584 



SCOTLAND. 



History. 



A. D. 1221. 



A. D, 1229. 



A. D.I 239. 



A. D. 1244. 

 A. D.I 249. 



A.D.1249 



A. D, 1251. 



A. D.I 256. 



A.D.126^. 



A- D. 1263. 



who had engaged to support them. The confederates 

 had pledged themselves not to make a separate peace ; 

 but the French having suffered a defeat at Lincoln, 

 deserted their allies. The Scots were consequently 

 compelled to retreat, and to seek reconciliation with 

 the see of Rome. The papal legate was appointed 

 arbiter of the differences between the Scots and Eng- 

 lish ; and the king of Scots married Joan, Henry's 

 sister. 



An insurrection in Argyll led the king thither with 

 an army. The rebels purchased forgiveness, and gave 

 hostages. Several of their leaders, despairing of par- 

 don, fled from the king's resentment. About the 

 same time, the bishop of Caithness was murdered and 

 burnt by the men of his diocese, for exacting his 

 tithes. Moray also again became the scene of tumult. 

 Gillespie burned some castles, and fired Inverness. 

 He at first successfully resisted the king ; but he was 

 afterwards defeated and slain by Buchan, the justicia- 

 ry of Scotland. 



The Galloway men burst into Scotland, and in 

 leading an army against them, the king had nearly 

 perished in a morass. The insurgents were reduced, 

 and peace was restored. Alexander's queen having 

 died, he married Mary, the daughter of a baron of Pi- 

 cardy. She bore him a son, who was named Alexan- 

 der. A war was nearly kindled between the Scots 

 and English. Alexander marched to the borders with 

 an army of 100,000 men. 



The king died in Kerrera, in the fifty- first year of 

 his age, and the thirty- fifth of his reign, while medi- 

 tating an expedition against the Norwegian power in 

 the Western isles j and he was interred in the abbey of 

 Mel rose. 



Alexander lie Third was only eight years of age 

 when he succeeded his father. Some of the Scottish 

 counsellors objected against his coronation ; but Wil- 

 liam Comyn, earl of Menteith, represented the danger 

 of a delay, as the king of England had solicited a man- 

 date from the Pope, declaring, that Alexander, being 

 his liegeman, ought not to be anointed or crowned 

 without his permission. On this occasion, a highland 

 bard, dressed in a scarlet robe, repeated on his knees, 

 in the Gaelic language, the genealogy of Alexander 

 from Fergus the first king of Scotland. The king had 

 been betrothed, when an infant, to the princess Mar- 

 garet of England. Their nuptials were now celebrated 

 at York, and Alexander did homage to Henry for his 

 English possessions. The latter insidiously demanded 

 homage for the kingdom of Scotland ; but the king 

 replied, " that he had been invited to York to marry 

 the princess of England, not to treat of affairs of state, 

 and that he would not take so important a step with- 

 out the concurrence of the national council." 



Alexander and his queen visited London, where 

 Henry renewed to his son-in-law the grant of the hon- 

 our of Huntingdon. Another change of the regency 

 took place. A new one, comprehending a mixture of 

 the contending factions, was formed, which restored 

 tranquillity. The king and queen of Scots again vi- 

 sited London. To calm the apprehensions of their 

 subjects, Henry made oath that he would not, contrary 

 to their inclination, detain either the king, the queen, 

 or their children, should they have issue during their 

 stay. The young queen soon after bore Alexander a 

 daughter, who was named Margaret. 



Haco, king of Norway, threatened Scotland with an 

 invasion ; to prevent which, the king of England in- 

 terposed his offices. Iq the succeeding year, the Nor- 

 6 



wegians landed at Largo in Cunningham. The Scots History. 

 attacked them. Their fleet was dispersed and shat- ~-~~<~~~' 

 tered by a storm, and Haco having returned to Orkney, A. D. J26i>. 

 died. Magnus, the successor of Haco, consented to 

 relinquish the Western islands with all his rights and 

 claims, in consideration of four thousand merks, and a 

 yearly tribute of one hundred. The Scandinavian in- 

 habitants were allowed to leave the island, with their 

 effects. The Orkney and Shetland remained to Nor- 

 way. From this period, Alexander was employed for 

 several years in maintaining the independence of the 

 Scottish church against the pretensions of the Pope, 

 and in restraining the encroachments of the clergy. 



Events followed in rapid succession, which ultimate- 

 ly involved the nation in a civil war. Within one 

 year, Alexander the prince of Scotland, and his sister 

 Margaret, who had been married to Eric, king of Nor- 

 way, died. The prince had no issue. Margaret left 

 an only daughter, Margaret, commonly called the 

 maiden of Norway. 



Alexander assembled a parliament, in order to settle 

 the succession to the crown. The nobles solemnly 

 bound themselves to acknowledge Margaret of Norway 

 as their sovereign, and Alexander married Joleta, 

 daughter of the Count de Dreux. Scarcely had the 

 nuptial festivities ceased, when the king was thrown 

 from his horse over a precipice, and instantly killed, 

 in the forty- fifth year of his age, and the thirty-seventh 

 of his reign. 



Margaret. In consequence of the absence and in- A.D. 1386. 

 fancy of the maiden of Norway, the parliament ap- 

 pointed a regency of six ; the bishop of St. Andrews, 

 with the earls of Fife and Buchan, were elected for 

 the administration of the counties north of the Forth ; 

 while the bishop of Glasgow, John Comyn, lord of 

 Badenoch, and James the steward of Scotland, were 

 intrusted with the government of the districts south of 

 that boundary. The earl of Fife was murdered; his A.D. 1280. 

 colleague, the earl of Buchan, died ; dissensions im 

 mediately arose among the remaining four, but Eric, 

 king of Norway, interposed, and sent plenipotentiaries 

 to treat with Edward concerning the affairs of the in- 

 fant queen and her kingdom. 



That monarch had already formed the project of 

 marrying his son to the young princess, but the king 

 of Norway hesitated to yield up his only child. Mean- 

 while Edward busied himself to obtain possession of A. D. 1 290. 

 the Scottish fortresses, and while the guardians of the 

 kingdom were preparing to receive their sovereign, 

 the prospect of an alliance between the two nations 

 was overthrown. The young queen sailed from Nor- 

 way, landed in Orkney, and died. 



The progeny of Alexander was now extinct ; the 

 regency was superseded ; and the tie that united Eng- 

 land and Scotland was broken. The nation had looked 

 to the descendants of Alexander. The families who 

 were connected with royalty, secretly prepared to 

 assert their several rights ; the nobles formed into 

 factions ; and the nation anticipated a civil war. 



An Interregnum. The posterity of William the 

 Lion having become extinct by the death of the prin- 

 cess Margaret, the right of succession reverted to Da- 

 vid, earl of Huntingdon, and to the posterity of his 

 daughters, Margaret, Isabella, and Adam a. Margaret 

 left one daughter, married to John Baliol, by whom 

 she had a son of the same name ; Isabella, the second 

 sister, had a son, Robert Bruce ; Adama was the mo- 

 ther of John Hastings. 



There appeared no fewer than thirteen competitors 







