ANDREW MORAY
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'Andrew Moray' (La: ''Andreas de Moravia''), (d. 1297), also known as 'Andrew de Moray' or 'Andrew of Moray', or simply 'Andrew Murray', was a key military and political leader in Scotland during the Scottish Wars of Independence, and was responsible for leading the rising in northern Scotland in the summer of 1297 against King Edward I of England's occupation, successfully regaining control of Scotland north of the River Forth for Scotland's king, King John. Moray subsequently merged his forces with those of William Wallace, and would jointly-lead the victorious Scottish army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, where he would be mortally wounded.
Andrew Moray was born into the powerful northern Scottish family, the Morays of Petty, late in the second half of the thirteenth-century.[1] This family, whose lands and centre of influence were principally located in the province of Moray in north-eastern Scotland, could trace their origins in the area to Freskin. Freskin, who is believed to possess Flemish origins, was granted lands in the troubled province of Moray during the twelfth-century reign of King David I of Scotland and subsequently built a motte and bailey castle at Duffus on the northern shore of Loch Spynie. Freskin, like the other Flemings and Anglo-Normans granted lands in the area at this time, was 'planted' in Moray to strengthen royal authority over this area, which consistently resisted the imposition of the rule of the kings of Scots.
Moray, like several outlying areas of the Scottish king's realm, had long struggled against being subsumed within the kingdom of Scotland, rebelling against Scottish royal rule on several occasions. The powerful province of Moray was especially problematic for the Mac Malcolm kings of Scots (whose dynasty sprung from King Malcolm III who reigned from 1058 to 1093) as it was also the enduring location of the powerbase of the Celtic royal line, whose last king had been the stepson of MacBeth, Lulach. The Moravian rebellion of 1130 against King David I was led by Mormaer Óengus of Moray, a nephew of Lulach. The defeat of Óengus's army at Stracathro resulted in the defeated earldom being taken into royal control, the title of earl of Moray being suppressed by the king. In the aftermath, many of the rebels were removed from their lands. Consequently, the subsequent Flemish and Anglo-Norman settlers occupied the same military, political and administrative rôle as the Old English along the Gaelic frontiers of Ireland; and like the Old English in Ireland time wore away any cultural and linguistic difference between them and the native peoples. Nevertheless, the province of Moray long remained restless. It was not until 1230, when the earl of Buchan, at the head of a Scottish royal army, provided by King Alexander II, finally pacified Moray. The final, and most brutal, action of the campaign against the old Celtic royal dynasty by the mac Malcolms was perpetrated against the infant child in whom the Moravian claim to the Scottish Crown resided: she was murdered by having her head smashed against Forfar market-cross. Only now did the province of Moray finally accept Scottish royal rule.
By the outbreak of the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the late thirteenth-century (popularly known as the Wars of Independence) the Moray family were well-established in northern and southern of Scotland. Andrew Moray was the son and heir of Sir Andrew Moray of Petty,[2] whose extensive lands across Moray were controlled from Avoch Castle in the Black Isle, overlooking the Moray Firth to the east of Inverness. Amongst Sir Andrew's estates were lands at Alturile, Arndilly, Avoch, Boharm, Botriphnie, Brachlie and Croy.[3] Landed wealth of this extent was unsurprisingly accompanied by a significant degree of political influence. Sir Andrew had acted as the king's chief law officer in northern Scotland (the Justiciar) and was also apparently co-opted as a Guardian of the Realm in the crisis following the premature death of King Alexander III.[4] Indeed, Sir Andrew's connexions went to the top of Scottish society. In the 1280s he married his second wife - Andrew's step-mother - Euphemia Comyn,[5] the sister of John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, nephew of King John Balliol and one of the most politically influential men in Scotland.
The influence of the Moray family was not merely confined to north-eastern Scotland. The Morays of Petty had connexions to the Douglases of Clydesdale. [6] In the south of the kingdom, Sir William Moray of Bothwell, Sir Andrew's brother, also held extensive lands in his own right in Lanarkshire. Sir William, who was known as ''le riche'' due to his extensive personal wealth, was in the late thirteenth-century constructing a castle at Bothwell overlooking the River Clyde. Its design was influenced by the very latest ideas in castle construction to be found in continental Europe, and was clearly intended as an unequivocal statement of his personal power and influence. Andrew Moray the younger was also his uncle's heir.[2]
In addition to widespread connexions in the secular world, the Moray family also possessed influence in the Scottish mediaeval church. A forebear of Andrew Moray, also named Andrew, had been bishop of Moray in the early thirteenth-century, and it was Bishop Andrew Moray who had been responsible for the transfer of the seat of the bishopric to Elgin in 1224 and the establishment of the fine Cathedral there. The present generation of Morays also had an active connexions with the church. One of Sir Andrew's brothers, David,[8] was currently a rector of Bothwell church. David de Moray would subsequently be consecrated in the summer of 1299 by Pope Boniface VIII as Bishop of Moray,[9] and as such would go on to be one of the most loyal and unwavering supporters of King Robert Bruce's kingship.
The late thirteenth-century marked a time of dramatic upheaval for Scotland. On 19th March 1286, the Scottish king, King Alexander III, died in a mysterious accident as he made his way home from Edinburgh to be with his young Flemish queen, Yolande, at Kinghorn, in Fife. Although the king had been married previously, his children from that marriage had all predeceased him. The Scottish Crown now passed to King Alexander's three-year-old granddaughter, Margaret, Maid of Norway. The child-queen was, however, destined never to be enthroned: she died during the sea-passage to her kingdom. Scotland now entered a period of uncertainty as the leading nobles vied for the Crown. In these uncertain times - the Bruces of Annandale already having tried to seize the Crown by means of an armed coup - the Scottish political community understandably turned for support to their nearest neighbour, and brother-in-law of their former king, King Edward I of England.
The influential English king would ultimately preside over a court which assessed the merits of the claims of the nobles who sought the vacant Crown. King Edward, through the military might of his English kingdom, possessed the power to ensure that his choice was respected. The most serious of the claims were put forward by John Balliol, the English lord of Galloway, and Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale and grandfather of the future king. King Edward's valuable assistance came, however, at a price: the claimants were required to acknowledge him as Overlord of Scotland. Eventually, after lengthy deliberations, which became known as 'The Great Cause', King Edward's court found in favour of John Balliol of Galloway, who became King John of Scotland.
The newly-enthroned king dutifully acknowledged King Edward as his feudal superior, and in so doing, sowed the seeds of his own demise. King Edward, keen to ensure that his status as overlord was not quietly ignored, interfered constantly in Scottish affairs, and by late 1295 King John had renounced his fealty to his English overlord and entered into a treaty with France. King Edward, who invariably sought to ensure that the rights of the English Crown were maintained and protected, was enraged by such an act of defiance and hostilities between the kingdoms of England and Scotland were inevitable.
By the spring of 1296 Scotland was at war with England. Andrew Moray, together with his father and uncle, joined the host assembled by King John for the impending conflict. The first act of war, however, was performed by the Scots. A small Scottish force, led by the earls of Atholl, Ross and Mar, and John Comyn the younger of Badenoch, entered the English county of Cumberland. They marched to Carlisle, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. The St. Edmundsbury Chronicle records that they destroyed 120 villages and townships in the course of this raid. When the raiders reached Carlisle they found that it was held against them by their compatriot, Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale, the son of the recently-deceased Bruce the Competitor. Bruce, mindful of his loyalty to King Edward, dutifully kept the gates of Carlisle firmly shut against the Scots and they were forced to depart.
