Scotland under her early kings, Volume 1 (of 2)

by Eben William Robertson

A. D. 1200.

William had given up all present thoughts of open war, but he refused to listen to any overtures from John, declining to meet the English king at York in the following Lent, whilst he cultivated an alliance with Philip of France, and a marriage was negotiated between the young prince of Scotland and an infant French princess, the daughter of Agnes de Meranie.[486] The rumour of this alliance seriously alarmed John, and after the second of his numerous coronations, he dispatched a distinguished embassy with letters of safe conduct to the borders, to propose an interview with the king of Scotland, and to escort him for this purpose to Lincoln. With the Bishop of Durham and the Sheriff of Northumberland were associated the Earl of Hereford and the Lords de Vesci and de Ros, the nephew and sons-in-law of William, who, with the Earls of Huntingdon and Norfolk, and a brilliant retinue of other barons, awaited the arrival of the Scottish king on the frontiers, and conducted him, with every mark of respect, to the place of meeting. Here, upon a neighbouring hill, which was at that time without the city of Lincoln, William performed homage to John “for his right saving his own right;” 22d Nov. swearing fealty upon the cross of the Archbishop of Canterbury—a breach of the usual custom, explained by one of the chroniclers as arising “because there was no sacred book at hand.” The question about the northern counties was again brought forward for discussion, but with no satisfactory result, although a final decision was again promised at the end of another six months; and the king of Scotland, who had in reality gained nothing beyond his ordinary feudal advantages by his journey, was obliged to rest contented with the empty honour of returning to his own kingdom under the same distinguished escort that had accompanied him to Lincoln.[487]

The interview between the kings had not been of a nature to promote any real feeling of cordiality; for William had again proved from experience that the promises of John were merely empty words, whilst he had permitted his crafty rival to discover how little real importance he need attach to the threats of a Scottish war. No more dangerous knowledge could have been acquired by a prince of such a character as John, who, in his subsequent transactions with the Scottish king, turned this backwardness to his own account, evidently presuming upon the reluctance of William to venture upon the chances of a war.

A rupture, however, had almost occurred through the contemplated erection of a castle at the mouth of the Tweed, for the purpose of commanding the Scottish burgh of Berwick, with its important fortress; thus endangering the prosperity of the foremost commercial town in Scotland, and neutralizing the cession of one of the keys of the Lothians, restored by the charter of Cœur de Lion. It was impossible for William to overlook so dangerous an encroachment, and whenever the English attempted to begin the building, the Scots drove them away by force, levelling their work with the ground; proceedings which were more than once repeated, until, upon his return from the disastrous campaign of 1203, John hastened to the north of England, A. D. 1204. where he was met upon the frontiers at Norham by William, who was hardly recovered from one of those dangerous attacks of illness to which his advancing years appear to have rendered him liable. The conference was stormy, and the kings parted in anger; but John was either too much occupied with the French war to add another to the list of his open enemies, or he treated the whole affair with his usual fickle levity, and in spite of the hostile character of their interview, their kingdoms remained in a state of nominal peace.[488]

However averse he might have been to risk the chances of hostilities, William was evidently a very cool friend to England during the next five years, eagerly testifying his devotion to the papal see when the interdict was levelled against John, and receiving in return from Pope Innocent a bull, or rescript, fully confirming every liberty and immunity that had at any time been conferred upon the king, church, or kingdom of Scotland, by the head of the Roman Church.[489] He appears, also, to have set on foot a negotiation for procuring a foreign alliance for one of his children;[490] A. D. 1209. but the fears of John were by this time aroused, and he marched with an immense army to the north, in the determination of calling William to account for destroying his castle at Tweedmouth, for aiming at an alliance with his open enemies, and for negotiating the intended marriage without consulting the suzerain of whom he held his English fiefs. To guard against the chances of invasion, William occupied a strong position in the neighbourhood of Roxburgh, where he gave audience to the envoys of John, who, upon reaching Norham, dispatched a safe conduct to the Scottish king, with a requisition to meet him at Newcastle; but three days after his arrival at the place of meeting, and before their conference had resulted in any satisfactory conclusion, it was unexpectedly interrupted by the sudden illness of the Scottish king, and all further proceedings were broken off after a temporary truce had been arranged.[491]

