If I said I had a story of Highland rebellion, independence and civil war for the Scottish
and English crowns, you'd probably think I was talking about 18th Century Jacobites.
What if I wasn't? Let me tell you a story, as I take a hugely complicated period of history
and oversimplify it. Now the pedants and purists will complain that there's detail missing, but
in this short video, I want to boil a multifaceted conflict into four key characters, and a trip to a
ruined castle. The question is in weather like this with a ferry journey to take, will I make it?
Well question number one's answered isn't it? The weather conditions were way too difficult
and I ended up making a video about some Jacobite history at an Outlander film location just
a couple of miles from me. It's now a couple of weeks later and we're heading north
and west. Now the plan was to give you a beautiful view of Loch Tulla and the lovely
weather, fortunately I've got a picture taken here in the summer, as I tell you about John of Isla,
Chief of Clan Donald and Lord of the Isles. Now let's call the Lordship of the Isles a
semi-autonomous kingdom of the Hebridean Islands in the north western mainland of Scotland.
In Viking times, the Norse had taken over the Western Isles. Through the centuries the mixing
with original Gaelic population created the Gaul Gael, a blend of Celtic and Norse warrior class.
Needless to say, warlords had fought amongst themselves to gain control of this island kingdom,
then saw independence from their Orkney masters and held it directly from Norway itself. Now
Somerled was the most famous Lord of the Isles, but today we're dealing with his successor 300
years later, John of Isla, Lord of the Isles. By this time he came under the power of the King of Scots,
but John, and his Macdonald kinfolk, wouldn't have seen themselves as Scottish, neither would he have
seen the prevailing constitutional arrangement as being permanent, on the contrary. He was looking to
expand his power base at the expense of, and in defiance of the Stuart monarchs of Scotland. By
1461 he'd made forages east and south with varying degrees of success to Urquhart, Inverness and even
Ruthven Castles in the east, to the Isle of Bute and Ayrshire in the south. John had ambitions,
but the Stuart Kings had enough on their plate with the Douglases. Now the most famous of the
Douglases had been James Douglas, the right-hand man of Robert the Bruce way
back during the Scottish Wars of Independence. He was portrayed as the brave knight that was
a bit crazy during the film The Outlaw King. Now the James Douglas that we'll talk about today
was his descendant 140 years later. Douglases had been in and around the Scottish throne since their
illustrious ancestor Sir James. They'd grown to be a powerful family, in fact too powerful by far.
The current James was the ninth Earl of Douglas, his brother, the eighth Earl had married a cousin!
Unsavoury yes, but it did add the Lordships of Galloway and Bothwell to his land and titles.
Then he'd made a treaty with John, Lord of the Isles, remember the first guy, and another guy
that will leave until another day. If your head spontaneously explodes with unnecessary names
then you won't be able to like and share my video later, so let's focus. Now James the Second of Scotland looked
at this treaty between the most powerful family in the south and the Lord of the Isles in the
north, and he thought, huh cousin Marion might be unsavoury, but this is downright dangerous. So
King James invited him round to Stirling Castle for dinner, to suggest that he should dissolve his
throne threatening treaty. Now the Earl of Douglas, who demanded a Letter of Safety from James to go
to the dinner in the first place, felt safe enough to laugh it off and say 'no', that's how you end up with
26 stab wounds and your heid (head) stoved in and thrown out the windae (window). Bruce, do you really think foreigners
will know that that means stabbed, hit in the head and thrown out a window? It's my video, the precious.
The garden in Stirling Castle, where his body was thrown, still called the Douglas
Garden and you can visit it today if you go to Stirling Castle. Anyway when the multiple stabbing and heid stoving happened to his brother
James became the 9th Earl of Douglas. Now obviously in an attempt to keep land, and incest in the
family, he got dispensation from the Pope to marry his cousin, the dead brother's wife, because that had worked out really well before. Relations
between James Douglas and James the Second, somewhat frayed I'd say. Young Douglas attacked Stirling after
sending a loose horse careering through the streets with his brother's worthless Letter of Safe Passage
tied to its tail. Revenge you might say, James the Second called it rebellion.
Anyway by 1461, James Douglas was landless and living in exile in England.
Incidentally, if you enjoy my videos, then you can click the subscribe button at the bottom
right hand side of the screen at any time during the video, it's a wee red button and
ring the notification bell to make sure you're informed when I bring out new videos. Meanwhile
James Douglas is landless in exile in England, but James the Second is deid (dead), after
standing over-enthusiastically close to an exploding cannon. A wise philosopher once said
what goes around comes round, or is that a train driver in the Glasgow Underground? It matters not.
