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The Minority of Alexander III of Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

D. E. R. Watt
D. E. R. Watt
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews
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Type
Obituary
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 21 , December 1971 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1971

References

1 E.g. SirPowicke, Maurice, The Thirteenth Century (Oxford, 1953), p. 592.Google Scholar

2 The Scots Peerage, ed. SirPaul, J. Balfour (Edinburgh, 1904–1914), vi, pp. 127–28.Google Scholar

3 Anglo-Scottish Relations 1174–1328, ed. Stones, E. L. G. (London and Edinburgh, 1965, hereafter Stones, Relations), pp. 24–25.Google Scholar

4 Scots Peerage, ii, pp. 253–54, P. 419, n. 1; i, P. 167.

5 The Chronicle of Melrose, ed. Anderson, A. O., Anderson, M. O. and Dickinson, W. C. (London, 1936), p. 90.Google Scholar

6 Ibid.; Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard (Rolls Series, 1872–84), iv, pp. 200–02; Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon cum Supplementis et Continuatione Walteri Boweri, ed. Goodall, W. (Edinburgh, 1759,Google Scholar hereafter Chron. Bower), ii, pp. 72–74; The Original Chronicle of Andrew of Wyntoun, ed. Amours, F. J. (Scottish Text Society, 1903–1914), v, pp. 98–107.Google Scholar

7 E.g. Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, ed. Bain, J. (Edinburgh, 1881–1888, hereafter CDS), i, nos 1621, 1624, 1630, 1666, 1672–74, 1703. Walter returned by January 1249 (Registrum de Dunfermelyn [Bannatyne Club, 1842, hereafterDunfermline Registrum], no. 77) and John by 1258 (Registrum Episcopates Moraviensis [Bannatyne Club, 1837, hereafter Moray Registrum], no. 122).Google Scholar

8 Paris, Chron. Maj., iv, pp. 200–1.

9 Chron. Bower, ii, p. 73.

10 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1232–47 (London, 1906), p. 447;Google Scholar Paris, Chron. Maj., iv, p. 380; Johannis de Fordun, Chronica Gentis Scotorum, ed. Skene, W. F. (Edinburgh, 1871–1872,Google Scholar hereafter Chron. Fordun), i, p. 291; Chron. Bower, ii, p. 74; see also History of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, xxvii (1929–1931), pp. 356–57.Google Scholar

11 Paris, Chron. Maj., iv, pp. 360–61. The member of the Coucy family in question was probably John de Coucy lord of Pinon, a first cousin of Queen Mary de Coucy, wife of Alexander II (Tardif, J., ‘Le procès d'Enguerran de Coucy’, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes, lxxix [1918], pp. 445, n. 3, 449).Google Scholar

12 Paris, Chron. Maj., iv, pp. 381–83. It should be noted that the letter to the pope which Paris gives as part of the transactions of 1244 must rather be dated 1237 (from the contents and from the list of magnates) as part of the settlement then (cf.above, p. 2, n. 3); Foedera, ed. Rymer, T. (Record Commission, 1816–69), i, p. 257;Google Scholar cf. ibid., pp. 233–34.

13 CDS, i, nos 2671–72.

14 This was part of the Newcastle agreement. The ‘enemies’ are not speci fied, but King Louis of France is probably meant.

15 Durward took office between 18 September 1242 and 14 March 1244 (Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis[Spalding Club, 1845, hereafter Aberdeen Registrum], i, p. 16; Rental Book of the Cistercian Abbey of Cupar Angus[Grampian Club, 1879–80], i, p. 327); Lindsay took office between 1242 and 10 November 1243 (Chron. Melrose, p. 90; Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, ii [Edinburgh, 1882], no. 3136)Google Scholar

