Robert the Bruce and the struggle for Scottish independence/Negotiations for Peace
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| Sir John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond. |
Sir Hugh le Despenser. |
CHAPTER XIII.
NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE.
A.D. 1322-1326.
THERE falls to be recorded at this point the mournful story of the disgrace and death of one of the bravest and most experienced knights in the English service.
King Edward's incapacity alike as a civil ruler and a soldier, his tarnished private fame, and, perhaps most of all, his besotted partiality for the detested le Despensers, had bred deep disgust among his ablest commanders. Among these was Sir Andrew de Harcla, whom the King had made Earl of Carlisle in 1322, appointing him at the same time Warden of the West Marches. Early in 1323 it came to the knowledge of King Edward that de Harcla (for he enjoyed his new dignity for such a short time that it may be permitted to continue to call him by the name under which he won his renown) was engaged in treasonable correspondence with the King of Scots. De Harcla met King Robert at Lochmaben on January 3d, where, during a private interview, an agreement of a most compromising character was drafted. Within a week, by some means unknown, this document was brought into King Edward's hands.[1] It contained the heads of a secret treaty, under which it was provided—1, that each realm was to have its own national king; 2, that de Harcla should aid King Robert in maintaining Scotland against all gainsayers; 3, that King Robert and de Harcla should maintain the realm of England at the judgment of twelve persons, of whom six were to be appointed by each party to the treaty. If the King of England should assent to these conditions within a year, the King of Scots bound himself to found an abbey in Scotland for the souls of those slain in war, and within ten years would pay an indemnity of 40,000 marks. It was also stipulated that the King of England should have the disposal in marriage of the heir-male of the King of Scots, under the advice of the aforesaid twelve.
Immediately on becoming possessed of this damning document, King Edward issued orders that no truce should be made with the Scots without his knowledge. De Harcla, it appears, had claimed the royal authority for negotiating a truce, for William de Ayremynne was instructed to search the Chancery Rolls to see if any such authority existed.[2]
Meanwhile, de Harcla made no secret of what he had done. The news went forth from Carlisle that at length this wretched warfare was to have an end, whereat there was great rejoicing among the farmers and shepherds of the Border lands.[3] But there were plenty of persons in the confidence of King Edward, ready to put de Harcla's action in the worst light, for they were jealous of the knight's rapid promotion. Instant measures were taken for his punishment. Sir Anthony de Lucy was ordered to arrest him at Carlisle, but this had to be accomplished by stratagem. Coming to the citadel on February 25th, and choosing an hour when the garrison was dispersed on various duties, de Lucy entered the hall where de Harcla was sitting dictating his correspondence. De Lucy was at this time the King's sheriff of Carlisle, as well as de Harcla's intimate friend, so there was no difficulty in obtaining access to the culprit. But the sheriff was accompanied by Sir Hugh de Lowther, Sir Richard de Denton, Sir Hugh de Moriceby, and four men-at-arms, besides an armed party which he left outside. This aroused the suspicions of the household, one of whom raised the cry of "Treason!" On this the porter tried to shut the inner gate, but was immediately cut down by Sir Richard de Denton, and de Harcla was made the King's prisoner.
His trial followed on March 3d; he was found guilty of high treason, and sentenced to be degraded from the rank of earl by being stripped of his belt; from knighthood, by having his gilt spurs hacked off; from citizenship, by forfeiture of all his possessions; then to be drawn to the gallows at Henriby and hanged, his head to be cut off and sent to London for exposure on the tower, his entrails to be taken out and burnt, and his four quarters to be fixed up at Carlisle, Newcastle, Bristol, and Dover. All of which was carried out the same day of the trial, probably under the eyes of the friar who so sympathetically describes the scene.[4] Under the gallows, in a clear and spirited address to the people, he explained the considerations which had induced him to enter into negotiations with the Scots.
