Alba Historical

 BATTLE OF HARLAW. Famed in ballad, the Battle of Harlaw was the first great conflict between Lowland and 'Highland' Scotland. The battle itself was over the ownership of the Earldom of Ross, claimed for the Highlands by Donald, second Lord of the Isles. Opposing him was the Lowland Stewart dynasty under the Duke of Albany. Armed conflict was the only option as King James I, who might have been able to arbitrate, was being held captive in England. Donald, who regarded himself as an independent ruler, had English help. He was probably also supported by the captive Scottish king, who was increasingly dismayed at the waywardness of his Stewart relatives. Although Donald's real purpose was to secure the eastern lands of the Earldom of Ross, he seems to have planned to pillage Aberdeen and th surrounding area as a means of weakening the Stewart earls. The power and prestige of the Lord of the Isles at that time was shown by the size of Donald's army at Harlaw - perhaps as ma...

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...

 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...

 WALLACE Late in August 1299, he left Scotland on a diplomatic mission to Philip IV of France who, for political reasons, briefly imprisoned him, but who supplied a safe-conduct for our beloved William le Walois of Scotland, knight' on his onward journey to consult the Pope in Rome.  The goal-not surprisingly, given Wallace's views – was the restoration of King John.  Back in Scotland some two years later, his movements are uncertain but it is difficult to disbelieve that he was a spent force.  There is some indication that, after Falkirk, Edward had offered his enemy the opportunity to  enter into peace, but Wallace rejected him. A compromise was not in his vocabulary. He was specifically excluded from the inevitability of Edward's kingship, and from then on was even more of a marked man. There were several attempts to capture him, all of which he eluded, but he was eventually taken by Sir John Menteith on August 3, 1305, traditionally at Robroyston on the outs...

 Wallace In the desperate days before John Balliol's abject submission to Edward I, the King had been deposed by that same community who had transferred his administrative powers to a council of Guardians,  while permitting him the dignity of his kingly title. Wallace continued to hope for the reinstatement of John as the rightful King of Scots, to that end, he attempted to maintain pressure attacks on the north of England, and he helped engineer the appointment of the pro-independence William Lamberton to the bishopric of St Andrews. Herein lay the seeds of Wallace's downfall, for, in a society obsessed with strict hierarchies, a man of his comparatively humble background had no business leading armies and directing government policy. Similar obsessions paralysed most of the Scottish aristocracy who, by right, ought to have been fulfilling these functions. There is an old story that when he assembled his army at Falkirk in July, 1298, Wallace told his men: 'I hae brocht ye...

  William Wallace's reputation was almost entirely the creation of his enemies. The few scraps of contemporary Scottish evidence must be supplemented with the elaborations of later chroniclers and historians who may have had access to materials that no longer exist. Investigators also have to contend with the fantastical imaginings' of Blind Harry's epic poem The Wallace, composed around 1478. It is somewhat difficult, if fascinating, to recover the history of Wallace the Man from this tangle of legend, propaganda, and elusive fact. But it is equally important to understand the myth of the greatest and most inspirational of Scottish heroes. The recently rediscovered cast of Wallace's seal in Glasgow's Mitchell Library indicates that he was the son (probably a younger one) of Ayrshire  landowner Alan Wallace, and so was born at Ellerslie near Kilmarnock, rather than the traditionally-favoured Elderslie, Renfrewshire. Nothing is known of him before 1296 when he may be...

 Edward & Toom Tabard He used his legal status as the superior lord to claim the revenues collected from vacant estates and various offices. Having been acknowledged by all the would be kings, he was able to back date access to all royal money to the death of Alexander III. When Balliol acquired the Scottish throne, he found the kingdom owed Edward six years' worth of revenues and there was a large personal debt from his own estate. Indeed, most Scottish revenues were finding their way south, giving John very little room to manoeuvre. Edward continued to force the issue, summoning John to fight with him and ordering him to appear at Westminster to justify his court's decisions. By 1295 the situation had become intolerable for Balliol. For almost 130 years, Scots had had no serious conflict with England, but their next move would lead to decades of bitter, bloody fighting. They signed a treaty with France, which was in effect the birth of the Auld Alliance and the start of t...