16 Chron. Bower, ii, p. 75.

17 Paris, Chron. Maj., v, p. 41.

18 Scots Peerage, iii, pp. 255–56.

19 Henry de Balliol was chamberlain 16 February 1246 (Liber Cartarum Sancte Crucis [Bannatyne Club, 1840], no. 74)Google Scholar and dead by 15 October 1246 (CDS, i, no. 1697); Richard de Inverkeithing appears as next known chamberlain 8 April 1249 (Raine, J., The History and Antiquities of North Durham [London, 1852], appendix, no. 75).Google Scholar William de Bondington bishop of Glasgow is not certainly found as chancellor after 8 February 1247 (Liber Sancte Marie de Melros[Bannatyne club, 1837, hereafter Melrose Liber], i, no. 266)—the only time he appears as witness of an act of Alexander II thereafter was on 19 May 1248 when a statute was issued at Stirling (The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, i [Edinburgh, 1844,Google Scholar hereafter Acts Parl. Scot.], p. 404, where he is styled chancellor only in one version); Robert de Keldeleth abbot of Dun-fermline may possibly have succeeded him as chancellor before Alexander’s death, though he is not specifically so styled when witness to royal acts on I February and 16 April 1249 (The Moncreiffs and the Moncreiffes, edd. Moncreiff, F. and Moncreiffe, W. [Edinburgh, 1929], ii, p. 635; British Museum, MS Add. Chr. 66570) and is known certainly to have been in office only during the first years of the minority.Google Scholar

20 Regesta Regum Scottorum, i (Edinburgh, 1960), p. 31; Scots Peerage, v, pp. 572–74; but note that Alan’s father was in a position to dispose of property in Mar from as early as before King William’s death in 1214 (e.g. Liber S. Thome de Aberbrothoc[Bannatyne Club, 1848–56, hereafter Arbroath Liber], i, nos 59–60, 65–66).Google Scholar

21 Durward is found as earl of Atholl between 11 September and 12 October 1233 (ibid., i, no. 128; but see no. 129), 25 December 1234 (ibid., no. 102) and 23 February 1235 (Moray Registrum, no. 114). His right was perhaps based on wardship of the heir rather than marriage with the heiress (Duncan, A. A. M., ‘The Earldom of Atholl in the Thirteenth Century’, The Scottish Genealogist, vii [1960], p. 2).Google Scholar

22 Their probable grandson (Duncan, later earl of Fife) was born in 1262 (Scots Peerage, iv, p. 11).

23 Early Sources of Scottish History 500 to 1286, ed. Anderson, A. O. (Edinburgh, 1922), ii, p. 558, n. 4.Google Scholar

24 See above, n. 7.

25 Anderson, Early Sources, ii, p. 555; cf. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, xc (1956–1957), p. 218, no. 2, for the king’s last known act on the day of his death.Google Scholar

26 For what follows see Berger, E., Histoire de Blanche de Castille reine de France (Paris, 1895), especially pp. 39–42, 55–57, 60–61.Google Scholar

27 See Powicke, F. M., King Henry III and the Lord Edward (Oxford, 1947), PP. 1–5, 38, 42–45; Powicke, Thirteenth Century, pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

28 The surviving acts are listed in Simpson, G. G., Handlist of the Acts of Alexander III, the Guardians and John 124.0–1206 (Edinburgh, 1960), nos 1–13.Google Scholar The two seals are described in Stevenson, J. H. and Wood, M., Scottish Heraldic Seals (Glasgow, 1940), i, pp. 5, 25 (where the seal for the minority-is wrongly described as a privy seal). I am grateful to Professor A. A. M. Duncan for guidance on the interpretation of these seals.Google Scholar

29 It is usually assumed that ‘Scotland’ in the title of this office implies just the area north of the Forth, where this officer’s authority was parallel to that of the justiciar of Lothian south of the Forth. But Fordun incorporates the tradition that Durward had a wider and presumably superior authority totius tune Scociae justiciarius (Chron. Fordun, i, p. 293); and it is noteworthy that Alexander Comyn as justiciar of Scotland in 1260 was to have bailies in Carrick (CDS, i, no. 2193). The matter requires further study.