King Edward I of England assembled a large army in the early spring of 1296 for the invasion of Scotland. He was able to depend on the support of a faction of Scottish lords. They came to him on the Anglo-Scottish border to pledge their loyalty. One such event took place on 25th March, 1296, when a number of them, including Robert Bruce of Annandale, and his son, Robert, the twenty-one-year-old earl of Carrick and the future Scottish king, came to King Edward and swore fealty to him. They solemnly pledged on “the Holy Gospels†that they would “be faithful and loyal ... to King Edward, King of Englandâ€.[10]
Scottish defiance of King Edward I would quickly be drawn to a close by his invasion of their kingdom. The English king's army initially headed to the prosperous Scottish port of Berwick, which lay on the Anglo-Scottish border. By 30th March, Edward's massive army was outside the port’s feeble defences. It fell quickly to him, with the king personally leading the assault against it. A bloody slaughter of the port's inhabitants ensued. The English Lanercost Chronicle, condemns the slaughter as a “crime†and recorded that fifteen-thousand “of both sexes perished, some by the sword, others by fire, in the space of a day and a halfâ€.[11] The king permitted the slaughter and rapine to continue for three barbarous days before he finally called an end to it.
The Scots had continued their policy of raiding the undefended counties of northern England. They crossed from Jedburgh and rampaged through Northumberland, burning homes and farms as they went, reaching as far south as Corbridge and Hexham. According to Pierre de Langtoft, an English chronicler:
Although the Scottish army was capable of raiding England, and destroying undefended villages, it did not prove quite so capable when faced by an English army. It had been many years since Scottish society had been mobilized for war, and at the Battle of Dunbar the Scottish feudal host was overwhelmed in matter of minutes by elements of King Edward's army led by John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. The author Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds records the death of eight-thousand Scots at Dunbar.
In the aftermath of the Scottish army's defeat, the kingdom of Scotland quickly capitulated to the victorious English king. No further meaningful resistance was offered to him. Edward I subsequently deposed King John at Montrose Castle. The symbols of kingship were stripped from the defeated king, including the ripping of the royal coat of arms from his surcoat, thereby earning him the enduring title 'Toom Tabard' (Empty Coat). King Edward, having dealt with his treasonous vassal, rode north from Montrose on a military march that took him all the way to Elgin, which he reached on 26 July, 1296. He remained in Elgin for a few days, taking the fealty of a number of Scots nobles, including Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow,[12] in the town's castle, before he turned south to return to England.
While King Edward enjoyed a relaxed march through the recently subdued realm, the Scots nobles captured at Dunbar were taken south in chains. The more important prisoners, such as Sir Andrew Moray of Petty, were taken to the Tower of London.[13] Andrew the younger, considered to be of much less significance, was imprisoned in Chester Castle,[13] the northernmost stronghold to which the Dunbar captives were taken; he would not, however, long remain a captive of the king of England.
The consequences of the Scots' defeat by King Edward, and their kingdom's subsequent absorption into his realm, were not long in being felt as the English King began to impose his will on Scotland. The victor of Dunbar, the earl of Surrey was put in charge of Scotland by King Edward.[15] English soldiers were soon to be found in Scottish castles and King Edward's tax collectors quickly followed in their wake. The latter, notorious for their personal corruption, also took the chance to exploit the Scots to enrich themselves. The Scots, who had been lightly taxed by their own kings, now faced an onerous tax burden in order to help fill the English king’s royal coffers. The king had appointed an efficient, if notoriously obnoxious, administrator, Sir Hugh de Cressingham, as Treasurer of Scotland. Cressingham, aided by his corrupt clerks, went about his task with energy, and by the end of May 1297, had dispatched £5,188 6s. 8d. to King Edward’s exchequer. [16] Cressingham's greed, however, was quickly creating a sense of discontent which would soon be exploited to the fullest by Moray and Wallace. In addition to placing a heavy tax burden on his new subjects, King Edward was also keen to find additional manpower to fill the armies that he was raising to fight in Flanders and he began to put in place plans to conscript Scots, including the nobility of the defeated realm.[17] News of this decision caused widespread alarm in Scotland. A combination of all of these factors meant Scotland quickly grew increasingly restless and resentful under English rule, and the flames of rebellion were soon spreading across the land.
While the Scottish people were suffering the pain of Engish occupation, Andrew Moray was dealing with the humiliation of imprisonment. He was, however, far too determined to be long held in Chester Castle, and sometime in the winter of 1296-97, he escaped from his place of imprisonment. Eventually he returned to his father's lands in north-eastern Scotland, though it is not known how or by what means he effected his escape or whether he was aided in it. Although there is no way of knowing how the trauma of defeat in battle at Dunbar and imprisonment in Chester Castle affected Andrew Moray, it is clear that the man who returned to Scotland in the spring of 1297 was a ruthless and determined leader of men who was about to send shockwaves through Plantagenet-controlled Scotland.
Andrew Moray was back at Avoch castle by May 1297, one of the most significant months in Scottish history. "In the month of May of the same year", the Hemingsburgh Chronicle notes, "the perfidious race of Scots began to rebel." This first act of this rebellion was marked by two events: Andrew Moray proclaimed his defiance of English rule by openly unfurling the banner of the Morays of Petty at his father's castle at Avoch; and William Wallace marked the start of his rebellion against English rule with the murder of the English Sheriff of Lanark.
News of Moray's return to Avoch quickly drew supporters to him. It is clear that it acted as an inspiration to all those people who chafed under English rule, such was the speed with which they rose to join him. Although Sir Andrew was still in prison in the Tower of London - where it appears he would die as King Edward's prisoner - many of his tenants willingly joined his son in arms. Andrew the younger was also joined Alexander Pilchie, a burgess from Inverness, and other burgesses from the town. English soldiers and administrators stationed in Inverness and the surrounding area must have been deeply shocked by news of this putative rebellion against their authority, fearing what the consequences of it would be for them. Sir William fitz Warin, the English constable of Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness, later wrote to King Edward in July 1297 that "''Some evil disposed people have joined Andrew de Moravia at the castle of'' [Avoch]'' in Ross''."
Andrew Moray and the "''evil disposed people''" that surrounded him would soon possess sufficient strength to begin a serious campaign and would quickly show just how much destruction they could wreak.
The kingdom of Scotland, regardless of the ease of King Edward's conquest of the previous year, lay restless under the burden of English rule. In the spring and early summer of 1297, the realm was scarred by scattered outbreaks of violence against the English occupiers and their loyal Scots allies. A number of outbreaks of discontent were so serious that the English officials on the ground sought the assistance of their king. The provinces of Argyll and Ross were both riven by violence in the early months of 1297. While on the western coast, Lachlan and Ruarie MacRuarie of Garmoran were in open rebellion against English authority, killing the king's officials and destroying royal property.[18] The violence was not limited to northen Scotland. Rebellion gripped Galloway in south-western Scotland in April 1297, with the rebels successfully seizing castles held by the English king's men.[19] There was also trouble in Fife, where MacDuff of Fife and his sons were in open rebellion against English rule.[20]. No doubt there were many other acts of rebellion which have been lost to us by the passage of time.
News of these acts of defiance began to filter into the English Court in the early spring of 1297. They resulting in a firm and uncompromising response from the king, who order the men on the ground to deal firmly with the rebels. Early in April 1297, the king ordered his loyal supporters in Argyll and Ross to assist “his chosen and faithful subject Alexander of the Isles†to suppress the rebellion there.[21] The rebellion in Galloway was suppressed by Donald mac Can and other loyal chieftains. King Edward wrote to them on 13th June to thank them for their grisly work.[22] The English Sheriff of Aberdeen, Sir Henry de Latham, received orders, dated 11th June, to deal with rebels in the north-east.[23] In addition to the actions of the men on the ground, the king also appears to have considered the situation to be so serious at this time that he also dispatched men from England to help in the suppression of the rebels. On 4th June, King Edward sent Henry Percy and Walter Clifford to assist in mopping up the rebels in Scotland.[24] It was into this charged environment of violence and unrest that Andrew Moray stepped in May 1297.
