History of Scotland
Our ongoing history of Scotland that chronicles the events in Scotland over the past million years with a special focus on the last thousand as you might expect. We have also digitised a copy of Patrick Tytler's History of Scotland which is an eccentric but wonderfully written history of the the mediaeval years in Scotland. The project of chronicling Scotland's history is ongoing, as is the process of organising and structuring and linking the pages together.
Baliol's Feudal Penance
With these fresh levies he advanced to Edinburgh, made himself master of the castle after a siege of eight days;IT passed rapidly to Stirling, which he found abandoned; and while there, the Earl of Ulster, with a new army of thirty thousand foot and four hundred horse, came to join the king, and complete the triumph of the English arms. The monarch continued his progress without opposition to Perth, where he halted to keep the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist, with circumstances of high feudal solemnity, regaling his friends, creating new knights, and solacing himself and his barons. In the midst of these rejoicings, messengers arrived from the unhappy Baliol, announcing his submission, and imploring peace.Edward disdained to treat with him in person, but informed him, that he intended, within fifteen days, to advance to Brechin; and that on Baliol's repairing to the castle there, the Bishop of Durham would announce the decision of his lord superior. This was.none other than that of an absolute resignation of himself and his kingdom to the mercy of his conqueror; to which Baliol, now the mere shadow of a king, without a crown, an army, or a nobility, dejectedly submitted. In presence of the Bishop of Durham, and the Barons of England, he was first stript of his royal robes; after which they spoiled him of his crown and sceptre, and compelled him, standing as a criminal, with a white rod in his hand, to perform a humiliating feudal penance, f He confessed, that, misled by evil counsel and his own weakness, he had grievously offended his liege lord; he recapitulated his various transgressions, his league with France, and his hostilities against England; he acknowledged the justice of the invasion of his kingdom by Edward, in vindication of his violated rights; and three days after this, in the castle of Brechin, he resigned his kingdom of Scotland, its people and their homage, into the hands of his liege lord Edward, of his own free will and consent.
He is sent with his son to the Tower
After this humiliating ceremony, Baliol delivered his eldest son, Edward, to the King of England, as a hostage for his future fidelity; and this youth, along with his discrowned father, were soon after sent by sea to London, where they remained for three years in confinement in the Tower.Thus ended the miserable and inglorious reign of John Baliol, a prince whose good dispositions might have ensured him a happier fate, had he been opposed to a less terrible and ambitious enemy than Edward the First; or had the courage and spirit, in which he was not deficient, been seconded by the efforts of a united nobility. But Edward, with a policy not dissimilar to that which we have adopted in our Eastern dominions, had succeeded in preventing all union amongst the most powerful Scottish barons, byarraying their private and selfish ambition against the love of their country; by sowing dissension in their councils, richly rewarding their treachery, and treating with unmitigated severity those who dared to love and defend the liberty of Scotland; and Baliors character was not of that high stamp, which could unite such base and discordant materials, or baffle a policy so deep, and a power so overwhelming.
Edward's Progresses Through Scotland
The spirit of the Scottish people was for the time completely broken; and Edward, as he continued his expedition from Perth to Aberdeen, and from thence to Elgin in Moray, did not experience a single check in his progress; while most of the Scottish barons, who had escaped death or imprisonment, crowded in to renounce the French alliance, and renew their oaths of fealty. On his return from the north to hold his parliament at Berwick, in passing the ancient Abbey of Scone, he took with him the famous and fatal stone upon which, for many ages, the Scottish kings had been crowned and anointed. This, considered by the Scots as their national palladium, along with the Scottish sceptre and crown, the English monarch placed in the cathedral of Westminster, as an offering to Edward the Confessor, and a memorial of what he deemed his absolute conquest of Scotland; a conquest, however, which, before a single year had elapsed, w3s entirely wrested from his hands.Carries the stone of Scone, and the Scottish Regalia, to Westmintser
Edward was desirous of annihilating everything which could preserve the patriotic feeling of the country which he had overrun. With this object, when at Scone, he mutilated the ancient chartulary of that abbey, the historical notices in which were perhaps fatal to his pretended claim of superiority, carrying off some of its charters, and tearing the seals. Our historians affirm, that in his progress he industriously sought out and destroyed every monument connected with the antiquity and independence of the nation. The character of Edward, and his conduct at Scone, give great probability to the assertion.Holds his Parliament at Berwick
On the 28th of August, the king held his parliamentat Berwick, for the purpose of receiving the fealty of the clergy and laity of Scotland. Multitudes of Scotsmen of all ranks resorted to him—earls, barons, knights, and esquires. The terror of his arms; the well-known severity of his temper, which made imprisonment and the immediate confiscation of their estates the consequence of their refusal; the example of their nobility, who now felt, too late for remedy, the sad effect of their dissensions, all combined to render this submission to Edward a measure as unanimous as it was humiliating; and the oaths of homage, the renunciation of the French alliance, and the names of the vassals, which fill thirty-five skins of parchment, are still preserved amongst the English archives.Settlement of Scotland
On the 28th of August, the king held his parliament at Berwick, for the purpose of receiving the fealty of the clergy and laity of Scotland. Multitudes of Scotsmen of all ranks resorted to him—earls, barons, knights, and esquires. The terror of his arms; the well-known severity of his temper, which made imprisonment and the immediate confiscation of their estates the consequence of their refusal; the example of their nobility, who now felt, too late for remedy, the sad effect of their dissensions, all combined to render this submission to Edward a measure as unanimous as it was humiliating; and the oaths of homage, the renunciation of the French alliance, and the names of the vassals, which fill thirty-five skins of parchment, are still preserved amongst the English archives.After the battle of Dunbar, Bruce earl of Carrick, who was then in the service of England, reminded Edward of his promise to place him on the throfle. "Have I nothing to do," said the haughty monarch, "but to conquer kingdoms for you?" Judging it probably a more befitting occupation, the King of England empowered the Earl of Carrick, and his son the younger Bruce, to receive to his peace the inhabitants of their own lands of Carrick and Annandale.-f How little did he then think, that the youthful baron, employed under his royal commission in this degrading office, was destined to wrest from him his conquest, and to become the restorer of the freedom of his country!
