Wars of Independence—Cultural Melting Pot

700 Years since Wallace, Wars of Independence, & ‘Hammer of the Scots’

WRITTEN HISTORY or CULTURAL FOLK MEMORY—MONTHLY MISSIVE from our INSECURE WRITERS‘ CAVE

‘Wallace Guardian of Scotland was a tall man with the body of a giant lengthy flanks broad in the hips, strong arms and legs with all his limbs very firm. He had the gift of speech and kindness’ —Walter Bower Scotichronicon

Wallace statue Aberdeen “So lang’s this stane stands on this craft
The name of Keith shall be held alaft’
But when this stane begins t’ fa’
The name of Keith shall wear awa’” Inverugie Castle, Banffshire

“As long’s there’s an eagle in Pennan
There will be a Baird in Auchmedden”*

Thomas the Rhymer

*Baird was a Keith family name–hereditary Earls Marischal and Master of the King’s Horse. In historical records of the House, a pair of eagles built their nest in the cliffs near the village of Pennan and the Bairds protected them with the greatest care and fed them by placing daily on a ledge of rock near their eyrie food and tidbits. Willam Baird joined ‘Bonnie’ Prince Charlie as an officer of his bodyguard at Culloden. He continued in hiding for some years after and then lived the remainder of his life at Echt House (central Aberdeenshire) where he died in 1777. Auchmedden was not confiscated, but Mr Baird had to sell it in 1750 to relieve debt contracted in support of the Stuarts. When it was bought by Earl of Aberdeen in that year, the eagles left.

400 years before that time of the Old and Young Pretenders (Stuarts), Scotland needed its nobles to stand together. Their Declaration of Arbroath, 1320, was still a pipedream. The action was around Stirling Castle on the River Forth.

Wars of Independence and the ‘Hammer of the Scots’

HISTORY REVEALS REGIONAL LOYALTY SPLIT BETWEEN NE-SW WAS BRUCE’S ACE CARD

After the death of the infant queen Margaret Maid of Norway, Scotland was without a monarch—technically an interregnum. King Edward I of England negotiated to choose a successor from several claimant Guardians of Scotland—Wallace, Comyn, Moray, Balliol—he chose John Balliol. Crowned on St.Andrew’s Day 1292 at Scone—atop the Stone of Destiny—Balliol ‘ruled as Toom Tabard’ (empty cloak, i.e. no substance to his leadership) for all of four years, i.e. until King Edward decided to invade Scotland 1296. Balliol (founder of college Oxon) was arrested, but survived, and died in exile 1314.

Galvanized by 1296 shock tactic, but flying independent banners, Scots nobility from Annandale to Badenoch, the Black Isle to Galloway grouped their forces and, with newfound zeal under Guardian William Wallace, with Andrew, Mormaer of Moray in tow, fought in the world-changing historic Battle of Stirling Bridge, September 1297. And won.

Balliol’s lineage had been important in the search for an heir to the Crown of Scotland: Norman French paternally from King David I (Huntingdon); impeccable matrilinear descent thru Pictish-Celtic princess Devorguilla. John ‘Red’ Comyn, Mormaer (Earl) of Buchan was last of Pictish line on his mother’s side, owned lands of Badenoch, Banff, Strathspey, and Buchan with fortresses, rich hunting forests, cathedrals and strong fishing grounds linking ancient maritime North Sea and Baltic routes.

Braveheart Scenario Masks Murder at the Altar

‘When Dee and Don shall run as one
And Tweed shall run with Tay
The Bonnie Waters o’ the Urie
Shall bear the Bass away.’

‘Papist’ Bourtie-ancient Bowirdin-a Battlefield

Sometime between 1170-1199, Barra-Bourtie landowner Sir Wm. de Lamberton granted an endowment charter on personal lands on his estate in favour of the Priory of St.Andrews at Kilrymounth, mid pic below. Rich endowment was added to by subsequent heirs, confirmed in 1202-06 with added acreage given; confirmed Pope Innocent III 1206, Pope Innocent IV & King Alexander 1248.

