Margaret Stewart & the Birth of the Red
Douglases, 1389
On 20th January 1389, a deal was reached between Robert Stewart, earl of
Fife, and Margaret Stewart, countess of Angus, at
Tantallon Castle in East Lothian.
Countess Margaret agreed to give Fife access to Tantallon Castle, which
was his property after all, and in return Fife recognised her right to
live in the castle for the remainder of her life. Around the same time,
Fife appears to have agreed to use his recently-acquired powers as
guardian of the realm to have Margaret's son formally recognised as the
earl of Angus. On the face of it, this may seem like a fairly minor bit
of political wrangling. However, this agreement was a significant moment
in an on-going crisis that had gripped Scotland since the previous
summer, and the result of the negotiations of early 1389 would have
far-reaching consequences for the history of fifteenth-century Scotland.
[Today's] blog post will examine the context of this deal, what we know
about its terms, and what impact it had.
A very good year (for a crisis): 1388 in Context
Tantallon Castle, with Bass Rock in the background and a
sixteenth-century dovecot in the foreground. Tantallon was constructed
by William, 1st earl of Douglas, probably sometime after 1365. His
mistress Margaret Stewart, countess of Angus, lived here from at least
1381, possibly earlier, and for five months from August 1388 until
January 1389 she feircely resisted attempts by Robert Stewart, earl of
Fife, to extricate her from the castle.
Early 1388 must have been a time of considerable excitement in Scotland.
As of February, it was the eighteenth year in the reign of the old and
experienced King Robert II, but effective control over the royal
government lay with the king's eldest son and heir John Stewart, earl of
Carrick. Carrick had been able to secure his appointment as guardian of
the realm at a general council held at Holyrood in November 1384. The
justification for Carrick's authority was based on a general feeling
among the community that the execution of law and justice had lapsed,
particularly in the north of the kingdom, in recent years. However,
Carrick's ability to maintain his position rested on a close
relationship with his brother-in-law
James, 2nd earl of Douglas, and
the vast political networks Douglas maintained in southern Scotland.
Ever since the rise of Earl James's great-uncle and namesake 'the Good'
Sir James in the service of King Robert I at the beginning of the
fourteenth-century, Douglas power had relied on their ability to
practice vigorous and successful military lordship in the marches.
Regular border warfare provided the earls of Douglas with a
justification for their leadership of the armed communities of southern
Scotland, and enriched both them and their followings from booty, ransom
and blackmail. Thus while little was accomplished between 1384 and 1388
in addressing concerns over law and order in the north, the period did
see a marked intensification of conflict with England.
Unusually for the Scots, renewed war with England had proven to be a
roaring success. The
Treaty of Berwick in 1357 had ceded large areas of
southern Scotland - including most of Berwickshire and Roxburghshire as
well as Annandale in the west - but from around 1369 the Scots had begun
to gradually chip away at the English administrations in these areas and
slowly reoccupy this territory. The Scots were aided in this effort
firstly by the increasing ineffectiveness of King Edward III in his old
age and the domestic turmoil this produced in England. Following
Edward's death in 1377, the Scots again benefited from the resurgence of
French resistance to English gains on the Continent coupled with the
rather aimless foreign policy of King Richard II's government, which
preferred to appease the Scots in the hopes that this would allow them
to concentrate on dealing with the renewed French threat. During the
1370s and early 1380s, King Robert was thus able to excuse Scottish
aggression on the borders as being the work of 'over-mighty magnates'
over whom he had limited control, despite the work of Dr Alastair
Macdonald of the University of Aberdeen demonstrating that the Scottish
crown endorsed and even coordinated attacks on English targets in
southern Scotland during this period. By 1384 this excuse was starting
to wear increasingly thin, and when Carrick assumed control of the
Scottish royal administration all pretence was finally dropped. The
resumption of open war led to punitive English campaigns into southern
Scotland in 1384 and 1385, the second of these personally led by King
Richard himself, but these had little material effect and certainly did
not deter the Scots from launching further devastating raids into
northern England in these years. The prospect of peace negotiations
between England and France - and the threat of further English invasions
- led to a lessening of Scottish attacks in 1386 and 1387, but as 1388
began the Scots were busy making plans for perhaps their most ambitious
assault on northern England since the reign of Robert Bruce.
