THE GAELIC PERIOD.
The country (1)—the people
(2)—Roman occupation (3)—English
invasion (4)—the Scots (5)—introduction of Christianity
(6)—conversion
of the Picts (7)—conversion of the English (8)—English
conquests (9)—union of Picts and Scots (10)—the Northmen
(11)—the Commendation (12)—annexation of Strathclyde
(13)—acquisition of Lothian (14)—Cnut's invasion
(15)—Macbeth (16)—English
immigration (17)—William's invasion (18)—Margaret's
reforms (19)—disputed succession (20)—Gaelic period ends
(21)—summary (22).
1. The Country.—The northern part of Great Britain is
now called Scotland, but it was not called so till the Scots, a
Celtic people, came over from Ireland and gave their name to
it. The Romans who first mention it in history speak of it
as Caledonia. There are two points in which the history of
this country and of the people who live in it is unlike the
history of most of the other countries and nations of Europe.
Firstly, it never was taken into the great Roman Empire;
and secondly in it we find a Celtic people who, instead of
disappearing before the Teutons, held their ground against
them so well that in the end the Teutons were called by
the name of the Celtic people, were ruled by the Celtic kings,
and fought for the independence of the Celtic kingdom as
fiercely as if they had themselves been of the Celtic race.
But the whole of the country is not of the same nature. The
northern part is so nearly cut off from the rest of Britain by
the two great Firths of Forth and Clyde as to form almost a
separate island, and this peninsula is again divided into Highlands
and Lowlands. Speaking roughly, we may say that
all the west is Highland and the east Lowland. A range
of mountains sweeping in a semicircle from the Firth of
Clyde to the mouth of the Dee, known as Drumalbyn or the
Mount, may be taken as the line of separation, though the
Lowlands extend still further north along the eastern coast.
The marked differences between these two districts have
had a very decided influence on the character of the inhabitants,
and consequently on the national development. The
Lowlands are well watered and fertile, and the people who
lived there were peaceable and industrious, and both on the
seaboard and inland there is early notice of the existence of
populous and thriving towns. The Highlands, on the contrary,
are made up of lakes, moors, and barren hills, whose
rocky summits are well-nigh inaccessible, and whose heath-clad
sides are of little use even as pasture. Even in the
glens between the mountains, where alone any arable land
is to be found, the crops are poor, the harvest late and uncertain,
and vegetation of any kind very scanty. The
western coast is cut up into numberless islets, and the
coast-line is constantly broken by steep jagged promontories
jutting out seaward, or cut by long lochs, up which the sea
runs far into the land between hills rising almost as bare and
straight as walls on either side. In the Highlands even in
the present day there are no towns of any importance, for
the difficulty of access by land and the dangers of the
coast have made commerce well-nigh impossible. The
Highlanders, who were discouraged by the barrenness of
their native mountains, where even untiring industry could
only secure a bare maintenance, and tempted by the sight of
prosperity so near them, found it a lighter task to lift the
crops and cattle of their neighbour than to rear their own,
and have at all times been much given to pillaging the more
fortunate Lowlanders, of whom they were the justly
dreaded scourge.
2. The People.—As the country is thus naturally
divided into two parts distinctly opposite in character, so the people
are made up of two distinct branches of the great Aryan
family, the Celtic and the Teutonic. The Celts were
the first comers, and were in possession when the country became
historically known; that is, at the first invasion of the
Romans. In later times we find three Celtic peoples in
North Britain; to wit, the Picts, the Scots, and the Welsh.
The Picts were those Celts who dwelt north of the Firths in
Alba or Alban, as the earliest traditions call it; and if we
judge from the names of places and contemporary accounts and
notices, there is every reason to believe that they were more
akin to the Gaelic than to the British branch of the Celtic
race. The Scots, the other Gaelic people, were, when we first
hear of them, settled in Ireland, from whence at different
times bands of them came over to the western coast of
Britain. They were friends and allies of the Picts, and are
early mentioned as fighting on their side against the Romans.
After a time, when many more Scots had settled in Alba,
their name became common to all the Celts north of the
Firths, and from them the whole country was called Scotland.
The Celts south of the Firths were partly Christianized
and civilized by the Romans, and thus became very
different from the rest. They got their name of Welsh from
the Teutonic tribes who came from the land between the
Elbe and the Eyder, and, settling along the eastern coast,
finally took possession of a great tract of country, and called
the Celts whom they displaced Welshmen or foreigners. The
Celts called all these new comers Saxons, though this was
really only the name of one of the first tribes that came
over; and as they gradually spread over the Lowlands, the
word Saxon came to mean simply Lowlander. In course of
time the original proportions of these two races have been
nearly reversed, so that the modern Scottish nation, though
it keeps its Celtic name, instead of being made up of three
Celts to one Saxon, is much more nearly three
Saxons to one Celt.
3. Roman Occupation.—The Romans, who
had already made themselves masters of South Britain, were led into
the northern part of the island by Julius Agricola, a.d. 80.
But the Celts whom they found there, and whom they called
Caledonians, were so well able to defend themselves among
their mountains that the Romans, though they defeated them
in a great battle on the Highland border, gave up the idea of
conquering the country, and retreated again south of the
Firths of Forth and Clyde. Across the isthmus between
the two, which is about thirty miles wide, they built a line
of forts, joined by a rampart of earth. This rampart was
intended to serve as a defence to their colonists, and as a
boundary to mark the limit of their empire; though, as many
Roman remains have been found north of the isthmus, they
must have had settlements without as well as within the fortifications.
But the Caledonians, who were too high-spirited
to look on quietly and see their country thus taken possession
of, harassed the colonists by getting over the wall and
seizing or destroying everything they could lay their hands
on. At length (a.d. 120) the Roman Emperor Hadrian built
a second rampart across the lower isthmus, between the
rivers Tyne and Solway, leaving the district between the two
pretty much at the mercy of the fierce Picts, as the Romans
now began to call the Caledonians. Twenty years later, in
the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, one of his generals,
Lollius Urbicus, again drove them back beyond the first
wall, and repaired and strengthened the defences of Agricola.
But, before half a century had passed, the Picts again
burst the barrier, and killed the Roman commander. In
208 the Emperor Severus cut his way through Caledonia
with a large army. He reached the northern coast, but had
no chance of fighting a battle, and lost many of his men.
He repaired and strengthened the rampart of Hadrian. In
time the Picts got over the second rampart too, and came
south as far as Kent, where, in the latter part of the
fourth century, Theodosius the Roman general, father of the
famous Emperor of the same name, had to fight his way
to London through their plundering hordes. Theodosius
drove them back with great vigour, restored the Empire
to its former boundary, and made the district between the
walls into a Roman province, which he called Valentia, in
honour of Valentinian, who was then Emperor. It was probably
about this time that the great stone wall was built
across the lower isthmus. The dangers which threatened the
capital of the Empire in the beginning of the next century
forced the Romans to forsake this as well as all their other
provinces in Britain, and the withdrawal of their troops
left the Romanized Britons of Valentia a helpless prey to
their merciless enemies the Picts. At the end of the three
centuries of Roman occupation, the Britons south of the
Firths had so little in common with the wild Picts, who
in Alba and in Galloway still maintained their independence,
that they were like people of a different race. The
one sect, though still savage and heathen, were as brave
and fierce as ever; the other, though Christianized and civilized,
were so degenerated from the vigour of the original
stock that they were powerless to resist their more warlike kinsmen.
4. English Invasion.—In the sixth century the
Angles came in great force and settled on the eastern coast of
Valentia, and drove the Britons, or as they called them
Welshmen, back to the Westland Hills. This district then
between the Roman walls was thus divided between two kingdoms.
The English kingdom of Northumberland, founded
by Ida in 547, took in all the eastern part of the country
south of the Forth; while the Welsh kingdom, called
Strathclyde from the river that watered it, stretched from
the Firth of Clyde southwards towards the Dee.
5. The Scots.—About the same time that the
English were pouring in on the east, the Scots were settling
all along the western coast. As the strait which separates Britain
from Ireland is only twelve miles broad, the Scots could
easily come over from Scotia, as Ireland was formerly
called, to seek their fortune in the larger island. It is impossible
to fix the date of their first coming, but it was not
till the beginning of the sixth century that there came over
a swarm numerous and united enough to found a separate
state. This is one of the few Celtic migrations on record
from west to east, and forms an exception to the general
displacement that was going on, by which the Celts were
being driven further and further west before the Teutons.
The leaders of the Scots were Fergus MacErc, and Lorn,
of the family of the Dalriads, the ruling dynasty in the
north of Ireland, and from them this new state founded on
the western coast of what is now called Argyle got the
name of Dalriada.
6. Introduction of Christianity.—These
Scots were not pagans like the Picts of Alba, for Ireland had already
been Christianized. The new comers brought the new faith to
their adopted country, and through them it spread among the
Picts, and also among the English of Northumberland. The
great apostle of the Scots was Columba. He was Abbot of
Durrow in Ireland, but was obliged to leave his own country,
because he had been engaged in a feud with some of his
kinsfolk, in which his side was worsted. He came over to
the new colony on the coast of Alba, and Conal, who was
then King of the Dalriads, welcomed him, and gave him I,
or Iona, an islet about a mile and a half long and a mile
broad, lying west of the large island of Mull. Here Columba
settled with the twelve monks who had come with him,
and here they built for the service of God a little wooden
church after their simple fashion, and for their own dwelling
a few rude huts of wattle, which in after-times was
called a monastery, where they passed their days in
prayer and study. But their missionary zeal was as great
as their piety, and from their head-quarters on Iona they
went cruising about among the adjacent islands, extending
their circuit to the Orkneys, and even, it is said,
as far as Iceland.
7. Conversion of the Picts.—Columba himself
undertook the conversion of the Picts. About two years after his
arrival at Iona he set out on this important mission, crossed
Drumalbyn, sought the court of Brud, the Pictish king,
converted him, and founded religious communities on the
same plan as that on Iona, on lands granted to him by
the king or his dependent chiefs. The Church thus set up
was perfectly independent of the Bishop of Rome or of any
other See, but it inherited all the peculiarities of the Church
of the Irish Scots. The monks had a way of their own of
reckoning the time for keeping Easter and of shaving their
heads, trifles which were considered important enough to
become the subject of a very long quarrel, and it was not
till 716 that they agreed to yield to the Roman custom
in both matters. According to their system of Church
government, the abbots of the monasteries were the chief
dignitaries, and had all the power which in the rest of
Christendom was held to belong to bishops, while the
bishops were held of no account except for ordaining
priests, for which purpose there was one at least attached
to each monastery. Columba, who was himself of the
royal race, had so much influence among the Dalriads that
his authority was called in to settle a dispute about the
succession to the throne. The abbots of Iona after him
continued supreme in all the ecclesiastical affairs of Alba
till the middle of the ninth century, while the well-earned
reputation for piety and learning enjoyed by the monks of
his foundation was widely spread in continental Europe.
About this time Kentigern revived among the Welshmen of
Strathclyde the dying Christianity which had been planted
there in the time of the Roman occupation.
8. Conversion of the English.—The English
of Northumberland were still heathens, and, as they were ever
fighting with and growing greater at the expense of their
neighbours, their state bade fair to become the most powerful
in Britain. In the beginning of the seventh century their
king Eadwine was supreme over all Britain south of the
Forth. But though Eadwine was converted by the preaching
of Paullinus, the first Bishop of York, the new doctrine
does not seem to have spread much among his people;
for one of his successors, Oswald, who in his youth had
been an exile at the court of his kinsman the Pictish king,
prayed the monks of Iona to send him one of their number
to help to make his people Christian. Conan, the first
missionary who went, was so much disgusted with the
manners of the English that he very soon came back to his
brethren. Then Aidan, another of their number, devoted
his life to the task which Conan had found so distasteful.
He taught and toiled among them with a zeal that was
seconded by Oswald, the king, who himself acted as interpreter,
making the sermons of the monk intelligible to his
English hearers. From Lindisfarne, where the little church
of Aidan was founded, like that of Iona, on an islet, Christianity
spread to the neighbouring state of Mercia, and
many monasteries and schools were founded after the
Columban model.
9. English Conquests.—Oswald and his successor
Oswiu extended their dominions beyond the Firths, and it is said
that they made the Scots and Picts pay tribute to them.
The next king, Ecgfrith, marched north and crossed the
Tay with a mighty host, but he was routed and slain in a
great battle at a place called Nectansmere, the exact position
of which is uncertain. From that time the English seem
to have kept more to the country south of the Forth, and
the Picts were more independent of them. This is about
the only event of moment that we know of in the history
of that people, of whom no records remain, except a long
list of their kings down to 843, at which date they became
united with the Scots under one king.
10. Union of Picts and Scots.—This union
took place under Kenneth MacAlpin, who was king of the Scots.
That he was king of the Picts also is certain: how he came to be
so can only be guessed. It is more probable that it was by
inheritance than by conquest, though he and the kings after
him kept his original title of King of Scots. Over how much
land he reigned, and what degree of power he had over his
subjects, is not known. It is thought that among the Celts
the king was only the head of the dominant tribe among many
other tribes or clans, each of which was bound to follow its
own chief, and the king's control over those chiefs seems to
have been more in name than in fact. The northern districts
seem to have been ruled by powerful chiefs called Maers or
Mormaers. These chiefs, who it has been supposed were
nominally subject to the King of Scots, acted as if they were
quite independent of him. They were indeed his most
troublesome enemies, and several of the kings lost their
lives in battle against them. Moray was the greatest of the
Mormaerships. It lay north of the Spey and of the mountains
of Argyle, and stretched across the country from the
Moray Firth to the opposite ocean.
11. Coming of the Northmen.—Kenneth was
followed in turn by Donald, his brother, and Constantine,
his son. Their reigns were mainly taken up in fighting with the
Northmen, a heathen people of Teutonic race, who infested
the seas and plundered the seaboard. From the eighth
century downwards they were the scourge alike of English
and Celtic Britain, swooping down on the coasts, harrying
the lands, and making off with their booty; or, at other
times, seizing and settling on great tracts of country. Three
countries of modern Europe—Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden were peopled by the Northmen. But while it was
those from Denmark who chiefly harassed and finally conquered
the English, the Norwegians seem to have looked
upon Scotland as their own especial prey, attracted doubtless
by the likeness between its many isles and inlets and
the jagged outline of the larger Scandinavian peninsula.
The long narrow lochs of the western coast, like the fiords of
Norway, proved convenient harbours for the ships of these
pirates. It is towards the close of the eighth century that
we first hear of the descents of the Northmen on the
Pictish kingdom. It is told how they ravaged all the coast,
destroyed the Pictish capital, and haunted the Irish Sea.
Their fury was specially directed against churches and
religious communities, and Iona did not escape. Again
and again it was wasted by fire and sword, its churches
plundered, the brethren slain, till at length the abbot was
compelled to seek on the mainland a refuge for himself
and the relics of the saintly founder. Under Kenneth
MacAlpin the supremacy over the Scottish Church was
transferred to the monastery of Dunkeld. Under Kenneth's
son, Constantine I., a fresh spirit was given to these invasions
by the formation of the kingdom of Norway by
Harold Harfagra. The petty chiefs displaced by him,
who were called Vikings or dwellers on the bays, sought a
settlement elsewhere. Several of them founded settlements
in Ireland, whence they went to plunder the western shores
of Britain. Others took up their quarters in the Orkneys,
and the Sudereys or Southern Isles, as the Northmen called
those isles that are now known as the Hebrides. Those in the
Orkneys were subdued by Harold, who made the islands into
an Earldom and gave it to Sigurd, one of his allies.
Thorstein, Sigurd's successor, proved a formidable foe to
the King of Scots, made himself master of all the north country,
pretty nearly answering to the modern counties of Caithness
and Sutherland, to which last the Northmen gave its name
because it lay south of their island possessions. On Thorstein's
death his great earldom fell to pieces. About this
time one Cyric or Grig, who is supposed to have been one of
the Northern chiefs, seized on the throne and reigned about
eighteen years, leaving his name on record as the liberator
of the Scottish Church.
12. The Commendation.—Constantine II.
(900-943), grandson of Kenneth, who came after Grig, commended himself
and his kingdom to Eadward, king of the English, in 924.
Constantine chose him as "father and lord," that is, he placed
himself under his protection, and acknowledged Eadward
as mightier than himself. On this compact were based
the subsequent claims of the English to the over-lordship
of the Scots. This commendation was renewed to Æthelstan,
Eadward's successor. But Constantine soon repented of his
submission, and a few years later he and the Welshmen of
Strathclyde joined the Danes in their attempt to get back
Northumberland, from which Æthelstan had expelled them.
The allies were utterly routed in the great battle of Brunanburh,
in which Constantine's son was slain, in 937. Six years
later Constantine exchanged civil for spiritual rule, and retired
as abbot to the Monastery of St. Andrews.
13. Annexation of Strathclyde.—Malcolm I.
(943-954) succeeded Constantine, though not his son, but his kinsman,
for the Scots did not adhere strictly to the order of succession
which is now customary: though they kept to the royal
family, they generally preferred the brother to the son of the
last king. The great event of this reign was the annexation
of Strathclyde, which had been conquered by the English
king Eadmund, and was now granted by him to Malcolm
as a territorial fief, held on condition of doing military service
by land and sea whenever it should be required. Thus
Strathclyde became an appanage of the heir apparent to the
Scottish crown. Of the six kings after Malcolm, Induff,
Duff, Colin, Kenneth II., Constantine III., and Kenneth III.,
little is known. They passed their lives and met their deaths
in struggles with the Welsh or with their own northern subjects.
Under Induff the Scots got Edinburgh, which had
been founded by Eadwine of Northumberland.
14. Acquisition of Lothian.—Malcolm II.,
grandson of the first of the name, was the last of the direct line of
Kenneth MacAlpin. His reign, which lasted thirty years, is
notable from the fact that he managed to get hold of Lothian,
the northern part of Northumberland. One of Malcolm's
first acts was an invasion of this earldom. Waltheof, the
earl, being old and feeble, shut himself up in his castle of
Bamborough and let Malcolm advance unresisted. He got
as far as Durham, but there he was met and defeated by
Uhtred, the vigorous son of the old Earl. Some years later,
when his old enemy Uhtred was dead, Malcolm made a
second invasion, and took ample revenge for his defeat at
Durham in the brilliant victory at Carham, on the banks of
the Tweed, in 1018. After this victory the Scots were in
possession of Lothian, which Eadulf Cutel, now Earl of
Northumberland, was not strong enough to take from them.
It has been said that Lothian had been already granted by
Eadgar of England to Kenneth III., who petitioned for it on
plea of ancient hereditary right. If so, the Scots must have
lost it again; but after the victory of Carham they had it and
kept it, though their king held it as an English earldom, and
did homage for it to the king of the English.
15. Cnut's Invasion.—In 1031 Cnut,
the mighty Dane who reigned over Denmark, Norway, and England, came
north, and Malcolm met him, acknowledged him as his over-lord,
and renewed the agreement which had been made
between Constantine and Eadward. Three years after his
submission to Cnut, Malcolm died, leaving as his heir
Duncan, the son of one of his daughters who had married
Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld. There is a tradition that, to
secure Duncan's succession, Malcolm had caused the grandson
of Kenneth III. to be murdered. If he did so, this crime
defeated its own end, for Gruach, sister of the murdered man,
was now the wife of Macbeth, the Mormaer of Moray, one
of the most powerful chiefs. Duncan came north to make
war on some of these turbulent Maers, and Macbeth seized
the opportunity thus offered by the presence of the king
in his province, attacked and defeated him in battle, and
afterwards slew him in a place called Bothgowan, which it
is thought means a smith's hut.
16. Macbeth, 1040-1057.—Macbeth must
not be looked on as an usurper and murderer. He was the natural supporter
of the claims of his wife and Lulach, her son by a former
marriage, who, according to the received rule of Gaelic succession,
had a better right to the throne than Duncan himself;
and no doubt he justified the murder of the young king
as lawful revenge for that of his wife's brother. At all events,
after he had got the kingdom, he ruled it well and wisely, so
that his reign was a time of great national plenty and
prosperity, and he and his wife were benefactors of the
Church and of the poor, not only at home, but abroad, for
it stands on record that they sent alms to the poor at Rome.
But he was not left long in peaceable possession, for the
father of Duncan, Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld, got up a rising
in favour of his two grandsons, Malcolm and Donald. About
the same time Siward, Earl of Northumberland, brought an
army against Macbeth, and drove him from the throne,
though he got it back as soon as Siward went away. Some
years later Siward, whose kinswoman Duncan had married,
again took up the cause of his cousin Malcolm, invaded
the kingdom and defeated the king in a great battle; and
though Macbeth held out for four years longer, he was at
last slain at Lumphanan in Aberdeen. Lulach, son of
Gruach, died soon after; and though he left a son, called
Malsnecte, whose claim was brought up again long afterwards,
there was no attempt made at that time to prolong
the struggle.
17. English Immigration. Malcolm III., 1057-1093.—The
reign of this Malcolm, surnamed Canmore or the great
head, is a turning-point in Scottish history, which henceforth
ceases to be essentially Scottish; the Celtic manners, language,
laws, and customs being changed by the strong
English influence brought to bear on them in this and the
following reigns. This change was in great measure due
to the conquest of England in 1066 by the Normans under
William the Conqueror. The Scottish court was the nearest
and most natural refuge for those Englishmen who would
not yield to the strangers. Thither they flocked in great
numbers, and there they found a hearty welcome. Among
these exiles came Eadgar the Ætheling, the representative
of the West-Saxon kings, and with him his mother and his
two sisters Margaret and Christina. Malcolm received them
very kindly, and they stayed with him all the winter. In
the beginning of his reign Malcolm had invaded England,
where Edward the Confessor was then king, and had wasted
the shires of York and Northumberland, while Tostig the
earl was gone on a pilgrimage to Rome. He now made a
second raid of the same sort, although, when William held
his court at York two years before, he had sent in his nominal
homage to him by the Bishop of Durham. This time he
went on behalf of the Ætheling, and harried the districts
of Cleveland and Durham, which had already been wasted
by William. His progress was marked by every species of
cruelty, neither churches nor children were spared, and the
Scots brought back so many captives that English slaves
were to be found even in the very poorest households. Meanwhile
Eadgar, who had taken part in two or three risings
in England, again sought the protection of the Scottish court,
and shortly after Malcolm succeeded in persuading Margaret
to become his wife. He had before this been married to
Ingebiorg, widow of Earl Thorfin of Orkney, and
had one son, Duncan.
18. William's Invasion.—In 1072 William
came north with a fleet and an army to avenge Malcolm's raid. He
went as far as Abernethy on the Tay, the former Pictish
capital, and there Malcolm met him and acknowledged
William as overlord, by becoming his man or vassal, giving
hostages, among whom was his own son Duncan, as warrants
for his good faith. But some years later Malcolm took
advantage of William's absence in Normandy to harry his
kingdom again as far as the Tyne, bringing back both spoil
and captives. The Conqueror's eldest son, Robert, came
north to avenge this invasion, but happily he and Malcolm
came to terms without any more bloodshed. This peace was
not broken till 1092, when Malcolm again invaded England.
The excuse for this was that his brother-in-law, the Ætheling,
had been turned out of the retreat in Normandy granted to
him by the Conqueror. William Rufus, who now sat on his
father's throne, marched into Lothian, where peace was again
made by the mediation of Robert and Eadgar. Malcolm
renewed his homage, and William renewed the grant made
by his father of certain manors and a yearly payment of
twelve marks. But William did not keep to the terms of the
treaty, and when Malcolm complained of this breach of good
faith he was summoned to appear before the English court
at Gloucester. He went, but soon came away again, justly
incensed at the insulting way in which he was treated by
being put on the same level as the Norman barons. For the
fifth time Malcolm entered England at the head of an army,
but from this expedition there was no triumphant return, for
the king and his son were slain on the banks of the Alne,
and the host that had followed them fled in great confusion.
19. Margaret's Reforms.—The disaster did
not end with the death of the king, for the good Queen Margaret,
who was then at Edinburgh, died of grief almost immediately
after hearing the sad tidings. This good woman, whose
many merits have won for her the title of saint, was the chief
worker in the revolution which was being silently wrought in
the manners of the court, and of the people, and in the government
of the Church and of the State. The influence which
her piety and learning gave her over her husband and his
people was used to soften their fierceness, and to win them
from their own half-savage ways to the customs of more civilized
countries. She is said to have introduced silver plate
at court, and many other luxuries of which the Scots had
hitherto been ignorant; she encouraged literature and commerce,
but she chiefly busied herself in reviving the state of
religion, which had sunk to a very low ebb. The Church had
fallen from its ancient purity and zeal, and had become a prey
to many singular abuses. The abbotships were hereditary in
the great families, and were often held by laymen, and the
religious foundations were in the hands of a body of irregular
clergy called Culdees, from two Latin words meaning
'servants of God.' Margaret called a council of the clergy
and spoke to them herself, her husband acting as her interpreter,
and did her best to make them give up their peculiarities
and give in to the usages of the rest of Christendom.
She rebuilt the church of Iona, which had suffered so terribly
at the hands of the Northmen, and founded a new church
at Dunfermline, in which she and her husband were buried.
20. Disputed Succession. Donald, 1093-1097.—The
death of the King and of his son Eadward, who had been recognized
as heir-apparent, threw the kingdom into confusion;
and the Gaelic party, who had looked on with disgust and
jealousy at the changes of the last reign and at the displacement
of the Gaelic chiefs by the English immigrants, elected
Donald Bane, Malcolm's brother, to the vacant throne.
Meanwhile Duncan, the son of Malcolm and Ingebiorg, his
first wife, prayed William of England to aid him in recovering
his father's kingdom, which he promised to hold as an
English fief. His suit was granted, and with the help of an
English and Norman army he drove out his uncle and
reigned a few months. But Donald, with the help of Eadmund,
the eldest surviving son of Malcolm and Margaret,
once more got the upper hand, murdered Duncan, exiled the
rest of the family, and kept possession of the throne for three
years. At the end of that time Eadgar the Ætheling was
sent north with an English army, and placed his nephew
Eadgar on the throne on the same terms as those which
had been granted to Duncan. Donald Bane was taken,
and, after the cruel custom of the time, his eyes were put out
before he was cast into prison. Eadmund died a penitent
in an English monastery.
21. End of the Gaelic Period.—With Donald
ends the Gaelic or Celtic period. The sons of Margaret carried out
the reforms begun by their mother, and the Celtic customs
gave way more and more to the Saxon influence both in
the court and in the country. The King identified himself
with his new nobles and with his English earldom, so that
Lothian, as it was the richest, became the most prominent
part of his dominions, and the true Scots of the North came
to be looked on as savages and aliens, the natural enemies
and perpetual disturbers of all peace and prosperity. The
records of this period are so very scanty that any ideas of the
state of the country or of the habits of the people are extremely
misty, and are chiefly drawn from incidental notices
of Scottish matters in the chronicles of other lands. The
chief architectural fragments which remain to bear witness to
its Christianity are the round bell-towers in the Irish style at
Brechin and at Abernethy. The church at Brechin was
founded by Kenneth the Third.
22. Summary.—The most noteworthy events
in this the first period of Scottish history are the repulses which the
Romans met with from the Picts; the coming of the Scots
from Ireland; their union with the Picts under Kenneth
MacAlpin; the introduction of Christianity by Columba;
the conversion of the Picts and of the English, and the joining
on of Strathclyde and Lothian to the Scottish Crown.
We must also notice the strong feeling of hereditary right
which kept the succession for so long in one family, and the
remarkable revolution brought about by the English exiles,
which completely turned the current of the national life, and
led to much strife and bitterness between the two races of
which the nation was made up.
THE ENGLISH PERIOD.
Eadgar; invasion of Magnus (1)—English marriage (2)—Alexander
I.; rising in Moray (3)—Church reforms (4)—David
I. (5)—English war (6)—Battle of the Standard (7)—peace
with England (8)—internal improvements (9)—Malcolm
IV. (10)—subjection of Galloway (11)—William the Lion (12)—Convention
of Falaise (13)—homage at Lincoln (14)—independence
of the Church (15)—internal troubles (16)—social progress
(17)—Alexander II. (18)—settling of the border line (19)—state
of the North (20)—Alexander III. (21)—his marriage and
homage to England (22)—last invasion of the Northmen (23)—literature
and architecture (24)—state of the kingdom (25).
1. Eadgar, 1097-1107. Invasion of Magnus.—In
the beginning of this reign, Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, made
good his right to the Orkneys and the Scandinavian Earldom
on the mainland. He seized the two earls, and placed his
own son Sigurd in their stead. He then sailed for the Sudereys,
at that time dependencies of the Kingdom of Man, wasted
them with fire and sword, marked his claim by sailing round
each island, and, by way of proving his right to Kintyre, is
said to have had himself dragged across the isthmus that
joins it to the mainland in his ship, with his hand on the
tiller. On his death the islands fell back into the hands of
the former owners, and their descendants, the Lords of the
Isles, were afterwards wont to declare themselves vassals of
Norway, whenever it suited their convenience. In one respect
only did this expedition differ from the former piratical descents
of the Northmen. This time the sacred island of Iona was
respected, and the church, so lately rebuilt, was left uninjured
by the special order of the King.
2. English Marriage.—The friendly relations
with England were maintained and strengthened by the marriage of Eadgar's
sister Eadgyth, who took the name of Matilda, with Henry
the First, the youngest son of William the Conqueror. She
proved nearly as great a blessing to the English as her
English mother had been to the Scots, for she taught the
King to "love his folk," and was affectionately remembered
by them as "Maud the good Queen." On his death-bed
Eadgar separated Strathclyde from the rest of the kingdom,
and conferred it on his brother David as a return for the
wise counsel with which that brother had helped him through
his very uneventful reign.
3. Alexander I., 1107-1124. Northern Rising.—This
King, unlike his easy-tempered brother, had a strong will and
unyielding spirit. His reign was consequently a troubled
one, as always happened when the Scots King tried to
rule instead of being ruled by his turbulent subjects. His
first difficulties were of course in the north. The men of
Merne and Moray came forth secretly and swiftly, hoping
to surprise and murder him; but their tactics, which had
proved fatal to Duncan, were upset by Alexander's discovery
of the plot and rapid march to meet them. They were thus
forced to fight, and thoroughly beaten on the northern shore
of the Moray Firth, and the signal vengeance taken by the
King after his victory, won for him the title of "the Fierce."
To commemorate his success he founded the monastery of Scone.
4. Church Reforms.—Alexander deserves
to be remembered for the spirit and wisdom with which he upheld the
independence of the national church. Anxious to carry out
in the same spirit the reforms already begun by his mother, he
appointed her confessor Turgot, Prior of Durham, to the See
of St. Andrews, and asked the Archbishop of York to consecrate
him. The Archbishop on this claimed the canonical
obedience of all the Scottish bishops, declaring that the
whole country was in his province. This demand was
clearly unjust; for, though Lothian was undoubtedly so, the
Scottish Church was older than his own, and had never been
dependent on any foreign See. This difficulty was got over
by the consecration of the new bishop by the Bishop of
London, and Turgot was installed as head of the Church
from which his own priory of Durham had originally
branched off. Instead of identifying himself with the interests
of his new charge, he did all he could to bring the
Scottish Church under the authority of the Archbishop of
York, so that he and the King soon quarrelled; and as the
King refused to let the Bishop go to Rome to lay his case before
the Pope, he resigned, and went back to Durham, where
he shortly afterwards died. To evade the claims of York,
the King resolved that his next bishop should be chosen from
the southern province. Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury, the
friend and biographer of Anselm the Archbishop, accepted
the bishopric. But he proved no better than Turgot, for he
persisted in considering himself and his bishopric as dependent
on Canterbury; and as the King would on no
account agree to this, he too resigned and went away.
Though he afterwards repented, and proposed to return, it
was then too late, for Robert, Prior of Scone, had been
appointed in his stead. As Alexander left no children,
his brother David succeeded him, so that Strathclyde or
Cumbria was re-united to the kingdom.
5. David I., 1124-1153. Rising in Moray.—The
usual rising in Moray took place in the early part of this reign.
The Moray men seized the opportunity for revolt afforded
them by David's absence in England, whither he had gone
on some business connected with the Honour of Huntingdon,
an English fief which he had got by his marriage with
Matilda, daughter and heiress of Waltheof, Earl of Northhumberland,
who had been put to death by William the
Conqueror. Angus and Malcolm, the representatives of the
old Moray Mormaers, were descended in the female line from
Lulach, the son of Gruach, and the northern party wished
to place one of them on the throne. The Constable of the
kingdom, the first on record, defeated them; but as the
rebellion still continued, David in alarm asked and obtained
the aid of the barons of the north of England. He was
preparing for his northern march, when the Celts took
fright, and gave up their chief, who was imprisoned in Roxburgh
Castle. The district of Moray was declared forfeited,
and was divided among the Norman knights whom David
had drawn round him when Prince of Strathclyde.
6. English War.—In 1135 Henry the First
of England died, and David, who had been among the first to swear fealty,
for the lands he held in England, to his own niece Matilda,
daughter and heiress of Henry, was now the first to take up
arms in defence of her right against Stephen. David at once
marched into England, received the homage of the northern
barons, and took possession of all the northern strongholds,
except Bamborough, in Matilda's name. Stephen came north,
but peace was made between them; for though David would
not break his oath to Matilda by himself holding any fiefs of
Stephen, this difficulty was got rid of by investing David's
son Henry with the Honour of Huntingdon, which had
been hitherto held by David. Carlisle and Doncaster were
also conferred on Henry; and though his request to be put
in possession of his mother's inheritance of Northumberland
was not granted, Stephen promised to take his claim to it
into consideration. Henry went south with Stephen, at whose
court he took precedence of the English barons. This roused
their jealousy, and they straightway left the court in a body.
David, highly indignant at this insult, recalled his son, and
the next year prepared to invade England again, nor would
he agree to any terms of peace, unless Henry were put in
immediate possession of Northumberland. In 1138 his army
ravaged the northern counties, reduced to ashes the castle of
Norham, and routed a body of the men of Lancashire who
had mustered to resist the invaders at Clitheroe on the Ribble.
After this success, the victors committed greater outrages than ever.
7. Battle of the Standard.—But their excesses,
and the fear that David, as the representative of the English line,
was trying to win the English crown for himself, at length
roused the chivalry of northern England, who, forgetting
party feeling, made common cause against the common foe,
and assembled round the banner raised by Walter Espec, a
doughty and gigantic warrior. A few years before they had
prepared to help David in suppressing those very Celts
whom he was now leading against themselves. Against
such men, inspired by such righteous indignation, the mixed
multitude of Scots, Picts of Galloway, Welshmen from
Strathclyde, Northmen from the Orkneys, and English
from the Lothians, who with a body of Norman knights made up
the so-called Scottish host, had but small chance of success.
