Scone, Perthshire, Scotland, British Isles

Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. These things having been done and the kingdom settled, and guardians placed in the castles and towns, the king returned to the southern parts, appointing a date for his return on the [1st November 1292] in the following year. On that date, when he returned, he arranged that fifty judges should be chosen from the kingdom of Scotland, men of discretion and learned in the law. To these he added thirty elected men from England, commanding all, in the faith of their sworn oaths, to weigh the claims of the petitioners with God before their eyes, and to bring the matter of the succession to a proper conclusion. These men, withdrawing as they had been instructed, heard the claims and petitions of all who asserted a right or claim in the kingdom of Scotland. When nearly all the petitioners had been heard and completed their cases, the matter came down to John de Balliol and Robert de Bruce, whose claims are summarized briefly as follows: Since no nearer royal bloodline appeared, attention was turned to David, formerly Earl of Huntingdon and brother of William, formerly King of Scotland, who had reigned in Scotland in the time of Henry II. This David had three daughters. The eldest he gave in marriage to John de Balliol, the middle one to the Lord Bruce, and the youngest to the Lord Hastings. From these daughters descended John de Balliol, Robert de Bruce, and John de Hastings, each of whom claimed the succession to the kingdom. But since a kingdom should never be divided and, as some argued, should belong to the nearest of royal blood, Robert de Bruce, although descended from the second daughter, petitioned that he, as the closer in blood by one degree, should be admitted to the succession. However, the appointed judges did not accept this reasoning. They adjudged the succession of the kingdom of Scotland to John de Balliol, as he was descended from the eldest daughter. Our king, approving their decision, restored to John the kingdom of Scotland with all its integrity, reserving for himself the homage and fealty to be rendered in due time. On the feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle [30th November 1292], John de Balliol (age 43) was made King of Scotland in the Scottish manner, which was as follows. At the monastery of Scone [Map], there was placed a very large stone in the church of God beside the high altar, hollowed out and shaped like a round chair, in which future kings were customarily seated in a kind of coronation rite. The placing of a new king in this stone was the hereditary duty of the Earl of Fife, after the king had sworn an oath to rule the holy mother Church and the people subject to him justly, to establish good laws, and to maintain established and newly enacted laws until death. With the new king seated upon the stone, the solemn celebration of the Mass began, and apart from the elevation of the sacred body of the Lord, the king remained seated on the stone. On the feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr [26th December 1292], the same King of Scots performed homage¹ to our king at Newcastle upon Tyne in the year of our Lord 1292. Our king restored to him all his rights entire and unharmed along with all his castles. And thus he returned to the southern parts.

Hiis itaque gestis et ordinato regno positisque custodibus suis in castris et villis, reversus est ad partes australes rex, statuens eis suæ reversionis terminum in festo Omnium Sanctorum anni sequentis; in quo quidem termino reversus, apordinavit ut de regno Scotia eligerentur L arbitri, viri discreti et legem scientes, quibus electis associavit eis ex Anglia XXX viros electos, præcipiens universis, in fide præstiti sacramenti, ut Deum habentes præ oculis vota petentium ponderarent, et debito fine clauderent negotium successionis prædictum; qui secedentes, ut in mandatis habuerant, omnium, qui in regno Scotia jus vel clamium vendicabant, audiebant vota, et petitiones singulorum, et, absolutis petentibus quasi universis, in fine perventum est ad Johannem de Balliolo et Robertum de Bruys, quorum petitio sic brevibus declaratur. Cum enim sanguis regius proximior non appareret, tandem habitus est recursus ad David quondam comitem Huntingdoniæ et fratrem Willelmi quondam regis Scotiæ, qui temporibus Henrici secundi regnavit in Scotia: hic David, cum tres haberet filias, primogenitam dedit Johanni de Balliolo, mediam domino de Brus, et ultimam domino de Hastinges, ex quarum sanguine prædicti Johannes et Robertus cum Johanne de Hastinges successionem regni vendicabant; verum quia regnum debet nunquam dividi et, ut a quibusdam dicebatur, proximiori regio sanguini debeatur; prædictus Robertus de Bruys, licet de secunda sorore exisset, tamen in eo quod sanguini proximior in uno erat gradu, petiit se, tanquam sanguini proximiorem, ad regni successionem admitti. Prædicti tamen arbitri rationem non admittentes, prædicto Johanni de Balliolo, tanquam e primogenita exeunti, successionem regni Scotia adjudicarunt: rex vero noster, eorum approbando arbitrium, eidem Johanni regnum Scotiæ cum omni integritate restituit, salvo sibi homagio suo et fidelitate pro tempore faciendis. Die vero Sancti Andreæ Apostoli idem Johannes de Balliolo effectus est rex Scotia more Scotorum, qui sequitur. Apud monasterium de Scone positus erat lapis pergrandis in ecclesia Dei juxta majus altare, concavus quidem ets ad modum rotundæ cathedræ confectus, in quo futuri reges loco quasi coronationis ponebantur ex more; et hujusmodi novi regis depositio ad comitem de Fyf jure hæreditario pertinebat, facto tamen juramento quod sanctam matrem ecclesiam Scotland. populumque sibi subjectum juste regendo defenderet, legesque bonas conderet, usitatasque et inventas usque ad mortem continuaret: rege itaque novo in lapide posito missarum solemnia incepta peraguntur, et præterquam in elevatione sacri Dominici corporis semper lapidatus mansit. Die autem beati protomartyris Stephani idem and does rex Scotorum homagium fecit regi nostro apud Novum Castrum super Tynam anno Domini MCCXCII restituitque ei rex noster omnia sua jura integra et illæsa cum omnibus castris suis; et sic reversus est ad partes australes.