Although it may not be possible to clear the memory of this brave and skilful soldier from all the guilt for which he suffered, yet the clearer light which has fallen on the affair since it was examined by Lord Hailes, would probably have led that writer to a more lenient judgment than he passed on de Harcla. Founding on Tyrrel's imperfect translation of the Lanercost chronicle, Hailes denounced him as the betrayer of his King and benefactor. But de Harcla had proved his loyalty by many years of splendid service, far more effectively than many who continued to stand high in King Edward's favour. At last, however, he seems to have lost all hope for his country under such rulers as controlled her course. As the chronicler of Lanercost mournfully observes—
"Perceiving that the King of England neither knew how to rule his kingdom nor was able to defend it against the Scots, who were each year doing more and more damage to it, and fearing lest in the end the whole kingdom should come to be lost, he chose the least of two evils and decided that it would be better for the commonalty of both kingdoms that each king should possess his own without homage of any sort, than that such slaughter, conflagration, imprisonments, devastation, and depredation should go on every year."
It was all very well for well armed and well mounted knights to ride forth in search of chivalrous adventure, and then return to their comfortable homes in the south, till the time came for fresh exploits. But de Harcla, during many years in his Border eyrie, had witnessed the heartrending misery brought upon poorer folk, and he was sick of it all. He knew that King Robert was of the same mind, and in going to him he took the only course illumined by a single ray of hope. But of course the fact remains that de Harcla did in the end betray the trust he had discharged so honourably and for so many years, and civil government would become impossible if high officials were left at liberty to shape the national policy according to their private judgment.
King Edward now found himself once more under the necessity of suing for truce. As a preliminary to negotiations and to obliterate inconvenient associations, on March 11th he ordered that the bodies of all traitors, then hanging on the gallows in various places, should be taken down and buried out of sight. His proposals were submitted to the King of Scots at Berwick on March 20th, by the hands of Sir Henri de Sully, the French knight taken at Biland, who was empowered to negotiate the terms. King Robert's reasons for refusing to entertain them were embodied in a dignified letter addressed to Sir Henri on the following day.
"I see," runs the letter, "from the copy of the letters of the King of England which you have transmitted to me, that he says he has granted a cessation of arms to the men of Scotland who are engaged in war against him. This language is very strange. In our former truces, I was always named as the principal party, although he did not vouchsafe to give me the title of King; but now he makes no more mention of me than of the least person in Scotland; so that, if the treaty were to be violated by him, I should have no better title to demand redress than the meanest of my subjects.
"I cannot consent to a truce granted in such terms; but I am willing to consent, if the wonted form is employed. I send you a copy of the King's letter; for I imagine that you either have not perused it, or not adverted to its tenour."
Edward had to conform to King Robert's wishes, though it was such a bitter humiliation to Henry de Beaumont that, rather than consent to a truce on such terms, he resigned his seat on the council. Finally, on May 30, 1323, a truce with Scotland for thirteen years was proclaimed in the English countries by order of King Edward at York, and ratified by King Robert at Berwick on June 7th.
Notwithstanding the truce, Edward continued to press the Pope to enforce the sentence of excommunication against King Robert and his subjects. It is not easy to see what more there remained for the Pope to do, seeing that the sentence had been in full force for some months already. Anyhow, his Holiness was far too well pleased by the conclusion of the terms of truce, to be willing to do anything which might disturb them. By a singular clause in the treaty, power had been taken for Robert and his people to procure absolution from the Court of Rome. Of this clause the Pope now reminded Edward, explaining that as he—King Edward—had consented to the Scots obtaining absolution if they could, it would be most improper to renew and publish the excommunication. Further, whereas Edward had besought the Pope not to sanction the election of any Scotsmen to bishoprics in their own country, the Holy Father thought that would be to deprive the flock of shepherds altogether, inasmuch as, during the truce, no English subject might pass to or abide in Scotland, nor any Scot in England.
The King of Scots desired greatly to regain the Pope's favour, with which, indeed, no reigning monarch could afford to dispense for long. So the Earl of Moray went on a mission to Avignon to sound his Holiness as to his willingness to receive Scottish ambassadors. He met with much more favour than was agreeable to Edward, and the Pope, in excusing himself to the English King, has left a pretty full account of what took place at the interview, at which de Sully was present also.
