tm ii il^af*** 
 
/ 
 
PUBLICATIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY 
 
 VOLUME X. 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 February 1892 
 
A HISTORY OF 
 
 GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 AS WELL ENGLAND AS SCOTLAND 
 Compiled from the Ancient Authorities 
 
 BY JOHN MAJOR, BY NAME INDEED A 
 
 Scot, but by profession a Theologian 
 1521 
 
 Translated from the original Latin and Edited 
 with Notes by 
 ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE 
 to which is prefixed a Life of the Author by 
 ^NEAS J. G. MACKAY 
 
 LL.D. ADVOCATE. 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable 
 for the Scottish History Society 
 1892 
 
DA 
 150 
 
 v. 10 
 
 60SI0M- COLLEGE LIBRA* 1 
 
 OCT 20 1971 
 465003 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE, xvii 
 
 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, by yEneas J. G. Mackay, . xxix 
 
 Appendix to the Life. 
 
 i. Notice of Major in French and Scottish Records, . . cxvi 
 
 ii. Note on the School of the Terminists, . . . cxxii 
 
 HISTORY OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 Author's Preface to King James v. .... cxxx 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Chap. I. — A short Preface by John Major, theologian of Paris, 
 and Scotsman by birth, to his work concerning the rise and 
 gests of the Britons. Likewise concerning the name and the 
 first inhabitants of Greater Britain, .... 1 
 
 Chap. II. — Of the description of Britain and its extent : that is, 
 its breadth, length, and circumference ; also of its fruitfulness, 
 alike in things material and in famous men, . . . 5 
 
 Chap. III. — Concerning things that are lacking in Britain, and 
 what the country possesses in their stead ; and concerning 
 the length of the day in that land, . . . .12 
 
 Chap. IV. — Of those who have possessed Britain, how the peoples 
 of Wales are Aremoric Britons, and the Scots are Irish Britons, 
 and of the threefold language of the Britons, . . .17 
 
 Chap. V. — Of the situation ■ o£ Britain, that is, of England and 
 Scotland, and of their rivers, and, in special, of the wealth of 
 London, . . . . . . . .11* 
 
 Chap. VI. — Of the boundaries of Scotland, its cities, towns and 
 villages ; of its customs in war, and in the church ; of its 
 abundance of fish, its harbours, woods, islands, etc., . . -t 
 
 Chap. VII. — Concerning the Manners and Customs of the Scots. 40 
 
vi 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Book I — (continued.) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chap. VIII. — Something further concerning the manners and 
 customs of the Scots, that is, of the peasantry, as well as of the 
 nobles, and of the Wild Scots, as well as the civilised part, . 47 
 
 Chap. IX. — Concerning the various origin of the Scots, and the 
 reason of the name. For the Scots are sprung from the Irish, 
 and the Irish in turn from the Spaniards, and the Scots are so 
 named after the woman Scota, . . . . .50 
 
 ( map. X. — Of the Origin of the Picts, their Name and Customs, . 54 
 
 Chap. XI. — In what manner the Scots first gained a settlement in 
 
 Britain, ........ 55 
 
 ( hap. XII. — Concerning the arrival of the Romans in Britain, 
 
 and their achievements in that island, . . . .57 
 
 Chap. XIII. — How the Emperor Claudius came to Britain, . 5tt 
 
 Chap. XIV. — Concerning the events which thereafter happened in 
 Britain, the building of the wall, the passion of Ursula with 
 her companions at Cologne, the reception of the Catholic 
 Faith, and the rest, . . . . . .59 
 
 Chap. XV. — Concerning the Strife between the Picts and Scots, . 61 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Chap. I. — Follows here the second book of British history. Of 
 the return of the Scots into Britain, and their league with the 
 Picts, and the wars that were soon thereafter carried on by 
 them, and the building of a wall, . . (14 
 
 Chap. II. — Of the sending of Bishops to Scotland, and the conse- 
 cration of several of them in that country, likewise of their 
 holy lives, and the marvels that they wrought, . . 65 
 
 Chap. III. — Concerning the affairs of the Britons, . . 67 
 
 Chap. IV.— Of Merlin the Prophet, . . . . 72 
 
 Chap. V. — Of Aurelius Ambrosius and his reign, . . 78 
 
 Chap. VI.— Of King Arthur, ..... 81 
 
 Chap. VII. — Concerning Eochodius, Aidan, and Eugenius, kings 
 of Scotland, and men of noted sanctity that were born in their 
 reigns, ........ 85 
 
 Chap. VIII. — Concerning the arrival of Gormund, first in Ireland, 
 then in Britain, and his cruel dealings with both lands ; also 
 of the rule of the Saxons in Britain under Gormund, . . 89 
 
 Chap. IX. — Of the outward form and appearance of the English, 
 and how they differ in appearance and stature from the rest of 
 
CONTENTS vii 
 
 Book 11— (continued.) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 nations ; likewise of the mission of Augustine for their conver- 
 sion, and of his preaching, . . . . .89 
 
 Chap. X. — Of the conversion of Oswald, likewise of the too great 
 austerity of the bishop who was sent to him, of the wisdom of 
 bishop Aidan, and of the conversion of the Britons to the faith, 91 
 
 Chap. XI. — Of the Life of Oswald and Aidan, . . .94 
 
 Chap. XII. — Concerning the death of Malduin, the reigns of Eu- 
 genius the Fourth and Eugenius the Fifth, Saint Cuthbert, the 
 Venerable Bede, and the Monastery of Melrose, . . 98 
 
 Chap. XIII. — Concerning the reign of Achaius, and the eminent 
 valour and piety of his brother William ; likewise of the per- 
 petual peace between the French and the Scots, and of the 
 founders of the University of Paris, . . 100 
 
 Chap. XIV. — Of the death of Congall, the reign of Dungal, 
 the contention between the Picts and Scots ; likewise of the 
 war against Alphin, whom in the end they slew, and of the 
 deeds of others, . . . . . .102 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Chap. I. —Of the incontinence of Osbert, king of Northum- 
 berland, and his death ; of the slaying of Ella and the other 
 cruelties practised by the Danes ; likewise of many kings of 
 England, . 
 
 Chap. II.— Of the reign of Donald the Scot, and the expulsion of 
 the remnant of the Picts ; of the deeds of Constantine Eth, or 
 Aetius, of Gregory, Donald, Constantine, and Eugenius, kings 
 of Scotland, 
 
 Chap. III.— Of the children of Knoth, king of England. Of the 
 character of Edward, the miracles that he did, and his chastity ; 
 likewise of the overthrow of Harold, king of England, by the 
 Norman, 
 
 Chap. IV.— Of the Kings of Scotland and their deeds, 
 Chap. V. — Concerning Malcolm Canmore and Machabeda, kings 
 of Scotland ; likewise of the death of Saint Edward, king of 
 England, the flight of Edgar with all his children and house- 
 hold into Scotland, and of the marriage of Saint Margaret, his 
 daughter, and the children that she bore, 
 Chap. VI.— Of the deeds of the English ; first of the invasion 
 of England by William of Normandy the Bastard, and his 
 slaying of king Harold. Of the independence of the Scots ; of 
 William's issue and his death, . 
 
 109 
 
 112 
 
 115 
 117 
 
 121 
 
 12: 
 
viii 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Book III — {continued.) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chap. VII. — Of the reign in England of William Rufus, how he was 
 
 an overbearing and irreligious man, and met with a condign end, 129 
 
 Chap. VIII. — Of the rest of the acts of Malcolm, king of the Scots, 
 and how the holy life of his wife brought him too to the prac- 
 tice of piety, . . . . . . .1.30 
 
 Chap. IX. — Concerning Donald, Duncan, and Edgar, kings of the 
 
 Scots, their children, and their deeds, . . . .131 
 
 Chap. X. — Of Alexander the Fierce, king of the Scots, . . 132 
 
 Chap. XI. — Of David, that most excellent king of the Scots, in 
 whom are found wonderful examples of all the virtues ; like- 
 wise of Henry, his son, and of his grandchildren, the issue of 
 this Henry ; and of Richard of Saint Victor, . . .133 
 
 Chap. XII. — Of Henry Beauclerk, king of the English, and of the 
 
 affairs of Normandy in his time, .... 143 
 
 Chap. XIII. — Of Stephen, king of the English, his reign and death, 144 
 Chap. XIV. — Of Henry earl of Anjou and king of England, . 146 
 
 Chap. XV. — Of the martyrdom of the Blessed Thomas, and the sin 
 
 of the king, . . . . . . .150 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 Chap. I. — Of the war between the foresaid Henry, king of the 
 English, and his son, and the peace that was made between 
 them ; of the defection of the Irish to the English ; and of the 
 penitence of Henry, and the extent of his dominions at the time 
 of his death, ....... 153 
 
 Chap. II. — Of Richard, the emperor's son, king of the English, 
 who went as a warrior to the Holy Land, but on his return 
 . was, by the duke of Austria, wickedly taken prisoner, and by 
 his own people nobly ransomed ; here too is treated of the 
 reason of an abundance and of a scarcity of children ; some- 
 thing likewise about robbers, . . . . .154 
 
 Chap. III. — Of John, that far from worthy king of the English ; 
 of the interdict which was laid upon England, and of the assign- 
 ment of the tribute to the Roman pontiff ; the poisoning of the 
 king, and its censure, . . . . . .157 
 
 Chap. IV. — Of Malcolm, grandson of David, king of the Scots, 
 
 and all that he did, and how he never entered the married state, 162 
 
 Chap. V. — Of William, king of the Scots, his captivity and his 
 ransom ; of the lavish building of monasteries, and other 
 matters that came to pass in his time, .... 163 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ix 
 
 Book IV. — {continued). 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chap. VI. — Of William the Scot and Alexander, William's son, 
 and of a miracle done by William ; of the war with John of 
 England, and the peace that was made with the same, and the 
 treaty by the swearing of the oath of fealty, . . . ] f>7 
 
 Chap. VII. — Of Alexander, son of William, and his wars with 
 John of England. Of the interdict on Scotland, and when 
 such a thing is to be feared, ..... 1J0 
 
 Chap. VIII. — Of Henry, king of the English, and his son, and of 
 
 the prophecy of Merlin about them, .... 173 
 
 Chap. IX. — Of Edward, son of Henry the Englishman, his war 
 with the Welsh and his victory over them ; likewise of the 
 expulsion of the Jews, . . . . . .175 
 
 Chap. X. — Of the monasteries that were founded by the Earl of 
 Fife, and something by the way about the seclusion of nuns 
 and their rule of life ; of the marriage of King Alexander the 
 Second, his life and praiseworthy death, and of the destruction 
 by fire of men and towns in Scotland, . . . .177 
 
 Chap. XI. — Of Alexander the Third, king of Scotland, and the 
 dispute that took place in the matter of his coronation ; of 
 Egyptian days ; of free will ; and of the genealogy of the 
 Scottish kings, ...... 182 
 
 Chap. XII. — Of the translation of the remains of Saint Margaret 
 of England and Malcolm, king of the Scots ; of the marriage of 
 Alexander and the dispensation that was granted him there- 
 anent. Of the punishment inflicted upon vagabonds and Jews, 
 and other events of his reign, . . . . .185 
 
 Chap. XIII. — Of what took place in Britain at this time, according 
 to the narrative of Caxton the English chronicler in the first 
 place — with the refutation of the statements made by him ; 
 follows, in the second place, another narrative, as we find it in 
 the Scots chroniclers, . . . . . .191 
 
 Chap. XIV. — A truer version of the deeds of William Wallace or 
 
 Wallax, 195 
 
 Chap. XV. — Of John Cumming, regent of Scotland ; of the rest 
 of the feats of Wallace, and of his miserable ending, but his 
 happy change from this life, ..... 202 
 
 Chap. XVI.— Of those famous theologians Richard Middleton and 
 John Duns : likewise of the contest for the Scottish throne, 
 and of the feats of the new kings of that country, . . 20(5 
 
 Chap. XVII. — Containing many reasons in support of the claim of 
 Robert Bruce ; and, in preface to these, the whole issue of 
 Malcolm down to the present king is given in full, . • 209 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK IV— {continued.) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chap. XVIII. — Of the objections that may be urged against this 
 
 conclusion, and their solution, . . . . .215 
 
 Chap. XIX. — Of the acts of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, and 
 
 the calamities which befell him, .... 220 
 
 Chap. XX. — Of Edward the Second, king of the English ; and of 
 
 the manner of waging war among the Britons, . . . 225 
 
 Chap. XXI. — Of the war which the Scots waged against Edward 
 the Second and its happy result ; likewise of the learned men 
 who at that time nourished in Britain, .... 227 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 Chap. I. — Of the rest of the warlike deeds of Robert Bruce and 
 his brother done against the English ; and of the unwise treaty 
 that was made at Stirling, ..... 231 
 
 Chap. II. — 'Of the immense army that the English king brought 
 against the Scot ; of the prelude to the battle, and the 
 valour that was shown therein by Randolph and a few among 
 the Scots ; of Douglas's loyalty and kindness towards Randolph , 
 and the speech that was made by both kings to their soldiers, . 233 
 
 Chap. III. — Of the drawing up of the two armies in order of 
 
 battle, ........ 238 
 
 Chap. IV. — Of the establishment of Robert Bruce in the kingdom ; 
 of the skirmishing raids made by the English ; and of the death 
 in Ireland of Edward Bruce, ..... 242 
 
 Chap. V.— How the kings ravaged each the other's country. Of 
 the policy of delay adopted by Robert, and how he then carried 
 the attack into England ; his address to his soldiers ; Edward's 
 exhortation to the English. Of the battle and the victory won 
 by the Scots, ....... 245 
 
 Chap. VI. — Of what took place in England in the time of Robert 
 Bruce ; chiefly of the factions and quarrels of the nobles of the 
 kingdom which arose through the arrogance of Hugh Spenser, 250 
 
 Chap. VII. — Concerning Isabella, sister of the king of the French, 
 how she was sent to France by her husband, the English king, 
 and of her banishment there along with her son. Of the 
 captivity of Edward, and the prophecies of Merlin ; further, of 
 the passage of the Scots into England, and of their return from 
 England, ....... 253 
 
 Chap. VIII. — Of the complaint made by Edward the father, and 
 how he was carried to another prison, where he was put to 
 death with terrible tortures, ..... 202 
 
CONTENTS xi 
 
 BOOK X— (continued.) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 C hap. IX. — Of the deeds of Robert Bruce, king of the Scots, and 
 Edward the Third, king of the English ; likewise of the peace 
 that was brought about through the marriage of their children ; 
 and of the death of Robert, . . . . .263 
 
 C hap. X. — Of the wise regency of Scotland at the hands of 
 
 Thomas Randolph, and his end through the treachery of a monk, 266 
 
 Chap. XI. — Of the brave deeds of James Douglas and his death ; 
 and of the succession of Edward Baliol in Scotland, his victory, 
 his coronation, and, finally, his flight, .... 269 
 
 C hap. XII.— Of the attack made upon the Scots by Edward of 
 England and Edward Baliol ; of the siege of Berwick, and how 
 it was in the end taken by storm after a battle in which very 
 many of the Scots lost their lives, .... 271 
 
 Chap. XIII. — Of the tyranny of Baliol in Scotland ; of his oppres- 
 sion of David, and the accession of Robert Stuart to the side of 
 David, . . . . • . . .274 
 
 C hap. XIV. — Of the return of earl Randolph to Scotland ; of the 
 choice of guardians, the captivity of one, and the brave deeds of 
 the other ; of cities that were set on lire and their restoration, 
 and various events of war, ..... 276 
 
 C hap. XV. — The siege of the castle of Dunbar, and its courageous 
 defence by a woman ; how the siege was raised by reason of the 
 invasion of England by the French ; of divers losses upon both 
 sides ; and of tournaments, and how far they are lawful, . 279 
 
 Chap. XVI. — Of the siege of Perth and Stirling ; of the recovery 
 of Edinburgh ; the renown in war of Alexander Ramsay ; of 
 the welcome given to king David, and the fealty sworn to him 
 by the Scots, ....... 282 
 
 Chap. XVII. — Of the tutors who were placed over Edward the 
 Third, king of the English, in the time of his youth. Of the 
 treaty that was made between the Scots and the English. Of 
 the pre-eminent virtue of Robert Bruce, and the independence 
 of Scotland, as against Caxton. Of the strife that ensued con- 
 cerning the right of that prince to bear rule, with a repetition 
 of some things relating to the death of his father, . . 286 
 
 Chap. XVIII. — Of the dangers that beset the favourites of kings, 
 
 and of the factions that arose in Scotland under David Bruce, . 290 
 
 Chap. XIX.— Of the siege of Calais, and the unfortunate expedi- 
 tion of David Bruce in England, and his captivity there. Of 
 Edward's deeds of violence in Scotland, and the election of a 
 governor of Scotland ; and how some famous men came by their 
 death, . 292 
 
xii 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Book V. — {continued.) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chap. XX. — How Eugene, the Frenchman, was sent into Scotland, 
 and of all that was wrought by the Scots along with him against 
 the English. Of the honourable return of the Frenchman. 
 Of the violent attack made by the English upon Scotland, and 
 their rueful return to England, and of what the Scots did there- 
 after, ........ 294 
 
 Chap. XXI. — Of the return to England from Scotland of king 
 David without compassing his end. Of the captivity of John, 
 king of the French, and the adroit escape of Archibald Douglas. 
 Of the ransom at last of David, and the death of the queen, 
 with her eulogy, ...... 
 
 Chap. XXII.— Of the death of Edward the Third and his son. Of 
 the reign of Richard the Second, and of those whom he ennobled, 
 and of his wives, ...... 301 
 
 Chap. XXIII. — Of the rest of the deeds of King David ; how he 
 succeeded in getting the church tithes, and gave his counsel as 
 to the choice of an Englishman to be king of Scotland, and, 
 when his counsel was despised, took to wife a young girl ; how 
 he sought a divorce from her when he found her barren ; his 
 death, ........ 303 
 
 Chap. XXIV. — Concerning Richard of England, how he took his 
 uncle prisoner, and was himself made prisoner by his subjects 
 and slain. Of the creation and banishment of dukes. Of Henry 
 the Fourth and Henry the Fifth of England ; and of Robert 
 Stewart, the Scottish king, ..... 307 
 
 BOOK VI. 
 
 Chap. I. — Of the killing of a servant of Dunbar and the truce which 
 was thereby violated ; and of the cruel revenge that was taken 
 and the stratagem which was conceived by certain lords ; also 
 of divers revolts and their issues, . . . .310 
 
 Chap. II. — Of the expeditions of John of Gaunt, Archibald 
 Douglas, the English, the French, and Richard, king of Eng- 
 land. Of the Scots invasion of England, and of the charter 
 that was found, ....... 312 
 
 Chap. III. —Of the battle that was fought at Otterburn, and of 
 other conflicts between the English and the Scots ; and chiefly 
 between Henry Percy or Persy, and James Douglas, . .315 
 
 Chap. IV. — Of the rest of this said battle, and its renewal by the 
 bishop of Durham ; and of the capture of Lindesay and his 
 release, ........ 324 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 xiii 
 
 BOOK VI— (continued.) 
 
 FAGE 
 
 Chap. V. — Of the choice of the younger Robert as Regent of Scot- 
 land, which this writer can no way approve ; and of the expe- 
 dition against England on the part of Robert, which had indeed 
 a prosperous issue, but was none the less far from praiseworthy, 329 
 
 Chap. VI. — Of the death of Robert the Scot, the second of the 
 name, and of his issue. Of the coronation of Robert the Third, 
 who was formerly called John, and of his character; further, 
 concerning the rising under Alexander Buchan, and the duel 
 fought by thirty Wild Scots against other thirty, . . 331 
 
 Chap. VII. — Of the creation of new dukes ; and of the conspiracy 
 and rebellion of the earl of March against the king and realm 
 on account of the wrongful retention of his daughter's dower 
 when she had been repudiated. Of the death and valour of 
 Archibald the Terrible. Of the invasion of Scotland by Henry 
 the Fourth of England, and the vengeance that the earl of 
 March took upon the Scots, likewise of the destruction and 
 captivity of the Scots, ...... 335 
 
 Chap. VIII. — Of Henry the Fourth of England, who escaped plots 
 that were laid for him, and tamed rebellious men ; and of the 
 death of Robert the Third of Scotland in sorrow at the captivity 
 of his son, ....... 340 
 
 C hap. IX. — Of the achievements of Henry the Fifth, king of the 
 English, and of James the First, king of the Scots ; and of the 
 good faith kept by the Scots with the French ; of the various 
 fortune in war of both, and of the death of Henry the Fifth and 
 his eulogy, ....... 342 
 
 Chap. X. — Of the restoration to his earldom of George earl of 
 March ; of the destruction of the castle of Jedburgh ; and of 
 the dispute that arose as to the legality of the imposition of new 
 taxes. Of the battle at Harlaw, and the men who there lost 
 their lives. Of the foundation of the University of Saint 
 Andrew ; of the death of Robert duke of Albany, and an esti- 
 mate of his achievements, ..... 346 
 
 Chap. XI.— Of the return of James the First, the Scot, into his 
 kingdom by way of the marriage that he contracted ; the 
 author's opinion concerning the ransoming of kings ; and of 
 the sins of the kings against the state, .... 350 
 
 Chap. XII.— Of the marriage of Lewis the Eleventh, king of the 
 French, and Margaret of Scotland. Of the crime committed 
 by James Stewart, and his banishment, and how he, with his 
 fellow-conspirators, was punished. Of trial by jury or assise of 
 the nobles of Scotland. Of the rebellion of Alexander of the 
 Isles, and his petition for mercy, .... 363 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Book VI. — (continued). 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chap. XIII. — Of the twin sons that were born to the king, and of 
 the fresh institution in their case of the order of knights, after 
 the custom of Britain. Of the making of a cannon, and in 
 defence of engines of war generally. Of the rising of the 
 nobles. Of the conflict between the Wild Scots. Of the vain 
 attempt that was made to seduce the Scots from the French 
 alliance; and of the disheriting of the duke of March ; of the 
 death of Alexander Stewart, and of his heir, . . . 360 
 
 Chap. XIV. — Of the murder of James the First, and the treason 
 of the earl of Athole. Of the outward aspect and the moral 
 characteristics of this same James the First ; the good faith 
 that he kept towards the French, and other his praises, . 364 
 
 Chap. XV. — Of the fearful but well-deserved punishment that M as 
 inflicted upon the parricides of James the First, and of the 
 marriage of the queen his wife with a man of obscure condition, 
 and the banishment of her new husband, . . . 308 
 
 Chap. XVI. — Of the deeds of Henry the Sixth of England, and the 
 death at Orleans of Thomas, Montacute. Of the French maid ; 
 Philip of Burgundy ; the ignoble marriage of the queen of 
 England ; the unhappy marriage of Henry with the Lotharin- 
 gian. Of various rebellions of the English cobles against the 
 king, ' . . 371 
 
 Chap. XML — Of the birth of Edward of England and the rebellion 
 of the duke of York. Of the various fortune of King Henry. 
 Of York's ambition of the crown ; and of the various chances 
 of the war, and attempts of the nobles, . . . 377 
 
 Chap. XVIII. — Of the marriage of James the Scot, the Second, 
 who was called Red Face ; of the struggle for power with the 
 Douglases ; and, in connection therewith, of the danger to the 
 state which comes from the exaltation of powerful lords. Of 
 the reign of this same James the Second, his issue, his death, 
 and his praise, ....... 381 
 
 Chap. XIX.— Of the coronation of James the Third ; of Henry the 
 Sixth and the things done by him in Scotland and England. 
 Of the death of the queen of Scotland and her incontinence. 
 Of the capture and the restoration of the duke of Albany. The 
 death of bishop Kennedy and his encomium, . . . 387 
 
 Chap. XX. — Of the character and the death of the duke of Clar- 
 ence and the earl of Warwick. Of the deeds of Edward, 
 Richard, and the Henrys, kings of England, and various occur- 
 rences. Of the wickedness of Richard and his miserable death, 
 and of the marriage of Henry the Eighth and of his sisters, . 389 
 
CONTENTS xv 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Population of Medieval Cities, . . . 395 
 
 II. Passage ox ' Nobility/ .... 397 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 Compiled by Thomas Graves Law. 
 
 I. Bibliography of John Major and his Disciples — 
 
 John Major — 
 
 Logic and Philosophy, .... 403 
 
 Scripture, ..... 410 
 
 History, . . . . . .411 
 
 Chronological Index, . . . .411 
 
 David Cranstoun, ..... 412 
 
 George Lokert, . . . . .414 
 
 William Maxderston, .... 415 
 
 Robert Caubraith, . . . .417 
 
 II. Prefaces to John Major's Works, . . .418 
 
 INDEX, ....... 451 
 
 Illustrations 
 
 Reduced facsimile of the title-page of Major's Commentary on 
 
 Matthew, Edition 1518, . . . .at page 403 
 
 Reduced facsimile of an old engraving of the ' Assembly of the 
 Saints/ printed by Major in the Commentary on Matthew, 
 
 at page 4-30 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 To the Volume which is now placed in the hands of the 
 members of the Scottish History Society it falls to me to add a 
 few words of preface at once as editor and translator. 
 
 On the first suggestion of the book by the Council, Mr. iEneas 
 Mackay kindly offered to contribute towards it a Biography, 
 already written indeed for another purpose, but which as revised 
 for this work has been so much enlarged as to become not only by 
 far the most complete account of the Life of Major which we have, 
 but also an estimate of his place in philosophical and theological 
 literature such as is nowhere else to be found. 
 
 To Mr. Law we owe the Bibliographical Appendix, which has 
 grown from the meagre and often erroneous catalogue in Free- 
 bairn's edition of the History into the ample though even now 
 probably not exhaustive list to be found at the end of this volume. 
 That Appendix has been supplemented by a Bibliography of 
 Major's disciples, and to the same hand is due the collection, in the 
 second Appendix, of those Prefaces and Dedications to Major's 
 works, which from their subject-matter, from copious personal 
 references to himself, to the objects of his address, and to others 
 of his friends and pupils, will be recognised by the student of 
 scholastic philosophy as possessing a real historical value. These 
 Appendices in fact go far to render the present volume not 
 merely a contribution to Scottish History, but an illustration of 
 Scholastic method and teaching as these were exhibited in a great 
 Scottish schoolman, now almost forgotten, but in his own day a 
 man of outstanding influence. This collection of Prefaces may also 
 serve to show the rich harvest which awaits the explorer of that 
 field in literature ; for the publication of the Prefaces alone in 
 the works of one who was the centre of a movement, and in the 
 works of his pupils, can hardly fail to throw light upon many 
 other parts of history. 
 
 So much I have thought it right to say in regard to the structure 
 
xviii 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 and framework of this volume ; but before I venture to say some- 
 thing from the translator's point of view, I should like to put on 
 record, even though I may be unable to repay, my debt to one 
 whose help and service have been unfailingly placed at my 
 disposal in the progress of my work. It was Mr. Law who first 
 suggested to me that I should undertake this translation, and to 
 my eyes the traces of his judgment and suggestion are so plainly 
 visible on every page that I seem to usurp a place to which I have 
 no claim when I write as if I were the editor of the work. 
 
 To the external history of Major's life — as that has now been 
 written by Mr. Mackay, with as much completeness as we may ever 
 expect to have it presented to us — I have nothing to add. Nor 
 have I any contribution to make, unless indirectly and by the way, 
 to an estimate of his relation to the thought of his time. But 
 just as in the intimate intercourse of daily life certain features in 
 the character of a friend come to impress themselves insensibly 
 upon one, so, in the peculiar relation which a translator of some 
 years' standing comes to hold towards his original, do certain char- 
 acters and even mannerisms gain an aspect and a prominence which 
 no ordinary study can afford. I think that it will not be out of 
 place if I should here try to indicate some of those features in this 
 History which have impressed me in this fashion. 
 
 It will be seen that in the first sentence of his History Major 
 declares that he writes this work in the manner almost of the 
 theologians (' theologico ferme stylo '), and in its dedication to king 
 James the Fifth, where he deals with the objection which might 
 possibly be urged against him — a ' theologian' — that he writes a 
 history, he says that he utterly dissents from the view of those who 
 hold that it is not becoming to a theologian to write history. 
 'For if, he says, 'it belongs to a theologian most of all to lay 
 down definite statements in regard to matters of faith, and religion, 
 and morals, I shall not consider that I transgress my province if I 
 relate not events only, or how and by w hose instigation such events 
 came to pass, but also if I say definitely w T hether such and such things 
 were rightly done or wrongly ; and throughout my work, yet most 
 of all in matters that are ambiguous, I have made this, first of all , 
 my aim, that you [i.e. the king] may learn from the reading of this 
 present history, not only what has taken place, but also how that 
 particular matter ought to have been dealt with, and that you may 
 thus discern, at the expense of a little reading, what the experience 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 xix 
 
 of centuries, if it were granted you to live so long, could hardly 
 teach you.' This passage is a key to the manner of Major's history. 
 He has not indeed, in the modern sense, any notion of a philosophy 
 of history ; but he separates himself once for all from the chronicler 
 and the annalist. To him history is important from the practical 
 value of the lessons that it contains ; one might almost say that the 
 writing of his history possesses for the writer its chief interest in the 
 opportunity that it affords for a full and free discussion : and there 
 cannot be a doubt that in Major's case that discussion is made vivid 
 to us from the action of an eminently independent judgment. 
 Examples of this discussion are strewn too thickly in his pages to 
 make it necessary to refer to them ; but I think that the reader 
 will recognise that it is there that Major warms to his task, and not 
 seldom, in the midst of practical lessons which to men of the present 
 day may suffer sometimes from being obsolete and sometimes from 
 being over-obvious, throws incidentally a side-light upon the thought 
 of his own times that has a real historical importance. From his 
 \ In Quartum ' I will quote two passages which illustrate his con- 
 ception of a theologian's duty. The first runs thus : ( Now the 
 manner of the scholastics, and a laudable manner it is, is this : that 
 every man shall say freely what he thinks — with all observance, as 
 matter of course, of the forms of courtesy, whether with those that 
 are older than himself, or with his contemporaries. Aught else is 
 unbecoming to a theologian.' 1 The second passage bears specially 
 upon the value of discussion or debate. ' To forbid discussion is to 
 entangle men in the error of Mahomet, who prohibited discussion 
 in regard to his law, fearing that by discussion the falsehood of 
 his erroneous and execrable sect might be discovered ; for it is 
 by comparison and discussion, and by no other way according to 
 the light of nature, that an intricate matter can be cleared up.' 2 
 
 The theological or scholastic manner pervades the History ; and 
 Major as a true scholastic gives evidence throughout of that intel- 
 lectual subordination to Aristotle which for several centuries marked 
 the course of European thought. Some acquaintance with his 
 
 1 Modus autem scholasticus est et laudabilis ut quilibet libere dicat quod sentit : 
 honore tamen semper servato tam apud maiores quam apud equales. Alioquin 
 theologum dedecet.— In Quartum : Dist. xviii. Qu. 2. fol. cxxxviii. ed. 1521. 
 
 2 Prohibere enim disputationes est homines in errorem Mahumeti involvere : 
 qui de sua lege disputationem vetuit, ne falsitas suaeerroneae et execrandae sectae 
 disputando deprehenderetur. Collatione namque et disputatione materia intri- 
 cate, et non aliter, naturaliter invenitur. — lb. Dist. xxiv. Qu. 13, fol. clxx. 
 
XX 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 history — what indeed Major would himself have called ' tantilla 
 lectio ' — will impress that fact upon the reader unforgetably. Facts 
 or inferences drawn from the writings of Aristotle go further than 
 anything else to solve the vexed question of the birth of Merlin, and 
 to explain the failure on the part of the Scots to take the castle 
 of Berwick in 1355 ; but it is naturally in the great questions of 
 the government of states and of how a man shall lead a life conform 
 to the dictates of reason that the commanding and universal pre- 
 sence of ' the Philosopher ' is chiefly felt. There is a passage in 
 the fifth chapter of the first book of the History in which Major 
 enumerates the illustrious philosophers and theologians who have 
 gone forth from the University of Oxford. When I showed that 
 passage to a friend to whom I am under more obligations than to 
 any other in the matter of this translation, and who supplied me 
 with notes in elucidation of the life of those men, he added in 
 regard to one of them, that ' of course he wrote upon the Sentences. 
 Major does not seem to consider any one worthy of notice who did 
 not '. It was an agreeable pleasantry ; it was also strictly true. 
 But however strongly marked may be the traces of Aristotle in the 
 History, it is again to his purely scholastic work, as that is seen in 
 the ' In Quartum,' that we must go for the most striking illustra- 
 tions of reverence, in this independent thinker, for the universal 
 philosopher. In discussing questions connected with drinking — 
 such as drinking for a wager (invitations ' ad potus equales ') — he 
 says that in this matter as much importance should be attached to 
 the opinion of Origen and Augustine as to that of Aristotle \ 
 In another passage he describes the famine of the year in which he 
 was writing, 'in ligua Hoccitana in urbe Lemouicensi and pictures 
 a certain Sortes (a favourite name in his arguments) on whose face 
 the calamitous condition is plainly written. ' Yet I may believe 
 Major goes on, 'that Sortes will probably survive until the new 
 harvest is collected in his barn, though in great penury ; and even 
 now he suffers hunger, and a morsel of garden stuff, or barley 
 bread, or a few beans would be sweeter to him than a partridge to 
 the mouth of an abbot. The question is this : Am I bound, under 
 pain of otherwise committing a sin, to succour him ? It is answered 
 affirmatively. This is proved by the words of Christ, in the twenty- 
 
 1 Origeni presbyteroet Augustino in hac materia non est minor fides habenda 
 quam Aristoteli. — hi Quartum, Dist. xxvii. Qu. 8, fol. cxxxvi. 
 
 2 i.e. Limoges. 
 
EDITOR S PREFACE 
 
 xxi 
 
 fifth chapter of Matthew : " I was hungry and ye gave me no meat, 
 I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink, I was a stranger and ye 
 received me not, naked and ye clothed me not, in pain and in 
 prison and ye visited me not." And afterward the conclusion 
 follows : (t Go ye into eternal fire." Wherefore the rich glutton 
 who refused the crumbs of his bread to Lazarus was buried in hell, 
 Luke xvi. Come hither, as my third witness, thou blessed John 
 Evangelist ; say too what thou dost think as to these two cases. 
 The blessed John makes answer : " Why question me ? Hast thou 
 not read in the third chapter of the first Canonical Epistle : c He 
 that is rich in this world's goods and seeth his brother in need, and 
 closeth his bowels against him, how doth the love of God abide in 
 him ?' " As much as to say : "To me it seems incredible that the 
 love of God abideth in him." I do not believe that Aristotle 
 would have spoken otherwise.' 1 In another place he marshals the 
 arguments by which he would have endeavoured to lead Aristotle 
 to embrace Christianity : ' If Aristotle, or any other intelligent 
 heathen, were half-doubtful which creed [Christianity or Mahomet- 
 anism] he should embrace, knowing that he must give his assent 
 to one, but ignorant to which it should be given, I would use, with 
 Aristotle, this argument — <c That law censures all vices even more 
 severely than you yourself in your Ethics censure them, and exalts 
 all virtues to the stars 2 ".' I add one more example of the place 
 occupied by Aristotle. To the justification and sanctions of mar- 
 riage this is added : ' Besides, Aristotle, the patriarchs, and other 
 men who have deserved heaven, entered the married state.' 3 
 
 I should like now to say something about the singular fairness, 
 the anxious impartiality, of Major's judgment of the English 
 nation, the cordiality of his appreciation of English customs. 
 There may indeed be some injustice in characterising this mental 
 attitude of his as ' anxious ', for it seems to belong to the very 
 nature of the man and to have been no more than confirmed by 
 his training and by his conception of the functions of the theo- 
 
 1 . . . Non credo Aristotelem aliter fuisse dicturum. — lb. Dist. xv. Qu. 7, 
 fol. lxx. 
 
 2 Si Aristoteles staret subdubius vel alius gentilis ingeniosus ad quem ritum se 
 converteret, sciens quod uni teneretur assentire nesciens tamen cui . . . quae 
 quidem lex vitia omnia rigidius quam tu ipse in Ethicis damnat, et virtutes ad 
 astra effert. — lb. In Prologum, Qu. 3, fol. v. 
 
 3 Praeterea Aristoteles, patriarchae, et viri celo digni matrimonium contraxe- 
 runt. — Ib. Dist. xxvi. Qu. 3, fol. clxxxviii. 
 
xxii 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 logian. Attention has been directed by Mr. Mackay to his views 
 of the advantage to both nations of a union of the crowns. In our 
 own country, and at the time of his writing, there was probably no 
 one who shared his views, and even fifty years later, we find in 
 our great humanist, George Buchanan, whom the world has recog- 
 nised as upon that side of life the true exponent of the modern 
 spirit, a resolute opponent of union. Yet it is not only 
 because in this matter John Major showed the insight of a philo- 
 sophic statesman that his position is unique among Scottish 
 writers. He lost indeed no one of those opportunities which the 
 nature of his narrative so abundantly afforded to strike home the 
 lesson that, with two neighbouring nations of such spirit as the 
 Scots and English, there could be no chance of a permanent peace 
 save in union of the crowns by way of intermarriage. But he went 
 much further. As if he were an apostle .with a message to his 
 race, his History bears the mark, in one aspect of it, of a homily in 
 which his hearers are adjured to cast away all ' nasty expressions ' 
 — that habit ' illote loqui ' — about the men of a neighbouring 
 country. Mr. Mackay points out (p. xxxiii.) that though Major was 
 a Cambridge man, he frankly acknowledged the superiority of 
 Oxford in numbers and reputation. This simple recognition of the 
 truth is characteristic of him. That he was to his heart's core a 
 Scotsman is written in every chapter of his History ; yet he did 
 not on that account refrain from pointing out that the ecclesias- 
 tical polity of Scotland is not worthy of comparison with that of 
 England (p. 30) ; that in the art of music the English take pre- 
 cedence alike of Frenchmen and of Scots (p. 27) ; that the Scots are 
 prone to call themselves of noble birth (p. 45) ; that many Britons 
 (who in the case in point were Scots) were inclined to be ashamed 
 of things no way to be ashamed of (p. 7) ; that the Scottish gentry 
 of his time educated their children neither in letters nor in morals 
 (p. 48) ; that — hating Caxton as he did — still if that were true 
 which Caxton affirms, that the Scots, in the ravaging of Northum- 
 berland, slew young men, and women too, with every circumstance 
 of cruelty, then in that case he must condemn them and abhor 
 them for such wickedness (p. 226) ; that the English ' in civil 
 polity are at least not less wise than we — and to my thinking they 
 are wiser' (p. 347); that the English showed their affection for 
 their king (Richard Coeur de Lion), and acted rightly in selling 
 for his ransom every second gold or silver vessel which was used in 
 the service of God (p. 155) ; while in such a judgment as that which 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 xxiii 
 
 he passes on Edward the First (p. 223), expressed with all severity 
 of censure in regard to his political action, yet admitting the pos- 
 sibility that even here the plea might be urged that he had acted 
 on an * ignorance that was invincible we have a remarkable com- 
 bination of national fairness and theological justice. It gives him 
 pleasure too to call attention to that notable example of English 
 courtesy which restored to the shrine of Saint Duthach at Tain the 
 tutelary shirt which was found on the dead body of the earl of 
 Ross after the battle of Halidon Hill (p. 273). 
 
 I do not know whether before Major's day we had as a nation 
 reached a more candid estimate of England than that which found 
 this quaint expression in Wyntoun : — 
 
 ' Set we haiff nane affectioune 
 Off caus till Vnglis natioune, 
 Yeit it ware baith syn and schame 
 Mair than thai serve, thaim to defame.' 1 
 
 It was something to have got so far. But I like to think that 
 Major has proved his right to a place among notable Scotsmen 
 as an example perhaps more eminent than any other of a man 
 who has shown the possibility of combining the strongest attach- 
 ment to his own country and the frankest appreciation of the 
 virtues of another. 
 
 To the fairness of his appreciation of Englishmen one exception 
 has to be made. The name of Caxton is familiar to all Britons — 
 both ' English Britons and Scottish Britons ', to speak with Major, — 
 and we have, not without reason, accustomed ourselves to look 
 upon the first English printer as a national benefactor. It seems 
 strange, therefore, and almost incredible, to have him presented to 
 us as a man who wrought nothing but evil. That Major says nothing 
 of Caxton as a printer, and nothing of the invention of printing, is 
 not so strange ; for recognition of the importance of the art is not 
 frequent within the hundred years that followed its invention. 
 There is a reason, however, for Major's abhorrence of Caxton ; for it 
 seems plain from Major's calling him ( Anglus Chronographus 
 ' historicus Anglus ', and from the general character of his many 
 quotations from the ' Chronicle', that Caxton was believed by him 
 to be the original writer of that work, and not merely the printer, 
 and perhaps the editor, of Trevisa's translation of the old Chronicle 
 o f Brut. And not only was Caxton, on that showing, a foolishly 
 
 Cron. Bk. ix. ch. 20, Laing's ed. vol. iii. p. 72. 
 
xxiv 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 credulous person ; he was the mouth-piece also of many of 
 those sayings, on the English side, the use of which, upon 
 one side as well as the other, Major so heartily abhorred. 
 Nothing in Caxton made for national amity, and that was 
 Major's ideal for both kingdoms. It must be admitted too that 
 when Caxton said that ' the king of Scotland became his [king 
 Edward's] man, and had all his lands of him ' ; that the Scots 
 'chose unto their king William Wallace, a ribald and a harlot, 
 eomen up of nought ' ; that Pope John the Twenty-second f was 
 wonders sorry that Christendom was so destroyed through the 
 Scots ' ; that Edward Balliol lived at Dunpier (in France) on his 
 own lands, 'as well he might, till that the Scots would amend 
 them of theyr misdeeds ... so he forsook his realme of Scotland, 
 and set thereof but little price ', his language was well fitted to 
 exasperate a sensitive nation. Yet Major is ready to make 
 ' allowance in a measure — if not altogether — for an unlettered 
 man : he followed simply the fashion of speech that was common 
 amongst the English about their enemies the Scots' (p. 287). 1 
 
 In the last book of his Histoiy Major quotes the French historian 
 Robert Gaguin several times, and with a minuteness which shows 
 that Gaguin's Compendium super Francorum Gestis was well known 
 to him. Gaguin was born about 1425, and died in 1502. His 
 Compendium was first published in 1497, and received the high 
 commendation of Erasmus and Cornelius Girard, ' Hieronymianae 
 vallis canonicus regularis' 2 . Erasmus praises the honesty and the 
 erudition of Gaguin, and then proceeds : — ' The man who has 
 exalted his native land, and enriched her, and adorned her by 
 
 l « I may note here that as a mere handbook Caxton 's Chronicle must have 
 been of great service to Major. The references to Caxton — apart from the 
 frequent mention of him — might have been largely increased had I always had 
 the ' Chronicle ' by me for consultation. It was probably, for instance, from 
 Caxton that Major took the observation that king Harold delighted to travel on 
 foot rather than on horseback — given in Caxton (fol. lxii. ) thus: — 'Of Kynge 
 Harold that had leuer go on fote than ryde on hors backe.' The constant 
 references to Caxton and quotations from him, throughout the History, led to 
 the belief — which would have been very startling to Major — that he had made 
 a translation of Caxton's Chronicle : — ' Caxtonum Latine reddidit ', — YVodrow's 
 Catalogue of Scottish Writers, p. 2. Edin. 1833. He is credited with such a 
 translation also in Crabb's Universal Historical Dictionary (1833), and probably 
 in many other books of reference. 
 
 2 The commendations of Erasmus and Girard are to be found at the end of the 
 Compendium, ed. 151 1. 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 XXV 
 
 worthy writing, has assuredly done work equal to that of him who 
 has bedizened her with spoils and trophies and statues, and that 
 sort of monument. For neither brazen tablet, nor inscription, nor 
 medal, nor pyramids can either declare more truly or more safely 
 guard the renown of kings than these will be declared and guarded 
 by the writings of an eloquent man. From this day forth the 
 renown of France, which hitherto has lain hid in narrow space, 
 shall shine forth like a thunderbolt, and from a Frenchman's 
 mouth, but, as is more fitting, in the trumpet tones of Rome, shall 
 reach the ears of all nations 1 .' Cornelius Girard praises the French 
 historian for his impartiality. * You spare ', he says, ' neither your 
 own countrymen nor your country's enemies ; . . . neither hatred 
 of the foreigner nor affection for your own people can make you 
 swerve from the path of justice.' Gaguin was a ' theologian' of 
 the university of Paris — he had written a treatise De Pwitate 
 conceptionis Virginis; in his old age he had written a history 
 of his own country, the first, as it would appear, in which 
 the writer had placed before him as his constant aim the duty 
 of telling what he believed to be the truth, without respect 
 of nation. It is evident that Major knew Gaguin's work well. 
 We have seen that while he was himself strongly convinced that 
 the theologian who wrote a history needed no excuse for so doing, 
 he still thought it well to justify this course in the eyes of his 
 king and country. We know that a union between Scotland 
 and England had the first place in his aspirations, and that in 
 the mutual asperities of the national tempers and the foolish 
 habit of recrimination he saw as serious an obstacle to this con- 
 summation as in the jealousies of kings and statesmen. If it must 
 be considered fanciful to suggest that a study of Gaguin's History 
 gave the impulse to the writing of his own, it will be admitted that 
 the historical and contemporary parallel is not without interest. 
 
 There are but two editions of Major's Historia : the original, 
 which was printed in Paris in 1521, in the lifetime of the author, 
 but while he was in Scotland; and that which was printed in 
 Edinburgh by Robert Freebairn in 1740. In both editions the 
 running headline is < De Gestis Scotorum'. The edition of 1521 
 
 i Mr. Hume Brown has pointed out to me another laudatory mention of 
 Gaguin by Erasmus : ' Robertus Gaguinus, quo uno litterarum parente, antistite, 
 principe, Francia non injuria gloriatur. ' — Erasm. Opera, iii. 1782. 
 
XXVI 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 swarms with errors in the printing of proper names — errors of such 
 a nature that the discovery of the true reading, in the great 
 majority of cases in the edition of 1740 does credit to the care 
 and ingenuity of Freebairn and his editor. Except in this matter 
 of proper names, and the extending of the contractions of the 
 original text, the edition of 1740 neither shows, nor needed to 
 show, many changes from the original. The one unfortunate 
 change made in Freebairn' s edition is in the reading of the clan 
 names (p. 334), on which the footnote in loco may be consulted. 
 In the ordinary course of translation, and for convenience of refer- 
 ence, I have used Freebairn's edition, but I have in some cases 
 preferred the punctuation, or the freedom afforded by no punctua- 
 tion, of the original ; and in those cases, not very many, where the 
 text seems to be corrupt, I have drawn attention to the fact in 
 a footnote. Freebairn's edition is nothing but a reprint of the 
 original, with correction of its errors of names of places and 
 persons. In the footnotes I have referred to Freebairn's edition 
 as ' F.', and to the original as ' Orig.' 
 
 The many footnotes to this book bring to my remembrance the 
 help which has been most willingly rendered to me, in answer to 
 my inquiries, by friends almost innumerable, and by many men of 
 learning and position to whom I was quite unknown. Let me 
 have the pleasure of here gratefully recording my obligations to 
 Mr. .Eneas Mackay, who was good enough to read with me a large 
 part of the manuscript, and to suggest many notes connected with 
 Scottish history and in other directions ; Mr. P. Hume Brown ; 
 Professor Herbert Strong ; Mr. David Patrick ; the Reverend Dr. 
 Jessopp ; the Marquis of Bute ; Professor Copeland, Astronomer 
 Royal for Scotland ; Dr. Dickson, of H.M. General Register House ; 
 Count Ugo Balzani; Mr. James Gairdner; M. Delisle of the Biblio- 
 theque Xationale in Paris ; Mr. John Taylor Brown ; Mr. J. R. 
 Findlay; M. Beljame of Paris; Sir Arthur Mitchell, K.C.B. ; 
 Captain G. D. Clay hills Henderson of Invergowrie ; Mr. Robert 
 Bruce Armstrong; Mr. Gordon Duff ; Mr. Francis Hindes Groome ; 
 Mr. David Mac Ritchie ; the Reverend J. C. Atkinson, D.C.L. ; the 
 Reverend John Owen of Dulverton, perhaps the chief authority in 
 Britain on the Scholastics ; Professor Kuno Meyer ; my cousin, Mr. 
 Archibald Constable ; Mr. W. B. Blaikie ; and Mr. Ian Mackay, 
 whose kindly service to me during a temporary residence at Rouen 
 I like here to remember in connection with the large service 
 rendered to Scottish history by his grandfather, the late Mr. Cosmo 
 
EDITOR'S PKEFACE 
 
 XXVll 
 
 I lines. To Mr. David Douglas I am indebted for the loan of his 
 copy of that not very common book, the Compendium of Robert 
 Gaguin ; to Emeritus Professor Blackie, to Dr. Joseph Anderson of 
 the Society of Antiquaries, and to Mr. George Neilson, I am under 
 obligations for the loan of other books. To many Librarians, both 
 in England and in Scotland, and especially to the Keepers of the 
 Advocates' Library and the Edinburgh University Library, I am 
 indebted for bibliographical information and help, and to the 
 latter library for the loan of the copy of Major's Commentary on 
 St. Matthew, from which the characteristic illustrations, which are 
 bound up in the Appendix, were taken. My demands upon the 
 forbearance of Mr. Main, Mr. Mill, and Mr. Whamond of the Signet 
 Library are only rendered tolerable in the remembrance of them 
 by the ready helpfulness with which these demands have been met 
 at all times. 
 
 A. C. 
 
 December 1891. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 John Major or Mair was born in 1469-70, the eleventh 
 year of the reign of James ni., at Gleghornie, now a farm- 
 house, perhaps then a hamlet, in the parish of North Berwick, 
 about two miles inland from Tantallon 1 , the castle of the 
 Douglases, and three miles from Hailes 2 , the castle of the 
 Hepburns, to both of which families, though himself of humble 
 origin, his talents introduced him. Crawford, the historio- 
 grapher, in the Life prefixed to Freebairn's edition of Major's 
 History, dates his birth as early as 1446, and Dr. Mackenzie, 
 in his Lives of Scots Writers, as late as 1478 ; but he corrects Major's birth, 
 this in the preface to his second volume from information he 1469 7 ° 
 had received from Paris, and assigns 1469 as the true date. 
 A passage in one of Major's works proves that he was really 
 born in 1469-70, for he states in the preface to a new edition, 
 published in 1519, that he had then reached the confines of 
 his forty-ninth year; and this is confirmed by the fact that 
 he graduated as Doctor in Theology at Paris in 1505, a 
 degree which could not be taken under the age of thirty-five 3 . 
 Major was alive in 1549, when he was excused from attending 
 
 1 Appendix II,, p. 437. 2 Appendix II., p. 425. 
 
 3 I am indebted to Mr. Archibald Constable for directing my attention to this 
 passage : ' Licet enim Martinus Magister [i.e. Martin le Maistre] qusestione pen- 
 ultima de temperantia dicat seniores junioribus in re scholastica invidere; non 
 sum de numero juniorum ; nam hoc libro absoluto quadragesimi noni annijimbrias 
 aggredior.' — Johannis Majoris in exordio prselectionis lib. quarti sententiarum ad 
 auditores propositio. See Appendix II., p. 437. This Preface is not printed in the 
 earlier editions of 1509 and 15 16. Mr. Hume Brown has supplied me with the 
 further corroboration of this date that a degree in theology could not be then taken 
 at Paris before the age of 35. It is due, however, to Dr. Mackenzie, a writer some- 
 what unfairly disparaged, to mention that he arrived at the true date of Major's 
 birth in the correction made in the Preface to the second volume of his Lives of 
 Scots Writers. 
 
 C 
 
XXX 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 a Provincial Council at Edinburgh on account of his age, and 
 died in that or the following year, when his successor as 
 Provost of the College of St. Salvator at St. Andrews was 
 appointed. His long life of seventy-nine years was thus passed 
 in the century which preceded the Scottish Reformation, a 
 memorable period in the history of Scotland and of Europe. 
 At Gleghornie, He refers to Gleghornie as his birthplace in the History \ and 
 Bmvick. rth styles himself 6 Glegornensis 1 in the titles of several of his other 
 works. In his quaint manner, when he mentions any event 
 which occurred near North Berwick, he notes the precise dis- 
 tance, a token that he retained an affectionate recollection of 
 his early home. The oatcakes baked on the girdle over the 
 ashes, the mode of grinding meal and brewing beer, the way 
 of catching crabs and lobsters at North Berwick, the habits of 
 the Solan Geese of the Bass, the popular superstitions still 
 current in the most civilised part of Scotland 2 , even the exact 
 time at North Berwick, are described with the close observa- 
 tion of a frequent eye-witness, and leave little doubt that he 
 was born in one of the thatched cottages whose fragile char- 
 acter he deplores 3 , and was the son of one of the labourers, or 
 perhaps one of the small farmers, probably of some churcli 
 lands in the neighbourhood. It is possible his father was the 
 tacksman of Gleghornie itself, whom he uses as an illustration 
 in a passage of his Commentary on the Fourth Book of the Sen- 
 tences of Peter Lombard 4 . But of his parents or descent nothing 
 is certainly known. A boy of parts in that age, however 
 humble his parentage, had opportunities of distinguishing him- 
 self if he chose Learning or the Church as his profession. A 
 
 1 History, I. vi. pp. 33-4. 
 
 2 Dubitatur adhuc : Isti Fauni et vocati brobne [brownies] apud nos domi qui non 
 nocent, ad quod propositum talia faciunt. Respondetur : niulta referuntur de 
 talibus : ut proterere tantum tritici in una nocte vel sicut xx. viri terere possunt. 
 Projiciunt lapillos inter sedentes prope ignem ruri, ridere videntur, et similia 
 facere. Insuper dubitatur : an possunt futura predicere ; et movetur dubitatio. 
 Sunt aliqui apud nostrates Britannos qui more prophetico futura predicunt utpote 
 de morte et homicidio aliquorum. — Expos, in Matt., ed. 15 18, fob xlviii. 
 
 3 History, I. v. p. 30. 4 Dist. xv. Quaest. 45. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xxxi 
 
 pious reference to the custom of his childhood amongst the 
 
 country-folk of Scotland, that when the children went to bed 
 
 they asked their parents' blessing with outstretched hands, and 
 
 the father gave it with God's blessing added, shows one part of 
 
 his education had begun at home 1 . 
 
 His name is a common one in Scotland ; indeed in the Latin His name. 
 
 form of Major it is known in England and on the Continent. 
 
 It may have been derived from the office of Maor (Scotice 
 
 Mair) or serjeant, the executive official of the Celtic thane, who 
 
 remained attached to the court of the sheriff; or, more probably, 
 
 in Lothian it meant no more than 'elder', when, surnames 
 
 coming into use, it was necessary to distinguish between two 
 
 persons of the same Christian name. It is noticeable that in 
 
 several of the entries in the Registers of Paris, Glasgow, and 
 
 St. Andrews, he is described as 'Johannes (i.e. Alius) MajonV 2 , 
 
 as if his father had first assumed the surname. Whether he 
 
 owed it to his parents, or to the monks who detected his aptness 
 
 for learning, Major received the rudiments of a good education 
 
 in his own neighbourhood, almost certainly at the school of 
 
 Haddington, already noted amongst the schools of Scotland, A * sch ° o1 at 
 & . J & Haddington. 
 
 where a little later John Knox was a scholar. In remem- 
 brance of this, in some of his works he describes himself as 
 6 Hadingtonanus ', and in the dedication of his treatise on the 
 Fourth Book of the Sentences to Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dun- 
 keld, and Robert Cockburn, Bishop of Ross, he makes the follow- 
 ing grateful reference to his connection with Haddington and its 
 school : — 6 These reasons have led me to dedicate this work to 
 you, for not only is each of you like myself a Scottish Briton 
 [Scotus Britarmus], but also my nearest neighbour in my native 
 land. The Dialogue in the Preface to my treatise on the First 
 Book explains the distance from the birthplace of one of you 
 
 1 Ibid. Dist. xxiii. Quaest. 2. 
 
 2 So Prantl in his Geschichte der Logik, iv. 217, throughout calls Major 
 Johannes Majoris. But I incline to think, on a view of the whole evidence, 
 that this is merely from his name usually appearing on the title-pages of his 
 works in the genitive case. 
 
xxxii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [Gavin Douglas, who was born at Tantallon] is not more 
 than a Sabbath-day's journey. Haddington has a still fuller 
 right to rejoice in the origin of the other [Robert Cockburn], 
 the town which fostered the beginnings of my own studies, and 
 in whose kindly embraces I was nourished as a novice with the 
 sweetest milk of the art of grammar, and carried on in my 
 education to a pretty advanced age [longiuscula cetas\ and it is 
 not more than five miles from Gleghornie where I was born. 
 So that many persons call me not wrongly a Haddington man. 
 Resides, I have enjoyed the friendly and familiar society of you 
 both, at home as well as at Paris, and have been honoured by 
 your public commendation, of which I cannot speak fully in few 
 words. Therefore, as Sallust says of Carthage, " I prefer to be 
 silent rather than say too little For these causes I have deter- 
 mined to dedicate this work to you, which I pray you to review 
 not with severe and harsh eyebrows, but with the benignant 
 and modest countenances habitual to you. Farewell. Paris, 
 in the College of Montague, the Kalends of December 1516. 1 
 
 That he was one of the youths of humble origin his country 
 has often produced, eager to learn, patient in study, fond of 
 argument, and of comparison, with what is called an inquisitive 
 intellect, is proved by his subsequent career. 
 
 A curious but tantalising reference in his History as to his 
 personal experience informs us that Major spent seven years in 
 the north, or more probably the borders 1 , of England. When 
 defending his country from the charge of poverty, on the 
 ground that oatmeal was a common diet (for long before Dr. 
 Johnson this was a vulgar scoff), he remarks : i It is the food 
 of almost all the natives of Wales and of the northern 
 English, as I know from my own seven years' experience of 
 that people [ut a septennio expertus sum 2 ], as well as of the 
 Scottish peasantry, and yet the main strength of the Scottish 
 
 1 A somewhat minute knowledge of the Borders between England and Scot- 
 land is shown in his History, I. v. p. 19. 
 
 2 Perhaps the meaning is ' as I have known by experience for seven years 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 and English armies is in the peasantry — a proof that oat bread 
 is not a thing to be laughed at."* 
 
 But as he positively states in the Dedication of his edition 
 of Aristotle's Ethics to Wolsey 1 that he first crossed the Borders 
 when he went through England to Paris in 1493, it would seem 
 that he considered Gleghornie on the Borders, — a flexible term 
 at this period of internecine raids, and his acquaintance with 
 the habits of the English may have been derived from the 
 Northumberland moss-troopers. 
 
 He chose the vocation of a travelling scholar, an excellent 
 combination of the Middle Ages, in many respects preferable 
 to the more sedentary training of modern times. His name 
 does not appear as a student at either of the Scottish univer- 
 sities then founded, in both of which he was afterwards 
 a teacher, but before 1493, when already a man of twenty- 
 three, he found his way to Cambridge. That university, though 
 somewhat inferior to Oxford in numbers and reputation, as 
 he notes with a candour creditable to a Cambridge man, and in 
 spite of the attractions of Baliol College, possibly because of the 
 dislike of North-countrymen which was a tradition of mediaeval 
 Oxford, was then a favourite school for Scottish students. 
 George Wishart, the first of the Scottish Reformers, was not 
 long after a student at Corpus Christi, in the same university. 
 
 He studied for a year, but attended lectures apparently I493 , a t God's 
 only for three months 2 , at God's House, the earlier foundation bJ°d|e.' Cam 
 converted into Christ's College in 1505. He selected it for a 
 reason strange to us, but at that time natural, because it 
 was situated in the parish of St. Andrew 3 , the patron saint of 
 Scotland, and of the diocese to which Major himself belonged. 
 The church dedicated to that saint still stands opposite the 
 College gate over which, as at St. John's, the other foundation 
 of the Lady Margaret, the mother of Henry vn. and grand- 
 
 but this scarcely removes the puzzle of the passage, as Major had been in England 
 long before 1 518, the date when his History was written. 
 
 J See Appendix 11., p. 448. 2 History, 1. v. p. 25. 3 Ibid. 
 
xxxiv 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 mother of Margaret, wife of James iv., the Tudor arms are 
 boldly sculptured. It may have been a consequence of this 
 portion of his education that he became through life a 
 strenuous advocate of the union of Scotland with England. 
 The higher culture and refinement of English life certainly 
 made an impression on the country-bred Scot. 
 
 * While I was a student at Cambridge," he says in one of 
 the sidenotes which relieve the dry style of his History, 
 ' during the great festivals I spent half the night awake listen- 
 ing to the bells. The university is on a river, so from the 
 undulation of the water their sound is sweeter.'' With the 
 freedom from prejudice which was one of his characteristics, 
 he remarks that the bells of St. Oseney, the cradle of Oxford, 
 s are the best in England, and that as in music the English 
 excel all nations, so they excel in the sweet and artistic modu- 
 lation of their bells 1 K 
 
 6 No village of forty houses is without fine bells. In every 
 town of any size you hear the sweetest chimes from terce to 
 tercel He enlarges, and, as his manner is, generalizes from 
 his observations, the minuteness of which is noteworthy : 
 4 although you may find a few as finished musicians in Scotland 
 as in England, there are not nearly so many of them 2 . 1 
 
 These remarks, intended for the ear of his own countrymen, 
 to prompt them to the study and practice of music, have been 
 long in bearing fruit. To a Scottish student returning from 
 the English universities, the bells of his native town are not 
 yet such as he would willingly lie awake to hear, and still too 
 often recal by contrast the chimes of the churches and college 
 
 1 History, HI. i. p. no. 
 
 2 Ibid. I. iv. p. 27, with which compare 1. v. p. 30, where he laments that 
 the Scottish priests were ignorant of the Gregorian Chant, and his statement 
 (VI. xiv. p. 366) that James I. learned music in England. ' Bells were not 
 universal in parish churches in Scotland even at the end of last century. It 
 often happened that there was nowhere to hang them : a theologian of 1679 
 inveighs against " that pitiful spectacle, bells hanging upon trees for want of bell 
 houses.'" — Joseph Robertson, Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals, p. 102. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 XXXV 
 
 chapels on the banks of the Isis or the Cam, the sweet changes 
 rung in the towers of St. Mary in both universities, or of Christ 
 Church, where the bells of Oseney Priory are said to have 
 found a home in the Gatehouse tower. 
 
 From Cambridge Major passed in 1493 to Paris, probably 
 his original destination. Paris was then, especially for theo- 
 logians, the most famous university in Europe. Its colleges 
 were crowded with students from almost all countries, 
 even the distant extremities of Europe — Scandinavia, Spain, 
 Scotland — as yet without complete universities of their own. 
 There were as many as 10,000 at the lowest estimate. But 
 national jealousy and the growth of Oxford and Cambridge had 
 recently withdrawn the English students, and the Scotch who 
 continued to frequent it were now enrolled in the Natio Ale- 
 manka (or German) which had been substituted for the older 
 name of the Natio Anglicana. Before he crossed the Channel 
 Major had probably visited Oxford as well as Cambridge, and his 
 brief notes on the universities 1 and a few of the principal towns 
 in England, which bear marks of personal observation, deserve Description cf 
 notice, as there are few diaries of intelligent travellers in the end Towns g and 
 of the fifteenth century now extant 2 . 4 Londinum he says, Universities. 
 6 which was called by the Britons London, is situated on the 
 Thames, a river thrice the size of the Seine at Paris. It is 
 visited by the ships of all nations, and has a very fine bridge and 
 church. One mile to the west lies Westminster, where there is 
 a royal palace, the monuments of the kings, and the seat of 
 justice. Three miles to the East is Greenwich the royal port, 
 where you may see in abundance barges passing up to London 
 and down to the sea with sails or the tide. London elects a 
 wealthy and senior tradesman yearly as Mayor, before whom a 
 
 1 He more than once refers to Oseney Priory. The long list of the famous 
 men who had studied at Oxford and the comparison between the colleges at 
 the two Universities indicate a knowledge of both. 
 
 2 History •, I. v. p. 21. 
 
xxxvi 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 sword is carried as an emblem of justice, whose duty it is if 
 corn is dear to import it to lower the price. It exceeds Rouen, 
 the second city of France, in population, but is far before it in 
 wealth. It is enriched by being the seat of justice, the almost 
 constant residence of the king, and by the affluence of its 
 merchants. Some Englishmen, with whom I agree, count the 
 population of Paris three times that of London, but it is not 
 three times as wealthy. In the Thames there are three or four 
 thousand tame swans; but', he adds with characteristic caution, 
 fc I merely repeat what was told me, for, though I have seen, 
 I have never counted them. York is the second city of 
 England, the see of an archbishop, distant fifty leagues from 
 Scotland, a town of large extent, but not rich or populous, 
 through the want of the three advantages London has. The 
 third city is Norwich, an Episcopal See, in which that kind of 
 cloth called Ostade is manufactured, both single and double. 
 There are other considerable cities, — as Bristol ; Coventry, a 
 good town without a river, which is remarkable ; Lincoln, 
 formerly famous, and many more 1 . England has two famous 
 universities : Oxford, celebrated abroad, which has produced 
 eminent philosophers and theologians, as Alexander Hales, 
 Richard Middleton, John Duns the Doctor Subtilis, Ockham, 
 Adam the Irishman, Strode, Bradwardine, and others 2 .' Of its 
 colleges he names Magdalen and New as the foremost, each 
 with a hundred bursaries — some in divinity and others in arts. 
 ' The other university is Cambridge, a little inferior to Oxford 
 in number of students and reputation for letters.' Of its 
 colleges he mentions King's, which may be compared with New 
 College, Oxford ; Queens' ; a Royal Hall — inferior to Queens' 
 
 i The somewhat eccentric list of English towns mentioned by Major is pro- 
 bably accounted for by the fact that in each of them there was a Franciscan 
 monastery. 
 
 3 See note Hist. I. v. p. 23, as to the philosophers named by Major, fourteen 
 in all, of whom it is noticeable that at least eight were Franciscans. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xxxvii 
 
 College — the future Trinity, not yet risen to the dignity of a 
 College ; Christ's College, where he studied himself, and Jesus, 
 formerly a convent for women, reformed by Doctor Stubbs \ 
 the nuns having been ejected. 4 1 approve"*, he adds, 'of this 
 ejection, for if convents become houses of ill fame, good in- 
 stitutions must be put in their place/ 
 
 6 The course of study in the English universities is seven or 
 eight years before graduating as master in arts. They do not 
 pay much attention to grammar. The government of the 
 university is in the hands of a Chancellor, like the Rector of 
 Paris elected yearly, and two Proctors who have jurisdiction 
 over laymen as well as students. The number of students is 
 4000 or 5000, and though that of laymen [i.e. townsmen] is 
 greater, they don't venture to rise against the students, who 
 would soon put them down. The students are all adults, 
 and carry swords and bows, being for the most part of good 
 birth/ 
 
 He concludes this fragmentary but interesting sketch by 
 praising the morality of the English in comparison with the 
 Scottish ecclesiastics, and making one of the semi-ironical 
 observations of which studious men are fond : 6 For courage, 
 prudence, and other virtues the English don't think they are 
 the least nation in the world, and if they meet a foreigner who 
 has parts or bravery, it is much to be regretted, they say, that 
 he was not an Englishman/ 
 
 While the dates of Majors studies at Cambridge and visit to 
 Oxford are not quite certain, the commencement of his curri- 
 culum at Paris is fixed by an entry in the Register of Matri- 
 culation in the University under the year 1493: ' Johannes Paris, 1493. 
 
 J J Studies Arts 
 
 Mair Glegornensis, Diocesis S. Andrea?/ He commenced his at College of 
 
 , . , ^ . St. Barbe. 
 
 course of Arts at the College of St. Barbe, of which Etienne 
 
 1 Stubbs is unknown to the historians of Cambridge, and the real reformer 
 and founder of Jesus College was John Alcock, Bishop of Ely (Mullinger, p. 321), 
 to whom Major refers in his Biblical Commentary. 
 
xxxviii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Bonet *, a philosopher and physician, was then principal, under 
 John Boulac or Bouillache, curate of St. Jacques La Boucherie, 
 afterwards Principal of the College of Navarre, and graduated as 
 Licentiate in 1494 and as Master in 1496. His countryman, 
 John Harvey 2 , of the Scots College, was then Rector of the 
 University, and Major held under him the honourable office of 
 Procurator of the German Nation, and became its Quaestor 
 or Treasurer in 1501. From the College of St. Barbe Major 
 migrated at the suggestion of Natalis or Noel Beda 3 , afterwards 
 a celebrated leader of the Sorbonne, to the College of Montaigu, 
 then under the government of a Fleming, John Standonk, 
 who reformed it ; and Standonk having been banished by 
 Louis xii., Major, by the advice of Boulac, was affiliated to 
 the College of Navarre 4 , though he continued to teach philo- 
 sophy as Regent in Arts in that of Montaigu at least down 
 to and probably after the year 1505, when he graduated as 
 Doctor of Theology. Remaining in Paris for twelve or thir- 
 teen years after his graduation he became one of its most 
 famous Professors of Theology, as he had been formerly of 
 Logic and Philosophy. It is probable, indeed, that he lectured 
 simultaneously, as he certainly published his lectures in both 
 Faculties during the same period (1509-1518). 
 
 The period of Major's residence in Paris was a marked epoch 
 in the history of France and the University. It was the zenith 
 of the Renaissance. The Revival of Learning, begun in Italy 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, had in the sixteenth 
 crossed the Alps, and under the leadership of Erasmus taken 
 root in France, England, Germany, and the Low Countries. 
 It was the France of the last five years of Charles vm. (1483- 
 
 1 As to the Principalship of Etienne Bonet, see Quicherat, St. Barbe, pp. 
 54-64. He was elected 1483, and died 1497. 
 
 2 Of John Harvey I find no mention except in Mackenzie's Lives of Scots 
 Writers > 2 Pref. p. 121. 
 
 3 As to Noel Beda, see Hume Brown's Memoir of Buchanan, p. 69. 
 
 4 Launoi : A'egice Navarrce Hist, Op. iv. p. 396. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xxxix 
 
 1498), of the reign of Louis xn. (1498-1515), and the first 
 three years of Francis I. (1515-47), during which Major passed 
 his life as Student, Regent in Arts, and Doctor in Theology 
 in its capital. During these years the consolidation of the French history 
 
 ■ • i • pit^ iii during Major's 
 
 kingdom and the formation of modern France by the absorp- residence in 
 
 France 
 
 tion of the great feudal houses was completed. Charles vm. by 
 marrying Anne, heiress of Brittany, united the French Wales 
 to the Crown, and Louis xn. retained it, divorcing his wife 
 Jane of France and marrying the widow of Charles. He 
 added himself the large domains of the House of Orleans. 
 Encouraged by the growth of their kingdom and the divisions 
 of Italy, the French monarchs made the fatal attempt to annex 
 parts of the peninsula where so many Frenchmen found their 
 tombs. The survivors brought back the learning, arts, and 
 manners of the more civilised but more luxurious south. 
 History repeated with altered names the lines of Horace: — 
 
 ' Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes 
 Intulit agresti Latio. ' 
 
 Italy, unlike Greece, was overrun, not subdued. In 1494 
 Charles vni. marched through Rome to Naples; but his 
 campaign was a triumph not a conquest. Louis xn. renewed 
 the war, claiming Milan as well as Naples, for whose partition 
 he entered into a league with Ferdinand of Aragon. That 
 astute monarch succeeded in gaining the whole, and became 
 in 1504 king of the Two Sicilies. 
 
 In 1508 along with Pope Julius n. the two ambitious kings 
 joined in the League of Cambrai to crush the Republic of 
 Venice, but the Pope suddenly deserted his French allies and 
 made a new league, which he called the Holy League, to drive 
 the French barbarians from Italy. Though Louis defeated the 
 Spaniards at Ravenna the aid of the Swiss enabled the Pope to 
 accomplish his purpose. The French quitted Italy before the 
 death of Louis in 1515. His successor, Francis i., a young 
 and hazardous monarch, engaged in a contest for the Imperial 
 
xl JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Crown and the primacy of Europe with Charles v., who on the 
 death of his grandfather Maximilian became emperor. Francis 
 recovered Milan, but was taken prisoner at Pavia in 1525, and 
 though he broke the treaty of Madrid and resumed the war in 
 Relations of 1529 he was forced to relinquish Italy. While these events 
 Scotland. were occupying the politicians and armies of Europe, Scotland, 
 which had been at peace with England during the reign of 
 Henry vn., through the marriage of his daughter to James iv., 
 quarrelled with Henry vra., and lost her king by the fatal 
 defeat of Flodden in 1513. Henry vm. was too busy with his 
 relations to the Continent to press his advantage. His aim as 
 regards Scotland was to prevent the French alliance and main- 
 tain an ascendancy at the court of his sister's infant son. The 
 failure of this aim was due largely to his sister, the mother of 
 the king, and to Albany, a Frenchman in all but his name, who 
 threw their influence into the scale in favour of France. The 
 Regency of Albany led in 1523 to the renewal by the Scots 
 of the Border War and the siege of Werk, the failure of which 
 destroyed the prestige of the Regent. 
 
 During the period the history of which has been sketched 
 in outline, France was both on political and educational 
 grounds the natural resort of the Scottish student ambitious 
 of carrying his studies to the highest point and sure of a hos- 
 pitable reception from a nation which had never forgotten the 
 ancient bonds that united Scotland and France. France as it 
 then was is described in the beautiful verses of the great contem- 
 porary Scottish scholar, the pupil of Major, George Buchanan : 
 
 6 At tu beata Gallia 
 Salve ! bonarum blanda nutrix artium, 
 Orbem receptans hospitem atque orbi tuas 
 Opes vicissim non avara impertiens, 
 Sermone comis, patria gentium omnium 
 Communis.' 
 
 Its Capital has been painted in a brilliant passage of a great 
 French author of our day, who combined the knowledge of an 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xli 
 
 antiquary and the imagination of a poet, with which we may 
 enliven the prose of a biographic sketch. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, writes Victor Hugo 1 , 'Paris was Paris in the 
 divided into three totally distinct and separate cities, each * ot century * 
 with its own physiognomy, individuality, manners, customs, 
 privileges, and history : the City, the University, and the 
 Villc. The City, which occupied the island, was the mother of 
 the two others, like (forgive the comparison) a little old woman 
 between two handsome strapping daughters. The University 
 crowned the left bank of the Seine. . . . The Ville, the most 
 extensive of the three divisions, stretched along the right bank. 
 The City, properly so called, abounded in churches, the Ville 
 contained the palaces, the University the colleges. The island 
 was under the Bishop, the right bank under the Provost of 
 Merchants, the left under the Rector of the University, the 
 whole under the Provost of Paris, a royal not a municipal 
 office.' Omitting details, let us fix our attention on the Univer- 
 sity, the part of Paris of which Major was a citizen, for foreign 
 students acquired the rights, indeed more than the rights, of 
 citizens, and the Scotch at this time those of nationality. 
 
 6 The University brought the eye to a full stop. From the The University, 
 one end to the other it was a homogeneous compact whole. 
 Three thousand roofs, whose angular outlines, adhering 
 together, almost all composed of the same geometrical 
 elements, seen from above, presented the appearance of a 
 crystallisation. The forty-two colleges were distributed among 
 them in a sufficiently equal manner. The curious and varied 
 
 1 This bird's-eye view of Paris should be compared with the old plans and 
 maps of the sixteenth century. Zeiller's views were taken in the middle of the 
 seventeenth century, but two show Paris as it was in 1620, and are probably 
 accurate representations of Paris as it was in Major's time. M. Adolphe Berty's 
 'Plan du College de St. Barbe et de ses environs vers 1480' is given in 
 Quicherat's St. Barbe. The clever reconstruction by Mr. H. W. Brewer in 
 Rose's Life of Loyola unfortunately places Montaigu College inaccurately. The 
 description by Victor Hugo in the text has necessarily, but unfortunately, re- 
 quired to be condensed. 
 
xlii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 summits of these beautiful buildings were the productions of 
 the same art as the simple roofs they overtopped ; in fact they 
 were but a multiplication by the square or cube of the same 
 geometrical figures. Some superb mansions made here and 
 there magnificent inroads among the picturesque garrets of the 
 left bank, the Logis de Nevers and de Rouen, which have been 
 swept away ; the Hotel of Cluny, which still exists for the 
 consolation of the artist. The Rouen palace had beautiful 
 circular arches. Near Cluny were the baths of Julian. There 
 were, too, many abbeys : the Bernar dines, with their three 
 belfries ; St. Genevieve, the square tower of which, still 
 extant, excites regret for the loss of the whole; the Sorbonne, 
 half college, half monastery, an admirable nave of which 
 still survives: the quadrangular cloister of the Mathurins; 
 its neighbour, the cloister of St. Benedict ; the Cordeliers, with 
 their three enormous gables side by side; and the August'ines* 
 graceful steeple. The Colleges, an intermediate link between 
 the cloister and the world, formed the mean in the series of 
 buildings between the mansions and the abbeys, with an 
 austerity full of elegance, a sculpture less gaudy than that of 
 the palaces, less serious than that of the convents. Unfortun- 
 ately scarcely any vestiges are left of edifices in which Gothic 
 art steered with such precision a middle course between 
 luxury and learning. The churches, both numerous and 
 splendid, of every age of architecture, from the circular arch 
 of St. Julian to the pointed ones of St. Severin, overtopped 
 all, and, like an additional harmony in this mass of harmonies, 
 shot up above the slashed gables, the open-work pinnacles and 
 belfries, the airy spires, whose line was a magnificent exaggera- 
 tion of the acute angle of the roofs. The site of the University 
 was hilly. To the south-east the hill of St. Genevieve formed 
 an enormous wen, and it was a curious sight to see the 
 multitude of narrow winding streets now called Le Pays Latin, 
 those clusters of houses, which, scattered in all directions from 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xliii 
 
 the summit of that eminence, confusedly covered its sides down 
 to the water's edge, seeming, some of them to be falling down, 
 others to be climbing up again, and all to be holding fast by 
 one another." The more minute geography of the Pays Latin 
 has been learnedly described by M. Quicherat, from whom we 
 learn that the College of Montaigu 1 stood at the angle between site of 
 the Rue St. Etienne des Pres and the Rue des Sept Voies, Montai ^- 
 having opposite to it on the other side of the latter street the 
 small College de Portet, the Hotel de Marly, the Cemetery of 
 the Poor Students, and the Great Gate of the Abbey of St. 
 Genevieve 2 . At the back of the buildings of Montaigu ran a 
 narrow lane appropriately called ' La Rue des Chiens \ on the 
 opposite side of which Montaigu possessed two small gardens 
 bordering on the property of its rival, the College of St. Barbe, 
 and the cause of frequent quarrels 3 . 
 
 The Scottish student whose course we are attempting to 
 follow, poring day and night over ponderous folios we now 
 scarcely touch with the tips of our fingers, the commentators 
 on Aristotle and the expounders of the Master of the Sen- 
 tences, had little time to mark the minute features of the 
 scene. Still, he breathed its air, and can scarcely have failed 
 to receive some of the spirit which filled with pride most 
 scholars, from whatever country they came. A few remembered 
 with opposite feelings the hardships of the student. Erasmus 
 was one of these. Buchanan too wrote a poem describing the 
 miserable condition of the teachers of Literae Human'wres^n 
 Paris when without a post. But, returning seven years after 
 from Portugal, his pen, which could flatter as well as satirise, 
 celebrated the charms of Paris as those of a beloved mistress, 
 and his return to happy France, the nurse of all good arts. One 
 
 1 The site of Montaigu, of which some fragments still remained in 1861, is 
 now occupied by the Bibliotheque de St. Genevieve. 
 
 2 Quicherat's Histoire de St. Barbe, p. 17. 
 
 3 Ibid. 25. 
 
xliv 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 of its attractions with which Hugo closes his description cannot 
 have escaped Major's musical ear : — 6 Behold at a signal proceed- 
 ing from heaven, for the sun gives it, those thousand churches 
 trembling all at once. You hear solitary tinkles pass from 
 church to church ; then see (for at times the ear too seems 
 endowed with the power of sight) all of a sudden, at the same 
 moment, how there rises from each steeple, as it were a column 
 of sound, a cloud of harmony. At first the vibration of each 
 bell rises straight, pure, separate; then, swelling by degrees, 
 they blend, melt, and amalgamate into a magnificent concert. 
 Say if you know anything in the world more rich, more dazzling, 
 more gladdening, than this tumult of bells, this furnace of music, 
 these ten thousand brazen tones breathed all at once from flutes 
 of stone three hundred feet high, than that city which is 
 but one orchestra, this symphony as loud as a tempest. 1 
 Contrast of How different must this have been from the capital of Major's 
 
 Paris and 
 
 Edinburgh. own country, the gray metropolis of the North, whose silence 
 was broken not by harmony but by brawls, with one narrow 
 street from the Castle to the Abbey, the backbone of a 
 skeleton ribbed on either side with vennels, wynds, and closes, 
 which ran on the north to the North Loch and its marshes, 
 on the south to the lower level of the Cowgate, here and there 
 varied by a small church, monastery, or hospital, but only 
 with a collegiate church, St. Giles, for a Cathedral, the plain 
 Tolbooth for a Palace of Justice, and Holy rood, recently 
 bailt in imitation of a minor French Palace, for its Royal 
 residence, as yet without a college, without mansions, and 
 without walls, and numbering only some four or five thousand 1 
 houses, chiefly of wood. Yet, one who viewed the surrounding 
 country from the low but noble hill, named after Arthur, 
 guarding Edinburgh on the east, and let his eye follow the 
 
 1 History, 1 1, vi. p. 82. So the earlier editions of Froissart ; but Buchon 
 says the correct text is 400 or 500. The truth probably lies between these 
 figures. But see footnote \ p. 28. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR xlv 
 
 curves of the Forth, with the Law of North Berwick and the 
 Bass as its outlying forts, the sea-ports of Fife studding its 
 northern margin ; on the west the Castle Rock, rising sheer 
 from the North Loch, the woods of the Dean or Den, Drum- 
 sheugh, and Corstorphine Hill ; and on the south the slopes 
 of the Braids succeeded by the Pentland Hills, with Highland 
 mountain tops beyond the Forth closing the horizon, might 
 claim for Edinburgh a natural site not inferior to Paris, fitting' 
 it to be the capital of the small country whose scenery it 
 reproduced in miniature — the Loch, the River, and the Sea, 
 the Moor, the Forest, and the Mountain. Greater than any 
 external difference was the contrast between the intellectual 
 barrenness of Edinburgh and Paris, the venerable museum of 
 learning, the busy hive from which old and new ideas were 
 swarming, to settle in all lands. The Scottish student in 
 Paris passed from the schoolroom to the world, from solitary 
 study to the society of colleges, whose number, Major notes, 
 sharpens wits. The poorest became, as if by natural magic, a 
 free citizen of the university, the mother of knowledge and 
 eloquence, of the arts and sciences : the arts which so long had 
 ruled the past; the sciences, yet unconscious of their young 
 strength, which were to divide the empire of the future. 
 
 Three of these Colleges demand our special attention : Mont- Montagu 
 aigu, where Major first taught in arts ; Navarre, where, as well 
 as at Montaigu, he lectured on the scholastic philosophy ; and 
 the Sorbonne, where he lectured on the scholastic divinity 1 . 
 
 1 ' The epithet of " last of the Schoolmen " is commonly given to Gabriel Biel, 
 the summarizer of Ockham, who taught in Tubingen, and died in 1491. His 
 title to it is not actually correct, and it might be more fitly borne by Francis 
 Suarez, who died in 16 17. But after the beginning of the fifteenth century 
 scholasticism was divorced from the spirit of the times.' — Article scholasti- 
 cism, Encyclop. Britannica, 9th ed. The truth is, no one scholastic can be 
 called the last. The method or form of philosophy so called died at different 
 dates in different countries. A critic who has done me the favour to read this 
 Introduction maintains it is not dead yet, but still taught in Romanist seminaries. 
 It is sufficient for the present purpose to say that no English or Scottish School- 
 man later than Major has a place in any of the leading histories of philosophy. 
 
 d 
 
xlvi 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 He was destined to be among the last of the schoolmen, the 
 teachers of the old learning by the rigid scholastic discipline 
 and methods. The new light of the revival of classical litera- 
 ture had already dawned. The Renaissance, or new birth, 
 from which on the mother's side the Reformation or new form 
 of creed and of morals was to spring, could not but affect the 
 thoughts and opinions of those who were passing through 
 manhood under its influence. To observe how this influence 
 acted upon Major and his pupils gives the uneventful career of 
 scholars a singular and unexpected interest. 
 
 The College of Montaigu, an old college of the beginning of 
 the fourteenth century, founded by Ascelin, the Seigneur of 
 that name, had fallen so low towards the end of the fifteenth, 
 that it had only eleven shillings of rent for endowment, its 
 buildings in ruins, and, as might be expected, scarcely any 
 students. John Standonk, a native of Mechlin in Brabant, a 
 man of humble origin, saw in its poverty an object for zeal, 
 and an opportunity for a much -needed reform in the Univer- 
 sity. This remarkable man, whom Erasmus, no partial judge, 
 describes as one 6 whose temper you could not dislike, and 
 whose qualifications you must covet, who, while he was very 
 poor, was very charitable after taking his degrees in arts and 
 theology with distinction, though poverty forced him to read 
 by moonlight in the belfry to save oil, was placed in this 
 college by the Chapter of Notre Dame, its superior, in 1480, 
 became its principal in 1483, and Rector of the University in 
 Standonk's 1485. He sought out the titles of its property which had been 
 
 reforms. ° r r J 
 
 lost sight of, and secured new endowments, especially from 
 Louis Malet, Sieur de Granville, Admiral of France. The con- 
 stitution he introduced was based on rules of economy and 
 asceticism resembling those of a monastery. He had seen with 
 regret, continues Crevier, the historian of the University, whose 
 narrative we abridge, ' that the bursaries founded for the poor 
 had often been swallowed up by the rich, and determined to 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xlvii 
 
 found a College for the true poor, amongst whom, he remarked, 
 were often to be found elevated spirits and happy natural 
 parts, reduced by misery to a state unworthy of their genius, 
 but who, if cultivated, might become great men and pillars 
 of the Church. With this view, and to preserve the Col- 
 lege from the invasion of the rich, he subjected his students 
 to a hard life/ At first his scholars were sent to the Convent 
 of the Chartreuse to receive, in common with beggars, the 
 bread distributed at its gates. 'All the world knows', he 
 proceeds, ( the frugal nourishment of these youths — bread, 
 beans, eggs, herring, all in small quantity, and no meat. 
 Besides, they had to keep all the Fasts, — that of Lent 
 was kept also in Advent, — and on every Friday, as well as on 
 special occasions. Nothing could be poorer than their dress and 
 beds. They rose at cock-crow, constantly chanted the service 
 of the Church, worked in the kitchen and refectory and 
 cleaned the halls, the chapel, the dormitory, and the stairs. 
 Their superior was called minister or servant of the poor, not 
 by the too proud titles of master or principal. He received in 
 this world only the cost of his living, dress, and of taking his 
 degrees, exclusive of the Doctorate, but a celestial reward in 
 eternity. 1 Richer students had separate rooms, refectory, and 
 chapel. Their fees were devoted to the maintenance of the 
 poor. Remembering his native as well as his adopted 
 country, Standonk instituted similar colleges at Cambrai, 
 Louvain, Mechlin, and Valenciennes, so that the College of 
 Montaigu became the chief of an order. The peculiar dress 
 of its students was a small cape or hood, from which they 
 were called Capetians, a symbol of their poverty, and, like 
 the garb of Charterhouse boys, exposing them to the gibes of 
 wealthier scholars. 
 
 The noble aim of Standonk, like that of the religious Erasmus satire 
 orders, broke down through being carried to an extreme. ° n ' °" gU ' 
 Erasmus, a contemporary of Major at Montaigu, has left 
 
xlviii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 a biting satire on it in his colloquy — of Ichthijophagia — 
 between a Salt-fishmonger and a Butcher, who complains of 
 want of custom from a college which ate no meat. 
 
 'About thirty years ago"*, says the Fishmonger, 'I lived 
 at the college called Vinegar College [i.e. Mons Acetus]? a 
 
 pun on Mons Acutus, or Montaigu. The Butcher. 'That's 
 
 indeed a name of wisdom. Did a Salt-fishmonger live in that 
 sour college ? No wonder he is so acute a student in divinity, 
 for I hear the very walls speak divinity.' — The Fishmonger. 
 ' Yes, but as for me I brought nothing out of it, but 
 my body infected with the worst diseases, and the largest 
 quantity of the smallest animals. . . . What with lying hard, 
 bad diet, late and hard studies, within one year, of many young 
 men of a good genius some were killed, others driven mad, 
 others became lepers, some of whom I knew very well, 
 and, in short, not one but was in danger of his life. 
 Was not this cruelty against our neighbours ? Neither was 
 this enough, but, adding a cowl and hood, he took away the 
 eating of flesh/ More follows to the same purpose. It is 
 easy to see the exaggeration, but Erasmus, too wise to rest in 
 exaggeration, closes with the remark : 4 Nor do I mention these 
 
 Ascg tic 
 
 discipline, things because I have any ill will to the college, but I thought 
 it worth while to give this warning lest human severity should 
 mar inexperienced and tender youth under the pretence of 
 religion. If I could but see that those that put on a cowl 
 put off naughtiness I should exhort everybody to wear one. 
 Besides, the spirit of vigorous youths is not to be cowed to 
 this sort of life, but the mind is rather to be educated to 
 piety.' Not less sensible are the remarks of Crevier, who 
 condemned Erasmus for want of moderation in his censures. 
 ' The health of young men requires to be attended to, and it is 
 to attack it by two batteries to fatigue the spirit by study and 
 the body by a too severe regimen. The discipline of Standonk 
 has not been able to maintain itself. Besides mitigations 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xlix 
 
 introduced by usage, it had to be softened by express rules.' 
 Yet it was still described by a German artist, who visited Paris 
 in 1654, as 'a stately college in which ill-bred boys [ungerathene 
 Kinder] are treated as if in a House of Correction. We were 
 not allowed to visit it with our sword, supposing it might be 
 used to set them free' 1 . 
 
 Erasmus had the bodily infirmity which, as in a great chief 
 of our literature lately lost, too often accompanies intellectual 
 power. He said of himself he had a Protestant stomach, but 
 a Catholic soul. A Protestant who has rarely dined in his life 
 without meat can scarcely realise what a bad fish and vegetable 
 diet, broken only by frequent total fasts, must have been. 
 Major, who probably heard the taunts of Erasmus before they Major's 
 found a place in in his Colloquies, takes frequent occasion to Monmigu! °" 
 refer to Montaigu College in a different spirit, calling it ' an 
 illustrious museum ' a frugal, but not ignoble house 4 the 
 nurse of his studies, never to be named without reverence \ 
 Yet he seems himself to have suffered from the hard life, 
 for he mentions, in the dedication of the Parva Logicalia, el 
 fever which had nearly cost him his life. He had doubtless 
 seen many of his contemporaries and pupils, besides David 
 Cranstoun, carried to the Graveyard of Poor Students, which 
 lay opposite the College gate. 
 
 To the Scottish father in the end of the fifteenth century, 
 inquiring to what college shall I send my son, or to the youth 
 left to shift for himself with scanty purse, these hardships 
 were too distant to be thought of. The College of Montaigu Scottish ^ 
 offered the double attraction of economy and fame. Hither, Montaigu. 
 besides many forgotten names, came, during the time of Major 1 s 
 connection with it, George Dundas from Lothian, a learned 
 Greek and Latin scholar, afterwards Preceptor of the Knights 
 of St. John in Scotland ; Hector Boece, the historian, from 
 Dundee, who praises Standonk as an exemplar of all the virtues ; 
 1 Topographia Gallia, by Martin Zeiller ; Frankfort, 1655. 
 
1 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 and three other Angus men : Patrick Panther, who became 
 secretary to James nr., writer of most of the Epistolae Regum 
 Scotorum in James iv.'s and part of James v.'s reign ; Walter 
 Ogilvy, celebrated for his eloquent style, and William Hay, 
 schoolfellow of Boece at Dundee, afterwards his colleague and 
 successor in the King's College of Aberdeen \ Here too were 
 four countrymen of Major from East Lothian : George Hep- 
 burn 2 , of the house of Hailes, Abbot of Arbroath, afterwards 
 Bishop of the Isles, who fell at Flodden ; Robert Walterson 3 , a 
 co-regent; David Cranstoun 4 and Ninian Hume, his pupils. 
 Cranstoun dying young, but already distinguished, left his 
 property to the College ; the other was one of Major s favourite 
 students. In Paris, possibly at Montaigu, as we learn for the 
 first time from one of Major's prefaces, at the same period 
 studied Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld, whose chequered 
 ecclesiastical and brilliant literary career gained him a prominent 
 place in the history as well as the literature of Scotland ; and 
 Robert Cockburn, a Haddington man, afterwards Bishop of 
 Ross 5 , and Gavin Dunbar 6 , afterwards Archbishop of Glasgow, 
 whose studies in philosophy at Paris, and in the civil and canon 
 law at Angers, overlooked by his biographers, are commemo- 
 rated in Major's dedication of his Commentary on St. Luke. 
 
 The number of Scottish students at Paris during the time of 
 Major's residence must have been very considerable, though 
 it is impossible to give an exact estimate. The German 
 Nation, the name substituted for the English Nation in 1378, 
 after the withdrawal of the English, had been originally 
 divided into three tribes : Germania Superior, Germania 
 
 1 Hector Boece : Aberdonensium Episcopomm Vitae, p. 6o. 
 
 2 Uncle of first Earl of Bothwell. See Keith : Scottish Bishops, p. 174. 
 
 3 Provost of Bothanis and Rector of Petcokkis, grants a charter of lands in 
 Haddington to support a chaplain at the church of the Holy Trinity at Had- 
 dington. — Great Seal Reg., 8th April 1539, No. 1902. 
 
 4 Michel : Les Ecossais en France, ii. p. 324. See Appendix 1. p. 412 : Biblio- 
 graphy of D. Cranstoun. 
 
 5 Bishop 1508-21. — Keith, p. 42. 6 Archbishop 1524-47. — Keith, p. 521. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 li 
 
 Inferior, and Scotia, which included the Irish and the few 
 English who remained, continued to be the name of the 
 third till 1528, when the tribes were reduced to two : the 
 Continentales and the Insulani, perhaps a concession to the 
 dislike of the English to be classed under Scotia when the 
 relations between England and France had somewhat improved. 
 
 Besides the more celebrated of his countrymen already men- 
 tioned, we find references in Major's prefaces to Hugo Spens, his other Scots- 
 predecessor as Principal of, St. Salvators ; Gavin Logy, Rector men in Pans 
 of St. Leonard's ; John Forman, Precentor of Glasgow 1 , a kins- 
 man of the archbishop of that name ; Peter Chaplain 2 , Rector 
 of Dunino, and Peter Sandilands 3 , Rector of Calder ; Robert 
 Caubraith 4 , George Turnbull 5 , friends of Ninian Hume, — so, 
 probably, like him, Lothian men ; George Lockhart 0 from Ayr- 
 shire; Robert Bannerman, Thomas Ramsay 7 , William Guynd, 
 and John Annand. The list might be much enlarged from the 
 Accounts of the German Nation from 1494 to 1530, fortunately 
 preserved in the archives of the University, and still extant in 
 the library of the Sorbonne 8 . In the year 1494, when Major 
 
 1 Protocol Book of Cuthbert Simon, Grampian Club, pp. 285, 478, 480, 484, 
 485, 486. 
 
 a Canon of St. Salvator and Rector of Dunino. — Great Seal Reg. 1513-46, 
 Index, p. 803 ; ibidem, Nos. 354, 2168, 2605. 
 
 3 Hector Boece in Aberdonensium Episcoportim Vitae, p. 58, mentions amongst 
 the Professors at St. Andrews, Wilhelmum Guyndum, Johannem Annandiae, 
 ' viros spectatae doctrinae qui tametsi hactenus magisterii in theologio renuerunt 
 fastigium de se modestius sentientes doctoribus tamen eos nemo dixerit eruditione 
 inferiores.' Annand was the first Professor in Arts (in re literaria) of St. 
 Leonard's, ib. p. 59. 
 
 4 Robert Caubraith, a pupil of Major, and author of several works on Logic, 
 described by Prantl, iv. p. 257, may perhaps be Robert Galbraith, Rector of 
 Spot in 1534. — Great Seal Reg., No. 1332. 
 
 5 George Turnbull may perhaps be the Rector of Largo of that name.— Great 
 Seal Reg. 15 17, No. 1355. 
 
 6 George Lockhart, a pupil of Major, wrote several works on Logic, described 
 in the Bibliographical Appendix, infra, p. 414. 
 
 7 Canon of St. Salvator, and Rector of Kemback 1517. — Great Seal Reg., 
 No. 175. 
 
 8 Charles Jourdain's Exatrsions Historiques a travers le Moyen Age, 1888 : 
 * Un Compte de la Nation d'Allemagne au xv e siecle.' 
 
lii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 passed as licentiate, of twenty-nine fellow-graduates eleven were 
 Scotchmen, besides eight bachelors. His election as Quaestor 
 or Receiver of this Nation in 1501 is proof that he possessed 
 the confidence of his fellow-students, and the passages from 
 the Prefaces to his works printed in the Appendix show that 
 many of them, not only his own compatriots, but Frenchmen, 
 Belgians, and Spaniards, were his warm admirers and personal 
 friends. Seldom has the contemporary fame of a Professor 
 risen higher or spread wider. 
 The value of Of his favourite and most distinguished pupil David Crans- 
 toun Major tells a significant anecdote 1 . When in his first 
 course of theology, two fellow-students, Jacobus Almain of 
 Sens 2 and Peter of Brussels 3 , of the order of Friar Preachers, 
 twitted him in the court of the Sorbonne, on the day of the 
 divinity lecture, before his comrades, that the commons in 
 Scotland eat oatmeal, as they had heard from a friar who had 
 travelled there. They wished, says Major, to try a man whose 
 quick temper they knew, by this jest which was really 
 honourable to his country ; but he attempted to deny it as a 
 discredit. We understand, indeed, he adds, 1 that a French- 
 man coming from Britain brought home with him some of these 
 cakes [panes] as curiosities [monstra] 1 . He then describes with 
 singular accuracy and evident pride the mode of making them, 
 and recals Froissart's 4 statement that the Scotch, both nobles 
 and commons, used them in their campaigns, as if to say (for 
 he leaves deductions to his readers), — 6 Let Frenchmen and 
 
 1 Hist. i. ii. p. io. 
 
 2 Almain's works on Logic, described by Prantl, iv. p. 238, appear to be lost, 
 but his Theological Dissertation against Cardinal Caietan, and in favour of the 
 authority of Councils as superior to that of the Pope, is preserved, p. lviii. 
 
 3 Feter of Brussels wrote Quaestiones on the Organon of Aristotle, a Com- 
 mentary on Peter the Spaniard, and Qnodlibeta. — Prantl, iv. p. 275. He died 
 1 51 1. On the title-page of his Quaestiones, published after his death in 15 14, 
 he is described as 1 a most strenuous defender and interpreter of Thomas Aquinas'. 
 He was regarded as a lost sheep recovered for the fold of the Thomists. 
 
 4 Froissart, ii. 19. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 liii 
 
 Englishmen laugh, my countrymen have won battles on this 
 fare \ Froissart might almost have been the Frenchman who 
 brought home the oatcakes, so keenly does he seem to have been 
 struck by the poverty of the Scots. 8 When the barownes and 
 knightes of Fraunce, who were wonte to fynde fayre hostelryes, 
 halles hanged, and goodly castelles, and softe beddes to reste 
 in, sawe themselfes in that necessite, they began to smyle, and 
 said to the ad my rail, Sir, what pleasure hath brought vs 
 hyder ? we neuer knewe what pouertie ment tyll nowe : we 
 fynde nowe the old sayinge of our fathers and mothers true, 
 whane they wolde saye, Go your waye, and ye lyue long, ye 
 shall fynde harde and poore beddes, whiche nowe we fynde ; 
 therfore lette vs go oure voyage that we be come for ; lette vs 
 rvde into Englade ; the longe leivyenge here in Scotlande is to 
 vs nother honourable nor profytable/ 
 
 To tlie youth of such a country the food of the College of 
 Montaigu would not seem so poor as to Erasmus, a native of 
 wealthy Rotterdam. 
 
 In 1499 Standonk, the second founder of Montaigu, was 
 banished from Paris. He had quarrelled with Louis xn. as to 
 the privileges of the students of the university, of which he was 
 so strenuous an advocate that he advised a cessation of all 
 studies, and even of the services in the churches, if they were 
 infringed. He had touched the king in a still more delicate 
 point, the divorce of Louis from Jane of France, the daughter 
 of Louis xi., and his marriage to Anne of Brittany, widow of 
 Charles viii., his half-brother. It was very likely in conse- Major lectures 
 
 tit ^sdVtirrc 
 
 quence of this banishment of Standonk, and the royal dis- College, 
 pleasure with the College of Montaigu, that Major became 
 affiliated to the College of Navarre, from which he got the 
 income of a fellowship 1 and the post of theological professor, 
 but he continued to act as regent in Montaigu, where he had 
 taken his degree in arts, which entitled him to teach, and did 
 
 1 Launoi : His form, p. 598. 
 
liv 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 not avail himself of his right to migrate to Navarre. The 
 substance of his lectures on Logic, printed before in separate 
 parts, was collected in 1508 in one volume, printed at Lyons, 
 His Spanish and dedicated to his pupil Ninian Hume. In the dedication 
 he mentions that he had been urged by Louis Coronel, his 
 brother Antony 1 , and Gaspar Lax 2 , three Spanish students, to 
 print his commentaries on the Summulae of their countryman, 
 Peter the Spaniard. They pleaded that as he had given some 
 of his lectures on logic to his countryman David Cranstoun, 
 James Almain of Sens, Peter Crockaertof Brussels, and Robert 
 Senalis of Paris 3 , they had equal reason to ask for a similar 
 favour. But he urges reasons on the other side (for even the 
 preface of a schoolman must be argumentative): his own inertia, 
 the severe criticism of works of living authors, and his change 
 of vocation to that of the study of the Sentences of Peter 
 Lombard. He had always been willing to lecture slowly, that 
 whoever wished might commit his lectures to writing. 4 It is 
 natural, however', he continues, 6 that I should publish at 
 large and distinctly what they wrote down from memory after 
 dinner and supper. If I had imagined my lectures would have 
 circulated so widely, I would have bestowed greater pains on 
 them. But I did not know how to recall them, and since they 
 were much sought after at the booksellers', I should at least 
 have ploughed my own ground so far as my poor abilities 
 allowed. It is easy', he concludes, 4 to get angry. Unlearned 
 as well as learned write poems everywhere. I dedicate these 
 lectures to you both on account of your noble birth and your 
 diligence in the knotty points of dialectic — knowing you 
 will accept this little book, though unworthy of you, out of 
 regard for the good -will of the author. Robert Walterson of 
 
 1 The author of many Logical Treatises. — Prantl, iv. p. 53. 
 
 2 Gaspar Lax, of Aragon, also a writer on Logic. — Prantl, iv. p. 255. 
 
 3 The Exponibilia, his first printed work in Paris, 1503 (Bibliography, No. 1), 
 the Commentaries on Peter the Spaniard at Lyons in 1505 (No. 2); other 
 Logical Tracts at Paris in 1506 (No. 5). 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 Lv 
 
 Haddington, a co-regent with me in Montaigu, and our friend 
 John Zacharias, beg to be remembered to you. Farewell. , 
 
 A letter from Louis Coronel 1 to his brother Antony is Louis Coronei's 
 annexed, written in the enthusiastic vein of a young disciple Maj°or! Um 0 " 
 overflowing with praise of the learning of Paris, ' whose 
 streams flow to the remotest nations, and whose purest water 
 springs from Mons Acutus, " the Hill of God", a rich mountain 
 in which it pleaseth him to dwell, for the words of the Psalmist 
 may without absurdity be applied to it — whose founder was 
 Standonk, whom God has taken to himself 2 , and where our 
 master, John Major, lectured, whose learning will commend 
 him not only to posterity but to eternity \ His small part 
 has been, he modestly says, to revise the press and add a table 
 of contents, which he dedicates to his brother in studies as 
 in kin. In similar, even more high-flown, language Robert 
 Senalis compared Montaigu to Parnassus, the Mons Sacer of 
 Ovid, ' changing Sacer into Acer, in spite of the false quantity, 
 to correspond to the French name of Montaigu the philosophy 
 taught there to the fountain of Hippocrene — 
 
 ' Fons nitet in medio vitreis argenteus undis 
 Gregorius celeri quern pede ferit equus — 
 
 and Major himself to 'the Gregorian horse Pegasus', for 'its 
 Pegasus he says, ' is that incomparable master in Arts and 
 Philosophy, my Professor, whom I cannot praise as much as he 
 deserves, John Major, who flies on his own wings higher than 
 the clouds would carry him, till he passes above all spirits in 
 sublimity \ 8 
 
 The treatise or lectures of Major on Logic are in the style Major s 
 which might be almost called stereotyped of mediaeval scholas- Logic 
 
 1 Louis Coronel of Segovia was less famous than his brother Antony, who 
 wrote several works on Logic in which he followed Major. — Prantl, iv. 252. 
 Both brothers were pupils of Major. Antony edited and concluded Major's 
 Libri Consequentiartim ; see p. lvi. 
 
 2 Standonk died 1501. 
 
 3 ' Roberti Senalis Oratio ' : Paris, 15 10. 
 
Ivi 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 tics. He commences with the special proposition or thesis 
 ' Whether complex terms should be used ' as a sort of prelude 
 or introduction, and then comments in short almost shorthand 
 tracts on various points of Logic. This is followed by two 
 books on Terms and a tractate on the Liber Summularum of 
 Petrus Hispanus 2 , which forms the chief part of the book. 
 Discussions are appended on the Predicables with the tree of 
 Porphyry ; on the Predicaments ; on Syllogisms ; on Places [de 
 Locis] ; on Fallacies ; on matters which can be explained and 
 those which are insoluble ; a small tract entitled, after the 
 example of Aristotle, Libri Posteriores; and another, Libri Con- 
 sequentiarum, begun by Major but concluded by Antony Coronel. 
 In the same volume is continued a treatise on Parva Logicalia, 
 probably a separate course of lectures, with a fresh dedication 
 to Xinian Hume. The whole is concluded with a discussion 
 of a proposition or thesis ' On the Infinite and one of the 
 Dialogues of which Major, like other Schoolmen, was so fond, 
 entitled 4 Trilo^us inter duos lo^icos et ma^istrum \ 
 College of The College of Navarre which hospitably adopted the cele- 
 brated Scottish Regent was in all respects a contrast to 
 Montaigu. A Royal College founded in 1305 bv Jeanne of 
 Navarre, the wife of Philip the Fair, it had continued to 
 receive endowments from sovereigns and nobles, and was the 
 richest, perhaps the only very rich, college in a university where 
 poverty, although not the extreme poverty of Montaigu, was 
 the rule. It had twenty bursars in grammar, thirty in logic, and 
 twenty in divinity, and secured the ablest teachers. Its church 
 was used by the French Nation and for university sermons, which 
 gave it a certain precedence. It had the custody of the univer- 
 sity archives and a splendid library. A reform of the fifteenth 
 
 1 De complexo significabili. A fuller list of the contents of Major's Logical 
 Lectures is given in the Bibliography, and an explanation of some of the terms 
 used, in Appendix to Life, u. p. cxxii. 
 
 2 Peter the Spaniard, who became Pope John xxi., and whose Summidce were 
 the text-book of Logic as the Sentences of Peter the Lombard, Bishop of Paris, 
 were of Divinity. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lvii 
 
 century made it a college 6 de plein exercice', with a full curri- 
 culum in Arts, in which Logic as well as Grammar and Rhetoric 
 were taught. It had even retained two courses in Theology, which 
 the Sorbonne tried to absorb to the exclusion of other colleges. 
 But its chief fame was due to an illustrious succession of students 
 and doctors. Launoi, himself a fellow in the seventeenth century, 
 wrote an elaborate and admirable history of Navarre, which g*,™°" r s s of 
 includes lives of 6 its host of celebrated men \ Room is still Navarre, 
 found in the Annals of Learning in the fourteenth century for 
 Nicholas Oresme, one of its masters, a political economist, a 
 Greek scholar, and a mathematician, and Nicholas Clemangis, 
 the theologian ; in the fifteenth, for Peter D'Ailly, bishop of 
 Cambray, and John Gerson, 4 the most Christian Doctor", and 
 in the sixteenth, for Budaeus, the friend and rival of Erasmus 
 in the revival of the study of the classical languages. To 
 Launoi's work we owe the most authentic record of Major's 
 career in Paris, for Major also was deemed one of the chief 
 luminaries of Navarre. D'Ailly and Gerson, successively Chan- 
 cellors of the University as well as Principals of Navarre, led the 
 famous movement for reform within the church which asserted 
 itself in the beginning of the fifteenth century, at the Councils of 
 Pisa (1409) and Constance (1414-18). They were the principal 
 authors or authorities in favour of the supremacy of General 
 Councils over the Pope, the early champions of the Gallican 
 Liberties, who after so many gallant struggles were only 
 finally defeated by the Ultramontane doctrine of Papal Infalli- 
 bility established as de fide by the Vatican Council of the 
 present century. Colleges like nations have traditions, and 
 the connection of Major with Navarre, where Gerson's name still 
 exercised great influence, favoured his adoption of the Gallican 
 position that the Pope was not the ultimate authority when 
 opposed by a General Council. His views on this point, 
 carried to lengths from which Major himself would have 
 shrunk, by his pupils Knox and Buchanan, form a link in the 
 chain of opinion which produced the Reformation. 
 
Iviii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 A special opportunity arose during Major s residence in Paris 
 of reasserting Gallican doctrines. 
 
 The policy which led Charles vm. and Louis xil to claim 
 parts of Italy, and to assert their claim by the sword, brought 
 the latter monarch into conflict with Julius n., the strenuous 
 maintainor of the temporal rights and spiritual supremacy of 
 the Papacy. In the course of this conflict Louis tried the 
 bold stroke of calling a Council to overrule the Pope. The 
 Council of Pisa met in 1511, was adjourned to Milan and 
 finally to Lyons, but owing to the failure of Louis's Italian 
 campaign accomplished nothing. During its sittings Cardinal 
 Thomas Cajetan published a book on the papal side, impugn - 
 pcmTGaiiican ^ s authority, and Louis applied to the University of 
 
 doctrines. Paris to answer it. The task was intrusted to James Almain, 
 a young Master of Arts and member of the College of 
 Navarre, one of Major's pupils. This Liber de Auctoritate 
 Ecclesice et Conriliorum adversum Thomam Caietanum has 
 been sometimes credited to Major as joint author, but 
 Launoi, our best authority, ignores this. Almain probably 
 sought his advice, and Major we may be certain was present 
 in the crowded auditory of approving theologians when it 
 was publicly read at Paris. The treatise of Almain supported 
 views quite in accordance with the teaching of his master. 
 In the later edition of the works of Gerson 1 there is inserted 
 an appendix ' Doctoris Majoris Doctoris Parisiensis Disputa- 
 tiones de Statu ac Potestate Ecclesiag excerptae ad verbum ex 
 ejusdem Commentariis in Librum Quart um Sententiarum \ 
 This appendix contains arguments proving (1) That the polity 
 of the church is monarchical or constitutional (as we now say) 
 as distinguished from absolute ; (2) That Bishops and Parish 
 Priests were both directly instituted by Christ (a step in the 
 direction of Presbyterian equality) ; and (3) That the Pope 
 has not the power of the sword over Christian Kings and 
 
 1 Opera Gersoni ; Antw. ed. 1760, vol. ii. pp. 1121, 1131, 1 145. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lix 
 
 Princes; also Disputations on the Authority of the Council 
 over the Pope and of the Power of the Pope in Temporal 
 Affairs. These latter disputations consist of extracts from 
 Major's later work, 'A Commentary on Matthew", and show 
 that he gave a wide scope to the idea of a commentary in order 
 to introduce opinions he desired to promulgate. 
 
 In 1505-6 Major graduated as Doctor in Theology, and as 1505-6 Major 
 by a rule of the College of Navarre Professors in Arts were Theology?*" 
 obliged to leave off lecturing in that Faculty after attaining 
 this degree, then or soon after he transferred his services 
 to the Theological Faculty, and, still living in Montaigu, 
 commenced to lecture in the Sorbonne on the Sentences of 
 Peter Lombard, the recognised text- book of the theological 
 school. 
 
 The Sorbonne had different traditions from Navarre, and The Sorbonne. 
 was the head and centre of Roman orthodoxy. It is 
 perhaps not altogether fanciful to see in the balancing 
 character of his mind some traces of the influence of 
 schools which represented opposite tendencies — Reform and 
 Conservatism, Independence and Authority. A more ancient 
 foundation of the middle of the thirteenth century, the 
 Sorbonne had been instituted and organised by Robert de 
 Sorbonne, chaplain of St. Louis, as a college for secular priests 
 and the cultivation of theology. Its endowments and its num- 
 bers were small. It had only thirty fellows (socii) and com- 
 moners (hospites), the former always in orders and bachelors 
 and doctors in theology, the latter, bachelors of the same 
 faculty. But the small numbers and the strictness of the 
 rules as to election of fellows gave the Doctors of the Sor- 
 bonne a distinction, and in process of time — especially at epochs 
 when doctrinal questions became prominent — an authority, 
 which led to their being recognised as a necessary constituent 
 part of the divinity faculty, and to the gradual suppression 
 of theological teaching in other colleges. The influence of 
 
lx 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 the Sorbonne, which became as it were a Divinity Hall, was. 
 exercised against the new light shed upon theology by the 
 study of the Scriptures in the original languages and affords a 
 warning to those who would exile theology from the Univer- 
 sities. Before Major became one of the Doctors they had 
 condemned the study of Greek and Hebrew as adverse to 
 theology. Shortly after he returned to Scotland they set the 
 example (immediately followed by Oxford and Cambridge) of 
 burning the works of Luther. This act was the occasion of a 
 violent tract by the mild Melanchthon, — 4 A Defence of Martin 
 Luther against the furious decree of the Parisian Theolo- 
 gasters 1 , in which Major came in for a share of the invective. 
 * I have seen he says, 4 the commentaries on Peter Lombard 
 by John Major, a man, I am told, now the prince of the Paris 
 Masters. What waggon-loads of trifles ! What pages he 
 fills with dispute whether horsemanship requires a horse, 
 whether the sea was salt when God made it, not to speak of 
 the many lies he has written about the freedom of the will, 
 not only in the teeth of the Scriptures, but of all the school- 
 men. If he is a specimen of the Paris Doctors, no wonder 
 they are little favourable to Luther.' 1 
 Sorbonnic To the Sorbonne, besides graver defects of the scholastic 
 theology, Major is said to have owed his singularly cramped 
 Latin. A Sorbonnic style was a nickname for the style 
 opposed to the easier and better form of composition which 
 the study of the ancient classics and the use of the vulgar 
 tongues introduced. Yet Latin at best was now an old-fashioned 
 garb, worn with grace by scholars like Erasmus, Buchanan, 
 Scaliger, but to inferior genius or the ordinary man a rigid 
 uniform which constrained the free play of the mind. Every 
 one must regret that Major's like Buchanan's history was not 
 written, as Bellenden's translation of Boece was, in the dialect 
 of their native country, which both knew so well. They might 
 1 Melanchthonii Opera, i. p. 398. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxi 
 
 possibly have preserved for a time Scottish prose, as Dunbar 
 and Douglas preserved Scottish poetry, to the enrichment of 
 the future language and literature of Britain. 
 
 Four years after his theological degree an attempt was made 
 by his friend Gavin Douglas to recall Major to Scotland 1 . In 
 1509 a precept passed the Privy Seal at the instance of 
 Douglas for his presentation to the office of Treasurer of the 
 Chapel Royal, then vacant. But for some reason, probably 
 Major's unwillingness to quit the duties of a teacher, which he 
 preferred to those of ecclesiastical office, the project fell 
 through. It would appear, however, from a passage in his 
 Commentary on the Fourth Book of the Sentences, that Major 
 did revisit Scotland in 1515. The passage referred to first Major visits 
 appears in the edition of 1519 2 , and in it he states that whew Scotland ' *S 
 he had been at home four years before and visited the Monastery 
 of Melrose, he was told of a frequent custom of the Abbots to 
 let their rich pastures with the sheep to tenants oh condition 
 that they should be liable for loss of the stock — in other words, 
 under the contract known in Scottish law as a Bowing Con- 
 tract 3 . He adds that in answer to repeated inquiries he was 
 told this custom had led to the pauperisation of the tenants or 
 sheep-masters, who had formerly lived like wealthy patriarchs. 
 It is enough, he concludes, to show the iniquity of such con- 
 tracts. The passage is curious as evidence how keenly the 
 Doctor of Theology still watched the rural pursuits in which 
 he had probably spent his boyhood. It is a warning also, in 
 the meagreness of our information as to the details of his life, 
 against the assumption that he may not have more than once 
 returned to Scotland during his Paris residence. It was but 
 a short voyage of about a week, with favourable weather, from 
 
 1 Memoir of Gavin Douglas, by John Small, Librarian of the University of 
 Edinburgh, prefixed to edition of his works. 
 
 2 Dist. xv., Qu. 46, fol. clxiii. 
 
 3 See Hunter, Landlord and Tenant, i. 344. This anomalous form of Lease is 
 now confined to dairy farms, and as to its local limits. — Rankine, Leases, p. 255. 
 
 e 
 
ixii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Calais or Dieppe to the English or Scottish east coast ports, yet 
 had it not been for this solitary and casual reference, we should 
 not have known that Major ever came back to Scotland till his 
 return in 1518, the occasion of which will be noticed presently. 
 Theological His first published work on theology was his Commentary on 
 Lombard. 6 ei the Book of Peter the Lombard? s Sentences, issued in 1509. 
 
 This was followed by his Commentary on the First and Second 
 Books in 1510, and on the Third in 1517. The popularity of 
 these Commentaries was shown by new editions of the Fourth 
 Book in 1512, 1516, 1519, and 1521, of the First in 1519 and 
 1530, of the Second in 1519 and 1528, and of the Third in 1528. 
 
 Nor was the scholastic and philosophical activity of Major 
 confined to the publication of his own works. He edited in 
 1505, along with a Spaniard, Magister Ortiz 1 , the Medulla, or 
 Essence of Logic, by Jerome Pardus 2 ; in 1510 a short tract of 
 Buridan 3 ; in 1512 the epitome, by Adam Godham 4 , of the four 
 Books of the Sentences, as abridged by Henry Van Oyta 5 , a 
 Viennese doctor of the end of the 14th century ; and in 1517 
 lie suggested to two of his pupils and superintended the first 
 issue of the Reportata Parisiensia of his famous countryman 6 
 John Duns Scotus. Ockham was the pupil of Duns Scotus. 
 Buridan and Godham were pupils of Ockham 7 . Three cer- 
 
 1 Ortiz, at first an opponent in Paris, afterwards a patron in Spain, of Ignatius 
 Loyola, was one of Charles v.'s agents in Rome in the case of Queeen Katharine. 
 The biographer of Ignatius states that when Ortiz broke down under the strain 
 of the spiritual exercises at Monte Cassino, St. Ignatius, to cheer his friend, 
 danced for him the old national dance of the Basques. It cheered him so that 
 he was roused from his stupor and finished his exercises. — Stewart Rose, Ignatius 
 Loyola, p. 123. Many of his despatches from Rome, with reference to the 
 Divorce, are in the Calendars of State Papers, Rolls Series. He is called by 
 Mr. Froude ' a bitter Catholic theologian, with the qualities of his profession.' — 
 The Divorce ; p. 159. 
 
 2 The contents of the Medulla are described by Prantl, iv. p. 246. 
 
 3 John Buridan (ob. c. 1358), a voluminous writer on Logic and Metaphysics, 
 whose works are described by Prantl, iv. p. 14. 
 
 4 See his Life in Diet, of Nat. Biography. 
 
 5 A Viennese writer on Theology as well as Logic (ob. 1397). — Prantl, iv. p. 103. 
 
 6 History, iv. xvi. p. 207. ? History, iv. xxi. p. 230. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxiii 
 
 tainly, perhaps all, of these writers were Franciscans. Duns 
 Scotus was the founder of the school which, taking his name, 
 separated itself from the hitherto orthodox scholastic doctrine 
 of Thomas Aquinas 1 . Ockham was the founder of the still Major inclines 
 
 1 i < to Nominalism. 
 
 more radical revolt of the Nominalists against the Realists 2 — 
 and in this Godham 3 and Buridan 4 followed him. It eventually 
 led, according to Haureau, to the dissolution of the Scholastic 
 Philosophy 5 . While Major is careful not to identify his own 
 opinions with any of these authors, it is impossible to overlook 
 the fact that he chose their writings for republication. 
 
 In the singular conclusion of his life of Adam Godham, 
 now for the first time reprinted 6 , Major assigns the first place 
 amongst the learned men of Britain to the Venerable Bede, 
 the second to Alexander Hales, but he adds Ockham and 
 Godham would have contended for it were not Hales so much 
 their senior. These two he pronounces equal, and contrasts 
 them in a passage which is a sample of his style and criticism 
 
 1 Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus were both Realists. But Duns set the 
 first great example of a breach in the unity of scholastic doctrine, so that 
 Schwegler {History of Philosophy, Hutchison Stirling's translation, p. 145), even 
 says : ' The whole foundation of scholastic metaphysics was abandoned the 
 moment Duns Scotus transferred the problem of Theology to the practical sphere. 
 With the separation of theory and practice, and still more with the separation in 
 Nominalism of thought and thing, philosophy became divided from theology, 
 reason from faith.' 
 
 2 He is classed by the writer who has most exhaustively examined his writings 
 as one of the Moderns, or of the school of Scotist Terminists. See Appendix to 
 the Life, No. II. 
 
 3 Godham, a somewhat obscure schoolman, whose name was sometimes spelt 
 Woodham, is rated higher by Major than by the veterans of philosophy. He 
 attended Ockham's lectures at Oxford, and died, 1358, at Norwich, where he was 
 a member of the Franciscan Convent, or at Bubwell, near Bury. — Diet, of Nat. 
 Biography, s.v. GODDAM ; Prantl, ii. p. 6. 
 
 4 John Buridan, who died shortly after Goddam, was a much more decided 
 follower of their common master Ockham, and expressly declared the distinction 
 between Metaphysics and Theology to be that the former recognised only what 
 could be proved by reason, while the latter proceeded from certain dogmatic 
 principles which it accepted without evidence, and reasoned from them — Prantl, 
 iv. p. 15. Buridan is perhaps now chiefly remembered by the fallacy of the 
 Asinus Buridani, though the Ass is not to be found in his writings. 
 
 5 Philosophic Scholastique. 6 Appendix II. p. 431. 
 
Ixiv 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 at their best. 4 Ockham and God ham are equals in logic and 
 in either kind of philosophy (Ethics and Metaphysics ?). Ock- 
 ham in commenting on the Sentences is wordy and diffuse, 
 Godham is concise and firm ; if Ockham's dialectic (dialogus) 
 did not stand in the way, the younger writer would carry off' 
 the palm. Ockhanrs intellect was sublime and daring, God- 
 ham's noble and solid. The one with knitted brow, lowered 
 eyebrows, and flashing eyes, as a warrior from youth, disputes 
 with gravity. The other, with calm brow and raised eyebrows, 
 laughingly pleases every one, and resolves everything (diluit 
 om?iia), so that I prefer neither. 1 
 
 This balancing, hesitating, and inconclusive judgment is 
 very characteristic of Major's intellect. Though he is positive 
 enough in his opinions on individual points, and in resting 
 finally on orthodox conclusions, many of his arguments were, 
 it would be wrong to say sceptical 1 , but as little dogmatic as 
 was possible in a schoolman. It is also deserving of note that 
 he praises ' the Dialogus of Ockham for that work is described 
 in his History as 4 treating of many things concerning the Pope, 
 and the Emperor, laying down nothing definitely, but leaving 
 everything to the judgment of his audience'. This too was 
 Major's method when he came to deal with ticklish points as 
 to the Pope's authority. But if Major supposed he really left 
 the question of the Pope's authority where he found it, he 
 deceived himself. The tendency of his thoughts could not be 
 concealed, and his doubts and questions were solved and 
 answered by the younger generation's acts. 
 Major attempts The exact position of Major amongst the scholastic philoso- 
 Nominalism phers is a subject which would require and repay a separate 
 and Realism monograph. It is beyond the power of the present writer to 
 
 on Nominalist ox J r r 
 
 Principles. 
 
 1 Mr. Owen, in his Evenings with the Skeptics, Longmans, 1881, does not 
 hesitate to class even the earlier schoolmen, Erigena, Abelard, Aquinas, as semi- 
 Sceptics, but the tendency became more distinctly marked in William of Ockham 
 and the Nominalists. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxv 
 
 furnish it, and would exceed the limits of this sketch, as well 
 as probably exhaust the patience of most of its readers 1 . Yet 
 to leave it altogether untouched — to present any however 
 imperfect a portrait of the last of the Scottish School- 
 men without some notice of his philosophical standpoint 
 would be the play of Hamlet without Hamlet. Fortunately 
 Major has himself, in a short passage of the Preface to the 
 standard edition of his Commentary on the Fourth Book of the 
 Sentences, published in 1519, given a clue to the aim of his 
 philosophy. 'I have yet seen,"' he writes, 'none of the 
 Nominalists who has carried his work on the Fourth Book of 
 the Sentences to the core and the close (ad umbilicum et calcem), 
 and this others retort on them as an opprobrium, saying that 
 the Nominalists are so occupied with Logic and Philosophy 
 that they neglect Theology. And yet there are various sub- 
 jects of Theology which presuppose Metaphysics. I will 
 attempt therefore to apply the principles of the Nominalists 
 to the several Distinctions of the Fourth Book of the Sentences, 
 and to write one or more questions which the Realists too, if 
 they pay attention, can easily understand. Either way, 
 Theology, about which I shall specially treat, will be common 
 ground."* Here again we find Major taking in the great con- 
 troversy which divided the schools since the time of Ockham, 
 and some have thought from a much earlier date, the position 
 of a mediator, and endeavouring for the sake of Theology to 
 reconcile Realism and Nominalism. 
 
 In 1518, having completed his work as lecturer on the 
 Master of the Sentences, Major at last accepted the call his own 
 country made on him to take part in its higher education. 
 It is possible that his friend Gavin Douglas, now Bishop of 
 Dunkeld, who revisited France in 1517 to negotiate the Treaty 
 of Rouen, had renewed his entreaties with success. On 25th 
 
 1 See further on Major's position as a Logician and Philosopher, Appendix to 
 the Life, No. n. p. cxxii. 
 
Ixvi 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 June 1518 Major was incorporated \ before Adam Colquhoun, 
 the Rector, as Principal Regent of the College and Paeda- 
 gogium of Glasgow, and is described as Canon of the Chapel 
 Royal at Stirling and Vicar of Dunlop, endowments no doubt 
 bestowed on him to induce him to leave Paris, and which 
 prove that he must have taken orders, though he devoted 
 himself entirely to the educational side of the ministerial 
 office. 
 
 In several passages of his writings lie defends evidently with 
 a personal reference the ecclesiastics who devoted themselves 
 to philosophy and education in preference to pastoral duties. 
 In one of these he says : ' Nor is there a reasonable ground for 
 frequenting universities, except in so far as a man learns by 
 attending lectures, so that he may return to his flock with 
 greater learning. But if he is sufficiently instructed to be able 
 to draw doctrine from books only, he can do that both in the 
 flock committed to him and on Mount Caucasus, or the Rock 
 of Parmenides. He too who continues to read theology in the 
 university is equivalent to a preacher ; nay more, he creates 
 preachers, which is a greater work than to preach. He is most 
 certainly excused if he has no cure of souls, and if he has 
 simply received the order of the ministry. ... If such a one, 
 too, residing in a university, has a cure in the neighbourhood, 
 it is not necessary that he should live in his parish, but it is 
 sufficient if he have a good vicar to administer the Sacraments, 
 provided he gives the food of life on festival days to his flock, 
 and hears confessions and doubtful cases. For it is hard to 
 say to a learned man, accustomed to live and converse with 
 learned men, that he ought always to live in a country village. 
 Truly it seems sufficient for him to dwell in the nearest town 
 or city, and frequently to visit his parishioners, taking care that 
 he is not absent on festival days unless for a reasonable cause \* 
 
 1 Register of Glasgow College. 
 
 2 In Quartnm, Dist. xxiv. Qu. 2, fol. clxvii. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxvii 
 
 In 1522 he is again named in the Glasgow Records as Pro- 
 fessor of Theology and Treasurer of the Chapel Royal, as well 
 as Vicar of Dunlop, and in 1523 he represented one of the 
 Nations as elector {intrans) of the new Rector. On 9th June 
 of the same year he migrated to St. Andrews, where he was Regent in St. 
 incorporated under the titles of Theological Doctor of Andrews X S 22 - 
 Paris and Treasurer of the Chapel Royal on the same day as 
 Patrick Hamilton, the future martyr, who had studied under 
 him in Glasgow. 
 
 Little record remains of Major's Glasgow period. He 
 doubtless continued, perhaps repeated, his Paris lectures on 
 Logic and Theology, and we find his name occurring in con- 
 nection with the election of Rector and other College business. 
 He was present at a congregation in 1522, when the Rector, 
 James Stewart, protested against a tax being imposed on the 
 University \ He is styled throughout the entries of the Uni- 
 versity Records, where his name occurs, 4 Principalis Regens 
 Collegii et Paedagogii but the principal Regent in the old 
 constitution of Glasgow was only the senior Professor, and the 
 office of Principal in the modern sense did not then exist. 
 
 The whole of his residence in Glasgow was less than five John Knox one 
 years, but it would be memorable, if for no other reason, for Giasgo\v. P ' S at 
 one of his pupils. John Knox, a Haddington boy, had a 
 link with Major, whose strong local feeling we have seen, and 
 Major may have been the cause that, instead of going to St. 
 Andrews, Knox matriculated at Glasgow in 1522. Unfor- 
 tunately the Glasgow period of Knox's education is the barest 
 in material of any part of his life. The future Reformer 
 appears to have quitted the University without a degree, and 
 his practical intellect led to his commencing life neither as a 
 philosopher nor a theologian, but as a church notary 2 . His 
 mind was of the quality which matures late, but often pro- 
 
 1 Munimenta Universitatis Glasguensis, p. 143. 
 
 2 Memoir of John Knox, Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
lxviii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 duces the strongest fruit. The only reference he makes to 
 Major belongs to a later period, when they were both at St. 
 Andrews, in a passage in which he describes his old master as 
 8 a man whose word was reckoned an oracle in matters of 
 religion", proving that Major retained his previous reputation. 
 
 Glasgow was at the time Major lived in it a small but 
 beautiful city, situated on a fine river, not yet deepened by 
 art so as to be a channel of commerce. It was chiefly known 
 as the See of the great bishopric founded by Kentigern, 
 restored by David i. when Prince of Cumberland, and recently 
 raised to the dignity of an archbishopric, which embraced the 
 south-west and parts of the south of Scotland. The University 
 founded in the middle of the previous century had been poorly 
 endowed, and did not become celebrated till its reform by 
 Andrew Melville after the Reformation. 
 
 The Archbishop during Major s residence was James Beaton, 
 uncle of the more famous Cardinal ; and the translation of 
 James to the See of St. Andrews in 1523 synchronises so well 
 with Major's removal to the elder and then more distinguished 
 University, that we can scarcely err in supposing that the one 
 promotion led to the other. 
 
 If Edinburgh or Glasgow was a contrast to Paris, much 
 more was St. Andrews. By nature, the site now so venerable 
 between the sands at the mouth of the Eden and the rock- 
 bound coast at one of the extremities of the little realm of 
 Scotland, seemed destined for a fishing village or haven for 
 small craft which already in considerable numbers dared the 
 stormy sea and brought their native land in contact with the 
 civilisation of Europe. But towns did not rank then by size or 
 even by wealth. St. Andrews had a threefold dignity in the 
 eyes of the pious Catholic and the ecclesiastical scholar. It 
 held the relics of the patron Saint of Scotland. It was the 
 primatial See. It was the first, and still, notwithstanding 
 the foundation of Glasgow and Aberdeen, the principal Uni- 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxix 
 
 versity. The Bulls for its foundation had been obtained by 
 Bishop Wardlaw in 1411, tutor and friend of James i., who 
 confirmed the privileges granted to it in 1432. Bishop 
 Kennedy had founded the first College of St. Salvator in 1456, 
 and ten years before Majors incorporation St. Leonard's, 
 or the New College, had been endowed by Archbishop Stewart, 
 the bastard of James iv., and Prior John Hepburn. St. Sal- 
 vator was instituted as a College for Theology and the Arts, 
 for divine worship combined with scholastic exercises. Its 
 members were a Provost, who was to be a Master or Doctor 
 in Theology, a Licentiate and a Bachelor of the same Faculty, 
 four Masters of Arts, and six poor Clerks. 
 
 St. Leonard's was modelled after the college for poor scholars 
 at Louvain, itself a copy of Montaigu College. Its foundation 
 consisted of a Principal and four Chaplains, two of them 
 Regents, and twenty Poor Scholars, instructed in the Gregorian 
 chant, and six of them Students of Theology. Its statutes, 
 drawn by Prior Hepburn, were of the strictest kind as regards 
 discipline, and the richer students, not on the foundation, 
 were to be obliged to conform to them. The scholars were to 
 be admitted on examination : not older than twenty-one, poor, 
 virtuous, versed in the first and second parts of grammar, good 
 writers, and good singers. The subjects prescribed for lectures 
 were grammar, poetry, and rhetoric, logic, physics, philosophy, 
 metaphysics, and one of the books of Solomon. It does not 
 appear that Major, when he came to St. Andrews, was at 
 first specially attached to either College, and as lectures con- 
 tinued in the Paedagogium, which Beaton converted into the 
 College of St. Mary in 1527, it is not possible to say where his 
 lectures were delivered ; but he continued to teach according to 
 the same methods the same subjects as in Paris and Glasgow 
 — Logic and Theology. 
 
 In 1523, 1524, and 1525, he was elected one of the Dean's offices held by 
 Assessors in the Faculty of Arts. In 1523 and 1525 he AndKiws. 
 
Ixx 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 was one of the deputies appointed to visit St. Salvator. In 
 1524 he was one of the Auditors of the Quaestor's accounts, 
 and also one of the Rector's Assessors. The last date at which 
 his name appears at this period was on 22d January 1525. It 
 re-appears after an interval of nearly six years on 6th November 
 1531, when he was again elected one of the Deans, probably of 
 the Faculty of Theology. 
 
 During his residence at Glasgow and St. Andrews it appears 
 probable that Major paid special attention to the philosophical, 
 and in particular the logical studies he had relinquished for 
 a time in Paris, but now resumed for the sake of his own 
 countrymen in the smaller universities of Scotland, which were, 
 as they have always been, undermanned, and could not afford 
 in that age separate professors even for philosophy and 
 divinity. This would account for his Introduction to the 
 Dialectic and whole Logic of Aristotle, a new and recent 
 edition of his earlier work, digested in twelve books, which was 
 issued by Badius Ascensius in Paris, while he was still absent 
 in 1521, and the ' Eight Books of Physics with Natural Philo- 
 sophy and Metaphysics,' published in 1526, shortly after his 
 return, by Giles Gourmont, famous as a printer of Greek, and 
 soon followed by his Logical Questions, issued from the same 
 Completion of press in 1528. He finished his Aristotelian studies by the 
 Aristotle. ° f issue of a Treatise on the Ethics, published by Badius in 1530. 
 
 He had thus, with a rare completeness, embraced in his 
 Lectures and Works almost the whole range of the Aristotelian 
 Philosophy. When we remember that an edition of a single 
 work of Aristotle, or a single classic author, has been deemed 
 sufficient for the labours and the fame of a modern university 
 professor, we appreciate the indefatigable industry of Major, 
 and we learn how little the nineteenth century can afford to 
 despise the sixteenth in the matter of philosophical erudition. 
 
 Nor were these treatises of Major mere editions or com- 
 mentaries on Aristotle. He reproduced and reduced in them 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxxi 
 
 the substance of the thoughts of the great master to the 
 scholastic method. So they were the effort and the fruit of 
 independent thought. The scholastic method was then becom- 
 ing antiquated, and was alien to the modern spirit. While it 
 addressed itself to the highest problems which the human mind 
 can attempt to solve or pronounce insoluble — the nature of 
 God, the origin of man and the universe, the being and 
 working of the mind itself — it descended also to the most 
 trivial details, and put the most casuistical questions, which 
 the sarcasm of Melanchthon, the satire of Rabelais, and the 
 epigram of Buchanan could hardly exaggerate. 
 
 Still Major's work, always acutely critical and argumenta- 
 tive, was at least an educational discipline. It awakened and 
 stimulated thought, perhaps the greatest service any teacher 
 can render to his pupils. It is not surprising that one class of 
 them learnt to swear by their master as an oracle, and another 
 to criticise his method and despise its results. 
 
 In 1525 he returned to Paris and the College of Montaigu, Returns to 
 
 ° ° Paris, 1525. 
 
 probably to escape the troubles of the times. The earl of 
 
 Angus was then at the head of affairs, and Major's patron, 
 
 Beaton, had to hide himself in the disguise of a shepherd. 
 
 Major probably also was glad of the opportunity his return His Biblical 
 
 * 1 J 0 1 1 # J m Commentaries, 
 
 afforded to superintend the publication of his Exposition of the 
 
 Four Evangelists, which was issued from the press of Jodocus 
 
 Badius Ascensius in 1529. His absence saved him from being 
 
 a spectator of, probably an actor in, the trial of Patrick 
 
 Hamilton, one of his Glasgow pupils, who was condemned 
 
 for heresy by an Assembly of Bishops and Theologians at 
 
 St. Andrews, and burnt before the gate of St. Salvator on 
 
 29th January 1528 ; but it was only to see a similar scene in 
 
 the streets of Paris — the martyrdom of Berquin ; for the 
 
 decree of the Sorbonne in 1521 that 6 flames rather than 
 
 reasoning should be employed against the heresies of Luther 1 
 
 was applied to the Lutherans as well as their works. Amongst 
 
Ixxii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 the doctrines for which Hamilton died were the assertions 
 that it was lawful for all men to read the Word of God ; 
 that image-worship, and the Invocation of Saints and the 
 Virgin, were unlawful ; that masses for the dead were vain ; 
 that there was no such place as purgatory ; that sin could be 
 purged only by repentance and faitli in the blood of Christ 
 Jesus. There is no reason to suppose that Major would have 
 dissented from the sentence any more than his master Gerson 
 had from that against Huss. The Doctors of Louvain, who 
 were in close sympathy with the Sorbonne, congratulated 
 Beaton on having performed a commendable act, and Major's 
 dedication of his Commentary on St. Matthew refers to the 
 news recently received that Beaton had, ' not without the ill- 
 will of many, manfully removed a person of noble birth, but an 
 unhappy follower of the Lutheran heresy". The allusion is 
 an euphemistic reference to the martyrdom of Hamilton. 
 
 To St. Andrews during Major's residence came a Highland 
 youth, attracted by his fame, destined by nature for learning, 
 already with some of the experience of a man. George 1 , the 
 son of Thomas Buchanan of the Moss, in Lennox, early lost his 
 father, and was sent when fourteen, at the cost of his maternal 
 uncle, James Heriot of Traprain, in East Lothian, to Paris ; 
 but after two years' study of the Latin classics the poverty of 
 his mother brought him home, and he served with the French 
 troops of Albany at the siege of Werk. The hardship of a 
 winter camp led to an illness, and, after recruiting his health 
 at home, he entered the Paedagogium at St. Andrews in 1524. 
 On 3d October 1525 he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
 Major having gone to Paris in that year, Buchanan either 
 accompanied or followed him, but entered, not as might have 
 been expected the College of Montaigu, but the Scots College 
 de Grisy, in which he was admitted ad eundem as Bachelor on 
 
 1 A more favourable view of the character and conduct of George Buchanan 
 will be found in Mr. P. Hume Brown's Memoir, 1890. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxxiii 
 
 10th October 1527. There is no proof that Major was, as has 
 been alleged, at the expense of his maintenance, but probably 
 he befriended a young man connected with East Lothian as 
 well as St. Andrews, whose talents foretold his future eminence. 
 In 1529 Buchanan was elected Procurator of the German 
 Nation, the highest honour then open to the Scottish student, 
 having lost a prior election only through the superior claim of 
 his blind countryman, Robert Wauchope, afterwards Bishop of 
 Armagh. Buchanan lias left two remarks on Major, in them- 
 selves not unfair, but very unjust if taken as a summary of his 
 whole teaching. 4 John Major at that time taught Dialectic, George 
 or rather Sophistic he says, 4 in extreme old age at St. uc anan ' 
 Andrews'; and in the well-known epigram which associates 
 their names, the pupil again expresses his repugnance for the 
 scholastic triflings the younger generation found in works 
 their elders deemed the glory of the University of Paris : — 
 
 Cum scateat nugis solo cognomine Major, 
 
 Nec sit in immenso pagina sana libro, 
 Non mirum titulis quod se veracious ornat ; 
 
 Nec semper mendax fingere Creta solet. 
 
 When he proclaims himself thus clearly 
 As ' Major ' by cognomen merely, 
 Since trifles through the book abound, 
 And scarce a page of sense is found, 
 Full credit sure the word acquires, 
 For Cretans are not always liars ! 
 
 The sting of the epigram is the last, not the first, line, 
 which was taken from Major's description of himself on the 
 title-page of more than one of his books \ Neither reverence 
 nor gratitude were qualities of Buchanan, but the difference 
 of age to a large extent accounts for his estimate of Major. 
 
 It would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast than the Contrast be- 
 
 , tween Major 
 
 doctor of the Sorbonne trained at the feet of its masters, himself and Buchanan, 
 recognised as one of them, without poetic imagination, and 
 
 1 See Appendices I. and II., pp. 430, 434, 435, 439. 
 
lxxiv 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 with little experience of practical life except as seen from the 
 cloister and the chair, and his young pupil already versed in 
 the Latin Classics and the thoughts not of Thomas Aquinas 
 and Duns Scotus, Peter the Spaniard and Peter the Lombard, 
 but of Virgil, Horace, Catullus, and Martial, and who had 
 seen not Paris merely but the Camp. A supercilious and 
 unmeasured contempt for old-fashioned learning in a youth of 
 genius has had examples before and since Buchanan. In truth 
 Buchanan learnt more than he was conscious of from Major. 
 The study of the sacred texts, the independent view of the 
 sources of political authority, and the inclination towards exact 
 historical inquiry, were notable points in Major's mental atti- 
 tude, and can scarcely have failed to influence his students. 
 The common opinion that the seeds of the De Jure Regn'i, 
 and what are sometimes called the republican, but more 
 accurately the constitutional, views of Buchanan's History were 
 derived in part from Major's teaching, seems well founded. His 
 position marks a stage through which the European mind 
 had to pass before it abandoned scholasticism for humanism, 
 the Roman for the Reformed doctrines, Absolute for Consti- 
 tutional Government. The same Tendency has indeed been 
 marked in earlier schoolmen by the historians of philosophy. 
 What was special to the case of Major was that this Tendency 
 was during his life coeval with the Renaissance Movement 
 north of the Alps, and that while the Master resisted, his 
 younger and active-minded disciples combined the necessary 
 results of the union of the Tendency with the Movement. 
 
 Major's History, a copy of which, printed by Badius Ascensius 
 in 1521, must have been in the St. Andrews Library, pro- 
 bably was known to the omnivorous student whose elaborate 
 work, more than fifty years later 1 , was to eclipse its fame. 
 
 The form of this History is unique. It is written in a 
 scholastic style, and every now and then breaks out into logical 
 
 1 The first edition of Buchanan's History was published by Alexander 
 Arbuthnot at Edinbuigh, 1582. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR lxxv 
 
 arguments. But what has been called in the nineteenth century 
 
 the critical spirit, in the mode in which it manifested itself in the 0 . . . , 
 
 r Scholastic form 
 
 sixteenth century, is to be traced from the first page to the last. and critical 
 
 J . , r ° spirit of his 
 
 A renewed zeal for historical study was one of the features History, 
 of the time. The age of the Monkish Chronicles and the 
 Mediaeval Annals was past. It was no longer possible to write 
 history in the style of Matthew Paris and John of Fordun, or 
 of Sir John Froissart, or even of Philip de Commines. With 
 the advent of the new learning the historical instinct led all 
 nations to desire a more exact account of their origin, and a 
 more philosophical narrative of their progress, not merely 
 stating events in the order of their occurrence, but tracing 
 them to their causes. A series of historical works issued 
 from the press of Badius about this period, in some of which 
 there was more, in others less, of this instinct. The history of 
 the kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth was published 
 in 1508, the History of Scotland by Hector Boece in 1526, and 
 that of Paulus Jovius, De Rebus Gestis Francorum et Regum 
 Franciae in 1536, 1 besides some of the best old Chronicles, 
 Saxo Grammaticus and Gregory of Tours. It was probably in 
 contrast to Geoffrey of Monmouth's title to his History 
 'Britannia? Utriusque regum et principum Origo et Gesta", 
 that Major adopted the title of ' Historia Mqjoris Britannia?' \ 
 The lively and inquisitive Italian, Polydore Vergil, who had 
 been sent in 1504 to collect Peter's Pence in England, was 
 specially attracted to the early annals of Britain, and wrote 
 in 1509 to James iv. for information as to the succession of 
 the Scottish kings, but the information does not seem to have 
 been supplied. Shortly before the death of Gavin Douglas in Polydore 
 1523 he met that prelate in London, and resumed his inquiries. gjj*^. 
 Their conversation is typical of the contest going on in many 
 minds between the old traditional and the new critical view of 
 
 1 The Compendium super Francorum Gestis, by Robert Gaguin, published 
 in 1497, appears to have been well known to Major, and is written more in his 
 spirit than any of the other Histories of his time. 
 
lxxvi 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 history. It is interesting too as showing that the Bishop's 
 education in history had not advanced so far as that of his 
 old friend Major the theologian, although there is some reason 
 to believe that in theology the opposite was the case, and that 
 Douglas leant more than Major towards the doctrines of the 
 Reformation. This is a not uncommon phenomenon. The 
 critical part of the intellect applies or confines itself to different 
 departments in different minds. Douglas, according to Vergil, 
 asked him ' not to follow the account recently published by a 
 certain Scot which treats as a fable the descent of the Scottish 
 kings from Gathelus, the son of an Athenian king, and Scota, 
 the daughter of Pharaoh and furnished him with the usual 
 fictitious pedigree to prove it. The Scot was beyond doubt 
 Major, whose History had been published two years before. 
 Polydore was, like Major, incredulous. 4 When I read the notes 
 of Douglas', he says, 'according to the fable I seemed to see 
 the bear bring forth her young. Afterwards when we met, 
 as we were accustomed, this Gavin asked my opinion', and 
 Polydore then argued, from the silence of the Roman historians, 
 that there could have been no Picts or Scots in Britain prior to 
 the Roman conquest, and, he adds : 6 This Gavin, no doubt a 
 sincere man, did the less dissent from this sentence, in that it 
 plainly appeared to him that reason and truth herein well 
 agreed, so easily is truth discovered from feigned phrases'. 
 The death of Douglas by the plague prevented Polydore from 
 further enjoying the benefit of his conversation. 
 
 The History of Major was entitled Historia May oris Britan- 
 niae tarn Angliae quam Scotiae per Johannem Mqjorem natione 
 quidem Scotum prqfessione autem tlxeologum. 
 Title of Major's « Maior Britain' was no doubt, in its first intention, meant 
 
 History. ... . . 
 
 to distinguish Britain from Brittany, the lesser land of the 
 Britons, just as Scotland, 4 Scotia Minor', in mediaeval Latin, 
 prior to the eleventh century, was distinguished from Ireland, 
 the 6 Scotia Major' of the Scottish race. But it signified the 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxxvii 
 
 author's presage of the greatness of the small island whose 
 annals he relates. There is possibly too a play on his own 
 name. It was Major's History of Major Britain. It was also 
 an early essay to find a name that, without offence to the pride 
 of either nation, should comprise Scotland as well as England, 
 for which James i. afterwards hit upon the happy name of 
 Great Britain, leaving to the nineteenth century to give Greater 
 Britain a more fit application to the dependencies and colonies 
 which the natives of the little island have conquered or acquired 
 beyond the Atlantic or in the islands of the Antipodes. 
 
 Major dedicated his work in a short preface to his young Major's dedica- 
 
 *-x li-i r tion to James v. 
 
 sovereign James v., whom he describes as celebrated for his 
 noble disposition and high birth, derived from both kingdoms, 
 alluding to his descent as grandson of Henry vn. as well as heir 
 of James iv. The preface is a defence against the charges of a 
 possible critic that he had deviated from the practice of his- 
 torians in dedicating his history ; that a theologian should not 
 venture to write history ; and that he has used the style of a 
 theologian rather than an historian. To the first he answers 
 that he has read no dedication by Sallust or Livy, either 
 because they wrote none, or because their dedications are lost. 
 Sallust, indeed, had no reason for a dedication, as he wrote 
 before the Romans had kings (emperors). Livy, perhaps, had 
 no wish to dedicate, deeming it more glorious to offer the fruits 
 of his labours to the Gods and posterity rather than to any 
 mortal. But nearly all the poets, even when they wrote 
 history, dedicated their works. Valerius Maximus invoked 
 Caesar when about to describe the annals not only of his own 
 but of other nations. St. Jerome, St. Augustine, our own 
 Venerable Bede, as well as other ecclesiastical writers, used 
 dedications. He has followed their example, but, to avoid 
 suspicion of flattery, has left the history of recent times to 
 others. The charge that a theologian should not write history 
 he denies. It is the province of a theologian to define matters 
 
 ./• 
 
Jxxviii JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 of faith, religion, and morals, so he cannot be deemed to 
 depart from it when he not only states acts and their authors, 
 but also determines whether thev had been rightly or wrongly 
 done. Besides, it would be his aim that the reader of his 
 History should learn not only what had been done, but also 
 how men ought to act, from the experience of so many cen- 
 turies. For his style, it might have been more polished, but 
 he doubted if more suitable to his subject. If the names of 
 Scottish places and persons were expressed in Latin words the 
 natives would scarcely recognise them. We see from this 
 curious observation how narrowly Major missed writing in the 
 vernacular. Perhaps, could he have printed his book at home, 
 he might have done so. But, no doubt, he also desired to be 
 read by the learned throughout Europe. 
 
 It has always been the aim of our kings, lie concludes, to 
 act greatly rather than speak elegantly, so it should be the 
 aim of all students to think rightly and understand the matter 
 in hand sharply rather than to write elegantly or rhetorically. 
 Of this the two Scots, John Scotus Erigena 1 and Duns Scot us, 
 Bede, Alcuin, and many others are examples. It is his hope 
 that the king may read happily the history of his race 
 dedicated to his felicity and live to the age of Nestor. 
 Scheme of the The history which follows narrates in six books in a succinct 
 style the annals of England and Scotland from the earliest 
 times to the marriages of Henry vn.'s daughters, Margaret to 
 James iv. of Scotland, and Mary to Louis xn. of France, and 
 after his death to the Duke of Suffolk. The part relating to 
 Scotland is naturally fuller, but the combination of the two 
 histories was done of set purpose to aid the view which Major 
 insists on that the two crowns should be united by marriage. 
 With the same object, Major treats the English more favourably 
 
 1 Although the epithet 'Erigena ' is now admitted to be of later date, the current 
 and better opinion seems to be that John Scotus was an Irishman, but Duns 
 Scotus was almost certainly, as Major thought, a Scotchman. — R. Lane Poole, 
 History of Medieval Thought, p. 55 2. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxxix 
 
 than our earlier historians. He is the first Scottish advocate Major an advc 
 
 for the Union. 4 1 state this proposition,' he says : ' The Scots union."" the 
 
 ought to prefer no king to the English in the marriage of a 
 
 female heir, and I am of the same opinion as to the English 
 
 in a similar case. By this way only two hostile kingdoms 
 
 flourishing in the same island, of which neither can subdue the 
 
 other, would be united under one king, and if it is said the 
 
 Scots would lose their name and kingdom, so would the 
 
 English, for the king of both would he called king of Britain. 
 
 Nor would the Scots have any reason to fear the taxes of an 
 
 English king. I venture to answer for the English king that 
 
 lie would allow them their liberties as the king of Castile 
 
 allows the people of Aragon. Besides, in case it is for the 
 
 well-being of the republic, it is proper that taxes should be paid 
 
 to the king according to the necessity of the occasion. The The nobility 
 
 o • Vi t .„. ! . . wrong in oppos 
 
 Scottish nobles, as I think, are unwilling to have one king with ingthe Union. 
 
 power over the whole island, and the English nobles are of like 
 
 mind, because the nobility would not dare to go against such 
 
 a kin^. Yet a single monarch would be useful even to the 
 
 nobles. They would flourish by justice; no one would dare 
 
 use force against another. Their homes and families would 
 
 be more permanent. No foreign king would invade their 
 
 country, and if they were injured, they would be able without 
 
 fear to attack others.'' 
 
 Such opinions were in advance of his age. It is singular 
 how a Scotsman bred in France should have adopted them. 
 Experience must have convinced him that the prosperity of 
 his country pointed to an English union rather than to a 
 French alliance. 
 
 Another point on which the opinions of Major are un- Major on 
 
 ' i j Church and 
 
 expectedly liberal, at least to those who have not followed state, 
 with minute attention the course of medieval thought, is as to 
 the relation between Church and State. In this connection 
 he repeats the sentiments to which he had given utterance in 
 
lxxx 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 commenting on the Gospel of Matthew, and which he may 
 have learned from the writings of Ockham, D'Ailly, and 
 Gerson. Referring to the excommunication of Alexander n. 
 of Scotland by the Papal Legate on the ground that Alexander 
 had sided with the English barons against King John, lie 
 says : 6 Perhaps fearing more than was reasonable ecclesias- 
 tical censures, he restored Carlisle to the English king. If 
 he had a just title to Carlisle, he had no reason to fear the 
 papal excommunication. Various of his predecessors had held 
 it, nor do I see how he had lost the right, and whatever might 
 be the fact as to that, he could have appealed from the legate 
 to his superior. But perhaps you will object that even the 
 unjust sentence of a pastor (i.e. an ecclesiastic in charge of a 
 flock and with power to excommunicate) is to be feared. To 
 which we will easily answer. If it is unjust, it is as if null, and 
 there is no reason to fear it. For an unjust excommunication 
 is no more an excommunication than a dead man is a man. 
 Not only in Britain, but in many other places, men too lightly 
 entangle themselves with ecclesiastical censures. No one, 
 unless he commits mortal sin, ought to be excommunicated 
 either by law or man, and for contumacy alone excommunica- 
 tion is to be pronounced by man. If he will not hear the 
 church, saith the Scripture (Veritas), let him be as a heathen 
 and publican. Therefore by the opposite argument, if lie will 
 hear the church, why should he be ejected from the company 
 of believers ? It follows that we think many persons excom- 
 municated are in grace/ This is bold language f or an ecclesi- 
 astic of the Roman Church, but by allowing excommunication 
 for contumacy, Major leaves a loophole through which bis 
 conscience crept when he approved the burning of Patrick 
 Hamilton. This explains too how he and men of like views 1 
 
 1 Jourdain has an interesting and instructive Essay on this subject, dealing 
 with writers of an earlier date {Excursions Historiques, 1888, p. 524) : ' Memoire 
 sur La Royaute Francaise et le Droit Populaire d'apres les Ecrivains du Moyen 
 Age'. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxxxi 
 
 were tolerated by the Roman Church, which has always School opinions 
 allowed considerable latitude to men of learning and ability and State, 
 who have conceded to the Church the final sentence — the last 
 word, whether of temporal or eternal condemnation. 
 
 When he deals with John's abdication and payment of the 
 ransom for his crown to the Pope, Major raises the difficulty 
 whether a king can give the right of his kingdom or fixed pay- 
 ments out of it to any other person. If he gave the right of 
 the kingdom to the Turk or any other not the true heir, the 
 gift would be plainly null. The proof is : 4 The king has the 
 right of the kingdom from a free people, nor can he grant that 
 right to any one contrary to the will of the people 1 . 
 
 A king cannot be said to act rightly who, without the 
 counsel of his nobles, declares that his revenues are to be 
 given away to any one. The proof is : 6 Such a tax, without 
 express or tacit consent, burdens the people, and such a tax the 
 people are not bound to pay. Further, the contest between 
 the king and the Church of England was as to goods taken 
 from that particular church, and specially from the Cistercians. 
 It is clear, restitution ought to have been made to the par- 
 ticular church. It was idle in John to suppose that because 
 he gave a quota to Rome, he was absolved from restitution to 
 the Church from which he had taken the property." Here the 
 doctrine of restitution, a favourite and sound doctrine of the 
 manuals of the Confessional, is very skilfully turned against both 
 John and the Pope. It is, after all, robbing Paul although you 
 pay Peter \ He concludes with allowing that if John and the 
 English people agreed to give an annual payment to the Pope 
 it would be otherwise, for it does not concern the king's purse, 
 but is given by the people itself. These are almost the con- 
 stitutional principles embodied by the barons in the charters 
 of the Liberties of England, but which Buchanan generally 
 
 1 The proverb is more often cited in the reverse form, but is known in both 
 forms. 
 
lxxxii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Constitutional gets the credit of introducing into Scotland. He may have 
 derived them in part at least from his old master. When we 
 read Barbour's Bruce or Blind Harry's Wallace, we trace their 
 parentage to a still earlier date. They were the fruit of the 
 War of Independence. Perhaps they may be traced to a more 
 distant epoch, to the resistance which Galgacus and our remote 
 Celtic forefathers made to the Roman legions. Major tells an 
 anecdote which shows they existed before the War of Inde- 
 pendence in the breast of the patriot leader. Wallace, lie says, 
 always had in his mouth lines his tutor had taught him : — 
 
 e Dico tibi verum, Libertas optima rerum ; 
 Nunquam sen ili sub riexu vivite, fili.' 
 
 With equal distinctness Major, in treating of the succession 
 of Bruce, states he does not place Bruce's right on the ground 
 of priority of descent, but because Baliol, by surrendering the 
 crown to Edward, forfeited his right. ' A free people gives the 
 strength to the first king whose power depends on the whole 
 people. Fergus the first had no other right. I say the same 
 of the kings of Judea ordained by God. 1 He further argues 
 that the people can depose for his demerits a king and his 
 successors, founding on the precedents of the Roman kingship 
 which was abolished, and the Carlovingian dynasty which was 
 founded when Pepin by the will of the people deposed the 
 
 Merovingian line. 
 
 Government 
 
 The proof from the establishment of the Roman republic 
 Sl^oAhe 11 shows another source from which views in favour of the 
 people. foundation of government on the will of the people were 
 
 drawn by scholars in the time of Major. The Greek and 
 Roman classics, above all Livy, recently translated into French, 
 and soon after into Scotch by Bellenden, presented the noble 
 spectacle of a free republic. It is noticeable that Major 
 frequently reflects on the tyranny and want of patriotism of 
 the nobles. Wallace is his hero rather than Bruce, and in a 
 fine passage which reminds us of the poem of Dante in the 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxxxiii 
 
 Convito 1 , he argues that ' there is no true nobility but virtue 
 and its acts. Vulgar nobility is nothing but a windy mode of 
 talk/ He laughs at his countrymen, who think themselves all 
 cousins of the king, and says he used to argue with them jocu- 
 larly in this way : ' They would grant no one was noble unless 
 both his parents were noble. If so, was Adam noble or not ? 
 If he was not, they denied the premiss. If he was, then so 
 were all his children. So it follows either that all men are 
 noble or none/ It is evident that we are listening to a repre- 
 sentative of the Commons, to a forerunner of Robert Burns in 
 the strangely different garb of a medieval philosopher. A 
 similar or cognate argument was expressed in the popular 
 rhyme of the English peasants — 
 
 ' When Adam delved, and Eve span, 
 Who was then the gentleman ? ' 
 
 Like all clear-sighted men at this period, Major saw the Abust s in the 
 urgency of reform in the Church. He approves the saying donned. 000 
 of James i., that David i. had injured the Crown by lavish 
 grants to Bishops and Monks. He expresses his regret at the 
 poverty of parishes and parish churches in Scotland in com- 
 parison with England, at the gross abuses of pluralities and 
 non-residence, and his surprise that the Scottish prelates had 
 not earlier applied some part of their great revenues to found- 
 ing Universities. He especially condemns the wealthy abbots 
 who live in the court more than in the cloister, who think they 
 do well when they enrich their convent by oppressing the poor 
 labourers of the ground. The true end of religion is to subdue 
 the lusts of the flesh, and wealth is adverse to this end. When 
 
 1 ' It follows then from this, 
 That all are high or base, 
 Or that in time there never was 
 Beginning to our race.' 
 
 Where virtue is there is 
 A nobleman, although 
 Not where there is a nobleman 
 Must virtue be also.' 
 The Convito, Fourth Book (Miss E. Price Sayers' translation). 
 
lxxxiv 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 he describes Bishop Kennedy's character he blames him for 
 holding the Priory of Pittenweem in commendam along with so 
 great a See as St. Andrews, and for the cost of his sumptuous 
 tomb ; and he raises the question whether a bishop has more 
 than a qualified right of property in the revenue he derives 
 from the church. In the passages of his History in which 
 he attacks the oppression of the nobles and the corruption 
 of the ecclesiastical dignitaries we recall the language of the 
 Satires of Henryson, Dunbar, and Lindsay 1 . Against the 
 abuses of ill-regulated monasteries Major more than once 
 inveighs 2 , and though he maintains the binding nature of 
 vows, he admits the difficulty of the question. On the 
 critical point of the privilege of ecclesiastics to be exempt 
 from the judgment of lay courts, while he takes, as might be 
 expected, the side of the Church in discussing the struggle 
 between Henry n. and Becket, he allows this was not by 
 divine right, and might be otherwise in special circumstances. 
 He even goes so far as to condemn the multiplication of 
 miracles, and remarks (though earlier as well as later examples 
 of the same train of reasoning may be found) that miracles 
 do not prove holiness, for John the Baptist, the holiest child 
 born of woman, wrought none, and that a vow of chastity 
 might be a vow of the foolish virgins if it hurt the state. 
 
 With regard to the facts of his History Major shows a won- 
 derfully sound historical instinct, distinguishing truth from the 
 fables with which the Scottish annals were then encrusted. 
 His work is a sketch, and much is omitted ; but the student 
 who reads it will have little to unlearn. In this respect he is 
 far superior to his contemporary Boece, and even to Buchanan, 
 who copied Boece in the earlier part of Scottish history. 
 
 1 With these passages in the History may be compared his denunciation in his 
 Commentary on St. Matthew of ' the grasping abbots who make things hard for 
 the husbandmen ', fob lxxiv. verso 2. 
 
 2 Compare Commentary on St. Matthew, fob lxxiii. verso 2: ' If I were as rich 
 as Midas, I would rather throw my money into the Seine than found a religious 
 house where men and women take their meals together.' 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxxxv 
 
 He discards at once the foundation fable of the Scottish Major's criti- 
 kings being descended from Scota the daughter of Pharaoh, Scottish 
 and takes the firm ground of Bede as to their Irish origin, and lstory ' 
 inclines to the further opinion, which may be true thougli 
 not proved, that they came from Spain to Ireland. The 
 Picts, following Bede and their own traditions, he states, came 
 also by way of Ireland from Scythia, and he ascribes probably 
 rightly their name to the practice of painting their bodies. 
 Although he did not succeed in detecting the insertion of 
 forty kings between Fergus i. Mac Fercha and Fergus n. Mac 
 Ere, he shows his distrust of it by reckoning only fifteen where 
 Fordun and Wyntoun had made forty. Buchanan, who ought 
 to have known better, has compiled a list still longer and 
 less intelligible, which corrupted Scottish History at the foun- 
 tainhead till the sources were purified first by Father Innes, 
 and more completely in our day by Mr. Skene. It is signifi- 
 cant of how far Major was in advance not merely of his own 
 but of a later age that Dr. Mackenzie, writing in 1708 his 
 memoir of Major, supposes the reduction of the number of the 
 kings to be a misprint. 
 
 He argues from the life of Ninian as well as Bede that the 
 Picts and Britons had occupied Scotland before the Scots 
 migrated from Ireland. Bede's authority and his own know- 
 ledge as a Lothian man of the dedication of the Church at 
 Whittingham to St. Oswald, enable him to assert the fact of 
 the whole of Lothian having been in the time of Bede under 
 the Northumbrian kings. He refers to the Commentaries of 
 Bede and to Alcuin as proof of the learning of the Northumbrian 
 ecclesiastics of the eighth century, though he says they were 
 not well versed in the knotty questions of the Schoolmen and 
 the Sorbonne. He says boldly that the Church of St. Columba 
 had priests and monks but not bishops, in which he is in sub- 
 stance right, even though it be held proved that there was an 
 order of bishops whose only known function of preeminence 
 
lxxxvi 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 was the ordination of priests. For how different was such a 
 bishop from the lordly diocesan prelates of Major's own time ! 
 He gives correctly the date of the union of the Picts and Scots 
 in the middle of the ninth century under Kenneth Macalpine, 
 and leaves as a doubtful point what is still doubtful — how long 
 Abernethy had been the chief seat of the Pictish Church before 
 its transfer to St. Andrews. He remarks that the Picts 
 held St. Andrew in great honour, from which he jumps to 
 the possibly sound conclusion that the Picts held the richer 
 and level parts of the country, while the Scots occupied the 
 mountains. The Anglo-Saxon period of English history and 
 the contemporary history of Scotland from Kenneth Macalpine 
 to Malcolm Canmore is very rapidly sketched, and there are 
 many errors in the attempt to synchronise the kings, 
 independent After Canmore the history is more clear and accurate, and 
 
 view of the 
 
 later history. though the reigns of the English kings are slurred, a distinct 
 portrait of each of the Scottish monarchs is presented : Alex- 
 ander the Bold (' audax who imitated his father in bravery 
 and zeal for justice; the good king David; Malcolm, who 
 followed the piety of his ancestors ; the long reign of William 
 the Lion ; Alexander the Second, who fought with John on 
 the side of the English barons, and lost nothing his ancestors 
 had gained, observing justice during his whole life ; the third 
 Alexander, who rivalled his father in the goodness of his reign. 
 The War of Independence is told as might be expected by a 
 Scottish patriot, and the true characters of Wallace and Bruce 
 are defended against the attacks of Caxton's Chronicle ; but 
 he rejects as fabulous the visit of Wallace to France, which 
 subsequent research has confirmed, on the ground that this 
 visit is not mentioned by the French or the Latin Chronicles 
 of Scotland. David n. he characterises, though brave, as 
 a weak king, and he blames the want of patriotism which 
 led him to name an English prince as his successor. The 
 second and third Robert are less distinctly drawn. James i. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 Ixxxvii 
 
 is the finest portrait. It has been copied in all subsequent Characters of 
 
 i .... - i i the Jameses. 
 
 histories. 4 In person short, but stout and robust, of the 
 finest intellect but somewhat passionate. Skilled in games, 
 he threw the stone and hammer further than any one, and was 
 a swift runner. He was a trained musician, and second to none 
 in the modulation of his voice. In harp playing he surpassed, 
 like another Orpheus, the Irish and Highland Scots, the masters 
 of that instrument. All these arts he learned in France and 
 England during his long captivity. In Scottish poetry he 
 was very skilful, and very many of his works and songs are 
 still held by the Scotch in memory as the best of their kind. 
 . . . He was not inferior to, perhaps was greater than, Thomas 
 Randolph in administering justice. He excelled his father, 
 grandfather, and great-grandfather in virtue, nor do I prefer,' 
 he concludes, 'any of the Stewarts and their predecessors, 
 without counting the present boy (James v.), to James i." 
 
 Of James n. he savs, many gave him the palm amongst 
 active kings because he applied all his zeal to war and showed 
 himself equal to any knight. 4 1 place," however, 6 his father 
 before him both in intellect and courage, but in temper he 
 much resembled his father. 1 Of James in. he speaks with less 
 praise, giving onlv the negative encomium, of which his 
 countrymen are fond, that there have been many worse 
 kings both abroad and at home. James iv. was not inferior 
 to James n., as appears from his deeds. ' Many of the Scots, 
 he remarks, 4 secretly compare the Stewarts to the horses 
 of Mar, which are good in youth but bad in old age ; but I do 
 not share this view. The Stewarts have preserved the Scots in 
 good peace, and have held in hand the kingdom left by the 
 Bruces undiminished. 1 There is a boldness in judging and 
 distributing praise and blame to the kings very characteristic 
 of Major and his countrymen. His judgment is not that of a 
 partisan, but of a contemplative historian. Not less interest- 
 ing, pointed, clear, and fair are the brief remarks which he 
 
lxxxviii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 makes on the character of his countrymen than on those of the 
 kings. His foreign residence helped him to gauge their insular 
 vanity and intense family pride. But it had not diminished 
 his patriotism. Love of his country and desire for its true 
 welfare is everywhere conspicuous in his writings. 4 Our 
 native soil attracts us with a secret and inexpressible sweetness 
 and does not permit us to forget it', he wrote to Alexander 
 Stewart, the archbishop of St. Andrews, while he was still 
 living in Paris, in the dedication of the edition of his Com- 
 mentary on the Fourth Book of the Sentences 1 . 
 
 It was during Major's second residence in Paris that Francis i. 
 — who, like James v., had at first hesitated to prosecute the 
 Reformers, and even leant towards them, partly from policy, 
 as a means of attacking the Emperor through the German 
 Lutherans, and partly from scholarly tastes, which made him 
 a patron of the Renaissance — went over to the side of the Old 
 Church. He had tried to persuade Erasmus to return to 
 France and preside over the new Royal College, in which the 
 three ancient classical languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, 
 were to be taught ; but Erasmus was too prudent. Francis 
 had twice saved from the stake Berquin, the translator of 
 Erasmus, a man, like Hamilton, of good family, but on a third 
 declaration of heretical opinions abandoned him to his fate. 
 The Sorbonne The Doctors of the Sorbonne were bitter enemies of Erasmus, 
 Erasmus. and, led by Major's old patron, Noel Beda, now their Syndic, 
 they induced the University to condemn his principal works. 
 His 4 Colloquies 1 had been so popular, that a Paris printer 
 issued 24,000 copies of one edition ; they were even used as a 
 text-book in some of the University classes. The Theological 
 Faculty had already taken the alarm in 1526, and petitioned 
 Parliament to suppress the work, but nothing was done. Two 
 years later Beda, in the name of the Theological Faculty, 
 applied to the University. The Faculties of Canon Law and 
 
 1 Appendix II., p. 420. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 lxxxix 
 
 Medicine, and the French Nation, sided with the Faculty of 
 Theology in condemnation of a book dangerous to youth. 
 The German Nation was willing to interdict its use in the 
 classes. The Nations of Picardy and Normandy desired to 
 write to the author, asking him to correct his errors. The 
 Rector embraced the more severe view, which had the balance 
 of authority in its favour, and the book was absolutely 
 condemned. 
 
 Beda was at this time so powerful in the University, and Changes in 
 
 Frcincis I 's 
 
 even with the mob of Paris, aptly styled by Michelet the attitude, 
 false democracy, that he was called the King of Paris. The 
 influence of his mother Ann, a fervent Catholic, drew Francis 
 in the direction of Rome. The excess of Lutheranism began 
 to show itself in the Anabaptists. The monarchs of Europe 
 began to fear that their authority might be impugned as well 
 as that of the Pope. A comparatively trifling incident is said 
 to have finally decided Francis. Some one — no one knew 
 who — broke an image of the Virgin and Child on the Sunday 
 before Easter 1525, in the Rue des Rosiers in Paris. It was 
 at once attributed to the Reformers. 
 
 The University, led by Beda, went in solemn procession, 
 preceded by 500 youths with candles, to the place of the 
 sacrilege, deposited their candles, and returned for a solemn 
 expiatory service at the Church of St. Catherine. Two days 
 later the King headed a still larger procession, in which the 
 Princes of the Blood Royal, the Ambassadors, the High 
 Officials of the Court, the Church, and the University, took 
 part, and replaced the broken image with one in silver, amidst 
 the acclamations of the people. 
 
 A condemnation of the translation of the New Testament, 
 prepared by the Faculty of Theology in 1527, was at last 
 issued in 1531. Encouraged by this success, and the martyr- 
 dom of several less conspicuous Lutherans which followed that 
 of Berquin in 1529, Beda ventured on the condemnation of 
 
xc 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Le Miroir de Fame pecheresse, a mystical and devotional work 
 by the king's sister Margaret, Queen of Navarre, and he 
 attacked the Royal Professors, who were now beginning to 
 carry out a pet project of Francis — the institution of the new 
 College for free instruction in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. 
 His zeal had carried him a step too far. For these offences 
 he was compelled to make a public apology, was imprisoned 
 during the King's pleasure, and the uncrowned king, one of 
 the many victims to the 4 vaulting ambition which overleaps 
 itself, died a captive at Mont St. Michel. Francis i., like 
 Henry vm., was not a religious but a despotic monarch, who 
 would brook no rival in Church or State. 
 TheSorbonne It is not certain whether Major joined the Doctors of the 
 vm.? Divorce. Sorbonne in their sanction given in January 1530 to the divorce 
 of Henry viil, contrary to the wishes of the fanatical but 
 orthodox Beda. The records of the period have been de- 
 stroyed ; but as the opinion was issued during his residence, it 
 is probable he concurred in it. While we condemn this act, 
 it must be remembered that it was in one aspect a declara- 
 tion of the independence of the temporal power against the 
 Pope, which would find favour with the Gallican Doctors. 
 Francis i., in an angry letter to the Parliament of Paris, 
 expresslv condemned Beda's proposal to refer the matter to 
 the Pope, as trenching on ' the liberties of the Gallican Church 
 and the independence of the Theological Council, for there 
 is no privilege belonging to the realm on which we are more 
 firmly determined to insist 1 . 
 Loyola, Calvin, Michelet notes that during these years three men, different 
 in every respect except in the greatness of their fame, came to 
 Paris to complete their education — Ignatius Loyola, who com- 
 menced his education in grammar at Montaigu in 1528, John 
 Calvin, who entered the College of Ste. Barbe in 1523, and 
 Francis Rabelais. Rabelais's college has not been discovered, 
 but probably he was in Paris from 1524 to 1530. With none 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xci 
 
 of them can Major have had much sympathy ; but it marks the 
 pregnant character of the time and place that they produced 
 such contrasts as the ascetic militant founder of the Society of 
 Jesus, whose rule was to surpass even Papal absolutism ; the 
 Protestant theologian whose discipline, almost as strict as that 
 of the Jesuits, and founded on principles as plausible, once its 
 premisses are admitted, was to succeed the Lutheran as the 
 latest form of the reformed Church ; and the satirist whose 
 coarse and giant laughter, a revulsion from the rules alike of 
 the old orders and of the new sects, was to shake the founda- 
 tions of the Church in France and become the parent of the 
 best and worst in modern French literature. The irony of 
 Erasmus, and the satire of Rabelais, were almost the only 
 weapons which could be used by reformers who wished to 
 escape the fate of Berquin. Major himself came in for a 
 chance stroke of the lash of Rabelais, who places amongst the 
 books in the library of St. Victor, ' Majoris de Modo faciendi 
 boudinos 1 — 4 Major on the Art of making Puddings." 
 
 Before finally leaving Paris for Scotland Mai or completed Major's final 
 
 . . . a 1 published 
 
 his labours in Logic by issuing a new edition of the Intro- works, 
 duction to Aristotle's Logic in 1527, and a new treatise, 
 Quaestiones Logicales, in 1528, and his labours in Philosophy 
 by an edition of the Ethics of Aristotle in 1530, and his labours 
 in Theology by new editions of his Commentaries on the First, 
 Second, and Third Books of the Sentences in 1528-1530. 
 But the chief employment of this portion of his life was an 
 elaborate Commentary and Harmony of the Four Gospels, which 
 he had projected in 1518, when he published his Exposition of His Biblical 
 St. Matthew, and now in 1529 published as a complete work. 
 Each Gospel has a separate dedicatory letter. St. Matthew is 
 dedicated to his chief Scottish patron, James Beaton, Arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews ; St. Mark to his old college friend, 
 John Bouillache, Curate of St. James in Paris; St. Luke to 
 James Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow; and St. John to his 
 
xcii 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 old pupil, Robert Senalis, now Bishop of Vence. The Doubts 
 and Difficulties he had inserted in the earlier edition of the 
 Commentary on St. Matthew were not reprinted, but the 
 complete work had an appendix of four questions : — 
 (1) Whether the Law of Grace is the only true Law ; (2) 
 What are the degrees of Catholic Truth ; [&) On the number 
 of the Evangelists ; (4) On the site of the Promised Land. 
 Dedication to The letter to Beaton explains the object which Major had 
 James Beaton. v j ew j n ^-jj j s WO rk, It was to show the Harmony of the 
 Gospels with each other and of each in itself, and to preserve 
 the tradition of the doctrine of the Roman Church. In carry- 
 ing out this intention he has refuted the errors of Theophylact 
 the Bulgarian Bishop, and of the Wycliffite, Hussite, and 
 Lutheran sects. The errors of others he has noted without 
 naming them, 6 for Christians have been taught not to call a 
 brother Racha. 1 
 
 He has dedicated it to James Beaton, because he owed to 
 him a good part of his studies, alluding doubtless to the offices 
 he had held at Glasgow and St. Andrews, and who became a 
 teacher on this subject, was suitable to Beaton's name, pro- 
 fession, race, education, and conduct (mores). 6 His name 
 "Jacob" means a supplanter, as he had been of heresy, 
 and " Beaton " signifies a noble herb, an antidote to poison, 
 as he had shown himself of the vigorous poison of the 
 Lutherans. His profession and office made it his duty to study 
 and preach the Gospels, and his race, as that of every illus- 
 trious family, to protect the Church. Finally, his conduct in 
 removing, not without the envy of many, a noble but unhappy 
 follower of the Lutheran heresy.'' The work which follows 
 His orthodoxy answers to the design. It is a rigidly orthodox commentary, 
 rTfo^mingsprrit. in which Major allows himself much less freedom than in his 
 
 1 Theophylact, Archbishop of Bulgaria (d. 1 1 12) achieved a lasting reputation 
 by his Commentaries on the Gospels, the Acts the Epistles of St. Paul, and 
 the minor Prophets. — Hardwicke's Church History of the Middle Ages, p. 273. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xciii 
 
 writings on the Books of the Sentences, or in his History, or 
 even in the Doubts which he had inserted in the earlier 
 edition of the Commentary on St. Matthew. If he spares 
 others who have held erroneous views, he never hesitates to 
 condemn in the strongest language the heretics who had denied 
 the doctrine of transubstantiation, — Berengarius, who had been 
 condemned by the Council of Vercellae, Wyclif by that of 
 Constance, and the Germans of his own time who had revived 
 the same heresy, and of whom he did not know whether Oeco- 
 lampadius, Zwingle, or Luther was the worst. Transubstantia- 
 tion, he vehemently reiterates, is the doctrine of Scripture, of 
 the Church, and of the Fathers of the Church. It is also the 
 doctrine 'of our Theological Faculty of Paris 1 . Whoever 
 denies it is a foolish heretic.' He defends the monastic life 
 and the celibacy of the clergy against the Lutherans 2 , but 
 admits that there were monasteries and nunneries which 
 required reform, and again, as in his History, he mentions with 
 approval the case of the English nunnery which, when he was 
 pursuing his studies at Cambridge, he had seen transformed 
 into a college by the Bishop of Ely 3 . So too he strongly con- 
 demns the bestowal of livings on unworthy priests, or even the 
 preference of a less worthy candidate and the pluralities which 
 were so common in the Church in his day. 'Those deceive 
 themselves," he says, ' who think that the approval even of the 
 Supreme Pontiff can reconcile such things to the dictates of 
 Conscience V He insists on the duty of preaching, especially 
 by the prelates of the Church. In a curious passage 5 which 
 seems to have a personal reference, in commenting on the fact 
 that some of Christ's kinsmen did not acknowledge Him, he 
 adds 'just as our relations treat us as mad because we spend 
 
 1 In Joann. caput vi., fol. cclxxxviii. 2 In Matth. fol. lxxii. 
 
 3 John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, was the Reformer of the Nunnery of St. 
 Radegunde, which he converted into Jesus College, Cambridge. — Mullinger, 
 p. 321. 
 
 4 In Matth. fol. lxxx. 5 In Marc. fol. cxvi. 
 
 g 
 
XC1V 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 our whole activity in philosophy and theology. They wish us 
 rather to apply ourselves to the law to gain honour and 
 wealth, and take offence at all knowledge which is not lucra- 
 tive. According to their false estimation we exist for them 
 and not for our own salvation and the glory of God. For 
 they say, What profit does he bring to us ? Let his library, 
 with its books, be burnt. And they think the more sublimely 
 any one philosophises, and thereby magnifies the power of 
 God, that he is so much the greater fool V 
 
 Such have been the recriminations of those who pursue know- 
 ledge for its own sake, and of those who follow it for gain, in 
 all ages ; but probably at no time was the contrast sharper than 
 between the monastic student of the middle ages, who had 
 taken the vow of poverty, and the practical man his relative 
 or neighbour, who devoted his life to the acquisition of 
 wealth. While strenuously maintaining the worship of the 
 Saints against the Lutherans and other heretics, he admits 
 that there was a possibility of abuse which must be corrected 
 by the proper ecclesiastical authorities 2 . The use of Images 
 in Churches he altogether approves, and condemns the revival 
 by Wyclif and Luther of the heresy of the Greek Church in 
 the time of Leo the Iconoclast with regard to them 3 . These 
 examples may suffice to indicate the spirit of the teaching of 
 Major as a biblical Commentator. He stands firm in the 
 old paths of the Roman and Catholic Church, and treats all 
 deviations from its doctrine as pestilent and poisonous heresy. 
 But like the best Romanists of his age, he favours reforms 
 within the Church and by the Church itself. 
 
 The last of Major's published works was a return to his 
 earliest master. The Ethics of Aristotle, with Commentaries 
 by himself, were printed at the press of Badius Ascensius in 
 1530, 4 shortly before his return to Scotland. 
 
 1 In Marc. fol. cxvii. 
 3 In Joann. fol. cccxiii. 
 
 2 In Joann. fol. cccxxii. 
 4 Appendix I., p. 407. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xcv 
 
 More interesting even than the subject of the work is the Dedication of 
 
 _ _ . . . Major's Com- 
 
 Preface which preserves the memory of the relations between mentary on 
 Major and the great minister of Henry vm. As it contains kristotleto* 
 several references to his own life, and is one of the best 0 f Wolsey - 
 his numerous dedications, we give a translation of what were 
 probably his last published words, for the twenty years he still 
 survived were spent in other pursuits than authorship *, 
 
 On the Kalends of June 1530 he wrote to Wolsey the fol- 
 lowing dedicatory letter : — 
 
 1 To the most Reverend Father and Lord in Christ, Lord 
 Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Presbyter of the Holy Roman 
 Church by the title of St. Cecilia, Archbishop of York, 
 Primate of England, and Legate a Latere of the Apostolic 
 See, John Major of Haddington, with all observance, greeting. 
 
