
from possessing over their northern neighbors when they
encountered in small bodies. The king upbraided his
brother with the temerity of his conduct; but Edward,
with the reckless courage which characterized him, de-
fended his agreement on the usage of chivalry, and rather
seemed to triumph in having brought the protracted con-
flict between the kingdoms to the issue of a fair field.
If Robert Bruce had finally determined to avoid the con-
flict, he had a fair excuse to do so. In the preceding year
(1313), as we have already hinted, William de Montfichet,
the English governor of Dundee, had entered into terms
similar to the treaty of Stirling, to surrender the place un-
134 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
less relieved at a certain stipulated time. But he had broken
his agreement, and resumed his defence, under the express
injunction of Edward his sovereign. So that if Bruce had
refused to sanction his brother's agreement with Mowbray,
he might have fairly pleaded the example of Edward his
antagonist. But King Robert saw that this mode of elud-
ing the treaty could not be acted upon without depressing
the spirits of his followers, and diminishing their confidence,
while it must have lost him the services of the hasty but
dauntless Edward, of which his cooler courage knew how
to make the most important use. Besides, his own temper,
though tamed by experience, was naturally hardy and bold,
and little disposed him to avoid the arbitrament of battle
when his character as a soldier and a true knight recom-
mended his accepting it. To all this must be added that
the prescient eye of Bruce saw and anticipated circumstances
which, if made of due avail, might deprive the English of
the advantage of numbers, discipline, and appointments, in
all of which they might be expected to possess a superiority.
He prepared, then, with the calm prudence of an accom-
plished and intelligent general, for the mortal and decisive
conflict, the challenge to which his brother Edward had ac-
cepted with the wild enthusiasm of a knight-errant.
Meantime Sir Philip de Mowbray, governor of Stirling,
availed himself of the truce which the treaty had procured
for the garrison under his command, to hasten in person to
London, and state to Edward and his council that almost
the last remnant of Edward I. 's conquests in Scotland must
be irretrievably lost, unless Stirling was relieved. The king
and his barons, through the misconduct of the former, were
at the time upon very indifferent terms. But this news was
of a nature to arouse the spirit of both. The king could not
without dishonor decline the enterprise; the barons could
not withhold their assistance, without being guilty of trea-
son both to their sovereign and to the honor of their coun-
try. The time allowed by the treaty, including several
months, was sufficient for collecting the whole gigantic
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 126
force of England, and the disposition both of the king
and his nobility was earnest in employing it to the best
advantage.
The preparations of England for this decisive enterprise
were upon such a scale as to stagger the belief of modern
historians, yet their extent is proved by the records which
are still extant. Ninety-three great tenants of the crown
brought forth their entire feudal service of cavalry, to the
number of forty thousand, three thousand of whom were
completely sheathed in steel, both horses and riders. The
levies In the counties of England and Wales extended to
twenty-seven thousand infantry. A great force was drawn
from Ireland, both under English barons, settlers in that
country, and under twenty-six Irish chiefs, who were or-
dered to collect their vassals and join the army. The whole
array was summoned to meet at Berwick on the 11th day
of June (1314), the period being prolonged to the last limits
Sir Philip Mowbray's engagement would permit, in order to
give time to collect the vast quantity of provisions, forage,
and everything else required for the movement and support
of a host, which was indisputably the most numerous that
an English monarch ever led against Scotland, amounting
in all to upward of one hundred thousand men.
Bruce, who was well informed respecting these formidable
preparations, exhausted the resources of his powerful military
genius in devising and preparing the means of opposing them.
128 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER X
Preparations of Robert Bruce for a decisive Engagement — Precau-
tions adopted by him against the Superiority of the English in
Cavalry: against their Archery: against their Superiority of
Numbers — He summons his Array together — Description of the
Field of Battle, and of the Scottish Order of Battle— The English
Vanguard comes in Sight— Action between Clifford and the
Earl of Moray — Chivalrous Conduct of Douglas — Bruce kills
Sir Henry Bohun — Appearance of the English Army on the
ensuing Morning — Circumstances preliminary to the Battle —
The English begin the Attack — Their Archers are dispersed by
Cavalry kept in Reserve for that Purpose — The English fall into
disorder — Bruce attacks with the Reserve — The Camp Fol-
lowers appear on the Field of Battle — The English fall into
irreti'ievable Confusion, and fly — Great Slaughter — Death of
the Earl of Gloucester — King Edward leaves the Field — Death
of De Argentine — Flight of the King to Dunbar — Prisoners
and Spoil — Scottish Loss — Scots unable to derive a Lesson in
Strategy from the Battle of Bannockburn; but supported by
the Remembrance of that great Success during the succeeding
Extremities of their History
THE crisis of this long and inveterate war seemed ap-
proaching. From the spring of 1306 to that of 1314,
the fortunes of Bruce seem to have been so much on
the ascendant that none of the slight reverses with which his
career was checkered could be considered as seriously inter-
rupting it. He was now acknowledged as king through the
greater part of Scotland, although far from possessing the
decisive authority attached to the chief magistrate of a set-
tled government. Zeal, goodwill, love for his person, and
reverence for his talents, made up to him among his coun-
trymen what was wanting in established and acknowledged
right ; so that it was with the certainty of receiving the gen-
eral national support that he prepared for the approaching
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 127
conflict. Bruce had chiefly to provide against three disad-
vantages, being the same which oppressed Wallace at the
battle of Falkirk, and of which the first two at least contin-
ued to be severely felt by the Scottish in every general action
with the English, while they remained separate nations.
The first was the Scottish king's great deficiency in cav-
alry, which, more especially the men-at-arms, who were
arrayed in complete steel, was accounted by far the most
formidable part, or rather the only efficient part of a feudal
army. On this point Bruce held an opinion more proper
to our age than to his. He had, perhaps, seen the battle of
Falkirk, where the resistance of the Scottish masses of in-
fantry had been so formidable as welinigh to foil the English
cavalry, and he knew the particulars of that of Courtray,
where the French men-at-arms were defeated by the Flem-
ish pikemen. His own experience of the battle of Loudoun
Hill went to support the opinion, though accounted singular
at the time, that a body of steady infantry, armed with
spears and other long weapons, and judiciously posted,
would, if they could be brought to stand firm and keep
their ranks, certainly beat off a superior body of horse — a
maxim uncontroverted in modern warfare.
Bruce's second difficulty lay in the inferiority of his arch-
ers, whose formidable shafts constituted the artillery of the
day. The bow was never a favorite weapon with the Scottish,
and their archery were generally drawn from the Highlands,
undisciplined, and rudely armed with a short bow, very
loosely strung : this, being drawn to the breast in using it,
discharged a clumsy arrow with a heavy head of forked
iron, which was shot feebly, and with little effect. These
ill-trained and ill-armed archers were all whom the Scottish
had to oppose to the celebrated yeomen of England, who
were from childhood trained to the exercise of the bow.
This warlike implement, of a size suited to his age, was put
into every child's hand when five years old, and afterward
gradually increased in size with the increasing strength of
him who was to use it, until the full-grown youth could
128 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
manage a bow of six feet long, and by drawing the arrow
to his ear, gain purchase enough to discharge shafts of a
cloth-yard long. For the great inequality of numbers and
skill between the Scottish Highlanders and English bowmen,
Bruce hoped also to find a remedy by his proposed array of
battle.
The third disadvantage at which this decisive contest
must be fought on the part of Scotland, was the disparity of
numbers, which was very great. The commands of Bruce,
through such parts of Scotland as confessed his sovereignty,
drew together indeed a considerable force, the more easily
collected, as Stirling was a central situation. But the more
distant districts had, during the tumult of civil war, become
almost independent, and it is not probable that the Bruce's
mandates had much effect on the remoter northern prov-
inces. On the other hand, in the country to the south, and
especially to the southeast of the borders, many great lords
and barons continued to profess the English interest. Of
these, the great Earl of March was most distinguished. We
may conclude from these reasons, that the Scottish historians
are right in arriving at the conclusion that Robert's utmost
exertions on this trying occasion could not collect together
more than about thirty thousand fighting men, though, as
was usual with a Scottish army, there were followers of the
camp amounting to ten thousand more, to whom, although
usually a useless encumbrance, or rather a nuisance to a well-
ordered army, fortune assigned on this occasion a singular
influence on the fortune of the day. Bruce, thus inferior
in numbers, endeavored, like an able general, to compensate
the disadvantage by so choosing his ground as to compel the
enemy to narrow their front of attack, and prevent them
from availing themselves of their numerous forces, by ex-
tending them in order to turn his flanks.
With such resolutions, Robert Bruce summoned the array
of his kingdom to rendezvous in the Tor Wood, about four
miles from Stirling, and by degrees prepared the field of bat-
tle which he had selected for the contest. It was a space of
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 129
ground then called the New Park, perhaps reserved for the
chase, since Stirling was frequently a royal residence. This
ground was partly open, partly encumbered with trees, in
groups or separate. It was occupied by the Scottish line of
battle, extending from south to north, and fronting to the
east. In this position Bruce's left flank and rear might
have been exposed to a sally from the Castle of Stirling;
but Mowbray the governor's faith was beyond suspicion,
and'the king was not in apprehension that he would violate
the tenor of the treaty, by which he was bound to remain in
passive expectation of his fate. The direct approach to the
Scottish front was protected in a great measure by a morass
called the Newmiln Bog. A brook, called Bannockburn,
running to the eastward between rocky and precipitous
banks, effectually covered the Scottish right wing, which
rested upon it, and was totally inaccessible. Their left flank
was apparently bare, but was, in fact, formidably protected
in front by a peculiar kind of field-works. As the ground in
that part of the field was adapted for the manoeuvres of cav-
alry, Bruce caused many rows of pits, three feet deep, to be
dug' in it, so close together as to suggest the appearance of
a honeycomb, with its ranges of cells. In these pits sharp
stakes were strongly pitched, and the apertures covered with
sod so carefully as that the condition of the ground might
escape observation. Calthrops, or spikes contrived to lame
the horses, were also scattered in different directions.
Having led his troops into the field of combat, on the
tidings of the English approach, the 23d of June, 1314, the
king of Scotland commanded his soldiers to arm themselves,
and making proclamation that those who were not prepared
to conquer or die with their sovereign were at liberty to de-
part, he was answered by a cheerful and general expression
of their determination to take their fate with him. The
king proceeded to draw up the army in the following order.
Three oblong columns or masses of infantry, armed with
lances, arranged on the same front, with intervals between
them, formed his first line. Of these Edward Bruce had
130 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the guidance of the right wing, James Douglas and "Walter,
the steward of Scotland, of the left, and Thomas Randolph
of the central division. These three commanders had their
orders to permit no English troops to pass their front, in
order to gain Stirling. The second line, forming one column
or mass, consisted of the men of the isles, under Bruce's
faithful friend and ally, the insular Prince Angus, his own
men of Carrick, and those of Argyle and Cantire. With
these the king posted himself, in order to carry support and
assistance wherever it might be required. With himself also
he kept in the rear a select body of horse, the greater part of
whom he designed for executiog a particular service. The
followers of the camp were dismissed with the baggage, to
station themselves behind an eminence to the rear of the
Scottish army, still called the Gillies' (that is, the servants')
Hill.
These arrangements were hardly completed by the Scot-
tish monarch, when it was announced that the tremendous
army of Edward was approaching, having marched from
Falkirk early that morning. On approaching Stirling, the
English king detached Sir Robert Clifford with eight hun-
dred horse, directing him to avoid the front of the Scottish
army, and, fetching a circuit round them, turn their left
flank, and throw himself into Stirling. The English knight
made a circuit eastward, where some low ground concealed
his manoeuvres, when the eagle eye of Bruce detected a line
of dust, with glancing of spears and flashing of armor, tak-
ing northward, in the direction of Stirling. He pointed this
out to Randolph. "They have passed where you kept
ward," said he. "Ah, Randolph, there is a rose fallen
from your chaplet!"
The Earl of Moray was wounded by the reproach, and
with such force as he had around him, which amounted to a
few scores of spearmen on foot, he advanced against Clifford
to redeem his error. ' The English knight, interrupted in his
purpose of gaining Stirling, wheeled his large body of cavalry
upon Randolph, and charged him at full speed. The Earl of
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 131
Moray threw his men into a circle to receive the charge, the
front kneeling on the ground, the second stooping, the third
standing upright, and all of them presenting their spears like
a wall against the headlong force of the advancing cavaliers.
The combat appeared so unequal to those who viewed it
from a distance, that they considered Randolph as lost, and
Douglas requested the king's assistance to fetch him off.
"It may not be," said the Bruce; "Randolph must pay the
penalty of his indiscretion. I will not disorder my line of
battle for him." — "Ah, noble king," said Douglas, "my
heart cannot suffer me to see Randolph perish for lack of
aid"; and with a permission half extorted from the king,
half assumed by himself, Douglas marched to his defence ;
but upon approaching the scene of conflict, the little body of
Randolph was seen emerging like a rock in the waves, from
which the English cavalry were retreating on every side
with broken ranks, like a repelled tide. "Hold and halt!"
said the Douglas to his followers; "we are come too late to
aid them; let us not lessen the victory they have won, by
affecting to claim a share in it." When it is remembered
that Douglas and Randolph were rivals for fame, this is one
of the bright touches which illuminate and adorn the history
of those ages of which blood and devastation are the pre-
dominant character.
Another preliminary event took place the same evening.
Bruce himself, mounted upon a small horse or pony, was
attentively marshalling the ranks of his vanguard. He car-
ried a battle-axe in his hand, and was distinguished to friend
and enemy by a golden coronet which he wore on his helmet.
A part of the English vanguard made its appearance at this
time ; and a knight among them, Sir Henry de Bohun, con-
ceiving he saw an opportunity of gaining himself much
honor, and ending the Scottish war at a single blow, couched
his lance, spurred his powerful war-horse, and rode against
the king at full career, with the expectation of bearing him to
the earth by the superior strength of his charger and length
of his weapon. The king, aware of his purpose, stood as if
132 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
expecting the shock; but the instant before it took place,
he suddenly moved his little palfrey to the left, avoided the
unequal encounter, and striking the English knight with his
battle-axe as he passed him in his career, he dashed helmet
and head to pieces, and laid Sir Henry Bohun at his feet a
dead man. The animation which this event afforded to the
Scots was equalled by the dismay which it struck into their
enemies. The English vanguard retired from the field with
ominous feelings for the event of the battle, which Edward
had resolved to put off till the morrow, in consideration,
perhaps, of the discouraging effects of Bohun's death and
Clifford's defeat. The Scottish nobles remonstrated with
Robert on the hazard in which he placed his person. The
king looked at his weapon, and only replied, "I have broke
my good battle-axe." He would not justify what he was
conscious was an imprudence, but knew, doubtless, like
other great men, that there are moments in which the rules
of ordinary prudence must be transgressed by a general, in
order to give an impulse of enthusiasm to his followers.
On the morning of Saint Barnaby, called the Bright,
being the 24th of June, 1314, Edward advanced in full
form to the attack of the Scots, whom he found in their
position of the preceding evening. The vanguard of the
English, consisting of the archers and billmen, or lancers,
comprehending almost all the infantry of the army, advanced
under the command of the Earls of Gloucester and Hereford,
who also had a fine body of men-atrarms to support their
column. All the remainder of the English troops, consisting
of nine battles or separate divisions, were so straitened by
the narrowness of the ground, that, to the eye of the Scots,
they seemed to form one very large body, gleaming with
flashes of armor, and dark with the number of banners
which floated over them. Edward himself commanded this
tremendous array, and in order to guard his person was at-
tended by four hundred chosen men-at-arms. Immediately
around the king waited Sir Aymer de Valence, that Earl of
Pembroke who defeated Bruce at Methven Wood, but was
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 133
now to see a very different day, Sir Giles de Argentine, a
knight of Saint John of Jerusalem, who was accounted, for
his deeds in Palestine and elsewhere, one of the best knights
that lived, and Sir Ingram Umfraville, an Aglicized Scot-
tishman, also famed for his skill in arms.
As the Scottish saw the immense display of their enemies
rolling toward them like a surging ocean, they were called
on to join in an appeal to Heaven against the strength of
human foes. Maurice, the abbot of Inchaffray, bareheaded
and barefooted, walked along the Scottish line, and con-
ferred his benediction on the soldiers, who knelt to receive
it, and to worship the power in whose name it was bestowed.
During this time the king of England was questioning
Umfraville about the purpose of his opponents. "Will they,"
said Edward, "abide battle?" — "They assuredly will," re-
plied Umfraville; "and to engage them with advantage,
your highness were best order a seeming retreat, and draw
them out of their strong ground." Edward rejected this
counsel, and observing the Scottish soldiers kneel down,
joyfully exclaimed, "They crave mercy." — "It is from
Heaven, not from your highness," answered Umfraville:
"on that field they will win or die." The king then com-
manded the charge to be sounded and the attack to take
place.
The Earls of Gloucester and Hereford charged the Scots
left wing, under Edward Bruce, with their men-at-arms;
but some rivalry between these two great lords induced
them to hurry to the charge with more of emulation than
of discretion, and arriving at the shock disordered and out
of breath, they were unable to force the deep ranks of the
spearmen. Many horses were thrown down, and their mas-
ters left at the mercy of the enemy. The other three di-
visions of the Scottish army attacked the mass of the En-
glish infantry, who resisted courageously. The English
archers, as at the battle of Falkirk, now began to show
their formidable skill, at the expense of the Scottish spear-
men ; but for this Bruce was prepared. He commanded Sir
134 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Robert Keith, the marshal of Scotland, with those four hun-
dred men-at-arms whom he had kept in reserve for the pur-
pose, to make a circuit and charge the English bowmen in
the flank. This was done with a celerity and precision which
dispersed the whole archery, who having neither stakes nor
other barrier to keep off the horse, nor long weapons to repel
them, were cut down at pleasure, and almost without re-
sistance.
The battle continued to rage, but with disadvantage to
the English. The Scottish archers had now an opportunity
of galling their infantry without opposition; and it would
appear that King Edward could find no means of bringing
any part of his numerous centre or rearguard to the support
of those in front, who were engaged at disadvantage. The
cause seems to have been that, his army consisting in a great
measure of horse, a space of ground was wanted for the
squadrons to act in divisions and with due order ; and though
there are cases in which masses of infantry may possess a
kind of order, even when in a manner heaped together, this
can never be the case with cavalry, the efficacy of whose
movements must always depend on each horse having room
for free exertion.
Bruce, seeing the confusion thicken, now placed himself
at the head of the reserve, and addressing Angus of the Isles
in the words, "My hope is constant in thee," rushed into the
engagement, followed by all the troops he had hitherto kept
in reserve. The effect of such an effort, reserved for a favor-
able moment, failed not to be decisive. Those of the English
who had been staggered were now constrained to retreat;
those who were already in retreat took to actual flight. At
this critical moment, the camp-followers of the Scottish
army, seized with curiosity to see how the day went, or
perhaps desirous to have a share of the plunder, suddenly
showed themselves on the ridge of the Gillies' Hill, in the
rear of the Scottish line of battle; and as they displayed
cloths and horse-coverings upon poles for ensigns, they bore
in the eyes of the English the terrors of an army with ban-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 135
ners. The belief that they beheld the rise of an ambuscade,
or the arrival of a new army of Scots, gave the last impulse
of terror ; and all fled now, even those who had before re-
sisted. The slaughter was immense; the deep ravine of
Bannockburn, to the south of the field of battle, lying in
the direction taken by most of the fugitives, was almost
choked and bridged over with the slain, the difficulty of the
ground retarding the fugitive horsemen till the lancers were
upon them. Others, and in great numbers, rushed into the
river Forth, in the blindness of terror, and perished there.
No less than twenty-seven barons fell in the field : the Earl
of Gloucester was at the head of the fatal list. Young,
brave, and high-born, when he saw the day was lost, he
rode headlong on the Scottish spears, and was slain. Sir
Robert Clifford, renowned in the Scottish wars, was also
killed. Two hundred knights and seven hundred esquires
of high birth and blood graced the list of slaughter with the
noblest names of England ; and thirty thousand of the com-
mon file filled up the fatal roll.
Edward, among whose weaknesses we cannot number
cowardice, was reluctantly forced from the bloody field by
the Earl of Pembroke. The noble Sir Giles de Argentine
considered it as his duty to attend the king until he saw him
in personal safety, then observing that "it was not his own
wont to fly, ' ' turned back, rushed again into the battle, cried
his war-cry, galloped boldly against the victorious Scots, and
was slain, according to his wish, with his face to the enemy.
Edward must have been bewildered in the confusion of the
field, for instead of directing his course southerly to Linlith-
gow, from which he came, he rode northward to Stirling,
and demanded admittance. Philip de Mowbray, the gov-
ernor, remonstrated against this rash step, reminding the
unfortunate prince that he was obliged by his treaty to
surrender the castle next day, as not having been relieved
according to the conditions.
Edward was therefore obliged to take the southern road,
and he must have made a considerable circuit to avoid the
136 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Scottish army. He was, however, discovered on his retreat,
and pursued by Douglas with sixty horse, who were all that
could be mustered for the service. A circumstance happened
in the chase which illustrates what we have formerly said of
the light and easy manner in which a Scottish baron's alle-
giance at this period hung upon him. In crossing the Tor
Wood, Douglas met with Sir Laurence Abernethy, who with
a small body of horsemen was hastening to join King Ed-
ward and his army. But learning from Douglas that the
English army was destroyed and dispersed, and the king a
fugitive, Sir Laurence Abernethy was easily persuaded to
unite his forces with those of Douglas, and ride in pursuit
of the prince to aid and defend whom he had that morning
buckled on his sword and mounted his horse. The king, by
a rapid and continued flight through a country in which his
misfortunes must have changed many friends into enemies,
at length gained the castle of Dunbar, where he was hos-
pitably received by the Earl of March. From Dunbar Ed-
ward escaped almost alone to Berwick in a fishing skiff,
having left behind him the finest army a king of England
ever commanded.
The quantity of spoil gained by the victors at the battle
of Bannockburn was inestimable, and the ransoms paid by
the prisoners largely added to the mass of treasure. Five
near relations to the Bruce, namely, his wife, her sister
Christian, his daughter Marjory, the bishop of Glasgow
(Wishart), and the young Earl of Mar, the king's nephew,
were exchanged against the Earl of Hereford, high constable
of England.
The Scottish loss was very small. Sir William Vipont
and Sir Walter Ross were the only persons of consideration
slain. Sir Edward Bruce is said to have been so much at-
tached to the last of these knights as to have expressed his
wish that the battle had remained unfought so Ross had
not died.
As a lesson of tactics, the Scots might derive from this
great action principles on which they might have gained
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 137
many other victories. Robert Bruce had shown them that
he could rid the phalanx of Scottish spearmen of the fatal
annoyance of the English archery, and that, secured against
their close and continued volleys of arrows, the infantry
could experience little danger from the furious charge of the
men-at-arms. Yet in no battle, save that of Bannockburn,
do we observe the very obvious movement of dispersing the
bowmen by means of light horse ever thought of, or at least
adopted ; although it is obvious that the same charge which
drove the English archers from the field might have enabled
the bowmen of Scotland to come into the action, with un-
equal powers, perhaps, but with an effect which might have
been formidable when unopposed.
But if, in a strategical point of view, the field of Ban-
nockburn was lost on the Scottish nation, they derived from
it a lesson of pertinacity in national defence which they never
afterward forgot during the course of their remaining a sepa-
rate people. They had seen, before the battle of Bannock-
burn, the light of national freedom reduced to the last spark,
their patriots slain, their laws reversed, their monuments
plundered and destroyed, their prince an excommunicated
outlaw, who could not find in the wilderness of his country
a cave dark and inaccessible enough to shelter his head ; all
this they had seen in 1306: and so completely had ten years
of resistance changed the scene that the same prince rode
over a field of victory a triumphant sovereign, the first
nobles of the English enemies lying dead at his feet or sur-
rendering themselves for ransom. It seems likely that it
was from the recollection of that extraordinary change of
fortune that the Scots drew the great lesson never to despair
of the freedom of their country, but to continue resistance to
invaders, even when it seemed most desperate.
Dark times succeeded these brilliant days, and none more
gloomy than those during the reign of the conqueror's son.
But though there might be fear or doubt, there could not be
a thought of despair when Scotsmen saw hanging like hal-
lowed relics above their domestic hearths the swords with
138 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
which their fathers served the Bruce at the field of Bannock-
burn. 1 And the Scots may have the pride to recollect, and
other nations to learn from their history, that to a brave peo-
ple one victory will do more to sustain the honorable spirit of
independence than twenty defeats can effect to suppress it.
1 Such weapons were actually in existence. The proprietors of the
small estate of Deuchar, in the county of Fife, had a broadsword,
transmitted from father to son, bearing this proud inscription: —
"At Bannokburn I served the Bruce,
Of whilk the Inglis had na russ."
See Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, vol. ii., voce Russ.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 139
CHAPTER XI
Consequences of the Victory of Bannockburn — Depression of the
Military Spirit of England — Ravages on the Border — Settlement
of the Scottish Crown — Marriage of the Princess Marjory with
the Steward of Scotland — Edward Bruce invades Ireland: his
Success: is defeated and slain at the Battle of Dundalk — Battle
of Linthaughlee; Douglas defeats Sir Edmund Caillou, and Sir
Robert Neville — Invasion of Fife, and Gallantry of the Bishop
of Dunkeld — Embassy from the Pope: the Cardinals who bear it
are stripped upon the 'Borders: Bruce refuses to receive their
Letters — Father Newton's Mission to Bruce, which totally fails
— Berwick surprised by the Scots, and besieged by the English:
relieved by Robert Bruce — Battle of Mitton— Truce of Two
Years — Succession of the Crown further regulated — Assize of
Arms — Disputes with the Pope — Letter of the Scottish Barons
to John XXII. — Conspiracy of William de Soulis— Black Par-
liament — Execution of David de Brechin
THE victory of Bannockburn was followed by a series
of consequences which serve to show how entirely
the energies of a kingdom, its wisdom, its skill, its
bravery, and its success, depend upon the manner in which
its government is administered and its resources directed.
The indolence with which Edward II. had managed the
affairs of England, his neglect of the Scottish war, while,
supported almost in spite of every species of superiority by
the talents of Bruce and those whom his genius had sum-
moned to arms — this original error, followed by the great
and decisive failure which the English king had experienced
in his final attempt to crush the enemy after he had become
too strong for his efforts, produced an effect on the public
mind through England, which, did we not find it recorded
by her own historians, we could hardly reconcile to the tri-
umphs of the same people in the past reign of Edward I., and
140 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the subsequent one of Edward III. "A hundred English,"
says Walsingham, "would not be ashamed to fly from three
or four private Scottish soldiers, so much had they lost their
national courage."
Thrice within twelve months Scottish armies, commanded
by James Douglas and Edward Bruce, broke into the En-
glish frontiers, and ravaged them with fire and sword, exe-
cuting great cruelties on the unfortunate inhabitants, forcing
the few who could so escape to take shelter under the fortifi-
cations of Berwick, Newcastle, or Carlisle, all strong towns,
carefully fortified, and numerously garrisoned.
Meantime commissioners on both sides had met with a
proposal for peace; but the Scots, on the one hand, were
elated with success, and, on the other, the national spirit
of the English would not agree to the conditions which they
proposed, and the negotiation was therefore broken off. The
war continued with mutual animosity, though much more
effectually carried on by the Scots, who wasted the northern
frontiers with unceasing ravages, which were hardly encoun-
tered or repaid either by resistance or retaliation. In the
meantime a famine spread its ravages through both coun-
tries, and added its terrors to those of the sword, which, by
scaring away the peasants and destroying the agricultural
produce, had done much to create this new scourge.
In 1315 the estates or parliament of Scotland, bethinking
themselves of the evils sustained by the nation at the death of
Alexander III. , through the uncertainty of the succession to
the crown, entered into an act of settlement, by which Ed-
ward, the king's brother, we may suppose upon the ancient
principles of the Scottish nation, was called to the throne in
case of Robert's decease without heirs male; and Edward or
his issue failing, the succession was assured to King Robert's
only child, Marjory, and her descendants. The princess
was immediately married to "Walter, the high-steward of
Scotland, and the heir of that auspicious marriage having
succeeded in a subsequent generation to the throne of Scot-
land, their descendants now sit upon that of Britain.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 141
It is probable that Robert's acquaintance with his brother
Edward's martial character and experience in war inclined
him to give his assent that he and his issue should occupy
the throne, rather than expose the unsettled state to the gov-
ernment of a female, by devolving it upon his own daughter.
But there is also reason to believe that the monarch was sus-
picious that the fiery valor and irregular ambition of Edward
would lead him to dispute the right of his daughter; and
King Robert was willing to spare Scotland the risk of a dis-
puted claim to the throne, found by experience to be the in-
let of so many evils, even at the sacrifice of postponing the
right of his own daughter. If this be the ground of the ar-
rangement, it is an additional instance of the paternal regard
which the great Bruce bore to the nation whose monarchy
he had restored, and whose independence he had asserted.
But Edward Bruce 's ambition was too impatient to wait
till the succession to the Scottish crown should become open
to him by the death of his brother, when an opportunity
seemed to offer itself which offered a prospect of instantly
gaining a kingdom by the sword. This occurred when a
party of Irish chiefs, discontented with the rule of the En-
glish invaders, sent an invitation to Edward Bruce to come
over with a force adequate to expel the English from Ire-
land, and assume the sceptre of that fair island. By con-
sent of King Robert, who was pleased to make a diversion
against England upon a vulnerable point, and not, perhaps,
sorry to be rid of a restless spirit, which became impatient
in the lack of employment, Edward invaded Ireland at the
head of a force of six thousand Scots. He fought many bat-
tles, and gained them all. He became master of the prov
ince of Ulster, and was solemnly crowned king of Ireland ;
but found himself amid his successes obliged to entreat the
assistance of King Robert with fresh supplies ; for the im-
petuous Edward, who never spared his own person, was
equally reckless of exposing his followers ; and his successes
were misfortunes, in so far as they wasted the brave men
with whose lives they were purchased.
142 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Robert Bruce led supplies to his brother's assistance, with
an army which enabled him to overrun Ireland, but without
gaining any permanent advantage. He threatened Dublin,
and penetrated as far as Limerick in the west, but was com-
pelled, by scarcity of provisions, to retire again into Ulster,
in the spring of 1317. He shortly after returned to Scot-
land, leaving a part of his troops with Edward, though prob-
ably convinced that his brother was engaged in a desperate
and fruitless enterprise, where he could not rely on the faith
of his Irish subjects, as he termed them, or the steadiness of
their troops, while Scotland was too much exhausted to sup-
ply him with new armies of auxiliaries.
After his brother's departure, Edward's career of ambi-
tion was closed at the battle of Dundalk, where, October 5,
1318, fortune at length failed a warrior who had tried her
patience by so many hazards. On that fatal day he encoun-
tered, against the advice of his officers, an Anglo-Irish army
ten times more numerous than his own. A strong cham-
pion among the English, named John Maupas, singling out
the person of Edward, slew him, and received death at his
hands : their bodies were found stretched upon each other
in the field of battle. The victors ungenerously mutilated
the body of him before whom most of them had repeatedly
fled. A general officer of the Scots, called John Thomson,
led back the remnant of the Scottish force to their own coun-
try. And thus ended the Scottish invasion of Ireland, with
the loss of many brave soldiers, whom their country after-
ward severely missed in her hour of need.
Meanwhile, in 1315, some important events had taken
place in Scotland while these Irish campaigns were in prog-
ress. The king, whose attention was much devoted to nau-
tical matters, had threatened the English coast with a dis-
embarkation at several points. He had also destroyed what
authority his ancient and mortal foe, John of Lorn, still re-
tained in the Hebrides, made him prisoner, and consigned
him to the castle of Loch Leven, where he died in captivity.
New efforts to disturb the English frontiers revived the evils
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 143
of those unhappy countries. In 1316, Robert, at the head
of a considerable army, penetrated into Yorkshire, and de-
stroyed the country as far as Richmond, which only escaped
the flames by paying a ransom. But an assault upon Ber-
wick, and an attempt to storm Carlisle, were both success-
fully resisted by the English garrisons.
During the time that Robert Bruce was in Ireland with
his brother, the English on their side made several attempts
on the borders. But though the king was absent, Douglas
and Stewart defended the frontiers with the most successful
valor.
A remarkable action was fought near a manor called
Linthaughlee, about two miles above Jedburgh. James
Douglas was lying at this place, which is on the banks of
the Jed, and then surrounded by the forest land called Jed
"Wood, which stretches away toward the English border
Here he heard that the Earl of Arundel, having in his com
pany Sir Thomas de Richmond, earl of Brittany, with an
English force of ten thousand men, was advancing from
Northumberland to take him by surprise. Douglas (as had
been said of one of his ancestors) was never found asleep
by his enemies, being as vigilant as he was sagacious and
brave. He immediately resolved to be beforehand with the
invaders. Having selected a strait passage in the line of
march of the English earls, he caused the copse-wood on
each side to be wrought into a sort of empalement or stock-
ade, forming a defile, through which the road must pass,
and greatly adding to its natural difficulties. He placed his
archers in ambush near this place ; and when the English
had engaged themselves in the narrow pathway, he poured
on them a volley of arrows, and charged them with the ut-
most fury. As the English could not form themselves into
order, either for advance or for retreat, they were thrown
into confusion, and compelled to fly. It was the peculiarity
of Douglas to unite the personal courage and adventurous
spirit of a knight-errant with the calm skill and deliberation
of an accomplished leader. He threw himself headlong into
144 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the melee, singled out the Earl of Brittany, and, grappling
with him, stabbed him to the heart with his dagger. Douglas
carried off a fur hat which the unfortunate earl wore above
his helmet, as a trophy of his valor and success. The House
of Douglas still wreathe the escutcheon of their family with
the representation of an empalement or barrier of young
trees, in memory of the stratagem successfully employed
by the good Lord James at Linthaughlee.
Edmund de Caillou, a French knight, lay about the same
time (1317), in the garrison of Berwick, being created gover-
nor of that town. "With the enterprise of his countrymen, he
boasted he would drive a prey from Scotland. Accordingly
he sallied forth with a band of Gascons like himself ; but as
they were returning with a great spoil they were intercepted
by Douglas, and Caillou lost his booty and life. Sir Robert
Neville was also in Berwick. He upbraided such of the
Gascons as escaped from the field with cowardice; and as
the crestfallen Frenchmen pleaded the irresistible prowes3
of Douglas, Neville proudly expressed a wish to see the
Scottish chieftain's banner displayed, averring he would
himself give battle wherever he beheld it. This vaunt
reached the ears of Douglas, and shortly after the for-
midable banner was seen in the neighborhood of Berwick,
where the smoke of blazing hamlets marked its presence.
Robert Neville collected his forces, and sallied out to make
good, like a true knight, the words that he had spoken.
Douglas no sooner saw him issue from the town, than he
went straight to the encounter. Neville and his men fought
bravely, and the English champion met Douglas hand to
hand. But the skill, strength, and fortune of the Scottish
hero were predominant. Neville fell by the sword of Doug-
las, and his men were defeated.
Another military incident shows that the spirit of the
king, which called forth and animated the talents of Doug-
las, could awaken a congenial desire of honor even in men
whose profession removed them from arms or battle. An
attempt of Edward II. to retaliate the aggressions of the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 145
Scots, was made by sending a fleet into the Firth of Forth,
and disembarking a considerable body of troops at Dunie-
brissle on the Fife coast. The sheriff collected about five
hundred Scottish horse, who went to reconnoitre the invad-
ers ; but, thinking themselves unequal to the task of resist-
ing, they retreated precipitately. They were met, as they
were riding off in disorder, by William Sinclair, bishop of
Dunkeld, a man hardy of heart and tall of person, who
resided near the coast. "Out upon you for false knights,
whose spurs should be stricken from your heels!" said the
prelate to the fugitive sheriff and his followers ; then catch-
ing a spear from the soldier next him, "Who loves Scot-
land," he said, "let him follow me!" The daring bishop
then led a desperate charge against the English, who had
not completed their disembarkation, and were driven back
to their ships with loss. When Bruce heard of the prel-
ate's gallantry, he declared Sinclair should hereafter be his
bishop, and by the name of the king's bishop he was long
distinguished.
Our history has so long conducted us through an unvary-
ing recital of scenes of war and battle, that we feel a relief
in being called to consider some intrigues of a more peaceful
character, which place the sagacity of Robert Bruce in as
remarkable a point of view as his bravery. The king of
England, suffering by the continuation of a war which dis-
tressed him on all points, yet unwilling to purchase peace by
the sacrifices which the Scots demanded, fell on the scheme
of procuring a truce without loss of dignity by the interven-
tion of the pope. John XXII., then supreme pontiff, was
induced, by the English influence, assuming, it is said, the
interesting complexion of gold, to issue a bull, commanding
a two years' peace between England and Scotland. Two
cardinals were intrusted with this document, with orders to
pass to the nations which it concerned, and there make it
known. These dignitaries of the Church had also letters,
both sealed and patent, addressed to both kings. And pri-
vately they were invested with powers of fulminating a
7 <% Vol. L
146 HISTORY O* SCOTLAND
sentence of excommunication against the king of Scots, his
brother Edward, and any others of their adherents whom
they might think fit. The cardinals, arrived in England,
despatched two nuncios to Scotland, the bishop of Corbeil
and a priest called Aumori, to deliver the pope's letters to
the Scottish king. For comfort and dignity in their jour-
ney, these two reverend nuncios set out northward, in the
train of Lewis de Beaumont, bishop-elect of Durham, who
was passing to his diocese to receive consecration. But
within a stage of Durham the whole party was surprised
by a number of banditti, commanded by two robber knights,
called Middieton and Selby, who, from being soldiers, had
become chiefs of outlaws. Undeterred by the sacred char-
acter of the churchmen, they rifled them to the last farthing,
and dismissing the nuncios on their journey to Scotland, car-
ried away the bishop-elect, whom they detained a captive,
till they extorted a ransom so large that the plate and jewels
of the cathedral were necessarily sold to defray it.
Disheartened by so severe a welcome to the scene of
hostilities, the nuncios at length came before Bruce, and
presented the pope's letters. Those which were open he
commanded to be read, and listened to the contents with
much respect. But, ere opening the sealed epistles, he ob-
served that they were addressed not to the king, but to
Lord Robert Bruce, governor in Scotland. "These," he
said, "I will not receive nor open. I have subjects of my
own name, and some of them may have a share in the gov-
ernment. For such the holy father's letters may be designed,
but they cannot be intended for me, who am sovereign of
Scotland." The nuncios endeavored to apologize, by alleg-
ing it was not the custom of the Church to prejudice the
right of either party during the dependency of a contro-
versy, by any word or expression. "It is I, not Edward,"
said Bruce, "who am prejudiced by the conduct of the holy
Church. My spiritual mother does me wrong in refusing to
give me the name of king, under which I am obeyed by my
people ; and but that I reverence our mother Church, I should
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 147
answer you differently." The nuncios had no alternative
but to retire and report their answer to the cardinals. These
dignitaries resolved, at all risks, to execute the pope's com-
mission, by publishing the bulls and instruments. But not
caring to trust their reverend persons across the border, they
confided to Adam Newton, father guardian of the Friars
Minorite of Berwick, the momentous and somewhat perilous
task of communicating to Robert Bruce what they had no
reason to think would be agreeable tidings.
Father Newton acted as a man of due caution. He did
not intrust himself or the documents within Scottish ground
until he had obtained an especial safe-conduct. The bulls
and papal instruments were then produced to Bruce and his
council ; but finding the title of king was withheld from him,
Robert refused to listen to or open them, and returned them
to the bearer with the utmost contempt. The father guar-
dian next attempted to proclaim the papal truce for two
years. But the military hearers received the intimation
with such marks of anger and contempt that Newton be-
gan to fear they would not confine the expressions of their
displeasure to words or gestures. He prayed earnestly that
he might either have license to pass forward into Scotland
for the purpose of holding conference with some of the Scot-
tish prelates, or at least that he might have safe-conduct for
his return to Berwick. Both requests were refused, and the
unlucky father guardian was commanded to be gone at his
own proper peril. The reader will anticipate the conse-
quences. The friar on his return fell into the hands of
four outlaws, who stripped him of his papers and de-
spatches, tore, it is said, the pope's bull, doubtless to pre-
vent that copy at least from being made use of, and sent
him back to Berwick unhurt, indeed, but sorely frightened.
It is diverting enough to find that the guardian surmised
that, by some means or other, the documents he was in-
trusted with had fallen into the hands of the Lord Robert
Bruce and his accomplices. It was thus that with a mix-
ture of firmness and dexterity Bruce eluded a power which
148 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
it would not have been politic to oppose directly, and baffled
the attempts of this servile pontiff to embarrass him by
spiritual opposition.
When Father Adam Newton delivered his message, or
rather proffered to deliver it, to Robert Bruce, the Scottish
king was lying with a body of troops in the wood of Old
Cambus, where he was secretly maturing an important en-
terprise. Of all Edward I.'s northern conquests, Berwick
alone remained with his unfortunate son. Its importance
as a commercial depot was great ; as a garrison and frontier
town, greater still, since it gave whichever kingdom pos-
sessed it the means of invading the other at pleasure. For
this reason Edward I. had secured and garrisoned the town
and castle with great care; and Edward II., careless of his
father's precepts and policy in many respects, had adhered
to his example in watching the security of Berwick with a
jealous eye. A governor was placed in the town, who exer-
cised such rigorous discipline as gave offence to the citizens
of Berwick. A burgess named Spalding, of Scottish extrac-
tion probably, if we may judge by his name, and certainly
married to a Scottish woman, was so much offended at some
hard usage which he had received from the English gov-
ernor, that he resolved, in revenge, to betray the place to
Robert Bruce. For this purpose he communicated his plan
to the Earl of March, who had abandoned the English inter-
est and become a good Scotsman. His correspondent carried
the proposal to the king. "You did well to let me know
this," said the Bruce, with a shrewdness which shows his
acquaintance with the nature of mankind and the character
of his generals; "Douglas and Randolph are emulous of
glory, and if you had intrusted one of them with the secret,
the other would have thought himself neglected ; but I will
employ the abilities of both." Accordingly he commanded
his two celebrated generals to undertake the enterprise. By
agreement with Spalding they came beneath the walls of
the town on a night when he was going the rounds, and
received his assistance in the escalade. Some of their men,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND U9
when they had entered the town, broke their ranks to plun-
der, and afforded the governor of the castle the opportunity
of a desperate sally, which very nearly cost the assailants
dear. But Douglas, Randolph, and a young knight, called
Sir William Keith of Galston, drove back the English, after
some hard fighting, into the precincts of the castle, which
soon after surrendered when the king appeared in person
before it. Bruce, delighted with this acquisition, placed the
town and castle in charge of his brave son-in-law, Walter,
the high-steward of Scotland. He caused the place to be
fully victualled for a year; five hundred gentlemen, friends
and relations of the steward, having volunteered their ser-
vices to augment the garrison.
Having thus made sure of his important acquisition,
Bruce anew resumed his destructive incursions into the
northern provinces of England, burned Northallerton, Bor-
oughbridge, and SMpton in Craven, forced Rippon to ran-
som itself for a thousand marks, and returned from this
work of ravage uninterrupted and unopposed, his soldiers
driving their prisoners before them "like flocks of sheep.''
Such passages, quoted from English history, recall to the
reader the invasion of the Picts and Scots upon the unwar-
like South Britons. But the ascendency asserted by the
Scots over the English during this reign did not rest so
much on any superiority of courage on the part of the for-
mer, though doubtless repeated victory had given them
confidence, and depressed for the time the martial spirit of
the enemy : it was to the conduct of the leaders, and to the
persevering unity of plan which they pursued, that the Scot-
tish successes may be justly attributed. The feuds among
the nobility of England ran high, and the public quarrels
between the king and his barons distracted the movements
of the government and the military defence of the kingdom.
The six northern counties had been so long and so dreadfully
harassed, that they lost all habit of self-defence, and were
willing to compound, by payment of ransom and tribute,
with the Scots, rather than await the reluctant and feeble
150 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
support of their countrymen. Many of them, as the allegi-
ance of borderers usually hung light on them, chose rather
to join the enemy in preying on more southern provinces,
than to defend their own; and the whole country was in
that state of total discontent, division, and misrule, that it
was found impossible to combine the national forces for one
common object.
Omitting for the present some civil affairs of considerable
importance, that we may trace the events of the war, we
have now to mention that Edward II., stung with resent-
ment at the loss of Berwick, determined on a desperate effort
to regain that important town. Having made a temporary
agreement with his discontented barons, at the head of
whom was his relation, Thomas, earl of Lancaster, the
English king was able to assemble a powerful army, with
which he invested the place, 24th July, 1319.
As the walls of Berwick were so low that a man standing
beneath might strike with a lance a defender on the battle-
ments, a general attack was resolved upon on all sides. At
the same time an English vessel entered the mouth of the
river, which was filled with soldiers, intended to board the
battlements from its yards and rigging. But as the ship
approached the walls with its yards manned for the proposed
attempt, she grounded on a shoal, and was presently set on
fire by the Scots. The land attack, after having been sup-
ported with courage and resisted with obstinacy for several
hours, was found equally void of success. The besiegers
then retired to their trenches, having lost many men. Next
day, a tremendous engine was brought forward, called a
sow, being a large shed composed of very strong timbers,
and having a roof sloping like the back of the animal from
which it took its name. Like the Roman testudo, the
sow, or movable covert, was designed to protect a body of
miners beneath its shelter, while, running the end of the
engine close to the wall, they employed themselves in un-
dermining the defences of the place. The Scots had reposed
their safety in the skill of a mercenary soldier, famed for his
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 151
science as an engineer. This person, by name John Crab,
and a Fleming by birth, had erected a huge catapult, or
machine for discharging stones, with which he proposed to
destroy the English sow. The event of the siege was like
to depend on his skill, for the number of the besiegers was
so great as to keep the defenders engaged on every point at
once, so that if a part of the walls were undermined by favor
of the sow it would have been difficult to collect soldiers to
man the breach. The huge engine moved slowly toward
the walls ; one stone, and then a second, was hurled against
it in vain, and amid the shouts of both parties the massive
shed was approaching the bulwark. Crab had now calcu-
lated his distance and the power of his machine, and the
third stone, a huge mass of rock, fell on the middle of the
sow, and broke down its formidable timbers. "The English
sow has farrowed!" shouted the exulting Scots, when they
saw the soldiers and miners who had lain within the machine
running headlong to save themselves by gaining the trenches.
The Scots, by hurling lighted combustibles, of which they
had a quantity prepared, consumed the materials of the En-
glish engine. The steward, who, with a hundred men of
reserve, was going from post to post distributing succors,
had disposed of all his attendants except one, when he sud-
denly received the alarming intelligence that the English
were in the act of forcing the gate called St. Mary's. The
gallant knight, worthy to be what fate designed him, the
father of a race of monarchs, rushed to the spot, threw open
the half-burned gate, and making a sudden sally, beat the
enemy off from that as well as the other points of attack.
Bruce, although the garrison of Berwick had as yet made
a successful defence, became anxious for the consequences of
being continued, and resolved to make an attempt to re-
lieve his son-in-law. To attack the besiegers was the most
obvious mode; but in this case the attempt must have proved
a precarious and hazardous operation, as the English were
defended in their position before Berwick by strong intrench-
ments, were brave, besides, and numerous; and it was against
152 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Bruce's system of tactics to hazard a general action where it
could be avoided, unless recommended by circumstances of
advantage which could not exist in the present case.
But he resolved to accomplish the relief of Berwick, by
making such a powerful diversion as should induce Edward
to raise the siege. With this view, fifteen thousand men,
under Douglas and Randolph, entered England on the west
marshes, and turning eastward, made a hasty march toward
York, for the purpose of surprising the person of the queen
of England, who then resided near that city. Isabella re-
ceived notice of their purpose, and fled hastily southward.
It may be observed in passing that her husband was little
indebted to those who supplied her with the tidings which
enabled her to make her escape.
The Scots proceeded, as usual, to ravage the country.
The archbishop of York, in the absence of a more profes-
sional leader, assumed arms, and assembled a large but
motley army, consisting partly of country people, ecclesias-
tics, and others, having little skill or spirit save that which
despair might inspire. The Scots encountered them with
the advantage which leaders of high courage and experience
possess over those who are inexperienced in war, and veteran
troops over a miscellaneous and disorderly levy. The con-
flict took place near Mitton, on the river Swale, 20th Sep-
tember, 1319. By the simple stratagem of firing some
stacks of hay, the Scots raised a dense smoke, under cover
of which a division of the army turned unperceived around
the flank of the archbishop's host, and got into their rear.
The irregular ranks of the English were thus attacked in
front and rear at once, and instantly routed with great
slaughter. Three hundred of the clerical order fell in the
action, or were slain in the rout, while many of the fugitives
were driven into the Swale. In the savage pleasantry of the
times, this battle, in which so many clergymen fell, was
called the white battle, and the Chapter of Mitton.
The tidings of this disaster speedily obliged Edward to
raise the siege of Berwick, and march to the south in hope
HIST0R1 OF SCOTLAND 153
to intercept the Scots on their return from Yorkshire. In-
deed, the northern barons, with the Earl of Lancaster at
their head, knowing their estates were exposed to a victori-
ous and active enemy, left Edward no alternative, but drew
off with their vassals without waiting his leave. It was not
the business of Randolph and Douglas to abide an encounter
with the royal array of England, at the head of an army of
light troops. They eluded the enemy by retreating to their
own country through the west marshes, loaded with prison-
ers and spoil. They had plundered in this incursion eighty-
four towns and villages. About the close of the same year,
Douglas renewed the ravage in Cumberland and Westmore-
land, and again returned with a great prey of captives and
cattle, destroying at the same time the harvest which had
been gathered into the farmyards. It was said that the
name of this indefatigable and successful chief had become
so formidable that women used, in the northern counties,
to still their froward children by threatening them with the
Black Douglas.
These sinister events led to a truce between the two coun-
tries for the space of two years, to which Bruce, who had
much to do for the internal regulation of his kingdom, will-
ingly consented. The determination of the royal succession,
the uncertainty of which had caused so much evil, and the
accomplishment of a reconciliation with the pope, were the
principal civil objects to be obtained. The former, indeed,
with some other important matters, had already been in
part accomplished ; but the death of Edward Bruce rendered
some alterations necessary.
In 1318 a parliament was convoked at Scone, whose first
act was an engagement for solemn allegiance to the king,
and for aiding him against all mortals who should menace
the liberties of Scotland, or impeach his royal rights, how
eminent soever might be the power, authority, and dignity
of the opponent ; peculiar expressions by which the pope was
indicated. Whatever native of Scotland should fail in his
allegiance was denounced a traitor, without remission. Ed-
254 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
ward Bruce being dead without heirs of his body, and Mar-
jory, at that time the Bruce's only child, being also deceased,
the infant prince Robert, son of the late princess and her hus-
band the steward of Scotland, and grandson of Robert, was
proclaimed heir, in default of male issue of the king's body.
The regency of the kingdom was settled on Thomas Ran-
dolph, earl of Moray, and failing him, upon James, Lord
Douglas. Rules were laid down for the succession to the
kingdom, the import of which bears that the male heir near-
est to the king in the direct line of descent should succeed,
and failing him, the nearest female in the direct line; and
failing the whole direct line, the nearest male heir in the
collateral line, respect being always held to the right of
blood by which King Robert himself had succeeded to the
crown. — Mr. Kerr, in a respectable history of Robert Bruce,
remarks that these provisions were in some supposed cases
of difficult interpretation. It seems that they were inten-
tionally left ambiguous, since to have adopted distinctly the
modern rules of succession would have thrown a slur on the
title by which the king's grandfather, Robert the Competi-
tor, claimed the throne, and the king himself held it.
An assize of arms was next enacted. Every man being
liable to serve in defence of his country, all Scottish natives
were required to provide themselves with weapons according
to their rank and means. Every man worth ten pounds a
year of land was enjoined to have in readiness a buff jacket
and head-piece of steel ; those whose income was less might
substitute iron for the back and breast-piece, and the knap-
scap or helmet. All these were to have gloves of plate and
a sword and spear. Each man who possessed a cow was to
be equipped with a bow and sheaf of arrows, or a spear. No
provisions are made for horsemen. The royal tenants in
chief, doubtless, came forth as men-at-arms; but the policy
of Robert Bruce rested the chief defence of Scotland on its
excellent infantry. Prudent and humane rules were laid
down for providing for the armed array, when passing to
and from the king's host, directed to the end of rendering
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 155
them as little burdensome as possible to the country which
they traversed in arms= At the same time they were to be
supplied with provisions on tender of payment. The supply-
ing warlike weapons or armor to England was strictly pro-
hibited, under pain of death.
The rights and independence of the Scottish Church were
dauntlessly asserted, in resentment, probably, of the pope's
unfriendly aspect toward Bruce. Ecclesiastics were prohib-
ited from remitting money to Rome. Native Scotsmen re-
siding in a foreign country were not permitted to draw their
revenues from Scotland. Such were the patriotic measures
adopted by the parliament of Scotland held at Scone in 1318.
The haughty pontiff, John XXII., had been highly of-
fended with the manner in which the Bruce had neglected
his injunctions for a truce, and refused to receive the letters
which his holiness had addressed to him. In 1318 he en-
joined the two cardinals to publish the bulls of excommuni-
cation against Bruce and his adherents. The reasons alleged
were that the Scottish governor, as he affected to term him,
had taken Berwick during the papal truce ; that he had re-
fused to receive the nuncios of the legates; and certain secret
reasons were hinted at, which his holiness for the present
kept private. Perhaps the most powerful of these were pen-
sions granted by Edward to the pope's brother and nephews,
and some other influential cardinals, who enjoyed the pon-
tiff's favor and confidence. Neither the Church nor people
of Scotland paid any attention to these bulls, though pub-
lished by the legates in all solemnity. The flame of national
freedom and independence burned too clear and strong to be
disturbed by the breath of Rome.
Edward in vain attempted to prevail on other princes and
countries to partake with him and the pope in the common
cry which they endeavored to raise against Robert Bruce
and his kingdom. He applied to the Count of Flanders and
other princes and states of the Netherlands, praying them to
break off all commercial intercourse with the Scots as a re
bellious and excommunicated people. But the Dutch, who
156 ; HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
prospered by countenancing a free trade with all men, coolly
and peremptorily rejected the proposal.
The pope continued obstinate in his displeasure, and as
it broke forth anew just after the retreat of King Edward
and the truce he had made with Scotland (1319), there is
reason to believe that the holy father resumed his severe
measures in compliance with the desires of the English king,
who endeavored thus to maintain a spiritual war against
Bruce after having laid down his temporal weapons. In-
deed, it will afterward appear that Robert alleged tho mach-
inations of Edward II. at Rome as an apology for his own
breach of the truce. These intrigues were, however, success-
ful; the pope once more renewed the thunders of his excom-
munication against Bruce and his adherents, in a bull of
great length ; and the inefficacy that had hitherto attended
these efforts of his spleen had offended the pope so highly
that the prelates of York and London were ordered to repeat
the ceremony, with bell, book, and candle, every Sunday and
festival day through the year.
The parliament of Scotland now took it upon them to
reply to the pope in vindication of themselves and their
sovereign. At Aberbrothock or Arbroath, on the 6th of
April, 1320, eight earls and thirty-one barons of Scotland,
together with the great officers of the crown, and others, in
the name of the whole«community of Scotland, placed their
names and seals to a spirited manifesto or memorial, in
which strong*sense and a manly spirit of freedom are mixed
with arguments«suited to the ignorance of the age.
This celebrated document commences with an enumera-
tion of proofs of the supposed antiquity of the Scottish na-
tion, detailingtits descent from Scota, daughter of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, its conversion to the Christian faith by Saint
Andrew the Apostle, with the long barbarous roll of baptized
and unbaptized names, which, false and true, rilled up the
line of the royal family. Having astounded, as they doubt-
less conceived, the pontiff with the nation's claim to an-
tiquity, of which the Scots have been at all times more than
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 157
sufficiently tenacious, they proceeded in a noble tone of inde-
pendence. The unjust interference of Edward I. with the
affairs of a free people, and the calamities which his am-
bition had brought upon Scotland, were forcibly described,
and the subjection to which his oppression had reduced the
country was painted as a second Egyptian bondage, out of
which their present sovereign had conducted them victori-
ously by his valor and prudence, like a second Joshua or
Maccabeus, The crown they declared was Bruce's by right
of blood, by the merit which deserved it, and the free con-
sent of the people who bestowed it. But yet they added in
express terms, that not even to this beloved and honored
monarch would they continue their allegiance, should he
show an inclination to subject his crown or his people to
homage or dependence on England, but that they would
in that case do their best to resist and expel him from the
throne; "for," say the words of the letter, "while a hun-
dred Scots are left to resist, they will fight for the liberty
that is dearer to them than life." They required that the
pope, making no distinction of persons, like that Heaven*of
which he was the vicegerent, would exhort the king of Eng-
land to remain content with his fair dominions, which had
formerly been thought large enough to supply seven king-
doms, and cease from tormenting and oppressing a poor peo-
ple, his neighbors, whose only desire was to live free and
unoppressed in the remote region where fate had assigned
them their habitation. They reminded the pope of his duty
to preserve a general pacification throughout Christendom,
that all nations might join in a crusade for the recovery of
Palestine, in which they and their king were eager to en-
gage, but for the impediment of the English war. They
concluded by solemnly declaring, that if his holiness should,
after this explanation, favor the English in their schemes for
the oppression of Scotland, at his charge must lie all the loss
of mortal life and immortal happiness which might be for-
feited in a war of the most exterminating character. Lastly,
the Seottifth prelates and barons declared their spiritual
158 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
obedience to the pope, and committed the defence of their
cause to the God of Truth, in the firm hope that he would
endow them with strength to defend their right, and con-
found the devices of their enemies.
The popish excommunication being thus set at naught
and defied by the voice of the people of Scotland, and the
nobles proving themselves resolute in asserting the right of
their monarch and the justice of their cause, the pontiff
showed himself more accessible to the Scottish ambassa-
dors, who were sent to confer with him; and as the king
of France also offered his mediation, his holiness began to
make more equitable proposals for peace between England
and Scotland. It is probable, however, that the sovereigns
principally concerned were each of them desirous to await
the issue of certain dark and mysterious intrigues, which
Edward and Robert respectively knew to have existence in
the court of the enemy.
And, first, for the internal discontents of Scotland. Not-
withstanding the great popularity of Bruce, asris evinced by
the letter of the barons which we have just analyzed, there
had been so many feuds, separate interests, and quarrels pre-
vious to his accession, and his destruction of the power of the
Anglicized barons had given so much offence, that we can-
not be surprised that there should be some throughout the
nation who nourished sentiments toward their king very
different from those of love and veneration, which prevailed
in the community at large. These sentiments of envy and
ill-will led to a conspiracy, in which David de Brechin, the
king's nephew, with five other knights and three esquires,
men of rank and influence, were secretly combined to a
highly treasonable purpose. They had agreed, it would
seem, to put the king to death, and place on the throne
William de Soulis, hereditary butler of Scotland. This am-
bitious knight's grandfather, Nicolas de Soulis, had been a
competitor for the crown as grandson of Marjory, daughter
of Alexander II., and wife of Alan Dureward; an undenia-
ble claim, had his ancestress been legitimate. Sir "William
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 15&
had himself been lately employed as a conservator of the
truce upon the borders, and it is probable he had been then
tampered with by the agents of Edward, and disposed to enter
into this flagitious, and it would seem hopeless conspiracy.
The Countess of Strathern, to whom the guilty secret
was intrusted, betrayed it through fear or remorse. The
conspirators were seized and brought to trial before Parlia-
ment. Sir William de Soulis and the Countess of Strathern
were condemned to perpetual imprisonment. Sir David de
Brechin, Sir William Malherbe, Sir John Logie, and an
esquire, named Richard Brown, were condemned to death,
which they accordingly suffered. Four others of the prin-
cipal conspirators were tried for their lives, and acquitted.
Though the acquittal of these persons, and the clemency
extended to the principal conspirator, afford every reason
to believe that the trials were equitably if not favorably
conducted, yet so little were men accustomed to consider
the meditation of a mere change of government or inno-
vation in the state as anything worthy of death, that the
punishment seems to have been generally regarded as sc ■
vere, and the common people gave the name of the Black
Parliament to that by whose decrees so much noble blood
had been spilled. The age, however accustomed to slaugh-
ter in the field, was less familiar with capital punishments
which followed on the execution of the laws.
David de Brechin's fate excited much public sympathy.
He was young, brave, connected with the blood royal, and
had distinguished himself by his feats against the infidels in
the Holy Land. These accomplishments were to the noble
sufferer in those days a general charm which interested the
populace in his favor, and blinded them to a sense of his
crime, as the goodly person of the "proper young man"
who suffers for a meaner cause fascinates a modern group
of spectators. But, excepting the bewitching attributes of
high birth, youth, and valor, there is little to interest readers
of the present day in the deserved fate of David de Brechin.
He had been early attached to the English cause, and had
160 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
assisted Comyn, earl of Buchan, in his close and vindictive
pursuit of Robert the Bruce through Aberdeenshire, in 1308.
If, indeed, he joined his uncle after the battle of Old Mel-
drum, as is alleged by Barbour, he must have again aposta-
tized, for in 1312 David de Brechin held an English pension,
and was governor of Dundee in Edward's service. He was
a prisoner of war in Scotland in 1315; and though he proba-
bly afterward submitted to his uncle's allegiance, yet in none
of those heroic exploits which render illustrious the warfare
of the subsequent years does the name of David de Brechin
appear. It is probable that his uncle did not trust him;
which may explain, but cannot excuse, his entering into an
enterprise against the life of a near relative, the restorer
of his country's freedom. So it befell, however, that this
young man's death was much lamented. Sir Ingram de
Umfraville gave upon the occasion an example of what we
have above stated concerning the light manner in which the
chivalry of the period exchanged their allegiance and coun-
try from one land and sovereign to another. "I will not
remain in a land," said Sir Ingram, "in which so noble a
knight is put to a shameful and pitiful death for such a slight
cause." He left Scotland accordingly, and transferred his
services and loyalty to England, having previously asked
and obtained leave of Robert Bruce to dispose of his Scottish
estates, which was generously granted to him. It is difficult
to conceive how far Sir Ingram de Umfraville conceived the
immunities of a noble knight to extend. This was the fourth
time he himself had changed sides. He had borne arms
under Wallace, and under the subsequent Scottish regency;
he had become English, and was one of the knights ap-
pointed to keep King Edward's rein at the battle of Ban-
nockburn. That victory reconverted Sir Ingram to the
Scottish allegiance, which he finally renounced out of pity
and tenderness for the fate of Sir David de Brechin, and,
perhaps, some lurking anxiety concerning what might be
ultimately reserved for himself when traitors were reoeiving
payment at the hands of the executioner.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 161
As the conspiracy of Sir William de Soulis and his ac-
complices was probably known to Edward of England, so
there can be no doubt that Robert Bruce was participant
of that which Thomas, earl of Lancaster, was carrying on
against the former monarch in 1321. To this, perhaps, it was
owing that commissioners appointed by both nations broke
up their convention without being able to settle the grounds
on which the truce should be exchanged for a lasting peace.
Edward endeavored on this occasion once more to animate
the resentment of the pope against Scotland; but whether
the pontiff was moved by the high-spirited manifesto of the
Scottish barons, or whether he deemed it inexpedient to
bring his spiritual artillery into contempt by using it when
it produced no effect, it is certain that he adopted a more
impartial tone in the controversy, and more conciliatory
toward the weaker kingdom.
The history of England must now be referred to. The
chief vice in Edward's feeble government was a disposition
to favoritism, with the sovereign's indolence, love of pleas-
ure, and negligence of public business. The first troubles
of his reign had been occasioned by his excessive partiality
for a knight of Gascony named Piers Gaveston. The power
of this minion being destroyed, and he himself put to death,
by a league of the nobility headed by Thomas, earl of Lan-
caster, for some time the king seemed disposed to live in
harmony with his subjects. Edward's ill stars, however,
led him to find another Gaveston in Hugh Despenser, who
engrossed, like the Gascon, and like him misused, the good
graces of his facile master. Sensible that he was as much de-
tested by the nobility as ever Gaveston had been, Despenser
contrived to whet the king's vengeance against the nobles
by whom that favorite had been put to death, and especially
against Lancaster. The earl, on the other hand, knowing
that he stood in danger from the deadly hatred of his sover-
eign, was led into the unjustifiable step of caballing with
strangers and enemies against his native prince, and con-
trary to his sworn allegiance.
