Relations Between Scotland & England

The following is taken from Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500-1707) by Robert S. Rait:

Footnotes

[1] Spanish and Venetian Calendars of State Papers. Cf. especially the reference to the succour afforded by Scotland to France in Spanish Calendar, i. 210.

[2] Historical Essays, First Series, p. 71.

[3] History of the English People, Book III, c. iv.

[4] History of Scotland, vol. i, p. 2. But, as Mr. Lang expressly repudiates any theory of displacement north of the Forth, and does not regard Harlaw in the light of a great racial contest, his position is not really incompatible with that of the present work.

[5] History of England, p. 158. Mr. Oman is almost alone in not calling them English in blood.

[6] History of Scotland, vol. ii, pp. 393-394.

[7] Instances of the first tendency are Edderton, near Tain, i.e. eadar duin ("between the hillocks"), and Falkirk, i.e. Eaglais ("speckled church"), while examples of the second tendency are too numerous to require mention. Examples of ecclesiastical names are Laurencekirk and Kirkcudbright, and the growth of commerce receives the witness of such names as Turnberry, on the coast of Ayr, dating from the thirteenth century, and Burghead on the Moray Firth.

[8] Cf. Waverley, c. xliii, and the concluding chapter of Tales of a Grandfather.

[9] William of Newburgh states this in a probably exaggerated form when he says:—"Regni Scottici oppida et burgi ab Anglis habitari noscuntur" (Lib. II, c. 34). The population of the towns in the Lothians was, of course, English.

[10] For the real significance of such grants of land, cf. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, Essay II.

[11] Scotland under her Early Kings, vol. i, p. 239.

[12] Annalia, iv.

[13] There is a possible exception in Barbour's Bruce (Bk. XVIII, 1. 443)—"Then gat he all the Erischry that war intill his company, of Argyle and the Ilis alswa". It has been generally understood that the "Erischry" here are the Scottish Highlanders; but it is certain that Barbour frequently uses the word to mean Irishmen, and it is perhaps more probable that he does so here also than that he should use the word in this sense only once, and with no parallel instance for more than a century.

[14] Chronicle, Book II, c. ix. Cf. App. A.

[15] Ibid, Book V, c. x. Cf. App. A.

[16] History of Greater Britain, Bk. I, cc. vii, viii, ix. Cf. App. A.

[17] Scotorum Regni Descriptio, prefixed to his "History". Cf. App. A.

[18] Fasti Aberdonenses, p. 3.

[19] De Gestis Scotorum, Lib. I. Cf. App. A. It is interesting to note, as showing how the breach between Highlander and Lowlander widened towards the close of the sixteenth century, that Father James Dalrymple, who translated Lesley's History, at Ratisbon, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, wrote: "Bot the rest of the Scottis, quhome we halde as outlawis and wylde peple". Dalrymple was probably a native of Ayrshire.

[20] Liber Pluscardensis, X, c. xxii. Cf. App. A.

[21] Scoti-chronicon, XV, c. xxi. Cf. App. A.

[22] Greater Britain, VI, c. x. Cf. App. A. The keenness of the fighting is no proof of racial bitterness. Cf. the clan fight on the Inches at Perth, a few years before Harlaw.

[23] Scotorum Historiæ, Lib. XVI. Cf. App. A.

[24] Rerum Scotorum Historia, Lib. X. Cf. App. A.

[25] Top. Hib., Dis. III, cap. xi.

[26] Britannia, section Scoti.

[27] Mahoun = Mahomet, i.e. the Devil.

[28] The Editor of the Scottish Text Society's edition of Dunbar points out that "Macfadyane" is a reference to the traitor of the War of Independence:

This Makfadzane till Inglismen was suorn;
Eduard gaiff him bath Argill and Lorn.

Blind Harry, VII, ll. 627-8.

[29] "Far northward in a nuke" is a reference to the cave in which Macfadyane was killed by Duncan of Lorne (Bk. VIII, ll. 866-8).

[30] Johnston: Place-Names of Scotland, p. 102.

