Andrew Moray facts for kids

Andrew Moray (Anglo-Norman: Andreu de Moray; Latin: Andreas de Moravia), also known as Andrew de Moray, Andrew of Moray, or Andrew Murray, was an esquire, prominent in the First Scottish War of Independence. He raised a small army at Avoch Castle in early summer 1297 to fight against King Edward I of England, successfully regaining control of north Scotland for King John Balliol. He subsequently merged his army with that of William Wallace, and jointly led the combined army to victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge on 11 September 1297. Moray was mortally wounded in the fighting at Stirling, dying at an unknown date and place later that year.

Childhood

Andrew Moray the younger of Petty was born late in the second half of the 13th century. The date and place of his birth is unknown. Andrew's father was Sir Andrew Moray of Petty, Justiciar of Scotia (1289?–1296), a younger son of Walter Moray of Petty, Justiciar of Lothian (1255?–1257), and his wife, a member of the Olifard family and the heiress of Bothwell. Andrew Moray the younger's mother was the anonymous fourth daughter of John Comyn I of Badenoch.

The Morays of Petty were a wealthy and politically influential baronial family whose powerbase was located in the province of Moray in north-east Scotland. The family traced their origins to Freskin of Uphall, in Lothian, who was granted lands in the Laich of Moray during the 12th-century reign of King David I of Scotland, where he built a motte-and-bailey castle at Duffus on the northern shore of Loch Spynie (this sea-loch was almost completely drained in the 18th and 19th centuries to release hundreds of acres of land for agricultural use).

Duffus Castle. The stone-built bailey is a 14th-century addition to the site of Freskin's castle.

The Morays of Petty’s place in Scottish society

Elgin Cathedral, from the south-east. Construction of it was begun under the supervision of Bishop Andrew Moray.

At the outbreak of the Scottish Wars of Independence the Moray family was well established in northern and southern Scotland. Sir Andrew Moray, the head of the Petty branch of the family, held extensive lands in the province of Moray, including the lordship of Petty, which was controlled from Hallhill manor on the southern bank of the Moray Firth, the lordship of Avoch in the Black Isle, controlled from Avoch Castle situated to the east of Inverness and overlooking the Moray Firth, and the lordship of Boharm in Banffshire, controlled from Gauldwell Castle. Amongst Sir Andrew's estates at Petty were lands at Alturile, Brachlie and Croy, and at Boharm were lands at Arndilly and Botriphnie. Andrew Moray the younger was heir to these lands and castles.

This wealth was accompanied by significant political influence. Sir Andrew acted from 1289 as the king's chief law-officer in northern Scotland (the Justiciar) and may have been co-opted to the guardianship following in the aftermath of the premature death of King Alexander III. Sir Andrew's personal connections went to the top of the most politically influential family in Scottish society. Sir Andrew’s first wife, and the mother of his son, was a daughter of John (I) 'the Red' Comyn of Badenoch, and his second wife was Euphemia Comyn. The Morays of Petty also possessed connections to the Douglases of Douglasdale.

The influence of the Moray family was not confined to northeastern Scotland. Sir William Moray of Bothwell, the elder brother of Andrew the younger's father, held extensive lands in Lanarkshire and at Lilleford in Lincolnshire. Sir William, who was known as le riche due to his extensive personal wealth, was constructing Bothwell Castle overlooking the River Clyde when war broke out with England in 1296. Its design was influenced by the latest trends to be found in continental Europe in castle construction. It was clearly intended as an unequivocal statement of his power and influence. Moray the younger was also heir to his uncle's lands and castles.

The Morays of Petty also possessed influence in the Scottish medieval church. A forebear of Andrew Moray the younger, also named Andrew, had been bishop of Moray early in the 13th century and was responsible for the transfer of the seat of the bishopric to Elgin in 1224 and the establishment of the town's fine cathedral. The Morays continued to maintain links with the church. A younger brother of Sir Andrew, David, was currently a rector of Bothwell church in central Scotland and a canon of Moray. He would subsequently be consecrated in the summer of 1299 as Bishop of Moray by Pope Boniface VIII, and become one of the staunchest supporters of King Robert Bruce's kingship.

