Victory at the Black Parliament: Robert the Bruce and the Domestic

Hoch, Ross 2019 History Thesis Title: Victory at the Black Parliament: Robert the Bruce and the Domestic Political Struggle of the First War of Scottish Independence Advisor: Eric Knibbs Advisor is Co-author: None of the above Second Advisor: Released: release now Authenticated User Access: Yes Contains Copyrighted Material: No Victory at the Black Parliament: Robert the Bruce and the Domestic Political Struggle of the First War of Scottish Independence by Ross Hoch Eric Knibbs, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in History Williams College Williamstown, MA April 15, 2019 1 Table of Contents: Acknowledgements 2 Introduction 4 Chapter One: Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire: 1314 -1320 18 Chapter Two: The Soules Conspiracy -- the True Turning Point 36 Chapter Three: The Fruits of the Black Parliament: 1320-1329 54 Conclusion 61 Bibliography 62 Appendix A: Timeline of First Scottish War of Independence 64 Appendix B: Glossary of a Few Archaic Medieval Words 66 2 Acknowledgements I’ve certainly had a love-hate relationship with this thesis and I could not have gotten through it without all the help I received from the excellent community of history scholars and fellow academics here at Williams College. I would like to especially thank my advisor Professor Eric Knibbs and fellow student Vincent Gudenus who helped me to appreciate and find the humor in medieval history in spite of its archaic qualities in the Hundred Years War tutorial I took in the fall of 2017. Of course, I also thank Professor Knibbs for all the helpful guidance he gave me over the course of this thesis, particularly in the early stages when I had no clue how to approach my topic, but also in the later stages when he provided the merciless, and quite helpful criticism that pushed me to improve my arguments. Thank you to my fellow medieval thesis students, Zeke Cohen and Patrick Smith, who provided feedback and more importantly moral support throughout the process, in the classroom, the library, and our meetings at the Purple Pub. I would also like to acknowledge my freshman year WWI tutorial partner Kevin Silverman, our class together is one of the reasons I became a history major, and your frequent carrel visits were lifesavers in my moments of intense anxiety and boredom at Sawyer. I am grateful for the help of all my thesis student comrades in the history thesis seminar, who consistently read and provided helpful commentary on my less than pretty first drafts. And of course thank you to Professors Eiko Siniawer and Aparna Kapadia, who were the faculty readers of my early drafts, and in Professor Siniawer’s case, the leader of the thesis seminar. Thank you to my friends in the Williams College Cross Country team and the Ebenezer Fitch House for keeping me upbeat throughout this whole senior year, and knowing when to ask about my thesis and when not to ask about my thesis. I’d like to thank the unsung heroes in the 3 Williams thesis programs: all the people who have listened to me complain about my thesis, and all those who’ve asked supportively about what I’ve been doing holed up in Sawyer, only to be forced to listen to ten minutes of Ross mumbling on about the wholly different sociopolitical context of the feudal era and the legitimacy of various claims to the Scottish throne. Finally, thanks to you dear reader, for taking the time to read the work of a fledgling historian. 4 Introduction As a country that was part of a union with the English and the rest of Great Britain since 1707 Scotland has less than a full deck of national heroes and triumphs to draw upon as Durkheimian symbols of national identity. In the search for a truly Scottish national hero, Scots have been forced to harken back to the Medieval Era when Scotland often existed as an independent kingdom. Of course, the Scots’ biggest struggle in the Medieval Era was a struggle for autonomy vis-a-vis the English, most notably in the First War of Independence from 1296-1328. These wars were ultimately won when King Robert the Bruce led the Scots to success on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. As a result, Robert the Bruce has long been a figure of nationalist iconography, deified ever since 1373 when John Barbour wrote the epic poem, The Brus, recounting Robert’s accomplishments. Thus, in a recent poll of the Scottish public, Robert I was named the “third most important Scot” over such major figures as Adam Smith and David Hume.1 Bruce’s victory at Bannockburn is loudly proclaimed by legions of Scottish Rugby fans in Scotland’s unofficial national anthem “Flower of Scotland.” Though Robert had a major impact on the formation of Scotland as independent nation, the historical Robert the Bruce was a shrewd political actor, navigating a complex pre-national feudal era. Thus, the heroic narratives surrounding Bruce’s accomplishments are complicated by the fact that before freeing Scotland from Edward Longshanks’ tyrannical rule, Robert fought for that same Edward, held lands in England, and 1 Michael A. Penman. "Robert Bruce's Bones: Reputations, Politics and Identities in Nineteenth-century Scotland." International Review of Scottish Studies Vol. 34, 2009. 