Political History Part IV

The most important point in constitutional history was the action of a parliament at Cambuskenneth, near Stirling, in 1326. The representatives of the burghs were present: they made a grant of all tenths to the king during his life; while they covenanted with him that he should collect no other taxes and should exercise the privileges of prisiae et cariagia with moderation. The long wars had been adverse to commerce, for which ransoms and the booty of Bannockburn made inadequate compensation. But the great abbey church of St Andrews was, none the less, completed, to stand for some two hundred and forty years, and was dedicated in the presence of Bruce.

The brilliant and sustained effort which made Scotland independent was almost paralysed by the deaths of Bruce and the Good Sir James of Douglas, during the minority of David II. (crowned, 24th of November 1331). The disinherited lords, deprived of their lands by Bruce, were headed by Edward Baliol, claiming the crown of Scotland as heir with of John Baliol, and secretly backed by England. Edward died in July 1332, and in August Edward Baliol, with the disinherited lord of Liddesdale, and Beaumont, the disinherited earl of Buchan, and the English claimant of the earldom of Atholl, landed a filibustering force in Forfarshire. They were opposed by the new regent of Scotland, the earl of Mar, who was routed with heavy loss and was slain, at Dupplin, on the 12th of August 1332. The English owed the victory to their archers, whose shafts rolled up a courageous charge by the Scots. Edward Baliol was enabled to seize and fortify Perth and was crowned at Scone, as Edward I. of Scotland (24th of September). On the 23rd of November, at Roxburgh, Baliol acknowledged Edward III. as his liege lord and promised to surrender Berwick and large lands in southern Scotland. The hands on the clock were then put back to the time of the reign of John Baliol. But the earl of Murray, son of Randolph, and Archibald, youngest brother of the Good Lord James of Douglas, surprised Baliol at Annan and drove him, half clad, into England.

The struggle was now (1333) for Berwick, which was besieged by Edward III. Archibald Douglas tried to relieve it, just as Edward II. strove to relieve Stirling, and found his with Bannockburn on Halidon hill (19th of July 1333), Edward where he was routed and slain, with many of the leaders of the Scots. Scotland was never again to hold Berwick for any length of time: meanwhile a few castles stood out, but the child king was sent over to France for safe keeping. A parliament held by Baliol at Edinburgh (February 1334) ratified the promises made by him to England at Roxburgh: the disinherited lords were in power and many patriots turned their coats. At Newcastle on the 12th of July Baliol surrendered to Edward III. the southern shires of Scotland with their castles: he had already done homage for the whole of Scotland; and Edward III. would have succeeded where Edward I. failed, had not the partisans of Baliol come to deadly feud over matters of their private interests and ambitions. Some took part with Sir Andrew Murray, son of a companion of Wallace, and with the Steward, who contrived to occupy the castle of Dunbarton, the key of western Scotland. These two men, with Campbell of Loch Awe, and Randolph's son, the earl of Moray, held up the national standard and were joined by the English claimant of the earldom of Atholl.

Randolph's daughter, too, the famous Black Agnes of Dunbar, brought over her wavering husband, the earl of March,to the side of the patriots, and there was a war of partisans, while Edward III. again and again invaded and desolated southern Scotland. In 1335-1336 the English party prevailed, and patriots began to come into the English peace: Atholl again changed his side, but the sister of Bruce held out in Kildrummie castle. Andrew Murray, March and a Douglas, the Black Knight of Liddesdale, went to her relief and slew Atholl: Edward III. (1336) again waged a victorious summer campaign, from Perth as his base, and again found Scottish resistance revive in winter. His rupture with France in October 1337, caused by his claims to the French crown, tended to withdraw his attention from Scotland, .where, though the staunch Sir Andrew Murray died, Black Agnes drove the English besiegers from Dunbar (1338), while the Knight of Liddesdale recovered Perth. By 1342 Roxburgh, Stirling and Edinburgh castles were again in Scottish hands, though the Knight of Liddesdale captured and starved to death, in Hermitage castle, his gallant companion in arms, Sir Alexander Ramsay, who had relieved the garrison of Dunbar. With this Douglas, Knight of Liddesdale, a ruffian and a traitor, may be said to begin the long struggle between his too powerful house and the crown.

King David, a lad of eighteen, had returned from France and had removed this Douglas from the sheriff dom of Teviotdale, superseding him by Alexander Ramsay. Douglas revenged himself on Ramsay, as we have seen, and though David was obliged to overlook the crime, the Knight of Liddesdale henceforth was not to be trusted as loyal against England. It is probable that he was intriguing for Baliol's restoration, and he certainly was securing the favour of Edward III. An ill-kept truce of three years ended in October 1346, when David attempted to lead the whole force of his realm, including the levies of John, Lord of the Isles, and of the western Celts in general, against England.

As the Celts marched south the earl of Ross slew Ronald Macdonald, whose inheritance was claimed by John of the Isles. As a result, the Islesmen went home: David, however, crossed the border, plundering and burning the marches. Near Durham he came into touch with English levies under Henry Percy and the archbishop of York. David was a knight of the French school of late chivalry: he was not a general like Bruce or Randolph. In this affair of Neville's Cross (17th of October 1346) he copied the mistakes of Edward II. at Bannockburn; his crowded division was broken by the English archers, and the king himself was wounded and captured.