The return of health revived the reluctance of William to yield to the demands of John, and, after ascertaining the sentiments of his baronage and clergy in a council held at Stirling, he dispatched the bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow, with William Comyn and Philip de Valoniis, the Justiciary and Chamberlain of Scotland, charged with so decided an answer to the English king, that John’s fury was aroused to the utmost pitch, and he issued immediate orders for the assemblage of his army, and the reconstruction of the castle at Tweedmouth. William, upon learning the result of his embassy, hurried from Forfar towards the Lothians, deputing the bishop of St. Andrews to convey a qualified refusal to the incensed John. Arrived at Edinburgh, the king was met by Sayer de Quinci, Earl of Winchester, and Robert de Ros, who had already reached the future Scottish capital, and dwelt upon the wrath of their royal master, and the magnitude of the army with which he was hurrying, by forced marches, to the north.[492]

Without awaiting the return of the bishop of St. Andrews, William dispatched a third embassy to avert, if possible, the impending war; and when the bishop reached his royal master at Traquair with intelligence that the English army was fast approaching the borders, the reverend envoy was commissioned, for the third time, to return in the utmost haste to John, and to use every effort to delay his advance until the Scottish army could be concentrated upon the frontiers.[493]

By the time John reached Bamborough, towards the close of July, his formidable preparations for hostilities had fully attained the end upon which he had probably calculated, by working upon the fears of his opponent. A brave and warlike army was ranged along either frontier, prompt and ready for a contest, but advancing years and increasing infirmities had bowed the once fierce and haughty spirit of the Scottish king, who was now as averse to risk the chances of war as, in early manhood, he had been eager in courting its dangers. Under such circumstances the result could not long remain in doubt, and William, yielding his consent to the conditions imposed by John, covenanted to pay 15,000 marks for his “good will” (in other words for peace, and for the confirmation of his fiefs and privileges, which appear to have been in danger of forfeiture), and for the performance of certain conditions specified in their mutual charters. Hostages were to be given by the Scottish king for the payment of the stated sum within two years.[494] Two of his daughters, Margaret and Isabella—the third was probably under age—were to be delivered into the charge of John, and to be suitably married according to the tenure of their secret arrangement; whilst, in return, one of the articles of the treaty provided against the erection of a castle at Tweedmouth at any future period. The final settlement of the treaty took place at Northampton, and, within ten days from its completion, the Scottish princesses were placed in the hands of the English Justiciary at Carlisle.[495]

From the date of this arrangement a close alliance existed between the kings, and still further to cement their union, A. D. 1210. the prince of Scotland proceeded in the following year as far as Alnwick, where, upon the 10th of May, he performed homage to John as liegeman for all the fiefs held by his father of the English crown; and it was probably upon this occasion that the English king, after receiving the half of the sum of 15,000 marks, in token of amity remitted the payment of the remainder.[496]

William, however, in his anxiety to avoid an encounter with John, appears to have deeply offended many of his own powerful subjects, to several of whom the English connection had all along been distasteful. All the advantages of the English fiefs belonged solely to the royal family; and as it was of little or no importance to many of the Scots that the brother of their king should enjoy the earldom of Huntingdon, or that their sovereign should be received with certain ceremonies whenever he absented himself from his own dominions to attend the English Court, they looked with jealousy and discontent at the concessions extorted from William, through his double anxiety to prevent hostilities, and to avoid the forfeiture of his English fiefs and privileges. The treaty concluded at Northampton had been in direct contradiction to the wishes of the nation, and ere long William discovered that, in his solicitude to avert the evils of a foreign war, he had re-kindled the embers of civil discord at home.