30 Chron. Fordun, i, p. 293.

31 CDS, i, no. 1763; cf. McNeill, P. G. B., ‘The Scottish Regency’, Juridical Review, new series, xii (1967), pp. 127–48, especially pp. 129–30.Google Scholar

32 Concilia Scotiae, ed. Robertson, J. (Bannatyne Club, 1866), ii, p. 241;Google ScholarCalendar of Writs preserved at Yester House 1166–1503 (Scottish Record Society, 1930), no. 15.Google Scholar

33 Chron. Fordun, i, p. 295; Dunfermline Registrum, no. 348.

34 CDS, i, nos. 1785–86, 1791, 1795. For some details on the Coucy family seeTardif, art. cit.(see above, n. 11), pp. 5–44, 414–54, especially pp. 443 ff.; and Faral, E., ‘Le procès d'Enguerran IV de Couci’, Revue historique de droit françcais et étranger, 4th series, xxvi (1948), pp. 213–58.Google Scholar

35 Robertson, Concilia, ii, pp. 241–42.

36 The friends of the two communities are to be identified in the respective lists of mandatories for papal letters which they secured in the course of litigation, e.g. Reeves, W., The Culdees of the British Islands (Dublin, 1864), pp. 113–15;Google ScholarVetera Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum Historiam Illus-trantia, ed. Theiner, A. (Rome, 1864), pp. 53–55;Google ScholarCharters, Bulls and Other Documents relating to the Abbey of Inchaffray (Scottish History Society, 1908), pp. 154–55.Google Scholar

37 Robertson, Concilia, ii, p. 243.

38 Chron. Fordun, i, p. 295.

39 CDS, i, no. 1768.

40 Stones, Relations, no. 9; Theiner, Monumenta, no. 142.

41 Chron. Fordun, i, p. 295. The Comyns were at this time taking a share in affairs as witnesses of royal charters in Scotland again after perhaps as much as a year's absence (Simpson, Handlist, nos 11–12; cf. nos 2–10).

42 CDS, i, nos 1812, 1815 ff.; Chron. Melrose, p. 109; Chron. Fordun, i, PP. 295–96.

43 Paris, Chron. Maj., v, p. 271; cf. p. 573.

44 Ibid., v. p. 272; see also Paris, Matthew, Historia Anglorum, ed. Madden, F. (Rolls Series, 1866–1869), iii, p. 322; cf. p. 118. Another guardian with out Scottish connections (Geoffrey de Langley) was sent in November 1252, but proved unacceptable to the Scottish magnates (Paris, Chron. Maj., v, p. 340; CDS, i, nos 1899–1900; cf.no. 1935).Google Scholar

45 Powicke, King Henry III, i, p. 43.

46 Chron. Melrose, pp. 109–10; Anderson, Early Sources, ii, p. 562; Chron. Fordun, i, p. 296.

47 CDS, i, no. 1848.

48 Alexander Comyn earl of Buchan is found as justiciar of Scotland by 17 December 1253 (Dunfermline Registrum, no. 82); Thomas de Normanville as justiciar of Lothian between 1252 and 1255 (Melrose Liber, i, no. 322); William earl of Mar as chamberlain by 21 April 1252 (Fragmenta Scoto-Monastica [ed. Turnbull, W. B. D. D., Edinburgh, 1842], appendix, p. xlii); Master Gamelin took over the office, but not at once the title, of chancellor c.February 1252 (Chron. Bower, ii. 85; cf.below, p. 11 and n. 54).Google Scholar

49 Chron. Fordun, i, p. 296.

50 Paris, Chron. Maj., v, pp. 501–2, 504–6.

51 Paris, Hist. Angl., iii, p. 118.

52 CDS, i, no. 2168.

53 chron. Fordun, i, p. 296.

