The tale of the King of Scots’ nephew: Soldier, fighter, diplomat – this man did it all

Given the achievement of Scottish independence by King Robert and his supporters, I would argue that these men should be much more famed in Scotland. As I showed over the last two weeks, Bishops Robert Wishart and William de Lamberton and Abbot Bernard of Arbroath Abbey were all influential churchmen who supported the Bruce through thick and thin, and by doing so ensured the independence of both their country and the Scottish church.

Now I turn to a layman, one of the most interesting characters of the Wars of Independence, not least because he once fought for the English.

I wrote in my recent clans series about Sir James “the Black” Douglas who was Bruce’s ally and friend and arguably the mightiest warrior in Scottish history, but today’s column is about another tremendous soldier who was also one of Scotland’s first international diplomats – Thomas Randolph, the first Earl of Moray.

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Some say the Randolphs and Randalls can trace their lineage back to the Picts, but it is much more likely that they took their clan name from Ranulf or Randulf, also called Ralph, who was possibly an incomer at the time of King David I, suggesting a continental origin for the family.

Sir James Balfour Paul in the early 20th century brought out The Scots Peerage, a comprehensive work which detailed almost every lord and lady in Scottish history, but even his extensive researches could not exactly pin down the origin of the Randolph name, though he is certain that Ranulf or Randulf came to prominence in the time of King David I and his successor and grandson, King Malcolm IV, known to history as Malcolm the Maiden.

Ranulf’s son, Thomas, was a known personality at the court of King Alexander II, and became Sheriff of Dumfriesshire while his son, Sir Thomas Randolph, was appointed both Sheriff of Roxburghshire and High Chamberlain of Scotland. Sir Thomas married a half-sister of Robert the Bruce, Martha of Kilconquhar, and their son was the Thomas Randolph about whom I am writing and who was thus the step-nephew of King Robert. As with so many figures from that period, we do not know his exact birthdate, but according to Balfour Paul, both Thomas Randolph and his father were witnesses to King John Balliol’s act of fealty towards King Edward I of England on December 26, 1292.

That is his first appearance in written history, but there would be many more. For Randolph adhered to the cause of Robert the Bruce as he made his perilous journey to kingship, and is named as Sir Thomas Randolph of Strathdon among the lists of those who attended Robert the Bruce’s coronation at Scone in 1306.

It is likely that given his description as a knight on those lists that Thomas Randolph was already a trained warrior, and he duly joined the new king’s forces at the disastrous Battle of Methven on June 19,1306, where he was captured by the English.

Edward Longshanks’ fury at Bruce and his supporters was such that normal rules of war were dispensed with and instead of ransoming the captives, the English king ordered them to be hanged, drawn and quartered, or beheaded if they were nobles, as traitors against his proclaimed rule over Scotland.

That should have been the end of Randolph there and then, but the English commander Aymer de Valence, the 2nd Earl of Pembroke, appears to have allowed Adam de Gordon, a supporter and friend of Longshanks, to intercede on Randolph’s behalf. Edward agreed to spare Randolph on condition that he fight on the English side, and having sworn an oath of fealty to Longshanks, Randolph felt he had no option but to do so.

LEGEND has it that he was in pursuit of his uncle King Robert with Adam de Gordon when he camped for the night in a house on the Lyne Water, a tributary of the Tweed, only to awake at the point of Sir James Douglas’s sword.

He was brought before King Robert and, according to the possibly fanciful account of the event contained in the 19th-century Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen by Robert Chambers and Rev Thomas Thomson, the following exchange occurred: “Nephew,” said Bruce, “you have for a while renounced your faith, but now you must be reconciled to me.”

“You reproach me,” answered the nephew sharply, “and yet better deserve to be reproached yourself; for since you made war against the king of England, you should have vindicated your right in the open field, and not by cowardly sleights and skirmishes.”

“That may hereafter fall out, and soon,” replied the king – who had commenced in this very fashion, until misfortune taught him a wiser course of action – “meantime, since you have spoken so rudely, it is fitting that your proud words should receive due chastisement, until you learn to know the right, and how to it as you ought.”

That may indeed be fiction, but the meeting between the King and Randolph certainly did take place – the latter was put into solitary confinement and quickly learned his lesson. Perhaps encouraged by Bishop de Lamberton – who himself had renounced an oath of loyalty to Longshanks – he argued that vows taken under duress were not valid, and Randolph renounced his fealty to England.

With Longshanks having died in July 1307, his soldierly skills soon saw Randolph become one of Bruce’s main captains, so much so that King Robert made him the Earl of Moray in 1312 and gave him plenty of land with it. Randolph quickly pacified the troublesome province and re-joined Bruce’s forces in time to carry his most famous feat of arms – the capture of Edinburgh Castle. His friend and rival Sir James Douglas had been tasked with capturing the supposedly impregnable Roxburgh Castle, and duly did so on February 19, 1314, by disguising his men as cattle and getting close to the castle walls, then invading via ladders and slaughtering the English occupiers. A month later, Randolph was asked to emulate the feat of Douglas and take Edinburgh Castle to leave only Stirling Castle in English hands.

