new settlements. They did not exterminate the an-
cient inhabitants of the countries which they subdued ;
but, seizing the greater part of their lands, they took
their persons under protection. The difficulty of main-
taining a new conquest, as well as the danger of being
attacked by new invaders, rendering it necessary to be
always in a posture of defence, the form of government
which they established was altogether military, and
nearly resembled that to which they had been accus-
tomed in their native country. Their general still con-
tinuing to be the head of the colony, part of the con-
quered lands were allotted to him ; the remainder, under
the name of ' beneficia' or * fiefs,' was divided amongst
his principal officers. As the common safety required
that these officers should, upon all occasions, be ready
to appear in arms, for the common defence, and should
continue obedient to their general, they bound them-

d Caes. lib. vi. c. 23. e Tacit, de Mor. Germ. c. 7. 11.

f Caes. ibid.



BOOK i. OF SCOTLAND. 15

selves to take the field, when called, and to serve him
with a number of men, in proportion to the extent of
their territory. These great officers again parcelled
out their lands among their followers, and annexed the
same condition to the grant. A feudal kingdom was
properly the encampment of a great army; military
ideas predominated, military subordination was esta-
blished, and the possession of land was the pay which
soldiers received for their personal service. In con-
sequence of these notions, the possession of land was
granted during pleasure only, and kings were elective.
In other words, an officer disagreeable to his general
was deprived of his pay, and the person who was most
capable of conducting an army was chosen to command
it. Such were the first rudiments, or infancy of feudal
government.

But long before the beginning of the fourteenth cen-
tury, the feudal system had undergone many changes,
of which the following were the most considerable.
Kings, formerly elective, were then hereditary; and
fiefs, granted at first during pleasure, descended from
father to son, and were become perpetual. These
changes, not less advantageous to the nobles than to
the prince, made no alteration in the aristocratical spi-
rit of the feudal constitution. The king, who, at a dis- General
tance, seemed to be invested with majesty and power, ^hiclfli
appears, on a nearer view, to possess almost none of m ited the
those advantages which bestow on monarchs their gran- JhTfeudal
deur and authority. His revenues were scanty ; he had m narchs.
not a standing army ; and the jurisdiction he possessed
was circumscribed within very narrow limits.

At a time when pomp and splendour were little known, Their reve-
even in the palaces of kings ; when the officers of the
crown received scarcely any salary besides the fees and
perquisites of their office ; when embassies to foreign
courts were rare ; when armies were composed of sol-
diers who served without pay ; it was not necessary that
a king should possess a great revenue; nor did the



1C THE HISTORY BOOK i.

condition of Europe, in those ages, allow its princes to
be opulent. Commerce made little progress in the
kingdoms where the feudal government was establish-
ed. Institutions, which had no other object but to in-
spire a martial spirit, to train men to be soldiers, and
to make arms the only honourable profession, naturally
discouraged the commercial arts. The revenues, aris-
ing from the taxes imposed on the different branches
of commerce, were, by consequence, inconsiderable;
and the prince's treasury received little supply from a
source, which, among a trading people, flows with such
abundance, and is almost inexhaustible. A fixed tax
was not levied even on land: such a burthen would
have appeared intolerable to men who received their
estates as the reward of their valour, and who consi-
dered their service in the field as a full retribution for
what they possessed. The king's ' demesnes,' or the
portion of land which he still retained in his own hands
unalienated, furnished subsistence to his court, and de-
frayed the ordinary expense of government 8 . The
only stated taxes which the feudal law obliged vassals
to pay to the king, or to those of whom they held their
lands, were three : one, when his eldest son was made
a knight ; another, when his eldest daughter was mar-
ried ; and a third, in order to ransom him, if he should
happen to be taken prisoner. Besides these, the king
received the feudal casualties of the ward, marriage,
etc. of his own vassals. And, on some extraordinary
occasions, his subjects granted him an aid, which they
distinguished by the name of a ' benevolence,' in order
to declare that he received it not in consequence of any
right, but as a gift, flowing from their good will h . All
these added together, produced a revenue so scanty
and precariqus, as naturally incited a feudal monarch to
aim at diminishing the exorbitant power and wealth of
the nobility, but, instead of enabling him to carry on

Craig, de Feud. lib. i. Dieg. 14. Du Cange, Gloss, voc. dominicum.
h Du Cange, voc. auxilium.



