The History of Dundee,
1874 History by James Thomson

James Thomson's 1874 work

INTRODUCTION

This work has been transcribed - verbatim - from the 1874 edition. Much about the history of Dundee has been changed, revised and updated by Historians over the years - So please refer to those new histories of Dundee for a more modern understanding of the History of Dundee.
This exercise is to just to make available the original source material from the 1875 Book.

Iain D. McIntosh, Friends of Dundee City Archives

Chapter III

[The stately Abbey of Arbroath had now been completed, and frequent visits were paid to it by King William, its founder, and his successors, Alexander II. and III]  Courts were held within its pre­cincts, at which charters were granted, and other public business transacted; and there can be no doubt Dundee had at least a passing visit from these sovereigns on such occasions. Beyond what may thus be inferred, history is silent regarding it, until the time of the dispute between Bruce and Balliol for the Crown.

In the meantime a new spirit had been infused into the social life and polity of the nation. Paganism was rooted out, and had given place to Christianity; writing was coming into use; land was held by written tenures; and the statute law began to be respected. Begin­ning in the days of Malcolm Canmore and his Saxon Queen, but more largely developed during the brilliant reign of David I.—the Arthur of Scotland—an immigration of southern colonists poured over the border, and spread along the eastern seaboard of Scotland. Encouraged by lands gifted to them as feudatories of the Crown, these Norman knights and Saxon thegns, with their followers, soon made their influence felt among the native population. The favourable situation of our newly created burgh for commercial exertions induced many to take up their residence within its walls, for the purpose of pursuing their various avocations with more success and security than they could do in the country. This, as it increased the number of inhabitants, necessarily tended to the accumulation of riches; and there need be little hesitation in saying that at this period, and long after, Dundee was the first town in the kingdom for wealth, population, and general consequence to the State—as at a period long subsequent, it only yielded to Edinburgh, which, when it became the permanent residence of royalty, soon exceeded all others. The increasing consequence of Dundee, situated on an arm of the sea, on the east side of the kingdom, and having ready access to all existing marts and emporiums of commerce, attracted the attention of Alexander III. [1249-1285], who renewed and confirmed the privileges and immunities granted by his royal predecessors; which would not fail in producing a corresponding effect on the character of the town, and adding new vigour to its commercial enterprises.

The most serious evil which Dundee experienced in ancient times arose out of the disputed succession to the Crown, at the death of the infant queen Margaret, daughter of Eric, King of Norway, and niece of Alexander III. Margaret died at Orkney [1290], while on her passage to take possession of her uncle's crown, which fatal circum­stance raised no less than thirteen competitors for the vacant throne; but practically the competition lay between John Balliol, great-grand­son to David, Earl of Huntingdon, through his eldest daughter, and Robert Bruce, grandson, through his second daughter. These two claimants were strongly supported by powerful factions; and as war appeared to threaten, they agreed to refer the matter to the arbitration of Edward I. of England, and to abide by his decision, Edward readily accepted the office of arbiter, and met the Scottish nobility and clergy at Norham, 10th May, 1291. In the meantime, eager to acquire the sovereignty of Scotland, which several of his predeces­sors had unsuccessfully sought, he practised upon the easy nature of Balliol; who, more dazzled with the empty glitter of royalty than anxious to possess an independent diadem, consented to hold his king­dom as a feudatory of Edward; who, on the other side, engaged to give him, at all hazards, possession of the crown of Scotland. Previous to this, Edward had made an attempt to subjugate Scotland to his power, by means of a marriage between his son, afterwards Edward II., and the niece of Alexander III., while she yet resided in Norway with her father, Eric, or Haquin, as some have called him.  