For alswelle ellis may be slane
A mychty man, as may a swayne'
The 'Otterburn
War' |
The hostilities of 1388 kicked off with a highly successful and
destructive raid on the coast of Ireland, led by
Sir William Douglas of
Nithsdale - the illegitimate son of
Archibald 'the Grim', Lord of
Galloway and yet another of Carrick's brothers-in-law. Douglas of
Nithsdale and his men landed near Dundalk, defeated a hastily-assembled
militia force sent to confront them, and then proceeded to devastate the
town of Carlingford. On their way back to Scotland, Sir William and co.
briefly stopped off to terrorise the English administration on the Isle
of Man before returning to Loch Ryan in Galloway and joined up with a
sizeable force mustering nearby under the auspices of Carrick's younger
brother Robert Stewart, earl of Fife, and Archibald 'the Grim'. In the
meantime, a second, smaller force was being mustered - possibly at
Jedburgh - under the command of James, earl of Douglas, and George
Dunbar, earl of March. These two armies were to descend into north-west
and north-east England respectively, cause as much damage and disruption
as possible, and then return to Scotland (possibly reuniting before
crossing the border) in a powerful demonstration of Scottish military
confidence. However, there was one noticeable absence from all of this -
Carrick himself. At some point in early 1388 Carrick was injured by a
kick from a horse, and while the precise nature of his injuries are
unclear the extent of them appears to have been severe. The seriousness
of Carrick's injuries may not have been immediately apparent, but they
resulted in his absence from the campaigning of 1388, and as we will see
the earl would be physically incapacitated for the rest of his life.
However, there is no indication that this diminished Scottish morale,
and as the two armies marched on northern England spirits and
expectations seem to have still been high.
In the west, Fife and Archibald 'the Grim' carved a swathe of
destruction through the most fertile parts of Cumberland and
Westmorland, reaching as far south as Brough before returning northwards
laden with booty and prisoners. In the east, things also started well
for the Scots. Douglas and March harassed the community of County
Durham, many of whom we know were forced to flee with their cattle south
of the Tees, and even threatened Newcastle. Here a confrontation took
place between the Scots and a force led by Sir Henry 'Hotspur' Percy,
son and heir of the earl of Northumberland. Hotspur had acquired his
dashing by-name for the vigour and energy with which he regularly led
the defence of the English marches from the Scots, but at Newcastle he
and his men seem to have had the worst of the encounter. According to
the contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart - whose account drew on four
participants (two of them Scottish) in the subsequent
Battle of Otterburn - during this engagement outside Newcastle Douglas personally
captured Hotspur's pennon - the triangular flag that would normally hang
from the tip of Hotspur's lance. This was an embarrassing affront to
Hotspur's martial honour, and Froissart gives the impression that this
humiliation motivated Hotspur to pursue the Scots as they withdrew
northwards towards the border. There is little indication that the Scots
anticipated - let alone feared - a pursuit. They advanced at a leisurely
pace, seizing Ponteland Castle and even briefly besieging Otterburn
Tower. Meanwhile, Hotspur hastily-assembled a militia force and raced
north to catch the Scots before they could reach safety. Late on 5th
August (some English sources claim 19th, but official Scottish sources
disprove this dating) Hotspur and his men fell in amongst the Scottish
camp near Otterburn, and a frantic and confused battle ensued in which
Douglas was killed but from which the Scots emerged victorious. On the
one hand, this was a dramatic vindication of Scottish military policy.
The defences of north-east England had proven woefully unprepared for
them, even the standard English strategy of trying to force the Scots
into open battle had failed miserably, and they had unexpectedly managed
to secure as prisoners a significant portion of the northern nobility -
including Hotspur and his younger brother Ralph. However, the 'death in
victory' of the earl of Douglas was about to spark a domestic crisis
that would drag on well into the following year.
