History Of Scotland Vol. 1 - Part 17

( Originally Published 1909 )

Regency of Robert, Duke of Albany—Earl of March returns to his Allegiance—A Heretic burned--Jedburgh Castle taken: Tax proposed for Expense of its Demolition: the Duke of Albany refuses to consent to it—Donald of the Isles claims the Earldom of Ross—He invades the Mainland—The Earl of Mar opposes him—Circumstances of the Earl's Life—Battle of the Harlaw: its Consequences—Intricate Negotiation between Albany and Henry IV.—Hostilities with England—Death of the Regent Albany

THE talents of Robert, duke of Albany, as a statesman were not such as in any degree to counterbalance his crimes. Yet his rule was not unpopular. This was in a great measure effected by liberality, or rather by profusion, in which he indulged with less hesitation as his gifts were at the expense of the royal revenues and authority. The clergy, who were edified by his bounties to the Church, recorded his devotion in their chronicles. He connived at the excesses of power frequent among the nobility; solaced them with frequent and extravagant entertainments; and indulged all their most unreasonable wishes respecting lands and jurisdictions at the expense of the crown. An air of affability and familiarity, added to a noble presence and a splendid attendance, procured the shouts of the populace. Although timid, the regent was conscious of his own defect, and careful in concealing it. He was intelligent in public business; and when the interest of the country was identified with his own, he could pursue with expedition and eagerness the best paths for attaining it.

When Robert III., therefore, died, the right of the Duke of Albany to the regency during the captivity of James was universally acknowledged.

His government, after the death of his brother, Robert III. (1407), commenced with a show of prosperity. He renewed the league offensive and defensive with the kingdom of France, and entered into negotiation with England. In the communings which ensued, he made no application for the liberation of his nephew, the present sovereign, nor was his name even mentioned in the transaction. But the Earl of Douglas, whose military services were valuable to the de-fence of the frontier, was restored to freedom, having been taken at the battle of Shrewsbury, where he had fought on the side of Sir Henry Percy with his usual distinguished valor, beating down the king of England with his own hand, but being in the course of the conflict himself made prisoner, according to his habitual bad luck. George, earl of March, had rendered Henry IV. effectual assistance during that insurrection, being the first who apprised that monarch of the conspiracy against him. But he was now weary of his exile, and, disappointed of his revenge, returned to his allegiance to Scotland, upon restoration of his estates. These were great points gained in reference to defence upon the border.

In 1408, Albany had also an opportunity of gratifying the churchmen, by giving over to their vindictive prosecution one Resby, a Lollard, or follower of Wickliffe. He was tried before Lawrence Lindores, as president of a council of the clergy ; and being condemned for heresy, and chiefly for disowning the pope's authority, suffered at the stake in the town of Perth.

The truce with England not having been renewed, hostilities were recommenced by an exploit of the warlike inhabitants of Teviotdale, who, vexed by the English garrison which had retained the important castle of Jedburgh, stormed and took that strong fortress. It was resolved in parliament that it should be destroyed; but as the walls were extensive and very strongly built, and the use of gun-powder in mining was not yet understood, it was proposed that a tax of two pennies should be imposed on each hearth in Scotland to maintain the laborers employed in the task. The regent's love of popularity instantly displayed itself. He declared that in his administration no burden should be imposed on the poor, and caused the expense to be defrayed out of the royal revenue. The truce with England was afterward renewed. In the ratification of it, Albany styled himself regent by the grace of God, and used the phrase "our subjects of Scotland," not satisfied, it would seem, with delegated authority.

In the meantime, a contest of the most serious nature arose between the Celtic and the Lowland or Saxon population of Scotland.

The lords of the Isles, during the utter confusion which extended through Scotland during the regency, had found it easy to reassume that independence of which they had been deprived during the vigorous reign of Robert Bruce. They possessed a fleet, with which they harassed the mainland at pleasure; and Donald, who now held that insular lordship, ranked himself among the allies of England, and made peace and war as an independent sovereign. The regent had taken no steps to reduce this kinglet to obedience, and would probably have shunned engaging in a task so arduous, had not Donald insisted upon pretensions to the earldom of Ross, occupying a great extent in the northwest of Scotland, including the large Isle of Skye, and lying adjacent to, and connected with, his own insular dominions.

