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.
Acts Regarding the Succession to the Crown
An important measure, relating to the succession of the crown, now occupied the attention of the Estates of Scotland, in a parliament held at Ayr, on the 26th of April. By a solemn act of settlement, it was determined, with the consent of the king, and of his daughter and presumptive heir, Marjory, that the crown, in the event of Bruce's death, without heirs male of his body, should descend to his brother, Edward Bruce, a man of tried valour, and much practised in war. It was moreover provided, with consent of the king, and of his brother Edward, that, failing Edward and his heirs male, Marjory should immediately succeed; and failing her, the nearest heir lineally descended of the body of King Robert; but under the express condition, that Marjory should not marry without the consent of her father, and failing him, of the majority of the Estates of Scotland.
If it happened, that either the king, or his brother Edward, or Marjory his daughter, should die, leaving an heir male, who was a minor, in that event Thomas Randolph earl of Moray was constituted guardian of the heir, and of the kingdom, till the Estates considered the heir of a fit age to administer the government in his own person; and in the event of the death of Marjory, without children, the same noble person was appointed to this office, if he chose to accept the burden, until the states and community, in their wisdom, determinethe rightful succession to the crown.
Invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce
An extraordinary episode in the history of the kingdom now claims our attention. Edward Bruce, the king's brother, a man of restless ambition, and undaunted enterprise, fixed his eyes upon Ireland, at this time animated by a strong spirit of resistance against its English masters ; and having entered into a secret correspondence with its discontented chieftains, he conceived the bold idea of redncing that island by force of arms, and becoming its king. A desire to harass England in a very vulnerable quarter, and a wish to afford employment, at a distance, to a temper which was so imperious at home, that it began to threaten disturbance to the kingdom, induced the King of Scotland to agree to a project replete with difficulty; and Edward Bruce, with six thousand men, landed at Carrickfergus, in the north of Ireland, on the 25th of May, 1315.
He was accompanied by the Earl of Moray, Sir Philip Mowbray, Sir John Soulis, Sir Fergus of Ardrossan, and Ramsay of Ochterhouse; In a series of battles, which it would be foreign to the object of this history to enumerate, although they bear testimony to the excellent discipline of the Scottish knights and soldiers, Edward Bruce overran the provinces of Down, Armagh, Louth, Meath, and Kildare; but was compelled by want, and the reduced numbers of his little army, to retreat into Ulster, and despatch the Earl of Moray for new succours into Scotland.
He is crowned King of Ireland
He was soon after crowned King of Ireland, and immediately after his assumption of the regal dignity, laid siege to Carrickfergus. On being informed of the situation of his brother's affairs, King Robert is trusted the government of the kingdom to his son-in-law the Steward, and Sir James Douglas. He then passed over to the assistance of the new king, with a considerable body of troops; and, after their junction, the united armies, having reduced Carrickfergus, pushed forward through the county Louth, to Slane, and invested Dublin; but being compelled to raise the siege, they advanced into Kilkenny, wasted the country as far as Limerick, and after experiencing the extremities of famine, and defeating the enemy wherever they made head against them, terminated a glorious but fruitless expedition, by a retreatinto the province of Ulster, in the spring of 1317. The king of Scotland now returned to his dominions, taking along with him the Earl of Moray, but having left the flower of his army to support his brother in the possession of Ulster.
A miserable fate awaited these brave men. After a long period of inaction, in which neither the Irish annals nor our early Scottish historians afford any certain light, we find King Edward Bruce encamped at Tagher, near Dundalk, at the head of a force of two thousand men, exclusive of the native Irish, who were numerous, but badly armed and disciplined. Against him, Lord John Bermingham, along with John Maupas, Sir Miles Verdon, Sir Hugh Tripton, and other Anglo-Irish barons, led an army which was strong in cavalry, and outnumbered the Scots by nearly ten to one. Edward, with his characteristic contempt of danger, and nothing daunted by the disparity of force, determined, against the advice of his oldest captains, to give the enemy battle. In the course of a three years' war, he had already engaged the Anglo-Irish forces eighteen times; and although his success had led to no important result, he had been uniformly victorious.
