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PEACE WITH
ENGLAND – RISE OF THE ANGUS BRANCH OF THE DOUGLASSES – THE BARONS TAKE UP
ARMS AGAINST JAMES III. – BATTLE OF SAUCHIEBURN, AND THE PART TAKEN IN IT
BY THE DUMFRIESSHIRE BORDERERS – MURDER OF THE KING – HIS SUCCESSOR, JAMES
IV., HOLDS A CRIMINAL COURT AT DUMFRIES – HIS TRAIN OF MINSTRELS – HIS
GAY, PLEASURE-LOVING CHARACTER – INSTANCES OF HIS JUDICIAL RIGOUR AGAINST
THIEVES, OUTLAWS, AND REBELS – HIS PILGRIMAGE TO THE LADY CHAPEL AT
DUMFRIES – DEADLY FEUD BETWEEN LORD MAXWELL AND LORD SANQUHAR – DEFEAT OF
THE SCOTS, AND SLAUGHTER OF THE KING, AT FLODDEN – THE COUNTY DEVASTED BY
LORD DACRE.
SCARCELY
had the reign of James III. commenced, than Warwick (known in England as
“the king maker”) is said to have come to Dumfries, and obtained an
interview there, in 1462, with Mary of Gueldres, for the purpose of
soliciting her consent to a marriage with his royal master, Edward IV. So
it is stated by Wyrcestre, a contemporary annalist. The match, if ever
projected, did not take place; and the very next year Warwick appeared in
the County, not as a peaceful matrimonial agent, but as a destructive
soldier – the venerable town of Lochmaben suffering especially from his
visit. Hostilities were not long continued; and on the 1st of
June, 1464, they were followed by a truce, the terms of which were
arranged by Warwick and the Scottish Commissioners, at Lochmaben Stane,
which frequently figured in these times as a place of rendezvous and
treaty. [Lochmaben Stane stands on the farm of Old Gretna, in the parish
of Gretna. It measures eight feet in height, and twenty-one in
circumference. It was formerly neighboured by a number of smaller stones,
enclosing, in oval form, half an acre of ground – the remains, probably,
of a Druidical temple. The Stane, which still remains, is specifically
referred to in many old charters and other deeds, and doubtless derived
its name from the circumstance that it was situated within the barony of
Lochmaben. The following are extracts from Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials,
vol. i., part i., p. 398: - “May 12, 1557.- Roger Kirkpatrick of
Closeburn, William Kirkpatrick of Kirkmichaell, and Thomas Kirkpatrick of
Freirkerse, got remission from the Queen for abiding from the army
ordained to convene at Lochmaben Stane on February 16 last, to meet the
Warden before sunrise, to push forwardt with him to the day of trew, for
meeting of the Wardone of England.” “May 14. – Alexander Stewart of
Garleise, John Dunbar of Mochrame, John Gordoune of Barskeoche, John
M’Culloch of Torhouse, John Jardine of Apilgerth, Robert Moffet (senior
and junior) of Grantoune, Thomas Moffet of Knok, Robert Johnnestoune of
Coittis, and John Creychtoune, tutour of Sauchare, found caution to
underly the law at the next aire of Dumfreis, for abiding from the Queen’s
army ordained to convene at Lochmaben Stane.”]