Andrew Moray did not take long to plunge the province of Moray into a state of rebellion against the rule of King Edward's Anglo-Scots supporters. At this time, King Edward's principal adherent in Moray was Sir Reginald Cheyne, the Scots sheriff of Elgin. A number of Scots lords continued to actively support King Edward's rule of Scotland in the months following his conquest of the realm. Although their loyalty appeared to ensure the Plantagenet England could rule Scotland without utilising massive numbers of soldiers and administrators to install a completely alien regime, their ultimate loyalty was frequently questioned by English officials and chroniclers. Cheyne was quickly alarmed by the chaos caused by Andrew Moray's rebellion and wrote to King Edward requesting assistance. The king responded by instructing him to vigorously suppress the rebellion.[25] In response to the crisis that appeared to be engulfing the province of Moray, Sir Reginald ordered all of his principal lieutenants to attend a meeting at Inverness Castle on 25th May 1297 to discuss the best way to deal with Andrew Moray and his band of rebels. One of the participants was Sir William fitz Warin, constable of Urquhart Castle standing on the western shore of Loch Ness.[26]
Once the meeting ended, Sir William fitz Warin made his way back to Urquhart Castle accompanied an escort of mail-clad men-at-arms. A few miles to the south of Inverness, Sir William and his men were ambushed by Andrew Moray, and were fortunate to escape with their lives to the safety of the loch-side stronghold. Next day, Sir William fitz Warin awoke to find that Andrew Moray and his men were besieging his castle. Later that morning, Moray sent a messenger to demand the castle's surrender; it was refused. At this point, the Countess of Ross unexpectedly arrived on the scene with an armed retinue. The countess, whose husband was currently held in the Tower of London,[13] sent a messenger to Sir William saying that she had nothing to do with the ambush and, expressing her sympathies for his predicament, advised him that it would be best to surrender. Although his advice was ignored, the supplies that she managed to get into the castle were welcomed warmly, and her actions were later warmly commended to King Edward by Sir William. In the end Moray, with no heavy siege equipment available to him, was forced to abandon the attempt on Urquhart after a failed night attack, leaving Sir William fitz Warin in possession of the castle to lick his wounds and send an account of this brief mê?le to his king.[26]
Although Andrew Moray had been thwarted by the stout walls of Urquhart Castle, his campaign against English rule continued. He continued to draw new supporters to his banner and castles increasingly fell to him. Eventually even Urquhart would fall to him. One of his continued targets in this campaign was Sir Reginald Cheyne, whose lands were wasted, goods despoiled, castle burned and was eventually taken prisoner. It was subsequently reported to King Edward that Andrew Moray and "''a very large body of rogues swept through the province of Moray towards the Spey, destroying the lands of Duffus, laid waste and captured the castle''."[29]
King Edward I of England, whose attention was primarily fixed on final preparations for his impending campaign in Flanders, sought to deal with the threat to his rule posed by Andrew Moray by making use of loyal Scots nobles who had recently been released from his prisons to serve in Flanders. The king, in response to Sir William fitz Warin's description of the daring assault on his castle, issued orders, dated 11th June, 1297, to a number of Scots lords to raise their retinues and march into the province of Moray to restore royal authority in that province. Among those instructed to assist fitz Warin were Henry Cheyne, Bishop of Aberdeen, Sir Gartnait of Mar, heir to the earldom of Mar and whose father was currently held by King Edward in the Tower of London,[13] and John Comyn, Earl of Buchan and Constable of Scotland, kinsman and namesake of the Lord of Badenoch, together with his brother, Alexander. The role of the Comyn brothers, who were kinsmen of Andrew Moray, in dealing with the rebellion was highlighted by the king, who instructed them to remain in the north-east until every aspect of it had been stamped out.
The relief column, which was lead by men whose loyalty to the King of England varied, appears to have departed from the north-eastern port of Aberdeen sometime in early July 1297. When Andrew Moray learned of its advance against him, he marched east to confront it. The two forces met on the banks of the Spey at Enzie, where the road from Aberdeen to Inverness forded the waters of the River Spey, the eastern edge of the province of Moray.[31]
No detailed account of what happened when the two forces met has survived, but it appears that what did occur essentially replayed the earlier dance with the Countess of Ross. It appears, from the content of an extremely ambiguous account of events subsequently sent to King Edward by Bishop Cheyne from Inverness on 25th August,[32] that after some discussion, Moray and his rebel-army withdrew into "''very great stronghold of bog and wood"'' where'' “no horseman could be of service''â€. This was a highly uninventive explanation when one considers the Comyn family pacified the province of Moray for the Scottish king early in the thirteenth-century. It appears more likely that neither side wished to fight and they simply went their separate ways.
But if Bishop Cheyne thought he would be able to save face with this letter, he had failed to reckon with Hugh de Cressingham, the English Treasurer of Scotland, who was clearly the most energetic of King Edward's administrators. Cressingham, having seen this letter which was carried to the royal court by Sir Andrew de Rait, wrote to King Edward on 5th August: “''Sire, the peace on the other side of the Scottish Sea [Firth of Forth] is still in obscurity, as it is said, as to the doings of the earls who are there''.†It is clear that he did not believe that the Scots nobles tasked with dealing with Moray had done their duty to the king and he was especially dismissive of the account of confrontation at the Spey carried by Rait: “''Sir Andrew de Rait is going to you with a credence, which he has shown to me, and which is false in many points ... you will give little weight to it''.â€[33] It seems clear that Cressingham had recognised the obvious double-game that many of the Scots nobles were clearly playing with King Edward.
While Andrew Moray seized control of northern Scotland and William Wallace rampaged through west-central Scotland, a rising led by Scotland's traditional leaders was also taking place in the south of the realm. Amongst its leaders were James, the High Steward of Scotland, and Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow. But in contrast with the vigour and aggression which characterised the risings of Moray and Wallace, this rising was feeble and it quickly collapsed, surrendering at Irvine in July when an English army arrived in its vicinity
King Edward, having apparently failed to deal with Moray by force of arms, was apparently prepared to resort to some more subtle methods as a means to deal him. The English king proposed to release Sir Andrew Moray from imprisonment in the Tower to serve in Flanders, if his son was prepared to come to London to take his father's place as a hostage. A safe-conduct allowing Andrew the younger to come to England was issued under the king's seal on 28 August 1297.[34] There is no way of knowing whether the letter and the accompanying safe-conduct ever reached Andrew Moray but, if it did, it was ignored and Sir Andrew was forced to remain in the Tower.
By the late summer of 1297, King Edward possessed little, if any, authority over much of Scotland. The reality of the breakdown in royal control was described in a letter to the king by Hugh Cressingham :[35]
Of the castles situated north of the River Forth, only the castle of the port of Dundee was still in English hands. The only means by which this situation could be reversed was by a full-scale armed invasion of Scotland to defeat the rebels and to reimpose King Edward’s authority over it. For Moray and Wallace to have any hope of meeting that threat, they had to combine their individual forces into a single army. It is not known exactly when and where the two rebel commanders met, but it is possible that it was in the vicinity of Dundee castle, which was besieged by the Scots in early September 1297.
King Edward's lieutenant in Scotland, the earl of Surrey, finally appears to have recognised the need to take decisive action late in the summer of 1297. He had done little to act against the rebels and subsequently vilified by chroniclers for his indolence. One English chronicler,
Walter of Guisborough, said of Surrey:
Surrey's conduct of the ensuing battle, which was characterised by an arrogant and unimaginative adherence to the chivalric conventions of the day was inept and he was easily outmanoeuvered and outfought by Moray and Wallace. He sent the vanguard of his army across the narrow bridge under the Scots’ gaze, who, rather than wait myopically for the entire English army to cross the bridge and deploy for battle, struck when it was only partially deployed. In the ensuing carnage of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Surrey's isolated vanguard was hacked to pieces. The remainder of the English army was isolated on the southern bank of the River Forth and could only look on as their comrades were killed. Soon they began to flee the battlefield, led in their flight by Surrey, whose “''charger never once tasted food during the whole journey''†according to Walter of Guisborough.
The defeat of Surrey’s army at Battle of Stirling Bridge on 11th September 1297 represented the crowning moment of Andrew Moray’s rebellion against English rule. The most notable English casualty was Cressingham, whose corpse was apparently mutilated by the victorious Scots. The Lanercost Chronicle records that Wallace had “''a broad strip [of Cressingham’s skin] ... taken from the head to the heel, to make therewith a baldrick for his sword''†.[36] It is estimated that Surrey lost one hundred knights and five-thousand infantry men in the slaughter at Stirling. The Scottish casualties went largely unrecorded as the Scottish army was largely made up of humble infantry soldiers. The Scots did, however, sustain one irreplaceable loss: Andrew Moray.
