Treaty of Falaise

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The Treaty of Falaise was a peace treaty concluded on December 8, 1174 between England and Scotland . It is considered to be the oldest treaty between the two kingdoms, the content of which is fully known.

Conclusion of the contract

During the rebellion of the young King Henry against his father, the English King Henry II , the Scottish King William I had supported the young Henry . During an invasion of northern England in July 1174, the Scottish army was surprised and defeated by an English army near Alnwick . The Scottish king was captured. King William was brought to Northampton in shackles, where he was confronted with Henry II on July 26th. The king took him to Normandy in August , where he was held in honorary custody in the castle of Falaise . On September 30, 1174, Henry II made peace with his sons, so that the rebellion was over. The Scottish king was now at the mercy of the English king and had no choice but to accept Henry II's terms. These were laid down in the so-called Treaty of Falaise, which was sealed on December 8th not in Falaise but in Valognes . After the Scottish king had held hostages, he was allowed to leave Normandy a few days later and travel to England. On February 15, 1175 he was allowed to return to Scotland.

Content of the contract

In the treaty, the Scottish king had to make harsh and humiliating concessions. Yet the English king did not take undue advantage of his opponent's misfortune. His aim was not to incorporate Scotland into his empire, but to secure the northern border of his empire against attacks from Scotland. The Scots were supposed to hand over the castles of Roxburgh , Berwick , Jedburgh , Edinburgh and Stirling to the English and to pay for the maintenance of the crews. Presumably already in Falaise the Scottish king had paid homage to the English king , swore allegiance to him and thereby recognized him as liege lord for Scotland and all his other possessions. The Scottish king had to assure that the Scottish barons also recognized the English king as supreme liege lord. Should the Scottish king break his feudal oath, the feudal oath of his barons towards him would be invalid. In addition, the Scots had to continue to hold high-ranking hostages. The English king also wanted to extend the spiritual sovereignty of the English Church over the Church of Scotland. Wilhelm had to promise that the Scottish Church would in future submit to the English Church, as was customary in the time of Henry II's predecessor. Two Scottish bishops and two abbots from Benedictine abbeys pledged not to oppose the legitimate rights of the English Church.

consequences

The English king did not have all five castles, but only Berwick, Roxburgh and Edinburgh permanently occupied by English troops. In return, the cities of Berwick , Roxburgh and Edinburgh also fell under English administration, because their income was used to maintain the crews. On August 10, 1175 Wilhelm I. had, his brother David and numerous Scottish barons in York Henry II. Homage publicly as their liege lord. Six Scottish bishops also had to swear allegiance to the English king in York, but the subordination to the spiritual sovereignty of the English church was only to take place during a council planned for later. For one thing, the English king had not determined whether the Archbishop of York or the Archbishop of Canterbury should receive spiritual suzerainty, which led to tension between the two bishops. Above all, the Archbishops of York and Canterbury could not prove any previous sovereignty over the Scottish dioceses. Archbishop Roger of York insisted on his sovereignty over the dioceses of Glasgow and Whithorn , but on April 30, 1176 Pope Alexander III secured . Bishop Jocelyn of Glasgow in a bull to the fact that the Diocese of Glasgow is directly subordinate to the Curia . Archbishop Roger tried to get his sovereignty confirmed in negotiations with the Curia, but instead the Pope issued the bull Super anxietatibus in August 1176 . In this he suspended the decision on the obedience of the Scottish bishops to the Archbishop of York and the English king until the Curia had made a final decision. With that, Alexander III sat down. clear against Henry II, who was responsible for the murder of Archbishop Becket and for the enactment of the Constitutions of Clarendon .

After the death of Henry II, William I agreed with his son and successor Richard I in December 1189 to renounce Canterbury . In return for a payment of 10,000  marks for Richard's crusade, Richard renounced his feudal sovereignty and vacated the Scottish castles.

literature

  • John Cannon: The Oxford Companion to British History . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-956763-8 , p. 352

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 203.
  2. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 255.
  3. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 262.
  4. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 263.
  5. ^ David A. Carpenter: The struggle for mastery. Britain, 1066-1284. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003. ISBN 0-14-193514-6 , p. 226.
  6. ^ Archibald AM Duncan: Scotland. The Making of the Kingdom (The Edinburgh History of Scotland; Vol. I ). Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-05-00203-7-4 , p. 264.