The situation of Edinburgh
at but a short distance from the Firth of Forth, and therefore liable to
invasion from the sea, has caused the whole length of the east coast of
Scotland, from Berwick around to Leith, to be studded with Castle-towers
and Keeps, at once the residences of the Court and the defence of the
capital. The whole of the country from Edinburgh to the borderland betwixt
England and Scotland had thus been erected into a cordon of forts, fitted
to repel invasion and to preserve the capital inviolable from assault
either from sea or land. And in former times, ere the Crown had attained
the supremacy which it now possesses, the Castles soon became the means of
overawing the independent Borderers, or were themselves the centres of
revolt against the Throne, and the rallying points of the vassals of the
rebellious Lords.
While the Castles on the
line of the Border were intended, to check the invasions of the English by
land, the strong towers of Berwick, Fast, Dunbar, and Tantallon formed a
chain of defence on the seaboard which might well discourage invasion from
that quarter. The magnitude as well as the strength of these Keeps enabled
their possessors to garrison an army of very respectable dimensions, and
their proximity to one another rendered a junction of their forces
comparatively easy. And thus the Lowlanders were prepared to resist their
foreign foes. Nor were their preparations uncalled for, since their
enemies were diverse and ubiquitous. Now it might be
"The Percy out of Northumberland,
And a vow to God made he,
That he would hunt in the
mountains
At Cheviot within days three,
In the mauve
of doughty Douglas,
And all that
ever with him be."
Anon the defence had to be
made against the searovers, when in that more dangerous time:—
"Hither came from eastern
shores
The Jutes and
Angles over the broad sea;
Fierce battle-smiths, and Britain sought,
O’ercame the Welsh and gained the land."
In many cases the
territorial defences proved efficient, and the sacredness of the capital
was preserved. To the Castle of Dunbar some prominence must be given, as
the one post in the country which effectually repelled the English
invader. Besides exhibiting the force of the Scottish arms against the
chosen warriors of England, it has also a history intimately associated
with the internecine turmoils in Scotland.
The position of Dunbar
Castle topographically merits a word of description. The town of Berwick
is exactly in meridian with Newburgh in Aberdeenshire, and between these
two places the east coast of Scotland is hollowed out into a vast bay,
extending at Kirkcaldy to about 45 miles inland from these two points. The
influence of the wash of the waters of Forth and Tay must be allowed for
when estimating the denuding force of the North Sea; but the contour of
the east coast will present peculiar appearances even to the least-skilled
observer. One glance at the map of Scotland will satisfy anyone that the
power of the North Sea over that country is not to be compared to the
influence which the Atlantic has had upon the west coast. For while the
North Sea has only transformed the coast line between Peterhead and
Berwick into one great bay, the 2000 miles of raging Atlantic Ocean
betwixt Skye and Labrador have hollowed the west coast into myriad
outlandish forms, where only the stern endurance of the rocks has
withstood the perpetual tempest which assails them.
The coast of
Haddingtonshire has been doubly attacked—by the North Sea on one side, and
by the rapid stream of the Forth on the other—so that it presents the
appearance of an irregular triangle. About midway on the shore-line stands
the ruined Castle of Dunbar, upon a rocky promontory around which the
stormy North Sea breaks in foam. The influence of the strong Arctic
current is visible here, as it is in the Bay of St Andrews; for the
projection of Fifeness bears the same relation to St Andrews as St Abb’s
Head does to Dunbar. The resistless surge of the North Sea, dashing for
centuries upon the slenderly-protected east coast, has thus gradually
eaten its way inwards towards the heart of Scotland; whilst the furious
Atlantic Ocean, fiercely assaulting the barren and rocky coast-line on the
west coast has won from the mainland many a green-crested islet, many a
solitary peak, fitted alone to become the eyrie of the eagle or dauntless
sea-birds.
The very position of Dunbar
Castle shows that the encroachments of the sea in that quarter should not
be disregarded. Its ruins now stand upon a rocky eminence, exposed to the
fury of the wintry blast; and the stormy sea, which has caverned and
honeycombed the rock upon which it is raised, has left many chasms and
tunnels in the cliff, regarding which a thousand wild legends are told.
