the Good Sir James of Douglas, during the minority of David II.
(crowned, 24th of November 1331). The disinherited lords,
David II.
Struggle with Edward Baliol.
deprived of their lands by Bruce, were headed by
Edward Baliol, claiming the crown of Scotland as heir
of John Baliol, and secretly backed by England.
Randolph died in July 1332, and in August Edward Baliol,
with the disinherited lord of Liddesdale, and Beaumont,
the disinherited earl of Buchan, and the English claimant of
the earldom of Atholl, landed a filibustering force in Forfarshire.
They were opposed by the new regent of Scotland, the earl of
Mar, who was routed with heavy loss and was slain, at Dupplin,
on the 12th of August 1332. The English owed the victory to
their archers, whose shafts rolled up a courageous charge by the
Scots. Edward Baliol was enabled to seize and fortify Perth
and was crowned at Scone, as Edward I. of Scotland (24th of
September). On the 23rd of November, at Roxburgh, Baliol
acknowledged Edward III. as his liege lord and promised to
surrender Berwick and large lands in southern Scotland. The
hands on the clock were then put back to the time of the reign
of John Baliol. But the earl of Murray, son of Randolph, and
Archibald, youngest brother of the Good Lord James of Douglas,
surprised Baliol at Annan and drove him, half clad, into England.
The struggle was now (1333) for Berwick, which was besieged by Edward III. Archibald Douglas tried to relieve it, just as Relations with Edward III. Edward II. strove to relieve Stirling, and found his Bannockburn on Halidon hill (19th of July 1333), where he was routed and slain, with many of the leaders of the Scots. Scotland was never again to hold Berwick for any length of time: meanwhile a few castles stood out, but the child king was sent over to France for safe keeping. A parliament held by Baliol at Edinburgh (February 1334) ratified the promises made by him to England at Roxburgh: the disinherited lords were in power and many patriots turned their coats. At Newcastle on the 12th of July Baliol surrendered to Edward III. the southern shires of Scotland with their castles: he had already done homage for the whole of Scotland; and Edward III. would have succeeded where Edward I. failed, had not the partisans of Baliol come to deadly feud over matters of their private interests and ambitions. Some took part with Sir Andrew Murray, son of a companion of Wallace, and with the Steward, who contrived to occupy the castle of Dunbarton, the key of western Scotland. These two men, with Campbell of Loch Awe, and Randolph's son, the earl of Moray, held up the national standard and were joined by the English claimant of the earldom of Atholl.
Randolph's daughter, too, the famous Black Agnes of Dunbar, brought over her wavering husband, the earl of March, to the side of the patriots, and there was a war of partisans, while Edward III. again and again invaded and desolated southern Scotland. In 1335-1336 the English party prevailed, and patriots began to come into the English peace: Atholl again changed his side, but the sister of Bruce held out in Kildrummie castle. Andrew Murray, March and a Douglas, the Black Knight of Liddesdale, went to her relief and slew Atholl: Edward III. (1336) again waged a victorious summer campaign, from Perth as his base, and again found Scottish resistance revive in winter. His rupture with France in October 1337, caused by his claims to the French crown, tended to withdraw his attention from Scotland, where, though the staunch Sir Andrew Murray died, Black Agnes drove the English besiegers from Dunbar (1338), while the Knight of Liddesdale recovered Perth. By 1342 Roxburgh, Stirling and Edinburgh castles were again in Scottish hands, though the Knight of Liddesdale captured and starved to death, in Hermitage castle, his gallant companion in arms, Sir Alexander Ramsay, who had relieved the garrison of Dunbar. With this Douglas, Knight of Liddesdale, a ruffian and a traitor, may be said to begin the long struggle between his too powerful house and the crown.
King David, a lad of eighteen, had returned from France and had removed this Douglas from the sheriffdom of Teviotdale, superseding him by Alexander Ramsay. Douglas revenged himself on Ramsay, as we have seen, and though David was obliged to overlook the crime, the Knight of Liddesdale henceforth was not to be trusted as loyal against England. It is David's captivity. probable that he was intriguing for Baliol's restoration, and he certainly was securing the favour of Edward III. An ill-kept truce of three years ended in October 1346, when David attempted to lead the whole force of his realm, including the levies of John, Lord of the Isles, and of the western Celts in general, against England. As the Celts marched south the earl of Ross slew Ronald Macdonald, whose inheritance was claimed by John of the Isles. As a result, the Islesmen went home: David, however, crossed the border, plundering and burning the marches. Near Durham he came into touch with English levies under Henry Percy and the archbishop of York. David was a knight of the French school of late chivalry: he was not a general like Bruce or Randolph. In this affair of Neville's Cross (17th of October 1346) he copied the mistakes of Edward II. at Bannockburn; his crowded division was broken by the English archers, and the king himself was wounded and captured. Moray, the last male representative of Randolph, with the Constable and Earl Marischal of Scotland, was slain; the Steward made his escape: and, henceforth, the childless David regarded his heir, the Steward, with jealousy and suspicion. The Steward, during the king's captivity, was regent, and the Douglas of Liddesdale (the son of Archibald and nephew of the Good Lord James) drove the English out of Douglasdale, Teviotdale and the forest of Ettrick. A truce till 1354 was arranged between England, France and Scotland, while the country strove to raise the royal ransom, and David, who preferred English ways to those of his own kingdom, acknowledged Edward III. as his paramount. It became David's policy to secure his own life interest on Scotland, while the crown, on his decease, should go to one of the English royal family. The more loyal William Douglas, in 1353, slew his kinsman, the shifty Knight of Liddesdale, on the braes of Yarrow, and a fragment of one of the oldest Scottish ballads deplores his fall.
In July 1354 an arrangement as to David's ransom was made: his price was 90,000 merks sterling (for the coinage of Scotland David's agreement with Edward. was already beginning to be debased). Negotiations were interrupted by the arrival of French reinforcements in men and gold: Berwick was recaptured, only to be recovered by England in 1356. In the same year Edward Baliol, after handing over his crown and the royalty of Scotland to Edward III., retired from active life, and Edward wasted the south in the raid of “The Burned Candlemas.” In October 1357 David was permitted to return to Scotland, giving hostages and promising 100,000 merks in ten yearly payments. The country, crushed by inevitable taxation, was discontented, and not reconciled by Edward's grant of commercial privileges. In May 1363 David put down a rising headed by the Steward, and then, in October, went to London, where he and the earl of Douglas made arrangements by which the countries were to be united under Edward III. if David died childless. Scotland was to be forgiven the ransom, receive the Stone of Scone and retain its independent title as a kingdom: her parliaments were to be held within her own borders; her governors and magistrates were to be Scots, freedom of trade was guaranteed, and the earl of Douglas was to be restored to his English estates, or to an equivalent.
This scheme would have saved Scotland from centuries of war and from a Stewart dynasty: there would have been a union of The union rejected by Scotland. the crowns, as under James VI.; or (by an alternative plan of November, December 1363) a son of the king of England, not Edward III. himself, would succeed to David. In March 1364 David laid the projects before a parliament at Scone, which firmly refused its assent. Possibly David had, as one motive for his scheme, the very dubious legitimacy of the children of the Steward, a probable cause of civil war and a disputed succession. He had also private reasons for disliking the Steward, who was on bad terms with the widow, Margaret Logie (by birth a Drummond), whom David had married on the death of his first wife. The country,
