Hiya I'm Bruce Fummey, I'm going to tell you about a day when Scotland's independence
hung on a thread and the only thing standing in the way of an English King with scissors
was a wee ten-year-old laddie. If this video is for you then keep watching,
and if you're interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history,
then hit the subscribe button at the bottom right and click the notification bell to make
sure that they tell you when I bring out new videos, in the meantime, let me tell you a story.
Boxing Day is normally pretty lazy and uneventful isn't it? Well let me take you back to 1251.
Scotland had only recently been formed, I mean it had been coming for a couple of hundred years,
but so had Christmas, well Christmas was here. In the 9th Century, Pictland and Dalriada had
come together after nearly buckling under the Viking threat and then a couple hundred years ago,
growing in confidence, Malcolm the Second, followed by his grandson, Malcolm Canmore had grabbed a slightly
insecure hold over the northern parts of what had been the Kingdoms of Strathclyde and Northumbria,
taking a fragile border down to a line between the Solway Firth in the west and the Tweed in
the east. Now later Malcolm Canmore's grandson, William the First had been forced to submit
Scotland to the King of England. That was 75 years ago now, but still an essential part of this story.
If you want more detail I'll leave a link at the end to the two videos
called 'The King who lost Scotland'. You should watch them, it'll help you to understand just how
significant the events that I'm going to relate today are. Anyway, Scotland was now out of the woods,
and they'd finally agreed a border in 1237 at The Treaty of York between Alexander the Second of Scotland
and Henry the Third of England. Thank goodness that that's sorted we'll never hear about that again will we?
They then arranged that Alexander's son and Henry's daughter would marry when they were both
old enough. Now the story that I'm going to tell you today is a story of the groom of that marriage.
So imagine that you're the 10 year old boy Alexander, the last three years you've been
Alexander the Third of Scotland, but let's face it, you're still a wee boy.
Your dad, Alexander the Second died when you were seven. It was on a trip to the Hebrides;
something about Norwegians and sovereignty, or I don't know, you were only seven.
Today is Boxing Day three years later, it's now time for that wedding, because at 10 years old
you've now come of age, apparently, 10, 10! I remember when I was 10 years old and the
shame and embarrassment of having to ask a girl at the other side of the gym hall for Scottish country
dancing, imagine if you had to marry her and not just in front of your classmates, all the gentry,
the nobility of the realm, the Bishops, the Barons and the dinner ladies. You're in another country,
everyone's looking at you. You're still in primary five and all the English kids have got beards.
The girl you're marrying's got a beard, she's only in primary six. Yesterday was already pretty stressful,
you'd been knighted in this big ceremony on Christmas Day by her dad,
then on Boxing Day you get married. Now I have no way of imagining what that must be like for a 10
year old kid; two traumatically stressful days in a row, but it's not over, you see in that Treaty of York,
you remember, the one where the borders between the two countries were agreed by your parents,
well there are some lands in England that belong to you, but well they don't actually belong to
you, well they do belong to you, but her dad gave them to you, so they're yours but they're really
your new wife's dads. It's all kind of adult stuff, but you've got to do this ceremony where you say to
him, that you'll look after the land, but it's his land really and you're just kind of looking after
it, or something like that. Anyway now there's all that to do and unless you get it right
you won't get to play with your Pokémon cards.
So there's another big ceremony and you have to walk towards the girl's dad,
you bow down and put your hands out like you were praying, he clasped his hands around yours, wow
they're big hands, you swear to become Henry's man for life, for your lands in England including
the liberty of Tyndale and Northumbria and the honour of Penrith in the south west and Cumberland.
Thank goodness that's over eh? You've never even been to the honour of Penrith, now Pokémon cards, but just as
you're about to retreat, the hands of this big man press your hands together tighter, so that you
can't move. Now young knight, you must also perform an act of homage for your Kingdom of Scotland.
You can acknowledge this by putting your hand on this book and swearing a solemn oath
that you will be faithful to your Lord the King of the English, to whom you owe allegiance
as your predecessors have done, as is plainly written in the chronicles in many parts. Can you
put yourself in the mind of a ten-year-old boy? Towering over you is the King of England, a King
not like you, but a man king. Before your mother, your dad had been married to this man's sister.
You feel a strength in those hands that you could never resist, your heart races your mind is numb,
this man had tried to impose these same demands on your dad, that's what led to this marriage
has he been planning for this since before you were born, how far back?
Is this all because your grandad William the First? What if you say no, what will he do?
Will there be a fight? Can you escape? What if you say yes? The King of England will own Scotland.
Your heart shudders, you take a breath and then you stand up and you say I've come here peacefully,
and for the honour of the King of England, and by his command that by a means of marriage tie
I may ally myself to him, I could not give him an answer on such a new and difficult question
for I've not held full deliberation in this matter with my nobles or taken proper counsel
as so difficult a question requires. Henry looks round, he's thinking, maybe thinking
his chance will come again, his daughter's wedding celebrations might not be the time,
and so you step back to your nobles. Scotland is yours, held from god with no Englishman in between.
Scotland is saved. Now I told my wife this tale and she said aye, but his advisors probably warned him that
something like that might happen. Yeah I'm sure they did, but when you were a 10 year old boy or
girl and somebody told you something really scary might happen, it didn't make it less intimidating,
it just meant you had more time to think about it. Young Alexander met the challenge and passed
the test. He went on to be a kind wise and noble King, whose reign brought peace and prosperity,
but 35 years later, after the girl that he married yesterday had died, one night on the way back to
his second wife, a fall from his horse meant that he too died suddenly and without heirs. Then there
was another less forgiving English King waiting in the wings with the same demand, Edward Longshanks,
but that's a story for another day. The link to the two video series telling the story of
Alexander's grandad, William the First, the King who lost Scotland is here. If you've enjoyed this
Christmas tale, then spread the word. Tha mi an dochas bum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.