His claim stood thus : Euphemia, countess of Ross, had bestowed her hand upon Walter Lesley, who became in her right Earl of Ross. They had two children, Alexander, who succeeded his mother in the earldom, and a daughter, who was wedded to Donald of the Isles. Lesley being dead, his widow married Alexander, earl of Buchan, a brother of the regent; but they had no issue. Alexander, earl of Ross, made a second connection with the royal family of Stewart, by marrying Isabel, the daughter of the Regent Albany, by whom he had one child, also named Euphemia. This lady had expressed her purpose of retiring into a convent ; and it was understood that she meant to resign the Earldom of Ross, which was her own undoubted right, in favor of her maternal uncle, Alexander, earl of Buchan, son of the regent by his second marriage. Such a resignation would have been destructive of Donald the Islander's title in right of his wife.

Regarding Euphemia, retired into a cloister, as dead in law, the lord of the Isles determined to assert his right by arms. He led an army of ten thousand Hebrideans and Highlanders, headed by their chieftains, into Ross; succeeded in seizing the castle of Dingwall; and, not satisfied with this success, he continued his desolating march as far as the Garioch, threatening not only to plunder Aberdeen, but to ravage the low country of the Mearns and Angus as far as the margin of the Tay.

The consequence of Donald's succeeding in his pretensions must have been the loss to the regent of the earldom which he had destined to one of his own family, and most serious evils to the kingdom of Scotland, since it would have been a conquest by the savage over the civilized inhabitants, and must in the sequel have tended to the restoration of barbarism with all its evils.

Alexander Stewart, earl of Mar, hastily assembled the chivalry of the Lowlands, to stop the desolating march of Donald and his army. This earl was himself an extraordinary person ; and his life was such a picture of those disorderly times that a slight sketch of it will better describe them than many pages of vague and general declamation. He was natural son to Alexander, earl of Buchan, second son of Robert II., the same turbulent chief who burned the Cathedral of Elgin ere yet his uncle Robert III. was crowned. Educated under such a sire, Alexander became himself the leader of a fierce band of Catherans, or Highland freebooters, and in that capacity aimed at raising himself by violence to rank and opulence. He proceeded thus :—Sir Malcolm Drummond of Stobhill, brother of Annabella, the queen of Robert III., had been surprised in his own castle by Highland banditti, and died in their rude custody. Alexander Stewart was suspected of accession to this violence, and these suspicions were strengthened when he suddenly appeared with a body of armed Catherans before the castle of Kildrummie, the residence of Isabel, the widow of the murdered Sir Malcolm Drummond, countess of Mar in her own right. The castle was stormed, and the widowed countess, whether by persuasion or force, was induced to give her hand to Alexander Stewart, the leader of the band who took her mansion, and in all probability the author of her husband's imprisonment and death. A few weeks after their marriage, he conceived the lady so reconciled to her lot that he ventured to repossess her in her castle, with the furniture, title-deeds, etc., and coming himself before the gates, humbly rendered her the keys, in token that the whole was at her disposal. The issue, which Stewart had probably been previously well assured of, was, that the lady received him kindly, and of her own free will, and the good favor which she bore to him, accepted of him as her husband, after which he took the title and assumed the power and possessions of the earldom of Mar in right of the Countess Isabel.

Thus exalted above his trade of a robber, Stewart showed by his subsequent conduct that there was something noble in his mind corresponding with his elevation, which, though accomplished by such violent means, was not challenged during the feeble and corrupt regency of Albany. He distinguished himself by the exercise of feats of chivalry, and engaged in many tournaments both in Scotland and England. At length his restless spirit carried him abroad in quest of fame. The Earl of Mar was distinguished and honored for his wit, virtue, and bounty, at Paris, where he kept open house. From the court of Paris the earl passed to that of Burgundy. At this time the bishop of Liege, John of Bavaria, "a clerk without the external behavior of one," was in danger from a rebellion of his insurgent people, and the Duke of Burgundy was marching to his assistance. Finding himself in a situation where fame could be won, Mar, with a hundred Scottish lances, chiefly men of quality seeking renown and feats of battle, accompanied the duke's host. As the battle was about to join, the Earl of Mar, seeing two strong champions, armed with battle-axes, advanced three spears' length before the army of Liege, commanded his banner to halt, and calling to his squire, John of Ceres, to follow him, rushed on these two champions, who proved to be the leaders of the mutiny, Sir Henry Horn and his son, and slew them hand to hand. He did also great actions in the battle, and highly exalted his own name and the honor of his country. On his return to Scotland, the fire of his youth having now subsided, he became a firm sup-porter of good order, to which his early exploits had been so hostile, maintained some regular government of the northern counties, and was the leader to whom all men looked up as likely to arrest the course of the lord of the Isles. It was a singular chance, however, that brought against Donald, who might be called the king of the Gael, one whose youth had been distinguished as a leader of their plundering bands, and no less strange that the islander's claim to the earldom of Ross should be traversed by one whose title to that of Mar was so much more challengeable.

