Archbishop of Glasgow. Beaton was the son of John Beaton of Balfour,
in Fife. He took his M.A. degree at St Andrews University in 1492; was
Abbot of Dunfermline in 1504; Lord Treasurer, 1505-6; Chancellor, 1513
to 1526; one of the Regents during the minority of James V.; Bishop of
Galloway and Archbishop of Glasgow, 1509; and Archbishop of St Andrews,
1523, continuing in that office till his death in 1539. He kept
lordly state within the Castle, and was renowned for his hospitality,
especially to French visitors to Scotland. Beaton assisted James V.
to throw off the yoke of his step-father, the Earl of Angus, and in
revenge Angus laid waste the Archbishop’s Castle of St Andrews. Beaton,
however, was a “building Prelate” even when in Glasgow, and he soon
restored his Castle to its former magnificence. James V. was frequently
entertained there, and it is possible that the King would have made
the Castle the residence of his first Queen, Magdalen de Valois, in
1539, had he not built a special house in the Priory grounds for her
reception. It was during the rule of Archbishop James Beaton that the
persecution of the Scottish Protestants began, and in this work he
was especially active, utilizing the dungeons in the Castle for the
confinement of heretics. The Archbishop died in 1539, and was buried
before the High Altar in the Cathedral of St Andrews.
The successor to James Beaton was his nephew, David Beaton, who
was Archbishop from 1539 till 1546, when his death was violently
accomplished. He was the third son of John Beaton, eldest brother of
James Beaton, Archbishop of St Andrews, and was born in 1494; educated
at St Andrews, Glasgow and Paris; Abbot of Arbroath, 1523; Bishop of
Mirepoix, in Languedoc, 1537; Cardinal of St Stephen in Monte Coelio,
by Pope Paul III., 1538; Co-Adjutor of St Andrews, 1538-39; Archbishop
of St Andrews, 1539.
The character of Cardinal Beaton has puzzled many Scottish historians,
their estimates being largely influenced by religious prejudices on one
side or the other. To imagine that he was an empty and illiterate bigot
is an open mistake. He was more of the time-server who could perceive
where the necessity had arrived for him to bend to the blast, but who
would strenuously hold fast that which he had until a better appeared.
Yet, however opportunist his actions might be, he stoutly resisted
the plans of Henry VIII. to conquer Scotland by capturing the infant
Queen Mary. When the game lay between the wily Cardinal and bluff King
Hal, it required skilful playing to come off victorious as Beaton did.
He was sent by James V. to arrange the King’s marriage with Mary of
Guise, which he accomplished successfully.
His uncle and predecessor, James Beaton, as already mentioned, had
taken up a violent attitude against the Protestants, and the same
policy was adopted and intensified by the Cardinal, and it ultimately
led to his destruction. The methods adopted by him had made many
enemies, but he pursued the persecution of the heretics, as he
accounted them, as if it were a pious duty. The tragic incident of the
Cardinal’s assassination has been so often narrated that it need not
here be detailed. The dastardly deed took place on Saturday, 29th May
1546, when Kirkcaldy of Grange gave admittance by the drawbridge to
the Castle to Norman Leslie, Master of Rothes, John Leslie, his uncle,
Peter Carmichael, James Melvil, and others to the number of sixteen,
who sought out the Cardinal in his room, set upon him with swords and
daggers, and violently bereft him of life. They then, it is said,
showed the dead body at a window to the populace. The window usually
shown to visitors was certainly not the spot of this exposure, as it
was erected by Archbishop Hamilton, the Cardinal’s successor.
Assassination is one of the most dangerous weapons that a struggling
cause can adopt; and the deed, however convenient for themselves,
was loudly blamed by the Protestant party. So far from rising into
favour with their partizans, as the conspirators had hoped, they found
themselves almost universally execrated. Thus Sir David Lyndsay, no
friend to the Cardinal, and a most undoubted and faithful Protestant,
expresses his feelings:--
“As for the Cardinal--I grant
He was the man we weel could want,
And we’ll forget him soon!
And yet I think, the sooth to say,
Although the loon is well away,
The deed was foully done.”
