Scottish History For Dummies

‘Cometh the hour cometh the man’: step forward, William Wallace (see Figure 7-1). But who was he, and where did he come from? The origins of the Wallace family are a bit hazy, but it seems that they were Welsh and had come to Scotland sometime in the 12th century. Wallace himself was born at Paisley in 1270, or was it Eldersie, Renfrewshire? No one really knows. However, we do know that he was the second son of Sir Malcolm Wallace. Malcolm was chief vassal of the steward of Scotland and one of a small number of Scottish nobles who had refused to pay homage to Edward in 1296.

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Figure 7-1:

William Wallace.

In May 1297, at the age of 26, Wallace made his entrance onto the national stage when he murdered the English high sheriff of Lanark, William de Heselrig, for allegedly murdering Wallace’s wife, Marion. Wallace chopped Heselrig into little pieces and then carried out a series of guerrilla raids against the English, most notably at Scone with Sir William Douglas.

But Wallace’s rebellion was only one of a series of rebellions taking place across Scotland. In the north, Andrew de Moray captured the castles of Aberdeen, where he burned English ships at anchor in the harbour of the town, Inverness, Montrose, Brechin and Forfar. In his campaign, de Moray was supported by the burgesses, while the barons and earls stood aside. The nobility, including Robert the Bruce (shown in Figure 7-2) and James the Steward, had reaffirmed their allegiance to Edward at Irvine in July of that year.

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Figure 7-2:

Robert the Bruce.

With the nobility compromised, Moray and Wallace joined forces and became, as they said, ‘leaders of the army of Scotland’. On 11 September 1297, they achieved a stu

The English had been trapped on Stirling Bridge as they tried to cross over to the north side of the river. The narrowness of the bridge prevented many soldiers from crossing together – maybe as few as three abreast. The Scots held back until half of them had passed and then killed the English as quickly as they crossed. One of Wallace’s captains charged the English, causing some of them to retreat as others pushed forward. Under the overwhelming weight, the bridge collapsed, and many enemy soldiers were drowned.

The victory was won by lesser knights, peasants and

freeholders

(tenant farmers) because the aristocracy were not prepared to defend them or the nation. The opportunistic tactics used by Wallace at Stirling and elsewhere were a reflection of those who supported him. He had to make use of what he had. But these tactics were unappreciated by the English because they went against the standard rules of accepted medieval combat, which were based on strength of arms and elaborate rituals bound up with knightly warfare. The English also didn’t appreciate that Wallace had the skin of one of their fallen commanders, Hugh de Cressingham, the English treasurer, flayed to make a belt for his sword.

After Stirling Bridge, Moray and Wallace assumed the title of guardians of the kingdom of Scotland on behalf of King John Balliol. Soon after this, in late 1297, Moray died of wounds suffered on the battlefield. As guardian of Scotland, Wallace ruled for only a year. During that time, he made repeated attacks on the English in their own backyard and laid waste to parts of Northumberland. But Wallace lacked royal authority, and the nobility refused him support.

Edward made peace with France and moved his seat of government from London to York. In April 1298, at the head of 12,500 footmen and 2,000 cavalry, he led a second invasion of Scotland. The English plundered the Lothians and recaptured some castles, but they failed to engage with Wallace’s army. Wallace had decided to play a waiting game with the English: wait till they ran out of money and supplies; then harass them when they retreated south. But in July, Edward, facing near mutiny in his army, received news that the Scottish army was at Falkirk.

On 22 July, Edward engaged the Scots in battle. This time, history didn’t repeat itself – he proved victorious. Edward’s Welsh bowmen proved to be the undoing of the Scots, and their casualties were high (although Wallace escaped unharmed). By September 1298, Wallace had resigned as guardian of Scotland in favour of Robert the Bruce, Earl of Carrick and future king, and John Comyn, lord of Badenoch and King John Balliol’s nephew.

Where Wallace went next is a bit of a mystery, but the likeliest explanation is that he was in France trying to get Philip the Fair to agree to support the struggle for Scottish independence. If he was, then he came back empty-handed.

By 1303, Wallace was back in Scotland, and involved in skirmishes:

At Happrew, near Peebles, in February 1304, with English knights, whose numbers included Robert the Bruce. The English knights had been sent south from Dunfermline under Sir John Segreve to locate and capture Wallace.

At Earnside, Perthshire, in September 1304,the last action known to be fought by Wallace. Wallace was hunted down and ultimately betrayed by Sir John Menteith, a Scottish knight loyal to Edward, who turned Wallace over to English soldiers at Robroyston near Glasgow on 5 August 1305.