Defeated and Slain
But his fiery career was now destined to be quenched, and his short-lived sovereignty to have an end. On the 5th of October, 1318, the two armies joined battle, and the Scots were almost immediately discomfited. At the first onset, John Maupas slew King Edward Bruce, and was himself found slain, and stretched upon the body of his enemy. Sir John Soulis and Sir John Stewart also fell; and the rout becoming general, the slaughter was great. A miserable remnant, however, escaping from the field, under John Thomson, the leader of the men of Carrick, made good their retreat to Carrickfergus, and from thence reached Scotland. Two thousand Scottish soldiers were left dead upon the spot, and amongst these some of Bruce's best captains.J Thus ended an expedition which, if conducted by a spirit of more judicious and deliberate valour than distinguished its prime mover, might have produced the most serious annoyance to England. Unmindful of the generous courtesy of Bruce's behaviour after the battle of Bannockburn, the English treated the body of the King of Ireland with studied indignity. It was quartered and distributed as a public spectacle over Ireland, and the head was presented to the English king by Lord John Bermingham, who, as a reward for his victory, was created Earl of Louth.Having given a continuous sketch of this disastrous enterprise, which, from its commencement till the death of Edward, occupied a period of three years, we shall return to the affairs of Scotland, where the wise administration of King Robert brought security and happiness to the people both at home and in their foreign relations.
Expedition of Bruce against Western of Isles
The ships which had transported Edward Bruce and his army to Ireland, were immediately sent home; and the king undertook an expedition against the Western Isles, some of which had acknowledged his dominion; whilst others, under John of Argyle, the firm ally of England, had continued for a long time to harass and annoy the commerce of his kingdom. Although constantly occupied in a land war, during the course of which he had brought his army into a high state of discipline, Bruce had never been blind to the strength which he must acquire by having a fleet which could cope with the maritime power of his rival; and from the complaints of the English monarch in the state papers of the times, we know, that on both sides of the island, the Scottish vessels, and those of their allies, kept the English coast towns in a state of constant alarm.Their fleets seem to have been partly composed of privateers, as well Flemish as Scottish, which, under the protection of the king, roved about, and attacked the English merchantmen. Thus, during Edward Bruce's expedition, he met, when on the Irish coast, and surrounded with difficulties, with Thomas of Doune, a Scottish " scoumar," or freebooter, " of the sea," who, with a small squadron of four ships, sailed up the river Ban, and extricated his countrymen from their perilous situation.
In his expedition to the Isles, Bruce was accompanied by his son-in-law, the Steward of Scotland, and having sailed up the entrance of Loch Fine to Tarbet, he dragged his vessels upon a slide, composed of smooth planks of trees, laid parallel to each other, across the narrow neck of land which separates the lochs of East and West Tarbet. The distance was little more than an English mile; and by this expedient Bruce not only saved the necessity of doubling the Mull of Kentire, to the small craft of those days often a fatal enterprise, but availed himself of a superstitious belief then current amongst the Western islanders, that they should never be subdued till their invader sailed across the isthmus of Tarbet.
Imprisonment of John of Lorn
The presence of the king in the Western Isles was soon followed by the submission of all the little pirate chiefs who had given him disturbance, and by the capture and imprisonment of John of Lorn, who, since his defeat at Cruachin Ben, had been constantly in the pay of Edward, with the proud title of Admiral of the Western fleet of England.This island prince was first committed to Dumbarton castle, and afterwards shut up in the castle of Lochleven, where he died. J After the termination of his peaceful maritime campaign, the king indulged himself and his friends in the diversion of the chase; whilst, at home, his army, under Douglas, continued to insult and plunder the English Border counties.ยง On his return from the Western Isles, Bruce undertook the siege of Carlisle; but, after having assaulted it for ten days, he was compelled, by the strength of the works and the spirit of its townsmen and garrison, to draw off his troops. Berwick, too, was threatened from the side next the sea by the Scottish ships, which attempted to steal up the river unperceived by the enemy, but were discovered, and bravely repulsed.
Against these reiterated insults, Edward, unable from his extreme unpopularity to raise an army, contented himself with querulous complaints, and with some ineffectual advances towards a reconciliation which as yet was far distant.