 ' I have often and long determined with myself, and conceived 
 in my mind, most bountiful of Prelates, to dedicate to some English 
 prince the first fruits of my poor thoughts, such as they are, and 
 that for good reasons as I think. The first of them, not to be 
 diffuse, is the love of our common country, which is innate in all 
 living creatures ; for we, separated only by a small space, are 
 enclosed together in one Britain, the most celebrated island in all 
 Europe, as in a ship upon a great ocean. My second reason is 
 our community of religion and of studies. My third and, not to 
 multiply words, my last and strongest reason is the desire to avoid 
 ingratitude, the least note of which was deemed even by the 
 Persians the most odious stain. For I have been received and 
 honoured by Englishmen with such frequent hospitality, such 
 humane and genial converse, such friendly intercourse, that I 
 cannot be longer silent without showing a forgetful mind. Forty 2 
 years ago, if I reckon rightly, when I first left my father s house 
 and went through England to Paris, I was received and retained 
 with so great courtesy by the English, that during a whole year I 
 learned the first rudiments of a good education in arts in the very 
 celebrated College of Cambridge, now illustrious by the name of 
 Christ. Afterwards, so far as I was permitted by the never-changing 
 
 1 For the original, see Appendix II., p. 448. 
 
 2 It was really thirty-six or thirty-seven, for Major went to Paris in 1493, after, 
 as this Preface informs us, a year's residence in England. 
 
xcvi 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 sea (per mare perpetuum), I always made my journeys to and from 
 France through England. Besides, what I hold and will always hold 
 in fresh and constant memory so long as there is breath in my body, 
 it is now the fourth year since your Grace, Most Reverend Legate, 
 most bountiful and chief of the ecclesiastical dignitaries of England, 
 entertained with the old hospitality of Christians one of my humble 
 condition when I was again making my journey to France, and 
 invited me to the College of Letters, then recently founded by your 
 magnificent beneficence at Oxford 1 , to do the best I could to 
 enlighten it by my presence and teaching, and made me the offer 
 of most splendid remuneration. But so great a love possessed me 
 for the University of Paris, my mother, and for my fellows in study, 
 besides the desire to complete the books which I had already 
 begun, that I could not accept the post so freely offered and so 
 honourable. Now therefore, that I may not seem altogether for- 
 getful of such great benefits, and that I may produce what during 
 so many years I have laboured with, I inscribe and dedicate to you, 
 who are both so great a Prince in ecclesiastical rank and the 
 Maecenas not only of all theologians but of all men of letters, that 
 most celebrated work on Ethics, written by Aristotle, the Prince of 
 philosophers in the judgment of many, and explained by my own 
 commentaries, of however little value these may be. As in the rest 
 of his writings he has surpassed others, in this work he seems to 
 have surpassed himself, that is the power of human nature. For 
 in almost all his opinions he agrees with the Catholic and truest 
 Christian faith in all its integrity. He constantly asserts the Free 
 Will of man. He declares with gravity that suicide, to avoid the 
 sad things of life, is the mark not of a truly brave but of a timid 
 spirit. He separates honest pleasures which good men may seek 
 after from the foul allurements the Turks propose for themselves. 
 He places the happiness which man may attain to in the exercise 
 of the heroic virtues. And he pursues with admirable judgment 
 the examination of the two kinds of life, I mean the active and the 
 contemplative, which were figured in the Old Testament by the 
 sisters Rachel and Leah, and to us by Martha and Magdalene 2 . 
 
 1 Christ Church was begun by Wolsey in 1525, but never completed on his 
 plan. The Cardinal's College, as it came to be called, was forfeited by Henry 
 VIII., and finished on an inferior scale by the king. — Brewer's Henry vm. 
 
 2 Mary, the sister of Martha, supposed by medieval commentators to be 
 Mary Magdalene. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 For he applies the one to the life of the gods, the other to the 
 life of mortals. 
 
 In fine, in so great and manifold a work, if it be read as we 
 explain it, you meet scarcely a single opinion unworthy of a Chris- 
 tian man. Wherefore, Most Magnificent Father, as you lately 
 received me with such humanity and benevolence, we beg you now 
 to accept this new birth, which, even if it were, as I wish, much 
 better than it is, was long ago your due, and is now at last dedi- 
 cated from my heart to your Eminence.' 
 
 Do the Latin superlatives and high-flown style strike US as Time and tone 
 antiquated and exaggerated ? Let us recognise qualities which honourable to 
 are better than any style, however perfect in taste and propor- Ma j° r - 
 tion — the ardent patriotism, the Academic spirit, the recog- 
 nition of the nobility of the morals of the heathen philosopher, 
 and the warm gratitude for Wolsey's kind offices. Let us 
 remember too that when Wolsey had offered to place Major 
 in the College which he was endowing with more than royal 
 munificence, he was at the summit of his power ; but when this 
 dedication was written he had fallen so low that in England 
 there was scarcely- any one * so poor to do him reverence.'' 
 In October of the previous year he had been prosecuted under 
 the Statute of Provisors for accepting the Legatine office, 
 which entailed the penalties of Praemunire and placed all he 
 possessed at the king's mercy. On the 17th of that month he 
 had been compelled to surrender the Great Seal ; an inventory 
 of all his goods had been taken, and two days later he had 
 confessed the charge and submitted himself to the king's 
 pleasure. Though pardoned in February 1530, and restored 
 to the Archbishopric, he had been finally deprived of his other 
 great benefices, Winchester and St. Albans. He had retired 
 to his diocese in failing health and fallen spirits, and at the 
 time when Major was writing this dedication he was travelling 
 by slow stages from Grantham to Newark, and from Newark 
 to Southwell, where he spent Whitsuntide. 1 
 
 1 Brewer's Reign of Henry VIII., ii. 413. 
 
xcviii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 He lived till 29th November 1530, and wrote many piteous 
 and unavailing letters to the king to be restored to some 
 portion of the property of which he had been stripped, and, 
 above all, that the Colleges of Ipswich and Christ Church 
 might be spared. They were the darling objects of his bene- 
 ficence, and intended to perpetuate his name. 'By Wolsey 
 himself," writes Mr. Brewer, 4 the loss of power, the forfeiture of 
 his estate, and even his exile to York were regarded with indif- 
 ference compared with the ruin of his colleges. For recovery 
 of the former he made little or no effort. For the preservation 
 of his colleges he bestirred himself with ceaseless and untiring 
 energy, employing all the little influence he possessed, or 
 believed he possessed, with men in power to rescue them from 
 the hands of the spoiler." 
 
 It may also be noted to the credit both of Wolsey and 
 Major that Wolsey was a pronounced Thomist, and had even 
 acquired the epithet of Thomisticus. Yet this had not hin- 
 dered the Cardinal from offering the post of teacher in his 
 college to one who like Major inclined to the position of the 
 Scotist philosophy, and did not prevent Major, while insisting 
 on the Freedom of the Will, the key-note of Duns Scotus" 
 separation from the doctrine of Aquinas, from expressing his 
 gratitude and dedicating his work to Wolsey. 
 
 To both the great Minister and the great Schoolman the 
 Renaissance had imparted some of its reconciling influences. 
 When we consider Major's work as a whole we are sensible 
 that he was more in place in the Sorbonne than he would 
 have been at Christ Church, in a college which retained 
 the old subjects and methods of teaching rather than in one 
 which aimed at adopting the new learning. Still his con- 
 nection with the college ennobled by the name of Christ 
 at Cambridge, when a student, and his narrow escape from 
 becoming a Professor in the college which received the same 
 name at Oxford, and favoured a reform in education, was 
 something more than an accident in his life. It shows how 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 xcix 
 
 near he stood, and was deemed by some of his contemporaries 
 to stand, to the parting of the ways between the Mediaeval and 
 the Modern plans of University education. But when he was 
 summoned to his own country as a director of public instruction, 
 it was the Mediaeval Scholasticism and not the Modern Human- 
 ism that he followed both at Glasgow and St. Andrews. He was 
 a Modern only in Logic, and in the restricted and technical sense 
 in which that word was used to denote the school which made 
 the doctrine of ' Terms 1 the cardinal part of Logic. He was a 
 keen reformer of ecclesiastical abuses, but was not prepared for 
 reform either in dogmatic theology 1 or educational methods. 
 
 The Bibliography of Major's works compiled by the learned Bibliography of 
 zeal of Mr. T. Graves Law, Librarian of the Library of the illustrates his 
 Writers to the Signet, and the kind aid of the keepers of the Bl0gra P hy * 
 principal Libraries where his works are still to be found, is a 
 valuable key to the biography of Major, and an interesting 
 chapter in the history of the early French press. For it 
 was in France that all his works were printed. The art of 
 printing, like the other fine arts which were the offspring 
 of the Revival of Letters, was a late comer to Northern 
 Britain. Chepman and Millars press, in the Southgait of 
 Edinburgh, issued its first sheets, the primitiae of Scottish 
 printing, in 1508, and its last, so far as known, in June 1510. 
 A single sheet of eight small leaves which contains the Com- 
 passio beatae Mariae is the solitary record of the names of John 
 Story the printer and Carolus Stute the publisher. A copy of 
 The Biike of the Hozvlat, discovered by Mr. David Laing, in 
 the binding of some early Protocol Books, completes the brief 
 sum of Scottish printing between 1510 and 1520, one of the 
 most active periods of the early press of France and Germany. 
 The first work of Thomas Davidson, the next Scottish printer, 
 did not appear till 1542, when Major had for twelve years 
 
 1 This is strikingly shown by his dedication in 1530 of a new edition of his 
 Commentary on the First Book of the Sentences to John Mayr (or Major), the 
 Suabian called Eck, from his birthplace, the most celebrated champion of the 
 Church against Luther. Appendix II., p. 449. 
 
c 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 ceased publishing. Necessity as well as choice, due to his long 
 residence in France, made him select Lyons and Paris as the 
 birthplace of his literary children. There was no press in his 
 native country which could have issued his voluminous works, 
 and few buyers had there been such a press. How different 
 was the case in France, whose famous printers vied with each 
 other in producing them, and the demand was sufficient to 
 produce editions of the same work by different publishers, and 
 frequent revised editions of some by Major himself. A rapid 
 survey of these will illustrate at once the activity of the French 
 press and the popularity of Major. Major seems to have com- 
 menced by printing at Paris in 1503 his first Logical Lectures 
 on E.rponib'dia^ at the press of John Lambert, and two years 
 later he issued his Commentaries on the logical Summulae of 
 Peter the Spaniard from the press of Francis Fradin in Lyons. 
 In 1508 John De Vingle, another Lyons printer, father of the 
 more famous Peter, the Calvinist printer of Geneva, published 
 his whole lectures on Logic as a Regent in Arts, which were 
 sold in the same town by Stephen Queygnard, and of which 
 there was a new edition in 1516. He had also in 1505 issued, 
 along with Magister Ortiz, in Paris, the Medulla Dialectices of 
 Jerome Pardus. In 1508 his Commentary on the Fourth Book 
 of the Sentences was printed by Philip Pigouchet, and sold by 
 Ponset le Preux, and it was republished by Badius Ascensius 
 in 1516 ; and in 1516 his lectures in Arts were reprinted in 
 Paris by John Grandjon, and sold by Dyonysius Roce. 
 
 Why several of these earlier works were published at Lyons 
 has not been clearly ascertained. It may be conjectured that 
 as Lyons was as early as Paris 1 a centre of printing 2 , and 
 already possessed forty printers in the fifteenth century, 
 although Paris had more than double that number, some 
 chance introduction may have led Major to resort to them. 
 
 1 Monteil : Histoire des Francais, iii. p. 305. 
 
 2 Brunet, Supplement par un Bibliophile, s.v. LYONS, notes that it was then 
 the chief market for books, as Frankfort afterwards, and now Leipzig. 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 ci 
 
 The Lyons printers and publishers employed by Major were His numerous 
 Francis Fradin (1505), Stephen Queygnard (1508), John De publishers'^ 
 Vingle (1508), Martin Boillon (1516). An edition of the 
 SummuJac of Peter the Spaniard was published in Venice by 
 Lazarus de Soardis in 1506, and another at Caen in 1520. 
 With these exceptions, and after 1516, Paris became his sole 
 place of publication, and his principal publishers were John 
 Grandjon and Badius Ascensius. But besides these we find 
 frequently the following Parisian printers and publishers : 
 John Parvus (Petit), who appears to have beeu a partner of 
 Badius : Constantine Lepus, James le Messier, J. Borlier, John 
 Lambert, Dyonysius Roce, William Anabat, Giles Gourmont, 
 the partner of Petit after the death of Badius, Durand Gerlier, 
 and Johannes Frillon. 
 
 Several of the last-named printers, with the exception of 
 Petit and Gourmont, were probably pirates, who then as now 
 preyed upon the works of celebrated and fashionable authors, 
 and may be left in the obscurity they merit. Grandjon and 
 Badius deserve a brief record. Of Grandjon little is known John Grandjon. 
 except that he was one of the most voluminous publishers or 
 bibliopoles of the University of Paris, and that his shop was in 
 the world-famed Clos Bruneau, with whose name the Parisian 
 students startled the ears of the watch by their cry, 6 Allez au 
 Clos Bruneau, vous trouverez a qui parler 1 . His sign, which 
 hung over his shop, and was engraved as a device on his books, 
 was a group of great rushes (magni junci) in a marsh, a pun on 
 his name of Grand or Grant Jon. 
 
 Jodocus Badius was a still more celebrated printer, and jodocus 
 deserves recognition by Scottish historical students, for to 
 his press we owe the two first printed histories of Scotland, 
 that of Hector Boece, as well as that of John Major. Born 
 at Asc, near Brussels (whence his name Ascensius), about 
 1462, after finishing his education at Ghent and Brussels, and 
 visiting Italy, he settled in Lyons as a lecturer on Latin, but 
 derived probably a larger income as corrector of the press for 
 
cii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Jean Treschel, one of the earliest Lyons printers. Marrying 
 the daughter of Treschel, he migrated to Paris about 1498, 
 and there began to print on his own account. His press, of 
 which a facsimile is given on the title-page of his books, 
 was established in the Aedes Ascensianae, and, till his death 
 about 1536, was the most prolific in Paris. No less than 400 
 volumes, the greater part folios and quartos, issued from it. 
 They included the most important Latin classics, on several 
 of which he wrote a Commentary, a translation by his own 
 hand of Sebastian Brand's Ship of Fools, and many historical, 
 philosophical, and theological works. He was employed not 
 only by French but also by English and Scottish authors, who 
 were doubtless attracted to a printer who was also a scholar. 
 He began to print for Major in 1516, and continued to do so 
 down to 1530. His eldest daughter, the wife of Robert 
 Stephen or Etienne, became the ancestress of a famous race 
 of printers. The second was the wife of Jean Roygny, who 
 carried on his father-in-law's press, and the youngest of 
 Michael Vascosanus, also a well-known Parisian printer. His 
 son Conrad became a Protestant, and retired with his brother- 
 in-law Robert Stephen to Geneva. If the epigram of his 
 grandson Henry Stephen could be trusted, Badius must have 
 had several other children, though his books were his most 
 numerous progeny. A sentence which he inscribed on several 
 of his volumes may be commended to publishers : — 6 Aere 
 Meret Badius Laudem Auctorum Arte Legentium,"' which may 
 be freely translated : — 
 
 ' His authors praised his grateful heart. 
 His readers praised his graceful art.' 
 
 In one of Major's volumes Badius celebrates the author in 
 Latin verse 1 , and Major frequently records his gratitude for 
 
 1 Iodocus Badius Lectori. 
 Quartum Maioris, Lector studiose, suprema 
 
 lam tersum lima, perlege, disce, cole. 
 Quern si cum reliquis trutina perpenderis eque : 
 
 Pridem alijs maior, se modo maior ei it. [From the In Quartum, ed. 1521.] 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 ciii 
 
 the care of the press of Badius. One of these passages will 
 appeal to the feelings both of the reader and the writer for 
 the press. ' I had no human aid he writes, 4 except that of the 
 printer, who has laboured with the greatest vigilance that com- 
 mas, periods, and other stops should not be left out, although 
 the copy was written by various hands ; for my amanuensis 
 was sometimes prevented by the lectures which he had to attend, 
 and my own handwriting was difficult for others to read 1 . 1 
 
 Another point of contact between Major and the early uiric Gering, 
 Parisian press deserves mention. Uldericus Guerinck or Ulric p^ter! a tene- 11 
 Gering, the French Caxton, or first Parisian printer, was factor of Mont- 
 closely associated with the College of Montaigu. During his 
 life he was a constant benefactor of its poor students, and by 
 his will he left it the half of his goods and the third of the 
 debts due to him. With the proceeds of this legacy the 
 College bought the farm of Daunet, near the Marne, and 
 the Hotel de Vezelay, which was situated between Montaigu 
 and the College of St. Michel. On the latter site were built 
 rooms for the classes of Grammar and Arts soon after 1510, 
 the year when Gering died, and in the Chapel of the College a 
 portrait of its benefactor was hung with an inscription describ- 
 ing him as ' Proto-Typographus Parisius 1469', and recording 
 his benefaction. In these class-rooms Major may have lectured, 
 and in that chapel he must have frequently worshipped 2 . 
 
 In 1531 Maior returned from Paris to St. Andrews, and Major at 
 
 J St. Andrews. 
 
 resumed his lectures on Theology. Three years after, the death Provost of 
 
 . m o c St Salvator. 
 
 of Hugh Spens 3 caused a vacancy in the office of Provost or 
 
 St. Salvator, and Major was appointed. The first entry of his 
 
 name in that office after his return is on 4th November 1535, 
 
 when he was again elected an Assessor of the Dean of Faculty 
 
 of Arts. He was annually re-elected, at least till 1538. He was 
 
 1 Exordium Libri Quarti Sententiarum. Appendix II., p. 439. 
 
 2 Annals of Parisian Typography, by Rev. W. Parr Gresswell, 181 5, the 
 frontispiece of which is the portrait of Gering. 
 
 3 His tomb bears the inscription, ' Obiit anno domini 1534, et 21 die Julii.' 
 
civ 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 also one of the Rector's Assessors from 1532 to 1544, with 
 which was generally joined the office of Rector's Deputy: the 
 Assessor was one of the Council of the Rector, and the Deputy 
 his representative when absent. In 1539 he founded, along 
 with William Manderston, a chaplaincy or bursary in St. 
 Salvator's, and endowed it with the rents of certain houses in 
 South Street, St. Andrews. The holder was to celebrate 
 masses for the souls of the founders and their relations, and 
 of James v., Mary of Guise, and Cardinal Beaton. In 1545 
 Peter, the Chaplain of St. Salvator, is mentioned as his 
 coadjutor, and Major ceased, from the increasing infirmity of 
 age, to hold any of the annual offices of the University, but 
 retained the Provostship till his deatli in 1549 or 1550, when 
 he was succeeded by William Cranstoun. 
 
 Buchanan spoke of him as already in extreme old age in 
 1524. This appears to us somewhat of an exaggeration, as he 
 was only fifty-four. Perhaps, as has been suggested, the ordi- 
 nary limits of human life were counted shorter in that age than 
 in ours. The date of his birth, now precisely ascertained, 
 proves that before his death he exceeded by ten years the 
 term of life allotted by the Psalmist. 
 
 Another reason may be suggested for the censorious tone 
 of all Buchanan's notices of Major. If we could implicitly 
 James Laing's credit the gossiping and malicious Doctor of the Sorbonne, 
 an^Buchan'an J ames Laing, Major had actually taken part in the con- 
 demnation of Buchanan for heresy in 1539, because he 
 recommended James v., as it was absurdly put, to eat the 
 Paschal Lamb in Lent, or, as the fact may have been, to 
 break the fast which the Roman Church enforced during 
 that season. 6 The king ', says Laing, 6 summoned the Doctors 
 of Theology at St. Andrews, amongst whom was John Major, 
 a man of the greatest piety and learning in Philosophy as 
 well as Theology . . . and when the question was proposed to 
 him he answered : " He who says, Most Christian king, that 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 cv 
 
 you ought to eat the Paschal Lamb wishes you to become a 
 Jew, and to live according to the customs of the Jews, who 
 deny that Christ has yet come or was born of the Virgin. For 
 the Paschal Lamb is an institution of the ceremonial law, and 
 every ceremonial law is dead once Christ has suffered, as the 
 apostle clearly says in the fifth chapter of the Galatians." ' 1 
 
 Though this story bears the marks of being largely apo- 
 cryphal, Cardinal Beaton appears certainly to have been the 
 instigator of Buchanan's imprisonment, from which he escaped, 
 as he tells us in his own Life, while the guards were asleep 2 . 
 When he was again arrested in Portugal, one of the charges 
 against him was that he had eaten flesh in Lent 3 , and there 
 is nothing improbable in this having formed part of the 
 earlier accusation in Scotland, or that Major may have been 
 consulted by James v. on the point. If so, Buchanan's dislike 
 of Major had another ground besides his contempt for the 
 logical and sophistical teaching of the Professor. 
 
 That the closing years of Major's life were those of enfeebled 
 age is shown by the appointment of a coadjutor, and by the 
 fact that he was excused from attending the Provincial Council 
 of Edinburgh in July 1549, in whose records he is described 
 as Dean of the Faculty of Theology of St. Andrews, on the 
 ground that he was 4 annosus, grandaevus, debilis \ 4 Although 
 Buchanan exaggerated, Major's productive life ended with his 
 second residence in Paris. No later work proceeded from his 
 ready pen, and we have scanty notices of what he did in St. 
 Andrews as head of St. Salvator. Perhaps the absence of a 
 press in Scotland capable of producing such works as his, and 
 the occupations of the principal of a College, precluded him 
 from further literary labours. But there were other and deeper 
 causes. The state of Scotland was not favourable to the calm 
 
 1 Jacobus Langaeus De Vita, Moribtis atque Gestis Haereticomm nostri tern 
 poris. Paris, 1 581. 2 G. Buchanani Vita Sua.^ 3 Ibid. 
 
 4 Joseph Robertson : Ecclesiae Scoticanae Concilia, p. 82. 
 
cvi 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 production or revision of philosophical or theological com- 
 mentaries. The time for contemplation had passed, the time 
 for action had come. Major was not a man of action. To 
 one who had finally chosen to abide by the old church and 
 yet had fostered some liberal ideas, which he hoped the 
 Church would itself realise, the progress of the Reformation 
 and the means adopted to stifle it must have produced thoughts 
 best buried in silence. It was too late to change his opinions. 
 However liberal in other matters, the Holv Roman Church was 
 still to the venerable Doctor of the Sorbonne the exponent of 
 sound faith in religion. It is seldom that a man of serious 
 thought alters his views after middle age. Had he been 
 twenty vears younger it might have been different. 
 Knox and Two glimpses of Major in his old age are given in the 
 History of the Reformation by John Knox, which show that 
 although he adhered to the old church he was willing to hear 
 its abuses condemned in the strongest language. In 1534 a 
 Friar William Airth preached at Dundee against the abuses 
 of cursing and of miracles, and the licentious lives of the 
 bishops. John Hepburn, Bishop of Brechin, having called him 
 a heretic for uttering such opinions, ' the Friar, impatient 
 of the injury received, passed to St. Andrews and did com- 
 municate the heads of his sermon with Master John Mair, 
 whose word then was holden as an oracle in matters of reli- 
 gion, and being assured of him that such doctrine might well 
 be defended, and that he would defend it, for it contained no 
 heresy, there was a day appointed for the said Friar to make 
 repetition of the sermon \ Airth accordingly re-delivered it in 
 the parish church, and amongst his hearers were Major and 
 the other heads of the University. The sermon was on the 
 text, ' Truth is the strongest of all things \ Knox gives its 
 substance, which was certainly bold enough, but as it touched 
 chiefly morals and not doctrine it might escape the charge of 
 heresy. 6 One matter"', says Knox, 1 was judged harder, for he 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 cvii 
 
 alleged the common law, "That the Civil Magistrate might 
 correct Churchmen and deprive them of their benefices for 
 open vices". 1 
 
 It shows the critical moment the Reformation had reached Major at 
 in Britain that the same Friar, according to Knox, having pubifcSer- 
 escaped to England, was cast into prison by Henry vm. for mons " 
 defence of the Pope. But Henry, as Buchanan tells us, was 
 then intent on his own ends rather than purity of religion, 
 4 burning men of opposite opinions at the same stake \ 
 
 Major was again present at a still more memorable occasion 
 thirteen years later, in 1547, when Knox first preached in 
 public at the earnest request of John Rough, Minister of 
 St. Andrews, Sir David Lindsay, the poet, and Balnaves, a 
 lawyer, one of the first Judges of the Court of Session. His 
 text was from the seventh chapter of Daniel, 'And another 
 King shall rise after them, and he shall be unlike unto the 
 first, and he shall subdue three kings, and shall speak great 
 words against the Most High, and shall consume the saints of 
 the Most High, and think that he may change times and laws, 
 and they shall be given into his hands until a time and times 
 and dividing of times \ 
 
 After explaining the prophecy of the fall of the four 
 empires — the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman, he 
 declared that on its destruction rose up that last beast, which 
 he declared to be the Roman Church ; but before he began to 
 open its corruptions he defined the true kirk as that which 
 heard the voice of its own Pastor Christ, and would not listen 
 to strangers. Then, grappling more closely than any preacher 
 had yet done with the corruptions of Rome, 'he deciphered 
 the lives of the Popes and of all shavelings for the most part, 
 and proved their doctrine and laws to be contrary to those of 
 God the Father and of Christ \ The reigning Pontiff, we should 
 remember, was Alexander vi., 'that monster \ to quote the just 
 condemnation of Villari, whose enormities made even the 
 
cviii 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 vices of Sixtus rv. to be forgotten. Knox's crucial instance of 
 false doctrine was the same as Luther's — 'Justification by 
 works, pilgrimages, pardons, and other sic baggage, instead 
 of by faith through the blood of Christ which purgeth from 
 all sin.' Treating of the ecclesiastical law he condemned the 
 observance of days and abstinence from meats and marriage, 
 both of which Christ made free. He reached his climax by 
 quoting the claims alleged on behalf of the Pope, as 4 That he 
 cannot err, can make wrong of right and right of wrong, and 
 can of nothing make somewhat'. Finally, he said, turning 
 from the congregation to the seats of honour, 4 If any here 
 (and there were present Master John Mair, the Provost of the 
 University, the Sub-prior, and many Canons with some Priors 
 of both orders), will say that I have alleged Scripture doctrine 
 or history otherwise than it is written, let them come to me 
 with sufficient witness, and I, by conference, shall let them see 
 not only the original where my testimonies are written, but 
 prove that the writers meant as I have spoken.' Even this 
 daring language would apparently have passed unchallenged 
 had not Hamilton, the Archbishop-elect, written to Winram, 
 the Sub-prior, rebuking him for suffering it. A conference was 
 accordingly held, in which "Winram disputed with Knox, but 
 left the brunt of the argument to a Friar Arbuckle, for 
 Winram himself already inclined to the reformed doctrines, 
 which he ultimately adopted. 
 Major and To understand the position of Major, the representative of 
 
 the Scottish , r - • i 
 
 Reformation, a former generation brought face to face with the ideas and 
 events of the new era, when, in Scotland at least, Reform came 
 so quickly as almost to outstrip the Revival of Learning, we 
 must recal briefly the course of Scottish affairs from his return 
 to St. Andrews till his death. 
 
 St. Andrews was then, more than at any other time, a 
 political and religious centre ; and, though himself inactive, 
 Major came constantly in contact with the chief actors 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 cix 
 
 in the tragedies of which Scotland, not yet finally com- 
 mitted to the Roman or the Reformed Church, became the 
 scene. 
 
 The young king, James v., whose tutor and playfellow had James v. 
 been David Lyndsay of the Mount, whose father had chosen 
 Erasmus as preceptor for his bastard half-brother, the Arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, whose confessor, Seton, had imbibed 
 some Reformed doctrines, whose uncle, Henry vin., had plied 
 him with flattery and promises, wavered, like Francis i., between 
 Rome and the Reformation. He gave signs that he might 
 accept the latter. He set on foot a reform of the Cistercians, 
 the richest and most corrupt of the older orders of Monks. He 
 employed Buchanan to describe the hypocrisy which made 
 even more odious the Franciscans, whose poverty and asceticism 
 had sometimes become the cloak of a still more dangerous 
 licence, threatening the family, and not merely the cloister, 
 with corruption. He had at last succeeded in obtaining a 
 portion of the exorbitant revenues of the Bishops for the 
 foundation of a College of Justice, one of the most urgently 
 needed reforms ; for the Baronial and Ecclesiastical Courts 
 rivalled each other in the delay, the cost, and often the denial 
 of justice. 
 
 But other influences operating on the unstable mind of 
 James prevailed. In 1534 Henry vm,'s divorce received the 
 sanction of Parliament. Whoever, knowing the facts, judged 
 it by any but a purely English standard must have begun to 
 doubt whether good morals and justice were always on the 
 side of the Reformers. One of its consequences was to put an 
 end to the project of James's marriage to Mary Tudor, now 
 disinherited. In 1535 he refused to meet his uncle on the 
 English side of the Border, and in March of the following 
 year a treaty of marriage was made between him and Mary de 
 Bourbon, daughter of the Duke of Vendome. In winter he 
 went to France, and, displeased with his proposed bride, pre- 
 
 h 
 
cx 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 ferred the delicate beauty of Madeleine, the daughter of Francis i. 
 The Scotch King was received by the French Court with the 
 honours usually paid only to the Dauphin, and the citizens 
 of Paris thronged to see him, and receive his largesse as he 
 passed through the streets of their beautiful capital. Madeleine 
 having died in midsummer 1537, an embassy, with David 
 Beaton, Bishop of Mirepoix, at its head, soon negotiated 
 another French alliance. The choice fell on Mary, daughter 
 of the Duke of Guise, widow of the Duke of Longueville. This 
 marriage, celebrated at St. Andrews in June 1538, finally de- 
 cided the King in favour of the Roman Church. The family 
 of Guise was devoted to it. The uncle and brother of the 
 new Queen were Cardinals, and David Beaton secured the 
 Cardinal same coveted dignity by promoting the match as Wolsey had 
 Beaton. done ]jy a similar service. Roman ecclesiastics of the worldly 
 type have always been promoters of politic marriages in the 
 interests of the Church. In 1539, soon after christening the 
 young prince, the first short-lived fruit of the marriage, in his 
 cathedral, James Beaton died. He had not been a favourite 
 with the King, who had even written to the Pope, complaining 
 of the aggrandizement of this obscure family, but he succeeded 
 in transferring or leaving his wide benefices to his kinsmen. 
 His nephew, David, already Abbot of Arbroath, became Arch- 
 bishop ; Dury, a cousin, Abbot of Dunfermline ; and Hamilton, 
 another of his kin, Abbot of Kilwinning. David Beaton now 
 acquired complete ascendancy in the councils of the King. 
 He persuaded the clergy to the politic step of making James a 
 larger grant out of their revenues. As Archbishop he con- 
 vened an assembly of nobles, prelates, and doctors of theology, 
 of whom Major was one, at St. Andrews, and pronounced an 
 oration against the danger to the Church from heretics who 
 professed their opinions openly even in the Court, where they 
 had found (he said) too great countenance. Sir George Borth- 
 wick, captain of Linlithgow, was condemned in absence for 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 cxi 
 
 denying the authority of the Pope and accepting the heresies of 
 England, and his image was burnt in the Market Place of St. 
 Andrews \ Henry vm. made a last attempt to have a personal 
 interview with his nephew, but Beaton's influence prevented it. 
 A war ensued, in which the defeat of the Scotch under Oliver 
 Sinclair at Sol way Moss proved fatal to James, who sank under 
 the blow, and died at Falkland on 14th December 1542, seven 
 days after the birth of Mary Stuart. In spite of a will pro- 
 duced, it was alleged forged by Beaton, appointing him 
 Regent, the Estates chose Arran as next heir to the Crown. 
 Beaton was for a short time put in ward, but made terms with 
 Arran, and became Chancellor in 1543. The failure of Henry's 
 negotiations for the marriage of the infant Queen to his son 
 Edward was followed by Hertford's ruthless raid, which revived 
 the old hatred of the English throughout Scotland. On 1st 
 March 1546 George Wishart was burnt before the gate of the 
 Archbishop's castle at St. Andrews. Four other victims of 
 humble birth had shortly before been executed at Perth. In Murder of the 
 less than three months, on 28th May, the Cardinal was Caulina1, 
 murdered in his own castle by Norman Lesley and a small 
 band of young men of good family from Fife, some of whom 
 had private wrongs to revenge, but chiefly in retaliation for 
 Wishart's death. Shutting themselves up in the castle, where 
 they received supplies from England, and were joined by per- 
 sons of like mind, amongst whom was John Knox, they were 
 closely besieged by the Regent's forces, and compelled to agree 
 to terms by which, on receipt of absolution from Rome, they 
 were to surrender the castle. In the meantime the siege was 
 raised, and the son of Arran given them as a hostage. It was 
 during this critical interval that Knox preached the daring- 
 sermon at which Major was present. In the summer of 1547 the 
 absolution arrived, but its terms were equivocal, and the besieged 
 refused to accept it. In June, Strozzi, the French Admiral, 
 
 1 May 1540. 
 
CX11 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 arriving with a fleet, the siege was renewed. 6 Cannons were 
 planted, some on the steeple of the Parish Church, some on 
 the tower of St. Salvador's, and some in the street that leads 
 to the castle. 1 On 29th July a breach in the south wall 
 forced a capitulation. The besieged saved their lives, but 
 were sent to France as prisoners in the French galleys. The 
 death of Henry viii. had prevented the coming of an English 
 fleet for their relief. Another raid by Hertford, now the Pro- 
 tector Somerset, followed, and the loss by the Scots of the 
 battle of Pinkie led to the infant Queen being sent to France 
 for safety. Supported by French troops the Scotch were able 
 to make head against the English, and recover the castles 
 which had been lost, and Scotland was made a party to the 
 French peace with England in April 1550. It was probably 
 Major 1550. shortly before its conclusion that Major died. 
 
 Who can wonder that amid such scenes an old man who had 
 survived his generation held his peace. The names kindled by 
 the Inquisition were being revenged by the dagger of the 
 assassin. Almost the last news he heard was that the Lam]) 
 of the Lothians, the fine Church of Haddington, at whose 
 altars he had worshipped, had been burnt ; almost the last 
 sight he saw was the flash of cannons on the Castle from the 
 tower of St. Salvator. On the one side stood the Church in 
 which he had been born and bred, the Queen Dowager, his 
 patrons the bishops, and most of his older friends both in 
 France and Scotland ; on the other, his ablest pupils and an 
 increasing number of the Scottish people, both gentry and 
 burghers. For the one cause fought the French Monarch and 
 Court, whose brilliant corruption he must well have known ; 
 for the other, the English king was defying the laws of his 
 own realm to carry out his will, while his generals were harry- 
 ing, burning, bombarding the Scottish towns in a manner 
 which recalled the havoc of the wars of Edward 1. 
 
 The Council of Trent just assembled evinced a desire to 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 cxiii 
 
 reform the Church from within, and several Scottish bishops, 
 notably Hamilton, the Prelate who succeeded Beaton, were 
 readv to minimise the Roman doctrine and to remedy the most 
 flagrant abuses. To one who could brook a question upon the 
 matter, — who did not see, as the Reformers did, in the Pope 
 Antichrist, in Rome Babylon, in its doctrine idolatry, in its 
 casuistry a root of moral corruption, — still more to one whose 
 inveterate habit it was to argue everything from both sides, 
 there might well seem room for hesitation, for delay, for 
 choosing the older as the safer path. Behind the external 
 tumult, to one who was a theologian and philosopher, living 
 in the world of thought more than of action, there were 
 arrayed on the side of Rome, once its premisses were accepted, 
 the forces of Logic and Casuistry, for which he had the affec- 
 tion the adept feels for the weapons of his own craft. 
 
 There was also the terror of the stake ; for, after all, most Character 
 men are human. Martyrs are amongst the smallest of minori- ° f Major ' 
 ties in the human race. During the preceding centuries 
 persecution had all but extinguished the doctrines of Wycliffe 
 and of Huss. Even after the revival of learning had borne 
 its natural fruit in the decay of superstition, it arrested the 
 Reformation in Italy and Spain and the greater part of France. 
 
 The life whose course from such materials as exist we have 
 followed was not that of a hero or a martyr. But if the 
 character and conduct of Major have been rightly interpreted 
 they have value of their own not to be overlooked. They 
 bring vividly before us the Scottish man of learning as he was 
 in this perilous age, when new ideas and a new faith were 
 clashing with the old not merely in the field of argument but 
 by fire and sword. 
 
 Major the lifelong student, and devoted professor, who pre- 
 ferred, as he himself says, 6 to teach rather than to preach 1 ; 
 fond of his books; fond of music as the relaxation, and of Major and 
 argument as the business, of his life, but fond also of his pupils pared> 
 
cxiv 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Character o 
 
 Major's 
 
 History. 
 
 and his country, did what lay within his capacity to improve 
 his pupils and inform his countrymen. But it was beyond 
 his power to reform his age by the potent words, and un- 
 flinching courage, which in spite of grave triors make most 
 of his countrymen reverence, and impartial judges of other 
 nations respect, the name of John Knox. The deeper, stronger 
 work of the Reformer lias, as it deserved, lasted longer than 
 the work of his master the Schoolman. Even when that part 
 of it which is dogmatic has been superseded, that part of it 
 which is moral will continue, for it rests near the foundations of 
 social and religious life, while that part of it which is national 
 will always remain an integral and crucial chapter in Scottish 
 History. The philosophy and the theology of Major served 
 for his generation only, quickened the thoughts of some of 
 his students by attraction, and of others by repulsion, and 
 then quietly sank into oblivion. Only a stray passage here 
 and there has been brought to light in modern times by the 
 diligent investigator of the progress of European thought or 
 as an aid to the understanding of his character. 
 
 6 Habent sua fata libelli. 1 The short history which he 
 probably valued least of all his works lias had a longer life. 
 It was reprinted in the last century by Freebairn, and has 
 always been favourably known to students of Scottish History. 
 In the hope that it may reach a still wider circle, the History 
 is now for the first time translated by Mr. Constable, a task 
 rendered difficult from its terse and occasionally abrupt style, 
 but accomplished through familiarity with Major's thoughts, 
 acquired by a prolonged and patient study of his writings and 
 character. An estimate of its chief characteristics has already 
 been given in this sketch of the life of the author. It is not 
 a history to read for new information. History is a progres- 
 sive branch of knowledge. Much more is known now than 
 Major knew of our ancient annals. But his work will always 
 be interesting as the first History of Scotland written in a 
 
LIFE OF THE AUTHOR 
 
 cxv 
 
 critical and judicial spirit, and as presenting the view of that 
 historv in its past course and future tendency taken by a 
 scholar of the sixteenth century, who, though he halted in the 
 old theology, was so far as history is concerned singularly far- 
 sighted and fair. Such qualities are not even yet so common 
 amongst historians that we can afford to neglect an early 
 example of their exercise. M. M. 
 
APPENDIX TO THE LIFE. 
 
 I._ NOTICES OF JOHN MAJOR IN FRENCH AND 
 SCOTTISH RECORDS. 
 
 Note. — I am indebted to Monsieur Chatelain of the Sorbonne for an exact 
 copy of the references to Major in the ' Liber Receptoris Nationis Alamanie,' 
 which has been preserved for the years 1494 to 1501. Mr. J. Maitland Ander- 
 son, the Librarian of the University of St. Andrews, has done a similar service 
 by making a careful excerpt of all entries relating to Major in the Records 
 of that University. The references to the offices he held in the University of 
 Glasgow have been taken from the printed volume of its Munimenta. 
 
 /E. M. 
 
 (1.) University of Puns. 
 
 Archives de V University de Paris. Liegistre 85. 
 ' Liber Receptoris Nationis Alamanie.' 
 
 (Anno 1494). — Sequuntur nomina licentiatorum huius anni. 
 
 Johannes Maior dyoc. sanct. Andree, bursa valet 4 sol. 1 lib. 
 
 (Anno 1495). — Inter nomina incipientium huius anni : 
 
 Dns Johannes Mair dioc. see Andree cujus bursa valet 4 or sol. i. lib. 
 pro jocundo adventu et cappa rectoris. . . . ii. lib. 
 
 (At the end of the year 1498, following upon the accounts of the 
 Receiver, i.e. ' Robertus Valterson, dioc. S. Andree,' may be 
 seen the signature of the procureur, who thus vouched for the 
 Receiver's statement of accounts :— ) 
 
 Ita est, 
 Johannes H. Maior. 
 
 Anno dominice incarnationis 1501 coadunata fuit Germanorum natio 
 apud edem divi Mathurini ad decern klas octobres super novi 
 receptoris electione, ubi pacatissime ut putatur, deo inspirante, 
 delectus fuit m agister Johannes Mair gleguocensis diocesis sanct. 
 Andre. Qui et receptas et impensas ea serie qua sequitur ut cum- 
 que executus est. 
 
 The Receiver who succeeded Major, ' Mag. Christianus Hermanni/ 
 was elected in 1502 f in vigilia Sanct. Mathei.' 
 
 A° 1506. Lie. (in theol.) Johannes Major, Scotus, de collegio Montano. 
 Ordo Lie. 55 (Bibl. Nat. 31s. No. 15440). 
 
 [v. Budinsky : Die Universitat Paris, 187G, p. 91.] 
 
APPENDIX TO THE LIFE 
 
 CXVll 
 
 (2.) University of Glasgow. 
 
 Copy of a letter of Exemption from Taxation granted by James v. 
 to the University of Glasgow, confirming prior exemption. 20 May 
 1522. 
 
 This letter is said to have been obtained at their own expense ' per 
 
 venerabilem virum Magistrum Jacobum Steward prepositum ecclesie 
 
 collegiate de Dunbertane ac Rectorem Johannem Majorem theologie Munimenta 
 
 professorem thesaurarium capelle regie Striuilingensis vicariumque de Alrne Universi- 
 t • • i ^ ■, .. ™ • > tatls Glasguen- 
 
 Dunlop ac pnncipalem regentem Pedagogy Glasguensis. s i S) L p . 47> 
 
 General Congregation of the University, 3d November 1518. 
 
 Amongst others incorporated by the Rector, Adam Colquhoun, Canon Ibid. n. p. 133. 
 of Glasgow, was ' Egregius vir Magister Johannes Major, doctor Parisien- 
 sis ac principalis regens collegii et pedagogii dicte universitatis canonicus- 
 que capelle regie ac vicarius de Dunlop.' 
 
 General Congregation of the University of Glasgow on 24th May 
 1522, under the presidency of James Stewart, Provost of the 
 Collegiate Church of Dumbarton, and Rector of the University, 
 and John Major being present, who is described as Professor of 
 Theology, Treasurer of the Chapel Royal of Stirling, Vicar of 
 Dunlop and Principal Regent. 
 
 The Rector explained the privileges of the University with reference Ibid. 11. pp. 134, 
 to exemption from taxation. On the same day Major was appointed one I+4- 
 of the auditors of the Accounts of the Foundation of David de Caidyow 
 for a chaplaincy at the altar of the Virgin in the Cathedral. ibid. p. 143. 
 
 At a General Congregation of the University at the Feast of Saints 
 Crispin and Crispinian, 1522, for the election of a new Rector. 
 
 John Major was one of the three ' intrantes ' who continued James Ibid. 11. 147. 
 Steward in the office. 
 
 Register of the 
 Privy Seal. lib. 
 
 Presentation by James v. of Treasurership of Chapel Royal, dated v ' ° T ' 144 " 
 
 J 1 -i See Hlstor y ot 
 
 1st June 1520, in favour of Mr. Andrew Durie in view of the the Chapel 
 resignation of John Mair, Professor of Theology and last Treasurer. J^o^!^ 
 
 liv. 57-9S. 
 
CXV11] 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 (3.) University of St. Andrews. 
 
 [Maioris — Mayr Maior — Major used Interchangeably. Usually declined 
 according to the context, Maioris, Maiorem, Maiore.] 
 
 [Acta Rectorum.] 
 1523, June 9. Incorporated. [Entry as in Irving's Buchanan.] 
 
 1523, Jan. 17. Elected one of the deputies to visit St. Salvator's College. [Entry 
 
 as in Irving's Buchanan.] 
 
 1524. Nov. 7. ()ne Q £ the \uditors of the Accounts of the Quaestor of the Faculty 
 
 of Arts for the year I 523-24. 
 
 1524, Feb. last. Elected one of the Rector's Assessors and Deputies. 
 
 1525, Jan. 22. Elected one of the Deputies to visit St Salvator's College. 
 
 1532, Feb. last. Elected one of the Rector's Assessors and Deputies. 
 
 1533, Jan. 15. Elected one of the Deputies to visit St. Salvator's College. 
 
 1534, Feb. Elected one of the Rector - Assessors and Deputies. 
 
 penult. 
 
 He was further elected to the same posts on the last day of Febru- 
 ary 1536 ; April 30, 1639 ; March 2, L539 ; March 1. 1540. 
 
 Elected one of the Rector's Assessors od the last day of February 
 1541, 1-542 ; one of the Rector's Assessor- and Deputies on the last day 
 of February L543 ; and (?) 1544. 
 
 There was elected as one of the Assessors, ' Petrum Capellanj Donius 
 1545- Saluatoris Prefectj Coadiutorem. 1 
 
 The Assessors were appointed 'ad assistendum eidem domino rectorj 
 et eidem consiliendum.' 
 
 The Deputies were appointed ' ad exercendum rectoris officium in eius 
 absencia.' 
 
 [Acta Facultatis Artium Univ. St. And.]. 
 
 1523, Nov. 3. Elected one of the Dean's Assessors [I. M. Ganonicum capelle regie 
 
 Stirlingensis], 
 
 Mar. 19. Elected one of the Dean's Assessors [I.M. Thexaararius capelle regie 
 Stirlingensis]. 
 
 1524, Nov. 3. Elected one of the Dean's Assessors [I.M. Thesaurarius capelle regie 
 
 Stirlingensis]. 
 
 1525, Mar. 4. Named as one of the Dean's Assessors [I.M. Thesaurarius capelle regie 
 
 Stirlingensis]. 
 
APPENDIX TO THE LIFE 
 
 cxix 
 
 Elected one of the Dean's Assessors [I.M. Thesaurarius capelle regie 
 Stirlingensis]. Apr. 8. 
 
 Elected one of the Dean's Assessors [I. M. Thesaurarius capelle regie 
 Stirlingensis]. Nov. 3. 
 
 Elected one of the Dean's Assessors [I.M. only]. i53 r - Nov. 3- 
 
 Elected one of the Dean's Assessors [I.M. vicarius dunloppij successor 
 prefecti collegij Sancti Saluatoris]. 1533. Nov. 4- 
 
 Elected one of the Dean'- Assessors [I.M. prefecti Coll. Sti. Salu.]. I534i Nov. 3. 
 
 Elected do. do. do. 1535, Nov. 3. 
 
 Elected do. do. do. 1537, Nov. 3. 
 
 Named as do. do. do. Nov. 10, 
 
 Elected do. do. do. 1538, Feb. 1. 
 
 Register of Documents connected with St. Salvator's College. 
 
 'Maister Jhon Mayr' is first mentioned as 'Prowest of the College/ 1536, May 3. 
 on February 1536, and other references to him as ' Prepositus Coll. 
 Bccles. - s . Salvatoris ' occur on the following dates : 1540, Feb. 25 ; 
 L539, Jan. 9 ; 1542, May 31 ; 1544, Aug. 3, Apr. 29, Apr. 30, May 1, 
 May 2; 1543, Apr. 13, Apr. 18; 1.535, Feb. 15. None of these entries 
 throw any light on Major's personal history, with the exception of that 
 under Jan. 9, 1539. This is a charter granted by Major in conjunction 
 with William Manderston, founding a chaplaincy or bursary (Capel- 
 lania seu Bursa) in S. Sal. College (with power to the Rector and his 
 Assessors to transfer it to St. Mary's College) — the holder to celebrate 
 Masses for the souls of the founders and their relations, James v. and 
 Mary his Queen, Cardinal Beaton, etc. The endowment consisted mainly 
 of annual rents of tenements in South Street, St. Andrews. 
 
 Extracts from the Acta Rectorum Univ. St. Andrew. 
 
 Curia tenta per venerabilem et egregium virum magistrum alex- 1540, June 15. 
 andrum balfowr rectorem de Longcardy vicarium de Kilmany 
 almeque vniuersitatis sancti Andree rectorem In capella beate 
 Marie uirginis infra claustrum collegij sancti saluatoris situata 
 martis decimoquinto Iunij In anno domini Jaj v c . xlmo. 
 
 In causa exactionum recusatoriorum fore declinatoriarum iniplice 
 duplice et triplice venerabilis et egregij virj magistri nostri magistri 
 Johannis maioris prepositj collegij sancti saluatoris et domini Johannis 
 
cxxii 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 II. 
 
 NOTE ON THE SCHOOL OF THE TERMINISTS TO 
 WHICH JOHN MAJOR BELONGED. Chiefly from 
 Dr. Carl Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, Band iv. Leipzig, 1870. 
 
 The series of Terminist Scotists commenced with Nicholas Tinctor 1 , 
 who was followed by Pardus 2 and Bricot 8 . A pupil of Pardus and 
 of Bricot, John Major taught at Paris in the college of Montaigu, 
 was an extremely fertile writer, collected numerous scholars round 
 him and excited them to literary activity. While we must refrain 
 from referring to his Commentaries on Peter Lombard and the 
 physical and ethical writings of Aristotle, we find a number of 
 smaller or greater works by him on Logic in which he frequently 
 treated the same subject in new editions. He edited an edition 
 of the Commentary of John Dorp 4 on Buridan 5 , to which it is 
 
 1 Prantl, iv. p. 198, 199. Tinctor published a Commentary on the SummuUc 
 of Petrus Hispanus, which is expressly designed on the title-page as ' Secundum 
 Subtilissimi doctoris Johannis Scoti viam compilation,'' and a later work, in which 
 he is described as a follower of Thomas Aquinas, is only according to Prantl (note 
 117) 'a bookseller's puff or advertisement '. 
 
 2 Hieronymus or Jerome Pardus, a lecturer on Logic of the school called by 
 Prantl ' Terminist Scotists.' His Medulla dyalectices, 1505, edited by Major 
 and Jacobus Ortiz, is his only known work. — Prantl, iv. p. 246. 
 
 3 Thomas Bricot, who published alone or in collaboration with George of 
 Brussels several logical tracts between 1402- 1505. — Prantl, iv. p. 199. 
 
 4 John Dorp's Commentary was first published at Venice 1499, and twice by 
 Major, Paris 1504, folio, and Lyons 15 10, quarto. At the close of the latter 
 edition Dorp is called ' verus nominalium opinionum recitator '. — Prantl, iv. 
 p. 237, note 357. 
 
 5 John Buridan, who died not before 1358, was one of the earliest Nominalists, 
 and following Ockham declares Theological Dogma and Philosophy to be incom- 
 mensurable. ' Metaphysics differs from Theology in this, that while both treat 
 of God and Divine Things Metaphysics does not consider God and Divine Things 
 except in so far as they can be proved and concluded or induced by demonstra- 
 tive reasons. Theology, on the other hand, holds certain articles of belief as 
 principles without evidence, and considers further what can be deduced from 
 such articles.' — Prantl, iv. p. 15, note 58. 
 
APPENDIX TO THE LIFE 
 
 cxxiii 
 
 unnecessary further to refer, as he added to Dorp only some short 
 marginal notes. But in addition he composed several treatises 
 which were collected and printed more or less completely, some of 
 them as Commentaries on Petrus Hispanus, and others Lectures 
 he gave in the Faculty of Arts (Libri quos in artibus emisit). At 
 a later date he collected the Logic of Aristotle and the Summulae 
 of Petrus Hispanus in an Introductorium, and finally he added Ques- 
 tiones with reference to the old Logic (Fetus Jrs). 
 
 If we first confine ourselves to the order of the collective edition, 
 we find it commences with a treatise De complexo significabili, in 
 which he gives, like his master Pardus in his Medulla, an affirma- 
 tive answer to the question as to the existence of complex terms. 
 Then follow two Libri Terminorum, in the first of which, after fixing 
 the logical meaning of the word Term, almost all possible divisions 
 of the Term are discussed by means of doubts and their solutions, 
 and in the second book the same subject is treated in somewhat 
 altered order, after which he places Abbreviationes Parvorum Logic- 
 alium 1 . Next follow the Summulce, that is, a commentary on Petrus 
 Hispanus, where we find in the introduction a reference to Gerson's 
 utterances on the use of logic, and also a ridiculous play of letters 
 with the word Summulce. The contents of this part are a commen- 
 tary on the first four tracts of Petrus Hispanus, where at the 
 close of the doctrine of Judgment (following Bricot)' 2 there is a 
 special explanation of the term Contingent, and of the question 
 current since Buridan wrote as to the variation of the middle 
 term 3 . Besides, the subject of the divisions of the Term is again 
 examined, with reference to the views of Marsilius 4 , and at the 
 close of the Categories a Tree of the Predicaments is added. In 
 treating of the Syllogism Major repudiates the Fourth Figure as 
 an unnecessary multiplication more sharply than earlier writers. 
 He adduces, like his teacher Pardus, sophistical examples for each 
 Mood. The Topics and the refutation of Fallacies he treats sum- 
 marily, because especially in the first there is much unnecessary 
 matter. 
 
 1 The Parva Lcgicalia were topics whicli were not treated specially by 
 Aristotle, but deduced by minor authors from passages in his works. — Prantl, 
 iv. p. 204, note 153. 
 
 2 Prantl, iv. p. 203. 3 Prantl, iv. p. 34. 
 
 4 Not Marsilius of Padua but of Inghen (d. 1396), a leading Professor of Logic 
 at Heidelberg, whose writings are very voluminous, and in general follow Ock- 
 ham, Buridan, and other Nominalists though with some variations. — Prantl, iv. 
 pp. 94-102. 
 
CXX1V 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 A second division of the work begins with the Krponibi/ia 1 in 
 which there i> nothing new, for he follows Paulus Venetus- and 
 Petrus Mantuanus 3 . Then follow the Insolubilia. with reference 
 to which the statement of the principles of others affords the chief 
 interest, for in this part also he follows the explanations of Paulus 
 Venetus. The Commentary added to tin- second Analytic appears 
 in an improper place and calls for no special remark. We have 
 this portion of the work not from the hand of Major but of his 
 pupil CoroneL The Parva Logica/ia follow in six tracts, from which 
 we learn that they were reckoned a part of the Vetus Logica A 
 while the Consequentia and Ea-ponibi/ia were deemed to belong to 
 the Nova Logica. 
 
 The contents of this part consists of a controversial exposition 
 of Petrus Hispanus with frequent use of Peter of Mantua and 
 George of Brussels. Finally there is inserted a concise exposition 
 of the Obligators 5 and Argumenta Sophist ica, in which we notice a 
 disposition to contest every proposition sophistic-ally, and in addi- 
 tion a monograph on the Infinite in which all possible sophisms 
 which belong to this subject are examined. After what has been 
 said it is not necessary to examine in detail the two last-named 
 writings of Major on Logic, for in the Introductorium he merely 
 repeats what he had written before, and the Qucestioncs are only a 
 commentary of the usual kind on the Vetus Ars in the sense of the 
 Terminists, 
 
 Among the scholars of Major may be named first David 
 Cranston of Glasgow, who taught in Paris, and wrote a treatise on 
 Insolubilia and Obligatoria. As to the first of these, he proceeds 
 
 1 The Exponibilia were certain words of frequent occurrence in propositions 
 which required to be expounded to avoid ambiguity and sophisms. 
 
 2 Paulus Venetus (d. 1428) is treated at length by Prantl (iv. pp. 118, 140), 
 who considers his writings as marking the most extreme growth of the Scholastic 
 Logic. He commented on the Physics, Ethics, as well as on the Logic of 
 Aristotle. 
 
 3 Petrus Mantuanus, a Logician of the Terminist School, published circa 
 1483. — Prantl, iv. p. 176. 
 
 4 The Vetus Logica or Ars was not the older logic in point of time but that 
 which treated of the remoter or less immediate parts of logic, while the Nova 
 Logica treated of the Syllogisms and its parts and forms. — Prantl, iv. p. 176, 
 note 9. 
 
 5 The Obligatoria was the division of Logic which dealt with disputation. 
 The disputant was obliged either to maintain (sustinere) or reject (desustinere) 
 or to doubt (dubitare) the proposition advanced. Hence the doctrine of Obligations 
 was divided into ' Positio' ' Depositio ' and 'Dubitatio.' — Prantl, iv. p. 41. 
 
APPENDIX TO THE LIFE 
 
 cxxv 
 
 from a statement of the various opinions of others to his own 
 attempt to treat the Insolubilia 1 in accordance with the generally 
 accepted rules of Logic. . . . With the Obligatoria he adopts, in 
 comparison with Major, a somewhat modified division of the Term, 
 where, for the first time, we meet with an express application of 
 the different sorts of opposition to the doctrine of Concepts. From 
 the same school came Antony Coronel of Segovia, a very fertile 
 writer, who wrote a Commentary on the Categories, an Exposition 
 of the doctrine of Judgments and the properties of Terms, under 
 the title of Rosarium, an Explanation of the Posterior Analytics of 
 Aristotle, and a monograph on Exponibilia and Fallaciae. He also 
 revised and completed a tract of his master, Major, on Consequentia. 
 . . . A second Spaniard bred in the school of Major was Caspar 
 Lax. Of his three works, namely Termini, Obligationes, and 
 Insolubilia, the first is merely a repetition of what Major had 
 taught on this subject. The high self-esteem which the Terminists 
 of the school of Major had reached is shown in a letter of a 
 friend of Lax, Antony Alcaris, which is printed in the treatise of 
 Obligationes. In this the ' clear, perspicuous, useful, sweet, and 
 splendid' dissertations of the Modern are contrasted with the 
 • languid, arid, jejune, obscure, and little pleasing' works of the 
 Ancient Philosophers. . . . Another scholar of Major was Johannes 
 Dullart from Ghent, who wrote Qucestiones on the Categories and a 
 treatise on the De Interpretations of Aristotle, in which he shows 
 extensive reading, and his decided partisanship with the Term- 
 inists. ... A fellow-scholar of the last-mentioned writer was the 
 Scotchman, Robert Caubraith. William Manderston, also a Scotch- 
 man, and several other Spaniards of minor note, are described as 
 belonging to the same school. 
 
 The reader who desires to follow the intricacies of the mediaeval 
 logic must refer for further details to Prantl's exhaustive and 
 learned work. 2 But for the sake of those who may wish to form a 
 general idea of the distinction between the Avtiqni or Reales and 
 the Moderni or Nominates, and of the position of the Terminists, 
 
 1 The Insolubilia were divided into three modes— (i) Those which could not 
 be solved in any way ; (2) those which could not be solved because of some im- 
 pediment ; and (3) those which were difficult to solve. As example of the first 
 was given an invisible sound, of the second a stone hidden in the earth, and of 
 the third an invisible sun. — Prantl, iv. p. 40, note 158. 
 
 2 Prantl, iv. p. 174, points out that at the close of the fifteenth century the 
 Terminists were the majority, though denounced by the orthodox Thomists. 
 
 i 
 
CXXV1 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 as the school of which Major was a leader was called, we borrow 
 from the same writer the following passages : — 
 
 ' We first notice a continuation of the earlier tendencies in 
 Logic until the year 1472, when we find the definition of the 
 Party differences followed by a development through the Term- 
 inist Scotism, which was opposed by a preponderating conserva- 
 tive Thomism. From about the period 1480-1520 (i.e. practically 
 Major's period) a long series of the now reigning school of the 
 Terminists appears.' . . . l If we direct our attention to Paris, it 
 is easily to be understood that in the Sorbonne only the elder 
 views were permitted. On the other hand, the University had 
 actively participated in the gradual development of the various 
 new opinions, and had even accepted the views of the Terminists. 
 But in 147 'J, in consequence of the intrigues of John Boucard, 
 assisted by a former Sorbonnist, Johannes A Lapide, the Moderns 
 had been placed under a bann, and their works in the Library 
 had even been chained, so that they could not be read. The 
 doctors called Nominates were those who on principle attached 
 extreme importance to the properties of Terms, including the 
 doctrines of Insolubilia, Ob/igatio/ies, Consequentia, while the Realists 
 applied themselves to things and despised the doctrine of Terms -. 
 The dispute was therefore, in the first place, one as to the method 
 of Logic, and only in the second place concerned with the meta- 
 physical question as to Universals, with reference to which the 
 Terminists claimed for themselves the praise of strict orthodoxy. 
 In the year 1481 the Royal Edict against the Nominalists was 
 rescinded, and their books were again allowed to be read. 
 
 At the time therefore that Major came to the University the 
 Nominalist doctrine had resumed its popularity all the more 
 because of the persecution which it had suffered, and Major's own 
 masters in Logic, Thomas Bricot 3 and Jerome Pardus 4 , both 
 belonged to it. The subtleties and sophistries which the new 
 Nominal logic of the Terminists in the hands of Major and his 
 followers ultimately led to, as exemplified in Prantl's extracts 
 from their works, largely justified the contempt which Buchanan 
 and other disciples of the Renaissance bestowed on it. But none 
 
 1 Prantl, iv. p. 186. 
 
 2 It was with reference to this distinction, perhaps, that Erasmus stated his 
 apophthegm which appears to contain the truth of the matter : 1 Cognitio ver- 
 borum prior est, cognitio rerum potior est,' though that apophthegm has a wider 
 application than the merely logical controversy of the Schools. 
 
 3 Prantl, iv. p. 199. 4 Ibid, p. 246. 
 
APPENDIX TO THE LIFE 
 
 cxxvii 
 
 the less was this stage in logical doctrine an attempt to clear the 
 meaning of words from dubiety in the same line which William of 
 Ockham formerly, and Hobbes and Locke subsequently, followed. 
 It was also, as has been generally recognised by historians of 
 philosophy, both through its merits and demerits, one of the 
 causes which led to the dissolution of the Scholastic Philosophy. 
 That Major belonged to this school in Logic (for though he made 
 an attempt to reconcile the Realists and Nominalists, it was, as we 
 have seen, by assuming the principles of the latter) reacted on his 
 philosophical position, and made him incline to the views of 
 Ockham, the works of two of whose followers he edited. But in 
 Theology he claimed to be and was strictly orthodox, and ends 
 several of his theological treatises with the usual formula, that he 
 submitted all he taught to the Church and the Theological Faculty 
 of Paris. 
 
 It is proper to keep in view that he was also a Scotist, and pro- 
 moted the publication of the Reporlata, an abridgment of the 
 Parisian Lectures of the Doctor Subtilis. Both the followers of 
 Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus claimed to be orthodox, and 
 that their philosophy kept within the limits which the Church 
 allowed to the Schools. Perhaps the Scotists were even more 
 vehement than the Nominalists in the assertion of the soundness of 
 their Theological Doctrine, in order to allay suspicions. But the 
 Roman Church, as if by natural instinct, and the historians of 
 philosophy who have regarded the subject from an external stand- 
 point, concur in regarding Aquinas and not Duns as its true 
 champion among philosophers. Scotism is now almost dead, and 
 the present Pope is doing his best to revive the study of Aquinas. 
 But important as Thomas Aquinas is in the history of philosophy, 
 the attempt to restore his old authority as the Master of Philo- 
 sophy in the nineteenth century is a hopeless attempt. Scholasti- 
 cism in any form is now impossible. 
 
 The Terminists, as the School to which Major belonged was 
 styled, in some respects occupied an intermediate position between 
 the Scotists and Thomists, the Nominalists and the Realists, but 
 with a decided leaning to the former ; and Major is frequently 
 claimed by historians of philosophy, as by Tennemann 1 and 
 
 1 Bohn's Translation of Tennemann's History of Philosophy, p. 241. Ueberweg 
 does not mention Major by name, but reckons amongst the Nominalists who 
 followed Ockham in the fourteenth and fifteenth century several of his masters : 
 'John Buridan, Rector of the University of Paris, of importance because of his 
 
cxxviii 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 Prantl 1 , as a Scotist and Nominalist. It was natural that Major 
 should adopt this school. He claimed Duns Scotus as his country- 
 man, for he had no more doubt of Duns's Scottish than Wadding 
 in the following century had of his Irish origin. His chief masters 
 were Franciscans, who believed in Duns Scotus as a member of 
 their own order. And he came to Paris at a time when the 
 Nominalist development of Scotism was the reigning philosophy 
 in the university. 
 
 Similar causes led him to adopt (following Ockham, Gerson, 
 and D'Ailly) the anti-papal position of the Gallican Church. 
 
 The Franciscans, speaking generally, for there were exceptions, 
 opposed the absolute claims of the Ultramontane Italian Popes. 
 Their doctrine of Evangelical Poverty cut at the roots, as has been 
 well pointed out by Mr. Owen 2 , both of the temporal power of the 
 Pope and the excessive wealth of the prelates and some of the 
 ecclesiastical orders. No one accepted more completely than 
 Major this doctrine. Indeed most, though not all, of his opinions 
 which appear to us bold and anti-papal may be traced to this 
 source. In his writings we constantly come across passages which 
 appear to be copied almost word for word from the works of 
 Ockham or of Gerson. It is because of this that he may be 
 considered, as Ockham has also been, an unconscious precursor 
 of the Reformation in spite of his resting finally in all questions of 
 Faith in rigidly orthodox conclusions. 
 
 Nor can we overlook the fact that, like so many other Schoolmen, 
 the method he adopted of arguing all questions on two sides, the 
 Yes and No method as it has been styled, — the doubts which he 
 raised and by no means always solved, and the habit of leaving 
 
 examination of the Freedom of the Will and his Logical works ; Marsilius of 
 Inghen ; Peter D'Ailly, who while defending the Church Doctrine yet gave the 
 preference to the Bible above Tradition, and the Council above the Pope ; and 
 John Gerson, D'Ailly's scholar and friend, who combined Mysticism with Scholas- 
 ticism.' — Geschichte der Philosophic, ii. p. 215. In an instructive passage, too 
 long to quote, he compares Duns Scotus with Kant, and shows how the critical 
 tendency begun by Duns was carried further by Ockham and the Nominalists, 
 ii. p. 204. 
 
 1 Prantl treats Major throughout (iv. p. 247 et seq.) as belonging to the Scotist 
 Terminist or Terminist Scotist School. 
 
 2 Dr. Karl Werner, who writes from the Roman point of view, coincides with 
 Mr. Owen on this point, and remarks that Ockham's opposition to the Papacy 
 turned on the dispute raised by the Franciscan zealots as to the vow of purity. — 
 Die nachscotistische Skolastik, Wien 1883, p. 17. 
 
APPENDIX TO THE LIFE 
 
 C'XX1>. 
 
 many points to the judgment of his readers, had, what Mr. Owen has 
 called, with reference to the greater names amongst the Scholastics, 
 a skeptical tendency. It is possible to exaggerate this tendency, 
 but it is impossible to deny its existence. He followed Duns 
 Scotus too in submitting all authority, even the authority of the 
 Church in philosophical matters, and especially in the practical 
 and moral department of conduct, to the test of reason and justice. 
 This it is which has caused the ' Subtle Doctor ' to be looked upon 
 with suspicion by the Church, and to be regarded by historians of 
 philosophy as the first great dissolvent of the older orthodox 
 scholasticism. Major and the Terminists were less bold in philo- 
 sophising than Duns, less bold in action than Ockham, but not the 
 less did their writings and the opinions they introduced tend in 
 the same direction. It was no accident which led Major to direct 
 the republication of the Lectures of Duns at Paris and the logical 
 treatises of the disciples of Ockham. 
 
 Prantl, to whom we are indebted for the substance of most of 
 this note, but who must not be held responsible for the view taken 
 in it, remarks in the Preface to his fourth volume, after having 
 made a thorough examination of every known work of the logicians 
 of the later period of scholastic logic, that to describe even useless 
 works is not in itself useless if it saves others from a like labour. 
 But this is a too modest under-estimate of his own valuable 
 labours and of the writings of the Schoolmen. 
 
 Their method and philosophy were not a mere marking of time, 
 or a retrogression. It is true they were not great original thinkers 
 like the chief masters of Greek or Modern Philosophy. But they 
 conducted a progressive process — a disputation, to use a word 
 which would have been more familiar to them — between Dog- 
 matic Theology, Ancient Philosophy, and Mediaeval Thought, 
 which was necessary to the mental development of Europe. 
 ' Mens agitat molem et inter se corpora miscet' In this develop- 
 ment Major took a minor but a distinct part, as will be acknow- 
 ledged the more his writings are studied with the attention 
 directed, neither to their form, which is thoroughly scholastic, nor 
 to their explicit conclusions, which are completely dogmatic and 
 orthodox, but to their ' obiter dicta ' and ultimate tendency. 
 
 It was even, we may venture to say, this tendency, which had 
 more free play when he came to write history, that gave its 
 critical, practical, and independent character to his historical work ; 
 for the thoughts of such a man in the ages of Scholasticism were 
 
 i 2 
 
cxxx 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 not disconnected, but pervaded by the same method to whatever 
 subject he turned them. This consideration may also justify the 
 length of the present note in a work primarily concerned only with 
 Major as a historian and not as a philosopher. 
 
 IE. M. 
 
HISTORIA MAIORIS BRITANNIA 
 
 TAM ANGLLE QUAM SCOTIvE, PER 
 IOANNEM MAIOREM, NOMINE QUIDEM 
 SCOTUM, PROFESSIONE AUTEM THEO- 
 LOGUM, E VETERUM MONUMENTIS 
 CONCINNATA 
 
PREFACE 
 
 To him who is illustrious at once for his most admirable 
 natural endowment and for his most lofty descent in 
 the line of both kingdoms of Greater Britain, to James 
 the Fifth, King of Scots, 
 
 John, Major by name, Scot by nation, theologian of the 
 university of Paris by profession, with prayers for his 
 prosperity, offers the homage that is due to his King. 
 
 In commencement of this narration of the glorious deeds of 
 your ancestors, of those men who have been our kings and 
 princes from the cradle of history even to this present, 
 and in the dedication of that work to your name of most 
 fortunate omen, Fifth James, King of Scots, of happiest birth, 
 from whom too we all of us hope the best and greatest things, 
 I have thought right to undertake the clearing of three points 
 and their defence from misrepresentation. This the first, that, 
 as almost all men say, contrary to the habitude of the old 
 historians, I seek a patron for this my small lucubration ; 
 secondly, that I, a theologian by profession, should write a 
 history ; and thirdly, that I use a style more congruous to a 
 theologian than to a historian. 
 
 For removal accordingly of the first objection, and for my 
 justification in the eyes of those who pretend that it is not 
 fitting to dedicate a historical work to any person, seeing that 
 he who seeks for a patron must put on the mask of a 
 flatterer rather than that of a historian, whose first law it is 
 to write the truth ; all that these objectors urge in support 
 of their contention is this : that neither Sallust, nor Livy, 
 nor any one of the ancients made dedication of his works. I 
 frankly confess that I have never read any dedication made by 
 them, whether because they observed no such use, or because 
 
CXXX1V 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 these have come to be lost in lapse of time, as has befallen so 
 many other things. Sallust, indeed, had no occasion to dedi- 
 cate his work, since in his day the Romans were as yet without 
 kings ; and Livy perchance had no wish to take this course, 
 thinking it more glorious to accomplish for the gods and for 
 posterity all that mighty work of his than to inscribe the same 
 to any mortal man. But the poets almost all of them, although 
 themselves too have written histories, dedicated their poems 
 to princes ; and Valerius Maxim us, when he was about to 
 narrate the memorable achievements not only of his own race 
 but of foreign nations likewise, makes his address to Caesar. 
 Our own Jerome likewise, when he was setting himself to 
 translate both profane and sacred histories, was not silent 
 as to the person to whom he would dedicate his work. Augus- 
 tine did the same, and that writer, whom, though he be one 
 of ourselves, I yet reckon to be no way contemptible, but 
 venerable rather — I mean Bede 1 , — and almost all the rest of 
 the ecclesiastical historians. For which reason, seeing that 
 to your Highness and to your ancestors we owe all that we 
 have, I think it right and proper to dedicate this work now 
 undertaken to the same. Yet lest my work should contain 
 any suspicion of flattery, I have left untouched, to be dealt 
 with by other hands, matters of most recent date. 
 
 From that second objection, that it is not becoming in a 
 theologian to write history, I utterly dissent. For if it 
 is the special province of a theologian to lay down defini- 
 tions in regard to faith, and religion, and morals, I will not 
 believe that I transgress when I narrate not only what has 
 come to pass, or by whose counsel such and such matters 
 were carried, but if I also make distinct definition whether 
 these matters were carried rightly or wrongly. And, indeed, 
 I have given my utmost endeavour to follow this course in all 
 cases, and most of all where the question was ambiguous, to 
 the end that from the reading of this history you may learn 
 not only the thing that was done, but also how it ought to 
 
 1 Orig. ' et licet nostras non contemnendus auctor, immo venerabilis, Beda ' ; 
 F. ' et licet nostras non contemnendus auctor, immo Venerabilis Beda '. The 
 punctuation of the original seems to give a more graceful sense. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 cxxxv 
 
 have been done, and that yon may by this means and at the 
 cost of little reading come to know what the experience of 
 centuries, if it were granted to you to live so long, could 
 scarcely teach. 
 
 I proceed to the consideration of the third objection. I 
 confess that I might have used a more cultivated style ; I 
 question if that style would have been more convenient. For 
 if one should give what would be almost a Latin turn to the 
 names of our own people and places, scarcely should we that 
 were born in Scotland understand what was meant. And 
 inasmuch as our princes have ever aimed rather to act nobly 
 than to speak elegantly, so with those who have given them- 
 selves to the pursuit of knowledge it is of more moment 
 to understand aright, and clearly to lay down the truth 
 of any matter, than to use elegant and highly-coloured 
 language. I ca ll to witness two most famous Scots — who bore 
 each of them the name of John 1 — and Bede, and Alcuin 2 , 
 and a hundred more 3 , who, when they first learned Greek and 
 Latin, chose rather so to write that they needed not an 
 interpreter than with a curious research of language. 
 
 This then, most gracious King, is what I held it right to 
 say in behalf of the work which I have undertaken. Accept 
 the same, I pray, with favour. May you read to good purpose 
 this history of your ancestors now dedicated to your felicity, 
 and may you live happy to the years of Nestor ! 
 
 From the worthy and no way ignoble college of Montaigu 
 at Paris. 
 
 1 i.e. John Scotus Erigena and John Duns Scotus. See infra, pp. 101, 113, 
 206, 228-230. 
 
 2 See infra, p. 102. 
 
 3 ' et sexcenti alii '. ' Sexaginta ' was used by the Romans for any large 
 number, and ' sexcenti ' was often used to express an immense and indefinite 
 number. A contemporary use of the phrase will be found in Erasmus, Paraclesis 
 (ed. 1520, p. 192— of the 'regula' of Christ as compared with the 'regula Francis- 
 cana') : Denique qua (ut sexcentas etiam addas) nulla possit esse sanctior?' An 
 instructive series of examples in which the vague use by our early historians of 
 60,000 led to long-lasting misconceptions will be found in an article by Mr. 
 J. H. Round on 1 The Introduction of Knight Service into England ' in The 
 English Historical Review for October 1891. 
 
A HISTORY 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 CHAP. I. — A short Preface by John Major, theologian of Paris, 
 and Scotsman by birth, to his work concerning the rise and gests 
 of the Britons. Likewise concerning the name and the first inhabitants 
 of Greater Britain 1 . 
 
 ha few words, and in the manner almost of the theologians, 
 I am about to write an account of Britain, by far the most 
 famous of islands, and one which, in the opinion of illus- 
 trious writers, may be reckoned even by itself as a second 
 world. I shall treat first of the reason of its name, then in 
 general terms of the kingdoms of which it is composed, and 
 last of all I shall deal at length with those kingdoms and their 
 special history. Our ancestors called Britain by the name of 
 Albion. Of the origin of this name Caxton, the English 
 chronicler, gives the following visionary 2 account : There was a 
 certain king of Syria, by name Diocletian, to whom his wife, 
 Labana, bore three-and-thirty daughters. Of these the eldest 
 was called Albine. The king gave his daughters in marriage 
 to three-and-thirty princes of his kingdom ; but they despised 
 their husbands, and in one night slew them every one. The 
 
 1 ' Greater Britain '. The phrase ' Britannia Major ' is not common ; but it 
 was used, a little later, in the title of Bale's Illiistriiim Maioris Britannia 
 Scriptorum, hoc est, Anglia, Cambria, ac Scotice Summarium, Ipswich 1548. 
 In the edition of 1557- 1559, printed at Basel, the title is Scriptorum Illustrium 
 Majoris Britannice, quavi nunc Angliam et Scotiam vocant, Catalogus. On the 
 other hand, the editor of Ptolemy's Geography (Strassburg, 1522) applies the 
 words to England alone : ' Britania maior cui nomen est Anglia'. Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth's History, printed in 1508 by Badius Ascensius, the printer of Major's 
 History, has the title Britannia utriusque Regum et Principtim origo ct gcsta. 
 1 Britannia minor ' and ' parva Britannia ' are in frequent use to designate 
 Aremorica or Armorica — which we now call Brittany. 
 
 2 ' somniculosam'. Camden, Brit. ed. 1600, p. 88, uses the words 'somniata 
 filiola ' of Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh. 
 
 A 
 
L 2 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book i. 
 
 king thereupon banished his daughters from his kingdom, but 
 gave them a ship and a full provision of food. At the end of 
 their long wanderings by sea they came to an island (which is 
 called Britain), and after Albine — for she was, as it were, their 
 leader and queen — they called the island Albion. A short time 
 thereafter the women had intercourse with demons and brought 
 forth giants, who practised in that country cruelty and robbery, 
 until a certain Brutus slew them, and, taking possession of the 
 island, called it, after his own name, Britain. 1 
 
 This narrative of Caxton's seems to me partly fabulous — 
 he found a handle for his fiction in the story of the children 
 of Aegyptus and Danae — partly ridiculous, and partly to have 
 some connection with historical fact. For where shall you 
 find three-and-thirty daughters born of one woman ? How 
 shall you believe that these slew every one her husband ; and 
 that, set adrift, without so much as an oar, on a boundless 
 ocean, they did not utterly perish ? I hold it further for alto- 
 gether improbable that a demon, whether succubus or incubus, 
 should have been able to convey from foreign shores any seed 
 
 1 'The Chronicles of England', known as ' Caxton's Chronicle', was a repro- 
 duction by him of the popular ' Chronicle of Brut '. The account taken from 
 Wynkyn de Worde's edition (1528) is as follows : — 
 
 ' It befell thus that this Dioclesian spoused a gentyll damoysel that was wonders 
 fayre, that was his vncles doughter Labana, and she loued him as reason wolde, 
 so that he gate on her xxxiij doughters, of the whiche the eldest was called 
 Albyne, and these damoyselles whan they came vnto age became so fayre that it 
 was wonder . . . And it befell thus that Dyoclesyan thought to mary his 
 doughters amonge all those kynges that were at the solempnite. . . . And it 
 befell thus afterward that this dame Albine became so stoute and so sterne that 
 she tolde lytel pryce of her lorde and of hym had scorne and despite, and wold 
 not do his wyll. . . . Wherfore the kyng that had wedded Albyne wrote the 
 tatches and condicyons of his wyfe Albyne, and the lettre sent to Dyoclesyan 
 her fader. . . . And than said Albyne : Well I wote, fayre systers, that our 
 husbondes haue complayned vnto our fader vpon us . . . wherfore systers my 
 counseyle is that this night whan our husbondes ben a bedde, all we with one 
 assent to kytte theyr throtes, and than we may be in peas of them. . . . And 
 anone all the ladyes consented and graunted to this counseyW. And whan nyght 
 was comen, the lordes and ladyes went to bedde. And anone as theyr lordes 
 were aslepe, they kytte all theyr husbondes throtes. . . . Whan Dioclesian theyr 
 fader herde of this thynge, he became wroth ryght furyously agaynst his 
 doughters, and anone he would them all haue brent. But all the barons and 
 lordes of Sirrye counseyled not so for to do suche straytnes to his own doughters, 
 but shold voyde the lond of them for euermore, so that they never sholde come 
 agayne, and so he dyd. . . . Than went out of the shyppe all the systers and 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 3 
 
 that should still retain its potency, when the ocean lay be- 
 tween. 1 More truly may we conclude, with other writers, that 
 it was from its white headlands that this island was named Origin of 
 Albion, for the rocks upon its eastern coast are of a snowy ofAtofcm! 
 whiteness. What Caxton says of Brutus, on the other hand, 
 has a historical foundation ; for it is the opinion of most 
 writers that Britain takes its name from Brutus. Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth, a British monk, and also Caxton, relate that Brutus 
 of Troy made prayer to Jupiter, Diana, and Mercury, that 
 they would grant him somewhere a fit place of habitation. 
 And as to this Geoffrey quotes the following verses: — 
 
 Goddess of shades, and huntress, who at will 
 Walk'st on the rolling spheres, and through the deep ; 
 On thy third reign, the earth, look now, and tell 
 What land, what seat of rest, thou bidd'st me seek, 
 What certain seat, where I may worship thee 
 For aye, with temples vow'd and virgin quires. 
 
 And when he had done his prayer, the goddess answered 
 Brutus thus : — 
 
 Brutus, far to the west, in the ocean wide, 
 Beyond the realm of Gaul, a land there lies, 
 Seagirt it lies, where giants dwelt of old ; 
 Now void, it fits thy people : Thither bend 
 Thy course, there shalt thou find a lasting seat ; 
 There to thy sons another Troy shall rise, 
 And kings be born of thee, whose dreadful might 
 Shall awe the world and conquer nations bold. 2 
 
 toke the londe Albion as theyr syster called it, and there they went vp and downe, 
 and founde neyther man ne woman ne chylde, but wylde beestes of dyuers 
 kyndes. And whan theyr vitayles were dispended and fayled, they fedde them 
 with herbes and fruytes in season of the yere, and so they lyued as they best 
 myght, and after that they toke flesshe of dyuers beestes and became wonders 
 fatte, and so they desyred mannes company, and mannes kynde them fayled. 
 And for hete they wexed wonders couragyous of kynde, so that they desyred 
 more mannes company than ony other solace or myrth. When the deuyll that 
 perceyued went by dyuers countrees and toke a body of the ayre, and lyking 
 natures shad of men, and came in to the londe of Albion, and lay by those 
 women and shad tho natures vpon them, and they conceyued and brought forth 
 gyantes. ' 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. ii. ch. iv. 
 
 2 Geoffrey of Monmouth (H. ? 1100-1154) was archdeacon of Monmouth and 
 afterwards bishop of St. Asaph. The verse translation is Milton's. Caxton's 
 
4 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I. 
 
 Now there is no one so ignorant as not to know that this is 
 a falsehood. For we nowhere read that the oracles made use 
 of verses of this nature or of such language ; and further, the 
 Stygian Diana knows, with definiteness, nothing concerning 
 the future. Nor again were demons found inside of images. 1 
 To know the future belongs to God alone. 
 
 In the Ecclesiastical History of the English people by the 
 Venerable Bede, a man of very wide reading 2 , we find it 
 written 3 that the name of Britain was given to the island by an 
 Aremoric tribe of the Gauls, which first of all inhabited the 
 southern part of the island ; for which reason the island was 
 called Britain by that Gallic tribe, and not contrariwise. But 
 whencesoever the name, the island has now for many centuries 
 been known as Britain. And about this Britain of ours, you 
 will not wonder if many curious notions as to its origin have 
 from time to time been hatched 4 . For it stands not other- 
 wise with the first beginnings of the Romans, the Gauls, and 
 many other peoples ; of these too there are varying opinions. 
 Let this then suffice as to the name of the island. I follow 
 the opinion of the Venerable Bede, among British historians 
 chief. 
 
 version, which is not an exact rendering of the verses as quoted by Major, is as 
 follows : — ' Brute wente vnto the ymage and said : Diane, noble goddesse that 
 all thynge hast in thy myght, wyndes, waters, woodes, feldes, and all thynges 
 of the worlde, and all maner of beestes that ben therin, vnto you I make 
 my prayer, that ye counseyle me and tell, where and in what place I shall 
 haue a conuenyent place to dwell in with my folke. And there I shall make in 
 the honour of the a fayre temple and a noble, wherin ye shall alwaye be 
 honoured. When he had done his prayer, Diane answered in this maner. 
 Brute, sayd she, go euen forth thy way over the see in to fraunce to warde the 
 west, there ye shal fynde an yle that is called Albion, and that yle is becom- 
 passed all with the see, and no man may come therein but it be by shyppes, 
 and in that londe were wont to dwell gyauntes, but now it is not so, but all 
 wylderness, and that londe is destenyed and ordeyned for you and for your people.' 
 — Hist. Reg. Brit. lib. i. § II. 
 
 1 A good example of Major's independent judgment. Compare Minucius 
 Felix, Octavius ch. 27 : ' Isti igitur impuri spiritus, daemones, ut ostensum 
 a magis, a philosophis et a Platone, sub statuis et imaginibus consecratis de- 
 litescunt. ' Elmenhorst, as quoted by Ouzel in his edition of the Octavius, refers 
 further to Lactantius ii. 15, 16 ; Tertull. Apol. cap. 22 ; Chrysost. in Psalm. 
 113, 134; Gregorius P.P. in Epist. ad Saxones, t. 2. Concil. fol. 132. 
 
 2 lectorem latissimum. 
 
 3 Hist. Ecd. i. 1. 4 Pullulaverint. 
 
CHAP. II. J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 5 
 
 CHAP. II. — Of the description of Britain and its extent : that is, its 
 breadth, length, and circumference; also of its fruitfulness, alike in 
 things material and in famous men. 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have spoken of the origin of the 
 names of Albion and Britain as applied to our island. We 
 have now to speak of the island itself. Britain is a many- Britain, 
 angled island of the ocean, separated by the sea from the 
 whole continent — as Virgil has it in his verse : 
 
 Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos \ 
 To the east lie Gaul, Belgium, and Germany. Between Calais 
 or Isius 2 and Dover is a great strait of thirty miles 3 , which a 
 ship under a fair wind may cross in two hours. In other 
 parts it is separated by a greater breadth of ocean from every 
 land. To the south-west lies Hesperia, to the west Ireland, Hesperia. 
 which is likewise an island, to the north the islands of the 
 Orkneys. From south to north its length is eight hundred 
 miles. The point of departure you may take in this way : — 
 from Penwichstreit 4 , fifteen miles beyond Michaelstow in Corn- 
 wall, to the furthest point of Caithness. We may put the 
 matter more clearly thus : — the length extends from the 
 furthest harbour of Wales in England to the end of Caith- 
 ness in Scotland, which we now call Wick of Caithness. 
 Whatever former writers have said of the breadth of the island, 
 this I would have you know : that it presents a great diversity. 
 In some places, as from St. Davids 5 , the extreme point of 
 
 1 Eel. i. 67. 
 
 2 Isius ; more commonly Itius. Some writers identify it with Wissent or 
 Witsand, near Calais. — Danville, ' Memoire sur le port Icius ', Mimoires de 
 VAcademie des Inscriptions, xxviii. p. 397. Lewin, The Invasion of Britain by 
 Julius Caesar, 1859, identities it with Boulogne, and Professor Airy with some 
 place at the mouth of the Somme. Major calls Somerset — Captain of Calais — 
 1 Itiorum ductor ', Bk. VI. ch. xvii. 
 
 3 'Triginta millia passuum '. The Roman ' mille passuum '= 1618 English 
 yards — about one-tenth shorter than the English mile. Whether these are taken 
 as Roman or as English miles, Major's estimate of the distance is inaccurate, for 
 the Straits of Dover are only 21 miles wide at that part. Taken with what he 
 says of the time in which the Straits may be crossed, one might suspect a mis- 
 print for ' viginti '. 
 
 4 ' a Penwichstreit hoc est a Penuici strata', i.e. Landsend. 
 
 5 Orig. prints ' Meuenia', and F., copying the mistake, prints 1 Mevenia ' ; 
 but Camden (ed. 1600) has ' Meneuia, quam . . . Angli hodie S. Dautdvocant. 1 
 
6 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book i. 
 
 Wales, to Yarmouth in Norfolk, we find a breadth of two 
 hundred miles ; in most places, however, the breadth is less — 
 say eighty, seventy, or sixty leagues 1 . We must, therefore, 
 reduce this variety of breadth to a mean measure, as the 
 philosophers would say. I conceive the whole island to have 
 a mean breadth of seventy leagues. I mean that it is equal 
 in size to another country four hundred leagues in length and 
 seventy leagues in breadth. Ptolemy, in his Geography, gives 
 it after Ceylon 2 the first place among islands, and Solinus 
 calls it another world 3 , and its renown is evident from the 
 of h BriSn. lenCe recol 'ds of Greek and Latin writers. And though Cicero, in 
 a letter to Trebatius 4 , calls Britain barren, and affirms that 
 it yields no grain of gold, or of silver, or of brass, while it is 
 wanting too in every liberal art, some allowance must be made 
 for a man whose attention was engaged by other matters, and 
 who had not, like the second Pliny, and Ptolemy, and other 
 writers of their kind, made an exhaustive study of cosmo- 
 graphy and of the fertility or barrenness of various countries. 
 For more than most does Britain abound in minerals, such as 
 gold in Crawford Moor in Scotland 5 , while silver, brass, and iron 
 are found almost everywhere. It yields, too, a sulphurous and 
 bituminous kind of earth, whose fire is hotter and more active 
 than a fire obtained from wood. This is no matter for wonder, 
 since in denser matter there is more of form than there is in 
 rarer. Now as, according to the philosophers, vigour of action 
 proceeds from form, there must of necessity be greater vigour 
 
 1 The ' leuca ' = one and a half Roman miles. 2 Taprobana. 
 
 3 4 . . . nisi Britannia insula non qualibet amplitudine nomen pene orbis 
 alterius mereretur.' — Iul. Solini Polyhistor. The Polyhistor was an abridgment 
 of geography taken almost entirely from Pliny. It was very popular in the 
 Middle Ages, and was one of the first books printed. 
 
 4 Epist. ad Fatn. vii. 7. lb. vii. 10. 
 
 5 Cf. the Second Report of the Royal Commission on Mining Royalties, 
 issued in May of the current year, and in particular the evidence of Mr. Cochran- 
 Patrick, who, when asked whether any great quantity of gold was formerly pro- 
 duced in Scotland, answered : ' A very large quantity. Indeed, nearly the 
 whole of the gold coinages of Scotland were minted out of the native metal, and 
 the records ... of the Mint show that a very large amount of gold was brought 
 into the Mint from Crawford Moor and the Leadhills, and other parts of Lanark- 
 shire and Dumfries-shire. I remember in one case that one miner brought in 
 8 lbs. weight (Scots) of gold in one week, and was paid for it at the mint rate. 
 
chap, ii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 7 
 
 of action where there is more form. Now earth is denser than 
 wood, for which reason this substance, rather than wood, is 
 used by smelters of iron. It produces, however, more smoke 
 than is the case with wood, but of the latter fuel there is no 
 scarcity 1 . The island has, further, a sufficiency for its own 
 needs of soil fitted for the culture of wheat, winter wheat 2 , 
 pease, oats ; an abundance too of pleasant rivers, well-watered 
 meadows, rich pastures for its herds of cattle ; nowhere shall 
 you find softer or finer wool. The woods are well stocked 
 with stags, hinds, and wild boars ; and nowhere, it is thought, 
 do rabbits swarm as they do here. 
 
 The inhabitants of all Britain are of a proud temper and 
 given to fighting, and though many may come by their death 
 within the island in civil war, they are still in force sufficient 
 not only to resist a foreign invader, but even to carry the 
 struggle into his country. This matter has been fully treated 
 by foreign historians, and with them I leave it. 
 
 Wheat will not grow in every part of the island ; and for 
 this reason the common people use barley and oaten bread. 
 And as many Britons are inclined to be ashamed of things 
 nowise to be ashamed of, I will here insist a little. And first 
 I say this : that though the soil of all Britain were barren, no 
 Briton need blush for that — if we approve the answer made to 
 a certain Greek by Anacharsis the Scythian 3 . For when this 
 Greek was taunting Anacharsis with the barrenness of Scythia, 
 well did Anacharsis answer : 6 Thou indeed art a disgrace to 
 thy country, but my country it is that disgraces me. 1 And I 
 
 1 It is rather difficult to reconcile this assertion—' eis ligna pro igne non 
 desunt ' — with the words in chapter vii. of this book : 1 In partibus Scotiae 
 meridionalibus pauca sunt nemora.' The latter statement is in accordance with 
 the generally-received opinion that ' the southern division of Scotland was not a 
 well- wooded country'. Cf. Mr. Cosmo Innes's Sketches of Early Scotch History > 
 p. ioi, and the Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, under timber, forest, 
 
 VERT. 
 
 2 'siligo'. Cf. Pliny xviii. io : 'To returne to our winter white wheat called 
 Siligo, it never ripeneth kindly and all togither, as other corne doth : and for 
 that it is so tender and ticklish, as that no corne will less abide delay' etc.— 
 Philemon Holland's translation, 1601. The whole passage is worth consulting 
 in connection with what Major afterwards says about the proportions of grain 
 and flour in the making of bread. 
 
 3 Diog. Laert. de vitis philosophorum lib. i. 
 
8 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I. 
 
 go further : I say that he should not have said 4 my country 
 disgraces me unless in the opinion of the unthinking. In both 
 Hesperiae \ in several provinces of both Gauls 2 , nay further, 
 in the Promised Land in the fourth zone, bread made from 
 barley is in common use. Just such bread were Christ and 
 his apostles wont to eat, as may be seen from the fourteenth 
 chapter of Matthew and the sixth chapter of John. Pliny, 
 too, makes mention in his thirtieth book 3 of meal made from 
 oats, and there is in Normandy, near to Argentolium, a village 
 called Pain d'Aveine 4 . But you may object that it is so 
 called in derision, and because such meal is an uncommon thing 
 among the Gauls. I say, for my part, that I would rather eat 
 that British oaten bread than bread made of barley or of wheat. 
 I nowhere remember to have seen on the other side of the 
 water such good oats as in Britain, and the people make their 
 bread in the most ingenious fashion. For those who may be 
 How oats arc driven to use it, I will explain their method. The oats having 
 breach been grown in a soil of a middling richness, they roast the 
 grain thus : a house is built in the manner of a dove-cot, and 
 in the centre thereof, crosswise from the wall, they fix beams 
 twelve feet in height. Upon these beams they lay straw, and 
 upon the straw the oats. A fire is then kindled in the lower 
 part of the building, care being taken that the straw, and all 
 else in the house, be not burnt up 5 . Thus the oats are dried, 
 
 1 Major in chapter ii. means Spain by * Hesperia'. By ' both Hesperiae ' he 
 means Spain and Italy, which was anciently known as Hesperia. 
 
 2 i.e. G. cisalpina and G. transalpina. 
 
 3 Pliny (iv. 13 in Holland's translation): 'Three days sailing from the 
 Scythian coast there is the Hand B^ltia, of exceeding greatnes. . . . There 
 be also named the lies Oonae, wherein the inhabitants live of birds egges and 
 otes.' Cf. Pomponius Mela, de Situ Orbis iii. 6 : ' In his esse Oaeonas, qui 
 ovis avium palustrium et avenis tantum alantur.' Is it possible that the 'lies 
 Oonae ' were Scottish islands ? 
 
 4 'Aveine, avoine, avena [oats], d'oii le suffixe dTsigny-pain-d'aveine.' — Hist, 
 et Gloss, du Norm., by E. Le Hericher, vol. ii. p. 180. Isigny, if this is the place 
 referred to by Major, is on the sea-coast of Normandy, but not near Argentan. 
 
 5 For a like method in Ireland, compare ' In the remote places of Ireland, in 
 the stead of Threashing their Oats, they vse to burne them out of the straw, 
 and then winnowing them in the wind, from their burnt ashes, they make them 
 into meale. ' — A New Irish Prognostication, or Popish Callender, 4to, Lond. 
 1624, p. 40. For the continuance of the practice in Scotland, see Johnson's 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 9 
 
 and thereafter carried to the mill, where, by a slight elevation 
 of the upper millstone the outer husk gets shaken out. The flour 
 alone then remains, dried, and in good condition, more excellent 
 by far than the flour that is used by confectioners 1 in any part 
 of the world. From this dried grain, which from its resem- 
 blance to lentil flour they call by that name, after it has been 
 ground small in the manner of meal, the oaten bread is made. 
 As the common people use it both leavened and unleavened, 
 oats are very largely grown. Just eat this bread once, and 
 you shall find it far from bad. It is the food of almost all 
 the inhabitants of Wales, of the northern English (as I 
 learned some seven years back), and of the Scottish pea- 
 santry ; and yet the main strength of the Scottish and Eng- 
 lish armies is in men who have been tillers of the soil — a 
 proof that oaten bread is not a thing to be laughed at. But 
 that you may know how to get good oats, observe this rule. If 
 from a fixed quantity of oats, even with the outer husk, you The testing 
 get an equal or greater quantity of flour, your oats are good ° oats ' 
 and full-bodied ; but if the quantity of flour be less, then the 
 oats are not good. In Britain the quantity of flour thus ob- 
 tained is often greater than that of its oats. From a smaller 
 quantity of compact and firm meal, you shall get, because of 
 its rarity, a larger quantity of flour ; and from equal quantities 
 of meal you shall often get unequal quantities of flour. Bakers 
 often find this to be the case with corn ; and a purchaser will 
 pay a different price for the same quantity of wheat in two 
 villages not far distant from one another. 
 
 This is a slight digression, and not an irrelevant one, as the 
 
 Journey to the Western Islands : — ' Their method of clearing their oats from the 
 husk is by parching them in the straw. Thus, with the genuine improvidence 
 of savages, they destroy that fodder for want of which their cattle may perish. 
 Cf. also the Rev. J. L. Buchanan's Travels in the Western Hebrides, 1782- 1790, 
 p. 103 :— ' They burn the straw of the sheaf to make the oats dry for meal.' 
 
 1 ' Aromatarius '. From Major's In Qnartum, 45th question of the 15th dis- 
 tinction, we gather that the ' aromatarius ' was the ' restaurateur ' or ' confec- 
 tioner ' who hired out silver-plate for students' breakfasts (' in doctoratu vel in 
 alio prandio ' ). About that time, however, glass was beginning to take the place 
 of silver, and Major approved the change, since ' glass was quite as clean and 
 decent ', and the newly-made doctor could get the use of an excellent service for 
 four or five ' solidi '. 
 
10 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book i. 
 
 following story will show. When my fellow-countryman, David 
 Cranston 1 , was taking his first course of theology 2 , he had as 
 fellow-students and bosom-friends James Almain of Sens 3 , 
 and Peter of Brussels 4 , one of the order of Preachers, who 
 along with him attended the arts class under me. These men 
 one day, in the course of a discussion on Founder's Day 5 at 
 in the courtyard of the Sorbonne, brought this accusation 
 (based on the report of a certain religious) against the com- 
 mon people in Scotland, that they were in the habit of using 
 oaten bread. This they did, knowing the said Cranston to 
 be a man quick of temper, and to the end that they might 
 tease him with a kindly joke ; but he strove to repel the 
 charge as one that brought a disgrace on his native land. We 
 hear besides of a certain Frenchman, who brought this bread 
 
 1 David Cranston was the author of a small work in quarto entitled Positiones 
 phisicales magistri, a copy of which is in the University Library, Edinburgh. 
 He also wrote additions to the Moralia of J. Almain (15 18), to the Questiones 
 Morales of Martinus de Magistris (1510), and to the Parva logicalia of Ramirez 
 de Villascusa (1520?), copies of which are in the British Museum. There are 
 ascribed to him also Orationes, Votzim ad D. Kentigernum and Epistolae. 
 In conjunction with Gavin Douglas he compiled the tabula for Major's com- 
 mentary on the fourth book of the Sentences. He bequeathed the whole of his 
 property to the college of Montacute. The Dictionary of National Biography 
 gives us the dates of Cranston's activity 1 (fl. 1509- 1526)', and says that he be- 
 came bachelor of theology in 1519 and afterwards doctor. From the letter, 
 however, by Robertus Senalis, dated ' xiiij. Calendos Decembres Anni MDXVI.', 
 which is addressed to Major and is prefixed to the 1521 edition of his In Quar- 
 tum, it appears that Cranston had died before that date : ' Consules partim 
 tuorum auditorum insignium sed defunctorum memorie inter quosprecipui fuerunt 
 Iacobus Almain Senonen : Dauid Craston [sic] tuus conterraneus : et Petrus 
 Bruxellensis, etc' 
 
 2 ' de prima Theologiae licentia foret ' probably means that at that time he 
 was studying his first course in theology, after passing in arts. 
 
 3 James Almain, French theologian, born at Sens about the middle of the 
 fifteenth century. He was in 15 12 professor at the college of Navarre. He 
 wrote many works on logic, physics, and theology, the most important of which 
 was De antoritate ecclesia, sen sacrorum conciliorum earn repi'ccsentanthun, etc., 
 contra Th. de Vio, Paris, 1 5 12, in which he opposes the Ultramontane doctrines 
 of De Vio, afterwards better known as Cardinal Cajetan. Almain died in 
 I5I5- 
 
 4 Peter of Brussels ; i.e. Pierre Crockaert, a Dominican friar and scholastic 
 philosopher, professor at Paris and licentiate of the Sorbonne : born at Brus- 
 sels ; died in 15 14. — Franklin, Diet, des noms latins. 
 
 5 ' Dies Sorbcnicus '. Mr. P. Hume Brown tells us that this answers to our 
 Founder's Day.' 
 
CHAP. II. J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 11 
 
 with him to his own country on his return from Britain, and 
 showed it about as a monstrosity. 1 
 
 The bread is baked upon a thin circular iron plate, of about 
 an ell in diameter. The plate is supported on three feet, 
 each of them in two parts, and thus so far raised above the 
 flame that the bread, covering the whole surface of it, may be 
 perfectly baked. These are the iron utensils of which Froissart 
 in his Life of English Edward, the third of that name, makes 
 mention ; how the king came upon Thomas Randolph, earl of 
 Moray, and the lord Douglas, in a stronghold, and did not 
 dare to attack them, and how the Scots were driven on a 
 sudden to make bread of meal and water, the which the nobles 
 as well as the commoner people (since necessity knows no law) 
 began to eat. 2 
 
 Yet another way of preparing their bread is practised at a 
 pinch : a flour-paste is spread out and placed near the fire, 
 until it is rightly baked. Townsfolk laugh at country- 
 folk for this ; nevertheless Sacred History makes frequent 
 mention of just such bread, under the name of hearth-cakes 3 , 
 
 1 Cf. /Eneas Sylvius, Commcntarii Renwi Memorabilium, p. 5. (Frankfort, 
 1614.) 
 
 2 Cf. Froissart: 'They [the Scots] are ever sure to find plenty of beasts in the 
 country that they will pass through. Therefore they carry with them none other 
 purveyance but on their horse : between the saddle and the pannel they truss a 
 broad plate of metal, out behind the saddle they will have a little sack of oat- 
 meal, to the intent that when they have eaten of the sodden flesh, then they lay 
 this plate on the fire, and temper a little of the oatmeal, and when the plate is 
 hot, they cast off the thin paste thereon, and so make a little cake in the manner 
 of a cracknel or biscuit, and that they eat, to comfort withal their stomachs. ' — 
 Chronicles, etc., Bk. 1. ch. xix. John Bourchier, Lord Berners's translation, ed. 
 1812; but with modernised spelling. I have failed to find in Froissart the 
 reference in the text to Randolph and Douglas ; perhaps because I have been 
 able to consult only one recension of the Chronicles. The different recensions 
 vary a good deal in their contents. 
 
 3 ' Panis subcineritius '. Cf. the Vulgate version of Gen. xviii. 6 ; Exod. xii. 
 39 ; and passim. The word is in frequent use in the Vulgate, but it has no place 
 either in dictionaries of classical Latin or in Ducange. From the Itala und 
 Vulgata of Ronsch we find, however, that it was not the invention of St. Jerome, 
 but had a place in the Old-Latin and in the Ante-Nicene Latin Fathers. 
 1 Hearth-cake ' is the rendering of the Douay version in the cases mentioned 
 above. The English version takes no heed of the special meaning of the word — 
 but translates 'cake baken on the coals' (1 Kings xix. 6), 'a cake not turned' 
 (Hosea vii. 8). 
 
12 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [book l 
 
 that is, bread baked under or near the embers. Our country- 
 men call it Eannoka — (to Latinise the word of the vulgar). 
 Following the Sacred Scriptures we shall call it hearth-cake. 
 
 CHAP. III. — Concerning things that arc lacking in Britain, and 
 what the country possesses in their stead ; and concerning the length 
 of the day in that land. 
 
 I have spoken in the last chapter, though not doing more 
 than to skim the surface, of those things which Britain 
 possesses in abundance. I purpose now to say something of 
 what the island lacks. The vine you will nowhere find, nor 
 any trace of it 1 ; though I have read in Bede 2 that it was known 
 to grow in some parts of the island. Perhaps he is thinking 
 of a sourish wine, called by the people verjuice 3 , which is 
 produced in the southern parts of the island ; or perhaps in 
 his day the grape-vine really did grow there. God has en- 
 dowed the Britons with many good gifts that other kingdoms 
 lack ; but the converse of this is likewise true. On no one 
 kingdom has He bestowed every bounty — but to different king- 
 doms has granted differing blessings, in such wise that, no one 
 finding in himself a full sufficiency, but needing ever another's 
 aid, men might learn to be helpers one of another — after 
 the apostolic precept, 4 Bear ye one another's burdens 14 . The 
 worth of wine God has thus bestowed on the Britons, in 
 giving them other merchandise, in exchange for which foreign 
 nations carry thither their wine 5 . In the most barren parts of 
 
 1 Cf. Aeneas Sylvius, as quoted in Mr. P. Hume Brown's Early Travels in 
 Scotland, p. 28. 
 
 2 Hist. Eccl. i. 1 . 
 
 3 ' Veriutum ' = omphax et omphacium (Migne) ; oil or juice of unripe olives 
 or grapes. (6/jL<pa£ — an unripe grape ; * verjuice ' = vert jus). 
 
 4 Gal. vi. 2. 
 
 5 A favourite reflection with Major. In his In Secundum (1528) chap, 
 v. of the 17th distinction, after discussing the comparative salubrity of dif- 
 ferent countries, he proceeds : ' There is no one who will not call his native 
 land the Land of Promise. ... If a country lack some things — well, it abounds 
 in others. If the Britons must fetch their wines from France, they make repay- 
 ment by tin, and wool, and fish, and hides. And this is the good providence of 
 God, that no country abounds in all things, to the end that all may mutually be 
 helpful.' 
 
chap, ii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 13 
 
 the country is a wealth of sheep and oxen, whose hides and 
 wool may be exchanged for wine ; but the grape vine in its 
 natural kind He did not give, to the end that mortal men 
 should confess the omnipotence of God, who needs the help of 
 no man : but let men learn that they need the help, as we have 
 said, of their brethren — according to that saying of Virgil : — 
 
 4 Here corn, there grapes come more prosperously ; yonder 
 the tree drops her seedlings, and unbidden grasses kindle into 
 green. Seest thou not how Tmolus sends scent of saffron, India 
 ivory, the soft Sabaeans their spice, but the naked Chalybes steel, 
 and Pontus the castor drug, Epirus mares for Elean palms? 11 
 
 The Britons further brew from barley a most excellent ale. The making 
 They would refuse to drink such ale as is brewed at Paris, 
 but to the making of their own they bring no small in- 
 genuity. First of all, they put the barley for two or three days 
 in water, and, when it has swollen, they remove it, and lay it out 
 flat indoors, that it may become moderately dry. Thereafter 
 the barley is trodden underfoot by active youths whom they 
 summon for the purpose of dancing upon it. Often enough 
 the grain is swept together and piled to the height of a foot 
 upon the bare ground ; upon this heap too the dancing goes 
 on till the inner grain is extruded or shows signs of sprouting. 
 The next step is to gather all the grain into a large heap, 
 which emits on all sides a powerful odour. It is then dried in 
 the manner of oats, being subjected to nine changes of tempera- 
 ture, and again swept together. In this condition it is no 
 longer barley, but what they call 4 braxy' 2 ; whether the change 
 operated in it is one of accident or of essence matters not. The 
 braxy is then ground in a mill. Many persons in Britain grow 
 rich by this means, though they may possess no special skill 
 or mechanical contrivance — may have nothing in fact but the 
 money to buy a quantity of barley, which they sell to certain 
 women 3 , who in turn make the braxy into liquor in the follow- 
 
 1 Georg. i. 54-59 (Mr. Mackail's translation ; Lond. 1889). 
 
 2 'Braxium'. Low Lat. ' brassare' ; Gael, 'bracha', ' braich ' ; Fr. 'brasser'; 
 Eng. ' brew Cf. ' braxy ' mutton ; when it begins to ferment. 
 
 3 Called ' brewsters ' (braciatrices). ' Braseum ordei ', ' braseum avenae ', 
 occur frequently in the Exchequer Rolls. In 1509, e.g. a quantity of barley was 
 delivered to certain women of Edinburgh for ale to be used in the king's house- 
 hold, vol. xiii. p. 146. See also ib. p. 540. 
 
14 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I. 
 
 ing way. Using only pure water, either that which is taken from 
 a running stream, or rain-water collected in a cistern, they boil 
 it, and in a boiling state pour it into a large vessel. Into this 
 they pour the braxy, mix the whole together, and lay cloths 
 over the vessel that the contents may boil for five or six hours. 
 Next, from a small hole in the bottom a long piece of wood, 
 by which the vessel is closed, is slightly raised, so that the 
 liquid, not the grain, is distilled. The liquor is then received 
 into a large vessel, where in Scotland it is once more sub- 
 jected to boiling heat. But, for the production of an excellent 
 drink, the second boiling — as I know from experience — is of 
 the greatest moment. This twice-boiled liquor is then kept 
 for thirty hours in other vessels, whence it is gently drawn, 
 all care being taken that the lees be left behind. The scum is 
 then added to the liquor in those fresh vessels ; for the scum 
 is the lees of the old ale, and there is much of it left at the 
 bottom. In place of the scum some persons take a branch 
 of a young hazel 1 , and throw it into the liquor, and this 
 serves the same purpose as the scum. The ale then rarefies 
 in its own vessels, in the manner of must, and bursts through 
 the sides ; but after two days it is a wholesome drink, and 
 according to the abundance of barley and the paucity of the 
 water the drink is strong or, contrariwise, weak. The purity 
 of the water is in a large measure ensured by its being boiled, 
 as may be seen in the case of ptisane and other distilled waters. 
 No one who is accustomed to this beverage will prefer a nor- 
 thern wine : it keeps the bowels open, it is nourishing, and it 
 quenches thirst. 
 
 From what I have now said of wine and ale, it is plain 
 that wine has not the merit of producing a stronger race of 
 men. Taking the whole of Chi'istendom, the drinkers of wine 
 are not more numerous than the drinkers of ale. Wine is used 
 in a small part only of Normandy or Picardy. In Lower 
 Germany, in Flanders, in Poland, Ruthenia, Livonia, Prussia, 
 Pomerania, in the three divisions of Scandinavia, the western, 
 eastern, and southern, the vine does not flourish ; nor yet in 
 the neighbouring islands of Britain, Ireland, the Orkneys, and 
 
 1 ' circulum coryli tenellae'. The wood of the hazel was used for the divining 
 rod. Major, however, does not suggest a magical intention here. 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 15 
 
 others still more northern (of which I shall speak further) — 
 which, taken together, make up a half of Christendom. The 
 vine in fact is found in barely one-half of the world. The same 
 is true of that part of the equator beyond Sarmatia, Tartary, 
 and such regions as these ; and of the neighbourhood likewise of 
 the antarctic circle and antarctic pole. From all this 'tis plain 
 enough that Britain cannot claim the vine ; but she has another 
 wholesome drink brewed of barley, oats, and wheat ; and, thus 
 furnished, it follows of necessity that though the vine be 
 wanting, she has flute-players and whistlers, to quote the 
 Philosopher upon the Scythians in his Posteriora 1 . Being 
 destitute of the vine, it follows a fortiori that the Britons 
 have not the orange, the olive, the fig, and the rest of fruits 
 like these — without all which we can make a good shift to 
 live. And, to say the truth, we could dispense with wine too 9 
 but for the consecration of the Holy Blood of Christ, for which 
 but little wine is enough. 
 
 Treating of the division of the seasons in Britain, some The 
 writers ha^e made the longest working day to have eighteen in Bl 
 hours, and the shortest winter's day but six ; but there is not 
 much weight in this observation, since the island, as we have 
 already said, is of a considerable length, and a small part 
 of the land towards the north will show greater variation of 
 time and season than an equal part near the Equator. In 
 Maidens' Castle, 2 or Edinburgh, the longest working day is of 
 
 1 ' . . . et per consequens, licet non sint vites, stat esse sibilatores seu tibicines.' 
 The reference is to Book I. ch. xiii. § II of the Analytica Posteriora, where 
 Aristotle is treating of demonstrative proof, and quotes, as to tou 'Auaxdpaidos, 
 this example of a far-fetched reason : ' Similar to this are far-fetched reasons, 
 as that of Anacharsis, who said there were no flute-players in Scythia because 
 there were no vines.' Aristotle says nothing about 'sibilatores', which makes it 
 probable that Major quoted from memory — and indeed he varies the form of the 
 argument. Aristotle says the Scythians had no flute-players because they had 
 no vines ; Major says we have no vines, and therefore we have flute-players. 
 
 2 Castrum Puellarum '. The ' Edin ' in the Gaelic Dun-Edin (Welsh Caer- 
 Eiddin) ' defies ', so I am assured by Professor Kuno Meyer, ' all explanation 
 from Celtic', and it is commonly said that it is really the Anglo-Saxon name 
 Eadwine. ' Eadwinesburh ', however, would have given 1 Edinburgh ' ; 'for 
 the genitive s is never lost in such derivations '. If Edinburgh, then, is con- 
 nected with Eadwine, it must be ' as a comparatively late translation of the 
 Gaelic Diin-Edin'. Whatever may be the derivation of ' Edinburgh', ' Castrum 
 Puellarum ' is certainly a false translation of some form of the original name. 
 
16 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book l 
 
 eighteen hours, and in winter this is reduced to one of six hours 
 only. But further north you shall find the longest day to have 
 nineteen hours, the shortest but five. There indeed, or in the 
 neighbouring islands, that saying of Juvenal's is made good : 
 Et minima contentos node Britannos 1 . In summer the nights of 
 the north have more light, since the sun declines but a small 
 way below the horizon. Two of the islands are called Sky and 
 Luys — that is, Twilight and Light — because the nights of 
 summer are there but a kind of twilight. I am not forgetting 
 that in some parts of the world one half of the year is night, 
 the other half, day. But that is not the case with Scotland. 
 Nor would I have you believe Aeneas Sylvius (though I name 
 him with respect) where he makes the winter day of Scot- 
 land to be but two or three hours in length, and therefore 2 finds 
 it to be greatly shorter than at Rome. That he said merely 
 in strong hyperbole 3 . At York the days of winter are longer 
 
 The ' Maidens' ' may have had its origin, as the late Dr. Robert Chambers 
 thought, in a 1 Mai Dun', which would represent a Celtic ' Maghdun '= ' dun 
 [or fort] of the plain '. The Marquis of Bute, in a letter to the Times of 
 February 25, 1S91, conjectures that in the course of time the belief arose that the 
 ' Edin ' was derived from the Irish saint Edana, a nun, who in the Arthurian 
 legend is stated to have established churches and schools in some of the principal 
 fortresses, of which Edinburgh was one, lying in the track of King Arthur. 
 The Irish, he remarks, had the habit of prefixing 1 Mo my 1 to the names of 
 their saints, in sign of affectionate respect ; hence Edana became Modana (in 
 Cornish Modivennd)\ and her churches in Galloway, Maidenkirks. Medanburgh, 
 on English tongues, easily slipped into the more intelligible Maidenburgh, which 
 then became Latinized into ' Castrum Puellarum '. Dr. Skene, on the other 
 hand, in his Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. i. pp. 85, 86, calls this nun of 
 the Arthurian legend ' Saint Monenna '. For Major's own derivation of ' Edin- 
 burgh ', from ' Heth,' king of the Picts, cf. ch. xiii. of this Book. The foim 
 ' edenesburg it may be added, is found in a charter of David 1. printed in the 
 Registrum de Dunfermelyn, p. 15. Dalrymple in his version (1596) of Leslie's 
 History writes ' Madne Castle \ Cf. Father Cody's note in loco, p. 361. 
 
 1 Juv. ii. 161. 
 
 2 1 Sed tamen ', which does not seem to make sense. I therefore venture to 
 translate ' therefore '. 
 
 3 Cf. what Major says about Aeneas Sylvius (afterwards Pope Pius the Second 
 — he is the only Pope who ever visited Scotland), in his In Secundum chap. v. 
 of the 17th distinction (1528) : 1 Aeneas Sylvius says that when he was in 
 Scotland the winter day was but three hours long ; but, saving his rever- 
 ence, he says what is not true [facit commenticium] — (I speak not against the 
 supreme pontiff, but against Aeneas Sylvius before his elevation to the pontifi- 
 cate) . . . but perhaps a man may be pardoned because he finds a variation of 
 three hours between Rome and the promontory of Berwick.' See Aeneas Sylvius, 
 Com. Rer. M., p. 5. 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 17 
 
 than in Edinburgh ; in London they are longer than at York, 
 and in the southern part of Hampshire again they are longer 
 than in London. So that in the matter of length of day in 
 Britain there is no small variety. 
 
 CHAP. IV. — Of those who have possessed Britain, how the peoples 
 of Wales are Aremoric Britons, and the Scots are Irish Britons, and 
 of the threefold language of the Britons. 
 
 I find in Britain first of all one kingdom, that namely of The Aremoric 
 the Britons, and already of old that people had occupation of people * 
 Wales, and they speak the primitive tongue, and the Britons 
 of Aremorica in Gaul understand this tongue. This is a proof 
 that the Britons had their origin from the Aremoricans; so much 
 must be admitted, or the converse of it. Following the Britons, 
 the Picts invaded the island, and made of it two kingdoms — 
 of the Picts, namely, and the Britons. Following the Pictish 
 invasion came that of the Irish Scots ; and so it came about 
 that in the island there were three kingdoms and three kings. 
 Now the Picts and Scots began to vex the original Britons 
 with frequent invasion ; and when these could no longer bear 
 up against them, they besought the Romans to help them ; 
 and when at last the Romans grew weary and refused to give 
 further help, the Britons betook them to the Saxons ; and 
 when Hengist the Saxon answered their prayer, seven kings, 
 as will be shortly seen, landed in the island with intent to 
 found kingdoms there. So that there came to be altogether ten 
 kingdoms in the island, — and that too in the days of Bede, — 
 of which two, those of the Picts and Scots, were, as one may say, 
 large, and seven, those of the English, I am inclined to think, 
 were small, both in extent and in resources. The third kingdom 
 was Wales. At the present day, however, there are, and for a 
 long time have been, to speak accurately, two kingdoms in the 
 island : the Scottish kingdom namely, and the English. For those 
 seven kingdoms, before the conquest of Wales, were united into 
 one kingdom of England, and thereafter Wales was made sub- 
 ject to the English. So that the whole part of the island 
 which is held by the king of the southern island is called the 
 
 B 
 
IcS 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I. 
 
 kingdom of England, and the rest is the kingdom of Scotland. 
 Yet all the inhabitants are Britons — a fact that I think is 
 established by what has been said. I will try, however, in a 
 few words, to make good my contention. Either the original 
 inhabitants of the island alone are Britons, and therefore the 
 ThaMhe^Scots dwellers in AVales at this present will be the only Britons, 
 against all common use of language ; or the English, who are 
 descended from the Saxons, and others of foreign origin, but 
 are natives of the island, are Britons ; and in this way it will 
 behove us to speak of the Scots born in the island as Britons also, 
 and by like reasoning we will say that the Picts too are Britons 
 in respect that they were born in the island ; j ust as we ought 
 to 1 call those men Gauls that were born in Gaul. I say, there- 
 fore, that all men born in Britain are Britons, seeing that on 
 any other reasoning Britons could not be distinguished from 
 other races ; since it is possible to pass from England to Wales, 
 and from Scotland by way of England to Wales, dry shod, 
 there would otherwise be no distinction of races. This not- 
 withstanding, and though I reckon both Scots and Picts to 
 be alike Britons, yet to make some distinction between them, 
 when I come to speak of the wars that they have waged with 
 the Britons, I shall call them Picts and Scots and not Britons ; 
 for in this matter I approve the opinion, based upon the 
 speech of the common people, of the philosopher in his second 
 book De Caelo, where he says : 4 Our speech should be that of 
 the multitude, but our thought the thought of the few' 2 . 
 The^peech of You must know further, that there are in the island three 
 different tongues, and the speaker of no one of these under- 
 stands another. The first of these, in the southern parts, is 
 the Welsh tongue ; this is in use by the Britons who speak 
 the British language 3 . The second is more widely spread 
 throughout the island, and is in use by the Wild Scots 
 and the island Scots ; and this is the Irish tongue, though it 
 may be called broken Irish. The third tongue of this island, 
 and the chief, is the English, which is spoken by the English 
 and by the civilised Scots. 
 
 1 F. ' oportebat ' ; Orig. better, { oportebit '. 
 a Cf. Bk. n. ch. iv. 
 
 3 * Britones britonisantes ' ; cf. the French 1 Breton bretonnant '. 
 
( HAP. V.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 19 
 
 CHAP. V. — Of the situation of Britain, that is, of England and Scot- 
 land, and of their fivers, and, in special, of the wealth of London. 
 
 Into two kingdoms then, and under two kings, all Britain is 
 now divided. The English king possesses the southern part. 
 On all sides save the north the ocean is its boundary. The 
 Isle of Wight, fifteen leagues in length, in the ocean, is part Wight, 
 of this domain ; likewise two islands of small importance, 
 Guernsey and Jersey, 1 some four or five leagues in length, situ- 
 ated between England and Normandy. The southern boun- 
 dary of Scotland adjoins the northern boundary of England, 
 or indeed coincides with it. Six leagues to the east the river 
 known in the vulgar tongue as the Tweed severs England Tweed, 
 from Scotland, so that, from one of its banks, Englishmen can 
 fish, from the other Scots. After a course of six leagues, the 
 Tweed enters Scotland ; not that 2 it flows from England into 
 Scotland, but contrariwise. By the monastery of Kelso it re- 
 ceives the tributary Teviot, whence comes the name of Teviot- 
 dale. Scotland extends southwards three miles beyond the 
 monastery of Kelso. Its western boundary is the river Solway, 
 where the sands are full of peril. The Solway falls into the 
 Western Ocean, and for a long space separates Scotland from 
 England. Beyond this boundary the Scots possess Red Kirk 3 , 
 and beyond Red Kirk is a debateable land scarcely one Debateable 
 league in breadth. This land is without inhabitants, inas- land ' 
 much as the Scots aver that it pertains to them, and the Eng- 
 lish, on their part, say the same. Three leagues beyond the 
 Solway the English have the small fortified city of Carlisle. 
 The boundaries have a breadth of some five or six leagues ; but 
 that region is indifferently cultivated, by reason of Scottish and 
 
 1 Orig. 1 Darsi & Iarsi '. 
 
 2 F. has 'quia', and 'quia' is constantly used for 'quod' in ecclesiastical 
 Latin, e.g. St. Augustine ; but Orig. reads ' quod '. 
 
 3 ' rubrum templum '. There is a ' Red Kirk ' to the west of the Kirtle (as I 
 am told by Mr. R. B. Armstrong) in a very correct MS. map (1590) in the British 
 Museum — 'A Piatt of the opposite Border of Scotland to the West Marches of 
 England '. Red Kirk was in the possession of George Grame, a younger son of 
 Richard of Netherby and grandson of William Grame, alias Long Will, chief 
 of the clan. 
 
20 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [book i. 
 
 English robbers and inveterate thieves. On the eastern Scottish 
 marches by the shore, and in Teviotdale where it adjoins that 
 region, and in the part to the west by the river Solway, the 
 boundary line is of the clearest ; but between Teviotdale and 
 the Solway it remains doubtful, and is matter for contention 
 between the Scots and the Englishmen. 
 The rivers of In England there are, further, three chief rivers, the first of 
 which, the Severn, or, by its British name, Habern, is in mid 
 Wales. This river has its source to the east, making towards 
 Shrewsbury ; afterwards, flowing southwards, by Bridgenorth, 
 Worcester, and Gloucester, it turns westward by Bristol, and 
 in some parts is the boundary between England from Wales. 
 
 The second river is the Humber, which winds its way towards 
 the southern part of Yorkshire ; into it flow Trent and Ouse, 
 making of the Humber a mighty stream, who then carries 
 them with him into the Northern Ocean. 
 
 The third river is the Thames, which takes part of its name 
 from an Oxfordshire streamlet, and flows by London. "Tis 
 a river of no great size, save when it is increased by the flow- 
 ing tide. In Britain you need not look for a large river — and 
 the reason is this : that its streams flow across the island — 
 following not its length, but its breadth, which is not great. 
 The sea on one side or other is at hand, and soon swallows 
 them. For in their course rivers tend to join one with another, 
 and lose their old names as they receive tributary streams. Not 
 otherwise does the Metro increase — not otherwise the king of 
 European rivers, the Danube himself 1 ; for in his long course the 
 Danube receives the waters of sixty large streams. In Britain, 
 however, you shall find rivers equal to the Marne, or the Seine 
 before its union with the Marne ; only, as there is in parts but 
 small depth of water, they are not well fitted for navigation. 
 Full of fish they are, and fair to see, since they flow for the 
 most part over pebbles and sand. The Thames at London is 
 three times as large as the Seine at Paris, because further up 
 
 1 The Metro (Metaurus), a river in Umbria, has a course of no more than 40 
 or 50 miles, and is famous only for the battle between Hasdrubal and C. CI. 
 Nero B.C. 207. Major takes the Metaurus as a type of small and unimportant 
 rivers, the Danube as a type of the greatest. Silius Italicus (viii. 450) describes 
 the Metaurus as a mountain torrent rather than a river. 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 21 
 
 even than London Bridge the ocean rushes, under agitation 
 of the moon ; and so it happens that the largest vessels in 
 Europe can make their way to London Bridge. Londinum is London, 
 called by the Britons London, and is the capital of England, 
 and of all the cities of Britain the largest and the fairest in its 
 situation. There shall you find merchant vessels from every 
 part of Europe. The city is adorned with a right noble 
 bridge, on which are houses richly built, and likewise a 
 church. One mile beyond the city westward you reach West- 
 minster, that is, the Western Monastery. The king's palace 
 is there, likewise monuments of kings, and the supreme courts 
 of justice in constant session. Between the monastery and 
 the city, on the banks of the river, are the palaces of the 
 bishops and nobles ; while near them are the dwellings of 
 the handicraftsmen — and so the whole city in all its length 
 lies along the river. Three miles eastward, likewise on the 
 Thames, is Greenwich, the common dockyard of the kings 
 of England. There you shall find ships (which they call 
 ' barges ') in great numbers, ascending the river to London, 
 and descending to its seaport — not drawn, as in the Seine, by 
 horses, but either answering to the action of the wind, or 
 simply to the flow and ebb of the tide without wind \ Every 
 year is chosen one of a craft, opulent and up in years, as 
 prefect. Him they call mayor of the city, and before him is 
 borne a sword, in symbol of justice. Of the royal preroga- The Mayor of 
 
 tives it is the king's Justice that falls to his share. If there the City, who 
 
 • c- • • • • • , . is the chief 
 
 shall chance a scarcity of provisions in the city, it falls to him magistrate of 
 
 to send to foreign countries and find a remedy for such scarcity. the P eople * 
 In point of population I place London before Rouen, the 
 second city of both Gauls. In wealth it surpasses Rouen by 
 much, for three things go chiefly to the enriching of this city : 
 the supreme courts of justice ; the almost constant presence of 
 the king, who at his own expense provides for a great house- 
 hold and supplies to them all their food ; and — what is the 
 strongest element of all — a great concurrence of merchants. Yet, 
 
 1 Cf. Dunbar's description in his ' London, thou art, etc. ' : — 
 
 ' Where many a swanne doth swymme with wyngis fare ; 
 Where many a barge doth saile, and row with are.' 
 
 —Ed. Scot. Text Soc, p. 227. 
 
JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY [book i. 
 
 in the judgment of some Englishmen — and this is my own 
 judgment too — Paris has a population three times greater than 
 that of London ; but I do not reckon the wealth of Paris to 
 be three times greater than the wealth of London *. There 
 are to be found on the Thames three or four thousand tame 
 Of swans, swans; but though I have seen many swans there, 1 did not 
 count them ; I merely report what I heard. The second city 
 York. is York, the seat of an archbishop, and fifty leagues distant from 
 Scotland. In circuit it is great,but not in population or in wealth ; 
 in respect of these matters it falls much behind London. It 
 has no duke apart from the king, nor a resident archbishop, by 
 Norwich, whose favour the city might be enriched 2 . The third city is Nor- 
 wich, an episcopal see, in which is made that kind of cloth which 
 is called 'ostade 13 , both double and single. Other cities there 
 are and wealthy, such as Bristol ; Coventry — it has no river, 
 and that is worth noting, but 'tis a goodly city ; Lincoln, of 
 renown in old days, and many other cities and villages 1 . 
 Universities There are, further, in England, two illustrious universities : 
 Oxford! and of which one — I mean Oxford — is famous even among foreign- 
 ers. Into it, as I have heard, the kings of England dare not 
 set foot, lest they should meet with insult, on account of in- 
 solence which was offered to a certain holy virgin by one of the 
 kings of the English 4 . In ancient times this university has pro- 
 
 1 See Appendix, on the Population of Medieval Cities. 
 
 2 The archbishop's palace, demolished during the civil war of the 17th century, 
 was at Cawood, ten miles south of York. The last duke of York was Henry 
 Tudor (1491-1509), afterwards Henry vm., when the dukedom merged in the 
 crown. The Plantagenet dukedom of York (1 385-1461) also merged in the 
 crown. From 1461 to 1491 there was no duke of York. 
 
 3 From YVorstead, a village — once a manufacturing and market town — 
 twelve miles north-east of Norwich. Some say that the Flemings first estab- 
 lished here the manufacture of woollen twists and stuffs, but the foreign 
 immigration is doubted by Rye {Popular History of Norfolk). The trr.de moved 
 to Norwich in the reign of Richard II., and the town of Worstead declined. — 
 National Gazetteer. A magnificent Church was raised at Worstead 'by the 
 liberality of the merchants who founded here the "worsted" trade'. — Rye's 
 Popular History of Norfolk. ' Ostada panni species ex lana subtiliore contexti, 
 non unius usus, idem quod nostris Estame ; unde Anglis Yoosted stockings, 
 tibialia sic contexta, Gall, bas d'estame. Haud infrequens nostratibus vox 
 Ostade.' — Ducange ; who quotes a book as ' bound in ostada '. 
 
 4 Miss Norgate, in her England under the Angevin Kings, vol. i. p. 43, tells 
 the story, and gives a reference to William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontif. lib. iv. 
 § 178. In the fifth chapter of Mr. James Parker's The Early History of Oxford, 
 
CHAP. V.J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 23 
 
 duced philosophers and theologians of renown — such as Alex- 
 ander Hales, Richard Middleton, John Duns, that subtle doctor, 
 Ockam, Adam of Ireland, Robert Holkot, Bokinham, Eliphat, 
 Climito Langley, John Roditon, an English monk, Suiset, a 
 most ingenious mathematician, Hentisbery, a very skilful dia- 
 lectician, Strode, Bravardinus, and many more \ Famous 
 colleges there are too in that university, founded by kings, 
 queens, bishops, and princes, and from their revenues provi- 
 sion is made for the education of many scholars, whom at Paris 
 
 772-1100, printed for the Oxford Historical Society, 1885, there is an account 
 of St. Frideswide's Nunnery, with a full discussion of the various legends that 
 surround the memory]of its founder. I quote'Mr. Parker's translation of William 
 of Malmesbury's narrative : 1 [Frideswide], the daughter of a king, despised 
 marriage with a king, consecrating her virginity to the Lord Christ. But he, 
 when he had set his mind on marrying the virgin, and found all his entreaties 
 and blandishments of no avail, determined to make use of forcible means. 
 When Frideswide discovered this, she determined upon taking flight into the 
 woods. But neither could her hiding-place be kept secret from her lover, nor 
 was there want of courage to hinder his following the fugitive. The virgin 
 therefore found her way . . . into Oxford. When in the morning her anxious 
 lover hastened thither, the maiden, now despairing of safety by flight, and also, 
 by reason of her weariness, being unable to proceed further, invoked the aid of 
 God for herself, and punishment upon her persecutor. And now, as he with 
 his companions approached the gates of the city, he suddenly became blind, 
 struck by the hand of Heaven. And when he had admitted the fault of his 
 obstinacy, and Frideswide was besought by his messengers, he received back his 
 sight as suddenly as he had lost it. Hence there has arisen a dread amongst all 
 the kings of England which has caused them to beware of entering and abiding 
 in that city, since it is said to be fraught with destruction, every one of the kings 
 declining to test the truth for himself by incurring the danger.' Miss Norgate 
 adds, as to this 1 dread amongst the kings of England ' : 'It must be supposed 
 that the councils held at Oxford under .Ethelred and Cnut met outside the walls : 
 we cannot tell whether any countenance was given to the legend by the circum 
 stances of Harold Harefoot's death ; but from that time forth [1040] we hear of 
 no more royal visits to Oxford till H33-' 
 
 1 Alexander Hales, surnamed 1 doctor irrefragabilis ', entered the order of 
 St. Francis, was a voluminous author, and in theology the master of Duns Scotus. 
 He died in 1245. 
 
 Richard Middleton or de Media Villa, also a Franciscan, taught theology 
 at Oxford and Paris. He died in 1300. Some of his works, including a com- 
 mentary on the Master of the Sentences, were printed at Venice in 1509. 
 
 John Duns, or Scotus, ' doctor subtilis ', was the founder of the Scotist school 
 of theology adopted by the Franciscans. There has been much controversy 
 regarding the birthplace and native country of Duns, the year of his birth (1265 
 or 1274), and the college at Oxford to which he belonged. As to his birth- 
 place, however, compare Major (Bk. IV. ch. xvi.), where he speaks of Duns 
 
24- 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book l 
 
 we call 4 bursars '. Some colleges are of a reputation beyond 
 the others, the new college of the blessed Magdalene, and a 
 college founded by a bishop of Winchester (who was once a 
 
 as 1 born at Duns, a village eight miles distant from England, and separated from 
 my own home by seven or eight leagues only His principal theological work 
 was the Quaestiones in libros Sententiarivn, known as the Opus Oxoniense. The 
 traditional date of his death is 1 308. His complete works were published by 
 Wadding in 12 vols.' fol., Lyons 1639. 
 
 William Ockham, 1 doctor invincibilis ' or ' singularis ', a Franciscan, con- 
 demned for nominalism and excommunicated. He wrote commentaries on the 
 Sentences, printed at Lyons in 1495, a ^ so a treatise on the power of the emperor 
 and the pope, in which the former is exalted at the expense of the latter. He 
 died unabsolved from his excommunication, it is said in 1347. 
 
 Adam of Ireland, a Franciscan, wrote Quaestiones quodlibeiahs and a commen- 
 tary on the four books of the Sentences. His date is about 1320. Cf. Biblio- 
 theca Britannica Hibernica and J. A. Fabricius's Bibliotheca Latina, under 
 
 ADAMUS. 
 
 Robert Holkot, of the order of St. Dominic, a follower of William Ockham, 
 a doctor of Oxford, and a liberal interpreter of Scripture. He wrote many 
 works on Scripture {De Studio Scripturae) and the several books thereof. In 
 philosophy he was a rigid Peripatetic. He died of the plague in 1349. 
 
 John Bokingham, a doctor of theology, who expounded the Master of the Sen- 
 tences in the schools at Oxford. He was the author of Opus acutissimum in iv. 
 libros Sententiarum (printed at Paris in 1505), a copy of which is in the Bodleian. 
 By Pits, under date 1399, he is identified, doubtfully, with the bishop of Lincoln 
 of that name. 
 
 Robert Eliphat, a Franciscan or Augustinian, studied at Oxford, and obtained 
 his doctorate at Paris. Pits says ' he never made an end of writing on the Sen- 
 tences '. He flourished during the reign of Edward m. 
 
 Climiton Langley was skilful in astronomy, as well as in theology, and 
 wrote on both these subjects. He flourished about 1350. 
 
 John Rodington, a Lincolnshire man, became a Franciscan, and was provin- 
 cial of his order in England. Pits quotes Major as his authority for the state- 
 ment that Rodington taught philosophy and theology at Oxford before going to 
 Paris. He wrote numerous works on the Sentences, was a strenuous opponent 
 of the Immaculate Conception, and died at Bedford in 1348. 
 
 Roger Suiset, according to Pits, who quotes this passage from Major, was 
 commonly called the 'Calculator'. Mr. Brewer {Monunienta Fra.7icisca.iia, 1858, 
 p. xliv) says that Suiset's profound mathematical researches ' commanded the 
 praises of Leibniz '. He was a Cistercian. His Insolubilia was printed at 
 Oxford about 1483. He wrote also on the Sentences. His date was about 1350. 
 
 William Hentisbery or Heytesbury was, says Pits, a man of acute intellect but 
 contentious mind, and had no taste for anything but logical subtleties, in the 
 discussion of which he spent his life. He wrote a treatise on 1 De Sensu 
 Composito'. Major is quoted as the authority for Hentisbery having taken 
 his master's degree at Oxford. He lived in the reign of Richard 1 1. 
 
 Ralph Strode, a native of Caermarthen, a famous musician and poet, a scholar, 
 and a wit. He wrote on logic and theology, was famous for his controversy with 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 25 
 
 fellow of New college Each of these colleges has a hundred 
 bursars, of whom some give themselves to the study of divinity 
 and the hearing of lectures, and others continuously to letters. 
 
 There is yet another university, that of Cambridge, somewhat Cambridge, 
 inferior to Oxford, both in the number of its scholars and in 
 reputation for letters. It too possesses very fair foundations 
 of kings and queens. One of these, and indeed the chief, is 
 King's college 2 , worthy to be placed along with New college in 
 Oxford. There is too the Queen's college 2 (that is, founded 
 by a queen), a very fair building, and the King's hall 3 , in 
 revenues and in bursars not inferior to Queen's college. An- 
 other college is Christ's 4 (in which I formerly heard lectures for 
 three months — for this reason, that I found it to be situated 
 within the parish of Saint Andrew). A certain convent for 
 
 Wicliffe, and was probably author of an Itinerary to the Holy Land. He was a 
 a friend of Chaucer, who dedicated to him and to Gower his ' Troilus and 
 Creseide ': 
 
 ' O moral Gower, this book I direct 1 
 To thee and to the philosophical Strode.' 
 There is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of Strode in the Introduction 
 to the edition of the fourteenth century poem Pearl recently issued by the Rev. 
 Israel Gollancz. London : 1891. Mr. Gollancz thinks it possible that Strode 
 may yet be proved to be the author of that poem. He flourished about 1370. 
 
 Bravardinus. Thomas Bradwardine, 1 doctor profundus ', commentator on the 
 Sentences, c. 1350, of whom Chaucer writes : 
 
 ' As can the holy doctour S. Austin 
 Or Boece or the bishop Bradwirdyn.' 
 
 1 The foundation stone of Magdalen college was laid in 1473. It was 
 founded by William Waynflete, bishop of Winchester. Waynflete was educated 
 at Winchester college, and probably at New college, Oxford, but his name is 
 not among the fellows. 
 
 2 King's college was founded in 1441 by Henry vi. Queens' college was 
 founded in 1446 by Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI., and ' re-founded' 
 in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville, queen of Edward iv. The name of the college 
 is therefore generally printed ' Queens' ' (not ' Queen's ') college. 
 
 3 King's hall was the nucleus of Trinity college. Cf. Willis and Clark's 
 Architectural History, etc., vol. i. p. lxxv. 
 
 4 Christ's college, an extension of God's House (first founded in 1439), which 
 had been transferred to its new site in St. Andrew's Street by King Henry VI. 
 It had its name changed in 1505, on its re-endowment by the countess of Rich- 
 mond and Derby, mother of Henry VII. — Willis and Clark's Architectural 
 History, etc., vol. i. pp. lvi., lxx. As Major calls it Christ's college, it is clear 
 that his history was written after 1505 ; but his residence there was certainly 
 before he went to Paris in 1493. Cf. Introduction to this volume. 
 
26 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book l 
 
 women 1 was changed into Jesus college, by the counsel of a 
 most learned and worthy man, Stubbs 2 , a doctor in theology. 
 Those women refused to keep their enclosure, and added to 
 their own a society of students of the other sex ; and this 
 was a scandal to men of serious mind. Wherefore, when 
 these had been turned out, and other foundations for the 
 common life had been prepared, there were admitted in their 
 place poor students, who should give themselves to letters 
 and the practice of virtue, and bear fruit in their season. 
 This expulsion of women I approve. For if, from being- 
 nurseries of religion, these houses become nurseries of prosti- 
 tution 3 , honest foundations must be put into their place. There 
 are besides many other colleges in which lectures are given 
 daily. The course of study in the arts is in these univer- 
 sities of seven or eight years before the taking of the Master's 
 degree. A Chancellor (whom in Paris they call a Rector) — a 
 man always of grave repute — is every year elected from the 
 highest faculty 4 . The Chancellor of Oxford was Thomas 
 Bradwardine. Two Proctors are chosen yearly ; in their hands 
 are all the functions of justice — for their authority extends over 
 every layman in the city. And though in number the laymen 
 be equal to or more than the scholars, as a matter of fact they 
 dare not rise against them ; for they would be crushed forth- 
 with by the scholars. In either university you shall find four 
 thousand or five thousand scholars; they are all of them no 
 
 1 The nunnery of St. Rhadegund. In 1497, and through the exertion of John 
 Alcock, bishop of Ely, the nunnery was suppressed by royal patent, in conse- 
 quence of the conduct of the nuns, which 1 brought grave scandal on their pro- 
 fession, and in the reign of Henry VII. not more than two remained on the 
 foundation '. Cf. Mr. J. B. Mullinger's University of Cambridge from the 
 Earliest Times, etc., pp. 320, 321 ; Cambridge, 1873. 
 
 2 Stubbs has not been clearly identified. There was an Edmund Stubbs, D.D., 
 master of Gonville hall in 1503, who died in 15 14. Cf. Cooper's Athen. Cantab. 
 vol. i. p. 16. From Bliss's ed. of Wood's Athence Oxon. vol. ii. col. 694, s. v. 
 JOHN morgan, we learn that in 1506 Mr. Lawrence Stubbys S.T.B. was pre- 
 sented by the abbot and convent of Oseney to the vicarage of Cudlington on the 
 death of John Morgan. Stubbs's connection with Oseney, and Major's intimate 
 knowledge of that House, make it possible, if we admit that kind of intercourse 
 between the universities, that this Stubbs is the ' learned and worthy man ' of 
 the text. 
 
 3 Cf. what Major says, Bk. iv. ch. x. of the disorders in the nunnery of North 
 Berwick. 
 
 4 'the highest faculty,' i.e. theology. 
 
< hap. v.J OF GREATER BRITAIN 27 
 
 longer boys ; they carry swords and bows, and in large part 
 are of gentle birth. In the colleges however they do not give 
 themselves to the study of grammar. 
 
 In England every village, be it only of twelve or thirteen 
 houses, has a parish church 1 ; their places of worship are 
 most richly adorned, and in the art of music they stand, in 
 my opinion, first in all Europe. For though in France or 
 in Scotland you may meet with some musicians of such 
 absolute accomplishment as in England, yet 'tis not in such English 
 numbers 2 . Their churchmen are of an honest walk and con- musicians, 
 versation, and should they be taken in adultery or fornication, 
 yea, though they were beneficed priests, from their place they 
 are compelled to go. In courage, in prudence, in all virtues of 
 this nature, Englishmen do not think themselves the lowest of 
 mankind ; and if, in a foreign land, they happen upon a man of 
 parts and spirit, °tis pity,' they say, 'he's not an Englishman \ 
 
 CHAP. VI. — Of the boundaries of Scotland, its cities, towns and 
 villages; of its customs in war, and in the church; of its abundance 
 offish, its harbours, ivoods, islands, etc. 
 
 In the old days the Scots and Picts had as their southern 
 boundary that Thirl wall wall which Severus 3 built at the 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. III. ch. vi., where Major says that every village, ' etiamsi duntaxat 
 xx. sit ignium has its parish church. 
 
 2 Cf. Erasmus, Praise of Folly, pp. ioi, 102, ed. Basil. 1676 : — 'It seems as if 
 nature, just as she has implanted in every mortal his own peculiar share of self- 
 esteem, has done the same by each nation, and almost by every city. And thus 
 it comes that Britons claim for their peculium beauty of person, music, and good 
 feeding. The Scots plume themselves on their noble descent, on kindred with 
 their royal house, and, I must add, upon their power of splitting a hair in argu- 
 ment. The French assume the monopoly of fine manners; the Parisians in 
 particular think that none may even approach them in a mastery of theological 
 science. The Italians assert a special supremacy in polite letters and eloquence. 
 And thus has every nation the happiness to apply this flattering unction, that it 
 alone is not a barbarian. ' As to the condition of musical culture in Britain at 
 the present day as compared with the rank of our country in that respect in the 
 sixteenth century, it is worth noting that Mr. Rubinstein has just expressed his 
 opinion that while in Germany 50 per cent, of the population know good music, 
 and in France as many as 16 per cent., in England the percentage is not more 
 than two. 
 
 3 Thirlwall is on the line of Hadrian's Wall. It is said that the wall was here 
 'thirled', i.e. bored through, by the Caledonians. Cf. Dr. Bruce's Handbook, 
 p. 188 (ed. 1885) ; and see footnote on p. 60 of this volume. 
 
28 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book i. 
 
 river Tyne ; but at the present day the southern boundary of 
 Scotland coincides with the northern boundary of England. 
 The chief city in Scotland is Edinburgh. It has no river 
 flowing through it, but the Water of Leith, half a league 
 distant, might at great expense be diverted for the purpose of 
 cleansing the city ; but, after all, the city itself is distant from 
 the ocean scarce a mile. Froissart compares Edinburgh to 
 Tournay or Valenciennes ; for a hundred years, however, the 
 kings of the Scots have had their residence almost constantly 
 in that city 1 . Near to Edinburgh — at the distance of a mile — 
 is Leith, the most populous seaport of Scotland. On the descent 
 thither is a small village, very prosperous, inhabited by weavers 
 of wool — which gives its name to the best cloths in Scotland 2 . 
 Then there is Saint Andrews — where is a university, to which 
 no one has as yet made any magnificent gift, except James 
 Kennedy, who founded one college, small indeed, but fair to 
 look at and of good endowment. Another university is in the 
 north, that of Aberdeen, in which is a noble college founded 
 by a bishop, Elphinston by name, who was also the founder of 
 the university. There is, besides, the city of Glasgow, the seat 
 of an archbishop, and of a university poorly endowed, and not 
 rich in scholars 3 . This notwithstanding, the church possesses 
 prebends many and fat ; but in Scotland such revenues are 
 enjoyed in absentia just as they would be in praese?itia, — a 
 custom which I hold to be destitute at once of justice and 
 
 1 ' For Edinburgh, though the king kept there his chief residence, and that it 
 is Paris in Scotland, yet it is not like Tournay or Valenciennes, for in all the 
 town there is not four thousand [but read for this, in the best editions of 
 Froissart, four hundred] houses; therefore it behoved these lords to be 
 lodged about in villages, as at Dunfermline, Queensferry [Quineffery], Kelso 
 [Cassuelle], Dunbar, Dalkeith'. — Bk. II. ch. ccxxviii, Buchon's ed. vol. ii. 
 p. 314; Bourchier's ed. vol. ii. p. 7. 
 
 2 The words ' admodum opulenta ' would apply to Broughton — but hardly so 
 the description, as compared with other villages, of ' angusta'. Besides, though 
 there was a cloth known as 'bartane' or ' bertane ' (cf. Accounts of the Lord 
 High Treasurer of Scotland, 1473-1498, pp. 188, 119, 231, 400), that was a 
 linen cloth which took its name from Bretagne (see Littre, s.v. bretagne). 
 The village in question may have been on the site of Picardy Place or Greenside, 
 a resort of French weavers 170 years later — but it remains unidentified. On the 
 history of Broughton there is much to be learned from the History of the Barony 
 of Broughton , by John Mackay, Edin. 1867. 
 
 3 The dates of foundation of the universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, and 
 Aberdeen, are, respectively, 141 1, 1450, 1494. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 29 
 
 common sense. I look with no favour on this multitude of 
 universities ; for just as iron sharpeneth iron, so a large number 
 of students together will sharpen one another's wits 1 . Yet 
 in consideration of the physical features of the country, this 
 number of universities is not to be condemned. Saint Andrews, 
 the seat of the primate of Scotland, possesses the first university ; 
 Aberdeen is serviceable to the northern inhabitants, and Glasgow 
 to those of the west and the south. 
 
 There is, in addition, the town of Perth, commonly called Saint 
 John or Saint John's town 2 , the only walled town in Scotland. 
 Now if towns in general had even low walls, I should approve 
 of it, as a means of restraining the robbers and thieves of the 
 realm 3 . The Scots do not hold themselves to need walled cities ; 
 and the reason of this may be, that they thus get them face to 
 face with the enemy with no delay, and build their cities, as The prompti- 
 it were, of men. If a force twenty thousand strong were to s^ots^n 1 * 16 
 invade Scotland at dawn, a working day of twelve hours would driving back 
 scarcely pass before her people were in conflict with the enemy. 
 For the nearest chief gathers the neighbouring folk together, 
 and at the first word of the presence of the foe, each man before 
 mid-day is in arms, for he keeps his weapons about him, mounts 
 his horse, makes for the enemy's position, and, whether in order 
 of battle or not in order of battle, rushes on the foe, not seldom 
 bringing destruction on himself as well as on the invader, — but 
 it is enough for them if they compel him to retreat. And should 
 
 1 Cf. what Major says in his ' Propositio ad Auditores ' in his In Quartum 
 Sententiamm : ' For truth is discovered through disputation and the exercise of 
 men's wits, and doubts are resolved by the meeting of various minds, when other- 
 wise the formation of opinion can be naught but a journey through dark waters 
 and mist.' In the same connection he quotes with approval the line, * Laudamus 
 veteres, sed nostris utimur annis.' 
 
 2 Cf. Hector Boethius, Murthlac. et Aberdonen. Episc. Vitae, p. 29 (Banna- 
 tyne Club ed. ) : ' Perthi (nunc Sancti Johannis oppidum vocant).' 
 
 3 Major agrees with Aristotle (though in this case he does not name him) as 
 to the importance of walls for a city. Cf. Pol. vii. II. It should be noted that 
 he does not reckon the fortification of Edinburgh, which took place in 1450, 
 after the battle of Sark ; and his absence from Edinburgh, while the fortification 
 of the city was going on after Flodden, may account for his taking no note of 
 this addition to the number of Scottish fortified towns. Pedro de Ayala says 
 (Early Travels in Scotland, p. 47) that Scotland had only one fortified town. 
 Cf. Leslie's History, Cody's edition, pp. 8, 103 ; and on the general question 
 Buchanan's famous lines : — 
 
 Nec fossa et muris patriam sed Marte tueri, 
 Et spreta incolumem vita defendere famam. 
 
30 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [hook i. 
 
 the enemy chance to come off victor, then the next chief gathers 
 another force, always at the cost of the people themselves who 
 take part, and goes out to further combat. There are in Scot- 
 land for the most part two strongholds to every league, in- 
 tended both as a defence against a foreign foe, and to meet 
 the first outbreak of a civil war ; of these some are not strong ; 
 but others, belonging to the richer men, are strong enough. 
 The Scots do not fortify their strongholds 1 and cities by en- 
 trenchments, because, were these to be held at any time by the 
 enemy, they would simply serve him for a shelter ; and thus it 
 would no way profit the Scots, especially within the marches of 
 the enemy, to possess fortified cities or even strongholds. 
 
 The ecclesiastical polity of Scotland is not worthy of com- 
 parison with that of England 2 ; • the bishops admit to the 
 priesthood men who are quite unskilled in music, and they 
 ought at least to understand the Gregorian chant 3 . It 
 happens sometimes that thirty villages, far distant one from 
 another, have but one and the same parish church ; so that a 
 village may be separated from its parish church by four or five, 
 sometimes by ten miles. In the neighbouring chapels of the 
 lords, however, they may have a chance to hear divine service, 
 because even the meanest lord keeps one household chaplain, 
 and more, if his wealth and other provision allow it. In war 
 these men are not inferior to others that are laymen ; mass they 
 celebrate before midday. From what has now been said it 
 follows that in Scotland the cures are few, but wealthy ; and 
 their wealth disinclines the curates to serve their charges in 
 person. It would however be better to multiply the cures, and 
 lessen the revenues, and the bishops should have an eye to this. 
 
 Further, in Scotland the houses of the country people are 
 small, as it were cottages, and the reason is this : they have 
 no permanent holdings, but hired only, or in lease for 
 
 1 The words are ' artificiose invadunt '. The reading ' invallant ' has been 
 suggested, but the word seems to want authority, 'muniunt ' is another proposed 
 reading, and a further suggestion is to read 'praeterea' ('besides') for ' propterea ' 
 ('because'). 
 
 2 For Major's preference for the ecclesiastical polity of England, cf. Bk. III. 
 ch. vi. 
 
 3 Before bursars were admitted to St. Leonard's college, St. Andrews, they 
 were tested in the Gregorian chant. At Winchester college, in our own day, the 
 one question asked of the young candidates for admission was — ' Can you sing ? ' 
 
chap, v.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 31 
 
 four or five years, at the pleasure of the lord of the soil ; 
 therefore do they not dare to build good houses, though stone 
 abound ; neither do they plant trees or hedges for their 
 orchards, nor do they dung the land ; and this is no small 
 loss and damage to the whole realm. If the landlords would 
 let their lands in perpetuity, they might have double and treble 
 of the profit that now comes to them — and for this reason : the 
 country folk would then cultivate their land beyond all com- 
 parison better, would grow richer, and would build fair 
 dwellings that should be an ornament to the country ; nor 
 would those murders take place which follow the eviction of 
 a holder h If a landlord have let to another the holding of a 
 quarrelsome fellow 2 , him will the evicted man murder as if he 
 were the landlord's bosom friend. Nor would the landlords 
 have to fear that their vassals would not rise with them against 
 the enemy — that is an irrational fear. Far better for the king 
 and the commonweal that the vassal should not so rise at the 
 mere nod of his superior; but that with justice and in tran- 
 quillity all cases should be duly treated. Laws, too, can be 
 made under which, on pain of losing his holding, a vassal must 
 take part in his lord's quarrel. This readiness on the part of 
 subjects to make the quarrel of their chief their own quarrel 
 ends often, of a truth, in making an exile of the chief himself 3 . 
 
 England excels Scotland, by a little, in fertility, for the 
 former country is not removed so far from the path of the 
 sun ; but in fish Scotland far more abounds 4 : that is, that very Abundance 
 nearness to the sun of the other country God has made up scou^sJTsea 
 to us in another way. <You will tell me, perchance : 4 The 
 northern sea is deeper than the southern, on account of the 
 air that has been turned into water 1 ; and that is plain 
 enough from this sign, since the ocean flows from the north 
 
 1 Feu-ferm, or permanent holding by money-payment, although not unknown 
 at a much earlier period, became more common after the statute I457> c - 7 1 - 
 The progress of feu-ferm is traced in Exchequer Rolls, vol. xiii. pp. cxii-cxxv. 
 Sir David Lyndsay took a different view of this tenure in consequence of its re- 
 sulting in enhanced rents. Cf. Satire of the Three Estates, vol. ii. p. 224, Laing's ed. 
 
 2 ' unius animosi terras '. The same use of ' unus ' = French 1 nn', is found on 
 p. 38, 'unus Scotus Sylvester', and infra, Bk. ill. ch. v. ' Makduffum de Fyfa 
 Thanum, unum praecipuum regni'. Cf. also ' unas mittit literas ', Bk. IV. ch. xx. 
 
 3 Cf. Bk. vi. ch. xvii. 4 Pedro de Ayala says {Early 
 Travels in Scotland, p. 44) that 1 piscinata Scotia ' was a proverbial expression. 
 
32 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I, 
 
 south wards> 1 . But whose ordination, if not that of the Divine 
 Wisdom, was this — that the northern people, far from the 
 sun, should be blessed with deep waters, and, in consequence, 
 with waters that abound more in fish ; since wherever, in sea or 
 river, there is greater depth, there, other things being equal, 
 is greater store of fish. To the people of the North God gave 
 less intelligence 2 than to those of the South, but greater 
 strength of body, a more courageous spirit 3 , greater comeli- 
 ness. Every year an English fleet sails for Iceland beyond the 
 arctic circle in quest of fish ; and from us they buy both 
 salmon and other kinds of fish. In most parts of Scotland 
 you may buy a large fresh salmon for two duodenae, in other 
 parts, however, for a sou ; and for a Hard you may carry away 
 a hundred fresh herring 4 . 
 
 1 ' Forte dices : mare apud Septentrionem est profundius quam apud meridiem 
 propter aerem in aquam conversum ; et istud a signo patet, cum a Septentrione 
 Oceanus decurrat.' The whole statement is to us not so much staggering as 
 meaningless ; but it was a commonplace in the school-books of the time. In 
 one of these — the Margarita Philosophica Nova, of which several editions were 
 published in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, an encyclopaedia of the 
 arts and science is rendered accessible — all by way of dialogue between master and 
 scholar — to the young student ; and in every division of the book the commanding 
 influence of Aristotle is felt. In the fourth chapter of the ninth book we have the 
 ' discipulus ' begging to be instructed in the ' qualities of the elements and their 
 transmutations '. The ' magister ' is satisfied with the general intelligence of his 
 pupil in saying that fire and air are related in respect of heat ; fire and earth in 
 respect of dryness ; air and water in respect of ?noistnre ; water and earth in 
 respect of cold ; while fire and water on the one hand, and air and earth on the 
 other, are not related ; he is not so well pleased that the ' discipulus ' should 
 express a difficulty in seeing how air can ever be moister than water. The 
 magister accordingly explains that air has intrinsically greater moistening power 
 (magis htimectat) than water, by reason of its penetrability, while water has 
 extrinsically more moistening power than air by reason of its density. But their 
 united virtues are of course stronger than either by itself. If we do not yet 
 understand how the air was turned into water because 'the ocean flows from the 
 north southward ' (but cf. Arist. De Coelo, ii. 4), we at least see how it is that 
 water, with this large infusion of the moister element of air, should produce more 
 fish — which was what had to be shown. 
 
 2 It was a constant wonder with Continental scholars that Buchanan should 
 have been born in Scotland. On one of his portraits we have the inscription : — 
 
 Scotia si vatem hunc gelidam produxit ad arcton, 
 Credo equidem gelidi percaluere poli. 
 
 3 Cf. Bk. 1. ch. vii. (where Major quotes Aristotle to this effect), ch. viii., 
 and Bk. v. ch. xiv. 
 
 4 The ' escu ' (Lat. sattum), Mod. French 'ecu.' Major's 'scutum solare ' = 
 two francs. The 'sol' or 'sou' (Lat. solidum) = t\iQ French shilling ('whereof 
 
chap, vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 33 
 
 Scotland can show rivers, too, excellently furnished with fish, 
 such as the Forth, which flows into an arm of the sea likewise 
 called Forth, four leagues in breadth. Near Leith it has the 
 name of the Scottish Sea, since it separated the southern Picts 
 and Britons from the Scots. Between Saint John and Dundee 
 flows the Tay ; the Spey, the Don, the Dee are famous rivers 
 of Aberdeenshire 1 . Besides these there are the Clyde, the 
 Tweed, and many other rivers, all abounding in salmon, trout, 
 turbot, and pike ; and, near the sea is great plenty of oysters, 
 as well as crabs, and polypods 2 of marvellous size. One crab or 
 polypod is larger than thirty crabs such as are found in the 
 Seine. The shells of the jointed polypods that you shall see in 
 Paris clinging to the ropes of the pile-driving engines 3 are a 
 sufficient proof of this. In Lent and in summer, at the winter 
 and the summer solstice, people go in early morning from my 
 
 ten make one of ours ' — Cotgrave's Diet. : London, 1650). This is to be under- 
 stood of the ' sol Tournois', which, translated as 'a piece of Tours ', is frequently 
 used by Major. The coinage of Tours was less valuable by one-fifth that of 
 Paris. A livre of Tours, e.g. =20 sous, a livre of Paris = 25 sous ; a sou of Tours 
 = 12 deniers, a sou of Paris = 15 deniers. The Hard was a coin = three deniers, 
 or the fourth part of a sou. The ' duodena ' = a piece of twelve deniers. 
 ' The words libra, solidus, denarius, from which are derived our £ s. d., repre- 
 sented in the West of Europe the same proportions from the time of Charlemagne. 
 The pound or livre = twenty shillings or sous ; the shilling or sou = twelve pence 
 or deniers. But the value of the livre or pound depended on the extent to which 
 in a given country and at a given time the currency had been depreciated. This 
 . . . process was carried much further in France than in England ; hence the 
 French livre is now a franc (about -f^ of our pound). The French sou (or 
 5-centime piece) is not quite a halfpenny in value, and the denier, if it were 
 still a coin, would be worth ^of a centime '. — From Mr. A. H. Gosset's 
 edition of VAvare, 1887, p. 97. 
 
 1 No part of the Spey flows through Aberdeenshire. 
 
 2 Major's 'polypes' or 'polypus', which he distinguishes from the 'cancer,' 
 is without doubt our lobster, whose shape closely resembles that of the crayfish. 
 
 3 ' Polypedum articulorum testae in Campanellarum funibus Parisii pen- 
 dentes.' I wish very particularly to thank M. Auguste Beljame of Paris for 
 his explanation of this difficult passage: ' Campanella^/^/^, sonnette, i.e. a 
 bell. But sonnette means also a pile-driving machine, so called from the action 
 of the men who pull the ropes being the same as that of bell-ringers.' Major's 
 Paris ' polypedes ' were without doubt crayfishes, which were found on the ropes 
 of the pile-drivers when these had been for some time in the water of the Seine. 
 In our own day (see Professor Huxley's The Crayfish, p. 10) ' Paris alone, with 
 its two millions of inhabitants, consumes annually from five to six millions of 
 crayfishes, and pays about ^16,000 for them '. 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book It 
 
 own Gleghornie and the neighbouring parts to the shore, drag 
 out the polypods and crabs with hooks, and return at noon with 
 well-filled sacks. At these seasons the tide is at its lowest, and 
 the polypods and crabs take shelter under the rocks by the sea. 
 A hook is fastened to the end of a stick, and when the fish be- 
 comes aware of the wood or iron, it catches the same with one 
 of its joints, thus connecting itself with the stick, which the 
 Abundance of fisherman then at once draws up. But not only is there abun- 
 sait. dance of fish in Scotland, but also of salt, which is sold in equal 
 
 Iceland has no measure with even the poorest oats. Iceland, which is desti- 
 tute of wheat, is the most fertile of all lands in fish. 
 
 Near to Gleghornie, in the ocean, at a distance of two leagues, 
 is the Bass Rock, wherein is an impregnable stronghold. Round 
 about it is seen a marvellous multitude of great ducks (which 
 they call Sollendae) that live on fish. These fowl are not of 
 the very same species with the common wild duck or with the 
 Solan geese. domestic duck ; but inasmuch as they very nearly resemble 
 them in colour and in shape, they share with them the common 
 name, but for the sake of distinction are called solans. These 
 ducks then, or these geese, in the spring of every year return from 
 the south to the rock of the Bass in flocks, and for two or 
 three days, during which the dwellers on the rock are careful 
 to make no disturbing noise, the birds fly round the rock. 
 They then begin to build their nests, stay there throughout 
 the summer, living upon fish, while the inhabitants of the Rock 
 eat the fish that are caught by them, for the men climb to the 
 nests of the birds, and there get fish to their desire. Mar- 
 vellous is the skill of this bird in the catching of fish. 
 At the bottom of the sea with lynx-like eye he spies the fish, 
 precipitates himself upon it, as the sparrow-hawk upon the 
 heron *, and then with beak and claw drags him to the surface ; 
 and if at some distance from the rock he sees another fish, 
 better than the first that has caught his eye, he lets the first 
 escape until he has made sure of the one that was last seen ; 
 and thus on the rock throughout the summer the freshest fish 
 are always to be had. The ducklings, or goslings, are sold in 
 the neighbouring country. If you will eat of them twice or 
 thrice you shall find them very savoury ; for these birds are 
 extremely fat, and the fat skilfully extracted is very service- 
 1 Cf. Virg. Georg. i. 405, Ciris 488. 
 
CHAP. VI. J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 35 
 
 able in the preparation of drugs ; and the lean part of the 
 flesh they sell. In the end of autumn the birds fly round 
 about the Rock for the space of three days, and afterward, as in 
 flocks, they take flight to southern parts for the whole winter, 
 that there they may live, as it were, in summer ; — because, when 
 it is winter with us it is summer with the people of the south. 
 These birds are very long-lived — a fact which the inhabitants 
 have proved by marks placed upon certain of them. The 
 produce of these birds supports upon the Rock thirty or forty 
 men of the garrison ; and some rent is paid by them to the 
 lord of the Rock 1 . 
 
 Scotland possesses a great many harbours, of which Cromarty, The harbours 
 at the mouth of the northern river 2 , is held to be the safest — of Scotland - 
 and by reason of its good anchorage it is called by sailors 
 
 1 Part of Boece's account of the Bass (1526) may be given in Bellenden's 
 translation (1536) : ' Thocht thay have ane fische in thair mouth abone the seis, 
 quhair thay fie, yit gif thay se ane uthir bettir, thay lat the first fal, and doukis, 
 with ane fellon stoure, in the see, and bringis haistelie up the fische that thay 
 last saw ; and thoucht this fische be reft fra hir be the keparis of the castell, 
 scho takkis litill indingnation, bot fieis incontinent for ane uthir. Thir keparis, 
 of the castell forsaid, takis the young geis fra thaim with litill impediment ; 
 thus cumis gret proffet yeirlie to the lord of the said castell. Within the 
 bowellis of thir geis is ane fatnes of singulare medicine ; for it helis mony 
 infirmiteis, speciallie sik as cumis be gut and cater disceding in the hanches of 
 men and wemen.' — Vol. i. p. xxxvii. 
 
 Lesley (1578), in Dalrymple's translation, writes as follows: ' Mairatouer, 
 thay are sa greidie that gif thay sie ony fishe mair diligate neir the crag, the 
 pray, quhilke perauentur thay brocht far aff, with speid thay wap out of thair 
 mouth, and violentlie wil now that pray invade, and quhen thay haue takne it 
 will bring it to thair birdes . . . finalie of thir cumis yeirlie to the capitane of 
 the castell na smal bot ane verie large rent ; for nocht only baith to him selfe 
 and to vtheris obteines he sticks, fische, ye, and the fowlis selfes, quhilkes, be 
 cause thay haue a diligate taste, in gret number ar sent to the nerrest tounes to 
 be salde, bot lykwyse of thair fethiris, and fatt quhilkes gyue a gret price, he 
 gathiris mekle money ; of thame this is the commone opinione, that by vthiris 
 vses thay serue to, they ar a present remeid against the gutt, and vthiris dolouris 
 of the bodie.' — Scot. Text. Soc. ed. pp. 25, 26. 
 
 These extracts show something of the place in our early Scottish histories that 
 was accorded to the solans of the Bass. Major, writing in Latin, cannot be to 
 us so picturesque as Bellenden and Dalrymple, but it should be remembered that 
 while his successors may have seen what they describe, he was familiar with the 
 Bass from his boyhood. As to the support of the garrison at a later date, we find 
 Sir John Dalrymple writing to George, Lord Melville, June 23, 1689 : ' It [the 
 Bass] can hold out, for the sollen gies and other fowls is mor than sufficient to 
 sustean the garrison.'— The Melvilles, edited by Sir W. Fraser, vol. ii. p. 113. 
 
 2 Flumen Boreale— the Moray Firth. 
 
36 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I. 
 
 Sykkersand l , that is, ' safe sand\ Every seaboard town has 
 a sufficient harbour. Now Scotland is so cut up by arms 
 of the sea, that in the whole laud there is no house distant 
 from the salt water by more than twenty leagues. In 
 many parts Scotland is mountainous, but it is on the moun- 
 tains that the best pasture is to be found. Many men hold 
 as many as ten thousand sheep 2 and one thousand cattle, and 
 thus draw corn and wine from sheep and kine. Near to Aber- 
 
 TheAipsof deen are the Alps of Scotland, vulgarly called the Mounth 
 of Scotland 3 , which formerly separated the Scots from the Picts. 
 These mountains are impassable by horsemen. Round about 
 the foot of the mountains are great woods. There, I incline 
 
 The Caledonian to think, was the Caledonian Forest, of which Ptolemy and the 
 
 Forest. Roman writers make mention, and in these woods is found an 
 
 incredible number of stags and hinds. At that time Aberdeen 
 
 Aberdonian was the seat of the Scottish monarchy 4 , though the kings of the 
 
 Scotland. Scotg were crownetl at Scone. 
 
 Outside Britain the king of the Scots possesses several 
 Islands that are islands, such as, to the north, the Orkneys, which the Greeks 
 land 601 1 ° S ° 0t aR d Latins ever spoke of with a sort of horror. More than 
 twenty of them are now inhabited, and some are twelve leagues 
 in length. Shetland is the most easterly, and is fifty miles in 
 
 1 In Mercator's map of Scotland (1597), Cromarty is called ' Portus Salutis'. 
 
 - From the context one must suppose that Major is speaking of the Highlands. 
 Mr. Cosmo Innes in his Lectures on Scotch Legal Antiquities, pp. 263-4, says 
 ' there were at that time [1600] no cattle or sheep reared in large flocks and herds 
 in our Highlands . . . there was nothing but the petty flock of sheep or herd of 
 a few milk-cows grazed close round the farm-house, and folded nightly for fear of 
 the wolf or more cunning depredators'. This statement, if we may credit Major, 
 needs some qualification. Cf. also what Major says infra, at the end of chapter viii. 
 about the wealth of cattle, sheep, and horses among one part of the Wild Scots ; 
 and so early as 1296 Edward the First ordered 700 sheep to be brought from the 
 county of Athol and delivered to the nunnery of Coldstream, in indemnity for the 
 damage done to that House by the English army. — Documents illustrative of the 
 History of Scotland, ed. by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, Edin. 1870, vol. ii. p. 34. 
 As to the number of sheep ' apud Britannos ', Major writes further in the Ln 
 Quartum (46th question of the 15th distinction) that you may find there a man 
 who owns more than the 7000 sheep of Job — sometimes even 10,000, and this 
 happens mostly where the country is mountainous. 
 
 3 ' Scotiae montes vulgariter dicti '. Cf. Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. i. 
 pp. 10-14, e d. 1876. ' Beyond the Munth', i.e. from Aberdeen northwards, is 
 a phrase quoted by Mr. Innes (p. 114 of Lectures on Legal Antiquities) in con- 
 nection with a combination of burghs. 
 
 4 This is a noteworthy statement. 
 
chap, vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 37 
 
 length. They produce in plenty oats and barley, but not 
 wheat, and in pasture and cattle they abound. Orkney butter, 
 seasoned with salt, is sold very cheap in Scotland. 
 
 Between Scotland and Ireland are many more islands, and 
 larger ones than the Orkneys, which likewise obey the Scottish 
 king. The most southerly is Man, fifteen leagues in length, 
 which we have ourselves caught sight of at Saint Ninian 1 . In it 
 is the episcopal see of Sod or, at the present day in the hands of 
 the English. There is also the island of Argadia 2 , belonging to 
 the earl of Argadia, which we call Argyle, thirty leagues in length. 
 There the people swear by the hand of Callum More, just as £^ u ^ nd of 
 in old times the Egyptians used to swear by the health of 
 Pharaoh. The greater C umbrae is another island, rich and 
 large. Another is the island of Arran, which gives the The earl of 
 title of earl to the lord Hamilton. <Then there is the island Arran - 
 Awyna, in which is the cell of Saint Aidan. In it were for- The cell of 
 merly most excellent religious, and Bede says that it ought Saint Aldan * 
 to belong to the Britons, but the Picts made grant thereof 
 to Scottish religious. This island lies further to the north 
 than Bute, and is but six miles from the coast of Ireland> 3 . 
 There is further the island called Isola, or in the common isola or Isla. 
 tongue Yla, an exceeding beautiful island. Therein is wont 
 to dwell the Lord Alexander of the Isles, whom men used 
 to call the earl of the Isles. In this island he had two fair 
 strongholds of large extent, and thirty or forty thousand men 
 were at his beck. This Yla I take to be the Thyle, or Thule, 
 which was in such evil odour with the Greek and Roman Thule. 
 writers, of which Virgil has that Tibi serviet ultima Thule*. 
 For, or Shetland, or Yla, or Iceland, Thule must needs have 
 been. Now Iceland, which is beyond the arctic circle, the 
 Romans never reached. There is further the island of Bute or Bute. 
 
 1 Whithorn. 
 
 2 In Mercator's map the name Argadia is applied to the district between 
 Loch Fyne and Loch Long. 
 
 3 ' Est insula Awyna . . . Ipsa autem est Butha borealior sex mille passibus ab 
 Hibernia solum distans. ' There is some confusion here. By ' Awyna ', ' quae 
 videlicet insula ad ius quidem Brittaniae pertinet ' (Bede, H.E. iii. 3), Major 
 must mean Iona, but his geographical description applies rather to the island 
 of Sanda, called by the Danes ' Havin ' or 'Avona', and 'still [1854] called 
 " Avon " by the Highlanders.'— Orig. Par. Scot., vol. ii. pt. 1, p. 9- 11 is distant 
 about four miles from the south coast of Kintyre, and about eighteen miles 
 from the coast of Ireland. 3 Georg. i. 3. 
 
38 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book l 
 
 Lakes that 
 contain islands 
 
 The speech of 
 the Islanders. 
 
 British flesh- 
 foods. 
 
 Horned sheep. 
 
 Scottish 
 Horses. 
 
 Rothesay, and the island of Lismore, which gives a title to the 
 episcopal see of Argyle 1 . Far to the north is the island of 
 Skye, fifteen leagues in length. The island of Lewis has a 
 length of thirty leagues. Besides these are many other islands, 
 of which the least is greater than the largest of the Orkneys. 
 In that region are great lakes, wherein are islands, as Loch- 
 lomond, the island of Saint Colmoc, in which is a Priory of 
 Canons Regular, Lochard, three leagues in length, Lochban- 
 quhar 2 , Loch Tay, Loch Awe, with a length of twelve. Other 
 islands there are too in the sea as well as in the fresh water. 
 All these islands speak the Irish tongue, but the Orkneys 
 speak Gothic. That great-souled Robert Bruce in his last 
 testament gave this counsel to those who should come after 
 him, that the kings of the Scots should never part themselves 
 from these islands, inasmuch as they could thence have cattle 
 in plenty, and stout warriors, while in the hands of others they 
 would not readily yield allegiance to the king, whereas with 
 the slender title of the Isles the king can hold them to the 
 great advantage of the realm, and most of all if he should 
 make recompence to others of a peaceful territory. 
 
 The mutton of the Britons is inferior to the same meat in 
 France, and less savoury ; the opposite is the case with beef ; — 
 and, as I think, the reason is this : a poor herbage makes a 
 savoury mutton, and a rich herbage an unsavoury. I used to 
 marvel when in the neighbourhood of Paris I saw the sheep 
 being driven to poor pasture, and when I asked the reason, I 
 was told that otherwise the meat would not be good. In 
 Britain the sheep are horned, and are not gelded. Their 
 horns are almost as the horns of stags. Near Paris the sheep 
 are hornless. This points to the possession of a moister climate 
 by Britain, and the islands are more moist than the other parts. 
 For a solar ecu, that is, for two francs, a large ox may be 
 bought in the northern parts of Scotland ; for five or six sous 
 of Tours 3 a ram ; for six or seven pieces of Tours 4 a fat capon 
 or a goose. In the southern parts of Scotland everything is 
 a little dearer ; in the north the best of fish may be had for 
 next to nothing. 
 
 Horses they have in plenty, and these show a great endur- 
 
 1 Ecclesia Lesmorensis alias Ergadiensis, a.d. 1420. — Vatican MS. in Brady. 
 
 2 Vennachar. 3 solidis Turonensibus. 4 Turonis. 
 
chap, vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 39 
 
 ance both of work and cold. At Saint John and Dundee 
 a Highland Scot 1 will bring down two hundred or three 
 hundred horses, unbroken, that have never been mounted. 
 For two francs, or fifty duodenae, you shall have one ready 
 broken. They are brought up alongside of their dams in the 
 forests and the cold, and are thus fitted to stand all severity of 
 weather. They are of no great size, and are thus not fitted to 
 carry a man in heavy armour to the wars, but a light-armed 
 man may ride them at any speed where he will. More hardy 
 horses of so small a size you shall nowhere find. In Scotland 
 for the most part the horses are gelded, because their summer 
 pasturing is in the open country, and this is attended by small 
 expense ; yet such a horse will travel further in a day, and for 
 a longer time, than a horse that has not been gelded. He will 
 do his ten or twelve leagues without food. Afterwards, while 
 his master is eating his own victual, he puts his horse to 
 pasture, and by the time he has had a sufficient meal he will 
 find his horse fit to carry him further. On the sea-coast, 
 where pasture is not so plentiful, such horses cannot be 
 reared. Some stallions are kept by great men in stables, 
 because these are of a higher spirit than other horses, but 
 in the matter of riding they are neither swifter nor more 
 willing. 
 
 In the southern parts of Scotland forests are few 2 , for which 
 reason coal is burned, and stone peat or turf, and not wood, 
 as we have said above ; stone-peat is less hard than coal> 3 . 
 Aeneas Sylvius says that the Scots use black stones for fuel in 
 an iron cradle, meaning coal or sulphureous earth by ' black 
 stones 1 . Heather or bog-myrtle grows in the moors in greatest 
 abundance, and for fuel is but little less serviceable than juniper. 
 
 1 Cf. ante, p. 31. 2 Cf. ante, p. 7. 
 
 3 ' Quia pro igne habendo carbonibus, et petris seu peltis, et non lignis 
 (ut superius diximus) utuntur: carbone petra est minus dura.' [F., like Orig., 
 prints 'peltis/ but in his Errata changes the word to 'petis'.] Two kinds 
 of peat were recognised in Scotland, as was also the case in Ireland : one, the 
 common peat or turf; the other, so hard that Major calls it 'petra', — less 
 hard than coal. ' Cum petariis et turbariis ' is a common phrase in charter 
 Latin. For Ireland cf. Carve's Lyra, p. 43 : ' Habet et Hibernia duplicis 
 generis cespites, alios graciles, alios duros, et crassos, lapides quoque carbonibus 
 sua virtute consimiles, qui pro maximo fabrorum ferrariorum commodo varus in 
 locis effodiuntur.' 
 
40 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I. 
 
 I have here to coin a Latin word 1 from the vulgar tongue, 
 because I do not fancy that the plant was to be found in Italy ; 
 but you may meet with it in the wood of Notre Dame near to 
 Paris, though it does not there grow to such a height as in 
 Britain. Some of our countrymen suppose the land on which 
 this plant is found to be worthless and barren ; but I on the 
 other hand look upon it as eminently valuable and fruitful 
 ground. The plant when dried after the manner of juniper 
 makes excellent fuel, and I much prefer it to coal; but just 
 because they have the tiling abundantly, they hold it cheap. 
 Under this plant and in its neighbourhood the pasture for 
 cattle is such that you shall find none better. 
 
 CHAP. VII. — Concerning the Manners and Customs of the Scots. 
 Mutual recri- Hitherto we have had under review the soil of Scotland, 
 Se'Eng^sh and its rivers and its animals, with the islands that are situated 
 the Scots. beyond the bounds of Britain. We will now speak for a little 
 of the manners and customs of the Scots. I have read in 
 histories written by Englishmen that the Scots are the worst 
 of traitors, and that this stain is with them inborn. Not other- 
 wise, if we are to believe those writers, did the Scots overthrow 
 the kingdom and the warlike nation of the Picts. The Scots, 
 on the other hand, call the English the chief of traitors 2 , and, 
 denying that their weapon is a brave man's sword, affirm that 
 all their victories are won by guile and craft. I, however, am 
 not wont to credit the common Scot in his vituperation of 
 the English, nor yet the Englishman in his vituperation of 
 the Scot 3 . "Tis the part of a sensible man to use his own 
 eyes, to put far from him at once all inordinate love of his 
 own countrymen and hatred of his enemies, and thereafter to 
 pass judgment, well weighed, in equal scales ; he must keep the 
 temper of his mind founded upon right reason, and regulate 
 his opinion accordingly. Aristotle observes in the sixth book 
 of his Politics* that southern peoples excel the northerners in 
 
 1 ' haddera'. It is curious that Major should have coined this word, when 
 1 erica ' is in common use in Pliny for heath and broom. 
 
 2 ' traditionum ' Orig. and F. : an evident misprint for 1 traditorum '. 
 
 3 Cf. Bk. iv. ch. xix., where the death of Edward the First is used as an 
 occasion to express the same feeling. 
 
 4 Pol. vii. 7 : ' Those who live in a cold climate and in [northern] Europe 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 41 
 
 intelligence, and that, on the contrary, northerners have the 
 advantage in warlike virtue. In northern nations, therefore, we 
 need not expect to find craftiness in war, or guile. But in the He clears 
 matter of prejudices that have their root in hatred, bear this in objected to 1& 
 mind: that two neighbouring kingdoms, striving for the mastery, the Scots - 
 never cherish a sincere desire for peace. Let pass before your 
 eye in silent review all Europe, Africa, and Asia, the three 
 principal parts of the world, and I am much mistaken if you 
 do not find this to be the case. Now between England and 
 Scotland a man may pass dry-shod, and both nations labour 
 incessantly for the extension of their boundaries. And though 
 in the number of its inhabitants, in the fertility of its 
 soil, England has the advantage over Scotland, the Scots, 
 truly or untruly, strongly suspect that they can make head 
 against the English — yea, even should these bring in their train 
 a hundred thousand foreign fighting men. And this is no 
 empty assumption on their part. For though the English 
 became masters of Aquitaine, Anjou, Normandy, Ireland and 
 Wales, they have up to this date made no way in Scotland, 
 unless by the help of our own dissensions ; and for eighteen 
 hundred and fifty years the Scots have kept foot in Britain, 
 and at this present day are no less strong, no less given to war, 
 than they ever were, ready to risk life itself for their country's 
 independence, and counting death for their country an honour- 
 able thing. And if the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Rhine, the sea 
 itself, hardly suffice to make war impossible among nations of 
 a more peaceful temper than the Britons, it is no matter for 
 astonishment if the maintenance of peace is in very truth no 
 easy matter among various kingdoms in one and the same 
 island, each of them the eager rival of its neighbour in the 
 extension of its marches. 
 
 Those wars are j ust which are waged in behalf of peace ; 
 and to God, the Ruler of all, I pray, that He may grant such Peace by way of 
 
 ' 9 * J 3 . . « intermarriage. 
 
 a peace to the Britons, that one of its kings m a union ot 
 marriage may by just title gain both kingdoms — for any 
 other way of reaching an assured peace I hardly see. I dare 
 to say that Englishman and Scot alike have small regard for 
 
 are full of spirit but wanting in intelligence and skill ; and therefore they 
 keep their freedom, but have no political organisation, and are incapable of 
 ruling over others.' Cf. Major, Bk. i. ch. vi. (p. 32), and Bk. v. cb. xiv. 
 
42 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I. 
 
 their monarchs if they do not continually aim at intermar- 
 riages, that so one kingdom of Britain may be formed out of 
 the two that now exist 1 . Such a peaceful union finds continual 
 hindrance in each man of hostile temper, and in all men who 
 are bent upon their private advantage to the neglect of the 
 common weal. Yet to this a Scottish or an English sophist 
 may make answer : 6 Intermarriages there have been many times, 
 yet peace came not that way. 1 To whom I make answer, that 
 an unexceptionable title has never been in that way made good, 
 The children of whatever our historians may fable about the blessed Margaret, 
 who was an Englishwoman. That the Scots never had more 
 excellent kings than those born of Englishwomen is clear from 
 the example of the children of the blessed Margaret, kings that 
 never knew defeat, and were in every way the best. A like ex- 
 ample you shall find in the second James, whose mother was an 
 Englishwoman, while to prophesy about the fifth of that name, 
 the seven-year-old grandson of an Englishman, would indeed 
 be to pretend to see clearly into a future charged with clouds 2 : 
 but my prayer to God at least is this : that in uprightness of 
 life and c haracter he may imitate those Jameses, his father, his 
 
 The Scots : great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. 
 
 haughty?^ Sabellicus 3 , who was no mean historian, charges the Scots 
 
 1 There is no more remarkable feature in this History than the repeated ex- 
 pression of the author's desire for a union between the countries. This is the 
 first utterance of that sort, but compare further Ek. IV. ch. xii. on the marriage of 
 Alexander the Third with a daughter of Henry the Third, and on the marriage of 
 Margaret, daughter of Alexander the Third, with the king of Norway. For the 
 fullest statement of Major's opinion see Bk. IV. ch. xviii., and cf. also Bk. v. ch. 
 xvii., on the marriage of David the Second with the sister of Edward the Third. 
 
 2 ' de Jacobo . . . adhuc indicare tenebrosa est aqua in nubibus aeris.' This 
 is a favourite metaphor with Major. We find the same words in Bk. II. ch. v. 
 and Bk. v. ch. vii, about the prophecies of Merlin, and the same with scarce a 
 variation in the 1 Propositio ad Auditores' (quoted above, p. 29). 
 
