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The Aftermath of War: Scotland and England in the late Thirteenth and early Fourteenth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

G. W. S. Barrow
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Extract

From a selfish point of view the historian has reason to be grateful for war, for it has been a prodigious generator of record and stimulator of commentary and chronicle. This, I suppose, is merely another way of stating the adage ‘Happy is the country which has no history’. In modern times it seems to have become normal for the belligerent powers to produce massive official histories of the wars in which they were engaged. These will serve to demonstrate that the cause was just, that the population, troops and civilians alike, displayed exemplary courage and fortitude, that their leaders had an unerring grasp of strategy and could inspire love and devotion, and above all that the country concerned somehow acquired, under the strains and shock of war, a unity, even a personality, which transcended the pre-occupations, the ambitions, squabbles, triumphs, boredom and tribulations of the host of individual men and women who happened at the time to compose it. There seems, in contrast, to be much less enthusiasm for the idea of an official history of a country in peacetime, save (no doubt significantly) in the case of totalitarian, collectivist countries whose régimes are perpetually conscious of the need for self-advertisement and self-justification.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 28 , December 1978 , pp. 103 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1978

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References

1 Nicholson, R., Edward III and the Scots: the formative years of a military career (Oxford, 1965). Cf. pp. 256–6Google Scholar.

2 Prestwich, M., War, politics and finance under Edward I (London, 1972). Cf. pp. 291–7Google Scholar.

3 Calendar of documents relating to Scotland preserved in Her Majesty's Public Record Office, London, ed. Bain, J., 4 vols., Edinburgh, 1881–1888 [hereafter CDS])Google Scholar.

4 560 pages in vol. i, the first 170 pages of vol. ii, together with pp. 353–7 and 385–7 of vol. iv.

5 CDS, iv, pp. 1–351, 401–45.

6 Ibid., ii, pp. 171–559; iv. PP. 1–435; iv, PP. 358–82, 388–401. This does not include the lengthy extracts from the Wardrobe Book of 29 Edw. I., printed ibid., iv, pp. 446–89.

7 This statement is made without prejudice to the question of how far Edward I or John Balliol or any other individual can be held responsible for the destruction or loss of the pre-1296 royal archives of Scotland. Cf. Powicke, F. M., The Thirteenth Century (Oxford, 1953), pp. 750–1Google Scholar.

8 The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, ed. Thomson, T. and Innes, C. (Record Commission, 1814–1875), i, pp. 10718Google Scholar (red).

9 Registrum Honoris de Morton (Bannatyne Club, 1853), ii, pp. 9–10Google Scholar, nos. 11 and 12 of, respectively, 1281 and 1285. The church and vicarage of Wauchope (‘Walleuhope’) are on record as early as 1220 ( Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis (Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs, 1843 [hereafter Glasgow Registrum]), i, p. 98Google Scholar, no. 114).

10 Armstrong, R. B.. The History of Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchopedale and the Debatable lands (Edinburgh, 1883), Part I (all published), pp. 165–8Google Scholar.

11 CDS, iii, no. 1354.

12 Ibid., iii, no. 1096.

13 On this see generally Duncan, A. A. M., Scotland: the Making of the Kingdom (Edinburgh, 1975)Google Scholar, chapters 20–32, and Nicholson, R., Scotland: the later Middle Ages (Edinburgh 1974), chapters 1 and 7–10Google Scholar. An article by Dr A. Grant on ‘The Development of the Scottish Peerage’, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Scot. Hist. Rev. illustrates important changes in the structure of the nobility.

14 Documents illustrative of the History of Scotland, ed. Stevenson, J. (2 vols., Edinburgh 1870 [hereafter Stevenson, Documents]), ii, pp. 119Google Scholar, 149–57; CDS, ii, no. 1314.

15 Focdera (Rec. Comm. edn., 1816–69), i, p. 772a; cf. CDS, ii, p. 205. Probably he was the Thomas of Selkirk whose lands in Norhamshire were restored at the peace of 1304 (ibid., ii, nos. 1481, 1594). These lands had been acquired from Thomas of Moray, burgess of Berwick, whose widow Amiflys sold an annual rent derived from a house in Crossgate to Thomas, of Selkirk, (Liber S. Marie de Metros (Bannatyne Club, 1836)Google Scholar [hereafter Melrose Liber], no. 371).