The Angus
branch of the Douglasses now began to flourish. When the turbulent nobles
of the kingdom rebelled against their weak sovereign, Archibald, fifth
Earl of Angus, agreed, in the words of the well-known parable of the rats
and mice, propounded by his confederate, Lord Grey, to “bell the cat;”
that is, seize the King’s powerful favourite, Cochrane, who, from being an
architect, had been created Earl of Mar. How the cat’s prototype was
entrapped and hanged, and the King himself was for a while imprisoned by
the rebel chiefs, we need not describe in detail. Other six years filled
up the measure of the King’s reign, which “reason, malice domestic,
foreign levy” continued to embitter. When the final crisis came, and the
barons, in open rebellion against their sovereign, gave him battle at
Sauchieburn, Liddisdale, Annandale, and Galloway furnished a large
proportion of their force; and when the royal army broke up, utterly
undone, its defeat was chiefly due to the long spears from the Western
Border. Thrown from his horse as he galloped off the field, the monarch,
maimed and bleeding, was borne into a neighbouring cottage. On being asked
his name by its female tenant, he answered, incautiously, “I was your king
this morning;” adding, “ let me have a priest to shrive the suffering
King.” The woman went out, calling wildly for a priest to shrive the
suffering King. “I am a priest; lead me to him,” said a straggler who
presented himself. Whether he was so or not has never been properly
determined. According to Buchanan, the stranger was actually a priest
named Borthwick, who had joined the rebel army; and certainly not one of
the vengeful barons arrayed against the sovereign could have acted towards
him with more felonious hate. The ruffian, on finding that the illustrious
sufferer’s bruises were not likely to prove fatal, exclaimed, in reply to
his request for absolution, “This shall presently absolve thee!” and
plunged a poniard repeatedly into the King’s heart.
The
dreadful dagger scene in which the royal victim’s father was the actor,
and William, Earl of Douglas, the sufferer, twenty-six years before, in
the same neighbourhood, rises up to memory as we read, horror-stricken, of
this parallel atrocity. The murderer of King James III. never came forward
to ask from the rebellious lords a reward for his black deed: he slunk
away into the congenial shadows, as if overcome by remorse – his identity
and motive remaining an unravelled mystery.
It must
not be supposed, because many Annandale and Liddisdale men fought against
the King at the battle of Sauchie, that the County generally sympathized
with the rebels. John, fourth Lord Maxwell, who was rapidly becoming the
leading nobleman in Nithsdale, supported his sovereign on that fatal
field; yet, after the death of James, he managed to make good terms with
the victorious barons, in virtue of which he was appointed to rule
Dumfriesshire jointly with the Earl of Angus, till the young King, James
IV., now aged fifteen years and seven months, should reach his majority in
1494. This arrangement was made by act of Parliament. It was a tribute to
the rising influence of Lord Maxwell; and, as further proof of
consideration shown to him by the Government, we learn from the royal
treasurer’s accounts, that being in arrear, as Steward of Annandale, the
sum of £3745, he obtained, in 1508, a full discharge from the King on
paying £1000.
As James
increased in years, he exhibited a rare combination of energy and
prudence, that, together with his captivating manners, enabled him to
control in some degree, without irritating, the powerful and jealous
nobles who had placed him upon the throne. Scotland began to feel that the
septre was swayed by a real, not a nominal, king; and as, by his marriage,
in 1503, with Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. of England, the country was
blessed with peace for a series of years, it enjoyed a measure of
prosperity to which it had long been a stranger. In the year after this
seemingly happy nuptial alliance, the young sovereign paid a visit to
Dumfries, for the purpose of holding an ayre, or criminal court, in
accordance with an act passed by his first Parliament, which bore this
striking preamble: “It is avisit and concludit, anent the furthputting of
justice, throw all the Realme, that our Soverane Lord sal ride in proper
persoune about to all his aieris.” [Acta Parl., cap. ix., p. 1488.] Though
the King came on a grave mission, it was not in the nature of the man to
be morose or stern, even at such a period. In his train were harpers and
pipers, as well as dempsters and executioners; and music, feasting, and
revelry ruled the hours which the serious duties of the court left free.
During his stay, the old Burgh would luxuriate in the radiant atmosphere
of the royal presence – dreading neither Border banditti nor Southern
marauders, so long as it remained. If ever “the divinity that doth hedge a
king” is enhanced by mental grace and manly beauty, it must have been so
in the case of our Fourth James, the most lovable, and, spite of his
faults, the best, of all the Stewart line.
“The monarch’s form was
middle size;
For feat of strength or
exercise,
Shaped in
proportion fair;
And hazel was his eagle
eye,
And auburn of the darkest
dye
His short
curled beard and hair.