Though the exact date of the Castle, the ruins of which now remain, is not
known, it must occupy the site of a much earlier Peel which would be in
existence early in the 11th century. The first traces of this early
structure are found in the records relating to William the Conqueror. In
1067, that monarch conferred the Earldom of Northumberland upon Robert
Comyn, but he was so unpopular with his vassals that he and all his
retainers were put to death in 1068 by the inhabitants of the district.
Then Cospatrick (sometimes called "Gospatrick ") grandson of Malcolm II.,
King of Scotland, claimed the Earldom through his mother, who was a
daughter of Uchtred, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland, but had ultimately
to pay "a great sum of money" for it in 1067 to William the Conqueror.
Soon afterwards Cospatrick quarrelled with William, and fled into Scotland
with other northern leaders, finding refuge in 1072 with Malcolm III. (Ceanmor),
whose wife, St Margaret, was a Saxon Princess. Malcolm conferred upon him
"Dunbar with the adjacent lands in Lothian," and he thus became the first
Earl of Dunbar. His death took place about 1089, and he was succeeded by
his son, Cospatrick, second Earl of Dunbar, who was a benefactor to the
Abbey of Kelso. Before his death in 1139, he had probably begun the
erection of Dunbar Castle, as the oldest part of the ruins belong to about
that period. This Earl was present at the foundation of Scone Abbey in
1115, and Holyrood Abbey in 1128, the former by Alexander I., and the
latter by his brother and successor, David I., sons of Malcolm III. (Ceanmor).
The tourist who visits
Dunbar expecting to find there the romantic ruins of some palatial
structure will be grievously disappointed. The relics of its former
greatness betray the fact that it has been constructed with an eye rather
to strength than beauty; and its position on the verge of the
"many-sounding sea," whose billows lash its foundations, seem to imply
that its builders thought more of the preservation of their lives than the
cultivation of the elegant arts. The peculiar redstone of which the latest
Castle has been built is found still in the neighbourhood; and there are
few traces now to be seen of Continental mason craft about it. So that all
the appearances favour the supposition that it was called into existence
by the necessities of the time. Yet these bare walls when draped with
antique tapestries and illuminated by cresset-torches would afford in a
rude age an illustration of how life may be made endurable through the
agency of judicious luxury. And when beauty and valour combined to grace
the Castle in former days the lack of mural decoration would not cause one
pang to the inmates :—
"Schinand was
the painted hall,
Wi’ gladsome torches bricht;
For twenty gowden dames sat
there,
An’ ilk ane
by a Knicht!
Wi' music cheer
To please the ear
Whom bewty pleased the sicht."
The ever-whirling wheels of
Time have dealt somewhat roughly with the building, and beams and rafters,
walls and battlements, have at length experienced the doom of all things
earthly. The wild east wind now whistles desolately around the roofless
hall, and echoes down the untenanted courtyard, sounding in the ear of the
romantic visitor as the whispering of elfin voices, or the mystic
murmuring of spirit tones, bone on the balmy breezes of memory. The task
now is to translate these incoherent sounds into intelligible language, in
fact:
"To give to airy nothings
A local habitation and a name."
Like many more of the
Scottish Castles the date of the original Dunbar Castle is unknown, and
many outrageous theories have been invented to account for its existence.
The tradition of the locality ascribed its origin to the Picts, who at
some remote period left the fertile hills and meads of their native
Allemayne, and extravasated themselves upon the east coast of Scotland.
Originally agriculturists, the necessities of their position forced them
to learn to wield the sword as well as guide the ploughshare, for the
savage aborigines did not resign their land without a fierce and
protracted struggle. And if these eastern strangers did really build an
early Keep on the site of the Castle (which may be reasonably doubted)
they must have adopted the method of Nehemiah, "For the builders, every
one had his sword girded by his side; and so builded," thus carrying both
the sword and trowel.
