Satisfied with the earl’s concessions, the king withdrew from his territories; again proceeding northwards as far as Nairn in the course of the same autumn, to await the fulfilment of the treaty. On his return from hunting late one evening, he found Earl Harald in attendance with two children, his nephews, whom he offered in the place of his own son as hostages for his fidelity and allegiance. Surprised at this evasion of their agreement, the king demanded the reason of it, remarking upon the absence of Thorfin, whom Harald had promised as a hostage. The earl’s reply was remarkable, though it could scarcely be considered satisfactory. Thorfin, he said, was his only son, and he was reluctant to part with the sole heir of his earldom; and as for the enemies of the king whom he had promised to deliver into his hands, they had actually accompanied him as far as the port of Lochloy, within a few miles of Nairn, when he had suffered them to escape, reflecting that their doom was certain if once surrendered to the king.[477] As it is impossible that the earl could have imagined for one moment that William would permit so palpable an evasion of their treaty, it can only be supposed that, repenting of his promise as he approached Nairn, he preferred braving the royal anger by conniving at the escape of his prisoners, to surrendering friends, and probably connections, of his own, or of his wife, to the certain doom of death; or the even worse alternative of perpetual imprisonment, with probable mutilation or loss of sight. William and his barons in council—the peers of the earl, before whom he was immediately arraigned—at once pronounced him guilty of a breach of fealty, declaring that he had thereby forfeited his liberty; and he was carried in the train of William to the south, and retained in custody until, upon the arrival of his son Thorfin, he was released from captivity, and permitted to return to the Orkneys.[478]
A. D. 1197.
But the earl had not yet reached the conclusion of his troubles; for Harald Ericson, after receiving a grant of half the earldom of Caithness from the king of Scotland, sailed to Norway, and obtained a recognition of his right, from King Suerer, to a similar partition of the Orkneys. This Harald, generally known as the younger earl, was a son of Ingigerda, the only child of Rognwald; but the elder Harald, unmindful of his early friend, seems to have ignored the claims of his heir to a partition of the earldom. A band of followers, however, was easily collected in Norway, and so little was the elder earl prepared for an attack, that, upon the arrival of his competitor in the Orkneys, he fled precipitately to Man. He was shortly followed by Harald Ericson; but again eluding pursuit, he returned suddenly to the Orkneys, visiting with summary vengeance all who had declared for the younger Harald. He had lost no time in the interval in gathering his own partizans, and, upon the return of his opponent from the Western Isles, he no longer shrunk from a contest for which he was now fully prepared.
The rival earls met near Wick, in Caithness; victory declared for the elder Harald, and the last descendant of Erlend Thorfinson perished upon the field of his defeat. Availing himself of the protection of the bishops of Ross and of St. Andrews, the conqueror sought the Scottish Court, and hastened to offer a large sum for the restitution of that portion of Caithness which had been conferred upon his deceased competitor. The king promised his consent if the earl would comply with his conditions, and agree to take back his former wife, and surrender Bonaver, the son of Ingemund, together with his chaplain, Lawrence, as additional hostages for his allegiance. Which of these conditions was distasteful to the earl the chronicler has failed to specify; but, in the opinion of Harald, half the earldom of Caithness would have been too dearly purchased at such a price; and upon the refusal of the proposed terms, William, without further parley, sold the fief to Ronald, king of Man.[479]
According to the usual custom of the age, Ronald placed his Maors, or deputies, over his newly acquired earldom, whilst Harald, retreating to the Orkneys, busied himself in preparations for the forcible recovery of his possessions; and suddenly reappearing in Caithness with an overpowering force, he drove out all who opposed him, treating the bishop of the diocese with savage cruelty for a supposed predilection to the cause of his rival.[480] Although Christmas was approaching, William lost no time in hastening to the scene of action, first retaliating the barbarities of the earl upon his unfortunate hostage Thorfin; but by the time the king reached Caithness, Harald had escaped to the Orkneys, returning immediately upon the departure of the royal army. William again marched to the north in the following spring, and again the earl sought refuge amongst his islands; but as such a fruitless contest was harassing to both parties, without being beneficial to either, it was at length terminated by Harald, who, A. D. 1202. placing himself under the safe conduct of the Bishop of St. Andrews, tendered his submission to the king at Perth, and was permitted, for a sum of 2000 pounds of silver, to enjoy his earldom in peace during the brief remainder of his life.[481]
