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Forging a Scottish Identity: Otherness, Architecture and Military Traditions

Adverse Effects: Remarks on the “Scottish antidote” in the 15th Century

Réflexions sur l’antidote écossais au xve siècle
Clément Guézais

Résumés

Pour souligner l’ampleur du succès des troupes écossaises à la bataille de Baugé en 1421, le chroniqueur Walter Bower attribua la déclaration suivante au Pape Martin : « Vraiment, les Écossais sont un antidote aux Anglais ». Au cours des Guerres d’Indépendance, l’opposition avec l’Angleterre était devenue une composante centrale de l’imaginaire national écossais. Ce processus fut renforcé durant la Guerre de Cent ans, le contexte international favorisant le rapprochement de la France et de l’Écosse et l’intervention directe des Écossais sur le continent. L’hostilité proverbiale des Écossais à l’égard du voisin anglais était un élément de distinction qui comportait des avantages certains sur le plan idéologique, mais qui entraînait aussi son lot de risques. Ce développement ouvre de nouvelles pistes d’analyse quant aux opportunités offertes par l’antagonisme à l’égard de l’Angleterre, a fortiori dans un contexte écossais d’affirmation identitaire et de visibilité accrue sur la scène européenne ; il explore également les limites et les aspects négatifs que cela impliqua dans le traitement qu’en firent les auteurs continentaux.

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Texte intégral

  • 1 Norman Macdougall, An Antidote to the English, The Auld Alliance 1295-1560, Scottish History Matter (...)
  • 2 See Michel Duchein, “L’Écosse dans la guerre de Cent Ans”, Finances, pouvoirs et mémoire: mélanges (...)
  • 3 Elizabeth Bonner, “Scotland’s Auld Alliance with France, 1295–1560”, History, Wiley, vol. 84, n° 27 (...)
  • 4 According to John Duncan Mackie, “To Scotland’s relations with England, her relation with France fo (...)
  • 5 Gordon Donaldson claimed that “No one who knows Scotland and its people and keeps his eyes and his (...)
  • 6 Francisque Michel, Les Écossais en France et les Français en Écosse, London: Trubner & cie, 1862, 2 (...)
  • 7 Ibid., t. 2, 488.
  • 8 Brian G. H. Ditcham, The Employment of Foreign Mercenary Troops in the French Royal Armies 1415–147 (...)
  • 9 Ibid., 308.
  • 10 See Philippe Contamine, “Scottish soldiers in France in the second half of the fifteenth century: m (...)
  • 11 Brian G. H. Ditcham, The employment of foreign mercenary troops…, op. cit. 2.
  • 12 Elizabeth Bonner, who wrote extensively on the topic of the Alliance, describes Michel as “fundamen (...)
  • 13 “Truly, the Scots are an antidote to the English”, in Walter Bower, in D. E. R. Watt (ed.), Scotich (...)

1Some 20 years ago, Scottish historian Norman Macdougall published a book entirely dedicated to the “Auld Alliance”, covering the period 1295 to 1560.1 This work of reference, which offers a broad and yet acute outlook on the topic of the Franco-Scottish Alliance, has not been translated into French. Perhaps more importantly, Macdougall’s work does not have any French equivalent, or rather, any counterpart, although a few isolated case studies do exist.2 Very often, works on the Auld Alliance carry the weight of their respective national historiographies, traditions, questions and approaches. Comparing French and Scottish historiographies can be tricky, as the historic relationship between the two countries has been asymmetrical and uneven.3 An important milestone in Scottish history,4 the Auld Alliance has remained in the Scots memory.5 In France, the history of the “Auld Alliance” is still very much warped by the patriotic views of 19th-century historians such as Francisque Michel, who, in his massive 1862 study Les Écossais en France, les Français en Écosse, wrote that the Scots had to be praised for their “sacrifice” while fighting “our wars”,6 before stating in his conclusion that even if “Scotland owes us its civilisation, it has since paid its debt in full”.7 This discrepancy was well perceived by Brian Ditcham who, in in his seminal work on the employment of foreign mercenaries in the French royal armies observed that “even Contamine in his fundamental study of the French armies of the later middle ages seems, to my mind, to rather underplay the importance of the foreign element in these armies”.8 In his conclusion, Brian Ditcham also declared that “fifteenth century attitudes to foreign troops never reached the rather simple-minded romantic admiration for nos alliés fidèles les Écossais which appeared so often in the nineteenth century and remain in some books to this day”. According to him, Contamine’s treatment of “the foreigners seems to be that they are in themselves a symptom of the collapse of royal control; a fair enough conclusion as far as it goes but by no means the last word which can be said on the subject”.9 Although Ditcham’s words held strong when he wrote them (in 1978), it would be unfair not to mention the critical works Contamine published in his later years, showing his growing interest in the topic.10 These studies certainly contributed to reassess the role played by the Scots in French affairs during the 15th century, and to take them out of “the fringes of other subjects”11 where they used to be confined. Still, the influential work of Francisque Michel, packed with “romantic” and outdated views, remains unchallenged and unmatched by the more recent French historiography.12 On the contrary, Macdougall’s work allows us to weigh in the importance of the Auld Alliance—focusing on its medieval aspects—from a Scottish perspective. The books title, An Antidote to the English, is far from neutral or inconspicuous. It harks back to a famous sentence written down by one of Scotland’s most prominent medieval chroniclers, Walter Bower: “Vere scoti Anglorum tiriaca sunt”.13

2As reminded by MacDougall at the very beginning of his book, this remark, uttered by Pope Martin V around Easter of 1421, was tightly associated with recent news of a Franco-Scottish victory against the English at the battle of Baugé in France. Although the pope might have had his own motives to rejoice, we have no proof that these words were actually ever said: in fact, no surviving French text mentions them. Beyond the pope’s aura, however, was Walter Bower’s craft and deliberate choice of words.

3In his Scotichronicon, Bower extensively described the feats and actions of the Scots in France after 1420. Several thousand had sailed from Scotland to support the dauphin Charles dwindling war effort in the wake of the defeat of the royal army at Agincourt in 1415. The prince had lost control over Paris and taken refuge south of the Loire, in Bourges. The treaty of Troyes had made the son of Henry V heir to the French crown. This was a good time for the Scots to intervene and to show their true valour. In the following development, we will look at the benefits and opportunities their arrival created from a Scottish chroniclers perspective, as well as the potential backlash it generated in France.

A Shift in the Alliance: France and Scotland in the Early 15th Century

  • 14 Donald E. R. Watt, A History Book for Scots, Selections from Scotichronicon, Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd (...)
  • 15Non Scotus est Christe cui liber non placet iste”, Scotichronicon…, op. cit., t. 8, 340.
  • 16 Donald E. R. Watt, “A National Treasure? The Scotichronicon of Walter Bower”, Writing Scotland’s Hi (...)