Light was his footstep in
the dance,
And firm his
stirrup in the lists;
And, oh! he had that
merry glance
That seldom
lady’s heart resists.”
[Scott’s Marmion.]
It was in
early autumn that King James arrived. On the 13th of August
there was paid from the royal purse, “xiij. s. [13s.] to the pyparis of
Dumfrise;” his Majesty employing “local talent” in the musical line, as
well as his own staff of minstrels. After remaining in the town a day or
two, making arrangements for the assize, he passed on a justiciary tour to
the Western Border, taking with him an armed escort, and his customary
retinue of bards, singers, and bagpipers, including a reverend personage
who figures in the books of the treasury as “the cruikit Vicar of
Dumfreis,” who received a largesse of ”xiiij. s.” (14s.) for singing to
the King in Lochmaben town. James’s passion for music and sport is
illustrated by other entries in these accounts; and they also show that he
and his father-in-law stood at that time on the best of terms. The Prior
of Carlisle sent a butt of Malvoisie to the Scottish monarch, the two men
who carried the welcome present getting a gratuity of “lvj. s.;” “twa
wiffis brocht aill to the King fra Sir Johne Musgrave,” for which they
were duly rewarded; and the same English knight sent his own huntsmen to
beat cover and blow the horn when James indulged in the pleasures of the
chase. On the 23rd of August the King played at cards in
Bruce’s burgh; and who should be his opponent but Lord Dacre, the doughty
English Warden – both well content to enjoy for once a bloodless, friendly
contest. James seems to have been worsted in the game, as there is charged
against him, in connection with it, the sum of “xlvj. s. viij. d.” (46s.
8d.) Happy would it have been for Scotland and himself had he never played
with English warrior in a less peaceful arena for a heavier stake. That
his Majesty did not spend all his time on trifles when in Annandale and
Eskdale, is sufficiently shown by such dread entries as the following: -
“Aug. 17. – To the men hangit the thevis at Hullirbuss, xiij. s. [13s.];
for ain raip to hang thaim in, viij. d. [8d.] Aug. 21. – To the man that
hangit the theves in Canonby, be the Kingis command, xiij. s.” (13s.)
On the 24th
of the same month, James returned, “furth of Eskdale,” to the County town,
remaining there twenty-three days, during the continuance of the court. He
lodged with the Cunningham family; and the likelihood is, we think, that
he occupied a spacious chamber belonging to them, of which we get an
inkling afterwards, under the designation of the Painted Hall. The court,
sitting in the Castle, presided over by “Andrea Domino Gray” as justiciar,
and, doubtless, often graced by the presence of the King, disposed of the
following, among other cases, from the town or district: - “Robert
Grersoune, in Dumfreis, produced a remission for art and part of the cruel
slaughter of Sir John M’Brair, chaplain in the town of Dumfreis.” Under
what circumstances M’Briar, who belonged to a family of distinction, was
put to death, is not stated, nor is the result of the trial recorded.
“Gilbert Thomesone, convicted of the theftuous taking of merchandise from
the merchants of Dumfreis, at the time of the Burning thereof: Item, for
art and part of the theftuous taking and concealing xlv. sheep furth of
Schellop: Item, of common Theft and common Reset of Theft – Hanged.”
Whether the burning here referred to, of which Thomesone took advantage,
was accidental or the work of incendiaries, does not appear. “Adam Baty
[or Beattie], convicted of art and part with the King’s rebels in Eskdale
– Hanged.” “James Monse [This name appears to be the same with that now
know as Mounsey. It is a singular coincidence that Dr. Mounsey, who sprang
from the lowest origin in the vicinity of Lochmaben, lived to become the
proprietor of the estate of Rammerscales, &c., here described. –
Note in KINCAID’S
Criminal Trials, vol.
i., part i., p. 40.], near Lochmabane, came in the King’s will for
destroying the woods of Lochmabane, Bukrig, Heichrig, Rammerskalls, and
Rowekellpark. Gavin Murray, brother of the Laird of Cockpule, became
surety to the King.” “John Pattersoun, in Tasseholme, convicted of fishing
salmon in the water of Annand during the prohibited time, was amerciated
in v. l.” (£5). “William Jarding, called the Braid-suerd to the King;
Robert Dunwedy, son of the Laird of Dunwedy; and Gavin Johnstoune, were
admitted to our sovereign lord the King’s composition, for art and part of
the stouthrief of four horses, price xl. l. [£40], two candlesticks, one
goblet, with sundry other goods, worth xx. l., from Bartholomew
Glendumvyne, in company with the Laird of Johnstoune and his accomplices.
– Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburne, knight, became surety for the said
Robert, and Adam Johnestoune of that Ilk became surety for the said Gavin,
to satisfy parties.” Other minutes disclose two bloody deeds, such as were
of no rare occurrence in those days of violence – the murder of the Laird
of Dunwedy, or Dinwoodie, and of the Laird of Mouswald, by neighbours of
their own rank. The Dinwoodies, who had been for a long time previously
settled on lands called after them in Applegarth, were at feud with the
Jardines, the chief proprietors of that parish. Some time in 1503 a band
of armed men made sudden entrance into Dinwoodie Tower, slew Thomas, the
chief of the clan, and then disappeared. The mysterious outrage was,
naturally enough, attributed to the Jardines, but was never fairly traced
home to them. John Jardine, in Sibbald-besyde, and Robert Brig, residing
with Alexander Jardine of Applegarth, were specially charged with the
crime. As, however, they presented “a remission from the King,” when
brought before Lord Grey, at Dumfries, they were set at liberty – their
chief engaging to reproduce them, if called upon. [“Only nine years
afterwards,” says Anderson, in his Manuscript History, Advocates’ Library,
“the Laird Dinwiddie was slayne in Edinburgh by two persons, who eschaped,
by taking the Sanctuarie of Holyroodhouse.” Sir James Balfour (Annales,
vol. i., p. 235) says that this second act of assassination was committed
by the Jardines.] Justice seems to have been also baffled in the other
murder case. Thomas Bell, of Curre, or Currie, and Stephen Johnstoune,
arraigned for the crime, kept out of the way; as also did their sureties,
the Laird of Castlemilk, and William Purdum, portioner in Middlebie; and
all that the judge could do in the matter was to “denounce” the accused,
at the horn, as rebels, and “amerciate” their sureties. During the
sittings of the court the judge was paid forty shillings per day – in all,
forty-six pounds. It broke up about the middle of September. On the 13th
of that month, James cleared off scores with his landlady, as recorded in
the following quaint note of payment: - “To William Cunnynghame’s wif in
Drumfreise, for the Kingis bele chere [belly cheer], x. li.” (£10). A few
days before, his Majesty gave a dole to the Minorite Brethren in the
Vennel, which is thus entered: - “Sep. 8. – To the Freris of Drumfreis,
xiiij. s.” (£14s.) The King’s sojourn, so curiously made up of work and
play, being now over, he bade farewell to his loyal burgesses of Dumfries,
all sorry, we doubt not, that such a sunny episode in the annals had come
so soon to an end. [For the proceedings at this justice ayre, and the
extracts from the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer in the reign of
James IV., we are indebted to the first volume of that most valuable work
to the historian, Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials. Subjoined are a few more
entries: - “Aug. 2. – For twa hidis to be jakkis to Thomas Boswell and
Watte Trumbull, minstrals, agane the raid of Eskdale, lvj. s. To James
Hog, tale-teller, to fee twa hors in Eskdale, with kingis harness, in part
payment, xxxiij. s. For foure corse bowis and ane hundredth canyais
[arrows], agane the raid of Eskdale, xij. li. [£12]. Aug. 8. – Payit for
v. pair spurs to the King, twa paire sterap irnis, xij. riding girthis,
xij. housing girthis, iiij. hors collaris, x. hors houses, and for hors
schoing, v. li. x. d. To ane man of Sir Alexander Jardinis, that come to
the King with thingis [tidings] of the taking of Gib Lindesay and his
complicis, xiiij. s. Aug. 13. – In Drumfrese to menstrales to fe thaim
horsis to Eskdale, and syne agane to Drumfrese, xlij. s. To twa Inglise
women that sang in the Kingis pailzeoune [pavilion], xxiij. s. Aug. 31. –
Be the Kingis command, to Sir A. Jardine and his men for the taking of Gib
Lindesay and uther twa with him, xxx. li.”]