162 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
A treaty offensive and defensive was entered into between
the earl and the Scottish nobles, Randolph and Douglas, stip-
ulating that the Scots, on the one part, should invade Eng-
land, to facilitate the operations of the Earl of Lancaster;
and, on the other part, that the English, in return for this
brotherly support, should use their interest to obtain an
equitable peace between England and Scotland. If there
were, as seems probable, other stipulations, they remained
secret.
The Earl of Lancaster convoked his friends, and rose in
insurrection ; but his measures had not been combined with
those of the Scots. There appears to have been, as is fre-
quently the case, mutual jealousy between the native con-
spirators and the foreign auxiliaries. Disconcerted by
hearing that the king was 'on the march toward them, the
insurgents threw themselves into the town of Pontefract,
1323. As the Earl of Lancaster endeavored to make his way
from thence to his castle of Dunstanborough in the north,
he was attacked by Sir Andrew Hartcla, warden of the
western marches, and Sir Simon Ward, sheriff of York-
shire. The Earl of Lancaster was tried and beheaded, and
afterward worshipped as a saint, though he had died in an
act of high treason.
This gleam of success on his arms, which had been sorely
tarnished, seems to have filled Edward, who was of a san-
guine and buoyant temperament, with dreams of conquest
over all his enemies. As a king never stands more securely
than on the ruins of a discovered and suppressed conspiracy,
he wrote to the pope to give himself no further solicitude to
procure a truce or peace with the Scots, since he had deter-
mined to bring them to reason by force.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 163
CHAPTER XII
Preparations of Edward to invade Scotland— Incursions of the Scots
into Lancashire— The English enter Scotland— Robert Bruce
lays waste the Country, and avoids Battle— The English are
obliged to Retreat— Robert invades England in turn— Defeats
the King of England at Biland Abbey— Treason and Execution
of Sir Andrew Hartcla— Truce for Thirteen Years— Randolph's
Negotiation with the Pope— Settlement of the Crown of Scot-
land — Deposition of Edward II.— Robert determines to break
the Truce under Charges of Infraction by England— Edward
HI. assembles his Army at York, with a formidable Body of
Auxiliaries— Douglas and Randolph advance into Northumber-
land at the Head of a light-armed Army— Edward marches as
far as the Tyne without being able to find the Scots— A Reward
published to whomsoever should bring Tidings of their Motions
—It is claimed by Thomas of Rokeby— The Scots are found in
an inaccessible Position, and they refuse Battle — The Scots shift
their Encampment to Stanhope Park — Douglas attacks the
English by Night — The Scots retreat, and the English Army is
dismissed — The Scots suddenly again invade England — A Pacifi-
cation takes place: its particular Articles — Illness and Death of
Bruce — Thoughts on his Life and Character — Effects produced
on the Character of the Scots during his Reign
KING EDWARD made extensive preparations for a
campaign on a great scale: he sent for soldiers,
arms, and provisions, to Aquitaine and the other
French provinces belonging to England, and obtained the
consent of parliament for a large levy of forces, upon the
scale of one man from each village and hamlet in England,
with a proportional number from market towns and cities.
Subsidies were also granted to a large extent, for defray-
ing the expenses of the expedition. But while Edward
was making preparations, the Scots were already in action.
164 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Randolph broke into the west marches with those troops to
whom the road was become familiar ; and hardly had they
returned, when the king himself, at the head of one large
body, advanced through the western marches, into Lanca-
shire, wasting the country on every side; while Douglas and
Randolph, who entered the borders more to the east, joined
him with a second division. They marched through the
vale of Furness, laying everything waste in their passage,
and piling their wagons with the English valuables. They
returned into Scotland upon the 24th July, after having
spent twenty-four days in this destructive raid.
It was August, 1322, before King Edward moved north-
ward, with a gallant army fit to have disputed a second field
of Bannockburn. But Bruce not being now under an en-
gagement to meet the English in a pitched battle, the rep-
utation of his arms could suffer no dishonor by declining
such a risk ; and his sound views of military policy recom-
mended his evading battle. He carefully laid the whole
borders waste as far as the Firth of Forth, removing
the' inhabitants to the mountains, with all their effects
of any value.
When the English army entered, they found a land of des-
olation, which famine seemed to guard. The king advanced
to Edinburgh unopposed. On their march the soldiers only
found one lame bull. "Is he all that you have got?" said
the Earl Warrenne to the soldiers who brought in this soli-
tary article of plunder. "By my faith, I never saw dearer
beef."
At Edinburgh they learned that Bruce had assembled
his forces at Culross, where he lay watching the motions
of the invaders. The English had expected their ships in
the Firth, and waited for them three days. The vessels
were detained by contrary winds, the soldiers suffered by
famine, and Edward was obliged to retreat without having
seen an enemy. They returned by the convents of Dry-
burgh and Melrose, where they slew such monks as were
too infirm to escape, violated the sanctuaries, and plundered
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 165
the consecrated plate. 1 This argues a degree of license
which, in an army, seldom fails to bring its own punish-
ment. When the English soldiers, after much want and
privation, regained their own land of plenty, they indulged
in it so intemperately that sixteen thousand died of inflam-
mation of the bowels, and others had their constitutions
broken for life.
Robert Bruce hastened to retaliate the invasion which
he had not judged it prudent to meet and repel. He pushed
across the Tweed at the head of his army, and made an at-
tempt upon Norham Castle, in which he failed. He learned,
however, that the king of England was reposing and collect-
ing forces at Biland Abbey, near Malton ; and as the Scots,
although they fought on foot, generally used in their jour-
neys small horses of uncommon strength and hardihood,
Robert, by a forced march, suddenly and unexpectedly
placed himself in front of the English army. But they
were admirably drawn up on the ridge of a hill, accessible
only by a single, narrow and difficult ascent. Bruce com-
manded Douglas to storm the English position. As he ad-
vanced to the attack, he was joined by Randolph, who with
four squires volunteered to fight under his command. Sir
Thomas Ughtred and Sir Ralph Cobham, who were sta-
tioned in advance of the English army to defend the pass,
made a violent and bloody opposition. But Bruce, as at
the battle of Cruachan-Ben, turned the English position by
means of a body of Highlanders accustomed to mountain
warfare, who climbed the ridge at a distance from the scene
of action, and attacked the flank and rear of the English
position. King Edward with the utmost difficulty escaped
to Bridlington, leaving behind him his equipage, baggage,
and treasure. John of Bretagne, earl of Richmond, and
Henry de Sully, grand butler of France, were made prison-
• The effect of these ravages was repaired by the restoration of the
abbey church of Melrose, the beautiful ruins of which still show the
finest specimens of Gothic architecture.
166 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
ers. It seems the earl had, upon some late occasion, spoken
discourteously of Bruce, who made a distinction between him
and the other French captives, ordering Richmond into close
custody, and recognizing in the others honorable knights, who
sought adventures and battles from no ill-will to him, but
merely for augmentation of their names in chivalry. The
steward of Scotland, at the head of five hundred Scottish
men-at-arms, pursued the routed army to the walls of York,
and, knight-like (as the phrase then was), abode there till
evening, to see if any would issue to fight. The Scots then
raised an immense booty in the country, and once more with-
drew to their own land loaded with spoil.
The fidelity of Andrew de Hartcla, who had rendered
King Edward the important service of putting down the in-
surrection of the Earl of Lancaster, had procured him the
rank of Earl of Carlisle, and many other royal favors. The
recollection of these benefits did not, it would seem, prevent
his entering into a conspiracy against the prince by whom
they were conferred, of nearly the same nature with that of
Lancaster, in suppressing which he himself bore the princi-
pal part. This second plot was detected, and the Earl of
Carlisle brought to trial. He was charged with having en-
tered into a treasonable engagement with the Scottish king,
undertaking to guarantee him in the possession of Scotland.
In requital, Bruce was to render Hartcla and his associates
some aid in accomplishing certain purposes in England, be-
ing the destruction doubtless of the power of the Despenser.
The Earl of Carlisle was degraded from his honors of nobil-
ity and chivalry, and died the death of a traitor at Carlisle,
March 2, 1322.
The sense of the difficulties with which he was surrounded,
and this new example of the spirit of defection among those
in whom he trusted, at length induced Edward to become
seriously desirous of a long truce, preparatory to a solid
peace with Scotland. Henry de Sully, the French knight
made prisoner at Biland Abbey, acted as mediator, and a
truce was agreed upon at a place called Thorpe. The rati-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND IbY
fication, dated at Berwick, 7th June, 1323, was made by
Bruce in the express and avowed character of king of Scot-
land, and was so accepted by the English monarch. .The
truce was concluded to endure for thirteen years.
Bruce had now leisure to direct his thoughts toward
achieving peace with Rome ; for his being in the state of
excommunication, though a circumstance little regarded in
his own dominions, must have operated greatly to his dis-
advantage in his intercourse with other states and kingdoms
of Europe. The king despatched to Rome his nephew, the
celebrated Randolph, earl of Moray, who conducted the ne-
gotiation with such tact and dexterity that he induced the
pope to address a bull to his royal relation under the long-
withheld title of king of Scotland. The delicacy of the dis-
cussion was so great that we are surprised to find a northern
warrior, who scarce had breathed any air save that of the
battlefield, capable of encountering and attaining the advan-
tage over the subtle Italian priest in his own art of diplo-
macy. But the qualities which form a military character
of the highest order are the same with those of the consum-
mate politician. Shrewdness to arrange plans of attack,
prudence to foresee and obviate those of his antagonist,
perfect composure and acuteness in discerning and seizing
every opportunity of advantage, hold an equal share in
the composition of both. The king of England was ex-
tremely displeased with the pope, and intrigued so much
at Rome to resume his influence, and use it to the prejudice
of Robert, that his private machinations there were after-
ward alleged by the Scots as the cause of their breaking the
long truce which had been concluded between the countries.
Randolph's talents for negotiation were also displayed in
effecting a league between Scotland and France, which the
circumstances of the times seemed strongly to recommend,
and which was entered into accordingly. This French alli-
ance was productive of events very prejudicial to Scotland
in after ages, often involving the country in war with Eng-
land, when the interests of the nation would have strongly
108 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
mmended neutrality. But these evil consequences were
not so strongly apparent as the immediate advantage of
securing the assistance and support of a wealthy and pow-
erful nation, who were, like themselves, the natural enemies
of England. The alliance with France, the consequences of
which penetrate deep«into future Scottish history, was of an
offensive and defensive character. But its effects and obliga-
tions on the part of Scotland were declared to be suspended
till the truce of Berwick should be ended.
Scotland had now, what was a novelty to her stormy his-
tory, a continuance of some years of peace. Several changes
took place in the royal family. The first and happiest was
the birth of a son to Bruce, who afterward succeeded his
father by the title of David II. The joy of this event was
allayed by the death of the king's son-in-law, the valiant
Stewart. His wife, the Princess Marjory, had died soon
after the birth of her son in 1326. The Stewart's behavior
at Bannockburn when almost a boy, at the siege of Berwick,
where he defended the place againt the whole force of Eng-
land, at Biland Abbey, and on other occasions, had raised
his fame high among the Scottish champions of that heroio
period.
In consequence of these changes in the family of the king,
a parliament was held at Cambuskenneth, in July, 1326, in
which it is worthy of observation that the representatives of
the royal boroughs for the first time were admitted ; a sure
sign of the reviving prosperity of the country, which has
always kept pace with, or rather led to, the increasing im-
portance of the towns.
In this parliament the estates took their oath of fealty to
the infant David, son of Robert Bruce, and failing him or
his heirs, to Robert Stewart, son of "Walter Stewart, so lately
lost and lamented, and Marjory, also deceased, the daughter
of Robert by his first queen. The same parliament granted
to the Bruce a tenth of the rents of all the lands of the king-
dom of Scotland, to be levied agreeably to the valuation or
extent, as it is termed, of Alexander ILL
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND ]69
In the year 1327 a revolution took place in the govern-
ment of England, which had a strong effect on the relations
between that kingdom and Scotland. The remains of the
Earl of Lancaster's party in the state had now arranged
themselves under the ambitious Queen Isabella and her
minion Mortimer, and accomplished the overthrow of Ed-
ward II. 's power, which the same faction had in vain at-
tempted under Lancaster and Hartcla. The unfortunate
king, more weak than wilful, then executed a compulsory
resignation in favor of his son Edward III., and, thus de-
throned, was imprisoned, and finally most cruelly murdered.
It is probable that Robert Bruce was determined to take
advantage of the confusion occasioned by this convulsion in
England to infringe the truce and renew the war, with the
purpose of compelling an advantageous peace. For this
he wanted not sufficiently fair pretexts, though it may be
doubted whether he would have made use of them had not
the opportunity for renewing the war, with a kingdom gov-
erned by a boy and divided by factions, seemed so particu-
larly inviting. His ostensible motives, however, were, that,
although an article of the treaty at Thorpe, confirmed at
Berwick, provided that the spiritual excommunication pro-
nounced against Bruce should be suspended till the termina-
tion of the truce, yet Edward, by underhand measures at
the court of Rome, had endeavored to prejudice the cause
of the Scottish king with the pontiff, and obstruct, if pos-
sible, the important object of his reconciliation with Rome.
It was also alleged on the part of Scotland that the English
cruisers had infringed the truce by interrupting the com-
merce between Flanders and Scotland, and particularly by
the capture of various merchant vessels, for which no in-
demnity could be obtained.
The truth seems to be that Robert, having these causes
or pretences for breaking off the truce, was desirous to avail
himself of the opportunity afforded by the internal disturb-
ances of England to bring matters to a final issue, and either
to resume the war at a period which promised advantage, or
8 -% Vol. I.
170 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
obtain a distinct recognition of the independence of Scotland,
and an acknowledgment of his own title to the crown. Frois-
sart and other historians have intimated that the Scottish king
desired also to avail himself of the opportunity to obtain in
permanent sovereignty some part of the northern provinces
of England. It is highly probable such a claim was stated
and founded upon the possession of these counties by the
Scottish kings in David I. 's time and before it. But it was
probably mentioned in the usual policy of negotiators, who
state their demands high that there may be room for con-
cession. The serious prosecution of such a design neither
accords with the Bruce 's policy nor with his actual conduct.
He well knew that Northumberland and Cumberland, over
which Scotland had once a claim, were now become a part
of England, and attached to that country by all the ties of
national predilection, and that although a right to them
might be conceded in an hour of distress, it would only
create a perpetual cause of war for their recovery, when
England should regain its superiority. Accordingly, in all
his inroads, Bruce treated the border districts as part of
England, to be plundered by his flying armies, while he
never took measures either to conciliate the inhabitants or
secure and garrison any places of strength for the appro-
priation of the country. The line drawn between the Tweed
and Solway afforded to Scotland a strong frontier, which
any advance to the southward must have rendered a weak
and unprotected one. Accordingly, when triumphant in the
war which he undertook, the sagacious Robert did not make
any proposal for enlarging the territory of Scotland, while
he took every means for insuring her independence.
Negotiations for continuing the truce, or converting it
into a final peace, which seems the point aimed at by Bruce,
were finally broken off between the two kingdoms ; and Ed-
ward III., already, though in early youth, animated by the
martial spirit which no king of England possessed more
strongly, appointed his forces to meet at Newcastle before
the 29th of May, 1327, alleging that the king of Scotland
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 171
had convoked his army to assemble at that day upon the
borders, in breach of the truce concluded at Thorpe. The
rendezvous took place, however, at York, where- a noble
army convened under command of the young king, the fut-
ure hero of Crecy, to which magnificent host had been
added, at the expense of a large subsidy five hundred men-
at-arms from Hainault, who were then reckoned the best
soldiers in Europe. With the archers and light horse at-
tendant on each man-at-arms, the number of these auxili-
aries must be calculated as amounting to three thousand
men. But, as it proved, their heavy horses and heavy
armor rendered them ill qualified to act in the swampy,
wild, and mountainous country where the seat of war was
destined to lie. An accidental quarrel also took place at
York between these knightly strangers and the English
archers. Much blood was shed on both sides, and a dis-
cord created between the foreigners and natives of Edward's
army, which seems to have caused embarrassment during the
whole expedition.
In the meantime the Scottish forces, to the number of two
or three thousand men-at-arms, well mounted and equipped
for a day of battle, and a large body of their light cavalry,
amounting to more than ten thousand, with many followers,
who marched on horseback, but fought on foot, invaded the
western border, according to their custom,. and penetrating
through the wild frontier of Cumberland, came down upon
Weardale, in the bishopric of Durham, marking their course
with more than their usual ferocity of devastation. These
forces, superior to all known in Europe for irregular war-
fare, were conducted by the wisdom, experience, and enter-
prising courage of the famed Randolph and the good lord
James Douglas, guided, doubtless, by the anxious instruc-
tions of the Bruce, who, though only fifty-three years of
age, was affected by a disease of the blood, then termed the
leprosy, which prevented his leading his armies in person.
The king of England, on the other hand, at the head of
a princely army of sixty thousand, men, including five hun-
T 7? niSTORY OF SCOTLAND
dred belted knights, animated by the presence of the queen-
mother and fifty ladies of the highest rank, who witnessed
their departure, set out from York, in 1327, with the deter-
mination of chastising the invaders and destroyers of his
country. The high spirit of the youthful monarch was ani-
mated, besides, by a defiance which Bruce despatched to
him by a herald, stating his determination to work his pleas-
ure with fire and sword on the English frontiers.
The English army advanced in the most perfect order,
and reached Northumberland, where the first intelligence
they received of the enemy was by the smoke and flame of
the villages suffering under presence of the invaders, tokens
which arose conspicuous all around on the verge of the hori-
zon. The English marched on these "melancholy beacons,"
but without reaching the authors of the mischief. During
the space of three days, the light-armed and active Scots
made their presence manifest by these marks of ravage,
within five miles of the English army, but were not other-
wise to be seen or brought to combat. After a vain and
fatiguing pursuit which lasted three days, the English, in
despair of overtaking their light-footed enemy, at length re-
turned to the banks of the Tyne, determined to await the
Scots on that river, and intercept their return to Scotland.
This resolution seems to have been adopted in the vain
imagination that the Scots, intimately acquainted with the
whole of an extensive waste frontier, would choose in leav-
ing England to use precisely the same road by which they
had entered it. The halt on the banks of the Tyne proved
as detrimental and embarrassing to the English, and espe-
cially to the auxiliaries, as the advance and pursuit had
been. Provisions grew scarce, forage still scarcer; the rain
poured down in torrents; the river became swollen: they
had only wet wood to burn, and such bread to eat as they
had carried for several days together at the croup of their
saddles, wetted and soiled by the rain and the sweat of the
horses. They were midway between Newcastle and Car-
lisle, and too distant to receive assistance from either town.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 173
After enduring these hardships for eight days, the soldiers
became so mutinous that it was resolved upon, as the lesser
evil, again to put them in movement, and march in quest of
the Scottish army.
The march was therefore resumed in a southern direction,
still with the hope to meet the enemy on their return, and
land to the amount of a hundred pounds a year, with the
honor of knighthood, was proclaimed through the host as
the reward of any one who should bring certain notice where
the Scottish army could be found ; an unparalleled circum-
stance in war, considering that a king in his own country,
and at the head of his own royal army, found such a meas-
ure necessary to procure information of the position of a
host of twenty-five thousand men, who must have been
within a half circle of twenty miles drawn round the En-
glish army. Many knights and squires set off in quest of
information that might merit to secure the reward. Such
of the English host as had been transferred to the north
bank of the Tyne recrossed the river with difficulty and loss.
On the 31st of July, Thomas de Rokeby, a Yorkshire
gentleman, returned to claim the promised reward. His
acquaintance with the Scottish position was complete: he
had been made prisoner, and brought before the Scottish
leaders. He told them of the reward which had been prom-
ised, and the purpose of his approaching their encampment.
On this statement Douglas and Randolph dismissed him
without ransom, telling him to inform the English king they
knew as little of his motions as he did of theirs (an assertion
which may very well be doubted), but would be glad to meet
him in their present position, which was within six or seven
miles of his own army. The English arrayed themselves for
battle, and advanced under the guidance of Rokeby, now Sir
Thomas, but were mortified to find their enemies drawn up
on the crest of a steep hill, at the foot of which ran the river
Wear, through a rocky channel, so that an attack upon de-
termined men and veteran soldiers, in such a position, must
be attended with destruction to the assailants.
174 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Tbo king sent a herald to defy the Scots to a fair field
of fight, according to the practice of chivalry: he offered
either to withdraw his own troops from the northern bank,
and permit the Scottish army to come over and form in array
of battle; or, if the enemy preferred to retire from the south-
ern bank, and allow the English to cross the river unmo-
lested, he declared his willingness to make the attack. But
Douglas and Randolph knew too well their own inferiority
in numbers and appointments, and the great advantage of
their present situation, to embrace either alternative. They
returned for answer, that they had entered England without
the consent of the king and his barons; that they would
abide in the realm as long as they pleased: "if the king dis-
likes our presence," said they, "let him pass the river, and
do his best to chastise us." Thus the two armies continued
facing each other; the Scots on the south bank of the Wear,
the English on the north ; the former subsisting on the herds
of cattle which they drove in from the country on all hands,
the latter living poorly on such provisions as they brought
with them : the former spending their night round immense
fires, maintained in the greater profusion for the pleasure
of wasting the English wood, and lodging in huts and lodges
made of boughs ; the English, who were on the depopulated
and wasted side of the river, sleeping many of them in the
open air, with their saddles for pillows, and holding their
horses in their hands. They were annoyed by the Scottish
bordermen winding their horns all night, and making a noise
as if, says Froissart, "all the devils of hell had been there."
Having thus faced each other for two or three days, the
English, at dawn of the third or fourth morning, perceived
the Scots' position was deserted and empty. They had
decamped with much silence and celerity, and were soon
found to have occupied a new position on the "Wear, resem-
bling the former in its general description, but even stronger,
and masked by a wood, being part of an enclosed chase, called
Stanhope Deer Park, the property of the bishop of Durham.
Here the two hostile armies confronted each other as for-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 175
merly; the English declining to attack on account of the
strength of the Scottish position, the Scots refusing battle
with an army superior to their own.
While they had little to do save to remark each other's
equipment, the Scots saw among the English two novelties
in the practice of war, which, though attended with very
different consequences, are recorded by contemporaries with
equal wonder. The one was a mode of adjusting the crest
upon the helmet, called timbering; the other was the use
of a new kind of artillery, then called engynes, or, by abbre-
viation, gynes, or cracks of war, from which we have derived
the modern term guns. The effect produced by firearms in
their rude state could not have been formidable, nor could
it have been augured that the invention would cause a gen-
eral change in the art of war, since it is merely noticed as a
novelty, along with a new and fantastic mode of ornament-
ing the helmet.
But the English did not remain long in the neighborhood
of the Douglas in undisturbed slumbers. On the second
night after their arrival in this new position, that enterpris-
ing leader left the Scottish camp with a select body of men-
at-arms, crossed the Wear at a distance from the English
encampment, and entered it, saying, as he passed the sleepy
sentinels, in the manner and with the national exclamation
of an English officer making the rounds: "Ha! Saint
George 1 have we no ward here?" He reached the king's
tent without discovery, cut asunder the ropes, and cried his
war-cry of "Douglas! Douglas!" The young king only
escaped death or captivity by the fidelity of his chaplain and
others of his household, who fell in his defence. Disap-
pointed in his attempt on the king's person, which was his
main object, Douglas cut his way through the English host,
who were now gathering fast, broke from their encamp-
ment, and returned safe to the Scottish camp with fresh
laurels in his helmet.
On the second night after this camisado, the English
received intimation from a Scottish captive that all the army
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
were commanded to hold themselves in readiness to march
that evening, and to follow the banner of Douglas. The
English conceived this to be a preparation for a repetition
of the nocturnal attack, and lay on their arms all the night.
But Douglas was too wise to trust to a renewal of the same
stratagem. In the morning it was ascertained that the
Scots, having left great fires burning in their camp, had
marched off about midnight by a road which they had cut
through a morass in their rear, supposed to be impassable.
The camp of the Scots, now deserted, furnished a curious
spectacle to the English and the strangers. Four hundred
beeves lay slaughtered for the use of their army. Three
hundred caldrons, formed extemporaneously out of raw
hides, were filled with the beef which the same skins had
covered while the creatures were alive: hundreds of old
brogues, made out of the same materials, lay about the
tents. Five English prisoners were found bound to trees,
three of whom had their legs broken, although whether in
some previous action, or by a gratuitous piece of cruelty
after they were made prisoners, does not appear. The hardy
warriors of Douglas and Randolph lived exactly as drovers
and other Scots of the lower order do at the present day,
when bound on long journeys. A bag of oatmeal hung at
the croup of the saddle, which also bore a plate of iron,
called a girdle, on which the said oatmeal was baked into
cakes as occasion offered: animal food was furnished by
their plunder in an enemy's country — in their own they
subsisted well enough without. Salt, liquor of any kind,
save water, as well as any variety of food, they entirely
dispensed with.
Wanting so little, and carrying with them the means of
satisfying themselves, it was easy to see why these light
marauders remained concealed from the heavy-armed En-
glish, distressed alike by their numerous wants, and the
apparatus they bore along to supply them, until it was their
pleasure to become visible in "Weardale, where they remained
no longer than suited their own inclination. It soon ap-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 177
peared that Douglas and Randolph, having taken a circui-
tous course till they had turned the flank, were already-
advanced on their way homeward, to meet another Scottish
army, which had crossed the frontier to extricate them, if it
should be necessary.
The English retreated to Durham, dejected and distressed,
especially the knights and men-at-arms of Hainault, many
of whom, instead of the praise and plunder they hoped to
acquire, had lost their valuable horses and property. They
were dismissed, however, with thanks and reward; and
it is said these troops, notwithstanding their total ineffi-
ciency, had cost the kingdom of England a sum equal to
320,000Z. sterling of modern money.
King Edward III. next convoked a parliament at York,
in which there appeared a tendency on the part of England
to concede the main points on which proposals for peace
had hitherto failed, by acknowledging the independence of
Scotland, and the legitimate sovereignty of Bruce. These
dispositions to reconciliation were much quickened by the
sudden apparition of King Robert himself on the eastern
frontier, where he besieged the castles of Norham and Aln-
wick, while a large division of his army burned and destroyed
the open country, and the king himself rode about hunting
from one park to another, as if on a pleasure party. The
parliament at York, although the besieged castles made
a gallant defence, agreed upon a truce, which it was now
determined should be the introduction to a lasting peace.
As a necessary preliminary, the English statesmen resolved
formally to execute a resignation of all claims of dominion
and superiority which had been assumed over the kingdom
of Scotland, and agreed that all muniments or public instru-
ments asserting or tending to support such a claim should
be delivered up. This agreement was subscribed by the
king on the 4th of March, 1328. Peace was afterward con-
cluded at Edinburgh the 17th of March, 1328, and ratified
at a parliament held at Northampton, the 4th of May, 1328.
It was confirmed by a match agreed upon between the Prin-
178 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
cess Joanna, sister to Edward III., and David, son of Robert
I., though both were as yet infants. Articles of strict amity-
were settled between the nations, without prejudice to the
effect of the alliance between Scotland and France. Bruce
renounced the privilege of assisting rebels of England, should
such arise in Ireland, and Edward the power of encouraging
those of the isles who might rise against Scotland. It was
stipulated that all the charters and documents carried from
Scotland by Edward I. should be restored, and the king of
England was pledged to give his aid in the court of Rome
toward the recall of the excommunication awarded against
King Robert. Lastly, Scotland was to pay a sum of twenty
thousand pounds, in consideration of these favorable terms.
The borders were to be maintained in strict order on both
sides, and the fatal coronation-stone was to be restored to
Scotland. There was another separate obligation on the
Scottish side, which led to most serious consequences in
the subsequent reign. The seventh article of the peace of
Northampton provided that certain English barons, Thomas,
Lord Wake of Lidel, Henry de Beaumont, earl of Buchan,
and Henry de Percy, should be restored to the lands and
heritages in Scotland, whereof they had been deprived dur-
ing the war by the king of Scots seizing them into his own
hand. The execution of this article was deferred by the
Scottish king, who was not, it may be conceived, very will-
ing again to introduce English nobles as landholders into
Scotland. The English mob, on their part, resisted the
removal of the fatal stone from "Westminster, where it had
been deposited; a pertinacity which "superstitious eld"
believed was its own punishment, since, with slow but sure
attraction, the mystic influence of the magnetic palladium
drew the Scottish Solomon, James VI., to the sovereignty
in the kingdom where it was deposited. The deed called
Ragman's Roll, being the list of the barons and men of note
who subscribed the submission to Edward I. in 1296, was,
however, delivered up to the Scots; and a more important
pledge, the English princess Joanna, then only seven years
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 179
old, was placed in the custody of Bruce, to be united at a
fitting- age to her boy-bridegroom, David, who was himself
two years younger.
The treaty of peace made at Northampton has been
termed dishonorable to England, by her historians. But
stipulations that are just and necessary in themselves can-
not infer dishonor, however disadvantageous they may be.
The treaty of Northampton was just, because the English
had no title to the superiority of Scotland ; and it was neces-
sary, because Edward III. had no force to oppose the Scot-
tish army, but was compelled to lie within the fortifications
of York, and see the invaders destroy the country nearly to
the banks of the Humber. What is alike demanded by jus-
tice and policy it may be mortifying but cannot be dishonor-
able to concede ; and before passing so heavy a censure on
the Northampton parliament, these learned writers ought
to have considered whether England possessed any right
over Scotland; and, secondly, whether that which they
claimed was an adequate motive for continuing an unsuc-
cessful war.
Bruce seemed only to wait for the final deliverance of his
country, to close his heroic career. He had retired, prob-
ably, for the purpose of enjoying a milder climate, to his
castle of Cardross, on the Firth of Clyde, near Dumbarton.
Here he lived in princely retirement, and, entertaining the
nobles with rude hospitality, relieved by liberal doles of food
the distresses of the poor. Nautical affairs seem to have
engaged his attention very much, and he built vessels, with
which he often went on the adjacent firth. He practiced
falconry, being unequal to sustain the fatigue of hunting.
We may add, for everything is interesting where Robert
Bruce is the subject, that he kept a lion, and a fool named
Patrick, as regular parts of his establishment. Meantime
his disease (a species of leprosy, as we have already said,
which had origin in the hardships and privations which he
had sustained for so many years) gained ground upon his
remaining strength.
180 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
When he found his end drew nigh, that great king sum-
moned his barons and peers around him, and affectionately
nvommended his son to their care, then singling out the
good Lord James of Douglas, fondly entreated of him, as
his old friend and companion in arms, to cause the heart to
be taken from his body after death, conjuring him to take
the charge of transporting it to Palestine in redemption of
the vow which he had made to go in person thither, when
he was disentangled from the cares brought on him by the
English wars. "Now the hour is come," he said, "I cannot
avail myself of the opportunity, but must send my heart
thither in place of my body ; and a better knight than you,
my dear and tried friend and comrade, to execute such a
commission, the world holds not," All who were present
wept bitterly around the bed, while the king, with almost
his dying words, bequeathed this melancholy task to his
best-beloved follower and champion. On the 7th of June,
1329, died Robert Bruce, at the almost premature age of
fifty-five. He was buried at Dunfermline, where his tomb
was opened in our time, and his relics again interred amid
all the feelings of awe and admiration which such a sight
tended naturally to inspire.
Remarkable in many things, there was this almost pecul-
iar to Robert Bruce, that his life was divided into three dis-
tinct parts, which could scarcely be considered as belonging
to the same individual. His youth was thoughtless, hasty,
and fickle, and from the moment he began to appear in pub-
lic life until the slaughter of the Red Comyn, and his final
assumption of the crown, he appeared to have entertained
no certain purpose beyond that of shifting with the shifting
tide, like the other barons around him, ready, like them, to
enter into hasty plans for the liberation of Scotland from
the English yoke ; but equally prompt to submit to the over-
whelming power of Edward. Again, in a short but very
active period of his life, he displayed the utmost steadiness,
firmness, and constancy, sustaining, with unabated patienoe
and determination, the loss of battles, the death of friends,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 181
the disappointment of hopes, and an uninterrupted series of
disasters, which scarce a ray of hope appeared to brighten.
This term of suffering extended from the field of Methven
Wood till his return to Scotland from the island of Rachrin,
after which time his career, whenever he was himself per-
sonally engaged, was almost uniformly successful, even till
he obtained the object of his wishes — the secure possession
of an independent throne.
When these things are considered, we shall find reason
to conclude that the misfortunes of the second or suffering
period of Bruce's life had taught him lessons of constancy,
of prudence, and of moderation, which were unknown to his
early years, and tamed the hot and impetuous fire which his
temper, like that of his brother Edward, naturally possessed.
He never permitted the injuries of Edward I. (although
three brothers had been cruelly executed by that monarch's
orders) to provoke him to measures of retaliation; and his
generous conduct to the prisoners at Bannockburn, as well
as elsewhere, reflected equal honor on his sagacity and hu-
manity. His manly spirit of chivalry was best evinced by a
circumstance which happened in Ireland, where, when pur-
sued by a superior force of English, he halted and offered
battle at disadvantage, rather than abandon a poor washer-
woman, who had been taken with the pains of labor, to the
cruelty of the native Irish.
Robert Bruce's personal accomplishments in war stood
so high, that he was universally esteemed one of the three
best knights of Europe during that martial age, and gave
many proofs of personal prowess. His achievements seem
amply to vindicate this high estimation, since the three
Highlanders slain in the retreat from Dairy, and Sir Henry
de Bohun killed by his hand in front of the English army,
evince the valorous knight, as the plans of his campaigns
exhibit the prudent and sagacious leader. The Bruce's
skill in the military art was of the highest order; and in
his testament, as it is called, he bequeathed a legacy to
his countrymen, which, had they known how to avail
182 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
themselves of it, would have saved them the loss of many
a bloody day.
These verses are thus given by Mr. Tytler. I have, for
the sake of rendering them intelligible, adopted the plan of
modern spelling, retaining the ancient language. The orig-
inal verses are in Latin leonines.
"On foot should be all Scottish weire, 1
By hill and moss themselves to bear:
Let wood for walls be — bow and spear
And battle-axe their fighting gear:
That enemies do them no drear, 2
In strait place cause keep all store,
And burn the plain land them before;
Then shall they pass away in haste,
When that they nothing find but waste;
With wiles and wakening of the night,
And mickle noises made on height;
Then shall they turn with great affray,
As they were chased with sword away.
This is the council and intent
Of good King Robert's testament."
If, however, his precepts could not save the Scottish
nation from military losses, his example taught them to
support the consequences with unshaken constancy. It is,
indeed, to the example of this prince, and to the events of
a reign so dear to Scotland, that we can distinctly trace that
animated love of country which has been ever since so strong
a characteristic of North Britons that it has been sometimes
supposed to limit their affections and services so exclusively
within the limits of their countrymen as to render that par-
tiality a reproach which, liberally exercised, is subject for
praise. In the day of Alexander III. and his predecessors,
the various tribes whom these kings commanded were
divided from each other by language and manners : it was
only by residing within the same common country that
they were forced into some sort of connection: but after
Bauce's death we find little more mention of Scots, Gal-
wegians, Picts, Saxons, or Strath-Clyde Britons. They had
all, with the exception of the Highlanders, merged into the
1 War. s Harm.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 183
single denomination of Scots, and spoke generally the Anglo-
Scottish language. This great change had been produced by
the melting down of all petty distinctions and domestic dif-
ferences in the crucible of necessity. In the wars with Eng-
land all districts of the country had been equally oppressed,
and almost all had been equally distinguished in combat-
ing and repelling the common enemy. There was scarce a
district of Scotland that had not seen the Brace's banner
displayed, and had not sent forth brave men to support it ;
and so extensive were the king's wanderings, so numerous
his travels, so strongly were felt the calls on which men
were summoned from all quarters to support him, that petty
distinctions were abolished ; £:nd the state, which, consisting
of a variety of half-independent tribes, resembled an ill-
constructed fagot, was now consolidated into one strong and.
inseparable stem, and deserved the name of a kingdom.
It is true that the great distinction between the Saxon
and Gaelic races in dress, speech, and manner, still sepa-
rated the Highlander from his lowland neighbor; but even
this leading line of separation was considerably softened and
broken in upon, during the civil wars and the reign of Rob-
ert Bruce. The power of the Macdougals, who had before
Bruce's accession acted as independent chiefs, making peace
and war at their pleasure, was broken both in Galloway and
Argyleshire. The powerful Campbell, of Norman descent,
but possessed of large Highland possessions by marriage
with the heiress of a Celtic chief called Dermid O'Duine,
obtained great part of their Argyleshire possessions, and
being allied to the royal family, did much to secure the
people of that country from relapsing into the barbarous
independence of their ancestors. There were other great
lowland barons settled in the Celtic regions, of whom it
may be briefly remarked, that, like the Anglo- Norman
barons who settled in Ireland beyond the margin of the
Pale, 1 they speedily assumed the Celtic manners, assumed
1 These are said in an act of parliament to have become ipsis Hibemis
Hibemiores, more Irish in their habits than the Irish themselves.
184 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the authority of mountain-chiefs, so nattering to human
pride, and, to conclude, adopted the titles and genealogies,
however far-fetched, or even if actually forged, by which
bards and seannachies connected their ancestry with the
names of ancient Celtic heroes, whose descendants were
entitled to honor and obedience. Yet still the Campbells
and other great lowland or Norman families who were set-
tled in the Highlands did not dream of pursuing the wild
conduct, or aiming at the absolute independence affected by
the Macdougals and other native princes among the Gael.
The former owned the king's authority, and procured from
the sovereign delegated powers under which they strength-
ened themselves, and governed, or, as it happened, oppressed,
their neighbors. Thus the Highlands, though still a most
disorderly part of Scotland, acknowledged in a great degree
the authority of the king, which they had formerly disputed
and contemned.
But the principal consolidating effect of this long strug-
gle lay in the union which it had a tendency to accomplish
between the higher and inferior orders. The barons and
knights had, as we have before remarked, lost in a great
measure the habit of considering themselves as members of
any particular kingdom, or subjects of any particular king,
longer than while they held fiefs within his jurisdiction. By
relinquishing their fiefs they conceived they were entitled to
choose their own master; and the right which any monarch
possessed to claim their duty in respect of the place of their
birth did not, in their opinion, infer any irrefragable tie of
allegiance. "When they joined the king's standard at the
head of their vassals, they accounted themselves the Norman
leaders of a race of foreigners, whose descent they despised,
and whom, compared to themselves, they accounted barba-
rians. These loose relations between the nobles and their
followers were altered and drawn more tight when the effect
of long-continued war, repeated defeats, undaunted renewal
of efforts, and final attainment of success, bound such lead-
ers as Douglas, Randolph, and Stewart to their warriors,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 185
and their warriors to them. The faithful brotherhood which
mutual dangers and mutual conquests created between the
leader and the followers on the one hand, between the king
and the barons on the other — the consciousness of a mutual
object, which overcame all other considerations, and caused
them to look upon themselves as men united in one common
interest — taught them at the same time the universal duty
of all ranks to their common country, and the sentiment so
spiritedly expressed by the venerable biographer of Bruce
himself :
"Ah, freedom is a noble thing-;
Freedom makes men to have liking.
To man all solace Freedom gives:
He lives at ease who freely lives;
And he that aye has lived free,
May not well know the misery,
The wrath, the hate, the spite, and all
That's compass'd in the name of thrall." '
1 These spirited lines are somewhat modernized.
186 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER XIII
Douglas sets out on his Pilgrimage with the Bruce's Heart: is killed
in Spain— Randolph assumes the Regency— Claims of the dis-
inherited English Barons: they resolve to invade Scotland, and
are headed by Edward Baliol— Death of Randolph — Earl of Mar
chosen Regent — Battle of Dupplin Moor— Earl of March re-
treats from before Perth — Edward Baliol is chosen King, but
instantly expelled— Sir Andrew Moray chosen Regent by the
Royalists, but is made Prisoner — Siege of Berwick by the Eng-
lish—Battle of Halidon Hill — Great Loss of the Scots— The
Loyalists only hold four Castles in Scotland — Edward Baliol
cedes to England the southern Parts of Scotland — Quarrel
among the Anglo-Scottish Barons — Liberation of Sir Andrew
Moray — Randolph, Earl of Moray, and the Stewart are Regents
— The Loyalists are active and successful — Defence of Lochleven
— Defeat of Guy, Earl of Namur, on the Borough Moor — Earl of
Athol (David de Strathbogie) defeated and slain
THE parliamentary settlement at Cambuskenneth had
nominated Randolph as regent of the kingdom; a
choice which could not have been amended: but
after-circumstances occasioned it to be much regretted that,
by devolving on Douglas the perilous and distant expedition
to Palestine, Bruce's bequest should have deprived the coun-
try of the services of the only noble who could have replaced
those of the Earl of Moray in case of death or indisposition.
And attention is so much riveted on this most unhappy cir-
cumstance, for such it certainly proved, that authors have
endeavored to reconcile it to the sagacity of Robert Bruce,
by imputing it to a refinement of policy on his part. They
suppose that, fearing jealousy and emulation between Doug-
las and Randolph, when he himself was no longer on the
scene, he found an honorable pretext to remove Douglas
from Scotland, that Randolph, his nephew, might exercise
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 187
undisputed authority. The recollection of the field of Stir-
ling, where Douglas reined up his horse, lest he should seem
to share Randolph's victory over Clifford; that, too, of
Biland Abbey, where Randolph joined Douglas with only
four squires, and served under him as a volunteer, seem
to give assurance that these brave men were incapable of
any emulation dangerous to their country or prejudicial to
their loyalty; and it will be probabty thought that Bruce
nourished no such apprehensions, but, lying an excommu-
nicated man upon his deathbed, was induced to propitiate
Heaven by some act of devotion of unusual solemnity; a
course so consistent with the religious doctrines universally
received at the time that it requires no further explanation.
The issue of the expedition was nevertheless most disas-
trous to Scotland. The good Lord James, having the pre-
cious heart under his charge, set out for Palestine with a
gallant retinue, and observing great state. He landed at
Seville in his voyage, and learning that King Alphonso was
at war with the Moors, his zeal to encounter the infidels in-
duced him to offer his services. They were honorably and
thankfully accepted ; but having involved himself too far in
pursuit of the retreating enemy, Douglas was surrounded by
numbers of the infidels when there were not ten of his own
suite left around his person; yet he might have retreated in
safety had he not charged, with the intention of rescuing Sir
William Sinclair, whom he saw borne down by a multitude.
But the good knight failed in his generous purpose, and was
slain by the superior number of the Moors. Scotland never
lost a better worthy, at a period when his services were more
needed. He united the romantic accomplishments of a
knight of chivalry with the more solid talents of a great
military leader. The relics of his train brought back the
heart of the Bruce with the body of his faithful follower to
their native country. The heart of the king was deposited
in Melrose Abbey, and the corpse of Douglas was laid in the
tomb of his ancestors, in the church of the same name. The
good Lord James of Douglas left no legitimate issue ; but a
1SS HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
natural son of his, distinguished by the title of the Knight
of Liddisdale, makes an important figure in the following
pages, having inherited his father's military talents and
courage, but unfortunately without possessing his pure and
high-spirited sentiments of chivalrous loyalty.
We have dwelt at considerable length on the reign of
Robert Bruce, so interesting from its strange variety of inci-
dent, and the important effects which it produced upon the
kingdom of Scotland, which was in the course of the war
so much agitated in all its provinces, that, as we before
observed, all the slighter distinctions of the lowland in-
habitants, so well defined in the earlier times, were broken
down, dissolved, and merged in the grand national divis-
ion of Britons into Scot and Englishman.
Randolph assumed the government of Scotland with the
cautious wisdom which might have been expected from his
experience. He was conscious that Edward III., though
prudently observing the treaty of Northampton, felt its ar-
ticles as a shameful dereliction of Edward I.'s claims, and
that the people of England regarded it as a dishonorable
composition, patched up by Queen Isabella and her usurp-
ing favorite, Mortimer, without regard to national honor,
in order to get rid of the encumbrance of the Scottish war.
Randolph also knew that the families of Comyns, still numer-
ous and powerful in Scotland, had not forgotten the death
of one kinsman at Dumfries, and the defeat of another, the
Earl of Buchan, at Old Meldrum, with the general diminu-
tion of their family consequence. The young king's corona-
tion was, however, solemnized at Scone (1331), with that of
his youthful consort, Queen Joanna, and every precaution was
used to render the government secure and stable. The pre-
cautions were necessary, for a tempest was impending.
"We have stated that an article in the treaty of Northamp-
ton stipulated that the Lords Beaumont and Wake of Liddel,
with Sir Henry Percy, should be restored to their estates in
Scotland, which had been declared forfeited by Robert Bruce.
Of the three, Percy alone had been restored. It certainly
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 189
appears that Robert Bruce had protracted the execution of
this part of the treaty of Northampton with a degree of de-
lay, for which it was easy to assign reasons in policy, though
it might have been difficult to support them in equity. Lord
Wake claimed the valley of Liddel, which formed the readi-
est gate into the Scottish west borders. Beaumont, a rich
and powerful baron, claimed the earldom of Buchan, a re-
mote district, where he might have supported himself in a
species of independence, and caused much trouble to the
Scottish government. Both were foreigners and English-
men, and there was certainly risk in introducing them into
the bosom of the kingdom. But this, though a reason for
not having consented to the article, afforded no ground for
departing from it. Mortimer's administration, who did not
favor Beaumont, showed no desire to press his claim on
Robert Bruce. But after Mortimer's fall, in 1330, the res-
toration of Beaumont and "Wake was positively demanded
by the young king. The Scottish regent had by this time
acquired information that the English lords in question, and
others, had engaged in a conspiracy to invade Scotland and
dethrone, if possible, his youthful ward ; a hostile enterprise
which authorized Randolph to refuse the restitution demanded
at such a conjuncture.
To understand the nature of this undertaking, the reader
must be informed (and here a remarkable name in Scottish
history again occurs) that John de Baliol, for a short time the
vassal king of Scotland, died in obscurity at his hereditary
castle in Normandy, shortly after the decisive battle of Ban-
nockburn, leaving a son, Edward. With the hope of intim-
idating Bruce, Edward II. sent to Normandy for this young
man, who then displayed a bold and adventurous character ;
and the younger Baliol accordingly appeared at the English
court in 1324, and again in 1327, where, as the person among
the disinherited who in his father's deposition had suffered the
greatest forfeiture of all, though not at the hand of King
Robert, he naturally took a lead in the undertaking of Wake,
Beaumont, and the other lords and knights, who, like them,
190 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
(1. >sired restoration of Scottish estates, though they could not,
like them, plead the advantage of the express clause in the
treaty of Northampton. These high-spirited and adventur-
ous barons, assembling a small force of three hundred horse
and a few foot-soldiers, determined with such slender means
to attempt the subjugation of a kingdom which had of late
repeatedly defied the whole strength of England.
Edward III. temporized. Under pretence of strictly ob-
serving the truce between the kingdoms, he prohibited the
disinherited barons entering Scotland by the land frontier,
but connived at their embarking at the obscure seaport of
Ravenshire, near the mouth of the Humber, and sailing
from thence in quest of the adventures which fortune should
send them.
Although the attempt seemed a desperate one, the regent
Randolph took even more than necessary pains to prepare
for it. But the best means of resistance lay in his own high
talents and long experience, and of the advantages of these
his country was deprived in an evil hour. He died at Mus-
selburgh, in 1332, when leading the Scottish army north-
ward, to provide against the threatened descent of Baliol
and his followers. A demise so critical was generally
ascribed to poison; and a fugitive monk was pointed out
as the alleged perpetrator of the deed.
It seemed as if the sound governance, military talent,
and even common defence of the Scottish people, had died
with Robert Bruce, Douglas, and Randolph. The veteran
soldiers, indeed, survived, but without their leaders, and as
useless as a blade deprived of its hilt : and the nobility, who
had universally submitted to the talents of Randolph, now
broke out into factious emulation. After much jealous
cabal, Donald, earl of Mar, a man of very ordinary talent,
although nephew to Robert Bruce, was elevated to the re-
gency. This took place at Perth; and the ill-omened elec-
tion was scarce made, when the Scots nobles learned that
Baliol and the disinherited barons had entered the Firth of
Forth on July 31, disembarked at Kinghorn, defeated the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 191
Earl of Fife, and, marching across the country, were en-
camped near Forteviot, with the river Earne in their front.
Their host had been joined by many adherents, but did not
in all amount to more than three thousand men. With an
army more than ten times as numerous, the Earl of Mar en-
camped upon Dupplin Moor, on the opposite or right bank
of the river; while a second army, composed of southern
barons, led by the Earl of March, was arrived within eight
miles of the enemy's left flank. A more desperate situation
could scarce be conceived than that of Baliol, and he relieved
himself by a resolution which seemed to be as desperate. A
stake planted by a secret adherent of the disinherited lords
in a ford of the Earne indicated a secure place of crossing.
The English army passed the river at midnight, on August
12, and in profound silence, and surprised the camp of their
numerous enemies, who were taken at unawares, dizzy with
sleep and wassail ; for they had passed a night of intemper-
ance, and totally neglected posting sentinels. The English
made a most piteous carnage among their unresisting ene-
mies. The young Earl of Moray showed the spirit of his
father, and collecting his followers, at the head of a daunt-
less but small body, drove back the enemy. But the inca-
pacity of the Earl of Mar, who in the doubtful light of the
dawning bore down in a confused mass without rule or order,
overwhelmed instead of supporting Randolph and his little
body of brave adherents. Opposition ended, the rout be-
came totally irretrievable, and the swords of the enemy were
blunted with slaughter. The loss of the Scottish army,
much of which was occasioned by their being trodden down
and stifled in their own disordered ranks, was about thirteen
thousand men, being more than four times the entire amount
of the army of Baliol.
After the battle of Dupplin, the invaders took possession
of Perth without opposition. The fortifications of the place
having been destroyed by Bruce, according to his usual pol-
icy, it was hastily protected with some palisades by its new
masters. They were busied in this task when the southern
192 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
army, led by the Earl of March, as before mentioned, was
sen approaching the place. The English apprehended an
instant, and, probably, an effectual assault. But when
Beaumont saw the advancing banners halt on the high
ground in the vicinity of the town, "Have no fear of these
men," said the English lord; "we have friends among
them." This was shortly after made apparent by the re-
treat of the Earl of March, acting, it was supposed, in con-
cert with the invader. An unsuccessful attempt was made
on the fleet of the disinherited, which had coasted Fife, and
was lying in the Tay, by Crab, the Flemish engineer who
defended Berwick in the former reign. He succeeded in
taking a fine vessel, called the Beaumont's cogue, but was
defeated in his attempt on the others, and obliged to fly to
Berwick.
The Earl of March led back and dispersed his army, and
afterward showed his real sentiments by acceding once more
to the English interest. It was not, however, till the Scots
lost the battle of Halidon Hill that this powerful earl and
other barons on the eastern marches of Scotland, who had
late and unwillingly exchanged their allegiance to England
for that to the Brace, were, now that the constraint imposed
by his authority was removed, desirous of returning to their
dependence on the English crown, which they found, prob-
ably, more nominal than that exacted by their closer neigh-
bors, the Scottish monarchs.
The foreign invasion having thus succeeded, though made
on a scale wonderfully in contrast with the extent of the
means prepared, the domestic conspiracy was made mani-
fest. The family of Comyn in all its branches, all who re-
sented the proceedings against David de Brechin and the
other conspirators condemned by the Black Parliament; all
who had suffered injury, or what they termed such, in the
disturbed and violent times, when so much evil was inflicted
and suffered on both sides; all, finally, who nourished ambi-
tious projects of rising under the new government, or had
incurred neglect during the old one, joined in conducting
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 193
Edward Baliol to Scone, where he was crowned king in their
presence, when (grief and shame to tell !) Sinclair, prelate of
Dunkeld, whom the Bruce, on account of his gallantry, termed
his own bishop, officiated at the ceremony of crowning a
usurper, to the prejudice of his heroic patron's son.
However marvellous or mortifying this revolution cer-
tainly was, it was of a nature far more temporary than that
which was effected by Edward I. after the battle of Fal-
kirk. Then all seemed hopeless; and if some patriots still
resisted, it was more in desperation than hope of success.
Then, though there was a desire to destroy the English
yoke, yet there was no agreement or common purpose as
to the monarch or mode of government to be substituted.
Now there was no room for hesitation. The sound part of
the kingdom, which was by far the larger portion, was fixed
in the unanimous and steady resolution to replace upon the
throne the race of the deliverer of Scotland. And the faith
of those who adopted this generous resolution, although not
uniformly unchangeable, was yet, as already mentioned,
constancy itself, contrasted with the vacillations of former
times.
Edward Baliol, in temporary possession of the Scottish
crown, speedily showed his unworthiness to wear it. He
hastened to the border, to which Edward III. was now ad-
vancing, with an army, to claim the lion's share among the
disinherited barons, to whom he had afforded private counte-
nance in their undertaking, and whose ultimate success was
finally to depend upon his aid. Unwarned by his father's
evil fortune, Edward Baliol renewed in all form the subju-
gation of the kingdom of Scotland, took on himself the
feudal fetters which even his father had found it too de-
grading to endure ; and became bound, under an enormous
penalty, to serve King Edward in his wars, he himself with
two hundred, and his successors with one hundred men-at-
arms, and to extend and strengthen the English frontiers by
the cession of Berwick, and lands to the annual amount of
two thousand pounds.
9^ Vol. L
104 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Having made this mean bargain with the king of Eng-
land, and thereby, as he thought, secured himself the power-
ful assistance of that nation, Baliol was lying carelessly en-
camped at Annan, when he was surprised by a body of
royalist horse, which had assembled at Moffat, and among
whose leaders we find a young Randolph, second son of the
regent, and brother to him who fell at Dupplin, an Archi-
bald Douglas, brother to the good Lord James, a Simon
Fraser, and others, whose names remind us of the wars of
King Robert. Henry Baliol, brother of the intrusive king,
was slain fighting bravely in his defence ; many others of
his followers were killed or made prisoners, and Edward
himself was fain to escape to the English borders almost
naked. Thus was Edward Baliol an exile and a fugitive,
having scarcely possessed his usurped crown for three
months.
Meantime the royalists had found a trustworthy leader
in Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell. In his youth he had
been the companion of Wallace, and afterward the faithful
follower of Bruce, who acknowledged his attachment by
preferring him to the hand of his sister Christina, a widow,
by the death of the heroic Christopher Seaton. Sir Andrew
Moray was a soldier of the Bruce's school, calm, sagacious,
and dauntlessly brave. His first measure of importance was
to remove the persons of the young king and queen to France,
where the faith of Philip was engaged for their safety and
honorable maintenance. His next undertaking was less fort-
unate. He made an attempt to take by surprise the castle
of Roxburgh, into which Baliol had then thrown himself, and
imprudently engaged his own person in the dangerous enter-
prise. Seeing a valiant esquire in his service, named Ralph
Golding, endangered during the assault by a superior num-
ber of English, Sir Andrew pressed forward to his rescue,
and was made prisoner, to the infinite prejudice of the royal
cause ; his place being poorly supplied by Archibald Douglas,
although a brave soldier, and brother to the good Lord James.
It was a great additional misfortune that, a short time after,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 19f
in a severe battle which was fought on the borders, the knight
of Liddisdale (Sir "William Douglas, natural son of the good
Lord James) was defeated in a considerable action, and made
prisoner. He was treated with great rigor, and detained
captive for two years. Thus was Scotland deprived, in
her hour of utmost need, of two more of her choicest
soldiers.
Edward III. now prepared to assist his vassal Baliol,
and, assembling a large army, May, 1333, came before Ber-
wick, the securing of which place the Scots deemed justly
an object of primary consequence, since Baliol had consented
to surrender it to England. The Earl of March, whose
apostasy was not yet suspected, was governor of the Castle
of Berwick, and Sir Alexander Seaton of the town. They
defended the place strenuously, and burned a large vessel
with which the English assaulted the walls from the sea.
But the garrison were reduced to such distress that they
were compelled, according to the custom of the time, to
agree to surrender, if not relieved by a certain day, and
hostages were delivered to that effect, the son of Seaton,
the governor, being one. Before the time appointed, the
numerous army of Scotland appeared in sight of Berwick,
and succeeded in throwing some knights and soldiers into
the place. One of the former, Sir William Keith, assumed
the command of the town.
But the caution of the English, who kept within their
trenches and refused a general action, prevented the relief
from accomplishing the raising of the siege. In order to
effect this object, Douglas, imitating the policy of the Bruce
in the like circumstances, entered Northumberland, and
committed ravages, threatening to attack the castle of
Bamborough, where the young English queen, Philippa,
was at that time residing. But the strength of Bamborough
defied a siege, and the regent presently received tidings from
Berwick, announcing that, the place being reduced to ex-
tremity, King Edward had summoned the garrison to sur-
render, upon the treaty formerly entered into. They refused,
19(5 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
alleging that they had received relief and reinforcements.
The English king insisted that the succors thrown in not
being sufficiently effectual to raise the siege, they were bound
to yield up the place, just as much as if they had not been
relieved at all; and he summoned them to absolute sur-
render, on the pain of putting to death the hostages. The
Scotch historians say, that Edward actually did put young
Seaton to death, within such short distance that his father
might see the execution from the walls. But there is some
obscurity resting on this cruel anecdote. Certain it is, that
the citizens of Berwick, anxious for the fate of their own
children, who were also among the number of hostages,
became desirous to surrender, and refused any longer to
defend the place. A second negotiation was entered into,
whereby it was agreed that Berwick should be uncondition-
al l} r surrendered, unless the Scots could succeed in reinforc-
ing the town with two hundred men-at-arms, or defeating
the English in a pitched battle under its walls.
Forgetting or disregarding the earnest admonition of
King Robert, the regent Douglas resolved, on June 19, to
commit the fate of the country to the risk of a decisive con-
flict. On crossing the Tweed and approaching Berwick
on the northern side, the Scottish regent became aware of
the army of England drawn up in four great battalions,
with numerous bodies of archers to flank them. The ground
which they occupied was the crest of an eminence called
Halidon Hill. The Scots stationed themselves on the op-
posite ridge of high ground : the bottom which divided the
hills was a morass. On the morning of the 20th, the Scots,
with inconsiderate impetuosity, advanced to the onset. By
doing so they exposed their whole army, while descending
the hill and crossing the morass, to the constant and formid-
able discharge of the English archers, against whom they
had no similar force to oppose. The inevitable consequence
was, that they lost their ranks, and became embarrassed
in the morass, where many were slain. But the nobles, who
fought on foot in complete armor at the head of their follow-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 197
ers, made a desperate effort to lead a great part of the army
through the bog, and ascended the opposite hill. They came
to close battle with the English, who, calm and in perfect
order, were not long in repulsing an attack made by disor-
dered ranks and breathless soldiers. The Scottish, after find-
ing their efforts vain, endeavored to retreat. In the mean-
time, the pages and camp followers, who held the horses
of the combatants, seeing the battle lost, began to fly, and
carry off the horses along with them, without respect to the
safety of their masters ; so that the carnage in this bloody
battle was very great, and numbers of the gentry and no-
bility fell.
The venerable Earl of Lennox, the faithful companion
of Robert Bruce, the Earls of Ross, Carrick, Sutherland,
Monteith, and Athol, were all slain, together with knights
and barons to a countless number, and all with a trifling
loss on the part of the English. The regent, Douglas him-
self, wounded and made prisoner, died soon after he was
taken. Berwick surrendered in consequence of this decis-
ive action, and the Earl of March, governor of the castle,
returned openly to the English interest, and was admitted
to Edward's favor and confidence.
The Scots had suffered a loss in this action which was
deemed by the English totally irrecoverable. "The Scottish
wars are ended," said the public voice, "since no one of
that nation remains having interest enough to raise an army,
or skill sufficient to command one."
Through all Scotland, so lately the undisputed dominion
of the Bruce, only four castles and a strong tower which did
not reach to the importance of such a title, remained in pos-
session of the royalists who adhered to his unfortunate son.
These were, the impregnable fortresses of Dunbarton, which
was secured by Malcolm Fleming ; Lochleven, on an island
in the lake of that name, defended by Alan de Vipont;
Urquhart in Inverness, commanded b3 T Thomas Lander;
and Kildrummie, by Christina, the sister of King Robert
Bruce, successively the widow of the Earl of Mar and of
198 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Christopher Seaton, and now the wife of the imprisoned Sir
Andrew Moray. The fifth stronghold was at Lochdown, in
Carrick, which John Thomson, a man of obscure birth and
dauntless valor, the same apparently who led back from
Inland the shattered remainder of Edward Bruce's army,
held out for his rightful sovereign.
Amid this scene of apparent submission, Edward Baliol
held a mock parliament at Edinburgh for the gratification
of his ally, the king of England. The obligation of homage
and feudal service to the king of England was undertaken
by Edward Baliol in the fullest extent ; the town of Berwick
was given up; and as King Edward was desirous to hold
a large portion of Scotland under his immediate and direct
authorit} 7 -, Baliol, by a solemn instrument, made an absolute
surrender to England of the frontier provinces of Berwick-
shire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Peebleshire, and Dum-
friesshire, together with Lothian itself, in all its three divis-
ions ; thus yielding up the whole land between the northern
and southern Roman rampart, and restricting Scotland to
the possessions beyond the estuaries of Forth and Clyde,
inhabited of old by the free Caledonians. For the remnants
of the kingdom, thus mutilated and dismembered, Baliol
paid homage. At the same parliament, Baliol, by ample
cessions and distributions of territory, gratified the dis-
inherited lords, to whose valor he owed his extraordinary
success.
A quarrel arose among these proud barons which had
important consequences. The brother of Alexander de Mow-
bray died leaving daughters, but no male issue. Baliol pre-
ferred the brother of the deceased to his fiefs, as the heir
male. Henry de Beaumont and David Hastings de Strath-
bogie, earls of Buchan and Athol, espoused the cause of the
female heirs; and as Baliol would not listen to them, they
left the court in that state of irritation which is easily ex-
cited between such powerful subjects and a king of their
own making. Alarmed at their defection, Baliol altered his
decision, dismissed Alexander de Mowbray's claim, and
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 199
thereby made him his mortal enemy, while he obtained
only a dubious reconciliation with his opponents.
About this time Sir Andrew Moray of Both well, made
prisoner, as we have seen, at Roxburgh, escaped or was
liberated from prison ; and his appearance in Scotland, with
the discord among the English barons, was a signal for a
general insurrection of the royalists. Moray was joined
by the discontented Mowbray. Richard Talbot, marching
southward, was attacked and defeated by William Keith
of Galston, who had distinguished himself at the siege of
Berwick. Sir Andrew Moray, with his new ally, Mowbray,
besieged the powerful Henry de Beaumont in his fortress
of Dundearg in Buchan, and by cutting off the supplies of
water compelled him to surrender, and put him to a great
ransom. The impulse became general through jBcotland.
The Brandanes or men of Bute arose against the English
captain, slew him, and sent his head to their master, the
steward of Scotland. In Annandale and in Ayrshire, where
Bruce had his family estates, the royalists gathered on every
side. The steward had distinguished himself by his bravery
and generosity of disposition. By universal approbation of
the royalists, this gallant and amiable young man was asso-
ciated in the regency. The young Earl of Moray, son of
the heroic Randolph, was returned from France, whither
he had fled after the battle of Halidon Hill, and pushed David
Hastings of Strathbogie so hard, that he not only compelled
him to surrender, but found means to induce him to join the
conqueror. Baliol, having seen the defeat of Talbot, the cap-
tivity of Beaumont, and the defection of the three most
powerful of the disinherited, lost courage, and fled into
England, thereby showing plainly how slight was his reli-
ance on any support save such as came from that kingdom,
and how steadily the great bulk of the Scottish nation were
attached to the legitimate heir of Bruce.