The whole Lowland gentry of the Mearns and Aberdeenshire rose in arms with the Earl of Mar. The town of Aberdeen sent out a gallant body of citizens under Sir Robert Davidson, their provost; Ogilvy, the sheriff of Angus, brought up his own martial name and the principal gentle-men of that county. Yet, when both armies met at Harlaw, near the head of the Garioch, July 24, 1411, the army of Mar was considerably inferior to that of Donald of the Isles, under whose banner the love of arms and hope of plunder had assembled the M'Intoshes and other more northern clans. Being the flower of the respective races, the Gaelic and Saxon armies joined battle with the most inveterate rage and fury. About a thousand Highlanders fell, together with the two high chiefs of M'Intosh and M'Lean. Mar's loss did not exceed half the number, but comprehended many gentlemen, as indeed his forces chiefly consisted of such. The provost of Aberdeen was killed, with so many citizens as to occasion a municipal regulation that the chief magistrate of that town, acting in that capacity, should go only a certain brief space from the precincts of the liberties.

The battle of Harlaw might in some degree be considered as doubtful; but all the consequences of victory remained with the Lowlanders. The insular lord retreated after the action, unable to bring his discouraged troops to a second battle. The Regent Albany acted on the occasion with a spirit and promptitude which his government seldom evinced. He placed himself at the head of a new army, and occupied the disputed territory of Ross, where he took and garrisoned the castle of Dingwall. In the next summer, he assembled a fleet, threatened Donald of the Isles with an invasion of his territories, and compelled him to submit himself to the allegiance of Scotland, and give hostages for his obedience in future. The battle of Harlaw and its consequences were of the highest importance, since they might be said to decide the superiority of the more civilized regions of Scotland over those inhabited by the Celtic tribes, who remained almost as savage as their forefathers the Dalriads. The Highlands and Isles continued, indeed, to give frequent disturbance by their total want of subordination and perpetual incursions upon their neighbors; but they did not again venture to combine their forces for a simultaneous attack upon the Lowlands, with the hope of conquest and purpose of settlement.

Another mark of the advance of civilization was the erection of the University of Saint Andrew's, which was founded and endowed under the auspices of Henry Wardlaw, archbishop of Saint Andrew's, cardinal, and the pope's legate for Scotland, in 1411.

In his intercourse with England the Regent Albany was very singularly situated. His most important negotiations with that power respected the fate of two prisoners the one James, his nephew and prince, who had fallen, as already mentioned, into the hands of Henry IV. by a gross breach of the law of nations the other being the regent's own son Murdach, earl of Fife, taken in the battle of Homildon. Respecting these captives the views of Albany were extremely different. He was bound to make some show of a desire to have his sovereign James set at liberty, since not only the laws of common allegiance and family affection enjoined him to make an apparent exertion in his nephew's behalf, but the feudal constitutions, which imposed on the vassal the charge of ransoming his lord and superior when captive, rendered this in every point of view an inviolable obligation. At the same time his policy dictated to him to protract as long as possible the absence of the king of Scot-land, with whose return his own power as regent must necessarily terminate. For the liberation of his son Murdach, on the contrary, the regent naturally was induced to interfere with all the ardor and sincerity of paternal feeling. The nature of these negotiations, especially of the first, in which the Duke of Albany's professions and the tenor of his proposals must have borne an ostensible purport very different from his own wishes, naturally gave a degree of mystery and complexity to the proceedings of the regent and his intercourse with the court of England. The very manner in which James is described in these proceedings is ambiguous, and does not convey or infer the quality of heir to the Scottish crown, the power of which was for the time exercised by Albany. He is termed "the son of our late lord King Robert," which is far from necessarily implying his title of heir of Scotland, since either a natural or a younger son of the late king might have been so termed. This studied ambiguity seems to infer that Albany, whose ambition had dictated the murder of the Duke of Rothsay, was desirous to clear the way to the exclusive possession of the throne, which he only occupied at present as the delegate of another, whose rights, therefore, he was disposed to keep as much out of view as possible. Henry IV., whose own road to sovereignty had been by usurpation, was crafty enough to comprehend the feelings by which the Duke of Albany was actuated, and tool care to throw such obstructions in the way of James I.'s return to his dominions as might gratify the real wishes of the regent Duke of Albany without laying him under the necessity of speaking out too plainly his desire to protract his nephew's captivity. Another and a very curious subject of diplomatic discussion subsisted between Henry IV. and the regent of Scotland.

