4yk- ScS. SHS./3I! PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY THIRD SERIES VOLUME L MISCELLANY {Ninth Volume) 1958 MISCELLANY OF Ei)t i£>cotttsi{) ^tstorp S>oftetp (Ninth Volume) PAPERS RELATING TO THE CAPTIVITY AND RELEASE OF DAVID II ACCOUNTS OF SIR DUNCAN FORESTAR OF SKIPINCH, COMPTROLLER 1495-1499 REPORT BY DE LA BROSSE AND D’OYSEL ON CONDITIONS IN SCOTLAND, 1559-1560 THE DIARY OF SIR JAMES HOPE, 1646 AN ACCOUNT OF PROCEEDINGS FROM PRINCE CHARLES’ LANDING TO PRESTONPANS EDINBURGH Printed by T. and A. Constable Ltd. Printers to the University of Edinburgh for the Scottish History Society 1958 i2!#oc| % 1958 ^ Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS PAGE PAPERS RELATING TO THE CAPTIVITY AND RELEASE OF DAVID II Introduction ....... 3 Accounts of Sir William Trussell . 9 Appendix ....... 34 Debate in Council-General .... 36 Abstract ....... 51 ACCOUNTS OF SIR DUNCAN FORESTAR OF SKIPINCH, COMPTROLLER 1495-1499 Introduction ....... 59 Accounts ....... 62 REPORT RY DE LA BROSSE AND D’OYSEL ON CONDITIONS IN SCOTLAND, 1559-1560 Introduction ....... 85 Report 88 THE DIARY OF SIR JAMES HOPE, 1646 Introduction . ...... 129 Diary ........ 142 Appendix ....... 195 AN ACCOUNT OF PROCEEDINGS FROM PRINCE CHARLES’ LANDING TO PRESTONPANS Introduction ....... 201 Account 203 INDEX . 217 A generous contribution from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland towards the cost of producing this volume is gratefully acknowledged by the Council of the Society. PAPERS RELATING TO THE CAPTIVITY AND RELEASE OF DAVID II INTRODUCTION The documents here printed are concerned respectively with the captivity of David II at Odiham Castle from March 1355 to September 1357, followed by his journey to be released at Berwick, and with the subsequent proposal, rejected by the Scottish Estates, that the stipulated ransom of 100,000 marks should be cancelled in return for the King of England or one of his younger sons being recognised as heir if he died childless. As is well known, David, after being wounded in the head at Neville’s Cross, was captured by John Coupland, who was rewarded with a grant of £500 a year for life.1 Too ill for a long journey, he was kept for ten weeks at Bamburgh until, conducted by John Darcy, he was taken to London, led conspicuously through the streets and lodged in the Tower on January 2nd. There he was at once visited by Edward Ill’s surgeon, Roger de Eyton, perhaps from con- siderations of the ransom as much as from chivalry.2 The first attempt to secure David’s release seems to have been made early in 1348 when safe-conducts for a Scottish embassy were given.3 Nothing was accomplished and by 1350 he was so dejected that to the Pope he expressed his readiness to do homage to the English king and help him in the war against France and, if he died without issue, for Edward or one of his sons to become King of Scotland.4 At the end of that year his fellow-prisoner, William Douglas of Liddesdale, who had also been captured at Neville’s Cross, was sent to Scotland 5 with a proposal that David should be liberated for a ransom of £40,000 and that one of 1 2 Calendar of Close Rolls 1346-49, p. 333. 1346, P.R.O., E. 403.339 Wardrobe ; Cal. Accounts,Close Rolls E. 1346-9, 101.25.26; p. 186. Issue Knighton, Rolls, Michaelmas Chronicon (Rolls3 Series), pp. 44-6. 4 Rotuli Scotiae i. 709. 6 RotuliCalendar Scotiae of Papal i. 737. Registers, Petitions, p. 203. 3 4 PAPERS RELATING TO DAVID II Edward’s sons should be declared heir to the Scottish crown if he died childless.1 The Steward at any rate was unlikely to welcome the plan and how unpopular it proved is shown by Edward’s offer of help in putting down any rising that might ensue.2 A visit of David himself in the winter of 1351-2 was no more effectual in persuading his subjects.3 When agreement was reached two years later for his release in return for a ransom of £60,000 without this condition,4 its fulfilment was delayed by the renewal of hostilities, including the short-lived recovery of Berwick town (but not the castle) with French help.5 Meanwhile, David had been sent to Odiham to be in the charge of Sir William Trussed of Cublesdon, with whom he struck up so cordial a friendship that he later asked to have him as escort on the journey to Berwick when he was at last released in 1357.6 I The accounts for the sojourn at Odiham and the journey to Berwick are in the Public Record Office (Exchequer K.R. Accounts Various, E. 101.27.3) together with a number of relevant writs etc., four of which are here printed as an appendix.7 They show that David reached Odiham on March 7, 1355, that the sergeant-at-arms in charge of him was at first Thomas del Eerie and from July 1357 Bar- tholomew Imworth.8 Although no Scot was allowed to approach him without special leave from the king, he was visited both by his own doctor, Hector le Leche, and by Edward’s physician, Master Jordan of Canterbury.9 The accounts give details of his furniture and clothing, down to such items as a kitchen knife, and show that fresh outfit was purchased for him at least each summer and winter, at a total cost of £89, 18s. Od. While negotiations with the Scots were proceeding in 1 2 8 V. post, p. 37. 