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hris Brown. August 2006 "And ye sail weill trow all and ken That we are command of gentilmen, The sempillest now oure ost within Has gert gentillis in his kyn" "And you shall all truly know That we are descended from gentlemen, The humblest man in our army Has great nobles in his ancestry." Trans. C. Brown. Chron. Wyntoun, vol. v, p.338. (i) I, Christopher A. Brown, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 96,000 words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. I ~ ~~ {OXI(/l,..,. f d·d _ D ate!.+ ..... ~lgnature 0 can I ate .............. Oi) I, Christopher A. Brown, was admitted as a research student in November 2000 and as a candidate for the degree of Ph. D. in November 2001: the higher study for which was carried out in the University of St. Andrews between 2001 and 2005. I ! Date.:f~(.GiJ{(i( ....... SIgnature . of can (iii) I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolutions and Regulations appropriate for the degree of Ph.D. in the University of St. Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree. ~ f:i~'V'\s~N"'......J.- fY OJ;j. (,', . ______ Date .......I 'SIgnature of arln hJ .. te ........................ (iv) In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published and that a copy of the work may be made and provided to any bona fide library or research worker. Date .........(:5{(;'g l cL.SIgnature of candIdate. ....................... 2 WE ARE COMMAND OF GENTILMEN SERVICE AND SURVNAL AMONG THE LESSER NOBILITY OF LOTHIAN DURING THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE 1296-1341. Abbreviations p.3 Abstract, p.5 Introduction, p.6. Chapter 1. Military Activity in Lothian, p.28. The progress of the Wars of Independence as they affected Lothian. Chapter 2. Rights and Responsibilities, p.76. The noble community of Lothian in their political and military roles. Chapter 3. Landholding in Fourteenth-Century Lothian, p.109. The properties of the political community. Chapter 4. Lothian Garrisons. p.13 8. The operational and political roles of the English garrisons of Lothian. Chapter 5. Service and Allegiance p.184. The military and political conditions that encouraged Lothian people to accept or reject Plantagenet, Balliol or Bruce administrations and the material burdens of performing the military service required from the political community Conclusions. p.236. Appendix. p.255. A proposographical examination of members of the Lothian political community between 1290 and 1360. 3 ABBREVIATIONS The standard abbreviations listed in the October 1963 supplement to the Scottish Historical Review have been used in the footnotes to this thesis. The following list details a small number of additions to the standard usage. Ayton, Knights Ayton, A, Knights and Warhorses (Woodbridge, 1994). Barbour, The Bruce. The Bruce, 1. Barbour (ed.) AAM. Duncan (Edinburgh, 1997). Barron, Scottish War. EM. Barron, The Scottish War ofIndependence (Inverness, 1934). Barrow, Bruce G.W.S. Barrow, Robert the Bruce and the Community ofthe Realm ofScotland (Edinburgh, 1988). Barrow, Neighbours. G.W.S. Barrow, Scotland and its Neighbours in the Middle Ages (London, 1982). CIPM Calendar ofInquisitions Post Mortem (London 1900-1912). Duncan, Scotland AAM. Duncan Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (Edinburgh, 1975). Donaldson, Documents G. Donaldson Scottish Historical Documents (Edinburgh, 1974). Nicholson, Edward III R. Nicholson Edward III and the Scots. The Formative Years of a Militmy Career, 1327 to 1335. (Oxford, 1965). Nicholson, Middle Ages R. Nicholson Scotland. 171e Later Middle Ages (Edinburgh, 1974). MacQueen, Common Law H. MacQueen Common Law and Feudal Society in Medieval Scotland (Edinburgh, 1993). Penman, David II M. Penman, David II (East Linton, 2004). Reid, Alexander III. N. Reid (ed.), Scotland in the Reign ofAlexander III (Edinburgh 1990). Rogers, Wars Colonel C. Rogers (ed), 171e Wars ofEdward III Sources and Interpretations (Woodbridge, 1999). Sco tichron icon 4 Scotichronicon of Walter Bower, v01s. i-ix, (ed). D.E.R. Watt (Aberdeen, 1996). Stringer, Nobility Essays Essays on the Nobility ofmedieval Scotland, ed. K. Stringer (Edinburgh, 1985). Watson, Hammer F. Watson Under the Hammer. Edward I and Scotland. 1286-1307 (East Linton 1998). Watt,Fasti D.E.R. Watt Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638 (Edinburgh, 1969). 