Radulf, Bishop of Aberdeen added further ‘two pleughs’ or ploughgates:100 Scots acres to kirklands between 1248-68. Effigies of medieval knight and his lady (head sever recent) probably grave of de Lamberton although tradition claims affiliate of Bruce, Thomas de Longueville, who died at 1308 Battle of Barra, in valley below kirk.

As soon as the king (Balliol) was arrested and escorted into England, all knightly valour and honour were put aside and allegiances changed overnight. Wallace (SW) and Moray (NE) combined forces and their military strength took English-occupied Stirling Castle troops by surprise. Battle of Stirling Bridge, 1297, below l. Bower’s Scotichronicon

Edward abandoned his French invasion, prepared to attack— Falkirk July 22, 1298. As at the Bridge the previous year, English numbered more than the Scots, so Wallace created defensive strategy. Pikemen of Scots foot soldiers formed schiltrons—below—circular positions where the soldiers’ 12-foot spears were turned outwards, positioned at an angle as a tactic against cavalry charges. The schiltron wounded horses’ flanks, yet protected archers ranged behind them. It was near impenetrable.

Unfortunately, it was no match for the English longbow.

Example of the schiltron, deadly against cavalry attacks.

Wallace had used local familiarity with the River Forth estuary and its winding pockets around Stirling Bridge to confound the English, capture and kill Edward’s highest officers. His schiltrons worked. Cavalry collapsed in mud.

One year later, similar numbers, but wide open locale + added reach of Edward’s longbowmen. Scots slaughtered.

To make matters worse, Edward ‘Hammer of the Scots’ confiscated Scone’s sacred Stone of Destiny, took it by wagon to London installed it in Westminster Abbey—where it remained until returned to Scotland 1950.

Thirty Years of Burning Forests Embedded in Folk Memory

Caledonian Pine Forests Burn from Castle Country to North Sea Shore

Aberdeenshire royal forests were extensive. From Midstocket, Hazelhead, Foresterhill, Pitfodels within city limits, they extended to ancient Caledonian hunting groves under protection of local landowner-lairds like Irvines of Drum, Innes of Learney, Crathes, Birse, Forbes of Newe, Strathdon, Kildrummy (Earl of Mar), Corgarff & Huntly (Gordons) aligned with original (Roman and native) paved and unpaved drove roads to north (Moray) and south (Perthshire, rt above Dupplin), when Scone was capital (Alexander I); later Stirling on River Forth (Wallace and Bruce); currently Edinburgh. Stone of Destiny now resides in Edinburgh Castle when not needed in Westminster to crown a monarch.

From earliest annexe of the Pictish kingdom (above left Forres, ‘Sueno’s Stone’ said to show McAlpin takeover of Pictish ‘kingdom of Alba’ AD843), Scots coveted the wealth of hinterland streams and Buchan’s deep forests from mountain to coastal plain. Rich landholdings afforded longstanding family protection by the laird to all his people—the origin of ‘clan’; housing, smallholding crofts and fishing bothies guaranteed survival even through worst times. 

Guardian of Scotland, William Wallace kindled allegiances easily, had huge support unlike his peers, and Edward knew he had to go.  The English king offered a truce, but demanded he swear fealty. Wallace refused. Sometime between 1298 and 1305 he left Scotland for France, where Edward was persona non grata. Betrayed by pro-English Sir John Menteith on his return, he was arrested August 5th, 1305, taken to London and condemned as a traitor.  Three weeks later, August 23rd, he was executed in Smithfield (current meat market) his body hanged, drawn and quartered, each part sent in packages to remote regions of Scotland. 

Two years later it was Robert the Bruce who prepared to die.

