Papro's monologue
Editor|Papro's monologue
At the end of the 13th century, England was the hegemon on the island of Great Britain, especially during the reign of King Edward I of England, and England focused on strengthening the conquest of other peoples and countries on the island.
During this period, England conquered Ireland and Wales and placed them under English rule. However, this was far from satisfying the ambitions of Edward I, who was still trying to find an opportunity to encroach on the supreme power in Scotland. Edward I repeatedly tried to control Scotland, which caused conflicts between Scotland and England, and with Edward I's armed invasion of Scotland, the two sides eventually went to war.
At the end of 1296, the Scottish War of Independence broke out, and the Scots had won a series of battles led by William Wallace and threatened England's northern border southward. However, with the defeat of the Battle of Falkirk and the murder of William Wallace, the struggle of the Scots reached a low ebb, and it was not until 1307 that they began a counterattack against the English under the leadership of Robert Bruce.
The counterattack led by Robert the Bruce made great progress, the Scots regained a large number of lost territories and in the spring of 1314 besieged Stirling Castle, an important stronghold controlled by England, and King Edward II of England mobilized a large army to the rescue, and the battle for Stirling Castle between the two sides began the Battle of Bannockburn.
The question of succession to the Scottish throne
In 1286, King Alexander III of Scotland accidentally fell while riding a horse, bringing an end to the golden age of peace and prosperity that Scotland enjoyed under Alexander III. Alexander III and his first wife, Margaret of England , daughter of Henry III of England, had two boys and a girl, but all three children died before Alexander III , putting the Scottish succession to the throne in jeopardy.
Before Alexander III died, he had remarried a young woman from France in hopes of producing a male heir to the throne, but his sudden death completely dashed this hope, leaving only his granddaughter Margaret, who was only three years old at the time, as the only heir.
Margaret's mother, Queen Eric II of Norway, died in 1283, leaving her newborn daughter in Norway, and people called Margaret "the Norwegian Maiden". The Regency Council, composed of the six guardians of the kingdom, temporarily ruled Scotland in the name of Margaret.
Considering that the dead Alexander III was his brother-in-law, Edward I realized that this was a great time to take control of Scotland. Edward I already controlled Wales and Ireland, and if he could control Scotland again, he would have control over the entire island of Great Britain.
He intended to arrange a marriage as a first step towards this goal, and he offered to marry his two-year-old son, Edward of Carnarfon, and Margaret, the "Norwegian girl". The Scots cautiously accepted the offer, demanding that Scotland remain a fully independent kingdom after the union of monarchy.
Unfortunately, Margaret fell ill on her way to Scotland and died shortly after arriving in Scotland. At this point, there was no legitimate heir to the Scottish throne, which immediately triggered fierce competition among the nobles in the country.
Among the many contenders for the Scottish throne, two are the most competitive, they are John Barriol and Robert the Bruce. Supporters of both sides quarreled and eventually had to ask Edward I to arbitrate.
Edward I naturally did not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he demanded that whoever became king of Scotland must recognize himself as the supreme lord of Scotland in return for arbitrating him, and the Scottish nobles who were eager to become kings accepted Edward I's unreasonable demand.
In November 1292, Edward I decided in Berwickshire to support Barryol, who was associated with Scotland's most powerful family, the Comin. As promised, Barryol immediately swore allegiance to Edward I and recognized him as supreme lord of Scotland.
Edward I invades Scotland
Edward I, after attaining the title of supreme lord of Scotland, intended to strengthen his de facto control over Scotland, so he repeatedly humiliated Scotland and Barriol in order to show his authority.
In 1295, when war broke out between England and France, Edward I asked Barriol to send Scottish troops on a campaign, and the Scottish nobles, who were deeply enraged by this, persuaded Barryol not only to refuse Edward I's request, but also to form an alliance with France and Norway against England (known as the "Old League", which lasted until the 16th century).
Unsurprisingly, Barryol's act angered Edward I, who immediately launched a war against Scotland. In March 1296, Edward I led an army to capture Berwick, an important commercial city in Scotland. In April of the same year, Edward I defeated the Scottish army led by Barriol at the Battle of Dunbar, which caused heavy losses to Scotland, a large number of nobles were captured, and Barriole had to declare his surrender.
Barriole himself ended his political career in such humiliating ways by Edward I ripped the Scottish royal coat of arms from his coat of arms and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Soon after, Edward I deposed Barriol, proclaimed himself King of Scotland, sent troops to garrison Scotland's main castles for a long time, and brought back Westminster the "Squinston", a symbol of Scottish kingship, as a trophy.