Edward next directed his attention to the settlement of his new dominions; and the measures which he adopted for this purpose were equally politic and just. He commanded the sheriffs of the several counties in Scotland, to restore to the clergy their forfeited lands;and he granted to the Scottish bishops for ever, the privilege of bequeathing their effects by will, as fully as the right was enjoyed by the prelates of England. The widows of those barons whose husbands had died before the French alliance, and who had not since then been married to the king's enemies, were faithfully restored to their estates; but, effectually to secure their allegiance, the English Guardian of Scotland was permitted, at his option, to take possession of the castles and strengths upon their lands. He even assigned pensions to the wives of many of his Scottish prisoners; and few of those who held office under the unfortunate Baliol were dispossessed. The jurisdictions of Scotland were suffered to remain with those who possessed them, under ancient and hereditary titles; no wanton or unnecessary act of rigour was committed, no capricious changes introduced, yet all means were adopted to give security to his conquest. John Warrene earl of Surrey, was made Guardian of Scotland; Hugh de Cressingham, Treasurer; and William Ormesby, Justiciary. Henry de Percy, nephew of Warrene, was appointed keeper of the county of Galloway, and the sheriffdom of Ayr; the castles of Roxburgh, Berwick, Jedburgh, and Edinburgh, were committed to English captains; a new seal, in place of the ancient Great Seal of Scotland, surrendered by Baliol and broken into pieces at Brechin, was placed in the hands of Walter de Agmondesham, an English chancellor; and an Exchequer for receiving the king's rents and taxes was instituted at Berwick, on the model of that at Westminster.
Period of Wallace
Edward had scarcely made this settlement of Scotland, and set out for his own dominions, when he found, that instead of the acclamations due to a conqueror, he was to be received at home with the lowering countenances of discontent and rebellion. He had incurred a heavy expense in his Scottish expedition, and he was now anxious to carry on with vigour his war with France; but the clergy of England, headed by a proud and firm prelate, Winchelsea archbishop of Canterbury, demurred as to the .supplies which he demanded; and a powerful party of the barons, led by the Constable and the Marshal of England, refusing to pass over into France, indignantly retired from parliament, with a great body of their armed retainers.
These discontents in England encouraged the people of Scotland to rise against their English oppressors. Although deserted by their nobility, a spirit of determined hatred against England was strongly manifested by the great body of the nation. Throughout the whole country, numerous bands of armed peasants infested the highways, and in contempt of government plundered the English, and laid waste their lands. Their numbers increased, and their successes soon became alarming. They besieged the castles garrisoned by the English, took prisoners, committed all kinds of rapine and homicide; and the impression made upon the mind of Edward may be judged of by a letter still remaining, addressed to his treasurer Cressingham, commanding him not to scruple to spend the whole money in his exchequer to put down these violent disorders.
Rise of William Wallace
The patriotic principle which seems at this time to have entirely deserted the highest ranks of the Scottish nobles, whose selfish dissensions had brought ruin and bondage upon their country, still burned pure in the breasts of these broken men and rebels, as they are termed by Edward. The lesser barons, being less contaminated by the money and intrigues of England, preserved also the healthy and honest feelings of national independence; and it happened, that at this time, and out of this middle class of the lesser barons, arose an extraordinary individual, who, at first driven into the field by a desire to avenge his individual injuries, within a short period of time, in the reconquest of his native country, developed a character which may, without exaggeration, be termed heroic. This" was William Wallace, or Walays, the second son of Sir Malcolm Wallace of Ellerslie, near Paisley, a knight, whose family was ancient, but neither rich nor noble.In those days bodily strength and knightly prowess were of the highest consequence in commanding respect and ensuring success. Wallace had an iron frame. His make, as he grew up to manhood, approached almost to the gigantic; and his personal strength was superior to the common run of even the strongest men. His passions were hasty and violent; a strong hatred to the English, who now insolently lorded it over Scotland, began to show itself at a very early period of his life; and this aversion was fostered in the youth by an uncle, a priest, who, deploring the calamities of his country, was never weary of extolling the sweets of liberty, and lamenting the miseries of dependence.