It is widely believed that Andrew Moray was only wounded in fighting at Stirling, only dying sometime in the winter of 1297-98 of the wounds that he sustained in the fighting. There is, however, evidence that he was actually killed in the fighting or, at the very least, died very soon after it had ended.
An inquisition into the affairs of Sir William Moray of Bothwell, Moray’s uncle, held at Berwick in late November 1300, that Andrew Moray was "''slain at Stirling against the king''."[2] In contrast to this firm piece of evidence regarding the fate of Andrew Moray, the evidence - by implication only - that he survived into the winter of 1297-98 can be found in the form of two letters The first was sent from Haddington on 11 October to the mayors of Lübeck and Hamburg, two of the towns of the Hanseatic League, by "''Andrew de Moray and William Wallace, leaders of the kingdom of Scotland and the community of the realm''." [38] The second letter was issued to the prior of Hexham on 7 November by "''Andrew de Moray and William Wallace, the leaders of the army and of the realm of Scotland''."[39] Since the name of Andrew Moray does not appear on any other document after this date, it is deduced that he must have succumbed to his wounds around this time. However, no English source states that Moray was at Hexham during the Scottish invasion of northern England at which time this latter letter was issued. It is clear, therefore, that Wallace must have had possession of Andrew's Moray's seal, thereby allowing him to issue documents bearing his dead comrade's name.
It seems clear that, although Moray had died in the fighting at Stirling Bridge, William Wallace seemed to feel the need to continue to issue documents jointly in the name of his deceased co-commander. It was only after he gained a knighthood and the office of Guardian of the Realm that he became sufficiently sure of his position of personal authority to issue documents in his own name. The death of Andrew Moray had not only robbed Wallace of a comrade but also of a shield against the jealousies of the traditional elites. Moray, it is argued, was himself a noble with all of the right connections; without him, Wallace, the former outlaw, was dangerously exposed, as much at risk from the political intrigues of his fellow Scots nobles who felt that they possessed the right to exercise power as from military reprisals by the English. The continuing association with Andrew added a measure of political gravitas to his position and office. Once Wallace emerged as Guardian of Scotland, as he did some time prior to March 1298, it was no longer necessary to issue letters in joint names.[40]
The death of Andrew Moray robbed Scotland of a great soldier and political leader. It is likely that the training that Moray had received in his youth which had been intended to equip him to play a leading rôle in commanding the feudal host of the Scottish kingdom had allowed him direct the Scottish army at Stirling to a famous victory. It is perhaps notable that when Wallace faced the King Edward in alone a year later at the Battle of Falkirk in the summer of 1298 he was soundly defeated by him. There is, however, no doubt that had Andrew Moray lived, his contribution to the campaign of 1297 was so great that it is inevitable that he, too, would have been knighted and also appointed Guardian.
The name of Andrew Moray did not, however, disappear from the pages of history following his death. A few months after his death, his widow bore him a son, also named Andrew.[2] The child would also play a decisive rôle in resisting English attempts to control Scotland, twice occupy the position of regent and would show a remarkably similar aptitude to that shown by his father for leading the armies of the kingdom of Scotland in the face of English aggression.
Andrew Moray’s achievement in one summer was immense. He single-handedly masterminded a campaign to clear northern Scotland of English soldiers and administrators. The list of castles that he captured is immense. He also was the joint-commander, and perhaps the tactical mastermind, of the Scottish army which achieved a spectacular victory at Stirling Bridge on 11th September 1297. Yet a combination of his early death in battle and his association with William Wallace, whose Blind Hary-inflated reputation has smothered the name all of those associates with him, has meant that the name of Andrew Moray is largely unknown in Scotland today. It is hardly a fitting fate for such a heroic Scottish patriot.
==Note on the etymology of the name ''Murray''==
''Murray'' is a common variation of the word ''Moray'', an anglicisation of the Medieval Gaelic word ''Muireb'' (or ''Moreb''); the ''b'' here was pronounced as ''v'', hence the Latinization to ''Moravia''. These names denote the district on the south shore of the Moray Firth. ''Murray'' is actually a direct transliteration of how Scottish people pronounce the word ''Moray''.
''Murray'' is no longer used for the geographical area, but it became the commonest form of the surname, especially among Scottish emigrants, to the extent that the surname ''Murray'' is now much more common than the original surname ''Moray''.
1. Andrew Fisher, ‘Murray, Andrew (d. 1297)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 2 Aug 2007
2. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.1178, p.300
3. Barron, Scottish Wars of Independence, pp. 33 & 204
4. Barrow, Robert Bruce, p.27
5. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.307, p.84
6. Barrow, Robert Bruce, p.83.
7. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.1178, p.300
8. Barron, Scottish Wars of Independence, p.205
9. Barrow, Robert Bruce, p.116
10. Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, no.22, pp.137-9.
11. Chronicle of Lanercost, ed.H.Maxwell, vol.1, p.135.
12. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.789, p.182.
13. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.742, pp.176-8.
14. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.742, pp.176-8.
15. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.871, p.229.
16. Prestwich, Edward I, p.476.
17. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCXXIX, pp.167-9.
18. Watson, Under the Hammer, pp.42-3.
19. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.894, p.234.
20. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLXXII, p.217.
21. Barron, Scottish War of Independence, pp.19-20.
22. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCXXXVII, p.177.
23. Barron, Scottish War of Independence, p.60.
24. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCXXXI, pp.170-3.
25. Barron, Scottish War of Independence, p.35 & p.42.
26. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.922, p.239.
27. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.742, pp.176-8.
28. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.922, p.239.
29. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLVII, p.212.
30. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.742, pp.176-8.
31. Barron, Scottish War of Independence, p.50.
32. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLVII, pp.211-3..
33. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLXVII, pp.225-7.
34. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLXVIII, pp.227-8.
35. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLV, p.207.
36. Chronicle of Lanercost, ed.H.Maxwell, vol.1, p.164.
37. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.1178, p.300
38. Source Book of Scottish History, eds.W.C.Dickinson, G.Donaldson & I.A.Milne,. vol.1, pp.136-7
39. Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, no.26(a), p.155.
40. Taylor, ‘History Scotland’ - Fighting for the Lion. September 2005.
41. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.1178, p.300
★ Barron, E. M., "The Scottish War of Independence", Second Edition. 1934.
★ Barrow, G.W.S. "Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm", Second Edition, 1988.
★ "Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland", ed. J. Bain, 1887.
★ “A Source Book of Scottish History.†Three Volumes. Second Edition, eds. W. C. Dickson, G. Donaldson and I. A. Milne, 1958.
★ "Documents Illustrative of Scotland 1286-1306," ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, 2 vols.1870.
★ "Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae", ed T. Rymer, 1816.
★ Prestwich, M., "Edward I", 1990
★ "The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough", ed. H. Rothwell, 1957.
★ Anglo-Scottish Relations 1174-1328: Some Selected Documents, ed. E. L. G Stones, 1970.
★ Taylor, J. G., "Fighting for the Lion: The Life of Andrew Moray", in History Scotland, Sept/October, 2005.
★ Watson F. J., "Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland 1286-1306", 1998.
★ The First War of Scottish Independence (1296-1306)
★ Clan Murray
★ History of Scotland
★ Timeline of Scottish history
★ Kildrummy Castle
★ Bothwell
★ Braveheart
★ John of Scotland
| Contents |
| De Moravia |
| A Kingdom in Turmoil |
| Scotland at War |
| Rebel and Warchief |
| Castle Urquhart attacked |
| King Edward reacts |
| The Battle of Stirling Bridge |
| Andrew Moray's death |
| Notes |
| References |
| See also |
De Moravia
Duffus Castle in Moray
Andrew Moray was born into the powerful northern Scottish family, the Morays of Petty, late in the second half of the thirteenth-century.[1] This family, whose lands and centre of influence were principally located in the province of Moray in north-eastern Scotland, could trace their origins in the area to Freskin. Freskin, who is believed to possess Flemish origins, was granted lands in the troubled province of Moray during the twelfth-century reign of King David I of Scotland and subsequently built a motte and bailey castle at Duffus on the northern shore of Loch Spynie. Freskin, like the other Flemings and Anglo-Normans granted lands in the area at this time, was 'planted' in Moray to strengthen royal authority over this area, which consistently resisted the imposition of the rule of the kings of Scots.
