it was expressly cautioned That none should be preferred to the Succession of the Kingdom before the Sons of Lothus To which the contrary Party answered that That League was extorted by the necessity of the Times against the Common good of the whole Nation and that they were not obliged to keep it now Lothus with whom it was made was Dead And that therefore the Picts would do well to be contented with their own Bounds and not to invade other Mens That the Kingdom of Britain by Gods Blessing was now in that State that it could not only defend it self against New Injuries but also revenge the Old These things being brought to Modredus his Ear did quite alienate his Mind from Arthur and inclined him to set up for himself by maintaining his own Dignity only he a little suspended the War till he had tryed the Minds of the Scots when they were brought over to his Party an Army was listed consisting of many Picts Scots and Brittons being induced to side with Modredus either for the Equity of his Cause the Love of his Person or their private Hatred of Arthur Yea Vannora the Wife of Arthur was thought not to be ignorant of these new Cabals as having been too familiar with Modredus Both Armies pitched their Tents by Humber and being ready to Fight Proposals were made by the Bishops on both sides in order to a Peace but in vain for Constantine's Friends obstructed all affirming That the Felicity of Arthurs Fortune would bear down all Opposition Hereupon a most feirce Fight began on both sides but Two things did especially advantage Modredus and his Confederates One was a Marsh in the midst between them which the Brittons could not easily pass and Another in the heat of the Fight there was one suborned to spread a Report among the Brittons that Arthur was slain and therefore all being lost every one should shift for himself at which Bruit they all fled yet there was great Slaughter on both sides neither was the Victory joyous to either Party for on the one side Modredus was slain and on the other his Brother Galvinus Arthur himself mortally Wounded and a great Prey taken I know well What Fabulous matters are reported by many concerning the Life and Death of Arthur but they are not fit to be related lest they cause a Mist to be cast over his other famous Actions for when Men confidently affirm lies they cause the Truth it self many times to be questioned This is certain he was a great Man and very Valorous bearing an intire Love to his Country in freeing them from Servitude in restoring the true Worship of God and in reforming it when it was corrupted I have spoken these things concerning his Lineage Life and Death more prolixly than the Nature of my Design required for I never meant to Record all the Exploits of the Brittons but to free and preserve the Affairs of our own Nation from the Oblivion of Time and the Fabulous Tales of some lewd and ill-disposed Writers I have insisted longer on the Exploits of Arthur partly because some do curtail them through Envy and others do heighten them by their Verbosities He died in the year of our Lord Five Hundred and Fifty Two after he had Reigned 24 Years But to return to the Affairs of Scotland Goranus the King now grown old departed this Life after he had governed Scotland Thirty four years 't is thought he was Treacherously slain by his Subjects There was one Toncetus Chief Justice in Criminal Matters a Man no less Cruel than Covetous he having played many foul Pranks against the richer sort thought he might easily get Pardon of all from the King because by this means he had augmented his Revenue The People could not easily obtain admittance to the King now enfeebled by Age and Diseases to make their Complaints and if they had Access they judged their Allegations would not have been beleived against such a principal Officer and high Favourite So that they set upon Toncetus and slew him But after the heat of their Anger was over when they began to think with themselves how foul a Fact they had committed and that there was no Pardon to be expected by them they turned their Wrath and Fury upon the King himself and by the Instigation of Donald of Athol they entred into his Palace and slew Him also Eugenius III. The Forty Sixth King EVgenius the Son of Congallus succeeded him when he was advised by some of the Nobility to revenge the Death of his Uncle Goranus he entertained the motion so coldly that he himself was not without suspicion in the Case And the Suspicion was increased because he took Donald of Athol into his Grace and Favour So that the Wife of Goranus for fear fled with her small Children into Ireland But Eugenius to purge his Life and Manners from so foul an Imputation so managed the Kingdom that none of the former Kings could be justly preferred before him he assisted Modred and also Arthur against the Saxons He sent several Captains to make daily Incursions into the English Borders but he never fought with them in a pitched Battel He died in the year of Christ Five Hundred and Fifty Eight having Reigned Twenty Three Years Congallus II. The Forty Seventh King HIS Brother Congallus was set up in his Room who governed the Kingdom Ten years in great Peace a Man for his excellent Virtues worthy of perpetual Memory for besides his Equity in matter of Law and the aversion of his Mind from all Covetousness he vyed with the very Monks themselves in point of Sobriety of Life though they at that time used a most severe Discipline He enriched Priests with Lands and other Revenues more out of a Pious Intention than with any good Success He restrained the Souldiers who were declining to Effeminateness and Luxury and abused the blessing of Peace rather by the Examples and Authority of his Life than by the severity of Laws He called home the Sons of Goranus who for fear of Eugenius had fled into Ireland but before their Return he died in the Year Five Hundred and Sixty Eight He never fought Battel himself but only assisted the Brittons with Auxiliary Forces against the Saxons with Whom they often fought with various Success Kinnatellus The Forty Eighth King WHen he was Dead and his Brother Kinnatellus designed King Aidanus the Son of Goranus came into Scotland by the persuasions of Columba who Two years before had come out of Ireland By him he was brought to the King who beyond his own and the Expectation of all other Men received him Courteously and wished him to be of good cheer for he should shortly be King For Kinnatellus being worn out by Age and Sickness and not able to Administer the Government himself made Aidanus his Deputy and so died having Reigned Fourteen some say Fifteen Months Some Writers leave him out and do place Aidanus
his room a man of no ill Disposition and yet not constant in Good neither The Danes who could incline Gregory and Donald the Two last Kings of the Scots by no Promises or Persuasions to take Arms against the English which were then Christians Now they easily wrought upon Constantine by Gifts and by the vain Hope of enlarging his Dominions to make a League with Them which lasted scarce Two years but the Danes deserting the Scots struck up a League with the English This League had scarce continued Four years before Edward of England gathered an Army speedily together and spoiled the Danes Country whereby they were reduced to such 〈◊〉 that they were enforc'd to return to the Scots whom they had lately deserted To whom they Swore most Religiously That they would for ever after observe the Amity most inviolably betwixt Them This Second League is reported to have been entered into with great Ceremony in the Tenth Year of Constantines Reign He gave the same year Cumberland to Malcolm Son of the last King which was as an honourable Omen to him that he should Reign after him And afterwards the same Custom was observed by some succeeding Kings to the manifest disanulling of the old way of Convening the Estates whose Free Suffrages ought not to have been thus abridged but this was like the Designation of the Consuls by the Caesars which put an end to the Roman Liberty A War being now commenced between Edward the Son of Alured and the Danes Constantine sent Aid to the Danes under the Conduct of Malcolm He joyned his Army with the Danes and being Superior in number they harassed the adjoyning Countries of the English and made great Devastation wheresoever they came to the end that they might force the English who had a far less numerous Army to Fight Yea they were so arrogantly confident of their Numbers that they thought their Enemy would never so much as look them in the Face so that now as secure of the Victory they began to talk of dividing the Spoil But as Prosperity doth blind the Eyes of the Wise so Adversity and the foresight of Danger is a good Schoolmaster even to the weaker side What the English wanted in strength they supplyed in Cunning and Skill Their Army was well seconded with Reserves and so they began the Fight the First Ranks being commanded so to do give ground and pretend a Discomfiture and Flight that so their Enemies following them in disorder they might again return upon them in that straggling posture Athelstan the Base-born Son of Edward was General of all the English Forces as our Writers affirm and Grafton also says the same thing They make this Athelstan guilty of Parricide for killing his Father and his Two Brothers Edred and Edwin whose Right it was immediately to succeed their Father in the Kingdom Fame doth increase the Suspicion that Edward was violently put to death because it accounts him a Martyr For that Fact he was hatâ—d and therefore to recover the Favour of the People by some eminent Undertaking he determined to expiate the Blood of his Kâ—ndâ—ed by shedding That of his Enemies And thereupon after he had fought stoutly a-while he gave Ground by little and little but afterward in greater Fear and Confusion as if he intended absolutely to run away The Danes and Scots supposing themselves Conquerors were unwilling to make any brisk pursuit lest the Cowardliest of the Soldiers should enjoy all the Prey and therefore they returned to plunder their Camp Hereupon Athelstan gave a Signal and the Engâ—ish returning to their Ensigns set upon them as they were scattered and laden with Booty and killed them like Dogs The greatest part of the Scotish Nobility was lost in this Fight who chose rather to dye on the spoâ— than to undergo the Ignominy of deserting their Companions Malcolm being much wounded was carried off the Field by his own Men and sent the doleful Tidings of the loss of his Army to King Constantine neither was the face of things more pleasant amongst the Danes Athelstan during this Astonishment of his Enemies took Cumberland and Westmerland from the Scots and Northumberland from the Danes Constantine having not force enough neither to wage War or to carry on matters in Peace called a Convention of the Estates at Abernethy and willingly resigned the Kingdom and betook himself to the Culdeâ— certain Hermits so called living in Cells Worshippers of God for so the Monks of that Age were called as into a Sanctuary amongst whom he lived the rest of his life at St. Andrews Here the English Writers who are profuse enough in their own Praises do affirm That Athelstan was the Monarch of all Britanny and that the rest who had the Names of Kings in Albium were but precariously so and his Feudataries only as taking an Oath of Fidelity to him as the supreme Lord. And they introduce many ignoble English Authors as Favourers of that Opinion And to procure the greater Credit thereunto they add also Marianus Scotus an Illustrious Writer indeed But here I desire the Reader to take notice that there is not the least mention of any such thing in that Edition of Marianus which was Printed in Germany but if they have another Marianus different from him who is publickly read and interpolated or foisted by them let them produce him if they can Besides they being Men generally unlearned do not in some Places sufficiently understand their own Writers neither do they take notice That Bede William of Malmesbury and Geffrey of Monmouth do commonly call that part Britain over which the Britains ruled i. e. That within the Wall of Adrian or when they stretched their Dominions furthest within the Wall of Severus so that the Scots and Picts are oftentimes reckoned by them to be out of Britain and not seldom are called Transmarine People And therefore when they read that the English sometime Reigned over all Britanny they understand the Authors so as if they meant all Britanny i. e. Albium or Albion whereas they do often Circumscribe Britanny within narrower limits as I have said before But of this I have spoken more largely in another place To return then to the Affairs of Scotland Malcolm I. The Seventy Sixth King COnstantine having retired himself into the Cloyster of the Monks Malcolm the Son of Donald was declared King Athelstan being dead and his Brother Edward Reigning Cumberland and Westmerland revolted from the English and returned to their old Masters Moreover the Danes who remained in Northumberland sent for Avalassus their Countryman of the Royal Progeny who was Banished into Ireland to make him King Edmund foreseeing what Clouds of War were gathering over his Head yielded up Cumberland and Westmerland to Malcolm upon this Condition That he who should next succeed in the Scotish Kingdom should take an Oath to the King of England as the Lord Paramount of that Country Afterwards he easily reduced the
that Avarice might be also bounded and forborn when the fear of Penury as it must be upon a Throne is removed Malcolm subjoyned That he had rather now make an ingenious Confession to him as his Friend than to be found guilty hereafter to the great damage of them both For my Self to deal plainly with you said he There is no Truth nor Sincerity in me I confide in no Body living but I change my Designs and Counsels upon every blast of Suspition and thâ—s from the Inconstancy of my own Disposition I use to make a Judgment of other Mens Whereupon Mackduff replyed Avant says he Thou Disgrace and Prodigy of the Royal Name and Stock worthier to be sent into the remotest Desert than to be called to a Throne and in a great Anger he was about to fling away Then Malcolm took him by the hand and declared the Cause of this his Dissimulation to him telling him That he had been so often assaulted by the Wiles of Mackbeth that he did not dare lightly to trust every body But now he saw no Cause to suspect any Fraud in Macduff in respect either of his Lineage his Manners Fame nor Fortune Thus they plighting their Faith one to another consulted concerning the destruction of the Tyrant and advised their Friends of it by secret Messages King Edward assisted him with Ten Thousand Men over whom Malcolm's Grandfather by the Mothers side was made General At the Report of this Armies March there was a great combustion in Scotland and many flock'd in daily to the new King Mackbeth being deserted by almost all his Men in so suddain a Revolt not knowing what better course to take shut up himself in the Castle of Dunsinnan and sent his Friends into the Aebudae and into Ireland with Money to hire Soldiers Malcolm understanding his Design makes up directly towards him the People praying for him all along as he went and with joyful Acclamations wishing him good Success His Soldiers took this as an Omen of Victory and thereupon stuck up green Boughs in their Helmets representing an Army Triumphing rather than going to Fight Mackbeth being terrified at the Confidence of his Enemy immediately fled and his Soldiers forsaken by their Leader surrendred themselves up to Malcolm Some of our Writers do here Record many Fables which are like Milesian Tales and fitter for the Stage than an History and therefore I omit them Mackbeth Reigned Seventeen Years In the first Ten he performed the Duty of a very good King in the last Seven he equalled the Cruelty of the worst of Tyrants Malcolm III. The Eighty Sixth King MALCOLM having thus recovered his Fathers Kingdom was Declared King at Scone the 25 th day of April in the Year of our Redemption 1057. At the entrance of his Reign he convened an Assembly of the Estates at Forsar where the First thing he did was to restore to the Children their Father's Estates who had been put to death by Mackbeth He is thought by some to have been the First that introduced New and Foreign Names as distinguishments of Degrees in Honour which he borrowed from his Neighbor-Nations and are no less Barbarous than the former were Such as are Dukes Marquesses Earls Barons Riders or Knights Mackduff the Thane of Fife was the First who had the Title of Earl conferred upon him and many others afterwards according to their respective Merits were honoured with New Titles Some write That at that time Noblemen began to be Sirnamed by their Lands which I think is false for that Custom is not yet received amongst the Ancient Scots and besides then all Scotland used their Ancient Rights and Customs but instead of a Sirname after the manner of the Greeks they added their Fathers Name to their own or else adjoyned a Word taken from some Event or from some Mark of Body or Mind and that this Custom did then obtain amongst the Gauls is plain by those Royal Sirnames of Crassus Calvus Balbus and also by the Sirnames of many Noble Families in England especially such as followed William the Conqueror and fixed their Habitations there For the Custom of taking Sirnames from Lands was received but lately amongst the other Gauls as appears by Frossard's History no mean Author Mackduff had Three Requests granted to him as a Reward for his Services One That his Posterity should place the King who was to be Crowned in the Chair of State Another That they should lead the Van of the Kings Armies And a Third That if any of his Family were Guilty of the unpremeditated slaughter of a Nobleman he should pay Four and Twenty Marks of Silver as a Fine if of a Plebeian Twelve Marks Which last Law was observed till the days of our Fathers as long as any of that Family were in being Whilst these things were acted at Forfar They who remained of the Faction of Mackbeth carryed his Son Luthlac to Scone who was Sirnamed Fatuus from his Disposition and there he was Saluted King Malcolm assaulted him in the Valley Bogian where he was slain three Months after he had Usurped the Name of King yet out of respect to his Kingly Race His and his Fathers Bodies were buried in the Royal Sepulchres in Ionia Afterwards he Reigned four years in Peace Then word was brought him that a great Troop of Robbers were Nested in Cockburn-Forest and that they infested Lothian and Merch to the great damage of the Husbandman Patric Dunbar with some Trouble overcame them losing Forty of his own Men in the Onset and killing 600 of Them Forty more of them were taken Prisoners and hanged Patric for this Exploit was made Earl of Merch. The Kingdom was now so settled that no open Force could hurt the King yet he was assaulted by Private Conspiracies The whole Plot was discovered to him whereupon he sent for the Head of the Faction and after much familiar Discourse he led him aside into a secret Valley commanding his Followers to stay behind There he upbraided him with the former Benefits bestowed on him and declared to him the Plot he had contrived against his Life adding further if Thou hast Courage enough why dost thou not now set upon me seeing we are both Armed that so thou mayst obtain thy desire by Valour not by Treachery He being amazed at this sudden Discovery fell down on his Knees and asked Pardon of the King who being a Merciful as well as Valiant Prince easily forgave him Matthew Paris makes mention of this Passage In the mean time Edgar to whom next to Edward the Crown of England belonged being driven by contrary Winds came into Scotland with his whole Family What I am to speak concerning this Person that it may be the better understood I shall fetch things a little higher Edmond King of England being slain by the Treachery of his Subjects Canutus the Dane who Reigned over Part of the Island presently seized upon
Somerset and Ralph Percy and many of Henry's old Friends besides who for fear of the Times had retired to King Edward came into Them but there was a far greater Confluence from the adjacent Parts of England of such Persons as had lived Rapacious Lives in hopes of some new Prey To appease this Commotion Edward makes great Military Preparation both by Land and Sea he commanded the Lord Mountague with a great part of the Nobility to march against the Enemy and he himself would follow with his whole Army Both Armies pitched their Tents not far from Hexham but the Common Soldiery who came in for Booty beginning to slip away Henry thought it best in such a desperate Case to put it to a Push and accordingly a Fight begun wherein he was overthrown his chief Friends were either slain or taken Prisoners and he himself made an hasty Retreat to Berwick of the Prisoners some had their Heads cut off presently and some a while after Edward having thus got the Day by the Generals of his Forces came himself to Durham that so he might prevent the Incursions of the Scots by the Terrour of his Neighbouring Army and also that by his Presence he might quell any Domestick Insurrections if any such should happen Whilst he was there he sent out part of his Army under several Commanders to take in the Places possessed by his Enemies of which having taken many by Storm or by Surrender at last he laid Siege to the Castle of Alnwick which was greater and better fortified than the rest and which was maintained by a Garison of French who defended the Castle very well in hopes of Relief from Scotland which was so near at hand But the Scots having lately had ill success in England an Army could not be so soon levyed as the present Exigent required for the raising of the Siege insomuch that whilst others were backward and delayed to give in their Opinion George Earl of Angus undertook with great Audacity the Matter which was so full of hazard He collected about 10000 Horse of his Friends Vassals and the Neighbouring Province of which he was Governor He came to the Castle and Horsed the French that were in Garison upon some empty Horses he had brought for that purpose and so brought them off safe even to a Man into Scotland whilst the English stood and looked on as amazed at the Boldness of his Miraculous Enterprize or thinking that Douglas had help near at hand or rather hoping to have the Castle given up without a Battel and so they would not put the Whole to an hazard by joining in Fight with that small though select Party Edward settled Guards at all convenient Places that so no Rebellious Troops might march to and again and then as if he had quieted the whole Kingdom he returned to London In the mean time Exiled Henry either on the Accompt of some Hope 's cast in by his Friends or else weary of his tedious Exile determines to shelter himself privately amongst his Friends in England But Fortunes Malice followed him to the last he was there known taken brought to London and committed Prisoner to the Tower And his Wife Margaret distrusting her present Affairs with her Son and a Few Followers left Scotland and Sailed over to her Father Renat into France To return then to the Affairs of Scotland The time for the Assembly which was Indicted to be held at Edinburgh was come where there was a Full Appearance but the Body of them was divided into Two Factions Part of the Nobles followed the Queen but the Major Part by far stuck to Iames Kennedy and George Douglas Earl of Angus the Heads of the contrary Faction The Queen lodged in the Castle the Bishop and the Earl lay in the Abby of Holy-Road-House at the furthest part of the Suburbs towards the East The Cause of the Dissension was That the Queen thought it equal and just for her to have the Tutelage or Guardianship of her Son the other Party judged it most fit that One should be chosen out of the whole Assembly for that careful Work The Queen alleged the Maternal Name her Interest and Propinquity the Adverse Party insisted on the old Law confirmed by perpetuated Custom In the Third day of the Assembly the Queen comes down from the Castle with her Followers and caused her self to be Decreed Tutrix of the King and Governess of the Kingdom by her own Faction and so returns into the Castle again When Kennedy heard of this he hastned with his Party into the Market-place and there in a long Speech he told the Multitude which was thick about him That he and his Associates did aim at nothing but the Publick Good and the Observation of their Ancient Laws but their Adversaries were â—â—d each one by his private advantage And That he would evidenâ—â—y make appear if he might have a Place Free to dispute the Poinâ— Having thus spoken he retired with his Followers to his Lodgiâ—â— but was not gone far from the Market-place before he heard That the other Party was coming down Armed from the Castle Douglas looked upon This as an intolerable Thing That Valiant Men should yield to the Threats of a Few and That their Retirement should be looked upon as a Flight and therefore was hardly kept in by Kennedy from assaulting the adjoining Gate of the City and Weaponless as he was to encounter Armed Men and unless the Three Bishops of Glasgo Galway and Dumblane upon Noise of the Uproar had come in his Indignation would not have been stopp'd till they had come to Blows But by the Mediation of those Bishops the Matter was so far composed That a Truce was agreed upon for one Month. Though the Chief of the Faction were thus quieted yet the Multitude could not be restrained from expressing their Wrath and Indignation in rough and cutting Language as that the Desire of the Queen was Dishonourable to the Kingdom and Undecent for Herself What said they is the Valour of the old Scots at so low an Ebb That amongst so many Thousand Men there is none worthy to Govern the Affairs of Scotland but a Woman must do it What was there no Man that could Rule over the Nation And That would live the greatest part of his Life in Arms What likelihood was there That those who had not been altogether Tractable to their King when weak should now yield Obedience to a Woman and that a Stranger too What had they undergone so much Labour and lost so much Blood these many years by Sea and Land That Men born and brought up in Arms should freely give up themselves to the Servitude of a Woman What if the English should invade them as they had often done at other times in revenge of their Losses with a great Army Who could in that case Give or Accept Terms of Peace or War These were the Discourses of the Commonalty