A kingdom in turmoil

A depiction of a meeting of the English Parliament in 1278 in which King Alexander III is shown sitting at King Edward I's right.

The late 13th-century was a time of upheaval for Scotland. On 19 March 1286, King Alexander III died after being thrown from his horse as he made his way to Kinghorn, in Fife, from Edinburgh Castle to be with his young Flemish queen, Yolande. Although the king had previously been married to Margaret, a sister of the future King Edward I, his children from that marriage predeceased him. At the time of the king's death, there was no issue from his latest marriage. On Alexander's death, the Crown passed to his three-year-old granddaughter, Margaret, Maid of Norway. The child-queen was never enthroned, dying during the sea-passage to Scotland.

Scots nobles vied for the vacant crown. The Bruces of Annandale made an attempt in November 1286 to seize it in an armed coup. It was quickly suppressed by the Scottish political community. In this uncertain time, Scotland's leaders turned for support to their nearest neighbour and the brother-in-law of their late king, King Edward I of England.

Edward was a mature and widely respected king. The relationship between him and recently deceased King Alexander had been good. Only later would he become the notorious ‘Hammer of the Scots’. The power and influence that Edward I possessed allowed him to preside over a court to assess the merits of the claims to the Scots Crown, and the military might of his kingdom meant he could enforce its decision. This distance came at a price: the claimants had to acknowledge him as Overlord of Scotland. The most serious claims, in what became known as 'The Great Cause', were advanced by John Balliol, the half-English lord of Galloway, and Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale and grandfather of the future king. After lengthy deliberation, King Edward's court found in favour of Balliol. This decision was widely accepted by the Scottish political community, including many of those who had previously supported Bruce.

The newly enthroned King John duly acknowledged King Edward I of England as his feudal superior. King Edward sought to ensure that his newly established status as overlord was not ignored. He became a constant presence in Scottish legal and political affairs, which was a shock to the Scottish political community. By late 1295 King John had renounced his fealty and entered into a treaty with France. King Edward was enraged by such defiance, making hostilities between the kingdoms inevitable.

Invasion and defeat

In the spring of 1296, Andrew Moray was part of the Scottish feudal host assembling in preparation for the impending conflict. A small force, led by the earls of Atholl, Ross, and Mar and John Comyn the younger of Badenoch, entered Cumberland and marched to Carlisle. They wreaked destruction. The St. Edmundsbury Chronicle records the destruction of 120 villages. More raiders crossed from Jedburgh and rampaged through Northumberland, burning homes and farms as they went. Pierre de Langtoft, an English chronicler, records:

Image of King Edward from a contemporary memorandum

Mar, Ross, Menteith ... have destroyed Tindale to cinders and coals, The town of Corbridge, and two monasteries, Of Hexham and Lanercost, they have annihilated by burning; They have made slaughter of the people of the country, Carried off the goods driven away the canons.

King Edward assembled a large army on the Anglo-Scottish border for the invasion of Scotland. By 30 March it was besieging the prosperous Scottish port of Berwick. The king personally led the assault against its limited defences, and a slaughter ensued. It continued for three days before the king called an end to it. The English Lanercost Chronicle condemned the slaughter as a "crime" and recorded that fifteen thousand "of both sexes perished, some by the sword, others by fire, in the space of a day and a half". The Scottish army was overmatched by this English host. It had been many years since Scotland had mobilized for war, and at the Battle of Dunbar the Scots were overwhelmed quickly by elements of King Edward's army led by John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. The author of the Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds records the death of eight thousand Scots soldiers at Dunbar.

Scotland now capitulated. Edward I deposed King John at Montrose castle: the symbols of the Scottish kingship were stripped from him, including the ripping of the royal coat of arms from his surcoat (thereby earning him the enduring title Toom Tabard ('Empty Coat')). King Edward rode north from Montrose on an extended march that took him all the way to Elgin, which he reached on 26 July 1296. He remained in the town's castle for a few days, taking the fealty of a number of Scots nobles, including Bishop Robert Wishart of Glasgow, before returning to England.

