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.

Defeat of the Norwegians

These new troops instantly attacked the enemy upon two points; and their arrival reinspirited the Norsemen, and enabled them to form anew. It was now evening, and the day had been occupied by a protracted battle, or rather a succession of obstinate skirmishes. The Norwegians, although they fought with uncommon spirit, had sustained severe loss; and they now made a last effort to repulse the Scots from the high grounds immediately overhanging the shore.

The impetuosity of their attack succeeded, and the enemy were driven back after a short and furious resistance. The relics of this, brave body of invaders then re-embarked in their boats, and, although the storm continued, arrived safely at the fleet.

During the whole of this conflict, which lasted from morning till night, the storm continued raging with unabated fury, and the remaining ships of Haco were dreadfully shattered and distressed. They drove from their anchors, stranded on the shore, where multitudes perished—struck against shallows and rocks, or found equal destruction by running foul of each other; and the morning presented a beach covered with dead bodies, and a sea strewed with sails, masts, cordage, and all the melancholy accompaniments of wreck.A truce was now granted to the king; and the interval employed in burying his dead, and in raising above them those rude memorials, which, in the shape of tumuli and huge perpendicular stones, still remain to mark the field of battle. The Norwegians then burnt the stranded vessels; and, after a few days, having been joined by the remains of the fleet, which had been sent up Loch Long, their shattered navy weighed anchor, and sailed towards Arran.

In Lamlash bay the king was met by the commissioners whom he had sent to Ireland, and they assured him that the Irish Ostmen would willingly maintain his forces, until he had freed them from the dominion of the English. Haco was eager to embrace the proposal. He appears to have been anxious to engage in any new expedition which might have banished their recent misfortunes from the minds of his soldiers, whilst it afforded him another chance of victory, with the certainty of re-provisioning the fleet; but their late disasters had made too deep an impression; and, on calling a council, the Irish expedition was opposed by the whole army.

The shattered squadron, therefore, steered for the Hebrides; and in passing Isla, again levied a large contribution on that island. The northern monarch, however, now felt the difference between sailing through this northern archipelago, as he had done a few months before, with a splendid and conquering fleet, when every day brought the island princes as willing vassals of his flag, and retreating as he now did, a baffled invader. His boat crews were attacked, and cut off by the islanders. He appears to have in vain solicited an interview with John the prince of the Isles. The pirate chiefs who had joined him, disappointed of their hopes of plunder, returned to their ocean strongholds; and although he went through the forms of bestowing upon his followers the islands of Bute and Arran, with other imaginary conquests, all must have seen, that the success and power of Scotland rendered these grants utterly unavailing.-f- The weather, too, which had been his worst enemy, continued lowering, and winter had set in. The fleet encountered, in their return a severe gale off Isla; and, after doubling Cape Wrath, were met in the Pentland Firth by a second storm, in which one vessel, with all on board, went down, and another narrowly escaped the same fate. The king's ship, however, with the rest of the fleet,weathered the tempest, and at last arrived in Orkney on the 29th of October.

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Death of King Haco in Orkney

It was here found advisable to grant the troops permission to return to Norway; as, to use the simple expression of the Norwegian Chronicle, "many had already taken leave for themselves." At first the king resolved on accompanying them; but anxiety of mind, the incessant fatigues in which he had passed the summer and autumn, and the bitter disappointment in which they ended, had sunk deep into his heart, and the symptoms of a mortal distemper began to show themselves in his constitution. His increasing sickness soon after this confined him to his chamber; and although for some time he struggled against the disease, and endeavoured to strengthen his mind by the cares of government and the consolations of religion, yet all proved in vain. At last, feeling himself dying, the spirit of the old Norse warrior seemed to revive with the decay of his bodily frame; and, after some time spent in the services of the church, he commanded the Chronicles of his ancestors the Pirate Kings to be read to him. On the 12th of December, the principal of the nobility and clergy, aware that there was no hope, attended in his bedchamber. Though greatly debilitated, Haco spoke distinctly, bade them all affectionately farewell, and kissed them. He then received extreme unction, and declared that he left no other heir than Prince Magnus. The Chronicle of King Swerar was still read aloud to him when he was indisposed to sleep, but soon after this his voice became inaudible; and on the 15th of December, at midnight, he expired.

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Birth of a Scottish Prince

Such was the conclusion of this memorable expedition against Scotland, which began with high hopes and formidable preparations, but ended in the disappointment of its object, and the death of its royal leader. It was evidently a fatal mistake in Haco to delay so long in petty expeditions against the Western Islands. While it was still summer, and the weather fair, he ought at once to have attempted a descent upon the mainland; and had he done so, Alexander might have been thrown into great difficulties. Delay and protracted negotiation was the policy of the Scots. They thus avoided any general battle; and they knew that if they could detain the Norwegian fleet upon the coast till the setting in of the winter storms, its destruction was almost inevitable. Boece, in his usual inventive vein, covers the field with 25,000 dead Norwegians, and allows only four ships to have been saved to carry the king to his grave in Orkney. But all this is fiction; and the battle of Largs appears to have been nothing more than a succession of fortunate skirmishes, in which a formidable armament was effectually destroyed by the fury of the elements, judiciously seconded by the bravery of the Scots.

The accounts of the death of Haco, and the news of the queen having been delivered of a son, were brought to King Alexander on the same day;so that he was at once freed from a restless and powerful enemy, and could look forward to a successor of his own blood.