infected with their Soloecisms that on the contrary when they had once tasted of the sweetness of the Latin Tongue they pared off much of the roughness which they had brought upon it They so smoothed some harsh Words as to make them less offensive to the Ear such as are Oxonia and Roffa for Oxonfordia and Raufchestria and many others Lud himself not contradicting And he allows himself the same Liberty in many other Words though he be so severe an Exactor in this one Word Britannia But now he doth pertinaciously contend against the Ancient Custom of all Nations for a new obscure and uncertain Word Sure it is that the Royal Name of Lud of a Danish Original and kept as a Palladium to this very Day may not be buried in Oblivion To prevent which Lud manages a Contest against the consent of the Multitude the Antiquity of Time and even against Truth it self There is yet also another Observation in the Word Britannia That Foreign Writers make it the Name of the whole Island but the Britains and English who have wrote the British History sometimes agree with Foreign Writers in their Appellation of it and sometimes they call only that part of the Island Britain which was a Roman Province and that variously too as the event of War changed the Borders sometimes they made the Wall of Adrian sometimes That of Severus to be the Limits to their Empire The rest which were without those Walls they sometimes termed Barbarous sometimes Outlandish People Bede in the beginning of his first Book writes thus Wherefore the Picts coming into Britain began to Inhabit the North Part of the Island for the Britans Inhabited the South He says also Chap. 34. Aidan was King of the Scots who Inhabit Britain And Lib. 4. Chap. 4. writing of the return of Colman out of England into Scotland he says In the mean time Colman who was of Scotland leaving Britain And elsewhere Then they began for many Days to come from the Country of Scotland into Britain And farther Oswald was slain near the Wall that the Romans had built from Sea to Sea to defend Britain and to repel the Assaults of the Barbarians The same Form of Speech is found in the same Author Lib. 2. Chap. 9. Claudian doth not seem to be ignorant of this manner of Speech peculiar to the Britains when he writes That the Roman Legion which curbed the Fierce Scot lay between the Britains i. e. opposite to the Scots that it might cover the Britains from their Fury in the farthest part of England and Borders of Scotland William of Malmsbury and Geoffry of Monmouth none of the obscurest Writers of British Affairs do often use this kind of Speech in whom a Man may easily take Notice that That only is called Britain which is contained within the Wall of Severus Though this matter be so clear to them than no Man can be ignorant of it yet it hath produced great mistakes amongst the Writers of the next Age what some have affirmed in their Works i. e. That Alured Athelstan and some other of the Saxon Kings did sometimes Reign over the whole Island when yet 't is clear they never passed beyond the Wall of Severus For when they Read That they held the Empire of all Britain they presently thought that the whole Island was possessed by them Neither is the Observation much unlike in the use of those Names Britannus and Britto for all the old Greek and Latin Writers caâ—l the whole Island Britannia and all its Inhabitants Britains without any distinction The first that I know of the Romans who called them Brittons was Martial in that Verse Quam veteres bracchae Brittonis pauperis The old Trouses of Britton poor The Vulgar commonly call the Inhabitants of the Gallick Peninsule Brittons though Gregory Turonensis always calls it Britain and its Inhabitants Britains The Romans do constantly call their Provincials Britains though their Provincials themselves like the Name of Brittons well enough Both Names have one Original viz. Britannia and as they both flow from one Root so they both signifie one and the same thing And that the Verses of Ausonius the Poet do plainly shew Silvius ille bonus qui carmina nostra lacessit Nostra magis meruit disticha Britto bonus 'T is Silvius Bonus whom my Disticks blame But Britto Bonus were his Prop'rer Name Silvius hic bonus est Quis Silvius Iste Britannus Aut Britto hic non est Silvius aut malâ—s est Silvius is good What Silvius The Britain Silvius no Britton is or a bad one Silvius esse Bonus Britto ferturque Britannus Quis credat civem degenerassâ— lonum Silvius Bonus a Britan or Britton How he degen'rates from good Denizon Nemo bonus Britto est Si simplex Silvius esse Incipiat simplex desinet esse bonus No Britton's good If Silvius 'gin to be Simple simple and good do not agree Silvius hic bonus est Sed Britto est Silvius idem Simplicior res est dicere Britto malus Silvius is Bonus Yet a Britton still 'T is plainer Phrase to say the Britton's ill Silvi Britto Bonus quamvis homo non bonus esse Ferris nec se quit jungere Britto bono O Silvius bonny Britton but bad Man Britton and good together joyn who can They who contend that the Britains were a Colony of the Gauls do say that Hercules begat a Son on Celto a Gallick Virgin called Britannus from whom the Nation of the Britains had their Original Pliny placeth this Nation near to the Morini the Atrebates and the Gessorâ—aci Neither are there wanting some Greek Grammarians to confirm it as Suidas and he who wrote the Book called Etymologiâ—um Magnum C. Iâ—lius Caesar and C. Cornelius Tacitus seem to have been of the same Opinion and so do other Latin Writers also not unlearned yet not so famous as those two Besides the Religion Speech Institutions and Manners of some Nations inhabiting near the Gallick Sea do evince the same thing out of which the Britains seem to me to have been exhausted by Transmigrations and the Morini by little and little to have been quite extinguished The Word Morinus seems to draw its Etymologie from More which in the old Gallick Tongue signifies the Sea Venta called in old Latin Venta Belgarum because Inhabited by the Gallo-Belgae i. e. Winchester and Icenum derived from Icium these Names make it very probable that their Colonies Transported with them into a Foreign Soil their own Country Terms in the place of a Sirname and at their very entrance meeting with the Britains whom they acknowledged to be their Off-spring they brought them home and did as it were entertain them at their own Houses For Morinus amongst the old Gauls signifies Marinus And Moremarusa Mare Mortuum Though Gorropius hath almost stoln from us those two last Names
for it reaches from the German quite home to the Caledonian Sea Where it is Mountainous 't is barren and untilled but the Plains thereof scarce yield to any part of Scotland for Fruitfulness It hath also many pleasant Valleys in it which are Watered with Rivers full of Fish together with several Lochs well-stored with Fish But the greatest of them all is Loch-Loubrun From the Deucaledonian Sea the Shore grows somewhat narrower and turns back towards the North-East From the opposite Shore the German Sea making its way between the Clefts of high Rocks within Land expands it self into a spacious Bay which affords a safe Harbour and Road for Ships against all Storms for the Passage into it is not dangerous and when you are once entred even the greatest Ships that are may be secure from all Injury of Wind and Weather At the farthest point of Ross towards the North lies Navern so called from the River Navern which the Vulgar following the Propriety of their Country Speech call Strath-Navern Ross bounds it on the South The Deucaledonian Sea washeth it West and North And on the East it reaches to Caithness Sutherland is so interjected between the three last mentioned Provinces that it borders on them All and in some Quarter or other touches them all For on the West of it lies Strath-Navern On the South and East Ross And on the North Caithness The Inhabitants thereof according to the Nature of the Soil are more given to Pasturage than Tillage I know no remarkable thing in it save only that it hath some Mountains of White Marble a rare Miracle in so cold a Country which yet are of little or no use to the Inhabitants because That luxuriant Humour which affects Curiosity hath not yet reached to this Place Caithness is the last Province of Scotland towards the North in which Coast Strath-Navern also meets It. These Two Counties do contract the Bredth of Scotland into a narrow Front In that Front there are Three high Promontories The highest of them all is in Strath-Navern which Ptolomy calls Orca or Tarvedrum now Farrow-Head The other Two are in Caithness but not so high as the former i. e. Vervedrum now called Hoia i. e. Strathy-Head and Betubium Dunsbey-Head falsly called by Hector Boetius Dume some call it Duncans-Bei from which word some Letters being substracted the word Duns-Bei seems to be derived At the Foot of the Hill there is a small Bay which little Vessels coming from the Orcades use as an Haven or Port. For a Bay of the Sea is there called Bei And this Creek or Bay being called by the Neighboring Inhabitants the Bei of Duncan or Donach from both those words conjoyned the Country Language hath formed Dunis-Bei In this Tract Ptolomy places the Cornavii or Caithness-men some Footsteps of which Name do yet remain for they commonly call the Castle of the Earls of Caithness Gernico for those whom Ptolomy and other Foreiners call Cornavii the Britains call Kernici And seeing he places the Cornavii not in this Tract only but even in a far distant part of the Island viz. Cornwal in England they who retain the old British Speech do yet call the same persons Kernici And perhaps 't is no absurd conjecture to imagine that the Cornovalli are so called for Kernicovalli i. e. the Kernic-Gauls yea in the very midst of the Island some footsteps thô obscure ones of the Name seem to have remained For Bede writes that the beginning of the Wall of Severus was not far distant from the Monastery of Kebercurnig whereas there is now no sign of a Monastery in those parts but there remains not far from thence the halfe-ruined Castle of the Duglasses called Abrecorn Whether both of those words or only one of them be corrupted from Kernicus I leave to the Reader to judge It remains now that I speak somthing concerning the Islands of Scotland which Part of the British History is involved with abundance of mistakes But omitting the Ancients who have delivered nothing certain on this Subject I shall only insist on what the Writers of our times have more truly and plainly acquainted us with Of all the Islands which do as it were begirt Scotland they make three Classes or Ranks The Western the Orcades and the Zealandish or Shetland Islands Those are called the Western Isles which lve between Scotland and Ireland on the West of Scotland in the Deucaledonian Sea and do reach almost to the Isles of Orkney or Orcades They who have written of the British Affairs either now or in the Age before us call them Hebrides a new Name of which there are no Footsteps or any Original in Ancient Writers For in that Tract of the Sea some Authors place the Aebudae or Aemodae but with such inconstancy amongst themselves that they scarce ever agree in their Number Situation or Names Strabo to begin with the most Ancient may be the better excused because he followed uncertain Report That part of the World being not fully discovered in his time Mela reckons the Aemodae to be Seaven Martianus Capella makes the Acmodae to be as many Ptolomy and Solinus count the Aebudae Five Pliny numbers the Acmodae to be Seaven and the Aebudae Thirty I for my part think it fit to retain the Names most used by the Ancients and therefore I call all the Western Isles Aebudae and I purpose to describe the Site Nature and Commodities of every one of them as out of Later so out of Surer Authors In performing this Task I will principally follow Donald Monro a Pious and Diligent Person who himself Travelled over all those Islands and viewed them Ocularly They lye dispersed in the Deucaledonian Sea being above Three hundred and odd in number The Kings of Scotland were Masters of them time out of mind until Donald the Brother of Malcolm the Third yielded up the possession of them to the Kings of Norway that by his Aid he might forcibly seize upon the Crown of Scotland to which he had no Right The Danes and Norwegians enjoyed them about One hundred and sixty years until being overcome in a great Battel they were outed of them by Alexander the Third King of Scotland These Islanders either confiding in their strength or else egg'd on and induced by Sedition have some time endeavoured to vindicate their Liberty and to set up Kings of their own For of late Iohn of the Family of the Donalds as well as others before him usurped the Name of King In their Diet Habit and the whole Administration of their Domestick Affairs they use the Ancient Parsimony Hunting and Fishing afford them Food They boil their Flesh in Water poured either into the Paunch or into the Skin of the Beasts they kill and in Hunting they sometime eat raw Flesh when the Blood is squeezed out The Broth of boiled
their Ranks and ran away Neither was the Battel unbloody to the Picts Their King and all his Valiant Warriors being slain therein The Loss being in a manner equal on both sides occasioned a Peace between them for some short time Angusianus reigned little above an Year Fethelmachus The Thirty Eighth King FEthelmachus was made King in the room of Angusianus when he had fearce Reigned 2 years he levied an Army and made foul havock of the Picts Country As soon as the Enemy could meet him they fought with a great slaughter on either side For the main Battel of the Picts they having lost both their wings was almost all encompassed round and taken yet they died not unrevenged The King of the Picts three days after died of his wound The Scots making use of their Victory having no Army at all to withstand them made a great spoil all over the Picts Country For the Picts having received so great a blow never durst oppose them with their whole force only they appointed some small Partys of their Men in sit time and place to withstand the straggling Troops of their Enemy that so they might not plunder far from home In the mean time one Hergustus a crafty man having undertaken the Command of the Picts inasmuch as he was inferior in Force he applied himself to Fraud for he sent two Picts who pretending themselves to be Scots were to kill the King They according to their Instructions treated with a certain Musician about the Murder of the King For those sort of Creatures are wont to lodge in the Chambers of Princes and Noblemen to relieve them whilst awake and also to procure sleep Which custom still continues in all the British Isles amongst the old Scots so that on a Night agreed upon between them the Picts were introduced by this Minstrel and so slew the King as privately as they could yet they could not carry it so secretly but that the Kings Attendants were awaken'd at the hearing of his Death-groans and so pursued the Authors of the Villany and when they could fly no further the Kings Officers took them tho' they threw Stones at them to defend themselves from a steep Rock and brought them back to Execution Eugenius or Evenus I. The Thirty Ninth King FEthelmachus being thus slain in the third year of his Reign Eugenius or rather Evenus the Son of Fincormachus succeeded him About that time Maximus the Roman General being in hopes to conquer the whole Island if he could destroy the Scots and Picts both first of all he pretends many favourable respects to the Picts who were then the weaker Party and therefore by consequence more ready to treat with him Them he filled with vain promises That if they would persevere in their Alliance with the Romans besides many other innumerable advantages they should have the Scots Land to be divided amongst them The Picts were catched with this bait being blinded by Anger desirous of Revenge allured by Promises and regardless of future Events Hereupon they joyned their Forces with the Romans and spoiled the Scots Country Their first fight with them was at Cree a River of Galway the Scots being few in number were easily overcome by a more numerous Army and being thus put to slight the Romans pursued them every way without any order as being sure of the Victory In the mean time the Argyle Men and some other Forces of the remote Parts who were coming up to joyn with their vanquished Friends fell in good order upon the scatter'd Troops of the Romans and made a great Slaughter amongst their Enemies Eugenius gather'd up those whom he could recal from flight and calling a Council of War was advised That seeing his forces were not sufficient to carry on the War he should return back to Carrick But as Maximus was prosecuting his victory word was brought him That all was in a flame in the inner parts of Britain The Scots were glad of his departure as being eased of a great part of their Enemies and though they were scarce able to defend their own yet between Anger and Hope they resolved before the Summer was past to perform some great Exploit against their adjacent Enemies and thereupon they poured in the remainders of their Force upon the Picts As they marched they slew all they met without distinction and made all desolate with Fire and Sword Maximus tho' he threatned and spake contumeliously of the Scots yet being equally joyful at the destruction of both Nations as soon as he found an opportunity marched against the Scots upon pretence to revenge the Wrongs done by them to the Picts The Scots on the other side being now to fight not for Glory Empire or Booty but for their Country Fortune Lives and whatsoever else is wont to be dear to Men drew forth all that were able to bear Arms not the Men only but Women also according to the Custom of the Nation prepare themselves for their last encounter and pitched their Tents not far from the River Down and near their Enemies Camp Both Armies being set in order of Battel first of all the Auxiliaries set upon the Scots where some fighting in hope others incited by despair there was a very sharp tho' short encounter The Picts and Britains were repulsed with great loss and had been certainly wholly routed and put to flight if seasonable relief had not come to them from the Romans But Maximus bringing on his Legions the Scots being inferior in Number in the Nature of their Arms and in their Military Discipline were driven back and almost quite ruined King Eugenius himself fell in this Fight as not being willing to survive his Soldiers and the greatest part of his Nobles fell with him as loath to forsake their King Maximus having obtained this great Victory sooner than he hoped and scarce finding any on whom he might wreck his hatred mercifully returned to his former Clemency for marching over many Provinces of the Scots he took those that yielded themselves to Mercy and caused them to till the Land withal adding his Commands That they should be contented with their Own and not be offensive to their Neighbours The Picts taking this his Clemency in evil part did allege That the Romans and their Allys would never obtain a firm solid peace as long as the Nation of the Scots which were always unquiet and took all opportunities to plunder did remain alive adding further That Britanny would never be secure whilst any of the Scotish Blood remain'd in it That they were like wild Beasts who would be sweetned by no Offices of Love nor would they be quiet though they received never so many Losses so that there would be no end of War till the whole Nation was extinct Maximus replied many things in bar to such severities as That 't was the ancient Custom of the Romans if they overcame any Nation to be so far from extirpating them that they
the Father in Law of King Fergusius I am most inclined to be of this last Opinion The Wall then being thus Razed the Scots and Picts did Rage with most inhuman Cruelties over the Brittons without distinction of Age or Sex For as Matters then stood the Brittons were weak and unaccustomed to War so that they sent a lamentable Embassy to Rome complaining of the unspeakable Calamities they endured and with great humility and earnestness supplicating for Aid farther alleging That if they were not moved at the Destruction of the Brittons and the loss of a Province lately so splendid an one yet it became the Romans to maintain their own Dignity lest their Names should grow contemptible amongst those Barbarous Nations Hereupon another Legion was again sent for their Relief who coming as Bede says in Autumn an unexpected Season of the Year made great Slaughter of their Enemies The Confederate Kings gathered what Force they could together to beat them back and being encouraged by their Success in former Times and also by the Friendship and Alliance of Dionethus a Britton they drew forth towards the Enemy This Dionethus was well descended in his own Country but always an Adviser of his Countrymen to shake off the Roman Yoke and then especially when so fair an Opportunity was offered and the whole Strength of the Empire was engaged in other Wars whereupon he was suspected by his own Men as an Affector of Novelty and was hated of the Romans but was a Friend to the Scots and Picts who understanding That the Design of the Romans was first to destroy Dionethus as an Enemy near at hand and in their very Bowels to obviate their purpose made great Marches towards them and joyning their Forces with Those of Dionethus's began a a sharp Encounter with the Romans who over-powered by Numbers both in Front and Reer were put to Flight When the Ranks of the Legionary Soldiers were thus broken and gave Ground the Confederate King being too eager in pursuit fell amongst the Reserves of the Romans and the rest of their Army who stood in good Order and were repulsed by them with great Slaughter So that if the Romans being conscious of the smalness of their Number had not forbore any farther pursuit they had doubtless received a mighty Overthrow that Day but because the loss of some Soldiers in but a small Army was most sensible therefore they were less joyous at the Victory Maximianus so our Writers call him who commanded the Roman Legion being dismayed at this Check retired into the midst of his Province And the Opposite Kings returned each to his own Dominion Hereupon Dionethus took the Supreme Authority upon him and being clothed in Purple after the manner of the Romans carries himself as King of the Brittons When the Romans understood that their Enemies were dispersed they gathered what Force they could together and encreased them with British Auxiliaries and so marched against Dionethus who infested the Provinces adjoyning to him for they thought to subdue him from whom their Danger was nearest before his Allies could come to his relief But the Three Kings united their Forces sooner than he imagined and joyning all their Forces together they encouraged their Soldiers as well as they could and without delay drew forth their Armies to the Onset The Roman General placed the Brittons in the Front and the Romans in the Reserves The Fight was fierce and the Front giving Ground Maximianus brought on his Legion and stopt the Brittons in their flight and then sending about some Troops to fall on the Rear some Brigades of Scots being incompassed by them drew themselves into a Ring where they bravely defended themselves till the greatest part of their Enemies Army falling upon them they were every Man slain Yet their loss gave Opportunity to the rest to escape There fell in that Fight Fergus King of the Scots and Durstus King of the Picts Dionethus being wounded was with great difficulty carried off to the Sea and in a Skiff returned home This Victory struck such a Terrour to all that it recalled the memory of Ancient Times in so much that many consulted whither to betake themselves for their Place of Exile Fergusius died when he had Reigned Sixteen Years a Man of an Heroick Spirit and who may deservedly be called The Second Founder of the Scotish Kingdom yea perhaps he may be said to exceed the former Fergusius in this That he came into a void Country and that by the Concession of the Picts neither had he the unconquered Forces of the Romans to deal with but with the Brittons who though somewhat yet not much Superiour to them in Accoutrements and Provisions for War were yet their Inferiours in enduring the Hardships of the Field But this later Fergusius when almost all were slain who were able to bear Arms being also brought up in a Foreign Country and after the 27th Year of his Banishment from his Own being sent for as an unknown King by those Subjects who were as unknown to him marched with a mixed Army packed up of several Nations against the Brittons who were sometimes also assisted by the Forces of the Romans so that if God had not manifestly favoured his Designs he might seem to have undertaken a very Temerarious Attempt and bordering upon Madness it self When he was slain he left three Sons behind him very young Eugenius Dongardus and Constantius Graham their Uncle by the Mother's side was by Universal Consent appointed Guardian over them and in the mean time till they came to be of Age he was to manage the Government as Regent He was a Person of that Virtuous Temper that even in the most Turbulent Times and amidst a most fierce Nation who were not always obedient no not to Kings of their own Nation yet there hapned no Home-bred Sedition in his time though he himself were a Foreigner Eugenius or Evenus II The Forty First King EVgenius or Evenus the Eldest Son of Fergusias had the Name of King but the Power was in the Hands of Graham he caused a Muster to be made of the Soldiers all over the Land and when he found that his Militia was weakned by former Fights beyond what he thought he saw that nothing then was to be done and so ceased from making any Levies But the Roman Legion having releived their Allies and as they were Commanded being about to return into the Continent spoiled all their Enemies Country within the Wall of Severus and slew the Inhabitants 't is true they restored the Lands to the Brittons but they kept the Prey for themselves So that the Remainders of the Scots and Picts who supervived their late loss were again shut up between the two Firthâ— of the Sea Matters being reduced to this pass the Romans declared to the Brittons with how great and strong Armies they were beset who had conspired to destroy the Roman Name and Empire so that they were not
other Reserves into Service he drew on also the Squadrons left to guard the Baggage into the Fight They being intire routed the Brittons which stood against them so that the Victory began on that side whence the fear of a Total overthrow did proceed The rest of the Brittons following the Fortune of the other Brigade ran away too and flying into the Woods and Marishes near to the place where the Battel was fought as they were thus straggling dispersed and unarmed their Enemies Baggage-men and Attendants slew abundance of them There fell of the Brittons in this Fight 14000 of their Enemies 4000. After this Fight the Brittons having lost almost all their Infantry send Ambassadors to the Scots and Picts Commissioning them to refuse no Conditions of Peace whatsoever The Confederate Kings seeing they had All in their Power were somewhat inclined to Mercy and therefore Terms of Peace were offered which were hard indeed but not the severest which in such their afflicted State they might have propounded The Conditions were That the Brittons should not send for any Roman or other Forein Army to assist them That they should not admit them if they came of their own accord nor give them Liberty to march thrâ— their Country That the Enemies of the Scots and Picts should be Theirs also vice versâ and That without their Permission they should not make Peace or War nor send Aid to any who desired it That the Limits of their Kingdom should be the River Humber That they should also make present Payment of a certain sum of Money by way of Mâ—lâ—t to be divided amongst the Soldiers which also was to be paid yearly by them That they should give an hundred Hostages such as the Confederate Kings should approve of These Conditions were entertained by the Brittons grudingly by some but necessarily by all and the same necessity which procured it made them keep the Peace for some years The Brittons being left weak and forsaken of Foreigners that they might have an Head to resort to for publick Advice made Constantine their Countryman a Nobleman of high descent and of great repute whom they had sent for out of Gallick Britanny King He perceiving that the Forces of the Brittons were broken both abroad by Wars and at home by Fewds Robberies and Discords thought fit to attempt nothing by Arms but during the Ten years he reigned he maintained Peace with his Neighbours at last he was Slain by the Treachery of Vortigern a Potent and Ambitious man He left Three Sons behind him of which Two were under Age the Third and Eldest as unfit for Government was thrust into a Monastery yet he was made King principally by the Assistance of Vortigern who sought to obtain Wealth and Power to himself under the Envy of another mans Name The Fields which were now tilled in time of Peace after a most grievous Famine yielded such a plentiful Crop of Grain that the like was never heard of in Britain before And from hence those Vices did arise which usually accompany Peace as Luxury Cruelty Whoredom Drunkenness which are more pernicious than all the Mischiefs of War There was no Truth or Sincerity to be found and that not only amongst the Vulgar but even the Monks and the Professors of an Holier Life made a mock at Equity Faithfulness and constant Piety of Life of which Bede the Anglo-Saxon and Gildas the Britton do make an heavy Complaint In the mean time the Ambassadors who returned from Aetius brought word That no relief could be expected from him for the Brittons had sent Letters to Aetius some Clauses whereof as they are mentioned by Bede I shall here recite both because they are a succinct History of the Miseries of that Nation and also because they demonstrate How much many Writers are mistaken in their Memoirs The Words are these To Aetius the third time Consul the Complaints of the Brittons And a little after The Barbarians drive us to the Sea the Sea beats us back again upon the Barbarians between These two kinds of Deaths we are either Killed or Drowned Now Aetius was joyned in his Third Consulship with Symmachus in the 450th year after Christ. Neither could there any Aid be obtained from him who was then principally intent upon the observing the Motions of Attila The rest of the Brittons being driven to this desperate point only Vortigern was glad of the publick Calamity and in such a general hurly-burly he thought he might with greater Impunity perpetrate that Wickedness which he had long before designed in his mind which was to cause the King to be Slain by those Guards which he had appointed about him and afterwards to avert the suspition of so foul a Parricide from himself in a pretended Fit of Anger as if he were impatient of delay in Executing Revenge he caused the Guards also to be put to death without suffering them to plead for themselves Thus having obtained the Kingdom by the highest degree of Villany he managed it with as little Sanctity For suspecting the Faithfulness of the People towards him and not confiding in his own strength which was but small he engaged the Saxons to take his part who then exercised Pyracy at Sea and infested all the shores far and near He procured their Captain Hengist with a strong Band of Soldiers to come to him with three Galleys and he assigned Lands to him in Britain so that now he was to fight not as for a strange Country but as for his own Demeasne and Estate and therefore was likely to do it with greater Alacrity When this was noised abroad such large Numbers of Three Nations the Iutes the Saxons and the Angles are reported to have flocked out of Germany into Britain that they became formidable even to the Inhabitants of the Isle First of all about the year of our Lord 449. Vortigern being strengthned by those Auxiliaries joyned Battel with the Scots and Picts whom he Conquered and drove beyond the Wall of Adrian As touching Eugenius the King of the Scots there goes a double Report of him some say he was slain in fight beyond the River Humber others that he died a natural Death However he came by his end this is certain he governed the Scots with such Equity that he may deservedly be reckoned amongst the Best of their Kings For tho' he spent the first Part of his Life almost from his Childhood in War yet he so profited under the Discipline of his Grandfather and his Mind was so established thereby that neither Military Freedom as it usually doth did draw him to Vice neither did it make him more negligent in conforming his Manners to the Rule of Piety nor did his prosperous Success make him more arrogant And on the other side the Peace and Calm he enjoyed did not abate the sharpness of his Understanding nor break his Martial Spirit but he managed his Life with such an equal and