This chance was made still smaller by what proved fatal to
the cause of Scotland in many an after fight, the inevitable
squabbles between the rival races. The Celts were jealous of
the Norman strangers, and clamoured so loudly for their
right of leading the van, that David at last gave in to them.
His own better judgment would have led him to give the
task of breaking the hostile ranks to his well-armed, well-mounted
horsemen, leaving it to the infantry to follow up
their advantage. The two armies met on a moor, near
Northallerton, where the English were drawn up round their
Standard, which was so singular that from it the battle took
its name. It was the consecrated wafer hoisted on a ship's
mast, with the banners of St. Peter of York, St. John of
Beverley, and St. Wilfrith of Ripon, floating round it. Before
the battle commenced, a last attempt for peace was made
by two Norman barons, whose descendants afterwards played
a great part in Scottish history. These were Robert de Brus
and Bernard de Bailleul. They were friends of David
and held lands from him, and they begged him not to
fight with the old friends who had formerly stood by him.
As he was unmoved by all their entreaties, they renounced
their allegiance, and the battle began. The Galloway men
made a fierce onslaught on the English, but were driven
back and beaten down by the English arrows. They
fled, and by their flight spread confusion through the
army. The panic was made greater by a cry that the King
was slain; and though David did all he could to rally the
fugitives round his banner, the ancient dragon of Wessex,
he was forced to retire upon Carlisle, where his son Henry
joined him a few days after. But this defeat did not drive the
Scots out of England. David still continued the siege of
Werk, a strong castle, which at last surrendered.
8. Peace with England.—Next year, peace
was made at Durham. Earl Henry was invested with the earldom of
Northumberland, though Stephen kept Bamborough and
Newcastle, and David continued to administer the affairs of
the northern counties till his death. Two years after this
peace he again took up arms in favour of Matilda, and narrowly
escaped being taken prisoner when her forces were
routed at Winchester; and it was by David at his court at
Carlisle that her son Henry of Anjou was knighted. The
close of David's life was embittered by the death of his
only son Henry, a just man and a brave soldier, whose loss
was universally lamented. He had married Ada de Warenne,
daughter of the Earl of Surrey, and left three sons, Malcolm,
William, and David, the two eldest of whom reigned in succession.
His eldest daughter Ada married Florence Count
of Holland, and got the promise of Ross, a great tract of
the Highlands, as her dowry. After the death of his son
David sent his eldest grandson through the provinces to be
acknowledged as his successor, and within a few months
he died at Carlisle, and was buried beside his parents at Dunfermline.
9. Internal Improvements.—David was both
a good man and a great king. He upheld the honour of his kingdom
abroad, and did so much for the welfare of his people at home,
that most of the social and political institutions of the later
kingdom were afterwards ascribed to him. It is true that
he introduced a foreign baronage, for he encouraged many
Norman barons to come to his court, and by the lands which
he gave them induced them to settle in the country. He
thus gave great offence to the native chiefs; but he did not
forget the interests of the Commons, for he increased the
number of the royal burghs and granted many privileges and
immunities to the burghers. The life of David has been
written by his friend and admirer, Æthelred the Abbot of
Rievaulx. He has drawn an attractive picture of an able
and virtuous prince, kindly and courteous alike to high and
low; ever ready to listen to the complaints of all his subjects
and to set wrong right, and never turning his face away from
any poor man. He tells us how the King himself dealt
out justice to his subjects, and in his progress through the
several districts of his kingdom, used, on set days, in person
to hear the suits and to redress the wrongs of the poor
and oppressed among his people. Six bishoprics—Dunblane,
Brechin, Aberdeen, Ross, Caithness, and
Glasgow—were either founded or restored by him; and many
abbeys date their foundation from his reign. He carried on the work
of church reform by inducing the Culdees to conform to
more regular ways, on pain of being turned out of their
monasteries. His reign lasted twenty-nine years, during
which time the country continued to advance steadily in
wealth, fertility, and civilization. There is little doubt that,
had his successor possessed the same abilities, the future
boundary of the kingdom would have been the Tees instead
of the Tweed.
10. Malcolm IV., 1153-1165.—Malcolm was
not quite twelve years old when he came to the throne: the fact that
he retained possession of it proves that the principle of hereditary
succession was gaining ground, and that his grandfather
David had put down the unruly spirit of the northern clans
and had more firmly established a regular government.
11. Subjection of Galloway.—The principal
event of Malcolm's reign was the subjection of Galloway, which was
now reduced to direct dependence on the Crown. A rising, the object
of which was to dethrone Malcolm and to set up his brother
William in his stead, had been planned by some of the nobles
while Malcolm was in Aquitaine, helping Henry the Second
of England in his war with France. Soon after his return
in 1160, they surrounded the city of Perth where he was holding
his court, and tried to take him prisoner. But they were
dispersed and routed, and though the chiefs fled to Galloway,
Malcolm followed them and reduced the district. Fergus, the
Lord of Galloway, ended his days in the monastery of Holyrood.
A few years later another dangerous enemy rose against
Malcolm. This was Somerled, the Lord of Argyle, who ruled
the western coast with the power, though without the title, of
King. He landed near Renfrew on the Clyde, with a large
force, but was almost immediately slain by treachery, and
after his death his followers dispersed and returned to
their several islands without doing any serious mischief.
An increase of power was thus won for the Crown within
the limits of the kingdom, but on the other hand the northern
counties of England, which had been held by David, were
lost, for Henry of England obliged Malcolm to give up all
claim to them at Chester, where the two Kings met in 1157.
At the same time Malcolm was invested with the Honour of
Huntingdon on the same terms as those on which it had
been held by David.
12. William the Lion, 1165-1214.—William
surnamed the Lion succeeded his brother Malcolm. He was eager to
regain the earldom of Northumberland, which his father had
held and which his brother had lost. As Henry of England
refused it to him, he aided the sons of that monarch in their
rebellion against their father, and, when Henry was absent
in France, he invaded his kingdom and took several strongholds.
But by his own imprudence he was surprised and
captured, with the best of his nobles, while tilting in a meadow
close by the walls of Alnwick, and was sent for greater
security to Falaise, in Normandy, July 1174.
13. Convention of Falaise.—In the end
of the year William regained his freedom by signing a treaty called
the "Convention of Falaise," the hard terms of which were most
humiliating, both to him and to Scotland. He was in future
to hold his kingdom on the same terms of vassalage as those
by which he now held Lothian, and as a token of further dependence
his barons and clergy were also to do homage to
the English King, who was to be put in possession of the
principal strongholds. His brother David, Earl of Huntingdon,
and twenty-one other barons were to remain as hostages
till the strongholds were given up, and on their release
each was to leave his son or next heir as a warrant of good
faith. The homage was performed in the following year,
when William met Henry at York; and the King of Scots,
with his earls, barons, free-tenants, and clergy, became the
liegemen of the King of England in St. Peter's Minster.
The clergy swore to lay the kingdom under an interdict, and
the laity to hold by their English over-lord, should William
prove unfaithful to him. This treaty remained in force till
the death of Henry in 1189, when Richard of England, who
was in want of money for his crusade, released William, for
the sum of 10,000 marks, from these extorted obligations and
restored the strongholds, though he refused to give up to him
the coveted earldom.
14. Homage at Lincoln.—When John
succeeded his brother on the throne of England, William did such homage
to him as the King of Scots had been wont to render
to the King of England before the treaty of Falaise. He
met John at Lincoln, whither he was escorted by a brilliant
retinue of English barons. But there was no kindly feeling
between the two Kings. John tried to build a castle at
Tweedmouth in order to spoil the trade of Berwick, the
largest trading city in Scotland, but the Scots drove away
the builders and levelled the castle, and for some time both
Kings kept threatening armies on the Border.
15. Independence of the Church.—At a great
Council held at Northampton in 1176, the Archbishop of York
claimed Scotland as a part of his province, and called on the Scottish
clergy to acknowledge their dependence. They protested
and appealed to the Pope, who forbade the Archbishop
to press his claim. Clement III. in 1188 confirmed
their claim of independence, on the ground that the Church
of Scotland was in immediate dependence on the Holy See.
16. Internal Troubles.—During William's
captivity, Galloway revolted. All the King's officers were either slain
or expelled, and as, after the submission at Falaise, Gilbert the
chief of Galloway considered himself a vassal of England,
he let the Lothians have no peace till his death in 1185.
William's nephew Roland then seized Galloway, drove out his
opponents, and rebuilt the Royal castles. William used his
influence to induce Henry to confirm Roland in possession,
and thereby gained a devoted and faithful ally. It was
mainly by his aid that William was enabled to put down
a formidable rising in the north.
17. Social Progress.—During this reign
the free towns began to rise into notice. Their privilege of trade and
right to govern themselves was recognized by a charter granted
to the city of Aberdeen, in which William confirmed his
burghers north of the Mount, in their right of holding their
own court or "free anse," as they had done in the time of
his grandfather David. Thus we see that the towns of the
north of Scotland were united for mutual support a century
before the rise of the great continental Hansa, which bound
together by a similar league the trading cities of the Baltic.
Some of the most important towns date their charters from
William, and he extended the influence of civilization in the
north by holding his court in such remote places as Elgin,
Nairn, and Inverness. The only religious foundation of this
reign was the abbey of Arbroath. It was dedicated to the
newest saint in the calendar, Thomas of Canterbury. William
died at Stirling in 1214, leaving one son, Alexander, who
succeeded him.
18. Alexander II., 1214-1249.—Alexander's
accession was the signal for one of the usual risings in Moray; but as
the power of the Crown in that district was now stronger than
it had been in earlier times, this rising was more easily put
down than any former one had been. The great struggle between
despotism and freedom had just at this time set John
of England and his barons at variance. Alexander joined
the barons in hopes of getting back Northumberland. He
crossed the Border and received the homage of the northern
barons, and the following year he joined his force to those of
the confederates, and marched to Dover, where he did homage
to Louis of France, who, at the invitation of the barons, had
come over to take the crown. The death of John and the
victory of his son, Henry the Third, at Lincoln, changed the
whole state of affairs, and in 1217 Alexander did the usual
homage to Henry and was invested with the Honour of Huntingdon.
Four years later the bond between them was drawn
closer by the marriage of Alexander to Joanna, Henry's sister.
This alliance was followed by a lasting peace, though Alexander
still claimed Northumberland, and Henry upheld the right
of the Archbishop of York to supremacy over the Scottish
Church. In a council held at York in 1237, Alexander agreed
to compound his claim to the earldom for a grant of the lands
of Penrith and Tynedale, and, when Henry went to France,
he left the Border under the care of the King of Scots.
19. Settling of the Border Line.—In 1222
an attempt was made to lay down a definite boundary between the two
countries. Six commissioners on either side were appointed,
and though the exact course of the line was disputed, from
that time it continued pretty much what it is now, though a
wide tract on either side was claimed alternately by both
nations and belonged in reality to neither.
20. State of the North.—A disturbance which
happened during this reign shows us something of the lawless state of
the northern part of the kingdom. Adam, bishop of Caithness,
tried to enforce the payment of tithes in his diocese,
but his people came together to consider the best way of resisting
this exaction. While they were thus holding council,
it is said that a voice cried out, "Short rede good rede; slay
we the bishop." On this advice they acted, for without more
waste of words they attacked the bishop, and burned him
and his house to ashes. Shortly before this a former
bishop of Caithness had been seized and had his tongue cut
out by the Earl of Orkney. Alexander died on an expedition
to the Western Isles, at Kerrara, a small islet off the coast
of Argyle. By his second wife, Mary of Coucy, he left a son,
who succeeded him.
21. Alexander III., 1249-1266.—Alexander,
a child of eight years, was crowned with great pomp at Scone, the
ancient crowning place, where the famous stone of Destiny
was kept. The tradition was that no one who had not been
enthroned on this stone was lawful King of Scots. The
most striking part of the coronation ceremony was the appearance
of a Sennachy or Celtic bard, who greeted Alexander
as King by virtue of his descent from the ancient Celtic
Kings, and recited the whole list of the King's ancestors,
carrying them back to the most remote ages. This might
serve to remind him that after all his title of King came
solely from those very Celts whom his more immediate
forefathers had slighted and despised.
22. Alexander's Marriage and Homage to England.—On
Christmas day, 1251, Alexander was married at York, to Margaret,
daughter of Henry the Third, and at the same time
he did homage for the lands he held in England, but evaded
Henry's claim of homage for Scotland, pleading the necessity
of consulting his advisers before giving an answer on so difficult
a matter. This question was brought up again in 1278,
when Alexander went to Westminster to acknowledge and to
do homage to Edward the First, and he gave for answer that
he did homage for his English fiefs alone and not for his kingdom.
Edward asserted his right as over-lord of the kingdom,
but he did not then attempt to enforce it.
23. Last Invasion of the Northmen.—In 1262
Hakon of Norway came with a great fleet to visit the Orkneys
and the Western Isles, Sudereys or Southern Isles as the
Northmen called them. The fleet sailed down the Western Coast,
levying black mail on the islands and making divers inland
raids. Among other exploits the Northmen dragged a number
of their ships across the narrow neck of land that parts Loch
Long from Loch Lomond, sailed down Loch Lomond, and
harried the Lennox, as the fertile tract which stretches along
its lower end is called. Hakon sailed up the Firth of
Clyde, and an attempt was made at a peaceable agreement
between him and the King, who was at first willing to give
up all claim to the Hebrides, but wished to keep the Cumbraes,
Bute, and Arran. But the Scots purposely delayed
coming to terms, as they expected that the autumn storms
would soon help them to get rid of their enemy. Nor were
their hopes disappointed, for, in the beginning of October,
a violent tempest rose, separated the ships of the invaders,
sunk some, and stranded others. On the following day
the Northmen who had landed were easily beaten, near Largs,
by a Scottish army hastily got together on the coast of Ayr,
in 1263. Hakon died in one of the Orkneys on his way home,
and his son, in 1266, agreed to give up Man and the Isles
for 1,000 marks down, and the promise of 100 yearly. An
amnesty was granted to the Islesmen, and it was settled that
the bishopric should continue in the province of Drontheim.
In 1281 the King's daughter, Margaret, married Eric, the
heir to the throne of Norway. She died in 1283, leaving
an infant daughter, who, a few months after, by the death of
Alexander, the King's only son, became heir to the Scottish
crown. Three years later, in 1286, the King himself
was killed by a fall from his horse while riding by night
along the coast of Fife, near Kinghorn.
24. Literature and Architecture.—No
chronicles of this period, written by natives of Scotland, have come
down to us. But there was one poet who was held in great repute,
not only for his verses, but for his prophecies. This was
Thomas Learmouth of Ercildoun, called "Thomas the
Rhymer," and "True Thomas," from the general belief in
the truth of his predictions. He is said to have foretold that
great national calamity, the King's death, under the figure of
a great storm that should blow "so stark and strang, that all
Scotland sall reu efter rycht lang." Another Scotsman of
note was Michael Scot, the famous wizard. He travelled
much in foreign lands, and was greatly renowned in them,
as in his own country, as a scholar, an astrologer, and
magician. The buildings of this period were chiefly the
churches and abbeys founded by Margaret and her descendants.
They were all in the same style as contemporary
buildings in England. There were as yet very few castles,
that is fortified buildings of solid masonry, in the kingdom.
The great strongholds, such as Edinburgh, Stirling, and
Dunbarton, were steep rocks, made so inaccessible by
nature that they needed but little strengthening from art.
Dwelling-houses seem to have been generally built of wood.
25. State of the Kingdom.—The second period
of the national history breaks off abruptly with the death of Alexander.
It had begun with the dethronement of Donald Bane,
the last Celtic King, nearly two hundred years before, and
during that time the boundary of Scotland had been extended
by the annexation of Argyle and of the Isles, while
her two dependencies of Lothian and Galloway had been
drawn more closely to her, though they still remained
separate and distinct. Throughout this period the influence
of England, though peaceable, had been stronger than
it was ever to be again. English laws and English customs
had been brought in, and had, in many cases, taken the place
of the old Celtic usages. The Celtic maers had been
removed to make way for the sheriffs of the Crown. But, as
Scotland was not divided like England into shires, the
sheriffs were not, as in England, the reeves of the already
existing shires, but officers who were placed by the King
over certain districts. These districts or sheriffdoms became
the counties of later times. Feudalism after the Norman
model, with all its burthensome exactions and oppressions,
had been brought in and had taken firmer root in Scotland
than it ever did in England. The native chiefs had been
displaced by foreign nobles, so that a purely Norman
baronage held the lands, whether peopled by a Celtic or a
Saxon peasantry. In some cases the new owners founded
families afterwards known under Celtic names; for, while
the Celts gave their own names to the lands on which
they settled, the Normans took the names of the lands conferred
upon them and bore them as their own. The long
peace with England, which had lasted unbroken for nearly
a century, had been marked by great social progress. The
large proportion of land that was now under the plough
proves that during this untroubled time husbandry must have
thriven, roads and bridges were many and in good repair,
and the trading towns had made great advances in riches
and power. Hitherto no one town had distinctly taken its
place as the capital. Saint John's Town, or Perth, had,
from its connexion with Scone, some claim to the first
place, but the King held his court or his assize indifferently
at any of the royal burghs. These burghs were of great importance
in the state, and, as the burgesses of the royal
burghs were all vassals holding direct from the Crown, they
acted in some sort as a check on the growing power of the
nobles. The burghers had the right of governing themselves
by their own laws, and were divided into two groups.
Those north of the Scots water or Firth of Forth were
bound together by a league like the great continental Hansa,
and known by the same name; while those in Lothian, represented
by the four principal among them—Roxburgh,
Stirling, Edinburgh, and Berwick—held their
"court of the four burghs," which is still represented by the
"Convention of Royal Burghs" which meets once a year in
Edinburgh. Nor were the Scottish towns of this period
in any way behind the cities of the Continent. Berwick,
the richest and the greatest, was said by a writer of the
time to rival London. Inverness had a great reputation for
shipbuilding. A ship which was built there called forth the
envy and wonder of the French nobles of that time. But
this happy state of things was brought to an end by the death
of the King, and the long years of war and misery that followed
went far to sweep away all traces of the high state
of civilization and prosperity that had been reached by the
country in this, the golden age of Scottish history.
STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE.
The Regency (1)—the Interregnum
(2)—Council at Norham (3)—Edward's
decision (4)—John (5)—his coronation
(6)—French alliance
(7)—Edward's first conquest (8)—English government
(9)—Wallace's revolt (10)—surrender at Irvine
(11)—battle of Stirling (12)—battle of Falkirk
(13)—capture of Wallace (14)—attempted
union (15)—Bruce's revolt (16)—his coronation
(17)—Edward's proposed revenge (18)—Bruce's struggles
(19)—battle of Bannockburn (20)—results of the victory
(21)—Bruce's comrades (22)—summary (23).
1. Margaret, 1286-90. The Regency.—Within a month
from Alexander's death the Estates met at Scone, and appointed
six regents to govern the kingdom for Margaret, the
Maiden of Norway, a child of three years old, who, on the
death of her grandfather Alexander, succeeded to the throne.
Three of these regents were for the old kingdom, the land
north of the Scots Water, and three for Lothian with Galloway.
This division seems to show that the different tenure
of these provinces was still understood and acted on. The
Scots of the original Celtic kingdom and the Englishmen of
Lothian still kept aloof from one another. In the meantime
Robert Bruce, a Norman baron whose forefathers had settled
in Annandale in the twelfth century, made an attempt to
seize the crown by force. He laid claim to it by right of his
descent from Isabella, the second daughter of David Earl
of Huntingdon, brother of William the Lion, and appealed
to Edward the First of England as over-lord to support him
in his supposed right. At the same time other appeals against
him were made by the seven Earls of Scotland, by Fraser
bishop of St. Andrews, and by the Community. Edward did
not encourage Bruce, but on the contrary he agreed to the proposal
of the Estates that the Lady Margaret should be married
to his eldest son Edward. By the treaty of Brigham, in
1290, this agreement was accepted by the Clergy, Nobility,
and Community of Scotland. This treaty provided that the
rights and liberties of Scotland should remain untouched;
that no native of Scotland was to be called on to do homage
or to answer for any crime beyond the Border; in short,
that Scotland was to keep all the rights and liberties which
belong to a distinct national life. This union, if it had been
carried out, would have been the best possible settlement for
both kingdoms, but it was prevented by the death of the
Maid of Norway on her way to Scotland, in one of the
Orkneys, September 1290. Edward had himself sent a ship
handsomely fitted out to fetch home the Maid.
2. Interregnum, 1290-92.—Margaret
was the last of the legitimate descendants of William the Lion. The new
King had to be sought among the heirs of William's
brother David, Earl of Huntingdon. David had left three
daughters, Margaret, Isabella, and Ada, and they being
dead were represented by their nearest heirs,—Margaret by
her grandson John Balliol, Isabella by her son Robert Bruce,
and Ada by her son John Hastings. Besides these there
were a host of smaller claimants whose pretensions were
quite untenable; but there was one other who, though his
claim was very shadowy, was first in power and position
among the claimants. This was Florence, Count of Holland,
the great-great-grandson of Ada, the daughter of David's son
Henry, who was to have had Ross as her dowry. Bruce, supported
by his son, by James the Steward and by other nobles,
made a bond with Florence by which each pledged himself,
in case he got the kingdom, to give the other a third of
it. Edward, as over-lord, was appealed to to settle the
matter, as it was feared by the regents that Robert Bruce
would seize the crown by force, and all the competitors seem
to have acknowledged Edward's right of superiority.
3. Council at Norham.—Edward accordingly
summoned his barons, amongst whom most of the claimants could be
reckoned, to meet him in a council at Norham, on the northern
side of the Tweed, in June 1291, to decide this important
case. The real contest lay between Bruce and Balliol. Bruce,
Balliol, and indeed nearly all the claimants, were Norman
barons holding lands of Edward. The family of Bruce came
originally from the Côtentin and had been settled in Yorkshire
by William the Conqueror, towards the end of his reign.
David, who had granted to them the great tract of Annandale,
had also granted to the Balliols a manor in Berwick.
Bruce's plea was that, though he was the child of a younger
sister, still his right was better than that of Balliol, as he
was one degree nearer their common forefather, and he
brought forward many precedents to prove that in such a
case nearness in degree was to be preferred to seniority.
4. Edward's Decision.—Edward decided with
perfect justice, according to the ideas of modern law, that Balliol,
as the grandson of the eldest daughter, had the best right to the
throne. In early times in Scotland no one would have
thought of doubting Bruce's claim as next in degree. As
Edward refused to divide the dominions among the heirs of
the three daughters, it is clear that he looked on Scotland
as a dependent kingdom, and not as an ordinary fief, which
would have been shared among the three rivals. Judgment
was given at Berwick, November 1292, eighteen months
after the first meeting of the council. During this time the
government had been nominally in the hands of the guardians
of the kingdom; but Edward had the strongholds, twenty-three
in number, in his own hands, and seems to have looked
upon the two countries as really united. At the end of the
suit he gave up the strongholds, and by so doing showed
that he meant to act fairly.
5. John, 1292-96. Policy of Edward.—The
great scheme of Edward's life was to unite Britain under one government,
of which he himself was to be the head. He had already
added to England the dependent principality of Wales.
Hitherto his actions towards Scotland had been perfectly fair
and upright. In placing John Balliol, the rightful heir, on the
throne, he was doing no more than had been done by the
King of England, acting as over-lord, in the cases of Malcolm
Canmore and Eadgar: but his way of placing him there
was not strictly just; the conditions which he required were
such as he had no right to exact, nor John to accept. He
made him do homage for his kingdom as though it had been
an English fief. Now, though this was true as far as concerned
Lothian, and partly true as concerned Strathclyde, as
concerned Scotland it was untrue. Although Scotland had,
since 924, been in some degree subject to the King of England,
this dependence was no more than was implied by the
"commendation," the very natural relation of the weaker to
the stronger. But it must be remembered that three centuries
had passed since that first commendation, and in that time
the original simplicity of the feudal tenure had been altogether
changed and in great measure forgotten. Edward
looked on the three parts of Scotland as fiefs, and therefore
subject to the same burthens as his other fiefs; the Scots
knew that they were not thus subject, and they therefore
argued that their kingdom was in no way dependent on
England: thus both parties were partly right and partly
wrong. Even the amount of dependence implied in the
original commendation had, in the last reign, been refused
by the Scottish King, and had not been insisted on by the
English one. But John Balliol was weak and foolish, while
Edward was wise, strong, and determined to rule the whole
country indirectly through his submissive vassal.
6. Coronation of John.—John was duly crowned
and enthroned on the Stone of Destiny, after which he renewed his
homage to Edward, in 1292. He then summoned the Estates
at Scone. This was the first meeting of the Estates which
was called a parliament. John was not popular with his
subjects, who looked on him as a tool in the hands of
Edward. Before many months had passed Roger Bartholomew,
a burgess of Berwick, being dissatisfied with a decision
given against him in Scotland, appealed to Edward, who
named a council at Newcastle to hear the case. This was a
direct violation of the treaty of Brigham, and Edward obliged
John to sign a discharge and renunciation of this treaty and
of any other document then in existence which might call in
question his superiority. Another appeal was made a few
months afterwards against the decision of the Estates by a
Scot of the old kingdom, Macduff, the grand-uncle of the Earl
of Fife, and this was followed by appeals respecting the lands
of the houses of Bruce and Douglas. John was summoned
to appear before the Parliament of England, was voted a
contumacious vassal, and commanded to give up the three
principal strongholds of his kingdom into the hands of his
over-lord till he should give satisfaction.
7. French Alliance.—In 1294 war broke
out between France and England, and John, with the nobles and commons
of his kingdom, entered into an alliance for mutual defence
with Eric of Norway and Philip of France against Edward.
This was the beginning of the foreign policy maintained in
Scotland for several centuries, until the Reformation, when
religious sympathy got the better of national hatred, and
Roman Catholic France became more dreaded than Protestant
England. In compliance with this treaty a Scottish
army crossed the Border and swept and wasted the northern counties.
8. Edward's first Conquest.—Edward's
dealings with Scotland now became those of a conqueror instead of a
protector. The Scots had, without gainsaying, acknowledged
his supremacy. It was the appeal of Scottish subjects which
had tempted him to extend the incidents of that supremacy
beyond legal limits, and now it was the Scots who began
the war, and thus gave Edward the excuse, for which he was
waiting, for conquering their country. He at once marched
northwards with a great army, and besieged and took
Berwick, a large and wealthy trading town. Provoked by the
resistance and insults of the citizens, the King wreaked a
fearful vengeance on them, and Berwick was reduced to the
rank of a common market-town. While he was at Berwick,
John's renunciation of fealty was sent to him by the party of
independence, who were keeping their King in custody lest
he should repent and submit. When Edward had secured
Berwick, he marched to Dunbar, took the castle, and then
went on to Edinburgh. He there took up his quarters in
Holyrood, laid siege to the castle, took it, seized the crown
jewels, and then passed on to Perth, taking possession of
Stirling on the way. To crush out all idea of an independent
kingdom, and to let the people see that they were
conquered, he carried off from Scone the Stone of Destiny,
with which the fate of the Scottish monarchy was supposed
to be mystically joined. This stone was removed to Westminster,
and was placed under the seat of the coronation-chair.
He also took with him the Holy Rood of Queen Margaret,
and obliged all the nobles who submitted to him to swear
allegiance on this much valued relic. Edward did not go
further north than Elgin, and he returned to Berwick in 1296,
having marched all through Scotland in twenty-one weeks.
All the nobles and prelates did personal homage to him.
John submitted himself to Edward's pleasure, and was degraded
and dispossessed. He was then sent as a prisoner to
England, was afterwards made over to the keeping of the
Bishop of Vicenza, the Pope's representative, and at last
he retired to his own estates in Picardy, where he died in
1315. Edward treated his kingdom as a fief forfeited by the
treason of the vassal who held it. This notion of the thirteenth
century, that the fief was forfeited by treason, would
not have occurred to anyone in the tenth century, when
probably John would only have been deposed, and some one
else set up in his stead. The seizure of Normandy from
John of England by Philip of France was a case of the same
kind, and quite as unprecedented.
9. English Government.—Edward at once
took measures for joining Scotland on as an integral part of the English
kingdom. He took care that the strongholds should be
commanded and garrisoned by persons without any Scottish
connexion. He appointed John, Earl of Warrenne and
Surrey, Guardian, Hugh of Cressingham, Treasurer, and
Ormsby, Justiciar of the kingdom; sent them forms of writs
to be used in the re-granting of lands; took measures for
the establishment of Courts of Chancery and Exchequer at
Berwick, and summoned a council of merchants to consider
the best measures for the future conduct of the trade and
commerce of the country. Cressingham was enjoined to
raise all the money he could, for the maintenance of internal
peace and order, and to put down the wicked rebels, homicides,
and disturbers of the peace, who swarmed all over the land.
10. Wallace's Revolt.—The Celts in the
North looked on this change in the government with apathy. To them it
probably made little difference who sat on the Scottish throne,
and Edward had not entered their district. The Norman
nobles quietly agreed to it, for they were afraid of losing
their estates in England. But it roused a spirit of defiance
and opposition where resistance was least to be looked for,
among the Lowlanders. They were the descendants of the
earliest Teutonic settlers, and had remained more purely
English in blood and speech than their kinsfolk on the
southern side of the Border. This latent feeling of discontent
gradually ripened into rebellion, and the standard of
revolt was raised by William Wallace, a native of Clydesdale,
who, unlike most of his countrymen, had not sworn
allegiance to Edward. He surprised and cut to pieces the
English garrison at Lanark, and slew William Haselrig, the
newly appointed sheriff of Ayr. This outbreak was followed
by similar attacks on detached bodies of the troops in occupation.
His little band of followers gradually attracted more,
and at length they surprised the Justiciar Ormsby, while
holding a court at Scone, and, though he escaped out of
their hands, they secured both prisoners and booty. Anthony
Beck, Bishop of Durham, was next attacked in Glasgow, and
forced to flee. After these successes Wallace was joined
by William of Douglas, a renowned soldier, and by Robert
Bruce, Earl of Carrick, grandson of the original claimant of
the crown.
11. Surrender at Irvine.—But there was
a want of system and of unity of purpose in the nation, and this noble
effort on the part of the people was not seconded by the nobles.
A large army under Henry, Lord Percy, was sent by Edward
to put down the rising; those of the nobles who had joined
the popular movement deserted it, and renewed their allegiance
to Edward at Irvine, July 1297. But when Edward,
who believed the revolt to be completely crushed, was absent
in Flanders, Wallace mustered the people of the Lowlands
north of the Tay and made himself master of the strongholds
in that district.
12. Battle of Stirling.—The English
army was now hastening northward under Cressingham and Warrenne,
Earl of Surrey. Wallace resolved to give them battle on the Carse
of Stirling, a level plain, across which the river Forth winds
in and out among the meadows like the links of a silver chain.
Wallace showed his skill as a general by the choice of the
ground on which he posted his men. He drew them up within
one of the links of the river, which swept round in front
between them and the English, while a steep rocky hill, called
the Abbey Craig, rose right behind them and protected the
rear. The English had to cross the river by a narrow bridge.
Wallace waited till half of them were over, and then attacked
them. Taken thus at a disadvantage, they were easily routed.
The panic spread to those on the opposite bank, who fled
in disorder. In this action, called the Battle of Stirling,
which was fought September 11, 1297, Cressingham was
slain, and Surrey was forced to retreat to Berwick. After this
victory the Scots recovered the strongholds south of the
Forth, and Wallace acted as Guardian of the kingdom in
the name of King John, and with the consent of the commons.
Unhappily the Scots were not content with driving
out the invaders, but carried the war over the Border, and
wasted the northern counties of England with all the fierceness
and cruelty of brigands.
13. Battle of Falkirk.—Edward returned
from Flanders and raised a large army for the subjection of Scotland,
promising pardon to all vagrants and malefactors who would
enlist in it. The King himself led the army. The Scots
wasted the country and retreated before him through the
Lothians; and Wallace, who knew well the weakness of his
own force, tried to avoid a battle till the great army of
Edward should be exhausted from want of food. But tidings
were brought to Edward that Wallace was near Falkirk, and
he marched northward in haste and forced his enemy to give
battle. At Stirling Wallace had won the day by his happy
choice of the ground; he now showed still greater skill by
the way in which he drew up his little army. It was made
up for the most part of footmen, who at that time were held
of no account as soldiers. The genius of Wallace found out
how they might be made even more formidable than the
mounted men-at-arms, in whom at that time it was supposed
that the strength of an army lay. He drew them up in
circular masses; the spearmen without and the bowmen
within. The spearmen with lances fixed knelt down in
ranks, so that the archers within could shoot over their
heads. When his men were thus placed, Wallace said to
them, "I have brought ye to the ring—hop gif ye can;" that
is, show how well you can fight. But, though they fought well
and held their ground bravely, and the English horse were
driven back by the spear-points, the Scots were at last beaten
down by force of numbers, and the English won the day, 1298.
After this victory Edward returned to Carlisle, and Wallace
resigned the Guardianship. Edward held the country
south of the Forth, but the northern Lowlands seem to have
maintained their independence until the spring of 1303, when
Edward marched north at the head of a great army and
again subdued the whole country. He made Dunfermline,
the favourite seat of the Scottish court, his head-quarters.
Stirling Castle alone, under Olifant the valiant governor,
held out for three months, but when it was taken the lives
of the garrison were spared. All the leaders in the late
rising were left unharmed in life, liberty, or estate, with the
exception of William Wallace. He was required to submit
unconditionally to the King's grace.
14. Capture of Wallace.—Wallace had been
on the Continent ever since the battle of Falkirk. He now came back
and was betrayed by his servant Jack Short to Sir John
Menteith, governor for Edward in Dunbarton Castle, and was
sent by him to London. He was there tried, by a special
commission, for treason and rebellion against Edward. He
pleaded in his own defence that he had never sworn fealty
to Edward. In spite of this he was found guilty, condemned
to death, and hanged, drawn, and quartered according to the
barbarous practice which was then coming into use in England.
His head was stuck up on London Bridge, and the
four parts of his body were sent to Newcastle, Berwick,
Stirling, and Perth, by way of frightening the people from
such attempts in future.