4Bower was born in Haddington, near Edinburgh, in 1385, and was among the first students to graduate at the newly founded University of St Andrews, whose first masters had often been educated in France. He became the abbot of Inchcolm abbey and regularly attended the royal court of James I until the king’s brutal assassination in 1437. A scholar and an intellectual, he was also deeply involved in Scotland’s political affairs: he acted as one of the commissioners for the collection of the ransom of King James I of Scotland in 1423 and 1424. As a diplomat, he went to France in 1433 to discuss the possibility of marriage of the king’s daughter to the Dauphin of France. Most importantly, Bower was also very keen on having Scotland embedded in the larger European stage as well as on providing Scots with a national history.14 The Scotichronicon, written between 1440 and 1447, was an augmentation of John of Fordun’s Chronica Gentis Scotorum (c.1360). The value and patriotic nature of this earlier chronicle was not to be understated: as Bower put it “by Jesus, he is no true Scot, he who dislikes this book”.15 For historians Donald Watt and Sally Mapstone, the Scotichronicon may be considered as a Scottish national treasure.16

  • 17 Brian. G. H. Ditcham, The employment of foreign mercenary…, op. cit., 174-175.
  • 18 See Michael Brown, The Black Douglases, War and Lordship in Late Medieval Scotland, 1300-1455, East (...)

5When he began writing the Scotichronicon in 1440, Walter Bower could rely on the relatively contemporary nature of some of the events he was recounting. In addition to his personal experience and knowledge of French affairs, he could also count on the long-standing and proven history of the Auld Alliance: the pivotal Treaty of Corbeil had been signed more than a century earlier (in 1326) and the diplomatic link between the two kingdoms had grown stronger, to the point of becoming an established tradition. So far, the Alliance had mostly been a loose political and diplomatic tool to resist English pressures. There had been a few expeditions in Scotland where French knights were involved during the 14th century (most notably in 1385), but the Alliance was mainly following a course that promoted the logic of a pressured double front against England. However, in 1420, the Dauphin Charles needed tangible reinforcements, while he could seek no help from Spain, a traditional ally.17 This provided a unique opportunity for the Scottish lords of the Lowlands (chiefly among them the Douglases),18 who exploited the situation to provide the help the French ally so direly needed.

  • 19 See Philippe Contamine, “Scottish soldiers in France in the second half of the fifteenth century: m (...)
  • 20 An older French chronicle (12th century) by Guibert de Nogent recounts the story of Scots arriving (...)

6Glory and rewards were to be expected. Very often, the Scottish soldiers who left for France and who managed to survive (by no means a majority) settled on the continent and soon became ordinary French denizens (or local residents).19 For an intellectual and keen political writer such as Bower, however, there was a card to play and a greater story to tell. France was going to provide a remarkable background for the Scots to step on the continental stage. In France, however, Scotland was often portrayed as a remote, rough and poor corner of the habitable world.20 The arrival of the Scots was supposed to prevent a military catastrophe, but it also caused a shift in the traditional balance of the Auld Alliance. The image of the “antidote” was not to be embraced so eagerly by contemporary French authors.

Warriors from Afar

7Although it is tempting to believe that these two perspectives might be directly related, it is in fact rather difficult to assess whether or not the French sources would take Scottish outlooks and testimonies into account. For the sake of caution it should be remembered that this interplay of texts is not, strictly speaking, a “dialogue” or “exchange”. What follows is therefore an attempt to better understand potentially clashing narratives which relate to similar historic events.

  • 21 Dan Embree (ed.), Short Scottish Prose Chronicles, Edward Donald Kennedy, Kathleen Daly, Boydell Pr (...)

8It is unlikely that French chroniclers were fully aware or concerned by Bower’s attempts at celebrating Scotland. The affairs of Scotland and the striking features of its people were not completely unknown, however. This appears to be clearer during the 15th century, when the exchanges between the two kingdoms reached an unprecedented scale. In 1464, the Vraie Chronicque d’Escoce was written in French. This history of the kingdom of Scotland was likely written by John Ireland and gifted by Bérault Stuart (1447-1508), the grandson of John Stuart (1365-1429), a Scottish nobleman who was granted lands in France by Charles VII in 1423 in exchange for his military service against the English.21

  • 22 “Environ ce temps ou au devant, il estoit venu une grande armée d’Escoce, bien Xm, la ou estoit le (...)
  • 23 “Eulx, ayans devant les yeulx le proverbe de Chaton qui dit : Pugna pro patria, et voyans les Anglo (...)
  • 24 Robert Blondel, Œuvres de Robert Blondel: historien normand du XVe siècle, Rouen : A. Héron, 1891, (...)
  • 25 “Robert de Brus, roy d’Escosse, perdit plusieurs batailles contre les Angloiz avant que fortune luy (...)
  • 26 “Toutes foiz vous ne povez ne ne savez trouver manière de les subjuguer ne mectre en vostre obéiss (...)

9Nobody could ignore the military influence of the Scots on the continent at the time. This is visible in numerous texts written during the 15th century. Every contemporary French chronicle accounted for the Scottish reinforcements sent to France between 1419 and 1424. In the Chronique du Mont Saint-Michel, these troops, under the orders of the “connestable d’Escoce, le comte de Boucan”, are said to be made of valiant and loyal fighters, who came specifically to rescue the king of France.22 In his Chronique de Charles VII, Jean Chartier tells the story of the battle of Sark (1448). He was made aware of the battle fought in Scotland through three Scottish priests he had met in Saint-Denis. In this French text, the proud and tenacious Scots are depicted as a people eager to defend their small kingdom against all odds. They are good warriors (“bons et sobtils garroieux”), who are embracing Caton’s supreme instruction to die for their country and who embody the very image of resistance against foreign tyranny.23 Robert Blondel, a Norman chronicler of the 15th century also tells the heroic tale of a band of Scottish soldiers who successfully defended the church of Barneville (in Normandy) against a considerable English host.24 The Débat des Hérauts d’Armes de France et d’Angleterre, written between 1456 and 1461 also alludes to the Scottish past, by recounting the inspiring story of the king of Scotland Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), who after being defeated several times managed to turn the tide and to free his kingdom from the English.25 Although England is famously bigger and more powerful than Scotland, the English have been shamed by the unyielding resistance of the Scots.26 To some extent, the military resolve of the Scots, moulded by their will to defend their poor and remote little kingdom, was known and looked upon favourably in France.

  • 27 “devoratores vini et multonem nebulones, Scotichronicon…, op. cit., t. 8, 115. See also Brian G. H (...)

10The celebration of Scottish might was not an obvious tale to tell because of the prevailing prejudice against the Scots. According to Bower, there were rumours circulating at the court of the dauphin Charles, laced with jealousy and spite; not everyone in France was happy to see these foreigners summoned to save the kingdom. After the Franco-Scottish victory at Baugé, Bower wrote that the French dauphin gloated in front of his entourage, and mocked those who had previously said that the Scots were good for nothing mutton eaters and wine drinkers.27

  • 28 Norman Macdougall, An Antidote to the English, op. cit., 66.

11In traditional, especially French, historiography, the battle of Baugé is often regarded as an anomaly; a lone victory to be opposed to the military defeats that followed: the battle of Cravant (1423), the battle of Verneuil (1424) and the battle of herrings, or Rouvray (1429). This cortege of failures, ending with the awaited intervention of Joan of Arc in Orléans, has been used by historians, starting with medieval French chroniclers, to criticize or mitigate the part played by the Scots. But the battle of Baugé, it may be argued, marked a turning point because it “dented the myth of English invincibility”,28 which had plagued the morale of the French since the battle of Agincourt. Although this singular battle was later buried under the chain of subsequent defeats, its initial impact was critical and validated the significance of Scottish military intervention.

