Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

lxiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE
such Records as were within the Castle of Edinburgh, or
anywhere else in Scotland. The parties nominated in
Edward I.'s writ were authorized to inspect and investigate
such of the Records as had any reference to the claims of the
competitors, or to the King himself, and his own kingdom of
England, in the place which he had assigned for their meeting.
Most of the then existing Records of Scotland were in conse-
quence carried to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and were there de-
posited on the 23d of August 1293. A Catalogue of those
Records found in the castle of Edinburgh is still preserved
in the Chapter House at Westminster, and was printed in
Sir Joseph AyliftVs " Calendars of Ancient Charters."" A
correct copy of it is printed in the " Introduction, giving a
State, founded on Authentic Documents still preserved, of
the Ancient Records of Scotland which were in that King-
dom in the year 1292,' 1 by William Robertson, Esq. one of
the Deputies of the Lord Clerk-Register for keeping the
Records of Scotland. This is evidently the true account of
Edward Us seizure of the Scottish Records ; and the story
of his forcibly carrying them off to Westminster, and destroy-
ing them, to obliterate all traces of the national independ-
ence, is altogether a fable. 1 Edward I. entered Scotland in
129G at the head of a powerful army, forced Balliol to sur-
render the Scottish Crown, and obtained uncontrouled pos-
session of the kingdom. " It cannot be doubted, 11 observes
Mr Robertson, " that along with the kingdom, King Edward
got possession likewise of its Records, with which his officers,
who had so lately seen and examined them, were minutely
1 " Upon the whole, there is the greatest reason to believe that the story-
propagated of King Edward I. having brought out of Scotland all the
ancient Records of that kingdom, and of his having lodged them in his
Exchequer at Westminster, is fabulous. — It is still further observable
that the Scottish writers are not agreed in the story of Edward having
taken away all the Scottish Records, for Hector Boethius, Buchanan, and
others allege that those Records were burnt in Scotland by order of King
Edward I., which fact, if it was one, is again denied by Tyrell and other
English writers, who suppose this allegation to be a calumny invented by
Boethius." Calendars of the Ancient Charters, &c. and of the Welch and
Scottish Rolls now remaining in the Tower of London, ^c. 4to. London,
1772, p. lvii. lviii.