William Fraser Bishop
of St. Andrews, Chancellor of Scotland
There was a time, when the
Frasers were new to the land, and one of their number rose to a
position of power never to be achieved by any Clan Fraser member ever
again. There was a time when the young son of a sheriff, through his
own natural abilities and an unbelievable set of circumstances,
became both spiritual and political leader of Scotland for nearly
seven years. There was a time, a remarkable time, the time of William
Fraser.
William was born the younger son
of Sir Gilbert Fraser, a direct ancestor of the family of Fraser of
Philorth (Lord Saltoun). Sir Gilbert was Sheriff of Traquair in 1233,
and later, in 1259, designated Sheriff of Peebles or
Tweeddale.
When Sir Gilbert died, about
1263, he left his wife Christian, and family of four sons: John,
Simon, Andrew and William. William was an intelligent and gifted
younger son with no hope of inheritance. Like many in his position, he
took holy orders. Here his gifts blossomed and he rose swiftly to the
highest levels of the Church. He became Dean of Glasgow, Chancellor
of Scotland (1274), and Bishop of St. Andrews (1279), the spiritual
head of the Church in Scotland. After the death of Scotland's last
Celtic King, Alexander III (1285-6), leaving a three year old
granddaughter as his only descendant, William was elected one of the
three Regents for the North, along with Duncan, Earl of Fife and
Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan. He was also one of the King's
executors. He would go on to become a counsellor of Sir William
Wallace, and one of the earliest defenders of the rights and
liberties the kingdom. Together with his co-regents, he virtually ran
the country for nearly seven years. Yet despite all of this he would
go on to become viewed by many as a betrayer of Scotland, a pawn of
King Edward and the merest footnote in Clan Fraser
History.
It happened this way. In 1286,
King Alexander III died while wildly riding through a terrible storm
to meet his new bride, Yolande de Dreux, near Kinghorn in Fife. For
many years, the country had been both prosperous and at peace under
Alexander's rule. However, both of the King's sons had suddenly
predeceased him and his daughter, the Queen of Norway, had died in
labour. He left no male heirs. Following his sudden and unexpected
death, shocked Scottish nobles gathered at Scone to elect six
Guardians who would act as a provisional government, The Community of
the Realm of Scotland. The Guardians were William Fraser Bishop of
St. Andrews; Duncan MacDuff, Earl of Fife; Alexander Comyn, Earl of
Buchan; Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow; James the High Stewart; and
John the Black, the Comyn Lord of Badenoch. Excluded from the
Guardians were the powerful Bruce Family, strong claimants to the
throne. The Guardians continued the work of the government of
Scotland in the name of Alexander's only surviving direct relative,
his three-year-old granddaughter, Margaret, the Maid of
Norway--Scotland's Queen-in-waiting.
In 1290, the Guardians signed the
Treaty of Bingham agreeing to the marriage of the Maid of Norway and
Edward of Caernarvon, the son of Edward I King of England, thus
creating a union between Scotland and England.The Scots insisted that
the Treaty declare that Scotland was separate and divided from
England and that its rights, laws, liberties and customs were wholly
and inviolably preserved for all time.
Then, in a further, unbelievable
tragedy, little Queen Margaret of Scotland traveling from Norway for
her arranged marriage with the even younger Edward, the Prince of
Wales, succumbed to an undiagnosed illness and on 26 September 1290
she too died, shortly after landing on Orkney. Her death threw the
succession to the Throne of Scotland into a crisis. The main
contenders for the Scottish Crown were John Balliol, John Hastings of
Abergavenny, Count Florence of Holland and Robert Bruce 'the
Competitor'. In total there were thirteen contenders, most willing to
use force to seize the Scottish Crown.The competition for the Crown
was known as the "Great Cause". It was also one of the greatest
crisis in the history of Scotland and one to which William and the
other Guardians had to find a solution.
Of the claimants to the crown of
Scotland, no less than six of them had been born illegitimately.
Though they had been sired by such men as William the Lion and
Alexander II, that they were bastards made their chances of ever
ascending the throne slim indeed.