Moray, the last male representative of Randolph, with the Constable and Earl Marischal of Scotland, was slain; the Steward made his escape: and, henceforth, the childless David regarded his heir, the Steward, with jealousy and suspicion. The Steward, during the king's captivity, was regent, and the Douglas of Liddesdale (the son of Archibald and nephew of the Good Lord James) drove the English out of Douglasdale, Teviotdale and the forest of Ettrick. A truce till 1354 was arranged between England, France and Scotland, while the country strove to raise the royal ransom, and David, who preferred English ways to those of his own kingdom, acknowledged Edward III. as his paramount. It became David's policy to secure his own life interest on Scotland, while the crown, on his decease, should go to one of the English royal family. The more loyal William Douglas, in 1353, slew his kinsman, the shifty Knight of Liddesdale, on the braes of Yarrow, and a fragment of one of the oldest Scottish ballads deplores his fall.

In July 1354 an arrangement as to David's ransom was made: his price was 90,000 merks sterling (for the coinage of Scotland was already beginning to be debased). Negotiations were interrupted by the arrival of French reinforcements in men and gold: Berwick was recaptured, only to be recovered by England in 1356. In the same year Edward Baliol, after handing over his crown and the royalty of Scotland to Edward III., retired from active life, and Edward wasted the south in the raid of "The Burned Candlemas."

In October 1357 David was permitted to return to Scotland, giving hostages and promising IOO,OOO merks in ten yearly payments. The country, crushed by inevitable taxation, was discontented, and not reconciled by Edward's grant of commercial privileges. In May 1363 David put down a rising headed by the Steward, and then, in October, went to London, where he and the earl of Douglas made arrangements by which the countries were to be united under Edward III. if David died childless.

Scotland was to be forgiven the ransom, receive the Stone of Scone and retain its independent title as a kingdom: her parliaments were to be held within her own borders; her governors and magistrates were to be Scots, freedom of trade was guaranteed, and the earl of Douglas was to be restored to his English estates, or to an equivalent.

This scheme would have saved Scotland from centuries of war and from a Stewart dynasty: there would have been a union of the crowns, as under James VI.; or (by an alternative plan of November, December 1363) a son of the king of England, not Edward III. himself, would succeed scotland. to David. In March 1364 David laid the projects before a parliament at Scone, which firmly refused its assent. Possibly David had, as one motive for his scheme, the very dubious legitimacy of the children of the Steward, a probable cause of civil war and a disputed succession. He had also private reasons for disliking the Steward, who was on bad terms with the widow, Margaret Logie (by birth a Drummond), whom David had married on the death of his first wife.

The country, resolved to stand by the Steward and the blood of Bruce, preferred the heavy taxation and the turbulence inevitable under such a king as David to union under an English prince. On the 20th of June 1365 Edward granted a four years truce, with the ransom to be paid in yearly instalments of £4000. But the necessary taxation was resisted by various nobles, including John of the Isles (1368), who had married a daughter of the Steward. John was in arms, divisions and distress were everywhere, a famine prevailed, and Scotland had to face the prospect of yielding to Edward, when, in 1369, that prince proclaimed himself king of France, and, having his hands full of war, made a fourteen years truce with his northern neighbour.

David was now free to subdue John of the Isles, to repudiate all his own debts contracted before 1368, and to make preparations for a crusade. From this crowning folly death delivered him on the 22nd of February 1371. The whole of his ransom was never paid, and his absurdities and misfortunes gave the Estates opportunity to strengthen their constitutional position. They established the rule that no official should put in execution any royal warrant "against the statutes and common form of law." The reign also saw the introduction of the committees, "elected by the Commons and the other Estates," which did the actual business of parliament, thus saving time and expense to the members. But these committees, later known as the Lords of the Articles, were to exercise almost the full powers of parliament in accordance with the desires of the crown, or of the dominant faction, and they were among the grievances abolished after the revolution of 1688-1689.

The whole reign was a period of wasteful turmoil, of party strife, of treachery, of reaction. But the promise of peace and prosperity in exchange for absolute independence was rejected with all the old resolution; and the freedom which a Bruce desired to sell was retained by the first of the Stewart line, Robert Albany, and the 4th earl of Douglas (brother-in-law of the duke of Rothesay), confessed before the Estates that they had arrested the prince, and were cleared of the guilt of his subsequent death. They kept him, first in the castle of St Andrews, and then at Falkland, where he perished; some said of dysentery, others, of starvation.

Restored to the regency, Albany permitted his son, Murdoch, with Douglas, to retort on a successful raid by Percy and the traitor March. They were defeated by English archery, as usual, at Homildon hill: Murdoch and Douglas were captured. Percy, dissatisfied with Henry's treatment of him in the matter of ransoms, led an army into Scotland which was to have trysted at Cocklaw with Albany and the whole forces of the realm, and invaded England. But Douglas and Percy left Cocklaw before Albany came up, and hurried to join hands with the Welsh rebel, Glendower. The hostile forces met at Shrewsbury, and Shakespeare has made the result immortal. Percy was slain; Douglas was the prisoner of England.

