CHAPTER X.

STIRLING CASTLE IN POETRY.

It was Nathaniel Hawthorne who said that it takes a great deal of history to make a little poetry. The record of Stirling Castle bears out this remark, although it might be maintained also that in the case of the grey bulwark overlooking the River Forth a great deal of history has oppressed and has tended to silence the sensitive Muse of Poesy. The ancient fortress has been mentioned in verses composed in different ages, but the romance and magic of the storied spot remained unrevealed by rhyming chronicler or bard until Scott wrote _The Lady of the Lake_.

Scotland is a country rich in ballad literature, and although nearly every part of the kingdom has produced folk-poems of merit, the Borders and Aberdeenshire have been the most prolific districts. The Forth, that “bridles the wild Highlandman” and that has upon its bank a famous castle-palace, cannot vie in minstrelsy with less important streams, such as the Yarrow and the Don.

The well-known ballad of “Young Waters,” however, takes for its theme a Stirling episode. It seems to commemorate the death of Murdoch Duke of Albany’s eldest son, Walter, who was executed on the Heading Hill in 1425 by order of James I. Ballads cannot be relied upon to adhere to the facts of a case. In course of transmission from mouth to mouth they acquire a more and more romantic cast, and romance does not always agree with sober history. The Walter Stewart known to historians was condemned to death by a jury of barons for the crime of robbery or brigandage; but the ballad of “Young Waters” assigns the jealousy of the King as the cause of its hero’s execution.

YOUNG WATERS.

About Yule when the wind blew cool, And the round tables began, O, there is come to our king’s court Mony a well-favoured man.

The queen looked o’er the castle wa’, Beheld baith dale and down, And there she saw young Waters Come riding to the town.

* * * * *

Out then spake a wily lord, And to the queen said he: “O, tell me, wha’s the fairest face Rides in the company?”

“I’ve seen lord, and I’ve seen laird, And knights of high degree; But a fairer face than young Waters’ Mine een did never see.”

Out then spake the jealous king, And an angry man was he: “O, if he had been twice as fair, You might have excepted me.”

“You’re neither laird nor lord,” she says, “But the king that wears the crown; There is no knight in fair Scotland, But to thee maun bow down.”

For a’ that she could do or say, Appeased he wouldna be: And for the words which she had said, Young Waters he maun die.

They ha’e ta’en young Waters, Put fetters to his feet; They ha’e ta’en young Waters, And thrown him in dungeon deep.

“Aft ha’e I ridden through Stirling town In the wind baith and the weet; But I ne’er rade through Stirling town Wi’ fetters at my feet.

“Aft ha’e I ridden through Stirling town In the wind baith and the rain; But I ne’er rade through Stirling town Ne’er to return again.”

They ha’e ta’en to the Heading Hill His young son in his cradle; And they ha’e ta’en to the Heading Hill His horse baith and his saddle.

They ha’e ta’en to the Heading Hill His lady fair to see; And for the words the queen had spoke Young Waters he did die.

The slaughter of the Earl of Douglas by his sovereign has not been commemorated in any ballad, although the Douglas execution at Edinburgh formed the subject of some verses, of which only one has survived:

“Edinburgh Castle town and toure God grant thou sink for sin, And that even for the black dinnour Erl Douglas gat therein.”

The Stirling victim, however, was not an innocent sufferer, as were the youths who perished in Dunedin. In a sense he deserved his fate, for his plans of treachery to the Crown were deeply laid. His well-known guilt no doubt silenced the bards, even those of his own house; for while they could wax indignant and eloquent at the cruel treatment meted out to harmless boys, they could not sound the praises of one who, though wronged, was himself an evil-doer.

The rhyming chronicles dealing with Stirling Castle, although less worthy of being classed as poetry than “Young Waters,” keep truer to history than that ballad. The plain style of Langtoft, an English writer who lived at the time of the War of Independence, may be seen from two of his lines referring to the siege of 1304:

“Thrittene grete engynes, of alle the reame the best, Brouht thei to Striuelyne, the castelle doun to kest.”

Wyntoun, the Scottish chronicler, who wrote in the early fourteenth century, tells his tale in an equally straightforward manner. Stirling comes under his notice many times, and in speaking of Robert the Steward’s siege he says:

“The Wardane than fra Perth is gane To Stryvelyne wyth off his ost ilkane, That castelle till assege stowtly....

* * * * *

The Wardane has this castelle tane, A wycht hows made off lyme and stane, And set in till sa stythe a place That rycht wycht off it-selff it was.”

John Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, comes, as regards time, between Langtoft and Wyntoun; but he was no mere chronicler, he was a great epic poet. In his day there were men still alive who had fought under Robert I., and from the lips of some of those warriors he learnt the particulars of many of the incidents presented in his poem, _The Brus_. Barbour is at his best in battle scenes, which he describes with clearness and power, and in those deft touches by which he reveals the characteristics of the hero and his companions. As the Battle of Bannockburn was the greatest event in Bruce’s life, and as the determination of two peoples to possess the Castle of Stirling was the cause of the mighty conflict, it cannot be said that the poem does not deal with Scotland’s principal fortress. Yet the references to the coveted stronghold do no more than explain the story; they are neither descriptions of the place nor accounts of its previous history. Edward Bruce’s siege, which brought about the battle, is of course mentioned in the poem:

“Till Strevilling syne the vay he tais, Quhar gud schir Philip the Mowbra, That wes full douchty at assay, Wes vardane, and had in keping That castell of the Yngliss kyng.”

When the day is lost to England, Edward II. flees to the castle:

“Bot Philip the Mowbra said him till ‘The castell, schir, is at your will; Bot, cum ye in it, ye sall see That ye sall soyne assegit be.’”

To be judged fairly, Barbour must be read at great length, but a few lines from his account of Bruce’s duel with De Bohun may serve as an example of his spirited style:

“Schir Henry myssit the nobill Kyng; And he, that in his sterapis stude, With an ax bath hard and gude With sa gret mayn roucht hym ane dynt, That nouthir hat no helme mycht stint The hevy dusche that he him gaf, That he the head till harnyss claf.”

Blind Harry, who collected traditions about Wallace and wove them into a poem in the days of James III., could not help referring to Stirling Castle; but his lines on the subject are not more interesting than Barbour’s, and his work as a whole is inferior to that of his predecessor in the field of patriotic poetry.

It is difficult to believe that a Scottish poet could use hard words when writing of Stirling; yet when it suited him, William Dunbar could pen vindictive lines on the place. It was indeed the town more than the castle that roused the “makar’s” displeasure, but the royal dwelling cannot be held to be exempt from the general condemnation. It must, however, be remembered that this dirge which Dunbar addressed to James IV. was composed for a special purpose; the poet’s real opinion of Stirling was probably on the whole a favourable one, just as his love for Edinburgh, expressed in this same work, seemed to turn to hatred when he wrote his satire on the capital. James, in one of his penitential moods, had gone to pray with the Observantine Friars at Stirling; consequently the Court at Holyrood grew dull, and Dunbar felt the dreariness as much as the nobles and ladies. As time went on, and the King continued to remain in seclusion, the court-poet, to relieve his feelings, wrote his “Dregy” or dirge, of which some of the lines are as follows:

“We that ar heir in hevins glory, To you that ar in purgatory, Commendis ws on our hairtly wyiss; I mene we folk in parradyis, In Edinburcht with all mirriness, To yow of Striuilling in distress, Quhair nowdir plesance nor delyt is For pety thus are Apostill wrytis.

* * * * *

“And all the hevinly court devyne, Sone bring yow fra the pyne and wo Of Striuilling, every court-manis fo, Againe to Edinburghis ioy and bliss, Quhair wirschep, welth and weilfar is, Pley, plesance and eik honesty; Say ye amen, for cheritie.”

Dunbar has another poem dealing with Stirling called “Ane Ballat of the Fenzeit Freir of Tungland.” The subject of this set of verses is the foreigner John Damian, who imposed in many ways on the credulity of James IV. The experiment in flying, spoken of in an earlier chapter, is made fun of by the poet, and although he does not mention Stirling in his account of the impostor’s attempted flight, it is known that the castle was the scene of the exploit. By stating that the poem records the happenings of a dream, Dunbar leaves himself free to indulge his taste for exaggeration. The following are the last three verses of the ballad:

“He tore his feedreme[100] that was schene, And slippit owt of it full clene, And in a myre, up to the ene, Amang the glar did glyd. The fowlis at all the feathers dang, As at a monster thame amang, Quhill all the pennis of it owsprang In till the air full wyde.

“And he lay at the plunge evirmair, Sa lang as any ravin did rair; The crawis him socht with cryis of cair In every schaw besyde. Had he reveild bene to the rukis, They had him revin all with thair clukis: Thre dayis in dub amang the dukis He did with dirt him hyde.

“The air was dirkit with the fowlis, That come with yawmeris and with yowlis, With skryking, skrymming and with scowlis, To tak him in the tyde. I walknit with the noyis and schowte, So hiddowis beir was me abowte; Sensyne I curss that cankerit rowte Quhairevir I go or ryde.”

To Dunbar’s younger contemporary, Sir David Lyndsay, Stirling was not “every court-manis fo,” but was the ideal place of residence in which to spend the summer months. The words which he put into the mouth of James V.’s “papyngo” or parrot were doubtless in agreement with the poet’s own views:

“Adew, fair Snawdoun! with thy touris hie, Thy Chapell Royall, park and tabyll rounde! May, June and July walde I dwell in thee, War I ane man, to heir the birdis sounde, Quhilk doith agane thy royall roche resounde.”