Moray explained that he was under a vow to visit the Holy Land and that he had sought the audience to obtain the necessary indulgences. The Pope delicately reminded him that, lying as he did under sentence of excommunication, he could not expect to do his soul any good by such a journey, and, being without an effective military force, he could not perform any useful service in Palestine for the Church. So he refused Moray's request, adding that he would consider it favourably hereafter, provided the Earl exerted himself to establish a lasting peace.
To Moray's next request, for a passport in favour of the ambassadors who were coming to negotiate for reconciliation with the Church, the Pope on technical grounds declined to comply, though he consented to direct all the Princes, through whose dominions the ambassadors might pass, to grant them safe-conduct. Next Moray handed his Holiness King Robert's offer to join the French King in his intended crusade, or, if that should fall through, his undertaking to go to the Holy Land himself or send his nephew, the bearer of the said offer, instead. The Pope replied that King Robert could not be received as a crusader until he had made peace with England and become reconciled to the Church. Upon which Moray respectfully represented that these objects were precisely those for which he and his royal uncle were most sincerely impatient, but that to secure them, it was indispensable that his Holiness should recognise the position of Robert de Brus by addressing him as King of Scotland. He assured him that any bull he might issue containing that title would be reverently obeyed, but otherwise it would be returned unopened, as the former one was.
The Pope found much difficulty in explaining away to Edward the significance of his consent to this proposal.
"We remember to have told you," he wrote, "that our bestowing the title of King on Robert de Brus would neither strengthen his claim nor impair yours. Our earnest desires are for reconciliation and peace, and you well know that our bull, issued for attaining these objects, will never be received in Scotland, if we address it to Robert de Brus under any other appellation but that of King. We therefore exhort your royal wisdom that you will prudently tolerate that we write to the said Robert under the royal title. We hear that reproaches have reached you, as if the Earl of Moray had made other proposals, prejudicial to you and your kingdom. You may assure yourself that we would not have permitted any proposals of that nature to have been so much as mentioned in the absence of those to whom you have committed the superintendance of your affairs. Besides, Henry de Sully, a person of known zeal for your honour and interest, was present at the audience we gave to the Earl of Moray. He heard all that passed, and he would not have suffered us, even had we been so inclined, to receive any proposals prejudicial to you or your kingdom."
Notwithstanding all the attempts of the Pope to minimise this concession to the excommunicated King of Scots, it remained of enormous importance. In fact Moray, who had borne a large share of the dangers and hardships by which the English had been overcome in warfare, had now achieved a signal success in the more delicate province of diplomacy. King Edward was not slow to perceive this. He replied to the Pope that, in addressing de Brus as King of Scotland, he had done a thing dishonourable to the Church and highly prejudicial to the claims of the English crown, for, said he, the Scottish nation will naturally believe that the Pope meant to acknowledge the right where he had bestowed the title. He begged him in language almost less than conciliatory, to refrain from mentioning the objectionable title in future correspondence.
An event of the greatest moment to the kingdom and people of Scotland took place on March 5, 1324. Queen Elizabeth of Scotland, after twenty years of marriage, bore a son at Dunfermline, who was christened David. It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance to the nation of this happy occasion, reviving, as it did, hopes that had well-nigh failed that King Robert might transmit to one of his own line the kingdom he had won with such dauntless resolution, and that so the people might be spared the dreaded trials of a disputed succession.[5]
Negotiations went on at York during the greater part of 1324, for the conversion of the truce into a durable peace, and for the ransom of English prisoners. Scottish interests were committed to the hands of the Bishop of St. Andrews and the Earl of Moray, with six other envoys.[6] On the English side were the le Despensers, father and son, with ten colleagues. But no progress was made towards a settlement, owing to the obstinacy with which the English clung to their old claim of suzerainty, and the refusal of the Scots to entertain it. Equally impracticable was the English demand for the surrender of Berwick, on the ground that the Scots had seized it illegally, in violation of the papal truce. At King Edward's instance, the Pope withheld absolution from Robert and his subjects, until these points should be conceded; but this did not affect the resolution of the Scots in the smallest degree, for they had long since learnt to discount the terrors of excommunication.
