The Declaration of Arbroath

Sir Patrick Graham's son, Sir David Graham of Kincardine (born 1260) was captured and taken to England as a prisoner-of-war. He was released a year later on condition that he would fight for Edward I in foreign wars.

He gratefully returned to Scotland, where the new king, Robert the Bruce rewarded his “good and faithful service” with several land grants. Sir David also traded his holdings in Dunbartonshire for lands in Old Montrose in Forfarshire.

Mugdock Castle in Old Montrose. Source: Pinterest.com 

At this place and time, loyalties slid around as easily as carved figurines on a chessboard. And the more Sir David dealt with the English invaders, the angrier he got.

In 1320, along with fifty other “magnates and nobles”, he signed the Declaration of Arbroath. It was sent to Pope John XXII and was nothing less than an avowal of Scottish independence. In part it reads, “…for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours, that we are fighting, but for freedom…for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.”

Believing he was ending hostilities, Sir David was a guarantor of a treaty with England in 1322. But the unstable and ineffective King Edward II declared the treaty illegal and downright treasonous. It took a few more years, and the loss of many more lives, for “proud Edward” to “think again,” withdraw his troops, and forsake all pretenses to the Scottish throne.

Noble Scots

To quote the immortal Bette Davis, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” It turns out some of my grandmother’s forebears didn’t merely react to history.

They made it.

Her first recorded family members are no more than vague shapes in a thick Scottish mist. During the Dark Ages, they were petty kings and lairds holding sway over portions of a divided land we wouldn’t recognize today. They were baptized by their relation St. Columba, “The Apostle to the Picts” and in a great hall’s flickering firelight listened to tales of Queen Medb, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and the warrior Pendragon .

Early in the 13^th century, a personality emerges. Sir David Graham of Dundaff was born in his father’s Ayrshire castle in 1210. He served as the sheriff of Berwickshire, obtained a charter for vast tracts of land from King Alexander III and acquired the property of Kincardine in Perthshire.

His heirs were similarly involved in their country’s politics. His son Sir John de Graham was killed in 1298, fighting alongside his close friend William Wallace in the Battle of Falkirk.

Sir John de Graham. Source: clan-graham-society.org 

Another son, Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, was more diplomatic. Back in 1281 he had been sent to negotiate the marriage of Prince Alexander of Scotland and Margaret of Flanders. He acknowledged Margaret, Maid of Norway, as heiress to the Scottish throne. In 1292 he swore fealty to England’s Edward I and agreed to the betrothal of the Maid to Edward’s heir, the future Edward II.

This situation seems very genteel, but it wasn’t. Seven-year-old Margaret died of “seasickness” on her bridal voyage and was buried at sea. The only certainty about the child’s fate was her being tossed overboard.

Sir Patrick was summoned to attend Edward I into France in 1294, and while engaged in this “honor”, became disenchanted with the English.

In 1296, he died in the Battle of Dunbar, defending King John Balliol against English invaders. He was considered one of the noblest and wisest of the Scottish barons, and even impressed Edward’s soldiers with his bravery and gallantry. 

Battle of Dunbar. Source: Pinterest