15. Attempted Union.—Edward then set to
work to complete the union of the two kingdoms. In the meantime
Scotland was to be governed by a Lieutenant aided by a
council of barons and churchmen. It was to be represented
in the English parliament by ten deputies,—four churchmen,
four barons, and two members of the commons, one for the
country north of the Firths, one for the south. These
members attended one parliament at Westminster, and an
ordinance was issued for the government of Scotland. John
of Bretayne was named Lieutenant for the King; justices and
sheriffs were appointed; the strongholds were put under
governors for the King, and an inquiry was ordered into the
state of the laws in order to take measures for their amendment.
Edward's policy in all this was to win favour with
the people and the members of the council, although many of
them, such as Bruce and Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, had
taken part in the last rising. The King's peace was now
offered to all rebels who would profit by it. But the great
difficulty in dealing with the Scots was that they never knew
when they were conquered, and, just when Edward hoped that his
scheme for union was carried out, they rose in arms once more.
16. Bruce's Revolt.—The leader this time
was Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale, Earl of Carrick in right of
his mother, and the grandson and heir of the rival of Balliol.
He had joined Wallace, but had again sworn fealty to
Edward at the Convention of Irvine, and had since then
received many favours from the English king. Bruce signed
a bond with William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews,
who had also been one of Wallace's supporters. In this
bond each party swore to stand by the other in all his
undertakings, no matter what, and not to act without the
knowledge of the other. The signing of such bonds became
a prominent and distinctive feature in the after-history of
Scotland. This bond became known to Edward; and Bruce,
afraid of his anger, fled from London to Dumfries. There in
the Church of the Grey Friars he had an interview with
John Comyn of Badenoch, called the Red Comyn, who, after
Balliol and his sons, was the next heir to the throne.
He was the grandson of a younger sister of Balliol's mother,
and the son of Balliol's sister. He had also a strong claim
to the favour of the people in his alleged descent, through
Donald Bane, from their ancient Celtic kings. What passed
between them cannot be certainly known, as they met alone,
but Bruce came out of the church saying he feared he had
slain the Red Comyn. Kirkpatrick, one of his followers,
then said, he would "mak sicker," and ran in and slew the
wounded man. By this murder and sacrilege Bruce put
himself at once out of the pale of the law and of the Church,
but by it he became the nearest heir to the crown, after the
Balliols. This gave him a great hold on the people, whose
faith in the virtue of hereditary succession was strong, and
on whom the English yoke weighed heavily.
17. Coronation at Scone.—On March 27, 1306,
Bruce was crowned with as near an imitation of the old ceremonies as
could be compassed on such short notice. The actual crowning
was done by Isabella, Countess of Buchan, who, though
her husband was a Comyn, and, as such, a sworn foe of
Bruce, came secretly to uphold the right of her own family,
the Macduffs, to place the crown on the head of the King
of Scots.
18. Edward's proposed Revenge.—Edward
determined this time to put down the Scots with rigour. Aymer of
Valence, Earl of Pembroke, succeeded John of Bretayne as
Governor. All who had taken any part in the murder of the
Red Comyn were denounced as traitors, and death was to be
the fate of all persons taken in arms. Bruce was excommunicated
by a special bull from the Pope. The Countess
of Buchan was confined in a room, made like a cage, in
one of the towers of Berwick Castle. One of King Robert's
sisters was condemned to a like punishment. His brother
Nigel, his brother-in-law Christopher Seton, and three
other nobles were taken prisoners, and were put to death as
traitors. This, the first noble blood that had been shed in
the popular cause, did much to unite the sympathy of the
nobles with the commons, who had hitherto been the only
sufferers from the oppression of the conquerors. Edward
this time made greater preparations than ever. All classes
of his subjects from all parts of his dominions were invited
to join the army, and he exhorted his son, Edward Prince
of Wales, and 300 newly-created knights, to win their spurs
worthily in the reduction of contumacious Scotland. It was
well for Scotland that he did not live to carry out his vows
of vengeance. He died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, July 30th.
His death proved a turning-point in the history of Scotland,
for, though the English still remained in possession
of the strongholds, Edward the Second took no effective
steps to crush the rebels. He only brought the army raised
by his father as far as Cumnock in Ayrshire, and retreated
without doing anything.
19. Bruce's Struggles.—For several years
King Robert was an outlaw and a fugitive, with but a handful of followers.
Their lives were in constant danger. Whenever an opportunity
offered, they made daring attacks on the English in
possession; at other times they saved their lives by hairbreadth
escapes from their pursuit. The Celts of the west
and of Galloway, who had been won over to the English
interest, were against them, and the Earl of Buchan, husband
of the patriotic Countess, and his kinsman, Macdougal of
Lorn, were Bruce's most deadly enemies. At one time Bruce
had met with so many defeats that he left Scotland and
thought of giving up the struggle and going to the Holy
Land. Tradition says that the example of a spider stirred
him up to fresh courage and endurance. He was in hiding in
the island of Rachrin, off the north coast of Ireland. As he
lay one morning in bed in the wretched hut in which he had
taken refuge, he saw a spider trying in vain to throw its web
across from beam to beam of the roof above his head. The
insect tried six times and failed. Bruce reckoned that he
had been beaten just six times by the English. He watched
eagerly to see if the spider would try again. "If it does,"
thought he, "so will I." Once more the spider made the
attempt, and this time it was successful. Bruce took it as
a happy omen, and went back to Scotland. He joined some
of his followers in the Isle of Arran. From the island they
went to the mainland, and from that time the tide of fortune
seemed to turn, and to bring him good luck instead of bad.
Still he had to go through many perils. The story of his
exploits has been handed down to us by John Barbour,
Archdeacon of Aberdeen. As he was born soon after Bruce's
death, there may be some truth in the tales which he tells,
though it must be borne in mind that they are but tales.
He describes Bruce as a strong, tall man, so cheerful and
good-humoured that he kept up the spirits of his followers
no matter what mishaps befell them, always first in danger,
and often owing his life to his own wit and daring. One of
his best known feats happened in the country of John of
Lorn. Three Highlanders, who had sworn to take his life,
set upon him when he was quite alone. One seized his
horse's bridle; another tried to take his foot out of the
stirrup; the third, leaping on him from behind, tried to
unhorse him. Bruce cut them all down and rode off triumphant.
His brooch had come loose in the struggle, and was
ever afterwards kept as a precious relic in the family of his
enemy Macdougal of Lorn. The first decided success of
Bruce was the defeat of his old enemy, the Earl of Buchan,
who with his followers joined the English, and forced Bruce
to right near Inverary. Bruce won the day, and his followers
so spoiled the lands of the Comyn that this fray was long
remembered as the "Herrying of Buchan." At length the
clergy recognized Bruce as their King, and this virtual taking
off the excommunication had a great effect upon the people.
The little band of patriots increased by degrees. The strongholds
were won back, till at last only Stirling was left to
the English, and it was so sorely pressed that the governor
agreed to give it up to the Scots if he were not relieved
before St. John Baptist's Day, 1314. Roused by the fear
of losing this, the most prized of all Edward the First's
conquests, the English gathered in great force, and marched
100,000 strong to the relief of the garrison.
20. Battle of Bannockburn, June 24, 1314.—The
Scots were posted so as to command the plain or carse of Stirling,
which the English must cross to reach the Castle. They
were greatly inferior to the English in numbers, and had
scarcely any cavalry, in which the chief strength of the
English force lay. Robert divided them into four battles or
divisions. Their leaders were Sir James Douglas; Randolf,
his nephew; James the Stewart, and Bruce's own brother Edward.
Bruce himself commanded the fourth division, which
was placed behind the others, as in it were the men he least
trusted, and a small body of cavalry. One flank of the army
rested on the Bannock, a small stream or burn, from which
the battle took its name. Before the battle joined, as King
Robert was reviewing his line, he was challenged to single
combat by Henry of Bohun, an English knight, and raised
the spirit of his followers by cleaving his adversary's skull.
The English began the fight by a volley of arrows, but their
archers were dispersed by the small body of the Scottish
horsemen whom King Robert sent to charge them. The
English cavalry then charged the Scots, but they tried in
vain to break the compact bristling masses of the Scottish
spearmen, and themselves fell into confusion. Some Highland
gillies and camp-followers just then appeared on the
brow of a neighbouring hill. The English took them for
a reserve of the enemy, were seized with terror, fled in wild
disorder, and the defeat became a total and shameful rout.
The horsemen in their flight fell into the pitfalls which the
Scots had cunningly sunk in the plain. King Edward and
500 knights never drew rein till they reached Dunbar, whence
they took ship for Berwick. Great spoil and many noble
captives fell that day to the share of the victors.
21. Results of the Victory.—By this battle, won
against tremendous odds, the Saxons of the Lowlands decided their
own fate and that of the Celtic people by whose name
they were called, and to whose kingdom they chose to
belong. On the field of Bannockburn they gave the English
a convincing proof that they preferred sharing the poverty
and turbulent independence of that half-civilized Celtic
kingdom to rejoining the more wealthy, prosperous, and
settled country from which three centuries before they had
been severed. Three more centuries were still to pass before
Edward the First's great idea of a Union could be carried
out. Bannockburn is noteworthy among battles as being
one of the first to prove the value of Wallace's great
discovery that footmen, when rightly understood and skilfully
handled, were, after all, better than the mounted men-at-arms
hitherto deemed invincible. Like Morgarten and
Courtray, the fields on which the Flemings and the Swiss
about the same time overthrew their oppressors, this victory
of the Scots stands forth as a bright example, showing how,
even in that age of feudal tyranny, a few men of set purpose,
fighting for their common liberty, could withstand a great
mass of feudal retainers fighting simply at the bidding of
their lords.
22. Bruce's Comrades.—The faithful
friends of Bruce, those who had shared his dangers and helped him
to win his crown, were no way behind their leader in courage and
heroism. The most famous of them all was James of Douglas,
son of that Douglas who had been the friend and supporter
of Wallace. His own Castle of Douglas was the scene of one
of his most daring deeds, hence called the Douglas Larder.
The English held his castle, but on Palm Sunday, when
the garrison were gone to church, Douglas attacked them
suddenly, killed some, and took the rest prisoners. He and
his men then went up to the castle, where they feasted merrily
on the fare that was being made ready for the English.
When they had dined, Douglas bade them bring forth all the
provision of food and fuel and pile it up in the castle hall.
He then killed the English prisoners and flung their bodies
on the heap. Over them he poured their store of wine,
which mingled with the blood that still streamed from their
gaping wounds. The Scots then set fire to the whole and
went off to the woods again, for the free vault of heaven was
more to their minds than the constraint of castle walls. All
these stories are only tales; but, whether true or not, they
show the spirit of the time.
23. Summary.—In this chapter we have seen
how Scotland lost her independence by the selfish quarrels of her
nobles and the weakness of her King John Balliol; how
the rising of Wallace, the first effort for regaining her ancient
freedom, was confined solely to the people without the nobles;
how it came to nothing from the want of unity of purpose
in the nation; how Scotland, after the failure of this attempt,
had lost her separate national life and had been united to
England; how, when all hope seemed lost, the people rose
under a leader who was really a Norman baron, and therefore
as much a foreigner to them as any of the governors
placed over them by Edward; and how by one great effort
they shook off the yoke of the invaders and drove them from
the soil.
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.
THE JAMESES.
Return of the King (1)—state of the Highlands
(2)—murder of James (3)—judicial reforms
(4)—James II. (5)—Crichton and Livingstone
(6)—the Douglases (7)—majority of James;
fall of Douglas (8)—siege of Roxburgh (9)—James III.
(10)—Orkney and Shetland (11)—relations with England
(12)—revolt of the nobles (13)—battle of Sauchieburn
(14)—Church matters (15)—James IV. (16)—English intrigues
(17)—state of the Highlands (18)—differences with England
(19)—battle of Flodden (20)—state of the Church
(21)—James V. (22)—Albany's
regency (23)—English interference (24)—the "Erection"
(25)—fall of Angus (26)—internal affairs (27)—English war
(28)—death of James; his character (29)—Mary
(30)—treaties with England (31)—first English invasion
(32)—second English invasion (33)—third English invasion;
fight at Pinkie (34)—internal
affairs (35)—Regency of Mary of Lorraine; first marriage
of Mary Stewart (36)—social progress (37)—state of education
and literature (38)—summary (39).
1. James I., 1424-1436. Return of the King.—In
1424 James came home and brought with him his English wife, Joan,
daughter of the Earl of Somerset. As he had been taken in
time of peace, a ransom could not decently be demanded,
but the Scots were required to pay forty thousand pounds
to defray the expenses of his eighteen years' maintenance
and education. The King, now at last restored to his
kingdom, let eight months pass quietly before taking vengeance
on those who had so long kept him out of it. He
spent this time in winning the confidence of the people and
of the lesser barons. He then seized Albany, his two sons,
and twenty-six other nobles at Perth, whither they had come
to attend the Parliament. Albany and his two sons were tried
before a jury of twenty-one peers, many of whom sat only to
secure their own safety. They were found guilty of treason
and put to death at Stirling. James himself presided at
the trial, thereby reviving the ancient practice of the King's
personal administration of justice.
2. The Highlands.—When James had thus got
rid of his dangerous cousins, he turned his attention to the Highlands
and Western Isles, which presented a strange mixture of
Celtic and of feudal manners. They were ruled partly by
Norman barons, and partly by native chiefs, and these
barons or chiefs were both alike upheld by that personal
devotion of their vassals which was the strong point of
Celtic clanship. James summoned the chiefs to a parliament
at Inverness in 1427. They obeyed the summons,
and were at once seized and imprisoned. Three of them were
hanged at that time. Several others shared the same fate
at a later date. Others were imprisoned, and a small
remnant only allowed to go away unhurt. Alexander, Lord
of the Isles, was among these last, and the first use he made
of his recovered liberty was to bring his islemen down on
Inverness, which they destroyed. James hurried northward
again and defeated him in Lochaber. Alexander gave himself
up to the King's grace, and was confined in Tantalion Castle.
But his kinsman, Donald Balloch, set himself at the head of
the clans and they defeated the royal army. James determined
to crush the Celts once and for ever. An additional
tax was levied for the purpose, and James set out once more
for the north. But the chiefs, who saw that the King was
just then too strong for them, met him with proffers of homage
and submission. Such submissions were, however, practically
worthless. In the eyes of the Celts they were just
as little binding as the parchment title-deeds by which the
government sought to change their chiefs into feudal barons.
3. Murder of James.—The policy of James
was to reduce the power of the baronage, and to balance it by strengthening
the clergy and encouraging the commons. He made strict
search into the titles by which the several nobles held their
lands, and more especially into the actual state of the estates
which had been held by the Crown in the time of Robert
the First. He deprived the Earl of March of his earldom,
on the ground that Albany, who had restored it to him,
had not the power to confer upon him the estates which
he had once forfeited by the transfer of his allegiance to
England. James also took from Malise Grahame his earldom
of Strathearn, which he had inherited through his
mother, on the ground that it was a male fief. He therefore
transferred it to the next male heir, Walter Stewart, Earl
of Athole, grand-uncle of Grahame, the only surviving son of
Robert the Second. These measures roused the dislike and
distrust of the class they were aimed at, and a conspiracy
was formed against the King. At its head was Sir Robert
Grahame, uncle of Malise, who had been banished for denouncing
the King's doings in Parliament. Through the
connivance of the Earl of Athole, the High Chamberlain, the
conspirators got entrance to the King's quarters, when he
was keeping his Christmas in the monastery of the Black
Friars at Perth, and there they treacherously murdered him,
1436. James left one son and five daughters. Margaret,
the eldest, was married to the Dauphin, afterwards Louis
the Eleventh of France.
4. Judicial Reforms.—James held many
parliaments, and pretty nearly all are noteworthy for passing wise
measures for the common good. In his first parliament, the "Committee
of the Articles," which dated from the reign of David
the Second, was acknowledged as an established part of the
parliament. This committee was elected by the parliament
at the beginning of its session, and nearly the whole power
of the Estates was made over to the persons chosen to form
it, who were called the Lords of the Articles. They consulted
together and considered the Articles presented to
them in parliament, which were then passed by the vote of
the Estates and became law. This custom, by which the
business of the whole parliament was left in the hands of
a committee, was afterwards found to be the weakest point
of the legislature, and paved the way for a great deal of
bribery and corruption. Statute law in Scotland dates from
this reign, as it was James who first caused a collection of
statutes to be made, and separated those that were still in
force from those that had fallen out of use. He also regulated
weights and measures, and fixed a standard for the coinage,
so that it should be of the same weight and fineness as the
money in England. From his reign also dates the appointment
of the office of Treasurer; the publication of the acts
of parliament in the language spoken by the people; the
first effort towards the representation of the lesser barons by
commissaries; and an attempt to establish a supreme court
of civil jurisdiction, which was to consist of the Chancellor
and three other persons chosen by the Estates,
and to sit three times a year. In order that the Scottish
people might learn to compete with the English bowmen,
James established schools in the different parishes for the
practice of archery. In short, he strove in every way to
make his people profit by what he had learnt and observed
during his long exile in England. He was a patron of
learning, and was himself a scholar and one of the earliest
and best English poets. The longest of his poems is called
the "King's Quhair" or book. In it he sang his love for
his fair English bride in strains that prove him to have been
a true poet. It is written in stanzas of seven lines each,
a very favourite measure in those days, which was afterwards
called the "roial rime" in memory of this poet-king.
5. James II., 1436-1460.—The young King,
who was only six years old when his father was killed, was crowned at
Holyrood, as Scone, the customary crowning-place, was too
near the Highlands, where the conspirators had taken
refuge, to be safe. He was then taken by his mother for
greater security to Edinburgh Castle. The object of the
murderers was to place on the throne the Earl of Athole,
who, as being the son of the second marriage of Robert
the Second, was looked on as the true heir by the party
who held that the first marriage of that king was not valid.
If this were their design, it was not seconded by the people,
who were filled with sorrow and anger at the death of the
King, who had made himself popular by all the good he
had done for them. A hue-and-cry was raised after the
murderers, who were taken and put to death with cruel
tortures.
6. Crichton and Livingstone.—The first part
of the reign was a struggle for the wardship of the King's person, which
gave nearly royal power to whoever held it. The rivals for
this honour were William Crichton, the Chancellor and
governor of Edinburgh Castle; Alexander Livingstone, the
governor of Stirling, the other great stronghold; and the
Queen-mother. The Queen, who feared that Crichton would
try to separate the young King from her if she stayed in
Edinburgh, succeeded in getting herself and her child out
of his hands by a stealthy flight to Stirling. But she soon
found that they had only changed jailers, for Livingstone
kept as strict a guard over the King as Crichton had done.
A few years later she married Stewart, Lord of Lorn, after
which she took no further part in public affairs. Her flight
to Stirling gave Livingstone for a time the advantage in the
possession of the King, till Crichton contrived to kidnap
him back to Edinburgh. But as the rivals found that it
would be more for the interest of each to act in concert
with the other, they made an agreement, by which James
was sent back to the custody of Livingstone.
7. The House of Douglas.—Archibald, Earl
of Douglas, was at this time the most powerful baron in Scotland. Besides
holding Galloway, Annandale, and other great estates in
Scotland, he had inherited the Duchy of Touraine, which had
been conferred on his father by the King of France for good
service done against the English, and in his foreign duchy
he possessed wealth and splendour beyond anything that the
Scottish king could boast. The family still had a hold
on the popular favour won for them by the Good Lord
James. They had also some pretensions to the crown of
Scotland, for Archibald, brother and heir of the Good Lord
James, had married a sister of the Red Comyn, who was
slain by Bruce. The Douglases therefore represented the
claim of the Comyns, which, as we have seen, was better than
that of Bruce. They were also descendants of Robert the
Second, through Euphemia, one of the children of his second
marriage, to whom those who looked on his first family
as illegitimate held that the crown ought to have gone.
Douglas had been chosen Lieutenant-Governor of the kingdom,
and had ample power to quiet the rival parties had he
chosen to exercise it. But he did not, and his nominal government
was ended by his death in 1439. William, his son, who
at seventeen succeeded to all this pride and power, kept up a
state and retinue almost royal, and much violence and oppression
were laid to his charge. Crichton and Livingstone agreed
to compass his downfall, and for this end they invited him
and his brother David to visit the King at Edinburgh. They
came, were seized, and, after the form of a trial, were beheaded
in the Castle-yard. The power of their house was thus
broken for a time. The estates were divided; part went with
the title to their grand-uncle James, the male heir, while
Galloway went to their sister Margaret. But on the death
of James they were re-united, for his son William married
Margaret of Galloway, his cousin. He then went to court,
to do his duty, as he said, to his sovereign, pretended that
the King had chosen him Lieutenant-General of the kingdom,
and got most of the power into his own hands. He and
Livingstone joined, and tried to make Crichton give up the
seals by besieging him in Edinburgh Castle; but he held
out so well that they were forced to make terms with him.
Douglas grew more proud and powerful every year. He
was already lord of nearly all the southern country, and he
joined in a bond with the great chiefs of the north,—the Lord
of the Isles, who was now Earl of Ross, and Alexander, Earl
of Crawford, the head of the house of Lindsay and representative
of the fallen Earls of March. He held meetings
of his vassals, to which he summoned all those who either
were or, as he thought, ought to be his dependants. Nor did
he scruple to put to death any who opposed him, in direct
defiance of the King's commands. But as the Earl's retainers
numbered 5,000, while the King had not so much as a bodyguard,
his commands were not easily enforced. On one occasion
the King sent Sir Patrick Gray to demand the release
of his nephew, M'Lellan, tutor or guardian of the young
Laird of Bunby, or Bomby, whom Douglas had put in ward
because he failed to appear at one of the gatherings of his
vassals. Douglas received him courteously, but said he
could on no account hear the King's message till his visitor
had dined. Meanwhile he had the prisoner brought out and
beheaded. When he heard the King's order he feigned great
respect for it, and, showing the body, said, "There lies your
sister's son; he wants the head, but the body is at your
service." Sir Patrick had to hide his anger as best he
might till he had got safe out of his hands.
8. Majority of James. Fall of Douglas.—The King's
majority was soon followed by the ruin of Livingstone.
Douglas was too strong to be openly attacked. He was
invited to Stirling and received in a friendly way. James
remonstrated with him about the bonds, and urged him to
break them off. Douglas refused. James in a fit of passion
cried out, "If you will not break the bonds, this shall," and
stabbed him. Sir Patrick Gray, who stood by, killed him with
his pole-axe. They then threw the mangled body into the
courtyard. This savage deed plunged the whole country
into civil war. James, the brother and heir of the murdered
Earl, openly defied the King; that is, he renounced
his allegiance to him as a traitor and a perjured man. His
cause was taken up by the parties to the bond, the Earls
of Ross and Crawford. The King, who felt himself too weak
to break the confederacy, was forced to turn to his own
advantage the enmity among his nobles, and to pull down
one house by building up another. This policy only changed
the name of the rivals of the Crown, without getting rid of
them, and it laid the foundation of the like troubles in future
reigns. In the north James entrusted the conduct of the war
to the head of the house of Gordon, whom he created Earl of
Huntly, and whose lands lay between those of the banded
Earls. In the south the Earl of Angus, the head of the Red
Douglases as they were called, was made use of to overthrow
the Black Douglases, the elder branch of the family. The
question whether James Stewart or James Douglas should
wear the crown was settled by a battle at Arkinholm, in
Eskdale in 1454. Douglas was forsaken by many of his followers,
and was defeated and fled to England. An act of forfeiture
was passed against him and all his house, and, to prevent any
one family again becoming so formidable, another act was
passed, which made Galloway and certain other lordships
and castles inalienable from the Crown. But, in spite of this,
the greater part of the lands of the fallen Douglas went to his
kinsman Angus. Many other families also, among them the
Hamiltons, rose from the ruins of the Black Douglases.
Sir James Hamilton, the head of the house, had been one
of the adherents of the Earl, but he deserted to the royal
side on the eve of the battle of Arkinholm.
9. Siege of Roxburgh.—As the strife
which was at this time going on between the Yorkists and Lancastrians
kept the English busy at home, there was comparative peace on
the Border, broken only by an inroad from Percy and the
banished Douglas. James took the part of Henry VI., and
raised a large army with the intention of invading England
in his favour. But there was no serious war, and James saw
that there was now a good chance of winning back the towns
which the English still held in Scotland. He therefore laid
siege to Roxburgh, and was killed there by the bursting of a
large cannon which he was watching with great interest.
After his death the Queen urged on the siege, and Roxburgh
was taken and destroyed. This siege is noteworthy as being
among the first in which we hear of the use of artillery in
Scotland. Another notable feature of it was the presence
of the Lord of the Isles with an auxiliary force, for which
service he was made one of the Wardens of the Border.
James had married Mary, the daughter of the Duke of
Gelders, and left four sons, the eldest only eight years old.
The second university in Scotland was founded in this
reign, at Glasgow, by Bishop Turnbull.
10. James III., 1460-1488.—During the first
part of this reign, Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrews, had the chief
part in the government. He died in 1466, and on his death the
Boyds got hold of the King and of the chief power. These
Boyds were originally simple lairds, but they strengthened
themselves by bonds with more powerful families, won the
King's favour and finally got possession of his person, by
making him come with them, partly by persuasion, partly
by force, from Stirling to Edinburgh. They then obtained
an act of the Estates declaring that this step had been
taken with the full consent and good pleasure of the King.
The Lord Boyd was appointed guardian of his person and
of the royal strongholds, his son Thomas was created Earl
of Arran, and with the earldom the King's sister Mary was
given him in marriage.
11. Annexation of Orkney and Shetland.—For many
years the rent of the Western Isles had not been paid to the King
of Norway. There were heavy arrears due to him which
had been demanded in the last reign. It was now agreed to
settle the matter peaceably by the marriage of James with
Margaret, daughter of Christian of Norway, in 1469. Her
dowry was the claim for the arrears and 60,000 florins, in
security for which the Orkney and Shetland Isles were
placed as pledges in the hands of the King of Scotland.
These islands have never been redeemed by payment of
the sum agreed on. Arran had been chiefly concerned
in bringing about this marriage. During his absence
at the court of Christian his enemies were busy in compassing
his fall. His wife sent him timely warning of
his danger, and he fled first to Denmark and finally to
England, whither his father had also escaped. But Alexander,
the younger son, was made the scapegoat for the sins
of his kindred. He was seized, tried, and put to death
for his share in kidnapping the King, which was now denounced
as treason. The family estates were forfeited, and
most of them were declared inalienable from the Crown.
12. Relations with England.—In the beginning
of the reign, Edward the Fourth kept up a seeming show of
friendliness, but he was secretly treating with Douglas and
the Lord of the Isles to the effect that they should hold the
two parts of Scotland as principalities dependent on England.
The end of this underhand dealing was that John,
son of the Lord of the Isles, invaded and wasted the district
that was to be his principality, all the country north of the
Scots Water. This led to the final breaking up of the lordship
of the Isles, for he was called to account for his rebellion,
and was required to resign the districts of Knapdale and
Kintyre, the original Scottish kingdom; the sheriffdoms of
Inverness and Nairn, and the earldom of Ross, which was
vested in the Crown. In exchange for his proud but doubtful
title of Lord of the Isles, he was made a peer of parliament.
In 1474 a marriage was arranged between Edward's daughter
Cecily and James the Prince of Scotland. It was broken off
owing to a quarrel between the King and his brothers, Alexander
Duke of Albany, and John Earl of Mar. They were
much more popular than James, and, when Mar died suddenly
in Craigmillar Castle, James was suspected of having
poisoned him. Albany was arrested and confined in Edinburgh
Castle on a charge of treasonable dealings with
Edward. He escaped to France in hopes of getting Louis
the Eleventh to take his part, but he found a more willing
helper in Edward. An agreement was made that Edward
should place Albany on the throne of Scotland, that he
should hold it, and that he should marry the Lady Cecily.
After divers threatening messages had been exchanged between
the two governments, and many threatenings of attack
had been made, a great Scottish army was mustered to
invade England in good earnest.
13. Revolt of the Nobles.—The King had
always been unpopular with his nobles. His love of money and of peaceable
pursuits found little sympathy with them, and they
could neither understand nor tolerate his fancy for making
favourites of men whom they despised. The time had
now come when they could take the law into their own
hands. The army raised for the invasion of England was
led by the King in person, and advanced as far as Lauder
in Berwickshire. There the nobles met together, with old
Angus at their head, to devise some way of getting rid
of the most hated of these favourites. This was Robert
Cochrane, a mason or architect, to whom the King had
given the control of the artillery in this expedition. He had
also conferred on him the revenues of the earldom of Mar,
and Cochrane, going a step further, had assumed the title.
While they were deliberating, the Lord Gray, so the story
goes, quoted the old fable of the mice and the cat, meaning
thereby that all their talk would come to nothing unless
one of their number was bold enough to attack their enemy.
On this Archibald Earl of Angus cried out, "Heed not,
I'll bell the cat." This saying won him the nickname
of "Bell the Cat." While they thus sat in council in
the church, Cochrane himself knocked at the door and demanded
admittance in the name of the King. The finery
which he wore, the chain of massive gold thrown round
his neck, the jewelled horn that dangled from it, the gilt
helmet borne before him, still further heated the wrath of
the lords. They seized him, and with many insults accused
him of misguiding the King and the government. Meanwhile
they had sent a band of armed men to the King's tent to
secure Rogers, a musician, and the other favourites. They
then hanged them all over Lauder Bridge. John Ramsay
of Balmain was the only one of the favourites who was
spared to the entreaties of the King. The triumphant barons
then brought the King back to Edinburgh, 1482. Soon after
this Albany came back, and demanded the release of his
brother, and for a short time they lived together seemingly
on good terms, while Albany really ruled. But before long
he found it most prudent to return to England, and he
showed his real designs by putting Dunbar Castle into the
hands of the English.
14. Battle of Sauchieburn.—The King, who
had not learned wisdom by the lesson of Lauder Bridge, grew more
and more unpopular. A confederacy was formed, and a large
army was raised by the lords south of the Forth. To give
a show of justice to their doings, they placed James the
Prince of Scotland at their head, professing to have deposed
his father, and to have accepted him as their lawful king.
North of the Scots Water the country was true to James, and
there he collected a considerable force. The two armies met
at Sauchieburn. The King, who was not brave, turned and
fled at the first sign that the day was going against him.
In his flight he was thrown from his horse and carried to
a mill built on the Bannock Burn, where he was murdered
by an unknown hand, 1488.
15. Church Matters.—In 1471 St. Andrews
was raised to an Archbishopric. Pope Sextus the Fourth sent the pallium
to Robert Graham the bishop, but this increase of dignity only
proved a source of torment to him, for his suffragans, out of
jealousy, accused him of all manner of heresies and crimes.
He was deposed and degraded, and ended his days in confinement.
16. James IV., 1488-1513.—The first thing
to be done after the affair of Sauchieburn was to find out what had become
of the King, and, when his death was made sure of, an inquiry
was set on foot as to the cause of it. The offices of state
were transferred to the party in power, and an act of amnesty
was passed, to take in all persons who had taken part with
the late King in the struggle which the nobles pleased to
call the late rebellion. Two ineffectual risings to avenge
the murder of the King were made by the Lords Lennox
and Forbes, and three years later, to pacify the clamours
of the people, a reward of one hundred marks was offered
for the discovery of the actual murderers.
17. English Intrigues.—Just at this
time Henry the Seventh of England had his hands too busy at home to
allow of his making open war upon Scotland, but he carried
on secret schemes with Angus, Ramsay, and others
for the capture of the King. James, on the other hand,
upheld that Perkin Warbeck was really Richard, Duke of
York, received him at his court as the son of King
Edward, and gave him in marriage his kinswoman Lady
Katharine Gordon. A force of French and Burgundians
came to aid him, and an army crossed the Border, but it
did nothing, as the rising which had been planned, and
was to have been made at the same time in the north of
England, did not take place. At last James got tired of
Perkin, sent him off to Ireland, though with a princely escort,
and renewed a truce with Henry, in 1497. The two kings
were drawn still closer by the marriage of James with
Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry, in 1502.
18. State of the Highlands.—James paid
frequent visits to Kintyre, the Isles, and Inverness,
and took measures for the building of more castles and the maintenance of
garrisons in those already built. This plan might have been successful
in keeping the country quiet, if the Crown had been strong
enough to carry it out. As it was not, James was forced to
fall back on the old policy of turning the feuds of the chiefs
to their own destruction, by empowering one to act against
another. Again the Gordons got a great increase of power,
for their head, the Earl of Huntly, was appointed sheriff of
Inverness, Ross, and Caithness, with the condition that he
should finish and maintain a fortress at Inverness. In the west
the charge of keeping order was put into the hands of the Earl
of Argyle, the chief of the Campbells. An attempt was also
made to break up the Isles into sheriffdoms, and to impose
upon the Highlanders the laws of the Lowlands. A commission
was issued for the banishment of broken men, as those
clansmen were called who had no representative chiefs, and
an Act was passed which made the chiefs responsible for
the execution of legal writs upon their clansmen. But the
disaffected chiefs rallied round Donald Dhu, an illegitimate
descendant of the last Lord of the Isles, and it took three
years' fighting on the part of the King and of Huntly to
reduce them. Donald was at last brought captive to Edinburgh,
and the lordship of the Isles was finally broken up in 1504.
19. Differences with England.—In this reign
Scotland first appears as a naval power, and this proved a new source of
strife with England. One of the King of Scots' captains, Andrew
Barton, bore letters of marque against the Portuguese, but the
English accused him of taking English vessels also. He was
attacked in time of truce by the Howards. He himself was
killed in the action, and his ship, the Lion, was taken, and
became the second ship in the English navy. James had also
another cause of complaint against Henry the Eighth, for
Henry refused to give up to his sister Margaret a legacy of
jewels left to her by her father. When therefore England
and France declared war, Scotland stood by her old ally, the
bond between them was drawn closer, the right of citizenship
in France was extended to the Scots, and Queen Anne
of France made an appeal to the chivalrous feeling of James
by choosing him as her knight, and calling on him for assistance.
James therefore fitted out a fleet of twenty-three
vessels. Among them was a very large ship called the
Great Michael, which was looked on as a masterpiece of
shipbuilding. This fleet was put under the command of
James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, with orders to sail for
France. Instead of doing this, he stormed Carrickfergus,
and what became of the ships was never clearly made out.