In a parliament which was held at Brechin, Edward had the support of a powerful faction, through whose exertions the proposed marriage was carried against all opposition, and an ambassador appointed to proceed to Norway, to notify to Eric the acquiescence of the estates of Scotland in the proposals made by Edward. Eric cautiously avoided earning to any explicit expression of his sentiments, dissatisfied, per­haps, that the person and interests of his daughter should go from under the shelter of her natural protector. The caution of the Nor­wegian monarch alarmed Edward; but he had no other remedy than patience; and before any other measures to induce compliance with his wishes could be adopted, the death of Margaret dissipated all his hopes of acquiring Scotland by a matrimonial connection. The com­petition for the succession which then arose brought the sceptre of Scotland almost within his grasp; for, when the time arrived for the decision of the claims of the two competitors, Edward, on 17th Nov., 1292, declared for Balliol, prefacing this declaration with another, in which he assumed to himself the superiority, of Scotland, as lord para­mount. Foreseeing that these declarations would not be palatable to the Scots, Edward had prepared to compel their consent; for his armies, already assembled on the borders, poured into Scotland to take possession of it for him, as superior lord, and for Balliol, as king, and England's feudatory; but ere long he began to perceive that, though the candidates for the Crown were willing to receive him as superior lord, the nation at large was actuated by a spirit very different, and in consequence he demanded to be put in possession of all the forts and places of strength. The candidates, and many of the nobility in the kingdom readily yielded their castles, in which English garrisons were placed; but Gilbert de Umfraville, who in right of his wife was Earl of Angus, with great integrity and spirit, refused to deliver up those of Dundee and Forfar, of which he was governor—declaring that, as he had been intrusted with them by the people of Scotland, he knew of no foreign power that had a right to demand them. These castles, however, were rendered by Umfraville, in the end of 1291, upon a promise of indemnification from Edward and the competitors for the Crown. In receiving His crown, Balliol found that it was not entirely one of roses. He found that his dignity was a delusion, and his power a mark for insult upon insult, which at length provoked even his tame and servile spirit to rebel against one who had mocked him with the shadow of royalty.

Having obtained the Pope's absolution from the oaths which he had taken, Balliol sent commissioners to France, in the year 1295, to negotiate a treaty of offence and defence with that kingdom; and to make himself the more certain of effectual assistance from the French, the commissioners were charged with a secret treaty, proposing that Edward, the eldest son of Balliol, should marry the daughter of Charles of Anjou, the king of France's brother. The second article of the treaty mentions the dowry of the French princess, and also the revenues which, in conjunction with her husband, she should enjoy in Scotland, which were fifteen hundred pounds sterling — two-thirds out of the rents of Balliol's lands in France, and the other third out of the proceeds of his lands in Scotland and the Castellany of Dundee.

Edward received the intelligence that Balliol renounced his al­legiance with contempt. "The foolish traitor," said he to the mes­senger, "since he will not come to us, we will go to him." Marching his army into Scotland, he defeated the Scots at Dunbar, 28th April, 1296, and put the inhabitants to the sword. The castles of Edin­burgh and Stirling thereafter fell into his hands; for Balliol, with no aid whatever from France, and a divided support from his own coun­trymen, could make no stand against the ruthless invaders. In June, the English reached Dundee; but it does not appear that any serious resistance was offered to their progress, the castle, in all probability, being then held by Brian Fitz Alan, the English governor, to whom Umphraville had resigned it. Passing onwards to Brechin, Edward besieged and took its castle; and, on the 10th July, 1296, in the Kirkyard of Stracathro, the humiliating spectacle was witnessed of the King of Scotland, dressed by his captors in the insignia of royalty only to have ermine, crown, and sceptre rudely torn from his person, and, standing on the bare ground all but naked, with a white wand in his hand, doing penance before the haughty Edward. (It is usually stated that a formal deed, renouncing the kingdom, was executed by Balliol at Brechin a few days afterwards; and Mr Jervise adds that the Abbot of Arbroath put this writing into Edward's hands (Memorials, p. 146)). Recent researches show that Baldred Bisset, the Scottish envoy at Rome, in 1300, strenuously denied the fact of Balliol's renunciation, declaring that Edward took the seals forcibly from the Chancellor, and used them upon forged letters of resignation (Innes, Sketches, p. 181). This seems to derive colour from the remarkable fact that Wallace, two years after the alleged renunciation, styles himself “Guardian of Scotland, acting in the name of an illustrious prince, John, by the grace of God, King of Scots;” the same forms being observed so late as 1302. When Wallace, a man actuated with the loftiest patriotism, and associated with the king in his unavailing resistance to the English, can pay him such a tribute, we are constrained to believe that historians have scarcely done John Balliol justice. "His attempt," says Lord Hailes, “to shake off a foreign yoke speaks him of a high spirit, impatient of injuries. He erred in enterprising beyond his strength: in the cause of liberty it was a meritorious error. He confided in the valour and unanimity of his subjects, and in the assistance of France. The efforts of his subjects were languid and discordant, and France beheld his ruin with the indif­ference of an unconcerned spectator." (Annals, vol i, p. 241)

