preaching of the Dominican friars, who undertook to convert them if
they were constrained to hear their sermons--the king's bailiffs, on
the petition of the friars, were ordered to induce the Jews to become
quiet, meek, and uncontentious hearers--could either alter the Jewish
character, still patient of all evil so that they could extort wealth,
or suppress the still increasing clamor of public detestation, which
demanded that the land should cast forth from its indignant bosom this
irreclaimable race of rapacious infidels. Still worse, if we may trust
a papal bull, the presence and intercourse of the Jews were dangerous
to the religion of England. In the year 1286 the Pope (Honorius IV)
addressed a bull to the Archbishop of Canterbury and his suffragans,
rebuking them for the remissness of the clergy in not watching more
closely the proceedings of the Jews. The Archbishop, indeed, had not
been altogether so neglectful in the duty of persecution. The number
and the splendor of the synagogues in London had moved the
indignation, perhaps the jealousy, of Primate Peckham. He issued his
monition to the Bishop of London to inhibit the building any more of
these offensively sumptuous edifices, and to compel the Jews to
destroy those built within a prescribed time.
The zeal of the Bishop of London (Robert de Gravesend) outran that of
the Archbishop; he ordered them all to be levelled to the ground. The
Archbishop, prevailed on by the urgent supplications of the Jews,
graciously informed the Bishop that he might conscientiously allow one
synagogue, if that synagogue did not wound the eyes of pious
Christians by its magnificence.
But the bull of Honorius IV was something more than a stern
condemnation of the usurious and extortionate practices of the Jews;
it was a complaint of their progress, not merely in inducing Jewish
converts to Christianity to apostatize back to Judaism, but of their
not unsuccessful endeavors to tempt Christians to Judaism. "These Jews
lure them to their synagogues on the Sabbath--are we to suppose that
there was something splendid and attractive in the synagogue worship
of the day?--and in their friendly intercourse at common banquets, the
souls of Christians, softened by wine and good eating and social
enjoyment, are endangered." The _Talmud_ of the Jews, which they still
persist in studying, is especially denounced as full of abomination,
falsehood, and infidelity.
The King at length listened to the public voice, and the irrevocable
edict of total expulsion from the realm was issued. Their whole
property was seized at once, and just money enough left to discharge
their expenses[86] to foreign lands, perhaps equally inhospitable. The
10th of October was the fatal day. The King benignantly allowed them
till All Saints' Day; after which all who delayed were to be hanged
without mercy. The King, in the execution of this barbarous
proceeding, put on the appearance both of religion and moderation.
Safe-conducts were to be granted to the sea-shore from all parts of
the kingdom. The wardens of the Cinque Ports were to provide shipping
and receive the exiles with civility and kindness. The King expressed
his intention of converting great part of his gains to pious uses, but
the Church looked in vain for the fulfilment of his vows.
He issued orders that the Jews should be treated with kindness and
courtesy on their journey to the sea-shore.
But where the Prince by his laws thus gave countenance to the worst
passions of human nature, it was not likely that they would be
suppressed by his proclamations. The Jews were pursued from the
kingdom with every mark of popular triumph in their sufferings; one
man, indeed, the master of a vessel at Queenborough, was punished for
leaving a considerable number on the shore at the mouth of the river,
when, as they prayed to him to rescue them from their perilous
situation, he answered that they had better call on Moses, who had
made them pass safe through the Red Sea, and, sailing away with their
remaining property, left them to their fate. The number of exiles is
variously estimated at fifteen thousand and sixty and sixteen thousand
five hundred and eleven; all their property, debts, obligations,
mortgages, escheated to the King.
Yet some, even in those days, presumed to doubt whether the nation
gained by the act of expulsion, and even ventured to assert that the
public burdens on the Christians only became heavier and more
intolerable. Catholics suffered in the place of the enemies of the
Cross of Christ. The loss to the Crown was enormous.[87] The convents
made themselves masters of the valuable libraries of the Jews, one at
Stamford, another at Oxford, from which the celebrated Roger Bacon is
said to have derived great information; and long after, the common
people would dig in the places they had frequented, in hopes of
finding buried treasure.
EXPLOITS AND DEATH OF WILLIAM WALLACE, THE "HERO OF SCOTLAND"
A.D. 1297-1305
SIR WALTER SCOTT
When the granddaughter and sole heiress of King Alexander
III of Scotland was betrothed, in her sixth year, 1288, to
the son of Edward I of England, an early union of the
English and Scottish crowns seemed assured. But the death of
the little princess, two years later, left the throne of
Scotland vacant, and was followed by the rise of thirteen
claimants, three of whom were entitled to serious
regard--John de Baliol, Lord of Galloway; Robert Bruce, Lord
of Annandale; and John Hastings, Lord of Abergavenny, all
descended from David, brother of William the Lion, King of
Scotland, 1165-1214.
Edward I of England at once assumed all the rights of a
feudal suzerain until the disputed claims should be settled.
