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THE
ENGLISH AGAIN INVADE SCOTLAND – DEFEAT OF BRUCE, AND DISPERSION OF THE
PATRIOTS – EXECUTION OF HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW, SIR CHRISTOPHER SETON, AT
DUMFRIES – HIS WIDOW ERECTS A CHAPEL ON THE SITE OF THE EXECUTION –
CHARTER OF SIR CHRISTOPHER’S CHAPEL – BRUCE RENEWS THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
– HIS TRIUMPHS IN CARRICK, AND SUBSEQUENT REVERSES – DEATH OF EDWARD I. –
CROWNING VICTORY OF THE SCOTS AT BANNOCKBURN – KING ROBERT REWARDS HIS
DUMFRIESSHIRE FRIENDS – SUFFERINGS OF THE COUNTY AND ITS CHIEF TOWN DURING
THE WARS OF THE SUCCESSION – BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE OF THE FOLLOWING FIFTEEN
YEARS OF PEACE – EDWARD BALIOL, PROMPTED BY EDWARD III. OF ENGLAND, CLAIMS
THE SCOTTISH THRONE, AND BECOMES ITS TEMPORARY OCCUPANT – A PATRIOT FORCE,
UNDER SIR ANDREW MURRAY, SURPRISES THE PUPPET KING AT ANNAN.
WHEN King
Edward heard of the revolution thus initiated at Dumfries, he was filled
with astonishment and rage. He was now “stricken in years,” and, instead
of enjoying the rest that he had anticipated, he must resume active
warfare against the people he had often beaten, but never thoroughly
subdued, or see the fruit of all his past efforts perish before his eyes.
Resolving at once on adopting the first of these alternatives, he held a
solemn chivalrous festival in Westminster Hall, at which the Prince of
Wales and three hundred squires of high degree received the honour of
knighthood, as if to fit them better for the coming enterprise: and at the
banquet that ensued, after two swans covered with golden net-work had been
placed upon the board, the King, standing with uplifted hand, vowed to God
and to the sacred birds that he would forthwith avenge the murder of
Comyn, and visit all the rebel Scots with condign punishment; and that, to
propitiate Heaven, he would afterwards spend his latest days following the
standard of the Cross in Palestine. [Lord Hailes, vol. ii., p. 4.] All who
heard the King approved of his decision; and the liberal contributions
from the clergy and the merchants supplied means for carrying on the new
campaign. Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, an experienced warrior, was
chosen by the King as the instrument of his meditated vengeance. He was
appointed Guardian of Scotland, and, at the head of an immense army, set
out upon his mission. Perth was his first prize; and Bruce, appearing
before that town with a comparatively small force, challenged De Valence
to come forth with his troops and meet him in the open field. On the
following day the English commander intimated his readiness to act upon
this cartel of defiance, which was given in accordance with the chivalrous
customs of the period; and Bruce, relying on his promise to that effect,
drew off his men to the woods of Methven, about six miles distant from
Perth. There, in the evening twilight [Chronicles of Abingdon, quoted by
Tyrrel, vol. iii., p. 172.], they were treacherously attacked by Pembroke
at the head of a more numerous force, and put to the rout: Bruce, who was
thrice unhorsed in the conflict, escaping with difficulty into the wilds
of Athol with the remnant of his army, not more than five hundred men.
[Barbour, pp. 35, 36.]
Driven
from thence by the want of provisions, they passed into the low country of
Aberdeenshire, where Bruce was joined by his Queen, and other ladies
resolved on sharing the adverse fortunes of their lords. There but
momentary rest awaited them. The band of fugitives who formed the
forlorn-hope of Scottish patriotism had to retire, menaced by a large body
of the enemy. We next find them on the bleak mountains of Breadalbane,
fishing and hunting for a subsistence, and at times cheating hunger with
such wild berries as the woods afforded: then on the borders of
Argyleshire, where the Red Comyn’s relative, M’Dougal of Lorn [M’Dougal
was married to Comyn’s aunt, Barbour, p. 40.], desirous of revenging his
kinsman, repulsed the party after a sanguinary conflict: then the small
island of Rachrin, on the Irish coast, gave welcome refuge in winter to
the unfortunate King of Scots and a few of his adherents – his Queen and
his daughter Marjory obtaining an asylum in the sanctuary of St. Duthac,
at Tain, and their female companions, shelter in the Castle of Kildrummie,
then held by the King’s brother, Nigel Bruce.