While King Edward marched through the subdued realm, the Scots nobles captured at Dunbar were taken south in chains. The most important prisoners, such as Sir Andrew Moray of Petty, were taken to the Tower of London. Sir Andrew spent the remainder of his life in English imprisonment, dying in the Tower on 8 April 1298. Andrew Moray the younger, a prisoner of less significance, was imprisoned in Chester Castle.

Rebellion

King Edward quickly imposed an English administration on Scotland with the Earl of Surrey at its head. Sir Hugh de Cressingham, an efficient administrator with a history of service to the English Crown, was appointed Treasurer of Scotland, with Walter Amersham installed as Chancellor. Under this hierarchy Edward filled the offices of Justiciars for Lothian, Scotia (i.e. the territories north of the Forth), and Galloway with English appointees. Most of the strategic royal castles were placed in the keeping of Edward's nobles. English tax collectors followed in their wake, imposing heavy taxes to fill their king's coffers, and corruptly exploiting the Scots populace to enrich themselves. Cressingham energetically collected taxes, and by the end of May 1297, had dispatched £5,188 6s. 8d. to the English treasury. Edward sought to conscript Scots, including the nobility of the defeated realm, into the armies being raised to fight in Flanders. News of this plan caused widespread alarm. A combination of these factors contributed to a growing restlessness under English rule.

Bothwell Castle, construction of which was begun by Sir William Moray.

While the Scots suffered English occupation, Andrew Moray the younger continued to endure imprisonment. Sometime in the winter of 1296–97, he escaped from Chester. It is not known how he made his escape. Moray made his way back to his father's lands in the north of Scotland.

"In the month of May of the same year [1297]", the Hemingsburgh Chronicle notes, "the perfidious race of Scots began to rebel." This first act of this rebellion was marked by two events: Andrew Moray proclaiming his defiance of English rule at Avoch; and the murder of William Hesilrig, the English sheriff of Lanark, on 3 May 1297, during an attack on the town led by William Wallace and Richard Lundie. News of Moray's actions quickly drew supporters to him. Sir William fitz Warin, the English constable of Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness, wrote to King Edward in July 1297: "Some evil disposed people have joined Andrew Moray at the castle of [Avoch] in Ross." Amongst them were Alexander Pilche, a burgess from Inverness, and a number of burgesses from the town. Although Sir Andrew Moray of Petty remained imprisoned in the Tower of London – where he died as King Edward's prisoner in 1298 – many of his tenants willingly joined his son.

Attack on Castle Urquhart

Urquhart Castle, which Andrew Moray sought to capture by night-assault in late-May 1297

Although the Scottish kingdom had been easily conquered by King Edward in 1296, early the following year saw outbreaks of violence against the English occupiers and their Scots allies. Argyll and Ross were both riven by violence. In Argyll, Lachlann Mac Ruaidhrí and Ruaidhrí Mac Ruaidhrí and the MacDougall sons of the imprisoned Alexander de Ergadia were in rebellion, attacking Edward I's MacDonald supporters, killing royal officials and destroying royal property. In Galloway the rebels seized castles held by King Edward's men. There was violence in Fife, where MacDuff of Fife and his sons led the rising.

King Edward I responded by ordering supporters in Argyll and Ross to assist "his chosen and faithful subject the Sheriff of Argyll Alexander of the Isles" to suppress the rebels. Donald mac Can and other chieftains were thanked for their work. The English Sheriff of Aberdeen, Sir Henry de Latham, was ordered on 11 June 1297 to deal with rebels in the north-east. Men were dispatched from England, including Henry Percy and Walter Clifford, to assist in the suppression of the rebellion.

In May 1297 Andrew Moray was leading the rebellion against the English king. King Edward's principal Scots follower in the area was Sir Reginald Cheyne, the sheriff of Elgin. The active support of some Scots lords allowed King Edward to rule Scotland without deploying a large occupying force. Cheyne was alarmed by the growth of Moray's rebellion. He wrote to the king requesting assistance, who responded by instructing him to vigorously suppress the rebels. Sir Reginald ordered his lieutenants to a meeting at Inverness Castle on 25 May 1297 to discuss how to deal with Andrew Moray. One participant was Sir William fitz Warin constable of Urquhart Castle standing on the western shore of Loch Ness.