  • 29 See Johnny Milner, “The Battle of Baugé, March 1421: Impact and Memory”, History, 91, 2006, 484-507
  • 30 Elizabeth Cust, Some account of the Stuarts of Aubigny, in France, 1422-1672, London: Chiswick pres (...)
  • 31 Michael Brown, The Black Douglases, op. cit., 220.
  • 32 “The Britons it [the Scots nation] first drove out, the Picts it utterly destroyed, and, even thoug (...)
  • 33 John of Fordun, Chronica Gentis Scotorum, edited by William F. Skene, Edmonston and Douglas, Edinbu (...)

12During the battle of Baugé, Henry’s lieutenant in France and his own brother, Clarence, was killed. As Henry’s heir presumptive, the impact of his death cannot be understated.29 The Scots were richly rewarded by the French prince, who was seemingly very happy about his choice of calling forth the Scots to aid. The news of their victory, carried all the way back to Scotland, was seen as a good omen; had the Scots been defeated during their first encounter with the English in France, they might not have kept on eagerly pouring in France in the following years. In a letter patent written several years after the battle, Charles VII, when confirming John Stuarts rights over the lordship of Aubigny, wrote that he was doing so in celebration of Stuarts involvement in fighting “les Anglais, nos anciens ennemis”. The letter also praised John for the qualities he had displayed during the battle of Baugé.30 After a first wave of reinforcements in 1423, Archibald Douglas, 4th earl of Douglas, landed with an impressive host in La Rochelle on 7 March 1424. On 24 April, Charles VII reviewed 6,500 Scottish troops, and a few days later, Douglas was granted the duchy of Touraine. The new king’s “lieutenant-general in the waging of his war through all the kingdom of France” was effectively acting as a viceroy. According to Michael Brown, “no other foreign noble and no Frenchman unconnected to the royal house was given ducal rank by a king of late-medieval France. Touraine had been held in the previous century by the sons of kings, including Charles’s brother”. He adds that “the grant to Douglas appalled many French, especially the inhabitants of Tours and the surrounding province”.31 The Scots had earned their title. Their singular ability at resisting the English efficiently was at the core of their national discourse. It was already outlined in the Declaration of Arbroath (1320)32 and in Fordun’s mythical account of the first alliance between Charlemagne and king Achaius of Scotland.33 Fordun explains that Charlemagne sent envoys to king Achaius in 789 in support of the latter’s attempt to drive back English invaders. According to Fordun and Bower, the Scots demonstrated their abilities in fighting the English, to the point of making that trait a symbol of their identity. This narrative was expanded during the 15th century, especially after the victory of Baugé, and the expression “an antidote to the English” was no longer strictly confined to the British Isles. The Scottish military fame had a global outreach in the Christian world.

  • 34 “Quocumque perrexero Scotos tam vivos quam defunctos in barbam meam reperio”, in Walter Bower, Scot (...)

13Pope Martin V’s words somewhat cemented realities by giving the Scots a specific role that made them unique: they were meant to provide a solution, a cure to the English problem. In his text, Bower emphasised the idea that, beyond their initial success at Baugé, the Scots’ unique skills and qualities against the English were universal. He went as far as suggesting that even the English shared his views. In 1422, Bower wrote that the English army had pillaged the sanctuary in Saint Fiacre after the siege of Meaux. Bower made the interesting choice of relating Fiacre and Fergus, the son of a Scottish king. The sacrilegious plundering caused an epidemic that began to rage in the English ranks. King Henry V, having asked his doctors the cause of his illness, declared that “Wherever I chase the Scots, dead or alive, I find them even in my beard”.34 Bower provides visual details of the king’s downfall, who died horrendously in Vincennes having endured the putrefaction of his guts, lungs and genitals. Bower’s narrative made it clear that there was no escape from Scottish retribution. The Scots had already made a strong impression on the pope; their saints were also able to strike down the English king. The godly aspect of the Scottish antidote could not be clearer.

14This process of national definition did not exist in a void: it relied extensively on an antagonistic force, the English, to support itself. In a narrative which aimed at underlining Scottish features, the roles attributed to both allies and adversaries are essential. Left unchecked, the English poison was spreading in all directions. Even the mighty kingdom of France needed saving. Conflicts in France offered a perfect opportunity for the Scots to reinforce their sense of national identity, by playing an important role on the international stage. This vision of a world torn by antithetical forces was not Bower’s own making. When looking at contemporary political treaties, it appears that the chronicler’s logic could easily be shared and understood outside Scotland, which made it even more potent.

No Peace on Earth

  • 35 Françoise Autrand, “L’enfance de l’art diplomatique: La rédaction des documents diplomatiques en Fr (...)

15The ideal vision of a Christian world at peace was already challenged during the 14th century. Nicolas Oresme, in his commentary of Aristotle’s Politics written in the 1370s had reached a somewhat bitter conclusion: according to him, it would be marvellous to see a world devoid of conflict, put under the rule of wise and cautious kings. This, however, is a “poetical fiction”, and “this world has to be seen for what it is”, divided, broken into rival and warring factions. Peace, according to Oresme, it to be found in Heaven, not on earth. The only key to stability, to a semblance of harmony, would then lie in a global system of checks and balances, a complex puzzle game of geopolitics where each piece has a designated, polarised function.35

  • 36 “Se les Escoz et lez Galois, les Espaignos et cheux d’Irlande en estoient interrogiez, voire tous l (...)
  • 37 “Lesdiz Angloiz n’ont nulz voisins a qui ils n’aient fait et facent continuelment guerre mortelle [ (...)

16Presenting England as a poison, or rather a cancer of the Christian body was also a central feature of French war propaganda. This played a part in defining the roles of neighbouring kingdoms, in building a map of the world where England would be locked and effectively thwarted. In his Traité contre les Anglais (1413-1416), Jean de Montreuil wrote that if you were to ask Scottish, Welsh, Spanish or Irish people, they would all say that the English are unbearable, harsh people, and rightly hated by their neighbours.36 His treaty A Toute la Chevalerie (between 1406 and 1412) used similar arguments to rally support against England, a global and grievous threat.37

  • 38 Philippe De Commynes, Mémoires, traduit de l’ancien français par Joël Blanchard, Paris : Agora, Poc (...)

17By fully embracing its role of antidote, Scotland could expect some acknowledgement, respect or gratitude, and the pope had already delivered his verdict on the matter. To the very least, this mandate (entrusted by God) was going to secure Scotland’s place among the community of Western powers. This is perhaps best seen in a chapter written by Philippe de Commynes, a French historian and diplomat of the 15th century, who, in his Mémoires, wrote a chapter entitled Réflexion sur l’équilibre politique. Commenting on the predisposition of man for warfare, Commynes wrote: “it seems to me that these divisions are necessary, that these stings and foes that God has associated to every State have to be”. He continues, writing that “God has not made anything in this world without also making its opposite, to keep it in fear and humility. Against the kingdom of France he has raised the English, against the English the Scots”.38

The Essence of Resistance

  • 39 One of the most often quoted line of the declaration states that “for, as long as a hundred of us r (...)
  • 40 “Tout le povair d’Escoce sans gueires excepter, riches et povres, petits et grans, vieils et jenne (...)
  • 41 Jean Chartier, Chronique de Charles VII…, op. cit.
  • 42 Et si est vray que vostre royaume d’Angleterre est plus puissant de richesses, de bonnes villes et (...)