The mission of the Alemanni
was essentially agricultural, and when they had established their colony
in East Lothian they soon set about clearing the forest land and
transforming the waste places into fertile fields. The Caledonians, like
the Indians of North America, were content to leave their rude agriculture
to their women and children, whilst they devoted their energies to the
chase; but the Picts had already learned all the humanising influence of
agricultural pursuits, and knew something of the benefits derived from
living in Society. Under their influence, therefore, the fringe of the
great Caledonian Forest was reclaimed from its barren luxuriance; and the
desolate haunts of the wild boar and giant elk of Scotland were forced to
yield subsistence to these pioneers of civilization. And now the traces of
this influence may be seen in the agriculture of the district, whose
fertility is unlimited even by the saline breezes which blow over two
sides of East Lothian.
Although there is no proof
that any part of the Castle of Dunbar was built by these hardy colonists,
it is not unlikely that a Keep of some kind was erected by them near the
coast, so as at once to protect their fields and to afford them means of
escape by sea should Fortune frown upon them. And there could be no site
chosen more fitted for this purpose upon the whole of the neighbouring
coast. No competent Admiral would counsel an attack by sea; and the
subsequent history of Dunbar Castle showed that it could successfully
resist an overwhelmingly land force, even under daring and skilled
leaders.
When the union of the Picts
and Scots took place under Kenneth I. (Macalpin) about 846 A.D., the lands
and Castle of Lodonia (Lothian) fell into his hands. The title which the
fort now received was "Dunbar," to account for which two theories are
propounded. It is said that amongst the chieftains that followed Kenneth,
one of the bravest was Bar, whose courageous bearing and ready sword had
won the notice of the King. In acknowledgment of his services the Pictish
fort was conferred upon him, and it was thenceforth known as "Dun-Bar,"
the Castle of Bar. Another theory holds that the title is purely
topographical and descriptive, and, being interpreted, signifies "the fort
on the height," which name it undoubtedly deserves. The debate, however,
is a barren one, and hardly worthy of the labour that has been spent upon
it. Indeed, authorities have not yet decided who the Picts were, and where
they came from. Some theorists maintain that the Picts were Saxon
invaders; others declare that they were a sept of the ancient Caledonians
who devoted themselves to agriculture. One thing at least is certain, that
the two nations were united under one King in the person of Kenneth I.
about 846 A.D., and it is at this period that the name of Dunbar first
appears. It must be understood that the Pictish origin of Dunbar Castle is
entirely traditional, though it seems not incredible. From Kenneth I. the
whole long succession of Kings of Scotland and of Great Britain are
descended.
That there was really a
Castle on this spot over a thousand years ago is certainly true, however
strange it may sound. And though it has long been in a ruinous state, the
story of its chequered career is inwoven with the web of Scottish history,
and its name is inseparably associated with some of the greater events
which are now deemed memorable. The mist and obscurity which surround the
record of its early days become cleared as we advance within the historic
period; and from the time at which Dunbar was erected into an Earldom it
is not so difficult to follow its story. Yet the darker portion of that
story should be known, since it makes much of the general history of
Scotland intelligible.
The true Kingdom of
Scotland was not really founded upon a secure basis before the time of
Malcolm Ill. (Caenmor) about 200 years after Kenneth I. The union of
Malcolm with St Margaret of England brought about a revolution in the
manners and customs of the Scottish nation which more nearly assimilated
them to their southern neighbours. The relics of Druidical religion had
now disappeared, and the humanizing wave of Christianity, which had
reached the remote shores of Norway, had also brought its influence to
bear upon "Ultima Thule," the fabled last island on the verge of the
world, over which Malcolm was King. And so, as the light dawned upon these
"rude forefathers" of ours they began to see that man is neither
absolutely self-existent, nor existent solely for self. Around the Castles
and Towers of their leaders they congregated into little townships and
petty estates, espousing the cause of their Lord without question, and
laying the foundation of the feudal system which it took centuries to
overthrow. The mere association thus together, with one distinct aim,
served to consolidate the Kingdom and make its independence more secure.