18 Melrose Liber, no. 372.

17 Ibid. For Peter of Selkirk serving in the English garrison of Berwick in 1312, see CDS, iii, pp. 396, 415.

18 Stevenson, , Documents, ii, p. 96Google Scholar.

19 Foedera, i, p. 772a.

20 Stevenson, , Documents, ii, p. 154Google Scholar.

21 Melrose Liber, p. 337; Foedera, i, p. 772b.

22 CDS, iii, nos. 1128, 1129; cf. RotuliScotiae (Rec. Comm., 1814–19), i, p. 266a–b.

23 CDS, iii, nos. 960, 1193; Rotuli Scotiae, i, p. 255b.

24 CDS, ii, no. 1313; iii, no. 1193; Foedera, i, p. 772b.

25 CDS, ii, p. 205.

26 Ibid., iii, no. 1193.

27 Ibid., ii, no. 1065. Henry Wallace (‘le Galeys’) was one of a group of English municipal magnates comissioned by Edward I to re-organize Berwick after 1296 (Stevenson, , Documents, ii, pp. 119, 150–1)Google Scholar.

28 CDS, ii, no. 1313.

29 Ibid., iii, no. 1193.

30 Ibid. Compare the somewhat similar case of Simon son of Patrick of Beadnell (Northumberland) who in 1334 claimed property in Berwick as kinsman an dheir of William Spur who held it before 1286 (Rotuli Scotiae, i, pp. 265b–266a).

31 CDS, iii, no.1524.

32 Memoranda de Parliamento, 1305, ed. Maitland, F. W. (Rolls Series, 1893) pp. 192–3, no. 319Google Scholar.

33 CDS, iii, no. 115.

34 Ibid., iii, p. 432.

35 Ibid., iii, p. 66 (no. 337).

36 Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, ed. Stuart, J. and Burnett, G. (Edinburgh, 1878–1908), i, p. 67Google Scholar.

37 Ibid., i, p. 299 (account for two years, 1329–30).

38 CDS, iii, pp. 320–1.

39 Ibid., iii, p. 373.

40 Liber S. Marie de Dryburgh (Bannatyne Club, 1847)Google Scholar [hereafter Dryburgh Liber], no. 142 = Regesta Regum Scottorum, ii ( Acts of William Iking of Scots, 1165–1214, ed. Barrow, G. W. S., Edinburgh, 1971)Google Scholar, no. 290.

41 Dryburgh Liber, no. 149.

42 Ibid., no. 282. This and the next document cited are misdated in the Table of Contents.

43 Ibid., no. 283.

44 CDS, iii, pp. 404–05; cp. Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, i, pp. 67–8 for five of these payments of 1327. The chaplain of Harlaw may possibly have been saying masses for the souls of English kings.

45 CDS, ii, p. 197; Memoranda de Parliamento, 1305, pp. 180–1, no. 294; Melrose Liber, no. 52 (Roxburgh, 4 04 1306)Google Scholar.

46 Registrant Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, i, ed. Thomson, J. Maitland (Edinburgh, 1912)Google Scholar, no. 14.

47 Drybwgh Liber, nos. 313–16, especially no. 315.

48 Liber S. Marie de Calchou (Bannatyne Club, 1846)Google Scholar [hereafter Kelso Liber], no. 489.

49 CDS, iii, no. 1636.

50 Kelso Liber, no. 521.

51 CDS, ii, p. 197.

52 Ibid., ii, no. 1007; Stevenson, , Documents, ii, p. 267Google Scholar.

53 Kelso Liber, nos. 483 (24 July 1329) and 484; cf. no. 479.

54 CDS, iii, p. 381.

55 Dryburgh Liber, no. 315.

56 Rotuli Scotiae, i, pp. 256a, 271b–272a; CDS, iii, no. 1521. Cf. CDS, ii, no. 867. wrongly dated 1296 by Bain, since the mention of Robert of Tughall as sheriff of Berwick shows that it must belong to 1333–7 (ibid., iii, refs. in index s.v. ‘Tughale’).