Having despatched his royal captive to the Tower of London, Edward visited Arbroath to receive the homage of Abbot Henry. On the 6th August, he proceeded to Dundee; on the following day, he was at "the redde castell" of Baledgarno, on his way to Perth, whence, after a brief stay, he proceeded southwards.
Edward's usurpation, and the cruelty with which he had enforced it, aroused the Scottish people to a sense of their deplorable condition. The higher nobles had sworn fealty to the English king; the lesser barons shrank from renewing the unequal struggle; the citizens of every town were overawed and oppressed by English garrisons; — in a word, that liberty for which the nation had so long struggled, seemed to be wrested from it for ever. In this crisis, William Wallace appeared on the stage, and, by a series of brilliant and successful exploits, took his place as leader in the War of Inde­pendence, which resulted in the liberation of Scotland from foreign domination.

The early life of Wallace, and even the date and place of his birth, are involved in obscurity. Many doubtful legends have gathered round his name; but it is satisfactory to know that our latest and most reliable historians have been able to give an authentic outline of his career, and fully corroborate the popular estimate of the national hero. In his boyhood, Wallace was sent to complete his education in Dundee, where he contracted a friendship with John Blair, a Benedictine monk, who afterwards became his chaplain; and who, in con­junction with Thomas Gray, parson of Liberton, compiled a history in Latin of Wallace's deeds. The few fragments of that work, which survived, formed the basis of Harry the Minstrel's vernacular poem, commemorating the achievements of our hero ("Ye Actis and Deidis of ye Illuster and Vailzeand Campioun, Schir Wilham Wallace." The MS. is preserved in the Advocates' Library, bearing the date of 1488. Of the author himself nothing but the half of his name is known). The wanton outrages of the English soldiery so roused the indignation of Wallace and his comrades that they formed a confraternity to punish the aggressors. Having been insulted by Selby, the son of the constable of the Castle, Wallace drew his dagger and struck him dead on the spot; and, though surrounded by the English, he affected his escape, after despatching two or three others who sought to intercept his flight. Blind Harry thus narrates the fray:—

"Upon a day to Dunde he was send,
Off cruelnes full little yai hym kend.
Ye constable, a felloun man of wer,
Yat to ye Scotts he did full mekill der,
Selbie be hecht, dispitfull and owtrage,
A sone he had ner xx zer of age:
Into ye toune he usyt ilka day,
Thre men or four yer went with hym to play;
A hely schrew, wanton in his entent,
Wallace he saw, and towart him he went;
Liklie he was, right bige, and weyle beseyne,
Intill a wyde of gudly garmand greynne;
He callyt on hym, and said, yow Scott, abyde,
Quha dewill ye grathia in so gay a wyde;
Ane Ersche mantill it was yi kynd to wer,
A Scotts tbewittil under yi belt to ber,
Rouch rowlyngs apon yi harlot fete—
Giff me yi knyff, quhat dois yi ger sa mete?
Till him he zied, hys knyff to tak him fra.
Fast by the collar Wallace couth hym ta;
Undyr hys hand ye knyff he bradit owt,
For all hys men yat semblyt hym about;
Bot help himself, he wist of no remede,
Without reskew he stykit him to dede.
Ye squier fell—Of hym yar was na mar.
Hys men folowed on Wallace wondyr sair;
The press was thick, and cummerit yaim full fast,
Wallace was spedy, and gretelye als agast;
Ye bludy knyff bar drawin in his hand,
He sparyt nane yat he befor hym fand"

For this deed "Wallace was outlawed, and forced to betake himself to concealment and disguise. His undaunted courage and fertility of resources, combined with a patriotism as ardent as it was disinterested, soon brought to his side a band of men whom oppression had rendered desperate.