Truly a
gay, genial, pleasure-loving monarch was James IV.; yet, with all his
habitual mirthfulness, he was subject to fits of gloom, that usually came
upon him in midsummer, and under the influence of which even his outward
man sometimes underwent a strange alteration.
“In offices as strict as
Lent
King James’s June was
ever spent.”
[Marmion]
He had,
as a boy, taken part with the barons when they joined in warlike array
against his father; and, though scarcely a voluntary agent at that time,
he wore a macerating iron belt round his waist by way of penance, to which
some ounces were added annually, and every recurring anniversary of
Sauchieburn found him in a bitterly penitential mood. It was on one of
these occasions that the King appeared at the gates of Our Lady’s Chapel
in Dumfries, habited as a lowly Franciscan – the royal devotee, in his
gown of coarse grey serge, appearing as unlike as possible to the jovial,
care-defying prince who, a short while before, held court in Dame
Cunningham’s Painted Hall. After making his offerings at the altar, he
proceeded, staff in hand, to pay his devotions before the shrine of St.
Ninian, at Whithorn, whither he often went to bewail his fancied
parricidal guilt, and the unlawful indulgences for which, unlike it, he
was truly responsible. [There are some vague traditions in Dumfries
regarding the visits paid to it by James IV., and his son, James V.; one
of these being that King James (which of them is not specified) slept all
night under a huge tree that grew a little to the north-east of the town,
near the present English road. The following inscription, taken from a
tomb-stone in St. Michael’s churchyard, is adduced in corroboration of the
tale: “In memory of John M’Niel, of Royal Oak, near this town, who
departed this life, April 30th, 1836; aged 101 years.” The
epitaph is curious in itself, as being, we believe, the only one in the
same cemetery in memory of a centenarian. That any of the Jameses should
have spent a night in the open air, in the vicinity of Dumfries, cannot be
credited; but James IV. might, by resting himself, when on his barefooted
pilgrimage, below an umbrageous oak, have originated this tradition.
The Rev.
Joseph Duncan (now of Torthorwald), who drew up the notice of Dumfries
Parish, dated 1833, for the Statistical Account, says (p. 12): “A curious
relic of antiquity was some time ago discovered by Mr. Affleck,
ironfounder, while employed in selecting some pieces of old metal to throw
into the crucible. It is circular, fully two inches in diameter, and about
the thickness of a penny. Upon being struck with a hammer, a crust of
verdigris came off, and on one side of it was discovered, engraved, a lion
rampant, in the midst of a shield bordered with
Fleur de lis, and
surrounded, in reversed characters, by the legend, “Jacobus Dei Gra. Rex
Scotorum;’ after which is a figure nearly similar to the letter S, which
we conclude must have been intended to represent the buckle of the belt,
on which the inscription is engraved. The seal, for such it is supposed to
be, if formed of a compound of copper with some other metals, and is, with
some plausibility, supposed to have been the privy seal of one of the
kings of Scotland.” Very likely this relic belonged either to Mrs.
Cunningham’s royal lodger or his son, James V.; and if to the latter, may
have been dropped by him when out on some of his nocturnal revels.]
