44§ A. D. 1286. 



The general opulence of Scotland appears from the refpedable public 

 revenue, the prodigious fums fqueezed out of it by the papal extortion- 

 ers, which the temper of the age did not permit the wifdom of the king 

 entirely to prohibit, and the great opulence of the king himfelf, as he 

 has never been branded with oppreflion or avarice, who fairly purchaf- 

 ed with his money the vaflal kingdom of Mann and the Iflands, bought 

 many eftates and wardfliips in England*, and gave Eric king of Nor- 

 way a marriage portion of 14,000 marks with his daughter, referving 

 to himfelf an option of giving a life-rent of lands of the annual value 

 of 700 marks as an equivalent for half the fum f . In fhort, it is evi- 

 dent, that Scotland during the reigns of the three lafl fovereigns of the 

 antient race, and particularly during the peaceable and aufpicious reign 

 of Alexander III, was in a progreffive ftate of improvement, and pof- 

 fefled a much larger proportion of the wealth of great Britain than^it 

 has ever had in any fubfequent time. But the premature and fudden 

 death of the king (16'" March 1286), followed by that of Queen Mar- 

 garet his infant grand-daughter (September 1290J, and the fanguinary 

 convuliions which enfued, changed all this fun-fhine of national prof- 

 perity into a long night of w^arfare and devaftation, the calamitous con- 

 fequences of which have been felt almofl to the pretent day. 



1288 — Though the power of Edward was much greater and his go- 

 vernment much more vigorous than what the Englifh had been accul- 

 tomed to for almoft a century, they were not fufficient to give full effect 

 to his laws, efpecially the late one for enforcing precautions againft rob- 

 bery. A powerful gang of banditti in the habits of monks and canons 

 fet fire to the populous commercial town of Bofton on the day appoint- 

 ed for a fair and a tourneament, murdered many of the merchants, who 

 were endeavouring to fave their property, and during the confufion flole 

 prodigious quantities of rich merchandize, which their accomplices re- 

 ceived from them, and immediately carried off. The fire made fuch 

 deftrudion of the pretious articles brought to the fair, that flreams of 

 melted gold, filver, and copper, were faid, in the exaggeration of popu- 

 lar report, to run down even into the fea, and all the money in England 

 was fuppofed infa/Ecitnt to make good the damage. The captain of 

 the gang, a warrior of great reputation, and owner of many houfes in 

 Bofton and of much ill-gotten wealth, was taken and hanged ; but, ad- 



kod held lands in Gleiielg by the fcrvice of finding * Sec above, ^/. 416, 425. — M. Puns, pp. 54c, 



one of iwenty-fix oars ; and Torkil Macleod, for 573, 723, &c. — Dugilale's Baromi^c, F. i, pp. (•$, 



lands in AfTynt, was to find one of twenty oars, 769 Ryli'y, Plac. purl. />. 345. 



when rtquirtd, as appears by charters of David II. \ Tlic annuity on tlie life of Margaret, then in 



{R'lbn-'fun's Index, p. 100.] All thefe were pro- her twenty-firil year, was thus valued at ten years 



bably renovations of charters, granted by Alexan- purchafe. Seethe contraft of marriai;c in FaJcru, 



derlll upon afTuming the fovereigiity of the idands y. ii, p. 1079. E""'^" ^^''^ P"' '" poileflion of the 



for the fake of fecuring the loyalty of the chiefs of lands, apparently the fame which were afterwards 



the vvcflern coall, who had mncli llrongcr coniiec- given with King Robert's daughter. 



tions with the Noi wegians than with the Scots. 4 



