THE INDEPENDENT KINGDOM.
_Robert I._ (1)--_Chapter of Mitton_ (2)--_Peace of
Northampton_ (3)--_Robert's parliaments_ (4)--_his
death_ (5)--_David II._ (6)--_Edward Balliol's invasion_
(7)--_battle of Halidon Hill_ (8)--_capture of the King_
(9)--_Robert II._ (10)--_the French allies_ (11)--_Raid
of Otterburn_ (12)--Robert III. (13)--_Clan battle on the
North Inch_ (14)--_relations with England_ (15)--_Albany's
regency_ (16)--_battle of Harlaw_ (17)--_Scots in France_
(18)--_death of Albany_ (19)--_summary_ (20).
=1. Robert I., 1314-1329.=--The independence which Scotland had lost
was won back on the field of Bannockburn. She was to live on as an
independent kingdom, not to sink into a mere province of England; but,
as the English refused to acknowledge her independence, the war was
carried on by repeated invasions and cruel wastings of the northern
counties. _Douglas_, who was so popular that he was called the _Good
Lord James_, and _Randolf_, whom Bruce created _Earl of Moray_, were
the chief heroes of these raids. Edward was attacked too in another
quarter, in _Ireland_, whither, at the call of the Celtic chiefs,
_Edward Bruce_ had gone, like his brother Robert, to win himself a
crown by valour and popularity. King Robert himself took over troops to
help him. Edward was crowned King of Ireland, but he was killed soon
after. Meanwhile the war on the Border still went on. Each side was
struggling for _Berwick_. The Scots won it back, and the English did
all they could to retake it, but in vain.
=2. Chapter of Mitton.=--While the siege went on, the _Border_ counties
were so sorely harried by the Scots that at last the _Archbishop of
York_ and the clergy took up arms in their defence. But they were
thoroughly beaten, and this battle was called the _Chapter of Mitton_,
from the number of clerks left dead on the field. Edward could have
ended all this by acknowledging Robert as King, but he would not. A two
years' truce was made in 1319, but, as soon as it was ended, he once
more invaded Scotland with a large army. He found nothing but a wasted
country, for the Scots had carried both provisions and cattle to the
hills, nor would they come out to fight, though they harassed the rear
of the retreating army. At last the people of the northern counties of
England grew weary of the constant struggle. They had suffered so much
loss from the inroads of the Scots that they at last resolved that, if
the King would not make peace for them, they must come to terms with
the enemy on their own account. Edward, who feared that he might thus
lose a part of his kingdom, agreed to a thirteen years' truce, which
was concluded in 1323. In this treaty Robert was allowed to take his
title of King, though the English would not give it him. But when a few
years later Edward was deposed and his son Edward _the Third_ placed in
his stead, his government would not confirm the truce in the form at
first agreed on. The Scots upon this made another raid upon England,
swept the country, and carried off their spoil before the eyes of a
large English army. The Scots had in their plundering expeditions a
great advantage over the English in the greater simplicity of their
habits. They were mounted on small light horses, which at night were
turned out to graze. They carried no provisions, except a small bag of
oatmeal, which each man bore at his saddle, together with a thin iron
plate on which he baked his meal into cakes. For the rest of their food
they trusted to plunder. They burned and destroyed everything as they
passed, and, when they seized more cattle than they could use, they
slew them and left them behind on the place where their camp had been.
=3. Peace of Northampton=.--As by this time Robert's title had, after
much strife, been recognized by the Pope and other foreign powers, the
English saw that they must acknowledge it too. Therefore a treaty was
confirmed at _Northampton_ in 1328 between _Robert, King of Scots_, and
the English King. The terms of this treaty were, that Scotland as far
as the old boundary lines should be perfectly independent; that the
two Kings should be faithful allies, and that neither should stir up
the troublesome _Celtic_ subjects of the other, either in _Ireland_ or
in the _Highlands_. As a further proof of good will, _Joan_, Edward's
sister, was betrothed to Robert's infant son. By this treaty the
original Commendation of 924, and all the subsequent submissions to
England, whether real or pretended, were done away with. It placed the
kingdom on quite a new footing, for now _Lothian_ and _Strathclyde_
were as independent of England as the real _Scotland_ had originally
been. The long time of common suffering and common struggles had done
for the nation what the good time before it had failed to do. It had
knit together the three strands of the different races into one cord
of national unity too strong for any outer influence again to sever.