20. Battle of Flodden.—James also determined
to invade England. Though the cause was not popular, the King was,
and a large army was soon mustered. The King himself
led the host across the Border, and encamped on the Till,
but, as he would not take the advice of Angus and others
who knew more of border fighting than he did, he mismanaged
the whole affair. He idled away the time till his
own army began to disperse and the English had time to
gather; then he let them cross the river unopposed, and finally
left his strong position on the hill to meet them hand to
hand in the plain. The result was an utter defeat, and the
King, who was more eager to display his own valour than to
act the part of the general in command, was slain in the
thickest of the fight. Twelve earls and thirteen barons fell
round him, and every noble house in Scotland left some of
its name on the fatal field of Flodden Sept. 9, 1513. The
death of James the Fourth was deeply mourned, for his reign
had been peaceable and prosperous. He was popular with
the nobles, because he kept them round him, and freely
spent his father's savings; and with the commons, because
of his rigorous maintenance of justice, his encouragement of
commerce and agriculture, and his easy, kindly manners.
James is described as middle-sized, handsome, and well-made.
Besides Latin and several other foreign languages,
he could speak the Irish or Gaelic, which was the native
tongue of his western subjects. During his reign Scotland
was more prosperous than it had been since the days of
the last Alexander. Trade was flourishing and on the increase,
and large quantities of wool, hides, and fish were
exported to other countries.
21. Church Matters.—In 1492, at the petition of
the Estates, the pallium was sent from Rome to Robert
Blackadder, Bishop of Glasgow, with licence to bear the cross and all
other archiepiscopal insignia. This led to bitter strife between
the two Archbishops, who referred their disputes to the
Pope, to the great wrath of the Estates, who denounced and
forbade all such appeals to Rome. The burning of Reseby had
not put a stop to the spreading of Wickliffe's doctrines, for
we find thirty persons accused of the Lollard heresy by
Blackadder. Two great steps towards the advancement of
learning were made in this reign: the one was the foundation
of a third University at Aberdeen, on the model of the
University of Paris, by Elphinstone, the good Bishop of
Aberdeen; the other was the introduction of the art of
printing, by means of which knowledge could be extended
to the people. The first press was set up by Walter Chapman,
under the patronage of the King.
22. James V., 1513-1542.—The news of the
defeat at Flodden spread grief and terror through the country.
The citizens of Edinburgh built a wall round their city, but its
strength was not tried, for the English army dispersed
instead of advancing. The Estates met at Perth, and the
Queen-mother was appointed Regent, for the King was an
infant only two years old. But within a year the Queen
married Archibald, the young Earl of Angus, and the
Estates then transferred the regency to John, Duke of
Albany, High Admiral of France, son of the brother of
James the Third. Peace was made with England, Scotland
being taken in as the ally of France in a treaty
between that country and England.
23. Albany's Regency.—Albany's government
was at first very unpopular, for the national jealousy was roused by the
number of his French followers. The Queen at first refused
to give up the King, but she was besieged in Stirling Castle
and obliged to yield. The country was distracted by the
brawls of the two great factions, the Hamiltons and the
Douglases. The Earl of Arran was the head of the former,
Angus of the latter. The Governor put them down with the
help of the French: Angus was seized and transported to
France; his wife fled to England, where he contrived to join
her before long. The Lord Home and his brother, two of
the few survivors of Flodden, and the most powerful of the
Angus faction, were seized at Edinburgh and beheaded, after
the mere form of a trial. But Albany went back to France
after he had been about a year in Scotland; and as he left
a Frenchman, Anthony de la Bastie, Warden of the Border,
and placed the strongholds in the hands of the French also,
the Scots grew more jealous and turbulent than before. De
la Bastie fell a victim to the national hatred of foreigners.
He was killed in a border raid by one of the Homes, in revenge
for the death of his kinsman, the Lord Home. The
Celts in the west re-asserted their independence, and the feud
between the Hamiltons and the Douglases broke out worse
than ever. They brought their brawls into the very streets
of the capital. The Hamiltons laid a plan for attacking the
Douglases, and making Angus prisoner. Gavin Douglas,
Bishop of Dunkeld, fearing that his kinsmen might get the
worst of it, appealed to James Beaton, the primate, to stop it.
Beaton solemnly declared on his conscience that he knew
nothing of the matter; and to give weight to his words, laid
his hand on his heart, and in so doing struck the breastplate
which he always wore. On this, Douglas, who heard
the ring of the armour, told him that he heard his conscience
"clattering," that is, telling tales. In the fight that followed,
Angus so thoroughly routed his foes that the fray was called
"Clear the Causeway," and after it he held the city with
an armed force. Thus five years passed, and the Regent,
who had nominally gone back to France for a few months
only, was still absent, and it took a great deal of urging
and threatening from the Estates to bring him back to his trust.
24. English Interference.—It was now nine
years since Flodden, and, as there had been peace with England during
that time, the country had somewhat recovered her strength.
When therefore Henry began to meddle in the affairs of Scotland,
to require that Albany should be dismissed, and that the
French connexion should be broken off, the Estates refused
and prepared for war. As the greater part of the English
force was in France, the northern counties of England were
comparatively unprotected, and it was just the time for
striking an effective blow there. Instead of doing this, Albany
came to terms with Lord Dacre, the English Warden, and
the large army that had gathered round him melted away
without doing anything. But the truce was not renewed.
Dacre stormed Jedburgh, and the Scots mustered again.
This time their numbers were increased by the presence of
some French auxiliaries whom Albany had brought back from
France, to which he had paid a second visit. Again the army
was brought to the Border without being led any further. By
this time the Scots were thoroughly disgusted with Albany,
and he with them; and shortly after this second fruitless
expedition, he sailed for France and took the Frenchmen
with him, 1524.
25. "Erection" of the King.—No sooner
was Albany gone than Henry, through his subtle chancellor Wolsey,
tried to make the Scots break with France. Margaret,
the Queen-mother, was the great upholder of the English
interest; James Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrews and
Chancellor, was the leader of the French party. Wolsey
tried hard to get hold of Beaton on various pretexts, but
Beaton was too cunning for him, and held himself apart in
his own strong castle of St. Andrews, where he kept up
dealings with France. But the English party were for a time
the stronger, and, by the advice of Henry, James, who was
now twelve years old, was set up to rule in his own name,
and took his place at the head of the parliament, August
1524. The only change made by this step, called the erection,
was that Albany's nominal government was done away
with, and the French influence much weakened. Still Henry's
interference was not liked, and the capture of Francis the
First at Pavia turned the tide of popular feeling back to
the old allies of France. Since the erection, Arran had
been the nominal head of the government, but in 1526 the
King, who was now fourteen, was considered old enough to
choose his own guardians. He chose the Earls of Errol,
Argyle, and Angus, and an agreement was made that each
in succession was to have the care of the King for three
months. Angus's turn came first, but at the end of it he
refused to give up his charge, and for two years he tyrannized
over both the King and his subjects, and successfully
resisted all attempts at a rescue.
26. Fall of Angus.—James at last contrived
to make his escape by riding in the night, disguised as a groom, from
Falkland to Stirling Castle, 1528. Now that he was at last
safely out of the hands of the Douglases, he set to work to
crush them utterly. It was made treason for any who bore
that name to come within six miles of the King, and an act
of forfeiture was passed against them. Angus had many
adherents; but as all those nobles who hoped for a share
of his lands took part with the King, they proved too strong
for him, and he was at last obliged to give in, and to flee
for refuge to England. Thus the overthrow of the Red
Douglases was as thorough as had been that of the elder
branch, on whose ruin they had risen.
27. Internal Affairs.—James began his
reign by executing summary justice on the lawless and turbulent part
of his subjects. The Borderers were now nearly as troublesome as the
Highlanders. They dwelt in the debateable ground between
England and Scotland, and preyed on either country with the
greatest impartiality. Certain families, as the Kerrs, Armstrongs,
and Scotts, had a sort of monopoly of this wholesale
thieving; and as they had taken to the clan system of the
Celts, each robber chief in his peel tower could count, not
only on the unquestioning service, but also on the personal
devotion of every man in his following. John Armstrong
had made himself famous among them by his daring
deeds. For this renown James made him pay dear; for
judging that he, the most notorious offender, would make
the most telling example of the force of justice, he had
him seized and hanged like a common thief. New means
were tried for quieting the disturbances in the Western
Highlands and Isles. Argyle was deprived of his
lieutenancy, and the government was in future to deal directly
with the chiefs for the collection of taxes and of the feudal
dues. Three persons were put to death in this reign for
conspiracy and treason, all of whom were more or less
connected with the banished Angus. These were the Lady
Glammis, his sister; the Master of Forbes, his brother-in-law;
and James Hamilton, the illegitimate brother of Arran,
who was accused of being in league with him.
28. English War.—Though the need of a
reform in the Church was felt and openly discussed in parliament, and
the shortcomings of the clergy were unsparingly ridiculed by
the popular poets, still neither the King nor the people were
inclined to break off from Rome, as Henry the Eighth had
done. But Henry was most anxious that his nephew should
follow his example, and a meeting between them at York
was agreed on. But James, doubtful of Henry's good faith,
did not keep tryst. Henry was furious; he brought up
again the old claim of supremacy over Scotland, and to enforce
the claim he sent an army to invade Scotland. James
prepared to avenge this attack; but when his army got as
far as the Border, the nobles refused to go further, and a
body of ten thousand men who had passed the Esk were
surprised and scattered by Dacre, while they were contending
about the chief command.
29. Death and Character of James.—The King
meanwhile was waiting in Caerlaverock Castle. At the same time
that he heard of the shameful defeat of his army at Solway
Moss, the news was brought that a daughter was born to him.
This child was heir to the throne, for his two sons had died in
infancy. James thought that the birth of a girl at this time
was an ill omen for Scotland. He murmured, "It came wi'
a lass, and it'll gang wi' a lass." By this he meant that, as
it was by Marjory Bruce that the crown had first passed into
the Stewart family, so with this infant it would pass from
it. Eight days later he died of grief and disappointment,
December 14, 1542. James is the first King of Scots of
whom we have a portrait. He was handsome, but had red
hair, which won him the nickname of the "Red Tod," or red
fox. He was not liked by the nobles, but the commons
loved him well. His habit of going about in disguise familiarly
among the people, endeared him to them, and led him
into many amusing adventures. James was twice married,
first to Magdalen, daughter of Francis the First, King of
France; secondly, to Mary, daughter of the Duke of Guise,
widow of the Duke of Longueville. In character and policy
James was something like James the First. Like him, he
strove to curb the power of the nobles, and to win for the
Crown something more than mere nominal power, by making
reforms which were much needed in the administration of
justice. He worked out his ancestor's idea of a supreme
court of justice by founding the Court of Session, or College
of Justice. This court consisted first of thirteen, afterwards
of fifteen, members, half of whom were clerks, and who
acted both as judge and jury. As the members of this
court were chosen from the parliament, it had the power of
parliament, and was supreme in all civil cases, there being no
appeal beyond it. James was not only a patron of letters,
but himself a poet, one of the few royal poets whose writings
will bear comparison with those of meaner birth. "Christ's
Kirk on the Green," and the "Gaberlunzie Man," are the
titles of two poems that are ascribed to him, but on no
very certain proof. They are both descriptions of scenes
from peasant life. If indeed they were written by him, the
choice of the subjects and the way in which they are treated
show how well he knew the condition of his people. They,
in loving remembrance of the favour he had always shown
them, gave him the title of "King of the Commons, and
the People's Poet."
30. Mary, 1542-1554. Arran's Regency.—James
Hamilton, Earl of Arran, next heir to the throne by his
descent from James the Second, was chosen Regent, but, as
it was the Scotch custom that the nearest of kin on the
mother's side should have the care of the minor, the infant
Queen was left in charge of her mother, Mary of Lorraine.
The defeat at Solway Moss, and the death of the King, had
left the people nearly as dispirited and defenceless as they
had been after Flodden, and Henry the Eighth determined
to get the kingdom into his power by marrying Mary to his
son Edward, Prince of Wales.
31. Treaties with England.—To carry out
his plans the better, he sent Angus back to Scotland, and with him the
Lords Cassilis and Glencairn, and several other nobles, all
pledged to do their best to place the Queen and the strongholds
in the hands of Henry. These nobles were called by
the English the Assured Scots, because Henry thought he
could be sure of their help, but they were either unable or
unwilling to give him the aid for which he had hoped. It
was not till July in the next year that two treaties were
drawn up at London: the one for the English alliance;
the other agreeing to the English marriage of the Queen.
But there was a strong national party, much set against
any dealings with England; and, though the treaties were
approved at one meeting of the Estates, it was plain
that they would be thrown out at the next. The Regent
tried to break them off, and Henry, greatly enraged, made
ready for war, and seized some Scotch ships which had
been driven by stress of weather into English ports. This
was reason enough for the rejection of the treaties by the
Estates. Shortly after, the "Assured Scots" changed sides
and made a bond with the Regent; but Henry got a new
supporter in Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox, who, as
he wished to marry Margaret Douglas, daughter of Angus,
Henry's niece and ward, was eager to do anything to win Henry's favour.
32. First English Invasion.—War was
declared at Edinburgh by an English herald, May 1, 1544, and an English
army under Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, was sent by
sea and landed at Granton. He was bidden to destroy Edinburgh
and as many other towns and villages as he conveniently
could, and he carried out his orders to the letter.
He sacked and burned Leith, a wealthy trading town, set fire
to Edinburgh, though no resistance had been made to him
there, robbed the burghs on the coast of Fife, and then
marched south to the Border, burning, slaying, spoiling, and
leaving a wasted land behind him. The only resistance he
met with was near the Border, where a division of his army
which had been sent to Melrose to break open the tombs of
the ancestors of Angus was routed at Ancrum by Angus
himself and some of the Border lords. At the news of this
success six hundred Borderers from the Scottish side, who
had been fighting in the service of the English Wardens,
changed sides and attacked their former brothers in arms.
The rest of the nation then took heart, and a large force was
mustered and brought to the Border, but did nothing.
33. Second English Invasion.—Before
the traces of his former ravages had disappeared, just when the next
harvest was ready for the sickle, Hertford appeared again at the head
of a motley host, swelled by half-savage Irish and by foreign
hirelings, and repeated the wild work of the year before. The
invaders attacked and plundered the religious houses. The
ruins of Kelso, Melrose, Dryburgh, Roxburgh, and Coldingham
still bear witness to their zeal in carrying out the
orders of their master. Towns, manors, churches, and
between two and three hundred villages were left in ashes
behind them. All this misery was wantonly inflicted without
winning for Henry a foot of ground or a single new subject.
34. Third English Invasion. Battle of Pinkie.—Two
years passed, and again the sorely scourged country was visited
by its old enemy. Hertford, now Duke of Somerset and
Protector of England during the minority of Edward the
Sixth, thought by one well-aimed blow to wrest from the
people their proud boast, the national independence. Two
armies, the one led by himself and the other sent by sea,
met at Musselburgh and threatened the capital. The Regent
had mustered a large force to resist them, and the two hosts
faced each other on opposite banks of the Esk. But the
Scots very foolishly left their strong position and forced
the English to a battle, in which they were again defeated
with great slaughter, at Pinkie, September 10, 1547. After
the battle Somerset went back to England, and took the
greater part of his army with him. As most of the strongholds
were now in the hands of the English, it was thought
best to send the Queen to France that she might be out of
harm's way. The French sent six thousand men to help in
driving out the English, a work that was not ended till 1550,
when a short peace followed the nine years of cruel war. If
we consider the difference of the times and the advance of
civilization, the fiercest raids of Malcolm and of Wallace
may be favourably compared with the misery wrought by
Hertford in these three savage and unprovoked attacks.
35. Internal Affairs.—The overthrow of the
monasteries, the seizure of their revenues, and the other changes in religious
matters carried out by Henry the Eighth in England,
had been approved by a large party in Scotland. They
were eager to begin the same work there, for the Church,
by her abuse of power and by her persecution of all who
differed from her, was fast losing her hold upon the people.
The first outbreak of the popular feeling was the murder
of Cardinal David Beaton, the Primate, the leader of the
French party in the state and the chief mover of religious
persecution. In revenge for the burning of George Wishart
in 1545, for preaching what was called heresy, sixteen of
Wishart's followers murdered Beaton in his own Castle of
St. Andrews, which they had entered by a stratagem, and
which they held for fourteen months, setting at defiance all
the Regent's efforts to retake it. It was only with the help of
the French that they were at last obliged to give in, and were
sent to the French galleys. Among them was John Knox,
who twelve years later became famous as the apostle of the
Reformation among his countrymen. On the death of Beaton,
Arran made his own ambitious brother John Archbishop of
St. Andrews, in the room of the murdered Cardinal. The castle was destroyed.
36. Regency of Mary of Lorraine. First Marriage of
Mary Stewart.—In 1554, Arran, who had been created Duke
of Chatelherault by the French king, went back to France, and
Mary of Lorraine became Regent. The league with France
was drawn still closer by the marriage of the Queen with
Francis the Dauphin. Francis became King of France in 1559.
The crown-matrimonial of Scotland was then granted to him,
so that the two countries were for a short time united under
one crown. On the strength of this the French began to
give themselves airs of superiority which the Scots could ill
bear from strangers, and before long they became well-nigh
as unpopular as the English had been. The Regent was
unconsciously doing her best to foster this feeling of dislike
by placing foreigners in offices of trust, above all by making
Frenchmen keepers of the strongholds. But there was
another influence now at work, the desire of religious reform,
which wrought a change in the national life greater than any
that had been felt since the time of the first Robert.
37. Social Progress.—The intercourse with
the French which arose from the close alliance of Scotland with France,
influenced the social development of the nation throughout
this period more strongly than during any other time either
before or after it. The members of the National Council
when they met in parliament were not, as in England,
divided into lords and commons; the representatives of the
three Estates, the Barons, the Clergy, and the
Commons, assembled in one chamber, as was the French custom.
All the tenants holding direct from the Crown were required to
present themselves at these assemblies; but James the First
released the lesser barons from this attendance, which they
felt to be rather an irksome duty than a privilege, by allowing
them to send commissaries in their stead. These commissaries,
with the deputies from the cities and burghs, formed
the Third Estate. The supreme court of justice, the Court
of Session, established by James the Fifth, was formed on
the model of the Parliament of Paris. The Universities
were founded in the fifteenth century, at St. Andrews, at
Glasgow, and at Aberdeen. Of these, Aberdeen was an
exact imitation of the University of Paris. The architecture
of this period, both domestic and ecclesiastical, is in many
respects like the French. Melrose Abbey, and the palaces
of Falkland and of Stirling, which were very richly
ornamented, were built in the time of the Jameses. The houses
of the nobles were also built in imitation of the French
style. There are no remains of burgh domestic architecture
older than the sixteenth century. Many French words also
found their way into the Lowland Scotch, as the language of
the Lothians came to be called. By this time there was so
much difference between this dialect and that spoken at the
English court, that the people who spoke the one could
scarcely understand the other. The foreign trade of Scotland
was most prosperous during the reign of James the Fourth.
Fish, wools, and hides were the principal exports. By this
time coal, which is first mentioned towards the end of the
thirteenth century, was in general use. There were also
lead and iron mines; and gold was found, though not in
any large quantities. Of this native gold James the Fourth
struck some beautiful coins, which were called bonnet pieces,
because they bore the image of the King wearing a bonnet.
The state of the people at this time was one of almost serf-like
dependence on their lords. But great as the power of
the nobles was, there were no forest or game laws in Scotland,
nor did they enjoy any privilege of peerage. An offender
against the law, if he could be brought to justice, had to
"thole an assize," like any peasant, however high his rank might be.
38. Education and Literature.—In early times
all the education that was within the reach of the people had been
offered to them by the Church. Schools were founded and
maintained in several towns by the great monasteries, and
there was provision made for the education of the choristers
attached to the several cathedral churches. In later times
there were Grammar Schools founded by the burgh corporations.
In 1496 an Act was passed requiring all "barons and
freeholders" to keep their sons at these schools until they
should be "competently founded," and have "perfect Latin,"
under pain of a fine of twenty pounds. A book, purporting
to be the History of Scotland, was written in Latin by
Hector Boece, the first Principal of the University of Aberdeen.
The greater part of this book is purely imaginary.
The Latin "Scotichronicon" of Fordun, was continued by
Walter Bower, Abbot of Inchcolm, down to the middle of
the fifteenth century. Besides the two kings James the First
and Fifth, there were other notable poets in Scotland in the
middle of the fifteenth century. Blind Harry, the Minstrel,
then did for Wallace what about a century before Barbour
had done for Bruce, by putting together all the popular
stories of his deeds in a spirit-stirring poem that bears his
hero's name. William Dunbar, a friar of the order of St.
Francis, wrote a poem called The Thistle and the Rose,
to celebrate the marriage of James the Fourth with Margaret
Tudor. This, and the Golden Terge, and the Dance of
the Seven Deadly Sins, are the best among his writings.
Gawin Douglas, afterwards Bishop of Dunkeld, the
son of that Earl of Angus who was nicknamed Bell-the-Cat, also
wrote several poems in the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Those best known are King Hart, the Palace of
Honour, and a translation of Virgil's Æneid. Some years
after Douglas wrote, Sir David Lyndesay, the companion of
James the Fifth's childhood, and the mourner of his untimely
death, directed many clever satires against the abuses in
the Church, the vices of the clergy, and the follies of the
court. The Dreme, the Satire of the Three Estates, and the
Monarchy, are his best poems.
39. Summary.—During this period, which
extends over more than a century, the country made little progress
either socially or politically. Of the five kings, all bearing the
same name, who in turn wore the crown, four died violent
deaths; and of these four, two were treacherously murdered
by their own subjects. Most of them came to the throne in
childhood; not one attained old age. Their reigns were
chiefly passed in struggles to put down their lawless and
turbulent nobles, who in each succeeding minority waxed
more powerful and more independent. In the reigns of
James the Second and of James the Fifth, this contest
between the Crown and the Baronage took the form of a
struggle between the House of Stewart and the House of
Douglas. In both cases the King compassed the fall of his
rival only by placing a dangerous amount of power in the
hands of the other nobles. The foreign policy of Scotland
under the Jameses was very simple. It consisted in maintaining
a close alliance with France and a constant quarrel
with England. But the French never gave the Scots any
real help, and the English were so much taken up at home
with the Civil Wars of the Roses that they made no serious
attacks on the independence of Scotland. Though during
this period there were four long minorities, there was no
attempt made to break the regular line of succession. This
was due partly to the attachment of the people to the royal
line, and partly to the weakness of the royal authority, for
the King had so little real power that the great nobles did
not think the crown worth taking. The reign of James the
Fourth was the most peaceful and prosperous, but James the
First did the most for the welfare of the people.
THE REFORMATION.
The Reformation (1)—state of the Church
(2)—the first Covenant
(3)—religious riots (4)—treaties with England (5)—Reformation
statutes (6)—return of the Queen (7)—division of the Church
lands (8)—fall of Huntly (9)—second marriage of the Queen
(10)—murder of Rizzio (11)—flight to Dunbar (12)—murder of
Darnley (13)—third marriage of the Queen (14)—surrender at
Carberry (15)—captivity of the Queen (16)—James VI.; Regency
of Murray (17)—escape of Mary (18)—Battle of Langside; flight
of Mary (19)—the Conference (20)—state of parties (21)—murder
of the Regent (22)—Regency of Lennox (23)—taking of Dunbarton
(24)—Parliament at Stirling (25)—Regency of Mar (26)—Tulchan
bishops (27)—death of Knox (28)—taking of Edinburgh (29)—Regency
of Morton (30)—fall of Morton (31)—raid of Ruthven
(32)—fall of Gowrie (33)—fall of Arran (34)—death of Mary—(35)
marriage of the King (36)—abolition of episcopacy (37)—the
Spanish blanks (38)—religious tumults (39)—the Gowrie Plot
(40)—union of the Crowns (41)—state of the nation (42)—summary
(43).
1. The Reformation.—Five hundred years had
gone by since the English, who fled from the Norman Conqueror,
had brought about a great social revolution in the Celtic
kingdom, where they found a refuge. We now find another
revolution arising from a very similar cause. But there was
a difference in the way in which these great changes were
wrought out characteristic of the two centuries in which they
took place. In the eleventh century it was the influence of
the Court which little by little changed the people; in the
sixteenth century, the people struggled against, and in the
end overcame, the opposition of the Court. When Mary
Tudor became Queen of England, she wished to place the
English Church under the authority of the Pope, even more
than it had been before the changes of her father Henry.
All who held the Reformed doctrines were persecuted as
heretics. Many of these so-called heretics sought safety
across the Border, in Scotland, and were welcomed there
with a kindness that would have seemed impossible but
a few years before, when the deadly war was waging. But
religious sympathy got the better of national hate, and thus
the religious zeal of Mary Tudor may be said to have
hastened the Reformation in Scotland, which the cruelties
of Henry and of Somerset had for a while delayed. Still
the traditional bent of the national feeling influenced the
character of the new movement, and led the Scottish Reformers
to mould anew the polity and form of worship of
their Church after the model of the French Calvinists, rather
than to follow the example of the Church of England in her
merely doctrinal reform.
2. State of the Church.—In Scotland, as
in the other lands of Western Christendom, the clergy had lost their hold
on the commons by their immorality and irreligion; their greed
of money, and their abuse of their spiritual powers; while
they had roused the jealousy of the nobles by their wealth,
and by the influence won by their learning, which, though it
was often but little, secured to them the offices of state.
The hope of getting hold of some of the well-cultivated
Church lands, led many lairds, as landholders are called in
Scotland, to join the popular movement of Reform.
3. The First Covenant.—The friends of
Reform were thus silently becoming a power in the state, and, as had
been the Scottish custom for centuries, they joined themselves together
by a bond, 1557. In this bond they pledged themselves
to support one another, and to do their utmost for the
spread of the new doctrines. This bond is called the First
Covenant. By it the authority of the Pope was renounced,
and the use of the English Bible and of the Prayer Book of
Edward VI. was enjoined. Thenceforth the barons who had
signed it, called themselves the Lords of the Congregation.
The burning of Walter Mill, an aged priest of blameless life,
who suffered for heresy at St. Andrews in 1558, roused them
to action. They demanded of the Regent a reformation
of religion after the principles of their bond. Though at
first she seemed inclined to grant what they asked, she
afterwards set her face against them, and cited some of the
preachers of the new doctrines before the Privy Council. A
great body of their followers gathered at Perth to come with
them; the Regent, in alarm, begged them to disperse and
promised to withdraw the citation. Instead of doing this,
she outlawed the preachers for not coming.
4. Religious Riots.—This breach of promise
on the Regent's part provoked their followers to a breach of the
peace. The mob attacked, and tried to pull down, the churches
and the religious houses at Perth, May 11, 1559, and this
tumult was followed by riots of the same kind in other towns.
John Knox was the spiritual leader of the movement. But
he only wished to destroy the images and ornaments in the
churches, which he looked on as idolatrous, not the churches
themselves. Nor is it to be laid to the charge of the Reformers
that there is but one cathedral church left entire
in Scotland; the ruin of far the greater number of the
churches and religious houses is due to the English invasions,
or to the neglect of later times. After this outbreak
the Congregation strengthened themselves in Perth, but
many of the Lords, among others the Lord James Stewart,
illegitimate son of James the Fifth, joined the Regent, and,
had she been true to her promises, the strife which now
broke out between the two parties might have been prevented.
But she led a French force against the Congregation,
who were now in open rebellion. An agreement
was made that the questions at issue between them
should be left to be settled by the Estates, while both
armies laid down their arms, and the French garrison
was turned out of Perth. But the Regent did not keep
to the spirit of this treaty, though she avoided breaking
the letter of it by garrisoning Perth with native troops
hired with French money. On this the Congregation flew
to arms, seized St. Andrews, and occupied Edinburgh.
There, in a meeting which they called a Parliament, they
deposed the Regent, though they still professed loyalty
to the King and Queen. But they were too weak to
hold the advantage they had won, and as Elizabeth had
now succeeded Mary in England, they looked to
her for support.
5. Treaties with England.—Elizabeth would
not treat with subjects in open rebellion against their Sovereign, though
Mary had given her good reason for offence, by quartering
the arms of England on her shield, as though she were
lawful Queen and Elizabeth only a usurper. At last a treaty
was arranged at Berwick in 1560, between Elizabeth and the
rebels. Chatelherault, the next heir to the Scottish crown,
acted for the Congregation, and by this treaty Elizabeth
promised to send troops to prevent the French conquering
Scotland. The war that now followed presented the unwonted
sight of the Scots on Scottish ground fighting side
by side with the English against their old allies of France.
But, before the year was out, the French were called away by
troubles at home, and by the treaty of Edinburgh it was
agreed that no foreigners should in future be employed in
the country without the consent of the Estates. The Estates
promised in the name of the King and Queen that they
should acknowledge Elizabeth as lawful Queen of England,
and thenceforth make no pretension to her kingdom.
6. Reformation Statutes.—Soon after the
conclusion of this treaty, the Regent died. The Estates then approved
the Geneva Confession of Faith, abjured the authority of the
Pope, and forbade the saying of the mass, or even assisting
at the mass, on pain of forfeiture for the first offence,
banishment for the second, death for the third; 25th August,
1560. Thus the old ecclesiastical system, with all its rites
and ceremonies, was suddenly overthrown. But this was
only in name; in reality it only died out bit by bit.
7. Return of the Queen.—Just a year after
this, the Queen came home, August 1561. She was now a widow, so the
Scots were freed from the fear they had felt of seeing their
country sink into a province of France. The people, who
had an almost superstitious reverence for kingship, which
was very inconsistent with their contempt for kingly authority,
welcomed her with open arms, and showed their good will by
a greater display of discordant and grotesque rejoicing than
the austere teachers of the new doctrines could approve. As
yet they only saw in her the representative of that long line
of Celtic kings whom they chose to look on as their own.
She was the "child," for whom they had struggled so long,
and had suffered so much from the English. They had yet
to find out that she had come back to them French in all
but birth, gifted with wit, intellect, and beauty, but subtle
beyond their power of searching, and quite as zealous for
the old form of religion as they were for the new one. The
Queen, too, who came thus as a stranger among her own
people, had to deal with a state of things unknown in former
reigns. Hitherto the Church had taken the side of the
Crown against the nobles; now both were united against
the Crown, whose only hope lay in the quarrels between
these ill-matched allies.
8. Division of the Church Lands.—The chief
cause of discord between them was the property of the Church. The
Reformed ministers fancied that they had succeeded, not only
to the Pope's right of dictation in all matters, public and
private, but to the lands of the Church as well. To neither
of these claims would the Lords agree. They were as little
inclined to submit to the tyranny of presbyters as to the
tyranny of the Pope. They withstood the ministers who
wished to forbid the Queen and her attendants hearing mass
in her private chapel, and they refused to accept as law the
First Book of Discipline, a code of rules drawn up by the
ministers for the guidance of the new Church. As to the
land, much of it had already passed into the hands of
laymen, who, with the lands, generally bore the title of the
Church dignitary who had formerly held them. The Privy
Council took one-third of what remained to pay the stipends
of the ministers, while the rest was supposed to remain in
the hands of the Churchmen in possession, and, as they died
out, it was to fall in to the Crown.
9. Fall of Huntly.—Lord James Stewart,
Prior of St. Andrews, whom the Queen created Earl of Murray, was the
hope of the Protestants, but in the north the Romanists were
still numerous and strong. Their head was the Earl of
Huntly, chief of the Gordons, who reigned supreme over most
of the north, and whose word was law where decrees of parliament
would have been set at nought. As his great power
was looked on as dangerous to the state, his downfall was
resolved on. Murray and the Queen set out for the north
to visit him, as was said, but with so large a force that he
thought it expedient to keep out of their way. His Castle of
Inverness was besieged and taken and the governor hanged,
and his followers were defeated and he himself slain at Corrichie,
near Aberdeen, in 1562. His body was brought to
Edinburgh, as was the custom in cases of treason, that the
sentence of forfeiture might be passed on it. His son was
beheaded at Aberdeen; and thus the power of the Gordons
was broken. Thus Mary during the first part of her reign
showed no favour to the Romanists, but still she did not
confirm the Reformation Statutes.
10. Second Marriage of the Queen.—The
most interesting question now for all parties was, whom the Queen would
marry. Many foreign princes were talked of, and Elizabeth
suggested her own favourite, the Earl of Leicester, but Mary
settled the matter herself by falling in love with her own
cousin, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. He was son of
Lennox and Margaret Douglas, and was therefore the grandson
of Margaret Tudor, and was received as first prince of
the blood at the English court. Mary called a special
council and announced to them her intended marriage.
She then raised Darnley to the Earldom of Ross, and afterwards
created him Duke of Albany. They were married
with the rites of the Romish Church, July 29, 1565. Murray
had refused his consent to the marriage. He and some
others of the lay Lords now took up arms. They got into
the town of Edinburgh, but were fired at from the Castle,
and, as they were disappointed in their hopes of recruits,
they retreated to Dumfries. There they issued a declaration
that their religion was in danger, and that the Queen had
acted unconstitutionally in proclaiming Darnley King of
Scots without the consent of the Estates. The feudal force
was summoned, and the King and Queen led it against them.
On this the Lords retreated into England and disarmed their followers.
11. Murder of Rizzio.—Mary soon began to
tire of her worthless husband. She had all the weakness of her family
for making favourites, and no wisdom in the choice of them.
At this time she had taken a fancy to an Italian, David Rizzio,
who acted as her secretary, and who had great skill in
music to recommend him. The nobles grew jealous of this
foreigner and determined to get rid of him; but, to save themselves
from any ill-consequences of the murder which they had
planned, they persuaded Darnley to sign a bond promising
to stand by them in anything they might do. At the same
time he signed another bond for the recall of Murray and the
other banished lords. The Queen summoned a parliament,
which she expected would pronounce sentence of forfeiture
on those banished lords. In order to secure compliance
with her wishes, she interfered with the choosing of the
Lords of the Articles, into whose hands all the real business
of the parliament was thrown. One evening, as she was
sitting at supper in the palace at Holyrood, the conspirators,
who had secured the gates, burst into the room, headed
by the Lord Ruthven. They seized on Rizzio, who clutched
at the Queen for help; they dragged him into the outer room;
killed him, and then threw the body downstairs, March 9,
1566. His fate was not made known to the Queen till next
day. James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who already stood
high in the Queen's favour, and the Earl of Huntly, who
had been restored to the titles and estates which his father
had forfeited, were in the palace when it was thus taken
possession of, but they contrived to escape.
12. Flight to Dunbar.—The Queen showed
no signs of anger at first. She pretended to be reconciled to Darnley,
and promised pardon to the banished lords. When they
appeared before her the next day, she received Murray affectionately.