Book i. OF SCOTLAND. 17

his schemes with full effect, kept him in continual indi-
gence, anxiety, and dependence.

Nor could the king supply the defect of his revenues They had
by the terrour of his arms. Mercenary troops and stand-
ing armies were unknown, as long as the feudal govern-
ment subsisted in vigour. Europe was peopled with
soldiers. The vassals of the king, and the sub-vassals
of the barons, were all obliged to carry arms. While
the poverty of princes prevented them from fortifying
their frontier towns, while a campaign continued but a
few weeks, and while a fierce and impetuous courage
was impatient to bring every quarrel to the decision of
a battle, an army, without pay, and with little discipline,
was sufficient for all the purposes both of the security
and of the glory of the nation. Such an army, how-
ever, far from being an engine at the king's disposal,
was often no less formidable to him, than to his ene-
mies. The more warlike any people were, the more
independent they became ; and the same persons being
both soldiers and subjects, civil privileges and immuni-
ties were the consequence of their victories, and the
reward of their martial exploits. Conquerors, whom
mercenary armies, under our present forms of govern-
ment, often render the tyrants of their own people, as
well as the scourges of mankind, were commonly, under
the feudal constitution, the most indulgent of all princes
to their subjects, because they stood most in need of
their assistance. A prince, whom even war and victo-
ries did not render the master of his own army, pos-
sessed hardly any shadow of military power during
times of peace. His disbanded soldiers mingled with
his other subjects ; not a single man received pay from
him ; many ages elapsed even before a guard was ap-
pointed to defend his person; and destitute of that
great instrument of dominion, a standing army, the au-
thority of the king continued always feeble, and was
often contemptible.

Nor were these the only circumstances which contri-

VOL. i. c



18 THE HISTORY BOOK i.

Their juris- buted towards depressing the regal power. By the
limited. WaS feudal system, as has been already observed, the king's
judicial authority was extremely circumscribed. At first,
princes seem to have been the supreme judges of their
people, and, in person, heard and determined all con-
troversies among them. The multiplicity of causes soon
made it necessary to appoint judges, who, in the king's
name, decided matters that belonged to the royal juris-
diction. But the barbarians, who overran Europe, hav-
ing destroyed most of the great cities, and the countries
which they seized being cantoned out among power-
ful chiefs, who were blindly followed by numerous de-
pendents, whom, in return, they were bound to pro-
tect from every injury ; the administration of justice
was greatly interrupted, and the execution of any legal
sentence became almost impracticable. Theft, rapine,
murder, and disorder of all kinds, prevailed in every
kingdom of Europe, to a degree almost incredible, and
scarce compatible with the subsistence of civil society.
Every offender sheltered himself under the protection
of some powerful chieftain, who screened him from the
pursuits of justice. To apprehend, and to punish a cri-
minal, often required the union and effort of half a
kingdom 1 . In order to remedy these evils, many per-

1 A remarkable instance of this occurs in the following history, so late as
the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-one. Mary, having appointed
a court of justice to be held on the borders, the inhabitants of no less than
eleven counties were summoned to guard the person, who was to act as
judge, and to enable him to enforce his decisions. The words of a pro-
clamation, which afford such a convincing proof of the feebleness of the
feudal government, deserve our notice. " And because it is necessary for
the execution of her highness' commandments and service, that her justice
be well accompanied, and her authority sufficiently fortified, by the con-
currence of a good power of her faithful subjects Therefore commands
and charges all and sundry earls, lords, barons, freeholders, landed-men,
and other gentlemen, dwelling within the said counties, that they, and every
one of them, with their kin, friends, servants, and household-men, well
bodin in feir of war in the most substantious manner, [i. e. completely '
armed and provided,] and with twenty days' victuals, to meet and to pass
forward with him to the borough of Jedburgh, and there to remain during
the said space of twenty days, and to receive such direction and commands