Sharing Guardianship of Scotland with arch rival John ‘Red’ Comyn had ended in Brus stabbing Comyn to death—with a concealed dirk before the high altar in Greyfriars Church, Dumfries. Pope excommunicated Brus. Wounded, he proclaimed himself king in 1306. Yet defeat followed defeat, his former army fled, and the sick monarch spent three winter months 1307 hidden in a makeshift shelter near Slioch ‘in the Kingdom of the Garioch’ pron. Gee-ree.  Overwintering in a cave, gravely ill, without support of the army, the Brus believed he was going to die.

While westcoasters may argue location, the river-worn cave on the Don’s south bank outside Inverurie (former Slioch estate—RtheB ally) is the spider cave of legend, taught to children for another five centuries as rôle model of Scots perseverence and fortitude.

Bruce has Change of Heart, Burns his Way North—Herschip o’ Buchan

What greeted the (sick and ailing, aka disbelieving) self-crowned  king of Scots on awakening early May 23, 1308 from his Slioch hideout cave in Inverurie, was surprise arrival of troops in support of his claim to Comyn lands in Buchan and Banffshire.  After a brief skirmish on the fields East of Barra Castle (the battle), local Seton, Strachan and de Lamberton lairds scattered; Comyn retreated to the safety of Fyvie Castle.

It was the last straw. The Bruce army proceeded North, burning everything in its path.

While history records the cataclysmic loss of hunting forest, stream pollution and laying waste of productive arable acreage, it fails to mention Bruce’s act as a criminal, personal vendetta to destroy the offspring of his last rival—Black & Red Comyn Earls of Buchan and Badenoch—murdered in Greyfriars Church, Dumfries, 1306. By torching lands of neighbouring lairds—Herschip o’Buchan fires visible all day, all night for thirty years—he ensured no further rival claims for his kingship. He rendered the Buchan-Aberdeenshire triangle (half size of Switzerland) a scorched desert,  impoverished, disconnected, with desecrated wells and dead cattle everywhere.

Imagine NoCal  forest wildfires with no fire brigade to dowse flames—no end to roaring crackling through the night.

Bannockburn, 1314 came as a reward for his perseverance: milestone schiltron vs. longbow battle outside Stirling Castle, occupied by English, whom he routed. It was touted as his pinnacle. Or swan song.

Six years later, his Buchan legacy still flaming in public view, Comyn, Keith, Fife, Mar and Forbes abstaining, the fame was all Bruce’s.  It was shortlived. Edward II followed what the Hammer of the Scots had begun. Brus’ reign j[1306-1329] survived English domination; his nobles acquiesced—their collective signatures at Arbroath appealing to Rome for support. He even negotiated a truce with England, 1328. He died in his bed (in palatial surroundings, nevertheless: Cardross palace Dumbarton) June 7, 1329 aged 55. Not bad for an excommunicated felon.

 

Scottish wildcat's endangered habitat may be restored

CALEDONIAN FOREST REGENERATION, REWILDING, RESTORATION

Caledonian forest regeneration by private individuals and charitable groups brings back hope for endangered species: wildcat, speedwell

Think Like a Mountain Breathe Like an Ocean

Charity Trees for Life, Scotland: The Big Picture, and a phalanx of individual tree-planting/reforestation groups and landowners throughout Moray, Invernessshire, Aberdeenshire and the Mearns have found hope for a return to ancient habitat for Scotland’s (rare) red squirrel, (threatened) pine marten and (endangered) wildcat.

They join similar earth-and ocean-friendly associations of privately-funded and charitable umbrella organizations who, during a year of renewed growth and natural regeneration of wild spaces (without humans), have chosen EarthFirst contra pollution-growth-waste. We writerly types (insecure, successful or wannabe) applaud the move; would encourage personal plantings—begonia, thyme and catmint do well in cave-dweller LED lighting. Spider-friendly.

And Nature is good for us—thinking like a Mountain even better. Our Muse (privately) told us so.

Onward and upward. Happy height of summer. Look out Lammas—here we come.

©2021 Marian Youngblood