Dominion of the Bishop of Rome only and gave himself out to be the only Arch-Bishop of the Isle of Britain and withal introduced a Dispute neither Necessary nor Advantageous concerning the Day on which Easter was to be kept and did by this means mightily trouble the Churches Yea he so loaded the Christian Discipline which was then inclining toward Superstition with such new Ceremonies and feigned Miracles that he scarce left any Mark or Footstep of true Piety behind him Kennethus I. The Fiftieth King AFTER Aidanus Kennethus was Elected King he did nothing Memorable in his time He died the 4th or as some say the 12th Month after he began to Reign Eugenius IIII. The Fifty First King AFter him Eugenius the Son of Aidanus was made King In the year of our Lord 605. He was brought up as the Black Book of Pasley hath it piously and carefully under Columba being very well educated in human Learning yet in This he swerved from the Institution of his Master that he was more addicted to War than Peace For he exercised the Saxons and Picts with daily Incursions His Government was very severe and rough Those who were proud and contumacious sooner felt the point of his Sword than they received from him any Conditions of Peace but to those who asked Pardon for their offences and voluntarily surrendred themselves he was very merciful and easy to forgive and not at all insolent in his Victories This is what That Book reports concerning Eugenius But Boetius says on the contrary That he lived in great Peace which happened not so much from his Foreign Leagues as from the Discords of his Enemies who maintain'd Civil Wars amongst themselves For the English inhabiting the South Parts making Profession of Christianity whilst they endeavoured to revenge the injuries offered to them deprived Ethelfrid the Potent King of Northumberland both of his Life and Kingdom together Edvinus succeeded him and the kindred of Ethelfrid fled into Scotland amongst whom were Seaven of his Sons and one Daughter This was done in the Tenth year of the Reign of Eugenius He entertain'd these Saxons flying to him for Refuge tho' he knew them to be Enemies both to him and the whole Christian Name with great Courtesy and Humanity as long as he lived giving them Royal Reception and causing them to be carefully educated in the Christian Religion He died in the Sixteenth Year of his Reign and was much Lamented by all Men. Ferchardus I. The Fifty Second King HIS Son Ferchardus was substituted in his room in the Year of Christ 522. and in the 13th year of Heraclius the Emperour He being a Cunning and Politick Man endeavoured to change the Legitimate Government of the Land into Tyranny in order whereto he nourished Factions amongst the Nobility supposing by that means to effect what wickedly he designed with Impunity But the Nobles understanding his Malicious aim secretly made up the Breach amongst themselves and calling an Assembly of the Estates Summoned him to appear which he refusing to do they Stormed the Castle wherein he was and so drew him per force to Judgment Many and grievous Crimes were objected against him and particularly the Pelagian Heresy the Contempt of Baptism and other Sacred Rites When he was not able to purge himself from any One of them he was committed to Prison where That he might not live to be a publick Spectacle of disgrace he put an End to his own Life in the 14th Year of his Reign Donaldus IIII. The Fifty Third King HIS Brother Donaldus or Donevaldus mounted the Throne in his stead who calling to mind the Elogy of his Father and the Miserable end of his Brother made it his Business to maintain the true Worship of God and that not only at home but he sought by all Lawful means to propagate it abroad For when Edwin was dead he furnished the Kindred and Children of Ethelfrid who had remained Exiles in Scotland for many Years with Accommodations to return home he bestowed upon them Gifts he sent Forces to accompany them and gave them free Liberty to pass and repass as occasion required This Edwin afore spoken of was slain by Kedvalla as Bede calls him King of the Brittons and by Penda King of the Mercians One of which was his Enemy out of ancient hatred to the Nation The Other for his new embracing of Christianity but Both for the Emulation of his power The Victory is reported to have been most Cruel for whilst Penda endeavoured to root out the Christians and Kedvalla the Saxons their Fury was so great that it spared neither Age nor Sex After the death of Edwin Northumberland was divided into Two Kingdoms Osticus Cousin-German to Edwin was made King of the Deiri and Eanfrid as Bede calls him but our Writers name him Aâ—defridus Ethelfrides Eldest Son King of the Bernici They renounced the Christian Religion in which they had been diligently educated one by the Scotish Monks the other by Paulinus the Bishop and revolted to their Ancient Superstition but were both shortly after outed out of their Kingdoms and their Lives too by Penda Oswald the Son of Ethelfrid succeeded them Both a studious Promoter of the Christian Religion He sent Ambassadors into Scotland to Donaldus to desire him to send him some Christian Doctors which he did Men of great Sanctity and Learning and who were accordingly received by him with great curtesy entertained magnificently and rewarded amply Neither did he think it below his Kingly Dignity to interpret the Sentences of their Sermons Preached to the People who did not so well understand the Scotish Language whom he gathered together for that purpose all which is clearly expressed by Bede Donaldus died in the 14th year of his Reign leaving the precious Memory of his Virtues behind him Ferchardus II. The LIV. King FERCHARDVS his Brother Ferchardus's Son succeeded him a most slagitious Person unsatiable in his desires of Wine and Wealth of inhuman Cruelty towards Men and of as great Impiety towards God When his Cruelty and Rapine had raged against those without he converted his Fury upon his Domesticks killing his Wife and Vitiating his Daughter for which hainous Wickedness he was Excommunicated out of the Society of Christians And as the Nobles were about to Assemble by way of Consultation about his Punishment Coleman that Holy Bishop stopped them for he openly told him That Divine Vengeance should speedily overtake him and the Event verified his Prediction for a few days after as he was a Hunting he was hurt by a Wolf and fell into a Feaver and not being able to abstain from his former Intemperance at last his Body was eaten up by the Lowsie Disease and then he cryed out That he was deservedly punished because he had not hearkned to the wholsom Advice of Coleman Thus at last seeing his Error and Coleman comforting him with hopes of Pardon in case he truly repented He
bridled and saddled for all Events and being not able to find the way in regard the Snow covered all the Track they were confounded and arrived at a Lake by the Town of Forfar where endeavouring to pass ovâ—r the Ice being not very firm they sunk with their Weight and were all drowned Their Bodies lay undiscovered for a season by reason the Ice closed again but when a Thaw came they were found and hung upon Gibbets in the High-ways there to rot for the Terrour of the Living and in Reproach to them after they were dead This is the common Report about Malcolm's End though some write that he was slain by an Ambush laid by the Kinred of Grimus and Constantinus the former Kings after a bloody Bâ—ttel joyned and fought betwixt them Others say that he was killed by the Friends of a Noble Virgin whom he had forceably vitiated but all agree that he came to a violent Death Malcolm Reigned so justly above Thirty Years that unless Avarice had corrupted his Mind in 's Old Age he might well have been numbered amongst the Best of Princes The Year in which he died was a Prodigious One for in the Winter the Rivers did mightily overflow and in Spring there were great Inundations of the Sea And moreover a few Days after the Summer Solstice there were very pinching Frosts and mighty Snows by which means the Fruits of the Earth being spoiled a great Famine did ensue The Seventh BOOK I Have declared in the former Book how eagerly Kennethus and his Son Malcolm did strive to settle the Succession to the Crown in their Families That the Eldest Son might succeed the Father But what the Success thereof was will appear in the Sequel This is certain That that Publick Benefit which was promised to the whole Kingdom nor yet the private Advantage alleged to arise to our Kings thereby were not at all obtained by this New Law An Universal Good to All was pretended in thus settling the Succession that Seditions Murders and Treacheries might be prevented amongst Those of the Blood and also that Ambition with the other Mischiefs accompanying it might be rooted out from amongst the Nobles But on the contrary when I enquire into the Causes of Publick Grievances and compare the Old with the Modern it seems to me That all those Mischiefs which we would have avoided by this New Law are so far from being extinguished by the Antiquating of the Old that they rather receive a great Increase therefrom For not to speak of the Plots of their Kinred against Those who are actually in the Throne nor of a present King 's Evil Suspitions of those whom Nature and the Law would have accounted as most dear to him I say omitting these things which in the Series of our History will be further explained all the Miseries of former Ages may seem light and tolerable if compared with those Calamities which followed upon the Death of Alexander the Third Neither will I insist upon the Particulars following viz. that That Law doth enervate the Force of all Publick Councils without which no Lawful Government can subsist That it doth willingly and by consent create those Evils to our selves which others who have Interest in Publick Governments do chiefly if not only deprecate viz. To have Kings over whom other Governors must be appointed and so the People are to be universally committed into their Power who have no Power over themselves insomuch That those Persons who are hardly brought to Obey Wise Prudent and Experienced Kings are now required to yield Obedience as it were to the very shadow of a King by which means we willingly precipitate our selves into those Punishments which God threatens to Those who despise and contemn his Holy Majesty namely That Children Male or Female may Reign over us whom the Law of Nations and even Nature it self the Mother of all Laws hath subjected to the Rule of others As for the private Benefit That Kings aim at by this Law i. e. That they may perpetuate their Name and Stock how vain and fallacious that Pretence is the Examples of the Ancients yea even Nature it self might inform them if they had but considered by how many Laws and Rewards the Romans endeavoured to perennate the mighty Names of their Families of which yet no one Footstep remains at this Day no not in any part of the World which they had Conquered Which Disappointment doth deservedly attend those who fight against even Nature it self by endeavouring to cloath a fading frail Thing subject to Momentany Alterations and Blasts of Fortune with a sort of Perpetuity and to endow it with a kind of Eternity which they themselves neither are Partakers of nor can be yea they strive to effect it by those Mediums which are most cross to their purpose For what is less conducive to Perpetuity than Tyranny Yet this New Law makes a great Step thereto for a Tyrant is as it were the White or Mark exposed to the Hate of all Men insomuch that he cannot long subsist and when he falls all His fall with him It seems to me That God doth sometimes gently chastize and disappoint this endeavour of Foolish Men and sometimes he doth expose it even to Publick Scorn as if it were emulous of his own Power There can be no clearer or fitter Example of Gods Will and Pleasure than That which we have now under our Hands For Malcolm who so much laboured to confirm the Law which was almost forcibly Enacted by his Father by common Suffrage and Consent For the Kings Children to be substituted in the Room of their deceased Parents even He left no Male-Child behind him but he had Two Daughters One called Beatrix whom he Married to a Nobleman named Grimus the Thane of the Western Islands and the Chief of all other Thanes and therefore styled in that Age Abthane the Other named Doaca he Married to the Thane of Angus by whom he begot Mackbeth or Macbeda of whom in his Place Donaldus VII The Eighty Fourth King MALCOLM being slain as hath been related Donaldus his Nephew by his Daughter Beatrix succeeded him A Prince of great Courtesy and of more Indulgence to his own Kindred than became a King For he was of a mild and Inclineable Disposition and from his Youth gave forth Omens of his Popularity For in the most difficult times when he was made Governor of Cumberland by his Grandfather and could not câ—me to the King by reason of the Danish Troops which swarmed over the Country and stopped all Passages to Swear to the Laws yet he faithfully took part with the English until Canutus having had the rest of England surrendred to him made an Expedition against him and then he submitted himself to the Danes on the same Conditions under which he obeyed the English before This also was popular in him That he administred Justice with great Equity and every Year he visited the Provinces
his Reign some few were rouzed up at the hubbub and pursued scatteringly divers of them rushed amongst their Enemies as not being willing to forsake their King and so were made Prisoners also William was carried to Henry then Warring in France The English being elated with this unexpected Success invaded Cumberland thinking to carry it without Blows But Gilchrist and Rolland Two Scotâ— Commanders did so entertain Them that being repuls'd they made a Truce and were content to enjoy Northumberland only as long as the Scots King was a Prisoner and to leave Cumberland and Huntingtonshire to the free Possession of the Scots In the mean time David the Brother of William Earl of Huntington in England and of Garioch in Scotland who then fought under the English Banners received a Convoy and returned into Scotland where having setled things for the present he sent Embassadors into England about the Redemption of his Brother who was then kept Prisoner at Falise a Town in Normandy The King gave Fifteen Hostages to the English and surrendred up Four Castles viz. the Castle of Roxburgh of Berwick of Edinburgh and of Sterling and then he was permitted to return home in the Calends of February But then he was called upon by the English to appear at York with his Nobles and Bishops on the 18th of the Calends of September Being arrived there he and all his Followers who were the Chief Nobility took an Oath of Obedience to King Henry and gave up the Kingdom of Scotland into his Guardianship and Patronage These Conditions thô very hard yet the Scots were willing to accept of That so they might have the best of Kings restored to them as the English Writers say Thomas Walsingham of England writes That this Surrender was not made at York but at Constance Yet some say That this Interview of Both Kings was not in order to the Surrender of the Kingdom but for the Payment of certain pecuniary Pensions and That the Castles were put into the hands of the English as Cautionaries only till the Money was paid This Opinion seems to me most probable as appears by the League renewed with Richard Henrys Son of which in its due place William at his Return in a few Months by Gilchrist his General quelled the Insurrections made in his absence in Galway On the Fourth of the Calends of February there was an Assembly Indicted at Norham by Tweed Thither William came where the English laboured extreamly That all the Scots Bishops should acknowledge the Bishop of York for their Metropolitan The Popes Legate also concurred with them in their Desire and earnestly pressed That it might be so Enacted After a long Dispute the Scots Answered That at present few of their Countrymen were there and that they could not bind the absent to obey their Decree if they should consent to any Hereupon the matter was deferred to another time and shortly after the Scots Bishops sent Agents to Rome to justify their Cause before Alexander the Third by whose Decree the Bishops of Scotland were freed from the Yoke of the English and so the Messengers returned joyfully home Not long after Gilchrist whom I have often mentioned before slew his Wife who was the King's Sister because she had Committed Adultery Whereupon he was summoned to appear on a certain day but not coming was Banished for ever His Houses were Demolished and his Goods Confiscate About the same time the Castle of Edinburgh was restored to the Scots one of the Pensions having been paid and to make the Concord between Both Kings more firm a Law was made That neither King should harbour the Enemy of each other Upon this Law Gilchrist who lived Banished in England was forced to return and shifting from place to place as a Stranger amongst Strangers and unknown he passed his Miserable Life in great Penury and Want In the interim William prepared for an Expedition into Murray to suppress the Thieves of the Aebudae whose Captain was Donald Bane i.e. the White who derived his Pedigree from the Kings and had also assumed the Name of King He made his Descent from his Ships in many places and spoiled not only the Maritime Parts but his Boldness increasing by reason of Impunity those Places also which were very remote from the Sea The King sent out Ships to sail about and burn his Fleet whilst he with a Land Army attacqued them and so doing he put them almost all to the Sword In his return as he was near Perth he found Three Countrymen which yet seemed to be more than so had not it been for their shabby and uncouth Habit who seemed to avoid meeting any Company but the King caused them to be brought to him and viewing them intently was very earnest to know What manner of Creatures they were Gilchrist being the Elder of them fell down at the King's Feet and making a Miserable Complaint of his Misfortunes tells Who he was upon which the Memory of his former Life which he had passed with so much Splendour did so passionately affect all that were present That they could not chuse but fall a Weeping Whereupon the King commanded him to rise from the Ground and restored him to his Former Dignity and the same Degree of Favour he had before These things fell out about the Year 1190 at which time Richard who the Year before had succeeded Henry his Father in the Realm of England prepared for an Expedition into Syria He restored the Castles to the King of Scots and sent back the Hostages freeing him and his Posterity from all Pacts either extorted by Force or obtained by Fraud made with the English and suffered him to enjoy the Realm of Scotland by the same Right and within the same Limits as Malcolm or any former Kings had held it Mathew Parâ—s makes mention of These Conditions William on the other side That he might not be ungrateful to Richard upon his going to War into a strange Country gave him 1000 Marks of Silver and commanded David his Brother who was Declared Earl of Huntington to follow him into Syria This David in his Return from thence had his Navy scattered by Tempest was taken prisoner by the Aegyptians redeem'd by the Venetians and at last being known at Constantinople by an English Merchant after Four years time he returned into Scotland and was received with the general Gratulation of all Men especially of his Brother Boetius thinks that the Town where this David was landed in Safety before-named Alectum was now called Deidonum but because the Name of Alectum is found in no Author but only in Hector Boetius I rather think it was called Taodunum a Word compounded of Tay and Dun i. e. Dundee Not long after Richard after many Hazards and Misfortunes returned also from the same Voyage William and his Brother came to congratulate him upon his Return and gave him 2000 Marks
of Silver as a Largess being moved thereunto either out of Remembrance of his former Bounty to him or on the Consideration of his present Want Neither were ever the Scots and English more Gracious than at that time as many judge There William fell very Sick and a Rumour of his Death being noised abroad caused new Combustions in Scotland Harald Earl of the Orcades and of Caithnes hated the Bishop of Caithnes because as he alledged he was the Obstacle that he could not obtain what he desired of the King and therefore he took him Prisoner cut out his Tongue and also put out his Eyes The King returning home overthrew Harald in several Skirmishes and destroyed most of his Forces Harald himself was taken in his Flight and brought back to the King who when his Eyes also were first put out by way of Retaliation was afterwards hanged his whole Male-Stock were Gelded the rest of his Kinn and Companions of his Wickedness were deeply Fined These things are thus related by Hector Boetius and common Report confirms them yea the Hill receiving its Name from Testicles gives credit to the Relation so that it seems truer than what others Write in this matter These things happened in the Year of our Salvation 1198. in which Year the King had a Son named Alexander Born to him and Richard of England dying his Brother Iohn succeeded him Whereupon the King of Scots went into England to take his Oath to him for the Lands which he held in England and in the beginning of Iohn's new Reign his Coming was not more acceptable than his Departure displeasing because he refused to follow Iohn in his Expedition into France against Philip his old Friend So that as soon as Iohn returned out of France he sought Occasion for a War with the Scots and began to build a Fort over against Berwick William having in vain complained of the Injurie by his Embassadors gathered a Company together and demolished what was built thereof Upon which Armies were Levied on both sides but when their Camps were near to one another Peace was made by the Intervention of the Nobles on these Terms That William's Two Daughters should be given in Matrimony to Iohn's Two Sons assoon as ever they were Marriageable A great Dowry was promised and Caution made That no Fort should be built and Hostages also were given in the case William at his return fell into an unexpected Danger The greatest Part of the Town of Berth was swept away in the Night by an Inundation of the River Tay Neither was the King's Palace exempted from the Calamity but his Son an Infant with his Nurse and 14 more were drowned the rest hardly escaping Many also of the Promiscuous Multitude lost their Lives The King perceiving that the Water had overwhelmed the greatest part of the Ground on which the City stood and that almost every House in the Town had suffered thereby caused a new City to be built a little below in a more commodious place on the same River and making some small variation of the Name called it Perth in Memory as some say of one Perth a Nobleman who gave the King the Land on which the City was built About the same time the King took Gothered Makul Captain of the Rebels in the North who was betrayed to him by his own Men. When he was Prisoner he constantly abstained from all Food to prevent as 't is thought a more heavy Punishment This was in a manner the last memorable Fact of William's which yet in regard of his unweildy Age was acted by his Captains For he Dyed soon after in the 74 th year of his Age and the 49 th year of his Reign A. D. 1643. Not long before his Death Leagues were renewed with Iohn King of England almost every Year for he being a Man desirous to enlarge his Dominions thô he had War with the French abroad with the Romanists at home and moreover was never on sure Terms of Peace with the Irish or Welsh yet did not break off his Inclination to invade Scotland which had then an old Man for their King and the next Heir to him a Child Frequent Conferences happened on this Occasion rather to try what might be obtained than in hopes of any good Issue at length the Matter broke out into open Suspicion And after many Leagues made between Them at last William was called to Newcastle upon Tine Whither he came but there falling into a dangerous Disease he returned without doing any thing In fine a little before his Death he was invited to Norham on the Tweed and when his Sickness would not permit him to go his Son was desired to come in his stead which yet by the Advice of the Council was refused the Leagues established in those Interviews I shall not particularly mention for they almost all contain the same things having in them nothing New save that in One of them it was Articled That the Scotish Kings should not Swear nor be Feudataries to the Kings of England Themselves for the English Lands they held but their Children only The Mention of these things is wholly omitted by the English Writers also I believe for this very Cause Alexander II. The Ninety Fourth King WIlliam was succeeded by Alexander his Son begot on Emergard who was Kinswoman to the King of England and Daughter to the Earl of Beaumont He was but Sixteen years of age when he began to Reign entring upon the Government in troublesom Times he composed and setled things more prudently than could be expected from one of his years First of all he Indicted a Publick Convention of the Estates and therein by a Decree he confirmed all the Acts of his Father that good and prudent Prince His first Expedition was into England not out of any private Ambition but to bridle the Tyranny of Iohn and it was then said that he was sent for in by the Ecclesiasticks of that Kingdom He left Norham upon certain Conditions when he had begun to besiege it and piercing further into the Kingdom he carried it very severely against all the Royalists Upon his Return home Iohn invaded Scotland quickly after He made a mighty Devastation in Dunbar Hadington and all the Neighbouring Parts of Lothian and to spread the War and Ruin further he determined to return another Way Alexander being very desirous to decide it by a Battel pitcht his Tents between the Pentland Hills and the River Eske which way as it was bruited he would return but Iohn to avoid fighting marched along by the Sea and burnt the Monastery of Coldingham he also took and burnt Berwick which was then but meanly fortified As he thus marched hastily back Alexander followed him as fast as he could and making great havock all over Northumberland came as far as Richmond But Iohn by speedy marches having retreated into the heart of England Alexander returned by Westmorland and