Lyndsay knew Stirling well, for he was principal attendant upon young James V.:

“Thy purs master and secreit Thesaurare, Thy Yschare, aye sen thy natyvitie, And of thy chalmer cheiffe Cubiculare.”

And as Stirling was the home of the King’s boyhood, it was in the castle that the usher romped with his royal charge and for his amusement played upon the lute:

“Quhow, as ane chapman beris his pak, I bure thy Grace upon my back, And sumtymes, stridlingis on my nek, Dansand with mony bend and bek, The first sillabis that thow did mute Was PA, DA LYN, upon the lute.”

Pleasing pictures Lyndsay gives in “The Dreme” and in “The Complaynt to the King” of this happy comradeship with the boy sovereign. In after years, when he was free from the Douglas tutelage, James rewarded his old companion by bestowing upon him the honour of knighthood and making him Chief Herald, or Lord Lyon King of Arms.

Stirling Castle, when Sir David Lyndsay knew it, was a pile of stately buildings and the home of a gay Court. Two-and-a-half centuries later, when Robert Burns visited Stirling, the ancient seat of kings, long deserted by its royal owners, was tumbling fast into ruins. Carried away by anger at the neglected state of the castle, the poet broke out into these lines, which he scratched on the window-pane of an inn at Stirling:

“Here Stuarts once in glory reigned, And laws for Scotland’s weal ordained; But now unroofed their palace stands, Their sceptre’s sway’d by other hands. The injured Stuart line is gone, A race outlandish fills their throne-- An idiot race to honour lost: Who know them best despise them most.”

Burns afterwards felt that his words were too severe, and so, when he returned to Stirling, he broke the inscribed pane of glass. He was too late, however, to prevent the lines from being circulated far and wide.

Burns’s junior contemporary, James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, could not refrain from breaking out into verse in praise of Stirling Castle:

“Old Strevline.... ... I love thee more For the grey relics of thy martial towers, Thy mouldering palaces and ramparts hoar, Throned on the granite pile that grimly towers Memorial of the times, when hostile powers So often proved thy steadfast patriot worth; May every honour wait thy future hours, And glad the children of thy kindred Forth, I love thy very name, old bulwark of the North.”

After Burns’s visit the buildings did not long remain in the roofless condition which had called forth his bitter ejaculation, for when Dorothy Wordsworth saw the castle sixteen years later--in 1803--the place had been put in order, although it had suffered much disfigurement, and she remarked that the whole building was in good repair. William Wordsworth accompanied his sister to Stirling, and it might have been expected that such a striking object as the castle would have been made the subject of one of the poems which he wrote as memorials of this tour in Scotland. But Wordsworth never could feel the romance of a medieval fortress. Towers and battlements, studded doors and grated windows, spoke to him of only cruelty and oppression. The actions of peasants excited his sympathy, but not the deeds of feudal kings and warriors. He closed his eyes and ears to Stirling’s past, and regarded the rock merely as a favourable view-point. He mentions the castle in “Yarrow Unvisited,” but only as the place whence he had surveyed the windings of the River Forth:

“From Stirling Castle we had seen The mazy Forth unravelled; Had trod the banks of Clyde, and Tay, And with the Tweed had travelled; And when he came to Clovenford, Then said my _winsome Marrow_, ‘Whate’er betide, we’ll turn aside, And see the Braes of Yarrow.’”

A different type of man from Wordsworth was his friend, Sir Walter Scott. Wordsworth enjoyed tranquillity and contemplation, Scott rejoiced in activity, and would have liked to be a soldier. The feudalism that repelled the Lake Poet attracted the Wizard of the North. An ancient castle reminded Sir Walter of deeds of self-sacrifice and of the joyous days of chivalry, and even in the stories of bloodshed and crime, from which Wordsworth turned in horror, Scott was able to find a strain of poetry and romance.

The plot of _The Lady of the Lake_ is based on James V.’s well-known habit of wandering through his kingdom in disguise. In the poem the monarch calls himself not “The Gudeman o’ Ballengeich,” but “Fitz-James, the Knight of Snowdoun,”

“‘For Stirling’s tower Of yore the name of Snowdoun claims, And Normans call me James Fitz-James.’”

The scene of the sixth canto is laid in Stirling Castle, while in the earlier parts of the poem the shadow of the fortress is made, as it were, to fall across the country of Clan Alpine. The Highlanders of the Lennox and Menteith could never quite forget the royal stronghold on the Forth. Its far-away outline was a warning and a check even to the restless Macgregors. Had the clans been able to join their forces they might have ventured to defy the castle; but feuds amongst themselves prevented combined action. A league such as Scott makes Roderick Dhu propose between his clan and the Douglases must sometimes have been thought of by actual Highland chiefs, and no doubt several kings half expected to be surrounded at times by Highlanders at Stirling:

“‘To Douglas, leagued with Roderick Dhu, Will friends and allies flock enow; Like cause of doubt, distrust, and grief, Will bind us to each Western Chief. When the loud pipes my bridal tell, The Links of Forth shall hear the knell, The guards shall start in Stirling’s porch; And, when I light the nuptial torch, A thousand villages in flames Shall scare the slumbers of King James!’”