The assassins had taken possession of the Castle, which was
well-provisioned, and expected that their sympathisers would have
flocked to support them, and that they would hold this fort till
Henry VIII. had sent troops to capture Scotland and end the Roman
Catholic Church. In both expectations they were disappointed. Henry
VIII., the indomitable champion of Protestantism, died on 28th January
1546-47, and on 30th March following, Francis I. of France, the hero
of Romanism, “also died,” so that both parties were deprived of their
leaders. The Castilians, as they called themselves, found that even
the Governor Arran had been the friend of the Cardinal, and they even
sent an humble petition to him that he would apply to the Court at Rome
for a Bull of Absolution to clear them of their crime. Well they knew
that the message to Rome would occupy some time, and meanwhile the
English troops might arrive to aid them. This was duplicity, but it
was not worse than that of the Governor, who certainly sent a message
to Rome, as requested, but took up the interval before the answer was
returned in frantic appeals to Francis I. to send skilful bombardiers
to besiege St Andrews Castle. Evidently both parties were insincere.
The Castilians, meanwhile, had received no inconsiderable additions to
their numbers, amongst them the indomitable John Knox, who had written
that he recorded the murder of the Cardinal “merrily,” and who was
yet to become a ruthless leader in the demolition of the Churches of
Scotland.
The Governor Arran, who had returned to the Ancient Faith, found that
his animated entreaties to the Court of France had been effectual. He
had besieged the Castle for four months without victory; but at length
the French soldiers and the artillery of Leon Strozzi reduced the
Castle to such a ruinous condition that the Castilians capitulated in
August 1547. And it is recorded by Lindsay of Pitscottie that, “the
French captain entered and spoiled the Castle very vigorously; wherein
they found great store of vivers, clothes, armour, silver, and plate,
which, with the captives, they carried away in their galleys. The
Governor, by the advice of the Council, demolished the Castle, lest it
should be a receptacle of rebels.” In the “Diurnal of Occurrents,” it
is stated that the captors “tuke the auld and young Lairds of Grange,
Normand Leslie, the Laird of Pitmilly (Monypenny), Wm. Henry Balnevis,
and John Knox, with mony utheris, to the number of sex score persones,
and carryit thame all away to France; and tuke the spulzie of the said
Castell, quhilk was worth 100,000 pundis and tuke doun the hous.” It
was this incident which called forth the current verse of the time:--
“Priests, content ye noo;
Priests, content ye noo;
For Norman and his companie
Ha’e filled the galleys fou!”
The French Commander, Leon Strozzi, had instructions to convey his
Scottish prisoners to Paris, and the King there decided that many
of the Castilians should be incarcerated in prisons at the north of
France, the ringleaders, including John Knox, should be sent to the
galleys and chained to the oars. The bold spirits who had put the
Army of the Regent to defiance, were now treated as malefactors,
whose crimes were only short of receiving the extreme penalty of
the law. John Knox was imprisoned at Paris in 1548, and released in
the following year. He went to Dieppe, Geneva, where he met Calvin,
and Frankfort-on-Maine, reaching Scotland in 1556, and resuming his
position as a leader of the Scottish Reformation. His death took place
at Edinburgh in 1571, when in his sixty-sixth year.
The successor of Cardinal Beaton as Archbishop of St Andrews was
John Hamilton, an illegitimate son of James Douglas, first Earl of
Arran, and was born in 1511, was Abbot of Paisley, and afterwards
Bishop of Dunkeld in 1546, and was translated to St Andrews in 1547
as Archbishop. The first work which he undertook was the repairing
of the ruinous Castle, and in this reconstruction he was probably
assisted by the masons whom he had employed to complete the building
of St Mary’s College. When the Reformers had gained power in Scotland
in 1559, Hamilton had to abandon the Castle, and from that time he was
a fugitive until he was captured at Stirling in April 1571, accused of
complicity in Darnley’s murder, and hanged ignominiously.
The Castle came into the possession of the Protestants under the Regent
Moray, and was used as a political prison by him and his successors
as Regents, becoming, indeed, “the Bastile of Scotland.” Though thus
used as a secular prison, it was still a portion of the ecclesiastical
property, and James VI. did not feel justified in annexing it without
some process of law. This was not accomplished for many years, and the
place had become partly ruinous from the repeated attacks made upon it
by successive factions of the Scottish nobles. At length the King made
a bargain with George Gledstanes, Episcopal Archbishop of St Andrews,
as the representative of the ancient Prelates, and in July 1600 a
charter gave the Castle to George, Earl of Dunbar, one of the King’s
favourites. This arrangement, however, did not last long, for when
Episcopacy was fully established in 1612, the Castle was given back
to Gledstanes, and the Earl compensated. The new Archbishops did not
inhabit the Castle, but used it as an occasional prison, and the place
soon became ruinous.
