Quhen Alysandyr oure kyng was dede,
Dat Scotland led in luwe and le,
Away wes sons of ale and brede,
Of wyne and wax, of gamyn and gle:
Oure gold wes changyd into lede,
Cryst, borne into Virgynyte,
Succour Scotland and remede,
Dat stat is in perplexyte.1
Alexander was a strong ruler but his death heralded the most tumultuous years in Scottish history. In the event, the nation’s place in history was secured, but it was a close-run thing.
The final decade of the thirteenth century and the first three decades of the fourteenth were the years of Scotland’s War of Independence against England, when resistance was kept alive by great leaders, above all William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. These men fought back against English occupation until freedom was finally won on the field of battle at Bannockburn in 1314.
The people united to rid themselves of the yoke of English oppression. At least that’s the accepted view of the fight for independence. Today the National Memorial to Wallace overlooking Stirling Bridge, scene of his greatest battlefield victory, Bannockburn Heritage Centre with its statue of Bruce on horse holding his trusty axe, and the Borestone, supposedly his command post during the fight, have become places of pilgrimage.
But the story is not quite as simple as one of a nation united in common struggle against an oppressive occupier. In feudal Scotland the ruling class was comprised of the nobility and the Church hierarchy. The nobles held their lands from the king in return for providing military service. When the king was strong they generally held to that contract, but when the monarch was weak or an infant (as was often the case in Scotland, where kings could expect a short life) they did not, and looked to increase their land holdings by whatever means. The nineteenth-century Scottish historian Thomas Johnston described the Scottish nobility as ‘… a selfish, ferocious, famishing, unprincipled set of hyenas, from whom at no time, and in no way, has the country derived any benefit whatsoever’.2
The great families, like the Bruces and their rivals the Balliols and the Comyns, also owned lands in England for which they pledged loyalty to the English monarch; this situation undoubtedly complicated the picture still further.
The crisis of succession that followed Alexander III’s death triggered a series of events that would lead to a war against English occupation, as well as a civil war between rival Scottish noble families. Their record in the fight against King Edward I of England, Longshanks as he was nicknamed because of his height, and his son and successor Edward II was far from distinguished.
The only heir to Alexander was his granddaughter, the Maid of Norway, daughter of the king of Norway. However, the Maid died in the Orkneys en route to her new kingdom and the throne was laid claim to by a number of nobles, but the effective choice lay between two contenders, John Balliol and Robert Bruce (grandfather of the victor of Bannockburn). Both were from Norman families invited north in the twelfth century by King David I, with the Balliols granted land in Galloway and the Bruces in Annandale.
Fearing civil war, the Bishop of St Andrews invited Edward I of England to adjudicate on the matter. He was the dead king Alexander’s brother-in-law and must have seemed a suitable choice to give judgement on this matter. Unfortunately, Edward I was one of the most capable and ruthless rulers of medieval England, and he planned to expand his realm by any means necessary. It was his good fortune that he was invited to judge who should succeed to the Scottish throne. One can only wonder what was expected of Longshanks when the invitation was issued; nevertheless, Bruce and Balliol agreed to abide by his decision as to which would be king.
Edward came north to Norham Castle on the English bank of the Tweed and summoned the Scottish nobility to meet with him. There he informed them that he now had sovereignty over Scotland and asked them to acknowledge this. When they did so, he then chose John Balliol as king. Balliol took the throne, but he had pledged his subservience to Edward, who subjected him to constant demands and instructions. Finally, in 1296, when he was told to send troops to assist in Edward’s wars of conquest in France, he rebelled and withdrew his allegiance, seeking an alliance with France instead.
Edward hurried north in response, forded the Tweed and sacked the then Scottish town of Berwick, butchering the civilian population before advancing north to lay siege to Dunbar Castle. Balliol summoned the nobles to rally to him with their soldiers, but the Bruces and their supporters would not fight for him and joined with Edward. Balliol’s army advanced on Dunbar, but Edward’s, steeled in long wars in France, routed it within minutes and captured many nobles who then had to pledge loyalty to him.
After the Battle of Dunbar, the Earl of Carrick approached Edward to ask if his son, Robert the Bruce, could now be king. Both had fought for Longshanks. His reply was scathing: ‘Have I nothing to do but conquer kingdoms for you?’3
Balliol fled north but eventually surrendered, was stripped publicly of all the robes and trappings of monarchy and dispatched into captivity in England. After that, every noble, landlord, senior clergyman and head of the religious houses was required to place his seal on a document acknowledging Edward as their liege lord. Some 1,900 did so, and it became known as the ‘Ragman’s Roll’. With that in his baggage, Edward returned to his wars with France. As he left Scotland, Longshanks joked: ‘He does good business, who rids himself of shit.’4
The subsequent English occupation of Scotland was enforced by that section of the nobility who decided their fortunes would gain most by pledging loyalty to Edward of England. But the English occupation was hampered by ‘financial difficulties, shortage of supply, overextended lines of communication [and] local hostility’.5 Edward’s focus was on conquering France – he claimed to be its rightful king – and the priority for his troops and funds was always there, not Scotland. That also meant the English authorities levied extra taxes and demanded conscripts for the English army in France, which created anger among the peasantry on whom the burden fell.
