VII. But Thomas Lord Wake of Ledel, Henry de Beaumont Earl of Buchan, and Henry de Percy, shall be restored to their lordships, lands, and estates, whereof the King of Scots, by reason of the war between the two nations, had taken possession.* 97 manus nostras devenerunt;" (ap. Eltham, 12th May 1329). Abercrombie, v. i. p. 626. says, "Though Englishmen were not to be repossessed of those estates Edward I. had given them in Scotland, yet Scotsmen were reponed to those he had taken from them in England; for which reason the lands of Fawdon in Northumberland, that had belonged to Sir William Douglas before the war first broke out, were now restored to Sir James Douglas, his son;" Foedera, T. iv. p. 384. Thus Abercrombie, thinking to do honour to his native country, has mistaken the plain import of the grant to Sir James Douglas, and has represented the treaty of Northampton as a treaty partial and unjust. Words cannot be plainer than those in the grant by Edward III. to Douglas; it is a restitution through special favour alone, and, indeed, it is impossible that different rules should have been established with respect to Englishmen in Scotland and Scotsmen in England. Modern historians have enlarged and embellished this article according to their own imaginations, and ancient historians have hardly mentioned it at all. There is some allusion to it in the following passage : "But these Lords, Percy, Wake, Beaumont, and Zouche, wold not agre upon this condition, that the Englischemen should lese such lands as they held by inheritance in Scotland;" Scala Chron. ap. Leland, T. i. p. 552. It is provided by Stat. 7. Parl. i. James III. " That na Englishman have benefice secular or religious within the realme of Scotland, after the forme of the act maid thereupon by King Robert the Bruyse." No such act exists: for c. 24. Robert I. is of a less extensive import; it can hardly be supposed that benefice secular comprehended all land estates. It will be observed, that, by the treaty of Northampton, the King of Scots, in effect, renounced all claim to his paternal inheritances in England. * Henry de Beaumont, in right of his wife, an heir parcener of the Earl of Buchan. Thomas Lord Wake of Ledel or Lidel,. was proprietor of that lordship. Henry de Percy had possessions in Galloway and Angus. The lands of Vere in Galloway 97 Foedera, iv. 461. VIII. Johanna, sister of the King of England, shall be given in marriage to David, the son and heir of the King of Scots. 98 IX. The King of Scots shall provide the Princess Johanna in a jointure of £.2000 yearly, secured on land and rents, according to a reasonable estimation.* X. If either of the parties fail in performing the conditions of this treaty, he shall pay 2000 pounds of silver to the Papal treasury.99 Such appear to have been the chief articles of a treaty, honourable for the Scots, and necessary for England. The English historians, indeed, term the peace of Northampton ignominious, and the marriage of the Princess Johanna, that base marriage; because, on that occasion, Edward III. renounced a claim of superiority which the bloody and ruinous wars of full twenty years had in vain attempted to establish. They who censure pacific measures, are generally persons exempted by their condition from the and of Redcastle in Angus were his property. These lands formerly belonged to Henry de Balliol; they descended to his daughter and heir Constance, and from her to her son Henry de Fishburn, who sold them to Percy. Dugdale, T. i. p. 273. I have doubts as to the word Vere, which is in Dugdale. For further particulars, see Dugdale, articles Beaumont, Wake, and Percy. * “ Duo millia libratarum terrae et redditûs per annum, per rationabilem extentam;" Foedera, T. iv. p. 354. We may presume that the neat yearly produce would be ascertained by an inquest, and this would produce a new extent of great part of the crown-lands and rents. VOL. II. 98 Foedera, iv. 354. 99 Knyghton, 2560, L toils and dangers, and intolerable expense of war. No peace is ever adequate to the sanguine expесtations of the vulgar: And, through some strange fatality, the expectations of the vulgar are no less sanguine after a long series of disasters, than after the most signal and uninterrupted success. There were many causes which concurred to render the peace of Northampton necessary. England, at that period, was miserably divided by factions, under the dominion of a youth of sixteen, and, through the prodigality of the former reign, so impoverished, as hardly to be capable of paying for the feeble aid obtained from foreign mercenaries.