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BARTON, ANDREW, High
Admiral of Scotland.—The fifteenth century was the great era of maritime
adventure and discovery; and in these it might have been expected that
Scotland would have taken her full share. The troubled state of the
country, however, and the poverty of its sovereigns, prevented the
realization of such a hope. There was no royal navy, and such ships as
were to be found in the Scottish service were merchìant vessels, and the
property of private individuals. Still, there was no lack of stout hardy
sailors and skilful commanders; and although the poverty of Scotland was
unable to furnish those ample means that were necessary for remote and
uncertain voyages of discovery, the same cause made them eager to enjoy
the advantages of traffic with those countries that were already known.
Another cause of this was the long peace with England during the reign of
Henry VII., so that those daring spirits who could no longer find
occupation in fight or foray by land, were fain to have recourse to the
dangers of another element. The merchant, also, who embarked with his own
cargo, was obliged to know something more than the gainful craft of a mere
trader. He was captain as well as proprietor, and had to add the science
of navigation and the art of warfare on sea, to that of skilful bargaining
on shore, and thus, in every variety of ways, his intellectual powers were
tried and perfected. This was an occupation well fitted to the Scottish
mind, in which it consequently became so pre-eminent, that during the
reigns of James III. and James IV., it seemed a doubtful
question whether Scotland or England was to bear the "meteor flag" of the
island; and of the merchant captains of this period, the most
distinguished were Sir Andrew Wood, of Largo; Sir Alexander Mathieson;
William Merrimonth, of Leith, who, for his naval skill, was called the
"king of the sea," and the Bartons.
This Barton family, which
for two generations produced naval commanders of great celebrity, first
appeared in Scottish history in 1476. This was in consequence of John
Barton, the father of Andrew, having been plundered, and as it has been
added, murdered, by the Portuguese, who at that period were all-prevalent
upon the ocean. The unfortunate mariner, however, had three sons, the
oldest of whom was Andrew, all brought up from boyhood in his own
profession, and not likely to allow their father’s death to pass
unquestioned. Andrew accordingly instituted a trial in Flanders, where the
murder was perpetrated, and obtained a verdict in his favour; but the
Portuguese refusing to pay the awarded penalty, the Bartons applied to
their own sovereign for redress. James accordingly sent a herald to the
king of Portugal; but this application having also been in vain, he
granted to the Bartons letters of reprisal, by which they were allowed to
indemnify themselves by the strong hand upon the ships of the Portuguese.
And such a commission was not allowed to lie idle. The Bartons immediately
threw themselves into the track of the richly-laden carracks and argosies
of Portugal in their homeward way from India and South America; and such
was their success, that they not only soon indemnified themselves for
their losses, but obtained a high reputation for naval skill and valour.
Among the rich Indian spoil that was brought home on this occasion, were
several Hindoo and negro captives, whose ebony colour and strange features
astounded, and also alarmed the simple people of Scotland. James IV.
turned these singular visitants to account, by making them play the part
of Ethiopian queens and African sorcerers in the masques and pageants of
his court. This was in itself a trifle, but it gave a high idea of the
growing naval importance of Scotland, when it could produce such
spectacles as even England, with all its superior wealth, power, and
refinement, was unable to furnish.
It was not merely in such
expeditions which had personal profit or revenge for their object that the
Bartons were exclusively employed; for they were in the service of a
master (James IV.) who was an enthusiast in naval affairs, and who more
than all his predecessors understood the necessity of a fleet as the right
arm of a British sovereign. This was especially the case in his attempts
to subjugate the Scottish isles, that for centuries had persisted in
rebellion under independent kinglings of their own, and in every national
difficulty had been wont to invade the mainland, and sweep the adjacent
districts with fire and sword. For the purpose of reducing them to
complete obedience, James not only led against them an army in person, but
employed John Barton, one of the three brothers, to conduct a fleet, and
invade them by sea. The use of ships in such a kind of warfare was soon
apparent: the islanders retreated from the royal army, as heretofore, in
their galleys, and took refuge among their ironbound coasts, but found
these no longer places of safety when their fastnesses were assailed from
the sea, and their strong castles bombarded. The chiefs, therefore,
yielded themselves to the royal authority, and from thenceforth lived in
most unwonted submission. While thus the Scottish flag waved over those
islands that had hitherto been the strongholds of rebellion, another of
the Bartons was employed to vindicate its dignity abroad and among
foreigners. This was Andrew, who for some time had held with his brothers
the chief direction of maritime affairs in Scotland, and been employed in
the formation of a royal navy, as well as in cruises against the rich
carracks of Portugal. The Hollanders, in the true spirit of piracy, by
which the maritime communities of Europe were at this time inspired, had
attacked a small fleet of Scottish merchant vessels, and not only
plundered them, but murdered the crews, and thrown their bodies into the
sea. This outrage, from a people with whom the Scots were at peace, was
not to be tolerated, and Andrew Barton was sent with a squadron to
chastise the offenders. And this he did with a merciless severity, that
reminds us of the "Douglas Larder." He captured many of the piratical
ships, and not only put their crews to death, but barrelled their heads in
the empty casks which he found in the vessels, and sent them home to his
sovereign, to prove how well he had discharged his duty.
