Book Description

From the INTRODUCTION to Volume 1. The overthrow of Roman Catholicism in Scotland was so largely political in character, and proceeded so much from internal decay, that some account of the relations of Scotland with France and England prior to 1550, and of the condition of the Church, will form an appropriate introduction to this work. The Scottish people profited in many ways through intercourse with the superior civilisation of France; but whether the State as such was a gainer by its alliance with that country is extremely doubtful. It was at the instigation of Philip the Fair that John Balliol, in 1296, threw off his allegiance to Edward I.; but Philip, though he had thus encouraged the Scots to strike for independence, contributed very little to their support. Whatever service he may have rendered during the first five years of the war was more than counterbalanced by his conduct in 1303, when he abandoned the Scots to their fate, and made his own peace with England. Philip lived long enough to see the national movement in Scotland crowned with success, for he died just five months after the battle of Bannockburn; but throughout these eventful years Bruce owed nothing to the friendship of France. It is an unpleasant feature of the alliance at this period that it seems to have waxed and waned with the fortunes of the weaker partner. Thus, having originated in the treaty between Balliol and Philip the Fair in 1295, it expired for practical purposes in 1303, and was revived at Cerbeil in 1326, only two years before the Treaty of Northampton, by which the independence of Scotland was formally recognised. As thus renewed indeed, the alliance was of great use to the Scots during their struggle with Edward III.; but this obligation was fully repaid at the beginning of the following century, when the Scottish auxiliaries rendered yeoman service to France on the bloody fields of Beaug�, Crevant, and Verneuil. The battle of Beaug� was the first check to the victorious career of Henry V.; and at Verneuil, the Malplaquet of the Hundred Years' War, the English, though they won the day, lost more heavily than the French. Under the influence of the Anglo-French wars the league altered in character, and, from the Scottish point of view, it altered for the worse. Hitherto it had been a bulwark, however unreliable, of the national independence. What it was now may be seen in a quotation from Froissart: "King Philip imagined that the Scots would find the English too much employment at home for them to be able to cross the sea; or, if they did, in too small numbers to hurt or molest him." Hatred of England, which still kept the old claim of feudal superiority suspended, like the sword of Damocles, above their heads, blinded the Scots to their true interest; and history records too many instances in which they plunged recklessly into war on behalf of their old ally....