Any plans the Highlanders may have made for attacking the sovereign on his lofty rock were never carried out, but, on the other hand, chiefs such as Roderick Dhu were frequently warded in the castle. Scott was not drawing wholly upon his imagination when he imprisoned the head of a clan in the fortress, and when he made the outlawed Douglas appear before James V. in the Royal Park of Stirling. The pathetic story of Archibald of Kilspindie vainly endeavouring to catch a kindly look in the monarch’s eye is elaborated in the poem, though Scott does not intend his Douglas to be identified with the historical character. The poet makes his outlawed hero exclaim as he glances up at the grim fortress “Where stout Earl William was of old”--the fortress that seemed likely to be the scene of his imprisonment and death:

“‘Ye towers! within whose circuit dread A Douglas by his sovereign bled.’”

But in order that the tale might be brought to a happy conclusion, a reconciliation is made to take place between the King and the man whom he had refused to own as a subject. Neither Scott nor Theodor Fontane, in his German ballad called “Archibald Douglas,” could bear to leave the Kilspindie story as history records it.

Poets of the minor order, such as Hector Macneill, William Sinclair and John Finlay, have written lines on Stirling and the historical events connected with it, but they have not succeeded, as Scott has done, in bringing the castle’s past back to life. Such a great past requires a great poem, and _The Lady of the Lake_, although dealing with only six days of James V.’s reign, makes clear Stirling’s position as a palace, a fortress and a prison, and shows the significance of its geographical situation--in the Lowlands and yet near the verge of the Highlands. Walter Scott, both an antiquary and a poet, understood better than any other author the history as well as the romance of the “grey bulwark of the North.”

INDEX

Abbey Craig, 20, 171.

Aberdeen, 107.

Agricola, 2, 3.

Albany, Duke Robert of, 36, 38, 39, 40.

Albany, Duke Murdoch of, 39, 40.

Albany, Regent, 58, 61, 77.

Albany (brother to James III.), 186.

Alexander I., 6, 7, 8, 17, 133.

Alexander II., 15.

Alexander III., 5, 15, 16, 17, 176, 187.

Alnwick, 9.

Ancrum Moor, Battle of, 69.

Angus, 38.

Angus, Earl of, 58, 62, 165.

Anne of Denmark, 98, 101, 102.

Anne, Queen, 123, 124.

Anstruther, 5.

Antoninus Pius, 3.

Arbroath Abbey, 93.

Ardoch, 3.

Argentine, Sir Giles de, 32.

Argyll, Earls of, 66, 71, 75, 92, 94, 116, 186, 187.

Argyll, Duke of, 124, 127.

Arkinholm, Battle of, 48.

Arran, Earl of, 66, 69, 188.

Atholl, Earls of, 79, 92, 116.

Ayr, 54.

Ballengeich, 3, 70, 134, 154.

“Ballengeich, Gudeman o’,” 57, 65, 66, 142, 174.

Balliol, Edward, 33.

Balliol, John, 19, 20.

Bannockburn, 3, 50, 173.

Bannockburn, Battle of, 27, 28, 31, 33, 133, 182.

Barbour, John, 6, 31, 32, 35, 201, 202, 203.

Barton, Robert, 63.

Bastien, 75.

Beaton, Cardinal, 66.

Bedford, Earl of, 75.

Berwick, 9, 20, 35.

Bisset, William, 27.

Blackness, 50, 107.

Blakeney, General, 128, 130.

Blind Harry, 203.

Boderie, de la, 104, 105.

Bohun, de, 28.

Borderers, 51, 82, 92.

Borestone Hill, 31.

Bothkennar, 37.

Bothwell Castle, 178.

Bothwell, Earl of, 73, 74, 76.

Boyd, Sir Alexander, 47.

Bridge, Old, 115, 116, 124, 127, 154, 157-8-9, 160.

Brittany, 3.

Bruce, King Robert, 18, 24, 27, 28, 32, 33, 133, 149, 176.

Bruce, Edward, 27.

Buchanan of Arnprior, 65, 66.

Buchanan, George, 84-5-6-7-8, 112, 162, 176.

Burns, Robert, 207, 208.

Bute, 36.

Butt Park, 173.

Cambuskenneth Abbey, 51, 172, 192.

Camden, 3.

Camelon, 3.

Cassillis, Earl of, 106, 107.

