Back in the Day: The Wolf of Badenoch's career of bloodletting

The battle within the national party is as nothing compared to the bloodletting – literally so – within the House of Stewart, even before James VI went south to become James I of England in 1603.

Regicide, parricide, fratricide and general bad behaviour made the Stewarts a distinctly unpleasant lot over the 232 years of Stewart rule of Scotland alone. Yet they survived, and as the Stuarts they even ruled England for a century, except when Oliver Cromwell was at his wartiest.

It all started with the first Stewart royal family. Their story starred a real baddie, indeed, probably the baddest man in Scottish history. Alexander Stewart, the Earl of Buchan, known only after his lifetime as the Wolf of Badenoch – no-one would have dared to call him that to his face. As the man responsible for dishing out justice – usually of the roughest variety – in the north of Scotland in the late 14th century, he was a combination of Robin Hood’s opponent the Sheriff of Nottingham and J R Ewing out of Dallas, with a touch of any number of Bond villains thrown in.

As I explained last week, this month will see the 650th anniversary of the arrival on the Scottish throne of the House of Stewart, with Robert Stewart as King Robert II of Scotland succeeding to the monarchy upon the death of King David II, second and last king of the House of Bruce.

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By the age of 55, when he became king on February 22, 1371, Robert Stewart – so called because his family were the hereditary High Stewards of Scotland – had four legitimate sons, unlike David II who had no heir. The Stewart sons were John, Earl of Carrick, the future King Robert III; Walter, Lord of Fife; Robert, later Duke of Albany; and Alexander, Earl of Buchan. All four had been illegitimate in the eyes of the church, which did not recognise the marriage of their father and Elizabeth Mure as they were too closely related. As I showed last week, Robert successfully petitioned the Pope for a declaration that his marriage was legitimate, and so his sons and daughters by Elizabeth were also legitimated. That meant they could succeed their father as King of Scots.

I will deal fully with the other three sons of Robert II next week, but for now I wish to concentrate on the Wolf of Badenoch and am going to suggest that the long division between Highlands and Lowlands began with this extraordinary individual who I shall call Buchan after his earldom.

For this account I have relied on the works about the early Stewart kings by Stephen Ian Boardman, professor of mediaeval Scottish history in the department of Scottish history at the University of Edinburgh. He was previously Mackie lecturer in history at the University of Aberdeen, and has held the Glenfiddich Research Fellowship at St Andrews. He is recognised as the foremost expert on the early Stewarts.

Another older source is Sir John Scott Keltie, who wrote about the Earl of Buchan in his 1875 publication, A History of the Scottish Highlands.

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He gave a brief description of some of Buchan’s havoc: “In the month of May 1390, he descended from his heights and burned the town of Forres, with the choir of the church and the manse of the archdeacon.

“And in June following, he burnt the town of Elgin, the church of St Giles, the hospital of Maison Dieu and the cathedral, with 18 homes of the canons and chaplains in the college of Elgin. He also plundered these churches of their sacred utensils and vestments which he carried off.”

If that was all that Buchan had done, he would scarcely have earned the nickname Wolf. But his career of pillage and bloodletting was rather more extensive as I shall show.

Being the youngest son of King Robert II meant that Alexander probably calculated from an early age that he would never succeed to the throne.

He was born about 1343 and he seems to have lived the life of a noble son of an exalted house. It was said he was his father’s favourite and his every whim indulged. Other than that, he is fairly anonymous until he first appears in written history in the 1360s. With his father Robert, Alexander was told by the Scottish Parliament to enforce good behaviour among their men at arms, especially those based in Badenoch, the lands east of Lochaber and west of the Cairngorms. These lands had come to the Stewarts through Robert’s marriage to Euphemia, Countess of Moray, who was his second wife.

With Robert controlling land across Scotland, Alexander appears to have been put in charge of the Badenoch lands from an early age, and he is known to have favoured Highland mercenaries in his entourage, known as caterans. They could be very unruly, so the authorities’ next actions are understandable.

BOTH Robert and Alexander were imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle in 1368 for breaking their oath to keep their men in check. Yet both were soon released not least because Robert was still heir presumptive to King David II. When he died in 1371, Robert II came to the throne and practically one of his first actions was to make Alexander the first Lord of Badenoch.

According to one account: “The name by which he is best known in history — the Wolf of Badenoch — describes him to the life. Cruel, vindictive, and despotic — a Celtic Attila, as he has been called — he resembles one of those half-human, half-bestial barons depicted in Erckmann-Chatrian’s romances, who were the terror of France and Germany during the middle ages.”

In person he was tall and powerfully built, and he is supposed to have had a black beard that emphasised his wild appearance. There is no doubt he was always headstrong but also appears to have played the role of the dutiful son to perfection. The fact that he was a Lowlander just added to the perception that he was a conqueror.

His father continued to pile honours upon Alexander. In relatively swift order he was made Earl of Buchan and was made justiciar, or chief law officer, of all the lands extending from northern Perthshire to Speyside. It was north of Grantown-on-Spey that Buchan made his headquarters on an island in Lochindorb. There had been a castle there since the time of the war of independence and now Buchan rebuilt it and strengthened the walls so that it was impregnable – and the remains of the castle remain a forbidding sight to this day.

He had other homes, and used them as headquarters for his small army of caterans who went about his nasty business, confident that their pillaging and theft had legal approval – after all, they worked for the justiciar.

Legend has been piled upon legend, and though there is some truth in the reports of Buchan’s worst excesses, such as his land grabs, he could not possibly have had the time to carry out all the crimes attributed to him. He did, however, lease Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness from his brother-in-law and then claimed full ownership on spurious grounds.

ALL the time Buchan was adding to his land ownership, not least when he married Euphemia, Countess of Ross, and gained all the lands of Ross which extended from the Outer Hebrides to Aberdeenshire. They were joint-owned with his wife, but it was his increasing estrangement from the Countess which triggered some of Buchan’s worst excesses. He could only blame himself – he had taken up with a mistress, Mairead inghean Eachann, who bore him a son, Alexander, later the Earl of Mar. Buchan increasingly became impatient with Euphemia Ross’s failure to produce an heir and that was to lead to big trouble for him.

In 1384, Robert II was set aside from ruling the country by his own son, John, Earl of Carrick. His coup d’etat, he argued, was particularly because Robert could not control the depredations of Buchan, the favoured son. We’ll see next week what happened to Carrick.

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Summons were issued against Buchan for killings committed by his men, and he had to surrender a tiny portion of his lands, but no formal charges were brought against the man who, after all, was the king’s son. Suffice to say that the Earl of Buchan laid low for a while before carrying on his unmerry way, having already made enemies of the local bishops by seizing some of their lands, too – not a clever move.

As we shall see next week, his brother Walter, Lord of Fife, became guardian in lieu of his brother John in 1388, and he was made of sterner stuff. He stripped Buchan of his justiciar role and that was tantamount to saying Buchan was able to be prosecuted.

In 1389, Countess Euphemia went to the local bishops to complain that their marriage was a sham because Buchan was openly living with his mistress. Concerned he would lose the Ross lands, Buchan promised to go back to his wife, but did not do so.

When Robert II died in 1390, Buchan had lost his main protector. Bishop Alexander Bur of Moray decreed his excommunication and now the Wolf of Badenoch erupted.

Gathering his old force of mercenary caterans – the chronicler Wyntoun described them as “wild, wykked Hieland-men” - Buchan rampaged through Moray lands and destroyed the town of Forres and burned Pluscarden Abbey before arriving at Elgin.

Elgin Cathedral was described by Bishop Alexander Bur as “the pride of the land, the glory of the realm, the delight of wayfarers and strangers, a praise and boast among foreign nations, lofty in its towers without, splendid in its appointments within, its countless jewels and rich vestments, and the multitude of its priests, serving God in righteousness.” It was known as the Lantern of the North. The Wolf of Badenoch set it on fire, saying: “I have lit the lantern.”

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The cathedral’s interior was entirely consumed, as were the 18 houses of the canons who resided at the cathedral. In addition, he burned the parish church of St Giles and the local hospital. It was a crime against the church and the country, and Buchan knew what he was doing – sending a signal that, if necessary, he would have a part in the power play of his family. And as he was already excommunicated, there was nothing the Church could do to punish him. His family could, however.

The bishop’s glowing description of the cathedral may have been because he was appealing for aid and reparation, and with his brothers against him, Buchan was compelled to yield. According to one historian, only “on condition that he should make satisfaction to the bishop and church of Moray and obtain absolution from the Pope, he was absolved by the Bishop of St Andrews in the Blackfriars Church at Perth.”

He only pretended to be truly repentant, but certainly did make it up to the church. After his death in 1394 – according to legend he played chess with the devil and lost – the Wolf of Badenoch was interred in Dunkeld Cathedral, where his effigy can still be seen.