Right, the weather's not what the BBC fake news forecast promised nevertheless, the third character
in today's tale is James the Third of Scotland, and I could tell you about them quickly as we wait
for the Corran Ferry to take us across to Ardnamurchan Peninsula. Now his dad's mishap meant that
James was a child King. At the time of our story, James was 12 and the country was governed on his behalf
by a Regency. All you need to know about James the Third is that as Scottish King's go, he was famously
ineffective, irrationally fearful of his son plotting against him, and meticulously wary of
cannon, oh and he sided with the Lancastrians in the English War of the Roses. Now while we've got
a bit of time, I read about the War of the Roses in a book called Lancaster and York, the War of
the Roses by Allison Weir. Now in truth I didn't read it I listened to it using audible. Audible's a
brilliant audiobook service, I love using it when I'm travelling in the car, or going for a walk. You
can get that or any other audio book as part of a three, a free 30-day trial and if you like it
then you get an audio book every month and you can cancel at any time you want. I've had it for years.
I'll leave a link to the book that I mentioned in the description below, if you use that link to
click through and choose any audible book and sign up for a free trial, then you get a great service
and it helps the channel. I'll see you in Ardnamurchan. This brings us to our fourth character.
In my video 'How Scotland saved France from England', I explained how Scotland came to France's aid
during the Hundred Years War. As the Hundred Years War was coming at an end, and England's position
in France was collapsing, one of the consequences was economic and political instability in England
and these, along with a doolally monarch, were the root causes of England's War of the Roses.
This was a civil war between competing descendants of Edward the Third. He was the English King that started
the Hundred Years War and the Second War of Scottish Independence incidentally. Now
obviously I've got videos on the Second War of Independence and for Scotland's role in the Hundred
Years War, I'll leave a link at the end. Now I'm not about to analyse England's War of the Roses, all we
care about is this Scottish bit. All you need to know is that in 1461, the white rose Yorkist King
Edward the Fourth of England had ousted the red rose Lancastrian, doolally King, Henry the Sixth
of England. Now here in Scotland, James the Third gave Henry the Sixth and his wife hospitality, and they were
using it to destabilise the north of England. So we know that the Scots started the English civil war,
you might be asking does this mean that Scotland's support for the French in the Hundred Years War,
and then harbouring Henry the Sixth was what caused the War of the Roses as well? Tenuous Bruce,
more than tenuous, a huge leap of the imagination. If you answer yes, you
look daft, and you'll get pelters in the comments section. Aye we probably did. D'oh!
The point is that in the late 1450s there was internal strife in England, and a fight
for the throne between the house of York, and the house of Lancaster, more importantly there
was a three-way power struggle here in Scotland between the Stuart monarchy, the Black Douglases
and the Lord the Isles. See now you're starting to get aren't you? Do you want to pick a side?
Tell me which in the comment section below. Anyway all this is why I've brought you here to the ruins
of Ardtornish Castle here on the Morvern Peninsula. James Douglas came north here, sent by Edward the Fourth of
England with an offer to John, Lord of the Isles. John would strike the Stuart monarch, James the Third
from the north. Edward the Fourth would invade from the south, and with the King of Scots defeated, Douglas
would get his lands back in the south, John would take the north and both would be vassals of Edward,
and of course support him in campaigns across the Irish Sea. This was the basis of the Treaty
of Westminster Ardtornish, agreed here at Ardtornish Castle on the 13th of February 1462.
John of Isla did strike south, but no corresponding invasion came from Edward the Fourth of England and
the project ended in failure, well it ended in failure for Douglas and John, Lord of the Isles,
for Edward the Fourth, it turned out just dandy. James the Third was distracted with internal conflict and he
withdrew his support for Edward's competitor, Henry the Sixth, who Edward captured and put in the Tower of London,
but for the Lordship of the Isles, this was the beginning of the end.
James the Third grew to maturity, and he reasserted control. There was an internal strife amongst
the Macdonald's and their power started to wane. Other smaller clans grew in strength,
James the Third authorized the Campbells of Argyll to take on the Macdonald's of the isles. This
was the turning point that saw the rise of the Campbells and the end of the Lordship of the Isles.
James the Fourth would appoint himself as Lord of the Isles. His descendant James the Sixth would later
suppress Gaelic language and culture with the Statutes of Iona, but the slippery slope had begun.
At the start I said that you'd probably think this story was about 18th Century Jacobites. It's not
unreasonable to say that the coup de gras to the Highland way of life was administered with Culloden,
and clearance, when Highland clansmen supported the Stuart cause, but the first cut was made when John,
Lord of the Isles moved against a Stuart King with the signing the Treaty of Westminster Ardtornish
here in 1462. Now you can click on the link in the description below to find that free audible trial,
but I also promised videos about Scotland's role in the Hundred Years War and links are coming
up on the screen now. In the meantime tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.