The Earl of Moray took just 30 men, one of whom was William Frank, who’d worked in the castle and knew a dangerous but passable route up the rock to the back door. While his other troops staged a diversion at the main entrance, Randolph’s small force climbed up with rope ladders and engaged the English occupiers from the rear. After a brief but savage fight, Randolph was victorious.

Robert the Bruce duly made Randolph the commander of the left wing of his army as it marched to Bannockburn and took up position to stop the massive English army from relieving Stirling Castle. Legend has it that Randolph and 500 troops formed a moving schiltron, a wall of spears, and stopped a more numerous English cavalry onslaught in its tracks.

Sir James Douglas with his cavalry was supposedly sent to rescue Randolph but turned back when he saw that the Scottish schiltron was beating the English, with the site later becoming known as Randolph’s Field, a name still in use today. That feat supposedly inspired all the Scots around them and it was indeed moving schiltrons that inflicted heavy defeat on Edward II and his army on June 24, 1314.

THE Earl of Moray’s role in the victory was lauded, and at the meeting of the Parliament at Ayr in 1315, Thomas Randolph was given the ultimate compliment – if Robert the Bruce and his heir (his brother Edward) died while their male heirs were still children then Randolph would become Regent and Guardian of Scotland until the youthful king reached his majority.

Randolph then joined Edward Bruce in his ill-fated expedition to Ireland before he was recalled by King Robert to join with James Douglas in a successful effort to oust the English garrison at Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1318. The following year the English tried to re-take Berwick, but Randolph and Douglas were sent by King Robert to lead a diversionary raid into England.

The two great warriors led a Scottish army that almost captured Edward II’s Queen Isabella near York – reports had it that Edward would not have been too unhappy had she been taken, as the couple were practically estranged. Randolph and Douglas promptly triumphed at the very one-sided Battle of Myton on September 20, 1319, a conflict known as the Chapter of Myton because so many priests and monks were conscripted into the army of the Archbishop of York, William Melton, and were slain in their hundreds.

In 1322, the Bruce himself led Randolph, Douglas and the whole Scottish army deep into England in retaliation for Edward II’s brutal invasion of Scotland. At the Battle of Old Byland on October 14, Randolph led a killing charge that routed the English army who fled from the field, while Edward II only just escaped with his life.

Thomas Randolph’s career then entered a new phase. Though a fighter and soldier to his boots, Randolph was a successful diplomat, and unlike so many other figures of that era we have a description of him as written in by The Brus chronicler John Barbour.

He was of moderate stature

And well-formed in measure

With a broad face, pleasant and fair.

Courteous in bearing and debonair

And of fittingly confident bearing.

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Allowing for hagiography, Randolph does indeed seem to have been outstanding in person. He was certainly of sufficient moral fibre to be chosen along with Bishop de Lamberton to negotiate a 13-year truce with England in 1323. The following year he was sent as an envoy to Pope John XXII, then at Avignon in France, the recipient of the Declaration of Arbroath, and pleaded for the lifting of the excommunication of the Bruce and the recognition of Robert as king. He succeeded, and the Pope was obviously impressed with Randolph, as John XXII gave him permission to visit the Holy Sepulchre, held to be the tomb of Jesus Christ, in Jerusalem.

Randolph then led the delegation from Scotland that visited France to renew the Auld Alliance with the Treaty of Corbeil in 1326. The Treaty bound King Charles IV and Robert the Bruce in a mutual self-defence pact against the English, who that year saw the abdication of Bannockburn loser King Edward II and his replacement with the teenaged Edward III.

He had his grandfather’s obsession with ruling the Scots, and came north with an army which Douglas and Randolph smashed into smithereens with a smaller Scottish force at the Battle of Stanhope Park in Country Durham on August 3-4, 1327. Edward III was almost captured by Douglas, and suitably chastened, he sued for peace.

Randolph played a major part in negotiating the Treaty of Northampton-Edinburgh in 1328 which recognised Scotland’s independence supposedly once and for all. By then he was already in charge of the household of Robert the Bruce’ son and heir David, and when Bruce died at Cardross in 1329, the Earl of Moray became Regent. Despite suffering from kidney disease, he was a wise regent and when Edward Balliol marched on Scotland with English support in 1332, Randolph gathered an army to meet the usurper. Sadly, he died of his disease on July 20, 1332, even as he readied the Scots to combat the invaders who won the Battle of Dupplin Moor on August 12, during which Randolph’s son, also Thomas, the 2nd Earl of Moray, was killed.