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David was lining up a third wife – his mistress, Agnes Dunbar, niece of Agnes Randolph, also known as ‘Black Agnes of Dunbar’, who had held Dunbar Castle in 1338 against the English. But David died unexpectedly at the age of 47 at Edinburgh Castle on 22 February 1371.
David II has had a mixed reception from historians: some see him as a weak and incapable ruler who betrayed the patriotic ideals of his father; others see him as visionary who foresaw the later union of the two countries in 1603 and did a lot to improve the economic position of the country and the monarchy. Although David nominally reigned for 42 years, he was actually only an active monarch for 19 of them. He also faced revolts from within and invasions from without and led a country that was exhausted and impoverished as a result. Maybe given the hand he had to play, he didn’t do too badly. After all, he died in his bed with no serious rivals to his throne. Not many Scottish kings can say that!
The Black Death
One of the reasons people didn’t look too fondly on the reign of David II was the outbreak of plague, known as the ‘Black Death’ (so called because of the black spots it left on victims’ skin). Scottish soldiers engaged in border warfare in 1349 praised God that many of their English opponents were being felled by a new and terrifying affliction. However, unwittingly, they became carriers of the deadly disease themselves.
There were two forms of the disease:
Bubonic plague,
which was deadlier in the summer when fleas are more evident.
Pneumonic plague,
which was deadlier in the winter and spread through coughing, sneezing and speaking.
Scotland’s colder and wetter climate favoured the pneumonic strain of the deadly disease. Within months of it arriving, Scots had begun falling victim to what they described as ‘the foul death of the English’; according to some estimates, a year later more than a quarter of the population was dead. One local example was St Andrews where two-thirds of the canons of the cathedral perished in 1349.
John of Fordun, in his
Chronicle,
described the impact and nature of the disease:
In 1350, there was a great pestilence and mortality of men in the kingdom of Scotland, and this pestilence also raged for many years before and after in various parts of the world. So great a plague has never been heard of from the begi
The strain died out after 1350, but it returned again in 1361, this time striking more at children. The Black Death forced Scots to reconsider their relationship with God. Perhaps they weren’t, as Robert the Bruce had suggested, God’s chosen people.
It wasn’t all bad. The death of so many people relieved pressure on food supplies and saw an increase in the standard of the Scottish peasantry. It’s an ill wind!