(Vol. ii., pp. 308. 409.)
I am not satisfied with what W. S. G. has written on this subject; and as I
feel interested in it, perhaps I cannot bring out my doubts better than in
the following Queries.
1. Instead of this famous cross being destined by St. Margaret for
Dunfermline, was it not transmitted by her as an heir-loom to her sons?
_Fordun_, lib. v. cap. lv. "_Quasi munus haereditarium transmisit ad
filios._" Hailes (_Annals_, sub anno 1093) distinguishes the cross which
Margaret gifted to Dunfermline from the Black Rood of Scotland; and it is
found in the possession of her son David I., in his last illness. He died
at Carlisle, 24th May, 1153. (_Fordun_, ut supra.)
2. Is not W. S. G. mistaken when, in speaking of this cross being seized by
Edward I. in the Castle of Edinburgh in 1292, he says it is in a list of
muniments, &c., found "_in quadam cista in dormitorio S. Crucis._" instead
of in a list following, "_et in thesauria castri de Edinburgh inventa
fuerunt ornamenta subscripta?_" (Ayloffe's _Calendars_, p. 827.;
Robertson's _Index_, Introd. xiii.)
3. When W. S. G. says that this cross was not held in the same
superstitious reverence as the Black Stone of Scone, and that Miss
Strickland is mistaken when she says that it was seized by King Edward, and
restored at the peace of 1327, what does he make of the following
authorities?--
(1.) _Fordun_, lib. v, cap. xvii:
"Illa sancta crux quam nigram vocant omni genti Scotorum non minus
terribilem quam amabilem pro suae reverentia sanctitatis."
(2.) _Letters to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Carlisle,
occassioned by some Passages in his late Book of the Scotch Library, &c._,
ascribed to the historian Rymer: London, 1702. From a "notable piece of
Church history," appended to the second Letter, it appears that the Black
Rood accompanied King Edward in his progresses, along with a famous English
cross--the Cross Nigth,--and that he received on these two crosses the
homage of several of the Scottish magnates. (The same thing, I have no
doubt, will appear from the _Foedera_ of the same historian, which I have
it not in my power to refer to.)
(3.) _Chronicon de Lanercost_, printed by the Maitland Club, Edinburgh,
1839, p. 283. Alluding to the pacification of 1327:
"Reddidit etiam eis partem crucis Christi _quam vocant Scotti
Blakerode_, et similiter unam instrumentum.... Ragman vocabatur.
Lapidem tamen de Scone, in quo solent regis Scotiae apud Scone in
creatione sua collocari, Londonensis noluerunt a se demittere
quoquomodo. Omnia autem haec asportari fecerat de Scotia inclytus rex
Edwardus filius Henrici, dum Scottos suae subjiceret ditioni."
Fabian and Holinshed report the same thing.
4. Is not Fordun _quoting_ from Turgot and Aelred (whom he names Baldredus)
when he speaks of "illa sancta crux _quam nigram_ vocant?" And how does the
description of the Durham cross,--
"Which rood and pictures were all three very richly wrought in silver,
and were all smoked black over, being large pictures of a yard or five
quarters long," &c. &c.,--
agree with the description of the Black Rood of St. Margaret which, as Lord
Hailes says, "was of _gold_, about the length of _a palm_; the figure of
ebony, studded and inlaid with gold. A piece of the true cross was enclosed
in it"?
5. As to the cross "miraculously received by David I., and in honour of
which he founded Holyrood Abbey in 1128," and which some antiquaries (see
_A Brief Account of Durham Cathedral_; Newcastle, 1833, p. 46.) gravely
assert was to be seen "in the south aisle of _the choir_ of Durham
Cathedral at its eastern termination, in front of a wooden screen richly
gilt and decorated with stars and other ornaments," are not all agreed that
the story is a mere monkish legend, invented long after Holyrood was
founded (although, perhaps, not so recent as Lord Hailes supposed)? and is
it not, therefore, absurd to speak of such a cross being taken at the
battle of Durham, or to identify it with the Black Rood of Scotland?
6. The quotation of W. S. G. from the _MS. Dunelm_ is curious; but is there
any contemporary authority for the Black Rood having been taken with King
David at the battle of Durham? I can find none.
7. Is it not, however, probable that King David lost _two_ crosses at
Durham, one a military cross, carried with his army, and taken from the
Abbey of Holyrood; and the other the famous Black Rood found on his person,
and made an offering to the shrine of St. Cuthbert? This would reconcile
some apparent discrepancies.
8. I find it noticed by Richardson in his _Table Book_ (Newcastle, 1846,
vol. i. p. 123.), that "there is a letter in the British Museum (Faustina,
A 6. 47.) from the prior of Durham to the Bishop (then absent), giving an
account of the battle of Neville's cross." Has this letter been printed,
and where? If not so, will any of your correspondents have the {105}
kindness to examine it, and say if it gives any information as to a cross
or crosses captured with the King of Scots?