It is important to remember
that the borders of England then extended much further north than they did
in later times. The Forth was really the boundary of England instead of
the Tweed; and the Wall of Antoninus, which extended from the Forth to the
Clyde, was more nearly the margin of the Southern Kingdom than the
Cheviots. Indeed, the whole land betwixt the Forth and the Humber was
continually changing masters, and the insecurity of the conquests of
either party made it doubtful as to where the boundaries of the two
kingdoms should be set. Thus, when David I. reigned, though then possessed
of Lothian, the Scottish Crown had but an insecure hold upon
Northumberland and York. The reign of his grandson, William the Lion,
however, sufficiently settled the matter, for after his foolish escapade
at Alnwick and Carlisle in 1174, when he was taken prisoner and carried to
England and France, he was compelled to do homage to Henry II., not only
for the territories betwixt the Humber and Tweed, but also for the whole
Kingdom of Scotland; thus establishing the unpatriotic usage of which
Edward I. availed himself afterwards in his disputes with the Claimants to
the Scottish Crown.
It will thus be seen that
for a considerable time Dunbar was as much an English as a Scottish
stronghold. And the indefiniteness of its nationality made it an object of
envy to both parties. So around this ancient Keep, which stood defiantly
upon the brink of the Eastern Sea, there clustered many memories of former
times, and many hopes for the future of Scotland which could never be
fulfilled. The strength of the Castle, which rendered it almost
impregnable, and the extent of the accommodation which it afforded, ever
made it a coveted point in protracted warfare; and its possessor might
easily sway the balance of fortune and decide the fate of either Kingdom.
It was, therefore, important for the welfare of Scotland that the Castle
of Dunbar should be in the hands of a true patriot. Unfortunately this was
not always the case, and the history of the Castle alternates between
treason and fidelity to the Scottish cause.
The incident by which
Cospatrick, Earl of Dunbar, came to Lothian and was possessor of a Castle
and a title has been already explained. When King John of England, in
reprisal of a Scottish Border raid, marched into the land at the head of
his army, and laid siege to the Castle of Dunbar, he was compelled to
abandon his purpose, and leave the stronghold in the hands of its owner,
Patrick, sixth Earl of Dunbar.
Unfortunately for
Scotland’s welfare some of the earls were not always faithful to Scotland.
Patrick, eighth Earl, who liberated Alexander III. by surprising Edinburgh
Castle, when held by the Comyns, became one of the Regents of Scotland
after Alexander’s death. His son, Patrick, ninth Earl, surnamed "Black
Beard," was the first to be styled "Earl of March." Unlike his father he
swore fealty to Edward I., and was a faithful adherent of the English
interest. His wife, Marjory Comyn, daughter of the Earl of Buchan, took up
the cause of the other party, and held the Castle of Dunbar for King John
Balliol until forced to surrender it to Edward I. in 1296, who made the
Earl two years afterwards, "King’s Lieutenant in Scotland." Both he and
his heir were present at the Battle of Caerlaverock in 1300, when Edward’s
party won the Castle. The tenth Earl of Dunbar and March, Patrick, like
his father, was devoted to the King of England, and when Edward II. was
escaping after losing the Battle of Bannockburn, in 1314, he sheltered the
fugitive at Dunbar Castle, and procured a fishing-boat to take him to
England.
This tenth Earl was a
"trimmer," and made his peace with Robert Bruce when he saw that Bruce was
to be in the ascendant, and he was made Scottish Governor of Berwick
Castle, a post which he held till the defeat of the Scots at Halidon Hill
in 1333 forced him to surrender. While he was away, Dunbar was brought
into notice through the persistent bravery of his wife, Agnes Randolph,
daughter of the famous Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, the comrade of
Robert Bruce, and also a grand-niece of Bruce, known in history as "Black
Agnes." The story has been often told alike in prose histories and
ballads, but will bear repetition in connection with the Castle of Dunbar.