But no
fortress was strong enough, nor religious structure holy enough, to stand
between these illustrious refugees and the vindictive rage of the English
monarch: Kildrummie was stormed by his troops. The Earl of Ross, having
neither reverence for St. Duthac nor regard for his Queen, took her and
the Princess Marjory from the sanctuary, and placed them in the keeping of
Pembroke. A long course of close confinement in England was assigned to
the royal captives. The Countess of Buchan, who had placed Bruce upon the
coronation chair at Scone, was immured in a cage placed on an outer turret
of Berwick Castle; and one of Bruce’s sisters was similarly treated at the
Castle of Roxburgh. In this barbarous way were the Scottish heroines
treated who fell into the hands of the English; and it need scarcely be
added that the captive patriots of the sterner sex had no mercy shown to
them. Young Nigel Bruce, Sir Simon Fraser, the veteran companion of
Wallace, and the brave Earl of Athol, then in the prime of manhood, are
only a few of the distinguished victims of Edward’s cruelty who perished
on the scaffold at Berwick, Dumfries, Newcastle, and London. [Rymer, vol.
i., p. 996; and Prynne, p. 1156.]
It was
some time in the winter of 1306, more than a year after the slaughter of
Comyn, that some of the executions referred to took place in Dumfries. In
the interval, the Castle and other strengths in the vicinity won by the
Scots had been retaken by their enemies; and at the time when Bruce was
struggling for bare life in the north, fair Nithsdale lay once more
beneath “the proud foot of the conqueror.” We read of no tumult occurring
on that account in the town – of no attempt at rescue being made when
three illustrious patriots were led forth to their doom on the gallows
tree. The dread apparatus of death was erected on a high natural eminence,
situated beyond the walls, on the north-east of the Burgh, so that the
inhabitants might have an opportunity of seeing how the usurper rewarded
what his judges called rebellion, and of profiting by the spectacle. The
Dumfriesians of that day were unfortunately too much accustomed to such
sights; but they would be dreadfully shocked, nevertheless, by these
executions – one of the sufferers being none other than Sir Christopher
Seton, the brother-in-law of their King, a most valiant warrior, who at
the battle of Methven had rescued Bruce, by felling his captor, Sir Philip
de Mowbray, to the ground. He was accused of treason in general, and more
especially of having been present at the slaughter of Comyn. On being
sought for by the English, he took refuge in the strong Castle of
Loch-Doon, situated on the frontier between Galloway and Ayrshire, and
which belonged to Bruce, as Lord of Carrick. [Evidence in a remission
under the Great Seal. – Vide
Tytler’s History of Scotland,
vol. i., p. 42.] Loch-Doon is a beautiful sheet of clear water, about
eleven miles in length and one mile in breadth, possessing a gravelly
bottom and beach, bounded nearly half of its length on the east by the
parish of Carsphairn, and the remaining part on the west of the parishes
of Dalmellington and Straiton. About half-way betwixt the Galloway and
Carrick sides are the remains of an old castle, built in the octagonal
form, and situated upon a rock which is surrounded by the deep waters of
the lake. This ruin is the remnant of a strong fort which, from its
situation, must have been impregnable before the use of gunpowder. –
NICHOLSON’S History of Galloway,
Appendix, vol. i., p. 17.] Here he might have remained safe, had not Sir
Gilbert de Corrie, hereditary keeper of the fortress, given him up to his
enemies, by whom he was placed in fetters, hurried to Dumfries, and there
tried, condemned, and sentenced to be hanged and then beheaded. [Barbour,
p. 52.] Seton, with his two companions, suffered accordingly; and, no
doubt, in compliance with the usual custom, their severed heads would be
held up by the officiating executioner as a warning to the onlookers, who,
however, we suspect, would be more horror-stricken than terrified by the
spectacle, and would long eagerly for the day when the blood of the
martyred patriots, crying for vengeance, would not cry in vain. When the
period of retribution came round, and its demands were satisfied and peace
was restored, Sir Christopher Seton’s widow, Christian Bruce, erected a
chapel on the site of his execution, “in honorem cruces Dominici;” and in
which, by her brother’s liberality, provision was made for celebrating
mass for the soul of her departed husband.