A. D. 1198.
The six years over which these disturbances in the extreme north of Scotland extended had not been destitute of other events of importance, for, on the 24th of August 1198, the question of the succession to the Scottish throne had been finally set at rest by the birth of a prince, to whom the name of Alexander was given. A. D. 1201 Three years afterwards, according to the usual custom of the age, William summoned the barons of his realm to swear fealty to his infant heir at Musselburgh; the Earl of Huntingdon imitating the example of the Scottish nobles, and performing homage to his youthful nephew about four years later.[482] A. D. 1205 By the death of Richard, in the year following the birth of Alexander, A. D. 1199 the relations between the English and Scottish kings had once more become unsettled. Doubt and mistrust overshadowed England, bishops and barons strengthening their castles, and preparing for the contest anticipated between the uncle and his nephew; whilst numbers of the continental vassals of the English crown openly declared for Arthur. Following the course invariably adopted upon such occasions by all aspirants to the crown, John possessed himself of the late king’s treasures at Chinon, and this important point secured, he dispatched the Archbishop of Canterbury across the Channel, with William the Mareschal, and Geoffry Fitz Peter, the Justiciary of England, empowering them to pledge his royal word to all whose allegiance appeared doubtful, that full justice should be rendered on the arrival of the king to every faithful adherent of his cause. William, as might have been expected, had seized upon the opportunity afforded by John’s uncertain position to revive his claims upon the northern counties; but the royal deputies, after the council held at Northampton, forbade the Scottish envoys, who had arrived there, to cross to Normandy, prevailing upon the Earl of Huntingdon, one of the principal of the dubious adherents who had been gained over at the recent meeting, to notify to his royal brother that he should await the arrival of the king. A similar request was conveyed directly from John by Eustace de Vesci, who bore a promise to his wife’s father—for Eustace had married Margaret, one of William’s natural daughters—that complete satisfaction should be afforded him in all that he sought, if he would only refrain from immediate hostilities.[483]
Soon after his coronation upon Ascension day, John gave audience to William de Hay, and the priors of May and Inchcolm, who, in the name of the Scottish king, demanded a full restitution of his “patrimony”—the northern counties; promising liege and faithful service if he gained his suit, but threatening, in case of refusal, to win his rights by the sword. The reply of John was characteristically evasive;—“If your king, my very dear cousin, will come in person, I will do him right in this and in all that he demands.” The bishop of St. Andrews, with Hugo Malebise, were made the bearers of this message to William, whilst, that no point of courtesy or ceremonial might be omitted, the bishop of Durham was directed to proceed at once to the frontiers and escort the Scottish king to the place of meeting.
John reached the appointed rendezvous at Nottingham upon Whitsunday, but the king of Scotland declined to come, only sending word by Malebise and the bishop that, if his demands were not immediately granted, he would resent the refusal by a declaration of war. John stipulated for a further truce of forty days, promising a final answer at the end of that time; but after collecting a powerful army, and placing the counties in question under the charge of William d’Estoteville, he hastened to embark for Normandy within a fortnight, leaving the Scottish envoys, who had hurried after him to the coast, to convey what answer they pleased to their king.[484]
At length perceiving that the promises of John had been merely subterfuges for gaining time, William prepared to put his threats into execution; but the proper season for action had already passed away, and the English barons, not yet disgusted by the falsehood and tyranny of John, had for the present declared in his favour. A natural feeling of anxiety oppressed the mind of William as he recalled the events of his early manhood, and remembered the consequences of his former war with England. His kingdom was still unsettled, his health was beginning to fail, whilst his heir was still a mere child, and Scotland had hardly yet recovered from the disastrous state of anarchy into which she had been plunged by the capture of her king at Alnwick. Impressed with gloomy forebodings, the king determined upon passing the night by the shrine of his sainted ancestress at Dunfermline; where his reluctance to engage in hostilities assuming the form of a warning dream, he dismissed his army on the following morning, assuring them that he had been forbidden by a heavenly vision to attempt the invasion of England.[485]