In November, 1334, Edward III. advanced into Scotland
for the double purpose of sustaining his vassal, and of secur-
ing those southern parts of Scotland which were ceded to
200 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
him in property and full dominion. He met no opposition,
for the Scots brought no army to the field; but he was
tiled by want, and the stormy weather incident to the
season; and so little was Edward's reputation raised by this
incursion, that the Earl of March, a nobleman uniformly
guided by his own interest, chose that very crisis to renounce
the allegiance of England. This time-serving baron prob-
ably foresaw the danger of his own power, since it was not
likely that Edward would permit him to hold influence in a
country which he was desirous in future of annexing to Eng-
land, although he had little cared how loose the earl's
uncontrolled allegiance sat on him while he was a vassal of
Scotland.
Alan de Vipont, a Scottish royalist, who defended Loch-
leven Castle against the English, is said about this time to
have been^)ressed hard by a John de Stirling, a Scottishman
apparently, but commanding an army for Baliol : the gar-
rison was straitened by a fort in the churchyard at Kinross ;
and it is alleged by an embankment drawn across the source
of the river Leven, where it issues from the lake, the pur-
pose of which was, to lay under water the island and castle,
and thereby to make surrender inevitable. But Vipont took
the opportunity of a cloudy night to send a boat unperceived
down the lake, and cut through the embankment. The
accumulated waters broke down in a furious inundation,
which swept away the mound, and along with it the enemies
who were quartered there for its defence. There are cer-
tainly some vestiges, at the exit of the Leven from the lake,
which seem to confirm this singular tradition. Some his-
torians only mention the destruction of the English fort by
a sally from the garrison, without speaking of the embank-
ment or inundation.
The chiefs of the loyal Scots now assembled a parliament
at Dairsie, in Fife, April, 1335, in order to settle upon a
combined plan of operations for the liberation of the country.
But their counsels came to no useful or steady result, chiefly
owiDg to the presumption of David de Strathbogie, earl of
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 201
Athol, who assumed a species of superiority which the Scot-
tish nobles could not endure. The parliament broke up in
great disorder. It may be that this discord was attended
with some consequences indirectly advantageous to Scot-
land. As the parliament could not agree upon raising a
large army, they could not commit the imprudence of risking
a general action.
In the summer succeeding, on July 1, 1335, Edward
again invaded Scotland on the east marches; while Baliol,
with a body of Welsh troops and foreigners, entered on the
west. They laid waste the country with fire and sword with
emulous severity. The Scots kept King Robert's testament
in recollection; and lurking among the woods and valleys,
they fell by surprise upon such English as separated them-
selves from the main body, or straggled from the march in
their thirst for plunder.
In the end of July, a large body of Flemish men-at-arms
landed at Berwick, in the capacity of auxiliaries to England.
These strangers, commanded by Guy, count of Namur, con-
ceiving the country entirely undefended, advanced fearlessly
to Edinburgh, at that time an open town, the castle having
been demolished. Count Guy had scarce arrived there,
when an army of Scottish royalists, commanded by the
Earls of Moray and March and Sir Alexander Ramsay, at-
tacked him. The battle took place on the Borough Moor,
and was fiercely disputed for some time ; till the Knight of
Liddisdale, who had escaped or been released from his En-
glish captivity, swept down from the Pentland Hills, and
turned the scale of battle. The Flemings retired into the
city, and fought their way as they retreated up to the hill
where the castle lay in ruins. A close encounter took place
during the whole way, and tradition long pointed out the
spot at the foot of the Bow, where David de Annand, a
Scottish knight of superhuman strength, struck down with
his battle-axe one of these mailed foreigners, killing horse
and man, and shattering a huge flagstone in the pavement,
by a single blow. The Flemings erected a breastwork or
202 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
fortification on the Castle Hill by killing their horses, and
making a barricade of the carcasses. This, however, could
be but a temporary resource, and they were speedily obliged
to capitulate. The Scots treated their valiant prisoners with
much courtesy, releasing them on their parole not to fight
against David, and sending an escort to see the foreigners
safe into England. Unhappily, the regent Earl of Moray
went himself with the party, and on his return toward
Lothian, after dismissing the Flemings, was attacked by
William de Pressen, commander of the English garrison
of Jedburgh Castle, his followers routed, and himself made
prisoner, and thrown into Bamborough Castle. Thus the
services of the worthy successor of Randolph were, for a
time, lost to his country. The English continued their rav-
ages, and with such success that men were reduced to use
that sort of lip-homage which the heart refuses. "If you
asked a grown-up person," says an old historian, "who was
his king, he dared to make no other answer save by naming
Edward Baliol ; while the undissembling frankness of child-
hood answered the same question with the name of David
Bruce. ' '
Scotland being in this low condition, and Edward having
exercised such means of subduing the spirit of insurrection
as could be brought against a disposition which showed
itself everywhere, but was tangible nowhere, the English
king began to think of returning to his own kingdom. But
previously he received the submission of the versatile Earl
of Athol, restored to that powerful nobleman his large En-
glish estates, and named him regent or governor of Scotland
under Baliol. The steward, over whom this David de
Strathbogie seems to have possessed but too much influ-
ence, was also induced, contrary to his interests, as nearly
concerned in the succession, to acknowledge Baliol as his
sovereign. After fortifying Perth, and rebuilding the cas-
tles of Edinburgh and Stirling, Edward III. returned to his
own dominions.
The irresistible pressure of immediate superiority of force
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 203
being once more removed, the spirit of determined resistance
began again to manifest itself. The Scottish loyalists once
more chose for their head Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell,
the friend of "Wallace, the brother-in-law of Bruce. Athol,
eager to give himself consequence in the eyes of Edward
and obliterate the recollection of his prior tergiversations,
had determined to besiege the castle of Kildrummie in
Aberdeenshire, the residence of Christina, the sister of Rob-
ert Bruce, and wife of Sir Andrew Moray. Moray, joined
by the Earl of March and the Knight of Liddisdale, flew
to the relief of the place. They assembled about fifteen
hundred followers, partly men of Lothian and Berwickshire,
partly from the territory of Kildrummie. They came sud-
denly on the Earl of Athol, then lying in the forest of Kil-
blain, whose troops, suddenly and fiercely attacked in a
species of pass, gave way on all sides. The Earl of Athol
was steady in personal courage, though fickle in political
attachment : he looked round with scorn on his fugitive fol-
lowers, and striking his hand on a huge rock which lay near
him, said, "Thou and I will this day fly together." Five
knights of his household abode, fought, and fell with him,
refusing all quarter. The death of the Earl of Athol was
considered by the loyalists as a most favorable event, as his
power, and latterly his inclination also, made him a sworn
persecutor of their party.
Edward himself advanced to avenge the death of a pow-
erful, if not a steady, partisan. He led into Scotland a
numerous army, which wasted the country as far north as
Inverness. But though he was an enemy skilful to omit
no advantage which accident, the situation of ground, or
the circumstances of weather afford, yet, in the far-sighted
prudence of the experienced Sir Andrew Moray, Edward III.
found a complete match for his youthful ardor, and was no
more able to bring his sagacious opponent to action than he
had been to engage Douglas and Randolph in the Northum-
brian campaign of 1327. The following instance of Moray's
skill, courage, and discipline, may give some idea of the com-
204 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
posure with which he baffled the ardent valor of the hero of
Crecy.
"When at Perth, Edward was informed that the Scottish
regent was lying with his forces in the forest of Stronkaltire
(probably a portion of the famous wood of Birnam), near the
foot of the Grampians, and on the verge of the Highlands.
The most skilful dispositions were made by the king to sur-
round the enemy, and the English had already moved sev-
eral divisions on different parts of the forest with a view to
prevent their escape. Sir Andrew Moray was hearing mass
in a chapel in the forest, when the Scottish scouts came to
tell him of the approach of the enemy. He caused them
to be silent till the divine service was finished. Mass being
ended, his breathless messengers informed him that the En-
glish were at hand. "Beit so," said Moray; "no need of
hurry." He then armed himself deliberately, and caused
his war-horse to be brought him. When in the act of mount-
ing, he perceived a girth had failed. With the utmost de-
liberation the veteran warrior called for a certain coffer, out
of which he took a hide of leather, and having cut from it a
strap proper for the purpose, sitting down on the bank, he
composedly mended the girth with his own hands, although,
to the great anxiety of all around him, news came in on all
hands of the close approach of the enemy from different
points ; and old warriors, who were present, confessed to the
historian, Winton, prior of Lochleven, that in their life they
had never passed such anxious moments as during the mend-
ing of that saddle-girth. But Moray knew his time and his
business, and when he mounted and placed himself at the
head of his men, whom his own composure had taught to
have the most undoubting reliance on him, he drew them up
in a close column, and while the English sought an opportu-
nity of attack, he led his band leisurely from their presence,
and vanished in safety through a defile which he had kept
open in his rear.
Edward III. penetrated as far as the rich province of
Moray, carrying devastation wherever he came. But he
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 205
had then done the utmost which was in his power, and
was compelled to retreat by the consequences to his own
army of the very desolation which they themselves had
made. He repaired the castles held by English garrisons
through the kingdom, and marched back to England, leav-
ing Scotland apparently quiet. But no sooner were the
weight and presence of the English host withdrawn, than
all the Scottish patriots were again in arms in every quarter
of the country, assaulting and storming, or surprising by
stratagem, the garrisons that had been left to overawe them,
and proving that they were worthy to have been subjects of
the Bruce, by the intelligence with which they executed his
precepts. The regent distinguished himself in this war as
much by his alertness in seizing opportunities of advantage,
as he had done when opposed to Edward by the prudence
which affords none to the enemy.
In the meantime war broke out between France and Eng-
land. On the 7th of October, 1337, King Edward publicly
asserted his claim to the throne of that kingdom ; yet, with
this new and more dazzling object in his view, he did not
turn his eyes from the conquest of Scotland. The Earls of
Salisbury, Arundel, and Norfolk, were intrusted with the
command of the northern army, and the former laid siege
to the strong castle of Dunbar, defended, in the absence of
the Earl of March, by his wife, the daughter of the heroic
Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, and animated by a por-
tion of his courage. This lady, whom the common people
used to call Black Agnes of Dunbar, was one of those, by
whose encouragement, according to a phrase of Froissart, a
man may become of double strength in the hour of danger.
She daily made the round of the walls in sight of besiegers
and besieged, and caused the maidens of her train to wipe
the battlements with their handkerchiefs, when the stones
from the engines struck them, as if in scorn of the English
artillery. At one time, by engaging him in a pretended plot
to receive surrender of the castle from a traitorous party
within, she had wellnigh made the Earl of Salisbury her
206 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
prisoner. On another occasion, an arrow shot by an archer
of her train struck to the heart an English knight, in spite
of his being completely armed. "There goes one of my .
lady's tiring- pins," said Montague, earl of Salisbury: "the
countess's love-shafts pierce to the heart." At another
time, the English advancing to the walls the machine
called a sow (mentioned in the account of the siege of
Berwick, p. 150), Agnes called out to the English lord in
a sort of rhyme,
"Beware, Montagow,
For farrow shall thy sow." l
A huge rock, prepared for the occasion, was projected
against the sow, and dashed the engine to pieces. The
English genera], having exhausted the invention of his en-
gineers to no purpose, resolved to convert the siege into a
blockade, and reduce Dunbar by famine. As he had a con-
siderable fleet, he might have succeeded in his purpose ; but
the good knight, Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalwolsey, con-
trived, by means of a light vessel and a dark night, to throw
into the castle a supply of provisions and soldiers. This was
announced to the besiegers by a sally; and they were so
much disheartened as to raise the siege, which had lasted
five months, and retire from before Dunbar with little
honor.
Similar advantages were gained by the patriots all
through Scotland. The state, indeed, sustained a heavy
loss in the death of Sir Andrew Moray, the regent, who,
after all his battles and dangers, expired in peace at his
castle of Avoch, in Ross. Brother-in-law of the Bruce, and
one of the last of his leaders, he evinced till his dying day
the spirit of valor, sagacity, and patriotism, which merited
that distinguished alliance. He is censured for the desolat-
ing and wasteful warfare which he carried on ; but it must
1 The poetry may be original, but not the jest, the latter having
been used on a similar occasion at the siege of Berwick, in 1319, when
it was defended by the steward of Scotland against the English.
HISTOLY OF SCOTLAND 20T
be remembered, that to burn the open country before the
enemy was a principal maxim in Bruce's dreadful lessons
of defensive war.
The steward of Scotland, freed from the baneful influence
which the Anglicized Earl of Athol had exercised over him,
was now chosen sole regent, and showed himself worthy of
the trust. He commenced the siege of Perth, assisted by
five ships of war and some men-at-arms, which were sent
from France. The regent was assisted in pressing this siege
by the abilities of William Bullock, an ecclesiastic who loved
the battlefield or the political scenes of the cabinet better
than mass or matins. Edward Baliol, who knew Bullock's
abilities, had raised him to be his chancellor of Scotland and
made him governor of a strong castle in Cupar. But when
Edward's presence with an army failed to establish Baliol 's
power in Scotland, this military churchman became saga-
cious of an approaching change, stubborn fidelity being by
no means the virtue of the day. His talents were employed
by the regent in pressing on the siege of Stirling, which was
boldly defended. He showed the hardihood of his character
during a total eclipse of the sun, which took place in the
midst of his operations. While all others, both in the be-
sieging army and garrison, were sinking under their super-
stitious fears, Bullock took advantage of the darkness to
wheel his military engines so close to the wall that when
the sunshine returned the besieged found themselves under
the necessity of surrendering. The steward was equally
successful in reducing Stirling and other English posts to
the north of the Forth, and bringing the whole country
to the peace of King David.
Other Scottish leaders distinguished themselves in differ-
ent provinces. Sir William Douglas, the Knight of Liddis-
dale, was active in the south of Scotland. He totally ex-
pelled the English from Teviotdale, reduced the strong castle
of Hermitage, defeated Roland de Vaux, and having engaged
Sir Laurence Abernethy, an Anglicized Scotsman, three times
in one day, finally overcame him in a fourth encounter, made
208 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
him prisoner, and dispersed his followers. A still more im-
portant acquisition on the Scottish part was that of Edin-
burgh Castle, which Edward III. had fortified when in
Scotland during his last campaign. The Knight of Lid-
disdale engaged a sturdy mariner, called John Currie, to
receive into his bark a number of proved soldiers. John
Currie, assuming the character of an English shipmaster,
entered the castle with a number of men disguised in mar-
iners' caps and habits, and bearing barrels and hampers
supposed to contain wine and provisions : these they threw
down in the gateway, so as to prevent the gates being shut,
and, drawing their swords, rushed on the sentinels, and be-
ing seconded by the Knight of Liddisdale and some chosen
men w T ho lay in ambush near the entrance, they overpowered
the English garrison and expelled them from the castle.
Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalwolsey, the same who gal-
lantly relieved the castle of Dunbar, yielded to none of the
champions whom we have named in devotion to the cause
of his country. As his own estates and influence lay in
Lothian and near Edinburgh, he was wont, even when the
English were in possession of the capital, to reside with a
strong band of soldiers among the crags, glens, and caverns
of the romantic vicinity of Roslin. From thence he sallied
forth to annoy the English, on whom, according to the
phrase of the times, he did great vassalage. He often rode
into Northumberland, committed destructive forays, and
returned safe to his impregnable retreat. His fame for
chivalry was so high that no Scottish youth of that neigh-
borhood was held worthy of esteem unless he had proved
his gallantry by riding for some time in Ramsay's band.
By the achievements of these brave men the English force
was so much weakened throughout Scotland, and the govern-
ment of the legal monarch so completely restored, that it was
thought advisable that King David and his consort should
return from France to their own kingdom. They landed at
the small port of Inverbervie in Kincardineshire in the month
of May, 1341.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 209
In the same spring Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalwolsey
added to his long list of services the important acquisition of
the castle of Roxburgh, which, according to the desperate
fashion of the times, he took by escalade.
Unhappily, the mode which the young and inexperienced
king took to reward this gallant action proved fatal to the
brave knight by whom it was achieved. David conferred
on Ramsay the sheriffdom of Roxburgh as a fitting distinc-
tion to one who had taken the principal fortress of the county.
The Knight of Liddisdale, who had large possessions in Rox-
burghshire, and pretensions by his services to the sheriffdom,
was deeply offended by the preference given to Ramsay.
From being Sir Alexander's friend and companion in arms,
he became his mortal enemy, and nothing less than his death
would appease the rancor of his hatred. He came upon Sir
Alexander Ramsay, accompanied with an armed force, while
he was exercising justice at Hawick, dispersed his few attend-
ants, wounded him while on the bench of justice, threw him
on a horse, and through many a wild bog and mountain path
carried him to his solitary and desolate castle of the Hermit-
age, where he cast him into the dungeon of that lonely and
darksome fortress. The noble captive was left with his rank-
ling wounds to struggle with thirst and hunger, supporting
for some time a miserable existence by means of grain which
fell from a granary above, until death relieved him from
suffering.
The most disgraceful part of this hideous story remains
to be told. David, whose favor, imprudently evinced, had
caused the murder of the noble Ramsay, saw himself obliged,
by the weakness of his government and the pressure of the
disorderly times, not only to pardon the inhuman assassin,
but to grace him with the keeping of the castle of Roxburgh,
which the valor of his murdered victim had won from the
enemy, and the sheriffdom of the county, which was ren-
dered vacant by his murder. It is scarce possible to give a
more deplorable instance of those wretched times, in which
the great stood above all law, human and divine, and in-
210 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
dulged their furious passions not only with impunity but
with an enlarged scope to their ambition. Neither was the
act of cruelty attended with any blot upon his fame, since
the Knight of Liddisdale, who, before Ramsay's murder,
had been distinguished by the splendid title of the Flower
of Chivalry, continued to retain it after that atrocious trans-
action.
A fate similar to that of Ramsay was sustained by a
victim less deserving of pity. Bullock, the fighting eccle-
siastic, who had deserted the standards of England for those
of Scotland, and had taken so great a share in the reduction
of Perth, was suddenly, by the royal order, seized on by Sir
David Berkeley, thrown into the castle of Lochendorb in Mo-
rayshire, and there, like Ramsay, starved to death. A Scot-
tish historian makes this melancholy remark on his fate:
"It is an ancient saying that neither the powerful, nor the
valiant, nor the wise, long flourish in Scotland since envy
obtaineth the mastery of them all. ' '
In the meanwhile the war of the contending nations dis-
turbed the frontiers with mutual incursions, which added
much to public misery, though they did little toward the
decision of the war; and casting our eyes back on the
consequences of continued hostilities of the most desolat-
ing nature, we see effects so frightful as if God and man
had alike determined upon the total destruction of the
country.
Between the desultory ravages of the English and those
exercised upon system by the Scottish leaders, all the regular
practice of agriculture was interrupted year after year, and
the produce in a great measure destroyed. A great famine
was the consequence ; the land that once bore crops was left
uncultivated, waste, and overgrown with briers and thickets,
while wolves and wild deer approached, contrary to their
nature, the dwellings of man. The starving sufferers were
compelled to feed on substances most abhorrent to human
appetite; and one wretch, called Christian Cleik, with his
wife, subsisted on the flesh of children whom they caught
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 211
in traps and devoured. These wretched cannibals were de-
tected, condemned, and burned to death.
Famine, and the wretched shifts by which men strove to
avoid its rage, brought on disease, their natural consequence.
A pestilence swept the land, and destroyed many of the en-
feebled inhabitants, while others emigrated to France and
Flanders, forsaking a country on which it seemed to have
pleased Heaven to empty the bitterest vials of its wrath.
And the termination of these misfortunes was far distant.
212 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER XIV
King David's Character — Invasion of England — Battle of Durham
— The Border Counties are conquered — The Steward defends the
Country beyond the Forth; and Douglas recovers Ettricke
Forest and Teviotdale — A Truce with England — David II. rec-
ognizes the Supremacy of Edward; but his Subjects refuse to
do so — The Knight of Liddisdale seduced from his Allegiance:
slain by his Godson, Lord Douglas — Treaty for the King's Ran-
som is broken off by the Interference of France — Battle of
Nesbit Moor— Attempt on Berwick, which is relieved by Ed-
ward III. — He invades Scotland — The Burnt Candlemas— The
English are compelled to Retreat — King David is released from
Captivity — His petulant Temper — His repeated Visits to Eng-
land, and the Influence acquired over him by Edward — He
proposes that the Succession of Scotland should go to Edward's
Son Lionel — The Scottish Parliament reject the Proposal — In-
surrection of the Steward and other Nobles: it is subdued, and
Tranquillity restored — New Scheme of Edward and David,
which is laid aside as impracticable — David II. marries
Catherine Logie, a beautiful Plebeian — Treaty of Peace inter-
rupted by Difficulties about the King's Ransom, which are
finally removed — Divorce between David and his Queen — Death
of David II. — His Character — State of Scotland during his
Reign
DAVID II. was, as might be expected from the son
of Robert Bruce, dauntlessly intrepid. He pos-
sessed a goodly person (a strong recommendation
to the common people), and skill in martial exercises. But
his education at the court of France had given him an un-
controllable love of pleasure ; and such a propensity, while
it resolves itself into the principle of intense selfishness, forms
the very reverse of the public-spirited and disinterested char-
acter of a patriot king. He was young also, being only about
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 213
eighteen when he landed at Inverbervie, and totally inexpe-
rienced. Such was the situation and disposition of the juve-
nile king of a country at once assailed by foreign war with
an enemy of superior force, by civil faction and discord in
its most frightful shape, by raging pestilence and wasting
famine. It was only the additional curse of a weak and
imprudent prince that could have added fresh gall to so
much bitterness.
The ablest and most trustworthy counsellor whom David
could have consulted was unquestionably the steward, who
had held the regency till he resigned it on the king's arrival.
But, failing heirs of David's body, of which none as yet ex-
isted, the steward was heir of the throne, and princes seldom
love or greatly trust their successors when not of their own
immediate family.
As Edward was absent in France, the time had seemed
favorable for an attack upon the frontiers. Several attempts
were made without decisive success on either side, which led
to a truce of two years, ending on Martinmas, 1346. This
cessation of arms was made between England and France,
and Scotland was included. David and his subjects, how-
ever, became weary of the truce, which was broken off by
a fierce incursion of the Knight of Liddisdale into England.
In 1344, David prepared for an invasion upon a much larger
scale, and summoned the whole array of Scotland, whether
Highland or Lowland, to assemble at Perth. They came in
great numbers, and Reginald or Ranald of the Isles, in par-
ticular, appeared with a strong body of his followers. Un-
happily there was a deadly feud between this island lord and
the powerful Earl of Ross. By the machinations of the lat-
ter chief, Reginald was murdered by a faithless harper, while
in the monastery of Elcho, near Perth. The assassin, with
his numerous followers, retired from the king's host for fear
of punishment. The men of the isles, disgusted with the
loss of their lord, and apprehensive of evil consequences,
broke up, and, deserting the royal standard, retired home
in disorder, leaving the king's army much diminished in
214 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
numbers. David, however, determined to proceed on his
expedition.
He entered England from the western frontier. A fortress
called the Moat of Liddell was held out stoutly by Walter
Selby, the accomplice of the famous Middleton in the spolia-
tion of the two cardinals and bishop-elect of Durham, and
various other acts of robbery. At present he seems to have
been engaged in the lawful defence of England, his native
country ; and we are, therefore, startled when we learn that
the fortress being stormed, the governor was by King David
ordered to be beheaded ; for what crime against that prince
is not apparent.
Moving eastward to Hexham, David's army marked its
progress by the usual course of ferocious devastation, the
more censured in that age, because the patrimony of St.
Cuthbert experienced no favor or protection. The great
northern barons of England, Percy and Neville, Musgrave,
Scrope, and Hastings, assembled their forces in numbers
sufficient to show that, though the conqueror of Crecy with
his victorious army was absent in France, there were En-
glishmen enough left at home to protect the frontiers of his
kingdom from violation. The archbishops of Canterbury
and York, the prelates of Durham, Carlisle, and Lincoln,
sent their retainers, and attended the rendezvous in person
to add religious enthusiasm to the patriotic zeal of the
barons. Ten thousand soldiers, who were to have been
sent over to Calais to reinforce Edward III.'s army, were
countermanded in this exigency, and added to the northern
army.
Upon hearing of this formidable assembly of forces, the
Knight of Liddisdale advised the Scottish king to retreat,
and avoid a pitched battle. But the other barons, conceiv-
ing they saw a rich scene of plunder before them, would not
listen to this counsel, which they imputed to the selfishness
of Douglas, who, having enriched himself by English spoils,
was now desirous, they thought, to abridge the opportunity
of others to obtain their share. King David advanced to the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 215
park called Beaurepaire, near Durham (by corruption Bear
Park), and took up his quarters there, although the ground
was so intersected by enclosures as to render it difficult to
draw up the troops in order, and impossible for the divisions
duly to support each other.
The Knight of Liddisdale had advanced, on the morning
of the 17th October, 1346, with four hundred men-at-arms,
to collect forage and provisions, when, at Ferry on the Hill,
he unexpectedly found himself in presence of the whole En-
glish army, then on their march from Bishop Auckland,
where they had assembled, toward Sunderland. His forces
being totally inadequate to make a stand, the Scottish com-
mander endeavored, but unsuccessfully, to retreat. He was
attacked, charged, routed, and suffered great loss. He and
the remains of his division had but time to gallop into the
Scottish camp and give the alarm, when the enemy were
upon them.
The Scottish army was hastily drawn up in three divis-
ions, as well as the broken and subdivided nature of the
ground permitted. The right was commanded by the Earl
of Moray ; the centre by the king in person ; the left by the
Knight of Liddisdale, the steward of Scotland, and the Earl
of Dunbar. This arrangement was hardly accomplished ere
the English archers, to the number of ten thousand, came
within sight. An experienced commander, Sir John de
Graham, foreseeing the fatal consequences which were
to ensue, entreated the king to permit him to charge the
archers with a body of cavalry. "Give me," he said, "but
one hundred horse; I will be answerable for riding them
down, and dispersing them." "But, to speak truth," says
the old historian Fordun, "de Graham could not obtain
a single horseman." The reason might be, that the loss at
Ferry Hill, that same morning, had fallen chiefly on the
Scottish men-at-arms, and that they had been thus rendered
to a great degree unserviceable ; but it is more generally at-
tributed to the caprice and wilfulness of the young king.
Graham attempted with his own followers to make the
216 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
desired manoeuvre ; but being far too few to make the neces-
sary impression on the archers, they were beaten off, and
himself escaped with difficulty. The unerring shower of
arrows then commenced, and flew without intermission
against the Scots as thick as hail, and they were at the
same time charged by the men-at-arms and billmen. The
numerous enclosures cramped and interrupted their system
of defence, and at length the right wing, under the Earl of
Moray, began to fly. The English cavalry broke down
on them, and completed the rout. They were thrown into
complete disorder and then flight, which afforded the English
an opportunity to attack the division of the king at once upon
the left flank, now uncovered, and on the front. Amid re-
peated charges, and the most dispiriting slaughter by the
continuous discharge of the English arrows, David showed
that he had the courage though not the talents of his father.
He was twice severely wounded with arrows, but continued
to encourage to the last the few of his peers and officers
who were still fighting around him. At length, in a close
melee, a Northumberland knight, named Copland, grappled
with David, and made him prisoner, but not before the king
had struck out two of Copland's front teeth with his gauntlet.
On the fall of the royal banner, the steward and the Earl
of March, who had not as yet sustained much loss, despair-
ing of being able to aid the king or restore the battle, with-
drew from the field in tolerable order, and carried their
division and such as rallied under their standards back into
Scotland. David II., it has been thought, considered this
retreat as resembling a desertion, the more suspicious, as
the next heir to the crown was at its head. The captive
king was conveyed to London, and afterward, in solemn
procession, to the Tower, attended by a guard of twenty
thousand men, and all the city companies in complete pag-
eantry. There were made prisoners with David Bruce the
Earls of Fife, Monteith, and Wigton, as also the Knight
of Liddisdale, who apparently had put himself into that
predicament by his advancing to support the king, since
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 217
he might otherwise have retreated with the steward and
the Earl of March, whose command he shared. About fifty
barons had the same fate.
There remained slain on the fatal field of Neville's Cross
the Earls of Moray and Strathern, David de la Hay, the
high constable of Scotland, Robert Keith the great marshal,
the chamberlain, and the chancellor, with very many men
of rank. Of the lower classes, at least fifteen thousand are
computed to have fallen.
The nation of Scotland was but beginning to draw its
breath after its unparalleled sufferings during the civil war,
when it was, to all appearance, totally prostrated by the
blow to which David had imprudently exposed his realm.
The whole border counties of Scotland surrendered them-
selves without attempting an unavailing defence. The line
of the frontiers was carried northward to the southern bor-
ders of Lothian, and extended between Colbrand's Path and
the Soltra Hills, and was afterward pushed still further
north, for it finally ran between Carlops and Crosscryne.
The king of England abused his victory by cruelty. He
brought two of his noble captives, the Earl of Monteith,
and Duncan, earl of Fife, to trial, for having turned to
Bruce's party, after having been liegemen to Baliol, and,
like a similar example of modern times, he transmitted to
the judges with the commission for trying the prisoners a
scroll of the doom previously fixed by himself and his privy-
council. The decision of a court so well instructed in its
duty was no matter of question. Both earls were convicted
of high treason, and the Earl of Monteith suffered the hide-
ous punishment annexed to that crime by the English law.
Yet while thus severely punishing those who had been
traitors, as it was called, to Baliol, Edward had no purpose
of restoring to his ally any delegated power in Scotland.
The ex-king had, since his repeated expulsion from his king-
dom, lived upon appointments afforded him from England,
and acted more as a lieutenant of the English marches than
a prince having a right to the Scottish throne, nor did the
10 >%, Vol. I.
218 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
victory of Neville's Cross extend his authority. On the con-
trary, the English barons Lucj 7 , Dacre, and Umfraville
received a commission to accept the allegiance which it was
supposed the humbled inhabitants of Scotland would be will-
ing universally to transfer to King Edward in person.
Upon this, however, as well as other occasions of immi-
nent peril, the Scottish people, on the very brink of ruin as
an independent nation, found a remedy in their own daunt-
less courage. The nobility who had escaped from the field
of Neville's Cross restored the steward of Scotland, heir of
the crown, to the regency of the kingdom, in place of the
imprisoned king. Yielding up the southern provinces, which
he could not defend, the steward placed the country north
of the Forth in as strong a posture as he could, and amid
terror and disturbance maintained a show of government
and good order. At this critical period William, Lord Doug-
las, returned from France, where he had been bred to arms,
and, with the active valor of his uncle, the good Lord James,
expelled the English invaders from his own domains of
Douglas Dale, and in process of time from Ettricke Forest
and Teviotdale, provinces of which the warlike population
had been long followers of this chivalrous family.
The consequences of these successes would probably have
been a furious invasion of Scotland, had it depended entirely
upon the will of Edward III. But the consent of the En-
glish barons was necessary, and they were little disposed
to aid in a renewal of those expensive and destructive hos-
tilities which had been so often and so fruitlessly waged
against Scotland. The king of England, therefore, reluc-
tantly consented to a truce with the steward, which he re-
newed from time to time, as he began to conceive designs
of at once filling his coffers with a large ransom for his royal
prisoner, David, and to secure a right of succession to the
Scottish throne by other means than open war.
With this view, the royal captive was treated with more
kindness than at first, and (to sharpen, perhaps, his appetite
for restoration to freedom and to his kingdom) he was
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 219
allowed to visit Scotland, on making oath and finding host-
ages to return in a time limited. Impatient as his prede-
cessor William the Lion, David seems to have been ready
to submit his kingdom to the sovereignty of Edward, and
yield up once more the question of supremacy, in order to
obtain his personal freedom. He appears even to have
taken some steps for that purpose. Two instruments re-
main, by which David recognizes the title of Edward as lord
paramount, and agrees to take the oath of homage. The
purpose of his temporary liberation being partly to give him
an opportunity of sounding the opinion and sentiments of his
people on this important point, the English commissioners
were empowered to protract his term of absence, if they
should think the execution of a treaty on such a foundation
could be advanced by it. But when the pulse of the Scottish
nobles was sounded on this subject, they made a unanimous
declaration, that though they would joyfully impoverish
themselves to purchase with money the freedom of their
sovereign, they would never agree to surrender, for that
or any other object, the independence of their country.
David was therefore obliged to return to his captivity.
Mr. Tytler conjectures that it was as a subsidiary part
of this agreement between the two kings that Edward III.
entered into a sort of treaty with the Knight of Liddisdale,
also a prisoner in England since the battle of Neville's Cross,
by which the latter, assuming a treasonable independence,
and renouncing, under a thin and affected disguise, the
allegiance and duty which he owed to his own king and
country, became bound to admit Englishmen to pass through
his territories at all times, and for all purposes; engaged
to keep on foot a body of men for the service of Edward;
and, in short, transferred to the English king those military
services which he owed to his native country. The consid-
eration for this treacherous desertion was his liberation from
prison, a grant by King Edward of the lands and lordship
of Liddisdale and the castle of Hermitage, with some posses-
sions in the mountains of Annandale. "We can hardly think
220 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
that the whole of this treaty was known to David, although
it is probable he was aware that the Knight of Liddisdale
was disposed to favor an alliance with England. But,
whether with or without the knowledge of his sovereign,
too certain it is, to borrow the pathetic language of Lord
Hailes, that, "thus in an evil hour did Sir William Douglas
at once cancel the merit of former achievements, and, for
the possession of a precarious inheritance, transmit his name
to posterity in the roll of time-servers and traitors."
The Knight of Liddisdale's schemes, indeed, were baffled
almost as soon as formed. He had not long been in posses-
sion of the freedom thus basely obtained, before he was
waylaid and slain, while hunting in Ettricke Forest, 1 by his
own kinsman and godson, William, lord of Douglas. The
contemporary historians are at a loss whether to ascribe this
act of violence on the part of Lord Douglas to domestic jeal-
ousy or to revenge for the murder of Ramsay and that
of Sir David Berkeley, assassinated by the command of the
Knight of Liddisdale while he was yet captive in London,
July 13, 1354. But, in our time, the knowledge having
emerged of Liddisdale's traitorous engagement with Ed-
ward, we can easily conceive that Lord Douglas may have
taken his kinsman's life as that of a traitor to the kingdom,
and a dangerous rival in his own family rights.
Shortly after this incident, a treaty for the ransom of
David was agreed upon by commissioners at Newcastle, for
ninety thousand marks sterling, which sum was to be paid
up by instalments of ten thousand marks yearly. All the
nobility of the kingdom, and all the merchants, were to
become bound for the regular payment of these large sums.
The greater part of the Scottish nobles thought this an ex-
1 The spot is called, in old histories, Galsewoodor Galseford. Tradi-
tion fixes it at William's Cross, between Tweed and Yarrow, where a
cross is said to have long existed in memory of the incident. Lindean
Church, where the obsequies of the slaughtered Knight of Liddisdale
were first performed, is exactly half-way between William's Cross and
Melrose, where the body was finally interred.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 22k
orbitant demand for the liberty of a prince of moderate
talents, without heirs of his body, and attached to idle
pleasures. While the estates were doubting whether or not
the treaty should be ratified, the arrival of a brave French
knight, De Garencieres, with a small but selected body of
knights and esquires, and the large sum of forty thousand
moutons of gold, to be distributed among the Scots nobles
on condition of their breaking the truce and invading Eng-
land, decided their resolution. They readily adopted, at
whatever future risk, the course which was attended with
receiving money, instead of that which involved their own
paying it. Indeed, the Northumbrian borderers themselves
made the first aggression, by invading and spoiling the
lands of the Earl of March. The Douglas and the Earl
of March determined on reprisals.
The Scottish nobles conducted their inroad as men well
acquainted with the stratagems of border warfare. A strong
advance party of five hundred men was sent into Northum-
berland under command of Sir "William Ramsay (son of the
murdered Sir Alexander), while the two earls with the main
body remained in ambush at a place called Nesbit, within
the Scottish frontier. Ramsay speedily swept together a
great spoil, and proceeded, according to his instructions, to
drive them into Scotland, under the full view of the garrison
of Norham. Fired at this insult, Sir Thomas Gray, gov-
ernor of the castle, rushed out at the head of a select body
of men-at-arms, and pursuing Ramsay, who retreated before
him, fell into the ambuscade which had been laid for him,
and, after a most chivalrous defence, was defeated and made
prisoner.
Another, though momentary gleam of success, shone on
the Scottish arms. The Earls of Angus and March, assisted
by the French auxiliaries, made themselves masters of the
important town of Berwick, but failed to obtain possession
of the castle. At this important crisis, the French, who
had done various feats of arms under Eugene de Garencieres,
took their leave and returned home, disgusted with the ser-
222 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
vice in Scotland. Their national valor induced them to face
with readiness the dangers of the warfare ; but their manners
and habits made them impatient of the rough fare and fierce
manners of their allies.
Edward III. no sooner heard of the defeat at Nesbit, and
the surprise of Berwick, than he passed over from Calais,
and appeared before the town with a great part of that vet-
eran army which had been so often victorious in France,
and large reinforcements, who emulated their valor. His
whole army amounted to eighty thousand men. The Scots
who had gained the town had had no time to store them-
selves with provisions, or make other preparations for de-
fence. They were not, besides, in possession of the castle,
from which they were liable to be attacked, while the king
of England should storm the walls. They capitulated, there-
fore, for permission to evacuate the town, of which Edward
obtained possession by the terror of his appearance alone.
Berwick regained, it was now the object of Edward III.
to march into Scotland, and to put a final end to the inter-
ruptions which the Scottish wars so repeatedly offered to
his operations in France. He determined, being now in
possession of all means supposed adequate to the purpose,
to make a final conquest of the kingdom, and forcibly unite
it, as his grandfather had joined Wales, to the larger and
richer portion of the island.
But as, like that grandfather, Edward III. had not leis-
ure to conquer kingdoms for other men, it was necessary for
him to clear the way of the claims of Baliol, whom he had
hitherto professed to regard as the legitimate king of Scot-
land. This was easily arranged; for Edward Baliol was,
in the hands of Edward III., a far more flexible tool than
his father had proved in those of Edward I. Being a mere
phantom, whom Edward could summon upon the scene and
dismiss at pleasure, he was probably very easily molded to
the purpose of the king of England, and of free consent and
goodwill underwent the ceremony of degradation, to which
his father, after failing in all attempts at resistance, had been
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 223
compelled to submit, and which procured him the dishonor-
able nickname of Toom-tabard, or Empty Jacket. Edward
Baliol appeared before Edward attired in all the symbols of
royalty, of which he formally divested himself, and laying
his golden crown at the feet of the English king, ceded to
him all right, title, and interest, which he had or might
claim in the sovereignty of Scotland. The causes inducing
him to this transference and surrender the cedent alleged to
be, first, the advance of old age, and the want of heirs to
succeed him; secondly, his high obligations to the English
king, his especial affection for him, and the nearness of blood
which existed between them; together with the ingratitude
and rebellion of his Scottish relations and subjects, and in
general his desire to promote the advantage of both nations.
Such were the pretexts; but in reality Baliol possessed no
interest whatever in Scotland ; he was a mere stipendiary
and pensioner of England, and Edward was now desirous
to be rid of him, and either to acquire the crown of Scotland
to himself directly by virtue of BalioPs cession in his favor,
or, if that project should fail, to achieve the same object by
making some composition with the imprisoned David, whom
he found not indisposed to agree to a settlement of the crown
on a son of the king of England, in exchange for his own
liberty. • In guerdon of his pliancy, Baliol, when retiring
into private life, was to be endowed by Edward III. with
a sum of five thousand marks, and a stipend or annuity of
two thousand pounds sterling a year. With this splendid
income Edward Baliol retired into privacy and obscurity,
and is never again mentioned in history. The spirit of en-
terprise which dictated the invasion of Scotland in 1332, and
the adventurous attack upon the Scottish encampment at
Dupplin Moor, shows itself in no other part of his conduct,
which may lead us to think that an attempt so daring was
no suggestion of his own mind, but breathed into it bj r the
counsels of some master-spirit among his councillors. In
battle he showed the bravery of a soldier ; but in other re-
spects he never seems to have displayed talents whether for
224 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
war or peace. He died childless in the year 1363; and thus
ended in his person the line of Baliol, whose pretensions had
cost Scotland so dear.
The campaign which Edward designed should be decisive
of the fate of Scotland now approached. The Scottish nobles,
more wise in calamity than success, taught and convinced by
experience of the danger of encountering the enemy in pitched
battle and in the open field, resolved to practice the lessons
of defensive war which had been bequeathed to them by
their deliverer, King Robert. Time was, however, required
to lay the country waste, to withdraw the inhabitants, and
to take the other precautions necessary for this stern and
desolating species of resistance. For this purpose Earl
Douglas was sent to King Edward, to protract time as
long as he could with offers of negotiation. He succeeded
in obtaining a truce of ten days, during the greater part of
which he remained in the English camp, and then left it,
exulting in having obtained the necessary space for de-
fensive preparations, of which his countrymen had made
excellent use.
Scotland was now somewhat in the same condition as
when invaded in 1322, but thus far worse situated, that,
as Edward III. was a heroic character a hundred times
more formidable than his father, so the chiefs whom Scot-
land had now to oppose against the victor, at whose name
France trembled, were as far inferior in talents to the
Bruce. They were imbued, however, with his sentiments,
and were determined to act upon them; and thus being
dead, King Robert might be said still to direct the Scottish
army.
Edward no sooner entered Scotland than he found his
troops in want of every species of supply save what they bore
along with them. The villages and farmyards were silent,
and vacant alike of men, grain, and cattle. "Within the cir-
cuit of an ordinary foraging party, no species of supply was
to be found. If any ventured beyond the reach of speedy
and instant support, they were overwhelmed by the Scots,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 225
who, lying in ambush in glens, morasses, and forests, pounced
on them from all sides, and gave no quarter. Incensed at
the difficulties and privations by which he was surrounded,
and conscious that he had been overreached by Douglas in
the previous negotiation, Edward vented his wrath in reck-
less and indiscriminate destruction, burning every town and
village which he approached, without sparing the edifices
which were dedicated to Heaven and holy uses. The fine
abbey church at Haddington, called the Lamp of Lothian,
from the beauty of its architecture, was burned down, and
the monastery, as well as the town itself, utterly destroyed.
These ravages caused the period (February, 1356) to be long
remembered by the title of the Burnt Candlemas.
The vehemence of Edward's passion, and the furious man-
ner in which he vented it, might soothe him with feelings of
gratified vengeance, but could neither find provisions for his
men nor forage for his army, and man and horse began to
sink under privation approaching to famine. Edward had
expected to meet his victualling ships, which had been de-
spatched to Berwick; but no sail appeared on the shipless
seas. After waiting ten days among the ruins of Hadding-
ton, his difficulties increasing with every minute, Edward at
length learned that a storm had dispersed his fleet, not one
of which had been able to enter the Firth of Forth. Retreat
was now inevitable: the sufferings of the English soldiers
rendered it disorderly, and it was attended with proportional
loss. The Scots, from mountains, dingles, forests, and path-
less wildernesses, approached the English army on every
side, watching it as the carrion crows and ravens wait on a
tainted flock, to destroy such as fall down through weak-
ness. To avoid returning through the wasted province of
Berwickshire, Edward involved himself in the defiles of the
upper part of Teviotdale and Ettricke Forest, where he suf-
fered much loss from the harassing attacks of Douglas, and
on one occasion very narrowly escaped being made prisoner.
The failure of this great enterprise, the fifth in which the
attempt of invasion had been foiled, seems to have induced
226 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Edward to resort to other means than those of open and
avowed hostility for the establishment of his power in Scot-
land, an object which he conceived to be still within his
reach. The temper of his royal prisoner, David Bruce, was
now, by his long confinement in England, become well known
to him, and he doubted not that by some agreement with the
selfish prince he might secure that interest in Scotland and
its government of which the people were so jealous. A pre-
liminary step to such an intrigue was the delivery of David
from his long captivity, and the establishment of peace be-
tween the nations.
By the final agreement between the commissioners for
each kingdom, October 3, 1857, David's ransom, augmented
since the last treaty, was fixed at one hundred thousand
marks, to be discharged by partial payments of ten thou-
sand marks yearly. The nobles, churchmen, and burgesses
of Scotland bound themselves to see the instalments regu-
larly paid ; and three nobles of the highest rank, who might,
however, be exchanged for others of the same degree from
time to time, together with twenty young men of quality,
the son of the steward being included, were surrendered to
England as hostages. Thus was David restored to freedom,
eleven years after having been made prisoner at the battle of
Neville's Cross. The terms, on the whole, were rather more
severe than those proposed three years before, when the treaty
was broken off by the interest of France.
The first thing, after his return, which marked the ten-
dency of David's political feelings and attachments was his
predilection for visits to England, and long residences there,
which became so frequent as to excite a feeling among his
subjects that they did but waste their substance in need-
lessly ransoming a sovereign who preferred the land of his
captivity to his own dominions. A trifling incident, also,
occurred soon after his liberation, which manifested an arro-
gant, vain, and unfeeling temper. As the people, eager to
see their long-absent king, pressed into his presence with
more affection than reverence, David snatched a mace from
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 227
an attendant, and laying about him with his own royal
hand, taught his liege subjects in future to put their loyal
feelings under more ceremonial restraint.
A species of intimacy, in which Edward trusted to find
his advantage, was now encouraged between his dominions
and Scotland. Licenses were given to traders, to pilgrims,
natives of both countries, to youth of quality desirous of re-
ceiving education at the English universities, to all, in short,
who could allege a reasonable cause for visiting the English
dominions. The Scottish nobles were welcomed when they
visited the English court. This liberal line of conduct was
no doubt designed to dazzle the eyes of the Scots with the
superior wealth and splendor of their powerful neighbors;
and to engage them in such friendly transactions and rela-
tions as might smooth down the prejudices which had been
the natural growth of so many years' war. All these were
fair and laudable objects; but the king of England sought
them with a sinister and selfish purpose.
The weakness of David, who had shown himself willing,
would his subjects have permitted him, to sacrifice to Ed-
ward the independence of Scotland, by acknowledging him
as lord paramount, had encouraged the king of England to
propose that, in place of the steward of Scotland, the grand-
son of Robert Bruce by his daughter Marjory, Lionel, duke
of Clarence, the third son of Edward III. himself, should be
called to succeed to the crown of Scotland. This project
seems to have been kept closely concealed from the Scottish
nation at large until the month of March, 1363, when David
Bruce ventured to bring it himself before the estates of the
Scottish parliament, convoked to meet at Scone. The king
of Scotland had lately become a widower, by the death of
Queen Joanna, during one of her visits to England. This
makes it seem more extraordinary that he should desire the
substitution of an English prince in the succession of the
crown, since David might justly have apprehended that if,
in the case of probable events, he himself might marry again
and have children, the king of England would not have
228 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
brooked to see the hope of his son's succession blighted,
even by the birth of heirs of his own body. Undeterred by
this motive, powerful as it might be thought, David Bruce
proposed to the estates of Scotland, "that, in the event of
his dying without heirs, they should settle the crown on one
of the sons of the king of England. He particularly recom-
mended the Duke Lionel of Clarence as a worthy object of
their choice, hinted that this would insure a constant peace
between the two nations of Britain, and become the means
to induce the king of England to resign, formally and for-
ever, all pretensions to the feudal supremacy which had been
the cause of such fatal struggles."
The estates of Scotland listened with sorrow and indigna-
tion to such a proposition, coming as it did from the lips of
their sovereign, the son of the heroic Robert Bruce. In-
stantly and unanimously they replied, "that they would
never permit an Englishman to rule over them; that, by
solemn acts of settlement sworn to in parliament, the steward
of Scotland was called to the crown in default of the present
king or issue of his body; that he was a brave man, and
worthy of the succession : from which, therefore, they re-
fused to exclude him, by preferring the son of an alien
enemy."
King David received, doubtless, this blunt refusal, which
necessarily inferred a severe personal reproach, with shame
and mortification, but made no reply; and the parliament,
passing to other matters, appointed commissioners to labor
at the great work of converting the present precarious truce
between England and Scotland into a steady and permanent
peace.
But the proposal of altering the destination of the crown,
although apparently passed from or withdrawn, remained
tenaciously rooted in the minds of those whose interests had
been assailed by it. The steward and his sons, with many
of his kindred, the Earls of March, Douglas, and other
southern barons, assumed arms, and entered into bonds or
leagues to prevent, they said, the alteration of the order of
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 229
succession as fixed in the days of Bruce. The king armed
in his turn, not, as he alleged, to enforce an alteration of
the succession, but to restore good order, and compel the
associated lords to lay down their arms, in which he was
successful. The steward and his associates submitted them-
selves, awed by the unexpected spirit displayed by the king,
and the numerous party which continued to adhere to him.
Stewart himself, together with Douglas, March, and others
associated in the league, were contented to renounce the ob-
ligation in open parliament, convened at Inchmurdoch, May
14, 1363. The steward, upon the same occasion, swore on
the Gospels true liegedom and fealty to David, under the
penalty of forfeiting not only his own life and lands, but
his and his family's title of succession to the throne. In
recompense of this prompt return to the duty of a subject,
as well as to soothe the apprehensions for national independ-
ence which the proposal of the king had excited, the right
of succession to the throne, as solemnly established in th9
steward and his sons, was fully recognized, and the Earl-
dom of Carrick, once a title of Robert Bruce, was conferred
on his eldest son, afterward Robert III.
The imprudent David had hardly ratified the proceedings
of the parliament of Scone, ere, forgetful of the danger he
had lately incurred, he repaired to London, and renewed
with Edward III. those intrigues which had for their ob-
ject the alteration of the succession. A new plan was now
drawn up for this purpose, at a conference held between the
two kings and certain selected counsellors, November 23,
1368. By this the king of England, Edward III., was him-
self to be declared heir of King David, in case the former
should die without issue male. Twenty-seven conditions
followed, the object of most of which seems to have been
to reconcile the Scottish people to the sway of an English
monarch, by imparting to them a share in the advantages
of English trade, by ratifying to North Britain its laws and
independence as a separate kingdom, and, above all, by dis-
charging the ransom, which continued a heavy burden upon
230 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Scotland, of which only a tenth part had been yet paid.
The national pride was to be flattered by the restoration of
the fatal stone of inauguration, on which it was proposed
that the king of England himself should be crowned at
Scone, after the Scottish manner. All claim of supremacy
was to be renounced, and the independence of Scotland, in
Church and State, was carefully provided for, together with
an obligation on Edward, when he should succeed to the
throne, binding him to use Scottish counsellors in all the
national concerns of the kingdom, and to employ native
Scottishmen in all offices of trust. But the same schedule
of articles contains a clause for giving the English king
the command of the Scottish national and feudal levies; a
condition which alone must have had the consequence of
placing the country at Edward's unlimited disposal. The
minutes of this conference open with a provision of strict
secrecy, and a declaration that what follows is not to be
considered as anything finally resolved upon or determined,
but merely as the heads of a plan to be hereafter examined
more maturely, and adopted, altered, or altogether thrown
aside at pleasure. By the last article the king of Scotland
undertook to sound the inclinations of his people respecting
this scheme, and report the result to the English king within
fifteen days after Easter. It is probable that David, on his
return to Scotland, found the scheme totally impracticable.
A circumstance of personal imprudence now added to the
difficulties by which King David was surrounded. In 1364,
with a violence unbecoming his high rank and mature age,
he fell in love with a beautiful young woman, called Cath-
erine Logie, daughter of Sir John Logie, executed for acces-
sion to that plot against Robert Bruce which was prosecuted
and punished in the times of the Black Parliament. The
young lady was eminently beautiful; and the king, finding
he could not satisfy his passion otherwise, gave her his hand
in marriage. This unequal alliance scandalized his haughty
nobles, and seems to have caused an open rupture between
David and his kinsman the steward, whose views to the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 231
crown were placed in danger of being disappointed, if the
fair lady should bear a son to her royal husband. It was
probably on account of some quarrel arising out of this sub-
ject of discord that King David seems to have thrown the
steward, with his son, the Lord of Badenoch, into prison,
where both were long detained.
The accomplishment of a general and enduring peace
between the two kingdoms was now the occupation of com-
missioners. The payment of the ransom of David was the
principal obstacle. The first instalments had been discharged
with tolerable regularity. For this effect the Scottish par-
liament had made great sacrifices. The whole wool of the
kingdom, apparently its most productive subject of export,
was directed to be delivered up to the king at a low rate,
and the surplus produced over prime cost in disposing of the
commodity to the foreign merchants in Flanders was to be
applied in discharge of the ransom. A property tax upon
men of every degree was also imposed and levied. From
these funds the sum of twenty thousand marks had been
raised and paid to England. But since these payments the
destined sources had fallen short. The Scots had applied to
the pope, who having already granted to the king a tenth
of the ecclesiastical benefices for the term of three years,
refused to authorize any further tax upon the clergy. They
solicited France, who, as her own king was unransomed and
in captivity in England, had a fair apology for declining
further assistance, unless under condition that the Scots
would resume the war with England, in which case they
promised a contribution of fifty thousand marks toward the
ransom of King David.
Scotland being thus straitened and without resources, the
stipulated instalments of the ransom necessarily fell into
arrear, and heavy penalties were, according to the terms of
the treaty, incurred for default of payment. Edward acted
the part of a lenient creditor. He was less intent on pay-
ment of the ransom than to place the Scottish nation in so
insolvent a condition that the estates might be glad, in one
832 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
way or other, to compromise that debt by a sacrifice of their
independence. He could not, indeed, use the readiest mode
of compelling payment by summoning the Scottish monarch
to return to captivity, without depriving himself of a tract-
able and willing agent for forwarding his views in Scotland,
and probably, at the same time, throwing that country into
the control of the steward, the decided enemy of English
influence. The penalties and arrears were now computed
to amount to one hundred thousand pounds, to be paid by
instalments of six thousand marks yearly. The truce was
prolonged for about three years. These payments, though
most severe on the nation of Scotland, seem to have been
made good with regularity by means of the taxes which the
Scottish parliament had imposed for defraying them: so
that in 1369 the truce between the nations was continued
for fourteen years, and the English conceded that the bal-
ance of the ransom, amounting still to fifty-six thousand
marks, should be cleared by annual payments of four thou-
sand marks. In this manner the ransom of David was com-
pletely discharged, and a receipt in full was granted by
Richard II. in the seventh year of his reign. These heavy
but necessary exactions were not made without internal
struggles.
The northern barons and Celtic chiefs were, for a short
time, in open insurrection against payment of the imposts ;
but were put down by the steadiness of the parliament, and
one of those starts of activity into which the indolent but
resolute spirit of David Bruce was sometimes awakened.
He marched into the northwest against John of the Isles,
and reducing that turbulent and powerful chief to subjec-
tion, compelled him to submit to the tax imposed by par-
liament, and exacted hostages from him for remaining in
allegiance.
Family discord broke out in the royal family. Catherine
Logie, the young and beautiful queen, was expensive, like
persons who are suddenly removed from narrow to opulent
circumstances. She was fond of changing place, of splendor
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 233
in retinue, dress, and entertainment; perhaps, being young
and beautiful, she also liked personal admiration. David's
passion was satiated, and he was desirous to dissolve the
unequal marriage which he had so imprudently formed.
The bishops of Scotland pronounced a sentence of divorce,
but upon what grounds we are left ignorant by historians.
Catherine Logie appealed to the pope from the sentence of
the Scottish Church, and went to Avignon to prosecute the
cause by means of such wealth as she had amassed during
her continuance in power, which is said to have been con-
siderable. Her appeal was heard with favor by the pope;
but she did not live to bring it to an issue, as she died
abroad, in 1369.
After the divorce of this lady by the Scottish prelates, the
steward and his son were released from prison, and restored
to the king's favor, which plainly showed by what influence
they had incurred disgrace and captivity.
Little more remains to be said of David II. He became
affected with a mortal illness, and died in the castle of Edin-
burg, at the early age of forty-seven, and in the forty-fifth
year of his reign, February 22, 1370. He had courage,
affability, and the external graces which become a prince.
But his life was a uniform contrast to the patriotic devo-
tion of his father. He exacted and received the most pain-
ful sacrifices at the hands of his subjects, and never curbed
himself in a single caprice, or denied himself a single in-^
diligence, in requital of their loyalty and affection. In the
latter years of his life, he acted as the dishonorable tool of
England, and was sufficiently willing to have exchanged,
for paltry and personal advantages, the independence of
Scotland, bought by his heroic father at the expense of so
many sufferings, which terminated in ruined health and
premature death.
The reign of David II. was as melancholy a contrast to
that of his father as that of Robert I. had been brilliant
when contrasted with his predecessors. Yet we recognize
in it a nearer approach to civil polity, and a more absolute
£34 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
commixture of the different tribes by which Scotland was
peopled into one general nation, obedient to a single
government.
Even the chiefs of the Isles and Highlands were so much
subdued as to own the allegiance of the Scottish king, [to
hold seats in his parliaments, and resign, though reluctantly,
much of that rude and tumultuous independence which they
had formerly made their boast. The power of these for-
midable chiefs was much reduced, not only by the actual
restraint exercised over them by the sovereign and his lieu-
tenants, often at the head of an armed force, but by the less
justifiable policy which the sovereign is said to have exer-
cised, of stirring up one chieftain against another, and thus
humbling and diminishing the power of the whole. Still
the separation of the Highlands from the Lowlands was
that between two separate races; and though the king's
sovereignty was acknowledged in both, the ordinary course
of law was only current in the more civilized country, and
we shall presently see that the lords of the Isles gave re-
peated disturbances to the Scottish government. The na-
tion, at the same time, became more like that with which
we ourselves are acquainted. A few great families can in-
deed trace their descent from the period of Robert Bruce;
but a far greater number are first distinguished in the reign
of his son, where the lists of the battle of Durham contain
the names of the principal nobility and gentry in modern
Scotland, and are the frequent resource of the genealogists.
The spirit of commerce advanced in the time of David I.
against all the disadvantages of foreign and domestic
warfare.
In the parliaments of 1368 and 1369 a practice was intro-
duced, for the first time apparently, of empowering commit-
tees of parliament to prepare and arrange, in previous and
secret meetings, the affairs of delicacy and importance which
were afterward to come before the body at large. As this
led to investing a small cabal of the representatives with
the exclusive power of garbling and selecting the subjects
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 235
for parliamentary debate, it necessarily tended to limit the
free discussion so essential to the constitution of that body,
and finally assumed the form of that very obnoxious institu-
tion called Lords of the Articles, who, claiming the prelimi-
nary right of examining and rejecting at their pleasure such
measures as were to be brought before parliament, became a
severe restraint on national freedom.
Amid the pestilence and famine, which made repeated
ravages in Scotland during this unhappy reign, the Scottish
national spirit never showed itself more energetically deter-
mined on resisting the English domination to the last. Par-
ticular chiefs and nobles were no doubt seduced from their
allegiance, but there was no general or undisturbed pause of
submission and apathy. The nation was strong in its very
weakness ; for as the Scots became unequal to the task of
assembling national armies, they were saved from the con-
sequences of such general actions as Dunbar, Halidon, and
Berwick, and obliged to limit themselves to the defensive
species of war best suited to the character of the country,
and that which its inhabitants were so well qualified to
wage.
The want of talents in the sovereign, and the effects of
his long imprisonment, were most severely felt in the inde-
pendence which was affected by the Knight of Liddisdale,
and other great leaders and nobles, who committed in their
feudal strife such horrible crimes as the murder of Ramsay
of Dalwolsey, Bullock, Berkeley, St. Michael, and others.
The parliament were sensible of these grievous evils; but,
despairing of their own power to repress them, it was rather
in a tone of entreaty than command that they implored the
great nobles to lay aside their private quarrels, and unite
cordially in the defence of their common country. Many of
the authors of such evils, who had enrolled themselves as
members of the estates, joined in these patriotic remon-
strances, and, when the parliament broke up, rode home
each to his feudal tower and waste domains, to harass his
neighbors with private war as before. The Scottish parlia-
2,36 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
ment seems never to have failed in perceiving the evils which
afflicted the state, or in making sound and sagacious regula-
tions to repress them ; but unhappily the executive power sel-
dom or never possessed the authority necessary to enforce
the laws ; and thus the nation continued in the condition of
a froward patient, who cannot be cured because there is no
prevailing upon him to take the prescriptions ordered by the
physicians.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 237
CHAPTER XV
Accession of the House of Stewart: their Origin — Robert II. and
his Family — Claim of the Earl of Douglas: it is abandoned —
Defeat of the English near Melrose — Wasteful Incursions on the
Border — John of Gaunt negotiates with Scotland: takes Ref-
uge there against the English Rioters — France instigates the
Scots to renew the War — Inroad by John of Gaunt — John de
Vienne arrives with an Army of French Auxiliaries — They are
dissatisfied with Scotland, and the Scots with them — They
urge the Scots to fight a pitched Battle with the English — The
Scots decline doing so, and explain their Motives — Invasion of
Richard: it is paid back by the Scots — The French Auxiliaries
leave Scotland — The Scots menace England with Invasion —
The Battle of Otterbourne— Robert, Earl of Fife, Regent— Truce
with England — Robert II. dies
THE genealogy of the Stewart family, who now acceded
to the throne of Scotland, has been the theme of many
a fable. But their pedigree has by late antiquaries
been distinctly traced to the great Anglo- Norman family of
Fitz- Alan in England ; no unworthy descent, even for a race
of monarchs. In David I.'s time, Walter Fitz- Alan held
the high post of seneschal or steward of the king's house-
hold ; and the dignity becoming hereditary in the family,
what was originally a title was converted into a surname,
and employed as such. Walter, the sixth high-steward,
fought bravely at Bannockburn, defended Berwick with
the most chivalrous courage, and was unanimously thought
worthy of the hand of Marjory Bruce, the daughter of the
liberator of Scotland ; and to their only child, the seventh
lord high-steward, often mentioned during the last reign,
the crown descended, on the extinction of the Bruce's mal®
line in his only son David II.
238 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
The successor to the crown had been twice married. By-
Elizabeth Mure of Rowallan, his first wife, he had his son
John, created earl of Carrick ; "Walter, earl of Fife ; Robert,
earl of Monteith, afterward duke of Albany ; and Alexander,
earl of Buchan. No less than six daughters, united in mar-
riage with the most powerful families in Scotland, assured
their support to the succession of the House of Stewart. The
new king was, by a second marriage with Euphemia, daugh-
ter of the Earl of Ross, the father of David, earl of Strath-
ern, and "Walter, earl of Athol. Of four daughters by this
second marriage, the eldest was married to James, earl of
Douglas, and the other three also wedded into ancient and
powerful families.
The father of this numerous race was an elderly man,
fifty-five years old, with an infirmity in his eyes, which ren-
dered them as red as blood. He had been in his youth a
bold and active soldier; but he was now past the years
of martial exertion, and obliged to delegate to others the
command of his army. He had the virtues of a pacific
sovereign, being just, benign, clement, and sagacious.
The Earl of Douglas threatened the tranquillity of the
realm by a claim on the throne, which, however, was no
sooner made than abandoned, upon his receiving the hand
of the Princess Euphemia in marriage. Robert II. was,
therefore, inaugurated at Scone, March 27, 1371, with the
usual ceremony. As the Scots continued to pay the ransom
of King David with tolerable regularity, no open war with
England was entered into until 1378; when, after mutual
injuries and inroads, it broke out with great fury, and skir-
mishes and battles of a destructive rather than a decisive
character took place. A small body of Scots made them-
selves masters of the citadel of Berwick ; but, not being
supported by a sufficient force, were surprised and put to
the sword. In a fierce encounter near Melrose, the English,
under the command of Musgrave, governor of Berwick, were
defeated by the Earl of Douglas. The battle was decided by
the personal exertions of Archibald Douglas, who, wielding
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 239
with ease a sword which an ordinarj* man could hardly lift,
broke the English ranks with the fury of his blows. The
Scots appear to have had the better in this species of pred-
atory hostility, their borderers being very numerous, and
the best qualified in Europe for irregular war. Their rapine
was now greater and greedier than usual; for even swine,
which they used formerly to spare or neglect, did not now
escape them: and there were instances of their driving off
forty thousand head of booty in a successful inroad. They
are said to have amused themselves by playing at football
with the heads of the slain. This is, perhaps, an exagger-
ation; but it is certain that their ferocity equalled their
rapacity. They were led also by a Douglas, whose activity
was indefatigable. He surprised the town of Penrith, in
1380, during a fair that was held there. The Scots made a
great booty, and gave the town to the flames. The English
were also defeated in Annandale, where the borderers of
Cumberland entered, for the purpose of retaliating these
injuries.
