STATE OF THE COUNTRY.--BRUCE INVITED TO TAKE THE CROWN.--CONDUCT OF
CUMYN TOWARDS BRUCE.--NOTICE OF CUMYN.--TRADITION RESPECTING THE CLAN
CUMYN.--NOTICE OF KERLE.--WALLACE BETRAYED BY MENTEITH.
The situation of Scotland, after the departure of Edward, was such as
well warranted the representation that had been transmitted to England.
Though there had as yet been no open insurrection, still there was that
in the bearing of the people, which betokened any thing but good will
towards the existing state of things. The national sports and customs
of the English, which it had been attempted to introduce among them,
were shunned and disregarded by the oppressed and scowling population;
while those chiefs who had formerly shown the greatest attachment to
the cause of independence, were seldom heard of, except when discovered
holding their conferences in those sequestered retreats, where they
considered themselves secure from all, save the wandering spies
employed by the faithless part of their own countrymen.
Wallace now saw that the state of the country required a different
remedy from that which had hitherto been applied. Baliol, whom he had
acknowledged as his righteous sovereign, though detained a prisoner
in England, had, through the menaces of Edward, made over to that
monarch his right to the crown and kingdom of Scotland. This act, in
the opinion of Wallace, released him from his allegiance to one who
had all along acted a part unworthy of his attachment; for, though he
admitted his right to _resign_ the crown, yet he could not recognise a
right to _transfer_ it to a stranger, to the exclusion of the lawful
heir; and as Edward, the son of Baliol, was also the prisoner and tool
of the King of England, he naturally fixed his attention on Bruce, as
the person best fitted, from his birth and talents, to infuse that
confidence in the people which necessarily arises from the presence of
a person invested with lawful authority. Having found no difficulty in
impressing Sir Simon Frazer, and those other chiefs who adhered to him,
with the same sentiments, a negociation was entered into with Edward
Bruce, for inviting his brother from England to assume the crown;
and it is also said, that a special herald[65] from Wallace and his
confederates found his way to Bruce in disguise, who appointed to meet
with our hero on a certain night on the burrow-muir of Glasgow.
1305. In the meantime, Wallace and his friends were active in
organizing the insurrection, which was to burst forth as soon as
Bruce appeared among them, and who was at the same time to have been
proclaimed king. How far Cumyn was consulted on the occasion, by
Wallace and his associates, does not appear. From the very little
intercourse which seems to have subsisted between them since the fatal
battle of Falkirk, it is highly probable that the accession of our
patriot and his party, to the proposal for placing Bruce on the throne,
was communicated to Cumyn through the medium of Edward Bruce--the
fiery temperament of whose mind, was not always in unison with those
maxims of sound policy necessary for conducting affairs of such moment.
Whether Cumyn had ever been sincere in the agreement entered into
with the Earl of Carrick, or whether he afterwards repented of the
bargain he had made, is a point not easily to be ascertained; but with
a duplicity worthy of his conduct on a former occasion, he is said to
have despatched the bond between himself and Bruce to Edward; urging,
at the same time, the arrestment of his rival, as necessary to prevent
the disturbance that was on the eve of breaking out in Scotland.
It might be considered by our readers an omission, were we to bring our
labours to a close, without embodying in our pages a more particular
account of this subtile and talented baron, than what has hitherto
appeared in the course of the narrative. To obviate this objection,
perhaps the following brief outline, in addition to what has already
been stated, may suffice.
John Cumyn, or as he is called by the Gaël, _Ian Ruadh Mhac Ian
Ruadh Chiumein_ (Red John, the son of Red John Cumming), was Lord of
Badenoch, Lochaber, and other extensive districts, and the head of the
most potent clan that ever existed in Scotland. His power was more
formidable than any of his fellow-competitors for the crown. Upwards
of 60 belted knights and their vassals were bound to follow his banner;
and the influence of the family was such, that during the minority
of Alexander III., after driving from Scotland a strong faction,
formed and supported by the interest of England, the Cumyns and their
adherents negociated a treaty with Llewellyn, a prince of Wales. In
this instrument, John, the father of the subject of the present notice,
appears as Justiciary of Galloway. This document is preserved in
Rymer’s Fœdera, vol. i. p. 653. Those, however, who may not have access
to that work, may have their curiosity gratified, by referring to
Tytler’s History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 424.