There is a story told by Bower, or Bowmaker, the continuator of Fordun's Chronicle, which has hitherto been treated as fabulous by the more modern historians. This story bears that Richard IL, generally supposed to have been murdered at Pontefract Castle, either by the "fierce hand of Sir Piers of Exton," or by the slower and more cruel death of famine, did in reality make his escape by subtlety from his place of confinement; that he fled in disguise to the Scottish isles, and was recognized in the dominions of the lord of the Isles by a certain fool or jester who had been familiar in the court of England, as being no other than the dethroned king of that kingdom. Bower proceeds to state that the person of Richard II. thus discovered was delivered up by the lord of the Isles to the Lord Montgomery, and by him presented to Robert III., by whom he was honorably and beseemingly maintained during all the years of that prince's life. After the death of Robert III., this Richard is stated to have been supported in magnificence, and even in royal state, by the Duke of Albany, to have at length died in the Castle of Stirling, and to have been interred in the church of the friars there, at the north angle of the altar. This singular legend is also attested by another contemporary historian, Winton, the prior of Lochleven. He tells the story with some slight differences, particularly that the fugitive and deposed monarch was recognized by an Irish lady, the wife of a brother of the lord of the Isles, that had seen him in Ireland that being charged with being King Richard, he denied it that he was placed in custody of the Lord of Montgomery, and afterward of the Lord of Cumbernauld and, finally, that he was long under the care of the regent Duke of Albany. "But whether he was king or not, few," said the chronicler of Lochleven, "knew with certainty. The mysterious personage exhibited little devotion, would seldom incline to hear mass, and bore himself like one half wild or distracted." Serle also, yeoman of the robes to Richard, was executed, because, coming from Scot-land to England, he reported that Richard was alive in the latter country. This legend, of so much importance to the history of both North and South Britain, has been hitherto treated as fabulous. But the researches and industry of the latest historian of Scotland have curiously illustrated this point, and shown, from evidence collected in the original records, that this captive, called Richard II., actually lived many years in Scotland, and was supported at the public expense of that country.

It is then now clear, that, to counterbalance the advantage which Henry IV. possessed over the regent of Scotland by having in his custody the person of James, and consequently the power of putting an end to the delegated government of Albany whenever he should think fit to set the young king at liberty; Albany, on his side, had in his keeping the person of Richard II., or of some one strongly resembling him, a prisoner whose captivity was not of less importance to the tranquillity of Henry IV., who at no period possessed his usurped throne in such security as to view with indifference a real or pretended resuscitation of the deposed Richard.

It would be too tedious, were it possible, for us to trace distinctly the complicated negotiations between the king and regent. Each conscious of possessing an advantage over the other, and at the same time feeling a corresponding encumbrance on his own part, endeavored, like a skilful wrestler, to take advantage of the hold which he possessed over his adversary, while at the same time he felt the risk of himself receiving the fall which he designed to give his opponent. These two crafty persons, standing in this singular relation to each other, and each conscious of defects in his own title, negotiated constantly, without being able to bring their treaties either to a final close or an open rupture.

The death of Henry W. and the accession of Henry V. did not greatly alter the situation of the two countries, but were so far of advantage to Albany that he obtained the liberation of his son Murdach, earl of Fife, in exchange for the young Earl of Northumberland, the son of the celebrated Hotspur. This youth had been sent into Scotland by his grandfather for safety, when about to display his banner against Henry IV. of England. Whatever benefit the captive monarch of Scotland might have gained by such a host-age as the young Percy being lodged in the hands of his subjects was lost to him by the regent accomplishing the exchange between the Earl of Northumberland and his own son.

In 1417, while Henry V. was engaged in France, the Regent Albany, supposing that the greater part of the English forces were over-seas, gathered a large force, and besieged at once both Roxburgh Castle and the town of Berwick. A much superior army of English advanced under the Dukes of Exeter and Bedford, and compelled the regent of Scotland to raise both the sieges, with much loss of reputation, as the Scots bestowed on his ill-advised enterprise the name of the Foul Raid, that is, the dishonor-able inroad.

The war, which seemed for some time to languish, received some interest from a daring exploit of Halyburton of Fastcastle, who surprised the castle of Wark, situated upon the Tweed. Robert Ogle, however, recovered it for the English, by taking Halyburton by surprise in his turn, when, scaling the castle, he put him and his followers to the sword.

In a parliament in the year 1419 the Scottish estates agreed to send the Dauphin of France, now hard pressed by the victorious Henry, a considerable body of auxiliary troops, under the command of the regent's second son, John Stewart, earl of Buchan. The history of the expedition belongs to the next chapter.