57 Kelso Liber, no. 484.

58 CDS, iii, p. 321; Kelso Liber, no. 489.

59 Michael Saddler (le Seeler, le Sealeer) was a burgess of Roxburgh in 1296 (CDS, ii, p. 197). His widow Sirildis augmented the Auldton chantry in the church of St James at Roxburgh from land she had inherited in the barony of Oxnam, probably in the 1330s (Kelso Liber, no. 491). In this period Robert son of John Saddler was dealing in property in the Roxburgh area (Kelso Liber, no. 492) and a document of c. 1329 refers to land held by Robert Saddler in Kingstreet, Roxburgh (Kelso Liber, no. 479).

60 so Thomas Baker or Baxter (le pestour) of Roxburgh did homage in 1296 (CDS, ii, p. 213). Uhtred Baker and his son Roger figure prominently in earlier fourteenth-century records relating to Roxburgh and district, Uhtred being alderman of Roxburgh c. 1329 (Kelso Liber, no. 482; cf. ibid., pp. 369–74; Dryburgh Liber, nos. 307, 313, 315).

61 Several documents in the cartularies of the abbeys of Kelso and Dryburgh refer to members of the family which took its surname from Auldton or Alton near Heiton in the southern part of Roxburgh parish (see Kelso Liber, Drybwrgh Liber, refs. in indices, s.v. Aul(d)ton; CDS, iii, nos. 1184, 1199, 1521, 1537). These documents show that the Auldtons were prominent in and around Roxburgh during the first half of the fourteenth century, and they do not appear to have been newcomers at that time. The Auldton chantry in the parish kirk of St James of Roxburgh is dealt with at length in Origines Parochiales Scotiae (Bannatyne Club, 1851), i, PP. 456–61Google Scholar.

62 Armstrong, , History of Liddesdale, pp. 166–8Google Scholar.

63 The story comes entirely from a single document, issued at ‘Blantrodokis’ (Temple, Midlothian) by Brother Thomas Lindsay, Master of the Knights of the Hospital in Scotland, Wednesday, 30 April 1354, published (with facsimile) by Edwards, John, Scot. Hist. Rev., V (1908), 13–25Google Scholar. The editorial comment needs to be used with caution.

64 Nat. Grid ref. NT338570.

65 Watson, w., History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland (Edinburgh-London, 1926), p. 136Google Scholar. Despite the occasional, mostly late, appearance of forms with ‘Bal(l)-an-’, implying Gaelic baile an-, the early forms, especially ‘Plent(r)idoc’ (Glasgow Registrum, i, no. 41), and several later forms, point to an originally Brittonic (Cumbric) name embodying the element blaen, ‘upland’ and not Gaelic baile, ‘homestead’. Watson's emphasis, therefore, on the special interest of this name is probably not justified.

66 Preceptor in Scotland in 1291 (Foedera, i, p. 773b); Master of the Temple in England by 1296 (CDS, ii, p. 220).

67 Edwards, (Scot. Hist. Rev., V, 18Google Scholar) supposed that the unnamed king was Edward I, present at Newbattle on 5 June, 1296. But the fact that after being heard in the royal court Christian obtained a brieve ‘according to the form of the king's chapel’ and then held possession ‘per magnum tempus’ points to a king of Scots and a judgement more than four and a half years before the war of 1296.

68 CDS, ii, p. 220. His successor as Preceptor in Scotland was Brother John of Sawtry, who, like le Jay, was killed at Falkirk.

69 For the background to this episode see The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, ed. Rothwell, H. (Royal Historical Society, Camden Series 89, 1957), p. 324Google Scholar, and Barrow, G. W. S., Robert Bruce and the community of the realm of Scotland (2nd edn, Edinburgh, 1976), pp. 140–1Google Scholar. The English king's resting place was actually Temple Liston, now Hallyards, a part of Liston belonging to the knights of the Temple.