Chapels, 4, 7, 10, 40, 49, 54, 71, 72, 73, 79, 111, 145, 146, 169.

Charles I., 114, 115.

Charles II., 117, 120.

Charles V., Emperor, 10.

Charles IX., of France, 72.

Charles, Prince, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131.

Clifford, Sir Robert, 28, 32.

Clyde, Firth of, 2, 16.

Cochrane, 49, 137, 165.

Coldingham Priory, 50.

Colquhouns, 100.

Comyns, 15.

Conyngham, William, 118.

Cope, Sir John, 32.

Cornwall, 3.

Covenanters, 116, 121.

Crag and tail formation, 2.

Craigmillar Castle, 177.

Crail, 64.

Crawford, Earl of, 47.

Crawford of Jordanhill, 180, 181.

Cressingham, 20.

Crichton, Sir William, 42, 44, 183.

Croc du, 74.

Cromwell, Oliver, 117, 118, 119.

Culloden, Battle of, 131.

Cumberland, 3.

Cumberland, Duke of, 130, 131, 159.

Damian, John, 55.

Darcy, Norman, 19.

Darnley, Lord, 71, 74, 76, 80.

David I., 7, 8.

David II., 36, 52, 149.

Don R., 197.

Donald Dubh of the Isles, 54.

Douglas, Earl James, 43, 48.

Douglas, Earl William, 44, 45, 200.

Douglas of Kilspindie, 62, 63, 165, 211.

Douglas of Liddesdale, 181.

Douglas of Lochleven, 43.

Douglas Room, 147, 170.

Douglas of Strabrock, 39.

Drip, Ferry of, 3.

Drummond of Carnock, 175, 176.

Drummond Castle, 52.

Drummond of Hawthornden, 103.

Drummond, Margaret, 52.

Dumbarton Castle, 2, 70, 80, 94, 179, 180, 185, 186, 191, 195, 196.

Dunbar, Battle of, 20.

Dunbar, William, 6, 55, 104, 203-4-5.

Dunblane, 25, 53.

Dunfermline, Monks of, 10.

Dunkeld, 69.

Dupplin, Battle of, 33.

Edinburgh, 1, 2, 18, 37, 42, 54, 58, 62, 64, 91, 96, 111, 115, 127, 184.

Edinburgh Castle, 2, 9, 42, 57, 72, 81, 179, 180, 181, 183, 186, 191, 192, 195, 196.

Edward I., 17, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 154, 172, 178, 180, 182.

Edward II., 28, 31, 173, 183.

Edward III., 33, 34, 35, 133.

Edward IV., 53.

Elizabeth, Queen, 72.

Erroll, Earl of, 107, 108.

Erskine Lord, 61, 62, 69.

Erskine, Master of, 84, 88.

Erskine, Sir Robert, 36.

Falaise, Treaty of, 8, 9, 185.

Falkirk, 1st Battle of, 23.

Falkirk, 2nd Battle of, 129.

Falkland, 62, 66, 95, 192, 195.

Fife, 64, 115.

Findhorn R., 15.

Flodden, Battle of, 56, 57, 76, 77.

Fontane, Theodor, 212.

Fordun, 34.

Forth, Firth of, 18, 32.

Forth R., 1, 2, 3, 15, 19, 20, 28, 31, 127, 159, 171, 176, 197.

Fotheringay Castle, 69.

France, 20, 58, 63, 64, 77, 94, 122.

Francis I. of France, 10.

Frew, Fords of, 117, 130.

Froissart, 34, 37.

Galloway, Bishop of, 54.

Gardens, 150, 151.

Gargunnock, 34.

George I., 124.

Gillespie, Patrick, 120, 123.

Glamis, Master of, 95.

Glasgow, 111, 191.

Glenartney, 52, 174.

Glenfruin, Battle of, 100.

Golf, 105, 106.

Gordon, Mirabelle de, 128.

Gowan Hills, 2, 57, 129, 150, 172.

Gowrie, Earl of, 95, 96.

Graham, Sir Robert, 41.

Gray, Patrick, 147.

Gray, Sir Thomas, 32.

Greek Fire, 25.

Haakon of Norway, 16.

Halidon, Battle of, 33.

Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, 81.

Hamilton of Finnart, 142.

Hamilton, Lord Claude, 81.

Hawley, General, 129.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 197.

Heading Hill, 40, 41, 172.

Henry II. of England, 8, 9.

Henry VIII., 56, 58, 63, 69, 185, 188.

Henry, Prince, 87, 98, 99, 101, 102-3-4-5-6.

Hertford, Earl of, 69.

Highlanders, 50, 51, 127, 130, 138, 159, 211.

Highlands, 19, 38, 52.

Hogg, James, 208.

Holburne, 117.

Holyrood, 42, 51, 53, 70, 72, 76, 121, 122, 145, 177, 184, 192.