was Poysoned as it is thought by his Wife an English Woman The Suspicion thereof was encreased on her because tho' she were Wooed by many Nobles yet she Married Iohn Russel her Gallant a Young English Spark She was accused of Witchcraft too and cast into Prison but she bought out her Liberty Russel and his Wife obtained Letters from the Pope permitting them to commence an Action of the Case against their Adversaries for the Wrong done them before the Popes Legate But it was to no purpose because the Scots urged an Ancient Privilege exempting them from going out of the Kingdom when they were to plead their Causes When the King was of Age upon the humble Petition of the Cumins's he Pardoned them as if all their offences had been expiated by the Death of Walter He was induced so to do as some say by reason of the Greatness of their Family and also because he feared Foreign Wars when Matters were so unsetled at home But that War began not so soon as Men thought it would In the Year of Christ 1263. in the Calends of August Acho King of Norwey with a Fleet of 160 Sail came to Air a Maritime Town of Coil where he Landed 20000 Men. The Cause of the War as he pretended was that some Islands which were promised to his Ancestors by Mackbeth were not yet put into his Hands viz. Bote Aran and both the Cumbras's which were never reckoned amongst the Aebudae But it was enough for him who sought a pretence for a War that they were called Islands Acho took two of the greatest of them and reduced their Castles before he could meet with any Opposition being lifted up by this success he makes a descent into Cuningham the next Continent over against Bote in that part of it which they call the Largs There he met with Two Misfortunes almost at one and the same First he was overcome in Fight by Alexander Stuart the Great Grandfather of him who first of that Name was King of Scotland and being almost taken by the Multitude of his Enemies he hardly escaped in great Fear to his Ships The other was That his Ships being tossed in a mighty Tempest hardly carried him with a few of his followers who escaped into the Orcades There were slain in that Battel Sixteen Thousand of the Norwegians and Five Thousand of the Scots some Writers say that King Alexander himself was in this Fight Yet they also make Honourable mention of the Name of this Alexander Stuart Acho died of Grief for the Loss of his Army and of his Kinsman too a Valiant Youth whose Name is not mentioned by Writers His Son Magnus who was lately come to him perceiving Things in a desperater Posture than he ever thought they would be brought to especially having no hopes of Recruit from home before the Spring and also finding the Minds of the Islanders alienated from him and that he was forsaken of the Scots too in Confidence of whose Aid his Father had undertaken that War these things considered he easily inclined to Terms of Peace The Spirit of the young Man was quailed both by the unlucky Fight and also by his Fear of the Islanders For Alexander had then recovered by sending about some Ships the Isle of Man situate almost in the midst between Scotland and Ireland upon these Conditions That the King thereof should send in Ten Gallies to the Scots as oft as there was occasion and that the Scots should defend him from a Foreign Enemy When Magnus saw That the rest of the Islands inclined to follow the Example of the Manks-Men he sent Ambassadors to treat of Peace which Alexander refused to make unless the Aebudae were restored at last by the diligence of the Commissioners it was agreed that the Scots should have the Aebudae for which at present they were to pay 1000 Marks of Silver and 100 Marks an Year And moreover That Margarite Alexanders Daughter being then but Four years old should Marry Hangonan the Son of Magnus assoon as she was fit for Marriage About this time the King of England being infested with Civil War had Five Thousand Scots sent him for his Assistance under the Command of Râ—bert Bruce and Alexander Cumins whom the English Writers call Iohn the greatest part of them were slain in Fight and Cumins with the Englâ—sh King himself and his Son and a great part of the English Nobility of the Kings Party were taken Prisoners Moreover the Scots King was much troubled at the Arrogance of the Priests and Monks in his Kingdom who being enriched by former Kings began to grow wanton in a continued Peace Yea they endeavoured to be equal if not superior to the Nobility whom they excelled in Wealth The young Nobility repining at it and taking it in great disdain used them coursly whereupon complaints were made by them to the King who imagining either that their Wrongs were not so great as they represented them or else that they suffered them deservedly neglected their pretended Grievances whereupon they Excommunicated All but the King and in great Wrath determined to go to Rome But the King remembring what great Commotions Thomas Becket the prime promoter of Ecclesiastical Ambition had lately made in England called them back from their Journy and caused the Nobility to satisfie not only their Avarice but even their Arrogance too And indeed they were the more inclinable to an Accord with the King because he had lately undertaken the Patronage of the Ecclesiastical Orders against the Avarice of the Romanists For a little before Ottobon the Popes Legate was come into England to appease the Civil Discords but not being able to effect the thing he came for he omitted the publick Care and studied his own private Gain and Lucre he Indicted an Ecclesiastical Assembly of the English Procters from Scotland being also called thereunto in the mean time he endeavoured to exact Four Marks of Silver from every Parish in Scotland and Six from all Cathedrals for the Expence of Procurations This Contribution or Tax was scarce refused when News was brought That another Legate was arrived in England intending also for Scotland on pretence to gather up Money for the Holy War and besides that procurable by Indulgences and other Lime-Twigs to catch Money he endeavoured to wrest from all Bishops Abbats and Parish Priests as judging them to be immediately under Papal Jurisdiction the Tenth part of their yearly Revenues that so Edward and Edmond Sons to the King of England might go more Nobly and Numerously attended to the War in Syria The Scots judged this Tax to be very grievous and unjust especially because the English seemed to be so forward to have it granted as if Scotland were not sui Iuris or an absolute Kingdom but Dependent on England Moreover they were afraid lest the Legat should riotously mispend the Money designed for the War as was done some Years
to have their Cause heard and never shunned the Determination of an Equal Judge nor the Arbitration of any Good men and moreover when they produced many Grants and Summons of Former Popes which made for them and against their Enemies the Scots were always present at the day and the English tho' they had Notice given never came Hereupon the Pope was easily reconciled to the Scots and the French as easily induced to renew the Ancient League only one Article was added to the old Conditions That if any Controversy did hereafter arise amongst the Scots concerning him who was to succeed in the Kingdom the same should be decided by the Council of the States and the French if there were need were to assist Him by his Authority and with his Arms who by Lawful Suffrages was by them declared King Our Writers cast the Rise of the Hamiltons now a powerful Family in Scotland upon these Times There was a certain Nobleman in the Court of England who spake Honourably of the Fortune and Valour of Bruce whereupon one of the Spencers Bed-Chamber Man to the King either thinking That his Speech was Reproachful to the English or else to curry Favour with the looser sort of the Nobility drew forth his Faucheon and making at him gave him a slight wound in the Body The Man being of a great Spirit was more concerned at the Contumely than at the Damage and being hindered by the coming in of many to part the Fray from taking present Revenge the day after finding his Enemy in a sit Posture in the same place he run him thorough And fearing the Punishment of the Law and the great Power of the Spencers at Court he fled presently into Scotland to King Robert by whom he was courteously received and some Lands near the River Clyde were bestowed upon him His Posterity not long after were admitted to the Degree of Noblemen and the Opulent Family of the Hamiltons was Sirnamed from him and also the Name of Hamilton was imposed on the Lands which the King gave him Not long after Edward had great Combustions at home insomuch that he put many of the Nobles to Death and advanced the Spencers the Authors of all Evil Counsel higher than his own Kindred could bear so that he was apprehended by his Son and by his Wife who had received a small Force from beyond the Seas and kept close Prisoner and not long after he was slain by a course sort of Death an hot Iron was thrust into his Fundament through a Pipe of Horn by which his Bowels were burnt up and yet no Sign of so terrible a Fact appeared on the outside of his Body His Wife and Son were thought Privy to the Parricide either because his Keepers would never have dared to commit such a Deed so openly unless they had had Great Authors or else because they were never called in Question for so Immane a Butchery These Disturbances in England which were followed by the Kings Death Bruce also growing old and weak in Body were the Occasions that Peace for some Years did intercede between the Two Neighbour Nations For Bruce being freed from the Fear of the English and being also called upon by his Age converted his Thoughts to settle his Domestick Affairs And first he made hast to confirm the Kingdom which was not yet quite recovered nor fully setled from the Commotions of former Times to his only Son yet but a Child by the Consent and Decree of the Estates And if he died without Issue then he appointed Robert Stuart his Nephew by his Daughter to be his Successor He caused the Nobles to take an Oath for the Performance of this Decree But afterwards fearing That after his Death Baliol would begin his old Dispute about the Kingdom especially seeing his Heirs because of their Minority might be liable to be injured by others he sent Iames Douglas to Iohn Baliol being in France with large Gifts and Promises That he would cease his Claim to the Kingdom This he did not so much to acquire a new Right because according to the Scotish Custom The King is made by the Decree of the Estates who have the Supream Power in their Hands but that he might cut off all Occasion from Wicked Men to Calumniate his Posterity and also that he might Eradicate the very Seeds of Sedition Douglas found Baliol far more placable than he or others thought he would be for he was now surrounded with the Miseries of Extream Old Age. He ingenuously Confessed That his Peccant Exorbitance was justly restrained and that he was deservedly driven out of the Kingdom as unworthy to Reign And therefore he was very willing That his Kinsman Robert should enjoy the Crown by whose high Valour singular Felicity and great Pains-taking 't was Vindicated into its Ancient Splendour In one thing he rejoyced That they by whom he was deceived did not enjoy the Reward of their Perfidiousness When Robert had setled these Matters according to his own desire the same Year which was 1327. our Writers say That Ambassadors were sent into Scotland by Edward the Third for a Pacification in which Matter they seemed to act Treacherously and instead of Peace they carried home War but what the particular Fraud was is not expressed and the English say That the War was openly denounced by Robert but they describe not the Cause of it surely it must needs be some great and mighty One or else a valetudinary old Man when Peace was scarce setled at home and who might have been sated with his former Victories rather than with War would not so soon have been provoked to reassume his Arms. This is certain That the King by reason of his Age could not manage the War himself in Person so that Thomas Randolfe and Iamâ—s Douglas the Valiantest and Wisest of all that Age were sent by him into England with Twenty Thousand brave nimble Horse but no Foot at all The Reason was That they might fly up and down swiftly and not abide in one place nor be forced to Fight the English unless they themselves pleased For they knew that the English would make Head against them in their first Expedition with a far more numerous Army Neither were they deceived in their Opinions for the King of England besides his Domestick Forces had procured great Assistance of Horse from Belgium but in regard they and the English fell out at York some English Writers say That they returned home again But Frossard a French Writer of the same Age says That they accompanied the English during the whole Expedition and that not only for Honours sake but also for Fear of Sedition they had the next Place to the Kings Regiment always assigned to them in the Camp The King having made a Conjunction of all his Forces which were clearly above Sixty Thousand Men marched against the Scots who had already passed over the Tine Now there were
Foreigners to aid them and that in such a conjuncture of Time when the French Themselves designed also to Land a vast Army in England whereupon he gathered a very puissant Army together consisting as the English Writers say of 60000 Foot and 8000 Horse with this Force he resolved so to tame the Scots that they should not in many Years after be able to Levy any considerable Army Besides he Rigged out a great Navy which were to bring Provisions into the Forth For he knew That part of Scotland wherein he was to make his Descent had been harassed for many Years by continual Wars And if any Provisions were left in it that the Inhabitants would convey them away into the neighbouring or other remote Places Add hereto he was secure of the French for he knew that they would not put to Sea in a Stormy Winter With those Forces he entred Scotland sparing no Place neither Sacred nor Profane no nor any Age nor Degrees of Men if they were capable to bear Arms. In the mean time Monsieur Vien being more mindful of his Kings Commands to him at his parting from him than of the present posture of Affairs in Scotland was earnest with Douglas to come to a Battel He still answered him That the Scots forbore to engage not out of any Alienation of Mind from the French but being Conscious of their own Weakness and thereupon he took him up into an high Place from whence he might safely take a view of the Enemy He then perceiving the long Train of the English in their March quickly turned to be of his Opinion Whereupon they both concluded That in the present circumstances the best and only Way for them to incommode the Enemy was to gather together what Force they could and so to invade England Thereupon they entred far from the Kings Army into Cumberland and made a great Havock therein and in the neighbouring Counties The English Winter being now at hand and the Country of Lothian being spoiled by the War for they durst not gâ—â—ar from their Ships lest Provisions should fail them consulted about their Return Some were of Opinion that it was best to follow after the Scots in the Rear and in their Return to compel them to Fight whether they would or no. But those who knew the Ways better through which they were to march replyed on the contrary That there would be great difficulty in passing over such Marshes and Mountains and sometimes narrow Places wherein there was also so much want of all things that a very few Men and those nimble ones too could carry Provisions enough with them thô but for a few days to finish the March and besides if they should overcome those Difficulties yet the next Country which was to receive them was not over-fruitful of itself and also it had been wasted by the War Again if they should wade through all those Inconveniencies yet they had to do with a nimble and shifting Enemy whom it would be more difficult to find and to bring to a Battel than to overcome and if they could find him out yet he would not be compelled to Fight but in his own Places of Advantage That Edward the Third his Grandfather had Experience hereof to the great Damage of his Own and little Inconvenience of the Scots Army Upon Hearing of this as also casting in their Minds what Miseries they might suffer in an Enemies Country in a cold Winter and in the mean time leave their Wives Children and what else was dear to them desolate at home they changed their Minds and marched back directly the same way that they came Thus both Armies had a free Time of plundering in their Enemies Country and each of them returned home again without seeing any Enemy The Scots well knowing That the English could not attempt another Expedition till the next Summer resolved to attack Roxburgh a Neighbour Town and the Garison there which was greatly annoyous to the Country thereabout When they were â—ome thither a dissension arose betwixt the Scots and the French about the Town even before it was taken The French alleging That seeing by a large Experience in Wars at home they were more skilled in the Methods of taking Towns than the Scots and moreover that they had spent a great deal of Mony in the War They therefore thought it but just That if the Town were carried it should be Theirs and remain under the Jurisdiction of France On the contrary the Scots urged That it was very unjust That Auxiliaries should reap the Reward and Benefit of the whole War and for what Expences they had been at it had been spent rather on Themselves than the Scots it being in order to distract and divide the Forces of England and so to avert Part of the War from France and if the Friendly Offices on Both sides were put in the Ballance the Scots might upon juster grounds demand the Charge of the whole War of the French than the French could challenge any Reward for their Assistance especially such a Reward as no History in the Memory of Man doth relate either to have been demanded or given by Allys one to or amongst another Yea The Unjustness of their Demand appeared by This That the Scots might have sate still in Peace without being prejudiced by the English and so might have been Spectators only of the Wars betwixt Two potent Kings but the French could not have Obtained the same Quiet unless they would have yielded up a good Part of their Country Neither could they see of what use that Town would be to the French if they had it save only to be as a Bridle that so the Arbitrement of War or Peace might be at their dispose and if That were their intent it were more for the Profit yea and for the Credit too of the Kings of Scotland to be without the Town than on a Trivial occasion to give up Themselves to a voluntary Servitude But if by so unequal a Postulation they thought to excuse their Return home which they sometime before attempted there was no need at all of such a Blind for as they freely came so they had Liberty always at their pleasure freely to depart neither was it adviseable in the Scots to stay Them in regard they might easily foresee their Service would be but small if they were detained against their Wills Hereupon They retreated from Roxburgh without attaquing it and whereas there had grievous Complaints been made betwixt Both Parties before so if matters should still continue at that Pass open Enmity did seem likely to arise The Original of the Dissension arose from the different Custom and Carriage of either Nation in managing of a War For the Scots and English Soldiers pay honestly for what they take at their Quarters and carry it amongst their Countrymen as moderately and soberly in War as in Peace But the French otherwise where-ever they march All 's their
Military Matters was upheld by Douglas the Ecclesiastical Authority and Resemblance such as it was of Ancient Discipline by Trayle and the Dignity of the Court by the Queen as did soon appear by what happened after her death For David the Kings Son was a Young man of a fierce Disposition and enclined to Wantonness and Lust. The Indulgence of his Father encreased those Vices for tho' he had not Authority enough to maintain the Reverence due from him to his Father yet by the diligent Monitions of Those who were appointed to be his Tutors in his Youth but much more by the Counsel and Advice of his Mother his Youthful Heats were somewhat blunted and restrained but when she was dead he as new freed from this Curb returned to his own Manners and Lustful Courses for laying aside all shame and fear he took away other Mens Wives by Force yea and Virgins too tho' well descended and Those that he could not persuade by fair means he ravished by Compulsion and if any one endeavoured to stop him in his libidinous ways he was sure to come off not without Punishment Many Complaints were brought to his Father about These his Exorbitancies so that he wrote to his Brother the Governour to keep him with him and to oversee his Conversation until his Lustful Spirit did abate And till he gave some hopes of his Amendment of Life The Governour had now an Opportunity put into his hands to effect that he most desired which was â—o destroy his Brothers Issue so that he met David three Miles from St. Andrews and carried him into the Castle thereof which he kept in the nature of a Garison after the Arch-Bishops death After a while he took him out from thence and carried him to his own Castle of Falcoland and there shut him up close Prisoner intending to starve him But that miserable death which his Uncles Cruelty had designed him to was prorogued and staved off for a few days by the Compassion of Two of the Female Sex one was a Maid and Virgin whose Father was Governour of the Castle and Garison She gave him Oate Cakes made so thin that they would be folded up together as 't is usual in Scotland so to make them and as often as she went into the Garden near the Prison she put them under a Linen Vail or Hood which she did as it were carelesly cast over her Head to keep her from the Sun and thrust them into the Prison to him thro' a small Crany rather than a Window The other was a Country Nurse who Milked her Breast and by a little Canale conveighed it into his Mouth By this mean fare which served rather to encrease than kill his hunger his wretched Life and Punishment was protracted and lengthned out for a little while till at length by the vigilance of the Guards they were discovered and put to Death The Father mightily abhoring the Perfidiousness of his own Daughter whilst he endeavoured to manifest his Faithfulness to an unfaithful Regent The Young man being thus left destitute of all human Support having by Force of Hunger gnawed and torn his own Flesh died at length more than a single kind of Death His End was concealed from his Father thô it were commonly known abroad because no Man durst to be the Messenger of such sad Tidings to him But to return to the Affairs of England as far as they are intermixed with Ours When Percy and a great Number besides of the Nobility had conspired to make War upon their own King he agrees with Douglas whom he still held Prisoner since the Battel of Homeldon That if he would improve his Interest by assisting him against the King as strenuously and as faithfully as he had before done against him he would set him at Liberty without ransom which Douglas frankly promised him to do as being willing to omit no Opportunity of service against the English King Hereupon he gathered some of his Friends and Tenants about him and prepared himself for the Fight wherein he behaved himself as stoutly as he promised to Percy so that without regard to the Common Soldiers his Mind and Eye was wholly intent upon the King only and in regard there were several Commanders cloathed in Royal attire which was done on purpose by the English either to deceive the Enemy if they should press hard upon him or else that the Soldiers in more places than one might find him a present witness of their Courageousness or Cowardize Douglas took notice of One of these who had Gallant Armour and rushed in upon him with all his might and so unhorsed him But he being relieved by those who were next he did the same to a Second and a Third who were all attired as Kings thus Edward Hall the English Writer affirms as well as Ours so that he was not taken up so much with the Apprehension of his own danger as with a wonderment from whence so many Kings should start up at once At length after a terrible and bloody Fight Fortune turned about and the King won the day Douglas was sore wounded and found amongst the Prisoners and whereas many urged to put him to death the King saved him and did not only commend his Faithfulness to his Friend but also rewarded him for his Valour and when his Wounds were cured after he had staid some Months with him upon the Payment of a great sum of Money he was released In the mean time the Scotish King heard of the death of David his Eldest Son by the unnatural Cruelty of his Uncle The Author was sufficiently pointed at by private whisperings tho' no man dared publickly to accuse so potent a man Whereupon the King sends for his Brother and makes an Expostulation with him concerning the matter He had prepared his Tale before-hand and charges others with the Guilt of the Young Mans death as for him and his they were ready forsooth whenever the King pleased to plead and assert their Innocency in a due course of Law as for the Murderers some of them he had taken already and the others he would diligently look out Thus the matter being brought to Examination in the Law The Author of the wickedness Summons a Council sets up an Accuser and he who was impleaded as Guilty was by them acquitted as Innocent of the Murder The King imprecated a most dreadful punishment from the God of Heaven above to be poured down on him and his Posterity who had committed that horrid Wickedness And thus being overpressed with Grief and bodily Weakness he returned to Bote whence he came The Suspicion was encreased in him That his Brother had committed the Parricide tho' he was too powerful to be brought by him to Justice and Punishment for the same But he like a strong dissembler brings the supposititious Authors of the wickedness out of Prison and put them to Cruel deaths 't is true they were