Of the legitimate claimants, John
Comyn the Black, Lord of Badenoch had a claim of descent from Duncan
I, the King "murdered" by Macbeth in the Shakespearean play of the
same name (Shakespeare got almost the entire story wrong, but that is
a tale for another time). Two men, the Count of Holland and a Robert
Pinkey had claims based on descent from the two younger sisters of
Malcolm IV, William the Lion and David, Earl of Huntingdon. The Count
of Holland, at one point claimed that David, Earl of Huntingdon had
given up his rights to the throne in favour of his sister Ada, the
Count's mother. Had this been true, the Count's claim would have been
the strongest, but it was never proved and presently the Count gave
up his claim to the throne. That left three further claimants, all
descended from the daughters of David, Earl of Huntingdon. The two
strongest were John Balliol, whose grandmother was Margaret, David's
eldest daughter and Robert Bruce Lord of Annandale, the son of
David's second daughter Isabella. The rules of primogeniture showed
Balliol's claim to be the stronger but this mattered little to the
Bruce family and the stage seemed set for a destructive civil
war.
By now, only four of the six
surviving Guardians were ruling the country. Their spokesman, Bishop
William Fraser, intent on avoiding a terrible civil war, wrote a
famous and fateful letter to Edward I of England asking him to come
north and choose between the candidates, in order to avoid a
destructive civil war.The Bishop's letter hinted that Balliol might
be the better choice. Edward knew a golden opportunity when he saw
one and came North in the summer of 1291. But at Norham on Tweed he
asserted that he must be named the Paramount Lord of Scotland if his
choice between the claimants was to be legal.
Remains of St.
Andrews Cathedral
Through these troubling times,
Bishop Fraser also continued to perform his duties as Bishop of St.
Andrews where one of the great building projects in all of Scotland
was taking place, the centuries long construction of the Cathedral of
St. Andrews. Saint Andrew, of course, is the Patron Saint of
Scotland, and St. Andrew's Day is celebrated by Scots around the
world on the 30th November. The flag of Scotland is the Cross of St.
Andrew, and this is widely displayed as a symbol of national
identity. Tradition suggests that St. Andrew was put to death by the
Romans in Patras, Southern Greece by being pinned to a cross
(crucified). The diagonal shape of this cross is said to be the basis
for the Cross of St. Andrew which appears on the Scottish Flag.
St. Rule is said to have brought
relics of St. Andrew to Scotland, arriving at a Pictish settlement on
the East Coast of Scotland which later became St. Andrews. However,
it is more likely that Acca, the Bishop of Hexham, who was a renown
collector of relics, brought the relics of St. Andrew to St. Andrews
in 733. There certainly seems to have been a religious centre at St.
Andrews at that time, either founded by St. Rule in the 6th century
or by a Pictish King, Ungus, who reigned from 731 - 761. Whichever
tale is true, the relics were placed in a specially constructed
chapel. This chapel was replaced by the Cathedral of St. Andrews
whose construction was begun in 1160, and St. Andrews became the
religious capital of Scotland and a great centre for Medieval
pilgrims who came to view the relics.
In its first form The great
Cathedral of St. Andrews ran to over 320 ft in length and 168 feet
across its transepts. In time it was to exceed 391 ft in length
making it the longest church in Britain with the exception of
Norwich. Building started around 1160 and in 1230 the building was
usable as a Cathedral and priory church. By the episcopates of
Fraser's predecessor,Bishop William Wishart (1271 -79), the Cathedral
was well towards its completion. However, just as the west gable was
completed it was blown down in a storm. It was decided to rebuild the
new gable shorter and this allowed the addition of a porch at the
western end. Bishop Fraser's salary at that time was just in excess
of 8,000 pounds, double that of the Bishop of Glasgow.
