Nigel Tranter - The Price of the King's Peace

Against all advice, he rode all the way from Cardross to Edinburgh, although by slow stages-and gained some small satisfaction to set against the pain, discomfort and exhaustion when, at Cramond near the city, he caught up with the train of Bishop Lamberton, himself lying in a litter, after crossing the ferry from life. Riding alongside his old friend’s equipage the few remaining miles, he was perversely pleased to be upright in his saddle and so able to condescend to the other however shocked he was by the wasted and emaciated state of the Primate.

Nevertheless, Bruce had to take to his bed on arrival at the Abbey of Holyrood, at Edinburgh, since he could by then by no means stand on his feet. This was a humiliation, and perhaps deserved;

for not only was all the world coming to Edinburgh these March days of 1328, but the city had organised a great pageant and demonstration for the King and his guests-anxious no doubt to establish its loyalty in the end. Not that Bruce cared overmuch about disappointing the fathers and citizens-for Edinburgh was a place he had never loved, always looking on it as almost an English city, which had taken sides against him more often than for him; but it must emphasise to all that the King was a sick man, when the pageantry had to take place without his presence, with Moray and young Prince David deputising for the monarch-for he flatly refused to view the proceedings from a litter, as the Primate did, rain nonetheless.

His infirmity could not but be obvious to the Englishmen also, of course-although he kept them from his room, and only appeared before them on occasion, and briefly, fully clad and making an almost pugnacious attempt to appear fit and hearty.

To all intents, it was a parliament, on the Scots side, Bruce having

summoned everyone of standing in the kingdom, to witness this

consummation of a life’s work. The terms of the treaty had been

thrashed out at York; but despite objections by the English, Bruce had

insisted that the actual signing should be done in his realm. There

were a few outstanding details to be settled, but it was entirely

evident that nothing now would hold up the ratification. It was to be the Treaty of Edinburgh, not of Newcastle or of York, or anywhere else whatever the English chose to call it thereafter.

King Edward had sent up a resounding team of commissioners, headed by Henry de Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln, a most able prelate and Lord High Chancellor of England. He was supported by the Bishop of Norwich, Sir Geoffrey le Scrope, the Chief Justice, and de la Zouche, Lord of Ashby, along with Sir Henry Percy again. It was noteworthy that both Percy and Ashby formerly held large lands in Scotland. Some trading was obviously envisaged.

Bruce was glad to leave the wrangling over details to others-although he and Lamberton were kept informed of every point, and maintained their fingers grimly on the pulse of the negotiations.

The main difficulty was the matter of the betrothal of Prince David and the Princess Joanna of the Tower-or at least, the date of such marriage contract. The English renunciation, as they called it, of all claims of sovereignty over Scotland, was dependent on this marriage, it seemed. And David Bruce would not reach the age of fourteen, legal age for consent to actual marriage, until 1338, ten years hence. Much might happen in ten years-and the King of France was already suggesting that David Bruce would be better married to a French princess. Mere promises were insufficient for the English, on this score-since they, if any did, knew the worth of mere promises. It was not until Bruce offered the enormous and quite unobtainable sum of 100,000 to be paid by the Scots if by 1338 David was not married to Joanna, that this matter was settled. Money always spoke loud, in the South.

A second point of difficulty was the matter of military aid, in alliance. The situation if France attacked England was thrashed out. It was eventually agreed that if their French allies drew Scotland into war, the English would be free to make war in return, without infringing the treaty. The Irish position was equally troublesome. In an effort to get the Scots to agree that they would not aid any Irish rebellion, the English commissioners offered the return to Scotland of the Black Rood of St. Margaret and the Stone of Destiny, stolen by Edward the First from Scone in 1296.

This, needless to say, was a grave embarrassment, since the true Stone had never left the Scone area, but had been kept in secret at various places thereabout. Evidently the Hammer of the Scots had kept to himself his undoubted knowledge that his Stone was false, and the English fully accepted it as genuine. Bruce certainly did not want Edward’s lump of Scone sandstone back; but nor was this the time to reveal the presence of the authentic original, he decided.

He had plans for the Stone of the Scone. So the Scots showed no interest in this offer, and instead obtained a promise that if anyone in Man or the Hebrides made war against the King of Scots, the English should not aid them. This matter had rankled in Bruce’s mind ever since Lame John MacDougall of Lorn had been made English Admiral of the West, and had had to be driven out of Man by Angus Og and Moray.

At length, all was settled, and the great ceremony of the signing took place in the refectory of Holyrood Abbey, crowded as it had never been before. For this occasion Bruce was fully dressed in his most splendid cloth-of-gold, under the jewelled Lion Rampant tabard of Scotland-even though he sat on his day-bed, and could raise and rest his swollen legs thereon when necessary. Lamberton was also present, in his litter. And if these two seemed, by their obvious physical disability, to lend an atmosphere of invalidism and infirmity, there at least was nothing of senility or weakness about it, as their eyes, speech and bearing made abundantly clear.

For these two, head of State and Church in Scotland, were indeed the most mentally alive and determined men in all that great company. Beside them, Percy was a drooping, hesitant ineffectual, Bishop Burghersh an anxious fat man eager to be elsewhere, and le Scrope a stiff, parchment-faced lawyer, niggling over words.

Before the actual signing, the English Lord Chancellor was to read out the Declaration of King Edward, written at York and to be incorporated in the treaty as preamble. As he was about to begin, Bruce intervened.

“My lord Bishop and Chancellor,” he said, “it seems to me meet and suitable that your liege lord’s pronouncement should be read by Sir Henry, my lord of Northumberland. His father was, to our cost, Lieutenant and Governor in Scotland, once! All knew him well, had to heed his voice! Let us be privileged to hear his son’s, on this occasion, if you please.”

And so it was that the son of the man who had hectored, lectured, reproved, deceived and harried the Bruce on so many occasions through the years, had to read aloud the words which were the justification and coping-stone of the hero-king’s thirty years of striving and suffering, indeed of his entire career. That he did so in an undignified and scarcely intelligible gabble, was neither here nor there.

“Whereas we, and some of our predecessors, Kings of England, have

attempted to gain rights of rule, lordship or superiority over the

Kingdom of Scotland, and terrible hardships have long afflicted the realms of England and Scotland through the wars fought on this account; and bearing in mind the bloodshed, slaughter, atrocities, destruction of churches, and innumerable evils from which the inhabitants of both realms have suffered over and over again because of these wars; and having regard also to the good things in which both realms might abound to their mutual advantage if joined in stability of perpetual peace, and thus more effectually made secure, within and beyond their borders, against the harmful attempts of violent men to rebel or make way; we will and concede for us and all our heirs and successors, by the common counsel, assent and consent of the prelates, magnates, earls and barons and communities of our realm in our parliament that the Kingdom of Scotland, shall remain for ever separate in all respects from the Kingdom of England, in its entirety, free and in peace, without any kind of subjection, servitude, claim or demand, with its rightful boundaries as they were held and preserved in the times of Alexander of good memory King of Scotland last deceased, to the magnificent prince, the Lord Robert, by God’s grace illustrious King of Scots, our ally and very dear friend, and to his heirs and successors.