70 Clerkington, now Rosebery, was on the River South Esk and was associated with Braidwood in the seventeenth century ( Macfarlane's Geographical Collections, ed. Mitchell, A. and Clark, J. T., Scot. History soc., 1906–1908, iii, p. 120Google Scholar; Inquisitionum ad capellam domini regis retornatarum (Rec. Comm., Edinburgh, 1811–1816), i, nos. 1075, 1091)Google Scholar.

71 CDS, iii, no. 1560.

72 The total, which can only be approximate because of the uncertainty of some of the identifications, is usually given as 2,000. My own guess is that when allowance is made for repetition of names and when non-Scots are deducted, the total may be found to be nearer 1,500–1,750.

73 The names may be examined most conveniently in CDS, ii, pp. 178–214. A few homages received prior to the Berwick parliament do not appear again in the list purporting to date 28 August, and no doubt a considerable number of Scots freeholders (e.g. burgesses of west-country burghs and highland freeholders from the far north and west) do not figure on the lists at all. It would appear that some sheriffs and baronial officers were more conscientious than others, and shortage of time may account for some absences from remoter regions.

74 Religious houses whose heads were included on the list for the sheriffdom of Edinburgh were Ballencrieff, Haddington, Holyrood, Houston, Manuel, New battle, St Germains, Soutra, Temple (Templars) and Torphichen (Hospitallers), to which should be added Dunfermline Abbey owning the shire of Inveresk or Musselburgh, and North Berwick priory, whose omission is unexplained. St Andrews cathedral priory also owned considerable property in East and West Lothian.

The thirteen beneficed clergy on the list were incumbents of Auldhame, Bara, Cranstoun, Dalmeny, Innerwick, Kirkliston, Lasswade, Loquhariot (Borthwick), Ratho, Restalrig, Stow, Waughton and West Calder.

The earl of Fife, a considerable landowner in Lothian, was about six years old in 1296, and fealty may have been sworn for him by proxy.

75 References to these may be found in CDS, ii, nos. 742, 743, 875, 877, 1013 etc.

76 Stevenson, , Documents, ii, pp. 92, 94, 95Google Scholar.

77 CDS, ii, pp. 198, 201.

78 Palgrave, F., Documents and records illustrating the history of Scotland, i (London, 8137). PP. 341–5Google Scholar.

79 CDS, ii, no. 1152.

80 W. Rishanger … chronica et annales, ed. Riley, H. T. (Rolls Series, London, 1865), p. 388Google Scholar.

81 CDS, ii, nos. 998, 1000, 1003, 1008, 1017 etc.

82 Stevenson, , Documents, iiGoogle Scholar. no. 529.

83 CDS, ii, nos. nos, 1857.

84 Ibid., ii, no. 1009.

85 Ibid., ii, no. 666.

86 British Library, MS. Add. 28024, fo. 80.

87 CDS, ii, nos. 859, 1321 (10) and many references between these numbers. Cf. ibid., no. 1707.

88 Ibid., iii, no. 258.

89 CDS, iv, no. 1826; The correspondence, inventories, account rolls and law proceedings of the Priory of Coldingham, ed. Raine, J. (Surtees Society, 1841), p. ciiGoogle Scholar, ‘per cartam Domini Regis forisfactas’. It may be noted that several of the men forfeited were recorded as doing homage in August, 1296: Adam Belle, Adam Collan, William of Lamberton, John Grithman (=Gytheman), Roger of Lumsdaine (CDS, ii, pp. 202, 206–07).

90 Barrow, G. W. S., ‘Lothian in the first War of Independence’, Scot. Hist. Rev., lv (1976), 155–7Google Scholar. The editor of the source, Canon Raine the elder, was aware of its importance and saw that it belonged to c. 1298 and that part of its purpose was to ‘ascertain the names of the Tenants within the Barony of Coldingham as had espoused the side of their country against the pretensions of England’ (Correspondence of the Priory of Coldingham, Preface, p. xi).

91 The Register and Records of the abbey of Holm Cultram, ed. Grainger, F. and Collingwood, W. G. (Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Soc., 1929), no. 156e (p. 60)Google Scholar, wrongly attributed to Cartulary ‘H 2’ instead of ‘H 1’.