[31] Rev. Duncan MacGregor in Scottish Church Society Conferences. Second Series, Vol. II, p. 23.

[32] Hist. Dun. Rolls Series, i. 218.

[33] Duncan was the grandson of Malcolm, and, by Pictish custom, should not have succeeded. The "rightful" heir, an un-named cousin of Malcolm, was murdered, and his sister, Gruoch, who married the Mormaor of Moray, left a son, Lulach, who thus represented a rival line, whose claims may be connected with some of the Highland risings against the descendants of Duncan.

[34] Art of War in the Middle Ages, p. 391.

[35] Cf. App. A.

[36] In the final order of battle, David seems to have attempted to bring all classes of his subjects together, and the divisions have a political as well as a military purpose. The right wing contained Anglo-Norman knights and men from Strathclyde and Teviotdale, the left wing men from Lothian and Highlanders from Argyll and the islands, and King David's reserve was composed of more knights along with men from Moray and the region north of the Forth.

[37] The Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I, and niece of David, must be carefully distinguished from Queen Maud, wife of Stephen, and cousin of David, who negotiated the Treaty of Durham.

[38] Ailred credits Bruce with a long speech, in which he tries to convince David that his real friends are not his Scottish subjects, but his Anglo-Norman favourites, and that, accordingly, he should keep on good terms with the English.

[39] William's English earldom of Huntingdon, which had been forfeited, was restored, in 1185, and was conferred by William upon his brother, David, the ancestor of the claimants of 1290.

[40] As Alexander III was the last king of Scotland who ruled before the War of Independence, it is interesting to note that he was crowned at Scone with the ancient ceremonies, and as the representative of the Celtic kings of Scotland. Fordun tells us that the coronation took place on the sacred stone at Scone, on which all Scottish kings had sat, and that a Highlander appeared and read Alexander's Celtic genealogy (Annals XLVIII. Cf. App. A). There is no indication that Alexander's subjects, from the Forth to the Moray Firth, were "stout Northumbrian Englishmen", who had, for no good reason, drifted away from their English countrymen, to unite them with whom Edward I waged his Scottish wars.

[41] David, the youngest child of Alexander and Margaret of England, died in June, 1281; Alexander, his older brother, in January, 1283-84; and their sister, Margaret, Queen of Norway, in April, 1283. Neither Alexander nor David left any issue, and the little daughter of the Queen of Norway was only about three years old when her grandfather, Alexander III, was killed.

[42] Nat. MSS. i. 36, No. LXX.

[43] Cf. Table, App. C.

[44] There is no indication of any racial division in the attitude of the Scots. Some Highlanders, from various personal causes, are found on the English side at the beginning of the War of Independence; but Mr. Lang has shown that of the descendants of Somerled of Argyll, the ancestor of the Lords of the Isles, only one fought against Wallace, while the Celts of Moray and Badenach and the Highland districts of Aberdeenshire, joined his standard. The behaviour of the Highland chiefs is similar to that of the Lowland barons. If there is any racial feeling at all, it is not Celtic v. Saxon, but Scandinavian v. Scottish, and it is connected with the recent conquest of the Isles. But even of this there is little trace, and the behaviour of the Islesmen is, on the whole, marvellously loyal.

[45] Hemingburgh, ii, 141-147.

[46] Diplomata Scotiæ, xliii, xliv.

[47] Bruce had married, 1st, Isabella, daughter of the 10th Earl of Mar, by whom he had a daughter, Marjorie, and 2nd, in 1302, Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of the Earl of Ulster.

[48] Nat. MSS. ii. 12, No. XVII. The original is preserved in the Register House.

[49] Pinkerton suggests that King Robert adopted this arrangement because he was unable to trust the Highlanders, but this is unlikely, as their leader, Angus Og, had been consistently faithful to him throughout.

[50] Douglas disappeared from the scene immediately after King Robert's death, taking the Bruce's heart with him on a pilgrimage to Palestine. He was killed in August, 1330, while fighting the Moors in Spain, on his way to the Holy Land.