About 1650 the Castle passed into the hands of the Town Council, who
shortly afterwards laid violent hands upon the masonry, and used it
for repairing the Pier. There is thus little left even of Hamilton’s
restorations. One may fancy the shade of good old Bishop Roger
addressing his successor, the Cardinal, in such lines as these of the
old Scottish poet Robert Henryson:--
“Thy kingdom and thy great empire,
Thy royalty nor rich array,
Shall not endure at thy desire,
But as the wind will wend away.
Thy gold and all thy goodis gay
When Fortune list, will from thee fall:
Sen thou sic sampills seest each day,
Obey and thank thy God for all!”
XIX
DUNBAR CASTLE
The situation of Edinburgh at but a short distance from the Firth
of Forth, and therefore liable to invasion from the sea, has caused
the whole length of the east coast of Scotland, from Berwick around
to Leith, to be studded with Castle-towers and Keeps, at once the
residences of the Court and the defence of the capital. The whole
of the country from Edinburgh to the borderland betwixt England and
Scotland had thus been erected into a cordon of forts, fitted to repel
invasion and to preserve the capital inviolable from assault either
from sea or land. And in former times, ere the Crown had attained the
supremacy which it now possesses, the Castles soon became the means of
overawing the independent Borderers, or were themselves the centres of
revolt against the Throne, and the rallying points of the vassals of
the rebellious Lords.
While the Castles on the line of the Border were intended to check
the invasions of the English by land, the strong towers of Berwick,
Fast, Dunbar, and Tantallon formed a chain of defence on the seaboard
which might well discourage invasion from that quarter. The magnitude
as well as the strength of these Keeps enabled their possessors to
garrison an army of very respectable dimensions, and their proximity
to one another rendered a junction of their forces comparatively easy.
And thus the Lowlanders were prepared to resist their foreign foes. Nor
were their preparations uncalled for, since their enemies were diverse
and ubiquitous. Now it might be:——
“The Percy out of Northumberland,
And a vow to God made he,
That he would hunt in the mountains
At Cheviot within days three,
In the maugre of doughty Douglas,
And all that ever with him be.”
Anon the defence had to be made against the sea-rovers, when in that
more dangerous time:--
“Hither came from eastern shores
The Jutes and Angles over the broad sea;
Fierce battle-smiths, and Britain sought,
O’ercame the Welsh and gained the land.”
In many cases the territorial defences proved efficient, and the
sacredness of the capital was preserved. To the Castle of Dunbar
some prominence must be given, as the one post in the country which
effectually repelled the English invader. Besides exhibiting the force
of the Scottish arms against the chosen warriors of England, it has
also a history intimately associated with the internecine turmoils in
Scotland.
The position of Dunbar Castle topographically merits a word of
description. The town of Berwick is exactly in meridian with Newburgh
in Aberdeenshire, and between these two places the east coast of
Scotland is hollowed out into a vast bay, extending at Kirkcaldy to
about 45 miles inland from these two points. The influence of the wash
of the waters of Forth and Tay must be allowed for when estimating the
denuding force of the North Sea; but the contour of the east coast will
present peculiar appearances even to the least-skilled observer. One
glance at the map of Scotland will satisfy anyone that the power of
the North Sea over that country is not to be compared to the influence
which the Atlantic has had upon the west coast. For while the North Sea
has only transformed the coast-line between Peterhead and Berwick into
one great bay, the 2000 miles of raging Atlantic Ocean betwixt Skye and
Labrador have hollowed the west coast into myriad outlandish forms,
where only the stern endurance of the rocks has withstood the perpetual
tempest which assails them.
[Illustration: DUNBAR CASTLE _Valentine & Sons, Ltd_]
The coast of Haddingtonshire has been doubly attacked--by the North
Sea on one side, and by the rapid stream of the Forth on the other--so
that it presents the appearance of an irregular triangle. About
midway on the shore-line stands the ruined Castle of Dunbar, upon a
rocky promontory around which the stormy North Sea breaks in foam.