The miseries of this cruel species of hostility were en-
hanced by a contagious disease which raged on the English
frontiers, and which was imported into Scotland by the
reckless borderers, whom even the pestilence itself could
not deter from spoil.
In the ensuing year John of Gaunt, the celebrated duke
of Lancaster, marched to the border with a formidable force,
and put a temporary close to these miseries by a truce for
twelve months, which, when nearly expired, was renewed
for the same period. A singular occurrence took place while
this last treaty was negotiating. The insurrection of Wat
Tyler broke out ; and the Duke of Lancaster, against whom,
as a patron of the followers of Wickliffe, much of the popu-
lar fury was directed, found it dangerous to return into Eng-
land. Although the kingdoms could hardly be said to be at
peace together, he did not hesitate to choose Scotland for his
temporary place of refuge. Nor was this generous confi-
dence ill requited. Edinburgh Castle was assigned to their
240 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
princely guest and his retinue, that their security might he
safely provided for, and they were allowed the exclusive
possession of this important fortress. And when the civil
commotion was ended, the duke returned to England in
security.
France behold with anxiety this cessation, brief as it
was, of hostility between England and Scotland. Toward
the latter she always acted as a civilized colony toward some
tribe of barbarians in their neighborhood, whose passions
they animate by promises or bribes, in order to have their
assistance in war with a powerful neighbor. On the present
occasion, as a diversion on the English frontiers was of the
utmost consequence to their success at home, the French
government instigated the Scots, by the distribution of a
large sum of money, and the promise of assisting them with
an auxiliary force of a thousand men-at-arms and their at-
tendants, and a thousand suits of armor, to suffer the truce
to elapse without renewal. The Scots listened to the temp-
tation, and, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the old
king, who was pacifically disposed, they resumed hostilities
at the end of the truce.
The Duke of Lancaster again visited the frontiers ; but it
was for the purpose of punishment, not treaty. He marched
as far as Edinburgh, plundering the country ; but generously
spared the city, which had been so lately his place of refuge,
and retreated, after he had shown both his power and his
clemency. Robert II. again advised peace; but he could
not prevail on the warlike nobles of Scotland to accept of
its blessings.
In 1385, France, according to her engagement, sent to
Scotland a large sum of money, twelve hundred suits of
armor complete, with all appurtenances, and a thousand
men-at-arms, with their followers, which may be estimated
at five thousand men in all, forming, according to Froissart's
phrase, a complete garland of chivalry, and commanded by
John de Vienne, admiral of France, one of the most distin-
guished warriors of the day.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 241
The first articles of this importation were gladly received
in Scotland, where ready palms were found to receive the
gold, and limbs as prompt to bear the armor. But the aux-
iliaries themselves had but a cold reception. Of this the
French were themselves in part the cause. Accustomed to
good fare and comfortable lodging, they were surprised at
the wretched food and miserable accommodations with which
habit and necessity had made the Scots familiar. At first
they treated their hardships as a jest; but the continuation
of such a rude mode of living wore out their good -humor;
and their allies complained that when they had furnished
these foreigners with the best which their means afforded,
they were only requited with grumbling and murmurs. The
petulance of the French national gallantry also gave great
offence; for even their general was so inconsiderate as to
make love to a near relation of the king, to the scandal and
indignation of the Scots, who had no toleration for such
unbecoming license.
Neither were the French chivalry of that use to the
Scottish cause which had been expected. The Scots, indeed,
assembled an army, and marched into England, where they
made considerable havoc ; but as the spoil was collected by
what was called pricking or skirmishing, with which the
borderers were better acquainted than the knights of France,
it is probable that the former secured the greater part of the
booty. John de Yienne and his companions might have
done better service in sieges, and were employed for that
purpose before Roxburgh, which had remained in the pos-
session of the English since the battle of Durham. The
scheme was, however, given up in consequence of an ex-
travagant pretension set up by the strangers to garrison
and hold the fortress when it should be taken.
While the French and their allies were thus disputing,
they received news that the king of England, Richard II.,
was advancing with a large army for the purpose of invad-
ing Scotland. The French rejoiced, in expectation of a gen-
eral action, in the event of which they anticipated a large
11 <% ' Vol. I.
242 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
share of glory and spoil. But the Scottish leaders informed
them it was not their purpose to engage the English force in
a pitched battle, alleging in excuse their inferiority in num-
bers, but especially in the size of their horses and quality
of their archers. "All that may be true," answered their
allies; "but if you do not give the English battle, they will
destroy your country." "Let them do their worst," said
the Scots; "we hold them at defiance. Our gentry will re-
move their families and household stuff; our cottagers and
laborers will drive into the mountains and forests their herds
and flocks, and transport thither their grain and forage, even
to the very straw that covers their huts. We will surround
them with a desert ; and while they shall never see an enemy,
they shall not stir a flight-shot from their standards without
being overpowered by an ambush. Let them come on at
their pleasure, and when it comes to burning and spoiling,
you shall see which has the worst of it."
The event of the campaign proved as the Scots had antici-
pated. The English army advanced into the Merse and
Lothian, finding a country totally waste, where there was
nothing to plunder, and little that could even be destroyed,
excepting here and there a tower, whose massive walls defied
all means of destruction then known, or a cluster of miser-
able huts, which a few days' labor could easily repair,
should they take the trouble to ruin them. Making a shift
to maintain themselves by provisions from a fleet which
attended their movements, the English army advanced to
Edinburgh, when they were recalled by the news that the
Scots had invaded Cumberland, and were retaliating with
tenfold fury the work of destruction. And such was the
superior wealth of England, even in its northern provinces,
that, according to Froissart, the Scots obtained more plun-
der ] in their raid, and did more damage to their enemies,
than the English could have inflicted on Scotland had they
burned as far as Aberdeen. Both armies retired to their
own country, the Scots loaded with spoil, the English reduced
by suffering, and the French execrating a species of warfare
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 243
in which neither gold nor glory could be gathered. They
now desired to leave a kingdom which they despised for its
poverty and rudeness, while the natives upbraided them
with their effeminate epicurism, and detested them for the
arrogance of their pretensions to superior bravery, gallantry,
and civilization. The Scots even refused to permit the de-
parture of the Frenchmen until John de Vienne, their com-
mander, agreed to remain as a hostage that the French gov-
ernment should pay the expenses which they had incurred
while in Scotland.
Thus parted the French auxiliary force, in poverty, dis-
appointment, and mortification, cursing the hour they had
first seen a country so sterile as Scotland, or a people so
barbarous as its natives.
The war continued to rage ; and in 1388 the Scots thought
they had a proper opportunity to retort upon the English the
invasion of Richard II. A large army was assembled at
Jedburgh for this purpose. The Earl of Fife, second son
of the reigning monarch, was commander-in-chief ; but the
hopes of the army rested upon James, earl of Douglas, a man
as much redoubted as any who ever bore that formidable
title. The assembled leaders, hearing that the Northum-
brians were collecting a considerable force for an invasion
of Scotland, resolved that their main body should not ad-
vance into England, as had been originally intended, but
that a select detachment under Douglas of three hundred
men-at-arms, who, with their followers, made up from a
thousand to fifteen hundred men, with two thousand chosen
infantry, should invade England.
By a swift and secret march, Douglas entered Northum-
berland, crossed the Tyne, and threw himself on the bishopric
of Durham, where he wasted and destroyed the country with
fire and sword as far as the gates of York. In his return
from an expedition which had been eminently successful,
he passed as if in triumph before the gates of Newcastle.
In this town lay the two sons of the Earl of Northumber-
land, Sir Henry Percy, renowned by his nickname of Hot-
244 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
spur, with his brother Sir Ralph. They did not tamely
endure the presence of their hereditary enemy ; but although
they had not sufficient forces to give Douglas battle, came
forth to skirmish with the Scottish knights, who willingly
met them, and broke many spears. A personal encounter
took place between the Earl of Douglas himself and Sir
Henry Percy, in which Hotspur's lance, bearing a tuft of
silk at the extremity, embroidered with his arms, remained
in the possession of the Scottish earl. "This trophy," said
the Scot, "I will carry to Scotland, and place it on the high-
est tower of my castle of Dalkeith." "That," said Percy,
"shalt thou never do." "Then," replied Douglas, "thou
must come this night and take it from before my tent."
He then resumed his march up the river Tyne, and encamped
at night, expecting that Percy would come to challenge his
pennon. Hotspur was only withheld from doing so by the
report that Douglas was retreating on the main army of
Scotland, and that he might find him united with the Earl
of March. But when, on the second day, he heard that
the Scottish armies were yet far apart, and that Douglas
moved slowly, as if inviting a pursuit, he hastily assembled
about six hundred lances, who, with their squires and fol-
lowers, and several thousand archers, made about eight
or ten thousand men in all, and marched westward in pur-
suit of Douglas.
The Scottish earl had pitched his camp at Otterbourne,
a hamlet in Reedsdale, and its lines extended east and west
along the banks of the river. The English crossed the Reed,
and attacked the right flank of the enemy's position, which
they found rudely but strongly fortified, and well defended.
Douglas, whose plan of battle had been previously adjusted,
continued the defence of the barricade till he had led his
men out of the camp, and drawn them up in a compact
body, but with a changed front, for his line of battle now
stretched north and south, while the river covered one flank,
and hills and morasses protected the other. At the same
time the vale of the Reed behind gave an avenue for retreat,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 245
should that prove necessary. This change of position in the
commencement of the action argues that, besides his high
character of chivalry, Douglas, as a general, possessed
science beyond what we might esteem the tactics of his
age. In the meantime the English were something disor-
dered by pressing through the Scottish camp, and it had the
effect in some degree of surprise, when, by the moon of a
clear autumn night, they met their opponents within a little
distance. The battle instantly joined with loud acclama-
tions of Percy on the one side, and Douglas on the other.
The conflict was such as might have been expected between
two such champions and their followers. At length the
numbers of the English began to prevail, when Douglas,
as seems to have been the wont of the heroes of that family,
made a desperate personal effort. He rushed on the foe,
holding his battle-axe in both hands, and clearing his way
by main force. His bannerman pressed on to keep up with
his heroic master. At length, involved among the English,
and far from his followers, Douglas, despite his armor of
proof, received three mortal wounds. But the impulse
given by his furious advance had animated the Scots and
disheartened the English, nor did either army know the
fate of the Scottish leader. Several Scottish knights, pur-
suing their advantage, pressed up to the place where Doug-
las was lying in the last agony. They inquired anxiously
how he fared? "But indifferently," replied the earl: "life
is ebbing fast. There is a prophecy in our house that a dead
man shall win a field, and I think it will be this night accom-
plished. I fall as my fathers did, who seldom have died in
chambers or on a sick-bed. Conceal my death; raise my
banner; cry my war-cry, and avenge my fall!" The Scot-
tish leaders, their hearts swelling with sorrow and desire
of revenge, made a new and desperate attack, and put to
flight the English, who were already staggered. Both the
Percies remained prisoners, and with them almost all the
Englishmen of condition who fought in this celebrated ac-
tion, which Froissart assures us was one of the most des-
246 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
perate in his time, and fought with the most heroic bravery
on both sides.
The bishop of Durham arrived the day after the battle
with seven thousand men ; but after two feints to attack the
victor, he shunned to encounter the enemy by whom Hotspur
had been beaten. The Scottish detachment rejoined their
own main body in a procession which seemed rather that
of mourners than of victors, so general was the grief for the
loss of their leader.
In 1 389, the king of Scotland being now unequal to the
fatigues of state, from which he absented himself as much
as he could, Robert, earl of Fife, was chosen as regent of the
kingdom. He was the second son of the reigning monarch,
but was preferred to the seat of government in the place of
his elder brother, John, earl of Carrick, because the latter
was infirm in his person, being lamed by the kick of a horse,
and possessed no efficient activity of mind to amend the want
of it in his person.
The regent, after he had been invested with his office,
showed considerable energy. The Earl of Nottingham,
marshal of England, trusted with the wardenship of the
east marches, had reproached the Percies for their defeat
at Otterbourne, and boasted of what he would himself have
done in similar circumstances. But when the regent Robert,
at the head of an equal army, defied him to action, Notting-
ham declined the combat with the unsoldier-like excuse,
"that he was not commissioned to expose the king's liege
subjects to danger." The Scots burned Tynemouth, and
returned to their own country.
In the summer of the same year, 1389, a truce of three
years was formed between France and England, iu which
Scotland was included as the ally of the former power.
Shortly after this event, King Robert II. died at his castle
of Dundonald in Ayrshire. He was at the advanced age
of seventy-five, and had reigned nineteen years.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 247
CHAPTER XVI
Accession of John, Earl of Carrick — His Name is changed to Robert
III. — The State of his Family — Feuds — Burning of Elgin — In-
road of the Highlanders, and Conflict of Glascune — Battle of
Bourtree Church — Combat of the Clan Chattan and Clan Quhele
— Prince David of Scotland: created Duke of Rothsay: exposed
to the Misrepresentations of his Uncle, who becomes Duke of
Albany — Marriage of Rothsay — Scandalous Management of
Albany: breaks Faith with the Earl of March, who rebels —
War with England — Invasion of Henry IV. — The English
obliged to retire — Murder of the Duke of Rothsay — Scots de-
feated at Homildon — Contest between Henry TV. and the
Percies — Siege of Coklawis or Ormiston — Prince James sent
to France, but taken by the English — Robert III.'s Death
THE character of John, earl of Carrick, eldest son and
successor of Robert II., has been already noticed.
He was lame in body and feeble in mind — well-mean-
ing, pious, benevolent, and just; but totally disqualified,
from want of personal activity and mental energy, to hold
the reigns of government of a fierce and unmanageable
people.
The new king was invested with his sovereignty at Scone
in the usual manner, excepting that, instead of his own
name, John, he assumed the title of Robert III., to comply
with a superstition of his people, who were impressed with
a belief that the former name had distinguished monarchs
of England, France, and Scotland, all of whom had been
unfortunate. The Scots had also a partiality for the name
of Robert, in affectionate and grateful remembrance of
Robert Bruce.
The new monarch had been wedded for nigh thirty-three
years to Annabella Drummond, daughter of Sir John Drum-
248 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
mond of Stobhall, a Scottish lady, whose wisdom and virtues
corresponded with her ancient family and exalted station.
By this union he had one son, Prince David, a youth of
eighteen years old, whose calamitous history and untimely
death was doomed to darken his father's reign. Five years
after Robert III. had occupied the throne, the queen bore
a second son, named James, his father's successor, and the
first of that name, afterward so often repeated in the royal
line, who swayed the Scottish sceptre.
The new monarch's first attention was to confirm the
truce with England, and renew the league with France; so
that for eight years the kingdom was freed from the misery
of external war, though the indolence of a feeble sovereign
left it a prey to domestic feud and the lawless oppression
of contending chiefs and nobles: of these we shall only
notice one or two marked instances.
In 1390, ere yet the monarch was crowned, the Earl of
Buchan, Robert's own brother, in some personal quarrel
with the bishop of Murray, assembled a tumultuary army
of Highlanders, and burned the stately cathedral of Elgin,
without incurring punishment, or even censure, from his
feeble-minded sovereign, for an act which combined rebel-
lion and sacrilege.
Two years afterward, three chieftains of the Clan Don-
nochy (in Lowland speech called Robertsons), instigated or
commanded by Duncan Stuart, a natural son of the turbu-
lent Earl of Buchan, came down to ravage the fertile coun-
try of Angus. The Grays, Lindsays and Ogilvies marched
against them with their followers. A skirmish was fiercely
and wildly fought at Glascune in Stormont. An idea of the
Highland ferocity may be conceived from one incident. Sir
Patrick Lindsay, armed at all points, and well mounted,
charged in full career a chief of the Catherans, and pinned
him to the earth with his lance. But the savage mountain-
eer, collecting his strength into a dying effort, thrust him-
self on the lance, and swayed his two-handed sword with
such force as to cut through Lindsay's steel boot, and nearly
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 249
sever his limb. He was forced to retire from the field, on
which the sheriff of Angus and his brother remained slain,
with sixty of their followers. Sir Patrick Gray was also
wounded; and the mountaineers, rather victorious than
beaten, though they had lost many men, retreated to their
fastnesses in safety.
The feuds of the Lowland barons were not less distin-
guished. Robert Keith, the head of that distinguished
family, besieged, in Fyvie Castle, his own aunt, the wife
of Lindsay of Crawford. Lindsay marched with five hun-
dred men to her rescue. He encountered Keith at Bourtree
Church, in the Garioch, and defeated him with the loss of
fifty men. To use a scriptural expression, every one did
what seemed right in his own eyes, as if there had been
no king in Scotland.
The mode by which the government endeavored to stanch
these disorders, and indirectly to get rid of the perpetrators
of outrages which they dared not punish by course of justice,
was equally wild and savage. In 1396, a clan, or rather a
confederation of clans, called the Clan Chattan, were at
variance with another union of tribes, called the Clan Kay,
or Clan Quhele. Their dispute, which the king's direct
authority was unable to decide, was put to the arbitrament
of a combat between thirty on each side, to be fought before
the king, in the North Inch of Perth, a beautiful meadow
by the side of the Tay. "When they mustered their forces,
one of the Clan Chattan was found missing ; but so reckless
were men then of life that a citizen of Perth undertook to
supply his place for half a mark of silver. The combat was
fought with infinite fury, until the Clan Quhele were cut off
all but one man, who escaped by swimming the Tay. Several
of the Clan Chattan survived, but all severely wounded.
The weak-minded king seems to have carried on his gov-
ernment, such as it was, by the assistance of his brother, the
Earl of Fife, who had been regent in the latter years of his
father's reign. But his heir-apparent, David, being a youth
of good abilities, handsome person, young, active, and chiv-
250 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
alrous, was too prominent and popular to be altogether laid
out of view. He may be supposed indeed to have displayed
some of the follies and levities of youth, which were mali-
ciously insisted on by his uncle, who naturally looked on
him with an evil eye; yet we find the prince employed as
a commissioner, along with the Earl of Fife, in 1399, when
they met on the borders with the Duke of Lancaster; and
he was shortly afterward raised by his father, after a solemn
council, to the title of Duke of Rothsay. At the same time,
to maintain some equality, if not an ascendency, over his
nephew, Prince David's ambitious uncle Robert contrived
to be promoted from being Earl of Fife to Duke. of Albany.
Under their new titles both the princes again negotiated on
the English frontiers, but to little purpose; for though a
foundation of a solid peace would have been acceptable to
Richard II., who was then bent on his expedition to Ire-
land, yet the revolution of 1399 was now at hand, which
hurled that sovereign from his throne, and placed there in
his stead Henry IV., thus commencing the long series of
injuries and wars between York and Lancaster.
Leaving foreign affairs for a short time, we can see that
the young heir of the kingdom was for some time trusted by
his father in affairs of magnitude. Nay, it is certain that
he was at one time declared regent of the kingdom. But
Rothsay's youth and precipitate ardor could not compete
with the deep craft of Albany, who seems to have possessed
the king's ear, by the habitual command which he exercised
over him for so many years. It was easy for him to exag-
gerate every excess of youth of which Rothsay might be
guilty, and to stir up against the young prince the suspi-
cions which often lodge in the bosom of an aged and in-
capable sovereign against a young and active successor.
It is reasonable to think that the affection of Queen An-
nabella, who had and deserved the esteem of her husband,
endeavored to sustain her son in the tacit struggle between
him and Albany. It was by her advice that the marriage
of the young prince was determined on, as the most probable
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 251
means of putting an end to bis irregularities. The advice
was excellent ; but Albany, getting the management of the
affair into bis own bands, contrived to render it tbe means
of injuring bis nepbew's bonor, and stirring up tbe nobihty
to feud and faction against tbe prince and eacb otber.
He publicly announced tbat tbe band of tbe Duke of
Rotbsay sbould, like a commodity exposed to open auction,
be assigned to tbe daughter of tbat peer of Scotland wbo
might agree to pay the largest dowry with his bride. Even
this base traffic on such a subject Albany contrived to ren-
der yet more vile by the dishonest manner in which it was
conducted. George, earl of March, proved the highest offerer
on this extraordinary occasion, and having paid down a part
of the proposed portion, bis daughter was affianced to the
Duke of Rothsay. Tbe Earl of Douglas, envying the ag-
grandizement which the House of March must have derived
from such a union, interfered, and prevailed upon Albany,
who was perhaps not unwilling to mix up the nuptials of his
nephew with yet more disgraceful circumstances, to break
off tbe treaty entered into with March, and substitute an
alliance with the daughter of Douglas himself. No otber
apology was offered to March for this breach of contract
than that the marriage treaty had not been confirmed by
the estates of the kingdom; and, to sum up tbe injustice
with which he was treated, the government refused or de-
layed to refund the sum of money which had been advanced
by him, as part of his daughter's marriage-portion. As the
power of tbe Earl of March lay on the frontiers of both
kingdoms, the bonds of allegiance had never sat heavily on
that great family, and a less injury than that which the
present earl had received might have sufficed to urge him
into rebellion. Accordingly, be instantly entered into a
secret negotiation with Henry IV., and soon afterward took
refuge in England. The acquisition of such a partisan was
particularly welcome to the English sovereign at this period,
as will appear from the following circumstances.
Very nearly at tbe precise period (1399) when Henry IV.
252 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
made himself master of the crown of England, the existing
truce between Scotland and that country expired; and the
Scottish borderers, instigated by their restless temper, made
fierce incursions on the opposite frontier. They sustained,
however, a sharp defeat at Fulhope-law, from Sir Robert
Umfraville, in which many of their principal chiefs were
taken. This did not prevent other enterprises, to which the
condition of England, convulsed by the recent change of
dynasty, offered but too many temptations. The Scottish
borderers took and burned the castle of Wark, and com-
mitted great inroads, to which the English frontiers, wasted
by a raging pestilence, could scarce offer the usual resistance.
This predatory warfare on the Scottish frontier was in-
stigated by France, although she did not herself enter into
hostilities with England, on account of the indisposition of
the sovereign, Charles. At this period, therefore, the acces-
sion of the Earl of March's assistance was an event of great
consequence to England, and proportionally dangerous to
Scotland. Henry IV. determined to chastise the Scottish
depredators, and to revenge himself on the Duke of Albany,
who, in some intercepted letters, had described him as a pre-
eminent traitor.
In 1400, Henry therefore summoned the whole military
force of England to meet him at York, and published an
arrogant manifesto, in which he vindicated the antiquated
claim of supremacy, which had been so long in abeyance,
and, assuming the tone of lord paramount, commanded the
Scottish king, with his prelates and nobles, to meet him at
Edinburgh and render homage. Of course no one attended
upon that summons, excepting the new proselyte March, who
met Henry at Newcastle, and was received to the English
fealty. But if Henry's boast of subjecting Scotland was a
bravado inconsistent with his usual wisdom, his warfare,
on the contrary, was marked by a degree of forbearance
and moderation too seldom the characteristic of an English
invader. Penetrating as far as Edinburgh, he extended his
especial protection to the canons of Holyrood, from whom
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 253
his father, John of Gaunt, had experienced shelter, and in
general spared religious houses.
The castle of Edinburgh was gallantly held out by the
Duke of Rothsay, aided by the skill and experience of his
father-in-law, the Earl of Douglas. Albany commanded a
large army, which, according to the ancient Scottish policy,
hovered at some distance from the English host. The Scots
had wisely resolved upon the defensive system of war which
had so frequently saved Scotland. But they could not for-
bear some of the bravado of the time. The Duke of Rothsay
wrote to Henry that, to avoid the effusion of Christian blood,
he was willing to rest the national quarrel upon the event of
a combat of one, two, or three nobles on every side. Henry
laughed at this sally of youthful vivacity, and, in answer,
expressed his wonder how Rothsay should think of saving
Christian blood at the expense of shedding that of the no-
bility, who, it was to be hoped, were Christians as well as
others. Albany also would have his gasconade. He sent
a herald to Henry to say that, if he would stay in his posi-
tion near Edinburgh for six days, he would do battle with
him to the extremity. The English king gave his mantle
and a chain of gold to the herald, in token that he joyfully
accepted the challenge. But Albany had no purpose of
keeping his word; and Henry found nothing was to be
won by residing in a wasted country to beleaguer an im-
pregnable rock. He raised the siege and retired into Eng-
land, where the rebellion of Owen Glendower soon after
broke out. A truce of twelve months and upward took
place between the kingdoms.
In this interval a shocking example, in Scotland, proved
how ambition can induce men to overleap all boundaries pre-
scribed by the laws of God and man. We have seen the
Duke of Rothsay stoutly defending the castle of Edinburgh
in 1400. But when the war was ended he seems to have
fallen into the king his father's displeasure. The queen,
who might have mediated between them, was dead. Archi-
bald, earl of Douglas, was also deceased ; and, notwithstand-
254 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
ing their connection by marriage, there was mortal enmity
between the prince and a second Archibald, who succeeded
to that earldom. Trail, bishop of St. Andrew's, a worthy
prelate, who had often mediated in the disputes of the royal
family, was also no more. The Duke of Rothsay was there-
fore open to all the accusations, however exaggerated, with
which Albany's creatures could fill his credulous ears. One
Sir John de Ramorgny, who had been the prince's tutor,
appears to have been the most active in traducing him to
his father. This man, it is said, had even offered to the
prince to assassinate Albany, and being repulsed by him
with abhorrence, took this method to revenge himself. De-
ceived by malicious reports of his son's wildness and indocil-
ity, the simple old king was induced to grant a commission
to Albany to arrest his son, and detain him for some time in
captivity, to tame the stubborn spirit of profligacy by which
he had been taught to believe him possessed.
But the unnatural kinsman was determined on taking the
life of his nephew, the heir of his too confiding brother. The
Duke of Rothsay was trepanned into Fife, made prisoner,
and conducted to Falkland Castle, where he was immured
in a dungeon, and starved to death. Old historians affirm
that the compassion of two females protracted his life and
his miseries, one by supplying him from time to time with
thin cakes of barley, another after the manner of the Roman
charity. It is not likely that, where so stern a purpose was
adopted, any access would be permitted to such means of
relief.
The death of the prince was imputed to a dysentery. A
simulated inquiry was made into the circumstances by a
parliament, which was convened under the management of
the authors of the murder. Albany and Douglas acknowl-
edged having arrested the prince, vindicating themselves by
the royal mandate for that act of violence, but imputed his
death to disease. Yet they showed a consciousness of guilt,
by taking out a pardon in terms as broad and comprehensive
as might shroud them from any subsequent charge for the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 255
murder which they denied, as well as for the arrest which
they avowed.
The truce with England was now ended (1402), and
Douglas hastened to drown in border warfare, which was
his natural element, the recollection of his domestic crimes.
But fortune seemed to have abandoned him, or Heaven re-
fused to countenance the accomplice of an innocent prince's
most inhuman murder. From this time, notwithstanding
his valor and military skill, he lost so many of his followers
in each action which he fought as to merit the name of
Tyne-man; i.e., Lose-man.
The men of the Merse, influenced by the exiled Earl of
March, no longer showed their usual alacrity in making in-
cursions on the border ; and the Earl of Douglas applied to
the landholders of Lothian to discharge this military service.
Their first raid was successful ; but in the second they were
intercepted by the Earl of March and a large body both of
English and his own personal followers, at a place called
West Nesbit. Hepburn of Hales, the leader of the Scots,
was slain ; many noble youths of Lothian were also killed
or made prisoners.
Douglas, incensed at this loss, requested and obtained a
considerable force, under command of Albany's son, Mur-
dach, earl of Fife, with the Earls of Angus, Murray, and
Orkney. His own battalions augmented the force to ten
thousand men, and spread plunder and devastation as far
as the gates of Newcastle. But Sir Henry Percy (the cele-
brated Hotspur), had assembled a numerous array, and to-
gether with his father, the Earl of Northumberland, and
their ally March, engaged the Scots at Homildon, a hill
within a mile of Wooler, on which Douglas had posted his
army. Hotspur was about to rush with his characteristic
impetuosity on the Scottish ranks, when the Earl of March,
laying hand on his bridle, advised him first to try the effects
of the archery. The bowmen of England did their duty
with their usual fatal certainty and celerity, and the Scottish
army, drawn up on the acclivity, presented a fatal mark
256 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
to their shafts. A brave knight, Sir John Swinton, like
Graham at the battle of Durham, saw the disadvantage
in which they were placed, and suggested a remedy, "Let
us not stand here to be shot like a herd of deer," he ex-
claimed; "but let us down on these English, engage them
hand to hand, and live or die like men." Adam Gordon,
a young border nobleman, whose family had been long at
feud with that of Swinton, heard this bold exhortation, and
throwing himself from his horse, renounced the deadly quar-
rel, and asked knighthood of his late foe: "For of hand
more noble," he exclaimed, "may I never take that honor."
Swinton knighted him with the brief ceremony practiced in
such urgent circumstances, and they rushed down the hill
with their united vassals. But too weak in numbers to
make the desired impression, they were both slain with all
their followers. Douglas himself now showed an inclination
to descend the hill ; but encountering a little precipice in the
descent which had not been before perceived, the Scottish
ranks became confused and broken, their disarray enabling
the archers, who had fallen a little back, to continue their
fatal volley, which now descended as upon an irregular
mob. The rout became general. Very many Scots were
slain. Douglas was made captive; five wounds and the
loss of an eye showed he had done his duty as a soldier,
though not as a general. Murdach, earl of Fife, son of the
regent, Albany, with the Earls of Murray and Angus, and
about twenty chiefs and men of eminence, became also
prisoners.
Great was the joy of Hotspur over this victory, and
great the pleasure of Henry IV. when the news reached
him. Yet fate had so decreed that the victory of Homildon
became the remote cause that the monarch's throne was
endangered, and that Percy lost his life in a rebellious
conspiracy.
No law of chivalry was more certain than that which
placed at the will of the victor the captive of his sword and
spear, to ransom or hold him prisoner at pleasure; and so
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 257
much was this rule established on the borders, that when an
English or Scottish prisoner was taken, nothing was more
common than for the captor to permit the vanquished to
retire from the field of battle, having first promised to meet
him upon a day fixed, and settle with him for ransom. Nor
was the consent either of the king or general necessary to
this kind of practice. Nevertheless, on this occasion, Henry
wrote to the victorious Percies, commanding them not to
admit the important prisoners made at Homildon to be
ransomed or delivered without his special consent. On the
other hand, he generously bestowed upon the earl and his
son, Sir Henry Percy, the whole earldom of Douglas, with
all the territories of that proud family. The father and son
regarded the first proposition of the king as an injury ; and
for the second, being the grant of a martial tract of country
which was yet to be conquered, they deemed in their hearts
they owed the king no gratitude. At the same time they
received them both with seeming satisfaction, resolved to
make the conquest of the earldom of Douglas the pretext
of assembling forces which they were determined to employ
very differently.
Accordingly, in June, 1403, the Percies besieged a tower
named Coklawis, or Ormiston, and agreed with the owner
that he should surrender if not relieved by the regent of
Scotland before Lambmas. Albany upon receiving this
intelligence assembled his council, and asked their opinion
whether the place should be relieved or no? All the coun-
sellors, who knew the duke's poverty of spirit, conceived
they were sure to meet his wishes when they recommended
that the border turret should be abandoned to its fate,
rather than a battle should be hazarded for its preserva-
tion. The regent, well knowing the secret purpose of the
Percies, whose forces were about to be directed against
England, took the opportunity of swaggering a little. "By
Heaven and Saint Fillan," said he, "I will keep the day
of appointment before Coklawis, were there none to follow
me thither but Peter de Kinbuck, who holds my horse yon-
B58 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
der." The council heard him with wonder and applause;
and it was not until they reached Coklawis with a consider-
able army, the Scottish nobles learned that what had given
this temporary fit of courage to their regent was the cer-
tainty that he could not meet Hotspur, of whose death and
defeat at Shrewsbury they were soon after informed. The
cowardice of the heart is perhaps better learned from a fan-
faronade of this kind, than from an accidental failure of the
nerves in a moment of danger. Some proposals made for
peace only produced a feverish truce of brief duration.
Meantime Prince James, the only surviving son of the
poor infirm old king, being now (1405) in his eleventh year,
required better education than Scotland could afford, and
protection more efficient than that of his debilitated father.
Robert III. could not but suspect the cause and circum-
stances of his eldest son's death, and be conscious that the
ambition which had prompted the removal of Rothsay would
not be satisfied without the life of James also. The youthful
prince was, therefore, committed to the care of Wardlaw,
bishop of Saint Andrew's, and was by his advice sent to
France, as the safest means of protecting him from his
uncle's schemes of treachery or violence. He was embarked
accordingly, Henry Sinclair, earl of Orkney, being appointed
as his governor. A considerable number of Lothian gentle-
men, with David Fleming of Cumbernauld, attended him to
the ship. But on their return they were attacked, for what
reason is unknown, by James Douglas of Balveny, uncle to
the earl. A skirmish took place on Hermanston Moor, where
Fleming and several of his companions fell.
This bloody omen, at the commencement of Prince
James's voyage, was followed by equally calamitous con-
sequences. The vessel in which he was embarked had not
gained Flamborough Head, when she was taken by an En-
glish corsair. As the truce at the time actually subsisted,
this capture of the prince was in every respect contrary to
the law of nations. But knowing the importance of pos-
sessing the royal hostage, Henry resolved to detain him
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 259
at all events. "In fact," he said, "the Scots ought to
have given me the education of this boy, for I am an ex-
cellent French scholar." Apparently this new disaster was
an incurable wound to the old king ; yet he survived, laden
with years and infirmities, till 1406, just a twelvemonth
after this last misfortune. His death made no change in
public affairs, and was totally unfelt in the administration,
which continued in the hands of Albany.
260 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER XVII
Regency of Robert, Duke of Albany — Earl of March returns to his
Allegiance — A Heretic burned — Jedburgh Castle taken: Tax
proposed for Expense of its Demolition: the Duke of Albany
refuses to consent to it — Donald of the Isles claims the Earldom
of Ross — He invades the Mainland — The Earl of Mar opposes
him — Circumstances of the Earl's Life — Battle of the Harlaw:
its Consequences — Intricate Negotiation between Albany and
Henry IV. — Hostilities with England — Death of the Regent
Albany
THE talents of Robert, duke of Albany, as a statesman
were not such as in any degree to counterbalance his
crimes. Yet his rule was not unpopular. This was
in a great measure effected by liberality, or rather by profu-
sion, in which he indulged with less hesitation as his gifts
were at the expense of the royal revenues and authority.
The clergy, who were edified by his bounties to the Church,
recorded his devotion in their chronicles. He connived at
the excesses of power frequent among the nobility; solaced
them with frequent and extravagant entertainments; and
indulged all their most unreasonable wishes respecting lands
and jurisdictions at the expense of the crown. An air of
affability and familiarity, added to a noble presence and a
splendid attendance, procured the shouts of the populace.
Although timid, the regent was conscious of his own defect,
and careful in concealing it. He was intelligent in public
business; and when the interest of the country was identified
with his own, he could pursue with expedition and eagerness
the best paths for attaining it.
When Robert III., therefore, died, the right of the Duke
of Albany to the regency during the captivity of James was
universally acknowledged.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 261
His government, after the death of his brother, Robert
III. (1407), commenced with a show of prosperity. He re-
newed the league offensive and defensive with the kingdom
of France, and entered into negotiation with England. In
the communings which ensued, he made no application for
the liberation of his nephew, the present sovereign, nor was
his name even mentioned in the transaction. But the Earl
of Douglas, whose military services were valuable to the de-
fence of the frontier, was restored to freedom, having been
taken at the battle of Shrewsbury, where he had fought on
the side of Sir Henry Percy with his usual distinguished
valor, beating down the king of England with his own
hand, but being in the course of the conflict himself made
prisoner, according to his habitual bad luck. George, earl
of March, had rendered Henry IV. effectual assistance dur-
ing that insurrection, being the first who apprised that mon-
arch of the conspiracy against him. But he was now weary
of his exile, and, disappointed of his revenge, returned to his
allegiance to Scotland, upon restoration of his estates. These
were great points gained in reference to defence upon the
border.
In 1408, Albany had also an opportunity of gratifying
the churchmen, by giving over to their vindictive prosecu-
tion one Resby, a Lollard, or follower of Wickliffe. He was
tried before Lawrence Lindores, as president of a council of
the clergy; and being condemned for heresy, and chiefly for
disowning the pope's authority, suffered at the stake in the
town of Perth.
The truce with England not having been renewed, hos-
tilities were recommenced by an exploit of the warlike in-
habitants of Teviotdale, who, vexed by the English garri-
son which had retained the important castle of Jedburgh,
stormed and took that strong fortress. It was resolved in
parliament that it should be destroyed; but as the walls
were extensive and very strongly built, and the use of gun-
powder in mining was not yet understood, it was proposed
that a tax of two pennies should be imposed on each hearth
262 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
in Scotland to maintain the laborers employed in the task.
The regent's love of popularity instantly displayed itself.
He declared that in his administration no burden should be
imposed on the poor, and caused the expense to be defrayed
out of the royal revenue. The truce with England was
afterward renewed. In the ratification of it, Albany styled
himself regent by the grace of God, and used the phrase
"our subjects of Scotland," not satisfied, it would seem,
with delegated authority.
In the meantime, a contest of the most serious nature
arose between the Celtic and the Lowland or Saxon popula-
tion of Scotland.
The lords of the Isles, during the utter confusion which
extended through Scotland during the regency, had found it
easy to reassume that independence of which they had been
deprived during the vigorous reign of Robert Bruce. They
possessed a fleet, with which they harassed the mainland at
pleasure; and Donald, who now held that insular lordship,
ranked himself among the allies of England, and made peace
and war as an independent sovereign. The regent had taken
no steps to reduce this kinglet to obedience, and would prob-
ably have shunned engaging in a task so arduous, had not
Donald insisted upon pretensions to the earldom of Ross,
occupying a great extent in the northwest of Scotland, in-
cluding the large Isle of Skye, and lying adjacent to, and
connected with, his own insular dominions.
His claim stood thus : Euphemia, countess of Ross, had
bestowed her hand upon Walter Lesley, who became in her
right Earl of Ross. They had two children, Alexander,
who succeeded his mother in the earldom, and a daughter,
who was wedded to Donald of the Isles. Lesley being
dead, his widow married Alexander, earl of Buchan, a
brother of the regent ; but they had no issue. Alexander,
earl of Ross, made a second connection with the royal
family of Stewart, by marrying Isabel, the daughter of the
Regent Albany, by whom he had one child, also named
Euphemia. This lady had expressed her purpose of retir-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 263
ing into a convent ; and it was understood that she meant to
resign the Earldom of Ross, which was her own undoubted
right, in favor of her maternal uncle, Alexander, earl of
Buchan, son of the regent by his second marriage. Such
a resignation would have been destructive of Donald the
Islander's title in right of his wife.
Regarding Euphemia, retired into a cloister, as dead in
law, the lord of the Isles determined to assert his right by
arms. He led an army of ten thousand Hebrideans and
Highlanders, headed by their chieftains, into Ross; suc-
ceeded in seizing the castle of Dingwall ; and, not satisfied
with this success, he continued his desolating march as far
as the Garioch, threatening not only to plunder Aberdeen,
but to ravage the low country of the Mearns and Angus as
far as the margin of the Tay.
The consequence of Donald's succeeding in his preten-
sions must have been the loss to the regent of the earldom
which he had destined to one of his own family, and most
serious evils to the kingdom of Scotland, since it would have
been a conquest by the savage over the civilized inhabitants,
and must in the sequel have tended to the restoration of
barbarism with all its evils.
Alexander Stewart, earl of Mar, hastily assembled the
chivalry of the Lowlands, to stop the desolating march of
Donald and his army. This earl was himself an extraor-
dinary person ; and his life was such a picture of those dis-
orderly times that a slight sketch of it will better describe
them than many pages of vague and general declamation.
He was natural son to Alexander, earl of Buchan, second
son of Robert II., the same turbulent chief who burned the
Cathedral of Elgin ere yet his uncle Robert III. was crowned.
Educated under such a sire, Alexander became himself the
leader of a fierce band of Catherans, or Highland freebooters,
and in that capacity aimed at raising himself by violence to
rank and opulence. He proceeded thus : — Sir Malcolm Drum-
mond of Stobhill, brother of Annabella, the queen of Robert
III., had been surprised in his own castle by Highland ban-
264 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
ditti, and died in their rude custody. Alexander Stewart
was suspected of accession to this violence, and these sus-
picions were strengthened when he suddenly appeared with
a body of armed Catherans before the castle of Kildrummie,
the residence of Isabel, the widow of the murdered Sir Mal-
colm Drummond, countess of Mar in her own right. The
castle was stormed, and the widowed countess, whether by
persuasion or force, was induced to give her hand to Alex-
ander Stewart, the leader of the band who took her mansion,
and in all probability the author of her husband's imprison-
ment and death. A few weeks after their marriage, he
conceived the lady so reconciled to her lot that he ventured
to repossess her in her castle, with the furniture, title-deeds,
etc., and coming himself before the gates, humbly rendered
her the keys, in token that the whole was at her disposal.
The issue, which Stewart had probably been previously well
assured of, was, that the lady received him kindly, and of
her own free will, and the good favor which she bore to him,
accepted of him as her husband, after which he took the title
and assumed the power and possessions of the earldom of
Mar in right of the Countess Isabel.
Thus exalted above his trade of a robber, Stewart showed
by his subsequent conduct that there was something noble
in his mind corresponding with his elevation, which, though
accomplished by such violent means, was not challenged
during the feeble and corrupt regency of Albany. He dis-
tinguished himself by the exercise of feats of chivalry, and
engaged in many tournaments both in Scotland and Eng-
land. At length his restless spirit carried him abroad in
quest of fame. The Earl of Mar was distinguished and hon-
ored for his wit, virtue, and bounty, at Paris, where he kept
open house. Prom the court of Paris the earl passed to that
of Burgundy. At this time the bishop of Liege, John of
Bavaria, "a clerk without the external behavior of one,"
was in danger from a rebellion of his insurgent people, and
the Duke of Burgundy was marching to his assistance.
Finding himself in a situation where fame could be won,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 2G5
Mar, with a hundred Scottish lances, chiefly men of quality
seeking renown and feats of battle, accompanied the duke's
host. As the battle was about to join, the Earl of Mar,
seeing two strong champions, armed with battle-axes, ad-
vanced three spears' length before the army of Liege, com-
manded his banner to halt, and calling to his squire, John
of Ceres, to follow him, rushed on these two champions,
who proved to be the leaders of the mutiny, Sir Henry Horn
and his son, and slew them hand to hand. He did also great
actions in the battle, and highly exalted his own name and
the honor of his country. On his return to Scotland, the
fire of his youth having now subsided, he became a firm sup-
porter of good order, to which his early exploits had been so
hostile, maintained some regular government of the northern
counties, and was the leader to whom all men looked up as
likely to arrest the course of the lord of the Isles. It was
a singular chance, however, that brought against Donald,
who might be called the king of the Gael, one whose youth
had been distinguished as a leader of their plundering bands,
and no less strange that the islander's claim to the earldom
of Ross should be traversed by one whose title to that of Mar
was so much more challengeable.
The whole Lowland gentry of the Mearns and Aberdeen-
shire rose in arms with the Earl of Mar. The town of
Aberdeen sent out a gallant body of citizens under Sir Rob-
ert Davidson, their provost; Ogilvy, the sheriff of Angus,
brought up his own martial name and the principal gentle-
men of that county. Yet, when both armies met at Harlaw,
near the head of the Garioch, July 24, 1411, the army of
Mar was considerably inferior to that of Donald of the Isles,
under whose banner the love of arms and hope of plunder
had assembled the M'Intoshes and other more northern clans.
Being the flower of the respective races, the Gaelic and Saxon
armies joined battle with the most inveterate rage and fury.
About a thousand Highlanders fell, together with the two
high chiefs of M'Intosh and M'Lean. Mar's loss did not
exceed half the number, but comprehended many gentlemen,
12 ^ Vol. I.
266 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
as indeed his forces chiefly consisted of such. The provost
of Aberdeen was killed, with so many citizens as to occasion
a municipal regulation that the chief magistrate of that
town, acting in that capacity, should go only a certain brief
space from the precincts of the liberties.
The battle of Harlaw might in some degree be considered
as doubtful; but all the consequences of victory remained
with the Lowlanders. The insular lord retreated after the
action, unable to bring his discouraged troops to a second
battle. The Regent Albany acted on the occasion with a
spirit and promptitude which his government seldom evinced.
He placed himself at the head of a new army, and occupied
the disputed territory of Ross, where he took and garrisoned
the castle of Dingwall. In the next summer, he assembled
a fleet, threatened Donald of the Isles with an invasion of
his territories, and compelled him to submit himself to the
allegiance of Scotland, and give hostages for his obedience
in future. The battle of Harlaw and its consequences were
of the highest importance, since they might be said to decide
the superiority of the more civilized regions of Scotland over
those inhabited by the Celtic tribes, who remained almost
as savage as their forefathers the Dalriads. The Highlands
and Isles continued, indeed, to give frequent disturbance by
their total want of subordination and perpetual incursions
upon their neighbors; but they did not again venture to
combine their forces for a simultaneous attack upon the
Lowlands, with the hope of conquest and purpose of settle-
ment.
Another mark of the advance of civilization was the
erection of the University of Saint Andrew's, which was
founded and endowed under the auspices of Henry "Ward-
law, archbishop of Saint Andrew's, cardinal, and the pope's
legate for Scotland, in 1411.
In his intercourse with England the Regent Albany was
very singularly situated. His most important negotiations
with that power respected the fate of two prisoners — the one
James, his nephew and prince, who had fallen, as already
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 267
mentioned, into the hands of Henry IV. by a gross breach
of the law of nations — the other being the regent's own son
Murdach, earl of Fife, taken in the battle of Homildon.
Respecting these captives the views of Albany were ex-
tremely different. He was bound to make some show of
a desire to have his sovereign James set at liberty, since
not only the laws of common allegiance and family affection
enjoined him to make an apparent exertion in his nephew's
behalf, but the feudal constitutions, which imposed on the
vassal the charge of ransoming his lord and superior when
captive, rendered this in every point of view an inviolable
obligation. At the same time his policy dictated to him to
protract as long as possible the absence of the king of Scot-
land, with whose return his own power as regent must neces-
sarily terminate. For the liberation of his son Murdach,
on the contrary, the regent naturally was induced to inter-
fere with all the ardor and sincerity of paternal feeling.
The nature of these negotiations, especially of the first, in
which the Duke of Albany's professions and the tenor of his
proposals must have borne an ostensible purport very differ-
ent from his own wishes, naturally gave a degree of mystery
and complexity to the proceedings of the regent and his
intercourse with the court of England. The very manner
in which James is described in these proceedings is ambig-
uous, and does not convey or infer the quality of heir to the
Scottish crown, the power of which was for the time exer-
cised by Albany. He is termed "the son of our late lord
King Robert," which is far from necessarily implying his
title of heir of Scotland, since either a natural or a younger
son of the late king might have been so termed. This stud-
ied ambiguity seems to infer that Albany, whose ambition
had dictated the murder of the Duke of Rothsay, was desir-
ous to clear the way to the exclusive possession of the throne,
which he only occupied at present as the delegate of another,
whose rights, therefore, he was disposed to keep as much
out of view as possible. Henry IV., whose own road to
sovereignty had been by usurpation, was crafty enough
268 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
to comprehend the feelings by which the Duke of Albany-
was actuated, and took care to throw such obstructions in
the way of James I.'s return to his dominions as might
gratify the real wishes of the regent Duke of Albany without
laying him under the necessity of speaking out too plainly
his desire to protract his nephew's captivity. Another and
a very curious subject of diplomatic discussion subsisted
between Henry IV. and the regent of Scotland.
There is a story told by Bower, or Bowmaker, the con-
tinuator of Fordun's Chronicle, which has hitherto been
treated as fabulous by the more modern historians. This
story bears that Richard II., generally supposed to have
been murdered at Pontefract Castle, either by the "fierce
hand of Sir Piers of Exton," or by the slower and more
cruel death of famine, did in reality make his escape by
subtlety from his place of confinement ; that he fled in dis-
guise to the Scottish isles, and was recognized in the domin-
ions of the lord of the Isles by a certain fool or jester who
had been familiar in the court of England, as being no other
than the dethroned king of that kingdom. Bower proceeds
to state that the person of Richard II. thus discovered was
delivered up by the lord of the Isles to the Lord Montgomery,
and by him presented to Robert III., by whom he was hon-
orably and beseemingly maintained during all the years
of that prince's life. After the death of Robert III., this
Richard is stated to have been supported in magnificence,
and even in royal state, by the Duke of Albany, to have
at length died in the Castle of Stirling, and to have been
interred in the church of the friars there, at the north angle
of the altar. This singular legend is also attested by another
contemporary historian, Winton, the prior of Lochleven.
He tells the story with some slight differences, particularly
that the fugitive and deposed monarch was recognized by
an Irish lady, the wife of a brother of the lord of the Isles,
that had seen him in Ireland— that being charged with being
King Richard, he denied it — that he was placed in custody
of the Lord of Montgomery, and afterward of the Lord of
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 269
Cumbernauld — and, finally, that he was long under the care
of the regent Duke of Albany. "But whether he was king
or not, few," said the chronicler of Lochleven, "knew with
certainty. The mysterious personage exhibited little devo-
tion, would seldom incline to hear mass, and bore himself
like one half wild or distracted." Serle also, yeoman of the
robes to Richard, was executed, because, coming from Scot-
land to England, he reported that Richard was alive in the
latter country. This legend, of so much importance to the
history of both North and South Britain, has been hitherto
treated as fabulous. But the researches and industry of the
latest historian of Scotland have curiously illustrated this
point, and shown, from evidence collected in the original
records, that this captive, called Richard II., actually lived
many years in Scotland, and was supported at the public
expense of that country.
It is then now clear, that, to counterbalance the advan-
tage which Henry IV. possessed over the regent of Scotland
by having in his custody the person of James, and conse-
quently the power of putting an end to the delegated govern-
ment of Albany whenever he should think fit to set the young
king at liberty; Albany, on his side, had in his keeping the
person of Richard II., or of some one strongly resembling
him, a prisoner whose captivity was not of less importance
to the tranquillity of Henry IV. , who at no period possessed
his usurped throne in such security as to view with indiffer-
ence a real or pretended resuscitation of the deposed Richard.
It would be too tedious, were it possible, for us to trace
distinctly the complicated negotiations between the king and
regent. Each conscious of possessing an advantage over the
other, and at the same time feeling a corresponding encum-
brance on his own part, endeavored, like a skilful wrestler,
to take advantage of the hold which he possessed over his
adversary, while at the same time he felt the risk of himself
receiving the fall which he designed to give his opponent.
These two crafty persons, standing in this singular relation
to each other, and each conscious of defects in his own title,
270 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
negotiated constantly, without being able to bring then-
treaties either to a final close or an open rupture.
The death of Henry IV. and the accession of Henry V.
did not greatly alter the situation of the two countries, but
were so far of advantage to Albany that he obtained the
liberation of his son Murdach, earl of Fife, in exchange for
the young Earl of Northumberland, the son of the celebrated
Hotspur. This youth had been sent into Scotland by his
grandfather for safety, when about to display his banner
against Henry IV. of England. Whatever benefit the cap-
tive monarch of Scotland might have gained by such a host-
age as the young Percy being lodged in the hands of his
subjects was lost to him by the regent accomplishing the
exchange between the Earl of Northumberland and his
own son.
In 1417, while Henry V. was engaged in France, the
Regent Albany, supposing that the greater part of the En-
glish forces were over-seas, gathered a large force, and
besieged at once both Roxburgh Castle and the town of
Berwick. A much superior army of English advanced
under the Dukes of Exeter and Bedford, and compelled
the regent of Scotland to raise both the sieges, with much
loss of reputation, as the Scots bestowed on his ill-advised
enterprise the name of the Foul Raid, that is, the dishonor-
able inroad.
The war, which seemed for some time to languish, re-
ceived some interest from a daring exploit of Halyburton of
Fastcastle, who surprised the castle of Wark, situated upon
the Tweed. Robert Ogle, however, recovered it for the En-
glish, by taking Halyburton by surprise in his turn, when,
scaling the castle, he put him and his followers to the sword.
In a parliament in the year 1419 the Scottish estates
agreed to send the Dauphin of France, now hard pressed
by the victorious Henry, a considerable body of auxiliary
troops, under the command of the regent's second son,
John Stewart, earl of Buchan. The history of the ex-
pedition belongs to the next chapter.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 271
This was the last act of Albany's administration whioh
merits historical notice. After having governed Scotland
as prime minister of Robert I. and Robert II., and as regent
for James I., for fifty years, he died at the age of eighty
and upward. The Duke of Albany as a statesman was an
unprincipled politician, and, as a soldier, of suspected cour-
age. As a ruler he had his merits. He was wise and pru-
dent in his government, regular in the administration of
justice, and merciful in the infliction of punishment. If
Scotland made no great figure under his administration,
he contrived to secure her against any considerable loss.
His contemporaries have recorded with much admiration
Albany's liberality to the Church, and his generosity to
the nobles. The exercise of bounty in both instances was
politically so essential to the existence of his government
that we must hesitate in the present age to record his mu-
nificence as virtue. Were it not for the cold-blooded and
detestable murder of his nephew, the Duke of Rothsay,
which stamps his character with atrocity, ambition and its
temptations might, perhaps, be in some degree the apology,
as it certainly was the cause, of the faults and defects of his
character.
872 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER XVIII
Duke Murdach's Regency — His Character — A Pestilence in Britain
— The Conduct of the Regent's Family — Treaty for the Libera-
tion of James I. — He is restored to his Kingdom — Scottish
Auxiliaries in France — Character of James I. — Execution of
Duke Murdach and his Friends — Disorders in the Highlands
repressed — League with France, and Contract of the Scottish
Princess with the Dauphin — War with the Lord of the Isles,
and his Submission — Acts of the Legislature — Donald Balloch
— Treaty with England — Proceedings toward the Earl of March
— War with England — Parliament of 1436 — Conspiracy against
James — He is Murdered — Fate of the Regicides
M
URDACH, earl of Fife, already repeatedly named in
this history, succeeded to his father in his title as
Duke of Albany, and his high office as regent of
Scotland, but neither to his lofty ambition nor to the quali-
ties of craft and cruelty which supported it. He is every-
where described as a man of an easy and slothful character,
who, far from having the boldness and prudence necessary
to rule so fierce a people as the Scots, seems to have been
unable to exert the authority necessary for the government
of his own family.
The evils which attended the feeble and remiss govern-
ment of this second Duke of Albany were aggravated by a
public misfortune, which no wisdom or energy could have
prevented, but which, nevertheless, added to the unpopu-
larity of the regent, it being the custom of the common
people to censure their rulers as much for misfortunes aris-
ing purely out of their bad fortune as for those which flow
directly from their misconduct. A contagious disease, re-
sembling a fever and dysentery, wasted the land universally,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 273
and cut off many victims. Among other distinguished per-
sons who died of this disorder were the Earl of Orkney,
Lord Douglas of Dalkeith, and George, earl of March, re-
markable for the versatility with which he changed sides
between England and Scotland, and not less for the good
fortune which attended his banner, on whatever side it was
displayed.
Murdach, duke of Albany, such as we have described
him, became in the space of five years weary of exercising
an administration, which was popular with no man, over a
disorderly country, wasted by pestilence and divided by the
feuds of the nobility. He determined to rid himself of the
responsibility of the regency, although he must have been
internally conscious that such a power, though difficult and
unsafe to wield, could not be resigned without much danger.
It was, perhaps, a sense of the perils to which he might be
exposed, if called by the king to account for many years
of misrule, his father's as well as his own, which made him
suspend his resolution till 1423, when his decision is said by
tradition to have been precipitated by an act of insolent
insubordination on the part of Walter, his eldest son. The
regent Murdach had a falcon which he highly valued, and
which his son Walter had often asked of him in vain. Exas-
perated at repeated refusal, the insolent young man snatched
the bird as it sat on his father's wrist, and killed it by twist-
ing round its neck. Deeply hurt at this brutal act of disre-
spect, Murdach dropped the ominous words, "Since you will
render me no honor or obedience, I will bring home one who
well knows how to make all of us obey him." From this
time he threw into the long-protracted negotiation for the
freedom of James a sincerity which speedily brought it to
a conclusion.
Henry V. being now dead, John, duke of Bedford, pro-
tector of England, was defending with much skill and pru-
dence the acquisitions which his brother's valor had made
in France. Occupied with this task, he was willing to use a
liberal policy toward Scotland ; to restore their lawful king,
274 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
bo long unjustly detained; having formed, if possible, such
an alliance between him and some English lady of rank as
might maintain in the young monarch's mind the feelings
of predilection toward England which were the natural con-
sequence of a long residence in that country and familiarity
with its laws and manners. He thus hoped at once to en-
large James, to make a friend of him, and to secure England
against further interference on the part of Scotland in the
wars of France, where the army of auxiliaries, under the
Earl of Buchan, had produced a marked effect upon the last
campaigns. And here, before proceeding further, the reader
must be made acquainted with the exploits and the fortunes
of the body of Scotsmen sent to support the dauphin, in the
extremity of his distress, against the English arms.
The little army consisted of from five to seven thousand
men, among whom were numbered many lords, knights,
and barons, the flower of the Scottish chivalry, who gladly
embraced an opportunity of acquiring fame in arms under a
leader so distinguished as Buchan. The small number of the
Scots made them willing to submit themselves to the rules
of discipline ; and whenever that leading point could be at-
tained, their natural courage has displayed itself to advan-
tage. Their first exploit was at Bauge, a village in Anjou,
where they lay along with a small body of Frenchmen. The
Duke of Clarence, brother to Henry V. of England, had
been detached to invade that province, and had just sat
down to dinner when he learned that he was in the vicinity
of the Scottish auxiliaries. "Upon them, gentlemen!" said
the fiery prince, springing from table: "let the men-at-arms
instantly mount and follow me." He made a rapid march
to surprise the Scots; but the church of Bauge was garri-
soned by some French, who made a gallant defence, giving
the Scots time to get themselves into order on the opposite
bank of the River Coesnon. Bent on taking them at advan-
tage, Clarence, at the head of the men-at-arms, rode fiercely
forward to possess himself of the bridge. On the other side,
the Scottish knights galloped down to defend the pass. Sir
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 275
William of Swinton distinguished the English prince by the
coronet of gold and gems which he wore over his helmet;
and meeting him in full course unhorsed and wounded him.
As Clarence strove to regain his steed, the Earl of Buchan
struck him down with a mace, and slew him. Many brave
English knights were slain: the Earl of Kent, the Lords
Grey and Ross, with fourteen hundred men-at-arms, were
left on the field. The Earls of Huntingdon and Somerset
were made prisoners.
In reward of such distinguished service, the dauphin,
now king of France by the title of Charles VII. , created
Buchan high constable of France, and conferred upon
Stewart of Darnley the lordship of Aubigny in France.
Desirous of increasing the forces by which he had acquired
so much fame and honor, the Earl of Buchan returned to
Scotland to obtain recruits. He found that his father-in-
law, the Earl of Douglas, with the license assumed by men
of far less importance than himself during the feeble gov-
ernment of the regency, was then engaged in a treaty with
Henry V. of England, whom he was to serve with two
hundred horse and as many infantry, for the stipend of
two hundred pounds a year. The influence of Buchan
disturbed this agreement; and Douglas, who seems to have
conducted himself during the whole matter like an inde-
pendent prince, instead of joining the English, accepted of
the Duchy of Touraine, offered to him on the part of Charles
VII. of France, and engaged to bring to his aid an auxiliary
force of five thousand men.
He came accordingly ; but the bad fortune which procured
him the name of Tyne-man (Lose-man) continued to wait on
his banners. The Scots sustained a severe defeat at Crevan.
They had formed the blockade of that place ; but were sur-
prised by the Earl of Salisbury, who raised the siege, by
defeating them with a slaughter of nine hundred men.
A battle yet more fatal to the Scots took place near the
town of Verneuil, 17th August, 1424. It was a general
action, risked by the king of France for the relief of Yvry,
276 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
besieged by the English. The Duke of Bedford, who com-
manded the English, and whom Douglas had called in de-
rision John with the Leaden Sword, advanced to meet the
enemy, and sent a herald to inform the Scottish earl he
was coming to drink wine and revel with him. The Earl
of Douglas returned for answer, he should be most welcome,
and that he had come from Scotland to France on purpose
to carouse in his company. Under these terms a challenge to
combat was understood to be given and accepted. Douglas,
desirous to draw up his forces on advantageous ground, pro-
posed to halt, and to await the English attack on the spot
where the herald found him. The Viscount of Narbonne,
the French general, insisted on advancing: the Scots were
compelled to follow their allies, and came into battle out of
breath and out of order. The consequences were most ca-
lamitous; Douglas and Buchan fell, and with them most of
their countrymen of rank and quality, so that the auxiliary
army of Scots might be considered as almost annihilated.
The corps of Scots, long maintained as the French king's
bodyguard, is said to have been originally composed of the
relics of the field of Verneuil. And thus concluded the wars
of the Scots in France, fortunate that the nation was cured,
though by a most bitter remedy, of the fatal rage of sell-
ing their swords and their blood as mercenaries in foreign
service; a practice which drains a people of the best and
bravest, who e ? Jight to reserve their courage for its defence,
and converts them into common gladiators, whose purchased
valor is without fame to themselves or advantage to their
country. Individuals frequently continued to join the French
standard, in quest of fame or preferment ; but, after the bat-
tle of Verneuil, no considerable army or body of troops from
Scotland was sent over to France.
We return, after this digression, to consider the condition
of Scotland, now more hopeful than it had been for a length
of time, since she was about to exchange the rule of a sloth-
ful, timid; and inefficient regent for that of a king in the
flower of his age, and possessed of a natural disposition and
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND . 277
cultivated talents equally capable to grace and to guard the
throne.
The terms on which the treaty for the freedom of James
I. was at last fixed were, on the whole, liberal rather than
otherwise. The English demanded, and the Scots agreed
to pay, forty thousand pounds sterling — not as ransom, as
the use of that obnoxious phrase could not apply to the case
of an innocent boy taken without defence in time of truce,
but to defray what was delicately termed the expenses of
Prince James's support and education. Six years were
allowed for the discharge of the sum by half-yearly pay-
ments. It was a part of the contract that the Scottish king
should marry an English lady of rank ; and his choice fell
upon Joanna, niece of Richard II. by the mother's side, and
by her father, John, duke of Somerset, the granddaughter
of the Duke of Lancaster, called John of Gaunt. To this
young lady, so nearly connected with the English royal
family, the Scottish captive had been attached for some
time, and had celebrated her charms in poetry of no mean
order, although defaced by the rudeness of the obsolete lan-
guage. They were married in London; and a discharge for
ten thousand pounds, the fourth part of the stipulated ran-
som, was presented to the Scottish king, as the dowry or
portion of his bride. The royal pair were then sent down
to Scotland with all respect and dignity, and Murdach, the
late regent, had the honor to induct his royal cousin into the
throne of his forefathers.
