CHAPTER XXIV

ROBERT II., 1371-1390, AND ROBERT III., 1390-1406

Characters of Robert II. and III.-Ignorance and turbulence of the Scottish nobles-Semi-barbarism of the Highlands-The papal schism and rival popes-Walter Wardlaw, bishop of Glasgow and first Scottish cardinal-His nephew Henry Wardlaw, bishop of St. Andrews-Bishop of Moray and "the Wolf of Badenoch" -Burning of Elgin Cathedral and Canonry-Church benefices gifted to abbeys-Crown's claim to property of deceased bishops -Nunnery in North Berwick-Education of clergy-Fordun the historian Barbour the poet-Winton the chroniclerSynodal Statutes of St. Andrews.

THE first break in the direct descent of the Atholl line of kings, beginning with Duncan the father of Malcolm Canmore, occurred on the accession of Robert the Bruce, who inherited through a maternal ancestress. The second break was in the person of Robert II., who was the son of Walter the Steward of Scotland and Marjory eldest daughter of Robert Bruce. The Stuart line of kings began from Robert II. and continued in direct descent from parent to child, with one exception, until the reign of Queen Anne.

Robert II. was crowned in Scone in the fifty-fourth year of his age, by the bishop of St. Andrews, on 25th March 1371. He was not a novice in the duties of ruler, as the government of the country had devolved upon him during the years of David's captivity. In the wars with England he had also proved himself a brave and

capable soldier. The English had now abandoned the idea of conquering Scotland, but the hereditary animosity found expression in raids across the Border.1 The most gallant romance of this time was the chivalrous battle of Otterburn, known as "Chevy Chase," in 1388; but it was fruitless of any lasting result. In the earlier years of his life Robert had not been a model of chastity; after his accession to the throne he spent much of his life on the family estates in Ayrshire, and died there at Dundonald Castle, the 19th of April 1390. By his first wife, Elizabeth Mure, the king had four sons and six daughters, and by his second, Euphemia Ross, he had two sons and four daughters. He was also the father of eight illegitimate sons, who lived at court with the king's family, and like them intermarried with the nobility.

The king's eldest son was John, earl of Carrick, but the name was so unpopular in Scotland, from the hapless John Baliol, that it was changed on his accession to Robert. He was accordingly crowned at Scone as Robert III., 14th August 1390. The king was a man of deep religious convictions and he had a sympathetic partner in his good queen, Annabella Drummond. The life of the court presented an example of domestic virtue which recalled the reign of David I. and his saintly mother. Robert is also said to have had the hereditary valour of the Stewards, but an accident which lamed him in his youth made him averse to active life. It was unfortunate for the country that he was not more equal to curbing the misrule of the feudal lords, which gradually increased as the danger from English invasion diminished. The king was unwittingly devising a legacy of disorder; and the

1 Henry IV. of England demanded homage from Robert III. in 1400, and upon its refusal invaded Scotland. Not much came of the invasion

except the defeat of the Scots army under Douglas at Homildon Hill in 1402.

XXIV

SCOTTISH NOBLES AND HIGHLAND CLANS

435 attempt to master it cost the life of his son and successor. Many of the older Scottish nobles had perished in the long wars with England, and their places were being filled by men of inferior stamp without the culture or chivalry of the Norman barons. For lack of culture and education, for lack of loyalty to man or principle, king or kirk, the Scottish nobles of this age and for long afterwards were probably unmatched in Christendom.1 The Highlands were also in a state of lawless disorder and their clans addicted to predatory incursions into the Lowlands. The gladiatorial fight on the North Inch of Perth, which took place in this reign, between thirty men of one clan pitted against thirty of another, however pictorial in the setting of romance, can only be regarded as a survival of barbarism which the Christianity of a thousand years ought to have uprooted.

