|
Preface
The Lord Chancellors of
Scotland is a work that could not be produced without the aid of
scientific research. The origin of the office is involved in great
obscurity, and it has never been finally determined who the first and
second Chancellors were. We are indebted to that eminent antiquarian, Mr
Cosmo Innes, for much of the information we possess of that early period
of Scottish history, the twelfth century. There are few records of that
period in existence save charters, issued by the King and signed by the
Chancellor, the Chamberlain, the Constable, and various clerical
witnesses, and it is remarkable that even these are preserved,
considering their great age.
According to the Scotichromcon, a work which possesses some authority,
the first Chancellor of Scotland was John, Bishop of Glasgow, who was
appointed on the accession of David I. in 1124, and held the office for
two years, at the end of which period he resigned, as the duties of the
office were not congenial to him. It is possible that the King then
allowed the office to lie vacant for a few years, till he appointed as
Bishop John’s successor Herbert, believed to be Herbert Maxwell, whose
signature, “Herbert the Chancellor,” appears on many documents of that
period. This Herbert the Chancellor was a great personality in his day,
and, as noted, we find his signature on many charters, some of them of
the very highest importance. He evidently held office for a period of
fifteen or seventeen years. The origin of the Maxwell family we have
fully explained in the second chapter of the text. It is one of the
earliest of our Scottish families, and is represented today by Sir
Herbert Maxwell of Monreith, Wiotown-shire, Chairman of the Royal
Commission on Ancient Monuments.
We do not guarantee the absolute accuracy of the list of Chancellors we
have given in the Kalendar, on account of the difficulty of establishing
facts even when the period dealt with is a relatively late one. With
this qualification, however, the Kalendar may be accepted as fairly
accurate.
To the student of history the want of such a work as the present has
long been evident, but its production, even with our present knowledge,
will in some respects be disappointing. It will be noticed, on perusal
of the text, that several of the notices are very brief. This is much to
be regretted, but arises from the scarcity of recorded material
available for the purpose, and it is impossible, in these circumstances,
to enlarge the narrative. The scheme of the work is not to give
biographies of the Chancellors, but rather an outline of their official
careers so far as that is possible from authentic sources.
Prior to the Reformation the history of the Chancellors is practically a
history of the Catholic Church in Scotland, and it must be confessed
that the progress of the Catholic Church in Scotland from the eleventh
to the sixteenth centuries makes fascinating reading, and is full of
incidents both interesting and important, when we consider the antiquity
of these events and their bearing on the political history of the
country during the period. Some of the Catholic Bishops and Archbishops
made very good Chancellors, but the office was really one which was
outside their profession altogether, and the duties foreign to their
conception of the order of things.
The influence exercised by the Pope over pre-Reformation Chancellors was
sometimes highly detrimental to the interests of the nation, especially
when that interminable controversy was introduced, the supremacy of Rome
or Canterbury, which often caused bitterness on both sides, and
sometimes resulted in the resignation of the Chancellor concerned.
The Reformation, or rather the assassination of Cardinal Beton in 1546,
put an end to the appointment of Catholic prelates to the office of
Chancellor, and thereafter lay peers of the realm were selected for the
appointment. Under them the administration of the Chancellorship was
vastly improved; its duties multiplied, became more defined, and were
executed with efficiency down to the Treaty of Union, when the office
was finally abolished.
Volume 1 |
Volume 2 |