The natural talents of James I., both mental and cor-
poreal, were of the highest quality; and if Henry IV. had
taken an unjust and cruel advantage of the accident which
threw the prince into his hands, by detaining him as a pris-
oner, he had made the only possible amends, by causing the
most sedulous attention to be paid to his education. In per-
son, the king of Scotland was of low stature ; but so strongly
and compactly built as to excel in the games of chivalry, and
all the active accomplishments of the time. He was no less
distinguished by mental gifts, highly cultivated by the best
278 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
teachers that England could produce. He was, according
to the learning of the day, an accomplished scholar, an ex-
cellent poet, a musician of skill, intimately acquainted with
the science as practiced in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland,
which are described as being then the principal seats of
national music, ' with a decided taste for the fine arts of archi-
tecture, painting, and horticulture. Nothing, therefore,
could be more favorable than his personal character. As
a prince, his education in England had taught him political
views which he could hardly have learned in his own rude
and ignorant realm. His ardent thirst of knowledge made
the acquisition of every species of art fit to be learned by
persons of his condition not only tolerable, however laborious,
but a source of actual pleasure. He found Scotland in the
utmost disorder, and divided among a set of haughty barons,
whom the wars of David II. 's reign, the feebleness of those
of his two successors, and the culpable indulgence of two
regencies, had rendered almost independent of the crown.
To curb and subdue this stern aristocracy, and to secure
general good order, by re-establishing the legitimate au-
thority of the crown, was a difficult and most dangerous
task; but James embarked and persevered in it with a
courage which amounted almost to rashness.
Among various laws for the equal administration of jus-
tice, for obliging the nobility to ride with retinues no larger
than they could maintain, for discontinuing the oppressive
exaction of free quarters, and for requiring that the Scottish
youth should be trained to archery, there were two measures
adopted by James which were highly unpopular. The first
was an inquiry into the extent of the crown lands under
the last three monarchs. The object of this was to examine
into the dilapidation made of the crown property, during the
reigns of Robert II. and III., and the two regencies of the
1 The Irish were said to excel in two instruments, the harp and the
tabor; the Scottish in three, the harp, the tabor, and the chorus {i.e.,
the cor or horn); the Welsh also delighted in three kinds of music, that
of the pipes, the harp, and the chorus or horn.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 279
House of Albany. But by these preparations to reassert
the right of the king to the lands which had been alienated
by weak monarchs and unfaithful viceroys, James excited
among the people at large doubts and jealousies concerning
the stability of property, which gave rise to general dissatis-
faction. With these was combined the imposition of a large
subsidy for raising the sum due to England by the late treaty,
of which it is only necessary to say that it was a tax, and
was therefore unpopular; and the more so, as it fell on a
poor country.
The records of this reign being almost entirely lost, we
do not know by what means further than his own conscious-
ness of talents, and the command over others which such
consciousness necessarily inspires, the young king was able
to enforce his authority in a kingdom where a large party
were leagued together by mutual interest, to support the
usurpations which had been made on the crown during the
space of more than twenty years, in which time wrongful
encroachment had attained by prescription the appearance
of lawful right. We are only aware that James had not
been on the throne a full year ere he began to visit on the
House of Albany the wrongs he had sustained during his
long imprisonment, protracted through their means, and
the dilapidation and usurpation exercised by them, their
favorites and allies, over the rights and possessions of the
crown.
Walter, the son of Duke Murdach, whose brutal insolence
to his father had suggested to the old man the idea of bring-
ing home the lawful heir, or at least had decided him to
adopt that measure so much fraught with hazard to his
family, was laid under arrest shortly after the king's return.
The Earl of Lennox, father-in-law to Duke Murdach, and
Sir Robert Grahame, a man of peculiarly fierce and daring
temper, were next made prisoners. But on the 12th March,
1425, the king found himself, by whatever means, powerful
enough to arrest, during the sitting of a parliament at Perth,
Murdach, the late regent, his second son Alexander, ths
280 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Earls of Douglas, Angus, and March, with twenty other
persons of the highest rank, among whom are the formidable
names of Alexander Lyndsay of Glenesk, Hepburn of Hales,
Hay of Yester, Walter Halyburton, Walter Ogilvy, Stewart
of Rosyth, Alexander of Seton-Gordon, Ogilvy of Auchter-
house, John the Red Stewart of Dundonald, David Murray
of Gask, Hay of Errol, constable of Scotland, Scrimgeour,
the constable of Dundee, Irving of Drum, Herbert Maxwell
of Carlaverock, Herbert Herries of Terreagles, Gray of
Foulis, Cunninghame of Kilmauris, Ramsay of Dalwolsey,
Crichton of Crichton.
In perusing this list of ancient and powerful names, we
are alike surprised to see so many barons, whose estates
and interests lay separated over various parts of Scotland,
involved in the same general accusation, and at the courage
of the sovereign, who dared to apply the rigor of law to such
a number of his powerful subjects at the same time. The
prisoners were probably selected as the principal allies of the
Albany family, or perhaps as those who, having shared most
deeply in the spoils distributed during the regencies, might
be most tempted to defend its usurpations. The specific
charge against the imprisoned barons was probably their
having evaded compliance with the royal command to ex-
hibit their titles to their lands. But, though so many were
included, it was at the family of Albany only that vengeance
was aimed. The blow was struck so suddenly that the only
one of the devoted family who had time to take precaution
for his safety, or offer resistance, was James Stewart, the
youngest son of Duke Murdach. He made his escape to
the west of Scotland, returned by a sudden incursion, burned
Dumbarton, and slew the king's uncle, the Red Stewart of
Dundonald; but, closely pressed by the king's command,
was obliged to fly to Ireland.
Murdach and his two sons, with their grandfather by
the mother's side, the Earl of Lennox, were brought to trial
under cognizance of an assize or jury of nobles, in which the
allies and supporters of the king were mingled with the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 281
favorers and allies of the House of Albany in such a propor-
tion as to give an appearance of impartiality to the trial,
though the party of royalists was undoubtedly adequate to
command the verdict, which, in Scotland, is decided by a
majority of voices.
The nature of the charge brought against these high-
descended and late powerful persons is unknown. There
could be no want of instances in which the usurpation of
the prisoners had amounted to acts of high treason. The
king himself was present at the trial, with the royal em-
blems of dignity. The fatal verdict of guilty was pronounced
against them all, and they were executed on the castle hill
at Stirling, upon the little artificial mound called Hurley
Hacket. From this elevated position, Duke Murdach might
cast his last look upon the fertile and romantic territory of
Monteith, which formed part of his family estate, and dis-
tinguish in the distance the stately castle of Doune, which
emulated the magnificence of palaces, and had been his
own viceregal residence. Among the multitude who beheld
this melancholy spectacle, a sense of the mutability of human
affairs, and the interest naturally due to fallen greatness,
drowned recollection of the noble criminals' faults in sym-
pathy for their misfortunes. Duke Robert, the great offender
of the House of Albany, had been summoned long before to a
higher tribunal ; and the imbecility of Duke Murdach, who
only inherited at most, and in fact renounced the usurpations
of his father, attracted commiseration rather than abhor-
rence. The goodly persons of his two sons drowned in the
minds of the vulgar recollection of their vices and follies j
and from the venerable appearance of the Earl of Lennox,
a man in his eightieth year, he seemed too near the grave
already to be precipitated into it by the hand of the execu-
tioner. The purpose of the king seems, in fact, to have failed
in a great measure. He meant to strike a wholesome terror;
but the punishment of so many nobles, his own nearest rela-
tions, excited in some bosoms hatred against the vindictive
spirit by which it seemed to be dictated, and, in general,
882 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
a sense that such a severe animadversion upon crimes long
past savored too much of rigor to be true policy. These
unfavorable feelings were exaggerated in the eyes of such
as conceived that the monarch had the selfish prospect of
repairing the royal revenue by the forfeiture of the estates
of these wealthy criminals.
Perhaps, like many reformers, this excellent prince, for
such he must certainly be esteemed, fell into an error com-
mon to those who, seeing acutely the extent of a rooted evil,
attempt too hastily and too violently to remedy it by instant
eradication. It is in the political world as in the human
frame; dislocations which have been of long standing, and
to which the neighboring parts of the system have accommo-
dated themselves, cannot be brought back to their proper
state without time, patience, and gentleness. It is true, the
long course of license permitted by the loose government of
the House of Albany had subjected many hundreds, nay,
thousands of individuals to the penalties of the law; but it
cannot escape notice that, while a few severe examples are
in such a case necessary for the purpose of impressing a
respect for justice, the extending capital punishments to
a large circle disgusts the public mind, assumes the form
of vengeance rather than legal severity, and procures for
malefactors an interest in their fate capable of altogether
destroying the great purpose of punishment, by causing men
to hate instead of respecting its motives. If, as historians
affirm, James I. actually adjudged to death, within the first
two years of his reign, to the number of three thousand of
his subjects, for offences committed during his imprisonment
in England, he certainly merited that the reproof used by
Mecaenas to Augustus — "surge tandem carnifex" — ought
to have interrupted his judicial butchery.
James I. might be more easily justified in teaching, even
by strict examples of severity, the respect due to the royal
person, the source of law and justice, which had fallen into
contempt during the feeble regency of Duke Murdach, than
in prosecution of acts of treason committed when there was
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 283
no king in the land. "We have the following instance of his
strictness on such occasions: A nobleman of high rank, and
nearly related to the crown, forgot himself so far as to strike
a youth within the king's hall. James commanded that the
hand with which the offence had been given should on the
instant be extended on the council-table, and the young man
who had received the blow was ordered to stand by with the
edge of a large knife applied to the wrist of the offender,
ready to sever it upon a signal given. In this posture the
culprit remained for more than an hour in agonizing expecta-
tion of the blow being struck, while the queen and her ladies,
the prelates, and the clergy, prostrated themselves on the
floor, imploring mercy for the criminal. The king at length
dispensed with the punishment, but banished the offender for
some time from his court and presence.
In 1427, besides repressing the general habits of violence
and devastation in the Lowlands of Scotland, James had also
to reduce to his obedience the Highland chiefs, who during
the impunity of the last regency had thrown off all respect
to the mandates of the crown, forgotten the terrors of the
Harlaw, and might be considered as having returned to
their pristine independence and barbarism. The king, with
a view to remedy these evils, built or repaired the strong
tower of Inverness, at which place he held a parliament.
Alexander, the lord of the Isles, and his mother, the Count-
ess of Ross, with almost all the Highland chiefs, many of
whom could carry into the field at least two thousand men,
attended upon this assembly. The king invited them sepa-
rately to visit his castle, where he had nearly fifty of them
placed in arrest at the same moment; James in the mean-
while applauding his own dexterity in an extempore verse,
of which the Latin only survives. 1 Two leaders of tribes,
1 Ad turrim for tern ducamus caute cohortem;
Per Christi sortem, meruerunt hi quia mortem.
Which may be thus translated:
To donjon tower let this rude troop be driven;
For death they merit, by the cross of heaven.
284 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Alexander M'Reury de Garmoran and John M 'Arthur, as
more powerful, or more insolent, or more guilty than the
others, were beheaded for acts of robbery and oppression;
and to render his justice impartial, James Campbell was
hanged for the murder of John, a former lord of the Isles.
In the midst of these examples of punishment, James was
clement in his treatment of Alexander of the Isles, the suc-
cessor of Donald, who was worsted at the Harlaw, and only
remonstrating with him upon the necessity of his discontinu-
ing his family habits of lawless turbulence, he dismissed him
upon his promise to abstain from such in future. His mother
was detained as a hostage for his faith. Alexander, how-
ever, no sooner returned to his own territories than he raised
his banner, and collected a host from the Isles and Highland
mainland to the amount of ten thousand men, with which he
invaded the continent, and burned the town of Inverness,
where he had lately sustained the affront of an arrest. King
James assembled an army and hastened northward, where
his prompt arrival alarmed the invaders. Two powerful
tribes, the Clan Chattan and - Clan Cameron, deserted the
lord of the Isles, and ranged themselves under the royal
banner. Weakened and dispirited, the Highland forces sus-
tained a severe defeat, and the lord of the Isles humbled
himself to ask peace and forgiveness. It was not, however,
granted till he had performed a feudal penance for his breach
of allegiance. On the eve of St. Augustine's festival, he ap-
peared in full congregation, before the high altar of Holyrood
Church, at Edinburgh, attired only in his shirt and drawers,
and there upon his knees presented the hilt of his naked
sword to the king, he himself holding it by the point. In
this attitude of submission the island chief humbly con-
fessed his offences, and deprecated their deserved punish-
ment. The capital penalty, which he had deservedly in-
curred, was exchanged for a long imprisonment in Tantallon
Castle.
The captivity of the lord of the Isles did not prevent
further disturbance from these unruly people. — Choosing
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 285
for chieftain Donald, called Ballach or the Freckled, the
cousin -german of their imprisoned lord, who exercised his
power during his captivity, the islanders again invaded
Lochaber with an army of wild Catherans. Encountering
the Earls of Mar and of Caithness, the Celtic chief totally
defeated them with much slaughter. Donald therefore re-
turned to the islands with victory. But the king making
great preparations to revenge this invasion, the Highland
chiefs who had been accessory to it became afraid of the
royal power, to which the activity of James had given such
additional respect, and not only submitted themselves to
their sovereign, but offered him their services against Don-
ald Ballach, whose overbearing insolence they alleged had
been the cause of their error. Thus deserted by those who
had been accessory to his crime, Donald Ballach was forced
to fly to Ireland, where he was shortly after slain, to pro-
pitiate the Scottish king, and his head sent to the court of
James.
James took other and less violent methods of confirming
the right of the Scottish crown, by accommodating with the
Norwegians, who had heavy claims for the long arrears of
an annuity, stipulated to them in the treaty with Alexander
III., as the consideration for ceding their right over the
Hebrides, but which the continued misfortunes of Scotland
had prevented from being regularly paid.
In another material point James I. prosecuted his plan
of lowering the power of the nobility, and rendering them
more dependent on the crown ; and it is only by catching
at such casual sources of information that we can form a
fair estimate of the schemes which he had formed or the
means by which he proposed to execute them. "We have
repeatedly seen the powerful Earls of March, who lay on
the eastern frontiers of Scotland, renounce and return to the
allegiance of that country at their pleasure ; and render their
castle of Dunbar at one time a rampart against the English,
at another a place of refuge to the retreating monarchs of
that kingdom. Whether the existing Earl of March had
286 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
been recently engaged in any of those unlawful and treason-
able practices which had distinguished his family in former
generations, or whether he was only guilty of possessing the
power to be dangerous, we cannot well discern ; but he was
confined to the castle of Edinburgh as a prisoner, and his
castle of Dunbar, being taken possession of by the king, was
placed in the keeping of Adam Hepburn of Hales. The
legal reasons assigned were, that the forfeiture of the earldom
of March having been decreed, on account of the repeated
treason of George, earl of March, the power of the regent
Duke of Albany was insufficient to disjoin them from the
crown, to which they had been united, and to confer them
on the son of the traitor. It was not, however, the purpose
of the king to act with rigor or injustice toward the present
earl, even in depriving him of possessions which afforded
him a power liable to be abused. He closed the transaction
by instantly conferring on the late Earl of March the earl-
dom of Buchan, which, by the death of the gallant high
constable of France at the battle of Verneuil, already men-
tioned, had reverted to the crown. By this policy James
hoped to convert a powerful family, from fickle and uncer-
tain borderers, into more faithful inland vassals.
Almost all the proceedings of James I. were directed to
the same general end — that of diminishing the power of the
nobles, which occasioned the discords in the state, and the
general oppression of the subjects, and proportionally aug-
menting and extending the influence of the crown. This
comprehended, indeed, the selfish purpose of elevating the
king himself to a more absolute superiority in the state ; but
as, in that stage of society, the royal authority was the best
means by which the general peace and good order of the
country at large could be preserved, James may be consid-
ered as having pursued his favorite object with humane and
patriotic views, directed more to the benefit of Scotland than
his own aggrandizement.
By an act of parliament prohibiting all bonds and leagues,
by which the nobility used to bind themselves to take each
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 287
other's part against the rest of the community, or against
the crown itself, and declaring that associations which had
been made for such dangerous and unlawful purposes were
not binding, James endeavored to deprive these petty princes
of the power of uniting themselves together against his au-
thority. Great pains were also taken to assure the regular
distribution of government by the royal courts of justice,
with the assurance that if there were any "poor creature"
who, for want of skill and money, could not have his cause
properly stated, a skilful advocate should be engaged for
him at the expense of the crown.
Another law against leasing-making imposed the doom
of death on the devisers of such falsehoods as were calcu-
lated to render the king's government odious to the people.
The punishment, however severe, was not, perhaps, ill suited
to that time, when there was so little communication between
different parts of the country, and one province knew so little
of what was happening in another that a rumor of any un-
popular measure or oppressive act on the part of the crown
might put a part of the kingdom into open rebellion before
it could be refuted or explained. In after-times, the statute,
being applied even to confidential communications between
man and man, became the source of gross and iniquitous
oppression.
In relation to foreign policy, James I. appears to have
supported his place with dignity between the contending
powers of France and England. Like his predecessors, he
preferred the alliance of the former kingdom, as less tempted
to abuse his confidence ; and his friendship was thought of
such importance that Charles of France was induced to
cement it by choosing the bride of his son the dauphin,
afterward Louis XL, in the person of Margaret, eldest
daughter of the king of Scotland. The bridal took place
in 1436, eight years after the contract. The honor which
attended this match was great; but the bride's happiness
was far from being secured in proportion. Though amiable
and accomplished, she was neglected and contemned by her
288 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
husband, one of the most malignant men who ever lived.
She was basely calumniated also and slandered by his un-
worthy courtiers, and appears to have felt the imputed ig-
nominy so sensitively that the acuteness of her feelings at
length cost the princess her life.
As the affairs of the English were declining in France,
from the enthusiasm universally awakened by the appear-
ance of the Maid of Orleans on the scene, an English am-
bassador was sent to Scotland, in the person of Lord Scroope,
with instructions to gain James, if possible, from his French
alliance. England proposed terms which had not been lately
named in negotiation between the countries. The offers were
a sure and perpetual peace, with the restitution to Scotland
of the castle of Roxburgh, the town of Berwick, together
with Cumberland and Westmoreland, as far southward as
Here Cross on Stanmoor. The Scottish historians say that
the English were not sincere in these proposals. If they
were, James could not have entertained them without a
formal breach of his treaty with France. The clergy inter-
fered to support this obstacle, with the important additional
objection that the contract with France had obtained an irre-
fragable, and in some degree sacred, character, by its hav-
ing received the sanction of the pope, and therefore could
not be infringed without a high crime. In the course of the
scholastic discussion which arose on the question, what effect
the approbation of the Roman pontiff conferred on a contract
solemnly entered into between two independent monarchs,
the disputants lost sight of the English propositions, the most
honorable which Scotland had received from her proud neigh-
bor since the arms of Bruce extorted from her the treaty of
Northampton, and the negotiation fell to the ground.
It may be easily conceived that the unwonted boldness
with which James carried on his favorite measures — resum-
ing grants made in favor of the most powerful nobles — alter-
ing at his will the seat of their power, as in the case of the
Earl of March — interfering with and controlling their juris-
diction over their vassals — at times imprisoning the most
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 289
powerful of them, as he did the Earl of Douglas, his own
nephew — and substituting the authority of the crown for
that of the vassals, by whose greatness it had been eclipsed
— was regarded with very different feelings by two classes
of his subjects. "With the great mass of the nation James
was popular; for the people felt the protection arising from
the power of the crown, which could seldom have any temp-
tation to oppress those in middle life, and willingly took ref-
uge under it to escape from the subordinate tyranny of the
numerous barons, whose castles crowned every cliff, and for
whose rapacity or violence no object was too inconsiderable.
It was different with the nobility, who felt acutely that, as
the king's importance arose in the national scale, their own
was gradually sinking. They regarded the quantity of blood
which had been shed by James's command less as a sacrifice
to justice than as the means by which the sovereign indulged
his rapacity after forfeitures, and what they alleged to be his
vindictive hatred to the nobility. Many of the victims who
had suffered the penalties of the law were related to honor-
able houses ; and it was a point of honor, and almost of con-
science, with their kindred, to watch for the opportunity to
revenge their death. There was, therefore, a great party
among the nobility who regarded James with fear and
hatred, and who only wanted an opportunity to give deadly
proof of the character of their feelings toward him.
The approach of war gave these evil sentiments an oppor-
tunity to display themselves. In 1435, Sir Robert Ogle, an
English borderer of distinction, in breach of a truce which
had continued uninterrupted since King James's accession
to the Scottish throne, made an incursion on the borders,
and did some mischief; but was encountered by the Earl
of Angus near Piperden, defeated and made prisoner. In
resentment of this violence, and of an attempt on the part
of the English to intercept the Scottish Princess Margaret on
her way to France, James declared war against England,
1436. He besieged Roxburgh Castle with the whole array
of his kingdom, which was said to amount to a tumultuary
13 * Vol. I.
290 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
mti] ti tude of nearly two hundred thousand men . After remain-
ing fifteen days before Roxburgh, the king suddenly raised
the siege and dismissed his array, upon surmise, as has been
supposed, of treason in his host. That there were such prac-
tices is highly probable ; and a Scottish encampment, filled
with feudal levies, each man under the banner of the noble
to whom he owed service, was no safe residence for a mon-
arch who was on bad terms with his aristocracy.
After dismissal of his army, James I. met his parliament
at Edinburgh, and employed himself and them in making
several regulations for commerce, and for the impartial ad-
ministration of justice. In the meantime the period of this
active and good prince's labors was speedily approaching.
The chief author of his fate was Sir Robert Graham e,
uncle to the Earl of Strathern. James, with his usual view
of unfixing and gradually undermining the high power of
the nobility, resumed the Earldom of Strathern, and obliged
the young earl to accept of the Earldom of Monteith in lieu
of it. This seems to have irritated the haughty spirit of the
earl's uncle, Sir Robert, who was likewise exasperated by
having sustained a personal arrest and imprisonment, along
with other men of rank, on the king's return in 1425. En-
tertaining these causes of personal dislike against his sover-
eign, Grahame, in the parliament of 1429, undertook to rep-
resent to the king the grievances of the nobility ; but, instead
of doing so with respect and moderation, this fierce and
haughty man worked himself into such extremity of pas-
sion as to make offer to arrest the monarch in name of the
estates of parliament. As no one dared to support him in
an attempt so arrogant, Grahame was seized, and, finally,
his possessions were declared forfeited, and he himself
ordered into banishment.
He retired to the recesses of the Highlands, vowing re-
venge, and had the boldness to send forth from his lurking-
place a written defiance, in which he renounced the king's
allegiance, and declared himself his mortal enemy. On this
new proof of audacity, a reward was offered to any one who
HISTORY OP SCOTLAND 291
should bring in the person of Sir Robert Grahame, dead or
alive. On this a conspiracy took place, the event of which
was terrible, although we can but ill trace the motives of
some of the party.
The ostensible head of the conspirators was the king's
own uncle, Walter, earl of Athole, son of Robert III., by
his second marriage. This ambitious old man was not pre-
vented by his near alliance with the crown from plotting
against his royal nephew's life, with the purpose of placing
on the throne Sir Robert Stewart, his own grandson, who
on his part, though favored by the king, and holding the
confidential situation of chamberlain, did not hesitate to
enter into so nefarious a conspiracy. The event proved
that the conspirators had formed their plan for assassinat-
ing their prince with too much accuracy. But the hopes
upon which Athole and his grandson founded the subsequent
part of their plot seem to have been vague and uncertain to
an extravagant degree, inducing us to believe, that, like
other heated and fiery spirits in similar situations, those
engaged in the bloody design must have worked themselves
into the belief that the feelings of hatred toward James
which animated their own bosoms were also nourished by
the greater part of the community; a species of self-delu-
sion common among men who engage in such desperate
enterprises.
The removal of the court to Perth, where James pro-
posed to hold his Christmas, facilitated the conspirators'
enterprise, by making a sudden descent from the Highlands
a short expedition. About the 21st of February, 1437, the
king, after having entertained his treacherous uncle of Athole
at supper, was about to retire to rest in the Dominican mon-
astery, which was the royal residence for the time, when it
was suddenly entered by a body of three hundred men,
whose admittance had been facilitated by Sir Robert
Stewart, the faithless chamberlain. There is a tradition
that a young lady in attendance on the queen, named
Katherine Douglas, endeavored to supply the want of a
292 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
bar to the door of the royal apartment by thrusting her
own arm across the staples. This slender obstacle was soon
overcome. So much time had, however, been gained, that
the queen and her ladies had found means to let down the
king into a vault beneath the apartment, from which he
might have made his escape, had not an entrance from the
sewer to the court of the monastery been built up by his own
order a day or two before, because his balls, as he played at
tennis, were lost by entering the vault. Still, notwithstand-
ing this obstacle, the king might have escaped, for the assas-
sins left the apartment without finding out his place of re-
treat, and, having in their brutal fury wounded the queen,
dispersed to seek for James in the other chambers. Unhap-
pily, before either the conspirators had withdrawn from the
palace, or assistance had arrived, the king endeavored, by
the help of the ladies, to escape from the vault, and some
of the villains returning, detected him in the attempt. Two
brothers, named Hall, then descending into the vault, fell
fiercely upon James with their daggers ; when, young, active,
and fighting for his life, the king threw them down, and
trod them under foot. But while he was struggling with
the traitors, and cutting his hands in an attempt to wrench
their daggers from them, the principal conspirator, Grahame,
came to the assistance of his associates, and the king died by
many wounds. Thus fell James I., a prince of distinguished
talents and virtue, too deep in political speculation, perhaps,
for the period in which he lived, too hasty and eager in
carrying his meditated reformation into execution, and too
rigorous in punishing crimes which were rather the fruit of
tempting opportunity, and of the general license of a dis-
orderly period, than the deliberate offspring of individual
guilt.
The alarm was given at last, and the attendants of the
court and domestics began to gather to the palace, from
which the assassins made their escape to the Highlands,
not without loss.
The Queen Joanna urged the pursuit of the murderers
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 293
with a zeal becoming the widow of such a husband. She
had enjoyed her husband's political confidence as well as
his domestic affection. In the parliament of 1435 the king,
impressed, perhaps, with a presentiment that his public-
spirited measures might expose him to assassination, caused
the members of the estates to give written assurances of
their fidelity to the queen. Upon this trying occasion they
redeemed their pledge, and a close and general pursuit after
the murderers took place. In the space of a month they
were all apprehended in their various lurking-places.
Athole's grandson, Sir Robert Stewart, was executed at
Edinburgh with refined tortures, in the midst of which he
avowed his guilt. The aged earl admitted that his grandson
had proposed such a conspiracy to him; but alleged that he
did his utmost to dissuade him from engaging in it, and
believed that the idea was laid aside. He was beheaded
at Edinburgh, and his head, being surrounded with a crown
of iron, was exposed to public view. The principal con-
spirator, Sir Robert Grahame, whose mind had devised, and
whose hand executed the bloody deed, boldly contended that
he had a right to act as he had done. The king, he said,
had inflicted on him a mortal injury ; and he, in return, had
renounced his allegiance, and sent him a formal letter of
defiance. Dreadful tortures were inflicted on the regicide,
which served but to show how much extremity a hardy
spirit is capable to endure. He told the court, that, though
now executed as a traitor, he should be hereafter recollected
as the man who had freed Scotland from a tyrant. But the
evil spirit which had seduced him, and seemed to speak by
his mouth, proved a false prophet: the immortality which
his memory obtained was only conferred by a popular rhyme,
to this effect :
Robert Grahame,
That kill'd our king, God give him shame.
James I. had two sons ; but one dying in infancy, he left
behind him only James II., who in his childhood succeeded
294 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
to his father's throne. The late king had #ve daughters,
who were married, four of them into noble families abroad,
while the youngest was wedded to the Earl of Angus.
Among the transactions of this reign, we ought not to
omit to mention the fate of two heretics. The first was a
WickliflBte, called John Resby, already mentioned as exe-
cuted under the regency of Albany. James I. himself is
culpable for having permitted the death of Paul Crawar, a
foreigner, and a follower of John of Huss. He was tried
by Lawrence of Lindores, the same bigoted inquisitor who
sat in judgment on Resby, whose fate this second martyr
shared, at Saint Andrew's, 1435. These instances prove
that Scotland did not escape the ravages of intolerant su-
perstition, though her history stands more free of such
shocking cruelties than that of nations more important
and more early civilized than herself.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 295
CHAPTER XIX
Struggle between the Nobles and the Crown — Elevation of Crichton
and Livingston to the Government — Their Dissensions — Crich-
ton possesses himself of the King's Person; but by a Stratagem
of the Queen he is conveyed to Stirling — Crichton is besieged in
Edinburgh Castle; reconciles himself with Livingston; quarrels
once more with him; and again obtains the Custody of the
King's Person — A second Reconciliation — Power of the Douglas
Family — Trial and Execution of the young Earl of Douglas and
his Brother — Highland Feuds — Douglas gains the Ascendency
in the King's Councils — Fall of the Livingstons — Feud of the
Earl of Crawford and the Ogilvies — Death of the Queen-
Dowager — "War with England — Battle of Sark — Marriage of
James — His Quarrel with Douglas: he puts him to Death with
his own Hand — Great Civil War — The Douglas Family is de-
stroyed — War with England — Siege of Roxburgh Castle, and
Death of James II.
IN the reign of James I. a struggle had commenced of a
nature hitherto unknown to Scotland. The dissensions
by which the kingdom had previously been disturbed
or divided had either been caused by hostile invasion or the
insurrection of ill-subdued and ill-governed provinces, the in-
habitants of which, to resent supposed wrongs and indulge
their love of war and plunder, disturbed the internal peace
of the country. But in the reign of this monarch we for
the first time recognize a distinct struggle for power be-
tween the king on the one hand and the great nobility on
the other; and from that time downward we can trace the
progress of a constant and sometimes a bloody contest be-
tween the monarch, who desired to increase his power, and
the great aristocratic nobles, who were determined to retain
that powerful influence in the state which they had secured
by frequent wars, in which their arms were necessary, and
296 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
their license could not be restrained, and by the long inter-
vals of minority, when the regal power was peculiarly liable
to invasion. The mass of the common people, termed in
France the tiers etat, and in Britain the commons of the
realm, had not yet arisen to that consequence in Scotland
which the same order had attained in the commercial coun-
tries of Flanders, France, and England. The towns were
poor, and the merchants ruined by constant wars and the
oppressions of the neighboring barons. What power they
had, however, in the national councils they lent to the sup-
port of the king's prerogative, which was a species of refuge
to them from the subaltern oppression of a multitude of petty
tyrants, who assumed the right because they possessed the
power to tyrannize over them.
The late monarch, James I., in consequence of his stand-
ing in opposition to the aristocracy, was induced to select his
officers, ministers, and counsellors, not from the haughty
nobles who rivalled his power, but from the lower class of
barons or private gentlemen. Among them, accordingly,
James I. selected several individuals of talent, application,
and knowledge of business, and employed their counsels and
abilities in the service of the state, without regard to the dis-
pleasure of the great nobles, who considered every office
near the king's person as their own peculiar and patrimo-
nial right, and who had in many instances converted such
employments into subjects of hereditary transmission.
Among the able men whom James I. called in this man-
ner from comparative obscurity, the names of two statesmen
appear, whom he had selected from the rank of the gentry,
and raised to a high place in his councils. These were Sir
"William Crichton the chancellor, and Sir Alexander Living-
ston of Calender. Both were men of ancient family, though,
descended probably of Saxon parentage, they did not number
among the greater nobles, who claimed, generally speaking,
their birth from the Norman blood. Both, and more espe-
cially Crichton, had talents of a distinguished order, and
were well qualified to serve the state. Unhappily, these
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 297
two statesmen, upon whom either the will of the late king,
or the ordinance of a parliament called at Edinburgh imme-
diately after James's murder, devolved the power of a joint
regency, were enemies to each other, probably from ancient
rivalry ; and it was still more unfortunate that their talents
were not united with corresponding virtues; for Livingston
and Crichton appear to have been alike ambitious, cruel, and
unscrupulous politicians. It is said by the Scots chroniclers
that the parliament assigned to Crichton the chancellor the
administration of the kingdom, and to Livingston the care
of the person of the young king.
It might have been supposed that the widowed queen
Joanna had some title to be comprised in the commission of
regency, and there are indications that such had been the
purpose of her husband. But alone, an English stranger,
and a woman, after prosecuting the murderers of her hus-
band to the death, she seems to have withdrawn herself from
public affairs ; and shortly afterward married a man of rank,
Sir James Stewart, who was called the Black Knight of
Lorn — a union which, placing herself under tutelage, dis-
qualified her from the office of regent, whether in her sole
person or as an associate of Crichton and Livingston. About
the same time (1438), a nine years' truce with England put
an end to the war which subsisted at the death of James I.,
and left the Scottish rulers at liberty to follow out without
interruption their domestic dissensions.
These were of a numerous and complicated nature. Crich-
ton and Livingston, who had been preferred by the king's
favor from a moderate station among the gentry to be rulers
of the state, were sufficiently well disposed to prosecute the
system under which they had themselves risen to power,
providing they could have agreed upon the share of the
administration which each of them was to hold. But they
had a powerful opponent in the dreaded Earl of Douglas, a
family whom we have often mentioned as supporting their
native princes and defending the honor of their country, but
whom we must now record as placing by their ambition both
298 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the one and the other in extreme danger. Crichton and
Livingston were obliged to admit this mighty peer into the
office of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. It does not
appear that he was disposed to abuse his trust; but it is
evident that Crichton and Livingston, particularly the
former, regarded the power of Douglas with suspicion and
fear.
This cause of alarm, common to them both, did not sup-
press their mutual hatred to each other. A series of ma-
noeuvres, disgraceful when the situation of the parties is con-
sidered, and tending to destroy the government in which
they held such a principal share, were played off between
the chancellor and governor of Scotland, with the rapidity
displayed by rival jugglers in the exercise of their legerde-
main. A minute account of enterprises which historians
have left in great obscurity may be here slightly excused;
but the following facts are prominent.
Sir "William Crichton had possession of the castle of Edin-
burgh, in which strong fortress he detained the person of the
infant king, although the governor Livingston had a just
title to the custody of his royal pupil. The queen-dowager
privately favored Livingston's cause: and as she was per-
mitted to visit the castle at all times, she contrived to convey
the child out of that fortress, by enclosing him in a coffer
supposed to contain a part of her wardrobe. Setting sail
from Leith, she removed the prince by water to Stirling,
where Livingston lay in garrison, by whom she was gladly
received. Assembling there such nobles and barons as ad-
hered to him, Livingston proposed to besiege the castle of
Edinburgh, and the queen offered from her own store-houses
to supply the soldiers with food. The castle was beleaguered
accordingly. Crichton, thus severely threatened, applied
himself in his necessity to the Earl of Douglas, offering his
constant friendship and assistance, on condition of the earl's
standing his friend at this crisis. The earl scarce heard the
message to an end, answering with a furious look and ges-
ture, "It is but small harm, methinks, although such mis-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 299
chievous traitors as Crichton and Livingston move war
against each other; and it would ill become any of the
ancient race of nobles to interfere to prevent their utter
wreck and destruction. As for myself, nothing is more
pleasing than to hear of their discord; and I hope I shall
live to see the mischief they deserve condignly overwhelm
both."
The siege by this time was laid around the castle of
Edinburgh, when Crichton, having received this scornful
answer from the Earl of Douglas, asked an interview with
his enemy Livingston, to whom he communicated the earl's
reply as indicating no less hostility to the governor than to
himself, and proposed that they should forget their private
enmity, and unite to protect themselves against Douglas as
their common enemy. At the same time, upon an under-
standing that he should receive honorable treatment, Crich-
ton declared himself ready to yield up the castle to the
governor. Livingston, after consulting his friends, accepted
of Crichton's submission, confirmed him in his office of chan-
cellor, and restored the castle of Edinburgh to his charge ;
and a course of friendship and amity seems for a short in-
terval to have taken place between the two rival statesmen.
This state of concord did not long last ; for Crichton found
means to obtain vengeance both of the queen and of his
rival Livingston. Under pretence that Joanna favored the
faction of the Douglases, Livingston had the audacity to
arrest the widow of his sovereign, with her second husband,
the Black Knight of Lorn, and detain them for some time
in custody. In so far the governor avenged on the queen
the offence given to his rival Crichton. But he was himself
circumvented by this audacious statesman. Crichton came
in darkness with a party of horse to the park of Stirling,
where, waiting until the young king came from the castle
at daybreak to hunt with a small attendance, he suddenly
accosted him, and easily prevailed on him to repair to Edin-
burgh.
Upon this new injury, the hatred between Crichton and
300 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Livingston was about to revive with treble fury. The inter-
ference, however, of the prelates of Aberdeen and Murray
again accomplished a seeming reconciliation. The two con-
tending statesmen met in St. Giles's Church, and once more
renewed their politic purpose of uniting their efforts to oppose
the power of the aristocracy, and particularly that of the
House of Douglas. It required, indeed, all the influence of
both, and more than their talents, though these were con-
siderable, to counterbalance the formidable weight of such
a tremendous opponent. But these unprincipled statesmen
were abundantly disposed to support their want of power
or sagacity by fraud and circumvention.
At this time (1439) Archibald, the fifth earl of Douglas,
died, and was succeeded by his son William, a boy of four-
teen years old, upon whom descended the various estates
and dignities of that powerful family. The duchy of Tou-
raine and lordship of Longueville in France seemed to give
him the consequence of a foreign prince. In Scotland he
enjoyed the earldom of Douglas, the lordships of Galloway
and Annandale, and a wide extent both of property and
influence throughout all the southern frontier. Repeatedly
intermarried with the royal family itself, this mighty house
had also formed matrimonial alliances with many of the
most distinguished Scottish families. By bonds of depend-
ence, or man-rent, as they were called, almost all the princi-
pal gentry who lay in the neighborhood of the wide domains
of Douglas had become followers of the earl's banner; and
his power, as far as it could be immediately and directly
exercised, was equal to that of the king, his opulence per-
haps superior.
In 1440, Earl William, whose youth rendered him arro-
gant, made an imprudent display of the power which he
possessed. His ordinary attendance consisted of a thousand
horse, and he is said to have held cours plenieres^ after the
manner of parliaments, within his own jurisdictions, and
to have dubbed knights with his own hand. The body of
men who constantly attended on this young chief were many
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 301
of them such as found their subsistence by bloodshed and
pillage, who were always ready to interpose the name of their
patron as a defence against punishment. The instances of
oppression performed by the earl's followers, and the con-
tempt and insult with which they rejected the attempts of
the ordinary distributors of justice to bring them to punish-
ment, were carefully noted down and laid to the charge
of the young Douglas, whom Crichton was determined to
make responsible for the mass of injuries which were com"
mitted in his name and by his followers. Under pretext of
cultivating an intimacy between the young king and the
Earl of Douglas, whose years corresponded together, Earl
William and his younger brother David were inveigled by
the chancellor's flattery and fair speeches first to his castle
of Crichton, near Edinburgh, and then to the metropolis
itself, where the two noble guests were lodged in the castle.
Here, while they expected to be regaled at the royal table,
a black bull's head, the signal of death, as it is reputed to
have been in Scotland, was suddenly placed before them. 1
The astonished youths were dragged from the table by
armed men, and subjected to a hasty trial. What crimes
they were accused of is not known ; but the extent of their
power and the lawloss character of their followers must have
afforded enough of pretexts for condemnation, when the
sentence rested with judges who were determined to make
no allowance for the youth and inexperience of the accused
parties, for the artifices by which they had been brought
within the danger of the law, and for their being totally
deprived of constitutional or legal defenders. The youthful
earl and his brother were dragged from the mock judgment-
seat to the castle yard, where, in spite of the entreaties and
prayers of the young king, they were cruelly beheaded.
Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, a friend and adherent
of their family, shared the fate of the unfortunate boys.
1 This circumstance staggers the belief of modern historians. The
bull's head, used as the sign of death, is repeatedly mentioned in High-
land tradition, and the custom may have been Celtic.
302 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
The whole might be well pronounced a murder committed
with the sword of justice.
Unquestionably Livingston and Crichton, the authors of
this detestable treason, reckoned on its effects in depressing
the House of Douglas, and producing general quiet and good
order, the rather upon two accounts: the first was that a
large part of the unentailed property, in particular the estates
of Galloway, Wigton, Balveny, Ormond, and Annandale,
were severed from the inheritance which was to descend on
the new Earl of Douglas, and went to Margaret, the sister
of the Earl William who was beheaded in the castle, who
was thence commonly called the Fair Maiden of Galloway.
Another encouragement to the crime was the indolent and
pacific disposition of James, called the Gross, the uncle of
the murdered earl. This corpulent dignitary, whose fat is
said to have weighed four stone, seems accordingly to have
taken no measures whatever for avenging the death of his
relatives; on which account the historian of the Douglas
family expresses his opinion that Earl James's obesity had
invested him with a dulness of spirit inconsistent with the
quick feeling of honor that should have stimulated him to
a bold revenge.
But the state took as little benefit from the division of
the Douglas estates as from the peaceful temper of James
the Gross. A marriage, hastily effected, between William,
son and heir of James the Gross, and his cousin -german,
Margaret the Fair Maid of Galloway, restored the whole
of her immense possessions to the male heir of the House of
Douglas: and James the Gross, being removed by death
within two years after the murder at Edinburgh Castle,
was succeeded by the same William, a youth in the flower
of his age, of as ardent ambition as any of his towering
house, and filled with hatred against Crichton and Living-
ston for their share in his kinsmen's death. Thus did the
power of Douglas revive in its most dangerous form, within
two years after the tragic execution in the castle of Edin-
burgh; and the political crime of Crichton and Livingston
HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND 303
was, like many of the same dark complexion, committed in
vain.
If we look at Scotland generally during this minority,
it forms a dark and disgusting spectacle. Feudal animosi-
ties were revived in all corners of the country ; and the bar-
riers of the law having been in a great measure removed,
the land was drenched with the blood of its inhabitants, shed
by their countrymen and neighbors. In 1442 John Colqu-
houn, lord of Luss, was cut off, with many of his followers,
by a party of Highlanders. In the subsequent year, the
sheriff of Perth, Sir William Ruthven, having arrested a
Highland thief, and being in the act of leading him to execu-
tion, a rescue was attempted by a body of Athole mountain-
eers, headed by a chief named John Gorme, or Gormac. 1
The assailants were, however, defeated, and their leaders
slain.
In the midst of universal complaint, bloodshed, and con-
fusion, the king was approaching his fourteenth year (1444).
He was easily persuaded, or brought to persuade himself,
that he could govern more effectively without the control
of Crichton and Livingston, while the greater part of his
subjects were at least satisfied that he could not rule worse
than with the assistance of such unscrupulous counsellors.
This produced a desire on the part both of the king and hi8
subjects to dissolve the regency; and the Earl of Douglas,
trusting to find his own advantage, and the means of prose-
cuting his revenge against Crichton and Livingston, with
more art than his house had usually manifested, resolved
to make personal advances to gain the king's favor, and
prosecute his course to power rather as an ally and minister
of the throne than the avowed rival and antagonist of the
royal family.
There was an occasion shortly offered which afforded
Douglas a graceful opportunity of approaching the king's
person with offers of service and protestations of fidelity. Sir
1 The Blue; so called, perhaps, from the color of his dress.
804: HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Robert Semple, sheriff-depute to the Lord Erskine, was in the
important charge of Dumbarton Castle, while the upper bailie
of the same fort was intrusted to Patrick Galbraith, a vassal
of the Earl of Douglas. For some unknown cause of sus-
picion, Semple deprived Galbraith of his charge, and ordered
him to begone from the castle. Galbraith seemed to obey ;
but introducing a few men, under pretence of removing his
furniture and household stuff, he suddenly attacked Sir Rob-
ert Semple, and expelled, or, as other authorities say, slew
him, and seized the whole fortress into his own possession.
The Earl of Douglas assumed an appearance of great con-
cern, as if Galbraith's dependence upon him might occasion
this affair to be made a handle against him by his enemies.
He therefore came to court, submitted himself to the king's
will, placed his person in the royal power without reserve,
and personated so well the expressions and behavior of a good
subject, that James was delighted to find in the Earl of Doug-
las, who had been represented as a formidable rival, a vassal
so powerful at once and so humble. The king received him
not into favor only, but into confidential trust and power,
and with the assistance received from him easily succeeded
in assuming the supreme authority into his own hands, and
in displacing Livingston and Crichton, who had governed in
James's name since his father's death.
In modern times, the dismission of a ministry whose gov-
ernment has lasted long and assumed an absolute character,
is usually followed by inquiries and impeachments : in the
more ancient days, the ministers were called to account for
their power by the terrors of a civil war. But the late chan-
cellor and governor were, as the age required, soldiers as
well as statesmen. Livingston shut himself up in the castle
of Stirling, and determined on resistance ; the chancellor also
garrisoned his castles, and stood upon his defence. Douglas,
armed with the royal authority, marched against the baronial
castles of Crichton and of Barnton, both belonging to the late
chancellor. These fortresses were held out against the Doug-
las's banner for several days, but surrendered when that of
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 305
the king was displayed before them. Douglas caused them
to be dismantled.
But the far more important castle of Edinburgh was
stoutly defended by Sir William Crichton in person: nor
did he refrain from offensive measures; for, in revenge of
the mischief done by Douglas to his lands, he made sallies
out of the castle with force sufficient to destroy the lands of
Abercorn and Strabrock, belonging to the earl. He con-
tinued to hold out the castle of Edinburgh for nine weeks,
and at^ last surrendered it (1446) on the most advantageous
terms. He was confirmed in his honors, titles and posses-
sions; even his office of chancellor was restored to him.
He seems to have formed an alliance with the Earl of Doug-
las, and consented to take a share in his administration, sur-
rendering at the same time to the earl's resentment Sir
Alexander Livingston, the king's governor.
This latter statesman was arrested, with many of his
friends ; and though his own gray hairs were spared, their
ransom was dearly purchased by the decapitation of his two
sons and the destruction of his family. He himself was im-
prisoned, and with his kinsmen, Dundas, Bruce, and others,
subjected to ruinous fines and penalties.
The Earl of Douglas now attained the high dignity of
lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and having the universal
management of state affairs, failed not to use his influence
for the advancement of the over-swollen importance of his
house. Three of his brothers were created peers. Archi-
bald, by marrying with the heiress of the Earl of Moray,
succeeded to that title and estate ; Hugh Douglas was made
earl of Ormond ; and John, lord of Balveny.
Meantime the public tranquillity went to wreck on all
hands ; and one feud is distinguished by our historians from
the rest, on account of the number and consequence of the
parties engaged on both sides. The powerful Earl of Craw-
ford, by countenance and aid of the Livingstons, and by as-
sistance of the family of Ogilvy, made an inroad on the
property of the bishopric of St. Andrew's, then held by
306 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
James Kennedy, a near relation to the king. For this in-
cursion, the bishop excommunicated the parties concerned
on all the holidays of the year, with staff and mitre, book,
bell, and candle. This, however, was but empty vengeance
on men who made but slight account of his curses. In 1445,
a more effectual amends ensued from a quarrel between the
master of Crawford and Ogilvy of Inverquharity, the chief
of that great name, about the bailiwick of Aberbrothock,
which the abbot had taken from Crawford and bestowed
upon Ogilvy. They assembled their forces on each side;
and the parties having met near the gates of the town of
Aberbrothock, were prepared to fight it out, headed by the
master of Crawford on the one side and Inverquharity on
the other. The Gordons, under the Earl of Huntley, arrived
on the field of battle, took the part of the Ogilvies, and the
battle was about to join. At this moment the Earl of Craw-
ford rode forward between the two bodies, with the purpose
of making terms. The master halted his forces at his father's
command, and the earl was advancing toward the Ogilvies,
when one of them, ignorant who he was, rode at him with
his lance, threw him to the ground, and mortally wounded
him. Both parties joined battle with mutual fury, and after
a fierce conflict the Ogilvies were defeated, and their chief
fell in the action, while his ally Huntley only escaped by
flight. It gives an idea of the fury of this domestic feud,
when we read that in this battle of Aberbrothock five hun-
dred of the vanquished were slain on the field. The Earl of
Crawford did not long survive this bloody field of private
vengeance ; and his body lay for a considerable time above
ground, on account of the sentence of excommunication.
In the midst of this almost universal turmoil, we may
notice the death of Joanna, the queen-mother, who hardly
obtained permission to die in safety in the castle of Dunbar,
that of Hales being stormed and taken for having afforded
her temporary refuge. Her husband, the Black Knight of
Lorn, having uttered some words reflecting on the admin-
istration of the Earl of Douglas, saw himself compelled to
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 307
ieave Scotland. His misfortunes continued to attend himj
the bark in which he sailed for France was taken by a Flem-
ish corsair, and he died shortly after, in a species of captivity.
In the meantime, the Earl of Douglas, who possessed the
warlike character of his ancestors, defended the country
against its external enemies with better success than that
with which he maintained domestic tranquillity. The bor-
derers, partaking the spirit of the unsettled times, had broken
through the truce by incursions on both sides; and the dis-
cordant administrations of Henry VI. and James II., who
strongly resembled each other in point of cabal and internal
dissension, found that the two countries were at war, even
without either government intending it. On the one side,
Dumfries was burned by young Percy and Robert Ogle ; on
the other, Lord Balveny, the youngest brother of Douglas,
gave the town of Alnwick to the flames.
To make a deeper impression on the hostile country, the
Earl of Huntingdon and Lord Percy crossed the western
marches with about fifteen thousand men. In 1448, they
were met by Douglas at the head of a much inferior army,
who either defeated or compelled them to retire. This foil
only animated the English to a stronger effort. They as-
sembled an army amounting to twenty thousand men. They
crossed the river Sark at low water, and found themselves
in front of the Scottish force, under command of Hugh, earl
of Ormond, another brother of the Douglas family. Sir
Thomas Wallace of Craigie, who seems to have been sec-
ond in command of the Scottish army, behaved himself with
distinguished bravery. He was mortally wounded in lead-
ing the Scottish right wing to a close conflict with the left
of the English, which was commanded by Magnus Redman,
governor of Berwick, in whose military skill the English
placed great confidence. The Scots, encouraged by their
dying leader, pressed furiously forward: Magnus Redman
was slain in the melee, and *he English gave way. The
river Sark, now augmented by the returning tide, lay in
the rear of the fugitive army : many were drowned in the
308 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
attempt to cross it. The English army lost three thousand
men; and the young Lord Percy and Sir John Pennington
were made prisoners.
The truce was shortly after (1449) again renewed by the
English; and in the treaty on the occasion both parties dis-
owned having been the cause of its being broken. About
the same period, the interest of the Earl of Douglas at the
Scottish court began to decline. It is easy to imagine vari-
ous ways in which the actions of so overgrown a minister
may have given offence to the king, who, being now about
the age of eighteen, might perhaps be disposed to look upon
the earl as a rival rather than a servant of the throne. Most
kings prefer those favorites whose fortunes, however exor-
bitant, are nevertheless the work of their own hands; and
the Douglas's power and splendor rested on hereditary hon-
ors and possessions which the king could neither give nor
take away. The misrule of the kingdom also, and the nu-
merous and bitter feuds into which it was divided, were uni-
versally said to be fostered and encouraged under the earl's
influence; and it was alleged that when the worst of felons
was arrested for the worst of crimes he might completely
secure himself by alleging that he had done the deed at the
command of a Douglas, or in revenge of a Douglas's quarrel.
Sir William Crichton also, who was so long and well ac-
quainted with state affairs, began to recover the king's con-
fidence; and his proved policy was employed in the honorable
commission of renewing the old alliance with France, and
seeking out upon the Continent a befitting match for the
king. The election fell on Mary of Guelders, with whom
Philip of Burgundy agreed to give sixty thousand crowns
of gold as the portion of his kinswoman, who had been edu-
cated at his court. The alliance with France was renewed,
and one with Burgundy was entered into. The success of
Sir "William Crichton in this negotiation, and the acceptable
selection of his bride, raised the old statesman still higher in
James's favor; and as he acquired the royal confidence, he
had further opportunities of instilling into the sovereign's
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 309
mind the rules of policy on which his father James I. had
acted, with a view of raising the power of the crown, and
depressing the feudal greatness of the nobility. These in-
structions were necessarily unfavorable to Douglas.
A parliament was held at Edinburgh (1450), providing
for the restoration of the progresses of the justiciary courts,
which had been interrupted, and denouncing the penalties
of rebellion against all persons who should presume to make
private war on the king's subjects, declaring that the whole
force of the country should be led against them if necessary.
Severe laws were made against spoilers and marauders; and
regulations laid down that the nobility should travel with
moderate trains, to avoid oppressing the country. Finally,
a statute was passed imposing the pains of treason on any
who should aid or supply with help or counsel those who
were traitors to the king's person, or who should garrison
houses in their defence, or aid such rebels in the assault of
castles or other places where the king's person should hap-
pen to be for the time. The tendency of these laws shows
the predominant evils which had taken root during the king's
minority, and the remedies by which, when come to man's
estate, James II. proceeded to attempt a cure.
The Earl of Douglas, finding his court favor upon the
wane, began to withdraw himself from the king's, and, in
despite of the laws which had been so lately enacted, to play
the independent prince in his own country, which compre-
hended all the borders and great part of the west of Scot-
land. An instance of his mode of acting occurred in a feud
between Richard Colville of Ochiltree and John Auchinleck
of Auchinleck. The former, having received some injuries
from Auchinleck, watched an opportunity, while his enemy
was journeying to wait upon the Earl of Douglas, whose
follower he was, and on the road waylaid and slew him.
Douglas, considering this violence as a personal insult to
himself, undertaken perhaps in scorn of his diminished
power, instantly beset Colville's castle with a body of men,
took it by force, and put the lord and his garrison to the
310 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
sword (1449). This daring contempt of the public law,
though colored over as the vengeance claimed by the mem-
ory of a worthy follower, was justly regarded at court as a
daring insult to the royal authority, and so much resented
by James that the earl judged it prudent for a time to absent
himself, not only from the court, but from the country.
The Earl of Douglas, therefore, in 1450, undertook a pil-
grimage to Rome, which he performed magnificently, with
a retinue of six knights, fourteen gentlemen, and eighty at-
tendants of inferior rank. He was received at Paris with
the honor due to his high family, and the memory of his an-
cestor who fell at Verneuil in the French service. Even at
Rome the name of Douglas was respected, and the rude
magnificence of the earl who bore it attracted attention and
regard.
While Douglas was absent on his pilgrimage, his vassals
continued to be disorderly and insubordinate as before.
Symington, the earl's bailiff in Douglas Dale, was cited to
answer for the conduct of such malefactors, but contuma-
ciously refused to obey. Upon this, William Sinclair, earl
of Orkney, then chancellor of Scotland, was sent to levy
distress on the rents and goods of the Earl of Douglas, to
satisfy those who complained of injury from his tenants.
The chancellor's mission met with no success, for he was
received only with resistance and insult. The king, in-
censed at this contumacy offered to the highest law-officer
in the realm, marched in person into the disobedient dis-
tricts, ravaged Douglas's estates, and took possession of the
castles of Lochmabane and Douglas, the last of which he
razed to the ground.
When the evil tidings reached Rome, they struck such
alarm into the minds of Douglas's attendants that several
relinquished their dependence on the earl and left him. He
himself hastened homeward, and was so much affected by
this instance of the king's energy and activity that he sub-
mitted himself to the royal authority, and was graciously
received.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 311
The services of the Earl of Douglas were used as one of
the negotiators to adjust the continuation of the truce with
England; but there is too much reason, from his visiting
that country attended by his three brothers and the more
distinguished followers of his house, that he even then medi-
tated some intercourse of a secret and treasonable character.
The English ministry, however, occupied by the internal
commotions which soon after broke out in the dreadful civil
war of York and Lancaster, received Douglas with distinc-
tion, but did not choose to become accessory to his intrigues.
Returning to his native country, the haughty earl at-
tempted to clear his way to court favor by attacking and
cutting off Sir "William Crichton, his old rival and enemy, as
he travelled from his castle of Crichton toward Edinburgh.
An ambuscade of the Douglas followers beset the road, and
broke out on the now aged chancellor with shouts and cries.
But, encouraged by the presence of his son, a valiant young
man, the old statesman stood to his weapon, and, after kill-
ing one and disabling another of the assailants, effected his
retreat back to Crichton. The old man had borne the high-
est offices of the state too long to endure this wrong unre-
venged : he gathered a strong body of friends and adherents,
and marched to Edinburgh with such secrecy and despatch
that he had nearly surprised Douglas, who lay there with a
small retinue ; and, despite his pride and power, the earl was
compelled to fly from the metropolis in his turn.
Both parties, stimulated by mutual injuries and insults,
seemed now prepared to combat to extremity. The Earl
of Douglas retired altogether from the court; and that he
might strengthen his cause, which he represented as that
of the aristocracy in general, he entered into a private cor-
respondence with the Earls of Crawford and Ross, the most
powerful and independent Scottish nobles, after Douglas
himself, and possessing the same power in the centre and
north of Scotland which the earl exercised on the frontiers.
He also used his influence upon such men of consequence
as lived in those countries over which he had authority, to
312 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
compel them, though diametrically contrary to law, to exe-
cute leagues and bonds, by which they engaged themselves
to support each other, and to make common cause with the
Douglas against all mortals besides. Those who declined to
comply with Douglas's pleasure in this matter were sure,
more or less directly, to feel the force of his vengeance,
which a wide authority over the border countries, filled
with strong clans of habitual marauders, enabled him to
accomplish, without the earl himself appearing active in
the matter.
A remarkable instance of this occurred in the case of
John Herries, a man of power in Nithsdale, who, having
declined to engage as an ally and follower of the Douglas,
in the manner required, beheld his lands plundered by a
body of banditti from Douglas Dale. Having repeatedly
applied to Douglas for satisfaction for this injury, Herries
at length, consulting rather his spirit than his strength,
endeavored to revenge the wrong by retaliation. But in
an attempt to invade Annandale, he had the misfortune to
be defeated and made prisoner by Douglas, who cast him
into irons, and, despite the king's personal interposition in
his behalf, by letter and message, caused him to be igno-
miniously hanged.
A case of even greater atrocity was that of the tutor op
guardian of the young Laird of Bombie, called M'Lellan,
who had, like the unfortunate Herries, declined to acknowl-
edge the usurped authority of the Earl of Douglas, and be-
came therefore obnoxious to his vengeance. This he was
not long of feeling. In 1451, Douglas besieged the house
or castle of the family, took the tutor of Bombie, as he was
called, prisoner, and carried him to Douglas Castle, or, as
others say, to that of the Thrieve in Galloway, and there
threw him into close confinement. The unhappy prisoner
was the nephew of Sir Patrick Gray, captain of the king's
bodyguard, an institution which we hear of for the first time
in this reign, but which the complexion of the times, and the
cruel murder of James I., had rendered but too necessary.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 313
Anxious to avert the too probable fate of his relation, this
officer, who was doubtless by his office especially familiar
with the king, obtained from James II. letters to the Earl of
Douglas, written in the most amicable tone of intercession,
entreating rather than commanding that he would yield the
captive in safety to Gray. The sudden appearance of the
captain of the king's guard at his castle, joined with the rec-
ollection of Sir Patrick's connection with the tutor of Bombie,
apprised Douglas how the case stood. He avoided immedi-
ately entering on business with Gray, until he had called for
some refreshment ; and while he pressed him to partake of
the cheer, which, with an affectation of hospitality, was
presently set before him, he caused the prisoner to be pri-
vately led out into the courtyard before the castle and there
beheaded. Meanwhile, Sir Patrick Gray's meal being ended,
the earl at last consented to open the king's letters, and
seemed much gratified by their contents. "What the king
requires of me," said he, ''shall be granted as fully as cir-
cumstances admit." So saying, he led Sir Patrick to the
place of execution, where the unfortunate tutor of Bombie's
corpse still lay with a cloth spread over it. "Sir Patrick,"
said the earl, "you are come a little too late: yonder lies
your sister's son; but he wants the head. You are at lib-
erty to take his body, if you will." With a sad heart, Sir
Patrick Gray replied, "My lord, since you have taken the
head, you may dispose of the body at your pleasure." He
then mounted his good horse, and, unable any longer to sup-
press his burning sense of the insult and injury with which
he had been treated, he sternly said, "My lord, if I live, you
shall be rewarded according to your demerits for this day's
work." ' The earl, incensed at these words, instantly called
to horse; and though Sir Patrick Gray rode off upon the
spur so soon as he had uttered the threat, he was chased
1 This circumstance renders it most probable that the castle of Doug-
las was the scene of this strange incident: that of the Thrieve being sit-
uated on an island, Sir Patrick Gray could not have escaped from it on
horseback.
14 <» Vol. I.
314 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
by the followers of the Douglas till near to Edinburgh, and
would have been taken but for the excellence of his led
horse.
It is probable that this piece of cruelty, accompanied with
such a marked degree of contempt, not only to the laws but
to the person of the king, filled up the cup of James's resent-
ment against the Earl of Douglas. Still the extreme power
which rendered this overgrown noble so presumptuous made
it perilous for the king to enter into open war against him.
It was therefore determined by Crichton and others, who
shared in the king's more secret councils, that the king
should affect an appearance of goodwill toward the earl,
and invite him to court, with assurances that none of his
past enormities should be inquired into, and that a recon-
ciliation should be effected, on the footing of Douglas's
forbearing such aggressions against the royal authority in
future.
By what allurements the king and his counsellors were
able to lull to rest the suspicions which Douglas, conscious
of his own demerits, must have entertained of James's feel-
ings toward one by whom he had been publicly insulted, we
have no means of knowing. It appears that religion, too
often employed as the most efficient mask of sinister de-
signs, was not spared on the occasion ; and that Sir William
Crichton and Sir Patrick Gray had proposed to accompany
Douglas and his brother James, with Lord Hamilton, his
most powerful and faithful follower, upon a pilgrimage to
Canterbury. Although a safe-conduct was granted by the
English government for permitting this party of mingled
royalists with Douglas and his followers to approach the
shrine of Thomas a Becket, there was probably no intention
that it should ever be made use of. The mutual pilgrimage
was, in all likelihood, only proposed as one means of making
evident the sincerity of Crichton and others, since the offer
seemed to infer that these ministers of the king did not fear
to accompany Douglas and his brother amid the various and
doubtful incidents to which, in so long a journey, they must
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 315
have been exposed. Neither was it uncommon for ancient
enemies to testify the reality of a reconciliation by perform-
ing acts of devotion in company.
The various hopes and inducements which were held out
to Douglas, whatever was their precise character, were such
as, joined with a spirit which set him above personal doubt
or fear, induced the earl to visit the court in Lent, 1452. It
was then held in Stirling Castle. But Douglas was not so
confident in the sincerity of his recent reconciliation with the
court as to venture himself within the king's power without
an assurance of safety. He was accordingly furnished with
letters from the principal persons at court, promising to be
his warrant against any treachery, and, according to some
authors, was also furnished with an ample safe-conduct
under the great seal. His security thus provided for, the
earl repaired to Stirling with his five brethren and a large
band of his followers. Upon Shrove Tuesday he was hon-
ored with an invitation to sup with James in the castle,
which he accepted without suspicion. Douglas was kindly
received by the king, and the evening passed away in mirth
and festivity. As they rose from the supper-table, about
eight in the evening, the king led the earl apart into the
recess of a deep window and began to expostulate with him
on his late irregularities. No one was near them; but some
of the privy-councillors and Sir Patrick Gray, with a few of
the royal guards, were in the body of the apartment. At
length in the course of his argument the king touched upon
the bond or league in which Douglas had engaged with the
Earls of Crawford and Ross, and earnestly urged him to re-
nounce it as a confederacy inconsistent with his allegiance,
dangerous to the state, and contrary to the express law of
the realm. The earl haughtily replied that, his faith being
once pledged to that bond as a solemn engagement, he could
not with his honor renounce it, nor would he do so for the
words of any living man. "By Heaven, then," said the
Mng, his wrath being excited to the uttermost by the obsti-
nate and disrespectful answer of the earl, "if you will not
316 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
break the confederacy, this shall." So saying, he drew his
dagger and plunged it in Douglas's body. Sir Patrick Gray
came to the assistance of the king, and, not unmindful of his
vow of revenge, beat Douglas down with his battle-axe, and
all the courtiers present attested their approbation of the
deed, by striking their knives and daggers into the too
powerful subject, who lay now a corpse at the feet of his
sovereign.