Henry being offended at their Peremptoriness and Constancy having taken the Town of Meaux by Storm hanged up 20 Scots which he found there alleging That they bore Arms against their own King Soon after He and Charles the Sixth King of France died immediately one after another About Two years after the English prevailed in a Battel at Vernevil where there were slain of the Prime Scots the Earl of Buchan and Douglas one Duke of Turein the other Master of the Horse to the French King and also Iames Douglas his Son Alexander Lindsay Robert Stuart and Thomas Swinton and of Common Soldiers above 2000. And about three years after the Auxiliary Scots received another great Overthrow at Beaux when they were carrying Provisions to Orleans They set upon the English in the way in which Fight there were slain of Scots of note William Stuart with his Brother and two eminent Knights of the Family of the Douglas's whose Posterities do yet enjoy two Castles and large Possessions about them in Scotland viz. one of them the Castle of Drumlanerick and the other the Castle of Lough Levin in Fife Thus have I briefly touched at the Actions of the Scots performed in a few years in France as External and Foreign Occurences the farther Explication of them is to be had in the French Annals which though they be not quite alien from the Affairs of Scotland yet I had not stepped out of my way to mention them if the calumny of some English Writers had not compelled me so to do For they endeavour to undervalue and speak evil of what they do not deny if Histories did not mention their Atchievements yet the Munificence of the Kings the Decrees of the Cities and the Honourable Monument at Orleance and Turein do sufficiently declare them What I pray can they here object The Scots say they are too poor to maintain so great a Force in a Foreign Country I answer First That if they be Poor it is the fault of the Soil not of the Men neither would I have taken this for a Reproach if it did not appear by their Writings That the English intended it for Such and therefore I shall only answer them with this That these Poor and Indigent Scots as they call them have got many great and famous Victories over the Opulent and Wealthy English And if they do not believe me herein let them consult their own Histories and if they suspend their Belief of them also let them not require of us to receive them for True in other things But to return to the Affairs of Scotland Murdo being set up as I said but now in the place of his Father he maintained a very loose Discipline in his own House his Children whose Names were Walter Alexander and Iames did despise their Inferiors and consequently oppress them with many Injuries and they infected the Youth with those Vices to which they themselves were addicted and seeing their Father did not curb nor restrain them at last he was punished himself for giving them such bad Education The old Man did highly prize a certain Bird he had of that sort of Hawks which they call Falcons Walter had often begg'd him of his Father and was as often denied so that upon a time he catched it out of his Fathers Hand and wrung off his Neck To whom his Father replied Because thou can'st not find in thy Heart to obey me I will bring in another That both thou and I too shall be forced to obey And from that time forward he bent his Thoughts to restore his Kinsman Iames and there was an Eminent Man of Argile chief of the Country named Calen Cambel whom before Walter had affronted and wronged who approved of his Design herein so that he assembled the Estates at Perth and a Consultation being had concerning the Revocation of their King They all either out of Favour to the true Heir of the Kingdom or out of Weariness of the present posture of Affairs willingly agreed to send an Embassy about his Restitution Some Nobles were chosen Embassadors who coming into England found the English more inclinable to it than they expected For the Duke of Gloucester who in the Kings Minority governed the Affairs of England called the Council together and easily persuaded them That Iames Son to the King of Scotland should be sent back at the desire of his People into his own Country seeing he was not in his present posture of so great Authority amongst them as to be able to recal the Scots Auxiliaries out of France or to draw any Part of the Kingdom to an Alliance with England And besides he thought to make another advantage of him That he would not only be his sure and fast Friend but would always be under the power and influence of England for he had Married Ioan the Earl of Salisbury's Daughter the Beautifullest Woman of her Time which he then was mightily in Love with he persuaded himself that by her means the League with France might be easily undermined and if he were freed either he would be obliged by that Courtesy or else whilst he was busie in revenging the Wrongs his Kindred had done him he would intangle his Country in a grievous intestine War and by this means it would come to pass That either the English would be made stronger by the Accession of such a Friend or if their Scotish Enemies disagreed amongst themselves yet they should be more disingaged and readier for a Foreign War And indeed these were no imprudent Considerations if they themselves by the Narrowness of their Spirits had not marred their own Market For seeing they demanded a greater Sum of Money for his Redemption than the Scots in their present Circumstances either durst promise or were able to pay a Compremize was made That the Dowry of his Wife should be retained as for One half and that the Sons of some Noblemen should be given in Hostage for the payment of the Other Iames being set at Liberty upon these Terms returned home 18 years after he had been a Prisoner in the year of our Lord 1423. Amidst the great Concourse of People which flocked in to see him and to Congratulate his Return he was soon entertained with the Complaint of those who grievously lamented what Wrongs they had sustained since the last Kings Death partly by the Negligence and partly by the Injuries of the late Governors Walter the Son of Murdo Malcolm Fleming and Thomas Boyd were highly accused who to pacifie the Commons for the present were committed to several Prisons until the next Convention of the Estates which was appointed to be the Sixth of the Calends of Iune But Fleming and Boyd upon payment of Damages and some kind of Compensation and also upon laying down a round Sum which they were Fined at into the Kings Exchequer were set at Liberty James I. The Hundred and Second King IN the mean time
the English Writers especially Edward Hall and he that pilfers from him Grafton inveigh mightily against Iames as Ungrateful Perfidious and forgetful of Ancient Courtesys who being Nobly entertain'd among the English for so many Years honoured with a Royal Match and large Dowry and besides restor'd to Liberty from a long Imprisonment suffer'd all these Obligations to be post-pon'd and preferr'd the Alliance with France before That with England But the thing it self doth easily refute their Slanders For First their Detaining of him when he landed on their Coast being against their League and also the Law of Nations 't was a Wrong not a Courtesy Next as to their not killing him but putting him to a ransom for Money rather than imbrue their hands in the Blood not of an Enemy but of a Guest That was attributable not so much to their Love or Mercy toward Him as to their Covetous and avaritious Minds and grant there were any Courtesy in it yet what was it other but like that of Thieves who would seem to give the Life which they took not away and if he were ingag'd to the English on that account 't was a private not publick debt As for their bestowing Education upon him who was Innocent by reason of his Age a Suppliant by his Fortune and a King by Descent tho' most unrighteously detain'd it bears indeed some shew of Humanity which if they had neglected they might have been justly blamed and indeed it had been a commendable piece of Kindness if the Injury going before and the Covetousness following after had not marr'd it unless you will say that if you purposely wound a Man you may require him to give you thanks for his Cure and so you imagin a light Compensation for a great Loss is to be esteem'd as a Courtesy or because you have done some Part of your duty that therefore you should expect the Reward in full of a benefit bestowed on another For he that takes Care that his Captive should be Educated in Learning either for his own pleasure or that he may yield him a better Price thô some advantage accrue hereby to the Party educated yet the Master doth not aim at the Good of the Slave in his Institution but at his Own But says he the King honoured him with the Marriage of his Kinswoman and thus the Royal Young Man was as Royally bâ—stâ—wed But what if that Affinity were as honourable to the Father as the Son in Law He would else have Marry'd her to a private Man but now he made her a Queen and ingrafted her by Marriage into that Family on which the Famousest of the English Kings had often before bestowed their Children and from whom so many Former Kings had descended But he gave a very large Dowry with her To whom I pray was it given but to the English themselves who took it away before it was paid and made a shew of it in Words to the Husband but indeed kept it for their own use so that the Dowry was only spoken of not given and so spoken of That they would have the Young Man whom they also had otherwise grievously wrong'd much indebted to them that he carried his Wife away with him without a Dowry But they sent him home a Freeman say they Yes as a Pyrate doth Discharge his Captive when his Ransom is paid But how free I pray Even if we may believe the English Writers themselves under the inforc'd Obligation of an Oath always to obey the English King as his Lord and so to bring a Kingdom which he did yet injoy into a perpetual Servitude which if he had actually injoyed he could not alienate and yet he must mancipate it forsooth before he received it This is not to set one free but to turn him loose with a longer Chain and that not as a King but as a Steward only or Vicegerent of another man's Kingdom I forbear to urge that they compell'd a man in Captivity and as yet under the Power of another to make a Promise yea a promise of That which he could not perform neither could he compel those to perform it who had Power so to do This is that high piece of Liberality which they say Iames was unmindful of But let us suffer these unskilful Writers and forgetful of all Moderation and Modesty in their Stories to account Profits receiv'd as Courtesys given How great must we think That Liberty of falsifying or else Desire of evil Speaking to be which they use against the Daughter of the aforesaid King For whereas such men otherwise impudent enough had nothing to allege against her Manners they write that she was unacceptable to her Husband because of her stinking Breath Whereas Monstrelet a Contemporary Writer of those days doth affirm that she was very faithful and beautiful and he who wrote the Pluscartin Book who accompanied that Queen both at Sea and at her Death hath left it on Record that as long as she lived she was very dear to her Father and Mother in Law and to her Husband too as appeared by the Inscription and Epitaph in French Verses at Chalons by the River Matrona where she dyed which sound much to her Praise 't was then published and afterwards turned into the Scotish Lingue which some of our Country men have by them to this day But I will leave these Men who do so calumniate other mens Credits and neglect their Own that they care little what they say of others or what others think of them and return to the Matter When the King having been at Charge to rig out his Navy had try'd to exact a Tax from the People and the greatest Part plainly refused to pay a Penny a Few paid a small matter and that grudgingly too he commanded his Collectors to desist from levying the rest and to restore what they had already received And yet he did not hereby shun the clamours of the People for some malevolent Persons who were angry for some private loss did daily incite seditious Persons and Innovators against him At the same time the English began to prey upon Scotland both by Land and Sea under the Command of Percy Earl of Northumberland William Douglas Earl of Angus was sent to encounter him with near an Equal number of men for they were about 4000. on either side of the Scots there fell Alexander Iohnston of Lothian a Noble Person and of known Valour some Write that 200. others that only 40 were slain of both Armies and about 1500 English taken Prisoners Iames having been twice provoked by the English First by their Fleet which lay in wait to intercept his Daughter and Next by the late spoiling of his Country resolves to proclaim open War against them whereupon he listed as great an Army as he could and made a fierce assault on Roxburgh and in a short time he expected the Surrender thereof when behold the Queen came posting to him in as
the Efforts of the Enemy So that after they had lost a great many men they were worn out with Toils and Watchings and so broke up the Siege In the mean time the King levied an Army to relieve his distressed Friends but seeing he had not Strength enough to encounter the Douglasses he resolv'd to wait the coming in of Alexander Gordon to his assistance who had levy'd a good Force in the Northern Parts and was marching towards him but as he was coming thro Angus Craford with a considerable Body met and oppos'd him at Brechin where a sharp Battel was fought betwixt them when the King 's main Battel was giving ground as not able to indure the shock of the Angusians Iohn Colace who commanded the Left Wing forsook Craford having born him a Grudge and so left the main Body of the Army naked Hereupon those who were almost Conquerors being struck with terrour turn'd their Backs and sled away Thus Gordon unexpectedly got the Victory yet with much loss on his side his two Brothers and a great Number of his Friends and Followers being Slain of the Angusians also there fell several men of Note and amongst the rest the Earl's own Brother As for the Earl himself he turn'd his Wrath from the Enemy to those who had deserted him he storm'd their Castles and spoil'd their Lands with Fire and Sword and he had the better Opportunity so to do because that Gordon made a speedy Return into his own Country when he heard that the Earl of Murray was exercising all manner of Cruelty against his own Territories so that he was forced to march back with his Victorious Army where he not only revenged his Loss upon his Enemy but also quite expell'd him out of his Country of Murray These things were acted toward the End of the Spring In the interim the King by the advice chiefly of Iames Kennedy caus'd an Assembly of the Estates to meet at Edinburgh to which he Summon'd by an Herald the Earl of Douglas and the Nobles of his Party to come But he was so far from obeying him that the next Night he caus'd a Libel to be hung on the Church doors That he would not trust the King with his Life nor yield Obedience to him for the future any more who had sent for his Kinsman to Edinburgh and his Brothers to Sterlin under the Protection of the Publick Faith and there had perfidiously slain them without Hearing their Cause In this Assembly the Four Brothers of the late Earl which was slain Iames Archibald George and Iohn with Beatriâ— the Earls late Wife and Alexander Earl of Craford were declar'd Publick Enemies to the Common-wealth Many persons were advanc'd to be Noble men and Rewards were assign'd them out of the Rebels Estates An Army was levy'd to pursue the Enemy which after some devastation of the Country driving of Bootys and burning Corn in the Granarys was again dismist in Winter because the Soldiers could not then keep the Field and an Expedition was appointed against the Spring In the mean time Iames Douglas left the wealth of his Family which was mightily increas'd by rich Matches should pass away to others took Beatrix the Relict of his Brother to Wife and treats with the Pope to confirm the Marriage But the King by his Letters interpos'd and hindred him from giving his Ratification to it This Year and the next following there was Bandying between the Parties Lands were pillag'd some Castles overthrown but they came not to decide the main Controversy in a Set Battel the greatest Part of the damage fell on the Countys of Annandale Foress and the Neighbouring Countys of the Douglasses After this Devastation of the Lands there follow'd a Famine and after the Famine a Pestilence yet the Wisest of Douglas's his Friends sought many times to persuade him to endeavour a Reconciliation with the King and so to lay himself and all his Concerns at his Feet whom his Ancestors had before found very merciful Especially since he had a King who was easily exorable in his own Nature and moreover might be made more reconcilable by the Mediation of his Friends and that he would not suffer so noble a Family as His was to be extirpated by his Obstinacy nor betray the Lives of so many brave Men who follow'd his Party neither yet bring them to that Point of Necessity that after having suffer'd so many Calamities they should be forc'd to make Terms for themselves Whilst he was in a good Condition he might make an easy Pacification but if once his Friends deserted him there would then be no Hope for him to obtain his Pardon The Man being in his Youthful Age and of a Fierce Disposition too made Answer That he would never submit himself to their Power who were restrain'd by no Bonds of Modesty nor by any divine or human Law who under fair Promises had inticed his Cosins and his Brother to come to them and then perfidiously and cruelly Slew them In a Word he would suffer the height of all Extremities before he would ever put himself into their hands This his Answer was either approv'd or dislik'd according to every Man's Humour Those who were Violent or who made a Gain of the publick Miseries commended the Greatness of his Courage but the Wiser sort persuaded him to take Opportunity by the Forelock lest after his Friends had forsaken him he might complain that he had neglected the Time for a Pacification when 't was not to be redeem'd which is usually the end of Headlong Counsels But the Earl of Craford being weary'd out with so long a War and withal considering with himself the very Unjustness of his Cause together with the common Mutations of human Life as also knowing that Pardon might easily be Obtain'd if he did preoccupy the Kings Favour but very difficultly if he stood it out and besides being forsaken by some of his Friends and suspecting the Fidelity of the rest put himself into such an Habit as might most move Pity and thus bare-headed bare-footed in most humble manner he came to the King as he was passing thro' Angus he ingeniously confest the offences of his former Life he cast himself and all his concerns upon the King's Mercy having first prefaced something concerning the Fidelity and good Services which his Ancestors had performed to their Kings he was conscious that his fault had deserv'd the Extremity of Punishment but whatsoever hereafter he had either of Life or Fortune it would be a Debt wholly due to the Kings Clemency Having spoken these and other words of the same import not without Fear all the Spectators were much moved and affected especially some of the Nobility of Angus and tho' they themselves had in former times followed the Kings Party yet they were unwilling that so eminent and ancient a Family should be destroy'd Iames Kennedy carry'd himself at the same time like a good Bishop and
in all their Clubs But when the Month was expired their Minds were a little calmer and the Truce ended there was another Convention where the Queen alleged This for her self in Justification of her Cause That seeing she had not entred upon the Government the Year before by Force or against the minds of the Nobility but was chosen to that Dignity by thâ—ir Unanimous Consent she had but used her own Right and therefore she took it amiss to be degraded and no Crime at all imputed as to her Mal-Administration If said she as it is usual Degrees of Affinity be regarded in Pupillages there is none nearer than a Mother if the Safety of the King were Ey'd none could be more Faithful for if the King should die other men may have their various and distinct Hopes but she could hope for or expect nothing but Orbity Solitariness and Tears And if they had respect to the Good of the Publick she was a stranger and concerned in no Interest of Feuds or Friendships and That was especially to be eyed in such who sate at the Helm of Government That so their own Lives might not only be free from actual Vice but also that they might have as few Temptations and Incitements as may be to those Lusts which do disturb and hurry the Mind and pervert righteous Judgment Some had Assistance of Parents Kinsmen Allies by whose aid they might hope for an Excuse for their Offences or at least an easier Pardon Yea sometimes the Rulers were compelled to square and accommodate their Actions to such mens Wills and Humours As for Her self her Hope of Defence was in Innocency alone She had but one Son to eye and both their Benefits and Advantages were combined and twisted together And unless she had respect to these Things she would choose much rather to live a quiet and happy Life in Retirement with the good Liking of all than to uâ—dergo the Enmity of Evil men by punishing all their Crimes yea and sometimes to incur the Displeasure of the Good too Neither was it a New Thing for a Woman to desire the Regency of another's Kingdom sithence not only in Britain but even in the Greatest and most Puissant Kingdoms of the Continent Women have had the Supreme Power and their Reigns have been Such that their Subjects never repented of their Government When she had thus spoken Many assented to her Some to prepossess a Place in in her future Grace and Favour Others in Hopes that the Fruits of another's Envy would redound to their advantage Yea there were some who had an evil jealousy That if the Election should be made out of All they themselves might be passed by as less fit and therefore they rather desired that the Queen should be preferred over them all than that Others of the same Order with themselves or even of a Superiour one should be preferred before Them Nowithstanding the more uncorrupted Part of the Nobility did both by their Countenance and Speeches highly disgust the Queens Oration but that which did most Vehemently affect the whole Assembly was the Authority and the Speech of Iames Kennedy who as 't is reported spake in this manner IT is my chief Desire Noble Peers That they whose aims are at the Good of all in general might freely declare their minds without offence to any one particular Person But in our present Circumstances when things spoke for publick Advantage are distorted to the Reproach of those private persons who speak them it is a very difficult thing to observe such a Mean between disagreeing heats and different opinions as not to incur the offence of one of the Parties As for me I will so temper and moderate my Discourse That no man shall complain of me without first confessing his own Guilt Yet I shall use the Liberty of Speech received from our Ancestors so modestly that as on the One side I desire to prejudice no man so on the Other neither for Fear nor Favour will I pretermit any thing which is of use in the Debate before us I see That there are Two Opinions which do retard and impede our Concord The One is of Those who judge That in a matter relating to the Good of All an Election out of All is to be made and as we all meet to give our Suffrages in a business concerning the safety of the whole Kingdom so it is equal and fit that no man should be Excluded from the Hopes of that Honour who seeks after it by Honest and Virtuous Ways The Other is of such who count it a great Injury done to the Queen who is so noble a Princess and so choice a Woman if she be not preferred before all others in the Tutelage of her Son and the Administration of the Government of the Kingdom Of these Two Opinions I like the Former best and I will shew you my Reasons for it by and by In the mean time I so far approve the design of the Later That they think it below the Queen's Grandeur That any Single Person should Vye with her for this point of Honour lest her Authority which ought to be as it indeed is accounted Venerable should be lessned by coping with Inferiours And indeed I would be quickly of their mind if the Dispute lay here about the Honour of One and not the Safety of All. But seeing that this day we are to make a Determination about That which concerns the Lives Fortunes of all private men and the Safety of the whole Kingdom too it is fit that all Single Interests and Concerns should stoop and truckle under That And therefore I earnestly advise Those that are of this Opinion so to consult the Dignity of the Queen That in the interim they forget not the Reverence they owe to the Laws to the old Customs and to the Universal Good of their Country if they can shew by any Statute That it is Lawful and Publickly expedient That the Guardianship of the King and the Regency of the Kingdom ought to be in the Queens Hands I will pass over into their Opinion But if their Orations be pernicious to the Publick I hope the Queen first and next all Good men will pardon me if always saving the Majesty of the Queen as Sacred so far as by Law and the Custom of our Ancestors I may I do not conceal my Opinion or rather if I speak out That with Freedom which it were the greatest Impiety in me to conceal To begin then with the Laws There is a Law made 500 year ago by King Kenneth a Prince no less eminent for his Wisdom and Prudence than for his military Performances and it was assented and yielded to by All the Orders of the Kingdom and approved of even to this very day by the Constant Observance of so many Ages That when the King was in his Minority the Estates or Parliament of the Kingdom should Assemble and choose some one Man eminent for