After the death of Robert
the Bruce in 1329, Scotland fell again into political difficulties which
seemed even more dangerous than those from which that monarch had rescued
her. His son and successor, afterwards David II., was a child of six years
old, and a long minority was to be expected. For several years the country
had suffered from military disquiet, first caused by Edward Balliol, and
afterwards by Edward III., though the latter was a brother-in-law of King
David. The English King had over-run Scotland, partly with the aid of
Patrick, tenth Earl of Dunbar, who afterwards abandoned the support of the
English in 1333. Before he returned to Dunbar Castle, the Countess, who
had been left in charge of the place, had bravely defended the Castle
against the English Army, and held it for upwards of five months, the date
being 13th January 1337-8, till on 16th June 1338 the besiegers had to
raise the Siege of Dunbar. The contemporary chronicler narrates the story
thus:-
"The Castle of Dunbar,
notwithstanding a heavy siege, held out manfully, and because the Countess
of Dunbar, who was the principal guardian of the Castle, was sister of the
Earl of Moray, then a prisoner at Nottingham, the English brought him down
to Dunbar in April 1338, threatening that if the Countess did not
surrender the Castle, they would put her brother to death; to which she
answered, ‘If you do this I shall be heir to the Earldom of Moray," for
her brother had no children. The English, however, did not wish to put the
Earl to death, and sent him back to England to be detained in custody as
before."
There is a curious incident
in this siege which is not widely known. The English attacking party was
under the command of William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury. Finding that
the methods of attack adopted by him were not proving successful, he
descended to a little silent treachery. He had gained the ear of some of
the servants in the Castle, who, with the knowledge of the Countess, had
planned to give the Earl and a few followers admission at the great gate.
Attended by some of his most daring knights, Salisbury approached the main
entrance at midnight. As arranged, he found the drawbridge down and the
portcullis raised, so that the entrance to the place was open to him. But
one of his followers, more forward than the rest and eager to be noticed
by the leader, pressed forward even before the Earl, and was the first to
enter within the precincts. No sooner had he passed the sacred line than
the portcullis descended between him and his companions, and the Earl with
the remainder of his party had to beat a hasty retreat ere the rising
drawbridge should entrap them and prevent their escape. Thus by one
moment’s precipitation the chance of capturing the English leader was
lost, much to the chagrin of the Countess.
The protracted siege had
naturally discouraged the soldiers within the Castle, and the provisions
were growing scant when relief came to them from an unexpected quarter.
The brave Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalwolsey (Dalhousie), one of the
foremost knights of the time (whose sad fate is related in the notice of
"Hermitage Castle" in this volume), succeeded in breaking the blockade and
carrying relief to the well-nigh exhausted garrison. Braving the restless
surge and the still more merciless enemy, Ramsay found means of
communication with the Castle by the sea-washed caverns beneath the rock
of its foundation. Encouraged by this accession of strength, and relieved
by the welcome stores which these adventurers had brought, the Scots
determined upon breaking the siege by a vigorous sally. Selecting both the
time and the men with the profound instinct that constitutes the
successful general, Sir Alexander made a most daring raid upon the English
forces, and so discouraged them that the valiant Earl of Salisbury, a man
of vast experience in war, had at length to raise the siege, and beat a
retreat within the English Border. And thus the prophecy of Black Agnes
was fulfilled :—
"‘And do they come? ‘Black
Agnes cried,
‘Nor storm nor midnight stops our foes.
Well, then, the battle’s chance be tried,
The Thistle shall out-thorn the Rose!
‘"
Thus ended the Siege of
Dunbar, and thus the hand of a feeble woman, when nerved by patriotism and
armed with chosen Scottish valour, was sufficient to checkmate the plots
and schemes which the English politicians had laid for the overthrow of
Scotland.
It is sufficiently evident
from the literature of the time that the English army expected that Dunbar
would fall an easy prey into their hands. More as a jest than as a serious
engagement did they begin the siege. There was, therefore, a little
lugubrious humour in the songs which their minstrels sang in the camp
before Dunbar; and the laugh was latterly quite against them. One of these
lays, preserved by Wyntoun, gives a glimpse of their elephantine humour:-
"Of this assiege in their hethyng
The English oysid to make karping.
‘I vow to God she makes great steer
The Scottish wenchie ploddiere.
Come I aire or I come I late,
I found Annot at the gate!'"