 3 i.e. Marcantonio Coccio, born in 1436 in the ancient territory of the Sabines. 
 His master, Pomponius, therefore named Coccio ' Sabellicus '. He became 
 professor of Eloquence, and is the author of a history of Venice, Rhapsodies 
 HUtoriarum Enneades, etc. He died in 1536 'gallica tabe ex vaga venere 
 quaesita non obscura comsumptus'. The following are the more relevant 
 passages in the History of Sabellicus : — 1 The English people are blue-eyed, 
 of fair complexion and goodly appearance ; tall of stature, fearless in war, the 
 best of bowmen. Their women are of an outstanding beauty ; the common 
 people ignoble, untutored, and inhospitable ; the nobility have gentler man- 
 ners, and are more conscious of the duties of a civil behaviour. With head 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 43 
 
 with being of a jealous temper ; and it must be admitted that 
 there is some colour for this charge to be gathered elsewhere. 
 The French have a proverb about the Scots to this effect : ' 111 
 est fier comme ung Escossoys', that is, 4 The man is as proud 
 as a Scot". And this receives some confirmation from that 
 habit of the French when they call the western Spaniards birds 
 of a fine feather ; and Dionysius, in his De Situ Orbis, speak- 
 ing of the Spaniards, gives them this character, 4 that they 
 are of all men the haughtiest 1 . Now the Scots trace their The Spaniard 
 descent, as we shall show further on, from the Spaniards, and a proud race, 
 grandchildren mostly follow the habits of their ancestors — 
 witness the Philosopher, in the first book of his Politics, 
 where he says, 4 The boastful man takes readily to jealousy \ 
 A man that is puffed up strives for some singular pre-eminence 
 above his fellows, and when he sees that other men are equal 
 to him or but little his inferiors, he is filled with rage and 
 breaks out into jealousy. I do not deny that some of the 
 Scots may be boastful and puffed up, but whether they suffer 
 more than their neighbours from suchlike faults, I have not 
 quite made up my mind. Many a trifling thing is said that will 
 not bear examination. I merely remember that Sabellicus 
 thus expressed himself. Perchance he had seen a few Scots 
 
 uncovered, and bending on one knee, they greet a guest ; should it be a 
 woman, they offer a kiss. They take her to a tavern and drink together. 
 And that is a thing truly disgraceful. Let all that is lustful remain far from 
 us . . . There are many towns in the land, the chief among them Lundonia, 
 the royal seat, by corruption of language now called Londres. Scotland 
 is the furthest part of England to the north. . . . Not far distant lies Hibernia, 
 which the common people call ' Hirland'. The dress of these islanders is the same; 
 there is indeed scarce any point of difference betwixt them — the same tongue, 
 the same customs. Their intelligence is quick ; they are prone to revenge ; in 
 war they are of a notable fierceness ; they are sober, most patient of hunger. 
 They are of an elegant stature, but careless of civilised ways. The Scots are so 
 called from their painted bodies, as some hold ; it was of old the common custom 
 to burn patterns into the breast and arms ; to-day that custom has fallen from use 
 in most cases, and those that observe it are the Wild Scots. They are by nature 
 jealous, and hold the rest of mortals in scorn ; too readily do they make a boast 
 of their noble descent, and, though in the depths of poverty, will claim kinship 
 with the royal stock ; they delight in lying, and keep not the peace ; in other 
 respects they are as the English.' [Then follows the story of Aeneas Sylvius 
 and the coal, and of the Barnacle Geese.] — Enneadis decimae liber quintus (vol. 
 i. fol. cli.) ; Venice, vol. i. 1498 ; vol. ii. 1504. 
 
44 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [kook I. 
 
 at Rome engaged in litigation connected with their benefices, 
 and these men no doubt, as is customary with rivals, were 
 full of mutual jealousy. The French speeches that I have 
 quoted date from the time of Charles, the seventh of that 
 name. At that time Charles had Scots in his service in his 
 war with the English ; and as Charles had at first but a scanty 
 treasury, his soldiers were forced to seize what provision they 
 could from the common people. With those poor people they 
 dealt harshly, and the Scottish nobles (just as they use to do 
 in their own country) despised them as being ignobly born ; so 
 that, first among the common people of France, and afterwards 
 with the nation at large, they came to have this reputation of 
 haughtiness. There sprang up at that time among the French 
 yet another saying about the Scots. 4 The Scot', they said, 
 6 brings in a small horse first, and afterwards a big one — a 
 saying that had its origin in this wise : the Scots soldiers had 
 the habit, when in the field, to march in troops, just as most 
 of the French do at this day, and that they might the more 
 easily find quarters in the dwellings of the country people, 
 they sent their amblers and sorry nags in front with a small 
 body of men ; and when these had once got admission, they 
 were soon followed by the men of rank with their chargers, and 
 the main body of the troop. That all Britons are of a temper 
 proud enough, I take to be established by the argument from 
 universals — not the logical universal, but the moral, since it 
 admits of some exceptions ; but that they are prouder than the 
 Germans, the Spaniards \ or the French, I do not grant. 
 
 We will now proceed to another charge that is brought 
 The Scots in against our countrymen. It is said that the Scots were in the 
 eating human habit of eating human flesh, and those who bring this charge 
 flesh. shelter themselves under Jerome, where he writes : ' What 
 
 shall I say of other nations — how when I was in Gaul as a 
 youth, I saw the Scots, a British race, eating human flesh, and 
 how, when these men came in the forests iipon herds of swine 
 and sheep and cattle, they would cut off the buttocks of 
 the shepherds and the paps of the women, and hold these for 
 their greatest delicacy ? , You cannot say that he means the 
 
 1 For the Spaniards who attended Major's class in Paris, see the Introduction 
 to this volume. 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 45 
 
 Goths or the Irish Scots, because of the word British. Well, 
 to this from Jerome I make answer: Even if all the Scots did 
 so, 'twould bring no stain on their posterity : the faithful in 
 Europe are descended from the Gentile and the infidel ; the 
 guilt of an ancestor is no disgrace to his children when these 
 have learned to live conformably with reason. Besides, though 
 a few Scots of whom St. Jerome thus writes, did as he reports, 
 in their own island even the Scots did not generally live in such 
 fashion — a conclusion that I take to be proved thus : Bede, 
 writing three hundred years after Jerome, where he treats of 
 the first emergence of the Scots in history, and he was their 
 neighbour, savs not a word of this. Strabo seemed to attribute 
 the custom to the Irish, and to certain savage Scots. 
 
 I further note that the English Bartholomew, in his De 
 Proprietatibus 1 , says of the Scots 4 that among the Scots 'tis 
 held to be a base man's part to die in his bed, but death in 
 battle they think a noble thing". To him I make answer that 
 this is no way to be imputed as a fault, that death in arms 
 and in a just quarrel is a fair end for a man. 
 
 Most writers note yet another fault in the Scots, and The Scots boast 
 Sabellicus touches this point : That the Scots are prone to ° Q f [he king SbiP 
 call themselves of noble birth ; and this I can support by 
 a saying about the Scots that is common among the French, 
 for they will say of such an one : 6 That man 's a cousin 
 of the king of Scots ' 2 . To speak truly, I am not able to 
 acquit the Scots of this fault 3 , for both at home and abroad 
 they take inordinate pleasure in noble birth, and (though of 
 ignoble origin themselves) delight in hearing themselves spoken 
 of as come of noble blood. I sometimes use humorously the 
 following argument in dealing with such of my fellow-country- 
 men as make themselves out to be of noble birth. One thing- 
 must be granted me : that no man, namely, is noble, unless 
 one of his parents be noble ; and that it is absurd to call any 
 one ignoble whose parents are noble. This granted me, I pro- 
 
 1 The first Encyclopaedia of English origin, De Proprietatibus Rerttm t was 
 written by Bartholomeus de Glanville about 1360, and translated about 1398 by 
 the Cornishman, John de Trevisa. 
 
 2 Is regis Scotorum cognatus germanus est. 
 
 3 Leslie says (p. 96 of his History, ed. Cody) : ' quhen sum writeris in thame 
 noted sik vices they spak no altogither raschlie '. 
 
46 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book t. 
 
 ceed to ask, whether Adam were of noble birth, or no. If the 
 first — it contradicts one part of the premiss. If the second — 
 all his children were of noble birth. And so you must grant 
 all men noble, or all ignoble. Besides, concerning the first 
 nobleman, I change the question, and ask, 4 How came he by 
 his nobility ?' Not from his parents — so much is known ; and 
 if, first of all, you call him a nobleman who is the son of one 
 who is not noble, you contradict the premiss. Poor noblemen 
 marry into mean but wealthy families. In this way some of the 
 The nobles in Scots ennoble their whole country. Such unions are recognised 
 in Scotland as well as in England. But to such Scots I am 
 wont to say, that then, their blood being mixed with ignoble 
 blood, there is no pure nobility. I say, therefore — There is 
 absolutely no true nobility but virtue and the evidence of 
 virtue. That which is commonly called nobility is naught but 
 a windy thing of human devising. Those men are termed 
 nobles who draw a livelihood from what they possess — and by 
 whatever means they came by their possessions — without pursuit 
 of any handicraft, most of all if they can also claim an ancient 
 descent, whether they won their wealth by just or by unjust 
 means, and if it remain for generations in their family : these 
 in the eyes of the world are noble. Hence it follows that 
 kings drew their origin from shepherds, and shepherds again 
 their origin from kings. The first part of the corollary is 
 plain, and up to this point is declared. If a shepherd buy 
 lands with his much wealth, his issue acquires somewhat, if but 
 little, of nobility. His grandson, grown wealthier still, ad- 
 vances a step in nobility ; but with the lapse of time riches are 
 added to riches : the owner now becomes a mighty chief, and 
 takes to wife the daughter of a king — who just in the same 
 way had climbed to his present eminence. I shall now state 
 the second part of the corollary, where one monarch drives 
 another from his throne. The exile is forced to take service 
 as a soldier or to accept some other place of inferiority, and 
 from his proud estate must sound the lowest depth. There- 
 fore — . Sabellicus asserts that the Scots delight in lying ; but 
 to me it is not so clear that lies like these flourish with more 
 vigour among the Scots than among other people 1 . 
 
 1 See Appendix for a translation of the 14th question of the 24th distinction 
 in the In Qitartum, where the question of nobility is treated at greater length. 
 
chap, viil] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 47 
 
 CHAP. VIIL — Something further concerning the manners and 
 customs o f the Scots, that is, of the peasantry, as well as of the nobles, 
 and of the Wild Scots, as well as the civilised part. 
 
 Having said something of the manner of life and character 
 of the Scots, it remains to continue the same subject in respect 
 of their civilised nobles, as many before me have done. The The British no- 
 British nobles are not less civilised than their peers on the con- Used npbiltty^ 
 tinent of Europe. They form a certain community apart from 
 the common people. Of outward elegance I find more in the 
 cities of France and their inhabitants than among the Britons; 
 but in the country, and among the peasantry, there is more 
 of elegance in Britain. In Britain no man goes unarmed to 
 church or market, nor indeed outside the village in which he 
 dwells. In their style of dress, and in their arms, they try 
 to rival the lesser nobles, and if one of these should strike them 
 they return the blow upon the spot. In both of the British 
 kingdoms the warlike strength of the nation resides in its com- 
 mon people and its peasantry. The farmers rent their land 
 from the lords, but cultivate it by means of their servants, and formers to 'till 
 not with their own hands. They keep a horse and weapons of * e v ^° l1 them " 
 war, and are ready to take part in his quarrel, be it just or 
 unjust, with any powerful lord, if they only have a liking for 
 him, and with him, if need be, to fight to the death. The 
 farmers have further this fault : that they do not bring up their 
 sons to any handicraft. Shoemakers, tailors, and all such 
 craftsmen they reckon as contemptible and unfit for war ; and 
 they therefore bring up their children to take service with the 
 great nobles, or with a view to their living in the country in 
 the manner of their fathers. Even dwellers in towns they hold 
 as unfit for war ; and in truth they are much before the towns- 
 folk in the art of war, and prove themselves far stouter soldiers. 
 Townsfolk are accustomed to luxurious eating and drinking, 
 and a quiet fashion of life, and have not the habit of bearing- 
 arms ; they give in therefore at once when brought face to face 
 with the hard life of a soldier. The farmers, on the other 
 hand, brought up in all temperance of drink, and continuous 
 bodily exercise, are of a harder fibre. Though they do not till 
 their land themselves, they keep a diligent eye upon their 
 
48 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book i. 
 
 servants and household, and in great part ride out with the 
 neighbouring nobles. 
 
 Among t he nobles I note two faults. The first is this: If 
 two nobles of equal rank happen to be very near neighbours, 
 
 Faults of the 1 1 J 0 
 
 greater nobles, quarrels and even shedding of blood are a common thing between 
 them ; and their very retainers cannot meet without strife. 
 Just in this way, when Abraham and Lot increased in wealth, 
 did their shepherds not keep the peace. From the beginning 
 of time families at strife with one another make bequest of 
 hatred to their children ; and thus do they cultivate hatred in 
 the place of the love of God. 
 
 The second fault I note is this : The gentry educate their 
 children neither in letters nor in morals 1 — no small calamity to 
 the state. They ought to search out men learned in history, 
 upright in character, and to them intrust the education of their 
 children, so that even in tender age these may begin to form 
 right habits, and act when they are mature in years like 
 men endowed with reason. Justice, courage, and all those 
 forms of temperance which may be put to daily use they 
 should pursue, and have in abhorrence the corresponding vices 
 as things low and mean. The sons of neighbouring nobles 
 would not then find it a hard thing to live together in peace ; 
 they would no more be stirrers up of sedition in the state, and 
 in war would approve themselves no less brave — as may be 
 seen from the example of the Romans, whose most illustrious 
 generals were men well skilled in polite learning ; and the 
 same thing we read of the Greeks, the Carthaginians, and the 
 Persians. 
 
 Two kinds of Further, just as among the Scots we find two distinct tongues, 
 Scots " so we likewise find two different ways of life and conduct. 
 
 For some are born in the forests and mountains of the north, 
 and these we call men of the Highland, but the others men 
 of the Lowland. By foreigners the former are called Wild 
 Scots, the latter householding Scots. The Irish tongue is in 
 use among the former, the English tongue among the latter. 
 
 1 It was in 1496, when Major was abroad, that the remarkable Act was passed 
 which ordained that all barons and freeholders should send their sons to grammar 
 schools at eight or nine years of age, and keep them there till they have ' perfect 
 Latin ', and thereafter to the schools of ' art and jure ' for three years. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 49 
 
 One-half of Scotland speaks Irish, and all these as well as the 
 Islanders we reckon to belong to the Wild Scots. In dress, 
 in the manner of their outward life, and in good morals, for 
 example, these come behind the householding Scots — yet they 
 are not less, but rather much more, prompt to fight ; and this, 
 both because they dwell more towards the north and because, 
 born as they are in the mountains, and dwellers in forests, their 
 very nature is more combative. It is, however, with the house- 
 holding Scots that the government and direction of the kingdom 
 is to be found, inasmuch as they understand better, or at least 
 less ill than the others, the nature of a civil polity. One part of The Wild Scots, 
 the Wild Scots have a wealth of cattle, sheep, and horses, and 
 these, with a thought for the possible loss of their possessions, 
 yield more willing obedience to the courts of law and the king. 
 The other part of these people delight in the chase and a life 
 of indolence ; their chiefs eagerly follow bad men if only they 
 may not have the need to labour ; taking no pains to earn 
 their own livelihood, they live upon others, and follow their 
 own worthless and savage chief in all evil courses sooner than 
 they will pursue an honest industry. They are full of mutual 
 dissensions, and war rather than peace is their normal condition. 
 The Scottish kings have with difficulty been able to withstand 
 the inroads of these men. From the mid-leg to the foot they 
 go uncovered ; their dress is, for an over garment, a loose plaid, 
 and a shirt saffron-dyed. They are armed with bow and 
 arrows, a broadsword, and a small halbert. They always carry 
 in their belt a stout dagger, single-edged 2 , but of the sharpest. 
 In time of war they cover the whole body with a coat of mail, 
 made of iron rings, and in it they fight. The common 
 folk among the Wild Scots go out to battle with the whole 
 body clad in a linen garment sewed together in patchwork, 
 well daubed with wax or with pitch, and with an over-coat of 
 deerskin 3 . But the common people among our domestic Scots 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. I. ch. v. (p. 32). 
 
 2 Cf. Bk. v. ch. iii. for a rather different description of the arms of the 
 Wild Scots at Bannockburn. May the description here be that of the Wild 
 Scots' accoutrements as Major knew them, and that in Bk. v. be based upon 
 an older chronicler ? 
 
 3 The old notices as to the Highland dress are collected in Transactions of 
 the lona Club, vol. i. p. 25 scq, (1834). 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book i. 
 
 and the English fight in a woollen garment. For musical 
 instruments and vocal music the Wild Scots use the harp, whose 
 strings are of brass, and not of animal gut ; and on this 
 they make most pleasing melody. Our householding Scots, or 
 quiet and civil-living people — that is, all who lead a decent 
 and reasonable life — these men hate, on account of their dif- 
 fering speech, as much as they do the English. 
 
 CHAP. IX. — Concerning the various origin of the Scots, and the 
 reason of the name. For the Scots are sprung from the Irish, and the 
 Irish in turn from the Spaniards, and the Scots are so named after the 
 woman Scota. 
 
 Up to this point we have been telling of the origin of the 
 Britons, and of the customs of the Scottish Britons. It remains 
 to say something of the origin of the Scots. Some of the 
 English chroniclers affirm that the descent of the Scots as well 
 as of the Welsh may be traced to Brutus. Brutus, they say, 
 The sons of had three sons, the name of the first, Locrinus, to whom he 
 gave England for his kingdom. The name of the second son 
 was Albanac ; to him he gave the northern part of the island, 
 and after him it was called Alban. On the third son, Camber, 
 he bestowed the western part of the island, and it after him 
 The Scots was called Cambria, and, at a later date, Wales. This fable 
 fhThish^ fr ° m a k° Ll t Brutus we did not, in an earlier part of our work, accept ; 
 
 and whatever (if indeed there were any such person) may be 
 the fact about his sons, it is attested by a multiplicity of proof 
 that we trace our descent from the Irish. This we learn from 
 the English Bede 1 , who had no desire to attenuate the lineage 
 of his kingdom. Their speech is another proof of this : at the 
 present day almost the half of Scotland speaks the Irish tongue, 
 and not so long ago it was spoken by the majority of us, and 
 yet between Britain and Ireland flows such a breadth of water 
 as we find between France and England. They brought their 
 speech from Ireland into Britain ; and this is clear from the 
 The Irish testimony of our own chroniclers, whose writers were not negli- 
 th e e SC Spar!^rds m g ent in tms respect. I say then, from whomsoever the Irish 
 and the Scots traced their descent, from the same source come the Scots 
 
 from the Irish. 
 
 1 Hist. Eccl. i. i. 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 51 
 
 though at one remove, as with son and grandfather. But the 
 Irish had their origin from the Spaniards, a fact that I take to 
 be admitted by the chroniclers. Starting from Braganza, a city 
 of Portugal, and from the Ebro which receives most of the 
 rivers of Spain, many of the inhabitants joining together went in 
 quest of a new settlement and put out on the wide sea, just as 
 they do at this present. In the space of three days they made 
 a certain island, moderately peopled, and inasmuch as the 
 inhabitants could offer no resistance, there they settled them- 
 selves, and gave the name of Hibernia to this island, either 
 because the greater part of the Spaniards came from the river 
 Ebro [Hiberus] in Spain, or after a certain soldier of Spain named 
 Hiberus, as some will have it, whose mother's name was Scota. 
 So that by some the island was called Hibernia, after Hiberus ; 
 by others Scotia, after Scota. In the time of our ancestors it was 
 more commonly called Scotia, but, in process of time, to mark 
 its distinction from the Scots of Britain, it came to be known as 
 Hibernia, not as Scotia. In some of our chroniclers we read 
 that a certain king of the Greeks, by name Nealus, had a son 
 called Gathelus, whom for his evil deeds he banished, and that 
 this Gathelus set out for Egypt, and there got to wife a 
 daughter of Pharaoh, by name Scota; but when Pharaoh in 
 his pursuit of the Hebrews was drowned in the Red Sea, 
 Gathelus and Scota with their children were driven from 
 Egypt, and, taking ship in search of a new country where they 
 might dwell, in course of time came to the Spains 1 . They 
 settled themselves in Lusitania, which is now called Portugal 
 and is a part of Spain, and there built and fortified the city of 
 Braganza. Others of their following, however, penetrating 
 further into Spain, reached the river Hiberus ; and after dwell- 
 ing there, they and their descendants, for two hundred years, 
 began to seek a new place of habitation, and came to the island 
 which is now called Hibernia. And if this story be true, the 
 Irish Scots are descended from the Spaniards. 
 
 As to this original departure of theirs out of Greece and Egypt, 
 I count it a fable, and for this reason : their English enemies had 
 learned to boast of an origin from the Trojans, so the Scots 
 
 1 i.e. the Roman provinces of Hispania citerior and Hispania ulterior, which 
 together made up the peninsula. 
 
52 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book i 
 
 claimed an original descent from the Greeks who had subdued 
 the Trojans, and then bettered it with this about the illustrious 
 kingdom of Egypt. But seeing that all history and the simi- 
 larity of language went to prove that the Irish sprang from 
 people of Spain, they added yet this : that the Greeks and the 
 Egyptians, from whom they claimed a still further and indeed 
 original descent, spent two hundred years in western Hesperia. 
 From ,all this it seems that some true statements are mixed up 
 with statements that are doubtful. For it is certain that the 
 Irish are descended from the Spaniards and the Scottish 
 Britons from the Irish — all the rest I dismiss as doubtful, and 
 to me, indeed, unprofitable. Our chroniclers relate yet another 
 absurd story : to wit, that Simon Brek and the men of Spain 
 who landed in Ireland both made a new language and put to 
 death the whole population of the island. But, first, it would 
 be both an inhuman thing, and one that served no purpose, to 
 clear the island of slaves, women, and children. Antoninus 1 
 and Vincentius 2 tell us that the Spaniards landed in Ireland with 
 a large fleet and took possession of it as they saw good, whether 
 with the sword or by peaceful means. What advantage could 
 they reap by this destruction of an unwarlike race ? Secondly, 
 as to this making of a language — 'tis a thing contrary to all 
 reason. If two races that speak different languages mix one 
 with another, a language is produced which holds of both, so far 
 as speaking is concerned, but which has more resemblance to 
 that language of the two which is the more civilised and the 
 pleasanter to hear. This is clear from a consideration of the 
 English tongue, which has much in common with the Saxon. 
 But owing to Danish and British influences it is much changed 
 from the Saxon. And we southern Scots differ in our speech 
 from the language of England on account of our neighbour- 
 hood to the Wild Scots. The same thing may be seen with the 
 
 1 Antoninus was archbishop of Florence ; ob. 1459. He wrote a chronological 
 history, which he called a 1 Summa Historialis '. 
 
 2 Vincentius Bellovacensis [i.e. of Beauvais] a Dominican, fi. in the 13th 
 century. He wrote a ' Speculum Doctrinale ' which embraced all the sciences. 
 Among the books in the small library of the monastery of Kinloss there were 
 found, before 1535, ' quatuor Vincentii volumina, tria Chronicorum Antonini, 
 and two of the works of John Major upon the Sentences. — Records, etc., ed. by 
 Dr. John Stuart, 1872. 
 
(hap. ix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 53 
 
 people of Picardy, in their use of the French language, on 
 account of their proximity to the people of Flanders. Every- 
 where the same fact may be noticed. The Irish language is 
 very near the Spanish. The Spaniard in his morning greeting 
 says ' Bona dies', the Irishman, ' Vennoka die\ The Spaniards, 
 like the Gascons — as we observed when we were in Paris — put 
 b for i', unless they have changed their speech 1 . The Irish 
 too, use the same funeral dirges as the Spaniards, and their 
 customs are the same in many ways. 
 
 Ireland is an island about half the size of Britain, not so far The situation 
 to the north, and situated to the west of Britain, on all sides of Ireland - 
 encompassed by the sea, and by as much distant from Britain as 
 Britain is from Gaul. No serpents are to be found there, and if Irish soil kills 
 you so much as place near a serpent in any other country a bit of serpents# 
 Irish earth, that serpent dies. The island produces a kind of 
 horses, which the natives call Haubbii 2 , whose pace is of the 
 gentlest. They were called Asturcones* in old times because 
 
 1 ' Vennoka die ' is evidently meant for ' beannacht De ' (pronounced ' beana%t 
 dye ' blessing of God ', a very common Irish greeting. 4 beannacht ' is bor- 
 rowed from the Latin ' benedictio ', and ' De ' (the genitive of ' Dia ') has 
 nothing to do with 1 dies ' ; but Major is so far correct about b and v that in 
 certain cases b in Irish becomes v. 
 
 - Cf. Littre s.v. hobin : ' nom d'une race de chevaux d'Ecosse, qui vont 
 naturellement le pas qu'on appelle l'amble '. Ital. tibino, Dan. hoppe=z. mare, 
 Fris. hoppa, our hobby. Howell {Lexic. Tetrag.) has ' hobbie, cheval irlandois '. 
 Cf. ' Sunt etiam in hac insula [Ireland] praestantissimi equi, adeo ut Munsterus 
 1. 2. Cosmograph. in descript. Hibern. asserat, "gignit Hibernia multos equos, 
 gnaviter incedunt, studentque velut data opera mollem facere gressum, ne 
 insidenti molestiam ullam inferant ". Et Jovius, "equi tota Hibernia incorrupta 
 sobole gignunt, mollissimo incessu Hobirtbs Angli vocant, et ob id a delicatis 
 expetuntur, ac in Gallia, Italiaque nobilioribus foeminis dono dantur. Ex hoc 
 genere duodecim candoris eximii purpura et argenteis habenis exornatos in 
 Pompam summorum Pontificum sessore vacuos duci vidimus".' — Carve : Lyra 
 ed. 1666, p. 43. For the number of ' equi discooperti [as distinguished from 
 ' equi cooperti '] qui dicuntur hobelarii ', among the Irish troops serving in Scot- 
 land in 1296, cf. Documents illustrative of the History of 'Scotland \ ed. by the 
 Rev. Joseph Stevenson, 1870, vol. ii. p. 125. 
 
 3 Cf. Pliny : Nat. Hist. viii. 42. ' Out of the same Spaine, from the parts 
 called Gallicia and Asturia, certaine ambling jennets or nags are bred, which 
 wee call Thieldones : and others of lesse stature and proportion every way, 
 named Asturcones. These horses have a pleasant pace by themselves differing 
 from others. For albeit they bee put to their full pace, a man shall see them 
 set one foot before another so deftly and roundly in order by turnes [mollis 
 
54 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book l 
 
 they came from Asturia in Spain, and indeed the Spanish 
 colonists brought those horses along with them. The French call 
 these same horses English Haubini or Hobini, because they get 
 them by way of England. This island, further, is no less fertile 
 than Britain, and abounds in fair rivers well stocked with fish, in 
 meadowland and woodland. The more southern part, which 
 also is the more civilised, obeys the English king. The more 
 northern part is under no king, but remains subject to chiefs 
 of its own. In all that has now been told — of the horses, of the 
 serpents, and of a soil that is fatal to all poisonous animals — 
 we find a proof of the quiescence of its sky. For these 
 Whence this are not the result in the first instance of the soil itself, nor yet 
 fnthesoii? 1116 of the moveable sky, for part of Ireland is situated under the 
 same parallel with Britain or with a part of Britain. Where- 
 fore it is from the influence of that sky which can suffer no 
 disturbance that the soil of Ireland draws this virtue 1 . 
 
 CHAP. X. — Of the Origin of the Picts, their Name and Customs. 
 
 Let us now leave the Irish Scots, settled in the island of 
 Ireland, and speak for a little of the Picts who were the 
 second, after the Britons, and, according to true history, before 
 the Scots, to found a kingdom in Britain. As the Venerable 
 Bede says in the first book, and the first chapter, of his Ecclesi- 
 astical History of the English nation, the Picts (by their own 
 report) put out to sea from Scythia with a few ships of war, 
 and, driven by a storm beyond the bounds of Britain, came to 
 Ireland, where they found the nation of the Scots in posses- 
 sion, and sought from them a settlement for themselves in these 
 parts, but obtained none. But to the Picts the Scots spoke 
 thus : 4 We can give you good counsel as to what you may be 
 
 alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio], that it would doe one good to see it.' — 
 Holland's trans., 1601. 
 
 1 Cf. Aristot. de Coelo, Bk. n., and Bacon's comment : — ' Aristotle's temerity 
 and cavilling has begotten for us a fantastic heaven, composed of a fifth essence, 
 free from change, and free likewise from heat. ' — Descriptio Globi Intellectualis ■, 
 ch. 7, Ellis and Spedding's ed. vol. vi. p. 525. As to the virtues of the climate 
 of Ireland cf. Giraldus Cambrensis, who attributes the singular salubrity of his 
 birthplace, Manorbeer in Pembrokeshire, to its nearness to Ireland. — Itin. 
 Kcunbriae, lib. i. cap. 12. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 55 
 
 able to do. Another island we know, not far from our own, 
 towards the rising sun, which, in a clear day, may in the far 
 distance be discerned. If you have a mind to make for that 
 island, you will be able to dwell there. For though the 
 inhabitants should resist your landing, yet, with us to help you, 
 all will turn out to your furthest wish 1 — the Scots, in this 
 counsel of theirs, acting on that common proverb: He who A common 
 will not receive you as a guest in his own house praises the proverb - 
 entertainment that you will meet with from his neighbour, 
 that he may be rid of you. The Picts then made for Britain, 
 and began to dwell in the northern parts of the island towards 
 the east ; for the Britons were in occupation of the southern 
 portion. And since the Picts were wifeless, they sought wives 
 of the Scots, who on this condition only would grant the 
 request, that, when any doubt arose in the matter of succession, 
 they should choose their king rather from the female line than The queens of 
 from the male line, a practice which, it is well known, prevails thePlcts - 
 with the Picts to the present day. They got the name of The origin of 
 Picts either because they excelled in beauty of person and their name - 
 bodily strength, or because their dress was mostly of many 
 colours, as if painted. 
 
 CHAP. XI. — In what manner the Scots Jirst gained a settlement 
 in Britain. 
 
 To the Picts (as we have said) the Irish Scots gave their 
 daughters in marriage, and, moved by a desire to see their 
 children, they made no infrequent visits to the Picts, now 
 settled in Britain. There they took note of certain parts, in 
 every way most fit for the pasturing of cattle, which the Picts 
 had not yet occupied, and likewise of many small islands 
 between Ireland and Britain. Other islands too they saw, in 
 their many voyages, on the western shore of Britain, more 
 northerly than Ireland. All this they reported to their own 
 people ; and when the Irish Scots had considered the matter, 
 they led into Britain yet a third nation, for it was with Reuda Chief Reuda. 
 as their leader that the Scots set out from Ireland, and whether 
 by friendly consent or by the sword gained a settlement in 
 Britain by the side of the Picts. From this leader it is, 
 
56 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [book l 
 
 according to Bede \ that they are to this day called Dahal- 
 reudini. For in their tongue Dahal means a 4 part \ Our own 
 Fergus. chronicles, however, bear that Fergus, son of Ferchard, set foot 
 in Britain before Reuda, and that he showed in his armour a 
 red lion, and was the first of the Scots who bore the sceptre in 
 Britain, as witness the verses well known among our people : 
 ' In Albion's realm first king of Scottish seed, Fergus the son of 
 Ferchard bore mid his troops the ensign of a red lion, roaring 
 in a tawny field." 
 
 Concerning the date when this same Fergus set foot in 
 Britain, take the following verses : ' Fergus, who first gave 
 laws and kingly rule to the Britons, lived before Christ three 
 hundred years and thirty/ 
 
 Fergus brought with him from Ireland the marble chair in 
 which the kings of Scots are crowned at Scone 2 . It is said that 
 Symon Brek, when he set out from Spain for Ireland, found 
 The marble this marble stone, fashioned like a chair. This he regarded as 
 stone. an omen of the kingdom that was to be. But this story about 
 
 Fergus in no way conflicts with the statement of the Vener- 
 able Bede. For it was but a feeble foundation of the kingdom 
 that Fergus laid, and it was the son of his great-grandson, 
 Rether. Rether, as our chroniclers call him, or Reuda — to speak with 
 Bede — who confirmed that first foundation, and added to his 
 kingdom both what he won from the Picts and somewhat too 
 from the Britons. He invaded that part of the country of the 
 Britons to which he gave a name made famous by his fall in 
 battle, Retherdale to wit ; that is, the valley, or part, of Rether, 
 in English Bethisdaile, and to this day it is called Ryddisdaile 3 , 
 inasmuch as it was there that Rether, king of the Scots, lost his 
 life. Very like this is to what we read of the mighty empire of 
 the Assyrians, whose beginnings some writers trace to Bel, but 
 others to Ninus Nembrothides. For the first foundation of that 
 empire, small in outward measure, but great in promise, was 
 laid by Bel, and afterwards received a mighty increase by Ninus 
 Nembrothides. So much then let it suffice to have said con- 
 cerning the first coming of the Scots and Picts into Britain. 
 
 1 Hist. Eccl. i. i. 
 
 2 For the legends connected with this stone see Mr. Skene's Coronation Stone. 
 
 3 Redesdale, in Northumberland. 
 
chap, xii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 57 
 
 CHAP. XII. — Concerning the arrival of the Romans in Britain, and 
 their achievements in that island. 
 
 By the Romans, at that time the masters of the world, Britain Julius Caesar, 
 had never been reached, and was indeed unknown ; but Julius 
 Caesar, in the six hundred and ninety-third year from the 
 foundation of the city, in the sixtieth year before the Incarna- 
 tion of the Word, when he had subdued Gaul, hastened into 
 Britain, and there his reception was of the fiercest. He lost a 
 large number of foot-soldiers, of his horse the whole, and in a 
 storm a great part of his ships. For not only did the Britons 
 make stand against him ; the youth of the Scots and Picts were 
 also there, as Caxton, the English historian, makes mention. 
 For they were in fear lest, should the Romans break their fast 
 with the Britons, they would sup with the Scots and Picts, 
 as the proverb goes : 4 "Tis become your own concern when 
 your neighbour's house takes fire. 1 
 
 Wherefore, though the three British kings — to wit, the 
 Briton, the Scot, and the Pict — were at war among themselves, 
 against Caesar and their most powerful foe, the Romans, 
 they went out to battle of one mind, ready to fight in one 
 solid mass ; and, that I may say much in few words, when 
 they had slain some of the Romans and routed the rest, they 
 forced Caesar to show his back. He then returned to both Caesar's flight. 
 Gauls, and when he had recovered himself, collected again a 
 mighty fleet (six hundred vessels, as they say), and hastened a 
 second time against the Britons, by whom he was nobly met, 
 and his horsemen were routed utterly. The tribune Labienus, D eat h of 
 a Roman of renown, was there slain ; but Caesar gathered once Labienus. 
 more with care the wandering and scattered Romans. He 
 again attacked the Britons, and now successful, now suffering 
 defeat, at last came out the conqueror. After this victory he Caesar's 
 brought a large part of the Britons under Roman rule, and vlctor y- 
 forced Cassibellaunus, king of the Britons, to surrender. This 
 king bound himself to pay yearly to Caesar, as representing the 
 Roman people, three thousand pounds of silver. Caesar then 
 journeyed through the northern parts of the island, and came 
 to the Scottish Sea that is called Forth, and sent letters botli 
 to the Scots and to the Picts, in which he showed how that he 
 
58 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book l 
 
 had subdued the Gauls, the Germans, and the Britons, and 
 counselled them to submit to ' the Romans, the masters of the 
 world, and the toga'ed race''; and when the Scots and Picts 
 made small account of these letters, he sent them others of a 
 threatening sort. An answer then they made forthwith, that 
 they were moved neither by the fair words of the Romans nor 
 yet by their threats, that with the help of the gods and with 
 their own right arm they trusted to defend their remote and 
 difficult recesses ; but were it otherwise, they would spend 
 their life for their country's freedom, and not without fearful 
 bloodshed should the Romans establish their rule among them. 
 Meanwhile, and when Caesar was awaiting the answer of the 
 northern kings, he received sudden tidings of the Gauls, that 
 these were rebelling against the Romans. When he heard 
 this, he determined to make all speed to both Gauls, choosing 
 rather to bring to terms a people once subdued, now in rebellion, 
 than during such rebellion to attack another foe — lest he might 
 thus lose the whole result of his laborious toil. But before 
 A memorial his departure he ordered that "a building of stone should be 
 m stone. raised near the water of Caron [Carron] \ as a memorial of his 
 victory — herein imitating Hercules, who in the western part 
 of Spain left two pillars in everlasting monument. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. — How the Emperor Claudius came to Britain. 
 
 Claudius In the seven hundred and ninety-ninth year of the city, 
 
 Claudius, fourth emperor after Augustus Caesar, came to 
 Britain, and, without any battle or shedding of blood, within 
 a very few days reduced to submission the largest part of the 
 island, which was still in a measure rebellious. To the Roman 
 empire he added the islands of the Orkneys which lie to the 
 north of Britain, of which we have above made mention. But 
 in the sixth month from his setting out from Rome he 
 
 Britannicus. returned thither, bestowing upon his son the name of Britan- 
 nicus. This journey to Britain he accomplished in the fourth 
 year of his reign, which year answers to the forty-sixth from 
 the Incarnation of the Word. And here it is to be noted 
 
 1 The monument known as ' Arthur's O'on ', ' Julius Hoff' ; figured in Cam- 
 den's Brit., p. 1223, ed. 1722, and in Gordon's It in. Septent., p. 24, ed. 1726. 
 
CHAP. XIII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 59 
 
 as a wonderful thing how he left untouched the Scots and the 
 Picts, for to the Orkney islands he went by sea ; but his was 
 not the daring spirit of Caesar, and for this reason he passed by 
 each of the two kings who had withstood Caesar with success. 
 
 From Bede and discourse of history it is made clear that 
 afterwards the Scots and Picts made a sudden attack upon 
 the Britons along with the Romans — unless it were argued 
 that those kings promised to obey the Roman rule, and 
 then at once on the departure of the Romans rose in revolt — 
 a thin": which I find nowhere recorded. In the time of the 
 emperor Claudius, a mighty war began between the con- 
 federated Scots and Picts on the one hand, and the Britons 
 on the other — a war which lasted without a break for one 
 hundred and fifty-four years. According to our chroniclers, 
 the Romans were aiming, with the help of the Britons, at 
 making the Scots and Picts tributaries to them : which when 
 these peoples came to understand, they made a fierce attack 
 upon the Romans and the Britons, sparing neither sex, and 
 levelling with the ground some fair cities of the Britons — 
 Agned for one, which, when it had been rebuilt by Heth, the 
 
 kino: of the Picts, came to be called Hethburp;, and to-day Hethburg. 
 . _° „ 5 _ ,. _ _ _ . 0 j Edinburgh, 
 
 is known to all men as Edinburgh, the royal seat in Scotland ; 
 
 Carlisle, too, and Alinclud or Alclid, which I take it, is 
 
 the city now known as Dunbarton. Afterwards, in the year one 
 
 hundred and fifty-six of the Incarnate Word, when Antoninus 
 
 Verus, fourteenth from Augustus, began to reign along with 
 
 his brother, Aurelius Com mod us — in whose time the holy man 
 
 Eleutherius was pope at Rome — Lucius, the British king, wrote Pope 
 
 a letter to the pope, praying for baptism, and to his prayer Lu e c j USj the 'first 
 
 the pontiff religiously assented ; and thus, the faith once Q^eBritonf 
 
 received, the Britons kept it intact and unassailed even to 
 
 the days of Diocletian. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. — Concerning the events which thereafter happened in 
 Britain, the building of the wall, the passion of Ursula with her com- 
 panions at Cologne, the reception of the Catholic Faith, and the rest. 
 
 In the hundred and eighty-ninth year from the Incarnation 
 of our Lord, Severus set foot in Britain, to the end he might 
 
60 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book l 
 
 help the Britons against the Scots and Picts, and he saw that 
 there was much need to build some kind of wall between them. 
 
 A wall built. He made a wall accordingly, of stones and turf, as is told by 
 Bede in the fifth chapter of the first book of his history of 
 the church among the English nation \ This wall extended 
 between the rivers Tyne and Esk. A proof this is that the 
 Scots and Picts did not acknowledge Roman rule. And 
 further, in the year of our Lord two hundred twenty and five, 
 
 Ursula. Ursula, and along with her eleven thousand virgins, were to have 
 journeyed to Aremorica, that they might there find husbands, 
 because at that time the Aremoricans refused to take Frankish 
 women to wife. These maidens took ship on the river 
 Thames, but when a storm of wind arose they were tossed 
 towards the Rhine, and so reached Cologne. With them 
 Govan, the king of that country, and Elga his brother, together 
 with his vassals, desired to have carnal dealing, which thing the 
 maidens resisted with all their force, and then the tyrants slew 
 them. This Saint Ursula was the daughter of Dionoth, the ruler 
 of Britain, and granddaughter, by a sister, of the king of the 
 Scots. Thereafter, Govan and his brother Elga gather a large 
 army, desiring to bring ruin on the country of those maidens ; 
 and when they had set foot in Britain, they began to destroy 
 its cities, strongholds, and above all (for they were infidels) its 
 churches, and the Christians they everywhere put to the sword. 
 
 Alban. Saint Alban suffered at that time. At length a certain Roman, 
 
 Gratian. by name Gratian, comes to Britain, puts Govan to flight, and 
 claims for himself the crown of the Britons. He in turn was 
 slain by the Britons for his misdeeds. After his death Govan 
 returned yet once more to Britain, and wrought evil more than 
 ever. The Britons thereupon approached the king of the 
 
 1 Bede led Major and all subsequent Scottish historians (except Buchanan) 
 into error on this point. In recent years it has been proved that this wall was 
 built by Hadrian, though it is possible that Severus repaired it before 
 commencing his Caledonian campaign [a.d. 208]. See Dr. Collingwood 
 Bruce's Handbook, p. 82, third ed. 1885, and Mr. Scarth's Roman Britain, 
 p. 59. Buchanan shows (Rer. Scotic. Hist., p. 5) that he saw Bede's error, and 
 distinguishes between the wall of Antonine between the Forth and the Clyde, 
 which was repaired by Severus (cf. Mr. Rhys's Celtic Britain, p. 91), and that 
 of Hadrian between the Tyne and the Solway. It is noteworthy that Major 
 seems strangely ignorant of the classical accounts of Britain. 
 
chap, xiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 61 
 
 Aremoricans (that is, of Little Britain), by name Aldrey, be- Aidrey. 
 seeching him to come to their help. He sends his own brother 
 Constantius into Britain, who kills Govan, and puts all the 
 infidels to the sword. This done, Constantius became king of 
 the Britons, that is, of that tract of land in the island which 
 the Britons were the first to take possession of. Here once 
 more the Britons began openly to worship Christ. The Scots, 
 too, in the seventh year of the emperor Severus, in the time of 
 Victor, first received the Catholic faith. Some verses well 
 known among the Scots declare this date, and thus they run : — 
 
 Two hundred years and three after Christ had finished His Work 
 
 Scotland began to follow the Catholic Faith. 
 This Victor was the successor of Eleutherius. 
 
 CHAP. XV. — Concerning the Strife between the Picts and Scots. 
 
 In the two hundred and eighty-eighth year of the redemp- a war that had 
 tion of the world there arose a quarrel between the Scots and coun" o? a dog' 
 Picts by reason of a certain Molossian hound of wonderful swift- 
 ness, which certain Picts had taken secretly from the Scots, and 
 which they refused to restore. It was at first a war of words, 
 but grew too soon to a strife of arms among those neighbouring 
 peoples. Behold from how small a spark a great pile may be 
 kindled! 1 Meanwhile a certain Carausius is set over the Britons Carausius. 
 by the Romans, — a man who troubled the whole country by his 
 insatiable greed. The Roman emperor therefore sent an order 
 to the Britons, to the effect that this Carausius should secretly 
 be put out of the way. But when Carausius got wind of this, 
 he went forthwith to the Scots and the Picts, brought these to a 
 peaceable mind by large gifts, and the promise of still greater 
 things if they would but stand by him in driving the Romans 
 from the land. To this they give their assent willingly. Trust- 
 ing then to such help as this, he drives the Romans out of the 
 country, and claims the crown of the Britons for himself. But 
 when the Romans heard how matters went in Britain, they 
 sent a certain Bassianus, one of their generals, with a great army Bassianus. 
 
 1 ' Ecce quomodo ex scintilla ignis ingens rogus coaluit.' In the Vulgate (St. 
 James iii. 5) ' Ecce quantus ignis quam magnam sylvam [Gr. vXtju, Eng. matter] 
 incendit ! ' 
 
62 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book I. 
 
 into Britain. This Bassianus came to an understanding with 
 the Picts, and with their help managed to subdue the Britons 
 who were on the side of Carausius. He promised to bring 
 further help to the Picts, and to keep in check the Scots, 
 against whom he knew the Picts to cherish a lively hatred on 
 account of the wars that had been going on between them. 
 Albeit, Bassianus was conquered and slain by Carausius and 
 Bassianus slain, the Scots, the help of the Picts notwithstanding. Carausius 
 then frees the Britons, who had been tributary to the 
 Romans from the days of Julius Caesar, from such servitude 
 and tribute ; but lie was at last stabbed by one of his own 
 Maximus. soldiers. After his death, Maximus, who then had the com- 
 mand in Britain, thought the time had come when he might 
 gain possession of the whole island, yet saw no hope of bring- 
 ing things so far while the Picts and Scots made common 
 cause against him. He turned his mind first, therefore, to the 
 Picts, as thinking them the stronger, and made with them a 
 treaty of peace, by which they were to attack the Scots, think- 
 ing, when once the Scots were expelled, that he should have no 
 hard task in driving out the Picts, and so at length gain the 
 sovereignty over the whole island. The Picts then wage war 
 against the Scots, give every village to the flames, and at the 
 point of the sword bring universal ruin on the country. 
 Eugenius, the king of the Scots, they slay along with his son. 
 Following whereupon, one Ethach by name, the brother of 
 Eugenius, is forced to leave his native island, with his son Erth 
 or Eric, and to repeat that word of Virgil, where he says — 
 Nos patriae fines et dulcia linquimus arva 1 . 
 The remnant of Scots, whom the sword had spared, made 
 their way to Norway, Ireland, and the circumjacent islands. 
 The Scots, then, driven from the kingdom, and the Picts 
 wasted in their wars with the Scots, Maximus marches upon 
 the Picts with a great army, and reduces them to a tributary 
 condition. Now, had Maximus only been able to follow up 
 the victory he had won, he might have made himself sole ruler 
 in Britain ; but here was verified once more that saying of a 
 Carthaginian noble about Hannibal, that Hannibal indeed 
 
 The Picts 
 against the 
 Scots. 
 
 Death of 
 Eugenius. 
 
 1 Eel. i. 3. 
 
c hap, xv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 63 
 
 could win a victory, but knew not how to use it. The same 
 thing has happened with Pompey and Caesar, and most other 
 generals. 
 
 At this same time a certain abbot, by name Regulus, under Abbot Reguius. 
 admonition of an angel, brought into Britain relics of the 
 Blessed Andrew, the head namely, an arm, and three fingers of 
 the right hand, and he arrived by divine guidance in the 
 country of the Picts. At that time Hurgust, son of Fergus, 
 was king over that people, and he built for the Blessed 
 Regulus and the brethren of his company a church every way 
 noble, and granted them possessions whence they might gain 
 their living. Thereafter, too, Hungus, king of the Picts, 
 by reason of the special devotion in which he had the Blessed 
 Andrew, bestowed upon that saint, on account of a miraculous Gifts made to 
 victory won over the Britons, the tenth part of his lands. Apostle. ^ 
 Further, in the year three hundred and ninety-four after the 
 Virgin had become a mother, Pelagius the Briton, by his denial 
 of the grace of God, sowed in the Church a pestilent poison. 
 This is understood by most men as the question of a special 
 auxilium. It is more agreeable to the teaching of the saints The necessary 
 that no mortal, without the prevenient grace of God, without grace ° 
 special auxilium, can elicit an act morally good : according 
 to that saying of the Wise Man, 6 1 could not preserve myself 
 continent except God gave it , 1 , — that is, by a special gift. It 
 is not the general co-operation of God that is here discussed. 
 For that is necessary to every act, good as well as evil. The 
 same is true of an act of faith, following that which the Truth 
 speaks in the Gospel : 6 No man cometh unto me, unless my 
 Father draw him." The Father draws him on whom he bestows 
 a special grace of faith. Let this then suffice to have said in 
 our fifteenth chapter, and of the expulsion of the Scots from 
 Britain. And herewith we make an end of the first book. 
 
 1 Book of Wisdom, viii. 21. 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 CHAP. I. — Follows here the second book of British history. Of the 
 return of the Scots into Britain, and their league with the Picts, and (he 
 tears that were soon therea fter carried on by them, and the building o f a 
 wall. 
 
 In the year three hundred and ninety-six from the redemp- 
 tion of the world, in the time of the emperors Honorius and 
 Arcadius, the scattered Scots returned to Britain, after an exile 
 
 Scots to Britain, of three-and-forty years; and this they did partly at the 
 prayer of the Picts, who had been wasted by the tribute 
 exacted from them by the Britons. The Scots then, in Large 
 part by the help of the Picts, received their own lands again, 
 and, burying the memory of ancient strife, they made a new- 
 treaty of amity, remembering thai word of Sallust, where he 
 writes : ' By concord little things grow great ; by discord things 
 the greatest fall to naught' 1 . 
 
 Fergusthe Further, in the year of Our Lord four hundred and three. 
 
 Second, Fergus son of Erth, — who was son to Echadius 8 , who was 
 
 brother to Eugenius, the king who had been defeated by 
 Maximus in war, — a youth of spirit, with his two brothers. 
 Lorn and Angus, gained possession of the whole kingdom 
 of Scotland up to the Scottish Sea 4 . Between this Fergus, son 
 of Erth, and the first Fergus, son of Ferchard, we reckon 
 fifteen kings of the Scots, w hose reigns cover a space of seven 
 hundred years, as you can gather from history. That same 
 Fergus then, son of La th, ami the Picts together, attack their 
 ancient enemy the Britons; and when these saw no way to 
 make face against the double enemy, they sent for succour to 
 the Romans, who answered indeed their prayer, and when they 
 
 1 Jugnrtha, ch. x. 
 
 - Perhaps ' Eochodius ' ; cf. l>k. II. ch. vii. 
 
 3 Orig. 1 Barno et Tcnago ' ; F. coi r. 1 Loarno et Tenego for which read 
 1 Loarno et Angusio '. 
 
 4 The Firth of Forth, sometimes called the Scotswater. 
 
CHAP. I.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 65 
 
 had set foot in the island, gave themselves to the building of a 
 wall, much more to the north than was the first wall built by 
 the Romans. The second wall was even eighty miles further The Second 
 to the north than was the first wall. The country that was thus Wal1, 
 bounded Maximus, the British general, added to his kingdom. Maxim us. 
 This wall began at Abercorn, and tended across the country to 
 Alcluyd, passing by the city of Glasgow and Kirkpatrick 1 . 
 By the inhabitants it is called Gramysdyk 2 . But not content- 
 ing them with such works as these, the Romans and the 
 Britons wage open war against the Picts and Scots, and in a 
 certain great battle slew Fergus, king of the Scots, with a Fergus slain, 
 multitude of the Picts. We now have seen the slaying of three 
 kings of the Scots. The first was he who was killed by the 
 Britons, from whom Riddisdal is named 3 ; the second, Eugenius 
 by name, lost his life at the hands of the Britons and the Picts, 
 and now we read of Fergus, son of Erth, slain by the Romans 
 and Britons. After this war the Scots and Picts were driven 
 to retreat beyond the Scottish Sea. But straightway after the 
 departure of the Romans, Eugenius, son of Fergus, along with Eugenius. 
 the Picts, attacks the Britons, and inflicts upon them a defeat 
 so great that they were forced to implore the Romans to come 
 to their help. About the Britons I marvel, for this reason : 
 they were three to one, and under the same king ; and the 
 Scots and Picts, if we do not count the circumjacent islands, 
 held a mere corner of the country, scarce a third part of the 
 island. The Romans once more sent an armed force, and with 
 their help the Britons regained their ancient boundary in the 
 Scottish Sea. 
 
 CHAP. II. — Of the sending of Bishops to Scotland, and the conse- 
 cration of several of them in that country, likewise of their holy lives, 
 and the marvels that they wrought. 
 
 In the year of our Lord four hundred and twenty-nine, pope Paiiadius tesex* 
 Celestine consecrates as bishop Saint Paiiadius, and sends him int0 cot an 
 to Scotland. For the Scots were at that time instructed in 
 the faith by priests and monks without bishops. Paiiadius 
 
 1 i.e. Kilpatrick. 2 Graham's Dyke, i.e. Grim's Dyke or ' Devil's Dyke '. 
 
 3 Cf. p. 56. 
 E 
 
66 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book n. 
 
 Servanus is 
 consecrated by 
 the hands of 
 one bishop 
 only. 
 
 Kentigern, 
 Patrick. 
 
 Ninian. 
 
 Candida Casa. 
 
 ordains as bishop Servanus, and sent him to the islands of the 
 Orkneys that he miglit preach the gospel to those who dwelt 
 there. Hence it is plain that a bisliop, where need is, can be 
 consecrated by one bishop, and it is not of the essence of a 
 bishop that he be ordained by three. Those persons err never- 
 theless who ordain otherwise, where a trinity of bishops may be 
 had 1 . James the Less was appointed overseer 2 of Jerusalem by 
 Peter, John, and James the son of Zebedee ; following which 
 example overseers are appointed by three presidents 3 . Servanus 
 baptized the Blessed Kentigern. Further : five years after the 
 sending of Palladius to British Scotland, the same Celestine 
 consecrates Saint Patrick, a Briton by race, as overseer, and 
 sends him to the people of Ireland, and he, by the holiness of 
 his life and the wonderful works that he did, converted the 
 whole of Ireland to the Christian faith. Forty years he ruled 
 the church in Ireland, and then, full of days and in the odour 
 of sanctity, fell asleep in the Lord. At this time Saint Ninian 
 visited the Blessed Martin at Tours, concerning whom Bede, in 
 the third book, at the fourth draper of the same, speaks thus : 
 4 The Blessed Ninian, bishop of the race of the Britons, a most 
 reverend and holy man, who had been instructed in all things 
 at Rome, founded Candida Casa, that is, a church built of 
 stone, in a manner not in use among the Britons ; wherefore it 
 came to be called Candida Casa. He built there a church in 
 honour of the Blessed Martin, where this same Ninian and 
 other holy men now rest."' The Britons were then in occupa- 
 tion of the place, because it belonged to the province of the 
 Bernicii — the kingdom of the Northumbrians is thus divided 
 because the more northern portion thereof is called Bernicia. 
 At this time, and even to the days of Bede, Candida Casa 
 belonged to the Northumbrians. Bede wrote, having regard 
 
 1 The consecration of a bishop by the present discipline of the Roman church 
 must be performed ex necessitate praecepti by not less than three bishops, except 
 by a papal dispensation which may allow two assistant priests to take the place 
 of two bishops. Some few theologians have, however, maintained that three 
 episcopal consecrators are required ex necessitate sacramenti, and that a conse- 
 cration by a single bishop, without at least a papal dispensation, would be in- 
 valid. — Ferraris : Prompta Bibliotheca, s.v. episcopus. 
 
 2 antistitem. 
 
 3 a tribus praesulibus antistites instituuntur. 
 
chap, ii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 67 
 
 to his own day, and not to what might be in the future. 
 
 You will then understand how the Blessed Ninian came to 
 
 preach the Word of God to the southern Picts and Britons, 
 
 and the same you may gather from his collect, in which these 
 
 words are found : ' God, who didst teach the peoples of the 
 
 Picts and Britons by the instruction of Holy Ninian, bishop 
 
 and confessor", — in which is no mention of the Scots 1 . But 
 
 now, and for many years, since the overthrow of the Pictish 
 
 kingdom, the Scots hold both the place and the remains of the 
 
 saint. The Picts had many times possession of Lothian and The superiority 
 
 those parts beyond the Scottish firth, and the better and more of the Picts ' 
 
 fruitful portions that lay still further to the north ; and this 
 
 came to pass, both because they had the advantage of the Scots 
 
 in being the first to land in the island, and because, as I incline 
 
 to think, they were somewhat superior to the Scots in numbers 
 
 and in bodily strength. A proof of this I see herein, that 
 
 though they were leagued with the Scots, it was they who 
 
 occupied what parts of the country were reconquered from the 
 
 Britons — a fact that argues greater sagacity in them, or 
 
 superiority of some sort. 
 
 CHAP. III. — Concerning the affairs of the Britons. 
 
 We have already made mention of Constantius, the brother 
 of the king of the Aremoricans. This Constantius had three 
 sons born to him : Constantius namely, Aurelius Ambrosius, 
 and Uther. A certain Pict made away with Constantius ; and The treacherous 
 thus it happened : the Pict, hating Constantius, gave out consfamLs. 
 that he had a secret which must be disclosed to Constantius 
 alone, and thus he took the king unawares. Hence let kings 
 learn not to give audience, unless in the presence of their own 
 people, to men of whose good faith they have not assurance 2 
 — a caution which may be fortified by that example from 
 the Book of Kings, where we read that Aioth took Eglon 
 
 1 Cf. the Breviarium Aberdonense for the i6th of September. 
 - This warning is repeated in Bk. Ill, ch. viii., on the occasion of the death 
 of Malcolm Canmore. 
 
68 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book o. 
 
 unawares and made awav with him \ Constantius, the eldest 
 born of the sons of Constantius, had become a monk of Win- 
 chester ; but Vortiger, the earl of Wessex, withdrew him from 
 the coenobitic state that he might be set over the kingdom, 
 for his brothers were of an age too tender to hold the sceptre. 
 Herein Vortiger acted wickedly — stripping of his habit a 
 monk without whom the civil government might have been 
 carried wisely enough. That way of the wise men I approve 
 rather, which holds that, in the case of a monk at least who 
 is not in sacred orders, it is open to the supreme pontiff to 
 grant him dispensation, so that he may return to the world for 
 the conduct of weighty matters which can be settled in no 
 other way ; but that there was in this case such a call I cannot 
 see. Constantius, then, once withdrawn from the coenobitic 
 state, all things were at the nod and beck of Vortiger. He 
 brought together one hundred Picts whom he used as his body- 
 guard, treated them courteously, enriched them with many 
 gifts, and gave them to understand 2 that if he were to gain 
 the height of power in the kingdom, he would raise them to 
 places of authority. These Picts, therefore, that they might 
 do Vortiger a pleasure, by a deed of daring rashness murdered 
 king Constantius. Vortiger thereupon orders his hundred 
 Picts to be seized, and sends them to London, where, under the 
 sword of the avenger, they paid the penalty of their crime. 
 This he did that, under a cloak of deceit, he might hide his 
 own guilt 3 . Now when the guardians of the brothers of 
 Constantius learned what had happened, and chief among them, 
 one Joscelin, bishop of London, they send their charges to the 
 king of Little Britain, who receives them kindly. When the 
 Picts heard of the slaughter of their own soldiers, they were 
 filled with indignation at a crime so foul, so dyed with 
 treachery, and, with the Scots, their confederates, they make 
 
 1 Judges iii. 20-22. The spelling ' Aioth ' is curious. Heb. has *|!|nX (Ehud), 
 lxx. 'Ac65, and Vulg. 1 Aod '. 
 
 2 * eis dans intelligere ' ; ' giving them to understand ' has a strangely modern 
 sound ; but this instance proves that the phrase must have been in use in Major's 
 day, and such colloquial expressions are not uncommon in consequence of Latin 
 being then used as the language of conversation. 
 
 3 1 ut suam innocentiam sub dolo malo occultaret '. There is some confusion, 
 here ; but the sense is plain. 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 69 
 
 for the northern part of the Britons' country, which they laid 
 waste, nothing sparing. In their rage they threw down the 
 wall built by the Romans for the purpose of warding off hostile 
 attacks upon the Britons. 
 
 At that time it began to be bruited that Aurelius 
 Ambrosius and Uther, the brothers of murdered Constantius, 
 were on their way with an armed force to attack Vortiger. 
 <To the Saxons, who were then heathens, Vortiger now The Saxons 
 sends for a large body of soldiers, and they, with a great Britain.^ in 
 army, make a descent upon Britain;* 1 , under the leading 
 of Hengist and his brother, Horsa by name, and drove back 
 the enemy from his borders. This done, Hengist makes 
 Vortiger king, on the understanding that he should have a 
 place given him wherein to build a castle, and land for his men 
 — a condition that was readily granted. Meanwhile Hengist 
 sends to the Saxons for a large force and for women. Among 
 these, one Ronovem, a beautiful maiden, the daughter ofRonovem. 
 Hengist, came to land in Britain. In all, they freighted a 
 hundred vessels with soldiers and women. Some time there- 
 after, Hengist invited Vortiger to come to see his castle, and 
 when the time came for the king to retire to rest, Ronovem, 
 Hengist 1 s daughter, entered his chamber, and drank to the 
 king's health from a golden cup or bowl filled with wine, say- 
 ing, 6 Wassaile or * Wachtheil \ Now the king understood 
 not the tongue in which she spoke, and from his interpreter he 
 learned that the maiden in drinking thus wished him good 
 health. In the end, falling in love with his heathen girl, he 
 asked her in marriage ; and Hengist consented thereto on the 
 
 1 Orig. : * Ad Saxones tunc paganos pro multo milite mittit, quod cum copioso 
 exercitu ... in Britanniam . . . ' This use of ' pro ', which is common with Major 
 (cf. infra, 1 pro multo milite et mulieribus' ; Bk. III. ch. iii., ' pro Edwardo . . . 
 Angliae primores mittunt ' ; and Bk. III. ch. xv. : ' ita quod Reges pro regni 
 primoribus et eorum conjugibus mittunt ') might be illustrated by a number of 
 instances from medieval Latin. In a monograph upon Talbot's Tomb, in the 
 parish church of Whitchurch, Salop, by the Rev. W. H. Egerton, Rector of 
 Whitchurch (Oswestry, 1885, p. 5), the inscription on Talbot's sword is given as 
 ' sum Talboti pro vincere inimicos meos '. Though this use of ' pro ' is not 
 classical, one seems to see it in the act of growth (as has been pointed out to 
 me by Professor Herbert Strong) in such a sentence as ' misimus qui pro vectura 
 solveret ' — Cic. ad Ait. i. 3. The use of 1 quod ' as above is also curious. I 
 have treated it as a misprint for ' qui '. 
 
70 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book n. 
 
 condition that the king should grant him the whole of Kent 
 for his people; and this the king secretly yielded. But this 
 thoughtless marriage of his with a heathen damsel, whose 
 character was all unknown to him, and the loss to his kingdom 
 of large possessions, which accompanied the union, were his 
 destruction. It was this conduct that stirred up some men of 
 rank in the kingdom, who soon stripped Vortiger of the 
 sovereign power, and placed the crown on the head of his son 
 
 Vortimer. Vortimer, born of a Christian woman. This Vortimer, so soon 
 as he became king, made peace secretly with the Christian 
 Scots and Picts. With their help he drove the Saxons and 
 Hengist out of the kingdom, and not long thereafter, Ronovem, 
 Hengist's daughter, Vortimer's stepmother, makes away with 
 Vortimer by poison. A well-known custom this is of step- 
 mothers — by treachery to make away with their husbands' 
 children. Let sons then, and especially wealthy sons, beware 
 of a stepmother as they would of Cerberus. The Britons soon 
 
 Vortiger. thereafter restore this same Vortiger, who before had been 
 despoiled of his kingdom, but made with him this condition : 
 that he should on no account receive Engist into the country. 
 This notwithstanding, Ronovem declared to Engist, her father, 
 how she had made away with Vortimer by poison, and how 
 Vortiger was once more king, and therefore beseeches her 
 father to descend upon Britain with an armed force. Engist 
 invaded Britain then with fifteen thousand fighting men, and 
 when Vortiger with the Britons would have made stand against 
 him, he refused the combat, saying that he had come because 
 of that Kent which before had been granted to him, and not 
 to fight with the Britons ; that he was ready rather to bring 
 
 Engist's them succour against the enemy. He besought the Britons 
 therefore to appoint a day when he might meet them, saying 
 that he should take with him no more than of mounted men 
 four hundred, while the king should have in his train the like 
 number of trusty Britons. The meeting took place accordingly 
 near Sarum, that is, Salisbury, on a certain hill. Engist had 
 ordered his men to carry each of them a dagger concealed in 
 his boots, and when he gave the word — 4 The time is come to 
 speak of peace and friendship 1 — they were to make a sudden 
 rush upon the Britons thus caught unarmed and unawares. To 
 
chap, m.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 71 
 
 Engist then they gave heed, and there fell through Saxon 
 treachery upon that hill ten hundred and sixty noble men 
 among the Britons. Vor tiger, the king, was taken, and that 
 he might escape with his life, he handed over to the Saxons his 
 strong places, cities, and all munition of war, and with the 
 Britons fled into Wales, — where to this day may be found the 
 true Britons and the British tongue. 
 
 This done, the pagan Engist destroys and tramples in the 
 dust clergy, churches, all that pertained to divine worship, and 
 commands, under the severest penalty, that thenceforth no man 
 shall call the country 4 Britain but only 4 Engist's land \ On 
 seven of the chief men among the Saxons he bestowed seven 
 kingdoms. In Kent he himself continued to abide as over- 
 king. The kingdom of Kent has one boundary in the eastern The kingdom 
 sea, and extends along the river Thames. The second king kingdoms ?n % 
 was Suuthsaxon ; this is the kingdom of the southern Saxons. En § land - 
 It was bounded in the east by the kingdom of Kent, in the 
 south by the ocean 1 and the Isle of Wight, in the west by 
 Hampshire, in the north by Surrey. The third kingdom was 
 formerly that of the eastern Saxons, bounded in the east by 
 the sea, in the west by London, in the south by the Thames, 
 in the north by Suffolk. The fourth kingdom was that of the 
 eastern English. Norfolk and Suffolk are contained therein, 
 and for its boundaries it has, on the east, the sea ; on the north, 
 Cantibrigia or Cambridgeshire, in which the chief town is 
 Cambridge ; on the west, the fosse of Saint Edmund and 
 Hertfordshire ; and on the south, Essex. The fifth kingdom 
 was that of the western Saxons, which has on its eastern limit 
 the southern Saxons ; to the north, the Thames ; to the west 
 and south, the ocean. The sixth kingdom, that of the 
 Mercians, was the largest of all ; the river Dee, near 
 Chester, and the Severn near Shrewsbury, and as far as 
 Bristol, formed its western boundary ; the eastern boundary 
 was the eastern sea ; on the south it touched the Thames at 
 London ; its northern limit was the river H umber. In some parts The river 
 to the west you have the river Mersey as far as the angle Verbal 2 ; 
 
 1 mare Oceanum. 
 
 2 i.e. Wirral, the point of land between the Mersey and the Dee. 
 
72 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book n. 
 
 the Humber, on the other side, falls into the eastern sea 1 . 
 It is from the river Mersey that the kingdom takes the name of 
 Mercian. This Mercian kingdom is divided into three parts — 
 that is, West Mercia, East Mercia, and Middle Mercia. The 
 seventh kingdom was that of the Northumbrians, touching on 
 its eastern side the kingdom of the Mercians, having for its 
 northern limit the Forth, that is, the Scottish firth, as its name 
 The Wall. at this day bears witness, and as is plain also from the wall 
 which begins at that sea and extends to Kirkpatrick 2 , Glasgow, 
 and Dumbarton. Some assert that this wall was built by 
 Bilenus, a king of Britain, who thought he should thus, once 
 for all, put to rest the question of the boundary between his 
 own land and that of the Scots and Picts. Meanwhile this 
 kingdom was divided, and the northern part was called the 
 kingdom of the Bernicians. 
 
 CHAP. IV.— Of Merlin the Prophet. 
 
 We have seen how Engist plundered the Britons of a large 
 part of the kingdom and handed it over to the Saxons, from 
 whose birthland it came to be called Anglia. In their own 
 tongue it had the name of < 4 Engist land that is, 6 the land of 
 Engist V 3 . Afterwards, for brevity's sake, and from much inter- 
 England, course with the Britons, it was called 6 England and rightly 
 the word should be spoken as if spelled with an 6 e " and not 
 with an 6 i\ The Latins called the country 4 Anglia'. Now, 
 had they at the beginning followed the vernacular speech, they 
 should have called it 6 Engist's land but inasmuch as they did 
 not use this term, but called the country itself 4 Anglia that 
 word now stands for the country. For, to speak with Horace? 
 4 an arbitrary thing indeed is all the rule and law of language ' 4 ; 
 and, to quote the philosopher in his books De Caelo, 6 we have 
 to speak as the many speak, but we should think with the few ' 5 ; 
 
 1 Orig. and F. ' mare occidentale ' ; an evident mistake. 2 i.e. Kilpatrick. 
 
 3 ' Engist Land, hoc est terra Engisti.' 4 Art Poet. 72. 
 
 5 Major's second quotation of these words ; cf. Bk. 1. ch. iv. I have not 
 found the very words in the De Caelo, but in Bk. II. ch. ii. of that work Aristotle 
 deals with our use of such expressions as ' above and below ' right and left ', 
 
CHAP. IV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 73 
 
 that is, our language must be that of the common people and 
 the multitude, but our thoughts should be the thoughts of the 
 few — that is, of the wise ; for, comparatively, the wise are few. 
 We feel therefore that the word 6 Anglia 1 stands for the 'land Angiia. 
 of Engist \ 
 
 Now since the Saxons had apportioned among themselves 
 the richer part of the kingdom, Vortiger, with the Britons, 
 made for that part, of difficult approach, which is called 
 Wales ; and there, on Mount Breigh \ began to build a fortress, 
 the strongest he could, for defence against the Saxons; 
 but this work he could no way complete, for, build what he 
 might by day, at night it crumbled to ruin. And seeing this, 
 Vortiger marvelled not a little, and gathered to him the wise 
 men among the Britons, demanding of them the cause of this 
 instability. And they, when they had taken counsel together, 
 make answer that there was need of the blood of one born of a 
 woman who had never known a man, that he must place this 
 blood in the fortress, and that so he should be able to build it 
 securely 2 . It may be that they were unable to tell him the 
 
 in respect of things in nature which are not thus conditioned, and justifies such 
 use. In the 45th question of the 15th distinction of the In Quartum Major says 
 that a man who affects singularity of speech should not attempt to converse with 
 his fellows ; he should rather betake himself to the caves of the desert. 
 
 1 Cf. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bk. vi. §§ 17, 18, 19; Hearne's Robert of Glou- 
 cester, p. 127; and Drayton's Poly-Olbion, as quoted in Mr. Stuart Glennie's 
 Arthurian Localities, p. xxiv. — 
 
 'And from the top of Brith, so high and wondrous steep, 
 Where Dinas Emris stood . . .' 
 
 2 An example of a kind of superstition widely spread, and active in some 
 countries even at this day. The Times of January 26, 1891 quotes an 
 account, by Mr. Spring, chief engineer of the Kistna bridge, ' of an affray 
 between the Punjabee workmen and the Telinga inhabitants of the vicinity, 
 which . . . seems to have arisen from one of those extraordinary superstitious 
 panics ... to the effect that the Government, when commencing a great public 
 work, instructs the employes to collect children's heads for the purpose of offer- 
 ing a propitiatory sacrifice to the deity'. From the Pioneer Mail (Allahabad) 
 of Feb. 26, 1 89 1, we learn that a rumour 'is current amongst the population of 
 villages adjacent to the northern section of the Eastern Bengal State Railway, to 
 the effect that Government is in want of a large number of human heads for the 
 purpose of laying a secure foundation for a mythical bridge near Rajmahut . 
 The building of the Gorai viaduct and of the Hughli railway bridge gave rise to 
 like panics; and in the Pioneer Mail of May 27, 1891, Mr. A. Ross Wilson, 
 C.E., in connection with the Benares Riots, in February of that year, gives 
 
74 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [hook II. 
 
 reason of the instability, and therefore proposed to him a thing 
 that they held to be impossible, lest they should otherwise 
 discover their ignorance. However that may be, when the 
 king got their answer, he sent messengers through all Wales to 
 make search for one born after this sort ; and when these had 
 come to a town named Carmadyne \ the same which afterwards 
 was called Carmalin, tired with their journeying they dis- 
 mounted near the gate of the city, willing to have some rest 
 and refreshment. Close at hand were some young fellows at 
 play, and at the end of their game, no uncommon thing, one 
 of the youths said angrily to Merlin, 4 Begone, thou fatherless 
 loon ! ' Which when Vortiger's messengers heard, they ask 
 who then was father to this Merlin ; and the rest are ready 
 with their answer, that indeed they know not his father, but 
 his mother they know,, for she lived in St. Peter's Church in 
 that same town among the nuns. Learning this, the mes- 
 sengers approach the mayor of the town, declaring to him the 
 commands of the king. By order of the mayor they carry the 
 mother with Merlin her offspring to the king, and he, with the 
 The birth judges of the matter, questions her in private concerning 
 of Merlin. jyjerli^s father. And she makes answer that she had indeed 
 no kind of knowledge who he was. For, she went on to say, 
 there came in to her once, when every door was closed, a well- 
 favoured man (such at least she thought him), and he had 
 many times had to do with her. 
 
 evidence that ' in beginning the works towards the filtering beds, there was an 
 excitement in consequence of rumours that children were required. They had to 
 be killed, it was said, for advancing the work.' I owe these references to my 
 cousin, Mr. Archibald Constable, formerly of the Oude and Rohilkund Railway 
 Company. I am also indebted to him for pointing out the following sources of 
 information on the subject : Notes and Queries, 7th Series, vol. vi. pp. 265, 349 ; 
 ibid. vol. vii. p. 13 ; an article in the Cornhill Magazine for Feb. 1887 on 
 'Kirk-Grins.' 
 
 1 Caermarthen. 4 There were two Merlines ', says Giraldus Cambrensis in his 
 Itinerary (Rolls Series ed., vol. vi. p. 133), 1 the one named also Ambrose (for he 
 had two names), begotten of a spirit, and found in the town of Caermarthen, which 
 took the name of him [Caervyrdhin] . . . who prophesied under king Vortigern ; 
 the other born in Albany or Scotland . . . This Merlin was in the time of king 
 Arthur, and prophesied fuller and plainer than the other.' ' Kermerdynn ', 
 ' Kermarden ', ' Kayrmerdyn ' are other spellings. Cf. Dineley's account of the 
 Duke of Beaufort's Progress through Wales in 1684 ; Lond. 1888. 
 
chap, iv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 75 
 
 This matter may be explained in three ways; and, firstly, The threefold 
 thus: The woman was ashamed to declare the father of paternfty h of 
 Ambrosius Merlinus — perchance he was a religious, or within Merlin, 
 the forbidden degrees, or a man of mean condition — and, 
 as women will do, she fell to lying about it. A second 
 explanation is this : a succubus demon may have had a 
 fruitful seed from some man, and either have secretly opened 
 the closed chamber, or entered with the seed by chink or win- 
 dow, and then, assuming the body of a man 1 , have had 
 knowledge of the woman, thrown into her the fruitful seed ; 
 and thus she might conceive, but not without the seed of 
 man. I come now to the third fancy : a demon can open 
 a door without a key ; for if he can move a horse or a 
 body, how much more easily may he take from the lock the 
 small iron bolt which keeps it closed, and in secret let in a 
 woman's lover. There is a gloss 2 upon that of the sixth 
 chapter of Genesis, where we read 6 the sons of God knew the 
 daughters of men which might be urged in support of the 
 second explanation. But against it this is to be objected : 
 those whose member is long (an observation made by Aristotle 
 in his Problemata 3 ) emit not a fruitful seed ; and for this 
 reason : that in the distance to be traversed, and the length of 
 time before the seed may be taken into the womb, it loses its 
 
 1 For Spirits, when they please, 
 Can either sex assume. — Paradise Lost, i. 422. 
 2 There were two brief commentaries on the Vulgate known in the middle ages 
 by the name of Glosses. The first and more famous was the Glossa Ordinaria, 
 compiled from the writings of the Fathers, and especially from those of his own 
 master, Rabanus Maurus, by Walafridus Strabo, a Benedictine of Fulda, born in 
 806. This Glossa, which was referred to as ' the tongue of the Holy Scripture ', 
 was quoted as a high authority by Aquinas, and was as familiar to the biblical 
 student as the Master of the Sentences was to the scholastic. The second and 
 shorter Gloss, the Glossa Interlinearis, so called because it was written between 
 the lines of the text, was compiled by Anselm, who taught theology at Paris, and 
 was afterwards dean of Laon (died 11 17). To these was sometimes added in the 
 same volume the Postilla of Nicholas de Lyra, a converted Jew, and afterwards 
 a Franciscan friar, circa 1291. The Glossa Ordinaria was written on the top 
 and margins of the page, the Interlinearis between the lines, and the Postilla at 
 the foot. A complete edition of these Glosses was printed in seven vols, folio at 
 Venice in 1588, under the title: Biblia sacra cum glossis interlineari et ordi- 
 naria, Nic. Lyrajii postillis et moralitatilnis, Burgensis additiojiibus et Thuringi 
 replicis et indice alphabetic. 3 Problem, iv. 21. 
 
76 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book II. 
 
 potency ; therefore, and all the more, will this be true of the 
 demon incubus and succubus. And a second objection is this : 
 that on this view a virgin might conceive in sensu composite 1 , 
 a thing that belongs only to the Virgin Mother of Christ. 
 
 Perhaps the first explanation is one to be well pondered, but 
 in regard to it I will now say nothing, unless that a demon 
 might be able to preserve the potency and warmth of seed. 
 The second is not conclusive. I deny that a woman who con- 
 ceives in such fashion can be called a virgin, since, whether 
 consenting or resisting, she has received the seed of a man, 
 whether she were called virgin or not ; but the Virgin Mary 
 conceived without the seed of man. The woman in question, 
 however, was not without a seed of man ; nor does the gloss on 
 the sixth chapter of Genesis demonstrate the proposition, since 
 by the sons of God are meant the sons of Seth, and by the 
 daughters of men the daughters of Cain. I accept the first, 
 therefore, or the third view as the more probable, dismissing 
 the second as in itself suspicious, and also as failing to prove 
 the birth of Merlin without a father. For whosesoever was that 
 seed, received by the incubus or the succubus demon (if such 
 was indeed the manner of it), that man was Merlin's father ; 
 and I deny therefore that Merlin had no father. I speak not 
 of the absolute power of God ; for God can supply the potency 
 of a father's seed. By a maxim in theology, whatever God can 
 do by means of a secondary cause, that He can do by Himself 
 
 1 A proposition is to be understood in sensu composite) when the attribute can 
 only be predicated in respect of its subject as affected by some special property, 
 or accepted under a certain hypothesis : a proposition is to be understood in 
 sensu diviso when that property or hypothetical condition has to be removed 
 before the proposition may be a true one. Thus, 1 a blind man is unable to see ', 
 ' what God foresees necessarily comes to pass ', are true in sensu composite, 
 false in sensu diviso. On the other hand, ' a blind man is able to see ', ' what 
 God has foreseen may not come to pass ', are true in sensu diviso, false in sensu 
 composite — Cf. Signoriello : Lexicon Peripatetiaim, p. 66 (Neapoli, 1881). For 
 example : theologians commonly remark that when Isaiah said ' a virgin shall 
 conceive ', he did not mean a virgin in sensti diviso {i.e. one who was a virgin up 
 to that point), but he meant a virgin in sensu composite, a virgin after or includ- 
 ing the idea of conception. Again, when the Thomist theologians are pressed 
 with the objection that their 'physical premotion' destroys the freedom of the 
 will, they reply that the will is free to resist such grace in sensti diviso though 
 not in sensu composite. See on this subject Renan's Studies in Religious History 
 — ' Congregation de auxiliis ', p. 381. 
 
CHAP. IV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 77 
 
 alone. For, granting the opposite, God when He worked with 
 a secondary cause would be more mighty than when He worked 
 by Himself alone — which to say is impious. 
 
 Merlin then denounced the wise men of Wales (and in this 
 matter I count them as fools, that they did not declare at once 
 their ignorance — for to every mortal man far more things must 
 be unknown than known), and shows to the king the true 
 cause of the instability of his building ; for he commands the 
 workmen of the king to dig deeper into the earth below the 
 fortress. This doing, they find underground a large lake. He 
 then demanded of the wise men what would be found at the 
 bottom of the lake, and when they said that indeed they knew 
 not, he causes the water to be drawn off and carried away by 
 channels ; for Merlin affirmed that there were at the bottom 
 two caverns, and in these two dragons — which afterward were Dragons found 
 found there sleeping, as Merlin had said, — and the one was 
 white, and the other red, and once disturbed they fell to fierce 
 combat one with another ; and the white dragon drove the red 
 dragon to the far end of the lake, and then the red dragon 
 turned upon the white one, and forced him in like manner to 
 fly. Now, while they were thus in mutual combat, the king 
 inquired of Merlin what these dragons portended, and Merlin 
 made answer that the white dragon meant the Saxons, and the 
 red dragon the Britons, who with great bloodshed should be 
 driven from their country; and, as to things that concerned 
 the king, he said that before fifteen days had passed the 
 brothers of Constantius would arrive, with intent to kill the 
 king ; wherefore let him leave the building of his fortress. 
 
 Many things of this sort the demon was able to reveal to Merlin's gift of 
 Merlin — such as that of the fighting dragons and the lake ; whence C he"had 
 but as to things future and contingent, — for example, that !t - 
 the Saxons should conquer the Britons, or that the brothers of 
 Constantius would slay king Vortiger, — the demon had not the 
 power to foretell with certainty. He can indeed read the signs 
 of the times and forecast the future more clearly than is 
 possible to man ; but the purely contingent he cannot with 
 certainty foretell. 
 
78 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book 11. 
 
 CHAP. V. — Of Aurelius Ambrosius and his reign. 
 
 Meanwhile, and not many days thereafter, Aurelius Am- 
 brosius and his brother Uther land at Totnes 1 with a Large 
 army. The Britons go eagerly to meet them with an auxiliary 
 force, that they may make Ambrosius their king. Without 
 resistance on the way lie made for London, and there received 
 the sceptre of sovereignty. Vortiger, when he learned this, 
 fled to a certain stronghold of Wales, by name Gerneth 2 ; 
 Aurelius Ambrosius set fire thereto, and the devouring flames 
 made an end of Vortiger and his men. This done, Aurelius 
 Ambrosius sends an embassy to Constantius, king of the Scots, 
 and to the Picts, to the end they should help him in driving 
 Engist and the heathen out of the island. The Picts made 
 answer that they were under a treaty with the Saxons, and 
 therefore refuse their help ; but Constantius the Scot sends an 
 auxiliary force, under a certain general of renown, to the aid 
 of Aurelius. While the war was going on, Constantius died 
 without issue, and to him succeeded his nephew Congal, son to 
 his brother Dungard, who ratified the treaty of peace with the 
 Britons which had been begun by Constantius, and thus a 
 continuous war went on among the four peoples. For the 
 Britons and the Scots on one side fought against the Saxons 
 and the Picts on the other. Whence this of Bede : Between 
 the Saxons and the Picts, whom one and the same necessity 
 had drawn to make a common stand, the war is carried on 
 with their joint forces against the Britons and the Scots 3 . 
 In the sixteenth year of the reign of this Congal, Saint Gabrian 4 , 
 
 1 Cf. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Bk. viu. § I. 
 
 - Called in a footnote to Hearne's Robert of Gloucester, p. 135, 'Genor castel 
 in Yrchne '. Cf. the Merlin of the Early English Text Society, and specially 
 the Introduction by Mr. W. D. Nash, on ' Merlin the Enchanter and Merlin the 
 Bard ! . 
 
 3 Bede : H. E. i. 20. 
 
 4 Gabrianus, or rather Gibrianus, is claimed as a Scottish saint by Boece, 
 Leslie, Camerarius, and Dempster, who calls him Gibirinus. But Flodoard, the 
 historian of the church of Rheims (Bk. IV. ch. ix,; ed. Guizot, p. 525), says 
 expressly that he came from Ireland, or, as an ancient breviary of Rheims 
 explains, ' insulam Hiberniam in qua est Scotia'. Saint Gibrian, who was a 
 priest, took with him into France six brothers and three sisters, who established 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 79 
 
 a Scot, with a following of brethren and sisters, is found leading 
 
 a life of austerity near to Rheims in Gaul, and there he and 
 
 they now rest. Engist was defeated by Aurelius Ambrosius The defeat 
 
 and the Scots, and therefore he gathered a small army and ° f Englst 
 
 hastened to the Picts, that he might thus increase its numbers ; 
 
 but he was intercepted by the Britons and the Scots, and with 
 
 almost his whole following was put to the sword. Engist's 
 
 son Ochta, however, fled to York ; but when he could no Ochta or Otho. 
 
 longer defend that city, he asked for mercy. Mercy he 
 
 obtained, and likewise the land of Galloway, which was 
 
 bestowed on him and his people — that land in which the 
 
 Blessed Ninian was buried. In the end Aurelius Ambrosius Death of 
 
 perished by poison ; perchance it was a certain heathen Saxon 
 
 that did the deed, disguised as a monk, that he might the 
 
 better take the king unawares. He was buried in the 
 
 monastery of Stonehenge, which Aurelius himself had built 
 
 in honour of the Britons that had been slain by Engist. 
 
 At his death there was seen a star of singular brightness, which A comet seen 
 they call a comet ; the same portends the death of princes, as may portend. 
 Aristotle says in his book concerning Meteors 1 . But, what- 
 
 themselves on the river Marne. He died and was buried in the country, in the 
 diocese of Chalons, but the renown of the miracles wrought through his interces- 
 sion caused his body to be exhumed and translated to Rheims. His feast was 
 kept on the 8th of May, the day of his translation. 
 
 1 Cf. Meteorologicorum lib. I. cc. vi. vii. for Aristotle's opinion about comets. 
 Professor Copeland, Astronomer-Royal for Scotland, has been kind enough to 
 supply me with the following references to the supposed influence of comets : — 
 In Pingre's Cometographie, torn. I. (Paris, 1783), pp. 313 and 314, will be 
 found about all that is known concerning the comet which appeared at the death 
 of Aurelius Ambrosius. Sigebert's Chronograpkia, as stated at the head of p. 
 237 {u. c), appeared in 1513, and was doubtless well known to Major. In the 
 classics there are many allusions to the supposed effects of comets : particularly 
 in Aratus ; Claudian, whose line {de bello Getico, 243) ' in coelo nunquam spectatum 
 impune cometam ' was being constantly quoted in the middle ages ; Juvenal, 
 vi. 407, ' Instantem regi Armenio Parthoque cometen Prima videt Manilius 
 (Astron. i. 890) ; Virgil {Georg. i. 488 ; Aen. x. 272) ; Lucan ; Silius Italicus ; 
 Tibullus (ii. 5, 71) ; Valerius Flaccus ; and Statius {Tkeb. i. 707-9), ' quis letifer 
 annus Bella quibus populus, mutent quae sceptra cometae'. Almost the only 
 printed work on comets extant in 1520 was Thurecensis phisiti Tractatus de 
 Cometis (s.a. circa 1474), in which there is a good deal about their supposed 
 evil effects. But in Lubienictz, Theatrum Cometarum (Amstel. 1667), vol. 
 ii. will be found the fullest particulars of all the misfortunes that have accom- 
 panied the appearance of Hairy Stars. 
 
80 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book h. 
 
 A dragon seen 
 near the comet. 
 
 Gouran. 
 
 The deeds of 
 Uther Pen- 
 dragon. 
 
 ever the philosophers may say, I can see no cause in nature 
 why such a portent should rather occur in the case of the 
 death of kings than of their subjects ; and yet such things we 
 read, and in our own day we have seen comets at the death of 
 many kings, discerned even over the countries of kings at the 
 point of death. The meaning therefore of comets I leave to 
 the divine pleasure and free will. Yet by means of comets 
 does God very often reveal to princes their approaching death, 
 that, abandoning their sins, they may quickly betake them to 
 repentance. Of certain comets, however, the causes are purely 
 natural ; yet even so there is no absurdity in opening up some 
 meaning that they may contain for us. For from eternity 
 God has seen with clearness the whole future contingent, and 
 has given signs of certain effects, and the natural causes of 
 these signs productive of such effects, as we can see in the case 
 of the rainbow, treated in the book concerning Meteors \ and 
 in the book of Genesis 2 . Near to this comet was a dragon, 
 which sent forth rays eastward. Uther, Merlin, and many 
 more, saw this comet, and Merlin declared to Uther its hidden 
 signification. Through this comet he knew Aurelius Ambrosius, 
 though the two were far distant from one another, to be dead. 
 By the ray to the east, he declared that Uther should have a 
 son, who should gain possession of both Gauls and many king- 
 doms in the east, and who should far excel in. renown all the 
 Britons. 
 
 After the death of Aurelius Ambrosius, therefore, Uther 
 begins to reign, and in memory of the portent he ordered 
 that two dragons should be painted, the one of which he ever 
 carried before him in battle, while the other he left behind him 
 in Winchester, and for this reason he was called by the Britons 
 Uther Pendragon. With Gouran the Scot, son of Dongard, 
 after the manner of his ancestors, he made a treaty of peace. 
 But this Gouran fell by the treachery of his nephew, the son 
 of his brother. Ochta and Ossa, the sons of Engist, soon 
 rebelled against Uther Pendragon, and in a pitched battle he 
 defeated them, and had them imprisoned at London. Uther 
 thereafter, being enraged against the Earl of Cornwall, laid 
 
 Arist. Met eoro logic orum lib. ill. c. iv. 
 
 Gen. ix. 13. 
 
chap, vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 81 
 
 siege to his castle, and as he lusted to lie with the wife of the 
 
 earl, he changed himself by means of Merlin's incantations into 
 
 the outward seeming of her husband, and so, the woman all 
 
 ignorant of the crime, he had to do with her, and by her he Birth of Arthur. 
 
 begat Arthur, afterwards king. Herein Merlin sinned, in co- Merlin 's crime. 
 
 operating with the king, so that he should have carnal dealing 
 
 with the wife of another, nor can he by any means be cleared 
 
 of blame in the matter. 
 
 Many rhymes are current as to all that Merlin foretold His prophecies, 
 in the presence of king Vortiger as about to happen ; but 
 they are ambiguous, being of this nature : that till the 
 event his prophecies are not recognised as such. Wherefore, 
 to augur anything from his prophecies is as if one had to 
 find one's way through the mists of a clouded sky 1 . I 
 should have placed more faith in the prophecies of this 
 man had he foretold with certainty the purely contingent. 
 That method of proceeding is but darkness. Quite other- 
 wise does it stand with John the Evangelist in the Apoca- 
 lypse, a book which the Church has received as divinely 
 inspired, and in such a matter the Church cannot err. 
 Merlin it merely permits to be read 2 . I shall say but little 
 of these prophecies, but where now and again the English 
 chroniclers make mention of them, I shall use the opportunity 
 for a mere word of remark 3 . 
 
 CHAP. VI.— Of King Arthur. 
 
 Concerning the life of king Arthur, I find a great variety of 
 statement. For he died in the year of our Lord five hundred 
 
 1 Quocirca est tenebrosa aqua in nubibus aeris de illius prophetiis augurari. 
 Cf. ante, Bk. I. ch. vii. p. 42. 
 
 2 Alain de Lille (Aianus ab insulis), a Cistercian monk, and one of the 
 greatest of the earlier scholastics, 'doctor universalis', — born 1114, died 1202, — 
 wrote, about 1170, a commentary on Merlin, which was printed at Frankfort, 
 in 1603, under the title Commentarii in divinationes propheticas Merlini Cale- 
 donii cum hujus vaticiniis. Merlin's Prophecies had previously been published 
 in Spanish (Burgos, 1498 ; Seville, 1500), and in French, at Paris, by Robert de 
 Borron, 1498; in Italian (Venice, 1480; Florence, 1495). The first English 
 edition seems to have been that of London, 1529. 
 
 3 Cf. Bk. iv. ch. viii., on the prophecy about Henry the Second and his son ; 
 Bk. iv. ch. xix., about Edward the First; Bk. v. ch. vii., on the death of 
 Edward the Second. 
 
 F 
 
82 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [book h. 
 
 The death of 
 Arthur, and his 
 assumption of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 How the trans- 
 ference of kingly 
 power may 
 legitimately be 
 made. 
 
 The natural 
 endowment 
 of Arthur. 
 
 He determines 
 to destroy the 
 Scots. 
 
 and forty-two — but inasmuch as lie was a bastard, his origin is 
 a more doubtful matter, and it is a question how he came to 
 his kingdom. For Anna, the sister of Aurelius, bore in lawful 
 marriage these children, namely Valvanus, a man illustrious in 
 arms and of bright renown among the Britons, and Modred the 
 elder: both of these she bore to Loth, the lord of the Lothians, 
 who also was the father of Thenew 1 , the mother of Saint 
 Kentigern, whence by right of succession the kingdom of the 
 Britons should have fallen to Modred. But here the Britons 
 say that Modred and Valvanus were under age, and as the need 
 was urgent, and a hostile invasion was imminent, they were held 
 to be unfit to guide the affairs of the Britons. Wherefore into 
 the hands of Arthur, albeit he was a bastard, they gave the 
 reins of government. Now I am not prepared to deny that, in 
 case of necessity, it is within the rights of the people to transfer 
 from one race to another the kingly power ; but let that be 
 always done after weighing carefully all the circumstances and 
 with deliberation. And they should rather have said that to 
 Modred, inasmuch as he was under age, a coadjutor should 
 have been given. However this matter should have been under- 
 taken, what is certain is this : that Arthur, youth as he was, 
 was declared king of the Britons. But his natural endowment 
 was of the noblest ; he was fair and beautiful to look on, of a 
 most chivalrous spirit, and none was more ambitious of warlike 
 renown. The Saxons he drove from the island, the Scots and 
 the Picts likewise (if we are to credit British chroniclers) he 
 brought under subjection, and compelled to obedience. At 
 Edinburgh, in Scotland, was Arthur's kingly seat, and to this 
 day that spot near Edinburgh bears his name 2 . He is said to 
 have tarried some time in the castle of Stirling ; but the Scots 
 were not then in possession of that region. The king of the 
 Scots (as they relate) went out to war with Arthur, and so 
 became subject to him, or w r as joined in a league of friendship 
 or by necessity. He set before him to destroy all the Scots 
 once for all, and would have done this had they not come to 
 
 1 Orig. and F. ' Thameten . . . genuit Thenew is still honoured in Glasgow 
 as Saint Enoch. 
 
 2 This mention of Arthur's Seat, and that of Dunbar in 1 The Flyting : 
 p. 22, S.T. Soc. ed.— are about the earliest in our literature. 
 
 -part I. 
 
chap, vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 83 
 
 him as suppliants. Such is the relation of Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouth K And not only did he subdue the whole of Britain, 
 but also Ireland, Norway, the islands, the whole cluster of isles 
 that are scattered about the western coasts of Britain — and yet 
 not these alone, but the Gauls and the neighbouring Germans 
 lie brought under his rule, and bestowed great territories on his 
 own illustrious warriors. To his cousin Loth he gave the 
 kingdom of Norway and all Lothian (of which part I am a 
 native). For this reason, in the Gests of Arthur, Loth is The achieve- 
 commonly 2 styled 'of Lothian 1 . From every quarter there came TZ^fi?"*' 
 to him illustrious men, ambitious of renown in war. All of native place of 
 them he received with gracious liberality, and bestowed on them 
 munificent marks of favour. In Cornwall he held his Round the Round 
 Table, at which sat his chief men in such wise that no strife or 
 struggle of priority might arise among them. In time of war 
 his harness was of the noblest, for his breastplate was worthy of His armour, 
 so great a king, and on his head he bore a golden helmet 
 adorned with the image of a dragon ; on his shoulders too a 
 mighty shield he bore, on which was painted the form of the 
 Holy Virgin. At his girdle hung Calibur, the best of swords, 
 and he bore a long lance whose name was Ron. 
 
 The Britons reckon Arthur among the Nine Just Men. The Nine Just 
 That you may understand what I have now said, know that 
 certain peoples, and among these in a special manner the 
 Britons, count nine just men, whom by universal consent they 
 hold (albeit erroneously) to have title to this distinction : 
 three of them heathen ; three, of the Hebrew race ; and the 
 like number, worshippers of Christ. Among heathens they 
 count Hector of Troy, Alexander of Macedon, and Julius 
 Caesar; among Hebrews, David, Joshua, and Judas Macca- 
 baeus ; among Christians, Arthur, Charles the Great, and 
 Godfrey of Boulogne. Now, though certain of these have 
 gained renown among men in the matter of war, yet others 
 have been more eminent soldiers than many of these. And 
 
 1 Bk. ix. § 6. 
 
 2 Orig. and F. ' comiter ' ; F. in Errata ' communiter '. Orig. prints the 
 word as a contraction ' c5iter ' ; and two lines lower prints 'comiter et liberaliter ' 
 without contraction, which is probably the reason for reading 1 communiter ' in 
 this case. 
 
84 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book ii. 
 
 Anguischel. 
 
 The proverb 
 concerning the 
 return of 
 Arthur. 
 
 The return of 
 Charles of 
 Burgundy and 
 James the Scot. 
 
 what title to the name of 'just' shall we find in Caesar, con- 
 sidering this, that he overthrew an aristocratic republic, the 
 most famous since the beginning of the world, and by the 
 exercise of tyranny assumed the sole power to himself? And 
 though Hannibal of Carthage, himself a soldier of splendid 
 valour, granted the first place to Alexander of Macedon, I at 
 least am not able to assent to such an attribution, seeing that 
 through mere lust of rule he aimed at gaining for himself the 
 kingdoms of others, that no way pertained to him. This triple 
 trinity of just men others, and more wisely, are slow to admit ; 
 but, however that may be, Arthur was renowned in war. I 
 have read, in the histories of the Britons, that Anguischel, 
 king of the Scots, when he was about to lead a great force 
 beyond sea to fight along with Arthur, marched against the 
 emperor of the Romans, with Arthur returned to Britain, 
 and was slain in his first conflict along with Gawain against 
 Modred ; and Arthur caused his body to be carried with all 
 honour into Scotland. While Arthur was at war with the 
 Romans, news was brought to him that Modred was unlawfully 
 intimate with his queen Gaunora, and had proclaimed himself 
 king of Britain. Considering this, he returned to Britain, and 
 Modred met him with a great army ; for Modred had with him 
 various among the Britons, Saxons, Picts, and Scots, and those 
 who were ill-affected towards Arthur. For albeit the king of 
 the Scots loved Arthur on account of his uprightness, among 
 the Scots themselves he w r as hated, perchance because they 
 desired to serve under Modred for the pay that he would give 
 them. In the end there were fought three battles between 
 Arthur and Modred, and both Arthur and Modred thus came 
 by their end. But Arthur, when he knew his wound w r as 
 mortal, said that he was setting out for a certain island that he 
 might there be cured, and that he would thereafter return to 
 reign again. Wherefore the Britons had the expectation that 
 Arthur after a long time would return. So that this came to 
 be a proverb when one who shall never come back was yet 
 looked for — 6 You are waiting for such an one, as the Britons 
 for their Arthur". This is but the blind affection of a people 
 for their king, whom, all dead though he be, their unreason 
 leads them to think of as still among the living. Just the same 
 
chap, vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 85 
 
 has been said of Charles of Burgundy ; and of our own James, 
 the fourth of the name, a like invention has found favour 1 . 
 Hence you can understand the readiness with which the 
 common people believed the Stygian Jupiter, Hercules, and 
 such men as that sort of people is prone to marvel at, to be 
 immortal ; and how the wiser sort, who knew the groundlessness 
 of this belief, were yet unwilling to go contrary to it, lest the 
 ignorant in their indignation should destroy them. But, how- 
 ever this may be, Arthur was buried in Glastonbury, and at his 
 burying was sung a verse in no way differing from the opinion 
 of the vulgar, which verse runs thus : 
 
 ' Here lies Arthur, great king was he, and king will be/ The Epitaph 
 
 b . & b of Arthur. 
 
 The extravagant laudation of Arthur by the Britons leads to 
 a partial doubt of the facts of his life. The prayers that were 
 made to him from a bed of sickness, and many other things 
 that are related concerning Arthur and Valvanus, in respect to 
 events that are said to have come to pass in Britain at that time 
 — all these I count as fiction, unless indeed they were brought 
 about by craft of demons. And for this reason certain writers, 
 like him of Bergamo in the Supplement to his Chronicles 2 , hold 
 Arthur himself to have been a magician. But to this belief, 
 about a king of such renown, I cannot give assent. 
 
 CHAP. VII. — Concerning Eockodius, Aidan, and Eugenius, kings 
 of Scotland, and men of noted sanctity that were born in their reigns. 
 
 Eugenius, or Eochodius 3 , on the death of his father's brother, Eochodius. 
 succeeded to the kingdom of the Scots, and he reigned three- 
 
 1 Bishop Leslie says in his History, as to the fate of James the Fourth after 
 Flodden, that ' many have this opinion, that our king yet lives ; and now in 
 pilgrimage with far nations, in special Jerusalem, where the Sepulchre of our 
 Saviour, and other holy places he visits, and in dule and dolour devoutly drives 
 over the rest of his days'. — Father Cody's edition of Father Dalrymple's transla- 
 tion of Leslie (with modernised spelling), part III. p. 146. Cf. his note upon 
 the passage. 
 
 2 Jacques-Philippe de Foresta, called Bergamensis after the town of Lombardy 
 where he was born. He wrote a chronicle from the creation of the world till 
 the year 1505, to which he made a Supplement. He was also the author of a work 
 De Selectis et Claris Midieribus, and of another under the title Confessionale or 
 Interrogatorium. He died in 1 51 5. — [Moreri.] 
 
 3 Orig. and F. { Archadius ' ; F. in Errata 1 Eochodius '. 
 
86 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book II. 
 
 Columba. 
 
 Kentigern. 
 
 Glasgow 
 church. 
 
 and-twenty years. In his days came Saint Columba from 
 Ireland, and gave to Brude, king of the Picts, full instruction 
 in the faith, and built in Scotland many monasteries. A con- 
 temporary of Columba, and his very dear friend, was the 
 Blessed Kentigern, who was renowned for many miracles. He 
 rests in Glasgow. In honour of him was founded the church 
 of Glasgow, second to no church in Scotland for its beauty, the 
 multitude of its canons, and the wealth of its endowments. 
 Not long time thereafter the chapter of Glasgow had gained 
 so great a fame for wise and weighty counsel that men of 
 renown among the Westerns were ready in a doubtful suit to 
 place the whole decision of the same in its hands. About this 
 time lived Saint Baldred. It is related of him that his body 
 was laid entire in three churches not far distant one from the 
 other: Aldhame, namely, Tyninghame 1 , and Preston; of which 
 the two first named are villages distant from Gleghornie about 
 one thousand paces ; the third, one league. In these three 
 places Saint Baldred taught the people by word and example, 
 and on his death all three fall to arms in strife for the posses- 
 Whether a body s ion of his body. The same body was found numerically 2 
 in different parts of the house, and thus each of these 
 villages rejoices at this day in the possession of Saint Baldred's 
 body. I know that there are not wanting theologians who 
 deny that such a thing as this is possible to God, namely, that 
 the same body can be placed circumscriptive 3 in different places ; 
 
 Baldred buried 
 in three places. 
 
 can be in diffe 
 rent places. 
 
 1 Tynigamen. 
 
 2 'numero'. Cf. Signoriello : Lexicon peripateticum, pp. 150, 151, s.v. GE- 
 NERICE — specifice — numerice : ' A specific difference is formal, since it takes 
 place in respect of the form ; a numerical difference is called material, because 
 matter is the principle whence proceed several individuals of the same species. ' 
 
 3 ' Circumspective ' is opposed to ' definitive ' and 4 reflective'. Cf. Signoriello 
 u.s. pp. 64, 65 : ' That thing is said to be " circumscriptive " or " commensura- 
 ative " in a place, which occupies that place by contact of dimensive quantity ; in 
 in such fashion, indeed, that each of its parts corresponds to the single parts of 
 the place, and so that the whole is included in the whole place. " Definitive " is 
 said of that which is in a certain place, but which does not occupy space per con- 
 tactumvirtutis, but by operation, as is the case with angels, or per informationem, 
 like as the soul is within the body. " Reflective " is said of that which knows no 
 determination of place, but is whole in every place and whole in every part of a 
 place; and that belongs to God alone. It is fitting that the body and an 
 Angel and God should be occupants of place in differing fashions.' 
 
chap, vii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 87 
 
 but their proof of this I cannot allow, as I have shown at more 
 length elsewhere in my commentary upon the fourth book of 
 the Sentences \ 
 
 Aidan, king of the Scots, took so much to heart the death Aidan. 
 of Saint Columba that he survived him but a short time. Him 
 Eugenius succeeded in the kingdom. In his days Saint Dron- Eugenius. 
 stan 2 , an uncle on the mother's side of the king, led the life of Dronstani: 
 a monk, and was renowned for the miracles that he did. Saint 
 Gillenus 3 , too, a Scot, gained fame in Gaul by his miracles, and Gilienus. 
 
 1 The late Bishop Forbes, in the article baldred in Smith's Dictionary of 
 Christian Biography, quotes a similar legend, as to the triplication of his body, 
 in the case of the Welsh saint Theliaus (see Capgrave's Leg. Aur. fol. cclxxxi. 
 verso), and refers to this passage of Major's In Quartum, question 4th of the 
 10th distinction, where, in treating of the Holy Eucharist, Major ' seeks to prove, 
 by the example of the body of St. Baldred, that the same body can be in diverse 
 places simul et semeV. Major there writes that ' God can place the same body 
 circumscriptive in two, three, and so on without end, totally diverse places. 
 The proof of this conclusion : in the Life of Saint Martin we read that the 
 Blessed Ambrose while celebrating at Milan was present at the burial of Saint 
 Martin at Tours. The same appears in regard to the body of the Blessed 
 Baldred, which is said to be at Aldhame, Preston, and Tyninghame, near to 
 Gleghornie and those parts. This is a trite story, and an opponent will deny it, 
 and I confess that he may do so without incurring the charge of contamination 
 of the faith, since many doubtful things are put down in some Lives of Saints. 
 The fact is proved by the appearance of Christ to Peter as Peter was flying 
 from Rome— for the place is known well enough, namely, Domine, Quo Vadis?' 
 Major goes on to suggest an instance where the body of Sortes (a favourite figure 
 in his arguments) may be found in two places — say Seville and Edinburgh. He 
 gives a number of reasons for the possibility of such an occurrence, and concludes : 
 ' For these reasons I hold by the affirmative side of the title of this question- 
 say, that God is able to place the body circumscriptive in several places, just so 
 many as pleases Him.' It is in the course of the same 'question' that Major 
 says that God may have made the whole body of Eve by placing the rib in 
 many places, and dismisses the objections to this theory that had been raised by 
 Gregory of Ariminum — ' sed de hoc suo loco '. 
 
 2 The founder of the monastery of Deer in Aberdeenshire. Cf. Dr. John 
 Stuart's Preface to The Book of Deer, published by the Spalding Club in 1869. 
 Dronstan's name assumes the forms of Drostan, Dunstan, Dustan, Throstan, and 
 the honorific form of Modrustus. 
 
 3 Gillenus has no place in the Dictionary of National Biography. His name 
 occurs in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography, as that of a per- 
 son ' spoken of by the Scotch annalists, Fordun, John Major, Camerarius, and 
 Dempster, as a Scot who lived in Gaul, and was a disciple or contemporary of 
 St. Columbanus '. Perhaps the name ' Gillenus ' is one of the many forms of 
 1 Kdian'. The Bollandist biographer at least says of Saint Kilian's name : ' S. 
 Kiliani nomen molliri et reception modo efformavimus, tametsi non ignoremus 
 varias ejusdem expressiones, Kyllena, Killena, Killinus, Killenus, Quillianus, 
 
88 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book n. 
 
 the sanctity of his life. In that same France our own Saint 
 Coiumbanus. Columbanus 1 was held in veneration for his miracles. And Saint 
 Fiacre. Fiacre 2 , of royal birth, led the austere life of a hermit in the 
 
 diocese of Meaux. For he knew that to the land of promise 
 no road lay but by the Red Sea, the desert, or the crossing of 
 The ways to Jordan. By the Red Sea the martyrs of the new-born church 
 entered the Jerusalem which is above, and by the washing of 
 regeneration, that is, the passing of Jordan, little children 
 belong to the land of the second promise. And when the 
 Blessed Fiacre was now well stricken in years, the way to para- 
 dise by way of Jordan did not suffice him, nor did tyrants now 
 call for the blood of martyrs ; wherefore he chose for himself 
 the third way, that is, the desert, for severer penance, that he 
 might thus most surely gain the heavenly paradise. By reason 
 of the many miracles that he did, and the sanctity of his life, 
 which was known of all men, that place is visited yearly from 
 all parts of France. 
 
 Chillianus, Chilianus, Cilianus, Caelianus et alias apucl Serarium et alibi.' The 
 Gillenus of the text, however, was not, in all probability, the Saint Kilian 
 who was the apostle of Franconia (martyred a.d. 689), but rather the Kilian 
 mentioned by Dr. Lanigan in his Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 443 
 (_/?. circa a.d. 650), who was buried at Montreuil in Picardy, 'where his relics 
 are held in veneration '. 
 
 1 Saint Columbanus, the apostle of the Burgundians of the Vosges district of 
 Alsace, and founder of the monasteries of Luxeuil (a.d. 590) and Bobbio (A.D. 
 613), was born in Leinster about a.d. 543. 
 
 2 According to Dr. Lanigan it was after a.d. 628 that Saint Fiacre withdrew, 
 from Ireland, to France, where he erected at Breuil a monastery in honour of 
 the Virgin Mary. He was the first cultivator of the forest between Meaux and 
 Jouarre, and became the patron saint of gardeners. 
 
 The name of this saint is now best known in its transference to the hackney 
 carriage of Paris, which got its name from the fact that the proprietor of the 
 Hotel de St. Fiacre, in the Rue St. Martin, in 1640 kept carriages on hire. Over 
 his doorway was an image of the saint. This meaning of ' fiacre ' had not become 
 so common in 1650 as to find a place in the French and English dictionary of 
 Cotgrave, who describes ' fiacre' as the ' Mai S. Fiacre, a kind of scab, or great 
 wart, in the fundament ' — for the removal of which the help of the saint was 
 invoked. There is a legend that after Henry the Fifth of England had been 
 defeated at Baugy by Charles the Sixth of Fiance and his Scottish troops, the 
 Englishman destroyed in his rage the monastery of St. Fiacre — ' parce que ce 
 Saint etait un Prince d'Ecosse '— and was forthwith attacked by this malady. 
 Unless a reference to Saint Fiacre in one of John Major's own works— In 
 Quartum (ed. 1521), 45th question of the 15th distinction— must be regarded 
 in the light only of a singular coincidence, there would seem to have been a 
 much earlier connection in Paris between Saint Fiacre and the hiring of horses ; 
 
( hap. mil] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 89 
 
 CHAP. VIII. — Concerning the arrival of Gormund, first in Ireland, 
 then in Britain, and his cruel dealings with both lands ; also of the rule 
 of the Saxons in Britain under Gormund. 
 
 About this time a man of Africa named Gormund, famous The cruelty of 
 in war, a heathen too, but aiming at new territories, made his Goimund - 
 descent into Ireland with a large army, and brought into sub- 
 jection a great part of that island. And when the Saxons in The perfidy of 
 Britain came to hear of this, being inferior to the Britons, they theSaxons - 
 sent an embassy to Gormund the African, praying him to 
 come to Britain, and promising to confer on him the supreme 
 power. Whereupon he lands in Britain, and, with help of 
 the Saxons, wrought indignity on the churches and on all that 
 pertained to the Christian religion, and so restored the heathen The establish- 
 way and infidel worship among the Britons. But Gormund heathenism, 
 tarried no long time in Britain, but led all his African train 
 into Gaul, that by land he might return to his own ; and to 
 the Saxons who had been at his bidding in the war against the The Saxon rule. 
 Britons he made over their territory, and so the heathen came 
 to hold that part of Britain which the Saxons call England. 
 One may believe, however, that with them some Britons were 
 mingled. Hence it is plain that among the Britons the Chris- 
 tian religion flourished in Britain, and oftentimes was over- 
 thrown by the unbelievers. 
 
 CHAP. IX. — Of the outward form and appearance of the English, 
 and how they differ in appearance and stature from the rest of nations ; 
 likewise of the mission of Augustine for their conversion, and of his 
 preaching. 
 
 When Gregory the First happened once upon certain English The English are 
 children at Rome, and asked who these might be, and was |o k 0 e k a a n t gels to 
 then told that they were English and heathen, he answered : 
 4 Angels indeed they are in outward seeming, for so their 
 countenances bear witness ; endeavour must be made that 
 they become angels too in their mind and faith. 1 For we 
 observe that near the Equator, near the path of the sun, 
 
 for in that work, where Major is dealing with the relations of buyer and seller, 
 he uses this illustration among many others : 1 Suppose that I hire out my horse 
 to you for the purpose of going to and returning from Saint Fiacre, and you pay 
 me fourpence a day for the use of it . . . ' 
 
90 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book 11. 
 
 Differences of 
 bodily appear- 
 ance. 
 
 The monk 
 Augustine sent 
 to England. 
 
 those whom we call Ethiops and Indians are born black, inas- 
 much as heat, the mother of swarthiness, is found in moist 
 bodies. At a greater distance from the path of the sun, Bia 
 Meroes and Sta Syenes 1 , and Bta Alexandras, men are born 
 blackish, and these we call white Moors. Consequently as we 
 approach more nearly to the Arctic pole, the tendency is ever 
 to a less degree of blackness; and thus, as inhabiting ever a 
 colder region the one than the other, the Gauls are seen to be 
 the most of them 2 whiter than the Spaniards, the Britons than 
 the Gauls, the Germans than the Britons, the Goths than the 
 Germans. If you take the complexion of individuals only, it 
 is true that you shall find certain northerners nowise fair or 
 beautiful. Beyond the Arctic circle, and close by the Arctic 
 pole, they say that some are foul of aspect, but this comes 
 from skiey influence 3 and not from the cold. In some parts of 
 Africa they relate that men are born with the head of a dog. 
 This too is a matter of skiey influence 3 , and carries with it no 
 other inference. The same rule as to white and black men 
 holds good from the Equator to the Antarctic pole ; and if 
 certain among the northern peoples have got a changed com- 
 plexion in old age from an intemperate way of life, this pro- 
 ceeds from their evil habits and not from the aspect of their 
 sky. Now the English are both a northern people, and their 
 young men use no wine, so that it is no marvel if their bodily 
 form is of graceful beauty, and most of all in the time of youth. 
 
 To the English then, in the five hundred and eighty-fifth 
 year after the Virgin bore a son, Gregory sends that most 
 excellent man — the monk Augustine. When this same Augus- 
 tine had made his landing in Kent, he seeks audience of the 
 king of Kent, of the race of Engist, by name Adelbert, and 
 sought from him allowance to preach the Gospel in his king- 
 
 1 Cf. Herod, ii. 30. Syene is the modern Assouan. 'The latitude of Syene — 
 24 0 5' 23"— was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers. They 
 believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of 
 the summer solstice a vertical staff cast no shadow, and the sun's disc was 
 reflected in a well at noonday. The statement is indeed incorrect ; the ancients 
 were not acquainted with the true tropic : yet at the summer solstice the length 
 of the shadow, or T ^th of the staff", could scarcely be discovered, and the 
 northern limb of the sun's disc would be nearly vertical.'— (Smith's Diet, of Geog.) 
 
 2 Orig. 'plurimi'; F. ' plurimum \ 3 Cf. p. 54, note 1 . 
 
chap, ix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 91 
 
 dom. Now Adelbert was a man easily bent towards what was 
 
 good, and so granted to Augustine his desire, ministering also 
 
 to him and his following in what was needful. Augustine 
 
 laboured so strenuously that in a short space of time he 
 
 brought to the faith the king himself and almost the whole 
 
 people of Kent. Passing on to Rochester, he began there too 
 
 to preach the word of God ; but the common people derided 
 
 him, and threw fish-tails at the man of God ; wherefore 
 
 Augustine made his prayer to God that for a punishment of 
 
 this sin their infants should be born with tails, to the end they 
 
 might be warned not to contemn the teachers of divine things. 
 
 And for this reason, as the English chroniclers relate, the Some born 
 
 infants were born with tails. This tailed condition is by no why S ' 
 
 means to be attributed to skiey influences ; nor, at that period, 
 
 do I deem that men were indeed born with tails ; but for a 
 
 time only, and to the end that an unbelieving race might give 
 
 credence to their teacher, was this punishment inflicted. I 
 
 cannot give my assent to the Scots and the Gauls, who assert 
 
 the opposite. Of his companions, who had come with him 
 
 from Rome, Augustine consecrated two as bishops : Justin, Bishops. 
 
 to wit, whom he placed over the see of Rochester, and Mellitus 
 
 as bishop of London. In the matter of the celebration of 
 
 Easter these two bishops wrote to the Scots. 
 
 CHAP. X. — Of the conversion of Oswald, likewise of the too great 
 austerity of the bishop who was sent to him, of the wisdom of bishop 
 Aidan, and of the conversion of the Britons to the faith. 
 
 When it came to the knowledge of Oswald, king of the Oswald. 
 Bernicians, that the southern Englishmen had piously received 
 the word of God, he sends to the elders of the Scots, praying 
 that on him they would bestow some grave man, well-fur- 
 nished in the Christian faith, as bishop, for he believed that, 
 seeing the life and doctrine of such an one, the people that 
 was subject to him might be imbued with the Christian 
 religion ; for this same Oswald had been for no short time an 
 exile from his own kingdom with the Scots. With them he 
 had had long experience of the walk and conversation of the 
 
92 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book il 
 
 faithful, and the Catholic faith approved itself to him. His 
 messenger received from the Scots the warmest welcome, as 
 was right; wherefore they sent to him a bishop. But 
 this bishop used at the first too great austerity, and so did 
 little good with the English. And, returning to his own, 
 he said that the English were a race no way inclinable to what 
 was good. Now when he was speaking thus in an assembly of 
 The>isdom most religious fathers, one of them, Aidan by name, a most 
 of Aidan. honourable man, and withal of utmost perspicacity in judg- 
 ment, makes objection in these words : ' Perchance thou hast 
 not followed the teaching of Paul, and given, first of all, milk, 
 and afterwards the stronger food. For thy part it was to lead 
 the people by degrees to the faith and to right conduct, — to 
 make easy the foundation, and afterward to build upon it a 
 lofty pile. For 'tis an old proverb : " Feeble beginning shall 
 be followed by happier fortune "V And since Aidan spoke so 
 shrewdly, and since he was known to be a man of holy life — 
 albeit not by all men, for it had been hid under a bushel — they 
 make him bishop, and send him with a following of religious 
 Aidan is made monks to the English. Upon this matter I prefer to quote 
 English Bede rather than our own chroniclers. For the 
 Venerable Bede, in the third chapter of the third book of his 
 History of the Church of the English people, writes as follows : 
 ' [They sent to him] Aidan, a man of a singular mildness of 
 disposition and piety and moderation, full of zeal to God, 
 although n ot altogether according to knowledge ; for he was 
 wont to keep Easter Sunday after the custom of his own 
 people from the fourteenth to the twentieth moon, since in 
 this manner too the northern province of the Scots and the 
 whole nation of the Picts w r ere in use to celebrate Easter, 
 believing that they followed therein the written precept of the 
 holy and praiseworthy father Anatolius 2 , the truth of which 
 almost every one can easily determine 3 . On the arrival of the 
 bishop the king granted him, according to his desire, his 
 
 1 Debile principium melior fortuna sequetur. 
 
 2 Bishop of Laodicea ; the inventor in a.d. 276 of the Paschal computation. 
 
 3 'Quod quidem an verum sit, penitus quisque facillime agnoscet' In 
 Holder's edition of Bede, the reading is ' quod an uerum sit, peritus quisque 
 facillime cognoscit '. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 93 
 
 episcopal see in the island of Lindisfarne. And then it was 
 truly often a right fair sight, inasmuch as the bishop had not 
 perfect mastery of the English tongue, to see the king himself 
 interpreting to his chiefs and councillors the heavenly word ; 
 for during the long time of his banishment he had perfectly 
 learned the language of the Scots. From that time there came 
 daily many from the country of the Scots to Britain, and from 
 those provinces of the English over which Oswald held rule, 
 and with great devotion preached the word of God, while those 
 among them who had received priestly consecration adminis- 
 tered the grace of baptism to all that believed. Churches were 
 built here and there ; a joyful people nocked to hear the word 
 of God ; lands and estates were granted by the royal bounty 
 for the building of monasteries. The children of the English, 
 as well as those of riper years, were instructed by Scottish 
 teachers in the study and observance of the discipline known 
 among the regulars ; since for the most part these preachers 
 were monks. Bishop Aidan was himself a monk, having his 
 appointment from the island called Hy 1 , whose monastery had 
 for a long time the pre-eminence among all the monasteries 
 of the northern Scots, all those of the Picts, and had the direc- 
 tion of their peoples. That island belongs indeed by right to 
 Britain, for it is separated from that country by a small firth 
 only; but it had been long since given by the Picts, who 
 inhabit that district of Britain, to the Scottish monks, through 
 whose preaching they had come to the faith of Christ."' 
 
 So far Bede, to the letter of his words ; and from his narra- 
 tive it is plain that Oswald was filled with zeal towards God. 
 One church I know founded in his honour in Lothian : Whit- Lothian, 
 tingham, to wit, distant two leagues from Gleghornie. In 
 the time of Bede all Lothian was subject to Oswald. And so 
 much is clear, because he says that the island of Hii, to the 
 north of Arran 1 , ought to belong to the Britons. This is 
 clear, that in the time of Bede, or at least in the time of 
 Oswald, few among the Scots were able to speak English. But 
 you will say : Aidan was an islander ; therefore your conclusion 
 
 1 i.e. Ion a. 
 
 2 On this indication of geographical position compare note to Book I. p. 57, 
 on the island of Sanda as ' more northerly than Bute'. 
 
94 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book ii. 
 
 does not follow. Though it be not a full and logical conclu- 
 sion, I must hold it to be a true one *. 
 
 CHAP. XI.— Of the Life of Oswald and Aidan. 
 
 I relate the lives of men who were famed for their piety at 
 greater length than those of warriors, to the end that the 
 reader may feel his heart grow warm within him and strengthen 
 himself with this spiritual marrow. For, to quote from Bede, 
 in the fifth chapter of his third book : * Not otherwise was the 
 
 The life of Kf e of Aidan than his doctrine. He had no care or love for 
 the things of this world. All that was given to him by the 
 kings and rich men of his age he delighted to bestow upon the 
 poor when they met him with an entreaty for alms. His habit 
 was to travel on foot, and not on horseback — unless by the 
 urgency of a greater necessity — from place to place, in town or 
 country. Wherever his eye lighted upon any men, were they 
 rich or poor, thither upon the spot he turned aside, beseeching 
 them, if they were unbelievers, to take the oath of allegiance 
 to the faith, and, if they were of the faithful, establishing them 
 with words of comfort, and exhorting them by word and deed 
 to almsgiving and the practice of good works. Such was his 
 
 The life of daily work. 1 In the sixth chapter of the same book Bede tells 
 how king Oswald once received a prayer for alms from certain 
 poor persons as he sat at meat, and how the king broke in 
 pieces the silver dish set before him on the table, and gave the 
 fragments thereof to the poor. Seeing which, and moved to 
 admiration at the pious act, bishop Aidan, for he w r as present, 
 
 The hand seized the king by the right hand, and said, 6 Never may this 
 hand grow old ! ) — and the event was according to the prayer 
 of his benediction. After king Oswald had fallen in battle with 
 the heathen, his arm and his right hand in the time of Bede 
 did not know decay. Bede tells in his third book of many 
 miracles done by the king and bishop Aidan — and in point of 
 time he was not far removed from them. In the end of the 
 fifteenth chapter, after telling of the miracles of Aidan, he has, 
 
 1 The punctuation of Orig. and F. makes different sense here. Orig. is 
 evidently right. 
 
chap, xi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 95 
 
 further, this : 1 The manner of this miracle I have from no 
 
 doubtful source, for it was told to me word for word by that 
 
 most trustworthy presbyter of our church, Cynimond, and he had 
 
 it from the very presbyter Utha, on whom and through whom 
 
 the same was wrought/ And his conclusion of the seventeenth 
 
 chapter is in these words : 4 To say much in few words — so far as 
 
 I learned from those who knew him, he was careful to neglect 
 
 none of those things which are appointed to be done in the 
 
 evangelical, apostolical, or prophetical Scriptures, but laboured 
 
 with all his strength to perform them all. These things I 
 
 much love and admire in the aforenamed bishop, because I 
 
 doubt not that they were well-pleasing to God. But that he A wrong 
 
 did not observe Easter at its proper date, either from ignor- of Easter^ 
 
 ance of the canonical time, or, if not ignorant of this, yet 
 
 yielding to the antiquated authority of his own people, I no 
 
 way praise nor approve. Yet this I approve in him, that in 
 
 his celebration of Easter he had nothing else at heart, he 
 
 revered and he preached nothing else, but what we too hold 
 
 firm, the redemption of mankind by the passion, resurrection, 
 
 and ascension into heaven of Jesus Christ, the Mediator 
 
 between God and man. 1 So far Bede, word for word. And to 
 
 what he has written I add certain propositions : Aidan had no 
 
 blame, but did well, in celebrating as he celebrated. The Aidan without 
 
 proof of this : For a morally good act it is not essential that f n g Easte?!? a 
 
 the act be directed by true knowledge ; but it is enough that dlfferent time - 
 
 it be directed by invincible error 1 ; and such was the case with 
 
 that father. The pontifical human law was against him ; but 
 
 this he was not bound to know ; and he ruled his conduct 
 
 herein by sacred Scripture and pious feeling, and in this too 
 
 walked in the footsteps of those who had gone before him. 
 
 In human positive laws every man has a wide latitude of his 
 
 own. 
 
 For seven years Aidan held his bishopric in England. To 
 him succeeded Finan, a Scot, a monk from the same district Fin anus, 
 with Aidan, and both in matter of the faith and integrity of 
 life he kept fresh the footsteps of his predecessor. Ten years 
 only he survived in the exercise of the episcopate. To him 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. in. ch. xi., on the conditions of a morally good action. 
 
96 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book n. 
 
 Colmanus. succeeded Colman, of the same region and place in the island of 
 Hy 1 . In his day arose in England among the princes and the 
 clergy the great question as to the observance of Easter. 
 
 Coiumba. Colman claimed to have on his side Aidan, Finan, Saint 
 Columba, and Anatolius. On the other side was the greater 
 
 Ronan. part of the clergy, and chief among them was one Ronan 2 , a 
 
 Scot by nation, but educated, according to Bede, in Gaul or 
 Italy. This was a question merely of observing a law of 
 human ordinance, and Colman ought to have yielded to the 
 popular feeling, and to the use and wont, if such there were, 
 among the Britons ; for the use and wont of a place is to be 
 followed, according to the proverb, 4 If you are at Rome do as 
 the Romans do"*, and the rest. And this has application to a 
 law of human imposition, of which I am now speaking. Custom 
 is the interpreter of human law, and may restrict and even 
 sometimes repeal such law. Not otherwise we find that the 
 Gauls eat animal food on the Saturdays 3 between the feasts of 
 the Nativity and of the Purification, and do not fast on the 
 nine vigils of the Apostles, and in many parts of Spain it is 
 the custom to eat the extremities and the inwards of animals 
 on all Saturdays whatsoever, with the exception of Lent ; 
 and yet in such points as these in other kingdoms the common 
 human law is just the opposite. Hence is plain that the 
 Venerable Bede should not have laid such weight on a point 
 like this, when the contention was as to the customary human 
 law in a particular locality ; and inasmuch as Aidan and his 
 successor had already introduced the Scottish mode into the 
 northern parts of England, Colman had no right to insist upon 
 the contrary mode, albeit it was the custom of the Romans, 
 and of the majority, as in a similar case we have declared con- 
 cerning the Gauls and the Spaniards 4 . However this may be, 
 
 1 i.e. Iona. 
 
 2 * Romanus' Orig. and F. Cf. Bede : H.E. iii. 25. Dempster calls him 
 1 Romanus ' or 1 Romianus ' ; but ' Ronan ' is plainly the right form. 
 
 3 In diebus Sabbatinis. 
 
 4 The reference is to Major's In Quartum, 5th question of the 15th distinc- 
 tion. As to the customs of the different countries in the matter of fasting, 
 he writes : ' The Gauls are not obliged to fast as often as the Britons ; for the 
 Britons fast upon all the principal festivals of Our Lady, though the law enjoins 
 fasting only upon the eve [profestuni] of the Assumption. On the other hand, 
 
chap, xi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 97 
 
 Colman had no mind to make a long stay among the English, 
 but besought them that they would grant him to carry away 
 the bones of Saint Aidan as relics. Some part of the bones 
 they gave him in answer to his petition, but the remnant they 
 kept in the bishopric over which he had held rule in England. 
 
 To Colman succeeded Tuda, a Briton. He had been educated Tuda. 
 among the southern Scots, and, as the manner of the Scots 
 was, he wore a tonsure 1 . Religious men, both English and Scots, 
 followed Colman into Scotland 2 , and he carried them with him 
 to a certain island of Scotland 2 , by name Inisboufinde 3 , that is, 
 • the island of the white calf 1 ; and inasmuch as the habits of 
 
 the Britons make a heavier meal in Lent than do the Gauls, and custom is the 
 interpreter of the manner in which the lenten fast shall be observed, on the sup- 
 position that it is of human ordinance. Do you not see how in France the 
 Gauls eat flesh on the Saturdays between the festival of the Birth of Christ and 
 the Purification ? . . . It is elsewhere plain that the Catalonians eat some 
 flesh meats on all Saturdays except in Lent — not so the Britons and the Gauls — 
 and custom suffices to excuse the Catalonians.' Major further writes of those 
 ' non comedentibus carnes in quarta feria in Scotia Britanna, quia passim illic 
 abstinent ab esu carnium '. Cf. also Life of George Buchanan, p. 367, by Mr. 
 Hume Brown, who quotes from Buchanan's Life written by himself : ' Crimini 
 dabatur [i.e. to Buchanan] carnium esus in Quadragesima, a qua nemo in tota 
 Hispania est qui abstineat.' In the Book of Merlin (E.E.T. Soc, p. n) the 
 penance enjoined upon Merlin's mother by her confessor is ' that alle the Sater- 
 dayes while thou lyvest, that thow ete mete but ones on the day '. As to the 
 custom in England at a later date, we find that a Jesuit father, Jasper Hey wood, 
 who came into England in 1581, taking the place of Parsons, 1 to the trouble of 
 our church and to the sorrow of cardinal Allen and of all good men presumed 
 to abrogate the ancient national fasts of Friday and certain vigils of the 
 B. Virgin, which had been religiously observed from the very cradle of the Eng- 
 lish Church.' — John Mush in his Deciaratio Motuum, etc., as quoted in A His- 
 torical Sketch of the Conflicts between Jesuits and Seculars in the Reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, by T. G. Law, Lond. 1889 ; Introd. p. xxii. 
 
 1 ' corona '. 1 Corona was the exclusive name of the Roman tonsure, whereas 
 in the semi-circular form, such as practised by the northern Irish, there was no 
 corona.' — Lanigan's Eccl. Hist., vol. iii. p. 78. 
 
 - i.e. Ireland. It is to be noted that Bede, whose narrative Major follows, 
 calls Ireland by its old name of ' Scotia ' ; Major makes the mistake of suppos- 
 it to be our Scotland. To quote the first sentence of Mr. Skene's Celtic Scot- 
 land \ 'The name of Scotia or Scotland, whether in its Latin or its Saxon 
 form, was not applied to any part of the territory forming the modern kingdom 
 of Scotland till towards the end of the tenth century. . . . Ireland was empha- 
 tically Scotia, the 'patria', or mother-country, of the Scots.' 
 
 3 Cf. Reeves's Chronicon Hyense and Lanigan's Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. 
 iii. p. 79 — the island, off the coast of Mayo, now known as Innisboffin. 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book ii. 
 
 the Scots 1 and the English differed in many points, he went 
 over to Ireland, and obtained for the English religious a certain 
 place. And they, when they had received from him instruction 
 in our holy religion, raised that place, which was once of no 
 account, to a singular pre-eminence, and in the time of Bede 
 reception was granted there to Englishmen only 2 . Such, 
 according to Bede, was the estimation of the religious at that 
 time, that no man would pass a man of religion on the road 
 without he received his blessing in spoken word, or at least by 
 a motion of the hand. 
 
 CHAP. XII. — Concerning the death of Malduin, the reigns of 
 Eugenius the Fourth and Eugenius the Fifth, Saint Cuthbert, the Vener- 
 able Bede, and the Monastery of Melrose. 
 
 About this time died Malduin, king of the Scots, and 
 Eugenius the Fourth, his grandson, succeeded him. In his 
 Cuthbert. J a y S Saint Cuthbert, son of the king of Ireland, who, first 
 under Saint Columba and afterward in Melrose, had been a 
 monk, and who had been a disciple of Saint Boisil the abbot, 
 was ordained bishop in England after Saint Colman. Into the 
 monasteries of Saint Cuthbert's foundation no woman dares to 
 set foot ; and for this Bede assigns the following reason : that 
 five monks, namely, of the monastery of Coldinghame 3 , though 
 living apart from the nuns of the same foundation, yet fell into 
 fleshly sin with these ; for which cause the whole monastery 
 was destroyed by fire. To this day the same rule is observed 
 T hp monastery j n the monastery of Melrose, which, since the time of Bede, 
 
 of Melrose. , J ' . ' 
 
 has increased in a marvellous manner. The situation indeed of 
 that monastery on the river Tweed is most fit for the exercise 
 of a devout life, for it stands in a wood remote from any habi- 
 A wonderful tation of men. Its rule is that of Saint Bernard. A wonderful 
 sound is heard, so they say, in the church or in the cloister, 
 which portends the death of any of the religious 4 ; whereupon 
 
 1 i.e. the Irish Scots. 
 
 2 Bede, H.E. iv. 4, and Lanigan, vol. iii. pp. 166, 168, 169. The founda- 
 tion for English monks was at Mayo, that for Irish monks at Innisboffin. 
 
 3 Bede : H. E. iv. 25. 
 
 4 Peter Swave, a Dane, who visited Scotland in 1535, refers to this tradition 
 regarding Melrose. Cf. Mr. Hume Brown's Early Travels in Scotland, p. 57. 
 
 sound. 
 
CHAP. XII. J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 99 
 
 they all, hearing the sound, prepare for confession. I tell this 
 as the common opinion of the people, not as a matter of faith. 
 
 After this, Eugenius the Fifth reigns in Scotland, and, fol- Eugenius the 
 
 Fifth 
 
 lowing him, Amberkeleth, who met his death by an arrow, Amberkeieth. 
 as he was fighting against the Picts. 
 
 About this time Bede flourished. <He was born in the Bede - 
 northern parts of England. Though some have it that 
 his body rests at Genoa, I have read in the English 
 chronicles^ that he never passed beyond this island, and 
 was buried at Durham, near the place of his birth. Whether 
 from some malady, or from old age, he lost his eye-sight 
 ere he died, yet even so was in use to preach to all who 
 came to hear him, and in the end to bestow his blessing upon 
 the assembled multitude. Now he had a wicked serving-man, 
 in whom this much preaching had wrought weariness, and once 
 upon a time he led the man of God to a place full of stones 
 that he might preach there, telling him that a goodly congre- 
 gation was before him. And when at the end, as his custom 
 was, he was bestowing his blessing, there was heard a voice 
 saying, 'Amen, Venerable Bede 1 . With divine and human 
 learning he was excellently furnished, and withal was a man of 
 zeal, which I approve yet more. And therefore he is reckoned 
 in the list of the Saints. In the year of our Lord seven hun- 
 dred and thirty-four, and of his life the seventy-second, he fell 
 asleep in the Lord. In the end of his book concerning the 
 church of the English nation he writes thus : that in the seven 
 hundred and thirty-first year of the Incarnation, the Picts and 
 Scots, content with their boundaries, do not invade the English 2 , 
 which year w r as the two hundred and eighty-fifth from the 
 arrival of the English in Britain. 
 
 1 Orig. and F. : ' de parte Boreali Angliae natus, licet corpus ejus aliqui apud 
 Genuam [' F. Genoam'] referant. Apud Anglorum annales legi, etc' The 
 punctuation of this seems to be faulty, and I have in the translation divided 
 the sentences differently. Bede died at Jarrow a.d. 735. The legend of his 
 burial at Genoa probably had its origin in a confusion with him of a monk of 
 the same name who died at Genoa about a.d. 883. 
 
 2 H. E. v. 23 : ' Scotti qui Britanniam incolunt, suis contenti finibus, nil contra 
 gentem Anglorum insidiarum moliuntur aut fraudium.' 
 
100 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 [book II. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. — Concerning the reign of Achains, and the eminent 
 valour and piety of his brother William ; likewise of the perpetual peace 
 between the French and the Scots, and of the founders of the University 
 of Paris. 
 
 Achaius, About this time Achaius is king over the Scots. His brother 
 
 Wiiham the William bore arms in all wars under Charles the Great, and 
 was that one of his twelve famous soldiers who was commonly 
 known among our own people as Scotisgilmor 1 . This hero, 
 intent always on warlike things, was never married. He 
 founded in Germany fifteen monasteries of the order of Saint 
 Benedict, and at his own cost endowed the same, enjoining that 
 over them Scots should at all times be placed 2 . Of these 
 monasteries two are at Cologne, and the rest in other parts of 
 Germany. 
 
 1 Lists of the 1 douze pairs ' (sometimes sixteen in number) or ' duke-peers ' 
 are given in The English Charlemagne Romances, E. E. T. Soc., vol. ii. p. 193, 
 but I have not identified this ' tall Scots knight.' 
 
 2 Like 1 Sanctus Gillenus Scotus ' and 'noster sanctus Columbanus ' and 
 ' Fiacrius see ante, pp. 87, 88, the ' Scots ' for whose behoof these fifteen monas- 
 teries in Germany were founded were Irish-Scots ; but the Scots of modern 
 geography, just as they 'ousted their Irish progenitors from the name itself, 
 ' by virtue of the equivocation ' ousted them also ' from pecuniary foundations 
 abroad which were restricted to Scotsmen \ The late Rev. A. W. Haddan, in 
 an article on ' Scots on the Continent in the Early Middle Ages ' contributed to 
 No. cxvi. of The Christian Remembrancer, says that 1 the great movement 
 organised by S. Columbanus numbers scarcely one Briton among the armies of 
 its Irish promoters', while ' the case was widely different with the Scots', i.e. 
 the Irish. In their ranks we have Saint Gall, the apostle of north-eastern 
 Switzerland, and Virgilius, the apostle of Carinthia. ' Colman, the "patron of 
 Austria", canonised at Melch on the Danube in 1025 ; John the Scot, bishop of 
 Mecklenburgh, martyred by heathen Sclavonians in 1055 ; a cluster of Scottish 
 monasteries dependent on S. James of Ratisbon, the foundation of Conor-o- 
 Bryan, king of Munster, and pushing eastward as far as Vienna, during the 
 twelfth century, carry us onward to the ever-receding frontiers of heathendom, 
 at the later as at the earlier period.' The Bollandist biographer of Saint Kilian 
 has an interesting passage on the nationality of the ' Scottish ' missionaries : 
 ' Scotia, quae et Hibernia dicitur, insula est maris Oceani, foecunda quidem 
 glebis, sed sanctissimis clarior viris ; ex quibus Columbano gaudet Italia, Gallo 
 ditatur Alemannia, Kiliano Teutonica nobilitatur Francia. . . . Dixi, et iterum 
 repeto, me inter Scotos et Hibernos arbitrum sedere prorsus non velle ; lites 
 ipsas suas dirimant ; Tros Rutilusve fuat S. Kilianus, nullo discrimine habebo.' 
 
 For a more particular account of the Irish monasteries in Germany see Dr. 
 Wattenbach's Die Kongregalion der Schotten-Klbster in Deutschland, translated 
 
chap, xiil] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 101 
 
 It was about this time that there was made between The peace 
 the French and the Scots that league of peace which thence- French^mf 
 forward has endured unchanged and inviolate 1 ; and indeed theScots - 
 you shall scarce find among any two kingdoms in Europe a 
 peace more solid and sincere. To this king of the Scots Charles 
 the Great made petition that he would send to him learned Learned men 
 men. And for answer there are sent to France John the Scot 2 , fand toParis 0 
 
 by Dr. Reeves in the Ulster Journal of Archeology, July and August 1859. We 
 find there a record of the foundation of an Irish monastery in 1076 at Regensburg 
 [Ratisbon], shortly after at Kiev, in 1140 at Niirnberg, in 1142 at Constance, 
 in 1 183 at Eichstadt (whose church was ' transferred to abbot Gregory and the 
 Scotic nation '), a little later at Kellheim, at Oels in Silesia ; while twelve 
 monasteries seem to have been specially recognised as standing in some connec- 
 tion with St. James's at Ratisbon. Schmeller {Bairisches Worterbuch, vol. iii. 
 p. 416) is quoted as speaking of fifteen houses — 1 by a mere oversight ' says Dr. 
 Reeves ; but the coincidence with Major's text should be noted. Of the twelve, 
 or fifteen, we have so far become acquainted with the following nine : St. James's, 
 Weyh St. Peter, Wurzburg, Niirnberg, Constance, Vienna, Memmingen, Eich- 
 stadt, Erfurt. ' At the end of the fifteenth century ', to quote Dr. Wattenbach, 
 ' no Scotic monk had arrived within the memory of man, and their very name 
 was so completely forgotten that the Dukes of Munsterberg, in the document in 
 which they propose to incorporate the Abbey of Oels with some other foundation, 
 speak of it as having formerly belonged to the Wendish brethren. The Wends 
 had disappeared from the inhabitants of the country, so likewise the Scots from 
 among the monks — all that remained was the memory that they belonged to a 
 foreign race.' At Niirnberg, in the fifteenth century, wine came to be sold in the 
 monastery as in a tavern, and that a missing wife ought to be looked for in the 
 Scots monastery became a proverb. 'At St. James's the Scotch of Scotland 
 turned the tide of affairs to their own profit, and went so far as to say that 
 the Irish had thrust themselves in, and for that very reason had brought about 
 the decline of the colonies. Pope Leox., on July 31, 1515, did actually make 
 over the monastery of St. James to the Scotch, and appointed, as superior, one 
 John Thomson, who drove out the Irish, and introduced Scottish monks from 
 Dunfermline. 
 
 1 This legendary alliance of Achaius and Charles the Great, as has been 
 pointed out to me by Mr. Hume Brown, is as strongly insisted on by French as 
 by Scottish historians. The league is specially mentioned in the marriage-con- 
 tract of Queen Mary and the Dauphin. Buchanan {Rer. Scotic. Hist., p. 89, 
 ed. Ruddiman) gives the following reason for the alliance : ' Ab Achaio primum 
 inter Scotos et Francos inita est amicitia maxima de causa, quod non modo 
 Saxones Germaniae cultores, sed qui in Britannia ceperant sedes, Gallias piraticis 
 incursionibus infestabant.' 
 
 2 John Scotus Erigena, an Irish Scot, as his name implies, was born in 
 the early part of the ninth century. He died in S83 or 884. All the Scottish 
 historians relate that to their countryman belongs the honour of being the first 
 teacher of the University of Paris. Modern research has shown that that 
 
102 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book II. 
 
 Clement, Alcuin 1 ; and these men when they landed on the 
 French coasts declared that their merchandise was the know- 
 ledge that they professed. At first sight it must seem passing 
 strange that in a small corner of the world men should be 
 found better furnished with learning than in all other parts 
 of the same ; yet, if we will rightly weigh the matter, the 
 wonder is no way so great. Very many, as Bede relates, 
 who never left the boundaries of Britain, spoke Greek and 
 Latin 2 . A great company of the religious, as is fitting indeed 
 for the truly religious, had found refuge in solitude from the 
 storms of this present world, and given themselves to study and 
 to prayer ; and though their strength might not lie in the 
 unravelling of scholastic and Sorbonic puzzles, yet in the expo- 
 sition of the Sacred Scriptures their learning was with the best. 
 It was this knowledge of Scripture that they professed, and 
 commentaries upon Scripture by no means to be slighted were 
 written by Bede and Alcuin ; and Aidan and Column could have 
 done the same, but that they had the oversight of a great 
 bishopric, and so gave themselves up to that life of action to 
 which they were called. 
 
 CHAP. XIV.— Of the death of Congall, the reign of Dungal, the 
 contention between the Picts and Scots ; likewise of the war against 
 Alphin, whom in the end they slew, and of the deeds of others. 
 
 Ix the eight hundred and second year from the redemption 
 of the world Congall, king of the Scots, passed from life to 
 
 university did not come into existence till, at earliest, the close of the eleventh 
 century, and that Abelard is the teacher to whom most of the credit must belong 
 in forming the nucleus of the university. See Thurot, These stcr Vtiniversite de 
 Paris. 
 
 1 Clement was also an Irish Scot. The chief authority for his life is the 
 anonymous monk of St. Gall, who tells the story of the two Scots of Ireland, 
 named Clement and Albinus (not 1 Alcuinus '), who on the coasts of France 
 called out to the crowds flocking to purchase, ' If any man desireth wisdom, let 
 him come to us, for we have it to sell '. On this further question of disputed 
 nationality, and whether Albinus is another name for Alcuin or not, see 
 Buchanan's Rer. Scotic. lib. v. Rex 65, and Dr. Lanigan's comment, Eccl. Hist. 
 vol. iii. pp. 208-211. 
 
 2 Bede : H. E. v. 20, 22. 
 
CHAP. XIV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 103 
 
 death, and was succeeded by Dungal, in the days of the Dungai. 
 
 emperor Lewis. Of seven years only was his reign ; and in 
 
 the course of the same, after a fifty years' peace with the Picts, 
 
 new seeds of war sprang up, and on this wise : When the 
 
 Picts first gained footing in Britain, wives were given them 
 
 of the Irish Scots, from whom the British Scots have their 
 
 descent, upon this understanding — that in case of doubt the 
 
 kingdom should fall to the woman and not to the man. 
 
 Founding their contention upon this agreement, the Scots 
 
 said the time was now come when the kingly power of the The contention 
 
 Picts fell by right to them, that is, to the Scots. But as to foS^"** 
 
 this right the Picts began to shuffle ; and whether the result 
 
 came from consideration of the law of the case, or from the 
 
 urgent actual fact, the seeds were sown of a war that was full 
 
 of danger in the future. After Dungal, Alphin bears rule Alphin. 
 
 among the Scots, and the war against the Picts that was begun 
 
 by his predecessor he waged with such persistence that he 
 
 never, as it were, in the course of it stopped to draw breath. 
 
 In the third year of his reign, and on Easter Day, a great 
 
 battle was fought between him and the Picts. Very many 
 
 famous men among the Scots there met their death, yet victory 
 
 remained with the Scots. Thereafter, in the twelfth year of 
 
 his reign, on the kalends of August, Alphin attacks the Picts 
 
 in a fierce-fought battle, where most of the Scots perished, and 
 
 Alphin himself was taken by the Picts, and without ruth The beheading 
 
 beheaded. Alphin then being slain, the sovereignty of the ofAlphin ' 
 
 Scots fell to his son Kenneth. 
 
 This Kenneth had gained no small skill in matters of war Kenneth, 
 along with his father, and possessed not only a fearless courage 
 and strength of body, but also that discretion without which 
 bravery in the field of battle profits not. He called into 
 council the chief men of his kingdom, and because he knew his 
 own people to be slow to rouse against the Picts, by reason of 
 the various disasters they had suffered at the hands of that 
 people, he aimed to move them by a set speech, for he was 
 mighty in words. And thus he is said to have begun : ' Were Kenneth's 
 it not that I know you, ye Scots, to be at all times inclined to s P eech - 
 war, my speech with you this day might be more studied and 
 filled with matter. It escapes you not, my chiefs, that the 
 
104 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book II. 
 
 reason is fivefold for the justice of our cause: first, on account of 
 the theft and the detention of that Molossian hound ; secondly, 
 that by pact and treaty of our ancestors the kingdom of the 
 Picts is rightfully ours ; thirdly, in that the enemy in our 
 despite have leagued them with the Saxons ; fourthly, that in 
 old times they drove our fathers from this island ; — nor is it 
 easy to believe that two neighbour kingdoms can live in mutual 
 amity on one and the same part of a country with naked earth 
 for boundary betwixt them ; wherefore it behoves us either 
 to drive them out of the island or some day ourselves to suffer 
 exile ; — and fifthly, in that they cruelly slew my dearest father, 
 a man worthy to rule, a man the most deserving of your 
 remembrance, and in the slaying of him violated all laws 
 human and divine, seeing that they beheaded him when cap- 
 tive in their hands. Of his death the infamy (unless it be 
 yours to avenge it with the sword) will redound throughout 
 the ages upon you, who are his members like as he was your 
 head. If ye are men worthy of your ancestors, worthy of 
 your sires, this horrible wickedness of theirs shall not go 
 unavenged. And there is no reason why you should dread a 
 conflict w ith the Picts. Granted that they were victors in the 
 last battle, their victory was no bloodless one, they gained it 
 with great slaughter to themselves. That kingdom of the 
 Picts which is in our hands (provided you quit you like men) 
 I will divide among you after your deserts, reserving for 
 myself the right only of superior and the glory of the 
 strife. Brave men's part is this : to live with honour or to 
 die nobly. But yours will be no noble life if you shall leave 
 unpunished the murder of him who was my dear father and 
 your king.' 
 
 And so with few words he made an end, exhorting them by 
 the spirits of their fathers, by the love and reverence they 
 bore to himself, by the gods above, that they should go forth 
 with him to battle against their mortal enemy the Picts. Yet 
 with all his urgent suasion he implanted no desire of battle in 
 these inexorable chiefs. Forasmuch as they had before now 
 made trial of the strength of the Picts, and had been more 
 often worsted in fight than they had gained the day, they 
 chose for a time to hold their breath rather than rashly venture 
 
CHAP. XIV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 105 
 
 on a struggle whose event they had reason to fear ; for they 
 were unwilling to risk the loss of children, wives, life, and 
 country. But the king was wroth, and, with a mind exasperated Kenneth s 
 against the Picts, he cunningly contrived a trap wherein to strata § em - 
 catch his chiefs, and so bend their minds to war. He bade 
 them all, namely, to a supper, after which they should spend 
 the night with him. And when the "Teat men of the kingdom 
 were asleep upon their beds, he calls to him a certain kinsman 
 and familiar friend, and clothes him in a suit of fishes' scales — 
 lustrous these are by night — and gives him further a reed, 
 through which he was to speak, and to command the chiefs in 
 the name of God that they should obey their king in the 
 matter of this war with the Picts, promising them too the 
 victory, though not a bloodless one, and for a reward the 
 country of the Picts. At early dawn then, on the following 
 day, the chiefs are found talking of the angel who had 
 appeared during the night. The story reached the ears of the 
 king ; he feigned himself from the first incredulous, the better 
 to divert them from his stratagem, and at length, but some 
 time thereafter, when he saw them to be of one mind intent 
 on war, brought together a great army of the Scots, and laid 
 waste far and wide the Pictish territory, sparing nothing to t 
 fire or sword, and firmly bent either to bring destruction on 
 the kingdom of the Scots, or once for all to drive the Pictish 
 people from the face of the earth. 
 
 When Drusco, the king of the Picts, understood thus much, Drusco, king 
 filled with rage against the Scots, he got together a large army of the Plcts ' 
 of the Picts, and as he was drawing near the line of the Scots, 
 and took up a fair position, the better to encourage his men 
 to struggle to the utmost, he is said to have exhorted them 
 as follows : — 
 
 'It is no secret to you, my strong-hearted Picts,how that fellow, Drusco's 
 Kenneth the Scot, has the firm determination utterly to over- s P eech - 
 turn our country and our kingdom, a thing that I have learned 
 from some whom he holds to be among his faithful followers. 
 It is a commonplace with prudent and sagacious kings that 
 they must search out the secret intentions of the enemy. Now 
 Kenneth's chief men follow him unwillingly, and in the hour 
 of need they will desert him. He indeed is inflamed with rage 
 
106 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book it. 
 
 and has a stormy soul because of the slaying of his father ; but, 
 as ye well know, " Anger clogs the mind of a man, so that he 
 shall not be able to see things as they are Therefore, all 
 in disorder, and with no proper equipment, he invades our 
 land, and knows not the difficult places of it. We, on the 
 other hand, have all our wits about us, we know every inch of 
 our territory, we are going to fight for our country, nor will 
 Kenneth be any way hard to conquer, if only you quit you 
 like men. Our ancestors, no way better men than ourselves, 
 once drove his ancestors from the island ; we once took cap- 
 tive his father, a man of fiercer temper than himself, and as 
 a captive slew him. We have the English on our side ; 
 they hate this race with its constant plotting of wars. High- 
 couraged Picts, it rests with your right hands, this very day, 
 to deal destruction irretrievable on the Scots ; and he who 
 shall take alive this foolhardy youth, that he may suffer a 
 penalty harder than his father's, shall receive a rich reward ; 
 and we will lesson this fickle race, ever prone to war and not 
 to peace, that henceforward its best part will be to make for 
 peace and not for war.' 
 
 A fierce battle. This said, and the signal given on both sides, they incon- 
 tinent engage in battle, and here the eager trumpet, there the 
 clarion, urges the warrior to the horrid onset ; the contest 
 was fierce, its issue long time doubtful. Now the Scots are 
 victors, anon they seem to yield before the enemy's attack ; in 
 the end, when the dust of battle cleared away, the victory was to 
 
 Drusco is taken, the Scots. Drusco, the Pictish king, is taken, and with a goodly 
 escort Kenneth sends him to the Scots ; nor does he even then 
 grow slack, mindful of that proverb, 6 Many understand to con- 
 quer who know not to use the victory'. He lays waste the 
 villages of the Picts, he spares nor age nor sex nor religion, 
 but smites all alike. Now, when the Pictish chiefs saw the 
 unbridled rage of Kenneth, as one man they made stand 
 against him, and he who should have been successor to Drusco 
 
 A second speech spoke in few words thus to his men: 4 Ye see, high-couraged 
 
 of the Pict. Picts, the inhumanity, yea the brutal cruelty of those Scots, 
 how their aim is our destruction, even the extinction of the 
 race of Picts and all memory of it among men. Now, many 
 things may well serve to quicken us in this call to war ; but, 
 
(hap. xiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 107 
 
 above all, the remembrance that Ave are sprung from the 
 
 Scythians. For at all times the Scythians have been an 
 
 unconquerable race ; let us fight then for our country, for 
 
 hearth and home, for our churches, freedom, for life and 
 
 honour, and with God to guard us and your own valour, my 
 
 hope is this, brave men, that we shall be avenged on the insults 
 
 of those Scots."' This said, he gave the signal to rush upon A second battle. 
 
 the foe, and again the battle raged fierce and hot. In that 
 
 conflict many Scots were slain, but of the Picts a far greater 
 
 number, while the remnant w r as put to rout. Yet a third time 
 
 the remaining phalanx of the Picts makes a desperate assault a third battle. 
 
 upon the Scots, and its leader with these words encouraged 
 
 his men : ' Not to hope for safety is the only safety of the 
 
 conquered K Should we now turn our backs the Scots will 
 
 take advantage of our fear, will follow us up and put us to the 
 
 sword. Let us then show a bold front, and thus, my men, let 
 
 us conquer — or die the death of the brave. 1 This said, again 
 
 they attack the Scots, but are overcome by Kenneth, of all 
 
 men the bravest. Nor did Kenneth return to Scotland till he 
 
 had either put to fire or sword all the Picts, or driven them as A sevenfold 
 
 exiles from their country. I find it somewhere written that he fight in one day " 
 
 was attacked by the Picts, now rendered desperate, seven times 
 
 in one day, and that as often he routed them, standing to his 
 
 ground by day and night. Afterward, returning to Scone, he 
 
 beheads Drusco, the Pictish king ; and thus was the kingdom Drusco 
 
 of the Picts, which had endured for more than eight hundred ^ eaded h l 
 
 years in Britain, brought to naught by Kenneth and added to tion of the Picts. 
 
 his own. Utterly do I abhor the inhumanity shown by this 
 
 man towards the servants of God, and women, and children ; 
 
 for such wild rage as this against persons unfit for war is not 
 
 found even among civilised heathens. And so Kenneth first 
 
 began to rule in northern Britain one hundred and four 1 years 
 
 after the death of Bede. 
 
 Kenneth reigned, after the expulsion of the Picts, sixteen 
 years, and [died ?] about the year of our Lord eight hundred 
 
 1 ' Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem ' : Aen. ii. 354. Compare Corneille 
 in Horace, Act ii. sc. 7 : ' Ce n'est qu'au desespoir qu'il nous faut recourir. ' 
 1 Orig. and F. ' 50' ; F. in Errata, ' 104'. 
 
108 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 The date of 
 the arrival of 
 Columba. 
 
 Bridget's 
 endowment. 
 
 The capital 
 of the Picts 
 in Scotland. 
 
 The apparition 
 of the Cross of 
 Saint Andrew. 
 
 and thirty-nine, in the time of the emperor Lewis. About 
 
 him we have these verses of the Scots : 
 
 'Tis said that Kenneth first bore sway among the men of Alban, 
 
 Alphin's son he was, and many wars he waged, 
 
 Twice eight years he reigned from the expulsion of the Picts. 
 
 In the conduct of war Kenneth cast into the shade all who 
 had gone before him. After his day we find scarce any mention 
 of the kingdom of the Picts, and, whether justly or unjustly 
 the Scots took their lands, justly in the end they held them. 
 For what is no man's property admittedly belongs to the 
 occupier. Among our annals I find a catalogue of Pictish 
 kings, but it would serve no end to insert it here ; therefore I 
 let it be. Somewhat about these I may, however, be allowed 
 to put down, to the end that there be a right understanding of 
 the boundaries of the Scots. Bede writes thus : 1 Saint 
 Columba came to Britain in the reign of that most mighty 
 king of the Picts named Brude. To Brude succeeded Garnard, 
 son of Dompnach, who built the collegiate church of Abernethy 
 after that the Blessed Patrick had brought thither Saint 
 Bridget. This king bestowed upon the Blessed Virgin, and 
 the Blessed Bridget, along with nine virgins who had attended 
 her, those endowments which are now held by the provost and 
 canons. At that time Abernethy was the bishop's see and also 
 the capital of the Pictish kingdom. Some place the building 
 of this collegiate church twenty-six years and nine months 
 before the foundation of the church of Dunkeld ; others allow 
 to it a priority of two hundred and forty-four years. That I 
 may not offer as certain what is uncertain, I will express 
 myself in this matter doubtfully. The Picts held the more 
 fertile part of the island, the plains, and the sea-coast places ; 
 the Scots, on the other hand, possessed the mountainous and 
 more barren regions. The Picts held Saint Andrew in great 
 honour, and most of all when Hungus 2 the Pict put to flight 
 Athelstan of England near to Athelstanford. There it was 
 that the cross of St. Andrew appeared to Hungus, when in 
 time of need he had been made king of the Picts. The place 
 is one league distant from Haddington. 
 
 1 H.E. ii. 4. 
 
 2 ? 1 Hinguar to which ' Hungus : of the next chapter is corrected in Errata of F. 
 
BOOK III. 
 
 CHAP. I. — Of the incontinence of Osbert, king of Northumberland, 
 and his death ; of the slaying o f Ella and the other cruelties practised 
 by the Danes ; likewise of many kings of England. 
 
 Not long time before the expulsion of the Picts, the king of 
 Northumberland was one Osbricht, a man of unbridled lust ; Osbert. 
 he had unlawful dealings with the wife of one of his nobles, 
 named Guerne, against her will. Loathing the foulness of this 
 thing, she declared the whole matter to her husband ; and he 
 betook him to the Danes, of whose blood he too came, that 
 with their aid he might not let this wickedness go unavenged. 
 To him the king of the Danes sends two brothers, Hinguar 
 and Hubba, with a great army, into Northumberland, and j^th^DaiS 
 they slew Osbricht, the king of the Northumbrians. There- 
 after they take York, a city strongly fortified, by assault. 
 Against them king Ella led an army, and laid siege to the 
 town. When the Danes were become aware of this, they left 
 the town, and, on a certain piece of level ground near the city, 
 they joined battle with Ella, and slew him. Whence the place Death of Ella, 
 had its name, for in English it is called Ellis-Croft \ 
 
 On the death of Ella they occupy all Northumberland, and 
 afterwards Nottingham, and then made for Nichol and Lindesen 
 and Holland 2 ; and so with fire and sword they open a way to 
 Tethford 3 . There they found Edmund, king of Norfolk and 
 Suffolk, a man worthy of a heavenly crown, and when Hubba 
 and Hinguar vainly tried to turn him from the faith, they slew Saint Edmund. 
 
 1 The author of the Chronicle {circa 1350) known as Brompton's (Twysden's 
 Scriplores Decern, 1652, col. 803) has the words : ' Locus ubi bellum fuit vocatur 
 modo Ellescroft.' Drake {Eboracum, 1736, p. 78) quotes Brompton, and adds 
 ' There is no place in or near the city that I can fix this name upon \ Thomas 
 Gent {Hist, of York, 1730, p. 199), quoting Brompton, calls the place Ell-Croft. 
 
 2 'Nichol', called by Major, Bk. ill. ch. xiii. ' Nicol sive Nicolai', is, accord- 
 ing to Camden, the 'Norman' name of Lincoln. Lindesen is Lindsey (the 
 'Lindissi' of Bede, H.E. ii. 16), the south-eastern division of Lincolnshire, the 
 others being Holland, the south-western division, and Kesteven. 
 
 3 i.e. Thetford. 
 
110 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book in. 
 
 him. This Saint Edmund we have as a patron of our nation 
 of Almain, because, not so long since, the same was in use to 
 be called the English nation. This is clear from the legend 
 upon a seal at the time when I myself belonged to that nation ; 
 but the two nations were afterward made one, and were called 
 The German the nation of the Germans ; and not unreasonably, for, corn- 
 nation at Paris. p are d with the Germans, very few of the English at Paris 
 graduate in arts 1 . He is buried in Suffolk at St. Edmundsbury ; 
 Bells in that is, the town is called the tomb of Saint Edmund 2 . It is 
 
 England. sa | ( j j. Q p 0Ssess the largest bell in all England. There is in 
 England a great plenty of bells of the finest quality ; because 
 in the material for making bells England abounds. And just 
 as in music its people are said to surpass the rest of men 3 , so 
 too do they make with their bells the sweetest and skilfullest 
 melody. You shall find no village of forty houses without its 
 peal of five sweet-sounding bells, and in what town you please, 
 of whatever size, every three hours the sweetest chime will 
 break upon your ears. When I was a student at Cambridge, 
 I would lie awake most part of the night, at the season of 
 the great festivals, that I might hear this melody of the bells. 
 The university is situated on a river, and the sound is the 
 sweeter that it comes to you over the water. No bells in 
 England are reckoned better than those of the convent at 
 Oseney 4 . When a special sweetness of tone is desired, silver is 
 plentifully mixed with the ordinary material of which they are 
 
 1 The punctuation of this passage is wrong in F. ('quia pauci admodum 
 Anglorum, Parisii respectu, Germanorum etc.'). As early as 1245, in a Bull of 
 Innocent the Fourth, the four Nations of France, Normandy, Picardy, and 
 England are distinctly recognised. The English Nation was composed of three 
 tribes — Germany, Scandinavia, and the British islands, and had for its patron 
 saints Charles the Gieat and Saint Edmund. During the Hundred Years' War, 
 the name 'English Nation' became an offence to French ears, and in 1378 
 the emperor Charles the Fourth, then on a visit to Paris, expressed his wish that 
 the name should be changed. It was not, however, till 1436 that the designation 
 * German Nation' displaced the other in the university registers. — Jourdain : 
 Excursions Historiques et Philosophiques h travers le Moyen Age, p. 366. Cf. 
 Mr. Hume Brown's George Buchanan, pp. 76, 77. 
 
 2 Orig. ' in sanct Edmunds Burri ' [F. ' in Sanct Edmundusburri] sepelitur ; 
 hoc est, villa sepulcrum sancti Edmundi appellatur.' 
 
 3 Cf. ante, Bk. 1. ch. v. p. 27. 
 
 4 The origin of Christ Church College. 
 
CHAP. I.J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 111 
 
 made. The people of Valenciennes and of Flanders are said to 
 follow the same method in the system of sweet chimes as the 
 English. 
 
 But a little while thereafter many of the Danes, and among 
 them Hinguar and Hubba, were slain by Alured, king of 
 Suffolk. While these things were happening, the Danes who 
 had accompanied Gormund the African into Gaul return to 
 England, and, joining themselves to those of their nation in The Danes 
 Northumberland, the Danish force was much increased. They grow stron s er - 
 carry on the war against Edward, son to Alured. This Edward 
 was succeeded by his son Adelston, who destroyed most of the 
 Danes, and many too he drove out of the island. I do not 
 think I am wrong in holding that it was this same Adelston Adelston. 
 that Hinguar, king of the Picts, of whom I spoke in the pre- 
 ceding chapter, slew at Elstonenfurd in Lothian. The place 
 ought to be called Adelstanfurd \ after the king of England 
 who there lost his life. 
 
 Thereafter — for here I pass by in silence some obscure 
 kings of England — reigned Saint Edward, son of Edgar. Edward. 
 He was treacherously murdered by his stepmother, the 
 queen of England, in order that her son Eldred might so Eidred. 
 come to the throne, and in the year of Christ nine hundred 
 and eighty, which was the twelfth year of his reign, he 
 was buried in Glastonbury with many of his predecessors. 
 After Eldred, king of England, Sweyn of Denmark bore rule Sweyn. 
 in England. This same Sweyn — his name signifies in English 
 'sow 1 and 'hog' 2 — had a peaceful reign of fifteen years in 
 England, and was buried at York. After Sweyn, Knoth, or Canute. 
 Canute, the Dane, reigns in England. Along with him Edmund Edmund. 
 Ironside 3 , son to Eldred, bore rule in part of the kingdom. 
 This Edmund was treacherously made away with by Edrich de 
 Straton. This traitor invited the king to breakfast. He had 
 
 1 The popular pronunciation in our own day is ' Elshenfuird ', not 'Athelstane- 
 ford ' or even 1 Alshenford It appears that this was the case also at the begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth century, and even earlier, for the spelling ' Elstanford ' is 
 found in the Registrum de Dtinfermelyn (p. 204). 
 
 - This is a mistake. Swinburne {i.e. Svendbjorn) is not 'son of a pig', but 
 1 son of Svend' , i.e. Swain = a young man. 
 
 3 Orig. 'Irensidus'; ch. iv. of this Bk. 'Irnsyd'. 
 
112 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [lK)OK III. 
 
 made a picture of a bow full bent, with an arrow, and as the 
 king, that he might view this thing the better, drew nearer, an 
 arrow was shot at the king by a man in hiding, and thus he 
 was killed. Behold then, how in a thousand far-sought ways 
 kings and princes meet their end, from envy of their wealth 
 and power 1 . 
 
 CHAP. II. — Of the reign of Donald the Scot, and the expulsion of 
 the remnant of the Picis ; of the deeds of Constantine Eth, or Aetius, of 
 Gregory, Donald, Constantine, and Eugenius, kings of Scotland. 
 
 On the death of that Kenneth who had almost annihilated 
 Donald. the Picts, his brother Donald began to reign ; and in his days 
 
 the small remnant of Picts, with the aid of the English, 
 brought a force against him ; but he destroyed them all. It 
 was not the custom at that time in Scotland for the youthful 
 sons of the kings to succeed to the throne, but rather for the 
 kings' brothers, if these were more powerful than their children, 
 and more fit to bear rule. To Donald succeeded Constantine, 
 or Constans. In his day the residue of the Picts, with the help 
 of the Danes, invaded Scotland yet again ; and against them 
 Constantine led with him to war some Picts who had remained 
 subject to the Scots. By the treachery of these men 
 Constantine met with his end, in a place which is called e the 
 Ethus. battle of the black cave ' 2 . After Constantine reigns Ethus, 
 
 son of the great Kenneth, and he was swifter of foot than 
 Asahel 3 or the Oilean Ajax. In agility of body he was far the 
 first of all those who were contemporary with him. Against 
 Gregory. Ethus rose in rebellion Gregory, son of Dongal, giving forth 
 that he had a right to the kingdom, and in a pitched battle at 
 Strath 4 , Ethus perished. About these men I find among our 
 old chroniclers the following verses : 
 
 ' Wing-footed Ethus, brother of Constans, had reigned. 
 When he fell mortally wounded by the sword of Gregory, son of 
 Dongal.' 
 
 How paternal 
 uncles used to 
 succeed to the 
 throne in Scot- 
 land. 
 
 Constantine. 
 
 1 Cf. the story in ch. iv. of this Book, where the countess of Angus kills 
 Kenneth the Second in much the same way. 
 
 2 i.e. Inverdovat. Cf. Celtic Scotland, vol. i. pp. 327-28. 
 
 3 Orig. 1 Asahele ' ; F. wrongly ' Ahasale '. 
 
 4 Cf. Celtic Scotland, vol. iii. p. 123. 
 
( hap. il] OF GREATER BRITAIN 118 
 
 After the death then of Ethus, Gregory was solemnly Gregory, 
 crowned at Scone in the year of our Lord eight hundred and 
 seventy-five. He granted again to the Church, and in larger 
 measure, those privileges which before his day had been curtailed. 
 He appeased too the frequent strifes and enmities among the 
 chief men of his kingdom. He then invaded Ireland, which he The subjection 
 
 i • i p i • i • i c • i • i • of Ireland. 
 
 claimed tor his own by right of succession, and in no long time 
 he subdued that island, and also, partly by his clemency 
 and wisdom, partly by force, the northern part of England 1 . 
 And then he came to a peaceful end, and was buried in the 
 island of Iona. All that Kenneth had been able to accomplish 
 against the Picts by his sagacity and force of arms Gregory 
 was able to bring to pass by a happy chance. And though in 
 war I could not equal him with Kenneth, yet in humanity I give Comparison 
 
 i . . between 
 
 him the pre-eminence, because, as indeed becomes a king, he Kenneth and 
 showed a noble clemency in his dealings with the poor and Gregory ' 
 those who were unfit for arms. In his reign, according to 
 Helinand 2 , flourished John the Scot 3 , a man renowned for his John the Scot, 
 learning, of keen intelligence too, and most ready of speech, 
 who by desire of Charles the Bald turned the Hierarchia of 
 Dionysius the Areopagite from Greek into Latin 4 . He 
 afterwards went over to England, and in the monastery of 
 Malmesbury the boys whom he there instructed stabbed him, 
 
 1 This is taken, according to Mr. Skene [Celtic Scotland, vol. i. p. 331), from 
 a copy of the Chronicle of St. Andrews which states that Gregory subdued 
 4 Hiberniam totam et fere Angliam \ It has been copied by later chroniclers, 
 but Mr. Skene prefers the reading ' totam Berniciam et fere Angliam ' (cf. Chron. 
 Picts and Scots, p. 288), and remarks that there is no trace of any conquest 
 of Ireland, and that ' Hibernia ' seems to have been substituted for 1 Bernicia '. 
 
 2 Helinand — otherwise Elinand, Elimand — was a religious of the abbey of 
 Froimont of Citeaux towards the end of the twelfth century. He wrote a 
 Chronicle in forty-eight books, and a Supplement to the same ; also ' De laude 
 vitae claustralis '. Before he became a monk he had been a favourite at the 
 court of Philip Augustus. According to the 'Roman d'Alexandre as quoted by 
 Moreri : — 
 
 ' Quand le Rois ot mangie, s'appela Helinand, 
 Pour li esbanoyer, commanda qu'il chant.' 
 
 3 See note, p. 102. 
 
 4 Printed at Cologne in 1502, with a Commentaiy of Hugh of St. Victor, and 
 again at the same place, with a Commentary of Dionysius the Carthusian, in 
 1536. 
 
 H 
 
114 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [book m. 
 
 so it is related 1 , and tortured him to death with their writing- 
 styles. His tomb, at the left side of the high altar, bears this 
 inscription : — 
 
 In this tomb lies the wise and holy John 
 
 Who, living-, was endowed with marvellous learnings. 
 
 A like story is told of Saint Felix : that he was stabbed to 
 death, by cobblers 1 awls. 
 Donald. After Gregory, Donald, grandson to Kenneth the Great, and 
 
 son to king Constantine, bears rule among the Scots. He was 
 one who reckoned no labour too severe, if so he might safeguard 
 the lands that Gregory had won ; for 4 not less of valour does 
 it take to guard than gain 1 . Now it is Ireland 3 that he visits, 
 now the English territory lately made his own, and imposes 
 laws upon his subjects. The Danes made earnest entreaty with 
 this Donald that he should join them in a war against the 
 English ; but to this he would no way consent, for he reckoned 
 it a shameful thing to be beholden to heathen men in the dis- 
 turbance of faithful worshippers of Christ, even though these 
 had no rightful title to their lands. And for this I commend 
 the man, and consider him worthy of praise only a little after 
 Gregory himself. 
 
 Alfred the In the tenth year of the reign of Donald dies Alfred, king 
 
 of the West Saxons, and is succeeded by his son Edward. 
 Constantine After Donald, Constantine, son of Ethus, begins to reign, in 
 the Scot. |.j ie y ear Q f our L orc j nme hundred and three. This Constan- 
 tine waged many wars against Edward the Englishman and his 
 bastard son Edelstan. To Eugenius, the son of Donald, he 
 gave the domain of Cumbria. This same Constantine there- 
 after invades England with a large army ; but, suffering defeat 
 in battle, he basely lost those lands of Cumbria 3 which the 
 Scots had held from the days of Gregory four-and-fifty years. 
 So he returned to Scotland, for four years more held the 
 
 1 This is the story told by Matthew of Westminster, but it had its origin in a 
 confusion of John Scotus Erigena with John of Saxony, whom Alfred called 
 about 884 from France into England. Cf. Histoire Litteraire de la France, 
 torn. v. p. 418. 
 
 2 Clauditur hoc tumulo Sanctus Sapiensque Joannes, 
 Qui didatus erat jam vivens dogmate miro. 
 
 3 Cf. the footnote in the supposed conquest of Ireland on the preceding page. 
 
 4 Cf. the statement at the beginning of chapter iv. of this Book. 
 
chap, in.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 115 
 
 kingly sceptre, at length became a religious at St. Andrews, 
 and in that condition for five years more stayed there till his 
 death. 
 
 CHAP. III.— Of the children of Knoth, king of England. Of the 
 character of Edward, the miracles that he did, and his chastity ; likewise 
 of the overthrow of Harold, king of England, by the Norman. 
 
 While Knoth, or Canute, reigned over the English, there 
 were born to him two sons : Harold, to wit, and Hardicanute. 
 Hardicanute was of great bodily activity, and therefore de- 
 lighted to travel on foot rather than on horseback. Harold Harold, 
 as a king, followed rather his own arbitrary will than the 
 dictates of reason. His reign accordingly was without benefit 
 to his people, and it lasted for two years only. To him succeeded 
 Hardicanute, his brother; and at the very beginning of his 
 reign he caused to be disinterred the body of his dead brother, 
 Harold, and cast it into the Thames, the river which flows past 
 London. There certain fishermen found it by night, and buried 
 it in the church of Saint Clement 1 . This Hardicanute did, 
 because king Harold had banished his mother and his uncle, 
 and he then recalled them from their exile. 
 
 After the death of Hardicanute the princes of England 
 decreed that they would have none of Danish race to rule over 
 them ; for they found themselves now fit to make head against 
 the Danes, inasmuch as Hardicanute had left behind him no 
 male issue, but a daughter only. The chief men of England 
 send then for Edward who was at that time in exile among the Edward. 
 Normans ; and he, after he had assumed the kingly crown, per- 
 severed in that integrity and sincerity of life which had marked 
 him as a boy. This Edward was a man of the highest natural 
 endowment, and had been piously and religiously brought up 
 from his earliest youth, — a condition which tends not a little 
 to holiness of life and renown in after years. Whence we have 
 that of Aristotle in the second book of his Ethics : 6 It matters 
 not a little, but rather much — nay rather, it matters every- The education 
 thing — whether boys are brought up to one sort of habits, or 
 
 1 Hence called ' St. Clement Danes 
 
116 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY [book in. 
 
 Miracle of the 
 present of the 
 golden ring. 
 
 The vision of 
 the Dane. 
 
 Edward's 
 virginity. 
 
 another' 1 . And here he confirms his opinion, too, with the 
 authority of his teacher Plato, using the analogy of the new- 
 made earthen jar or pot, according to that saying of Horace : 
 4 A long time will a jar retain the odour of that with which it 
 was filled when newly made' 2 . Those who in youth are ill 
 taught, who are allowed to grow up untrained, and are foolishly 
 humoured, turn out liars and enemies of religion. Not such 
 upbringing as this had that Edward, of whom we are now 
 speaking ; for he learned to reverence God, and to fear Him as 
 a son may fear his father. He had a special devotion for the 
 Evangelist John, and besought his intercession for himself with 
 God. When he was one day passing from Westminster to 
 London, a certain pilgrim besought him, by the love of God 
 and John the Evangelist, for an alms ; whereupon the king, all 
 unobserved, threw towards him a golden ring, notable for the 
 precious stone that it bore. This ring then John the Evan- 
 gelist afterwards gave back to certain English pilgrims, instruct- 
 ing them how they were to give it to the king, and to declare 
 to him the hour of his death, just as he then told the same to 
 them 3 . At the elevation of the body of Christ, in the sacrifice 
 of the altar, Edward saw once in a vision the king of the 
 Danes drowned in the sea, when this king had it in his mind 
 to come to England and bring disturbance upon Edward. 
 Edward declared this vision of the drowning to those who stood 
 near, and even so it turned out. This Edward had to w r ife a 
 daughter of Godwin ; but he never sought to know her in way 
 of marriage; and, like Chrysanthus and Daria 4 , they observed 
 a holy virginity all their days. 
 
 Edward was buried in Westminster, in the year of the 
 world's redemption ten hundred and sixty-five. To him suc- 
 ceeded Harold, son of earl Godwin. This Harold, when he 
 
 1 Nic. Eth. ii. i. 2 Epp. I. ii. 69. 
 
 3 Camden tells this story in connection with Havering in Essex, which was 
 believed to have been called 'Have ring' in consequence. — Brit. p. 385, ed. 
 1600. 
 
 4 Chrysanthus was the son of a Roman senator in the reign of the emperor 
 Valerian. When he became a Christian his father forced him to take a wife, 
 and gave him Daria, the lady philosopher. But Chrysanthus treated her as a 
 sister, and they took counsel to be virgins till death. — From the Menology of 
 Basil, as quoted in Smith's Did. of Christian Biography, s.v. CHRYSANTHUS. 
 
C HAP. IV. j 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 117 
 
 was once making sail for Flanders, and was driven by contrary 
 
 winds, fell into the hands of William, duke of the Normans, The wrongful 
 
 who took him bound by oath to take to wife the daughter of Norman? 
 
 William, and to hold England for his, that is for William's, 
 
 advantage ; and on that condition Harold was allowed freely 
 
 to return to England. 
 
 Chap. IV. — Of the Kings of Scotland and their deeds. 
 
 Let us here leave for a little the affairs of England and 
 take up in order the course of events in Scotland, whose narra- 
 tive has suffered some interruption. Malcolm, son of Donald, Malcolm, 
 was king over the Scots in the year of our Lord nine hundred 
 and forty-three. To him Edmund, king of England, brother 
 to Eldred, had given Cumbria 1 ; and for that region he did 
 homage and fealty to the Englishman. For he judged it 
 better to do this than to live in daily war. This Malcolm 
 came to his end through the treachery of the Scots of Moray. 
 His successor was Indulphus, son to Constantine, who was indulphus. 
 slain by the Danes when they were ravaging the country. 
 After him, in the year of our Lord nine hundred and sixty-one, 
 DufFus, son of Malcolm, reigns over the Scots. He was a man Duffus. 
 given to peace, but in his day the northern parts were infested 
 by robbers, and while he was in pursuit of them to seize them, 
 he was murdered in his bed ; his servants, forgetful of their 
 duty, had deserted him. To DufFus succeeded Culinus, son of Cuiinus. 
 Indulphus. A lustful man he was, and, following the example 
 of Sardanapalus, was a dishonourer of virgins. As he was ravish- 
 ing once the beautiful daughter of a prince, that illustrious man, 
 by name Richard, slew him ; and there were few that grieved 
 much at his death. Hence let kings learn not to dishonour the 
 daughters or the wives 2 (which is a greater sin) of their nobles, 
 seeing that if these nobles are men of sense and spirit they 
 will not be balked of their vengeance by the head of a king. To 
 Culinus succeeded Kenneth the Second. He was treacherously Se e C ond. 
 
 1 Cf. ch. ii. of this Book. 
 
 3 Cf. the conversation between Macduff and Malcolm Canmore, ch. v. of this 
 Book. 
 
118 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book in. 
 
 Constantine 
 the Bald. 
 
 Gryme, 
 Malcolm. 
 
 Cryninus. 
 
 slain by a woman. This woman was countess of Angus. She 
 invited the king to a breakfast, whereat she showed a statue 
 which discharged arrows, and by one of these the king was 
 slain, just as was done in the story related in the first chapter 
 of this book l . 
 
 Further, after Kenneth's death, in the year of our Lord nine 
 hundred and ninety-four, Constantine the Bald, with the help 
 of confederates, and in despite of a multitude of the nobles, 
 placed the crown upon his own head. This was the beginning 
 of a long strife amongst the Scots ; and so it came about that 
 the realm of Scotland was scarcely at any time brought nearer 
 to its ruin. One faction followed this Constantine ; Malcolm 
 and the bastard brother of his father, a mighty man of war, 
 had the favour of all the rest. It chanced that both leaders met 
 in battle one day in Lothian, near to the river Almond, six 
 miles distant from Edinburgh, and both were slain, but they say 
 that the victory remained with Kenneth. On the death of 
 Constantine, Gryme, who had followed his fortunes, claims the 
 sovereignty. Then began the contest with Malcolm, Kenneth's 
 son, for the kingdom. And when, to put an end to so long a 
 strife, a duel, as it were, was determined on, with few soldiers 
 on each side, and Malcolm came off the conqueror, he would 
 not assume the crown until the nobles should all agree that he 
 was to be king ; and this they did, as we read, in the year of 
 our Lord one thousand and four. Malcolm reigned for thirty 
 years. He had for his heir one only daughter, whom he gave 
 in marriage to Cryninus, abthane of Dul 2 , — that is, seneschal 
 of the king in the isles, him who was receiver of the royal 
 revenues. In the thirteenth year of the reign of this Malcolm, 
 Edmund Ironside, of whom we made mention a short time 
 since, was king of England. In the end this Malcolm was 
 murdered near to Glamis, by certain traitors belonging to the 
 party of Gryme. 
 
 1 * Sicut superius capite primo hujus libri diximus ' ; referring to the story of 
 Edmund Ironside and Edrich de Straton. 
 
 2 The Irish Annals call him abbot, but though bearing this designation — 
 Cronan, ' abbot of Dunkeld ' — ' he was not an ecclesiastic, but in reality a great 
 secular chief, occupying a position in power and influence not inferior to that^of 
 any of the native Mormaers'. — Celtic Scotland, vol. i. p. 390. 
 
chap, iv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 119 
 
 Malcolm was a man of such wasteful prodigality that he had 
 left for himself no piece of land in the kingdom, but had 
 bestowed upon his princes and courtiers the whole of the royal 
 domains. Herein he greatly erred, and dishonoured indeed, 
 so far as in him lay, his state as king ; for though niggard- 
 liness, and most of all in a king, be a vice more foul than 
 prodigality, yet in one no less than in the other, as is observed 
 by Aristotle in the first chapter of the fourth book of his 
 Ethics, lies a blot, and most rarely is prodigality found alone, 
 and without avarice to attend it \ For when a man bestows 
 upon certain persons more than is fitting, needs must he wring 
 from others that to which he has no claim 2 . To such a pitch The application 
 of poverty was Malcolm reduced that he was forced to lay his state treasury, 
 complaint before the chief men of the kingdom. These, then, 
 and the nobility, came to this agreement with the king : that 
 after their own death the king should maintain their heirs at 
 his own costs, and should receive the revenues of each until he 
 had reached the age of twenty-one, an arrangement which 
 every year brings much profit to the kings of the Scots. For 
 it may happen that the king draws yearly a thousand or more 
 from one out of twenty nobles, according as his son is younger 
 or older, and his inheritance more or less rich ; and hitherto, 
 and last of all, he has had also the marriage of the young man 
 in his control, out of which he can fetch no little profit. He 
 can also make provision for his own proper household by 
 marrying them to heiresses 3 . 
 