all the Pageantry of his former Life he ended his days in an Halter The Seminary of War between England and Scotland being almost extinguished and a great likelihood of Peace appearing behold there arose a great Ebullition of Spirit upon a very light occasion which had almost broken out into a fierce War Some Scottish Youths went over to the Town of Norham which was near to the Castle as they were oft wont to do in Times of Peace there to recreate themselves in Sports and Pastimes and to junket together with their Neighbours as if they had been at Home for there was but a small River which divided them The Garison in the Castle out of the Rancour yet lodging in their Breasts since the former War and being also provoked by some passionate words accused those Scots as Spies and so from Words they came to Blows many were wounded on both sides and the Scots being fewer in number were forced to return Home with the loss of some of their Company This Business was often canvassed in the Meetings between the Lords of the Marches and at last Iames was very angry and sent an Herald to Henry to complain of Breach of Truce and how unconstant the English were in keeping Covenant and unless Satisfaction were given according to the just Laws which were made by general Consent about restitution betwixt the Borderers he commanded him to denounce War against him Henry had been exercised by the Violence of Fortune even from his Cradle and therefore was more inclined to Peace his Answer was That whatever was done of that kind was against his Will and without his Knowledg and if the Garison-Souldiers had offended in the Case by their Temerity he would take order That Examination should be made and that the Leagues being kept inviolate the Guilty should be punished But this was slowly done and Iames looked upon the Answer as dilatory that so Punishment might be deferred and the Sentiment thereof worn out with Time and therefore it rather provoked than satisfied Iames. But Richard Fox Bishop of Durham who was owner of the Castle being much troubled that an occasion of breaking the League should be administred by any of his Tenants to prevent it sent several Letters to Iames full of great submission modesty and civility which so inclined the Mind of Iames that he wrote him word back that he would willingly speak with him not only about the late Wrongs done but also about other Matters which might be advantagious to both Kingdoms Fox acquainted his King herewith and by his Consent he waited upon Iames at Mulross where he then was There Iames made a grievous Complaint of the Injury acted at Norham yet by the prudent and grave discourse of Fox he was so pacified that for Peace-sake of which he shewed himself very desirous he remitted the Offence Other things were acted privately betwixt them but it appeared afterward that the Sum of them was this That Iames did not only desire a Peace but both before and also now an Affinity with Henry and a stricter Bond of Union And if Henry would bestow his Daughter Margaret upon him in Marriage he hoped that the thing would be for the benefit of both Kingdoms and if Fox whose Authority he knew to be great at home would but do his Endeavour to accomplish the Affinity he did not doubt but it would be soon effected He freely promised his Endeavour and coming to the Court of England acquainted the King with the Proposition and thereupon gave hopes to the Scots Embassadors that a Peace would easily be accorded betwixt the two Kings Thus at length three Years after which was An. 1500 even about one and the same time Henry's Eldest Daughter was betrothed to Iames the IVth and also Katharine Daughter to Ferdinand of Spain to Henry's Eldest Son and their Marriages were celebrated with great Pomp the next Year after After the Marriage all things were quiet and the Court turned from the Study of Arms to Sports and Pastimes so that there was nothing but Masks Shews Feastings Dancings and Balls it was as a continued Jubilee and upon that account every day was as an Holy-day There were also Horse-Tiltings frequently made mostly according to the French Mode betwixt which as Tragical Acts there intervened the Challenges of Moss-Troopers one of another who were wont to live upon Spoil which Sport the King was well pleased to behold because he judged that the killing of them was a Gain to him When the noise of these Tourneaments came to Foreign Nations many Strangers and especially from France came daily over to shew their Prowess who were all liberally entertained by the King and as bountifully dâ—smissed Neither did he rest in these ludicrous Exercises but he laid out a great deal of Mony upon Building at Sterlin Falkland and sundry other places and especially in building of Monasteries but his Cost about Ships was greatest of all for he built three stately ones of a great Bulk and many also of a middle Rate one of his great ones was to admiration the biggest that ever any Man had seen sail on the Ocean it being also furnished with all manner of costly Accommodations our Writers have given a Description of it which I pass over and the Measure of it is kept in some places but the Greatness of it appeared by this That the News thereof stirred up Francis King of France and Henry the 8 th King of England each of them to build a Ship in imitation thereof and each endeavouring to out-vie the other when their Ships were finished and fitted with all necessaries for sailing and brought to Sea they were so big that they stood there like unmoveable Rocks unfit for any use These Works being very expensive did exhaust Iames his Treasure so that he was forced to devise some new ways to get Mony and amongst the rest he pitched upon one by the Perswasion as it was thought of William Elphinstone Bishop of Aberdeen which was very displeasing to all the Nobility Amongst the Tenures of Land in Scotland this is one kind by which the Owner holds what he buys or else is given him on these Terms That if he dye and leave his Son and Heir under Age The Wardship of him should belong to the King or to some other Superior Lord yea and all the Revenue is to be received by him till the Heir come to the age of 21 Years There is also another Badg of Slavery annexed to this Hold that if an Owner do sell above half his Estate without the consent of the chief Lord then he is to forfeit the whole to him This Law was introduced by Court-Parasites to advance the King's Exchequer but being looked upon as unjust had lain dormant a long time but the King being informed that Money might be got out of the Violators of it commanded it to be put in Execution that Process they call Recognition
mightily enriched by this Booty and thereupon omitted the severity of their Ancient Discipline yea there were some amongst them who counted That Gain as a Pious and Holy Fraud alleging That the Mony could never be better bestowed than to be given to Devout Persons that they might pray forsooth for the Redemption of their Souls out of Purgatory The Fight was carried on so obstinately that towards Night both Parties were weary and withdrew almost Ignorant of one anothers Condition so that Alexander Hume and his Souldiers who remained untouched gathered up a great part of the Spoil at their pleasure But the next day in the Morning Dacres being sent out with a Party of Horse to make discovery when he came to the place of Fight and saw the Scots Brass-Guns without a Guard and also a great part of the Dead unstripp'd he sent for Howard and so gathered up the Spoil at leasure and celebrated the Victory with great Mirth Concerning the King of Scotland there goes a double Report The English say he was slain in the Battel But the Scots affirm That in the Day of Battel there were several others cloathed in the like Coat of Armour and the Habit of the King which was done on purpose on a double account partly that the Enemy might principally aim at one Man as their chief Opponent on whose Life the safeguard of the Army and total ruin of the Enemy did depend and partly also if the King hapned to be slain that the Souldiers might not be discouraged nor sensible of his loss as long as they saw any Man armed and clothed like him in the Field and riding up and down as a Witness of their Cowardise or Valour And that one of these was Alexander Elphinston who in Countenance and Stature was very like the King and many of the Nobility perceiving him armed in Kingly Habiliments followed him in a Mistake and so died resolutely with him but that the King himself repassed the Tweed and was slain by some of Humes his Men near the Town of Kelsoe but it is uncertain whether it were done by his Command or else by the forwardness of his Souldiers who were willing to gratify their Commander for they being desirous of Innovation thought that they should escape Punishment if he were taken off but if he were alive they should be punished for their Cowardise in the Fight Some Conjectures are also added as that the same Night after this unhappy Fight the Monastery of Kelsoe was seized upon by Car an Intimate of Hume's and the Abbat thereof ejected which it was not likely he would dare to have done unless the King were slain and moreover David Galbreth one of the Family of the Hume's some Years after when Iohn the Regent questioned the Hume's and was troublesome to their Family is said to have blamed the sluggish Cowardise of his Allys who would suffer that Stranger to rule so arbitrarily and imperiously over them whereas he himself had been one of the Six that had put an end to the like Insolency of the King at Kelsoe But these Things were so uncertain that when Humes was afterward tried for his Life by Iames Earl of Murray the King 's Natural Son they did not much prejudice his Cause However the Truth of this Matter stands yet I shall not conceal what I have heard Lawrence Talifer an Honest and a Learned Man to report more than once He was then one of the King's Servants and was a Spectator of the Fight he saw the King when the Day was lost set upon an Horse and pass the Tweed many others affirmed the same thing So that the Report went currant for many Years after That the King was alive and was gone to Ierusalem to perform a Religious Vow he had made but would return again in due Time But that Rumor was found as vain as another of the same Batch which was heretofore spread abroad by the Brittons concerning their Arthur And but a few Years since by the Burgundians concerning Charles This is certain That the English found the Body of the King or of Alexander Elphinston and carried it into England and retaining an inexpiable Hatred against the Dead they left it unburied in a Lead Coffin I know not whether their Cruelty therein were more foolish or more barbarous because he had born sacrilegious Arms against Pope Iulius the Second whom the English then sought to curry favour with or else as some say because he was perjured as having contrary to the Oath and League between them taken up Arms against Henry the Eighth Neither of which Exprobrations ought to have been laid to his Charge especially by such a King who during his Life was not constant or tight in any one Religion nor by such a People who had took up Arms so often against the Bishop of Rome Not to speak of many of the Kings of England whom their own Writers do accuse as guilty of Perjury as William Rufus who is charged with That Crime by Polydore and Grafton Henry the First by Thomas Walsingham in his Description of Normandy King Stephen hath the like Brand inured upon him by Neobrigensis Grafton and Polydore Henry the Eighth by the same Newberry Grafton and Polydore Richard the First by Walsingham in his Hypodigma Neustriae Richard the Third by Grafton and Walsingham Edward the First by Walsingham I cull out these few for Example-sake not of the First Kings of the Saxon Race of which I might instance in a great Many but in Those of the Norman Family whose Posterity enjoy the Kingdom to this Day and who lived in the most flourishing Times of England's Glory to put them in mind not to be so bitter against Strangers who with so much Indulgence bore the Perjuries of their own Kings especially since the guilt of the Crime objected lies principally on those who were the first Violaters of the Truce But to return to the Matter Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey had gone off with great Renown for That Victory over the Scots if he had used his Success with Moderation but being a Man almost drunk with the Happiness of his prosperous Success and little mindful of the Instability of Human Affairs he made his Houshold Servants as the English custom is to wear a Badg on their left Arms which was a White Lyon his own Arms on the top of a Red one and rending him with his Paws God Almighty did seem to punish this his insolent Ambition for there were in a manner none of his Posterity of either side but dyed in great Disgrace and Ignominy But King Iames as he was dear to all whilst living so he was mightily lamented at his Death and the Remembrance of him stuck so fast in the Minds of Men as the like was not known of any other King that we have heard or read of 'T is probable that it hapned by making a Comparison with the bad Kings who preceded his Reign
Peace they should have it if War he would make it upon them When the Queen by reason of her Marriage fell from her Regency the Nobility was manifestly divided into two Factions the Douglassian Party endeavoured that the chief Power might reside in the Queen and that This was the way to have Peace with England which was not only advantagious but even necessary for them The other Party headed by Humes pretended an Umbrage of the Publick Good and that it was against the old Laws of the Land to choose a Woman to be Regent as for the Queen they would be studious of her Honour as far as they might so do by the Law and as far as the Publick Safety would permit and that a sufficient Proof had been given thereof in regard that they hitherto submitted to her Government tho it were against the Law of their fore-Fathers not by any legal Compulsion but of mere good Will and that they were ready to endure it longer if any honest and equitable Pretence could be alleged for it But seeing she by her Marriage had voluntarily deposed her self from that Dignity she ought not to take it amiss if they substituted another to enjoy that Office which she had left and which indeed by the Law she could not hold for the Laws of Scotland do not permit Women to have the Supream Power no not in times of Peace much more in such troublesome days as Ours wherein the powerfullest and the prudentest Man alive could hardly find Remedies for the many growing Evils of the Times Thus whilst each Faction strove pertinaciously about the Choice of a Regent either out of wicked Ambition or occult Envy they passed over All there present and inclined to choose Iohn Duke of Albany then living with good Repute in France whereupon William Elphinston Bishop of Aberdeen is reported to have burst forth into Tears in bewailing the publick Misfortune and his Speech affected many especially when he came to that Point of reckoning up what Men were slain in the last Fight and how few like Them were left behind of whom none was thought fit to sit at the Helm of Government He also told them how empty the Exchequer was and how it had been exhausted by the late King and how great a Portion thereof was the Queen's Joynture and how much necessarily must be expended on the Education of the King and then how little part would remain to maintain publick Charges and that tho none were more fit for the place of Regency than the Queen yet seeing Concord could not be had on other terms she was forced to yeild to that Party who were for calling Iohn Duke of Albany out of France to take the Regency upon him tho he thought that the publick Misery would be rather deferred than fully healed thereby Alexander Hume was so violent for Albany that he professed openly in the Assembly that if they all refused yet he himself would go alone and bring him over into Scotland to undertake the Government It is thought he did this not for the Love of his Country or for any private Advantage to himself but merely out of This respect that being an ambitious Man and knowing that his Interest in the People was more upon the account of his Power than out of any real Love therefore himself despairing of the place he was afraid if the Queen should have it the Douglasses his Neighbours would grow too great and his Power would abate for the Men of Liddisdale and Annandale had already withdrawn themselves and had by little and little betook themselves to the Clanship of the Douglasses And besides he considered that the Queen by Assistancâ— from England was easily able to obviate all his Designs so that most Voices carried it for Iohn and an Embassy was appointed the chief whereof was Andrew Wood of the Largs a famous Cavaleer in those days to call him into Scotland for the Government both upon the account of his own Virtue and also by reason of his near Consanguinity with the King for he was the Son of Alexander Brother to Iames the Third He being thus called to the supream Government by the Scots Francis King of France did not think that Office unsutable to his Interest and therefore he furnished him with Mony and a Retinue at his Departure Before his Arrival in regard there was no one Person to administer the Publick Government there were many Murders and Rapines committed and whilst the richer sort made up their private Clans and Factions the poor desolate Vulgar were afflicted with all kind of Miseries The chief Robber of those times was MacRobert Stran who committed Outrages all over Athol and the Neighbouring Parts at his Pleasure having 800 Men and sometimes more under his Command At length when he was at his Uncles Creighton's he was way-laid apprehended and put to Death But there was more Mischief like to arise from the Fewd between Andrew Forman and Iohn Hepburn yet the Nature of them both and the Discord rather of their Manners than Minds deferred the Mischief for a season which then was just a breaking out Iohn was profoundly covetous and Andrew was as great a Despiser of Mony and profuse in his Largesses The Designs and Purposes of Andrew were open and manifest to the view of all neither was there any need that he should conceal them because his Vices were accounted Virtues by the Vulgar and the simplicity of his Nature did Him as much Kindness among them as the occult Craft of Hepburn together with his malicious Dissimulation his implacable remembrance of Injuries and his desire of Revenge did Him And therefore Forman hearing as yet no certainty of the coming of the Duke of Albany neither could he be put into Possession by Hume seeing Hepburn resided at his Castle and Monastery which he had strongly garison'd which were at a great distance from those places in which the Power of the Hume's might be formidable he determined by his Friends to try whether he could with Mony either satisfy or at least in some degree abate the Avarice of the Man so that at last they came to an Agreement upon these Terms That Forman should remit and forgive the Revenues of the last Year which Iohn had gathered in as a Sequestrator that he should surrender up to him the Bishoprick of Murray and that he should pay him yearly 3000 French Crowns out of his Ecclesiastical Revenues to be divided amongst his Friends And thus the Man's implacable Hate was a little abated and Matters settled on that side The Fourteenth BOOK THIS was the State of Affairs in Scotland when Iohn Duke of Albany arrived at Dunbarton on the 20 th day of May in the Year of our Salvation 1515 with the exceeding gratulation of all good Men. For under his Government they hoped for more quiet Times and an equal distribution of Justice In a full Assembly of the Nobility called in his Name
not being able to stand he sat down and called for something to drink Whereupon the Queen fell upon him with such Words as her present Grief and Fury suggested to her calling him a Perfidious Traitor and ask'd him How he durst be so bold as to speak to her sitting whereas she her self stood he excus'd it as not done out of Pride but Weakness of Body but advis'd her That in managing the Affairs of the Kingdom she would rather consult the Nobility who had a Concern in the Publick than vagrant Rascals who could give no Pledg for their Faithfulness and who had nothing to lose either in Estate or Credit neither was the Fact then committed without a Precedent That Scotland was a Kingdom bounded by Laws and was never wont to be govern'd by the Will and Pleasure of one Man but by the Rule of the Law and the Consent of the Nobility and if any former King had done otherwise he had smarted severely for it Neither were the Scots at present so far degenerated from their Ancestors as to bear not only the Government but even the Servitude of a Stranger who was scarce worthy to be their Slave The Queen was more inraged at this Speech than before Whereupon they departed having plac'd Guards in all convenient Places that no Tumult might arise In the mean time the News was carried all over the Town and as every ones Disposition was right or wrong they took Arms and went to the Palace There the King shewed himself to them out of a Window and told the Multitude That He and the Queen were safe and there was no cause for their tumultuous Assembly What was done was by his Command and what that was they should know in time and therefore at present every one should go to his own House Upon which Command they withdrew except some few that staid to keep Guard The next day in the Morning the Nobles that return'd from England offer'd themselves to the Trial in the Town-hall being ready to plead their Cause for That was the day appointed but no body appearing against them they there openly protested That it was not their Fault for they were ready to submit to a Legal Trial and so every one return'd to his own Lodging The Queen sent for her Brother and after a long Conference with him she gave him hopes That ever after she would commit her self to the Nobles Hereupon the Guards were slackn'd though many thought this her Clemency did presage no Good to the Publick for she gathered together the Souldiers of her old Guard and went through a back Gate by Night with George Seton who attended with 200 Horse first to his Castle then to Dunbar she carried also the King along with her who for fear of his Life was forc'd to obey There she gathered a Force together and pretending a Reconcilement to those who were lately returned from Banishment she turn'd her Fury upon the Murderers of David but they yeilding to the time shifted for themselves and so having settled Matters she return'd to her old Disposition First of all she caus'd David's Body which was buried before the Door of a Neighbour-Church to be removed in the Night and to be plac'd in the Sepulchre of the late King and his Children Which gave occasion to illfavour'd Reports being amongst a few others a bad thing for what greater Confession of Adultery with him could she well make than as far as she was able to equal such an obscure Fellow who was neither liberally brought up nor had deserved well of the Publick in his last Funerals with her Father and Brothers and to increase the Indignity of the thing she put the Varlet almost into the Arms of Magdalene Vallois late Queen As for her Husband she threatned him and obliquely in her Discourses scoff'd at him doing her Endeavour to take away all Power from him and to render him as contemptible as she could At this time the Process was very severe against David's Murderers many of the Accus'd were banish'd some to one place some to another some were fin'd some but the most innocent and therefore secure put to Death for the prime Contrivers of the Fact were fled some to England others to the High-lands Those who were but the least suspected to have an hand in it had their Offices and Employments taken from them and bestow'd upon their Enemies And a Proclamation was made by an Herald in such a publick Sorrow not without Laughter That no Man should say The King was a Partaker in or so much as privy to David's Slaughter This Commotion being a little settled after the 15 th of April the Earl of Argyle and Murray were receiv'd into Favour and she her self drawing near the time of her Delivery retired into Edinburgh Castle and on the 19 th day of Iune a little after nine a Clock at Night was brought to Bed of a Son afterwards called Iames the Sixth The Eighteenth BOOK THE Queen after her Delivery receiv'd all other Visitants with Kindness enough suitable to the occasion of a publick Joy but when her Husband came she and her Attendants did so comport themselves both in Speech and Countenance as if they were afraid of nothing more than that he should not understand that his Presence was disdainful and his Company unacceptable to them all but on the contrary Bothwel alone was the Man he managed all Affairs The Queen was so inclined to him that she would have it understood no Suit would be obtained from her but by his Mediation And as if she were afraid her Favours to him were but mean and not sufficiently known on a certain day she took one or two with her and went down to the Haven called New-Haven and her Attendants not knowing whither she intended she went aboard a small Vessel prepared there for her William and Edmond Blacater Edward Robertson and Thomas Dickson all Bothwels Creatures and Pirates of known Rapacity had fitted the Ship before with this Guard of Robbers to the great Admiration of all good Men she ventur'd to Sea taking none of her honest Servants along with her She landed at Alloway a Castle of the Earl of Marrs where she so demeaned her self for some time as if she had forgot not only the Dignity of a Queen but even the Modesty of a Matron The King when he heard of the Queen 's sudden Departure followed her as fast as he could by Land his Design and Hopes were to be with her and to injoy mutual Society as Man and Wife but He as an importunate Disturber of her Pleasures was bid go back whence he came and had hardly time allow'd him for his Servants to refresh themselves A few days after the Queen return'd to Edinburgh and because it seems she would avoid the Croud of People she went not to her own Palace but to the House of a private Man in the Vicinage From thence she
and seeing God the Framer of the Universe had indulged Them with a Kingly Government it was just for them to honour and obey their Kings and to yield all Observance and Obedience to them That Peace Concord and Friendship with all Men as much as possible are most acceptable to God and quench or at least lessen the Thirst of shedding human Blood which Wickedness God especially detests That they increase the Riches of All in general and render a People more formidable to their Enemies That Justice is the Preserver of the Publick Safety of which the chief Part now to be made use of is The Punishment of Offenders Seeing that Treason is most hateful to every lawful Government its Abettors to what part of the Earth soever they retreated should have neither Mercy Favour nor Indulgence shewed them Thus far Randolph whose Advice seemed both pious wholsom and reasonable But because none was yet chosen Regent he could not have any certain Answer and therefore was put off till the first of May. Last of all William and Robert Douglas Brothers by the Mother's Side to the late murdered Regent petition'd That the villanous Death of their Brother suffer'd upon no Private but the Common-wealth's Account should be revenged Herein the Opinions were various although all agreed That the Murderers were to be punished Some thought fit That a Day should be set for those suspected of the Murder to appear and many of their Names were given in Others were of Opinion That Court-Days were not to be waited for against those who were now in Arms to maintain by Force that Fact which they had wickedly committed And that it was fit not only to take up Arms forthwith against them but likewise against all those who were sentenced by the last Parliament To this Opinion the Knights of Shires were most inclined yet they could not obtain their Purpose by the dissuasion chiefly of Athol who said They ought to expect a more numerous Assembly of Nobles and of Morton who thought That should they join more Crimes together the Revenge of the Regent's Death would miscarry and a Civil War break out because all those who dreaded the Peace would join with the Murderers Therefore that their Crimes should be separated and Affairs if possible acted by Law and nothing innovated before the first of May which was the Day appointed for their Meeting And so that Session was dissolved most part of the People condemning this Delay of the Nobility because said they all things are acted as the King's Enemies please who had occasion'd these Delays purposely that in length of Time the Odium of the Murder might diminish and the opposite Faction that while gain Strength This Opinion of the Peoples was confirmed not only by some preceding Accidents but also by very many which followed For presently when the Regent's Murder was yet hardly divulged Iames Hamilton upon a Mortgage of his Lands procures Mony of Iohn Somerval of Camnethen which together with another Sum borrowed of his Friends he sent to his Complices to hire Souldiers with having warned them before to be ready for all Essays because of the sudden Alteration which had happen'd upon their having rid themselves of their capital Enemy And after that the Queen's Party ceased not to have Meetings in many and distant Places About the 15 th of February almost all the Chiefs of the Rebellious Faction met together at Glasgow whence Argyle and Boyd wrote to Morton That they because as yet they knew not Who were the Actors in or privy to the Regent's Murder would willingly communicate their Counsel with the rest of the Nobility as well for the Discovery as Punishment of that Murder but that they would not come to Edinburgh but if the King's Party would be persuaded to meet them at Linlithgo at Falkirk or at Sterlin they would without Delay come thither This Business being communicated to Maitland by Morton for so the Letter requested came to nothing About the same time Thomas Car wrote to his Father-in-Law the Governour of the Castle from Linlithgo That if the Queen of England would be prevailed withal to lay by her Resentment of the late Incursions he would endeavour that for the future the Borders should be quieted and kept in due Order but that if she should refuse these Offers he would continue in the Design he had begun not doubting but that his honest Country-men who yet retained their Fealty to their Queen would join with him and that the French Auxiliaries would speedily come also About the third of March the Hamiltons with Argyle and Boyd met at Linlithgo but the killing of one common Souldier begetting a Tumult disturbed all their Counsels which made the Archbishop of St. Andrews carry home the Hamiltons with him The rest of the Rebels chiefly Huntly Athol Crawford Ogilby also of those on this side Forth Hume Seton and Maitland met at Edinburgh in which City Morton was accompanied but with few till the Earls of Glencarn and Marr with their Followers came to him About the fourth of March the Heads of the Factions met to consult about the Main but this Consultation went but slowly on by reason of Argyle's Absâ—nce whose Power and Authority was then very great Huntly goes to him undertaking to persuade him to join with the rest of the Faction but returns without Success by the Treachery of Maitland as most Men thought who desired to drill on Affairs that amidst the Confusions of the Kingdom he might have the fitter Opportunity for Innovations Argyle also in all his Undertakings had another Impediment which hindred That his Power was not now so great as it was found to be formerly which was That though he himself was a most eager Favourer of the Queen's Cause yet his Friends and Clients no nor his very Brother could not be prevailed with to follow him against the King The Night following a sudden Terror without any apparent Cause did so seize upon all the Factious that they watch'd in their Armour till it was Day-light and in the Morning they as fearfully departed from Edinburgh All the Time of this Convention the chief Thing controverted was By what Authority the Scots might at that time choose a Regent Some according to the Queen's Letters-Patents by which she had designed Eight of the Nobility that out of them one or more as should be thought fit might be nominated as Tutors to her Son would have one of that number placed at the Helm Others were of Opinion That those Letters were now useless since that a Regent was already chosen according to their Appointment and that all Thoughts of them should be laid aside as being not made to be always in Force but for that one Juncture of Time only Some there were who would have the whole Affair deferred until the General Convention of the Nobility but These were mostly of Maitland's Faction which expected That a great Distraction in Affairs
