CHAPTER III.

THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

MALCOLM THE MAIDEN was succeeded on the Scottish throne by William, surnamed the Lyon, one of the most brave and chivalrous princes of all the royal line; but, as happened with others of his gallant race, his chivalric deeds were frequently more glorious than profitable to his country. After successfully repulsing Henry II., who had invaded Scotland, he retaliated by crossing the border at the head of a numerous force, and wasting the northern counties of England with fire and sword. While before Alnwick, however, William was treacherously betrayed into the English hands, and, as was then commonly the case, the whole army retreated and dispersed on the capture of their leader. The captive monarch was not liberated until he had become bound to pay an enormous ransom, and had surrendered Edinburgh Castle, with three other principal fortresses of the kingdom, as security. Happily, however, the loss thus sustained by the reverses of war was restored by peaceful

means; for an alliance having been concluded between William and Ermengarde de Beaumont, cousin to king Henry, Edinburgh Castle was gallantly restored as the queen's dowry, after having been held by an English garrison for twelve years.

The reign of Alexander II. is marked by another important addition to the ecclesiastical foundations of the Scottish capital. In the year 1230, this monarch founded and endowed the monastery of Black Friars, of the Order of St. Dominic; bestowing, as seems probable, on the friars one of the royal residences for their first abode, styled in the earlier charters Mansio regis. All traces of the monastery have long disappeared, and its site is now occupied by the Surgical Hospital, but the ancient approach to it still bears the name of the Black Friars Wynd, and attracts the antiquary and the tourist by its picturesque old tenements, and the quaint legends of early date inscribed on the lintels of doors and windows. Alexander II. dates many of his charters from Edinburgh Castle, but the monastery which he had founded in its neighbourhood appears to have been his favourite residence, and his munificent example was followed by several of his royal successors, who added to its revenues.

In the reign of Alexander III., the son and successor of Alexander II., the Castle of Edinburgh became the permanent royal residence, and the depository of the national records and regalia, as well as the chief place for dispensing

justice. In 1251, the English princess Margaret, the daughter of Henry III., was brought thither to her young husband, then a youth of only ten years of age. As usual during the minorities of the Scottish kings, the kingdom was divided into rival factions, and the youthful king and queen were held safely in durance within the royal fortress, while the faction who retained possession of it governed in their name. The queen was two years older than her boy husband, and resented the restraint and loneliness of their abode, which, under the jealous care of their keepers, seemed to possess more of the character of a prison than a palace. She accordingly contrived to convey a private letter to her father, complaining that "she was confined to the Castle of Edinburgh, a sad and solitary place, and by reason of its vicinity to the sea, unwholesome." Henry was already employed in secretly organizing an English faction, with a view to bring Scotland permanently under his dominion, and this supplied a sufficient pretext for more active measures, if indeed it did not originate with him. When we consider that the singular isolated rock on which the castle stands has an area of upwards of six acres inclosed on its summit, and that it then included a palace which had been a favourite residence of the Scottish court for fully a century and a half, we can scarcely suppose that a girl of fourteen years of age could experience any very oppressive sense of restraint within its walls, unless other means

were resorted to, to awaken discontent in her mind. The earl of Gloucester was despatched to Edinburgh, accompanied by John Maunsell, the secretary and chief favourite of the English monarch, and after a secret consultation with the earls of Dunbar and Carrick, and other leaders, a hostile collision took place between the two factions in the streets of Edinburgh. Such contests continued to be of common occurrence in the Scottish capital until the final removal of the court to England. The English faction succeeded in surprising the Castle, and the young king, freed from the control of the rival party, assumed nominal rule. Alexander, however, as was afterwards abundantly proved, lacked only the wisdom and experience of years to enable him to shake off all factious incumbrances, and during his long and prosperous reign the independence of his country remained intact. His favourite residence was Edinburgh Castle, and his queen, we may presume, found it neither sad nor solitary when once her royal husband attained to the rights of manhood, and ruled not in name only, but in reality.

Alexander III. reigned for thirty-seven years, and proved himself a sagacious and brave ruler, an impartial legislator, and a wary politician. His death took place suddenly in 1286; his horse having fallen with him over a precipice, an event which filled the whole nation with grief. Wynton has preserved a short contemporary elegy on his death, which Ellis justly

remarks is far superior to any English song of that early date. It is as follows:

"When Alexander our king was dead,
That Scotland led in love and lee,
Away was sons of ale and bread,
Of wine and wax, of gamyn and glee;
Our gold was changed into lead.
Christ! born into virginity,
Succour Scotland and remede,
That stad is in perplexity."

Gloomy as were the forebodings of the people on the sudden death of their favourite monarch, their worst anticipations could not exceed the real calamities in which their country was speedily involved. His granddaughter-familiarly known as the Maid of Norway-died not long after, and the contested succession to the crown between Baliol, Bruce, and others, followed, leaving Edward 1. of England abundant scope for carrying out the ambitious schemes so frequently entertained by his predecessors. By intrigue and politic craft he got himself nominated umpire between the rival claimants to the Scottish crown. His next step was to get the stronghoids of the kingdom lodged in his keeping, under the shallow pretext of holding them in readiness to hand over to the rightful successor. Sir Radulpho Basset de Drayton, a brave Norman knight, assumed the governorship of Edinburgh Castle, at the head of an English garrison. Other strongholds were occupied in like manner, and soon the whole kingdom seemed to lie prostrate in Edward's grasp. The Black Rood of Scotland, the special relic of Holyrood Abbey, fell into