92 B. L., MS. Harl. 3911, fo. 126 r–v.

93 ‘Grevestone’, apparently Grieston on the River Tweed above Traquair (cf. CDS, ii, p. 424). Since Grieston was royal demesne, it can hardly have been the estate referred to in the de Ros genealogy as a barony in Scotland granted to an earlier Robert de Ros by his father, William, King the Lion's son-in-law (Chartulary of Rievaulx, ed. Atkinson, J. C. (Surtees Soc., 1889), p. 360)Google Scholar.

94 For Richard of Glen and his son John, , see Rotuli Scotiae, i, p. 11aGoogle Scholar; Palgrave, , Documents and Records, i, p. 345Google Scholar. Glen is two miles south west of Traquair.

95 For Sir Alexander Folkard, son of William Folkard of Folkerton, see Kelso Liber, nos. 188, 191, 192, 195 and Palgrave, , Documents and Records, p. 311Google Scholar. In Barrow, , Robert Bruce, p. 450Google Scholar his lands are wrongly stated to have been in Lennox instead of Lanarkshire. In BL, MS. Harl. 3911 fo. 126 he is called simply Alexander ‘de Folcardestoun’.

96 Probably identical with Gilbert Makenaght or Maleraghe, CDS, ii, no. 810 and p. 210; if so, then of the sheriffdom of Dumfries.

97 Cuthbert MacGilguyn was a Kirkcudbrightshire juror in 1296 (CDS, ii, no. 824 (4)). With the previous name, cp. Gilbert Macmonhathe (of Dumfries?) on record in 1304 (ibid., ii, no. 1588).

98 Probably John of Luss in Lennox ( Palgrave, , Documents and Records, i, p. 311Google Scholar) rather than from Luce in Annandale, held of Bruce by Walter Logan of Hartside from 1298 (CDS, iv. pp. 387–8).

99 For the date, cp. CDS, ii, no. 1009.

100 Stevenson, , Documents, ii, no. 595Google Scholar.

101 Barrow, , Robert Bruce, p. 181Google Scholar.

102 Ibid., p. 183.

103 Ibid., pp. 189–98.

104 Stones, E. L. G., Anglo-Scottish Relations, 1174–1328: some selected documents (Oxford, 1965)Google Scholar, reprinted with new pagination, 1970), no. 33 (pp. 246–7).

105 Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G. O., ‘The Scottish Parliaments of Edward I’, Scot. Hist. Rev., xxv (1928), 311–14Google Scholar.

106 Palgrave, , Documents and Records, i, p. 302Google Scholar.

107 Ibid., i, pp. 303, 305, 314, 317.

108 Ibid., i, pp. 305, 314.

109 Ibid., i, pp. 304, 306, 309, 313, 315.

110 Ibid., i, p. 311.

111 Ibid.

112 Ibid., i, p. 312.

113 Ibid., i, p. 308.

114 Ibid., i, pp. 310, 317.

115 CDS, ii, nos. 1908, 1909.

116 Compare thirty pages for 1326–7 with 325 pages for 1328–31(Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, i, pp. 52–409).

117 Webster, B., Handlist of the Acts of David II, 1329–71 (Edinburgh, Regesta Regum Scottorum Committee, 1962), pp. 8–9Google Scholar, 97. The effort to sustain the routine of the capella regis will be better seen when volumes v and vi of the Regesta Regum Scottorum appear.

118 Webster, , Handlist of David II, p. 97Google Scholar.

119 Nicholson, , Scotland: the later Middle Ages, p. 124Google Scholar.

120 CDS, iii, nos. 962, 984, 999; Reg. and recs. of Holm Cultram, pp. 55–6 (which shows that the English abbey of Holm Cultram was experiencing difficulty in recovering Scottish property).