The influence of the strong Arctic current is visible here, as it is
in the Bay of St Andrews; for the projection of Fifeness bears
the same relation to St Andrews as St Abb’s Head does to Dunbar. The
resistless surge of the North Sea, dashing for centuries upon the
slenderly-protected east coast, has thus gradually eaten its way
inwards towards the heart of Scotland; whilst the furious Atlantic
Ocean, fiercely assaulting the barren and rocky coast-line on the
west coast has won from the mainland many a green-crested islet, many
a solitary peak, fitted alone to become the eyrie of the eagle or
dauntless sea-birds.
The very position of Dunbar Castle shows that the encroachments of the
sea in that quarter should not be disregarded. Its ruins now stand
upon a rocky eminence, exposed to the fury of the wintry blast; and
the stormy sea, which has caverned and honeycombed the rock upon which
it is raised, has left many chasms and tunnels in the cliff, regarding
which a thousand wild legends are told. Though the exact date of the
Castle, the ruins of which now remain, is not known, it must occupy the
site of a much earlier Peel which would be in existence early in the
11th century. The first traces of this early structure are found in
the records relating to William the Conqueror. In 1067, that monarch
conferred the Earldom of Northumberland upon Robert Comyn, but he was
so unpopular with his vassals that he and all his retainers were put
to death in 1068 by the inhabitants of the district. Then Cospatrick
(sometimes called “Gospatrick”) grandson of Malcolm II., King of
Scotland, claimed the Earldom through his mother, who was a daughter
of Uchtred, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland, but had ultimately to pay
“a great sum of money” for it in 1067 to William the Conqueror. Soon
afterwards Cospatrick quarrelled with William, and fled into Scotland
with other northern leaders, finding refuge in 1072 with Malcolm III.
(Ceanmor), whose wife, St Margaret, was a Saxon Princess. Malcolm
conferred upon him “Dunbar with the adjacent lands in Lothian,” and he
thus became the first Earl of Dunbar. His death took place about 1089,
and he was succeeded by his son, Cospatrick, second Earl of Dunbar, who
was a benefactor to the Abbey of Kelso. Before his death in 1139, he
had probably begun the erection of Dunbar Castle, as the oldest part
of the ruins belong to about that period. This Earl was present at the
foundation of Scone Abbey in 1115, and Holyrood Abbey in 1128, the
former by Alexander I., and the latter by his brother and successor,
David I., sons of Malcolm III. (Ceanmor).
The tourist who visits Dunbar expecting to find there the romantic
ruins of some palatial structure will be grievously disappointed.
The relics of its former greatness betray the fact that it has been
constructed with an eye rather to strength than beauty; and its
position on the verge of the “many-sounding sea,” whose billows lash
its foundations, would seem to imply that its builders thought more of
the preservation of their lives than the cultivation of the elegant
arts. The peculiar redstone of which the latest Castle has been
built is found still in the neighbourhood; and there are few traces
now to be seen of Continental mason craft about it. So that all the
appearances favour the supposition that it was called into existence
by the necessities of the time. Yet these bare walls when draped with
antique tapestries and illuminated by cresset-torches would afford in
a rude age an illustration of how life may be made endurable through
the agency of judicious luxury. And when beauty and valour combined to
grace the Castle in former days the lack of mural decoration would not
cause one pang to the inmates:--
“Schinand was the painted hall,
Wi’ gladsome torches bricht;
For twenty gowden dames sat there,
An’ ilk ane by a Knicht!
Wi’ music cheer
To please the ear
Whom bewty pleased the sicht.”
The ever-whirling wheels of Time have dealt somewhat roughly with
the building, and beams and rafters, walls and battlements, have at
length experienced the doom of all things earthly. The wild east wind
now whistles desolately around the roofless hall, and echoes down the
untenanted courtyard, sounding in the ear of the romantic visitor as
the whispering of elfin voices, or the mystic murmuring of spirit
tones, borne on the balmy breezes of memory. The task now is to
translate these incoherent sounds into intelligible language, in fact:
“To give to airy nothings
A local habitation and a name.”
Like many more of the Scottish Castles the date of the original Dunbar
Castle is unknown, and many outrageous theories have been invented to
account for its existence. The tradition of the locality ascribed its
origin to the Picts, who at some remote period left the fertile hills
and meads of their native Allemayne, and extravasated themselves upon
the east coast of Scotland. Originally agriculturists, the necessities
of their position forced them to learn to wield the sword as well as
guide the ploughshare, for the savage aborigines did not resign their
land without a fierce and protracted struggle. And if these eastern
strangers did really build an early Keep on the site of the Castle
(which may be reasonably doubted) they must have adopted the method
of Nehemiah, “For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his
side; and so builded,” thus carrying both the sword and trowel.