 In all this king Malcolm acted most honourably. For he 
 was unwilling that the common people should be weighted 
 
 1 Orig. : 1 Nam licet illiberalitas prodigalitate foedius in rege praesertim sit 
 vitium, lit Aristoteles quarti Ethicorum primo ait : tamen in utroque est labes, et 
 rarissime prodigalitas simplex sine avaritia iuncta invenitur.' F. : 'Nam licet 
 illiberalitas, prodigalitate foedius, in rege praesertim, sit vitium, ut Aristoteles iv. 
 Ethicorum primo ait, Tamen in utroque est lades, et rarissime, prodigalitas sim- 
 plex, sine avaritia juncta, invenitur. ' 
 
 2 This sentence is also part of the quotation from Aristotle, who says in effect : 
 ' Most prodigals err more actively on the side of taking. They take whence they 
 ought not. They must take in order to keep going, and they concern themselves 
 as little where the money comes from as where it goes.' Cf. Cicero de Officiis, 
 i. 43 : ' Sunt autem multi qui eripiunt aliis quod aliis largiantur '. 
 
 3 See further on this subject Book iv. ch. v. 
 
120 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book hi. 
 
 Duncan. 
 
 The Danish 
 kings. 
 
 The Norman 
 kings. 
 
 The murder 
 of Duncan. 
 
 with taxes, however empty his own purse might be; and 
 therefore did he make this petition to the chief men and 
 nobility of the kingdom, that they would be pleased to make 
 some provision for himself, and for future kings of Scotland, 
 without oppression of the common people. They showed 
 wisdom in consenting to his request, for they held their lands 
 by grant in perpetuity from the king ; and they discovered an 
 honourable means whereby, without risk to himself, the king 
 might gather in a large sum of money. This law of the realm 
 is not without its uses ; for, when they have once completed 
 their one-and-twentieth year, the young men enter upon the 
 enjoyment of their own property, and, at the same time, 
 for the reckless among them every opening is closed that 
 might lead to the squandering of their substance in their youth x . 
 
 Malcolm, then, being laid to rest with his fathers in the 
 island of Iona, where the greatest part of his forebears had 
 been buried, Duncan, his grandson by his daughter Beatrice, 
 began to reign ; and his reign was of six years. It was in the 
 second year of his reign that Knoth, the Danish king of the 
 English, died, and was succeeded by his son Harold. The 
 same year Robert duke of Normandy went the way of all flesh, 
 and in his room was chosen William, called the Bastard, a boy 
 of seven years ; he had the support of Henry king of the 
 French, who was guardian to the boy. I make mention of 
 this William and his times, because he had no small dealings 
 with the Britons, as shall afterwards be told. This Duncan 2 
 was secretly put to death by the faction which had been till 
 then in opposition. He was mortally wounded by one Macha- 
 beda 3 at Lochgowane, and was thence carried to Elgin, where 
 he died. He was buried by the side of his fathers in Iona. 
 Now those kings showed a grave want of foresight, in that they 
 found no way of union and friendship with the opposing 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. iv. ch. ix. on usury — ' haec foenebris pestis '. 
 
 2 Orig. and F. print 'Malcolmus', an evident misprint for 'Duncanus '. Orig. : 
 ' Hie Malcolmus a factione opposita adhuc latenter peremptus est per quendam 
 nomine Machabedam ; apud Lochgowanen etc.'. F. : 'Hie M., a factione 
 opposita adhuc, latenter peremptus est, per quendam nomine Machabedam, apud 
 etc' I have not been able to make sense of either punctuation, and suspect 
 that the original is corrupt. 
 
 3 Macbeth. 
 
( hap. iv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 121 
 
 faction : for either they should have banished them from the 
 land of their fathers as disturbers of the common peace and 
 welfare ; or, if this opposite faction was carrying on its designs 
 in secret, and was unknown to the king, he should not at least 
 have taken measures against it without a large army at his 
 back : for to gain a kingdom many a wicked act is done — prepar^for^ar. 
 following that saying always in the mouth of Caesar : 4 If the 
 law must be violated, let it be violated at least for empire ; in 
 all else follow after piety/ Give them but the chance — and 
 those men are few indeed who will not risk their all for a 
 crown — though their title to it may be far from clear. This 
 Machabeus, or Machabeda as some speak it, when Duncan 1 Machabeda. 
 had been thus betrayed to his end, assumed the sceptre of 
 sovereignty, usurper fashion, to himself, and would have pur- 
 sued the sons of dead Duncan 1 to their destruction. For 
 Duncan 1 had two sons : to wit, Malcolm Canmore, that is, 
 Malcolm of the big head, and Donald Bane. These were borne 
 to him by a sister of Siward earl of Northumberland. For two 
 years her two brothers stayed in their own country, hoping 
 for victory ; and when they could strive no more, Donald took 
 his course to the Isles and Malcolm to Cumbria. 
 
 CHAP. V. — Concerning Malcolm Canmore a?id Machabeda, kings of 
 Scotland ; likeirise of the death of Saint Edward, king of England, the 
 flight of Edgar with all his children and household into Scotland*, and 
 of the marriage of Saint Margaret, his daughter, and the children 
 that she bore. 
 
 This Malcolm Canmore, though he had a just right to the Malcolm 
 kingdom of Scotland, remained in England during fourteen Canmore 
 years, till at length his friends alike and his rivals called him 
 back to the paternal home : his rivals, indeed, to the end they 
 might destroy him ; and his friends that he might put to 
 the test his chance of sovereignty. In the first year of the 
 
 1 Orig. and F. ' Malcolmus. ' 
 
 - Orig. and F. ' in Scythiam '. The belief in the Scythian origin (cf. the 
 speech of Drusco, the Pictish king, in Bk. II. ch. xiv.) shows itself even in a 
 misprint. 
 
122 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book hi. 
 
 Hardicanute. reign of Macbeth, Harold was succeeded by his brother 
 Hardicanute, the last king of the Danish line in England. 
 
 Macbeth. This Macbeth afflicted with divers punishments those who 
 favoured Malcolm Canmor: some he despoiled; some he cast 
 into loathsome dungeons ; others again he not only stripped 
 of all that they had, but drove them exiles from the kingdom, 
 and there were not wanting some that he beheaded. Among 
 
 Macduff. the remnant was Macduff, thane of Fife, one of the chief men 
 of the kingdom. Now Macbeth mistrusted this man sorely, 
 and insulted him with these words — saying that he would soon 
 bring him under the yoke, even as an ox in the plough. But 
 Macduff feigned to take this as said in jest, as if he were in- 
 nocent of what was meant, and so turned aside the rage of 
 the king ; and, withdrawing himself in secret from the court, 
 took ship for England. Macbeth thereupon seized upon all his 
 possessions for the royal treasury, and declared him at the 
 horn an enemy of the commonweal, banishing him too in per- 
 petuity from the kingdom. But this action displeased the 
 rest of the nobles greatly, inasmuch as the king on his own 
 authority only, without summons of the supreme council, had 
 proscribed a man of this quality. 
 
 Now when Macduff was come to the presence of Malcolm 
 Canmore, and was urging him to return to the land of his 
 fathers, promising him that the nobles and the common people 
 too would welcome his arrival, — he, desiring to put Macduff s 
 good faith to the test, declared that for three reasons he should 
 prove himself an unserviceable king : first of all, that he was 
 by nature voluptuous, and by consequence would deal wantonly 
 with the daughters and (what is a much greater wrong) the wives 
 of the nobility ; secondly, that he was avaricious, and would 
 covet all men's goods. To these two objections Macduff makes 
 answer : ' In the kingdom of Scotland, all northern and cold 
 though it be, you shall find a wife, the fairest you will, who 
 shall alone suffice for your needs. There is no prince, whether 
 in England or Scotland, who will not readily give you his 
 daughter in marriage. And for avarice, you shall use as your 
 own the whole possessions of the realm ; and there is naught 
 that the people will deny you if you but ask it in the way of 
 love and with no desire for strife. 1 To all this Malcolm then 
 
chap, v.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 123 
 
 made yet a third objection, saying: C I am a liar, a man of 
 deceit, unstable in all my ways. 1 And then to him Macduff is 
 said to have made this answer : ' Dregs of the race of man, 
 begone ; begone, thou monster among men — fit neither to reign 
 nor live." 1 Now Malcolm, when he had thus proved the honesty 
 and good faith of Macduff, declared to him the true reason 
 wherefore he had made these objections, and bade him be of 
 good courage, — promising him that if, as he trusted, God should 
 restore the sceptre to his hands, he would make double restitu- 
 tion whereof Macduff had been despoiled. Yet he was unwill- 
 ing to take his departure from England, where already he had 
 been an exile fifteen years, till he had come to speech of Edward, 
 king of the English, and had received the king's gracious con- 
 sent that he should depart. And Edward received him with 
 all kindness — for all men were sure of the kindest reception 
 from him — and granted him support both of money and men. 
 
 Meanwhile arise mutterings of revolt in Scotland against 
 Macbeth, and on the first arrival of Malcolm and Macduff the 
 princes and people welcomed them gladly, and met their king 
 with tokens of joy ; which when Macbeth the usurper came to 
 know, he fled to the northern parts of Scotland. Thither Flight of 
 Malcolm pursued him, making no delay, and after a short Macbeth - 
 struggle, Macbeth, who was much inferior in his forces, was 
 at Lumphanan slain. Meanwhile, however, when news of his His death, 
 death was brought to the followers of Macbeth, they carry to 
 Scone one Lulach 2 , his cousin, nicknamed the simpleton, and Luiach the 
 there crown him, judging that some part of the nobles and slUy * 
 the common people would be with them ; but when they found 
 he had no following, they fled. When Malcolm came to know 
 what had happened he sends men in search of Lulach, whom 
 they find and put to death at Strathbogie, and the few who His end. 
 had still clung to him hid themselves as best they could. On 
 the final overthrow of this evil faction, Malcolm was brought 
 to Scone, and there, in the year of our Lord one thousand and 
 fifty-seven, was solemnly crowned. 
 
 1 Shakespeare has embodied this conversation in Macbeth, though it was 
 through Hector Boece (Holinshed's translation) that he had it. 
 
 - Orig. and F. ' Lutach ' ; but see Mr. Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. i. p. 411. 
 
124 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book hi. 
 
 The demands 
 of Macduff. 
 
 The argument 
 against them. 
 
 A daring and 
 wrongful deed 
 of king Mal- 
 colm. 
 
 We are told that now, when the king was once firmly seated 
 on his throne and the country was in full possession of the 
 blessings that flow from a settled peace, Macduff sought of the 
 king three favours in consideration of the good service he had 
 rendered. First of all, that his successors in the thaneship 
 of Fife should place the king at his coronation on the 
 throne ; secondly, that when the royal standard was unfurled 
 against the enemy, it should fall to the thane of Fife to 
 lead the vanguard \ that is, the first line of battle ; and 
 thirdly, that all his descendants should have remission where 
 one of them was accidentally the homicide of a noble, on 
 paying a fine of four-and-twenty marks, and in the case of 
 the slaying of a serf for a fine of twelve marks. Homicides 
 were accustomed to claim absolution, by this privilege of 
 law granted to Macduff, on payment of such a sum of 
 money for Kinboc 2 . Now Macduff erred in making such 
 demands as these. The first demand and the second were too 
 well-fitted to secure for him the anger 3 of the other nobles ; 
 and the third, when we take into consideration the proneness 
 of the people to homicide, was most unjust; for thus, under 
 cover of an unintended injury, a long-standing feud might find 
 satisfaction and a far too easy shelter. But however this may 
 be, a partial if not a complete excuse may be urged in behalf 
 of the king: the desert of Macduff was great, and the king 
 neither dared, nor indeed desired, to refuse him in anything. 
 
 Some time after this the king comes to hear of a certain 
 knight 4 , commonly called a 'miles ' 5 , who had conspired against 
 him along with some men of Belial. Of set purpose then he 
 took this soldier as his body-servant, when he went a-hunting, 
 and while they were once in pursuit of the wild beasts, he con- 
 trived to get this man far separated from the rest. Then, 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. v. ch. iii. de acierum instructions 
 
 8 1 Kinboc ' : probably a misprint for ' Kinbote '. Cf. Sir John Skene, de 
 Verb Signif. s.v. 1 bote ' = fine for slaughter of a kinsman. Mr. Skene gives an 
 account of these privileges in Celtic Scotland vol. iii. pp. 304, 305. Cf. also 
 Sir John Skene u.s., s.v. clan macduff. 
 
 3 Orig. and F. ' Indignationem aliorum principum duo prima facile poterant 
 ei parere ' ; I have read ' parare '. 
 
 4 eques auratus. 5 quern vulgo militem vocant. 
 
chap, v.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 125 
 
 leaping from his horse, the king commanded the soldier to fight 
 him like a man in single comhat, where they were seen of none, 
 and to cease from treachery and underhand attempts upon his 
 life. Whereupon the soldier threw himself at the feet of the 
 king, and, humbly imploring pardon for himself, made a full 
 discovery of his accomplices in crime. The king granted him 
 pardon. So far from approving this action of the king, I 
 condemn and abhor it utterly. It is plain that this soldier 
 showed himself of a timorous nature in declining the single 
 combat ; and had he been a bold man, of warm temper, he 
 would not have declined it when it was offered to him, lest he 
 should thus incur the accusation of cowardice. But the issue 
 of such a contest is doubtful. The soldier had little to risk 
 but his life and what small property he might possess. The fall 
 of the king on the other hand would have been fraught with 
 disaster to the state. Further, the king erred herein most 
 of all : for, suppose the soldier had been truly guilty of the 
 king's death, yet the king himself, alike before the beginning 
 of the combat and after its issue, would still have stood guilt- 
 less, had it chanced that he were slain by the soldier ; but, as 
 things turned out, he exposed himself, an innocent man, to the 
 risk of death, and, so far as in him lay, afforded to this soldier 
 the opportunity of becoming a homicide. Besides — and this 
 consideration is the weightiest of all — he thus placed the 
 kingdom in great jeopardy of a long-lasting strife, in the 
 course of which, for the most part, much innocent as well as 
 guilty blood is shed. And, to make an end, consider this too : 
 that the king is a public person, and without the consent, 
 express or implicit, of his people, has no right to expose him- 
 self to the chances of war — a consent, I say, that shall be con- 
 sonant with reason. 
 
 It was at this time, in the year one thousand and sixty-six, 
 according to our chroniclers, that Edward, king of England, Death of 
 died. The English histories, and for this period they are more Echvard - 
 trustworthy, place the date one year earlier. This was that 
 Saint Edward the Confessor, of whom I have made mention 
 above. And Edgar Atheling, king of the English, having at heart Edgar, 
 the misfortunes of his country, took ship with his mother, his 
 sister, and his whole household, desiring to return to the land 
 
126 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [BOOK 1IT. 
 
 of his birth. Tossed by contrary winds, he was driven on the 
 Scottish shores, at a place which, for that reason, is called by 
 the inhabitants St. Margaret's Bay. But king Malcolm, learn- 
 ing they were English people, went down to the ships ; for he 
 spoke the English tongue like his own, which at that time was 
 a rare thing for a Scot. This was no wonder, for he had passed 
 fourteen years and more of his boyhood as an exile in England, 
 at which time he had conceived a great fondness for the foreign 
 tongue. After long converse with her, and the performance 
 of many kind offices, the daughter of the king of England, 
 Margaret by name, by reason of her gifts at once of mind and 
 her outward charm, won such favour with Malcolm that he 
 took her to wife. She bore to him six sons : to wit, Edward, 
 Edmund, Etheldred, Edgar, Alexander, and David ; and two 
 daughters : Matilda, afterwards queen of England, and Mary, 
 afterwards count, or countess, of Boulogne. In the days of this 
 Marianus. king lived Marian us Scot us 1 , noted as a historian and writer on 
 chronology, and as a theologian of weight. He wrote a history 
 of the world from the creation to his own times, one book on 
 chronology, and one on the harmony of the Evangelists. He 
 became a monk at Saint Martin's of Cologne, was afterwards 
 translated to Fulda, and there abode for twelve years. There- 
 after, by the order of the abbot of Fulda and the bishop of 
 Mayence, he lived at Mayence ; then for seventeen years at 
 Saint Martin's, and there he died, not without renown for his 
 holy life, in the year of our Lord one thousand and eighty-six, 
 and of his age the fifty-eighth. Further, in the time of this 
 king Malcolm,William the Bastard took possession of England. 
 Leaving Malcolm, then, for a little, let our narrative turn to 
 this William. 
 
 1 Marianus Scotus, an Irish Scot, was born in 1086. Dr. Lanigan {Eccl. 
 Hist, of Ireland, vol. iv. p. 7) says of his Chronicle, which was printed at Basel 
 in 1559, that ' it exceeds anything of the kind which the middle ages have pro- 
 duced, and would appear still more respectable, were it published entire '. 
 There are said to be several unpublished works by him in the library of 
 Ratisbon, and MS. notes on all the epistles of St. Paul in the imperial library 
 at Vienna. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 127 
 
 CHAP. VI. — Of the deeds of the English ; first of the invasion of 
 England by William of Normandy the Bastard, and his slaying of king 
 Harold. Of the independence of the Scots ; of Williams issue and his 
 death. 
 
 In the year of our Lord one thousand and sixty-six William, William th 
 duke of Normandy invaded England ; and Harold king of £J° r ^ n# 
 England goes to oppose him, with but a small following of 
 soldiers, for indeed he was unpopular with the English. I 
 follow here the English chroniclers. William makes of Harold 
 a threefold demand : that he shall have Harold's daughter in 
 marriage ; or that he shall hold England of Harold ; or that 
 he shall try the fortune of war. Harold made choice of the 
 third, and in that war he fell. Thereafter at the closely follow- 
 ing feast of the birth of Christ, William was created at London 
 king of the English. He went in a short while to Normandy, 
 and in the second year of his reign returned with his wife Maud 
 to England, and at the feast of Whitsuntide crowned her as 
 queen. Next he marched against the Scots. But Malcolm the 
 Scot and William made a treaty, as Caxton asserts 1 , on these Malcolm's 
 terms : that Malcolm should hold Scotland of the king of wmfa^* 
 England, and William received homage of him therefor. That 
 this statement is untrue is plain from all the British writers 
 who used the Latin tongue. Homage was rendered indeed for 
 the county of Cumberland, which is situated in England, and 
 which the kings of the Scots held of England, and granted 
 always to their eldest sons, who did homage for that county to 
 the kings of the English. Although Malcolm had made this 
 treaty with William, he all the same often laid waste Northum- 
 berland beyond the river Tees. Kings observe a treaty of peace 
 only when they will. After a great slaughter at Gateshead, 
 Malcolm got possession of all those parts, but not of the strong 
 places, nor of the munitions of Avar. William, king of England, 
 had a brother who was bishop of Bayeux. Him he had made 
 earl of Kent, and he now sent him against the Scots with a 
 
 1 In his Chronicles, folio lxxvi. ed. 1528 — 'that the Kyng of Scotlonde 
 became his man, and helde all his londe of hym '. 
 
128 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book hi. 
 
 great force of Englishmen and Normans. These Malcolm put 
 to the rout, and pursued them even to the river Humber. 
 Thereafter duke William sent his son Robert against the Scots, 
 to make war on them. But he never attacked them ; nor 
 indeed did he do aught but build a new castle on the Tyne, 
 The Scots were the better to resist an invasion. Now it is a thing unheard of, 
 payersOTVene- anc ^ among the Scots simply inconceivable, that a Scot at peace 
 ficiaries 1 in m n j s own kingdom ever recognised as his temporal superior 
 
 respect of 
 
 any one. either the English king or any one else. This may be gathered 
 from the whole past history of the country, for the Scots at all 
 times resisted the inroads in the island of Romans and Britons, 
 and more than once invaded them — witness their historian and 
 fellow-countryman Bede. Now king Malcolm after his acces- 
 sion to the crown at no time had suffered from civil wars in his 
 kingdom, but was held in great veneration by nobles and 
 common people. And the case, which I will now propose, 
 would be altogether parallel : that is, if the French king were to 
 say that the king or kingdom of the Spains was subject to him, 
 simply because the earldom of Flanders, which had its origin 
 in the house of France, was so subject. I grant indeed that 
 king Malcolm was subject to the English king in respect of 
 Cumberland ; whether this carries with it or does not carry 
 with it the consequence that therefore Malcolm was uncondi- 
 tionally subject to the Englishman matters not. Yet the 
 kingdom of Scotland was never subject to England, nor the 
 Scot to the Englishman, in respect of the kingdom of Scotland, 
 just as Charles, count of Flanders, is not subject to the French- 
 man in respect of the kingdom of Spain. 
 
 William's issue. This William had by his wife Maud these children : Robert 
 Curtoys 2 , William Rufus 3 , Henry Beauclerk, and some fair 
 daughters. And when he was nearing his end, he devised 
 Normandy to Robert Curtoys, England to William, and to 
 Henry gold and much furniture. After a reign in England of 
 twenty years he met the common fate of all men, and was 
 
 His death and buried at Caen in Normandy. I remember to have read in the 
 
 place of bunai. cnron i c i es G f -j- ne Scots that this William made a reckoning of 
 the parish churches in England, and found the tale of them 
 
 1 The ' beneficium ' bound the vassal to his superior. 
 
 2 i.e. Curthose. 3 Orig. and F., 'Rous'. 
 
CHAP. VII. J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 129 
 
 seventeen beyond the five-and-forty thousand 1 . In England, as The parishes 
 we have said above, every village has its parish church, though ° 
 the village may count perhaps but twenty hearths 2 . In Scot- 
 land this is not so ; and in this point, as in many others, I 
 reckon the ecclesiastical polity of the English to be preferable 
 to the ecclesiastical polity of the Scots 3 . 
 
 CHAP. VII. — Of the reign in England of William Rufus, how lie 
 was an overbearing and irreligious- man, and met with a condign end. 
 
 Ox the death of his father, William Rufus or Rous took up William Rufus. 
 the reins of government in England, but handled them without 
 discretion, and not as befitted a king. He made light of holy 
 places and religion 4 ; he banished from England the Blessed 
 Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, a man of most upright 
 character, for no other cause than that he had rebuked the 
 conduct of the king ; and Anselm then went to Rome, where 
 in great part he wrote his books, which in my opinion are no 
 way to be despised. Into such an insanity of wickedness did 
 this king fall, that he laid waste many religious houses with 
 their possessions, and on their ruin planted a fair and large 
 forest, wherein he collected an immense multitude of wild 
 animals of every kind. He built from its foundations the 
 great hall in Westminster, in which the highest court of justice 
 is held. Shortly thereafter he went a-hunting in the foresaid 
 forest, and as he was walking there, a certain courtier with a 
 bow shot an arrow at a small bird ; but the arrow, glancing 
 from the knotty branch of a tree, struck and killed the king. 
 Whence let kings in days to come learn that they may not 
 scatheless defile for their own will and pleasure the holy places 
 
 1 Spelman {Glossary ed. 1687, p. 218) states the parish churches at 45,011 at 
 the date of Domesday Survey, but Sir Henry Ellis {General Introd. to Domesday, 
 vol. i. p. 286) says that the whole number actually noticed in the survey amounted 
 to a few more than 1700. It would appear that Major and Spelman must have 
 had access to some common authority, and Spelman in fact refers to Sprott's 
 Chronicle {circa 1274) : — ' Repertum fuit primo de summa ecclesiarum xlv. m 1 . 
 xi., summa villarum Ixiii., m 1 . iii xx ., summa feodorum militumlx. m 1 . iic. xv., de 
 quibus religiosi xxviii. m 1 , xv.' 
 
 2 Cf. Bk. 1. ch. v. 3 Cf. Bk. 1. ch. vi. 
 4 Orig. and F. ' religiones ' ; ? ' religiosos '. 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book hi. 
 
 of religion, inasmuch as whereby a man sins thence too shall 
 come the penalty of sin. Of the holy place he made a profane 
 pleasance ; but a great and public sin must needs be followed 
 by a condign punishment \ 
 
 CHAP. VIII. —Of the rest of the acts of Malcolm, king of the 
 Scots, and how the holy life of his wife brought him too to the practice 
 of piety. 
 
 The holy mar- In the one-and-thirtieth year of the reign of Malcolm 
 \Sco^rn°Ld Canmore died William the bastard. Margaret, the wife of 
 Margaret. Malcolm, being herself a most devout woman, made of this 
 sagacious and high-spirited king a man wholly religious ; this 
 saintly woman made of him a saintly man. And it is no 
 wonder: for, as the royal psalmist sings, ' With the holy thou 
 wilt be holy \ This woman was wont to be present daily at 
 five masses celebrated in succession, and the king at two or 
 three. They fed daily three hundred of the needy, and with 
 their own hands gave them to eat and drink. On each day in 
 Advent and in Lent the king was accustomed to wash the feet 
 of six poor persons, and the queen did the same by a far larger 
 number. He built the church of Durham, which the Britons 
 call Dura ; he was at the time in possession of that part of the 
 country. The foundations of the building were laid by Turgot, 
 the admirable bishop of the see, by the convent, the prior, and 
 the king 2 . He richly endowed too the church of Dunfermline. 
 But while Malcolm was besieging the fortalice of Alnwick, a 
 certain soldier brought to him the keys of the castle on the 
 point of a spear, and so put the king off his guard, and 
 
 1 Major thus attributes the formation of the New Forest to William Rufus, 
 not to William the Conqueror, and he is here in agreement with Caxton, who 
 adds, as to the manner of Rufus's death, that ' it was no meruayle, for the daye 
 that he dyed he had let to ferme the archebysshopryche of Canterbury '. — 
 Chronicles, fol. lxxvi. ed. 1528. 
 
 2 Turgot was prior (not bishop) from 1087. The bishop was William of St. 
 Carilef, who held the see from 1080 to 1099, but was for three years of that time 
 in exile. It is supposed that it was during his banishment in Normandy that he 
 conceived the design of rebuilding Durham Cathedral. That Malcolm was 
 present at the ceremony of the foundation seems very probable. Cf. Simeon 
 of Durham, in Twysden's Scriptores Decern, col. 218. 
 
chap, ix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 131 
 
 slew him. Hence let those to come take warning, and never 
 give audience to an enemy but in presence of many soldiers \ 
 
 From what has j ust been said it is clear that though Malcolm 
 held certain places in Northumberland up to four-and-twenty 
 leagues, the English were nevertheless in possession of various 
 fortified places that lay between the parts held by Malcolm 
 and Scotland. This is clear from the case of the new castle, 
 which is distant two-and -twenty leagues from Alnvicus or 
 Alnwick, and ten from Berwick. 
 
 CHAP. IX. — Concerning Donald, Duncan, and Edgar, kings of the 
 Scots, their children, and their deeds. 
 
 When Malcolm Canmore had thus been taken off his guard 
 and slain, Donald Bane, trusting to the support of the king of Donald Bane. 
 Norway, invaded the kingdom of the Scots. But Duncan, a Duncan, 
 bastard son of Malcolm, rose in rebellion against Donald his 
 paternal uncle, and putting his uncle to the rout, placed the 
 crown upon his own head. Here we see plainly how no near- 
 ness of kinship stands in the way of one who will grasp at a 
 kingdom. Malcolm Canmore had left behind him sons of an 
 excellent disposition ; and yet here is their father's brother, an 
 aged dotard — and a bastard, and such an one rarely comes to 
 good — disturbing their rightful inheritance. This scoundrel 
 of a bastard reigned for a year and a half. He met his end by 
 the craft of his uncle Donald 2 and the earl of Mearns, by name 
 Malpet, and on his death Donald reigns once more. 
 
 Now when Edgar the Englishman, an exile from his native 
 land, the brother of Saint Margaret, saw how matters stood, he 
 sent his nephews, the rightful heirs to the Scottish throne, into 
 England ; and there some of them died. We have no certain 
 knowledge of the manner of their death ; but three of them 
 survived. The eldest of these was Edgar ; and under the Edgar, 
 guidance of his uncle Edgar, he rose against Donald Bane, and 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. II. ch. iii., on the murder of Constantius. 
 
 2 ' Patrui sui Donaldi . . . dolo interiit '. There is no nominative, and 
 grammatically the reference is to Donald Bane, but the context shows plainly 
 that Duncan is intended. 
 
132 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book hi. 
 
 wrested from him, his father's brother, the sovereignty. Inas- 
 much as Saint Cuthbert had appeared to him at the beginning 
 of the war and promised him that he should be victorious, he 
 bestowed upon the church of Durham the lands of Coldinghame 
 Matilda. at Berwick 1 . This Edgar gave Matilda 2 , whom our writers 
 Maud. call Maud, to Henry king of the English in marriage, and 
 
 Mary his younger sister to Eustace, count of Boulogne. Edgar, 
 when he had reigned in peace for the space of nine years, was 
 buried in Dunfermline close by his father under the high altar. 
 
 CHAP. X. — Of Alexander the Fierce, king of the Scots. 
 
 Ox the death of Edgar, in the year of our Lord eleven 
 Alexander the hundred and seven, Alexander, surnamed 4 the Fierce', took 
 up the reins of government. He was thus called because his 
 paternal uncle, the earl of Gowry, bestowed upon him at his 
 baptism the lands of LifF and Invergowry 3 . Certain of his train 
 belonging to Mearns and Murvia, or Moray, made an attempt 
 upon his life by night, using stratagem therefor; but his chamber 
 servant let him out by a privy. And since, by God's help, he 
 had made good his escape, he founded at Scone a rich monastery 
 of canons-regular 4 , endowing the same with the domain of LifF 
 and Invergowry, and without delay pursued his enemies in their 
 flight to the northern parts. When he came to that very 
 rapid river, the Spey, he found that the robber enemy were on 
 its opposite bank. The king was counselled not to attempt 
 the ford. But, as soon as he set eyes upon the enemy, he 
 could not contain his rage, gave the standard into the hands of 
 
 1 Coldingham was for a long time a cell to the great monastery of Durham. 
 Cf. the Rev. J. L. Low's Durham, in ' Diocesan Histories ', p. 27. 
 
 2 The eldest daughter of Malcolm and Margaret was christened ' Editha ', but 
 she changed her name to Matilda in compliment to her husband's mother. Cf. 
 Mr. E. W. Robertson's Scotland under her early Kings, vol. i. p. 152. 
 
 3 Buchanan says Alexander was called ' the Fierce ' from the character of his 
 exploits. It is Bower, the interpolator of Fordun, who gives the singular reason 
 reproduced by Major, of which I find no explanation attempted anywhere. 
 
 4 Alexander the First re-formed the old Culdee foundation of Scone in 1 1 14 or 
 1 1 1 5, and established in it a colony of canons- regular of the order of St. Augustine, 
 whom he brought from the church of St. Oswald, at Nastlay near Pontefract. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 133 
 
 his body-servant, and successfully makes the passage of the 
 ford, he and his man alone out of the whole army. Now, for Alexander's 
 acting thus I hold the king to blame ; for it was the part of a ras ness ' 
 foolhardy man, not of a brave man, thus to expose himself to 
 such a contest with the enemy. Not so long before had the 
 commonweal been shattered by the loss of a lawful monarch ; 
 and it behoved the king to bear that in remembrance. Nor 
 can I praise the soldiery, that they did not by force prevent 
 the king, but gave up into the hands of a serving-man, 
 Alexander Caron, that standard which should ever be borne 
 before the king by a sufficient body-guard. This serving-man, 
 because he was skilled in single combat, and in a certain duel 
 had struck off, by one deft stroke, the hand of an Englishman, 
 was called Skyrmengeoure, that is, the 'gladiator 1 or 'con- 
 tender 1 and that to this day is the name of the constable of 
 Dundee 1 , who is descended from him. Having routed the 
 enemy, the king returned to the southern parts of the kingdom, 
 endowed the church of St. Andrew of Kilrimont, bestowed 
 upon the blessed Andrew the 4 cursus apri 1 2 , added to the 
 riches of Dunfermline, founded Scone, and built a monastery 
 for canons-regular in the island of Emonia, near to Inver- 
 keithing, which is now called St. Columba's isle 3 . Seventeen 
 years he reigned, and had an honourable burial at Dunfermline 
 by the side of his father, of whose fortitude of mind and zeal 
 for justice he was a true and worthy imitator. 
 
 CHAP. XL — Of David, that most excellent king of the Scots, in 
 whom arc found wonderful examples of all the virtues ; likewise of 
 Henry, his son, and of his grandchildren, the issue of this Henry ; and 
 of Richard o f Saint Victor. 
 
 Ox the death of Edgar and Alexander without issue, David, David, a king 
 their brother, succeeded to the throne, in the year one thousand of renown - 
 
 1 William Wallace in 1298 granted a charter of land in Dundee and of the 
 constabulary of the castle to Alexander ' dictus Skirmischur ' for his services as 
 standard-bearer. 
 
 2 That is, in its modern name, ' Boarhills '. It was the district in the neigh- 
 bourhood of St. Andrews which, in the Legend of St. Andrew, was given to 
 the church by Hungus, king of the Picts. 
 
 3 Now c Inchcolm '. 
 
134 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iil 
 
 one hundred and twenty-four. He was a more excellent man 
 than his two brothers, and reigned for twenty-nine years and 
 two months. The proud he tamed, beating them down as 
 with a hammer, but to all that submitted duly to his authority 
 he showed himself merciful and gracious ; giving fulfilment of 
 that of Virgil, where he says 'parcere subjectis et debellare 
 superbos 1 And here I will make my frank confession that it 
 transcends my feeble powers accurately to take the measure of 
 this man ; yet within my narrow limits I will try, hurriedly it 
 must be, to set down this and that concerning him. 
 Stephen the With Stephen, king of the English, he fought two great 
 battles 2 , one of them at Alertoun, in which he was victorious. He 
 laid waste all Northumberland and Cumberland, and regained 
 possession of these regions as a ransom for prisoners that he had 
 taken. In the same year he again invaded England, and 
 another bloody battle was fought between him and the English, 
 that of the Standard, in which the Scots were beaten ; and at 
 A treaty of length a treaty of peace was made between Stephen the 
 peace. Englishman and David the Scot upon these terms : that 
 
 Northumberland should remain in the hands of Stephen and 
 Cumberland in those of David. But this peace lasted no long 
 time, for David got ready a fresh army wherewith to invade 
 England ; whereupon Turstan, archbishop of York, went to 
 meet David at March mont castle, that is, at Roxburgh, and got 
 David to assent to a truce for a time. But when the time 
 of truce was out, he ravaged Northumberland to the utmost, 
 so that king Stephen was unwilling to grant that region, 
 according to his promise, to Henry, son of this same king 
 David, whom Matilda had borne to him. King Stephen there- 
 fore came to Roxburgh with a large army in the year eleven 
 hu ndred and thirty-eight ; but, seized with a panic terror, he 
 ret urned to his own country without doing any hurt to the 
 cots. In the following year king Stephen canje to Durham, 
 
 1 Virg. A en. vi. 854. 
 
 2 The battle of the Standard was fought August 22, 1138, on Cowton (or 
 Cutton) Moor, two miles from Northallerton. George Buchanan, like Major, 
 ollows Fordun and Boece in assigning a victory to David at Northallerton, but 
 
 th e battles of Allerton and of the Standard were one and the same. Cf. Mr. 
 Hume Brown's George Biichanan, p. 130. 
 
chap, xi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 135 
 
 and tarried there fifteen days, the while David tarried in New- 
 castle, and there they treated again about a peace. It was then 
 that Matilda, queen of England, who was niece to king David 
 by his sister Mary, came to that king, and entreated her uncle 
 to consent to a peace. And peace was made on this wise : that Peace estab- 
 Henry, son of David, should do homage to the English king llshed ' 
 for the earldom of Huntingdon, and should have free posses- 
 sion of the earldom of Northumberland. For the mother of 
 this Henry was daughter to Matilda, and heir to Valdeof, earl Matilda, 
 of Huntingdon, who was son and heir to Siward, earl of 
 Northumberland. David then returned and went to Carlisle, 
 where he built a very strong castle, and raised to a great height 
 the walls of the town. Thither did his niece, the empress 
 Matilda, send to him her son, the future king of England, and 
 there at the hands of king David did he receive his knighthood. 
 
 In this year Alberic the legate, bishop of Ostia, went to Alberic the 
 visit king David while he dwelt at Carlisle. For the rest, le S ate - 
 Henry, the only son of David, married Ada, daughter of the Ada. 
 earl of Warren, and by her he had three sons: to wit, Malcolm, 
 the future king of Scotland ; David, afterwards earl" of Hun- Henry and 
 tingdon and Gariach, and William, who also afterwards became 1S lssue ' 
 king of Scotland. Three daughters too were born to him : 
 Margaret, whom he gave in marriage to the duke of Brittany, 
 and Ada, to the count of Holland. The name of the third 
 was Matilda. She died in tender age. Further, in the year of 
 our Lord eleven hundred and fifty two, Henry, the only son of 
 David, heir to his crown and likewise of his holy life, died at Death of 
 Kelso, and there was buried. David, his father, had founded Heni r- 
 this monastery, and most richly endowed the same. In various 
 places did David found monasteries, of which some are very David's lavish- 
 wealthy, such as Kelso, Jedburgh, Melrose, Newbattle, Holin- 
 culstramen 1 , Dundrennan, Holyrood at Edinburgh, Cambus- 
 kenneth, Kinloss, one for nuns at Berwick, for nuns at Carlisle 
 one ; one of Praemonstratensian canons at Newcastle. There 
 too he founded a monastery of Benedictines. 
 
 The first James, when he visited the tomb of David, is James the First 
 reported to have spoken thus : 4 There abide, king most pious, hls taunt * 
 
 ness to monas- 
 teries. 
 
 1 Holmcultram, in the county of Cumberland. 
 
136 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY [«ook hi. 
 
 but likewise to Scotland's state and kings most unprofitable' ; 
 meaning thereby that on the establishment of some verv 
 wealthy communities he had lavished more than was right of 
 the royal revenues. And I myself am of the same opinion ; 
 for he made grants to those communities of more than six- 
 score thousand francs from lands held in perpetuity by the 
 crown ; and upon the building of these religious houses he 
 must have expended a much larger sum 1 . 
 That these Hereupon I may be allowed to make some observations. If 
 
 shouid U have USeS ne ^ken count of those religious houses which had been 
 been more founded by his predecessors, and likewise had considered that 
 endowed. the Scots were wont to pay exceeding little in the way of taxes 
 to their king, and further had foreseen the kind of life which 
 the religious would come to lead, never would he have enfeebled 
 the royal revenues for the aggrandisement of religious houses 
 and their enrichment beyond what was wise. That wealth was 
 indeed the offspring of a truly pious sentiment, but the wanton 
 daughter ended by suffocating her mother. But all this 
 notwithstanding, the king acted herein not wrongly, but, much 
 What suffices rather, piously. For the constitution of an action that shall 
 mOTaUygcfod 1 in()1;l ^. v good it is not necessary that it flow from a true 
 action. understanding ; it suffices that it be prompted by invincible 
 
 ignorance, or by an error for which the agent is not responsible 2 . 
 Those men were eye-witnesses of piety in its primitive fervour, 
 and inasmuch as the abbots of those days made a religious use 
 of their wealth, so did princes imagine that it would be for 
 He censures ever. But now for many years we have seen shepherds whose 
 travelling fnars. cftre j g ^ Q p^ure f or themselves, men neglectful of 
 the duties of religion, and all because, in the foundation of 
 those institutions, no heed was taken for their prudent regula- 
 tion. Behold then here what may happen to religion from the 
 possession of great wealth ! By open flattery do the worthless 
 
 1 In this matter Buchanan quotes Major with approval, and more kindly than 
 in his autobiography. Cf. Mr. Hume Brown's George Buchanan, p. 311. 
 
 8 In the 14th question of the 24th distinction of the In Quart urn. Major gives 
 a curious example of ' invincible ignorance ' in the case of a pope to whom a 
 1 divisus ab orbe Britannus ' may have brought commendatory letters from a king, 
 or, it may be, from other honourable men, extolling the bearer as a man of the 
 highest worth. If such commendations are not justified, the pope may be 
 credited with invincible ignorance, since 1 papa non est supra jus naturae '. 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 sons of our nobility get the governance of convents in com- 
 maularn 1 — the wealth of these foundations is set before thern 
 like a mark before a poor bowman— and they covet these 
 ample revenues, not tor the good help that they thence might 
 render to their brethren, hut solely lor the high position that 
 these places offer, that they may have the direction of them 
 and out of them may Iliac the chance to (ill their own pocket s. 
 Like bats, by chink or cranny, when the daylight dies, they 
 will enter the holy places to suck the oil from out the lamps' 2 , 
 and under a wicked head all the members had an evil life, 
 according to t he proverb, ' W inn the head is sick, the other 
 members are in pain\ An abbot once grown wealt hy has to 
 find sustenance for a disorderly court of followers — an evil 
 example to the religious; and not seldom, bidding farewell to 
 the cloister, makes for the court, heedless of that wise saw, 'As 
 a fish out of water cannot live, so neither one of the religious 
 outside the cloister' 8 ; and if his body do indeed chance to be 
 in the- cloister, vet in the spirit of his mind and the manner of 
 his life he is as one without;. lie may have brought ruin on 
 
 ^Compare what Major says In Quart urn, 14th question of the 24th distinction, 
 of the prelate who holds a benefice in commendam — that he is rather a bailiff 
 {procurator) than a prelate of that church. In the 13th question he says that when 
 Paul the Second was asked by some one to present him to two bishoprics, on 
 the ground that he was the son of a king, Paul answered that he would not 
 grant him that dispensation were he the son of God. Major's comment is : ' 1 
 say this answer was worthy of God's vicar.' In the 23d question of the 24th dis- 
 tinction Major tells the same story, but tells it of Pope Benedict the Twelfth, 'a 
 man whom neither the menaces of kings nor the soft words of princes and kins- 
 folk could turn from the narrow path of rectitude. . . . And when his kinsfolk 
 endeavoured to persuade him that it was his duty to provide for those of his own 
 blood, with this most admirable jest, and it was worthy of so great a pontiff, he 
 made answer, saying that the Roman pontiff had no kinsfolk. O man, I 
 say, worthy of the High-priesthood ! Thou honour of the Cistercians ! Thou 
 rival of St. Bernard, in the path of virtue. For on the one part of the centre of 
 virtue Bernard dug new cisterns, by means of which, and on methods yet untried, 
 he might attain to the centre of virtue ; but Benedict, sustained by virtue in 
 angelic fashions, does here, as it were, point with his finger to the centre of virtue.' 
 
 2 A similar comparison is made in the 12th question of the 24th distinction in 
 the In Quartum — with some violence to natural history : ' Those men, I say, are- 
 as owls ; for by night they make their way into the temple to suck the oil ; and 
 when that is gone the lamps give light no more.' 
 
 3 Cf. Chaucer: Prologue to Canterbury Tales > 11. 179, 180 : — 
 
 * Ne that a monk, whan he is cloysterles, 
 Is likned to a fissche that is watirles. ' 
 
138 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book in. 
 
 the farmer-tenants of the convent by raising their rents for the 
 benefit of his own purse, and yet think — but therein he 
 The meaning of greatly errs — that he has acted rightly. The duty and the 
 ' religious . a ' m Q £ ^.j ie re ijgi ous should be this : to live in the cloister 
 
 without the society of secular persons ; let them not return to 
 that Egypt on which they have turned their backs, nor 
 remember any more the good things of fortune. Let them 
 reckon an abbot who becomes his own land-steward to have 
 taken upon himself a function far removed indeed from the 
 practice of true religion, just as, among the apostles, the 
 office of Judas as keeper of the purse was found to be more 
 full of peril than another. Duties such as these are to be 
 undertaken by men of the most approved integrity only. It 
 behoves them to be frugal and sparing in food and drink, that 
 so they may withstand the assaults of the body. For that is 
 the true end of religion, and that end is promoted rather by 
 the possession of this world's goods in moderation than by 
 their abounding ; the wealth of an abbot, therefore, should not 
 permit him to keep more than one or two servants 1 . 
 David's upright David was remarkable for the virtues of temperance, forti- 
 tude, justice, clemency, and regard for religion. He ate in 
 moderation, was very sparing in drink — all that savoured of 
 luxury was hateful to him. For, when his queen died in 
 
 1 Major's commentary on the Fourth Book of the Sentences furnishes many 
 illustrations of his views as to the manner of life of bishops and abbots. Thus, 
 in the 18th question of the 24th distinction, he says that he considers twelve or 
 fourteen servants to be a sufficient allowance for a bishop, and if the number 
 were fewer it would be better. He points out that in the actual expenditure of 
 money we have not a proper measure of a bishop's extravagance or moderation, 
 since the capon which costs two pennies Scots, ' hoc est parvo albo in the 
 diocese of Ross will cost six times as much at Paris or Edinburgh. In the 20th 
 question of the 24th distinction he severely censures the beneficed cleric who 
 cares more for his own flesh and blood than for the orphan children of Christ and 
 for his poor, who can hardly get kitchen to their bran loaf, while he himself 
 lives like a swine of Epicurus. In the 22d question of the same distinction he 
 blames the unlettered vulgar, and most of all the inhabitants of both kingdoms 
 of the Britains, who in this matter are the greatest sinners, for their laudation of 
 any prelate who fares sumptuously and splendidly, and feeds his household not 
 only on barn-door fowls but on partridges and pheasants. If such a prelate, he 
 says, has spent the revenues of the church upon his kinsmen and his household, 
 the common people will extol him, saying that he has nobly raised his house 
 above the poverty of its original foundation, and deserved well of his household, 
 while every wise man knows that out of what was dedicated to the service of God 
 he has erected an altar to Baal. 
 
chap, xi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 139 
 
 the flower of her youth, he kept inviolate his widowhood for 
 three-and-twenty years. He was not to be moved to think of 
 marrying again, nor did he outside the bonds of matrimony 
 offend by word or deed in any single point against the law of 
 chastity. He held in firm check and brought into due subjec- 
 tion the nobles of his kingdom. Not only did he make a 
 spirited resistance to his powerful enemy of England, who was 
 in possession of many points outside of England, but even 
 recovered these, and so increased his own possessions. With 
 an equal balance he dealt justice to the poor man as to the 
 rich. We read in his Life that, when he was one day about to A memorable 
 go a-hunting, and already had his foot in the leather or the jSsticeT ° S 
 stirrup 1 , a certain peasant approached him with a petition for 
 justice; and the king returned to the palace that he might 
 hear and try the cause 2 . And thus he was wont to act in 
 respect of many poor persons who could not easily get their 
 causes tried in the ordinary course of law. Rich men, for the 
 most part, he dismissed to the judges, but to the suits of 
 peasants he listened seriously and kindly, so that some of them, 
 in rustic fashion, would now and again argue with him on this 
 point or that ; but, like the wise man he was, these things 
 moved him not, and as if he were one of themselves he had 
 compassion upon them, and never lost his temper. He was 
 wont to give of his own means to him who had lost a suit, 
 when he thought the quarrel just. Hence it came about that 
 people resorted to him ever more and more. And although 
 his kindness toward the common people made him hail-fellow- 
 well-met with all, and indeed he seemed to know somewhat of 
 every man's craft, yet from his nobles and men in high position 
 he required the observance due to a king, so that by all he was 
 feared and loved ; yet he coveted to be loved rather than to 
 to be feared. When he once saw some distinguished men in An instance of 
 sorrow for the loss of his own son Henry, he invited them to a hls patience 1 
 banquet, and there, feigning a cheerfulness he did not feel, 
 proposed a multitude of arguments that might tend to mitigate 
 their grief. He was aware of his own impending death a full of his prevision ; 
 
 1 Scansili seu stapeda. 
 
 2 Dante (Purgatorio, canto x. 73-92) tells a similar story of the emperor 
 Trajan ; and Cary, in a note on the passage, says that the original seems to be 
 in Dio Cassius, lib. lxix., where it is told of the emperor Hadrian. 
 
140 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book hi. 
 
 of his wisdom 
 
 year before it came to pass, whether from the intimations of 
 nature or, as is rather thought, by divine communication ; and 
 of his liberality ; for a whole year before his decease he doubled his accustomed 
 of his piety; alms, and imparted the same with his own hands. Every 
 Sunday he received the most sacred body of Christ. When he 
 felt his end to be drawing near, he caused his grandson Malcolm 
 to take a journey of inspection of every part of the kingdom, 
 just as we read that David did with Solomon 1 ; and he com- 
 mended Malcolm to the care of the earl of Fife, whom he 
 trusted greatly. Before that time he had carried his grandson 
 William to Newcastle, and had bestowed upon him all the 
 lands which he held in Northumberland — a matter this, in 
 which I cannot think that he showed his usual wisdom ; for so, 
 as time went on, all sense of brotherhood and kinship between 
 the king and William would suffer extinction. Rather should 
 he have bestowed upon his first-born and heir a country of 
 assured boundary, and on William some territory in the centre 
 of the kingdom. And when he felt that he was taken with a 
 mortal sickness, he demanded that provision which is made for 
 the last journey, that so he might more readily come to the 
 end of the same 2 ; and inasmuch as he was unwilling to receive 
 the viaticum in his own house, and yet on foot was unable to 
 reach the church, he was borne by some of the religious and 
 some persons of the court to his church ; and when he had 
 heard divine service and devoutly received the eucharist, he 
 felt that death was knocking at the door, and demanded extreme 
 unction, and received it, like the Blessed Martin, on the naked 
 earth. Now when the religious perceived the devout bearing 
 of the king, they made all haste with the anointing ; and he, 
 being aware of this, commanded them to do all their business 
 with due leisure and little by little ; and, as he could, he made 
 the responses at every point. When all was completed, he 
 folded his arms in the form of a cross upon his breast, and with 
 his hands unfolded towards heaven fell asleep in the Lord, not 
 without due honour for his holy life. 
 
 of a want of 
 wisdom. 
 
 His religious 
 death. 
 
 1 i Chron. xxiii. I. 
 
 2 * ut celebrius de via ad terminum proficisceretur '. Probably we ought to 
 read 4 celerius ', for it was considered an important point that the last agony, 
 when the evil spirits were in conflict with the good, should not be prolonged. 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 141 
 
 Miracles are no way needed to attest holiness of life 1 ; since, Holiness of life 
 in his lifetime, John Baptist (than whom none holier is found StesteTby* bly 
 among those born of woman) is not reported to have wrought miracles - 
 any miracle. Miracles take place on account of the incredulity 
 of a people, and for various other reasons. In virtue and 
 renown this David excelled Fergus son of Ferchard, and Fergus David is pre- 
 son of Erth, the first Kenneth, Gregory, his own father and the^est. 
 brothers. As to the Ferguses there is no manner of doubt, for 
 I place before them all the others that I have just named. 
 And though Kenneth was more combative than David, and 
 under incitement of the insults offered to his father entered the 
 fierce lists of Mars against the Picts, and manfully conquered 
 that people and put them to rout, yet in true fortitude I can 
 no way give him pre-eminence over David, who, in addition, 
 was crowned with temperance, justice, clemency, and piety. 
 
 Finding four bishoprics in his kingdom, he founded nine He founds nine 
 more. He caused harbours to be made along the sea-coast.. blshopncs " 
 With the nobles and chief men of the country he showed him- 
 self a king ; with the poor he was as a father. Observant he 
 was of religion in the church services and the hearing of mass; 
 nay, — what is the chief wonder of all, — in his very court you His religious 
 would have found a cloister of religious persons. He expelled court ' 
 from his company all who were stained with vice, like as proper 
 bees drive out the drones from their hive. By word and 
 example he trained up well-born children in the ways of virtue, 
 and brought them to be of one mind in the school of conduct. 
 With a good king you shall find the court good, and with a bad 
 king you shall find the court bad, all the world over. Nor is 
 it hard to give a reason for this. The inferior spheres are The king a 
 regulated in their course according to the motion of the couriers? hlS 
 primum mobile 2 : courtiers make it their study to please their 
 
 1 St. Peter Damian {ob. 107 1) had already said that we must not estimate sanctity 
 by miraculous power, since nothing is read of miracles done by the B. Virgin or 
 St. John Baptist. Cf. Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, s.v. miracles. 
 
 2 Cf. Parad. Lost, iii. 481-484 :— 
 
 They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed, 
 And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs 
 The trepidation talked, and that first moved ; 
 
 with Professor Masson's note in loco on the old astronomical system. 
 
142 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book in. 
 
 king, show themselves apes as it were of his every action, and 
 imitate what they see to be agreeable to him. 
 Richard of About the time of this David lived Richard of Saint Victor, 
 
 Saint Victor. & g co ^. ^ v birth, a religious of the Augustinian order, and he 
 was second to no one of the theologians of his generation ; for 
 both in that theology of the schools where distinction is gained 
 as wrestler meets wrestler on the battlefield of letters, and in 
 that other where each man lets down his solitary pitcher, he was 
 illustrious 1 . He published a vast number of most meritorious 
 lucubrations. In one sermon of his, concerning the virgin 
 mother of Christ, he was the first to make a distinct declara- 
 tion that she was born without the stain of original sin. He 
 was buried in the cloister of St. Victor of Paris, and his tomb 
 bears this inscription : — 
 
 For virtue, genius, every art renowned, 
 
 Here, Richard, thou thy resting-place hast found. 
 
 Scotia the land that claims thy happy birth, 
 
 Thou sleepest in the lap of Gallic earth. 
 
 Though haughty Fate hath snapt thy short-spun thread. 
 
 No scathe is thine ; thou livest still though dead. 
 
 Memorials of thy ever-during fame, 
 
 Thy works securely keep thy honoured name. 
 
 With step too slow death seeks the halls of pride, 
 
 With step too swift where pious hearts abide 2 . 
 
 1 Richard of Saint Victor died about 1 1 73. There are several editions of his 
 works, of which the best is that in folio, Rouen, 1650. It is confirmatory of 
 Major's description of him to find that he had constant disputes with the abbot 
 of St. Victor, and had at the same time a strong natural bent towards mysticism. 
 
 2 I have to thank Mr. Hume Brown for supplying me with this excellent render- 
 ing, in a medium in which I have no skill. The Latin original is as follows : — 
 
 Moribus, ingenio, doctrina clarus, et arte, 
 
 Pulvereo hie tegeris, docte Richarde, situ. 
 Quem tellus genuit foelici Scotica partu : 
 
 Te fovet in gremio Gallica terra suo. 
 Nil tibi Parca ferox nocuit, quae stamina parvo 
 
 Tempore tracta, gravi rupit acerba manu : 
 Plurima namque tui superant monumenta laboris, 
 
 Quae tibi perpetuum sint paritura decus. 
 Segnior ut lento sceleratas mors petit aedes, 
 
 Sic propero nimis it sub pia tecta gradu. 
 
CHAP. XIT.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 143 
 
 CHAP. XII. 1 — Of Henri) Beauclerk, king of the English, and of 
 the affairs of Normandy in his time. 
 
 After the death without heirs of William Rous, that is, the 
 Red, his brother Henry Beauclerk succeeded to him in England. TT 
 
 * ° Henry Beau- 
 
 Henry took to wife Matilda, commonly called Maud, sister to clerk. 
 Edgar and to David. In his dav the Blessed Anselm returned to 
 
 ° , i • n * 11 tt f Bishop Anselm. 
 
 England, and was kindly received by Henry. Meanwhile there 
 sprang up a quarrel between Robert Curtoys 2 duke of Normandy Robert ^ 
 and Henry the Englishman his brother ; and Robert made a Norman, 
 descent upon England with a large army. But by the counsel 
 of their chief men a peace was arranged between them on this 
 wise : that Henry should pay yearly to Robert a sum of one 
 thousand pounds sterling (this pound is worth three nobles), The 
 and that the longer liver of the two should succeed to the coinage of 
 other. Robert thereupon returned to Normandy whence he had England - 
 come ; and after a short while came to his brother with a small 
 following, and remitted to him the payment of this slender 
 pension. Henry at length went to Normandy ; but Robert 
 had come to be hated by the Normans, and he therefore made 
 Normandy over to his brother Henry, who carried Robert his 
 brother with him to London. After no long time his daughter 
 Matilda, for she rejoiced in her mother's name — the sister of 
 David king of the Scots had borne her to him — came to mar- 
 riageable years. This daughter English Henry gave in marriage 
 to the emperor Henry 3 . Soon after this William and Richard 4 , 
 sons to the king, were drowned, on the Blessed Katherine's 
 day, as they were passing from Normandy into England. On 
 the death of the emperor Henry 3 the empress Matilda returns 
 to England. To her the nobles of England do homage : first 
 of them all, the archbishop of Canterbury, and in the second 
 place, as Caxton will have it 5 , David king of the Scots — and 
 
 1 Orig. misprints ' XIII.' for ' XII.', and misnumbers the rest of the chapters 
 to the end of the book. F. copies the mistake. 
 
 2 i.e. Curthose. 
 
 3 i.e. the Fifth. He died in 1125. 
 
 4 This is Richard of Chester, an illegitimate son of Henry the First. — See 
 the Rev. J. F. Dimock's preface to the seventh volume of the works of 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, in the Rolls Series, p. 27. The wreck of the White Ship 
 happened in 1 120. 
 
 5 Caxton : Chronicles, U.S. fol. lxxviii. 
 
144 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book hi. 
 
 Scotland tribu- after them the rest of the nobles. If he understands this 
 
 tary to none. ] loma g e as done for the kingdom of Scotland, I deny the state- 
 ment, as one that cannot be proved. Amongst the Scots is 
 but one unbroken opinion : namely, that in matters temporal 
 their kingdom has never been subject to any. For the territory 
 that it had in England, I frankly admit that it paid homage 
 to Matilda, and I make the admission the more readily, in that 
 Matilda was daughter of a sister-merman of David. Am oner 
 the Scottish chroniclers I nowhere find it stated that David 
 ever journeyed to London for the performance of this service. 
 He did indeed visit the central parts of England, as the 
 English chroniclers themselves confess, and that with a large 
 armed force, that he might bring succour to his niece Matilda, 
 and in all good peace returned from mid England into Scot- 
 land. This Matilda was afterwards had to wife by Geoffrey, 
 earl of Anjou, to whom she bore a son, Henry, commonly 
 called Henry son of the emperor. A short time thereafter 
 
 Death of Henry the king of the English passed from life to death in Normandy 1 . 
 
 of England. Hig heart wag Juried in the chief church of Our Lady at 
 Rouen, and his body in the monastery of Reading, which him- 
 self had built. He reigned for thirty years and four months. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. — Of Stephen, king of the English, his reign and death. 
 
 Stephen the 
 Englishman. 
 
 The unjust 
 action of the 
 bishops. 
 
 After the death of Henry, Stephen count of Boulogne 2 was 
 crowned king of the English. For he was sister's son to this 
 Henry lately deceased. And William, bishop of Canterbury 3 , 
 who had been the first to swear fealty to Matilda, anointed 
 Stephen king, and Roger 4 , bishop of Salisbury, was likewise of 
 that party. Now I condemn those priests as altogether fickle and 
 unjust, seeing that they preferred to the king's own daughter, 
 to whom too they had sworn fealty, his nephew by a sister, 
 
 1 Henry the First died December I, 
 
 2 Bolonia : — generally 1 Bononia '. 
 
 135- 
 
 3 William of Corbeil, archbishop. 
 
 4 This was that bishop Roger who won the favour of Henry the First 
 because he said mass in a shorter time than any other priest. — Professor S. 
 R. Gardiner's A Student's Histojy of England, vol. i. p. 126. 
 
chap, xiil] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 145 
 
 This they would not have attempted without the hope of some 
 particular advantage to themselves, wherefore they must stand 
 charged as worthless violators of their oath. For it behoved 
 them to take due counsel with the lay nobility as to the true 
 and incontestable heir, and not by ways indirect, for his advan- 
 tage or their own, to make an unlawful king. 
 
 In the first year of his reign Stephen visited the northern 
 parts of England, that he might exact homage from David, king 
 of the Scots, for the lands which the latter held in England 
 (for this Stephen was sisters son to David) — a demand that 
 David, like a righteous man, refused : not only because he had 
 already paid homage to Matilda, but also in that he knew the 
 right to the crown to belong in no way to Stephen. 
 
 In the fourth year of king Stephen, Matilda returned to Arrival of 
 England, and went to a city called Nicol or Nicolai \ which e^^ 1 " 
 Stephen forthwith besieged ; but the empress made her escape 
 therefrom without scathe to herself or her following ; and after 
 their departure Stephen takes the town. Ralph- earl of 
 Chester meanwhile, and Robert earl of Gloucester, lord Hugh 
 Bygot, and lord Robert Morlay raised a large army against 
 Stephen, and led him captive to the castle of Bristol. There- 
 after they placed the empress Matilda on the throne ; but the 
 people of Kent and William Preth 2 , with his followers, 
 favoured the side of Stephen, who was now imprisoned ; and 
 with them, according to Caxton, was the king of the Scots. 
 Thus they brought it so far that they weakened the following 
 of the queen, and took captive the chief men upon her side, 
 to gain whose ransom Stephen was allowed to go free. From 
 Winchester the queen went secretly to Oxford, and there she 
 tarried some time ; but when she learned that the earl of 
 Gloucester had been taken prisoner while he was defending her 
 interest, she left Oxford all unobserved, by water, and went 
 to Wallingford, and there abode. What Caxton says, and says 
 at much length, about David, king of the Scots 3 , is mere 
 
 1 1 The cite of Nicholl ' (Caxton, u.s. fol. lxxix.), i.e. Lincoln. See ante, p. 109. 
 
 2 'Preth'. Caxton, u.s. fol. lxxix., writes of 'William of Pree and his 
 retynue '. 
 
 3 Caxton says {u.s. fol. lxxix.) that Stephen ' assembled a grete hoost and went 
 towarde Scotland for to haue warred vpon the kyng of Scotland. But he came 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iit. 
 
 raving ; for he favoured the side of the empress, his niece, and 
 took part in the battle in which Stephen was made prisoner. 
 About this time, according to Caxton, the French king 
 repudiated his wife the heiress of Gascony, and Henry earl of 
 Anjou and duke of Normandy took her to wife. And after- 
 ward, in the eighteenth year of king Stephen, Henry invaded 
 England with a large army ; but, without coming to the resort 
 of war, they made this agreement : that the one should hold 
 the one half, and the other the other half, of the kingdom. 
 But in the following year Stephen pined away with melancholy. 
 For melancholy shortens life, and the greater the melancholy, 
 the more rapid is the shortening ; wherefore there can be so 
 vast a melancholy that in short space it shall consume the life 
 of a man, according to that saying of the wise man : A sorrow- 
 J id .spirit drieth up the bones 1 ; wherefore 'tis a prudent man's 
 part to mitigate the force of sorrow. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. — Of Henry earl of Anjou ' 1 and king of England. 
 
 After the death of Stephen from melancholy, — since to have 
 been happy once, and no longer to be happy, is a great mis- 
 fortune 3 , — Henry succeeded him in the whole of his possessions ; 
 and he was a very powerful king, seeing that, besides all England, 
 he bore sway over Aquitaine, Anjou 4 , and Normandy. He it 
 was who, in his youth, was knighted, at Carlisle, by David the 
 Scot. When he had once got the mastery in England, he 
 created Thomas Becket bishop 5 of London, archbishop 6 of 
 Canterbury, and chancellor of England. In the fourth year of 
 his reign, Henry took possession of Wales. There in some 
 
 agaynst him in peas and in good maner, and to hym trusted, but he made to 
 hym none homage, for as moche as he had made vnto ye empresse Maud.' 
 1 Prov. xvii. 22. 2 Andium. 
 
 3 Cf. nessun maggior dolore, 
 
 Che ricordarsi del tempo felice, 
 
 Nella miseria, e cio sa'l tuo dottore. — Dante, Inf. canto v. 121. 
 It was probably from Boethius, De consol. philos. lib. i. pr. 4, and not from 
 Dante that Major borrowed this utterance. Cf. Cary's note on the passage in 
 the Inferno. 
 
 4 Andegavia. 5 praesul. 6 archiflamen. 
 
CHAP. XIV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 147 
 
 measure the Britons still dwelt, and preserved the independence 
 of their princes ; but the Scots, as Caxton asserts, held Carlisle 
 city in Cumberland, Bamburgh, New Castle upon Tyne, along 
 with the county of Lancaster, all in England. 
 
 About this time Thomas of Canterbury was banished from ^" isl ^ iei J t of 
 England, because the king desired to subject churchmen to the Canterbury, 
 judgment of the secular courts, and that man of God, Thomas 
 of Canterbury, resisted any such sentence, and therefore was 
 driven into exile. The question whether the clergy are, under 
 the divine law, exempt from lay jurisdiction is pretty frequently 
 discussed among men of learning. And, though neither side ^r^areby 
 be without support from men of that sort, I hold the affirmative divine la - w 
 
 , i rr,, . exempt from 
 
 answer to be more agreeable to reason. This appears from that lay jurisdiction. 
 
 of Boniface the Eighth in the chapter Quenquam concerning 
 
 assessments 1 , in the section Cum igitur 2 , where he says, ' Since, 
 
 therefore, churches and churchmen, and their possessions, are 
 
 by human law and, yet further, by divine law exempt from the 
 
 exactions of secular persons \ and the rest. It is not fitting 
 
 that the church of the true God and His ministers should be 
 
 in a worse condition than the ministers of a false God ; and 
 
 under Pharaoh priests had an immunity from taxes imposed by 
 
 the king. For, as we read in the forty-seventh chapter of 
 
 Genesis 3 , Joseph brought under subjection to Pharaoh the 
 
 whole land of Egypt, and all its peoples, from one end of the 
 
 borders of Egypt to the other, — all but the land of the priests. 
 
 And from that time to this day, in all the land of Egypt, a 
 
 fifth part is paid to the kings ; and this takes place as a legal 
 
 enactment except from the priests 1 land, which was free from 
 
 this obligation. And in the first book of Esdras, at the 
 
 seventh chapter, king Artaxerxes wrote to his ministers, ' We 
 
 command you also, that ye require no tax, nor tribute, nor 
 
 yearly imposition of any of the priests or Levites, or 
 
 singers, or porters, or ministers of the temple 14 . The same 
 
 is clear from the ninety -sixth distinction chapter Duo sunt, 
 
 chapter Cum ad verum, and chapter Imperator, with the Glosses 
 
 de censibus. 
 
 Corptis Jtiris Canonici, ed. Richter, Lips. 1879 : c. un. C. XXXV. qu. 1. 
 verses 20-22. 4 1 Esd. vii. 24. 
 
148 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 [book III. 
 
 thereto 1 . Nor is that objection, urged by others, of weight : 
 namely, that Paul made his appeal to Caesar, a layman, where 
 he says, in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Acts, 4 I stand at 
 Caesar's judgment-seat, where I ought to be judged " 2 ; and for 
 this reason : in a case where the ecclesia>tical power is wanting, 
 it is permitted to appeal to a lav court, as appears in the 
 twenty-third, q.v. chapter Pnnclpcs seculi 3 , where Isidore says, 
 4 Secular princes sometimes hold within the church the supreme 
 power, in order that by the exercise of that power they may be 
 a support to ecclesiastical discipline 1 . But these powers would 
 not be necessary within the church, unless only for this cause : 
 that the thing which priests are unable to compass by the 
 spoken word of teaching this power may effect from fear of 
 discipline. For often does the kingdom of heaven profit from 
 an earthly kingdom on this wise : that when those whose place 
 is within the church act contrary to her faith and discipline, 
 they may be brought to naught by the rigour of an earthly 
 ruler ; and that so the power of the prince may place upon the 
 proud neck the very yoke which the church with all its claims 
 cannot impose, and so communicate the virtue of its power as 
 to be worthy of the reverence to which it makes its claim. 
 
 Let princes know, then, that they will have to render an 
 account to God for the church whose guardians they are 
 by Christ's appointment. For whether the peace and good 
 government of the church be increased in the hands of faith- 
 ful princes, or whether these suffer detriment, He who ha- 
 delivered to them the power over His church will exact a 
 reckoning for the same. The Gloss is here as follows ; Laymen 
 have within the church jurisdiction of many kinds, and that 
 even when in their persons they are incorrigible, as in the 
 thirtv-sixth distinction Eos qui*. Just so, when they aim at 
 subverting the faith, as in the eighth distinction Quo jure 5 . 
 Just so, when a cleric has committed forgery : concerning the 
 charge of forgery, Ad Jcdsariorum. 
 
 i Corp. Jur. Can. u.s. coll. 339, 340, 341. c. 7. C. XII. qu. 1. : c. 6. D. 
 XCVI. ; c. II. D. XCVL (Si inperator). 
 
 - verse 10. 3 Corp. Jur. Can. c. 20. C. XXIII. qu. 5. col. 936. 
 
 4 lb. c. 1. C. XXXVI. qu. 2. col. 1290. 
 3 lb. c. 1. D. VIII. col. 12. 
 
chap, xiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 149 
 
 Now there was no ecclesiastical authority which could have 
 passed sentence upon Paul, both inasmuch as the Mosaic law was 
 no longer in force, and as they would have wrongly condemned 
 an innocent man ; wherefore he appealed to Caesar. And 
 though some instances might be brought to prove that a cleric 
 may not be judged by a layman, yet it does not follow that 
 this has the sanction of divine law. This is plain from a case 
 in point : To keep one's vow is enjoined by the divine law, but 
 in certain cases the obligation does not exist, and so in the 
 case under discussion. And because at the present day this 
 question is being discussed in England 1 , I give my opinion in 
 these few words. Let them consider the cause for which the 
 Blessed Thomas lost his life, and in such a matter, or matters of 
 the same sort, let not laymen interfere as against ecclesiastics. 
 Let them likewise consider those customs observed from of 
 old among ecclesiastics, and in respect of these let them make 
 no innovation. I have not heard this matter discussed but in 
 the abstract ; of its special applications I have no knowledge ; 
 I do not therefore insist further. 
 
 While the Blessed Thomas was in his seven years' exile from 
 England, and all his friends and familiars had on his account 
 been sent into banishment, the French king brought about 
 a reconciliation between the English king and Thomas, but 
 because the story of this man has been told again and again, 
 and his life is known to many, I shall spend but few words in 
 the relation. 
 
 1 This refers to the struggle in 15 15 between the secular and ecclesiastical 
 jurisdictions in Standish's case, ' in the course of which Henry the Eighth is said 
 to have expressed himself as determined to endure no division of sovereignty in 
 his realm '. Henry Standish, the Provincial minister of the Franciscans (made 
 bishop of St. Asaph in 15 19), had taken, in 1 515, the opposite side to the abbot of 
 YYmchelcombe in the controversy occasioned by the abbot's sermon against an 
 Act of Parliament, by which the secular courts had been enabled to pass judg- 
 ment upon all persons in orders, except those in the three holy orders of bishop, 
 priest, and deacon, without the intervention of any ecclesiastical court. See 
 Bishop Stubbs's second lecture on the history of the Canon Law in England in his 
 Seventeen Lectures on the Study of Medieval and Modern History, Oxf. 1886, p. 
 318. Cf. also the Rev. J. H. Blunt's The Reformation of the Church of England, 
 1882, pp. 395-399, and, for Standish's attitude in the matter of the Divorce, 
 Sander's Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism (Lewis's trans. 1877), p. 65. 
 
150 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book hi. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 qf the Icing. 
 
 -Of the martyrdom of the Blessed Thomas, and the sin 
 
 The parricides 
 of Thomas. 
 
 After his return from a seven years' banishment, Thomas 
 went first of all to Canterbury ; and on the fifth day after the 
 celebration of the festival of the birth of Christ — which same 
 day the Church now holds dedicated to his memory — he met 
 The martyrdom his death. His murder was compassed in this manner. While 
 Th^maso? 6 * 1 king Henry was sitting at breakfast on the festival of the birth 
 Canterbury. of Christ, the remembrance of Thomas came into his mind, and 
 he at once burst out with these words : ' Had but the king- 
 some men of spirit ready to do his bidding, not long would 
 they leave without result his anger against Thomas.'' Soon 
 thereafter, answering thus the outburst of the king, certain 
 men of Belial planned how they might get rid of Thomas. 
 These are their names : William Breton, Hugh Morvil, William 
 Tracy, and Reginald Bersson, — that is, in Latin, 4 filius ursi\, — 
 knights all. They make for the church of Canterbury, and 
 there, close by the altar of Saint Benedict, they murder the 
 man of God, who in the year of the redemption of the world 
 eleven hundred and seventy-two perished by the swords of 
 The king s sin. wicked men. Mightily did this king offend against God. 
 
 First of all, in that he wished to subject churchmen to the 
 judgment of secular persons ; secondly, inasmuch as he banished 
 Thomas when the latter was righteously defending a righteous 
 cause, against which the king was unable to make a just 
 defence ; and, yet further, inflicted upon the kin of Thomas a 
 shameful punishment, and on others, who had joined themselves 
 to him in his need, inflicted a like punishment ; and, what is 
 worse, he was the means of slaying in the house of God a holy 
 priest ; for the king's speech it was which gave the occasion of 
 so fearful a murder. But he who is the occasion of any hurt is 
 reckoned to have done the hurt. Behold, then, how that king 
 was in travail with crime, conceived in grief, and brought forth 
 iniquity. Still greater was the wrong done by the king to the 
 actual murderers ; for he was the guilty cause of a murder, 
 according to that word of Christ to Pilate : * Wherefore he 
 
( hap. xv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 151 
 
 who delivered me to thee hath the greater sin 11 . Where 
 is law ? where j ustice ? where the Christian religion ? where 
 the laws of God ? — to murder a holy bishop of God in God's 
 holv temple ! But it was after a splendid feast, and when he 
 was inflamed with wine, that the king conceived this grievous 
 thing, and brought forth iniquity following upon the injustice 
 with which his soul had been in travail. For, grant one un- 
 toward accident, and many evils follow ; this you shall find in 
 the first book of the Physics. 
 
 And thanks to this it is that something may be said British customs 
 here by the way about those British customs that up to ^ { h g birthof 
 this present are observed — all unworthy of observance as Chnst - 
 they are — at the feast of the Nativity. On these holy days 
 it is the wont of the Britons to indulge in much super- 
 fluous revelling, in banquets rich with every dainty, and all 
 sorts of drink. They begin their Christmas banquet on the 
 festival of the birth of Christ, and bring the same to an end 
 after mid-day on the festival of John ; the days that follow 
 this sumptuous banqueting they spend in devilish dances and 
 lewd songs; — so far do they carry it, that the kings send for the 
 the nobles of the kingdom and their waves. These men show 
 themselves most unwise in thus taking their wives with them 
 to these orgies of the court, for it would better become the 
 chaste matron to stay at home. And if some among the chief 
 men or the barons do not attend the king, they provide like 
 feasting in their measure for their own people. With these 
 the festival is kept in a tavern, not in a church, in such intem- 
 perance of eating and drinking as is the enemy of chastity, in 
 dances and lewd songs that are equally her foe. Outside 
 Britain, in France for instance, in Flanders, and other parts 
 beyond the sea, these festivals are more fitly celebrated ; for 
 there a moderate meal is taken at mid-day, soon thereafter the 
 people go to church to hear the gospel of God 2 ; and such like- 
 wise is the custom observed at Easter, at Pentecost, and the 
 rest of the solemn festivals. If this Henry, of whom we are 
 now speaking, had eaten in moderation, and thereafter had 
 
 1 St. John xix. n. 
 
 2 ut verbum Dei evangelizans audiatur. 
 
152 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book lit. 
 
 heard the word of God in church, he would not have 
 brought forth a murder odious in the sight of God. But 
 so much is on this point enough K With the martyrdom of 
 the Blessed Thomas of Canterbury we will make an end of 
 this Third Book. 
 
 1 As curiously illustrating the different attitudes of Erasmus and Major to 
 Becket, compare Erasmus's dialogue narrating the visit of Colet and himself in 
 the year 15 14, that is only four years before the date of Major's History, to 
 the shrine of Canterbury : — ' Colet asks the guide whether St. Thomas-a-Becket, 
 when he lived, was not very kind to the poor? The verger assents. "'Nor can 
 he have changed his mind on this point, I should think," continues Colet, 
 "unless it be for the better." The verger nods a sign of approbation. Where- 
 upon Colet submits the query whether the saint, having been so liberal to the 
 poor when a poor man himself, would not now rather permit them to help 
 themselves to some of his vast riches, in relief of their many necessities, than let 
 them so often be tempted into sin by their need. And the guide still listening 
 in silence, Colet in his earnest way proceeds boldly to assert his own firm con- 
 viction, that this most holy man would be even delighted that, now that he is 
 dead, these riches of his should go to lighten the poor man's load of poverty, 
 rather than be hoarded up here. At which sacrilegious remark of Colet's, the 
 verger, contracting his brow and pouting his lips, looks upon his visitors with a 
 wondering stare (Hit of his gorgon eyes, and doubtless would have made short 
 work with them, were it not that they have come with letters of introduction 
 from the archbishop. Erasmus throws in a few pacifying words and pieces of 
 coin, and the two friends pass on to inspect, under the escort now of the prior 
 himself, the rest of the riches and relics of the place. All again proceeds smoothly, 
 till a chest is opened containing the rags on which the saint, when in the flesh, 
 was accustomed to wipe his nose and the sweat from his brow. The prior, 
 knowing the position and dignity of Colet, and wishing to do him becoming 
 honour, graciously offers him, as a present of untold value, one of these rags. 
 Colet . . . takes up the rag between the tips of his fingers with a somewhat fasti- 
 dious air, and . . . then lays it down again in evident disgust. The prior, not 
 choosing to take notice of Colet's profanity, abruptly shuts up the chest, and 
 politely invites them to partake of some refreshment.' The dialogue — ' Pere- 
 grinatio Religionis ergo ' — is quoted at some length in Mr. Seebohm's Oxford 
 Reformers (pp. 287-293), from which work the extract given above is taken. 
 
BOOK IV. 
 
 CHAP. I. — Of the mar between the foresaid Henri/, king of the 
 English, and his son, and the peaee that was made between them ; of 
 the defection of the Irish to the English ; and oft he penitence of Henri/, 
 and the extent of his dominions at the time of his death. 
 
 Against Henry the father Henry the son rose in rebellion, War . tween 
 and not undeservedly, just as David's sons rebelled against father and son ' 
 David on account of the murder of Uriah. But at length a 
 peace was made between father and son. Henry the son bore 
 sway in the time of his father, but as he did not survive his 
 father he is not reckoned among the kings. The elder Henry 
 got possession of a great part of Ireland, as our own chroniclers Ireland is lost 
 relate; but the manner of our loss of Ireland they do not English. ^ 
 report 1 ; whether we lost it through some negligence of our 
 kings, or because we made demands 2 of the people beyond the 
 rightful tribute, they thought it better to leave Ireland than to 
 keep it. I take it that the English king makes little or nothing 
 out of his possession of Ireland. When king Henry died his 
 sovereign power extended far and wide. He was in peaceful Countries that 
 possession of Aquitaine, Anjou, Normandy, and Ireland ; all Hemy^sv!^ 
 these he had by hereditary right, except Wales and Ireland, in his old a - e - 
 which he obtained by conquest. For the murder of the Blessed 
 Thomas, as the chroniclers relate, a deep repentance overtook 
 him. He died in the thirtv-sixth year of his reign. 
 
 1 .See ante, p. 113, note K 
 
 1 Orig. and F. 1 exposuimus ' ; ? expoposcimus. 
 
154 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [kook IV. 
 
 y 
 
 CHAP. II. — Of Richard, the emperors son 1 , king of the English, 
 who went as a warrior to the Holy Land, bid on his return iras, by the 
 duke of Austria, wickedly taken prisoner, and by his own people nobly 
 ransomed; here too is treated of the reason of an abundance and of a 
 scarcity of children ; something likewise about robbers. 
 
 Inasmuch as Henry the elder brother survived but a short 
 King Richard, time, Richard succeeded to Henry the son of the empress. 
 
 This Richard went to Palestine and the Holy Land, and 
 recovered many of the possessions that had been taken from 
 the Christians, and still more might have been recovered had 
 he and the French king been of one mind. But meanwhile lie 
 learned that his brother John, earl of Oxford, had formed 
 designs against England, and thither he returned. On his 
 He is taken j ourne y? however, he was taken prisoner by the duke of Austria, 
 prisoner ; anc [ delivered to the emperor, in whose power he remained a 
 fast prisoner, until he might be able to pay to the emperor a 
 ransom of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. To supply 
 is ransomed. such a ransom there was sold every second gold or silver vessel 
 among those which were used for the service of God, while 
 many among the monks, and most of all those of the Cistercian 
 order, sold their books. One thing here I approve ; but the 
 rest I condemn. Wrongful and contrary to the law of nations 
 was the action of the duke of Austria and the emperor in thus 
 taking prisoner a man who had done good service to the Chris- 
 tian commonwealth. Small share had they, I reckon, of the 
 faith or of the Christian religion. It behoves Christian princes 
 to join with one mind in driving beyond their bounds that 
 Mahometan tribe ; but, alas ! they take more care to quarrel 
 among themselves and to increase each one his own territory 
 than to labour for the greater glory of God. Wherefore, if I 
 may use sucli language, it would seem that God, in weariness 
 and disgust of them, permitted them to harass and fight with one 
 
 1 It was Richard's father, Henry the Second, who was Henry ' Fitzempress 
 his mother Matilda having married the emperor Henry the Fifth. So singular a 
 mistake as that of the text, followed, as it is, by a correct statement in the first 
 sentence of the chapter, makes one suppose that the headings of the chapters 
 may be not Major's work but his printer's. 
 
chap, ii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 155 
 
 another. Among the common people there is more of religion, 
 more soundness in the faith. The other action I approve : 
 this, to wit, that the English showed their affection for their 
 king; and they acted rightly in selling every second vessel. For 
 the patrimony of the Crucified One is with justice to be spent 
 on pious uses, when the needs of the clergy and holy places 
 have first been met; and among works of piety this of ransom- 
 ing the captive, and most of all when he is a good king, The magnifi- 
 
 . cent clemency 
 
 occupies by no means the lowest place, but rather the highest of the English 
 place of all,— and to all this add the circumstance that he was ^ f ^ ir r ^ n 
 one who had the strongest claims upon the whole Christian 
 commonwealth. But the king lived thereafter for a short time 
 onlv. For he was a high-spirited man; vet in this wise, and 
 with some deep design, he was without cause cast into prison 
 by his own Christian brethren, who ought to have succoured him 
 in his extremity — whence it came to pass that sorrow shortened 
 his days l . He reigned exactly nine years, and he left no issue. 
 
 But here perchance you will ask why the common people have The reason of 
 many children, and why with the nobles this is not so. It is not of fewness 
 difficult to assign a natural cause for the fact. The nobles are of chlldren - 
 given to rich foods and an over-indulgence in the same, and are 
 addicted too much to pleasure ; their wives grow sluggish in the 
 ease and quiet of their lives, and, like their husbands, are intem- 
 perate in diet. Now such things are unfavourable to fruitful- 
 ness. The diet of the common people, on the other hand, is 
 coarse in kind, and has in it much superfluous strength ; in 
 sexual pleasure they are sparing ; their days are spent in con- 
 tinuous bodily exercise, and this conduces more than aught else 
 to a prolific and fruitful seed. After a moderate supper, or 
 with none at all, generation is more probable than after a 
 sumptuous feast ; nor can a drunken man have knowledge of 
 a woman, since from the oppression of the natural forces 
 he cannot emit a fruitful seed. Sometimes, too, God gives 
 children ; this you can gather from the psalmist in the psalm. 
 i Blessed are all they that fear the Lord', where it is written, 
 * For thou shalt eat the labours of thine hands : O well is thee. 
 
 1 Richard Coeur-de-Lion died of the wound he received at the siege of Chalus 
 in 1 199. 
 
156 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 and happy shalt thou be n . Those men, for the most part, who 
 have to struggle for their daily bread by working with their own 
 hands observe more fullv than others the commands of God and 
 of those that are set in authority over them ; wherefore it is 
 here added, £ Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine upon the 
 walls of thine house ; thv children like the olive-branches round 
 about thy table. Lo, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth 
 the Lord' 2 . And, applying this argument a contrario, he who does 
 not fear the Lord shall not be thus blessed. I do not deny that 
 the possession of children may in some cases be an evil ; where, 
 for instance, the parents are hard and unjust, and where, like 
 Niobe in the fabling of the poets, they show to their children 
 To be childless an inordinate affection. Wherefore to be childless, even in the 
 some cafes° " state of marriage, is no effectual sign of the divine displeasure, 
 since this condition may be common to good and bad alike. 
 And this is plain in the case of this very Richard, whom we 
 reckon worthy among kings, and prefer before his father 3 ; but, 
 all intent as he was on the tilings of war, he had little inclina- 
 tion for a husband's duty. I do not forget that some women 
 are barren and unfruitful, others fruitful and prolific; but this 
 condition may co-exist alike where the husband is impotent 
 and in the reverse case, and the consideration is therefore no 
 way pertinent. 
 
 The English About this time it was, as I conceive, that there flourished 
 Hood r and° bert those most famous robbers Robert Hood, an Englishman, and 
 Little John. Little John, who lay in wait in the woods, but spoiled of their 
 goods those only that were wealthy. They took the life of no 
 man, unless either he attacked them or offered resistance in 
 defence of his property. Robert supported by his plundering 
 one hundred bowmen, ready fighters every one, with whom four 
 hundred of the strongest would not dare to engage in combat. 
 The feats of this Robert are told in song all over Britain. He 
 would allow no woman to suffer injustice, nor would he spoil 
 
 1 Ps. cxxviii. i, 2. 2 lb. 3, 4. 
 
 3 Richard's crusade and his Norman wars did not leave him much leisure for 
 work at home ; but modern research has shown him to have been something 
 more than a great soldier, and the late Mr. J. R. Green {Stray Studies, p. 216) 
 calls attention to his lavish recognition of municipal life. In the first seven 
 years of his reign he granted charters to Winchester, Northampton, Norwich, 
 Ipswich, Doncaster, Carlisle, Lincoln, Scarborough, and York. 
 
chap, in.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 157 
 
 the poor, but rather enriched them from the plunder taken 
 from abbots. The robberies of this man I condemn, but of 
 all robbers he was the humanest and the chief 1 . 
 
 CHAP. III. — Of Jo/in, that far from worthy king of the English; 
 of the interdict which was laid upon England, and of the assignment 
 of the tribute to the Roman pontiff; the poisoning of the ling, and its 
 censure. 
 
 ( )x the death of Richard, that most Christian hero, his brother English John, 
 John — a fickle man he was and greedy of empire — succeeded 
 him. He waged a war with France, in which he lost utterly the 
 duchy of Normandy and the earldom of Anjou. Returning to 
 England, he begged a tithe of the clergy, to the end he might 
 recover the territories in France that had been lost. About 
 that time the convent of Canterbury elected as archbishop 
 of Canterbury Stephen Langton, a very learned man. At 
 this the king took offence, and sent into exile the prior of 
 Canterbury, with the convent, forbidding at the same time 
 that any pontifical precept should be received in regard to 
 Stephen Langton. Meanwhile the Roman pontiff besought 
 the king to restore to their places the prior and convent, and 
 when the king obstinately refused to obey, the pontiff laid all 
 England under an interdict, and long-lasting quarrels ensued England laid 
 between the pope, on behalf of the clergy, and the king. At imerdict! 
 length Innocent the Third, who was at that time pope, sent to 
 the French king, and besought him to invade the kingdom of 
 England, and take it for himself, on account of the obstinacy 
 shown by the king of England. When English John came to 
 hear of this — whether it was that he feared to lose his kingdom, 
 or that he was moved by true contrition — he resigned the 
 kingdom of England and of Ireland into the hands of the Roman 
 pontiff, in the hope that he might thereby soften his heart, and 
 promised for himself and his successors that they should hence- 
 
 1 Camden {Britannia, p. 642, ed. 1600) quotes Major as his authority for the 
 story of Robin Hood. For another early Scottish reference to the story, see 
 Mr. /E. J. G. Mackay's William Diinbar, Introd. pp. ccliv. -cclvi. Major calls 
 Robin Hood ' Robertus Hudus '. 
 
158 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 England made 
 subject to the 
 Roman pontiff. 
 
 Whether a 
 king have the 
 power to 
 alienate the 
 rights of his 
 kingdom. 
 
 forward hold England and Ireland of the Roman pontiff ; to 
 which the cardinal, who was present on behalf of the pontiff, 
 as the custom is, readily assented. And at that time Peter's 
 pence, that is, the pence given to Saint Peter, were first im- 
 posed ; for English John obliged himself and his successors to 
 pay yearly a thousand silver marks, that is, two thousand 
 nobles, or six thousand francs, to the Roman court. 
 
 But here a difficulty occurs by the way : Whether, namely, 
 any king have the power to bestow on any one the rights of 
 his kingdom, or its fixed revenues ? The answer may be made 
 by propositions ; of which — 
 
 The First is this : If the English or the French king were 
 to part with his rights in respect of his kingdom to the Turk, 
 or any other not rightful heir of the same, to that other these 
 rights are worthless. The proof : The king holds his right 
 as king of a free people, nor can he grant that right to any 
 one against the will of that people l . 
 
 Second proposition ; That king acts wickedly who, without 
 ripe counsel held with the nobles of his kingdom, bestows 
 upon any other the revenues to be granted by the people. 
 The proof : Such king, without the explicit or interpretative 
 consent of the people, lays a burden on that people. But 
 such a tax as this the people is not held bound to pay. 
 
 Third proposition : Since the dispute was between the king 
 and the English church as to the properties that had been 
 taken from the latter, and most of all from the Cistercian 
 religious, it behoved the king to make a particular restitution 
 to the church. This is clear : For he spoiled them of property 
 which he did not restore. 
 
 Fourth proposition : That manner of restitution does not 
 suffice which gives one quota to the Roman church in place of 
 the many of which another particular church has been de- 
 
 1 Cf. the still stronger expressions in the ioth question of the 1 5th distinction 
 of Major's In Quartum, fol. lxxvi. ed. 1521 : ' Whence it is plain that kings are 
 instituted for the good of the people, as the chief member of the whole body, 
 and not conversely. ... In the second place it follows that the whole people 
 is above the king [quod totus populus est supra regem] and in some cases can 
 depose him . . . The king hath not that free power in his kingdom that I have 
 over my books. ' Cf. also ch. xviii. of this Book : ' Rex enim non habet ita 
 liberum dominium in suo regno, sicut tu in tunica tna.' 
 
chap, in.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 159 
 
 spoiled ; and if John sought in this way to find some shield 
 or shelter to secure him against full retribution, he acted 
 without due consideration. For, grant the opposite : Then 
 any tyrant may spoil a church of a hundred thousand pieces 
 of gold by taking absolution from the Roman pontiff, and yet 
 all the time possess wherewith to make restitution — to say 
 which is to talk nonser-se. 
 
 Fifth proposition : If John and the English people had 
 covenanted together as to this yearly tribute to the pontiff, it 
 was justly paid ; but nothing of it came from the royal purse — 
 the whole tribute was taken from the people. For the king- 
 collected more than he handed over to the pontiff. Three 
 hundred marks he gave in respect of Ireland, and seven 
 hundred in respect of England. I do not believe that he could 
 raise yearly, in that part of Ireland which alone he held, three 
 hundred pounds ; but in England alone he collected much 
 more than the total amount. But however this may be, since 
 the pontiffs are in possession the money has to be paid to 
 them ; and it is so paid 1 ; and for this purpose they keep a 
 collector in England ; and the kings of England, when they 
 come to the throne, receive investiture of the pontiffs by a 
 legate 2 . Some time after this, however, occurred a breach 
 between John and his nobles ; wherefore these send an embassy 
 to Philip, the French king, praying him to send over to them 
 his son Lewis, and saying that they would make him king of 
 the English. He was welcomed by the English. 
 
 A short time thereafter a certain monk of the monastery of 
 
 1 In the 4th question of the 24th distinction of the In Quarhim, fol. clviii. 
 Major writes thus : ' For if it be admitted that the supreme pontiff has dominion 
 in matters temporal causaliter, and can effect much towards the deposition of 
 kings by persuasion, by counsel, yea, by provoking some to use the sword against 
 others — when these are the destroyers of the faith and once for all avail nothing 
 to the Christian commonwealth — this is more lightly to be borne, and no way 
 contradicts what I have said. If even some kings, in concert with their peoples, 
 have surrendered to the Roman pontiffs, as is reported of the English — that 
 touches my contention not at all. For a collector of the Roman pontiff collects 
 money in England — from every house a penny, as I have understood. But then 
 it behoves us to consider whether it was the king by himself alone who made this 
 surrender, or the king and the people. I do not, however, believe that the 
 English would ever suffer the pontiff to depose their king and put another in his 
 place.' 2 Orator. 
 
JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [hook iv. 
 
 The king is Swynesheid [that is, 4 caput porci "] took the life of the king 
 poisoned. poison, in the following way. He gave the king to drink 
 
 of a cup of ale that had been poisoned, and the king ordered 
 the monk to drink of it the first. That is the wretched con- 
 dition of great men — that they think or fear that every one 
 wishes to deceive them. But, at the king's command, the 
 monk, without a sign of fear, drank half of the contents of 
 the cup, and the other half the king drank off, fearing no 
 harm ; and thus did both perish by the same poison l . The 
 monk had been moved to this deed for the relief of his countrv 2 . 
 The king had been heard to say again and again as he sat at 
 meat that the loaf which used to be sold for a penny should 
 soon come to cost twenty shillings. The monk, who felt that 
 such a thing would be very disastrous to the common weal, 
 thought it would be a meritorious act to take the life of the 
 king ; but before he would commit the deed he went to his 
 abbot, and by the abbot s counsel it was that he administered 
 the poisoned draught. He sought absolution, however, of the 
 abbot before the act. For the monk who showed in this 
 fashion his love for his countrv five monks every day make 
 special prayer, nor will they desist thus to pray till the day of 
 judgment. 
 
 In this part of my narration I follow Caxton the English 
 chronicler to the letter, merely translating the language used 
 of us Britons into Latin 3 . Here I seem to be brought face to 
 
 1 John died at Newark, October 19, 1216 — 1 of a fever inflamed by a glutton- 
 ous debauch' (Green, ed. 1875, p. 126) ; 'worn out in mind and body' (Gar- 
 diner, vol. i. p. 185) ; 1 fell ill at Swir.eshead abbey, in Lincolnshire, whether 
 of poison, as some say, or, as others think, of grief and rage at his loss' i.e. 
 'of his baggage and treasure' (York Powell and Mackay, p. 130); 'perhaps 
 poisoned ' (J. Franck Bright, vol. i. p. 140). 
 
 - Ad hanc provinciam subeundam. 
 
 3 The following is the story, told by Caxton (fol. lxxxvii.), upon which Major 
 bases his own narrative and his criticisms : — ' And so it befell that he [king John] 
 wolde haue gone to Nicholl, and as he went thyderwarde he came by y e abbey 
 of Swynestede, and there he abode two dayes. And as he sate at meet he asked 
 a monke of the hous how moche a lofe was worth jr* was set before hym vpon 
 the table. And the monke sayd that the lofe was worth but an halfpeny. O 
 said the kyng tho, here is grete chepe of brede. Now quod the kynge, and 
 I may lyue, suche a lofe shall be worth .xx. shyllynges or half a yere be gone. 
 And whan he had sayd these wordes, moche he thought and oft he syghed, 
 and toke and ete of the breed and sayd, by God y e wordes that I haue spoken 
 
chap, nr.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 161 
 
 face with a mass of follies. A great wickedness it was in this The monk's act 
 monk, at no bidding but his own, to kill a king ; for, grant IS censured - 
 it that the commonwealth may take some profit by the death 
 of kings, yet on no consideration can it be allowed to a private 
 person, and in signal measure to a monk, to kill them. Some- 
 thing vulpine too there was in the absolution granted by the 
 abbot before the deed. And besides, that celebration of masses 
 seems a piece of madness, as if this sinful monk had therein 
 acted the part of a good man. The probability is that the 
 abbot and the religious approved the action of the monk, and 
 by doing so took away from him the very chance of a true 
 repentance ; and if he died impenitent, he is damned. Thus 
 then was John, king of the English, after a reign of fourteen 
 years and five months l , slain by a wicked monk. I shall now 
 leave Lewis, the son of Philip, dwelling among the English, 
 that I may bring to an end the narrative of the things that 
 meanwhile had come to pass in Scotland. 
 
 it shall be soth. The monke that stode before y c kynge was for these wordes 
 full sory in his herte, and thought rather he wolde himselfe suffre deth, and 
 thought how he myght ordeyn therfore some maner remedy. And the monke 
 anone went to his abbot, and was shryuen of hym, and tolde the abbot all 
 that the kynge had sayd, and prayed his abbot for to assoyle him, for he wold 
 gyue the kynge suche a drynke that all Englonde sholde be glad therof and 
 ioy full. Than went the monke in to a gardeyn and founde a grete tode 
 therin, and toke her vp and put her in a cuppe, and prycked the tode through 
 with a broche many tymes tyl that the venym came out on euery syde in the 
 cuppe, and then toke the cuppe and fylled it with good ale, and brought it 
 before the kynge and knelynge sayd : Syr, quod he, wassayle, for neuer the 
 dayes of your lyf dranke ye of so good a cuppe. Begyn monke, quod the 
 kynge. And the monke dranke a grete draught, and after toke the kynge the 
 cuppe, and the kyng also dranke a grete draught and set downe the cup. The 
 monke anone ryght went in to the farmery and there dyed anone, on whose soule 
 God haue mercy Amen. And .v. monkes synge for his soule specyally, and 
 shall whyles the abbey standeth. The kyng arose up anone full euyl at ease, 
 and commaunded to remeve the table, and asked after the monke. And men 
 tolde hym that he was deed, and that his wombe was broken in sonder. Whan 
 the kynge herde this, he commaunded to truss, but it was all for nought, for his 
 bely began to swell of the drynke that he had dronken, and within two dayes he 
 dyed, on y e morowe after saynt Lukes daye.' 
 
 1 Major is mistaken in what he says of the length of King John's reign. John 
 reigned from 1 199 to 1216 ; and Caxton is on this point quite right. 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 CHAP. IV. — Of Malcolm, grandson of David, king of the Scots, 
 and all that lie did, and hoiv lie never entered the married state. 
 
 Malcolm. On the death of that David who had, with excellent wisdom, 
 
 held rule over the Scots, his grandson, Malcolm, in the four- 
 teenth year of his age, was crowned king. In the first year of 
 his reign, Sumerled, chieftain of Argyll, and his grandson 
 rose against the king ; but the agents of Henry were able to 
 English Henry. Bll*y the rebellion of those grandsons. English Henry mean- 
 while, the son of the empress, and cousin to Malcolm the Scot, 
 showed secretly a strong inclination to friendship with him and 
 his, and recovered at the hand of tins youth and his governors 
 Northumber- that territory of Northumberland which the kings of the Scots 
 la °d becomes } iac ] for a long time held 1 ; Cumberland and Huntingdon he 
 English king, left to the Scots. But thereby this young Malcolm roused 
 • against himself the displeasure of the Scottish nobles ; for they 
 said that he was too friendly with the English king, and that 
 he had no right thus to attenuate the land over which he was 
 set to rule, without the consent of its leading men. And thus 
 it came about that in a national council 2 at Perth the earl of 
 Stratherne and five other earls conspired to take possession of 
 the king's person, not with intent to harm him, but for the 
 better preservation of the kingdom during his youth. But the 
 king got news of this design and made his escape. 
 
 It was about this time that Galloway rose against the king ; 
 but in one year he so fully quelled this insurrection, that the 
 Galloway chieftain, one Angus, leaving his son as hostage with 
 Angus becomes the king, renounced the world, became a canon in the monastery 
 a monk. Q £ ^ Q pj Q j v R 00 d at Edinburgh, and in the rule of Augustine 
 
 ended his days in peace. But the king led a great army 
 against the men of Moray — they had long been disturbers of 
 the kingdom with their harrying and plundering. He 
 destroved them to a man, and put in their place others of a 
 peaceful temper. About that time Sumerled, chieftain of 
 
 1 Cf. Celtic Scotland, vol. i. p. 471, and Scotland wider her Early Kings, vol. i. 
 P. 353- 
 
 - 1 congregatione publica '. Cf. Mr. Innes's Lectures on Scotch Legal Anti- 
 quities, 1872, p. 99. 
 
chap, iv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 163 
 
 Argyll, got together from Ireland and the other islands a large 
 armv, to make war against the king, and a battle took place at 
 Renfrew, when the chieftain was slain by a few men on the 
 king's side. 
 
 The king: had meanwhile reached the years of manhood, 
 and the wise men about him counselled him to take to 
 himself a wife ; but to them he would not consent, saying 
 always that he had vowed himself to virginity ; and this vow 
 he observed to the end of his days. Now his observance of 
 this vow might well have entitled him to be reckoned among 
 the foolish virgins 1 had it been, for instance, a likely thing 
 that his unmarried state would bring on a civil war or other The Scot dies 
 
 . j • . j» i « . i, • 1 1 ■ i , unmarried, and 
 
 great disaster ior his country ; but seeing that he was not i s not t0 blame, 
 without adult brothers to succeed to him, he did right to 
 observe his vow, once he had made it, because no reason for 
 the breaking of the vow appeared. He ended his days at 
 Jedburgh after a reign of twelve years ; but his body was 
 carried to Dunfermline, the centre almost of the kingdom, and 
 there honourably buried. There from of old to the present 
 the kings of the Scots have their tombs. Behold how profit- 
 able a thing it is to be descended of chaste and pious ancestors ! 
 The great-grand sire of this man and the mother of his grand- The offspring 
 father were very pious persons, his grandfather was filled with persons^re like 
 devotion to God, and Henrv, his father, held before him the l ° ( ollow m 
 
 1 . . their steps. 
 
 pattern and likeness of his grandfather to follow after it. 
 
 CHAP. V. — Of William, king of the Scots, his captivity and his 
 ransom; of the lavish building of monasteries, and other matters that 
 came to pass in his time. 
 
 Malcolm the Maiden was succeeded by William, who M as William 
 
 crowned in the year of our Lord one thousand one hundred the C throne° 
 
 and sixty-five. He did homage to Henry of England for the 
 
 lands which he held in England ; and by the advice of the 
 
 English king, contrary to the wish of the Scots, he passed into 
 
 France ; but Northumberland was restored to him. In the Northumber- 
 land is re- 
 
 gained. 
 
 1 fatuorum virginum. 
 
164 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 year of our Lord eleven hundred and seventy-four there sprang 
 up a quarrel between Henry of England and William the 
 Scot ; for William had inflicted a great defeat upon the 
 northern English, and had thereafter returned in peace to his 
 own people. This action of his I condemn ; for when lie had 
 recovered his own property without recourse to arms, he ought 
 not to have entered upon a war. And yet, not satisfied even 
 now, a second time he entered England with a large army, and 
 gave all to plunder and pillage ; but while his army was 
 William is scattered for plunder, the king incautiously remained behind 
 with a small guard ; so that the English surrounded him, took 
 him captive without the shedding of a drop of blood, and 
 carried him to king Henry the elder. It was because the 
 English king had caused his son to be crowned — and, from the 
 hatred that he bore to Saint Thomas, by the bishop of York 1 — 
 the one of them was called the Elder, the other the Younger ; 
 and the elder Henry sent William to Normandy to be safe- 
 guarded in the castle of Falaise. But David of Huntingdon, 
 who had stayed behind in England, then passed into Scotland, 
 and governed the country in the absence of his brother William. 
 In the following year, however, the Scots sent an embassy to 
 Henrv of England to treat concerning a ransom for their king ; 
 and this end they gained by promising that the Scots would no 
 longer engage in war against him, and in security therefor they 
 make over to him the four strongest fortresses in the kingdom : 
 Berwick, to wit, Roxburgh, Maidens 1 Castle 2 , and Stirling; and 
 on these terms William returned to the Scots. 
 Revolt and ^ n the sam e y ear the rest of the Scots were attacked by one 
 
 Gilbert ° f Gilbert, son of Fergus of Galloway, who cut out the tongue 
 and both the eyes of his own brother, when this man refused 
 to take part in his wicked designs. Against this Gilbert 
 William marches with a large body of soldiers ; and when 
 Gilbert saw that he could make no stand, he betook him as a 
 suppliant to the king, imploring his forgiveness, and obtaining 
 it. Further, in the year eleven hundred and seventy-six, 
 
 1 Though the papal brief forbidding the coronation had been forced upon the 
 archbishop on the previous day, Henry the Third was crowned by archbishop 
 Roger, June 14, 1170. 
 
 2 Cf. p. 15, note 2 . 
 
( hap. v.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 165 
 
 William founded the monastery of Arbroath l , a community, I Building of 
 say, second in wealth to none in Scotland, and indeed I know Arbroath, 
 not if there be one more richly endowed in all Britain ; 
 and David of Huntingdon founded the monastery of Lin- Lindores. 
 dores. This is that David of whom mention is made in a Huntingdon, 
 book well known among the French, which is entitled 6 concern- 
 ing the sons of three kings 1 — to wit, of France, England, and 
 Scotland — and a similar book we have in our own vernacular 
 tongue 2 . Countess Ada, king William's mother, founded at 
 Haddington a convent, fair and well-endowed, for nuns of the 
 order of Saint Bernard 3 . There was something marvellous 
 in the eagerness of this family to build monasteries, yet 
 ever with the result of damage to the royal revenues. The lavish 
 The revenues of the kings of the Scots are derived chiefly of Ae^oyai 
 from their own property in land, and thus they have patrimony upon 
 
 «,.._, . , monasteries is 
 
 been from the beginning. It is not only becoming, but condemned. 
 
 even necessary, that a king should have sufficient private 
 
 means, for thus will he not be under the necessity of burdening 
 
 the common people with tolls and taxes. And inasmuch 
 
 as they on no account refrain from the imposition of taxes, 
 
 it is highly imprudent to diminish the royal revenues ; and 
 
 yet men of our own nation, and courtiers most of all, are 
 
 found to extol to the skies those kings who portion out the 
 
 royal revenues among their friends. Such men are led astray 
 
 by a blind and partial affection, to the neglect of the common 
 
 weal. Here I will dare to say that the three estates of the 
 
 1 Dedicated to Becket. The date of the foundation is 1178. See Registrum 
 de Aberbrothoc, p. xi. 
 
 2 Orig. ' et non differunt [F. ' differentem '] ab hoc in nostra lingua vernacula 
 librum habemus.' Brunet (ed. 1862, vol. iii. col. 1126, s.v. livre) quotes five 
 editions of this work in French, of which the first four were printed at Lyons — 
 in 1501, 1503, 1504, 1508— and the fifth at Paris, undated, but about 1530. 
 The National Library of Paris possesses six MSS. of the work ; and a MS. 
 catalogue of mss. in the same library attributes the work to Charles Aubert, who 
 wrote also a ' Histoire d'Olivier de Castille '. There seems to be no trace of 
 the edition ' in nostra lingua vernacula ' except in Major, and it is possibly one 
 of many books now lost that were printed by Walter Chepman in the early 
 years of the sixteenth century. 
 
 3 The Convent of Haddington was founded in 1170. 1 The lands commonly 
 called the Nunland, now called Huntington, belonged likewise to the nuns of 
 this place.'— Spotiswood's Account of the Religious Houses that ivere in Scotland 
 at the time of the Reformation (in Keith's Scottish Bishop, ed. 1824, p. 462). 
 
166 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 A law that 
 would be profit- 
 able to the 
 kingdom in the 
 future. 
 
 A rebel Wild 
 Scot is hanged. 
 
 Richard the 
 Englishman. 
 
 A rising in 
 Gallowav. 
 
 realm ought to be called on to give sanction to a law forbidding 
 the king to make a grant in perpetuity of the royal lands to 
 any one, and thus to alienate them from the royal treasury, 
 without the assent of the three estates ; and if they should 
 make lavish alienation of those lands, then might the next 
 king recover them with interest. To this law the king ought 
 to give his consent. By this means no one will be able to put 
 it down to avarice that he makes no grant of lands. Servants 
 — for wages paid, for offices conferred, for heiresses (where the 
 right of marriages remains in his hands) — he will have in 
 abundance. 
 
 About this time, a certain Wild Scot of Ross, named Mac- 
 william, otherwise called Donald Bane, rebelled against the 
 king, and stirred up a large part of the neighbouring country. 
 Against him the king and his brother brought an army ; but 
 while the king was making a halt at Inverness, some of his 
 nobles, who had gone on before him with a light-armed troop, 
 found the rebel with a small following in a moor which is 
 called Makardy 1 . They put him to death, with fifty of his 
 fellows, and brought his head to the king, who caused the same 
 to be hung up to public view. 
 
 Further, after the death of the elder Henry — for the reign 
 of the vounger Henry is not worthy to be reckoned — Richard 
 became king of the English. He made restitution to the 
 king of the Scots of those fortalices which he had held in 
 security for the captivity of William, and restored likewise 
 the hostages and the ten thousand pounds for which they had 
 put themselves under obligation to his father. He also made 
 null and void all those obligations by which William, when he 
 was a prisoner, had bound himself ; demanding, however, that 
 the kings of the Scots should do him homage, mediate or 
 immediate, for the lands which they possessed in England. All 
 this Richard did in the first year of his reign. In the same 
 year king William gave the earldom of Huntingdon to his 
 brother David in possession. 
 
 About this time, after the death of that Gilbert, son of 
 
 1 1 The Moor of Mamgarvy. ' — E. W. Robertson's Scotland under her Early 
 Kings, vol. i. p. 393- 
 
chap, vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 167 
 
 Fergus, who had put out the eyes of his brother \ there rose in 
 his place a man of Galloway, who invaded the rest of the Scots. 
 Against him marched Rotholand 2 on the part of the king, and Rothoiaod. 
 defeated him, and afterwards slew besides another rebel of 
 Galloway, by name Gelecolne 3 . Rotholand, however, lost his 
 brother in that battle. In reward of the loyal service done 
 him by this Rotholand, king William bestowed upon him in 
 perpetuity Galloway and the land' of Carrick. Meanwhile the 
 English king gave to the Scottish king in marriage Emergarda, Emergarda. 
 his own kinswoman, and daughter of the earl of Beaumont ; 
 and David of Huntingdon, brother of the king of Scots, took 
 to wife a daughter of the earl of Chester. 
 
 CHAP. VI. — Of William the Scot and Alexander, Williams son, 
 and of a miracle done by William ; of the war with John of England, 
 and the peace that was made with the same, and the treaty by the swear- 
 ing of the oath of fealty. 
 
 After the return of English Richard from his attempt to The love and 
 recover Judaea, and when he was, by reason of his captivity, tSee^Richard 
 put into great straits for money, William the Scot gave him in ^.^" gla " 1 d and 
 free gift two thousand marks ; wherefore the love in which Scot, 
 either held the other was no less than that of David and 
 Jonathan ; nor do we read anywhere of a peace more truly 
 maintained between Scots and English than in their day. So 
 true it is that a harmonious movement in the spheres above finds 
 a tranquil and melodious echo in the spheres below. William 
 also swears fealty to John the English king for the lands that 
 he held in England, safeguarding only the honour and liberties 
 of the kingdom of the Scots. In the same year the Scottish 
 nobles took the oath of fidelity to Alexander, son of William, 
 then a child three years of age. At that time the earl of the wicked act 
 Orkney Islands 4 put out the eyes of the bishop of Caithness and °f oricS 
 cut out his tongue. The king pursued the earl with a large 
 force, but the latter fled ever from one place of hiding to 
 
 1 i.e. Uchtred. E. W. Robertson (u.s.) vol. i. p. 380. 
 
 2 i.e. Roland. Ib. vol. i. pp. 387, 390, 392. 
 
 3 i.e. Gillecolum. vol. i. p. 387. 
 
 4 i.e. Harald MacMadach. 
 
168 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book nr. 
 
 another ; and it is no wonder : these islands are situated 
 bevond the Scots boundaries. But at length the king yielded 
 to the prayers of his nobles, and granted his pardon for this 
 The remission crime on the payment by the earl of a large sum of money. I 
 men? is "on h consider this penalty to be insufficient for an injury so atro- 
 demned. cious ; for the greater — the more uncommon — the nature of a 
 
 crime, so much the deeper should be the branding of it, that 
 warning may thereby be given to those who come after. Our 
 chroniclers relate further that in the year of the redemption of 
 A miracle done the world one thousand two hundred and six, William, in the 
 by William. presence of many persons, cured a youth who was suffering 
 from a grievous malady. Two years after this, Alan of Gallo- 
 way, son of Rotholand, took to wife Margaret, daughter to 
 David, earl of Huntingdon. During the two years that 
 followed, the fearful seeds of war were sown broadcast between 
 the Scots and English. Their kings raised eacli of them a 
 large army, determined to commit their cause to the fortune 
 of war ; and when they were drawing always nearer to one 
 another, some men of sense, both Scots and English, take up 
 the matter, and try by the counsels of prudence and modera- 
 tion to mitigate the angry feelings of their kings, and so 
 arrange the quarrel without bloodshed. For they knew that 
 the issue of war is ever doubtful, and best of all they knew 
 that among those who should lose their lives in the inevitable 
 struggle would be their dearest friends. For does not the 
 
 OP 
 
 conqueror in battle also suffer loss of men, or it may be of 
 property ? The commanders of hostile armies, when the first 
 movement of offence is still to make, when both sides are 
 unbroken, are wont to listen to reason. Between these enemies 
 accordingly peace was made, on this settlement : that William 
 should give in marriage his two daughters, Margaret and Isa- 
 bella, to Henry and Richard, the two sons of John ; but a 
 short time hereafter a quarrel sprang up between John and his 
 nobles, of which the result was that these marriages were not 
 a new law for concluded. It was further determined that for the future the 
 iedgnratof an kings of the Scots should not in their own person do homage 
 obligation and f or tne i anc | s that they held in England, inasmuch as the Scots 
 
 the taking of an o ' 
 
 oath of fidelity, asserted that it was not fitting for their kings to take the oath 
 of fidelity to a superior ; but that the eldest sons of the kings 
 
chap, vl] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 169 
 
 should do so. Alexander, son of William, accordingly took 
 the oath of fidelity in London to John the English king, and 
 was by John invested with the insignia of knighthood, and 
 honourably sent back to Scotland. 
 
 In the selfsame year there happened a heavy flood, when in 
 Scotland the swelling rivers broke from their customed channels, 
 and when, notably in Perth, the Tay broke down the great 
 bridge of Saint John, and carried away many houses ; so great 
 was the flood that William the king, David his brother, and 
 Alexander, scarce made good their escape in a boat. In one What may be 
 place there may be a larger amount of snow than in another, floods"^ 0t 
 and likewise a breaking forth of the springs whence rivers 
 have their source, and thus comes a melting of the snow when 
 one looks not for it, and a sudden increase of the rivers takes 
 place. This may proceed from the stars and planets being at 
 the time in the moist signs, so that the floodgates may be un- 
 barred in this region and not in that. 
 
 In this year John of England took possession of a large part 
 of Ireland, and subdued the rebels of Wales. In the following 
 year king William sent an army into Ross against Gothred 
 Makwilliam. Gothred was at length taken, through the Gothred's 
 treachery of his own people, and came half-dead into the hands P umshment - 
 of justice ; for, when he was taken, he refused both meat and 
 drink; but he was beheaded, and justly ; for he who against 
 all justice desired to be exalted and to be made a king, or the 
 equal of a king, deserved that his power should wane and that 
 he should be brought low. He who pulls down the powerful 
 from their seats and exalts the humble brings the haughty 
 and ambitious man to ruin. In the year twelve hundred and 
 fourteen, AVilliam king of the Scots was taken with a grievous 
 sickness, and fell asleep in the Lord in the seventy-fourth year 
 of his age, and of his reign the forty-ninth. He was honour- 
 ably buried in the monastery of Arbroath, which he himself 
 had built \ 
 
 1 It is curious that Major in his account of William's reign does not refer to 
 the Council of Northampton (i 176) where the archbishop of York claims 
 Scotland as part of his province. The Scots appealed to the Pope, who forbade 
 the archbishop to press his claim. See Scotland tinder her Early Kings, vol. i. 
 PP- 378, 379- 
 
170 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [BOOK IV. 
 
 CHAP. VII. — Of Alexander, son of William, and his wars with 
 John of England. Of the interdict on Scotland, and when sue// a thing 
 is to be feared. 
 
 After the death of William, Alexander the Second was in- 
 vested with the regal insignia ; and not long thereafter the 
 general discontent with John of England, of which mention 
 has before been made, grew stronger. About two years before 
 the death of William, there had appeared a simple fellow who 
 went on asserting that John, king of England, was the in- 
 carnate devil. Him the king first of all threw into prison, and 
 thereafter hanged. As to this matter our chroniclers report 
 that, moved thereto by the story told by this simple fellow, 
 men began to examine with more particularity the pedigree of 
 the king of England ; when 'twas found that one of his pre- 
 decessors, Geoffrey, earl of Anjou, when he wished to enter the 
 married state, pursued a fair woman with a view to marriage, 
 and without consideration of the race to which she might 
 belong, when there arrived suddenly upon the scene an un- 
 known stranger, a woman of singular beauty, who refused to 
 hear mass ; but the king, inasmuch as he had a goodly off- 
 spring by her, for a long time concealed the matter as best 
 he could : but at length he caused her to be held in church 
 by four soldiers, when at the elevation of the body of Christ 
 she vanished from the sight of all in a cloud of smoke and 
 sulphur, and never did she reappear. Of this woman, then, 
 they affirm that the Henry who caused the murder of the 
 Blessed Thomas, and those other kings of England, were born K 
 I look upon this story as the invention, pure and simple, of 
 some Scot who did not like the English ; but it commended 
 itself to the Scots, and was no doubt carefully treasured by 
 them. In matters themselves improbable, I am inclined to 
 assent neither to my own countrymen as against the English 2 
 
 1 The author of The Complaynt of Scotland (p. 133, ed. Leyden) says that 
 since the days of Hengist and Horsa the English kings have been usurpers : — 
 'The maist part of thay tirran kings that hes succedit of that false blude hes beene 
 borreaus to their predecessours.' 
 
 2 Miss Norgate {England tinder the Angevin Kings, vol. i. p. 143) names as 
 
(hap. vii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 171 
 
 nor in similar case to Englishmen as against my own 
 countrymen. 
 
 After this, Alexander the Scot, in the third year of his The deeds>f 
 reign, laid siege to Norham, and at a later date he subdued the 
 whole of Northumberland. But I must marvel at the obscurity 
 in which those chroniclers have left this matter, and their care- 
 less treatment of it, seeing that they do not tell us how then 
 the Scots came to lose those territories of theirs in England ; 
 for, from what has just been said, the chroniclers next in date 
 would seem to say that this strip of land was in the hands of 
 the Scots, since Norham is the boundary to-day, and it is 
 distant scarce a stone's throw from the Tweed K But let us 
 resume the narrative of events. When Alexander was returned 
 to Scotland, John the Englishman invaded that country, gave 
 to the flames Dunbar and Haddington, and, when he learned 
 that Alexander had collected an army, made no delay to with- 
 draw himself. But when John was once off, Alexander invaded 
 
 the authority for this story Giraldus Cambrensis de Instrtictione Principtim, 
 dist. iii. c. 27, and suggests that it may have arisen in the popular mind as some 
 explanation of the career of Fulk the Black, son of Geoffrey Greygown. There 
 is some difficulty in following the story as told by Major. He seems to speak 
 of two women. Geoffrey earl of Anjou ' fecit mulierem speciosam pro conjugio 
 venari '. In the very next line we read of the appearance of ' una speciosissima 
 ignota ', who was not only in the habit of refusing to hear mass, but who had 
 already borne goodly offspring to the king. Giraldus's story is quite simple : 
 'There was a certain countess of Anjou of outstanding beauty, but of unknown 
 origin, whom the count had married solely from the attractions of her person. 
 She rarely went to church, and when she did go there, she showed little or 
 nothing of a devout bearing. She would never stay to hear mass, but departed 
 in haste immediately after the gospel. But at length, when this had been for 
 some time observed, not only by the count, but by others, she was one day 
 seized by four soldiers, in accordance with instructions from the count, in the 
 very act of leaving the church at her customary hour. Tearing from their grasp 
 the cloak by which she was being held, and leaving behind her two young sons 
 whom she had been holding under the right fold of her garment, she caught up 
 under her arm her two other little sons, who had been standing under the left 
 fold, and in sight of all vanished through a high window of the church. And 
 so it was that this woman, whose face was better than her faith, never more 
 appeared, neither she nor her two children. King Richard would often quote 
 this story, saying it was no wonder that, sprung from such a parentage as this, 
 fathers and sons should never cease to quarrel one with another, nor yet brothers 
 with brothers, for that he and his, who came from the devil, must needs return 
 to the devil.' 
 
 1 Berwick was taken by the English in 1482. 
 
172 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 England, laid siege to Carlisle, a small city, but very strongly 
 fortified, reduced the same, and then kept it in his own hands. 
 From this it clearly follows that in the time of Alexander and 
 John the boundary was the same as at this present. Further : 
 when one faction of the English desired to have Lewis, son of 
 Philip of France, for their king, Alexander the Scot goes to 
 meet him at Dover, that he might there bid him welcome and 
 help him to a peaceable accession, and, his errand done, 
 returns without disturbance to his own country. 
 Scotland placed It was about this time that Gualo, the legate apostolic, dis- 
 under interdict. c ] iar g e( j against Alexander the last weapon of the church, and 
 placed the kingdom of the Scots under interdict, until repara- 
 tion should be made for the losses inflicted on the English, 
 and Carlisle, so lately wrested from them, restored into their 
 hands. And Alexander, fearing perhaps more than he need 
 have done the censures of the church, made restoration of 
 Carlisle, and paid a vast sum of money to the legate for 
 Excommunica- absolution. If his title to Carlisle had been just, he need not 
 respects to be have feared the stricture of excommunication. Several among his 
 Carlisle predecessors had held Carlisle, and I do not see how he had 
 
 lost his right to the city ; and, however this may be, he ought, 
 in an unjust or even a doubtful case, to have made his appeal 
 against this sentence from the legate to his superiors. But 
 perhaps you will object : that respect must be paid to a sen- 
 tence passed by a spiritual pastor, even though it be unjust. 
 The answer is no difficult one : If the sentence is unjust to the 
 degree of being null, it is in no way to be dreaded ; if it is un- 
 just, and yet in such a way that it is real excommunication, 
 inasmuch as all the essentials of excommunication are to be 
 found therein, then excommunication, though thus unjust, is to 
 be dreaded ; unjust indeed in that it includes some circum- 
 stances by which justice is violated, as, for instance, that the 
 motive of the sentence is partiality to one side or dislike of the 
 Excommunica- other, or something of this sort. In the former case uniust 
 
 tion is not to be ... . . . 
 
 lightly inflicted, excommunication is no more excommunication than a corpse is 
 a man. I may here observe in passing that not only in Britain, 
 but in most parts of the world, men are disposed to accept 
 ecclesiastical censures too easily. No man can be liable to 
 excommunication, whether we regard the matter from the 
 
chap, viii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 173 
 
 point of abstract law, or as a sentence inflicted by man, except 
 for some mortal sin that he has committed ; and for contumacy 
 only can this sentence be inflicted by man. 4 If lie will not 
 hear the church so speaks the Truth, 4 let him be as a heathen 
 man and a publican. 11 Wherefore, on the opposite supposi- 
 tion, if he have heard the church, why shall he be cast out, 
 like a heathen, from the congregation of the faithful ? Whence 
 it comes that we reckon a vast number of excommunicated 
 persons who are in a state of grace. A sophistical excommuni- 
 cation can harm no man in things spiritual, whether his body 
 lie in holy ground or in a place unconsecrated ; nor is every 
 truly excommunicated person damned after death, if he have 
 taken all pains to get absolution. 
 
 About this time Preaching Friars first came to Scotland 2 . Preaching 
 
 Friars in 
 Scotland. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. — Of Henry, king of the English, and his son, and of the 
 prophecy of Merlin about them. 
 
 I xow leave Alexander the Scot, and return to the English. John the Eng- 
 When John had met his death by poison, administered by the pc?soned. S 
 hand of a foolish monk, and Lewis the son of Philip had been Lewis, son of 
 called to the throne by the English, that party among the Sthe't^o^ 
 English, which had favoured the cause of John, now that he was 
 deceased hailed Henry, his nine-years-old son, as king. And Henry is set up 
 about this time Gualo, who had been appointed Roman legate, to oppose him ' 
 excommunicated Lewis and all who held with him ; and by 
 this means a large number of the English were turned away 
 from Lewis, and the strength of his following was much 
 reduced. On this account it began to be mooted whether he 
 should not return to France ; and at length, with a gift of 
 money for the charges of his journey amounting to one thou- 
 sand pounds sterling, peacefully, and attended by a large 
 company of nobles, he reached the sea. Henry the Third 
 accordingly reigned in England in peace after the death of 
 John, and he took to wife Eleanor, daughter of the count of 
 Provence. Thereafter, in the forty-third year of his reign, 
 
 1 St. Matt, xviii. 17. 
 
 2 According to Spotiswood, p. 441, their first house was at Edinburgh, founded 
 in 1230 on the site of what is now Blackfriars Street. 
 
174 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [hook IV. 
 
 Henry and the chief men of his kingdom passed some law at 
 Oxford — what this law was I have not discovered 1 — and to the 
 observance thereof the king as well as the nobles bound them- 
 selves by a solemn oath. But the king, at the instance of his 
 firstborn son Edward, and of Richard his brother, earl of 
 Cornwall, sent to Rome to obtain a release from the oath by 
 which he had bound himself. On this account a war began 
 between the king and his nobles, and in a battle fought at 
 Lewes in the forty-eighth year of his reign, the king, as well 
 as the foresaid Edward and Richard, was taken prisoner. 
 Edward is taken But Edward, the king's son, broke out of prison and escaped. 
 makcsTiis ° Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, had him afterwards in 
 escape. charge at Hertford, and he then made his way to the princes 
 
 of the Marches, from whom he had a kind reception. Three 
 months after this, that is, in August, Edward defeated Simon 
 de Montfort at Kenilworth, and the partisans of the said 
 Simon, who in that battle lost his life, were banished from the 
 kingdom. But, following the counsel of Othobona, the legate, 
 and the nobles, they were reinstated in their lands from which 
 they had been expelled ; and thus the whole kingdom was 
 again at peace. Afterward, in the fifty-fifth year of Henry's 
 Englishmen go reign, some English nobles went to the Holy Land : Edward 
 Land. H ° ly to wit, brother 2 of the king, John Vessi, Thomas Clare, Roger 
 Clifford, Othes Graunston, Robert Bruce, John Verdon. In 
 that same year died the king — the year of the redemption of 
 the world twelve hundred and forty- two. 
 Alexander In the days of this king, Alexander Hales, an Englishman 
 
 of the Minorite order, the teacher in theology of the Blessed 
 Bonaventure and Saint Thomas Aquinas, wrote a work, in four 
 divisions, of great merit ; he was advanced in years, so they say, 
 before he put on the habit of the Minorites, and of that order 
 he was the first theological doctor. He was buried in the 
 convent of the Minorites at Paris, and died in the year of our 
 Lord one thousand two hundred and fifty 3 . 
 
 1 ' The Provisions of Oxford passed in 1 258. 
 
 2 For ' brother ' read ' son '. 
 
 3 Alexander Hales became a Franciscan in 1228 and died in 1245. See 
 Moniunenta Fra?iciscana (ed. Brewer), pp. 542, 627. St. Francis was afraid of 
 the introduction of a love of learning into his Order, and on that account — so it 
 is said — he was not well pleased at the accession of this ' irrefragable ' doctor. 
 
( hap. ix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 175 
 
 Of this Henry Merlin the seer is said to have sung, when he 
 foretold that there would go forth from Winchester, in the year 
 one thousand two hundred and seventy, an English king, who 
 should be a man of truth-speaking lips and sanctity of life, 
 who likewise should be at peace for the greater part of his 
 reign. All which they expound of this Henry, who built at 
 London the monastery of Saint Peter. Simon de Montfort, of 
 whom I have spoken, was born in France. One part of the 
 prediction, however, is interpreted of Edward the son of Henry \ 
 
 CHAP. IX. — Of Edward, son of Henri) the Englishman, his war 
 with the Welsh and his victory over them ; likewise of the expulsion of 
 the Jews. 
 
 Edward, who succeeded his father Henry, was a man most Edward, 
 ambitious of warlike renown. His accession was welcomed 
 with rejoicing by all the English. Edward invaded Wales, 
 and took prisoner the prince of that country, one Llewellyn 2 , Llewellyn, 
 whom he kept always near him. He forced this man to swear 
 fealty to himself, and twice each year to attend the parliament 
 at London. But when Llewellyn began to enjoy again the 
 liberty that he for a time had lost, he refused obedience to 
 Edward. Therefore, when a second time he had been con- 
 quered by Edward, he came as a suppliant, begged forgiveness, 
 and obtained it, but on this understanding : that if in the 
 time to come he should ever fall away, he should be led to 
 death. Not many days thereafter this very Llewellyn and his The punish- 
 brother David, who had shown himself most friendly disposed t h e Welshman, 
 towards Edward, rebel against Edward and his men ; but in 
 the battle that followed Llewellyn perished. After his death 
 his brother David summons a parliament of Wales at Denbigh ; 
 but Edward takes him prisoner, and slays and quarters him at 
 London. Then, at length, all the Welsh submit to Edward. The subjection 
 The Welsh, that is, the Britons, had been already conquered ° f the ^ elsh * 
 by Henry the son of the empress, but not so that they feared 
 to rebel, and indeed they enjoyed some measure of freedom ; 
 
 1 Edward the First became king in 1272. 
 
 2 Orig. and F. * Lewilinum '. 
 
176 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 but under Edward they were foreed to make an absolute sub- 
 mission. When lie had thus got the Welsh under his hand, 
 Edward passed over into Gascony, and abode there for a 
 space of three years. 
 
 On his return to England he found that certain men had in 
 his absence been unfaithful in the administration of justice, 
 and on them he inflicted punishment according to the desert 
 of each. And since a great complaint was raised, and justly 
 raised, about the Jews, that, through their usurious and fraudu- 
 lent dealing, they drained poor people of all they possessed, he 
 The Jews are drove out of the kingdom all Hebrews — who are wont to make 
 their profit out of Christians, much as mice will do out of a 
 find of clean wheat — and in gratitude for their deliverance 
 every one of the common people paid to the king one penny 
 out of every fifteen. Hence is plain that kings in their king- 
 doms, and in each aristocratic polity its leading men, would do 
 well to drive from their midst those obstinate Hebrews, if they 
 would escape the necessity of imposing heavy taxes. This 
 plague of usury 1 brings in its train all kinds of mischief on 
 the body politic. First of all : it gives to the prodigal an 
 opportunity of prodigality ; to one of this sort the greatest 
 blessing is that he should not be able to lay his hand on 
 money. Secondly, by slow degrees and all unobserved these 
 lenders lay up for themselves a vast amount of money. Thirdly 
 — and this is worst of all — God is provoked by their sin of 
 usury, no less than by their obstinate observance of the cere- 
 monial parts of the Mosaic law, which in these respects is 
 obsolete. Now r , for any sins that meet not with their due 
 punishment from the magistrate, and by which the divine 
 goodness is provoked, God sends His scourge upon a state. 
 So much is plain from the Second Book of the Kings, where 
 we read that the people was sorely afflicted for the sins of 
 David 2 . I praise, therefore, the expulsion from the kingdom 
 
 1 Cf. on Major's opinion of usury his In Quartum, ed. 1521, fol. cviii. 
 On the question of usury in the middle ages Jourdain {Excursions historiques et 
 philosophiques h travers le moyen age — ' Memoire sur les commencements de 
 l'economie politique dans les ecoles du moyen age ') and the Rev. William 
 Cunningham, in his Christian Opinion on Usury with special reference to 
 England, 1884, may be consulted. 2 2 Sam. xxiv. 15-17. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 177 
 
 of the flows, for, by the introduction of the undesirable con- 
 ditions of which I have spoken, they place a stumbling-block 
 in the way of many who are weak in the faith; just as the How harlots 
 chastity of other women must run some risk in the neighbour- bnng ruln " 
 hood of public women of ill renown and a luxurious mode of 
 life. 
 
 CHAP. X. — Of the monasteries that were founded by the Earl of 
 Fife, and something by the way about the seclusion of nuns and their 
 rule of life; of the marriage of King Alexander the Second, his life 
 and 'praiseworthy death, and of the destruction hi) fire of men and towns 
 in Scotland. 
 
 Ix the time of that Alexander the Scot who, in obedience to Monasteries 
 ecclesiastical censures, restored Carlisle to the English kinff, founded - 
 Malcolm earl of Fife founded a pair of monasteries 1 : one, 
 for men, at Culross ; the other, for women, at that northern 
 Berwick -. in which parish I was born. But as I happen here 
 upon religious women, it will not be amiss to say one or two 
 things. Wherever there is a foundation for religious women, Seclusion 
 these ought to be shut up in the building devoted to their ofnuns " 
 common life, so that they should not have the power of going 
 beyond its walls, or of association with men. Such is the custom 
 at Poissi 3 , and among religious women who lead a life con- 
 formable to their calling. For that sex is more thoughtless 
 than the other — has a greater proclivity to intemperance of 
 conduct ; wherefore, when they have an opportunity of associa- 
 tion with men, they easily violate their vow of chastity, and 
 only rarely and with the greatest difficulty observe it. So that 
 they ought to be kept apart from men, as it were, by a red-hot 
 
 1 ' Bina monasteria ' ; the expression is used more generally, I think, of the 
 double monastery, with one part for men and another for women, according to 
 Celtic custom. 
 
 - The charters printed in the Carte de Northberwic, Bann. Club, 1847, show 
 that this house was founded at least two generations earlier. The father and 
 grandfather of earl Malcolm were among its benefactors. 
 
 :: 1 Poisiacum ' — in Roman times ' Pisciacum ' — on the Seine, in the He de 
 France. Poissi was the birthplace of Saint Louis ; it was also the scene of the 
 well-known Conference of 156 1. It possessed several religious houses, among 
 them a Dominican convent of nuns. 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book nr. 
 
 Proof of the Yme. To establish what I assert, I make use of this argument : 
 assumption. when a woman lias taken the vow of chastity, she has made 
 herself liable to every obligation without whose observance 
 the vow of chastity cannot be kept. But it is a fact that 
 women who find themselves now and again in the company of 
 men frequently give way before the temptation to which they 
 are exposed ; and if there are among them a few who do not 
 lose their chastity, yet by far the most of them run a risk of 
 doing so ; and it is always for the safety of the many that 
 precautions must be taken. Besides : it does no harm to that 
 small number whose chastity is not in peril from association 
 with men that they should be kept in restraint, while to much 
 the greater number it does harm that they should not be so 
 kept ; therefore, for the safety of their sisters, it behoves the 
 stronger to make no opposition to a strict seclusion. And if 
 there are near kindred of the nuns, who are inclined to resist 
 seclusion on their account, such show themselves friends of the 
 body but not of the soul. For they know that women kept in 
 strict seclusion live more religiously than if they are allowed to 
 go about among men. Although this seclusion may be at 
 first a hard and indeed a sad experience for women who give 
 themselves in mature years to a religious life, yet for one 
 accustomed to good habits of life, for one whose natural ten- 
 dency is towards what is right, it will not be difficult ; and 
 young girls on their admission will have no distaste to the 
 straitness of this rule if they have their virginity at heart ; 
 and many women would enter these walls devoted to the 
 common life with a more fervent piety, inasmuch as the female 
 sex with all due instruction, and separate from men, is wont 
 to walk the road of a more ardent devotion — that sex of which 
 the church speaks thus ; ' Make intercession for the devout 
 female sex 1 1 — in her prayer to the Virgin Mother of God. And 
 in conclusion I would say that both superiors and women are 
 bound, at the least by every consideration of what is fitting, to 
 
 1 ' Ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu ' — 
 from the Antiphon of Vespers and Lauds for Feasts of B.V.M. The clause is 
 sometimes understood as a prayer for nuns, i.e. for women devoted to religion, — 
 (thus Lord Bute, in his translation of the Breviary, renders it 'make intercession 
 for all women vowed to God ') — but Major evidently understands devoutness 
 as a characteristic of the sex. Cf. his expressions in In Quartum, 2d qu. of the 
 33d distinction. 
 
chap, x.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 179 
 
 give effectual assent to this ordinance and adopt it as their 
 own. But whether they should be bound in such fashion that 
 the breach of the ordinance should be reckoned a sin, and its 
 observance a thing of absolute obligation — this must wise men 
 carefully consider ; for the affirmative will perhaps be found 
 the truer answer, as the argument which I have just made use 
 of seems indeed to suggest. And certain it is that this is the 
 safer course. 
 
 But perchance you will object, that on their entrance on this An objection, 
 life they did not intend to bind themselves to this ; and that 
 no one, unless of his own free will, can be bound to an obliga- 
 tion that concerns himself alone: Igitar. The objection is The answer, 
 a frivolous one, and can be repelled with ease. For under this 
 rule a vow is made of chastity, obedience, and poverty. Now, 
 it is not enough to live, so far as mere existence is concerned, 
 in the house, if all the essentials of its rule are to be infringed ; 
 as if forsooth the mere entrance to such a house and living 
 there could be pleaded as an excuse for the stain of sin. Far 
 better would it be that women and men should marry in the 
 Lord, than that they became members of a community of evil- 
 livers, of whose reformation no near hope can be discerned. 
 To call the Psalmist as my witness ; 6 With the froward thou 
 wilt show thyself froward ' K I have not written what I have 
 now put down because I think these nuns to be of worse dis- 
 position than the rest of women who do not live in seclusion, 
 for what I say has application to all ; but here I would give 
 this kindly counsel by the way to the sisters whose lives are 
 spent in my old neighbourhood 2 . 
 
 But to return to our historical narrative. Alexander took The wife of 
 to wife the sister of English Henry in the year twelve hundred Alexander - 
 and twenty. About two years thereafter the bishop of Caith- A bishop is 
 ness, when he was making demand of the tithes and church burnt * 
 dues from his own people, was by them burnt to death in his 
 own kitchen. And inasmuch as John, earl of Caithness, the 
 bishop's neighbour, had failed to come to the help of the latter 
 
 1 Ps. xviii. 26. In the Vulgate Ps. xvii. 27 : ' Cum perverso perverteris '. 
 
 2 There is no record of any prioress by name between 1477 and 1523. This 
 renders it not unlikely that there had been some trouble in the community at the 
 time when Major knew it best ; and his delicacy in avoiding direct reference to 
 this incident is noteworthy. 
 
180 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 Gilloschop. 
 
 Balmerino. 
 
 Death of Alan 
 of Galloway. 
 
 The second 
 wife of 
 Alexander. 
 
 when he prayed him to do so, Alexander took from him a large 
 part of his earldom, and much of his moveable property he 
 bestowed upon the church ; last of all was this earl too slain 
 by his own people in the seventh year after the perpetration of 
 his crime. In the third year after his marriage, Alexander 
 was moved by his devotion to Saint Thomas to make a journey 
 to Canterbury, and when he had tarried some time with English 
 Henry, and treated with him concerning the peace of their 
 kingdoms, he returned in safety to his own people. 
 
 Fourteen years afterward a certain Scot, by name Gilloschop 1 , 
 invaded Moray, and set fire to Inverness ; him the earl of 
 Buchan, guardian and justiciar of Scotland, put to death, and 
 with him two of his sons. Their heads he sent to Alexander. 
 Two years after this the convent of Balmerino was founded by 
 Alexander and his mother, Emergarda, in honour of Saint 
 Edward ; and in the following year Alexander founded the 
 monastery of Pluscardin. In the same year died, at Dundrennan, 
 Alan, son of Rotholand of Galloway, who was constable of 
 Scotland, and for his heirs he had three daughters. Of these, 
 the first was married to Roger, earl of Winton ; the second to 
 John Balliol ; the third to the earl of Albemarle ; and thus 
 Galloway was divided into three parts, each falling to a woman ; 
 whereat the men of Galloway were wroth, and chose for their 
 leader Thomas, the bastard son of Alan, and laid waste the 
 country on their borders. But Thomas suffered an utter 
 defeat at the hands of the king, and as a suppliant begged for 
 pardon. The king commanded that he should be taken to 
 Maidens' Castle 2 at Edinburgh. In the same year Alexander 
 gave Marjory in marriage to the earl of Pembroke, marshal 
 of England. A short time after this the queen of Scotland, 
 — she was Henry's sister — made a pilgrimage to Canterbury, 
 and on her return died at London. Now, as Alexander 
 had no issue by this lady, two years afterwards he took a 
 second wife, Mary, daughter of Ingelram de Couchi 3 , and by 
 her had a son, Alexander by name. 
 
 Some three years after this, when Alexander, with a great 
 
 1 Generally 'Gillescop'. 2 Set ante, p. 15. 
 
 3 Enguerrand de Couci — whose family motto was — 
 
 Roi ne suis, ne Prince aussi ; 
 
 Je suis le sieur de Couci. 
 
chap, x.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 181 
 
 company of nobles, was at Haddington, Patrick earl of Atliole, Patrick is burnt 
 a young man of happiest promise, was burnt to death in a to eat 
 house where he was sleeping. The crime was attributed to 
 the Bissets, who had pursued the earl with deadly hatred. His 
 heirs, therefore, and his next of kin, fiercely attacked William 
 Bisset, the head of that family ; but by the consent of the 
 nobles Bisset's lands were confiscated to the king, and the 
 life of every member of his family was spared, on the con- 
 dition that they all should leave the kingdom. 
 
 In the following year several towns in Scotland — by what Towns are 
 means is not known — were burnt to ashes ; such as Haddington, burnt " 
 Roxburgh, Lanark, Stirling, Perth, Forfar, Montrose, and, the 
 largest of them all, Aberdeen. At the first look of the thing, 
 the origin of these conflagrations seems strange enough. Nor- 
 wich in England, a very large city, succumbed twice or thrice 
 to the same fate 1 . It may be that they were sent as a divine 
 punishment for sin, or that they were the work of evil-disposed 
 persons bent on mischief. For when we consider that all these 
 towns are situated by the sea, or in the neighbourhood of rivers, 
 it is impossible to take refuge in the theory that their destruc- 
 tion was caused by veins of sulphur in the earth. 
 
 Further, in the one thousand and two hundred and ninth 2 Death of 
 year from the Virgin's travail, Alexander, in the eight-and-thir- 
 tieth year of his reign, went that road by which all flesh must 
 travel, and was buried at Melrose. Sixteen and a half years 
 was his age when he was anointed king ; a man he was worthy 
 to be a king; piously disposed to churchmen and to the poor; 
 good men he befriended, bad men he had in abhorrence ; with 
 an equal balance he dealt justice to all; wherefore it admits 
 of no manner of doubt that at the hand of God, the absolutely 
 just, he received his great reward. Full of danger is the life 
 of kings, and when a king has followed after righteousness, his 
 merit in the eyes of God is great indeed. How difficult are what is meri- 
 virtue and art you shall see in the second book of the Ethics *, tonous in 
 
 J < > princes. 
 
 and what more difficult than to govern aright a great state, 
 and most of all a northern state, which has been used to no 
 restraints ? Indeed, this man is worthy of all praise. With 
 
 1 In 1463 and 1509. The roof of the cathedral was destroyed in the fire of 
 1509. 2 This should be 'forty-ninth.' 3 Arist. Eth, Nic, ii. 4. 
 
JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 | HOOK IV. 
 
 the English king he had no dealings that were not peaceable. 
 It is the part of wisdom in Scottish kings to cherish peace with 
 their neighbours. Of the possessions bequeathed to him by 
 his immediate ancestors he lost nothing, and his reign was 
 marked from first to last by the observance of a most scrupu- 
 lous justice toward his subjects. I may compare this man then, 
 using no unfairness to others, with the most illustrious kings. 
 
 CHAP. XI.— Of Alexander the Third, king of Scotland, and the 
 dispute that took place in the matter of his coronation ; of Egyptian 
 days ; o f free trill ; and o f the genealogy o f the Scottish kings. 
 
 Alexander On the death of Alexander the Second, his son, the third 
 the Third. Alexander, then a boy of eight years, was appointed to be 
 king. But in the matter of his coronation there arose a dis- 
 pute among the nobility of the kingdom ; for some said that 
 it behoved him first of all to be made a knight, or soldier, and 
 thereafter to assume the ensigns of royalty, while others said 
 just the opposite. Yet a third party was found which denied 
 both these contentions, and claimed that on that day nothing 
 ought to be done, because the same was an unlucky and Egyp- 
 tian day l . Now, when the aged Walter Cumming, earl of 
 Menteith, saw how matters stood, he, remembering that of the 
 poet — 
 
 Et nocet et nocuit semper differre paratis, 
 and willing to prevent all risk of dissension among the mag- 
 nates, used with them this argument towards the maintenance 
 of peace, saying that in a kingly polity the headless body must 
 
 i One explanation of the fact that days of ill omen, — on which it was con- 
 sidered undesirable to begin any undertaking, and even to be bled, — were called 
 ' Egyptian' days may be found in lines 5, 6, of 'Versus de diebus /Egyptiacis ' 
 (Poetae Latini A/inores, ed. Baehrens, vol. v. p. 354^, quoted by Mr. Emil 
 Thewrewk de Ponor in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, vol. i. p. 372 : — 
 Si tenebrae ^Egyptus Graeco sermone vocantur, 
 Inde dies mortis tenebrosos iure vocamus. 
 But it seems more probable that the appellation had its origin simply in the 
 ascription to the old Egyptians of all mathematical and astrological science, an 
 explanation which has the support of Mommsen, Corpus Inscr. Lat., vol. i. p. 
 374. The Egyptian days were, according to the Codex Paris. N. 1338, January 
 1 and 25, February 4 and 26, March 1 and 28, April 10 and 20, May 3 and 25, 
 June 10 and 16, July 13 and 22, August 1 and 30, September 3 and 21, October 
 3 and 31, November 5 and 28, December 12 and 15. For the literature of the 
 subject Mr. de Ponor's and M. P. Bataillard's notes in loco should be consulted. 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 183 
 
 ever sway to and fro, like an oarless boat upon a stormy sea, 
 and so got them to consent that the coronation should take 
 place on the following day. 
 
 For his view of the case I will allow myself to state certain Propositions h 
 propositions. Of these the first is this : A precedent military coronaUonof 
 service is nowise essential for the constitution of a true king ; tne kin S- 
 for these ceremonies of a soldier's service and of the anointing 
 of a king are of human institution, and imposed as it were 
 from a feeling of their propriety. Therefore one of them 
 may be observed without the other. My second proposition 
 is this: There is no Egyptian day more unlucky for the of Egyptian 
 kingly coronation than another. The skiey influences exert days ' 
 no constraining power on a man's free will, which is al- 
 together immaterial : and a man who bv his own wish and 
 in the exercise of his reason has been crowned and anointed 
 upon one day may do as well as if this had happened on 
 another. In the matter of good luck ask for nothing ; but 
 ask for a prudent mind, and that every act of your will 
 may be regulated by wisdom, and then you shall do well. 
 Though evils may befall a man in the way of punishment, 
 as it were by chance, I do not for all that deny that the 
 skiev influences and the changes of the seasons exert a power, 
 and that a great one, upon seeds, and trees, and animals not 
 endowed with reason. For it is of much moment to plant 
 trees and to prune them at full moon and new moon, and to 
 apply the knife or drugs to the human body as indicated by 
 the signs of the heavenly system, and at other times \ And 
 though the heavenly influences should incline a man to sensu- 
 ality, these yet have no binding power upon his choice ; and if 
 even his wish should take such a direction, it is easy to oppose 
 the impulse upon reason shown ; and a man has the power so 
 to accustom himself to resist the sensual impulse, as much in 
 thought and wish as in the sensual act, that it shall become 
 more difficult for him to oppose the habit of resistance than 
 
 1 ' Et membra corporis in signis prohibitis [? praehibitis] respondentibus ferro 
 ac medicina, et alio tempore attingere.' Cf. the description of the 4 Doctour of 
 Phisik 1 in Chaucer's Prologue — 11. 411-413 : 
 
 In al this world was ther non him lyk 
 To speke of phisik and of surgerye ; 
 For he was groundud in astronomye. 
 
184 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [hook iv. 
 
 to yield to the sensual impulse. This is plain in the case 
 of the brutes, and in those men the evil conditions of whose 
 birth have been overcome by a virtuous training. The parental 
 inheritance of blood, what a man eats, and what he drinks, 
 have far more bearing upon his impulses than the influence of 
 the stars 1 . Whence it comes that, albeit we have not the power 
 to foretell, in human fashion, the course of wars among 
 princes, yet, understanding the secret designs of princes, 
 and making conjecture as to the sources whence wars may 
 spring, we may be able to deceive the ignorant vulgar by 
 telling them that our knowledge lias been gained by the 
 practice of some such art. But this is the vanity of super- 
 stitious and ambitious persons. 
 Coronation of King Alexander then, mere boy as he was, seated under a 
 canopy on the stone chair in the cathedral, and clothed in 
 costly robes, was anointed by the archbishop of St. Andrews. 
 And lo ! a certain Scot of the mountains, such as they call a 
 Wild Scot, hoary with age, then appears in presence of the 
 nobles, and in these words, spoken in his native tongue, 
 salutes king Alexander : Benach de Re Albin Alexander, mak 
 
 i II. Charles Jourdain has pointed out in his essay on Nicolas Oresme and 
 the astrologers of the Court of Charles the Fifth of France, 1364- 1380 (Ex- 
 cursions Historiques, p. 562) that the teaching of Aristotle in the twelfth book 
 of his Metaph) sica as to the action of the stars (which were supposed to be 
 intermediaries between God and inferior beings, and for these beings the im- 
 mediate principle of all life and action) contributed largely in the middle ages 
 to the acceptance of judicial astrology. The long struggle of Oresme (d. 1382) 
 in favour of a rational view was at the time without result ; and even after two 
 centuries we find a lawyer and historian such as Jean Bodin inclining, in his 
 'Republic' (1576), to the belief that in astronomical investigation (if we only 
 possessed a complete record of the same from the beginning of time) would lie 
 our only hope of discovering a guiding principle ' to know the changes and ruins 
 which are to chance unto Commonweals'. Aquinas indeed rejected the con- 
 ception that human destiny depended on the stars, and, as is plain from this 
 expression of Major's opinion, his voice found an echo here and there in the 
 representatives of Christian orthodoxy. A singular parallel to Major's view is to 
 be found in Barbour's Brus (xxxvi. 119 sq.), written about 150 years earlier. 
 As to the influence of the stars, Barbour says : 
 
 ' Quhethir sa man inclynit be 
 
 To vertu or to mavite, 
 
 He may richt wele refrenyhe his will 
 
 Outhir throu nurtur or throu skill, 
 
 And to the contrar turn him all.' 
 
 Aristotle is then quoted as a well-known example of one whom 'his wit made 
 virtuous ' through his refusal to follow his ' kindly [i.e. natural] deeds '. 
 
chap, xn.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 185 
 
 Alexander, mak William, mak Henry, mak David. And thus 
 
 he declared the genealogy of the king up to its first beginning, 
 
 all in the Irish tongue, and not in the English spoken by us 
 
 southern Scots. Turned into Latin it would run thus : — Salve The genea- 
 
 Rex Albanorum Alexander, fili Alexandri, filii Guillelmi, filii onheScots? 111 
 
 Henri ci, filii Davidis, filii Malcolmi, filii Duncani, filii Beatricis, 
 
 filise Malcolmi, filii Kenath, filii Alpini, filii Ethachi, filii 
 
 Ethafmd, filii Echdachi, filii Donaldi Brek, filii Occabuid, filii 
 
 Edaim, filii Gobram, filii Dovengard, filii Fergusii magni, filii 
 
 Erthj filii Echeach Munremoire, filii Engusafith, filii Fechel- 
 
 meth Asslingith, filii Enegussa Buchyn, filii Fechelmeth Ro- 
 
 maich, filii Senchormach, filii Kruithlind, filii Findachar, filii 
 
 Akirkirre, filii Ecchach Audoch, filii Fiachrach Catinall, filii 
 
 Echad Ried, filii Coner, filii Mogolama, filii Lugtagh Etholach, 
 
 filii Corbre Crumgring, filii Darediomore, filii Corbre Findmor, 
 
 filii Coneremore, filii Etherskeol, filii Ewan, filii Ellela, filii 
 
 Jair, filii Dechath, filii Sin, filii Rosin, filii Ther, filii Rether, 
 
 filii Rowen, filii Dearndil, filii Mane, filii Fergusii primi Sco- 
 
 torum Reois in Albania. Now this Fergus was in truth son of 
 
 Feredech, though by some, from the mistake of a scribe, he is 
 
 called son of Ferechar (the words differ but little in sound). 
 
 Perhaps the difficultv of pronunciation led him to make the 
 
 change in the name. Then, man by man, without a break, this 
 
 said Wild Scot recounted the said genealogy, until he arrived 
 
 at the first Irish Scot who, setting out from the Ebro, a river 
 
 of the Spains, was the first to set foot in Ireland. 
 
 CHAP. XII. — Of the translation of the remains of Saint Margaret 
 of England and Malcolm, king o f the Scots ; of the marriage of Alex- 
 ander and the dispensation that was granted him thereanent. Of the 
 punishment inflicted upon vagabonds and Jews, and other events of his 
 reign. 
 
 Ix the following year, Alexander and his mother, with the Translation of 
 prelates of the Church, assembled at Dunfermline for the trans- gjj^ Market 
 lation of the remains of queen Margaret ; and when these were 
 once raised, a most sweet fragrance filled the whole church. 
 But while the remains were being carried with all due honour 
 to the monument which marked the resting-place of her husband 
 Malcolm, the bearers found themselves able by no means to 
 
186 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv 
 
 Peace and 
 union by mar- 
 riage with Eng- 
 land renewed. 
 
 Dispensation in 
 respect of near- 
 ness of kin. 
 
 Robbers are 
 punished. 
 
 The Jews are 
 tortured. 
 
 go further, until certain wise men gave them tl lis counsel, to 
 disinter likewise the bones of Malcolm ; and when the saintly 
 bones were again united either to either, thev were carried 
 without difficulty to the appointed place, where, with due 
 adornment of gold and precious stones, thev remain to this 
 day 1 . 
 
 In the following year the chief men of the kingdom sent to 
 English Henry, to gain from him a renewal of the treaty of 
 peace, and to ask his daughter in marriage for king Alexander. 
 Henry granted all their requests, and thus Alexander had to 
 wife Margaret, daughter of the king of England. The con- 
 sanguinity that here existed made no stumbling-block, inas- 
 much as the Roman pontiff can, for urgent cause, grant a 
 dispensation in the case of any kinship by blood or marriage 
 which is not repugnant to the law of nature. Xo persons, 
 indeed, are forbidden to intermarry except such as are enu- 
 merated in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus ; and there can 
 be no more urgent cause for dispensation than is afforded by 
 the establishment of a settled peace between neighbouring and 
 hostile kingdoms ever ready, like those in question, to rush to 
 arms 2 . 
 
 A short time hereafter, from a careless administration of 
 justice, there arose a grave disturbance, stirred up by evil- 
 disposed and corrupt counsellors of the king. When this 
 came to the knowledge of Henry of England, he proceeded 
 forthwith to Wark, an English castle close to the Scottish 
 borders, put away from the king those evil advisers, replaced 
 them with a better sort, and made certain enactments of a 
 wholesome character for the better conduct of the Scots. And 
 his action in this matter gained for him no little praise among 
 the Scots ; for he was now an old man, and, disregarding the 
 infirmities of age, had undertaken a long and toilsome journey. 
 
 In the same year, at Lincoln, once a large city of England, 
 but now of no great importance 3 , Henry punished with death 
 a number of Jews, because thev had crucified a Christian boy. 
 Hugh by name, and had made an effigy of the mother of 
 
 1 Malcolm Canmore, when he had met his death at Alnwick in 1093, was 
 buried obscurely at Tynemouth. It was twenty years later that his body was 
 brought to Dunfermline. 
 
 2 Cf. Bk. L ch. vi. p. 29. 3 Cf. Bk. 1. ch. v. p. 22, note l . 
 
chap, xil] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 1ST 
 
 Christ 1 . But 2 not many days after, Walter Cumming, earl of New robbers. 
 Menteith, and his fellow-conspirators, though often summoned 
 to compear before king Alexander and his tutors, still failed to 
 do so. They feared to face the assize or council of the realm. 
 And not only did Walter, the foresaid earl, and his accomplices, 
 perpetrate this act of disobedience, but, along with Alexander 
 earl of Buchan, William earl of Mar, John Cumming, Hugh 
 Abernethy, and a number of their following, he seized king 
 Alexander at Kinross by night, while he slept, and shamelessly 
 carried him, in negligence of every form of courtesy, to Stirling. 
 These men then went on to maltreat and oppress by all means 
 they could the former ministers of the king. For when the 
 administration of justice is once allowed to grow slack, the 
 stronger aim at the ruin of the weaker, and stop at nothing ; 
 so that then indeed that word of the wise man is verified to the 
 full, — ' Woe to the land whose king breaks bread in the morn- 
 ing 13 ; for in the childhood of a king the chief men impudently 
 try to carry all at their own will and pleasure. In acting thus 
 they not only commit a sin ; their conduct is at the same time 
 most imprudent; for often, when the king comes to mature 
 years, he punishes those princes for the crimes they committed 
 in his youth. But, in the same year, the very doer and first 
 contriver of this deed of shame came to his end by poison ; nor 
 did his wife escape the suspicion of having compassed his death. 
 This woman, holding the Scottish nobility in scorn, married an 
 Englishman of low birth, by name John Russel ; and on this 
 account she was, with her husband, ignominiously proscribed. 
 But though this proscription of the clan Cumming was well 
 deserved, it was not then and there carried out, owing to the 
 
 1 Chaucer mentions the murder in the end of the Prioress's Tale : — 
 
 O yonge Hugh of Lyncoln ; slayn also 
 
 With cursed Jews (as it is notable, 
 
 For it nys but a litel while ago). 
 Cf. Hughes de Lincoln : Recueil de ballades anglo-normandes et ecossaises relatives 
 au meurtre de cet enfant. Publie, avec une introduction et des notes, par Fr. 
 Michel. 1834. 
 
 2 'Sed non multis, etc' The ' sed ' probably refers to the ' aliqua statuta 
 salubria pro Scotorum moribus ' of the end of the last paragraph. 
 
 3 Ecclesiasies x. 16: 'Vae tibi terra, cujus rex puer est, et cujus principes 
 mane comedunt.' The condition of his own country, whose king was at the 
 time a boy six years of age, was no doubt in Major's mind ; and it would seem 
 to be by a misprint that the most relevant part of the verse is omitted. 
 
JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [HOOK IV. 
 
 strength and numbers of that family. The clan Cumming 
 counted among its members at that time two-and-thirty 
 knights, without reckoning its nobles. Both kingdoms of 
 
 Britain abound in knights. These knights always wcai- gilded 
 spurs, and it is ever counted among them the height of 
 disgrace to fly from the battle-field ; the poorest of them 
 have ten or twelve stout horsemen dependent on them. In 
 Britain, following herein the French custom, boy-servants are 
 not in use ; their place is ever taken by bearded men fully 
 armed. The family of Cumming was thus over-powerful with 
 its nobles and knights — powerful to such a pitch that in my 
 opinion it has not its like in Britain at the present day. This 
 condition made rat her for the ruin of the family than for its 
 advantage, lor it needs much virtue to bear prosperity. 
 
 In the year of the Lord twelve hundred and fifty-seven, and 
 in the thirteenth year 1 of Alexander's reign, there was born to 
 him a daughter, Margaret by name. And in the same year 
 there was discovered at Peebles a very beautiful and ancient 
 cross, for w hich Alexander showed bis pious feeling by ordering 
 that a church should there be built. That year, too, witnessed 
 the arrival in Scotland of the friars of Mount Carmel, on whom 
 Richard bishop of Dunkeld bestowed a chapel near Perth, 
 at Tullilum 8 , and richly endowed the same. There it was that 
 the Carmelite Order had its first planting. Thereafter, in the 
 twentieth year of his reign, Alexander had a son born to him 
 at Jedburgh, and the child was named after his father. 
 
 In the following year the earl of Carrick died, not in- 
 gloriously, on an expedition to the Holy Land. He left as his 
 heir an only daughter, whose name was Martha. This Martha, 
 w hen she had one day gone forth to take her pleasure in the 
 chase, chanced to meet a man of noble birth and comely to look 
 on, in the flower of his age, Robert Bruce. She took him with 
 her, though he was somewhat loath to go, to her castle of 
 Turnberry, and there she contracted with him a clandestine 
 marriage 3 . The thing mightily displeased king Alexander 
 when he came to hear of it, and he had the design to dis- 
 inherit the countess ; but afterward he changed his mind, and 
 
 1 The 13th year was 1 262, not 1 257. - Founded in 1262. 
 
 3 She was widow of Adam of Kilconquhar. See Exchequer Rolls, vol. i. p. lx. 
 
chap, mi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 189 
 
 be left her and her husband in peace. This Robert Bruce Robert Bruce, 
 owned the domain of Annandale in Scotland and of Cleveland 
 in England. I lis father was that Robert Bruce who was but- 
 named the Noble; and his grand father was the Robert Bruce 
 who bad married Isabella, the second daughter of David earl 
 Huntingdon. In the year of our Lord one thousand two 
 hundred and seventy-four was born Robert Bruce to the said 
 Robert Bruce and Martha, countess of Carrick. In the fol- 
 lowing year the abbey of Sweetheart was founded by a noble Sweetheart 
 and wealthy woman, Devorguilla, daughter to the one time mona5tery 
 Alan of Galloway. A little later the two sons of Alexander 
 died ; so that his surviving child, Margaret, became sole heiress 
 of the kingdom, and she was given in marriage to the king of 
 Norway, whose name was Ilangovan l . 
 
 Further, in the year of the Lord twelve hundred and eighty- 
 six, Alexander fell from his horse to the west of Kinghorn, Death of 
 broke his neck, and so died ; and his death brought in its train 
 evil consequences for the Scots in no small measure, as will 
 appear from what has still to be told. Here I cannot but 
 greatly marvel why the Scots did not give the heiress of their 
 kingdom in marriage to the English king ; but they preferred 
 to the Englishman a king of Norway, who lived outwith the 
 island. I will state my opinion in few words. The Scots 
 acted, I must hold, most unwisely in the matter of this mar- 'I he unwisdom 
 riage. And I lay down this proposition : There was no king sole^heiress^f 1 ' 
 whom the Scots ought to have preferred as a husband for the Scotland to the 
 heiress to the king of England. And had the position bee n way. 
 reversed — had it been the heiress of England for whom a hus- 
 band was being sought — I hold that there could have been 
 found no marriage for her more suitable than with the kino; of 
 Scotland. Eor thus, and thus only, could two intensely hostile 
 peoples, inhabitants of the same island, of which neither can 
 conquer the other, have been brought together under one and 
 the same king. And what although the name and kingdom of 
 the Scots had disappeared — so too would the name and king- 
 dom of the English no more have had a place among men — for 
 in the place of both we should have had a king of Britain. Nor 
 
 1 i.e. Haco. There is confusion here between Margaret, Alexander's daughter, 
 and her child Margaret (the Maid of Norway). See pedigree, pp. 210-11. 
 
1 90 
 
 .JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [BOOB IV. 
 
 would the Scots have aught to fear from taxes imposed by an 
 English king. For tin* English king I dare to make answer, 
 thai he would have respected our ancient Liberties, just as the 
 kino- of Castile 1 at the present day permits to the men of 
 Aragon the full enjoyment of their rights. And, besides, when 
 the commonwealth is to have advantage therefrom, it is right 
 to pav taxes to the king, as they may be called for by any par- 
 ticular exigence. But I take it that the Scottish nobility have 
 an objection to the notion of the rule of a single king through- 
 out the Length and breadth of the island; and the same is 
 true perhaps of the English nobility, since the outstanding 
 men among them would not then dare to make face against 
 the king when his pow er had grown to such a height. And 
 vet the result would have been pregnant with advantage to 
 them. They would have known what it is to have an equal 
 administration of justice; no man would have been able to 
 Lay violent hands on his neighbour ; their houses and families 
 would have been secured of an undisturbed existence ; never 
 would they have known invasion from a foreign king ; and if 
 at any time they hail to avenue an injury, there would have 
 been no foe within their borders to temper with a sense of 
 insecurity the justice of their quarrel 2 . 
 
 Our chronicler^ of this period tell that Thomas of Ercil- 
 doune, called Rhymer, [' hoc est Thomas Rhythmificator 
 when he was sitting in the castle of Dunbar, in presence of 
 many Scots ami Englishmen, was asked by the earl of March 
 The prophecy to foretell w hat should happen on the following day ; ami that 
 Rhymer. be, heaving a deep sigh, made answer — 4 Woe to the morrow, 
 
 a day 1 say of dule and sorrow, which shall bring upon us 
 before the hour of noon so great a storm that all Scotland 
 shall grow dumb with fear.' The earl of [March therefore 
 expected that a strong wind would arise, and made sport of 
 Thomas on their first meeting next day at breakfast ; but 
 immediately there arrived a messenger, making all speed, who 
 declared the sudden death of the king. Our writers assure us 
 
 1 Ferdinand of Aragon, to whom Major must refer, died in 1 516. He is 
 highly praised in the //; Qttat'tMM, ed. 1521, 23d qu. of the 15th dist., as 'that 
 king but lately dead, worthy to be ranked with the greatest kings, who forbade 
 the practice of duels 
 
 - Cf. ante, Bk. 1. ch. vii. ; Bk. IV. ch. v. ; also Bk. IV, ch. xviii. 
 
CHAP. Mil. J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 191 
 
 that Thomas often foretold this thing and the other, and the 
 common people throughout Britain give no little credence to 
 such stories, which for the most part — and indeed they merit 
 nothing else — I smile at. For that such persons foretold 
 things purely contingent before they came to pass I cannot 
 admit ; and if only they use a sufficient obscurity of language, 
 the uninstructed vulgar will twist a meaning out of it some- 
 how in the direction that best pleases them. 
 
 This Alexander, in point of goodness, is worthy to be Alexander' 
 placed alongside his father. Four times a year it was his eulogy ' 
 custom to visit the various districts of his kingdom, when he 
 listened to the suits of the poor and held courts of justice, 
 finding fit redress for every man according to the necessities 
 of his case. The wife of the king of Norway, she who was 
 daughter to the king of Scotland, and heiress of the kingdom, 
 bore a daughter ; another Margaret she was — but, along with 
 her mother, she died. And thus there arose no little uncer- Margaret dies 
 tainty as to the rightful heir to the Scottish throne — a con- WIthout 1SMie " 
 dition fraught with dangers always to a kingdom, as shall be 
 shown in the sequel from the history of the Scots and English. 
 Rut I will begin with the English chroniclers ; and afterward 
 I will pass in review what the Scots chroniclers may have to 
 contribute, and declare what I have come to hold as the trutli 
 of the whole matter. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. — Of what took place in Britain at this time, according 
 to the narrative of Caxton the English chronicler in the first place — 
 with a refutation of the statements made by him ; follorvs, in the second 
 place, another narrative, as we find it in the Scots chroniclers. 
 
 As to tliis present matter, Caxton, an English historian, 
 gives the following account. Alexander, king of Scotland, 
 died after Wales had been completely reduced by Edward. 
 David, earl of Huntingdon, with his issue, ought to have sue- David of Hun- 
 ceeded to the Scottish kingdom, but the most of the nobility tin S don - 
 were opposed to this. And there was a contention even in the 
 family of David ; for he had three daughters, and Raliol had 
 married the eldest of them, Bruce the second, and Hastings 
 the third. These three nobles, on behalf of their wives, laid 
 
192 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 claim to the throne. When the Scottish nobility perceived 
 the clangers that might flow from this quarrel, they chose 
 Edward of England for their king, and put him in possession 
 of Scotland. Whereupon Baliol, Bruce, and Hastings went 
 to Edward, and asked him which of them was to be king. He, 
 when he had taken counsel with the Scots and considered their 
 Baliol becomes chronicles x , found that John Baliol was the lawful heir, and 
 also that he had to render obedience 2 to the English king as 
 Scotland, his superior. Baliol then did homage to the king of England. 
 cfaTtoii^be- 0 But a short time afterward Edward made a journey to Gas- 
 comes tribn- cony, which at that time had not been completely conquered ; 
 
 and for this expedition the clergy came to his help to the 
 amount of the half that they possessed. When John Baliol 
 heard of this, he sent to Rome, praying to be relieved of the 
 oath lie had taken to Edward. And not long after Edward 
 gathered a great army wherewith to march against John 
 What Edward Baliol, and he took Berwick, the first town you come to in 
 did in Scotland. g cotland . and? a fter that, he laid siege to the castle of Dunbar, 
 and the Scottish force that came to the relief of the castle was 
 destroyed — even two-and-twenty thousand of them. Amongst 
 the Scots, however, Patrick Graham made a long and stout 
 resistance, but fell at length, fighting to the end, and receiving 
 but scant help from his fellows. The castle of Dunbar thus 
 fell into the hands of the English king, along with three earls, 
 seven barons, and eight-and-thirty knights, that were of its 
 garrison. All these Edward sent to London. John Baliol, 
 and some of the chief among the Scottish nobles, next went to 
 Edward. He sent them to London, and then demanded of 
 them what redress they proposed to make for their former crimes 
 against him. To a man they threw themselves on his mercy, 
 and the only oath that the king exacted from them was that 
 they should thenceforth be faithful to him, and never afterwards 
 bear arms against him or his. Four bishops on the part of the 
 clergy willingly took this oath, as did also John Cumming, the 
 earl of Stratherne, and the earl of Carrick ; and all these 
 Edward sent back to Scotland. But it was not long; before 
 
 1 c And kyng Edward, that was full gentyll and true, let enquyre by the 
 cronycles of Scotlonde, whiche of them was of y e eldest blode.' — Caxton, n.s. 
 fol. xcii. 2 Parere habebat. 
 
CHAP. XIIT.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 193 
 
 the Scots began to revolt against the English king ; and John 
 Baliol, when he foresaw the turmoil that would arise, left 
 Scotland for ever. But the Scots chose for their king a 
 certain William Wallace, up to this point a man with nothing William 
 illustrious in his origin, and he wrought much havoc on the Wallace^ 
 English l . The better then to make a stand against Edward 
 of England, the Scots sent the archbishop of St. Andrews to 
 France, with the prayer that the king would send his brother 
 Charles into Scotland, and that so the French and the Scots 
 might make a joint attack upon the English ; but the French 
 refused the prayer of the Scots. 
 
 It was about this time that Edward sent a strong force 
 against the Scots under the command of Henry Percy earl of 
 Warenne, William Latimer 2 , and Hugh Cressingham. With a 
 small troop of soldiers William Wallax or Wallace met the 
 English army at Stirling. At that place a fierce battle was Defeat of the 
 fought, in which Hugh Cressingham and many of the English Engllsh ' 
 lost their lives. When Edward hears of this disaster, he gets 
 a large army together, and, entering Scotland on the eve of 
 the feast of Saint Magdalen's, harries the country as he goes. 
 He met the Scots on Saint Magdalen's day, and at Falkirk a 
 battle was fought in which there fell thirty thousand of the 
 Scots, and of the English as many as eighteen thousand. Great loss on 
 Among the latter was Frere Bryan Jay 3 , a knight and a notable 
 warrior too, who had given chase to William Wallace when 
 he saw the Scot hastening from the field ; but William Wallace 
 was on the look-out for him, and slew him. The result of this 
 battle was that Edward had all Scotland at his will. 
 
 Some time after this Edward married the sister of Philip of 
 France, and again enters Scotland. This time no single Scot, 
 with the exception of William Wallace, questions his authority. 
 But, in the three-and-twentieth year of Edward's reign, this The punish- 
 perfidious traitor falls into the hands of the English king, onW^t 
 is carried to London, dragged at horses' tails, and in the end 
 
 1 ' Wherfore y e Scottes chose vnto theyr kyng Willyam Waleys a rybaud 
 and an harlot, comen vp of nought, and to englysshmen did moche harme. ' — 
 Caxton, u.s. fol. xciv. 
 
 2 Orig. ' Lawium ' ; Caxton ' Latomer '. 
 
 3 Orig. ' Frery Bryansay ' ; F. ' Frery Bryan Jay '; Caxton ' Frere Brian Jay '. 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 quartered. Further, his head was mounted upon a spear and 
 exposed to the view of all men on London bridge. 
 
 There then you have English Caxton's story, which we have 
 turned from English into Latin. It cannot be said that the 
 man has spared his anvil, but, with all his forging, the result is 
 not improbabilities merely, but a mass of incoherencies as well. 
 The disproof For the assertion that the Scots chose, sought, or accepted two 
 kings, one as superior, the other as subject to him, is wanting 
 in every element of likelihood. If the Scots desired that 
 Edward the First should be their king, to what purpose summon 
 him as judge among the three claimants of the crown? And 
 further, it is of all things the most improbable that well-born 
 Scots should choose for their king a man who was a plebeian 
 and quite unknown ; for sooner than that would they have 
 chosen one of the three claimants, or one of their own nobles. 
 The true Leaving Caxton, then, and his silly fabrications out of the 
 
 version. question, I shall proceed to place the history of the Scots in its 
 
 true light. When Edward had gained possession of the castle 
 of Dunbar, he marched against John Baliol, who was then at 
 Forfar. There John Cumming, lord of Strathbogv, and John 
 Baliol met him, and the latter surrendered to the English king 
 every claim that he had to Scotland. King Edward then sent 
 John Baliol to London along with his son Edward. Keeping 
 Edward in prison, he sends John Baliol into Scotland. But 
 the Scots would have none of him, for they knew him not onlv 
 to be a man averse from war, but a coward. Then, when 
 John Baliol saw that he was despised in his own country, 
 he went to France, that he might there lead a quiet and private 
 life l . After his departure the Scots choose twelve guardians, 
 and send into England John Cumming, earl of Buchan, with 
 instructions to do any harm he could to a nation that his 
 countrvmen had so much reason to hate. But the English were 
 in strong force in the western parts of Scotland, as in Ayr and 
 the district round about, and held various well-fortified castles 
 with the help of no small following of the Scots. The Scots 
 they treated with inhuman cruelty. This conduct of theirs 
 
 1 1 ut quiete vivat et private a favourite phrase. Cf. ch. xiv. ad fin. 'quieti 
 et vitae privatae me accommodabo '. 
 
chap, xiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 195 
 
 stirred the indignation of most of the Scots, and in a signal 
 manner of Wallace, and whenever they found themselves in a 
 remoter part in greater numbers than the English they attacked 
 them. Our native chroniclers, who have written in the English 
 tongue, extol this William Wallace to the skies, and relate of William 
 him that he had never need to strike a second blow. For so Wallace 
 great was his bodily strength, as well as his courage, that no 
 armour could stand against his sword. This and much else, 
 that I confess I reckon among the things that cannot at least 
 be proved, I will pass over 1 . I will now proceed to examine 
 the narrative of those historians who have written in Latin, so 
 far at least as the result of their labours is capable of being 
 tested. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. — A truer version of the deeds of William Wallace or 
 Wallax. 
 
 This William was sprung from one of the smaller gentle William 
 families only in the land of Kyle near to Ayr, where, too, his J^J^ 
 surname is one of the commonest. He was the second son, — his courage, 
 elder brother was a knight, — and he was robust of body, with 
 limbs strong and firmly knit, his natural colour somewhat 
 swarthy, of a complexion partly choleric, partly melancholy ; his 
 temper, therefore, quick and haughty. Wise and prudent he 
 was, and marked throughout his life by a loftiness of aim which 
 gives him a place, in my opinion, second to none in his day and 
 generation. If it be said that Robert Bruce was his superior 
 in military genius, I do not care to range myself on the other 
 side ; but let it be borne in mind that he nourished at a later 
 date than William. William had no other instructors in warfare 
 than experience and his own genius. When he happened upon 
 one of the English, who were at that time in great force in 
 Scotland, and most of all at Ayr, he slew him. He was attacked 
 
 1 In his In Qziartum Sententiarum, fol. lxxxvi., ed. 1 530, Major couples 
 Wallace with Achilles : ' The poets have fabled that Achilles was brought up on 
 the muscles of oxen, and not on partridges or pheasants. And William Wallace, 
 as our chroniclers have it, used to call for that part of oxen which they call the 
 nine-plies, and not for partridges or pheasants.' There is a part of beef called 
 in Scotland ' the nine holes ' at the present day. 
 
196 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 by them many times, but two or even three Englishmen were 
 scarce able to make stand against him, — such was his bodily 
 strength, such also the quickness of his understanding, and his 
 indomitable courage. As time went on, his fame spread ever 
 the wider, and many of the Scots found with him an asylum 
 and a sure defence. He set fire by night to the barns of Ayr, 
 in which were some of the chief men amongst the English, and 
 Wallaces mih- those wno escaped the flames fell by his sword. This exploit 
 
 tary genius. r J r 
 
 won for him so much renown that some amongst his country's 
 nobles, and of higher birth than his own, betook themselves to 
 him. Among these were two whose names were widely known 
 — John Graham, knight, and Robert Boyd, both of them men 
 of tried courage. At length, when he had won important 
 victories over the enemy, he was hailed as regent by most of the 
 Scots, with the universal acclamation of the common people. 
 
 In the year of the Lord twelve hundred and ninety-seven 
 he set himself to raze to the ground those castles which the 
 English held on Scottish soil. There was no extreme of cold or 
 heat, of hunger or thirst, that he could not bear. Like Hannibal 
 or Ulysses he understood to draw up an army in order of 
 battle, while like another Telamonian Ajax he could carry on 
 the fight in open field ; so that he dreaded not with a handful 
 of men to scatter and put to open rout the best equipped 
 battalions of the English. His hatred of the English was as a 
 spur that allowed him no rest from fighting. The English, 
 therefore, and along with them the Scottish nobles, pursued 
 him with a deadly hatred, inasmuch as his conspicuous valour 
 threw their own deeds into the shade. Yet did some of the 
 nobles, as well as all the common people, cast in their lot 
 with him. 
 
 When Edward of England heard of all that William 
 Wallace was doing, he determined to crush him, and sent 
 a large army against him into Scotland, under Hugh Cas- 
 singham (whom the English historians call Cressinhame). 
 When Wallace came to hear of this, he postponed for a time 
 the siege of the castle of Dundee, which was then his chief 
 business, that he might bring every obstacle to the English 
 Wallace's advance. He attacked them therefore near the bridge over 
 successes. foe F or th at Stirling in a fiercely contested battle. He slew 
 
CHAP. XIV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 197 
 
 in fight the English leader, put his troops to the rout, and 
 returned to his besieging of the castle of Dundee, which forth- 
 with surrendered to him. With such a courage did he carry 
 himself, and did his work too in so short space of time, that 
 he soon left not a single Englishman in Scotland, nor yet a 
 Scot who had shown favour to the English. The mass of dead Pestilence 
 bodies, meanwhile, left upon the field tainted the air, as these f^ScoUand. 
 will always do, and bred a terrible pestilence, which was 
 followed by a rise in the price of corn. Wallace designed 
 therefore to have his winter quarters in England, and there to 
 keep a large army afoot at English charges. Nor did his con- 
 science herein prick him one whit ; for it was plain abundantly 
 that the Scots had been sore oppressed by the English, that 
 they had suffered great losses at the hands of an enemy from 
 whom they could not, in ordinary course of law, look for resti- 
 tution — and they gave their minds therefore to meting out 
 some sort of justice to themselves. Wallace sent to the furthest 
 bounds of Scotland to increase as best he might the numbers 
 of his soldiery ; and the Aberdonians, when they showed an 
 inclination to resist his call, he punished with the utmost 
 severity. Others, fearing a like punishment, flocked to him 
 in troops. Then, when he had gathered a large army together, 
 on the feast of All Saints he set out to invade England. One 
 part of his army consisted of disciplined soldiers who had seen 
 much service ; the rest was drawn from the common people, 
 with no attempt at order. It had a firm footing in England 
 on the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mother of Christ; 
 for though he had been attacked by the English many times 
 both by night and by day, not once — such were his unfailing- 
 vigilance and his courage — had he suffered defeat. At length, 
 after three months of such a life as this, he led home his army, 
 rich in the fortunes of war and laden with English spoil. Dur- 
 ing all that time his army had suffered no disaster. Towards 
 unwarlike persons, such as women and children, towards all 
 who claimed his mercy, he showed himself humane ; the proud 
 and all who offered resistance he knew well to curb. 
 
 Soon after this English Edward sent an embassy to Wallace, 
 whose instruction was to tell him that he would not have dared 
 to invade England had England's king been at home. This 
 
198 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY [book nr. 
 
 filled Wallace with wrath, and he promised the ambassadors 
 that come next Easter he would invade England, and offer 
 battle to king Edward in his own kingdom. He soon got 
 together an army by the time that he had promised, some 
 thirty thousand strong. He offered his men no pay, but each 
 went to war at his own charges. King Edward, then, with a 
 strong army, and Wallace meet face to face at Stanmore K 
 Meanwhile the armies are being arrayed in order of battle, 
 but Edward, yielding to the advice of his counsellors, refused 
 the fight. When the Scottish soldiery became aware of this, 
 they aimed at taking Edward as he fled ; but the far-seeing 
 judgment of Wallace prevented this. He commanded them 
 to keep their ranks, for he feared that when they were scattered 
 in pursuit the army of Edward, in its orderly retreat, might 
 turn and overcome them. For he said 2 that for him it would 
 be glorv enough to have forced a proud and powerful king to 
 quit the field in his own kingdom. Wallace, therefore, with- 
 drew his army, and led it back to Scotland scatheless. Further, 
 he deprived of their lands those Scots who had been obstinately 
 favourable to the English rule, and at his own pleasure con- 
 ferred the same upon those who had done good service to the 
 Scottish commonwealth. And such lands are still enjoyed by 
 men of our own day, who hold their titles from William 
 Wallace, then regent. The Scottish nobles did not relish this 
 arrangement. Yet were they powerless to find a remedy. 
 But just as the renown of William grew from day to day, so 
 too grew the jealousy of the nobles. For, 4 'tis the high peaks 
 that the lightning strikes ' 3 . Under his glory the reputation 
 of those who had been accustomed to the first place seemed to 
 dwindle ; without their help he conducted the whole govern- 
 ment of the realm, and with few of them was he on a familiar 
 footing. Nor is this to be wondered at ; for it would have 
 been no easy matter for Wallace and for them to take common 
 action on any point. This Wallace, whom the common people 
 with some of the nobles followed gladly, had a lofty spirit ; and 
 
 1 A barren tract between Westmoreland and Yorkshire. — Hodgson's North- 
 umberland, vol. i. p. 71. 
 
 - Orig. and F. ' dicebant ' ; read ' dicebat 
 
 3 'feriunt altos fulgura montes'; in Hor. Od. 11. x. n, ' feriuntque summos ', etc. 
 
CHAP. XI V.J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 199 
 
 born, as he was, of no illustrious house, he yet proved himself 
 a better ruler, in the simple armour of his integrity, than any 
 of those nobles would have been. Now there was found in the 
 ranks of the highborn men who hated Wallace the family of 
 the Cummings, which we have spoken of above as one of the 
 most powerful in the country ; but owing to the position of 
 authority that Wallace had gained for himself, and also to 
 his reputation in the field, none of the nobility dared to pro- 
 voke him openly. When English Edward comes to hear of 
 the slumbering jealousies amongst the Scots, he invades Scotland 
 with a huge army at once of Englishmen and Scots, to give 
 battle to William Wallace ; and, as seems from every circum- 
 stance most probable, it was by the Scottish nobility that he 
 was secretly invited to attack Wallace. It may be that the Designs of 
 nobility looked upon William as aiming at the royal power, n ob£° tllSl 
 and that they preferred English rule to William's. That is a 
 feature of nobles generally — to prefer the yoke of a superior to 
 that of an inferior. I fancy, too, that they aimed thereby at 
 weakening the power at once of Edward and of William — 
 which done, the government of the kingdom would revert to 
 them. 
 
 The English king landed at Varia Capella 1 ; and Wallace 
 led an army thither against him. But before the battle 
 began the Scots quarrelled among themselves which should 
 take the command ; and Wallace would yield the place to 
 no single man of them. Here I cannot approve him ; for it Wallace s 
 was his country's hour of need, and it behoved him to sink his censured 7 
 claims in the expulsion of the common enemy of all. For a 
 story is told of the lord Stuart, how he likened Wallace to an 
 owl, saying that the owl indeed was at first featherless, and 
 so begged of every other bird a feather, which when it had 
 obtained it swelled in its pride of plumage over the rest of 
 birds ; and not otherwise Wallace, though all his strength was 
 in the support of the nobles, now aimed at having dominion 
 over them. All this the lord Stuart is reported to have said 
 in William's presence, while the army was arraying for battle. 
 
 1 i.e. Falkirk — supposed to be the 'kirk on the Vallum'' or wall of Agricola. 
 Its Gaelic name was Eglais-bhrac = 1 spotted church' — latinised into Varia 
 Capella. See Miss Blackie's Etymological Geography •, 2d ed., p. 97- 
 
200 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 But this made no delay in joining battle, and at the first onset 
 The Cummings Wallace saw himself deserted by the whole faction of the 
 
 desert W allace. . . J 
 
 Cummings, which had seemed to favour the English king. 
 Not the less Wallace held his ground with unshaken courage, 
 and a battle was fought long and fierce. When Robert Bruce, 
 a Scot of undaunted courage, who aspired to the throne of 
 Scotland, saw how the fight was stiff and not like to be decided, 
 he led one division of his army which was under his command so 
 as to attack Wallace in the rear. For there was a loutish hill 
 behind the Scots army, and when Bruce and his men took note 
 of this, they fetched a circuit unawares about the hill, and so 
 fell upon Wallace from behind. Thus attacked — behind, in 
 front, by overwhelming numbers — he still refused to fly. Two 
 Stuart is slain, of the chief nobles fell in that battle — the lord Stuart and 
 Macduff earl of Fife, likewise John Graham, knight, and a 
 veteran soldier 1 , whom for his strenuous courage Wallace 
 reckoned without his match among men. In the end, when all 
 Wallace sounds his munitions were spent, Wallace gave the signal for retreat, 
 a retreat. an( j ^th j-] ie surv iving remnant of his army took to flight. 
 
