Clauses Two and Three
Special Pleading
The Crusades that had been
a central issue in the minds of the elites of Western Christendom were fought
for a number of reasons that often changed between the beginning and end of a
Crusade. The casus belli, however, was
the question of the guardianship of the Holy Places after the Muslim’s had
swept over the lands of Palestine.
This was not a simple
matter, for the Holy Places also had come to be in other Christian hands, the
Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Coptics, the Aramaic Christians, and others, who
did not owe allegiance to the Pope. This
issue was still alive in the 19th Century when the disputes leading to the
Crimean War irrupted in 1853 and went on until 1856, sparked by a squabble
between denominations in Jerusalem over who should hold what keys to which Holy
Place.
The linking of the
travails of a legendary migrating tribe of Scotti to their ultimate destination
with the wandering of the Biblical Jews in exile is not calculated simply to
bring a tear to the Papal eye. It has to
be taken as a bid by the King and nobles in Scotland to be given the Blessing
of being the bringers and saviours of Christianity in the North and almost the
first Christians. It means that those
who lay claim to be Scots are the only possible guardians of the Holy Places in
the North, Iona and the rest.
The past is littered with
racial claims, alleged histories and tales whose appeal owes much to human
inventiveness and imagination. In our
own age films are often economic with the truth if it gets in the way of the
story. A brave and resourceful Scottish
officer on the “Titanic”; honoured by a statue in his home town; is traduced in
film as a stock English villain. We need
to preserve our critical faculties in dealing with claims about past.
The ancient Scotti were
not confined to Scotland at the end of any migrations. By place name and by name analysis they were
littered across England as well. The
past is another country, recent scientific archaeological research is showing
that very many long held assumptions and theories are untenable.
All others, the British
(does this mean Celts?) who have been driven out, the destroyed Picts, and the
recent troublesome neighbours are tainted with recent paganism and questionable
attitudes. The calculated vagueness of
much of this is of interest. The
boundaries of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland were not settled until
after 1320, both sides having broader claims.
The implication of the
Scots claim to be the true Christian Guardians might entail that the Holy
Places of Lindisfarne with its links to Melrose, Durham, Jarrow, Whitby,
Furness, Calder, Lansercost and others in the ancient territory of the Kingdom
of Northumbria properly should be in the care of the King of Scots.
There are other questions,
although one must very careful indeed of exporting the moral values of the
present into the past. For someone who
has lived for most of the twentieth century some of the remarks cause acute
discomfort. For the essence of a new
found nationality to be based not on a gathering or community of Christian
souls but on the driving out (ethnic cleansing?) of the old British (Celts?) and the
destruction (genocide?) of the Picts.
The Declaration then complains bitterly of the troubles with Norse,
Danes, and English.
Even in 1320 it must have
been evident that communities of Scandinavian origin still existed in Scotland,
as well as other groups connected to communities in England. Indeed, the document creates an English race
where none existed as a provenance of a defined ethnic race of Scots. If the Declaration is unique in any way it is
as one of the earliest examples in Europe of attempting to create a national
identity on a foundation of notional ethnic purity and hatred.
Clause Four
A Plea From The Heart
Perhaps it is in this
clause that the voice of Abbot Bernard de Linton might be heard, backed by a
Cistercian choir. The hill country of
the centre of the North might enable small groups of raiding parties, but any larger
forces would have either the East Coast route to take or the West Coast
depending on the tactics adopted. For
the Scots raiding South the East offered better booty, whereas the West was
better only if the main attack had to be directed against the Northern Lords of
the West.
For the Kings of England
the West was better suited to a smaller Army that could draw mainly on the
Northern Lords for its substance, and act as a rapid strike force. The East was a better route for larger
complex Armies from England because of the logistics, and tended to be most
used. This meant that when an Army from
England moved into the Central Lowlands the lands of East Linton and Newbattle
lay directly in their path, and any with a motive would take advantage of this
vulnerability.
A number of the incursions
from England were a response to the raiding and captive taking of the
Scots. Revenge was a motive and the
ordinary Norman preference for taking manors intact to be realised as future
assets might well be put aside in favour of applying the destructive tactics of
the Scots to the Scots in reprisal.
Additionally, the use of
numbers of continental mercenaries by the Kings of England would have
contributed to the damage. The
mercenaries did not take the long term view of capital appreciation. The family lands of de Linton lying directly
in their path would have suffered more than most.
In the Old Testament The
Books of Samuel and Kings deal with King David, his many wars and all the
smiting of hips and thighs of the Philistines, Syrians, and Amalekites. King Robert de Brus owed his throne to the
descent from St. David, King of Scotland, and could call his House that of
David.
This point of reference
does not need to go the extent of describing the Kings Edward and their subjects
as the creatures of Satan and the bringers of heresy. To a Pope who was a party to allegations
against the Templars and had entertained the persecution of the Spiritual
Franciscans the line of argument was almost standard procedure for the more
bitter disputes of the period.
It was a well-worn tactic
to try to have your enemy excommunicated or to have an anathema preached
against him. It was a superior tactic to
show them as unfit to rule a Christian Kingdom.
King Robert de Brus had been on the wrong end of the former under Pope
Clement V at the bidding of the King of England and in the situation of 1320 a
tit for tat complaint was only to be expected.
The notion of Scotland
being a land at peace with itself before King Edward I arrived is in conflict
with the historical evidence, even of the period, and does not sit easily with
the claims of the second paragraph, but diplomatic submissions are rarely
troubled by a quest for historical truth.
For Cistercians such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux in his 1146 Call to
Crusade the Work of God should not be impeded by inconvenient facts.
The essence of the clause
is the matter of the Good and the Bad.
If I am good, then you have to be bad.
In the way of the world at the time there were no shades of grey. If my appeal to the Pope against you is to
gain sway then I, my kin, and my servants, have to be good, indeed especially
good, and you and yours have to be bad, really bad. To misquote “1066 And All That”, then I am romantic
and right whilst you are revolting and wrong.
As well as Good and Bad it is a matter of In and Out.
In 1320 the bid was for
King Robert to be the King that was In and Good, and for King Edward II to be
the King to be Out and Bad. For seven
years it remained, then Edward was murdered, perhaps by means of a hot poker
pushed per rectum through his entrails at Berkeley Castle while his minder was
at a meeting. His Despencer favourite
was dismembered on a hill outside Warwick and his remains nailed to the doors
of Parish Churches as a Medieval form of instant communication.
Out of it all The King of
Scots got his recognition, and the hand of a daughter of King Edward II for his
son and heir, but little else. Berwick
became an English Borough, the Earldom of Northumberland remained with the boy
King Edward III until 1377 when the Percy’s won it, and soon the round of
raiding and counter raiding over the Borders, the dance of death, would begin
again as the cash ran out, the weather worsened, and the plague arrived.
And the Mowbray’s moved closer
to the throne of England.
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