* There were no able and experienced commanders to oppose against Bruce, Randolph, and Douglas: And, however harsh it may now sound, it is acknowledged by the ancient English historians, that, in the course of a twenty years war, the spirit of Scotland had attained an astonishing ascendant over the English. That motives of private interest, also, induced Queen Isabella and Mortimer to precipitate a peace with Scotland, will not be denied. All the misfortunes which might have ensued in the prosecution of the war, would have been ascribed to the errors of their administration, while Edward alone would have reaped the glory of any successful en * Of the 14,000 merks due by treaty to John of Hainault, the first moiety was not discharged before the end of June 1328. Foedera, T. iv. p. 357. The other moiety was advanced by some Florentine merchants, and Edward III. bestowed a gratuity of two thousand pounds on them for their good services, (25th May 1329). Foedera, T. iv. p. 387. terprise: And, indeed, a young King, if bred up in camps, and constantly surrounded by his barons, could not have been long detained in a state of tutelage favourable to the ambition of Isabella and Mortimer. Fortunate it is for a nation, when the selfish views of its rulers chance to coincide with the public interest. In consequence of the treaty of Northampton, David, Prince of Scotland, married Johanna, the daughter of Edward II. (at Berwick, 12th July). 1329. I Robert Bruce, the restorer of the Scottish monarchy, departed this life (at Cardross, 7th June 1329).* He had long laboured under an inveterate disease, which, in those days, was termed a leprosy.* He died at the age of 55. His remains were interred, near those of his consort, in the middle of the choir at Dunfermline.3 Bruce, in his last hours, requested Douglas, his old and faithful companion in arms, to repair with his heart to Jerusalem, and humbly to deposit it at the sepulchre of our Lord.++ "* Lepra percussus;" W. Heming ford, T. ii. p. 270. " Chargé de la grosse maladie ce disoit-on;" Froissart, T. i. 24. † Edward III. granted a passport to Sir James Douglas on his journey: " Versus Terram Sanctam in auxilium Christianorum contra Saracenos, cum corde Domini R. Regis Scotiae nuper defuncti," (1st September 1329); Foedera, T. iv. p. 400. Hemingford, ii. 269. 3 Fordun, xiii. 14. 2 Hemingford, ii, 270. 4 Barbour, 427. Some authors ascribe this request to motives of policy, and observe, that although Douglas and Randolph had hitherto harmoniously exerted their abilities in the public cause under their common sovereign, yet that, after his death, emulation and dissensions might possibly have arisen between those high-spirited men, who were equal in merit and popularity; and, therefore, that, to remove Douglas from Scotland, was a judicious contrivance for obviating the evils apprehended. Nevertheless, when we recollect the notions of those times, it is not improbable that Bruce had indeed resolved to carry his arms into Palestine, and, by honourable and meritorious service against the Saracens, to complete his military glories, and make expiation for all his offences, and that now, disappointed of this hope, he requested Douglas to convey his heart to Jerusalem, as a testimony to the Christian world of his penitence, faith, and zeal. Robert I. married Isabella, the daughter of Donald, tenth Earl of Marre.5 By her he had issue a daughter, Marjory, married to Walter the Stewart of Scotland. His second wife was Elizabeth, the daughter of Aymer de Burgh Earl of Ulster. By her he had issue David II.; Margaret, married to William Earl of Sutherland; * Matildis, married * She had a son, John, who died in England; Foedera, T. v. p. 724. Fordun, L. ix. c. 13. L. xiv. c. 25. Fordun says, That the Countess of Sutherland died soon after the birth of her son: " Mater post partum statim ex hac luce migravit." 5 Fordun, xii. 23. Charter of Sutherland, 14th October 1347. Crawfurd, Peerage, 72.377. |