All the King's Earl's Men: The Aftermath of Otterburn
The late earl of Douglas had been an enormously influential figure
within the Scottish political community, but this influence had rested
largely on the force of his own personality. He was relatively young -
probably around thirty at the time of his death - and while he had
produced two illegitimate sons during his lifetime he had no direct heir
to succeed him. This was a significant problem for the wider Douglas
affinity in itself, but the seriousness of this situation was compounded
by the fact that the late earl's vast political network was absolutely
critical for the maintenance of the earl of Carrick's grip on the royal
government. It was therefore absolutely essential for Carrick to ensure
the swift transfer of authority over the earldom of Douglas - and the
wide-ranging socio-political relationships associated with it - to a new
candidate who could hold the Douglas affinity together and thus shore up
Carrick's position. Ostensibly, the strongest candidate to succeed to
the earldom was obviously Sir Malcolm Drummond of Strathord, who was
married to Isabella Douglas, the late earl's sister and closest living
relative by blood. As the Douglas's brother-in-law, Drummond had enjoyed
a prominent position within the late earl's affinity, providing him with
vital personal ties among the chivalry of southern Scotland that might
be used to hold it together in the wake of the earl's death.
Furthermore, he had developed a respectable martial reputation in
service to the earl - he had regularly participated in border warfare
alongside his brother-in-law and had fought at Otterburn with him - and,
perhaps most importantly of all, Drummond's sister Annabella was married
to Carrick, making him the guardian's brother-in-law as well. Hoping for
a smooth and speedy transition, Carrick lent his support to Drummond's
claim.
Drummond's was not the only claim to the earldom however. On his return
from the chevauchée into north-west England, Archibald 'the Grim'
produced an (apparently hitherto obscure) tailzie produced at the behest
of William Douglas, the 'Knight of Liddesdale', in 1342. In its original
context, this document had been designed to strengthen Douglas of
Liddesdale's flimsy claims to the Douglas patrimony, but in essence it
entailed the Douglas estates and titles in the male line. In other
words, it made Drummond's claim to inherit through his wife weaker than
Archibald's claim as Earl James's nearest male - albeit illegitimate -
relative. Archibald quickly proved himself willing to pursue his rights
not only through legal channels but also by force. In the weeks and
months after Otterburn Archibald set about physically occupying as many
of the disputed estates as he could, backed by his own powerful regional
following and his long-standing ally Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith, a
descendant of Douglas of Liddesdale who also stood to gain substantially
from the entail. In doing so, Archibald was forcefully inviting the late
Earl James's following to make a decision over who they felt was a more
fitting successor to their deceased lord - Archibald or Drummond. For
many, this would be a tricky choice. Whatever their thoughts about the
strength of Archibald's legal claim or the personal ties they had
established with Drummond in service to Earl James, Archibald had a more
formidable martial reputation than Drummond, and importantly bore the
surname 'Douglas' that carried such weight among the fighting men of
southern Scotland. This was precisely the situation that the ailing
Carrick needed to avoid - the fracturing of his southern power base as
the late earl's followers were forced to align themselves either with
the crown-backed Drummond or the bellicose Archibald.
There was another element complicating the crisis of 1388. As the
situation grew increasingly fraught, Carrick's younger, ambitious
brother the earl of Fife sensed an opportunity to promote his own
interests at the heart of the royal government. He had already been
appointed as lord chamberlain - chief financial officer in the royal
administration - as early as 1382 and continued in that office
throughout his brother's guardianship. As we have seen, he also enjoyed
a significant military role under the guardianship, leading the main
thrust of the Scottish offensive in 1388 (possibly in place of his elder
brother, who may have planned to lead this force before suffering his
debilitating injuries). With his brother's political support
fragmenting, as well as Carrick apparently being in uncertain health,
Fife was able to have himself appointed guardian of the kingdom at a
parliament held in Edinburgh in December 1388. Fife's remit as guardian
was explicitly 'for putting into effect justice and keeping the law
internally, and for the defence of the kingdom with the king's force' -
i.e. addressing ongoing concerns over lawlessness in the north and
building on the momentum generated by victory at Otterburn. To
accomplish the latter, Fife would need to settle the dispute over the
earldom of Douglas. The most serious obstacle to Fife's efforts to
achieve this was that his landed interests were primarily focused in
central and northern Scotland, and he was thus physically removed from
where the crisis was playing out in the south of the kingdom. If he was
to effectively manage the situation to his advantage, and gain effective
control over war policy, he would need a base in the south of the
kingdom from which to operate. Luckily for him, as earl of Fife he was
also the feudal superior of the barony of North Berwick, which Earl
James had held from him. Thus Fife had a right to claim the imposing
castle the late earl's father had built for himself at Tantallon. From
this coastal fortress Fife would be well-placed to intervene in events
in the south and guide them to a satisfaction conclusion. This however
was complicated by yet another factor in the crisis of 1388 - the fierce
resistance of the tenacious Margaret Stewart, countess of Angus.