18One might fairly think that this perception, based on a basic yet sound reasoning, was beneficial to Scotland. These French theories seem to validate Bower’s declaration, in making Scotland an irreplaceable part of a wider system. Scottish historical facts are not a matter of great concern for French authors, but it is worth mentioning a passage from the Chronique parisienne anonyme du XIVe siècle, which tells the story of the battle of Falkirk of 1298, during which the Scots were defeated. Still, the Scots, under the aegis of William Wallace (executed in 1305), are depicted in a very positive way, which echoes the tone of the Declaration of Arbroath.39 The chronicler declares that everybody in Scotland came together to safeguard their kingdom’s freedom: the wealthy and the poor, the tall and the small, the child and the elder, noblemen and peasants, men and woman. According to the author, they would rather die than be put under English rule.40 The effect produced by this cumulative list is interesting, as it essentialises the character of Scotland. A similar structure is displayed in Jean Chartier’s previously mentioned Chronique de Charles VII.41 Scotland is a land of resistance, only echoed in the virtu of its inhabitants. In the Débat des Hérauts d’Armes, an anonymous author writing between 1456 and 1461 mocked England, a kingdom bent on starting wars it was unable to end or win. The French herald (who is facing an English counterpart) declares that although England is much richer and more powerful than Scotland, it never managed to subdue its small neighbour.42 Depending on the angle, one can either see it as a praise of Scottish tenacity or as a sly piece of mockery; how could England hope to have the upper hand over France, when it is unable to triumph over its stunted rival? Even then, the verdict of the Débat is based on an unconventional observation. It underlines a unique and grotesque situation, an oddity that throws England pride off balance. In any case, it is the unusual, extraordinary status of Scotland that provides the author the key to develop his argument.

The Unsettled Perception of the Scots in France

  • 43 According to Michel Duchein, the alliance between France and Scotland was an “essentially bellicose (...)
  • 44Inter alia, per quae regantium et Regnorum exaltatio procuratur et acquiritur pacis et tranquilla (...)

19The standpoint that Scotland assumed and promoted brought its own problems. Although Bower’s narrative could assert Scotland’s identity, credibility and status on the international stage, it also limited its potential outreach. This clear and efficient definition was also very limited and conditional. In the eye of the French onlookers, it also reinforced a hateful yet strong sense of proximity between Scotland and England. Somehow, this idea could be condensed in a reversed Auld Alliance, an “old Hostility”, driven and woven by repulsive and deeply negative values. Although the Auld Alliance itself has often been described as a military compact,43 it is very important, when looking at the diplomatic texts that gave it shape, to notice how flawless, how virtuous it tries to be: these texts explicitly avoid any aggressive or warmongering contents, focusing instead on friendship between neighbouring princes eager to promote peace and guarantee the prosperity of their lands.44

  • 45 “Anglois d’un costé et d’autre costé Escots sont très-bonnes gens d’armes, et quant ils se treuvent (...)
  • 46 ibid., t. 10, 404.

20Such proximity is also visible in the link between the poison and its antidote, but it is a twisted one. In essence, the cure and the disease go hand in hand, they share common traits, to the point of being difficult to tell apart. First and foremost, there is the idea that the Scots and the English somehow come together; there are as one when they fight one another, growing strangely similar. In France, their encounter is expected on the battlefield. For Jean Froissart (1337-1410), a court historian from the Low Countries, the Scots and the English are similar in their warmongering nature, as well as in the fury they display when fighting against one another.45 According to the French admiral Jean de Vienne, who led an expedition in Scotland in 1385, the similarity runs deeper. It has to do with a singular “British” insular and violent profile. According to him, the Scots and the English are quite similar, especially when it comes to coveting the wealth of their neighbours.46

  • 47 “Nous voyons les estangiers allez de nostre royaume qui passent les fortunes de mer pour venir a no (...)
  • 48 Jacques Krynen, “Naturel, Essai sur l’argument de la Nature dans la pensée politique à la fin du Mo (...)

21The situation was uncomfortable for the Scots whose reputation depended on their ability to provide the French with military support. How good is, indeed, an antidote that does not work? The whole thing made for a dangerous bet: among the suspicious French nobles, living on a land occupied by populations that feared and resented the presence of soldiers, there was not much room for errors. The Scots were expected to provide quick and compelling results in the fight against the English. Even then, their presence was raising anxious questions: Alain Chartier, a famous French propagandist, poet and diplomat, who had himself travelled to Scotland in 1428 to renew the alliance, was keen on celebrating the courage of the Scots, who had crossed the seas to risk their lives defending a kingdom that was not theirs.47 However, Chartier’s real message was addressed first and foremost to the French: using an argument based on nature, Chartier declared that bee colonies had to protect their own hives, and that such a sacred mission should not, if possible, fall into the hands of a foreign power.48 The antidote, just like the poison it was fighting, was alien. An alien, dangerous force, made of men at arms. This lesser of two evils approach was not something the French were comfortable with. Although the Scottish intervention in France had proven a great source of pride and assertion for the Scottish authors, it was, in the meantime, exposing the blatant weakness of France; a powerless, weakened organism, infected by a foreign force and reluctantly saved by yet another one. The fact of relying on foreign troops was also seen as going against everything that the French propagandists, including Chartier, were trying to build. It was going against a tale aimed at restoring a sense of French pride and self-confidence. These changes did not suit the ideal representation of France, as a central, balanced, exemplary and powerful force standing tall in the middle of the Western world. When the Scottish antidote stopped providing quick results, there was no mercy to be expected from the French allies.

  • 49 This was not new. Writing about the Scots who welcomed French on their shores in 1385 to fight agai (...)
  • 50 “Là povoit-on ouyr les Escochois en leur mauvais franchois, tel que communément le scèvent parler, (...)
  • 51 Alexandre Tuetey (ed.), Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris, 1405-1449, Paris : H. Champion, 1881, 195- (...)
  • 52 “Et pour passer la riviere de Sarte, ils prirent les croix blanches, se feignans François, et assem (...)
  • 53 Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris..., op. cit., 296.

22There is no better way to explore the cursed association between the antidote and the poison than to read the French chroniclers, as the defeats were piling on, and the Scottish saviours finally exposed for what they really were. First, there was confusion in language49: although a chronicler, telling the story of the defeat of Cravant, wrote that the Scots who were about to be slaughtered managed to insult their fleeing allies using rudimentary French or “mauvais franchois”,50 more texts mention how both Scots and English used guile to try and pretend that they were actually from the other side, to trick French garrisons. The town of Verneuil was captured without bloodshed in 1424, when the Scots mimicked English soldiers to pretend that the English army had been defeated.51 The same strategy was used by a retreating English force after the battle of Baugé: they managed to pretend that they were Scottish allies, and pillaged the town of Le Mans after having the gates opened before them.52 Similarly, a Bourgeois de Paris noted in his diary (written between 1405 and 1449) that a plot had been uncovered to have Paris captured by the Armagnac: the plan was to have genuine Scottish prisoners driven into the city by fake English soldiers (in fact Scots in disguise). Had the plot not been exposed, both “escort” and “prisoners” would have captured a gate of the city, creating a breach for the Armagnac army to get in.53

  • 54 Gilles Le Bouvier, Les chroniques du roi Charles VII, dans Histoire de Charles VII roy de France, p (...)

23In order to keep the Scots at a distance, the French often relied on a simple, and yet, dramatic shortcut which brought the Scots and the English together as two sides of the same coin. Beyond their common language (or their peculiar customs while at war), there was something more, something intimate at work between these two best enemies. We can mention the story of the exchange that occurred between the leaders of the Scottish and English armies at Verneuil in 1424, before the fateful battle started. The scene looks like a long awaited coming-together: the old enemies acknowledge themselves, exchange a few quips.54 Out of the familiar bounds of Britain, their endless quarrel is merely transferred to a French, passive, background.