For a time they seem, to have practised a guerilla warfare upon the convoys and foraging parties of the English; and "Wallace himself was in the habit of visiting in disguise the garrisoned towns to ascer­tain the strength of the enemy, and the support to be expected from his countrymen. After the battle of Dunbar, he had become well known as the champion of the national cause, and a goodly circle of patriots, among whom, was Alexander Scryrnsooure of Dudhope, rallied to his standard. After a series of successes against the English in the south and west of Scotland, Wallace found himself at the head of an army capable of taking the field. He captured Glasgow; and, march­ing rapidly to Scone, surprised and put to flight the English forces there; then, passing into the western Highlands, his progress was everywhere marked by victory. In the autumn of 1297, he appeared in Angus, and, after capturing Forfar and Brechin, proceeded to invest Dundee; but had scarcely taken up his position when he was apprized of the approach of an English army under the Earl of Surrey. Leav­ing the citizens to prosecute the siege, Wallace hastened to meet the enemy, and, on the 11th September, gained the celebrated battle of Stirling. Returning to Dundee in the flush of victory, the garrison saw the hopelessness of resistance and surrendered. The strongholds of Dumbarton and Berwick having also yielded, the country was cleared of the invaders. (Blind Harry says that Wallace directed Scrymseoure to demolish the castle of Dundee, in order to prevent the English from again holding it—

"Masons, minouris, with Scrymseoure furth send,
Kest down Dundee, and tharoff maid ane end"

If so, it must have been speedily rebuilt, as we find it standing two sieges within a few years afterwards. It has also been narrated that it was retaken by an Eng­lish captain named Morton before its demolition, and again relieved by Scrymseoure; but the narrative given above is the one adopted by the latest writers as authentic.)

The inhabitants of Dundee appear to have had both the will and the means to encourage the liberator of Scotland, for we find them presenting Wallace on this occasion with a handsome gift of money and arms. There are traces, too, of a special interest being taken by the illustrious patriot in the town where, but a few years previously, the march of events had hurried him from study to warfare. "There lately was found, says Mr Burton" in the old commercial city of Lubeck, a short document, which happens to be the only authentic vestige of Wallace’s movements immediately after the battle [of Stir­ling]. It is dated 11th Oct. 1297, and is a communication to the towns of Lubeck and Hamburg, in the name of Andrew de Moray and William Wallace, generals of the army of the kingdom and community of Scotland. They thank the worthy friends of their country in these towns for services and attentions which the unfortunate condition of their country had hindered its people from duly acknowledging. They assure their distant trading friends, however, that commerce with the ports of Scotland will now be restored; for the kingdom of Scot­land, thanks be to God, has been recovered by battle from the power of the English. We have seen that Scotland was becoming an ac­tively trading nation before her troubles broke out; and this little document is a touching testimony to the prevalence of those peaceful pursuits, which were so cruelly crushed by the remorseless invaders. This letter bears to have been written "in Scotland;" but its date and purport seem to identify it with Dundee. A few weeks later, Wallace proceeded to the south to organise the reprisals which his famine-stricken countrymen were making upon the English territory. Returning from his incursion laden with spoil, he was chosen, by a conven­tion in Selkirkshire, Guardian of Scotland; and it is interesting to know that immediately on assuming this function, he issued a writ— the only one which has been preserved of his reign — rewarding Alex­ander Scrymseoure for his faithful services to the national cause.

Meanwhile the English king was moving northwards another for­midable army of 80,000 foot, and 7000 mounted men-at-arms. With a force less than one-third in number, and utterly disproportionate in equipment, Wallace prepared to dispute his progress. By consummate general-ship the Scottish leader had well nigh succeeded in thwarting the invaders, when it is said the treachery of two earls revealed his tactics to the enemy. Edward hurried forward his forces, and confronted the Scots at Falkirk on the 22nd July 1298. The issue could scarcely be doubtful; yet the military genius of Wallace so handled his troops as to hurl back for a time the onsets of the English cavalry; and, but for the desertion of a division under the Lord of Badenoch, the field might not have been lost. As it was, Wallace conducted his shattered forces in safety to the north, burning Stirling on his way; and Edward, after a fruitless victory, dragged his starving army back to Carlisle.
Resigning the Guardianship, owing, it is said, to the jealous hostility of the nobles, Wallace passed over to France, probably in the hopes of obtaining succour from Philip; and there is some reason to believe he proceeded to Rome—the Papal influence being then all powerful; for Edward, in replying to remonstrances from Rome charging him with violating the rights of Scotland, complains of certain" enemies of peace and sons of rebellion" then residing there—referring to an em­bassy from Scotland.