The young prince of Scotland, the first James, was on his way to seek safety in France, during an interval of truce, but was captured on the high seas by English cruisers. (The dates are obscure, but James was in the Tower by February-March 1405-1406.) His father's death followed (4th of April 1406). Albany sent, within a year, envoys to plead for his release; and again, in 1409, but vainly. An interval of peace occurred, among a series of border battles, and the heresy of Lollardy was attacked by the clergy; Resby, who had been a priest in England, was burned in 1407 at Perth. The embers of Lollardy, not extinguished by the new central fountain of learning, the university of St Andrews, smouldered in the west till the Reformation.

"The wicked blood of the Isles," the Macdonalds, descendants of island kings, now made alliance with England; Donald, eldest son of the Lord of the Isles, having an unsatisfied claim on the earldom of Ross, which Albany strove to keep in his own family. The greatest of highland hosts met at Ardtornish castle, now a ruin on the sound of Mull: they marched inland and north, defeated the Mackays of Sutherland and were promised the plunder of Aberdeen. The earl of Mar, with a small force of heavily-armoured lowland cavaliers, stopped and scattered the plaided Gael at Harlaw (1411). The knights lost heavily, but Donald did not plunder Aberdeen. Next year Albany received the submission of Donald at Lochgilp in Knapdale, and the Celts were, for the moment, useless to their allies of England.

Time went on: Albany's son, Murdoch, was set free, but in 1410 the captive King James much resented Albany's neglect of himself. His letter is written in Scots. Albany died in 1420; his regency, with that of his son Murdoch, produced the anarchy which James, when free, combated at the cost of his life. Meanwhile France demanded and received auxiliaries from Scotland, who fought gloriously for French freedom. Their great victory, where the duke of Clarence fell, was at Baugé Bridge (1421), where the Stewarts and Kennedys, under Sir Hugh, were specially distinguished. In 1424 the Scots, with the earl of Buchan and the earl of Douglas, were almost exterminated at Verneuil, some five months after King James, already affianced to the Lady Jane Beaufort, was released. He never paid his ransom, and his noble hostages lived and died south of Tweed: one cause of his unpopularity.

Tradition tells that James vowed "to make the key keep the castle, and the bush keep the cow," even though he "lived a dog's life" in the endeavour. His reign was a struggle against anarchy and in the cause of the poor and weak. He instantly arrested Murdoch, son of Albany, and Fleming of Cumbernauld, met parliament, dismissed it, retaining a committee (" the Lords of the Articles "), and took measures with landlords, who must display their charters; appointed an inquest into lay and clerical property; and imposed taxes to defray his ransom. The money could not be collected, and the edicts against private wars and the maintenanceof armed retainers were hard to enforce. James next arrested Lennox and that Sir Robert Graham whose feud proved fatal to the king. In March he met his second parliament, relying on a council of barons with no great earl but Mar. He next arrested Albany's secretary and the Lord Montgomery: the story, accepted by our historians, that he also seized twenty-six notables, has been finally disproved by Sir James Ramsay.

No Scottish king ever embarked on such a coup d'etat as the arrest of " the whole Scottish House of Lords," Albany (Murdoch), his son, and Lennox, were tried and executed: Albany's son, James, in revenge burned Dumbarton. The king appears to have been avenging his private wrongs, or destroying the three nobles pour encourager les autres. Parliament now insisted on inquisition for heretics: an act was passed (which never took effect) against "bands" or private leagues among the nobles: the Covenant was called "the great band," by cavaliers in days to come. More important was the establishment of a new court of justice, the court of Session, to sit thrice in the year. Yeomen were bidden to practise archery, to which they much preferred football and golf.

The highlanders were next handled as the lowlanders had been; a parliament was held at Inverness and a number of chiefs who attended were seized, imprisoned or executed. The Lord of the Isles, when released, burned Inverness (1429), but, being pursued, he was deserted by Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron (probably the clans represented on the ordeal of battle on the Inch of Perth). The Lord of the Isles made submission, but Donald Balloch, his cousin, defeated Mar near Inverlochy, later fled to Ireland, and was reported dead, though he lived to give trouble. James was unjustly repressing highland anarchy: from the highlands came his bane.

James now granted his daughter, a child, to the Dauphin, later Louis XI.; but, as Jeanne d'Arc said, "the daughter of the king of Scotland could not save Orleans," then (1428-1429) besieged in a desultory manner by the English. In February 1429 the Scots under the oriflamme were cut to pieces in "The Battle of the Herrings" at Rouvray. The surviving Scots fought under Jeanne d'Arc till her last success, at Lagny, under Sir Hugh Kennedy of Ardstinchar in Ayrshire, but James (May, June 1429) made a treaty of peace with Cardinal Beaufort, which enabled Baaufort to send large reinforcements into Paris, where the Maid, deserted by Charles VII., failed a few months later.

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