 There are those still living in our midst who will not suffer the 
 word ' flight 1 to be used in reference to Wallace, and will allow 
 only that he avoided a danger ; for ' flight they say, must ever 
 bear an uglv meaning. But in this they err. To attack the 
 attacker by waiting for him ; to delay ; yea, to fly — these too 
 are branches of fortitude ; for the greatest general that ever 
 When a brave lived not only may fly but in a certain contingency is bound 
 rightly fly. to fly. For better it is that he should be able to keep himself 
 and his men in safety against a fitting moment than by 
 their death bring ruin quick and complete upon his country. 
 Wherefore Wallace was justified in seeking safety for his men 
 in flight. He drove his army before him as it had been a 
 flock of sheep, and himself the shepherd, who in his slow retreat 
 should keep a watchful eye upon the wolves in pursuit. Yet 
 Frere is slain, one of the English — Frerus Bryangen 2 was his name, and he 
 was over-anxious for military glory — went ahead of his com- 
 panions and followed Wallace closely. But Wallace was on 
 the look-out, and slew him. His death was a lesson to his 
 brethren to keep their ranks, and not to seek, any one of them, 
 1 Militiae pater. 2 sic Orig. and F. Cf. p. 193, note 3 . 
 
CHAP. XIV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 201 
 
 to go ahead of his companions. Caxton asserts that the horse 
 of this highborn and over-combative Englishman stuck in deep 
 mud, and that it was then that Wallace fell upon him ; but if 
 he was unable to get out of the mud in the same way that 
 Wallace got out of it, it does not say much for his soldiering; 
 and, besides, he should have been on his guard against a man 
 of Wallace's strength — against a man too who had Wallace's 
 just cause of provocation, and who did not fear to ride alone 
 betwixt two armies. 
 
 It is related that after this battle Robert Bruce came to 
 speak secretly with Wallace, and addressed him in these words : The speech of 
 6 How comes it, bravest of men, that rashly daring thou dost 
 wage war with a so mighty king, when this king too has the 
 support alike of Englishmen and of Scots, and when on all sides 
 thou hast to fear the ill-will of thy country's nobles ? Dost 
 thou not see the Cummings, dost thou not see me, and most of 
 the other chiefs as well, all of us upon the English side ? Few 
 are the nobles upon thy side ; and though the lowborn people 
 be with thee, these are more fickle than the wind, and follow 
 now thy half-ruined fortunes.' I take it that Robert spoke thus, 
 willing to test the secret bent of Wallace, whether, perhaps, 
 he were aspiring to the supreme power ; well content, I must 
 think, however, that William lost the day. To him Wallace 
 made answer : ' Thy coward sloth is cause of all ; thou didst Wallaces 
 lay claim to the throne, I never ; all that I have done I did 
 for this reason only : that I am a soldier, and that I love my 
 country. For I resolved to spare no strain to drive out of this 
 kingdom every single Englishman ; and had I not been met at 
 every turn by the opposition of our nobles, 'tis beyond a doubt 
 that I would have done it ; yea, had those noble persons only 
 given me to serve under me the men that till their lands, they 
 might themselves have stayed at home. Consider this : that 
 whereas I have had under me to-day scarce ten thousand men, 
 and these of the common people, I should have had, but for the 
 stumbling-blocks with which our nobles have strewed my path, 
 one hundred thousand simple tillers of the soil eager for the 
 fight. But it is to-day that I have felt the full measure in 
 which I am hated by the nobles ; and let me counsel thee, if 
 thou hast designs upon the kingdom, beware those all-powerful 
 
202 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 Cummings. If they had given a thought to their country's 
 honour, whatever may have been their prejudice to me-ward, 
 they ought not to have yielded one step. And even had they 
 vowed fidelity to the English king, they were no way bound to 
 keep it. When the fulfilment of a promise would bring dis- 
 grace, it is well worth while to break it, and to treat that 
 determination as null and void. For myself, I am weary of my 
 life ; I would rather die than live. By the Holy Ghost I 
 swear, that for the future I will have naught to do with public 
 matters, but will devote myself to quiet and the life of a private 
 person. u When Bruce heard this speech, though he may not 
 have regretted Wallace's misfortune, yet it is said that he was 
 moved to tears, when he considered the strenuous courage of 
 the man and the grandeur of his words. 
 
 CHAP. XV. — Of John Cumming, regent of Scotland; of I he rest of 
 the feats of Wallace, and of his miserable ending, but his happy change 
 from this life. 
 
 John Cumming, After the infliction of this defeat upon Scotland, Edward 
 [and" 1 ° f SCOt thought that everything in that country was peaceably estab- 
 lished, and returned to England. After his departure the 
 Scots choose for their regent John Cumming and not William 
 Wallace. I do not make out that Wallace held any kind of 
 regency save what he took upon himself ; but that regency he 
 exercised in all uprightness of heart. Nor was Wallace even 
 summoned by this regent of the Cumming faction to help him 
 with his advice in the conduct of the kingdom, though Cum- 
 ming was fully aware of his pre-eminent worth. He acted, 
 perhaps, in this manner, from a feeling that Wallace, who but a 
 short time before had exercised supreme power, would not readily 
 have taken a lower place. But when Edward heard that the 
 Scots had chosen John Cumming as regent, he got together a 
 fresh army of thirty thousand men, and intrusted the same to 
 the command of Rodolph Confrey — an able man he was — with 
 instruction to make for Scotland. When Confrey had come as 
 far as Roslin, he makes a threefold division of his army — to 
 
 1 See ante, ch. xiii. 
 
CHAP. XV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 203 
 
 each division ten thousand men with its own general. When Cumming's 
 
 incredil " 
 victory. 
 
 this came to the knowledge of John Cumming the regent, in 
 
 though lie had with him but seven thousand men along with 
 Simon Eraser, he so carried matters that he defeated one divi- 
 sion of the English army, — and not that only, for on the self- 
 same day, and with troops exhausted by fatigue, he twice 
 again gave battle, and so put to the rout the whole thirty 
 thousand of the English. When Edward learned this defeat, 
 he collected from among the Gascons, the Irish, the English, 
 even from the Scots who favoured the English rule, a vast army, 
 and, entering Scotland, soon had the whole country at his feet. 
 He spent the winter at Dunfermline, and his son, Edward of 
 Carnarvon, brought from France, by water, a rich provision of 
 food to Perth. Of wine of Gascony there was such plenty that 
 it was sold, you might almost say, for nothing. For three 
 pence, and no more, you might buy a pint of it. Before this, 
 however, there had been a great loss of life on both sides. 
 There was not at that time in Scotland a castle — no, nor a Wallace s 
 man, with the single exception of William Wallace — that did not s^riT^" 
 own Edward as lord and master. Trusting himself to track- 
 less mountains and inaccessible islands, and the tried affection 
 of his friends, he escaped from the pursuit of the English king 
 and his partisans. Edward himself could not do otherwise than 
 admire the immoveable spirit of the man, and made known to 
 him by a messenger bearing a flag of truce that broad lands in 
 Scotland, and in England too, should be his, if he would but 
 own the English rule. To all this Wallace made but one 
 answer : That never would he yield obedience to the English 
 king. And when Edward got this answer he studied how he 
 might compass his destruction in another way. To any who The betrayers 
 would take him lie promised the richest rewards in lands ; and of WaUace - 
 after many had vainly laboured to take him, Odomar Valancy, 
 at length, and John Menteith, a Scot by birth, and a knight 
 who was held to be one of Wallace's most familiar friends, by a 
 shameful stratagem seize him in the city of Glasgow, and with 
 a great army lead him captive to England, and there, as the 
 English chroniclers have it, they put him to death \ 
 
 1 Wallace was executed at Tyburn, August 24, 1305. I lis sentence ran that 
 his head should be fixed to London Bridge, and his quarters sent to the towns of 
 
204 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 Wallace's con- At the first glance I must here condemn W allace for a want 
 ge\her°o be°~ °f foresight, in that he did not for a time use some dissimula- 
 approved ; tion with Edward, even by receiving lands at his hand, that so 
 he might shelter himself from the designs of his foes. Yet I 
 yet, on the fancy that he cherished a hope of seizing an opportunity of 
 tejustifieT^ attacking the English, and driving them, as he had so often 
 done already, out of the country. For he may have thought 
 that a day would come when, wearied of English domination, 
 the Scots, not unmindful of his ancient fame among them, 
 An objection, would once more flock around him. But you will say : He 
 ought with more prudence to have kept himself out of their 
 and its answer, hands ; yet there is an ancient proverb, ' There is no enemy more 
 deadly than the man of your own household''; and in John 
 Menteith, to whose two children he had stood godfather, he 
 had the fullest confidence. Our chroniclers here tell a story 
 The heaven-^ of how an English hermit was witness of several souls taking 
 Waiiac? ° their flight from purgatory to heaven, and how one of these 
 was Wallace ; and as he marvelled much how this could be, 
 seeing that Wallace had shed man's blood, he got for answer 
 that it was in a just cause, and when fighting for his country's 
 What is lawful freedom, that he had slain others. And indeed I do not forget 
 m a just war. ma y ^ i aw f u j j- Q fig]^ w h en the cause is just ; but every 
 
 war must give occasions of excesses of all kinds and of sins. 
 Still, a true repentance will sift, as it were, all sins, and make 
 them as if they had not been. I will not insist on the point 
 whether in his resistance to Edward he acted aright. They 
 tell of Wallace that he ever had these lines in his mouth, 
 which he had learned as a boy from his teacher : — 
 
 'Tis sooth I say to thee, of all things freedom is the best. 
 Never, my son, consent to live a slave. 1 
 
 About this William Wallace our chroniclers in the English 
 tongue relate that he twice visited France. They tell of his hav- 
 New feats done ing had a sea-fight with Thomas Longueville, a French pirate, 
 by Wallace. an( j j 0 ] in Lyn, an Englishman, and of many other notable 
 
 Berwick, Newcastle, Stirling, and Perth. Fifteen shillings were paid to John 
 de Segrave for the carriage of his body ' ad partes Scotiae'. See Documents 
 illustrative of the History of Scotland, 1 286- 1 306, Edin. 1 870, vol. ii. p. 485. 
 1 Dico tibi verum, libertas optima re rum ; 
 Nunquam servili sub nexu vivito, fili. 
 
chap, xv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 205 
 
 feats of his they make mention, which I reject as false ; and 
 my rejection of them I base, firstly, hereon, that our Latin 
 chroniclers relate nothing that he did of any mark after Varia 
 Capella 1 , but give us to understand that he then went into 
 hiding; and, in the second place, I reject them inasmuch as 
 the French histories make mention of Scots of far less renown 
 in war than Wallace, and say scarce one word about him. I 
 conclude, therefore, that he never visited France. Now, should 
 any one of the Scots, in spite of these considerations, go on 
 obstinately to pin his faith to narratives of our own vernacular 
 speech, and raise this objection — ' Either all that the chroniclers The argument 
 relate concerning him is true, — or no single part of it is true, 1S re u e 
 — or part is true and part is false ; now I cannot admit the 
 second member of the proposition ; nor by parity of reasoning 
 can I admit the third member of the proposition in all parti- 
 culars ; therefore I am forced to admit the first' — this argument A " swe f to the 
 
 & refutation. 
 
 I proceed to refute almost in its own words, thus : 6 Either all 
 that the chroniclers of the English relate about the Scots is 
 agreeable to truth, — or no part of it, — or some part at least 
 has a basis of truth.** I imagine that you will grant the third 
 proposition only, and I give the objection the same turn as 
 before 2 . Our Latin chroniclers, who wrote not long after the 
 date of the event, could not be altogether silent as to this double 
 journey to France, and all the deeds of valour that were done 
 by Wallace ; and the same you may take for true about the 
 French histories. There was one Henry, blind from his birth, 
 who, in the time of my childhood, fabricated a whole book 
 about William Wallace, and therein he wrote down in our 
 native rhymes — and this was a kind of composition in which he 
 had much skill — all that passed current among the people in 
 his day. I however can give but a partial credence to such 
 writings as these. This Henry used to recite his tales in the 
 households of the nobles, and thereby got the food and clothing 
 that he deserved. And again, not even everything that is 
 written in Latin has a claim to infallibility, but only to a 
 certain probability ; for some of the writings in that language 
 are known to possess more, and others less, of authority. I am 
 reluctant nevertheless to deny absolutely, on the ground of 
 1 i.e. Falkirk (see p. 199). 2 et eundem ramum in objectione do. 
 
206 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [rook IV. 
 
 such reasons as I have ventured to state, that he ever saw the 
 shores of France. So much then let it suffice to have briefly 
 said, in accordance with the demands of this present work, about 
 the notable deeds of William Wallace ; for we have yet to tell 
 the story of other men not inferior in renown to him, and we 
 must not spend all our labour in the celebration of one man, 
 however lofty his distinction. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. — Of those famous theologians Richard Middleton and 
 John Duns: likewise of the contest for the Scottish throne, and of the 
 feats of the new kings of that country. 
 
 It was about this time that Richard Middleton, whom the 
 French call " de Media Villa", flourished. He spent much 
 labour in the writing of four books of no slight merit upon 
 the Sentences, with Quodlibets 1 . I forget at this moment 
 whether he studied at Oxford or at Cambridge 2 ; but he was 
 an English Briton. Near to him in date, only later, wrote 
 John Duns, that subtle doctor, who was a Scottish Briton, 
 for he was born at Duns, a village eight miles distant from 
 England, and separated from my own home by seven or eight 
 leagues only 3 . When he was no more than a boy, but had been 
 already grounded in grammar, he was taken by two Scottish 
 Minorite friars to Oxford, for at that time there existed no 
 university in Scotland. By the favour of those friars he lived 
 in the convent of the Minorites at Oxford, and he made his 
 profession in the religion of the Blessed Francis. As he was 
 a man of the loftiest understanding and the keenest powers in 
 debate, his designation of 4 the subtle" was fully justified. At 
 Oxford he made such progress that he left behind him for the 
 admiration of after ages a monumental work upon the Meta- 
 physics and the four books of the Sentences. These writings 
 
 1 ' Quodlibets ' or ' Quotlibets ', a name given to questions proposed for free 
 discussion in the schools of theology. Middleton's ' Quodlibets ' were printed 
 with the commentaries on the Sentences at Venice in 1509. He wrote also on 
 the Epistles of St. Paul and the four Gospels. 
 
 2 At Oxford ; see ante, p. 23, note \ 
 
 3 Major's positive statement as to the birthplace of Duns Scotus may be 
 admitted to have some value. Scotus is also claimed as a native of Ireland 
 (Down), and of Northumberland (Dunstane). A monument was erected to 
 his memory at Cologne in 1513, with the following inscription: scotia me 
 
 GENUIT : ANGLIA ME SUSCEPIT : GALLIA ME DOCUIT ! COLONIA ME TENET. 
 
chap, xvi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 207 
 
 of his are commonly called the English or the Oxford work l . 
 
 When he was afterwards summoned by the Minorites of Paris 
 
 to that city, he produced there another set of lectures on the 
 
 Sentences, more compendious than the first edition, and at the 
 
 same time more useful. These lectures we have but lately 
 
 caused to be printed with metal types 2 . In the end he went Death of the 
 
 to Cologne, and there died while still a young man. Subtle Doctor. 
 
 After the death of Alexander the Third at Kinghorn, there 
 arose a doubtful and indeed inexplicable question as to the Controversy as 
 right of succession to the kingdom. John Baliol, Robert ruie^nScoUand. 
 Bruce, and Hastings, each of them set forth his claim in law to 
 the kingdom of the Scots ; but inasmuch as each had a large 
 following in Scotland, the disentanglement of the legal claim 
 was no easy matter. They remitted the question to Edward 
 the First, the same whom men call Edward Longshanks, and Edward Long- 
 he gave judgment in favour of John Baliol. The story goes ^^^St™ 
 that this John promised that he would hold the kingdom of 
 Scotland as from the English king. For three years then 
 Baliol held supreme power among the Scots ; but as far as in 
 him lay he permitted the subjection of Scotland to the English 
 king, and, being otherwise of coward temper, the Scots drove 
 him from his place, when he passed into France, and there went 
 the way of all flesh. The story further goes that at the time Death of 
 when Edward was in Scotland, and was there carrying every Ballcl - 
 thing at his pleasure, Robert Bruce had stirred up John Reid 
 Cumming — [' hoc est rubrum Cumyngum] ', — for his complexion 
 was sanguine — to lay claim to the kingdom ; for the Cumming 
 family was among the most powerful among the Scots. Now 
 Cumming, inasmuch as he knew that he had no good claim to 
 urge in his own behalf, was reluctant to follow the counsels and 
 persuasions of Bruce in this matter. He went further ; for he 
 promised his support to Bruce, who had the clearest right to 
 the throne, if only he would seize it for himself. 
 
 1 opus Anglicanum sive Oxoniense. 
 
 2 'quam lecturam chalcographis imprimendam hisce diebus dedimus'. Of 
 this work the following editions are in the Bodleian library : (i) Questiones 
 quodlibetales familiarissime reportate per Petmm Thataretum [more properly 
 ' Tataretum '], fol. Par. 15 19 ; (ii) Lucidissima commentaria sive {tit vocant) 
 reportata in quatuor libros sententiarum et quodlibeta Io. Dims Scoti, etc., fol. 
 Venet. 1607. Petrus Tataretus was a Paris doctor of theology ; and by Major's 
 ' we ' (in 1 dedimus ') we may probably understand the theological faculty of 
 Paris — or that he himself had a hand in it. 
 
208 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 Now here, between our own and the English chroniclers, I find 
 no trifling discrepancy of statement. The English chroniclers 
 give forth that the family of the Cummings was completely loyal 
 to the English rule, and that for this cause it was that John 
 Gumming met his death at the hands of Bruce. Far different is the 
 Scottish version of the story. For our chroniclers aver that by 
 an authentic agreement in writing between Bruce and dimming 
 they had promised, each the other, to take or wrest by force 
 the kingdom out of Edward's hands, and that this secret agree- 
 ment was divulged by the Cummings to the English king. 
 Another version of the story is this : that the wife of John 
 Cumming, without her husband's knowledge, declared the 
 secret to the English king ; while still others see reason to 
 believe that its betrayal was due to John Cumming himself. 
 But, however this may be, so much is certain, that when 
 English Edward came to hear from the Cumming family of 
 this most secret agreement, he aimed to compass the death of 
 Robert Bruce, and would have succeeded in his endeavour had 
 not Robert made his escape to Scotland. With all the speed 
 he could, Robert bent his steps from London northward ; and 
 when he had reached Dumfries, which is a town no long distance 
 from the borders, he happened on John the Red Cumming in 
 a convent of Minorite friars ; and there, and before the high 
 altar — such was the fury of his anger — he struck John with his 
 dagger, not thinking otherwise than that he had dealt him a 
 mortal wound. It was about that time that William Wallace 
 was led captive to London. 
 
 Robert, when he had thus struck down the Cumming, 
 left the church ; and thereupon two among his friends, 
 the lord John Lindsay and the lord Roger Kirkpatrick, per- 
 ceiving from the pallor of his face that somewhat had deeply 
 moved him, asked him what then it was that he had done ; 
 and when he had declared the whole matter to them in its 
 sequence, they asked if the Cumming's wound were mortal. 
 To this he answered that indeed he knew not ; whereat they 
 blamed him somewhat harshly, that in a thing of such 
 moment, and where he had to deal with a man of this con- 
 dition and standing, he had left aught in doubt. Instantly 
 they enter the sacred building, and finding the Cumming on 
 the ground behind the high altar, they ask him whether he 
 
CHAP. XVII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 209 
 
 thought he might yet recover. And when he had answered 
 
 yes, that indeed he thought he might yet recover from his 
 
 wound, if only they would fetch to him a skilful chirurgeon, 
 
 these men barbarously slew him. This crime it was that gained 
 
 for Robert Bruce the undying enmity of the powerful house of 
 
 Gumming. But all the same, his friends remained true to him. 
 
 He went to Scone, and there — though his action herein was by 
 
 no means without danger to himself, seeing that he had against 
 
 him the English king, the Cummings, the Baliols, the house 
 
 of Hastings, and all their followers — he assumed the royal Robert Bruce 
 
 crown. He lost no time in sending to Rome to crave absolu- 1S crownet ■ 
 
 tion from the censure of the church that followed the homicide 
 
 that had been committed in a church. But before I make the 
 
 attempt duly to celebrate the achievements of Robert Bruce, I 
 
 will strive to disentangle the intricate questions of law that are 
 
 involved in the conflicting claims of himself and his opponents. 
 
 CHAP. XVII. — Containing many reasons in support of the claim of 
 Robert Bruee ; and, in preface to these, the whole issue of Malcolm 
 down to the present king is given infill. 
 
 Here it will be desirable to trace the claim of Robert Bruce Robert Bruce, 
 from Malcolm Canmore ; for, from what has been said above, 
 you will remember that there were born to Malcolm Canmore Malcolm Can- 
 and his wife, English Margaret, six sons and two daughters. more s lssue ' 
 Three sons there were, whom I mention only to pass them by ; 
 for they had no issue, and their lives were not otherwise note- 
 worthy. Three sons in succession held the kingly power : 
 Edgar, Alexander, and David ; but Edgar and Alexander died 
 without issue. To David was born one son only, that is, 
 Henry earl of Huntingdon ; and this Henry begot three sons, 
 to wit, Malcolm, William, and David ; but he predeceased his 
 father. On the death of David, his grandson Malcolm suc- 
 ceeded him, ruled the Scots for twelve years, and died unmar- 
 ried : to him succeeded his brother William, who was father to 
 Alexander the Second ; and this Alexander the Second was 
 father to Alexander the Third by Margaret queen of Scotland, 
 who was sister to king Edward. To Alexander the Third 
 were born two sons, but they died both of them without issue. 
 
 o 
 
210 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY [book nr. 
 
 The third Alexander had likewise one daughter, Margaret by 
 name, who married the king of Norway ; and to him she bore 
 an only daughter, Margaret also by name, who died before 
 she had arrived at marriageable years. And with this daughter 
 came to an end the direct succession in the line of actual 
 monarchs, that is, from Malcolm Canmore and his queen, 
 Margaret of England. 
 David of Hunt- It remains, therefore, to retrace our steps in search of the 
 descent', was 3 al nearest rightful heir to the kingdom, and him we find in that 
 never king. David of Huntingdon who was never king 1 . But to this David 
 
 1 The subjoined table of descent will show at a glance what Major's state- 
 ment is. Isabella, however, who married Robert Bruce was the second daughter 
 of David earl of Huntingdon, and not, as Major here says, the third daughter. 
 In ch. xiii. of this Book he rightly says — though without naming her — that the 
 third daughter of David earl of Huntingdon (i.e. Ada) married Hastings. By 
 MALCOLM CANMORE == MARGARET OF ENGLAND. 
 
 i i j i i 
 
 Edgar, King, Alexander i., King, David i., King. Three sons. Three daughters. 
 s.p. s.p. 
 
 Henry, Earl of Huntingdon 
 
 (predeceased his father). 
 
 Malcolm ii., King. William [the 'Lion], King. 
 
 I 
 
 Alexander [I. = Margaret, sister of 
 Edward i. of England. 
 
 I 
 
 Alexander m. 
 I 
 
 I I 
 Two sons, Margaret, = King of Norway. 
 
 s.p. 
 
 Margaret, 
 s.p. 
 
 this Henry de Hastings she was mother of that Henry de Hastings who was 
 father to John de Hastings (competitor). Ada and her descendants, since they 
 are not here mentioned by Major, are not included in the pedigree now given. 
 
 Henry de Hastings claimed that the succession should be divided between the 
 descendants of the three daughters as co-heiresses. Edward the First decided 
 in favour of Baliol on the ground of seniority of descent as against Robert Bruce, 
 and dismissed the claim of Hastings, because the crown, like other titles or 
 honours, was indivisible. For reasons in favour of the view that Marjory was 
 the daughter and not the sister of Darvargilla, and that Wyntoun's statement, 
 book viii. line 1264, is an error, see Macpherson's notes, in Laing's Wyntoun, 
 vol. iii. p. 278. 
 
( HAP. XVII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 211 
 
 were born three daughters : the eldest of them, Margaret, he 
 gave in marriage to Alan, earl of Galloway, and to this Alan 
 she bore three daughters, the eldest of whom, by name Darvar- 
 gilla, was married to the lord John Baliol. Of this union the 
 issue was one son, John by name, who afterwards, by arbitral 
 decree of Edward, was created king of Scotland. This Baliol 
 king was father to Edward Baliol, who afterwards won the day 
 at Dupplin, and with Edward Baliol dies away the Baliol name. 
 The second daughter of Darvargilla was Marjory, whom John 
 Cumming had in marriage ; to him she bore John the Red Cum- 
 ming, the same whom Robert Bruce slew at Dumfries. To the 
 same John Cumming, too, Marjory bore an only daughter, whom 
 David earl of Athole had to wife. By her earl David had 
 several sons, who have naught to say to our present investiga- 
 tion. David earl of Huntingdon had yet a third daughter, 
 namely Isabella, who was married to the lord Robert Bruce, 
 and by her he had one son, also named Robert. This Robert 
 was father to Robert earl of Carrick ; and he in turn was 
 
 I 
 
 David, Earl of Huntingdon. 
 
 Margaret, = Alan, Earl of Galloway. 
 Darvargilla, == John Baliol. 
 
 Isabella, = Robert Bruce. 
 Robert Bruce, Competitor. 
 
 J 
 
 John Baliol, Competitor 
 and King. 
 
 i r 
 
 Edward Baliol 
 s.p. 
 
 Marjory, == John Cumming. Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick. 
 
 John, the 
 Red Cumming. 
 
 I 
 
 Daughter, 
 m. David, 
 Earl of Athol. 
 I 
 
 Descendants. 
 
 Sister of = Robert Bruce, King. 
 Garthen, 
 Earl of Mar. 
 
 Marjory, == Walter, Steward of Scotland. 
 Robert II., == daughter of Adam Mure. 
 Robert III. 
 
 James i. 
 James II. 
 
 Mary of Guelders. 
 
 James in., == Margaret of 
 Norway. 
 
 I 
 
 James iv., 
 
 = Margaret, 
 daughter of 
 Henry VII. 
 
 Alexander, Duke of 
 Albany. 
 
 I 
 
 Two sons, John, Duke of 
 s.p. Albany, Regent 
 
 John, Earl of 
 Mar, s.p. 
 
 Daughter, = Lord 
 Hamilton. 
 
 I 
 
 Son. Daughter, 
 
 Stewart 
 Earl of 
 Lennox. 
 
 James v. 
 
212 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 The duke of 
 Albany. 
 
 father to king Robert, and had other sons and daughters. But 
 Robert the king, before he came to the throne, and when he 
 was earl of Carrick, took to wife the sister of Garthen earl 
 of Mar, by whom he had an only daughter, named Marjory. 
 Walter, steward of Scotland, had her to wife, and to him she 
 bore an only son, who became king Robert the Second. This 
 second Robert, before he came to the throne 1 , had formed an 
 irregular alliance with one of the daughters of Adam Mure, a 
 soldier, and afterward, by a dispensation, he made her his 
 wife, and by her had Robert, the third of the name. This 
 Robert the Third was father to James the First ; and James 
 the First begot James the Second. James the Second had to 
 wife Mary, daughter of the duke of Guelders, who bore to him 
 three sons and two daughters. Of these the eldest son became 
 James the Third ; the second, Alexander, became duke of 
 Albany ; the third, who died without issue, was John earl of 
 Mar. The duke of Albany, however, married a wife in France, 
 from Auvergne, by whom he had John, who at this present is 
 resent in Scotland. A sister of James the Third was married 
 to the lord Hamilton, and she bore to him a son and a daughter, 
 who are now living. The daughter became wife to Stewart 
 earl of Lenox. James the Third had to wife Margaret, daughter 
 to the king of Norway, by whom he had James the Fourth and 
 that king's two brothers. These brothers, however, left no 
 issue. James the Fourth had to wife Margaret, daughter of 
 Henry the Seventh, the English king, and by her he had issue, 
 of whom one only survives, James the Fifth to wit, a boy of 
 six years 2 . Such then is the genealogy of the Scottish kings. 
 Whence it follows that John duke of Albany is next heir to 
 James the Fifth, and next heir to John is that Hamilton whose 
 grandson is earl Lenox, Stewart by name, and he has brothers 
 and sisters. 
 
 The question of From this I think it is in part plain to which among the 
 reso S ived eSS ° n three claimants the right of succession appertained. In behalf 
 of Robert Bruce this argument is adduced : He was born before 
 John Baliol. But against this we have the following no way 
 contemptible argument : Either the mother of John Baliol or 
 
 1 Iste rex de facto. 
 
 2 This fixes the date of the writing of this part of Major's History as 1518. 
 
 James the 
 Fourth. 
 
 James the 
 Fifth. 
 
( hap. xvii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 213 
 
 the mother of Robert Bruce was heir to the throne of Scot- 
 land ; and whichever of these was heir, to her her son succeeds. 
 And I will take my stand, not only on the mothers of the rival 
 claimants, but will go further, to the three daughters of David 
 earl of Huntingdon, and ask which of these was heiress of the 
 Scottish crown, or would have succeeded to it had she lived, 
 since the child succeeds to the parent deceased, as it would to 
 the parent had he lived. But leaving this dispute, which seems 
 to have given some colour to the judgment of king Edward, 
 I state my conclusion thus : Robert Bruce alone and his heirs 
 had and have an indisputable claim to the kingdom of Scot- 
 land. This conclusion I do not rest upon the fact that Robert The manifest 
 had priority to John by way of birth, but upon another argu- Bruce to the 
 ment, and it is this : John Baliol, born of the elder daughter, gUJgJjJ of 
 departing from his just rights, and relinquishing his whole 
 claim to Edward of England, showed himself thereby unfit to 
 reign, and justly was deprived of his right, and of the right 
 inhering in his children, by those in whom alone the decision 
 vested. Now this decision vested in the rest of the kingdom. 
 Secondly, this argument maybe used, to the same result: A The consent of 
 free people confers authority upon its first king, and his power rnake^ew*" 1 
 is dependent upon the whole people 1 ; for no other source of king ' 
 power had Fergus, the first king of Scotland ; and thus you 
 shall find it where you will and when you will from the begin- 
 ning of the world. I say it was for this cause that the kings 
 of Judaea were appointed by God. If you tell me that Henry 
 the Eighth traces his claim to Henry the Seventh, I will mount 
 up to the first of the English kings, and ask, Whence did he, 
 then, derive his right to be king ? and so would I proceed 
 throughout the history of the world. And it is impossible to 
 deny that a king held from his people his right to rule, inas- 
 much as you can give him none other 2 ; but just so it was that 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. iv. ch. iii. 
 
 2 M. Charles Jourdain, in his « Memoire sur la royaute francaise et le droit 
 populaire d'apres les ecrivains du moyen age ' {Excursions historiques, Paris, 
 1888, p. 513) has collected a number of passages from the scholastic theologians 
 which illustrate Major's doctrine on this subject. Scotus, among others {in Sent, 
 lib. iv. dist. 15. qu. 2), seems to make the consent of the people the source of 
 all political authority. John of Salisbury (d. 1180), who held kings to be the 
 representatives of divinity, and as such to be loved, venerated, and obeyed, 
 
214 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 the whole people united in their choice of Robert Bruce, as of 
 one who had deserved well of the realm of Scotland. Thirdly 
 it maybe argued, only to result in the same conclusion: A 
 people may deprive their king and his posterity of all authority, 
 when the king's worthlessness calls for such a course, just as at 
 first it had the power to appoint him king. This is clear from 
 a consideration of the fact that the kingly rule amongst the 
 Romans had to give way to an aristocracy ; and Pepin king 
 of the French was successor to another king who had been 
 deposed. Fourthly it may be argued, in the same direction : 
 In what concerns kings, that is to be done which most con- 
 duces to the common weal. An instance in point would be 
 where a country is attacked by a foreign foe, and where the 
 king — we will call him A — cannot defend it, and even consents 
 to its overthrow ; and another man — say B — comes to the 
 rescue, snatches his country from the clutch of the invader, 
 and holds it safe with his own right hand. A deserves to be 
 deposed, and B deserves to be in his stead imposed. But just 
 so was it in our own case : Igitur. Fifthly it may be 
 argued : John Baliol and the nobles of the realm ought to 
 have been willing that Robert Bruce should bear rule ; there- 
 fore Robert Bruce ought to have been no less willing to do so. 
 The premiss of this argument is plain. They ought to have 
 wished that that mystical body 1 of which they were parts should 
 endure intact and in good condition ; and this result could 
 not have been attained but by the expulsion of John Baliol, 
 and the institution of Robert Bruce to royal power : Ergo. 
 
 nevertheless taught that if a king acted contrary to the law, and oppressed his 
 subjects, he became a tyrant ; and he devotes an entire chapter to demonstrate 
 that every tyrant is a public enemy, and that it is not only lawful but just and 
 equitable to put him to death. Gerson, the chancellor of Paris (who would 
 have been a high authority with Major), writes as follows in his Considerationes 
 priiicipibus et dominie titilissimae, Opp. t. iv. col. 624 : ' It is a further error to 
 hold that kings are emancipated from every obligation towards their subjects ; 
 on the contrary, alike by natural and divine law, they owe to their subjects 
 equity and protection. If they fail in this, if they act with injustice in regard to 
 their subjects— above all, if they persevere in their iniquity, the time has come 
 for the application of that law of nature : to meet force with force [vim vi re- 
 pellere]. Has not Seneca said that there is no victim more acceptable to God 
 than a tyrant ? ' For a further statement of Major's views see infra, pp. 219, 220. 
 
 1 Orig. and F. ' Debebant velle illud quo corpus mysticum . . . maneret 
 incolume '. ? For 1 illud quo ' to read ' quod illud '. 
 
CHAP. XVIII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 215 
 
 Sixthly it is argued : It is leisome to a free people in a certain 
 event to depose a king whose mere legal claim admits not of a 
 doubt (this we have already shown), and to appoint as king- 
 one who has no such claim as this ; therefore, a fortiori, it is 
 leisome in a like case to depose a king whose claim is ambigu- 
 ous and to place upon the throne another whose claim is like- 
 wise ambiguous. Now, just like this is the case which we 
 have now under review : Igitur. Seventhly and lastly, this 
 argument may be used : Whose it is to appoint a king, his it 
 likewise is to decide any incident of a doubtful character that 
 may arise concerning that king ; but it is from the people, and 
 most of all from the chief men and the nobility who act for 
 the common people, that kings have their institution ; it 
 belongs therefore to princes, prelates, and nobles to decide as 
 to any ambiguity that may emerge in regard to a king ; and 
 their decision shall remain inviolable. But just thus was it 
 with Robert Bruce, and then most of all when he had driven 
 from the kingdom those who had been active disturbers of the 
 kingdom's peace : Igitur. See then by what considerations 
 we have cleared the way for the indubitable claim of Robert 
 Bruce and his successors to the throne of Scotland. And if in 
 addition he had a claim to urge as lineal successor, far be it 
 from me to gainsay that claim ; but the reasons that I have 
 adduced suffice, in my opinion, to demonstrate the conclusion 
 just laid down. 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. — Of the objections thai may be urged against this 
 conclusion, and their solution. 
 
 But inasmuch as the solution of doubts is the manifestation 
 of the truth, I will tabulate some arguments which may be 
 advanced against the cogency of the conclusion that I have 
 arrived at ; for that is the chief pillar of a conclusion. First of 
 all, it is argued thus : The kings of England are superior to the First Argument, 
 kings of the Scots ; therefore Robert Bruce acted wrongly in 
 the resistance that he made, and in driving the English out of 
 Scotland. The premiss is doubly plain : first of all, because First proof of 
 the kings of the Scots very frequently did homage to the Eng- ^^^f ^ 
 lish kings, and went to London ; and, secondly, John Baliol ? proof. 
 
216 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 who was the lineal descendant of the elder sister, made over 
 his right : Igltur. 
 Answer to First of all, I deny the premiss, and towards the proving 
 of my point, where you say that the Scots did homage to the 
 English, I make distinction of the proposition thus : They did 
 this either in behalf of the counties of Huntingdon, Cumber- 
 land, and Northumberland, and in this I am at one with you ; 
 or they did so in behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, and this 
 I deny. For when your Edward and the Scots, the while the 
 Scottish throne was vacant, had been for a long time pleading 
 their respective causes before the Roman pontiffs, and on both 
 sides had produced what evidence they could muster, the pontiff 
 gave judgment that in matters temporal the king of Scotland 
 was subject to no one. So much is plain upon the very face of 
 the matter ; but inasmuch as the Scots, all without a king as 
 they then were, had no fancy to become Edward's prey, they 
 took action before the pontiff' in behalf of the kings of Scotland 
 as to those lands which of old they had held in England, to the 
 end that they should be understood to do homage, mediately, 
 in respect of those territories only. It is no wise expedient 
 that kings do such homage as this in their own person. 
 Answer of the To the second objection I make twofold answer: this first — 
 second proof, ftisit what John Baliol did he did not of his free will, nor had 
 he lawful right to the kingdom ; this secondly — that, granting 
 him to have possessed indubitable legal right, and in the full 
 exercise of his free will to have made over that right to the 
 English king, such right would have been profitless to that 
 king. For kings cannot thus, according to their own mere 
 pleasure, divest themselves of their inherent right to their 
 kingdom, and confer the same upon another. Whence it 
 follows, that if the king of the French were to make grant of 
 the land of France to the Great Turk, such grant would not 
 hold. As a matter of fact, Charles the Sixth did make a grant 
 of France to the English king; but, this notwithstanding, 
 Charles the Seventh and the nobles of France prevented it from 
 taking effect. For a king has not the same unconditional 
 possession of his kingdom that you have of your coat 1 . 
 
 Cf. Bk. in. ch. iii., where Major makes use of a similar illustration. 
 
chap, xviii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 217 
 
 Secondly, it is argued thus : It would have been more The Second 
 profitable for the Scots to have been under English kings ; and Ar S ument >— 
 therefore Robert Bruce acted wrongly in making the resistance 
 that he did make. The premiss is plain: justice and good 
 government are more firmly stablished in England than in 
 Scotland ; and that advantage the Scots would have had under 
 English rule 1 . 
 
 And this argument is supported as follows: The people of its confirmation. 
 Wales are in a better state under English rule than they would 
 be under kings of Wales, as has been said above : therefore, 
 the condition of the Scots would likewise have been better 
 under English than under Scottish kings. 
 
 Of this second argument I deny the conclusion. For though 
 it were indeed of more advantage to the common weal that 
 Sortes 2 should have my house and furniture than that I should The Answer to 
 
 trip TGConn. 
 
 have them, it does not therefore follow that I am under obliga- Argument, 
 tion to make them over to that person. But I would also wish 
 to make distinction of the premiss itself, that it would have 
 more advantage the Scots to have been subject to one king only 
 than to several kin^s. The English kino; might have held 
 Scotland by a just title, by marriage, or in some other lawful 
 way ; and then I grant you your proposition ; — or he might 
 have held it by violence and oppression, and such claim as this 
 is to be denied, nor indeed is it likely to emerge. 
 
 From all which I will now be bold enough to make this here- Prop ^fjj™^ 
 following statement. There were formerly in Britain nine or of Britain 0 
 ten kingdoms, as is plain from discourse of history. The 
 Scots now hold the kingdom of the Picts. The English hold 
 Wales, and various of the old kingdoms among the English, 
 small though these were ; and so it comes about that at this 
 present there are two kingdoms and no more. It would be of 
 the utmost advantage to both these kingdoms that they should 
 be under the rule of one monarch, who should be called king of 
 Britain, provided only that he were possessed of a just and honest 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. iv. ch. xii. p. 190. 
 
 2 1 Sortes ' is the name most generally applied throughout Major's in Quartum 
 Sententiarum to the imaginary figure in an illustration. It is Sortes, for instance, 
 who lets the farm of Gleghornie to Plato — Plato being the name chosen where 
 a second figure is required. For a woman, Berta is the most common name 
 throughout the In Quartum. 
 
218 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 title thereto ; and to gain this end I see no other means than 
 by way of marriage 1 ; for the kings of each country ought to 
 give their sons and daughters in marriage one to another, even 
 though these were within forbidden degrees of kinship, for 
 which the pontiff could grant a dispensation. And any man, 
 be he Englishman or Scot, who will here say the contrary, he, I 
 say, has no eve to the welfare of his country and the common 
 good. For on such a footing only could both peoples live in 
 peace one with another ; and only in time of peace can God, 
 the Author of peace, be duly worshipped, and only at such a 
 time can men give themselves to the practice of their religious 
 duties. 
 
 The evils Consider for a moment the evils that are brought about by a 
 of war. state of warfare. When you find a strip of land whose exact 
 boundary is uncertain, it is suffered to lie waste ; and even when 
 the boundaries are known, to a distance of eight or nine leagues, 
 the country is given up to fire and sword. Many noble men 
 of both kingdoms meet their end by the sword, so that among 
 some families of a combative temper you shall not find a single 
 member who has died in his bed. Great too is the loss of all 
 kinds that results when hostile galleys and other vessels meet 
 upon the sea ; great too the expense that is involved in the 
 maintenance of armies, and the death that lags not far behind. 
 Would it not then be well worth our while one day to put an 
 end to all this ? And when by right of marriage any one — be 
 he Scot or Englishman — came to have a just claim to the 
 kingdom, the man who should set himself in opposition to 
 such a consummation would have much to answer for. And 
 when it is borne in mind that the two nations are each of 
 them proud, and confident in valour, I see not how, without 
 the recognition of some just and undoubted title, such a happy 
 solution can ever be attained. I do not forget that there are 
 crafty men, more bent upon their private advantage than on 
 the common weal, who will deny what I now affirm, and base 
 their argument upon this or that sophistical reasoning. Such, 
 for instance, are certain powerful Englishmen and Scots, who 
 themselves aspire to the sovereignty, and therefore are unwill- 
 
 Cf. ante, p. 41. 
 
chap, xvih.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 219 
 
 ing to have over them a king more firmly placed upon his 
 
 throne, or who regard foreign kingdoms more with a view to 
 
 their own private advantage than to that of the common weal, 
 
 and feel that such a union would be to their own loss. As to Argument of 
 
 the argument that may be drawn from the case of Wales, I connrmatlon - 
 
 say that Wales and Scotland in this matter are not upon the 
 
 same footing. For the English conquered the AVelsh with 
 
 ease, but not so the Scots, as the event proved ; inasmuch as 
 
 for a long time these have dared to make manful resistance to 
 
 the English, and on occasion have even not feared to carry the 
 
 attack into the enemy's country. 
 
 The third argument is this : If the whole people be above Arg. 3. 
 the king, this conclusion follows, that at the will and pleasure 
 of the people kings might be deposed, which would bring no 
 little disaster on the state. The fourth argument is this : Any Arg. 4. 
 private owner can sell his lands, or squander his holding, or 
 make grant of his property to another ; therefore the king may 
 do the same with his kingdom. The consequence holds; for when 
 the opposite of the consequence is given along with the premiss, 
 this conclusion follows, and 'tis far removed from the truth, in- 
 asmuch as the king has not of his kingdom that full and fair 
 possession which a private owner has of his own estate. 
 
 Of the third argument I deny the consequence, for only Answer to the 
 with the greatest difficulty could kings be driven from their Jj^jj Ar s u " 
 kingdom ; for were it otherwise, you should have the state 
 in continual disturbance from civil war, and 'tis a harder 
 thing than you think to rob a rightful king and his posterity 
 of his kingdom. True it is, nevertheless, that men of old time 
 have deposed their kings, and rightfully deposed them, for foul 
 vices of which these showed no mind to be corrected. But if 
 kings are any way corrigible they are not to be dismissed, for 
 what fault you will ; but then, and only then, when their 
 deposition shall make more for the advantage of the state 
 than their continuance. And when that happens men may 
 begin to think of flying ; for unless under a solemn considera- 
 tion of the matter by the three estates, and ripe judgment 
 passed wherein no element of passion shall intrude, kings are 
 not to be deposed. 
 
 In answer to the fourth argument let it be said that the Answer to 
 
 the fourth. 
 
220 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [book iv. 
 
 conclusion is null. For the king is a public person, and alto- 
 gether such in this manner, that he presides over his kingdom 
 for the common weal and the greater advantage of the same. 
 But when the reins of government are by his very touch defiled, 
 when he shows himself a squanderer of public treasure, and 
 brings his country to the verge of ruin, he is no longer worth v 
 to rule. For he holds of his people no other right within his 
 kingdom but as its governor. But of his own private propertv 
 every man is himself the only manager and judge. 
 
 Fifthly it is objected : In a real body the head lias the pre- 
 eminency over all the other members ; therefore also in a 
 mystical body the head is chief over all the rest of the 
 members. It is answered : The conclusion is null ; for the 
 proof from similars fails not, for the most part, to limp on its 
 fourth foot. Now that we have, as it were, cleared of its 
 surrounding husk the claim of Robert Bruce to the throne of 
 Scotland, and made accurate statement of the same, not 
 omitting the while to clear away those objections that may 
 here and there be urged against it, it remains to declare his 
 acts, and tell in what maimer he bore himself as a monarch. 
 
 CHAP. XIX.— Of the acts of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, and 
 the calamities which befell him. 
 
 That man would need the strength of Atlas, or the power, 
 like Daedalus, to wing a skiev flight, who should rightly tell 
 the life of Robert Bruce ; but such an one being still to seek. 
 I propose in a short compass — for indeed the time is wanting, 
 and the leisure too — to sing this hero's life, tamely enough I fear. 
 King Robert When Robert Bruce, with the help of his own friends, had 
 taken his place upon the throne, there marched against him, 
 in the thirteen hundred and sixth year from the Virgin's 
 travail, on the nineteenth day of June, Odomar de Valence, 
 guardian of Scotland, and at Methven met him in battle, 
 He is defeated, wherein Robert was conquered and put to flight, though with 
 the loss of few only among those who clave to him. This 
 defeat the common people chose to look upon as an evil omen 
 for Robert, and just as if he had been a man fated to bring 
 ill luck, against whom Fortune had a spite, they utterly 
 
 Fifth Argu- 
 ment. 
 
 Answer. 
 
chap, xix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 221 
 
 deserted him. He went thereafter to Athole and Argyll, and 
 
 there lav for certain days in hiding ; but on the third day of the 
 
 ides of August he was once more attacked by English and Scot 
 
 alike, and chiefly by those of the Cumming family, and again 
 
 suffered defeat and utter rout. At Dalary, however, he lost He is defeated 
 
 but few of his own following. To Saint Duthac x , which is at a secon time " 
 
 the furthest limit of Scotland in one direction, the queen, his 
 
 wife, made her escape ; but she was there taken prisoner by His wife is 
 
 William Cumming, carried by him to the king of England, taken prisoner 
 
 and by that king kept in strict confinement till the time of 
 
 the battle of Bannockburn. In the same year did Nigel Bruce, 
 
 the king's own brother, find a refuge, with a number of the 
 
 nobles, in the castle of Kildrummie. But that castle by 
 
 Scottish treachery fell into the hands of the English king, and 
 
 Nigel Bruce, with many other men of mark, was carried to His brother 
 
 Berwick, and there paid, he and all his fellows, the last penalty prifo^e/and 1 
 
 of all. Thomas, too, and Alexander, brothers to the king, slain. 
 
 • i« ° Thomas and 
 
 were made captive at Lochryan, carried to Carlisle, and there Alexander, the 
 beheaded. Without a brother, without wife, without any of j£e^aken°and S ' 
 near kin to stand by him, the finger of scorn was on all sides slain- 
 
 J . & . i-TP Robert Bruce 
 
 pointed at the Scottish king. Plots were laid against his life is left desolate, 
 by the English, by many among the Scots, and of these most 
 of all by the party of the Baliols and the Cummings — and in 
 such wise that, with the company of one or two faithful fol- 
 lowers, he lived from day to day in forest or in thicket, with 
 grass for food, with water for his drink instead of wine. A 
 strange spectacle, surely, this — of a man with manifold kindred 
 in England and in Scotland, the inheritor in both kingdoms of 
 wide domains, destitute utterly of the comforts of existence. 
 Many a time, I take it, must that hero have thought within 
 himself, and said to himself, that he would have better con- 
 sulted his own safety in leading the life of a private person 
 than in the quest of a kingly throne by the doubtful issue of 
 war. But in a situation so distressful he could not have held 
 his lands securely, nor yet his life. Nothing therefore remained 
 for him but to prosecute and establish his claim to the king- 
 dom ; for to Edward of England and to the Cummings he had 
 become so much an object of hatred that from them he could 
 
JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 hope for no favour. Hunger, therefore, and thirst he bore, 
 and toil and trouble, and sweat of battle, and all contempt 
 and ignominy, with equal mind, or at least with patience, in 
 the trust that Fortune could not remain his enemy for ever. 
 Some men, and such was Priam, have happiness at the outset 
 of life, and, at its close, misery ; but others again you shall 
 find whose beginning is in adversity but their end in joy. This 
 man, therefore, labours unweariedly with unconquered spirit 
 to gain a kingdom. Some have affirmed that these hardships 
 at the outset befel him in punishment for his slaying of the 
 Cumming in a church. 
 
 But in the following year, when he was in exile among the 
 island Scots, when his spirit revived under the kindly care of a 
 certain noble, he took the determination to regain somewhat 
 of his lands, or lose his life in the attempt. First of all, then, 
 he made for his native soil of Carrick, and there gained posses- 
 sion of one strong fortalice, whose garrison he slew, dividing 
 the spoil among his followers, and summoning his friends, all 
 he could. Thence lie sought the northern parts of Scotland. 
 He took by storm the castle of Innyrnes or Invernes, razed it 
 to the ground, and left no single member of its garrison alive ; 
 and so he passed through the northern parts. But a little 
 later in the same year John Cumming, earl of Buchan, gathers 
 together a force of Englishmen and Scots, and marches against 
 Robert Bruce. When they perceived, however, that the king 
 showed a fearless front, they make a truce on both sides for a 
 while. About the same time Simon Fraser, Walter Logan, 
 knights both, and many other fighting men, were taken to 
 London, where they suffered the penalty of death. At the 
 hands of the Cummings too, and John Mowbray, a Scot, and 
 the English, Robert Bruce suffered many an insult ; but so 
 unwearied was he, and of so stout a heart, in his resistance, 
 that his name and fame grew brighter for the dark days that he 
 had passed through, and his valour stood forth always more 
 shining and conspicuous to all. Edward of England, there- 
 fore, brought together a large army, meaning to drive Robert 
 Death of Bruce forth from Scotland ; but as he drew near the Scottish 
 Edward, borders he fell sick, and so went the way of all flesh. 
 
 This Edward Longshanks reigned for five-and-thirty years. 
 
chap, xix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 223 
 
 About this matter our chroniclers have several things to say : 
 this, for instance, that a certain gentleman, by name William 
 Banister, saw the soul of king Edward being carried down 
 to hell ; and they have many evil things to say of Edward. 
 For myself, I do not place much trust in this sort of fabri- 
 cation. It is not of yesterday that I have observed how it is 
 the custom of the vulgar Scot to say nasty things about the 
 English \ and contrariwise. Love and hatred have this in 
 common : that alike they tend to becloud and blind our 
 intelligent judgment of things, and give an erroneous and 
 even perverse interpretation of actions the most excellent, 
 when these are the work of the other side. Now it behoves 
 every man, and most of all a priest, to rid himself of this 
 pestilent habit, and to weigh in equal scales whatever comes 
 before him for judgment. Otherwise such an one is unworthy 
 of confidence ; and in the present instance it will be our 
 duty to pass by what is improbable as if it were untrue. In 
 some things, nevertheless, I do indeed find Edward worthy of Edward is 
 censure, inasmuch as, when he had been chosen by the Scots as censured - 
 their neighbour at once and umpire in an abstruse point of 
 law regarding the succession to the throne, he acted wrongly 
 in using this occasion for his own special advantage, in sowing 
 amongst the Scots the seeds of civil war, nay, in giving all 
 care that these same seeds should come to maturity, to the 
 end that when the opposing parties had worn out each of 
 them the strength of the other, or perchance using for himself 
 the support of one of them, he might obtain the kingdom. 
 Now what is truly profitable is ever inseparable from the 
 truly moral. From what had taken place in the past it might 
 have been guessed that some day or other, when hatred of the 
 English rule had reached a certain pitch among the Scots, 
 they would drive the English out of the country, and that one 
 day would thus bear witness to the fruitless sweat of many a 
 hard- won battle. But whatever his wrongful deeds, all might 
 have been cancelled by penitence at the last, had he shown an 
 efficacious intention to make sufficient restitution. But whether 
 he did this, or whether, on the plea of invincible ignorance, 
 he is to be excused for not having done so — seeing that he may 
 1 Cf. Bk. i. ch. vii. p. 40. 
 
224 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book IV. 
 
 have honestly believed his advisers when they told him that he 
 himself held of John Baliol the right of succession to the Scot- 
 tish kingdom, and therefore was under no obligation to make 
 restitution for the injuries wrought upon the Scots — all this I do 
 not discover to be made out clearly, either one way or the other. 
 Merlin s Last of all, I note that Caxton makes mention of a pro- 
 prophecy. ph ecv Q f Merles about this same Edward. For English 
 Merlin, who was a seer, used to say that one day there should 
 sit upon the throne a dragon pitiful and brave, who should open 
 his mouth over Wales, and plant upon Wyk his foot. All this 
 they claim to have found fulfilment in Edward ; he conquered 
 Wales, and by Wyk the English understand Berwick to be sig- 
 nified. For my part, I grant his courage — to the point of 
 fierceness ; of his clemency I see but slight indications. By 
 Wyk I should rather be inclined to understand Wick in Caith- 
 ness, the outmost boundary of Scotland. Merlin says further 
 that this dragon would place a kingly crown upon the head of a 
 greyhound, who afterward, from fear of the dragon, should fly 
 beyond sea. This they explain of Edward and John Baliol, 
 though they show no reason for likening Baliol to a grey- 
 hound 1 . Merlin's prophecy about this same dragon went 
 further thus : that the greyhounds should long be bereaved 
 of father and shepherd, that in those days the sun should be 
 blood-red ; that the dragon should rear a fox, which should 
 make war against Edward, and that this war should not reach 
 an end in Edward's days. In Edward's days there was a 
 mighty shedding of blood, and for a long time the Scots 
 lacked a king. The fox they interpret to mean Robert Bruce. 
 But it is a certain fact that Robert Bruce was at the first a 
 partisan of Edward, though he was born in Scotland, for he held 
 large domains in both kingdoms of the Britons ; and though at 
 the first he was a favourer of Edward, yet in the end, and with 
 just title, he rebelled against him. It does not therefore appear 
 how he may be compared to a fox. But as to these prophecies, 
 my treatment shall be here, as elsewhere, dry and meagre. 
 
 1 We may recall, however, that Baliol, during his captivity in England, found 
 his chief amusement in hunting. His establishment then consisted of two 
 esquires, one huntsman, a barber, a chaplain, a steward, a butler, a washer- 
 woman, a seamstress, etc.; and he had at least two greyhounds {leporarii) and 
 ten hounds. — See Rev. J. Stevenson's Documents, etc., vol. i. p. xlviii. 
 
(HAP. XX.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 225 
 
 CHAP. XX. — Of Edward the Second, king of the English ; and of 
 the manner of waging war among the Britons. 
 
 Ox the death of Edward the First, whom our Countrymen Edward the 
 commonly call Edward Longshanks, there succeeded him j^jJJJJJj '« ofCar- 
 Edward the Second (that is, he was the second Edward after narvon 
 the conquest by the Normans). Him they also name ' of 
 Carnarvon seeing that he was born in a certain castle of 
 Wales which is called Carnarvon ; and for this reason he is 
 called Edward of Carnarvon. In the thirteen hundred and 
 seventh year from the redemption of the world he received in 
 marriage Isabella, daughter to the French king. He was 
 entirely under the influence of Peter Gavaston, a Gascon ; and Peter Gavaston. 
 the demeanour of this Peter therefore reached, and easily 
 reached, such a pitch of haughtiness that he came to hold the 
 chief men of the kingdom in contempt. These men, then, 
 pursued him with their hate, and at London they forced the 
 king to banish him the country. The king sent him, there- 
 fore, to the island of Ireland, and granted him full vice-regal 
 power in that part of it which was under English occupation. 
 A little time after he recalls him into England. Whereat 
 those noblemen were enraged not a little, chief amongst them 
 Thomas earl of Lancaster and the earl of Warwick, and they 
 behead Peter. But Caxton says that this Edward gathered Caxton. 
 together a great army wherewith to invade Scotland, and in 
 the thirteen hundred and fourteenth year of the Lord came to 
 Stirling. Him Robert Bruce met on a certain plain, and there victory of 
 Edward suffered defeat ; and many noteworthy Englishmen Robert Bruce - 
 fell on that day. This battle was fought on the feast of John 
 Baptist. With the remnant of his army Edward made for 
 Berwick, and afterward for London. But in the following Lent 
 the Scots capture Berwick from the English. About this 
 time two cardinals arrived from Rome in Britain, with the 
 hope of establishing a peace between the kings of Britain. 
 When they were near to Durham, these cardinals were robbed 
 of all they carried with them by Gilbert Mitton, an English 
 knight. This man, therefore, was beheaded and quartered, 
 and the four parts of his body sent to the four chief towns of 
 
226 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 the kingdom. About the same time the Scots ravaged all 
 Northumberland 1 , gave every village to the flames, slew the 
 men, nay, young men and women too they slew with every 
 circumstance of cruelty. In despoiling of churches they 
 showed themselves brutal and sacrilegious. Moved thereat, 
 John the Twenty-second 2 , the Roman pontiff, sent the censures 
 of the church to the archbishops of Canterbury and York, to 
 the end they should fulminate the same against the Scots. 
 Scotland they then subjected to an interdict, and one day or 
 other they excommunicated those three men : Robert Bruce, 
 Thomas Randolph, and James Douglas, with all their follow- 
 ing, until they should make satisfaction for the losses and 
 calamities that the English had suffered at their hands. It 
 followed that many good priests in Scotland, who refused to 
 celebrate divine service at the bidding of the king, were put 
 to death. And these punishments were most of all inflicted 
 because the Scots did not recognise Edward the Englishman 
 as their superior. So far Caxton. 
 The indepen- Some of what this man says is false ; some of it is improb- 
 Scots.° fthe able. The Scots have at no time recognised the English king 
 as their superior ; and so much was plainly set forth by John 
 the Twenty-second. I cannot lightly grant that the Scots put 
 to death youths, women, and men unfit for war, for that is to me 
 improbable, and most of all that such things should have been 
 done by those illustrious and most magnanimous men ; since 
 never, in my opinion, for the last five hundred years, has the 
 other kingdom in our island produced three men more re- 
 nowned than these. Though Englishmen and Scots alike 
 wage war even in the present day in wild and fiery fashion, 
 such deeds as these are unknown amongst them. All the 
 more must they have been foreign to those valiant men. And 
 if indeed they acted as Caxton affirms of them, I condemn 
 them and abhor them for such wickedness. From such prac- 
 tices even civilised heathen are wont to abstain. 'Tis the part 
 of brave and magnanimous men to spare the conquered and 
 beat down the proud 3 . If one were to assert the same of the 
 
 1 ' toke and bore Englysshe mennes goodes as they had been sarasyns or 
 paynyms.' — Caxton, u.s., fo. lxxxix. 
 
 2 ' he was wonders sory that Christendom was so destroyed through the 
 Scottes. '—Ib. 3 Virgil : Aen. vi. 854. 
 
chap, xxi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 Highland and island Scots, when they had received provocation, 
 I could not lightly contradict him ; but these men are very 
 rarely taken out in war, for if they find in the southern parts 
 of the country a man who speaks English, they are but too 
 ready to seize his goods as their own ; nor are they well- 
 affected toward us on account of our English speech and 
 customs unlike their own. Hence it comes to pass, that only 
 in case of necessity, and under the eye of most watchful 
 generals, are they ever permitted to march against the English, 
 and all because of the quarrels that arise and the crimes that 
 they commit, in going and returning. The fact is, that in 
 actual warfare the southern Scots show themselves no less 
 humane than the English ; for they do not rob women of their 
 ornaments or their rich apparel, and if any among them should 
 have been guilty of such an attempt, they are restrained by 
 the nobles. One thing more I will add : that though, when 
 the combat is still going on and its issue remains doubtful, 
 Britons of different kingdoms fight fiercely one with another, 
 the victor ever shows himself of a singular clemency towards Clemency o 
 the conquered, and this is so even though he have received much JowPrds°a S 
 provocation. But in this devastation of Northumberland, in conquered foe. 
 my opinion, Edward the First inflicted the most severe losses 
 upon the Scots, and under him many thousands of Scots came 
 by their death. He robbed them of their kingdom and of all 
 that they possessed, relying upon the help of wicked men 
 among the Scots ; nor did he make any reparation to the Scots 
 for the losses that he brought upon them ; and the Scots 
 could not compass justice or other restitution ; therefore was 
 it leisome that they should win justice for themselves and by 
 their own hands. 
 
 CHAP. XXI. — Of the war which the Scots waged against Edward 
 the Second and its happy result; likewise of the learned men who at thai 
 time flourished in Britain. 
 
 Ox account of the defeat which had been inflicted on his The deeds of 
 nation by the Scots, Edward the Second gathered a huge army, fecond! the 
 and therewith invested Berwick, a boundary town and of the 
 strongest. When the Scots were ware of this they secretly 
 invaded England on the western boundary, by the Solway, and 
 
228 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 inflicted immense losses on the English ; they laid waste all Eng- 
 land as far as York. York is distant from the Scottish boun- 
 dary some fifty leagues or a little more. Now against those 
 Scots the English brought together at York a very large army, 
 to the making of which there went clergy, and common people, 
 and nobles ; and there was fought there, upon the twelfth day 
 of October, the battle of Myton Upswale 1 , in which the English 
 were defeated ; and of all the Englishmen in that army scarce 
 one was found that escaped ; for either, seeking safety in the 
 river, they were drowned, or they fell by the sword of the 
 Scots. Thereafter the Scots returned without loss to their 
 own country ; nor did Berwick fall into the hands of Edward. 
 Think, then, how the English historian whom we are tracking 
 recounts the story of those times, in a narrative most impro- 
 bable, which I can do naught but censure and reject. 
 
 About that time there flourished in England divers learned 
 men, two of whom — to wit, William Ockham 2 and Walter 
 Burley 3 — had learned under the Subtle Doctor. For Ockham 
 
 1 Commonly known as the ' Chapter of Mitton ', or, according to Caxton, 
 called by the Scots ' the whyte batayle ', from the number of clerics engaged in 
 it. Barbour {The Brus, cxxix.) writes of 
 
 ' Archaris, burges, and yhemanry, 
 Prestis, clerkis, monkis, and freris, 
 Husbandis, and men of all misteris, 
 Quhill that tha sammyn assemblit war 
 Wele tuenty thousand men and mar ; 
 Richt gud arming eneuch tha had. 
 The archbischop of York tha mad 
 Thar capitane. * * * 
 Of tha yhet thre hundreth war 
 Prestis that deit intill that chas ; 
 Tharfor that bargane callit was 
 The chaptour of Mytoun, for thar 
 Slane sa mony prestis war. ' 
 
 2 Cf. ante, p. 24 note, and note 3 on p. 229. 
 
 3 Walter Burley, a voluminous commentator on Aristotle, was born about 
 1275, died 1357. Nearly twenty separate editions of his philosophical treatises 
 were published before the end of the fifteenth century. His writings were 
 famous throughout Europe. Of his Ethics two editions were printed at Venice 
 in the fifteenth century, and the same work was one of the first books printed 
 at Oxford ( 1517), where it seems to have been used as a text-book at least till 
 the year 1535. One of his most popular works was the De Vita et moribus 
 philosophorwn, first published in 1467, and frequently reprinted and translated. 
 
chap, xxl] OF GREATER BRITAIN 229 
 
 was a man of keen intellect ; and albeit Altisiodorensis 1 and 
 Bonaventure 2 make mention of the Nominalists, yet before 
 Ockham we read of not one who was profoundly conversant 
 with this way. On the four books of the Sentences he wrote 
 as many books, — on the first book, indeed, he wrote at length. 
 The older writers in this line, and notably the Subtle Doctor, 
 he attacked, yet did he ever hold the latter in high veneration, 
 as appears from what he writes in the second distinction of his 
 first book and in other places. So true is it that these and 
 such like fair debates of the schools have their origin in no 
 unfriendly feeling, but rather, and simply, in the delight of 
 intellectual exercise. In his Dialogues, which contain much 
 that touches the supreme pontiff and the emperor, he lays down 
 no final conclusions, but leaves all to the judgment of his 
 hearers 3 . Ockham came from England with the Subtle Doctor 
 
 1 This now almost forgotten theologian, William of Auxerre (died about 
 1230) was held in the highest estimation by Major, who in his In Quartum 
 (Dist. xx. qu. 2) speaks of him as 'gravis et antiquus theologus Guilielmus 
 Altisiodorus ', and constantly quotes him as a primary authority by the side 
 of Alexander Hales, Aquinas, Scotus, and Bonaventure. William was born at 
 Auxerre (whence his appellation of Altisiodorensis — Autissiodurum being the 
 Roman name of Auxerre), became archdeacon of Beauvais, and professed 
 theology at Paris. His principal work was the Summa Aurea in quatnor libros 
 Sententiarum, a second edition of which was printed at Paris in 1500 and a third 
 in 1518. A fourth edition was apparently published at Venice in 1 591. William 
 of Auxerre was the first theologian who drew the distinction between the matter 
 and the form of the sacraments. A characteristic of his theological system (for 
 an account of which see Hist. Lilt, de la France, vol. xviii. pp. 1 15-122) was the 
 prominence he gave to Faith as the chief merit of a Christian, maintaining that 
 orthodoxy is a virtue superior to charity, and that salvation is better guaranteed 
 by beliefs than works. 
 
 2 John de Fidenza, better known as Saint Bonaventure, cardinal, bishop, 
 and doctor of the Church, was born in Tuscany in 1241, and died in 1274 while 
 assisting at the Council of Lyons. He wrote commentaries on Scripture and 
 many works of devotion as well as dogmatic theology, the character of which 
 obtained for him the title of ' Doctor Seraphicus '. The best edition of his col- 
 lected works is that published at Lyons in 1668, in seven volumes. 
 
 3 The Rev. John Owen, author of Evenings with the Skeptics, has been good 
 enough to point out to me that Major's language as to Ockham's position — 
 ' nihil definitive ponens, sed omnia auditorum judicio relinquens ' — is far from 
 justified. Quoting from Ockham's Dialogue Super Potestate Summi Pontijicis, 
 as contained in vol. ii. of Goldast's Monarchia, Mr. Owen shows that (p. 864) 
 Ockham holds that the Rock, in Matt. xvii. 18, refers not to Peter, but to Christ, 
 and insists that neither the ' Feed my sheep ' nor the ' Thou art Peter ' sane- 
 
230 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book iv. 
 
 Burley. to Paris ; Germany holds the bones of both 1 . Burley published 
 commentaries upon the books of the Ethics which are by no 
 
 Adam. means to be despised. Of the same date was Adam Godhame, 
 who heard Ockham make his responses at Oxford; a modest 
 man he was, but no way inferior to Ockham in learning or in 
 power of intellect 2 . 
 
 But lest this fourth book of ours should swell beyond its 
 predecessors, we will reef our sails; and just as our third book 
 came to an end with the narrative of the Blessed Thomas of 
 Canterbury, so will we wind up our fourth with a tribute to 
 these learned Englishmen. <And just as we ended our first 
 two books with an account of the doings of British Scots, so 
 let these two end with somewhat concerning British English- 
 men 3 . 
 
 tions any authority of place or function in respect of other Apostles. Further 
 (p. 871), all secular powers are from God, for the terror of the evil and praise of 
 the good ; (p. 872) it is expedient that all powers, ecclesiastical as well as 
 secular, should be under secular rule ; and (p. 900) the Pope is subject to the 
 Emperor wholly in secular, partly in sacred matters. He can have no other 
 superiority than Christ and His Apostles had under the Roman Empire. 
 
 In his masterly treatise on Ockham's principles {Evenings with the Skeptics, 
 vol. ii. pp. 339-420) Mr. Owen remarks that, ' like the free thinkers of the 14th 
 century, Ockham was a thorough-going Erastian ' ; while M. Haureau {Hist, 
 de la Phil. Scot. ) describes the ' Dialogus ' as a ' revolutionary pamphlet '. It is 
 true that Ockham professes not to give conclusions so much as materials for 
 forming them, and reserves his ultimate decision on the papal controversies for 
 a further treatise, which in fact never appeared ; but his own judgment is 
 throughout unmistakeable. Luther, who eagerly studied Ockham, speaks of 
 him as ' undoubtedly the chiefest and most ingenious of scholastic doctors ', and 
 in his Table Talk (Bell's translation, ed. 1652, p. 354) calls him 'an under- 
 standing and a rich sensible man '. 
 
 1 Scotus died at Cologne (as has been said, p. 206), Ockham at Munich, pro- 
 bably in 1347. 
 
 2 Adam Goddam, Godham, or Woodham, a Franciscan monk (died 1358) 
 resided chiefly at Oxford, Norwich, and London. Pits calls him 'a man of 
 blameless life, great gravity, acute intellect, and profound judgment'. His 
 Commentary on the Sentences, or an abridgment of it by Henry Oyta, printed 
 at Paris in 1 5 12, was edited by Major himself, who prefixed to it a brief life of 
 the author. Major, who had almost as high an opinion of Godham as of 
 Ockham, institutes in his ' De vita Ade ' an elaborate and amusing comparison 
 between the two theologians. See Appendix. There have been attributed to 
 Godham other works in MS., some commentaries on Scripture, treatises on the 
 Sacraments, etc. 
 
 3 1 Et ita ut duos primos libros in Scotis Britannis absolvimus : sic hos duos 
 in Anglis Britannicis claudemus. ' 
 
BOOK V. 
 
 CHAP. 1. — Of the rest of the warlike deeds of Robert Bruce and 
 his brother done against the English ; and of the unwise treaty that was 
 made at Stirling. 
 
 Ix the thirteen hundred and eighth year from that of the 
 Virgin's travail, Donald of the Isles marched against Robert 
 Bruce with a large army made up of Englishmen and Wild Scots, 
 and at the river Dee unfurled a hostile standard. Against 
 him went forth Edward Bruce, brother to Robert Bruce, 
 a man of strenuous energy in war, and Edward fought with 
 him, and conquered him, and took him prisoner when he was Donald of the 
 in act to fly. In the following year Robert Bruce conquered prisoner.^ 6 * 1 
 the Wild Scots of Argyll and laid siege to their chief, Alex- 
 ander of Argyll, in the castle of Dunstaffnage. He was 
 forced to surrender the castle to the king, but he refused to Alexander of 
 take the oath of fealty. For himself, however, and his conquered, 
 followers he besought a safe-conduct from the king, so that he 
 might thus make his way to England, and there lie ended his 
 thenceforth inactive life. Wretched surely may that man be His death, 
 deemed who chose rather to wait for death in a foreign country 
 than to take and bear what life might bring under his own 
 true king. In the following year, after he had driven many of 
 the English out of Scotland, the king won over to his own side 
 a large force among the Scots. In the year thirteen hundred 
 and twelve he besieged and took the town of Perth, and put to 
 the sword the rebels, whether Englishmen or Scots, that he 
 found there. In the same year was born Edward the Third, Edward the 
 
 ii , _ J . . . Third is born. 
 
 called oi Windsor. On Quinquagesima Sunday 1 oi the 
 following year James Douglas took the castle of Roxburgh. 
 In the same year Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, took 
 
 1 ' in carnisprivio '. ' Carnisprivium ' or 1 carniprivium ' was the name given 
 to the Sunday which preceded the Lenten fast ('ante carnes tollendas ') — i.e. 
 to Quadragesima Sunday before the ninth century, and to Quinquagesima after 
 that date. Hence the terms ' carnisprivium vetus ' and ' carnisprivium novum'. 
 ' Inter duo carnisprivia ' was sometimes used to designate the interval between 
 the two Sundays.— De Mas Latrie : Tresor de Chronologic 
 
232 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 Maidens 1 Castle, that is, Edinburgh ; and yet again in that 
 same year Robert Bruce brought the island of Man under his 
 sway. And two years thereafter, according to our chroniclers 
 — three years thereafter if we take the English reckoning, — 
 there followed the great battle of Bannockburn l . 
 
 There is a small stream or large burn that falls into the 
 noble river Forth. Upon this burn are situated mills, wherein 
 are sometimes baked cakes upon embers, which they call 
 4 bannocks ' ; wherefore that burn has come to be called 
 Bannockburn. We have in a former part of our history 2 made 
 mention of the fact that our common people are so ignorant as 
 to be ashamed of such a food, though in the sacred scriptures, 
 and in profane histories as well, we read of it in many con- 
 nections that are far indeed from being dishonourable. 
 
 The source and seed-plot of this fateful war was on this 
 wise : Edward Bruce, brother to the king, had laid siege to the 
 strongly fortified castle of Stirling ; and he found himself 
 unable to take it by storm, inasmuch as the castle is situated 
 on the brow of a hill, and at its very edge, so that the only access 
 is by a steep slope. It is distant too a bare two hundred paces 
 from the Forth, the Scottish firth. I imagine that this castle 
 was built by those Britons whose country is now occupied by 
 the Welsh. I am of opinion too that the pound sterling had 
 its first origin and likewise its name from this castle 3 . This 
 place was held, at the time of which we are speaking, by Philip 
 Mowbray, a Scot of high repute as a soldier, who had attached 
 himself to the English side. With Philip, Edward Bruce made 
 an agreement on these terms : that if the castle were not 
 relieved by Edward of Carnarvon before the following year, he 
 should freely deliver it into the hands of the Scots. Now when 
 Robert Bruce came to know of this, he was sore displeased, 
 and with reason ; for he said that the agreement to which his 
 brother had assented was indeed of the most imprudent, and 
 he made haste to join his brother. And there was reason for 
 his view ; for you must consider that English Edward, with the 
 
 1 Bannockburn was fought on June 24, 1314. 2 Cf. Bk. I. ch. ii. 
 
 3 Major's derivation is wrong ; but the word ' sterling ' is, according to Mr. 
 Skeat, of English origin — the M. H. G. sterlinc being borrowed from it. A 
 statute of Edward the First has ' denarius Angliae qui vocatur Sterlingus* 
 
chap, ii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 233 
 
 aid of the Scots and the men of Hainault, held Gascony, was 
 married to the daughter of the French king, held Wales too, 
 and a large part of Ireland ; and in Scotland many men of note 
 were still in active enmity to Robert Bruce. So that there 
 can be no doubt that Edward Bruce showed a want of fore- 
 sight in Granting S o long a truce to a monarch who had so 
 much within his power. And in this matter I agree with 
 Robert Bruce ; though God may, accidentally, turn everything 
 into a better course. 
 
 CHAP. II. — Of the immense army that the English king brought 
 against the Scot ; of the prelude to the bottle, and the valour that was 
 shown therein by Randolph and a few among the Scots; of Douglas's 
 loyalty and kindness towards Randolph, and the speech that was made 
 by both kings to their soldiers. 
 
 Immense was the armv which Edward brought together for A huge army of 
 the relief of the Stirling castle, and the choicest he could thousand men. 
 muster out of all the races, whether his subjects or his allies, 
 with which he had to do. In number of troops and their 
 equipment we read of the like nowhere in Britain. We are England's pre- 
 told that Edward had with him three hundred thousand fight- fighthig men. 
 ing men ; but I find it hard to believe that their tale can have 
 been so great ; not that England by herself alone could not 
 furnish three hundred thousand warriors, for of men in Britain 
 who are in the flower of their life and of warriors the number 
 is the same ; but such a world of men as this their kings either 
 cannot or will not maintain. When Robert Bruce heard of 
 this formidable advance of the English king, he compelled 
 whence he could all he could, and so had under him five and 
 thirty thousand well-trained soldiers. He had along with him 
 three men of high renown in the art of war : famous they were 
 throughout Britain for their conspicuous valour; and these Three most 
 were Edward Bruce his brother, Thomas Randolph, and James ^ arllkemen - 
 Douglas. He led his army, then, all resplendent in arms, to 
 the burn that is called Bannock, near to Stirling. [The English 
 king] \ however, when he saw that Robert Bruce had taken his 
 
 1 I have supplied these words. There is no nominative in the original ; and 
 ' he ' would apply to Bruce. 
 
234 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 stand upon a plain every way fitted for a battle indeed, but 
 right between himself and the castle, could not avoid to marvel, 
 and very many of his famous warriors marvelled likewise, how, 
 with so small a force. Robert Bruce stood there, in a direct line 
 [between two enemies] ready for the combat. Others there 
 were among the English who were not so much surprised, for 
 they knew Robert to be a man of most approved skill in battle, 
 for a long time accustomed to dailv fighting, and thev judged 
 that many a high-hearted noble would either conquer there, 
 or die the death of a brave man. Wherefore their prediction 
 was that the impending battle would be far from bloodless. 
 
 The two opposing armies thus had one another in view at 
 a distance of a mile, judging, each of them, that to-morrow's 
 light would bring death along with it for the greater number. 
 
 © O © © 
 
 and that a great disaster would surely befal one side or the 
 other. Edward, however, contrived in some way so to avoid 
 the Scottish army as to send eighty picked horsemen to Stirling 
 Castle to Philip Mowbray that so he might observe the day 
 that had been fixed for its relief. Against these eightv. bv the 
 king's command, Thomas Randolph leads fifty chosen horse- 
 men. In the presence of both kings and of the army they fall 
 A*V-k*i ; er to arm- with eager alacrity. The combat was tierce, and for a 
 long time it lasted. The lord Douglas meanwhile prays the 
 
 king to suffer him to go to the succour of the Scots ; but the 
 © © 
 
 king denied him utterlv. Douglas, however, when he saw the 
 
 O © 7 7 
 
 combat to be long protracted, began to have his fears for that 
 most excellent general, Randolph, and with or without the per- 
 mission that he had craved, he set out to the help of his 
 comrade. But as he drew near to the scene of the conflict, he 
 became aware of gaps, as it were, and clefts in the English line, 
 which came from the enemy falling on all sides. He took up 
 a position therefore at a distance, for he felt that he should be 
 acting an ignoble part were he to draw near and in any way 
 deprive the illustrious leader of the glory that would surely 
 come to him from the conflict and its issue. 
 
 Perhaps you mav be inclined to think that the approach of 
 Douglas struck fear into the enemv. But as there is no doubt 
 that the enemy was routed already, no one can truthfully aver so 
 much. The night that followed resembled rather an artificial 
 
chap, ii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 235 
 
 day 1 ; both armies betook themselves to their tents, but ere 
 they did so, great bonfires were on all sides kindled in case of 
 a sudden attack by the enemy in the darkness. Patrols on 
 horseback and on foot made their rounds outside the whole of 
 the camp ; and meanwhile the armies snatch what sleep and rest 
 thev may, so that on the morrow, with their energies refreshed, 
 tliev might bring unwearied frames to the combat that lay be- 
 fore them. But already, in the third hour after midnight, the 
 drill-masters 2 , and the officers who were set over each division, 
 began to consult as to making an instant attack. 
 
 Meanwhile Edward, wearing his royal robes, is said thus to Speech of 
 have addressed his soldiers : ' Were I not face to face with an Edward, 
 indubitable victory, my gallant soldiers, my speech with you 
 this day would begin in different fashion ; for both in number 
 and in equipment of our troops we are far superior to those 
 wretched Scots. In engines of war, in catapults, in arrows, 
 and all such machinery of war we abound, while in all these the 
 Scots are lacking. Those among them that are of more civility 
 have no other shirts than what are made from deers' hides, and 
 the plaids of their wild men are not otherwise ; so that a party 
 of our bowmen, who are equal to theirs in number, shall slay 
 those unarmed men before the burden of the fight begins. And 
 if you begin to wonder how men like these have sometimes 
 conquered my subjects, I pray you not so to wonder, since it 
 was by craft and cunning that they did so, and not by con- 
 spicuous valour. And if perchance they have sometimes 
 defeated, by their own skill, men who were by no means fit for 
 combat, or an enemy opposed to them in equal numbers, they 
 will of a surety make no stand against us, who excel them 
 vastly in numbers, equipment, and fair training in the field. 
 The king of Scots has under him an unwarlike race, which 
 fights too at its own charges, and he has no picked army. God, 
 you may believe me, has shut in within this fair field that fox 
 Bruce, a man who, as a child, owed all his nurture to my dear 
 father, in order that he may pay the condign penalty of his 
 wickedness. At the hands of my father, of brave and happy 
 
 1 Nocte diem artirkialem sequente ad tentoria uterque exercitus se contraxit. 
 - 'campiductores'. 'Campidoctor' is recognised as the better form of the word. 
 Major, however, has ' campiductor' or ' campi ductor' in four other places. 
 
236 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 memory, his three brothers lost their lives ; for me it remains 
 to take alive those other two, wicked and crafty men, and bring 
 them to London, there to expiate their crimes. I would recall 
 to you, my nobles, how ye received at the hands of my father 
 ample domains in the country of these men ; make exhibition 
 then of your strength and valour that ye may redeem the 
 same from those who now unjustly hold them. And I pro- 
 mise you, still further, this : that with equitable cord I will 
 make geometrical apportionment of the whole Scottish king- 
 dom among all well-deserving men, according to the merits 
 of each ; the superiority of the soil only, after the land has 
 been distributed to my soldiers, will I take care to retain for 
 myself. And if, in the coming conflict — which may God 
 avert ! — there shall be some who fall, to the inheritance of the 
 noble dead their children shall succeed. If then you desire the 
 fruition of my promises, betake you with cheerful courage to the 
 combat, wherein a short two hours — for longer than that the 
 enemy will not be able to withstand you — shall gain for you 
 undying glory and fair possessions.' 
 
 Thus Edward. And on the other side the Bruce, in com- 
 plete armour all save his head, climbing to the summit of a 
 Description of certain knoll, and thence plainly visible by all his army (for 
 Robert Bruce. j ig Wftg ^ q \ 0 ok upon, handsome of aspect, shapely and 
 vigorous in body, broad-shouldered, of an agreeable counte- 
 nance, his hair yellow, as you find it among northern nations, 
 his eye blue and sparkling, of quick intelligence, and in the 
 use of his mother tongue as ready as to all who heard him he 
 His speech. was welcome), is said thus to have addressed his soldiers : 4 If 
 ever the Powers above have granted to mortal man a just 
 cause for which to fight, 'tis to-day, my gallant friends, it is 
 to us they grant it. For it is not with us, as with our enemies, 
 to bring distress within the borders of another country that we 
 take up arms, but to defend our own — that end which all men 
 hold it well worth while to win with life itself. Our strife 
 to-day is for our worldly goods, for our children, our wives, 
 for life, for the independence of our native land, for hearth 
 and home, for all that men hold dear. The Powers above will 
 protect the innocent and defend the cause of justice; the 
 boastful man and the wrongful oppressor they will bring to 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 237 
 
 the dust. Consider not too carefully that unfortunate begin- 
 ning of my reign — all these disasters I attribute to my slaying 
 of John Cumming before the altar ; that great crime I have 
 wiped out by long repentance and tears ; in proof of this I 
 have won over the enemy no mean victories in succession. It 
 behoves not princes whom foul vice has stained to provoke the 
 chances of war, lest God be made angry; and we read, in 
 regard to those who have acted otherwise, that they have 
 brought destruction both upon themselves and upon their 
 soldiers. "Tis a coward's part to fear the foe for all his motley 
 multitude ; for did not Alexander of Macedon overcome Darius 
 when he was surrounded by a greater number ; and, what you 
 all know well, did not my brother Edward, Thomas Randolph, 
 and James Douglas, conquer forces greater than their own ? 
 
 4 It has been told me of that army yonder that it is made up 
 of men who speak six different tongues ; the very soldiers are 
 unknown one to another, so that the defection of any one of 
 them from the ranks would not be noticed. It is a slender 
 task that I lay upon you : that each of you slay his man. Ten 
 thousand stout men of war I know, each one of whom will 
 bring death to two of the enemy. Thus shall you have 
 destroyed of their number five-and-forty thousand. And 
 when this is done, as done I hope it will be, you will force the 
 haughty foe to retreat. But if — which thing God forbid ! — it 
 happened that we were conquered, the enemy shall celebrate 
 no bloodless victory, and my living body at least ye shall not 
 have among you. We will send so many souls to the shades 
 that for what remains of the enemy the Cummings, or other 
 Scots, shall be able to render an account in a battle that shall 
 cost them little. It belongs to brave men to die nobly or to 
 live nobly. Inglorious our lives will be and full of shame for 
 ever, if they are not knit beyond chance of dissolution with 
 the independence of our country. Our predecessor Kenneth 
 held but a third portion of this kingdom of ours when he 
 subdued the haughty and warlike Pict. Our ancestors, too, 
 made no restitution of territory to the English, but even, and 
 more than once, laid waste their lands in return for attacks 
 that had been rashly made upon themselves. I pray you then, 
 and beseech you, by great Kenneth, by Gregory, by the Alex- 
 
238 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 anders, that you quit you like men in the heat of the battle 
 now before you. Let us leave to our children as the outcome 
 of this conflict an example of valour so conspicuous that after 
 chroniclers must needs leave without an answer the question 
 whether they must yield the palm to us or we to them/ And 
 then, with a smile, and pointing with his right hand toward 
 the enemy, he added : 6 Before the sun set, by God's help, the 
 English leader shall have parted with his arms, and those arms 
 shall be yours. My past experience of this enemy gives me 
 the certainty that he will not make stand against your onset.' 
 
 To such a pitch did the king's speech inflame the hearts of 
 all who heard it that stretching forth, each man of them, his 
 armed right hand, they raised an universal shout, 6 The day is 
 ours, or every man of us shall die in battle '. Thereupon the 
 king descended from the mound whence he had spoken, and 
 baring his head embraced each of his chief men ; afterward, 
 with his eyes fixed upon the army, he waved his right hand, 
 as it were to each of them, man by man, in sign that they 
 were all his friends and fellows. 
 
 CHAP. III. — Of the drawing up of the tiro armies in order of battle. 
 
 The Scots order The Scot disposed his army in three divisions : the first, that 
 of battle. which the French are accustomed to call the vanguard, he 
 intrusted to those most trusty captains Thomas Randolph and 
 James Douglas. In this line he placed seven thousand of the 
 Border youth, men who from their earliest years had known 
 no other occupation than fighting; along with these he joined 
 three thousand of the Wild Scots, whose arms consisted of a 
 two-edged battle-axe, equally sharp on both sides 1 ; men, 
 these last, who will rush upon the enemy with the fury of a 
 lioness in fear for her cubs. Against these the English king 
 summons eighty thousand warriors. In the absence of his 
 immediate followers, king Bruce dared to utter these words : 
 6 Either our men shall slay thirty thousand of the enemy, or 
 they will gain the day.' The second army division, ten 
 thousand strong, he intrusted to that indefatigable warrior 
 Edward ; but just because he knew his brother's haughty and 
 
 Note that this is different from the Lochaber axe described on p, 240. 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 239 
 
 choleric temper to be such that thunder could not stop his 
 course, he joined with him in command several noblemen well 
 up in years, to the end their colder judgment might qualify 
 the youthful ardour of the other. Of the third division, which 
 was fifteen thousand strong, the king himself took command. 
 And now the air resounds with the noise, huge, horrific, of 
 trumpet, clarion, horn, and all such instruments as are used to 
 stir the martial mind. One after the other the king made 
 visitation of the various divisions of his army, carrying where- 
 ever he might go a cheerful countenance along with him ; so 
 that men read, as one might say, victory in his very face, and 
 any man might thank his fortune that under such a king he 
 was soon to enter the lists of battle. 
 
 It was at a distance of two arrow-shots that a certain English 
 knight, and a shrewd man too, took note of Robert Bruce as he 
 gave his directions now to this division now to that, and forth- 
 with rode at full gallop against the king, thinking either to bear 
 him to the ground with his lance, or to force him to fly. But A bold feat 
 the king, rising in his stirrup, thus received the attack. He of the king ' 
 skilfully evaded the blow from the lance, but at the very moment 
 when his foe was passing him, and in the presence of all, he dealt 
 him, with an iron-studded club, which the while he had been 
 swinging in his hand, so terrible a blow that the knight fell 
 headlong on the ground, a dead man. And when his nobles 
 were for censuring the over-boldness of the king, he took no 
 note of their words ; but with a smile he complained of his 
 luck, seeing that he had broken with that blow as good a club 
 as ever in his life he wielded. The common people, however — 
 as their habit is when the question is of any foolhardy deed — 
 could not find words to praise highly enough this feat of their 
 king. Putting their horses on one side, however, the com- a battle of 
 batants prepare to fight on foot. For it is as foot-soldiers and fo °t- s o ldiers - 
 not as cavalry that the Britons have been at all times accus- 
 tomed to fight, placing their hopes of victory, not in the fleet- 
 ness of a horse or the force of its onset, but in their own right 
 arm. 
 
 Thus then, after the discharge of implements of war, and 
 when in the first onset arrows had been falling like hail, the 
 two hostile forces come breast to breast and close with one 
 
240 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [book v. 
 
 another, as two rams will do when they meet in mortal conflict. 
 Wooden lances and darts were launched with utmost swiftness ; 
 at a great distance you might have caught the sound of the 
 lances as they snapped. Lances once broken, the fighting is 
 taken up with the double-axes of Leith, the axes of Lochaber, 
 than which is none more strong to cleave, the iron-knobbed 
 staves of Jedburgh, and the two-edged axe and bill-hook. 
 The smiths of Jedburgh fasten a piece of tempered iron four 
 feet long to the end of a stout staff. The double-axe of Leith 
 is very much the same as the French halberd ; yet it is a little 
 longer, and on the whole a more convenient weapon. The 
 smiths put a piece of iron formed hook-wise at the end of a 
 stout staff — this serves as a bill-hook or axe ; this most ser- 
 viceable weapon is in use among the English yeomen. The 
 Lochaber axe, which is employed by the Wild Scots of the 
 north, is single-edged only 1 . Its course is lined by many a 
 Great slaughter, corpse, and deaths pale face is constant there. Like two 
 blacksmiths, as they deal their blows alternate on the red-hot 
 iron upon the anvil, such is the interchange of blows between 
 the stout warriors on both sides : and long did the result con- 
 tinue doubtful ; for the Englishmen, so superior to the Scots 
 were they in number and equipment, thought shame to fly ; 
 and there were but few who dared to desert, lest in their flight 
 they should be taken prisoners by the Scots. 
 
 On the other hand the Scots, mindful of their mutual pro- 
 mise, remained constant therein ; and determined to gain the 
 day, or to make the enemy remember the day only too well, 
 though they themselves could do naught but die a glorious 
 death. The men of the Borders made a fierce onslaught on 
 The savage the enemy ; the Wild Scots rushed upon them in their fury as 
 WUcT Scots. 6 wild boars will do ; hardly would any weapons make stand 
 against their axes handled as they knew to handle them ; all 
 around them was a very shambles of dead men, and when, stung 
 by wounds, they were yet unable by reason of the long staves of 
 the enemy to come to close quarters, they threw off their plaids 
 and, as their custom was, did not hesitate to offer their naked 
 bellies to the point of the spear. Now in close contact with the 
 
 1 Cf. the description of the two-edged axe at the beginning of this chapter, 
 and of the Wild Scots' arms at the end of ch. viii. in Bk. I. 
 
chap, in.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 241 
 
 foe, no thought is theirs but of the glorious death that awaited 
 
 them if only they might at the same time compass his death 
 
 too. Once entered in the heat of conflict, even as one sheep 
 
 will follow another, so they, and hold cheap their lives. The 
 
 whole plain is red with blood ; from the higher parts to the 
 
 lower blood flows in streams. In blood the heroes fought, yea 
 
 knee-deep. With marvellous skill did the English bowmen 
 
 pick out the unarmed Scots ; and when Bruce, whose eyes, as 
 
 he were another Argus, were in every place, was ware of this, 
 
 he sent against the bowmen some stout-hearted men, who The bowmen 
 
 forthwith drove them back with great slaughter. Meanwhile, The^mv^of' 
 
 when the issue of the day was doubtful still, the servants who serving-men and 
 
 ill r lni ii armour-bearers. 
 
 had been lett at the tents to guard the horses and baggage 01 
 their masters, moved with compassion for the case of their 
 lords, left all and threw themselves upon the foe. 
 
 Of the English there fell a much greater number than of 
 the Scots. And at length the English king was counselled by 
 those around him (for his own spirit was too proud), to with- 
 draw from the battle, since otherwise the Scots, careless 
 whether they slew or were slain, would make an end of the 
 king and of his nobles every one. It was urged upon him 
 that he would be acting more wisely for his country if he 
 sought safety in flight, than if he jeoparded the fortunes of 
 England by his own death and the loss of all his nobility. 
 
 Edward therefore turns his back. The report goes that the Flight of the 
 Scots lost four thousand, and the English fifty thousand in En s lish kin £- 
 that battle ; and besides the slain, count must be made of the 
 prisoners, who consisted of almost the whole English army, 
 with the exception of the king, who made good his escape, 
 attended by a large body of soldiers. Wearied the Scots were 
 with fighting, and for the most part wounded, so that they 
 were not able at once to pursue the English king. Douglas, 
 however, by the king's command, and accompanied by no 
 more than four hundred horsemen, went in pursuit of Edward 
 and his ten thousand mounted troops ; and ever as he went 
 other Scots joined themselves to him. But, as the matter The earl of 
 turned out, the earl of March, a Scot, granted refuge to the refT^tfth? 
 English king in the castle of Dunbar, and sent him by sea to Engtish king. 
 England. Otherwise he could not have escaped the hands of 
 
 (A 
 
242 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 that indefatigable warrior the Douglas, who with an armed 
 force was lying in wait for the English king near to the 
 Borders. But of this hope Douglas was cheated by the 
 treachery of March. This was one of the reasons why the 
 Dunbars lost the earldom of March. By exchange of an 
 The Scots king English captive Bruce recovered his wife, the queen of Scot- 
 regains lswie. j an ^ About this battle a certain religious of Mount Carmel 
 
 Verses by a made a little book, whose beginning runs thus : — 
 
 Carmelite. ° & 
 
 De planctu cudo metrum cum carmine nudo : 
 Risum retrudo, dum tali themate ludo. 
 
 The verses are rude, and not worthy the attention of the 
 reader; so I pass them by 1 . In this war the Scots gained 
 mightily at once in military glory and in material advantage ; 
 and for the losses they had sustained in former times received 
 a large restitution, won indeed by their own hard fighting, 
 with the favour of heaven. Then did the army of Robert 
 Bruce and his friends extol him to the skies ; but the Cum- 
 mings and the other Scots who had formerly been free with 
 their threats began to tremble. 
 
 CHAP. IV. — Of the establishment of Robert Bruce in the kingdom ; 
 of the skirmishing raids made by the English ; and of the death in 
 Ireland of Edward Bruce. 
 
 After the fortunate issue of the terrible battle at Bannock- 
 burn the Scots held at Ayr a great assembly, of the kind which 
 the Britons call a parliament, whither convened the three 
 estates representative of the realm, just as a duly constituted 
 council represents the whole church. There it was with one 
 Robert Bruce is v °i ce determined that Robert Bruce should remain the unques- 
 deciared king, tioned king of Scotland ; and, if it should happen that he went 
 
 i The writer was William Baston, an eye witness of the battle, in which he 
 was, as he tells us, made prisoner : 
 
 ' Sum Carmelita, Baston cognomine dictus 
 Qui doleo vita, in tali strage relictus.' 
 It will be observed that Major makes no mention of the pits set with caltrops by 
 which the English horse were lamed. Baston, however, writes of the 
 ' Machina plena malis pedibus formatur equinis, 
 Concava cum palis, ne pergant absque ruinis '. 
 The whole rhyme is printed at the end of Freebairn's edition of Major's History. 
 
chap, iv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 243 
 
 the way of all flesh without male issue, that his brother Edward 
 should be his successor ; while, if he and his brother should 
 alike die childless, Marjory, daughter to Robert, should be 
 queen. It pertains to the three estates, in any matter of 
 extreme difficulty, to deal authoritatively with doubtful matters 
 affecting the kingdom, and on occasion to depart, for good and 
 sufficient reasons, from the practice of the common law. In 
 some other parts of the world, as in the island of Ceylon \ any The kj ng 
 one who is up in years, and without children, may be chosen of Ce y lon - 
 to be king ; and if after he becomes king he should have 
 issue, he is deposed. In some kingdoms, as in Castile and in 
 Britain, a woman succeeds to the throne, and is preferred to 
 the brother of the king; in other kingdoms just the opposite 
 use is in force. In such positive laws, of human enactment, 
 such diversity may be expected ; but the common law is not 
 lightly to be interfered with, because such change of laws 
 shakes the foundations. 
 
 Now this matter of the succession to the throne received the 
 most searching investigation at the hand of the three estates. 
 For they saw before them English Edward panting for the 
 kingdom of Scotland, and they knew that in the end, aided by 
 civil war and intestine quarrels, he would be successful, unless 
 a strong man sat upon the throne. Now the men of Ireland, 
 when they saw the magnanimity of Robert Bruce and his 
 brother, desired to have Edward Bruce for their king, and one 
 party among them sent an embassy into Scotland with that 
 intent. Robert then sent his brother to Ireland with a 
 middling army, and Edward bore himself there so manfully Edward Bruce 
 that in no long time he subdued a large tract of that island. j^ancT 
 In the following year he was there joined by Robert Bruce Robert follows 
 himself, but on that expedition many men died of famine. him * 
 When English Edward learned that Robert Bruce had left 
 Scotland, he felt that the proper time had arrived for a new -p^e English 
 invasion of that country, and sent thither a large army. The j^ de Scot " 
 lord Douglas was then guardian of Scotland, and he marched 
 to meet the English force, and routed it. Three of the English Slaughter of 
 leaders he slew : namely, Edmund Lylaw a Gascon 2 , the captain the En ^ hsh - 
 
 1 Major refers to this custom of the Cingalese in his In Quartum, etc., ed. 
 1 52 1, fol. lxxvi. 
 
 2 The ' Ewmond de Caliou ' of Barbour {The Brits, cxviii. 6). 
 
244 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 A fleet is sent 
 against Scot- 
 land. 
 
 Second 
 slaughter of 
 the English. 
 
 Birth of Robert 
 Stuart. 
 
 Randolph 
 brings back 
 booty from 
 England. 
 
 Berwick is 
 retaken. 
 
 of Berwick, and Robert Nevel ; the third, who was a man of rank, 
 he killed with his own hands. When English Edward came to 
 hear of this, he sent a fleet of many sails against Scotland (in 
 vessels of war the English are superior to the Scots) to the end 
 they should harass and waste the seaboard country. They 
 entered the river Forth, and landed at Donibristle ; there they 
 were met by the sheriff of Fife with five hundred men. But 
 he did not dare to attack the English, because of their 
 superiority in number, and abstained from giving battle until 
 he was joined by William Sinclair, bishop of Dunkeld, with the 
 members of his court and a few of his dependants. And the 
 bishop rebuked the sheriff of Fife sharply, and over and again 
 compelled him to give battle to the English. And there were left 
 on the field five hundred of the English slain, while many of the 
 remnant took to flight and were drowned. It was from this feat 
 that Robert Bruce called William Sinclair his own bishop. 
 
 In the same year was born Robert Stuart, son of Walter 
 Stuart, and by Marjory, daughter of Robert Bruce, he was 
 grandson of Robert Bruce ; and he afterwards became king of 
 the Scots ; and thereafter, in the two following years, the lord 
 Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, invaded England and laid 
 waste the whole country up to W r etherby, returning home 
 from this expedition laden with much rich booty and without 
 loss of men. In the same year Berwick is recovered from the 
 English. In the year one thousand three hundred and nine- 
 teen, however, English Edward besieged Berwick, but profited 
 very little in his besieging. All this is clear from the state- 
 ments of the English chronicler as quoted above. Now and 
 again we repeat by accident a story that we have dealt with 
 before. The reason is this : that the English records some- 
 times deal with a particular incident more at length than do 
 the Scotch — and sometimes the case is contrariwise. Further, 
 on the fourteenth day of October, in the same year, was fought 
 the battle of Dimdalk, in Ireland, and Edward Bruce there 
 lost his life. He was unwilling to await the arrival on 
 the following day of his brother Robert, who was advancing 
 slowly with assistance, and so it came about that from undue 
 haste, and a want of that foresight which is necessary in a 
 soldier, a man otherwise brave and wise came by his end, 
 amidst the lamentations of all around him. 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 245 
 
 CHAP. V. — How the kings ?'avaged each the other s country. Of the 
 policy of delay adopted by Robert, and how he then carried the attack 
 into England ; his address to his soldiers ; Edward's exhortation to the 
 English. Of the battle and the victory won by the Scots. 
 
 In the thirteen hundred and twentieth year from the Assembling of 
 Virgin's travail, Robert Bruce summoned a great council of the ^Scone™ 6 " 
 three estates at Scone. The lord William of Soulis and the 
 countess of Stratherne were there convicted on a charge of 
 treason, and condemned to imprisonment for life, and David, 
 lord of Brechin, who had kept silence regarding a crime com- 
 mitted against the king, was sentenced therefor to death. David, a man of 
 Now this David was one who had won great renown as a beheaded!^' 1S 
 soldier, and for the love of Christ had done mighty deeds 
 against the Hagarenes 1 ; but in the end he sullied his fair life 
 by keeping silence in regard to the abovesaid crime ; wherefore 
 himself and Gilbert of Malerb, and John Logy, knights all, 
 and Richard Brown, a notable warrior, were dragged at horses'* 
 tails after the British fashion with traitors, and thereafter be- 
 headed. On which account this parliament came to be called 
 in after times the Black Parliament. Many others there were The Black 
 who were suspected of treason, but because no legal evidence Parhament - 
 could be produced against them, they were discharged. Upon 
 these traitors lies an everlasting stain, seeing that they dared 
 craftily to plot the death of a king whose life was devoted to 
 the welfare of his country. And in David of Brechin it 
 was a shameful thing that he disgraced his life by this criminal 
 silence. No oath that he had taken to wicked men bound 
 him to silence ; for the seal of [natural] secrecy 2 binds a man 
 by no means so straitly as the seal of confession. For in every 
 case of confession the seal is binding, whether the confession The seal of 
 touch the question of some crime as about to be committed, or The seal of 
 a crime already committed, such as heresy or treason ; but the b e ro r ^ 
 seal of secrecy does not in this manner bind a man ; for it the life of the 
 behoved him to give warning to the king, that so he might Sake. 6 1S & 
 take more careful measures for his own safety, and beware of 
 
 1 i.e. the children of Hagar = the Saracens. 
 
 2 Orig. and F. ' sigilli secretum ' ; an evident misprint for ' sigillum secreti '. 
 
246 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 Bruce ravages 
 England. 
 
 The English 
 king retreats, 
 urged thereto 
 by scarcity of 
 corn, and the 
 Scots policy of 
 delay. 
 
 Robert's 
 design. 
 
 his foe ; and if this were not sufficient to safeguard the life of 
 the king, he was plainly bound to reveal the traitors by name. 
 So that sentence of death was justly passed upon the aforesaid 
 David. And further, the property of the conspirators was 
 confiscated to the treasury. 
 
 In the course of the two following years Robert Bruce 
 invaded England and ravaged and wasted the country up to 
 Stanmor; and when he had returned to Scotland English Edward 
 got together a mighty armament, and by land, and by sea too 
 with his fleet of fast-sailing galleys, penetrated into Scotland, 
 and made his way to Edinburgh. Now when this came to the 
 knowledge of Robert Bruce, he withdrew all supplies along the 
 line of march of the English king ; and though he could have 
 brought his people together, he was unwilling to fight with the 
 English a second time on Scottish soil ; for he preferred that 
 policy of delay which has the sanction of Fabius the Roman 
 rather than to jeopardise a kingdom, which had been won at 
 such a cost, in a doubtful struggle with the English king. 
 That terrible battle of Bannockburn was still vividly in his 
 memory, and, victor though he was, he could not readily forget 
 the wounds, and horrid consequence of war, at which the day 
 was bought. It was therefore of set purpose that this most 
 perspicacious general refrained from fighting, and rather aimed 
 at compelling the retreat of the English army by contriving a 
 scarcity of corn. This policy of delay, this ability in setting a 
 trap for the enemy, as it were, and playing with him, are things 
 of the first moment in the character of the complete soldier. 
 
 In the very same year, however, in the beginning of 
 November, this same Robert the Bruce got together an army 
 of Scots, and therewith made hostile invasion of England ; and 
 he reached nearly as far as York. For a distance of fifty 
 leagues he moved from place to place in England and every- 
 where ravaged the country. Most of all do I admire that con- 
 ception of Robert's, which led him not to give battle to the 
 English king when he made hostile invasion of Scotland, but 
 rather to carry the war himself into the enemy's country. One 
 of two things must be admitted : either Robert had begun to 
 be ashamed of that policy of delay which he had followed in 
 the past (but in very truth he had no need to blush for it, for 
 
chap, v.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 247 
 
 his name was in the mouth of every sensible man, for praise 
 and not for blame, in that very matter of delay), or he had 
 come to think it wiser to give battle to the English king in 
 England rather than in Scotland. I believe it was this second 
 consideration that moved him, and that he acted from the 
 ripest judgment of the situation ; for, to remove from the 
 Border soldiers any temptation to draw back, he led his army 
 far into England. And when news was brought him by his 
 outposts that English Edward, with an overwhelming force, 
 was bearing down upon him, he chose for the field of battle a 
 fair plain between Byland and St. Salvator, and in such words 
 as these he warmed his soldiers' hearts for the fight : 
 
 6 As to the fight that is now imminent, high-hearted Scots, King Bruce— 
 methinks that there is no need of words from me to you ; from the ^ soldiers* 0 
 Scottish marches we are distant (as by experience you well know 
 to be the case) good one hundred miles ; so that if there should be 
 a few to desert their posts, these must needs fall into the hands 
 of a cruel enemy, and by an angry enemy be slain, or, if they 
 should survive as captives in his hands, such an end will not 
 only be full of disgrace and ignominy for them, but likewise 
 for all their posterity. Ye know, all of you, how disgraceful a 
 thing a low kind of fear has ever been reckoned amongst us 
 Scots, and how fortitude and enterprise are lauded to the skies ; 
 now these two qualities for the most part render a man eager 
 for the fight. It remains only that we keep of one mind and 
 bear us in the field as one man, and aim at naught but victory 
 or an honourable death. For, by Heaven I swear it, the Scots 
 shall never have the chance to ransom me, nor shall any 
 Englishmen in their banquetings make sport of the king of 
 Scots. In sacred history we read how Nabuchodonosor, king 
 of the Assyrians, made mock of the last king of Judea in the 
 time of his captivity 1 , and jeered at him in his presence; 
 wherefore I would beseech you every one to be of my mind in 
 regard to the battle now before us, and to determine to die the 
 death of the brave or once for all to dash the pride of our foe. 
 And though it may be, indeed, that one or another among you, 
 
 1 The reference seems to be to the indignities heaped upon Zedekiah by the 
 Assyrian king. See the last chapter of Jeremiah and parallel passages. 
 
248 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 whether from natural disposition, or from starry influences, or 
 by way of inheritance from his ancestors, may be timorously 
 inclined, yet "'tis in the power of any man by a strong effort of 
 the will to subdue this base passion of fear \ Before now we 
 have conquered this same king Edward when we were fewer in 
 number, and when he had with him a stronger force than now. 
 Not only did we conquer him, but made him fly before us like 
 a coward ; so that the lesson he has learned is, not conquering, 
 but flight. But I by long habit am accustomed to the other 
 way. If there be safety anywhere for our foe and his soldiers, 
 safest of all is flight before the battle. For we number more 
 than forty thousand men. Let this therefore admit of no 
 doubt, that before you have made away with thirty thousand 
 men, the line of the enemy will be broken. And the victory in 
 this fight must be won by us unaided, that so we may outdo 
 the fame of Kenneth, Gregory, David, and the Alexanders. 
 Wherefore gird you for the fight eagerly, fearlessly, and 
 approve yourselves brave men, the equals, if not even the 
 superiors, of your ancestors." 
 Edward s ^ n ^ e other side the English king is said to have exhorted his 
 
 speech to his English soldiers with these words : 4 Nobles and brave men all, 
 you have not of a surety forgotten the outrageous conduct of that 
 most ungrateful Scot, how that in the beginning he espoused 
 the cause of my most worthy father, and then, urged by his 
 own ambition of a kingly throne, deserted to the Scots. And 
 though fortune deserted me at Bannockburn, this is no matter 
 for wonder ; it was the very variety of tongues amongst us, the 
 very superfluity and superabundance of our soldiery, that 
 wrought our ruin. When I led my English only with me into 
 Scotland and sought an occasion of battle, I could no way 
 bring that coward Bruce to face me. Then, to purge himself 
 of that foul stain, he came into our boundaries, all unknowing 
 of the war that should arise ; for he thought to himself that, 
 laden with plunder and captives, he should be allowed to 
 return in peace to Scotland ; but the matter has turned out 
 otherwise for him, and less fortunately. For we are, in this 
 place, Englishmen only — face to face with Scots, — in greater 
 
 soldiers. 
 
 1 Cf. ante, Bk. iv. ch. xi. p. 184, and footnote. 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 number and better equipped. The Scottish kings make pay- 
 ment to no one of their soldiers, but these at their own charges 
 serve for a few days only, and thereafter make a living by 
 pilfering from the enemy. You will understand then how such 
 an army, promiscuously got together from any sort of people, 
 knows nothing of fighting ; to till the field, to work — if you 
 like — as an artisan — so much any one of its soldiers can do, and 
 from earliest years has done ; but of war these men know nothing. 
 Wherefore you need but to fight bravely for a short time, and 
 you shall put to utter rout that most ungrateful, that most 
 coward, foe, and all his belongings. If in our own country we 
 should suffer defeat at the hands of a rabble of men who live 
 by plunder, the brand of shame may well be legible upon our 
 brows throughout the world and as long as time shall last. 
 This stain and vice of fear you must learn to shun as you 
 would shun Cerberus 1 himself, and like brave men gird you for 
 the battle with the armour of a lofty courage."' 
 
 Thus saying, and when all was in order for the conflict, he The beginning 
 dashed forward against the Scots, calling out continuously, of the battle * 
 4 Saint George, and Edward of Carnarvon. 1 The Scots, on the The battle-cry. 
 other hand, entered on the conflict with shouts of 4 Saint 
 Andrew and Robert Bruce, father of victories. 1 The com- 
 manders of both armies made their prayers also to the saints 
 for victory, and that, supported by their love and favour, it 
 might be granted them to quit them like brave men. The 
 battle was contested with fury ; the meadow just now so green 
 took on a blood-red tint, and in the lower parts deep streams 
 of blood were formed. But as for every one of the Scots who 
 fell there fell of the English four, the English turned their The rout of 
 backs, the Scots put king Edward to flight— and it was the ^f^f' 
 fleetness of his horses alone that saved his life. Many of the Edward, 
 chief men among the English were slain ; many more were victory of 
 carried captive into Scotland. The Scots packed together all the Scots - 
 the warlike machines and other furnishings of the English 
 king, and turned their faces homeward, laying waste the while 
 the country that lay between. And inasmuch as they had 
 entered England by one road, they quitted it by another, for 
 
 1 A common figure. Cf. what Major says ante, p. 70, of the stepmother. 
 
250 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 in this way they got them a better provision of food ; and this 
 they did, no doubt, because the common Scots, when they go 
 to war, carry with them but a scanty provender slung in small 
 sacks across their horses' 1 necks. 
 
 Edward has to 
 give up the 
 siege of Ber- 
 wick. 
 
 The arrogance 
 of Hugh 
 Spenser. 
 
 CHAP. VI. — Of what took place in England in the time of Robert 
 Bruce ; chiejly of the factions and quarrels of the nobles of the kingdojn 
 which arose through the arrogance of Hugh Spenser. 
 
 We will now leave Robert Bruce, in peaceful possession of 
 the Scottish throne, and narrate what took place in his 
 day in England. In doing so we will follow the English 
 chroniclers, as in such case we always do, since they are better 
 acquainted with their own affairs. While Edward was laying 
 siege to Berwick, which had been recovered a few days before 
 from the English by the Scots, the Scots invaded England, and 
 in the battle of Myton 1 routed the English forces. In con- 
 sequence whereof Edward was obliged to raise the siege of 
 Berwick. He returned to London, and then began to come 
 under the absolute influence of his chamberlain, Hugh Spenser. 
 So strictly did this Hugh keep watch over the king's chamber, 
 that no one could gain access to the monarch unless by his 
 will and pleasure, and such an one would always make a gift 
 to Hugh before he departed. 
 
 Now this raised the wrath, and justly raised it, of the 
 princes and all the nobles of England to such a degree that the 
 earl of Lancaster and many of his followers marched to the 
 Welsh border, and there ravaged the territory of Hugh 
 Spenser and of his son Hugh. The king, however, sent some 
 of these indignant nobles into banishment, Mowbray to wit, 
 and Roger ClefFord, and Joslin Davil, and many more. He 
 hoped by this means to terrify the earl of Lancaster and his 
 followers ; but so far was he from gaining his end that they 
 wrought more harm than ever. The king then sent messengers 
 to them, commanding them to attend a parliament in London ; 
 and to that parliament came the tribes with great armies. 
 
 These are the princes who came with their followings of armed 
 
 1 i.e. 'The Chapter of Mitton '; see ante, p. 228. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 251 
 
 men: Humfrey de Bohun earl of Hereford, Roger Clefford, The princes of 
 John Moubraye, Joslin Davil, Roger Mortymer, Henry Trays, canie^aTmed 
 John Giffard, Bartholomew Badelessemor 1 , Roger Dammory, [? r ^ e *° par " 
 Hugh Dandale, Gilbert Clare earl of Gloucester. 
 
 It was at length determined that Hugh Spenser and his son Exile of Hugh 
 should be sentenced to perpetual banishment from England ; Spenser> 
 yet it was but a short time before the king recalled them into 
 England, and sent into banishment Thomas earl of Lancaster, 
 and his adherents. But the Mortimers, who were members of 
 a numerous and powerful family, managed to gain the king's 
 favour ; and they were imprisoned in the Tower of London. 
 Now when the rest of the English nobles came to know of this, 
 they went to Thomas earl of Lancaster, who was then at 
 Pontefract, and told him how the Mortimers had been put 
 into prison. Thomas earl of Lancaster with his followers 
 then laid siege to the castle of Tikhil 2 , and against him there 
 king Edward led a large army. With him were joined the 
 Spensers, Aldomar Valance earl of Pembroke, and John earl of 
 Arundel, and they defeated Thomas earl of Lancaster, who 
 first took refuge with his followers at Tetbury castle, and 
 afterwards at Pontefract. In the convent of the preaching 
 friars at Pontefract, Thomas earl of Lancaster, Humfrey de 
 Bohun earl of Hereford, and along with them the barons, met, 
 and there agreed that they should go to Dunstanburgh, which 
 belonged to the earl of Lancaster, until they should be able to 
 arrange a peace with king Edward. But Thomas earl of 
 Lancaster would not agree to this proposal, for he said that 
 he should be called a traitor if he drew near to the Scottish 
 marches, because of the continuing enmity between English 
 Edward and Robert Bruce. But Roger Clefford judged that 
 such removal to Dunstanburgh was a necessity, because of the 
 influence of the king in their present neighbourhood, and, draw- 
 ing his sword, he told the earl of Lancaster that if he would 
 not accompany himself and the rest to Dunstanburgh, he would 
 slay him, with his own hands, where he stood. Thomas there- 
 upon gave his consent to go along with them, and, with 
 seventy men, made all haste to Dunstanburgh. But when 
 they were come to Boroughbridge, they were met by an army 
 i.e. Badlesmere. 2 Orig. ' Tilche '. 
 
252 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 under Andrew Herkelay, king Edward's lieutenant in the 
 Scottish marches, who put to death the earl of Hereford, Roger 
 Clefford, William Sullage, and Roger Benefeld, and carried 
 captive to Pontefract Thomas earl of Lancaster, who there, in 
 the presence of king Edward and his followers, suffered, along 
 with five other barons, the penalty of death. This Thomas 
 earl of Lancaster is said to have been illustrious for the 
 miracles that he wrought K 
 The passage of Thereafter, in the year thirteen hundred and twenty-two, 
 k?ng E infoScot- Edward raised an army of a hundred thousand fighting men, 
 retum and ^ anc ^ P asseG ^ Scotland, desirous to give battle. But the 
 Scots fled from before his face, so that the king was com- 
 pelled by famine to return. James Douglas and Thomas 
 The Scots go Randolph, earl of Moray, forth witli march at the head of an 
 England ni g " army into England, and plunder the country in all directions ; 
 
 Northallerton and many other towns, as far as York, they 
 burned to the ground. Edward gathered a great army against 
 them, and on the fifteenth day after Michaelmas came face to 
 face with the Scots near to the monastery of Beigheland (our 
 TheEnghsh people call it Bieland), where the English were defeated. It 
 John the Briton was in that battle that John the Briton, earl of Richmond 2 , 
 is taken. ^.j ie ^Q^gj. a £ \\ m i time of the earldom of Lancaster, was taken 
 prisoner by the Scots, and afterwards ransomed with a great 
 
 1 Lancaster had governed, when he was in power, no better than the king ; 
 but after his death, in a time of cattle-plague and famine, the people in their 
 despair came to hold him for a martyr and a saint. See York Powell and 
 Mackay's Hist, of England, Part i. pp. 213-215. Capgrave [b. 1393, d. 1464) 
 says in his Chronicle (Rolls Series, p. 219) that in the year 1315 1 blod ran owt 
 of the toumbe of Thomas duk of Lancastir at Pounfreit ' ; and, as to the year 
 1389 (p. 253), that ' this same year was Thomas of Lancastir canonized, for it 
 was seid comounly that he schuld nevir be canonzied onto the time that alle the 
 juges that sat upon him were ded, and al her issew '. Barbour, a still earlier 
 authority — for his Brtis was written before Capgrave was born — has the follow- 
 ing lines about Thomas of Lancaster : — 
 
 ' Men said syn eftir this Thomas 
 That on this wis mad martyr was 
 Was sanctit and gud mirakillis did, 
 Bot invy syn gert tham be hid. 
 Bot, quhethir he haly was or nane, 
 At Pomfret thusgat was he slane. ' — Brus, cxxxi. 83 sq. 
 
 2 He was no ' earl but Sir Thomas of Richmond ; see Scala Cronica, p. 143, 
 as quoted in the Spalding Club ed. of The Brus, p. 523. 
 
CHAP. VI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 253 
 
 sum of money. He went over to France and never returned 
 
 to England. The annals of the English then go on to tell how 
 
 Andrew Herkelay was slain. They say, that is, that he went 
 
 out to collect a large body of soldiers, in the king's behalf, 
 
 with the view of bringing succour to him against the Scots in 
 
 the battle of Bieland, and that he bore himself in that business 
 
 slothfully and negligently, inasmuch as he had taken bribes 
 
 from James Douglas. The whole story is a dream — it has not 
 
 even verisimilitude ; for the Scots had no such superabundance 
 
 of money as to be in a position to bribe the English ; and 
 
 James Douglas was the last man to adopt methods of this sort, 
 
 a fighter he if ever there was a fighter, to whom the sword, 
 
 not gold, was at all times the weapon he would choose to gain 
 
 his end. It is besides very improbable that English Edward 
 
 would attack the Scots unless supported by a numerous army. 
 
 According to the true annals of the English, this Andrew was, The slaying 
 
 in point of fact, but by no right and legal means, sentenced to Herkeiay W 
 
 death by Edward ; for the friends of the earl of Lancaster and 
 
 the foes of Andrew himself combined to turn the king against 
 
 him. 
 
 CHAP. VII. — Concerning Isabella, sister of the king of the French, 
 how she was sent to France by her husband, the English king, and of 
 her banishment there along with her son. Of the captivity of Edward, 
 and the prophecies of Merlin ; further, of the passage of the Scots into 
 England, and of their return from England. 
 
 About the same time Edward cruelly ill-treated Isabella, Isabella, quee 
 sister of the French king, and queen of England. At this the of England, h 
 
 £>' ^ & ^ sent to the 
 
 French king was very wroth, and sent heralds to the English French king, 
 king, who were to deliver to him this message : That the king er r ° er ' 
 of England must either do fealty to him for Aquitaine or 
 suffer loss of that territory. By the advice of Hugh Spenser 
 the queen was sent into France, in the hope that she might 
 hinder the war that appeared so like to break out between her 
 brother and her husband ; but because she tarried too long in 
 France, Edward the king's son besought his father for per- 
 mission to go to France and bring back his most pious mother. 
 To this the king willingly assented, but because they did not 
 
254 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 The English 
 king sentences 
 his wife and son 
 to exile. 
 
 They return 
 without leave 
 obtained. 
 
 Edward 
 is taken. 
 
 Some pro- 
 phecies of 
 Merlin. 
 
 Edward the 
 Third begins to 
 reign in the 
 lifetime of 
 Edward the 
 Second. 
 
 at once obey his order for their return, he banished them from 
 England. Notwithstanding this sentence of exile against 
 Edward, queen Isabella, with her son Edward, John brother 
 of the earl of Hainault, Edward Woodstock, earl of Kent, 
 returned all of them to England, on the twenty-fourth day of 
 September, in the year of grace one thousand three hundred 
 and twenty-six ; and they had with them no more than fifty 
 men in their company. That they dared to land in England 
 with so small a following was a proof of hatred of the king and 
 affection for the queen and her son. Edward of Carnarvon 
 was in the end taken, and was lodged in the dungeons of the 
 castle of Kenil worth, there to be in charge of the lord Henry, 
 brother of the earl of Lancaster, who at that time was earl of 
 Leicester. Edward the Third had bestowed upon him the earl- 
 dom of Lancaster. Inasmuch as the king had caused Thomas 
 earl of Lancaster to be put to death, it was presumed, and 
 rightly presumed, that the strictest care would be exercised by 
 the brother of the man who had thus come by his end. Hugh 
 Spenser,WalterStapylton, bishop of Exeter, and John Harundel 1 , 
 who had all been partisans of the king, were put to death. 
 
 About this same Edward of Carnarvon the English histories 
 like to recall certain prophecies of Merlin ; for Merlin declared 
 that the waters of the sea would flow over those who had 
 been slain in the time of this Edward — which they interpret 
 of the battle of Bannockburn. Many of the men who fell 
 in that battle, however, were drowned in a deep stream, and 
 far more in the Forth, a most rapid river, where its 
 waters mingle with the salt water of the sea. Merlin said 
 further that in this Edward's days many stones would fall to 
 the earth ; and this is interpreted of the Scots, who at that 
 time levelled with the ground castles and cities. They attempt 
 further to disentangle many more of Merlin's knotty sayings ; 
 but I confess that I lay no great store by his misty dicta, for 
 they are no more than mist in the clouds of the air 2 . 
 
 The English deposed Edward of Carnarvon because he had 
 followed the counsel of wicked men, and anointed as king the 
 third Edward, otherwise called 'of Windsor 1 , in the fifteenth 
 year of his age, that is, in the same year in which he landed in 
 1 i.e. Arundel. 2 Bk. n. ch. v., note ad Jin. 
 
CHAP. VII. J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 255 
 
 England from France. Edward the Second, the father, always 
 desired to have an interview with his wife, and with Edward 
 the Third, his son ; but such interview he never attained to. 
 Perchance the son suspected that his father would seek to have 
 the crown again for himself — a request which sons are not in 
 the habit of granting to their fathers — nor yet fathers to their 
 sons, though fathers have more affection for their sons than 
 sons have for their fathers. Thereafter, says Caxton, the Scots 
 gathered a large army, and, invading England, put all to fire 
 and sword. They made their way as far as Stanhope in Wear- 
 dale \ and there they made a stand. Against them the third An army than 
 Edward now brought a numerous army ; nor, says Caxton once j^g to'cStonj 
 more, was there ever seen a finer army since Brutus landed in lh ^ re was never 
 
 3, finer 
 
 Britain — for it was made up of one hundred thousand English- 
 men and foreigners. I cannot, however, give credence to this 
 claim, because his father commanded a much larger force than 
 this at Bannockburn. For fifteen days the Scots kept their 
 station near a park, for by reason of the English they were 
 unable to make their way out ; provision of food too began to 
 fail them. The Scots' position was defended on both sides ; on 
 the one side was water, on the other the wood or park of Viri- 
 dalia. Henry earl of Lancaster and John brother to the 
 earl of Hainault gave their voice in favour of an attack upon 
 the Scots by water, seeing that the stream was of no great 
 depth ; but Roger Mortimer, as might have been expected, 
 was of an opposite way of thinking — for was he not in the pay 
 of the Scots ? — and when he was on patrol duty by night he 
 allowed the Scots to slip away. But Caxton says last of all, 
 that on the same night when the Scots made good their flight 
 James Douglas attacked the army of the king with two hun- 
 dred lances, that is, with two hundred horsemen (for a lance 
 and a horseman mean with the Britons one and the same thing), 
 and arrived as far as the king's tent, and shouted sometimes 
 Naward, Naward, but at other times A Douglas, A Douglas ; 
 whereat the king and almost all the rest were affrighted ; but 
 by God's help the king was neither slain nor yet taken by the 
 Scots ; and the night when all this took place was one of 
 clearest moonlight. 
 1 Viridalia. 
 
256 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 Caxton is 
 refuted. 
 
 Froissart. 
 
 The genius of 
 Edward the 
 Third, and his 
 deeds. 
 
 One hundred 
 thousand men 
 in the army of 
 the English 
 king. 
 
 Twenty-four, or 
 twenty, thou- 
 sand in the 
 army of the 
 Scots. 
 
 I give you Caxtorfs very words. Now I do not think you 
 will easily prove that the Scots bribed the English, nor yet 
 that they ever came to speech of Roger Mortimer. Unlikely 
 too it is that the Scots should have slipped away by 
 bright moonlight, and have escaped detection by at least 
 a few of the patrols who had not been bribed, and who 
 would surely have revealed the matter to the third Edward. 
 We have an account of this war written by Froissart, a his- 
 torian of Hainault, who dedicated his work to the king of the 
 English, and who drew his knowledge from John, brother to 
 the earl of Hainault, and those who were along with him. His 
 tendency was to magnify rather than to attenuate what made 
 for the glory of the English ; and for this jreason it shall be 
 my care to follow him to the letter, save for the turning of 
 the French tongue, for he wrote in French, into Latin ; yet I 
 will endeavour to reproduce the substance of his views rather 
 than his words. 
 
 Edward the Third was a man of a haughty spirit, and, rely- 
 ing on the counsel of those around him, he studied how he 
 might inflict some overwhelming defeat upon the Scots. He 
 sent messengers, therefore, to John of Hainault, with the 
 prayer that he would come to his support, and for answer 
 John brought to the help of Edward of England a body of 
 five hundred horsemen ; from all quarters Edward got together 
 an army of one hundred thousand men, and therewith made 
 for the north toward the Scots boundaries. Now when Robert 
 Bruce was ware of this, and turned in his mind how he was 
 himself now stricken in years and sick in body, he bade Thomas 
 Randolph and lord James Douglas to get together a goodly 
 body of soldiers and invade Northumberland, trusting by a 
 devastation of that region to withdraw the English army from 
 the Scots — for Robert was a most far-seeing man. When 
 Edward heard of the approach of the Scottish army, he sent 
 his seneschal to see to the strengthening of Newcastle-upon- 
 Tyne, and to Carlisle he sent the earl of Hereford. The Scots 
 army was four-and-twenty thousand strong. Our chroniclers 
 put the number at twenty thousand, neither more nor less ; 
 but on this point it may be that credence should be given to 
 him of Hainault rather than to the Scot ; for though the men 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 257 
 
 of "Hainault had kinship with the English, and had likewise 
 
 brought them material support, yet in such a point as this 
 
 their estimate may be taken as more likely to be impartial 
 
 than that of either Scot or Englishman. Twenty thousand 
 
 men then, or twenty-four thousand, the Scots had in their 
 
 army — cavalry all of them. The nobles and the wealthy men 
 
 among them were mounted on large and powerful horses, the 
 
 common people upon small horses ; and they made no use of 
 
 chariots, because Northumberland is for the most part a hilly 
 
 country. But that race of the Scots, he says, has a most The hardiness 
 
 singular endurance of hunger and thirst, and heat and cold. °*^ e Scots in 
 
 They can live for a long time together, even their men of 
 
 good nurture, upon the flesh of wild animals. For the Scots 
 
 knew that of flesh they could always have abundance from the Their provision 
 
 chase, and they therefore carry on the after-part of their saddle for food * 
 
 a double sack of meal, along with a sort of wide iron plate or 
 
 griddle, wherewith to make their bread. This griddle they How on an 
 
 heat by laying it over a fire, and then upon the griddle they b™ke toei7 they 
 
 spread a very thin paste of flour 1 ; and thus they bake their bread. 
 
 bread just as though they had an oven. The whole of Nor- Cruelty of the 
 
 thumberland they ravaged ; there was no village that they did Scots ' 
 
 not burn to ashes, nor indeed was there a single place up to 
 
 within five leagues of Durham, where English Edward then 
 
 abode, that escaped their universal flames. The English, who Forces of the 
 
 were there in force, now became aw T are of the smoke. Their En s hsh - 
 
 numbers mounted to eight thousand armed horsemen, thirty 
 
 thousand foot-soldiers, four-and-twenty thousand bowmen, and 
 
 in addition they had of serving-men a multitude, who carried 
 
 provision in plenty. They drew up their army in three lines. 
 
 Each line consisted of two wings, and each wing counted five 
 
 thousand armed men. In this order they followed up the 
 
 Scots by marching in that direction whence the smoke from 
 
 the Scottish fires proceeded ; but though they pursued the 
 
 search till evening they did not discover the Scots. They 
 
 therefore pitched their camp in a glade close by a stream, that 
 
 the wearied might find the better refreshment, and that they 
 
 might thus await the arrival of their baggage-w-agons, w } 1 i c ] 1 
 
 were not able to travel so fast as themselves. During the 
 
 1 Cf. ante, p. n. 
 
258 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [hook v. 
 
 whole of that day the Scots were giving to the flames all that 
 they could lay hands on, and this they did even at no great 
 distance from the English army ; yet, by reason of the rough- 
 ness of the road, the English could not reach them. The 
 dawn of the next day found the English force, drawn up in 
 line as before, again in vain pursuit of the Scots until the 
 evening ; and they thus had to pitch their camp again. 
 The English- Meanwhile the leaders amongst the English consult what had 
 council a ^est be done, for they were daily witnesses of this general con- 
 flagration by the Scots, and were yet unable by any ordinary 
 means to reach the offenders. When they had therefore taken 
 good counsel together, they determined upon this plan : To 
 retreat in the direction of Scotland as far as the river Tyne, 
 judging that the Scots would there, under pressure of hunger, 
 be driven to cross the river, when they should be able to inflict 
 upon them, in the very act of passage, a crushing defeat. After 
 midnight, therefore, leaving carriages and baggage behind them, 
 they make for the Tyne with all speed, and, carrying with them 
 none but the smallest provision, marched the whole of the 
 following day without laying down their arms, and did not 
 break their fast except on the morsel of bread that each had 
 with him. At sunset only did they allow themselves that 
 benison of sleep which well-wearied mortals more than all the 
 rest delight in. On the following day they reached the Tyne, 
 but the river was in so great a flood that they were unable to 
 cross it. There for a space of three days, suffering from pri- 
 vation of every sort, they were compelled to pitch their tents. 
 When at last these three days of hunger and general misery 
 were behind them, it was determined by certain amongst the 
 English, who had not suffered from the attacks of the Scots, 
 that a march should be made either to Newcastle, which was 
 distant thirteen leagues, or to Carlisle, which was distant 
 eleven leagues, for in the neighbouring villages it was known 
 that the Scots had left no provisions behind them, and the 
 inhabitants of these villages were scattered far and wide, wan- 
 dering in bands in search of food. They lost no time, there- 
 fore, in sending to those cities for food and drink, and on the 
 following day they had all they wanted to their heart's desire : 
 but of the Scots no single scrap of news. On the eighth day 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 259 
 
 the king ordered it to be proclaimed by public edict that if 
 any one should bring the king certain intelligence of the Scots 
 he should be rewarded by the king with a perpetual pension of 
 one hundred pounds. Which heard, fifteen active and able- 
 bodied knights took the road, or where there was no road 
 made one, in full chase, roving here and there and everywhere, 
 if only they might light upon those Scots. The army mean- 
 while maintained its position in a well-watered meadow about 
 two leagues from the Tyne, but the neighbouring villages had 
 been wasted of all provision, and they remained there for three 
 days. At the end of that time, one who had gone in quest of 
 the Scots returned with the news that they were distant at 
 that moment not more than three leagues from the king and 
 his army, and with a light heart were waiting the arrival of 
 the English, in all readiness to come to battle with them. 
 
 Forthwith the army was drawn up, as before, in three lines, 
 and they followed the indications of that explorer towards the 
 Scots. About mid-day they came in sight of the Scots posted 
 on a rising ground, and the Scots at the same time caught 
 sight of them. So soon as tbe Scots became aware of their 
 approach they divided their army into three parts, and occu- 
 pied both sides of the hill and the passage of the river as well, 
 which they call a ford. When the English now considered 
 their position, they judged that they could not, without 
 evident jeopardy, attack them, and they therefore again 
 pitched their camp. To the Scots the English king soon The demands 
 sent a messenger, demanding that they should come down En s lish 
 into a proper plain and fight there. But the Scots made The answer of 
 answer that since the English were in three times greater the Scots< 
 force than the Scots, and likewise in every way better fur- 
 nished, they preferred to maintain a more open position, so 
 that their inferiority in number might be compensated by a 
 natural environment that was better adapted for defence ; if, 
 then, the English king desired to fight them, he might try his 
 fortune as they were, since he was supposed to be ambitious of 
 military renown. Thus the day came to an end, and as dark- 
 ness drew on some of the Scots went on night-guard, in case 
 an attempt should be made by the English to cross the river ; 
 the remnant kept their place upon the hill. They lighted 
 
260 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 great bonfires, but throughout the night might be heard the 
 sound, deafening, terrific, of their bugles. The English army, 
 too, had its sentinels posted for the night, and thus, without 
 coming to the test of arms, the hostile forces spent three full 
 days, with no incident of war save that two soldiers, for the 
 trial of their strength, entered the lists of combat, and in 
 sight of both armies emptied each of them the saddle of his 
 adversary. But when, on the morning of the fourth day, 
 Phcebus had risen above the horizon, and the English turned 
 their eyes to the hill which the Scots had occupied at the first, 
 no enemy was to be seen, since in the silence of night the Scots 
 had carried themselves to another hill. The English king 
 thereupon ordered scouts to go in search of the Scots, and 
 learned from them how the Scots had planted themselves on 
 another hill upon the same river. As soon as they had this 
 news, the English hastened in that direction, and pitched their 
 camp on a hillock opposite the entrenchment of the Scots. 
 Douglas, his Now it happened that one night James Douglas, with two 
 doughty deed. hima! re d picked horsemen, crossed the river, invaded the 
 English camp, and, making his way to the tent of the king, 
 cut through two of the ropes which held it, after which, and 
 when he had slain three hundred of the English, he returned, 
 with the loss of a few men only, to his own quarters. This 
 calamity made its own impression upon the English, and 
 henceforth they were more careful in their choice of sentinels 
 by night. For eighteen days the two armies maintained their 
 position without any engagement of importance. But at 
 length, on the night of the eighteenth day, a Scot was taken 
 by the English patrol and brought before English Edward, 
 and he revealed to Edward this fact, that a public order had 
 gone forth to the effect that all were to hold themselves ready 
 for battle under the standard of James Douglas, but whither 
 the generals were aiming to lead them, or what this might 
 portend, he declared he knew not. The English, therefore, 
 lost no time in making a threefold division of their army ; at 
 the shallows of the river they placed a most diligent night- 
 watch, and during all the hours of darkness that followed their 
 eyes knew no sleep. For the remembrance of the calamity of 
 the night before was so full of terror that they doubted not 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 261 
 
 the Scots meditated on that night too a repetition of the 
 attack. Great fires also they kept up the whole night through, 
 that they might more surely detect any movement of the 
 enemy. It was toward dawn that two Scots trumpeters were 
 taken by the English patrols, and these men, when they were 
 brought into the presence of English Edward, declared to him 
 that the Scots had turned their steps homeward, ' and we The return of 
 they said, ' were commanded to tell you so much as soon as [htifown* 0 
 day began to break, and of intent it is that we were taken country- 
 prisoners, to the end you may follow them if you have a wish 
 to fight \ Thereafter the English king takes counsel with his 
 chief men ; and to this conclusion they came, that it would no 
 way advantage the English king to make haste after the Scots, 
 for there would be risk of no small loss were his army, all 
 wearv with its march, to come to battle with the Scots. It 
 was wiser, they judged, to let the Scots army depart with 
 impunity than to expose the whole English army to the hazard 
 of such a conflict. When the English arrived at the camping- The baggage of 
 ground of the Scots, they found the carcases of five hundred behinTwith 
 wild animals, such as deer and the like; for the Scots had killed intent - 
 them lest they should fall, a living booty, into the hands of 
 the English. Besides these, they found three hundred stewing- stewing-pans 
 pans, made from the hairy hide of animals, in which the Scots madeofhlde « 
 were used to cook their flesh food. They found too a thou- 
 sand spits in use for roasting meat, and ten thousand shoes 
 made from undressed leather with the hair on, which the Scots 
 had taken to use when their own shoes had been worn out. 
 Further, they found five naked Englishmen, bound to trees, 
 with their legs broken. These they unbound. Following the 
 counsel of those about him, Edward disbanded his whole army 
 and returned to London. This narrative I have taken to the 
 letter from Froissart K 
 
 1 Major must have founded this long narrative upon another recension of 
 Froissart than that used by Buchon (Liv. I. ptie. i. chh. 29-44 ; vol. i. pp. 20- 
 32). In that text, e.g., the English find 400— not 300 — ' chaudieres faites de 
 cuir, atout le poil' : and the same text speaks of 'cinq povres prisonniers anglois 
 que les Escots avoient lies tous nuds aux arbres, par depit, et deux qui avoient 
 les jambes brisees : si les delierent et laisserent aller 
 
6 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. — Of the complaint made by Edward the father, and 
 how he n-a.s carried to another prison, where lie was put to death with 
 terrible tortures. 
 
 It happened after this that Edward of Carnarvon was in 
 
 Berkeley castle under guard of Maurice de Herkelay and John 
 
 Mactrevers ; to these Edward was ever complaining that 
 
 neither his wife, the queen Isabella, nor yet his son Edward, 
 
 was permitted to have speech with him. To this his guardians 
 
 made answer: i The queen dreads lest you should take her life, 
 
 and your son has the like fear." To this he of Carnarvon made 
 
 the shrewd reply : ' Am I not a prisoner, and altogether in your 
 
 power, and the king's, and the queen's ? How then should I 
 
 dare, or, daring it, be able to compass, any attempt upon their 
 
 lives? And God knows that I have never harboured the 
 
 thought of hurting in any wise either my wife or my son.' A 
 
 Edward places little while hereafter, Edward of Windsor, bv advice of Roger 
 his father in . J r*n 
 
 other custody. Mortimer, placed his father under the custody of Thomas 
 Gournay and John Mactrevers in Corfe Castle : Herkelay he 
 removed from his post of guardian. Now Edward, when he 
 was once deposed, began to conceive for this castle such un- 
 governable hate, as if it were even a poison 1 . One night, 
 Edward is sub- on the prompting of Mortimer, they entered the chamber of 
 torture 'and" 6 * 1 Edward of Carnarvon, and, placing a thick plank upon his belly, 
 slam - they pressed the plank down upon him at each corner; there- 
 
 after, inserting a kind of tube in his fundament, and keeping 
 themselves some way removed from the same, they ran a spit 
 of copper red-hot through the tube, and so burned and broke 
 his vitals, yet so that the manner of his death should not be 
 apparent. Great God ! what treason have we here ! what 
 wickedness ! a crime indeed that no lapse of time, no punish- 
 ment can expiate. And this they dared upon the person of 
 their lord and king, and yet more, upon the prisoner for whose 
 safe custody they were to answer. Here then you have the 
 lamentable ending of Edward of Carnarvon, who in this point 
 only sinned, that he followed the counsel of bad men, but was 
 
 1 8 Quam arcem tanquam toxicum Edwardus exauthoratus odio prosequutus 
 est.' It was at Berkeley Castle, not at Corfe, that Edward the Second was 
 murdered. 
 
( hap. mil] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 263 
 
 otherwise a right-minded man and a brave soldier, clement too Edward is 
 according to the measure of his own time ; therefore he may praised * 
 have his rightful place by the side of great kings. 
 
 CHAP. IX. — Of the deeds of Robert Bruce, king of the Scots, and 
 Edward the Third, king of the English; likewise of the peace that was 
 brought about through the marriage of their children; and of the death 
 of Robert. 
 
 Edward of Carnarvon, then, being dead, and Edward the 
 Third, called of Windsor, reigning in his stead, I will leave to 
 speak of English affairs for a little and return to Robert Bruce, 
 from whom I made this digression. When Robert Bruce had Robert Bruce, 
 suffered provocation at the hands of the English, he sent his 
 two chief men, Thomas Randolph and James Douglas, with 
 fifteen thousand picked soldiers of the Scots, into England, 
 with the view of humbling the English ; and they went so far 
 as the park in Viridalia, of which we have so lately been speak- 
 ing. But as I have told the story of this expedition from the 
 French narrative of the same by Froissart, I will say no more 
 thereanent, but pass at once to other matters. 
 
 In the year one thousand three hundred and twenty-six, 
 Edward the Third and Isabella, his mother, sent a solemn Edward the 
 embassy to Scotland ; and Robert Bruce granted audience to The English 
 the same at Edinburgh. It was the business of this embassy to emDass y- 
 propose to give the sister of Edward in marriage to the son of 
 king Robert, with renunciation every way of that claim of 
 superiority which had been advanced by the English over the 
 kingdom of the Scots. Some reparation, however, they did 
 seek from Robert for the serious losses which he had inflicted 
 on the English. And so they came to an agreement ; and Peace is con- 
 Robert Bruce counted out thirty thousand marks and gave basis of° n 6 
 them to the English, and for his son David, a lad of five years, raarria s e - 
 he took the lady Joanna, sister to the English king, to wife. 
 That notion of an English superiority the Scots at all times 
 have spurned, for never at any time have they been subject to 
 any but their own proper king. This notwithstanding, to the 
 end they might maintain a state of peace and live quietly with 
 
264 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 The death of 
 Robert Bruce 
 and his eulogy. 
 
 An eulogy of 
 
 William 
 
 Wallace. 
 
 Robert's will 
 and testament. 
 
 their neighbours, they sought to obtain the seal thereto of the 
 English king and state, and what they sought they obtained. 
 
 It was three full years after the settlement of this peace 
 that, at Cardross, in the four-and-twentieth year of his reign, 
 Robert Bruce went the way of all flesh. A king he was 
 worthy to sway the mightiest empire, and as a man one whom, 
 in the matter of a genius for war, I would place even before 
 William Wallace. And though William Wallace was more 
 highly endowed in point of stature and bodily strength than 
 Robert — for in gifts of this sort he surpassed, in my opinion, 
 Alexander of Macedon himself 1 — yet not on that account is he 
 to be reckoned as having superiority in matters of war. But 
 herein William is indeed worthy to be extolled ; that, sprung 
 as he was from a mean house, he yet grew to be so great a man, 
 with none to thank therefor but his own right arm and his own 
 genius, and that he drove the English out of Scotland. Yet even 
 here you shall find Robert Bruce not less admirable, though he 
 were born of a noble house and had amongst his kindred by 
 blood or marriage nobles many a one, — for after a beginning 
 of disaster, when he had lost all that he had, when he had not 
 a friend to stand by him, he remained ever of the same un- 
 conquered spirit, and drove, in the end, out of Scotland the 
 Scots who favoured English rule and the nobles of England ; 
 twice he came to close quarters with the English king in 
 conflicts difficult and formidable, once in Scotland, the second 
 time in England ; and as often did he defeat the Englishman. 
 His subjects knew what it was to have just laws administered 
 in their integrity ; many changes of policy or government he 
 made worthy of a king, and these remain amongst the Scots to 
 the present day. All this notwithstanding, I do not prefer 
 Robert before Kenneth, Gregory, David, or the Alexanders ; 
 nor, on the other hand, do I prefer any one of them before 
 him ; they possessed, each of them, their own peculiar excel- 
 lencies, wherefore I will leave them all in their proper parity 
 of place. 
 
 In his last testament Robert is said to have given these 
 injunctions : first, that the king of the Scots should never 
 
 1 Alexander the Great is generally reckoned among the great men who were 
 of small stature. 
 
CHAP. IX.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 265 
 
 renounce possession of the Scots islands, nor make grant of the 
 same to his nobles 1 ; and that provision perchance he made 
 because it is a matter of utmost difficulty to reach those 
 islands when there is need to punish transgressors ; and for 
 that reason they rise easily in revolt against their kings. 
 
 Secondly : it was provided for in that testament that the 
 Scots should never grant any long or fixed date to the English 
 when they were about to engage in war with that nation ; and 
 for this injunction cause may be found in the fact that the 
 English draw paid forces in plenty from outside their own people, 
 and these men are skilled in the use of engines of war. The 
 English too pay heavy taxes to their king for purposes of war, 
 and he is thus enabled to pass by all that are unfit, and to 
 choose only the best in arms, while at the same time he can 
 spend liberally upon the equipment of his army. In a long 
 continued war he thus depends upon completeness of arrange- 
 ment and discipline rather than upon the actual strength and 
 prowess of his soldiers. On the other hand, in time of war the 
 common people among the Scots contribute absolutely nothing 
 to the expenses of the king ; but rather these go forth with their 
 king the fit with the unfit alike, so that no discipline is observed; 
 nor are trained soldiers only chosen, and men unfit to bear 
 arms rejected ; wherefore my wonder is rather that now and 
 again in a great war the Scots have ever defeated the English. 
 If those who are not fit to bear arms would but tax themselves 
 in order that the strong and able-bodied only should be chosen, 
 the Scots would more often win the day. And in proof of 
 this I would point out that where the Scots have found them- 
 selves in conflict with the English suddenly and hand to hand, 
 they are wont to be oftener conquerors than conquered. 
 
 Thirdly : He made bequest of his heart, that it should be 
 borne with him by some good soldier setting forth to fight 
 against the infidel ; and this charge he gave to James Douglas, 
 in whom he most confided ; — for before this he had made a 
 vow that in his own person he would go forth to fight against 
 the infidel. But though he went not, he was far from com- 
 mitting any sin, since for the good peace of his kingdom, 
 which only thus could have been secured with any likelihood, 
 1 Cf. ante, p. 38. 
 
266 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [hook v. 
 
 This purpose he might well have stayed at home. Yet I cannot approve 
 dfscussedf 1S n * s P ur P ose J see hig that it carried with it the absence from his 
 country of such an one as James Douglas ; for the king should 
 have borne in mind that, the fact of the mutual marriage not- 
 withstanding, the English were still panting for the kingdom of 
 Scotland, and he knew that the presence of James Douglas was 
 of the utmost advantage to the kingdom, inasmuch as he 
 was devoted in no common measure to Thomas Randolph. 
 But perchance you will urge that, acting thus, Robert showed 
 the penetration of his judgment, feeling that fortune has no 
 room for two men where these two are equal, and such I 
 hold these men to have been ; and thus, taking the fairest 
 opportunity he could, he sent James Douglas beyond the 
 kingdom. And if he acted from this motive, he is not to be 
 censured ; for in the face of a possible civil war his conduct is 
 not to be called imprudent ; yet, inasmuch as the steadfast 
 courage of the man was known, and his loyal devotion to the 
 welfare of the kingdom had been tried so often, I cannot help 
 thinking that it would have been better had James Douglas 
 remained at home. 
 
 A law made by 
 Randolph. 
 
 A proper 
 example of 
 justice. 
 
 CHAP. X. — Of the wise regency of Scotland at the hands of Thomas 
 Randolph, and his end through the treachery of a monk. 
 
 Afteb the death of Robert Bruce, Thomas Randolph exer- 
 cised wise rule in Scotland, and throughout the whole kingdom 
 administered a perfect justice. He made a law that if any 
 horseman in dismounting from his horse should have made 
 fast his bridle to the saddle, and the bridle came thereafter 
 to be stolen, then the sheriff of that place should be respon- 
 sible for the theft ; likewise in the matter of plough-irons ; 
 and in the end the sheriff might recover payment from 
 the king. Now it once came to pass that a certain country 
 fellow removed his own plough-irons, and made demand of 
 their value in money from the sheriff, who thereupon in- 
 stituted the most thorough search for the author of the 
 crime ; and in the end the very countryman who laid the 
 complaint was found to be the guilty person ; and when he 
 
(HAP. X.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 267 
 
 confessed to the crime he was hanged. 1 The cause of rich 
 and poor Randolph weighed in equal scales without favour of 
 person : homicide he visited not with a fine of money, but 
 with the extreme penalty, lest otherwise occasion might be 
 given for the perpetration of homicide. For though by money 
 the royal purse may grow heavier, yet God is thereby offended, 
 a way is opened for assassination, justice suffers injury, the 
 king is contemned, and frequently comes thereby to his end. 
 
 And to say in few words what I think of this man's rule, I 
 can recall no king since Brutus landed in Britain who governed 
 more wisely than he. In war he was of all men the bravest ; The eulogy 
 and though bodily strength be no proof, indeed, of the posses- of Randol P h - 
 sion of that moral fortitude of which I now speak, yet was he 
 in his outward man eminently well-favoured, and of great 
 strength ; yet he was far more conspicuous in that fortitude 
 of soul which constitutes the only true virtue. Such was the 
 wide-spread fame of this man amongst the English, that though 
 they often turned a greedy eye towards the kingdom of Scotland, 
 by reason of the tender years of its king, yet, thinking of 
 Thomas Randolph, they judged it best to maintain a state of 
 peace ; for they felt that during his lifetime it would be a 
 fruitless task to try to possess themselves of Scotland. 
 
 At last it happened that a certain monk of England, who Randolph is 
 claimed to be a physician, or one skilled in drugs, found his through the 
 way into Scotland, and there contracted a somewhat close " e ^ e k ry of 
 intimacy with the regent, and one day indeed gave him, in 
 place of medicine, poison. The action of the poison was not 
 immediate and momentary ; rather did it gnaw the vitals step 
 by step. All this was part of the plan of this perfidious monk, 
 in order that he might safely return to his own country. Now, 
 when he was once returned thither, the guardian and regent of 
 the kingdom began to pine away more and more day by day, 
 and the report even of his death, albeit a false one, reached 
 
 1 This is also the first incident of Randolph's wardenship narrated by Wyn- 
 toun (Cronykil of Scotland, Bk. vin. ch. xxiv., vol. ii. p. 377, Laing'sed.): 
 
 ' A gredy carle swne efftyr wes 
 Byrnand in swylk gredynes, 
 That his plw-yrnys hym-selff stall, 
 And hyd thame in a pete-pot all.' 
 
268 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 Randolph's 
 exertions, even 
 when sick with 
 poison, for his 
 country. 
 
 The death of 
 Randolph. 
 His eulogy. 
 
 the ears of the English king ; wherefore he bethought him 
 that the time was opportune for making an attempt to add 
 Scotland to his empire, and from all parts he brought together 
 a huge army, and directed his course toward the marches of 
 Scotland. Thomas Randolph, on the other hand, with the 
 poison working in his body, and borne in a litter, hastened 
 with a numerous army against the English king. He, when 
 he was aware of the approach of the Scots, sent a herald to 
 make inquiry whether the guardian of Scotland was still in 
 life ; and when the guardian learned so much, he attired him- 
 self magnificently, left his litter, caused himself to be placed 
 upon a horse, and by the expression of his countenance tried 
 to dissemble his malady. He then made known to the English 
 herald that he and the Scots were full of eagerness to put 
 Edward's courage to the proof ; and thereupon the herald 
 departed, laden with costly gifts, and declared to Edward that 
 the guardian of Scotland was indeed in life, and even in the 
 best of health, and suffering from no disease ; yet was he 
 interrupted as he spoke by that evil-hearted religious, who 
 called out, 6 Though his belly were of iron he shall not escape 
 death \ The English king, however, was counselled that it 
 would be his wisest course not to break the peace that had 
 been agreed on, since otherwise he should find himself involved 
 in a doubtful contest with a warlike people, under the leading 
 of an illustrious general, in whose good fortune the whole army 
 had no small confidence, whom every single man loved as a 
 father, and whom the universal voice proclaimed as the father 
 of his country. Edward, therefore assented to this reasoning, 
 disbanded his army, and went to London, while the finger of 
 scorn was pointed at that religious as a liar, whose utterances 
 had proved themselves without foundation. Yet while the 
 guardian was being borne in his litter toward Edinburgh, the 
 pestilence within him gathered strength, and at Musselburgh 
 he died. He received honourable burial at Dunfermline by 
 the side of kings and regents. This man I cannot count as 
 inferior to William Wallace ; nay, I will not give Robert 
 Bruce himself a place before him, when I recall the moral 
 fortitude, the strong sense of justice, the conspicuous virtues 
 of every sort by which he was distinguished. 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 269 
 
 CHAP. XI. — Of the brave deeds of James Douglas and his death ; 
 and of the succession of Edward Baliol in Scotland, his victory, his coro- 
 nation, and, finally, his fight. 
 
 James Douglas, when he went on his journey to western 
 Hesperia 1 with William St. Clair and Robert Logan, both 
 knights, for his squires, carried round his neck in a golden 
 casket the heart of Robert Bruce ; and there, bravely fight- 
 ing against the Agarenes 2 , he fell. It was after this that ^ e ^ th la ° f 
 Donald earl of Mar was chosen guardian and governor of Donald De- 
 Scotland ; and in his time, that is, in the one thousand three ^Scotland!* 
 hundred and thirty-second year from the Virgin's travail, 
 Edward Baliol, a Scot, but at the instigation and with the 
 support of the English king, made a descent upon Scotland, Baliol's 
 claiming that the succession to the throne lay rightfully with 
 him. He came to Scotland with no more than six hundred 
 men for a following, and, relying more upon the help of those 
 Scots who afterwards were killed in the Black Parliament 3 
 than upon his own kindred, he got as far as Dupplin. Against 
 him marched Patrick Dunbar, earl of March, with thirty 
 thousand men, and the earl of Mar also with a large number at 
 his back ; and they had scorn of Edward when they saw how 
 small a troop he had along with him, and so did not place a 
 proper watch by night. But when Edward was ware of this, 
 he fell upon them by night when they were heavy with sleep, 
 and slew them as though they had been so many swine, not a 
 man of them resisting. Then Baliol, being a man of a high Baliol's happy 
 
 . . . augury. 
 
 courage, rejoiced greatly at this issue, and taking this happy 
 
 beginning of the contest as a good omen, he ventured to fight 
 
 with the rest of the nobles in broad daylight. He took his 
 
 stand in a position of strong natural defence, and the Scots 
 
 rushed upon him, in great numbers indeed, but with a complete 
 
 absence of order and discipline. In this battle Edward Baliol 
 
 came off victor ; the earl of Mar and Alexander Fraser Baliol's victory. 
 
 perished, with many of the nobility, and Duncan earl of Fife 
 
 was taken prisoner. Edward Baliol next took the fortified 
 
 town of Saint John after a slight resistance. Duncan earl of His successes. 
 
 1 i.e. Spain. - i.e. The children of Hagar = the Saracens. 
 
 3 See ante, p. 245. 
 
270 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 Fife and William St. Clair, bishop of Dunkeld, then took the 
 oath of fealty to him, and by their help he was invested with 
 
 His coronation, the kingly crown at Scone. Thereupon David Bruce, a boy of 
 nine years, fled by the direction of his guardians to France, 
 
 Bruce escapes taking with him his wife, the sister of the English king ; and 
 at the hands of the French king he met with an honourable 
 reception. There he found a shelter for eight years and more. 
 
 Alas for the shame, the grief of it ! Where then was Thomas 
 Randolph, where James Douglas then, to stand by the son of 
 Robert Bruce in the hour of his distress ? Surely the warriors 
 were the same as those whom Robert Bruce and Thomas Ran- 
 dolph had never failed to lead to victory ; the same indeed, — 
 but it was the leader who was wanting ; and so they did but 
 little in the war that is worthy to be told. We read of that 
 army of Alexander the Macedonian, which, while he led it, 
 never knew defeat, that after his death it was conquered with 
 ease. Wherefore you may see that just as the best of generals 
 is a cripple if he have not troops whose delight is in the 
 conflict — in just like case is the best of armies without a proper 
 general. So that Caesar said rightly enough, that he would go 
 in the first place to the western parts of Spain, there to take 
 captive an army that had no leader, and after that a leader who 
 had no army. But in the following year the town of Perth was 
 taken by James and Simon Fraser and Robert Keith. At the 
 storming of that town there were taken prisoner Duncan earl 
 of Fife, guardian under Edward Baliol, and likewise Andrew of 
 Tulibard, who, when he was found guilty of treason against the 
 king, rightly underwent the penalty of death. In that same 
 year John Randolph earl of Moray, Archibald Douglas who 
 was brother to the lord James Douglas, and Simon Fraser lay in 
 wait to seize Edward Baliol, who had got so large a number of 
 Scots nobles to accept his terms of peace ; among them he had 
 somehow deflected Alexander Bruce earl of Carrick and the 
 lord of Galloway. But now he began suddenly to be attacked 
 
 Baliol flies, and on every side, and lost no time in seeking safety in flight, even 
 
 siain nendS on a bridleless horse \ Of his supporters there fell on that day 
 
 1 Cf. Wyntoun's Crony kil, Laing's ed., vol. ii. p. 395 : — 
 
 Bot the Ballyoll his gat is gane, 
 
 On a barme hors with leggys bare ; 
 i.e. probably, a horse without a saddle. Leslie (Dalrymple's trans. "pt. iii. p. 15), 
 says ' the Balie . . . bangs vp on a horsse '. 
 
CHAP. XII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 271 
 
 Henry Baliol, who made most vigorous resistance, and even in 
 his flight put more than one of his pursuers to death, likewise 
 John Mowbray, Walter dimming, Richard Kirkby, knight. 
 In this battle the earl of Carrick was taken prisoner, and after- 
 wards liberated by the earl of Moray. 
 
 Chap. XII. — Of the attack made upon the Scots by Edward of 
 England and Edward Baliol ; of the siege of Berwick, and how it was 
 in the end taken by storm after a battle in which very many of the Scots 
 lost their lives. 
 
 When Edward of England had knowledge of the divisions 
 and civil war which were then lively among the Scots, he 
 thought that the time was fit for gaining Scotland to himself, 
 and disregarding at once his tie by marriage with that country, 
 the oath that he had sworn, and every obligation of good 
 faith, he collected a huge army of Scots and English ; for in 
 this war he had upon his side Edward Baliol and those who 
 ranged themselves with him. In renown, as this world counts 
 renown, Edward was illustrious, but a higher kind of renown 
 would have been his had Robert Bruce or Thomas Randolph 
 been his foe ; as things now were, the Scots might have been 
 counted as already vanquished through the dissensions among 
 themselves. 
 
 There were two parties, almost equal one with another, who Scottish 
 with some show of right claimed the throne, and various factl0ns - 
 homicides were among them mutually committed; both parties 
 were aiming at supreme power. Edward, therefore, judging 
 that a settled peace could never be brought about between 
 them, showed his shrewdness in attaching himself to the party 
 of Edward Bruce, as being the weaker of the two, thinking he 
 should thus best deal destruction on the Scots. Yet Baliol, as 
 is plain from what has been said above, had no shadow of a 
 claim — unless such an one as might be urged in a sophistical 
 fashion ; and therefore you shall find all the better men active 
 upon the side of Bruce. The supporters of David Bruce, when 
 they considered the guilefulness and craft of the English king, 
 gave the keeping of the castle of Berwick to the earl of the 
 Marches, and of its town to Alexander Seton. It was at this 
 time that Andrew earl of Moray was taken prisoner by 
 
272 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 Andrew, earl of 
 Moray, is taken 
 prisoner. 
 
 Berwick is 
 invested. 
 
 Archibald 
 Douglas, 
 governor of 
 Scotland. 
 
 The hostage 
 is hanged. 
 
 The masculine 
 courage of a 
 Scottish 
 matron. 
 
 Battle of 
 Halidon. 
 
 Edward Baliol and the English near to the Marches ; and 
 about the same time William Douglas, lord of Liddesdale, who 
 had been taken by the English, was ransomed. A short time 
 after the investment of Berwick, on the day before the ides of 
 April, the English king arrived on the spot, and made an 
 attack upon the town both by land and by sea. But the town 
 was manfully defended by Seton and his men, who burned the 
 ships and inflicted no small damage upon the besiegers ; but in 
 the storming of the ships a son of lord Seton was taken by the 
 English. This terrible siege lasted till St. Magdalen's day 
 without a break. 
 
 In the end the Scots made this covenant with the English : 
 that if within a given time they were unable to succour the 
 town, they would then make surrender to the English ; and 
 in security for this obligation lord Seton placed his eldest 
 son in their hands as a hostage. Further, after the capture 
 of Andrew of Moray, Archibald Douglas, the chief of the 
 family of Douglas, was chosen guardian of Scotland. He 
 got together an army of sixty thousand men, supporters of 
 David Bruce, meaning to make therewith invasion of England, 
 and thus to raise the siege. But he unwisely listened to the 
 suasion of the men within the city when they called on him 
 rather to fight ; and when he did not arrive punctually to the 
 hour, the English leader demanded the surrender of the place, 
 on the ground of the covenant that had been made between 
 them. Now when the men within considered the close neigh- 
 bourhood of a Scottish army, they did not surrender the town. 
 In answer to this the enemy hanged their hostage, Thomas 
 Seton, on a lofty gallows, in the sight of both his father and 
 his mother, thinking that his parents, and, most of all, his fond 
 mother, would be moved, by the death of their son and heir, 
 to the surrender of the town. But this brave-hearted woman 
 preferred the safety of the town and the liberty of her country 
 to the life of her son ; and to her husband, while her son was 
 ascending the gallows, she spoke these words : ' We are 
 young — we have other children — let us patiently bear the 
 death of one."' 
 
 In defence of the city a battle called of Halidon was fought. 
 Edward of England and Edward Baliol took up a position 
 
CHAP. XII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 273 
 
 which was every way favourable, for it was upon a height ; 
 while the supporters of David Bruce occupied a hillock, 
 whence they must go down into the valley and ascend the 
 other height in face of the enemy when it came to a battle. The 
 first indeed held the position of strength ; and the more cautious 
 amongst the Scots were opposed to the risk of battle in that 
 place, and counselled rather an invasion of England, where, 
 with fire and sword, they might waste the surrounding country, 
 and thus force the English to withdraw from the blockade. In 
 the end, however, they followed the counsel of James Douglas, 
 the guardian, a man in such a case as this rashly daring rather 
 than brave ; but, being guardian, they assented to him. The 
 battle then is begun ; and as the armed men were striving to 
 climb the flank of the other hill, many of them fell, in the 
 shower of stones that were rolled down upon them ; one of the 
 enemy indeed sufficed to bar the way to four who were climb- 
 ing ; and so it was that in a bloodless battle the best men who 
 followed the fortunes of David Bruce lost their lives ; and 
 among them the chief were these : Archibald Douglas, the The illustrious 
 guardian ; James, John, and Alan Stuart, all brothers, and Wh ° Were 
 cousins-german of David Bruce, as well as being cousins- 
 german of Robert Stuart, afterward king of the Scots ; Hugh 
 earl of Ross, wearing the shirt of Saint Duthac 1 (which, on 
 the death of the earl, is said to have been restored — an example, 
 this, of English courtesy — to the town of Tain) ; Kenneth, 
 earl of Sutherland ; Alexander Bruce, earl of Carrick ; Andrew, 
 James, and Simon Fraser, all brothers, with many other nobles. 
 After this battle Berwick was surrendered to the English ; the Berwick surren- 
 earl of March and the lord Seton are forced to swear fidelity to ^my 0 the 
 the English king and Edward Baliol ; and so it came to pass 
 that almost all the supporters of David Bruce were destroyed, 
 or — if they happened to have saved their lives — were compelled 
 to desert him. Some of our countrymen, on the strength of 
 an old prophecy — I know not truly what or whence — declare 
 
 1 The shirt of Saint Duthac, to which marvellous powers were ascribed, was, 
 according to the Rev. W. Taylor {Researches into the History of Tain, 1882, p. 
 42), preserved in the Church of St. Duthac, and worn by the earl of Ross when 
 he went to war. The story, told by the Bollandists (March 8) of the burning 
 coal carried without injury in his bosom by Saint Duthach as a boy may have 
 given rise to the attribution of a peculiar virtue to his shirt. 
 
 s 
 
JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 that in the same place there shall some day be fought a battle 
 lucky for the Scots, fraught with disaster to the English ; but 
 to prophecies of this sort I confess that I attach a very slender 
 measure of credence. 
 
 Baliol occupies 
 Scotland. 
 
 The English- 
 man returns 
 home. 
 
 Diminution of 
 David's follow- 
 ing. 
 
 The strongholds 
 remaining faith- 
 ful to David. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. — Of the tyranny of Baliol in Scotland ; of his oppres- 
 sion of David, and the accession of Robert Stuart to the side of David. 
 
 After the battle of Halidon Hill in the neighbourhood of 
 Berwick, Edward Baliol was put in possession of all the more 
 strongly fortified places in Scotland, and the English king 
 returned. In all this the Englishman acted from no virtuous 
 or kindly motive ; we may safely presume that Baliol made 
 him a secret promise to hold the kingdom from him. For if 
 the question be put why he should have given his support to 
 Baliol, who was destitute of any real claim, and utterly passed 
 by David Bruce to whom he had given his own sister in mar- 
 riage, I can find and make none other answer than this : that 
 he saw David Bruce to have the larger and stronger following 
 amongst the Scots, and had no hope of being able to use him 
 toward the accomplishing of his own ends in Scotland, while 
 under cover of Edward Baliol he might, he thought, preserve 
 some kind of footing there. But, whatever may have been the 
 truth in the matter, the following of David Bruce had dwindled 
 to such a degree that in all Scotland there remained no more 
 than four strongholds which owned his sway, to wit, Dunbarton, 
 of which Malcolm Fleming was the keeper ; Lochleven, which 
 was held by Alan de Veypont ; Kildrummy, in the hands of 
 Christiana Bruce, and Urquhart, in the hands of Thomas 
 Lauder. But in the year of the redemption of the world the 
 thirteen hundred and thirty-fourth, seeds of a fresh quarrel 
 began to sprout at Perth ; for the lord Henry de Beaumont, 
 David earl of Athole, and Richard Talbot, wished to give 
 precedence to the daughters of the brother of Alexander 
 Mowbray over Alexander himself. Edward Baliol took the 
 part, in this quarrel, of Alexander. Poor Edward had for- 
 gotten that of the wise man: 'He who gives judgment between 
 two of his friends will hardly avoid to offend one of them ; 
 whereas he who gives judgment between enemies will gain a 
 
("HAP. XIII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 275 
 
 friend. ' The end was that those three persons of importance 
 were highly indignant, and went to their respective homes. 
 Talbot made all haste toward England, but was taken in 
 Lothian ; Henry de Beaumont hastened into Buchan in the 
 direction of Dundark, whose fortress he restored, and he came 
 to bear rule in all Buchan. Andrew of Moray laid siege to 
 Henry in Dundark, and forced him to abandon that stronghold 
 and flee into England. The earl of Athole, however, withdrew 
 to Lochindorb, and Edward Baliol betook himself to Berwick. 
 Edward Baliol then, dreading the revolt of these nobles, gave 
 dismissal to Alexander Mowbray, in order that he might gain 
 the alliance of the rest. Upon those earls he bestowed the 
 whole lands of the seneschal of Scotland. Whereupon Alex- 
 ander Mowbray, when he had parted from Baliol, adhered to 
 Andrew of Moray. Baliol then began to hold all Scotland at 
 his will and pleasure. 
 
 The lord Stuart, after David Bruce the rightful heir to 
 Scotland, in his fear of Edward Baliol fled to Dunbarton, and 
 received from Malcolm Fleming a kind and friendly welcome. 
 Further, in the following year, English Edward invaded 
 Scotland with a large army. Edward Baliol had a meet- 
 ing with him, and these two appointed David earl of Athole 
 to be lieutenant of Scotland, and a short while thereafter 
 English Edward departed into England, taking Edward Baliol 
 with him. From this proceeding I gather that Edward of Edward of 
 Windsor aimed at keeping hold of Scotland for himself, since ^uSking^om 
 he carried off Edward Baliol into England, even then when oi Scotland - 
 this latter seemed to be strongly hated in Scotland. All the 
 lands of the Stuart and of the Cummings of Bute the earl of 
 Athole now fastened upon for himself. 
 
 At this time there was not a person who in open fashion 
 acknowledged himself a subject of David Bruce, unless you David is looked 
 except little lads who in their play would always say that °f his kingdom, 
 king David Bruce was their king 1 . Robert Stuart began 
 
 1 Cf. Wyntoun's Cronykil, Bk. VIII. ch. xxix., vol. ii. p. 413, Laing's ed. : 
 1 Thus wes the kynryk off Scotland 
 Sa hale in Inglis mennys hand, 
 That nane durst thaim than wythsay 
 (At swa gret myscheffe than war thay), 
 
276 JOHN MAJOR" S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 The slaying of 
 Alan the lieu- 
 tenant. 
 
 to chafe at this assumption of a claim to his lands which 
 had been made by David earl of Athole, and sent a mes- 
 senger to the lord of Lochaw, Campbell was his name, be- 
 seeching him to send an armed force to his succour. Where- 
 upon Campbell came with four hundred men, and together 
 they laid siege to, and in the end they stormed, the castle of 
 Dunhowm. And when the men of Bute who had been reared 
 under the Stuarts came to hear of this, they flocked to him in 
 crowds, as to their true and rightful lord. And when Alan 
 Lile, the lieutenant, came in turn to know what had happened, 
 he aimed to cut them off, as they marched, with a body of 
 soldiers, and so to destroy them ere they had been furnished 
 with arms. But when those who were called Brandan's serving- 
 men saw this, they made for a heap of stones which they found 
 close by, and with all their might they showered stones, as it 
 were hail, upon the lieutenant ; him indeed they stoned to 
 death, and those that were with him they put to the rout. 
 For the service that they had rendered they prayed their lord 
 the Stuart that he would hold them free of multure dues 1 ; and 
 to this petition the Stuart, as was right, consented. Soon 
 afterward Thomas Bruce earl of Carrick, William Carruther, 
 and many others, joined themselves to the Stuart. 
 
 Return of earl 
 Randolph into 
 Scotland. 
 
 CHAP. XIV.— Of the return of earl Randolph to Scotland ; of the 
 choice of guardians, the captivity of one, and the brave deeds of the 
 other; of cities that were set on fire and their restoration, and various 
 events of war. 
 
 It was at this time that Rando]ph earl of Moray, leaving 
 David Bruce still sheltering in France, came to Scotland and 
 had a joyful reception from the lord Stuart in Dunbarton ; by 
 his aid Clydesdale, Carrick, Kyle, and Cunningham were gained 
 
 Bot chyldyr that na kyndly skyll 
 Had to deme betwyx gud and iwyll, 
 Na cowth nocht drade thare will to say, 
 For thare Kyng wes a child as thai. 
 Qwhen men askyt qwhays men thai were, 
 Thai rycht apertly wald awnsuere, 
 That thai war men to Kyng Dawy : 
 Thus said thai all generaly.' 
 1 The multure dues of the baron's mill — ' one of the most grievous oppressions 
 of the peasantry '. Cf. Mr. Innes's Lectures on Scotch Legal Antiquities, p. 47. 
 
chap, xiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 277 
 
 over to their side, and Robert Stuart and the said earl of 
 Moray were chosen to be guardians of Scotland. This done, 
 the earl of Moray marched against the earl of Athole, pursued 
 him even to Lochaber, and compelled him to swear fealty to 
 David Bruce. They then called together a council of their 
 followers at Perth. Those who were present at this council A Council of 
 were: Andrew of Moray just ransomed from his captivity, the nobles " 
 Patrick Dunbar earl of March, Lord Stuart, Alexander Mow- 
 bray, David earl of Athole, William Douglas of Nithsdale. 
 But now they learned that Edward of England and Edward 
 Baliol had arrived in Scotland ; and therefore gave their orders 
 that the common people should leave defenceless places and 
 betake themselves to strengths. It was in this year that the 
 duke of Geller 1 , moved as much by English money as by The duke of 
 English prayers, went forth to fight against the Scots, and Geller - 
 with a large fleet invaded their country. The guardian, the 
 earl of March, William Douglas, and Alexander Ramsay met 
 him in battle at the Borough moor. The fight was a fierce 
 one, but the Geller men were defeated. On the payment The Geller 
 of ransom, however, the Geller men were allowed to pass ^-^2 
 freely into England. Only the duke of Geller, in case he 
 should be slain by the Scots under way, was from motives of 
 humanity attended by the guardian in person ; and the English, 
 when they came to hear of this, gathered some troops together 
 all secretly, fell upon the guardian unawares, and took him 
 prisoner. For though the men of northern nations may indeed The Guardian 
 excel the southrons in strength and valour, yet in that prudence °aken? tland 1S 
 which is a first necessity in warfare they are too often found 
 wanting 2 . 
 
 After the guardian had been taken prisoner, David earl of David earl of 
 Athole turned him to Edward of England and Edward Baliol £^gjg 
 at Perth, and there gave them his word that, if they would kin S« 
 make choice of him for guardian of Scotland, he would in no 
 long time crush the Bruces, bring them over to the party of 
 
 1 Macpherson, in his notes to Wyntoun's Cronykil (vol. iii. p. 297, Laing's ed.), 
 says that the Scottish historians have erroneously called ' the politic ally of 
 Edward ' (whom Major calls 'dux Gelrise') ' Earl of Geller instead of Namur, 
 probably led into the mistake by an Earl of Gueldre (written Geders) being at 
 the same time in the service of England '. 
 
 2 Cf. ante, Bk. I, ch. vi. p. 29, ch. vii. p. 44. 
 
278 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 Edward, and so keep them settled in that mind ; and they for 
 their part assented to what he said, and departed yet once more 
 into England. This David was a fickle man and an ambitious; 
 though he had succeeded in bringing every Scot to Edward's 
 side, there is no doubt that he would have ended by turning 
 against Edward and making a forcible invasion of his kingdom. 
 His cruelty to He was the oppresssor of the innocent and of the poor among 
 innocent people. ^ e common people ; for all he did he knew no measure but his 
 own will, heedless of the dictates of reason ; and against guilt- 
 less men he raged with inhuman cruelty. He then began to 
 lay siege to the castle of Kildrummy ; whereupon Andrew of 
 Moray (who, after the capture of his kinsman the earl of Moray, 
 had been chosen for guardian by the followers of the Bruces) 
 went forth against him, taking with him two noblemen — strong- 
 men they were and devoted to Bruce — to wit, the earl of March 
 Andrew earl and William Douglas. There was then fought a fierce battle 
 made Guardian. m the forest of Kilblene, in the which the earl of Athole, 
 Walter Gumming, Robert Bred, and many others came by their 
 A fierce battle, end. And in the following year the guardian laid siege to the 
 castle of Lochindorb 1 which was held by the wife of that earl of 
 Athole who had just been slain. And she went secretly to the 
 English king for succour. A short while thereafter the king 
 of England came into Moray with a large army, and laid all 
 The English waste with fire. Elgin, the chief city of Moray, he gave to the 
 The b^rnSgof flames ; its church, the seat of the bishop and the dwellings of 
 Elgin, the canons, he saved from being burnt. Thereafter he went to 
 
 Aberdeen, and razed that city to the ground. Thence he 
 went to Perth, where he commanded that the walls of the citv 
 should be built of fair and noble stones at the expense of six 
 religious foundations, to wit, of St. Andrews, Dunfermline, 
 Lindores, Balmerino, Arbroath, and Cupar ; and some strong 
 places likewise he ordered to be restored, to wit, St. Andrews, 
 Lochris 2 , Stirling, Maidens' Castle 3 , and Roxburgh, in the 
 which he placed his own keepers and lieutenants. It was at 
 this time that his brother John arrived, and he wasted with fire 
 those parts of Scotland which were hostile to Edward, and 
 
 1 Orig. and F. Lochindork. 
 
 2 So F., ? Leuchars. Wyntoun has ' the Pele of Lukrys '. Orig. * Lochrien ' = 
 Lochryan. 3 See ante, p. 15. 
 
CHAP. XIV. J 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 279 
 
 those of the inhabitants who took refuge in sacred buildings 
 
 he burned. And when Edward rebuked him therefor before John of Eltham 
 
 the high altar of Saint John at Perth, and John answered him Ihe aita^ 0 ^ 
 
 in stubborn fashion, he was then and therefore put to death by 
 
 king Edward. Consider, then, how God punished the wicked 
 
 conduct of John toward sacred places by his death at the hand 
 
 of a brother ! For it sometimes happens that God uses a man, 
 
 against his will, as an instrument for the avenging of foul 
 
 insults offered by another; just so did he raise up the Syrians 
 
 and Assyrians against the Hebrews when they sinned, and these 
 
 his unwitting instruments inflicted a punishment of which they 
 
 knew not the measure. 
 
 After this, leaving Edward Baliol at Perth, Edward the The English 
 Third went into England ; and Henry de Beaumont, for the hj^ 61 "™ 5 
 avenging of his son-in-law, the earl of Athole, put to the sword 
 without mercy all upon whom he could lay hands. In the 
 same year, in the month of October, Andrew of Moray, who was 
 called guardian of the Bruces, took by storm the castles of Andrew of 
 Dunnottar, Kynnef, and Lauriston, which were in the hands of J^tabTe^ts S 
 the Baliols, and razed them to the ground. During the whole 
 of that winter the war went on unceasingly between him upon 
 the one part and the English with the Baliols on the other, 
 so that the whole lands of Mearns, Gowry, and Angus were 
 stripped bare of all provision. In this year, too, this same 
 Andrew, with the help of James Douglas, razed to the ground 
 Falkland, St. Andrews, Lochris 1 , and Both well. The castle of 
 Cupar, however, he was unable to win. This done, he did not 
 fear to invade England, and on the northern English he dealt 
 much damage. A high-souled man was this Andrew, and ever 
 eager for the fight, one who took the Bruces for his exemplar. 
 
 CHAP. XV. — The siege of the castle of Dunbar, and its courageous 
 defence by a woman ; how the siege was raised by reason of the invasion 
 of England by the French ; of divers losses upon both sides ; and of 
 tournaments, and how far they are lawful. 
 
 In the following year, and on the ides of February, the castle 
 of Dunbar was besieged by the lord William Montagu, earl of The siege of 
 
 Dunbar. 
 
 1 Otig. ' Lochbres ' ; ? Leuchars. 
 
280 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 Heroic Agnes 
 of Dunbar. 
 
 The fighting 
 sow. 
 
 Agnes's jeers. 
 
 The English 
 who had lately 
 invaded Scot- 
 land are slain. 
 
 Laurence 
 Preston falls 
 upon the field. 
 
 Salisbury, and the earl Arundel, Englishmen both, who made 
 their attack with engines of war marvellous to behold. For 
 six months the siege went on. But the situation of the castle 
 is of the most favourable, since it stands over the sea ; and it 
 was defended by a brave woman, who was commonly known as 
 Black Agnes of Dunbar. For she was countess, of that place, 
 and her husband was earl of March, and at that time the most 
 outstanding man amongst the Scots. She spared no tempting 
 words to entice the Scots to make stand against the English 
 king ; and in a time of truce she took her place upon the walls 
 and began to banter the Englishmen, for of raillery and manly 
 intellect she had no lack ; wherefore two amongst the English, 
 earls and leading men they were, prepared to attack the castle. 
 And on a certain day they craftily constructed an engine of 
 war which is called the sow, beneatli which may find shelter a 
 large number of men, whose aim it is to undermine a fortress. 
 Now, when Agnes was ware of this, she used this banter with 
 them, saying that unless the English took good care of their 
 sow, she would find a way to make her farrow. She then caused 
 boiling pitch, and burning sulphur, and the like, to be poured 
 in plenty on the sow, and with heavy logs and stones she made 
 an end, not of the sow only, but of all her litter. 
 
 But the famine of all provisions was heavy within the castle, 
 and because of two galleys which the English had upon the sea, it 
 was no easy thing to get victuals by water. Alexander Ramsay, 
 therefore, was moved to pity for this most heroic woman, and 
 strove to meet her peril by an effort that was no less perilous ; 
 for in secret and by night he conveyed food to the castle in 
 small boats. Agnes thereupon took fresh heart, and on the 
 following day she exhorted her people to turn the attack upon 
 the Englishmen at a time when they felt themselves secure. 
 And her soldiers answered to her call, and slew no small 
 number of the English. While the siege of Dunbar was still 
 going on there came to Scotland a fresh body of English 
 soldiers. Laurence Preston went out to meet them with a 
 smaller force and gave them a warm reception, for the English 
 were beaten, and the Scots carried away with them all that 
 had been taken alive. But in the course of this battle Lau- 
 rence Preston had been mortally wounded, and soon thereafter 
 he died upon the spot where he fell ; whereupon his followers, 
 
CHAP. XV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 281 
 
 in their rage, slew their English prisoners to a man. This The prisoners 
 cruelty of the Scots in the slaughter of their prisoners I con- Yet another 
 demn. Another body of English soldiers invaded Scotland ^£ g^jgj 
 under Richard Talbot, but William Keith of Galleston routed and their leader 
 
 , , t . i -r» • i i • taken prisoner, 
 
 them, and took Richard prisoner. 
 
 When the Englishmen saw that they could not [take the 
 castle of Dunbar by force, they considered how they might 
 gain their end by guile. Finding Scots to carry their message, 
 they made promise of valuable gifts to the gatekeeper and the 
 wardens of the castle if they would betray the same. To this 
 the wardens consented, but they declared the thing to Agnes. 
 Some of the Englishmen then made an entrance, and Montagu, 
 unless in the very act he had been held back by his own men, 
 would have got within the gates. And Agnes, when she saw 
 this from an upper tower, made use of this raillery with him, 
 saying, 6 Fare thee well, then, Montagu ; methought thou wert 
 coming to sup with us, and help defend the castle against 
 the English king. 1 Meanwhile the English king had got him- 
 self entangled in French wars, and so sent for those who were 
 besieging the castle of Dunbar, and thus it was that the castle The siege 
 
 of Dunbar took no scathe at the hands of its invaders, and was ? f D . un bar 
 
 ' is raised. 
 
 saved by Agnes of Dunbar. 
 
 In the following year died Andrew the guardian, and in his Death of 
 place Robert Stuart, though under age, was chosen. He con- t^rSla^ Q 
 tinued in that office till the arrival of David Bruce. In the {j^^ tuart 
 same year William Douglas of Nithsdale drove the English guardian, 
 out of Teviotdale, and brought that district under the rule of 
 David Bruce. This same William fought many times against 
 the English with a far inferior force, and mostly he came off 
 conqueror, though his body showed many a wound dealt him 
 by the foe ; but the more of wounds he got, the better soldier 
 he became. Now, when Henry of Lancaster, earl of Derby, 
 heard of the worth and valour of William Douglas and Alex- 
 ander Ramsay, he was filled with desire to see those men, and 
 put them to the proof in jousting with the spear. At Ber- jousting with 
 wick, therefore, they met one another, properly furnished for the spear ' 
 the contest. It was then that a certain Englishman asked 
 Patrick Graham whether he were willing to enter the lists 
 against him. To whom Patrick answered with this humour, 
 that indeed he would not refuse this challenge, but this counsel 
 
282 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 he would give the Englishman : to make certain of a good 
 breakfast, for he might be assured of this, that he should sup 
 in paradise ; and, as they met one another in full career, he 
 slew the Englishman, and, thus it chanced that he spoke truly. 
 Tournaments For the most part I abhor this dangerous game of jousting 
 of arms. with the spear merely for the sake of making a show ; for any- 
 thing is hateful which risks the lives of men without necessity. 
 For this reason I say that those who thus come in conflict in 
 the course of a war which is just are not to blame ; but if it be 
 in time of peace, and merely for show, or even for the practising 
 of themselves in such things, they are sorely to blame. And a 
 A vulpine confession made before such tournaments has in it something 
 confession. vulpine ; for the intention is immediately thereafter to commit 
 an unlawful deed. I do not, however, deny the right to joust 
 with blunted spears, for the sake of exercising the skill of 
 the combatants, with all precaution taken against a mortal 
 wound 1 . 
 