But when they returned to their own land, discomfitted,
overthrown, and disgraced by the power and endurance of a weak woman, and
the grim "heroes of a hundred fights," had to confess that they had found
a superior in the Scottish heroine, well might they ponder on the text
thus rendered by a modern poet:-
"He has put down the mighty from
their seat,
And has exalted them of low degree."
During the War of
Independence in Scotland, no friends had been truer to each other in weal
and woe, than Randolph, Earl of Moray, and the valiant Sir James Douglas.
As companions-in-arms they had shared the toils of many a battlefield side
by side, and though rivals for renown, each beheld the other’s advancement
without one pang of envy. But in the course of time an estrangement arose
betwixt these two families after the demise of the leaders, and ere a
hundred years had flown the descendants of Douglas and Randolph were
deadly enemies. Doubtless this was largely owing to the rapid increase of
power which the Douglases had gained on the Border, and which the Earl of
Dunbar and March—descendants of Randolph on the female side—-resented as
an encroachment on their own territory. The middle marches of the Border
were now under the control of the Douglas faction; and the Earls of Dunbar
and March were restricted to the eastern division of this part of the
country by their neighbouring compatriots as rigidly as though they had
been foreigners in the land.
The cause of the ultimate
rupture betwixt these two powerful noblemen was peculiar. The unhappy
King, Robert III., whose mind lay rather towards legislative reform than
battlefields, was not competent to use the mailed hand that the times
demanded; and his brother, afterwards Regent; Duke of Albany, made the
King his unwilling supporter. In the fulness of parental pride the King
had made his son, the Duke of Rothesay, Governor of the Kingdom, but the
levity of his conduct and the partial methods of his judgments soon
estranged the nobility from him. The deep-laid schemes of his uncle, the
Duke of Albany, who coveted the Throne, were not unknown to him, but he
affected to disdain duplicity.
The vacillating and
weak-minded Robert III., wishful to obtain peace at any price, allowed his
brother, the politic Duke of Albany, to carry out his ambitious plans. He
made it known among the Scottish nobility that the Duke of Rothesay, the
heir-apparent to the Crown, would require to be married, to maintain the
succession, and the hand of the Duke would be assigned to the highest
bidder. Foremost among the match-making nobles was George, eleventh Earl
of Dunbar and March, who had a daughter Elizabeth of marriageable age; and
it was intimated to him that if he could produce an adequate dowry his
daughter might be prospective Queen. By some means the Earl fulfilled the
conditions, and the Lady Elizabeth of Dunbar was declared to be the
betrothed bride of the Duke of Rothesay.
The Earl of Douglas,
however, had also a daughter of a suitable age for wedlock, and as his
revenues vastly exceeded those of Dunbar, he saw a brilliant opportunity
before him of ennobling his family by a connection with the Throne, and by
the same stroke discomfitting his rival. The Duke of Albany astutely saw
that whichever bride was chosen the result would be misfortune to his
nephew, from the raising of one of two powerful enemies against him.
Rothesay himself seems to have been indifferent, as he did not mean to be
faithful to either bride, so he languidly acquiesced to whatever his uncle
Albany proposed, and received the daughter of Douglas with as little
regard as he would have bestowed upon the heiress of Dunbar. But the Earl
of Dunbar and March could not bear the insult and contumely thus heaped
upon him. Retiring from the Court to his Castle of Dunbar, he summoned his
retainers around him, and prepared to open negotiations with the Court of
England. Leaving Dunbar strongly garrisoned in the care of one of his near
kinsmen, he journeyed himself to England expecting to receive the command
of a contingent to invade Scotland.
No sooner had the Earl of
Douglas heard of the preparations which the Earl of Dunbar and March had
made than he assembled his own overwhelming band of followers and,
marching straight to Dunbar Castle, invested it closely. This display of
power so terrified the fainthearted Governor that he surrendered without
striking a single blow. This completed the power of Douglas, since he had
Dunbar, Bothwell, and Douglas Castles in his possession, which controlled
all entrance to the south of Scotland. The succession of the Earls of
Dunbar and March, thus rudely broken, was never thoroughly re-established.