The
charter endowing the chapel was granted by Bruce on the 31st of
November, 1323, when he was reigning as undisputed King of Scotland. It
sets forth – that Christopher de Seton, our beloved soldier, having been
put to death in our service, and our dear sister Christian, his spouse,
having, on the place where he suffered death, near Dumfries, founded a
certain chapel in honour of the Holy Rood, by it known unto her, that for
the favour and affection borne by us to the said Christopher, in his life,
we have given and confirmed to a chaplain, in the same chapel, to
celebrate mass for ever for the soul of the said Christopher, one hundred
shillings sterling (centum solidos striviling) of annual value; the same
to be payable by the hands of our Sheriff of Dumfries and his bailies from
the rents of the barony of Carlaverock, at Whitsunday and Martinmas, in
equal proportions. Wherefore we command our said Sheriff and his bailies
to pay in full, and for ever, one hundred shillings out of the said annual
rents for the aforesaid purpose, and to enter the same in their accounts
with us and our heirs. [A copy of the original document, of which the
outline is given above, is printed in the Appendix F.]
Sir
Christopher’s Chapel, originated under such mournfully interesting
circumstances, is said to have been a beautiful little Gothic building of
oblong shape, cornered by pointed buttresses, and having a richly
decorated oriel window. It was further endowed with a small portion of the
surrounding land, in order that the object of its erection might be fully
carried into effect.
As
Comyn’s kinsmen had, more out of hatred to Bruce than from any other
motive, given material assistance in crushing the patriotic movement, they
rose into high favour with King Edward; and, in reward for their services,
they received from him a portion of the royal fugitive’s forfeited estates
– the Earl of Hereford obtaining the lordship of Annandale, and Henry
Percy the earldom of Carrick. The English and recreant Scots, to whom the
conquered country was parceled out, held but a feeble and temporary tenure
of it. Bruce, though an exile, and without an army, still hoped for better
times, and waited for a favourable opportunity to reassert his country’s
rights. While under shelter at Rachrin, he lived so obscurely that a
rumour of his death was current. When it reached Edward, who was suffering
from ill-health at Carlisle, the news would have a reviving effect upon
the inexorable monarch; and he might then flatter himself into the belief,
that though he had not turned Scotland into a wilderness, he had done what
was better – had completely subdued it, since, if there were any “rebels”
left in the country, they had now neither head nor hope.
The
winter of 1306 was indeed a cheerless season for Scotland. One dark night
in the following February, a beacon-fire was seen blazing from a height
near the Castle of Turnberry, in Carrick: it was viewed with apprehension
by the English garrison of the fortress, and with joyful solicitude by the
illustrious fugitive now in the Isle of Arran, to whom it was a signal
that he might venture across, and renew the war of independence on his own
ancestral territory. He had only about one hundred and eighty followers,
including, however, his brother Edward, Douglas, Lennox, Lindsay,
Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, and a few other trusty barons.
“With such small force did Bruce at
last
The die for death or empire cast.”
[Scott’s Lord of the Isles.]