54 E.g. Melrose Liber, i, p. 284. But see Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Papal Letters(London, 1893), i, pp. 295, 303.Google Scholar

55 Paris, Chron. Maj., v, p. 501. The passages in other works of Matthew Paris referred to in n. 44 above which echo this theme may well have been written in the light of what was to happen in 1255 (cf. Vaughan, R., Matthew Paris [Cambridge, 1958], p. 113).Google Scholar

56 Barrow, G. W. S., Robert Bruce (London, 1965), p. 24.Google Scholar

57 For surviving acts see Simpson, Handlist, nos 14–20; CDS, i, no. 2673; Dunfermline Registrumno. 85; Arbroath Liber, i, nos 294, 366.

58 Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, second draft, ed. Watt, D. E. R. (Scottish Record Society, 1969), p. 129.Google Scholar

59 Chron. Bower, ii, p. 85.

60 Watt, Fasti, pp. 292–93.

61 Foedera, i, pp. 303, 322; cf. Anderson, Early Sources, ii, p. 575, n. 2.

62 Stones, Relations, p. 31.

63 CDS, i, nos 1888, 1895; cf. no. 1894.

64 Ibid., nos 1956, 1985; Calendar of Liberate Rolls 1251–60 (London, 1960), P. 319.Google Scholar

65 Foedera, i, p. 306; Roles Gascons, i, ed. Michel, Francisque (Paris, 1885). nos 3444, 3955.Google Scholar

66 CDS, i, nos 1984–85, 1981–82.

67 Ibid., nos 1986–87; cf. no. 1990.

68 Ibid., no. 2002; Chron. Melrose, p. 112.

69 Ibid., pp. 111–12.

70 CDS, i, no. 2003; Chron. Melrose, pp. 112–13.

71 Stones, Relations, no. 10.

72 Ibid., p. 31.

73 The four were William Galbraith, John and Hugh de Crawford, and Walter Stewart.

74 The two councillors were Malcolm earl of Fife and Gilbert de Hay; the four others were Roger de Mowbray, John de Vaux, William de Ramsay and William de Douglas.

75 Abbots of Dunfermline, Kelso, Jedburgh and Newbattle.

76 Richard de Inverkeithing had been presented to Dunkeld in 1250 when chamberlain along with Durward (Watt, Fasti p. 95) and was now to become chancellor. Peter de Ramsay had been appointed to Aberdeen in 1247 during Durward's ascendancy (Ibid., p. 1) and was an associate of Durward in the north-east (Aberdeen Registrant, i., p. 17; ii, pp. 273–75; Chartulary of the Abbey of Lindores [Scottish History Society, 1903], pp. 85–86).

77 CDS, i, nos 1995, 2017.

78 Stones, Relations, p. 33.

79 Ibid., pp. 31–33.

80 E.g. Foedera, i, p. 353.

81 Richard bishop of Dunkeld was chancellor, David de Lindsay was chamberlain and Walter de Moravia justiciar of Lothian (Chron. Fordun, i, p. 297; Hodgson, J., History of Northumberland [Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1820–1840], III, i, pp. 12–13).Google Scholar

82 Stones, Relations, p. 32.

83 Chron. Fordun, i, p. 297.

84 Theiner, Monumenta, no. 201.

85 Watt, Fasti, p. 293.

86 Chron. Melrose, p. 114. One of the papal mandatories was the abbot of Melrose. This passage therefore provides the key to the Melrose chronicler's consistent hostility to the Durward party throughout the minority, and to his approval of the Comyn counter coup of 29 October 1257 (see below, p. 17).

87 Theiner, Monumenta, nos 196, 203.

88 Ibid., no. 204.

89 CDS, i, nos 2053, 2055–56, 2071–72; no. 2057; cf. nos 2043–44.

90 Ibid., nos 2063, 2058, 2062.

91 Foedera, i, p. 353.

92 CDS, i, no. 2080.

93 Foedera, i, p. 362.

94 Chron. Fordun, i, p. 297; Chron. Melrose, p. 114.

95 Ibid.; CDS, i, nos 2099, 2120–21.

96 Paris, Chron. Maj., v, p. 656.

97 Littere Wallie, ed. Edwards, J. G. (Board of Celtic Studies, University of Wales, History and Law Series, no. 5, Cardiff, 1940), pp. 184–86.Google Scholar