Four
years after King James held his justice ayre at Dumfries, Lord Maxwell, to
whom he had been so considerate, showed extreme disrespect to the royal
authority, as represented by Robert, second Lord Sanquhar, Sheriff of
Nithsdale. The Crichtons, like the Maxwells, had grown greatly in favour
since the fall of the Douglasses. There had been long a deadly feud
between the two houses, which was at this time intensified by the
circumstance that Lord Sanquhar seemed to be extending his influence over
Lower Nithsdale, at the expense of Lord Maxwell, who, though Steward of
Annandale, did not like to see the neighbouring sheriffdom possessed by
his rival. The idea that a district occupied by many of his own adherents
should be legally presided over by any other than a Maxwell, was the
reverse of pleasant to Lord John; that it should be placed under the sway
of a Crichton, was deemed by him intolerable. “We must teach this aspiring
chief a lesson – let him see who is the real master of Dumfries, muttered
the wrathful Steward. Probably Maxwell gave a readier effect to this
menace because he knew that the Sheriff of Nithsdale had a charge of
disloyalty hanging over his head.
Lord
Sanquhar held a court in the Shire town towards the close of July, 1508.
On the 30th of that month no trials were proceeded with – the
“dittays” having been deserted – the hall of justice abandoned for the
Lower Sand-beds that skirt the Burgh, where the warlike vassals of the
noble Sheriff stood drawn up in battle array, prepared in some degree for
the threatened onset, of which he had received timely notice. Lord
Maxwell, at the head of a considerable force, and accompanied by William
Douglas of Drumlanrig, entered the town by the Annandale road from the
south, and attacked the Crichton party with a fury that proved
irresistible. How long the engagement continued is unknown. Sir James
Balfour speaks of it as “a grate feight” [Annuals of Scotland, p. 231.] –
that it was a sanguinary one is beyond any doubt. The same annalist
records that “Lord Sanquhar was overthrowen, and many of his frindes
killed.” [Ibid.] Bishop Lesley, describing the issue of the affray, says:
“Lord Creychton was chaissit with his company frae Drumfreis, and the
Laird of Dalyell and the young Laird of Cranchlay slain, with divers
uthers, quhairof thair appeared greit deidly feid and bludshed.”
Thoroughly routed, Lord Sanquhar was chased from the town over which he
professed to hold rule in the King’s name – driven for refuge to his
castle among the hills; leaving his exulting rival, if not Sheriff of
Nithsdale, undisputed chief of its principal Burgh.
Maxwell,
however strange it may appear, was allowed to go unpunished. Whether it
was that extenuating circumstances were brought forward to palliate the
grossness of the outrage, or that its perpetrator was too powerful to be
meddled with, he was not proceeded against judicially. “Partley be
justice, and partley be agreement, the whole cause [against him] was
suddenly quyeted and stanched;” but his chief colleagues in the affray,
William Douglas of Drumlanrig, John Fergusson of Craigdarroch, with his
son Thomas, and their accomplices, went through the form of a trial on the
30th of September, 1512, at Edinburgh, for the murder of Robert
Crichton of Kirkpatrict (one of the Sheriff’s party, and probably a near
relative), and were acquitted, on the ground that the deceased Robert
Crichton was “our severane lordis rebel, and at his horne,” when the
conflict occurred. [The Magna Assisa, or Great Assize, consisting of
twenty-one lords and gentlemen, presided over by Archibald, Earl of Angus,
in giving a verdict in the case, counselled the King’s Highness “that the
said allegit crimes be na ditty; Ant that Lettres be written of Discharge;
and Inhibitioun be gevin and direct to Justice and Justice-Clerk, be our
Souverane Lorde, and till all utheris officiaris, that nane of thame tak
in Dittay, attache, arrest or accuse the said William Douglas, or his
complices forsaide, for the saide actioun, and na crime be imput to
thairapoun, because it was funde obefore be the said Lordis that the said
umquhile Robert, the tyme when he was slane, was our Soverane Lordis
rebel, and at his horne, and for uthir resonable cause, moving the said
Lordis; except Fergy Fergussoun and Robin Fergussoun, to quham this
declaratioun and counsall sall nocht extende, and thaim to be be punist,
as is contenit in the decret and deliverance be certaue of the said Lordis
thairapoune.” PITCAIRN, vol. i., part i., p. 79.] The still unsettled and
unsatisfactory state of Dumfriesshire may be inferred from the
circumstance, that the steward of one portion of it could, in this
flagitious way, commit a murderous outrage on the sheriff of another with
impunity.
