Back to the border (4)

On 10 May 1300 the Scottish parliament held at Rutherglen broke up due to the non-appearance of the Earl of Buchan, because he was “away in Galloway to treat with the Gallovidians”. Without his presence and other “great men of Scotland”, there was no point in the assembly going ahead, so it was adjourned until December.

Caerlaverock

This was all contained in a report from Sir John Kingston, the English constable of Edinburgh castle, to Edward I. Buchan was trying to win the loyalty of the Gallovidians, who had always resisted attempts by the kings of Scots to do away with their separate laws and customs: it wasn’t just the Plantagenets and the Capets who sought to stamp their authority on neighbouring regions in this era.

In 1296 Edward had tried to exploit this separatism by wheeling out Thomas of Galloway, bastard son of the last ‘Celtic’ lord of Galloway, who had been in prison for sixty years. The poor old sod was eighty-eight years old. Edward sent him home to Galloway with a charter of liberties on offer to the men of Galloway, calculated to win their support for the English crown. The ploy succeeded to an extent as the most important families in Galloway, the MacCanns and the MacDoualls, fought for Edward in the next decade. That said, many other Gallovidians joined William Wallace.

Chuck Heston

The charter of liberties was one of Edward’s favourite strategems. After the second conquest of Wales in 1295 he undermined the Marcher lords by issuing similar charters to Welsh communities; it was an easy way to win the popular vote while making his political opponents look like petty tyrants.

Sir William Wallace

In this context, the king must have been alarmed to hear of Buchan sowing seeds in Galloway. Control of the western marches of Scotland was already in flux, with two competing wardens and rival garrisons at Lochmaben and Dumfries (English) and Caerlaverock (Scottish). Edward had been aware of the threat of Caerlaverock since 1299, when he ordered siege engines to be constructed to reduce the castle.

With all the above at stake, there was nothing else for it: the sixty-one year old king had to strap on that damned dirty armour yet again and haul his ageing guts up to the border.*

 *The ‘damned dirty armour’ is a quote from Charlton Heston in The War Lord, hence the pic.