Following Edward's declaration as
Lord Paramount of Scotland, Bishop William and the other three
Guardians of the Peace along with the leading nobility of Scotland
gathered, in Upsettlington, to swear an enforced allegiance to King
Edward I as their superior and direct lord of the Kingdom of
Scotland. All Scots were also required to pay homage to King Edward I
as their Lord Paramount, either in person or at one of the designated
centres in Ayr, Dumfries, Inverness and Perth by 27 July
1291. Beyond the wish to avoid a destructive civil war, a factor
that might have influenced the decision of the Nobels to accept
Edward as Lord Paramount was the fact that the majority of the
contenders had substantially larger, and wealthier, estates in
England than in Scotland and therefore would have lost their English
estates if they defied King Edward I. On 11 June 1291, King Edward I
ordered that on a "temporary basis" every Scottish Castle was to be
placed under his control and all Scottish officials replaced by
English ones.
Even then, the Nobles believed
that possession of the lands and castles of Scotland would be
transferred from Edward to the rightful king of Scotland, once the
choice had been made. Edward finally reduced the thirteen claimants
to three: John Balliol, Robert Bruce and John Hastings, all of whom
were descendants of the three daughters of David, Earl of Huntingdon.
In law, Robert Bruce's claim was solid because, although he was
descended from the second daughter, he was a generation nearer David
I (as his grandson). But it was John Balliol, descended from the
Earl's oldest daughter, who emerged as King of Scots when King Edward
I gave judgment, after months of deliberation, on 17 November 1292.
John Balliol was named as the new King of Scotland, its first Norman
ruler, and was enthroned at Scone on St Andrew's Day 1292.
By the laws of the time it was
probably the correct decision and though it brought Edward nearer his
goal of dominating Scotland there can be little denying the justice
of his choice. After Balliol was crowned at Scone as King John I, he
rode south to Newcastle and there knelt in submission to Edward.
Balliol was a weak man, alternatively timid or haughty and often
sick. He was the last kind of king Scotland needed and Edward treated
him with great contempt. Over the years, his reputation came to be
that of a "toom tahard", or "empty coat", there like a puppet to
dance to Edward's whims.
In 1294 Edward I declared war on
France and, as Lord Paramount, ordered Scotland to join him. In an
uncharacteristic display of courage, King John, under threat from his
enraged Scottish nobles, refused to fight the French on the side of
the English - and the Scots were soon joined in their revolt by the
Welsh. Scottish nobles met in Stirling to elect a 12-man council,
including Bishop Fraser, to help rule Scotland. Bishop Fraser took a
prominent part in asserting the independence of Scotland against the
violation of its rights and liberties by the English king, and was
one of the commissioners who was sent to conclude a treaty, offensive
and defensive, with Edward's enemy, Philip, King of France. This
Treaty is considered the beginning of Scotland's "Auld Alliance" with
the French.
In response, Edward came north
with his army, the most terrifying war machine of the age. First he
attacked Scotland's greatest seaport, Berwick-on-Tweed, ravaging the
town and putting its 17,000 residents to death.Edward caught up with
King John Balliol in Stracatho in Angus, where he humiliated him by
tossing the Scots crown to his soldiers to play with. Balliol was
taken captive and sent to England before being deported to his estate
in France. All of Scotland's Nobility were forced to come to the
demolished husk of Berwick and among the decay and ruin of that
savaged town, sign a document naming Edward as their
only true Lord. The
document came to be called the Ragman's Role, from which comes the
word "rigmarole". Edward even removed the "Stone of Destiny" on which
all Scottish Kings were crowned, taking it to England where it
resided for centuries under the Crowning Throne in Westminster Abbey.
There was no need of the Stone in Scotland because there was now no
King in Scotland save Edward. And his savage treatment of that poor
country earned him the name by which he is now known to history: The
Hammer of the Scots!
Having served his country through
one of the most difficult times in its history, Bishop Fraser died in
France in 1297. Despite his best efforts, his formerly peaceful and
prosperous nation lay in ruin and servitude. But under William's
Guardianship and the oppression of Edward, the Norman Lords had
discovered something of great importance, they were Normans no
longer. The land had claimed them and they were Scots.
From the desolation of the
country a hero would finally arise, Sir William Wallace, to inspire
the nation and reassert Scotland's Independence. The Cathedral of St.
