Chapter Nineteen: Perfidious Albany
A map of the major clans of Scotland and their areas of influence.
Edmund, Duke of Rutland’s return to England from Ireland was a muted affair. He was glad to be back in his homeland, but the situation he had been called on to help mend was far from good. He returned his family to their Devon estates, then pressed further east to meet with Edward IV in London. Here, they discussed strategy about how to face the coming crisis, and what to do against the Scots.
Baynard’s Castle, 7th August 1479
The noise radiating from Edward IV’s private chamber was immense. He and Edmund, Duke of Rutland had been in there for a while now - and while the conversation had started as two brothers regaling each other with family stories, the conversation had now turned to politics, and what to do with Scotland and Gloucester.
“There’s no need to punish him, Ned.” Edmund said.
“How can you say that?” Edward protested. “I worked hard to build a peace with Scotland, and he has sabotaged that.”
“He sabotaged your peace,” Edmund said slowly, “to defend his own honour once he discovered that his wife’s legs were not open only to him. He has done nothing wrong.”
“I know that.” Edward said brusquely. “But war is coming unless we do something.”
“It’s too late now. Whatever we do against Dickon, there will be war.” Edmund said, and Edward frowned.
“How have you come to that conclusion, Eddy?” He asked. Edmund sighed and sat down, his hands on his knees - a strange mannerism Edward had noticed on his genius of a brother every time Edmund was about to explain something that no-one else had realised, but was crystal clear to him.
“Think about it, Ned. Before you declared war on France, you gave them a chance for peace first - you demanded that Louis hand the Red Prince over, and that would be the end of it.”
“He was never going to do that, though.” Edward snorted derisively.
“I agree. But imagine he did. You had already prepared an army, raised a tax, formed a treaty with Brittany and Burgundy and planned the campaign. No matter what Louis did, there was going to be a war.”
“True.” Edward nodded. “But what’s your point?”
“My point,” Edmund said, “is that James III is doing exactly to us what you did to Louis. He is giving us a chance to avoid war by punishing Dickon, or giving him over to the Scots. But James wants war, and he will have war, regardless of what we do.”
Edward frowned. “Do you believe so?”
“I do.” Edmund nodded. “So do nothing towards Dickon; there’s no need. Instead, prepare for war. The Scots have attacked us before, and we have won well enough. Let James throw his men at us, and we will beat them back all the way to Edinburgh.”
In Scotland, James III’s new anti-English stance was met at first with excitement. For a long time there had been discontent in Scotland with James III, not least because of his policies for an alliance with England - the promotion of low-born men in court, debasing the Scottish coinage for his gain and at Scotland’s pain, and wasting time on futile quests to try and assert control over Brittany, Guelders and Saintonge on weak hereditary claims were all grievances held by various Scottish noblemen. His failed attempts to build a Scottish empire in France led to the degradation of the Scottish kingdom itself as he failed to fulfil the roles expected of a king. But James’s new policy of backing the Red Prince as the rightful king of England and pressing for an invasion of England was immediately popular in Scotland, and James enjoyed a surge in popularity. That was, until James’s brother Alexander, Duke of Albany came forward in parliament to describe what had happened between Gloucester, Crichton and Margaret Stewart. James had conveniently left this detail out of his speech to parliament, knowing that it only reflected poorly on his family - Gloucester had been within his right to defend his honour after discovering that his wife had been adulterous, after all. James III now found himself ridiculed for only wishing war with England when it suited “the honour of his whore of a sister, not the good of the nation” (as described by the Earl of Lennox). However, the truth of the matter was that no matter the cassus beli, James III wanted a war with England, and that was something the majority of the nobility could support. James publicly announced his will to support the Red Prince’s claim to the English throne, going so far as to name him King Edward V of England in Edinburgh on 12th October 1479. With this, the Scottish nobility put their support behind James III and the new Edward V, and began raising money for war with England. However, Albany’s revelations that it was not all just for Scotland led to bitterness.
After telling parliament about the Crichton affair, James III’s brother Alexander, Duke of Albany feared for his life under James III. He fled Scotland and joined Edward IV. Albany was a spiteful betrayal who knew what Gloucester had done, but was so alienated from the rest of his family that he didn’t care. He offered his services to Edward IV, and promised that if Edward supported his claim to Scotland as King Alexander IV, then he would hand the Red Prince over to Edward willingly. Edward, intrigued by the possibility, sent Rutland to Durham to negotiate a treaty with Albany. After spending just over a month negotiating, Rutland and Albany signed the Treaty of Durham on 25th October 1479. This treaty agreed that:
- England would support Alexander, Duke of Albany’s claim to the Scottish throne and recognise him as King Alexander IV.
- Once Alexander was established on the throne, his daughter Egidia would be engaged to Edward’s son Richard V, Duke of Normandy [1]. Her dowry would be the transfer of Berwick, Roxburgh and Coldingham from Scotland to England.
- A truce would be enacted between England and Scotland, lasting for fifty years (starting with the beginning of Alexander’s reign).
- Alexander would hand over all Lancastrian opposition still in Scotland over to England, in particular the Red Prince.
- Once Alexander was on the throne, he would pay £2,000 in pension to England every year for ten years.
With the treaty signed, England prepared itself for the warpath once more. Edward IV summoned parliament in August 1479 and passed a tax, which he used to raise an army - he currently planned to invade Scotland in March 1480. Meanwhile, he ordered the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland to fortify the northern border - notably, he gave no such instructions to Gloucester. The Duke of Albany also did his part by sending letters to various disgruntled Scottish noblemen, encouraging them to rebel against James III. Edward organised a meeting between Albany and the Earls of Douglas and Ross, who were persuaded to swear loyalty to Albany as King Alexander IV of Scotland, and they used their connections to press for rebellion in their homelands and to disrupt James III’s preparations.
Following the Treaty of Durham, Albany was instructed to wait until the English army had been put together, but Albany got ahead of himself. He wrote to Scottish nobles proclaiming himself to be King Alexander IV, encouraging civil unrest in Scotland. The Earls of Douglas and Ross did the same and incited a rebellion in their homelands of Ross and the Hebrides, which erupted in November 1479, and the Earl of Lennox led a short-lived one in January 1480. These proved to be an effective strategy for Edward and Albany – by encouraging so many rebellions, he had tied down James III’s resources and spread his soldiers across the country, particularly in the northern highlands, about as far away from the English border as possible. That gave England an opportunity to invade with little initial resistance, and they did so on 17th March 1480 with an army drawn from Edward’s retainers, alongside soldiers drawn from his brothers George, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester and the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland. They also received soldiers from Wales, under the leadership of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who was married to Herbert’s daughter Maud. Edward issued letters to Gerald FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, asking him to bring a new Irish army together and launch them from Ulster to Scotland. At the same time, Rutland stayed in York, ensuring the war effort went well. All in all, the English force swelled to a mighty 36,000 soldiers. Edward would spare no expense to finally capture the Red Prince and end the Lancastrian threat.
[1] - Egidia is a gender-flipped version of Alexander’s OTL son Alexander. She is named after her mother Katherine Sinclair’s grandmother, Egidia Douglas.