subject to the Empire of any Men but all Men subject to the Dominion and Power of Them This Law prescribes to us in all our Actions 't is always before our Eyes and Minds whether we will or no it dwells in us Our Ancestors followed it in repressing the Violence of Tyrants by armed Force 'T is a Law not proper to the Scots only but common to all Nations and People in well-instituted Governments To pass by the famous Cities of Athens Sparta Rome Venice who never suffer'd this Right to be taken from them but with their Liberty it self Even in those Times wherein Oppression and Tyranny were most triumphant in the Roman Government if any good Man were chosen Emperour he counted it his Glory to confess himself inferiour to the whole Body of the People and to be subject to the Law For Trajan when he delivered a Sword to the Governour of a certain City according to Custom is reported to say Vse it either for me or against me as I deserve Yea Theodosius a good Emperour in bad Times would have it left recorded amongst his Sanctions and Laws as a Speech worthy of an Emperour yea greater than his Empire it self to confess That he was inferiour to the Laws Yea the most barbarous Nations such as were most remote from all Civility had a Sense and Knowledg hereof as the History of all Nations and common Observation shews But not to insist on obsolete Examples I will produce Two in our own Memory Of late Christiern of Denmark for his Cruelty was driven out of the Kingdom with all his Lineage a greater Punishment than ever our People exacted from any of their Kings for they never punish'd the Sins of the Fathers upon their Children As for him he was deservedly punish'd after a singular manner as the Monster of his Age for all kind of Wickedness But what did the Mother of the Emperour Charles the Fifth do as to deserve perpetual Imprisonment She was a Woman in her flourishing Age and her Husband died young even in the Prime of his Age it was reported She had a mind to marry again she was not accus'd for any Wickedness but for a certain allowable Intemperance as the severe Cato's of the Age speak and as the publick Manners now are of an honest Copulation approved by God's and Man's Law both If the Calamity of our Queen be compared with Christiern's of Denmark she is not less an Offender to say no more but she hath been more moderately proceeded against and punish'd But if she be compared with Ioan of Austria Charles his Mother what did that poor Lady do but desire as far as lawfully she might a Pleasure allowed by the Law and a Remedy necessary for her Age Yet being an innocent Woman she suffer'd that Punishment of which our Queen convict of the highest Wickedness doth now complain The Murder of her lawful Husband and her unlawful Marriage with a publick Parricide have now those same Deprecators who in killing the King did inflict the Punishment due to wicked Men on the Innocent But here they remember not what the Examples of their Ancestors do prompt them to do neither are they mindful of that eternal Law which our noble Progenitors even from the first beginnings of Kingdoms having followed have thereby restrain'd the Violence of Tyrants And in our present Case what have we done more than trod in the Steps of so many Kingdoms and free Nations and so bridled that Arbitrariness which claim'd a Power above Law And yet we have not done it with that Severity neither as our Ancestors have us'd in the like kind for they would never have suffer'd any one who had been found guilty of such a notorious Crime to escape the Punishment of the Law If we had imitated Them we had been free from fear of Danger and also from the Trouble of Calumniators and that may be easily known by the Postulations of our Adversaries How often have they criminated and arraigned us before our Neighbour-Princes What Nations do they not solicite and stir up against us What do they desire by this Importunity Is it only That the Controversy may be decided by Law and Equity We never refused That Condition and they would never accept of It though 't were often offer'd them What then do they desire Even This That we should arm Tyrants by Publick Authority who are manifestly guilty of the most notorious Wickedness who are stuff'd with the Spoils of their Subjects besmear'd with the Blood of Kings and aim at the Destruction of all good Men Shall we set them up over our Lives who are found Actors in the Parricide and shrewdly suspected to be the Designers of it without acquitting themselves in a Judiciary way And yet we have gratified their Request more than the Custom of our Country the Severity of the Law or the Distribution of equal Justice would allow There is nothing more frequently celebrated nor more diligently handled by the Writers of our History than our Punishment of evil Kings And amongst so many peccant Governours who ever felt the like Lenity of angry Subjects in inflicting Punishment as we have used in punishing our King's Mother though evidently guilty of a most atrocious Crime What Ruler standing convict of Murder had ever power given to substitute a Son or Kinsman in his or her place To whom in such Circumstances also was the Liberty ever granted to appoint what Guardians they pleas'd to the succeeding King And in the very Abjuration of the Kingdom Who can complain of any hard Usage A young Woman unable to undergo the Burden and toss'd by the Storms of unsettled Affairs sent Letters to the Nobility to free her from That Government which was as burdensom to her as it was honourable It was granted her She desir'd the Government might be transferr'd from her to her Son her Request was assented to She also desir'd to have the Naming of the Guardians who might manage the Government till her Son came to be of Age it was done as she desir'd And that the thing might have more Authority the whole Matter was referr'd to the Estates in Parliament who Voted That all was rightly done and in good order and they confirm'd it by an Act than which there cannot be a more sacred and a firmer Obligation But 't is alleged What was done in Prison is to be taken not as done willingly but forc'd by Durance for fear of Death and so many other things which Men are inforc'd to do for fear are wont as they ought to go for Nothing Indeed this Excuse of Fear as sometimes it is not without reason admitted by the Judges so it doth not always infer a just Cause for abolishing a publick Act once made in a Suit of Law if a Man strike a Fear into his Adversary for ones own Advantage and so the Plaintiff extorts more from the Defendant than he could ever obtain by the Equity of the Law
Presumptuous Confidence in descending to debate her Cause after that Fashion and therefore say's the Queen seeing they are so averse from the Way of Concord which I propose I will detain you no longer but if she hereafter repent of her present Sentiment of which I have some hope and take the Course chalkt out by me I do not doubt but you for your part will perform your Duty Thus we were lovingly and kindly Dismist and the 8 th Day of April began our Journy towards our own Country This Account was given at Sterlin by the Embassadors before the Convention of the Estates Whereupon the Care and Diligence of the Embassadors were unanimously approv'd Other Matters they referr'd to the first of May a Parliament being summon'd against that time In the mean time both Parties bestir themselves one to promote the other to hinder the Assembling thereof The wisest Senators were of opinion That the Queen of England would never let the Scot's Queen depart as foreseeing how dangerous her Deliverance would be to all Britain In the interim Mention was made by some of demanding the Scot's King as an Hostage for his Mother rather in hopes to hinder a Concord than to establish it for she was well assur'd that the Scots would never yield to it but there were some potent Men in her Council who did secretly favour the Duke of Norfolk's Faction These were desirous that the Queen of Scots should be deliver'd and thereby the adverse Faction might in tract of time be broken and diminish'd that so they might obtain that Point from her by Necessity which they saw they could not otherwise do neither did they doubt but the Matter would come to that Pass if the Râ—bels were assisted with Mony and other Furniture for War from France and the Royalists had their Eye only on the Queen of England who had at the beginning largely promis'd them upon understanding the flagitious Act of the Queen that she would take a special care of the King and Kingdom of Scotland Neither could the French King well compass his Designs He was willing the Scot's Queen should be deliver'd but not that the King should be put into English Hands and hearing how strong the Norfolk Faction was which was all for Innovations he did not despair but that the Scot's Queen might in time escape out of Prison privately or be deliver'd by his Means Thus stood the State of Britain at that time Morton having given a laudable Account of his Embassy to the Convention at Sterlin return'd to his own House about 4 Miles from Edinburgh he had a Company of 100 Foot and a few Horse to guard his House and to defenâ— himself if the Townsmen should attempt to make any Excursion till more Forces might come in In the mean time the Queen's Faction were Masters of the Town and set Guards in all convenient Places and levell'd all their Designs to exclude the Regent and to hinder the Parliament which was Indicted to be held at Edinburgh Whereupon Morton was commanded by the Regent with 20 Horse and about 70 Foot for the rest had Passes to go abroad for Forage to march to Leith who was to make a publick Proclamation there for they had garison'd Edinburgh already That no Man should assist the Rebels by Land or Sea either with Provision Arms or any other warlike Furniture they that did so were to undergo the same Punishment with them They knowing themselves to be inferior to the Town-Souldiers sent their Foot another Way about which was cover'd by an Hill from the Sight of the City commonly call'd Arthur's Seat and the Horse past near the Walls and Gates of the City not a Man of the Enemy stiring out When they had done what they were commanded to do at Leith they had not the same Fortune at their Return for the Foot refus'd to march back the same Way that they came but return'd against the will of the Horse near the Gates of the City and so pass'd with them under the Walls with an intent to try what Metal themselves were made of and their Enemies too when lo on a sudden a Sally was made out against them from Two of the Gates At first they fought Manfully so that the Oppidans were driven back in disorder into the Town with no great loss 't is true yet it easily appear'd that they were Inferior in Valour though Superior in Number The Regent having nothing in readiness to assault the Town and having no time neither by reason of the sudden Sitting of the Parliament to bring any great Guns thither thought it better to desist from Force and to hold the Parliament without the Gate of Edinburgh For that City being stretch'd out mostly in Length they who first compassed it with a Wall left a great Part of it in the Suburbs yet so that the Inhabitants of that Part had the full priviledg of Citizens as well as those within the Walls There the Convention was held for the Lawyers gave their Opinions That 't was no great Matter in what Part soever of the City it met In this Parliament These were declar'd Traitors viz. The chief of Them who held out the Castle especially those who out of Consciousness of their guilt of the King 's and Regent's Murders had avoided Tryal The Rebels being thus condemn'd by an Act of Parliament The Judgment of which Court is of very great Authority lest the Commonalty which ordinarily is at the beck of the Nobility should be alienated from them They also of the Number which they had there made up a Convention such as it was Few appear'd there who had any lawful right to Vote and of them some came not into the Assembly at all some presented themselves but as Spectators only abstaining from all Judiciary Actings so that they having neither a just Number of Voices nor were they assembled either in due Time or according to ancient Custom yet that they might make shew of a lawful sufficient Number Two Bishops and some Others which were absent a thing never heard of before sent in their Votes in writing at hap-hazard as being doubtful of the Event of that Assembly At this time the Castle continually plaid with great Guns upon the Place where the Nobles were Assembled and though the Bullets often fell amongst crouds of People yet they neither hurt nor kill'd so much as one Man There were but few condemn'd in either Convention and both Parties appointed another Convention to be held in August one at Sterlin the other at Edinburgh When the Assembly was dismist neither Party issued out one upon other so that there was a kind of Truce between them Thereupon the greatest part of the Souldiers that were with Morton being press'd Men slipt away to their own homes They who kept the Town knew That Morton had but a small Party for his Guard and being willing also to cry quits for their former
Embassador into France 376 Croke the French Embassador dislikes the Queen's Marriage with Bothwel 199 He mediates a Peace 208 209 Crowling Isle 28 Cruelty an Example thereof 329 Culbrenin Isle 25 Culdees a kind of Monks 18 125 Worshippers of God 18 Culen King of Scots an incestuous Person 184 185 He is slain by a Strumpet 187 Cull 196 Culross whence so called 170 Cumbra Isles the greater and the lesser 25 Cumbri and Cumri 75 Cumins their Faction powerful 240 Cumins overthrows Gilespy 239 Cumins John overthrown by Bruce 264 Cumins William poisoned by his Wife 241 Cuningham 14 Cuningham's overcome by the Hamiltons 85 Cup of St. Magnus see Magnus Curia a Parish-Church 26 Curry a Merchaâ—t an Instrument in surprizing Edinburghâ—â—stle â—â—stle 299 Cutberectus 161 D DAal what it signifies in Old Scotish 100 Dalkeith 13 Dalreudini why the Scots so called 100 Danes enter England 71 Invade Scotland 174 Fight a bloody Battel with the English 178 Turn Christians ibid. Land in Scotland 182 Are overthrown ibid. Danish Fleet lands again in Scotland 190 Stupified by an inebriating Drink and overcome by the Scots 209 Swear never to return to invade Scotland any more 210 Dangers make Men sagacious 26 Dardanus King of Scots 108 His cruel Reign and violent Death ibid. David I. King of Scots 212 Profuse towards Monasteries 223 Maintains the Cause of Maud his Kinswoman against Stephen of England 224 Accuses him of Perjury ibid. Makes two Accords with Stephen 225 226 Henry Heir of England made Knight by him 226 Loses his hopeful Son yet comforts himself and his Nobles in a Christian Discourse thereupon 226 He erects new Bishopricks 223 His extraordinary Character for Piety and Virtue 227 David King William's Brother accompanies Richard of England to the Holy War 235 He is shipwrack'd and taken Prisoner yet at last returns ibid. David II. anointed King of Scotland 282 Sent into France when he was a Child 286 Returns to Scotland 300 Taken Prisoner in a Fight by the English 302 Ransomed 304 His Death and Character 305 306 David Cumins appointed Ruler over Scotland by the English 293 He and Douglas disagree 294 Forced to take an Oath to Bruce ibid. Makes large Promises to Edward of Enggland 295 Follows the good Success of the English ibid. Left by the English King as Regent of Scotland where his Army is overthrown and he himself slain 296 David the Son of Robert III imprisoned and starved to Death by his Vncle who was his Governour 328 329 David Beton the Cardinal 73 Chosen Regent by a pretended Will but the Fraud being discovered he is displaced and imprisoned 75 He endeavours to avert the imminent Ruin of Popery 76 He chouzes Lennox with vain Hopes of marrying the Queen 80 He grieves to be deprived of a rich Morsel which he had swallowed in his Hopes 81 He is sharply reproved by Montgomery 91 His Cruelty against Protestants 93 He espouses his Daughter to the Earl of Craford's Son 97 He is slain in his Castle with the manner thereof 98 His foul Character 99 David Douglas with his Brother William beheaded 370 David Hamilton defends the Cause of the Gospel 93 David Panater or Painter Bishop of Ross made an Abbat by the King of France 113 David Rize a Musician his Story 171 He persuades the Queen to cut off the Scotish Nobility 177 His Court-Preferments Familiarity with the Queen of Scots violent Death and Burial 179 to 183 David Spence slain 282 David Straiton or Straton burnt for a Lutheran 63 Death better than a miserable Life 12 d ee a River in England 13 Three of that Name in Scotland 14 70 Deidonum i. e. Dundee 18 Deiri Who 159 Delators or Informers appointed by Evenus 13 Denmark the King thereof bargains with the Embassador of Scotland to quit his Right to the Islands about Scotland 413 Derivative Words shew the Affinity of a Language 6â— Dessius General of the French Forces in Scotland 106 Called home by the King of France 110 Descants on the Law about Hereditary Succession of the Crown 205 Descants on over-severe Executions of Criminals 358 Deucaledonian Sea What 21 Diana's Oracle counterfeited by a Monk 44 45 Dicaledones rather to be read Duncaledones in Marcellinus 56 Dioclesian a supposed King of Syria 41 Dionethus gives himself forth to be King of the Brittons 136 Dion quoted concerning Britain 90 91 118 Dona River 20 Donachs or Duncans Bay 22 Donald I. King of Scots 117 He first received the Christian Religion ibid. Donald II. 122 Overthrown by Donald the Islander and dies ibid. Donald Brother of Malcolm III. yields up the Possession of the Islands to the King of Norwey 23 Donald III. 123 Reigns Tyrannically and is slain by Crathilinthus ibid. Donald IV. or Donebald sends Christian Doctors into England and interprets pious Sermons to the People himself 159 Donald V. Brother of Kenneth 172 Reigns licentiously and is put in Prison 173 Donald VI. Son of Constantine II. 178 Donald VII or Duncan 204 Donald Murderer of King Duffus taken and executed 185 Donald Bane calls himself King of the Aebudae 164 He is slain ibid. Donald VIII or Banus 220 He promises the Islands to Magnus King of Norwey ibid. Donald of Athol 154 Donald Baloc overthrows Alexander and Alan Stuarts 343 He is taken in Ireland and his Head is sent to the King 344 Donald Lord of the Aebudae rises in Arms 333 With the Earl of Ross and Douglas he figâ—â—s with the King's Forces ibid. He is left by his Wife 391 Sends Agents to make his Peace with the King 392 After the King's Death he plays Rex again 408 He takes the Earl of Athol Prisoner and burns St. Bride's Church ibid. He is shipwrack'd and fals distracted 409 Donald Monro commended 22 He travelled over the Islands of Scotland and described them 31 Dongal King of Scots 168 He is drowned ibid. Dongard King of Scots 144 Opposes the Pelagian Heresy 145 Dornadilla King of Scots 98 Dorstologus slain 166 Dorus flies for fear of Nathalocus 120 Dovallus kils King Nothatus 99 He himself is slain in Battel 100 Douglas River 14 Douglas Dale 140 Douglas made Duke of Turein 336 Douglas slain by the Moors 280 Douglas William takes Dundalk in Ireland 314 Douglas William pardoned 301 Douglas breaks in upon the English Army 278 Douglasses their Power intolerable 372 377 Their Power broken 53 Drinach Isle 25 Drix 60 Druides Who 56 Drumalbin 17 Drummilaw Sands 209 Drunkenness punished with Death 174 Druskins King of the Picts and all his Nobility slain 169 Drury intercedes for Peace between the Parties in Scotland 278 Duffa or Dow Isle 25 Duffus King of Scots 181 Witchcraft practised upon his Body 183 He is slain 184 Dukes when the Name first brought into Scotland 325 Duke of York overthrown and slain by the Queen of England 396 Dulcitius in Britain 89 Dunacus and Domnacus 68 Dunbar whence so called 13 14 Its Siege raised 297 Fortified by Alexander against the King but deserted by
to be Richard 332 Richard Duke of Gloucester marches with an Army against Scotland 426 Takes Berwick 427 Made Protector of England 428 Casts his Brother's two Sons into Prison and sets up himself King 428 Slain by Henry VII 429 Is very Tyrannical in his Government 434 Richard Duke of York brings King Edward Prisoner to London 396 Slain by the Queen ibid. Richard Colvil put to Death by Douglas 380 Richard Fox Bishop of Durham a very prudent Man mediates for Peace between the two Nations 12 13 An Instrument of James his Marriage with Margarite of England 14 Richard Grafton an English Writer blamed 252 Rins of Galway 14 Rinard Isle 26 Ridhead see Red Promontory Roadilla Monastery 31 Robbers punished 183 189 48 57 Robert Bruce his Genealogy 246 His magnanimous Answer to the King of England 250 Begins his Reign 261 Is overthrown and flies in disguise to save his Life ibid. His Wife imprisoned and his two Brothers put to Death by the English 261 262 He baffles Cumins ibid. Carried sick into his Army 264 Causes Edward of England to retreat ibid. Invades England takes Perth Edinburgh c. 265 Overthrows the English at Bannock near Sterlin 267 Robert the Son of Robert Bruce conspires with John Cumins against England 259 260 Is crowned King 261 Overcomes Edward II. in Battel 267 The Nobles conspire against him 271 Robert II. King of Scots 306 Marries Elizabeth More 307 The Dispute betwixt his Legitimate and his Natural Children occasions great Troubles 350 He invades England 311 His Death and Character 322 Robert III. before called John succeeds his Father 323 His Generals cause the Islanders to destroy one another 324 He makes the first Dukes in Scotland 325 He imprecates God's Iudgments on his Brother and the other Murderers of his Son David 330 He dies with Abstinence and Grief for the Captivity of his Son James in England 331 His Brother Robert made Regent after his Death 331 Robert Boyd kils James Stuart 374 Made Guardian to the King 409 Created Regent 412 Flies into England and dies there 414 Robert Boyd deserts the Reformed and revolts to the Queen 218 Robert Britain hath great Command at Court 56 Robert Cockerane of a Tradesman made a Courtier 420 Taken by Douglas and committed to Prison 424 425 Robert Cuningham of the Family of the Lennoxes opposes Bothwel 195 Robert Douglas desires that the Death of 〈◊〉 Brother Murray might be revenged 249 Robert Earl of Fife 315 Starves to Death David the King's Son 328 Robert Graham a great Enemy to King James 355 Conspires against him 357 Seizes him with his own Hands for which he is executed 358 Robert Maxwel 71 Coming to reconcile Differences is imprisoned by Hamilton 82 Robert the Son of Robert Maxwel taken Prisoner by the English 91 Robert Earl of the Orcades made one of the King's Guardians 407 Robert Petcarn sent Embassador into England 242 Queen Elizabeth's Answer to his Embassy 257 Robert Read sent Embassador into France 63 Poisoned there 122 Robert Semple kils Creighton 111 Bruce's Grand-son by his Daughter rises in Arms for Bruce 293 Made Regent 294 Taken by Baliol and swears Fealty to the King of England 286 Sought for to be slain 292 Roch Isle 26 Roffa for Raufchestria i. e. Rochester 8 Romachus King of Scots 125 Roman Generals in Britain 84 c. Roman Fraud 239 Roman Legates Pick-pockets 243 418 The Jews Apes 381 Romans their memorable Fact in Britain before their Departure 138 Rona Isle 32 Ronanus his Spade ibid. Rolland a Carpenter discovers a Treachery against Robert Bruce 268 Rolland's Valour he overcomes Gilcolumb 246 247 Rose white Badg of the York Faction 7 Ross and its Etymology 21 139 170 Rothsay Castle 25 Rotti Isle 37 Rous-oy 36 Round Isle 26 Roxburgh Town taken 393 Its Castle taken 394 Royalists overthrown in the North 283 Ruby a French Lawyer in Scotland his Character 147 Rudana Isle 27 Rum Isle 28 It abounds with Eggs of Sea-Fowl ibid. Ruven had the Mayoralty of Perth taken from him by the Cardinal 92 S SAcred or Cleirach Isle 31 Sacred Sanctuary 25 Saga Isles the Great and the Small 30 Saliar Verses not easy to be understood 44 Salii who 44 Salisbury Earl commands the English in Scotland 297 Taken Prisoner 300 Salmon Fishing Aberdene famous for it 19 Sanachies who 39 Sancterr Isle 37 Sanda Isle 25 Scandians who 200 Satrael King of Scots 117 Slain ibid. Saturnals old Feasts retained 239 Saxe or Rock Isle 26 Saxons kill the English Nobles by Treachery 70 Overcome by the Normans 71 Worsted by Picts Scots and Brittons 149 Cruel in Wars 146 Not faithful in Peace 148 Their Fight with three Kings 148 149 Scalpe Isle 28 30 Scarba Isle 25 Schan Castle 31 Schanny Isle 25 27 Schetland Isles 36 The Nature of their Inhabitants 37 The greatest of them called Pomona ibid. Sclata or Sleach Isle 25 Scoff sharp given to Bothwel by a Tradesman 194 Schools publick erected by James 345 Scorpions i. e. Cross-bows 311 Scotland how divided 13 Where narrowest 20 Had anciently learned Monks 169 Scots their fabulous Original 46 47 Scots and Picts unite against the Romans 134 Scots and Brittons overthrown by the Saxons 157 Scots Monks unjustly banished out of England 160 Scots and Brittons unite against Picts and Saxons 146 Scots Monks preach the Gospel in Germany 165 Scots have hard Terms of Peace imposed upon them by the English 173 Scots Bishops freed from the Iurisdiction of the English 234 411 Scots have an ancient Priviledg not to be cited to Rome 241 Scots excommunicated by their Ecclesiasticks 243 Excommunicated again but absolved 272 273 Scots join with the French against England 253 Scots receive a great Overthrow from Edward of England at Falkirk 256 Obtain a Truce from him ibid. Rise in Arms again and overthrow the English at Rosline 258 Scots make a League with the French 273 When their first Alliance with France began 165 Scots of Jerna and Scots of Albion 52 Scots overthrown by Maximus the Roman General and banished out of their Country 124 March into England but retreat again 91 Scots Nobles some rise against James IV. but are quelled 3 Scots Nobles anciently had Skill in Chirurgery 28 Scots complain of the French Breach of Faith by their Embassadors 60 Scots Prisoners released at London 74 Scotish Parliament demolishes all Monasteries 152 Scotish Crown ordered to be sent to the Dolphin of France 126 Scotish Kings anciently travelled over their Kingdoms themselves to administer Iustice 123 Scoto-Brigantes in Claudian to be read for Scuta-Brigantes 76 Scroop an English General in Scotland 256 Sea-Calves 29 Sea-Monks an ill boding Fish 175 Security dangerous in War 172 173 Seditions perillous 141 309 Secla or Seil Isle 25 Seneciones who 39 Seuna Isle 30 Severn River 13 Severus his Wall 8 148 His Expedition against the Brittons 117 118 Seuna or Suin Isle 25 30 Servanus 145 Shevi Isle 30 Sheep fair yet wild in Hirta Isle 30 Their Fat good