But of all the acts of Edward II. pending these negotiations, the most ambiguous was his command to Edward de Balliol, son of the late King of Scots, to return to England. Living as de Balliol had done for more than a quarter of a century in harmless obscurity on his paternal lands in Normandy, he had fallen out of memory with the existing generation of Scots. No explanation is forthcoming of the King of England's intentions in bringing him over the sea at this critical time, and each one must be left to put his own interpretation on the matter.
In spite of the prohibition against the natives of either kingdom entering the territory of the other during the truce, trade between England and Scotland began to revive by slow degrees. Coal continued to be sent from Newcastle in payment for the ransom of prisoners in Scotland.[7] Ships carried salmon, deerskins, and lard from Scottish ports, and brought back corn in exchange from the south of England.[8] But the evil teaching of a generation of warfare had encouraged the growth of piracy in British waters. Record remains of a gruesome affair which took place off Whitby, wherein a Scottish merchant-vessel, la Pelarym (pelerin), was seized, all on board slain, consisting of her master, nine Scottish merchants, sixteen Scottish pilgrims, and thirteen women passengers—thirty-nine souls in all. The cargo, valued at £2000, was stolen, and the ship set adrift.[9]
King Robert was still of an age when life may be enjoyed by men of good health, for he was no more than fifty-one; but his constitution had been strained by the excessive exertions of the last twenty years, and he began to suffer from a disease which the historians of the fourteenth century describe as leprosy, the seeds of which had been sown amid the exposure and privation of the early years of his reign. In spite, however, of frequent attacks of suffering, he diligently employed the comparative leisure attained by the prevailing truce in conducting the internal affairs of his kingdom. In March, 1325, he held a Parliament at Scone, where special attention was given to the needs of Melrose Abbey, which had been utterly wrecked by the English in their retreat from Edinburgh. To enable them to rebuild their monastery and church, the abbot and convent received a grant of all the dues leviable by the judiciary of Roxburgh, to the extent of £2000 sterling.
DUNBARTON CASTLE.
(From a photograph by Valentine Bros., Dundee.)
The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, which were interrupted at the death of the Maid of Norway in 1290, recommence in this year, and contain evidence of some of the projects in which the King took most personal interest. It has been already noticed that he almost invariably demolished those castles which fell into his hands during the war; his motive, of course, being to prevent their being of immediate use to the enemy in the event of their recapture. Dunbarton is said to have been the only fortress preserved, and this was put to the use of a state prison. Now, however, that the English, as was hoped, had been finally expelled from Scottish soil, and the lands owned by such of the feudal lords as remained lieges of England had been divided among the adherents of the Bruce, the time had come to put the national defences in repair. But inasmuch as the terms of the truce prohibited the erection of any works in the Border counties, where undoubtedly there was most need for defence, a beginning was made in a part of the kingdom which, at first sight, might have seemed more secure than the rest.
In choosing the west Highlands as the site of a place of arms, the King of Scots was looking more to future than to existing conditions. John of Lorn, kinsman of the Comyns and Balliols and inveterate opponent of the Bruce, was dead; and his possessions, with those of Alexander of Islay and part of the wide territory of the Comyns of Badenoch, had been bestowed on Alexander's brother, Angus Oig or Young Angus, who became Lord of the Isles. But faithful as Angus had ever proved to the Bruce, he was powerless to bind his successors; and King Robert decided on building a castle which, in after generations, might tend to keep the Lords of the Isles to their good behaviour. He chose a site on the east shore of the isthmus of Cantyre, where tradition reported that Magnus Barefoot of Norway was drawn from sea to sea in a galley, when the western isles were ceded to him in 1098. The ceremony of sailing round each island had been held essential to complete infeftment, and, in sailing thus across the isthmus of Tarbet,[10] the whole of Cantyre was formally included in the Norse dominions. It is said that when King Robert visited the western isles in 1315, he conciliated the superstitious Highlanders in like manner by allowing himself to be drawn across the Tarbet in a boat.