The character of James II. suffered a great stain by the
death of Douglas, slain by his own hand while the royal
guest, under sanction of the public faith. But circumstances
acquit the king of the premeditated guilt of the action, and
show it to have been the furious explosion of a sudden gust
of passion, which, if pardonable in any person, may plead
some excuse in the case of a prince braved to the face by
his subject. Indeed, what end could the king or his coun-
sellors propose to themselves by taking the earl's life, when
in the very town of Stirling, at the moment of the deed, he
had five surviving brothers, men of undaunted courage and
resolution, the eldest of whom must have succeeded, as in
fact he did, to the full power of the slaughtered earl? Such
a crime, therefore, could only be the means of instantly pre-
cipitating that dreadful struggle between the crown and the
aristocracy which it was the interest of the court to delay till
some more favorable opportunity, and which would certainly
be most impoliticly commenced by an act carrying with it
the disadvantage of exposing the king to a charge of perfidy
or breach of faith. If, however, it is to be believed that the
death of Douglas was a premeditated action, it is still cer-
tain that the manner in which it was perpetrated must have
arisen out of accident, since there occur so many obvious
reasons why other agency than that of the king himself
should have been employed for his removal, and in finding
such there could have been no difficulty.
But the reader may demand, what could be the purpose
of James, if not to rid himself of his turbulent subject by
death? If we are to substitute conjecture where certainty
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 317
is not to be had, we may suggest the probability that the
king had determined to arrest Douglas in case he was found
intractable, and to detain him a hostage for the quiet de-
meanor of his family, until his league with the northern
earls was broken and the height of his dangerous power
was in some degree diminished. There might be in this
device some part of the policy, as well as the unscrupulous
breach of faith, which characterized the politics of such a
statesman as Crichton; and considering the vehement char-
acter of James II. and the stubborn and presumptuous dis-
position of the earl, it is easy to conceive how, in a personal
interview between two such hot and passionate spirits, the
intended purpose of arrest should have been changed for one
of a more bloody and decisive character.
The five brothers of the slaughtered earl, on hearing his
fate, instantly assembled themselves, and, with the friends
of their powerful family, recognized the eldest of their
number as Earl of Douglas, being the last that was fated
to wear that formidable title. The assembly vowed revenge
for the blood of Earl William; but, instead of pressing an
instant siege of Stirling Castle, ere it was supplied with pro-
visions or means of defence, they agreed to meet there in
arms on the 25th day of March. They assembled accord-
ingly, bringing with them the safe-conduct granted to Earl
William, which they dragged in scorn at the tail of a lean
cart-horse ; and in further reprobation of the king's treach-
ery, they proclaimed him and his advisers and accomplices
in the death of Douglas false, perjured, and forsworn men,
while four hundred horns blew out at once to attest the fact
thus formally promulgated. They then burned the town of
Stirling, but drew off their forces, as finding themselves still
unable to attempt the siege of the castle, so that the king
obtained some breathing-space to improve his affairs in a
very dangerous crisis.
Several of the nobility, seeing it absolutely necessary to
take a part in the approaching contest, declared for the law-
ful authority of the crown, feeling, probably, that the con-
318 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
trol of a sovereign prince was more honorable certainly, and
not likely to be so severe as that of the House of Douglas.
Among those who held such opinions was an important chief
of the House of Douglas itself, namely, the Earl of Angus,
who, being nearly related to the king, preferred the royal
service to that of the head of his own house. The Lord
Douglas of Dalkeith also held out his castle, so named,
against the fiercest attacks of the earl his namesake and
kinsman. The king's most powerful adherent was, how-
ever, Alexander Gordon, the first earl of Huntley, who
arrayed under the royal standard a great part of the north-
ern barons, and marched southward at their head toward
Stirling.
The Earl of Crawford was, however, faithful to his bond
of alliance, though Douglas, with whom it had been con-
tracted, was no more. Being cited to justify himself against
an accusation of treason, he refused to obey, and assembling
a strong army of his friends in Fifeshire and Angusshire, he
took post at Brechin, in order to intercept Huntley on his
march toward Stirling. On the evening before the expected
battle, Huntley, that his men might have more spirit in the
encounter the next day, distributed many fair lands among
the leaders of his army. Crawford followed a more nig-
gardly policy. Collasse of Balnamoon, or Bonnymoon, who
commanded a select division of axemen and billmen in the
earl's army, feeling his own importance, requested of the
earl, who was superior of his lands, that he would enter his
son as vassal in the fief, which Crawford sternly refused
to do. Collasse retired in discontent. The fight on the
morrow, May 18, 1452, commenced with great fury, and
the men of Angus attacked the northern troops so furiously
as forced them to recoil, and placed the king's standard in
danger. At this critical moment, John Collasse, whose
duty it was to have sustained the assailants, led his division
of billmen out of the line, and exposed the centre of Craw-
ford's army without support, while the left wing engaged
with the enemy. Huntley instantly availed himself of the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 319
opportunity to assault and break the troops who were thus
laid open. The fortune of the field was thus changed, and
the defeated Earl of Crawford retreated in great displeasure
to his house at Finhaven. A gentleman of Huntley's army
is said to have pursued the vanquished earl so closely, that
he at last became completely involved in a crowd of^ the
immediate attendants of Lord Crawford, and finding it
necessary for his safety to pass for one of the number, he
followed them in that character into the house of Finhaven,
where he heard the earl say he would have been content to
have purchased that day's victory, though it were at the
penalty of seven years' residence in the infernal regions.
The gentleman brought back these words to King James,
with a silver cup, bearing the Earl of Crawford's arms,
which he had subtracted from the sideboard in the confu-
sion, to be a voucher of his strange adventure.
The Earl of Huntley did not derive much immediate
advantage from his victory. He was instantly recalled to
the north, by the intelligence that the Earl of Murray, one
of the brethren of the Earl of Douglas, had burned his castle
of Strathbogie, and was ravaging his estates : so that Craw-
ford remained in Angus as arbitrary as before, spoiling the
lands and destroying the houses of such as had joined the
king or Huntley against him. Despairing, however, of
making an effectual resistance against the sovereign au-
thority, this bold and fierce lord at length submitted him-
self in the most humble manner to the king's mercy, and
was received with some degree of favor. The king rode
to visit him at the house of Finhaven, where he was duti-
fully and respectfully entertained; and James is said to
have thrown a flagstone from the battlements of the castle
down into the ditch, that he might, without injury to the
earl or his mansion, fulfil a vow which he had made in his
anger, that he would make the highest stone of that house
the lowest.
Shortly afterward (1454) some species of peace or truce
seems to have been patched up between the king ano>the
320 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Earl of Douglas, with little sincerity on either side, but from
a feeling of unwillingness in both to carry to extremity a
contest which must inevitably terminate in the destruction
of the House of Douglas or that of Stewart, now exasperated
by mutual wrongs, and placed in the most direct opposition
to each other. But the pause of a few months again awak-
ened the contending families to contention, which had never
perhaps been actually suspended, but was now to be final
and decisive. The forces of the parties stood thus matched:
In the north the king's interest predominated, though
not without a struggle; Huntley having been defeated by
Murray, at a swampy spot called the Bog of Dunkintie.
The consequence of these feuds to the community at large
may be guessed by the fate of the town of Elgin. One part
of the town was burned by the Earl of Murray as the prop-
erty of citizens who favored the Gordon: Huntley having
recovered the superiority in his turn, it is most likely the
other half was consumed as houses belonging to adherents
of Douglas. Meantime both Murray and Ormond felt in
the long run unequal to defend themselves in the north
against the families of distinction who joined the king's
standard, and they both retreated to the Hebrides.
The Earl of Douglas, after the temporary reconcilement
with his sovereign, had retreated to England with several
members of his family, and particularly with Margaret,
called the Fair Maiden of Galloway, widow of the murdered
Earl William, whose hand, notwithstanding their near rela-
tionship, the present earl was desirous to secure, on account
of the rich dowry that was attached to possessing it. The
dispensation which was necessary to authorize a marriage
so objectionable was applied for at Kome; but, through the
interest, doubtless, of the Scottish king, it was refused. The
earl endeavored to effect a union with her, even without
leave of the Church; but the lady in disgust fled to the
Scottish king, and accused Douglas of having pressed a
union upon her, and even made a pretended celebration of
nuptials, though without the license of the pope.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 321
For this and other causes Earl Douglas was, in 1454,
summoned to appear before the king's privy-council, or per-
haps before the parliament. He answered by a placard
nailed secretly on the church doors and cross of Edinburgh,
upbraiding the king with having murdered two chiefs of the
family of Douglas, and bidding him defiance. James II.
retaliated this contumacy by immediately raising a small
army of Westland men and Highlanders, with which he rav-
aged the territories of Douglas, and destroyed the crop.
Next spring the spoiling of the country was renewed.
Finally, the king, as a decisive blow, sent the Earls of
Orkney and Angus, with a considerable army, to lay siege
to Abercorn, a strong castle of the Douglas's, situated about
ten miles from Edinburgh. The Earl of Douglas, on his
part, had almost absolute authority upon the borders, and
it cost him little more than the waving of his banner to col-
lect an army of forty thousand men, who were rendered by
their very birth and situation soldiers from the cradle. With
this predominant force the Earl of Douglas advanced to raise
the siege of Abercorn, and gage the fortunes of his princely
house against those of a crowned king and the subjects who
adhered to him.
James himself is said to have shrunk from the contest
when he looked on it more closely ; and there were moments
of despondency, in which he spoke of abandoning Scotland.
Sir "William Crichton, his subtle but apparently faithful min-
ister, had died before these second tumults commenced ; but
he had a wise and able counsellor in James Kennedy, arch-
bishop of Saint Andrew's, to whose advice he listened on
this occasion. This sagacious prelate reminded James that
the camp of the Douglas, though containing a very large
host, consisted of numerous chieftains who followed the
insurgent earl not from attachment, but either out of awe
for his power, or hopes that they might gain something in
the conflict. Could the expectations and fears of such per-
sons be withdrawn from Douglas and fixed on the king, there
would be no difficulty in transferring their allegiance to the
322 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
crown. "The foe," said the sagacious prelate, "are like a
sheaf of arrows : while they remain bound together, it were
vain to attempt to break them; but sever the tie which
unites them together, and a child may shiver them one
after another."
Acting upon the counsel which he gave, the primate
undertook to lop a main limb from the Douglas's enterprise,
by a private communication with Hamilton, who commanded
a chosen body of troops in Douglas's army. He had been
the uniform and attached friend of Earl William of Douglas,
murdered at Stirling, and was now that of Earl James. But
he began to perceive that the latter had too little of the deci-
sive character belonging to his house, to bring the present
conflict to an honorable or advantageous issue. He listened,
therefore, but did not close immediately with the proposal
of the archbishop that he should embrace the royal party,
and he hesitated between the sense of what was most for his
own interest and personal advantage, and that which friend-
ship and honor required of him.
The king now advanced with his host, and Douglas drew
out his forces to meet him. The king's heralds, advancing,
charged the rebels to disperse, under the pains of treason ;
and though Douglas returned a scornful answer, he saw the
royal proclamation had such influence on his army that he
was induced to suspend the impending action till next day,
and lead his troops back into his intrenchments. Douglas
had no sooner entered his pavilion than Hamilton requested
to speak with him, and demanded positive information
whether it was the earl's purpose to fight or^zno, declaring
it was high time they should know his mind, since, while
the royal army was every day increasing, theirs was thinned
by constant desertion. "If you are tired," answered Doug-
las, without further explanation of his intention, "you are
welcome to be gone." Hamilton took the earl at his word,
and that very night passed over to the royal camp from that
of Douglas with the chosen troops which he commanded,
being three hundred horse and as many infantry. The
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 323
example was contagious, for the character of Hamilton for
prudence and sagacity stood very high. All the chiefs con-
sidered his change of sides as an example tending to show
them the only possible mode of escaping from ruin, and
contended which should be the first to act upon it. The
army of the insurgents dissolved like a snow-wreath in a
sudden thaw, and on the fateful morning succeeding that
in which the Earl Douglas led out a host of nearly forty thou-
sand men, his empty camp scarce contained a hundred sol-
diers save his own household troops.
The secession of Hamilton to the royal cause was deserv-
edly regarded as excellent service. He was, for appearance'
sake, put in ward for a while at Roslin, under the charge
of the Earl of Orkney. But the king's favor was shown
to him by large grants of forfeited estates, and by the title
of Lord of Parliament, which raised first to nobility the great
ducal House of Hamilton.
The Earl of Douglas broke up his camp and withdrew
with his diminished squadrons to take refuge in the wildest
districts of the border, where they lurked as exiles and fugi-
tives in the countries which they had lately commanded with
sovereign power. The castle of Abercorn, despairing of re-
lief, soon surrendered, and of the defenders some principal
persons were put to death for holding out the place against
the king. James II. proceeded to march his army through
the west and south of Scotland, where his powerful oppo-
nents had lately been proprietors of the soil, and leaders, if
not tyrants, of the people, and with slight resistance reduced
all the strong places of the Douglases to his own authority.
Douglas Castle itself, that of Strathaven, and that of the
Thrieve, were in this manner taken and demolished.
About the same time, and while the king was making his
triumphal progress, Douglas himself fled into England with
a very few attendants. His three brothers, Moray, Ormond,
and Balveny, remained on the borders at the head of the re-
mains of the followers of their family, and maintained them
by military license. This, and the hope of benefiting by thei*"
824 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
forfeitures, aroused against them the clan of Scott, already,
under their chief, Buccleuch, rising into formidable distinc-
tion in the west and middle marches. The Beattiesons, a
numerous and bold people, with other borderers, united un-
der the leading of Scott. All these clans had been lately
numbered among the vassals of Douglas, and had owned his
authority; but the failure before Abercorn had emboldened
them to throw off the yoke, and bid defiance to the banners
under which they had at no distant period ranked them-
selves. A conflict took place at Arkinholm, near Langholm,
May 1, 1455, where the bands of Douglas were totally de-
feated by these border clans. The Earl of Moray was slain;
the Earl of Ormond taken prisoner, condemned, and exe-
cuted; and of the brethren of Douglas the Lord Balveny
alone escaped into England.
The history of this, the last of the original branch of the
Douglas family, may as well be terminated here. Having
during his prosperity maintained a close intercourse with the
House of Tork, who were then in power, Douglas was hos-
pitably received in England. In the year 1483, he, with the
Duke of Albany, then a banished noble like himself, made
an incursion into Scotland, having vowed they would make
their offer on the high altar of Lochmaben upon St. Mag-
dalen's Day. The west border men rose to repel the incur-
sion. The exiles were defeated, and the Earl of Douglas
struck from his horse. Surrounded by enemies, and seeing
on the field a son of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, once his own
follower, the earl surrendered himself to him in preference
to others, that, as an old friend, he might profit by the re-
ward of one hundred pound land ' set upon his head. Kirk-
patrick wept to see the extremity to which his old master was
reduced, and offered to set him at liberty and fly with him
into England. But Douglas, weary of exile, was resigned
to his fate. "When the aged prisoner came before the king,
James III. commanded him to be put into the cloister at
1 A one hundred pound land is a Scottish phrase.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 325
Lindores. The earl only replied, "He that may no better
must be a monk." He assumed the tonsure accordingly,
and died about 1488.
Thus, after an obscure conflict with those who had been
so lately its dependents, fell, and forever, the formidable
power of the House of Douglas, which had so lately meas-
ured itself against that of monarchy. It can only be com-
pared to the gourd of the prophet, which, spreading with
such miraculous luxuriance, was withered in a single night,
The indecision and imbecility of Earl James, who did not
chance to possess the qualities of military skill and political
wisdom which had seemed till his time almost hereditary in
this great family, appear to have been the immediate cause
of their destruction. But there was moral justice in the les-
son that a house raised to power by the inappreciable services
and inflexible loyalty of the good Lord James and his suc-
cessors should fall by the irregular ambition and treasonable
practices of its later chiefs.
In a parliament called at Edinburgh some care was taken
that lavish grants of the domains of the crown should not be-
come again the cause of bringing the kingdom into dangor;
"forasmuch," says the statute, "as the poverty of the crown
is often the cause of the poverty of the realm. " It was there-
fore declared that certain castles and domains should be in-
alienably annexed to the crown. It was further provided
that the important office of warden of the marches, which
comprehended so much power, and the command of so many
warlike clans, should not be hereditary; that, in like man-
ner, regalities, or jurisdictions possessing regal power, should
not in future be bestowed upon subjects without the consent
of the estates. These enactments were judiciously calculated
to prevent the raising up in any other family the same power
of disturbing the domestic tranquillity which the Douglases
had so unhappily attained.
Yet, though the policy of retaining these forfeitures in
the crown was distinctly seen, it could not in prudence be
invariably acted upon. The king had no other means of
326 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
rewarding the services of the loyal chiefs who had stood by
the crown in the last struggle than by grants out of the
estates of the traitors; and the lands of the Douglas family,
large as they were, were inadequate to satisfy the numerous
expectants. The chief of these was the Earl of Angus, a
large and flourishing branch of the Douglas, sprung from
a second son of the earl of the principal family. The pres-
ent Angus, as already mentioned, had been a loyalist during
his kinsman's usurpation, which, from the difference of the
family complexion, led to a popular saying that the Red
Douglas had put down the Black. The Earl of Angus was
rewarded with a grant of Douglas Castle with its valley and
domains, of Tantallon Castle, and other large portions of the
ancient estates of the Douglas family; an imprudent profu-
sion, it must be allowed, since it served to raise this younger
branch to a height not much less formidable to the crown
than that which the original Douglases had attained. Gor-
don, in the north, was not forgotten ; and the southern chief-
tains, profiting largely by the forfeiture of the Douglases,
easily obtained gifts of considerable possessions, which no
one but they themselves could have occupied with safety.
In a word, if the king distinctly saw the policy of enriching
the crown, which the statutes of his reign imply, it is as cer-
tain he found it impossible to follow the maxim rigidly with-
out restricting the necessary bounty to his adherents. It
was no time to lose men's hearts for lack of liberality; for
the ashes of the civil hostility were still glowing in the re-
moter districts of Scotland, and a national war with England
was impending.
A chief, termed John, lord of the Isles, had succeeded to
Alexander, whose submission to James I. has been already
noticed. He still took on him the title of Earl of Ross, and
had, as usual, taken care to avail himself of the disturbances
of the mainland by entering into a league with the Earl of
Douglas. This negotiation had been concluded by one of
the earl's brethren, who had bestowed on the insular chief
and his Celtic followers much good wine, with silken cloths
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 327
and silver, for which they received in exchange mantles or
Highland plaids. In consequence of councils adopted on this
occasion, John of the Isles ravaged InverMp with a fleet of
twenty-score of galleys, and five or six thousand men. He
made a great booty, and slew some able-bodied men, with
several women and children. On this occasion also he plun-
dered Bute, Arran, and the small isles called Cumrays, that
lie in the mouth of the Clyde. In March, 1451, we find this
turbulent chief once more in action. He took the important
castles of Inverness, Urquhart, and Ruthven in Badenoch,
garrisoned the former, and destroyed the latter fortresses.
This violence he committed at the instance of his father-in-
law, James Livingston, alleging that the king had promised
him a large lordship with the daughter of the said James
Livingston, but had not kept his word. It appears that
having performed these feats John retired, and afterward
submitted himself on condition of pardon.
A war with England was the next object of interest dur-
ing the active reign of James II. In 1459 he invaded Eng-
land with six thousand men, burned and plundered the
country for twenty miles inland, and destroyed eighteen
towers and fortalices. The Scottish army remained on En-
glish ground six days, without battle being offered, and
returned home without loss, and with worship and honor.
On James's retreat, the Duke of York, and Earl Salisbury,
with other English nobles, led to the border a body of about
four or five thousand men ; but having differed in opinion of
the plan of the campaign, they quarrelled among themselves,
and retired with disgrace. The cause of these internal dis-
cords in the English camp probably arose out of the dissen-
sions concerning the red and white roses, which were now
engrossing the nation. The truce with England was pro-
longed for nine years. James, however, seems to have
deemed the period favorable for recovering such Scottish
possessions as were still held by the English; accordingly,
we find him breaking through the truce.
It was with this view that the king collected a numerous
328 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
army, and laid siege to Roxburgh, in 1460, which had now
been in possession of the English since the captivity of David
II., and, as a military post, was of the greatest importance,
being very strongly situated between the Tweed and Teviot,
and not far from their confluence, in the most fertile part of
the Scottish frontier. John, the lord of the Isles, appeared
in the royal camp, to atone for former errors and treason-
able actions by zeal on the present occasion. He led a select
body of Highlanders and Islesmen armed with shirts of mail,
two-handed swords, bows, and battle-axes, with which he
offered to take the vanguard of the army should it be neces-
sary to enter England, and to march a mile before the main
body, so as to encounter the first brunt of the onset. Inva-
sion, however, made no part of James's purpose on this oc-
casion. He was desirous to recover possession of Roxburgh,
and not being apprehensive of relief from England, resolved
to proceed in the siege according to formal rule. He be-
leaguered the castle on every side, and battered it from the
north of the Tweed, his cannon being placed in the Duke of
Roxburgh's park of Fleurs. James was proud of his train
of cannon, and of the skill of a French engineer, who could
level them so truly as to hit within a fathom of the place
he aimed at, which, in those days, was held extraordinary
practice. The siege had not continued many days when the
arrival of the Earl of Huntley, to whose valor and fidelity
the king had been so much indebted, with a gallant body of
forces from the north, increased the king's hopes of succeed-
ing in his enterprise. He received his noble and faithful ad-
herent with the greatest marks of respect and regard, and
conducted him to see his batteries.
Unhappily, standing in the vicinity of a gun which was
about to be discharged, the rude mass, composed of ribs of
iron, bound together by hoops of the same metal, burst
asunder, and a fragment striking the king on the thigh,
broke it asunder, and killed him on the spot. The Earl of
Angus was severely wounded on the same occasion.
Thus fell James II. of Scotland, in the twenty -ninth year
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 329
of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. His person
was strong and well put together, and he was reckoned ex-
cellent at all exercises. His face would have been hand-
some, had it not been partly disfigured by a red spot, which
procured him from his subjects the name of James with the
Fiery Face. Of the natural violence of his temper he had
given an unfortunate proof, by suffering himself to be sur-
prised into a violation of faith toward Douglas. His sub-
jects seem, however, to have considered this as the act of
momentary passion; and James's clemency to Crawford,
who, in the words of the chronicler, had been "right dan-
gerous to the king," after that earl was entirely in his
power, as well as the small number of persons who suffered
for rebellions which shook the very throne, made his temper
appear merciful, compared to that of his father, James I.
He possessed the gift of being able to choose wise counsel-
lors, and had the sense to follow their advice when chosen.
In the display which James II. was called on to make of
his military talents, he showed both courage and conduct.
His death was an inexpressible loss to his country, which
was again plunged into the miseries of a long minority.
James II. left three sons : James, his successor ; Alexan-
der, duke of Albany; and John, who was created earl of
Mar; with two daughters, Mary and Margaret, of whom
we shall have occasion to say more hereafter.
330 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER XX
Roxburgh is taken — Administration during James's Minority — He
assumes the Royal Authority, by Advice of the Boyds — The
younger Boyd is created Earl of Arran, and married to the
King's Sister — He negotiates a Marriage between the King and
a Princess of Denmark, and obtains the Orkney and Zetland
Islands in security of the Dowry: is disgraced, and dies in
obscurity — Treaty of Marriage between the Prince of Scotland
and a Daughter of England, and its Conditions: broken off by
Edward IV. — Submission of the Lord of the Isles — Character of
James III. — His favorite Pursuits — His Disposition to Favor-
itism — Character of Albany and Mar, the King's Brothers —
The King imprisons them on suspicion — Albany escapes — Mar
is murdered — War with England — Conspiracy of Lauder — The
King's Favorite seized and executed — Intrigues of Albany — He
is received into his Brother's Favor; but is afterward again
banished — Peace with England — The King gives way to his
Taste for Music and Building — Conspiracy of the Southern
Nobles — Battle of Sauchie Burn, and the King's Murder
THE sudden death of James II. struck such a damp
into the Scottish nobles that they were about to
abandon the siege of Roxburgh, and break up their
camp, when the courage of Mary of Guelders, the widowed
queen, reanimated their spirits. She arrived in the camp
almost immediately after the king's death, and throwing
herself and her son, their infant sovereign, upon the faith
of the Scottish lords, conjured them never to remove the
siege from this ill-fated castle till they had laid it in ruins.
The nobles caught fire at her exhortations. They crowned
their king at the neighboring abbey of Kelso, with such
ceremonies of homage and royalty as the time admitted,
and, pressing the siege with double vigor, compelled the
English garrison to surrender on terms. The castle of Rox-
HISTOEY OF SCOTLAND 331
burgh they levelled to the ground, agreeably to the policy
recommended by Robert Bruce. The vestiges of its walls
still show the extent and consequence of which it had for-
merly boasted.
The queen-regent naturally retained a considerable influ-
ence in the government, and seems to have acted for some
time as regent, with the assistance of a council of state.
Her conduct, however, which was not personally respecta-
ble, considerably diminished her influence before her death,
which took place when she was in the full vigor of life.
Kennedy, archbishop of St. Andrew's, the wise and loyal
friend of his father, became the personal guardian of the
infant king. The rapid changes of fortune occurring in
the wars of York and Lancaster saved Scotland during this
minority from the dangers arising from her ambitious neigh-
bors. The meek usurper, Henry VI., was received with
hospitality in Scotland during his exile after the battle of
Towton, 1461 ; and Berwick, an important acquisition, was
delivered up by his authority to the Scots, and duly garri-
soned. The assistance rendered by Scotland to the dethroned
king occasioned a brief war with England, urged with little
zeal on either side, and which soon terminated by a truce,
which in 1463 was extended to the unusually long period of
fifty-four years.
The death of the queen-mother and of Archbishop Ken-
nedy now opened to the king, who was in his fourteenth
year, the dangerous privilege of acting for himself. Sub-
ject all his life to the weakness of adopting favorites, to
whom he intrusted the charge of public affairs, when the
nation had a right to expect they should be administered by
himself personally, James surrendered himself to his imme-
diate partialities. Robert, Lord Boyd, and his two sons,
were at this time high in James's confidence; and the royal
favor filled them with such presumption that they removed
the person of the king from those to whom his custody had
been committed by the estates of the kingdom, and brought
him to Edinburgh, under pretence of setting him at liberty.
332 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
A new parliament was convoked, in which Lord Boyd was
formally pardoned for his late audacious enterprise ; and, to
add to the authority of the family, the Princess Margaret,
eldest daughter of James II., and sister to the king, was
given in marriage to Sir Thomas Boyd, who was at the
same time created Earl of Arran.
An important acquisition to the Scottish dominions was
effected in this reign (1467), feeble as it was. The Orkney
Islands had as yet remained part of the Norwegian domin-
ions, having been seized by that people in the ninth century.
A large sum of money was due from Scotland to Denmark,
being the arrears of the annual, as it was called, of Norway.
This was the annuity of one hundred marks, due to Norway
as the consideration for the cession of the Hebrides, or "West-
ern Isles, settled by the treaty of 1264, entered into after
Haco's defeat at the battle of Largs. James I. had obtained
some settlement respecting this annuity; but it had been
again permitted to fall into arrear, and the amount of the
debt had become uncertain.
Under the influence of Charles VII. of France, there had
been negotiations between Denmark and Scotland for the
final arrangement of these claims, which were renewed in
1468. Boyd, the young Earl of Arran, seems to have man-
aged this treaty with considerable dexterity. It was finally
agreed that James III. should wed a daughter of the Prin-
cess of Denmark, whom her father proposed to endow with
a portion of sixty thousand florins, of which ten thousand
only were to be paid in ready money, and for security of the
remainder the islands of Orkney were to be assigned in pledge.
In addition to this, Denmark renounced all claim to the ar-
rears of the annuity payable on account of the cession of the
Hebrides, which seem to have been given up as an old, pre-
scribed, and somewhat desperate claim. "When the term for
payment of the ten thousand florins arrived, Christian of
Denmark found himself so short of money that he could only
produce the fifth part of the sum, and for the rest an assign-
ment of security over the archipelago of Zetland was offered
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 333
and gladly accepted. Thus Scotland acquired a right of
mortgage to the whole of these islands, constituting the an-
cient Thule, so important to her in every point of view, and
which, as we shall hereafter see, the crown of Denmark was
never able to redeem.
While the Earl of Arran was negotiating this national
treaty, his influence with the king was undermined by those
courtiers who envied his sudden elevation, and the prefer-
ence which James had displayed toward him and his fam-
ily. "When the earl arrived in the Firth of Forth with the
fleet which escorted the Danish princess to the shores where
she was to reign, Arran 's wife, the Princess Margaret, came
on board to acquaint him that if he landed his life would be
in danger. They fled together, therefore ; and the new Earl
of Arran returned to Denmark, to seek refuge from the in-
dignation of his fickle prince, for whom he had so lately
achieved, in the same kingdom, such important negotia-
tions. In the meantime the total ruin of his friends at home
took place, almost without opposition, and the power of the
House of Boyd was destroyed as speedily as it arose. It is
vain to inquire why a weak prince should be as changeable
as he was violent in his partialities. Sentence of high trea-
son was passed upon the Boyds for their aggression in 1466,
though fully pardoned by a subsequent parliament. Sir
Alexander Boyd suffered death ; the Lord Boyd escaped to
England, where he died in poverty. The Earl of Arran,
who appears by his personal qualities to have "merited the
confidence which the king had so suddenly withdrawn, seems
to have received but a cold welcome in Denmark. The Prin-
cess Margaret was separated from him and sent back to Scot-
land, on the demand, it may be presumed, of her royal
brother ; and her unfortunate husband, after wandering as
an exile from one country to another, died, it is said, in
Flanders. His death, or a divorce between him and the
Princess Margaret, obtained by the influence of James, gave
an opportunity for forming a second marriage between the
king's sister and the Lord Hamilton, the heir of a family
334 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
which had been rising in influence and importance ever since
the first lord of the name so opportunely embraced the cause
of the king, in the grand struggle of James II. with the
House of Douglas. The princess had a family by both mar-
riages; but Boyd's son and daughter died without heirs;
while her son by Hamilton survived, so that in Queen Mary's
time their descendant stood first in succession to the crown.
In the parliament of 1469, held after the fall of the Boyds,
we see the good sense of the people of Scotland displayed in
an act declaring that every homicide who flees to sanctuary
shall be taken forth and put to the judgment of an assize;
"for to such manslayers of forethought felony," said the
statute, ' 'the law will not grant the immunity of the Church. "
The sceptre of France was now swayed by Louis XI., one
of the most wise of princes and most worthless of men, of
whom it can be hardly said, whether he were more supersti-
tious or sagacious, more prudent and liberal, or more perfidi-
ous and cruel. He was aware of the importance of the Scot-
tish league to the safety of France, as affording a ready means
of annoyance against England. Edward IV. of England
became, on the other hand, sensible that it was better to ac-
quire, if possible, the goodwill of his northern neighbors by
friendly means, and thus secure his frontier at home, while
he undertook the invasion of France, which he meditated,
than, with the haughty policy of his predecessors, to renew
the attempt of subjugating Scotland by force. By a treaty
entered into in 1474, it was agreed that, in order to promote
the mutual happiness, honor, and interest of this noble isl-
and, called Great Britain, a contract of marriage should be
executed between the Prince of Scotland and Cecilia, daugh-
ter of the king of England, the former being only two, the
latter four, years old. A portion of twenty thousand marks
sterling was to be paid by annual instalments of two thou-
sand marks, to commence with the date of the contract. If
the prince or princess named in the contract should die, it
was agreed that another of the royal family to which the
deceased party might belong should fill up his or her place
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 335
in the contract. If such marriage did not take place, Scot-
land became bound to repay the sum of money advanced in
manner aforesaid, under the deduction of two thousand five
hundred marks, which Edward agreed to abandon as a con-
sideration paid for the friendship of Scotland at a critical
period. By the same treaty, the long truce of fifty-five
years was affirmed and secured.
It appears from this remarkable treaty that the policy of
Louis XI., who maintained his power in Europe more by in-
fluence and subsidies than by the direct exercise of positive
violence and force, was becoming general through Europe,
and had been adopted by England.
The payment of the Princess Cecilia's portion so long be-
fore the possibility of an effectual marriage taking place,
afforded an honorable pretext for England to give and Scot-
land to receive by instalments a certain large sum of money
or subsidy, by which annual gratification she was to be in-
duced to maintain amity with her wealthier neighbor. Ed-
ward IV. was, however, too impetuous and too necessitous
to continue long this expensive, though secure course of
policy. Three years' instalments of the proposed portion
were paid with regularity; but Edward in the course of
1478 conceived he stood so well with France as might enable
him to dispense with the expensive friendship of Scotland.
In the same year in which the treaty of marriage with
England was fixed upon, the counsellors of James III. re-
solved to proceed to check the power of John, lord of the
Isles, and titular earl of Ross, whose insubordination again
had merited chastisement. After a show of resistance the
island lord submitted himself, and by an act of parliament
was finally deprived of the earldom of Ross, which was an-
nexed inalienably to the crown, with liberty to the kings to
convey it as an appanage to their younger sons, but to no
meaner subject. The humbled lord of the Isles was also
deprived of the regions of Knapdale and Cantire, which he
had possessed on the continent, and dismissed under promise
to be a submissive subject in future.
336 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
James III. had now, 1478, attained his twenty-first year,
under circumstances of success which had attended no Scot-
tish monarch since Robert Bruce. Hisjringdom was strength-
ened by the expulsion of the English from Roxburgh Castle
and the town of Berwick, as well as by the acquisition of the
Orkney and Zetland Islands, the natural dependencies of Scot-
land. The country was relieved of the charge of the Norway
annual, a burden it was incapable of discharging; and the
increasing consequence of the nation was manifested by the
contending offers of France and England for her favor and
friendship. All these advantages indicate that James had,
at this period of his reign, able ministers, by whom his coun-
cils were directed. The chief of these probably was the
chancellor, Andrew Stewart, Lord Evandale, whose impor-
tance was now so great that, in virtue of his office, he took
rank next to the princes of the blood royal. He was a natu-
ral son of Sir James Stewart, son of Murdach, duke of
Albany.
In the meantime the unfortunate James began to disclose
evil qualities and habits which his youth had hitherto con-
cealed from observation. He had a dislike to the active
sports of hunting and the games of chivalry, mounted on
horseback rarely, and rode ill. A consciousness of these
deficiencies, in what were the most approved accomplish-
ments of the age, and a certain shyness which attends a
timorous temper, rendered the king alike unfit and unwill-
ing to mingle in the pleasures of his nobility, or to show him-
self to his subjects in the romantic pageants which were the
delight of the age. James's amusements were of a char-
acter in which neither his peers nor people could share s and
though to a certain extent they were innocent and even hon-
orable, they were yet such as, pushed to excess, must have
necessarily interfered with the regular discharge of his royal
duties. He was attached to what are now called the fine
arts of architecture and music ; and in studying these used
the instructions of Rogers, an English musician, Cochrane,
a mason or architect, and Torphichen, a dancing-master.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 337
Another of his domestic minions was Hommil, a tailor, not
the least important in the conclave, if we may judge from
the variety and extent of the royal wardrobe, of which a
voluminous catalogue is preserved.
Spending his time with such persons, who, whatever their
merit might be in their own several professions, could not be
fitting company for a prince, James necessarily lost the taste
for society of a different description, whose rank imposed on
him a certain degree of restraint ; and with the habit of en-
gaging in good society easily, he left unpracticed the man-
ners which ought to distinguish the prince when mixing
with the nobility of his realm. Thus thrown back upon
his low-born associates, it was scarcely possible that James
should not have used the counsels of men totally ignorant in
political affairs, upon matters far above their sphere ; or that
they, with the presumption common to upstarts, should not
readily interpose their advice on such subjects. The nation,
therefore, with disgust and displeasure, saw the king disuse
the society of the Scottish nobles, and abstain from their
counsel, to lavish favors upon, and be guided by the advice
of, a few whom the age termed base mechanics.
In this situation, the public eye was fixed upon James's
younger brothers, Alexander, duke of Albany, and John,
earl of Mar. These princes were remarkable for the royal
qualities which the king did not possess. Being naturally
drawn into comparison with their brother, and extolled
above him by the public voice, James seems to have be-
come jealous of them, even on account of their possessing
the virtues or endowments which he himself was conscious
of wanting. It is too consonant with the practice of courts
to suppose that Mar and Albany were not quiescent under
this dishonorable suspicion and jealousy. It is probable
that they intrigued with the other discontented nobles ; with
what purpose, or to what extent, cannot now be ascertained.
Mar was accused of having inquired of pretended witches
concerning the term of the king's life; a suspicious subject
of inquiry, considering it was made by so near a relation;
15 <%, Vol. I.
338 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
and the progress of Albany's life shows him capable of
unscrupulous ambition.
The king, on his part, resorted to diviners and sooth-
sayers to know his own future fate; and the answer (prob-
ably dictated by the favorite Cochrane) was, that he should
fall by the means of his nearest of kin. The unhappy mon-
arch, with a self-contradiction, one of the many implied in
superstition, imagined that his brothers were the relations
indicated by the oracle ; and also imagined that his knowl-
edge of their intentions might enable him to alter the sup-
posed doom of fate.
In 1478, Albany and Mar were suddenly arrested, as the
king's suspicions grew darker and more dangerous; and
while the duke was confined in the castle of Edinburgh,
Mar was committed to that of Craigmillar. Conscious,
probably, that the king possessed matter which might afford
a pretext to take his life, Albany resolved on his escape.
He communicated his scheme to a faithful attendant, by
whose assistance he intoxicated, or, as some accounts say,
murdered the captain of the guard, and then attempted to
descend from the battlements of the castle by a rope. His
attendant made the essay first ; but the rope being too short,
he fell, and broke his thigh-bone. The duke, warned by
this accident, lengthened the rope with the sheets from his
bed, and made the perilous descent in safety. He trans-
ported his faithful attendant on his back to a place of se-
curity, then was received on board a vessel which lay in
the roads of Leith, and set sail for France, where he met
a hospitable reception, and was maintained by the bounty
of Louis XI.
In 1479, enraged at the escape of the elder of his cap-
tives, it would seem that James was determined to make
secure of Mar, who remained. There occur no records to
show that the unfortunate prince was subjected to any pub-
lic trial; nor can it be known, save by conjecture, how far
James III. was accessory to the perpetration of his murder,
which was said to be executed by bleeding the prisoner to
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 339
death in a bath. Several persons were at the same time
condemned and executed for acts of witchcraft, charged as
having been practiced, at Mar's instance, against the life of
the king.
About this time war broke out between the two sister
countries of Britain, after an interval of peace of unusual
duration. The blame may have originally laid with Eng-
land, who had violated the articles of the last treaty, in dis-
continuing the stipulated payment of the Princess Cecilia's
portion ; but the incursions of the Scots gave the first signal
for actual hostilities. "Wise regulations were laid down by
the Scottish parliament for garrisoning, with hired soldiers,
Berwick, the Hermitage Castle, and other fortresses on the
border, the expense to be defrayed from the public revenue.
If Edward IV., who is discourteously termed the reifar or
robber, should invade Scotland, it was appointed that the
king should take the field, and that the whole nobles and
commons should live or die with him.
Edward IV. on his part, desirous to obtain an advantage
similar to that which had been gained by Edward I. and
Edward III., by means of the Baliols' claim to the Scottish
throne, made proposals to the banished Duke of Albany that
he should set himself up as a competitor for his brother's
throne. Whatever had been the specious virtue of Albany,
it was of a kind easily seduced by temptation; and, like
Baliol in similar circumstances, he hastened from France
over to England, agreed to become king of Scotland under
the patronage of Edward, consented to resign the long-dis-
puted question of the independence of his country, promised
the abandonment of Berwick and other places on the border,
and undertook to restore to his estate the banished Earl of
Douglas, who was to be a party in the projected invasion.
Under this agreement, which was, however, kept strictly
secret, the celebrated Duke of Gloucester, afterward King
Richard III., was detached to the Scottish wars at the head
of a considerable army, and Albany accompanied him.
The Scottish king had in the meantime assembled his
340 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
army, and set forward against the enemy. But there ex-
isted a spirit of disaffection among his nobility, which led to
an unexpected explosion. Cochrane, the mason, the most
able, or at least the most bold of the king's plebeian fa-
vorites, had made so much money by accepting of bribes
and selling his interest in the king's favor, that he was
able to purchase from his master James, who added ava-
rice to the other vices of a grovelling and degraded spirit,
the earldom of Mar. It is an additional shade of meanness
in James's character, that, when satisfied with the amount
of the consideration to be paid, he never hesitated at con-
ferring upon a low-born upstart the lordship which had be-
longed to his late murdered brother. Cochrane proceeded
in his career. The insatiable extortioner amassed money
by indirect means of every kind; and one mode which par-
ticularly affected the poor was the debasement of the coin
of the realm, by mixing the silver with so much copper as
entirely to destroy its value. This adulterated coin was
called the Cochrane-plack, and was so favorite a specula-
tion of his, that, having been told it would be one day
called in, he answered scornfully, "Yes, on the day I am
hanged"; an unwitting prophecy, which was punctually
accomplished.
The rank and state affected by the new Earl of Mar only
more deeply incensed the nobility, who considered their order
as disgraced by the introduction of such a person. A band
of three hundred men constantly attended the favorite armed
with battle-axes, and displaying his livery of white with
black fillets. He himself used to appear in a riding- suit of
black velvet, his horn mounted with gold, and hung around
his neck by a chain of the same metal. In this manner he
joined the Scottish host. The army had advanced from the
capital as far as Lauder, when the nobility, beginning to
feel sensible of their power in a camp consisting chiefly of
their own soldiers and feudal followers, resolved that they
would meet together, and consult what measures were to
be taken for the reform of the abuses of the commonwealth,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 341
having already in vain represented their grievances to the
king.
The armed conclave was held in Lauder Church, where,
in the course of their deliberations, Lord Gray reminded
them of the fable in which the mice are said to have laid a
project for preventing the future ravages of the cat by tying
a bell around her neck, which might make them aware of
her approach. "An excellent proposal," said the orator,
"but which fell unexpectedly to the ground, because none of
the mice had courage enough to fasten the bell on the cat's
neck." "I will bell the cat!" exclaimed Douglas, earl of
Angus; from which he was ever afterward called by the
homely appellation of Archibald Bell-the-Cat. It was agreed
that the king's favorite should be seized and put to death,
and the king himself should be placed under some gentle
restraint, until he should give satisfactory assurance of a
change of measures.
Just as this was determined on, Cochrane came to the
council, and demanded admission. He was suffered to enter
with some of his attendants, but was received with the scorn
and indignation which were the natural preface of actual
violence. Douglas of Lochleven, who kept the door, snatched
from him the hunting-horn that hung round his neck. ' ' Thou
hast hunted mischief," he said, "over long." Angus seized
the chain which held the bugle, saying, "A halter would
suit him better." "Is it jest or earnest, my lords?" said
the astonished favorite, surprised at his reception. "It is
sorrowful earnest," they answered, "and that thou shalt
presently feel." One or two, deemed the most grave of the
nobles, undertook to acquaint the king with their purpose;
while the others, seizing the minions who were the objects
of their violence, caused them to be hanged over the bridge
of Lauder. Cochrane, when brought to the place of execu-
tion, showed how much a paltry love of show made part of
his character. He made it his suit to be hanged in a silken
cord, and offered to supply it from his own pavilion. This
idle request only taught his stern auditors how to wound his
342 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
feelings more deeply, "Thou shalt die," they said, "like a
mean slave as thou art' ' ; and applied to the purpose of his
execution a halter of horsehair, as the most degrading means
of death which they could invent. This execution was done
with excessive applause on the part of the army. All the
favorites of the weak prince perished, except a youth called
Ramsay of Balmain, who clung close to the king's person;
James begged his life with so much earnestness that the
peers relented, and granted their sovereign's boon.
The consequences of this enterprise are very puzzling to
the historian. The Scottish nobility seem to have retired
with the determination not to oppose the English host in
arms, expecting, probably, that they would be able to settle
some accommodation by means of the Duke of Albany.
They were as yet ignorant of the disgraceful treaty which
he had made with England, and hoped to have the advan-
tage of his talents as a regent to direct the weak councils
of his brother James. In the meantime they subjected the
king to a mitigated imprisonment in Edinburgh Castle.
It would seem that Albany, perceiving the Scottish nobles
totally indisposed to admit his claim to the kingdom, was
willing enough to accept the proposal of becoming lieutenant-
general. That he might do so with the better grace, Albany
and the Duke of Gloucester interceded with the Scottish lords
for the liberation of the king. The nobles addressed the Duke
of Albany with much respect, and agreed to grant whatever
he desired, acknowledging him to be, after James's children,
the nearest of blood to the royal family. "But for that per-
son who accompanies you," they continued, in allusion to
the English prince, "we know nothing of him whatever, or
by what right he presumes to talk to us upon our national
affairs, and will pay no deference to his wishes, seeing he is
entitled to none."
The English, however, gained one important advantage
upon this occasion. The town of Berwick, which had been
delivered up to the Scots by Henry VI., and possessed by
them for nearly twenty years, was now taken by the troops
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 343
of Richard of Gloucester, and the castle being also yielded,
this strong fortress and valuable seaport never afterward
returned to the dominion of Scotland. In other respects the
English sought no national advantage by the pacification.
James was in this manner restored to his liberty, and,
either from fickleness of temper or profound dissimulation,
appeared for a time to be so much attached to Albany, that
he could not be separated from him for a moment. The
concord of the royal brethren showed itself by some dem-
onstrations which would seem strange at the present day.
They rode together, on one occasion, mounted on the same
horse, from the castle of Edinburgh, along the principal
street, down to the Abbey of Holyrood, to the great joy and
delectation of all good subjects. Every night, also, the king
and Albany partook the same bed.
But this fraternal concord, which must have had, from
the beginning, its source in a degree of affectation, did not
long continue; and, in 1483, the predominant disposition
of each prince disconcerted their union. The ambition of
Albany would have alarmed the fears of a less timorous
or suspicious man than James. It appears too plainly that
the duke resumed his treasonable practices with the court
of England, and it would seem that his intrigues were dis-
covered, and that the greater part of the Scottish nobles,
incensed at his perfidy, joined in expelling him from the
government. In 1484 doom of forfeiture was pronounced
against Albany, and he fled to England, having first, as
the last act of treachery in his power, delivered up his castle
of Dunbar to an English garrison, and thus, in so far as in
him lay, exposed the frontiers of which he was the warden.
The next year witnessed the battle of Lochmaben, the event
of a foray undertaken by Douglas and Albany into Annan-
dale, in which Douglas was made prisoner, and Albany
obliged to fly for his life. 1
Richard III. had now (1485) begun his brief and precari-
ous reign. A short negotiation speedily arranged a truce
1 See page 334.
344 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
with Scotland, which might have had some endurance if the
monarchs who made it had remained steady on their thrones.
But James, when he felt himself uncontrolled in his sover-
eignty, used it, as his inclinations determined him, in found-
ing expensive establishments for the cultivation of music,
and in the erection of chapels and palaces in a peculiar spe-
cies of architecture, in which the Gothic style was mingled
with an imitation of the Grecian orders. To meet the ex-
pense of these buildings and foundations, and to gratify his
natural love of amassing treasure, James watched and
availed himself of every opportunity by which he could
collect money ; nor did he hesitate to appropriate to these
favorite purposes funds which the haughty nobles were dis-
posed to consider as perquisites of their own. A particular
instance of this nature hurried on James's catastrophe.
In order to maintain the expenses of a double choir in the
royal chapel of Stirling, the king ventured to apply to that
purpose the revenues of the priory of Coldingham. The two
powerful families of Home and Hepburn had long accounted
this wealthy abbey their own property, insomuch that they
expected that the king would not have violated or interfered
with a family compact, by which they had agreed that the
prior of Coldingham should be alternately chosen from their
respective names. The king's appropriation of the revenues
which they had considered as destined to the advantage of
their friends and clansmen, disposed these haughty chiefs
to seek revenge as men who were suffering oppression.
The spirit of discontent spread fast among the southern
barons, much influenced by the Earl of Angus, a nobleman
both hated and feared by the king, who could not be sup-
posed to have forgotten the manner in which he had acquired
his popular epithet of Bell-the-Cat. In the vain hope of con-
trolling his discontented nobles, the king showed his fears
more than his wisdom by prohibiting them to appear at
court in arms, with the exception of Ramsay, whose life had
been spared upon his entreaty at the execution of Lauder
Bridge. James had made this young man captain of his
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 345
guard, and created him a peer, by the name of Lord Both-
well, under which title the new favorite had succeeded, if not
to the whole power, at least to much of the unpopularity
of Cochrane, whose fate he had so nearly shared.
A league was now formed against James, which was
daily increased by fresh adherents till it ended in a rebellion
which could be compared to no similar insurrection in Scot-
tish history, save that of the Douglas in the preceding reign.
The fate of James III. was not yet determined, notwith-
standing this powerful combination. He had on his side the
northern barons, and was at least as powerful as his father
had been at the siege of Abercorn. But he had not his
father's courage, nor the sage counsels of Bishop Kennedy.
His wife, Margaret of Denmark, who, there is reason to
think, had been a wise adviser as well as a most excellent
spouse, died at a critical period for her husband (1487).
Thus destitute of wise counsel, the king was advised (prob-
ably by Ramsay) to arrest suddenly the nobles concerned in
the conspiracy. Unfortunately for the issue of this scheme,
the king was unwise enough to admit Angus to knowledge
of his intentions. The earl instantly betrayed them to the
malcontents, who, instead of attending the king's summons
to court, withdrew to the southward, and raised their ban-
ners in open insurrection. James, unnerved by his fears,
repaired to the more northern regions, in which the strength
of his adherents lay, and by the assistance of Athole, Craw-
ford, Lindesay of the Byres, Ruthven, and other powerful
chiefs of the east and north, assembled a considerable army.
The insurgent lords advanced to the southern shores of the
Forth.
During some indecisive skirmishes, and equally indecisive
negotiations, the associated nobles contrived to get into their
hands the king's eldest son, by the treachery of Shaw of
Sauchie, his governor. This gave a color to their enterprise
which was of itself almost decisive of success. They erected
the royal standard of Scotland in opposition to its monarch,
and boldly proclaimed that they were in arms in behalf of
346 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the youthful prince, whose unnatural father intended to put
him to death, and to sell the country to the English. These
were exaggerated calumnies; but it may be observed that
the populace are more easily imposed upon by falsehoods
suited to the grossness of their intellects than by such argu-
ments as are consonant to reason. The king stood so low in
public estimation, on account of his love of money and his
disposition to favoritism, that nothing could be invented
respecting him so base that it would not find credence among
his subjects.
The king retired upon Stirling ; but the faithless Shaw,
who had betrayed the prince to the rebel lords, completed
his treachery by refusing James access to the castle of that
town. In a species of despair, the king turned southward,
like a stag brought to bay, with the purpose of meeting his
enemies in conflict. The battle took place not far from
Falkirk, where "Wallace was defeated, and yet nearer to the
memorable field of Bannockburn, where Bruce triumphed.
At the first encounter, the archers of the king's army had
some advantage. But the Annandale men, whose spears
were of unusual length, charged, according to their custom,
with loud yells, and bore down the left wing of the king's
forces. James, who was already dispirited from seeing his
own banner and his own son brought in arms against him,
and who remembered the prophecy of the witch, that he
should fall by his nearest of kin, on hearing the cries of the
bordermen, lost courage entirely, and turned his horse for
flight. As he fled at a gallop through the hamlet of Mill-
town, his charger, a fiery animal, presented to him on that
very morning by Lindesay of the Byres, took fright at the
sight of a woman engaged in drawing water at a well, and
threw to the ground his timid and inexpert rider. The king
was borne into the mill, where he was so incautious as to
proclaim his name and quality. The consequence was that
some of the rebels who followed the chase entered the hut
and stabbed him to the heart. The persons of the murderers
were never known, nor was the king's body ever found.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 347
Thus fell a king, of whom, but for the dark suspicions
attending the death of his brother, the Earl of Mar, it might
be said that he was weak and unfortunate, rather than crim-
inal. But the follies of monarchs are no less fatal to them-
selves and their subjects than their actual crimes and vices.
The love James bore to the fine arts might have been not
only pardonable but honorable; but his making merchandise
of the justice which he owed to his subjects, in order to raise
palaces, and maintain musical foundations, was a guilty
indulgence. There is reason to suppose that he regulated
his policy upon that of Louis XI. , with whom his character
had some points of resemblance. They were both avaricious ;
both disposed to manage their affairs by personal favorites
of a low order; both distrustful of the aristocracy of their
respective kingdoms. But James had the misfortune to
resemble Louis only in the weaker points of his character.
He had neither the crafty policy, the acute foresight, nor
the personal courage of his model ; nor are we entitled to
say that, except in one dark action, his rule was stained
with the uncompromising cruelty of his contemporary. He
left three sons, of whom the eldest, James IV., succeeded
to the throne, under the odious recollection, for which he
appears to have entertained the most constant remorse, that
he had been the instrument of the defeat and death of his
father.
348 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER XXI
Policy of the Victors after the Battle of Sauchie Burn — Trial of
Lord Lindesay — He is defended by his Brother, and acquitted —
Exploits of Sir Andrew Wood — Peaceful Disposition of Henry
VII. — Prosperity of Scotland — Short War with England in
behalf of Perkin Warbeck — Progress of the Scots in Learning
and Literature — James IV. 's splendid Court — Marriage between
him and Margaret of England — Peace between Scotland and
England — Final Forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles — Meas-
ures to promote public Improvement — Naval Affairs — James
builds the lai'gest Ship in Europe — Affair of the Bartons — Mur-
der of Sir Robert Kerr, and its Consequences — Intrigues of
France to stir up James against England — Manifesto of James,
and Henry's Answer— James assembles the Array of his King-
dom — Omens of Misfortune — James invades England, but loses
Time in Northumberland, and differs with his Council — Battle
of Flodden, and Defeat and Death of James IV.
AFTER the battle of Sauchie Burn, a pause ensued till
the actual fate of the king should be known ; for, as
we have said, his body had been carried off by those
who slew him, and it was never known where he was buried.
The insurgent barons at length became aware of the extent
of their success. They easily suppressed an assembly of
troops made by the Earl of Lennox, who had put himself
in arms to revenge the king's death. The Lord Home, who
had been a prime leader of the insurrection against James
III., was raised to the office of lord high chamberlain for
life, and created warden of the east marches. Angus was
also gratified with offices of trust and consideration. Both
these great peers seem to have been so far men of wisdom
and moderation, as to lend their willing aid to drown the
recollections of the civil war, and establish a fair and equi-
table government, correcting the errors which had crept in
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 349
during the late reign, but without disturbing the party of
the deceased king, for the side which they had taken dur-
ing the civil war.
This moderation, however, was not adopted until the fail-
ure of an attempt on the part of the prevailing faction to gain
some advantage by means of obtaining fines and forfeitures
from such of the lords as had been most active in the cause
of James 111= , which they charged as an act of treason
against his son. ' Lord Lindesay of the Byres was the first
person called upon before the parliament to answer for a
crime of a description so anomalous. He was a stout old
soldier, bred in the wars of France, and knew no better
answer to make to the indictment than by offering to fight
with his accusers, venturing his own person against any two
of them. The lord chancellor apologized to the king for the
veteran's rudeness, the natural consequence of a military
education, and advised Lord Lindesay to submit himself
to the king's pleasure, who he ventured to say would be
gracious to him. There stood near the Lord Lindesay his
younger brother Patrick, who understanding it was the wily
meaning of the chancellor to obtain a submission on the part
of his brother, that he might impose some mulct or penalty
upon him, trod upon the Lord Lindesay 's foot, as an intima-
tion to him not to plead guilty, or "come," as it was called,
"into the king's will." The hint was totally lost on Lord
Lindesay, who was on bad terms with his brother, and hap-
pened besides to have a corn on his toe, which made him
resent the treading on his foot as an injury as well as an
insult, for which he fiercely rebuked his brother. But,
without regard to his unreasonable anger, master Patrick
knelt down, and prayed to be heard as counsel for his
brother and the house of his forefathers. This could not
1 So says the historian, Lindsay of Pitscottie, expressly; but perhaps
the charge may have been an accession to the subsequent attempt of
Lennox to revenge King James the Third's fate, which certainly might
be, with more decency and plausibility, converted into an accusation of
treason against the young king.
350 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
decently be refused; and the pleader, in an exordium of
some eloquence, implored those whom he addressed, that,
as victors in the civil contest, they would be pleased to recol-
lect that they were still liable to the vicissitudes of human
affairs, and might themselves hereafter stand at that very
bar, and implore the protection of the laws against such
triumphant enemies as might happen to be in power for the
time. He therefore conjured them to administer the laws
impartially, as they would desire to enjoy their protection
if they should need it in their own case. The chancellor
assured Lindesay that his pleading should be fairly heard
and decided upon. The advocate proceeded to object to the
presence in court of the young king, in whose name the suit
was brought, and to his retaining a seat in the judicature,
in a case where he was one of the parties concerned. The
parliament yielded to his reasoning on the subject, and the
young king, to his no small displeasure, was obliged to retire
from the assembly. The counsel next stated that the term
of the charge, which ought to run on the summons, had been
suffered to elapse, and that the citation bore no continuation
of days. This was an objection in point of form which the
parliament also thought it necessary to sustain: so Lord
Lindesay was dismissed from the bar. He was so much
astonished at his escape, for it may be believed he compre-
hended nothing of the nature of the defence, that he swore,
in a rupture of gratitude, that he would reward his brother's
fine pyot words (i.e., magpie talk) with the lands of Kirk-
fother. The king, on the contrary, displeased with what
he construed into a personal insult, said he would send the
advocate where he should not see his feet for twelve months,
and accomplished his threat by casting him into the dungeon
of the Rothesay of Bute. Under what pretext Mr. Patrick
Lindesay was subjected to this captivity we cannot hope
to discover; but, if considered as an exertion of the king's
absolute power, it is wonderfully inconsistent with the free-
dom of debate displayed before the parliament, and the
laudable impartiality with which the case was decided.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 351
Being foiled in this leading case of Lord Lindesay, the
other prosecutions against the barons of the late king's fac-
tion were suffered to drop, and the lords of the king's coun-
cil, with more liberal policy, seemed rather disposed to oblit-
erate the recollection of the civil war than to keep it alive by
trials and prosecutions.
The Scottish historians of this period record with triumph
the valiant exploits of Sir Andrew Wood of Largo, a Scottish
seaman, who attacked and defeated, with two vessels only,
an English flotilla of five in number, who were interrupting
the Scottish trade and plundering their merchant vessels.
Henry VII. , it is said, affecting to treat Wood's conduct as
an act of piracy, offered a large reward for the capture of
him. One Stephen Bull, a gallant English seaman, under-
took the task with three good ships ; but, after a long and
desperate action, had the misfortune to be himself taken,
and carried into Dundee. The prisoners were restored by
James IV., with a courteous message to Henry VII., now on
the throne of England, assuring him that the Scots could
fight by sea as well as land.
The deeply-politic views of Henry VII. were uniformly
founded on a peaceful basis; and having re-established in
all points the truce with Scotland, he endeavored, by a union
of the royal families, to convert that state of temporary tran-
quillity into a secure and lasting peace. This he proposed
to effect by a union between his daughter and the young
Scottish king. Nor was he disgusted when he found that
the prejudices of the Scots made them pause upon accepting
his offer, fearful oven of the most advantageous proposals
when they came from the old enemies of Scotland.
Meantime years glided away in ease and tranquillity.
The Scottish nobility displayed an unusual degree of con-
cord among themselves; and James at once gratified his
own taste and theirs by maintaining a court splendid be-
yond the means of Scotland, had not the royal coffers still
contained a portion of the hoards of James III., now neither
wasted in idle refinements of music and architecture, nor re-
352 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
served to slumber in inactivity ; but employed in expenses
which served to connect the king with his nobles and with
his people, by procuring pleasures which they could all en-
joy. Unhappily, James IV., with a love of justice and affec-
tion for his people which he intimated by his whole adminis-
tration, had also an admiration of chivalry, which he carried
to romantic excess. Nothing delighted him so much as jousts
and tournaments, and trials of skill at all military weapons;
and he sought personal adventures by traversing the country
in disguise, and throwing himself into situations which have
been recorded in the songs and traditions of the time.
It was probably by an appeal to this romantic cast in
James's disposition that the Scottish king was prevailed on
to take up the cause of Perkin Warbeck, the pretended Duke
of York, in 1496. He received this adventurer at the court
of Scotland; he permitted him to wed a near relation to the
crown, the daughter of the Earl of Huntley ; acknowledged
Perkin's claim to the kingdom of England as authentic ; and
supported him with an army, at the head of which he him-
self marched into Northumberland, expecting a general in-
surrection in favor of his ally. The expectations of James
were entirely disappointed : no one joined with Perkin. The
Scottish king gave a loose to his disappointment, and laid
waste the country. Perkin affected compassion for the sub-
jects whose allegiance he claimed, and interceded in their
behalf. "You are too merciful," answered James with a
sneer, "to interest yourself for a people who are so tardy in
acknowledging you for their sovereign." These words in-
timated that James felt himself engaged in a losing adven-
ture, which he soon afterward terminated by a truce with
England.
In the previous negotiation, September 30, 1498, James
firmly refused to deliver up Perkin "Warbeck to Henry ; but
he dismissed him from his kingdom, to pursue elsewhere that
series of adventures which ended with his life on the gallows
at Tyburn. His unfortunate widow was honorably supported
by Henry VII., and long distinguished at the English court
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 353
by the title of the "White Rose, from her husband's claim to
be the representative of the House of York.
The unceasing disturbances on the border every now and
then seemed to threaten the duration of the tranquillity be-
tween the kingdoms, had not the impetuous and mettled
temper of the Scottish king been matched with the calm,
sagacious, and wary disposition of Henry, who suffered no
quarrel arising out of mere punctilio to interfere with the
plan which his wisdom conceived, and seemed as little dis-
posed to take offence at James as an animal of great size
and strength which endures with patience the petulances of
one of the same species inferior in these qualities.
Meantime Scotland began to derive advantages from the
duration of peace. A university, the second in the kingdom,
that of St. Andrew's being the first, had been erected at
Glasgow in 1453, under the pious care of Turnbull, bishop
of that see. A third seat of learning was now, in 1500,
founded by Elphinstone, bishop of Aberdeen. Nor were the
labors of these learned seminaries in vain : learning began
to be understood, cultivated, and patronized. Douglas,
bishop of Dunkeld, made an excellent translation of Vir-
gil's "JEnid"; and Dunbar, the Scottish Chaucer, appeared
at court, with a power both of heroic and humorous poetry
no way unworthy the bard of "Woodstock. James IV., him-
self a poet, loved and encouraged the Muses ; and from what
remains of the strains of the day it is obvious he permitted
the satirists to take considerable freedoms with his own foibles
rather than their vein should be interrupted or their spirit
checked by any severity of restriction. In a prince like
James IV. such a license shows an honest consciousness that
his merits were sufficient to redeem his reputation, and that
he could with safety soar above and neglect the petty artil-
lery of the satirists.
The king had his father's taste for architecture, though
not in its excess. He improved the palaces of Stirling and
Falkland. Young and unmarried, he engaged too much in
licentious pleasures. But his regard for the Church was not
854 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
diminished ; and, after the fashion of the time, it was testi-
fied by the foundation of monasteries and other ecclesiastical
establishments. James never lost a deep sense of remorse
for the share which he had been caused to take in his father's
defeat. He wore, by way of penance, an iron belt round his
body, to which he added a certain weight every year which
he lived. He also yearly dedicated part of Lent to strict
retreat into some monastery, where rigid prayer, fasting,
and acts of penance, were unsparingly employed to expiate
the crime which afflicted the king's conscience. These dark
intervals must have made a singular contrast with the busy
course of James's ordinary life, which was spent in the ac-
tive discharge of the administration of justice, and other
kingly duties; while each interval of leisure was employed
in the princely pleasures of the chase, the ball-room, and
the tilt-yard. To keep pace with other sovereigns, who
affected forming orders of knighthood, in which they them-
selves should preside, like Arthur at his Round Table, or
Charlemagne among his Paladins, James established the
Order of St. Andrew, assuming the badge of the thistle,
which since that time has been the national emblem of
Scotland.