Crossing
over the intermediate sea in boats, they made a sudden onslaught on the
English soldiers quartered in the hamlet of Turnberry, and, after putting
most of them to the sword, retired with rich booty to the neighbouring
mountains, in order to recruit their strength. Percy found his position in
Turnberry Castle so critical that he soon afterwards evacuated it: Douglas
recovered from the enemy his hereditary barony of Douglasdale, in the
neighbourhood: and Bruce defeated the forces of Pembroke at Loudon-hill.
Thus Carrick was freed from the English: the die cast by Bruce turned up
favourably; the beacon-light which led him to the coast of Ayrshire
proving the harbinger of Scotland’s deliverance. Two months afterwards, an
event occurred which inflicted a greater blow on the Anglican usurpation
than a series of defeats in the field. When King Edward heard that the
audacious chief, who was said to have died in exile, had reappeared as a
successful leader of the rebellious Scots, he resolved, though emaciated
by disease and premature old age, to lead, personally, an overwhelming
army against him. A great military host having at his summons mustered in
Carlisle, he left the litter on which he had for previous days been
carried, mounted his war-steed, reviewed his troops, and, as the trump of
battle sounded in his ear, visions of fame and conquest – of the rebel
Scots trodden under foot, crushed, exterminated – came up before his
heated fancy. These were the convulsive efforts, the feverish dreams of a
dying man. A weary march of six miles with his army brought him to the
village of Burgh-upon-Sands; and there, in sight of the land across the
Solway which he had deluged with blood, and vainly devoted to a new host
of horrors, the unhappy King expired – his disappointments and hopes alike
at an end – no more wars after this closing struggle – no more victories,
now that all-conquering Death was turning him into dust.
But not
into dust in the ordinary vulgar fashion. His last request to his son and
barons was, that his body should not be buried, but boiled in a cauldron
till the flesh fell from the bones; and that the skeleton should be borne
with them into Scotland, and kept above ground till the country was wholly
subdued. A more striking illustration of the King’s implacable temper
could not have been given. His ruling passion was not only “strong in
death,” but he wished to make it overleap the grave. Edward II. soon found
out that the hideous legacy of his father’s relics was likely to be
troublesome, and associated with a difficult, if not an impracticable
condition; and before the conquest of the Scots had been a step advanced,
all that remained of their relentless enemy was mingling with kindred dust
in the royal sepulchre at Westminster.
When
Edward I. expired, Bruce and Scotland began to breathe more freely. His
death was like the removal of an incubus from the breast of the prostrate
nation – or rather of a vampire that had for twenty years been draining
its heart’s blood.
The new
King of England was vain, weak, and vacillating. He made a sort of royal
progress through Nithsdale, marching to Cumnock, then returning to
Carlisle, without doing anything towards the accomplishment of his
father’s darling wish. When at Dumfries, in August, 1307, he granted the
earldom of Cornwall to his favourite, Piers de Gaveston, as is shown by
the address of the patent. At Tynwald, on the 30th of the same
month, he issued a new commission to Aymer de Valence, whereby all the
King’s bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, knights, bailies, and
faithful subjects were informed that his dear cousin, the noble Earl of
Pembroke, had been appointed Viceroy, “nostrum locum tenens,” of Scotland
during the royal pleasure, and been authorized to extend mercy to all
rebel Scots who offered to submit, excepting those who had been concerned
in the death of “Johan Comyn,” or were “counsellors or assenters in
occasioning the late daring war.” [Rymer’s Fœdera, vol. ii.] Quite in
accordance with the monarch’s character, we find him, on the 13th
of September next, superseding Pembroke by John de Bretagne, Earl of
Richmond.