 CHAP. XVI. — Of the siege of Perth and Stirling; of the recover if 
 of Edinburgh ; the renown in war of Alexander Ramsay; of the wel- 
 come given to king David, and the fealty sworn to him by the Scots. 
 
 It was in the thirteen hundred and thirty-ninth year from 
 the Virgin's travail that Robert Stuart, the guardian, laid siege 
 Stuart besieges to Perth, a strongly fortified city. In his company were these 
 Perth. nobles : William earl of Ross, Patrick earl of March, Maurice 
 
 de Moray 2 lord Clydesdale, William Keith of Galleston, and 
 many more. The city was at that time in the charge of 
 Thomas Urthid 3 , who had along with him a great multitude 
 of Scots and Englishmen. The siege was carried on for two 
 months and two weeks. William Douglas at that time arrived 
 from France, bringing with him to the help of the Scots five 
 
 1 This passage is referred to in Mr. George Neilson's erudite work, Trial by 
 Co??ibat, Glasgow, 1890, p. 289. 
 
 2 In Orig. ' Maubray ', F. ' Moubray ' : a misprint for ' Moravia '. Cf. 
 Wyntoun's Cronykil (Laing's ed. ), vol. ii. p. 451 ; Liber Phiscardens is, pp. 287, 
 288. Maurice de Moray was created earl of Strathern in 1343, and three years 
 later was slain at the battle of Neville's Cross, near Durham. See Fraser's Red 
 Book of Menteith, vol. i. p. 456. 
 
 3 [Uchtrede]— so supplied in brackets, after ' Schyre Thomas', in Laing's ed. 
 of Wyntoun, vol. ii. p. 454. 
 
CHAP. XVI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 283 
 
 ships fully laden with munitions of war, and at his coming the 
 guardian rejoiced greatly. He sent too a messenger to William 
 Bullock, keeper of the castle of Cupar, with the intent to 
 persuade Bullock to swear fealty to David Bruce ; and in this 
 he had success, for Bullock joined himself to the guardian, and 
 helped him mightily. William Douglas was wounded in the 
 leg at the siege of Perth, for he was ever exposing himself to 
 risks ; and indeed many men both within and without the city 
 were afterward found missing. But in the end, and after two 
 months and two days, the city was taken, though the lives and 
 property of its defenders were spared. By reason of the un- 
 ceasing slaughter the land had been left untilled, and many 
 perished from hunger. There was a certain country-fellow, by A Scots country- 
 name Crystyclok, who fed, as he were no better than a wolf, on byeating™^ 
 the flesh of women and children 1 . And herein he did wickedly ; human flesh - 
 for though he had to defend his own life in lawful fashion, he 
 had no right to take the lives of others, whatever straits he 
 might have been in for the mere necessities of existence. After 
 the taking of Perth, the guardian laid siege to the castle of The siege of 
 Stirling, which, under Thomas Rukby, made surrender with no ^ recovelry^ 
 bloodshed. The custody of this castle the guardian intrusted 
 to Maurice de Moray of Clydesdale. 
 
 The English still had possession of Edinburgh castle, but 
 the Scots recovered it also, and by the following stratagem : — 
 In the year thirteen hundred and forty-one, William Douglas, Edinburgh is 
 William Bullock, and Walter Fraser called to them Walter ^ndtunning 
 Currie, who had a ship in the Tay ; and he sailed therewith to stratagem, 
 the Forth, and found a way to the captain of the castle, carry- 
 ing with him two skins of most excellent wine. And he said 
 to the captain that he would give him two jars of wine, and as 
 much of ale, and thereto a bushel of biscuit, if only he would 
 see to it that he, Walter, took no harm the while he sold the 
 rest, and he promised that he would send the same at dawn the 
 following day. There are not many men who would refuse a 
 present of this sort — with naught to pay for it. Next morn- 
 ing the captain orders the gate to be thrown open, and while 
 
 1 See Macpherson's note in Laing's Wyntoun, vol. iii. p. 300, upon this 
 Crysty of the Klek— so called from the cleek or hook by which he is said to have 
 taken his prey from the traps which he set for children and women. 
 
284 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 Alexander 
 Ramsay's re- 
 nown as a 
 soldier. 
 
 Whether 
 deceit may be 
 a virtue when 
 used against an 
 enemy. 
 
 The return of 
 William Mon- 
 tagu and the 
 things that he 
 did. 
 
 he was giving entrance to the horses that carried the jars, there 
 enter eight strong men, cloaked indeed above, but fully armed 
 underneath, and carry with them jars that were filled with 
 water. They kill the warders, and sound an alarm, whereupon 
 William Douglas and his companions, who had been in ambush, 
 appear upon the scene, slay the Englishmen, and take the 
 castle, over which William Douglas placed his bastard brother 
 William Douglas. 
 
 At that time Alexander Ramsay had his dwelling in a 
 cave of Hawthornden, and so great was his fame as a warrior 
 that no nobleman in Scotland was reckoned to be a soldier 
 good and tried unless he had served in Ramsay's band. To his 
 court 1 the lords sent their sons in crowds, to the end they might 
 learn the art of war under so notable a captain. Along with 
 these he many times made inroads into England, carried back 
 ricli booty with him, and so maintained a great multitude of 
 followers. And at this very time he had made invasion of 
 England, and was bringing back rich spoils, when the English 
 came upon him in much greater force, so that it looked as 
 every man of them would be either taken prisoner or slain. 
 He gave the order therefore that they should make a feint to 
 fly, when the English, scattered here and there, would doubtless 
 pursue them, and when, on the signal given with the trumpet, 
 they should all of them return in an unbroken body. Which 
 thing they did ; and thus he came off conqueror, for some he 
 slew, some he put to flight, and besides he carried off no small 
 booty. 
 
 In a just war it is lawful to make use of a feint and of 
 craftiness. Joshua at the city of Ai 2 did no less, and by the 
 command of the Lord himself. In such a case a man conceals 
 a certain truth which it is not convenient to reveal to an 
 enemy, and by that concealment of the truth the enemy thinks 
 that he is deceived, though there be in truth no intention to 
 deceive. At that time William Montagu was taken prisoner 
 in France, but got his liberty from the French king in exchange 
 for the lord John Randolph, earl of Moray, and, coming then 
 into Scotland, found William Bohun, earl of Northampton, in 
 
 1 curiam. 
 
 2 Haye. 
 
( hap. xvi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 285 
 
 his own castle of Lochmaben, and lording it far and wide. 
 This he would not easily brook, and he demanded for himself 
 the wardenship of the western marches, and he extended these 
 marches to the lines in which they stand at this day. The 
 middle marches were in charge of William Douglas, the eastern 
 marches in charge of Alexander Ramsay, and these two men 
 extended the marches up to the lands which had been held by 
 the last Alexander. 
 
 In the year of our Lord one thousand three hundred and The welcome 
 forty-two, when all the English had now been driven furth of David!° K 
 Scotland, and all the Scots likewise who had favoured the 
 English rule, and peace was surely established, the guardian of 
 Scotland and the three estates sent for David Bruce to come to 
 them and bear rule over a kingdom at peace within itself. He 
 therefore, with Joanna, queen of Scotland, who was sister to 
 Edward of Windsor, landed at Inverbervy, and was hailed 
 with a universal welcome. This unhappy prince had indeed 
 suffered all manner of hardship and buffeting of fortune, but 
 the love for his most excellent father burned still unquenchable The loyalty 
 in the breasts of all good Scots : and the sons of those fathers °owa«fthe?r 
 who had followed Robert Bruce now turned their backs against kin £ 
 such men as English Edward and Edward Baliol, and chose 
 rather to make hazard of their lands, their lives, and all their 
 worldly goods than fail in their allegiance to their own true 
 king. Never indeed was king surrounded by more devoted 
 chiefs and nobles than this David, who, by reason of his youth, 
 had in the beginning found a refuge among the French. For 
 him it was that they had borne the burden and the heat of the 
 day, and painful watches, and cold, and hunger, and sweat ; for 
 him, with blood that flowed like water, they had gained a 
 kingdom, and on him they now bestowed the same in peaceful 
 possession. We will now then leave David Bruce bearing rule 
 over the Scots, and take up the history of England where we 
 made a stay. 
 
JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 The tutors of 
 Edward the 
 Third. 
 
 The terms of 
 the treaty 
 that was made 
 between the 
 English and 
 Scots in the 
 matter of the 
 marriage of 
 David. 
 
 A black cross is 
 restored to the 
 Scots. 
 
 CHAP. XVII. — Of the tutors who were placed over Edward the 
 Third, king o f the English, in the time of his youth. O f the treaty that 
 was made between the Scots and the English. Of the pre-eminent virtue 
 of Robert Bruce, and the independence of Scotland, as against Caxton. 
 Of the si rife that ensued concerning the right of that prince to bear rule, 
 with a repetition of some things relating to the death of his father. 
 
 In the year thirteen hundred and twenty-seven Edward the 
 Third was married to the granddaughter of the count of 
 Hainault ; and, on account of his youth, there were chosen 
 twelve principal men in England, without whose counsel he 
 should do nothing. These men were every year to give in 
 their account to parliament of what had been done in the 
 time when they had acted in behalf of the king. These were 
 their names : the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of 
 York, the bishop of Winchester, the bishop of Hereford ; and 
 eight temporal peers — the earl of Lancaster, the earl of 
 Marshal, the earl of Kent, and the earl of Warren ; and four 
 knights or barons — Thomas Wake, Henry Percy, Oliver 
 Ingham, and John Rous. Many things, however, were done at 
 the prompting of Isabella, the king's mother, and Roger 
 Mortimer. 
 
 Thereafter, in the second year of his reign, Edward 
 summoned a parliament or great assembly at Northampton, 
 where it was concluded that Edward should give his sister, 
 Joanna of Tours, in marriage to David Bruce, king of the 
 Scots, and renounce his whole claim of superiority over the 
 Scots ; and whatever obligations had been acknowledged, or 
 were supposed to have been acknowledged, by the kings of the 
 Scots toward the kings of the English, these he annulled, re- 
 called, and declared to be of no effect, and to all this he 
 authoritatively placed his seal. Further, he restored a black 
 cross which was held to be a most precious relic, the which his 
 grandfather had carried off from Scone ; further, to those 
 lands which had formerly been held by Englishmen in Scotland 1 
 he renounced all claim in perpetuity ; and the Scots were to 
 pay thirty thousand silver pounds to king Edward. The 
 
 1 F. 'in Scotiam'; Orig. rightly, 'in Scotia'. 
 
( hap. xvii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 287 
 
 ceremony of marriage was performed at Berwick in presence of 
 the queen, the mother of Joanna. 
 
 In after times Caxton vented his abuse against Robert and 
 David Bruce, in language that held as many lies as it did words, 
 for he asserts, forsooth, that from the days of Brutus the Scots 
 had been vassals, and that Albanactus, the first king of the Scots, 
 was son to Brutus. Now in a measure, if not altogether, we may 
 make allowance for an unlettered man : he followed simply the 
 fashion of speech that was common amongst the English about 
 their enemies the Scots. But let any impartial person, one, 
 that is, who is neither Englishman nor Scot, and who has 
 borne no part in the matters at issue between them, let any 
 such, I say, compare the life of Robert Bruce with that of any The praise of 
 one of the English kings, and it may be said that from the days Robert Bruce - 
 of Arthur, if that be true which is narrated of him, no more 
 illustrious king shall be found to have sat upon the throne. 
 Again, as we have said at the very beginning of our book, it is 
 not true that the Scots traced their origin to Brutus. And The indepen- 
 disallowing thus their premiss, I deny that the Scots have been 
 subject to the English, or to whom else you will, from the time 
 that they came first into Britain. Let Caxton, I say, read and 
 read again his own Venerable Bede, an Englishman too, and 
 he will find that not only were the Scots at no time subject to 
 the Britons, but that many times they boldly attacked the 
 Britons, even when these had the support of the Romans, and 
 nowhere in Bede will he find any mention of this superiority 
 that he claims. And though John Baliol made submission to 
 Edward Longshanks, that is, to the first king of that name after 
 the Normans, this will not help him much : inasmuch as, in the 
 first place, John had denuded himself of his own lawful claim, if 
 indeed he ever possessed such a thing ; and secondly, because he 
 was not in a condition of independence ; and thirdly, because a 
 free king has no power at his own arbitrary pleasure to make his 
 people subject to another 1 . And by the same reasoning, the 
 fact that Edward Baliol made submission to the third Edward, 
 if such thing were proved, is worthless as an argument. It was 
 acting on the advice of his own most prudent counsellors who 
 
 dence of Scot- 
 land. 
 
 Cf. ante, pp. 158, 216, and footnotes. 
 
288 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 were attached to his own side that the third Edward annulled 
 that theoretical 1 claim of superiority over the Scots. Nor will 
 that other argument of this same Caxton much avail, where 
 he asserts that these counsellors of the king were in this 
 matter ruled by the mother of the king and by Roger 
 Mortimer ; for that twelve men, the first in authority in the 
 whole kingdom — four bishops, four earls, of whom some were 
 uncles to the king, and four venerable barons — that all of these 
 should be swayed by a single woman and a man of no standing, 
 this is indeed a thing as little likely as it would have been dis- 
 graceful. Again, to assert that the English had superiority 
 over the Scots is but to foster amongst Christians causes of 
 strife and war which are not likely ever to have an end. It 
 was in behalf of this claim of superiority that the first Edward 
 unjustly troubled the Scots and brought destruction upon 
 many. And did not William Wallace, Robert Bruce, and 
 other Scots of those days slay just as many of the English, nor 
 give themselves any rest till they had brought their boundaries 
 again to the same point where the last Alexander had left 
 them ? And did not many lose their lives too under this same 
 Edward, when he was false to his word ? and did he not sin 
 against his own brother and sister when he espoused the cause 
 of Edward Baliol ? Now both these Edwards were driven by 
 the Scottish nobles, with no king to lead them, from the 
 country, and the English were extirpated ; nor did any king v 
 of the English at any time enjoy that superiority they talk 
 about. It should be the part of wise and upright historians to 
 make, where they can, for peace, and not to sow broadcast the 
 seeds of strife ; wherefore I say that these twelve men acted 
 with a wise and proper j udgment when they were chosen to be 
 the tutors of their king, and when at the Northampton parlia- 
 ment they showed their abhorrence of the shedding of Christian 
 blood, and put away from their kings as best they could that 
 great nursery of war, by the annulling of that pretended claim 
 of superiority (which in very truth was founded only on theory 2 ), 
 seeing that, in behalf of that superiority, in their own day two 
 hundred thousand of the English and the Scots had lost their 
 
 mathematicam. 
 
 2 quae in rei veritate mathematica est. 
 
CHAP. XVIT.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 289 
 
 lives ; and the Scots continued not a whit less powerful to 
 resist the English than their fathers had been, and to gain a 
 more settled peace they brought about this marriage. And 
 this, in my judgment, is the course which should ever be 
 followed : that the Scots kings should marry with the daughters 
 of the English kings, and contrariwise ; and thus, some day, 
 shall one of them come to have a lawful right to all Britain ; 
 for without such lawful right I see not how the Scots shall ever 
 master the English, nor yet the English the Scots 1 . This 
 marriage accordingly was accomplished by the advice of 
 prudent men. 
 
 After the marriage of Joanna of Tours, the sister of the Contention as 
 third Edward, with David Bruce, Isabella, the king^s mother, y t n °^ hip 
 and Roger Mortimer contrived to get both kings under their 
 control. Now Henry earl of Lancaster, Thomas Brotherton, 
 earl of Marshal, and Edmund Woodstock — all uncles of the 
 king — were not the men to brook this condition ; and they 
 desired that Roger Mortimer should leave the court, and that 
 the queen should live on her own means, henceforth not 
 meddling in what pertained to the government of the realm. 
 When the queen came to know of their intention, she persuaded 
 the king her son to get together with no delay a body of men, 
 who should attack Henry earl of Lancaster at Bedford, where 
 he was then dwelling. To this the king consented, and, along 
 with his mother, he rode one night a distance of three-and- 
 twenty miles, with the intent to make the earl of Lancaster 
 their prisoner. But the earl of Marshal and the earl of Kent 
 interceded for the earl of Lancaster, and proposed that he 
 
 1 See ante, pp. 41, 42, with the references to other passages in this History. 
 Cf. Lord Bacon's History of King Henry VII. (Ellis and Spedding's ed., vol. vi. 
 p. 216), as to the marriage of the princess Margaret, daughter of Henry the 
 Seventh, with James the Fourth of Scotland : — ' Some of the table, in the freedom 
 of counsellors (the King being present), did put the case, — that if God should 
 take the King's two sons without issue, that then the kingdom of England would 
 fall to the King of Scotland, which might prejudice the monarchy of England. 
 Whereunto the King replied ; That if that should be, Scotland would be but an 
 accession to England, and not England to Scotland ; for that the greater would 
 draw the less : and that it was a safer union for England than that of France.' 
 Henry the Seventh and Major were contemporaries, and this incident may well 
 have been in Major's remembrance when on the last page of his History he de- 
 scribes Henry as 'in omnibus agendis oculatissimus '. 
 
 T 
 
290 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 should make payment to the king of eleven thousand pounds, 
 and should then enjoy the king's peace. After this a rumour 
 began to spread in many quarters that Edward of Carnarvon, 
 the king's father, was still living, and was, indeed, in the 
 custody of Thomas Gournay, at Corfe castle. When the king's 
 brother, Thomas Woodstock, earl of Kent, came to hear of 
 this, he wrote to Thomas [Gournay], and besought him to do 
 all he could for the restoring of his brother to his kingdom ; 
 and it was owing to this interference, and most of all at the 
 Of the slaying instigation of Mortimer, that he was put to death. And after 
 Carnarvon— as this 1 Mortimer began to swell with pride, for he had the 
 above iCh See n °bles m contempt, and had no other thought than for his 
 own private advantage ; and, in addition to all this 2 , he com- 
 passed the murder of Edward of Carnarvon. At length, in 
 the year of our Lord thirteen hundred and thirty, he suffered 
 himself the extreme penalty, and well had he deserved it. For 
 a time the sins of men lie hid, but with time, too, they come 
 to light 3 . 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. — Of the dangers that beset the favourites of kings, 
 and of the factions that arose in Scotland under David Bruce. 
 
 The dangerous Here let all men reflect how there is nothing more danger- 
 k^n^s fevourfte ous than to stand in near personal relation to kings. It is 
 the habit of men to flatter kings to the uttermost. When 
 those flatterers have got themselves enriched with worldly 
 goods, and their horns begin to sprout with pride, they become 
 an object of hatred to the nobles of the kingdom ; and if they 
 act unjustly, and study nothing but their own profit, the 
 common people detest them. And so it comes to pass that 
 most often they fall from their eminence into the lowest place 
 of all ; for such a fate have I seen to overtake some men in my 
 own day, and the same I have read in history of many more. 
 Wherefore it is far better to live the life of a private man at 
 home. Add this further consideration if you will : that those 
 who live at the beck and call of kings scarce ever enjoy two 
 hours on end of peace and quiet. 
 
 1 post hunc. 2 cum hoc. 
 
 3 ' Temporibus peccata latent, et tempore parent'; sic Orig. and F., a mis- 
 print for 1 patent '. 
 
chap, xviii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 291 
 
 After this \ as we learn from the chroniclers of our history, John Baiiol 
 John Baiiol lived as a private person with his son at Dun- m Francc- 
 pier, in France. He held that estate by favour of the 
 French king, when he had become an exile from his country. 
 After the death of John Baiiol, Edward came to France 2 ; 
 and he had a promise that the kingdom of Scotland should 
 be his if he would consent to hold the same of the English 
 king ; for up to this time it seemed to be believed that he 
 had no small number of adherents in Scotland. The English 
 historians differ not a little among themselves in what they 
 relate of the affairs of Scotland, nor have they such particular 
 information of all that was done at that time in Scotland 
 as we have now declared the same. I therefore pass them 
 by when they deal with our matters. This third Edward, The achieve- 
 sometimes called of Windsor, was a man of a lofty spirit, and Edward of 
 ambitious of empire. He was ever at war with Philip 0 f Windsor - 
 Valois, with the French king, and with the Scots. I do not 
 mean to treat at length of the wars that were waged by the 
 Britons, whether Scots or English, outwith the kingdom. 
 
 In the same year that David Bruce returned to Scotland, The history of 
 Alexander Ramsay recovered Roxburgh from the English. is°contin™ed. terS 
 David intrusted to him the custody of its castle, and granted 
 to him likewise the sheriffdom of Teviotdale, which had for- 
 merly been held by William Douglas. Now this was most Jealousies 
 imprudently done of David, thus to deprive a high-spirited scots. gSt the 
 man, who had done eminent service to the state, of an honour- 
 able office, even with the intent to confer the same upon a 
 man who was well worthy of it ; for what was this but to sow 
 the seeds of jealousy among his own people ? It was but a 
 few days afterward, indeed, that [William Douglas] cruelly 
 
 1 Major writes, ' Post hoc tangunt annales historiae, etc' It is difficult to say 
 what date he refers to ; but we do not seem to know the date of John Baliol's 
 death, in France, more definitely than that it was after the beginning of 131 5. 
 Cf. the Rev. Joseph Stevenson's Doaiments, etc., vol. i. p. 1. Caxton says that 
 Baiiol lived at Dunpier on his own lands ' as wel as he myght tyll y t the Scottes 
 wold amende them of theyr mysdedes ... so he forsoke his realme of Scotlonde, 
 and set therof but lytel pryce '. 
 
 2 ' in Galliam venit '. One would rather have expected ' ivit '. Major may 
 have written 'venit' instinctively, because he was writing in France; but I 
 rather think that he meant to write 'in Angliam venit [Pcrivit]', for Edward 
 Baiiol was already in France with his father. 
 
292 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 wounded Alexander Ramsay, who suspected naught of the harm 
 that was meant him, and he further imprisoned Ramsay in 
 Hermitage 1 castle, and there let him perish of hunger. In the 
 days of this Alexander Ramsay many gallant deeds were done 
 in Scotland, and most of all where lie himself held command ; 
 and after his death followed every kind of disaster. Be it that 
 David Bruce had reason for his anger against William Douglas, 
 yet it was through Robert Stewart's assurance for his high 
 character that he had found favour with the king ; and Douglas 
 was in charge of the castle of Roxburgh, and held too the 
 sheriffdom of Teviotdale. Behold then how David Bruce, by 
 his own imprudence, lost the good service of a most valiant 
 soldier ; and herein he showed himself as far removed as might 
 be from the probity and wisdom of his father. 
 
 CHAP. XIX. — Of the siege of Calais, and the unfortunate expedi- 
 tion of David Bruce in England, and his captivity there. Of Edward's 
 deeds of violence in Scotland, and the election of a governor of Scot- 
 land ; and how some famous men came by their death. 
 
 The siege While Edward the Third was laying siege to Calais, Philip 
 of Valois, the French king, sent to David Bruce, and urged 
 him to invade England, in the hope that Edward would then 
 desist from the siege. And David did as the French king 
 desired, and invaded England, laying waste the lands of the 
 church. He would not hearken to the counsel of William 
 Douglas, well-tried as William was in the art of war, but 
 followed the advice rather of younger men. The end was this : 
 that the English attacked David unawares with a large army, 
 
 David's and made him prisoner, along with many other men of mark 2 . 
 
 captivity. jj. wag j nc [ eec i unlikely that he should meet with success while 
 he was ravaging church lands. It was not the way of his 
 father Robert, fond of fighting as he was, to act in this way. 
 
 1 Orig. ' Aruntagis '. 
 
 - Cf. Wyntoun's judgment, Laing's ed. vol. ii. p. 471 : 
 Qwhy couth he noucht have in to pes 
 Haldyn his land, as it then wes, 
 And hym-selwyn owt of dawngere ? 
 Qwha standis welle, he suld nocht stere. 
 
CHAP. XIX.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 293 
 
 It was John Couplant, a Gascon, that made David his prisoner, 
 but not before David had with one blow knocked out two of David's feat, 
 his teeth. The iron points of tw r o arrows remained fixed in his iron points 
 flesh. One of them, indeed, was removed by a skilful opera- body. " S 
 tion ; the extraction of the other resisted every attempt that 
 they could make ; but when he came to visit the shrine of a miracle 
 Saint Ninian in Scotland, the iron came away of its own will j^Ninian 
 by divine intervention. After David had been made prisoner, 
 two strongholds were surrendered to the English : Roxburgh, 
 to wit, to the lord Percy, and Hermitage. At that time the 
 English held March, Teviotdale, Tweeddale, Forestham, the 
 valley of the Annan, and Galloway. Their boundary they 
 placed first at Cockburnspath and Sutra 1 , and afterwards at 
 Carlinlyppos 2 and Crossecarne. Edward Baliol was at that The doings 
 time tarrying at Brintel 3 , in Galloway, and, along with English [Baliol]. 
 Percy, he laid waste Lothian with fire and sword, and passing 
 through the country around Glasgow, he dealt in the same 
 fashion with Cunningham and Nithsdale, and then returned 
 home. This wide-spread plundering and pillaging led to the 
 election as guardian of Scotland of the lord seneschal, who had The guardian 
 not fallen into the hands of the English at the same time with of Scotland - 
 David. It was now, too, that William Douglas, son to Archi- William 
 bald, the brother of that lord James who had lost his life f^-st larh the 
 among the heathen, returned from France to Scotland. He 
 was the first earl of Douglas. When he came to his own land 
 of Douglasdale, of which the English had lately taken posses- 
 sion, he drove them out, recovered his lands, and likewise 
 gained over to his side the Forest of Ettrick and Teviotdale. 
 
 In the thirteen hundred and fifty-third year of the Lord, 
 William Douglas, then prisoner in England, contrived the slay- 
 ing of David Barclay, a knight, of Aberdeen, in revenge for the David Barclay 
 death of John Douglas of Dalkeith, at which the said David had 1S s ain ' 
 been present. For that John of Dalkeith was brother to David 4 . 
 
 1 1 Soltre '. The place is the Soutra of the present parish of Fala and Soutra. 
 
 2 May this be Carlops — which some have derived from Carliii's Loup ? 
 
 3 'Brynt-yle' in Wyntoun, Bk. VIII. ch. xl. ; vol. ii. p. 477, Laing's ed. Sir 
 Herbert Maxwell quotes a 1 Bruntland ' in his Studies in the Topography of Gal- 
 loway, p. 98. Edin. 1887. 
 
 4 Davidis ' ; but ? ' Gulielmi '. 
 
294 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 Further, in the thirteen hundred and fifty-third year of the Lord, 
 William William Douglas of Nithsdale was slain by William Douglas, 
 
 s?Srfby S his his godson \ the lord of Douglas, at Galvort, in Ettrick Forest, 
 godson. when he was following the chase. Whether his godson were 
 
 moved to this crime by the hatred he had conceived to him 
 [Douglas] for the part he had in the death of Alexander 
 Ramsay, or simply by a spirit of ambition, I know not ; for 
 they were, both of them, high-spirited men, and their lands 
 marched one with another. While he lived there was no man 
 more fond of fighting than this William, whose end I have 
 just declared, and as between him and Alexander Ramsay, I 
 know not which excelled the other in a lofty courage and in 
 good fortune ; but in uprightness and nobility of mind I give 
 the first place to Alexander Ramsay. For that other was 
 given overmuch to revenge, and through him it was that not 
 only many Englishmen lost their lives, but two Scots also of 
 conspicuous worth. Now we know that bloodthirsty and 
 deceitful men shall not live out half their days 2 ; wherefore it 
 is no wonder if he perished by the sword of William Douglas. 
 
 What was done 
 by Eugene the 
 Frenchman 
 when he was 
 sent into 
 Scotland. 
 
 CHAP. XX. — How Eugene, the Frenchman, was sent into Scotland, 
 and of all that was wrought by the Scots along with him against the 
 English. Of the honourable return of the Frenchman. Of the violent 
 attack made by the English upon Scot/and, and their rueful return to 
 England, and of what the Scots did thereafter. 
 
 In the year of the Lord thirteen hundred and fifty-five, the 
 French king sent a certain noble, Eugene de Garrenter 3 , into 
 Scotland ; and Eugene had in his train but few Frenchmen, 
 but these were all men skilled in war. They brought with 
 them into Scotland a sum of money, which should be used for 
 the levying of an army against the English. Now the guardian 
 and the outstanding men of Scotland took the money, but 
 gave naught to the soldiers. This, however, did not hinder 
 the earl of the Marches and the lord of Douglas from gather- 
 ing together their own following ; and they invaded the English 
 borders. William Ramsay of Dalhousie they sent forward 
 
 1 filium suum spiritualem. 2 Ps. lv. 23. 3 i.e. Garancieres. 
 
chap, xx.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 295 
 
 into England with some light-armed troops, with instruction 
 
 to harry the country. And as they well knew that the 
 
 English would not delay to bring together an army against 
 
 the Scots, they enjoined on Ramsay that he should dissemble, 
 
 flying as it were before them, and thus step by step draw the 
 
 English after him as far as Nisbet moor ; — all which he did, 
 
 and well. Whereupon the Frenchmen, with the Scots, went Conflict with 
 
 against that English army, and a fierce battle took place. In the Engllsh - 
 
 this conflict fell, on the side of the Scots, that gallant soldier The Scots that 
 
 John Haliburton, and James Turnbull, both of knightly rank ; Iherein.^" 
 
 but the Englishmen were worsted. Thomas Gray, the lieu- The English 
 
 tenant of the English king, with Thomas, his son and heir, andlaken? 1 
 
 James Dares, and many other good men, were taken prisoners. 
 
 For their ransom no small sum had to be paid. In the same 
 
 year Thomas, seneschal, and earl of Angus, and the earl of 
 
 March laid siege to Berwick and took the town ; but this was Siege of 
 
 done with difficulty. In the defence of the town Alexander Berwick is 
 
 Ogill, a man of good birth, with many of the English, lost his taken - 
 
 life ; and Eugene of Garrenter and his Frenchmen played their The valour of 
 
 part like men in this conflict. Robert the seneschal bestowed an d theh^emrn 
 
 upon them costly presents, and sent them back to France, home - 
 
 seeing they had now accomplished to the full the design of the 
 
 king in sending them into Scotland ; albeit he did not doubt 
 
 but the English king would soon make a fresh attack upon 
 
 Scotland, seeing that he had in his keeping the king of Scots, 
 
 mindful of that common word amongst the Britons : 6 Who 
 
 aims at conquering France must needs make a beginning with 
 
 the Scots.' Froissart, when he deals with this matter, Froissart. 
 
 observes that many of the Scots refused to bear their part with 
 
 the Frenchmen when these were storming the ramparts 1 of 
 
 Berwick ; and so much I will here allow : that Gascons and Which nation 
 
 southern peoples in general, being more agile, are better endowed for 
 
 fitted for the besieging of cities and the climbing of walls the . taking of 
 
 i ° - cities bv assault. 
 
 than our northern peoples ; and this is plain from what we 
 know of the Swiss and the Gascons. Northerners, however, 
 when once they are arrayed for battle, will do better service 
 than southrons. For their temper is warmer, by reason of the 
 
 1 Gallis conscendentibus ascendere recusarunt. 
 
296 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 antiparistasis 1 of their colder climate, and likewise more hardy. 
 They are, however, much less nimble than the southrons. 
 Edward's When Edward the Third had knowledge of this defeat, he 
 
 agafnstThe gathered a great army, and, leaving France, took his course 
 Scots. against the Scots, and he had with him eighty thousand men 
 
 in arms. Edward .Baliol, too, joined himself to the king, and 
 brought to his support what men he could. The townsfolk of 
 Berwick surrendered their city without striking a blow ; and 
 Edward Baliol, knowing that the Scots would have none of 
 Edward Baliol him, made over his whole claim to the kingdom to the English 
 claim" to the king. But there are two grounds wherefore this grant was 
 English king— invalid: this first, that in the kingdom of Scotland he pos- 
 
 a thing which ' ° . * 
 
 he had no right sessed no lawful standing whatever ; and secondly, that it is no 
 part of a true king to surrender at his own will and pleasure 
 his claim to his kingdom. Both of these contentions we have 
 unfolded in a former part of this book 2 . 
 
 These two Edwards, however, in their invasion of Scotland, 
 proposed to themselves to take complete possession of the 
 country, and thereafter to return, the one of them to France, 
 while Edward Baliol should be left behind in Scotland. They 
 made their way, then, so far as Haddington ; but the Scots had 
 carried off every sort of food and victual, and by sea they lost 
 too a large part of their fleet, which in vast numbers they had 
 brought with them. And, according to the common report, 
 this was the cause of the disaster : The English sailors had dis- 
 embarked from their vessels, and had demeaned themselves with 
 
 1 Though it is difficult to seize Major's point with precision, I think it is plain 
 that he had in his view Aristotle's definition of avTLirap'«TTa<ns (or, rather, 
 avT Lire pic racns) in the Be Natura, Bk. VIII. ch. 10, and, more particularly, the 
 passage in the Probletnata, § xxxiii. 5, in which Aristotle deals with the opposition 
 or counter-action of the surrounding parts, as these express themselves in such 
 pulmonary or gastric affections as sneezing, coughing, panting, and eructation, 
 etc., to which it would seem that northern nations are specially liable. 
 According to Froissart (Bk. I. pt. ii. ch. 16 ; vol. i. p. 307 ed. Buchon) the 
 Scots were driven back in their assault upon the castle of Berwick ; and, says 
 Froissart, 'jamais les Escots ne l'eussent eue, puisqu'ils en etoient maucries' ; 
 i.e. * never would the Scots have taken the town, for they had no sense of 
 discipline' (cf. Godefroi : Diet, de la langue francaise du x< au xv* siecle s.v. 
 malcree = indiscipline). Major shows that the conduct of the Scots soldiers 
 was without doubt due to no demoralisation, but simply to their national 
 ' antiparistasis'. - Cf. ante, pp. 214, 215. 
 
chap, xx.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 297 
 
 brutal cruelty towards some children of tender age, putting them The English 
 all to death. They then made for Whitekirk, distant a short by reason of 
 mile from the sea. There did certain sons of Belial despoil an fhe/had^ that 
 image of the Blessed Virgin, richly set with gold, and the practised, 
 leader in this robbery died within the church ; for, as he was The miraculous 
 passing under the image of the Crucified One, the image, by sacrilegious 
 divine interposition, fell upon his head, even as he was in the P erson - 
 act of passing by, and broke that head, on which he was carry- 
 ing his gold spoils, into small fragments. And a little while 
 thereafter there suddenly arose a sea wind from the north, 
 which burst upon the ships, and many of them were dashed in 
 pieces against the rocks, some indeed were scattered, and so it 
 came about that the English king could get no victualling 
 from his fleet. The English king then, in his wrath, set fire 
 to Haddington, and, along with the town, burnt to the ground 
 that most fair church of the Minorites which is called the lamp The church of 
 of Lothian \ Now I for my part do not think it well that the b h u e r 5f t ; norites is 
 Minorites should possess churches of this sumptuous magnifi- 
 cence ; and it may be that for their sins, and the sins of the 
 town itself, God willed that all should be given to the flames. 
 And then, going further, Edward wasted Lothian with fire, 
 and Edinburgh itself. This time goes by the name of 4 The 
 burnt Candlemas that is, 6 the burnt festival of the Purifica- 
 tion inasmuch as at that time the English king put fire to all, 
 far and wide. Afterward he returned to England by way of The English 
 the Forest, where, by reason of the Scots lying here and there soldier y slain - 
 in ambush, he lost many of his men, and ran no little risk to 
 his own life. And albeit he held the king of Scotland a 
 prisoner in England, yet he did not make way in Scotland 
 more than twenty leagues. In this way, then, the Scots were 
 able greatly to help the French against the English, even 
 though they saw two of their towns in ashes that they might 
 set the Frenchmen free. After the departure of the English 
 king, the lord William Douglas gathered together all who 
 
 1 ' Laudoniae lampas '. Dr. David Laing, in a note to his edition of Wyn- 
 toun's Cronykil (vol. iii. p. 247), says that the name Lucerna Laicdontcs was given 
 to the choir of the monastery of Gray Friars at Haddington because of its 
 beautiful structure. By some antiquarians, however, the parish church of 
 Haddington is held to be the ' Lamp of Lothian.' 
 
298 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book v. 
 
 William owned allegiance to him, and marched into Galloway, where, 
 
 compels his in part by the sword in part by persuasion, he gained over 
 
 do ho^ageto 0 a11 the men of that P art to tlie side of David Bruce. Then 
 the king. Donald Macdowel swore fealty to the king in Cumnock church ; 
 
 and Roger Kirkpatrick brought the whole land of Nithsdale to 
 do the like ; the strong places of Dalswinton and Carlaverock 
 he wrested from the hands of the enemy, and then razed them 
 to the ground. 
 
 David returns 
 into captivity, 
 his end unac- 
 complished. 
 
 The loyal act 
 of John Stuart. 
 
 John, king of 
 the French, is 
 taken, along 
 with Archibald 
 Douglas. 
 
 Archibald's 
 escape. 
 
 CHAP. XXI. — Of the return to England from Scotland of king 
 David without compassing his end. Of the captivity of John, king 
 of the French, and the adroit escape of Archibald Douglas. Of the 
 ransom at last of David, and the death of the queen, with her eulogy. 
 
 About this same time king David, leaving hostages in Eng- 
 land, returned to Scotland, meaning to treat with his subjects 
 concerning his ransom ; but when he was not able to get them 
 to agree to what he sought, he returned once more to England, 
 and set his hostages at liberty. After his departure an inva- 
 sion of England was made by John Stuart, son to the guardian, 
 lord of Kyle, and thereafter earl of Carrick, the same who 
 came at a still later date to be known as Robert the Third, 
 king of the Scots. This John gathered an army, and, march- 
 ing into Teviotdale, made the inhabitants of that district swear 
 fealty to king David. 
 
 In the thirteen hundred and fifty-sixth year of the Lord, 
 John, king of France, was taken prisoner by Edward, prince of 
 Wales ; and there was taken with him also Archibald Douglas, 
 son to that right noble James Douglas, who came by his end 
 in battle with the heathen, when he was bearing the heart of 
 Robert Bruce. This Archibald became afterwards lord of 
 Galloway and earl of Douglas. But Archibald Douglas made 
 his escape by a most marvellous stratagem. For this Archi- 
 bald Douglas, as became him, wore armour of great price, and 
 the Englishman, therefore, who had him in charge, treated him 
 with all honour. Now there was a shrewd Scot, William 
 Ramsay of Colluthy, a knight, who perceived this, and feign- 
 ing furious passion, said to Archibald Douglas, ' How, in the 
 
( hap. xxi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 299 
 
 devil's name, come you to wear this costly armour of your 
 
 master?" Thereupon the Englishman ordered him to come 
 
 and clean his leggings and his shoes, and Archibald with all 
 
 humility obeyed him. And while Archibald was thus busied 
 
 with the cleaning, Ramsay upbraided him, and accused him of 
 
 having treacherously slain his master and his own kinsman, 
 
 William Ramsav, in war, and commanded him to make full 
 
 search for the body of the dead man, that he might give it 
 
 honourable burial ; and the end was that the Englishman set 
 
 free his prisoner for a ransom of forty sous, no more, which would 
 
 amount barely to five francs. Taking lesson from such craft as 
 
 this, then, men may learn how to escape from the hands of an 
 
 enemy. No more than five years afterward the lord Borth- Another astute 
 
 wick, a powerful noble, made good his escape by using a like instancc - 
 
 stratagem ; for his servant, when evening was come, made his 
 
 master draw off his boots and then fall to cleaning of them, — 
 
 and there and then despatched the master into Scotland to 
 
 fetch back a ransom for them both. I need not say that the 
 
 master never compeared. But put the case that he who 
 
 held the prisoners was a cruel man, the servant no doubt 
 
 jeoparded his own life. Whether such an act be right, or not, 
 
 I will not speak too confidently. 
 
 At this time therefore the English king had in his hands as Two kings at 
 prisoners at once the French and the Scottish king; but in the hands of the 
 end, though not till David Bruce had spent eleven years En s hsh - 
 amongst the English, the following covenant was made : that 
 David should pay two hundred thousand nobles, spread over a 
 certain number of years, and in security of the payment of that 
 sum should leave sons of the nobles or the nobles themselves 
 in the hands of the English king as hostages. And here I 
 will permit myself to make a few observations. If the The conditions 
 English meant thus to make any claim of suzerainty over king" David 
 Scotland, or meant to force David to an obligation of that bTthTsToTs^ 
 claim, or thus demanded of David an intolerable sum of money 
 which could only be paid to the ruin of his realm, then his 
 people ought not to have ransomed him. But my belief is 
 this : that, in acting as they did, neither the nobles nor the 
 people dealt friendly by their kino;. For though the Scots The Scots pay 
 were not accustomed to pay taxes either in time of peace or their king. 
 
300 
 
 JOHiN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 time of war, yet ought they in such case as this to have made a 
 concession to their king, and each man of them to have taxed 
 himself in right proportion and so have paid off the two 
 hundred thousand nobles in the first year. Whereas, on the 
 plan of this far-extended payment, I see not how they can be 
 said to have come to their king's help at all ; and their inten- 
 tion was that he should pay the whole out of the royal 
 revenues, which indeed, from the long-lasting wars, were scanty 
 enough. The law of nature itself demands the performance of 
 some services to a king, among them, this : to ransom him, 
 when he is a prisoner, for a reasonable sum, and most of all if 
 it seem likely that his liberation shall be advantageous to his 
 people ; for that a king should for long be kept in captivity is 
 a shame to a nation, and declares that the people are wanting 
 in proper pity for their rightful head K Far more kindly did 
 the French deal by John, their king, since to set him at 
 liberty they were ready to sacrifice a large part of his kingdom. 
 In yet another way can a people act a wrongful part, when 
 they refuse to grant a subsidy by way of dower to the 
 daughters of their king, when these are contracting an alliance 
 of marriage at once fit and honourable ; since no marriage 
 portion will be paid to him in his own country, seeing that 
 there no public peace is settled, nor is there a hope of an 
 honourable alliance. 
 Strong places At this time, however, when David recovered his liberty, the 
 destruction was demanded of some strongholds of the Scots in 
 Nithsdale which had wrought damage upon the English ; and 
 when he returned to his own country David fulfilled this con- 
 dition. Dalswinton, Dumfries, Morton, Durrisdeer, he razed 
 to the ground. 
 
 In the year thirteen hundred and fifty-seven the lady Joanna, 
 queen of Scotland and sister to English Edward, besought her 
 husband David that she might visit holy men in foreign parts 
 and her friends in England, and, before she could return, in 
 The death of England she died. A good woman and a faithful I declare her 
 her euio e gy and to have been, for she quitted not her husband neither when he 
 was, in his youth, an exile from his own land in France, nor 
 
 1 Cf. Bk. VI. ch. xi. on the ransom of James the First, and the ransom by the 
 English of Richard the First. Cf. also Bk. IV. ch. ii. 
 
chap, xxii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 301 
 
 afterward when he was prisoner in England ; wherefore, like 
 Penelope, she is worthy of all praise, — how little soever her life 
 may have known of worldly felicity, according to that of Ovid, 
 where he says : 6 Had Ulysses the much-enduring never known 
 misfortune's chance, Penelope might have been a happy woman, 
 but would have lacked her meed of praise.'' And amongst the 
 wise she has gained an everlasting renown. 
 
 CHAP. XXII.— Of the death of Edward the Third and his son. 
 Of the reign of Richard the Second, and of those whom he ennobled, 
 and of his ivives. 
 
 Leaving David Bruce in Scotland, I return to the English. Death of both 
 In the fifty-first year of the reign of Edward the Third died amTson. 3 ' father 
 Edward his first-born, and in the following year Edward him- 
 self went the way of all flesh. Every inch was he a man of 
 war and filled with ambition, and I could find more to praise 
 in him had he not waged unjust war against his neighbours, 
 and demeaned himself inhumanly towards the common people, 
 and poured but his rage upon religious houses. 
 
 After the death of Edward Windsor — that is, after the Richard the 
 conquest by the Normans, the third Edward— Richard the fotSelhrone^ 5 
 Second, son to Edward prince of Wales, reigned in his stead. 
 He was born at Bordeaux in Gascony, and in the eleventh 
 year of his age was crowned at London. In the same 
 year he summoned a national parliament, in which a law 
 was passed, that every person, male or female, rich or poor, 
 in England, who had reached the age of fourteen years, 
 should pay to the king four pennies, that is, an English 
 groat, equal to three sous of Tours. In the fourth year of 
 Richard's reign the people were provoked by this grievous Revolt of the 
 oppression to raise up two men of their own number, Jake agS™stth?kmg, 
 Strawe to wit P hoc est Jacobum Stramen H, and Walter Tiler, and . t J eir 
 
 L ii« punishment. 
 
 and these men they followed as their leaders. They went to 
 London, even to the palace of the king, and broke open the 
 king's prisons. Many men, and most of all those that were 
 foreigners, they spoiled of their goods ; and they put to death 
 the king's counsellors. For three days the maddened people 
 spent their rage in London, breaking open every prison and 
 
302 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 setting all the prisoners at liberty. They set fire to the house of 
 the duke of Lancaster, and likewise to Saint John's, a very fair 
 building in Smithfield. The books of the lawyers and the 
 advocates they also burned. But on the Monday the mayor of 
 London and the assembled citizens put James 1 Strawe to death, 
 and from that time the people began to disperse. But many 
 among them had been taken, and of that number not one 
 escaped hanging. Now, this punishment and the bold front 
 that was shown by the people of London I cannot but approve. 
 For it is naught but fitting to punish with severity that many- 
 headed monster, an unbridled populace, when it rises against 
 its head, to the end that others may see it and take heed. 
 The king takes In the sixth year of his reign Richard took to wife Anna, 
 wife.^ndcreates daughter of the king of Bohemia ; and in the eighth year he 
 dukes and earls. marched with a large army against the Scots, and when he had 
 reached the Scottish border, he made a treaty with the Scots, 
 and, returning to London, creates dukes, marquises, and 
 earls. In the ninth year of his reign he created Edmund 
 Langle earl of Cambridge, duke of York ; and Thomas 
 Woodstock earl of Buckingham he made duke of Gloucester. 
 These were his paternal uncles. And Lionverius 2 earl of 
 Oxford he made marquis of Dublin'; and Henry Bolingbroke, 
 son to the duke of Lancaster, earl of Derby ; and Edward, son 
 to the duke of York, earl of Rutland ; and John Holonde, 
 brother to the earl of Kent, earl of Huntingdon ; and Thomas 
 Moubray, earl of Nottingham ; and Michael de la Pole, earl of 
 Suffolk and Chancellor of England. In the seventeenth year 
 of his reign died Anna his queen ; and in the following year he 
 took to wife Isabella, daughter to the French king — whom, 
 with her husband, we shall now leave at London, and let our 
 pen find once more its way to the narrative of the Scots and 
 their doings. 
 
 1 'Jacobum'. Major translates ' Jake ', or 'Jack', by Jacobus. 'Jacques', 
 the commonest Christian name in France — as indicated by the use of ' Jacques- 
 bonhomme'and ' la jacquerie', — was rendered 'Jack' in English; but as John 
 was the commonest Christian name in England, Jack came to attach itself to that 
 name rather than to James. 
 
 2 i.e. Robert de Vere, who was not long afterwards created duke of Ireland. 
 
chap, xxm.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 303 
 
 CHAP. XXIII.— Of the rest of the deeds of King David; how he 
 succeeded in getting the church tithes, and gave his counsel as to the 
 choice of an Englishman to be king of Scotland, and, when his counsel 
 was despised, took to wife a young girl ; how he sought a divorce from 
 her when lie found her barren ; his death. 
 
 When king David was escaped from the hands of the David gains 
 English, he sent to the pontiff to the end he might get the g^ggj ° f 
 tithe of the revenues of the Scottish church over a space of 
 three years ; and the pontiff granted him this demand, — which 
 indeed was reasonable. For if church revenues are to be paid 
 in the case of men that are in captivity, they may not be 
 denied in the case of a captive king. 
 
 In the same year James Lindsay happened to be a guest The fearful 
 with Roger of Kirkpatrick, and by night he privily slew Roger, Lindsay and its 
 and, aiming to put a great distance between himself and Car- punishment, 
 laverock, where he had done this deed, he had scarce covered a 
 distance of three miles or four when he was taken. Whereupon 
 he was carried to David Bruce, and paid the last penalty of his 
 crime. He was among the heirs of those who slew John 
 Cumming at Dumfries, in the church of the Minor friars ; but 
 sometimes the sins of the parents are visited upon their off- 
 spring even to the fourth generation as regards temporal and 
 mundane punishments. 
 
 In the same year there happened in Lothian a marvellous a marvellous 
 plague of rain, such as had not been seen in Scotland for many s^tfand 
 hundreds of years. Now this may have had its cause in some 
 watery combination of the stars, just as a special deluge is said 
 to have taken place in the time of Pyrrha and Deucalion. In 
 the thirteen hundred and sixty-first year of the Lord there 
 happened in Scotland as in England a great mortality of men, a mighty 
 whether from a contagion of the air, or by infliction of God P 10 ^ ^ lty ! ? 
 
 & j bom Bntains. 
 
 in the exercise of His righteous judgment for the sins of men ; 
 to the end that if men will not show reverence to God in love 
 they may at least by their fears be driven to dread Him. 
 
 Thereafter for the two following years David Bruce gathered 
 a great parliament, wherein he laboured to achieve this end : 
 that they should consent to accept the English king or his 
 
304 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 David's counsel heir, or any future heir of the English king, for king of Scot- 
 of a°king. 01Ce land, seeing that he himself had no issue. What it was that 
 moved him to this counsel was never known ; it may be that as 
 a captive in England he had given his secret promise to the 
 English to this effect ; or it may be that he thought it profit- 
 able for the Scots, and much better for both Englishmen and 
 Scots to live under one king, provided that the Scots might 
 continue to enjoy their independence. But here I will add 
 this one consideration : It would have been of all things the 
 most imprudent to accept as king of Scotland any other than 
 the rightful heir of the English king, since there could have 
 come by this way no union and peaceful settlement of the 
 kingdoms. For if one kingdom shall scarce be able to contain 
 two brothers where one brother is king and the other brother 
 is subject to him in temporalities, and yet continue in peace, 
 what will be the result where you have two brothers bearing 
 rule over two haughty and neighbour kingdoms, each of them 
 The States of confident of superior strength ? The three estates used no 
 not accept d the delay in rejecting the proposition of the king of Scots, declar- 
 king's proposal. j n g that there was not lacking a rightful heir to the kingdom, 
 and one mature in years, after his decease ; that this heir had 
 deserved well of his country, and that they would be no party 
 to his disheriting. And thus on every side David found none 
 to follow his counsel ; and some men showed therefore such 
 dislike and aversion that they began to plunder the villages 
 and towns of the kingdom, thinking they would thereby strike 
 fear into the heart of the king, and that he would be brought 
 to learn this lesson, that the whole kingdom did not hang and 
 hinge upon the king, but contrariwise. The greater part of 
 the nobles, however, when the king departed from this proposal 
 of his, still stood by him ; and then went in pursuit of the 
 others who were disturbers of the peace, and compelled them 
 to return to their allegiance. At the time of the holding of 
 this parliament I have read that queen Joanna was still 
 living ; and I take it that in this matter she was the counsellor 
 of her husband, and not very imprudently ; for the king loved 
 The excelling her dearly, and she was worthy to be loved. For though he 
 had not by this lady the blessing of offspring, those other 
 blessings of religion and the sacrament, which take precedence 
 
 blessings of 
 marriage 
 
chap, xxiii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 305 
 
 infinite of that first-named blessing, they possessed in all 
 sincerity- It was a short time after the holding of this parlia- 
 ment that the queen died. 
 
 Now, inasmuch as the Scots had refused to consent to their 
 king in his proposal of the succession of the English king, he 
 took to wife one Margaret Logy, a very fair woman, to the Margaret Logy, 
 end he might by her have an heir to the crown. But when 
 she bore him no children, he came to scorn her, and publicly 
 divorced her. I will use this opportunity to say that the The practice of 
 Scots of the present day find occasion of divorce all too lightly, be checked, 
 and the most part of the laity hold it sufficient for the salvation 
 of their souls so long as a divorce be procured in the external 
 forum 1 on the testimony of false witnesses ; and thus they draw 
 other women into what is an adulterous connection, believing 
 them to be their lawful wives. They ought in this matter to The case of 
 be instructed by the learned, to the end that they may not another woman 
 violate the law of God concerning marriage, which teaches that {iVtimVofa 16 
 whom God hath joined man may not put asunder. If a mar- former wife, 
 riage shall once have been contracted 6 per verba de praesenti 
 between capable persons, such a tie can for no supervenient 
 cause be undone by any man, pope or other 2 . But inasmuch 
 
 1 'in foro exteriori ' — i.e. the courts of law, as opposed to the forum of con- 
 science or tribunal of penance. 
 
 2 In the late Dr. John Stuart's A Lost Chapter in the history of Mary Queen 
 of Scots recovered, a work which had its origin in the discovery by the writer 
 of the original Dispensation for the marriage of James earl of Bothwell with 
 Lady Jane Gordon, a full account will be found of the conditions of divorce in 
 Scotland at that time. Dr. Stuart points out that ' the result of the canonical 
 prohibitions absolutely carried out in a small country like Scotland would have 
 been intolerable, and accordingly its rigour was, from an early period, mitigated 
 by dispensations from the Holy See '. From Mr. Riddell's Peerage and Consis- 
 torial Law, vol. i. p. 466, as there quoted, we find that ' if a husband happened 
 accidentally to learn, no uncommon event in that profligate and dissolute age, 
 that his consort had carnal intercourse before with a remote relative within the 
 fourth degree of consanguinity to himself, which made her in the same degree of 
 affinity to him, or vice versa, that was a certain handle to void and annul it at 
 anytime'. Dr. Stuart also quotes archbishop Hamilton (Sept. 1554) as to the 
 almost impossibility of finding members of good families who could be united 
 without finding themselves within the line. ' From the circumstances of Scotch 
 society thus described ', he adds, ' it followed that in almost no case could a 
 marriage between a man and woman of the higher ranks take place without a 
 dispensation having been previously obtained, and that, in point of fact, a dispen- 
 sation came in most cases to form part of a marriage settlement.' — Pp. 65-73. 
 
 U 
 
306 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 [book v. 
 
 as the precise circumstances of the case as between David Bruce 
 and dame Margaret Logy have escaped my memory, I am 
 unable to express an authoritative opinion on the question 
 whether the divorce was a true divorce or not. Margaret 
 betook herself to the Roman pontiff, who dwelt at that time 
 at Avignon, and in his court on the part of David, as on her 
 own part, much expense was incurred. For acting in this way 
 I censure alike the king and the woman. The woman whom 
 he had once had to wife the king ought not to have driven 
 from him, nor have suffered a woman, once his wife, to pass 
 Women should outwith the boundaries of his kingdom. That same woman, 
 t^^mabroad. on tne other hand, ought to have stayed at home, and lived 
 religiously, and submitted herself to the royal ordinance, for 
 the king was a kindly man. It becomes not a woman, and least 
 of all a princess, to wander far from home. Nor can I praise 
 either David Bruce or Alexander that they granted leave to 
 their spouses — sisters, both of them, of English kings — to make 
 pilgrimage to Canterbury, or to visit friars in foreign parts 1 . 
 When a king lias taken to wife a woman of another kingdom, he 
 should assign to her attendants belonging to his own kingdom, 
 and lead her by the exercise of kindness to change her old 
 skin and put on a new one. 
 Death of David. A short while hereafter David died at Edinburgh, in the 
 fortv-seventh year of his age and the thirty-ninth year of his 
 reign. He was buried in the monastery of the Holy Rood, in 
 front of the high altar. I can even David with rulers of 
 middling excellence only ; in matters of war he had but small 
 experience ; in the affairs of this world he did not prosper ; 
 but the temper of his mind was not otherwise than one of 
 constant endurance, and fear he knew not. In the end he 
 secured peace within his kingdom. Those Wild Scots whom, 
 by reason of their savage customs, it was not possible to tame, 
 he held at least within check by wise precautions. He took 
 the measure of their customs. He saw them to be covetous of 
 
 1 Cf. In Quartum, 2d question of the 17th distinction: 'Let not the con- 
 fessor, as the custom is of many, enjoin pilgrimages, and least of all on women, 
 for whom in my opinion it is a harmful thing to go on pilgrimage without the 
 company of their husbands, and perchance not even in that case. Neither is it 
 becoming in maidens to wander in the fields ; for they can see saints at home.' 
 
chap, xxiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 307 
 
 independence, of posts of rank, of ownership in land. One he 
 would attract by gifts, another by bestowing on him some high 
 position, and he would instigate them to mutual slaughter. 
 For they were already guilty of death for their crimes, and he 
 himself was, as it were, a public person, and could find no 
 other way to curb those rebellious subjects. In this way, 
 therefore, he brought them to a settled way of living. 
 
 CHAP. XXIV. — Concerning Richard of England, how he took his 
 uncle prisoner, and was himself made prisoner by his subjects and slain. 
 Of the creation and banishment of dukes. Of Henry the Fourth and 
 Henry the Fi fth of England ; and o f Robert Stewart, the Scottish king. 
 
 I have just told of the death of David the Scot, and will 
 now turn my pen to English Richard, the second of his name. 
 
 In the twentieth year of his reign, Richard conceived the 
 evil design to make prisoner his uncle, Thomas Woodstock, English Richard 
 duke of Gloucester, and sent him to Calais, where, by the ^f^f™ 0 ™' 
 king's order, he was put to death. Thereafter he sent for the 
 earl of Arundel and the earl of Warwick, whom he kept in 
 his own charge in London. And in the twenty-first year of 
 his reign he gathered a great parliament, in the which the earl 
 of Arundel was condemned to death. This lord was beheaded Tne sentence 
 on a hill close by the Tower of London, and the earl of War- threads of" 
 wick was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in the Isle of warvrick*"" 1 
 Man. Thereafter Richard created divers dukes; he raised The creation 
 the earl of Derby to the dukedom of Hereford, and the earl G f of dukes - 
 Nottingham became duke of Norfolk. A short while after- 
 ward, in the same year, there arose a quarrel between the dukes 
 of Hereford and Norfolk, who challenged each the other to 
 single combat ; but when all was prepared for the fight, the 
 king prevented it. The duke of Hereford he condemned to Banishment of 
 ten years' banishment from the kingdom, and the duke of Hereford 5 and 
 Norfolk to banishment for life, and this latter died at Venice. Norfolk - 
 The king further deposed Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Banishment 
 Canterbury, and made him too an exile from England. j n ofab]sho P- 
 the twenty-second year of his reign Richard issued new sealed 
 
.'308 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [rook v. 
 
 letters 1 , and thereby got a huge quantity of money, to the 
 The expedition detriment of the common people. And then he went into 
 
 against Trelanc'. T i i 1 1 ■ 
 
 Ireland, there to wage war. 
 
 When Henry Bolingbroke, earl of Derby, whom Richard 
 had raised to be duke of Norfolk, came to hear of this, he 
 returned to England, meaning to gain the duchy of Lancaster 
 for himself. Along with him came Thomas Arundel and the 
 sons of that earl of Arundel who had been slain. The English 
 King Richard flocked to them in crowds. Richard the king was taken 
 bJThfs subjects prisoner, and by the duke of Hereford was committed to the 
 and deposed. Tower, where he was closely guarded until the English nobles 
 should arrive in London. Then all with one voice deposed 
 king Richard, on the ground of the extortions and unbounded 
 exactions that he had perpetrated upon the common people, 
 and of his execution of some of the nobles, and the sentence of 
 banishment passed upon others, for no sufficing reason. After 
 the deposing of Richard, they sent him to be kept prisoner at 
 He dies of Pontefract. There he pined away from hunger, and in weari- 
 ness of soul made change of life for death. 
 Censure of the Now, if I am to say what I think, certain things in this king 
 andofthe eking 1 censure : and, first of all, that unmerited sentence that he 
 passed upon those noblemen ; secondly, the oppression of his 
 people that he practised for his own enrichment. But the 
 fickleness that marked the conduct of his nobility and the 
 common people I can no way approve ; — nay rather, I vehe- 
 mently abhor the same. For so slight a cause to dismiss and 
 depose a king is nothing else than to make an easy opening for 
 the horns of rebellion against the state in the case of all kings 
 yet to come — a thing to be shunned as a plague, and certain 
 to involve the ruin of any commonwealth. But however this 
 may be — and whether they had the colour of law upon their 
 side or no — thus and not otherwise did the English act in this 
 matter, and they created the duke of Hereford to be king by 
 Henry the the title of Henry the Fourth. And he, when he was placed 
 upon the throne, created Henry, his son and heir, prince of 
 
 conduct of hi 
 subjects. 
 
 Fourth. 
 
 1 1 sub novis literis et sigillis '. ' He extorted money without a semblance of 
 right, and even compelled men to put their seals to blank promises to pay, which 
 he could fill up with any sum he pleased.' — Gardiner's A Student's History of 
 England, vol. i. p. 283. 
 
chap, xxiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 309 
 
 Wales, and duke of Cornwall, and earl of Chester. But them Henry the 
 we will now dismiss till we have told of what happened amongst Flfth ' 
 the Scots during these years. 
 
 On the death of David Bruce, in the thirteen hundred and What happened 
 seventieth year 1 from the incarnation of the Word, the three sco°ts. gSt 
 estates of Scotland convened in Linlithgow to make choice 
 of a king. The larger and indeed the wiser part agreed 
 upon Robert Stewart, grandson of kino- David. Nevertheless Robert Stewart 
 William Douglas made opposition thereto, asserting on the c f the Scots, 
 part of the Baliols and the Cummings that the succession to 
 the throne lav with them. But to such a claim as this Georov 
 Dunbar, earl of March, and the earl of Moray, his brother, 
 and the lord Erskine. who amongst them had in keeping 
 the chief strongholds of the kingdom — Maidens' Castle 2 , to 
 wit, and Stirling, and Dumbarton — manfully opposed them- 
 selves ; and William Douglas would have exposed his own 
 foolhardiness, and done nothing more, had he persisted in his 
 claim. He renounced, therefore, his pretended right, which 
 in point of fact was none at all ; but to James Douglas, his The king's 
 son and heir, was given in marriage the daughter of the king n^f^to 5 
 born in lawful wedlock. Soon afterward they carried Robert Doughs- 
 Stewart to Scone, and there crowned him king. In this way 
 we have the second Robert, king of Scotland, and of the 
 Stewarts the first king, under which surname the kings of the 
 Scots are known at this present day. And hence it follows 
 that seven Stewart kings have now borne rule amongst the 
 Scots for a term of one hundred and forty-eight years ; and 
 of these kings the present one is a child, in this year fifteen 
 hundred and eighteen entering upon his seventh year 3 ; and 
 with the first of them we bring this fifth book to a close. 
 
 1 That is, as now reckoned, 1 37 1, — the year then running on till the 24th of 
 March. 2 See cuite, p. 15. 
 
 3 This fixes the exact date of the writing of this work. 
 
BOOK VI. 
 
 CHAP. I. — Of the killing of a semant of Dunbar and the truce 
 which was thereby violated ; and of the cruel revenge that was taken and 
 the stratagem which was conceived by certain lords ; also of divers 
 revolts and their issues. 
 
 Slaying of a 
 serving-man 
 of Dunbar. 
 
 Dunbar's 
 wrath. 
 
 The English 
 renew the war. 
 
 About this time, and when a truce was still in force, there 
 went a serving-man of George Dunbar, earl of March, to a fair 
 that was held in the town of Roxburgh, which the English then 
 possessed in Scotland ; and this man was slain by the English 
 in the market-place. Now this man's master, as the custom is, 
 craved punishment of his murderers under the lex talionis ; but 
 to this petition the English turned a deaf ear, and refused all 
 redress. Whereat Dunbar was very wroth ; and at the fair 
 of the following year he gathered his liege men together, with 
 them attacked Roxburgh, and put to death every male person 
 in the place. Of all the goods that had been brought to the 
 market he made distribution among his men, and then laid the 
 town in ashes. Now this deed of his I am far from approving ; 
 rather I abhor it : first, because he thereby dealt a mighty 
 injury to his neighbour; secondly, because he observed not 
 therein the obligations of a just war ; thirdly, inasmuch as for 
 the death of one man only he slew many innocent persons ; and 
 lastly, because he spoiled them of their possessions. Thus was 
 violated that truce which had endured for fourteen years from 
 the time that David was restored from his captivity, and with 
 its violation all who dwelt about the march and boundaries of 
 these parts gave themselves to fire and slaughter. 
 
 A little while thereafter the English entered Scotland with a 
 large army, and invaded the lands of John Gordon, who, along 
 with the earl of March, was one of the chief men ; and him 
 they despoiled of much that he possessed. Whereupon John 
 Gordon was very wroth, and, gathering his friends together, he 
 
( HAP. I.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 311 
 
 entered England, and avenged himself by carrying off spoils 
 
 twice as many as those that he had lost. Sir John Lilborn 
 
 went out to meet him at a place called Carra \ with a force 
 
 twice as great as his own ; and then took place a fierce battle, A fierce battle. 
 
 in the which John Gordon was sorely wounded. Nevertheless 
 
 he gained the victory, and carried captive into Scotland John The Scots 
 
 Lilborn, with his brother and others of the nobles. 
 
 Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland, when he was ware of 
 this, gathered a large force, and therewith entered the territory 
 of the earl of March with intent to lay it utterly waste. When 
 he was arrived at a wood by Duns, a village which may claim 
 the glory of having given birth to the Subtle Doctor 2 , he 
 pitched his camp. But by night the Scots, and most of all, 
 the youth among them, placed small pebbles in skins — much as 
 you might place pebbles in inflated bladders — and the whole 
 night long they made with these such a noise that the horses 
 of the English, breaking rein and bridle, escaped from their 
 masters. Thus it happened that the army was kept the 
 whole night from sleep, and the end was, that in much con- 
 fusion, and without having inflicted any hurt upon their 
 enemy, they retraced their steps into England. 
 
 Thomas Musgrave, captain of Berwick, now went forth to Thomas 
 carry succour to the earl of Northumberland, but John Gordon |ohn g Gordon. 
 made him prisoner; and on the western marches John Johnston 
 carried off equal spoils from England. Hence you may behold 
 how, from the small spark of the slaying of a single serving- 
 man of the earl of March, there grew a mighty flame, involving 
 many men in loss of goods and life itself. From all which 
 I will say this : that the violators of a truce sin grievously, a truce not to 
 for they have not authority to act from their own kings, and beviolated ' 
 they make a plain path for all manner of disaster and sin in 
 the future. It is often the better course to suffer a trifling 
 injury than to avenge it, since greater hurt not seldom accrues 
 to the state from revenge than from toleration. 
 
 In the second year of the reign of king Robert, the daughter The daughter 
 of the earl of Ross was crowned queen. By her the king had Earl of 
 two sons : the one, Walter earl of Athole — who afterward, 
 
 Carham. 2 See note, p. 23. 
 
312 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [hook vi. 
 
 Berwick is 
 retaken. 
 
 Birth of 
 Rothesay. 
 
 The revolt 
 of William 
 Douglas. 
 
 Rising of 
 the English 
 
 when he was convicted of treason to James the First, was torn 
 limb from limb — and David earl of Strathern. 
 
 In the second year of the reign of Robert the Second the 
 castle of Berwick was taken by seven common men of the Scots. 
 In the same year was born David duke of Rothesay. And in 
 the tenth year of his reign William, who was the first earl 
 Douglas, gathered an army of twenty thousand men, and 
 therewith attacked unawares the village of Penrith 1 at the time 
 of the fair of that place. He made spoil of all the goods that 
 were collected for the fair, and carried off many men as his 
 prisoners, and thus brought down a miraculous pestilence, by 
 which a third part of all that dwelt in Scotland came by their 
 end, since God made fast his punishment to the crime that 
 Douglas had committed. 
 
 A little while thereafter the English men of Cumberland 
 gathered together forty thousand men, and, entering Scotland 
 by the Solway, put to death many and spoiled them of their 
 possessions. Now, as these men were on their return to 
 England, there met them in a narrow pass some five hundred 
 of the Scots, who, with a mighty noise, rushed upon the 
 Englishmen, and made great slaughter of them. They spoiled 
 the English of all they had, and carried away more than three 
 hundred prisoners. In the eleventh year of his reign the king- 
 sent Walter Wardlaw, cardinal bishop of Glasgow, into France 
 to the end he might renew the ancient alliance between the 
 French and the Scots. 
 
 CHAP. II. — Of the expeditions of John of Gaunt 2 , Archibald 
 Douglas, the English, the French, and Richard, king of England. Of 
 the Scots invasion of England, and of the charter that was found. 
 
 John Gant. In the twelfth year of Robert's reign John Gant, duke of 
 
 Lancaster, made his way to the Scottish border and concluded 
 a truce for a space of three years. It was at this time that 
 James Straw 3 , of whom we have already made mention, made 
 a violent attack upon London ; and when John came to have 
 
 2 Joannes Gant. 
 
CHAP. II.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 313 
 
 knowledge of this, he took up his quarters at Haddington, 
 awaiting there the end of the rebellion in England. 
 
 In the fourteenth year of Robert's reign, Archibald Douglas, Archibald 
 lord of Galloway, with the help of the earls of March and Keh^en 3 ^ 5 
 Douglas, laid siege to the castle of Lochmaben, and took it. 
 And when the English garrison in the castle of Roxburgh 
 learned what had been done, they sent the baron of Graystock 
 to the castle to be captain there. But George earl of March 
 took him prisoner, and, with him, much gold and silver and 
 a great store of goods, and sent him to the castle of Dunbar. 
 
 In the fifteenth year of Robert's reign English Richard sent a fruitless 
 the duke of Lancaster with a great army into Scotland, and at th^Enghsi^ 
 the same time a whole fleet of ships of war. But when he 
 reached Edinburgh he wrought no damage on any, did naught 
 in sooth but risk his own men, and so returned home in peace. 
 In the same year the Douglas recovered for the Scots the 
 whole of Teviotdale, where, after the battle of Durham, there 
 had stayed a remnant of the English. And a little while 
 thereafter the Douglas died, in his castle of Douglas, and in Death of 
 the monastery of Melrose received honourable burial. Him ^JJ^™ 
 James Douglas succeeded in the earldom. At this time it was 
 that the French king sent into Scotland John Guian 1 , admiral John Guian, a 
 of France, with a following of two thousand men, who not only rnThis™xp'edi- 
 stood at their own costs, but brought arms and other sorts of tj 00 !, alon s with 
 
 . ? . the Scots. 
 
 gifts for the Scottish king. This John Guian was of Bur- 
 gundy, and in all that has regard to war he was a man of 
 renown. He attached himself to the earl of Douglas, who was 
 at that time the best warrior amongst the Scots, and with this 
 same he made many an attack upon England. By help of 
 French skill the Scots got possession of three castles : Furd 
 or Cornubia to wit, Wark, and Cornvalia 2 , and razed them to 
 the ground. This done, the admiral of France joined himself 
 
 1 i.e. Jean de Vienne. 
 
 2 'Werk, Furd and Cornale' — Wyntoun, Bk. ix. ch. vi. 'Werk, Furd et 
 Corwale' — Liber Pluscardensis, lib. x. ch. vii. There is a Cornhill in the 
 parish of Norham (called ' Cornale ' passim in the Feodarium Priorat. Dunelm., 
 Surtees Soc. 1872), whose situation relatively to Wark and Furd would make it 
 not unlikely to be the 'Cornvalia' of Major. Why he should have made 
 Cornubia ( = Cornwall) a synonym of Furd rather than of Cornvalia is not clear. 
 
314 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 to Archibald Douglas, earl of Galloway, the warden of the 
 western marches, and with him entered Cumberland, where he 
 gave all to fire and sword. Last of all, they had the design to 
 lay siege to Carlisle ; but when they saw that this might be 
 fraught with some danger to the French, they besieged 
 Roxburgh rather, which castle is more neighbour to the Scots. 
 That castle, albeit, they did not take, and when three months 
 ^ were passed, during which time the Frenchmen took no rest 
 from fighting, they returned, with the full permission of the 
 Scots, to France l . 
 
 English Richard At this same time English Richard invaded Scotland. He set 
 iand deS SCOt " fire to the monasteries of Melrose, Dryburgh, Newbottle, and 
 Edinburgh, and without loss of aught returned home. It was 
 after his departure that Robert Stewart, earl of Fife, second 
 son of the king, and with him James earl of Douglas, and 
 Archibald Douglas, earl of Galloway, invaded England with 
 thirty thousand men by way of Solway sands. When they saw 
 the fruitfulness of that country and all its wealth, they carried 
 away much spoil. There was then delivered to Robert, as 
 a very ancient captain, a very ancient charter, in which it was thus written : 
 Atheistane. ' I King Athelstane Giffis heir to Paulane Odam and Rodam 
 Als gud and als fair als evir tha myn ware ; and yairto witnes 
 Maid my Wyff. 1 And when this same Robert, afterward duke 
 
 1 For an account of the expedition of Jean de Vienne see Froissart's Chronicles, 
 Bk. II. ch. ccxxviii., ccxxxv., ccxxxvi., ccxxxviii. (Buchon's ed. vol. ii. pp. 314- 
 339). The passages that bear upon the Scots and their unwelcome allies are 
 quoted in Mr. Hume Brown's Early Travellers in Scotland, pp. 9-15, and throw 
 light upon Major's statement that it was ' cum Scotorum bona venia ' that the 
 French returned home. Robert Gaguin, however [Compendium R. G. super 
 Francorum gestis, lib. IX. fol. clxxxii., ed. Paris, 151 1), gives an additional 
 reason for the abrupt return of the French force. According to this historian it 
 would seem that on the arrival of the combined French and Scottish forces before 
 Roxburgh [droartum] the French leader, Vienne, desired to storm that strong- 
 hold ; but the Scots tried to dissuade him, feeling sure that the place was invin- 
 cible, and the French ended by taking the place by assault while the Scots looked 
 on at their ease (' spectantibus quamsi per ocium Scotis '). Gaguin then goes on 
 to tell how Jean de Vienne ' had been seized with a strong passion for a lady of 
 the royal house, and at length had warning to depart from that Scotland, since 
 the king had begun to hold him in suspicion. Wherefore secretly he got himself 
 on board a ship and betook himself to France.' With a candid appreciation 
 of his own countrymen that reminds one of Major, he adds : 'A very rare thing 
 it is among the French to gain in foreign parts some renown which they do not 
 proceed to tarnish by arrogance or lust.' It is curious that Major, who quotes 
 Gaguin several times, has no reference to this story. 
 
chap, il] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 315 
 
 of Albany, and chosen for governor of Scotland, had to give 
 
 ear to long charters and letters, he was wont to say that in the 
 
 good old days when our ancestors refrained from the prolixity of 
 
 his own times there was also to be found among men more good 
 
 faith and honest dealing. And he would prove the same from 
 
 Athelstane's letter, which he had by heart and was wont then 
 
 to repeat. The same is in Latin thus: 4 Ego Rex Athelstanus do The translation 
 
 Paulanae dominium de Odam et Rodam, ita libere sicut ego haec 
 
 possedi : et huic dono Matildis mea uxor testimonium dabit V 
 
 Archibald Douglas had an illegitimate son, William by William, 
 name, a great and famous warrior, who would put to rout Archibald" and 
 whole troops of the enemy with a handful of his own men. his excellencies. 
 The excellencies of this man won for him such high favour 
 with king Robert that the king bestowed upon him in mar- 
 riage his daughter Giles 2 , with the domain of Nithsdale to 
 be held in perpetuity by them and by their heirs. 
 
 CHAP. III. — Of the battle that was fought at Otterburn, and oj 
 other conflicts between the English and the Scots ; and chiefly between 
 Henry Percy, or Persy ' 3 , and James Douglas. 
 
 In the one thousand three hundred and eighty-eighth year The author 
 from the redemption of the world was fought the battle of FrSssar^ 8 
 Otterburn. And in this part of my history more credence will 
 be given to Froissart, canon of Therouenne in Belgium 4 , than 
 to a Scot, inasmuch as we have Froissart^s own word that 
 he held converse with Englishmen and Scots alike, who bore a 
 part in the battle. As regards this matter, therefore, I will 
 follow his statement and opinion ; and that I do so will be 
 plainly evident to any one who has understanding of the 
 French tongue, and at the same time has learned to speak 
 Latin. I do not mean, nevertheless, to reproduce all that he 
 
 1 Rodam = Roddam in Northumberland. Odam is perhaps the ' villata de 
 Hoddon' of the Northumberland Assize Rolls, Surtees Soc. 1890, p. 314. Dr. 
 Dickson of H.M. Register House, has pointed out to me that two vernacular 
 charters of Athelstane's days are given in Kemble's Diplo?naticus ALvi Saxonici, 
 Nos. 359, 360, but I have not been able to identify the charter of the text. 
 
 2 Aegidia. 3 Percyum seu Perseium. 
 
 4 ' Morinensi canonico seu Tervanensi '. ' Taruenna . . . ville des Morini 
 dans la Gaule Belgique, auj. Therottenne, Therouanne, bourg de Fr. (Pas de 
 Calais).'— Brunet. 
 
316 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [hook VI. 
 
 has said regarding the matter, but will try rather to give the 
 substance of his narrative of the historv, as I have done in 
 similar cases l . 
 
 A" expedition Froissart, then, tells how the Scottish nobles in assembly at 
 which their king Aberdeen took the determination to invade England, and, 
 was not pnvy. gathering an army of thirty thousand men, marched to Jed- 
 burgh, declaring nothing all this time to the Scottish king, 
 inasmuch as they judged him to be a man of no experience in 
 war. The chief men among those nobles were James earl 
 Douglas, the earl of March, the earl of Moray, he who bore the 
 name of Dunbar 2 , with his brothers, the earl of Fife, the earl 
 of Menteith, Archibald Douglas earl of Galloway, Robert 
 Ekin, the lord Montgomery, William Lindesay and James 
 his brother, Thomas Vaire 3 , Alexander Lindesay, John of St. 
 Clair, John Haliburton, Robert Lauder, Alexander Ramsay, 
 the lord Seton, David Fleming, Patrick Hepburn and his son. 
 
 The earl of Fife, who was the second son of the king of 
 Scots, invaded England on the western side with a large army ; 
 James Douglas, earl of March, and the earl of Moray, with four 
 thousand chosen horsemen, invaded England on the eastern 
 side, and with all speed, after a march of about thirty leagues, 
 reached Durham, whence returning they laid all waste with 
 fire and sword. They came then to Newcastle, a fortified town 
 upon the river Tyne, where, at that time, two sons of the earl 
 of Northumberland — that is, Henry, commonly called Hotspur, 
 and his brother Ralph — with a great multitude of the nobility, 
 The bold act of had taken their stand. Now there were three Scottish earls, 
 no r bies Sc ° UlSh men cov etous of fame and mighty in war, who had no mind 
 to return to their homes without they had first laid siege 
 to the town ; and they therefore attacked the town, though 
 there were within its walls fighting men — to take no count of 
 the citizens — twice as many as the strength of the besiegers. 
 Outside the gate of the town was a certain rampart made of 
 wood behind which the Scots from without laid their siege ; and 
 soon there came to pass a conflict hand to hand of those two 
 
 1 Cf. ante, pp. 256, 295. 
 
 2 Orig. ' comes Marchiae Morauiae Comes Dumbari cognomine etc. 
 Froissart says ' le comte de la marche et de Dombar '. 
 
 3 1 Thomas de Percy ' — Froissart. 
 
( hap. in.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 317 
 
 captains of renown, James Douglas to wit, a Scot, and Henry 
 Percy, an Englishman ; and James Douglas snatched out of 
 Percy's hands a lance, most beautiful to look on, and, waving 
 the same in the air, called out that he would carry it with him 
 into Scotland. Night put an end to the siege of the town, 
 and on the following day the Scots turned their steps toward 
 Scotland, and laid siege to the strongholds that met them on 
 their march, some of which they took and razed to the ground. 
 
 Now Henry Percy desired to pursue the besiegers ; but he 
 was dissuaded from his purpose, on the ground that it was no 
 way likely that so small a number would have dared to attack 
 so large a town, which held too so great a garrison, unless it 
 knew itself to have the support within no long distance of a 
 larger army to the which in case of need it might betake itself. 
 But on the following day it came to their knowledge that the 
 main army of the Scots was far distant from this mere handful 
 of men ; whereupon Percy and his following not only revived 
 their design to attack the Scots, but carried the same to com- 
 pletion. For, with ten thousand borderers, well trained in all 
 the exercise of war, Henry Percy pursued the Scots, even to the The valour of 
 place which bears the name of Otterburn. Henry Percy. 
 
 Now some of the Scots were at supper, others slept, or were 
 taking rest, for they had that very day been about the besieg- 
 ing of a certain stronghold, and they were weary. The 
 Englishmen did not delay to send out a party to attack them, 
 and three of the Scottish earls, each of them attended by a 
 small number of picked men, went out to give battle against The valour of 
 the enemy, calling aloud 'A Douglas, a Douglas \ for thus they [ t h ^ s C s h S own OW 
 thought to delay for a time the English onslaught, and gain on a sudden 
 time for their own men to arm them. I take it that this custom Whence the 
 to call aloud the names of leaders in the beginning of a battle custom of call- 
 has this intent : first, by the renown of a noble name, to strike names of leaders 
 terror in the enemy, where the fame of some captain has spread m battle - 
 far and wide; and secondly, that thereby the leaders themselves 
 may be strengthened and encouraged by the assurance of the 
 love and honour in which they are held. It is to be noted 
 that although, for avoidance of strife, Douglas was chosen to 
 be the captain of this band, the earl of March was either fully 
 equal to him or came but very little short. 
 
318 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [kook VI. 
 
 A fierce battle. Then began a fierce conflict. Percy made the first attack, 
 both because he had the superiority in numbers, and had under 
 him the whole of the young Northumbrian nobility, and also 
 since he was the firstborn son, and of his sons the noblest, of 
 the greatest earl in England ; and further, he was very wroth 
 that the Douglas had snatched from his hand at Newcastle 
 that most precious club \ On the opposite side you had two 
 earls of Scotland, than whom in all their land none were more 
 notable, or in the things of war more distinguished ; — men these 
 were, either of whom felt himself to be a match for the best 
 man in Northumberland. To these was added the earl of 
 Moray, the same who had defeated a man of great renown. 
 These three men, and all their kindred and the nobles that 
 accompanied them, were taking part in the invasion of this part 
 of England with no other end than that of fighting with those 
 terrible sons of Percy, since the father was now stricken in 
 vears ; and they would sooner have let themselves be torn limb 
 from limb than have fled in coward and disgraceful fashion, or 
 been taken captive. The battle was prolonged till deep into 
 the night ; for it was the beginning of August, and the moon 
 gave her light, so that it was possible to distinguish friend from 
 foe 2 . When attacks of this sort are made in an unfamiliar 
 country, the light of the moon is eagerly desired ; for otherwise 
 the risk is great, in the darkness, of being struck by friend as 
 well as foe. Just like the mariner, who will not sail unless 
 with light to show his course, lest otherwise the vessel be 
 dashed against a rock. 
 
 Now a part of the Scots seemed, even as they were fighting, 
 to have lost ground in a measure, since, though they kept a 
 constant front to the enemy, the English had made way beyond 
 the lines of their first onset. And had not that valiant warrior, 
 Patrick Hepburn, with his son of the same name, borne himself 
 
 The struggle for like the brave man he was, the standard of the Douglas 
 would have fallen into the hands of Percy's men. For when in 
 course of battle the standard, towards which the combatants 
 ever direct their eye, is once lost, then follows rout to the army. 
 
 1 ' clava' ; it was a lance before, see p. 316. Froissart calls it a ' pennon '. 
 
 2 ' ut hostem ab inimico [lege 1 amico '] segregare possent '. The balance of 
 opinion seems to favour the 12th of August as the date of the battle. 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 319 
 
 For two reasons therefore did Percy's men aim at the capture 
 of the standard : first, that they might thereby and at once 
 put the enemy to rout ; secondly, that they might thereby 
 achieve somewhat specially grateful to Henry Percy, if, for the 
 small standard that had been snatched from his hand, they 
 might put into it the chief standard of the Scots. 
 
 Patrick Hepburn therefore, with his son, spared nor sweat nor 
 toil to hold the standard, and many were the blows and wounds The strength 
 that he received, nor fewer those that he dealt. When Douglas of Douglas. 6 
 saw the jeopardy of his standard, and therewith of the battle, 
 his rage was hot within him as he had been a Libyan lion, and 
 alone he raised, or took the same from him who bore it, that 
 club with iron edge, and double edged it was, — a club which 
 two common men might scarce avail to lift, — for he was a 
 goodly man to see, and well-knit, and of mighty strength, and 
 so, before all the line of Scots, he rushed upon the Englishmen. 
 Then did he lay the enemy low with the fury of his blows, so 
 that for a large space about him their dead bodies hid the 
 ground, and with such valour did he ever press forward as he 
 might seem — he one man only — to aim at the destruction of the 
 whole line of the enemy ; and thus, looking on one side and the 
 other if he might espy Henry Percy, he went far beyond the 
 line of the first assault, and so was sundered from his own men, 
 since these were busied in attacking others of the enemy or in 
 defence of their own lives. Step by step, however, fired by the 
 bold spirit of their leader, the Scots make their way to the line 
 of the first onset, and the destruction of the English seemed to 
 be at hand. But when the younger Percy was ware of this, 
 he fell upon the Scots, and by them was speedily surrounded. 
 Yet was he not known by them to be one of the leaders, as 
 Douglas was known for such by the English, for they took him 
 to be but a common soldier. He received a heavy wound at The younger 
 the hands of a noble Scot, named John de Makerel, 1 a vassal of mounded and 
 the earl of Moray, and he would have been slain, had he not taken prisoner, 
 surrendered himself and declared who he was. For an enemy 
 does not readily put to death a leading man in battle ; rather, 
 if he can, will he take him prisoner ; both for the sake of the 
 
 1 Froissart has ' Maksuel ' = Maxwell. 
 
JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [hook VI. 
 
 ransom that he may bring, and from the regard and affection 
 that a prisoner will afterward show to those who have spared 
 his life. For the captor will defend his prisoner against his 
 very father, as being indeed his own property ; and if it 
 happen that a prisoner should come, after he lias been taken, 
 in peril of his life, then will his captor grant him his liberty 
 and furnish him with arms, and afford him every sort of 
 succour. This quality of his prisoner, then, this sir John 
 Makerel — or Marshall, I know not which, for the names 
 resemble one another, and the French are not noted for correct- 
 ness in their pronunciation and spelling of British names 1 ; and 
 
 1 We have Major's own word for it (see Appendix I. 1 Bibliography ' — ' Pro- 
 positi ad Auditores ' /;/ Quartum 15 19) that his handwriting was bad ; and this 
 may account for most of the curious renderings of British names in the Paris edition 
 of 1 52 1, which was printed while the author was in Scotland. But his remark is 
 just on the whole. Froissart's ' Oskesufforch ' for Oxford, for instance, and 
 ' Haindebourch ' for Edinburgh, probably owe little or nothing to the printer. 
 It will not be without interest to give some specimens : — 
 
 Abercoruie — Abcrcorn. 
 Abrenefhyns — of Abernethy. 
 Albeuicus, Salcomes — Abernethy of Sal- 
 ton. 
 
 Alwemarbre — Albemarle. 
 Balmormoch — Balmerino. 
 Beauchamyc — Beauchamp. 
 Bethwalyay^ /W/< 
 Bothuilti J 
 
 Bolyngok — Bolingbroke. 
 Bombenem — Bohnn. 
 Boukgugham — Buckingham . 
 Burrannere — Bnrramure. 
 Caruicher — Carruther. 
 Cimithrethyn — Luntrethyn. 
 Cochole — Athole. 
 Cokburuspech — Cochburnspath. 
 Corstoryhymus) 
 constorphm ) 
 
 Comhisbunde — Inisboufnde [Znis- 
 
 bojfin\. 
 Dansk en — Dnnglas. 
 Dasbynton — Dalswynton. 
 Deitonus — Seton. 
 Dodoriald 
 dudoualt 
 
 Dunoterkynnef — Dunottar, Kynnef. 
 Duxlin — Dupplin. 
 Errolk — Errol. 
 
 Dnndonald. 
 
 Hertford. 
 
 Galterus Bik, Gartonus Lusueus- 
 
 Walter Bickerton of Lufness. 
 Golbri — Gowry. 
 Harphordiae ) 
 Hetfordiam J 
 Honic — Home. 
 Hu—PTii [Zona]. 
 Humpont — Veypont. 
 Inumberbuy — Biverbervie. 
 Kaci — Tracy. 
 Kalymouth — Kilrimont. 
 Kilwoue — Kilblene. 
 Klender — Callander. 
 Lemugstonus — Livingstone. 
 Liler — Tiler. 
 Lanchguhay — Lochawe. 
 Langschaukx— Longshanks. 
 Lawium — Latimer. 
 Lochabin — Lochleven. 
 
 U * ctrevers \Maltrevers. 
 Martranas J 
 
 Makkane — Maclean. 
 
 Menthechus ^ 
 
 Mentechus VMentetheus. 
 
 Mentehus ) 
 
 menynghameum— Cunyngham. 
 mucayde gaslz — Murray de Gash. 
 Northanixton — Northampton. 
 Poxis— (? Popil) Peebles. 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 321 
 
 then thereafter, through fault of scribes, letters get lost. Some 
 names, however, they write correctly, either because the spelling 
 is easy, or because they are the names of well-known men — 
 in any case, John Makerel declared the quality of his prisoner 
 to the earl of Moray. The earl of Moray said then to him who 
 had made Percy prisoner : 4 Thou hast won thy spurs ; it 
 remains only to seize the elder brother likewise, and so put an 
 end to all this toil and sweat.' And he commanded his 
 standard-bearer to press forward against the enemy, giving out 
 that he had taken one of the two Percys. 
 
 The English, on their side, were now fiercely stirred, and gave A hot conflict, 
 themselves manfully to the rescue of their captive chief. Them 
 the Scots withstood, and hotly followed earl Douglas whither- 
 soever he led; and as he went ever further, he was attended at 
 the last by two of his company only, that is, his squire 1 , sir 
 Robert Hert, and a priest, — sir William, who came from 
 North Berwick 2 , and who was accustomed throughout the 
 whole course of any war to stay by the side of his lord, so 
 that naught could move him from that place. The Britons 
 speak of any men who bear arms, or rather of any good 
 fighting men 3 , as little inferior to those that have received 
 knighthood. On that day Douglas desired to confer knight- 
 hood upon Hert ; but this he refused ; because, when men 
 
 Rondale — A rundel. 
 Schrouwesbern ^ 
 Strouesbern \ Shrewsbury. 
 
 T wrovesthurryum J 
 Scrauelangum — Stirling. 
 Skrenigeorx — Scrimgeour. 
 Spruse — Pease. 
 Stanchardum — Standard. 
 Stonsconus— Johnston. 
 Stremlinus— of Stirling. 
 Stropus — Scrape. 
 Steuhend — Stonehenge. 
 Suutsultiae — of Suffolk. 
 
 Tenidalon [ Tanta llon. 
 tintaloya ) 
 
 1 armigero. 
 
 2 ' boreali unico '. I read ' boreali Bervico' ; for, says Froissart, 
 vous le nommerai ; on l'appeloit Guillaume de Norbervich '. 
 
 3 armigeros seu potius belligeros. 
 
 X 
 
 Trennokus — of Greenock. 
 Tririarsy — Gournay. 
 Trystyclok — Crystyclok. 
 Tuburi — Tumburi. 
 Turem — Currie. 
 Varoye — Barfy. 
 Vnghart — Urquhart. 
 Vodscok — Woodstock. 
 Voydude — Boyd. 
 Watre — Wake. 
 Welmin — de Irvin. 
 
 ce pretre, je 
 
322 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 are made belted knights in reward of their valour, lands are 
 given them in perpetuity, that they may get from these an 
 Warrior priests honourable livelihood. Now that presbyter, who, after he 
 in England 1 na d so skilfully used his halbert, received himself five mortal 
 wounds, was archdeacon of Aberdeen. This priest received the 
 highest praise as a warrior. You must not marvel that I have 
 to relate such things of priests ; for Britain can show forty 
 thousand priests who could be matched as fighting men against 
 a like number of men from any nation. For every small laird 
 has one chaplain, who is no despicable soldier, and the great 
 nobles have as many as five or six who will gird on their sword 
 and shield and go with their lords to the field. Yet this is a 
 Whether priests fashion that I no way approve. For inasmuch as their clerical 
 
 paft^wa? 6 office is of the Lord, they should spend their time in d 
 
 ivine 
 
 Death of 
 Douglas. 
 
 worship and not in warfare. Yet I do not deny that for their 
 country, or to defend their own lives, they may take up arms. 
 
 Doug-las thereafter received at the hands of the English, and 
 all at once, three wounds from large and sharp-pointed spears : 
 the one in the thigh, another in the lower part of the breast, 
 the third in the leg; and thus they bore him down, and the 
 mortal wound was given on his bare head. And this agrees 
 with the narrative of our own chroniclers, where they tell that 
 his helmet was loosely fastened. Some persons, yet with less 
 of probability, hold that by reason of the so sudden onslaught 
 of the English he had even forgotten to don his helmet. The 
 English, however, did not know him for who he was ; and by 
 good luck, to the end of the combat, his death remained hidden 
 from the Scots ; for the fighting lasted still throughout near 
 the whole night. The actual place of conflict was varied from 
 time to time on account of the numbers of the slain. While 
 the battle was at the hottest, sir James Lindesay 2 , who was 
 cousin to the earl, and his brother, came up and asked the earl 
 how he did, and he answered them saying that he had not an 
 hour to live ; but he added that in this he gloried, seeing that 
 after the fashion of his ancestors he should meet his end in 
 battle and not in his bed ; and he took them bound before 
 God to avenge his death, but to reveal naught of what he had 
 
 1 presbyteri seu sacerdotes bellatores. 2 Froissart says ' Jean de Saint-Clar 
 
CHAP. III.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 said to friend or foe before the end of the battle. For he held 
 that if his death remained unknown, the very fact that he was 
 believed to be bearing his part in the attack would bring 
 victory in the still impending battle ; and he bade them raise 
 aloft his standard, which already seemed in a manner to waver. 
 And they, like the stout and noble hearts they were, hearkened 
 to his words, and shouting aloud 4 A Douglas! a Douglas ! 1 Percy is taken— 
 
 i J 1 1 • 4- A 1 & the English fly. 
 
 closed around his standard. 
 
 Very many were afterward found slain around the anchor of 
 the English, and Henry Percy was made prisoner by the lord 
 Montgomery, a brave and noble man. This once known, the 
 English took to flight. The Scots took captive whom they 
 would. Among the English prisoners were found two Percys ; 
 sir Robert Ogil ; sir Thomas Aberton 1 ; sir John Lilborn ; sir 
 William Walsington 2 ; the lord of Helcon 3 , a baron ; likewise 
 sir John Colpedupe 4 , who was seneschal of York, and very 
 manv other noble men. In ending what he has to say con- 
 cerning this battle, Froissart declares that in the whole book 
 of his history he has had to tell of no battle so notable by 
 the valour of its captains, and fought out upon both sides 
 with such manly courage as this. For not seldom has it 
 come to pass that one side or the other came off victorious, 
 it might be from the exercise of this precaution or of that, 
 or by reason of superiority in the engines of war, or from 
 cowardice of the enemy ; but here, in long and hard struggle 
 the strife went on, as it might be in a duel, and the victory 
 seemed to be on one side or the other, not once or twice, but 
 three times, even four. This writer records the names of many Scots who bore 
 Scots, of whom the families have now in some cases gone to battle. " 
 the ground, in some cases risen to high rank, while there are 
 others which have kept the same state which then they had. 
 This leads me to note the two families of the Hepburns and 
 the Montgomerys ; because in my own day we have seen the 
 creation of two earls of these families 5 . When the battle, then, 
 
 1 Abington. 
 
 2 Walsingham. The original edition of Major reads ' Vahluconus ' — a good 
 example of the French manner of spelling British names. 
 
 3 Helton or Haltoun (or Hetton). 
 
 4 Froissart says ' Colpedich ' — really Sir John Copeland. 
 
 5 Patrick lord Hailes was created earl of Bothwell in 1488 (Crawfurd's Peerage 
 
JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book m. 
 
 was ended, the English took to their horses forthwith and fled, 
 and the Scottish horsemen went in pursuit of them ; because 
 the very noblest among Scots and Englishmen alike go out to 
 battle indeed as horsemen, and return from battle in like 
 fashion, but it is as foot-soldiers that they fight. 
 
 CHAP. IV. — Of the rest of this said battle, and its renewal by the 
 bishop of Durham ; and of the capture of Lindesay and his release. 
 
 The rising of Ox the evening of that day whereon the sons of the earl of 
 Durham° P ° f Northumberland had gone forth to fight against the Scots, the 
 bishop of Durham, with a following of seven thousand men, 
 arrived at Newcastle. And men began to speak to them in 
 such words as these : that it was a base thing that they should 
 stay within the town when the sons of their earl were in the 
 field, and perchance at that very moment in the thick of the 
 fight. And when the bishop was inclined to hearken to their 
 words, he went a-field outside the town, yet to no great dis- 
 tance ; and he took counsel there with his chief men, such as 
 sir William de Lussy 1 , sir Thomas Clifford, and others that 
 were well-skilled warriors, as to what should be done — whether, 
 that is, they should make all haste to follow after the Percys, 
 or remain for the whole of that night near to Newcastle. And 
 their counsel was that he should not go further. 
 
 In the early morning there arrived Englishmen in flight 
 after the battle, and these declared to him the whole story 
 of it and its circumstance ; and there fell into the hands of 
 the bishop sir James Lindesay, as he was in pursuit of the 
 Englishmen. I will now tell how he chanced to be taken 
 in this way. When the battle had ended in adverse fashion 
 for the English, and they began to seek safety by flight, 
 those of the Scots who had not suffered much hurt, and who 
 were still eager for the fight, went in pursuit. But amongst 
 
 of Scotland, ed. 1716, p. 44) ; Hugh third lord Montgomerie was created earl of 
 Eglintoun in the end of 1506 (Fraser's Memorials of the AJontgomeries, Earls of 
 Eglinton, 1859, vol. i. p. 28). 
 
 1 Perhaps the * messire Jean de Say' of Froissart. M. Buchon {Chroniques, 
 vol. ii. p. 734) says that the Besancon MS. differs much from the text which he 
 follows in this chapter of Froissart— the hundred and twenty-third of the third 
 Book — and the one that follows. 
 
CHAP. IV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 325 
 
 the English the only man who escaped was sir Matthew 
 Rad eman. For so great was at this point the confusion of the 
 fight that scarce two of those who ffed were able to remain 
 together ; and when sir James Lindesay had marked this 
 Englishman as he fled among the rest, which thing he could 
 do by reason of the fine armour that he wore, he followed him 
 — he alone followed Matthew alone — to a distance of three 
 thousand paces. And when the Englishman saw that the 
 fleetness of his horse would not avail for his escape, he dis- 
 mounted, and placed his shield, as the custom is, against the 
 back of his left hand, while in his right hand he held his well- 
 sharpened sword. Thereupon sir James Lindesay dismounted 
 likewise, but at some distance ; for he did not dismount 
 when he was close to sir Matthew Rademan, but made fast 
 his horse that it might not break loose, that so as a foot- 
 soldier he might meet another soldier on foot. Thus then 
 the fight began between them. The Scot was armed with a 
 halbert, which seems to have the advantage over sword and 
 shield, and after some fighting he made the Englishman his 
 prisoner, and spoiled him of his sword. The Englishman then 
 besought him to let him depart, and swore a solemn oath 
 that he would thus return to him in Scotland within twenty 
 days, and that the Scot should then deal with him as became 
 a captor with a captive. And to this, without another word, 
 sir James assented, and restored to him his sword and all 
 that he had taken. For with the men of the Borders such is 
 the custom : they wage fiercest war one with another, but the 
 conqueror does not slay his prisoner, but in all clemency spares 
 his life, and grants him for the most part a safe return home, 
 when he pledges his word. But if he do not keep his word, 
 then the conqueror fastens to a horse's tail the effigy of his 
 prisoner, and so carries it across the Borders, whereupon all of 
 his own people acknowledge him for all time to be a perjured 
 and perfidious person, who has brought no small dishonour 
 upon the country that gave him birth. But when sir 
 James Lindesay was leaving sir Matthew Rademan, mean- 
 ing to return to the Scots, but ignorant of the way, he 
 fell into the hands of the bishop of Durham. For he made 
 the mistake of taking the enemy for Scots, but when he recog- 
 nised the bishop, he surrendered himself as a prisoner. Then 
 
326 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 spake the bishop : 4 1 have not gone forth to-day to war, and 
 behold ! I have taken a noble man for a prisoner, and one in 
 fair armour/ To whom sir James made answer : 6 So does 
 fickle fortune lay her snares for men of war, seeing that I, 
 who tliis very night made prisoner of a gentleman, am now 
 myself led captive away/ He was thus by the bishop of 
 Durham carried to Newcastle ; and to witness this spectacle a 
 multitude of Englishmen assemble, and among them came 
 sir Matthew Rademan, and when he saw sir James Lindesay, 
 he made confession that he himself was indeed the prisoner of 
 the prisoner, and thus set him at liberty, and courteously 
 prayed him that he would be his guest at breakfast. And the 
 Scot willingly went with him. 
 
 Meanwhile had the bishop of Durham got together ten 
 thousand men, who assembled at Newcastle. And these he 
 led forth by the Berwick gate, and took a straight road for 
 Otterburn, meaning to attack the Scots. And when the Scots 
 by their scouts were ware of this, they deliberated what they 
 should do with their English prisoners, and likewise whether 
 they should make a stay where they were, or go on towards 
 Scotland. The judgment of some amongst them was to put 
 all the prisoners to death, for they feared lest they might turn 
 against them in the hour of battle ; but in the end they came 
 to this determination, that they should take their prisoners 
 bound by solemn oath to remain their prisoners as before, 
 whether they suffered defeat at the hands of the English or not, 
 and likewise that they should give no succour to the English 
 in the fight. Thev are said, however, to have bound the 
 prisoners with cords. And this done, they planted themselves 
 in the best order for withstanding the onslaught of the 
 Englishmen. And two brothers were left as fuglemen 1 and 
 The Scots trumpeters, and these they ordered to blow their horns. The 
 can-thorns! 73 fashion amongst the Scots is this : that every one, when he 
 goes forth to battle, carries with him, as a man might do when 
 he goes to the chase, his horn, strung by a cord from his neck, 
 and at the onset of the battle they stir up their courage with 
 this sound. The Englishmen then answered to them with a 
 counterblast ; but when, at the length of two arrow-shots, the 
 
 1 Campiductores. See ante, p. 235. 
 
( HAP. IV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 327 
 
 Englishmen were close upon the Scots, the Scots sounded a 
 marvellous blast, and remained steadfast in their ranks. 
 Thereupon did George Dunbar, earl of March, a man of keen 
 and fiery temper, and likewise one who had borne no small part 
 in many a warlike fray, stir up by these words the spirit of his 
 men : 4 All the burden of battle and its heat has been ours, George Dun- 
 in y noble Scots, throughout this night ; we have put to the ^ h^men** 
 rout the flower of Northumbrian youth, with its two leaders ; 
 nothing remains but that we await this priest's attack, — 
 nothing is left for us but that we should each man of us deal 
 two blows, for, believe me, at the third the fugleman will turn 
 his heel, and his flock will follow him. For if the combat 
 should last longer, and we in the end — which God forbid ! — 
 should be defeated, we shall basely lose the glory that we have 
 won by the sweat and labour of this night. We shall teach 
 this priest, if we only quit us like men, that it would better 
 become him to apply the birch to schoolboys that will not do 
 their tasks than to enter the lists with bearded men. 1 
 
 Now when the bishop and his men had well considered the 
 bearing of the Scots, they took the determination to retreat, The English 
 and made no attack upon the Scots ; or, as Froissart imagines, retlre - 
 they said amongst themselves that by the Scots they had much 
 to lose and little to gain. When the Scots saw how the 
 English were in retreat, they prepared to refresh themselves 
 with food alon«: with their English prisoners : and inasmuch as Ralph Percy 
 
 is released 
 
 Ralph Percy was sore wounded, he besought the earl of Moray, up0 n oath, 
 whose prisoner he was, that he would grant him to go to 
 Newcastle, where he might be cured of his wound ; and he gave 
 his oath that at the word of the earl of Moray he would return 
 to what part of Scotland soever, or pay whatever fine should 
 be fixed by his captor. To this petition the earl of Moray 
 readily gave his consent ; and on the same terms more than six 
 hundred prisoners returned to their homes. 
 
 Henry Percy, however, was carried into Scotland, and along Henry Percy 
 with him four hundred other prisoners. Froissart relates how Scotland. mt ° 
 he was told by a certain man of Chastel-Neuf in Beam, of the 
 household of the count de Foix 1 , who had been a prisoner with 
 the Scots, that for his ransom the Scots demanded no more 
 
 1 F. ' quidam de Novo Castro in Berna in domo comitis Foxensis [Orig. 
 
328 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [hook vi. 
 
 than the English were ready to offer ; and that among the Scots 
 they met with kindly treatment. And this statement, too, I 
 take from Froissart : that from the ransom of all their prisoners 
 the Scots got no more than two hundred thousand francs; and 
 yet in days that were then not long past the duke of Longue- 
 ville, when he had been taken prisoner among the Flemings 1 , was 
 ransomed to -his English captors for a hundred thousand pieces 
 of gold. And inasmuch as I no way believe that the duke of 
 Longueville was a mightier lord in lands and revenues than 
 was the earl of Northumberland, I take this as a proof that the 
 northern English and the men of the Scottish borders had more 
 liberal customs in the matter of ransoms 2 . And for this I 
 The praise of praise them highly. Our chroniclers make mention in this 
 John Swin ton. Q f j 0 ] in Swinton with all honour 3 . In it, besides those 
 
 that are named by Froissart, there lost their lives John of the 
 Towers and William Londe, both Scots and knights. Master 
 Thomas Barry, who was the first provost of Both well, made 
 many verses about this war — but they were of the rhymed sort, 
 for thus he begins — 
 
 Let the muse say how great deed 
 Shall never want in sona" its meed. 4 
 
 • Soxensis '].' Froissart : ' ainsi que me dit au pays de Berne, en l'hotel du comte 
 de Foix, Jean de Chastel-Neuf, etc' 
 
 1 ' apud Morinos i.e. in Belgic Gaul. 
 
 2 Froissart (ed. Buchon, vol. ii. p. 738) says, ' et finerent les Anglois, et se 
 ranconnerent au plustot qu'ils purent, et retournerent petit a petit en leurs lieux '. 
 In a curious passage of the Chronicles, Bk. III. ch. exxiii. (Buchon, vol. ii. p. 
 731) he contrasts the civil and courteous treatment of Englishman by Scot and 
 Scot by Englishman with the custom among the Germans : ' Et quand par armes 
 ils se rendent l'un a l'autre, lis font bonne compagnie sans eux trop travailler de 
 leur finance, mais sont tres couriois l'un a l'autre, ce que Allemands ne sont pas ; 
 car mieux vaudroit un gentil homme etre pris des mecreans, tous payens ou 
 Sarrasins, que des Allemands. . . . Au voir dire en moult de choses Allemands 
 sont gens hors de rieulle de raison, et e'est merveille pour quoi nuls conversent 
 avec eux ni qu'on les souffre a armer avec eux, comme Francois et Anglois, qui 
 font courtoisie, ainsi qu'ils ont toujours fait.' 
 
 3 The hero of Sir Walter Scott's Halidon Hill. ' I have some thoughts ', Sir 
 Walter wrote to John Swinton of Broadmeadows, July 10, 1814, 'of completing 
 a sort of Border sketch of the Battle of Otterburn, in which, God willing, our 
 old carle shall have his due.' Homildon was ultimately chosen as the subject of 
 the poem instead of Otterburn ; ' and from Homildon the scene of action is 
 transferred to Halidon Hill.' See The Swintons of that Ilk, Edin. 1883, p. 14. 
 
 4 Musa refert fatum fore scriptum carmine vatum. 
 
CHAP. V.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 And so he goes on. But as the verses are of no merit, and 
 indeed are quite unworthy to be quoted, I pass them by. 
 
 Archibald Douglas, the earl of Galloway, succeeded to the Archibald 
 possessions of James Douglas. 
 
 CHAP. V. — Of the choice of the younger Robert as Regent of 
 Scotland, which this writer can no way approve ; and of the expedition 
 against England on the part of Robert, which had indeed a prosperous 
 issue, but was none the less far from praiseworthy . 
 
 In the thirteen hundred and eighty-ninth year from the The younger 
 redemption of the world, Robert, king of Scotland, was already Jegen^of 600 " 165 
 stricken in years, and no longer equal to the burden of govern- Scotland, 
 ment ; and his first-born son, John earl of Carrick, was lame 
 by reason that he had suffered a kick from a horse which 
 belonged to James Douglas of Dalkeith. For which causes the 
 king summoned the three estates to convene at Edinburgh, and 
 there was earl Robert, the second son, chosen for regent of 
 Scotland. Now, whatever our writers may contend, I cannot 
 hold this aged king, I mean this second Robert, to have been 
 a skilful warrior or wise in counsel. That he was unskilled in 
 war was made sufficiently plain in the battle of Otterburn, as 
 the story of that fight is told by Froissart on the authority of 
 Scottish gentlemen. Nor do I see wherefore an a»ed kino-, 
 whose long experience might be held to bring wisdom in its 
 train, should be regarded as less fit to bear rule than a young- 
 man. And further, if that bodily infirmity which afflicted the 
 first-born son, John, were unaccompanied by any infirmity of 
 mind, it need not have been any hindrance to his exercise of 
 the duties of a king ; for he might have ridden on horseback 
 throughout the country. And thus to bestow upon that other 
 the regency was naught else than to run the risk of having 
 two rival kings within the state. For these reasons I am 
 unable to approve this action of the king, and of the three 
 estates, provided that John was a man of sense and worth. 
 
 Now inasmuch as Henry Percy was prisoner in the hands of Of the boastful 
 the Scots, the English intrusted to earl Marshal the warden- M^shsd. 6 " 1 
 ship of the Marches, and he began to cast it in the teeth of 
 
330 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [eook VI. 
 
 the Percys and the rest of the English that they had not made 
 a better fight at Otterburn ; and used big words about what 
 he would do, he for his part, if he might only come to close 
 Robert the grips with the Scots. And when the regent of Scotland was 
 
 younger, his * ■ i_» 1 1 -i i j 1 • 
 
 expedition. ware of this, he gathered a large army, and, taking along with 
 him the lord Archibald Douglas, invaded England, harried 
 the parts where earl Marshal dwelt, and in the end gave over 
 the desolated countrv to the flames. Earl Marshal meanwhile 
 had been gathering a large army, and with the same he took 
 up his position on a certain piece of level ground not far 
 distant from the Scots. When the Scots saw this, they lost 
 no time in drawing near with intent to give battle : but 
 the English leader withdrew his men to a strongly fortified 
 position neighbouring the plain. Whereupon the Scots sent 
 out a flag of truce, and demanded of the English to come 
 down then into the open and fight with them ; for they had 
 come to England, they said, for no other reason than to 
 find out who and what nature of man this English captain 1 
 could be, whose bombastic speech was an insult at once to the 
 English who had been taken prisoners and to their captors. 
 Whereto the English leader made answer that he dared not 
 expose to so great risk the warriors of his king ; and when 
 they heard this the Scots were consumed with laughter, and 
 flung in his teeth that of Horace, which he borrows from the 
 fables of Aesop, 
 
 ' Parturiunt montes^ nascetur ridiculus mug. ' 
 
 On every side of them therefore did the Scots lay waste the 
 country, and carried home with them no small store of blood- 
 less booty. The regent's conduct in this matter was blame- 
 worthy. For it was not fitting, on the ground of some 
 unmeasured words uttered by a boastful man, to gather an 
 army, and carry off the goods of other men. Robert, stricken 
 in years as lie was, would have given better counsel in the 
 matter, for he would, without a doubt, have advised his people 
 to stay at home and keep peace with their neighbours. 
 
 1 Campiductor. See ante, p. 235. 
 
chap, vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 331 
 
 CHAP. VI.— Of the death of Robert the Scot, the second of the 
 name, and of his issue. Of the coronation of Robert the Third, who was 
 formerly called John, and of his character ; further, concerning the 
 rising under Alexander Buchan, and the duel fought by thirty Wild 
 Scots against other thirty. 
 
 In the thirteen hundred and ninetieth year since the Robert the 
 Virgin's travail, and in the nineteenth year of his reign, died Second dies - 
 Robert the Second, in his castle of Dundonald, full of days, for 
 he had passed by near four years the three-score years and ten. 
 He was buried at Scone. And in the same year did Alexander The horrible 
 Stewart, earl of Buchan, son to king Robert, give to the flames ander Stewart, 
 the cathedral church of Moray of Elgin, which was at that 
 time the glory of the whole country. By Elizabeth, daughter What issue 
 of sir Adam Mure, king Robert had three sons : John, to 
 wit, who was afterward king, and Robert duke of Albany, 
 and that earl of Buchan, Alexander. Thereafter he had by 
 Eufemia, daughter of the earl of Ross, Walter earl of Athole 
 and lord of Brechin, and David earl of Stratherne. For on 
 the death of Elizabeth his queen he made this Eufemia his 
 wife, and for wedlock's sake her children were legitimated. In A base murder 
 that year the lord Clifford slew William Douglas of Nithsdale j^so^of 
 by treachery on the bridge of Dunglas over the Pease l . In Robert is 
 
 l ti ii i *> ip • i i • i crowned under 
 
 the same year John eldest born of the foresaid king Robert the style of 
 was crowned as king, and his name of John was changed for ThhcT the 
 that of Robert : and thus he became Robert the Third. For 
 Robert Bruce was the first of the Roberts, not only by the 
 order of his birth, but by his valour and the glory that he 
 won. I take it that the reason for this change of name was 
 that they fancied the Johns to be unlucky kings; only a few 
 days before that time they had seen the French John taken 
 prisoner by the English. Yet I could easily quote illustrious 
 warriors who had borne this name 2 . And, to speak truly, there 
 
 1 F. 'super pontem de Danskenum [Ovig. Dausken] in Sprusa'. I have to 
 thank Mr. F. H. Groome for this happy solution of a real difficulty. 
 
 2 In his Exposition of St. Matthew, in connection with the naming of the 
 Baptist, Major says that he could quote men famous both in philosophy and 
 war who had borne this name, and instances John Hircanus, John king of 
 Castile, John the voiwode [viuodam], alias huniades (1400- 1460), who a few 
 years before had opposed the most powerful and warlike Mohammedans ; it was 
 likewise the name most commonly assigned to a priest about whose name there 
 was a doubt, and the king's clerk [palatinus scriptor] will jocularly be called 
 
382 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 This marriage 
 of Robert the 
 Third not 
 approved. 
 
 Robert's just 
 dealing. 
 
 The rising of 
 
 Alexander 
 
 Buchan. 
 
 Conflicts 
 between two 
 persons, such as 
 are called duels, 
 are condemned. 
 
 inheres in a name naught, whether good or evil. He took to 
 wife Annabella daughter of John of Drummond, for he was 
 moved by her exceeding beaut v. It was his duty rather to 
 take a wife from a foreign kingdom, and not from his own, for 
 he would thus have made secure a friendly alliance and would 
 have acted more consonantly to his state in the world ; it is 
 not right to make men of middling condition grandfathers 
 and kinsmen of a king, for such conduct tends to bring con- 
 tempt upon the kingly majesty. This Robert wrought no 
 hurt to his subjects ; he compelled his courtiers to pay for all 
 they had to the last farthing ; and ever before he took his 
 departure from any place he made proclamation by sound of 
 trumpet, four or even six hours in advance of his departure, 
 that all merchants and others who had sold aught to the 
 court should receive payment therefor. 
 
 In the year thirteen hundred and ninety-one Duncan Stewart, 
 son to Alexander earl of Buchan, came with his caterans into 
 Angus and harried that part. Against him there went forth 
 Walter Ogilvy with his brother Walter Lichtoun, but they 
 were overwhelmed by the caterans and with sixty armed men 
 lost their lives. I find our chroniclers making mention of 
 many instances of single combat after this time between Scots 
 and English ; but on these I will not dwell. It is a sin in 
 kings or men in authority whatsoever to permit, now here now 
 there, combats of this sort. He who begins the attack is not 
 free from sin, nor yet the defendant either, if in any other 
 fashion he can defend his life ; since indeed it has many times 
 been shown that it was the conquered man whose cause was 
 just; for God willeth not to bring to light by such an evil 
 means as this the integrity of a man when it has been called 
 in question, but by lawful means the same is to be made plain, 
 and if by any way whatever the matter of contention still 
 remains inscrutable, then let them leave it in God's hands ; for 
 to men it is not given to pass judgment save by allegation and 
 proof. I add further that the victor gains but small renown, 
 while the conquered man in the eyes of the vulgar suffers 
 much disgrace ; he therefore who trusts his life to such a cast 
 of the dice acts at once imprudently and wickedly. And that 
 
 John. John and Robert, he adds, were the names taken by boys when they 
 formed themselves for their game into two sides. 
 
( Ha p. vi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 333 
 
 confession too which is made before the entrance upon a duel is 
 chimerical l , if he persist in his sin, desiring to take the life of 
 his fellow ; and his own life too, which he is bound to preserve, 
 he exposes to the chance of fortune. Wherefore on no account 
 is such an one to receive priestly absolution, and if in the mean- 
 while he should die without repentance he will be damned. 
 
 Just about this time, however, for the year was thirteen a combat of 
 hundred and ninety-six, such a combat took place among sixty sixt y men - 
 men of the Wild Scots. The caterans, that is, the Wild Scots, 
 men of a savage behaviour, were not able to keep the peace 
 among themselves. Two factions, to wit Sceachbeg and his 
 kinsmen, who were called Clan Kay, and Christy Jonson and 
 his followers, who were called Clan Quhele, had come to cherish 
 a fierce hatred one for the other, and they could in no way be 
 got to keep the peace. Seeing this, sir David Lindesay, 
 who afterward became earl of Crawford, and Thomas Dunbar, 
 the earl of Moray, gave this counsel to the chiefs of these 
 factions : that a combat of sixty — that is, of either side thirty 
 — should decide their cause in presence of the king. And to 
 this counsel they willingly consented, and entered on the 
 combat upon the northern island at Saint John. Thirty 
 men, naked but for a doublet 2 that hung from one side, made 
 for the field of battle, armed with bow and double-axe ; and 
 these forthwith met the encounter of a like number, armed 
 in the same fashion, and, like bulls was their onset, headlong- 
 unswerving, — so they rushed and struck, thirty upon thirty. 
 Now on the one side, that of the Clan Kay, every man save 
 one was slain ; and of the other side those that survived were 
 eleven. But at the beginning of the combat there happened 
 an incident which must not be omitted. One of the com- 
 batants made his escape from the fight, and the nine-and- 
 twenty that were left were unwilling to wage battle against 
 thirty ; nor would those thirty consent to remove one of their 
 own men. And there was not found any man who would take 
 the place of the runaway ; and 'twas no marvel, since to fight 
 for your life, naked but for a plaid, is no trifle 3 . And when 
 
 1 ' Chimaerina.' Cf. a?ite, the 'vulpine' confession. 
 
 2 ' in nudis diploidibus ex una parte.' 
 
 3 ' quia non erat quaestio de lana caprina in diploide ad mortem pugnare'. 
 Mr. George Neilson (Trial by Co?nbat, p. 251) points out that the expression 
 
334 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 The daring deed the king and the nobility had for a long time stood expectant, 
 man!' there appeared in the midst a certain man of the common 
 
 people, who called out, 4 Who will give me a shield to guard 
 my vitals ! — and I will bear my part in yonder spectacle ; and 
 if I come forth alive I will go in search of that beaten man 
 my whole life long. 1 The man who thus bore his part in the 
 combat was not tall in stature, but he was stoutly built, and 
 his limbs well-knit and muscular, and he was one of the eleven 
 that escaped with their lives, and many upon that side might 
 thank his sweat that they were living men at the end of the 
 day. By this means then peace was procured in that region \ 
 
 4 de lana caprina ' is borrowed from Horace, Epp. I. xviii. 15. Cf. however, 
 Major's use of the words about John the Baptist in the Exposition of St. Matthew, 
 fol. xii. ed. 15 18 : ' Non habuit zonam coloratam more petulantium scholasticorum 
 pro coloribus certantium, cuius inventio de lana caprina est auctore diabolo'. 
 
 1 The names of the clans which took part in this battle, as given here by 
 Major, and of the clans mentioned in the twelfth chapter of this book as desert- 
 ing from Alexander lord of the Isles, have occasioned much controversy. In the 
 original edition (Paris, 1521) the names of the here contending clans are given 
 as ' Steachbeus & eius consanguinei Claukay dicti, & Christi Iouson [or, per- 
 haps, ' louson '] cum suis qui Clauquhele dicebantur ' — rendered in Freebairn's 
 edition (1740) thus: ' Sceachbegus & ejus consanguinei Clankay dicti, & 
 Christi Jonson cum suis qui Clanquhele dicebantur '. In the passage in the 
 twelfth chapter the original edition reads : 1 Duae tribus syluestriu scilicet Clau- 
 kata & Claukauel. ... In festo palmarum sequenti vsque adeo debacchatum 
 est, vt totam progeniem Clanbramer5 tribus Claukatam extinxerit. Tribus 
 hse sunt consanguinei ' etc. The edition of 1740 here reads ' Clankatan & 
 Clancameron [for ' Claukauel '] ' and ' Clancameronum ' for ' Clanbramer5 '. 
 The whole question has undergone a searching examination in Mr. Alexander 
 Mackintosh Shaw's ' The Clan Battle at Perth in 1396 : an episode of Highland 
 History ; with an enquiry into its causes, and an attempt to identify the Clans 
 engaged in it. Printed for private circulation, 1874'. To that tract the reader 
 must be referred for further information, but I may quote Mr. Shaw's summary 
 as given at pp. 39-40 : ' The most likely solution of the apparent difficulty in 
 this oft-quoted passage of Major's History seems to be this : — The historian 
 follows Bowar's account of the desertion from the Lord of the Isles in 1429, 
 and of the slaughter of a sept {progeniem) of the Clan Cameron in the following 
 year ; but in the mention of the first event he uses a name, Kauel, properly 
 belonging only to the chief branch of Clan Cameron — whether to indicate 
 that branch only or the whole confederacy is of little consequence. In the men- 
 tion of the second event he employs the name Cameron, but remembering that 
 he is writing for readers who would have little or no knowledge of Highland 
 family and clan names, and perhaps apprehensive that by using the name Kauel 
 he might appear to disagree with Bo war, he adds by way of explanation the 
 few words 'Tribus hse sunt consanguinese ['consanguinei' in Orig.], etc.,' to 
 show that the two names Kanel and Cameron belong to the same set of people. 
 These words would probably never have led to so much misconception had the 
 
chap, vn.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 335 
 
 It is a marvel that the king and his nobles were not equal 
 to the taming of these factions. Some explanation is possible 
 when we consider that the king can grant a remission to 
 two men under sentence of death, to the end that in their 
 mutual slaughter the people may have such delectation as 
 arises from such a spectacle ; or, if it is plain that one or other 
 is worthy of death, and each accuse the other, while it does 
 not appear which is the innocent man, then let them put the 
 matter to the test in single combat. But even this method I 
 should be inclined to condemn. 
 
 CHAP. VII. — Of the creation of new dukes ; and of the conspiracy 
 and rebellion of the earl of March against the king and realm on 
 account of the wrongful retention of his daughter s dower when she 
 had been repudiated. Of the death and valour of Archibald the Terrible. 
 Of the invasion of Scotland by Henry the Fourth of England, and the 
 vengeance that the earl of March took upon the Scots ; likewise of the 
 destruction and captivity o f the Scots. 
 
 Ix the year thirteen hundred and ninety-eight did the third creation 
 Robert create his eldest born, David Stewart, the earl 0 f ofdukes- 
 Carrick, to be duke of Rothesay, and Robert, his own brother, 
 regent of the kingdom, he created duke of Albany. Before 
 that time they had earls, and not dukes ; in the same year 
 David Lindesay was made earl of Crawford. In the year 
 thirteen hundred and ninety-nine the duke of Rothesay plighted Marriage of 
 his troth 1 , or gave his arles of marriage to Elizabeth, daughter Rothesa y- 
 of the earl of March ; and for this cause did the earl her father 
 pay to the king, by way of dower, a large sum of money. But 
 Archibald earl Douglas promised a yet larger sum, and gave 
 his daughter Marjory in marriage to the said duke ; whereat 
 the earl of March was very wroth, and demanded of the king- 
 one of two things : either restitution of the dower, or fulfil- 
 ment of the contract. And when the answer of the king no Rising of the 
 way contented him, he declared to the king with threatening earlofMarch * 
 words, for he was a man of influence, that he would have his 
 
 editor of Major's History in 1740 been acquainted with a little of the early 
 history of the Camerons, and allowed the name Kauel to stand as Major had put 
 it.' I have to thank Mr. George Neilson for lending me his copy of Mr. Shaw's 
 tract. I would also refer the reader to Mr. Neilson's Trial by Combat, chh. 71, 80, 
 1 affidavit sen subarravit. 
 
336 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vl 
 
 revenge, and that the kingdom should pay hotly for the insult 
 done. He therefore made over the custody of the castle of 
 Dunbar to Robert Maitland 1 , his sister s son, and departed out 
 of Scotland ; and thereafter, under a safe-conduct, he went 
 into England. But Maitland, by order of the king, made over 
 the castle of Dunbar to Archibald Douglas, son of earl Archi- 
 bald. When the earl of March learned what was done he was 
 stirred to anger, and summoned to him out of Scotland his 
 sons and his friends, and stirred up the Scottish marches mar- 
 vellously, for these borderers were his vassals, and men too of 
 a fiery temper. Along with Henry Percy he came to Peebles 2 
 and Lintown ; he laid siege to the castle of Hales ; they had 
 in mind to stay overnight at Traprain and Merkil 3 ; they had 
 begun to prepare for supper. But Archibald Douglas came 
 down upon them with an army ; and when Percy and the earl 
 of March had knowledge of this they fled the fastest they 
 could, and left much provision behind them ; and Archibald 
 Douglas pursued them as far as Berwick. 
 The writer Now throughout his conduct of this matter the king showed 
 
 act n ion^f S the e a g rave want of forethought ; for he ought not to have flouted 
 kin s- the daughter of a noble, and trifled with her in the matter of 
 
 marriage, and in the end have arranged for marriage with 
 another. The money at least he ought to have restored, and 
 made endeavour to propitiate with gentle speech a man like 
 the earl of March, of proved valour in the field. A thousand 
 times it has been shown, and in especial among northern 
 peoples and others of strenuous character, that thev have 
 been ready to risk their wide domains, their lives, and all 
 they had, if so they might avenge an insult done to them. 
 In this matter, too, earl Archibald Douglas was no way without 
 blame ; but he dreaded a rival, and feared that through this 
 marriage his rival might become a greater than himself. And 
 he wished by any means, and lawfully or unlawfully, to main- 
 tain his position. Nor do I hold the earl of March without 
 sin ; nay rather, he acted most wickedly, in bringing a foreign 
 force against his country to avenge a private insult. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred died Archibald Douglas, called 
 
 1 Orig. ' Machlando '. 2 Orig. ' Poxis ' ; F. ' Popil '. 3 ? Mersehill. 
 
CHAP. VII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 -'537 
 
 the Grim or Terrible, the first earl of his name. He was a Death of 
 high-tempered man, and performed many notable feats in war. Terrible. 
 He it was who brought Galloway into subjection to the king, 
 and for this achievement the king granted that territory to 
 him in perpetuity, but unwisely as I think ; for to confer 
 immense domains on men of high position does vast harm to 
 the commonwealth. This Archibald enlarged his borders 
 greatly. He was a man faithful to his promise, and he held 
 churchmen in all honour. He laid no burdens upon religious 
 houses or churches 1 . The nuns of Lincluden he drove out, and 
 founded there a college of clerics. It may be presumed that 
 these nuns had not observed their vow of chastity, otherwise 
 he would not have driven them out. For this act 1 praise 
 him. He also founded the college of Both well, and sufficiently 
 endowed the same. 
 
 In this same year king Henry entered Scotland. But this Henry, the 
 year, or at the least our record of the year, does not square with invades k nS ' 
 the statements of the English chroniclers. For our historians Scotland, 
 call this Henry son to the duke of Lancaster ; he would in 
 that case be the fifth Henry, and by consequence must have 
 lived after these years. Henry the Fourth, on the other hand, 
 duke of Lancaster, began to reign, according to the English 
 historians, in fourteen hundred and seven, after Richard had 
 been deposed. But there is ever a difficulty in the ascertain- 
 ment of a date among authors who differ, and when the date 
 has perchance been given at the first in rough and ready 
 fashion. It was in any case about this time that Henry, as I Henry the 
 think the Fourth, entered Scotland, and made his way as far ]<ourthi 
 as Edinburgh, to whose castle he laid siege. It was defended 
 by the duke of Rothesay and Archibald earl of Douglas, the 
 second of that name. The duke of Albany meanwhile, regent 
 of Scotland, marched with a large army to Caldermuir ; but, 
 by reason of certain jealousies betwixt him and the duke of 
 Rothesay, he did not play the part of an honest and upright 
 man, but suffered the English to depart in peace to their own 
 country without striking a blow. 
 
 David duke of Rothesay then cast aside all prudent counsels, 
 
 1 nec coenobia nec ecclesias alias oneravit, 
 
 Y 
 
338 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [hook VI. 
 
 Waywardness 
 of David of 
 Rothesay. 
 
 Death of duke 
 Rothesay. 
 
 Revenge of the 
 earl of March 
 upon the Scots. 
 
 and began to follow his own wayward will, and do what seemed 
 good to himself ; for which cause the third Robert sent his 
 brother to the duke of Albany, with instructions to make a 
 prisoner of the duke of Rothesay for a time, until he should 
 return to a saner mind ; and with the help of Archibald Douglas 
 the duke of Albany did this. The story goes that John 
 Remorgenay 1 was at the bottom of this matter ; for that he had 
 first of all counselled the duke of Rothesay, whenever he found 
 an opportunity so to do, to seize the regent of the kingdom, 
 his father's brother, and put him to death — on the ground 
 that his place and reputation in the realm were higher than 
 his own. Full of peril, in truth, are those counsels sometimes 
 which are given in the hope that thereby the adviser may be 
 raised to high place, and become the familiar friend of a prince. 
 Rut the Duke of Rothesay refused this offer, and said that he 
 had no mind to harm his uncle. And when that same John 
 had gained his object 2 , he urged the regent to make away 
 with the future king, who, he said, would otherwise compass 
 the death of the regent. And the story goes that William 
 Lindesay was in the plot along with John Remorgenay, because 
 duke Rothesay plighted his troth of marriage to his sister, just 
 as he had done to that daughter of the earl of March whom he 
 abandoned. Not to enlarge further, I will say simply that 
 duke Rothesay was imprisoned in the castle of Falkland, and 
 there he died. Whence may be seen how dangerous it was for 
 him to play false with the daughters or sisters of noblemen. 
 
 About the same time the earl of March and the English 
 together wrought vast injury upon the Scots; for the eastern 
 border Scots, who in all that pertains to war are behind none 
 of their countrymen, loved their ancient lord now that he was 
 exiled from his native land, as indeed is the common way ; and 
 thus the other Scots suffered much at the hands of their 
 brethren. Wherefore lord Archibald, captain of the castle of 
 Dunbar, sent summons to the lords of Lothian, calling upon 
 them to take each of them his turn in the invasion of England, 
 so that each in turn should have precedence of the rest ; and 
 all the rest, though they might have held higher rank than 
 
 1 Sir John Ramorny of The Fair Maid of Perth. 
 
 2 'optatum assequutus est'. Probably we ought to read 
 assequutus est,' since Ramorny had not gained his object. 
 
 optatum non 
 
chap, viii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 339 
 
 himself, for that time obeyed him. And first of all them that 
 entered England was John Hamilton of Dirlton ; to him suc- 
 ceeded Patrick Hepburn younger of Hales to take command, Patrick 
 for his father was now a man of eighty years. Now this Patrick, HepbmrL 
 when his turn came to make invasion, tarried in England one 
 day beyond his appointed time ; for which cause did the earl 
 of March and the earl of Northumberland pursue him, and on 
 Nisbet moor they attacked him, and slew him. Other stout Capture of 
 Scots were likewise taken, and among them John and Thomas England! m 
 Haliburton, Robert Lauder of the Bass, John and William 
 Cockburn, with many another valiant Scot, so that there Cockburn. 
 perished at that time the flower of Lothian 1 . 
 
 When Archibald earl of Douglas, who, like his forebears, was a The rising of 
 man of high courage, though himself unskilled in war, came to hear Arcblbald - 
 of this, he went to the guardian of Scotland and sought from him 
 assistance in attacking the earl of March and the English ; and 
 the guardian sent with him Murdach, his first-born son. These 
 two noble men then invaded England ; and to meet them came 
 Henry Percy, who had been a prisoner in Scotland, and George 
 Scot, earl of March, and they met in a great battle at Milfield. 
 Douglas took up his position on a hill which was called Homildon, 
 where Percy desired to attack him ; but following the counsel 
 of the earl of March, than whom no one was more skilled in 
 warfare, they chose rather another and most destructive 
 method of dealing with the Scots. For they shot their arrows 
 against Douglas, and plied him with missiles of war from their The Scots are 
 engines, and slew in this fashion very many of his men. And ofwar. 7 engme 
 when Douglas saw how the matter inclined, he came down from 
 the hill and made a fierce assault upon the opposite side. 
 Nevertheless, exhausted by his struggle for victory, he lost 
 there many valiant warriors, of whom these that follow were The Scots that 
 the chief: John Swynton, Adam Gordon, John Livingston of weieslaln ' 
 Callander, Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, Walter Saint 
 Clair, Roger Gordon, and Walter Scot. Prisoners made 111 that were 
 that battle there were : Murdach Stewart, eldest born of the taken P risoner - 
 regent, Archibald earl of Douglas, who also lost an eye, 
 
 1 As to the fighting at Nisbet-moor Major is thus mentioned by Edward Hall in 
 his Chronicle, published in 1548 (p. 24, ed. 1809) : ' . . . the Scottes valiantly 
 resisted, but after a long fight the victory fell on the Englishe parte, and as Ihon 
 Mayer the Scot writeth, there wer slain the flower of all Loughdean . . .' 
 
340 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 Thomas earl of Moray, George earl of Angus, Robert Erskine 
 of Alva, William Abernethy of Salton, James Douglas, master 
 of Dalkeith (the heirs or the guardians of noblemen are among 
 the Scots called 'master'), William Erth, John Stewart of 
 Lorn, John Seiton, William Saint Clair of Hirdemanston, 
 George Leslie of Rothes, Patrick Dunbar of Reil, Alexander 
 Home, Adam Forester of Corstorphine, William Stewart of 
 Angus, Robert Stewart of Durrisdeir, Walter Bikcartoun of 
 Lufness, Robert Logan of Restalrig 1 , Ramsay of Greenock, 
 Helias Kenninmont, Lawrence Ramsay of Clat, John Ker of 
 Samelstoun, Fergus Macdoual of Galloway. And all this 
 calamity was wrought by the anger against the king of one 
 nobleman, George Dunbar, earl of March. Hence let kings 
 take a lesson not to trifle with men of fierce temper, — though 
 these be less powerful than themselves, — nor yet with their 
 daughters. Rather than this woman had been scorned, 
 it were better that the Scots had given her a dower of two 
 hundred thousand pieces of gold. And now let us turn our 
 narrative to the English. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. — Of Henry the Fourth of England, who escaped plots 
 that were laid fur him, and tamed rebellious men; and of the death of 
 Robert the Third of Scotland in sorrow at the captivity o f his son. 
 
 Henry the Henry the Fourth, of whose succession to the crown after 
 
 certain plotsT^ the deposition of Richard we have already spoken, kept the 
 feast of the Nativity in the first year of his reign at Windsor. 
 On the eve of the Epiphany 2 some of the nobles made known 
 to the king their wish to act a play along with him, disguising 
 their usual dress, as in a friendly way men sometimes do ; and 
 these nobles were the duke of Surrey, the duke of Exeter, the 
 duke of Salisbury, and the earl of Gloucester. Now these men 
 designed under shelter of their masks to murder the king. But 
 when Henry the Fourth was told by the duke of Albemarle 
 what their intention was, he forthwith left Windsor and went 
 to London ; and when these nobles saw that their treachery 
 was discovered, they fled to different parts of the kingdom ; 
 but they were seized by the common people and, as was just, 
 suffered the punishment of their crime. 
 
 1 Lestalrikus. 
 
 2 In profesto Regum. 
 
CHAP. VIII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 341 
 
 In the third year of the reign of Henry the Fourth did The rebels 
 Henry Percy, heir to the earl of Northumberland, being per- selves to the 
 suaded to that course by his fathers brother, Thomas Percy, En & lish kin S- 
 earl of Worcester, go forth with a strong army to fight against 
 the king ; and a battle took place at Shrewsbury. In this 
 battle Henry Percy came by his end, and Thomas Percy was 
 taken prisoner, and thereafter hanged, and his head was sent to 
 London. Our chroniclers for this period tell that George 
 Dunbar, earl of March, was along with the king of the English. 
 For the Percys claimed that the king should either abdicate 
 his kingdom or fulfil to them those conditions by which he had 
 bound himself when he first assumed the crown. And inasmuch 
 as the Percys had under them a great army, the king followed 
 the cautious counsel of the earl of March, and told them that 
 they should tarry for a little time, until he had considered the 
 matter, whether, with a good conscience, he could lay down his 
 crown. And thus it came to pass that many of Percy's men fell 
 away. Along with Percy was Archibald Douglas, earl of the 
 same, who had been made prisoner at Homildon, and who slew 
 three sham 1 kings, for I may call them such, seeing that they were 
 men who wore royal robes; and there he was sorely wounded 2 . 
 
 In the eighth year of the reign of this same Henry the earl of 
 Northumberland and the lord Bardolf came from Scotland, and 
 their coming was fraught with danger and risk to the English 
 king; but they were taken by the Northumbrians and put to 
 death. In the fourteenth year of his reign died King Henry Death of 
 himself, that is, in the one thousand four hundred and twenty- Heni r- 
 first year of our Lord, according to the English chroniclers. 
 
 After the death of the duke of Rothesay, Robert the Third, Robert the 
 king of Scotland, sent his son James, then a youth of fourteen S endsVisson 0t 
 years, into France for his education, and perchance he also | nt ° F £ aDC t e ^ 
 thought that he should thus be able better to secure his safety latter was taker 
 after the death of his brother ; for he was now his only son. dfes^f griff! Sh; 
 
 1 ' sophisticos \ Cf. for the incident Hall's Chronicle, p. 31: 'The erle 
 Douglas strake him doune and slewe sir Water Blonte, and three other appareled 
 n the Kynges suite and clothyng saiyng : I maruaill to see so many Kynges so 
 sodainly arise again.' 
 
 2 ' In that flighte therle Douglas, whiche for hast fallyng from the cragge of a 
 mountagnie brake one of his genitals and was taken, and for his valiantnes of 
 t e Kyng frely and frankely deliuered.' — Jb. 
 
342 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 He took ship at the island of the Bass along with the lord 
 Saint Clair, and at Flamborough-head he was made prisoner 
 by the English. Now they had not shown a proper caution 
 in thus sending the young man. It maybe that some evil- 
 disposed Scots, moved by hope of reward, declared the matter 
 to the English — or perchance they were young kinsmen of his 
 own who were aspiring to the kingdom ; or again, the English 
 may have had spies in Scotland, as their custom was. For the 
 kinff might have managed the business with such secrecv that 
 it should have escaped the knowledge of all men. Robert the 
 Third, when he heard of the captivity of his only son, died 
 suddenly of grief in the sixteenth year of his reign. Herein 
 the king made no proof of a lofty spirit. So far as regarded 
 the life of the young man, he seemed to be more secure with 
 the English than with his own people, for he might have been 
 ransomed or gained his liberty by way of marriage, as indeed 
 was proved by the event. A good man was this third Robert, 
 but no way a good king. 
 
 CHAP. IX. — Of the achievements of Henri/ the Fifth, king of the 
 English, and of James the First, king of the Scots ; and of the good 
 faith kept by the Scots with the French ; of the various fortune in war 
 of both, and of the death of Henry the Fifth and his eulogy. 
 
 Henry the Fifth To Henry the Fourth, king of England, succeeded Henry the 
 heretics 5 Fifth, who gained in war a great renown. In the first year of 
 his reign some heretics, whom they call Lollards, who spoke 
 wicked things of the church and the clergy, were burned ; 
 among them was burned one Roger Acton, a knight. In the 
 second year of his reign he made public statement to the 
 As he is making nobles of his kingdom of his title to Normandy, and besought 
 for Normandy t nen . ] ie ip i Q ma ke it o'ood. And they promised to stand bv 
 
 a plot is formed 1 ° ... . 
 
 against him. him, and for the purpose of his expedition taxes were raised 
 
 from the people ; but before he had taken ship at Southampton 
 
 water, some of the nobles of the kingdom laid a plot to slay 
 
 him, and they had been bribed to do this by the French with 
 
 Names of the a great sum of money. Of the chief conspirators these were 
 
 the names : the earl of Cambridge, brother to the duke of 
 
 York ; the lord Scrope, treasurer of England ; Thomas Gray, 
 
 knight, from the northern part of England. And all these 
 
chap, ix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 343 
 
 were condemned to death at Hampton. In the first year The expedition 
 of his invasion he took Harfleur, and fought the battle of Normandy. 
 Affincourt in Picardy. Of this battle the histories of the 
 French are full. But Caxton the Englishman reports one 
 thing concerning it, which you will not find in the French 
 chroniclers, and which is indeed hard of belief: to wit, that Victory of the 
 there fell in that battle of the English only twenty-six, 0 f Engllsh - 
 whom two were the duke of York, captain of the first line of 
 battle and the vanguard, and the other the earl of Suffolk l . 
 
 In the fifth year of Henry's reign John Oldcastle lord Heretics are 
 Cobham was burned at London for heresy. 
 
 In the fourteen hundred and nineteenth year from the Scottish auxili- 
 Virgin's travail, the French king sent into Scotland the earl of fnto^france?' 
 Vindocinium, commonly called Vendome, with a petition for 
 help. At that time the king of the Scots was in the hands of 
 the English, for as a boy he had been taken prisoner on his 
 voyage to France, as we have related above. But the duke of 
 Albany, who was then guardian of Scotland, sent his second- 
 born son John Stewart earl of Buchan, and Archibald Douglas 
 earl of Wigton, the eldest-born son of Archibald Douglas earl 
 of Douglas, along with seven thousand men. In the French 
 chronicles where they deal with the life of Charles the Sixth, 
 you shall read how the English king carried James the First, James the First, 
 when James was a captive in his hands, to the cities and troops 
 in which Scots were to be found ; for he thought in this way 
 to gain over to his own side the Scots who had come to the 
 succour of the dauphin ; but the Scots, holding their king in 
 small esteem, followed the dauphin. This you shall find in 
 the history of Robert Gaguin 2 . 
 
 In this matter I approve the conduct of the Scots ; for The Scots in 
 they knew that the stability and permanence of the Scottish f a ith with their 
 kingdom did not depend upon their king, and that though allies - 
 the English king might make a prisoner of their king, he 
 
 1 Caxton places the French loss at more than 11,000 : ' God and our archers 
 made them ryght soone to stomble, for our archers shotte neuer arowe amysse, 
 but it peryshed & brought to ye grounde bothe hors & man, for they shotte y* 
 daye for a wager. And our stakes made them toppe ouer terue eche one ouer 
 ouer, y* they laye on hepes two speres length of heyght.' 
 
 2 ' Scotorum regem quern captivum habebat secum ducens, ratus Scotos qui 
 auxiliares dalphino venerant captivi regis miseraturos et cum eo in Scotiam 
 reversuros.' — Gaguin's Compendium, etc. fol. ccvi. ed. 1511. 
 
JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 The duke of 
 Clarence bears 
 rule over 
 almost all 
 France. 
 
 The duke of 
 Clarence is 
 slain. 
 
 Who of the 
 English were 
 missing or 
 taken. 
 
 could not for all that make a prisoner of the kingdom 
 of Scotland ; and they had the mandate from the nobles of 
 Scotland to help to the uttermost the dauphin, and to pay no 
 respect to the dauphin's father who was upon the side of the 
 English ; because, if the dauphin had been conquered by the 
 English, then would the kingdom of the French have been 
 utterly overthrown ; and to give their lives in its defence they 
 held an honourable thing, bearing in mind the ancient amity 
 of the kingdoms. On a few Frenchmen and in his faithful 
 Scottish allies lay all the strength of the dauphin and all his 
 sinews of war. John Stewart earl of Buchan, son of the 
 guardian of Scotland, was chosen to be constable to the 
 dauphin, and this will be found quoted as a well-known fact in 
 the French chronicles K When Henry the Fifth had subdued a 
 large part of France he went into England, leaving his brother, 
 the duke of Clarence, a brave and strong soldier, as governor 
 in France. A battle was fought between him and the earl of 
 Buchan, the constable, who had with him Archibald Douglas 
 earl of Wigton, and both French and Scots. In this battle the 
 duke of Clarence was slain. Gaguin tells how he had gone in 
 advance of his line of battle, wearing above his helmet a 
 wreath of gold adorned with precious stones 2 , and for this 
 reason he was the rather recognised by the enemy. I condemn 
 his thoughtlessness : for thoughtless he was to wear such an 
 ornament as this to the end he should be known by the 
 enemy. The chronicles tell that John Swinton knight wounded 
 this duke of Clarence sorely in the face, and that the earl of 
 Buchan slew him after he had been laid low by a club 3 . 
 
 On the English side there fell, besides the duke of Clarence, 
 the earl of Ryddisdale, the lord Ros, the lord Gray. There 
 were made prisoners the earl of Somerset, the earl of Hunting- 
 don, and many other gentlemen. A short time thereafter the 
 earl of Buchan fought with the English and the men of 
 Burgundy at Crevant ; and in this second battle, since he had 
 lost those that formerly aided him, he was taken prisoner by 
 
 1 ' comitem bouscaudum scotum conestabilem creat.' — Gaguin, u.s., fol. ccvii. 
 
 2 ' super galeam sertum gemmis honestatum portantem '. These are also 
 Gaguin's very words. — lb. fol. ccvii. 
 
 3 See The Swintons of that Ilk and their Cadets, Edinburgh 1883, pp. 22, 23 ; 
 and Hume's History of the House of Douglas, there quoted, p. 125. 
 
chap, ix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 345 
 
 the enemy. There fell at that time three thousand Scots Slaughter of 
 
 lighting in the front of the battle. This is all told by the Scots " 
 
 Monstrelet the French historian \ About this time, as is told 
 
 by Gaguin, the earl of Glasgow, a man of Douglas, — or, as 
 
 he should have said, the Douglas, — went to the help of the 
 
 French, with a following of five thousand Scots, at Rochelle 2 , 
 
 and from them had cordial welcome. The dauphin bestowed 
 
 upon him the dukedom of Tours, and he fell at Verneuil along 
 
 with James his son and heir. And in the same battle the earl Douglas and 
 
 of Buchan, constable to the dauphin, lost his life. The burden Buchan are 
 
 of the battle fell to the share of the Scots, for therein the slaln> 
 
 largest part of them lost their lives. This you gather from 
 
 Monstrelet the Frenchman, but Gaguin attributes the loss of 
 
 the battle in part to the men of Lombardy 3 . Another cause 
 
 for this defeat is current amongst the Scots, for they say that 
 
 two Scots fell to quarrelling as to which should bear the chief 
 
 command, either striving to have pre-eminence over the other. 
 
 Stewart was constable of France and son to the guardian of 
 
 Scotland, and he was near of kin to the king, and bore the 
 
 same surname ; on the other hand, lord Douglas was amongst 
 
 the Scots regarded as equal in influence with his own father; 
 
 and the nobles of Britain do not lay such stress on royal blood 
 
 as do the French. Yet, beyond a doubt, it behoved the 
 
 Douglas to yield the first place to the constable. But, 
 
 however this may have been, there fell in that battle the earl 
 
 of Buchan, after he had performed many mighty deeds in 
 
 behalf of the French, and along with him Stewart son of the Who of the 
 
 earl of Lennox, a valiant warrior, — he was grandsire of that nobility there 
 
 lord Aubigny who is lately dead 4 — and Lindesay, and Swinton lost their lives. 
 
 that was ever ready for the fight, and many other gentlemen 
 
 of Scotland ; these came, all of them, in that battle by their 
 
 end. For they chose rather a glorious death than to be taken 
 
 prisoners by the English. 
 
 1 Chronicles : ed. Johnes's trans., 1845, v °l- i- P- 500. 
 
 2 ' Venit eodem tempore rupellam comes glascuensis scotus quinque armatorum 
 milia ducens ut Carolo regi auxilians esset. '—Gaguin, u.s. , ccix. Gaguin therefore 
 does not say that the earl of Glasgow's 5000 men were Scots. 
 
 3 1 Lombardi . . . prsedae avidi ad diripienda castra magis quam adferiendum 
 hostem operam navaverunt.' — lb. 
 
 4 ' Bernard lord d'Aubigny, famous in the Neapolitan war under Charles VIII. 
 and Lewis xn. of France.' — Crawfurd, u.s., p. 259. 
 
346 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 EidMs rfH Vie7 Henry the. Fifth died, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign 1 , 
 is praise. ^ wood of Vincennes, which is distant about one league 
 from Paris. As a warrior he gained the highest renown, and 
 must be ranked second to no one of the Edwards or Henrys 
 (of whom some had gained much glory in the field). He was 
 buried at London. 
 
 Henry the To the fifth Henry succeeded Henrv the Sixth when he was 
 
 a child of one year ; and for the present I say naught of him, 
 for I am about to deal with what had come to pass meanwhile 
 in Britain. 
 
 Restoration of 
 George earl of 
 March. 
 
 The castle of 
 Jedburgh is 
 razed to the 
 ground. 
 
 The governor 
 shows respect to 
 the poor. 
 
 Whether new- 
 taxes may be 
 legally imposed, 
 
 CHAP. X. — Of the restoration to his earldom of George earl of 
 March ; of the destruction of the castle of Jedburgh ; and of the 
 dispute that arose as to the legality of the imposition of new taxes. Of 
 the battle at Harlan-, and the men who there lost their lives. O f the 
 foundation of the University of Saint Andrew; of the death of Robert 
 duke of Albany, and an estimate of his achievements. 
 
 Is the year of our Lord fourteen hundred and five George 
 earl of March was restored to his earldom and to the charge of 
 the castle of Dunbar : in such wise however that the earl 
 Douglas still held the castle of Lochmaben with the whole 
 domain of Annandale. In the same year was the castle of 
 Jedburgh taken by the common people of Teviotdale. But 
 inasmuch as this stronghold could not, save at great cost, be 
 razed to the ground, it was determined bv a general council of 
 the Scots at Perth that a contribution of two pence should be 
 made by every house for the destruction of the castle from top 
 to bottom. Now its governor opposed himself to this deter- 
 mination, asserting that in all time of his governance no tax 
 had ever been levied, nor should now be levied, lest the poor 
 folk shall say evil things of himself as the man who had been 
 the first to bring in sucli an abuse ; and he provided the cost 
 of the destruction of the castle out of the royal revenues. 
 
 The question of taxation in general seems here to offer 
 itself for discussion, and we will conduct the argument for 
 both sides. In the first place, as against the procedure of the 
 
 1 Major no doubt meant to write (with Caxton) 'in the thirty-sixth year of 
 his age.' Henry v. died in the tenth year of his reign. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 347 
 
 governor, I state the argument thus: The commonweal had 
 rightful precedence of him, — nay, it had rightful precedency 
 of the king himself, — if we may suppose that the three estates 
 had been duly summoned. Therefore he acted wrongly when 
 he put aside their ordinance and preferred to it his own wish. 
 You will say perchance, — True enough, if what be really to the 
 advantage of the realm were made clear before any conclusion 
 
 was taken in the matter of taxation. Thereto I argue thus: Fir^t argument : 
 The commonweal it was, as the chroniclers relate, that made ditions, and in 
 this ordinance, and many eyes see more than one eye sees, fjjace^ai^ 
 Therefore this statute concerning taxes among the Scots was evasion, 
 a lawful statute. In the third place, this argument may be Thild 
 used : The English, who in civil polity are at least not less 
 wise than we are — and to my thinking they are wiser — levy a 
 tax ; and the same custom holds in all other kingdoms ; and 
 the Scots practice therefore in this matter separates them from 
 all other kingdoms. But the political practice of many 
 kingdoms is likely to be safer than the political practice of 
 one : Igltur. Fourthly, I argue thus : It is better, in time Fourth 
 of war and any urgent necessity, that the rich man and he who argument> 
 from any cause can perform no military service should con- 
 tribute money, than that he and all the rest should go forth 
 to w r ar and leave the land untilled. And though two pennies, Fifth argument, 
 which amount to one small white \ neither more nor less, had 
 been raised from every single hearth, that would have ruined 
 nobody ; but for him who can collect no more from the country 
 at large to take the whole from the royal treasury is for the 
 latter fraught with danger, when we consider that he does not 
 draw from the people the greatest part of his income. 
 
 For the other side the argument runs thus : Let a small tax On the other 
 be once admitted, kings would in the end make it a large one ; argument* 
 wherefore it is well worth while to withstand beginnings. Kings second 
 might even make pretext for a war, and feign urgent reasons ar s ument - 
 therefor, which might end in present risk and long-lasting burden 
 to their people. Therefore it is better sometimes to refrain from 
 the imposition of a tax. But to this it might be answered : 
 Without the consent of the three estates, as happens in The answer. 
 
 qui parvum album prgecise valent. 
 
348 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 England, he will not be permitted to levy a tax, for in 
 England the people are more hotly jealous of their rights than 
 in many other kingdoms, and rise against their kings should 
 these make any unreasonable demand ; so that in this wise 
 the kings take fright, and for the most part draw back from 
 their proposal of a tax. The increase of a tax need not there- 
 fore give cause for fear, and from the point of view of the poor 
 
 The conclusion, this consideration is of much weight. Without intentional 
 injustice to the other side, there is scarce any one who can 
 make clear and determinative answer one way or the other ; 
 but my own private judgment on the whole matter (which I 
 leave to be discussed by persons of sense) an intelligent man 
 may gather from what I have just said. 
 
 Fastcastie is In the fourteen hundred and tenth year from the incarna- 
 tion of our Lord, Patrick Dunbar, son and heir of George, 
 took Fastcastie, that is ' strong castle 1 , and made prisoner of 
 Thomas Holden, who was at that time within the castle, — an 
 
 The battle of Englishman, who had wrought much harm in Lothian. In 
 
 Harlaw 
 
 the year fourteen hundred and eleven was fought that battle, 
 far-famed amongst the Scots, of Harlaw. Donald, earl of the 
 Isles, with a valiant following of Wild Scots ten thousand 
 strong, aimed at the spoiling of Aberdeen, a town of mark, 
 and other places ; and against him Alexander Stewart earl of 
 Mar and Alexander Ogilvy sheriff of Angus gathered their men, 
 Battle betwjxt^ and at Harlaw met Donald of the Isles. Hot and fierce was 
 Scots. the fight ; nor was a battle with a foreign foe, and with so 
 
 large a force, ever waged that was more full of jeopardy than 
 this ; so that in our games, when we were at the grammar 
 school, we were wont to form ourselves into opposite sides, and 
 The killed and say that we wanted to play at the battle of Harlaw. Though 
 it be more generally said amongst the common people that the 
 Wild Scots were defeated, I find the very opposite of this in 
 the chroniclers ; only, the earl of the Isles was forced to retreat ; 
 and he counted amongst his men more of slain than did the 
 civilised Scots. Yet these men did not put Donald to open rout, 
 though they fiercely strove, and not without success, to put a 
 check upon the audaciousness of the man. They slew his 
 drill-master 1 , Maklane, and other nine hundred of his men, and 
 
 1 Campiductorem. See ante, p. 235. 
 
CHAP. X.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 349 
 
 yet more were sorely wounded. Of the southerners six hundred 
 only lost their lives, of whom some were gentlemen, William 
 Abernethy eldest-born and heir to the lord Saltoun, George 
 Ogilvy heir to the lord of that name, James Skrymgeour, 
 Alexander of Irvin, Robert Malvile, Thomas Muref, knights ; 
 James Luval, Alexander Stirling, with other gentlemen of 
 lesser fame. But inasmuch as very few escaped without a 
 wound, and the fight lasted long, it is reckoned as hot and 
 fierce. 
 
 In the same year the university of Saint Andrews had its Foundation of 
 beginning. I marvel much at the negligence of the Scots Sa!ntAndrew.° 
 prelates, who were content up to that time to go without a 
 university in the kingdom. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and fifteen the earl of North- Murdachis 
 umberland restored Murdach Stewart, the regent's son, to Scot- father without a 
 land, without exacting a ransom. This was done in return ransom - 
 for the good service of the regent, who during the English 
 invasion had treated the earl's grandson kindly, and caused 
 him to be educated as if he had been his own son. 
 
 In the vear fourteen hundred and nineteen died Robert, The death of 
 duke of Albany, earl of Menteith, and guardian of Scotland, Albany', and a 
 after he had for eighteen years governed the kingdom. A just estimate of him. 
 man he was, and one who bent all his strength to the task of 
 ruling wisely. Yet is he no way worthy to be placed by the 
 side of Thomas Randolph, guardian of Scotland. But it is to 
 be wondered at that he did not labour in behalf of the son of 
 his brother, the rightful heir of Scotland, so that in his own 
 day he might have seen the sceptre in the hands of the rightful 
 king. For had he worked with vigour and success to compass 
 this end, I should extol him yet more. Perhaps you will tell 
 me : His son, lord Murdach, was a grown man, and, failing his 
 nephew James, the rightful heir ; and it might have been 
 better for the kingdom that James should tarry for a time in 
 England than that his return should involve the payment by 
 his kingdom of an enormous sum of money. For all that, I 
 say that the regent might have aimed to bring about a mar- 
 riage, so that the dowry might have gone to pay the ransom 
 that was needed. 
 
350 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 The return of 
 James the First 
 to Scotland 
 through his 
 marriage. 
 
 Convention of 
 the nobility in 
 the matter of 
 the king's 
 ransom, and 
 their decree as 
 to the raising 
 of the sum 
 demanded. 
 
 The author's 
 opinion in the 
 matter of raisim 
 money for the 
 king's ransom. 
 
 CHAP. XI. — Of the return of James the First, the Scut, into his 
 kingdom by way of the marriage that he contracted ; the author s opinion 
 concerning the ransoming of kings ; and of the sins o f kings against the 
 state. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and twenty-four James the 
 First took to wife Joanna, grand-daughter of the earl of 
 Somerset, and duke of Lancaster ; but he had not wherewith 
 to meet the costs and his ransom, wherefore he left as a 
 hostage for the remnant of his debt certain of those who were 
 heirs amongst his nobility. 
 
 Tims, however, does Caxton tell the story of his marriage : — 
 In the year fourteen hundred and twenty-two did the lord 
 James Stewart, king of the Scots, take to wife the lady Joanna, 
 daughter of the duchess of Clarence; and it was to her former 
 husband that the duchess of Clarence bore this lady Joanna, 
 who became wife to James the First. But he had not where- 
 withal to meet his costs and the payment of his ransom ; and 
 for the remnant of his debt he left behind him in hostage 
 certain of the heirs amongst his nobles. When he was 
 returned into Scotland, James the First was made king. In 
 the same year did the king cause "Walter, Malcolm of Cum- 
 bernauld, and Thomas Boyd of Kilmarnock, to be arrested. 
 And a little while after, in the same year, he summoned a 
 parliament, wherein he proposed many things for the advan- 
 tage of the state, and asked for a subsidy wherewith he might 
 meet the cost of his ransom. And it was determined that he 
 should be allowed to raise a tax for the two years immediately 
 following : and its extent was this — a twentieth part of all 
 moveables, spiritual as well as temporal ; and he appointed as 
 collectors of that tax the bishop of Dunblane and the abbot 
 of Saint Columba. Now I find that these men collected this 
 money from the poor people only, and scarce one hundredth 
 part instead of the twentieth part. And yet the common 
 people murmured because of the collection. 
 
 Here, however, I mean to express my own particular opinion, 
 which I will leave for the consideration and judgment of 
 sensible men. This tax ought to have been imposed upon 
 the noblemen and gentry of the kingdom, and upon ecclesi- 
 
CHAP. XI.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 351 
 
 astics, and also upon the common people, but on this wise : 
 from the nobles should have been asked as a favour a sixth 
 part, or a fifth part, of their annual revenues ; from each 
 ecclesiastic a contribution should have been levied in propor- 
 tion to the ability of each ; while every peasant who had eight 
 oxen to his plough should have paid two shillings. And I 
 know, beyond a doubt, that in this fashion the king would 
 have raised a sufficient, nay rather a superabundant, sum, 
 without the infliction of great hardship upon any single man ; 
 and that, I take it, would have been better for the nobility 
 than to leave their heirs as hostages for the payment of the 
 ransom. Of ecclesiastics what am I to say ? Their conscience 
 pricks them not when they bestow with prodigality church 
 property upon their own kinsfolk and connections ; but if in 
 the hour of need of their own king, when he is in captivity, 
 they are called upon to help him out of the funds of the 
 church, of that they make forth witli a matter of conscience 1 . 
 Thus they strain out a gnat 2 and swallow a camel. For the 
 funds of the church, outside the supply of the necessities of 
 churchmen, ought to be devoted to the relief of the poor, and 
 to the ransom of those captives who may not otherwise be 
 easily ransomed, as was the case in this of the king ; and 
 ecclesiastics ought to do this gladly, inasmuch as taxation 
 shall thus be made to fall less heavily upon the poorest folk. 
 
 In this matter I praise our neighbours the English, who, when He praises 
 Richard, son to the second Henry, was unlawfully kept prisoner e " S 1S 
 by the emperor, sold every other vessel, were it of gold or of 
 silver, and used its value in securing the liberation of their 
 king 3 . Hardly would our people have granted to their king 
 what the English granted to the third Edward that he might 
 regain his territory — for they granted him a fifth part of all 
 moveables, their whole wool, and the ninth stalk in every sheaf 
 of corn throughout the kingdom. I bring forward this instance, 
 
 1 In the next century, and under the influence of Cardinal Beaton, in 1543, 
 ' the clergy were called upon to tax themselves for war with England and 
 ' were ready in such a quarrel to sell their chalices, and, if need be, go them- 
 selves into battle ' — a course of conduct that must have been abhorrent to Major, 
 who was still living at that time.— See Mr. Law's edition of Hamilton's 
 Catechism, p. xix. 
 
 2 excolantes culicem. :} Cf. p. 154. 
 
352 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [bookvi. 
 
 not as if it were right, or one which should be followed — for, 
 indeed, such a course of action is deserving rather of censure — 
 but because it shows the temper of these people toward their 
 king. 
 
 The author's As to the levying of taxes, I will limit my opinion to this 
 tag "the levying" expression : that in no wise should the power be granted 
 of taxes. to kings save in cases of clear necessity; and that necessity 
 should further be one which lias arisen without fault of the 
 king himself. And such, indeed, was the case with this James, 
 who was sent outwith the kingdom by his friends for his own 
 safety, and was made prisoner when he was no more than 
 fourteen years old. Further, it belongs not to the king, nor 
 to his privy council, to declare the emergence of any sudden 
 necessity, but only to the three estates. .And thus no way 
 will be opened for the imposition of unprofitable taxes, while 
 no obstruction will be offered to the imposition of those 
 which are clearly necessary. I am aware that Aristotle, in 
 his second book of the Politics, says wisely that laws are not 
 to be changed ; yet in the judgment of the wise they may be 
 modified in accordance w ith the demands of equity 1 . Jiehold, 
 then, how it is in the power of a people to deal honestly or, 
 contrariwise, dishonestly by its king. 
 How the kings On the other hand, the kings of the Scots sin against the 
 against the* Sm s ^ a ^ e wnen they punish with the utmost rigour any of the 
 state. nobility who may revolt against the government, to the end 
 
 that the rest may be restrained through fear of the like pun- 
 ishment ; and the lands of these men thev confiscate to the 
 public treasury. Now, if the kings would keep the income of 
 their lands for themselves, they would have immense revenues ; 
 but most unwisely they bestow them upon courtiers and others 
 of the nobility who make petition for them. Thus acting — 
 when we consider that there is no regular taxation of the 
 
 1 1 iirieUceicw pati debent '. In the original Paris edition it is printed in Roman 
 type — and thus : 1 epikiian'; for the French did not confine their arbitrary dealing 
 with foreign words to those which Major calls ' British '. Cf. ante, p. 320. Major 
 puts Aristotle's view rather too strongly. The pas-age referred to is in ch. viii. 
 Bk. 11. of the Politics : ' The habit of lightly changing the laws is an evil, and, 
 when the advantage is small, some errors both of lawgivers and rulers had better 
 be left.' — Jovvett's translation, vol. i. p. 50. 
 
chap, xii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 353 
 
 people — they gravely sin against the state. Further, they 
 bestow upon members of their household pensions in money, 
 but reason rather demands that they should give rich heiresses 
 in marriage to their noble followers. And if that should chance 
 which does not often happen, namely, that they beget many 
 children, they ought to cause their younger sons to be educated 
 in letters and all rightness of conduct, and promote them to 
 ecclesiastical benefices ; not that they ought to enjoy a plurality 
 of such benefices, but because there are several in the country, 
 whereof one alone would be a sufficient maintenance for the 
 younger son of the king. 
 
 CHAP. XII. — Of the marriage of Lewis the Eleventh) ling of the 
 French, and Margaret o f Scotland. Of the crime committed by James 
 Stewart, and his banishment , and how he, with his fellow-conspirators, 
 was punished. Of trial by jury or assise of the nobles 1 of Scotland. Of 
 the rebellion of Alexander of the Isles and his petition for mercy. 
 
 I\ the year fourteen hundred and thirty-six did James give Scottish Mar- 
 his daughter Margaret, a fair maiden, and of proper nurture, L^visTh™ 65 
 in marriage to Lewis the Eleventh; and that he might give Eleventh the 
 
 ° . i Frenchman. 
 
 with her a dowry he imposed a tax upon his people like to that 
 other tax ; whereat the people murmured not a little. And 
 when the king came to hear of their murmuring he ceased from 
 the tax, and caused the money that had been already collected 
 to be restored to the common people. In consistency with the 
 opinion that I have already expressed, I affirm that the nobility, 
 the ecclesiastics, and the whole people ought to have made a 
 proportional contribution ; and notably the religious, who from 
 land held in perpetuity, which was the grant of this king's 
 predecessors, drew an annual revenue of three hundred thousand 
 francs ; for all these lands held of the crown. It was for this 
 that king James said, as the story goes, of king David, that he 
 was a saintly man indeed, but most unprofitable to the kingdom 
 of Scotland 2 — the reason being that he had endowed out of the 
 royal lands so many religious houses, as we have already told in 
 the life of David. There is no more likely way to extend the 
 
 1 De assissio seu assessu procerum. - Cf. ante, p. 135. 
 
 z 
 
354 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 renown of a kingdom and the increase of amity than an 
 honourable marriage. This marriage was, in spite of these 
 difficulties, accomplished ; for the Scots had been in high 
 favour with Charles the Seventh when he was dauphin, and of 
 their number twenty thousand had lost their lives in France 
 in defence of his right to the throne ; wherefore, I take it,. 
 Charles was content to receive from them a moderate dowry 
 for his son, holding that friendship between kings and their 
 kingdoms was a far more precious thing than gold. 
 
 In this year did James hold, at Perth, his second parliament, 
 wherein he caused arrest to be made of Murdach, duke of 
 Albany, and the lord Alexander Stewart, his second son, <on 
 whom, on the day of his coronation, he had placed the 
 soldier's knightly belt ; and likewise those whose names here 
 follow, that you may understand the families of the men 
 of old> 1 : Archibald, third of this name, earl of Douglas; 
 William Douglas, earl of Angus ; George Dunbar, earl of 
 March ; Adam Hepburn of Hailes ; Thomas Hay of Yester ; 
 Walter Ogilvy ; Walter Haliburton ; David Stewart of 
 Rossyth ; Alexander Seton of Gordon ; Patrick Ogilvy of 
 
 1 ' quern in die coronationis suae equitem auratum militari balteo praecinxit ; 
 et hos etiam sequentes, ut veterum familias intelligas '. In a communication to 
 the Scotsman, dated I2th July 1883, Sir J. H. Ramsay has pointed out that the 
 statement of Scottish historians that James the First arrested twenty-six of the 
 leading nobles of Scotland had its origin in mistaking 1 an awkward parenthesis 
 in the Scotichronicon for part of the text. The passage may be given in English 
 as follows: "And on the nintli day he (King James) let arrest the Lord Murdach, 
 Duke of Albany, and his younger son the Lord Alexander Stewart, whom, on his 
 coronation day, he had knighted, with six-and-twenty others, namely, Archibald, 
 Earl of Douglas," etc. In Goodall's text it will be seen that the parenthesis is 
 made to include only the words corresponding to "whom, on his coronation day, 
 he had knighted " (vol. ii. p. 482). That the parenthesis ought to include all the 
 twenty-six appears from the text itself, which, after the close of the list, resumes 
 thus [as also in Major]: "And on the same day he arrested the Lord Mont- 
 gomery," etc. If the preceding list was that of the persons arrested, why should 
 the writer begin again like that ? ' 
 
 I think it is just possible that Major was not misled in the same way as 
 other historians, and that by his 1 hos etiam ' he means the knights and not 
 the arrests to be enumerated, and I may refer as giving some colour to this 
 view to ch. xiv., where Major speaks of James's affection for many of his nobles. 
 But I confess that without the correction, to which my attention was called by 
 an editorial note in the late Dr. John M. Ross's Early Scottish History and 
 Literature, 1884, p. 137, I should have had no doubt that he included the 
 names following (in his case twenty-two, not twenty-six) among the arrests. 
 
chap, xii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 355 
 
 Auchterhouse ; John Red-Stewart of Dundonald ; David 
 Murray of Gask ; John Stewart of Garden ; William Hay of 
 Errol ; John Skrimgeour, constable of Dundee ; Alexander 
 Irvine of Drum ; Herbert Maxwell of Carlaverock ; Herbert 
 Herries of Terregles ; Andrew Gray of Fowlis ; Robert 
 Cunynghame of Kilmaurs ; Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie ; 
 William Crichton, lord of the same. On the same day the 
 king made arrest of John of Montgomery of the same, that is, 
 lord of the same ; and of Alan Otterburn, secretary of the duke ; 
 and he sent incontinent and took the castle of Falkland, and 
 Doune in Menteith, from which he caused to be removed 
 duchess Isabella, daughter of the earl of Lennox ; and all these 
 he intrusted to the charge of the keeper of the castle of St. 
 Andrews ; but a short time thereafter John and Alan received 
 their freedom. The duke was transferred to the castle of 
 Carlaverock, and the duchess to Tantallon. And in the 
 following year, on the festival of the Holy Rood, James 
 Stewart, who alone of the duke's sons had escaped arrest at the 
 hands of the king, set fire to Dunbarton, where he put to death The crime of 
 the lord John Red-Stewart of Dundonald, otherwise of Burley, James Stewart 
 the king's uncle 1 , and his own grandfather, and the lord 
 Robert, uncle of the duke of Albany — with three and thirty 
 other men. At all which the king was moved to righteous in- 
 dignation, and banished the foresaid James from the kingdom. 
 This James fled into Ireland along with Finlay bishop of 
 Argyll, of the order of Preachers, who was his accomplice 
 in crime, and neither one nor other returned ever to 
 Scotland. 
 
 On the fifth day after the festival of the finding of the Holy Punishment of 
 Rood, five of those who had been fellow-conspirators of the ^^S^ 0 "" 
 foresaid James were brought before the king, and they were 
 dragged at the tails of horses, and thereafter hanged on 
 gibbets. In the same year, and on the eighteenth day of the 
 month of May, the king held a parliament at Stirling, whereat 
 W alter Stewart, heir of Albany, was convicted of treason and 
 beheaded before the castle; the like fate befel his brother 
 
 1 F. ' regis patrui ' ; Orig. rightly ' regis patruum ' ; but the sentence remains 
 confused : ' ubi dominum Joannem Red-Steuartum de Dundonald, alias de 
 Burlei, Regis patrui, et avi sui dominum Roberti [? Robertum] ducis Albania; 
 patruum . . . interfecit.' 
 
356 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [rook 
 
 VI. 
 
 and 
 
 The punishment Alexander, his father too 
 
 Lennox — but this was on the following day. 
 
 nobles. 
 
 The names of 
 their judges. 
 
 The session or 
 assise, as it is 
 called. 
 
 his grandfather, the earl of 
 Those who sat 
 
 in judgment upon these men were Walter Stewart of Athole, 
 father's brother to the king ; Archibald earl of Douglas, the 
 third of the name, Alexander of the Isles, de Ross, Alexander 
 Stewart of Mar, William Douglas of Angus, William Saint 
 Clair of Orkney, George of Dunbar, earls, seven in all ; likewise 
 James Stewart of Bawane, Robert Stewart of Lorn, John de 
 Montgomery of the same, Gilbert Hay of Errol, constable of 
 Scotland, Thomas Somerwale of the same, Herbert Herries of 
 Terregles, James Douglas of Dalkeith, Robert Cunynghame of 
 Kilmaurs, Alexander Livingston of Callander, Thomas Hay 
 Loch urquhart, William Borthwick of the same, Patrick Ogilvy, 
 sheriff of Angus, John Forester of Corstorphine, Walter Ogilvy 
 of Luntrethyn, knights. Now it is not likely that a great 
 company of gentlemen such as these would condemn to death 
 noblemen who were of the blood-royal, had these not been 
 guilty of conspiring against the king. For a merciful disposi- 
 tion will not always incline a merciful man to remit the 
 punishment due to crime ; far rather will it compel him to 
 punish the powerful where reason points that way, forasmuch 
 as it is the part of sensible men to give well-weighed considera- 
 tion to all the circumstances, and so to determine when punish- 
 ment ought to be inflicted and when it may be mitigated. 
 For when it is probable that indulgence shown to criminals 
 will bring worse things upon the state, a grave peril to the 
 state must ever be involved in allowing the criminal to escape 
 unpunished. 
 
 So much concerning trial by jury : about which, since I have 
 been led to say something in regard to it, you will observe that 
 neither in the laws 1 nor in France shall you find aught of this 
 trial by jury. This alone is what is called trial by jury: 
 Where a question arises as to the guilt of a man who is accused 
 of another's death, twelve of his neighbours, or it may be more, 
 are summoned ; and these men, making careful consideration 
 of every doubtful point, either set the accused at liberty or 
 
 1 ' in legibus ' — which may be illustrated by the common use ' utriusque juris ' 
 — i.e. in civil and in canon law. 
 
( hap. xil] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 357 
 
 declare that he shall forthwith be put to death. The whole 
 number of these men is called the jury. The accused is allowed a power of 
 to challenge any one of their number, on the ground of kinship aHo'wedfo the 
 by blood, or marriage, or by some other tie to him who has accused, 
 been slain, and in that case the judge will remove such an one 
 from the jury. But it is only after a careful balance of every 
 particular that these men will give their verdict ; they will 
 leave no suspicious point, no evidence, in a word nothing, un- 
 weighed, and in accordance with what they have heard they 
 form their opinion. It is no small advantage, however, to the 
 accused when his neighbours are able to bear favourable 
 testimony to his character l . So much then it may suffice to 
 say about the law of trial by jury among the Britons. 
 
 In the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and The practice of 
 twenty-five the king passed an ordinance for the practice of ^rows S wWl 
 archery under certain penalties 2 . 
 
 In the year one thousand four hundred and twenty-six he 
 caused the castle of Inverness to be restored, and in the follow- 
 ing year he held a parliament, in the course of which he invited 
 Alexander of the Isles, earl of Ross, and the countess his 
 mother, daughter and heiress of the once powerful earl Walter 
 Lesly earl of Ross, and many others, men of mark, — all these he 
 invited one by one to the tower, and there caused them to be 
 kept in close custody. While he was showing in the presence 
 of his friends the pleasure that he felt in this occurrence, he 
 bent his face somewhat toward the ground, and then repeated 
 before them these two verses which himself had made, and 
 here they are ; — 
 
 1 This refers to the earlier method of trial, when ' the accusers did not call 
 witnesses cognisant of the facts', but when the accused ' was bound to find com- 
 purgators to swear for him and with him that they believed him guiltless ' ; 
 when, as we may say, witness was borne to character and not to fact. — Cf. Mr. 
 Innes's Lectures on Scotch Legal Antiquities, p. 210. 
 
 2 The Act in question ran thus : — 
 
 1 That ilk man busk thame to be archaris. 
 ' ITEM That al men busk thame to be archaris fra thai be xii yeiris of age, & 
 that ilk x pundis worth of land thair be maid bow markis, and speciallie neir 
 paroche Kirkis, quhairn {wherein) upone halie dayis men may cum and at the 
 leist schute thryse about and have usage of archarie, and quhasa usis not the said 
 archarie the Laird of the land sail rais of him a wedder, and gif the Laird rasis 
 not the said pane the Kingis Schiref or his ministers sail rais it to the King.' 
 
358 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 Evil deeds 
 and punish- 
 ment of the 
 Wild Scots. 
 
 Revolt of 
 Alexander earl 
 of the Isles. 
 
 Tribes and 
 factions of the 
 Wild Scots and 
 their extirpa- 
 tion. 
 
 Ad turrim fortem ducamus caute cohortem ; 
 Per Christi sortem nieruerunt hi quia mortem 1 . 
 
 Rhymed verse was at that time the custom, amongst the 
 French as amongst the Britons, and the king had had inter- 
 course with both. He treated the last syllable of the adverb 
 criute as short, whereas it is long ; but some allowance may well 
 be made for kings when they take to extempore verse-making. 
 
 There were also imprisoned in that fortress Angus Duff with 
 his four sons — he was the chief of four thousand men in Strath- 
 naver, Kenneth More with his son-in-law, John Ross, who was 
 chief of two thousand, William Lesly, Angus of Moray, and 
 Makmanke- — all these were Wild Scots. And many other Scots 
 whose tempers were alike savage followed them, ever prone to 
 do evil rather than good, and with no notion of a peaceful life. 
 Many of these he put to death, and others he disposed in 
 different castles, to be kept some here some there. I have 
 nothing but praise for this spirited conduct of the king, and 
 the desire that lie showed to deal justice upon all. Those 
 men, all low-born as they were, held in utter subjection some 
 seventy or eighty thousand others; and in their own particular 
 tracts thev were regarded as princes, and had all at their own 
 arbitrary will, evincing not the smallest regard for the dictates 
 of reason. 
 
 In the year one thousand four hundred and twenty-nine the 
 lord of the Isles, at the instigation of the Wild Scots, and in 
 contempt of the king's command, burned the town of Inverness, 
 for all that the king had before then given him warning that 
 he should not lend an ear to the designs of those wicked men. 
 The king therefore collected an army, and in Lochaber 
 routed Alexander of the Isles, who had with him of them of 
 Ross and the Isles more than ten thousand men, for of all the 
 Wild Scots this lord of the Isles was the chief and leader. 
 Two of the wild tribes, clan Chattan, to wit, and clan Cameron 3 , 
 deserted Alexander of the Isles and attached themselves like 
 honest men to the king. On the Palm Sunday following, their 
 
 1 Let us carry that gang to a fortress strong, 
 For by Christ's own lot they did deadly wrong. 
 - ' Makmaken' in Goodall's Fordun, xvi. 15. 
 3 On these clan-names see ante, p. 334. 
 
CHAP. XIII. OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 359 
 
 riotous conduct reached at last such a pitch that the tribe clan 
 
 Chattan put to death every mothers son of clan Cameron. 
 
 There is kinship of blood among these tribes ; their possessions 
 
 are few, but they follow one chief as leader of the whole 
 
 family, and bring with them all their relations and dependants. 
 
 They lead a life of blissful ease ; from the poor people they 
 
 take what they want in victual ; bows they have, and quivers, The arms of 
 
 and they have halberts of great sharpness, for their iron ore is the Wlld Scot 
 
 good. They carry a stout dirk in their belts ; they are often 
 
 naked from the knee down. In winter for an over-garment 
 
 they wear a plaid 1 . 
 
 Alexander of the Isles sent various messengers to the king to 
 treat for peace ; but to this the king would not consent, and he 
 said in anger that within a few days he would humble him yet 
 further. But Alexander, when he saw the fixed purpose of the 
 king, went in secret to Edinburgh, and when he was got within 
 the king's palace went upon his knees, and so came to the 
 presence of the king and queen, carrying his sword by the 
 point, and so gave the hilt into the king's hands, as who 
 should say that he placed his head in the king's hands. 
 Whereupon the queen and those of the nobles standing round The suppiica- 
 urgently besought the king that he would spare the life of "°J e r of the 
 Alexander ; and the king sent him to the castle of Tantallon, Isles - 
 there to be safely guarded until he should determine what 
 should be further done concerning him. His mother the 
 countess of Ross he sent to the island of St. Columba, there to 
 be kept. And there she remained one year and two months. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. — Of the twin sons that were born to the king, and of 
 the fresh institution in their case of the order of knights, after the custom 
 of Britain. Of the making of d cannon, and in defence of engines 
 of war generally 2 . Of the rising of the nobles. Of the conflict 
 between the Wild Scots. Of the vain attempt that was made to seduce 
 the Scots from the French alliance ; and of the disheriting of the 
 duke of March ; of the death of Alexander Stewart, and of his heir. 
 
 Ix the one thousand four hundred and thirty-third year from 
 the Virgin's travail, and on the sixteenth day of October, were 
 
 1 Chlamys. 
 
 2 de fabrorum defensione. 
 
360 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [liOOK VI. 
 
 Tw in sons arc 
 born to the 
 Scottish king — 
 Alexander and 
 James. 
 
 They are 
 made knights 
 with the usual 
 ceremonies. 
 
 Death of 
 Alexander 
 
 The author 
 defends the 
 makers of 
 engines of war. 
 
 born to the king twin sons, in the monastery of the Holy Rood 
 at Edinburgh. Alexander was the name given to the elder-born, 
 and the younger received the name of James ; and on the day 
 of their second birth, in the font of baptism, their father made 
 them likewise knights with those ceremonies which are of human 
 institution ; and the heirs of certain of his nobles he invested 
 likewise with knightly cincture. Such is the custom among 
 the Britons with the first-born of a king. Alexander died in 
 youth, and James survived him. In the same year the king 
 caused to be made in Flanders a huge cannon, which was named 
 Leo, and on its circumference were engraved in large letters these 
 words — 
 
 Illustri Jacobo Scotorum principi digno, 
 Ilegi magiiifieo, dum fulmine eastra redueo : 
 Factus sum sub eo, nuncupor ergo Leo 1 . 
 
 And inasmuch as this Caxton contends that the craft and 
 skill that furnished such engines of war as these were of dia- 
 bolic origin, and that their first inventors were wicked men, let 
 me, as against him, use some such argument as this : Swords, 
 bows, spears, all weapons of this sort, though I grant you 
 that men may be killed by them, are counted good in so far 
 as they serve the commonweal either for lawful invasion or 
 for lawful defence. But the case is precisely similar with the 
 engines now under discussion: Igitur. And this reasoning 
 receives confirmation when we consider that without these 
 engines many strongholds would be held against justice which 
 by these means are forced to surrender ; but this surrender is 
 profitable to the commonweal ; therefore the means is a lawful 
 means, since from no other source it contracts a stain of wrong. 
 Nor is it any valid objection to our argument to contend that 
 with these engines bad men may sometimes cause the death of 
 good men ; for that may happen just as well with sword and 
 bow, and all weapons of that sort, though I grant you that the 
 slaughter may be greater with these engines than with other 
 weapons. This in fine is our conclusion: that in a just war 
 
 1 While with my bolts I throw stout strongholds down 
 For James, of Scots the king, a monarch of renown, 
 ' Lion ' I'm called — when I was born he wore the crown. 
 
CHAP. XIII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 361 
 
 these engines are the best weapons that can be used, and full 
 of advantage to the commonweal. No one who is acquainted 
 with the substance and the generation of lightning will doubt 
 that sulphurous mountains belch forth large stones ; the same 
 effect you shall see when the exhalations which are pent up in 
 the bowels of the earth cause the earth to quake, and rend her 
 asunder, and throw aloft large fragments and stones, — whence 
 it may be said that this invention of man is made in imitation 
 of nature. 
 