James IV., being now about thirty years of age, began
perhaps to desire a more domestic life than he had hitherto
led; the rather that the English princess Margaret, who,
when the treaty was first proposed, had been a mere child,
was now rising to the years of womanhood. In 1503, an im-
portant treaty was concluded, the effects of which reached
deep into futurity, and did justice to the wisdom of Henry
VII., by whom it had been so long urged with such patience
and perseverance. Thirty thousand angel-nobles were to be
paid as the queen of Scotland's dowry, and a jointure of two
thousand pounds sterling was to be secured to her in case
of her surviving James. This marriage treaty was accom-
panied by a peace between England and Scotland, the first
which had existed since that of Northampton in 1332. The
articles were equitable, without advantage on either side,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 355
unless in one instance, by which Scotland renounced in fut-
ure her right to the town of Berwick.
In consequence of these important arrangements, the En-
glish princess Margaret was conveyed to Scotland with befit-
ting splendor, in 1504. James came flying to meet her at
the abbey of Newbattle with bridegroom haste, which a
spectator compares to the speed of a falcon darting on his
prey. The marriage was celebrated with great magnifi-
cence, and with all the dignity of chivalry. The Highland
and border chiefs took the opportunity of challenging and
fighting to extremity ; the death of such turbulent subjects
being little regretted by the king or the statesmen, the lat-
ter of whom probably looked on the contest with an eye of
policy rather than of romantic admiration.
Important national regulations succeeded these festivities.
The total suppression of the dignity of the lord of the Isles
was a remarkable, and, considering the arrogance and in-
subordination of these petty kings, a very important inci-
dent. John, lord of the Isles, having been deprived of the
earldom of Ross, and his continental dominions of Knap-
dale and Cantire, in 1476, had submitted to restrictions of
his power, and promised amendment of his conduct. In
1480, this intractable prince again renewed his secret nego-
tiations with England. He had been summoned to make
answer for these intrigues before the Scottish parliament;
but the divisions of James III.'s reign had prevented the
matter from being insisted on. In James IV.'s vigorous
reign, forfeiture was denounced against this insular prince,
whose lordship of the Isles became thus an appanage of the
crown. Measures were now taken to extend to these distant
and disorderly regions the advantage of an equal distribution
of justice. This was, however, only sowing seeds of civiliza-
tion, which it required three centuries and a half, and a va-
riety of contingencies, to bring to maturity. The destruc-
tion of this great family, formerly the natural leaders of
misdoers, and the refuge of the lawless and ungovernable
of every description, was a main step attained to the king-
356 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
doms; and the disorders of the Highlands and the Isles were
afterward neither so universal, so frequent, nor so perilous.
Other statutes of this period show that the Scottish legis-
lators possessed wisdom superior to their age, and evinced
a disposition to accelerate the improvement of the country
by legislative enactment. A just statute corrected the abuse
of naming one inferior species of crime in the pardons or re-
missions which were too often granted for the purpose of
afterward using the same remission to cover an offence of
deeper dye. Another declared no pardon should be granted
to deliberate murderers. Another provided for the punish-
ment of faithless notaries. There is a series of regulations
for the improvement of rural economy, which imposes a
heavier mulct than before on the destroyers of wood, "the
forests of Scotland being (it is alleged) utterly destroyed."
For the same reason, every heritor is directed to plant at
least an acre of wood, to form parks and enclosures, con-
struct fish-ponds, stock rabbit-warrens and dove-cots, and
plant orchards. One statute especially testifies the inclina-
tion of these wise legislators to cultivate the arts of peace,
since it permits the king, and, by a supplemental provision,
all other landholders, to let in feu any portion of land which
he might please. The vassal, in this species of tenure, was
exempted altogether from military service, and held subject
to the payment of a quit-rent in money or produce in lieu of
other prestations. The churchmen availed themselves of this
important privilege, to the great increase of the value of their
lands, and the general cultivation of the country. Lastly,
the riches which might be derived from the Scottish fisheries
did not escape the prescient eye of these statesmen, and they
made regulations which showed them sensible of their value;
though from want of boats, nets, and, above all, of money,
little could be done to realize their patriotic wishes.
James IV. has been already mentioned as a patron of the
Scottish navy, which, under Andrew Wood and the two Bar-
tons, showed much alacrity and energy both on the coasts of
Holland, of the Baltic, of Portugal, and elsewhere. It would
HISTORY OP SCOTLAND 357
seem that in these times the rules of war were not so well un-
derstood by sea as by land ; since the vessels, even of friendly
powers, often met and fought on the ocean, for the same rea-
son, doubtless, which makes an Arab declare that there is no
friend in the desert, or a buccaneer that there is no peace
under the line. In several of these skirmishes the Scottish
mariners defended bravely the honor of their flag ; and one
of them accelerated the fatal war in which James ended his
life.
It was his love for nautical affairs which led King James
into the mistaken ambition of desiring to possess the largest
ship then in the world. The Great Michael, for such was
her name, exhausted all the oak-forests of Fife (that of Falk-
land excepted), and "cumbered all Scotland" before she
could be got to sea. A cannon-ball, discharged against her
by the king's order, could not penetrate her sides, which
were ten feet in thickness. She was twelve-score feet in
length, and thirty-six in wideness. The crew of this im-
mense galleon amounted to no less than three hundred mari-
ners to manage her on the sea, and a thousand soldiers to
combat on board of her. It is easy to see that if the expense
employed on the construction of this unwieldy wooden fort-
ress had been bestowed upon the equipment of eight such
vessels as were commanded by Sir Andrew "Wood, Scotland
would have risen to that rank among maritime powers which
she was entitled to claim from the advantages of a seacoast
full of creeks, roadsteads and harbors. But the construction
of this huge vessel plainly shows that James erred in the
mode by which he endeavored to attain his object.
The purpose of the king was to raise the character of the
Scottish marine force; and, as above observed, it was in a
great measure his attention to naval affairs which led that
prince to a fatal breach with England, the more easily
effected that the sceptre of that country was no longer
swayed by the cautious Henry VII., but by his son Henry
VIII. , whose temper was as fiery and haughty as that of
the Scottish monarch himself.
858 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
A Portuguese squadron having made prize of a Scottish
vessel belonging to John Barton, letters of reprisal were
granted by James to Barton's sons. The exploits of the
Bartons in revenge of their father's wrongs had extended
not merely to Portuguese vessels, but to English ships bound
for Portugal, and several such vessels had been taken and
plundered by them. In retaliation for such unjustifiable
depredations, the sons of the Earl of Surrey, Lord Thomas
and Sir Edmund Howard, were despatched by Henry VI I.
with two ships to bring the pirate into an English port. Sir
Andrew Barton, the elder brother, boldly encountered the
two young noblemen, and maintained a desperate combat,
encouraging his men with his whistle till his death induced
them to surrender.
Another quarrel between the sister countries, in 1511,
rested on the following grounds: — Some English borderers
murdered Sir Robert Kerr, warden of the middle marches
of Scotland. One of the assassins, named Lilburn, with
Heron of Ford, the brother of another commonly called the
Bastard Heron, was delivered up to the Scottish king by
order of Henry VII. ; but immediately upon the death of
that wise prince the other accomplices of the murder began
to show themselves publicly on the border. Andrew Kerr,
the son of the slain Sir Robert, employed two of his own
followers, named Tait, to obtain the revenge which he had
in vain sought from the justice of England. They suc-
ceeded in their mission, and brought back with them into
Scotland tho head of Starked, one of the slayers of Sir Rob-
ert. Kerr caused it to be exposed at the cross of Edinburgh,
But the Bastard' Heron still lived and was suffered to go at
liberty, and on that and other accounts James IV. nourished
a deep resentment against his brother-in-law of England.
His discontent was at the height when an envoy from
France arrived at Edinburgh, who availed himself of the
power attained by largesses in the Scottish court, and prom-
ises and flattery over the romantic spirit of the king himself,
to engage James in an alliance 'offensive and defensive with
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 359
France, the ultimate consequence of which was sure to be
a war with England. Yet the rupture was for some time
suspended; for Henry, whose purpose it was to invade
France, was averse to leave his country exposed to an in-
cursion from Scotland ; and James hesitated on the threshold
of a rash undertaking. Female interference at length deter-
mined the fate of the chivalrous James. The queen of
France wrote a letter, in which, terming the king of Scot-
land her knight, she besought his assistance on her behalf
in the manner and tone of a distressed princess of romance
imploring the succor of some valiant paladin. A ring from
the queen's finger was the pledge of faith by which she con-
jured James to risk but one day's march into England for
her sake. At the same time, a more solid present of four-
teen thousand crowns contributed something to remove the
want of funds which otherwise might possibly have inter-
fered with the projected expedition.
James's first step to gratify the queen of France was to
despatch a naval force to that kingdom, from which the
greater part of the fleet never returned, the consequences
of the battle of Flodden having deprived the government
of Scotland of the energy which ought to have been exerted
for their preservation, so that the vessels rotted neglected in
French harbors, or were sold at a low price to the French
king.
James, however, meditated a more direct mode of assist-
ing his ally and chastising Henry, whom he was now dis-
posed to consider as an enemy rather than a brother-in-law.
The Scottish monarch sent a herald to France, with a mani-
festo to be delivered to the English king, then preparing to
lay siege to Terouenne. In this species of defiance were
recapitulated the capture of Barton, the murder of Kerr,
the detention of a legacy bequeathed by Henry VII. to his
daughter Margaret, with other grievances; and it concluded
with summoning the king of England instantly to desist
from the invasion of France on pain of seeing Scotland take
arms in the cause of that kingdom. The English king,
360 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
highly offended hoth at the matter of this remonstrance and
the terms in which it was couched, returned an answer, in
which he upbraided James with perfidy, and even perjury,
in having broken the perpetual peace which at his nuptials
he had sworn to observe toward England ; he treated with
scorn Scotland's pretence of interfering in his quarrel with
France, and concluded with retorting defiance.
In the meanwhile the war was already commenced. Lord
Home, who held the dignity of high chamberlain of Scotland,
entered England with a considerable force, burned several
villages, and collected much prey. It was not, however,
his destiny to carry his booty safe into Scotland. In march-
ing heedlessly through the extensive flat north of Wooler,
called Millfield Plain, the Scottish commander fell into an
ambush of archers who lay concealed among the long broom,
and was surprised, defeated, and put to flight, leaving his
brother and many of his followers prisoners in the hands
of the enemy.
James, stung to the heart with the loss which he had
sustained, and the dishonor which Home's defeat had cast
upon his arms, made preparations for war on an extensive
scale. He summoned the whole array of his kingdom to
meet him at Edinburgh in arms, each man bringing with
him provisions for the space of forty days. This was the
utmost strength he could assemble, and the longest period
for supporting the war which he could make provision for.
The king was obeyed, for his rule was highly popular; but
it was with regret on the part of those who could think or
reason upon the subject of the war, by all of whom it was
considered as impolitic, if not unjust.
Omens, also, are said to have occurred calculated to im-
press the superstitious public with fearful anticipations of
the fate of the campaign. Voices as of a herald were heard
at night at the market-cross of Edinburgh, where citations
are usually made, summoning the king and his nobles by
name to appear within sixty days at the bar of Pluto. In
the church of Linlithgow also, while King James was per-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 361
forming his devotions, a man in a singularly-shaped eastern
dress, assuming the character of the Apostle John, solemnly
warned the king that if he persevered in his purposed expedi-
tion it would terminate in his ruin. The warning was deliv-
ered in a slow and unabashed voice and manner, and con-
cluded with a warning menace against the king's indulgence
in libertine amours. "While all were astonished at the bold-
ness of the messenger, he escaped from among them, so that
he could not be apprehended. It is probable that this pag-
eant, which seemed calculated to have effect on the super-
stitious temperament of James IV. , was devised by some of
the nobility who were hostile to the invasion of England.
But the king proved, unhappily, inaccessible to fantastic
omens, as well as to the dictates of reason and policy.
August 22, 1513, James entered England with as gallant
an army as ever was led by a Scottish monarch ; and the
castle of Norham, with that of Wark, and the border towers
of Etal and Ford, were successively taken. In the latter
fortalice James made captive a lady, the wife of Heron of
Ford, lord of the manor, who acquired so much influence
over the amorous monarch as to detain him from the prose-
cution of his enterprise, while his army dwindled away,
owing to the impatience of inaction in some, and the want
of provisions experienced by all. The army was diminished
to thirty thousand men, when James was aroused from his
amorous dalliance by the approach of the Earl of Surrey
at the head of a large force to defend the English frontiers.
A herald brought a defiance to the monarch, in which the
English lord stated that he was come to vindicate the death
of Barton, and challenged the king of Scotland to combat.
James's insane spirit of chivalry induced him to accept this
romantic proposal, in spite of the remonstrances of his best
counsellors, and, among others, of the old Earl of Angus,
called Bell-the-Cat. "If you are afraid, Angus," said the
king coldly in reply to his arguments, "you may go home."
Angus would not abide in the camp after such an affront :
he departed with tears of anger and sorrow, leaving his two
16 <%, Vol. I.
362 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
sons and his followers with charge to stand by the king to
the last.
It was on the 6th of September that James, removing
from the western side of the river Till, took up his camp on
the hill of Flodden, which closes in the northern extremity
of Millfield Plain. In this advantageous ground he had the
choice to fight or maintain the defensive at his pleasure.
Surrey observed the advantages of the king's position, which,
being very steep on the southern side, where the eminence
sinks abruptly on the plain, was, in that quarter, inaccessible
to an attack. Thus situated, the English commander, find-
ing that provisions were scarce, and the country around
wasted, determined by a decisive movement to lead his army
round the flank of the Scottish king's position, and place
himself on the north side of Flodden Hill ; thus interposing
the English army between King James and his own country.
This march was not made without much risk, since during
the circuit round the hill it necessarily exposed the flank of
the Earl of Surrey's army to destructive attacks, had the
Scottish king chosen to take the advantage which it afforded
him. But James, more distinguished for chivalry in the
lists than conduct in the field, suffered the English quietly
to march round the extremity of his position, and remained
inactive, until he saw Lord Surrey pass the river Till by a
narrow bridge and a bad ford. Surrey, having crossed the
river, continued his march eastward for a little way, then,
forming his army in order of battle, with his front to the
south, advanced toward the Scottish camp by a declivity
much more gentle than that which ascends from the plain
toward the southern ridge of the hill. The king then took
his determination to fight, and put his army in order for
that purpose. Each host was divided into four large bodies,
and each had a reserve in the rear of the centre.
Of James's army the Earls of Huntley and Home led the
extreme left wing, chiefly consisting of borderers. Next to
them, on their right, were the Earls of Crawford and Mon-
trose, whose followers were Highlanders. The king himself
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 363
commanded the third or central division. The fourth divis-
ion, or right wing, was led by the Earls of Lennox and
Argyle. All these bodies were separated by intervals, but
kept the same front. The Earl of Bothwell commanded the
reserve, which was posted behind the king's division: this
force consisted of his own followers, and those of other
chiefs in Lothian.
The English were nearly in the same order. Opposed
to Huntley and Home were the two noble brothers, Sir Ed-
mund Howard and High Admiral Sir Thomas. The centre
was led by Surrey in person, and the reserve by Lord Dacres.
Sir Edward Stanley commanded the left wing.
The fight began on the Scottish left wing, with an omen
of good fortune which it did not long retain. Home, en-
countering the admiral with great fury, beat him to the
ground, and had wellnigh dispersed his division, had it not
been supported by Lord Dacres with the reserve of English
cavalry. Their support was so timely and effectual that
the Scots were kept at bay. The Highlanders, under Craw-
ford and Montrose, rushed down the hill with disorderly
haste, and were easily routed by the two Howards. Both
the Scottish earls fell. During these conflicts the king's
division engaged furiously with that of the Earl of Surrey,
and, although overwhelmed with showers of arrows, the
Scots made a most valiant defence. The Earl of Bothwell,
with the reserve, bravely supported them, and the combat
became very sanguinary. In the meanwhile Sir Edward
Stanley, with the men of Cheshire and Derbyshire, forming
the English right wing, totally dispersed their immediate
opponents, the division under Lennox and Argyle. Both
these earls fell, and Stanley, pressing onward over the ground
they occupied, and wheeling to his own left, placed his divis-
ion in the rear of King James's broken ranks; and by an
attack in that direction seconded the efforts of Surrey, who
was engaged with the Scottish army in front. But these
broken and bleeding battalions consisted of the pride and
flower of the Scottish gentry, who, throwing themselves
364 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
into a circle so as to resist on all points, defended themselves
with honorable desperation. No one thought of abandoning
the king, who, with useless valor, fought and struggled amid
the foremost in the conflict. Night at least separated the
combatants ; and the Scottish, like a wounded warrior, whom
his courage sustains so long as the conflict lasts, but who
faints with loss of blood when it is ended, became sensible
of the extent of their loss, and melted in noiseless retreat
from the field of battle in which the king and his nobles had
perished.
There lay slain on the fatal field of Flodden twelve Scot-
tish earls, thirteen lords, and five eldest sons of peers — fifty
chiefs, knights, and men of eminence, and about ten thou-
sand common men. Scotland had sustained defeats in which
the loss had been numerically greater, but never one in
which the number of the nobles slain bore such a propor-
tion to those of the inferior rank. The cause was partly the
unusual obstinacy of the long defence, partly that when the
common people began, as already mentioned, to desert their
standards, the nobility and gentry were deterred by shame
and a sense of honor from following their example,
The Scots historians long contested the fact that James
IV. fell in the field of Flodden; and denied that the body
which the English exhibited as the corpse of that unhappy
king was in reality that of their sovereign. Some supposed
that, having escaped from the slaughter, James had gone to
the Holy Land as a pilgrim, to appease the resentment of
Heaven, which he conceived had sent his last misfortune in
•vengeance for his accession to his father's death. But there
is no doubt, in the present day, that the body of James was
found and carried to Berwick by the Lord Dacres, to whom
the king must have been personally well known. It was
afterward interred in the monastery of Sheen or Richmond.
The corpse was pierced with two arrows, and had received
the mortal wound from a bill or battle-axe. This amiable
but Ul-fated monarch left two lawful children, James, his
successor, and Alexander, a posthumous infant, who did not
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 365
live two years. James IV. was the only Scottish king that
fell in battle with the English since the defeat and death of
Malcolm III. near Alnwick. He fell in his forty-first year,
after he had reigned twenty-six years.
This may be no improper time to take a rapid view of
the two countries as they stood contrasted with each other,
in their civil and military systems, in customs and in man-
ners. "We must be understood to speak only of the lowland
countries of Scotland; for the Highlands were as different
from the Saxon part of their countrymen as they were in
the beginning of the eighteenth century.
War was almost constantly the state in which the sister
kingdoms stood in relation to each other; so much so, that
the two portions of the same island most fitted by their rela-
tive position to be governed by the same laws and rules
might be considered as looking upon each other in the light
of natural enemies. In such a contest, it would be idle to
inquire whether either nation possessed over the other any
superiority in strength of person or bravery of disposition;
advantages which nature distributes with impartiality
among the children of the same soil. Different degrees of
discipline, different species of arms, different habits of exer-
cise, may be distinctly traced as the foundation of advan-
tages occasionally observable either in the victories of the
English over the Scots, or in those obtained by the inhabi-
tants of the northern parts of the island over their southern
neighbors.
The superiority of the English arose from two principal
circumstances; first, the better discipline and conduct of
their armies, which at an early period manoeuvred with con-
siderable art and address, for which we shall presently show
some reason ; and, secondly, on their unrivalled skill in the
use of the long bow, the most formidable weapon of the age,
which neither Scot, Frenchman, Fleming, nor Spaniard,
oould use with the same effect as the yeomen of England.
These men possessed a degree of independence and wealth
366 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
altogether unknown to the same class of society m other
kingdoms of Europe. They placed their pride in having
the most excellent and best-constructed bows and shafts,
to the formation of which great attention and nicety were
necessary; and they had attained the art of handling and
using them with the greatest possible effect. Their wealth
enabled them to procure weapons of the first order, and their
mode of education brought the use of them to the highest
pitch of perfection. Bishop Latimer says of himself that,
like other children, he was trained to shoot first with a small
bow suitable to his age, and afterward with one fitted to his
increasing strength; and that consequently he acquired a
degree of skill which far surpassed that of those who never
handled a bow till they came to be young men. Neither
was the shape of the weapon less fitted for its purpose. The
bow was of considerable length and power, and the arrow,
constructed with a small head of sharp steel, was formed so
as to fly a great distance and with much force. On the
contrary, the Highlanders were the most numerous, if not
the only archers in Scotland. These mountaineers carried a
weak bow, short and imperfectly strung, which discharged
a heavy arrow with a clumsy barb, three or four times the
weight of an English shaft. To these advantages on the
part of the English must be added the dexterity with which
archery was practiced by their yeomen, who always drew
the bowstring to the right ear, while the bowmen of other
nations pulled it only to the breast, and thus discharged a
shorter shaft from a much less formidable bow. The supe
riority of the English in archery cannot be better expressed
than by the Scottish proverb, that each southern archer bore
at his belt the lives of twenty-four Scots, such being the
number of arrows with which he was usually supplied.
In the possession of much greater wealth, the English
had another advantage over their neighbors scarcely less
effectual than that of their archery. This enabled them
at pleasure to summon into the field considerable bodies of
mercenaries, either horse or foot, whose trade was arms,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 367
and who maintained themselves by selling their services to
those who could best afford to pay for them. It was natu-
ral that such bands, who were constantly in active service,
should be much better acquainted with the art of war and
the discipline of the times than the natives of Scotland, who
only occasionally adopted the profession of arms. What
was even of greater importance was the habit of obedience
in military matters which these men had learned to practice,
and which (provided always they were regularly paid) ren-
dered them prompt and obedient to orders, and amenable
to discipline. The English armies were, especially after
Henry VII. 's time, augmented by bands from Flanders,
Spain, Italy, and the most warlike countries then in the
world, led by commanders whom long experience had made
completely acquainted with the art of war, which was their
only profession, as the camp was their only home. Their
discipline was an example to the native troops of England,
and showed them the advantage to be derived from implicit
obedience during the campaign and on the field of battle.
All these troops were placed under the command of a gen-
eral of approved abilities, who received his orders from the
king and council, presenting thus the absolute authority
which is requisite to direct the movements of an army.
Besides this peculiar advantage of hiring regular troops,
the wealth of England enabled her chivalry to come to the
field in full panoply, mounted on horses fit for service, and
composed of men-at-arms certainly not inferior to any which
Europe could boast. She had also at command money, stores,
provisions, ammunition, artillery, and all that is necessary to
enable an army to take and to keep the field.
The Scottish armies, on the other hand, were composed
of the ordinary inhabitants of the country, who, unless they
chanced to have a few French men-at-arms, were destitute
of any force approaching to regular soldiers. Their own
men-at-arms were few and ill-appointed; and though they
had in their armies numerous troops of hardy horses, they
were too light for the actual battle. They always fought
368 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
on foot, a circumstance which exposed their broad masses of
spearmen still more to devastation by the English archers,
who could remain at a distance and pour on them their fatal
shot without encountering the brunt of their pikes. Their
hosts were, indeed, nominally under command of one gen-
eral; but wanted all that united force and energy acquired
by a large body acting with a common purpose and under
the authority of a single individual. On the contrary, they
rather consisted of a number of little armies under separate
chiefs, unknown to or perhaps at variance with each other,
and acknowledging no common head save the king, who
was not always fit to command in person, and to whom
implicit obedience was not always rendered.
These great advantages of superior address in the mis-
siles of the period, and in superior wealth for the formation
and support of armies, were particularly observable in gen-
eral battles upon a large scale; which the Scots, in their
impatience and poverty of means to keep the field, hazarded
far more frequently than was politic, and received a succes-
sion of dreadful and sanguinary defeats, so numerous and
apparently decisive that the reader may be surprised how
they could escape the total subjugation which seemed so
often impending. But Scotland, to balance these disadvan-
tages, was superior in some circumstances highly favorable
to the nation, when her armies could withhold themselves
from general actions.
When the nations met with moderate numbers on each
side, the dissensions so frequent in a Scottish camp did not
exist, and the armed natives of some particular district
/ought with unanimity under a Stewart or a Douglas,
whoje command was acknowledged by all in the field.
Such was the case at Otterbourne and many fields of com-
bat, where neither host exceeded a few thousand men, and
still more frequently where the numbers were much smaller.
The Scottish inferiority in archery was on many occasions
balanced by the advantage which their national weapon, the
Scottish spear, gave them over the English bill, with which
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 369
that nation maintained the combat, when they joined battle
hand to hand. The strength and solidity of the Scottish
phalanx of spearmen, either for attack or resistance, is on
many occasions commemorated. If it be considered that a
thrusting weapon is far more formidable than one calculated
for striking, and that where troops use the former they must
close and serry their ranks, while, to have room to employ
the latter, they must keep loose order, it is not assuming
any superior strength or courage in the Scots to say that
in small skirmishes and battles of a secondary class they
asserted a considerable advantage over the English.
But, besides the mode of fighting hand to hand, it must
be remembered that the Scots were natives of a severe cli-
mate and poor soil, brought up to endure rigor of weather,
and accustomed to scantiness of food, while at the same
time they waged their wars chiefly in their own country, a
mountainous and barren region, with whose recesses they
were familiar; and it will not be surprising that, endowed
with a peculiar obstinacy of temper, they should have suc-
ceeded, against all other disadvantages, in maintaining such
an equality with their powerful neighbors as enabled them
repeatedly, by a series of skirmishes, ambuscades, and con-
stant attacks on the invaders, to regain what the nation lost
in great general actions.
In government and constitution the English and Scottish
kingdoms had originally the strongest resemblance to each
other, both being founded upon the feudal system, at this
time universally adopted in Europe. Indeed, before the
reign of Henry VII. there was little difference between
them. But the wars of York and Lancaster had swept off
such numbers of the English nobility, and left those who
remained so shorn of their power, that that politic prince
had no difficulty in executing his deep-laid purpose of de-
priving the aristocracy of their influence in the state, and
wising the crown to that height of power which it displayed
under the House of Tudor. This scheme, to which the intro-
duction of mercenary troops instead of feudal levies greatly
370 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
contributed, was slowly and silently operating to increase
the power of the crown and diminish that of the peers;
and the boroughs and commons of England, whom the king
favored, as a weight in his own scale, were yet more im-
perceptibly gaining consequence in the constitution. But in
Scotland the crown was possessed of very little power, and
the king could scarce be considered as more than the first
baron of the kingdom, subject to be restrained, imprisoned,
dethroned, and slain, at the pleasure of a turbulent aristoc-
racy. It is true that, when the Scottish monarch possessed
the love and affection of his peers, he was generally allowed
considerable weight in the national councils ; but the extent
of his power usually rested on the degree of personal estima-
tion in which he was held. James III. was repeatedly im-
prisoned, and finally deposed and murdered, by the same
class of nobles (in some instances the very same individuals)
who loved, honored, and obeyed his more popular son with
such devotion that they followed him against their own bet-
ter judgment to the fatal field of Flodden, in which with
the flower of his kingdom he lost his life. The quiet and
prosperity of the nation rested far too much on the personal
character of the prince to be capable of much stability.
The difference between the condition of the lower orders
in the two kingdoms was such as might be expected from the
comparative point of civilization to which each had attained.
In England, the merchants were possessed of great capital ;
the principal citizens were skilful and thriving; the ordinary
ones substantial and easy, living under the protection of equal
laws. The yeomen and farmers, in a great measure loosened
from the dominion of their lords by the law against feudal
retainers, and other laws in favor of personal freedom, were
possessed of opulence, and employed themselves in improv-
ing the agriculture of the country, instead of following their
lords to battle. In Scotland, this was all diametrically re-
versed. The towns, though encouraged by favorable laws,
were languishing through the decay of commerce, for which
the Scottish merchants had neither stock nor capital. Their
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 371
subjects of export were only hides, wool, and similar raw
materials which the country afforded; and, as almost every
necessary or convenience of life was imported from Flanders
ready made, the balance of trade preponderated against the
poorer country. Nor was improvement to be expected where
neither skill nor labor was in demand, even had there been
money to purchase them. The country was scarcely in a
better condition than the towns. "War being the co: tant
state of the nation, the pursuits of agriculture were un^ oid-
ably postponed to the practice of arms. The farmers, who
were in absolute dependence on the landholders, rode up and
down the country in armor, attending upon their lords, while
the labors of the farm were left to old men, women, and chil-
dren. Bondmen were also employed in these domestic du-
ties, unworthy, it was thought, of free hands. Yet the very
rudeness of their character prevented the tenants from being
oppressed beyond a certain limit. If a farmer took a lease
over the head of another, at a rent which his poorer neigh-
bor could not afford, the dispossessed agriculturist would kill
his successor, to be revenged of his avaricious landlord. Nu-
merous laws were made for repressing these evils, but in vain ;
the judges seldom had power, and often wanted will, to en-
force them. The Scottish parliament saw the disease, and
prescribed the remedy ; but the difficulty lay in enforcing it.
In literature the Scots made a more equal competition with
their neighbors than in other particulars. They used the
same language with the English, though time had introduced
a broader pronunciation. '
The Scottish parliament were so much impressed with the
necessity of education that in 1494 they passed a remarkable
edict, by which each baron and substantial freeholder was
enjoined, under the penalty of twenty pounds, to send his
eldest son to the grammar-school at six, or, at the utmost,
1 Gawain Douglas professes to write his language broad and plain,
"keeping no southren but his own language," and makes an apology for
using some words after the English pronunciation, which he would
willingly have written purely and exclusively Scottish.
372 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
nine years of age. Having been competently grounded in
Latin, the pupils were directed to study three years in the
schools of philosophy and law, to qualify themselves for oc-
cupying the situation of sheriffs, justices of the peace, and
other judges in ordinary.
That this singular statute had considerable influence we
cannot doubt ; yet the historian Mair or Major still continued
to upbraid the nobility of his time with gross neglect of their
children's education. But though a majority may have con-
temned literature and its pursuits, in comparison with the
sports of the field or the exercises of war, there were so
many who availed themselves of the opportunities of educa-
tion as to leave a splendid proof of their proficiency. Dun-
bar, the Chaucer of Scotland, has, in his Lament for the
Death of the Makers, enumerated eighteen poets of eminence
in their time, who flourished from the earlier half of the fif-
teenth century down to the reign of James V. Many of
their poems which have been preserved attest the skill and
taste of the authors ; but the genius of Dunbar and Gawain
Douglas alone is sufficient to illuminate whole centuries of
ignorance. In Latin composition, the names of Bishop
Elphinstone, John Major, or Mair, Patrick Paulner, secre-
tary to James IV., and Hector Boece, or Boetius, an excel-
lent scholar, though a most inaccurate and mendacious
historian, attest the progress of Scottish literature.
The recent discovery of the lost classics had again awak-
ened the light of learning in countries which had been long
darkened with the shades of ignorance, and that light had
penetrated into both parts of Britain. But deeper and more
important speculations were rapidly expanding themselves.
The art of printing, now in full action, had spread the knowl-
edge of the Scriptures among thousands who had not been
allowed to hear of them otherwise than as sophisticated by
human inventions. The Church of Rome found herself in
a situation where she was encumbered even by her own forti-
fications. Having once definitively avowed the doctrine that
her decrees were infallible, it became impossible for her, with-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 373
out inconsistency, to sacrifice to the advancing knowledge of
the period opinions, rites, or practices adopted during ages
of ignorance, or to make any compromise with the spirit of
inquiry. Thus the clergy were driven upon the difficult task
of smothering it by authority and violence.
Both England and Scotland received in secret the doc-
trines of the reformers, and in both they triumphed still
further over the ancient religion. But the circumstances,
manner, and modification in which the Protestant faith was
introduced and received in the two kingdoms were so differ-
ent, as seemed at first rather to separate them from each
other than to bring nearer the natural and advantageous
measure of their union. Heaven, in its own good time,
had reserved this consummation as the happy point to which,
the nations were at length to be conducted by a series of
transactions which promised a very different event.
374 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
CHAPTER XXII
Proclamation of the temporary Magistrates of Edinburgh — Mod-
erate Conduct of the English — Convention of Estates — Duke of
Albany proposed for Regent — Marriage of the Queen-Dowager
with the Earl of Angus — He attempts to get the Regency in
Right of his Wife; but Albany is preferred — His Character —
Angus and the Queen Mother fly to England — Albany is un-
popular — Trial and Execution of Lord Home — Albany returns to
France — Murder of the Sieur de la Bastie — Feuds between the
Hamiltons and Douglases — Skirmish called Cleanse the Cause-
way — Albany returns from France, and reassumes the Govern-
ment: makes an inefficient Attempt to invade England, and
again retires to France — Surrey takes Jedburgh — Albany returns
for the third Time to Scotland: besieges Wark — Upon this Siege
being shamefully raised, he returns, dismisses his Army, and
leaves Scotland forever — Intrigues of Henry VIII. among the
Scottish Nobility — Queen Margaret once more raised to Power
— King James assumes the Government under her Guardian-
ship — Her Aversion to her Husband Angus, and her imprudent
Affection for Lord Methven — Angus returns and attains the
supreme Power — Becomes tyrannical in his Administration —
Battle of Melrose — Battle of Kirkliston — Supreme Sway of the
Douglases — Escape of the King from Falkland — The Douglases
are banished the Royal Presence, and compelled to fly into Eng-
land — Comparison between the Fall of the House of Angus and
that of the elder Branch of the Douglas Family
THE alarm which followed upon the melancholy event
of the field of Flodden through the whole kingdom
of Scotland was universal and appalling; hut, fort-
unately, those who had to direct the energies of the state
under circumstances so adverse were composed of a metal
competent to the task. The commissioners who exercised
the power of the magistracy of Edinburgh, for the lord pro-
vost and magistrates in person had accompanied the king to
the fatal field, set a distinguished example of resolution. A
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 375
proclamation is extant, in which, speaking of the misfortune
of the king and his host as a rumor of which there was yet
no certainty, they appointed the females of respectability to
pass to church, those of the lower rank to forbear clamoring
and shrieking in the streets, and all men capable of bearing
arms to take their weapons, and be ready, on the first tolling
of the great bell of the city, to attend upon the magistrates,
and contribute to the defence of the town. It is the language
of Rome when Hannibal was at the gates.
The victorious English were, therefore, expected to ap-
pear shortly before the walls of the metropolis ; but Surrey's
army had been summoned together for defending their own
frontier, not for the invasion of Scotland. The crown vas-
sals did not remain in the field after their term of service
had been rendered : and though the victory was gained, yet
a loss of at least four thousand men had thinned the ranks
of the conquerors. The absence of Henry VIII. prevented
any vindictive measures, which he was likely enough to have
taken, on finding the kingdom of his late brother by the
recent defeat exposed to receive its doom at the hand of a
conqueror.
A general council of the Scottish nobles was convoked at
Perth (October, 1513), to concert what national measures
ought to be adopted for the government of the kingdom at
this exigency. The number of the nobles who gave attend-
ance was few, and the empty seats and shortened roll gave
melancholy evidence of the extent of the late loss. The
queen was readily admitted to the regency, a compliment
which might be intended to conciliate her brother Henry.
It had not, however, that effect. Letters arrived from
France, by which the king of England strictly commanded
and fiercely urged that the success at Flodden should be fol-
lowed up by repeated inroads upon the Scottish frontiers,
where a desolating though indecisive war was maintained
accordingly.
Driven to despair by the severity of Henry, the Scottish
council began to look toward France, and to turn their eyes
876 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
to a prince of the blood royal, now resident there, and next
heir to the crown of Scotland, had James IV. died childless.
This was John, duke of Albany, son of that Alexander, duke
of Albany, who was brother to James III., and who, having
been declared a traitor for attaching himself to England, had
ended his days in France. To this Duke John a strong party
in Scotland proposed to assign the regency, which they wished
no longer to intrust with a female and an Englishwoman,
sister to a monarch who used his success so unsparingly.
"Whatever efforts might have been made to support Mar-
garet in the office to which the king's will had admitted her,
they became unavailing by her marrying the Earl of Angus
as soon as she had recovered from her confinement, in which
she bore a posthumous child to James IV. A marriage so
soon after the death of her royal husband was prejudicial to
her reputation, and, as it placed her personally under the
control of a subject, rendered her incapable of holding and
exercising the sovereign power of regent.
In some respects, indeed, her choice could not be amended.
Earl Archibald of Angus was grandson and successor to him
whom we have so often distinguished by the name of Bell-
the-Cat. His father and uncle had fallen at Flodden; his
aged grandfather had carried his sorrows for Scotland, and
for his own loss of two gallant sons, into the shade of relig-
ious retirement. This young man, therefore, was at the
head of the second branch of the House of Douglas, which
had risen to a degree of power destined once more to make
their sovereign tremble. Angus was also all that could win
a lady's eye ; he was splendid in attire, retinue, and house-
keeping; handsome, brave, and active. But he had the
faults of his family, being ambitious and desirous of power;
and he had those of his youth, being headlong and impetu-
ous in his passions, wild and unrestrained in his conduct.
He did not pay the queen, who was some years older than
himself, that deference which Margaret might have expected
from decorum if not from affection, and at best was a negli-
gent and faithless husband. His ambition aspired to main-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 377
tain his wife's claims to the regency, although forfeited, as
already said, by her second marriage.
But the preferable claim of Albany was maintained by
the Scottish nobility, who asserted the right of the next in
succession to rule the kingdom during the minority of the
monarch. Albany had, indeed, an elder brother; but as a
divorce after his birth had passed between his parents, for
being related within the forbidden degrees, he was regarded
as illegitimate. The right of this prince to the chief govern-
ment was in an especial manner supported by the Earl of
Arran, head of the House of Hamilton, and connected with
the royal family by his mother, Mary Stuart, the eldest
daughter of King James II., who, when widow of the fallen
favorite, Thomas Boyd, earl of Arran, had married the first
Lord Hamilton. The title of her first husband was conferred
upon her son by the second, who thus became the first earl
of Arran of the name of Hamilton. This powerful noble-
man, waiving some pretensions which he himself might have
made to the regency, added great weight to that party which
pleaded the rights of Albany. In 1515, the Duke of Albany
came over to Scotland, accordingly, and was installed as re-
gent. In the same year the lingering war with England
was put an end to by the inclusion of Scotland in the
peace which had been agreed upon between Prance and
that country.
The Regent Albany, bred in the court of Francis I., and
a personal favorite of that monarch, was more of a courtier
than a soldier or a statesman ; and the winning qualities
of vivacity and grace of manners which had gained him
favor and applause while in France were lost on the rude
nobility of Scotland. He possessed the pride of high birth,
and the command of considerable wealth, for his wife had
been heiress of the county of Auvergne; but his talents
were of a mean order, and he was alike insolent and pusil-
lanimous.
Albany was not long in showing that he was about to
direct the power of regent, now that he had obtained the
378 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
office, against Angus and his wife, by whom his ascent to
the dignity had been opposed. He obtained an order from
the parliament that the royal children should be delivered
up to him. Margaret, after a vain resistance, was compelled
to place the infant king and his short-lived brother Alexander
under the suspicious care of an aspiring kinsman ; and her
husband Angus hastened to the border, to consult with Lord
Home upon some means of withstanding the oppressive se-
verity of the regent's government. Albany, however, was
powerful enough to disconcert all their measures, even though
Arran, deserting the regent's party, was so mutable as to
make common cause with Home. The queen- mother, far
advanced in her pregnancy, was driven into England, where
she was delivered of a female infant, in the miserable turret
of a Northumbrian baron, from which she afterward took
refuge in her brother's court. The circumstance, however,
of having been born in England was of considerable advan-
tage to the Lady Margaret Douglas in calculating her prox-
imity to the English crown.
Meantime the regent became unpopular. The younger
of the two Scottish princes died in his custody, not without
foul suspicion of neglect or poison. The nation sympathized
with the distresses and danger of the royal family ; the dis-
satisfaction at Albany's government became universal; and
the king's person was taken from his custody, and placed in
the hands of certain select peers, to whose loyalty he might
be safely intrusted. The regent found his power restricted
and his situation unpleasant, and entertained thoughts of
withdrawing from the rude kingdom which he had under-
taken to govern. He seems to have suspended his purpose
only till he made the experiment, whether by one grand ex-
ertion of authority he might not reduce to obedience those
troublesome peers by whom his government had been re-
peatedly disturbed. This blow descended on the Lord Home,
who, being the favorite of the late king, and the close ally of
Angus, had maintained in the eastern marches a resistance
to the regent's authority, and a constant communication with
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 379
England. In 1516, being imprudent enough to trust his per-
son and that of his brother within reach of the regent's au-
thority, Lord Home was seized, tried, and executed. But
this exertion of power had no effect, save that of exciting,
as we shall hereafter see, the vindictive rage of the friends
of the deceased victim of justice or of vengeance. In the
year in which Home was beheaded, Albany obtained or ex-
torted the permission of the estates to pay a visit to France.
At the same time, although the duke's name was retained
as regent, the real power was lodged in a council, in which
Angus, having now returned to Scotland, held a seat. His
wife, Queen Margaret, was received back with all due honor,
and there seemed reason to think that something like a steady
government was at length formed.
The contrary, however, was soon visible. Anthony
d'Arcy, Seigneur de la Bastie, a French knight of great
courage and fame, had been left by the regent in the impor-
tant situation of warden of the eastern marches, and had
taken up the duties of the office with a strict hand. But
Home of "Wedderburn, a powerful chief of the name, could
not brook that an office usually held by the head of his house
should be lodged in the hands of a foreigner dependent on
the regent, by whom Lord Home had been put to death.
Eager for revenge, the border chieftain waylaid the new
warden with an ambuscade of armed men. Seeing himself
beset, the unfortunate d'Arcy endeavored to gain the castle
of Dunbar; but having run his horse into a morass near
Dunse, he was overtaken and slain (1517). Home knitted
the head to his saddle-bow by the long locks which had
been so much admired in courtly assemblies, and placed
it on the ramparts of Home Castle, as a pledge of the
vengeance exacted for the death of the late lord of that
fortress.
The peace of the kingdom was also disturbed by a con-
stant dissension between the parties of Hamilton and Doug-
las, in other words, between the Earls of Angus and Arran.
They used arms against each other without hesitation. At
380 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
length, January, 1520, a parliament being called at Edin-
burgh, the Earl of Angus appeared with four hundred of his
followers, armed with spears. The Hamiltons, not less eager
and similarly prepared for strife, repaired to the capital in
equal or superior numbers. They assembled in the house
of the chancellor Beaton, the ambitious archbishop of Glas-
gow, who was bound to the faction of Arran by that noble-
man having married the prelate's niece. Gawain Douglas,
bishop of Dunkeld, a son of Earl Bell-the-Cat, and the cele-
brated translator of Virgil, labored to prevent the factions
from coming to blows. He applied to Beaton himself, as
official conservator of the laws and peace of the realm. Bea-
ton, laying his hand upon his heart, protested upon his con-
science he could not help the affray which was about to take
place. "Ha! my lord," said the advocate for peace, who
heard a shirt of mail rattle under the bishop's rochet, "me-
thinks your conscience clatters." The bishop of Dunkeld
then had recourse to Sir Patrick Hamilton, brother to the
Earl of Arran, who willingly attempted to exhort his kins-
men to the preservation of peace, until he was rudely up-
braided with reluctance to fight by Sir James Hamilton,
natural son to his brother, and a man of a fierce and san-
guinary disposition. "False bastard!" said Sir Patrick, in
wrath, "I will fight to-day where thou darest not be seen."
There were now no more thoughts of peace, and the
Hamiltons, with their western friends and allies, rushed in
fury up the lanes which led from the Cowgate, where the
bishop's palace was situated, intending to take possession
of the High Street. But the Douglases had been before-
hand with them, and already occupied the principal street,
with the advantage of attacking their enemies as they issued
in disorder from the narrow closes or lanes. Such of Angus's
followers also as had not lances were furnished with them
by the favor of the citizens of Edinburgh, who handed them
over their windows. These long weapons gave the Doug-
lases great advantage over their enemies, and rendered it
easy to bear them down, as they struggled breathless and
HISTORY OP SCOTLAND 381
disordered out of the heads of the lanes. Nor was this
Angus's only piece of fortune : Home of Wedderburn, also
a great adherent of the Douglases, arrived while the battle
was yet raging, and, bursting his way through the Nether-
bow Gate at the head of his formidable borderers, appeared
in the street in a decisive moment. The Hamiltons were
driven out of the city, leaving upward of seventy men dead,
one of whom was Sir Patrick Hamilton, the advocate for
peace. The Earl of Arran and his natural son were so far
endangered, that, meeting a collier's horse, they were fain
to throw off its burden, and, both mounting the same miser-
able animal, they escaped through a ford in the loch which
then defended the northern side of the city.
The consequences of this skirmish, which, according to
the humor of the age, was long remembered by the name
of Cleanse the Causeway, raised Angus for a little time
to the head of affairs. But, unable to reacquire the lost
affection of his wife, the queen-dowager, the latter, in her
aversion to her husband and resentment of his infidelities
and neglects, joined in soliciting the return of Albany, an
event which took place December 3, 1521. Angus and his
party, alarmed at his arrival, and remembering the fate
of Lord Home and his brother, made a precipitate retreat
from Edinburgh, and took refuge in England. A new
change of administration followed with little advantage
to the unfortunate and ill-governed nation. Placing him-
self at the head of a party which might be called the French
interest in Scotland, Albany, ignorant of and indifferent to
the real interests of his country, endeavored so to rule the
kingdom as might best serve the purposes of France, her
powerful ally.
The flimsy species of peace with England, which had
hitherto been maintained by ill-observed truces, did not
prevent the most murderous and desolating ravages between
the borderers on both sides. Albany appeared on the west-
ern frontier at the head of an army of eighty thousand men ;
but, cowardly in war as he was presuming in peace, having
882 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
had a single interview with Lord Dacres, he consented to
sheathe his sword, and omitted the opportunity of doing
some considerable service, which was the rather to have
been expected, as the king of England had no army on foot
to encounter that of Scotland.
The regent, feeling himself a second time the object of
general dislike and contempt, again escaped from the tumultu-
ous scene, and retired to France, leaving a council of regency
to sustain as well as they might the war which his rashness
had awakened, and to collect as they best could the materials
of defence which he had dissipated and thrown away. In
the spring of 1523, Henry VIII. sent the Earl of Surrey to
the borders with a considerable army, to repay the threat-
ened invasion of Albany. This enterprising general resolved
to sweep the Scottish frontiers, and desolate them so effect-
ually as to render them totally uninhabitable for nine miles
beyond the border of England.
With this purpose he advanced upon Jedburgh, in spite
of the opposition of about fifteen hundred borderers, who
skirmished so boldly with Surrey's vanguard that he terms
them the boldest and most ardent men-at-arms whose feats
he ever witnessed, adding that, if forty thousand such sol-
diers could be assembled, it would be hard to withstand
them. Driving this handful of Scots before him, Surrey
reached Jedburgh, which was taken by storm, after a gal-
lant defence. The fine abbey was also carried by assault,
after it had been valiantly held out till late in the evening.
The ruins still exhibit marks of the injuries which were then
inflicted. This town, then rich and spacious, was set on fire
by the English soldiery. But the victors were thrown into
much confusion through the wilfulness of Lord Dacres, who
commanded the cavalry. This nobleman did not choose to
bring his horsemen within the fortified camp, which Surrey
had appointed for his quarters. The consequence was that
in the evening the horse-quarter was surprised, and most
of the horses cut loose from their picketing. The animals,
finding themselves at liberty, ran furiously past the fortified
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 383
camp of Surrey, whose soldiers manned their defences, and,
unable to discern the true cause of the alarm, shot both
with bows and guns against the Scottish assailants as they
thought. Many horses were carried off by the Scottish
women, who fearlessly seized them in the scuffle. So many
steeds were slain or taken that about a thousand English
cavaliers were seen to walk afoot the next day.
"While the two countries were thus engaged in fierce con-
tention, both Scots and English were astonished to hear of
Albany's return, with a small French army, in number
between four and five thousand men, and a quantity of
arms and treasure. With this new display of wealth and
auxiliaries the regent endeavored to engage the Scottish
nobles in a common effort against England, and he suc-
ceeded in obtaining a promise of firm support from the par-
liament. Including his French auxiliaries, Albany assem-
bled a force estimated at sixty thousand. With this large
army he formed the siege of Wark Castle, in 1523. The
assailants took the outer circuit of the castle, and attacked
the keep; but the Earl of Surrey advancing from Barmoor
Wood, the Duke of Albany shamefully raised the siege, and
retreated at the head of his well-appointed and numerous
army, which he soon after dismissed. He retired to Edin-
burgh, and having dissipated the treasures which he brought
with him, and shown to a demonstration his unfitness to
command an army, he made his final retreat to France,
loaded with the curses and reproaches of the nation from
which he derived his ancestry.
After the flight of Albany the English interest once more
began to predominate in the Scottish councils; for Henry
VIII. had again adopted his father's policy, and instead of
endeavoring to conquer Scotland, and render it a part of his
dominions by dint of arms, was contented to aim at main-
taining such an influence in the councils of that country as
a wealthy and powerful nation may always find means
of acquiring in the government of one that is poorer and
weaker than herself. The present revolution seemed the
384 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
more favorable to the interest of England, since it raised
Margaret once more to an efficient power in the Scottish
governmentc She came from Stirling to Edinburgh, and
announced that her son, James V., now a boy of twelve
years old, was determined to take the sovereign power into
his own hands. A great many of the Scottish peers, upon
hearing this information, associated themselves for protec-
tion of the young king's government, and for declaring the
termination of Albany's regency. It was clear, notwith-
standing, as the independent government of a boy of twelve
years old could be only nominal, that James's councils must
be guided and directed by some familiar advice, and nothing
could be more natural than that he should find that coun-
sellor in an affectionate mother.
The English king and his minister Wolsey at this crisis
anxiously desired that Margaret would consent to a recon-
ciliation with her husband Angus, in whose attachment to
the interests of England they had great confidence, and
whose masculine judgment they supposed to be necessary
in aiding the queen- dowager to support the weight of gov-
ernment. But the passions of Margaret had some of the
fickleness and all the impetuosity of her brother's.
She retained a deep resentment and even detestation
against her husband, and gave her brother plainly to under-
stand that any attempt to intrude Angus on her society,
or even the granting him licenses to return from England,
would forfeit Henry's share of the interest which the last
revolution had given her in the affairs of Scotland. The
truth was that Margaret with an unmatronly levity had
become enamored of a young gentleman named Henry
Stuart, second son of Andrew, lord Evandale, and already
entertained hopes of ridding herself of Angus by a divorce,
and then conferring her hand upon this younger favorite.
In the meantime she raised the favored youth to the dignity
of Lord Treasurer of Scotland. By such light conduct Mar-
garet alienated the affections of the nobles, while she in-
creased their discontent by excluding them from her coun-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 385
cils, and listening only to the advice of her lover, and other
inexperienced young men.
Blaming the conduct of his sister, and expecting a more
firm support from the government of Angus, whose misfort-
unes might be supposed to have taught him wisdom, Henry
now countenanced the return of the earl, in hopes that he
might still be able to effect some reconciliation, ostensible
at least, between him and the queen. This was found totally
impossible; and Angus, having determined to destroy his
wife's power if he could not share it, attempted to supplant
her authority, first by an escalade of the town of Edinburgh,
in which he was assisted by Scott of Buccleuch, aud other
border chiefs, and afterward by a union with the wily and
able Archbishop Beaton, with whom he effected a reconcil-
iation, and formed a party, the object of which was to free
the young king from the tutelage of his mother. The strug-
gle ended in the youthful monarch's being committed to the
charge of a council of lords, the queen being allowed to pre-
side at their sittings, a power which consisted in appearance
rather than reality.
This revolution was completed, when the king, having
arrived at the age of fourteen years, made choice of Angus,
who had, by the most sedulous attention, obtained great
influence over his mind, for administering the royal au-
thority. But this state of things by degrees terminated
in the absolute ascendency of Angus. As some atonement
to the imprudent queen for having thus expelled her from
all share of power, he ceased to oppose the divorce which
Margaret so anxiously desired, and no sooner was it obtained
than the royal matron hastened to wed her youthful lover,
Henry Stuart, who was afterward created Lord Methven.
When Angus had attained the supreme power, which had
been so long the object of his ambition, the use which he
made of it was not corresponding to the sagacity he had dis-
played in the acquisition. He gave far greater attention
to supporting and providing for his own friends and follow-
ers than to ruling the kingdom at large with justice and
17 ^ Vol. I.
386 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
equity; and his relations and clansmen felt so much their
own license and impunity that it was currently said that,
whatever complaints were brought respecting actions of
theft, rapine, and slaughter, it was useless and dangerous
to insist on them, if a Douglas or the dependent of a Douglas
were one of the parties inculpated. And although the Earl
of Angus and the lords of his faction made progresses
through the country under pretence of administering jus-
tice, and putting down oppressors and murderers, "yet,"
says honest Pitscottie, "there were no greater homicides
and felons to be found than those who rode in their own
company ."
The government of Angus, being that of a predominant
family and faction, was not only universally complained of
as unjust and oppressive by the country in which it was ex-
ercised, but became odious to the king also, in whose name
and authority it was carried on. Angus, as we have already
said, had at first conciliated the goodwill of the youthful
king, by making himself the channel through which James
received all the presents which Henry VIII. used occasion-
ally to send to his nephew, and by carefully studying his
taste, in order to anticipate and comply with his inclina-
tions ; but when the earl became established in his author-
ity, he began to exercise it without regard to the wishes of
the young monarch, and often in direct contradiction to
them. In this Angus was guided by the councils of his
brother Sir George, a man of a fiery and haughty temper,
who preferred governing by fear and constraint rather than
by fair means and flattery.
This order of things could not exist long without the king
making some effort to free himself from a yoke which was
at once galling and degrading; but such was the state of
Scotland at that period, that the king's person was regarded
as the symbol of the royal power; and while Angus could
retain possession of James himself, he cared little whether
or not he possessed the royal affections. The young king,
however, determined in secret to escape from him at what-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 387
ever risk, end entered into more than one plot for accom-
plishing his freedom.
The first of these attempts exploded at Melrose on the
25th of July, 1526. Angus had brought the king thither
with the purpose of quelling some recent disturbances on
the frontier ; but on leaving the town, and approaching the
bridge in his return, he was encountered by Sir Walter Scott
of Buccleuch, at the head of a thousand horse. His purpose
being demanded, the chieftain replied that he came like other
border men to show his followers to the king, and to invite
him to his house. He added, that he knew the king's mind
as well as Angus. A smart action immediately took place,
in which the Scotts were defeated with the loss of eighty
men; but many were also killed on the opposite side, in
particular Sir Andrew Ker of Cessford, whose slaughter
made a long and deadly feud between these two powerful
clans.
It was generally suspected that the enterprise of Buccleuch
had been instigated by Lennox, who, now retiring from the
court, entered into a league with Chancellor Beaton, whom
the predominance of Angus had nearly reduced to insignifi-
cance as a member of the administration, and to whom, of
course, the power of the Douglases was obnoxious. The
queen-mother seems also to have entered into the views of
the party. Lennox, who was universally esteemed and
beloved, raised a considerable army, and advanced toward
Edinburgh from the westward. It is probable that Lennox
was in hope of obtaining the support of the Earl of Arran
on this occasion; he was Lennox's uncle, and the ancient
rival of Angus. But their strife had been appeased since
the battle of Cleanse the Causeway, and Arran drew out
his forces in support of Angus, and not in opposition to
him. He marched toward Lennox at the head of a body
of men equal to that of the insurgents. The armies met:
Lennox and his host arrived in the neighborhood of Kirk-
liston, and Angus rushed out from Edinburgh to support
Arran. Sir George Douglas followed, bringing with him
388 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the young king in person, and the citizens of Edinburgh.
Observing the king's great unwillingness to proceed, as the
noise of the artillery on both sides now apprised them that
the conflict was hotly maintained, "I read your majesty's
thoughts," said the stern Douglas; "but do not deceive
yourself. If your enemies had hold of you on one side,
and we on the other, we would tear you asunder, rather
than quit our hold": — rash words, which the king never
forgave.
On reaching the field of battle, they found the victory
was with Angus. Lennox, after having been taken, was
slain by Sir James Hamilton the Bastard, whose sanguinary
temper has been already mentioned. Arran was mourning
beside the dead body of his nephew, over which he had laid
his scarlet cloak. "The best," he said, "the wisest, the
bravest man in Scotland lies here slain."
The insurrection against Angus's government being thus
a second time quelled, the chancellor, after lurking for some
time among the hills in the disguise of a shepherd, was com-
pelled to purchase peace by a copious distribution of ready
money, and surrender of ecclesiastical benefices in favor of
the prevailing party. The young king obtained by his inter-
cession some favor for his mother; and the authority of
Angus became more despotic, and was stronger than ever.
This ambitious earl shortly after took upon himself the office
of chancellor, and surrounded the king even more closely
than before with his clients and dependents, whom James
felt now tempted to regard as his jailers rather than his
servants. Wherever he turned, his eye lighted on the dark
complexion and vigilant eye of a Douglas. Douglas of
Parkhead commanded a guard of one hundred men, rather
to control the king's motions than to defend his person. His
minister Angus never stirred from his presence, or if he did,
he left him under the yet more stern custody of his brother,
Sir George Douglas.
The young monarch was compelled to dissemble and
appear satisfied with his situation, in order to disarm the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 389
vigilance of those by whom he was thus closely watched.
This device succeeded so well that the Douglases, conceiv-
ing the king to be altogether occupied with sylvan sports
and amusements, lost a part of the jealousy with which
they regarded his motions.
In the beginning of July, the king being at Falkland,
his whole attention apparently engrossed by the sport of
hunting, Angus took the opportunity to look after some of
his private affairs in Lothian. George Douglas also left
Falkland to settle the terms of some beneficial leases which
he was to obtain from the bishop of Saint Andrew's. Archi-
bald Douglas, the uncle of the Earl of Angus, left the court
for Dundee, to pursue, it was said, an intrigue with a para-
mour ; so that the custody of the king's person was confided
to Douglas of Parkhead, with his bodyguard of a hundred
gentlemen. The king saw the opportunity favorable for his
escape. He appointed a particularly solemn hunting match
for the next morning, and repeatedly commanded his guard
to be in attendance at an early hour. But he had no sooner
retired to rest than he assumed the dress of a yeoman, and
getting to the stables unperceived, mounted with two attend-
ants, whom he had taken into his confidence, and galloped
to Stirling. The governor of the strong castle, which com-
mands that town, received the prince with great joy, and
assured him of his personal fidelity. But James's apprehen-
sions of the Douglases were still so great, that, fatigued as
he was with his long and midnight ride, he would not go to
sleep until the keys of the castle were laid beneath his pillow,
to insure that no one might enter without his knowledge or
consent.
The Douglases early on the morrow perceived the flight
of their royal captive, and anticipated the downfall of the
power which they had so long enjoyed. They agreed, how-
ever, to ride in a body to Stirling, and put a bold face upon
the matter. But when the king heard of their approach, he
caused a solemn proclamation to be made, commanding that
neither the Earl of Angus nor any of his kindred should ap-
390 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
proach within six miles of the king's person under the pain
of high treason.
A parliament was thereafter assembled, in which Angus
and his whole friends and dependents were summoned to
answer for various abuses of the royal authority, and for
keeping the king's person nearly two years under restraint.
To defend themselves was impossible — to appear was to en-
counter ruin; the Earl of Angus and his followers, there-
fore, retreated into England, being secure of the mediation
of Henry VIII. with his incensed nephew. Unfortunately,
the earl did not deign to take this necessary step without
offering some semblance of defending himself by arms. He
garrisoned his castle of Tantallon, and taking the field with
a gallant body of cavalry, seemed disposed to bid defiance to
his youthful king, 1528. James hastened to lay siege to the
castle ; but it defied his forces. He was obliged to retreat
from before it with dishonor; and Angus, attacking the
rear of the royal army, added to the disgrace by killing one
David Falconer, a favorite officer of James. It was in vain
that the Earl of Angus showed much moderation, and for-
bore to seize on the royal train of artillery which were in
his power. James remembered with deep resentment the
wrongs which he had received, and felt no gratitude for
those which his disobedient subject had refrained from in-
flicting. He swore in his anger that no Douglas should,
while he lived and reigned, find favor or countenance in
Scotland. It was pity that James V. should have in this
manner bound himself up from exercising his prerogative of
pardon; for, says one old historian, no friend of the Doug-
lases, "I cannot find that the Earl of Angus, or any of that
kindred, failed to the king in any part, since, although they
were covetous, greedy, and oppressive of their neighbors, yet
were they ever true, kind, and serviceable to the king in all
his affairs, and ofttimes offered their persons to jeopardy for
his sake."
The Earl of Angus, seeing the king so decidedly deter-
mined against him, ceased his unavailing resistance, and
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 391
retired with his brother and kinsman. Henry VIII. used
much intercession in the earl's favor; but it was not until
the death of James that the Douglases were restored to
their native country of Scotland.
In the elevation of the House of Angus to eminent power,
and in its fall, there was something which resembled the rise
and declension of the original House of Douglas in the reign
of James II. But the second course of events were far in-
ferior in consequence to those of the earlier revolution. The
power which the Earl of Angus possessed flowed from his
wielding the king's authority and acting in the royal name.
He was, it is true, an overgrown minister, who controlled
the person and thwarted the inclinations of his sovereign;
but still the power which he abused was that of a minister
only, as appeared from the almost unresisted fall of the
family as soon as they were deprived of the custody of the
king's person. The last Earl of Douglas, on the contrary,
had bid the king defiance in open rebellion; assembled an
army as large as that of James II. ; and there was no
guessing to which side victory might have inclined, had
the earl given the monarch battle as a rival for his throne.
The natural inference is, that since, with every advan-
tage of a minority and a divided cabinet, with as much
ambition and more talents than Douglas, Angus had neither
been able to found his power so deeply or to raise it so high,
the precautions taken by James II. for repealing grants of
crown-lands, for prohibiting or limiting the erection of hered-
itary jurisdictions, and otherwise restricting the powers of
the nobility, had taken a certain though slow effect, and
that James V. possessed a degree of authority unknown to
the Scottish princes before these restrictions undermined the
power of the aristocracy.
The slaughter of Flodden, where twelve earls, thirteen
lords, and the eldest sons of five noble families lay on the
field, tended much to reduce the numbers of the Scottish
aristocracy, and increase the power of the crown, to which
many of their honors and estates reverted.
392 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
It is owing to the influence of these joint causes that
James V. assumed a degree of self-agency, which, in the
opinion of the Scottish nobles, the monarch was hardly en-
titled to; that, unlike his father James IV., he did not seem
to court their regard or employ their service, but sought his
companions among the gentry, and his counsellors among
the clergy, without, for a length of time, experiencing any
inconvenience from the discontent of those who claimed by
birth the right to share his sports and participate in the
exercise of his power.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 393
CHAPTER XXIII
James V. chastises the Borders — Introduces Cultivation and good
Order — Institutes the College of Justice — Short War with Eng-
land — Friendship restored — James temporizes with Henry —
Marries Magdalen of France — Her early Death — James weds
Mary of Guise — Sentence of Lady Glamis — Burning of several
Heretics — Sadler's Embassy — James's wise Government — His
Faults — He is of a severe Temper, and addicted to Favoritism —
His Expedition to the Scottish Isles — Character of Sir James
Hamilton of Draphane, and his Execution — Death of the two
infant Sons of James — Considered as Ominous — Severe Laws
against Heresy — Critical Position of James on the approaching
War between France and England — He offends Henry by dis-
appointing him at the proposed Interview — War with England
— Battle of Haddon Rig — The Scottish Nobles at Fala Muir re-
fuse to advance with the King — Incursion on the West Border
— Rout of Sol way Moss — James V. dies of a Broken Heart
JAMES V. having, as mentioned in the last chapter,
obtained the unlimited exercise of the royal author-
ity, became desirous of reducing to order the formi-
dable border men, who, under the Earl of Angus, had been
permitted to indulge themselves uncontrolled in all kinds of
violence. The king swept through the frontiers with a fly-
ing army, reducing the castles, and seizing upon the persons
of those haughty chieftains, many of whom had no concep-
tion that the irregularities of which they and their people
had been guilty were of a character to deserve the capital
punishment of death, which was unsparingly executed upon
them. John Armstrong of Gilnockie, Adam Scott of Tushie-
law, called the King of the Border, and Piers Cockburn of
Henderland, were among the border chiefs who perished on
this memorable occasion. Having thus succeeded in quell-
ing the authors of foreign strife and domestic disorder so
effectually as to make "the bush of rushes keep the cow,"
394 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
James V. proceeded to occupy the crown lands, in the coun-
tries which had been so lately disturbed, with flocks and
herds, the produce of which formed a large addition to his
royal revenue on the borders.