But during the long war there had also arisen that intense hatred of
everything English which warped the future growth of the nation. This
hatred drove Scotland to seek in France the model and ally that she
had hitherto found in England, and the influence of France can from
this period be distinctly traced in the laws, the architecture, and the
manners of the people. Robert's treaty with France was the beginning of
the future foreign policy of Scotland. This was to make common cause
with France against England, which country Scotland pledged herself to
invade whenever France declared war against it.
=4. Robert's Parliaments.=--Two of the meetings of the Estates or
Parliaments of this reign deserve notice. That of 1318 settled the
succession to the crown: first, on the direct male heirs in order
of seniority; next on the direct female heirs; failing both, on the
next of kin. An Act was also passed by this parliament forbidding all
holders of estates in Scotland from taking the produce or revenues
of these lands out of the kingdom. This law acted as a sentence of
forfeiture on the so-called Scottish barons who had larger estates
in England than in Scotland, and who preferred living in the richer
country. In the parliament of 1326, held at _Cambuskenneth_, the _third
Estate_, that is, the members from the _burghs_, was first recognized
as an essential part of the _National Assembly_.
=5. His Death.=--King Robert owed his crown to the people and to
the clergy; of the nobles but few were with him. His reign made a
great change in the baronage, for with the forfeited estates of his
opponents he laid the foundation of other families, the _Douglases_
for instance, who in after-times proved the dangerous rivals of his
own descendants. This was partly owing to his mistaken policy in
granting royalties or royal powers within their own domains to certain
of his own kindred and supporters. This practice, though at the time
it strengthened his own hands, in the end weakened the power of the
Crown. He died at _Cardross_ in 1329, leaving one son. He was greatly
mourned by the people, for he had won their sympathy by the struggles
of his early career, and had become their pride by his final victories.
They were justly proud of having a king who was no mere puppet in the
hands of others, fit only to wear a crown and to spend money, but a
brave, wise man, who had shown himself as able to suffer want and to
fight against ill-fortune as the best and bravest among themselves.
After King Robert's death, Douglas, to fulfil his last wish, set out
with his heart for Spain with a gallant following of the best gentlemen
in Scotland. In a skirmish with the Moors, he was surrounded by the
enemy, while hastening to the help of a brother knight. When he saw
his danger, he took from his neck the silken cord from which hung the
Bruce's heart, cast it on before him into the thickest of the fight,
crying out, "Pass first in fight as thou art wont to do, and Douglas
will follow thee or die." True to his word, he fell fighting valiantly,
and his body was found near the casket, which held the heart of the
friend and leader whom in life he had loved so well. Douglas was tall
and strong, and his dark skin and black hair won him the nickname of
the "_Black Douglas_." The English hated and feared him, but his own
people loved him well and remembered him long after his death.
=6. David II., 1320-1370.=--_David_, who was only eight years old
when his father died, was crowned at _Scone_ and _anointed_ which
no King of Scots had ever before been, as this was considered the
special right of independent sovereigns only. The government was in
the hands of _Randolf_, who had been appointed _Regent_ by the Estates
before the death of the late king. In the early part of the reign the
country was torn by a struggle which, as it was really a civil war, was
more dangerous to its independence and more hurtful to the national
character than the long war with the English had been. This war was
caused by those barons who, holding large estates in England, had, by
marriage or by inheritance, become possessed of lands in Scotland,
which they lost by the Act of the last reign against absentees.
