The French Connection (part 1 of 3)

 The Auld Alliance

Part 1






On July 12, 1503, King James IV of Scotland wrote to his new ally and future father-in-law, Henry VII of England. The English king, reflecting on the grandly named Treaty of Perpetual Peace concluded between Scotland and England the previous year, had demanded that James IV repudiate the Franco-Scottish alliance.

In his reply, the Scottish king courteously informed Henry VII that, though he had at that time no intention of renewing the Franco Scottish alliance, nevertheless 'we and our predecessors have always been accustomed to it'.

James was exaggerating, but not by much. At the outset of the 16th century, the 'Auld Alliance' had already endured for more than two centuries and would last for a further 60 years.

Why should an alliance between Scotland, a small kingdom on the northwestern fringes of Europe, and France, a major European power, endure for so long?

And why should many modern Scots, and some French, still regard the "Auld Alliance with a mixture of affection and nostalgia?

The first question is more easily answered than the second. From a Scottish standpoint, the Franco Scottish alliance was born out of dire necessity. The Scottish ruler John Balliol (whose family originated from Bailleul in Picardy) was a vassal king, owing homage and allegiance to Edward I of England.

However, the latter, a predatory ruler who would later earn himself the title "Hammer of the Scots', made John's life a misery by hearing appeals from Scotland in his own courts, and demanding military service from Scots in his projected war with France in 1294.

In this situation, a Scottish committee of 12 was appointed to put some backbone into Balliol. One of its first measures was to make an offensive and defensive alliance against England with Philip IV of France, concluded in Paris in October, 1295, and ratified by the Scots in February, 1296

In the event, the fragile and politically divided Scottish kingdom was not to be saved by the French alliance. Philip deserted his Scottish allies within a few years, and the Scots were left to resolve the major problems of finding an acceptable leader and successfully defying England in the ensuing Wars of Independence. The alliance of 1295 might have proved no more fruitful than earlier abortive treaties between Scotland and France; but the Scottish victor in the wars with England, Robert Bruce, renewed the Franco Scottish alliance in the Treaty of Corbeil (April, 1326). This was simply part of Robert's overall strategy to secure foreign recognition of his status as ruler of an independent kingdom.

But it proved timely, for three years later King Robert was dead, and in 1332, only six years after Corbeil, England's Edward III backed the Balliol cause in Scotland against Bruce's infant son David II and subjected the Scots to a bitter renewal of the Wars of Independence.

The existence of the French alliance in the 1330s proved crucial to the survival of the independent Scottish kingdom, riven as it was politically by royal succession struggles and by the intervention of Edward III, who led armies as far north as Aberdeenshire as late as a 1336. In this dangerous situation Philip VI of France provided a safe haven in Normandy for the 10-year old King David II, and his wife Joan. The young couple spent the years 1334-41 in France, mostly at the great fortress of Chateau Gaillard on the Seine. Arguably, providing asylum for David II went much further on the French side than the aid and counsel' which the treaty of Corbeil required them to give the Scots.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Broch Towers

Image
Towering Enigmas     For most of us, our home is a part refuge, part status symbol. That was just as true during the later Bronze and Iron Age, between 1,000 BC and 100 AD when Scotland was covered with the farms of settled and prosperous tribes. The centrepiece of these farms was a large roundhouse. In the south and east of the country, where timber was plentiful, these were usually massive wooden buildings with conical roofs rising up to 40ft above the ground. Unfortunately, centuries of intensive farming have wiped out all traces of them from the Lowlands. Further north, wood was less easily available, and so prehistoric farmers built their roundhouses from stone. These Atlantic roundhouses, so-called because they are most common around Scotland's Atlantic coasts, include the most imposing of all Iron Age buildings - the broch towers. Among the finest architectural achievements of prehistoric Europe, they are found only in Scotland. Some of the best examples are located in Orkne
Read more

Pictish Chains

Image
  The massive Pictish chains are our most striking examples of post-Roman jewellery. These precious and weighty symbols of power were made using recycled Roman silver. Just 10 of these chains have been found, mostly in Southern Scotland . They belonged to the tribal rulers, worn around their necks on important occasions. The heaviest, found in 1809 Caledonian Canal near Inverness, d uring the construction. It originally weighed just over 3 kg (6% lb). These marvellous objects, Scotland's earliest Crown Jewels, can be admired in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Both Photos : The Whitecleuch chain,  was found in Whitecleuch, Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1869.
Read more

Declaration of Arbroath

Image
 Who was where,  as the seals were set? Who were the 40 people who put their seals to the Declaration of Arbroath to convince Pope John XXII that Robert Bruce was their rightful king? Some were Bruce supporters who had benefited from their loyalty to his cause in lands and titles. Nobles like Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray; Walter Stewart, the Steward of Scotland; Robert Keith, marischal of Scotland; James, lord of Douglas, the famous 'Good Sir James'; and Gilbert Hay, of Errol in Perthshire. Gaeldom, too, lent its support. Bruce in his hour of darkness had fled to the Celtic west where the MacDonalds sheltered him - and it is interesting to note, in the light of later history, that the Campbells were Bruce's kin.  Donald Campbell is listed, and his brother Neil, who had fought for Bruce since 1306, had married the king's sister, Mary. Others were more reluctant converts to Bruce—particularly those on the front line between Scotland and England in East Lothian where dip
Read more