After this signal infliction of punishment, it is boasted
by a contemporary historian that the king had thirty thou-
sand sheep pasturing in Ettricke Forest, and that his herds-
man gave him as good an account of the produce, although
in that disorderly district, as if they had gone within the
bounds of Fife. Scotland seems to have enjoyed several
years of such tranquillity as seldom occurs in the history of
that distracted country. James, resenting the recollections
of his sufferings under the tutelage of Angus, did not greatly
use the services of his nobles, being disgusted with their ig-
norance and arrogance. He employed the talents of the
clergy more freely; and they thus attained an influence
over his mind which deterred him from joining the party
of the reformers, to which he had originally shown some
inclination.
In the year 1531, James V. gave to his country of Scot-
land the institution of the supreme court of council and ses-
sion, which was framed in imitation of the parliament of
Paris. Hitherto justice had been administered by standing
committees of parliament, by whom the duty was irregu-
larly and sometimes negligently discharged. These were
now to give place to a court of professional persons, chosen
with reference to their capacity for the high office, and hav-
ing no occupation which might divert them from the ad-
ministration of justice. The court possessed the supreme
power of decision in all civil cases, and subsists to this day
under the various alterations and improvements which the
experience of three centuries has suggested. The number
of the judges of the new court of session was fifteen, one
half of them being laymen, and the others clergymen. The
churchmen were taxed to defray the expense of the new
establishment.
In 1533, a short and unimportant war broke out with
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 395
England. It was signalized only by mutual inroads on the
frontiers, and ended by a peace between the royal uncle and
nephew ; after which James received from Henry the Order
of the Garter. At this period Henry VIII., from motives
well known in history, had renounced the papal sway, and
became particularly anxious to induce his nephew to take a
similar step. It is even said that, to purchase his compli-
ance, Henry would have been contented that James should
become the husband of his eldest daughter Mary, with other
high advantages. He was pressing by his letters and mes-
sengers to have a personal interview appointed with his
nephew, over whom he no doubt hoped to exercise that su-
periority which the powerful possesses over the compara-
tively weak sovereign, the rich over the poor, the aged over
the young, and, as Henry doubtless supposed, the wise over
the less strong-minded. But James, though desirous to be
on good terms with his uncle, could not resolve upon imitat-
ing him in his scheme of throwing off the dominion of the
Church of Rome. He had, indeed, listened with a smile to
those lighter pieces of satire which reflected upon the per-
sonal character of the priests ; a subject on which the Catho-
lic Church has never manifested great irritability. But he
was not prepared to resign any part of those doctrines which
had been interwoven with his earliest ideas. The clergy,
who were so useful to him in the course of his administra-
tion, had undoubtedly considerable influence in deterring
him from following the courses of Henry. James also,
though far from being wealthy, was so frugal as not to
require for the support of his revenue the desperate measure
of confiscating the church property. Finally, he felt that
by joining with Henry in a step which all the princes of
Europe held as impious and heretical, he must break off his
friendly connection with France and every other power, to
place himself wholly in the hands of the most haughty and
imperious monarch then living. He procrastinated, there-
fore, and evaded the proposal for a meeting, well knowing
that if such an appointment did not produce all the effects
396 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
which Henry desired and expected, it must necessarily de-
stroy his amicable relations with England. These ties James
desired to preserve in their present state, but did not wish to
draw them closer.
The same reasons prevented the king from prosecuting
the proposed match with the Princess Mary. Meantime hiF
people anxiously desired that he should marry. Years rolled
on, and James, the last of his line, was still single. His sub-
jects were the more anxious on this point, as he often hazarded
his person in private and nocturnal adventures, which he un-
dertook sometimes to further the purposes of justice, and on
other occasions from the love of enterprise and intrigue. A
blow in a midnight brawl might have again reduced Scot-
land to the miserable condition of a people with whom the
succession to the crown is disputed.
At length a treaty of marriage was concluded between
the king of Scotland and Marie de Bourbon, a daughter of
the Duke of Vendome, in 1536. James undertook a journey
to France to fetch home his betrothed bride. But when he
arrived in that kingdom he was dissatisfied with the choice
of his ambassador, and Magdalen, the princess of France,
was substituted for Marie de Bourbon. They were married
in great splendor on the 1st of January, and embarked in
the beginning of May for the port of Leith, in Scotland,,
where they were received with great rejoicings, which with-
in forty days were to be turned into the signs of mourning,
July 7, 1537. Magdalen, the young queen of Scotland, car-
ried in her constitution the seeds of a hectic fever, which,
within that brief space, removed her from her new kingdom
and royal bridegroom. Her vacant place on the throne was
soon afterward filled by Mary of Guise, the most celebrated
queen of Scotland, excepting her daughter Mary Stewart,
still more famed for beauty and misfortune. This lady bore
to her husband two healthy male children, both of whom died
within a few days of each other during James's lifetime.
Mary, the third offspring of the marriage, beheld the light
for the first time at the period of her father's death, 1541.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 397
Throughout the whole of this reign the banished Doug-
lases, from their place of exile in England, intrigued among
the Scottish nobility, who saw with displeasure that the king
preferred the assistance of the churchmen to theirs in the
management of his political affairs. During the life of
James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, the king used his
approved talents in the administration ; and at his death in
1539 he had called to his councils his nephew David Beaton,
afterward cardinal and primate of Scotland. He was sup-
posed to have been peculiarly connected with the following
judicial proceedings : the son of Lord Forbes was accused
of treason by the Earl of Huntley, tried by the court of
justiciary, and suffered death. In like manner Jane Doug-
las, the sister of Angus, widow of the late Lord Glamis,
mother of the youth who bore the title at the time, and wife
of Archibald Campbell of Kepneith, was, with her present
husband, her son, and certain accomplices, accused of and
tried for an attempt to hasten the king's death by the imag-
inary crime of witchcraft. For this offence Lady Glamis
suffered death at the stake, on the castle hill of Edinburgh.
She was much pitied on account of her noble birth, her dis-
tinguished grace and beauty, and the courage with which
she endured her cruel punishment. The Scottish historians
throw reflections upon James for giving vent to his resent-
ment against the Douglases in the punishment of this lady:
but her crimes appear to have been fully proved ; and al-
though the idea of taking away the life of others by acts of
sorcery be now exploded, yet it is well known that in the
Dark Ages the effect of the unhallowed rites was often ac-
celerated by the administration of poison ; not to mention
that those who engaged in such a conspiracy were morally,
though not actually, guilty of the crime of murder. The
punishment of Lady Glamis by fire was cruel, doubtless;
but the cruelty was that of the age, not of the sovereign.
Her husband Campbell was killed by a fall in attempting
an escape from the castle of Edinburgh in which he was a
prisoner.
398 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
The same horrible mode of punishment undergone by
Lady G-lamia was, during James's reign, unsparingly ap-
plied to the restraint of heresy. In the year 1528 a young
man of good birth, named Patrick Hamilton, the first person
who introduced the doctrines of Luther's reformation into
Scotland, sealed them by his violent death, which took place
at St. Andrew's. The king, being then under the tutelage
of the Douglases, cannot be charged with this act of cruelty ;
but the execution of seven persons, in the year 1539, attested
his assent to these bloody and impolitic inflictions. It is,
however, certain that, in permitting the established laws of
the realm to have their course, James by no means appeared
satisfied either with the frequent repetition of such exhibi-
tions, or with the conduct of the churchmen themselves.
He evinced in several particulars a bias favorable to the
reformed doctrines; and his uncle Henry VIII. , confiding
in these hopeful indications, continued to entertain consid-
erable hopes of drawing over his nephew to follow his own
example.
Sir Ralph Sadler, a statesman of great talent, and no
stranger to Scotland, was despatched with a present of some
horses and the delicate task of prevailing on James to dis-
miss such of his ministers as were Catholic priests, especially
Cardinal David Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrew's, and of
exhorting him at the same time to seize on the property of
the Church, and to reform the morals of the churchmen by
severe correction. The old proposal of a personal conference
was again renewed. King James answered with mildness
to the urgency of his uncle. He declared he would reform
the abuses of the Church, but that he could not justly or
conscientiously make these a pretext for seizing on its prop-
erty, especially since the churchmen were willing to supply
him with such sums of money as he from time to time re-
quired. The candor of Sadler owned to his master thkt the
king of Scotland was obliged to make use of the clergy in
the public service, owing to the ignorance and incapacity
of his nobility.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 399
During all these transactions the personal character of
James V. appears in a favorable light. He did not indeed
escape the charge of severity usually brought against princes
who endeavor to restore the current of justice to its proper
channel after it has been for some time interrupted. But
his reign was distinguished by acts of personal intrepidity
on the part of the sovereign, as well as by an economical
and sage management of the revenues of the kingdom.
James encouraged fisheries, wrought mines, cultivated
waste lands, and understood and protected commerce.
The palaces which he built are in a beautiful though
singular style of architecture; and the productions of his
mint, particularly that called the bonnet-piece, because it
bears James's head surmounted by the national cap, is the
most elegant specimen of gold coinage which the age affords.
The sculptor of the die was probably some foreign medallist
whom James had induced to settle in Scotland, and who died
young. Had so excellent an artist lived for any considerable
period he must have distinguished himself.
James, in proportion to his means, was liberal to foreign
mechanics, by whose aid he hoped to encourage the arts
among his ignorant people. The court of Scotland was gay,
and filled with persons of accomplishment. Himself a poet,
the king gave all liberal indulgence to the Muses, and does
not seem to have resented the shafts of satire which were
sometimes aimed against the royal gallantries or the royal
parsimony.
With many virtues, James V. displayed few faults, but
these were of a fatal character. "We cannot reckon among
them his unwillingness to receive a form of faith unknown
to his fathers; but his rejection of the Reformation may be
safely accounted among his misfortunes. The license which
he gave to the vindictive persecution of the Protestants seems
to have originated in that personal severity of temper already
noticed. His inexorable hatred of the Douglases partakes of
the same character. No recollection of early familiarity, no
degree of personal merit, would induce him to extend any
•400 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
favor to an individual of that detested name. His dislike
to or contempt for his nobility led to his admitting favorites
into his society, on whom his countenance was too exclusively
conferred. Among these minions, the most distinguished was
Oliver Sinclair, a youth of noble descent, but to whom the
king too indiscriminately extended the favor which he with-
held from men of eminent rank.
In the year 1540 James V. undertook an expedition truly
worthy of a patriotic sovereign, making, with a strong fleet
and a sufficient body of troops, a circumnavigation of his
whole realm of Scotland, acquainting himself with the vari-
ous islands, harbors, capes, currents, and tides. In the
Hebrides he took hostages from the most turbulent chiefs
for the quiet behavior of their clans, which bore in general
the same denominations which they have at this day, as
M' Donalds, M'Leods, M' Leans, M'Kenzies, and others. In
this expedition the king showed to the most remote part
of his dominions the presence of their sovereign in a position
both willing and able to support the dignity of the crown
and the due administration of justice, striking a salutary
terror into those heads of clans who were unwilling to ac-
knowledge a higher authority than their own. James sailed
from Leith on this praiseworthy expedition about the 22d
May, and landed at Dumbarton in the course of July, 1540,
after a voyage which, in that early state of navigation, was
not without its dangers.
We have repeatedly mentioned Sir James Hamilton as a
man of determined courage, but of a blood-thirsty and re-
morseless disposition. He was a base-born son of the Earl
of Arran, the same whose violence precipitated the skirmish
called Cleanse the Causeway, and who slew the Earl of Len-
nox in cold blood after the battle, near Kirkliston, between
Angus and his father. This man, usually called the Bastard
of Arran, and sometimes Lord Evandale, at one time stood
high in the favor of James V., and obtained the estates of
Draphane, Finnart, and others. He owed this distinction
partly perhaps to his well-known character for determined
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 401
courage, partly to a taste for architecture by which he was
distinguished. The king seems to have used his talents in
the rebuilding and ornamenting the palaces of Linlithgow,
Stirling, and Falkland, in each of which may be remarked
an elegant and highly ornamented style of architecture,
being a mixture of the Gothic and Classical styles, like that
which predominated in England in Elizabeth's reign. But
having lost the king's favor when he advanced in years, Sir
James Hamilton was accused of having entered into a con-
spiracy for restoring the Douglases (though his own heredi-
tary enemies) by means of a plot on the king's life. For
this he was convicted, and suffered death at Edinburgh,
August 26, 1546. His accuser was a brother of Patrick
Hamilton, the protomartyr. It is said Sir James Hamilton
had been a violent persecutor of the Protestant faith.
In 1541 James met with a great and poignant family
affliction. The two male infants, borne to him by his wife
Mary of Guise, were both cut off by sudden illness within
a few days of each other. The Protestants recorded this
as a judgment against the king for permitting the perse-
cution of their faith, and their writers record an ominous
dream of the king, in which the spectre of Sir James Ham-
ilton appeared to James in the visions of the night, and
striking off his two arms while he upbraided him with his
cruelty, announced that he would speedily return and take
his head. The superstition of Mary of Guise, a devoted
daughter of the Church of Rome, took a different direction;
and the king might perhaps agree with her and the priests
in concluding that their family calamity arose from the
vengeance of Heaven expressed against him for his slowness
in extirpating heresy. At least, from the tenor of his meas-
ures at this time, such seems to have been his own interpre-
tation of this severe visitation.
The statute-book at this period contains various severe
denunciations against heresy. To argue against the pope's
authority is declared punishable with death, and all discus-
sion on the subject of religion is as far as possible prohibited.
402 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Suspected heretics are declared incapable of exercising any
office; nay, such as may even have abjured their errors of
faith are still to remain excluded from conversation with
Catholics. Fugitives for their religious opinions are held
as condemned; all correspondence with them is prohibited,
and rewards are offered for their discovery. These severe
penal enactments sufficiently show the sense of Cardinal
Beaton, their author, that the Protestant opinions were pene-
trating deeply into Scotland, and could in his opinion only
be eradicated by the most active measures. But in propor-
tion as the severity increased, the prohibited doctrines seemed
to gain ground ; and the Scottish clergymen saw no remedy
except in the dangerous expedient of engaging James V. in
a war with England, the monarch of which kingdom had led
the way in the great northern schism of the Church.
The situation of James V. now became extremely critical.
Whatever might be the king's own moderation, there seemed
almost an impossibility of his remaining neutral while France
and England were hastening to a rupture; and there were
weighty reasons for dreading the consequences, whichever
party he might embrace. If he became the close and in-
separable ally of his uncle, he must comply with that impet-
uous prince in all his humors, alter the religious constitution
of his country after the example of England, confiscate the
possessions of the Church, to the prejudice of his own ideas
of religion and justice, and discharge Beaton and other
counsellors by whose experienced talents he had hitherto
conducted his administration. He felt also that these sacri-
fices, which must necessarily cost him the esteem and the
alliance both of France and of Germany, would be made for
the chance of securing the doubtful friendship of an uncle
who, amid all his professions of friendship, had constantly
maintained within his kingdom the exiled family of Douglas,
whom James not only peculiarly hated, but whom, from
their extensive connections in Scotland, he had some reason
to dread.
On the other hand, to refuse Henry's proffers of friend-
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 403
ship must expose the kingdom of Scotland to a misfortune
similar to that of his father at Flodden; or, if he escaped
such an overwhelming calamity, must give him still to fear
the consequences of a war for which the disaffection of his
nobles rendered him, notwithstanding all his own efforts to
the contrary, very much unprepared. In its course it was
likely to be the occasion of forming, under the patronage
of the English monarch, a strong faction of malcontents
in Scotland, partly united by the new views of religion
which had been so generally adopted, and partly by alli-
ance or intimacy on the part of some Scottish nobles, with
Angus and the banished Douglases.
The king was warmly urged by a new embassy from
Henry VIII. to come to a decisive conclusion on these diffi-
cult points, when, worn out by importunity, he gave a doubt-
ful promise, that, if the affairs of his kingdom permitted, he
would meet his uncle at York for the purpose of arranging
an amicable settlement, Henry, who thought highly of his
own arts of eloquence and persuasion, and who appears to
have founded extravagant hopes on the influence which
he might expect to gain by this personal interview, repaired
to York, and remained there for six days, expecting the
arrival of King James. The king of Scotland, however,
aware that to meet Henry without being prepared to con-
cede to him everything which he desired would only pre-
cipitate a rupture, excused himself for not attending upon
the conference; and Henry returned to London, personally
offended with James, and eagerly desirous of revenge. The
chastisement of the king of Scotland became now as favorite
an object with Henry as the conversion of James to his own
opinions on religion and politics had previously been.
At length, in 1542, after a variety of petty incursions,
the war broke out openly, and Sir Robert Bowes, with the
banished Douglases, entered Scotland at the head of three
thousand cavalry. They were encountered near Haddon Rig
by the Earl of Huntley, to whom James had intrusted the
defence of the border. The English were defeated, and left
404 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
their general and many inferior leaders prisoners in th6
hands of their enemies. Angus himself would have shared
the same fate, but he rid himself of the knight who laid
hands on him by employing his dagger.
James was highly encouraged by this fortunate com-
mencement of the campaign, and made a donation of the
lands of Hirsel to Sir Andrew Ker of Littledean, who
brought him the first news of the victory. But he was
now doomed to find that he had made shipwreck of his
popularity in lending his countenance to the severities
against the heretics, as they were termed, and in exclud-
ing from his favor the nobility of the kingdom. The pres-
ence of an English army under the Duke of Norfolk, which,
entering the Scottish frontier, had burned the towns of
Kelso and Eoxburgh and nearly twenty villages, compelled
him to summon an army to repel the invasion.
The Scottish king, therefore, assembled thirty thousand
men, under their various feudal leaders, upon the Borough
Moor, and marched from thence against the enemy. But
as the Scottish army halted at Fala Muir, they received
information that the English had retired to Berwick, and
dismissed the greater part of their forces.
The Scottish nobles, on receiving this intelligence, united
in declaring that the occasion of their service in arms was
ended, signified their intention to attend the host no longer,
and prepared to depart with their respective followers. The
king was deeply grieved and irritated by this unexpected
resolution. Henry had insulted him by the threat that he
had still the same rod in keeping which had chastised his
father. By that rod the Duke of Norfolk was intimated,
who, while yet Earl of Surrey, commanded at Flodden,
where James IV. fell. His son and successor highly re-
sented this reference to his father's misfortunes; and now,
when the duke was within a few miles' distance of him, and
he himself at the head of an army numerous enough to sec-
ond his desire of revenge, it was with peculiar pain that he
saw himself deserted by his nobility, when he most desired
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 405
their cordial support. There was, however, no remedy: in
a Scottish feudal camp the aristocracy were omnipotent, the
king's power merely nominal ; and to have urged the dispute
to an open rupture would only have incurred the risk of
reviving the scene of Lauder Bridge in James III.'s time.
For the leaders began to whisper to each other that rather
than indulge the king's humor for an impolitic war, they
would hang up the evil counsellors who had suggested the
idea to him. Rewarding, therefore, with heraldic honors
John Scott of Thirlestane, 1 the only baron in that large
host who offered to follow his banner, James dismissed his
refractory army, when it was about to dismiss itself, and
returned so deeply moved with shame and indignation that
he not only lost his spirits, but his health was obviously
affected.
The royal counsellors endeavored to find a remedy for
James's wounded feelings by appointing another attempt
to be made against England on the western border, the suc-
cess of which might, they hoped, obliterate the recollection
of the mutiny at Fala. The Lord Maxwell was appointed
to command ten thousand men; but though Maxwell was
himself a counsellor and favorite of the king, the} 7 were
injudiciously .composed of the followers of Cassilis, Glen-
cairn, and other "Westland nobles, among whom the Refor-
mation had made considerable progress, and who were pro-
portionably disgusted with the war, which they regarded as
undertaken at the instigation and to serve the interest of the
papal clergy. This may in part account for the extraordinary
scene which followed.
In 1542 Maxwell's army had assembled, and advanced
as far as the western border, when it was drawn up in order,
and Oliver Sinclair was raised on a buckler for the purpose
of reading the commission intrusting Lord Maxwell with the
command of the army. The ill-timed introduction of this
1 He added the royal tressure to his arms, and assigned for his crest
a bundle of spears with the motto "Ready, aye ready." Lord Napier is
the representative of this family.
406 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
unpopular minion in a situation and duty so ostensible occa-
sioned a belief that the commission which he read was in
his own favor; and as this rumor gained ground a general
confusion prevailed, and many, who did not choose to fight
under the command of so unpopular a general, began to
leave their ranks and return homeward, Dacres and Mus-
grave, two chiefs of the English borderers, who had come
to watch the motions of the Scottish army, were witnesses
of the strange and apparently causeless scene of confusion
which it exhibited. Without knowing the cause, they took
advantage of the effect, and charged with a degree of cour-
age and determination which changed the confusion of the
enemy into flight, and in many cases into surrender; for a
great number of the chiefs and nobles chose rather to become
the prisoners of the English leaders than to escape to their
own country and meet the displeasure of their offended mon-
arch. The whole Scottish force dispersed without stroke of
sword, and the victors made many prisoners-
King James had advanced to the border, that he might
earlier receive intelligence from the army. But when he
learned the news of a rout so dishonorable as that of Solway 9
the honor of his kingdom and the reputation of his arms
were, he thought, utterly and irredeemably lost, and his
proud spirit refused to survive the humiliation. He re-
moved from the border to Edinburgh, and from thence
to Falkland, his deep melancholy still increasing and mix-
ing itself with the secret springs of life. At length his
powers of digestion totally failed. It was in this discon-
solate condition that a messenger, who came to acquaint
James V. that his queen, then at Linlithgow, was delivered
of a daughter, found him to whom he brought the news.
6 'Is it so?" said the expiring monarch, reflecting on the
alliance which had placed the Stewart family on the throne ;
"then God's will be done. It came with a lass, and will go
with a lass." With these words, presaging the extinction
of his house, he made a signal of adieu to his followers and
courtiers, and expired, December 14, 1542.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 40?
CHAPTER XXIV
Proposed Marriage between Mary of Scotland and Edward, Prince
of Wales — The Earl of Arran Regent — An English Part} 7 formed
— Henry VIII. 's Demands — Successful Intrigues of Cardinal
Beaton — The Treaty with England broken — Incursions of the
English — Battle of Ancram Moor — Martyrdom of Wisheart —
Murder of Cardinal Beaton — Battle of Pinkie — Treaty of Mar-
riage between Mary and the Dauphin of France — She is sent
over into France — Arran is induced to resign the Government,
and the Queen-Mother is declared Regent — Peace with England
— The Queen-Regent's Partiality for France — Her Dissensions
with the Scottish Nobles — Her Proposal for a standing Army is
rejected — Progress of the Protestant Doctrines — Hamilton,
Archbishop of St. Andrew's — Claim of Queen Mary to the
Crown of England — Bold Answer of the Protestants to a Cita-
tion of the Queen-Regent — Death of five Commissioners sent to
France — The Queen-Regent resolves to subdue the Protestants,
who take Arms — Treaties of Accommodation are repeatedly
broken — The Reformers destroy the Monastic Buildings — The
Treaty of Perth violated, and the Protestants take Arms — They
advance to Edinburgh — The Queen-Regent fortifies Leith — The
Lords of the Congregation promulgate a Resolution that she
has forfeited her Office of Regent
THUS was Scotland, by the death of an accomplished
king, having only attained his thirty-first year, re-
duced once more to one of those long minorities
which are the bane of her history, and which, in the pres-
ent case, brought even more than the usual amount of
misfortune.
The Scots, involved in a national war which had no na-
tional object, were, upon the decease of James V. , willingly
disposed to address Henry in a pacific tone, in which they
reminded him that they now spoke in behalf of their infant
408 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
queen, his own near relation, who could have wronged no
one, since she did not as yet know good from evil.
Henry VIII. is said to have evinced some kind feelings
toward the memory of his unfortunate nephew : he shed a
tear over James's fate, and imputed his errors to evil coun-
sellors. Monarchs, however, have little leisure to indulge
in sentimental sorrows. The king of England soon lost the
recollection of his nephew's faults and merits in considering
how the events which had happened could be rendered avail-
able to the increase of his own territories and authority. The
road to the conquest of Scotland might, to a sanguine prince,
appear to lie open; but it had been repeatedly attempted from
the time of Severus downward, and had never been found
practicable. The impetuous temper of Henry VIII. waSj
therefore, forced to stoop to the plan adopted by Edward L,
ere the death of the Maid of Norway compelled his ambition
to wear a sterner and more undisguised shape. A matri-
monial alliance between the young heiress of Scotland and
his son, afterward Edward VI., promised the English mon-
arch all the advantages of conquest without either risk or
odium. "With this purpose he kept his eyes bent earnestly
on the affairs of Scotland, to seize, as fast as they' should
occur, all means of furthering so desirable an object.
The government of the kingdom was claimed by the late
Prime Minister, Cardinal Beaton, in virtue of a testament of
the deceased king, which, however, was universally regarded
as a forgery perpetrated by tha't ambitious churchman. He
had, as before mentioned, succeeded his uncle, the turbulent
archbishop of Glasgow, in James's councils, and was es-
teemed the author of most of the deceased king's unpopular
measures, especially those in persecution of heresy. The
nobles, who had no mind to perpetuate the power under
which they had long groaned, unanimously rejected the
claim, and preferred that of the Earl of Arran, representa-
tive of the House of Hamilton, and next heir to the Scottish
crown, who was recognized accordingly as regent. Beaton
was made prisoner by order of the regent, and detained in
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 409
a species of honorable captivity, to prevent his embroiling
the new government by the intrigues of which he was mas-
ter ; and thus the Earl of Arran was placed at the head of
affairs.
To this nobleman Henry addressed himself, March 15,
1542, for the purpose of accomplishing the matrimonial treaty
which he had so much at heart. He did not neglect the ob-
vious precaution of securing an interest and a party in the
Scottish parliament. "With this view the English ministers
were directed to cultivate the intimacy of the various Scot-
tish nobles and persons of rank who had been so strangely
made prisoners at the rout of Solway Moss. Among these
were the Earls of Cassilis and Glencairn, the Lords Max-
well, Somerville, Oliphant, and Gray. These nobles were
dismissed free and without ransom by Henry VIII., upon
their engaging to promote the views of that monarch by as-
sisting in bringing about the desired alliance. Besides these,
the English king had powerful auxiliaries in the banished
Earl of Angus, and his brother Sir George, who returned to
their native country, without waiting for a recall, as soon as
the death of James "V. was made public. Their forfeiture
being instantly reversed in parliament, it became manifest
that the displeasure of the king rather than the dread of the
law had rendered them so long exiles. To these Douglases,
indebted to him for protection and the means of support dur-
ing an exile of fourteen years, the king of England commu-
nicated his purposes more fully than to the prisoners made
at Solway, and by the means of both endeavored to form in
the parliament of Scotland an English party, which might
serve his interests more effectually than they could be ad-
vanced by force of arms. To this faction in the state was
to be added the numerous men of influence who, being con-
verts to the Protestant faith, were attached, on that account,
to England, and held in abhorrence the power of France.
But the temper of Henry was too impetuous to wait for the
advantages which, with a little temper and patience, would
certainly have arisen out of his own position toward Scot-
18 *% Vol. I.
410 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
land, and the exertions of a numerous and powerful party,
which was disposed to act unanimously in his behalf.
The king of England manifested the most eager and im-
petuous desire that the person of the infant queen should be
delivered into his custody; and though it was represented
to him that his proposal would certainly awaken the ancient
jealousy which had so long subsisted between the kingdoms,
it was with difficulty that he at last consented she should be
suffered to remain in Scotland till she attained the age of ten
years complete. Henry wasted so much time in these pre-
liminary discussions that he lost the favorable moment in
which the estates of Scotland were disposed to enter into
terms with him concerning the marriage, and gave time for
a politic adversary to recover the power of counteracting the
whole project.
The adversary in question was Cardinal Beaton, who, as
leader of the Roman Catholic party, and both in office and
in talents head of the churchmen, was the devoted friend
of France, and the no less determined enemy of England.
"While this intriguing priest was a prisoner of the regent,
and while the rout at Solway and the death of James had
overawed the minds of those nobles disposed to concur with
him, Henry would have found little difficulty in accomplish-
ing the matrimonial treaty which he meditated. But the
moment the artful cardinal was free (having been liberated
by the Lord Seton), his influence began to appear. By
lavishing money, which his numerous Church preferments
furnished in great store, by awakening all the ancient preju-
dices against England, and by dwelling on the imprudent
tenacity with which Henry had clung to the rejected articles
of the treaty, he contrived to unite a large and powerful body
of the nobles, comprehending Argyle, Huntley, and Both-
well, in opposition to the English alliance. A great number
of the barons, chiefly from jealousy of the national independ-
ence, joined the same party; and the regent himself, after
showing a vacillation of temper which in a less serious mat-
ter would have been ludicrous, threw himself at last into the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 411
arms of the cardinal, and, within eight days after he had
ratified the marriage treaty, renounced the friendship of
Henry and declared himself for the French interest. This
change in Arran's politics was attended with a correspond-
ing alteration in his religion, for he had hitherto pretended
great respect for the doctrines of the Reformation, and now
he consented to every measure proposed by the cardinal for
its suppression.
Henry was not to be trifled with in this manner with im-
punity. Resentment at what he termed the Scottish breach
of faith prompted him to a vindictive invasion by sea and
land : a strong army, under the Earl of Hertford, was em-
barked in a numerous fleet. He took the Scots by surprise,
landed in the Firth, plundered Edinburgh and the adjacent
country, and thus destroyed for a time the English influence
with the^Scottish nobles. A series of destructive inroads on
the frontier only added to the unpopularity of Henry with
the people of Scotland.
Even Angus, the guest, pensioner, and brother-in-law of
Henry by his marriage with the widowed queen of James
IV., renounced the English monarch's friendship during the
course of these ravages, and was distinguished by the share
he took in an action by which they were in some degree re-
venged. The circumstances were these :
The ravages of the English during the campaign of 1 554
were systematically conducted by Sir Ralph Ewers and Sir
Brian Latoun, soldiers of great skill and activity, and ward-
ens on the English marches. They cast down or burned a
hundred and ninety-two towns, towers, bastle- houses, and
parish churches, slew nearly a thousand Scots, and made
upward of ten thousand captives. Ten thousand horned
cattle, with twelve hundred horses, were but a part of the
spoil made within three or four months. Many of the Scot-
tish inhabitants of the western border, and the men of Lid-
disdale in particular, assumed from necessity a semblance
of allegiance to England, and aided the invaders in these
forays on Scotland.
412 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
To gratify the wardens for these achievements, the king
of England conferred upon them in fief the two border
counties of the Merse and Teviotdale, 1545. Sir Ralph,
now Lord Ewers, and Sir Brian Latoun advanced to take
saisin, as they said, of their new lordship, at the head of
three thousand hired soldiers, paid by Henry, and two thou-
sand borderers, the half of whom were Scots under English
assurance. "I will write them an instrument of investiture
with sharp pens and bloody ink," said the Earl of Angus,
much of whose private estate was included in this liberal
grant on the part of his royal brother-in-law. Accordingly,
he urged the regent to pass hastily to the borders with such
men as he had immediately around him, and put a stop to
the dilapidation and dismemberment of the kingdom.
A small body of three hundred men was assembled, un-
equal, from their inferior number, to do more than observe
the enemy, who moved forward with their full force from
Jedburgh to Melrose, where they spoiled the splendid con-
vent, in which lay the bones of many a heroic Douglas. The
Scots were joined in the night by the Leslies and Lindesays,
and other gentlemen from the western part of Fife; and ap-
parently the English learned that the regent's forces were
increasing, since they retreated toward Jedburgh at the
break of day. The Scots followed, manoeuvring to gain
the flank of the enemy. They were joined, near the village
of Maxton, by Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch with his follow-
ers, by whose knowledge of the ground and experience in
irregular warfare the regent was counselled to simulate a
retreat. The English halted, formed, and rushed hastily
to pursue, so that, encountering the enemy unawares, and
at disadvantage, they were totally defeated. The two lead-
ers fell, and very manj 7 of their followers, for the victors
showed little mercy ; and the Liddisdale men, who had come
with the English as friends, flung away the red crosses which
they had brought to the battle, and made a pitiless slaughter
among the troops whom they had joined as auxiliaries. Many
prisoners were taken, on whom heavy ransoms were levied,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 413
particularly on an alderman of London, named Read, whom
Henry VIII. had obliged to serve in person in the wars, be-
cause he refused to pay his share of a benevolence imposed
on the city, it appearing that though the king of England
could not invade a citizen's property, he had despotic power
sufficient to impress his person.
King Henry was greatly enraged at the loss of this action,
and uttered threats against Angus, whom he accused of in-
gratitude. The Scottish earl little regarded his displeasure.
"Is our brother," he said, "angry that I have avenged on
Ralph Ewers the injury done to the tombs of my ancestors?
They were better men than he, and I could in honor do no
less. And will he take my life for that? Little knows King
Henry the heights of Cairntable. 1 I can keep myself safe
there against all the power of England."
Thus all the nobility of Scotland, even those most nearly
connected with Henry, and who had been most indebted to
his favor, were, by his impetuous and harsh mode of wooing,
rendered averse to the match which he had set his heart upon,
and which in itself they approved, and had been so lately will-
ing to further by every means in their power. Nor was his
loss of partisans in that country compensated even by the
accident which removed from his path Cardinal Beaton, by
whom it had been chiefly interrupted.
This statesman had not reached the summit of affairs
without making many private enemies, as well as acquiring
the hatred of those who considered him as the prime oppo-
nent of the Protestant Church, and author of the death of
those revered characters who had suffered for heresy. A
recent instance of this kind, perpetrated under Beaton's
own eye, was marked with unusual atrocity. A Protestant
preacher, named George Wisheart, born of a good family,
and respected for eloquence, learning, and for a gentleness
and sweetness of disposition which made him universally
esteemed, had distinguished himself much by preaching the
reformed doctrines. Even the regent declined to proceed
1 Cairntable, a mountain in Douglas Dale.
414 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
against him, or to commission lay judges to sit upon his
trial. The cardinal, however, having treacherously got his
person into his hands, proceeded to arraign the prisoner of
heresy before an ecclesiastical court, by whom he was tried,
found guilty, and condemned to the stake. Beaton himself
sat in state to behold the execution of the sentence from
the walls of the castle of St. Andrew's, before which it
took place.
When Wisheart came forth to die, and beheld the author
of his misfortunes reposing in pomp upon the battlements to
witness his torments, he said to those around, either from a
conviction that the country would not long abide the cardi-
nal's violence, or from that spirit of prescience said some-
times to inspire the words of those who are standing between
time and eternity, "See yonder proud man: I tell you that
in a brief space ye shall see him flung out on yonder ram-
parts with infamy and scorn equal to the pomp and dignity
with which he now occupies it." The martyr died with the
utmost patience and bravery, and it is probable his words
did not fall to the ground.
Meantime the cardinal, conscious of the danger in which
he stood in a country where men's swords did not wait the
sanction of legal sentence to exact vengeance for real or sup-
posed injuries, usually dwelt in the castle of St. Andrew's,
which stood on a peninsula overhanging the sea, and was
strongly fortified. There were workmen employed to repair
and strengthen the defences of the place at the very time
that a desperate and irritated enemy contrived the death
of the bishop within its precincts. Norman Lesley, called
Master of Rothes, nourished deep resentment against the
cardinal for some private cause ; and associating with him
about fifteen men, who shared his sentiments for sundry
reasons, they surprised the castle at the break of day, ex-
pelled the garrison, and murdered the object of their enmity
with many circumstances of cruelty. Execrable as the action
was in conclusion and execution, they were able to assemble
about one hundred and fif ty men to defend the deed they had
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 415
done, and defied all the forces which the regent could bring
against them, until the French king sent to his assistance a
body of auxiliaries, to whose superior skill the conspirators
were compelled to surrender themselves, under promise of
safety for their lives.
Even the death of Beaton, though his most inveterate
political adversary, did not benefit the cause of Henry. The
cardinal's place, both as primate and as counsellor of the re-
gent, was supplied by a natural brother of the Earl of Arran,
John Hamilton, abbot of Paisley, who, from possessing a
superior firmness of mind, exercised much influence over
his brother, and was as devoted a friend to France and the
Catholic cause as the murdered cardinal had been during
his lifetime.
So stood the English interests in Scotland, which had
been ruined by the impetuous rudeness of Henry VIII.,
when that monarch was summoned to answer for his stew-
ardship before an awful tribunal. It seemed, however, as
if his spirit continued to animate his late council board. In
emulative prosecution of the war between England and Scot-
land, the Duke of Somerset, protector of England, entered
the eastern marches at the head of an army of seventy thou-
sand men, many of whom were mercenary bands from Spain
and Italy, experienced in war, and peculiarly formidable
when their skill, experience, and discipline were opposed to
an enemy so irregular as the Scottish forces. The regent,
however, assembled an army almost doubling in numbers
that of the invaders, and assuming a defensive situation
on the north side of the Esk above Musselburgh, placed the
lord protector of England in considerable danger, since he
could not advance without fighting at disadvantage, could
not keep his ground for want of provisions, and must have
experienced great difficulty in attempting a retreat. Pru-
dence and delay would probably have placed the victory in
the hands of the Scots. But the military testament of Rob-
ert Bruce was once more forgotten, and the Scots, with
national impetuosity, abandoned the vantage ground, to
410 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
fight for the victory which time and patience would have
given them without risk.
The English army occupied the crest of a sloping hill, on
the southern side of the Esk, above Pinkie ; that of Scotland,
arranged in three large bodies, chiefly consisting of spear-
men, having crossed the river, began slowly to ascend the
acclivity. The English cavalry charged with fury on the
foremost mass of spearmen; but were received so firmly by
the Scottish phalanx that they were beaten off with consid-
erable loss. It is said that this commencement of the battle
appeared so ominous to Somerset that he called for guides,
and was about to order a retreat. His secret rival, and, as
he afterward proved, his mortal enemy, Dudley, earl of
"Warwick, entertained better hopes, and directly commenced
a flank fire with the cannon of the army and the arquebuses
of the foreign mercenaries on the thick body of spearmen.
Angus, by whom the Scottish vanguard was commanded,
endeavored to change his position to avoid the cannonade.
About the same time some Highlanders of the second divis-
ion had broken their order, to hasten to the spoil, so that
their irregular appearance, with the retrograde movement
of Angus, communicated a panic to the rest of the Scottish
army, who thought they were routed. At this decisive
moment the Earl of Warwick, who had rallied the English
cavalry, brought them again to the charge, and introduced
among the disordered forces of the Scots that terror which
he had failed in producing upon these masses while they
maintained their ranks. The numerous army of the Scots
fled in total and irremediable confusion. Thus ended the
battle of Pinkie, without either a long or bloody conflict.
But the English horsemen, incensed at the check which they
received in their first onset, pursued the chase almost to the
gates of Edinburgh with unusual severity ; and as many of
the fugitives were drowned in the Esk, which was swelled
with the tide, the loss of the Scots in the battle and flight
amounted to ten thousand men. The whole space between
the field of battle and the capital was strewed with dead
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 417
bodies, and with the weapons which the fugitives had
thrown away in their flight.
Yet this great battle was followed by no corresponding
effects; for the Duke of Somerset, having garrisoned and
fortified the town of Haddington, and received the com-
pulsory submission of some of the border chiefs, withdrew
to England with his victorious army. On the other hand,
the loss of the battle, as it threw the Scottish nation into
despair, compelled them in a manner to seek the assistance
of France. An assembly of nobles met at Stirling, when it
was agreed that the efficient support of their ancient ally
should be purchased by offering the hand of their young
queen in marriage to the Dauphin of France. They con-
sented voluntarily to place her person in the hands of Henry
II., the father of her bridegroom, on condition that he would
furnish the Scottish nation with immediate and powerful as-
sistance to recover Haddington and such other places as the
English had garrisoned, and to defend the rest of the king-
dom in case of a repetition of the invasions. The liberal
terms thus freely offered to France were the more surpris-
ing, as the estates of Scotland had recently shown insur-
mountable reluctance to place similar confidence in Henry
VIII. But from the prejudices created by a thousand years
of war, the Scottish and the English nations were inspired
with a jealousy of each other which did not exist in either
country against other foreigners.
Henry II. of France caught at so favorable an opportu-
nity of acquiring a new kingdom for his son. Six thousand
veteran troops, under Monsieur d'Esse, were instantly de-
spatched to Scotland, and it was in the camp which they
formed before Haddington that the articles of the royal
marriage were finally adjusted. The queen-regent used the
utmost of her art and address, and no woman of her time
possessed more, in order to gain over the opinions of such
as could be influenced, and intimidate those who could not
be so won. The regent, Earl of Arran, was induced to con-
sent by a grant from Henry II. to accept the French title
418 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
of Duke of Chatelherault, with a considerable pension from
the same country. The opposition of meaner persons was
silenced by very intelligible threats of violence from men
that were extremely likely to keep their word; the fear of
the French arms, among which they held their councils,
imposed silence on others; and the person of the infant
Queen Mary, suitably attended, was sent over to France
by the same fleet which had escorted d'Esse and his troops
to Scotland. 1 And thus, ere Mary knew what the word
meant, she was bestowed in marriage upon a sickly and
silly boy, a lot which might be said to begin her calamities.
The queen-dowager having perfected this great match in
favor of the king of France, her kinsman, became naturally
desirous of obtaining the interim administration of Scotland
until her daughter should attain the years of discretion.
For this purpose she dealt with the indolent and indecisive
Earl of Arran for a cession of the regency. An augmented
pension from France, high honors to himself and his friends,
were liberally promised, together with a public acknowledg-
ment of his right as next heir to the Scottish throne. On the
contrary, the threat of a minute inquiry into his legitimacy,
which was not beyond question, a severe investigation of his
management while regent, the ill-will of the queen and her
party in the state, were arguments which shook his resolu-
tion. He acquiesced in the terms proposed; and though
afterward he retracted, upon the upbraidings of his brother
the primate, who irreverently exclaimed against the mean-
ness that would resign the government when nothing stood
between him and the crown but the life of a puling girl, he
finally made the sacrifice required of him, and aware, per-
haps, of his own unpopularity, resigned to the superior
firmness of Mary of Guise the regency of Scotland.
1 Knox, the stern apostle of Protestantism, says that "some were
corrupted with buds (bribes), some [deceived with flattering promises,
and some for fear were compelled to consent, for the French soldiers
were officers of arms in that parliament. The Lord of Buccleuch, a
bloody man, with many G— d's wounds, said that they that did not
assent should do worse." — History of the Reformation, 1644.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 419
In this capacity the queen-mother showed vigor and de-
termination. With the assistance of d'Esse's French troops,
she retook Haddington from the English, and drove out
other petty garrisons which they had established after the
battle of Pinkie. This warfare, though the actions were
on a small scale, was uncommonly sanguinary. Many of
the English officers had committed insolencies and atrocities
during their hour of success which the Scots could not for-
give ; and not only did the latter themselves refuse quarter
to the English, but there were instances of their purchasing
English prisoners from the French, merely, like Indian sav-
ages, to have the pleasure of putting them to death. To
such a height of animosity had mutual ravages and con-
stant injuries heated the national resentment of two coun-
tries, which, save for an imaginary line of boundary, were
in fact the same people.
The victory of Pinkie thus had no more effectual conse-
quences in favor of England than those which had followed
former defeats of the Scottish armies, and it furnished an
additional proof, that while it was easy to inflict deep inju-
ries upon Scotland, it seemed difficult or impossible abso-
lutely to subdue the country. After so much expenditure
of blood and treasure, the Scots were included in a peace
between France and England, which, amid civil discord
and party faction, the Duke of Warwick, now at the head
of English affairs, was glad to accede to.
The queen-regent of Scotland, in her new acquisition of
power, had one great disadvantage. She was a French-
woman ; and while she was in truth desirous of serving her
country and sovereign, she found it very difficult to con-
vince the people of Scotland that she was not willing to
sacrifice the interests of the country which she ruled to th.it
of which she was the native. The auxiliary army of d'Esse
did not leave Scotland without a renewal of the hostile dis-
position which had on former occasions arisen between the
French troops and the Scots, to whose assistance they had
been sent. The rudeness, poverty, and haughty iguorance
420 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
of the Scots took offence at the airs of superiority assumed
by the brave and polished, but arrogant and petulant French.
This had been the case in John de Vienne's time. But a
large part of the Scottish nation had now additional reasons
for disliking the auxiliary forces of d'Esse: they hated them
not only as foreigners, but as papists. A brawl, arising out
of a contention between a gunsmith of Edinburgh and a
French soldier, about a culverin, ended in an open riot, to
which both parties were previously well disposed. The Scots
and French fought in the streets of Edinburgh, in which
skirmish the lord provost of the town and the governor of
the castle were both slain. Peace was restored with the
utmost difficulty; but their having been guilty of such an
insult in the capital of their ally added greatly to the grow-
ing unpopularity of the auxiliaries.
Although these ominous occurrences ought to have put
the queen-regent on her guard against appearing to act by
the advice of foreigners, and although the example of the
Duke of Albany and the fate of the Sieur de la Bastie might
have made her aware of the antipathy of the Scots to the
rule of strangers, she did not hesitate to confer on French-
men situations of trust and dignity in the Scottish state, and
to use their advice in her councils. These new statesmen,
better acquainted with the constitution and politics of France
than those of Scotland, advised the queen to find means of
supporting her government, by laying upon the landed pro-
prietors taxes sufficient to maintain a standing army, and
placing garrisons in the principal fortresses of the kingdom,
of which, either by hereditary right or by grants from the
crown, the nobility were the guardians. This proposal of
the queen, made according to the advice of her French ad-
visers, was in the highest degree unpalatable. The poverty
of the nation was alarmed at the prospect of a land tax, and
its pride at the supposition that the defence of the country
could be better secured by intrusting it to mercenaries rather
than to the children of the soil. As an experiment, the
queen-regent requested the Earl of Angus's consent to put
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 421
a French garrison into his castle of Tantallon. On hearing
this proposal, the earl answered in words intended to apply
to the queen, but directed to a hawk which sat on his fist,
and which he was feeding at the time, "The devil is in the
greedy kite; she will never be satisfied." But more directly
and pointedly pressed on the subject, he said, "Tantallon
is at your majesty's command as regent of the kingdom;
but, by Saint Bride of Douglas, I must remain castellan of
the fortress for your behoof, and I will keep it better for you
than any foreigners whom you could place there."
When the plan of raising mercenary troops was proposed
in parliament, about three hundred of the lesser barons came
before the queen in a body, and asserted that they were as
able to defend their country as their fathers had been, and
that they would not permit the sacred task, which was the
most honorable part of their birthright, to be transferred
to mercenaries and strangers. The queen-regent, therefore,
saw herself compelled to abandon her proposal.
The defeat of this scheme, which involved the embryo
purpose of a standing army, was not more mortifying than
the failure of another, by which Mary of Guise, out of a
natural affection to her nation, hoped to serve the interests
of France, now engaged in war with Spain and England,
by embroiling Scotland in the quarrel. But although she
contrived without much trouble to effect a breach of the
peace between two countries which were equally jealous and
irritable, yet the Scottish nation, taught by experience,
entered into the contest as a defensive war only; neither
could the urgency of le Crocq, who commanded the French
troops, nor the entreaties of the queen-regent, prevail on
them to set a foot on English ground.
Meanwhile, in 1558, the marriage of the young queen
of Scots was solemnly celebrated, and that union between
France and Scotland achieved, so far as depended upon the
execution of the marriage treaty. But by this time the sub-
ject of religion had become so interesting as to have greater
weight in the scale of national policy than at any former period.
422 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
Thirty years had elapsed since the martyrdom of Patrick
Hamilton for heresy; and during that period the Protestant
doctrines, obvious as they were to the most ordinary capaci-
ties, had risen into that estimation which sense and firmness
will always ultimately attain over craft and hypocrisy. They
were promulgated by many daring preachers, who, with rude
but ready eloquence, averred the truths which they were
ready to seal with their blood. Among these, the most
eminent was John Knox, a man of a fearless heart and a
fluent eloquence ; violent, indeed, and sometimes coarse, but
the better fitted to obtain influence in a coarse and turbulent
age — capable at once of reasoning with the wiser nobility,
and inspiring with his own spirit and zeal the fierce populace.
Toleration, and that species of candor which makes allow-
ance for the prejudices of birth or situation, were unknown
to his uncompromising mind; and this deficiency made him
tho more fit to play the distinguished part to which he was
called. It was not alone the recluse and the solitary student
that listened to these theological discussions. Men of the
world, and those engaged in the affairs of life, lent an atten-
tive ear to arguments against the doctrines of Rome, and
declamations exposing their ambition, pride, and sensuality.
The burgher and the peasant were encouraged to appeal to
the Word of God itself from those who called themselves his
ministers, and each was taught to assume the right of judg-
ing for himself in matters of conscience, and at the same
time encouraged to resist the rapacity with which church
dues were exacted in the course of life, and even in the hour
of death. The impoverished noble learned to consider that
the right of the Church to one-half at least of the whole land
of Scotland was a usurpation over the lay proprietor; and
the prospect of a new road to heaven was not the less pleas-
ing that it promised, if trod courageously, to lie through
paths of profit upon earth. The older generation had lis-
tened but slowly and unwillingly to a creed which shocked
the feelings of awe and reverence for the practices of wor-
ship in which they had been educated; but the younger,
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 423
■who had risen into life while the discussions were common
and familiar topics, embraced the reformed doctrines with
equal zeal and avidity.
Since the death of Cardinal Beaton, there had been no
attempt to turn the force of the existing laws against the
growth of heresy. Hamilton, the archbishop of Saint An-
drew's, though said to lead a life too irregular for a church-
man, was more gentle and moderate than his predecessor,
Beaton; and the queen-mother was too prudent, and too
well acquainted with the state of Scotland and the temper
of the people, to engage of her own accord in a struggle
with so powerful a sect as the reformers, who now assumed
the name of the Congregation. But when her daughter
became queen of France, the celebrated Duke of Guise and
the Cardinal of Lorraine urged upon their sister the regent
the absolute duty and necessity of rooting out the Scottish
heresy. For this they had more reasons than mere zeal for
the Catholic religion, though theirs was of the warmest
temperature.
Mary of England was now dead; and the land, which
had relapsed into popery at her accession, had again adopted
the Protestant faith under her sister Elizabeth. The Cath-
olics were not disposed to consider this great princess as a
legitimate sovereign, but rather as the adulterous daughter
of Henry VIII. by Anne Boleyne, his concubine, for whose
sake he had broken the bonds of matrimony with Queen
Catherine, and cast away the filial obedience due to the see
of Rome. Failing Elizabeth, Mary, queen of Scotland, was
heir of England in right of her grandmother Margaret, the
sister of Henry VIII. In the eyes of all true Catholics, she
had not only a contingent, but an immediate claim to suc-
ceed her namesake in the government. This title offered
the most splendid visions to the two brothers of the House
of Guise, who aimed at nothing less than subjecting Eng-
land itself to the sway of their niece by means of the En-
glish Catholics, a numerous and powerful body. But this
could only be accomplished by gaining for the Scottish queen
424 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
the credit of a faithful nursing-mother of the Church, in de-
stroying that branch of the great northern heresy which had
raised its head in the kingdom of Scotland. She could not,
with consistency, claim the character of a sound Catholic,
a person likely to re-establish Catholicism in England, while
the exercise of the reformed religion was publicly permitted
in the realm which was properly her own.
Mary's mother, the queen-regent, was, therefore, against
her better judgment, urged to pick a quarrel with the re-
formers in Scotland, and she involved herself by the attempt
in a train of consequences which poisoned all the future
tranquillity of her regency and her life. The pretext was
taken from some insults offered by the Protestants to the
images of the Catholic faith, and particularly to Saint Giles,
patron of the metropolis, whose eSigy was first thrown into
the North Loch, and then burned. To chastise this insolence,
various among the most noted popular preachers were sum-
moned to appear before the queen-regent and the bishops,
and to undergo their trial as authors of the sedition. The
preachers resolved to attend ; and, that they might do so with
safety, they availed themselves of a custom in Scotland (a
right barbarous one), by which a person accused was wont
to appear at the bar with as many friends as were willing
to stand by him and defend his cause. The time was propi-
tious; for a band of western gentlemen, zealous Protestants,
were returning homeward from military services on the
border, and willingly appeared in arms for the protection
of their pastors. They were in vain charged by proclama-
tion to depart from the city. On the contrary, they assem-
bled themselves, and with little reverence forced themselves
into the queen's presence, then sitting in council with the
bishops.
Chalmers of Gadgirth, a bold and zealous man, spoke
in the name of the rest — "Madam, we know that this proc-
lamation is a device of the bishops and of that bastard
(the primate of Saint Andrew's) that stands beside you.
We avow to God that ere we yield we will make a day of it.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 425
These idle drones oppress us and our tenants, and now they
seek the lives of our ministers, and our own. Shall we suffer
this any longer? No, madam, it shall not be." As he con-
cluded, every man put on his steel bonnet. The queen-regent
was compelled to have recourse to fair words and entreaties,
for little less was to be apprehended than the present mas-
sacre of the Roman Catholic churchmen. But by the queen's
discharging the proclamation, and using gentle and kind
words to Gadgirth and his companions, the danger was
averted for the present.
The Scottish Protestants saw their advantage and were
encouraged to further boldness. They made a popular
tumult by attacking a procession of churchmen which pa-
raded through the streets of the city. The images, which
the insurgents termed Dagon and Bel, were dashed to pieces
in contempt and derision; as for the churchmen, we may
take John Knox's word, "that there was a sudden affray
among them; for down goeth the crosses, off goeth the
surplices, round caps, and cornets with the crowns: the
grayfriars gaped, the blackfriars blew, the priests panted
and fled, and happy was he who first got to the house, for
such a sudden fray came never among the generation of
antichrist within the realm before." This was the wild
proceeding of a rabble; but an association and bond was
immediately afterward entered into by the principal persons
of the congregation, to defend their ministers, and assert the
rights of hearing and preaching the Gospel. This avowal
of faith, with an express determination to renounce the
Catholic doctrines as delusions of Satan, was subscribed by
many men of power and influence. The same leading Prot-
estants, now called the "Lords of the Congregation," were
also repeated petitioners to the queen-regent for some express
legal protection; but, averse to place the new faith on so
permanent a footing, she was liberal in promising such
countenance from her own authority as should render a
formal toleration unnecessary. An application to the con-
vocation of popish clergy for some relaxation of the laws
42G HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
against heresy was, as might have been expected, refused
by the churchmen with contempt.
A circumstance happened at this time which tended
greatly to increase the suspicion with which the Scots re-
garded the House of Guise. Eight distinguished members
had been sent from the Scottish parliament to witness the
marriage ceremony between the dauphin of France and the
young queen of Scotland. Four of these, by a singular
coincidence, happened to die about the same time. The
suspicious credulity of the age immediately imputed their
death to poison, given, as was supposed, to facilitate the
execution of some plan formed by the French statesmen
against the independence of Scotland. As there existed no
motive for such a crime, and no proof that it had taken
place, and as the bishop of Orkney, a friend of the queen-
regent, was one of the persons who died, the suspicion ap-
pears on the whole to have been unjust, and to have had
no other foundation than the popular desire to assign ex-
traordinary causes for uncommon events. But it was in
the meantime highly calculated to place the queen-regent
in a disadvantageous point of view to a great part of the
subjects of Scotland.
Mary of Guise's government continued to be still further
embarrassed by the zeal with which her brothers of Lorraine
continued to press in the most urgent manner the adoption
of violent measures against the Protestants. In compliance
with instructions from France, the queen, forgetful of the
violent scene with Chalmers of Gadgirth, again summoned
the Protestant preachers to appear before a court of justice
to be held at Stirling on the 10th May, 1559. Again the
zeal of the congregation convoked a species of insurrec-
tionary army to protect their ministers, which assembled
at Perth, then animated by the preachings of John Knox.
The queen-regent foresaw the danger which impended, and
a second time appeared to retreat from her purpose, and
engaged to put a stop to the prosecution of the ministers.
Through the whole eventful scene the subtlety of the
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 427
queen -dowager made it manifest that she adopted and acted
upon the fatal maxim of the Church of Rome, that no faith
was to be kept with heretics. The Protestants had no sooner
dispersed their levies than the queen caused the actions
against their preachers to be anew insisted on; and upon
the non-appearance of the parties cited, sentence of outlawry
was pronounced against them.
The Protestants were incensed by this duplicity of the
queen; and after a vehement discourse by John Knox
against the idolatry of the popish worship, and a casual
brawl which followed between an impudent priest and a
petulant boy, the minds of the auditors were so much in-
flamed that they destroyed, first the church in which the
sermon had been preached, and then the other churches and
monasteries of Perth, breaking to fragments the ornaments
and images, and pillaging the supplies of provisions which
the monks had provided in great quantity.
The queen in the meantime had drawn together her
French soldiery, and, still more deeply irritated by the late
proceedings of the multitude, prepared to march upon Stir-
ling, and from thenoe to Perth, before the lords of the con-
gregation could assemble their vassals. But she had to deal
with prudent and active men, who were not willing a second
time to be cheated into terms which might be kept or broken
at the regent's pleasure. They assembled their forces so
speedily that they could with confidence face Mary of Guise
and her army, though above seven thousand strong. Still
the principal Protestant nobles thought it best to come to an
agreement with the queen-regent, rather than hurry the
nation into a civil war. They agreed to admit Marj T of
Guise into Perth, on condition that her French troops should
not approach within three miles of the city; that no one
should be prosecuted on account of the recent disturbances;
and that all matters in debate between the government and
the lords of the congregation should be left to the consider-
ation of parliament. No sooner, however, had this treaty
been adjusted than the queen broke its conditions, by dis-
428 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
placing the magistrates of Perth, and garrisoning the town
with six hundred men. She endeavored to palliate this
breach of faith by alleging that these troops did not con-
sist of native Frenchmen, but of Scotsmen under French
pay. Far from receiving this evasion as a good argument,
the Earl of Argyle and Lord James Stewart retired to Saint
Andrew's, and were there met by the Earl of Monteith, the
Laird of Tulliebardine, and other professors of their relig-
ion. Although in an archi episcopal see, and threatened by
the primate, that, if he ventured to ascend his pulpit, he
should be saluted with a shower of musket-balls, John Knox
boldly preached before the congregation, and animated their
resolution of defending their freedom of conscience. As it
appeared plain that the violation of the treaty of Perth
would once more put the lords of the congregation in arms,
the queen on her part endeavored to seize an advantage by
superior alacrity. She was again disappointed, although
she early put her troops, now amounting to about three
thousand men in the pay of France, into motion against
Saint Andrew's, whither the principal reformers had re-
treated.
The lords of the congregation boldly determined to meet
the queen-mother in the field ; and though they set out from
St. Andrew's with only one hundred horse, yet ere they had
marched ten miles they were joined by such numbers as
enabled them to remonstrate with the queen, rather than
to petition for indemnity. Mary of Guise again resorted to
the duplicity with which she was but too familiar. She
obtained a pacification, but it was only on the condition that
she should transport her French soldiery to the southern
side of the Firth ; and she agreed to send commissioners to
St. Andrew's to settle on conditions of peace. The French-
men were accordingly withdrawn for the time; but, with
her usual insincerity, the queen altogether neglected to send
the commissioners, or take any steps for the establishment
of a solid composition.
The consequences were, that the congregation resumed
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 429
arms a third time, and forcibly occupied Perth. From
thence they advanced in triumph to the capital, the peo-
ple, particularly the citizens of the burghs which they oc-
cupied, eagerly seconding them in the work of reformation ;
especially in the destruction of monasteries and the defacing
the churches, by destroying what they considered the pecul-
iar objects of Roman Catholic worship. The queen gave
way to the torrent, and retreated to Dunbar, to await till
want of money and of provisions should oblige the lords of
the congregation to disperse their forces.
This period was not long in arriving. The troops of
these barons consisted entirely of their vassals, serving at
their own expense. When the provisions they brought with
them to the camp (which never at the utmost exceeded food
for the space of forty days) were expended, they had no
means of keeping the field, and considered the campaign
as ended. The burghers had their callings to pursue, and,
however zealous for religion, were under the necessity of re-
turning to their own residences when days and weeks began
to elapse. These causes so soon diminished the army of the
congregation, that the queen-regent, advancing with her
compact body of mercenary troops, might have taken Edin-
burgh by storm, had it not been for a third treaty, patched
up indeed, and acceptable to neither party, but which each
was willing to receive for a time, rather than precipitate
the final struggle. The articles of convention were, that
the lords of the congregation should evacuate Edinburgh, to
which the queen-regent should return, but that she should
not introduce a French garrison there. The Protestants
agreed to abstain from future violation of religious houses;
while the queen consented to authorize the free exercise of
the Protestant religion all over the kingdom, and to allow
that in Edinburgh no other should be openly professed.
These terms were reluctantly assented to on both sides.
The Protestants were desirous that the French troops, the
principal support of the queen-regent's power, should be
removed out of the kingdom; while Mary of Guise, on the
430 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
other hand, was secretly determined to augment their num-
ber, and place them in a commanding position.
She was the rather determined on following the violent
policy suggested by the brothers of Guise, because the death
of Henry II. and the accession of Francis and Mary to the
throne had rendered the queen's uncles all-powerful at the
court of France.
A thousand additional soldiers having arrived from
France, the queen-regent, in conformity with the policy
which she had adopted, employed them in fortifying as
a place of arms the seaport of Leith. The lords of the
congregation remonstrated against this measure; but their
interference was not attended to. On the contrary, the
queen-regent, influenced by the dangerous counsel of her
brothers, the princes of Lorraine, shut herself up in the
newly-fortified town, and haughtily disputed the right of
the nobility to challenge her prerogative to establish her
residence where she would, and to secure it by military
defences when she thought proper.
The civil rights of the Scottish nation, as well as their
religious liberties, were now involved in the debate; and
the lords of the congregation were joined by the Duke of
Chatelherault, and other noblemen who continued Catholics.
Both parties, having convoked an assembly as numerous and
powerful as a Scottish parliament, united in the decisive step
of passing an act by which, under deep professions of duty
to the king and queen, they solemnly deprived the queen-
regent of her office, as having been exercised inconsistently
with the liberties, and contrary to the laws, of the kingdom.
Among the nobles who thus lifted the banner of defiance
against the highest established authority of the kingdom,
the chief was Lord James Stewart, called at this time the
prior of St. Andrew's, a natural son of King James V., and
a brother, consequently, of the reigning queen. If it had so
chanced that this eminent person had possessed a legitimate
title to the crown of Scotland, it would probably have been
worn by him with much splendor. As it was, he was thrown
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 431
into circumstances in which, as we shall see, high ambition,
encouraged by tempting opportunity, proved too strong for
the ties of gratitude and family affection, and ultimately
brought a man of great talents and many virtues to an
early and a bloody grave. His strong mind had early re-
ceived with conviction the reformed doctrines, and he was
distinguished among the Protestant lords by his zeal, sagac-
ity, and courage; so that though the Earl of Arran (Duke
of Chatelherault, and formerly regent), had again returned
to the side of the lords of the congregation, and was compli-
mented with the title of chief of their league, yet the general
confidence of the party was reposed in the wisdom, courage,
and integrity of the prior of St. Andrew's. Argyle, Glen-
cairn, and others, the associates of this distinguished person,
were, like himself, men of courage and sagacity, and full of
that species of enthusiasm which is inspired by an enlarged
sphere of thought and action, and by the sense of having
thrown off the fetters of ecclesiastical bondage.
END OF VOLUME ONE
35
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