It is uncertain at what time John Cumyn succeeded to his father. He
appears, however, in 1289, as joint agent along with James the Steward,
in the letter of the community of Scotland, directed to Edward I., from
Brigham. According to Henry, he was married to a cousin of the King of
England; and this, from all authorities, seems to have been the case,
for he espoused Joan, the sister of Aymer de Valence, whose father,
William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, was uterine brother to Henry
III. With this powerful connection, he no doubt expected a different
decision in the submission respecting the throne of Scotland. This
disappointment, in all probability, made him afterwards more ready
to join the insurrection under Wallace; and if it had not been for
the odium which he afterwards drew upon himself by his conduct at the
battle of Falkirk, he might have figured in the annals of his country
with a fair and honourable reputation. While regent of Scotland, his
behaviour was not only unexceptionable, but often praiseworthy. This,
however, may have been partly owing to the strict surveillance which
Wallace still exercised in the affairs of the country, or partly from
a wish to conciliate his countrymen in the event of a favourable
opportunity occurring for his obtaining the crown,--an object of
ambition of which it is pretty evident he never lost sight.
The treachery towards Bruce, which has been charged against him by all
authorities except Lord Hailes, also tended to deepen the stain on
his character. This charge, whether true or false, we have no means
of ascertaining. A number of the objections stated by his Lordship
against it are, however, of considerable weight. That a bond existed
between them of the tenor already described, there is little doubt;
and that the terms of this bond became afterwards matter of dispute,
there is some reason to believe, as the fulfilment of it would have
been dangerous to both. For had Bruce been placed on the throne by the
assistance of Cumyn, and the latter had received the estates of Bruce,
according to agreement, he would have been a subject far too powerful
for the crown; and _vice versa_ in the case of Bruce. The quarrel,
therefore, which subsequently took place in the chapel of Dumfries,
and which ended in the death of Cumyn, (the particulars of which are
known to every reader), might have arisen in an altercation respecting
the difficulties involved in the completion of the bond, without
either party having been guilty of a breach of faith. It was no doubt
the policy of Bruce and his confederates, that the stain of treachery
should be affixed on the name of Cumyn, as it afforded the only
plausible excuse for committing a murder in a place of such reputed
sanctity. Indeed the circumstance of the latter having requested an
interview within the precincts of a church, showed nothing like a
premeditated intention to quarrel; but since the deed was committed,
it seemed necessary to the future safety and views of Bruce and his
faction, that with the influence the character of the Cumyns should be
diminished. That they assisted in this last object themselves, is but
too apparent; otherwise it would be difficult to account for that odium
which afterwards became attached to them. For while the Scots, in the
Low country, cried out against the “fause Cumyn’s Kyn,” their vassals
in Badenoch and Lochaber re-echoed the charge, till the very name
became cognominal with deceit; so much so, that the following proverb
is at this day remembered in those parts of the Highlands to which
their influence extended:
_“Fhad’s a bhios crann an cóille,
Bi’dh fóill an Cuimeineach.”_
“While there are trees in a wood, there will be deceit in a Cumyn.”
We will not however assert, that the enmity of the Gaël arose from
the conduct of the Cumyns in the Low country; for if we may credit
tradition still current in the West Highlands, this once powerful and
oppressive family gave sufficient cause, in their own territorial
bounds, for the antipathy of their neighbours and vassals. The
atrocities which they committed in their castles of Inverlochy,
Badenoch, and other strongholds which they polluted with their crimes,
at last roused the slumbering vengeance of the people; and tradition,
in her vague manner, dates the downfall of this potent clan, from the
time of “Cumyn’s flight from Onnich.” At what period this occurred,
cannot now be exactly ascertained; but with the particulars of the
story we shall close this imperfect notice:--
The Cumyns, it seems, in the plenitude of their power, paid little
attention, when it suited their wishes, to the abrogation of the
infamous law of Evenus, and the “_mercheta mulierum_” was generally
spurned, when the charms of the bride happened to please the eye of
the chief. It would seem that three marriages were about to take
place at Onnich, a little town on the borders of Lochaber. The women
were beautiful, and the men spirited and brave. The half-merk had
been tendered at the gates of Inverlochy, by the bridegrooms and
their friends, and the refusal of it by the chief gave them reason to
apprehend the fate that was intended for them. The case excited deep
interest. The day of marriage approached, and brought along with it
the Lord of Badenoch and his two sons, with their usual retinue. The
half-merk was again tendered, and refused. The men drew their swords,
determined to guard the purity of their fair ones. A conflict ensued;
friends gathered to the assistance of the injured; the two sons of
Cumyn were killed; while he, with the remains of his myrmidons, betook
himself to flight. The country arose and made after him, till the
affair swelled to a general insurrection. All his train were sacrificed
to the fury of the pursuers, many, no doubt, having more serious
grievances to revenge. The flight continued till their obnoxious
chief reached a hill near the present site of Fort Augustus;--where,
overcome with fatigue, he was seen to sit down apparently to rest
himself. On coming up to him, however, they found that the wretched
man had already paid the forfeit of his crimes. He was carried down and
buried on the spot where the fort now stands, which is still known to
old Highlanders by the name of “_Cill Chiumein_,” or the burial-place
of Cumyn; and the hill on which he died retains to this day the
appellation of “_Suidh Chiumein_,” or Cumyn’s Seat. Very few of the
clan are now to be found in these districts.