But the confederates soon found that they had
been mistaken in their hopes of Darnley, for in the night
following he fled with the Queen to Dunbar. Bothwell
brought up a force for her protection, and before the end of
the month she re-entered Edinburgh. Rizzio's body was
taken up and buried among the kings in the palace chapel,
and James Douglas, Earl of Morton, Ruthven, and others
were cited to answer for the murder of Rizzio, and, as they
did not appear, they were outlawed.
13. Murder of Darnley.—A new favourite soon
took the place of Rizzio in the Queen's favour. This was Bothwell,
who had lately done such good service in coming to her
aid at Dunbar. The abbey-lands of Melrose and Haddington
were given to him. He was made Lord High
Admiral, and Warden of the Borders, and it was noticed
that it was he and not Darnley who played the principal
part at the baptism of her son, the Prince of Scotland.
Darnley was hated by everyone; by his wife, because he
had connived at the murder of her favourite, and by his
accomplices for his treachery in deserting them. Shortly
after this he fell ill of the small-pox, and was taken to
Glasgow, to be tended by his father, Lennox. There, when
he was getting better, the Queen paid him a visit, and
proposed that he should be taken to Craigmillar Castle, in
order to hasten his recovery; but this plan was afterwards
changed, and he went instead to a house called the Kirk-o'-Field,
close to Edinburgh. This house was blown up on
the night of February 9, 1567, while the Queen was present
at a ball at Holyrood, and the bodies of Darnley and of his
page were found in a field hard by, as though they had been
killed while trying to make their escape. It was commonly
believed that Bothwell was guilty of the murder, and it was
suspected that he had done it to please the Queen and
with her consent. This suspicion was strengthened by her
conduct. She made no effort to find out the murderer and
to bring him to punishment, and on the day of the funeral
she gave Bothwell the feudal superiority over the town of
Leith. Lennox now came forward and demanded that
Bothwell and the other persons suspected of the murder
should be tried by the Estates. This was granted, and a
day was fixed for the trial. But as Lennox was forbidden
to bring any but his own household when he appeared as
the accuser of the murderer, while Bothwell had a great
following, he thought it more prudent not to appear. As
no one came forward to bring evidence against Bothwell,
he was acquitted, and he offered to give wager of battle to
anyone who should still accuse him.
14. Third Marriage of the Queen.—Bothwell
was now determined on marrying the Queen, and, after the parliament
rose, he got many of the nobles to sign a bond agreeing to
help him to do so. As he was already married to Huntly's
sister, his wife had to be got rid of first. This was
not now such an easy matter as it had been in former times.
The canon law had been done away with along with the old
Church; the Reformers had set up a court of their own to try
such cases, while the Queen had lately restored the old one.
To make the matter sure Bothwell's marriage was dissolved
in both these courts. As the Queen was coming back from
Stirling, where she had been to visit her child, Bothwell met
her and carried her off to Dunbar, and on the day the
divorce was sent they came back to Edinburgh together. He
was created Duke of Orkney and Shetland, and they were
married by Adam Bothwell, who had been Bishop of Orkney,
but was now one of the ministers of the new Church, May 15, 1567.
15. Surrender at Carberry.—A fortnight later
Mary called out the feudal force for an attack on the Borderers, but the
barons did not answer to her summons. On this the Queen
and Bothwell, alarmed at the increasing signs of discontent,
shut themselves up in his strong castle of Borthwick, but
they were scarcely there before an army with the Lords
Morton and Home at its head appeared at its gates, and
they fled to Dunbar. The barons then entered Edinburgh;
the governor of the Castle gave it up to them. They had
the Prince in their hands, and they took measures for carrying
on the government, though they still professed to act in
the Queen's name, and to be only striving to free her from
Bothwell. He meanwhile had mustered his followers, who,
though nearly equal in numbers, were in discipline far
inferior to their opponents. The two armies came in sight
near Musselburgh, but there was no battle, for the Queen
surrendered to William Kirkcaldy of Grange, who had
been sent out with a body of horse to cut off her retreat
to Dunbar, at Carberry, June 15, 1567, on condition that
Bothwell should be allowed to return to Dunbar unhurt.
Bothwell escaped first to his own dukedom of Orkney,
and afterwards to Denmark, where he died about ten years later.
16. Captivity of the Queen.—Just a month
after her third marriage the Queen was brought back to Edinburgh, to be
greeted by the railings of the mob, who now openly accused
her as a murderess, and paraded before her eyes a banner,
showing the dead body of her husband; her infant son on his
knees, as though praying for justice against the murderers
of his father, and the words, "Judge and avenge my cause,
O Lord," embroidered upon it. From Edinburgh she was
taken to a lonely castle built on a small island in the centre
of Loch Leven. A few days later a casket containing eight
letters was produced. These letters, it was said, Bothwell
had left behind him in his flight, and they seemed to have
been written by Mary to him while Darnley was ill in
Glasgow. If she really wrote them, they proved very plainly
that she had planned the murder with Bothwell. They are
called the "casket letters," from the box or casket in which
they were found. The confederate barons acted as if they
were really hers. The Lord Lindsay and Robert Melville
were sent to her at Loch Leven, and she there signed the
demission of the government to her son, and desired that
Murray should be the first Regent. From that time Mary
ceased to be Queen of Scots. Her beauty, talents, and
misfortunes have won her much pity and many champions,
but it was her own folly and sin that changed the love of
her people into hate, and their rejection of her stands out
as one of the facts in their history that does most honour
to the nation.
17. James VI., 1567-1625. Regency of Murray.—The
infant King who was now to be set up in the room of his
mother was crowned and anointed at Stirling. By his
sponsor Morton he took an oath to uphold the Reformed,
or as its supporters called it, the true Church, and to root
out all heretics and enemies of the same. Murray was
recalled from France, whither he had gone soon after the
murder of the King. He made some objection to accepting
the regency, and would not do so till he had had an interview
with his sister. At last he agreed to take it, to comply with
her wishes, as he said. As the country was crying out for
vengeance on the murderers of the King, four of Bothwell's
creatures who had aided in his crime were hanged at Edinburgh,
but no steps were taken to punish the lords who
had joined themselves by a bond with Bothwell.
18. Escape of Mary.—But there was a large
party of the nobles, with the Hamiltons at their head, who were opposed
to the new government and kept themselves apart at Hamilton.
Before a year of her captivity had passed, Mary escaped
and joined them there, and again took up the sceptre which
she had so lately laid down. Eighteen lords of parliament and
many lesser barons signed a bond to uphold their Queen, and
she sent a message from her court at Hamilton to Murray,
who was at Glasgow almost unguarded, commanding him to
resign the regency. Instead of obeying, Murray seized the
herald who had come to proclaim the Queen; sent to Stirling
for cannon, and called out the feudal force in the name of King James.
19. Battle of Langside.—The Castle of
Dunbarton Rock, the strongest fortress in the kingdom, was held
for the Queen, and to it she determined to go for greater safety. To get
there she had to pass close by Glasgow, where Murray was.
At Langside, on the southern shore of the Clyde, her way was
barred by the King's army, which, though not so large as
her own, had much better leaders. The fight that followed
settled the fate of Scotland, May 13, 1568. Few lives were
lost, for at the first charge the spears of the front rank got
locked in the jacks of their opponents. They could thus
neither go backward nor forward, and kept those behind
from coming within arm's length of one another. Grange
turned the day by charging the Queen's force with his cavalry.
They fled in confusion, and Mary rode with all speed to the
Border; crossed the Solway, and going straight to Carlisle,
threw herself on the protection of Elizabeth. But Elizabeth
had not forgotten how Mary had assumed her arms and had
given herself out as the real Queen of England; and as she
knew that Mary, if left at liberty, would plot with the English
Roman Catholics, she put her in ward in Bolton Castle, and
refused to see her till she cleared herself of the suspicion
under which she lay of having been concerned in her husband's
death. But at the same time Elizabeth would not
acknowledge the government of Scotland, nor approve the
conduct of the lords who had set up King James, for she did
not like the doctrine that princes, however badly they had
acted, might be judged and punished by their subjects.
20. The Conference.—To give both parties
a chance of saying what they could for themselves, it was agreed to hold
a conference, to which Murray came in person, and Mary
and Elizabeth each sent commissioners. The conference
met at York in October. On opening it the Duke of Norfolk
required that Murray should do homage in the name of his
King to the Queen of England. On this, William Maitland
of Lethington, the Scottish Secretary of State, a very subtle
man, said that if England liked to give up again the northern
counties, once held by Scotland, their King would gladly do
homage for them; but as for the kingdom it was as free, or
more so, than England itself. This he said to show that
they did not ask Elizabeth to judge between them because
she had any right to interfere, but only because she was
their nearest neighbour. Before the end of the month the
conference was removed to Hampton Court, and held before
the Queen in Council. The lords brought forward the
"casket letters," as a proof against Mary, and she refused
to vindicate herself, but ordered her commissioners to withdraw.
Thus the conference ended, leaving matters much as
they were before, for Elizabeth decided that nothing had
been brought forward to the dishonour of Murray, nor anything
proved against Mary. At the same time she lent
Murray five thousand pounds for the maintenance of peace
and order between the two countries, which was an indirect
acknowledgment of his government.
21. State of Parties.—The Hamiltons
and Huntly were the chief upholders of Mary's interest. The Hamiltons
wished to keep Mary on the throne, because they were the next
heirs to Mary, and in the event of her son dying before her,
Chatelherault could claim the crown. But as they were not
the next heirs to James, they were naturally opposed to the
revolution which had placed him on the throne, for they
feared that if he died when actually reigning, the crown
would pass to his heir, Charles Stewart, his father's brother.
Huntly held out, from hatred of Murray and love of the old
Church, which was still strong in his county. A compromise
was at last made between the two parties. Murray promised
a pardon for all past offences and a reversal of forfeitures
if the other party would promise to obey King James. To
make matters more sure, when the Duke of Chatelherault
went up to Edinburgh, Murray put him in ward in the
Castle. Just at this time there was a great rising of the
Roman Catholics in the north of England, Murray marched
southward, in order to be ready to put down any disturbance
on the Border. There he seized as his prisoner the Earl of
Northumberland, the head of the Romanists in England,
who had come to seek a refuge on the Scottish side among
the Borderers, many of whom still clung to the old Church.
22. Murder of the Regent.—The Hamiltons
had determined on Murray's death. Though the Duke was in prison,
John, the archbishop, the constant stirrer up of strife, was at
liberty, and he was popularly supposed to be the contriver of
a plot against the life of the Regent. Murray was murdered
by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, who shot at him as
he was riding in state through that town on his way from
Stirling to Edinburgh, February 23, 1570. This foul murder,
the third which had disgraced Scotland within the last
quarter of a century, was a great misfortune for the country,
for Murray had ruled well and wisely, he had put down the
Highlanders and the Borderers, and had enforced justice
and order with a strong hand. In his time the land was
visited by a famine and a plague, evils for which the people
are ever apt to blame their rulers, but, in spite of these
calamities, he was popular during his life, and was remembered
after his death as the Good Regent.
23. Regency of Lennox.—While the government
was thus without a head, and the country was in confusion, two
English armies invaded Scotland to punish the Borderers
for the shelter which they had given to the leaders of the
late rising in England. One of these armies came north as
far as the Clyde and wasted the Hamilton country. Hitherto
the Queen's party had been chiefly made up of nobles with
but a small following, but this attack on the part of the
English aroused the old hatred of England and drove a
large mass of the people to join them. The choice of
Lennox, the King's grandfather, as the new Regent, did still
more to divide the nation, for not only was he the subject of
Elizabeth and recommended by her, but also, when he came
to Scotland, it was as joint leader of one of these invading
armies. Now, for the first time, the nation was truly divided
against itself. The war which followed was the first real
civil war in the annals of Scotland. It was no strife of
class against class, or of one chief against another, but a
war in which the commons were severed into two parties by
the great questions of loyalty, national honour, and religion.
Grange, whom Murray had made governor of Edinburgh
Castle, declared for the Queen, and Lethington, who was
there in ward on a charge of having had some part in the
King's murder, followed his example.
24. Taking of Dunbarton.—This castle, the
strongest in the kingdom, was the chief strength of the Queen's party, and
in it was the moving spirit of the Hamiltons, John, the much
hated and feared archbishop. Both fell during this regency.
Crawford of Jordanhill, a retainer of Lennox, took the
castle by subtlety with but a handful of men. He scaled
the steep rock on which the castle is built under cover of
the night, and when he had gained the highest point he
turned the guns on the garrison below, who had no choice
left but to give in, April 2, 1571. Five days later, the archbishop
was hanged at Stirling, after the form of a trial had
been hurried through, on a charge of having planned the
murder of the King and of the Regent.
25. Parliament at Stirling.—The other noteworthy
event during the regency of Lennox was the holding of a parliament,
for the first time since 1567. It met at Stirling, and the
young King, who lived in the castle under the care of the
Earl of Mar, was himself present. While the Regent and
all the leaders of his party were thus gathered in the town,
a body of four hundred men, sent out by the Queen's party
in Edinburgh Castle, came down upon them suddenly, swept
the streets, and captured Morton and the Regent; and
though the latter was afterwards rescued, he had been
mortally wounded in the scuffle, and died after lingering a
few hours, September 4, 1571. It was then remembered
how the little King had spied a hole in the cloth with which
the board whereon he sat was covered, and, trying to poke
his finger into it, had said, "There is a hole in this parliament."
This was looked on as a prophecy of the violent
death of the Regent, and laid the foundation of that reputation
for wisdom and acuteness which clung to James all his life.
26. Mar's Regency.—John Erskine,
Earl of Mar, governor of Stirling, was chosen Regent the very next day.
As the Queen's party, who held Edinburgh, had held a rival parliament
in her name in the Parliament House, it was clear
that all efforts must be made to get the castle out of their
hands. Mar therefore began the siege, and open war broke
out. The West, the North, and the Border were for the
Queen, the eastern Lowlands for the King; the latter looked
to England for help, but got none; the former appealed to
France with not much better success. After much useless
bloodshed, a truce of two months was agreed on, August 1, 1572.
27. Tulchan Bishops.—Under Mar episcopacy
was set up again. At least it was settled that the titles and dignities of
bishops and archbishops were to stay as they were before
the Reformation till the King's majority, but they were shorn
of their old authority, and were to be subject to the General
Assembly, which now managed all church matters. The people
thought so little of them that they called them in mockery
"Tulchan" bishops: the word "Tulchan" meaning a sham
calf which it was the custom to place before a cow to make
her give milk when the real calf had been taken from
her. About this time there came the news of the massacre
of all the Protestants in Paris, on St. Bartholomew's Day.
This roused a general horror of Romanists and created a
reaction in favour of Presbytery, for the Scots wished to
be more like the French Protestants, who had no bishops.
It also made many of the Queen's party go over to the other side.
Mar died after being little more than a year
in office, and Morton, who had latterly directed everything,
was chosen Regent in his place, November 24, 1572.
28. Death of Knox.—On the same day died
John Knox, who for thirteen years had been the leader of religious
reform in Scotland. He spent his life and his wonderful
talents in striving for what he believed to be truth and sound
doctrine. One of the finest traits in his character was his
moral courage, which enabled him to speak the truth boldly
to those who stood highest in rank or power. To this Morton
himself bore witness, saying, as he looked on the dead
body of Knox, "There lies he who never feared the face
of man." His zeal sometimes led him to turn against the
Romanists their own weapons of intolerance and persecution,
but he lived in times when men had not yet found out that
it was best to let one another alone in the matter of religion.
In those days any one who had shown himself tolerant of
the errors of others would have been looked on either as a
hypocrite or as an unbeliever. But Knox was not so much
opposed to bishops and to a set form of prayer as his followers
afterwards became. He drew up a prayer-book for daily use
called the Book of Common Order, which was pretty nearly
a translation of the book of the church at Geneva, and was
what he had himself used when ministering to the English
Protestants who in the reign of Mary Tudor had taken refuge
at Frankfort.
29. Taking of Edinburgh.—With the
new year the war began again. Morton was now in possession of the
town of Edinburgh, and he held a meeting of the Estates there.
But the castle still held out, and it was only by bringing
against it an English force of fifteen hundred men that
Elizabeth had at last sent, that its defenders were reduced to
such straits that they were compelled to surrender. Grange
gave himself up to the English general and appealed to the
English Queen. But she either could not or would not protect
him. His gallant defence of the castle for Mary was
looked on as treason against the government of James, which
Elizabeth had in a manner acknowledged. He was given
up into the hands of Morton, his bitter enemy, and hanged
at Edinburgh, August 3, 1573, in spite of all the efforts of
his many friends to save him. Brave, gallant, and unselfish,
he was distinguished among a greedy generation by his contempt
alike of money and of place. In this he was a great
contrast to his companion, the clever, unprincipled, selfish
Lethington, who died by his own hand.
30. Morton's Regency.—Morton had now
got all his old enemies out of the way, but he soon made more; partly
by his avarice, partly by the firmness with which he insisted that
the crown property should be restored. He offended Argyle
by making him give back some crown jewels that had come
into his possession by his marriage with Murray's widow;
and, by trying to stop a feud between him and Athole, he
made enemies of them both. To make his power complete
Morton longed to get the King into his own hands, but he
was kept apart in Stirling, under the care of Erskine the
Governor, and while there Morton had no more power over
him than any of the other nobles. He tried to persuade
James, who was now twelve years old, that he was old enough
to rule alone, but Argyle and Athole, who were both in the
castle at the time, found out his plan and outwitted him. A
proclamation was suddenly issued by them, setting forth that
the king would now take the government into his own hands,
and would act by the advice of a council, March 4, 1578.
A time of great confusion followed. Morton, who at first
had seemed to lay down his power with a good grace,
before long was up in arms, got into Stirling Castle, dispersed
the new council, and again directed everything just as he pleased.
31. Fall of Morton.—About this time
Esmé Stewart, Lord of Aubigny, and nephew of the late
Earl of Lennox, came from France and became a great favourite with his
cousin the king. Aubigny was stirred up by James Stewart of
Ochiltree, another favourite, to do his utmost to turn the king
against Morton, whom he already disliked. At length Ochiltree
accused Morton before the Council of having been a
party in the king's murder, and on this charge he was condemned
and beheaded at Edinburgh. After his death the two
favourites rose still higher. Aubigny was made Duke of
Lennox, and Keeper of Dunbarton Castle; and a royal
bodyguard was set up in order to give him the dignity of
commander. Stewart, whose mother was a Hamilton, was
raised to their Earldom of Arran.
32. Raid of Ruthven.—Certain of the
old nobles, who were displeased and alarmed by the power exercised
by these upstarts, bound themselves together to displace them both,
and to get the King by a bond into their own power. The
time they chose for carrying out their plan was when the
King went on a hunting party into the Highlands. The
Earl of Gowrie, one of the confederates, son of that Ruthven
who had played the chief part in the murder of Rizzio, invited
him to the castle of Ruthven. James went, and found
himself a prisoner in the hands of the barons, August 22,
1581. They then made him declare that he was well pleased
with what they had done, and was not under any restraint.
Lennox was ordered to leave the kingdom, and after wandering
about in poverty and distress till the end of the year, he
went back to France, where he died before long. But before
the Ruthven Lords had been a year in power, another change
came. The king escaped disguised as a groom, rode to St.
Andrews, where the nobles who were not in the bond
gathered round him in such force that the Confederates
were obliged to yield.
33. Fall of Gowrie.—At first James acted
moderately and wisely, for he promised to pardon all those who had taken
part in the Raid of Ruthven; but when Arran got back his
old power over him he turned about and declared them all
traitors, who must submit to his grace. Upon this most of
them fled to England, but Gowrie submitted to the King and
was pardoned. Arran had however determined on his fall,
and Gowrie was so much insulted and slighted at Court that
he made up his mind to leave the country. Just before he
sailed, he heard that his old comrades had contrived another
plot, and he delayed his setting out in order to have a share
in it. Before anything was done, news of it got abroad,
Gowrie was seized and, after a very unjust trial, beheaded at
Stirling. The other conspirators made off to England again
and were outlawed, and their estates were forfeited.
34. Fall of Arran.—Arran's triumph did not
last long. A fray took place on the Border in which an Englishman, Lord
Russell, was slain. Arran was accused of having been the
chief cause in this affair, and he was ordered to withdraw
from Court. Then the banished lords, thinking this a good
opportunity for them to return, went northward, joined the
Hamiltons and Maxwells on the Border, came to Stirling
and made their way into the presence of the king, who was
forced to seem pleased to see them, as they had eight thousand
men to support them, November 4, 1585. A Parliament
was called soon after, in which three important pieces of
business were done. Gowrie's children were restored to the
honours forfeited by the treason of their father; Arran was
stripped of all his dignities, and a new league was made with England.
35. Death of Mary.—The captive Queen,
whose influence in the affairs of her own country had ceased with the
surrender of Edinburgh, had, during her long imprisonment,
been the cause of many plots against the peace of England and the
life of Elizabeth. For her share in Babington's Plot, the
object of which was the assassination of Elizabeth, she was
tried, found guilty, and condemned to death. She was beheaded
at Fotheringhay, February 8, 1587. Though James
made some show of feelings of grief and anger at the news
of his mother's death, no steps were taken to avenge it, and
the matter soon seemed to be forgotten.
36. Marriage of the King.—As James was now
of age, his counsellors were looking about for a suitable wife for him.
Frederick the Second King of Denmark had lately sent offering
to pay up the money for which the Orkney and Shetland
Isles had been given in pledge, and as Scotland had no wish
to give them back, it was thought that the difficulty might
be got over by choosing one of his daughters, who would
most likely bring the islands as her dowry. This proposal
was agreed to by Frederick. His daughter Anne was
betrothed to James, and Keith, the Earl Marshal, was sent
to Copenhagen to act as proxy for the King in the marriage
ceremony and to bring home the bride. On their way home
the wedding party were storm-stayed and obliged to put into
a Norwegian Port, and the King, to the surprise of every one,
suddenly made up his mind to go himself to fetch his bride.
He joined her at Upslo, but as nothing could make him
brave the long sea voyage again till the winter was over they
returned together to Copenhagen, and did not come to Scotland
till the next spring, May 1, 1590.
37. Abolition of Episcopacy.—For some
time the government and the church had been at variance about the bishops.
The General Assembly of 1581 had declared the episcopal
order to be contrary to the Word of God, and had adopted
the Second Book of Discipline as the rule of the government
of the Church. This book was drawn up by Andrew
Melville, who had succeeded Knox as the spiritual leader of
the reformed Church. He was a zealous presbyterian, and
it was mainly owing to him that the Scottish Church adopted
that form of church government. The Ruthven lords had
been the champions of the presbyterian or no-bishop party,
and, while they were in power, the ministers upheld by them
had taken more and more authority upon themselves. In
theory they placed the church far above the civil power, and
they taught that the chief magistrate, the King, ought to be
subject to them in all matters of conscience and religion.
They also claimed the right of the old Church in interfering
with people's private affairs. Each minister looked on himself
as bishop over his own flock, and would not submit to having
any overseer set over him again. But, as the removal of the
bishops as spiritual peers would have been the removal of one
of the three Estates—that one too that had always been
on the side of the crown—and as their existence served as
a pretext to the nobles for drawing their revenues, it was
clearly the interest both of the crown and of the nobles to
maintain them. In 1588 Philip of Spain fitted out a great
fleet for the invasion of England. This caused a great panic
throughout Scotland. The people feared that Philip might
conquer England and bring it again under the dominion of
the Pope, in which case the subjection of Scotland must soon
follow. The Covenant for the maintenance of the Protestant
religion, which had been signed in 1581, was renewed and
signed all over the land. So great was the dread of the
bishop of Rome that the people looked on all bishops with
suspicion, and in 1592 an act was passed by which the whole
order was swept away and the presbyterian polity established.
Thenceforth the church was to be governed by a series of
courts, the members of which were presbyters. The ministers
of several parishes formed a presbytery, these again were
grouped together into synods, while supreme over all was the
General Assembly, composed of ministers and lay elders from
the several presbyteries, which was to meet once a year at
Edinburgh, and at which the King or his commissioner was to be present.
38. The Spanish Blanks.—Still a large party
adhered to the old Church. The chiefs of this party were Huntly in
the north and the Maxwells on the Border. They were
always suspected of scheming for its restoration, and, as
the King could not or would not proceed against them, he
was supposed to favour their plans. In 1592 eight suspicious
papers were seized on the person of George Kerr, the Lord
Newbottle's brother, who was leaving Scotland by the western
coast. These papers, called the Spanish blanks, were signed
by Huntly, Errol, and Angus, but had no other writing on
them. Kerr, after being put to the torture, declared that these
blank papers were to be filled up by two Jesuits who were
commissioned to offer the services of the nobles who had
signed them to the King of Spain, to aid him in the re-establishment
of the old religion. This discovery filled every one
with horror. Angus was seized; but as Huntly retreated to
his own country in the north, Argyle, his rival in the Highlands,
was sent with full power against him. The two
armies met at Glenlivat, not far from the scene of the well-remembered
fight of Harlaw. Huntly had but two thousand
men, raised chiefly in the northern Lowlands, but they defeated
Argyle's swarm of Highlanders, October 1594. But the
Romish party was too weak to follow up the victory, and
in 1597 Huntly and Errol publicly renounced their old faith,
and joined the established Church.
39. Religious Tumults.—The King and the
Church were not long at peace. He called certain of their ministers to
account before the council for what they had said in the pulpit.
The ministers looked upon this interference as an attack on
their privileges. The people supported them, and the result
was a riot, so serious that the Court had to flee to Linlithgow.
Upon this the King threatened to take away the courts of
justice from Edinburgh. The fear of this damped the spirit
of the mob, and after the return of the Court the ministers
who had withstood the King fled to England. The Estates
soon after passed an act by which the King might confer
on any minister the title of bishop or abbot, but only so as to
give him a seat in Parliament; the title was not to imply
any lordship over his brethren.
40. The Gowrie Plot.—On the morning of
the fifth of August, 1600, as James was setting out hunting from Falkland
Palace, he was met by Alexander Ruthven, the younger
brother of the Earl of Gowrie, who told him with a great
air of mystery that he had discovered a man burying a
pot of money in a field, and that he thought the affair so
suspicious that he had taken him prisoner, and begged the
King to come to Gowrie House in Perth to see him. James
went, taking with him Mar, Lennox, and about twenty other
gentlemen. After dinner Alexander took the King aside,
and, when his attendants missed him, they were told that he
had gone back to Falkland. They were preparing to follow
him there when some of them heard cries from a turret.
They recognized the King's voice, and they presently saw his
head thrust out of a window calling for help. They had much
ado to make their way to him, but they found him at last in a
small room struggling with Alexander, while a man dressed
in armour was looking on. Alexander Ruthven and Gowrie
were both killed in the scuffle which followed. A tumult
rose in the town, for the Earl had been Provost and was
very popular with the townsfolk, and the King and his followers
had to make their escape by the river. The doom of
traitors was passed on the dead men, and their name was
proscribed, but, as no accomplice could be discovered, it was
hard to say what was the extent or object of their plot. The
whole affair was very mysterious, the only witnesses being the
King himself and Henderson the man in armour. Some of
the ministers thought it so suspicious that they refused to
return thanks for the King's safety, as they thought the whole
affair an invention of his own. Eight years later some letters
were discovered in the hands of one Sprot, a notary at Eyemouth,
which threw some more light on the mystery. They
were written by Logan of Restalrig, and revealed a plan
between him and the Ruthvens for bringing some prisoner,
who was not named, but might possibly be the King, to Fast
Castle, a fortress belonging to Logan, standing on a rock at
the entrance to the Forth. Sprot was found guilty of treason,
and was put to death for not revealing all he knew about
the plot long before.
41. Union of the Crowns.—When Elizabeth
died, James was the nearest heir to the throne of England by right of
descent from Margaret, elder daughter of Henry the Seventh.
But her right had been passed over by Henry the Eighth,
who had in the will, which he was empowered by Parliament
to make, settled the succession on the heirs of his younger
sister, Mary. As it was politically convenient to the English
Privy Council that James should succeed Elizabeth on her
death, they sent off post haste to summon him to come and
take the crown. His questionable right was made good by
the voice of the people in his first Parliament. He entered
London May 6, 1603. Hitherto he had had less money and
less power than almost any other prince in Europe; he now
became suddenly one of the richest and most powerful among
them. This union of the crowns made the third break in the
history of Scotland. The gallant struggle for freedom which
had drawn forth all the energies of the nation during the past
three centuries was now over. It was now to be united to
the powerful neighbour that had so long threatened its independence.
The representative of the ancient royal Celtic
line, which the national reverence for hereditary royalty had
upheld unbroken through the strain of seven long minorities,
now became king of the larger and richer kingdom of
England, which had been ruled by one foreign dynasty after
another ever since the Norman Conquest.
42. State of the Nation.—In Scotland the
feudal system was still unshaken. To it the great barons owed their power,
and the Reformation, which in England had strengthened
the crown, had in Scotland only thrown more wealth and
more power into the hands of the nobles. Hitherto the people
had been only dependents of the great feudal barons, whose
burthens they bore in return for their protection. Still they
could not have been very badly off, for in Scotland there
were no peasant wars, as in France and England. It was
the Reformation which first brought them out as a separate
body in the state. Their condition was now much worse
than it had formerly been. The crown brought its increased
power to bear upon the nobles, who in their turn, slaves and
flatterers at the foreign Court and tyrants at home, used their
feudal rights for the oppression of the people, who could hope
for no redress from their absent King.
43. Summary.—We have, in this chapter,
traced the progress of the Reformation, and noted the changes
which it made in the state of the nation. Though the Reformation did not
begin so soon in Scotland as in Germany and England, it
made more striking changes and overthrew the old Church
more completely than it did in either of those countries. It
first gave to the people an independent national life. Until
it roused them to separate action, they had been swayed by
no party feelings, but had blindly followed the lead and fought
in the feuds of their feudal superiors, without paying any heed
to the cause for which they laid down their lives. The Reformation
also broke off the alliance with France which had
subsisted ever since the War of Independence. All the events
of this period are closely connected with the change of religion,
and it is marked by more civil war, more bloodshed,
more crimes of violence, more party strife, more treachery
and wrong and robbery, than any other period in the history
of Scotland. It was the bad faith of Mary of Lorraine which
first drove the Reformers to take up arms in defence of their
opinions. Under their own native queen they hoped to
enjoy liberty of conscience, and as they looked to her to
redress their grievances they welcomed her return with much
loyal feeling. By the craftiness and dissimulation of her
policy in public affairs, and by the scandals of her private life,
she changed their loyal affection into loathing and contempt,
and finally forfeited the crown. During the long minority
which followed, the country was desolated by a civil war, and
the crown was impoverished by the grasping greediness of
the nobles. When the King came of age, he showed himself
quite unequal to the task of ruling and uniting the different
rival factions in the church and in the state, and allowed
himself to be governed by one worthless favourite after
another. Nor were the ecclesiastical affairs of this period at
all more settled than the secular. The form of church government
was changed four times before the presbyterian polity
was finally established in 1592. The lands of the old Church
had been seized by the most worthless of the nobles instead
of being set apart for the support of the new Church, so that
the ministers could with difficulty secure a bare subsistence.
During such an unhappy state of affairs there could be little
social or intellectual development. There were however
among the Reformers many men distinguished for their
learning and brilliant talents. Of these the most conspicuous
were George Buchanan, tutor to the young king, who wrote
a fabulous history of Scotland and other books in very
elegant Latin, and John Knox, who wrote a History of the
Reformation, remarkable for the vigour, clearness, and simplicity
of its style. Sir James Melville, who was also an
accomplished courtier, and stood high in favour both with
Mary and with James, gives an excellent picture of these
disturbed times in his very entertaining memoirs. The
Prayer Book of the Reformed Church was also translated
into Gaelic. It was published in 1567, and was the first
Celtic book that had ever yet been printed.
THE UNION OF THE CROWNS.
James VI.; results of the Union (1)—restoration of Episcopacy (2)—planting
of the Highlands (3)—Articles of Perth (4)—founding
of Nova Scotia (5)—the King's death (6)—Charles I.; resumption of
benefices (7)—King's visit and coronation (8)—Book of Canons (9)—Liturgy
tumults (10)—the Tables (11)—renewal of the Covenant
(12)—Hamilton Commissioner (13)—Glasgow Assembly (14)—war
in the north (15)—pacification of Berwick (16)—Assembly
and Parliament (17)—invasion of England (18)—Treaty of Ripon
(19)—war breaks out (20)—Montrose's campaign (21)—dealings
with the king (22)—the Engagement; Whiggamores' raid (23)—Directory;
confession of faith (24)—the king's death (25)—Charles
II.; fate of Hamilton and Huntly (26)—Montrose's rising (27)—arrival
of Charles (28)—Cromwell's conquest (29)—the coronation
(30)—battle of Worcester (31)—union with England (32)—Glencairn's
expedition (33)—the Restoration (34)—episcopacy re-established
(35)—fate of Guthrie and Argyle (36)—the Ejection (37)—western
rising (38)—the Persecution (39)—the Indulgence (40)—murder
of Sharp (41)—Sanquhar Declaration (42)—Drumclog
(43)—Bothwell Bridge (44)—Test Act (45)—Argyle's opposition
(46)—James VII.; the Killing Time (47)—Argyle's rising (48)—the
Indulgence (49)—deposition of James (50)—William and Mary;
the Convention (51)—the Rabbling (52)—Dundee's revolt
(53)—battle of Killiecrankie (54)—attack of Dunkeld; Buchan's
attempt (55)—dealings with the chiefs (56)—Massacre of Glencoe
(57)—Darien Scheme (58)—William's death (59)—Education
Act (60)—Anne; Act of Security (61)—trial and death of Captain
Green (62)—the Union (63)—literature and art (64)—summary (65).
1. James VI., 1603-1625. Results of the Union.
—Immediately after the Union of the Crowns, the Border laws
on each side were repealed, and it was settled that subjects
of either country born after the Union should no longer be
looked on as aliens in the other, but should have the undisputed
right of inheriting property in either. A Lord High
Commissioner was appointed to represent the King in Scotland,
and there was some talk of an union of the parliaments,
but it was not carried out.
2. Restoration of Episcopacy.—The great
desire of the King was to bring the Church of Scotland into conformity
with the Church of England. To bring this about, he summoned
some of the ministers to England, in the hope that
he should be able to persuade them to agree with him.
Melville, their leader, spoke out so plainly against episcopacy
before the bishops in the Privy Council that he was sent to
the Tower and finally banished. But the King carried his
point, and in 1606 the Estates passed an act for the restoration
of the bishops. No acts of church government were
in future to be lawful without their consent, and though
the General Assembly was still to go on, its power was to
be very much lessened. As the old line of Scottish bishops
had died out, John Spottiswood, Andrew Lamb, and Gavin
Hamilton were consecrated by English bishops at London
House to the bishoprics of Glasgow, Brechin, and Galloway.
