In the opening sentence I m talking about Muslims AND Scottish independence.
That s going to send some people rushing to the keyboard with rage...
but if it weren t for Muslims Scotland may not even exist today.
If you re interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history
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In the meantime, let me tell you a story This is the Islamic Centre in Stirling.
I suppose it s my local. I mean I don t go there. I want to tell you about a time a Muslim
saved Scotland in an unexpected way... but to do it we need to go south of the border.
This is Alnwick Castle. At several times in our
history, in several different ways, England has exerted Control over Scotland.
On more than one occasion, near here, we ve made things worse.
Now some people are going to get caught up in modern day politics,
but I made a video called Five times SCOTLAND WAS FREE
explaining five times we lost then regained independence from England...
each form of subjugation and release was different...
from personal oaths between men of power
to modern nation state... but one of them started here.....
David I of Scotland had controlled the lands down here.
Technically they were lands in England he held them from the English king...,
but there was no doubt who was boss in the area.
When David s son pre-deceased him, Scotland was left to the grandkids
at the very time that his great nephew..., the vigorous and hugely successful Archbishop
murdering Henry II had come to the English throne.
Long story short... Henry had taken this territory back from David I s first grandson...
David I s first grandson... his eldest male heir Malcolm IV.
When he died, grandson number two, William I, was on the Scottish throne...
and he wanted the lands of his grandfather back...
but no amount of diplomatic manoeuvring, asking nicely or
even sucking up to Henry by campaigning with
him in Normandy had done the trick. But William wasn t the only person who
had a grudge against Henry. So when the French king
and Henry s own wife and sons took up arms against the hard-nosed English king...,
and they promised William grandad s lands back when they came to power...
you couldn t blame William for taking their side.
He was only doing what medieval kings did. It didn t go well
William was captured by English forces not far from here.
For more details see my video The King Who Lost Scotland.
When he was delivered to Herny II of England the only way William could get himself released
was to agree to hand over everything. When I say everything I mean
Edinburgh Castle, Roxburgh Castle, Berwick, Jedburgh and Stirling Castle...
as well as giving Henry the keys to the kingdom...
Oh and by the way the English garrisons of these castles
would be maintained at William s expense... AND Henry would get to choose William s wife.
I suppose it could have been worse. When his great grandad Malcolm Canmore
raided across the border, he got killed just one mile down the road there.
Every cloud....
This is where Malcolm Canmore was laid to rest after the Battle of Alnwick.
The treaty that William agreed with Henry II may have seemed like a fate worse than death.
It required him to be strapped face down to a table buck naked but for a pair of leather chaps
with an apple in his gaping mouth and.... I maybe took that too far...
But the Treaty of Falaise in December 1174 meant that Scotland was
under the English yoke... Now you might say that really it was just
that William was under Henry s yoke...., but let me quote form the treaty
William, king of Scots, has become liegeman of the lord king Henry against
EVERY MAN in respect of Scotland AND in
respect of all his other lands... ...
...And all the bishops and abbots and clergy of the king of Scots and their successors shall do
fealty to the lord king Henry... ...
...the Scottish Church shall make submission to the English Church as it ought to do...
...The earls also and barons and such other men holding land from the king of Scots as the lord
king Henry may select, shall also do homage...
This treaty permeated the lives of nobility, clergy, judiciary...
right down to the lowly cowherd. It was certainly enough to motivate
rebellions amongst disaffected folks on the edges of William s Kingdom
in Galloway, Moray and Ross. Rebellions that William would need
Henry s permission to deal with. You can imagine his frustration.
Thirteen long years this insufferable subjugation went on for...
so what stopped it?
OK from our perspective thirteen years isn t long
but, as we ll see, the impact lasted much longer...
In the year 1187, many miles from here... in temperatures Scots could only imagine....
but it was a wee bit like Benidorm on Glasgow fair fortnight
30 000 Muslim troops marched under the banner of Saladin.
They had lured the King of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and his army into a trap.
In Middle Eastern July temperatures,
they d trekked across desert and now found themselves dehydrated;
choking for water at the mercy of a larger Muslim force...,
and then they were destroyed.
With King Guy of Jerusalem captured and his army defeated
Saladin headed for the Holy City. ...and on 20th Sep 1187...
It fell... However unlikely it may seem;
this was Scotland s salvation.
When Pope Urban III heard the news... he dropped down dead.
A new pope popped up and issued a papal bull saying that all Christians should take the cross
for a new crusade. Who would be first?
Now I m taking the opportunity to film south of the border because tonight
I ll be performing my stand up show Stories of Scotland here
in The Stand Newcastle. I ll be taking the show all over Scotland,
we ll have some more dates south of the border and even across to Canada.
Click the link top right for dates and tickets, or find the link in the description below.
Oh and tell me in the comments section what town you d like me to bring the show to.
Within weeks of the call going out
Henry II s son Richard strode into the cathedral in Tours,
and like his grandfather had done sixty years before,
in the presence of the Archbishop of Tours, he took the oath of a crusading knight.
Now folks in the comment section might say Richard was French.
He was from Aquitaine; he barely spent any time in England...
but go to any England rugby match and you ll notice that every fancy dress
shop the length and breadth of England has been emptied of Richard the
Lionheart costumes... as the English crowd sing Jerusalem.
Obviously you don t quite up and off to a crusade just like that.
Planning has to be done. Your dad, The King of England,
and your pal, the King of France, have to put aside their differences
and agree to go too. Money has to be raised,
costumes have to be designed, and the key players have to fall out again before
your dad dies in ignominious circumstances... and all that s going to take a couple of years...
by which time your now king, but still strapped for a bit of cash
to fund this Muslim killing venture that you ve committed yourself to.
Thank goodness for the generosity of the Scots. You see Willliam I of Scotland has some cash...
and now you re king of England, you have something he wants.
Henry II had died on 6th July 1189. In five months, in a world before emails:
Richard became king, word got back to William in Scotland,
William offered Richard 10000 Merks in return for release from the Treaty of Falaise,
Richard had accepted, the documents had been drawn up
and William was ready to move into his new old castles and throw out the lodgers
So on 5th December 1189 the Quitclaim of Canterbury was sealed
Know ye that we have restored to our most dearly-beloved cousin William,
by the same grace king of the Scots, his castles of Roxburgh and Berwick,
to be held by him and his heirs for ever as his own of hereditary right.
We have also acquitted and released him of and from all covenants and agreements
which Henry, king of England, our father, of happy memory,
EXTORTED from him by new charters, and in consequence of his capture;
For fifteen years Scotland had been subject to England.
Thanks to Saladin it was once more free... for now...
although we never quite got Northumbria back... I m pretty sure that Saladin neither knew nor
cared about the consequences for Scotland. He just wanted what he saw as Muslim lands back.
He was just doing what Middle Eastern potentates did.
Whilst Scotland was once more independent the Treaty of Falaise
had changed the landscape of these islands forever.
English monarchs did what English monarchs do.
From Edward Longshanks through to Henry VIIl they looked back to the Treaty of Falaise,
and conveniently forgot the Quitclaim of Canterbury,
insisting that Scotland belonged to them. The fact is that Christians,
Muslims, Scots, English, Normans, Kings prelates and potentates...
They do what they do... and the world speeds by
If you d rather see this from the point of view of this island and a Christian Saint,
then there s a video coming up on screen. Give us a thumbs up and support the channel by
clicking top right to become a Patreon member, or buy me a coffee in the description below.