The
capricious weakness of the young King made Bruce stronger by comparison:
it alienated from the former many of his own subjects, and rendered the
war distasteful to them; and not a few Scottish barons, who had been
overawed by the mental as well as military power of the father, were led
to despise the son, and throw off his feeble yoke. At this period the
Castle of Dumfries was held by the English, Bruce having long before been
forced to give it up; and, for about the eighth time since the date of the
first invasion, the town and neighbouring territory changed masters. But
the period for their ultimate deliverance was drawing near. Since the
victory at Loudon-hill, in May, 1307, Bruce’s career was, in spite of a
few temporary checks, “upwards and onwards.” A great step was made towards
the liberation of the south by a victorious raid made by his brother
Edward into Galloway, which province was subject to the English, not in
virtue of any conquest, but because its chiefs gave a qualified submission
to the usurping King, owing in a great degree to their hatred of Bruce.
Twice the
gallant Prince defeated the Gallovidians, with their English ally St.
John. He then stormed, with characteristic impetuosity, the Castle of
Buittle, seized several other fortlets, expelled their garrisons, native
or foreign, and did not sheathe his successful sword till the whole of
Galloway had submitted to his brother, Robert I. The province thus annexed
to the Crown was given in feu to its conqueror; and in this way another
heavy blow was inflicted on the Baliols and Comyns, who owned extensive
estates in Galloway. [Fordun, p. 1005; Dalrymple’s Annals, p. 25.]
Seven
years after the first time when King Robert opened up a passage by fire
into the Castle of Dumfries (on the fateful 10th of February,
1305), the ring of his battle-axe on its gates again demanded admission,
in language which the Southern garrison, under Henry de Bello Monte (Lord
Beaumont), [Henri de Bello Monte, Constabul Castri sui de Dumfres, vel
ejus locum tenenti ibidem saltim. –
Rotuli Scotiœ, 1311.]
could neither misunderstand nor refuse. [Fordun, vol. iv., p. 1606.] In
reply to a similar summons, the fortress of Dalswinton also surrendered;
and in due time the Castles of Lochmaben and Tibbers were wrested from the
enemy. [Dalrymple’s Annals, p. 36; Redpath’s Border History, p. 240.]
Carlaverock, till the following year, 1313, held out against the patriot
King; and, curious to relate, its Lord, Sir Eustace de Maxwell, seems to
have been subsidized by Edward II., as existing records show that, on the
30th of April, 1312, the English sovereign agreed to grant him
£22 yearly for keeping the stronghold. [Dalrymple, p. 96.] Sir Eustace,
however, saw reason to repent of the bargain that had been made; and the
grant, if paid once, was not paid a second time. In about a year after the
above date, he gave up the castle to his rightful King; and with its
tenure the last remaining tie that bound Nithsdale to the tyrannical
invaders was broken. The district became free. Annandale also received
full deliverance; and on the 24th of June, 1314, the rest of
Scotland was liberated, and the independence of the kingdom was
triumphantly secured, by the glorious victory of Bannockburn.
After a
brief rest from the protracted toils of war, the King proceeded to
regulate the internal affairs of the country. In doing so, he proved as
wise in the cabinet as he was heroic in the field. So many forfeitures had
taken place during the struggle with England, that he found himself in the
position of one who has conquered a foreign territory, and is free to
recognize the bravery of his followers by dividing it amongst them. With
the extensive lands that had reverted to the Crown, Bruce had the means of
amply rewarding the chiefs who had been true to him and their country
during the contest.
In
Dumfriesshire nearly a total change was made in the ownership of property.
The Comyns were thoroughly dispossessed. Dalswinton Castle and Manor were
given to Walter Stewart, third son of Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, who
fell at the battle of Falkirk. The estate of Duncow was assigned to Sir
Robert Boyd, ancestor of the Earls of Kilmarnock. Douglasdale was restored
to Sir James Douglas; and there were added to his domains almost the whole
of Eskdale and other parts of Dumfriesshire. The King’s hereditary
lordship of Annandale, with the Royal Castle of Lochmaben, was conferred
upon Sir Thomas Randolph, in addition to the barony of Morton, inherited
by him as the lineal descendant of Dunegal, Lord of Stranith. [Caledonia,
vol. iii., p. 64.] Several minor changes were made: a charter, dated in
the sixteenth year of the King’s reign, conferred the lands of Kilnorduff,
Torthorwald, and Roucan on Humphrey Kirkpatrick; another of the same date
gave the estate of Penersax to Stephen Kirkpatrick; and by one dated
Lochmaben, 4th June, 1320, Thomas, the son of Sir Roger,
received the manor of Bridburgh, in recognition of his own and his
father’s services. Wherever, in other cases, there was fidelity to
acknowledge, or little fault to find, the old families regained their
former position. Even Sir Eustace Maxwell, though he had long remained in
the interest of England, was liberally dealt with. He had, as we have
seen, joined the patriots some time before their closing victory; and
Bruce, taking this circumstance into account, and over looking his former
unfaithfulness, gave him back his lands and Castle of Carlaverock.