If peace
had continued, however, and length of days been vouchsafed to the King, he
would, there is no doubt, have done much more to strengthen the power of
the Crown, and extend the influence of the law, than he was privileged to
accomplish. Henry VIII. of England having proclaimed war against France,
Scotland, as the ally of the latter, after years of comparative
tranquillity, again rang with the sound of hostile preparations – James,
actuated by knightly devotion to the French Queen, as well as friendship
to her consort, having resolved to cross the Border with an invading army.
Her majesty, as the poet tells us,
“Sent him a turquoise ring
and glove,
And charged him, as her
knight and love,
For her to
break a lance:
And strike three strokes
with Scottish brand,
And march three miles on
Southern land,
And bid the banners of
his band
In English
breezes dance.”
[Marmion.]
Many
Dumfriesshire chiefs, including Lord Maxwell, joined the King’s
unfortunate expedition. It is not necessary that we should follow its
fortunes, by telling again “red Flodden’s dismal tale,” with which ever
reader of British history is familiar. Flodden was indeed a
“Fatal field,
Where shivered was fair
Scotland’s spear,
And broken was
her shield.”
[Ibid.]
James
fell fighting desperately, and reckless of life, on seeing the ruin he had
provoked. Among the “chiefs, knights, and nobles, many a one,” slain
alongst with him in the disastrous battle, were John, Lord Maxwell, with
his four brothers; Robert, Lord Herries, with Andrew his brother; the two
sons of the Earl of Angus; two hundred gentlemen of the Douglas name, and
numerous other men of note connected with Dumfriesshire and Galloway. In
all the Border district, among high and low, there was great lamentation
for friends or relatives left lifeless on the field.
This
memorable battle was fought on the 9th of September, 1513.
Stunning and terrible was the blow which it inflicted on the Scots; but,
though thus deprived of their King and chief nobility, they rapidly
recovered from its effects, Surrey, the victorious leader of the English,
suffered so severely in the conflict that he was unable to enter Scotland
and gather in the full harvest of his triumph. At first Margaret, the
widowed Queen, was made Regent, but, as she was mistrusted on account of
being the sister of the English monarch, and of having hurriedly
contracted a marriage with Archibald, sixth Earl of Angus, she was soon
deprived of the office, which was then conferred on John, Duke of Albany.
As his accession was opposed by Angus, one of the new Regent’s first acts
was to banish the Queen and her husband out of the country.
Though no
general invasion of Scotland took place, in consequence of the late
defeat, the English King let loose large bands of armed men upon the
devoted Border territory, which they wasted with fire and sword. One of
these marauding parties, headed by Lord Dacre, entered Dumfriesshire in
the spring of 1514; his motive being very different from that which drew
him to Lochmaben, ten years before, to encounter, in a card-playing
tourney, Scotland’s chivalrous King. The leading men of the country, with
hundreds of their followers, had been “wede away” in the carnage of the
preceding autumn, so that the invaders met with little resistance; and
they ravaged the district nearest them in a style of wanton barbarity.
Dacre, in writing, on the 17th of May, an account of his
destructive achievements to the English Council, says that he had laid
waste Ewisdale, in which there were 140 ploughs (plough-lands); that he
had almost depopulated Lower Annandale and Eskdale, in which there were
more than 400 ploughs; that he had wholly destroyed the town of Annan, and
thirty-three other townships. He boasts that all these ploughs and
townships “are now clearly wasted, and no man dwelling in any of them at
this day, save only in the towns of Annan, Stepel, and Wauchope.” The
sanguinary and remorseless Warden concludes his report by intimating that
he meant to continue his service “with diligence, from time to time, to
the utmost annoyance of the Scots.” Had not the Steward of Annandale been
mouldering in his grave, and had not his son Robert, Lord Maxwell, been
young, inexperienced, and with few retainers left on his muster-roll,
Dacre would not have been in a condition to make such a report. |