Moray, like several outlying areas of the Scottish king's realm, had long struggled against being subsumed within the kingdom of Scotland, rebelling against Scottish royal rule on several occasions. The powerful province of Moray was especially problematic for the Mac Malcolm kings of Scots (whose dynasty sprung from King Malcolm III who reigned from 1058 to 1093) as it was also the enduring location of the powerbase of the Celtic royal line, whose last king had been the stepson of MacBeth, Lulach. The Moravian rebellion of 1130 against King David I was led by Mormaer Óengus of Moray, a nephew of Lulach. The defeat of Óengus's army at Stracathro resulted in the defeated earldom being taken into royal control, the title of earl of Moray being suppressed by the king. In the aftermath, many of the rebels were removed from their lands. Consequently, the subsequent Flemish and Anglo-Norman settlers occupied the same military, political and administrative rôle as the Old English along the Gaelic frontiers of Ireland; and like the Old English in Ireland time wore away any cultural and linguistic difference between them and the native peoples. Nevertheless, the province of Moray long remained restless. It was not until 1230, when the earl of Buchan, at the head of a Scottish royal army, provided by King Alexander II, finally pacified Moray. The final, and most brutal, action of the campaign against the old Celtic royal dynasty by the mac Malcolms was perpetrated against the infant child in whom the Moravian claim to the Scottish Crown resided: she was murdered by having her head smashed against Forfar market-cross. Only now did the province of Moray finally accept Scottish royal rule.
By the outbreak of the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the late thirteenth-century (popularly known as the Wars of Independence) the Moray family were well-established in northern and southern of Scotland. Andrew Moray was the son and heir of Sir Andrew Moray of Petty,[2] whose extensive lands across Moray were controlled from Avoch Castle in the Black Isle, overlooking the Moray Firth to the east of Inverness. Amongst Sir Andrew's estates were lands at Alturile, Arndilly, Avoch, Boharm, Botriphnie, Brachlie and Croy.[3] Landed wealth of this extent was unsurprisingly accompanied by a significant degree of political influence. Sir Andrew had acted as the king's chief law officer in northern Scotland (the Justiciar) and was also apparently co-opted as a Guardian of the Realm in the crisis following the premature death of King Alexander III.[4] Indeed, Sir Andrew's connexions went to the top of Scottish society. In the 1280s he married his second wife - Andrew's step-mother - Euphemia Comyn,[5] the sister of John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, nephew of King John Balliol and one of the most politically influential men in Scotland.
The influence of the Moray family was not merely confined to north-eastern Scotland. The Morays of Petty had connexions to the Douglases of Clydesdale. [6] In the south of the kingdom, Sir William Moray of Bothwell, Sir Andrew's brother, also held extensive lands in his own right in Lanarkshire. Sir William, who was known as ''le riche'' due to his extensive personal wealth, was in the late thirteenth-century constructing a castle at Bothwell overlooking the River Clyde. Its design was influenced by the very latest ideas in castle construction to be found in continental Europe, and was clearly intended as an unequivocal statement of his personal power and influence. Andrew Moray the younger was also his uncle's heir.[2]
In addition to widespread connexions in the secular world, the Moray family also possessed influence in the Scottish mediaeval church. A forebear of Andrew Moray, also named Andrew, had been bishop of Moray in the early thirteenth-century, and it was Bishop Andrew Moray who had been responsible for the transfer of the seat of the bishopric to Elgin in 1224 and the establishment of the fine Cathedral there. The present generation of Morays also had an active connexions with the church. One of Sir Andrew's brothers, David,[8] was currently a rector of Bothwell church. David de Moray would subsequently be consecrated in the summer of 1299 by Pope Boniface VIII as Bishop of Moray,[9] and as such would go on to be one of the most loyal and unwavering supporters of King Robert Bruce's kingship.
A Kingdom in Turmoil
The late thirteenth-century marked a time of dramatic upheaval for Scotland. On 19th March 1286, the Scottish king, King Alexander III, died in a mysterious accident as he made his way home from Edinburgh to be with his young Flemish queen, Yolande, at Kinghorn, in Fife. Although the king had been married previously, his children from that marriage had all predeceased him. The Scottish Crown now passed to King Alexander's three-year-old granddaughter, Margaret, Maid of Norway. The child-queen was, however, destined never to be enthroned: she died during the sea-passage to her kingdom. Scotland now entered a period of uncertainty as the leading nobles vied for the Crown. In these uncertain times - the Bruces of Annandale already having tried to seize the Crown by means of an armed coup - the Scottish political community understandably turned for support to their nearest neighbour, and brother-in-law of their former king, King Edward I of England.
The influential English king would ultimately preside over a court which assessed the merits of the claims of the nobles who sought the vacant Crown. King Edward, through the military might of his English kingdom, possessed the power to ensure that his choice was respected. The most serious of the claims were put forward by John Balliol, the English lord of Galloway, and Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale and grandfather of the future king. King Edward's valuable assistance came, however, at a price: the claimants were required to acknowledge him as Overlord of Scotland. Eventually, after lengthy deliberations, which became known as 'The Great Cause', King Edward's court found in favour of John Balliol of Galloway, who became King John of Scotland.
The newly-enthroned king dutifully acknowledged King Edward as his feudal superior, and in so doing, sowed the seeds of his own demise. King Edward, keen to ensure that his status as overlord was not quietly ignored, interfered constantly in Scottish affairs, and by late 1295 King John had renounced his fealty to his English overlord and entered into a treaty with France. King Edward, who invariably sought to ensure that the rights of the English Crown were maintained and protected, was enraged by such an act of defiance and hostilities between the kingdoms of England and Scotland were inevitable.
Scotland at War
King Edward I of England
By the spring of 1296 Scotland was at war with England. Andrew Moray, together with his father and uncle, joined the host assembled by King John for the impending conflict. The first act of war, however, was performed by the Scots. A small Scottish force, led by the earls of Atholl, Ross and Mar, and John Comyn the younger of Badenoch, entered the English county of Cumberland. They marched to Carlisle, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. The St. Edmundsbury Chronicle records that they destroyed 120 villages and townships in the course of this raid. When the raiders reached Carlisle they found that it was held against them by their compatriot, Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale, the son of the recently-deceased Bruce the Competitor. Bruce, mindful of his loyalty to King Edward, dutifully kept the gates of Carlisle firmly shut against the Scots and they were forced to depart.
King Edward I of England assembled a large army in the early spring of 1296 for the invasion of Scotland. He was able to depend on the support of a faction of Scottish lords. They came to him on the Anglo-Scottish border to pledge their loyalty. One such event took place on 25th March, 1296, when a number of them, including Robert Bruce of Annandale, and his son, Robert, the twenty-one-year-old earl of Carrick and the future Scottish king, came to King Edward and swore fealty to him. They solemnly pledged on “the Holy Gospels†that they would “be faithful and loyal ... to King Edward, King of Englandâ€.[10]
Scottish defiance of King Edward I would quickly be drawn to a close by his invasion of their kingdom. The English king's army initially headed to the prosperous Scottish port of Berwick, which lay on the Anglo-Scottish border. By 30th March, Edward's massive army was outside the port’s feeble defences. It fell quickly to him, with the king personally leading the assault against it. A bloody slaughter of the port's inhabitants ensued. The English Lanercost Chronicle, condemns the slaughter as a “crime†and recorded that fifteen-thousand “of both sexes perished, some by the sword, others by fire, in the space of a day and a halfâ€.[11] The king permitted the slaughter and rapine to continue for three barbarous days before he finally called an end to it.