Wallace was brought to trial in Westminster’s Great Hall, accused of atrocities against civilians in war (‘sparing neither age nor sex, monk nor nun’) and of treason. His response to the charge of treason was pointed: ‘I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I never was his subject.’

While true, his response fell on deaf ears. He was crowned with a garland of oak to suggest he was the king of outlaws. But the humiliation and the suffering did not end there. Found guilty of treason, Wallace was dragged naked on a two-wheeled cart from Westminster to the Tower of London, and then taken to Smithfield, where he was hanged, drawn and emasculated, and his bowels were burnt before him. His head was cut off and dipped in tar to preserve it; then it was piked above London Bridge. His severed head was later joined by those of his comrades in arms, the Fraser brothers, John and Simon. Wallace’s severed limbs were displayed separately in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth, as a warning to others.

While undeniably a charismatic figure, and the subject of a great deal of romantic fiction, did Wallace achieve anything of lasting significance for the cause of Scottish independence? Historians would argue that from his brief appearance on the national stage, three developments of lasting benefit emerge:

Wallace’s repeated raids on Northumberland provided a blueprint for the 30 years of guerrilla warfare used by Robert I against the English.

By engineering the appointment of William Lamberton to the bishopric of St Andrews in 1297, Wallace ensured the commitment of the Church to the national struggle.

Wallace restored the guardianship as representative of the community of the realm.

Robert the Bruce

After the demise of Wallace, it seemed as if Scotland had been finally conquered and beaten into submission by the English king. In May 1305, the Scottish Parliament had gone as far as to agree to appoint commissioners to negotiate Scotland’s absorption into the English state. But Edward never truly recognised the extent of Bruce’s determination to become king of Scotland, or the lengths he would go to in achieving that goal. In fact, despite the fact that he was governor of Carlisle and sheriff of Lanark in the service of Edward I, Bruce had been plotting since 1304 with the bishop of St Andrews, William Lamberton, to become the next king of an independent Scotland.

There were a number of obstacles in Bruce’s way, not the least of which was his rival in Scotland, John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch. At the time, Comyn, who was related to many of the most important noble families in Scotland and England, was the most powerful nobleman in Scotland. He also had vacillated less than Bruce had done in his relations with the English king.

On 10 February 1306, the two rivals met at Greyfriars Church, Dumfries, and they got into an argument over the issue of conspiring with the English. Bruce was convinced that Comyn had informed Edward I of Bruce’s plans. In the course of the argument, Bruce lost his temper and stabbed his rival in the neck in front of the altar. His

retainer

(a kind of family servant), Roger de Kirkpatrick, finished him off.

Murder before the altar was the highest form of sacrilege, and Bruce was later excommunicated by the pope, but on making his confession to Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, he received absolution. Five weeks later, Bruce was crowned king of Scotland at Scone on 25 March.

Bruce’s coronation was a rather strange, low-key affair. Because her brother was being held captive in an English prison, Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Buchan, was the only available representative of the family of the earls of Fife who had the immemorial right of seating the king on the stone of inauguration. So she was the one to crown Bruce. In attendance at the coronation were only Bruce’s four brothers, along with his wife, two abbots and the earls of Atholl and Menteith.

The reaction from Edward was brutal. A petition was sent to the pope for permission to raze Scone Abbey to the ground. Three of Bruce’s brothers were executed, along with the earl of Atholl; Bruce’s wife, Elizabeth, his sisters Mary and Christina, and the countess were imprisoned. Mary and Isabella were particularly harshly treated – they were kept in wooden cages exposed to the elements for four years! Bruce didn’t see his wife again for eight years. Plus, his estates were given to supporters of Edward I.

A spider’s tale

Things were getting worse for Bruce. Not only was he excommunicated for killing Comyn, but at the Battle of Methven, Perthshire, on 19 June, his army was defeated by the earl of Pembroke. Bruce and his army were forced to take to the hills of Kintail and Kintyre in the southern Highlands. He suffered another defeat at the hands of the MacDougall clan, who were closely tied to the Comyn family, at Dalrigh (the field of the king), and fled Scotland with his small band of supporters.

At his lowest point, holed up in a cave in Rathlin Island, off the coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, an outlaw and a fugitive, Bruce is said to have been inspired by a spider trying to spin a web across a gap in the roof. Despite repeated failures, the spider persisted and its struggle became a metaphor for Bruce’s struggle – if you don’t succeed, try and try again. However, the story – no matter how inspiring – was based entirely on fiction invented by Sir Walter Scott some five centuries later.