Note 1. The oath of fealty is printed in Rymer, Fœdera, 1.782.

Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. In the year of our Lord 1306, at its beginning, the aforesaid Robert de Brus, on the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary [25th March 1306], had himself crowned King of Scotland at Scone [Map], in the presence and with the consent of four bishops, five earls, and the people of the land. Now the wife [Isabella Countess Buchan] of the Earl of Buchan, who was the daughter of the Earl of Fife and by hereditary right had the privilege of placing the crown upon the head of the new king, secretly left her lord, bringing with her the destriers of her husband, which she had left at home, so that she might perform that office. For this reason her husband, who had been faithful to the King of England, was angry, and when she was captured in the same year and he wished to put her to death, the king forbade him and ordered that she be placed upon the wall of the castle of Berwick in a wooden turret fixed there, so that she might be seen and recognized by those passing by. She remained thus confined for many days, on a meagre diet. As for the two bishops, namely the Bishop of Glasgow [Robert Wishart] and the Bishop of St Andrews [William de Lamberton] in Scotland, together with the Abbot of Scone, when they were captured in that same year, the king sent them into England to various castles, and they remained strictly imprisoned until the king's death. Therefore, when the coronation of the new king had been heard of and confirmed, the lord king of England, on the Feast of Pentecost, sent ahead some of his knights with an armed force, namely Sir Henry de Percy, Sir Aymer de Valence, and Sir Robert de Clifford, so that they might oppose and pursue the new king.

Anno Domini MCCCVI incipiente, Robertus de Brus prædictus, die Annunciationis Beatæ Mariæ fecit se coronari in regem Scotiæ apud at Scone, Scone, præsentibus et consentientibus quatuor episcopis, quinque comitibus, et populo terræ. Uxor autem comitis de Bouchan, quæ erat filia comitis de Fyth, cui de jure hæreditario competit coronam apponere capiti novi regis, furtive recessit a domino suo, adducens secum dextrarios domini sui quos domi dimiserat, ut illud officium exerceret; propter quod iratus dominus ejus, qui regi Angliæ fidelis extiterat, cum in eodem anno esset capta et vellet eam perimere, inhibuit ei rex, et jussit eam poni supra murum castri de Berewyk in tristega lignea fixa, ut sic a transeuntibus videri posset et cognosci; mansitque sic clausa multis diebus, et in arcta dieta. Duos autem episcopos, Glasguensem scilicet et Sancti Andreæ in Scotia, cum abbate de Scone, cum essent infra eundem annum capti, misit rex in Angliam ad diversa castra, manseruntque clausi in arcto usque ad obitum regis. Audita itaque et cognita coronatione novi regis, præmisit dominus rex Angliæ in festo Pentecostes quosdam ex militibus suis cum manu armata, dominum scilicet Henricum de Percy, dominum Almericum de Walence, et dominum Robertum de Clyfford, ut novo regi resisterent, et persequerentur eum.