To assist the king in his more active duties, Parliament in 1398 made his eldest son, David, duke of Rothesay (the first Scottish duke), regent for three years. The real power was none the less in the hands of the king's brother, Robert, duke of Albany, a man both ambitious and unscrupulous. Under the pretext that the duke of Rothesay needed restraint, Albany confined him in Falkland Palace, where he was slowly and cruelly starved to death. The king, apprehensive of the safety of his only surviving son, James, sent him to be educated in France, but the ship was captured by an English cruiser, in a time of truce between the two countries, and James was carried a prisoner to London. The capture was a clear breach of international law, aggravated afterwards by the refusal of Henry IV. to give up the son to his father. Otherwise, it was the best thing that could have happened to James. He received in his long captivity at the English court an

1 Tytler, ii. 239, and iii. 368.

education better fitting him for his kingly duties than he would probably have received in the gayer court of France. And so the adage was true-" He had been lost, if he had not been lost." The bereaved father could not see it in this light, and he died, as others of his race died, brokenhearted, at Rothesay, 13th April 1406. The second Robert was buried at Scone: Robert III. sought his grave within the Abbey Church of Paisley, founded by his paternal ancestors.

Another prisoner captured at this time by an English cruiser was Stephen de Pays, bishop-elect of St. Andrews, on his way to the papal court for confirmation. He was confined in Alnwick and died within a year. Walter Trail was then appointed, and on his death in 1401 Thomas Stewart, fourth illegitimate son of Robert II., The see was ultimately given Henry Wardlaw, nephew of Prince James, in

was elected, but declined.

by pope Benedict XIII. to Walter Wardlaw, bishop of Glasgow. his early years, and Henry Percy, son of "Hotspur," were educated together under Wardlaw in the castle of St. Andrews. Bishop Walter had been made a cardinal in 1385-the first Scottish prelate to receive the honour —and also legate à latere for Scotland and Ireland, by the anti-pope, Clement VII. France, Spain, Scotland, and Savoy adhered to what were called the anti-popes. The ecclesiastical policy of Scotland was in this respect shaped by the political alliance with France, and probably by antipathy to England. The papal exile at Avignon was no sooner ended, largely by the mediation of that wonderful figure in history, St. Catherine of Siena, than Christendom was shocked by a schism in the papacy, and by the spectacle of rival popes mutually anathematising and excommunicating each other. The result was a sensible weakening of ecclesiastical authority in the

XXIV BISHOP OF MORAY AND "WOLF OF BADENOCH" 437 churches under the Roman obedience, and a growing disregard for the ordinances of religion. During the schism, a meeting of the Three Estates at Scone, in 1401, passed an act touching appeals against sentences of excommunication. Persons under censure might appeal from the ordinary to the conservator, and from the conservator to the provincial council. "To this ordinance," it is added, "the clergy consented, during the schism, like the rest of the king's lieges." 1

The bishop of Moray, Alexander Barr, D.D. and L.L.,2 had more than one trouble on his hands. He claimed the right of appointing the prior of Urquhart in his diocese, but the monks disputed his claim and rejected his nominee. The appeal from the bishop was first made to the conservator of the council for that year, 1391; but it was finally decided by the king in parliament with the advice of the clergy who were present. The decision was against the bishop. His next trouble was with the earl of Buchan, Alexander Stewart, third son of Robert II., best known as "the Wolf of Badenoch." 8 The bishop had rebuked him for his evil life, and the earl retaliated by descending from his castle of Lochindorb, in May 1390, with a band of wild Scots, who burnt the city and cathedral of Elgin, including the hospital and canonry of eighteen manses. The bishop lamented the

wrote as conservator to

sacrilege in a letter which he summon a provincial council. He described his ruined cathedral as "the pride of the land, the glory of the realm, the delight of wayfarers and strangers, a praise and boast among foreign nations, lofty in its towers

1 Robertson's Statuta, lxxviii. Acts of Parliament, i., p. 214.

2 Doctor in Decrees and Licentiate in Laws-degrees were now coming into use.

3 Tytler, Hist., ii. 380, describes him as "little less than a cruel and ferocious savage, a species of Celtic Attila.",