After the meeting Sir William fitz Warin returned to Urquhart Castle accompanied by an escort of men-at-arms. A few miles to the south of Inverness, Sir William was ambushed by a force led by Andrew Moray and Alexander Pilche. He escaped to the safety of his loch-side stronghold. Next day, Sir William found his castle besieged by Moray. The Countess of Ross unexpectedly arrived on the scene with her retinue. The countess, whose husband was held by King Edward in the Tower of London, advised him to surrender. Although her advice was ignored, her actions were later commended to the king by Sir William. Moray, with no heavy siege equipment, tried to take the castle in a night attack. It failed. He left Sir William in possession of the castle to lick his wounds and send an account of this mêlee to his king.

King Edward fights back

Although Andrew Moray was thwarted by the walls of Urquhart Castle, he continued to prosecute a vigorous campaign against his enemies in Moray. The fate of Sir Reginald Cheyne's lands was reported to King Edward

a very large body of rogues swept through the province of Moray towards the Spey, destroying the lands of Duffus, laid waste and captured the castle.

The remnant of the stone keep at Duffus Castle, built in the early 14th century to replace the earlier structure on that site burned by Andrew Moray in 1297.

Moray's campaign during the summer of 1297 bore fruit as he drew new supporters to his banner and English-held castles across Moray and northern Scotland fell to him. Eventually, even Castle Urquhart fell. Little of Moray's spectacularly successful campaign is recorded. Indeed, some of his deeds were apparently co-opted by 'Blind Hary' and attributed to William Wallace. One such event was Wallace's attack on the port of Aberdeen, in which, according to Hary, he burned English ships moored in the harbour. There is no evidence that Wallace actually ever attacked Aberdeen and it has been recognised that this deed is more likely to have been the work of Andrew Moray.

King Edward I of England, whose main concern was preparing for his impending campaign in Flanders, sought to deal with the threat posed by Andrew Moray by making use of loyal Scots nobles released from his prisons to serve in Flanders. The king, in response to Sir William FitzWarin's description of the assault on his castle, issued orders on 11 June 1297 to a number of Scots lords to raise their retinues and march into Moray to relieve fitz Warin and to restore royal authority. Amongst those in receipt of the king's orders were Henry Cheyne, Bishop of Aberdeen, Sir Gartnait of Mar, heir to the earldom of Mar and whose father was currently held in the Tower of London, and John Comyn, Earl of Buchan and Constable of Scotland, together with his brother, Alexander. The Comyn brothers were instructed to remain in Moray until all signs of the rebellion had been stamped out.

The column departed from Aberdeen in early July 1297. Andrew Moray responded to news of its advance by marching east to confront it. The two forces met on the banks of the River Spey at Enzie, where the road from Aberdeen to Inverness forded the waters of the river, the eastern edge of the province of Moray. There is no surviving account of the ensuing confrontation, but it appears that it replayed Moray's earlier 'dance' with the Countess of Ross. An extremely ambiguous account of events was subsequently sent from Inverness to King Edward by Bishop Cheyne on 25 August, relates that after some discussion, Moray and his rebel army withdrew into very great stronghold of bog and wood [where] no horseman could be of service. This was a highly uninventive explanation when one considers the Comyn family pacified the province of Moray in the early 13th century. It appears more likely that neither side wished to fight men that they did not consider their enemies and they simply went their separate ways. But if Cheyne thought he could save face with this letter, he failed to reckon with Hugh de Cressingham, who was the ablest of the king's administrators. Cressingham, having seen this letter, wrote to the king on 5 August:

Sire, the peace on the other side of the Scottish Sea [the Firth of Forth] is still in obscurity, as it is said, as to the doings of the earls who are there.

