You have sung well

Following on from yesterday’s post. In 1296 the Bruces supported Edward I’s invasion of Scotland, in the hope that he would put a Bruce on the throne after King John Balliol had been given the Alan Sugar treatment (you’re fired etc).

According to John Fordun, Edward changed his plans due to the influence of Antony Bek, the fighty Bishop of Durham. Fordun recites an exchange between the two:

“If Robert de Bruce were king of Scotland [said Bek], where would Edward, king of England, be? For this Robert is of the noblest stock of all England, and, with him, the kingdom of Scotland is very strong in itself; and, in times gone by, a great deal of mischief has been wrought to the kings of England by those of Scotland.”

Edward answered: “Par le sank Dieu! vous aves bun chante” [“By Christ’s blood” You have sung well. I will change my plans.”]

Fordun has to be taken with a pinch of salt: he was writing much later (1380s) and had little good to say of Edward. Yet his reported dialogue has a touch of veracity, especially Edward’s reply in Norman-French. The Bruce in question was not the victor of Bannockburn, but his grandfather, also known as The Competitor. Edward knew him well: they had fought together against Simon de Montfort in England and in the Holy Land.

Everything we know about the Competitor suggests a devious and forceful character, not the sort of man any king would want for a rival. Yet, If Edward had ignored Bek’s advice and planted the Competitor on the Scottish throne, perhaps things wouldn’t have unravelled quite so spectacularly as they did.

King Caupens

Yesterday I forgot to post on the anniversary of the Battle of Roslin in 1303, so here’s another tidbit from the Wars of Independence.

In the spring of 1304, on his way to reduce the last patriot garrison at Stirling, Edward I was met at Findo Gask in Strathearn by a band of Scottish women. They came not to hurl jibes at the foul tyrant but serenade him. The entry for their payment, by the king’s gift, translates:

“To the seven women who met the king on the road between Gask and Uggelville, and who sang in his presence as they were accustomed to do in the time of Lord Alexander, late King of Scotland, this is as sent as the king’s own gift.”

Possibly the meeting was spontaneous, though a nasty suspicious person like me might see it as a clever bit of PR, cooked up by Edward’s advisers to project his takeover of Scotland as a natural progression from the days of Alexander III. There was, of course, no mention of John Balliol.

Edward was certainly fond of Scottish music, and employed two prominent Scottish musicians at his court. One was James de Cowpen, who first performed for the king at the wedding of his daughter, Princess Joan, to Gilbert de Clare in 1290. James was described as ‘King Caupenny of Scotia, who came to Westminster to the feast of the aforesaid nuptials’. He was paid the considerable sum of 50 shillings, by the king’s gift, for performing as ‘Rex Haraldorum’ or King of Heralds.

These heralds were officials at the court, responsible for organising jousts and tournaments and drawing up lists of knights for muster. They were also employed as messengers and spies. James de Cowpen appeared again at Edward’s court in 1296, after the deposition of John Balliol, and appears frequently in the accounts after that date. He received many gifts of favour from the king, including jewellery and a horse, and his name appears as Jakketus de Scotia, Monsire Capenny, Capigny, Capainy, Capini, Capin and Copyn.

In the last reference, dated 1307, he is “Roy de Copiny, harpour’. In 1306 James travelled north to Lanercost, where he played to the king to soothe the pain of Edward’s final illness. His last payment is dated 13 June 1307, at Carlisle, after which he vanishes. One of his descendants - or a copycat - played for James IV in 1503 under the name ‘Johne de Cowpanis’.

The second musician was Master Elyas, once the personal harper of Alexander III. Edward first heard Elyas play at Westminster in 1278 and awarded him 60 shillings. Elyas transferred his services to Edward after the death of Alexander in 1286, and was afterwards known as the King’s Harper or Master Elyas le Harpur. In 1296 he was granted lands in Perth and Fife, and was probably one of the five Scottish harpers who played for Edward in 1303 at Sandford near Largo Bay in Fife.

Pigs might soar

Sometime over the winter of 1301-2, probably over Christmas, Robert de Bruce submitted to the English. He did so for two reasons. Edward I had agreed to a truce with Philip le Bel, whereby all the castles and land conquered by the English in southwest Scotland would be handed over to French agents. This included Bruce’s castle at Turnberry, and he was not prepared to lose it to the French; technically Philip’s men were supposed to hand everything back when the truce expired, which was about as likely as pigs developing powers of aviation.