In the autumn of 1302, Wallace was again in Scotland, and is supposed to have assisted, if he did not lead, the Scots in surprising an English force at Roslin. In 1303, Edward led an army, spoken of as large beyond the possibility of resistance, for the final subjugation of Scotland. His progress was a triumphant procession; for, as Tytler says, "the historian has only to tell a tale of sullen submission and pitiless ravage; he has little to do but to follow in dejection the chariot wheels of the conqueror, and to hear them crushing under their iron weight all that was free and brave in a devoted country." Establishing his head-quarters at Dunfermline, where he destroyed one of its finest buildings, because the Scots had held rebellious meetings within its walls, Edward proceeded northward as far as Caithness, marking his track with robbery, devastation, and ruin. In June, he appeared in Dundee, took the castle, and sacked the town,—the inha­bitants submitting to a power which it was impossible for them to resist.

Tradition affirms that the terrified citizens collected all that was valuable and dear to them, and took refuge in the churches. But the fury of Edward and his soldiery could not be averted even by the shelter of the sanctuary, and the hapless people escaped the sword only to be devoured by the flames. Passing onwards to Brechin, Edward was detained at the siege of its castle for twenty days; and it sur­rendered only after Sir Thomas Maule, its gallant commander, was killed on the walls. After penetrating as far as Kildrummy in Aberdeenshire, the English returned to Dundee on the 20th October, but their stay on this occasion had been brief, for we find them, on 1st November, at Cambuskenneth.

In these days of calamity for Dundee, we may well conceive the citizens, reduced as they were to the verge of despair hoping against hope for help from their former deliverer. History sheds an uncer­tain light upon the movements of the patriot at this juncture: he hovered about with a handful of faithful followers, harassing the enemy, and retreating to the hills when pursued. Undoubted evidence, how­ever, has recently been found of the presence of Wallace in the neigh­bourhood of the town about this period; and which at least gives probability to the tradition associating his name with Auchterhouse. The "Calendarium Genealogicum" contains a fragment, from the an­cient records of England narrating that an inquest was held at Perth, in September 1305, by the Earl of Stratherne, custodier of the northern district of Scotland, at which a certain Michael de Miggel M excused himself for non-attendance at a previous court by taking oath that he had been forcibly seized by William le Waleys. Michael twice got off, and was twice recaptured by armed accomplices of the said Waleys, narrowly escaping with his life. The date is indicated only by dudurn, "lately." (Calend. Gen., p. 703, quoted in Burton's ffist., i. 334.—Mr Burton calls this a tantalising reference to Wallace's movements; but a local knowledge of Auchterhouse. on the Sidlaw Hills, within four or five miles of the fertile lands of Meigle, seems to indicate the solution now submitted, which is surely more probable than straining the dudum, as he suggests, to the time when Wallace was in power, eight years before.) As the betrayal of Wallace by Menteith occurred near Glasgow in July 1305, the raid upon the knight of Meigle must have occurred sometime previously; and thus gives colour to Blind Harry's circumstantial account of Wallace's presence at Ochtyrhouss, with

"Schir Jhon Ramsay, that worthie was and wycht." (Harry's Wallace, p. 243, where Barklay, Ruwan, and Schyr Thomas are mentioned as other compatriots)

We have dwelt, perhaps, too long on the brief period during which the name of Wallace was associated with our history, but the sequel is soon told. After fifteen years of incessant effort—during which, .at a vast expenditure of blood and treasure, he had hurled five armies into Scotland—Edward now beheld the country garrisoned everywhere by his troops,—its king a captive,—its nobility sworn to his rule,—its people prostrate under a load of misery and suffering. One ruthless passion only remained unsatisfied: one man alone stood firm and undaunted, a solitary figure amidst the wreck of the nation's hopes—one who could neither be conquered nor corrupted, and whose patriotism became almost sublime in its isolation. For Wallace there was no amnesty: he was inexorably marked out for death. When treachery at last gave up the victim, and every refinement of cruelty had been ex­hausted in his execution—when the ghastly head was set up on London Bridge, and his mutilated limbs bleached over the gates of Scottish towns—Edward believed the last act of the drama was played. Never was tyrant more deceived; for, within a few months after these bloody trophies of the Scottish hero were displayed to his countrymen, the nation awoke, and with a giant effort once more achieved its freedom.

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