158 Trananctions. 



tions of tlie charters — these are decisive to show that Annan, 

 usually denominated a " vill " or minor town, was before the last 

 decade of the 1 3th century of very respectable size and import- 

 ance. But, will be asked, was it a " burgh " — that word so 

 complex in meanings, and so hard* to define 1 Botli Annan and 

 Lochmaben were called " bui'ghs " in 1296, although under 

 circumstancest apparently implying that royal burgiis they were 

 not. The rents of them tiien belonged to Krus, not to the Crown. 

 Their tenure seemingly was from Brus, not from the king. 

 Still, Annan must have been a goodly town when the iir.st bi'unt 

 of warfare fell upon it. Then the clouds darkened over its fair 

 prospect of progress — clouds which, save for a brief interval, were 

 not to lift for long. With this outlook, ends tlie first period of 

 Annan's history, its epoch of peace. 



VI. The heginuiny of the War (1295). 

 Symptoms of coming tribulation manifested themselves before 

 hostilities began. Robert de Brus, Lord of Annandale, and father 

 of the future king, occupied an ambiguous position. He had 

 hopes from the English King, and self-interest did not in those 

 days help a man to be a patriot. In the national crisis when the 

 stern Plantagenet was on his way north, the Scots Parliament 

 declared that not only the partisans of England, but also all 

 time-servers and neutrals, were public enemies and traitors. Their 

 lands accordingly were confiscated. Brus maintained liis attitude 

 of neutrality, and therefore suft'ered the tiireatened penalty. 

 When the conqueror of Wales was on the march for Scotland, it 

 was no time for patriotic Scotsmen to stand upon ceremony 

 regarding the formality of a confiscation. Annandale was 

 granted to John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, who took possession of 

 Lochmaben Castle. Walter of Hemingburgh, an early English 

 histoi'ian, was a canon of Guisbrough. As we liave seen, the, 

 teinds of several Annandale parishes, including Annan, belonged 

 to his monastery. He tells that Buchan entered into possession 

 of the Brus's lands ;| and he adds, with a special personal interest 

 in the matter, that " he caused to be carried off and forcibly 

 retained without payment all our teinds of said lands for the 

 munition of Lochmaben." 



* Pollock and Maitland's History of Emjliah Law, i. 653. 



■\BaMa Calendar, ii., 82U. 



XWalter of Hemingburgh (Bug. Hiat. Soc. ) p. 90. 



