William Soulis

Coat of arms of the Soulis family

Sir William Soulis (also de Soules ), Lord of Liddesdale († between August 1320 and April 20, 1321) was a Scottish nobleman. He is considered to be one of the leaders of the Soules conspiracy named after him .

Origin and fight against Robert Bruce

William Soulis was the eldest son of Nicholas de Soulis and his wife Margaret Comyn . His father was Lord of Liddesdale , but died at the end of 1296. During the Scottish War of Independence , William first fought against the English occupation before submitting in 1304 to King Edward I of England . From 1306 he supported the English in the fight against Robert Bruce , who murdered John Comyn of Badenoch , a relative of his mother, and declared himself King of the Scots. Before 1312, Soulis was knighted and King Edward II rewarded him in 1312 by awarding Soulis the confiscated estates from Sir Robert Keith . In 1313 Soulis belonged to the English garrison of Roxburgh Castle .

Change of sides to the Scottish side

After the English defeat at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, however, Soulis changed sides to avoid a seizure of his possessions by the victorious Robert Bruce. He and not his brother John probably took part in the raid of Edward Bruce and James Douglas to northern England shortly after the Battle of Bannockburn in August 1314 . Robert Bruce rewarded him with properties near Wark in Tynedale, northern England, before 1315 , and Soulis took part in further attacks on the English over the next few years. In February or March 1316, a force led by him and James Douglas defeated part of the English garrison of Berwick , who were leading a raid on Scottish territory. At the end of 1319 he was one of the Scottish negotiators who agreed an armistice with England in Berwick in December . In early 1320 he attested to a royal charter, where he is referred to as the Butler of Scotland , an office that his great-grandfather Ranulf de Soulis had already held. This office may have been given to him in compensation for unrecoverable family possessions. As Butler of Scotland, he also sealed the Declaration of Arbroath on May 6, 1320 .

Participation in the so-called Soules conspiracy

A few weeks later, Soulis was accused of having been involved in a conspiracy against the king together with Sir David Brechin , Sir Roger Moubray and other nobles. Together with other former supporters of the Balliol family , he is said to have tried to pull together a force of 360 men-at-arms in Berwick. But he was arrested and had to answer in August 1320 before the Scottish Parliament in Scone . After confessing to being involved in the conspiracy, he was sentenced to life in prison and taken to Dumbarton Castle . There he died before April 20, 1321. His possessions were confiscated, and the king gave part of Liddesdale to his illegitimate son Sir Robert Bruce .

According to the chronicler Barbour , the conspirators wanted to declare Soulis king, but this is considered very unlikely. The conspirators may want to assassinate Robert Bruce and replace him with Edward Balliol , but they certainly did not want to give Scotland back to the English. Barbour may also have exaggerated Soulis' part in the conspiracy. For this, Barbour downplayed the role of David Brechin, who was also the son of a daughter of Alexander Comyn . For his part in the conspiracy, Brechin was convicted and executed. The Soules conspiracy had posed a grave threat to Robert Bruce, as there were far more nobles involved than the medieval chroniclers claimed. The role of Soules as one of the leaders of the conspiracy is doubtful. The fact that he was not executed like other conspirators speaks against this thesis. He may have been portrayed as a scapegoat by Robert Bruce.

family

Soulis had two daughters and possibly a son with his wife, whose name is unknown. This was perhaps the W. de Sule , who died in the wake of the English Earl of Lancaster in 1322 in the battle of Boroughbridge . During the Second Scottish War of Independence , John de Kethe , who had married a daughter of Soulis, was recognized by Edward Balliol in 1335 or 1336 as heir to one half of Liddesdale, while an Ermygarde Soulis would have transferred their claim to Liddesdale to Balliol. The expulsion of the English from Scotland a few years later made these claims null and void.

Web links

• AAM Duncan: Sir William Soulis (d. 1320/21). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 204.
2. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 158.
3. ↑ RC Reid, T. M'Michael: The Feudal Family of De Soulis. In: Transactions and journal of the proceedings of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. Series III, Volume 26 (1947-48), p. 188.
4. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 169.
5. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 220.
6. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 427.
7. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 430.
8. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 397.
9. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 226.
10. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , pp. 199.
11. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 227.
12. ↑ RC Reid, T. M'Michael: The Feudal Family of De Soulis. In: Transactions and journal of the proceedings of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. Series III, Volume 26 (1947-48), p. 189.
13. ↑ RC Reid, T. M'Michael: The Feudal Family of De Soulis. In: Transactions and journal of the proceedings of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. Series III, Volume 26 (1947-48), p. 190.