In May 1297, William Wallace of Elderslie, a minor noble, not even a knight, killed the English Sheriff of Lanark and began a rebellion in the name of John Balliol. Little is known about what drove Wallace into rebellion but we do know that the nobility were suspicious. Even two of the most steadfast opponents of the English occupation, Sir William Douglas and Bishop Wishart of Glasgow, were quick to assure the English general, Warenne, that they had no part in the rising.
We can guess that Wallace was able to gain support because he opposed the taxes and conscription imposed by the English but which were also often collected by the feudal overlord. The rebellion, however, could be seen to threaten the Scottish nobility. Wallace’s army was made up of the ordinary people, peasant farmers who faced paying more in tax or being forced to fight in Edward’s army.6
To the north in the Black Isle, Andrew de Moray was also taking to the field.
Some idea of what Wallace’s message comes from a poem attributed to John of Fordun, in which Wallace is portrayed as saying:
My son, I tell thee soothfastie
No gift is like to liberty,
Then never live in slaverie!7
Meanwhile, the young Robert the Bruce, who until that moment had served Edward, James the Stewart, the High Steward of Scotland, and the Bishop of Glasgow also raised an army to resist Edward, but when it was confronted with an English force its noble leaders asked for terms rather than fight. The negotiations dragged on for a month, giving Wallace and Moray time to raise a stronger army.
By the late summer both men lay siege to the English garrison at Dundee. Learning that an army had been sent north to crush this rebellion, they guessed correctly that it would have to cross the River Forth at Stirling. On 11 September, Wallace and Moray gathered their men on the Abbey Craig, a hill overlooking a narrow bridge the English army had to cross, and at the foot of the hill on a causeway leading across marshy ground. The soft ground of the fields to either side were un
suitable for the English heavy cavalry, while a bit farther on the river looped around both sides of the battlefield.8
Wallace and Moray allowed enough of the English army to cross until they were crowded into a small area of dry ground and were thrown into confusion, unable to deploy their heavy cavalry. Then the Scots infantry attacked, downhill. They cut off the English access to the bridge and then butchered the trapped men. The English commander of the forces on the north side of the river was cornered, pulled from his horse and flayed alive.
The overall English commander, Warenne, ordered the bridge to be destroyed, sent reinforcements to Stirling Castle and then fled to Berwick. It was a stunning victory.9
Following this win Murray died of his wounds but Wallace was made Guardian of Scotland, charged with protecting the kingdom until John Balliol could return to resume royal rule. Wallace raided into northern England before winter forced him to retire northwards. Formally, Wallace had the support of the majority of the nobility, though not of Bruce and his supporters, and the Church leaders, but in reality they mistrusted him and his common supporters.
Edward I determined to avenge the defeat at Stirling Bridge and led his army north. In July 1298, Edward came across Wallace’s army at Falkirk, where it was assembled in schiltrons: rings of spearmen protected by wooden stakes and with short-bow archers in support. However, the Scottish cavalry, made up of the nobility, quit the field before battle was joined, either as a result of treachery or as a refusal to fight such an enemy. The spear rings drove off the English cavalry but eventually Edward ordered his archers into action. They killed many Scots and broke the rings, which allowed the English cavalry to disperse the Scots. It was a bloody battle that ended in Wallace’s defeat.10
Deserted once more by the nobility, Wallace would go to Europe in the wake of his defeat to try unsuccessfully to enlist support from the king of France, before returning to wage guerrilla warfare, raising his troops from among the ordinary people. In March 1304, Edward ordered a parliament to be held at St Andrews, at which the assembled nobles and senior churchmen once again accepted Edward as their king.
Wallace was now on the run; he had been deserted by ‘all men who had property at stake’. 11 He sought shelter at the home of Sir John of Monteith at Robroyston, now part of Glasgow. His host betrayed him and handed him over to Edward. Wallace was brought to London charged with treason, though as he rightly pointed out he had never given homage or pledged loyalty to Edward. He was made to construct a crown of laurel leaves, in mockery of his supposed ambition to be king of Scotland. At his trial the verdict was never in doubt. On 23 August 1305, Wallace was found guilty and carried off to the Tower of London from where he was dragged naked through the streets to Smithfield, his place of execution. He was hung, drawn and quartered, before he was finally beheaded. His head was put on display above London Bridge while his limbs were displayed in four cities, Newcastle upon Tyne in England, and Berwick upon Tweed, Stirling and Perth in Scotland, as a warning to any who might consider opposing Edward.12
The film Braveheart portrays the brutality of his execution and gives a good account of Wallace’s life. Wallace was not a commoner but he was not a noble either; later he would have been described as a laird. He is the nearest to the ordinary people of Scotland we have come.
