Let's say I'm a Scottish noble during the reign of Robert II, who became the new King of Scotland in 1371, beginning the Stewart royal dynasty. What was life like at the medieval Scottish court, and how did much Scotland's Auld Alliance with France play into the court and politics of Robert II?

The Auld Alliance

The importance of the Auld Alliance, a colloquial name given to the series of Franco-Scottish alliances that were ratified and renewed between the Scottish Wars of Independence and the Treaty of Edinburgh in 1560, has been greatly overblown in popular perceptions of Scottish history. Although these treaties were treaties of mutual support, their chief clause ensuring that Scotland and France would remain allies against English aggression towards either kingdom, the actual terms of these treaties were noticeably more favorable to France than to Scotland. If we look at the individual treaties that have been lumped into the umbrella term “Auld Alliance”, this becomes clear.

In 1292, Edward I of England declared that John Balliol, grandson of the eldest daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon, himself the youngest grandson of David I of Scotland, was the rightful heir to the Scottish crown following the death of Alexander III of Scotland in 1286. Alexander III had died without surviving male issue, and his only grandchild, the seven-year-old Margaret, Maid of Norway, died in 1290, engendering a succession crisis within the kingdom of Scotland that Edward I was invited to adjudicate. Seizing the opportunity to effectively annex Scotland to England by exerting feudal overlordship and suzerainty over the Scottish king he selected, Edward I “steadily undermined Balliol’s authority by coercing recognition [by Balliol and his nobles] as the feudal superior of the realm, demanding homage, legal authority over the Scottish king, and contributions towards the costs of English defence and military support in his war with France.” [1]

This war with France erupted when the French king, Philippe IV declared England’s continued possession of Gascony (a French territory that had passed into the English crown’s hands due to the Norman and Plantagenet roots of the English royal family) to be forfeit in 1294. By the following year, the Scottish political community of the realm (basically its nobles and senior clerics, with perhaps some support from the burghs as well) had become fed up with what they perceived as John Balliol’s weakness. Consequently, the Scottish magnates (leading nobles and bishops) effectively seized power from the puppet king in a coup d’état by which executive power was transferred from the king to a council of twelve “Guardians”, which included Sir William Wallace of Braveheart fame). Almost immediately, these Guardians sought out a treaty with Philippe IV. The terms of this treaty, the Treaty of Paris, basically stated that neither kingdom would aid England in aggressions toward the other. Neither France nor Scotland were expected to provide active aid to the other—thus, France needed only to focus on its current struggle with England over Gascony while the cost of any war between Scotland and England was to be borne entirely by the Scots. The only real benefit the Treaty of Paris provided to the Scots, therefore, was the reputational and propagandist advantage of being able to claim a diplomatic relationship with one of the major powers of medieval Europe.

If anything, the treaty with France caused more problems for Scotland because it was viewed by Edward I as an act of treason since the king of Scots and his magnates had sworn fealty to Edward (under coercion). In 1296, Edward I invaded Scotland and unleashed full military brutality upon the kingdom, effectively ending its independence altogether. Since the terms of the Treaty of Paris had not stipulated that France would be obligated to do anything active to support Scotland against English aggression, no French aid or support was given. And, in 1299, Philippe IV and Edward I had ceased hostilities between their two kingdoms, signing the treaty of “perpetual peace and friendship” that enabled Edward I to turn his full attention to his “Scottish problem”.

The kingdom of Scotland owed its survival as an independent state to the military acumen and personal alliances of Robert Bruce (later, Robert I of Scotland) and the military mistakes of Edward II of England rather than to any treaty that had been signed with France. Yet, in 1326, Robert Bruce signed the Treaty of Corbeil with Charles IV of France, a precautionary treaty that obligated both kingdoms to declare war against England should England declare war against either Scotland or France. This treaty had no real effect as it was never invoked. England in the 1320s was dealing with its own internal power struggles caused by Edward II’s ineptitude and the coup d’état of his French queen, Isabella of France and her lover, Roger Mortimer.

However, by 1332, England was once more meddling in Scottish affairs, That year, Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, one of Robert I’s most trusted advisors (and the Scottish representative sent to France to negotiate the Treaty of Corbeil), who had been regent for the young David II, passed away. He was replaced by Donald, earl of Mar, David II’s uncle by marriage, as regent, but died only ten days latter at the Battle of Dupplin Moor against the forces of the English-backed Edward Balliol, son of the deposed John Balliol who claimed the throne of Scotland through the law of primogeniture. Following his victory at Dupplin, Edward Balliol was crowned king of Scots by the English and the young David II and his wife, Joan (Edward III of England’s sister) were smuggled to France where they were hosted by Philippe VI. David and Joan spent nine years in France as Philippe’s guests until 1341, when it was finally safe for him to return to Scotland following Brucean victories over Balliol and the English, and at the behest of his nephew and steward, Robert Stewart (eventually Robert II of Scotland).

The next treaty to be signed between Scotland and France was upon the accession of Robert II to the Scottish throne in 1371. Like the treaties before it, nothing concrete of benefit to Scotland materialized from this accord. Although a joint Franco-Scottish invasion of England was planned in 1385 in the midst of the Hundred Years War, with a small French force set to be dispatched to Scotland for the first time, this was never realized. Instead, it was Scottish forces aiding the French at the Battle of Baugé in 1421 that marked the turning point of the Hundred Years’ War. Scots were also with Jeanne d’Arc in 1429 at her famous relief of Orléans; it was therefore Scottish aid in France provided breathing space for the French and effectively ensured the continued power of the French state.

The Wars of the Roses that resulted from England’s hundred-year-long struggle against France meant that the Auld Alliance was rendered effectively obsolete as England presented no threat to either kingdom from the mid-fifteenth to the early sixteenth century. In 1511, the longstanding treaties between Scotland and France were invoked by France as they faced off against the Holy League formed by Pope Julius II, which consisted of the Papal States, Venice, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, England, and the Swiss Confederacy, in response to the pope’s personal disputes with France. This conflict, part of the Italian Wars instigated by Julius II in an attempt to curb Venetian power and influence in the Italian peninsula, initially saw France and the Papal States allied until 1510 when Julius II and the French Louis XII had a falling out, at which point Julius created a Holy League against France. In an effort to gain breathing space from what effectively constituted attacks from every side, Louis called on the Scots to distract England with a northern invasion. What resulted was the Battle of Flodden Field on 9 September 1513, where James IV of Scotland and nearly every adult male of the Scottish nobility died in battle against the English.

Although Scotland and France maintained and renewed alliances through marriage (both of James V’s wives were French, and Mary, Queen of Scots was married to the French dauphin, Louis), by 1560, the Franco-Scottish union had been replaced with pro-English policies in Scotland in response to Scotland’s Protestant Reformation and the diplomatic relationships created across Europe by the confessional divide. Although the “Auld Alliance” was never formally revoked, from 1560 onwards, Scotland pursued a foreign policy that saw strengthened ties with Protestant kingdoms across Europe including England and Denmark. It probably wasn’t a huge loss considering how little Scotland truly benefited from its longstanding alliance with France in the first place.

[1] Katie Stevenson, Power and Propaganda: Scotland, 1306–1488 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014), 19.