4 Rotuli Scotiae i. 748. 6 Ibid. 749. Foedera III, 282. 6 Wyntoun’s Original Chronicle7 (ed. Amours) viii. 37. 8 V. post, p. 35. Pp. 34-5. 9 V. post,post, pp.p. 3432-4. ; also Issue Rolls (Easter 1357), E. 403.387. INTRODUCTION 5 London during the spring of 1357, David was taken to spend seven weeks in the Tower. After returning for the summer to Odiham he left it finally on September 8th. On the 10th he went from London on pilgrimage to Canterbury, spending a night each way at Rochester.1 The northward journey began on the 14th and Berwick was reached on the 29th. There David stayed for a week, after which a gap of a fortnight in the accounts suggests that he took Trussed with him into Scotland. The return journey of Trussed occupied eleven days as against sixteen on the way north. The reduction of the daily expense from an average of about 40s. to £l or less suggests that David’s suite had been considerably larger than the mere chamber-boy of Wyn- toun.2 A new item during the return consists of hens for falcons, which presumably were presents from David either to Trussed or to Edward III. The last entry shows Trussed and his suite at Wycombe, 20 miles from London, on October 31, whence they may have reached either London or Odiham the following day. Translations of the more unusual Latin words are given in footnotes the first time they occur. The scribe occasion- ally uses vernacular forms as sauce, pies and ‘steykes’. II The other document, which is in the British Museum (Cotton, Vesp. C.XVI ff. 34-40), was brought to my notice by Professor E. L. G. Stones. It purports to be written by one who was a commensal of William Spynie, when the latter was Dean of Aberdeen, drawing on a pamphlet by him and stating that Spynie was present, with Bishop Landadis of St. Andrews, at the Council-General where the proposed alteration of the succession was discussed. As Spynie, who obtained the deanery of Aberdeen in 1388, became Bishop of Moray in 1397, dying in 1406,3 this 1 2 V. post, p. 29. Withe hymouttyne of Inglis a chawmir broucht boy he naneallayne. 3 Dowden,Wyntoun Bishopsviii. 38. of Scotland, p. 156. PAPERS RELATING TO DAVID II account cannot have been originally written later than the first half of the fifteenth century. Indeed, from the mention of Spynie’s consecration but not of his death it may be conjectured that it was written during the nine years of his episcopate. Those best qualified to judge, however, are of opinion that the manuscript which we have dates from nearer 1500. If so, it must be a copy and it may be owing to mistakes by a copyist that occasional passages fail to make sense. It is written on thin material with the writing from the reverse pages showing through, so that not a few words are almost or utterly indecipherable. It has been glossed by at least three hands, one of which is that of Sir Robert Cotton himself. Absence of punctuation in the manuscript makes the meaning doubtful, especially towards the end. While the writer commences by saying that he sets out to relate the arguments put forward by either side in the Council General called by the Steward to consider the terms for David’s release which were offered through Douglas of Liddesdale, those which he actually reports can only have been used after the king’s liberation and the subsequent failure, which began in 1360, to pay the instalments of the ransom at the due dates. He thus seems to be describing not a Council-General of 1351 but that which rejected in 1364 the terms provisionally suggested in London. These were alternatively (i) that the crown should pass to the King of England and the Disinherited be compensated there, or (ii) that it should pass to a younger son of the English king, the Disinherited be restored in Scotland and a long truce made between the kingdoms.1 In either case the ransom should be cancelled, and both were conditional on David dying without issue.