Never mind the fiction, the success of Mel Gibson’s 1995 film, with the dying hero crying ‘freedom’, created another legend that spoke to those fighting for liberation across the globe, and who probably could not point to Scotland on the map. But no matter, a legend was created and handed down to us. In the nineteenth century Wallace would be an inspiration to the Chartists, fighting for a radical form of democracy we are still denied today.
However, there is a gulf between the fiction and the fact. G. W. S. Barrow was probably nearer the truth when he wrote: ‘Wallace was a conservative, quite as much part of the life of feudal society and breathing its air as the English king against whose might he pitted his own limited strength. Surely, the real tragedy of Wallace lay in this, that he was thwarted by the very same structure of society which he accepted without question.’13
In truth, war in Scotland was a distraction. The war with France was far more important to Edward and his successors. Ironically, however, having alienated many of the Scottish nobility, Edward was forced to rely on them to rule the land but found he had to return to impose order. Between 1300 and 1304, Edward waged a series of campaigns in Scotland. The two guardians of the kingdom were Robert the Bruce and John Comyn, a supporter of John Balliol. It was an unlikely alliance. Tensions between them led to Bruce’s resignation and then his going over to Edward in early 1302.
In response, Edward advanced northwards, capturing stronghold after stronghold until only Stirling Castle still resisted. Before its fall in 1304, John Comyn submitted to Edward. Robert Bruce was fighting alongside Edward that year when he also became Earl of Carrick.14
In truth, the future ‘patriot king’ had already had a chequered career. In 1296, after John Balliol broke off his allegiance to Edward, Bruce pledged fealty to Edward and served in his conquering army. A year later he raided Lanarkshire alongside an English force. The next year Bruce sided with Wallace only to surrender to Edward in return for a pardon. The year after that he fought for Edward in Galloway, although twelve months later he attacked the English garrison at Lochmaben. In 1302, Bruce attended the English Parliament (at this stage an assembly of great nobles and Church leaders) while appealing to the French king for aid in a possible rebellion against Longshanks. A year on, he was Edward’s Sheriff of Lanark with his salary paid in advance. Bruce sent help to the English forces besieging Stirling Castle in 1304 and in the following year was quite possibly a witness against Wallace and was granted new lands in Carrick by the English king.
The Bruce family were out to get the kingship of Scotland by any means, and hoped Edward would confer it on them. When it was clear Edward wished to abolish any separate kingdom north of the Tweed, their thoughts turned to rebellion. This was a risky venture, as it might mean loss of their lands, certainly those the family still owned in England.
Robert the Bruce, as he would become known, had support in the west of the country where his lands lay. His opponents, the Comyns, were based in Buchan and allied to the MacDougalls of Argyll. This, the War of Independence as it became known, was also a civil war in which Bruce had to defeat the supporters of Balliol as well as those Scots nobles allied to Edward. In March 1306, Bruce was crowned king of Scotland at Scone Abbey, which, however, was missing the Stone of Destiny and much of the royal regalia which had already been looted by Edward.
In June, Bruce and his men were surprised at Methven near Perth by an English force and routed. Bruce was forced to go on the run. He may have holed up in Ireland, in Kintyre or the West Highlands, where as legend has it, despairing in a cave, he was inspired by a spider trying to spin its web from one side to the other. Six times the spider tried and failed. But on the seventh attempt it was successful. Bruce, supposedly, reckoned he had lost six battles, so why shouldn’t he ‘try, try again’.
The story owes much to Sir Walter Scott, writing five centuries later, but Bruce must have thought of submitting to Edward again. The king’s barbaric retribution against his family must have weighed heavily with him. His brother, Neil, had been executed by Longshanks; his wife, Elizabeth, and daughter Marjorie were captured on route to find refuge in Orkney. Both were imprisoned.
They were luckier than Bruce’s sister Isabella, and the Countess of Buchan, who had crowned King Robert, in keeping with the family’s traditional ceremonial role. They were placed in cages, open to the elements and suspended from the ramparts of Roxburgh and Berwick Castles for four years, before being sent to convents.
Despite these threats, Bruce had made one ally, the chiefs of a rising force in the West Highlands and Hebrides, Clan MacDonald. Descendents of the Norse-Gaelic ruler Somerled, their rivals were the MacDougalls, allies of Bruce’s oppone
nts the Comyns, and they saw alliance with Bruce as a way to win back regional hegemony.
The next year, 1307, Bruce was back on his home turf and met an English army at Loudon Hill in Ayrshire. Bruce’s men held the high ground. The only approach was along a narrow track through a bog. Bruce ordered ditches to be dug on either side to ensure the advancing English were restricted to the narrow track.
The poet John Barbour would write in ‘The Bruce’:
The king’s men met them at the dyke
So stoutly that the most warlike
And strongest of them fell to the ground.
Then could be heard a dreadful sound
As spears on armour rudely shattered,
And cries and groans the wounded uttered.
For those that first engaged in fight
Battled and fought with all their might.
Their shouts and cries rose loud and clear;
A grievous noise it was to hear.
A People's History of Scotland Page 3