 But to take up again the thread of our history : king James 
 the First in the year fourteen hundred and thirty-one caused 
 arrest to be made of Archibald earl Douglas, and placed him in 
 safe custody at Loch Leven ; and the lord John Kennedy, the A new imprison- 
 king's nephew, he had placed in Stirling, and kept him there men° 
 up to the feast of Saint Michael ; and in his parliament at 
 Perth, at the instance of the queen and some of the nobility, 
 he gave earl Douglas his freedom, but kept his own nephew 
 still in prison. I marvel that the historians have not told 
 us the reasons for putting those Stewarts to death, and for 
 the imprisonment of those others, for then we might be able to 
 form an opinion whether it were after a full and just considera- 
 tion of every circumstance that men thus imprisoned were set 
 free, or whether this treatment of men so outstanding in the 
 state had its origin rather in some trifling cause, or in the 
 arbitrary judgment of the king. 
 
 It was at this time that Donald Balloch, a Wild Scot, son of Rebellion of 
 a man who was on the fathers side uncle to the lord of the DonaldBalloch ' 
 Isles, bore down with his islesmen upon the territory of the 
 Gaels 1 at Lochaber, meaning to harry that country. And 
 against him went forth Alexander and Alan Stewart, earls of 
 Mar and Caithness, and with them a goodly number of soldiers. 
 But Donald slew Alan and many of his followers, and he put 
 the earl of Mar to the rout ; and yet in numbers he was far 
 inferior to them. When he had done this he turned back and 
 went into Ireland. 
 
 In the same year took place a fierce battle between Angus Conflicts 
 Duff and Angus Moray at Strath naver. These two men had a A^guses.^ 6 
 short time before made their escape from the king's prisons, and 
 
 1 de Galeis. 
 
362 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 The savage 
 disposition of 
 the caterans. 
 
 The Carthu- 
 sians at Perth. 
 
 Mission of 
 Scrope to make 
 a treaty with 
 the Scots. 
 
 The Scots keep 
 faith with the 
 French king. 
 
 Disheriting of 
 Dunbar. 
 
 regained their liberty. Either leader had with him twelve 
 hundred caterans (' caterans 1 is the name given to the wildest 
 and most lawless of the Highlanders) ; and in such fashion did 
 those wild men fight that on both sides scarce one escaped with 
 his life; for the conflict was, as it were, by an equal number 
 of duels, and every man made an end of his antagonist, or 
 contrariwise. 
 
 James the First founded at this time a Carthusian house at 
 Perth, in which the religious of Saint Benedict have to this 
 day continued, and observe the rule of those fathers. 
 
 The lord Scrope was sent about this time by the English 
 king into Scotland, to the end these two neighbour kingdoms 
 should establish a perpetual peace : that the Scot should agree 
 to help the Englishman, and conversely ; that in every con- 
 tingency and against every action they should succour each of 
 them the other ; and, as to all parts of territory about which 
 there was any doubt whether these belonged to the English or 
 the Scots, the English were at once to give them to the Scots. 
 Whereupon James summoned the nobles of his kingdom, and it 
 was with one voice concluded that their most ancient treaties 
 with the French king should not be broken. 
 
 At this same time it was that James sent William earl of 
 Angus, his chancellor William Crichton, and Adam Hepburn, 
 knights all of them, to take the castle of Dunbar. He retained in 
 his own custody George Dunbar, the second of the name, earl 
 of March, and gave strictest injunction to the keepers of this 
 castle that they three should hold it in their own hands. And 
 without consultation with the earl they yielded obedience to 
 the king, and intrusted the keeping of the castle to the foresaid 
 Adam Hepburn. In the following year, and on the seventh of 
 August, at the parliament held at Perth, he disherited the son 
 on account of the sins of George his father. We have told in 
 an earlier part of this book how George Dunbar, in his anger 
 against the third Robert, father of this king James, had passed 
 into England, and with English help had wrought many and 
 no small injuries to the Scots. But that second George made 
 answer in parliament that he held a pardon for what he had at 
 that time done ; and that is true, for he had been pardoned by 
 the duke of Albany, who was at the time guardian of the 
 
CHAP. XIII.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 kingdom ; but this parliament counted that pardon as null and 
 void. But the king exercised mercy towards him, and bestowed The king's 
 on George the earldom of Buchan ; and after the king's death cltmency - 
 there was granted to George and his heir, by consent of the 
 three estates, and in expectation of the good-will and ratifica- 
 tion of James the Second, whom that earl had received at the 
 sacred font, a yearly payment from the earldom of March of 
 four hundred marks. For it is said that it is allowed by the What consti- 
 whole community to the kings of the Scots that nothing done {atfveTction" 
 by them in childhood shall be counted for fixed and settled ^{J 1 ^ ^ cot " 
 unless those same kings shall have ratified the same when they 
 have reached the age of twenty years. Here then you may 
 behold how an ancient, powerful, and in very truth high- 
 tempered family, that had flourished through a succession of 
 many earls, fell, for its sins, and suddenly, from its possession 
 of the earldom of March ! teaching thereby this lesson to all 
 that have the sense to profit thereby, that though men may 
 suffer injury at the hands of their king, they should bear them- 
 selves with equanimity, or at least dissemble their impatience, 
 and least of all rise in war against their country. 
 
 In the year one thousand four hundred and thirty-five died Death of Alex- 
 Alexander Stewart earl of Mar. In his youth he had been andliisSogy. 
 an intrepid leader of the caterans ; when he was thirty years 
 of age he had become one of the most renowned and wealthy 
 of men 1 ; he bought many estates, and in the northern parts 
 there was no one who could be named beside him. At the 
 battle of Harlaw he had withstood the lord of the Isles ; 
 with the duke of Burgundy he had borne himself manfully John of 
 against the men of f Liege. And notwithstanding that he Jj? Lwdienses 
 had the goods of fortune abundantly, yet, since peace reigned 
 
 1 The Continuator of Fordun, whom Major is probably following, is more 
 explicit : ' Hie fuit vir magni conqusestus, qui in juventute erat multum indomitus, 
 et ductor catervanorum. Sed postea ad se reversus, et in virum alterum mutatus 
 . . .' His most memorable achievement as a leader of the caterans was his 
 seizure in 1404 of Isabel countess of Mar, and his extorting from her, under 
 covenant of future marriage, a charter by which she bestowed upon him in free 
 gift the earldoms of Mar and Garioch, with destination to his own heirs what- 
 soever — an arrangement of momentous consequence in the history of the earldom 
 of Mar down to our own day. See Lord Crawford's The Earldom of Mar in 
 Sunshine and in Shade during Jive hundred years, vol. i. pp. 201-217. 
 
364 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY [book m. 
 
 at home amongst his ow n people, his desire for warlike service 
 drove him to foreign shores. To all his possessions James 
 James the First the First succeeded, for this valiant man was the bastard son of 
 heir. eXam Cr S Alexander Stewart earl of Buchan, w ho w as son to king Robert 
 the Second. It hence appears that James gained for his own 
 purse various fair earldoms, the earldom of Buchan with that of 
 March. The battle that was fought at that time between the 
 English and the Scots was no great one 1 ; for of English slain 
 and taken the sum was but fifteen hundred. On that day, 
 however, the Scots suffered the loss of one valiant gentleman 
 in Alexander Elphinston. The Scots commander w as William 
 Douglas earl of Angus, with whom were Adam Hepburn of 
 Hailes and Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, knights. In this 
 year did James lay siege to the castle of Roxburgh, but with- 
 out success. It was at this time too that James Kennedy, 
 nephew^ to the king by his sister the countess of Angus, was 
 promoted from the bishopric of Dunkeld to St. Andrews. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. — Of the murder of James the First t and the treason of 
 the earl of AtJioIe. Of' the outward aspect and the mora/ characteristics 
 of this same James the First ; the good faith that he kept towards the 
 French, and other his praises. 
 
 The murder of L\ the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and 
 James the First. f or j.y_ seven 2 was j ames the First, in the town of Perth, treacher- 
 ously done to death, with thirty mortal wounds, on the twenty- 
 first day of February, and there in the Carthusian house of his 
 own founding was he buried, in the one-and -thirtieth year of 
 his reign, and of his age the forty-fourth. Now the occasion 
 of this treachery and murder was on this wise : the earl of 
 Perfidy^ofthe Athole, father's brother to the king, was a man grown old in 
 wickedness, and did not cease from his ambition to be king. 
 By his craft and guile it was that the duke of Rothesay, elder 
 brother to James, had perished ; and Murdach duke of Albany, 
 and his two sons likewise, who were next heirs to the kingdom 
 
 1 The battle of Piperden, or, as the site is more particularly given by Rid- 
 path (Border History, ed. 1776, p. 401), ' Pepperden, on Brammish, not far 
 from the mountains of Cheviot'. This battle is said to have been the foundation 
 of the ballad of Chevy Chace. 2 This should be ' thirty-seven '. 
 
chap, xiv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 365 
 
 before himself. This man then won over to the perpetration 
 of this crime his nephew Robert Stewart, who was the king's 
 most familiar friend, and also one Robert Graham, a bold and 
 crafty man, who had before that time been banished by the 
 kino- and from these lie took assurance that of his own action 
 in the matter naughtjshould be brought to light, but that, by 
 universal consent as it were, he should be chosen for guardian 
 of the realm when the kins: was once removed : and thus he 
 thought he should be able to do with James the Second, a boy 
 of seven years, what he would, and perchance would even have 
 killed him too, and so prevented his coming to the throne. 
 For a certain witch is said once to have declared to him that 
 before he died he should wear the crown ; and to her prediction 
 he trusted not a little. 
 
 Now the king showed herein much want of foresight, in that, The author 
 waking or sleeping, he did not keep men by his side, seeing prince of tie 
 that he had for their ill deserts put to death many of his kin S- 
 nobles. Nor can I approve of this : that he admitted to such 
 familiarity of intercourse the nephew of the earl of Athole. It 
 is no common practice with kings to admit to any close inti- 
 macy the next heir to the crown, or the next but one, unless 
 these are direct descendants of their body. Such men they 
 love and honour, but to their very bedchamber kings do not 
 admit them, nor allow them to be their attendants, with a 
 small following, to places that are fitted for the carrying out 
 of a dangerous design. For blind lust of empire has driven 
 many men to commit crime. 
 
 Our James was, if we may trust the chroniclers, short of The endow- 
 stature, but robust and stout of body ; and this which follows StelFtet ^bS3? 
 is his description by Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius, in his person 
 when he visited Scotland : ' James is square-set, of a full character 5 
 habit ; he punished many of the petty chieftains of his king- 
 dom, and in the end he was murdered by his own followers." 
 Among the Italians Britons are reckoned fat, just because they 
 are of a large build ; for men of the north eat plentifully of 
 flesh, and indeed of very good flesh, wherein is no fat. This 
 you may observe in the Germans, the Goths, and the Britons. 
 Men of the south are thin from want of sap and a general dry- 
 ness of body, and they reckon any man of a sanguine com- 
 
366 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [hook vi. 
 
 plexion to be fat. If you were to find in Italy men of the 
 same bodily habit as is in Scotland well-nigh universal, these 
 men would in very truth be fat — but that would not be so 
 with men of northern parts. The king was a man of the 
 finest natural gifts and of a very lofty spirit. He took in all 
 manly exercises a foremost place ; further than all could he put 
 a large stone or throw the heavy hammer ; swift he was of foot, 
 a well-skilled musician, as a singer second to none. With the 
 harp, like another Orpheus, he surpassed the Irish or the Wild 
 Scots, who are in that art pre-eminent. It was in the time 
 of his long captivity in France and England that he learned 
 all these accomplishments. When he wrote the language of 
 his own country he showed the utmost ability of that sort. He 
 left behind him many writings and songs, which are to this 
 day remembered amongst the Scots, and reckoned to be the 
 best they have. He wrote an ingenious little book about the 
 queen 1 while he was yet in captivity and before his marriage, 
 and likewise another ingenious ditty of the same kind, Yas 
 sen 2 , etc., and that pleasant and ingenious poem At Beltayn 3 , 
 etc., upon which other writers of Dalkeith and Gargeil laid 
 themselves out to make some change 4 , — because he was at that 
 time kept a prisoner in the castle, where the lady dwelt with her 
 mother, or even in his own chamber. 
 Hen^yUie Fifth, Henry the Fifth, who held almost all of France, endeavoured 
 king, tempts to entice him, with the promise of his freedom, to admit that 
 James in vain. he held g cotland of the English king; but this he magnani- 
 mously refused to do ; for he preferred, he said, in the fashion 
 of his ancestors, to go without his kingdom till he died, rather 
 than it should pass with aught of blemish to his successors. 
 Also, it was no business of his to place Scotland beneath the 
 
 1 The King's Quair. 
 
 2 The poem beginning 1 Sen that eyne that worlds my welfair '. Pinkerton 
 (as quoted in living's History of Scotish Poetry, p. 153) perceived signs of 
 mutilation in this line, and proposed to read ' Yas, sen that the eyne that workis 
 my weilfair '. Ritson conjectured that we ought to correct Pinkerton's text by 
 reading ' Sen yat '. Dr. Irving sees a tendency to rashness in both critics, but 
 Pinkerton's suggestion is strengthened by this passage in Major. 
 
 3 Peblis to the Play, which begins with the words ' At Beltane '. 
 
 4 That is, as it would seem, they wrote a parody on the poem. I have not 
 been able to find out anything about this parody, or to identify Gargeil. 
 
chap, xtv.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 367 
 
 English yoke. On the other part it must be said that his 
 paternal uncle, the duke of Albany, who was at that time 
 guardian of Scotland, took small pains to secure his ransom ; 
 — for he was himself next in line of succession. Now, accord- 
 ing to that of Lucan — 
 
 Place thou no faith hi partners of thy rule. 
 
 For power will ever chafe at partnership \ 
 
 In the administration of justice he was not inferior to Eulogy of 
 Thomas Randolph — nay rather, he excelled Randolph in this J ames the 
 very thing; for Thomas found the country in a more peaceful 
 state than did James. James tamed the Wild Scots, even the 
 fiercest of them, and somehow led them to a gentler way of 
 life ; and though some birds, wild by nature, such as cranes and 
 crows, and fowls of this sort, may be tamed, and it may be 
 contended that, a fortiori, men endowed with reason, who are 
 born near the poles, ought to be tameable, yet did he not fear 
 also to execute the penalty of death upon certain of his nobles, 
 such as Murdach duke of Albany with his sons. The earl of 
 Douglas, too, he arrested, and placed in prison. In his time 
 was no noble who dared to raise his sword against another ; to 
 his orders, written or spoken, every man alike yielded obedi- 
 ence. It is told how he said once to the queen that he would 
 leave no man in Scotland save him who was her bed -fellow ; 
 and this can be no otherwise interpreted than that he had in 
 mind to put to death his whole nobility. But indeed, so far 
 as my memory serves me — and the chroniclers have many true 
 stories to tell — he never dreamed of such a thing as this ; for 
 without his nobility he could not have protected the kingdom 
 against his enemies, and many of his nobles too he dearly 
 loved. These are mere inventions of his enemies, manufac- 
 tured to excuse their own villanies. In such wise did he 
 administer justice among his people, that when once the king- 
 was named, they yielded an absolute obedience. For once upon 
 a time when a robber had seized two cows belonging to a widow 
 woman, and she had said that she would tell the king what had 
 been done, and would go to the king, unshod, with her tale, 
 that scoundrel took two horse-shoes, and nailed them to the 
 
 1 Nulla fides regni sociis : omnisque potestas 
 Impatiens consortis erit. — Pharsal, i. 92. 
 
368 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 soles of her feet, and said that she would not, as she said, go 
 unshod ; and to her he said further, 1 Go then to the king, 
 and make choice whether thou shalt first complain of the hurt 
 done to thy body or of the theft of thy cows \ And when she 
 was cured of the wounds in her feet, she went to the king, who 
 was then tarrying at Perth ; and he, when he understood what 
 had happened, made such search that the robber was sent to 
 Perth. And he caused the woman to be clad in a white 
 garment, and then made her fasten those horse-shoes upon the 
 man, and so for two days caused him to be led about in the 
 town, and on the third day he was hanged. 
 
 This man indeed excelled by far in virtue his father, his 
 grandfather, and his great-grandfather, nor will I give preced- 
 ence over the first James to any one of the Stewarts, and there 
 have been of them only six, reckoning the boy who now is king. 
 Many Scots are accustomed, though not openly, to compare 
 the Stewarts to the horses in the district of Mar, which in 
 youth are good, but in their old age bad. It is no hard 
 matter to disprove this vulgar saving about those kings. The 
 second Robert and the third Robert, and likewise the first two 
 Jameses, united the fairest ending with a good beginning ; nor 
 do I reckon the fourth James, as will afterwards appear from 
 a consideration of his acts, to be inferior to the second of that 
 name ; and you shall find many a king, both at home and 
 abroad, who was worse than James the Third. The Stewarts 
 preserved the Scots in all the blessings of peace, and maintained 
 the kingdom that was left to them by the Bruces in undi- 
 minished state. This then let it suffice to have said about 
 James the First. 
 
 CHAP. XV. — Of the fearful but well-deserved punishment that was 
 inflicted upon the parricides of James the First, and of the marriage of 
 the queen his wife frith a man of obscure condition, and the banishment 
 of her new husband. 
 
 An exemplary After the murder of James the First, the nobles of the 
 pardddes" 1 ° f kingdom assembled themselves. They made most diligent 
 search for the earl of Athole, for his nephew, for Robert 
 
CHAP. XV.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 369 
 
 Graham, and for their accomplices ; and when these had been 
 found they were sentenced to death in the royal palace at 
 Edinburgh in manner following : the earl was stripped of every 
 piece of clothing, that alone excepted which covered his private 
 parts ; he was then dragged many times through the city with 
 ropes that now swung him into the air, now permitted him to 
 be trailed along the ground ; a red-hot iron crown was placed 
 upon his head, whereby they would signify the fulfilment of 
 that prediction of the witch that he should one day wear a 
 crown, or, as Monstrelet observes 1 , he was in this way declared 
 to be king among traitors. And on the following day they 
 tied him to a horse's tail, and his fellow they made fast on a 
 board, and so was he dragged by horses from village to village. 
 On the third day they placed him upon a table, and while he 
 was yet living his bowels were taken out and burnt before his 
 face 2 . Now you need not marvel that a man should live after 
 he has been disembowelled, for when any one has suffered a 
 severe internal hurt the surgeon will remove the bowels and 
 replace them all orderly as they were before. Thereafter they 
 took out his heart and flung it into the fire : and last of all 
 was he beheaded, and his body was quartered, and a fourth 
 part was sent to each of the four chiefest cities of the kingdom. 
 
 Robert Stewart, the eaiTs nephew, seeing that he had sinned 
 by instigation of another, suffered a milder punishment. For 
 lie was hung upon a gibbet, and then quartered. Robert Punishment 
 Graham, for he was murderer-in-chief, underwent a fearful Graham"* 
 punishment ; inasmuch as he was placed upon a carriage under 
 a gallows, which was fixed upon the carriage ; and to this 
 gallows they bound that right hand of his which had struck 
 down the king, and so was he drawn throughout the city and 
 
 1 Monstrelet's Chronicles, vol. ii. p. 48, ed. 1845. 
 
 2 I have been assured that this could not have been done while the victim 
 yet lived. But as an example of vitality under torture the reader may be referred 
 to A Calendar of the English Martyrs of the 16th and ijth Centuries compiled 
 by Mr. T. G. Law (London 1876), p. 9, where an eye-witness of the martyrdom of 
 Hugh Green, who suffered at Dorchester in 1642, relates that after ' the butcher 
 had cut his belly on both sides and turned the flap upon his breast . . . 1 Whilst 
 he was thus calling upon Jesus, the butcher did pull a piece of his liver out 
 instead of his heart, and tumbling the entrails out every way to see that his 
 heart was not amongst them, then with his knife he raked in the body of the 
 blessed martyr, who even then called on Jesus.' 
 
 2 A 
 
370 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [hook VI. 
 
 from village to village, and all the while were there three men 
 present to torture him by pricking him with pointed irons 
 made red-hot, and in such fashion that they should not kill 
 him outright, but that his punishment should last the longer. 
 Thereafter he was quartered. Christopher Chawmer and others, 
 who had been party to this wickedness, were put to an igno- 
 minious death. Monstrelet, indeed, reports that some of their 
 innocent kinsfolk were likewise put to death 1 . I confess that 
 these were fearful punishments ; but the crime was of the 
 fearfullest, since these Ynen sinned against the whole kingdom, 
 in slaying him who had been its most worthy head. 
 Graham's paltry There is a story that Robert Graham said by way of excuse 
 for himself that since he had been proscribed by the king and 
 sent into banishment he was no longer the king's subject. It 
 was like that scoundrel, that man of Belial, marked with ever- 
 lasting infamy, to snatch at this paltry exculpation ; for which 
 cause our people have made a rhymed proverb in the language 
 of the common folk : 
 
 ' Robert Gramen 
 tli at slew our Kin^ - , 
 God giff him schamen ' ; 
 
 that is, < they pray God to brand with infamy Robert Graham, 
 because he slew the king> 2 . 
 
 After the death of the king the queen married James 
 Stewart, a young man whose family was of the smaller gentry. 
 Among the Britons it is not held to be improper for queens 
 to enter a second time on the married state, nor is it in point 
 of fact improper ; for, according to the apostle, 'tis better to 
 marry than to burn. But she should have chosen for a hus- 
 band the eldest-born son of one of the chief nobles, or a noble- 
 man of high birth ; and because she did not do this, James the 
 Second, as I have understood, banished the foresaid James 
 from Scotland ; and in doing so he showed his wisdom, for he 
 gave a lesson to those who should come after him to act more 
 Stewart's issue, warily. She bore to this James Stewart, however, three sons, 
 of whom one came to hold the earldom of Athole, though 
 
 The queen 
 
 marries 
 
 Stewart. 
 
 Stewart is 
 banished. 
 
 1 ' Such severe punishments were not remembered to have been ever before 
 inflicted in a Christian country.' — Calendar, u.s. 
 
 2 In the original this is, of course, a Latin translation of the vernacular proverb. 
 
chap, xvi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 371 
 
 shorn of its former state, and another had the earldom of 
 March; the bishopric of Moray was bestowed upon the third, 
 who died even in our own day K 
 
 We will now leave the affairs of Scotland for a time, and 
 turn our pen to deal with Henry the Sixth of England. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. — Of the deeds of Henry the Sixth of England, and 
 the death at Orleans of Thomas Montacute. Of the French maid; 
 Philip of Burgundy ; the ignoble marriage of the queen of England; 
 the unhappy marriage of Henry with the Lotharingian. Of various 
 rebelliojis of the English nobles against the Jang. 
 
 Henry the Fifth had invaded a great part of France. To The things that 
 him succeeded, as we have said above, his son, Henry the days o^Henry 1 e 
 Sixth, when he was still less than a year old ; and his uncles, the Sixth - 
 the dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, governed the kingdom 
 during his minority. Bedford was made regent of France, 
 Gloucester regent of England. It was in the fourth year, 
 after the battle of Verneuil \ that Bedford came to England 
 and knighted Henry the Sixth at Leicester ; and soon there- 
 after Henry, now that he was himself a knight, made knights 
 likewise of those whose names follow: Richard duke of York, Names of those 
 the eldest son and heir of Norfolk, the earl of Oxford, the ^ c ° e ^ e made 
 earl of Westmorland, the eldest son of Northumberland, the knights, 
 eldest son of Ormond, the lord Roos, James Butler, the lord 
 Maltravers, Henry Gray of Tankerville, William Nevyll, the 
 lord Falconbridge, George Nevyll, the lord Wellys, the lord 
 of Berkley, the eldest son of Talbot, Rodolph Gray of Werk, 
 Robert Weir, Richard Gray, Edmund Hungerford, John 
 Butler, Ronald Cobham, John Passheley, Thomas Tunstall, 
 John Chydiok, Rodolph Langeforde, William Drury, William 
 Thomas, Richard Carbonell, Richard Wydewyle, John Schrede- 
 lowe, William Chayne, William Badyngton, John June, Gil- 
 bert Beauchamp. 
 
 It was in this year that Thomas Montacute, earl of Salisbury, Thomas Mon- 
 laid siege to Orleans, and during the siege he lost his life by a ^ cut u-l OS u S h,s 
 
 ° ' & " - 7 life while be- 
 sieging Orleans. 
 
 1 Alexander Stewart, bishop of Moray, died in 1501. Keith's Scottish Bishops, 
 ed. 1824, p. 146. 
 
 2 The battle of Verneuil was fought in August 1424. 
 
•372 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [hook VI. 
 
 A Briton's 
 crime. 
 
 Henry the 
 Sixth is crowned 
 at London and 
 Paris. 
 
 Punishment 
 inflicted on the 
 maid of France. 
 
 Philip of 
 Burgundy lays 
 siege to Calais. 
 
 The queen 
 marries a plain 
 gentleman. 
 
 The queen's 
 issue by this 
 gentleman.. 
 
 ean non-ball. The English made small way in France after 
 his death. In the same year a certain Briton, who had been 
 brought up by a widow woman for the love of God, killed that 
 widow, and after lie had robbed her took refuge in a church ; 
 and when he had been signed with the sign of the cross he 
 took a vow to go to Jerusalem, but as he approached the place 
 where he had killed the widow he was stoned to death by the 
 women of the place. I will here add that this thankless wretch 
 deserved his punishment, and even a heavier punishment than 
 this K 
 
 Henry was crowned at London in the seventh year of his 
 age, and at his coronation he made knights to the number of 
 seven-and-thirty. Thereafter he passed into France, and on 
 the sixth of December of the same year was crowned king at 
 Paris in the church of Our Lady. In the same year the maid 
 of France, who had helped to drive the English out of France, 
 was burnt at Rouen ; and in the following Februarv Henry 
 the Sixth returned into England. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and thirty-four the duke of 
 Burgundy laid siege to Calais ; but when he learned that the 
 duke of Gloucester's army had set out from England he raised 
 the siege. In this year died Katherine, the king's mother, who 
 was wife to Henry the Fifth and daughter to Charles the Sixth 
 of France. After her husband's death she had made a secret 
 marriage, of which no one knew, with Owen, a gentleman 2 of 
 Wales. The Britons call by the name of 'armiger' those who 
 stand next below knights in rank. This man was of the lowest 
 sort of gentry, and to him she bore three sons and a daughter. 
 He was imprisoned in London by the duke of Gloucester for 
 having led the queen to marry him, as happened in the similar 
 case of her who was wife to James the First of Scotland and 
 queen of Scotland, as I have made mention above. 
 
 Of the sons one became earl of Richmond, another earl of 
 Pembroke, and the third became a monk. Bear the eldest son 
 in remembrance in connection with the kings of England, for, 
 when I come to speak of these, I follow as far as I can the 
 English chroniclers. 
 
 1 The story is taken from Caxton (fol. clii. ) verso. 
 
 - armiger. 
 
( hap. xvi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 373 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and forty-seven Eleanor The duchess 1 of 
 duchess of Gloucester, for having taken part in a conspiracy, banished, 
 was banished to the Isle of Man, and was placed in charge of 
 Thomas Stanley, knight. About this time there were many Heretics in 
 
 • t» Ti i 3 i • i England. 
 
 heretics in England, and when they persisted in this way they 
 were burnt. In this year was the earl of Stafford advanced to 
 be duke of Buckingham. In this year too did Henry the Sixth 
 take to wife Margaret, daughter of the duke of Lorraine 2 . He Henry the 
 
 i i i i p • Lii'i j? Sixth marries 
 
 had formerly made promise oi marriage to the sister oi her of Lorraine. 
 
 Armagnac, and that he failed to keep his word is put forth by 
 
 the English chroniclers as the reason that the English lost all 
 
 the possessions that they held in France. Henry the Sixth was 
 
 deposed, and the queen, with her son, took refuge in Scotland, Lotharin^Ln 
 
 and from Scotland passed into Lorraine, whence she had come, princess. & 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and forty-seven 3 a parliament 
 was held at Bury St. Edmunds, and a short time thereafter the A historical 
 duke of Gloucester was arrested by the viscount Belmont, ^^p* 1011, 
 constable of England, and in his company were the duke of 
 Buckingham and various others. On the following day the 
 duke of Gloucester was found dead. Whether he had died of 
 grief, or by the wicked plot of other men, is not clear. He was 
 a very learned man, and a sensible man too, nor had he at any 
 time sinned against his king or country ; but through the 
 jealousy of some of the nobility he lost his life ; and the 
 English earls grievously felt his loss. He is no good man who 
 can view with equanimity the death of an innocent man who 
 has deserved well of his country 4 . 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and forty-eight 5 , in the time 
 of king Henry, Francis of Arragon, who had embraced the Arragon 
 English cause, took Fougeres 6 in Normandy, while there was a s" c e ™JJ s t ]J° 
 
 — English. 
 
 1 dux. 
 
 - Not duke of Lorraine, but earl of Provence, duke of Anjou and Maine, 
 and king (in title only) of Naples and Jerusalem. See Powell and Mackay's 
 History of England, Part I. p. 320. Even Caxton has nothing to say about a 
 duke of Lorraine. 
 
 3 Orig. and F. 1 vigesimo sexto '. The true date is 1447. 
 
 4 It is worth while to draw attention to the discrepancy between Major's 
 estimate of Gloucester's character and that of our most competent modern his- 
 torians. Cf. Mr. S. R. Gardiner's Student's History of England, vol. i. p. 317. 
 
 5 Orig. and F. 'Anno 1427 '. 6 Orig. and F. ' Fogiesium ' ; Caxton ' Fogyers '. 
 
874 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 The duke of 
 Suffolk is 
 set free. 
 
 Revolt of the 
 men of Kent. 
 
 The treasurer 
 is taken. 
 
 truce of arms between the French and English: Which deed 
 was the beginning of a mighty loss ; for that was the occasion 
 of the loss of all Normandy by the English. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and forty-eight \ in Henry's 
 reign, did the duke of Somerset and the earl of Shrewsbury 
 altogether abandon Rouen and Normandy ; and inasmuch as 
 the duke of Suffolk was reckoned to be the cause of this action 
 of theirs, he was kept prisoner in the tower of London ; and 
 when he had been there for one month he was set at liberty. 
 There was a mighty stir among the people at this and also at 
 the death of the duke of Gloucester. A parliament, however, 
 was continued to be held in the presence of the king, but the 
 place of its meeting was changed to Leicester, and the duke of 
 Suffolk was present at this parliament. The commonalty, how- 
 ever, did not cease from their murmurs and their complaints 
 against the duke of Suffolk, the lord Saye, and the bishop of 
 Salisbury ; and to appease the people a decree of banishment 
 for a period was passed against Suffolk ; but while he was on 
 board ship lie was taken prisoner by some one and killed. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and fifty, the same when the 
 jubilee was held at Rome, the people of Kent rose against the 
 king, and, as they were drawing near to London, routed the 
 king's army which had been sent out to meet them. And 
 when the servants of noble families — for these men belong to 
 the common people — saw this, they too rose in rebellion, and 
 demanded that those who were traitors to the kingdom should 
 be slain, otherwise they too would join the Kentish mob in 
 their rising. They made petition too for sentence of death 
 upon the lord Saye, treasurer of England, the bishop of 
 Salisbury, and the baron of Dudley 2 ; wherefore was the lord 
 Saye arrested and carried to the tower of London, in hopes to 
 appease the people. When the king's army had been defeated, 
 the mob, under its Irish leader 3 , made for London, and there, 
 on the third day of July, did that same Irishman 4 , in his own 
 name and the king's make proclamation of many things, and 
 
 Orig. and F. ' Anno 1428 '. The true date is 1448. 
 Orig. and F. ' Doubly ' ; in Caxton ' Dudby '. 
 Orig. and F. ' Henricus ', but read ' Hibernicus '. 
 
 i.e. Jack Cade. 
 
( hap. xvi.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 375 
 
 this amongst the rest, that under pain of death no man 
 should take for himself meat or drink or aught else without 
 he paid for it 1 . Afterward they marched to the tower of 
 London and demanded that the lord Saje should be handed 
 over to them ; and when this was done, and when he had been 
 brought to trial before the mayor of the city and the leader of 
 the common people, he refused to acknowledge their right to 
 sit in judgment upon him, and declared that it was his due 
 to be judged by his peers and the nobility, and not by the 
 common people. And when the people heard these words, 
 their rage had no bounds, and without further inquiry they 
 ordered him to make his last confession, and before he got half 
 way through they cut off his head. He is beheaded. 
 
 Hereafter did that Irish leader of the common people begin The evil deeds 
 to rob many wealthy merchants of London of their goods ; and ° ie n 
 for this the sensible men amongst the common people held him in 
 detestation, and the chief citizens, along with the lord Scales, Rioting 
 captain of the Tower of London, gathered together a large 
 number of the men of London, and went out against the Irish- 
 man and the rabble, who made a stubborn resistance. Round 
 about London Bridge the fighting went on all night long, the 
 rabble fighting outside the city, the London men within. 
 And when the chancellor of England, who was a man of sense, 
 saw how matters went, he sent to the Irish captain of the rabble 
 and promised him for him and Iris a general pardon for all that 
 he had done in the past ; and forthwith the rabble dispersed, 
 and every man returned to his own house. Proclamation was 
 made a short while afterward that whoever should take that 
 captain, John Cade the Irishman, living or dead, should be 
 rewarded with one thousand pounds of sterling money. And 
 without delay he was taken, and others along with him who The irishman 
 had taken part in that conspiracy. 
 
 And here I may say that there is nothing more unprofitable 
 than a rebellion of the common people and government at 
 
 1 Caxton's account (fol. clvii.) is as follows : ' And as it was sayd they founde 
 him wytty in his talkyng and in his request, . . . and there dyd make cryes in 
 the kynges name and in his name, that no man sholde robbe, ne take no maner 
 of goodes but yf he payed for it.' 
 
376 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 their hands 1 ; for they make a general unreasoning overturn of 
 everything: when they have to pass judgment or sentence upon 
 men, 'tis without discrimination that they do so. As well in 
 fact be governed by brute beasts as by them ; and, to say 
 truly, they are but a beast with many heads. And this is 
 plain enough from a consideration of that thrice-damnable 
 rabble 2 which, when John the French king was a prisoner, 
 violated many noble women of France — whom afterward they 
 murdered 3 . There is nothing for it but the sword when the 
 common people rise in wanton insolence against the state ; 
 otherwise they will confound in one common ruin themselves 
 and all else. For which reason Henry the Sixth went into 
 Kent, and at Canterbury did justice upon this pestiferous 
 people. After that he went into Sussex, and executed like 
 
 1 Cf. Major's opinion in his Exposition of St. Matthew ( 1518) fol. xiv. recto 1 : 
 1 Taking the word " nobility " or " nobles " in its vulgar acceptation, the common 
 mass of nobles is to be preferred to the common mass of persons that are ignobly 
 born. I mean to say, those that are of noble birth are for the most part wiser and 
 better than those of ignoble birth. Well-born men have a certain care for the 
 education in right manners of their children ; with the others this is not so. For 
 this cause I prefer an aristocratic to a democratic polity. If the Roman 
 patricians had ruled the republic and the common people had devoted them- 
 selves to their crafts, the republic in my opinion would have flourished better. 
 Whence I am wont to say (though I be myself ignobly born) that I prefer that 
 men of noble birth, and not men of ignoble birth, should govern.' 
 
 2 Cf. Knox's phrase ' the rascal multitude 
 
 3 The reference is to the peasants' rising, known as the Jacquerie, during the 
 two years' truce (1357-1359) when John the Second was a prisoner in England. 
 As Major quotes Robert Gaguin so freely throughout this book there is no doubt 
 that he had in his mind the terrible description of that historian : ' Insurrexit per 
 idem tempus in beluacensium territorio agricolarum insolens turba quae ex vicis 
 in nobilitatem duce guillermo calleto irrumpens caedem multam facit, com- 
 pendiumque usque atque siluanectum et suessionem grassata : arces complures 
 spoliauit deiecitque. Erat huic hominum pesti in nobilitatem praecipua con- 
 spiratio et execrabilis saevitia. Cuius ne per eius singula flagitia circumferar, 
 duo tamen praecipua immanitatis crimina memorabo. Inter plurimas caedes 
 haec debacchantium furia castellum quoddam irrumpens loci dominum cum palo 
 alligassent ; eius uxorem filiamque in conspectu mariti stuprauerunt ; stupratas 
 necauerunt viro mox crudeliter interempto. Alteram praeterea auratum equitem 
 a se trucidatum et vera transfixum igni assuauerunt (?) spectante equitis uxore, 
 quam a duodecim stupratoribus violatam impulerunt de mariti carne vesci, 
 miseram paulo post mulierem morte afheientes. Sunt qui memoriae prodideruni 
 hos grassatores regem sibi instituisse iaqueum quemdam bellouacum, a quo ipsi 
 se iaquas volunt appellari.' — Compendium, etc. lib. ix. fol. cliv. ed. 151 1. 
 
chap, xvil] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 377 
 
 judgment there. I have nothing but approval for the zeal for 
 justice of this king, as he showed the same in curbing this 
 unruly rabble and severely punishing them for their evil deeds, 
 to the end that there should be less likelihood in time to come 
 of such frivolous insurrections ; for facile pardon gives not 
 seldom the occasion to offend. 
 
 In the thirtieth year of Henry's reign the duke of York, Rising of the 
 the earl of Devonshire, and the lord Cobham came from the 
 Welsh marches, desiring to approach the king in hope of get- 
 ting amendment of certain wrongs, and also to have justice 
 upon certain lords that were about the king ; and they took 
 the field at Brentheath ^near to Deptford in Kent. And when 
 Henry knew of this, he gathered a large army wherewith to 
 oppose them. Among the number were some prelates, who 
 made an attempt at mediation, seeking to persuade the king- 
 to put the duke of Somerset in prison, until he should answer 
 certain of the charges brought against him by York, urging 
 that when this had been done, the duke of York would disband 
 his army and seek audience of the king. And to this the The duke of 
 king assented ; and York disbanded his army forthwith, and by^stratagem. 
 went to the king. Thereupon the king and Somerset made 
 him prisoner, and made as if they would take him captive to 
 London ; and this they would have done had not a rumour got 
 abroad of the arrival of the earl of March, son of York, with a 
 great army ; wherefore York was set at liberty, and allowed 
 to go whither he would. 
 
 CHAP. XVIL— Of the birth of Edward of England and the rebel- 
 lion of the duke of York. Of the various fortune of King Henry. Of 
 York' s ambition of the crown; and of the various chances of the war. 
 and attempts of the nobles. 
 
 Ix the year fourteen hundred and fifty-three queen Margaret Birth of 
 gave birth to Edward heir of England 2 . But inasmuch as Edward - 
 Somerset ruled both king and kingdom at his will, many among 
 the nobles were filled with anger against the king, and most of 
 all the duke of York, the earl of Warwick, with others many ; 
 
 1 Orig. 'Breuth'; F. ' Brentheth i.e. Blackheath. 
 
 2 Anglioe haeredem. 
 
378 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 and when he had gathered a large force of soldiers he hastened 
 to the king, meaning to remove from him Somerset and his 
 other favourites. And when the king learned of their approach 
 he left London and made for the western parts of the king- 
 dom ; and he had with him Somerset, the duke of Buckingham, 
 the earls of Strafford and Northumberland, the lord of Clifford, 
 and many more. When York was aware of the road that the 
 king took, he turned that way against him, and met him at St. 
 Albans on the twenty-third day of May. There was fought a 
 battle in which York was the conqueror ; Somerset as well as 
 Northumberland, Clifford, and many more of the king's side, 
 lost their lives. 
 
 When they had put the king's army to the rout at St. 
 Albans, they carried the king to London, and there summoned 
 a parliament, in the which York was declared protector of 
 England, Warwick was made captain of Calais, and Salisbury 
 chancellor of England, and some of the king's favourites were 
 driven from court. It was in this year that some turbulent 
 persons rose against the Lombards sojourning in London ; and 
 of these the duke of Buckingham and the nobles put three to 
 death ; but after they had thus dealt justice upon these men, 
 they were not able to make a stand by reason of the insolence 
 of the common sort, for many armed themselves secretly in 
 their houses. When the unruly rabble of great cities rises in 
 rebellion, it is to be with all care put down ; and the leaders 
 of the revolt should be chastised with utmost rigour, to the 
 end the rest should take a lesson by them and fear. Act 
 otherwise, and you shall let loose upon the state a very pesti- 
 lence of riot. In the days of Charles the Sixth you will find 
 a rising of the Capitiati 1 at Paris and in Flanders. In regard 
 
 1 1 Hoc tempore Caroli sexti apud Parrhisios et in Flandria Capitiatos per 
 seditionem invenies.' This refers, as to Flanders, to the defeat of Philip van 
 Arteveldt by Charles the Sixth in 1382. But the name 'Capitiati' which 
 Major gives to the insurgents, both of Paris and Flanders, seems to have a more 
 special history. In the reign of Charles the P'ifth of France (1364-1380) we 
 read in Gaguin ( Compendium, etc., fol. clii.) of a rising of the Parisians in which 
 the citizens wore as a ' signum civilis concordiae ' a ' capuciola rubri blauiique 
 colons ' — a little hood red and blue. Ducange has under capuciati ' factiosorum 
 hominum cohors in Arvernia exorta ann. 1 183 ' and also the Wicliffites, known as 
 Hooded Men — ' quod velato capite ad sacramenti participationem accederent '. 
 
< hap. xvn.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 379 
 
 to this matter I hold Henry the Eighth worthy of praise, when Treatment of 
 in the year that is just past he put down with utmost severity Henry the by 
 a rising against the Lombards and foreign merchants on the Eighth, 
 part of the Londoners ; for of these Londoners he took fifteen, 
 and hanged them upon gallows that he put up in front of their 
 own houses 1 . In this year did Peter Brise 2 , seneschal of Nor- Brise. 
 mandv, and those that were with him, take Sandwich, a town 
 of England, and when taken they plundered it, and carried 
 away captive its inhabitants. In this year too was Reginald 3 Heresy of 
 Pecock, bishop of Chester, accused of heresy, and many of his bishop^' * 
 books were burnt. A little while after this the lord Audley 
 attacked the earl of Salisbury near to Bloreheath 4 ; but Audley Death of 
 was slain and many that were along with him. Audley. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and sixty-three the duke of York's rebel- 
 York, and Warwick and Salisbury, were filled with discontent llon ' 
 at the manner of the government of the kingdom : for this 
 reason, that all was done at the nod of the queen, and that the 
 nobility were not summoned together ; a report even was 
 noised far and wide that she had it in her mind to put them 
 to death. And that they might mend this state, these nobles 
 gathered a great army in the western part of England ; and 
 Warwick summoned many of the men of Calais to take part in 
 the conflict. The king, on the other side, gathered likewise a 
 great army, and drew near to the enemy; and just at that 
 moment when it seemed that the battle would begin, Andrew 
 Trollop led off the men of Calais, and joined himself to the 
 king. When York saw this, he directed his course through York declines 
 
 . . battle. 
 
 Wales, and went over to the island of Ireland, leaving behind 
 him the earl of March, who was his son and heir, and other 
 two earls ; but these likewise soon left the field of battle, and 
 betook them to Calais, into the fortress of which town they 
 were received by a postern. Now the king created the duke 
 
 1 See Lord Herbert of Cherbury's King Henry the Eighth, fol. 1672, p. 67 
 (about July 1 5 17) : 1 Some Citizens and Apprentices of London of the poorer sort, 
 being offended that all their chief Customers were won from them by the Diligence 
 and Industry of Strangers, and (for the rest) pretending to have received from 
 them divers Contempts, Affronts, and Injuries, found some Occasions, and took 
 others, to make an insurrection against them.' 
 
 2 i.e. Peter de Breze. :! Orig. and F. 1 Reynoldus '. 
 4 Orig. ' Bkercheth ' ; Caxton ' Bloreheth '. 
 
380 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vi. 
 
 Somerset, who 
 was already 
 reported dead, 
 is made captain 
 of Dover. 
 
 A fierce battle. 
 The king is 
 worsted. 
 
 He is carried 
 a prisoner to 
 London. 
 
 York claims the 
 crown. 
 
 He is declared 
 governor of the 
 kingdom and 
 heir to the 
 crown. 
 
 York is slain. 
 
 of Somerset captain of Calais 1 ; but when the duke came to 
 Calais he found it already in the hands of the three earls ; 
 wherefore he turned aside to the fortress of Guisnes, which is 
 held by the English in Picardy. To these men there came daily 
 out of England more and more. Warwick borrowed a large 
 sum of money from the merchants of Etaples, and passed into 
 Ireland, for he wished to take counsel with York. Afterward 
 he returned to Calais, and thence by way of Dover all three 
 earls with a large force landed in England. They drew near 
 to London, where they were joined by a large part of the 
 population ; for the common people are only too ready to 
 follow at their own costs men that are of noble birth when 
 these go to war. Everywhere they caused a report to be spread 
 that they meant no harm to the royal majesty, but had it in 
 view only to remove evil counsellors from the king, and were 
 thus taking the best course for the welfare of the state. With a 
 large force therefore they made for Northampton, where the king 
 was then dwelling ; and there a fierce battle took place, wherein 
 the king was worsted. There fell on the king's side the duke 
 of Buckingham, the earl of Shrewsbury, the viscount of Beau- 
 mont, the lord Egremont, and many more. The king was 
 carried prisoner to London, and a full parliament of the lords 
 was soon summoned. Meanwhile York was returned from Ire- 
 land. He made claim to the crown of England, to which he 
 asserted that his title was just. But the matter was on this 
 wise settled : that for his life Henry should be king, but that 
 York with his issue should succeed to him, and in the mean- 
 while should be protector and regent of the kingdom ; and if 
 from this pact the king should depart, he should be deposed, 
 and York should take his place. 
 
 But to the ordinance of this parliament the queen and her 
 son Edward yielded no obedience, and they continued in the 
 northern parts. Against them marched York, and in his 
 company were the earl of Salisbury, Thomas Neville his 
 son, and many more. The friends of the queen made a 
 stand against them, and a battle was fought at Wakefield 
 in Christmas week. In that battle the duke of York 
 
 1 ' ductor Itiorum '. See ante, p. 5. 
 
( hap. xviii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 381 
 
 was slain, and likewise the earl of Rutland and Thomas 
 
 Neville ; and the earl of Salisbury was taken. The earl of 
 
 March, who was son to York, forthwith gathered an army, and 
 
 on the feast of the Purification he gained a victory over the The victory 
 
 other side at Mortimer. And following thereon, the queen, fon? Cd by 13 
 
 and those that had stood by her, made for the southern part of 
 
 the kingdom. And the duke of Norfolk, Warwick, and many 
 
 others went forth against her near St. Albans ; and along with 
 
 them they carried king Henry. And there a battle was fought Warwickhaving 
 
 in which Warwick was worsted ; and the queen and her son {^st^heking? 
 
 Edward set Henry his prisoner at liberty. After this, the whom he had 
 
 ^ # _ J 7 taken prisoner. 
 
 duchess of 1 ork, who was in London, sent her sons George 
 
 and Richard beyond sea. Thereafter did Warwick and the Edward earl 
 
 earl of March gather a large army out of Wales, and they °reated C king 
 
 made for London: and they created Edward earl of March, and gains a 
 
 . . battle, 
 
 who was heir to Richard duke of York, to be king, in the 
 
 fourteen hundred and fifty-ninth year of our Lord ; and the 
 
 whole people followed him. He afterward sought out Henry 
 
 in the northern parts, and gave him battle at Towton, not far 
 
 from York, and put to rout thirty thousand of the enemy, and 
 
 came off victor. In this conflict there fell on Henry's side the Those who were 
 
 earl of Northumberland, the lord of Clifford, John Neville, gjjj™ that 
 
 brother to the earl of Westmorland, Andrew Trollop, and 
 
 many more. Henry, his queen, and their followers, fled into 
 
 Scotland. Here then we will leave the sixth Henry, his kingdom Flight of Henry 
 
 lost, and turn once more to the affairs of Scotland. into Scotland - 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. — Of the marriage of James the Scot, the Second, 
 who was called Red Face ; of the struggle for power with the Douglases ; 
 and, in connection therewith, of the danger to the state which comes from 
 the exaltation of powerful lords. Of the reign of this same James the 
 Second, his issue, his death, and his praise. 
 
 After the murder of James the First, James the Second, or James the 
 James of the Fiery Face, son to James the First, was created ?Bu°rm F*™f 
 to be king \ He came by the name of Fiery Face because he 
 had on one cheek a broad red mole. When he was come to 
 
 1 in regem creatus est. 
 
382 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vr. 
 
 He marries 
 a wife of 
 Guelders. 
 He seizes 
 certain lords 
 and condemns 
 them to death. 
 
 The castle of 
 Edinburgh is 
 
 besieged. 
 
 The power of 
 the Douglases 
 draws suspicion 
 upon them. 
 
 Douglas is 
 slain. 
 
 Acts of treason 
 by Douglas's 
 brothers in 
 Scotland. 
 
 man's estate, he was strong and valiant ; and he took to wife a 
 daughter of the duke of Guelders. He laid hands on William 
 earl Douglas, and David his brother, along with Malcolm 
 Fleming, lord Cumbernauld, in the castle of Edinburgh ; and 
 on the highest point of that castle 1 he caused them to be 
 beheaded. I have read in the chronicles that those men were not 
 guilty, and that this deed was perpetrated at the instigation 
 or by the craft of William Crichton, chancellor of Scotland. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and forty-five James the 
 Second laid siege to Edinburgh castle. William Crichton was 
 its keeper at that time. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and fifty, that is, in the year 
 of jubilee, William earl Douglas went abroad to Rome, with 
 a large number of noble lords. 
 
 In the year of our Lord fourteen hundred and fifty-one, on 
 Quinquagesima 2 , James the Second sent for earl Douglas. And 
 the earl went to the king, who was then dwelling at Stirling. 
 The king called him to a private audience, and proposed to 
 him that lie should abandon the league and party which he 
 had made with the earl of Craufurd. A rumour went abroad 
 among many that Douglas was aiming to usurp the royal 
 crown ; for he had two brothers that were earls, Archibald, to 
 wit, earl of Moray, and Hugh Ormond ; and besides, the earl 
 of Angus bore the same surname and was his kinsman, and the 
 earl of Morton likewise ; and other powerful men there were of 
 the same name ; and he had made a wide-spreading league 
 with other lords. The king feared therefore for himself and 
 his kingdom, seeing what was the wealth of the Douglases and 
 their following, and that these earls were men of a high spirit and 
 ambitious, and warriors from their youth up. It is reported 
 that the earl made ill-considered answer to the king, and, that 
 I may end the story without more words, he was slain by the 
 king and those that were about him. 
 
 After the assassination of the earl, his brothers behaved 
 with so great insolence to all the king's men, that wayfaring 
 men might reasonably doubt whether it were not better to 
 
 1 ' in ejusdem arcis monte : 
 quam eductus '. 
 
 Buchanan, lib. xi. 17, 
 - ' in carnisprivio ' 
 
 in aream arci propin- 
 See ante, p. 231. 
 
chap, xviii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 383 
 
 call themselves Douglas's men than king's men. The town of 
 
 Stirling was burnt down by the lord Hamilton, one of the 
 
 most obstinate adherents of the Douglases. But by the 
 
 wise measures of James Kennedy, archbishop of St. Andrews, The king is 
 
 who was cousin to the king, the king was victorious, and the wh^Douglas 
 
 rest were either put to death or banished. For Scotland, as was so dan " 
 
 1 , gerous to 
 
 I see, the earl of Douglas was too powerful : he had thirty or the king, 
 forty thousand fighting men ever ready to answer to his call. 
 The kings of Scotland found their occupation in the chase and 
 in the administration of justice; and earl Douglas had time 
 for the things of war ; and for this reason a swarm of men ever 
 ready for a fray attached themselves to him. Whence there 
 was every reason why James the Second should fear him. It 
 is related by many that from the beginning of his reign James 
 the Second felt the burden of the Douglas power so strongly 
 that he had it in mind to desert his kingdom of Scotland ; 
 but by the wise counsel of James Kennedy and the active help 
 of this prelate he was enabled to form a loftier purpose. 
 Kennedy so carried things that the earl of Angus, a Douglas 
 by name, and his brother on the mother's side, and most of 
 the other brothers of earl Douglas, were brought over to the 
 side of the king. 
 
 I often say to my own countrymen that there is naught The dangers 
 more perilous than unduly to exalt great houses 1 , and most exaltation^ 6 
 of all if their territory happen to lie in the extremities of § reat families, 
 the kingdom, and the men themselves are high-spirited ; 
 for these Borderers are constantly practised in active exer- 
 cises, and the life of a soldier is natural to them, and so 
 they come to place their hope in arms, and judge that thev 
 shall be able to find a means of escape from their enemies 
 in time of need. For seventy years you may find a 
 practical example of just this state in Scotland. The thing- 
 is plain from the case of that earl of March, whose name was 
 Dunbar, and who, when he was warden of the eastern marches, 
 and wished to avenge himself for a small injury done to him 
 by Robert the Third, went over to the English 2 ; and Edward 
 the Second, when he had been put to flight by Robert Bruce, 
 
 1 Cf. ante, p. 188, on the family of Camming. 
 
 - See ante, p. 310. 
 
384 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [rook vi. 
 
 was received, so they say, into the castle of Dunbar by another, 
 his predecessor ; and for this cause he lost his earldom, as we 
 have told in the life of James the First. The same thing, 
 again, is plain from that of the earl of Douglas, who was 
 warden of the two other marches. In my own day 1 did James 
 the Third deprive the earl of the Isles and Ross of his territory, 
 for his scorn of the king. Not more than four years from this 
 present writing, we saw the lord Hume for a like cause lose both 
 his property and his life 2 . So long too as the dukes of Normandy 
 and Brittany and other very powerful families had their seats 
 within the circumference of France, the empire of the French 
 underwent but very small extension, and was far from peaceful. 
 And though those dukes in France were possessed of larger 
 revenues than are enjoyed by powerful earls in England or 
 Scotland, yet were they not capable of bringing on occasion 
 more warriors into the field ; for the Britons are so kindly 
 affected to their lords that thirty or forty thousand men will 
 follow these at their own charges. But why wonder that they 
 should thus expend their money, when they are ready to risk life 
 itself for these men, though many among them never received, 
 whether from these lords or from their own parents, so much as 
 a single piece of Tours ; but, led by habit, they walk in the 
 footsteps of those that have gone before them. Now when the 
 captains of the marches are not so powerful, the smaller 
 nobility will not follow them, nor by consequence the common 
 people ; and though one very powerful lord may be better able 
 to withstand an enemy than one of the smaller nobles will do, 
 yet will that greater power of resistance turn in the end to the 
 ruin of their families, while it is profitless to the state. For 
 powerful nobles do not fear to engage in war on their own 
 authority, and a number of lords, when they get the common 
 people to join them, are strong enough, when they think fit to 
 do so, to make stand against the king. 
 
 When James the Second had gathered an army to oppose 
 
 1 i.e. in 1474. 
 
 2 It was on the 16th of October 15 16, according to Crawfurd, Peerage, p. 221, 
 ed. 1716, that the first Lord Hume and his brother William lost their heads. It 
 appears from the statement in the text that Major's History was written leisurely ; 
 for a part of it at least was written in 15 18 (see ante, p. 309), and this part in 1520. 
 
chap, xviii.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 385 
 
 the Douglases, he found that the Douglases took the field with 
 a force no whit inferior to his own, and with this force it was 
 determined by Hamilton and most of the others to make war 
 against the kino;. But the head of the house of Douglas avowed 
 that he had no mind to fight against his rightful king ; and 
 when the leading men of his faction heard this, they besought 
 him that he would at least maintain a force in readiness where- 
 with to oppose the king, until with their own assistance a settled 
 peace might be secured : for, with their army once routed or dis- 
 persed, there could be no thought of peace. And the lord Hamil- 
 ton, more cautious than the rest, parted company thereupon with 
 the Douglas chief, for he felt that he should never afterwards 
 have such an opportunity of playing for the stake of a kingdom. 
 Hamilton, indeed, soon secured not only a peaceful settlement 
 from the king, but won the king's daughter to boot ; and after 
 that the king consented to make peace with the whole house of 
 Douglas. For God willed not that it should come to fighting^ 
 to the end that the Scots should ever enjoy their rightful kings. 
 And though God could have brought this to pass by other 
 means J , yet did He choose this way, and so save the country 
 from civil war. There is not a doubt that if Douglas had 
 consented to Hamilton's proposition, a most fearful war would 
 have ensued, for the Douglases were roused to fury by the slay- 
 ing of their kinsmen, and were driven to desperation ; and, for 
 the rest, they would have been fighting for kingship. Thence- 
 forward, with the Douglases once subdued, James first began 
 in truth to reign, and could impose laws upon his people as he 
 would. He gathered an army, and in the year fourteen j am es, with the 
 hundred and fifty-six invaded England. To him the English Douglases once 
 
 J , ° & subdued, has 
 
 king sent an embassy, which made many promises ; but when freedom to 
 James was returned home and saw no fulfilment of these varfes England, 
 promises, he again gathered a great army, and laid England 
 waste with fire and sword, and then returned unscathed to his 
 own country ; and in time of war he used in the field so great 
 humanity, without distinction of person, that he was not so 
 much feared as revered as a king, and loved as a father. His 
 queen, Mary, bore to James the Second three sons — James, to 
 
 1 Cf. ante, p. 233. 
 
 2 B 
 
386 
 
 JOHN MAJOR S HISTORY 
 
 [hook VI. 
 
 issue of James wit, who succeeded him on the throne; Alexander duke of 
 Albany, and John earl of Mar — and two daughters, of whom 
 the elder, as I have said, became the wife of Hamilton. 
 
 Hereafter did James lay siege to the castle of Roxburgh, 
 which for a long time had been held by the English, in Scot- 
 land ; and he was over-curious in the matter of engines of war. 
 For a wooden ball, which formed the charge of a large engine 
 Death of James of this sort, when it was shot forth, struck the king and killed 
 him, and wounded the earl of Angus — a lesson to future kings 
 that they should not stand too close to instruments of this 
 sort when these are in the act of being discharged. But the 
 besiegers did not suffer themselves to be hindered by the death 
 Roxburgh is of the king, and they took the castle. On the third day then 
 recovered. Q f August, in the nine-and-twentieth year of his life, and of 
 his reign the twenty-fourth, was he killed ; and he received 
 honourable burial in the monastery of the Holy Rood at Edin- 
 burgh ; and at his death there was such sorrow and lamenta- 
 tion of his people as you may see in a private house on the 
 death of a dearly beloved father. 
 Praise of James For vigorous kingship, most writers give the first place to 
 the Second. this monarch, seeing that he gave himself with all zeal to the 
 things of war, and to naught else ; and in time of war he was 
 fellow to every private soldier. I, however, prefer before 
 him his father, the first James, alike for his natural endowment 
 and his fortitude in the field. But in energy of action the 
 second James followed his father closely. Both were alike 
 careless of bodily comfort, while in time of war the second 
 James would ride among his soldiers as one of themselves ; and 
 in food or drink the soldiers would offer him of their own 
 provision. He called on no man to taste before him what he 
 would eat and drink, for he had that trust in his soldiers that 
 not one would try to poison him. And his confidence was 
 justified ; yet in this matter I will not say that I deem him 
 prudent. 
 
chap, xix.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 387 
 
 CHAP. XIX. — Of the coronation of James the Third; of Henry 
 (lie Sixth and the things done by him in Scotland and England. Of the 
 death of the queen of Scotland and her incontinence. Of the capture 
 and the restoration of the duke of Albany. The death of bishop 
 Kennedy and his encomium. 
 
 After the death of James the Second, James the Third, James the Third 
 then a child of seven years, was crowned at Kelso; and there- lscrovvne 
 after the Scots forthwith razed to the ground the castle of 
 Wark in England. In the year fourteen hundred and sixty- 
 one, Henry the Sixth, when he had been defeated by Edward 
 of York, sought a safe-conduct from the Scots for a thousand 
 horsemen ; and when his request was granted, he went to 
 Edinburgh, the royal seat of Scotland \ which is but twenty what Henry 
 leagues distant from England. There he had hospitable recep- j^scoaand* 1 
 tion in the convent of the preaching friars, along with queen 
 Margaret his wife and Edward his first-born son. There were 
 likewise with them Somerset duke of Exeter and Gloucester and 
 many other lords. But the queen, for she was a French woman, The queen of 
 went thence with her son into France. Henry handed over ?*$™*£ turns 
 the town of Berwick to the Scots ; but the Scots made a fifteen 
 years' truce with the new king, Edward, though I know not by 
 what promises Edward bound himself to its observance. For 
 the king was a child, and the whole government of Scotland 
 was then in the hands of James Kennedy, archbishop of St. 
 Andrews. 
 
 After this, and when he was urged thereto by many of the Return of 
 
 English lords, Henry returned into England ; and he suffered JJ e ° g th 1 ^ xth 
 
 defeat at the hands of Edward, and was put in prison. While He i s ta ken. 
 
 this was happening, Peter Brise 2 , who had been sent by the -phe deeds of 
 
 French king to carry succour to Henry, took some of the ? rise ' f nd how ; 
 
 . , i i he was besieged, 
 
 strongholds in the northern parts. But Edward laid siege to 
 
 Alnwick castle, where Brise was, and when he was unable to 
 
 make his escape, he sent to the Scots, praying them to raise 
 
 the siege. George Douglas, earl of Angus and warden of the 
 
 marches, led an army to the English borders ; and of his whole 
 
 force he made choice of thirteen thousand men, the best he 
 
 1 Orig. and F. ' Scotiae reginam ' ; probably a misprint for ' regiam '. The 
 distance from England (twenty leagues) is curious. 
 
 2 i.e. de Breze. 
 
388 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book 
 
 Raising of the 
 siege. 
 
 Death of the 
 queen and her 
 incontinence. 
 
 The duke of 
 Albany is taken, 
 
 He is restored. 
 
 Death of James 
 Kennedy, and 
 his encomium. 
 
 had, and with these lie reached the besieged castle at noon, set 
 the Frenchmen free, and, all in sight of that mighty English 
 army, carried them with him into Scotland. For some of the 
 English had given their counsel in favour of fighting, but to 
 others (and these carried it) it seemed better to let the man 
 depart without striking a blow ; for though he had but a 
 small force, yet were they all picked men. 
 
 In the year fourteen hundred and sixty-three died the queen 
 of Scotland, at Edinburgh ; and she was buried in the college 
 of the Holy Trinity, which herself had founded. After the 
 death of James the Second she had not kept her chastity, but 
 had dealt lewdly with Adam Hepburn, heir to the lord of 
 Hales, who was a married man. Now, I say that this woman 
 was herein exceeding careless, for she should rather have taken 
 a lord who had no wife, or the heir of some lord ; and she thus 
 acted more wickedly than did the wife of James the First. In 
 the same year was Alexander, duke of Albany, and brother to 
 James, taken by the English at sea. I have nowhere found it 
 stated whither our people desired to send this boy ; but James 
 Kennedy obtained his liberty, with his ship and all his goods ; 
 for otherwise he would not have secured the truce that had 
 been made with the English king. 
 
 In the year one thousand four hundred and sixty-six died 
 James Kennedy, and he was buried in that college of St. 
 Salvator at St. Andrews which he himself had reared and 
 richly endowed. I have found among our fellow-countrymen 
 no man who rendered more signal public service 1 than this 
 prelate. It was by the wise measures of his devising and the 
 skill with which he put them in practice that earl Douglas, 
 the most powerful of our Scottish nobles, was brought to 
 naught. In his time, too, the whole kingdom enjoyed tran- 
 quillity ; and the truce with the English king was kept invio- 
 late. Beside St. Andrews he held no benefice — unless it were 
 that of Pittenweem, which amounted to no more than eighty 
 pieces of gold. Yet did he build at his own charges, and 
 richly endow it, a college at St. Andrews. His property he 
 held in that way in which in matters ecclesiastical a bishop 
 may hold property, in regard to which I have spoken more at 
 
 1 prassentatiorem. 
 
CHAP. XX.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 389 
 
 length in my work on the Fourth Book 1 . In addition, he built 
 a huge and very powerful ship, and likewise for himself he 
 prepared a splendid tomb, so that many men are apt to put 
 the question on which of those three things he had spent the 
 most. Two points in this man's conduct I cannot bring my- 
 self to praise : to wit, that along with such a bishopric he 
 should have held a benefice in commendam, even though it was 
 a slender one ; nor do I approve the costliness of his tomb 2 . 
 
 In the year of the Lord fourteen hundred and sixty-nine and 
 on the tenth day of July, James the Third, then aged twenty 
 years, was married at Edinburgh to Margaret, who was then 
 twelve years old, daughter to the king of Norway. The dowry 
 that he got with her was that right which had been claimed by 
 the king of Norway to the Orkney islands, and the rest of the 
 islands adjacent to British Scotland. We will now leave James 
 the Third, and resume the affairs of England. 
 
 CHAP. XX. — Of the character and the death of the duke of Clar- 
 ence and the earl of Warwick. Of the deeds of Edward, Richard, 
 and the Henrys, kings of England, and various occurrences. Of the 
 wickedness o f Richard and his miserable death, and of the marriage of 
 Henry the Eighth and of his sisters. 
 
 Ix the year fourteen hundred and seventy the duke of Flight of the 
 Clarence and the earl of Warwick left England from fear of Qarence and 
 
 1 The reference is to In Quartum, Quest. 21 of Dist. 24, where the Second 
 Conclusion is as follows : ' The beneficiary who possesses a patrimony sufficient 
 for his needs would do well if he were to live upon his patrimony and serve God, 
 and would thus act more meritoriously than if he lived upon his benefice, since 
 he would be giving more to God without return [gratis]. Furthermore, charity 
 ought to move him to succour his poorer brother, and it may be that he is not 
 without sin when he himself holds a benefice, and a poor man, as competent as 
 himself, remains without one.' Qu. 8 of Dist. 38 may also be compared : ' It 
 may be argued in the third place : Bishops own wealth and property, and never- 
 theless they are in a state of perfection, and, from what has been said above, in a 
 higher state than that of religious, wherefore to have wealth does not argue a 
 dangerous state. It is answered : Bishops do not own wealth for themselves ; 
 for they are not lords of that wealth, but are held bound to apply it to pious uses 
 in the manner of abbots.' 
 
 2 The criticism of Buchanan upon this passage (lib. xii. 23)—' Quod tamen ei 
 privatim de pluribus publice de omnibus optime merito malignitas hominum in- 
 vidit '—is perhaps itself more open to the charge of ' malignitas ' in one sense of 
 the word. 
 
 the earl of 
 Warwick. 
 
390 
 
 JOHN MAJORS HISTORY 
 
 [hook VI. 
 
 Charles of 
 Burgundy. 
 
 Birth of Charles 
 the Eighth. 
 
 The duke and 
 the earl return 
 to England. 
 
 Henry the 
 Sixth is 
 restored ,. 
 
 Edward takes 
 refuge with 
 Burgundy. 
 
 His return to 
 England ; he is 
 victorious in 
 battle ; his 
 chief enemies 
 perish. 
 
 king Edward, along with their wives, and landed in Normandy, 
 meaning to dwell there for a time and, as it were, take breath, 
 until they should be in a way to make war against Edward. 
 But when this came to the knowledge of Charles of Burgundy, 
 who had to wife king Edward's sister, he was very wroth, and 
 wrote a letter to the parliament of Paris, wherein he called 
 upon king Lewis to send the Englishmen out of his kingdom 
 and make no delay. And he added this, that if Lewis would 
 not do so, in whatever part of France the Englishmen might be 
 found he would make them his prisoners. But no action was 
 taken in consequence of this threatening letter of Burgundy's. 
 At the same time the queen gave birth on the eleventh day 
 of June, in the castle of Amboise, to him who afterwards be- 
 came Charles the Eighth, and the prince of Wales, that is, the 
 heir of Henry the Sixth, stood sponsor to the infant. 
 
 A short time thereafter the duke of Clarence and the earl of 
 Warwick left France and went into England, and at their very 
 landing they beheaded a certain baron 1 . Thence they made 
 for Bristol, a stately town of England, and were there made 
 welcome. Afterward they made sail for London, and on their 
 way thither they were joined by sixty thousand men ready to 
 help them in what they had in hand. O the marvellous fickle- 
 ness of that race ! They set Henry the Sixth at liberty, taking 
 him from the Tower of London, and restored him to his 
 kingdom, while Warwick took up the reins of government. 
 The same man who drove out Henry, and made Edward king, 
 now recrowns Henry who had been deposed. Of him it was 
 said that he made kings, and at his pleasure cast them down. 
 Edward made his escape to him of Burgundy, who had married 
 Edward's sister. He sought and received succour from him 
 toward the recovery of his kingdom. Once more, therefore, 
 and with a large army, Edward made for England, in the year 
 fourteen hundred and seventy-one ; and many Englishmen 
 gathered round him with what aid they could. Against him 
 
 1 Probably John Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, ' the most learned and best-read 
 noble in England ', and Caxton's chief patron. He was beheaded by Clarence 
 and Warwick, though not ' in primo in terram descensu ', ' because when he was 
 constable under King Edward he had judged men to death by the law of Padua 
 [Roman law] '. — York Powell and Mackay's History of England, pt. I. p. 333. 
 
chap, xx.] OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 391 
 
 then marched Henry the Sixth, his son the prince of Wales, 
 and the earl of Warwick. A fierce battle took place, in which 
 Edward was victorious 1 . In that battle the prince of Wales 
 lost his life ; Henry the Sixth was taken prisoner ; and War- 
 wick the king-maker perished. Whence men may learn that 
 no trust is to be placed in fortune ; for doubtful indeed is 
 the issue of battle, and the sword devours now this man and 
 now that. 
 
 After this the earl of Pembroke and Henry earl of 
 Richmond, landed in Little Britain. In the year fourteen 
 hundred and seventy-five, and on the twenty-ninth day of 
 August, Edward went to France, whither he had been enticed 
 by the promises of help toward the recovery of France that 
 had been made to him by Charles of Burgundy and the count 
 of Saint Paul' 2 , constable of France. But when he came there, 
 these promises were not fulfilled. For which cause did English 
 Edward send a herald to Lewis the eleventh, with this message: 
 that he had certain secrets to disclose to the French king, and 
 to this end sought to come to speech of him. And all this 
 pleased Lew r is mightily. The place chosen for this conference Conference of 
 was Pecquigny in the neighbourhood of Amiens. Lewis had the kings ' 
 meanwhile borrowed from the] people of Paris five-and-seventy 
 thousand pieces of gold, which he promised to repay after the 
 first of November. Thereafter Lewis marched at the head of a 
 vast army to Amiens, and he caused two platforms to be raised 
 upon the bridge of Pecquigny, on the one of which he should 
 himself stand, while Edward should stand upon the other ; and 
 between these was a mutual partition, pierced with wide holes, 
 so that through these holes the kings might have sight and 
 speech one of another. The river Somme, which flows through 
 Amiens, separated the English and French armies. The money The agreements 
 which Lewis had borrowed of the people of Paris was then whi 5 h wel , e 
 
 made at the 
 
 handed to Edward . Whence we may understand that Lewis Conference, 
 had been told by Edward's ambassadors that he would have to 
 
 1 Battle of Barnet, April 14, 1471. 2 St. Pol. 
 
 3 Cf. Gaguin {u. s. fol. cclxxiv) for an example of the use which Major has 
 made of the work of that historian in dealing with French matters throughout 
 Book vi. Even the verbal differences between the two accounts of this meeting 
 are very slight. 
 
392 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 [book VI. 
 
 The duke of 
 Clarence is put 
 to death. 
 
 Death of Henrv 
 the Sixth. 
 
 Edward com- 
 mends his 
 kingdom and 
 his children to 
 his brother 
 Richard. 
 
 Richard's 
 usurpation. 
 
 make payment of this sum. A truce of arms was then made 
 upon this condition, that for five years from that time Lewis 
 should make annual payment to the English king of fifty 
 thousand pieces of gold. This done, Edward withdrew the 
 whole English force to Calais. And while Edward was still at 
 Calais, he received a letter from Lewis constable of Luxem- 
 burg, which taunted him with cowardice in that lie was ready 
 to leave France without striking a blow. Whereat Edward 
 was very wroth, and all unknown to the constable he declared 
 the whole matter to Lewis. 
 
 A short time hereafter the duke of Clarence, Edward's 
 brother, was put to death, in London, because of an attempt 
 which he made to carry succour to his sister, who was wife to 
 Burgundy, against Edward's wish ; or because, as others have 
 it, and with more likelihood, he was ambitious of the English 
 crown ; and it favours this explanation that he had to wife 
 a daughter of Warwick. During Edward's reign Henry the 
 Sixth, who had been crowned at Paris, died in prison. It 
 was said by very many that Richard, duke of Gloucester, 
 brother to Edward, was the author of his death. This 
 same Henry, as the English writers report, was renowned for 
 the many miracles that he performed. His spirit was high, 
 and his disposition was towards clemency, as indeed the times 
 demanded ; but he came by his end through that fickle temper 
 of the English, whose delight it is to get a new king. Three 
 sons and two daughters were born to Edward ; and when he 
 was about to go the way of all flesh he commended his children 
 and his kingdom to his brother Richard, with the prayer that 
 he would place Edward's eldest son upon the throne. After 
 the death of Edward, Richard was declared regent of England, 
 and he began to use every craft to gain the kingdom for him- 
 self. That himself might reign he ordered the three fair sons 
 of Edward to be put to death ; and yet he had no children of 
 his own. O the blind lust of empire ! These nephews of 
 Richard's were in very truth his heirs ; he might have kept 
 them and his kingship both ; but, trampling under foot all con- 
 siderations divine as well as human, he caused those three 1 bright 
 and innocent children of his brother, his own nephews, to be 
 
 I have found no other mention of three children. 
 
CHAP. XX.] 
 
 OF GREATER BRITAIN 
 
 393 
 
 put to death, and after that placed the crown upon his own 
 head ; but not for long did he wear it. A multitude of Eng- 
 lishmen began to call for Henry earl of Richmond, who was at 
 that time an exile in France. Inasmuch as he had been long a Henry earl of 
 dweller in France, Charles the Eighth granted him an aid of ^^nTto* 
 five thousand men (of whom one thousand were Scots, but John, England, 
 son of Robert of Haddington 1 , was chief among them, and leader 
 of the Scots), and he landed in Wales, where his army was 
 forthwith increased greatly, for the English people welcomes 
 ever a change of king. Against king Richard then they made 
 war, and Richard was slain in battle ; and thereafter Richmond Richard is 
 went to London where he was declared king under the style of slain ' 
 Henry the Seventh. His grandmother was that Katherine who Henry the 
 had been wife to Henry the Fifth, and daughter to the king of Seventh - 
 the French. On the mothers side he was brother to king 
 Henry the Sixth 2 ; kut he also entered into union of marriage 
 with the eldest-born daughter of king Edward, who was then 
 heiress to the kingdom, and thus he became indisputably king. 
 The earl of Lincoln revolted against him ; but he prevailed 
 against this and every other rebellion. <This same Henry had 
 dwelt for a long time at Rouen, where in the house of a man 
 named Patrick King, a Scot, he took his daily victuals in 
 penury. And Patrick was moved to compassion for him, and 
 bestowed upon him a large part of his fortune> 3 . 
 
 1 This is probably a mistake either of Major's or of the printer (see ante, p. 320), 
 for ' Coningham '. John de Coningham succeeded his father, Robert de Con- 
 ingham, as captain of the Scottish Archers in 1478, and held that office until 
 1493. See Forbes Leith, Scots Guards in France, vol. ii. p. 56. I have been 
 unable to trace any connection between the Cunningham family and Haddington 
 that might have justified Major in claiming them as fellow-countymen. Drum- 
 mond of Hawthornden says that Bernard Stewart (of Aubigny) was in command 
 of the Scots at Bosworth. — Hist, of the Five Jameses ; p. 106. 
 
 2 It was his father, Edmund Tudor, who was half brother to Henry the Sixth. 
 
 3 ' Hie Henricus fuerat diu Rothomagi, ubi in domo Patricii cognomine Regis 
 Scoti commensalis in tenuitate steterat : cui Patricius commisertus magnam 
 fortunae partem exposuit.' — I have found no record of this incident elsewhere. 
 Major's translation of the surname ' King ' is characteristic of him. A good 
 example of his arbitrary rendering of British proper names into Latin will be 
 found in the case of ' Gravesend', in his Exposition of St. Matthew (fol. lxxviii. 
 verso 2) : ' Via est periculosa inter hierico et hierusalem propter desertum : 
 propterea conuenerunt ut esset cum multitudine, ut in loco periculoso facimus, 
 ut videre est inter Londonias et finem sepulchri, quod grauis end vocant, tran>- 
 eundo per terram.' 
 
394 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY [book vl 
 
 In every action of his life Henry proved himself a most 
 sagacious man ; he showed much wisdom in the suppression of 
 rebellion, and he caused many nobles to be beheaded ; yet w r as 
 lie given too much to avarice, for in all ways he could contrive 
 did he raise vast sums of money from merchants and other 
 wealthy men. He married his eldest son, Arthur, to the 
 Marriage of daughter of Ferdinand, king of Aragon ; and after the death 
 Eighth. the of Arthur he gave her to his second son Henry to wife. For 
 that two brothers should marry, one after the other, the same 
 woman is forbidden by human law alone, and is contrary 
 neither to the law of nature nor to the law of Moses K For 
 rather was it specially enjoined by that law that the next 
 brother should raise up seed to his brother that was dead. 
 Now Arthur had no issue ; but his father had left two 
 daughters, of whom the elder, Margaret, married James the 
 Fourth, king of Scots, and Mary, the younger daughter, was 
 married to Lewis the Twelfth, king of the French ; but, on 
 the deatli of Lewis, she was given in marriage to the duke of 
 Suffolk. 
 
 litis, then, so far ; the rest let others tell, or we in other place. 
 
 EXD OF THE HISTORY. 
 
 1 This is interesting as having been written before the question of the divorce 
 arose. 
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 I. — Population of Medieval Cities.* 
 
 In the number of La Normandie (a monthly journal published at 
 Rouen) for May 1891 there is a paper by M. Raoul Aube, entitled ' La 
 population rouennaise a travers les siecles \ From this special contri- 
 bution to the difficult subject of the population of medieval cities we 
 •rather that the first authentic document on the population of Rouen 
 dates from the year 1274, when a diocesan statistical report, known as 
 ' le Pouille d'Eudes Bigaud which M as published by M. Leopold Delisle 
 in the collection of Historiens des Gaules, places the number of ' parois- 
 siens ' at 7,839. But as the word e paroissien ' (parochinus) does not there 
 denote each several inhabitant, but a head of a household, we have a 
 total population, on the basis of five persons to the family, of 40,000. 
 The Normandie then refers to the startling- computation of the inhabit- 
 ants of Rouen which is to be found in M. L. Puiseux's Siege et prise de 
 Rouen par lev Anglais en 1418 (Caen ; ]867). M. Puiseux estimates the 
 population at that time at no less than 300,000 souls. His argument is 
 ingenious 2 , but his conclusions have not been accepted. M. Puiseux 
 quotes the story of the conversation between the Emperor Charles the 
 Fifth and Francis the First, — when the emperor asked the king which 
 w as the largest town in France and the most populous, and the king 
 answered — 'Rouen'. ( Why not Paris ?' said the emperor. 'Because 
 Paris is not a town, it is a province 3 . ' But the population of Paris even 
 
 1 See ante, p. 22. 
 
 - Siege et Prise, pp. 13- 18. 
 
 :i Yet it was of this same Paris that Charles the Fifth said punningly — and 
 not untruly — that he could put the whole of it into his 'glove' {i.e. Gant 
 or Gand = Ghent). From a reference by Herr Jastrow (Die Volkszahl deutscher 
 Stddte zu Ende des Mittelalters und zu Beginn der Nenzeit, Berlin, 1886, p. 154) 
 I learn that the emperor undertook an exact measurement of several large cities, 
 from which it appeared that Ghent, Paris, Cologne, and Liege had nearly the 
 same circumference, but that Ghent had the largest, — a fact which proves that 
 the spacial extent of a city could be no measure of its comparative population 
 without full knowledge of the manner in which its houses were constructed. 
 Herr Jastrow quotes an ' Atlas des villes de la Belgique an i6 e siecle. Cent 
 plans du geographe Jacques du Deventer executes sur les ordres de Charles- 
 Quint et de Philippe II., reproduits en facsimiles chromogr. par l'lnstitut national 
 de geogr. a Bruxelles. Livre I.' Brussels, 1884, fol. 
 
396 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 in 1520 was probably no more than 230,000; and M. Aube, following 
 M. Henri Martin, estimates the population of Rouen at the time of the 
 English invasion at probably 80,000, at certainly no more than 100,000. 
 From that date to the end of the seventeenth century all estimates of the 
 population of Rouen are approximate only ; but we know that it must 
 have fluctuated largely, and on more than one occasion the city is said to 
 have lost nearly one-third of its inhabitants from the Black Death. 
 One visitation of this plague had taken place in 1512, i.e. within six 
 years of the date of Major's w riting. 
 
 M. Beljame of Paris has kindly informed me that the population of 
 Paris in 1553, calculated on an estimate of the consumption of food in 
 the markets of the city at that date, may be reckoned at 260,000 ; and 
 he does not think that it can have been very different in the first quarter 
 of the century. Major is, I think, rather more doubtful that London 
 was larger than Rouen than that Paris was three times the size of London. 
 But his testimony may be taken on the whole as confirmatory of the 
 general belief, as indicated above, that Paris, in the first quarter of the 
 sixteenth century, had a population of' 230,000, and London and Rouen 
 of about 75,000. 
 
 As to the population of London and of Paris at more recent dates, 
 Uotero, writing about 1500, classes London with Naples 1 , Lisbon, Prague, 
 and Ghent as having about 100,000 inhabitants, while he reckons the. 
 population of Pari- at 400,000. The late Professor Thorold Rogers, how- 
 ever, says in an article on ' The Population of England from 1259 to 
 1793' (Time, N.S. 3 March 1890), that f in 1G31 the entire population 
 of London and South wark, a census being taken by the wards, was only 
 a little over 131,000. Sir Robert Dallington, as quoted by AV^eever 
 (Ancient Funeral Monuments, ed. 1031, p. 350) writes that ' Paris is the 
 greater, the fairer built, and the better scituate : London is the richer, 
 the more populous '. In 1083 we have one estimate of the population 
 of London at 696,000, and another in 1694 at 530,000. 'From about 
 this period London superseded Paris as the largest city in Europe ' (Encyc. 
 Brit. Art. London). The same authority places the population of Paris 
 in 1718 at 509,000. 
 
 The English towns besides London which are mentioned by Major are 
 York, Norwich, Bristol, Coventry, and Lincoln. Professor Thorold 
 Rogers, on an estimate based upon the poll-tax granted by Parliament to 
 the king in 1377, has reached the conclusion that the population of London 
 at that date w as 35,000 ; of York nearly 11,000 ; of Bristol, 9,500 ; of 
 Coventry about 7,000 ; of Lincoln, 5,000. For the population of York, 
 Bristol, Coventry, and Lincoln, at the date of Major's history, it would 
 be difficult to give an approximate estimate ; but, in regard to Norwich, 
 
 1 As to Rome, I am told by Count Ugo Balzani that its population in 1520 
 may be reckoned at 85,000 ; but this number was greatly diminished a few years 
 later in consequence of the siege and sack of the city in 1527. 
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 397 
 
 I have to thank the Reverend Dr. Jessopp for a valuable communication. 
 Dr. Jessopp writes : ' Nothing is more difficult than to arrive at even an 
 approximate estimate of the population of large towns in the prehistoric 
 ages which can at all be relied on. Some years ago, however, I investi- 
 gated the great plague in Norwich in 1579 . . . Here are some rough 
 notes made from a careful examination of the Registers of Burials of 
 twenty-six of the Parishes in Norwich ; and these really embrace the 
 whole city, for I left out only one or two A r ery small parishes, which 1 
 could not conveniently get at: Sum total of deaths in 1579 = 1761 ; 
 average of deaths during three to five previous and succeeding years — 190. 
 Assuming the death-rate to be only ten to the thousand— (it must have 
 been more, but let us take that average inasmuch as we must make some 
 allowance for burials not entered and, I think, some allowance for dis- 
 orderly burials) — the average would give us 19,000 as the outside popula- 
 tion of the city in 1579. The city at the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century was, we know, in a very depressed state . . . My own strong 
 opinion is that Norwich in 1510 could not have had 15,000 inhabitants.' 
 
 It may be of interest to quote Herr Jastrow's estimate of the popula- 
 tion of German towns in the sixteenth century : Niirnberg, 40,000 to 
 50,000 ; Danzig and Augsburg more than 50,000 (Augsburg had at one 
 time reached as high a mark as 00,000) ; Breslau, 40,000 ; Strassburg, 
 30,000; Leipzig, 15,000 ; Berlin, 14,000 ; Brandenburg and Frankfurt, 
 10,000; u.s., pp. 156, 157). 
 
 II. — Passage on ' Nobility/ from the Fourteenth Question of the Twenty- 
 Fourth Distinction of the In Quartum Sententiarum \ 
 
 Second Conclusion : ( eteris paribus, nobles are rather to be dispensed 
 with than men of low birth. Against the second conclusion it is argued 
 thus : No men are noble ; therefore the conclusion presupposes what is 
 false. The consequence is known. And the antecedent is proved by 
 supposing in your mind one proposition, that no man is noble unless both 
 his parents, or one of them, be noble. I speak of nobility vulgarly so 
 called, for it is that which is universally understood. This supposition 
 premised, I argue as follows: — In the case of any noble person as 
 commonly understood, if all his ancestors were noble, and there is no 
 procession in infinitum, Adam and Eve were noble ; but their parents 
 properly speaking were not noble, for they had no parents save God who 
 created them. If you say : it behoves us to reach the first noble, then 
 there is some noble whose father was not noble — contrary to the supposi- 
 tion. In the same manner I can argue that in the case of any given noble 
 nobility will be the mark of all his progeny, supposing that the sons of 
 
 1 See ante, p. 46. 
 
398 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 any noble you will are noble- -always speaking of nobles as commonly 
 understood. And this reasoning is confirmed by the answer of Ulysses to 
 Telamonian Ajax in the thirteenth of the Metamorphoses, where he says: 
 ' Nam genus et proavos et que non fecimus ipsi Yix ea nostra voco.' 
 
 It is answered : Noble [nobilis] is so called from ' nosco ' as it were 
 ( noscibilis ', whether for evil or for good. For of the former use of the 
 word [i.e. for evil] we read in Cicero in the Second Book of the Offices, 
 where he says : ' Testis est Phalaris cuius est preter ceteros nobilitas et 
 crudelitas.' Of the meaning of the word in its good sense it is not 
 needful to bring forward examples. Or ' nobilis ' has its origin (as is pre- 
 ferred by some) from ( notabilis ' by syncope, because a certain thing is 
 marked [notatur] with pre-eminence beyond others. This agrees with 
 the use as to the brutes, and in speaking of other things. For we call 
 falcons and dogs for the chase and swift greyhounds and fertile land 
 ' noble \ About the two first [falcons and dogs] this common use of the 
 word is patent. As to the third, we have that of Virgil : ' Est locus 
 Italie medio sub montibus altis Nobilis.' Secondly, let it be observed 
 that nobility is twofold. There is a certain nobility of the soul ; and 
 that is the virtue by which a man obeys God and reason ; and that 
 alone is, rightly speaking, nobility. And, on the contrary, the vicious 
 are ignoble, even Scripture bearing witness in the second chapter of 
 the First Book of the Kings : ' Qui contemnunt erunt ignobiles. ' 
 Another kind of nobility there is as that appears in the case of him 
 whom we call noble because the common people so call him, though 
 he be not noble in mind. And that man is thus called because his 
 progenitor or he himself has been ennobled, without taking heed of the 
 manner in which this nobility of his had its origin. Very often, however, 
 it is through a man's wealth that he derives his nobility ; whence says 
 Aristotle in the first part of his Rhetoric: ' Nobility is ancient wealth, 
 whether that wealth have been gained by theft or plunder ' ; like as those 
 most powerful emperors of the Assyrians had their origin from that 
 mighty hunter Nimrod who had gained all he held by rapine. For him- 
 self was notable for wickedness ; but noble, as the word is commonly under- 
 stood, up to that time he could scarce have been called. His posterity, 
 however, and ever the more the further they were distant from his original 
 ignobleness, were in common speech called noble. Signally too (on this 
 side of ignobleness), for nothing is more certain than that some who are 
 now shepherds and peasants are descended from kings. Some men have 
 attained to nobility by strenuous faculty in war, others by outstanding 
 corporeal beauty. As Porphyry says of Priam : ' The face of Priam is 
 worthy of empire.' And Saul, who excelled all other men in stature from 
 the shoulders up. Others have become noble from their splendid virtue ; 
 and one part of their immediate issue or of their grandchildren has 
 enjoyed the same nobility, as was the case with David the second king 
 of the Hebrews, who was chosen for king ( de post fetantes and his 
 posterity likewise, for his descendants Hezekiah and Josiah were worthy 
 rivals with him in true nobility of soul. And though some of his descend- 
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES 
 
 399 
 
 ants were evil, yet all were in common speech called noble. -But in what 
 manner the noble condition of this man or of that had its first emergence 
 is uncertain. But such a man ought to think shame to act unworthily, 
 and if the deeds of his ancestors have been praiseworthy, by that fact he 
 ought to be inflamed to virtuous action, as is indeed not seldom the case. 
 Take that of Ovid when he writes : ' Pyrrhus Achilleides animosus 
 imagine patris and Sallust, in his J ugurtha, thus speaks : ' For I have 
 ofttimes heard that Q. Maximus and P. Scipio, illustrious citizens of our 
 own, were wont to say, that when they looked upon the likenesses of their 
 ancestors, they felt the lire of virtue kindle within them ' ; and Baptista 
 likewise in the First Book of Alphonsus. Add this, too, that to hear the 
 praises and noble acts of our fathers moves the soul and stirs up the 
 generous hearts of us their descendants, and carries with it, as it were, a 
 spur, and puts all slothfulness to flight ; and Virgil, in the Twelfth of 
 the Aeneid, brings forward Aeneas as animating his son Ascanius to the 
 exercise of valour by the example of Hector his uncle — 
 
 O thou, my child, do learn, thus I thee pray 
 
 Virtue and very labour to assay 
 
 At me, who am thy father as thou wot. 
 
 Do thou likewise, I pray thee, mine own page, 
 
 As fast as thou shalt come to perfect age, 
 
 Remember this, and revolve in thy mind 
 
 Thy lineage, thy forebears, and thy kind ;' 
 
 Examples of prowess in thee stir friends before, 
 
 Both father Aeneas and thy uncle Hector. 1 
 
 Nay more, by instinct, by nature, good sons are born of good parents, as 
 Aristotle has it in the fourth chapter of the first book of the Politics. 
 For they hold that just as a man is generated of men, and a brute of 
 brutes, so too the good is generated by the good, after that saying : i The 
 sap that flourishes in the leaves comes from the root. ' For all this there 
 is a reason of nature, for sons follow in their bodily constitution the 
 natural bents of their parents, and by consequence also in the constitu- 
 tion of their souls, as by skiey influence, yet not so that in the exercise 
 of their free will they may not turn and choose what is contrary. For 
 no other cause than this is it enjoined by the common law that those that 
 are bom of fornication are not to be admitted to the priesthood, since it 
 is presumed that, like as with their parents, they will not preserve their 
 chastity. Wherefore it is easier for one that is born of good parents to 
 act aright than for one that is born of bad parents. Parents ought there- 
 fore to give utmost diligence to stir up their children, while these are 
 young, to right conduct, and then will these children excel their parents 
 even in virtue. Whence it follows that the suppositions which I have 
 admitted are to be denied, and inasmuch as we have treated the substance 
 of the argument with some prolixity, and the formal part is easy, I do 
 
 1 Gavin Douglas's translation, with modernised spelling. 
 
400 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 not answer them. But from a gathering together of what has been said 
 it is plain that it is virtue of the soul alone which ennobles a man. And 
 any other accidental nobility is of small moment, coming as it does from 
 whom you will, but ever from without. Besides this, it is necessary to 
 posit some first noble in a family, and a last noble in another family just 
 as in that, as, in his invective against Sallust, M. Tullius says : ' That 
 which hath surcease in thee shall have its beginning in me.' For 
 Ptolemy, son of Lagus, was, from a common soldier, made king of Egypt, 
 but those that are his descendants are now without a kingdom and per- 
 chance beg their bread. Further, it is plain that it is more glorious for 
 a man to be illustrious for virtue, albeit he was begotten by a father 
 of ignoble birth, than to be stained with low vices and sprung from what 
 king you will. According to that of Juvenal in his eighth satire : — 
 
 I 'd rather, so thou sought'st Pelides' fame, 
 That thou wert cursed with vile Thersites' name, 
 Than that Achilles should have given thee life. 1 
 
 And though that vulgar nobility is not to be recognised, by a person 
 otherwise ignorant, either in the performance of those acts which are 
 common to noble and to plebeian alike, or by the bodily habit whether in 
 life or after death— though Diogenes did indeed say, jester fashion, to 
 Alexander, son of Philip, that he wished to separate among the bones ot 
 the dead the heads of kings from the rest — yet this manner of speech in 
 regard to nobles is a common one, both in the sacred histories and in 
 other chronicles, and we are not to hold cheap the common mode of 
 speech (though it be an arbitrary mode) ; for even in the Gospel we read, 
 Luke xix. : c A certain nobleman went into a far region to receive a 
 kingdom ' ; and, in the seventeenth of the Acts, ' Certain among them 
 believed and were joined to Paul and Sylla.' And afterward Paul : 
 ■ Xoble women not a few. ' And Ecclesiasticus xvi. : ' Blessed is that land 
 whose king is noble.' Historians are full of examples bearing upon this 
 proposition, thanks to which we have made a digression, partly in jest, 
 about these nobles. In saying, however, that men of noble birth may 
 rather be dispensed with than men of ignoble birth, I speak of the highest 
 nobility and not of the lowest nobility, who are,, as it were, the boundary 
 line of both. But not much respect is to be had to what is vulgarly called 
 nobility as compared with nobility of soul, unless greater advantage to 
 the common weal is to be had that way. And although my own origin 
 was from those who were not of noble birth, and I seem to have inter- 
 course with those whose birth is noble, I ought not to be a person 
 suspect, for assuredly it is my intention, not only here but everywhere, 
 to proclaim that view which I judge to be more consonant with reason. 
 
 Badham's translation. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 THOMAS GRAVES LAW 
 
1 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JOHN MAJOR 
 AND HIS DISCIPLES 
 
 JOHN MAJOR, . . . 403 
 
 Logic and Philosophy , . . 403 
 
 Scripture, . . . .410 
 
 History, . . . .411 
 
 Chronological Index, . . 411 
 
 DAVID CRANSTON, . . 412 
 
 GEORGE LOKERT, ... 414 
 
 WILLIAM MANDERSTON, . . 415 
 
 ROBERT CAUBRAITH, . . 417 
 
 II 
 
 PREFACES TO MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 Illustrations 
 
 Reduced facsimile of the title-page of Major's Com- 
 mentary on Matthew, Edition 1518, . . .at 403 
 
 Reduced facsimile of an old engraving of the Assembly 
 of the Saints/ printed by Major in the Commentary 
 on Matthew, . . . . .at 450 
 
theologt parrhy fienfis in mattheu ad literam expofitio, 
 vna cum trecentis & odo dubijs & difFi cu'ltatibus ad eius 
 clucidarionem admoduconducetibus paffi'm infertis qui 
 busperle&is peruia cri t quatuor euangeii ftar um fehes* 
 
 CVenefitapudprfdarum bibliopolam Ioincm graioo 
 apuddaufumbrunellu,m(igno magni Iunriappedete. 
 CCum Gratia 8c Priuilegio. 
 
 TITLE PAGE OF MAJOR'S COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 
 
T 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The following Bibliographical lists originated in an attempt to correct 
 and complete the imperfect ' Librorum Major quos scripsit Catalogus ' 
 prefixed by Freebairn to his edition of the ' Historia It was thought 
 well, in further illustration of Major's work at Paris, to add a list of the 
 books produced under his eye by his countrymen and disciples, Cranston, 
 Lokert, Manderston, and Caubraith. The lists, which have increased 
 beyond expectation at the last moment, cannot pretend to be exhaustive, 
 and the compiler will be glad to receive any additional information. 
 
 T. G. L. 
 
 JOHN MAJOR. 
 Logic and Philosophy. 
 
 1. Exponabilia magistri Johannis maioris. Paris, 1503. 
 
 Colophon : Exponabilia . . . Impressa parisii [sic] opera 
 iohannis lamberti impensis Dyonisii Roce mercatoris sub divi 
 martini ymugine rici sancti iacobi mo?'ti tenetis. Anno dni millesimo 
 quingetesimo tertio in Kalendis Aagusti. Finiunt feliciter. 
 Aberdeen University Library. 
 
 2. Acutissimi artium interpretis magistri Johannis maioris in Petri 
 
 Hyspani summulas comentaria. Lugd., Franc, fradin. 1505. fol. 
 (See Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, iii. 40 ; iv. 247. ) 
 Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 3. Joannis maioris in Petri Hispani summulas Commentarius. Vene- 
 
 tiis, per Lazarum de Soardis die xxviii Julii, anno 1506. 4to. 
 Panzer, viii. p. 382. 
 
 4. Medulla dyalectices edita a perspicassimo artium preceptore Hiero- 
 
 nymo Pardo . . . de novo correcta et emendata cum tabula 
 notabilium . . . per honoratos magistros magistrum Johannen 
 Major' in sacra theologia baccalaurium necno per acutissimu 
 virum magistrum Ortiz qui postremo ipsam cum augmento 
 castigavit eique tabulam supradictam apposuit. 
 Per Guillcrmu anabat impensis durddi gerlieri dime universitatis 
 bibliopole iurate. Paris, 1505. fol. 
 
 British Museum. 
 
 5. Magister Johannes Majoris Scotus. Inclitarum artium etc. Ven- 
 
 undantur vero a Dyonisio Roce, cive Parisiensi, in vico Sancti 
 jacobi sub Divo Martino degente. Paris, 1500. fol. 
 
404 BIBLIOGRAPHY [appendix i 
 
 At the end of the second part : Impressa Parisiis 3 per johannem 
 Barbier, pro Dyonisio Roce sub Divo Martino in vico 8. Jacobi 
 sedente, A.D. 1506, sole vero junii mcesimam claudente. 
 
 At the head, letter of the author to ' Nynianus Humme ' followed 
 by a letter from the editor Antony Coronel to his brother Louis 
 Coronel. 
 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris ; Cambridge Univ. Lib. 
 
 6. Inclitaru artiu ac sacra? paginal doctoris acutissimi Magistri 
 
 Johannis Maioris scoti Libri quos in artibus in collegio Montis 
 acuti Parisiis regetado copilavit hoc in volumine cotinent': 
 
 Primo. questio de complexo significabili. 
 
 Primus liber terminorum cu figura. 
 
 Secundus liber terminorum. 
 
 Summule eiusde : videl^ figura quatuor p'positionu et earu c'ver- 
 sionu. 
 
 Predicabilia : cum arbore porphyriana. 
 Predicamenta : cum sua figura. 
 Sillogismi. 
 
 Posteriora : cum textu Aristo. primi et secudi capi. libri primi ac 
 eiusdem propositionibus. 
 
 Tractatus de locis. 
 
 Tractatus elenchorum. 
 
 Tractatus consequentiarum. 
 
 Abbreviationes parvor' logicalium. 
 
 Parva logicalia. Exponibilia. 
 
 Insolubilia. Obligationes. 
 
 Argumenta sophistica. 
 
 Propositum de infinito. 
 
 Trilogus int' duos logicos et magistr'. 
 Venudatur Lugduni ab Stephano queygnard. In vico Mercurial}. 
 Prope sanctum Antoniurn. 
 
 In the same volume with new pagination but no separate title : 
 Exponabilia prestantissima J. M. olim artiu luculentissimi 
 interpretis, iam sanctarum quidem litteraru fidelissimi ac facile 
 peritissimi lectoris omnem argutiarum labyrinthum admussim 
 enodantia et enucleatia felici aruspice incipiunt. Lyons, 1508. 4to. 
 Letters of Major to Ninian Hume. 
 
 Colophon ends : Imp'ssi lugd. per Johannem de vingle. Anno 
 nostre salutis Mccccc. octavo, die xix mensis Octobris. 
 Advocates' Library. 
 
 7. Magister Joannes Majoris Scotus. Inclitarum artium, etc. Ven- 
 
 iindantur vero Lugduni, in intersignio Quinque plagarum Salvatoris 
 J. C. (5f Tholose in eodem intersignio, in vico Portarietis. 1513. 
 
 At the end of the second part : Impressi Lugduni, anno nostre 
 salutis 1513, die vero prima mensis octobris. 
 
 Same preliminary pieces as in the edition of 1506. 
 
 Biblioth. Nat., Paris. 
 
APPENDIX I.] 
 
 JOHN MAJOR 
 
 405 
 
 8. Inclytarum artium ac Sacre pagine doctoris acutissimi M. J. M. 
 
 Scoti libri quos in artibus . . . regentando in lucem emisit . . . 
 Venundantur Lugduni ... a martino boillon. 1516. 4to. 
 
 The title inside woodcut, on the top of which, in red, Magister 
 Joannes Maioris Scotus. 
 
 Colophon : Inclytarum atq; argutissimaru artium, etc., hoc in 
 volumine feliciter easpliciunt. Impressi lugd. Anno nostre Salutis 
 m.ccccc. decinio Sexto, die vero decima mesis. 
 In two parts, with separate foliation : pt. i. title and table, 8 foil, 
 and clviij foil. ; pt. n. table, 8 foil, and clx. foil. 
 
 Bodleian Library. 
 
 9. Commentum Johannis Dorp super textu summularum Johannis 
 
 Buridani nuperrime castigatum a Johanne Majoris cum aliquibus 
 additionibus eiusdem. Paris, 1504. fol. 
 
 Prantl, Geschichte der Logik, iv. p. 14. 
 
 10. Johannes Dorp recognitus et auctus. Summule Buridani. Cum 
 
 expositione praeclari viri interpretis, nominalium terminorum, 
 Johannis Dorp. Recognitus a magistro nostro Johanne Majore. 
 Cum annotationibus. Et postillis in margine libri de novo 
 insertis. Lugduni, 1510. 4to. 
 
 Described by Prantl, iv. p. 237. 
 
 11. Exponibilia magistri Johannis Maioris [Device of Denis Roche]. 
 
 (59 leaves). Paris, 1513. 8vo. 
 a. ii. Incipiunt queda questiones in exponibilibus disputataj a 
 joh. Mair Hadingtounen. 
 
 Colophon : . . . Imprcssa Parisii opera iohannis Lamberti impensis 
 Dyonisii Boce mercatoris , etc., A.D. 1513. in kal. Augusti. 
 Univ. Aberd. 
 
 12. Termini magistri J. M. cum abbreviationibus parvorum logicalium, 
 
 etc, s.l. a et n. typogr. (Parisiis Denis Roce, c. 1500 [?]). 4t<>. 
 From Harrasowitz's Antiquar. Catalog. (170), 1892. 
 
 13. Insolubilia Johannis Maioris nunq. prius impressa. Venundat' parr- 
 
 hisiis a Johane Grajon ejusdem civitatis bibliopola in claustro brunelli 
 prope scholas decretorum e regione dive virginis Marie. Cum priuelegio. 
 Sequitur tractatus Obligationum ejusdem J. M. 1510. fol. 
 Brit. Mus. 
 
 13*. Tractatus de insolubilibus et obligationibus. Impress. Parrhisiis 
 sumptibus Io. grantion bibliopola' commorantis in claustro brunello 
 sub intersignio magnorum iuncorum. 1516 [?]. fol. 
 
 From the Catalogue (171, No. 305) of Harrassowitz of 
 Leipzig. (Is this a second impression in the same year?) 
 
406 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 [appendix f. 
 
 14. Aureum opus moraliii . . . iacobi almain S.T.D. . . . a doctissimo 
 
 viro mag'ro Johahe Maioris sacre Bophie p'fessore nup' studiosis- 
 sime revisti q'd hisce diebus nouissimis ij. recognitii oibusq; medis 
 tersum. Johes frellon inter diligetes bibliopolas diligetissimus 
 . . . imprimi curavit. 
 
 Venales habetur in domo dicta Johaiinis Frello in vico mathuri- 
 norum. Paris. 8°. 
 
 No colophon. Printer's dedication, ' F. Guillermo Hueto', dated 
 Parisiis, xii kal Julii, 1518. 
 
 Univ. St. Andrews. 
 
 15. Summule Majoris Parhisiis ab eodem composite et revise, quibus 
 
 per eundem adjecti sunt duo tractatus insolubilium scilicet et 
 obligationum. . . . VenaUa reperiuntur in ediba.s johannh Parvi 
 sub intersignio IAHi. . . . Paris, 1520. 4to. 
 At the end : (Jue omnia volait honethii rir Michael, cicis Cadmeus, 
 diRgentissime 8$ emendatiesime Cadomi per LaurenHum Hostingue, 
 formularium vigilantissimum imprimi, anno sahitis humana 
 MCCCCCXX, Jiiiiri autem die xii Octobris. [Compare Delisle 
 L' Imprimerie a Caen, p. 42.] 
 
 Biblioth. Xationale, Paris. 
 
 1(J. Introductorium in Aristotelica dialecticen totaque Logice M. Joanis 
 .Maioris. nuper ab eodem summa diligentia repositum & in duo- 
 decim libellos qui a tergo huius explicabuntur, digestum : atq; 
 prelo Ascensiano excusum. Venudatur cum gratia et priuilegio 
 ab eodem Ascensio. Paris, 1521. 4to. 
 Engraving of Printing Press on title-page with date 1520. 
 
 Colophon : In Officina Iodoci BadU AscenHi ad Calendar 
 Maias MDXXI. 
 
 Adv. Lib. 
 
 17. Introductorium perutile in Aristotelicam dialecticen, duos Ter- 
 minorum Tractatus, ac Quinque Libros Summularum complectens, 
 M. Johannis Maioris Philosoj)hi, ac Theologi Parisiensis : denuo 
 ab eode summa vigilatia repositu. 
 Venundantur in edibus Joannis Parvi, & Aegidi Gormontii biblio- 
 polarii, via ad diuum Iacobum. Cum Gratia & Priuilegio, ad 
 Biennium. M.D. XXVII. Paris, 1527. foL 
 Fo. 2. Johannes solo cognomenti Maior acutissimo theologo Petro 
 Chaiplane rectori Dunneuii. S. P. D. dated ex Monte acuto — 16 
 cal. Decemb. 1527. 
 
 Colophon : Foe/icem optatumq; finem Sortition est hoc in Aristo- 
 teUea dialecticen Itrodnctoriatn nusqud antehac impression Anno 
 virginei partus. XXVII. super M.D. XVI. Kalendas Deeembri*. 
 Univ. Cam.; St. Andrews. 
 
APPENDIX I.J 
 
 JOHN MAJOR 
 
 407 
 
 18, 19. Other editions of the same : Paris [Jehan Petit ?], 1508, referred 
 to by Prantl (iv. 248), or Parisiis apud Joannem Lambert, 1509, 
 cited in Watt's Bibliotheca. Also Lugduni apud Antonium Ryum, 
 1514, mentioned in Freebairn's list. 
 
 20. Octo libri physicorum cum naturali philosophic! atque metaphysica 
 
 J. M. . . . venundantur Parrhisiis in vico sancti jacobi a jo. 
 Paruo sub intersignio Lilii aurei et ab uEgidio Gormotio scuto trium 
 coronarum Cotonie indice, Kal. Decemb. Paris, 1520. fol. 
 Kpistle to Jean Bouillache. 
 
 Cam. Univ.; Edin. Univ. 
 
 21. Questiones Logicales M. J. M. Hadyngthonani, jam primo in lucem 
 
 missce cum ejusdem literali expositione succincta in veterem 
 Aristotelis Dialectice Joanne Argyropilo interpraete. Vcenun- 
 dantur Parisiis apud Joann. Purvum ac vEgidium Gormontium. 
 Via jaeobcea, 1528 fol. 
 Dedicatory epistle of Major to Dr. John Weddel. 
 
 Univ. Cam. ; Adv. Lib. 
 
 22. Ethica Aristotelis Peripateticorum principis. Cum Jo. Maioris 
 Theologi Parisiensis comentariis. [Device of the Prelum Ascen- 
 sianum.] Venundantur, cuius pre lo impressa sunt Iodoco Badio, § 
 in societatem accepto Io. Paruo. [Paris], 1530 fol. 
 Prefatory epistle of Major to Cardinal Wolsey ; dated, Ex collegio 
 literario Montisacuti in Parrhisiorum gymnasio ad Cal. Junias, 
 1530. 
 
 a ii. Tabula, 14 folios. Fo. 1. Aristotelis Ethica . . . opus ab 
 loanne Argyropylo Byzantio traductum & ab I.M. Had. elucida- 
 tum. Colophon (Fo. clxx), dated Pridie Nonas Junias, 1530. 
 Brit. Mus. ; Signet Lib. 
 
 Commentaries on the Sentences. 
 
 23. Quartus Setetiarum Johannis Maioris [mark of e Ponset le Preux']. 
 \ enundantur parrhisiis a Ponceto le preux, eiusdem ciuitatis 
 
 bibliopola : ad signum poti stagnei I vico sancti Jacobi prope 
 
 diui yuonis edem commorante. Paris, 1509. fol. 
 Ded. letter to Alexander Steuuard, abp. of St. Andrews & primate 
 
 of Scotland, dated prid. Kal. Jan. 1508 ; followed by : 
 Dialogus inter duos magistros Johannem formam precentorem 
 
 glasguensem et Petrum Sandelands rectorem de calder. 
 lmpressum . . . etc. per me Philippum Pigouchet commorantem in 
 
 vico cythare Anno dni millesimo qugetesimo nono: die penulfia 
 
 mesis Junii (leaf 228 b marked ccxxiii). 
 
408 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 [appendix I. 
 
 David crenston in sacra pagina bacchalarius ad lectures. 
 
 [Mark of Philippe Pigouchet.] 
 'Fable (fol. 229 6-248 b). 
 
 Brit. Mus. ; Univ. Cam.; St. And. 
 
 24. Quartus sententiarum Johannis Majoris ab eodem recognitus denuo- 
 que impressus. 
 
 Venundatur Parrhisiis a Ponceto le Preux, ejusdem civitatis biblio- 
 pola, in vico Divi Jacobi sub Potti Stannei signo. Paris, 1512. fol. 
 
 Colophon : Impression atque exaratum est hoc opus Parrisiis 
 per Johanne barbier impressorem Impensis vero honestorum virorum 
 Johannis petit Johanis grato et poceti le preux huius almc parisiesis 
 academie bibliopolarum. Anno dni miUesimo qugetesimo duodecimo 
 decimo kaledas junii. 
 The same preliminary pieces as in the edition of 1509. 
 Aberd. Univ. ; Biblioth. Nat. Paris. 
 
 25. In Quartum Sententiarum. . . . suprema ipsius lucubratioe 
 
 enucleatae : denuo tamen recognita? : et maioribus formulis 
 impress* : cum duplici tabella : videlicet alphabetica materi- 
 arum decisaru in fronte : et Questionum in calce. 
 
 llobertus Senalis J. Maiori Prseceptori suo. 
 
 In Chalcographia ./. Badii Ascensii [Paris], 1516. fol. 
 Brit. Mus. 
 
 26. In Quartum, etc. Venundantur a sui impressore Iodoco Badio. 
 
 Paris, 1519. fol. Date in colophon, Anno salutis humance sesqui- 
 millcsimo decimo mono <i<l Idus Augustas. 
 The Tabula alphabetica by Mag 1- Georgius Lokert, Scotus. 
 Preface addressed to Gavvin Douglas bishop of Dunkeld and Rob. 
 Cockburn bishop of Ross. 
 
 Brit. Mus. ; Bodl. Lib. ; Univ. Cam. ; Adv. Lib. ; Glasgow ; 
 St. And. ; Aberd. 
 
 27. I. M. . . . in Quartum Sententiarum qucestiones utilissimae, etc. 
 
 Venundantur Parrhisiis in cedibus Joannis Parui in vico sancti 
 Jacobi, etc. Paris, 1521. fol. 
 
 Colophon . . . quce rursus ab erratulis tersa est, et maioribus 
 rharacteribus impressa. In Officina Jacobi le Messier. Anno 1521 
 die vero xiiii mensis Octobris. 
 
 Univ. Cam. ; St. And. ; Signet Lib. 
 
 28. Joannes Maior in primu Sententiarum. Paris, 1510. fol. 
 
 I. M. to George Hepburn, Abbat of Arbroth, dated 7 cal. Jan. 
 1509 (fol. 1 b). 
 
 Dialogus . . . inter Gawin. douglais. ecclesie b. Egidii edinburg. 
 prefect, et M. Davidem Crenstonem in sacra theosophia bacca- 
 laureum formatum . . . (fol. 2 b). 
 
APPENDIX I.] 
 
 JOHN MAJOR 
 
 409 
 
 Colophon: Impressum ft exaratum est hoc opus Parisiis per 
 Henricum stephanum impensis . . . Jof/oci badii ascensii, Joannis 
 parui, et magistri Gonstantini leporis. Anno . . (1510 Apr. 29). 
 Tabula ... J. Maioris, eiusdem singulariora dicta continens 
 extracta per M. Alexandrum Couan Scotum hadyngtonensem 
 (fol. 120 a). 
 
 Brit. Mus. ; Univ. Cam. ; St. And. 
 
 29. Joannes Maior in secundum sententiarum [mark of J. Petit]. 
 
 Venundatur in edibus J. Parui ctJod. Badii Ascensii. Paris, 1510. 
 fol. 
 
 I. M. magistro nostro Natali Bede primario collegii montisacuti 
 
 . . . etc. (sub natalem dnicum 1510). 
 Tabula . . . collecta raptim per M. Antonium Coronel Hispanum 
 
 (fol. 2 a). 
 
 Colophon : Finis decisionum variarum questions magistri 
 nostri Joannis Maioris theologi parrhisien. natione scoti : in secun- 
 dum sententiarum : in edibus ascensianis In vigilia Natalis dominici 
 1510. 
 
 Brit. Mus.; Univ. Cam.; St. And. 
 
 30. In primum Sententiarum. Paris, 1519. fol. 
 
 Colophon : Impressum est rursum hoc opus Parisiis sub recog- 
 nitions et impensis Jo. Badii Ascens. ad idus Octobris anni Redemp- 
 tumis humanee, MDXIX. 
 
 Bodl. Lib.; Adv. Lib. 
 
 31. Io. M. Hadingtonani scholar Parisiensis Theologi, in Primum 
 
 magistri Sententiarum disputationes et decisiones nuper reposita? 
 . . . Venundantur Jo. Parvo et Jodoco Badio. Paris, 1530. fol. 
 Preface by Major to his namesake John Major Eckius. 
 
 Univ. Cam. ; Univ. Edin. 
 
 32. Editio secunda J. M. . . . in secundum librum Sententiarum nun- 
 
 quam antea impressa. Veneut apud preclar. bibliopold iohannem 
 (/ration : in claustro brunello in signo magni iunci adpendente. 
 Paris, 1519. fol. 
 I. M. magistris Natali Bede et Petro tempete . . . primariis, etc. 
 Colophon : Eocpensis Jo granion bibliopole, etc. 
 Bodl. Lib. ; Univ. Cam. 
 
 33. In secundum Sententiarum disputationes denuo recognitae et 
 
 repurgatae. Venundantur Jo. Parvo et Jod. Badio. Paris, 1528. fol. 
 Preface of Petrus Peralta, the reviser of this edition, to Dr. Ortiz. 
 Univ. Cam. 
 
 34. Editio Jo. M. doctoris Parisiensis super Tertium Sententiarum: de 
 
 novo edita. Veneunt Parrhisiis cum gratia ft priueligio a jo. 
 Grdion bibliopola apud Cletusv. brunellum, etc 
 
410 BIBLIOGRAPHY [appendix l 
 
 Imprimatur: faict en par/eintt le qnatrieme jour D am ut Lau Mil cinq 
 cent? d'u-sept. 1517. foL 
 J. M. Matheo Galthero. 
 
 Univ. Cam. ; Adv. Lib. ; St. And. 
 
 35. In tertium sententiarum disputationes . . . denuo recognita? et 
 repurgata?. Vcenundantur Jod. Badio et Jo Parro. Paris. 1 .528. fol. 
 Univ. Cam. ,; Univ. Edin. ; Aberdeen. 
 
 3<;. A d a m u s G od d a m u s , Super iv libros Sententiarum, etc. Purrlnjsiix, 
 per J. Barbier, 1512. (52 leaves.) fol. 
 Edited with Preface and Life of the author, ' De Vita Ade/ by 
 Major. 
 
 Brit. Mus. ; Bodl. Lib.; Univ. Cam. 
 
 37. Reportata super primum [secundum, tertium, quartum] sententiaru 
 fratris Johannis duns Scoti : ordinis minorum, doctoris subtilis 
 Parisien nunq; antea impressa. Venennt Parhhiis . . . u Joanne 
 Groion biblio/iola, etc. Paris. 1517-18. fol. 
 
 Edited under the direction of Major by two licentiates of theology, 
 James Rutin, minorite, and Brother Peter Du Sault. 
 
 Dedicatory epistle addressed by Major to Franciscus de Bellavalle. 
 Guardian of the Reformed Convent of Friars Minor at Paris. 
 
 The four parts have separate title-pages, foliation, and tabulae. — 
 Super Primum is dated in the Colophon Apr. 1517 ; Super Secun- 
 dum. Feb. 1517 ; Super Tertium, Jan. 1517 ; Super Quartum, 
 Sept. 1518. 
 
 Major's Preface to the first book is repeated in the fourth. 
 Adv. Lib. ; Signet Lib. 
 
 Scripture. 
 
 38. Io. M. . . . in Mattheu ad literam expositio, vna cum trecentis 
 
 et octo dubiis et difficultatibus ad eius elucidationem admodum 
 conducetibus passim insertis, quibus perlectis peruia erit quatuor 
 euangelistarum series. 
 In flprtntissima Parrkuiorum vniver*itate Anno gaiuatorU n'ri 
 
 M. recce j viii. Jehan Groion. 
 Vened.t apud prceclarum bib/iopolam loanem groion apud ehmtum 
 brunelln in siyno magni Iunci appedcte. 1518. fol. 
 Preface to James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow. 
 Univ. Cam.; Univ. Edin.; St. And. 
 
 39. Io. M. Hadingtonani Theologi in quatuor Euangelia expositiones 
 
 luculente et disquisitiones et disputationes contra hereticos 
 plurime, premisso serie literarum indice, et additis ad finem 
 operis quatuor questionibus non impertinentibus. Venundantur 
 a quo impressce sunt Iodoco Badio. Paris, 1529. fol. 
 
APPENDIX I.] 
 
 JOHN MAJOR 
 
 411 
 
 Matthew is dedicated with a new preface to James Beaton, arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews ; Mark to Jean Bouillache of Never* , 
 professor and parish priest of St. James at Paris ; Luke to Gavin 
 Dunbar, archbishop of Glasgow ; John to Robert Cenalis, bishop 
 of Vence. 
 
 Brit. Mus. ; Bodl. Lib. ; Univ. C am. ; Adv. Lib. ; 
 Univ. Edin. ; Glasgow; St. And. 
 
 History. 
 
 40. Historia Maj oris Britannia? tarn Angliae q. Scotia? per J. M. nomine 
 
 quidem Scotum professione autem theologum e veterum monu- 
 mentis concinnata. Venundatur J. B. A.scensio. Paris, 1521. 
 4to. 
 
 Brit. Mus.; Adv. Lib., etc. 
 
 41. Historia Majoris Britannia^. . . . Editio nova mendis quam 
 
 plurimis in antiqua Jodoci Badii Ascensii editione Parisiis 
 edita MDXXI extantibus repurgata. Edimburgi upud Robert urn 
 Fribarnium Typdgraphum Regium. 1740. 4to. 
 
 Brit. Mus.; Adv. Lib., etc. 
 
 An excerpt from the commentary on the Fourth Book of the 
 Sentences, under the title ' Disputatio de Ecclesia* Monarchia? 
 episcoporum et parochorum auctoritate ' was published in the 
 edition of Gerson's works printed at Paris in 1(506, and Lyons in 
 1706 (Opera auctiora cum aliquot opusculis P. de Alliaco et Jo. 
 Majoris), Vol. i. In the same volume was re-edited another 
 excerpt, from Major's Commentary on S. Matthew, under the 
 title ' De Ecclesiae et concilii auctoritate.' 
 
 Both excerpts were reprinted in the ' Vindiciae doctrinae majorum 
 Scholae Parisiensis . . . contra defensores Monarchia? universalis 
 et absoluta? Curiae Romana?. Liber Quartus continens Scripta 
 Jacobi Almaini et Joannis Majoris . . . Authore Edmundo 
 Richerio, Doctore ac Socio Sorbonico' Colonise, 1683. 4to. 
 
 The Magnum Speculum Eooemplorum, originally published anony- 
 mously by John Major, a Belgian Jesuit (d. 1608), has been 
 erroneously attributed (by Mackenzie, Freebairn, Dupin, and 
 others) to our author, whose writings have also been sometimes 
 confused with those of yet another John Major, a German Pro- 
 testant. 
 
 Chro?io/ogical Index. 
 
 1.503. Exponibilia. 
 
 Io04. Commentum J. Dorp. Ed. J. M. (Prantl.) 
 
412 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 [appendix l 
 
 1505. In Petri Hisp. summulas. 
 
 ,, Medulla dyalectices of H. Pardus. Ed. J. M. 
 
 1506. Inclitarum artium . . . Libri, etc. 
 
 „ In Petri Hisp. Summ. New edit. (Panzer.) 
 
 1508. Inclitarum artium, etc. New edit. 
 
 „ Introd. in Aristot. dialect. (Prantl.) 
 
 1509. In iv. Sent. 
 
 ,, Introd. in Aristot. Logic. (Watt, Bibliotheca.) 
 
 1510. (Apr.) In i. Sent. 
 ,, (Dec.) In ii. Sent. 
 
 ,, J. Dorp, recognitus a J. M. New edit. (Prantl.) 
 
 1512. Goddamus in iv. Sent. libb. Ed. J. M. 
 ,, In iv. Sent. New edit. 
 
 1513. Inclitarum artium, etc. New edit. 
 ,, Exponibilia. New edit. 
 
 1514. Introd. in Aristot. New edit. (Freebairn.) 
 
 1516. In iv. Sent. New edit. 
 
 ,, Inclitarum artium. New edit. 
 
 ,, Insolubilia, etc. 
 
 1517. In iii. Sent. 
 
 ,, Reportata Duns Seott Ed. M. 
 
 1518. In Matthaeum expositio. 
 
 ,, Moralia J. Almain. Ed. J. M, 
 
 1519. In i. Sent. New edit. 
 „ In ii. Sent. New edit. 
 ,, In iv. Sent. New edit. 
 
 1520. Summula? Majoris. 
 
 1521. (May). Introd. in Aristot. New edit. 
 ,, (Oct.). In iv. Sent. New edit. 
 
 ,, Historia Brit. 
 
 ]5:!<). Octo libri physicorum. 
 
 1527. Introd. in Aristot. lo^ic. New edit. 
 
 1528. In ii. Sent. New edit. 
 ,, In iii. Sent. New edit. 
 ,, Questiones Logicales. 
 
 1529. In iv. Evanerelia. 
 
 1530. In i. Sent. New edit. 
 ,, In Ethica Aristot. 
 
 DAVID CRANSTON. 
 
 1. Positiones pliisicales magistri dauid C'raston. [Device of Denis 
 Roce.] ^>nales reperiuntur in vico sancti iacobi ad intersigniii 
 diui martini in domo Dyonisii roce. (38 leaves.) Paris, g.a. 8vo. 
 Univ. Edin. ; Univ. Aberd. 
 
APPENDIX I.] 
 
 DAVID CRANSTON 
 
 413 
 
 2. Tractatus insolubilium et obligatioimm magistri Davidis C ranston de 
 
 novo recognitus et correctus per magistrum Guillermum Man- 
 
 dreston et magistrum Anthonium Silvestri, ejus discipulos, cum 
 
 obligationibus Strodi . . . incipit feliciter. 
 Venum exponuntur ab Oliverio Senant in vico Divi jacobi sub signo 
 
 beate Barbare sedente. sig. a-i. no date. Paris, fol. 
 On the back of title-page two pieces of verse : 
 
 De immatura magistri nostri Davidis Cranston Scoti morte hujus 
 
 voluminis autoris carmen elegiacum. 
 Theobaldus de Pontavice Cenomanus ad dialecticarum artium 
 
 cultores. 
 
 Biblioth. Nat., Paris. 
 
 3. Questiones morales M. Martini magistri [Le Maistre] . . . de forti- 
 
 tudine novissime . . . limate adiecta tabula alphabetico ordine 
 contexta per Dauid Cranston . . . Uenundantur Parisiis a Johanne 
 granion eiusdem ciuitatis bibliopola : in claustro brunelli : prope 
 scholas decretorum sub signo sacratissime dei genitricis marie. 
 
 Egidius delfus ad lectorem (fol. 101). 
 
 Colophon : Impressum parisius [sic] per Guillermi Anabat . . . 
 
 Questiones additae in libru de Fortitudine Magistri Martini de 
 magistris per Davidem cranston scotum in theologia baccalaureum. 
 Venundantur parrhisius a Joanne granion eiusde, etc., as before. 
 
 Colophon : Has prceelaras S; admodum ingeniosas questiones in 
 magistri Martini de magistris Librum de Fortitudine addidit littera- 
 tissimus wr magister Dauid Cranston Pro Johanne Granion alma 
 parrhisiensis academics Librario iurato . . . Quas quidem impressit 
 diligenter Nicolaus de pratis in vico olearum apud magnum ortum 
 moram trahens. M.D.X. Idibus Maij. Paris, 1510. fol. 
 
 Brit. Mus. ; Bodl. Lib.; Univ. Cam. 
 
 4. Martini Magistri Questiones morales de Fortitudine adjecta Tabula 
 
 alphabetica per D. Cranston. Paris. J. Petit, s.a. fol. 
 Questiones addita? . . . per D. Cranston. Paris. /. Petit, s.a. 
 fol. 
 
 Catalogue of D. Laing's Library (1st Sale, 2359). 
 
 5. Moralia acutissimi et clarissimi Doctoris . . . Jacobi Almain cu 
 
 additionibus eiusdem et David Cranston Scoti non ante hac 
 impressis neq; in aliis appositis . . . 
 
 Venundantur Parrhisiis ab Claudio Chevallo. s.a. 
 L T niv. St. Andrews. 
 
 6. Aurea . . . Jacobi Almain opuscula, omnibus theologis perquam 
 
 utilia, cum additionibus Davidis Cranston, ex recensione Vincentii 
 Doesmier. Parisiis, per Egidium Gourmont, 1517. fol. 
 Panzer, viii. 41. 
 
414 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 [appendix l 
 
 7. Moralia acutissimi Theol. Prof. M. Jacobi Almain Senouensis . . . 
 
 cum additionibus M. Dauid C ranston Scota . . . Paris, 1525. 8vo. 
 
 Colophon: Parisiis in edibus Chimin Cheualto, anno domini 
 Mi VCCGXXV. mense Maio. 
 
 Univ. Cam. 
 
 8. Acutissimi viri M. Jacobi Almain . . . Moralia que vocat cu ipsius 
 
 authoris et D. Cranston additionibus . . . adjectus est et libel] us 
 
 de auctoritate ecclesiae contra Thorn am de vio 7. Petit. 
 
 Parisiis, 1526. 8vo. 
 
 Brit. Mils.; Bodl. Lib. 
 
 9. Ramirez de Villascusca (A). Incipit : Si diligenti navatione, etc. 
 
 ends : Finem hie capiunt Parva Logicalia cum tractatu termi- 
 norum, additionibusque D. Cranstoni, [1520?] 4to. 
 Brit. Mus. 
 
 Also, along with Gavin Douglas, Cranston compiled the 
 Tabula for Major's commentary In Quart nm Sent. (1509). See 
 his Preface {infra, p. 424) and his Dialogue with Douglas (p. 425). 
 He is said to have written ' Orationes/ f Votum ad D. Kenti- 
 gernum/ and f Epistolae.' (T. F. Henderson in Diet. Nat. Biog.) 
 
 GEORGE LOKERT. 
 
 1. Scriptum in materia noticiarum. [Mark of Denis Roche.] Venun- 
 
 dantur Parrhisiis in vico sancti Jacobi sub intersignio diui 
 Martini. 
 
 Colophon : Finit scriptura . . . Georgii Lokcrt ayrensis Scot/. 
 Parrhisiis impressu opera Nicolai de pratis pro Dionysio Pace. 
 Anno 1514 die vero xxiv men' Novembris. [On the next and last 
 page two verses : Finis.] 1514. 8vo. 
 
 Adv. Lib.; Univ. Edin. 
 
 2. Scriptum in materia noticiarum Georgii Lokert. [Mark of Bernard 
 
 Aubry.] Venundantur Parrhisiis I vico sancti iacobi . . . 
 
 Colophon: Finit scriptura super quibusdam noticiarum diui- 
 sionibus G. L. ayrensis Scoti. Parrhisiis impressa : op'a michael 
 leslancher p' Bernardo Ambry. Anno 1518. Die vero ociiii men 
 augusti. 1518. 8vo. 
 
 Sig. Lib. 
 
 3. Scriptum in materia notitiarum Georgij Lokert. [Device of Pierre 
 
 Gaudoul.] Venundantur Parisiis a Petro Godoul commorate : I 
 clauso brunello sub intersignio diui Cyrici. 
 36 leaves. l b . woodcut, ihs. 36 . Joannis Vaccei ad condiscipulos 
 exhortatoriu Carmen. Ejusdem henecasyllabon. 
 
 Colophon : Finit Scriptura. . . . Parisii impresssa o ; 
 
appendix i.] LOKERT: MANDERSTON 
 
 415 
 
 Joannia da Pre p'Petro Goudoul. Anno dni. MDXX. Die vera 
 xxij mensis Jnlii 1520. 4 t0 . 
 
 Univ. Cam. 
 
 4. Aureus notitiarum libellus. Caen, M. et G. Angler, s.a. [8° ?]. 
 
 Delisle L'Irilprimerie a Caen. 
 
 5. Questiones et decisioes physicales insignium virorum . . . Alberti 
 
 de Saxonia in Octo libros physicorum. Tres libros de celo et 
 mundo . . . Recognita? rursus et emendatae . . . accuratione et 
 iudicio . . . G. Lokert ... a quo sunt tractatus proportionum 
 additi. 2 pt. [Paris] 1518. 1518. fol. 
 
 Brit. Mus. 
 
 6. Tractatus exponibilium multo alijs lucidior Georgij lokert scoti & 
 
 artium & sacra paginal professoris acutissimi. [Mark of De 
 Marnef.] Venundantur Parisius in vico Iacobeo sub intersignio 
 Pellicani Ab engleberto et Ioanne marnefio bibliopolis ad aedem 
 diui Yuonis commorantibus. 
 
 fl[ Cum priuilegio biannij vt liquido p^ instrumento. 
 
 Xo date on title and no colophon. Preface : Thomas de Cueilly 
 Auditoribus suis S.D. dated ex nostro Marchie gymnasio prid. 
 nonas junias 1522. 
 
 Title and preface, 2 + 35 foil. 4to. 
 
 Univ. Edin. 
 
 7. Termini Magistri G. Lokert, etc. a Johanne Graion, parrhisiis 
 
 [1523?]. 4to. 
 
 Brit. Mus. 
 
 8. Sillogismi Georgii Lokert sacre Theologie professoris. [Mark of 
 
 De Marnef.] Venudatur Parisiis I vico Iacobeo sub signo Pelli- 
 cani etc. 
 
 Preface : Thomas de Cueilly Parrisinus suis discipulis Salutem . . . 
 Ex Marchiano gymnasio 12 Kal. Sept. 1527. (2 + xliv. foil.) 4to. 
 Univ. Edin. 
 
 Lokert also compiled the Tabula alphabetica for Major's In Quartum 
 Sent. 1519. See above, p. 408. 
 
 WILLIAM MANDERSTON. 
 
 1. Bipartitum in morali philosophia opusculum ex variis autoribus 
 per Magistrum Guillelmum Manderston Scotum nuperrime col- 
 lectu ... 
 
 De virtutibus in generali. 
 Bipartitum.) 
 
 De quatuor virtutibus cardinalibus in speciali. 
 Veneunt in aedibus Ioannis Gormontii ad insigne duarum Cipparum. 
 A ii. figure of St. Andrew with bishop kneeling, and six lines of 
 
416 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 [appendix I. 
 
 verse, followed by Dedication to Andrew Forman, archbishop of 
 St. Andrews. 
 
 Colophon : Explicit opnsc. in mor. philos. bipartitum a may. 
 G. M. Scoto diocesis S. Andrea nuperrime collectu dum regeret 
 Parisiis in famatissimo dine Barbare gymnasia. Anno 1518, 14 kal. 
 Aprilis. 
 
 Verso. Iohannis Have Scoti Diocesis Glascuensis super sui precep- 
 toris Encomio. (22 lines of verse.) 1518. 4to. 
 Adv. Lib.; Univ. Glasgow. 
 
 2. Bipartitum in Morali Philosophia opusculum . . . [Device of Virgin 
 
 and Child in a ship.] 
 02 leaves. l b . Letter of Manderston to Forman. 2 a . Verses of Th. 
 Morellus Campanus. 2 b Cut of ( Tree of Philosophy.' 92. Letter 
 of Morellus to Nicholaus Buatius. 
 
 Colophon (01 b ) : Explicit opusculu in famatissimo diue 
 Barbate gymnasio. [no date]. 
 
 Univ. Cam. 
 
 3. Bipartitum in Morali Philosophia . . . 
 
 Vaenundantur in a^dibus Gormontianis sub gratia & praevilegio vt in 
 
 sequenti patebit pagina. 
 a i. verso. Vilelmi graym Scoti de f itre exhortatoriu carme ad iuuenes 
 
 vt moralib^ Icubat. 
 a ii. Guillermus Manderston . . . Iacobo Beton sancti Andree archi- 
 
 presuli . . . xvi Kal. Feb. anno (calculo Roano) 1523. 
 a iii. verso. Robertus Gra. medicinae amator prseceptori suo vilelmo 
 
 Mandersto apollonie artis professori peritissimo . . . Parrhisiis 
 
 ex collegio bone Curie, 1253 [sic] calculo Romano, 
 foil. cclx. Colophon : Explicit opusculum . . . Parhisiis 1523^ 24 
 
 Jan. 8vo. 
 
 Univ. Edin. 
 
 4. Tripartitum epithoma doctrinale et copendiosu in totius dyalectices 
 
 artis prlcipia a Guillelmo Madersto Scoto collectu et secudo 
 revisum cu multis additionibus necnon questione de futuro con- 
 tingenti insignitum. 
 
 Tripartitum epithoma 
 ^[ Principia communissima dyalectices 
 Tractatulus terminorum. Parua Logicalia 
 Questio de futuro contingenti. 
 
 [No printer's mark, date, or place on title page.] 
 
 Verso. Guillelm' Monderston medices professor . . . Andrea? 
 
 forma : Sancti Andree archipresuli ... Ex Lutecia Parisiorum. 
 
 Anno 1520, 14 Kal. Dec. 4to. 
 
 Adv. Lib. 
 
ppendix i.] MANDERSTON : CAUBRA1TH 
 
 417 
 
 5. Tripartitum epithoma. Doctrinale and compendiosu in totius 
 Dyalectices artis principia a G. M. Scoto nuperrime collectum. 
 Principia communissima dyalectices. 
 ^[ Tripartita epithoma 
 
 Tractatulus terminorum 
 Parua logical ia 
 [Device of Virgin and Child in a ship.] 
 Uenudantur Parisius I Clauso brunelli a Petro Gaudoul sub 
 intersignio diui Cirici commorantis. 70 leaves, 4 to . 1520. 
 
 Colophon (70 a ) : Explicit in totius dialectices principia opus- 
 culum . . . in lucem editum dum cursum artium pro tertio Parisius 
 regerit in famatissimo collegio dine Barbare. A nno Domini millesimo 
 quingentesimo vigcsimo. iiij. die August i. 
 
 Univ. Cam. 
 
 4. The Bodleian Library Catalogue has an edition of the Tripartitum, 
 
 Lugd. 1530, 8vo, with the note, c Liber iste ascribi debet Hieron. 
 Angesto ut notavit Raymundus. ' 
 
 5. Guillelmi Manderston compendiosa Dialectices Epitome ab authore 
 
 recens emendata et ab innumeris quibus undique scatebat mendis 
 liberata. Item et eiusdem qutestio de futuro contingenti. Par- 
 rhisiis, 1528. 
 
 The preface repeated from the first edition (1520). 
 
 Prantl, iv. p. 257. 
 
 6. Termini, etc. Cadomi, M. Angier, s.a. 
 
 Delisle, V ' Irnprimeric a Caen, p. 42. 
 
 ROBERT CAUBRAITH. 
 
 1. Quadripertitum in Oppositiones, Conversiones Hypotheticas et 
 
 Modales magistri Roberti Caubraith omnem ferme difficultatem 
 dialecticam enodans. ex off. Ascensiana, 1510. fol. 
 
 Bodl. Lib. 
 
 2. Quadripertitum in Oppositiones . . . diligenter recognitum et labe- 
 
 culis tersum. Vaenundatur Parrhisiis in a3dibus Iodoci Badii : & 
 Edmundi Fabri. 1516, fol. 
 
 At end : Ex officina Ascensiana rursus ad Nonas Octobris, MDXVI, 
 calculo Romano. 
 
 Univ. Glasgow. 
 
1 1 
 
 PREFACES TO MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 [IncHtarutn ttrtiwn . . . Lihri etc. 1608] 
 
 .FoiiANNKs Maiobu nvniano 11111110 tuna aatalibus tiun litteris 
 
 unplisumo Salutem (licit. 
 
 Dum in erudieudis srtistis quorum presentem gero provinciam aliqua- 
 tonus laborarem, mi Nvniane, saepius al> eis flagitatus sum et potissimum 
 ■ Ludovico oorond et Antonio eius germano, Baspardoque lax hispanis, 
 et Roberto caubratb com patriots tibi et mihi oommuni, ut commentarioB 
 in petri hyspani Bummulii cuderem , argumentum assumpaere in medium 
 quod david oraatou oontarraneOj et Jacobo amnayn Benonensij Petro 
 orokart broxellensi, Roberto cenalis pariaiensi in primo cursu existen- 
 tibus pnBdicabiliaj exponabilia, obligationes cum insolubilibus soripto 
 dederamj inferentes j »r< > eis rationem nquam surgere. Ratio tarn en contra 
 pugnabat tamen propter meam inertiam, turn propter hominum linguae 
 ad male loquendum et potissimum de viventibus proclivesj turn propter 
 alien um genus studii al> artilms humeris assumptumj scilicet in Legendis 
 sentontus, libuit tamen lectionem lento proferre ut qui vellet lectionem 
 seripto mandaret. Quocirca Don mireris si interdum succincte dissuteve 
 qua dedi protulerim immediate post prandium et ooenam tempore repera- 
 
 tionum hsM scriptitarunt me memoriter : ut sciunt onines et tu ipse : 
 
 proferente si hosoe libros in tot hominum on vagari opinatus t'uissem 
 alitor lots propicio insudaasem. Sed eos iam revocare nescirem etquando 
 base in hibliothecs excogitatsa [?| ipse exarassemj propter tnei ingenii parvi- 
 tatem facile erat delirare Don dubito : scribimus indocti doctique poemats 
 
 passim, Yiris nobilitate sanguinis vel virtute micantibus sua munimenta 
 scriptores' creberrime dicare Bolent (unite ex antiqus oobilium domo 
 ortum in nodosis artium dyaletice meandris vigilantissimum considero 
 ut smplius circa artes eapescendas elaltorares tibi hos commentarios 
 utcunque Bcriptos dicare proposui hoc munusoulum aon to digaum 
 aocipias sed offerentis animum sspiciss. Robertus valterson hading- 
 tonensis in hoc oollegio montis acuti conregens et noster .Johannes 
 tacariaa censis te saluere iubent Yale. 
 
 [Ibid, fol clxx.] 
 
 Johannes Maioh ingenue indole iuveni et discipulo semper amato. 
 Xiniano Hum. S. 1). 
 
 Dum orebrius mecum ipse tacit us revolverem cuiusnam nomine' quos olim 
 meis dyaletice artis tyrunculis oodicellos de par vis logicalibus vocitatos 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 419 
 
 tribueram improcessioni mandarentur, multis de causis quae meum animum 
 exangebantj turn propter gravissimum ilium febrium morbum quo fere 
 men vita extincta est, turn etiam propter impestrivas[?] et improvisas im- 
 pressorum assiduaq. deprecationes : quae hinc illicque me anxium redde- 
 bantj an videlicet imprimendi venirent: oum a tempore illo quo sunt 
 emissi i i>s<>s non viserim, nee in i psis ab omnibus mendis corrigendis 
 Horatii consilio plures annos vacuerim propter infinita psene quae nosti 
 impedimenta. Alia ex parte instabant artis impressorise magistri : 
 rationibus nostrum animum obruentes. Turn propter ipsorum codicel- 
 lorum oommoditatem quod si qui liis pueri infundent brevi proculdubio 
 nodosas complurium argutiarum huiusce artis dyaletice difficultates dis- 
 solvent. Et cum mm solum nobis ipsis nati siinus, sed etiam propinquis, 
 dicebant me quoddammodo ad hoc iure divino et humano astringi. Hac 
 potissimum ratione parum eis adhaerenS; et adhuc me inscio, eorum 
 aliquid impressioni demandarunt. Tandem tot victus rationibus cessi : 
 el codicellos tradidi imprimendos, supposito tamen quod nunquam nostro 
 aspectui afferentur, propter continuas mihi lectiones faciendas. Scilicet 
 quempiam comperireut qui ineptas eorum mendas extergeret. Et a me 
 expetito uni tribui Magistrum philippum de clermont quern nosti qui 
 ipsos reviseret. Cum igitur hasce curas in me revcdverem, in mentem 
 subiit : 111c inn- circa palestram Litterariam et precipue artem dyaleticam 
 nodositatesque eius discutiendas dissolvendasque animus. Quamobrem 
 tibi soli commode dicandum putavi. Hoa ergo codicellos ad te velut eorum 
 patronum mitto quos semper apud te habeas ; non enim solum uni studio 
 insudandum est, sed uni vacans alterum non omittas, Et cum te leges 
 fastidierint bos codices nonnunquam vises. Quoniam facile tibi prame- 
 bunt methodu[m]ad leges multofaciliuscapiundas. .Me apud Magistrum 
 Georgium tournebulle commendatum facies. Vale meque u1 soles ama. 
 Ex aedibus nostris parisiacis decimaquinte kalendas Junias. 
 
 [In Quartum Sent. 1509.] 
 
 jf[ Generosissiho nec minus erudito et imprimis obseruando domino 
 Alexandra Steward diui Andree archipresuli et Scotie primati : 
 Iohannes Maior theologorum minimus cum (mini veneratione 
 salutem elicit. 
 
 Cum annis hiis preteritis aliquas lucubratiunculas in sententiia nostro 
 auditorio tradiderimus et aliquas penes nos domi seruauerhnus, j)lusculos 
 dies volutabam, eruditissime presul, an eas impressas lectum iri sinerem, 
 tandem expandimus vela ventis, sed quia aurum ar^entum et cetera id 
 genus in gazophilatium domini offerre nequiuimus pro virili cum muliere 
 cananea micas de mensa domini cadentes, et cum moabitide spicas manus 
 messorum effu^ientes simul colligere gestiebamus et omnia in taberna- 
 culum domini secundum talentum nobis traditum offerre. Uerum cui 
 vigiliolas dicarem post longam explorationem te aptior occurrebat nemo, 
 turn opus ipsum propter te partim excudimus turn ut tibi in studiis 
 
420 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 currenti calcaria ocius currendi ministrarem et ad theologians (que pro- 
 uincie tibi imposite maximopere conducit) incenderem, turn quia con- 
 terraneus et in lauacro tue dyocesis regeneratus sum et ut apud Tullium 
 prime offieiorum preelare scriptum est non solum nobis nati sumus sed 
 partem patria vendicat et amici. At nescio qua natale solum duleedine 
 cunctos ducit et immemores non sinit esse sui. Et si hec sub verborum 
 lenocinio ad mulcendas tuas aures delicatissimas non dedimus, non 
 demirabere, michi satis erit more patrum et neotbericorum nostre profes- 
 sionis omne illud quod venit in mentem memoria dignum sub verbis 
 theosopbie primo occurrentibus raptim committere calamo, nec fucatorum 
 verborum indiga est tbeologia, domus marmorea supertieietenus, non 
 querit dealbari, ymo si dealbetur nitorem amittit et terminos peeuliare> 
 quelibet scientia sibi vendicat, nostros viros quos barbaros appellitant 
 in venere dicendi non ille pidus iohannes picus legere et adamussim 
 releirere non erubuit, quorum partes contra hermolaum barbarum (ut in 
 quadam eius epistola tibi peculiari liquet) elaborat tueri. Rursus si a 
 veritatis tramite me labi contigerit canere palinodium (sicut par est) 
 studebo. Sed hiis qui nos minus probabiliter in materia ancipiti opinari 
 een-ent dictum velim velle suum cuique est domus que apud forum 
 extructa est quod editior sit vel depressior (quam equum videatur) sepe 
 contenditur que dicunt medulitas excoquant antequam nos a tergo feriant 
 maledicorum censuras aspernamur iudicium proborum non declinamus 
 dummodo sit lusco qui possit dicere lusce loripedem rectus deride at 
 etbiopem albus. Sed nobis consolationi erit paucissimis scriptoribus non 
 canonieis multa frabricantibus [sic] in nullo aberrare concessum est, nichil 
 est ex omni parte beatum et quandoque bonus dormitat homerus sancte 
 matris ecclesie et sacre facultatis theologie parisiensis et ubiuis gentium 
 doctoram determinationi omnia committo. Xec stupendum est quod ego 
 homuncio crassa minerua preditus ancer inter olores obstripens dauus non 
 edippus nunc titubem condimentum cibo per aduerbium dubitandi ap- 
 ponens nunc ieiune et aride tricas nodosas pertransio circa immensum 
 opus nostris bumeris impar et legendo et scribendo insudamus. Quo 
 circa multa tangere ad perpendiculum non poteramus, aliis occasionem 
 indagande veritatis enucleatius impartiuisse sufficiat, e dumo leporem 
 exiguus canis venaticus exitat quern ad iugum montis concendentem 
 magnus cum oblectamento capit ac filum unus facit et telam alius orditur. 
 Accipe igitur hoc munusculum accipe quantillum sit tuo faustissimo 
 nomini nuncupatum. Vale. Ex collegio montis acuti pridie kalendas 
 Januarias. Anno domini Millesimo quingentessimo octauo. 
 
 I liber haud ullo decoratus pumice gressum 
 
 Flecte celer nostra carbasa solue domo 
 Curre per occeanum te mitto videre britannos 
 
 Andree sacri limina tutus adi 
 Hie manet antistes humili quern voce salutes 
 
 Eius custodes sintque precare deos 
 Qui cum maiore referet tibi gaudia vultu 
 
 Una dies mecum quam tibi mille darent. 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 421 
 
 [In Quart urn Sent. 1509.] 
 
 Dialogus inter duos magistros Johannem formam precentorem 
 glasguensem et Pctrum sandelands rectorem de calder. 
 
 lohannes. quas nudiustertius accepi litteras de patria michi periocunde 
 fuerunt domine rector quare remigrare in patriam ocissime urgeor, 
 ut michi comes sis itineris te exoratum facio. Pe. lares nunc patrios 
 visere recuso, aurelium vel andegauos propediem sum petiturus ut legibus 
 vacem. Jo. probe agis ut te cura quam habes dignum reddas. Pe. ad 
 hoc si fata sinant enitar nec in hac parte magistri nostri consilio acquies- 
 cere institui qui studium theologicum michi suadens ad kalendas grecas 
 persuadebit humilis sortis tantum viros theologie se dedere intueor. Jo. 
 nec voto viuitur unOj mille hominum species et rerum discolor vsus, nullum 
 caput omnis homo habet opinetur ut volet, tecum assentior studium 
 legum nobilibus et hiis qui ad honorum apicem conscendere anhelant 
 inprimis'petendum. Sed cum inter loquendum de viro illo incidimus cedo 
 nonnulla que de eo sum indagaturus inter mortales quid mente gerat 
 optime nosti dum sub eo manum ferule subduximus in artibus et meum 
 discessum diu moram traxistis familiariter mutuo. Pe. Licet ei modus 
 sit ut melius me nosti Mo amico archana sue mentis detegere tamen quo 
 ad aliqua est coopertus. Sed venare in hiis que intellexi et respondere 
 (si conducat) curabo. Jo. Quare non proficiscitur in natale solum her- 
 cule mirandum est pro eius aduentu in patriam pia mater flagrat et dum 
 de eo sermo habetur suspiria cum singultibus ab imo pectore trahit 
 genas lacrimis frequenter irrorans. Pe. causam sue more michi hactenus 
 occuluit amphibologice suo more me querente ad hoc ruent ipsum vige- 
 simum annum nunc intrare asserit peregrinationis sue extra patriam et 
 cum ilium compleuerit unam medietatem in patria alteram extra patriam 
 absoluisse putat laborem Humerus quadragenarius representat ut in . xv . 
 distL inferius in eo considerabis si spiritus inquit suos regat artus illo 
 curriculo extincto lucidius quid dicere velit explicabit. Si aliud exoptes 
 oraculum apolinis consulito ad locum sue originis nisi interim intereat 
 suapte natura salmo tendit. Jo. Cum tua responsio in hac parte sit 
 tenebrosa aqua in nubibus aeris earn missam facientes quid in ocio litter- 
 ario faciat aperias. Pe. Quartum sententiarum olim ab eo conflatum 
 calcographis dat imprimendum unam partem adhuc habet in incude et id 
 cause fuit dum unam partem imprimendam daret non ab re mutant 
 propositum ab exordio questiones nonnullas solum in materiis scholasticis 
 tractauit nunc autem super singulas distinctiones questionem unam vel 
 plures scribere satagit et potissimum in. xv. distinct, xxiiii. et xxxviii. ne 
 opus mancum in potioribus membris appareret. Jo. Proth iupiter opus 
 contortum et inconcultatum ex hiis liquet emittere necesse est cum 
 nunquam integrum exemplar simul pre manibus haberet. Pre. [sic] Hoc 
 vehementer veretur. Sed postquam ipse librum publice ut proponit legerit 
 secundum exemplar tertius euadet. Jo. Ut te cum familiariter colloquar 
 
422 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 a plerisque recta putatur sententia comia nichil dictum de nouo. Si niel 
 ah aliis apibus mellificatum colligat earum surda aure pertransiens iniuria 
 earum diues putabitur. Pe. De dicto terentii modica est danda fides qui 
 dixere aliqua de nouo venemur et quando fuit status noua dolandi et 
 quare citius illo tempore quam alio. Ex isto nee euangelium nee ethnicum 
 aliquem in prophanis scribentem nee ecclesie doctores post id temporis 
 aliquid in auditum fabricare concludes quod non minus est absonum 
 quam falsum. Aliud obiectum eneruare non est difficile per modum inter 
 non in celebres viros vulgarem cum ab emulis ([iiod homerum ad litteram 
 nonnunquam mutaretur mantuanus vates carperetur magHarum dicebat 
 esse virium clauam de maim herculis surripere et cum priori de equali 
 palma dimicabat secundum illud iuuenalicum conditor iliades eantabitur 
 atque maronis utrinque ambiguam faciencia carmina palmam sic a grecis 
 marcus tullius latine lingue parens repetundarum accusatur identidem in 
 predicamentis architam et pitbagoram in primis libris problumatum hypo- 
 cratem philosophorum princeps insequi non erubuit eorum nomina 
 silentio pertransiens a quibus multa frugifera colligerat. Hoc ipsum 
 sue professionis fecere viri semel in quarta parte ravmundi mentionem 
 facit alexander alensis quern irrefragabilem appellitant quotiens reminis- 
 citur altisiodorensis contemplaberis sic albertus, aquinas, noster conter- 
 raneus, et innumeri heroici (quos ciere longum foret) factitarunt et hand 
 iniuria aliorum id actum putes non ideo quia maiores sic rati sunt dixere 
 sed quia vel eis probabili ratione vel auctoritate aliunde constabat aliis 
 adinuentionibus cunclusiones obstipantes et eas acrius oppugnantes et 
 illud luce meridiei est splendidius cum aliorum mendis emunctis bene- 
 dicta sumpsere. Kursus opinationem aliquant ob elencum sopbisticum 
 primus ponit (juam validiori argumentatione secundus munit paucis 
 tamen rationibus et quidem tenuibus quatit sed earn solidius tertius 
 roborat argutiis magne molis ferit quas medullitus eneruat tunc palam 
 est hanc opinionem non magis primo quam secundo secundo quam tertio 
 ascribendam fore huius tempestatis viris quare non dabis veniam faciendi 
 quod sapientibus ubiuis gentium concessum est. Ceterum magistrum 
 nostrum auguror positiones maiorum nominatim recensere si ei occurrant 
 nec ulli hominum extra ea que lidei sunt in opinando esse addictum 
 argumenta quedem [sic] vulgaria que nodosiora esse solent nulli hominum 
 merito attribuit licet a multis doctorellis qui ea eluere nequibant assu- 
 mantur sicut in rerum possessione quod in nullius hominis est potestate 
 licet sit apud alium animantem id occupanti conceditur ut puta de talibus 
 de dilectione dei antea instans de ablatione successiua granorum de 
 voluntate innumeros homines interimendi et ceteris id genus et si a 
 theologie primoribus huiuscemodi argumentationes pretermisse sunt non 
 vicio dandum putaverim sed necessarium eas colligere ideo eas preteriere 
 nolentes a precipuis obsenticosa argumenta impediri. Forte etiam suam 
 famam que magna erat et merito apud vulgus exponere discrimini pro 
 enodatione talium tricarum nolebant. Die sodes mi iohannes quas fabri- 
 casti obiectiones baculo arundineo iuituntur [sic]. lo. Hac lege cuilibet 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJORS WORKS 
 
 423 
 
 facile erit librum ioui dignum posteritati tradere optima queque deser- 
 pendo posthabitis erroribus. Pe. Illationem e uestigio eo inficias erit ne 
 ignanus [sic] censor inter vera et tenebrosa falsa qua via zizaniam a tritico 
 enucleabit cum quedam falsa multis viris non refert esse probabiliora est 
 enim via que videtur homini recta et nouissima eius ducunt ad mortem 
 hanc rationem in calce ethices aristoteles diluit. Jo. Et si tuas respon- 
 siones equitati consentaneas admittam tamen satius fuisse auguror magi- 
 strum nostrum ob dicaculos nugigerulos nasutos et sussurones tacuisse 
 debere illotis sermonibus hii omnia fedant ut docti apud vulgus emineant. 
 Pe. Non me fugit optime precentor nasum renocerotis habens more pice 
 blacterans se coturnicem credens omnia sinistre interpretabitur nec earn 
 ob rem nomen docti viri sed inuidi nanciscetur scite apud iuuenalem 
 legitur inuidet figulus figulo etc. lingua eius manifestum eum facit et a 
 fructibus eius eum cognoscetis ideo maledicit quia benedicere nescit pro 
 pane lapidem et pro ouo dans scorpium in oculo fratris festucam a 
 remotis in proprio egre trabem contemplatur nimirum secundum Ac- 
 tionem esopi aliorum errata a fronte et nostra a tergo ferimus amplius 
 aliorum vultus per lineam rectam nostros solum per reflexam et in 
 corpore leni contemplamur talibus canibus os marcialicum rodendum 
 damus qui ducis vultus et non a ides ista libenter omnibus inuideas liuide 
 nemo tibi propter tales grunientes porcos maiores nostri non tacuerunt 
 quare quos ex suo dolatorio libros viri presentes fabricant in lucem 
 emittere propter zoilos verebuntur qui considerat ventum nunquam 
 seminat et qui nubes formidat non metet. Jo. Perbelle facis amici 
 partes in re lionesta tutans nec peruicaciter obloquor ut virum a scriptura 
 deterream eum rei publice prodesse velle reor et non segniter vitam 
 degere dii cepta secundent perpetuo nexu amoris nos iunctos esse nosti 
 verum si non sim tibi tedio mi suauissime i>etre edissere cur diui andree 
 archipresuli hunc librum deuouere instituit quia apud nostras aures sic 
 rumor increbruit. Pe. Dii boni gratissima sunt michi tua quesita colloqui 
 de rebus amici communis est voluptuosum ea propter libens respondebo 
 rationibus non aspernendis opinatione mea ducitur cui librum citius nun- 
 cupare debeat quam illi cuius gratia ilium conflauit amplius antistitem 
 magno adiumento ecclesie scotice futurum si vitam protrabant superi 
 existimat cum stematibus maiorum ad virtutem inflammabitur cum ab 
 unguiculis et a teneris annis sub circunscripta tutela et litteratissimis 
 preceptoribus religiosissime educatus sit sic quod in angusto temporis 
 curriculo omnium iudicio qui nouere in virum opido eruditum euasit 
 potissimum in romana lingua greca et legibus reliquum est theologie et 
 altioribus studiis suo officio congruentibus sese accomodare. Et cum 
 supremo britannorum sanguini de quo noster primas satus est, multam 
 doctrinam et morum probitatem (que indies coalescit) adiecerit cui eo 
 neglecto sine iniuria primitias sui laboris in tbeologia dicare poterat. Jo. 
 Ingenue fateor rationibus non caducis ducitur et meis rogationibus 
 medius fidius ita scite respondisti ut tedium foret ulterius obiicere et quia 
 domino meo me vocante per litteras ut nosti citissime discedere cogor 
 
424 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [APPENDIX LI. 
 
 verum si librorum aut pecunie egeas michi resera et mea omnia sicut 
 propria accipias, Pe. Quamuis scolastieorum morbus ut aiunt peculiaris 
 sic egestas habentibus beneficium pecunie raro aut nunquam desunt ad 
 votum et pecuniam et libros meo studio sufficientes habeo sed de tua 
 liberalitate immensas gratias habeo sed si vestes aut alia munuscula 
 parisii vel rothomagi ut moris est empturus es ut domi in nouo aduentu 
 largiaris amicis si non satis pecuniarum habes expete audacter et non 
 negabo. Jo. michi deest nichil sed tibi regratior. vale petre vita loiiira 
 et bona nestoreos petre tibi iupiter errogat annos. Si non sufficiant 
 mathusalem superes. Pe. Et bene valeas mi iohannes caram matrem 
 amicos et magistrum Robertum watterson magistro nostro amicissimum 
 meo nomine et suo salutem dices. 
 
 [In Quartum Scut. 1609.] 
 
 David crenston in sacra pagiua bacchalarius ad lectores. 
 
 Et si diis parentibus preceptoribusque (ut ille nature prodigium 
 aristoteles testatur) eque ualens reddere valemus minime. Id tamen 
 equum ducere non dubitaui : si aliquantulum benefaciendi occasio olim 
 oblata foret, pro virium tenuitate meo preceptori obsequium prestare 
 valerem. Cum igitur michi preclarum elaboratumque opus in quartum 
 sententiarum ingeniosissimi preceptoris mei de me apprime meriti ac 
 conterranei magistri nostri Maioris, sub cuius vexillo primis pueritie 
 stipendiis merui in manus deuenerit nostras : quo profecto nunc practice 
 modo speculatiue sententiam examinatam septuplo probatam purgatam- 
 (|iie singulis super materiis eiusdem quarti depromptam curauit : quo nulla 
 alta me ingratitudine aecusare valeret : pro virili mea lectoris manuduc- 
 tioni consulens tabulam alphatico [sic] ordine contextam putassem adiici, 
 si temporis angustia regentie prouincia (qua profecto plurimum distrahor) 
 viriumque debilitas non a voto animum cohibuissent. Uerum id partim 
 consulto faciundum censui : si non quod necessitas exigit tamen quod 
 administrant vires exequi cupierim. Quoniam librum raptim lectitando 
 non ad amussim castigatum ab omnique erroris labe expurgatum comperii, 
 nouam castigationem expectantes temporis habita ratione alium indicem 
 paulo strictiorem, distinctiones, questionesque certo tenore enucleantem 
 adiiciendum curauimus qui nempe lectoris directioni conducere poterit : 
 cum singulis in questionibus doctoris resolutionem sub paucis detegere 
 non neglexerimus : folium columnamque certis quotationibus assignare 
 studuimus baud secus nostrum dirigere processum valuimus ubi calcho- 
 graphorum incuria alphabeticos caracteres (qui ceterorum librorum mar- 
 ginibus et § exordiis adiungi solent) iniectos inuenimus minime. Proinde 
 alphabeticam tabulam libro paulominus fuisse aptam ambigit nemo. 
 Attamen secundum virium oportunitatem castigationi operam dantes 
 necessarium quid (annuentibus superis) imposterum omittemus nusquam. 
 Hanc ergo tantarum rerum copiositas cui minus nostre sufficiunt vires 
 exigit opellam. Quod si minus digestum exactum ve quid notauerimus 
 benignus lector lectori veniam dabit. 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 V2o 
 
 [In Primum Sent. 1-510.] 
 
 E PISTOL A. 
 
 Eoannes Maior professorum Theologia? minimus : domino Georgio 
 Hepburnensi laudatissimi coenobii de Arbroth abbati dignissimo : 
 & serenissimi Scotorum regis a secretis prudentissimo ac fidelis- 
 simo cum observantia S. 
 
 Quoniam anno superior^ pater cum primis venerande., elucidatiunculas 
 quasdam & ab auditoribus nostris quotidiano ferme convicio efflagitatas 
 in quartum magistri sententiarum cum earum qualibuscunque decisionibus 
 quaestiunculas emisimus, emissas explanavimus, explanatasque studiosis 
 theologia? alumnis in honestissimo Montisacuti apud Parrhisios eollegio, 
 domo mihi tutrice semperque cum veneratione nominanda, sub magistro 
 nostro Xatale Beda, eiusdem collegii primario & vigilantissimo & doc- 
 ti>vimo, vel eo absente sub magistro Nicolao Trevero, viro sane docto, 
 fructifera? disputationis examine discutiendas subministravimus, eorun- 
 dem aliorumque qui meas non nihili faciunt lucubratiunculas, & oppor- 
 tunis & importunis hortationibus & precibus, evictus. Primum pra?fati 
 magistri sententiarum nostra theologica Minerva utcunque elucidatum 
 exire permisi in tuum, pater lionorande, optatissimum tutissimum 
 sinum, quern ut tua 1 venerationi nuncupatum benivole suscipias maiorem 
 in modum obsecro. Non enim est cui mea quantulacunque sunt dicare & 
 pra?scribere aut lubentius velim aut iustius possim, turn propter incu- 
 nabulorum nostrorum coniunctionem arctissimam ; vix etenim ab Halis, 
 domo celsitudinis tua? altrice, ter mille natus & educatus sum passibus. 
 Sines igitur hanc quoque opellam nostram praeclare bibliotheca? tua? acce- 
 dere : nosque dignaberis dedititiorum tuorum consortio ascribere. Yale. 
 Ex Monteacuto ad septimum calendas Ianuarias : Anno salutis nostra 1 
 Millesimo Quingentesimo Nono. 
 
 [Ibid.] 
 
 Dialogus de Materia Theologo Tractanda. 
 
 Dialogus inter duos famatos viros magistrum Gawinum Douglaiseum 
 virum non minus eruditum quam nobilem : ecclesia? beati Aegidii 
 Edinburgensis pra?fectum : & magistrum Davidem Crenstonem in 
 sacra theosophia baccalaureum formatum optime meritum. 
 
 [D.] Salve pra?fecte dignissime. G. Salve & tu vir charissime. Sed 
 qua? te hue afflavit aura ? Sa?pe enim oratum ut de re literaria tecum com- 
 miniscat exorare ut nos visas non potui. D. Non voluntas : sed facultas 
 parendi defuit : verum earn oh rem nunc ultro advenio. G. Optata 
 loquerisj hoc triduo primum sententiarum magistri nostri Maioris legi 
 quern iamiam emisit in auras : quern permonitum velim ut relictis 
 scholicis exercitiis natale solum repetat : atque illic vineam dominicam 
 
426 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [APPENDIX IL 
 
 colat : & concionando semina evangelica : unde optimos fructus animae 
 fidelium demetant late longeque dispergat. D. Id quidem se alioquin 
 facturum proponit : sed interea temporis ob hoc muiiere 11011 segniter 
 desistit. Nam quae praedicanda decenter scribunt : non suo tantum ore : 
 sed omnium quos erudierunt prsedicant : nec uno tantum sa>culo, sed quot- 
 quot eorum doctrina steterit. G. Accipio, sed ut Flaccus ait, Mortalia 
 facta peribunt. Debemus morti nos nostraque. Et Aeneas Sylvius 
 (postea Papa Pius dictus) de situ minoris Asiae loquens : Aristotelis 
 scripta inquit aliquando temporis edacitate absumenda sunt: ideoque 
 bonum fuerit eum operari cibum quod non perierit. D. Quo tempore 
 peritura sint Aristotelis aliorumque scripta nec definitum est a Pio : 
 neque si definitum fuerit omnino pro concesso recipiendum fuerit. G. 
 Totum assentior: sed tanta est nunc librorum congeries, ut quorsum se 
 divertat ignoret quodlibet. D. In quolibet libro aliquod frugiferum 
 invenies : & opus ab aliquibus neglectum in magno precio est apud alios 
 propter varias materias occurrentes, unde ut ecclesiastes ait, scribendi 
 libros nullus est finis. G, Contra illud non multum reluctabor: sed de 
 isto genere scribendi plerique obloquuntur : it rugata fronte theologos 
 apparenter subsannant. & id causa 1 e>t quod pluries Aristotelem in 
 physico auditu & prima philosophia cum eius commentatore allegatum in- 
 venies, quam doctores ecclesiae. D. Secundum materias occurrentes nunc 
 pbilosophum nunc doctores ecclesia* scribentes introducing : unumque 
 facientes aliud non omittunt : ut theologiam scientiarum deam a vera 
 philosophia non deviare ostendat : & parvulos per manuductiones in fide 
 alant : secundum beati Petri eloquium : parati semper ad sanctificationem 
 omni poscenti vos rationem de ea quae in vobis est spe. G. Pace tua non 
 satisfacis. videre enim nequeo quantum theologias conducat tot frivolas 
 positiones de relationibus intensione forma 1 an sint ponenda puncta in 
 continuo : & de ceteris id genus prodigaliter pertractare. siquidem 
 aditum ad theologiam ha»e non ministrant : sed obfuscant & obtenebrant. 
 Non sic autem ad Spartiatas Ionathas, it Machabaei scriptitarunt. libros 
 enim sanctos quos prae manibus habuere, sibi solatio esse afhrmarunt. 
 Et Timotheo apostolus inquit. Tu permane in his qua? didicisti & credita 
 sunt tibi : sciens a quo didiceris : & quia ab infantia sacras literas nosti 
 te possunt instruere ad salutem. Hoc ipsum ad Titum scribit. In pro- 
 logo ([uarti illius sententia? noster Maior (ut in lumine patet) erat : nunc 
 suorum dictorum immemor ad ea qua? tunc floccipendit utriusque oculi 
 aciem convertit. D. Hunc modum scribendi in sententias a trecentis 
 annis scriptores observavere : et si pra?ter rationem id factum esse censeas 
 ius (ut vulgari ter aiunt) communis error facit. bibliam & faciliores 
 theologia3 partes nonnulli exoptant. absconsas & intricatas calculationes 
 alii : modo (secundum apostoli sententiam) Gra?cis & Barbaris debitor est 
 theologus. Ea? autem quas existimant qua?stiones futiles crebro scalam 
 intelligentia? ad sacras literas capessendas praestant Quinetiam in fronte 
 huius primi Maior noster eiusdem est mentis cum exordio quarti. sicut 
 frequenter ab eius ore accepi, & accipio. Quae vero aliorum opinationes 
 
APPENDIX IT.] 
 
 MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 427 
 
 peregrinas noimulli recensent : cv: eas multiplied genere argument! exu- 
 beranti verborum dicacitate eonfutant : nunquam approbavit. talium 
 enim caducarum positionum succincta recitatio, earundem est sufficiens 
 explosio. In materiis vero utrinque, apparentibus maiori mora opus est : 
 & hunc modum tenere ratus est magister noster. G. A theologo ha?c 
 praesupponi habent : et prius in philosophia videnda : & si ita factum 
 fuerit compendiose non improbaverim. D. In theologia ha?c consulto 
 scribentes interserunt Turn primo ut philosophos ad boc sanctum 
 stadium more Origenis inducant & alliciant : Turn secundo quia vix 
 iactis in philosophia solidis fundamentis provectas a^tatis viri ad theologiam 
 advolant : ({ui manum supponere ferula? in artibus erubescerent : & 
 tamen hi sub theologia? umbra minutatim haec colligunt : et si in his 
 eruditi fuerint sapientiores evaserint. quia secundum sapientem, audiens 
 sapiens sapientior erit. llursus non ab re relicto aratro oblectamenti 
 gratia murem arator nonnunquam prosequitur. & in vitis patrum me- 
 morise proditum est plerosque nulla spe lucri perlectos : sed vitandi ocii 
 causa rebus mechanicis operam navasse non modicam. G. Non sic insti- 
 tutum istud laudas : sed errores sub quodam velamine veri tueri satagis & 
 id paucis tibi detegere enitar. Postquam enim magnam partem ocii 
 literarii in philosophia aristotelica sententiarii consumpsere : non modo 
 eius scripta : sed & modum scribendi usurpant ut in praeludio primi libri 
 dialectices Laurentius Yallensis qua? res an plura quam alius quispiam 
 Aristoteles composuerit, sic inquit. Sed & plura compilavit : in quo 
 improbitatem eius licet cognoscas : quod qua? compilat non illis refert 
 accepta a quibus sumpsit : sed sibi vendicat : & eosdem ubicunque pec- 
 casse opinatur citius ardentem flammam ore continere posset quam non 
 nominare. Sicut Aeneas Sylvius de palestepsi minoris Asia 1 de Aristotele 
 loquens sic asserit. Sed melius cum eo actum est quam cum reliquis : 
 quorum opera funditus periere : & ipse causa extitit cur multa perirent : 
 quod aliorum gloria ad se traxit. Sicut in secundi libri capite de logica 
 Valla recitat : sic de theologia sententiarum invenies. Cum rursus ait, 
 quicquid innnitis libris tradiderunt, id ore paucissimis tradi pra^ceptis 
 potuisse animadverto. Quid igitur aliud causa? tantae prolixitatis credas 
 fuisse nisi inanem arrogantiam eorum quod dum vites longe lateque dif- 
 fundi sarmentis gaudent uvam in labruscam mutaverunt? Adde, quod 
 indignissimum est, cum captiones cavillationes calumnias video quas cv: 
 exercent & docent, non possum eis non succensere, quasi pyraticam non 
 navalem rem : sive (ut mollius loquar) pala?stra? pro militia disciplinam 
 tradentibus. Erat enim dialectica res brevis prorsus & facilis, id quod 
 ex comparatione rhetorica? diiudicari potest. & paucis interiectis dicit. 
 Nulla doctrina mihi brevior facilioiMjue (juam dialectica videtur, ut quod 
 aliis maioribus servit : quam non intra plures quis menses quam gramma- 
 tica intra annos perdiscet. Sed videlicet huius puella? parens dum timet 
 ne filia sua qua? fusca qua? strigosa qua 1 pusilla est nullos inveniat pro- 
 cos, magna? dotis specie <£ ambitu commendandam putavit : ut multos 
 sollicitaret ad contubernium eius. Multi itaque sine dubio spe divitiarum 
 
428 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 concurrunt, sed non fere alii quam plebei, obscuri, ignobiles, omnium 
 rerum inopes : & quod alias facilitates ad veras divitias desperarent. Id 
 idem rectissime modo nunc theologicam tractanti contingit, optimatum 
 & locupletum liberi & logica & theosophia relicta ad leges ocyssime post 
 auditas summulas ruunt. Magnam affluentiam ad summulas in Navarrae 
 collegio vel Burgundiae facile est reperire, sed ob penuriam licentian- 
 dorum in fine cursus cum bursa vacua regentes discedunt, & totus 
 error est quoniam tritico relicto ad paleas curritur. Quid de theologicis 
 neotericis in dialogo de libero arbitrio idem Valla dicat quaeso considera. 
 D. Fallaciam non causa? ut causa? in medium affers dignissime praefecte. 
 multa veritati consona recitasti. quam in iuvenili aetate quae studio accom- 
 moda, omnes finem statuunt ut in maturioribus annis tranquille vivat : 
 optimatum filii omni studio praetermisso favore parentum ad honores 
 passim conscendunt De te tuique similibus minime loquor, sed de iis 
 quos vulgo videmus. Non enim multi Parisienses de opulenta domo 
 orti ad gradum in artibus vel theologia ascendunt, sed legibus operam 
 raptim navant, ut demum palatini evadant. & qualitercunque theo- 
 sophia tractaretur, id idem lieret. Ad dicta Laurentii respondere 
 inopportunum est. nulli hominum generi (ut nosti) vir ille pepercit : 
 et in eius dialectieae (potius in deliramentis philosophiae) ])lura errata 
 inseruit quam maculae in pardo reperiantur. (juia modum theologorum 
 in dialogo quern recitas imitari noluit : omnem libertatem ab animo 
 inscite eripuit. prae eo cum Pogio consulito, ad alia de Aristotele in 
 praesentiarum subticeo. G. Haec igitur missa faciens ad aliud me con- 
 verto. xxiiii. distinctione noster Maior modum ilium menti Aristotelis 
 conformem putat : quod minus idoneo beneficium conferens perperam 
 agit. id multipliciter oppugnavi, sed responsionem habui ab eo nullam. 
 D. Hoc ab ipso intellexi. succincte cV; subtiliter in quodam codicello 
 a te misso hoc impugnasti. sed ipsius negligentia codex ille amissus 
 est proculdubio : quocirca (si placeat) veniam dabis amico. In materia 
 enim problematica utramvis partem vt nosti tueri sciret si vellet : 
 sed illam rationi conformiorem putavit. G. Pro eo veniam implorare 
 noli, quam enim coniunctus est mihi patria : tarn coniunctus est amicitia. 
 Intervallum inter Tentalon & Glegornum de quo oriundus est bene nosti 
 opinor. D. Optime novi : iter sabbati in lege Mosaica vix haec intercapedo 
 suscipit. G. Temporis angustia me premit : discedere operae precium 
 est. bene valeas : it me nostro Maiori commendatum facito. U. Bene 
 valeas generose praefecte, faciam id ac lubens. 
 
 [In Sec and am Sent. 1510.] 
 
 Ludovico coronel Autonius coronel. S. P. dicit. 
 
 Xon possum ego, studiosissime frater, non magnopere laetari summum 
 rerum opificem, deum potiusquam fortunam, nobiscum tarn prospere tarn 
 rlementer egisse, ut nobis commodam opportunitatem faceret adeundi 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJORS WORKS 
 
 429 
 
 huiusque celeberrimi omnium Htterarum emporii parisiensis : ad quod 
 ingenti concursu a remotissimis quibuscunque mundi regionibus tanquam 
 ad bonarum artium mercaturam cuiuslibet sortis liomines profisciscuntur : 
 quo sitim ardoremque doctrinse ac eruditionis ebibendse expleant. Nusquam 
 enim alibi disciplinarum fluenta uberius quam in hac parisiorum achademia 
 scatent, nusquam emanant profusius, nusquam abundantius emergunt, adeo 
 ut rivis inde profluentibus xpianus ager undiquaque fceeundissime irrorent. 
 Qua 1 etenim est gens tarn semota, tarn extrema initio, in quam non procur- 
 rant minima vivacissima? aqua? doctrinae parisiensis. Ex hoc igitur tarn 
 praeclaro parisiorum gymnasio quam plurimi fontes scaturiunt inter quos 
 omnium limpidissimas atque illimes aquas emittit is qui a monte acuto 
 exoritur. Qui instar fontis paradisum deliciarum irrigantis suavissima 
 quadam in morum disciplinarumque aspergine totam parhisiensem 
 achademiam foecundissime alluit hie siquidem mons dei mons pinguis 
 mons coagulatus mons in quo beneplacitum est deo habitare in eo, cui 
 non absurde illud psalmi accommodari poterit nrmamentum in summis 
 montium. Sapientissimum quippe colonum dominus deus olim huic 
 foecundissimo feracissimoquo monti praefecit ioannem standonk, qui iam 
 non apparet quia tulit eum dominus : qui tanto studio tarn vigili cura, ut 
 pra?parat agricolationis divinae studiosus, sic montem ilium excoluit ut 
 non solum triticeas segetes in amplissimam messem, verumetiam plantas 
 cuiusquam generis et varii fructus iugiter continuoque producat. Cum 
 ergo multa sint parhisius gymnasia in quibus litteralis pallestra quam 
 accuratissime atque ferventissime exercetur, gymnasium montis acuti 
 nomen gloriosum adeptum est. Ex cuius grege non inferiorem sibi locum 
 iure vendicare potest Joannes maioris praeceptor noster, quern remotissima 
 abditissimaque et philosophise et theologian doctrina non solum posteritati, 
 verum etiam aeternitati, commendabunt, unius plane viri non a quovis sed 
 ab eloquentissima [?] tamen laucles efferendae veniunt. Quocirca eloquii 
 latini penuria sermonisque tenuitas me cogit qua? ad illius immortalem 
 gloriam spectare videntur supprimere, hoc tamen unum silentio non in- 
 volvam, eum in arte dyalectices inter huius aetatis viros solum constituisse 
 in qua complura scripsit non mediocriter profecto utilia, qua? cum iniuria 
 quin potius inscicia calchographorum tot erratis tot mendis obtenebrata 
 essent ut vel legentibus confusionem ingenerarent vel constare posset 
 ex tanti viri officina eiusmodi libros minime prodiisse : quantumcunque 
 jiotui operam impartitus sum ut hi solito emaculatiores in manus studio- 
 sorum adolescentium venirent. erasis ergo abstersisque erroribus adiecto 
 praster hoc certo . . . orum indice ac tabula hanc opellem et tenuem 
 lucubratiunculam nostram me . . . quam tibi, frater amantissime, dicare 
 constitui : <[uo tibi persuadeas non maio. . fraternitatis quam studii 
 litteralis necessitudine nos pariter esse connexos. ^ r ale. 
 
4,30 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 [In Secundum Sent. 1510.] 
 
 Joannes Maiob Magistro nostro Natali Bede primario collegii nion- 
 tisacuti vigilantissimo : et communitati theologorum eiusdem 
 collegii S. 1). 
 
 Forsitan labe ingratitudinis apud Persas teterrima vel merito nota- 
 rer : si nostrarum lucubrationum, qualescunque sunt ad te et ad theo- 
 logicum cetum cui prees, nihil dicatum destinarem. Multis enini 
 nominibus tibi debeo. Nam cum artes liberates in collegio Barbare sub 
 Magistro Joanne Bulliacho in theologia (ut aiunt) licentiato (cui pluri- 
 mum obnoxius eram et qui nunc habenas grammaticorum regalis collegii 
 Nauarre circumspectissimi moderatur) audiuissem auspiciis tuis Beda, 
 etiam venerabilis, ad magistrum nostrum Standoncum Mechlinianum 
 adductus sum : quo nomine tibi non parum debeo. Magni enim estimaui 
 atque estimo sub umbra talis ac tanti viri quiescere : utpote cuius vite 
 celebritas et integritas ad meothidem usque paludem et ad ultimam 
 tliylen vagata est. Et inter theologos quos tunc primum instituere 
 ceperat : unum annum te cum militaui, quo completo ad regentie, quod 
 vocantj munus, in artibus et ad communitatem aliam, etiam te ei apud 
 quern omnia poteras : vt id faceret persuadente, accersitus sum. Ubi 
 quindecim annus sub ipso et te permansi. Et cum post visas artes fluctu- 
 aret animus desyderio natalis soli, quo nihil dulcius, tandem visendi, tu 
 et prolixioris more isthic trahende et regentie subeunde et litterarum 
 discendarum, que licet in me parue sint per te tamen non stetit quin 
 maiores essent : mihi causa eras. Ingratissimi igitur hominis esset hec 
 tanta beneficia non recognoscere. Quocirca tibi et utriusque communi- 
 tatis theologis sub te militantibus, quorum consocius sum, hanc nostram 
 in Secundum sententiarum opellam et dico et dedico ut ceteros ad theolo- 
 gie studium incenderem : et pignus perpetui in omnis studiosos amoris 
 nostri inter confratres relinquerem. Uale. 
 
 Ex preclaro Montisacuti apud Parrhisios collegio sub Xatalem domi- 
 nie urn M.D.X. 
 
 [Goddamus in libb. Sent. (foL A. 1. if.) 1512.] 
 
 Johannes solo cognomento maior theologorum minimus eruditissimo 
 viro Mattheo galtero doctori theologo in maioris monasterii 
 abbatem electo S. P. D. 
 
 Ego earn ne dicam fortunae sed etherea? cuiusdam sortis electione cum 
 ipse reputarem, prudentissime virorum, demiratus sum qua in pastorem 
 & via quidem honestissima, quam spiritus sancti dicunt, assumptus fueris, 
 non multorum more violenter intrusus es, sed ingenuus conuentus filius 
 & caenobita integerrimus, ita quod sicut in apostolorum actibus super 
 Matthiam sors apostolatus cecidit sic super Mattheum archimandrite 
 sors requievit, non potui non tibi gratulari, gratulari doctis omnibus, 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 431 
 
 gratulari nostro seculo, ita ut fortuna prius ceca in te uno oculos re- 
 cuperasse videatur, quae toties indignos promovere solet ; & quid minim 
 cum amicorum precipuum, cum quo in summulis amicitiae & charitatis 
 iecerim fundamenta, quae viginti annos coaluit, ad houorem sublimem 
 more Aaron vocatum contemplar ; attamen cum in praesentiarum, desin- 
 ente nostri laboris foetura, impressioni Ada? inuigilaremus, quae hactenus 
 calcographis nondum erat praesentatus, plaeuit ipsum nomini tuo dicare. 
 Si vero inter legendum quidam ungue & obeliscis emaculanda comperiant, 
 non id mirum videatuiv, cum inter multa exemplaria vix duo visa sunt 
 conformia, nee sedulum castigatorem me fuisse permiserunt quotidiane 
 lectiones nostri quarti emunctum re & tumultuaria quae intercedere solent 
 negocia : tamen ut cunque est hoc munusculum accipito. Vale felix. 
 
 Elegiacum Carmen. 
 
 Qui fuerat tenebris perfusa latentibus olim 
 
 Clarior igniuomo lima nitore micat. 
 Qui fuerat quondam mendis fallacibus asper : 
 
 Splendicat ex omni sorde politus Adam. 
 
 [Here follows the printer's privilege.] 
 
 [Ibid.fol. A. 2.] 
 
 J)k vita Ade. 
 
 Vitam autoris nusquam me legisse memini : aliqua tamen quae per 
 eius & aliorum monimenta innotescunt scribere enitar. Nostra ex in- 
 sula britannia ea in parte quam angli colunt oriundus est. cognomento 
 goddam alias voddam, professione minoritanus, Oxoniensis achademia? 
 (quae ea in tempestate viros celebres emisit), doctor Londonijs anglorum 
 regia, Oxonie & Norwici plurimum moratus^ quibus in locis duas senten- 
 tiarum lecturas peregit, Okam & Catonis contemporaneus. Utrumque in 
 scholis respondentem audiuit. Materias positiuas & faciles & necnon 
 praecedentium nexus intricatos inutiles aspernatus, theoricas theologas 
 pertractat, interserendo secundum sentential oportunitatem philosophiam 
 moralem & naturalem utilem, acriter perspicue succincte & solide omnia 
 prosequens. Sententias ab eo scriptas nullibi offendi : earum succum & 
 medullam Henricus oyta a centum & viginti annis abhinc extraxit, quern 
 sententias Adae appellamus. Eum nonnunquam abbreuiauit ut in quarto 
 in materia de quautitate videre est. In omnibus librariis & in caracteribus 
 optimis Adam inuenimus quod viro erat magnae laudi ; si eius librum 
 habuissemus lubenti animo eum calcographis tradidissemus, sed illustris 
 viri & eruditi Petri menenes lusitani in theosophia bacchalarii exemplar 
 procuravimus mediocriter castigatum, quod imitari pro maiori parte ele- 
 borauimus [sic], curantes ut tabula alphabetica ad folia & columnas 
 adderetur. Et si pro secundo aut tertio loco inter angliae literatos 
 certauerit duobus sic ei resistit ut quotum locum inter eos optinuerit a 
 
432 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 musis nondum accepi. Primam seclem iam diu venerabilis beda pacifice 
 adeptus, turn quia Oxoniam (sicut athenas humerus) antecessit, turn quia 
 in scriptis bibliacis commentaries, annales patrias, calculationes, tem- 
 porumque supputationes studiosissime composuit, & si sedem secuudam, 
 septuaginta annis Alexander halensis iure quidem oj)timo vendicauerit, ab 
 Okam & Adanio pro eadem dimicatum esset ob veterum maiestatem & ut 
 lite pendente nihil innovetur. Secundo adhuc loco gaudeat. Okam & 
 Adam accedunt in logica & utraque phisophia [sic] pares : in sententiis 
 Okam ampullosus & diffusus, Adam digestus & resolutus ; si Guillermi 
 dyalogus non obstiterit palmam a priore surriperet posterior. Sublimi 
 ingenio & audaci Guillermus, excelso & solido Adam. Ille rugosa fronte 
 dimisso supercilio micantibus oeulis tanquam vir bellator ab adolescentia 
 suadendo dissuadendo seriose disputat ; hie serena fronte eleuato super- 
 cilio ridendo singulis gratus ; omnia diluit ; quocirca neutrum alteri 
 praeferam. Hec sunt quae de autore & vicino in presentiarum scribere 
 libuit. 
 