  • 55 Michael K. Jones, “The Battle of Verneuil (17 August 1424): Towards a History of Courage”, War in H (...)

24According to Michael K. Jones, the tension in Verneuil—that was to reach its apex with most Scots being killed on the battlefield—was rather unprecedented. The Scots and English had agreed not to take prisoners, which was unusual. Archibald Douglas, leader of the Scottish forces, had sworn fealty to Henry in May 1421, and his volte-face caused an uproar. Here, on French ground, Bedford was facing a perjurer, a “traitor rather than an opponent under normal rules of war, for the breaking of a solemn oath of allegiance allowed the harshest reprisal”. In Verneuil, the English “would seek vengeance for Baugé from a moral high ground, aiming to punish oath-breakers. This was designed to motivate the army powerfully; they would kill the Scots or perish in the attempt”.55 From the French chroniclers’ perspective, it was as if to see two notoriously hostile neighbours squaring up in their own living room, as they stood, powerless, watching their own fate unfurl. These elements seem to echo the uncanny and disturbing proximity between the Scots and the English mentioned earlier.

Conclusion: one common abomination?

  • 56 “Quoique ce combat n’ait pas été peu préjudiciable et funeste aux Français, néanmoins, comme nous-m (...)
  • 57 “Peu s’en fallut qu’à cet endroit les bataillons écossais ne périssent tout entier avec leurs capit (...)
  • 58 John Stuart, who was granted the Lordship of Aubigny and Concressault by Charles VII, and who was k (...)
  • 59 Paradise, XIX, 121-123, Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry (...)
  • 60 “… et que besoing ne nous sot d’aller querir Escossois ne autres estrangiers pour venir deffendre l (...)
  • 61 “The rewards distributed to them [the Scots] certainly caused resentment among the native French no (...)
  • 62 Ibid., 308.
  • 63 Ibid., 32, 33, 51.
  • 64 Another fine example of Bower’s argumentative mastery is to be found in his description of Scotland (...)

25As demonstrated above, the presence of the Scots in France could be humiliating. Their similarities with the English, and their actual weight in the conflict, fed new suspicions. This is made clear in the account of the battle of Verneuil written by the Norman chronicler Thomas Basin (1412-1491). According to him, even if the defeat of the Scots at Verneuil was a serious blow on Charles VII, what could be seen as a disaster was in fact compensated by the slaughtering of the Scots themselves. According to Basin, rumours were spreading in France. After securing their victory over the English, it was said that the Scots were not going to stop and return home peacefully: who would be left, after all, to stop them from seizing the riches and women of France for themselves?56 Their fundamental logic, their goals and motives were no different from those of the English. According to Basin, one invading army would merely replace the other. Despite their official status, the Scottish allies were, once again, compared to the English. They were deemed a hateful, brutal people, consumed by greed, unable to be satiated by what they could gather in their own wretched northern kingdoms. According to Basin, the battlefield bore witness to their noxious bond: although the Hundred Years War was ripe with many a slaughter, Basin takes time to describe what could be seen in the aftermath of Verneuil, on the battlefield itself: where the English and the Scots had been fighting, he says, there were no mercy, no prisoners, no restraint. They fought like rabid animals, butchering one another, leaving piles of corpses in their wake.57 Such was the true face, the natural relationship between the English and the Scots, the poison and the antidote, fused into one common abomination. This proverbial hatred made its way into history and was never fully mended by the positive impressions left by the Stuarts d’Aubigny or the tales associated with the Garde Écossaise.58 It became a unique feature, a tale told beyond France and Britain. To describe the epitome of ungodly behaviours among Christian princes, Dante Aliguieri, in his Divine Comedy, castigated “the pride that makes men thirst, and so drives both the English and the Scot to fury, so that neither will remain within their border”.59 This narrative was a binding and powerful one. From a French perspective it certainly created a rather efficient way to epitomise the Scots and to conceal the multiple issues their very presence triggered. The “French malaise” was indeed a convoluted tangle. There were positive elements: the help provided by the Scots and their military prowesses were often admitted. Repulsion towards the Scots weaved together pragmatic elements, including the cost of foreign troops on French soil.60 The protection of the kingdom was also a matter laced with ideological considerations, as demonstrated by contemporary propaganda. Finally, while the population obviously had to suffer from the presence of these soldiers (notwithstanding their origin), it was perhaps the French aristocracy which took the brunt of the Scottish intrusive presence, being struck on both material and symbolic levels61. Watching the Scots assuming direct ownership over the duchy of Touraine would have been staggering. The image of the antidote was a fitting attribute for Scottish authors. However, to quote Ditcham’s own words, it appears that this purge was first and foremost perceived as a “necessary evil” from the French side.62 Ditcham also noticed that military failure could be related to “division at the highest levels of command”. According to him, “one suspects that the French never fully accepted the idea of a foreigner as supreme commander of their armies and did their best to make his life difficult”. This applied to other groups within French society. After Verneuil, “the citizens of Tours who, on hearing of the death of Douglas on the 19th (of August) from a Scottish ‘varlet’ had acted by the 22nd to pay the wages of the lieutenant of the now-dead captain to make sure that his Scottish garrison moved out after the castle had been blockaded to make sure that no Scots entered to take over the town. Similar methods were used to clear Scottish garrisons out of other castles in Touraine which they had held for Douglas”.63 The Scottish antidote, however unique and remarkable, had expired. These two sets of narratives, as well as the more consensual (or shared) features, are insufficient to deduce any kind of “general opinion” regarding the Scots in France in the 15th century, but they certainly complement each other. Although Bower appeared to be aware of French distrust and knew how to pick his arguments accordingly,64 it is equally difficult to prove that the sometimes opposing views were actively produced to cancel one another, as if they had been developed in the course of a proper “dialogue”. Still, it is clear that the profile and perception of the Scots was significantly shaped and reinforced—both in French and Scottish sources—by the exceptional circumstances of their presence in France in the second decade of the fifteenth century.

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Notes

1 Norman Macdougall, An Antidote to the English, The Auld Alliance 1295-1560, Scottish History Matters series, Edinburgh: Tuckwell Press Ltd, 2001.

2 See Michel Duchein, “L’Écosse dans la guerre de Cent Ans”, Finances, pouvoirs et mémoire: mélanges offerts à Jean Favier, in Jean Kerhervé et Albert Rigaudière (dir.), Paris: Fayard, 1999, 279-291. See also chapters by French scholars Duchein, Chevalier, Autrand and Contamine, in James Laidlaw (ed.), The Auld Alliance: France and Scotland over 700 years, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

3 Elizabeth Bonner, “Scotland’s Auld Alliance with France, 1295–1560”, History, Wiley, vol. 84, n° 273, 1999, 5-30. Ranald Nicholson, Scotland, The Later Middle Ages, The Edinburgh History of Scotland, vol. 2, Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1978, 44-68.

4 According to John Duncan Mackie, “To Scotland’s relations with England, her relation with France form the counterpart. The Auld Alliance was renewed in 1371, 1390, 1407, 1423, 1428, 1448, 1484 and 1491…” John Duncan Mackie, A History of Scotland, Hardsmonsworth: Penguin Books, 1964, 99-102. From a Scottish perspective, the alliance with France was obviously part of a wider framework that encompassed the critical questions related to England. See for example Alastair J. Macdonald, Border Bloodshed; Scotland, England and France at War, 1369-1403, East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2000.