Andrews was finally completed and consecrated in the presence of a
powerful new Scottish King, Robert the Bruce, on 5th July 1318, with
the King entering the Cathedral on horseback in triumph.
For more on Bishop Fraser and the events surrounding the "Great
Cause", you might enjoy the following:
Nigel Tranter, "The Story of Scotland"
John Prebble, "The Lion in the North"
Flora Marjory Fraser, "Clan Fraser"
http://www.baronage.co.uk/mfr_ba/frasersa.html
http://www.waichung.demon.co.uk/william/wallace.htm
http://www.scotsindependent.org/dates.htm
http://www.saint-andrews.co.uk/CC/History.htm
http://earthfriendarts.tripod.com/Balliol.htm
Here are more details about that fateful letter from William
Fraser, Bishop of St. Andrews, addressed to Edward I on October 7th,
reporting that, upon a "sorrowful rumour" of the death of the queen
reaching the people, the kingdom of Scotland had become disturbed.
Robert Bruce had come with a great following to Perth; the Earl of
Mar and Atholl were collecting their forces; parties were beginning
to form, and there was fear of general war which could be averted
only by Edward's good services. The letter continued: "If Sir John
Balliol should come to your presence we advise you to take care so to
treat with him that in any event your honour and your advantage may
be preserved"; and, if indeed the queen be dead, then let Edward come
to the border to console the people, to save the shedding of blood,
and to set up "for king the man who ought to have the succession,
provided he will follow your counsel."
From "A History of the House of Balliol"
http://earthfriendarts.tripod.com/Balliol.htm
Complete Text of Wiliam's Letter:
To the most excellent Prince and most revered Lord, Lord
Edward, by the grace of God most illustrious King of England, Lord of
Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine, his devoted chaplain, William, by
divine permission humble minister of the church of Saint Andrew in
Scotland, wisheth health and fortune prosperous to his wishes with
increase of glory and honour. As it was ordered lately in our
presence, your ambassadors and also some nobles of the kingdom of
Scotland met at Perth on the Sunday next after the feast of Saint
Michael the Archangel to hear your answer upon those things which
were asked and treated by the ambassadors of Scotland in your
presence. Which answer of yours being heard and understood the
faithful nobles and a certain part of the community of Scotland
returned infinite thanks to your Highness. And your aforesaid
ambassadors and we set set ourselves to hasten our steps towards the
parts of Orkney to confirm with the ambassadors of Norway for
receiving our Lady the Queen, and for this we had prepared our
journey. But there sounded through the people a sorrowful rumour that
our said Lady should be dead, on which account the kingdom of
Scotland is disturbed and the community distracted. And the rumour
being heard and published, Sir Robert de Brus, who before did not
intend to come to the foresaid meeting, came with a great following
to confir with some who were there. But what he intends to do or how
to act, as yet we know not. But the Earls of Mar and Atholl are
already collecting their army; and some other nobles of the land join
themselves to their party and on that account there is fear of a
general war and a great slaughter of men, unless the Highest, by
means of your industry and good service, apply a speedy remedy. My
lords the Bishop of Durham, Earl of Warenne and I heard afterwards
that our foresaid Lady recovered of her sickness, but she is still
weak and there fore we have agreed amongst ourselves to remain about
Perth, until we have certain news by the knights who are sent to
Orkney, what is the condition of our Lady--would that it be
prosperous and happy; and if we shall have accounts which we wish
concerning her and which we await from this day to day, we will be
ready to set forth for those parts, as is ordained, for carrying out
the business committed to us to the best of our power. If Sir John de
Balliol comes to your presence we advise you to take care so to treat
with him in any event your honour and advantage be preserved. If it
turn out that our forsaid Lady has departed this life (may it not be
so) let your excellency deign if you please to approach towards the
March, for consolation so that the faithful men of the kingdom may
keep their oath inviolate, and set over them for King him who of
right ought to have the succession, if so be that he will follow your
counsel. May your excellency have long life and health, prosperity
and happiness. Given at Leuchars on Saturday the morrow of Saint
Faith the Virgin, in the year of our Lord, 1290.
RETURN
TO FAMOUS FRASERS