Finally the claim of Baliol was recognized, he did homage to
Edward for his services to the realm of Scotland, and for a
time peace prevailed. But when Edward called upon the
Scottish nobles to serve in his foreign wars, and made other
demands implying the dependence of Scotland, the resentment
of Baliol's subjects forced him into an attitude of war. In
1295 he made an alliance against Edward with Philip the Fair
of France. In 1296 Edward invaded Scotland, took Berwick and
slaughtered eight thousand of its citizens; defeated the
Scots at Dunbar; occupied Edinburgh, Stirling, and Perth;
compelled Baliol to surrender, and sent him to the Tower of
London. Edward then made Scotland a dependency of his crown.
This submission was not the act of the people, but of their
leaders. "The Scots assembled in troops and companies, and
betaking themselves to the woods, mountains, and morasses,
prepared for a general insurrection against the English
power."
They found their leader in the outlawed knight, William
Wallace. Wallace was born about 1274. Popular tradition,
which "delights to dwell upon the beloved champion of the
people," has invested him with many striking qualities,
ascribing to him a gigantic stature and enormous strength,
as well as extraordinary courage. Little, if anything, is
really known of his personality and private life; while all
that belongs to history concerning him is told by his
celebrated and admiring fellow-countryman, Sir Walter Scott,
in the following narrative.
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 around him a band of men as desperate as himself, and
obtained several successes in skirmishes with the English. Joined by
Sir William Douglas, who had been taken at the siege of Berwick, but
had been discharged upon ransom, the insurgents compelled Edward to
send an army against them, under the Earl of Surrey, the victor of
Dunbar. Several of the nobility, moved by Douglas' example, had joined
Wallace's standard, but overawed at the approach of the English army,
and displeased to act under a man, like Wallace, of comparatively
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 resolving, as it was long and
narrow, to attack them while in the act of crossing. The Earl of
Surrey led fifty thousand infantry and a thousand men-at-arms. Part of
his soldiers, however, were the Scottish barons who had formerly
joined Wallace's standard, and who, notwithstanding their return to
that of Surrey, were scarcely to be trusted.
The English treasurer, Cressingham, murmured at the expense attending
the war, and, to bring it to a crisis, proposed to commence an attack
the next morning by crossing the river. Surrey, an experienced
warrior, hesitated to engage his troops in the defile of a wooden
bridge, where scarce two horsemen could ride abreast; but, urged by
the imprudent vehemence of Cressingham, he advanced, contrary to
common-sense as well as to his own judgment. The vanguard 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 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 Carlisle, 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
protection. "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 Scotland. 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 maintained in the
breast of the universal people of Scotland, Wallace pursued his
judicious plans of enforcing general levies through the kingdom and
bringing them under discipline. 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, before
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 stipulations in favor of the people;
the English being prudent, though somewhat selfishly disposed to
secure their own freedom 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 gallant 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 advance 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
provisions, 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. 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 Scottish 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 amounted to only 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 Scottish 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, became 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 followed, Sir John Stewart fell from his horse and
was slain among the archers of Ettrick, 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 neighboring
woods which saved a remnant from the sword. The body of Stewart was
found among those of his faithful archers, who were distinguished by
their stature and fair complexions 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 disgraceful 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
Ettrick Forest were faithful; but they could only be few. So nearly
had Wallace's scheme for the campaign been successful, that Edward,
even after having gained this great battle, returned to England, and
deferred reaping the harvest 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 Wallace. He resigned the
guardianship of the kingdom, unable to discharge its duties, amid the
calumnies with which faction and envy aggravated his defeat. The
Bishop of St. 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 mean time 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 establish a claim, to
whatsoever should be therein found, to which a distinct and specific
right of property could not be ascertained. The Pontiff's 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.
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 magisterial requisition was presented by the Archbishop
of Canterbury 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 protect 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 independent of Rome, and that they would not permit his
sovereignty to be questioned." Their declaration concludes with these
remarkable words: "We neither do, will, nor can permit our sovereign
to do anything to the detriment of the constitution, which we are both
sworn to and are determined to maintain"--a spirited assertion of
national right, 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 discussion, 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, Edward I, in the spring of 1302, sent an army into
Scotland of twenty thousand men, under Sir John Seward, a renowned
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 Scottish knight, Sir Simon Fraser. Seward was defeated, but
the battle was scarce over when his second division came up. The
Scots, flushed with victory, reestablished 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 hesitation, 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 people 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 obstinate resistance. 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 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 himself unconditionally to the King's
pleasure, provided he thought proper to do so; a stipulation which, as
it signified nothing in favor of the person for whom it was apparently
conceived, must be imputed as a pretext on the part of the Scottish
nobles to save themselves from the disgrace of having left Wallace
altogether unthought of. Some attempts were made to ascertain what
sort of accommodation 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, continued to make a
desperate defence, under its brave governor, Sir William Olifaunt,
until famine and despair compelled 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 captivity of her last
patriot. He had found in a Scottish nobleman, 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 obtained
an opportunity of seizing him at Robroyston, near Glasgow, by the
treachery of a servant.
Sir William Wallace was instantly transferred to London, where he was
brought to trial in Westminster Hall, with as much apparatus of infamy
as the ingenuity of his enemies could devise. He was crowned with a
garland of oak, to intimate that he 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 confessed and
proceeded to justify them. He was condemned, and executed by
decapitation, 1305. His head was placed on a pinnacle on London
bridge, and his quarters were distributed over the kingdom.
Thus died this courageous patriot, leaving a remembrance which will be
immortal in the hearts of his countrymen. 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.