From the
date of Bannockburn till that of the King’s death, a period of fifteen
years, the nation enjoyed almost unbroken repose, and a prosperity that
reminded the old inhabitants of the golden days of Alexander III. To no
part of the country was this season of peace more acceptable than to
Dumfriesshire. Some counties in Scotland suffered comparatively little
from the English usurpation, on account of being remote from the enemy’s
usual route of march; but the districts watered by the Esk, the Annan, and
the Nith, from their frontier position, became the highway of the invading
armies, and a debatable territory, on which, for fully twenty years, the
destructive controversy of the sword went on with little intermission. No
industrial employment could be attended to. The fields were left untilled
– few herds or flocks, and little produce of the soil, would be left after
the Southern hordes had repeatedly harried the country; and how the
inhabitants managed to ward off the attacks of famine, remains to us a
mystery. The produce of the woods and rivers would be their chief
dependence; and the license which war gives to plunder would be used by
many in the absence of more legitimate means for procuring a livelihood.
As episodes in the war, there would be numerous freebooting forays into
Cumberland, leading to retaliatory expeditions, all combining, with the
war itself, to reduce society on both sides of the Border into a chaotic
state. It was part of the invaders’ atrocious policy to terrify the people
by burning or otherwise destroying such goods as they could not carry off
with them; and they sometimes, by this locust-like mode of procedure,
overreached themselves.
When the
predatory forces of the English were at times reduced to a state of
privation, the people whom they ravaged must have suffered still more
severely. Municipal government in Dumfries would, in these fighting days,
dwindle down to a dead letter; the town would be ruled by martial law,
administered now by St. John after the English fashion – then by Wallace,
Bruce, or other Scottish baron, in a milder form – then once more by the
rough-handed invaders: so that the Provost and his colleagues of the
Council, if such officials were chosen at all, in the terms of King
William’s charters, would have little say in the management of town
affairs. Dumfries, in fact, would be turned into a camp: her craftsmen,
during two-thirds of a generation, would be unable, except by fits and
starts, as it were, to pursue the occupations which flourished in the
“piping times of peace – her merchants would have to close their premises
for want of customers, or to keep out those unwelcome ones who took goods
on trust, never intending to pay for them. Of all the industrial orders,
the smiths alone – whose proud boast it was, that
“By hammer in hand
All arts do stand” –
Would
drive a prosperous trade; the other fretting in idleness, or doing
military service – many of them for, and some of them against, the
interests of their country.
In the
course of the auspicious reign which proceeded these times of trouble,
Dumfries was a growing town, increasing in size, population, and opulence.
But the English usurpation checked its progress. With many houses reduced
to ruin – with lines of streets partially burned down – with its Castle
half dismantled, its Monastery deserted, and its external defences sadly
perforated – it must, at the close of war, have looked like the ghost of
the town which the good King Alexander is said to have viewed with
admiration when directing from it his enterprise against the Isle of Man.
As sleep “knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,” so peace filled up the
mural breaches of the town, and rebuilt its shattered tenements; and if
ever Robert Bruce, after reigning in glory for a few years, had the
curiosity to visit his native district, and the place where the first blow
for freedom was struck, he would rejoice in the verdant aspect of the
country, no longer dyed with blood and desolated by strife, and in the
revived prosperity of the town when free from the presence of
“grim-visaged war.” Happy were these fifteen years of repose for Scotland
at large! Scarcely, however, had the ashes of the illustrious Bruce turned
cold, when the wasting fires of war were once more lighted up anew.