121 CDS, iii, nos. 972, 980, 990–1, 1005, 1030, 1040 etc.

122 Ibid., iii, no. 1010.

123 Ibid., iii, nos. 1013, 1029, 1051.

124 Stones, E. L. G., ‘The Anglo-Scottish Negotiations of 1327’, Scot. Hist. Rev., xxix (1950), 34–5)Google Scholar; xxx (1951). 53–3; and the same author's Anglo-Scottish Relations, p. xxx.

125 Stones, , Anglo-Scottish Relations, no. 42 (pp. 342–5)Google Scholar.

126 CDS, iii, no. 982.

127 Ibid., ii, p. 175 and no. 1030; Stevenson, , Documents, ii, p. 49Google Scholar.

128 Nicholson, , Scotland: the later Middle Ages, p. 125Google Scholar.

129 CDS, iii, nos. 1058, 1059, 1064.

130 Ibid., iii, nos. 1109, 1116, 1127.

131 Nicholson, , Edward III and the Scots, pp. 190–1, 226–7Google Scholar.

132 Ibid., pp. 138–40.

133 Ibid., pp. 141, 150–1.

134 CDS, iii, pp. 317–47, 368–93. The sheriffdom of Edinburgh is dealt with on pp. 327–47 and 376–91.

135 E.g., CDS, ii, pp. 201, 202, where the phrase ‘tenantz le Roi du counte de Edneburk (Linlescu)’ appears to refer particularly to small freeholders, including burgesses, on royal demesne, distinguished from tenants in chief in the usual sense.

136 E.g., CDS, iii, pp. 327–31 lists the various units of royal demesne while Ibid., pp. 331–42 deals with ‘new escheats’ of lands held by barons and freeholders.

137 Ibid., iii, pp. 340–2.

138 Ibid., iii, pp. 332–5.

139 Ibid., iii, pp. 336–40.

140 Ibid., iii, p. 333.

141 Ibid., iii, pp. 341–2.

142 Ibid., ii, pp. 201 (‘Doghlyn’ and Langemore), 203, 211; iii, pp. 333, 347, 383.

143 Ibid., ii, pp. 201, 213.

144 Ibid., iii, pp. 340, 390.

145 Ibid., ii, p. 213 (under Perthshire, presumably in respect of her own inheritance).

146 Ibid. iii, pp. 341, 390.

147 Ibid., ii, pp. 197, 198, 201, 202.

148 Ibid., iii, pp. 342, 346, 390.

149 Jurdan of ‘Aldamston’ was a juror in East Lothian in 1296 (CDS, ii, no. 824 (3)). It seems probable that the place in question is identical with ‘Aldenestun’ in an unpublished twelfth-century charter relating to Tranent (Scottish Record Office, GD 241/254), and with ‘Aldin(g)ston(e)’ appearing in record of the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries ( Calendar of writs preserved at Tester House, ed. Harvey, C. G. and Macleod, John, Scottish Record Society, 1916–1930, nos. 76, 95Google Scholar; National Library of Scotland, MS. 821, pp. 341, 360). If so, it is to be identified with Adniston in Tranent.

150 CDS, ii, p. 201.

151 Ibid., iii, pp. 335, 382.

152 Ibid., ii, p. 201; iii, p. 387.

153 Ibid., ii, p. 213; iii, pp. 334, 380.

154 Ibid., ii, p. 201; iii, pp. 334, 381.

155 Ibid., ii, p. 198; iii, p. 331.

156 Ibid., ii, p. 208; iii, pp. 332, 379.

157 Nicholson, , Edward HI and the Scots, pp. 190–1Google Scholar, 226–7. The sheriffs' accounts cited above, n. 134, are evidence of severe and widespread devastation across southern and south-eastern Scotland.

158 Johannis de Fordun Chronica Gentis Scotorum, ed. Skene, W. F. (Edinburgh, 1871), i, pp. 360–1Google Scholar.

159 Ibid., i, p. 367.

160 Ibid., i, pp. 374–5; Nicholson, , Scotland: the later Middle Ages, p. 162Google Scholar.

161 Instructive comparisons with conditions in France at the conclusion of the war with England may be drawn from a paper by DrAllmand, C. T., ‘The aftermath of war in fifteenth-century France’, History, lxi (1976), 344–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar.