Dance The Auld Alliance 289

The Auld Alliance began with the Treaty of 1295 between Scotland and France, a pact often invoked and as often ignored, whose intent was political and military, but whose impact was social and cultural.

The Scottish background for the Alliance was complicated to the point of being chaotic.

In 1290 Margaret, the “Maid of Norway”, grand-daughter of Alexander III, and child heiress to the Scottish crown, died in Orkney on her way to the rmother’s country. At once there rose up no less than thirteen eager claimants to the throne. One was Eric of Norway, Margaret’s father. Another was the Earl of Badenoch, John “the Black” Comyn, a descendent of Donald Bane, the brother of Malcolm Canmore. Six more had illegitimate antecedents. The other five were descendents of David, Earl of Huntingdon, younger brother of Malcolm the Maiden and William the Lion. Florence V, Count of Holland, was the great-grandson of Ada, the sister of Malcolm, William, and David, and Robert Pinkney was the great-grandson of their younger sister, Marjorie. John Balliol was the grandson of the earl’s eldest daughter, Margaret. Robert Bruce, grandfather of Robert I (The Bruce), was the son of the earl’s second daughter, Isabella. John Hastings was the grandson of the earl’s youngest daughter, another Ada. Fortunately, Alexander III’s two sons died before the scramble for the crown took place, for the field was already over-crowded. The barons and clergy who had the unhappy chore of sifting through the claims of various grandsons and great-grandsons were soon exhausted by the heated arguments and when faced with civil war between the Bruce faction and the supporters of Balliol, the Scottish Solomons came to the conclusion that an outsider ought to make the choice. So, Edward I of England was asked to settle the matter, an invitation that Edward was only too happy to accept. It was this same Edward who rode off to London with Scotland’s Stone of Destiny, the Stone of Scone, upon which Scottish kings were traditionally crowned and [which] now rests in Westminster Abbey under the coronation chair.

In a twinkling of the royal eye, Edward made himself overlord of the Scots and demanded fealty from the claimants. They bent the knee and Edward chose John Balliol. For three years “Toom Tabard” (Empty Coat) as he was called by the Scots was Edward’s man in Scotland. But, when Edward ordered John to raise both taxes and men for England’s fight against the French, the Scots had had enough. In 1295 John made a treaty with Philip IV and together Scotland and France faced England who wanted desperately to conquer both of them.

From 1295 until 1560 the allies often found each other rather tedious and strong epithets were hurled back and forth. By 1358 the French would have enjoyed joining England so that they might attack Scotland. On the other hand, the Scots had had it up to their bonnets with French ambitions and broken promises.

It was the Auld Alliance, coupled with the stubbornness of James IV and the pugnacity of Henry VII that brought about one of the two most crushing defeats in the history of Scotland. In 1513 Henry declared war against France and James, as France’s ancient ally, declared war on England. On 9 September James led the Scots over the Border into battle at Flodden Field. When the bitter fighting was over, king, earls, bishops, lords, barons, knights and Scottish soldiers, at least ten thousand men, lay dead upon the field.

I’ve heard the lilting at our yowe-milking,
  Lasses a-lilting before dawn o’ day;
But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning:
  “The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.”

At buchts, in the morning, nae blythe lads are scorning;
  The lasses are lonely, and dowie, and wae;
Nae daffin’, nae gabbin’, but sighing and sabbing:
  Ilka ane lifts her leglen, and hies her away.

In hairst, at the shearing, nae youths now are jeering.
  The bandsters are lyart, and runkled and grey;
At fair or at preaching, nae wooing, nae fleeching;
  The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.

At e’en in the gloaming, nae swankies are roaming,
  ‘Bout stacks with the lasses at bogle to play;
But ilk ane sits drearie, lamenting her dearie –
  The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.

Dule and wae for the order sent our lads to the Border!
  The English, for ance, by guile, wan the day;
The Flowers of the Forest, that foucht aye the foremost,
  The prime o’ our land, are cauld in the clay.

We’ll hear nae mair lilting at our yowe-milking,
  Women and bairns are heartless and wae;
Sighing and moaning on ilka grey loaning:
  “The Flowers of the Forest are a’ wede away.”
– Jane Elliot (1727–1805)

In 1527 the French signed a treaty with the English, short-lived and of purely Continental military expediency, but it was sufficient to make the Scottish weary of their ally. For well over two hundred and fifty years the Auld Alliance was an entente not always cordiale.

With the Reformation the religious issue complicated the military aspects of the alliance and at the Battle of Leith in the time of Marie de Guise, widow of James V and mother of Queen Mary, Protestants, both Scottish and English, were fighting the French-influenced Catholics. The gradual domination of Scotland by France came to an abrupt end on 6 July, 1560, with the Treaty of Leith (or Edinburgh) that followed the battle. This time the pact was between Scotland and England, both in fear of Roman Catholicism, and after that the native Protestants dominated the government of Scotland.

But the influence of France on the social and cultural life of Scotland continued long after the battles ended and the treaties were signed. There had been much intermarriage and France became the refuge for persecuted Catholics and hunted Jacobites. Culturally, France put her indelible stamp upon the fabric of Scottish life: in language, law, cooking, customs, art, architecture, music and, most especially, the dance.