To avoid all dispute about the old claim of supremacy,
neither of the English archbishops was present. But these
bishops had a very hard time of it, for they did not get the
lands of their sees restored to them as had been promised,
and many of them had hard work to get a living at all.
In 1610, two Courts of High Commission were set up. These
courts were afterwards united into one, but, as this court was
under the control of the Court of Session, it could never be so
tyrannical as the Court of High Commission in England.
3. Planting of the Highlands.—In the early
part of his reign James had tried to do something to improve the state of
the Highlands. To this end three new burghs were founded,
and the lands of all chiefs who could not show written
titles were declared forfeited. These lands were given to Lowland
colonists, who were however soon glad to give up any
attempt at settling among their lawless neighbours. The
MacGregors, whose district lay close on the Lowland border,
had shown themselves the most savage and lawless of all the
Highland clans. Argyle was commissioned to hunt them
down, but they beat the Lowlanders with great slaughter in
a battle at Glen Fruin in 1604. Their chief was afterwards
taken and hanged, and the name proscribed, but that was
only breaking the power of one clan, whilst the others remained
as formidable as ever. To prevent such outbreaks
in future, Argyle and Huntly were entrusted with full powers
to carry on the planting of the Highlands. Three conditions
were required of those chiefs who were suffered to stay
in possession of their lands. That they should give sureties
for the good order of their clans; promise to let their land
for a fixed rent in money instead of all other exactions, and
agree to send their children to school in the Lowlands.
These changes not only strengthened the Government,
but made united action on the part of the clans more difficult.
4. Articles of Perth.—The King only paid
one visit to Scotland after his accession to the throne of England. He
then gave great offence by introducing ceremonial vestments
at the service in his own chapel. These vestments and other
ornaments which were customary in England were hateful to
the presbyterians. The passing of the "Five Articles" by a
General Assembly held at Perth completed their dismay,
and plainly showed the King's intention to impose upon
them the ceremonies which they so much disliked. By those
Articles the private administration of the sacraments was
allowed, all persons were enjoined to kneel at the Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper, to bring their children to the Bishops
for confirmation, and to observe the five great festivals of the
Christian Church as holidays.
5. Founding of Nova Scotia.—The poverty
of their country and the love of adventure had made the Scots from the
earliest times ever ready to seek their fortunes abroad.
They had won themselves renown as soldiers or traders
in nearly all the countries of the Old world, but they
had not as yet any colony of their own in the New one.
Hitherto these emigrants, though they were called Scots,
had been chiefly Saxons from the Lowlands, but in the
beginning of this reign bodies of Celts had gone back to the
original Scotia, and in Ulster, their old home, they won
back settlements from the kindred Celtic race who now
looked on them as intruders. But while some of the wanderers
thus went back to the old country, others were founding
a New Scotland beyond the sea. This, the third land
to which the wandering people gave its name, was called
by the Latin form of the name, Nova Scotia. It was granted
by a Royal Charter to Sir William Alexander, afterwards
Earl of Stirling, the projector of this scheme of emigration
in 1621. This new settlement was divided into 1,000 parts,
and every adventurer who was willing to brave the hardships
of an uncleared country, and resist the encroachments of
the neighbouring settlers, was rewarded with the rank and
title of baronet. About the same time too the Lowlanders
were encouraged to go over to the North of Ireland, and to
take up the lands from which the Irish chiefs had been
driven. As the soil there was much better than that which
they had left, they gladly agreed to the change, and passed
over in great numbers, more than ten thousand going in two years.
6. The King's Death.—On the twenty-seventh
of March, 1625, the King died. He had governed Scotland during his
twenty-two years of absence with a much firmer hand than
in the troubled time of his personal rule. He had then
been quite at the mercy of his ministers and of the nobles.
The wealth and power of his larger kingdom made him
now able to deal with the smaller one pretty much as he
liked, and the nobles were too eagerly seeking favour and
place at the richer court to be willing to risk the loss of them
by opposing his will. James was quite unlike all his forefathers.
He had good abilities and an unusual amount of
learning, besides a good deal of common sense and shrewdness,
which he sometimes made use of, but his repulsive appearance
and manners, and his want of self-reliance, exposed
him to ridicule and contempt. He had none of the courage,
high spirit, graceful tastes and ready wit that spread a veil
over the faults and vices of his ancestors. Yet he alone
escaped the tragic fate that seemed the doom of all the
Stewart line, and was singled out from among them for an
almost fairy-like change and advance of fortune.
7. Charles I., 1625-1649. Resumption of
Benefices.—Charles, who succeeded James as King of
the two kingdoms, had even more exalted ideas than his father of the
power of the prerogative. It fell to the lot of the Scots to take
the lead and set an example to the English in resisting
his arbitrary measures. Before he had been a year on the
throne, it was clear that he meant to carry out his father's
plan of making the Scotch Church as like the English Church
as possible. He issued a proclamation recalling all the church
lands which were in the hands of laymen, whether they had
been granted by the crown or not. The holders protested
against this injustice, and at last a compromise was made by
which they agreed to give up part of the lands they held on
condition of having their claim to the rest made good.
8. King's Visit and Coronation.—In 1633
Charles came to Scotland, and was crowned with great pomp in the Abbey
church of Holyrood. The vestments that were worn on
this occasion by the clergy gave great offence to the people.
Their discontent was increased by an order from the King
enjoining their own ministers to wear surplices, and the
bishops to wear rochets and sleeves, instead of the Geneva
cloak as heretofore. While Charles was in Scotland, a meeting
of the Estates was held, in which he met with no opposition,
owing to a new arrangement in choosing the Lords of
the Articles. Formerly this committee had consisted of
eight members from each Estate chosen by their own peers;
but now the bishops were first chosen, they again chose the
barons, and barons and bishops together chose the commons,
so that all those chosen were really the allies of the bishops.
A supplication was drawn up to remonstrate with the King
about this interference, but, instead of taking it in good part,
Charles was very angry, treated their remonstrance as a political
offence, and put the lord Balmerinoch, who had revised the
supplication which was presented to him, in prison. He was
afterwards pardoned, but this did not make the King any
more popular, as it was thought that he had only liberated
Balmerinoch from fear and not from goodwill. While in Scotland
he founded a new bishopric at Edinburgh, which had
formerly formed part of the diocese of St. Andrews.
9. Book of Canons.—The discontent and distrust
of the people which had been roused by the introduction of vestments,
by the increase in the number of the bishops, and by
the appointment of the primate as chancellor were now
brought to a head by the appearance of a Book of Canons, or
rules for the government of the Church. This book they
were called on to accept in place of the Book of Discipline,
on the authority of the King alone, unconfirmed by the
Estates, and not long after the King attempted to change
their form of worship as well. Through the influence of
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, a Liturgy was drawn up
on the plan of the first book of Edward the Sixth. From
this Liturgy the Scotch clergy were commanded by the King
to read prayers in the churches, instead of from the book
of Common Order which was still in general use.
10. Liturgy Tumults.—The imposition of
this book roused the old national jealousy. The people thought that to
have an English service book forced upon them would be a mark of
subjection; and on the day named by the King for bringing it
into use, July 16, 1637, when the Dean of Edinburgh tried to
read the prayers from it in St. Giles' Church, a riot broke out.
Stools and books were thrown at the Dean, the Archbishop,
and the Bishop of Edinburgh, who had great difficulty in
escaping out of the hands of the mob. And this tumult was
but a sign of the common feeling throughout the country.
The King was highly incensed and ordered the offenders to
be brought to punishment, and the use of the liturgy to
be enforced. Numberless petitions against it from all ranks
of the people poured in on the Privy Council, or were sent
up to London to the King, while Edinburgh was thronged
with the petitioners from all parts of the country waiting
for the answer which they hoped would be favourable. No
answer was given to them, but the King issued a proclamation
ordering them all to return to their homes, and threatening
to remove the courts from Edinburgh to Linlithgow
if the disturbance continued, as had been done in the late
reign. But this had no effect. The bishops and the other
members of the Council were mobbed, and the supplicants
joined in a common petition to the King, called the Great Supplication.
11. The Tables.—The Council finding it
impossible to treat with a turbulent mob which increased instead of
diminishing, persuaded the malcontents to choose representatives to act
in their names, four from each class, nobles, lesser barons,
clergy, and burgesses. The rest were to return peaceably to
their several homes. But this committee, known as
The Tables, gave the Council more trouble than the unruly mob
had done, for they made their way into the Council chamber,
insisted on debating there, and demanded that the bishops
should be turned out.
12. Renewal of the Covenant, 1638.—Still
the King would not give in, and he met a less submissive protest on the
part of his subjects by another threatening proclamation.
On this the Tables renewed the Covenant, with a clause
added to it aimed at the bishops. At the last renewal of
the Covenant, only notable persons had put their names to it,
but this time it was signed by every one throughout the land,
rich and poor alike. There was the greatest excitement
and enthusiasm about it all over the country, and from this
time the popular party became known as the Covenanters.
13. Hamilton Commissioner.—A few months later
the Marquess of Hamilton came to Scotland as Commissioner
with full power, it was said, to settle everything. The demands of
the Covenanters were that the Court of High Commission,
the Canons and the Liturgy should all be done away, and
that a free Assembly and a free Parliament should be summoned.
But Hamilton, acting on the orders given him,
kept putting them off with promises till the King should be
ready to put them down by force, when suddenly the King
turned about, promised all they asked, and agreed that the Assembly
should be called, and that the bishops should be tried by it.
14. Glasgow Assembly.—The Assembly met in
the Cathedral Church at Glasgow, November 21, 1638. Hamilton
opened it as the Royal Commissioner. But after a few days,
when the attack on the bishops began, he withdrew and
ordered the members to disperse. They paid no heed to this
order, but went on with the trial of the bishops, who were all
deposed, and eight of them excommunicated. The Canons
and the Liturgy were then rejected, and all acts of the
Assemblies held since 1606 were annulled.
15. War in the North.—In the North,
where Huntly was the King's Lieutenant, the Covenant had not
been received, and the Tables resolved to enforce it with the sword. Scotland
was now full of trained soldiers just come back from Germany,
where they had learnt to fight in the Thirty Years
war, and as plenty of money had been collected among the
Covenanters, an army was easily raised. Their banner bore
the motto, For Religion, the Covenant, and the Country,
and their leader was James Graham, Earl of Montrose, one
of the most zealous among the champions of the cause. Aberdeen,
Huntly's capital, dared make no resistance, for the
soldiers occupied the town and the ministers the pulpits, and
Montrose brought Huntly himself back to Edinburgh in his
train. But in the first brush of actual war the King's party, the
Cavaliers, or Malignants as their opponents called them, had
the advantage, for they surprised and scattered the Covenanters
of the North at the little village of Turriff, which
they had made their trysting place. In this action, called
the Trot of Turriff, the first blood was shed in the great
Civil War. The Cavaliers were the first to draw the sword.
Though Huntly had been taken out of the way by his removal
to Edinburgh, his two sons, the Lord Aboyne and
Lewis Gordon, supplied his place and called out the Highlanders.
Aberdeen changed hands, and again Montrose was
sent to subdue the North before the expected struggle with
England should begin. At the Bridge of Dee he defeated
the Malignants, and once more entered Aberdeen in triumph.
Just after this entry the news was brought that peace had
been made between the King and the other army of the
Covenant on the Border. June 1639.
16. Pacification of Berwick.—While Montrose
had been thus busy for the Covenant in the North, the King had been
making ready to put down his rebellious Scottish subjects
with the sword. Early in May a fleet entered the Forth
under the command of Hamilton. But the Tables took possession
of the strongholds, and seized the ammunition which
had been laid in for the King. They then raised another
army of twenty-two thousand foot and one thousand two
hundred horse, and placed at its head Alexander Leslie, a
veteran, trained in the German war. Their army they sent
southwards to meet the English host which the King was
bringing to reduce Scotland. The two armies faced each
other on opposite banks of the Tweed. The Scots were skilfully
posted on Dunse Law, a hill commanding the Northern
road. To pass them without fighting was impossible, and
to fight would have been almost certain defeat. The King
seeing this agreed to treat. By a treaty called the "Pacification
of Berwick," it was settled that the questions at
issue between the King and the Covenanters should be put
to a free Assembly, that both armies should be disbanded,
and that the strongholds should be restored to the King. June 9, 1639.
17. Assembly and Parliament.—The Assembly
which met at Edinburgh repeated and approved all that had been
done at Glasgow. When the Estates met for the first
time in the New Parliament-house, June 2, 1640, they went
still further, for they not only confirmed the Acts of the
Assemblies, but ordered everyone to sign the Covenant
under pain of civil penalties. Now for the first time they
acted in open defiance of the King, to whom hitherto they
had professed the greatest loyalty and submission. Three
times had they been adjourned by the King, who had also
refused to see the Commissioners whom they sent up to
London. Now they met in spite of him, and, as in former
times of troubles and difficulties, they appealed to France
for help. When this intrigue with the French was found
out, the Lord Loudon, one of their Commissioners, was sent
to the Tower, and the English parliament was summoned
to vote supplies for putting down the Scots by force of arms.
But by this time the English were beginning to see that the
cause of the Scots was the cause of freedom. There was
much difficulty in raising an army to march against them,
and when raised it was discontented and mutinous.
18. Invasion of England.—As for the Scots
they mustered stronger than before, and, on August 20, 1640, they
crossed the Tweed, and entered England. At Newburn they
defeated a body of English, and crossing the Tyne, marched
on to Newcastle, which yielded to them without offering
resistance. They then took Durham, Tynemouth, and
Shields without a struggle. Meanwhile news came from
Scotland that the two great strongholds of the East and of the West,
Edinburgh and Dunbarton, had again fallen into their hands.
19. Treaty of Ripon.—Once more they sent to
the King, who was then at York, a supplication in which they declared
that all they wanted was satisfaction to their just demands. The
King laid the matter before a great council of peers which he
had called at York. By their advice it was decided to treat
with the Scots. Eight Commissioners from their army came
to Ripon, and the treaty which was begun there was not
ended until nearly a year afterwards at London. All that
they asked was granted, and they were promised three
hundred thousand pounds to defray the expenses of this
war, into which they said they had been driven. The armies
were then disbanded, and peace seemed to be restored. The
King came to Scotland once more, and a meeting of the
Estates was held in which he let the members have their
own way in everything. He also confirmed the right of the Estates
to meet once every three years, and fixed the next meeting for June, 1644.
20. Breaking out of the War.—This seeming
peace was but the lull before the storm, and, before one year had passed,
the English had followed the example set them by the Scots
in resisting the unlawful exactions of the King; the Long
Parliament had brought his minister Strafford, the chief
agent of his despotism, to the scaffold, and had called on the
people to arm in defence of their rights and liberties. When
the great Civil War began in earnest, each side was eager to
secure the help of the fine army which the Scots had at their
command. Religious opinion decided the matter. The Parliament,
which was as much opposed to episcopacy as the Scots
were, adopted the solemn League and Covenant, and ordered
every one to sign it, and by so doing induced the Scots to
join them. The army was raised again, and put under the
command of the two Leslies, Alexander, now Earl of Leven,
and his nephew David, who soon proved the better soldier of
the two. A second time they entered England, January 19,
1644, and leaving a part of their force to besiege Newcastle
marched on into Yorkshire, and joined the troops of the
Parliament in time to share their victory at Marston Moor.
Newcastle was taken by storm, October 19.
21. Montrose's Campaign.—Meanwhile Montrose,
whose zeal for the Covenant had now changed into zeal for the King,
was taking advantage of the absence of the Covenanting
force in England to win back the North for Charles with
an army of Celts alone. It was the first time that the Highlanders
had been turned to account in regular war. Hitherto
they had been thought only capable of preying upon one
another, but now, under a General who knew how to handle
them, they did wonders. The Lowlanders who had hastily
mustered to oppose them were beaten at Tippermuir.
Montrose then took Perth, marched northward, again defeated
the Covenanters, took Aberdeen once more, and held
for the King this town which twice before he had held for
the Covenant. He then turned to the West, wasted the
country of his great enemy Argyle, pounced down upon
and scattered the force gathered to oppose his own on the
shore of Loch Linnhe; kept his army in the Highlands
during the winter, and early in the spring took Dundee. He
twice defeated the Covenanters in the country north of the
Forth, and once south of it at Kilsyth. Thus in a
wonderfully short time he won back nearly the whole country for
the King. But the secret of his success had lain in the rapid
marches and sudden attacks that kept his men busy. When
the fighting was over, the Highlanders, as was their wont,
went off in large numbers to take home their spoil. In
this way his army was diminished. David Leslie, who had
been summoned home to oppose him, brought some cavalry
from the southern army against his weakened force, and
won a complete victory at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk,
September 12th, 1645. Montrose retreated with the small remnant
that was left to him, but he found it impossible to reassemble
his scattered force. His campaign had lasted little
more than a year, and a few months later the King, who
had thrown himself on the protection of the Scots army at
Newark, ordered him to lay down his arms. Montrose obeyed
and left the country.
22. Dealings with the King.—While the Scots
army was lying before Newark, Charles, whose cause was now nearly
hopeless, secretly left Oxford, where he was besieged by
the army of the Parliament, and sought protection in the
camp of the Scots. A few days afterwards Newark surrendered,
and they returned with the King to Newcastle.
He stayed in their hands eight months. During this time,
though they behaved towards him with respect and courtesy,
he was really their prisoner, and they were busy treating
with the Parliament for the terms of his surrender. If he
had turned Presbyterian and signed the Covenant, no doubt
they would have protected him, but after many arguments
with Henderson, a noted divine of their party, he still remained
unconvinced. In the end they agreed to leave
England on payment of 400,000 pounds arrears of pay
that were due to them. When they returned to their own country,
they left the King to the mercy of the English Parliament.
23. The Engagement.—A few months later, when
Charles was a prisoner at Carisbrooke, he made a secret treaty with
the moderate party in Scotland, to the effect that, if they
would help him to win back his power, he would confirm the
Covenant and would make a trial of the presbyterian Church
in England. On this the Committee of Estates, in whose
hands the government was, raised an army and sent it into
England, with Hamilton, who had been created a Duke,
at its head. They were defeated at Preston by Oliver
Cromwell, lieutenant-general of the parliamentary army. The
Duke marched on to Uttoxeter. There he and his army laid
down their arms, and yielded themselves prisoners, August 25,
1648. But the extreme party in Scotland were very wroth
against the Engagers, as they called those who had made
this "engagement" with the King. They thought that the
taking of the Covenant by the King was a mere pretence,
and that Hamilton's expedition was a sinful helping of the
Malignants. A change in the government was the result.
Argyle, the head of the extreme Covenanters, raised his
followers, while from the Western Lowlands, which were just
waking to zeal for the Covenant, a body of men, with Lord
Eglinton at their head, marched on Edinburgh. This was
called the Whiggamores' Raid, from Whig, a word used
in the Westland for urging on horses. This was the
origin of the word Whig, which gradually became the nickname
of a political party. Argyle and his party came to
terms with Cromwell, and formed a new Committee of
Estates. Cromwell then marched to Edinburgh, and made
them give him an assurance that none of the Engagers
should be allowed to take any part in the government. By
the Act of Classes which was then passed, all profane
persons and enemies of the Covenant were likewise shut
out from holding office.
24. The Directory and Confession of Faith.
—The Scots now hoped to see their Church and their Covenant
adopted over all three kingdoms. In this hope they were disappointed,
for the most of the parliamentary party were Independents,
who had no idea of exchanging the tyranny of bishops for
that of presbyters. An Assembly of Divines met at
Westminster, June 12, 1643, to settle religious matters.
They adopted the Covenant, and the Scots in return accepted their
directory of public worship, and the Confession of Faith
drawn up by them in place of their own Books of Discipline
and Common Order. But though the Covenant was thus nominally
accepted in England, the different English sects were
allowed far more liberty than the strict Covenanters thought right.
25. The King's Death.—On the thirtieth of
January, 1649, the King was beheaded at Whitehall. With the court of
justice which professed to try him, with the sentence which
it passed, and with the execution of that sentence, the Scots
had nothing whatever to do. As they had no idea of the
existence of their kingdom without a king, nor of having
any other king than the hereditary one, no sooner was the
news of the King's death known in Edinburgh, than Charles
his son was proclaimed King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.
26. Charles II., 1649-1685. Fate of Hamilton and
Huntly.—Hamilton, who was a prisoner in England, was
brought to trial as an English subject by his English title of
Earl of Cambridge; he was found guilty of treason in invading
the country, and was beheaded. Huntly met with a like fate
in Scotland. He was also charged with treason in having
made war for the King against the Covenanters.
27. Montrose's Rising.—-Meanwhile in the north
Montrose made one more effort for the king. With a small army of
foreigners which he had gathered on the Continent he landed
in Orkney, and from thence passed over to Scotland early in
1650. But his followers were dispersed by a detachment from
the Covenanting army. He himself wandered for a while
in the Highlands, but was at last taken prisoner, brought to
Edinburgh, and hanged there without a trial. He was lying
under sentence of death for treason, which had been passed
against him five years before, when he first took up arms for the King.
28. Arrival of Charles.-—But while the
Estates were thus dealing with the leaders of the Malignants, they were
busy on their own account treating for the return of Charles.
They looked on him as their lawful King, and they were
ready to be faithful to him if he would sign the Covenant
and promise to submit to the dictates of the Assembly.
These promises he made, and, before he landed, he signed
the Covenant, in July, 1650, while the courtiers whom he had
brought with him were nearly all sent away as being either
Malignants or Engagers.
29. Cromwell's Conquest.—-No sooner did the
news of these doings reach London than Cromwell was sent northward
with a large army to put a stop to them. The old hatred of
England was rekindled by this invasion, and numbers of
recruits flocked round the banner of the Covenant. The army
thus brought together was made up of good soldiers who
made no pretences to piety, and of would-be saints who knew
nothing of fighting. But the saints drove from their ranks
all whom they suspected of lukewarmness in the cause and
therefore looked on as sinners, and thus weeded out their
best soldiers. Those who were left were put under the command
of Leslie, and the King was not suffered to go out with
the host. They took up a strong position on the hills south
of the Firth of Forth, and for some time Cromwell tried in
vain to bring them to a battle, but at last Leslie was persuaded
against his better judgment to go down into the
plain and meet the enemy. A battle was fought near Dunbar,
September 3, in which the Scots were thoroughly beaten.
30. The Coronation. —-Meanwhile Charles
was in Dunfermline, in old times the royal city, under care so
strict and watchful that it was very much like imprisonment. The life
which he led there was so distasteful to him that he made
his escape, in hopes of joining the northern chiefs. But
their plans were badly laid. He found no one to meet him
as he had expected, and he was pursued and brought back by
his former guardians. According to the ancient custom,
Charles was crowned at Scone by the hands of
the Marquess of Argyle.
31. Battle of Worcester.—-While Cromwell
was busy in Scotland the Scots army marched into England. This
time they took the King with them. But Cromwell hastened
after them, came up with them at Worcester, and defeated
them there, September 3, 1651, exactly a year after his
victory at Dunbar. This was the last battle fought in the
Civil War. The Scots had been the first to take up the
sword, and they were the last to lay it down. Charles, after
wandering about for some time in danger, and in want,
escaped to the Continent. Meanwhile General Monk, who
had been left in Scotland with an army of five thousand
men, was reducing the country to subjection. The public
records deposited in Stirling Castle were sent to the Tower
of London. The Regalia, the Honours of Scotland as they
were called, the Crown, the Sword, and the Sceptre, had
been taken to Dunnottar, one of the strong fortresses in
Scotland, which stood on a ledge of rock overhanging the
sea. The Castle made a gallant resistance, but was at last
obliged to yield, but the Honours were not found in it. They
had been taken secretly from the Castle by Mrs. Granger, the
wife of the minister of the parish. She rode through the
camp with the Crown on her lap hidden in a bundle of lint,
and the sceptre in her hand in the guise of a distaff, with
the flax she was spinning wound round it. She and her
husband buried the Honours under the floor of the church,
and they kept their secret so well that no one knew what
had become of them.
32. Union with England.—Cromwell, now
Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, set to work to
carry out Edward the First's idea of a legislative union of England
and Scotland. This Union was ratified by the Council, in
1654. It was then settled that Scotland should be represented
by thirty members in the English Parliament. Free-trade
was established between the two countries. Great
changes were also made in the Church Government. The
Assembly was closed, and the power of the Church-courts
was done away with. The country was divided into five
districts, and the care of providing ministers to the different
parishes was laid upon a certain number of ministers to be
chosen from these districts. In order to improve the state
of the people, all feudal dues were taken away. A fixed rent
in money was substituted for all the services and restrictions
to which the land had hitherto been liable. The Highlands
were kept in order by the founding of garrisoned Forts.
33. Glencairn's Expedition.—Once only was
the peace and order thus well established broken in favour of the Stewarts.
A rising was made in the Highlands by William Cunningham,
Lord Glencairn, who acted under a commission from Charles.
More than five thousand men gathered round him. They
were dispersed by a detachment of Monk's troops under General Morgan at
Loch Garry before they had come down from the Highlands.
34. The Restoration.—The Protector,
whose conquest had made Scotland prosperous, died September 3, 1658. His
son Richard succeeded him in office, but he was not strong enough
to keep order, as his father had done. A time of great
confusion followed, which ended in the recall and Restoration
of Charles. This was chiefly the work of General Monk.
He was Commander of the Army in Scotland, during the
Protectorate. Some time after Cromwell's death he called
together a Convention of the Representatives of the Counties.
Whether they knew of his intention of restoring Charles
or not is not certain. But they aided him with a large sum
of money. In November, 1659, he set out with the army for
London, and in about six months' time Charles returned in
triumph to England. In Scotland, where Charles had
been already crowned, his return was celebrated with great
rejoicings by the people, who hoped that he would uphold
the Covenant which he had signed. Before long, they found
out how much they had been mistaken. In the very first
English Parliament, an Act was passed which took from
Scotland the privilege of free-trade with England, which she
had enjoyed under Cromwell. This was the Navigation
Act, by which the exporting and importing of merchandise
into England, or any of her colonies, was forbidden to any
but English vessels.
35. Episcopacy Re-established.—John Middleton,
a soldier of fortune, who had been taken prisoner at Worcester,
and who had afterwards taken an active part in Glencairn's
expedition, was now made Earl of Middleton, and was sent
to Scotland as Commissioner. When the Estates met, an
Act called the Act Rescissory was passed. By this Act,
all the Acts passed since 1633 were cut out of the Statutes;
nearly all the concessions wrung from Charles the First
were recalled. The causes of dispute between the King and
the people were thus restored to the state in which they had
been before the great struggle began. In this same year
Episcopacy was re-established by the Estates, and the Covenant
was publicly burned by the hangman. As there was
but one of the old bishops still alive, three new ones were
consecrated in England. James Sharp was the Primate.
He had gone up to London to plead the cause of the Covenant
and of Presbyters; he came back an Archbishop, and was
thenceforward foremost in persecuting the cause he had deserted.
36. Fate of Argyle and of Guthrie.—The
government of Scotland was entrusted to a Privy Council. Its authority
was supported by a standing lifeguard, the troop that former
kings had often asked for in vain. To this Council were
entrusted the supreme powers of the Estates during the
intervals between the Sessions. An Act of Indemnity
was promised, but before it was passed several persons
suffered death. Two of those who thus fell were specially
distinguished. The one was Argyle, whose great power
made him a dangerous rival to the King. He was treacherously
seized in London, whither he had gone to pay his court
to Charles. He was sent down to Edinburgh, where he was
tried for treason, found guilty, and beheaded, May 27, 1661.
But the victim who was most regretted and whose fate called
forth the most pity was James Guthrie, a noted divine, the
leader of the extreme party among the Covenanters. This
party, who were called the Remonstrants, had prepared a
Remonstrance to be presented to the King directly after his
return, praying that no form of worship but their own might
be suffered within the realm. This remonstrance was drawn
up by Guthrie. It was never presented, and those who had
projected it were put in prison. Guthrie was now brought
to trial on a charge of spreading abroad sedition and treason
against the Government. He refused any legal defence, and
avowed and justified all that he had done. He was found
guilty and beheaded. He was looked on by the Covenanters
as a martyr for his faith, and his last words were treasured
up with special veneration.
37. The Ejection.—The promised Act of
Indemnity was not passed till 1662, and it was not a free pardon, as
had been looked for. Between seven and eight hundred persons
were heavily fined. In this same year an Act was passed
requiring all persons holding any public office to sign a
Declaration that the Covenant was an unlawful oath; and
lastly a law was passed that all ministers presented to livings
since 1639 should be turned out, unless they would agree to
be collated or instituted by the new bishops. The ministers
who refused to consent to episcopal collation were required
to remove with their families out of their parishes within
a month from the date of the passing of this Act. The
meeting of the Council in which it was passed was called
the Drunken Parliament, from the condition of the members
present. Sooner than submit to this, three hundred
and fifty ministers resigned. Most of their parishioners
followed them, and the churches were left empty, while the
people flocked to the open-air services of their former
pastors. To prevent this an Act was passed for levying
fines on all persons who did not go to their parish church
on the Lord's Day. Another Act, called the Mile Act, was
also passed, which forbade the recusant or refusing ministers
to come within twenty miles of their former parishes, or
within three miles of any royal burgh. The Court of High
Commission was revived, and empowered to proceed against
all dissenters from the Episcopal (now the Established)
Church, whether they were Romanists or Presbyterians.
But this tyranny drove the people to revolt, and a third
Religious War began. In the first the people had taken up
arms for a question of doctrine; the second arose from disputes
about a form of prayer; this, the third, was caused by
enforcing a form of Church-government specially disliked by
the nation. In the conduct of public prayer no change was
made. As there had been in James's reign a Presbyterian
Church with a Liturgy, so now there was an Episcopal
Church without one. But, though the cause of dispute
seemed this time of less importance than in the two former
wars, the zeal on the one side and the persecution on the
other were greater than they had been in the former struggles.
Then Edinburgh and the Eastern Lowlands had borne the
brunt of the battle; now it was in the West, where it was latest
kindled, that religious zeal flamed fiercest and lasted longest.
38. Western Rising.—In spite of fines
and penalties the churches still remained empty, while the people went
long distances to gather round their "outed" ministers. On the
hill-sides, wherever in short they were least likely to be dispersed
by the dragoons, they met to hear the sermons of
their favourite preachers. But so great was the danger incurred
by thus worshipping God according to their consciences
that sentries were stationed on the hill-tops round to give warning
of the approach of danger, and the men stacked their
muskets so that they could seize and use them on a moment's
notice. Such meetings were called Conventicles, and to hunt
them down bands of soldiers scoured the country in all
directions. In the south-west the troops were under the
command of Sir James Turner, and it was his severity that
drove the people to actual revolt. The immediate cause of
the outbreak was the rescue of an old man from the clutches
of a group of soldiers who were ill-using him. In the scuffle
one of the soldiers was wounded. This affair happened at
Dalry, in Ayrshire. A large body of peasants soon gathered
to protect their conventicles. They seized Turner at Dumfries,
and, when their numbers had increased to nearly three
thousand, they set out for Edinburgh, expecting the people
of the Eastern Counties to show their former spirit by rising
to join them. General Thomas Dalziel, who had made himself
a reputation by fighting for the Czar of Russia against
Turks and Tartars, was sent to bar their way. But they
avoided and passed him. He had to come back after them
as far as the Pentland Hills, where they were so well posted
that the troops could only break and disperse them by repeated
attacks. But the feeling of this district had changed
so much that the peasantry now turned against these wild
Whigs of the Westland, and treated them nearly as badly as
the troopers had done.
39. The Persecution.—This rising did no real
good, for after the defeat at Pentland in 1666 the tyranny became even
more cruel than before. The trials which followed were infamous,
from the shameful and constant use of torture. The
instruments used for this purpose were the thumbkin, a screw
applied to the thumb-joint, and the boot, a cylinder in which
the leg of the victim was crushed by hammering in wedges.
Both inflicted the most fearful pain without destroying life.
Twenty men were hanged in different places. The fines and
forfeitures inflicted were given as rewards to soldiers and
lawyers who might get them out of the offenders as they
best could. At this time certain bonds called law-burrows
were originated. These were bonds by which all the principal
men in a district pledged themselves to prevent those beneath
them in rank from breaking the peace.
40. The Indulgence.—But these measures only
increased the disorders they were intended to quiet, and the Government
tried a new system of greater toleration. An Indulgence
was issued, by which those of the outed ministers who
could prove that they had lived peaceably and had not held
conventicles since they had been turned out of their livings,
were allowed to go back to their parishes, provided no one
else had been put in their place. Some few took advantage
of it; but the greater number would not, and looked on
their indulged brethren as nearly as bad as the prelatists.
But this semblance of yielding was more than balanced by
new exactions. Intercommuning—that is, having anything
to do with any persons who had in any way broken any
of the many laws against conventicles—was denounced as
a criminal offence. Lauderdale, who succeeded Middleton
as Commissioner in 1669, brought an army of Celts down
on the Lowlands, which they pillaged at pleasure, carrying
back rich spoils to their native mountains.
41. Murder of Sharp.—Sharp, the Primate,
who was looked on as the originator of all the persecutions, was bitterly
hated. He was shot at in Edinburgh while getting into his
carriage, but was not hurt. Some time after he recognized
the man who had thus tried to take his life. Mitchell the
assassin was tried, and being bribed by a promise of pardon,
freely confessed that he had fired the shot. Instead of receiving
the promised pardon, Mitchell was sent to prison, tortured,
and finally put to death in 1678. But the very next year
Mitchell's attempt was repeated with better success. As
Sharp was driving with his daughter across Magus Moor,
near St. Andrews, he fell into the hands of a party of men
who were lying in wait there for one Carmichael, the Sheriff-substitute,
a wretch who had made himself specially hated.
When they heard that the Archbishop's coach was coming
that way, they looked on it as a special act of Providence
by which the Lord delivered him into their hands. They
fired into the coach, but did not hit him. He sheltered
himself behind his daughter, but they dragged him out, and
hacked him to death on the heath in a very barbarous way,
May 3, 1679. It had long been believed that Sharp was in
league with the Devil. To find proof of this they had no
sooner slain him than they began to search everything he
had with him. At last they opened his snuff-box, when a
bee flew out. This they agreed must have been his familiar
spirit. Every effort was made to track the murderers, among
whom were Hackston of Rathillet and Balfour of Burley,
but they escaped to the West.