To return to our narrative: Wallace, who, as he conceived, among other
friends, had secured the co-operation of Sir John Menteith to the
measures then in agitation, for the purpose, it is supposed, of giving
as early notice as possible of the arrival of Bruce, had retained near
his person a young man related to Menteith,[66] who was to have been
despatched with the news to Dumbarton, as soon as their future monarch
should arrive, when that important fortress was to have declared in his
favour.
Confiding in the arrangements thus made, Wallace, as the time appointed
by Bruce drew near, collected his followers round Glasgow, and disposed
of them in such a manner, as to be able to bring them together on
the shortest notice,[67] For the better concealment of his design,
he retired to a small lonely house at Robroyston, about three miles
north-west of Glasgow. Here he waited with impatience for the night on
which Bruce had appointed to meet him, little dreaming of the danger to
which his intended sovereign was exposed, through the conduct of Cumyn,
nor of the treachery that was hatching against himself.
The means which were employed to accomplish the destruction of Bruce,
would have been of very little avail towards securing the objects
intended, so long as his brother and our hero--who had now identified
himself with the interest of the Brucian party--remained to head the
insurrection that was expected to break out; and as all the magnificent
promises of Edward had been unable to subdue the stern virtue of
the patriot, his emissaries now bethought themselves of assailing
the fidelity of those friends in whom he seemed chiefly to confide.
Unfortunately for the cause of liberty, their allurements were but too
successful; and the honour of his early friend, Sir John Menteith, gave
way to the arts of the tempter.
On the night of the 5th of August 1305, Sir William, and his faithful
friend Kerlé,[68] accompanied by the youth before mentioned, had
betaken themselves to their lonely retreat at Robroyston;[69] to which
place their steps had been watched by a spy, who, as soon as he had
observed them enter, returned to his employers.
At the dead hour of midnight, while the two friends lay fast asleep,
the youth, whose turn it was to watch, cautiously removed the bugie
from the neck of Wallace, and conveyed it, along with his arms,
through an aperture in the wall; then slowly opening the door, two
men-at-arms silently entered, and, seizing upon Kerlé, hurried him
from the apartment, and instantly put him to death. Wallace, awakened
by the noise, started to his feet, and, missing his weapons, became
sensible of his danger, but grasping a large piece of oak, which had
been used for a seat, he struck two of his assailants dead on the
spot, and drove the rest headlong before him. Seeing the fury to
which he was roused, and the difficulty they would have in taking him
alive, Menteith now advanced, to the aperture, and represented to
him the folly of resistance, as the English, he said, having heard
of his place of resort, and of the plans he had in contemplation,
were collected in too large a force to be withstood; that if he would
accompany him a prisoner to Dumbarton, he would undertake for the
safety of his person;--that all the English wished, was to secure the
peace of the country, and to be free from his molestation;--adding,
that if he consented to go with him, he should live in his own house
in the castle, and he, Menteith, alone should be his keeper;--that
even now, he would willingly sacrifice his life in his defence; but
that his attendants were too few, and too ill-appointed, to have any
chance of success in contending with the English. He concluded by
assuring Wallace, that he had followed in order to use his influence
with his enemies in his behalf, and that they had listened to him on
condition of an immediate surrender; but that if he did not instantly
comply, the house would soon be in flames about him. These, and other
arguments, were urged with all the seeming sincerity of friendship;
and our patriot, confiding in early recollections, and the private
understanding that subsisted between them, allowed himself to be
conducted to Dumbarton Castle.
On the morrow, however, no Monteith appeared to exert his _influence_,
in order to prevent the unfortunate hero from being carried from the
fortress; and strongly fettered, and guarded by a powerful escort,
under the command of Robert de Clifford and Aymer de Vallance, he was
hurried to the South, by the line of road least exposed to the chance
of a rescue.