The King took a keen interest in the progress of the works at his new castle. Robert the mason, besides his contract price of £282 15s. and a chalder of oatmeal and barley, received £5 6s. 8d. extra, out of the royal bounty, because, in the King's absence, he had built the walls thicker than was set forth in the specifications. The wages of the other workmen may be seen in the accounts of John de Lany, constable of the castle. Besides the said Robert, there were also John and Hugh, masons, Neil and Patrick, smiths, John the carpenter, Donald the blocker, and Neil the plumber. When Sir James Douglas and 
TARBET CASTLE ON LOCH FYNE.
(From a photograph by Valentine Bros., Dundee.)
the Bishop of St. Andrews came to inspect the works there was an outlay of 2s. 2d. for birchen boughs to strew their chambers withal.[11]
In addition to building operations undertaken for the defence of his kingdom, King Robert busied himself in providing a country house, and in the usual pursuits of a country gentleman, such as yachting, hunting, and farming. Instead of settling at his paternal mansion of Turnberry, he chose a spot in the district of the Lennox, which he ever held in affection because of its association with his early adventures. But the chief cause for fixing his residence on the Clyde, rather than in his native Carrick, was doubtless the easier access thence to Perth, at that time virtually the capital of Scotland. In 1326, then, the King of Scots gave his lands of Old Montrose to Sir David Graham, receiving in exchange some ground at Cardross, near Dunbarton, and the islands of Inchcailleach and Inchfad in Loch Lomond. By a further exchange of half the lands of Leckie in Stirlingshire, he obtained from his ancient ally, Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, two additional ploughgates of land at Cardross.[12] It was here, in this quiet recess on the riverside, that the King spent such leisure as he could snatch from business in his declining years, amid surroundings very different from the scene of populous, resounding industry that may be witnessed at this day in the same place.[13]
The manor house first claimed attention, certain additions being made thereto, in order to accommodate the royal household. Payments appear in the treasurer's accounts for such things as verdigris and olive oil for painting the King's chamber, whitewash for the walls, glass for the windows (a great luxury), a roof for the falcon-house, and a hedge which was planted round it. Gilbert the gardener drew his wages, and eighteen pence for garden seeds. Elias the clerk and his son Henry looked after the granary; Gillis was the huntsman, William the park-keeper, Patrick the jester, and John, the son of Gun, master of the royal yacht.[14] For King Robert dearly loved the sea, and his nephew Moray was often with him, superintending shipbuilding, and putting his name to payments for sails, pitch, iron, grease, and other naval stores.
Large expenditure on beef, mutton, salmon, haddocks, eels, lampreys, and breadstuffs, attest the liberal scale of the King's hospitality. One source of constant expence was a lion, which ate to the value of £6 13s. 4d. in a single year, besides the wages of a keeper, and the cost of a cage and a house for the brute in Perth. For the lion seems to have accompanied the King in some, at least, of his frequent journeys to that town. The King's physician, Magister Malvinus, lived in Perth, at the house of John Aylebot, and the royal patient had ever increasing need for his services.
While King Robert was enjoying the unfamiliar ease and leisure of his first season at Cardross, he was visited by a great sorrow, in the death of his son-in-law, Walter the Steward, who expired at Bathgate on April 9, 1326, and was buried at Paisley Abbey. In him Scotland lost one of her bravest knights and most successful commanders, and none did more than he towards securing that throne for King Robert, which his own descendants, though he little suspected it, were to occupy for nearly four centuries.
Early in the same year, the King's sister Christian, widow of Sir Christopher de Seton, was married to Andrew Moray of Bothwell.
The Earl of Moray went to France in the spring, and concluded an alliance, offensive and defensive, with King Charles of France.