42. Sanquhar Declaration.—The straitest
sect of the Covenanters now put forth a protest called the Sanquhar
Declaration. Their leaders were Donald Cargill and
Richard Cameron, after whom they were called Cameronians.
Their openly avowed intention was to free the country from
the tyranny under which it was groaning. They held that
Charles had by his perjury forfeited the crown. They excommunicated
both him and his brother James, Duke of York,
who was the Commissioner, and surpassed both Middleton
and Lauderdale in cruelty. To kill either the King or his
brother, or both of them, the Sanquhar men declared would
be perfectly justifiable. They joined themselves together
by one of the old bonds for mutual defence and support.
Hackston of Rathillet, who had been present at the death
of Sharp, was a chief man among them. With him as their
leader they sought a refuge from the troopers who were
out after them in Airds Moss, in Ayrshire. There they were
attacked, and, though they fought bravely, were overcome by the soldiers.
43. Drumclog.—The hill-country between
Lanark and Ayr was the favourite haunt of the Covenanters.
Here they held great conventicles, to which the men came armed. One of
the largest of these meetings was gathered at Drumclog, near
Loudon Hill, when they were attacked by a body of dragoons
under John Graham, of Claverhouse. But Claverhouse was
unaccustomed to this irregular way of fighting, and he was
defeated. The Covenanters, wild with joy, thought that
they saw the special hand of Providence in this success.
They gathered in great numbers, and marched on Glasgow.
But they did no harm to either the city or the citizens; they
only took down from the gates the heads and limbs of their
friends who had suffered for their faith, and buried them.
44. Bothwell Bridge.—To put down this revolt,
Charles sent his illegitimate son, James, Duke of Buccleuch and
Monmouth, with an army of fifteen thousand men. The
zeal of the Covenanters was great, but their resources were
few, and their leaders unskilful. It was therefore an easy
matter for a well-trained army to defeat them, and at the
Bridge over the Clyde at Bothwell they were beaten
with great slaughter. Twelve hundred fell into the hands of the
victors. Seven of these were put to death, some were released
on giving sureties for their future good conduct, and
the rest were shipped off to the plantations. Cameron fell in
this fray. Hackston and Cargill were taken, and brought to
trial at Edinburgh, found guilty, and put to death afterwards.
45. Test Act.—While the Duke of York was
Commissioner, an Act was passed to the effect that all persons taking office,
whether under Government or from the Corporation of
Burghs, should take the Test, an oath for the maintenance
of the Protestant Faith as it had been established in the first
Parliament of James the Sixth. At the same time the King
was declared supreme in Church and State, and the hereditary
succession was declared to be unchangeable. Now, as
it was well known that James, the King's brother and the
heir to the throne, was a Romanist, it was clear that the Test
gave no security to the Protestant Faith, if James, when
King, could make what changes he pleased in the Church.
46. Argyle's Opposition.—Archibald,
Earl of Argyle, who had been restored to his father's earldom, was the most
powerful chief in the kingdom. His father had lost his life
for his attachment to the Covenant, but he himself had
hitherto upheld the Government, and had even offered to
bring his Highlanders to its support. Now, however, he
showed signs of opposition, for he would only take the Test
with the protest that he did so only in so far as it was consistent
with itself and with the safety of the Protestant Faith.
For this reservation he was accused of leasing-making, that
is, of making mischief between the King and his people.
This offence had, by a most unjust law passed in the reign
of James the Sixth, been made treason. By this law Argyle
was condemned to death. He escaped and fled to Holland,
where he became the centre of a party of his fellow-countrymen
who had also left their country because of their political
opinions. After this unjust attack on Argyle no one could
be sure of his liberty, and a scheme was got up for emigration
to Carolina. One Robert Ferguson was connected with
this scheme. As this man was concerned in an English plot
against the life of the King, called the Rye House Plot,
all who had any dealings with him were suspected of being art
and part in that too, and were called to account before the
Council. Baillie of Jerviswood, a man much beloved and
respected, was tried on an accusation of conspiracy, was
found guilty, and put to death. His death greatly increased
the popular discontent.
47. James VII. 1685-1688. The Killing Time.—The
death of Charles and the accession of James rather made
matters worse than better for the people. Another defiance
from the Cameronians, called the Apologetical Declaration,
was met by an Act which gave the soldiers power at once
to put to death anyone who would not take the Abjuration
Oath; that is, swear that they abhorred and renounced this
treasonable Declaration. A time of cruel slaughter followed,
in which Claverhouse was the chief persecutor. Many
heartrending tales are told of the sufferings of the poor
creatures whose fanaticism led them to persist in refusing to
take this oath. There is a story told that one John Brown,
known as the "Christian Carrier," a man of great repute
among them, was shot dead by Claverhouse himself, almost
without warning, before the eyes of his wife. At another time
two women, Margaret Maclauchlan and Margaret Wilson—one
old, the other young—were, it is said, tied to stakes on
the Solway shore, that they might be drowned by inches by
the flowing tide. These tales and others of a like sort,
bear witness to the brutality of the one side and to the
constancy of the other. Early in James's reign an Act was passed
by which attending a Conventicle became a capital crime.
48. Argyle's Rising.—Monmouth was in
Holland when his father died, and many refugees from England and
Scotland were there with him. Among them they got up a
scheme for placing him on the throne in place of his uncle
James, who was hated, while Monmouth was very popular.
To carry this out they planned a rising, which was to have
taken place at the same time in both kingdoms. Argyle was
to take the lead in Scotland, but he was subject to the interference
of a Committee chosen from among the others. The
Government was informed of this intended outbreak, and all
the clans that were known to be hostile to Argyle were
roused against him. Early in May he landed in Kintyre,
and sent out the fiery cross to summon his clansmen, who
mustered to the number of 1800. But the quarrels and the
jealousy of the Committee placed over him overthrew all his
plans. By their advice he marched into the Lowlands,
where the people were little disposed to join him. The fort
where he had stored his arms and ammunition was seized by
the King's men. His men were starving. They deserted in
large numbers, and were at last dispersed by a false alarm
as they were marching on Glasgow. Argyle himself was
taken while trying to escape. He was still lying under the
old sentence of death, which had been passed against him
for leasing-making. This sentence was executed without
any further trial, and with a repetition of all the indignities
which had been heaped upon Montrose. After his death the
vengeance of the Government fell on his clansmen. The
country round Inverary was wasted, while great numbers of
the clan were transported to the plantations, many of them
having been first cruelly mutilated. At the first alarm of
the invasion a large body of prisoners for religious opinion,
of all ages and both sexes, had been sent to Dunnottar, a
strong castle on the coast of Kincardine, where they were so
closely crowded together in one dungeon that many died there.
Most of the survivors were also sent to the plantations.
49. The Indulgence.—Up to this time
the Council had blindly followed in the lead of the King. They
would now do so no longer, as they feared that he meant to restore the
Roman Catholic Faith. The Duke of Queensberry, the Commissioner,
was deprived of his office, and James Drummond,
Earl of Perth, a convert to Romanism, was placed in his
stead. James next tried to get a Bill passed by which all
the penalties against the Roman Catholics should be done
away, while those against the Covenanters should remain
in force. To this Bill even the bishops objected, and James
saw that there was nothing for it but to treat all sects alike.
He published several Indulgences, but it was only the last, in
1688, that was full and complete. It extended toleration to
all, even to the Quakers, who had up to this time been as
much despised and persecuted as the Covenanters.
50. Deposition of James.—This change
of policy on the part of the King had come too late. His attack on
the liberties of the Church in England had been resisted by
seven of her bishops; and before long his English subjects
resolved to bear his tyranny no longer. They invited his
nephew and son-in-law, William, Prince of Orange, to come
to their aid. He came, and was by common consent invited
to mount the throne abdicated by James. When the news
of William's entry into London reached Edinburgh, a deputation,
headed by Hamilton, was sent to him, to pray him to
call a Convention of the Estates, and, till it met, to take the
government of Scotland into his own hands, Jan. 7th, 1689.
51. William and Mary, 1689-1702. The Convention.
—When the Convention met there was a large Whig majority.
They passed a resolution that James by his misgovernment
had forfeited the throne; they therefore deposed him, and
offered the crown to William and his wife Mary, the daughter
of James, on the same terms as had been made in England.
The Convention then turned itself into a Parliament, which
went on to the end of the reign. The members went in
procession to the Cross of Edinburgh, where their vote was
read. William and Mary were then proclaimed; and the
ministers of parishes were ordered to pray publicly for the
King and Queen, on pain of being turned out of their livings.
To the Claim of Right, which was much the same as the
English one, a special clause was added, declaring prelacy to
be an intolerable burthen which had long been hateful to the
people, and which ought to be swept away. Three Commissioners
were sent with the Instrument of Government to
London. Argyle administered the coronation oath; but
William, while taking it, declared that he would not become
a persecutor in support of any sect.
52. The Rabbling.—The fall of James was
followed by the fall of the Episcopal Church, which had made itself hateful
to the greater number of the people. They took the law into
their own hands, and on Christmas Day, 1688, a general
attack was made on the curates or parish priests in the
Western Lowlands. About two hundred curates with their
families were at once driven out of their houses with every
sort of insult and abuse. William did not approve of these
excesses, but he had no means of putting a stop to them, for
there was no regiment north of the Tweed. He put forth a
proclamation ordering all persons to lay down their arms, but
it was little heeded. The rabbling and turning out went on
much as before. If the bishops would have taken the oaths,
William would most likely have protected them; but they
remained true to their old master, and shared his fall. For
a time all was disorder. In some parishes the curates went
on ministering as heretofore, while in others the Presbyterian
divines held services in tents, or illegally occupied the pulpits.
It was not till June 1690 that the Presbyterian Church
was re-established by law. Sixty of the ministers who had
been turned out at the Restoration were still living, and to
them was given authority to visit all the parishes, and to
turn out all those curates whom they thought wanting in
abilities, scandalous in morals, or unsound in faith. Those
livings from which the curates had been rabbled and driven
away were declared vacant. This way of dealing with the
Church gave offence both to the Episcopalians and to the extreme
Presbyterians, who did not approve of the interference
of the King in Church matters. Both these parties continued
to look on William and Mary as usurpers.
53. Dundee's Revolt.—When the Convention first met,
each party, Whigs and Jacobites alike, had dreaded an outbreak
on the part of the other. In the cellars of the city
were hidden large numbers of Covenanters, who had been
brought up from the West to overawe the Jacobites, while the
Duke of Gordon held the Castle for James, and he could, if he
had so chosen, have turned the guns upon the city. But the
Jacobites, finding themselves in the minority, determined to
leave Edinburgh, and to hold a rival Convention at Stirling;
while it was agreed that the Marquess of Athole should
bring a body of his Highlanders to protect them. But this
plan was so ill concerted that Claverhouse, now Viscount
Dundee, left hastily before the others were ready, an alarm
was given, and they were all secured. Dundee withdrew to
his own house in the Highlands, and stayed there quietly for
some time. But a few months later certain letters written to
him by James fell into the hands of the Government, and an
order was sent out for his arrest. Thus roused to action, he
summoned the clans for King James. Many of them joined
him, more from hatred of Argyle than from love for James.
General Mackay, who had come North with three regiments,
was sent against him; but he was not used to the Highland
way of fighting, and wasted some weeks in running about
after an enemy who always kept out of his way. Dundee had
no regular troops, but, as Montrose had done before him, he
showed what good soldiers the Celts can make with a good
leader. As both Dundee and Montrose were Lowlanders,
they could not excite the jealousy of the chiefs, and were all
the better fitted for the supreme command of a Celtic army.
Each clan in such an army formed a regiment bound together
by a tie of common brotherhood, and all bound to live or die
for the colonel their chief; and so long as the clans could be
kept from quarrelling all went well. Dundee wrote to James,
who was now in Ireland, for help; but he only sent three
hundred miserably-equipped foot, under an officer named
Canon. The hopes of the Whigs were placed in Argyle and
the western Covenanters, but neither of these did all that was
expected of them. Argyle could not, because his country
had been so lately wasted; and the Covenanters would not,
because the more part of them thought it a sin to fight for
a King who had not signed the Covenant. Some of them
however thought otherwise, and of these a regiment was
raised, and placed under the command of the Earl of Angus.
This regiment was called the Cameronians.
54. Battle of Killiecrankie.—The war
now broke out again. It was the great aim of each party to win over the
adherents of Athole. The Marquess himself, to keep out of
harm's way, had gone to England, and of those whom he had
left to act for him some were for James, others for the King
and Queen. It was of importance to both sides to secure
the castle of Blair, which belonged to Athole, and near there
the two armies met, at Killiecrankie, a pass leading into the
Highlands. Here the Celts won a brilliant and decided
victory. The clansmen charged sword in hand down the
pass with such fury that they swept their foes before them;
and Mackay, with a few hundred men, all he could gather
of his scattered army, was forced to flee to Stirling, July
27, 1689. But this success had been dearly bought by the
death of Dundee. Thus left without a leader, the victors
thought more of plunder than pursuit; nor was there
anyone among them fitted to fill Dundee's place, and to
follow up the advantage he had won. Recruits came in,
their numbers increased, but this only made the disorder greater.
55. Attack on Dunkeld. Buchan's Attempt.—A
month later they attacked the Cameronian regiment stationed at
Dunkeld. They took the town at the first attack, but the
soldiers defended themselves in the church and in a house
belonging to Athole in the town with such spirit, that the
Highlanders were driven back. They blamed the Irish for
the defeat, and the Irish blamed them, and the end of it was
that the clans dispersed, and Canon and his Irish withdrew
to Mull. In the spring of the next year the clans gathered
again, under an officer named Buchan, who came from
James with a commission to act as his commander-in-chief
in Scotland. But they were surprised and scattered in the
strath of the Spey, by Sir William Livingstone, who held
Inverness for William. This action ended the Civil War in
Scotland, for Gordon had long since given up Edinburgh
Castle. To keep the western clans in order, Mackay built
a fort in the west of Invernesshire, which was called Fort
William, in honour of the King. The castle on the Bass, a
rock in the Firth of Forth, was the last place which held
out for James, but the garrison were at last obliged to
give in, from want of food.
56. Reduction of the Highlands.—Still the
chiefs did not take the oaths to William, and were clearly only waiting
for the appearance of a new leader to break out again. To win
them over to the Government a large sum of money was put
into the hands of John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane. He
was accused of cheating both the clans and the King by
keeping a part of this sum himself, and he never gave any
clear account of what he had done with it. At the same
time a proclamation was put forth which offered pardon to
all the rebels who should take the oaths to William and
Mary before or on December 31, 1691. All who did not take
advantage of this offer were after that day to be dealt with
as enemies and traitors, and warlike preparations were made
for carrying out the threat.
57. Massacre of Glencoe.—By the day named the clans
had all come in, except MacIan, chief of a tribe of MacDonalds,
who lived in Glencoe, a wild mountain valley in the northwestern
corner of Argyleshire. On the last day, December
31, MacIan and his principal clansmen went to Fort
William to take the oaths, but found that there was no one
there who had authority to administer them. There was no
magistrate nearer than Inverary, and, as the ground was
deeply covered with snow, it was some days before MacIan
got there. But the sheriff, in consideration of his goodwill
and of the delay that he had met with, administered the
oaths, (January 6,) and sent an account of the whole affair to
the Privy Council at Edinburgh. Unfortunately for Glencoe,
Breadalbane was his bitter personal enemy, and along with
Sir John Dalrymple, the Master of Stair, he determined on
his destruction. An order for the extirpation of the whole
tribe was drawn up and presented to William, who signed
it, and it was carried out with cold-blooded treachery. A
party of soldiers, under the command of Campbell of Glenlyon,
appeared in the Glen. They gave out that they came as
friends, and as such they were kindly welcomed, and shared
the hospitality of the MacDonalds for a fortnight. Without
any warning they turned on their hosts, and before dawn of
a winter's morning slew nearly all the dwellers in the valley,
old and young together, February 13, 1691. They then
burnt the houses, and drove off the cattle, so that nothing
was left for the few wretched beings who had escaped
death but to perish miserably of cold and hunger. Whether
William knew the whole state of the case or not when he
signed the warrant is not certain, but he did not punish
those who had dared to commit this wholesale murder in
his name. And though four years after, when a stir was
made about it, he did grant a commission to the Privy
Council to inquire into the matter, he did not bring to judgment
the Master of Stair, who was very clearly pointed out
as the guilty person.
58. Darien Scheme.—Just at this time the
public attention was taken up with a scheme for founding a new colony on
the Isthmus of Darien, and people's minds were so full of it
that nothing else was thought of. It was got up by William
Paterson, who is to be remembered as the originator of the
Bank of England. He fancied that he had found, what
Columbus and the other navigators of his day had sought
in vain, a short cut to the Indies. His plan was to plant a
colony on the isthmus which unites North and South America,
and to make it the route by which the merchandise of the
East should be brought to Europe, thereby shortening the
long sea-voyage. He drew glowing pictures of the untold
wealth that would thus fall to the lot of those who were
clear-sighted enough to join in the venture. A charter was
granted to the new Company, which gave them a monopoly
of the trade with Asia, Africa, and America for a term of
thirty-one years, with leave to import all goods duty free, except
foreign sugar and tobacco. Never had project been so
popular. Every one was anxious to take shares. Half the
capital of Scotland was invested in it, and poor and rich alike,
deceived by Paterson's lying stories of the healthiness and
fertility of the soil and climate, were eager to hasten to the
new colony. A few vessels were bought at Hamburg and
Amsterdam. In these twelve hundred emigrants set sail on
the 25th July, 1698, and arrived safely on the shore of the
Gulf of Darien. They named the settlement which they
founded there New Caledonia, and built a town and a fort,
to which they gave the names of New Edinburgh and St.
Andrews. But, to set up such a trading market with any
hopes of success, they ought to have had the good will and
help of the great trading countries of Europe. Instead of
this, England and Holland were much opposed to the scheme,
as being an interference with their trading rights. The East
India Company looked on the bringing in of Eastern merchandise
to Scotland as an infringement of their privileges. Spain
too claimed the Isthmus as her own, and seized one of the
Scottish ships; while the Governor of the English colonies in
North America refused to let them have supplies. In addition
to these difficulties from without, the climate was wretchedly
unhealthy. Disease quickly thinned their ranks, till at last
the miserable remnant whom it spared were glad to flee from
almost certain death. They deserted the new settlement, and
set sail for New York. Meanwhile such glowing reports of
the success of the venture had been spread abroad at home,
that a second body of thirteen hundred emigrants, ignorant
of the fate of those who had gone before them, set sail in
August of the next year. They found the colony deserted,
and the colonists gone. They themselves fared no better
than the first settlers, and were in a few months driven out
by the Spaniards. The Scottish people were deeply mortified
and much enraged by the failure of this scheme. They
blamed William for all the disasters of the colonists, because
he had done nothing to help them, nor to prevent the
interference of Spain. The Charter had been granted by
the Government of Scotland without the King's knowledge
when he was in Holland; and though he could not recall it,
it would have been unjust to his English subjects to show any
favour to a scheme which, had it succeeded, might have
proved the ruin of their East Indian trade. So much bad
feeling arose out of this unfortunate affair between the two
nations, that it was plain that if there was not a closer union
between them there would be a breach before long.
59. William's Death.—Just as the project
of an Union was about to be considered in the English Parliament, William
died, March 8, 1702. Since the death of Mary, in 1690, he
had reigned alone. Both crowns now passed to Anne, the
younger daughter of James VII.
60. Education Act.—It was in this reign
that the system of national education which has made the Scotch, as a
people, so intelligent and well-informed, was re-cast. An
Act was passed, in 1696, by which every parish was required
to provide a suitable schoolhouse, and to pay a properly
qualified schoolmaster for the instruction of the children
of the parish.
61. Anne, 1702-1714. Act of Security.—
James VII. had died in France a few months before his nephew, and
his son had been proclaimed there as James VIII. This made the
Whigs anxious to have an Act passed in Scotland similar to
the English Act of Settlement. By this Act the Parliament
of England had settled that, if Anne died without heirs,
the crown should pass to the nearest Protestant heir, Sophia,
Electress of Hanover, grand-daughter of James the Sixth,
or to her descendants. But the Estates still felt injured
and angry about the late differences with England, and
passed an Act of Security, which made express conditions
that the same person should not succeed to the throne of
both kingdoms, unless, during Queen Anne's reign, measures
had been taken for securing the honour and independence
of the Scottish nation against English influence. The right
of declaring war against England at any time was to remain
with the Scottish Parliament.
62. Trial and Death of Captain Green.—Just
at this time an event happened which tended to increase the bad feeling
between the two countries. An English ship, the Worcester,
was driven by stress of weather into the Firth of Forth. It
was seized by the Scots, because the East India Company
had some time before detained a Scotch ship. From the talk
of some of the crew it was suspected that they had murdered
the captain and crew of one of the Darien vessels which was
missing. On this charge Captain Green of the Worcester,
his mate and crew, were brought to trial before the High
Court of Admiralty. On the evidence of a black slave they
were found guilty and condemned, and Green, his mate, and
one of the crew were hanged. It was afterwards found out
that the crime for which they had suffered had never been
committed. The missing ship had gone ashore on the island
of Madagascar, where Drummond, the captain, was then
living. Whatever wrongs the Scots had suffered, the English
had now, after this unlawful deed, a very reasonable
cause of complaint against them.
63. The Union.—It was clear that, if the
two kingdoms were to go on together in peace, it could only be by joining
their Parliaments and their commercial interests into
one. Commissioners from both sides were appointed to
consider the best way of effecting this union. Godolphin,
the Treasurer of England, and the Duke of Queensberry,
the Royal Commissioner in Scotland, were its chief promoters.
The Commissioners drew up a Treaty of Union,
which was approved by the Parliaments of both countries.
By the Articles of Union the succession to both crowns
was settled in the Protestant heirs of Sophia; and each
country was secured in the possession of her national
Church as then established. Scotland was to send sixteen
Representative Peers, elected from the whole body
of Peers, and forty-five members from the Commons, to the
Parliament at Westminster, henceforth to be called the
Parliament of Great Britain. It was further settled that
one seal, with the arms of both kingdoms quartered upon it,
should serve for both countries, that both should be subject
to the same Excise duties and Customs, and should have
the same privileges of trade. The same coins, weights, and
measures were to be used throughout the island. The law-courts
of Scotland, the Court of Justiciary and the Court
of Session, were to remain unchanged, only there was now a
right of appeal from the Court of Session, which had hitherto
been supreme in all civil cases, to the House of Lords. In
addition to the twenty-five Articles of Union, a special Act
was passed for securing the liberty of the Church of Scotland
as it then stood in all time coming, and declaring that
the Presbyterian should be the only Church government in Scotland.
The first Parliament of Great Britain met October 23, 1707.
64. Results of the Union.—Twice before
this time the Legislature of the two kingdoms had been thus joined
together into one, under Edward I. and under Cromwell.
But these two unions, each the result of conquest, had lasted but
a little while. This Union was destined to be more enduring,
and to lead to increased prosperity in both kingdoms. For
Scotland it was the beginning of quite a new state of things.
Hitherto the struggle for national life had left her no leisure
for internal development, and at the time of the Union she
was without manufactures, shipping, or commerce. With the
end of her independent nationality a new social life began, and
a spirit of industry and enterprise was awakened, which has
since raised her people to their present eminence in trade,
manufactures, and agriculture. The Union struck the last
blow at the power of the Scottish nobles. They were not
placed by any means on the same level with the Peers of
the sister kingdom. It brought to the Commons, who during
this period had been much despised and oppressed, an increase
in dignity and independence, by admitting them to a
share in the liberty and privileges which the Commons of
England had won for themselves with the sword. But what
did even more for the prosperity of Scotland was the removal
of all restrictions on her trade, which was now placed on
the same footing as that of the larger kingdom. For half a
century after the union of the crowns she had enjoyed
free trade with England and her colonies; but that was
brought to an end by the Navigation Act, passed soon after
the Restoration, which forbade the importing of any foreign
goods into England except in English vessels, and which was,
as the Scots justly complained, the ruin of their rising commerce.
65. Literature and Art.—Between the union
of the Crowns and the union of the Parliaments there was but little advance
in literature or art. This was in great part owing to the fact
that, just when all other nations had taken to writing in their
own tongues in place of Latin, the Scottish Court migrated
to London. There the Northumbrian English, which was the
common speech of the Lowlands of Scotland, was despised
as a provincial dialect, in which no educated man would
write if he wished his writings to be read. During this
period, the talent that was to be found in the country was
enlisted in the religious struggle, which occupied all men's
minds, and it produced many divines eminent for eloquence
and learning. The literature of the times was, like the
fighting, the tyranny, and the persecutions, chiefly of a religious
character. There were many men of learning and
talent, renowned either for their writings or from their eloquence,
to be found among the leaders of the different sects.
Among the Presbyterians the most eminent were John
Welch, the son-in-law of Knox; Alexander Henderson;
Guthrie, the martyr of the Remonstrants, and George Gillespie,
who, from his gift for argument, was called the "Hammer
of the Malignants." The Episcopal Church could boast
of some scholarly divines, such as John and Patrick
Forbes, and Leighton, Archbishop of Glasgow. Of poets
there were but few; none who could bear comparison with
those of an earlier time. Drummond of Hawthornden is
chief among them, but his genius is obscured by an imitation
of the dialect and style then prevalent in England.
Many of the beautiful ballads and songs of which Scotland
may justly be proud, must have been composed about this
time, but the authors are unknown. Unknown also, or forgotten,
are the musicians to whom Scotland owes the wild,
sweet strains to which those songs were sung, those pathetic
melodies which make the national music so peculiar and
characteristic in its exquisite beauty. The oldest collection
of these airs is in a manuscript which seems to date from
the sixteenth century. To George Jameson, the earliest
Scottish painter of note, we owe the life-like portraits of the
heroes of these times. He was born at Aberdeen and in
1620 he settled in his native town as a portrait-painter. But
the spirit of the Covenant was opposed to art. Though it
inspired to heroic deeds, there were no songs made about
them. Architecture fared even worse than poetry, for while
churches, the work of former ages, were pulled down, any
new ones that were put up were as ugly and tasteless as it
was possible to make them. Napier of Merchiston, a zealous
reformer, the writer of an Explanation of the Apocalypse, is
known in the world of science as the inventor of Logarithms,
a clever and easy way of shortening difficult numerical calculations.
66. Summary.—The union of the crowns of
England and Scotland put a stop to the constant skirmishing on the
Border and to the devastating inroads which had for centuries
embittered the two countries against one another. It
might therefore have been expected that Scotland, during
the century which passed between the union of the Crowns
and the union of the Parliaments, would have made great
social advances. This was prevented by the ceaseless party
strife which disgraced the century, and made this period one
of the most disastrous and oppressive to the people in the
whole history of the nation. James the Sixth had found the
strict discipline and constant interference of the ministers so
irksome, and the turbulent independence of his nobles so
little to his mind, that he was delighted to escape from both
to the richer kingdom to which his good fortune called him.
The severe training of his childhood had made him hate the
Presbyterian polity with all his heart. As soon as he had
the power, he changed the government of the Church, and
introduced various observances which were hateful to the
people. His son Charles went a step further, and by his attempt
to substitute an English for a Scottish Liturgy, drove
the people to revolt. The war thus begun, by an effort to
force on the hereditary kingdom of his race the customs of
the larger kingdom which his father had acquired, ended in
his losing both. Scotland enjoyed a short gleam of prosperity
from the conquest of Cromwell till his death. Under
the next Stewart, Charles the Second, the King to whom she
had always been loyal, the government was entrusted to a
council, which exercised a cold-blooded tyranny against which
the people had no redress. This reign of terror only rooted
their religious prejudices the more firmly in their minds.
When the tyrant James was deposed, the reaction of popular
feeling fell heavily on the clergy of the Established Church,
who individually were no way accountable for the crimes
which had been committed under the mask of zeal for Episcopacy.
Under William the Presbyterian polity was re-established,
and the Episcopal clergy had in their turn to
suffer many hardships from severe laws and the intolerance
of party feeling, though nothing to compare with the bloody
persecution under the form of law which had disgraced the
reigns of Charles and James.
AFTER THE UNION.
Discontent with the Union (1)—change of dynasty
(2)—Jacobite rising (3)—measures of the Government
(4)—rising in the North of England (5)—battle of Sheriffmuir
(6)—arrival of James (7)—trials
and penalties (8)—malt-tax riots (9)—Porteous riots (10)—the
Forty-five (11)—taking of Edinburgh (12)—battle of
Preston-pans (13)—battle of Falkirk (14)—battle of Culloden
(15)—Charles's wanderings (16)—penalties after the Forty-five
(17)—abolition of slavery (18)—attacks on the Romanists
(19)—trials for sedition (20)—Reform Bill (21)—religious sects
(22)—the Disruption (23)—social progress (24)—literature and art
(25)—summary (26).
1. Discontent with the Union.—Though the
Union was such a good thing for Scotland, the people were a long
time in finding this out. The old national jealousy was roused;
they thought that their dearly loved independence was being
sacrificed. There were riots in different places; and though
the people were quieted by the assurance that the insignia of
loyalty, the regalia or crown jewels, should not be carried
out of the kingdom, for long afterwards the Union was very
unpopular, and had to bear the blame of everything that
went wrong. There was still too a large party, chiefly in
the Highlands, attached to James Stewart, known as the
Chevalier de St. George or the Old Pretender, as the Whigs
called him. Jacobitism, which was in England a mere empty
word used to express any sort of discontent with the existing
state of things, meant something more in Scotland. There
it was the traditionary feeling of loyalty and love towards
the ancient line of kings; and for James, their representative,
there were many who were ready to venture their lands, or
their life if need were. As long as Anne lived there was no
excuse for an outbreak, for she too was a Stewart, and it was
hoped that her brother might succeed her.
2. Change of Dynasty.—When Anne died,
the son of Sophia, George, Elector of Hanover, succeeded without
opposition, according to the Act of Settlement. Before
long, he and his German favourites became very unpopular.
This gave the Jacobites hopes that, if they raised the
standard for James, all the discontented in both kingdoms
would join them in an attempt to restore him to the throne of his fathers.
3. Jacobite Rising.—To give to such an
attempt the least chance of success, three conditions were necessary.
Firstly, that the rising should take place at the same time in both
kingdoms; secondly, that it should be helped by France; and
thirdly, that the prince for whom it was made should come
among his people, and lead them in person. All three were
wanting in this unfortunate rebellion. James made no personal
effort to get the crown on the death of his sister,
though six weeks passed before George came over from
Hanover. During this interval James issued a manifesto
from Plombières, August 29, 1714. In this manifesto he asserted
his right to the crown, and explained that he had
remained quiet while his sister lived, because he had no doubt
of her good intentions towards him. A year, however, was
allowed to pass before any active steps were taken. Just when
the plans for the rising were all made, Louis XIV. of France,
who was the best friend the Chevalier had, died, and was
succeeded by the next heir, his great-grandson, an infant.
The Duke of Orleans, who became Regent, was disposed to
be friendly to the Government of England; indeed his regency
was one of the few times when there was any real friendliness
between the two countries. By his order some ships lying
at Havre, which had been fitted out for James, were unloaded,
and the arms stored in the royal magazines. These
ships were intended for the succour of the rebels in Scotland,
where the standard was raised for James by John Erskine,
Earl of Mar, at the junction of the Clung and the Dee, September
6, 1715. Mar had begun life as a Whig, but had
changed sides so often that he was nicknamed "Bobbing
John." He had addressed a loyal letter to King George
on his accession, but as, by the change of ministry, he lost his
office of Secretary of State for Scotland and saw no hope of
getting it back again, he became an ardent Jacobite, and the
leader of the party in Scotland. The very day before he set
off to raise the Highlands for James he attended a levee of
the King. Before his coming north he sent letters to the
principal Jacobites, inviting them to a hunting-match. This
meeting was attended by the Marquesses of Huntly and
Tullibardine, the eldest sons of the Dukes of Gordon and
Athole, by the Earl of Southesk, by Glengarry, the chief of
the MacDonalds, and many others. They all swore to be
true to one another, and to Mar, as James's general, and then
returned to their several districts to raise their followers.
Only sixty men gathered at the raising of the standard, but
before the end of the month the northern clans had risen.
James was proclaimed at Aberdeen, Brechin, and Dundee,
and nearly all the country north of the Tay was soon in
the hands of the rebels. They laid a plan for seizing Edinburgh
Castle, but this was found out and defeated.
4. Measures of the Government.—There were
at this time not more than between eight and nine thousand troops in the
whole island. Of these not more than fifteen hundred were
in Scotland; and no more were sent there, for an expected
rising in the south-western counties of England was then
thought much more dangerous than the rising in the North.
In Scotland the chief command was given to the Duke of
Argyle, whose family were deadly enemies of the Stewarts,
and whose almost princely power over a large tract of country
made him the most likely person to counteract their influence.
The Earl of Sutherland, who was also a friend of the Government,
was sent to raise his followers in the North. The
Habeas Corpus Act was suspended by Act of Parliament, a
reward of 100,000l. was offered for seizing the Pretender,
dead or alive, and the King was empowered to seize all suspected
persons. A great number of suspected persons were
summoned to Edinburgh to give security for their good conduct,
but none of them came; indeed some were by this
summons induced to take arms for James. Several noted
Jacobites were put in ward in Edinburgh Castle.
5. Rising in the North of England.—The active
measures taken by the Government had put down the intended rising in
the West of England, but in the North they had only hurried
it on. An order was sent down for the arrest of Mr. Forster,
member for Northumberland, and James Radcliffe, Earl of
Derwentwater. On hearing this, Forster and Derwentwater
took up arms at once, and soon mustered three hundred
horse. About the same time Lord Kenmure proclaimed
James at Moffat, and was joined by the Earls of Nithsdale,
Wintoun, and Carnwath, and several other persons of note.
He joined his force, about two hundred horsemen, with that
of Forster, and they marched to Kelso, to wait there for
the arrival of Brigadier MacIntosh, who was marching
southward with a detachment of about fourteen hundred men,
from Mar's army, which he brought over the Firth of Forth
in safety, in the face of three English men-of-war. The combined
force, about two thousand strong, marched along the
Border. After much debate and hesitation, their leaders at
last decided to enter Lancashire, where they expected the
Roman Catholic gentry to rise and join them. The posse
comitatus, or general muster, which had been raised by the
Bishop of Carlisle and Lord Lonsdale, fled before them at
Penrith, leaving a number of horses in their hands. After
this success the rebels marched on, proclaiming James as
they went, and levying money. On the 9th November they
reached Preston, where they were joined by an ill-armed,
undisciplined rabble of recruits. But on the appearance of the
King's troops Forster made no effort to defend the town. He
was seized with a panic, and surrendered with his followers,
to the number of fourteen hundred, November 12.