Horsley, 3.

Howard, Lord William, 63.

Hume, Sir Patrick, 120.

Hundred Years’ War, 35.

Huntly, Earls of, 53, 54, 66, 75, 81.

Huntly, Marquis of, 107, 108.

Ice Age, 1.

Inchmahome, 70.

Invergowrie, 6.

Invertyle, Lord, 85.

Ireland, 4, 95.

Islay, 39.

Isles, Lord of the, 39.

James I., 8, 40, 41.

James II., 42-3-4, 48, 61, 172, 183, 184.

James III., 48, 49, 50, 158, 166, 173.

James IV., 51-2-3-4-5-6, 138, 141, 149.

James V., 57, 58, 61-2-3-4-5-6, 76, 77, 142, 162, 169, 174, 187.

James VI., 79, 80, 84-5-6, 88, 91-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9, 101, 102, 106-7-8, 111, 162, 172, 175.

James VII., 120, 121, 122.

Jane, Queen, 42.

Jedburgh Castle, 9.

John, King of England, 12.

Johnstone, Chevalier, 128.

Julius II., Pope, 54.

Justin Flats, 152, 173.

Keillor, Friar, 64, 65, 172.

Keir, 158.

Kennedy, Sir John, 41.

Kenneth MacAlpine, 5.

Ker of Fernihirst, 81.

Kildean, 3.

Kildrummy Castle, 178.

Killigrew, 84.

Kilsyth, Battle of, 159.

King’s Knot, 4, 152, 173.

King’s Stables, 150.

Kinghorn, 17.

Kinross, 16, 187.

Kippen, 65.

Kirkcaldy of Grange, 80, 81, 83.

Knox, John, 79.

Kyllour, Friar, 64, 65.

Ladies’ Rock, 152, 153.

_Lady of the Lake_, 210-13.

Lalain, Jacques de, 43.

Lalain, Simon de, 43.

Lanercost Chronicler, 31.

Langside, Battle of, 191.

Langtoft, 201.

Largs, Battle of, 16.

Lauderdale, Duke of, 120.

Leith, 63.

Lennox, 16, 65.

Lennox, Earls of, 41, 66, 69, 82, 83, 188.

Linlithgow, 40, 52, 66, 121, 192, 195.

Lions’ Den, 142.

Livingstone of Callendar, 42.

Lochindorb Castle, 178.

Lochleven, 79, 177, 191.

Lollius Urbicus, 3.

London, Tower of, 25, 119.

Lothian, 18.

Lovell, John, 27.

Lindsay, Lord of Byres, 91, 92.

Lindsay of Pitscottie, 48.

Lyndsay, Sir David, 5, 6, 152, 206, 207.

Macgregors, 100.

Madrid, Treaty of, 10.

Maid of Norway, 17.

Maitland of Lethington, 80.

Malerbe, Gilbert, 24.

Margaret, Queen, 8.

Margaret of Denmark, 49, 51.

Margaret Tudor, 57, 58, 61, 62, 162.

Mar, Earls of, 75, 76, 79, 82, 83, 85, 88, 94, 95, 97, 100, 108, 119, 120, 121, 124, 127.

Mary, Queen, 20, 66, 69, 70-1-2-3-4-5-6-7, 79, 93, 166, 174, 177, 185, 188, 191.

Mary of Gueldres, 43.

Mary of Guise, 64, 69, 70, 166.

Medici, Catharine de’, 78.

Melville, Andrew, 85.

Melville, James, 85.

Melville, Sir James, 74, 76, 84.

Menteith, Vale of, 132, 171.

Merlioun, John, 141.

Merlioun, Walter, 141.

Mint, 134.

Monenna, St., 4, 179.

Monk, General, 118, 119, 138.

Montgomery, Lorges de, 69.

Montrose, Earl of, 91, 92.

Montrose, Marquis of, 116, 117, 158.

Moray, 12, 38.

Moray, Regent, 80, 81, 191.

Morley, Sir Robert, 38.

Morton, Regent, 79, 82, 84, 88, 91-2-3, 176.

Mowbray, Sir Philip, 27, 31, 33.

Newton, Adam, 103, 104, 106.

Norman Conquest, 178.

Normandy, 9, 10.

Northumberland, 8, 12.

Ochil Hills, 171.

Oliphant, Sir William, 24, 26, 182.

Ormond, Earl of, 48.

Osbert, King, 5.

Otterburn, Battle of, 38.

Palace, 141, 142, 145, 166.

Park, Royal, 42, 52, 63, 74, 93, 112, 124, 149, 150, 172.

Parliament Hall, 49, 134, 137, 165.

Perth, 24, 25, 36, 41, 115, 117.

Perth, Earl of, 123.

Perth, Duke of, 129.

Pinkie, Battle of, 70, 77, 188.

Pontefract Castle, 39.