King MacBeth

Image
 MacBeth The real story of the man is far from Shakespeare's celebrated version. Indeed, MacBeth's 17-year reign was a prosperous and generous one, and he was to be fondly remembered as the last great Celtic king of Scots. The single most important fact we know about MacBeth is enshrined in a line borrowed from a Latin poem composed within a generation of his death. It says: "In his time there were productive seasons" - fertile tempus erat. Or, as Andrew Wyntoun, the 15th Century Scottish chronicler put it: "All his tyme was gret plenté/Aboundand baith in land and sé." Scots in MacBeth's time still believed in vestiges of sacral kingship, which meant that if calamity came upon the land in such disasters as war, famine, pestilence or atrocious weather, the solution was to sacrifice the king. MacBeth could thus have earned no higher praise. According to an Irish poem, he actually radiated the prosperity for which he was so famous - he was 'ruddy-faced,
Read more

The Blue Men

Image
  The Blue Men The three Shiant Islands, where the amazing find of the priceless gold tore was made, lie in the waters of the Minch, east of Harris, and are known in Gaelic as the enchanted isles. Strong tidal currents are not the only hazard facing those who venture into these waters. Legend has it that the Blue Men of the Minch live in the Sound of Shiant, and that they are either fallen angels who landed in the sea after being ejected from Heaven, or storm kelpies, Sailors are advised to treat the Blue Men with great respect. They should speak to the Blue Ones in rhyming Gaelic couplets, or else be dragged to the bottom of the Minch. A minister in the late 19th century recorded his meeting with one of them. He said "a blue-covered man, with a long, grey face, and floating from the waist out of the water came, so close, I could almost touch him.'' The strikingly attractive Shiants are a cluster of three islands and several islets made of basalt, formed by the eruption of
Read more

Inchcolm Antiphoner

Image
SONGS ACROSS TIME Inchcolm Abbey, where the Antiphoner (a musical manuscript) originated. Scotland's Inchcolm Antiphoner is one of the most important yet neglected manuscripts in the history of early European music. It contains the only definitive remnants of the music of the Celtic Church, which was responsible for Christianising large areas of Europe. And it includes music probably composed in the 7th century, whose melodies are as unique as the organisation and practices of this ancient Church. The manuscript also shows that from an early date, Scotland's music has had a distinctive identity. It was written down, probably in the 13th century, on the island of Inchcolm, which lies in the Firth of Forth and can be clearly seen from Edinburgh. The music, known as plainchant, is the unaccompanied vocal music of the early Church, and it formed part of the soundtrack of the arrival of Christianity in Scotland. Plainchant was sung tirelessly by monks as a means of providing their d
Read more

Ystrat Clud

Image
 Ystrat Clud Britons are the ancestors no one seems to have heard about. They were Christians, spoke Welsh, worshipped at Govan, and ruled from Carlisle to Glasgow for 600 years. They are the nearest thing we have to a 'native' people! They called it Ystrat Clud - Strathclyde. Their church was at Govan, their hunting estate at Partick, their stronghold was Cadzow near Hamilton. They were the Welsh forefathers of today's Glaswegians. They were the Britons. Of all the peoples who made up Scotland in the early historic period, the group who are probably least well. Known to the average Scot was the Britons. This is odd, as these are the people who were here when written history began, the nearest thing Scotland has to a “native” people. When the Romans arrived in Britain, first in the 1st century BC, and then during their forays into Scotland in the 1st century AD, Britain was inhabited by Britons from south to north. The Romans called them Brittones. The languages spoken thro
Read more

Somerled

Image
 King of the Isles Somerled, King of the Isles, was feared and revered in equal measure in the 12th century, during which time he stood like a giant over Scotland's entire north-western seaboard. For many, his name has retained an almost mythical quality, while others have sought to portray him as an unruly rogue. In fact, he campaigned to defend the Scots kingship and government from what many saw as destructive foreign influences acting on kings David I and Malcolm IV. Somerled's kingship was in the heart of the ancient and distinctively Scottish Viking-Gael land, and he had Gaelic and Norse origins. His name in Gaelic, Somhairlidh, comes from the Norse sumarlidi meaning 'summer raider' or Viking, and his family was firmly among the ruling Celto-Norse chieftains of the Western Isles in the 11th and 12th centuries. Little is known about his early life, but by the 1130s Somerled had emerged as an important political figure. His royal titles were Ri Innse Gall, 'King
Read more

Govan Stones

Image
 Govan's ancient treasures It is easy to pass Govan Old Parish Church without suspecting the remarkable history that lies within. On the banks of the River Clyde, flanked by the Pearce Institute and the offices of a housing association, the church does not outwardly reflect antiquity. It was built in 1820, but the land on which it stands has been used for Christian worship since the 9th century when it was the Britons major Christian centre before that. It is home to a collection of early carved stones that attract archaeologists from all over the world.  Long before the birth of Christ, this was a significant place. Evidence has been found that Bronze Age people settled in Govan. It was then almost an island in the River Clyde, which could be reached only by a ford. It is not certain when the first church was built there, but the collection of sculpted stones spanning the 9th to 11th centuries suggests it was very early indeed. In fact, they represent a major school of stone-carvi
Read more