There was also the threat of John Balliol. Bruce wanted to be King of Scots, which he couldn’t be if Philip put Balliol back on the Scottish throne. What nobody realised - except possibly Edward’s spymaster, Walter Langton - is that Philip was bluffing. What he really wanted was to remove the threat of Edward sending any more troops to Flanders, and used Balliol and the Scots to that end.

Bruce first made contact with John de St John, Edward’s keeper of Galloway. St John was a relatively decent character for the era, and Bruce may have trusted the man not to play him false. After some cautious initial talks Bruce met with St John at Lochmaben, in the presence of ‘many good people’.

This stuff was too important to be conducted via a mediator, so Bruce probably went to meet Edward in person. They hadn’t seen each other for five years, and there were certain safeguards: the king had to guarantee that Bruce would not be harmed or lose his lands. In exchange Bruce made a show of contrition, though the reality was that both men needed something from each other. The terms they negotiated are vague on the most vital point. If Balliol returned to Scotland, and Edward’s ‘right’ (le droit) to rule the country was reversed - presumably by the pope - Edward would allow Bruce to pursue his ‘right’ in the English court. If the ‘right’ was pursued in some other court, Edward would provide assistance.

Whatever the hell this means has been disputed by historians. Possibly ‘le droit’ referred to the Bruce claim to the throne, which meant Edward promised to set Bruce up as a rival King of Scots to Balliol, with himself as Lord Paramount. Alternatively, the ‘right’ may have amounted to no more than Bruce’s family estates and the earldom of Carrick.

In any case, Bruce’s submission seems to have lifted the old king’s spirits. On 20 January 1302 Edward staged an Arthurian-themed ‘Round Table’ tournament at Falkirk, on the site of his defeat of William Wallace four years earlier. Possibly this was to celebrate Bruce’s return to the fold. Whether or not Bruce competed in the tourney, dressed up as one of King Arthur’s knights, is unknown.

Broken covenants

In August 1301 the English campaign in Scotland ground to a halt, scuppered once again by lack of money and supplies. There were also diplomatic pressures to contend with. Philip le Bel chose this moment to throw his weight behind the Guardians, and sent envoys to treat with the English at Glasgow.

Philip le Bel

The terms discussed expose the weakness of Edward’s position in Scotland at this time. His envoys agreed to a truce with the Scots, to commence on 26 January 1302 and end on 1 November. For the duration of the truce all of the lands and castles which he had taken in southwest Scotland during the summer of 1301 would be placed in the custody of Philip’s agents. When the truce expired, they would be handed back to the English. The Scots, apparently, didn’t get a look-in.

Edward had been burned like this before. In the negotiations over Gascony in 1294, he had agreed to hand over key towns and castles to Philip, who would then return them after a grace period of forty days. Instead the French king simply broke his own covenant and confiscated the duchy.

Now it was happening all over again. Except it wasn’t. Edward wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice, and in the autumn of 1301 drew up new indentures for the supply of his garrisons in southwest Scotland. Massive purveyances of food were ordered from England and Ireland for the garrisons of Dumfries, Lochmaben and Ayr. This would not have happened if the English king meant to hand over his recent conquests to the French. Thus the peace talks at Glasgow were so much hot air: if Philip wanted those castles, he would have to send a French army to Scotland to take them.

Robert de Bruce

Everyone, the Scots included, must have been aware of Philip’s past behaviour, and that there was zero chance he would honour the terms of any truce. He may have toyed with the idea of turning Scotland into a permanent outpost of France. This idea had been suggested to him by the English traitor, Thomas Turberville, in 1295. In a secret letter to the French king, Tuberville advised him to send men to Scotland:

"Wherefore I counsel you forthwith to send great persons into Scotland; for if you can enter therein, you will have gained it for ever."

Another who had cause for concern was Robert de Bruce. To pile pressure on Edward, Philip dangled the threat of John Balliol’s return to Scotland. If this happened, it could spell the end of Bruce’s ambitions as well as Edward’s. As the English and French diplomats cut and parried at each other in Glasgow, Brucie had much to ponder.