An
English king (Edward III.) was the promoter of this fresh conflagration.
His instruments, Edward Baliol, son of the competitor, and the Lords
Beaumont and De Wake, whom Bruce had deprived of their lands in Scotland,
on the plea that, as English subjects, they were likely to prove disloyal
to his authority, and who sought to regain what they had lost by the
sword. Lord John de Wake claimed as his rightful inheritance that piece of
territory in the south-east of Dumfriesshire, which soon afterwards became
famous as “The Debatable Land.” That it originally formed part of Scotland
is unquestionable; [In a treaty between the kingdoms, of date 1249, it was
stipulated, that when an inhabitant of the one charged an inhabitant of
the other with the theft of cattle, the person accused was either to
vindicate his character by single combat with his accuser, or bring the
stolen animals to the frontier streams of Tweed or Esk, and drive them
into the waters – a clear proof that England at that time had no claim to
the Debatable Land.]; and, indeed, a large portion of Cumberland was, for
several centuries prior to the reign of Alexander II., attached to that
kingdom, except for a short period, when William the Conqueror took it
from the Scots and divided it among his Norman followers, granting the
barony of Lydall or Liddel to a knight named De Eastonville, from whom it
descended by marriage to the De Wakes. This barony comprised the lands of
Esk, Arthuret, Stubhill, Carwindlow, Speireike, Randolph, Livington,
Easton, North Easton, and Breconhill, all on the eastern or Cumberland
side of the River Esk; and though some modern historians have assumed that
Kirkandrews was also included, we find no statement to that effect in
Danton, on whose authority they profess to rely. By the treaty of
Northampton, signed by the English and Scottish Commissioners on the 4th
of May, 1328, it was stipulated that De Beaumont should receive the lands
and earldom of Buchan, claimed by him in right of his wife; and that De
Wake should be re-established in his barony of Liddel. The Scottish
Regent, Randolph, however, shrunk from giving effect to the agreement
[Rymer’s Fœdera, vol. iv., p. 461.]: nor is it surprising that he
hesitated since both of these barons were avowedly opposed to the
independence of the kingdom – had leagued themselves against it with
Baliol; and if Buchan fell into the hands of one English lord, it would
afford an easy landing-place for an invading enemy; while if another were
allowed to settle down on the Scottish side of the Esk, the western
frontier would be deprived of its chief natural defence.
Strange
to say, though the triumvirate who conducted this enterprise had only a
very small force, amounting at first to barely five hundred men, they
succeeded in temporarily over-turning the fabric of Scottish independence,
which had been built up at such a lavish outlay of blood and treasure.
Landing at Kinghorn, on the Frith of Forth, they defeated the Earl of
Fife, who vainly endeavoured to drive them back to their ships, or into
the sea. They then, after being strongly reinforced, routed a much larger
body, under the Earl of Mar, on Dupplin Moor; and, as a consequence of
these and other triumphs, the pretender Baliol was crowned Deputy-King of
Scotland, at Scone, on the 24th of September, 1332. The reader
may well wonder at this result, brought about by such seemingly slender
means, and that, too, in the short space of three weeks. It would have
been impossible, if the invaders had not been greatly strengthened by the
native Baliol party, still numerous in Scotland – or if their opponents
had been favoured with
“One hour of Wallace
wight,
Or well-skilled Bruce, to rule and
fight” –
or had
Douglas not fallen a year before, in an encounter with the Saracens, when
bearing his royal master’s heart to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem – or
had Randolph, Regent of the kingdom during the minority of Bruce’s
successor, been still alive.
