The position of the kings of Scots remained ambiguous in this respect, until William the Lion was placed at a terrible disadvantage by his capture at Alnwick in 1174, after supporting the rebellion against Henry II. To gain his release he ratified the Treaty of Falaise on 8th December, of that year, by which he agreed in future to hold all his territories as fiefs of the English Crown. All his tenants in Scotland were to take a direct oath to Henry; while hostages were surrendered along with the castles of Berwick, Roxburgh, Jedburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling.[[1046]]
This notable achievement of Henry’s diplomacy was, like other portions of his life’s work, undone by his successor. Richard, preparing for his crusade of 1190, sold recklessly every right that would fetch a price: William bought back the independence of his ancient kingdom; but this restoration of the relations that had prevailed previous to 1174, involved a restoration of all the old ambiguities. When Richard died, William despatched ambassadors to England, pressing his claims upon the northern counties, promising to support John’s title in return for their admission, and adding threats.[[1047]]
John avoided committing himself to a definite answer until his position in England was assured; thereafter he commanded William to do homage unconditionally. The Scots king disregarded the first summons, but yielded to a second, taking the oath in public on the summit of the hill of Lincoln, on 21st November, 1200, “reserving always his own right.”[[1048]] The saving clause left everything vague as before.
In April, 1209, the king of Scots incurred John’s displeasure by sheltering bishops who had supported the policy of Rome in the matter of the interdict. William’s only son, Alexander, was demanded as a hostage, or alternatively three border castles must be delivered up. After a refusal, the old king gave in on 7th August, 1209.[[1049]] Alexander did homage on behalf of his father “for the aforesaid castles and other lands which he held,” and found sureties for the payment of 15,000 marks. William’s daughters, Margaret and Isabel (the two ladies referred to in Magna Carta) became the wards of John, who had the right to bestow them in marriage—stipulations which come suspiciously near an admission of feudal vassalage.[[1050]] There seems, however, to have been some understanding that one of them should wed John’s eldest son.[[1051]] Margaret and Isabel, though kept virtually as prisoners in Corfe Castle, Dorset, were yet honourably and kindly treated there. The Close Rolls of the reign contain several entries (which read strangely enough among the sterner memorials of John’s diplomacy) containing orders for supplying them with articles of comfort and luxury. Thus on 6th July, 1213, John, busy as he must have been with affairs of state, instructed the Mayor of Winchester to despatch in haste for the use of his niece Eleanor and of the two Scots princesses robes of dark green (tunics and super-tunics) with capes of cambric and fur of miniver, together with twenty-three yards of good linen cloth, with light shoes for summer wear, “and the Mayor is to come himself with all the above articles to Corfe, there to receive the money for the cost of the same.”[[1052]] Margaret and Isabel had no reason to complain of such treatment, whatever thoughts the Mayor of Winchester may have had of so liberal an interpretation of his civic duties.
Meanwhile, events in Scotland had favoured English pretensions. In the year 1212, William, now in advanced age, although his son was still a stripling, was compelled by internal troubles to appeal for aid to John. Cuthred, a claimant for the Scottish throne as a descendant of Donald Bane MacWilliam, having acquired a considerable following in Scotland, endeavoured to dethrone King William; and his attempt seemed likely to succeed, when English succour was asked and paid for by a Treaty signed at Norham on 7th February, 1212. By this, William granted to John the right to marry the young Alexander, then fourteen years of age, “sicut hominem suum ligium,” to whomsoever he would, at any time within the next six years, but always "without disparagement"—a phrase already explained.[[1053]] William further pledged himself and his son to keep faith and allegiance to John’s son, Henry, “as their liege lord” against all mortals.[[1054]] The young Scottish prince thereafter journeyed southwards in the train of John, by whom he was knighted on the 4th of March at London. In June an English army entered Scotland; the pretender was defeated and killed. William had saved his Crown, but his independence was impaired. Scotland was gradually sinking into the position of a vassal state. This was recognized at Rome. On 28th October, 1213, Innocent III., among other healing measures consequent on John’s surrender of his kingdom, ordered the king of Scotland and his son to show fealty and devotion to John, in terms similar to those addressed to the English barons.[[1055]]
William the Lion died at Stirling on 4th December, 1214, and Alexander was crowned at Scone two days later,[[1056]] his peaceful succession being facilitated by the knowledge that he had the support of John. On 28th April, 1215, the English king, already deep in his quarrel with the barons, acknowledged receipt of Thomas Colville and other Scotsmen as hostages.[[1057]] Such was the position of affairs when John was brought to bay at Runnymede. The barons were willing to bid for the alliance of Alexander; yet it was unnecessary to bid high, since his unsatisfied claims on the northern counties predisposed him against the English king. The barons, therefore, did nothing calculated to endanger such hold as England had over the Scottish Crown. John promised to restore Alexander’s sisters and other hostages unconditionally, but used words which committed him on none of the disputed points.[[1058]] Franchises and “right” were to be restored only in so far as accorded with the terms of King William’s “charters” as interpreted by the judgment of the English barons in the court of the English king.[[1059]]
The allusion to the Scottish king as one among “our other barons of England” need not be pressed against Alexander any more than similar expressions should be pressed against John, whose position as Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine in no way made England a fief of the French Crown. In questions affecting his feudal position in France, John’s peers were the dukes and counts of that country; and similarly those who had a right to sit in judgment as Alexander’s peers over his claims to English fiefs were the English earls and barons. Such a tribunal was not likely to give decisions favourable to Scots pretensions at the expense of England.[[1060]]
Alexander, though no party to the treaty at Runnymede, was willing to extract such benefit from it as he could. Accordingly, on 7th July, 1215, he despatched the Archbishop of St. Andrews and five laymen to John “concerning our business which we have against you to be transacted in your court.”[[1061]] Nothing came of this; and when the civil war began Alexander invaded England in order to push his claims. John swore his usual oath, "by God’s teeth," that he would “chase the little red-haired fox-cub from his hiding holes.”[[1062]] Neither Alexander’s participation in the war nor the subsequent efforts of diplomacy achieved settlement of the questions in dispute. None of the latent ambiguities had been finally removed when the relations between the two countries entered on a new phase as a consequence of the attempts at annexation made by Edward I., “the hammer of the Scots.”
[1045]. See Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. 596.