Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

488
SCOTLAND
1298-1328. the instances of homage collected for use at Norham
but the fable of Brute the Trojan, from whose eldest son
Locrinus he claimed descent, and therefore superiority
over the Scottish kings sprung from Albanactus the second
as well as those of Wales descended from Camber the third.
Baldred de Bisset, the Scottish commissioner at Borne,
in his answer admitted the pope’s right, but replied to
Edward’s fiction by another as bold,—the descent of the
Scots from Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh. A more solid
argument was founded on the treaty of Brigham. The
pope delayed judgment, and in 1302 suddenly changed
sides and exhorted the Scots, by several bulls, to submit.
Edward had not waited for this sanction; the period be¬
tween the battle of Falkirk and the taking of Stirling was
a continuous and bloody struggle. In person he laid waste
Galloway and took Caerlaverock (1300); in 1302, his
general Sir John Segrave, having fought a battle of doubt¬
ful issue with Comyn and Eraser at Boslin, Edward re¬
turned (1303), marched as far as Caithness, and reduced
the whole east of Scotland by the capture of Stirling (24th
January 1304). Scotland was subdued, yet Wallace lived,
and we catch glimpses of him, in the woods of Dunferm¬
line, in the forest of Ettrick, in the neighbourhood of
Lanark. A price was set on his head, and at last he
was betrayed by a servant of Sir John de Menteith near
Glasgow and taken to London, where, after a mock trial
in Westminster Hall, he received the traitor’s doom (23d
August 1305), though he denied with truth that he had
taken any oath to Edward.
Settle- ^ This time Edward, in order to make the conquest of
Scotland Scotland permanent, proceeded to incorporate it in the
by Ed- emPire England. With apparent fairness an assembly
ward I. was summoned to Perth to elect ten representatives to
attend a parliament at Westminster to treat of the affairs
of Scotland. Nine commissioners came to London, where
they were associated with twenty Englishmen. The result
was the “ Ordinacio facta per dominum regem pro stabili-
tate teme Scotise ” (1305). Though never fully carried
out, this document, on the model of similar ordinances for
Wales and Ireland, discloses Edward’s designs. English
nobles were appointed to administer the government of
the country, and eight justices to administer the law. The
law and usages of Scotland (except those of the Brets and
Scots, which were abrogated) were to be observed in the
meantime; but the lieutenant (John of Brittany, the king’s
nephew) and council were to amend what was contrary to
God and reason, or in case of difficulty refer to Edward at
Westminster. The whole country was divided into sheriff¬
doms, the sheriffs being removable at the discretion of the
lieutenant. The office of coroner, more important then
than now, was also regulated; certain persons were nomi¬
nated constables of the chief castles; and many nobles
were fined and others banished. Bruce (the competitor’s
grandson) was ordered to put Kildrummy Castle (Aberdeen)
hi charge of an officer for whom he should be responsible.
Ihe ordinance was suitable to its object,—moderate, even
humane. The banishment of the nobles was limited as to
T?6- _ belief was given in the payment of fines. Many
old officers, were continued. Edward’s aim at this time
was to pacify the country he had conquered, to put down
resistance, but to encourage submission. It is as wrong
to call him. a tyrant as Wallace a rebel: the one was a
statesman king with imperialist aims, the other a patriot
leader with keen popular sympathies. The king triumphed;
but before his death his well-laid plans were shattered :
Scotland again rose m arms, and this time the nobles joined
tbe people,, under the leadership of Bobert the Bruce.
Robert The position, as well as the character, of Bruce con¬
trasted with that of Wallace. Instead of being a cadet of
[history.
the
Bruce.
the ordinary landed gentry, Bruce represented°a family in
which for more than two centuries the purest Norman
blood had flowed. The English branch of Skelton in
Cleveland and the Scottish branch of Annandale divided
their large possessions; but those of the latter sufficed to
make its head.one of the most powerful nobles in Scotland
who still retained, as so many did, English fiefs. More
than one of his ancestors had intermarried with the royal
house, of Scotland (see Bobert the Bruce, vol. xx. p. 592).
On his father’s death Bruce succeeded to Annandale. He
held besides several manors in England. During the early
part of . the. War of Independence, like many barons with
conflicting interests, he had wavered, sometimes supporting
Wallace, more frequently the English king. In 1303-4 he
assisted Edward in the preparation for the siege of Stirling.
He had been consulted with regard to the ordinance of
1305. But there were already signs of mutual distrust.
The provision in the ordinance as to Kildrummy shows
that Edward was aware special precautions had to be
taken to secure the loyalty of Bruce, and on 11th June
1304 Biuce secretly met near Cambuskenneth Lamberton,
bishop of St Andrews, and entered into a bond referring
to future dangers from Edward. Of all the Scottish clergy
Lamberton had been most friendly to Wallace, and this
bond was a link between the two periods of the War of
Independence and their leaders. Bruce had attended at
Westminster when the ordinance was settled, but left sud¬
denly, arriving at Dumfries on the seventh day. There
he met in the church of the Friars Minor John (the Bed)
Comyn of Badenoch, Baliol’s nephew, and slew him before
the high altar (10th February 1306). The die was cast,
and indecision vanished from the character of Bruce.
Collecting his adherents at Lochmaben and Glasgow, he
passed to Scone, where he was crowned by the bishop of
Andrews. It at first seemed likely that a saying of
his wife would prove true,—that he wras a summer but
would not be a winter king. His defeat at Methven (19th
June 1306) was followed by another at Strathfillan (11th
August), and Bruce took refuge in the island of Bathlin
(off Antrim, Ireland). The tales of his hairbreadth escapes,
his courage and endurance in all changes of fortune, were
gathered by Barbour from the mouths of the people, who
followed the life of their champion with the keenest in¬
terest. Meanwhile Edward came north and gave a fore¬
taste of his vengeance. But his severity strengthened the
paity of Bruce, which grew daily. All classes now made,
with few exceptions, common cause against the enemy of
all. Edward’s death at Burgh-on-Sands (7th June 1307) at
once changed the whole aspect of the invasion. Edward II.
wasted in the ceremony of a funeral and the diversions of
a youthful court the critical moment of the war. Bruce
seized his opportunity, and by the close of 1313 Berwick
and^ Stirling alone remained English. The independence
of Scotland was finally determined by the ever-memorable
victory of Bannockburn (24th June 1314).
Bruce reigned fifteen years after Bannockburn and (if
the Irish expedition of his brother Edward be left out of
account) with almost uninterrupted success. On his return
from Ireland he reduced Berwick (March 1318) and con¬
verted it from an English to a Scottish frontier town. His
recognition by the pope was followed by the acknow¬
ledgment of Flanders and France; and the long truce
which Edward II. had been forced to agree to before his
death became in the new reign a formal treaty known as
that of Northampton (April 1328). By its leading article Treaty of
“ Scotland according to its ancient bounds in the days of North-
Alexander III. shall remain to Bobert, king of Scots, and amPtoiu
his heirs, free and divided from England, without any sub¬
jection, servitude, claim, or demand whatsoever.” In pur¬
suance of another article Johanna, Edward’s sister, was
married to David, the infant son of Bruce, at Berwick on