BOOK i. OF SCOTLAND. 19

sons of distinction were entrusted with the administra-
tion of justice within their own territories. But what,
we may presume, was, at first, only a temporary grant,
or a personal privilege, the encroaching spirit of the
nobles gradually converted into a right, and rendered
hereditary. The lands of some were, in process of
time, erected into ' baronies,' those of others into * re-
galities.' The jurisdiction of the former was extensive;
that of the latter, as the name implies, royal, and almost
unbounded. All causes, whether civil or criminal, were
tried by judges, whom the lord of the regality ap-
pointed; and if the king's courts called any person
within his territory before them, the lord of regality
might put a stop to their proceedings, and, by the pri-
vilege of ' repledging,' remove the cause to his own
court, and even punish his vassal, if he submitted to a
foreign jurisdiction 11 . Thus almost every question, in
which any person who resided on the lands of the no-
bles was interested, being determined by judges ap-
pointed by the nobles themselves, their vassals were
hardly sensible of being, in any degree, subject to the
crown. A feudal kingdom was split into many small
principalities, almost independent, and held together
by a feeble and commonly an imperceptible bond of
union. The king was not only stripped of the autho-
rity annexed to the person of a supreme judge, but his
revenue suffered no small diminution, by the loss of
those pecuniary emoluments, which were, in that age,
due to the person who administered justice.

In the same proportion that the king sunk in power,
the nobles rose towards independence. Not satisfied
with having obtained an hereditary right to their fiefs,
which they formerly held during pleasure, their ambi-
tion aimed at something bolder, and, by introducing

as shall be given by him to them in our sovereign lady's name, for quietness
of the country ; and to put the same in execution under the pain of losing
their life, lands, and goods." Keith's Hist, of Scotland, 198.
k Craig, lib. iii. Dieg. 7.

c2



20 THE HISTORY BOOK i.

' entails,' endeavoured, as far as human ingenuity and in-
vention can reach that end, to render their possessions
unalienable and everlasting. As they had full power to
add to the inheritance transmitted to them from their
ancestors, but none to diminish it, time alone, by means
of marriages, legacies, and other accidents, brought
continual accessions of wealth and of dignity ; a great
family, like a river, became considerable from the length
of its course, and, as it rolled on, new honours and
new property flowed successively into it. Whatever
influence is derived from titles of honour, the feudal
barons likewise possessed in an ample manner. These
marks of distinction are, in their own nature, either
official or personal, and being annexed to a particular
charge, or bestowed by the admiration of mankind
upon illustrious characters, ought to be appropriated
to these. But the son, however unworthy, could not
bear to be stripped of that appellation by which his fa-
ther had been distinguished. His presumption claimed,
what his virtue did not merit ; titles of honour became
hereditary, and added new lustre to nobles already in
possession of too much power. Something more auda-
cious and more extravagant still remained. The su-
preme direction of all affairs, both civil and military,
being committed to the great officers of the crown, the
fame and safety of princes, as well as of their people,
depended upon the fidelity and abilities of these offi-
cers. But such was the preposterous ambition of the
nobles, and so successful even in their wildest attempts
to aggrandize themselves, that in all the kingdoms
where the feudal institutions prevailed, most of the
chief offices of state were annexed to great families,
and held, like fiefs, by hereditary right. A person
whose undutiful behaviour rendered him odious to his
prince, or whose incapacity exposed him to the con-
tempt of the people, often held a place of power and
trust of the greatest importance to both. In Scotland,
the offices of lord justice general, great ehamberlain,



BOOK i. OF SCOTLAND. 21

high steward, high constable, earl marshal, and high
admiral, were all hereditary; and in many counties, the
office of sheriff was held in the same manner.