Hitherto the so-called Scottish nobles had been Norman barons, with
equal interests in both kingdoms, but this act forced them to decide
for one or the other. Hence it was the mere chance of the respective
value of their lands that decided whether such names as Percy and
Douglas should be feared north or south of the Border.
=7. Edward Balliol's Invasion.=--These disinherited barons gathered
round _Edward Balliol_, the son of _King John_, and determined on an
invasion of Scotland on their own account, giving out that they came
to win back the crown for him. Just at this time of threatened danger
the Regent died, and was succeeded in his trust by _Donald, Earl of
Mar_, another nephew of King Robert. The invaders landed on the coast
of _Fife_, and at _Duplin_ in _Strathearn_ they defeated a large
army under the command of the Regent, who was slain. They then took
possession of _Perth_, and crowned Balliol at _Scone_, September 24th,
1332. He acknowledged himself the vassal of Edward of England; but the
latter did not openly take a part in the war, until the Scots, by their
frequent raids across the Border, could be said to have broken the
Peace of Northampton.
=8. Battle of Halidon Hill.=--In the spring of 1333, Edward the Third
invested Berwick, and the governor agreed to give it up if it were not
relieved by the Scots within a given time. The new Regent, _Archibald
Douglas_, brother to the Good Lord James, marched to raise the siege.
It was very much the case of Bannockburn reversed, for now the English
had the advantage of being posted on _Halidon Hill_, close by the town,
while the Scots, the assailants, had to struggle through a marsh.
The English archers won the day; the Regent was killed; _Berwick_
was forced to yield; and _Balliol_ gave it over to the English, and
placed all the strongholds south of the Forth in their hands. For three
years longer there was much fighting on the Border with pretty equal
success, until the French wars drew the attention of Edward the Third
from Scotland, and then the national party began to get the upper hand.
David, Earl of Athole, Balliol's chief supporter, was defeated and
slain at Culbleen, in the Highlands; and when Robert the High Steward
became Regent in 1338, he won back the strongholds. Soon after, Balliol
left the kingdom, and in 1341 David and his Queen _Joan of England_
came home from France, where he had been sent to be out of the way of
the troubles. Five years of comparative peace followed. A succession of
truces were made with England, but they were not strictly kept on the
Border.
=9. Capture of the King.=--While Edward was busy with the siege of
Calais, David, to keep up the spirit of the alliance with France,
broke the truce between England and Scotland by invading England. He
was defeated and captured by the Archbishop of York at the head of
the force of the northern counties in 1346. The battle in which he
was taken was called the battle of _Neville's Cross_, from a cross
afterwards put up to mark the field by _Sir Ralph Neville_. For eleven
years David remained a captive, and Scotland was governed by the
former _Regent_, the _Steward_. During that time Berwick was won and
lost again. Edward, to whom Balliol had handed over his claim to the
kingdom for a pension of two thousand pounds, brought an English army
as far as the Forth. As they could neither find provisions to sustain
them nor an enemy to fight with, they were forced to return; but they
had left such traces of their progress on churches and dwelling-houses
that their inroad was remembered as the "burnt Candlemas." In 1347
David was released, the ransom being fixed at 100,000 marks. He made
many after-visits to England, and proposed to the Estates, that
_Lionel_, the second son of _Edward_, should succeed him, but to this
they would not agree. He died in 1370, and left no children. After the
death of Joan he had married Margaret Logie, a woman of obscure birth.
=10. Robert II., 1370-1390.=--David was succeeded by his sister's son,
_Robert_, the _Steward_ of the kingdom. This office was hereditary,
and it gradually passed into the surname of the family who held it and
became common to the different branches. The stewardship was first
granted to _Walter Fitz-Alan_, a Breton baron, by David. Robert was
allowed to mount the throne unopposed. It had been feared that _William
Lord Douglas_, who through his mother, a sister of the _Red Comyn_,
represented the claim that had been resigned by the _Balliols_, would
have disputed his right to the throne, but he did not. Robert was twice
married. His first wife was _Elizabeth More_, by whom he had four
sons and several daughters. After her death he married _Euphemia_,
daughter of the _Earl of Ross_, and had two sons and four daughters.