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oransa Na gunner (w) Paba * Scalpa Crouling * Scalpa Raarsa Rona * Gerloch Fladda Trâ—nta * Oransa (c) Vâ—â—a More (c) and Vâ—â—a Bâ—g. * Several small Islands (d) Watersa (e) Barra * A strange Spring carrying down shapeless Fish into the Sea (f) Cockles or Periwinkles * Divers small Islands (g) Vyist a great Island (h) A strange sort of Fish * Helscher Vetularum (i) Havelschyer * Hirta (k) A Custom of Baptizing once a Year (l) Large fair Sheep in Hirta (m) Valay * Soa and several smal Islands (n) Flavanae in which are wild Sheep * Garvillan and other little Islands (o) Island of Pygmees * Lewis c. (p) A Vault able to shelter Ships in a Storm * Schan-Castle (q) Loch-Brien or Broom * En. * Gruinorta or 〈◊〉 (r) Cleirach or 〈◊〉 Isle * Harary c. (s) Harray or Harrick and Lewis are but one Island of which Harray is the South part * Roadilla Monastery (t) Wild Sheep in Harray bâ—t no Foxes noâ— Wolves * Lewis is the North part of the Island (u) Whales taken in abundance about the Island Lewis * Rona with the Condition of its Inhabitants (w) Ronanus his strange Spade (x) Suilkyr * Or Berlins (y) A rare Bird called Colca * The Orcades (z) Goths a People oâ— Sarmaâ—â—a Europaea thence transplanted into Germany near the River Oder in Silâ—sia * Or Picts and Sea (a) The Britains praised God in Five Tongues (b) The Inhabitants of the Orcades Parsimonious and long liv'd * No venemous Creatture in the Orcades nor any Tree Magnus his Bouncing Cup or Wassail Bowl * A strange Test for a Bishop * The Sea very Tempestuous about the Orcâ—des and the reason why * Authors do not agree concerning the number of the Orcades * Pomona or the Mainland the greatest Island of the Orcades * Danes long Masters of the Orcades * Kirkwall the chiefeâ—t Town in Mainland * White and black Lead in Mainland * Pentland Firth divides Mainland from Caithness * Stromoy * South Ranalds-Oy the first Isle of the Orcades (a) Holme what * Bura c. (b) Hoia and Waes-Isle * Granisa (c) Coupins-Oy * Siapins-Oy (d) Rows-Oy * Eglis-Oy or Eglisa where St. Magnus was buried (e) Wyer-Oy Gress-Oy and Wester-Oy c. Fair Isle in the mid way between the Orcades and Schetland * Many outlandish Fishermen resort to Fair Isle (f) Schetland Isles the greatest of them called Mainland as well as the greatest of the Orcades (g) Yell. * The Names of some â—â—all Scâ—etland 〈◊〉 (h) Vuist or Vust Isle * Divers other small Islands (i) The Schetlanders manner of Life and Trade * Their Language (k) Their Innocent Mirth and Longaevity * One Lawrence a Schetlander Married at an Hundred years of Age and lived above an Hundred and Forty * The Origin of Letters (a) Turdetani a People dwelling in part of Portugal and in Algarbia and Medina Sidonia * Caesar. * Tacitus * Gildas lived 400 years after Tacitus * Germany received Letters last of all * Sanachies a sort of Chanters inferiour to Bards called by the Dynnywossals or Gentlemen of the Highlands Sanachies contracted from Seneciones * Strabo Ammianus Marcellinus and Luâ—an desscribe who the Bâ—rds weâ—e * Strabo Ammianus Marcellinus and Luâ—an desscribe who the Bâ—rds weâ—e * Great uncertainties amongst the ancient Writers of British Affairs and the Reasons why * Several Countries have changed their Names * Spain hath several Names Or Highlanders * The Fabulous Origin of the Britains * Diocletian a supposed King of Syria and Labana his Wife with their 33 Daughters * Albine * Brutus and his Knight-Errant Adventures * Brutus a Parricide * Brutus his Three Sons * An old Name for England * Vendelina * Germany whence so called according to old Story * Born in the same Country where they live Iohannes Annius * The Story of the 33 Sisters confuâ—ed * The Fable of Diocletian confuted * Brutus his Story refelled * Brâ—tus and Romulus compared * The Name of the True Brutus when it began and how * Faunus the Third King of the Aborigines to whom Saturn by whom he was entertained caused a Grove and Cave to be dedicated whence Oracles were given forth according to old Story (a) Cumaea so called from Cuma in the Gulph of Naples (b) Little Pieces of Oak-Wood-Lotteries marked with Letters or Words almost like Dice which when they were thrown the Priest gave his Response according to the Letter which was uppermost at Praeneste now Palestrina in Italy (c) Salii were Twelve Priests instituted by Numa Pompilius in Honour of Hercules or as some say of Mars And the Carmen Saliare which they sang was composed by the same Numa in an obsolete and almost unintelligible Language or Style (c) Salii were Twelve Priests instituted by Numa Pompilius in Honour of Hercules or as some say of Mars And the Carmen Saliare which they sang was composed by the same Numa in an obsolete and almost unintelligible Language or Style * Brutus's supposed Address to the Oracle with Diana's Answer thereunto (d) Homer * Dionysius Halicarnasseus (e) Buthrotii Inhabitants of Buthrotum new Butrinto a small Village in Epirus on the Sea coast not far from the Isle Corfu once a large Roman Colony * Arverni Inhabitants of Auvergne in the Dukedom of Burgundy their chief City is Clermont * Burgundians (f) People of the Franch Country (g) Francs Originally a People of Franconia in Germany who in the declining of the Roman Empire conquered Gallia and called it Frankinland now France they were composed of so many warlike Tribes that the Turks do call all the Western Christians Francs to this very day * Old Scotish Writers blamed (h) Dores and Iones who (h) Dores and Iones who (i) The Scots fabulous Original from one Gathelus a Grecian and Scota his Wife (k) Now Eâ—râ— a â—amoâ—â— River in Spain rising in the Mountains of Astâ—râ—â— and disinboguing it self into the Mediterranean in Catalâ—nâ—a (l) Gallaecia the Country about Compâ—stella in Spain * Durius oâ— Dâ—â—ro Duâ—â—o in Spanish arising in old Castâ— and after a course of 14â— Spanish Leagues falls into the Atlantick Ocean below Port a Port. (m) Lusitania and Portugaâ— the Original of those Names (m) Lusitania and Portugaâ— the Original of those Names * Palladium properly the Image of Pallas in Troy which as long as they kept in her Temple Troy could not be taken as the Tâ—ojans thought but when Vlyssâ—s stole it away then they were soon destroyed by the Greeks * The Ancient Gauls in Caesars time divided from the Belgâ—â—â—s by the River Sâ—â—n and from the Aqâ—itanians by the Garron from whom the old Grecians called the North-West part of Eâ—ropâ— Ceâ—to-Sâ—â—thia * From which no Issue could insue * Colonies of Gauls sent into Spain * Celtae and Celtiberâ— whence * Celtici Boetici * Celtici
the Fifth to Scotland to sâ—iâ— them up to War against England Berwick Castle surprised by Ramsay but regain'd by Percy Iames the First Earl of Douglas enters England with an Army * In Cumberland A Pestilence in Scotland Talbet overthrown in Scotland A Truce between the Scots and English for three Years Quatuor nummos Angâ—â—coâ— A Rising of the Commons in England at the Instigation of Iohn Baâ— a Priest Lancaster the English Embassador in Scotland denied entrance into Berwick Loch-Maban Castle taken by the Scots unbar surprizes the Governor of Roxburg Lancaster enters Scotland He favours the Edinburgers But is put to a Retreat Douglas prevails in Scotland he dyes and his Son William succeeds him A Truce made for a Year between French English and Scots which the French were to acquaint the Scots with The English enter Scotland before Notice is given them of a Truce made Some Scots Nobles also invade England before the Truce is Proclaimed Richard II. enter'd Scotland with an Army Whereupon the Scots enter England They both return home The French and Scots quarrel â—bout the Bears Skin before he was catcht French Soldiers more licentious than Scots or English which occasions a disgust betwixt them The French Army leaves Scotland but their General is retain'd to satisfy damages Nov. 1. Will. Douglas sails into Ireland And takes Dundalk * A Town on the North side of the Nith a Mile about Drumlanerick in Nithisdale * A Sea Town in the County of Louth and Province of Vlster in Ireland And returns from thence The Scots enter England 〈◊〉 Against the mind of Robert and his Son Aug. â— An English Spy in the Scots Army discovered The Scots Army divide themselves to attack England Douglas in Northumberland encountred by Percy A Duel between Earl Douglas and Earl Percy The Scots march to Otterborn A terrible Fight between the Scots and English under Percy and Douglas Hart slain And Douglas mortally Wounded His Three last dying Requests Ralfe Pâ—rcy 〈…〉 The English overthrown Lindsay takes Redman Prisoner and releases him on his Parol Courtesy to Prisoners The ancient punishment of Prisoners not returning upon their Parol The Bishop of Durham comes too late to Assist Percy The Bishops Forces terrified with the Sound of Horns and Retreat Lindsay's Kindness to Redman requited by him Ralfe Percy released on his Parol Henry Percy Ransomed Douglas buried at Mulross Both the Scots Armies lament Dougâ—aâ— Iuly 21. Robert Earl of Fife made Governor of Scotland Earl Marshal vaunts over the Scots Whereupon Robert enters England and returns with a great Booty A Peace between France and England Robert assents thereto on his own Head * Lying on the River Irwin Apr. 19. Roberts Death and Character Alexander Earl of Buchan burns Elgin Church William Douglas slain at Dantzick by the procurement of Clifford of England * Or Prussias A noted Maâ—t Town of great Trade on the Wesseâ— acknowledge the King of Poland for Protector August 1â— Robert the Third his Name changed from Iohn Duncan Stuart rises in Arms but is suppressed A notable Policy to divide the Islanders and make them Instruments to destroy one another which takes effect accordingly Dukes First made in Scotland E. Douglas refuses that Title Richard the Second of England resigns his Crown and Hen. the Fourth succeeds him Difference in Scotland occasioned by the Marriage of the King's Son Dunbar joyns with Percy and infests Scotland Standing upon Tine 3 Miles below Hadington The Death of Archibald Douglas August 13. Henry of England Enters Scotland Carries it Moderately And Retreats * A Castle over against Holy-Isle in Northumberland The Scots overthrown by Percy and Dunbar at Homeldon May. 7. Coâ—â—â—aw-Castle besieged by the English but they raise the Siege themselves Arch Bishop Traâ—â—e an observer of Ancient Discipline David after his Mothers decease le ts loose the reins to Licentiousness David most cruelly starved to Death by his Uncle Robert Scituate at the North bottom of Locâ—-Lomond near the Centre of Fife The Governor of Faâ—kâ—and's cruelty to his own Daughter Douglas joyne with Percy against the K. of England Having Performed valiantly in a fight he is taken Prisoner and after ransomed Robert accused for Davids Death Undergoes a partial Tryal and is Acquitted King Robert imprecates God's judgment on the Murderers of his Son Iames the K. Son for security sent into France but Landing in England is detained There Dispute 〈◊〉 King 〈…〉 concerning the Detention oâ— Diâ—mission oâ— Iames. Iames well Educated in England yet his Captivity breaks his Fathers Heart April 1. Robert's Death and Character Robert his Brother made Regent Percy overthrown and flies to Scotland Henry of England invades Scotland Dunbar returns to Scotland Percy betrayed by Rokesby his pretended Friend and put to Death A Supposititious Prince Standing on a Rock above the Firth of Forth near St. Ebâ—s Head in the Merss A County lying on 〈◊〉 River Stâ—aâ—-Bogy 40 〈…〉 Aâ—â—rdeen * In Murray A Cruel Fight between Donald and the Governour The Erection of St. Andrews University March 21. Henry the 4 th Dyes and Henry the 5 thâ—â—â—â—ceeds â—â—â—â—ceeds 〈◊〉 Percys Posterity restored to their Dignity Council of Constance send Ambassadors to Scotland so doth Peter Lune Anti-Pope The King of France distracted Divisions in France A County of France lying on the River Carus The French King craves Aid of the Scots which is sent him under the Command of the Earl of Buchan The Scots Auxiliaries Land in France Is overthrowâ— by them And slain Buchan made Lord High Constable of France September 3. Robert dies and his Son Murdo made Governor of Scotland Buchan returns to Scotland but is recalled to France Douglas made Duke of Turein Earl of Bedford sent by Henry into France who carries with him Iames I. King of Scotland A Chief Town of the County oâ— Bâ—â—e in France situated near the Matrona A Town in or near Normandy A Chief Town of the County oâ— Bâ—â—e in France situated near the Matrona A Town in or near Normandy A large Country about Orleanâ— on the 〈◊〉 The Scâ—ts overthrown in Fâ—ance 〈…〉 English and their Chief 〈…〉 Reflections on some English Writers Fond Indulgence to Children justly punished in a Father The Scots send for King Iames the First out of England Who returns upon a Ransom May 27. April 20. 〈…〉 Scotlâ—nd â—bout 〈…〉 The King remits one halfe of his Ransom-Tax Several Scots Nobles imprisoned Others 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 Murdo brought to his Trial. The Ancient manner of Trying Nobles in Scotland Murdo c. found Guilty and Beheaded Embassadors from France to Scotland about Peace and a Marriage K. Iames the First his prosperous Beginnings Free 〈◊〉 punished by the King Alexander the Islander â—iseâ— in Armâ— But is suppressed * Easter And submits to the Kings Mercy Donald Bâ—lâ—ck makes an Insurrection But is quelled Tories fall out among themselves Mackdonald a Free-booter His Cruelty to a Woman Retaliated on himself and his Followers Donald's
did severally make In-rodes upon them each from his own Coast that omitting the care of Foreign Affairs they called back their Armies into Italy to defend Rome it self the Seat of their Empire In the midst of these Commotions they who commanded the British Legions esteeming the Roman Affairs as desperate did each study their own Advantages and severally to establish their distinct Tyrannies Neither were they content to vex the Islanders with all kind of Cruelty and Avarice but they also harassed one another by Mutual Incursions So the Number of the Legionary Soldiers did daily decrease and the hatred of the Provincials against them did increase So that all Britanny would have rebelled against them if they had had Forces answerable to their Desires But above all their Miseries That was most prejudicial to the Britains which the Emperor Constantine the last General of the Roman Army caused them to endure For when he was made Emperor he withdrew not only the Roman Army but even the British Soldiers too and so left the whole Island disarmed and exposed to all Violence if they had had any Foreign Enemy to invade them This was the chief occasion which did mightily hasten the combination of the Scots When Affairs stood in this posture secret Messengers were sent betwixt the Scots and the Picts and a Peace struck up between them Whereupon they Both sent Ambassadors to call home Fergusius to undertake the Kingly Government as descending to him from his Ancestors Fergusius being a Military Man desirous of Honour and besides not so well pleased with his present Estate but encouraged with hopes of a better easily accepted the Terms When his return was noised abroad many of the Exiled Scots yea several of the Danes also his acquaintance and fellow-Soldiers being encouraged by the same hopes accompanied him also home They all landed in Argyle Thither all those Exiles which were in Ireland and the Circumjacent Islands having notice given them before of his coming resorted speedily to him and they also drew along with them a considerable number of their Clans and Relations and also several young Soldiers who were desirous of Innovation Fergusius II. The Fortieth King FErgusius having got these Forces together was Created the 40 th King of Scotland being Inaugurated according to the manner of the Country The Black Book of Pasley casts his return on the 6th Year of Honorius and Arcadius Emperours Others upon the 8th of their Reign that is according to the account of Marianus Scotus 403 according to Funccius 404 Years after the Incarnation of Christ and about 27 Years after the death of his Grand-Father Eugenius They who contend out of Bede That this was the First coming of the Scots into Britain may be convinced of a manifest untruth by his very History When the Assembly of the Estates was Dissolved Fergusius being born and bred to Feats of War and Arms judging it convenient to make use of the Favourableness of Fortune and the Forwardness of his Men and withal designing to prevent the Report of his coming demolished all the Neighbor-Garisons having not Soldiers enough to keep them and having recovered his own Kingdom as soon as the season of the Year would permit he prepared for an Expedition against his Enemy In the mean time the Brittons were divided into Two Factions some of them desirous of Liberty and weary of a Foreign Yoke were glad of their Arrival others preferred their present Ease thô attended with so many and great Inconveniencies before an uncertain Liberty and a certain War And therefore out of fear of the Danger hanging over their heads and withal being Conscious of their own Weakness they agreed upon a double Embassy one to the Picts another to the Romans That to the Picts was to advise them not to desert their old Allies the Romans and Brittons nor to take part with their ancient Enemies who were a company of poor hopeless and despicable Creatures They farther gave them grave Admonitions and made them many promises and added many Threats from the Romans whom said they they could never equal in Number or overcome though the whole strength of both Nations did jointly make Head against them much less could they noâ— Cope with them seeing one of them was exhausted by Draughts and Detachements of Souldiâ—rs and the other worn out with all manner of Miseries The Minutes of their Instructions to their Ambassadors sent to the Romans were these That they should send Aid to them in time whilst there was any thing left to defend against the rage of a Cruel Enemy which if they would do then Britain would still remain firm under their Obedience if not it were better for them to leave their Country than to endure a Servitude worse than Death under Savage Nations Hereupon the Romans though pressed upon by War on every side yet sent one Legion out of Gaul to defend their Province giving them Command to return assoon as they had settled matters in Britanny The Brittons having received such Aid did suddainly assault the plundring Troops of their Enemies who were carelesâ—ly struggling up and down and repelled them with great Slaughter The Confederate Kings having an Army well-appointed came to the Wall of Severus and meeting their Enemies by the River Carron a bloody Battel was fought between them Great Slaughter was made on both sides but the Victory fell to the Romans who being in a little time to return into Gallia were content only to have driven back their Enemies and to repair the Wall of Severus which in many places was demolished which when they had done and had Garisoned it with Brittons they departed The Confederate Kings though they were Superior to their Enemies in swift Marchings and enduring of Hardships yet being inferiour in Number and Force resolved not to Fight pitched Battels any more but rather to weary their Enemies by frequent Inrodes and not to put all at a venture in one Fight seeing they were not as yet of Force sufficient so to do But when they heard That the Romans were returned out of Britain they altered their Resolutions and gathering all their Forces together they demolished the Wall of Severus which was slightly repaired only by the Hands of Souldiers and but negligently guarded neither by the Brittons So that by this means having a larger Scope to Forage in they made the Country beyond the Wall which they were not able to keep for want of Men useless to the Brittons for many Miles It is reported that one Graham was the principal Man in demolishing that Fortification who transporting his Soldiers in Ships landed beyond the Wall and slew the Guards unawares and unprovided and so made a passage for his Men. 'T is not certain amongst Writers Whether this Graham were a Scot or a Britton but most think That he was a Britton descended of the Fulgentian Sept a Prime and Noble Family in that Nation as also That he was
immediately after Congallus but there are More who insert Kinnatellus betwixt Them Aidanus The Forty Ninth King AIdanus being Nominated King by Kinnatellus and confirmed by the People received the Royal Habiliments from Columba For the Authority of that Man was so great in those days that neither Prince nor People would undertake any thing without his Advice And at that time after he had in a long Speech persuaded the King to rule Equitably over the People and the People to be Loyal to their King he earnestly pressed them Both to persist in the pure Worship of God for then Both of them would prosper but if they forsook it they must expect Destruction as the reward of their Offences Having perform'd this Service he returned into his own Country The first Expedition of Aidanus was against the Robbers who infested Galway coming thither he put their Commanders to Death and Fear restrain'd the rest but a greater Storm encountred him at at his Return For after he had had three Conventions of the Estates in Galway Abria or Loch-abyr and Caithness and thought all things were settled there there was a Tumult arose amongst them in Hunting that much Blood was spilt and the Kings Officers who came to punish the Offenders were repulsed and beaten The Authors for fear of Punishment fled into Lothian to Brudeus King of the Picts when Ambassadors were sent to him to deliver them up according to the League betwixt them they were refused whereupon a feirce War commenced betwixt the Scots and Picts but it was quickly ended by the means of Columba who was according to his Merit highly esteemed by both Nations In the mean time England was again divided into Seven Kingdoms and the Brittons were driven into the Peninsula of Wales but the Saxons not contented with such large Dominions stirred up a new War betwixt the Scots and Picts The Author and Kindler thereof was Ethelfrid King of Northumberland a Covetous Man and who was weary of Peace out of the desire he had to enlarge his Dominions He persuaded the Picts but with difficulty Brudeus hardly consenting thereto That they should drive away Preys out of the Scots Territories and so give an occasion to a War Aidanus understanding the Treachery of the Saxons that he might also strengthen himself with Foreign Aid renewed the ancient League with Malgo the Britton He sent his Son Grifinus and his Sisters Son Brendinus King of Eubonia now called Man a Military Man with Forces who joyning with the Brittons entred Northumberland and after Three days march came to the Enemy but the English refused to engage them because they expected new Succors which were reported to be neer at hand for indeed Ceulinus King of the East Saxons a very Warlike Man was coming to them with great Forces the Scots and Brittons fell upon him in his March and wholly destroyed the Front of his Army which was a long way before the rest together with his Son Cutha but they were afraid to engage the rest lest they should be circumvented by Ethelfrid who was not far distant The two Kings of the Saxons being joined together again renewed the Fight with much Slaughter on both sides wherein the Scots and Brittons were put to flight There were slain of the Scots Nobles Grifinus and Brendinus in the opposite Army Ethelfrid lost one of his Eyes and Brudeus was carried wounded out of the Field to the great Astonishment of his Party The next Summer after Ethelfrid uniting his Forces with the Picts marched into Gallway supposing he should find all things there in great Consternation by reason of their ill Success the last Year But Aidanus coming with his Forces thither sooner than his Enemies thought set upon the straggling Plunderers and drave them with great trepidation to their Camp Thus having chastized their Temerity supposing now they would be more quiet the Night after he passed by their Camp and joyned himself with the Brittons Both Armies having thus united their forces pitch'd their Tents in a narrow Valley of Annandale and their Enemies as now Cock-sure of their Destruction beset the passages entring into it But they having fortify'd their Camp as if they intended there to abide in the Night when the Tide was out marched thro' the Ford which was known to them amidst the quavering Sands into Cumberland and afterward into Northumberland making great Havock whithersoever they came The Enemie followed them at their Heels and when they came in fight of one another both Armies prepare themselves for the Fight The Scots and Britains added Four Commanders to those they had before who were noble Persons of great experience in Warlike affairs that so the rash-Headed Common Soldiers might be commanded by a greater Number of Captains of the Brittons there were added Constantine and Mencrinus of the Scots Calenus and Murdacus By their Conduct and Incouragement the Soldiers fell upon the Enemy with so great Violence that he was presently broken and put to flight There goes a Report that Columb being then in the Isle Icolumbkil told his Companions of this Victory the very same hour in which it was obtained Of the Saxon Nobles there were slain in this fight Cialinus and Vitellius both great Warriors and highly descended about Eleven years after this Victory the Saxons and Picts infested the adjacent Country whereupon a Day was appointed wherein the Brittons and Scots should meet and with their united Forces set upon the Saxons Aidanus tho' very old came to the place at the appointed time and staid for the Brittons but in vain for they came not yet he drove Preys out of his Enemies Country Ethelfrid having now gotten a fair Opportunity to act something in set upon the dispersed Scots and made a great slaughter amongst them Aidanus having lost many of his Men fled for his Life yet the Victory was not unbloody to the Saxons for they lost Ethelfrid's Brother and some of those Squadrons that followed him were almost wholly cut off Aidanus having received this overthrow and being also informed of the death of Columb that Holy Man whom he so highly honoured foreseeing to what Cruelty the Remainder of the Christians were likely to be exposed being worn out with Age and Grief did not long survive he Reigned 34 years and died in the Year of our Lord 604. In his Reign it was That a certain Monk Named Austin came into Britain being sent by Gregory Pope of Rome who by his Ambition in Preaching a New Religion mightily disturbed the Old for he did not so much Preach the Christian Religion as the Ceremonies of the Roman Church Yea the Brittons before his coming were Converted to and taught the Principles of the Christian Religion by the Disciples of Iohn the Evangelist and were instituted in the same by the Monks who were Learned and Pious in that Age. As for Austin He laboured to reduce all things to the