For a considerable period
the Castle changed hands frequently, as one or other of the Border Clans
gained supremacy in the neighbourhood; but its power of menacing the
Capital was never forgotten. As a coveted stand-point for any ambitious
Lord or successful Laird its history was a stormy one, though but
imperfectly learned from authentic records. Now it was in possession of
the Homes; anon the Scotts won it; and each of the more important Border
Clans had this stronghold under their control and dared their rivals. Many
strange scenes were enacted beneath the roof-tree of Dunbar, and many a
deed of nameless violence, of clamant wrong, did the now dilapidated
chambers witness :—
"Beneath those
battlements, within those walls
Power dwelt amid her passions; in proud state
Each robber chief upheld his armed halls,
Doing his evil will, nor less elate
Than mightier heroes of a longer date.
What want these outlaws; conquerors should have
But History’s purchased page to call them great?
A wider space, an ornamented grave?
Their hopes were not less warm; their works were full as brave."
The most interesting
episodes in the history of Dunbar Castle are those which relate to the
connection of Mary, Queen of Scots, with this desolate ruin. After the
ruthless murderers had perpetrated the outrage which they had long
meditated, the very success of their plot found them unprepared for the
results which followed. The suspicion of the weak and vacillating Darnley
on the one hand, and their well-grounded doubt of the faithfulness of the
arch-traitor and hypocrite, Moray, perplexed the leaders of the
assassination. The high-spirited manner in which the Queen denounced their
brutality led some of them to think that the safest way for them would be
to fulfil the threat with which Ruthven quieted her, and "cut her into
collops and throw her over the wall"; the difficulty in which they were
placed was a serious one. With Darnley at their head, and in the presence
of the Queen, they had committed "murder most foul and most unnatural" by
the assassination of Rizzio; and the question arose as to what should be
done with the Sovereign who was now in their hands.
The escape of the Queen
with Darnley from Holyrood has been often narrated. The fugitives directed
their way to Dunbar Castle. Her residence there, though short, was
sufficient to strike terror into the hearth of the conspirators against
the Throne; and when she returned a few days afterwards to Musselburgh, it
was to resume the power of which she had been so nearly deprived. Very
different was her next visit to this sea-beaten tower.
However unworthy an object
Darnley may have been, it is absolutely certain that Queen Mary loved him
faithfully. His reckless conduct during the scene of the murder of Rizzio
was easily pardoned by his affectionate wife upon the first intimation
which she received of his penitence and contrition; and thus the few days
they spent at Dunbar Castle formed a brief but pleasant interlude in her
chequered life. But soon afterwards the murder of Darnley changed the
prospect of her whole future career, and all the years she had yet to
survive were shrouded in darkness and despair:-
"White as a white sail
on a
dusky sea
When half the horizon’s crowded, and half free,
Fluttering between the dun wave and the sky
Is hope’s last gleam in man’s extremity.
Her anchor parts! but still her snowy sail
Attracts our eye amidst the rudest gale;
Though every wave she
climbs divides us more,
The heart still follows from the loneliest shore."
A new actor now appears on
the scene. The Earl of Bothwell, Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Sheriff of
Haddington, and Captain of Dunbar Castle, had made himself extremely busy
in political affairs. His bold appearance and invincible conduct quailed
all his opponents, and carried terror to the hearts of the conspirators,
who, with him, had brought about the murder of Darnley, and whom he swayed
as he wished.
Queen Mary had visited her
infant son at Stirling Castle, and on the morning of 24th April 1567 she
left Linlithgow Palace for Holyrood, with a small retinue; and Bothwell,
as High Sheriff of East Lothian, had put himself at the head of a thousand
armed followers, and intercepted the Queen at Foulbriggs (now
Fountainbridge), and carried her off forcibly to his Castle of Dunbar,
and, clasping the arm of the fair Queen of Scots with his own rude mailed
gauntlet, he led his dejected captive within its walls. Picture the misery
of the poor Queen at this juncture: her husband murdered by the agency of
her captor, her son secluded from her in a distant fortress, and her own
person in the power of a reckless and unprincipled wretch, whose lawless
passions impelled him to unrestrained iniquity. The dark story of her
sojourn at Dunbar if fully known would throw an entirely new light upon a
very dubious episode, which has been interpreted to her discredit, without
proof, by her antagonists.