Nobles, whose property was so extensive, and whose
power was so great, could not fail of being turbulent
and formidable. Nor did they want instruments for
executing their boldest designs. That portion of their
lands, which they parcelled out among their followers,
supplied them with a numerous band of faithful and
determined vassals ; while that which they retained in
their own hands, enabled them to live with a princely
splendour. The great hall of an ambitious baron was
often more crowded than the court of his sovereign.
The strong castles, in which they resided, afforded
a secure retreat to the discontented and seditious.
A great part of their revenue was spent upon mul-
titudes of indigent, but bold retainers. And if at any
time they left their retreat to appear in the court of
their sovereign, they were accompanied, even in times
of peace, with a vast train of armed followers. The
usual retinue of William, the sixth earl of Douglas,
consisted of two thousand horse. Those of the other
nobles were magnificent and formidable in proportion.
Impatient of subordination, and forgetting their proper
rank, such potent and haughty barons were the rivals,
rather than the subjects, of their prince. They often
despised his orders, insulted his person, and wrested
from him his crown. The history of Europe, during
several ages, contains little else but the accounts of the
wars and revolutions occasioned by their exorbitant
ambition.

But, if the authority of the barons far exceeded its Their power
proper bounds in the other nations of Europe, we may f^and 1
affirm that the balance which ought to be preserved tban in any
between a king and hi's nobles was almost entirely lost j om>
in Scotland. The Scottish nobles enjoyed, in common
with those of other nations, all the means for extending
their authority which arise from the aristocratical ge-



22 THE HISTORY BOOK i.

nius of the feudal government. Besides these, they pos-
sessed advantages peculiar to themselves : the accidental
sources of their power were considerable ; and singular
circumstances concurred with the spirit of the constitu-
The parti- tion to aggrandize them. To enumerate the most re-
of this?" 1 >es markable of these, will serve both to explain the political
state of the kingdom, and to illustrate many important
occurrences in the period now under our review.
The na- I. The nature of their country was one cause of the

count. * power and independence of the Scottish nobility. Level
and open countries are formed for servitude. The au-
thority of the supreme magistrate reaches with ease to
the most distant corners ; and when nature has erected
no barrier, and affords no retreat, the guilty or ob-
noxious are soon detected and punished. Mountains,
and fens, and rivers, set bounds to despotic power, and
amidst these is the natural seat of freedom and inde-
pendence. In such places did the Scottish nobles
usually fix their residence. By retiring to his own
castle, a mutinous baron could defy the power of his so-
vereign, it being almost impracticable to lead an army,
through a barren country, to places of difficult access
to a single man. The same causes which checked the
progress of the Roman arms, and rendered all the
efforts of Edward the first abortive, often protected the
Scottish nobles from the vengeance of their prince ; and
they owed their personal independence to those very
mountains and marshes which saved their country from
being conquered.

The small II. The want of great cities in Scotland contributed
Cities no * a little to increase the power of the nobility, and to
weaken that of the prince. Wherever numbers of men
assemble together, order must be established, and a
regular form of government instituted ; the authority of
the magistrate must be recognised, and his decisions
meet with prompt and full obedience. Laws and sub-
ordination take rise in cities ; and where there are few
cities, as in Poland, or none, as in Tartary, there are



BOOK i. OF SCOTLAND. 23

few or no traces of a well-arranged police. But under
the feudal governments, commerce, the chief means of
assembling mankind, was neglected ; the nobles, in or-
der to strengthen their influence over their vassals, re-
sided among them, and seldom appeared at court, where
they found a superior, or dwelt in cities, where they
met with equals. In Scotland, the fertile counties in
the south lying open to the English, no town situated
there could rise to be great or populous, amidst conti-
nual inroads and alarms ; the residence of our monarchs
was not fixed to any particular place ; many parts of
the country were barren and uncultivated; and, in con-
sequence of these peculiar circumstances, added to the
general causes flowing from the nature of the feudal
institutions, the towns in Scotland were extremely few t
and very inconsiderable. The vassals of every baron
occupied a distinct portion of the kingdom, and formed
a separate and almost independent society. Instead of
giving aid towards reducing to obedience their sedi-
tious chieftain, or any whom he took under his protec-
tion, they were all in arms for his defence, and ob-
structed the operations of justice to the utmost. The
prince was obliged to connive at criminals whom he
could not reach ; the nobles, conscious of this advan-
tage, were not afraid to offend ; arid the difficulty of
punishing almost assured them of impunity.

