On September 4, 1241, the future King Alexander III of Scotland was born at Roxburgh. His coronation took place eight years later, on Moot Hill, inside Scone Abbey. The Isle of Man and the Western Isles became Scottish under Alexander's reign, by the Treaty of Perth (1266) with Norway's Magnus VI. Alexander made Angus MacDonald first Lord of the Isles.
Alexander's reign was a strong one. He married Henry III of England's daughter Margaret, but refused Henry the homage he demanded. His death without a living male heir left a vacumn that enable Henry's son Edward I of England to embark on his acquisitive efforts in Scotland.
Walter Scott devotes substantial time to Alexander's reign, including this passage, from "Tales of a Grandfather":
'CHAPTER VI.
Death of Alexander III. of Scotland, and Usurpation of Edward I. of England*
Seven kings of Scotland, omitting one or two temporary occupants of the throne, had reigned in succession, after Malcolm Canmore, the son of Duncan, who recovered the kingdom from Macbeth. Their reigns occupied a period of nearly two hundred years. Some of them were very able men; all of them were well-disposed, good sovereigns, and inclined to discharge their duty towards their subjects. They made good laws; and, considering the barbarous and ignorant times they lived in, they appear to have been men as deserving of praise as any race of kings who reigned in Europe during that period. Alexander, the third of that name, and the last of these seven princes, was an excellent sovereign. He married, as I told you in the last chapter, Margaret, daughter of Henry III. of England ; but unhappily all the children who were born of that marriage died before their father. After the death of Queen Margaret, Alexander married another wife; but he did not live to have any family by her. As he was riding in the dusk of the evening, along the sea-coast of Fife, betwixt Burntisland and Kinghorn, he approached too near the brink of the precipice, and his horse starting or stumbling, he was thrown over the rock, and killed on the spot. It is now no less than five hundred and forty-two years since Alexander's death, yet the people of the country still point out the very spot where it happened, and which is called the King's Crag...'
Showing posts with label Henry III of England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Henry III of England. Show all posts
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Battle of Evesham
A part of the Second Barons' War, the Battle of Eesham took place on August 4, 1265. The battle pitted Prince Edward - later Edward I of England - against Simon de Montfort, the Earl of Leicester.
Leicester in 1265 was the most powerful person in England. He had defeated King Henry III in 1264 at the Battle of Lewes, and held Henry and his sons Edward and Richard as captives. Edward escaped in May 1265, with the aid of Gilbert de Clare, a former ally of Leicester's.
Edward soon displayed some of the military prowess, and ruthlessness that marked his reign. He gathered Royalist forces, and made a surprise attack on Kenilworth Castle, where Simon de Montfort's son Simon was in charge.
The elder Simon was en route to Kenilworth at the time, reaching Evesham on August 3rd. The battle the following day was one-sided, with Edward having the advantage in terms of position and numbers. Leicester and his son Henry were slaughtered on the field of battle, along with most of their forces.
Walter Scott set his novel "Kenilworth" in the historical Kenilworth Castle, with this description from the text:
'At length the princely Castle appeared, upon improving which, and the domains around, the Earl of Leicester had, it is said, expended sixty thousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to half a million of our present money.
The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed seven acres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a pleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the rest formed the large base-court or outer yard of the noble Castle. The lordly structure itself, which rose near the centre of this spacious enclosure, was composed of a huge pile of magnificent castellated buildings, apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and bearing in the names attached to each portion of the magnificent mass, and in the armorial bearings which were there blazoned, the emblems of mighty chiefs who had long passed away, and whose history, could Ambition have lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the haughty favourite who had now acquired and was augmenting the fair domain. A large and massive Keep, which formed the citadel of the Castle, was of uncertain though great antiquity. It bore the name of Caesar, perhaps from its resemblance to that in the Tower of London so called. Some antiquaries ascribe its foundation to the time of Kenelph, from whom the Castle had its name, a Saxon King of Mercia, and others to an early era after the Norman Conquest. On the exterior walls frowned the scutcheon of the Clintons, by whom they were founded in the reign of Henry I.; and of the yet more redoubted Simon de Montfort, by whom, during the Barons' wars, Kenilworth was long held out against Henry III...'
Leicester in 1265 was the most powerful person in England. He had defeated King Henry III in 1264 at the Battle of Lewes, and held Henry and his sons Edward and Richard as captives. Edward escaped in May 1265, with the aid of Gilbert de Clare, a former ally of Leicester's.
Edward soon displayed some of the military prowess, and ruthlessness that marked his reign. He gathered Royalist forces, and made a surprise attack on Kenilworth Castle, where Simon de Montfort's son Simon was in charge.
The elder Simon was en route to Kenilworth at the time, reaching Evesham on August 3rd. The battle the following day was one-sided, with Edward having the advantage in terms of position and numbers. Leicester and his son Henry were slaughtered on the field of battle, along with most of their forces.
Walter Scott set his novel "Kenilworth" in the historical Kenilworth Castle, with this description from the text:
'At length the princely Castle appeared, upon improving which, and the domains around, the Earl of Leicester had, it is said, expended sixty thousand pounds sterling, a sum equal to half a million of our present money.
The outer wall of this splendid and gigantic structure enclosed seven acres, a part of which was occupied by extensive stables, and by a pleasure garden, with its trim arbours and parterres, and the rest formed the large base-court or outer yard of the noble Castle. The lordly structure itself, which rose near the centre of this spacious enclosure, was composed of a huge pile of magnificent castellated buildings, apparently of different ages, surrounding an inner court, and bearing in the names attached to each portion of the magnificent mass, and in the armorial bearings which were there blazoned, the emblems of mighty chiefs who had long passed away, and whose history, could Ambition have lent ear to it, might have read a lesson to the haughty favourite who had now acquired and was augmenting the fair domain. A large and massive Keep, which formed the citadel of the Castle, was of uncertain though great antiquity. It bore the name of Caesar, perhaps from its resemblance to that in the Tower of London so called. Some antiquaries ascribe its foundation to the time of Kenelph, from whom the Castle had its name, a Saxon King of Mercia, and others to an early era after the Norman Conquest. On the exterior walls frowned the scutcheon of the Clintons, by whom they were founded in the reign of Henry I.; and of the yet more redoubted Simon de Montfort, by whom, during the Barons' wars, Kenilworth was long held out against Henry III...'
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