Peace of Perth

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The Peace of Perth was a treaty between Scotland and Norway that was signed in the Scottish city of Perth on July 2, 1266 . He ended the war between the two kingdoms over possession of the West Scottish islands , which had lasted since 1263 .

prehistory

The West Scottish islands had been under Norwegian rule since the 9th century, which the Scottish King Edgar had officially recognized in 1098. But since 1261 the Scottish King Alexander III. the attempts of his father Alexander II continued to acquire the islands. After the Norwegian King Hakon IV had rejected the Scottish offers to buy, there was open war between the two empires in 1263. The Norwegian king's campaign in Scotland that same year ended in failure. In addition, Håkon IV died in December 1263 on Orkney . In the next year, the Scottish king was able to take control of the islands without much effort. Hakon's son and successorMagnus VI. now had little choice but to make peace.

Course of the negotiations

In the spring of 1264 Henrik , Bishop of Orkney , and Askatin , Chancellor of the Norwegian King, traveled to Scotland for the first negotiations. The Scots harshly rejected their offers to negotiate and threatened the negotiators with arrest, whereupon Henrik and Askatin left Scotland again. In the summer, Bishop Henrik returned with two Franciscans and was taken over by King Alexander III. receive. Although both sides now showed willingness to negotiate, the negotiations dragged on. At the end of 1264, two Dominicans traveled to Norway on behalf of the Scottish King, and in April 1265 Askatin traveled to Scotland with Gilbert , Bishop of Hamar . They first traveled to York , probably around the English King Henry III. who had intervened several times in Scotland in the 1250s. Whether they met the English king is unlikely, as the king was at war with his own rebelling barons . In Scotland, the two negotiators made a concrete offer for the first time with the assignment of Bute and Arran , which the Scottish king in Perth rejected. As a result, Askatin and Gilbert returned to Norway in the autumn of 1265. With or shortly after them Reginald of Roxburgh , a monk from Melrose Abbey , traveled to Norway as a negotiator for the Scottish King. In negotiations with the Norwegian king and his royal council, he was able to negotiate the essential conditions for peace. Reginald traveled back to Scotland in 1266, followed shortly thereafter by a Norwegian embassy led by Askatin.

Content of the contract

The final negotiations took place in Perth in the summer of 1266. Finally, the Norwegians agreed to the cession of the Isle of Man and the Hebrides to Scotland, with the Scottish kings officially holding the territories as fiefs of the Norwegian kings. In return, from July 1, 1267, Scotland paid a total of 4,000 marks to Norway in four annual installments . In the following years Scotland was to pay Norway 100 marks a year. In addition, Scotland recognized the Norwegian rule over Orkney and the Shetland Islands . The King of Scotland received the right of patronage over the diocese of Sodor and Man , which, however , remained subordinate to the Archbishops of Trondheim as metropolitan . After the treaty was sealed on July 2nd in Perth, the Norwegian King and his Privy Council confirmed the agreement on August 10th in Bergen .

consequences

Through the Peace of Perth, Scotland acquired the territories of the Kingdom of the Isles, whose society, unlike Scotland, was largely Scandinavian. Even if Alexander III. while his reign had no difficulty in asserting his authority on the islands, the incorporation of the new territories into the Scottish Empire lasted well into the 14th century. The first contractually agreed installment was paid by the Scottish king on time in 1267, the second not until 1269 and the third then in 1270. The final fourth installment was only paid in 1281 after the marriage contract between the Scottish king's daughter Margarete and the Norwegian king Erik II . The agreed annual payment of 100 marks was ultimately barely paid, to the annoyance of the Norwegians. Before 1294, Erik II requested the return of the islands because of the failure to pay the annual payment. During the Scottish War of Independence , the Norwegian King Håkon V made an offer to the English King Edward I in 1299 to support him in the war against the Scottish patriots with a fleet. In return, he expected the Norwegian claims to the West Scottish territories to be taken into account. The English king rejected this proposal, however, because he did not want another king to interfere in the war in Scotland. In 1312 the Scottish King Robert Bruce signed the Treaty of Inverness with Håkon V. , in which the Treaty of Perth, signed in 1266, was renewed. In it the Scottish king promised to continue the payments he had promised in 1266. After that, no Norwegian king made any more claims to the West Scottish islands. When the Orkneys were pledged from Norway to Scotland in 1468, the Norwegians finally waived the annual payment of 100 marks agreed in 1266 in this contract.

source

literature

  • Richard I. Lustig: The Treaty of Perth: A Re-Examination . In: The Scottish Historical Review , 58, pp. 35-57 (1979).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Richard I. Lustig: The Treaty of Perth: A Re-Examination . In: The Scottish Historical Review , 58 (1979), p. 38.
  2. ^ Richard I. Lustig: The Treaty of Perth: A Re-Examination . In: The Scottish Historical Review , 58 (1979), p. 36.
  3. ^ Richard I. Lustig: The Treaty of Perth: A Re-Examination . In: The Scottish Historical Review , 58 (1979), p. 35.
  4. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 85.
  5. ↑ Marinell Ash: The Church in the Reign of Alexander III . In: Norman H. Reid (ed.): Scotland in the Reign of Alexander III, 1249-1286 . Edinburgh, John Donald 1990, ISBN 0-85976-218-1 , p. 41.
  6. ^ Richard I. Lustig: The Treaty of Perth: A Re-Examination . In: The Scottish Historical Review , 58 (1979), p. 57.
  7. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 85.
  8. ^ Richard I. Lustig: The Treaty of Perth: A Re-Examination . In: The Scottish Historical Review , 58 (1979), p. 37.
  9. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 277.
  10. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 276.

Coordinates: 56 ° 23 '42 "  N , 3 ° 26' 2.4"  W.