'The impediment': Margaret Stewart and the Crisis of 1388
Margaret was the eldest of two daughters of Thomas Stewart, earl of
Angus, whose death in 1362 made her heiress to the lion's share of his
earldom. Around 1360, when Margaret can have been no more than six or
seven years old, she had been married to another Thomas, earl of Mar, a
man some twenty years her senior. In 1377 Mar too died, having been
frequently absent from Scotland during their marriage, which had
produced no children. Margaret now found herself, still in her twenties,
as a woman of independent means with rights to most of the earldom of
Angus and a third of the earldom of Mar (her widow's terce). In 1381
Margaret cut a deal with William, 1st earl of Douglas, (Earl James's
father) whereby she rented her portion of the earldom of Mar for a
whopping £200 annually as well as the right of live in his
recently-constructed castle at Tantallon. This appealed to Douglas
because it allowed him to reunite the estates of the earldom of Mar, the
bulk of which he had inherited through his wife, the late Earl Thomas's
sister (and thus Margaret's sister-in-law). For Margaret on the other
hand residence at Tantallon provided proximity to her kinsmen the
Sinclairs of Herdmanston, the offspring from her mother's first marriage
with whom she seems to have been very close. There was perhaps a more
personal motivation behind this arrangement however, as Margaret and
William began an affair, possibly as early as 1379 or even before, and
at some point over the next three years Margaret gave birth to an
illegitimate son - George.
Margaret continued to reside at Tantallon even after Earl William's
death in 1384 and was still living there at the time of the Battle of
Otterburn. However, with the second earl's unexpected death Margaret's
future suddenly looked uncertain. The payments for her portion of the
earldom of Mar would now surely cease, and even her right to live at
Tantallon was in jeopardy. Yet Margaret was not willing to simply let
events sweep her along. She did at least have the advantage of physical
possession of Tantallon Castle, where she gathered a number of the late
Earl James's former adherents including Alan Lauder of the Bass,
constable of Tantallon, Sir William Borthwick, William Lindsay of the
Byres, Richard Hangangside, and her kinsmen the Sinclairs of Herdmanston,
who according to Froissart had been with the earl when he died and had
carried the earl's banner forwards in order to boost the morale of the
embattled Scots. Margaret's plan was apparently to hold out at
Tantallon, exploiting Fife's need to recover the castle to force him
into negotiating with her. In essence, Margaret was using the same
strategy as Archibald, seizing the property she was interested in and
then seeking to broker legal recognition after the fact. As early as
18th August Fife complained to a general council being held in
Linlithgow that his rights as feudal superior of North Berwick were
being denied, and so the council produced a letter addressed to the
freeholders of the barony, the constable of Tantallon (Lauder), and -
crucially - 'the others living and dwelling in the same castle'
instructing them to surrender the castle 'immediately without any excuse
or raising any difficulty...under every penalty which can occur by that
cause'. This missive clearly failed to have the intended effect, because
the council at which Fife was appointed guardian in December heard a
request from Fife 'that the impediment which was thrown before him
concerning obtaining the said castle might be removed'. Despite the fact
that the council once again sided with Fife, yet more royal letters had
to be sent on 7th January 1389 insisting that the castle be surrendered.
Despite all of this intimidating correspondence, it is not until 20th
January (more than five months after the second earl's death) that we
find Fife at Tantallon, not simply to assume his rights to the barony
but rather to clarify the terms on which he could gain access to the
castle. Crucially, Fife acknowledged Margaret's right to abode at the
castle indefinitely and agreed to 'manteyn hir, hir men, hir landys and
al hir possessions agayns ony that wald wrang thaim'. Margaret's gamble
had paid off spectacularly. It seems that Fife, faced with the prospect
of a long and frustrating resistance from Margaret and her supporters,
rather than seeking to bluntly enforce her will had decided instead to
integrate her into his own political network. Certainly, her leadership
of the late earl's adherents in the wake of his death was proof of her
substantial influence in East Lothian. This was an area into which Fife
would need to extend his own authority if he was going to take control
of the war effort. On 29th January Fife was still at Tantallon, where he
issued letters in favour of Alan Lauder, demonstrating that not only
Margaret but also 'hir men' were already reaping the benefits of
Margaret's newfound alliance with Fife. These letters were witnessed by
Drummond, who it seems had attached himself to Fife in the hopes of
securing his rights to the earldom of Douglas. However, the
incorporation of Margaret and her supporters into Fife's wider affinity
spelled the beginning of the end for Drummond's hopes. The very fact
that so many noteworthy members of the Douglas affinity turned to
Margaret for leadership, rather than falling in line with Drummond or
switching their allegiance to Archibald, is already a striking
illustration of the weakness of Drummond's position. As Margaret grew
closer politically to Fife, she brought these men with her, draining
potential support from Drummond. However, as will become clear, Margaret
would extract more than just the right to live at Tantallon in return
for her continued support of Fife's ambitions, negotiations for which
were almost certainly conducted at the castle in January.