After a
brief inglorious pause, men actuated by the spirit of these heroes
appeared upon the scene to give a new current to public events; and once
more the tide of battle, surging in Dumfriesshire, turned again in favour
of freedom. Baliol, at his coronation, came under an obligation to rule
the country in the name of his patron and liege lord, Edward III.; and
when passing southward, for the purpose of extending his influence, he, at
Roxburgh, solemnly ratified this engagement. He knew that he had no chance
of retaining the crown many months, except by support from England; and
that having been assured to him, as the price of his country’s
independence, his mind was set at ease, and, when lying encamped on the
Burgh Moor, at Annan, lapped in fancied security, he indulged in lofty
aspirations, unconscious that an agency was at work that would cause them
to topple over like a castle of cards. Sir Andrew Murray, of Bothwell [The
Regent, like the Murrays of Cockpool and of Murraythwaite, was descended
from Freskin, a Flemish gentleman who settled in Linlithgowshire during
the twelfth century. (See p. 34.)], who married Christopher Seton’s widow,
and was therefore the brother-in-law of King Robert, having been chosen
Regent by the supporters of the Brucian family, proved worthy of his
position at this crisis of the national cause.
A
thousand horsemen under Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway, third brother
of Sir James Douglas, John Randolph, Earl of Moray, son of the deceased
Regent, and Simon Frazer, the tried friend of Bruce, were sent by Murray
into Annandale, in order to watch the movements of Baliol. On arriving in
the neighbourhood of Moffat, they were apprised by scouts that the puppet
King had turned his camp into a court, and that military discipline had
given way to revelry and mirth. This was welcome news to the patriots.
That very afternoon, the 16th of December, they were hurrying
down the dale as fast as their fleet steeds could bear them; and, as they
drew near Annan, were guided to their destination by the glimmering
lights, and also, by the bacchanalian sounds that emanated from the
encampment. Stealthily crossing “Annan Water, wide and deep,” they fell
upon the enemy about midnight with the force of an avalanche. King Baliol
was in bed, literally dreaming over again, it may be, the visions that had
delighted him in his waking hours. Shouts of defiance, screams of terror,
shrieks of agony, mad cries for mercy – could these sounds be the
discordant medley of a hideous dream, following in horrible contrast upon
the pleasant fancies that had preceded them? The royal sleeper awoke to
find his camp assailed by a merciless foe, and his followers, who had on
the previous day vowed to him everlasting fidelity, making but a feeble
resistance – able, indeed, to offer scarcely any, as they were only half
awake, and many of them naked, with neither sword nor buckler. Short and
fearful was the fight; long and more terrible was the slaughter. With
scarcely the rag of a royal robe to cover him from the cold, the miserable
mimic of a king threw himself upon a cart horse, unfurnished with either
saddle or bridle, and in this fashion galloped for bare life fifteen
miles, stopping not till he reached Carlisle. [Wyntoun, vol. ii., p. 159;
Hume’s House of Douglas, p. 80; and Redpath’s Border History, p. 302.] His
brother Henry, Lord Walter Comyn, and many other persons of rank, were
slain in the fray or during the fight, with many hundreds of common
soldiers, the assailants losing very few of their number. [About a mile
from Moffat, on the side of the Beattock Road, may be seen an antique
triple memorial, termed “The Three Stan’in’ Stanes,” which some
authorities consider were raised on the site of this battle, to
commemorate the officers slain there on the English side. Such an idea is
quite untenable. While Buchanan states that the patriot army rendezvoused
“prope Mophetam,” near Moffat, he does not say that the conflict took
place in the vicinity of that village; and the Chronicle of Lanercost
distinctly fixes the locality thus – “Usque ad villam Annandiæ, que est in
marchia inter regna,” the town of Annan, which is on the march between the
kingdoms. Besides, it is assumed in the idea that the nobles who fell were
buried on the field, whereas Baliol obtained the bodies, and would
doubtless cause them to be interred in consecrated ground. “The Three
Stan’in’ Stanes” are probably of Druidical origin.] |