98 Powicke, King Henry III, i, pp. 382–83.

99 CDS, i, no. 2114.

100 Ibid., no. 2125.

101 Ibid., nos 2103, 2116–18; cf. no. 2114.

102 CDS, i, nos 2126–27.

103 Ibid., no. 2133; Foedera, i, p. 376.

104 Chron. Melrose, p. 115.

105 Stones, Relations, pp. 35–36; and Foedera, i, p. 378, where the name of Walter Comyn earl of Menteith is included.

106 Gavrilovitch, M., Étude sur le traité de Paris de 1259 (Paris, 1899), p. 27.Google Scholar

107 She was apparently still a widow in September 1256 and had remarried by June 1257 (CDS, i, nos 2064, 2083).

108 For details of this family see Wolff, R. L., ‘Mortgage and Redemption of an Emperor's Son: Castille and the Latin Empire of Constantinople’, Speculum, xxix (1954), PP. 46–47, and Berger, Blanche de Castille, pp. 326–27, 335–36, 421.Google Scholar

109 This office was vacant in December 1255 (Layettes du Trésor des Chartes iii [Paris, 1875], no. 4225); John held it by June 1257 (see below, n. III).Google Scholar

110 Paris, Chron. Maj., v, p. 266; cf. p. 265.

111 CDS, i, nos 2083–84.

112 Acts Parl. Scot., i, p. 115; cf. CDS, i, no. 2676; Chron. Bower, ii, p. 109.

113 Memorial Historico Español, i (Madrid, 1851), nos 60, 63, 66 show him as certain witness at the court of Castille on 5 February and 10 April 1258, and probably also on 13 September 1258 (where the name of his brother Louis is associated with John's usual title); Layettes du Trésor des Chartes, iii, no. 4470.Google Scholar

114 Stones, Relations, pp. 36–37; see also Paris, Chron. Maj., v, pp. 739–40.

115 Stones, Relations, p. 36, n. 3.

116 Charter to William earl of Mar (Simpson, Handlist, no. 41).

117 Stevenson & Wood, Seals, i, p. 5.

118 E.g Simpson, Handlist, nos 9, 14, 15.

119 Chron. Melrose, p. 116; Theiner, Monumenta, p. 93; cf. Chron. Fordnn, i, p. 298, and Paris, Chron. Maj., v, p. 724 for other explanations of Walter's death.

120 Paris, Chron. Maj., v, p. 740; cf. CDS, i, no. 2157.

121 Ibid.; cf. Stones, Relations, no. 9.

122 CDS, i, no. 2192; see also nos 2209, 2219–20.

123 Ibid., no. 2229.

124 Barrow, Robert Bruce, pp. 21–22.

125 He was at Traquair, Peeblesshire by 12 December 1260 (Charters of the Royal Burgh of Ayr [Archaeological and Historical Collections relating to the Counties of Ayr and Wigton, 1883], no. 11).

126 Theiner, Monumenta, no. 237.

127 See Ibid, for the whole story. The court must have met between 12 December 1260, when Walter Stewart was not yet earl of Menteith (Ayr Burgh Chrs., no.II) and 17 April 1261 when he is first found as such (qRegistrum Monasterii de Passelet [Maitland Club, 1832], p. 121). There is no proof that Walter's wife Mary was a sister of Countess Isabella (cf. Scots Peerage, vi, pp. 127, 130); and it is more likely that they were cousins, and daughters respectively of the two brothers both called Maurice, the younger of whom had succeeded the elder in the earldom of Menteith in 1213 (CDS, i, nos 2275–76).Google Scholar

128 Scots Peerage, vi, p. 131.

129 Durward and Buchan had joint-responsibilities in the defence against the Norwegians 1263–64 (The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, i [Edinburgh, 1878], p. 20; Chron. Fordun, i, p. 301).