The mission of the Alemanni was essentially agricultural, and when
they had established their colony in East Lothian they soon set about
clearing the forest land and transforming the waste places into fertile
fields. The Caledonians, like the Indians of North America, were
content to leave their rude agriculture to their women and children,
whilst they devoted their energies to the chase; but the Picts had
already learned all the humanising influence of agricultural pursuits,
and knew something of the benefits derived from living in Society.
Under their influence, therefore, the fringe of the great Caledonian
Forest was reclaimed from its barren luxuriance; and the desolate
haunts of the wild boar and giant elk of Scotland were forced to yield
subsistence to these pioneers of civilization. And now the traces of
this influence may be seen in the agriculture of the district, whose
fertility is unlimited even by the saline breezes which blow over two
sides of East Lothian.
Although there is no proof that any part of the Castle of Dunbar was
built by these hardy colonists, it is not unlikely that a Keep of some
kind was erected by them near the coast, so as at once to protect their
fields and to afford them means of escape by sea should Fortune frown
upon them. And there could be no site chosen more fitted for this
purpose upon the whole of the neighbouring coast. No competent Admiral
would counsel an attack by sea; and the subsequent history of Dunbar
Castle showed that it could successfully resist an overwhelmingly land
force, even under daring and skilled leaders.
When the union of the Picts and Scots took place under Kenneth I.
(Macalpin) about 846 A.D., the lands and Castle of Lodonia (Lothian)
fell into his hands. The title which the fort now received was
“Dunbar,” to account for which two theories are propounded. It is
said that amongst the chieftains that followed Kenneth, one of the
bravest was Bar, whose courageous bearing and ready sword had won the
notice of the King. In acknowledgment of his services the Pictish fort
was conferred upon him, and it was thenceforth known as “Dun-Bar,”
the Castle of Bar. Another theory holds that the title is purely
topographical and descriptive, and, being interpreted, signifies “the
fort on the height,” which name it undoubtedly deserves. The debate,
however, is a barren one, and hardly worthy of the labour that has
been spent upon it. Indeed, authorities have not yet decided who the
Picts were, and where they came from. Some theorists maintain that the
Picts were Saxon invaders; others declare that they were a sept of the
ancient Caledonians who devoted themselves to agriculture. One thing
at least is certain, that the two nations were united under one King
in the person of Kenneth I. about 846 A.D., and it is at this period
that the name of Dunbar first appears. It must be understood that the
Pictish origin of Dunbar Castle is entirely traditional, though it
seems not incredible. From Kenneth I. the whole long succession of
Kings of Scotland and of Great Britain are descended.
That there was really a Castle on this spot over a thousand years ago
is certainly true, however strange it may sound. And though it has
long been in a ruinous state, the story of its chequered career is
inwoven with the web of Scottish history, and its name is inseparably
associated with some of the greater events which are now deemed
memorable. The mist and obscurity which surround the record of its
early days become cleared as we advance within the historic period; and
from the time at which Dunbar was erected into an Earldom it is not so
difficult to follow its story. Yet the darker portion of that story
should be known, since it makes much of the general history of Scotland
intelligible.
The true Kingdom of Scotland was not really founded upon a secure
basis before the time of Malcolm III. (Caenmor) about 200 years after
Kenneth I. The union of Malcolm with St Margaret of England brought
about a revolution in the manners and customs of the Scottish nation
which more nearly assimilated them to their southern neighbours. The
relics of Druidical religion had now disappeared, and the humanizing
wave of Christianity, which had reached the remote shores of Norway,
had also brought its influence to bear upon “Ultima Thule,” the
fabled last island on the verge of the world, over which Malcolm was
King. And so, as the light dawned upon these “rude forefathers” of
ours they began to see that man is neither absolutely self-existent,
nor existent solely for self. Around the Castles and Towers of their
leaders they congregated into little townships and petty estates,
espousing the cause of their Lord without question, and laying the
foundation of the feudal system which it took centuries to overthrow.
The mere association thus together, with one distinct aim, served to
consolidate the Kingdom and make its independence more secure.