More on Edward and Scotland

Some primary sources about Edward I's dealings with the Scottish. Click the bottom-right to read more

1. The Treaty of Salisbury
This source tells us about the negotiations between the Guardians and Edward I’s representatives and the King of Norway over the return of Margaret, Maid of Norway to Scotland.

The King of England faithfully promises that if the lady comes into his hands of custody free and quit of any contract of marriage and betrothal then, when the kingdom of Scotland is completely settled and at peace so that the lady may safely stay there, and when the king of England is requested to do so by the people of Scotland, the king will send the lady to Scotland, as free and quit of all contracts…as when he received her: provided that the good people of Scotland before they receive the lady give proper and adequate guarantee to the king of England that they will in no sense marry the lady except with his decree, agreement and advice of her father the king of Norway.

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2. The Treaty of Birgham
A source in which Edward I arranges for the marriage of the Maid of Norway to his son Edward. The treaty also seems to guarantee Edward’s neutrality towards Scotland.

We [Edward I] promise…that the kingdom of Scotland shall remain separate and divided from the kingdom of England by its rightful boundaries and borders as has been observed up to now and that it shall be free in itself and independent, reserving always the right of our lord or whoever which has belonged to him or to anyone in the borders elsewhere.

3. The Scots Guardians’ reply to Edward I at NorhamEdward had asked the Scots to accept his demand that he was overlord of Scotland and that they should swear fealty to him. Their answer was rather devious…

Sir, to this statement the good people who have sent us here answer that they do not believe that you would ask such an important question if you did not consider that you had a genuine right to it. But they know nothing of this right of yours [overlordship of Scotland]…Therefore they answer to you as far as in them lies they have no power to reply to your statement, lacking a kingto whom the demand ought to be addressed and will have the power to answer you.

4. From the chronicle of Walter Bower, the Scotichronicon

Then after the capture of the town of Berwick by the English and the piteous slaughter of the Scots from Fife became known, the Scots who were sent by King John to help the town of Berwick fought in the same year on 27th April with the English at Dunbar. Where Patrick de Graham and many nobles fell wounded. And very many other knights and barons, on fleeing to the castle of Dunbar in the hope of saving their lives, were received there with ready welcome. But the custodian of the castle in question, Richard Siward by name, handed them all, to the number of seventy knights, besides the Earl of Ross and the Earl of Mentieth, to the king of England, like sheep offered for slaughter. Without pity, he handed them over to suffer immediately various kinds of death and hardship.

5. A Chronicle of Edward I - On William Wallace

About the time of the festival of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a certain Scot, by name William Wallace, an outcast from pity, a robber, a sacrilegious man, an incendiary and a homicide, a man more cruel than the cruelty of Herod, and more insane than the fury of Nero. . . a man who burnt alive boys in schools and churches, in great numbers; who, when he had collected an army of Scots in the battle of Falkirk against the King of England, and had seen that he could not resist the powerful army of the king, said to the Scots, "Behold I have brought you into a ring, now carol and dance as well as you can," and so fled himself from the battle, leaving his people to be slain by the sword; he, I say, this man of Belial, after his innumerable wickednesses, was at last taken prisoner by the king's servants and brought to London, as the king ordained that he should be formally tried, and was on the eve of St. Bartholomew [23rd August, 1305] condemned by the nobles of the kingdom of England to a most cruel but amply deserved death. First of all, he was led through the streets of London, dragged at the tail of a horse, and dragged to a very high gallows, made on purpose for him, where he was hanged with a halter, then taken down half dead, after which his body was vivisected in a most cruel and torturous manner, and after he had expired, his body was divided into four quarters, and his head fixed on a stake and set on London Bridge. But his four quarters thus divided, were sent to the four quarters of Scotland. Behold the end of a merciless man whom his mercilessness brought to this end.