5 Gordon Donaldson claimed that “No one who knows Scotland and its people and keeps his eyes and his ears open can fail to notice, here and there, visible and audible indications of certain affinities with France”. Gordon Donaldson, The Auld Alliance, The Franco-Scottish Connection, Tillicoultry: The Saltire Society and l’Institut Français d’Écosse, 1985, 3. According to Stephen Wood, “mention France or the French to any Scot […] and nine times out of ten you will get the same reaction: Ah yes, the Auld Alliance...” Stephen Wood, The Auld Alliance, Scotland and France, The Military Connection from the Middle Ages to the Liberation, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1989, 8.

6 Francisque Michel, Les Écossais en France et les Français en Écosse, London: Trubner & cie, 1862, 2 vols., t. 1, 1.

7 Ibid., t. 2, 488.

8 Brian G. H. Ditcham, The Employment of Foreign Mercenary Troops in the French Royal Armies 1415–1470, PhD, Edinburgh University, 1978, 2.

9 Ibid., 308.

10 See Philippe Contamine, “Scottish soldiers in France in the second half of the fifteenth century: mercenaries, immigrants or Frenchmen in the making?”, in Grant G. Simpson (ed.), The Scottish soldier abroad 1247-1967, Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1992, 16-30 ; Françoise Autrand and Philippe Contamine, “Remarques sur les alliances des rois de France aux XIVe et XVe siècles”, dans L’Europe de Westphalie, Esprit de la diplomatie et diplomatie de l’esprit, Paris: PUF, 2000, 83-110 ; Philippe Contamine, “Froissart et l’Écosse”, Des chardons et des lys. Souvenir et présence en Berry de la vieille alliance franco-écossaise, Bourges : Conseil général du Cher, 1992, 30-44 ; Philippe Contamine, Charles VII. Une vie, une politique, Paris : Perrin, 2017 ; Philippe Contamine, “Entre France et Écosse : Bérault Stuart, seigneur d’Aubigny (vers 1452–1508), chef de guerre, diplomate, écrivain militaire”, in James Laidlaw (ed.), The Auld Alliance…, op. cit., 59-76.

11 Brian G. H. Ditcham, The employment of foreign mercenary troops…, op. cit. 2.

12 Elizabeth Bonner, who wrote extensively on the topic of the Alliance, describes Michel as “fundamental to any examination of the Auld Alliance”, yet his work is “an ideal text for novelists, poets, fiction writers and storytellers. Thus, extreme caution should be exercised in referring to it in any historiographical work. To extract fact from fable in Michel’s opus would be an immense undertaking, and one which most historians would shirk; indeed, it is probably best left in its nineteenth century aspic”. Elizabeth Bonner, “The Myth of the Alliance Between Charlemagne and the Ancient Scottish Kings”, Journal of the Sydney Society for Scottish History, vol. 13, 2010, 22-35, 28. A similar distrust is expressed by Ditcham, who mentions “Michels typically garbled account”. Brian G. H. Ditcham, The Employment of Foreign Mercenary Troops…, op. cit., 15.

13 “Truly, the Scots are an antidote to the English”, in Walter Bower, in D. E. R. Watt (ed.), Scotichronicon, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1987-1998, 9 vols., t. 8, 121.

14 Donald E. R. Watt, A History Book for Scots, Selections from Scotichronicon, Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd, 1998, 11.

15Non Scotus est Christe cui liber non placet iste”, Scotichronicon…, op. cit., t. 8, 340.

16 Donald E. R. Watt, “A National Treasure? The Scotichronicon of Walter Bower”, Writing Scotland’s History: Proceedings of the 1996 Edinburgh Conference, The Scottish Historical Review, vol. 76, n°201, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997, 44-53. See also Sally Mapstone, “The Scotichronicons First Readers”, in B.E. Crawford (ed.), Church, Chronicle and Learning in Medieval and Early Renaissance Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999, 31-55.

17 Brian. G. H. Ditcham, The employment of foreign mercenary…, op. cit., 174-175.

18 See Michael Brown, The Black Douglases, War and Lordship in Late Medieval Scotland, 1300-1455, East Lothian: Tuckwell Press, 1998.

19 See Philippe Contamine, “Scottish soldiers in France in the second half of the fifteenth century: mercenaries, immigrants or Frenchmen in the making?”, in Grant G. Simpson (ed.), The Scottish soldier abroad 1247-1967, Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1992, 16-30. Elizabeth Bonner, “French Naturalization of the Scots in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries”, The Historical Journal, vol. 40, Cambridge University Press, 1997, 1085-1115.

20 An older French chronicle (12th century) by Guibert de Nogent recounts the story of Scots arriving in France to join the crusade, having left their “swampy fringes”. Their “legs are bare” and they “wear cloaks made of shaggy fur”. See Guibert de Nogent, Gesta Dei per Francos, sive orientalium expeditionum et regni Francorum Hierosolymitani historia, a variis, sed illius aevi, scriptoribus litteris commendata, nunc primum aut editis aut ad libros veteres emendatis. Auctores praefatio ad lectorum exhibet, Jacques Bongars (ed.), Hanoviae, Typis Wechelianis, apud heredes J. Aubrii, 1611, t. 1. 471. In the 13th-century Roman de la Rose, Scotland was home to Hunger, daughter of Misery. See Guillaume de Lorris and Jehan de Meung, Le Roman de la Rose, Paris : P. Didot, 1814, t. 2, 282.

21 Dan Embree (ed.), Short Scottish Prose Chronicles, Edward Donald Kennedy, Kathleen Daly, Boydell Press, 2012.

22 “Environ ce temps ou au devant, il estoit venu une grande armée d’Escoce, bien Xm, la ou estoit le connestable d’Escoce, le comte de Boucan qui puys fut connestable de France, et moult d’aultres vaillans gens de guerre, a l’ainde du roy de France, qui moult vaillement se portèrent en gardant leur loyaulté au roy nostre sire”, in Siméon Luce, Chronique du Mont Saint-Michel (1343-1468), Paris : Librairie Firmin Didot, 1879, 2 vols., vol. 1, 25.

23 “Eulx, ayans devant les yeulx le proverbe de Chaton qui dit : Pugna pro patria, et voyans les Anglois importunément et sans quelconque droit venir dans leur pais, ils se préparèrent et misdrent peine de résister à lencontre deux”. Jean Chartier, Chronique de Charles VII, roi de France, édition établie par Auguste Vallet de Viriville, Paris : Pierre Jannet, 1858, 3 vols., vol. 2, 87-91.

24 Robert Blondel, Œuvres de Robert Blondel: historien normand du XVe siècle, Rouen : A. Héron, 1891, 2 vols., 1893, vol. 2, 106.

25 “Robert de Brus, roy d’Escosse, perdit plusieurs batailles contre les Angloiz avant que fortune luy revint, et a la parfin fut si victorieux qu’il gecta hors de son royaume tous les Angloiz”, in Le débat des hérauts d’armes de France et d’Angleterre (v. 1456-1461), suivi de The Debate Between the Heralds of England and France by John Coke, v. 1460, édition commencée par Léopold Pannier et achevée par M. Paul Meyer, Paris : Firmin Didot, 1877, 17-18.

26 “Toutes foiz vous ne povez ne ne savez trouver manière de les subjuguer ne mectre en vostre obéissance, maiz est le dit roy d’Escosse vray possesseur, bien obey de tous ses subgetz ; et quant vous luy faites guerre, il vous scet bien résister, et y trouvez plus perte que gain. Et pour ce faut-il dire que l’onneur est au dit roy d’Escosse et a ses subgetz, et que la honte vous demoure ; car il se scet mieulx deffendre que vous ne le savez assaillir, et demeure en son entier”. Ibid., 21.

27 “devoratores vini et multonem nebulones, Scotichronicon…, op. cit., t. 8, 115. See also Brian G. H. Ditcham, “Mutton Guzzlers and Wine Bags: Foreign Soldiers and Native Reactions in Fifteenth-Century France”, in C. T. Allmand (ed.), Power, Culture and Religion in France c. 1350-1550, Woodbridge, 1989, 1-13.

28 Norman Macdougall, An Antidote to the English, op. cit., 66.

29 See Johnny Milner, “The Battle of Baugé, March 1421: Impact and Memory”, History, 91, 2006, 484-507.

30 Elizabeth Cust, Some account of the Stuarts of Aubigny, in France, 1422-1672, London: Chiswick press, 1891, 7-9.

31 Michael Brown, The Black Douglases, op. cit., 220.

32 “The Britons it [the Scots nation] first drove out, the Picts it utterly destroyed, and, even though very often assailed by the Norwegians, the Danes and the English, it took possession of that home with many victories and untold efforts; and, as the histories of old time bear witness, they have held it free of all servitude ever since”, Transcription and Translation of the Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320 National Records of Scotland, SP13/7.

33 John of Fordun, Chronica Gentis Scotorum, edited by William F. Skene, Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh, 1871, 127.

34 “Quocumque perrexero Scotos tam vivos quam defunctos in barbam meam reperio”, in Walter Bower, Scotichronicon..., op. cit., t. 8, 122.

35 Françoise Autrand, “L’enfance de l’art diplomatique: La rédaction des documents diplomatiques en France XIVe-XVe siècles”, in Lucien Bély (ed.), L’Invention de la diplomatie: Moyen Age-Temps modernes, Paris : Paris, 1998, 207.

36 “Se les Escoz et lez Galois, les Espaignos et cheux d’Irlande en estoient interrogiez, voire tous les aultres voisins desdiz Anglois, ils tesmoigneroient lesdiz Angloiz estre gens intollerables, rigoreux et hays de leurs voisins”, Jean De Montreuil, Opera, vol. 2, L’Oeuvre historique et polémique, N. Grévy, E. Ornato, G. Ouy (eds), Torino: Giappichelli, 1975, 201-202.

37 “Lesdiz Angloiz n’ont nulz voisins a qui ils n’aient fait et facent continuelment guerre mortelle […] et de qui ilz ne soient mortelement haïz et ou ilz n’ayent esté cause d’espandre, et espandu plus de sang humain, bouté feux, violé femmes, destruit eglises, hospitaulx et autre lieux sains que toutes aultres nations crestiennes, tesmoing France, Espaingne, Escoce, Gales et Yrlande”, Jean De Montreuil, Opera…, op. cit., 105.

38 Philippe De Commynes, Mémoires, traduit de l’ancien français par Joël Blanchard, Paris : Agora, Pocket, 2004, 396-402.

39 One of the most often quoted line of the declaration states that “for, as long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be subjected to the lordship of the English”, Transcription and Translation of the Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April 1320 National Records of Scotland, SP13/7.

40 “Tout le povair d’Escoce sans gueires excepter, riches et povres, petits et grans, vieils et jennes, fames et hommez, gentilz et villains […] tous d’une voulenté voullans avant mourir que la franche liberalité de leur pays et eux feussent au roi d’Engleterre a tous jours deboutez et asserviz.” Chronique parisienne anonyme du XIVe siècle, publiée pour la première fois d’après le manuscrit unique de la bibliothèque municipale de Rouen pour la Société de l’histoire de Paris, A. Hellot, Daupeley-Gouverneur, Nogent-Le-Rotrou, 1884, 83.

41 Jean Chartier, Chronique de Charles VII…, op. cit.

42 Et si est vray que vostre royaume d’Angleterre est plus puissant de richesses, de bonnes villes et de grant nombre de gens que n’est le dit royaume d’Escosse et toutes foiz vous ne povez ne ne savez trouver manière de les subjuguer ne mectre en vostre obéissance, maiz est le dit roy d’Escosse vray possesseur, bien obey de tous ses subgetz ; et quant vous luy faites guerre, il vous scet bien résister, et y trouvez plus perte que gain. Et pour ce faut il dire que l’onneur est au dit roy d’Escosse et a ses subgetz, et que la honte vous demoure ; car il se scet mieulx deffendre que vous ne le savez assaillir, et demeure en son entier.” Le débat des hérauts d’armes de France et d’Angleterre (v. 1456-1461), suivi de The debate between the heralds of England and France by John Coke, v. 1460, édition commencée par Léopold Pannier et achevée par M. Paul Meyer, Paris : Firmin Didot, 1877, 21.

43 According to Michel Duchein, the alliance between France and Scotland was an “essentially bellicose agreement”. Michel Duchein, “L’Écosse dans la guerre de Cent Ans”, Finances, pouvoirs et mémoire: mélanges offerts à Jean Favier, Paris: Fayard, 1999, 279-292, 292. Although it is no longer exclusive, the Alliance has traditionally been studied through the prism of military history. See for example William Forbes-Leith, The Scots Men at Arms and Life-Guards in France, 1418-1830, Edinburgh: William Paterson, 1882, 2 vols; J. D. Mackie, “The Auld Alliance and the Battle of Flodden”, Transactions of the Franco-Scottish Society, viii, 39, 1935; Stephen Wood, The Auld Alliance, Scotland and France, the military connection, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1989. This also applies to Brian G. H. Ditcham, The Employment of Foreign Mercenary Troops in the French Royal Armies…, op. cit.

44Inter alia, per quae regantium et Regnorum exaltatio procuratur et acquiritur pacis et tranquillae quietis amoenitas, ac felici et prospero statui consulitur ; illud videtur, attenta consideratione, praecipuum, ut inter Regis et Regna solidae caritatis unitas, et fidelis amicitiae foedera nutriantur”, extract from the 1295 treaty of Alliance between France and Scotland, Archives nationales de France, J677 n°1.

45 “Anglois d’un costé et d’autre costé Escots sont très-bonnes gens d’armes, et quant ils se treuvent en rencontre et ou party d’armes, c’est sans espargnier: il n’y a entre euls nul tropel. Tant que lances et haches, espées et dagues et alayne leur pèvent durer, ils fièrent et frappent l’un sur l’autre et n’y a point de ho”, Jean Froissart, Chroniques, Oeuvres de Froissart publiées avec les variantes des divers manuscrits par M. le baron Bervyn de Lettenhove, Bruxelles: comptoir universel d’imprimerie et de librairie, 1867, 26 vols., t. 13, 219.

46 ibid., t. 10, 404.

47 “Nous voyons les estangiers allez de nostre royaume qui passent les fortunes de mer pour venir a nostre secours et estre parçonniers de nostre adversité et de nostre peine” ; Alain Chartier, in E. Droz (ed.), Le Quadrilogue Invectif, Paris : H. Champion, 1923, 51.