6. Battle of Sheriffmuir.—Meanwhile Mar
was managing the affairs of James almost as badly in Scotland. He
entered Perth September 28 with a force of 5,000. On the 2nd
of October a detachment of eighty horse captured a vessel with
300 stand of arms, which were intended for the Earl of
Sutherland in the North. The vessel had been driven by
stress of weather to seek shelter at Burntisland, on the coast
of Fife. Instead of pushing on while his followers were
inspirited by this success, Mar stayed at Perth doing nothing.
The Duke of Argyle, who was sent to oppose him, arrived
in Scotland and marched to Stirling in the middle of
September. He had then only 1500 men at his command,
but before Mar made any attempt to engage him his army
had been more than doubled by reinforcements from Ireland.
It was not till November 10 that Mar left Perth. He
marched south as far as Ardoch. Argyle brought his troops
forward to Dunblane. On Sunday the 13th, the two armies
advanced to meet each other, and a battle was fought at
Sheriffmuir, a moor on the slope of a spur of the Ochils.
The result was doubtful. Each army defeated and put to
flight the left wing of the other and then drew off the field,
the rebels to Ardoch, Argyle to Dunblane, and both lost
about the same number of men. Each side claimed the
victory, but Argyle took possession of the field the next day.
After the battle Argyle went back to Stirling and Mar to
Perth. There the clans began to desert him, going home as
usual with their plunder, while Argyle's force was increased
by six thousand Dutch troops.
7. Arrival of James.—James at last made his
appearance, but not till his followers had been taken prisoners in the one
country and had lost their spirit in the other. He landed at
Peterhead, December 22, attended by only six persons. He
was met by Mar, and went on to Scone, whence he issued six
proclamations, and fixed his coronation for January 23. The
news of his landing had somewhat revived the spirit of his
followers, but, when they met, both parties were disappointed;
James with their scanty numbers, and they with his heaviness
and stupidity. Soon after, a vessel coming from France
with gold for the rebels was stranded and the money lost.
At last Argyle began to advance against James, who retreated
from Perth, greatly to the disgust of the clans. From
Perth they went to Dundee, and from thence to Montrose.
Twelve hours after they had left Perth Argyle entered it, but
he was so slack in his pursuit of the rebels as to give rise to
suspicions of his own loyalty. A few days later, February 4,
James set sail secretly for France with Mar and several other
nobles. He left a letter for Argyle, and all the money he had
with him for the benefit of the poor people in the villages
round Perth, which had been burnt by his order. His men,
grieved and disappointed to find that their leader had deserted
them, went back to their native glens. Most of the officers
escaped to the Orkneys, and from thence to the Continent.
8. Trials and Penalties.—Few prisoners had
been made in Scotland. Of those taken at Preston, the half-pay
officers were at once shot as deserters, the common soldiers were
imprisoned in Chester and Liverpool, while their leaders were
taken up to London, which they entered with their hands tied
behind them and their horses led. Six nobles, the Earls of
Nithsdale, Wintoun, and Carnwath, Viscount Kenmure, and
the Lords Widdrington and Nairn, were arraigned before
the House of Lords on a charge of treason. All except
Wintoun pleaded guilty, and threw themselves on the King's
grace; but they were all condemned to death. This sentence
was executed on Derwentwater only. Kenmure and Nairn
and Carnwath were reprieved, while Nithsdale escaped by
the help of his wife the night before the day on which he was
condemned to die; and Wintoun, though found guilty on
his trial, escaped also. Forster, MacIntosh, and several
others, had the same good fortune. Of those lower in rank,
twenty-two were hanged in Lancashire and four in London.
An Act of Grace, passed in 1717, released Carnwath, Widdrington,
Nairn, and all others who were still in prison; but
it did not restore the estates which they had forfeited by their
treason. The following year another Jacobite conspiracy
was got up. In this both Spain and Sweden were concerned;
Spain promised to help with money, while Charles
the Twelfth of Sweden was to invade Scotland with twelve
thousand soldiers. It was discovered, and prevented by the
arrest of the persons suspected of sharing in it.
9. Malt-tax Riots.—In 1713 it was proposed
to extend the malt-tax which was paid in England, to Scotland. But
this measure met with such strong opposition on the part
of the Scotch members as almost to threaten a dissolution of
the Union. At length, in 1724, a duty of threepence on every
barrel of ale was laid on instead of the malt-tax. But though
this time the members agreed to the new tax, the people
would not, and a serious riot broke out at Glasgow. Two
companies of foot were sent from Edinburgh to put down the
tumult, under the command of Captain Bushell, who ordered
his men to fire, whereby nine persons were killed and many
more wounded. This only made the rioters more furious.
Bushell narrowly escaped being torn in pieces by the mob,
and had to seek refuge in Dunbarton Castle. The tumult was
not put down till General Wade brought up a force large
enough to overawe the mob, and sent the magistrates prisoners
to Edinburgh. There they were tried and acquitted.
To avoid paying the tax, the brewers of Edinburgh made a
compact to brew no more beer if the duty were not taken
off. In consequence of these disorders the office of Secretary
of State for Scotland was done away with, because the
Duke of Roxburgh, who held it, was suspected of encouraging
the discontent. At length the Earl of Islay was sent down
to Edinburgh, and succeeded in restoring quietness. Bushell
was tried for murder and found guilty, but was afterwards
pardoned and promoted.
10. Porteous Riots: 1736.—Twelve years later
the peace was again broken by a tumult at Edinburgh. One Wilson,
a smuggler, lying under sentence of death for having taken
part in a fray in which a Custom-house officer was killed,
had won the sympathy of the people by the clever way in
which he had managed the escape of a fellow-prisoner.
When he was hanged at the Grass Market, the mob pelted
the guard with stones. On this Porteous, Captain of the
City Guard, ordered his men to fire, and several innocent
persons in the crowd were killed and wounded. Porteous
was tried, and condemned to death as a murderer, but a
reprieve was sent down from London. Then the people,
remembering the case of Bushell, determined to take the
law into their own hands. On the evening before the day
which had been fixed for the execution of the sentence, while
Porteous was feasting with his friends to celebrate his escape
from danger, they gathered in great numbers. To ensure
against surprise they disarmed the city guard, took their
weapons, and themselves guarded the gates, so as to
prevent any tidings being carried to the regiment quartered
in the suburbs. They then marched to the Tolbooth, formerly
the Parliament-house, but now used as a prison. The
door was so strong that it defied all their efforts to burst it
open. They set fire to it, upon which the jailer threw out
the keys. Leaving the doors open to let the other prisoners
escape, they then went straight to Porteous' cell, dragged him
out of the chimney where he was hiding, and carried him to
the Grass Market, the place of public execution. There they
hanged him to a dyer's pole, with a rope which they had
taken from a dealer's stall on the way, and in payment for
which they had left a guinea. They then dispersed, without
noise or further violence. The ringleaders were never discovered,
though all ministers of parishes were required to
read from their pulpits once a month for a year a proclamation
calling on their congregations to give them up. The
Government brought in a Bill for disgracing the city by the
loss of the charter and the razing of the gates. But this
measure was not carried, and the only penalties inflicted
were that Wilson, the Provost, was declared incapable of
holding office in future, and that the city was fined 2,000l.
for the benefit of Porteous' widow.
11. The "Forty-five."—In 1719 there was
a small attempt made to get up another Jacobite rising. This attempt
was favoured by Spain, which, just at this time, under the
guidance of Cardinal Alberoni, minister of Philip the Fifth,
once more began to take an active part in European affairs.
England had joined the Quadruple Alliance against Spain,
which was therefore ready to help in an attempt to overthrow
the English Government. The Marquess of Tullibardine
landed on the Lewis with a body of three hundred Spanish
soldiers. But the stores and arms which were to have been
sent to him were lost on the way, and, though about two
thousand Highlanders mustered, they were defeated at Glenshiels
by the regular troops. The Highlanders fled to the
hills, while the Spaniards surrendered, and thus the attempt
came to nothing. But the clans were still unsubdued, and
were ready to break out again at any time. General Wade,
who had been commander-in-chief since the 1715, made
excellent roads in many places where there had been none
before, and an Act was passed for disarming the Highlanders.
But this did more harm than good. The clans
that were faithful to the Government gave up their arms;
but this only made them unable to resist the rebels, who
kept theirs hidden and ready for use when occasion should
come. England was now engaged in a continental war;
most of the troops were out of the kingdom, and the time
seemed favourable for another effort. France too promised
help. Early in 1744 an army of 1,500 men under the command
of Marshal Saxe, one of the most skilful generals in
the French service, was collected at Dunkirk, and embarked
in French transports for the invasion of England. But the
fleet was dispersed by a storm, and the French were
unwilling to give any further help. The next year Charles
Edward, son of the Old Pretender, called the Young
Chevalier, who was to have led this expedition, determined
to make a venture on his own account. Without
money, without arms, with only seven followers, he landed
at Moidart, on the west coast of Inverness, and called on the
Jacobite clans to muster and follow him: July 25, 1745. In
vain their chiefs, headed by Cameron of Lochiel, pointed out
to him the rash folly of such an enterprise, he persisted,
and they, letting loyalty get the better of common sense,
took up the cause and summoned their clansmen. The
standard of James was raised at Glenfillan, August 19, and
the commission, naming Charles Regent in his stead, was
read to about a hundred motley but enthusiastic followers.
Already a small band of them had had a foretaste of victory.
On their way to the muster they had compelled two companies
of regular troops, which they had intercepted on their way
to relieve the garrison of Fort William, to lay down their
arms. This was followed by a series of successes as unlooked
for as they were extraordinary. Sir John Cope was sent
to oppose the rebels with all the troops that the Government
could raise. But he mismanaged matters, and, instead of
bringing the enemy to a battle, he let the Highland army,
which was gathering like a snowball on its way, pass him.
While he went northward, it came down unopposed upon the
Lowlands, entered Perth, and advanced towards Edinburgh,
where James was proclaimed.
12. Taking of Edinburgh.—The citizens were
in the greatest alarm when they heard that the Highlanders had
crossed the Forth. A small band of volunteers and a regiment
of dragoons under Colonel Gardiner marched out to
meet the rebels as far as Colt Bridge. But when the first
shots were fired by a small reconnoitring party from the
Highlanders, they turned and galloped back to Edinburgh.
This shameful flight was called the Canter of Coltbrigg.
Charles summoned the city to surrender; the perplexed
magistrates, not knowing what to do, tried to win time by
sending repeated messages to Charles. But early the following
morning a body of five hundred Camerons under Lochiel
surprised and entered one of the city gates. They then
secured the watchmen, opened the other gates, and thus the
city was in the hands of the rebels. At noon of the same
day the heralds and pursuivants were obliged to proclaim
James at the Cross as King James the Eighth, and to read
his Royal Declaration and the Commission of Regency.
Charles entered the city the same day, September 17, and
took up his quarters in the Palace of Holyrood. That night all
the Jacobites in the city gathered at a ball to celebrate his arrival.
13. Battle of Preston-pans.—Meanwhile Cope
had brought back his troops by sea and landed them at Dunbar. Charles
marched out from Edinburgh to meet him. At a village
near Preston-pans, so called from the pans used there for
crystallizing the sea-salt, the Highlanders defeated the
regular troops, and came back triumphant to Edinburgh
with the money and the cannon which they had taken,
September 20. In this battle Colonel Gardiner was killed
close to his own park wall. Charles lingered at Edinburgh,
holding his court at Holyrood, till November 1, when he began
his march towards England, at the head of an army of five to
six thousand men. Carlisle surrendered to Charles, who left
a garrison to defend the castle, and marched on unresisted
through Preston and Manchester, as far as Derby, which he
reached on December 4. Charles was now two days' march
nearer London than the army under William Augustus, Duke
of Cumberland, son of George the Second, which had been
sent to oppose him. A panic prevailed in London, where the
citizens expected hourly to see the wild Highlanders enter
and spoil the city. Their fears were, however, unfounded.
Jealousies and discord were rife among the rebel chiefs.
At Derby Charles held a council of war. Some of his
officers advised one thing, some another. But as they would
not agree to march on to London without delay, Charles,
sorely against his will, was obliged to give the order for
retreat, and to lead his dispirited followers back again as
quickly as they had come. Cumberland followed close on
their rear. At Clifton Moor, near Penrith, there was a
slight skirmish, in which the rebels had the advantage. But
they did not wait to risk a battle there, but hurried north,
passing on their way through Dumfries and Glasgow, where
they levied contributions.
14. Battle of Falkirk.—When Charles reached
Stirling, his army was joined by reinforcements which raised its
number to eight or nine thousand. He prepared to lay
siege to the Castle. General Hawley was seat from Edinburgh
with a nearly equal force to relieve it. The two armies
met on Falkirk Moor, January 17, 1746. Hawley was as
totally and shamefully beaten as Cope had been at Preston.
Instead of following up his advantage by pursuing and destroying
the royal army, Charles remained inactive in the
field, and allowed his followers to plunder the bodies of the
slain. The next day he went on with the siege of Stirling.
The Duke of Cumberland was now sent north, with full power
to put down the rebellion as he pleased. He reached Edinburgh
January 30, and the very next day set out at the head
of an army in quest of the rebels. Charles raised the siege
of Stirling, and hurried north. He entered Inverness, and
took Forts George and Augustus, where he found supplies of
food, guns, and powder, of which his army stood in great need.
15. Battle of Culloden.—Meanwhile the King's
troops were closing round the rebels, who, cooped up in the barren mountains,
were reduced to the greatest straits. All supplies sent
from France were cut off before they reached them, and for
several days they had no food but a little raw oatmeal. It
was plain that the battle that was unavoidable must be a defeat.
Culloden Moor was the scene of this the last battle fought on
British ground. The rebels, who were nearly starving, and
who had been worn out by a long march and an attempted
night-attack that had altogether failed, soon gave way, and
were easily routed by the Duke's well-disciplined and nearly
twice as numerous army: April 16, 1746. The French auxiliaries
fled towards Inverness, where they laid down their
arms. The rebels lost one thousand men, a fifth of their
whole number; the victors only three hundred and ten.
About twelve hundred of the fugitives rallied at Ruthven; but
Charles begged them to disperse, and every man sought his
own safety as he best might. The after measures of the
victors were disgraceful to all concerned. No quarter was
given; the wounded were slaughtered in cold blood, or burnt
in the houses to which they had crawled for shelter. For
three months martial law prevailed; the country was wasted,
the houses burnt, the cattle lifted, the people left to perish.
It was not till July that the Duke, who in Scotland was called
the Butcher, went back to London, where he was hailed
as the deliverer of his country, and rewarded with a pension
of 25,000l. a year.
16. Charles's Wanderings.—Charles, whose
foolhardy ambition had brought all this misery on his simple followers,
passed five months in perilous wanderings. A great price
was set on his head; but, poor as the Highlanders were,
not one of them would stoop to win it by betraying him.
At one time, when he was tracked by the soldiers, he was
saved by a young lady called Flora MacDonald, who got a
passport for him under the name of Betty Burke, her maid.
In this disguise he escaped to Skye. After this he came back
to the mainland, and lived for some time with seven robbers
in a cave. They kept him hidden and supplied his wants as
well as they could, and used to go in disguise to the nearest
town to pick up what news they could. One day, as a great
dainty, they brought him back a pennyworth of gingerbread.
When he left them Charles joined two of his adherents,
MacPherson of Cluny and Lochiel, and he and they stayed
in a strange hiding-place called the Cage on the side of
Ben-alder, till two French vessels appeared on the coast.
In one of these he embarked, September 20, at Lochnannagh,
the same place where, fourteen months before, he had
landed. Thus Charles escaped to the Continent, but his
memory was long cherished in the country that had suffered
so much for him. He was compelled to leave France after
the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and ended an unsettled,
discontented, dissipated life at Rome in 1788. His brother
Henry, called the Cardinal of York, the last of the
Stewart line, survived him nearly twenty years.
17. Penalties after the "Forty-five."—There
was much greater severity shown after this rebellion than there had been
after that in 1715. The Scottish prisoners were brought for
trial to England for fear that they might meet with too much
partiality in their own country. John Murray, of Broughton,
who had been Charles's secretary, turned informer. Through
him the secrets of this conspiracy which had been going
on ever since 1740 were brought to light. Charles Radcliffe,
brother to the Earl of Derwentwater, who had been beheaded
in 1716, who had then escaped from prison, was
retaken on board a French vessel carrying supplies to the
rebels, and was put to death on his former sentence. The
Earls of Cromarty and Kilmarnock and Lord Balmerino were
brought up for trial before the House of Lords. Cromarty and
Kilmarnock pleaded guilty; Balmerino tried to save himself
by a quibble about a flaw in the indictment, but this was
overruled, and they were all three condemned to death.
Cromarty was pardoned, but Kilmarnock and Balmerino
were beheaded. Nearly a year after, Simon Fraser, Lord
Lovat, was brought up for trial; he was found guilty, chiefly
on the evidence of Murray, was condemned, and beheaded.
He had acted a double part throughout, for, though he had
taken part in all the plans of the rebels, he had taken care not
to join them in person. Of those lower in rank about eighty
were condemned to death, and great numbers were sent to
the plantations. The last sufferer for the Jacobite cause was
Dr. Cameron, brother of Lochiel. He escaped after 1745,
but when he returned to England in 1753 he was seized and suffered
death as a traitor, though he protested that he had
never borne arms against the King, and had been with the
rebel force only as a surgeon and not as a soldier. An Act
of Indemnity was at length passed, in 1747, from which, however,
eighty persons were excepted. Though the end of this
unjustifiable and unfortunate rebellion was what every one
must have foreseen, its temporary and unlooked-for success
showed how necessary it was to take strong measures for
breaking up the old Highland system. A Bill was passed
for disarming the clans, and to forbid the wearing of the
Highland dress, and at the same time heritable jurisdictions
were done away with. The Episcopal Church, whose attachment
to the Stewarts was well known, suffered severely. The
Episcopal churches were destroyed, and the ministrations of
the Episcopal clergy forbidden. Duncan Forbes, of Culloden,
the President of the Court of Session, though a firm friend of
the Government, distinguished himself throughout the rebellion
by his efforts in the cause of humanity and justice.
Before it broke out, he had done more than any other man to
keep the rising down, and, after it had been crushed, he did
all in his power to lessen the sufferings of the rebels and
the severity of the Government. To the discredit of the
ministry and of the country, his services were left unrewarded.
18. Abolition of Slavery.—In 1756 the
lawfulness of negro slavery was first questioned in Scotland, and twenty years
later it was settled that negro slavery should exist no longer.
There were still, however, some natives of the soil who were
in a state very little better. The colliers and salters were
sold like serfs with the works in which they toiled. This
shameful servitude was not the remains of ancient villanage,
but had simply arisen out of custom. So strong, however,
had the force of custom made it, that Parliament did not
venture at once to sweep it away. It was settled that all the
colliers and salters born after a certain date should be free,
and those then at work after a certain term of service. In
1799 their freedom was established by law.
19. Attacks on the Romanists.—When the penal
laws against the Roman Catholics in England were repealed in
1778, Henry Dundas, the Lord Advocate, proposed a similar
measure for Scotland. On the strength of this, riots broke
out in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In Edinburgh the mob
destroyed the Roman Catholic chapels and the houses of several
persons who were suspected of being Romanists. In Glasgow
they destroyed a factory belonging to a Romanist. So
great was the excitement raised throughout the country by
the fanatics, who bound themselves together in Protestant
Associations, and the property and persons of the Roman
Catholics were treated with such violence, that they themselves
petitioned that the Bill might be dropped. It was
not till 1793 that a Bill was brought in and passed without
opposition to relieve the Roman Catholics in Scotland from
the penalties to which they were liable on account of their
religious opinions.
20. Trials for Sedition.—The excesses of the
French Revolution led to a reaction of feeling in Great Britain
against all liberal opinions, as being likely to bring about
a similar revolution in this country. This led to much injustice
and oppression. Persons were charged with stirring up
sedition on the slightest grounds, or on no grounds at all; were
found guilty, and punished on the most scanty evidence. In
Scotland the panic was even greater than in England, and
the proceedings of justice more unjust. In 1793 Thomas
Muir, an advocate, and Fyshe Palmer, a clergyman, were tried,
and sentenced to transportation, the one for fourteen years,
the other for seven, for no other crime than that of discussing
Parliamentary Reform. Others suffered a like fate; and
though these cases were brought before the House of Commons,
and though the sympathy of the people was with them,
they met with no redress. Braxfield, the Lord Justice Clerk,
gained an infamous notoriety by his violent language towards
the prisoners, and by the illegal sentences which he
passed against them.
21. Reform Bill.—It was not till nearly forty
years had passed, that the reforms, for suggesting which these men had
suffered, and the need of which had long been felt, were at
last carried out by the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832. By
it the entire representation was remodelled. Up to this time
the County franchise had depended not on the possession of
land, but on the right of superiority over land which might be
held by others. This right could be bought and sold, and was
quite independent of property or residence in the county, so
that in most cases there were but a handful of electors, in one
county only one, to return the member. The franchise was
now extended to all persons having property in the county to
the value of 10l. yearly, and to certain classes of leaseholders.
The case of the Burghs was even worse. Only the royal
burghs were represented at all, and these were grouped together
and returned one member only for each group. This
member was elected by delegates chosen from the Town
Council of each burgh, so that the election was really and
truly in the hands of the Corporations. By the new Bill, Edinburgh
and Glasgow were each to send two members to Parliament,
the five towns next in importance were each to send
one, while some changes were made in the grouping of the
smaller burghs. The members for the burghs were to be
elected by householders in the burghs paying 10l. yearly rent.
The number of members was increased from forty-five to fifty-three.
22. Religious Sects.—When the Presbyterian
polity was re-established by law in 1690 the Episcopalians took in
some degree the place which had been held by the Covenanters.
As they would not acknowledge William and Mary as lawful
sovereigns, they were looked on as a dangerous and obstinate
sect of dissenters, just as the Cameronians had been
considered in the reign of James. They had been turned
out of the churches, but they were forbidden to have private
meeting-houses. In Queen Anne's reign an Act of Toleration
was passed to protect such of them as would use the English
Liturgy and pray for the Queen in the course of the
service. After the Rebellion of 1715 new laws were passed
against them; the validity of orders from Scottish bishops
was called in question, and the ministration of all clergymen
who were not licensed was forbidden. After the Rebellion of
1745 they fared still worse; many of their meeting-houses
were burned or dismantled by Cumberland's soldiers. An
Act was passed forbidding any clergyman to read the service
to more than five persons at once, and no letters of orders
were considered valid unless given by some Irish or English
bishop. In 1755 a clergyman named Connacher was accused
of illegally celebrating marriages, and, by an Act passed
against the Covenanters in the reign of Charles the Second,
he was banished, and forbidden to return on pain of death.
Hence it came to pass that, just after the two kingdoms were
politically united, they were more widely severed in religious
opinion than they had ever been before, so that a conscientious
member of the Church established by law in the one
kingdom would have been looked on as a dangerous
dissenter in the other. It was not till 1792 that an Act was
passed relieving the Episcopalians from the penal laws
in force against them. In 1784 Dr. Samuel Seabury, from
Connecticut, was consecrated by three Scottish bishops,
Petrie, Skinner, and Kilgour the primus, at Aberdeen,
so that the Episcopal Church of America is an offshoot from the
once proscribed and persecuted Episcopal Church in Scotland.
Besides the Episcopalians there were many sects of
Presbyterians who seceded from the Establishment chiefly
on the question of patronage. At last, in 1843, the Church
of Scotland split into two parties. This is called the Disruption.
About ten years before this time Edward Irving,
Minister of the Scotch Church in London, a very eloquent
preacher, was forced to secede from the Presbyterian Church
for holding extravagant views with regard to the power of
speaking in unknown tongues and working miracles. His
followers founded a new sect, which has since won many
adherents in both kingdoms. In its rites and ceremonies it now
resembles much more nearly the Roman than the Presbyterian Church.
23. The Disruption.—This division was brought
about by a dispute about the right of patrons to force ministers on
parishes, whether the congregations objected to them or not.
The spirit of the Presbyterian Church had always been opposed
to patronage. By the First Book of Discipline it had
been laid down that the people should elect their own ministers;
by the Second Book of Discipline, that they should at
least have the right of objecting to any chosen for them by the
heritors or landowners in the parish. After the Revolution,
an Act of 1690 confirmed them in this privilege, but after the
Union in 1712 the heritors, eager to regain what they thought
their rights, obtained a repeal of this Act and the restoration
of their former powers. In spite of the protests of the
people and of the Church, this Act gradually became custom
as well as law, and led to several schisms; for those congregations
who did not choose to have ministers forced on them
whom they did not approve, broke off, and founded separate
sects. At length, in 1834, the Non-intrusion party, as those
who were opposed to patronage were called, had a majority
in the Assembly, and passed the Veto Act. This Act declared
it to be "a fundamental law of the Church that no
pastor shall be intruded on a congregation contrary to the
will of the people," and that, if the heads of families object to
any candidate presented by the patron, the Presbytery shall
reject him. In the same year, Mr. Young was presented to
the parish of Auchterarder, in Perthshire. Several persons
objected to him, and the Presbytery, acting on the Veto
Act, rejected him. The patron, Lord Kinnoul, appealed to
the Court of Session for the enforcement of his civil rights
and obtained a verdict in his favour; but the Presbytery
appealed to the House of Lords. Here too it was given
against them, but they still refused to make trial of Mr.
Young. In another parish, Strathbogie, the presentee, Mr.
Edwards, was objected to by the congregation, and the
Presbytery refused to admit him to the parish. He also
obtained a decree in his favour from the Court of Session,
when the Presbytery yielded, and for this they were suspended
and deposed by the General Assembly. From this
it was clear that the majority in the Assembly were
determined to go all lengths in resisting the civil power.
In the end the Church had to yield, and to recall the
illegal Veto Act. Rather than agree to this, in 1843,
more than a third of the clergy left the Church. Their
leaders were Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Candlish. Great
numbers of the people went "out," as it was called, with
their ministers, and the Free Church which was thus originated
has ever since been the successful rival of the Establishment.
24. Social Progress.—The removal of the
Government to London attracted thither not only all the Scottish nobles,
but also all the wealthy and the ambitious commoners.
Thus Edinburgh lost much of its importance through the
Union, though it still remained the intellectual capital, where
the members of the Courts of Law and of the University took
the lead in society. Meanwhile Glasgow, the capital of the
west, where the manufactures which were first introduced by
Duncan Forbes had taken firm root, gradually rose to much
greater importance in wealth and commerce. During this
period two great elements of civilization, productive industry
and intellectual culture, have done much to improve the
Lowland population, among whom book-learning has always
been in advance of material comfort. It was not till after the
Rebellion of 1745 that the spirit of industry first began to
animate the people. But the Highlands remained for some
time in a very bad state. The spirit of the people was
broken, and the severe climate, barren soil, and lack of
minerals left them no resource but the fisheries. The
Highland Society, founded in 1784, did much to improve
the state of agriculture, by reclaiming the waste districts;
and latterly great numbers of the people have emigrated.
At the time of the Union Scotland was without agriculture,
manufactures, or trade; since then she has risen to excellence
in them all, and has produced some of the most useful inventions
of modern times. James Watt, who perfected the invention
of the steam-engine, and thus placed a new power in the
hands of man, was born at Greenock in 1736. It was in Scotland
that this power was first put to use for traffic by steam
navigation. A small pleasure-boat, worked by a steam-engine,
was tried on Dalswinton Loch in Dumfriesshire in
1788; another effort was made on the Forth and Clyde Canal
in 1802; but the first steamboat actually used for traffic was
the Comet, which began to ply on the Clyde in 1812. It was
projected by Henry Bell, a house-carpenter in Glasgow.
Many improvements in calico-printing and dyeing, and in all
sorts of machinery, are likewise due to Scotchmen. Among
others Macadam is noteworthy for originating that system of
road-making which is now known by his name.
25. Literature and Art.—After the Union,
the English dialect of the Lowlands ceased to be the language of literature
and of the upper ranks in society. Thus the national literature
of the country came to an end, and the works of Scotchmen
went to swell the mass of English Literature. But even in this
period Scotland has had, besides many smaller songsters,
two poets peculiarly her own, who have sung in the dialect
still spoken by the people. Allan Ramsay, born in Clydesdale
in 1685, began life as a barber's boy in Edinburgh; he
then turned poet and bookseller, and besides his own poems,
which were very popular, he collected and published the
songs and ballads of the forgotten bards of earlier days.
Nearly a century later lived Robert Burns, the peasant poet,
a cotter's son, born in Ayrshire in 1759. His genius overcame
the disadvantages of his humble birth, and inspired innumerable
songs, which place him in the first rank among poets of
all nations, and will win for him an abiding place in the hearts
of his fellow-countrymen as long as a Scottish tongue is left
to sing them. Adam Smith, who by his "Wealth of Nations,"
published in 1776, may be said to have founded the science
of Political Economy, was born at Kirkaldy, and was
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow; and
about the same time Dr. Robertson, Principal of the University
of Edinburgh, wrote several historical works of great
merit. David Hume, the infidel philosopher, was born at
Edinburgh in 1711. He is best known as the author of a
popular but untrustworthy History of England. Tobias
Smollett, the humourist, was a native of Cardross. Besides
several very clever novels, the best of which are "Humphrey
Clinker" and "Roderick Random," he wrote a complete History
of England from the first historical mention of Britain
down to the year 1768. The latter part of this history is
now generally added to the History by Hume, who did not
carry his work down to later times than the Revolution.
Hugh Blair, a Presbyterian divine, wrote "Lectures on
Belles Lettres" and several volumes of sermons which are
still highly esteemed. Dugald Stewart, Professor of Moral
Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, was distinguished
as a scholar and philosopher. His chief works are the
"Philosophy of the Human Mind" and "Outlines of Moral
Philosophy." Among Scottish artists who rose to eminence
during this period are Allan Ramsay, the son of the poet,
Runciman, Raeburn and Sir David Wilkie, born in
Fifeshire in 1785. He chiefly excelled in painting scenes from
rural life, and was limner to the King for Scotland. Of poets
who wrote in the English of the south, Scotland can lay
claim to James Thomson, the author of "The Seasons," "The
Castle of Indolence," and some tragedies; to Beattie, the
author of "The Minstrel;" and to Thomas Campbell, born
at Glasgow in 1777. His imaginative poem, "The Pleasures
of Hope," laid the foundation of his fame. It is written in a
graceful and highly-finished style, but is far surpassed in
originality and spirit by the ballads which he wrote to commemorate
the "Battle of the Baltic" and the other actions
of the French war. John Galt deserves to be remembered
as the author of some clever novels, the best of which are the
"Ayrshire Legatees" and "The Entail." Nearer to our
own time Walter Scott, the poet and romancist, gave to English
literature its best works of fiction, and at once introduced
and perfected the modern novel. Among writers of
fiction Miss Ferrier must not be forgotten. In her witty,
satirical novels, "Marriage," "Destiny," "The Inheritance,"
she has left admirable pictures of Scottish life and manners.
John Lockhart, the son-in-law and biographer of Scott;
John Wilson, Professor of Moral Philosophy in Edinburgh,
the Christopher North of the "Noctes Ambrosianæ;" his
friend and contemporary James Hogg, the poet, better
known as the "Ettrick Shepherd;" the two Alisons, father
and son, the elder the author of the "Essay on Taste," the
younger of the "History of Europe," may all be reckoned
among Scotchmen who have done honour to their country
by their literary labours. In the world of science Scotland
has been represented by James Ferguson, the astronomer,
Hugh Miller, the great geologist, who began life as a stonemason;
Sir David Brewster, who is famous for his discoveries
in optics, and many others. Mungo Park, the
African explorer of a past day, and Dr. Livingstone, who
in our own time has worked so long in the same field of
discovery, were both also born in Scotland. But now that
the two nations have become so closely united, national
jealousy and national pride are both alike well-nigh forgotten,
and Scotchmen are content to throw their energy and talents
at home and in the colonies into the common stock of British glory.
26. Summary.—The separate History of Scotland,
which may be said to have ceased with the Union, is chiefly remarkable
from its unconnected and fragmentary character.
Each of the periods into which it is naturally divided breaks
off abruptly, and exercises little or no influence on the period
which comes after it. The Celtic system comes to an end
with the last of the Gaelic kings. During the English
period English laws and English customs are introduced,
but this English influence is suddenly checked by the War
of Independence, and the period which begins with the independent
kingdom is no more the natural result of the second
than the second is of the first. During the third period the
Roman Law is introduced, and France takes the place of
England as the model for imitation. The Scottish system
of representation, which became fixed during this period,
had much more in common with the French National Assembly
than with the English Parliament. The Three
Estates, which met in one chamber, were the Church, the
barons, that is the tenants holding direct from the Crown,
and the burghers. The Commons as a class were not represented
at all. It is the Reformation which first brings
the Commons into notice. The feudal character of the legislature
and of the national representation drove the energies
of the people into the only channel that was left open to them—that
of religious thought. Hence it came that in Scotland
the great struggle for political freedom was fought out under
the cloak of a contest for liberty of conscience. From the
Reformation to the Union the history of the country is little
but the record of a series of religious wars. The history of Scotland
also gives us a picture of pure and unmixed feudalism.
The feudal system which was introduced under the sons of
Malcolm and Margaret took much firmer root in Scotland
than it ever did in England; and, as it was here untouched
by the Common Law and the growth of the constitution
which acted as checks upon it in England, it grew to such an
excess of power that it quite overshadowed the power of the
Crown. The practice of making hereditary jurisdictions,
and of granting powers of regality, still further increased the
influence of the feudal nobles. Feudalism existed in Scotland
long after it had been overthrown in England. Its
power was first broken by the Act which was passed in 1748
for abolishing heritable jurisdictions, and even after that
Act it continued to influence the representation. Feudalism
in Scotland was not finally overthrown till the passing of the
first Reform Bill in 1832. Nor was it till after that reform
that the Commons of Scotland were represented at all in
Parliament The rebellions in favour of the Stewarts in 1715
and 1745, though they were the cause of much useless bloodshed,
led to very happy results as far as the social prosperity
of the country was concerned. The abolition of
the heritable jurisdictions did much good, for it placed
agriculturists in a much freer position, while the money
which was paid to the great proprietors as a compensation
for their feudal rights gave a fresh spring to the
circulation of the country. At the time of the Union
Scotland was without agriculture, manufactures, shipping,
or commerce. Since then she has risen to excellence in them all.