The time had now arrived, however,
when Andrew Barton, after having made so many successful cruises, was to
fall upon the deck where he had so often stood a conqueror. His death,
also, strangely enough, was mainly owing to the tortuous intrigues of a
pontiff, about whom, it is probable, he had heard little, and cared still
less. Julius II. having formed designs of political self-aggrandizement
which a war betweeu France and England would have prevented, was anxious
to find the latter sufficient occupation at home, with its turbulent
neighbours, the Scots. Portuguese envoys, therefore, at the English court
represented to Henry VIII. the whole family of the Bartons as pirates, who
indiscriminately plundered the ships of every country; and they charged
Andrew, in particular, with these offences, and represented how desirable
it would be if the English seas could be rid of his presence. Henry
listened to these suggestions, and, with his wonted impetuosity, assented
to their fulfilment, although a war with Scotland was at that time the
least desirable event that could have befallen him. It has also been
alleged by English writers, that Andrew Barton, in his war against the
Portuguese, had not been over-scrupulous in confining himself to his
letters of reprisal, but had also overhauled and pillaged English vessels,
under the pretext that they had Portuguese goods on board. Such, at least,
was generally believed in England; and the Earl of Surrey, to whom the
naval affairs of the kingdom
chiefly belonged, is declared to have sworn that the narrow seas should no
longer be thus infested, while his estate could furnish a ship, or his
family a son to command it.
The threat of Surrey was
not an idle one. He fitted out two men-of-war, one of them the largest in
the English navy, and sent them under the command of his sons, Lord Thomas
Howard, and Sir Edward Howard, afterwards lord high admiral, to find and
encounter the terrible Scottish seaman. They had not long to seek, for in
the Downs they were apprised of his neighbourhood by the captain of a
merchant vessel which he had plundered on the day preceding. Barton had
just returned from a cruise against the Portuguese, with two ships, one
the Lion, which himself commanded, and the other a small armed pinnace.
When the Howards approached, they hoisted no war signal, but merely put up
a willow wand on their masts, as if they were peaceful traders; but when
Andrew Barton approached, they hoisted their national flag, and fired a
broadside into his vessel. On finding that he had enemies to deal with,
although they were of superior force, he fearlessly advanced to the
encounter. Distinguished by his rich dress, his splendid armour of proof,
and the gold chain around his neck, to which was attached a whistle of the
same metal, the emblem of his office as high admiral of Scotland, he took
his stand upon the highest part of the deck, and encouraged his men to
fight bravely. The battle commenced, and continued on both sides with the
utmost desperation. One manouvre of Scottish naval warfare which Barton
used, was derived from an old Roman practice used against the
Carthaginians, although he had, perhaps, never read their history; this
was, to drop large weights or beams from the yard-arms of his vessel into
that of the enemy, and thus sink it while the two ships were locked
together; but, to accomplish this feat, it was necessary for a man
to go aloft to let the weight fall. The English commander, apprised of
this, had appointed the best archer of his crew to keep watch upon the
movement, and shoot every man who attempted to go aloft for the purpose.
The archer had already brought down two Scottish seamen who had
successively ventured to ascend, when Andrew Barton seeing the danger,
resolved to make the attempt himself. As he ascended the mast for this
purpose, Lord Howard cried to his archer, "Shoot, villain, and shoot true,
on peril of thy life." "An’ I were to die for it," replied the man
despondingly, "I have but two arrows left." These, however, he used with
his utmost strength and skill. The first shaft bounded from Barton’s coat
of proof, but the second entered the crevice of his armour, as he
stretched up his hand in the act of climbing the mast, and inflicted a
mortal wound through the arm-pit. He descended as if unhurt, and
exclaimed, "Fight on, my merry men; I am but slightly wounded, and will
rest me awhile, but will soon join you again; in the meantime, stand you
fast by the cross of Saint Andrew! " He then blew his whistle during the
combat, to encourage his followers, and continued to sound it as long as
life remained. After his death the conflict terminated in the capture of
the Lion, and also the pinnace, called the Jenny Pirwen, which were
brought in triumph into the Thames. The Lion was afterwards adopted into
the English navy, and was the second largest ship in the service, the
Great Henry, the first vessel which the English had expressly constructed
for war, being the largest.
Such was the end of Andrew
Barton, a bright name in the early naval history of Scotland. While his
death was felt as a great national calamity, it was particularly affecting
to James IV., whose nautical studies he had directed, and whose infant
navy he had made so distinguished among the European maritime powers.
Rothesay herald was instantly despatched to London, to complain of this
breach of peace, and demand redress; but to this appeal Henry VIII.
arrogantly replied, that Barton was a pirate, and that the fate of pirates
ought never to be a subject of contention between princes. Here, however,
the matter was not to rest. Robert Barton, one of Andrew’s brothers, was
immediately furnished with letters of reprisal against the English; and
thus commissioned, he swept the narrow seas so effectually, that he soon
returned to Leith with thirteen English prizes. War by sea between England
and Scotland was soon followed by war by land, and in the letter of
remonstrance and defiance to Henry VIII., with which James preceded the
invasion of England, the unjust slaughter of Andrew Barton, and the
capture of his ships, were stated among the principal grievances for which
redress was thus sought. Even when battle was at hand, also, Lord Thomas
Howard sent a message to the Scottish king, boasting of his share in the
death of Barton, whom he persisted in calling a pirate, and adding that he
was ready to justify the deed in the vanguard, where his command lay, and
where he meant to show as little mercy as he expected to receive. And then
succeeded the battle of Flodden, in which James and the best of the
Scottish nobility fell; and after Flodden, a loss occurred which Barton
would rather have died than witnessed. This was the utter extinction of
the Scottish fleet, which was allowed to lie rotting in the harbours of
France, or to be trucked away in inglorious sale, like common firewood.
From that period, Scotland so completely ceased to be a naval power, that
even at the time of the Union, she not only had no war vessels whatever,
but scarcely any merchant ships—the few that lay in her ports being
chiefly the property of the traders of Holland;--and full three centuries
have to elapse before we find another distinguished Scottish seaman in the
naval history of Great Britain. |
