POLITICAL HISTORY 



Laws of the Marches, 1 that regulated the intercourse of the inhabitants 

 of the Border shires of the two kingdoms. It should be remembered 

 that these laws were not formulated at random or enacted to meet the 

 requirements of the Border as they existed at that period. It was the 

 task of the jurors to find out the customs that had prevailed ab antiquo, 

 and to codify them into a system. This great statute, which eventually 

 became the basis of international law for the people on both sides of the 

 frontier, had its roots in the distant past, and played an important part 

 in the regulation of the political and civil life of Cumberland for several 

 centuries. 



Everything seemed to promise a continuance of the happy relations 

 between the two kingdoms when Edward I. ascended the throne. King 

 Alexander attended his coronation and did homage for the estates he 

 held in England." Edward's first visit to Cumberland after his accession 

 was made in September 1280, when he stayed at Carlisle, visited the 

 priory of Lanercost in company with Queen Eleanor, and hunted in 

 Ingkwood Forest. 3 In 1283 the castle of Carlisle was placed in the 

 custody of Robert de Brus, afterwards called the Competitor, who was 

 at the same time made sheriff of the county, both of which positions 

 his father filled under Henry III. 4 International jealousies were to a 

 large extent allayed, and magnates owning lands in both kingdoms were 

 able to take part in local government and perform the civil functions 

 due to their positions without straining their allegiance. But the inter- 

 vention of Edward in the disputes about the succession to the throne of 

 Scotland after the death of the Maid of Norway ruptured the good re- 

 lations between the two countries and eventually led to the War of In- 

 dependence, the full weight of which was to fall on the Border counties. 

 The real troubles began in 1296 when the Earl of Buchan broke into 

 Cumberland and ravaged the county with savage ferocity. In this raid 

 the Scottish army is said to have behaved with unwonted cruelty ; for 

 not being able to seize upon the strong, the soldiers wreaked their ven- 

 geance on the weak, the decrepit and the young ; children of two or 

 three years old they impaled upon lances and threw into the air ; con- 

 secrated churches they burned ; women dedicated to God they ravished 

 and slew. 6 But when they advanced on Carlisle they were repulsed by 

 the citizens with much bravery. There is no need to recite in detail 

 the story of carnage and bloodshed which disgraced the civilization of 

 this gloomy period. Raid followed raid and reprisal provoked reprisal. 

 In 1297 William Wallace, the famous Scottish patriot, after defeating the 

 Earl of Warenne at Stirling, harried Cumberland, leaving burnt home- 



1 The Leges Marchiarum will be found in Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland ( Rec. Com.), i. 413-6. 

 Bishop Nicolson of Carlisle printed them in 1705 from an imperfect text (Leges Marchiarum, 1-9). Rid- 

 path compiled a summary from Nicolson's book (Border History, 138-42). 



1 Close, 2 Edw. I. m. 5 ; Pipe, 2 Edw. I. m. i8d ; Liberate, 3 Edw. I. m. 12. 



8 Chron. de Lanercost (Bann. Club), 105-6 ; Cal. of Close Rolls (1279-88), 61-2 ; Cal. of Pat. Rolls 

 (1272-81), 396-7. 



Q. R. Memoranda, n Edw. I. m. 2d ; Orig. R. 11 Edw. I. m. 8 ; Pat. 39 Hen. III. m. 3. 



5 Chron. de Lanercost (Bann. Club), 174 ; Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii. 94-6. 



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