The descendants of this second marriage claimed the crown on the ground
that the dispensation from Rome had not been obtained, which, as Robert
and Elizabeth were near of kin, was needful to make the marriage valid,
and the children legitimate. Dispensations for each marriage have since
been discovered, which decide the right of Robert's first family.
=11. The French Allies.=--At the end of the truce with England, in
1385, war broke out again. The French sent a body of 2,000 men, 1,000
stands of armour, and 50,000 gold pieces to the aid of their allies
the Scots. _Sir John de Vienne_, Admiral of France, was the leader
of the French auxiliaries. _Richard the Second_ of England, with an
army of 70,000 men, invaded Scotland, and marched as far north as the
_Forth_. But the country had been wasted before him, so that the only
harm he could do was to destroy _Melrose Abbey_. Meanwhile the Scots
had harried the northern counties of his own kingdom with their French
allies. The French afterwards said that in the dioceses of Carlisle
and Durham they had burned more than the value of all the towns in
Scotland. But the Frenchmen despised the poverty of the Scots, and were
disgusted with their way of fighting; and as the Scots in return were
uncivil and inhospitable to them, they went away before long, and were
as glad to get back to their own land as the Scots were to get rid of
them.
=12. Raid of Otterburn.=--A few years later the Scots barons made
another raid on the north of England. An army 5,000 strong mustered
at Jedburgh. By the capture of an English spy, they learned that
the English meant to keep out of their way, and, while they entered
England, to make a counter-raid on the south of Scotland. To defeat
this plan the Scots parted their force into two bands, one of which
was to enter England on the east, the other on the west. The eastern
division, under the Earls of _Douglas_, _Dunbar_, and _Moray_, swept
the country as far as _Durham_. As they were returning laden with
spoil, they tarried three days near _Newcastle_, where were gathered
the English barons under _Ralph_ and _Henry Percy_, sons of the _Earl
of Northumberland_, the Warden of the Marches. Many skirmishes then
took place between the two forces. In one of these Douglas took the
pennon of Sir Henry Percy, surnamed _Hotspur_, and challenged him to
come to his tent and win it back. The next day the Scots moved off and
encamped near _Otterburn Tower_. Percy hurried after them and attacked
them in the night. The Scots, though fewer in number, had the advantage
of being in a well-defended camp. They won the day, but the victory
was dearly bought, for Douglas was slain in the fight. This battle, in
which many lives were lost without any real cause, and without doing
any good whatever, was reckoned one of the best fought battles of that
warlike time. It was all hand to hand fighting, and all the knights
engaged in it on both sides showed great valour. Their feats of arms
have been commemorated in the spirit-stirring ballad of _Chevy Chase_.
The Scots came back to their own land, bringing with them Hotspur and
more than forty English knights whom they had taken prisoners. This
fight, which was called the Raid of Otterburn, took place in August
1388.
Robert died in 1390. He left the country at peace; for a truce between
England and France, taking in Scotland as an ally of the latter, had
been made the year before.
=13. Robert III., 1390-1406.=--The eldest son of the late King was
_John_, but, as Balliol had made this name odious to the people,
he changed it at his coronation to _Robert_. The country was in a
miserable state. The nobles had been so long used to war with England
that they could not bear to be at peace. They fought with one another,
and preyed on the peasants and burghers. As the King was too weak both
in mind and body to restrain them, the Estates placed the sovereign
power in the hands of his son _David_, who was created _Duke of
Rothesay_. This is the first time the title of Duke appears in Scottish
history. Rothesay was to act as the King's Lieutenant for three years,
with the advice of a council chosen by the Estates. Meanwhile the
real rulers were the King's two brothers, _Robert, Duke of Albany_,
and _Alexander, Earl of Buchan_, who was master of the country north
of the Firths, where his ferocity won him the surname of the _Wolf
of Badenoch_. Albany, anxious, as he gave out, to restrain the wild
follies of his nephew _Rothesay_, seized him and confined him in
_Falkland Castle_. There he died. Albany said that he had died from
natural causes, but the people believed that he had been starved by his
uncle. After his death, Albany, with his associate _Archibald, Earl of
Douglas_, was cleared of suspicion by an act of the Estates. He was
afterwards appointed Governor.