Prestonpans, Battle of, 32.

Prince’s Walk, 87, 134.

Raid of Stirling, 81-2-3.

Raid of Stirling, 2nd, 96.

Randolph, Thomas, 28, 32, 180.

Rebellion of 1715, 124, 127, 159.

Rebellion of 1745, 127-8-9, 130, 131.

Reformation, 64, 77.

Renaissance Architecture, 141, 142.

Restoration, 119, 123.

Richard I., 9, 12.

Richard II., 37, 39.

Robert II., 36, 37, 134.

Robert III., 38, 39, 52.

Rokeby, Sir Thomas de, 33, 34, 132.

Romans, 2, 3.

Ross, Earl of, 47.

Ross of Halket, 43.

Rothesay Castle, 36.

Round Table, 4, 151, 152.

Roxburgh Castle, 9, 48.

Rutherglen, 5.

Ruthven, Raid of, 95.

Sadler, 69.

St. Andrews, 36, 95, 111.

St. Andrews, Archbishop of, 73, 80, 81.

St. Ninians, 96.

Sampson, John, 23.

Sauchieburn, Battle of, 50.

_Scalacronica_, 32.

Scone, 19.

Scott of Buccleuch, 81, 82.

Scott, Sir Walter, 197, 209-10-11-12-13.

Shaw of Sauchie, 50, 51.

Sheriffmuir, Battle of, 127.

Slezer, 147.

Soulis, John de, 25.

Spens of Wormiston, 82, 83.

Spey R., 15.

Stewart, Earl of Arran, 94, 96, 97.

Stewart of Darnley, 47.

Stewart, Esmé, 93-4-5.

Stewart, Sir James, 42.

Stewart, Walter, 40, 198.

Strathclyde, 2.

Taylor, Water-Poet, 137.

Tennis, 105.

Tippermuir, Battle of, 117, 158.

Traill, Thomas, 39.

Treaty of Falaise, 8, 9, 185.

Treaty of Madrid, 10.

Tungland, Abbot of, 55.

Twenge, Sir Marmaduke de, 23.

Union Treaty, 196.

Victoria, Queen, 131, 132.

Wales, 3, 39, 178.

Wallace, 18, 20, 23, 26, 172.

Warbeck, Perkin, 53, 54.

Warde of Trumpington, 39.

Weldon, 84, 85.

Wells, 148.

West, Nicholas, 56.

Wightman, General, 124.

William the Lion, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 133, 174, 176.

William of Orange, 120.

William of Worcester, 4.

“Wolf of Badenoch,” 38.

Wordsworth, Dorothy, 208.

Wordsworth, William, 209, 210.

Wyntoun, 6, 34, 201.

Yarrow R., 197.

Young, Peter, 84, 87.

“Young Waters,” 198, 199.

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

FOOTNOTES

[1] _Itinerary_, p. 311.

[2] Skene, _The four Ancient Books of Wales_, I. p. 85. O’Hanlon, _Lives of the Irish Saints_, VII. p. 60.

[3] Johnston, _Place-Names of Stirlingshire_, p. 60.

[4] _Poems of William Dunbar_ (Scottish Text Society), II. p. 115.

[5] _Registrum de Dunfermelyn_, p. 8.

[6] Rymer, _Fœdera_, pp. 30, 31.

[7] _Registrum de Dunfermelyn_, pp. 38, 39.

[8] _Liber Pluscardensis_, VI. xliiii.

[9] Fordun, _Gesta Annalia_, LII.

[10] _Exchequer Rolls_, I. p. 24.

[11] _Exchequer Rolls_, I. p. 24.

[12] _Itinerary of King Edward I._ II. p. 280.

[13] Bain, _Calendar_, IV. p. 381.

[14] Bain, _Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland_, II. p. 518.

[15] Stevenson, _Documents Illustrative of the History of Scotland_, II. p. 481.

[16] Stevenson, II. p. 494.

[17] Rymer, _Fœdera_ (London, 1816), I. p. 963.

[18] Rymer, I. p. 964.

[19] Bain, _The Edwards in Scotland_, p. 43.

[20] Mackenzie, _The Battle of Bannockburn_, pp. 67, 81.

[21] _Cal. of Docs. relating to Scotland_, III. p. 367.

[22] _Rotuli Scotiae_, I. _passim_.

[23] _Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland_, III. p. 252.

[24] _Registrum Magni Sigilli_, p. 125.

[25] _Exchequer Rolls_, IV. p. 591.

[26] _Treasurer’s Accounts_, IV. p. 134.

[27] _Ibid._ p. 137.

[28] _Treasurer’s Accounts_, I. _passim_.

[29] _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. 2_, I. p. 209.

[30] _Historical MSS. Commission Report, Mar and Kellie Papers_, pp. 11, 12.