48 Jacques Krynen, “Naturel, Essai sur l’argument de la Nature dans la pensée politique à la fin du Moyen Âge”, Journal des savants, 1982, 181.

49 This was not new. Writing about the Scots who welcomed French on their shores in 1385 to fight against the English, Jean Froissart, a Flemish chronicler, wrote that the allies were unable to communicate properly: “Il ne nous entendent point, ne nous eux; nous ne savons parler ensamble”. Jean Froissart, Chroniques, Bruxelles, Oeuvres de Froissart publiées avec les variantes des divers manuscrits par M. le baron Bervyn de Lettenhove, Bruxelles: comptoir universel d’imprimerie et de librairie, 1867, 26 vols, t. 10, 335.

50 “Là povoit-on ouyr les Escochois en leur mauvais franchois, tel que communément le scèvent parler, maudire le bastard quy les avoit tray”. J. Kervyn de Lettenhove (ed.), Le livre des trahisons de France, Chroniques relatives à l’histoire de la Belgique sous la domination des ducs de Bourgogne, Bruxelles : F. Hayez, 1873, t. 2, 169-171.

51 Alexandre Tuetey (ed.), Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris, 1405-1449, Paris : H. Champion, 1881, 195-196.

52 “Et pour passer la riviere de Sarte, ils prirent les croix blanches, se feignans François, et assemblerent les bonnes gens du pays, qui les prenoient pour des gens du dauphin, et leur firent faire un pont par où ils passerent, mais quand ils furent passez, ils rompirent ledit pont, tuerent traistreusement les pauvres gens, et les mirent cruellement à mort ”. Jean Juvenal Des Ursins, Histoire de Charles VI par Jean Juvénal Des Ursins, seconde édition augmentée de plusieurs mémoires, journaux, observations historiques et annotations contenans divers traictez, contracts, testamens et autres actes et pièces du mesme temps non encore imprimées, Denys Godefroy, Paris : Impr. Royale, 1653, 390.

53 Journal d’un Bourgeois de Paris..., op. cit., 296.

54 Gilles Le Bouvier, Les chroniques du roi Charles VII, dans Histoire de Charles VII roy de France, par Jean Chartier, sous-chantre de S. Denys ; Jacques le Bouvier, dit Berry, roi d’armes, Mathieu de Coucy, et autres autheurs du temps. Qui contient les choses les plus memorables, advenuës depuis l’an 1422 jusques en 1461, mise en lumière, et enrichie de plusieurs titres, mémoires, traittez, et autres pièces historiques, par Denys Godefroy conseiller et historiographe ordinaire du roy, Paris, 1661, 371-372.

55 Michael K. Jones, “The Battle of Verneuil (17 August 1424): Towards a History of Courage”, War in History, vol. 9, no. 4, 2002, 375-411.

56 “Quoique ce combat n’ait pas été peu préjudiciable et funeste aux Français, néanmoins, comme nous-mêmes l’avons souvent entendu dire par leurs plus sages capitaines, la mort, l’anéantissement des Écossais compensa suffisamment le dommage qu’ils avaient subi. Car, si grandes étaient, à ce qu’on disait, la présomption et l’audace des Écossais que, méprisant et tenant pour rien les forces et la puissance des Français, grandement affaiblies et diminuées tantôt par les guerres civiles et tantôt par les guerres étrangères, qu’ils avaient formé le projet, s’ils avaient vaincu les Anglais dans ce combat, de tuer tout ce qui restait de nobles en Anjou, Touraine, Berri et dans les régions voisines, et de s’emparer de leurs maisons, de leurs femmes, de leurs terres et de leurs riches possessions. Et sans nul doute il ne leur aurait pas été très difficile d’accomplir leur dessein si, après avoir exterminé comme ils le souhaitaient, tous les Anglais, ils étaient sortis vainqueurs de la lutte. Nous dirons donc que de ce malheur sortit un grand bonheur pour le royaume de France, s’il est vrai que des intentions aussi sauvages avaient pénétré dans les cœurs barbares des Écossais”, Thomas Basin, Histoire de Charles VII, Paris, edited and translated by Ch. Samarin professeur à l’école des Chartes, Paris : Les Belles Lettres, 1933, 99-101.

57 “Peu s’en fallut qu’à cet endroit les bataillons écossais ne périssent tout entier avec leurs capitaines ci-dessus nommés. Entre eux et les Anglais la lutte fut longue, et acharnée jusqu’à destruction complète. [...] C’était un spectacle horrible que de voir sur le champ de bataille les cadavres en tas hauts et serrés, surtout là où avaient combattu les Écossais. Parmi eux, aucun prisonnier ; et les tas s’accroissaient des corps de soldats anglais tués avec eux pêle-mêle”. Ibid., 96-99.

58 John Stuart, who was granted the Lordship of Aubigny and Concressault by Charles VII, and who was killed during the battle of Rouvray in 1429, was celebrated in a play. See Mistère du Siège d’Orléans publié pour la première fois d’après le manuscrit unique conservé à la bibliothèque du Vatican par M. F. Guessard et E. De Certain, Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1862, 341-342. His grandson, Bérault Stuart, had a remarkable career in France, serving as captain of the Garde Écossaise, military leader during the Italian Wars and diplomat. See Philippe Contamine, “Entre France et Écosse : Bérault Stuart, seigneur d’Aubigny (vers 1452–1508), chef de guerre, diplomate, écrivain militaire”, J. Laidlaw (ed.), The Auld Alliance…, op. cit., 59-76.

59 Paradise, XIX, 121-123, Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867, 127.

60 “… et que besoing ne nous sot d’aller querir Escossois ne autres estrangiers pour venir deffendre les pays de France, ainsi que fait l’avons a grant neccessité et despence infinie de noz richesses”, Robert Blondel, Oeuvres…, op. cit., t.1, 448.

61 “The rewards distributed to them [the Scots] certainly caused resentment among the native French nobility who were displaced from their place in the royal patronage structure, and their generally unruly behaviour made them unpopular with much of the rest of the population”, in Brian Ditcham, The Employment of Foreign Mercenary Troops…, op. cit., 308.

62 Ibid., 308.

63 Ibid., 32, 33, 51.

64 Another fine example of Bower’s argumentative mastery is to be found in his description of Scotland, which follows orthodox patterns and embraces values and references similar to those found in texts that celebrate France. See Clément Guézais, “Waterborne Identities: the Use of Water in Walter Bower’s Scotichronicon”, in Tri Tran (dir.), L’eau en Écosse—Water in Scotland, Actes du colloque 2018 de la Société française d’études écossaises, Besançon : Coll. Annales littéraires, Série Caledonia, PUFC, 2022, 19-26.

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Clément Guézais, « Adverse Effects: Remarks on the “Scottish antidote” in the 15th Century »Revue LISA/LISA e-journal [En ligne], vol 21. n°56 | 2023, mis en ligne le 18 octobre 2023, consulté le 29 novembre 2023. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/lisa/15303 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/lisa.15303

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Clément Guézais

Clément Guézais is teaching at the department of modern languages at the University of Caen, Normandy. He holds a doctorate in British civilisation delivered in France as well as a doctorate in Medieval History obtained in the UK in 2021. His work focuses on the exchanges between France and Scotland in the Middle Ages, and expands to the fields of cultural history and to the history of representations in the context of Franco-Scottish relations from the Middle Ages to the present day.

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