=14. Clan Battle near Perth.=--During this reign there was a deadly
combat between two bands of _Highlanders_ on a meadow by the _Tay_,
called the _North Inch of Perth_. The King and his nobles, and a vast
crowd of persons of all ranks, gathered to see them fight. There were
thirty chosen men on each side, and they fought as was their wont, with
axes, swords, or bows, and wore no armour. Before the fight began one
man left the ranks, swam the Tay, and fled. One _Henry Wynd_, called
"_Gow Chrom_," or the "Crooked Smith," was hired to fill his place.
They fought with fury, and did not leave off till ten men, all wounded,
were left on the one side, and one only upon the other. Gow Chrom did
such good service that he is said to have won the victory for the clan
that had enlisted his services, though it is said he knew so little
about the matter that he was quite uncertain which side he was fighting
for. Like Otterburn, this slaughter simply showed the skill of the
combatants in killing one another. The name of the clans engaged, and
their cause of quarrel, if they had any, have been alike forgotten.
=15. Relations with England.=--In 1400, soon after the end of the
truce, _Henry the Fourth_, who by a revolution had been placed on his
cousin Richard's throne, revived the old claim over Scotland in order
to make himself popular with the English. He announced his intention
of coming to _Edinburgh_ to receive the homage of the King and of
the nobles, and to enforce his demand he marched as far as Leith at
the head of an army. This was the most harmless invasion on record,
for, as usual, the Scots had got out of the way, and the English had
to retreat without finding an enemy to fight with. About this time
_George of Dunbar, Earl of March_, shifted his allegiance to _Henry_.
He was offended because _Rothesay_ married a daughter of his great
rival _Douglas_, instead of his own daughter _Elizabeth_, to whom he
was betrothed. In 1402 he joined Sir Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, and
defeated an invading body of the Scots under Douglas at _Homildon_.
This was much such an affair as _Otterburn_, only this time the English
won and Douglas was taken prisoner. He afterwards joined the Percies
in their rebellion against Henry and fought with them at _Shrewsbury_.
Albany had an army on the Border ready to help the rebels, but their
defeat and dispersion brought his plan to nothing. But Albany hit
on another way of threatening Henry. He entertained at the Scottish
court a person whom he received as the dethroned _Richard_, who had
been discovered in disguise, so the story ran, a fugitive in the
_Western Isles_. In 1405, however, chance threw into Henry's hands an
important prize. This was _James, Earl of Carrick_, second son of the
King, and heir to the throne. He was captured by the English, in time
of truce, while on his way to France, whither he was sent, nominally
to be educated, but really to be out of the reach of his dangerous
uncle. Thus, as the head of each government had a hostage for the good
behaviour of the other, there was no open war between the two nations.
In 1406 Robert died.
=16. Albany's Regency.=--The death of Robert made no change in the
government, though the young King was acknowledged as _James the
First_. There was nominal peace with England, but the work of winning
back the Border strongholds still went on. Jedburgh was retaken and
destroyed, as the best means of securing it against foreign occupation
in future.
=17. Battle of Harlaw.=--The kingdom was now threatened on the other
border, the northern march which parted the Saxons of the north-eastern
Lowlands from the Celtic clans of the mountains. The hatred between the
hostile races had been growing more and more bitter, and was fostered
by constant inroads on the one hand and cruel laws upon the other. The
time seemed now to have come when there must be a trial of strength
between them. The head of the Celts was _Donald, Lord of the Isles_,
who, though he had sworn fealty to David the Second, again claimed
sovereign power over all the clans of the West, and entered into
treaties with England as though he had been an independent monarch. He
claimed the _Earldom of Ross_ in right of his wife, as her niece, the
heiress, had taken the veil. By getting this earldom, the Lord of the
Isles became lord over half the kingdom, and he resolved to invade the
territory of the King, whom he looked on as a rival. Now the district
that lay nearest him, the Lowlands north of the Forth, as it had not
been touched by the Border wars, was at this time at once the richest
part of the kingdom and the part least accustomed to self-defence.