Dynasty Building: The Birth of the Red Douglases
In early April 1389 a parliament met at
Holyrood Abbey, the
continuation of an assembly first convened at Scone on 29th March. On
2nd, Drummond was stripped of the lordship of Selkirk Forest (a key
Douglas possession dating back to the time of 'the Good' Sir James) and
the sheriffship of Roxburgh in absentia. His attorneys complained that
Drummond feared for his own safety should he personally appear at
parliament, a claim that it is hard not to conclude was a pointed
reference to Archibald the Grim's seizure of the contested Douglas
estates. Assurances were made for Drummond's safety but it appears that
Drummond's difficulties had been going on for some time because 'the
guardian [i.e. Fife] himself explained, expressly in his own voice, in
the same place, that he had granted this same thing to him previously
on various occasions' (my italics). Wisely, Drummond had
apparently still not shown up when on 7th parliament inspected
Archibald's entail of 1342 and confirmed Archibald in the possession of
the estates of his father as well as the title 'earl of Douglas'.
Parliament's recognition of Archibald's rights was not simply an
acknowledgement of the legality of the 1342 document, it was also given
'so the dissensions of the magnates and the harms to the community may
be avoided'. Again, this suggests that the hope was that acquiescing to
Archibald's demands might finally pacify him and secure his support for
Fife's guardianship. Three days later, it was time for Margaret to
receive her reward for helping to smooth over Fife's assumption of
authority over the community in southern Scotland.
On 9th April, Margaret resigned the earldom of Angus in parliament 'of
her own pure and spontaneous desire'. The following day, a charter was
issued granting the earldom and various associated estates to her
illegitimate son George. The document was issued in the name of the
king, and was witnessed by (among others) Fife and Archibald 'the Grim'.
This was Margaret's crowning achievement. She was no longer using the
estates she had accrued from her father and her marriage to provide
herself with a comfortable living, which had been the position she had
carved out for herself since 1381. Now she had secured her son's
elevation to the upper ranks of the aristocracy, giving him the prospect
of establishing a lasting magnate dynasty in south-east Scotland.
Margaret would spend the rest of her life defending these gains. Ever
the pragmatist, she was willing to cross factional lines in order to
accomplish this. In 1397 she arranged her son's marriage to Mary,
daughter of Carrick (now Robert III). This union tied her family's
fortune into those of the crown, which at the time was staging something
of a comeback against Fife (now the duke of Albany). Margaret's primary
focus remained those of her offspring however. When leading figures in
the royal administration sought to use military means to take possession
of her infant grandson William, 2nd
earl of Angus, in 1406, Margaret allied herself with a younger son
of Archibald 'the Grim' - James
'the Gross' - to violently (and successfully) resist this. She died
some time between 1416 and 1418, well into her sixties and by this time
living on the Sinclair manor of Begbie on the banks of the River Tyne
south-west of Haddington, her grandson now old enough to manage his own
affairs. 1388-9 had been the defining moment of Margaret's career and
serves as a striking demonstration of what a remarkably forceful
personality she must have had. Fortune had bestowed her with
considerable landed wealth, which she initially used to allow her to
live the pleasant and semi-independent lifestyle. In 1388 Margaret used
her not inconsiderable political skill and quite extraordinary
confidence to turn this into a lasting legacy for her son and future
offspring. It is both her audacity and her success that make Margaret
Stewart, countess of Angus, one of the most fascinating women in
medieval Scotland.
|