The Parliament of 1326, which met at Cambuskenneth, is memorable as the first in which the representatives of the burghs of Scotland sat with the earls and barons. Hitherto they had possessed no representation in the General Council, but maintained, in addition to the separate town councils, an indefinite convention of their own. It is true that in some respects the proceedings at Cambuskenneth were of the nature of a special assembly, rather than of a Parliament, for there were no prelates summoned to it, and some of its acts seem to have required, or at least received, confirmation by the Parliament held in Edinburgh the following year. Moreover, there can be little doubt that the burgesses were admitted for the special purpose of voting a grant to the King of the tenth penny out of all rents, in consideration of the depreciation of the royal lands in consequence of the long war. The fragmentary records of the subsequent Parliaments of this reign and the next do not make it clear that the burgesses were summoned to them also; nevertheless, the precedent had been set, and it was a far-reaching one. The presence of the burgesses in this Parliament was of the greater moment, because they were admitted thereby to the discussion and settlement of the succession to the Crown—a question reopened by the birth of Prince David. An Act of Settlement was passed, but unfortunately it has not been preserved. It was lost before the middle of the 17th century, but having been found on the Continent by Sir James Balfour of Kinnaird, Lord Lyon King-at-arms, it was laid before Charles II.'s Parliament at Perth on Christmas Day, 1650. It was ordered that the "old monument" should be recorded in the books of Parliament and carefully preserved; but before this could be done, Cromwell had become ruler of Scotland, and ordered all the Scottish Records to be taken to London. After the Restoration they were sent back to Edinburgh, but, as the Lords of Session reported to the House of Lords in 1740, the frigate Eagle, in which they had been placed for transport, was overtaken by a storm. From the Eagle, eighty-five hogsheads of papers were transferred to another vessel which sank; and thus these priceless records were lost for ever. As the Act of Settlement of 1326 was not among those documents which ultimately reached Edinburgh, the presumption is that it perished with the rest.
- ↑ Hailes refers to the terms of this treaty, as he read them in Tyrrel's version of Lanercost, as being of "exceeding incredibility." But, except that King Robert's payment was named at 80,000 marks instead of 40,000, the statement in Lanercost accords perfectly with a transcript of the original indenture, preserved in the Privy Council Records (Bain, iii., 148).
- ↑ Ibid., 148.
- ↑ Lanercost, 249.
- ↑ Lanercost, 250.
- ↑ The birth of this Prince was the occasion of a good deal of ribaldry by satirical English poets. The following infamous doggerel, which certainly will not bear translation, may serve to illustrate the devices by which educated persons strove to inflame popular opinion in England against the Scots. It refers to an alleged incident at the Christening of Prince David.
"Dum puerum David praesul baptismate lavit,
Ventrum laxavit, baptisterium maculavit.
Fontem foedavit in quo mingendo cacavit;
Sancta prophanavit, olei foeces reseravit.
Brus nimis emunxit, cum stercore sacra perunxit,
Se male disjunxit, urinae stercora junxit;
Dum baptizatur altare Dei maculatur,
Nam super altare fertur mingendo cacare.
· · · · · · · Sic domus alma Dei foedo repletus odore."
—Political Poems and Songs, Record Series, vol. i., p. 40. - ↑ Bain, iii., 156.
- ↑ Bain, iii., 150.
- ↑ Bain, iii., 156.
- ↑ Ibid., 162.
- ↑ There are many places in Scotland called Tarbet or Tarbert, invariably narrow necks of land between two seas. The name is derived from the Gaelic tar (root of tarriungim, I draw) and bàd, a boat.
- ↑ Exchequer Rolls, i., 52 et passim.
- ↑ Much confusion existed in the ancient land measures. Under the Anglian system prevailing in Northumbria and the Lothians, a ploughgate consisted of 104 modern acres of arable land. But in the west the Celtic system survived for an indefinite time, and in the neighbourhood of Cardross the ploughgate may be supposed to correspond with the Gaelic arachor of 160 acres.
- ↑ The site of ancient Cardross is now surrounded by shipbuilding yards.
- ↑ Exchequer Rolls, i., 127.