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Submission of Man and the Western Isles, and settlement of the quarrel with Norway

Nor did he lose any time in following up the advantages already gained, by completing the reduction of the little kingdom of Man, and the whole of the Western Isles. For this purpose, he levied an army with the object of invading the Isle of Man, and compelled the petty chiefs of the Hebrides to furnish a fleet for the transport of his troops. But the King of Man, terrified at the impending vengeance, sent envoys with messages of submission; and, fearful that these would be disregarded, set out himself, and met Alexander, who had advanced on his march as far as Dumfries. At this place the Island Prince became the liegeman of the King of Scotland, and consented that, in future, he should hold his kingdom of the Scottish crown; binding himself to furnish to his lord paramount, when required by him, ten galleys or ships of war, five with twenty-four oars and five with twelve.

A military force, commanded by the Earl of Mar, was next sent against those unfortunate chiefs of the Western Isles, who, during the late expedition, had remained faithful to Haco." Some were executed, all were reduced, and the disputes with Norway were finally settled by a treaty, in which that country agreed to yield to Scotland all right over Man, the aEbudae, and the islands in the western seas. The islands in the south seas were also included, but those of Orkney and Shetland expressly excepted. The inhabitants of the Hebrides were permitted the option of either retiring with their property, or remaining to be governed in future by Scottish laws. On the part of the king and the Estates of Scotland, it was stipulated that they were to pay to Norway four thousand marks of the Roman standard, and a yearly quit-rent of a hundred marks sterling for ever. The King of Man received investiture as a vassal of Alexander; and all parties engaged to fulfil their obligations, under a penalty of ten thousand marks, to be exacted by the pope.

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Demands of Fieschi the Papal Legate on the Scottish Clergy

The King of Ottobon de Fieschi was at this time the papal legate in England, and to defray the expenses of his visitation, he thought proper to demand a contribution from each cathedral and parish church in Scotland. The king, however, acting by the advice of his clergy, peremptorily refused the demand; appealed to Rome; and, when Ottobon requested admittance into Scotland, steadily declared that he should not set a foot over the Border. The legate next summoned the Scottish bishops to attend upon him in England whenever he should hold his council; and he required the clergy to despatch two of their number to appear as their representatives. This they agreed to; but the representatives were sent, not as the vassals of the papacy, but as the members of an independent church. Such, indeed, they soon showed themselves; for when the legate procured several canons to be enacted regarding Scotland, the Scottish clergy resolutely disclaimed obedience to them. Incensed at this conduct, Clement the Fourth shifted his ground, and demanded from them a tenth of their benefices, to be paid to Henry of England, as an aid for an approaching crusade.

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Their spirited resistance

The answer of Alexander and his clergy was here equally decided: Scotland itself, they said, was ready to equip for the crusade a body of knights suitable to the strength and resources of the kingdom, and they therefore rejected the requisition. Accordingly, David earl of Athole, Adam earl of Carrick, and William lord Douglas, with many other barons and knights, assumed the cross, and sailed for Palestine.

In consequence, however, of the papal grant, Henry attempted to levy the tenth upon the benefices in Scotland. The Scottish clergy refused the contribution, appealed to Rome, and, in addition to this, adopted measures, which were singularly bold, and well calculated to secure the independence of the Scottish church. They assembled a provincial council at Perth, in which a bishop of their own was chosen to preside, and where canons for the regulation of their own church were enacted. This they contended they were entitled to do, by the bull of Pope Honorius the Fourth granted in the year 1225; and, aware of the importance of making a vigorous stand at this moment, by their first canon it was appointed that an annual council should be held in Scotland; and by their second, that each of the bishops should assume, in rotation, the office of "Protector of the Statutes," or Conservator Statutorum. These canons remain to this day an interesting specimen of the ancient ecclesiastical code of Scotland.

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Marriage of Robert de Bruce, father of KIng Robert Bruce, to Marjory countess of Carrick

About this time happened an incident of a romantic nature, with which important consequences were connected. A Scottish knight of high birth, Robert de Bruce, son of Robert de Bruce, lord of Annandale and Cleveland, was passing on horseback through the domains of Turnberry, which belonged to Marjory countess of Carrick. The lady happened at the moment to be pursuing the diversion of the chase, surrounded by a retinue of her squires and damsels. They encountered Bruce. The young countess was struck by his noble figure, and courteously entreated him to remain and take the recreation of hunting. Bruce, who, in those feudal days, knew the danger of paying too much attention to a ward of the king, declined the invitation, when he found himself suddenly surrounded by the attendants; and the lady, riding up, seized his bridle, and led off the knight, with gentle violence, to her castle of Turnberry. Here, after fifteen days' residence, the adventure concluded as might have been anticipated. Bruce married thecountess without the knowledge of the relations of either party, and before obtaining the king's consent; upon which Alexander seized her castle of Turnberry and her whole estates. The intercession of friends, however, and a heavy fine, conciliated the mind of the monarch. Bruce became, in right of his wife, Lord of Carrick; and the son of this marriage of romantic love was the great Robert Bruce, the restorer of Scottish liberty.

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Death of Henry III of England

Two years previous to this (1272) died Henry the Third of England, after a reign of nearly sixty years. His character possessed nothing that was great; his genius was narrow; his temper wavering; his courage, happily, seldom tried; and he was addicted, like many weak princes, to favouritism.

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Accession of Edward 1

At times, however, he had permitted himself to be guided by able ministers; and the vigour, talents, and kingly endowments of his son Edward the First, shed a lustre over the last years of his reign, which the king himself could never have imparted to it.

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Timeline of Scottish History

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Timeline of Scottish History

History of Scotland

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