5 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the political, social and, in particular, military conditions that influenced the allegiance of the men and women of the political community of Lothian, that is to say those people with personal landholding, legal and military obligations whose services were crucial to the efficient administration of the sheriffdom and whose support was courted by kings and magnates alike. The key issue is the high degree of survival among these minor landed families. The upper strata of Scottish political society undervvent considerable changes in the early to middle fourteenth century through the fortunes of war, in particular through the disinheritance of the Comyn family and their allies early in the reign of Robert I. Some families lost their Scottish properties, such as the Balliols and the Comyns. Others grew in stature; notably the Douglases and, in Lothian specifically, the Setons and the Lauders. Most landholders would probably have been content to retain their inheritances, and indeed, virtually all of the Lothian landed families of the late thirteenth century would seem to have managed to do just that. A high rate of success is not necessarily evidence that something is easily achieved; the retention of family properties was a complex business in wartime. In the period 1296-1314 the political community had to discharge their fmancial, legal and military burdens to the party currently in charge, but \vithout permanently compromising themselves \vith the opposition, who might, after all, be in a position to exert lordship themselves at some point in the future. The military burdens are central to this thesis. Army service was a very obvious indication of allegiance. Given the nature of the normal practice of war in thirteenth and fourteenth century Europe, it is inevitable that this study examines the nature and incidence of armoured cavalry service in Lothian. The overvvhehning majority of that service was performed by minor landholders. Records of their service in garrisons or their forfeiture as rebels provide us with a guide to the rate and incidence of defections from one party to another and therefore some guide to the degree to which a particular party was able to impose their lordship. The thesis explores the various challenges that faced the lesser landholders and more prosperous tenants and burgesses who lived through the Wars of Independence from the campaign of 1296 which ended the reign of King John and imposed the rule of Edward I, until 1341 when Edinburgh castle was recovered by the Scots from the forces of Edward III. It also questions the extent to which Edward III was able to impose his lordship in Lothian, considers the nature of the forces ranged against him and challenges the perception that only the outbreak of the Hundred Years War prevented the operational defeat of the Bruce party. The siege of Edinburgh castle in 1341 marked the end of the last attempt by an English medieval king to provide Lothian with a government. Naturally this would not have been abundantly apparent at the time; however subsequent English invasions, though they might attack Edinburgh, were not designed to bring about the conquest of Lothian. The political environment of Lothian landholders therefore differed substantially in 1296-41 compared to the century either side of the Wars of Independence in that the minor nobility faced difficult decisions which had to be made on assessments of the likely eventual success of the Balliol, Plantagenet and Bruce parties. 6 INTRODUCTION It could be argued that no other period 'made' Scotland the way it IS so much as the Wars of Independence. Many other countries experienced wars of similar or greater duration that were equally devastating' but the political consciousness of many Scots is still shaped or influenced by their perceptions of the conflict, particularly in the period l296-13l4? The legacy is as much a matter of romance as record; the frequent near-extinction of the 'patriotic' party, the adversities and triumphs of William Wallace and Robert I, the fickle nature of the Scottish nobility and the eventual success of the 'nationalist' cause at Bannockburn in 1314. Despite the conflation, exaggeration and, doubtless, pure invention of chroniclers and poets in relation to the gestes of Wallace and Bruce, there can be no doubt that both men were genuinely heroic figures to a large body of opinion within their ovvn lifetimes, as well, of course, as being genuinely wicked terrorists to a great deal of the rest of the population.