The Scots had continued their policy of raiding the undefended counties of northern England. They crossed from Jedburgh and rampaged through Northumberland, burning homes and farms as they went, reaching as far south as Corbridge and Hexham. According to Pierre de Langtoft, an English chronicler:
''Mar, Ross, Menteith ... have destroyed Tindale to cinders and coals, The town of Corbridge, and two monasteries, Of Hexham and Lanercost, they have annihilated by burning; They have made slaughter of the people of the country, Carried off the goods driven away the canons.''
Although the Scottish army was capable of raiding England, and destroying undefended villages, it did not prove quite so capable when faced by an English army. It had been many years since Scottish society had been mobilized for war, and at the Battle of Dunbar the Scottish feudal host was overwhelmed in matter of minutes by elements of King Edward's army led by John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. The author Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds records the death of eight-thousand Scots at Dunbar.
In the aftermath of the Scottish army's defeat, the kingdom of Scotland quickly capitulated to the victorious English king. No further meaningful resistance was offered to him. Edward I subsequently deposed King John at Montrose Castle. The symbols of kingship were stripped from the defeated king, including the ripping of the royal coat of arms from his surcoat, thereby earning him the enduring title 'Toom Tabard' (Empty Coat). King Edward, having dealt with his treasonous vassal, rode north from Montrose on a military march that took him all the way to Elgin, which he reached on 26 July, 1296. He remained in Elgin for a few days, taking the fealty of a number of Scots nobles, including Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow,[12] in the town's castle, before he turned south to return to England.
While King Edward enjoyed a relaxed march through the recently subdued realm, the Scots nobles captured at Dunbar were taken south in chains. The more important prisoners, such as Sir Andrew Moray of Petty, were taken to the Tower of London.[13] Andrew the younger, considered to be of much less significance, was imprisoned in Chester Castle,[13] the northernmost stronghold to which the Dunbar captives were taken; he would not, however, long remain a captive of the king of England.
Rebel and Warchief
The consequences of the Scots' defeat by King Edward, and their kingdom's subsequent absorption into his realm, were not long in being felt as the English King began to impose his will on Scotland. The victor of Dunbar, the earl of Surrey was put in charge of Scotland by King Edward.[15] English soldiers were soon to be found in Scottish castles and King Edward's tax collectors quickly followed in their wake. The latter, notorious for their personal corruption, also took the chance to exploit the Scots to enrich themselves. The Scots, who had been lightly taxed by their own kings, now faced an onerous tax burden in order to help fill the English king’s royal coffers. The king had appointed an efficient, if notoriously obnoxious, administrator, Sir Hugh de Cressingham, as Treasurer of Scotland. Cressingham, aided by his corrupt clerks, went about his task with energy, and by the end of May 1297, had dispatched £5,188 6s. 8d. to King Edward’s exchequer. [16] Cressingham's greed, however, was quickly creating a sense of discontent which would soon be exploited to the fullest by Moray and Wallace. In addition to placing a heavy tax burden on his new subjects, King Edward was also keen to find additional manpower to fill the armies that he was raising to fight in Flanders and he began to put in place plans to conscript Scots, including the nobility of the defeated realm.[17] News of this decision caused widespread alarm in Scotland. A combination of all of these factors meant Scotland quickly grew increasingly restless and resentful under English rule, and the flames of rebellion were soon spreading across the land.
While the Scottish people were suffering the pain of Engish occupation, Andrew Moray was dealing with the humiliation of imprisonment. He was, however, far too determined to be long held in Chester Castle, and sometime in the winter of 1296-97, he escaped from his place of imprisonment. Eventually he returned to his father's lands in north-eastern Scotland, though it is not known how or by what means he effected his escape or whether he was aided in it. Although there is no way of knowing how the trauma of defeat in battle at Dunbar and imprisonment in Chester Castle affected Andrew Moray, it is clear that the man who returned to Scotland in the spring of 1297 was a ruthless and determined leader of men who was about to send shockwaves through Plantagenet-controlled Scotland.
Andrew Moray was back at Avoch castle by May 1297, one of the most significant months in Scottish history. "In the month of May of the same year", the Hemingsburgh Chronicle notes, "the perfidious race of Scots began to rebel." This first act of this rebellion was marked by two events: Andrew Moray proclaimed his defiance of English rule by openly unfurling the banner of the Morays of Petty at his father's castle at Avoch; and William Wallace marked the start of his rebellion against English rule with the murder of the English Sheriff of Lanark.
News of Moray's return to Avoch quickly drew supporters to him. It is clear that it acted as an inspiration to all those people who chafed under English rule, such was the speed with which they rose to join him. Although Sir Andrew was still in prison in the Tower of London - where it appears he would die as King Edward's prisoner - many of his tenants willingly joined his son in arms. Andrew the younger was also joined Alexander Pilchie, a burgess from Inverness, and other burgesses from the town. English soldiers and administrators stationed in Inverness and the surrounding area must have been deeply shocked by news of this putative rebellion against their authority, fearing what the consequences of it would be for them. Sir William fitz Warin, the English constable of Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness, later wrote to King Edward in July 1297 that "''Some evil disposed people have joined Andrew de Moravia at the castle of'' [Avoch]'' in Ross''."
Andrew Moray and the "''evil disposed people''" that surrounded him would soon possess sufficient strength to begin a serious campaign and would quickly show just how much destruction they could wreak.
Castle Urquhart attacked
Urquart Castle
The kingdom of Scotland, regardless of the ease of King Edward's conquest of the previous year, lay restless under the burden of English rule. In the spring and early summer of 1297, the realm was scarred by scattered outbreaks of violence against the English occupiers and their loyal Scots allies. A number of outbreaks of discontent were so serious that the English officials on the ground sought the assistance of their king. The provinces of Argyll and Ross were both riven by violence in the early months of 1297. While on the western coast, Lachlan and Ruarie MacRuarie of Garmoran were in open rebellion against English authority, killing the king's officials and destroying royal property.[18] The violence was not limited to northen Scotland. Rebellion gripped Galloway in south-western Scotland in April 1297, with the rebels successfully seizing castles held by the English king's men.[19] There was also trouble in Fife, where MacDuff of Fife and his sons were in open rebellion against English rule.[20]. No doubt there were many other acts of rebellion which have been lost to us by the passage of time.
News of these acts of defiance began to filter into the English Court in the early spring of 1297. They resulting in a firm and uncompromising response from the king, who order the men on the ground to deal firmly with the rebels. Early in April 1297, the king ordered his loyal supporters in Argyll and Ross to assist “his chosen and faithful subject Alexander of the Isles†to suppress the rebellion there.[21] The rebellion in Galloway was suppressed by Donald mac Can and other loyal chieftains. King Edward wrote to them on 13th June to thank them for their grisly work.[22] The English Sheriff of Aberdeen, Sir Henry de Latham, received orders, dated 11th June, to deal with rebels in the north-east.[23] In addition to the actions of the men on the ground, the king also appears to have considered the situation to be so serious at this time that he also dispatched men from England to help in the suppression of the rebels. On 4th June, King Edward sent Henry Percy and Walter Clifford to assist in mopping up the rebels in Scotland.[24] It was into this charged environment of violence and unrest that Andrew Moray stepped in May 1297.
