SCOTTISH ROYALTIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1928, Page 8

SCOTTISH ROYALTIES

DISTRACTING EXPERIENCES.

The land of the mountain and the flood could never guarantee its monarchs a long and peaceful reign. Uneasy lay the heads of most of its kings and queens. From the time when Kenneth McAlpine, in the ninth century, united Scotland into one kingdom, its record until a very recent period was one of feud, competition for supremacy, murder and other unhappy things. Gruoch, who became Lady Macbeth, was a lineal descendant of Kenneth McAlpine, and had for cousin one Malcolm 11, who “waded through blood to seize the crown.” Duncan I. the 84th King of Scots, was murdered by Macbeth, and Duncan’s son married Margaret, known as. St. Margaret, and “the Glorious Gueen of Scots,” figures in history as the first refin-ining personality in the history of the court. She taught the Scots to attire themselves “so that they looked like a new race of men.” Some say she introduced the tartan into Scot 7 land. Her influence for good was great in many directions, and particularly in the protection of brides from the intolerable claims of the lord of the soil. Little wonder she was cannonised.

Miss E. Thornton Cook, in her latest work, “Their Majesties of Scotland,” has given a record of Scottish kings and queens from Macbeth to Prince Charles Edward, a record that is highly tempestuous, and full of “battle, murder, and sudden death,” yet relieved and brightened with that romance which seems one of the rich endowments of the northern realm. If one were to find any fault with the book it would be that the facts are too many, and the lack of a unifying historic principle is somewhat serious. This is however, atoned for by quotations from ancient documents marked by ample vividness and realism. St. Margaret’s son, David 1, had a somewhat turbulent reign of twentynine years, but he gave life in Scotland new security by a decree that no man should be “hangit for a cryme,” the financial importance of which was less than the value of two sheep at sixteen-pence each. His passion was for the founding of bishoprics and monasteries, and his famous descendant, James I, surveying the.long list of David’s church benefactions, grimly observed that “he was a sair saint for Scotland.”

King Robert the Bruce was a grandson of the Robert the Bruce who had competed for the crown against John Balliol. Edward 1 of England had decided against Bruce’s claim to the tJiTone, and tlj(e snubbed candidate went to Palestine. His son, Robert, returned to England, met Martha, the fifteen-year-old widow of the Earl of Carrick, and, as the ancient chronicle says, “Kisses were given on each side, as is the wont of courtiers.” Martha appears to have loved him at first sight, for she besought, him to stay and ride and walk with her, and when she saw him unwilling she caught his rein and brought him to her castle. Fifteen days later he married her secretly. As she was a ward of Royalty, the King confiscated her property for wedding without his consent, but he was appeased by a fine,, and the son of this marriage was the saviour, champion, and king of the bruised Scottish people.

Wallace fought nobly for his country, and his execution roused Robert Bruce to action. Again there was a. competition for the throne. Bruce slew his rival, the Red Cornyn, and was crowned at Scone with a borrowed coronet. Bannockburn was fought in 1314, and the independence of Scotland secured. Parliament established a defence force bj r ordering every Scot to hold himself in readiness for war. A person owning land to the value of £lO had to keep at hand “a buff jacket and steel head piece”; the

owner of a single cow had to provide “a bow, with a sheaf of twenty-five arrows.” • < With the accession of Robert 11, a grandson of Robert Bruce, a new line of kings, the famous and infamous Stuarts, came to the throne. He was the son of Walter, the hereditary high steward of Scotland, and Marjorie, daughter of the Scottish hero, King Robert Bruce. Some eight Stuarts followed him, one Robert 111, six being Jameses, up to James VI, and one the illustrious Mary Queen of Scots, daugh ter of JamesV, and mother of James VI. During part of this period, which began in 1370, and ran till 1603, there was much fighting with the English, and no little internal strife. _ There were quarrels with France, disagreements about marriages, festivities, military expeditions wtih here and theie. a capture anil a muh’der; a border raid, princesses in the marriage market, or as pawns in the political game; knigflits who leapt into the saddle without putting foot to the stirrup, and the glorious weddings of kings, at many of which there was a reception where the new queen had to kiss all the guests and “the king kissed her for her labours.” „ When James V. sat on the Scottish throne, Henry VIII of England was eager to get his nephew on his side in the religious struggle then raging, and pressed for some kind of matrimonial union between England and Scotland, James fancied Magdalene of Valois, daughter of the King of journeyed over the sea to meet her, and the two fell in love at first sight. They were married, the bride being but sixteen years of age. Unhappily, she died forty days after reaching Scotland. In the following year James married Mary of Guise, who became the mother of Mary Queen of Scots. From this point the story of Scotland is fairly familiar. The religious question dominated the field.

The union of the Crowns under James VI in 1603 brought the two kingdoms into a unity which can hardly be described as a success. The Stuart idea of the prerogatives of the Crown did not fit well with the convictions of either England or Scotland. The double-dealing of James II at last so roused the people that they ended the dynasty. Bonnie Prince Charlie made a brave attempt to regain the crown in 1745, but after some successes had to go about in disguise in the highlands and escape to France. Before long, even Franco had refused him asylum, and for sixteen years he wandered from country to country. He sank lower and lower. It was rumoured that the young Chevalier in disguise was present at the coronation of George HI. He married a girl who said the blood of Bruce was in her veins,, but “Charles Ill” proved a jealous husband, without self-control, and the young wife took refuge in a convent. He died in 1788, and was buried in St. Peter’s Rome.

Another Stuart, “Henry IX,” had a medal struck proclaiming himself “King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith,” but on the reverse side were the ominous words, “Not by the desire of mankind, but by Hie will of God.” Until he died in 1807 he kept up his pretensions to the country he had never seen; The romantic, diehard Jacobites issued placards in 1702 claiming the crown for the Archduchess of ModenaEste, but no one paid any attention.

It is well to make acquaintance with Majesties as they are limned in the pages of Miss Cook’s volume. These Kings and Queens were very human, and took themselves right seriously. In days like ours, when the whole conception of kingcraft has changed, one is saved from uncharitableness only by seeking sanctuary in the history, perspective. i