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Introduction
IN the following pages I
have endeavoured to arrange in a concise form the facts, so far as they
can be ascertained, leading to the evolution of the realm of Scotland by
the consolidation of the petty kingdoms which existed in the eighth
century, the events which subsequently infringed and threatened
permanently to destroy its independence, and the means by which that
independence was regained and established. The narrative has been told
and retold very often, varying in accordance with the prepossession,
prejudice and historical insight of different writers; yet it remains a
fact that, while many Scotsmen desire to have a definite understanding
of the cause for which their forefathers made such heavy sacrifice, few
can give the time necessary for the examination and collation of
conflicting authorities. I have attempted, therefore, to put the essence
of the matter into these lectures, and, at the same time, to convey some
impression of the kind of warfare whereby our independence was secured.
Every question has at least two sides; that which arose in the
thirteenth century between England and Scotland has too often been
treated as if it had only one. We are now far enough removed from the
field of strife to take a just view of the English, as well as the
Scottish, aspect of the controversy.
As I have dealt with the War of Independence in greater detail in a
volume on Robert the Bruce contributed to the “Heroes of the Nation”
series in 1897, I have to acknowledge the courtesy with which the
publishers, Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, have consented to waive any
objection they might entertain to such repetition as has been found
inevitable. I have not in most cases supplied references to the various
authorities upon which the statements in the text are based, because the
lectures are printed almost literatim as delivered, and such references
would have unnecessarily confused an oral narrative. The chief
authorities relied on have been Bain’s Calendar of Documents relating to
Scotland, Lord Hailes’s Annals of Scotland, Rymer’s Foedera Antiqua,
Barbour’s BruS) Chronicon de Lanercost) the Scalacronica of Sir Thomas
Gray, Stevenson’s Documents Illustrative of the History of Scotland, the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Raine’s Fetters from the Northern Registers,
Palgrave’s Documents, etc., illustrating the History of Scotland.
HERBERT MAXWELL.
Monreith, February 1911.
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