[31] Godscroft (Ed. 1743), II. pp. 107, 108. _Diurnal of Occurrents_, p. 19.

[32] Knox, _History of the Reformation_, Book I.

[33] _Calendar of Scottish Papers_, I. p. 555.

[34] _Calendar of State Papers (Foreign)_, 1561-2, p. 353, note.

[35] _Calendar of State Papers (Foreign)_, 1564-5, p. 328.

[36] _Diurnal of Occurrents_, p. 105.

[37] Keith’s _History_, I. p. xcviii.

[38] Melville’s _Memoirs_, pp. 167, 169 (Bannatyne Club).

[39] Melville’s _Memoirs_, pp. 171, 172.

[40] Birrel’s _Diary_, p. 6.

[41] _Diurnal of Occurrents_, p. 107.

[42] _Diurnal of Occurrents_, pp. 147-9.

[43] _Calendar of State Papers (Foreign)_, 1561-71, pp. 526, 527.

[44] Calderwood, III. pp. 139. 140. Spottiswoode, II. pp. 164, 165. _Historie of King James the Sext_, pp. 90, 91. _Diurnal of Occurrents_, pp. 247, 248.

[45] _Diurnal of Occurrents_, p. 317.

[46] Tytler’s _History_, VIII. p. 10.

[47] _Secret History of the Court of James I._, II. p. 2.

[48] Melville’s _Diary_, p. 48.

[49] Mackenzie, _Lives of Scots Writers_, III. p. 180.

[50] Irving’s _Memoirs of Buchanan_, p. 166.

[51] _Ibid._, p. 176.

[52] Bowes’ _Correspondence_, pp. 6, 7. _Register of the Privy Council of Scotland_, III. p. 711.

[53] _Reg. of Privy Council_, III. p. 689.

[54] Calderwood, III. pp. 413, 414.

[55] Moysie’s _Memoirs_, p. 22.

[56] Moysie’s _Memoirs_, p. 25.

[57] Tytler, VIII. pp. 64, 65.

[58] Calderwood, IV. p. 25. Spottiswoode’s _History_, II. p. 310.

[59] Birrel’s _Diary_, p. 33. _Register of Privy Council of Scotland_, V. p. 165, _n._

[60] Calderwood, V. pp. 343-5. Spottiswoode, II. pp. 455-6.

[61] Fraser, _The Chiefs of Colquhoun_, I. pp. 187-189.

[62] _Reg. Privy Council_, IX. p. 128.

[63] _Mar and Kellie Papers_, pp. 43-4

[64] _Ibid._, p. 51.

[65] Birch, _Life of Henry, Prince of Wales_, pp. 66-7.

[66] _Ibid._, p. 354.

[67] Birch, _Life of Henry, Prince of Wales_, pp. 75-6.

[68] _Privy Council Register_, VII. pp. 16, 580. 2nd Series, VIII. pp. 258-9.

[69] Calderwood, VI. _passim_.

[70] _Mar and Kellie Papers_, pp. 60-3.

[71] Balfour, _Historical Works_, II. p. 34.

[72] _Privy Council Register_, IX. p. 137.

[73] Calderwood, VII. p. 246.

[74] _Privy Council Register_, 2nd Series, IV. p. 380, V. pp. 17, 52-3.

[75] Balfour, II. p. 201.

[76] _Acts of Parliament_, V. p. 288.

[77] Balfour, III. p. 189.

[78] _Privy Council Register_, 2nd Series, VIII. p. 115.

[79] Balfour, IV. p. 250.

[80] Diary in _Scotland and the Commonwealth_ (Scottish History Society), pp. 1-5.

[81] MS. in Bodleian Library.

[82] _Scotland and the Protectorate_ (Scottish History Society), p. 368.

[83] _Acts of Parliament_, VII. p. 107.

[84] Nicoll’s _Diary_, p. 300.

[85] Wodrow’s _History_, II. p. 228.

[86] _Progress of James, Duke of Albany and York_ (Edin. 1681).

[87] _Acts of Parliament_, IX. p. 82.

[88] Chevalier Johnstone’s _Memoirs_, p. 87.

[89] Johnstone’s _Memoirs_, pp. 90, 105.

[90] _Scots Magazine_, VIII. p. 42.

[91] _Exchequer Rolls_, VII. p. 452.

[92] _Exchequer Rolls_, _passim_.

[93] _Treasurer’s Accounts_, IV. pp. 282, 526.

[94] _Treasurer’s Accounts_, VII. p. 482.

[95] _Exchequer Rolls_, XIX. _passim_.

[96] _Stirling Archaeological Society’s Transactions_, 1906-7, p. 123.

[97] _Register of Great Seal of Scotland_, II. p. 619.

[98] _Scotia Rediviva_, p. 476.

[99] Stevenson, _Documents_, II. p. 491.

[100] Coat of feathers.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.

Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.