Andrew Moray did not take long to plunge the province of Moray into a state of rebellion against the rule of King Edward's Anglo-Scots supporters. At this time, King Edward's principal adherent in Moray was Sir Reginald Cheyne, the Scots sheriff of Elgin. A number of Scots lords continued to actively support King Edward's rule of Scotland in the months following his conquest of the realm. Although their loyalty appeared to ensure the Plantagenet England could rule Scotland without utilising massive numbers of soldiers and administrators to install a completely alien regime, their ultimate loyalty was frequently questioned by English officials and chroniclers. Cheyne was quickly alarmed by the chaos caused by Andrew Moray's rebellion and wrote to King Edward requesting assistance. The king responded by instructing him to vigorously suppress the rebellion.[25] In response to the crisis that appeared to be engulfing the province of Moray, Sir Reginald ordered all of his principal lieutenants to attend a meeting at Inverness Castle on 25th May 1297 to discuss the best way to deal with Andrew Moray and his band of rebels. One of the participants was Sir William fitz Warin, constable of Urquhart Castle standing on the western shore of Loch Ness.[26]
Once the meeting ended, Sir William fitz Warin made his way back to Urquhart Castle accompanied an escort of mail-clad men-at-arms. A few miles to the south of Inverness, Sir William and his men were ambushed by Andrew Moray, and were fortunate to escape with their lives to the safety of the loch-side stronghold. Next day, Sir William fitz Warin awoke to find that Andrew Moray and his men were besieging his castle. Later that morning, Moray sent a messenger to demand the castle's surrender; it was refused. At this point, the Countess of Ross unexpectedly arrived on the scene with an armed retinue. The countess, whose husband was currently held in the Tower of London,[13] sent a messenger to Sir William saying that she had nothing to do with the ambush and, expressing her sympathies for his predicament, advised him that it would be best to surrender. Although his advice was ignored, the supplies that she managed to get into the castle were welcomed warmly, and her actions were later warmly commended to King Edward by Sir William. In the end Moray, with no heavy siege equipment available to him, was forced to abandon the attempt on Urquhart after a failed night attack, leaving Sir William fitz Warin in possession of the castle to lick his wounds and send an account of this brief mê?le to his king.[26]
Although Andrew Moray had been thwarted by the stout walls of Urquhart Castle, his campaign against English rule continued. He continued to draw new supporters to his banner and castles increasingly fell to him. Eventually even Urquhart would fall to him. One of his continued targets in this campaign was Sir Reginald Cheyne, whose lands were wasted, goods despoiled, castle burned and was eventually taken prisoner. It was subsequently reported to King Edward that Andrew Moray and "''a very large body of rogues swept through the province of Moray towards the Spey, destroying the lands of Duffus, laid waste and captured the castle''."[29]
King Edward reacts
King Edward I of England, whose attention was primarily fixed on final preparations for his impending campaign in Flanders, sought to deal with the threat to his rule posed by Andrew Moray by making use of loyal Scots nobles who had recently been released from his prisons to serve in Flanders. The king, in response to Sir William fitz Warin's description of the daring assault on his castle, issued orders, dated 11th June, 1297, to a number of Scots lords to raise their retinues and march into the province of Moray to restore royal authority in that province. Among those instructed to assist fitz Warin were Henry Cheyne, Bishop of Aberdeen, Sir Gartnait of Mar, heir to the earldom of Mar and whose father was currently held by King Edward in the Tower of London,[13] and John Comyn, Earl of Buchan and Constable of Scotland, kinsman and namesake of the Lord of Badenoch, together with his brother, Alexander. The role of the Comyn brothers, who were kinsmen of Andrew Moray, in dealing with the rebellion was highlighted by the king, who instructed them to remain in the north-east until every aspect of it had been stamped out.
The relief column, which was lead by men whose loyalty to the King of England varied, appears to have departed from the north-eastern port of Aberdeen sometime in early July 1297. When Andrew Moray learned of its advance against him, he marched east to confront it. The two forces met on the banks of the Spey at Enzie, where the road from Aberdeen to Inverness forded the waters of the River Spey, the eastern edge of the province of Moray.[31]
No detailed account of what happened when the two forces met has survived, but it appears that what did occur essentially replayed the earlier dance with the Countess of Ross. It appears, from the content of an extremely ambiguous account of events subsequently sent to King Edward by Bishop Cheyne from Inverness on 25th August,[32] that after some discussion, Moray and his rebel-army withdrew into "''very great stronghold of bog and wood"'' where'' “no horseman could be of service''â€. This was a highly uninventive explanation when one considers the Comyn family pacified the province of Moray for the Scottish king early in the thirteenth-century. It appears more likely that neither side wished to fight and they simply went their separate ways.
But if Bishop Cheyne thought he would be able to save face with this letter, he had failed to reckon with Hugh de Cressingham, the English Treasurer of Scotland, who was clearly the most energetic of King Edward's administrators. Cressingham, having seen this letter which was carried to the royal court by Sir Andrew de Rait, wrote to King Edward on 5th August: “''Sire, the peace on the other side of the Scottish Sea [Firth of Forth] is still in obscurity, as it is said, as to the doings of the earls who are there''.†It is clear that he did not believe that the Scots nobles tasked with dealing with Moray had done their duty to the king and he was especially dismissive of the account of confrontation at the Spey carried by Rait: “''Sir Andrew de Rait is going to you with a credence, which he has shown to me, and which is false in many points ... you will give little weight to it''.â€[33] It seems clear that Cressingham had recognised the obvious double-game that many of the Scots nobles were clearly playing with King Edward.
While Andrew Moray seized control of northern Scotland and William Wallace rampaged through west-central Scotland, a rising led by Scotland's traditional leaders was also taking place in the south of the realm. Amongst its leaders were James, the High Steward of Scotland, and Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow. But in contrast with the vigour and aggression which characterised the risings of Moray and Wallace, this rising was feeble and it quickly collapsed, surrendering at Irvine in July when an English army arrived in its vicinity
King Edward, having apparently failed to deal with Moray by force of arms, was apparently prepared to resort to some more subtle methods as a means to deal him. The English king proposed to release Sir Andrew Moray from imprisonment in the Tower to serve in Flanders, if his son was prepared to come to London to take his father's place as a hostage. A safe-conduct allowing Andrew the younger to come to England was issued under the king's seal on 28 August 1297.[34] There is no way of knowing whether the letter and the accompanying safe-conduct ever reached Andrew Moray but, if it did, it was ignored and Sir Andrew was forced to remain in the Tower.
The Battle of Stirling Bridge
By the late summer of 1297, King Edward possessed little, if any, authority over much of Scotland. The reality of the breakdown in royal control was described in a letter to the king by Hugh Cressingham :[35]
“''by far the greater part of your counties of the realm of Scotland are still unprovided with keepers, as [they have been killed or imprisoned]; and some have given up their bailiwicks, and others neither will nor dare return; and in some counties the Scots have established and placed bailiffs and ministers, so that no county is in proper order, excepting Berwick and Roxburgh, and this only lately.''â€
Of the castles situated north of the River Forth, only the castle of the port of Dundee was still in English hands. The only means by which this situation could be reversed was by a full-scale armed invasion of Scotland to defeat the rebels and to reimpose King Edward’s authority over it. For Moray and Wallace to have any hope of meeting that threat, they had to combine their individual forces into a single army. It is not known exactly when and where the two rebel commanders met, but it is possible that it was in the vicinity of Dundee castle, which was besieged by the Scots in early September 1297.
King Edward's lieutenant in Scotland, the earl of Surrey, finally appears to have recognised the need to take decisive action late in the summer of 1297. He had done little to act against the rebels and subsequently vilified by chroniclers for his indolence. One English chronicler,
Walter of Guisborough, said of Surrey:
“''The earl [of Surrey] ... to whom our king committed the care and custody of the Kingdom of Scotland, because of the awful weather, said that he could not stay there and keep his health. He stayed in England, but in the northern part and sluggishly pursued the exiling [of the] enemy, which was the root of our later difficultyâ€''.Surrey, finally awoken to the seriousness of the crisis, mustered an army and marched into central Scotland. Moray and Wallace, hearing of its advance marched to Stirling where they waited for it north of the River Forth close to the old bridge at Stirling.
Surrey's conduct of the ensuing battle, which was characterised by an arrogant and unimaginative adherence to the chivalric conventions of the day was inept and he was easily outmanoeuvered and outfought by Moray and Wallace. He sent the vanguard of his army across the narrow bridge under the Scots’ gaze, who, rather than wait myopically for the entire English army to cross the bridge and deploy for battle, struck when it was only partially deployed. In the ensuing carnage of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Surrey's isolated vanguard was hacked to pieces. The remainder of the English army was isolated on the southern bank of the River Forth and could only look on as their comrades were killed. Soon they began to flee the battlefield, led in their flight by Surrey, whose “''charger never once tasted food during the whole journey''†according to Walter of Guisborough.