As the Queen in her
melancholy turret-chamber at Dunbar gazed anxiously, hopelessly, over the
foam-besprent waters of the North Sea, the memory of her own lovely
canzonet might come into her mind, and recall the pleasures of by-past
times, the milder woes of her early life :—
"The voice of my sad
song
With mournful sweetness guides
My piercing eye along
The tract that death divides;
‘Mid sharp and bitter sighs
My youth’s bright morning dies.
Can greater woes employ
The scourge of ruthless Fate?
Can any hope, when joy
Forsakes my high estate?
My age and heart behold
The shroud their love enfold.
O’er my life’s early spring,
And o’er its opening bloom,
My deadly sorrows fling
The darkness of the tomb;
My star of hope is set
In yearning and regret."
And as she heard the step of her
hateful captor approaching her chamber would not her mind dwell upon those
gentle and loving words which her murdered spouse had addressed to her in
the full hey-day of youth and love?
"The turtle for her mate
More dule may not endure
Than I do for her sake
Who has mine heart in cure,
My heart, which shall be sure
With service to the deed
Unto that lady pure,
The wale of woman heid.
Yet no mirth till we meet
Shall cause me be content!
But still my heart lament
In sorrowful silence sore
Till that time she’s present,
Farewell, I say no more!"
Quod King Henry Stuart.
The gay King Henry’s farewell had
been realised, and the Queen had to endure the insolence and the
lawlessness of his cruel murderer. The Bride of France, the Queen of
Scotland, was now the leman of an unprincipled Border Chief, whose meed
was the gallows, had each man his due.
Ten days after her solitary
confinement in Dunbar Castle, the Queen was bidden to accompany her captor
(now raised to the rank of Duke of Orkney) to Edinburgh. She expected to
be taken to Holyrood, but instead she was conveyed to Edinburgh Castle.
Bothwell still thought that he was acting as a freeman, but he was really
playing into the hands of the Associate Lords. He stealthily carried the
Queen to Borthwick Castle, but he was soon followed by the Regent Moray’s
troops, who invested the place, but had not artillery to besiege it. He
escaped by a secret passage, leaving the Queen to the mercy of the
soldiers. She donned the costume of a cavalier, mounted a horse, and was
making her way towards Edinburgh Castle, when her captor appeared, seized
her reins, and led her once more to Dunbar Castle.
Queen Mary’s association with this
stronghold has been fully explained. It only now remains to say that it
was at Dunbar where Bothwell devised the Battle of Carberry Hill which
proved so fatal to the hapless Queen. The Regent’s troops overcame
Bothwell’s scanty force, and Mary was captured, conveyed a prisoner to
Edinburgh, and thence to incarceration in Loch Leven Castle. The Regent
Moray, in December 1567, obtained an Act of Parliament directing the
demolition of Dunbar Castle and the Fort on Inchkeith, which, however, was
not immediately put in execution. Not until the army of Moray returned
victoriously from Langside, in May 1568, did he set himself deliberately
to destroy Dunbar Castle, as being a fitting emblem of his triumph over
the Queen.
And now the site of this ancient
fortress is left desolate and unlovely. The few stones which mark the spot
where once it reared its head proudly are moss-covered and time-worn, and
but for the interest that clings about them because of their eventful
history, they might readily be passed unnoticed by the traveller. Yet
memory and imagination alike conspire to recall and vivify the departed
forms which once lived in joy and sorrow, in hope and despair, within
these ruined walls:-
"Nae Iicht is
schinand in the
lodge, and nae porter keeps the door;
Nae warder strides, wi’ lustie spear, that dreirie lodge before;
Nae harp is heard inurth the ha’, and nae sang frae lady brave;
But all is quiet as Eremit’s howff, and stilliche as the grave."
The ruins of Dunbar Castle belong by
heritage to the Earl of Home, as representing the Douglas family, to whom
the structure belonged in early days. |