Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/512

Rh 490 SCOTLAND [HISTORY. 1365-1390. went on till 1365, when a truce for four years was agreed to. Edward and David latterly devised schemes for pay- ment by another process, the transfer of the crown at David's death to an English prince. At the parliament of Scone David proposed that Lionel, duke of Clarence, should be recognized as his heir ; but the estates replied with one voice that no Englishman should rule Scotland, and renewed the settlement of the succession by Bruce on Robert the Steward. Hatred of foreign aggression and the weakness of the king enabled the Scottish barons to play a part similar to that taken by the nobles of England in the reigns of John and Henry III., and obtain guarantees for the constitution by limiting the monarchy. Such was probably the origin of the committees of parliament (at a later date turned to an opposite use) for legislation and for judicial business which first appear in 1367, the statutes for the more regular administration of justice, purity of the coinage, and the revocation of the grants of royal revenues and estates. It was expressly declared that no attention was to be paid to the royal mandate when contrary to law. About this period David entered into a secret agreement with Edward, promising in return for a remission of the ransom to settle the crown on him failing heirs of his own body, but the public negotiations for its payment went on. In the same year his marriage with his second wife, Margaret Logie, a daughter of Drummond, a lesser baron, led to a revolt. He quelled it and threw the steward and at least one of his sons into prison, making lavish grants to Margaret and her relatives. Her influence did not last long, as she was supplanted in the king's favour by Agnes of Dunbar. Margaret was divorced by the Scottish bishops, for what cause is not known, and, though her appeal to the pope succeeded, David did not survive the decision. He died on 21st February 1370, childless, and the succession opened to Robert, son of Bruce's daughter Marjory, the first of the Stuarts who were to govern Scotland for the next two centuries. 6. House of Stuart from Robert II. to James IV. The descent of the house of Stuart is traced from Walter Fitz- Alan, a Norman, steward of David I. His estates were in Renfrew, to which Alexander, the fourth steward, added Bute by marriage. Walter, the sixth steward, was scarcely one of the chief nobles ; but his prowess in the War of In- dependence gained him the hand of the daughter of Bruce. Robert II. was their only son. Such was the prosperous record of the family before it ascended the throne. Its subsequent history presents a series of tragedies of which that of Mary Stuart is only one, though the most famous. While the fate of kings excites the imagination, history must trace the growth of the nation and the slow changes which transformed the bulk of the Scottish people from loyal subjects to bitter enemies of their native kings and its kings from patriots to tyrants. Robert Robert II. (1 370-90), already fifty-four, continued rather n> than commenced his government on the death of David II., for he had been twice regent during David's exile and cap- tivity. He did not ascend the throne without opposition, but the memory of Bruce was too fresh to admit of his settlement being put aside. The earl of Douglas, whose great estates on the border made him more formidable as a competitor than his claim by descent from a daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon, was conciliated by the mar- riage of the king's daughter Isabella to his son and by his own appointment as justiciar south of the Forth and warden of the eastern marches. This impediment removed, the coronation proceeded, and it was followed by a public de- claration of the settlement of the crown on Robert's son John, earl of Carrick, at his father's death. A still more explicit settlement was made two years afterwards on the king's sons by his first marriage with Elizabeth More, John earl of Carrick, Robert earl of Fife, and Alexander lord of Badenoch ; and failing them on those of his second with Euphemia Ross, David earl of Strathearn and Walter his brother. A question as to the legitimacy of the children by Elizabeth More rendered this declaration necessary. The first fourteen years of Robert's reign passed with scarcely anything worthy of record. The king, whose portrait is drawn by Froissart as a man "not valiant, with red bleared eyes, who would rather lie still than ride," left the cares of government to his sons, especially the second. England, after the death of Edward III. (1377), was occupied with the necessary arrangements for a new reign and with the rising of Wat Tyler (1381). The absence of any movement in Scotland similar to this or the French Jacquerie perhaps indicates a better relation between the peasantry and the upper classes ; but a third estate of the commons was as yet unknown in Scotland. John of Gaunt, who had invaded Scotland the year before, now took refuge, there and was hospitably received in Edinburgh till the young Richard II., by putting down the rising, made it safe for him to return. This visit led to the first entrance into the northern kingdom of the principles of Wickliffe and the Lollards, whom Gaunt favoured. The French, still anxious to incite the Scots to attack England, sent a small party of free lances, who landed at Montrose and were allowed to make a raid on their own account. They were followed by John de Vienne with 1000 men-at-arms and many followers. 1 The licence of the French knights did not promote good feeling ; but the interest of the two countries prevented a rupture. After the French left the Scots made another raid into Northumberland, in retaliation for an expedition in which Richard II. wasted the Lothians. Three years later, under the earl of Douglas, they attacked Newcastle, but were repulsed by Henry Percy, who, true to his name of Hotspur, in order to recover his pennon, pursued them to near Redes- dale, about 20 miles from their own border, and fought the battle of Otterburn (1388). Douglas himself fell, but the victory went to the dead man, for young Percy and his brother were taken captive, and the bishop of Duihani would not venture to intercept the retreat of the Scots. In 1388, Robert's inactivity increasing and his son the earl of Carrick being disabled by a kick from a horse, the earl of Fife was chosen regent by the estates under condtion of annually accounting to them for his administration. In April 1390 his father died. His prosperous reign rither than any personal quality except an easy disposition giined Robert the praise of Wyntoun, who, writing unde - his son, prays God to give him grace " To govern and uphold the land In na war state nor he it fand, For quhen his fadyr erdyt was Of Scotland was na part of land Out of Scottys niennys hand, Outwith Berwick, Roxburgh, and Jedburgh. " This prayer was only partially fulfilled. The Engliih did not acquire more of Scotland, but the border war wis not so successful, and the royal house was the scene of tragic events which threatened to change the order of sucession. Robert III. (1390-1406) for under that name tie earl Robert of Carrick was crowned to avoid the hated name c John HI- 1 Froissart gives a vivid account of the poverty of the cou try and the rudeness of its people. "The people set little upon thcdistinc- tion of their houses and said shortly how with three or four pies they would make them again. Edinburgh, though the king kept here his chief residence and it is Paris in Scotland, is not like Tourna or Val- enciennes, for in all the town there are not 4000 houses." die men Vienne brought with him had to be lodged in Dunfermline, KIso, Dal- keith, Dunbar. On his return he was asked by the young kin Charles VI. how he fared ; he said he had rather be count of Savoy or Artois than king of Scotland.