III. The division of the country into clans had no The institu-
small effect in rendering the nobles considerable. The Uc
nations which overran Europe were originally divided
into many small tribes ; and when they came to parcel
out the lands which they had conquered, it was natural
for every chieftain to bestow a portion, in the first place,
upon those of his own tribe or family. These all held
their lands of him ; and as the safety of each individual
depended on the general union, these small societies
clung together, and were distinguished by some com-
mon appellation, either patronymical or local, long be-
fore the introduction of surnames, or ensigns armorial.



24 THE HISTORY BOOK i.

But when these became common, the descendants and
relations of every chieftain assumed the same name and
arms with him ; other vassals were proud to imitate
their example, and, by degrees, they were communi-
cated to all those who held of the same superior. Thus
clanships were formed ; and in a generation or two,
that consanguinity, which was at first in a great mea-
sure imaginary, was believed to be real. An artificial
union was converted into a natural one ; men willingly
followed a leader, whom they regarded both as the su-
perior of their lands and the chief of their blood, and
served him not only with the fidelity of vassals, but
with the affection of friends. In the other feudal king-
doms, we may observe such unions as we have de-
scribed imperfectly formed ; but in Scotland, whether
they were the production of chance, or the effect of
policy, or introduced by the Irish colony above-men-
tioned, and strengthened by carefully preserving their
genealogies, both genuine and fabulous, clanships were
universal. Such a confederacy might be overcome, it
could not be broken ; and no change of manners, or of
government, has been able, in some parts of the king-
dom, to dissolve associations which are founded upon
prejudices so natural to the human mind. How for-
midable were nobles at the head of followers, who,
counting that cause just and honourable which their
chief approved, rushed into the field at his command,
ever ready to sacrifice their lives in defence of his per-
son or of his fame ! Against such men a king contend-
ed with great disadvantage ; and that cold service which
money purchases^ or authority extorts, was not an equal
match for their ardour and zeal.

The small IV. The smallness of their number may be mention-
thenobles. et * among tne causes of the grandeur of the Scottish



nobles. Our annals reach not back to the first division
of property in the kingdom ; but so far as we can trace
the matter, the original possessions of the nobles seem
to have been extensive. The ancient thanes were the



BOOK i. OF SCOTLAND. 25

equals and the rivals of their prince. Many of the earls
and barons, who succeeded them, were masters of ter-
ritories no less ample. France and England, countries
wide and fertile, afforded settlements to a numerous
and powerful nobility. Scotland, a kingdom neither
extensive nor rich, could not contain many such over-
grown proprietors. But the power of an aristocracy
always diminishes in proportion to the increase of its
numbers ; feeble if divided among a multitude, irre-
sistible if centred in a few. When nobles are nume-
rous, their operations nearly resemble those of the peo-
ple ; they are roused only by what they feel, not by
what they apprehend ; and submit to many arbitrary
and oppressive acts, before they take arms against their
sovereign. A small body, on the contrary, is more sen-
sible and more impatient; quick in discerning, and
prompt in repelling danger; all its motions are as sud-
den as those of the other are slow. Hence proceeded
the extreme jealousy with which the Scottish nobles
observed their monarchs, and the fierceness with which
they opposed their encroachments. Even the virtue of
a prince did not render them less vigilant, or less eager
to defend their rights; and Robert Bruce, notwith-
standing the splendour of his victories, and the glory of
his name, was upon the point of experiencing the vi-
gour of their resistance, no less than his unpopular
descendant, James the third. Besides this, the near al-
liance of the great families, by frequent intermarriages,
was the natural consequence of their small number; and
as consanguinity was, in those ages, a powerful bond
of union, all the kindred of a nobleman interested them-
selves in his quarrel, as a common cause ; and every
contest the king had, though with a single baron, soon
drew upon him the arms of a whole confederacy.

V. Those natural connexions, both with their equals Their
and with their inferiors, the Scottish nobles strengthen- ^Uom
ed by a device, which, if not peculiar to themselves, binations.
was at least more frequent among them, than in any



26 THE HISTORY BOOK i.

other nation. Even in times of profound peace, they
formed associations, which, when made with their equals,