[51] Minot. Tr. F. York Powell.

[52] George Dunbar, Earl of March, must be carefully distinguished from the child, Edmund Mortimer, the English Earl of March, grandson of Lionel of Clarence, and direct heir to the English throne after Richard II.

[53] In the summer of 1405 the English ravaged Arran, and the Scots sacked Berwick. There were also some naval skirmishes later in the year.

[54] Cf. App. B.

[55] The Clan Donald, vol. i, p. 154. The Mackenzies were also against the Celtic hero.

[56] There is great doubt as to whether these events belong to the year 1448 or 1449. Mr. Lang, with considerable probability, assigns them to 1449.

[57] James's army contained a considerable proportion of Islesmen, who, as at Northallerton and at Bannockburn, fought against "the Saxons farther off".

[58] He had married, in 1469, Margaret, daughter of Christian I of Denmark. The islands of Orkney and Shetland were assigned as payment for her dowry, and so passed, a few years later, under the Scottish Crown.

[59] Cf. The Days of James IV, by Mr. G. Gregory Smith, in the series of "Scottish History from Contemporary Writers".

[60] Gregory Smith, p. 123.

[61] Cf. the present writer's "Mary, Queen of Scots" (Scottish History from Contemporary Writers).

[62] The spelling "Stuart", which Queen Mary brought with her from France, now superseded the older "Stewart".

[63] Foreign Calendar: Elizabeth, December 31st, 1560.

[64] Cabala, Sive Scrinia Sacra, pp. 345-349.

[65] Foreign Calendar, May 7th, 1562.

[66] Foreign Calendar, June 8th, 1562.

[67] Foreign Calendar, March 31st, 1561.

[68] Foreign Calendar, 20th August, 1563.

[69] Sir James Melville's Memoirs, pp. 116-130 (Bannatyne Club).

[70] Laing's Knox, vi, p. 541.

[71] Laing's Knox, vol. ii, p. 513. Melville's Memoirs, p. 134.

[72] Foreign Calendar, July-December, 1565.

[73] The evidence for the scandal which associated Mary's name with that of Rizzio will be found in Mr. Hay Fleming's Mary, Queen of Scots, pp. 398-401. It is very far indeed from being conclusive.

[74] Foreign Calendar, March, 1566.

[75] Mary to Elizabeth, July, 1566. Keith's History, ii, p. 442.

[76] It is almost certain that Darnley was murdered before the explosion.

[77] Mary's defenders point out that her 25th birthday fell in November, 1567, and that it was necessary to prevent her from taking any steps for the restitution of Church land; and they look on the plot as devised by Bothwell and the other nobles, the latter aiming at using Bothwell as a tool to ruin Mary. On the question of the Casket Letters, see Mr. Lang's Mystery of Mary Stuart.

[78] Keith's History, ii, pp. 736-739.

[79] In forming any moral judgment with regard to Elizabeth's conduct towards Mary, it must be remembered that Mary fled to England trusting to the English Queen's invitation.

[80] Fénélon, i, 133 and 162.

[81] Mary to Elizabeth, 8th Nov., 1582. Strickland's Letters of Mary Stuart, i, p. 294.

[82] Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, v, 341-42.

[83] Ibid, pp. 396-97.

[84] James Melville's Autobiography and Diary, p. 370.

[85] Basilikon Doron.

[86] Cf. the present writer's Scottish Parliament before the Union of the Crowns.

[87] Basilikon Doron.

[88] The old controversy about the relation of the Church of Scotland to the sees of York and Canterbury had been finally settled, in 1474, by the erection of St. Andrews into a metropolitan see. Glasgow was made an archbishopric in 1492.

[89] Sabbath observance had been introduced from England six centuries earlier. Cf. p. 14.

[90] Justices of the peace were appointed throughout the country, and heritable jurisdictions were abolished.

[91] The son of the Marquis who was executed in 1661. The earldom, but not the marquisate, had been restored in 1663.