5 killed the rival claimant to Scottish throne, John Comyn. Still in many ways, Robert the Bruce has been valorized and held up as an enduring symbol of Scottish nationalism and national character since his death in 1329. Early modern historians, often taking Barbour’s epic poem as a literal re-telling of historical events, have done much to bolster and perpetuate this image of Robert the Bruce as a Scottish national hero.2 Nonetheless, historians tend to give greater emphasis to the feudal context of the wars of independence. Before engaging with historiographical perspectives on Robert the Bruce, I will first provide a brief introduction to the historical context which shaped Robert the Bruce and his actions, and a brief introduction to the First War of Independence. The war took place between England and Scotland in the midst of the feudal era. This was an era in which lords paid homages and taxes to their overlords and kings, in return for a high degree of autonomy and control over their land and peasants. Allegiances were first and foremost localized, and there was little conception of nationalism, or national identity at the start of the war in 1296, though one might argue by the end of the war that had begun to change among members of the nobility. At the beginning of the war many nobles held lands in both England and Scotland, and the kingdom of Scotland had in the past had varying levels of autonomy in relation to England, though both kingdoms had centuries-old histories of independence. The representative institution of parliament had developed over the course of the thirteenth century from the king’s great council as the kingdom’s leading nobles realized their ability to influence rulers, and rulers realized their need to legitimize support for their policies in order to execute them. However, given the lack of specifications for what constituted a 2 See Evan Macleod Barron. The Scottish War of Independence. J. Nisbet, 1914. for further information. 6 parliament, the term parliament was often used interchangeably with councils referred to as assemblies or colloquia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.3 Parliament had both judicial and legislative components, and statutes, decisions to major legal disputes, and major taxes, were all passed or enacted in parliament.4 Attached to each parliamentary document would be a collection of the seals of all the nobles present. Thus, the parliamentary institution was much more informal, vaguely defined and ad hoc than the institution we associate with parliament today. Parliaments were not annual events, but assemblies of important nobles and clergymen called for by the king, and led by the king. Moreover, given the lack of specifications for what constituted a parliament, the term parliaments was often interchangeable with councils referred to as assembly or colloquia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.5 However, important parliamentary rulings were often published and proclaimed throughout the realm. The king could also make smaller decisions unilaterally via the issuing of royal acts, charters, grants, confirmations, inspections, letters, tenures, easements, tailzies and the like. Each of these was written by the king’s royal chancellor, who for the majority of Robert the Bruce’s reign was Bernard abbot of Arbroath.6 These acts were sent out to any parties involved, registered and archived so as to maintain their policies’ legitimacy, and provide records to settle any legal disputes later on. Accompanying these acts were witness lists, of those present upon 3 Brown and Tanner. Parliament and Politics in Scotland, 1235-1560. The History of the Scottish Parliament ; v. 1 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), 3-9. 4 A.A.M. Duncan "The Early Parliaments of Scotland." (The Scottish Historical Review 45, no. 139 (1966), 36-58. 5 Brown and Tanner. Parliament and Politics in Scotland, 1235-1560. The History of the Scottish Parliament ; v. 1 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), 3-9. 6 Regesta Regum Scottorum V: The Acts of Robert I, 1306-29 , ed. A.A.M. Duncan (Edinburgh, 1986), 198-214. * From here on out I will refer to this document as RRS V, for brevity's sake. If the reference is to a royal act, the act number will be listed prefaced by the word ‘act’ If the reference is to prefatory material written by editor A.A.M.

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