The defeat of Surrey’s army at Battle of Stirling Bridge on 11th September 1297 represented the crowning moment of Andrew Moray’s rebellion against English rule. The most notable English casualty was Cressingham, whose corpse was apparently mutilated by the victorious Scots. The Lanercost Chronicle records that Wallace had “''a broad strip [of Cressingham’s skin] ... taken from the head to the heel, to make therewith a baldrick for his sword''†.[36] It is estimated that Surrey lost one hundred knights and five-thousand infantry men in the slaughter at Stirling. The Scottish casualties went largely unrecorded as the Scottish army was largely made up of humble infantry soldiers. The Scots did, however, sustain one irreplaceable loss: Andrew Moray.
Andrew Moray's death
It is widely believed that Andrew Moray was only wounded in fighting at Stirling, only dying sometime in the winter of 1297-98 of the wounds that he sustained in the fighting. There is, however, evidence that he was actually killed in the fighting or, at the very least, died very soon after it had ended.
An inquisition into the affairs of Sir William Moray of Bothwell, Moray’s uncle, held at Berwick in late November 1300, that Andrew Moray was "''slain at Stirling against the king''."[2] In contrast to this firm piece of evidence regarding the fate of Andrew Moray, the evidence - by implication only - that he survived into the winter of 1297-98 can be found in the form of two letters The first was sent from Haddington on 11 October to the mayors of Lübeck and Hamburg, two of the towns of the Hanseatic League, by "''Andrew de Moray and William Wallace, leaders of the kingdom of Scotland and the community of the realm''." [38] The second letter was issued to the prior of Hexham on 7 November by "''Andrew de Moray and William Wallace, the leaders of the army and of the realm of Scotland''."[39] Since the name of Andrew Moray does not appear on any other document after this date, it is deduced that he must have succumbed to his wounds around this time. However, no English source states that Moray was at Hexham during the Scottish invasion of northern England at which time this latter letter was issued. It is clear, therefore, that Wallace must have had possession of Andrew's Moray's seal, thereby allowing him to issue documents bearing his dead comrade's name.
It seems clear that, although Moray had died in the fighting at Stirling Bridge, William Wallace seemed to feel the need to continue to issue documents jointly in the name of his deceased co-commander. It was only after he gained a knighthood and the office of Guardian of the Realm that he became sufficiently sure of his position of personal authority to issue documents in his own name. The death of Andrew Moray had not only robbed Wallace of a comrade but also of a shield against the jealousies of the traditional elites. Moray, it is argued, was himself a noble with all of the right connections; without him, Wallace, the former outlaw, was dangerously exposed, as much at risk from the political intrigues of his fellow Scots nobles who felt that they possessed the right to exercise power as from military reprisals by the English. The continuing association with Andrew added a measure of political gravitas to his position and office. Once Wallace emerged as Guardian of Scotland, as he did some time prior to March 1298, it was no longer necessary to issue letters in joint names.[40]
The death of Andrew Moray robbed Scotland of a great soldier and political leader. It is likely that the training that Moray had received in his youth which had been intended to equip him to play a leading rôle in commanding the feudal host of the Scottish kingdom had allowed him direct the Scottish army at Stirling to a famous victory. It is perhaps notable that when Wallace faced the King Edward in alone a year later at the Battle of Falkirk in the summer of 1298 he was soundly defeated by him. There is, however, no doubt that had Andrew Moray lived, his contribution to the campaign of 1297 was so great that it is inevitable that he, too, would have been knighted and also appointed Guardian.
The name of Andrew Moray did not, however, disappear from the pages of history following his death. A few months after his death, his widow bore him a son, also named Andrew.[2] The child would also play a decisive rôle in resisting English attempts to control Scotland, twice occupy the position of regent and would show a remarkably similar aptitude to that shown by his father for leading the armies of the kingdom of Scotland in the face of English aggression.
Andrew Moray’s achievement in one summer was immense. He single-handedly masterminded a campaign to clear northern Scotland of English soldiers and administrators. The list of castles that he captured is immense. He also was the joint-commander, and perhaps the tactical mastermind, of the Scottish army which achieved a spectacular victory at Stirling Bridge on 11th September 1297. Yet a combination of his early death in battle and his association with William Wallace, whose Blind Hary-inflated reputation has smothered the name all of those associates with him, has meant that the name of Andrew Moray is largely unknown in Scotland today. It is hardly a fitting fate for such a heroic Scottish patriot.
==Note on the etymology of the name ''Murray''==
''Murray'' is a common variation of the word ''Moray'', an anglicisation of the Medieval Gaelic word ''Muireb'' (or ''Moreb''); the ''b'' here was pronounced as ''v'', hence the Latinization to ''Moravia''. These names denote the district on the south shore of the Moray Firth. ''Murray'' is actually a direct transliteration of how Scottish people pronounce the word ''Moray''.
''Murray'' is no longer used for the geographical area, but it became the commonest form of the surname, especially among Scottish emigrants, to the extent that the surname ''Murray'' is now much more common than the original surname ''Moray''.
Notes
1. Andrew Fisher, ‘Murray, Andrew (d. 1297)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 2 Aug 2007
2. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.1178, p.300
3. Barron, Scottish Wars of Independence, pp. 33 & 204
4. Barrow, Robert Bruce, p.27
5. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.307, p.84
6. Barrow, Robert Bruce, p.83.
7. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.1178, p.300
8. Barron, Scottish Wars of Independence, p.205
9. Barrow, Robert Bruce, p.116
10. Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, no.22, pp.137-9.
11. Chronicle of Lanercost, ed.H.Maxwell, vol.1, p.135.
12. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.789, p.182.
13. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.742, pp.176-8.
14. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.742, pp.176-8.
15. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.871, p.229.
16. Prestwich, Edward I, p.476.
17. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCXXIX, pp.167-9.
18. Watson, Under the Hammer, pp.42-3.
19. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.894, p.234.
20. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLXXII, p.217.
21. Barron, Scottish War of Independence, pp.19-20.
22. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCXXXVII, p.177.
23. Barron, Scottish War of Independence, p.60.
24. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCXXXI, pp.170-3.
25. Barron, Scottish War of Independence, p.35 & p.42.
26. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.922, p.239.
27. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.742, pp.176-8.
28. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.922, p.239.
29. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLVII, p.212.
30. Calendar of Documents, ed.J.Bain, vol.2, no.742, pp.176-8.
31. Barron, Scottish War of Independence, p.50.
32. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLVII, pp.211-3..
33. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLXVII, pp.225-7.
34. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLXVIII, pp.227-8.
35. Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLV, p.207.
36. Chronicle of Lanercost, ed.H.Maxwell, vol.1, p.164.
37. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.1178, p.300
38. Source Book of Scottish History, eds.W.C.Dickinson, G.Donaldson & I.A.Milne,. vol.1, pp.136-7
39. Stones, Anglo-Scottish Relations, no.26(a), p.155.
40. Taylor, ‘History Scotland’ - Fighting for the Lion. September 2005.
41. Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, vol.2, no.1178, p.300
References
★ Barron, E. M., "The Scottish War of Independence", Second Edition. 1934.
★ Barrow, G.W.S. "Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm", Second Edition, 1988.
★ "Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland", ed. J. Bain, 1887.
★ “A Source Book of Scottish History.†Three Volumes. Second Edition, eds. W. C. Dickson, G. Donaldson and I. A. Milne, 1958.
★ "Documents Illustrative of Scotland 1286-1306," ed.Rev.J.Stevenson, 2 vols.1870.
★ "Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae", ed T. Rymer, 1816.
★ Prestwich, M., "Edward I", 1990
★ "The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough", ed. H. Rothwell, 1957.
★ Anglo-Scottish Relations 1174-1328: Some Selected Documents, ed. E. L. G Stones, 1970.
★ Taylor, J. G., "Fighting for the Lion: The Life of Andrew Moray", in History Scotland, Sept/October, 2005.
★ Watson F. J., "Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland 1286-1306", 1998.
See also
★ The First War of Scottish Independence (1296-1306)
★ Clan Murray
★ History of Scotland
★ Timeline of Scottish history
★ Kildrummy Castle
★ Bothwell
★ Braveheart
★ John of Scotland
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