At this time, Edward I, who thought he had firmly controlled Scotland, could never have imagined that his war to conquer Scotland had just begun. After Edward I returned to England, spontaneous Scottish resistance began in southern Scotland, and the Scottish War of Independence broke out.
The rebellion led by William Wallace
When Edward I left Scotland and returned to Westminster, riots began in the border areas between Scotland and England. In May 1297, William Wallace killed the sheriff of Lanark, England, and formed a rebel to launch an open struggle against English rule.
William Wallace came from a family of small business owners, he had extraordinary resilience and leadership, and his heroic deeds quickly spread in Scotland, making him the most talked about figure of his time. In September 1297, William Wallace defeated the English army led by the Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
The victory in this battle ignited the flames of rebellion against English rule throughout Scotland, and Wallace also took advantage of the situation to win a series of battles that followed, and won the trust and support of the Scottish people. Wallace was later chosen as Lord of Scotland, and with the support of the people and the Church, he led the Scottish rebellion with greater confidence.
In 1298, Edward I, who had withdrawn from European affairs, returned to London and mobilized an extremely powerful army to invade Scotland in retaliation for the Scots' resistance and force them to submit again. Although William Wallace was well prepared for this enemy attack, he was defeated at the Battle of Folcock.
Wallace then resigned as Lord of Scotland and disappeared from history until he was arrested in Glasgow in 1305 for being betrayed by his men. After being sent to London and after a public trial, he was sentenced to death for treason. Edward I made several more expeditions to Scotland between 1298 and 1307, essentially restoring control of Scotland and bringing the Scottish independence struggle to a complete low.
Robert Bruce and his Scottish Resonism
The defeat at the Battle of Faulcock in 1298 caused the situation of the Scottish War of Independence to take a sharp turn and enter a period of more than a decade of low tide. After William Wallace's death, Robert Bruce, a Scottish nobleman, took over his banner of struggle and became the new leader of the Scots.
Robert the Bruce's early political career
Robert Bruce's ancestry can be traced back to Adam Bruce, Earl of Orkney, who came to England with William the Conqueror. Adam Bruce's eldest son was the first man in the Bruce family named Robert Bruce (Robert Bruce Jr. mentioned in the text), who held a vast land in Yorkshire and became one of the most important magnates in northern England.
In 1124 , David I , Lord Robert the Great , gained the throne of Scotland and began working to transform Scotland from a backward Celtic society into an advanced European society. He encouraged Norman Englishmen to settle in Scotland, and his first step in achieving this policy was to persuade his important prince, Robert the Bruce, to move to Scotland and give him the huge estate of the Lord of Anadell. From this time on, the Bruce family became one of the most powerful families in Scotland.
Robert Bruce's position in the Scottish War of Independence was vacillating until 1306. When the Scottish War of Independence broke out in 1296, he sided with Edward I, like many Scottish nobles, which was difficult for many Scots to accept.
Robert Bruce chose to support Edward I in large part because it was the Comin family, the Bruce's biggest rivals for Scottish rights, who led the Scottish Patriotic Resistance, and Bruce saw hope that he could legitimately claim the Scottish throne through Edward I.
However , in 1298 , after William Wallace 's defeat at the Battle of Falcock , Robert Bruce returned to the Scots , and co-founded Scotland Lord , Comin. However, after a bitter quarrel with Comin, Bruce again declared his allegiance to Edward I and received a pardon from the latter in 1302.
Then things changed dramatically. In February 1306, Robert Bruce and Comin had a meeting at Grevrair Church in Dumfries, and a violent clash sparked a violent clash with firearms during a heated discussion, and Bruce stabbed Comin to the ground with the knife he was carrying, and Bruce's entourage killed him.
This event cornered Bruce, a blasphemous act that led to his excommunication from the Pope and the failure of Edward I to recognize his legal inheritance to Scotland. Robert Bruce had no choice at this time, and he immediately announced the coronation of King of Scotland in the name of David I's great-great-grandson, and although there was no "Squinstone", Bruce still had the support of a part of the Church and nobility of Scotland.
At that time, some people in Scotland opposed Bruce, especially the Comin family, who threatened revenge, but most Scots chose to stay out of the matter.
bibliography
1. Archer Jones: The Art of War in the West, translated by Liu Kejian and Liu Weiguo, Beijing: China Youth Publishing House, 2001.
2. David Hume: A History of Britain, translated by Liu Zhongjing, Changchun: Jilin Publishing Group, 2013.
3. [Beauty] David Roberts, Clayton Roberts, Douglas R. Bisson: A History of Britain (Volume I), translated by Pershing Ming et al., Beijing: Commercial Press, 2013.