Great therefore was the terror of the burghers and husbandmen at the
news that a horde of plundering savages would soon be let loose upon
them. They took up arms in their own defence, and they were fortunate
in finding a leader whose experience, gained in similar warfare on
his own account, well fitted him to withstand the ambitious Donald.
This was _Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar_, the illegitimate son of
the Wolf of Badenoch. He had won his reputation by valour in the
French wars, and his earldom by carrying off and marrying an heiress,
who was Countess of Mar in her own right. The rival races met at
_Harlaw_, in Aberdeenshire, July 24, 1411. Here, as at Bannockburn,
the determination and stedfastness of each man in the smaller force
decided the fortune of the day. For, though the Highlanders, reckless
of life, charged again and again, they made no impression on the small
compact mass that kept the way against them, and they were at last
forced to retreat. This battle was justly looked on as a great national
deliverance, greater even than the victory at Bannockburn, and many
privileges and immunities were granted to the heirs of those who had
fallen.
=18. The Scots in France.=--During the Regency the Scots did good
service to their old allies of France, who were sorely pressed by the
English. Henry the Fifth of England had conquered nearly all France,
and had been proclaimed heir of the French king. A company of 700
Scots, led by _John Stewart, Earl of Buchan_, second son of Albany,
went to the help of the French. They arrived safely in France, in spite
of the careful watch upon the seas kept up by the English in order to
prevent them. By their aid the French gained their first victory in
this war at the battle of _Beaugé_ in 1421. Buchan was made _Constable_
of France. He was then sent back to Scotland on an embassy to seek the
help of _Douglas_ on the part of the King of France. An alliance was
made between them in 1423, and Douglas came to France, where the rich
_Duchy of Touraine_ and many other lands were conferred upon him. But
Douglas was slain not long after at the battle of _Verneuil_ in 1424.
Most of the Scots fell with him, for the English refused them quarter,
as Henry had James of Scotland in his camp, and he gave orders that
all the Scots bearing arms on the French side should be looked upon as
traitors fighting against their King. The remnant that were left were
formed into a royal bodyguard, the beginning of the famous _Scots_
_Guard_ of the French kings. Archibald, Earl of Douglas, who fell at
Verneuil, was called "_Tine-man_," or lose-man, because in every battle
in which he took part he fought on the losing side.
=19. Death of Albany.=--Albany died in 1419. His son _Murdoch_
succeeded him as Governor, but there is no record of his being
confirmed in that office by the Estates. As he had not the talents
of his father, he had no control over the barons. Every man was his
own master, and the land was filled with violence. The obvious remedy
was to bring home the King, and Douglas and some of the other nobles
treated with the English government for his release.
=20. Summary.=--Under the immediate successors of Robert the First,
Scotland nearly lost all the advantages which he had won for her. The
country was torn by civil strife; the kings were weak and useless;
the nobles became so strong and overbearing that their power more
than equalled that of the Crown, and they set at nought the King's
authority. All social improvement was at a standstill. Still we find
during this period the first stirrings of a desire for increase of
knowledge and greater liberty of religious thought. Two events mark
this: the burning of _John Reseby_, with his books, on a charge of
heresy, at _Perth_ in 1408; and the opening of the first University in
Scotland, founded at _St. Andrews_ by _Henry Wardlaw_, the bishop, in
1410. The history of Scotland was now first written by two natives of
the country; _John of Fordun_, who wrote the "_Scotichronicon_," and
_Andrew Wyntoun_, who wrote a metrical chronicle.