 \lti Quartum Scut., 151(5.] 
 
 Robertus Senalis loaiini Maiori Theologo Doctori Maximo Praecep- 
 tori suo aeternum vivere. 
 
 Nulla re apertius (meo quidem cogitatu) divinam sapientiam (et si 
 alioqui plurimum admirabilem) clarescere arbitror preceptor suavissime : 
 quam cum tanta sit rerum quae in hunc nostrum orbem suo nutu (qui 
 vice habetur imperii) prodierunt vasta congeries : tanta hominum atque 
 omne genus ferarum ab ipso mundi nascentis exordio ad hanc usque 
 nostram senescentem (quae etiam prope interitum est) aetatem extra omnem 
 numeri aleam multitudo neque tamen unquam neque usquam locorum 
 videre quis (etiam oculatissimus) potuit animantia in toto rerum acervo 
 duo (qui minimus est numerus) quae sese paribus formis typisque simili- 
 bus demonstrarent. At neque ova quidem duo simillima undecunque 
 quaesita reperias : de quibus proverbium tamen exiit cum rerum duarum 
 similitudinem exprimere volumus sic eas esse similes ut nec ovum ovo 
 similius esse possit. Haec tantum in tanta rerum vastitie inter se dis- 
 crepans varietas dei optimi maximi sapientiam thesaurosque nulla arte 
 comprehensibiles apertissimis declarat argumentis. Hinc mille hominum 
 species : hinc rerum discolor usus. At ne quis molem solum corpoream 
 ista quam diximus amictam putet varietate est etiam ipsis spiritibus sua 
 discriminata species vultus dissidens ac diversa effigies. Quod eum non 
 latuit qui ait. Velle suum est nec voto vivitur uno. Haec diversitas 
 sive corporis sive animae iam in confesso habetur : idque adeo ut si quos 
 maiorum monumentis reppererimus sibi fuisse admodum similes illos 
 miraculi atque ostenti vice posteritati commendarit antiquitas : ut non 
 sit ulla res tarn admirabilis ex omnibus quaecunque sub orbe admiranda 
 
appendix ii.] MAJOR'S WORKS 433 
 
 traduntur quam duos spectare qui sese omnibus partibus : lineamentis 
 omnibus perfecta similitudine presentent. At contra si nostri conatus 
 imbecillitatem attendas, vix alteram aut tertiam ingenii feturam ex una 
 atque eandem [sic] officina prodire intelliges : ubi non sit altera alteri per- 
 similis. Id in orationibus aliisque id genus humani intellectus fetibus 
 deprehendere non sit admodum operosum. Nam ubi duas aut tris in 
 vulgum quis ediderit orationes : illas si invicem conferas : sibi cognatae 
 adeo adeoque videbuntur et attiguae : ut unam in altera vel olfacias vel 
 certe manifesto argumento deprehendas. Tu vero pra«ceptor humanis- 
 sime mihi iam maxim e si unquam alias visus es eas divinae sapiential 
 partes assecutus (quantum divina conferre licet humanis) in his tuis qui 
 in Quartu.m Sentemiarum in lucem prodeunt commentariis : quos iam 
 aeneis formulis excusos atque in exemplaria plus mille propagatos totus 
 orbis non sine plausu obviis manibus excipiet. Tanta est enim (absit 
 dicto invidia ut abest assentatio) amenissimi ingenii tui fecunditas ut 
 duos comments riorum fetus veluti fratres uterinos tarn inter se dissimiles 
 licet consenianeos edideris : ut e diversis natos qui unius esse parentis 
 non norit autumet : et cum priores fuerint optimi : posteriores tamen 
 sint longe meliores : us(|ue adeo ut aequo jure de gemellis istis pronun- 
 ciari possit : maior serviat minori. Tanta enim bona pepererunt continu- 
 ata in diversa facilitate studia : quae quia quamprimum me mittes : con- 
 sules partim tuorum auditorum insignium sed defunctorum memoriae 
 inter quos praecipui fuerunt lacobus Almain Senonensis. David Craston 
 tuus conterraneus : et Petrus Bruxelleus ordinis praedicatorum : partim 
 viventium qui plurimi sunt utilitati. Neque est quod formides tot charis- 
 simorum in ocio litterario desurdantium fultus patrociniis. Nihil est 
 inquam quod ora loquentium formides. hi nempe sunt invidiae mores : 
 semper ut antiquos praeferat ilia novis. Sic sua riserunt saecula Maoni- 
 dem. Nam si quis ista tua fetura operosa offendatur ipse secum agat 
 iniuriarum : utpote qui neminem laedat praeter seipsum. Nempe quod 
 palatum : quos oculos : quern tandem vultum sibi assumat : qui tarn 
 utili tarn suavi tamque grata re offendatur ? Hi quicumque illi fuerint 
 si in speculo suis coloribus sese pictos contemplentur : se primum rideant 
 alios deinde admirentur necesse fuerit. Iuvabit te potius illud Petrarchae 
 scitu dignissimum : praestare odiosum esse quam miserabilem nam quis 
 unquam insignis : quis literarum studio clarus hoc invidiae iaculo caruit ? 
 Non defuit Homero suus homeromastix. habuerunt insignes poetae suos 
 zoilos. percurre animo omnes terras omnia secula cunctas historias 
 evolve : vix unquam insignem unum quempiam hac peste immunem 
 reperies. Et ubi plerosque tui similes invidiae fluctibus agitatos depre- 
 henderis gloriandum tibi erit magis quam dolendum : utpote quod tarn 
 insigni illustrium virorum ascribaris consortio. Hinc Themistoclem 
 ferunt turn maxime nihil a se splendidum factum coniectare solitum : 
 cum invidos nullos haberet. Sola enim miseria est quae invidia caret : 
 nec ferunt \sic\ nisi magnos fulgura montes. hinc et lucerna sacri eloquii 
 Hieronymus ita loquitur : fiscelam iunco texerem : si canistrum lentis 
 
 2 E 
 
434 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 iiingerem viminibus : si servile aliquid humile angustum ocio delitescens 
 meditaret : nemo morderet : invideret nemo. Tolerandus est igitur in- 
 vidia? morbus et is quidem morbus quo sint peior a remedia miseria 
 videlicet atque ingenii hebetudo sive inertia. Quod Socrates aptissime hac 
 ironia ostendit percunctanti cuipiam qua arte invidiam abs se depellere 
 posset : si vixeris (inquit) ut Thersistes [sic] : quern virorum novissimum 
 in Iliade Homerus appellat. Qua re cum nihil fedius aut dici aut cogi- 
 tari possit hoc uno te admonitum velim (absit arrogantia verbo) Tu ne 
 cede malis : sed contra audentior ito. Vale itaque atque aeternum vive 
 venerabilissime preceptor. 
 
 Ex fecunda Augusta nostra Suessonum. xiiij. Calendos [sic] Decembres 
 Anni MDXVI. 
 
 [Reportata Duns Scoti, 1517-18.] 
 
 Joannes solo cognomento maior religioso patri francisco de bellavalle 
 doctori theologo ac reformatissimi conventus minorum Parisius 
 gardiano meritissimo. S. 1). 
 
 Xon parva ducor admiratione, vir circumspectissime,, quidnam causae est 
 cur doctoris subtilissimi theologiae percunctatores in relitteraria minorum 
 vexilliferi opera qua? reportata vocant Parisii impressioni non demanda- 
 rentur. Qua propter bibliothecas anxius Parisienses adprime voluminum 
 fecundas perlustravi : ut exemplar aliquod lectione dignum invenirem. 
 Yerum enim vero duo presertim in manus occurrerunt corrupta quidem 
 undequaque et scabrosa ac portentuosa ab ipsaque crebro veritate theo- 
 logica prorsus aliena : quae tamen non sine animi dolore quod opus ipsum 
 toties ab omnibus desideratum situ veternoso oblitteraretur perlegi : et 
 ut tandem theologiae sititoribus satisfacerem impressione dignum censui 
 necnon oxoniensi lecturae louge anteferendum. Nimirum dum oxonie 
 scriberet baccalaureus in nostra dumtaxat theologia erat. Dum vero 
 Parisiis legeret professor et multa topice et interdum tumultuarie in sua 
 oxoniensi lectura discussa peritissime resolvit : et multorum veterum 
 opiniones methaphisices disciplinam concernentes ad theologiam nullius 
 frugi reliquit ; ita ut vix solidum aut theologicum quid in oxoniensi 
 lectura quin id idem in hac lutecie luculenta professione offendes : immo 
 sane illam haec dilucidat enodat et enucleat. Castigationi tamen aliunde 
 prepeditus vacare nequivi. Quare duobus baccalaureis recenter tamen 
 licentiatis, fratri videlicet Jacobo Rufin minoritano ac fratri petro du 
 sault, hunc nostrum montemacutum nobiscum incolenti curam huius 
 codicis emaculandi commisi. Quo fit ut hoc opus diu neglectum improbo 
 labore in lucem emissum a mendisque purgatum hilari fronte suscipias 
 velim studiosissimisque tuis religiosis commendabis. Yale. 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJOR S WORKS 
 
 435 
 
 [In Tcrtium Sent., 1517.] 
 
 EPISTOLA. 
 
 Ioannes solo cognomento maior Matheo galthero doctori theologo 
 perspicacissimo : necnon maioris monasterii abbati vigilantissimo 
 S. P. D. 
 
 Sa?piuscule ratus sum, oculatissime vir, ingratitudine (qua scelus nullum 
 est fedius) me notatum iri si lucubrationum mearum (qualecunque sint) 
 ad te dicarem nichil. Et id causa? est in litterario ludo Parisii tarn in 
 artibus quam in theosophia amultis retro actisannis tecum familiaritatem 
 et amicitiam contraxi non vulgarem : sed talem quod omnium iudicio 
 chariorem te habuerim neminem. In cuius rei argumentum nostro in 
 collegio et passim inter nostrates cum de te sermo incidebat, dicere 
 solent prior aut abbas maioris, si ex tali loquutione augurari liceat, 
 fortasse non abs re dicetur fuisse omnem maioris monasterii te futurum 
 pastorem. sed quocunque spiritu ducti illi communius abbatem maioris 
 te appellitarunt : sive fortuna sive pneuma ne divum ita protulere : tua 
 virtute caudam scilicet monasterium adiecisti. quo circa ut a me banc 
 tetram ingratitudinem aboleam : et ut antiqua? nostra? amicitia? pignus 
 qualecunque apud te repositum sit. Hunc sententiarum tertium de novo 
 excussum tibi nuncupo et devoveo. Accipe ergo hoc opusculum ea fronte 
 qua tibi offertur. Vale. Raptum ex monte acuto pridie Kalend. 
 Decembris. 
 
 [In Mattheeum, 1518.] 
 
 Oppido quam Reverendo nec minus fainigerabili in christo patri & 
 domino domino Iacobo Beton archiprnesuli glasguensi cordatissimo & 
 Scotie cancellario oculatissimo Ioannes solo cognomine maior cernua 
 cum veneratione in eo qui mandat salutes Iacob eviternam fcelicitatem. 
 
 Aegiptiorum olim famigerabilis propago Osirim (quern solem autu- 
 mabat) vano delusa idololatritio venerabatur, illique miranda? venustatis 
 sceptrum insculpebat in quo oculi effigies depingebantur. Quo signi- 
 ficaret eos qui sunt et prothomiste et antecellani sacros codices celestiave 
 charismata linceis argi luminibus et altissima cogitatione circumspicere 
 oportere utpote qui sunt aliorum idea? et imagines. Qua propter non 
 abs re instituit prudens mundi archetypus divina mysteria dumtaxat ab 
 iis pertractari qui sapientia? deosculatores essent. Proinde hebrawum 
 vates et essei sapientia? non minus quam sacerdotio vacabant. Quo fit 
 ut librili mentis acumine obductus cui nostram hanc elumbem feturam de- 
 voverem primus obviis (ut aiunt) ulnis occurristi ut pote qua? singula in 
 tua veneranda dominatione cernere perspicuum est archiantistes augus- 
 tissima? & candidata? cancellaria? qui evangelica? tuba? clepsidra existis, 
 indeficiens ecclesiae columejn doctrina? promptuarium. passim omnium in 
 
436 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 ore haberis predicaris. Aquila Minimi dei paulus apostolus snbrietatem, 
 prudentiani, continentiam, sanctitatem., sanamque doctrinam in archi- 
 praesale prsedicaft qua* omnia & longe maiora in te uno affatim redundare 
 meridiana luce clarius conspiciuntur. Pauperibus delj)hicus es gladius 
 omnibus, tuam insignem mansuetudinem chameleontis instar ac com- 
 modam exbibes. Teque non solum stemmata in illud honoris cacumen 
 erexere, sed sacra religio doctrina? maritata & mens saerarum adapalibus 
 doctrinarum saginis pinguescens quae effecerunt ut patria? parens & 
 ecclesia? nomenclator britannica? dicaris iure & quidem optimo. Perge 
 igitur perge it sinuosi pectoris archivis mystica haec recondas traumata, 
 reconditaque omni poscenti rationem de ea quae in te est fide spe & 
 charitate hubertim effunde. Quando<[uidem in non vulgari laude habentur 
 Alexander Macedonius & Romanus quod ille homeri rapsodias, iste andinum 
 poema sicutiCyripediam affricanus A yvo britonumconfessorbiblia?canones 
 pal vino supposuerunt. In vero longe huberiores commendationis titulos <fc 
 spolia ampla referes si ut ccepisti cum sapientissima abigail & pulcherrima 
 racbel tua in dies magis atque magis incalescant pectora. Porro si ociari 
 velis delectabit domi, si rusticaberis peregrinabitur tecum ha?c sponsa 
 innumeros degustaturus ccelestium charismatum lectulos, modo ipsam sin- 
 cipitis capillo comprehenderis. Yerum enim vero (quarum trium cbaritum 
 penicilli mortales omneis beneficia recognoscere debere satis superque 
 effectim demonstrarunt due nempe connexe primam insequebantur porri- 
 gentive uiium duo reddebant aurea poma) ideo tux sanctissima? paternitati 
 quam obnixissime obstrigilatus hos commentaries non calabrij hosj)itis 
 munera devoveo quos clara (ut assoles) suscipias fronte eisque contra 
 blaterones murus abenus existas. E])aminundas exercitum sine duce 
 cernens video (inquit) belluam sine capite, sic sine tuo numine & auspitio 
 nostra ha?c tantilla editio investis ttacephala exiret in proscenium. \ ale. 
 Raptim exaratum in Academia glasguensi, x. cal. Decemb. Anno a 
 virgineo partu. ccccc. xviii. supra millesimum. 
 
 [In Secundum Sent., 1519.] 
 
 Joan.vks Maior magistris nostris Xatali Bede et Petro tern pete : 
 collegii Montisacuti vigilantissimis primariis salutem dicit. 
 
 Reliquit memoratu dignum portius ille Latho [Porcius Latro] censorius 
 non minus ocii quam negotii reddendam esse rationem. Qua percelebri 
 sententia admonet nos ipsa litterarum ocia nervis anhelis amplecti, ex 
 quibus uberior emanaf fructus quam ex tumultuosis temporalium rerum 
 occupationibus. Quid enim excogitari possit litteraria quiete iucundius ? 
 quid suavi<-ima scripturarum amenitate dulcius? qua eorporei recreantur 
 spiritus et ieiune mortalium mentes pascuntur. Tibi ilia animi operatio 
 secundum virtutem in vita perfecta consistit : ubi gumma ilia ociandi 
 voluptas reperitur, quam plerisque ut gratissimo scientia? fruerentur 
 oblectamento expetierunt. Ergo itaque preclarum Lathonis secutus 
 
appendix ii.] MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 437 
 
 documentum ocii mei rationem hoc brevi epistolio vobis reddere decrevi, 
 prestantissimi Montisacuti moderatores, quibus acutissima ingenii acies 
 uedum nature dotibus insita, verumetiam laboriosa lima contemplationis 
 adeo polita est ut non sit qui limpidius perspicatiusque intueri possit 
 hanc nostram secundam in secundum sententiarum editionem : quam 
 non immerito vobis dedicavimus, que licet baud preclaris ac maximis 
 vestris in me beneficiis correspondeat : illam tamen obviis voluntarius 
 suscipite : Valete litterarum presidium. 
 
 [In Quartum Sent. 1519.] 
 
 Ioannes Maiob : Venerandis in Cbristo Patribus ac prsesulibus : 
 Gauuino Douglas episcopo Dunkeldensis [sic]: & Roberto Cokburn 
 episcopo Rosensi salutem. 
 
 Hisce diebus nuperque exactis circumspectissimi praesules lucubra- 
 tionem secundum ingenioli mei tenuitatem in Sententiarum Quartum 
 ad Ariophanis [sic] lucernam edidi : quam chalcographis emunctissime 
 insculpendam curavi. Et quoniam mos est antiquus longum servatus in 
 aevum : qui nec apud neotericos exolevit : ut scriptores suas lucubrati- 
 unculas ni aut pluribus dicent morem ilium observare mihi volupe fuit : 
 ideoque monumentum hoc qualecunque mere in vos necessitudinis pignus 
 consecrandum nuncupo : his rationibus persuasus : quod non solum 
 uterque vestrum est mecum Scotus Britannus : sed et patriae finibus pro- 
 pinquissrmus. Natalitii siquidem soli unius intercapedinem dialogus iu 
 exordio Primi enucleat : Alterius origine Hadingthona plenius gaudet : 
 quae mei studii primitias dulcibus amplexibus fovens : suavissimoque 
 grammatical artis lacte me neophitum enutriens : et ad longiusculam 
 aetatem provexit : et vix a Glegorno viculo (unde ipse sum oriundus) 
 quinquies mille passuum intervallo discriminatim se iungitur : sic ut 
 complures me Hadingthonensem appellitent : haud iniuria : turn quod 
 utriusque vestrum contubernio tarn domi quam Parisiis amice et famili- 
 ariter usus fuerim : turn propter vestrarum laudum praeconia : de quibus 
 plene paucis dicere nequeo : quocirca ut Sallustius de Carthagine : malo 
 tacere quam parum de eis loqui. His itaque de causis hanc lucubratiun- 
 culam vobis dicandam censui. Hanc igitur nostram opellam non severis 
 ac elatis superciliis sed benignis et modestis (ut soletis omnibus adesse) 
 suscipite precor. Valete. Actum Parisiis in Collegio Montis acuti. Anno 
 domini sesquimillesimo decimo sexto. Octavo Calendas Decembres. 
 
 Ioannis Maioris in exordio praelectionis lib. quarti sententiarum ad 
 auditores propositio. 
 
 In huius lectionis principio, studiosi viri, aliqua dicere institui. Fortasse 
 multis apprime placebit non amplius in sententias scribendum esse : cum 
 iam in eas scriptum sit. Quod argumentum si efficaciam habeat ullam a 
 
438 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix n. 
 
 diebus Magistri Sententiarum, in sententias finem scribendi imposuerit : 
 cum tamen constet plerosque post ipsum resolutius et clarius materias 
 quas collegit explicasse, Multas enim quaestiones sub eisdem titulis 
 movere scriptores et creberrime diversis modis respondent ac eruditiorem 
 ineruditior nonnunquam castigat. Dicite Pierides non omnia possumus 
 omnes. Contradictione namque et exercitatione exploratur Veritas, et 
 hominum malitia ingenioque varie casus ancipites in medium prodiere 
 in quibus est tenebrosa aqua in nubibus aeris sententiam ferre. Xovis 
 etenim supervenientibus causis novo opus est remedio quod Ecclesiastes 
 innuit dicens : Faciendi plures libros nullus est iinis. Et ut alter inquit: 
 Laudamus veteres sed nostris utimur annis. Praeterea unius monu- 
 mentum magis quibusdam placet ob ordinem et venam discurrendi 
 quam alterius fortasse doctoris; et ita is illo utilior, sicut cibus minus 
 digestibilis a peritis physicis admittitur, si cum maiore aviditate sumatur. 
 [nsuper nominalium adhuc vidi neminem qui opus in Quartum ad umbili- 
 cum calcemque perduxerit : quod in eos tanquam probrosum alii retor- 
 quent dicentes oominales logice et philosophie sic implicari ut tbeosophiam 
 negligant : et tamen varia sunt theologica qua? metapbysicam praesup- 
 ponebant. Conabor ergo nominalium principiis adhibitis in singulas 
 distinctiones Quarti unani qusestionem vel plures scribere quas et reales 
 si advertant facile capient. Utrinque enim viae theologia (circa quam 
 praecipue versabor) erit communis. Et quia iam innumeri a trecentis 
 annis seripsere : materiis quas alii minus discusserunt (si eas utiles 
 consuero) iuzta temporis exigentiam prolixius insistam communiorem 
 praeteriens nisi quatenus conducent ne opus mancum et praesuppositum 
 ab aliis videatur. Communia enim et necessaria omnes acceperunt et 
 tamen nullus abaliquo : quia ilia in nullius potestate sunt : sicut de aqua 
 Sequanica et communi omnes accipiunt sed de aqua sui ]>utei solus dominus 
 fundi. In re prolixa paucis totam materiam epilogabo cum nonnullis 
 obiter inter summandum occurrentibus ut quilibet facilius quae dicere 
 volumus memoriae mandet. Xnvidiae iacula aspernabor. Licet enim 
 Martinus Magister quaestione penultima de temperantia dicat seniores 
 iunioribus in re scholastics invidere : non sum de numero iuniorum nam 
 hoc libro absoluto quadragesimi noni anni fimbrias aggredior. Etiam non 
 est facile credere in theologis qui concionando ad populum et leg-end* » 
 semper invidiam carpunt damnant et pessundant quod invideant nec 
 aliarum professionum viri nobis invidebunt : siquidem solum invidet 
 singulis singulo et poeta poetae, et si aliqui tetrici illo monstro feriantur : 
 sententiae Salomonicae non sum nescius dicentis qui observat ventos non 
 seminat. Propterea censeo non esse timendum. Caeterum quod secundo 
 scribam non est (ut aliqui falso putaut) me opus prius in Quartum emissum 
 castigare : licet non turpe ducam (ubi par est) canere palinodiam, nam bis 
 vel ter aliam editionem publice legi et tamen nec ego nec auditorum 
 aliquis quicquam offendit quod non putaretur probabile. nunc tamen ratus 
 sum post lecturas crebriores me opus maturius completiusque edere posse : 
 an id fecerim (cum quilibet sibi plus aequo afficiatur) aliorum sit iudicium. 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJORS AVORKS 
 
 439 
 
 Nam ut ait Flaccus, Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim. Inten- 
 tionis meae est mihi et aliis proiicere : mihi quidem ne ingenium in morem 
 ferri in terra absconsi, rubigiuem contrahat, et ut veterum omnium 
 virorum fomentum evitem, cle aliorum particulari commodo eorum sit 
 judicium. Rursus si singulas materias quas tango non ita exacte cribra- 
 verim ut expedit : lector consideret aliorum librorum materias quas ad 
 sua loca propria reservavi et non imam habui quaestionem terminandam. 
 Modo vetus estproverbium : Pluribus intentis minor est ad singula sensus; 
 et Davus sum non edipus. Xec humanam opem liabui nisi calcographi 
 qui vigilantissime insudavit : ut commata virgula? periodi non deessent : 
 licet variis manibus exemplar scriberentur. Famulus enim meus inter- 
 dum lectionibus quibus intererat impediebatur : et scriptura mea erat 
 caeteris difficulter legibilis. Q[ Caeterum si in hoc opere vel in alio in 
 lucem emisso vel emittendo erraverim sacrosanctae Romana? ecclesia? et 
 aliis facultatis theologize Parisiensis matris mea 1 acquiesco iudicio : et 
 quod ille approbant vel reprobant hoc ipsum approbo vel reprehendo. 
 
 Dixi. 
 
 [Introd. in Arlstot., 1527.] 
 Johannes solo cognomento Maior acutissimo theologo Petro Cliaiplaine 
 rectori Dunneun. 8. P. D. 
 
 Xosti, eruditissime vir, theosophiae professores in Scotia Britannia 1 
 liberales profiteri artes. Illud rei theologice conducibile non ab re suspi- 
 cantur, questionarii in sententias nunc dialectices ceratinas & soritas 
 interserunt, nunc philosophise abdita elucidationis gratia annectunt, ipse 
 hoc institutum probans utrique facultati pro ingenioli ruditate geni- 
 tali solo his paucis exactis annis operam impendi. nec destiti quousque 
 stellifer athlas solarem orbem octies ab occasu eoam plagam versus com- 
 plete circumtor queret, qua circumgiratione octonos volubiles compleui 
 annos. Summulas (quas abhinc triginta annos Parisiorum leutitia cudi- 
 mus) auditorio perleginius, antiquo genere studii partim delectatus in 
 Aristoteles stragerite logicam iuxta ac philosophiam interea quaestiones 
 absoluimus, necnon introductiones summularum vice edidimus. ^[ 
 Caeterum cui hanc opellam dicarem circumspicienti precij)uus occur- 
 rebas, nec fluxis rationibus tractus id operis tibi nuncupaui. In primis 
 lucubrationum mearum studiosum te vidij idemtidem artium inuolucra 
 haudquaquam spernentem. In earum spinosis ac cornutis elenchis 
 non parum oblectamenti capis, diuinam paginam cum aliis scitu 
 dignis cum otium suppeditat misces. Denique es mihi conterraneus 
 nedum genere Scotus Britannus verum etiam Laudoniensis. Sumus enim 
 ambo sub feracis Laudonie meditullium creti^ his atque aliis argumentis 
 haud frigidis allectus tuae eruditioni hosce labores deuoui. Duas vias ex- 
 tremas in logicalibus sum contemplatus, aliqui sophismata ac cornutos 
 sillogismos in totum reiiciunt^ contra vero alii illos in immensum pro- 
 ducunt, sophistarum meras praestigias auide pertractantes, <juos pseudo 
 
440 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 dialecticos nec iniuria multi appellitant, in talibus quisquiliis cuiuslibet 
 hominis & alterius angeli uterque asinus currit totos dies inutiliter con- 
 terunt. Inter hos lapsus interstes mediare laboraui. ^[ In super Hugoni 
 spens omnium bonarum litterarum promptuario meo nomine salutem 
 dices. Est enim venerabilis tui collegii sancti Saluatoris })refectus vigil- 
 lantissimus, omnium horarum vir, centoculus Argus, nulli mortalium 
 (quos nouerim) mansuetudine ac comitate secundus, haec animi placabili- 
 tas Atropos fatale stamen prorogate ac senilem longeuitatem parit. octo- 
 ginta annos citra mineruae dispendium natus est, nec adhuc memoriae 
 armarium est illi contractum. Tanta ingenii dexteritas rarissima est 
 inuentu, lanificas sorores ardescens bilis praeproperepnuocat, A: inexora- 
 bilum pacarum [sic] filum rumpere coadiuuat, hoc uno superciliosum eum 
 iocose dixeris, suam molem iactans Johanne maiorejsese altiorem praeconi- 
 sauit. Verum enim vero nostrae proceritatis abiectae me pudet, breuicole 
 admodum sumus stature, plus ab ()g rege Basan & staterosis quam pomi- 
 lionibus elongamur, haec inter iocandum carptim litterarum monumentis 
 commendaui, dum mei Hugonis sermo incidit paucis diuelli nequeo. ita 
 illius insita urbanitas, ac vitae, candor meo in sinu amicitiae imaginem 
 iecit, ut antequam humanis validixero neutiquam oblitterabitur. Nec 
 Thomam Ramsay frugi doctrinae officinam silenter })raeteribis, mei causa 
 ilium pleno ore salutabis, de eius alterna febricula decennio continuata 
 lubens commentarer, sed vereor ne suum in Jobannem sales recitantem 
 stomachetur. Attamen sua benigna cum venia hoc unum dixero, diem 
 ilium quo prospera valitudine fruitur albo lapillo notet, eo colloquium 
 atque irrequietum motum subduj)let, alteram partem crastinam in lucem 
 seruet, fausto ac infausto die aequaliter est atque bibit, verum hoc cubi- 
 culo necnon taciturnitate gaudet, Qlo vero turturis^silentio utitur, vica- 
 tim([ue motatur. Guilermum Guyndum & Johannem Annandum ceno- 
 bitica vita & scientia conspicuos infestat, noua quae circumferuntur 
 locupletat, discrasiam acrasi sola taciturnitas tita [sic] despescit. Hisce 
 cum solicitudinibus vix feruidum ingenium litterario ludo relaxat, ebdo- 
 madatim doctoris subtilis placita explanat. Signa originis intricata, 
 naturas communes formalitates, nexibus lororum gordii tenebrosiores 
 aperire magno molumine conatur, sane magne est acrimonie sterilia & 
 caj)tu difficilia ditare. Vale, ex Monte acuto Anno virginei partus sesque 
 millesimo vigesimo septimo, Sexto decimo Kalendas Decembris. 
 
 [In Secundum Sent. 1528] 
 
 Joannes Maior Hadyngtonanus, Natali Beda? et Petro Tempeste 
 contheologis, et collegii scholasticorum Montisacuti primariis vigi- 
 lantissimis, D. 
 
 lleliquit memoratu prorsus dignam M. Fortius Cato ille Censorius 
 sententiam : non minus ocii quam negocii reddendam esse rationem : 
 Qua nos admonet, adhortaturque ipsa literarum ocia neruis anhelis 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJORS WORKS 
 
 441 
 
 amplecti : quippe ex quibus uberior emanat fructus quam ex tumultuosis 
 temporalium rerum occupationibus. Quid enim excogitari possit 
 literaria, quiete iucundius ? Quid suauissima scripturarum amoenitate 
 dulcius ? qua corporales recreantur spiritus et ieiunse alioqui mortalium 
 reficiuntur mentes, ubi videlicet ilia animi operatio secundum virtutem in 
 vita perfecta consistit, ubi summa ilia ociandi voluptas reperitur, quam 
 pkerique ut gratissimo scientiarum fruerentur oblectamento, vehementis- 
 simo expetierunt studio. Ego itaque praeclarum hoc Catonis documentuui 
 secutus, et ocii mei rationem hoc epistolio vobis reddere conatus prsestan- 
 tissimi Montisacuti moderatores, quibus acutissima ingenii acies non 
 solum naturae dotibus insita, verumetiam seclula contemplationis lima, 
 adeo polita est, ut non sit qui theologica prsesertim limpidius perspica- 
 ciusque intueri possit : banc in secundum sententiarum disputationem 
 pridem vobis dicatam, diligentius reposui, et cribro theologico ab alienis 
 inquisitionibus repurgaui. Duobus enim ferme seculis iam transactis 
 theologiam traetantes, quaestiones mere physicas, metaphysieas, et non- 
 nunquam mathematicas, suis scriptis inserere haud sunt veriti : quorum 
 vestigiis tametsi inuitus, illorum tamen exemplo innixus, similia in dis- 
 putationibus nostris pertrectare non erubui : siquidem ea tempestate 
 theologian studentes alia rudimentatanquam protrita et captu nimis quam 
 facilia contempserunt. Verum abhinc decern, plus minus, annos, magna 
 pestilentium haereticorum cohors cortice sacrorum fulta, quamquam 
 abominabilia delyria inuexit : hoc tamen boni (domino sic volente, qui 
 quorundam vitiis ad uniuersi utitur decorum) suos inter errores attulit, 
 ut sacris literis et illarum illustration! theologian professores syncerius 
 insudarent, et aliena studia reiicerent. Quocirca (ut iam dixi) multa huic 
 antati minus grata in his disputationibus stili parte ilia delebili expunxi, 
 relietis duntaxat quae prae cceteris desideranda lectoribus sunt visa. 
 Quam lucubrationem vobis denuo nuncupatam pro veteri inter nos 
 amicitia et charitate obuiis (ut aiunt) ulnis suscipite. Yalete, firmissima 
 eloquiorum morumque castorum praesidia. Ex Montisacuti collegio 
 literis et moribus decorato ad quintum Kalendas Sept em b. m.d.xxviii. 
 
 [Ibid.] 
 
 Petrus Peralta Petro ab hortis doctori theologo eruditissimo S. P. D. 
 
 Recognouit hos in secundum librum sententiarum commentaries 
 suj>erioribus diebus Joannes Maior (doctor, tarn vere theologus, quam 
 vere doctor,) quos a se olim editos ideo ad seueriorem censuram reuocauit, 
 quod animaduertisset in illis esse nonnulla, suum in aliis habitura locum, 
 qua? tamen hie haud dubie superfluerent : et contra pleraque his addi 
 posse qua? illi grauior aetas et maturior eruditio suggessissent. Neque enim 
 veritus est, vir ad ostentationem minime compositus, ne ab improbis vitio 
 detur, id opus ad, incudem reuocasse, (juod tot ante annis in lucem a se 
 emissum agnoscat : quin hoc potius nomine theologian candidatos se 
 
442 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 demereri putat, quos neque plerisque rebus iam recisis ut huic argumento 
 non ita conuenientibus detinuerit, neque aliis pluribus huius loci propriis 
 quae adiecte sunt defraudauerit. Iussit itaque mihi is, ut que in hoc 
 volumine obseruatione digna viderentur (quae plurima sunt atque optima, 
 diligenter annotata) in alphabeticum indicem redigerem, quod in eiusdem 
 operis editione prima Antonius Coronellus magna vir eruditione sed 
 maiori ingenio fecerat ■ sic enim fieri ut rebus ipsis studioso lectori obuiam 
 factis atque expositis, nidagandi molestia neminem ab his legendis auer- 
 teret. lleliquum est ut quando ego eius viri authoritate impulsus, cui 
 quicquam denegare nephas esset, quod imperatum est utcumque praesti- 
 terim, nostri laboris partem non exiguam prestantie tue cui omnia debeo, 
 nuncupem. Tu igitur qua nos nostraque soles fronte, diligentiolam 
 nostram boni consulens suscipe^ et in hortos istos admitte : in quibus sunt 
 omnis discipline praesertim theological et fontes inigui et arbores procere 
 amoenissimis studiorum et nature fructibus decorate : de quibus quia 
 alias plenius loqui constituimus consultius nunc tacere, quam parum 
 dicere ducimus. Vale igitur decus et presidium nostrum dulcissimum. 
 Ex Monteacuto ad Calendas Septemb. MDXXVIII. 
 
 [Quepst. Logic. 1528.] 
 
 Iohannes Maior Hadyiigtoiianus Ioanni Yueddel bonarum artium 
 doctori. S. D. 
 
 Dum Iuniores essemus Aristotelis Stragerite logicen nostra pro virili 
 elucidavimus, necnoii questiones de more [?] litere explanativas inter- 
 servimus. Hisce diebus veterem dialecticam tipographis tradidimus, 
 quam operam tibi velut amicorum uni nuncupamus, ut veteris nostre 
 amicitie non currax sit pignus. Roberto banerman, atque gavvino logy, 
 in artibus vigilantissimis preceptoribus meo nomine salutem dices. Yale. 
 Ex monte acuto, anno salutiferi partus duodetrigesimo supra sequimilles- 
 simum undecimo Kalen. octobris. 
 
 [In Evangelia. 1529.] 
 
 Ioannes cognomento Maior lectori salutem. 
 
 In nonnullis te admonitum lector esse cupimus : ante omnia si in 
 bibliaca scriptura aliqua variatio evenerit id preter meam opinionem 
 contigisse arbitreris : receptissimum enim ecclesie usum in contextu 
 bibliaco mutare alienum censui, hoc non semel in commentariis insinuo. 
 Iussi ut nihil illic variarent, verumtamen circa illud non oppido insudavi, 
 presupponens illud facile factu per alios, non tamen eadem vocabula 
 in commentario assumpsi ut verbi causa docilis pro docibilis scripsi : 
 ecclesiam pro hominum consessu, et non pro ede sacra cepi. Ita enim 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 443 
 
 Valla et ornatioris eloquii homines faciunt. Semper tamen potius senten- 
 tias quam sermonis politiam assequi curavimus ; aliorum est eloquentiae 
 numine sua asserta ornare, nobis sat est venere dicendi neglecta bar- 
 bariem utcunque devitare. Qui in oratorum pigmentariis, studii partem 
 multo maximam consumpsit splendore currentis stili auditorum animos 
 illicit. In Aristotelica doctrina et scholasticorum processu assuetus per- 
 politis verbis posthabitis rem ipsam comminus attingere curat. Aliquibus 
 placet hie aliis placet ille, uniusquisque [sic] pro suo palato escas inquirit. 
 Cseterum neque miretur doctus si non viam illi gratiorem usquequaque 
 imitor, diversa sunt hominum ingenia, nec in paradoxis ubique est 
 concordia, plusquam in ciborum sectatione : verbi causa aliquis festum 
 conceptionis deipara? nullo modo putat ad corpus virgineum referendum, 
 aliter tamen scripsi, et ut paulo fusius id explanem, Magister sententi- 
 arum distinctione trigesima secundi libri ait : quod est qualitas morbida 
 in carne genitorum ab Ada qua? animam primo momento quo est in rerum 
 natura inncit, hanc morbidam qualitatem fomitem appellitant. Hoc 
 Henricus a Gandavo, Ockam tertio quolibeto, et Gregorius ariminensis 
 insequitur, dicens tortuosum serpentem suo sibilo et inflatu corpora 
 protoplastorum infecisse. Ad hoc Augustinum libro quarto contra 
 Iulianum capite trigesimo sexto introducit : sive fomes hoc modo pona- 
 tur sive alio, dico deiparam illam fomitem nunquam habuisse. Nam 
 sicut anima eius primo puncto temporis quo erat in rerum natura gratia 
 erat referta, ita eius corpus primo momento quo extitit fuit fomitis ex- 
 pers. Itaque suo modo sanctum, non per gratiam gratincantem cuius est 
 Lncapax. Anologiam [.s7c] accipito: nonne oleum exorcizatur et consecratur 
 atque in chrisma sanctificatur : sic aqua lustralis benedicitur, templa 
 polluta reconciliantur et sanctificantur. Ita erat de massa ilia ex 
 qua corpus palestina? virginis est factum. Decentia manuductionis ad 
 propositum applica, indecentia obliterato : utpote corpus eius nunquam 
 erat pollutum, siquidem pollui almam virginem dedecet, sanctificari ei 
 congruit. Hoc accipe, illud vero abolito. Itaque quia prae tacta A ia corpus 
 omnis infectionis exors erat, animam inficere nequibat : fomes non est 
 homini naturalis : primis enim parentibus ante lapsam non infuit : 
 proinde decuit ilium a virgineo corpore removeri : quas ob res ecclesia 
 festum conceptionis Christiferae tarn corporis quam animae sexto idus 
 decembris annuo ritu celebrat : nam ex corpore non ex anima Christus 
 portionem accepit. Praeterea in Ioannis sextum : dico hominem rem 
 divinam audientem annis senescere, nec rogantem divos semper releva- 
 men morbi impetrare, eius enim saluti fortasse obest : deus tamen praero- 
 gativas Sanctis largitur ut variis hominum laboribus succurrunt, quin [?] 
 expedire norit. Sanctorum in hoc cultui minime detraho, sum enim 
 severus osor vitiorum eorum qui suis ineptiis in sanctos temere blacterant. 
 Commentariusque noster sexti decimi capitis in Ioannem ha?c aperte 
 pronunciat. Quaedam ex libro sententiarum quasi manifestaria iam non 
 repeto : utpote in Ioannis nonum, ubi dico quod perpauci erant parvu- 
 lorum Sodomae et Gomorrae non purgati ab originali, illic enim praetereo 
 
444 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 | APPENDIX II. 
 
 duo paradoxa qua ad primam distinctionem quarti sententiarum recito : 
 quomodo parvuli ab original] labe purgabantur. Unum theologorum 
 plaeitum tenet exterioribus sacrificiia amicorum ad parvulos relatis. 
 Verum haec praemonitio in immensum cresceret si singula Bpeciatim 
 explicaremus. Gratus autem et humanus lector boni consulet: et anci- 
 pitia in meliorem partem interpretabitur : nee siquid ;i<l stomachum aon 
 tacit, statim expuet, memorillius galloruni adagii : <^ui sine hospite expen- 
 sariim calculum ponit, nihil a<^ it. Ego pro virili Christianam modestiam 
 tenui, neminero qui in gremio ecclesiae Be continet nominatim taxo. 
 cuiuslibet dicta minus placentiam modeste impugno: aequissimo animo 
 laturus, si de meis minus accurate scriptis benigne me quispiam admoneat. 
 Hoc pnemonitum volui. Vale lector bone. 
 
 [Ibid, ad init. Mun i. \ 
 
 Ioanm's Maioh Hadingtonanus [oanni Boluaco Nivernensi theologiae 
 professori acutissimo et amico integerrimo, nec dod gregis dominici 
 apud divum [acobum in Parrhisiorum Lutetia pastor! vigilantissimo 
 S. P. I). 
 
 Quandoquidem lucubratiunculas aostras in Aristotelicam philosophiam 
 emissas, tihi, \ ii* doctissime^ ut in artibus illis liberalibus quondam prae- 
 ceptori optimOj nuncupavimus : e re atque officio fore duximus. si com- 
 mentariolorum nostrorum in sacrosancta evangelia partem saltern 
 aliquam eidem ut contheologo et perpetuo amico 3 dicaremus. Accipe 
 igitur (juas in divi Marci evangelium mox impressori Badio daturi sumus 
 expositiunculaSj ea quidem lege, eaque stipulatione ut quae inter legendum 
 tibi occurrent a nobis errata, corridas, et reposita atque emendata mox 
 nobis remittas : ut studiosi lectores non minus argil tissimae Limae tuae 
 debeant quam meo huic praecipitanter scribentis calamo. Vale. E 
 Monte acuto ad Idus Martias sub Pascha hoc MDXXIX. 
 
 [Ibid, in Luca Ev.~\ 
 
 Reverendo in Christo patri ac domino. Gawino Dumbar, Glasguenn 
 archiepiscopo dignissimOj Ioannes Maior Hadingtonanus cum 
 omni observantia foelicitatem. 
 
 Cum hisce diebus in sacrosanctum divi Luca; evangelium commentaries 
 nostros novitios tvpographo excudendos committere festinarem, anxie 
 mecum disquirere caepi, cuinam, iuxta veterem eorum qui lucubrationes 
 novas' emittunt consuetudinem, eos ut prsesidi honorifico et vindici 
 potenti nuncupates dedicem : tandemque id sedulo actitanti una atque 
 eadem amj)lissima dignitas tua, Archiepiscope pnc>tantissime, sub oculos 
 meos omni ex parte observata est, visaque iustis nominibus, cui eos 
 dicarem dignissima. Et quod in eadem Parrhisiorum academia philo- 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 445 
 
 sophiae operam navavimus auctoramentumque cepimus. Et quod opera 
 novitia recensendi et in ordinem, si Lta visum, redigendi Bummam 
 potestatem adeptus es : in praeclaro siquidem Andegauorum gymnasio 
 ad utriusque iuris apicem evectus es : Ldque magno tuo merito, totiusque 
 musaei facile celeberrinii mirifico applausu. Non enim Minervam istam, 
 ut plerique alii, ab limine duntaxat salutasti : nee ex isto amplissimo et 
 inexhausto utriusque iuris fonte, ut canis yl^yptius Crocodilum veritus 
 ex Nilo parce et anxie bibens statim aufugisti : sed ut Bithias ille 
 Maronianus, impiger hausit spumantem pateram, et pleno se proluit 
 auro : ita divini sen pontificii, et huniani sen caesarei iuris, nectareos 
 Latices non summis modo labris, sed peetore capacissimo et sagacissimo 
 imbibisti amplissime, illicque condidisti ubi nee tiniae corrodere, nee fures 
 demoliri, nec piratae eos depraBdari valeant. Istis itaque et artium 
 bonarum et legum canonumque thesauris honustusj ut tutus ita securus 
 altricem navibus petisti patriam, nihil illorum nomine piratas Ocean um 
 infestahtes veritus. Negociatorum enim ill! extrariis bonis arcis fragi- 
 libus inelusis inbiant non mentium thesauris, in quos neque fortuna 
 ueque praedo potestatis habet quicquam. Qusb enim solo studio et virtute 
 acquiruntur casu auferri nequeunt: proinde talia sunt sola vere bona et 
 vere nostra: quod quia tibi, viro sapientissimo, perspectissimum etiam 
 tune erat, potuisti cum Biante Qlo a Marco Tullio celebrate, vere dicere, 
 omnia mea niecum porto. Istis igitur ornamentis praeter naturae dotes 
 amplissimas et dumbariae domus nobilissimae natales clarissimos in patriam 
 vere inelytam receptus, mox ad Glasguensem archiepiscopatum omnibus 
 punctis et pleno suffragio evectus es, nihil insolentior ex tanta cathedra 
 effectus : quocirca cum tua laude de te quoque dici potest, quod a Pitaco 
 Mityleneo dictum Aristoteles, ut nosti, Ethicorum quinto celebrat, 
 Magistratus virum ostendit. Illinc enim me quoque respicere tua 
 comitas et generosa humanitas dignata est: qua de causa, ut occoepi 
 dicere, banc novitiam editionem iustis nominibus tuae exeellentiae debitam 
 dicamus, et ut earn benevole accipias, precamur. Vale. 
 
 Ex Parrhisiorum academia Anno sesquimillesimo vicesimo nono ad 
 calendas Aprilis. 
 
 [Ibid, in Joanne m.~\ 
 
 Reverendo in Christo patri ac domino Roberto Senali doctori theolo^o 
 et episcopo Vendesino, meritissimo, Ioannes Maior Hadington- 
 anus. S.P.D. 
 
 Quo saepius attentiusque mecum considero rationem huius nostri 
 propositi, quo enarrationes in divi Ioannis evangelium, spectabilissimae 
 sapientia? tuae, praesul doctissime, ab invidulorum morsiculis prote^endas 
 dicare constitui : eo concinnius appositiusque (deo, ut facile credo, sic 
 volente) hoc facinus pium quidem sed audacius susceptum molitus videor. 
 Plurima siquidem quae in ipso Ioanne et miratur et venerator ecclesia 
 mihi in te quoque et mirari et venerari datum est. Primum (ut hinc 
 
446 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 incipiam) Ioannes peculiar! quadam nuncupatione etiam a se non semel 
 dictus est, discipulus ille quern dilexit do-minus. Deinde cum esset 
 plurimorum iudicio inter apostolos natu minimus, diu tamen vivendo id 
 gloria; nactus est, ut vulgata iam agnominatione diceretur senior. Turn 
 licet piscatoriae artis professor esset, et in nulla pra?terquam Christi et 
 spiritus sancti academia institutus, apposito tamen nomine supra caeteros 
 vocatus est theologus. Demum cum vero simile sit primum multa scrip- 
 <i>^e. ae ex magistri et domini dictantis ore plurimos prasertim sermones 
 excepisse^ ultimus tamen evangelium edidit : eaque circumspectione 
 temperavit, ut plurima quia ah aliis bene scripta, pratermiserit, et non 
 omnia qua? scribere potuisset, si expedire censuisset. conscripserit. Unde 
 et ipse in evangelii calce : sunt autem, inquit. et alia multa quae fecit 
 Iesus : qua? si scribatur per singula, uec ipsum arbitror mundum capere 
 posse eos qui scribendi sunt libros : ob quod et temperanter docentis 
 domini et circumspecte scribentis discipuli in nos beneficium, immensas 
 debemus omnes supremae providential aratias. Nam qusecunque a domino 
 tradita discipulus nobis scripta reliquisset, etiam caelestia ilia arcana 
 quam capere vix possumus, omnia et credere si non capere, et meminisse 
 si non perficere debuissemus. Parcius ergo ne nostram capacitatem 
 obrueret, et magister ille summus caelestia doeuit, et discipulus iste 
 divinus scripsit : qui tamen sic evangelium ut haereticos confunderet 
 exorsus est ut si quo altius, ut aquila evolasset. aut sublimius ut filius 
 tonitrui intonuisset, totus eum mundus comprehendere nequisset. Verum 
 ut facti mei rationem ad divi Ioannis elogia applicem : ut ipse domini 
 discipulus et dictus est et ftdt charissimus : ita (quod verecunde exalta- 
 bunde tamen repeto) omnium discipulorum inventus est mini et ob 
 ingenii bonitatem, doctrina? excellentiam, et qua? merito secuta est digni- 
 tatem maxime observandus. Deinde ut ille senior ob morum gravitatem 
 est peculiariter dictus, ita tu Senalis, non senili modo maturitate, quam 
 ante canos prae te tulisti, sed etiam senatoria, quasi divino pra?sagio id 
 cognominis sortitus. Tu ut ille Theologus, quia de divinis prater caeteros 
 locutus vulgo est nuncupatus, ita quod verecunde vere tamen dico, inter 
 paucos meruisti et esse et vocari theologus : et, quod amplissimum est, 
 etiam verus episcopus : nam quod episcopi quasi peculiare est officium, 
 divini verbi seminare semen, id ita deples, ut neque frequentius neque 
 felicius quisquam. Demum ut ille novissimus evangelium edidit, tametsi 
 fortasse primus scripsit, ita ego has novissimas in evangelia lucubratiun- 
 culas tua? dexteriti quam primam suspicio et observo, et nuncupo et dico ; 
 ut qua? in eis offendes aut rudius aut negligentius dicta aut scripta, pro 
 solita tua in me dementia admoneas ut saltern, si iterum emisero a nobis 
 reposita castigatoria et emunctiora exeant. Hoc te rogatum volui. Yale. 
 Ex Acuto monte ad Calendas Maias. M.D.XXIX. 
 
APPENDIX II.] 
 
 MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 447 
 
 [In Matth. ad init., 1529.] 
 
 Longe Reverendo in Christo patri, natalibusque splendido domino 
 Iacobo Betoun Sancti Andreas Archiepiscopo, Scotia? primati & 
 legatonato, Ioannes Maior Hadingtonanus, Theologorum minimus 
 cum omni observantia Salutem. 
 
 Iuxta ingenii studiique tenuitatem et divinam gratiam, exposuimus, 
 Praesulum dignissime, hisce diebus, Evangelistas quatuor : conati pro virili 
 nostra ipsorum ubique synceram demonstrare symphoniam non solum 
 diversorum inter ipsos, sed etiam uniuscuiusque in se, ut quod uno in 
 loco dixerit alteri concordare noscat per omnia : antiquam praeterea 
 servare tralationem, & catholicas iuxta Romanae ecclesiae doctrinam per 
 Doctores receptos traditiones. Quocirca Theophilacti Bulgarorum epis- 
 copi evangeliorum explanationes, ubi ab orthodoxorum sententia aberrare 
 visae sunt, repellimus. Wicleuitarum item et Hussitarum et eorum 
 sequacium Lutheranorum pestiferas zizanias e bono dominici agri semine, 
 quantum potuimus, evellimus : caeterorum quae humano casu lapsi sunt, 
 errata quidem fratri dicere. Denique ut summatim dicamus, nullum 
 locum vel mediocriter docto ambiguum indiscussum praetermisimus, 
 intermiscentes subinde breves quaestiunculas ; et eariim, si amor studii nos 
 non fallit, non pcenitendas decisiunculas, interim etiam prolixiunculas, 
 praesertim quatuor, quas post enarrationem Evangeliorum, quia ad eorum 
 elucidationem visae sunt accommodatissimae, adiecimus. In harum itaque 
 salutis nostrae quadrigarum aurigam primum Mattheum directiones 
 nostras celeberrimo nomini tui tuo, archiepiscope dignissime, iustis ratio- 
 nibus praescripsimus : et quod studiorum nostrorum bonam partem 
 celsitudini tua? debemus, & quod huiusmodi lectiones, nomini, profes- 
 sion^ generi, studio, moribusque tuis vel maxime conveniunt. Nomini 
 quidem, nam et Jacobus nobis supplantatorem significat : tua autem 
 praestans virtus Lutheranam haeresim, ut mox apertius dicam, ita in Scotia 
 supplantavit, ut sperare liceat earn nunquam istic repululaturam : et 
 Betonia, ut physici nobis tradunt, nobilis est haerba, in tertium usque 
 gradum calida & sicca, animalis venenati morsui si superponatur praesen- 
 tissimum praebens remedium : sicque circumspectissima tua sapientia nuper 
 viperinae Lutheranorum infectioni aeternum peperit e Scotia exterminium. 
 Professioni vero et dignitati tuae, qui et Archiepiscopus es, et primas, et 
 legatus (ut dicitur) natus Scotiae, maxime convenit et lectitare et prae- 
 dicare evangelia, iuxta sententiam illius cuius dignitati archiepiscopi 
 succedunt, vaeh mihi est si non evangelizavero ; generi autem tuo, cui 
 ut illustrissimo cuique semper fuit primum et antiquissimum, ecclesiae 
 sanctae iura protegere et integrae fidei patrocinari. Porro studio tuo qui 
 a teneris unguiculis sacris incubuisti lectionibus, ab evangeliis indivulsus, 
 testimonio sunt priores nostrae in Matthaeum expositiunculae, quae licet 
 minus quam hae posteriores accurate essent emissae, in tuis tamen manibus 
 visae sunt, dum istic agerem fere semper. Denique moribus maxime 
 
448 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 tuis, nam ut dicere occoepimus, 11011 sine plurimorum invidia nobilem in 
 primis sed infelicem Lutheranae haereseos et perfidiae sectatorem viriliter 
 sustulisti : ut secundum nomen tuum sit et laus tua. Nec ab re : nosti 
 enim ab illo, cuius successorem te diximus, 'pronunciatum : si adhuc 
 hominibus placerem, Christi servus non essem. Hisce itaque de causis 
 ut boni consulens hanc lucubratiunculam et nuncupationem in partem 
 accipias bonam rogamus. Vale. Ex Monteacuto apud Parrhisios Musaeo 
 illustri, ad octavum Kalend. Iulias. MDXXIX. 
 
 \Arist. Ethic. 1530.] 
 
 Reuebendissimo in Christo Patri ac domino, domino Thomae Vulsae 
 Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae titulo Sanctae Cecilia? presbytero Car- 
 dinal^ Eboracensium Archiepiscopo, Anglia?que Primati, atque 
 Apostolic* sedis ab latere Legato, Ioannes Maior Hadyngtonanus 
 cum omni obseruantia, Salutem. 
 
 Saepe multumque mecum decreui animoque concept Praesulum am- 
 plissime, lucubratiuncularum mearum (qualescunque sunt) primitias, 
 Anglorum cuipiam dicare nuncupareque Principi. idque iustis (ut mihi 
 quidem visas sunt) rationibus. Quarum primum (ne longus fiam) sibi 
 addicit locum communis patriae, omnibus animantibus innatus amor ; 
 una enim Britannia, insularum in tota Europa celeberrima, quasi in navi 
 quadam, Oceano magno, parvo interstitio concludimur. Alterum siue 
 proximum locum, religionis et studiorum occupat consensio. Asuscepta 1 
 enim pietatis C hristiana? primordio, multi et magni fuerunt in utroque 
 regno illustres in omni, sed pra?cipue in diuina sapientia viri : qui et 
 plures sunt, quam ut eos hac epistolari angustia complecti valeam, et 
 notiores quam ut debeam. Tertium, eumque ne multis agam, postremum 
 et tamen potissimum locum sibi vendicat, ingrati animi, quae vel Persis 
 semper odiosissima labes fuit, etiam minima? notae, fuga. Tarn enim 
 frequenti bospitio, tarn humano comique colloquio, et tarn amico com- 
 mercio ab Anglis acceptus dignatusque sum, ut sine immemoris animi 
 labecula diutius tacere nequeam. Abhinc enim quadraginta annos, 
 si iusto calculo supputaui, paternos primum egressus lares, cum per 
 Angliam Parrhisios iter facerem, tanta Anglorum humanitate retentus 
 et acceptus sum, ut annum integrum in celeberrimo Cantabrigiae musaeo, 
 nunc Christi nomenclatura illustrato, prima artium bonarum rudimenta 
 acceperim : atque ex illo quum per mare perpetuum potuissem, fere per 
 Angliam profectionem reditionemque fecerim : atque quod et recenti 
 memoria teneo perpetuaque, dum spiritus hos reget artus, tenebo, iam 
 quartus agitur annos, quo tua, Legate longe Reuerende, maiestas inter 
 ecclesiasticas totius Angliae dignitates amplissima et facile piinceps, 
 exiguitatem meam istac rursum iter habentem veteri Christianorum 
 hospitalitate susceperit : et ad literarium gymnasium tunc recentius a 
 magnifica beneficentia tua Oxoniae institutum, praesentia et doctrina mea 
 
appendix il] MAJOR'S WORKS 
 
 449 
 
 utcunque illustrandum, oblata etiam splen[di]dissima mercede, inuitarit: 
 verum tauta me teiiuit matris iam meae Parrhisiorum academiae, et 
 studii sociorum ac coeptorum librorum quos perficere affectabam, amor, 
 ut ultro oblatam tarn honorificentissimam conditionem accipere non 
 potuerim : nunc igitur ne penitus immemor tanti arguar beneficii, et ut 
 tot annos quod parturiuerim aliquando pariam, tibi tali tautoque in 
 ecclesiastico ordine principi, ac theologorum, immo literatorum omnium 
 Meeoenati, Aristotelis complurium iudicio philosophorum principis, 
 moralium traditionum opus laudatissimum meis utcunque expositum 
 commentariis et dico et dedico. Quippe in quo opere, ut in reliquis 
 alios, ita sese, id est natures vires superasse visus est : nam in omnibus 
 fere sententiis, cum syncerissima catholicae ac vere Christiana? per- 
 suasionis integritate concordat. Liberum enim hominis arbitrium con- 
 stanter asserit. Manum sibi inferre ac necem consciscere ob rerum 
 tristium deuitationem non vere fortis animi, sed potius meticulosi 
 grauissime definit. Voluptatem honestam et bonis expetibilem a spur- 
 cissimis illecebris quas Turcae sibi proponunt, seiungit. Felicitatem 
 homini in hac vita contingentem in heroicarum virtutum operatione 
 constituit : duplicemque vitam et utramque laudabilem, actiuam dico et 
 contemplatiuam, Iudaeis olim in Rachele et Lya, nobis nunc etiam in 
 Martha et Magdalena sororibus figuratam, miro iudicio prosequitur : 
 nam hanc etiam superis, illam turn mortalibus accommodat. Denique in 
 tanto et tarn multiiugo opere vix placitum unum Christiano homine 
 indignum, si ut a nobis explanatum est legatur, ofFendas. Proinde, 
 Pater magnificentissime, ut qua humanitate et beneuolentia me nuper 
 suscepisti, hanc nouam fceturam, tuae dignitati etiam si longe (quod 
 vellem) melior esset multo ante debitam et nunc ex animo dictatam, 
 accipias rogamus. Vale. Ex collegio literario Montisacuti in Par- 
 rhisiorum gymnasio ad Calendas Iunias M.D. XXX. 
 
 [In Primum Sent. 1530.] 
 
 Ioannes Maior Hadingtoiianus D. Ioanni Maiori Eckio Sueuo, cog- 
 nomini ac contheologo, fideique orthodoxae protectori strenuo, 
 in fide ac charitate Christiana dilectissimo Salutem. 
 
 Abhinc annos ferme viginti, virorum optime, quaestiunculas complures 
 in primum Magistri Sententiarum emisimus, in quibus multa quae liber- 
 ales concernunt artes, de formarum intensione et similia placita pro virili 
 nostra discussimus, multaque refellimus. Hie enim fere mos scribendi 
 tunc theologis erat. At quamquam bonam aetatis illius partem in 
 Aristotelica doctrina exponenda transegi, tamen (quod ingenue fateor) 
 mos ille scribendi parum mihi placuit, cum viderem eum auditoribus meis 
 nec gratum nec iucundum. Quando enim quartum sententiarum pro- 
 fitebar, auditores ad me numerosi confluebant : dum vero in primum 
 Sententiarum scripta conterranei mei Ioannis Duns, aut Anglicani Guil- 
 
 2 F 
 
450 
 
 PREFACES 
 
 [appendix II. 
 
 helmi Okam, aut Gregorii Ariminensis, praelegerem, mira erat antequam 
 opus ipsum perlegerem, auscultatorum paucitas. Accessit praeterea a 
 duodecim (si rite recordor) annis fidei catholicae uoua et detestanda 
 calamitas, Martini Luteri, et qui ab eo os ponendi in caelum temeritatis 
 ansam acceperunt, execranda haeresis : ad quam confutandam, omnes 
 theologiae studiosi Luteciae ad sacras sese literas, neglectis sententiarum 
 definitionibus, accinxerunt, ita ut nostra Academia Sorbonica obtutum 
 mentis omnem ad materias cuilibet captu faciles fixerit, positionesque 
 Sorbonicas ingeniosis animis dignas, in materias maiorum ordinarium 
 (ut vulgato more loquar) commutarint. Quod videos sacra nostra facultas, 
 ac verita ne sic multorum ingenia torperent, et in crassam degenerarent 
 Minervam, Baccalauriis (qui sunt theologicis sacris initiati) indixit, ut in 
 Sorbonicis et tentatiuis (ut dicimus) disputationibus, scholastica et 
 argutiora placita more maiorum nostrorum tractarent ac sustinerent, per- 
 mittens tamen eis thesim unam interserere cum corollariis facilioris et 
 minus theoricae farraginis. Quocirca stilum tempori accommodaui, non 
 immemor Ulius Aristotelici dicti, Saepius redeunt opiniones ; hoc est, mos 
 scholasticarum disputationum variatur crebrius : de extremo enim in 
 extremum transeunt, et rursus dum unum extremum est multitudine 
 taediosum in alterum, quasi neglecto medio, recurrunt. Quare non osci- 
 tanter perspecta nonnulla in prologum olim a me disputata, quae Aristo- 
 telica posteriora sapiunt, paucis percurri, et pauca physicalia quae rem de 
 qua agitur patefaciunt carptim exaraui. Hunc autem primum librum sic 
 repositum observandae et omnibus honorandae praestantiae tuae nuncupaui, 
 cum propter nominis cognominisque ac studiorum inter nos communionem, 
 turn ob singularem obseruantiam nominis tui, quam non solum apud 
 commilitones tuos theologos Parisienses, verum apud omneis boni nominis 
 Christianos meruisti, ob egregiam istam fidei Christianas adversus impios 
 defensionem. Vale. Ex conclaui nostro in collegio Montis Acuti ad 
 Calendas Septemb. 1530. 
 
'THE ASSEMBLY OF THE SAINTS' 
 Illustration used in Major's hi Matthaum Expositio. 1518. 
 This woodcut was used by Notary in 1503, and at Paris by Hopyl in 1505-7 for 
 his Dutch edition of the Golden Legend. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abelard, lxiv 11. 
 Abercom, 65. 
 
 Aberdeen, 36, 181, 278, 316, 348. 
 
 university, 28 and 29. 
 
 Aberdeenshire rivers, 33. 
 Abernethy collegiate church, 108. 
 Hugh, 187. 
 
 William, of Salton, 340, 349. 
 
 Abington (Aberton), sir Thomas, 323. 
 
 Achaius, king of Scots, 100 ; alliance 
 with Charles the Great, 101, and n. 
 
 Acton, sir Roger, 342. 
 
 Ada, countess, 135, 165. 
 
 Adam of Ireland, 23 and n. 
 
 Adam of Kilconquhar, 188 n. 
 
 Adelbert, king of Kent, converted by 
 St. Augustine, 90. 
 
 Adelstanfard. See Athelstaneford. 
 
 Adelston. See Athelstan. 
 
 Aegidia. See Giles. 
 
 Aeneas Sylvius. See Pius II. 
 
 Aesop, 330. 
 
 Africa, 90. 
 
 Agarenes, 269. 
 
 Agincourt, 343. 
 
 Agned. See Edinburgh. 
 
 Agnes of Dunbar. See March, count- 
 ess of. 
 
 Aidan, king of Scots, 87. 
 
 St., 37, 92-94, 97, 102. 
 
 Ailly, Peter d', bishop of Cambray, 
 
 lvii, 411. 
 Airth, William, friar, cvi-cvii. 
 Akirkirre, son of Ecchach Audoch, 
 
 185. 
 
 Alain de Lille, 81 n. 
 
 Alan of Galloway, 168, 180, 189. 
 
 Alban, St., 60. 
 
 Albanac, son of Brutus, 50. 
 
 Albanactus, first king of Scots, 287. 
 
 Albany, Alexander, duke of, 211 n, 
 
 212, 386, 388. 
 
 John, duke of, 211 11., 212. 
 
 Murdach, duke of, 339, 343- 
 
 349> 354> 364, 367. 
 
 Robert, duke of, 355, 337, 338. 
 
 Albemarle, earl of, 180. 
 
 Albemarle, duke of, 340. 
 
 Alberic, bishop of Ostia, 135. 
 
 Albertus de Sax, 415, 422. 
 
 Albine, daughter of Diocletian, king of 
 
 Syria, 1, 2 
 Albinus, 102 n. 
 Albion, origin of the name, I. 
 Alcaris, Antony, cxxv. 
 Alcluyd, 65. 
 
 Alcock, John, bishop of Ely, xxxvii 
 
 n, xciii n, 26 
 Alcuin, 102 and 11. 
 Aldhame, 86. 
 
 Aldrey, king of Little Britain, 60. 
 Ale, 13. 
 
 Alertoun. See Northallerton. 
 
 Alexander of Macedon, 83, 264 and 
 n, 270, 436. 
 
 vi., pope, cvii. 
 
 I., king of Scotland, 126, 132, 
 
 133, 210 n. 
 
 11., 167, 169-172, 179-181. 
 
 in., dispute regarding corona- 
 tion of, 182 ; his coronation and 
 genealogy, 184, 185 ; marries the 
 daughter of Henry III., 186 ; taken 
 by the earl of Menteith and carried 
 to Stirling, 187; his death, 189; 
 eulogy, 191. 
 
 son of Alexander in., 188, 189. 
 
 son of James I., 360. 
 
 lord of the Isles. See Ross, 
 
 earl of. 
 
 of Argyll surrenders Dunstaffnage 
 
 castle to Robert Bruce, 231. 
 Alexandria, 90. 
 
 Alfred, king of the West Saxons, 114. 
 Alinclud or Alclid. See Dumbarton. 
 Almain, James, lii, liv, lviii, 10 and 
 
 n, 409, 411-414, 4i8, 433- 
 Almond, the river, 1 18. 
 Alnwick, 130, 186 387. 
 Alphin, king of Scots, beheaded by 
 
 the Picts, 103. 
 Alpin, son of Ethach, 185. 
 Altisiodorensis, 229 and 
 Alured, king of Suffolk, III. 
 
454 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Amberkeleth, king of Scots, killed by 
 the Picts, 99. 
 
 Amboise, castle of, 390. 
 
 Ambrose, St., in Tours and Milan at 
 the same time, 87 n. 
 
 Ambrosius Aurelius, 67, 69 ; lands 
 with an army at Totnes, crowned 
 king in London, kills Vortiger, 
 enters into a treaty with Constan- 
 tius, 78 ; defeats and slays Hengist, 
 perishes by poison, buried in Stone- 
 henge, 79. 
 
 Amiens, 391. 
 
 Anabat, William, ci. 
 
 Anacharsis the Scythian, 7 and n. 
 
 Anatolius, bishop of Laodicea, 92 and 
 n, 96. 
 
 Andegavia, 146 n. 
 
 'Andium'. 6^Anjou. 
 
 Andrew, St., his relics brought to 
 Britain by Regulus, receives gifts 
 from Hungus, king of the Picts, 63 ; 
 held in honour by Picts, 108. 
 
 Anglia, origin of the iiame, 72. 
 
 Anguischel, king of Scots, 84. 
 
 Angus, 279. 
 
 brother of Fergus II., 64. 
 
 a chieftain of Galloway, becomes 
 
 a monk, 162. 
 
 countess of, treacherously mur- 
 ders Kenneth II., 118. 
 
 earl of, 295. 
 
 George Douglas, earl of, 340, 387. 
 
 William Douglas, earl of, 354, 
 
 35 6 > 362, 364, 383, 386. 
 
 Anjou, 41, 146 and n, 153, 157, 445. 
 
 Geoffrey, earl of, 144, 170. 
 
 Anna, sister of Aurelius, 82. 
 
 queen of Richard 11., 302. 
 
 Annabella, queen of Robert III., 332. 
 
 Annand, John, li, 440. 
 
 Annandale, 189, 293, 346. 
 
 Anselm, dean of Laon, compiler of 
 the Glossa Interlinearis, 75 n. 
 
 archbishop of Canterbury, ban- 
 ished by William Rufus, 129 ; re- 
 turns to England, 143. 
 
 Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, 52 
 and n. 
 
 Verus, 59. 
 
 Aquinas, Thomas, Jxiii and n, lxiv «, 
 cxxii 77, cxxvii, 174, 184 n, 229 », 
 422. 
 
 Aquitaine, 41, 146, 153, 253. 
 Arbroath, 165 and n, 169, 278. 
 Arbuckle, a friar, cviii. 
 Arcadius, emperor, 64. 
 Archery, 357 and n. 
 Aremorica in Gaul, 4, 17, 6c. 
 Argadia, 37 and 
 
 Argentolium, 8. 
 
 Argyll, 37, 38, 221. 
 
 Aristotle, lxx, cxxiii, 15 and 77, 40, 
 72 and 75, 79, 115, 119, 352, 
 426-428, 439, 442-445> 449, 45°- 
 
 Armagnac, 373. 
 
 Arran, island of, 37, 93. 
 
 Arteveldt, Philip van, 378 71. 
 
 Arthur, king, how he came to be 
 king, his character, wars, armour, 
 etc., 81-83 ; killed in battle, 84, 
 buried in Glastonbury, 85. 
 
 son of Henry VII., 394. 
 
 Arthur's O'on, 58 71. 
 
 Seat, Edinburgh, 82 and 71. 
 
 Arundel, earl of, 251, 254, 280, 307. 
 
 Thomas, archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 307, 308. 
 
 Asahel, 1 12 and 
 
 Ascelin, founder of Montaigu college, 
 xlvi. 
 
 Asslingith, Fechelmeth, son of Ene- 
 
 gussa Buchyn, 185. 
 Assouan, 90 71. 
 
 Assyrian empire, foundation of the, 56. 
 Astrolog> r , 183, 184 and «, 248. 
 Asturia, 54. 
 
 Athelstan of England, 108, 111 and 
 «, 314. 
 
 Athelstaneford, 11 1 and 77. 
 Athole, 221. 
 
 earl of, conspires against James 
 
 1., 364; his execution, 368, 369. 
 
 David, earl of, 211 and », 274- 
 
 278. 
 
 Patrick, earl of, burnt to death, 
 
 181. 
 
 Robert, earl of, 365, 369. 
 
 Walter, earl of, 311, 331, 356 
 
 Aubert, Charles, 165 77. 
 
 Aubigny, Bernard, lord d', 345 and 77. 
 
 Audley, lord, 379. 
 
 Audoch, Ecchach, son of Fiachrach 
 
 Catinall, 185. 
 Augsburg, 397. 
 Augustine, St., 90, 91, 443. 
 Aurelius Commodus, 59. 
 Auvergne, 212. 
 Avignon, 306. 
 
 AvonorSanda. ^Sanda. 
 Awyna island, 37 and 77. 
 Ayr, 194, 195, 196, 242. 
 
 Badelessemor, Bartholomew, 251. 
 Badius, Jodocus, lxx, lxxiv, xciv, c-cii. 
 Badyngton, William, 371. 
 Baldred, St., buried in three different 
 
 places, 86, 87 77. 
 Balfour, Alexander, cxix. 
 Martin, rector of Duninoch, cxxi. 
 
 « 
 
INDEX 
 
 455 
 
 Baliol, Edward, 211, 269-279, 287, 
 
 293, 296. 
 Hanry, 271. 
 
 John, 180, 192-194, 207, 211- 
 
 215, 224 and n, 287, 291. 
 Balloch, Donald, rebellion of, 361. 
 Balmerino, 180, 278. 
 Balnaves, Henry, a lord of session, 
 
 cvii. 
 Bamburgh, 147. 
 Bane, Donald. See Donald. 
 Banister, William, 223. 
 Bannerman, Robert, li, 442. 
 Bannockburn, 221 ; origin of the name, 
 
 232 ; position of the armies, 233 ; 
 
 the battle, 239-241. 
 Barclay, David, of Aberdeen, slain by 
 
 Douglas, 293. 
 
 Thomas, cxxi. 
 
 Bardolf, lord, 341. 
 Barley, 7, 13. 
 Barnet, battle of, 391. 
 Barry, Thomas, first provost of Both- 
 well, 328 and 
 Bartane or Bertane cloth, 28 n. 
 Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus 
 
 Remm, 45 and n. 
 Bass Rock, 34 and n, 342. 
 Bassianus, a Roman general, 61, 62. 
 Baston, William, his verses on the 
 
 battle of Bannockburn, 242 and 11. 
 Baugy, battle of, 88 n. 
 Bayeux, bishop of, created earl of 
 
 Kent, 127 ; defeated by Malcolm, 
 
 128. 
 
 Beaton, David, archbishop of St. 
 
 Andrews, cx-cxi, 351 n. 
 James, archbishop of St. Andrews, 
 
 lviii, lxxi, xci-xcii, civ, cx, 410, 411, 
 
 416, 435, 447. 
 Beatrice, daughter of Malcolm, 120, 
 
 185. 
 
 Beauchamp, Gilbert, 371. 
 Beaumont, lord Henry de, 274, 275, 
 279. 
 
 viscount of, 380. 
 
 Beauvais, 229 n. 
 
 Becket, Thomas, archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 143, 144, 146, 147, 150. 
 
 Beda, Natalis, xxxviii, lxxxviii, lxxxix, 
 409, 425, 430, 436, 440. 
 
 Bede's Ecclesiastical History, lxiii, 
 cxxxiv, cxxxv, 4, 12, 37, 45, 50, 54, 
 56, 59, 60, 66,78, 92, 94-96, 98, 99 
 and 7t, 102, 107, 108, 287. 
 
 Bedford, 289. 
 
 duke of, 371. 
 
 Beigheland. See Byland. 
 
 Beil. See Dunbar, Patrick. 
 
 Bel, founder of Assyria, 56. 
 
 Belgium, 5. 
 
 Bellavalle, Franciscus de, 410, 434. 
 Bells in England and Scotland, xxxiv, 
 
 no ; in Paris, xliv. 
 Belmont, viscount, 373. 
 Benedict, xii, 137 n. 
 Benedictine monastery founded at 
 
 Newcastle, 135 ; Germany, 100 
 
 and 11. 
 
 monasteries at Perth, 362. 
 
 Benefeld, Roger, 252. 
 Berengarius, xciii. 
 Bergamo's Chronicles, 85 and n. 
 Berkeley, lord, 371. 
 
 castle, 262. 
 
 Berlin, 397. 
 Bernard, St., 98. 
 
 convent of, Haddington, 
 
 165. 
 
 Bernicia, 66, 72, 113 n. 
 
 Berquin, his martyrdom, lxxi, lxxxviii. 
 
 Bersson, Reginald, 150. 
 
 Berta, 217 n. 
 
 Berwick, 16, 135, 164, 171 n, 192, 
 204 11, 221, 224, 225, 227, 244, 250, 
 271-273, 275, 281, 287, 295, 296, 
 
 336, 387. 
 
 castle, 271, 312. 
 
 Biel, Gabriel, xlv n. 
 
 Bieland. See Byland. 
 
 Bikcartoun, Walter, of Lufness, 340. 
 
 Bilenus, king of Britain, 72. 
 
 Bishops, ordination of, 66 and n. 
 
 Bisset, William, 181. 
 
 Black parliament, 245, 269. 
 
 Blackheath, 377. 
 
 Blonte, sir Walter, 341 11. 
 
 Bloreheath, 379. 
 
 Boarhills, near St. Andrews, 133 v. 
 Boars, 7. 
 
 Bodin, Jean, 184 n. 
 Boece, Hector, xlix, lxxv. 
 Bohun, Humphrey de. See Hereford, 
 earl of. 
 
 William. See Northampton, earl 
 
 of. 
 
 Boillon, Martin, ci. 
 Boisil, St., 98. 
 
 Bokingham (Bokinham), John, 23 and 
 n. 
 
 Bolingbroke. See Henry IV. 
 Boluacus, Joannes, 444. 
 Bonaventure, St., 174, 229 and n. 
 Bonet, Etienne, xxxviii and n. 
 Boniface VIII., 147. 
 Bordeaux, 301. 
 Borlier, J., ci. 
 Boroughbridge, 251. 
 Borough moor, battle of, 277. 
 Borthwick, lord, 299. 
 
456 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Borthwick, sir George, ex. 
 
 William, of Borthwick, 356. 
 
 Bosworth, battle of, 393. 
 Bothwell, 279. 
 — college, 337. 
 
 James, earl of, 305 n. 
 
 Patrick, earl of, 323 n. 
 
 Boucard, John, exxvi. 
 
 Boulac or Bouillache, John, xxxviii, 
 
 xci, 407, 411, 430. 
 Boulogne, 5. 
 
 Eustace, count of, 132. 
 
 Boyd, Robert, an adherent of Wallace, 
 196. 
 
 Thomas, of Kilmarnock, 350. 
 
 Bradwardine (Bravardinus), Thomas, 
 
 23 and 71, 26. 
 Braganza, 51. 
 
 Brandan's serving-men, 276. 
 Brandenburg, 397. 
 Bravardinus. See Bradwardine. 
 Braxy, 13 and n. 
 
 Brechin, David, lord, execution of, 
 245- 
 
 Bred, Robert, 278. 
 
 Brek, Donald, son of Occabuid, 185. 
 
 Simon, 52, 56. 
 
 Brentheath. See Blackheath. 
 Breslau, 397. 
 Breton, William, 150. 
 Breuil, 88 n. 
 
 Breze, Peter de, seneschal of Nor- 
 mandy, 379, 387. 
 
 Bricot, Thomas, exxii and «, exxvi 
 and n. 
 
 Bridgenorth, 20. 
 
 Bridget, St., 108. 
 
 Brintel, 293 and 11. 
 
 Brise. See Breze. 
 
 Bristol, 20, 22, 71, 390, 396. 
 
 castle, 145. 
 
 Britain, origin of the name, 2-14. 
 
 Britannicus, 58. 
 
 British names, peculiar spelling of, 
 
 320, 321. 
 Brittany, 28 n. 
 
 duke of, 135. 
 
 Brotherton, Thomas, 289. 
 
 Broughton, Edinburgh, 28 n. 
 
 Brown, Richard, executed for treason, 
 
 245. 
 
 Bruce, Alexander. See Carrick, earl of. 
 
 beheaded at Carlisle, 221. 
 
 ■ Christiana, 274. 
 
 Edward, defeats Donald of the 
 
 Isles, 231 ; his siege of Stirling 
 castle, 232, 233 ; subdues a large 
 part of Ireland, 243 ; killed at the 
 battle of Dundalk, 244. 
 
 Nigel, 221. 
 
 Bruce, Robert, 174 ; marries the 
 daughter of the earl of Carrick, 188. 
 
 king of Scotland, his advice 
 
 to his successors, 38 ; at the battle 
 of Ealkirk, 200 ; his speech to 
 Wallace, 201 ; claims the throne 
 of Scotland, 207 ; stabs the Red 
 Cumming, 208; crowned at Scone, 
 his descent from Malcolm Can- 
 more, 209, 211, 212; the justice 
 of his claim to the throne, 213-220 ; 
 defeated by Odomar de Valence, 
 220 ; his wife carried prisoner to 
 England, 221 ; takes Inverness castle, 
 222 ; Merlin's prophecy, 224; gains 
 a victory near Stirling, 225 ; excom- 
 municated, 226 ; subdues Alexander 
 of Argyll, 231 ; takes Perth, 231 ; 
 and the Isle of Man, 232 ; his speech 
 to the army before Bannockburn, 
 236 ; disposition of the army, 238 ; 
 kills an English knight, 239 ; de- 
 clared king, 242 ; his expedition to 
 Ireland, 243; invades England, 246; 
 speech to the army, 247 ; defeats the 
 English, 249 ; sends an army into 
 Northumberland, 256, 263; marriage 
 of his son to Joanna, sister of Edward 
 in., 263; his death, 264; his last 
 testament, 264, 265 ; defence of, 
 against Caxton, 287. 
 
 Thomas, beheaded at Carlisle, 
 
 221. 
 
 Brude, king of the Picts, 86, 108. 
 Brutus, 2, 3, 50. 
 
 Bryangen. See Jay, Frere Bryan. 
 Buatius, Nicholaus, 416. 
 Buchan, 275. 
 
 earl of, 180. 
 
 earldom of, 364. 
 
 Alexander, earl of, 187. 
 
 Stewart, earl of, 331, 364. 
 
 John Stewart, earl of, 298, 343, 
 
 345- 
 
 Buchanan, George, xl, xliii, Ixxii-lxxiv, 
 
 civ, cv, cix. 
 
 Thomas, of the Moss, Ixxii. 
 
 Buchyn, Enegussa, son of Fechelmeth 
 
 Romaich, 185. 
 Buckingham, Humphrey Stafford, duke 
 
 of, 373, 378, 380. 
 Thomas Woodstock, earl of. See 
 
 Gloucester, duke of. 
 Budasus, lvii. 
 
 Bullock, William, keeper of Cupar 
 
 castle, 283. 
 Burgundy, John, duke of, 363, 372. 
 Buridan, John, lxii and », lxiii and 11, 
 
 exxii and 11, exxviii n, 405. 
 Burley, Walter, 228 and n, 230. 
 
INDEX 
 
 457 
 
 Bury St. Edmunds, no and n, 373. 
 Bute, island of, 37. 
 Butler, James, 371. 
 
 John, 371/ 
 
 Bygot, lord Hugh, 145. 
 
 Byland (Beigheland), 247, 252, 253. 
 
 Cade's Rebellion, 374, 375. 
 Caen, 128. 
 
 Caermarthen, 74 and n. 
 Caithness, 5. 
 
 bishop of, 167, 179. 
 
 Alan, earl of, 361. 
 
 John, earl of, 179, 180. 
 
 Cajetan, Thomas, cardinal, Hi n, Iviii, 
 414. 
 
 Calais, 5, 292, 307, 372, 378, 379, 380, 
 391. 
 
 Caldermuir, 337. 
 
 Caledonian forest, 36. 
 
 Calibur, the sword of Arthur, 83. 
 
 Callum More, 37. 
 
 Calvin, John, xc. 
 
 Camber, son of Brutus, 50. 
 
 Cambrai, college of, xlvii. 
 
 Cambria. See Wales. 
 
 Cambridge, xxxiii, 25 and n, 1 10, 448. 
 
 earl of. See York, duke of. 
 
 Cambridgeshire, 71. 
 Cambuskenneth monastery, 135. 
 Cameron clan. See Clan. 
 Campbell of Lochaw, 276. 
 Candida Casa founded by St. Ninian, 
 66. 
 
 Cannon made in Flanders, 360. 
 Canterbury, 157, 180, 306, 376. 
 
 archbishop of [Walter Reynolds], 
 
 226, 286. 
 
 Canute, king of England, in, 115, 
 120. 
 
 Capitiati, the rebellion of the, 378 
 
 and n. 
 Carausius, 61, 62. 
 Carbonell, Richard, 371. 
 Cardross, 264. 
 Carham (Carra), 311. 
 Carinthia, 100 11. 
 Carlaverock, 298, 303, 355. 
 Carlinlyppos (Carlops), 293 and n. 
 Carlisle, 19, 59, 135, 146, 147, 156 n, 
 
 172, 221, 256, 258. 
 Carmalin. See Caermarthen. 
 Carmelites arrive in Scotland, 188. 
 Carnarvon, 225. 
 
 Caron, Alexander, standard-bearer to 
 
 Alexander I., 133 and n. 
 Carrick, 167, 222, 276. 
 
 countess of, 188. 
 
 earl of, dies on an expedition to 
 
 the Holy Land, 188. 
 
 Carrick, earl of, taken prisoner at the 
 siege of Dunbar castle, 192. 
 
 Alexander Bruce, earl of, 270, 
 
 271, 273. 
 
 David, earl of. See Rothesay, 
 
 duke of. 
 
 John, earl of, son of Robert II., 
 
 329. 
 
 Thomas, earl of, 276. 
 
 Carron, 58 and n. t 
 
 Carruther, William, 276. 
 
 Carthusian monastery founded at 
 
 Perth, 362, 364. 
 Cassibellaunus surrenders to the 
 
 Romans, 57. 
 Castile, 243. 
 
 king of. See Ferdinand of Ara- 
 
 gon. 
 
 Catalonians' observance of Lent, 97 n. 
 Catholic faith accepted by the Scots, 
 61. 
 
 Catinall, Fiachrach, son of Echad 
 
 Ried, 185. 
 Cato, 436. 
 
 Cattle, 7 ; in the Highlands, 36 and n. 
 Caubraith, Robert, li and it, cxxv, 
 
 409, 418 ; bibliography of, 417. 
 Cawood, 22 n. 
 
 Caxton's Chronicle, I, 3, 57, 127, 143, 
 145 and 11, 146, 147, 160, 191, 194, 
 201, 224-226, 228, 255, 287, 288, 
 343 and 11, 350, 360. 
 
 Celestine, pope, sends St. Palladius 
 to Scotland, 65 ; consecrates St. 
 Patrick and sends him to Ireland, 
 66. 
 
 Cenalis or Senalis, Robert, liv and it, 
 
 xcii, 408, 409, 411, 418, 432, 445. 
 Ceylon, 6, 243 and n. 
 Chalus, 155 11. 
 
 Chaplain, Peter, li, 406, 439. 
 ' Chapter of Mitton.' See Myton 
 Upswale. 
 
 Charles the Great, 83 ; alliance with 
 Achaius king of Scots, 101 and it ; 
 patron saint of the ' English Na- 
 tion ', 1 10 n. 
 
 the Bald, 113. 
 
 of Burgundy, 85, 390, 391. 
 
 iv., emperor, no n. 
 
 v., of France, xl, 378 n, 395 n. 
 
 v., emperor, 395 n. 
 
 vi., of France, 216, 378. 
 
 vii. , of France, 44, 216, 354. 
 
 viii., of France, xxxviii-xxxix, 
 
 Iviii, 390, 393. 
 
 Chastel-Neuf, in Beam, 327. 
 
 Chattan. See Clan. 
 
 Chawmer, Christopher, one of the 
 murderers of James I., 370. 
 
458 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Chayne, William, 371. 
 Chester, 71. 
 
 earl of, 167, 309. 
 
 Ralph, earl of, 145. 
 
 Christ's church college, Cambridge, 
 
 xcvi and n, 25 and n, no n. 
 Christianity in Britain, 59, 61. 
 Chrysanthus, 116 and n. 
 Chydiok, John, 371. 
 Cicero quoted, 6, 420, 422, 445. 
 Cistercians, cix. 
 Clan Cameron, 344 «, 358-359. 
 
 Chattan, 334, 358-359. 
 
 Kay and clan Quhele, combat 
 
 between, 333 and n, 334. 
 Clare, Gilbert. See Gloucester, earl 
 
 of, 251. 
 
 Thomas, 174. 
 
 Clarence, duke of, 344, 389, 390, 392. 
 Claudius Caesar invades Britain, 58. 
 Clemangis, Nicholas, lvii. 
 Clement sent to France, 102 and n. 
 Clergy and lay jurisdiction, 147. 
 Clermont, Philippe de, 419. 
 Cleveland, 189. 
 Clifford, John, lord, 378, 381. 
 
 Roger, 174, 250-252. 
 
 sir Thomas, 324, 331. 
 
 Clyde, the, 33. 
 Clydesdale, 276. 
 
 Maurice de Moray, lord, 282 
 
 and n, 283. 
 Coal, 39. 
 
 Cobham, lord, 377. 
 
 John Oldcastle, lord, burned for 
 
 heresy, 243. 
 Ronald, 371. 
 
 Coccio, Marcantonio. See Sabellicus. 
 
 Cockburn, John, 339. 
 
 Robert, bishop of Ross, xxxi- 
 
 xxxii, 1 and n, 408, 437. 
 
 William, 339. 
 
 Cockburnspath, 293. 
 
 Coldingham, 98, 132. 
 
 Coldstream nunnery, 36 n. 
 
 Colet and the relics of Thomas Becket, 
 
 152 n. 
 
 Colluthy. See Ramsay, William. 
 Colman, St., 96, 97, 100 n, 102. 
 Cologne, 60, 100, 126, 207, 230 n, 
 395 n. 
 
 Colquhoun, Adam, canon of Glasgow, 
 
 lxvi cxvii. 
 Colum'ba, St., 86, 88 and », 96, 98, 
 
 100 n, 108. 
 Comet seen at the death of Aurelius 
 
 Ambrosius, 79 and n. 
 Coner, son of Mogolama, 185. 
 Coneremore, son of Etherskeol, 185. 
 Confectioners, 9 and n. 
 
 Confrey, Rodolph, 202. 
 Congal, king of Scots, 78, 102. 
 Coningham, John de, 393 n. 
 Conor-o-Bryan, king of Munster, 
 100 
 
 Constance, 101 n. 
 
 Constantine, king of Scots, treacher- 
 ously slain at Inverdovat, 112. 
 
 the Bald, 118. 
 
 son of Eth, succeeds Donald as 
 
 king of Scots, invades England, 114; 
 becomes a religious at St. Andrews, 
 US- 
 
 Constantius, king of the Britons, 60, 
 67, 78. 
 
 son of the preceding, after having 
 
 become a monk, is crowned king, 
 murdered by Picts, 68. 
 
 Copeland (Colpedupe), sir John, 
 323- 
 
 Corfe castle, 262, 290. 
 
 Cornubia, 313 and n. 
 
 Cornvalia, 313 and n. 
 
 Cornwall, 5, 83. 
 
 earl of, 81. 
 
 duke of, 309. 
 
 Richard, earl of, 174. 
 
 Coronation stone brought by Fergus 
 from Ireland, 56. 
 
 Coronel, Antony, liv, lv n, lvi, cxxv, 
 404, 409, 418, 428, 442. 
 
 Louis, liv, lv and n, 404, 409, 
 
 418, 428. 
 
 Couan. See Cowan. 
 
 Couchi, Ingelram de, 180 and n. 
 
 Couplant, John, takes David II. pri- 
 soner, 293. 
 
 Coventry, 22, 396. 
 
 Cowan, Alexander, 409. 
 
 Crabs in Scotland, 33, 34. 
 
 Cranston, David, xlix, 1, lii, liv, cxxiv, 
 10 and n, 408, 409, 424, 425, 433 ; 
 bibliography of, 412-414. 
 
 William, civ. 
 
 Crawford moor, 6 and n. 
 
 Crayfish, 33 «. 
 
 Cressingham, Hugh, 193, 196. 
 Crevant, battle of, 344. 
 Crichton, William, lord of, 355, 362, 
 382. 
 
 Crockert, Peter, Dominican friar, lii 
 and n, liv, 10 n, 409, 418, 433. 
 
 Cromarty harbour, 35 and n. 
 
 Cronan. See Cryninus. 
 
 Cross, ancient, discovered at Peebles, 
 188. 
 
 Crossecarne, 293. 
 
 Crumgring, Corbre, son of Dare- 
 
 diomore, 185. 
 Cryninus, abthane of Dul, 118 and 11. 
 
INDEX 
 
 459 
 
 Crystyclok eats human flesh, 283 and n. 
 
 Cudlington, 26 
 
 Cueilly, Thomas de, 415. 
 
 Culinus. king of Scots, 117. 
 
 Culross, 177. 
 
 Cumbrae, Greater (island), 37. 
 Cumbria, 114, 117. 
 
 Cumberland, 127, 128, 134, 162, 216, 
 312. 
 
 dimming, John, 187, 192, 194, 203, 
 207, 208, 211 and », 222, 237. 
 
 Walter. See Menteith, earl of. 
 
 William, 221. 
 
 family, 187, 188, 199-202, 208, 
 
 221, 237, 275. 
 Cumnock church, 298. 
 Cunningham, 276. 
 
 Cunynghame, Robert, of Kilmaurs, 
 
 355, 356. 
 
 See also Coningham. 
 
 Cupar, 278, 279, 283. 
 Currie, Walter, 283. 
 Curthose, Robert, 128, 143. 
 Cuthbert, St., 98, 132. 
 Cynimond, 95. 
 
 Dalary, 221. 
 Dalkeith, 28 «, 366. 
 Dalswinton, 298, 300. 
 Dammory, Roger, 251. 
 Dandale, Hugh, 251. 
 Danes invade Northumberland, 109, 
 in. 
 
 Danube, the, 20 and n. 
 Danzig, 397. 
 
 Darediomore, son of Corbre Findmor, 
 185. 
 
 Dares, James, 295. 
 
 Daria, 116 and n. 
 
 Darvargilla, 2IO », 21 1. 
 
 David, king of Israel, 83. 
 
 David I., lxviii, 126, 145, 210, n; 
 defeats Stephen, king of England ; 
 gains possession of Northumberland 
 and Cumberland ; treaty with Ste- 
 phen, 134; builds a castle at Car- 
 lisle, founds monasteries, taunt of 
 James I. at his tomb, 135 ; his up- 
 right life, 138 ; and regard for the 
 poor, 139 ; his death, 140 ; founder 
 of nine bishoprics, 141. 
 
 David 11., 263, 286, 289, 304 ; flies to 
 France, 270 ; returns to Scotland, 
 285 ; invades England, taken pri- 
 soner, 292 ; his ransom, 298, 299 ; 
 gains possession of the tithes, 303 ; 
 divorces Margaret Logy, 305 ; his 
 death, 306. 
 
 David, brother of Llewellyn, prince of 
 Wales, 175. I 
 
 David of Huntingdon. See Hunting- 
 don, earl of. 
 Davidson, Thomas, xcix. 
 Davil, Joslin, 250, 251. 
 Dearndil, son of Mane, 185. 
 Debateable land, the, 19-20. 
 Dechath, son of Sin, 185. 
 Dee, the, 33, 231. 
 
 near Chester, 71. 
 
 Deer, monastery of, 87 n. 
 
 Demonology, 75 and n, 170 and 11. 
 
 Denbigh, 175. 
 
 Derby, earl of, 281, 307. 
 
 Devonshire, earl of, 377. 
 
 Devorguilla, 189. 
 
 Diocletian, king of Syria, I, 2 n. 
 
 Dionoth, father of St. Ursula, 60. 
 
 Dionysius' De Sitzi Orbis, 43. 
 
 the Carthusian, 113 and n. 
 
 Dirlton. See Hamilton, John. 
 Divorce in Scotland, 305. 
 Doesmier, Vicentius, 413. 
 Domesday survey, 129 n. 
 Dominicans. See Preaching friars. 
 Dompnach, 108. 
 Don, the, 33. 
 
 Donald, king of wScots, 112, 114. 
 
 Donald Bane, 121 ; invades Scotland, 
 but is defeated by his nephew 
 Duncan, 131 ; again becomes king, 
 131 ; crown taken from him by 
 Edgar, 132; his death, 166. 
 
 Donald of the Isles, 231, 348. 
 
 Doncaster, 156 n. 
 
 Donibristle, 244. 
 
 Dorp, John, cxxii and 11 ; 405, 41 1. 
 
 Douglas, Archibald, guardian of Scot- 
 land, 270, 272-73. 
 
 third earl, 298-99, 313-16, 
 
 329-30. 
 
 fourth earl, 335-37, 339, 341, 
 
 343-44- 
 
 fifth earl, 343-45> 354"56, 
 
 361. 
 
 David, 382. 
 
 Gavin, bishop of Dunkeld (third 
 
 son of fifth earl), xxxi-xxxii, 1, lxi, 
 lxv, lxxv, 408, 414, 425, 437. 
 
 James, lord, II, 226, 231, 233, 
 
 241, 243, 252, 255, 256, 260, 261, 
 265, 269. 
 
 James, second earl of, 279, 313- 
 
 314, 316-17, 321-22, 329. 
 
 James, of Dalkeith, 329, 340, 354. 
 
 John, cxx. 
 
 of Dalkeith, 293. 
 
 Marjory, daughter of Archibald, 
 
 fourth earl of, 335. 
 sir William, 272, 277, 278, 281, 
 
 291, 294. 
 
460 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Douglas, William, first earl of, 282- 
 285, 293, 294, 297, 309, 312, 313. 
 
 sixth earl, beheaded at Edin- 
 burgh, 382. 
 
 eighth earl, 382. 
 
 of Nithsdale, 315, 331. 
 
 Douglasdale, 293. 
 
 Doune, in Menteith, 355. 
 
 Dovengard, son of Fergus the Great, 
 185. 
 
 Dover, 172, 380. 
 
 Straits, 5 and u. 
 
 Dragons, 77, 80. 
 
 Dronstan, St., 87 and 
 
 Drury, William, 371. 
 
 Drusco, king of the Picts, 105-107. 
 
 Dryburgh, 314. 
 
 Dublin, marquis of. See Oxford, earl 
 of. 
 
 Dudley, baron, 374. 
 
 Duels condemned, 332. 
 
 Duff, Angus, 358, 361. 
 
 Duffus, son of Malcolm, reigns over 
 
 the Scots, 117. 
 Dullart, Johannes, cxxv. 
 Dumbarton, 59, 72, 274-76, 309, 355. 
 Dumfries, 208, 21 1, 300. 
 Dunbar, 28 «, 171. 
 
 castle, 190, 192, 194, 241, 279, 
 
 281, 336, 338, 346, 362, 384. 
 
 Agnes of. See March. 
 
 Elizabeth, 335. 
 
 Gavin, archbishop of Glasgow, 
 
 1, 411, 444. 
 
 George, earl of, 356. 
 
 James, archbishop of Glasgow, xci. 
 
 Patrick. See March, earl of. 
 
 son of the earl of March, 
 
 340, 348. 
 
 Duncan, grandson of Malcolm, king 
 
 of Scots, 120. 
 succeeds to Malcolm Canmore, 
 
 131. 
 
 son of Beatrice, 185. 
 
 Dundalk, battle of, 244. 
 Dundark, 275. 
 Dundas, George, xlix. 
 Dundee, 33, 39, 133 and n. 
 
 castle, 196. 
 
 Dundonald castle, 331. 
 Dundrennan, 135, 180. 
 Dungal, king of Scots, 103. 
 Dungard, brother of Constantius, 78. 
 Dunglas bridge, 331 and n. 
 Dunfermline, 28 11, 130, 132-33, 163, 
 
 185, 203, 268, 278. 
 monks in St. James's monastery, 
 
 Ratisbon, 101 n. 
 Dunhowm castle, 276. 
 Dunkeld, 108, 118 n. 
 
 Dunkeld, Richard, bishop of, 188. 
 Dunpier, in France, 291. 
 Dunnottar castle, 279. 
 Duns, 311. 
 
 Duns Scotus, John, lxii, lxiii and n, 
 lxxviii, cxxvii, cxxviii, cxxxv, 23 
 and ;z, 206 and n, 213 n, 229 and ;/, 
 230 n, 311, 410, 412, 449. 
 
 Dunstaffnage castle, 231. 
 
 Dunstan, St. See Dronstan. 
 
 Dunstanburgh, 251. 
 
 Dunstane, 206 n. 
 
 Dupplin, 211, 269. 
 
 Durham, 99, 130, 132 and «, 134, 225, 
 313, 3i6. 
 
 bishop of, 130 n, 324-326. 
 
 Durrisdeer, 300. 
 
 Dury, abbot of Dunfermline, ex. 
 
 Andrew, cxvii. 
 
 Du Sault, Peter, 410, 434. 
 Duthac, St., miraculous powers of his 
 shirt, 273 and n. See also Tain. 
 
 Easter, celebration of, 95, 96. 
 Ebro, the, 51, 185. 
 Ecclesiastical polity of Scotland, 30. 
 Echadius, 64 and n. 
 Echdach, son of Donald Brek, 185. 
 Edaim, son of Gobram, 185. 
 Eck, Dr. John Major, xcix n, 409, 
 449- 
 
 Edana, an Irish nun, 16 n. 
 Edelstan, son of Constantine, 114. 
 Edgar, son of Malcolm Canmore, 126, 
 
 131-32, 210. 
 
 Atheling, 126, 131. 
 
 Edinburgh, xliv, 28 and n, 29 n, 59, 
 
 82, 246, 297, 306, 313, 387. 
 castle, 15 and n, 17, 164, 180, 
 
 232, 278, 283, 309, 339, 382. 
 Edmund, king of England, 117. 
 Ironside, ill and n. 
 
 ■ St., IO9, I IO 71. 
 
 Education neglected among the gentry. 
 48 and 71 ; education of children, 
 115, 116. 
 
 Edward, king of the west Saxons, 114. 
 
 son of Alured , 1 1 1 . 
 
 St., king of England, murdered 
 
 by his stepmother, III. 
 the Confessor, 115, 116 and n-, 
 
 125. 
 
 son of Malcolm Canmore, 126. 
 
 Edward I., 36 n, 174, 210 71, 287-288, 
 290 ; invades Wales, drives the Jews 
 from the kingdom, 176 ; decides in 
 favour of John Baliol, invades Scot- 
 land, 192 ; wins the battle of Fal- 
 kirk, subdues Scotland, 193 ; true 
 version of Falkirk battle, 199-202 ; 
 
INDEX 
 
 461 
 
 declares Baiiol king of Scotland, 
 207 ; his death, 222 ; judged worthy 
 of censure, 223 ; Merlin's prophecy, 
 224. 
 
 Edward II., 203; defeated by Robert 
 Bruce, 225 ; raises an army for the 
 relief of Stirling castle, 233 ; his 
 address to the army before Ban- 
 nockburn, 235 ; defeated at Ban- 
 nockburn, 241 ; sends another army 
 into Scotland and is again defeated, 
 243, 244 ; makes his way to Edin- 
 burgh, 246 ; speech to the army, 
 248 ; defeated by Bruce, 249 ; revolt 
 of the barons, 250 ; defeats the earl 
 of Lancaster, 251 ; invades Scot- 
 land ; defeated by Randolph and 
 Douglas, 252 ; exiles his wife and 
 son, imprisoned in Kenilworth castle, 
 254 ; confined in Berkeley castle, re- 
 moved to Corfe castle, his murder, 
 262. 
 
 Edward in., ii, 231, 275, 277, 278; 
 exiled, returns to England, pro- 
 claimed king, 254 ; marches towards 
 Scotland, 256, 259 ; his vain pursuit 
 of the Scots army, 259, 260 ; sends an 
 embassy to Scotland, 263 ; marches 
 towards Scotland, but disbands his 
 army, 268; besieges Berwick, 271, 
 272 ; invades Moray, and razes Aber- 
 deen, restores various strongholds in 
 Scotland, 278; puts his brother John 
 to death, 279; returns to England, 
 279; treaty with Scotland, 286; his 
 achievements in France, 291 ; leaves 
 France and leads an army against 
 the Scots, 296 ; burns Lothian, 
 Edinburgh, etc., 297; his death, 
 301. 
 
 Edward IV. , 377, 379, 381, 386, 390,391. 
 
 son of Henry VI., 377, 380. 
 
 Egremont, lord, 380. 
 
 Egyptian or unlucky days, 182-183. 
 
 Eichstadt, 101 n. 
 
 Ekin, Robert. ^Montgomery, lord. 
 Eleanor, queen of Henry in., 173. 
 Eldred, king of England, 1 1 1. 
 Eleutherus, pope, 59. 
 Elga, brother of king Govan, 60. 
 Elgin, 120, 278. 
 Elinand. See Helinand. 
 Eliphat, Robert, 23 and n. 
 Ella, king, slain by Danes, 109 and u. 
 Ellela, son of Jair, 185. 
 Ellis-Croft, 109 and n. 
 Elphinston, bishop, founder of Aber- 
 deen university, 28. 
 
 ■ Alexander, 364. 
 
 Elstonenfurd. See Athelstaneford. 
 
 Emergarda, 167, 180. 
 
 Emonia. See Inchcolm. 
 
 Engist. See Hengist. 
 
 ' English Nation ', no and 
 
 Engusafith, son of Fechelmeth Asslin- 
 
 gith, 185. 
 Enoch, St., 82 n. 
 Eochodius. See Eugenius. 
 Erasmus, xlvii-xlviii, lxxxviii, cxxvi, 
 
 27 71, 152 
 Erfurt, 101 n. 
 Eric, son of Ethach, 62. 
 Erigena, John Scotus, lxiv n, lxxviii 
 
 and n, cxxxv and n, 100, 101 and n, 
 
 113 and », 114 and n. 
 Erskine, lord, 309. 
 
 Robert, of Alva, 340. 
 
 Erth, son of Echeach Munremoire, 
 
 185. 
 
 William, 340. 
 
 Essex, 71. 
 Etaples, 380. 
 
 Ethach, brother of Eugenius, 62. 
 
 son of Ethafind, 185. 
 
 Ethafind, son of Echdach, 185. 
 Etheldred, son of Malcolm Canmore, 
 126. 
 
 Etherskeol, son of Ewan, 185. 
 Etholach, Lugtagh, son of Corbre 
 
 Crumgring, 185. 
 Ethus, king of Scots, 112. 
 Ettrick forest, 293, 294. 
 Eugenius, king of the Scots, slain by 
 
 Picts, 62. 
 
 son of Fergus II., 65, 85, 87. 
 
 iv., 98. 
 
 v., 99, 114. 
 
 Euphemia, wife of Robert II., 331. 
 Ewan, son of Ellela, 185. 
 Excommunication, Ixxx, 172. 
 Exeter, duke of, 340, 387. 
 
 Falaise castle, 164. 
 Falconbridge, lord, 371. 
 Falkirk, battle of, 193, 199, 200. 
 Falkland castle, 279, 338, 355. 
 Fast castle, 348. 
 Fasts, xlvii, 96, 97 n. 
 Felix, St., stabbed to death by cob- 
 blers' awls, 114. 
 Ferdinand of Aragon, 190 and ;z, 394. 
 Feredech, 185. 
 
 Fergus, son of Ferchard, 56, 63, 64, 
 141, 185, 213. 
 
 son of Erth, 64-65, 141, 185. 
 
 of Galloway, 164. 
 
 Festivals, 151. 
 
 Feu-ferm, 31 n. 
 
 Fiacre, St. , 88 and n. 
 
 Fife, Duncan, earl of, 269, 270. 
 
462 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Fife, Macduff, earl of, killed at Fal- 
 kirk, 200. 
 
 Malcolm, earl of, founder of the 
 
 monasteries of Culross and North 
 Berwick, 177. 
 
 Robert Stewart, earl of, 314, 
 
 316. 
 
 sheriff of, defeats the English at 
 
 Donibristle, 244. 
 Finan, successor of bishop Aidan, 
 
 95, 96. 
 
 Findachar, son of Akirkirre, 185. 
 Findmor, Corbre, son of Coneremore, 
 185. 
 
 Finlay, bishop of Argyll, 355. 
 
 Fires in Scotland, 181. 
 
 Firth of Forth, 64 n, 65, 67. 
 
 Fish in Scotland, 31 and «, 32, 33 ; 
 
 in Iceland, 34. 
 Flamborough Head, 342. 
 Flanders, 53; bells in, ill; cannon 
 
 made in, 360 ; rebellion in, 378. 
 
 ■ earldom of, 128. 
 
 Fleming, David, 316. 
 
 Malcolm, 274, 275, 382. 
 
 Floods in Scotland, 169. 
 
 Foix, count de, 327 and n. 
 
 Foresta, Jacques- Philippe de. See 
 
 Bergamo. 
 
 Forester, Adam, of Corstorphine, 340. 
 
 John, of Corstorphine, 356. 
 
 Forestham, 293. 
 Forfar, 181, 194. 
 
 Forman, Andrew, archbishop of St. 
 
 Andrews, 415, 416. 
 John, precentor of Glasgow, li, 
 
 407, 421. 
 Forth, the, 33, 57, 232, 244, 254. 
 Fougeres, in Normandy, 373. 
 Fradin, Francis, c, ci. 
 Francis I. of France, xxxix, lxxxviii, 
 
 lxxxix. 
 
 St., order of, cix, 174 n. 
 
 a man of Arragon, 373. 
 
 Franciscans, 206, 207. 
 Frankfurt, 397. 
 Fraser, Alexander, 269. 
 
 Andrew, 273. 
 
 James, 270, 273. 
 
 Simon, 203 ; executed in Lon- 
 don, 222. 
 
 270 ; killed at the battle of 
 
 Halidon, 273. 
 
 Walter, 283. 
 
 Frideswide's, St., nunnery, 23 n. 
 Frillon, Johannes, ci. 
 Froimont of Citeaux, abbey of, 113 11. 
 Froissart's Chronicles, liii, II, 28, 256- 
 
 261 and n, 295, 315, 328. 
 Fulda, 75, 126. 
 
 Fulk the Black, 171 n. 
 Furd castle, 313 and n. 
 
 Gabrian, St., 78, 79 and n. 
 Gaguin, Robert, lxxv, 343 and n, 344, 
 ^ 345, 376 n. 
 Galgacus, lxxxii. 
 Gall, St., IOO 71, 102 n. 
 Galleston. See Keith, William. 
 Galloway, 79, 162, 167, 180, 293, 298, 
 337- 
 
 Alan, earl of, 211 and n. 
 
 Galterus, Mathasus, 410, 430, 435. 
 Galvort, in Ettrick forest, 294. 
 Gant, John. See Lancaster, duke of. 
 Garancieres, Eugene de, 294, 295. 
 Gargeil and Dalkeith, writers of, 
 
 parody Peblis to the Play, 366. 
 Garnard, king of Picts, 108. 
 Garrenter. ^ee Garancieres. 
 Gascony, 146, 176, 192, 203, 233. 
 Gateshead, 127. 
 
 Gathelus, son-in-law of Pharaoh, lxxvi ; 
 
 settles in Portugal and founds Bra- 
 
 ganza, 51. 
 Gaul, 5. 
 
 Gaul cisalpina, and Gaul transalpina, 
 Sn. 
 
 Gaunora, queen of Arthur, 84. 
 Gavaston, Peter, 225. 
 G a wain, 84. 
 
 Gelecolne. See Gillecolum. 
 Geller, duke of, 277 and n. 
 Genoa, 99. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, lxxv, 3 and n, 
 83- 
 
 George of Brussels, cxxiv. 
 
 Gering. See Guerinck. 
 
 Gerlier, Durand, ci. 
 
 ' German Nation ', 1 10 ;/. 
 
 Germany, 5, 14 ; Benedictine monas- 
 teries in, 100. 
 
 Gerneth castle, 78 and n. 
 
 Gerson, Jean Charlier de, chancellor, 
 Ivii, Iviii, 214 411. 
 
 Ghent, 395 
 
 Giffard, John, 251. 
 
 Gilbert, son of Fergus of Galloway, 
 164. 
 
 of Malerb, executed for treason, 
 
 245. 
 
 Giles, daughter of Robert II., 315. 
 Gillecolum, 167 11. 
 
 Gillenus, St., famous for his miracles, 
 87 and 11. 
 
 Gilloschop invades Moray, and is put 
 
 to death, 180. 
 Glamis, 118. 
 
 Glasgow, lxviii, 65, 72, 86, 203. 
 university of, lxvii, 28 and 29. 
 
INDEX 
 
 463 
 
 Glastonbury, 85, in. 
 
 Gleghornie, xxix, xxx, xxxii, 34, 86, 
 
 93, 217;/, 428, 437- 
 Glossa InterlineariSy 75 n. 
 
 Ordinaria, 7 5 n. 
 
 Gloucester, 20. 
 
 Eleanor, duchess of, 373. 
 
 Gilbert Clare, earl of, 251. 
 
 Humphrey, duke of, 371-373 
 
 and 374, 387. 
 
 Richard, duke of, 392, 393. 
 
 Robert, earl of, 145. 
 
 Thomas Woodstock, duke of, 
 
 286, 289, 290, 302, 307. 
 Gobram, son of Dovengard, 185. 
 God's house, Cambridge, xxxiii. 
 Goddam (Godham), Adam, lxii, lxiii 
 
 and 11, lxiv, 230 and n, 410, 412, 
 
 431. 
 
 Godfrey of Boulogne, 83. 
 
 Gold found in Crawford moor, 6 and n. 
 
 Gonville hall, 26 n. 
 
 Gordon, Adam, 339. 
 
 lady Jane, 305 n. 
 
 John, 310, 311. 
 
 Roger, 339. _ 
 
 Gormund, an African, lands with an 
 army in Ireland, crosses to Britain 
 and establishes paganism, 89 ; his 
 followers join the Danes, in. 
 
 Gouran the Scot, son of Dongard, 80. 
 
 Gourmont, Giles, lxx, ci. 
 
 Gournay, Thomas, 262, 290. 
 
 Govan, king, 60. 
 
 Gowry, 279. 
 
 — — earl of, 132. 
 
 Graham, George, 19 n. 
 
 John, an adherent of Wallace, 
 
 196 ; killed at Falkirk, 200. 
 
 Patrick, 192, 281. 
 
 Richard, of Netherby, 19;/. 
 
 Robert, 416. 
 
 murderer of James I., 365, 
 
 369, 370. 
 
 William, 416. 
 
 chief of the clan, 19 n. 
 
 Graham's dyke (Gramysdyk), 65 
 
 and 72. 
 Grame. See Graham. 
 Gratian, a Roman, claims the British 
 
 crown, 60. 
 Grandjon, John, c, ci. 
 Graunston, Othes, 174. 
 Gravesend, 393 n. 
 Gray, lord, 344. 
 
 Andrew, of Foulis, 355. 
 
 Henry, of Tankerville, 371. 
 
 Richard, 371. 
 
 Rodolph, of Werk, 371. 
 
 sir Thomas, 295, 342. 
 
 Green, Hugh, martyrdom of, 369;/. 
 Greenside, 28 n. 
 Greenwich, 21. 
 
 Gregorian chant, xxxivw, 30 and n. 
 
 Gregory of Ariminum, 87 //, 443, 450. 
 
 of Tours, lxxv. 
 
 son of Dongal, rebels against 
 
 Ethus, 112 and n; crowned at 
 Scone, 113 and n. 
 
 pope, 89. 
 
 Greygown, Geoffrey, 171 n. 
 
 Gryme claims the sovereignty of Scot- 
 land, bat is defeated by Malcolm ; 
 his adherents murder Malcolm near 
 Glamis, 118. 
 
 Gualo, legate apostolic, 172, 173. 
 
 Guelders, duke of, 382. 
 
 Guerinck or Gering, Ulric, ciii. 
 
 Guerne's wife violated by Osbricht, 
 king of Northumberland, 109. 
 
 Guernsey, 19. 
 
 Guian. See Vienne. 
 
 Guisnes, fortress of, 380. 
 
 Guynd, William, li, 440. 
 
 Haco. See Hangovan. 
 Haddington, xxxi-xxxii, 165 and 
 
 171, 181, 296, 297, 313. 
 Hadrian, emperor, 139 
 Hadrian's wall, 27 60 n. 
 Hagarenes, 245 and n. 
 Hailes. See Hepburn, Patrick. 
 
 castle, xxix, 336. 
 
 Hainault, 233. 
 
 John of, 254-256. 
 
 Hales, Alexander, lxiii, 23 and 11, 174 
 
 and 11, 229 n, 422, 432. 
 Haliburton, John, 295, 316, 339. 
 
 Thomas, 339. 
 
 Walter, 354. 
 
 Halidon, battle of, 272. 
 
 Hamilton, abbot of Kilwinning, ex. 
 
 lord, 37, 211 n, 212, 383, 385. 
 
 John, of Dirlton, 339. 
 
 Patrick, martyr, lxxi, lxxii, lxxxi. 
 
 Hampshire, 17, 71. 
 
 Hampton, 343. 
 
 Hangovan (Haco), 189. 
 
 Hannibal, 62, 84. 
 
 Harbours of Scotland, 35. 
 
 Hardicanute, 115, 122. 
 
 Harfleur taken by Henry v., 343. 
 
 Harlaw, battle of, 348, 363. 
 
 Harold r. , his body cast into the Thames 
 
 and afterwards buried in the church 
 
 of St. Clement, 115. 
 Harold II., 116, 117^ 127. 
 Harundel. See Arundel. 
 Harvey, John, xxxviii and 11. 
 Hastings, Henry de, 210 n. 
 
464 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Hastings, John de, 191, 207, 210 n. 
 Havering in Essex, 116 n. 
 Hawthornden, 284. 
 Hay, Gilbert, of Errol, 356. 
 John, 416. 
 
 Thomas, of Lochurquhart, 356. 
 
 of Yester, 354. 
 
 William, of Errol, 355. 
 
 ■ King's college, Aberdeen, 1. 
 
 Hazel rods, 14 and n. 
 
 Hearth-cakes, 11 and n. 
 
 Heather, 39. 
 
 Hector of Troy, 83. 
 
 Helinand, 113 and n. 
 
 Helton (Helcon), lord of, 32. 
 
 Hengist lands in Britain, 17; defeats 
 the Scots and Picts, and places 
 Vortiger on the throne, 69; is driven 
 out of the kingdom, returns with an 
 army, and takes Vortiger captive, 
 70; destroys churches, etc., and 
 bestows seven kingdoms among his 
 followers, 71; Saxon army defeated, 
 and Hengist slain, 79. 
 
 Hengist's [Engist's] land, 71, 72. 
 
 Henricus a Gandavo, 443. 
 
 Henry the minstrel, 205. 
 
 son of David I., 135, 185. 
 
 v., emperor, 143. 
 
 I. of England, 128, 143, 144. 
 
 11., 146, 150, 153, 162, 164, 170 
 
 and 71. 
 
 in., 164 and 71, 173, 174, 180, 
 
 186. 
 
 iv., 302, 304, 308, 337, 340, 341. 
 
 v., 88 7t, 342, 344, 346, 366, 371. 
 
 vi., 25 371, 381, 387, 390- 
 
 393. 
 
 VII., xl, 212, 213, 289 71, 391- 
 
 393- 
 
 viii., xl, cix, cxi, cxii, 149 71, 
 
 213, 379, 394- 
 Hentisbery or Heytesbury, William, 
 23 and 7t. 
 
 Hepburn, Adam, of Hailes, 354, 362, 
 364, 388. 
 
 George, abbot of Arbroath, 1, 
 
 408, 425. 
 
 John, bishop of Brechin, lxix. 
 
 Patrick, cvi, 316, 318, 319, 323. 
 
 younger of Hailes, 339. 
 
 family, 323. 
 
 Hereford, earl of, 251, 252, 256; 
 \7nispri71ted Norfolk] 308. 
 
 bishop of, 286. 
 
 Heriot, James, of Traprain, lxxii. 
 Herkelay, Andrew, 252, 253. 
 
 Maurice de, 262. 
 
 Hermann, Christian, cxvi. 
 Hermitage castle, 292, 293. 
 
 Hemes, Herbert, of Terregles, 355, 
 356. 
 
 Herring, price of, in Scotland, 32. 
 
 Hert, sir Robert, 321. 
 
 Hertford, 174. 
 
 duke of, cxi-cxii. 
 
 Hertfordshire, 71. 
 
 Hesperiae, 8 and 71. 
 
 Heth, king of the Picts, 16 ;z, 59. 
 
 Heytesbury. See Hentisbery. 
 
 Hiberus, a Spanish soldier, 51. 
 
 Highlanders of Scotland, their man- 
 ners, dress, arms, etc., 49 and 
 238, 240. 
 
 Hii, island of. See Iona. 
 
 Hinds, 7. 
 
 Hinguar, 108 71, 109, III. 
 Hircanus, John, 331 
 Holden, Thomas, 348. 
 Holinculstramen. See Holmcultram. 
 Holkot, Robert, 23 and 71, 24. 
 Holland, Lincolnshire, 109 and 71. 
 count of, 135. 
 
 Holmcultram monastery, founded by 
 David 1., 135. 
 
 Holonde, John, created earl of Hun- 
 tingdon, 302. 
 
 Holyrood, xliv, 135, 162, 306, 314, 
 360, 386. 
 
 Home, Alexander, 340. 
 
 Homer quoted, 422, 433, 434, 436. 
 
 Homildon hill, battle of, 339. 
 
 Honorius, emperor, 64. 
 
 Hood, Robert, robber, 156 and 71. 
 
 Horace quoted, 72, 116, 330, 419, 426, 
 439- 
 
 Horsa. See Hengist. 
 
 Horses, 38 ; of Ireland, 53 and 71 ; of 
 
 Mar, 368. 
 Hubba, 109, in. 
 Huet, Guillermus, 406. 
 Hugh, a Christian boy crucified by 
 
 Jews, 186 and 71. 
 
 of St. Victor, 113 71. 
 
 Humber, the, 20, 71, 72, 128. 
 Hume, lord, 384. 
 
 Ninian, 1, liv, lvi, 404, 409, 418. 
 
 Hungerford, Edmund, 371. 
 Hungus, king of the Picts, 63, 108, 
 in. 
 
 Huntingdon, 162, 165 71, 216. 
 earl of, 344. 
 
 David, earl of, 135, 164-167, 
 
 189, 210 and 71, 211 and 71, 213. 
 
 Henry, earl of, 209, 210 71. 
 
 Isabella, countess of, 211 and 71. 
 
 Valdeof, earl of, 135. 
 
 earldom of, 135, 166. 
 
 Hussites, 447. 
 Hy. See Iona. 
 
INDEX 
 
 465 
 
 Iceland, 32, 34, 37. 
 Ignatius, St. , lxii n. 
 lies Oome, 8 n. 
 Images in churches, xciv. 
 Inchcolm, 133, 359. 
 Indulphus, king of Scots, 117. 
 Ingham, Oliver, 286. 
 Innisboffin, 97, 98 
 Innocent III., 157. 
 
 'Sensus compositus' defined, 76 and». 
 Inverbervy, 285. 
 Inverdovat, 112 n. 
 Invergowry, 132. 
 Inverness, 180, 358. 
 
 castle, 222, 357. 
 
 'Invincible ignorance', 136 and n, 223. 
 Iona, 37 n, 93 n, 96, 113, 120. 
 Ipswich, 156 11. 
 
 Ireland, 5, 8 n, 37, 41, 51, 62, 83, 
 153, 169, 379, 380. 
 
 Irish, language spoken in Scotland, 
 48-51 ; the Irish descended from the 
 Spaniards, 50-52; relation of the 
 language to the Spanish, 53. 
 
 Irvine, Alexander, of Drum, 349, 355. 
 
 Isabella, daughter of William, king of 
 Scots, 168. 
 
 queen of Edward II., 225, 253, 
 
 263, 286, 289. 
 
 ■ queen of Richard n., 302. 
 
 Isidore of Seville, 148. 
 
 Isigny-pain-d'aveine, 8 n. 
 
 Isius, 5 and n. 
 
 Isla, 37. 
 
 Isle of Man, 37, 232, 307, 373. 
 
 of Wight, 19, 71. 
 
 Ivo, 436. 
 
 Jacquerie, the, 376 and n. 
 
 Jair, son of Dechath, 185. 
 
 James I., 135, 211 », 212, 341-343, 
 
 35°, 353-370. 
 11., 42, 211 », 212, 360-365, 
 
 368, 381-386. 
 in., 211 », 212, 368, 384, 386, 
 
 388. 
 
 iv., 85 and n, 211 n, 212, 
 
 289 71., 368, 394. 
 
 v., lxxvii, civ, cix, 42, 212. 
 
 St., of Ratisbon, 100 n, 101 n. 
 
 Jarrow, 99 n. 
 
 Jay, Frere Bryan, 193 and n, 200. 
 Jeanne of Navarre, lvi. 
 Jedburgh, 135, 163, 188, 316. 
 
 castle, 346. 
 
 staves, 240. 
 
 Jerome's charge of cannibalism against 
 
 the Scots, 44. 
 Jersey, 19. 
 
 Jesus college, Cambridge, 26. 
 
 2 
 
 Jews and usury, 176 ; Jews put to 
 death for crucifying a Christian boy, 
 186 and n. 
 
 Joan of Arc, burnt at Rouen, 372. 
 
 Joanna of Tours, 263, 285, 286, 289, 
 300, 304. 
 
 queen of James I., 350, 370. 
 
 John the evangelist and king Ed- 
 ward's golden ring, 116. 
 
 king of England, 157-160 and », 
 
 168-171. 
 
 — — brother of Edward in., 278, 279. 
 — — 11., king of France, 298, 375. 
 son of Robert 11., his name 
 
 changed to Robert, 331 and 11. 
 
 king of Castile, 331 n. 
 
 de Fidenza. See Bonaventure, St. 
 
 of Salisbury, 213 n. 
 
 ■ of Saxony, 1 14 n. 
 
 of the Towers, 328. 
 
 de Trevisa, 45 11. 
 
 the Briton. See Richmond, earl of. 
 
 the Scot. See Erigena, John 
 
 Scotus. 
 
 the Voiwode, 331 11. 
 
 xxii., pope, 225 and 11. 
 
 Johnston, John, 311. 
 
 Jonson, Christy, chief of clan Quhele, 
 
 333- 
 Joshua, 83. 
 jovius, Paulus, lxxv. 
 Judas Maccabaeus, 83. 
 Julius Csesar, 57, 58, 83. 
 Julius 11., pope, xxxix, Iviii. 
 Julius Hoff, 58 n. 
 June, John, 371. 
 Juvenal quoted, 16. 
 
 Katherine, queen of Henry v., 
 372, 393. 
 
 of Aragon, 394. 
 
 Kay. See Clan. 
 
 Keith, Robert, 270. 
 
 William, of Galleston, routs the 
 
 English under Talbot, 281 ; at the 
 siege of Perth, 282. 
 
 Kellheim, 10 1 n. 
 
 Kelso, 19, 28 n., 135, 387. 
 
 Kenath, son of Alpin, 185. 
 
 Kenilworth, 174, 254. 
 
 Kennedy, James, archbishop of St. 
 Andrews, lxix, lxxxiv, 28, 364, 383, 
 387, 388. 
 
 lord John, 361. 
 
 Kenneth I., 103-107. 
 
 II., 118. 
 
 Kennimont, Helias, 340. 
 
 Kent, 70-71, 90, 145, 374. 
 
 earl of, defeated by Malcolm Can- 
 more, 128. 
 
 G 
 
466 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Kent, Edward Woodstock, earl of, 
 254, 289. 
 
 Thomas Woodstock, earl of, 289. 
 
 Kentigern, St., lxviii ; baptized by 
 
 Servanus, 66 ; buried in Glasgow, 
 
 86. 
 
 Ker, John, of Samelstoun, 340. 
 Kesteven, 109 n. 
 Kiev, 101 n. 
 Kilblene, 278. 
 
 Kildrummie castle, 221, 274, 278. 
 Kilian, St., 87 100 n. 
 Kilpatrick. See Kirkpatrick. 
 Kilrimont, 133. 
 Kinboc, 124 and n. 
 King, Patrick, 393 and 
 King's college, Cambridge, 25 and 
 King's hall, Cambridge, 25 and n. 
 Kinghorn, 189, 207. 
 Kinloss monastery founded by David I., 
 135- 
 
 Kinnear (Kyneir), Thomas, cxxi. 
 Kinross, 187. 
 Kirkby, sir Richard, 271. 
 Kirkpatrick, 65, 72. 
 
 Roger, lord, 208, 298, 303. 
 
 Knoth. See Canute. 
 
 Knox, John, lxvii, cvi-cvii, cxi, cxiv. 
 
 Kruithlind, son of Findachar, 185. 
 
 Kyle, 195, 276. 
 
 Kyneir. See Kinnear. 
 
 Kynnef castle, 279. 
 
 Labana, wife of Diocletian, king of 
 
 Syria, 1, 2 it. 
 Labienus, Roman tribune, 57. 
 Laing, James, civ. 
 Lakes containing islands, 38. 
 Lambert, John, c, ci. 
 Lamp of Lothian, 297 and 11. See 
 
 also Haddington. 
 Lanark, 181. 
 Lancaster, 147. 
 
 Henry, earl of, 255, 286, 289. 
 
 John Gant, duke of, 302, 312, 
 
 313- 
 
 Thomas, earl of, 225 ; invades 
 
 Wales, 250 ; banished, besieges 
 Tikhil castle, defeated by Ed- 
 ward II., 251 ; executed, 252 and n. 
 
 William of. See Derby, earl of. 
 
 earldom, 252. 
 
 Landlord and tenant, 30, 31 and 11. 
 
 Langeford, Rodolph, 371. 
 
 Langle, Edward. See York, duke of. 
 
 Langley, Climiton, 23 and n, 
 
 Langton, Stephen, archbishop of 
 Canterbury, 157. 
 
 Languages spoken in Scotland, 48, 49, 
 5o. 
 
 Laon, dean of. See Anselm. 
 
 Lapide, Johannes a, cxxvi. 
 
 Latimer, William, 193. 
 
 Lauder, Robert, 316, 339. 
 
 Thomas, keeper of Urquhart 
 
 castle, 274. 
 Launoi, lvii, lviii. 
 Lauriston castle, 279. 
 Lax, Gasper, liv, cxxv, 409, 418. 
 Lazarus de Soardis, ci. 
 Leadhills, 6 n. 
 Leicester, 371, 374. 
 
 earl of, 254. 
 
 Leipzig, 397. 
 Leith, 28, 33. 
 
 axes, 240. 
 
 Le Maistre, Martin, 413, 438. 
 
 Le Messier, James, ci. 
 
 Lennox, Stewart, earl of, 21 1 
 
 212. 
 
 John, earl of, 355. 
 
 Leo, a cannon made in Flanders, 360. 
 x. makes over the monastery of 
 
 St. James, Ratisbon, to the Scots, 
 
 101 
 
 Lepus, Constantine, ci, 409. 
 Leslie, George, of Rothes, 340. 
 
 Norman, cxi. 
 
 Walter. See Ross, earl of. 
 
 William, 358. 
 
 Lewes, 174. 
 
 Lewis viii., 159, 161, 172, 173. 
 
 XI., 353, 390, : 39i... . 
 
 xii., xxxix, liii, lviii. 
 
 constable of Luxemburg, 392. 
 
 island of, 16, 38. 
 
 Lichtoun, Walter, 332. 
 Liege, 363, 395 n. 
 LifT, 132. 
 
 Lilborn, sir John, 311, 323. 
 Lile, Alan, 276. 
 Lincluden, 337. 
 
 Lincoln, 22, 109 and «, 145 n, 156 n, 
 
 186, 396. 
 
 earl of, 393. 
 
 Lindesay, Alexander, 316. 
 
 sir David, cvii, 333. 
 
 sir James, 303, 316, 322, 324- 
 
 326. 
 
 lord John, 208. 
 
 William, 316, 338. 
 
 Lindisfarne, 93. 
 
 Lindsey, Lincolnshire, 109. 
 
 Lindores monastery, 165, 278. 
 
 Linlithgow, 309. 
 
 Lintown, 336. 
 
 Lionverius. See Oxford, earl of. 
 
 Lismore, 38. 
 
 Little Britain, 68, 391. 
 
 Little John, 156 
 
INDEX 
 
 467 
 
 Livingston, Alexander, of Callander, 
 356. 
 
 John, of Callander. 339. 
 
 Llewellyn, prince of Wales, 175. 
 Lobsters, 33 n. 
 Lochaber, 277, 358. 
 
 axes, 240 and n. 
 
 Loch Ard, 38. 
 Awe, 38. 
 
 Lochbanquhar. See Loch Vennacher. 
 Lochgowane, 120. 
 Lochindorb, 275, 278 and n. 
 Lochleven castle, 274, 361. 
 Lochlomond, 38. 
 Lochmaben castle, 285, 313, 346. 
 Lochris, 278 and 279. 
 Lochryan, 221. 
 Loch Tay, 38. 
 
 Vennacher, 38. 
 
 Locrinus, son of Brutus, 50. 
 Logan, Robert, 269, 340. 
 Walter, 222. 
 
 Logy, Gavin, rector of St. Leonard's, 
 li, 442. 
 
 John, executed for treason, 245. 
 
 Margaret, 305, 306. 
 
 Lokert, George, li, 408 ; bibliography 
 
 of, 414-415. 
 Lollards, 342. 
 
 Lombards, ill-treatment of, 378, 379. 
 
 Londe, William, 328. 
 
 London, 17, 20, 21,80, 222, 225,230 11, 
 
 374, 378, 390, 390- 
 
 bishop of, 68, 91. 
 
 bridge, 21, 194, 203. 
 
 Longueville, duke of, 328. 
 
 Thomas, pirate, 204. 
 
 Lorn, brother of Fergus II., 64. 
 Lorraine, 373. 
 
 Loth, lord of the Lothians, 82, 83. 
 
 Lothian, 67, 93, 275, 297, 303, 439. 
 
 Louis. See Lewis. 
 
 Louvain, college of, xlvii. 
 
 Loyola, Ignatius, xc. 
 
 Lucan quoted, 367. 
 
 Lucius, king of Britain, 59. 
 
 Lulach, crowned at Scone by Mac- 
 
 beth's adherents, put to death by 
 
 Malcolm, 123. 
 Lumphanan, 123. 
 Lusitania, 51. 
 
 Lussy, sir William de, 324. 
 Luther, Martin, Ix, 450. 
 Lutherans, xcii-xciv, 447. 
 Luval, James, 349. 
 Lylaw, Edmund, 243 and n. 
 Lyn, John, 204. 
 Lyons, lviii, 165 229 n. 
 Lyra, Nicholas de, author of the Pos- 
 tilla, 75 n. 
 
 Macbeth murders Duncan, 120; op- 
 presses adherents of Malcolm Can- 
 more, seizes the possessions of 
 Macduff, 122 ; slain by Malcolm, 
 123. 
 
 Macdoual, Fergus, of Galloway, 340. 
 
 Macdowel, Donald, 298. 
 
 Macduff, thane of Fife, 31 w, 122, 
 123 and n, 124. 
 
 MacMadach. See Orkney, earl of. 
 
 Mactrevers, John, 262. 
 
 Macwilliam. See Donald Bane. 
 
 Madeleine, daughter of Francis I., ex. 
 
 Magdalen college, Oxford, 25 n. 
 
 Maidens' castle. See Edinburgh castle. 
 
 Maitland, Robert, 336. 
 
 Major, John, his birth, xxix ; native 
 place, xxx ; school at Haddington, 
 xxxi ; Cambridge, xxxiii, xxxiv ; at 
 Paris, xxxvii-liii ; encomium on, by 
 Coronel, lv ; doctor of theology, 
 lix ; criticised by Melanchthon, Ix ; 
 visits Scotland, lxi ; regent in Glas- 
 gow, lxvi ; regent in St. Andrews, 
 lxvii-lxix ; returns to Paris, con- 
 trasted with Buchanan, lxxi-lxxiii ; 
 title of the History, lxxvi ; its dedi- 
 cation to James v. , lxxvii ; its scheme, 
 lxxviii ; his views on church and 
 state, lxxix ; on taxation, lxxxi, 346- 
 348, 352 ; on nobility, 46-48, 376 
 and n, 397-400 ; on a union be- 
 tween England and Scotland, 41, 
 42 and 11 ; on the divine right of 
 kings, 213-215, 219, 220; on di- 
 vorce, 305 ; on the early history of 
 Scotland, lxxxv ; commentaries on 
 Aristotle and Scripture, xci ; letter 
 to Wolsey, xcv-xcviii, 448 ; Major 
 and the Parisian press, c-ciii ; re- 
 turns to St. Andrews, ciii ; his de- 
 clining years, cvi-cxii ; his character, 
 cxiii ; characteristics of his History \ 
 cxiv; notices of Major in French and 
 Scottish records, exvi-exxi. 
 
 a Belgian jesuit, 411. 
 
 a German protestant, 411., 
 
 Makardy. See Mamgarvy. 
 
 Makerel, John de, 319. 
 
 Makkesone, George, cxx. 
 
 Maklane, drill-master to Donald of 
 the Isles, 348. 
 
 Makmanke, 358 and n. 
 
 Mak william, Gothred, his rebellion 
 and death, 169. 
 
 Malcolm 1., king of Scots, 117. 
 
 11., 118-19. 
 
 in. (Canmore), 121-123, I2 6-i30, 
 
 185, 186 and », 210. 
 iv., 135, 140, 162, 163,210;/. 
 
468 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Malcolm of Cumbernauld, 350. 
 Malduin, king of Scots, 98. 
 Malet, Louis, sieur de Granville, 
 xlvi. 
 
 Malmesbury monastery, 113. 
 
 Maltravers, lord, 371. 
 
 Malville, sir Robert, killed at Har- 
 
 law, 349. 
 Mamgarvy, 166 n. 
 
 Manderston, William, civ, cxix, cxxv, 
 
 413 ; bibliography of, 415-417. 
 Mane, son of Fergus I., 185. 
 Manners and customs of the Scots, 40; 
 
 of the Highlanders, 49. 
 Mar, Alexander Stewart, earl of, 348, 
 
 35 6 > 36i, 363 and n. 
 Donald, earl of, governor of 
 
 Scotland, 269. 
 
 Garthen, earl of, 211 n, 212. 
 
 John, earl of, 211 n, 212. 
 
 Isobel, countess of, 363 n. 
 
 John, earl of, 386. 
 
 William, earl of, 187. 
 
 earldom of, and Garioch, 363 n. 
 
 March (Berwickshire), 293. 
 
 earl of, 190, 273. 
 
 Agnes, countess of, 280, 281. 
 
 Edward, earl of. See Edward IV. 
 
 George Dunbar, tenth earl of, 
 
 309, 310, 313, 327, 335-39, 34i, 346. 
 
 eleventh earl, 354, 362. 
 
 Patrick Dunbar, earl of, 269, 
 
 277, 278, 282. 
 Roger Mortimer, earl of, 241,251, 
 
 255, 256, 262, 286, 288-290. 
 
 earldom of, 363, 364. 
 
 Marches, earl of the, 271, 294. 
 
 Marchmont castle, 134. 
 
 Margaret, daughter of William, king 
 
 of Scots, 168. 
 queen of Malcolm Canmore, 126; 
 
 her holy life, 130, 185. 
 
 queen of Alexander II., 209. 
 
 queen of Alexander III., 186. 
 
 daughter of Alexander III., 188. 
 
 the maid of Norway, 189 and ; 
 
 her death, 191. 
 of Anjou, 25 n, 289 n, 373, 379- 
 
 38i, 387. 
 
 queen of Louis XI., 353. 
 
 of Navarre, xc. 
 
 queen of James III., 389. 
 
 queen of James IV., 394. 
 
 daughter of Henry VII., 211 
 
 Marianus Scotus, 126 and n. 
 Marjory, mother of John Cumming, 
 
 210 11, 211 and 11. 
 
 daughter of Robert Bruce, 243. 
 
 Marne, the, 20. 
 
 Marshal, earl, 286, 289, 329, 330. 
 
 Marsilius of Inghen, cxxiii and 
 
 cxxviii n. 
 Martin, St., 66, 87 n., 140. 
 Mary, daughter of Malcolm Canmore, 
 
 126, 132. 
 
 of Guelders, queen of James IL, 
 
 211 *, 212, 382, 385, 388. 
 
 of Guise, civ, ex. 
 
 queen of Louis XII., 394. 
 
 Matilda, queen of England, 126, 132 
 
 and n, 135, 143, 145. 
 
 daughter of Henry I., 143, 144. 
 
 Maurus, Rabanus, 75 n. 
 
 Maximus, a Roman general, 62, 65. 
 
 Maxwell, Herbert, of Carlaverock, 
 
 355- 
 Mayence, 126. 
 Mayo, 97 n, 98 n. 
 Mayor, election of a, 21. 
 Mearns, 279. 
 
 Malpet, earl of, 131. 
 
 Mechlin, college of, xlvii. 
 
 Mecklenburgh, 100 n. 
 
 Media Villa. See Middleton. 
 
 Melanchthon, lx. 
 
 Melch, on the Danube, 100 n. 
 
 Mellitus, bishop of London, 91. 
 
 Melrose monastery, lxi, 98 .and 
 
 135, 181, 313, 314. 
 Melville, Andrew, lxviii. 
 Memmingen, 101 n. 
 Menenes, Petrus, 431. 
 Menteith, earl of, 183, 316. 
 
 John, 203, 204. 
 
 Walter, earl of", 271, 278. 
 
 Mercian kingdom and its divisions, 
 
 71, 72. 
 Merkil, 336. 
 
 Merlin's prophecies, 74, 77> 80, 81, 
 
 175, 224, 254. 
 Meroe, 90. 
 Mersey, the, 71, 72. 
 Methven, battle of, 220. 
 Metro (Metaurus), the, 20. 
 Michaelstow, Cornwall, 5. 
 Middleton, Richard, 23, 206 and n. 
 Milan, lviii. 
 Milfield, 339. 
 
 Minorite church, Haddington, 297. 
 
 friars. See Franciscans. 
 
 Miracles, lxxxiv, 141 and n, 293, 297, 
 
 312, 392. 
 Mirandola, John Picus de, 420. 
 Mitton, Gilbert, beheaded for robbing 
 
 two cardinals, 225. 
 Modred, 82, 84. 
 
 Mogolama, son of Lugtagh Atholach, 
 185. 
 
 Molossian hound causes strife between 
 Scots and Picts, 61, 104. 
 
INDEX 
 
 469 
 
 Monasteries on the continent, 100 n ; 
 
 in Scotland, 165, 177. See also 
 
 Religious Houses. 
 Monenna, St., 16 n. 
 Monstrelet's Chronicles, 345, 369-370. 
 Montagu. See Salisbury, earl of. 
 Montaigu college, xxxii, xxxviii, xliii, 
 
 xlvi-1, lxxi. 
 Montfort, Simon de, 174, 175. 
 Montgomery, lord, 316, 323. 
 
 John de, 355, 356. 
 
 family, 323. 
 
 Montrose, 181. • 
 Moray, 162, 180, 331. 
 firth, 35 n. 
 
 Andrew of, 271, 275, 277-279. 
 
 281. 
 
 Angus of, 358, 361. 
 
 Archibald, earl of, 382. 
 
 David, of Gask, 355. 
 
 John Randolph, earl of, 270, 
 
 284. 
 
 Maurice de. See Clydesdale, 
 
 lord. 
 
 Thomas Randolph, earl of, II, 
 
 225, 231-234, 244, 252, 256, 261, 
 266-268, 276, 277, 309, 316, 318, 
 321, 327, 333, 340, 367. 
 
 More, Kenneth, 358. 
 
 Morellus, Thomas, 416. 
 
 Morgan, John, 26 n. 
 
 Morlay, lord Robert, 145. 
 
 Mortimer, battle of, 381. 
 
 Roger. See March, earl of. 
 
 Morton, 300. 
 
 earl of, 382. 
 
 Morvil, Hugh, 150. 
 
 Mount Breigh, 73, 77. 
 
 Mountains in Scotland, 36 and 
 
 * Mounth of Scotland ', 36 and n. 
 
 Mowbray, Alexander, 274, 275. 
 
 John, 222, 250, 251, 271. 
 
 Philip, governor of Stirling 
 
 castle, 232. 
 
 Thomas, created earl of Notting- 
 ham, 302. 
 
 Multure dues, 276 and ». 
 
 Munich, 230 n. 
 
 Munremoire, Echeach, son of Engusa- 
 
 fith, 185. 
 Miinsterberg, dukes of, 101 n. 
 Mure, Adam, 211 n, 212, 331. 
 Elizabeth, queen of Robert 11., 
 
 331. 
 
 Muref, sir Thomas, 349. 
 
 Murray. See Moray. 
 
 Musgrave, Thomas, captain of Ber- 
 wick, 311. 
 
 Music in Britain, 27 and«; in Eng- 
 land, 1 10 ; in Scotland, 30 and «, 50. 
 
 Musselburgh, 268. 
 
 Myton Upswale, 228 and 250. 
 
 Names of places and persons, peculiar 
 
 spelling of, 320, 321. 
 Navarre, college of, xxxviii, xlv, lvi. 
 Nealus, king of Greece, 51. 
 Neville (Nevyll), George, 371. 
 
 John, 381. 
 
 Robert, 243. 
 
 Thomas, 380, 381. 
 
 William, 371. 
 
 Newark, 160 n. 
 
 Newbattle, 135, 314. 
 
 Newcastle, 135, 140, 147, 204 256, 
 
 258, 316, 324. 
 New college, Oxford, 25 and n. 
 New Forest, 129 and 130 n. 
 Nichol. See Lincoln. 
 Nicol or Nicolai, 145 and 
 1 Nine just men ', named, 83. 
 Ninian, St., 66, 67, 79, 293. 
 Ninus Nembrothides, 56. 
 Nisbet moor, battle of, 295, 339. 
 Nithsdale, 298, 315. 
 Nobility, 397 ; of Scotland, 46-48. 
 Nominalists, the, 229. 
 Norfolk, 6, 71. 
 
 duke of, 307, 381. 
 
 Norham, 171. 
 
 Normandy, 8, 14, 41, 143, 146, 153, 
 
 157, 342, 373, 374, 390. 
 
 Robert, duke of, 120. 
 
 William, duke of. See William I. 
 
 Northallerton, 134, 252. 
 Northampton, 156 n, 169 n, 286, 288, 
 
 380. 
 
 William Bohun, earl of, 284. 
 
 North Berwick, 177. 
 Northumberland, 66, 72, 109, 131, 
 
 134, 135, HO, 162, 163, 171, 217, 
 
 225 and n, 256, 257. 
 
 earl of, 378, 381. 
 
 Henry Percy, earl of, 293, 311, 
 
 339, 341, 349- 
 
 earldom of, 135. 
 
 Norway, 62, 83. 
 
 Norwich, 22, 156 n, 230 n, 396. 
 
 Nottingham, 109. 
 
 earl of, 302. 
 
 Nunland, 165 it. 
 
 Nunneries, disorders in, 26 and n. 
 Nuns, seclusion of, 177-179. 
 Niirnberg, 101 397. 
 
 Oaten bread, xxii, xxx, Hi, 7, 8 
 
 and n, 11, 257. 
 Oats, 7 ; preparation of, 8 and «. 
 Occabuid, son of Edaim, 185. 
 Ochta, son of Hengist, 79, 80. 
 
470 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Ockham, William, lxii-lxiv, cxxvii, 
 23 and n } 24, 228, 230 n, 431, 432, 
 
 443 , 45°- 
 
 Odam, 314, 315 and n. 
 
 Oels, in Silesia, 101 n. 
 
 Ogill, Alexander, 295. 
 
 sir Robert, 323. 
 
 Ogilvy, Alexander, sheriff of Angus, 348. 
 
 George, 349. 
 
 Patrick, of Auchterhouse, 354. 
 
 sheriff of Angus, 356. 
 
 Walter, 1, 332, 354. 
 
 of Luntrethyn, 356. 
 
 Oldcastle, John. See Cobham, lord. 
 
 Olivier de Castille, 165 n. 
 
 Oresme, Nicolas, lvii, 184 
 
 Orkney islands, 5, 14, 36, 58, 389. 
 
 ■ earl of, mutilates the bishop of 
 
 Caithness, 167, 168. 
 
 Henry, 'earl of, 342. 
 
 William Saint Clair, earl of, 356. 
 
 Orleans, siege of, 371. 
 
 Ormond, Hugh, 382. 
 
 Ortiz, Jacobus, lxii and n, c. , cxxii 
 n, 403, 409, 441. 
 
 Osbricht or Osbert, king of Northum- 
 berland, 109. 
 
 Oseney, chime of bells in, xxxiv, xxxv, 
 26 n, 1 10 and n. 
 
 Ossa, son of Hengist, 80. 
 
 Ostade, 22 and n. 
 
 Ostia, 135. 
 
 Oswald, king of the Bernicians, sends 
 to the Scots for a bishop, 91 ; a 
 church in Lothian founded in his 
 honour, 93; his arm and hand mira- 
 culously preserved from decay, 94. 
 
 Othobona, legate, 174. 
 
 Otterburn, 315, 317-323, 329, 33°- 
 
 Alan, secretary of Murdach, duke 
 
 of Albany, 355. 
 
 Ouse, the, 20. 
 
 Ovid quoted, 301. 
 
 Owen of Wales, 372. 
 
 Oxen, 13. 
 
 Oxford, 22, 25 and n, 145, 174, 206, 
 230 11, 448. 
 
 earl of, 154, 302, 371. 
 
 Oysters in Scotland, 33. 
 
 Oyta, Henry, lxii and n, 230 n, 431. 
 
 Pain d'Aveine, 8 and n. 
 Palladius, St., 65, 66. 
 Panther, Patrick, secretary to James 
 iv., 1. 
 
 Pardus, Jerome, lxii, c, cxxii and 71, 
 
 cxxvi and n, 403, 412. 
 Paris, xli, 22, 207, 378, 395 and ;/. 
 university, xxxv, xxxvii, xxxviii, 
 
 xli-xliv, 101 11, no. 
 
 Passheley, John, 371. 
 Patrick, St., 66, 108. 
 Paul II., 173 71. 
 Paulus Mantuanus, cxxiv and 
 
 Venetus, cxxiv and n. 
 
 Pease, the river, 331 and n. 
 Peat, 39 and 11. 
 
 Pecock, Reginald, bishop of Chester, 
 
 accused of heresy, 379. 
 Pecquigny, 391. 
 Peebles, 188, 336. 
 
 Pelagius denies the grace of God, 63. 
 Pembroke, earl of, 180, 203, 220, 251, 
 
 372, 391- 
 Penrith, 312 and n. 
 Penwichstreit, 5 and n. 
 Pepin, king of France, 214. 
 Peralta, Peter, 409, 441. 
 Percy, Henry, 286, 316-18, 323, 327, 
 
 330, 336, 339, 341. 
 
 Ralph, 316, 327. 
 
 Thomas. See Worcester, earl of. 
 
 Perth, cxi, 29 and ?i, 33, 39, 162, 169, 
 
 181, 194 71, 231, 269, 270, 274, 277- 
 
 279, 282, 354, 361, 362, 364, 368. 
 Peter of Brussels. See Crockert. 
 Lombard, liv, lix, lx, lxii, cxxii, 
 
 438, 443, 449. 
 the Spaniard, lii », liv, lvi 
 
 and n, ci, cxxii 71, cxxiii, 403, 412, 
 
 418. 
 
 Peter's pence, 158. 
 Petit or Parvus, John, ci. 
 Petrarch quoted, 433. 
 Pharaoh's son-in-law builds Braganza, 
 ». 
 
 Philip Augustus, 159. 
 
 the Fair, lvi. 
 
 of Valois, 291, 292. 
 
 I Picardy, 53. 
 
 place, Edinburgh, 28 71. 
 
 Pigouchet, Philip, c. 
 
 Pike in Scotland, 33. 
 
 Pilgrimages, 306 and 71. 
 
 Pinkie, battle of, cxii. 
 ! Piperden, battle of, 364 n. 
 
 Pisa, council of, lvii, lviii. 
 
 Pittenweem, 388. 
 
 Pius 11. (.Eneas Sylvius), 16 and ?/, 
 
 39, 365, 426, 427. 
 Plato quoted, 116, 217 71. 
 Pliny quoted, 8. 
 
 Pluscardin monastery founded, 180. 
 Poggio Barcciolini, 428. 
 Poissi, 177 and 71. 
 
 Pole, Michael de la, created earl of 
 
 Suffolk, 302. 
 Polypods in Scotland, 33 and 34. 
 Ponset le Preux, c. 
 Pontavice, Theodorus de, 413. 
 
INDEX 
 
 471 
 
 Pontefract, 251-2, 308. 
 
 Population of London and Paris, 22 ; 
 
 of mediaeval cities, 395. 
 Portugal, 51. 
 Portus Salutis, 36 n. 
 Poverty, evangelical, cxxviii. 
 Preaching friars in Scotland, 173 and n. 
 Preston, 86. 
 
 Lawrence, 280. 
 
 Preth, William, 145 and 
 Priests as warriors, 322. 
 Printers, early, xcix-ci. 
 Provence, count of, 173. 
 earl of, 373. 
 
 Proverbs, 43-45, 55, 57, 84, 92, 
 106, 107, 137, 146, 187, 198, 204, 
 274. 
 
 Ptolemy's Geography, 6. 
 Pythagoras, 422. 
 
 Queens' college, Cambridge, 25 and 
 n. 
 
 Queensferry, 28 n. 
 Queygnard, Stephen, c, ci. 
 Quhele. See Clan. 
 
 Rabbits, 7. 
 Rabelais, Francis, xc. 
 Rademan, sir Matthew, 325-326. 
 Ramorny (Remorgenay), sir John, 338 
 and 11. 
 
 Ramsay of Greenock, 340. 
 
 Alexander, 277, 280-285, 291- 
 
 292, 294, 316, 339. 
 
 of Dalhousie, 355, 356. 
 
 Lawrence, of Clat, 340. 
 
 Thomas, canon of St. Salvator, 
 
 li, 440. 
 
 William, of Colluthy, 298. 
 
 of Dalhousie, 295. 
 
 Randolph. See Moray, earl of. 
 Ratisbon, monastery of St. James in, 
 101 11. 
 
 Reading monastery, 144. 
 Redesdale, 56, 65. 
 
 [Ryddisdale] earl of, 344. 
 
 Red kirk, 19 and n. 
 Regensburg. See Ratisbon. 
 Regulus, abbot, brings into Britain 
 
 relics of St. Andrew, 63. 
 Religious houses, 137 and 11. 
 Renfrew, 163. 
 
 Rether, king of Scots, 56 and n, 185. 
 
 Retherdale. See Redesdale. 
 
 Reuda, a chief of the Scots, 55. 
 
 Rheims, 79. 
 
 Rhine, the, 60. 
 
 Richard of Chester, 143 n. 
 
 ■ of St. Victor, 142 and n, 
 
 1., 154-55 and n, 166. 
 
 Richard 11., 301, 302, 307, 308, 314. 
 Richerius, Edmund, 411. 
 Richmond, Edmund, earl of, 372. 
 
 Henry, earl of. See Henry vn. 
 
 John the Briton, earl of, 252 and 
 
 11. 
 
 and Derby, countess of, 25 
 
 Ried, Echad, son of Coner, 185. 
 Rivers of England, 20 ; of Scotland, 
 
 33 and »• 
 
 Robert of Sorbonne, lix. 
 
 1. See Bruce, Robert. 
 
 11., 211 n, 212, 244,276, 277, 
 
 281, 282, 309, 329-331, 368. 
 
 in., 211 11, 212, 329, 331, 332, 
 
 341, 342, 368. 
 
 Roce, Dyonysius, c, ci. 
 
 Rochelle, 345. 
 
 Rochester, 91. 
 
 bishop of, 91. 
 
 Roddam, 314, 315 and n. 
 
 Rodington, John, 23 and n. 
 
 Roger, archbishop, 164 n. 
 
 Roland, suppresses a rebellion in Gal- 
 loway, 167, 180. 
 
 Romaich, Fechelmeth, son of Senchor- 
 mach, 185. 
 
 Roman wall, 60 and n, 65 and n. 
 
 Romans, invasion of Britain by the 
 57- 
 
 Rome, 16, 374, 382, 396 n. 
 Ron, the lance of Arthur, 83. 
 Ronan, 96 and n. 
 
 Ronovem, daughter of Hengist, 69, 
 70. 
 
 Rosin, son of Ther, 185. 
 Roslin, 202. 
 Ross, 169. 
 
 Alexander, earl of, 37, 356-359. 
 
 countess of, 357, 359. 
 
 Hugh, earl of, 273. 
 
 John, 358. 
 
 Walter, earl of, 357. 
 
 William, earl of, 282, 11, 331, 
 
 344, 356. 
 Rothesay, 38. 
 
 David, duke of, 312, 335, 337, 
 
 338, 364. 
 Rotholand. See Roland. 
 Rouen, 21, 372, 374, 393. 
 
 population of, 395. 
 
 Rough, John, minister of St. Andrews, 
 
 cvii. 
 
 Round table, 83, 
 Rous, John, 286. 
 Rowen, son of Dearndil, 185. 
 Roxburgh, 134, 164, 181, 278, 291, 
 293, 3io. 
 
 castle, 231, 313, 314, 364, 386. 
 
 Roygny, Jean, cii. 
 
472 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Rufin, James, 410, 434. 
 
 Rukby, Thomas, keeper of Stirling 
 
 castle, 283. 
 Russel, John, 187. 
 Rutland, earl of, 302, 381. 
 Ryddisdaile. See Redesdale. 
 
 Sabellicus, his description of the 
 
 Scots, 42 and «, 45, 46. 
 St. Albans, battles of, 378, 381. 
 St. Andrew of Kilrimont, church of, 
 
 endowed by Alexander I., 133. 
 St. Andrew's parish, Cambridge, 25 
 
 and n. 
 
 St. Andrews, xxx, lxvii, lxviii, cvii- 
 cxii, 28 and n, 29, 30 n, 113 »., 
 115, 278, 279, 349, 355, 388. 
 
 St. Bernard, convent of, Haddington, 
 
 , 165. 
 
 St. Clair, Henry. See Orkney, earl 
 of. 
 
 John of, 316, 322 n. 
 
 Oliver, cxi. 
 
 Walter, 339. 
 
 William, 269. 
 
 bishop of Dunkeld, 244. 
 
 of Hirdemanston, 340. 
 
 St. Clement, church of, 115 and 
 
 St. Colmoc, island of, 38. 
 
 St. Columba's isle. See Inchcolm. 
 
 St. David's, 5. 
 
 St. Duthac. See Tain. 
 
 Sainte Barbe, college of, xxxvii. 
 
 St. Edmund's fosse, 71. 
 
 St. Edmundsbury. See Bury St. 
 
 Edmunds. 
 St. John's, Smithfield, burned, 301. 
 St. John's town. See Perth. 
 St. Leonard's college, St. Andrews, 
 
 lxix, 30 n. 
 St. Margaret's Bay, 126. 
 St. Martin's of Cologne, 126. 
 St. Ninian or Whithorn, 37. 
 St. Oswald, church of, Nastley, 132 
 
 ?i. 
 
 St. Paul, count of, 391. 
 St. Radegunde's nunnery, xciii 
 26 n. 
 
 St. Salvator's college, St. Andrews, 
 
 xxx, lxix, ciii, cxviii, cxix, 247. 
 St. Victor of Paris, cloister of, 142. 
 Salisbury, 70. 
 
 bishop of, 144 and «, 374. 
 
 John, duke of, 340. 
 
 Richard, earl of, 378-381. 
 
 Thomas, earl of, 371. 
 
 William, earl of, 279, 281, 284. 
 
 Sallust quoted, xxxii, 64, 437. 
 Salmon, price of, in Scotland, 32. 
 Sanda, island of, 37 n. 
 
 Sandilands, Peter, rector of Calder, li, 
 
 407, 421. 
 Sandwich, 379. 
 Sark, battle of, 29. 
 Sarmatia, 15. 
 Saxo Grammaticus, lxxv. 
 Saxon kingdoms and their boundaries, 
 
 soldiers called into Britain, 69. 
 
 Saye, lord, 374, 375. 
 Scales, lord, captain of London tower, 
 375- 
 
 Scandinavia, 14. 
 
 Scarborough, 156 n. 
 
 Sceachbeg, chief of clan Kay, 333. 
 
 Schredelowe, John, 371. 
 
 Scone, 36, 56, 107, 113, 123, 209,245, 
 
 270, 286, 309, 331. 
 Scota, daughter of Pharaoh, Ixxvi, 51. 
 Scotisgilmor, 100 and 
 Scots descended from the Irish, 50, 
 
 Scottish students in Paris, 1, li. 
 
 Scotus. See Duns. 
 
 Scrope, lord, treasurer of England, 
 
 342 11, 362. 
 Scythia, 7, 54, 107. 
 Seasons in Britain, 15. 
 Segrave, John de, 204 n. 
 Seine, the, 20. 
 Senalis. See Cenalis. 
 Senchormach, son of Kruithlind, 185. 
 Sens, 10. 
 
 Serpents die near Irish soil, 53 and n, 
 54- 
 
 Servanus ordained bishop by St. Pal- 
 ladius, is sent to the Orkneys, 66 ; 
 baptizes St. Kentigern, 66. 
 
 Seton, Alexander, lord, 271-273, 316. 
 
 of Gordon, 354. 
 
 John, 340. 
 
 Thomas, hanged by the English 
 
 at Berwick, 272. 
 Severn, the, 20, 71. 
 Severus, 27, 59, 60 and n. 
 Shaw, Henry, cxx. 
 Sheep, 13, 36 and n, 38. 
 Shetland, 36, 37. 
 Shrewsbury, 20, 71, 341. 
 
 earl of, 374, 380. 
 
 Siligo, 7 n. 
 
 Silvester, Antony, 413. 
 Sin, son of Rosin, 185. 
 Sinclair. See St. Clair. 
 Siward, earl of Northumberland, 121, 
 i35- 
 
 Skrymgeour (Skyrmengeoure), Alex- 
 ander, 133 and u. 
 
 sir James, 349. 
 
 John, constable of Dundee, 355. 
 
INDEX 
 
 473 
 
 Skye, 16, 38. 
 Socrates quoted, 434. 
 Sodor, 37. 
 
 Solan geese on the Bass Rock, 34, 35 n. 
 
 Solinus quoted, 6. 
 
 Sol way, the, 19, 20, 314. 
 
 moss, battle of, cxi. 
 
 Somerset, duke of, 344, 374, 377-3 8o > 
 387. 
 
 Somerwale, Thomas, 356. 
 Somme, the, 391. 
 
 Sorbonne, the, xlv, lvii, lix, 10 and 
 n, 450. 
 
 'Sortes', an imaginary person, 217 
 and 
 
 Southampton, 342. 
 Soutra, 293 and 11. 
 Spain, 269. 
 
 Spaniards, haughtiness of, 43, 44 and n. 
 
 settle in Ireland, 51. 
 
 Spens, Hugh, principal of St. Salva- 
 tor's college, li, ciii, 440. 
 
 Spenser, Hugh, chamberlain of Ed- 
 ward II., 250, 251, 253, 254. 
 
 Spey, the, 33 and n, 132. 
 
 Stafford, earl of, 373, [misprinted Straf- 
 ford] 378. 
 
 Stags, 7. 
 
 Standard, battle of the, 134 and n. 
 Standish, Henry, bishop of St. Asaph, 
 
 149 «; 
 
 Standonk, John, xxxviii, xlvi, liii, 
 
 lv and n, 429, 430. 
 Stanhope in Weardale, 255. 
 Stanley, sir Thomas, 373. 
 Stanmore, 198, 246. 
 Stapylton, Walter, bishop of Exeter, 
 
 254- 
 
 Stephen, king of England, 134, 135, 
 144-146. 
 
 Henry, cii. 
 
 Robert, cii. 
 
 ' Sterling ', origin of, 232 and 
 
 Stewart, Alan, killed at the battle of 
 Halidon, 273. 
 
 lord, killed at Falkirk, 199, 200. 
 
 Alexander. See Buchan, earl of. 
 
 archbishop of St. Andrews, 
 
 lxxxviii, 407, 419. 
 
 bishop of Moray, 371. 
 
 lord Alexander, 354-356. 
 
 Bernard, of Aubigny, 393. 
 
 David. See Rothesay, duke of. 
 
 of Rossyth, 354. 
 
 Duncan, son of the earl of 
 
 Buchan, 332. 
 
 James, rector of Glasgow uni- 
 versity, lxviii, cxvii. 
 
 killed at the battle of Hali- 
 don, 273. 
 
 Stewart, James, of Bawane, 356. 
 
 son of Murdoch, duke of 
 
 Albany, 355. 
 
 marries the widow of 
 
 James 1., 370. 
 
 John. See Buchan, earl of. 
 
 killed at the battle of Hali- 
 don, 273. 
 
 of Carden, 355. 
 
 ■ of Lorn, 340. 
 
 lord John, of Dundonald, 
 
 355- 
 
 Murdach. See Albany, duke of. 
 
 Robert. See Robert II. 
 
 of Lorn, 356. 
 
 of Durrisdeir, 340. 
 
 Walter, 355, 356. 
 
 William, of Angus, 340. 
 
 Stirling, 82, 164, 181, 193, 197, 204 n, 
 
 225, 232-234, 278, 283, 309, 355, 
 
 361, 382, 383. 
 
 Alexander, 349. 
 
 Stonehenge, 79. 
 Story, John, xcix. 
 Strabo quoted, 45. 
 
 Walafridus, compiler of the 
 
 Glossa Ordinaria, 75 n. 
 Strassburg, 397. 
 Strath, 112 and n. 
 Strathbogie, 123. 
 
 Stratherne, countess of, imprisoned on 
 
 a charge of treason, 245, 
 
 earl of, 162, 192, 312, 331. 
 
 Strathnaver, 358, 361. 
 Straton, Edrich de, 1 1 1 and n. 
 Strawe, Jake, 301, 302 and «, 312 
 
 and n. 
 
 Strode, Ralph, 23, 24 n, 413. 
 
 Strongholds in Scotland, 30 and 
 
 Strozzi, admiral, cxi. 
 
 Stuart. See Stewart. 
 
 Stubbs, a doctor in theology, xxxvii 
 
 and /z, 26 and 11, 
 Edmund, D.D., master of Gon- 
 
 ville hall, 26 n. 
 
 Lawrence, 26 n. 
 
 Stute, Carolus, xcix. 
 Suarez, Francis, xlv. 
 Succession, order of, to the Scottish 
 
 throne, 112, 243 ; the question of, 
 
 debated, 212-220. 
 Suffolk, 71. 
 
 — — duke of, 302, 343, 374, 394. 
 
 Suiset, Roger, 23 and n. 
 
 Sullage, William, 252. 
 
 Sumerled, a chieftain of Argyll, 162. 
 
 Superstition as to building of a fortress, 
 
 73 and n. 
 Surrey, 71. 
 duke of, 340. 
 
474 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Sussex, 376. 
 
 Sutherland, Kenneth, earl of, killed 
 
 at the battle of Halidon, 273. 
 Sutra. See Soutra. 
 Swans on the Thames, 22. 
 Swave, Peter, 98 n. 
 Sweetheart abbey founded, 189. 
 Sweyn of Denmark, in and 
 Swinton, John, 328 and 339. 344,345. 
 Swynesheid monastery, 160. 
 Swynton. See Swinton. 
 Syene, 90 and n. 
 Sykkersand, 36 and n. 
 Syria, 1. 
 
 Tails, children born with, in Ro- 
 chester, 91. 
 Tain, 221, 273. 
 
 Talbot, Richard, 274, 275, 281. 
 Tantallon castle, xxix, 355, 359, 428. 
 Tartary, 15. 
 
 Tataretus, Petrus, 207 n. 
 Taxation, lxxxi, 346-352. 
 Tay, the, 33, 169. 
 Tees, the, 127. 
 
 Tempest, Peter, 409, 436, 440. 
 Terence quoted, 422. 
 Tetbury castle, 251. 
 Tethfbrd. See Thetford. 
 Teviot, the, 19. 
 
 Teviotdale, 19, 20, 281, 291, 293, 313, 
 346. 
 
 Thames, the, 20, 60, 71. 
 Thenew, 82 and 
 
 Theophylact, archbishop of Bulgaria, 
 
 xcii and 447. 
 Ther, son of Rether, 185. 
 Therouenne in Belgium, 315. 
 Thetford, 109. 
 Thirl wall, 27 and n. 
 Thomas the rhymer, 190. 
 William, 371. 
 
 Thomson, John, superior of St. James's 
 
 monastery at Ratisbon, 101 ;/. 
 Thule, 37. 
 Tikhil castle, 251. 
 Tiler, Walter, 301. 
 Tinctor, Nicholas, cxxii and n. 
 Tiptoft, John. ^Worcester, earl of. 
 Tolbooth, the, xbv. 
 Totnes, 78. 
 
 Tournaments, 281, 282. 
 Tournay, 28. 
 
 Tours, 66 ; coinage of, 33 38, 384. 
 
 dukedom of, 345. 
 
 Towton, battle of, 381. 
 Tracy, William, 150. 
 Trajan, 139 
 
 Transubstantiation, the doctrine of, 
 xciii. 
 
 Traprain, 336. 
 
 Trays, Henry, 251. 
 
 Trent, the, 20. 
 
 Treschel, Jean, cii. 
 
 Trever, Nicholas, 425. 
 
 Trial by jury, 356, 357 and 
 
 Trinity college, Cambridge, 25 n. 
 
 Trollop, Andrew, 379, 381. 
 
 Trout in Scotland, 33. 
 
 Tuda, successor of Colman, 97. 
 
 Tudor, Edmund, 393 n. 
 
 Tulibard, Andrew of, taken prisoner 
 
 and executed, 270. 
 Tullilum, 188. 
 Tunstall, Thomas, 371. 
 Turbot in Scotland, 33. 
 Turgot, bishop of Durham, 130 and 
 Turnberry castle, 188. 
 Turnbull, sir James, killed at Nisbet 
 
 moor, 295. 
 
 George, li and 419. 
 
 Turstan, archbishop of York, 134. 
 
 Tuscany, 229 n. 
 
 Tweed, the, 19, 33, 98, 1 7 1. 
 
 Tweeddale, 293. 
 
 Tyburn, 203 n. 
 
 Tyne, the, 28, 128, 258. 
 
 Tynemouth, 186 
 
 Tyninghame, 86 and ;i. 
 
 UCHTRED, 167 n. 
 
 Union between England and Scotland 
 desirable, lxxix, 41, 42 and n, 186, 
 217-219, 289. 
 
 Universities of England, 22 ; of Scot- 
 land, 28 and n. 
 
 Urquhart, 274. 
 
 Ursula, St., 60. 
 
 Urthid, Thomas, keeper of Perth, 282. 
 Usury, 176 and n. 
 Utha, 95. 
 
 Uther, son of Constantius, 67, 69, 78, 
 80, 81. 
 
 Vaire, Thomas, 316 and n. 
 Valance, Aldomar. See Pembroke, 
 earl of. 
 
 Yaldeof. See Huntingdon, earl of. 
 
 Valenciennes, xlvii, 28, III. 
 
 Valerius Maximus, cxxxiv. 
 
 Valla, Laurentius, 427, 428, 443. 
 
 Valvanus, 82, 85. 
 
 Varia Capella, 199 and n, 205. 
 
 Vascosanus, Michael, cii. 
 
 Vendome, earl of, obtains assistance 
 
 for France, 343. 
 Venice, 307. 
 Verdon, John, 174. 
 Vergil, Polydore, lxxv. 
 Verhal. See Wirral. 
 
INDEX 
 
 475 
 
 Verjuice, a wine of Britain, 12 and n. 
 Verneuil, battle of, 345, 371 and n. 
 Vessi, John, 174. 
 
 Veypont, Alan de, keeper of Lochleven 
 
 castle, 274. 
 Victor, pope, 61. 
 Vienna, 100 n, 101 
 
 Vienne (Guian), Jean de, admiral of 
 
 France, 313, 314 and n. 
 Villacrusca, Ramirez de, 414. 
 Vincennes, 346. 
 
 Vincentius Bellovacensis, 52 and n. 
 Vine, the, 12 and 14. 
 Vingle, John de, c, ci. 
 Vio, Thomas de. See Cajetan. 
 Virgil quoted, 37, 62, 134. 
 Virgilius, apostle of Carinthia, 100 
 and n. 
 
 Viridalia. See Weardale. 
 Vortiger, 68-78 and n. 
 Vortimer, 70. 
 
 Wake, Thomas, 286. 
 
 Wakefield, battle of, 380. 
 
 Wales, 5, 6, 17, 41, 50, 146, 169, 175, 
 
 379, 393- 
 
 prince of, 175, 309. 
 
 Wallace, William, Caxton's account 
 of Wallace, 193 ; his origin and 
 military genius, 195 ; defeats the 
 English at Stirling, 196 ; takes 
 Dundee castle, marches into Eng- 
 land, 197; defeated at Falkirk, 200, 
 201 ; his betrayal and death, 203 
 and 11 ; review of his conduct, 204. 
 
 Walled cities, 29 and n. 
 
 Wallingford, 145. 
 
 Walsingham( Walsington),sir William, 
 323- 
 
 Walterson, Robert, 1 and n, liv, cxvi, 
 
 409, 418, 424. 
 War, evils of, 218. 
 
 Wardlaw, Walter, cardinal-bishop of 
 
 Glasgow, Ixix, 312. 
 Wark castle, 186, 313, 387. 
 Warren, earl of, 135, 193. 286. 
 Warwick, Guy, earl of, 225. 
 Richard, earl of, 377, 380, 381, 
 
 389-392. 
 
 Thomas, earl of, 307. 
 
 Water of Leith, 28. 
 
 Wauchope, Robert, bishop of Armagh, 
 
 Ixxiii. 
 
 Waynfiete, William, bishop of Win- 
 chester, 25 n. 
 Weardale, 255, 263. 
 Weddel, Dr. John, 407, 442. 
 Weir, Robert, 371. 
 Wellys, lord, 371. 
 Wessex, earl of. See Vortiger. 
 
 Westminster, 21 ; Westminster hall 
 built by William Rufus, 129. 
 
 Westmorland, earl of, 371. 
 
 Wetherby, 244. 
 
 Weyh St. Peter, 101 n. 
 
 Wheat, 7. 
 
 Whitekirk, 297. 
 
 White ship, the, 143 and n. 
 
 Whithorn. See St. Ninian. 
 
 Whittingham church, lxxxv ; founded 
 in honour of Oswald, king of the 
 Bernicians, 93. 
 
 Wick, 5, 224. 
 
 Wicliffe, John, 25 n. 
 
 Wiclifiites, 447. 
 
 William the Conqueror, 120, 127, 129 
 
 and n. 
 II., 128, 129. 
 
 the Lion, king of Scotland, 
 
 135, 140, 163-169 and n, 185, 
 
 2IO 71. 
 
 the Scot, founder of monasteries 
 
 in Germany, 100 and n. 
 
 of Auxerre. See Altisiodorensis. 
 
 of North Berwick, 321. 
 
 of Soulis, 245. 
 
 Winchelcombe, abbot of, 149 n. 
 Winchester, 25, 30 n, 68, 80, 145, 
 
 156 71, 175. 
 
 bishop of, 286. 
 
 John, cxx, cxxi. 
 
 Windsor, 231, 340. 
 
 Wine imported, 12 and n ; wine of 
 
 Gascony, 203. 
 Winram, sub - prior, St. Andrews, 
 
 cviii. 
 
 Winton, Roger, earl of, 180. 
 Wirral, 71 n. 
 
 Wishart, George, xxxiii, cxi. 
 
 Wissent or Witsand, 5 n. 
 
 Wolsey, Thomas, cardinal, xcv, xcvii, 
 
 407, 448. 
 Wood abundant in Britain, 7. 
 Woodham. See Goddam. 
 Woodstock, Edward. See Kent, 
 
 earl of. 
 
 Thomas. See Gloucester, duke 
 
 of. 
 
 See Kent, earl of. 
 
 Woodville, Elizabeth, queen of Edward 
 iv., 25 71. 
 
 Wool, 7 ; wool trade, 22 71 ; wool 
 
 weavers, 28 and ;z. 
 Worcester, 20. 
 
 John Tiptoft, earl of, 390 
 
 and 71. 
 
 Thomas Percy, earl of, 341. 
 
 Worstead, 22 n. 
 Wiirzburg, 101 71. 
 Wydewyle, Richard, 371. 
 
476 
 
 JOHN MAJOR'S HISTORY 
 
 Yarmouth, 6. 
 
 York, 1 6, 22 and 79, 109, 111, 
 156 228, 246, 252, 396. 
 
 archbishop of, 226, 286. 
 
 duchess of, 381. 
 
 York, duke of, 302, 342, 343, 371, 
 380. 
 
 Young, John, cxx. 
 
 Yla. See Islay. 
 
 Zacharias, John, lv, 409, 418. 
 
 CORRIGENDA 
 
 P. cxxviii, last word of note for purity read poverty 
 308, 1. 5 : for Duke of Norfolk read Duke of Hereford 
 302, L 8 : for grandson read nephew 
 339> 1. 19 : for George Scot read George the Scot 
 370, L 2 from foot, for Calendar read Chronicles 
 378, 1. 6 : for Strafford read Stafford 
 373, second-last line of text, for Francis of Arragon 
 read a man of Arragon named Francis 
 
 Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to Her Majesty, 
 at the Edinburgh University Press. 
 
£>cottt0t) tytetovp £>otitty. 
 
 THE EXECUTIVE. 
 
 President, 
 The Earl of Rosebery, LL.D. 
 
 Chairman of Council. 
 
 David Masson, LL.D., Professor of English Literature, 
 Edinburgh University. 
 
 Council. 
 
 J. R. Findlay, Esq. 
 P. Hume Brown, M.A. 
 G. Gregory Smith, M.A. 
 J. Ferguson, Esq., Advocate. 
 
 Right Rev. John Dowden, D.D., Bishop of Edinburgh. 
 .Eneas J. G. Mackay, LL.D., Sheriff of Fife. 
 John Russell, Esq. 
 
 Sir Arthur Mitchell, K.C.B., M.D., LL.D. 
 Rev. Geo. W. Sprott, D.D. 
 Rev. A. W. Cornelius Hallen. 
 
 W. F. Skene, D.C.L., LL.D., Historiographer - Royal for 
 
 Scotland. 
 Colonel P. Dods. 
 
 Corresponding Members of the Council. 
 
 Osmund Airy, Esq., Birmingham ; Professor George Grub, 
 LL.D., Aberdeen ; Rev. W. D. Macray, Oxford; Professor 
 A. F. Mitchell, D.D., St. Andrews ; Professor J. Veitch, 
 LL.D., Glasgow ; A. H. Millar, Esq., Dundee. 
 
 Hon. Treasurer. 
 J. T. Clark, Keeper of the Advocates' Library. 
 
 Hon. Secretary. 
 T. G. Law, Librarian, Signet Library. 
 
 1 
 
RULES 
 
 1. The object of the Society is the discovery and printing, under 
 selected editorship, of unpublished documents illustrative of the civil, 
 religious, and social history of Scotland. The Society will also under- 
 take, in exceptional cases, to issue translations of printed works of a 
 similar nature, which have not hitherto been accessible in English. 
 
 2. The number of Members of the Society shall be limited to 400. 
 
 3. The affairs of the Society shall be managed by a Council, consisting 
 of a Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, and twelve elected Members, five 
 to make a quorum. Three of the twelve elected Members shall retire 
 annually by ballot, but they shall be eligible for re-election. 
 
 4. The Annual Subscription to the Society shall be One Guinea. The 
 publications of the Society shall not be delivered to any Member whose 
 Subscription is in arrear, and no Member shall be permitted to receive 
 more than one copy of the Society's publications. 
 
 5. The Society will undertake the issue of its own publications, i.e. 
 without the intervention of a publisher or any other paid agent. 
 
 6. The Society will issue yearly two octavo volumes of about 320 pages 
 each. 
 
 7. An Annual General Meeting of the Society shall be held on the 
 last Tuesday in October. 
 
 8. Two stated Meetings of the Council shall be held each year, one on 
 the last Tuesday of May, the other on the Tuesday preceding the day 
 upon which the Annual General Meeting shall be held. The Secretary, 
 on the request of three Members of the Council, shall call a special 
 meeting of the Council. 
 
 9. Editors shall receive 20 copies of each volume they edit for the 
 Society. 
 
 10. The owners of Manuscripts published by the Society will also be 
 presented with a certain number of copies. 
 
 11. The Annual Balance-Sheet, Rules, and List of Members shall be 
 printed. 
 
 12. No alteration shall be made in these Rules except at a General 
 Meeting of the Society. A fortnight's notice of any alteration to be 
 proposed shall be given to the Members of the Council. 
 
PUBLICATIONS 
 
 Works already Issued 
 1887. 
 
 1. Bishop Pococke's Tours in Scotland, 1747-1760. Edited by 
 
 D. W. Kemp. 
 
 2. Diary of and General Expenditure Book of William 
 
 Cunningham of Craigends, 1673-1680. Edited by the Rev. 
 James Dodds, D.D. 
 
 1888. 
 
 3. Panurgi Philo-caballi Scoti Grameidos libri sex. — The 
 
 Grameid : an heroic poem descriptive of the Campaign of 
 Viscount Dundee in 1689, by James Philip of Almerieclose. 
 Translated and Edited by the Rev. A. D. Murdoch. 
 
 4. The Register of the Kirk-Session of St. Andrews. Part i. 
 
 1559-1582. Edited by D. Hay Fleming. 
 
 1889. 
 
 5. Diary of the Rev. John Mill, Minister of Dunrossness, Sand- 
 
 wick, and Cunningsburgh, in Shetland, 1740-1803. Edited 
 by Gilbert Goudie, F.S.A. Scot. 
 
 6. Narrative of Mr. James Nimmo, a Covenanter. 1654-1709. 
 
 Edited by W. G. Scott-Moncrieff, Advocate. 
 
 1890. 
 
 7. The Register of the Kirk-Session of St. Andrews. Part n. 
 
 1583-1600. Edited by D. Hay Fleming. 
 
 8. A List of Persons concerned in the Rebellion (1745). With 
 
 a Preface by the Earl of Rosebery and Annotations by the 
 Rev. Walter Macleod. 
 
 Presented to the Society by the Earl of Rosebery. 
 
 9. Glamis Papers: The ' Book of Record,' a Diary written by 
 
 Patrick, first Earl of Strathmore, and other documents 
 relating to Glamis Castle (1684-89). Edited by A. H. 
 Millar, F.S.A. Scot. 
 
 1892. 
 
 10. John Major's History of Greater Britain (1521). Trans- 
 lated and Edited by Archibald Constable, with a Life of the 
 author by .ZEneas J. G. Mackay, Advocate. 
 
4 
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 
 To be issued in 1892. 
 The Records of the Commission of the General Assembly, 
 1646-1 648. Edited by the Rev. James Christie, D.D., with 
 an Introduction by the Rev. Professor Mitchell, D.D. 
 
 Court-Book of the Barony of Urie. Edited by the Rev. D. G. 
 Barron, from a ms. in possession of Mr. R. Barclay of Dorking. 
 
 The Jacobite Rising of 1719- Letter Book of James, Second 
 Duke of Ormonde, Nov. 4, 1718— Sept. 27, 1719- Edited 
 by John Russell. 
 
 ' The History of my Life, extracted from Journals I kept since I 
 was twenty-six years of age, interspersed with short accounts 
 of the most remarkable public affairs that happened in my 
 time, especially such as I had some immediate concern in,' 
 1702-1754. By Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Baron of the 
 Exchequer, Commissioner of the Union, etc. Edited from 
 the original ms. in Penicuik House by J. M. Gray. 
 
 In preparation. 
 
 The Diary of Andrew Hay of Stone, near Biggar, afterwards 
 of Craignethan Castle, 1 659-60. Edited by A. G. Reid, 
 F.S.A. Scot., from a manuscript in his possession. 
 
 Sir Thomas Craig's De Unione Regnorum Britannle. Edited, 
 with an English Translation, from the unpublished manuscript 
 in the Advocates' Library. 
 
 The Diaries or Account Books of Sir John Foulis of Ravelston, 
 (1679-1707), and the Account Book of Dame Hannah Erskine 
 (1675-1699). Edited by the Rev. A. W. Cornelius Hallen. 
 
 Papers relating to the Military Government of Scotland, and 
 the Correspondence of Robert Lilburne and General Monk, 
 from 1653 to 1658. Edited by C. H. Firth. 
 
 A Selection of the Forfeited Estate Papers preserved in H.M. 
 Register House. 
 
 Continuation of the Records of the Commission of the General 
 Assembly, 1648-1662. 
 
 In contemplation. 
 Diary of Col. the Hon. John Erskine of Carnock, 1680. From a 
 ms. in possession of Henry David Erskine, Esq., of Cardross. 
 
 Albemarle Papers, 1746. 
 
■ I 
 
 1 i v i 
 
 . » T » ] 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CAVLORO 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
 ■ • H 
 
 1 1 . 1 
 
 ■ 
 
DA 
 
 750 Scottish history society 
 
 S25 
 v* /o 
 
 Publications 
 
 Bapst Library 
 
 Boston College 
 Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02167 
 
 j