Cressingham clearly did not believe that the Scots lords tasked with dealing with Moray had done their duty to Edward. Cressingham, who appears to have believed that the Scots nobles were playing a double game at King Edward's expense, was especially dismissive of the account of confrontation at the Spey, writing to King Edward:

Sir Andrew de Rait is going to you with a credence, which he has shown to me, and which is false in many points ... you will give little weight to it.

A statue of William Wallace in Aberdeen, a city with which he has no proven connection

While Andrew Moray seized control of northern Scotland and William Wallace rampaged through west-central Scotland, a rising led by Scotland's traditional feudal leaders was taking place in the south. Amongst its leaders were James, the High Steward of Scotland and Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow. Robert Bruce of Carrick, the future king, was also a participant in this rising. Faced with a large army led by Henry de Percy and Robert de Clifford, they entered negotiations in June. After capitulating at Irvine in July, they failed to surrender the promised hostages which included Robert de Bruce's infant daughter, and most of the same leaders, including Robert de Bruce, were once more with the Scottish forces a short time later.

King Edward, having failed to deal with Moray by force of arms, now resorted to more subtle methods. The king proposed to release Sir Andrew Moray of Petty from imprisonment in the Tower to serve in the ranks of the English army in Flanders, if his son was prepared to take his father's place as a royal hostage. A safe conduct, allowing Andrew the younger to come to England, was issued under the king's seal on 28 August 1297. It is not known if the letter and the accompanying safe-conduct ever reached Andrew the younger but if it did, it was ignored and his father was forced to remain in confinement in the Tower, dying there on 4 April 1298.

Battle of Stirling Bridge

By late summer 1297, King Edward possessed little authority over Scotland. The reality of the breakdown in royal control was described in a letter to the king from Cressingham:

by far the greater part of your counties of the realm of Scotland are still unprovided with keepers, as [they have been killed or imprisoned]; and some have given up their bailiwicks, and others neither will nor dare return; and in some counties the Scots have established and placed bailiffs and ministers, so that no county is in proper order, excepting Berwick and Roxburgh, and this only lately."

A Victorian depiction of the battle. The bridge collapse suggests that the artist has been influenced by Blind Harry's account.

Of the castles north of the River Forth, only Dundee remained in English hands. In late summer of 1297, the earl of Surrey finally began to take action against Moray and Wallace. He had previously done little and was subsequently vilified for his indolence. Walter of Guisborough, said of him:

" The earl [of Surrey] ... to whom our king committed the care and custody of the Kingdom of Scotland, because of the awful weather, said that he could not stay there and keep his health. He stayed in England, but in the northern part and sluggishly pursued the exiling [of the] enemy, which was the root of our later difficulty.

Surrey now mustered an army and marched into central Scotland; Moray and Wallace responded by entrusting the siege of Dundee castle to the townspeople and marching with their army to Stirling. They deployed their army to the north of the River Forth close to the old bridge at Stirling and under the shadow of Stirling Castle.

Surrey's conduct of the ensuing battle was inept. He sent the vanguard of his army across the narrow bridge. Moray and Wallace struck when only part of it had crossed. In the Battle of Stirling Bridge, the isolated vanguard was destroyed. The bulk of Surrey's army fled as it became clear that it had been outmaneuvered and outfought. The flight was led by Surrey, whose "charger never once tasted food during the whole journey" sneered Walter of Guisborough.

It is estimated Surrey lost one hundred knights and five thousand infantrymen at Stirling Bridge. The most notable English casualty was Cressingham, who, according to the chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft unaccustomed "to the saddle, From his steed in its course fell under foot, His body was cut to pieces by the ribalds of Scotland" The Lanercost Chronicle records that Wallace had:

a broad strip [of Cressingham’s skin] ... taken from the head to the heel, to make therewith a baldrick for his sword

The Scottish army's casualties went unrecorded as it was composed largely of historically anonymous infantry soldiers, but there was one known loss: Andrew Moray.

The defeat of Surrey at the Battle of Stirling Bridge was the zenith of Moray's campaign against King Edward. He was not a skilled soldier by accident. The training for knighthood that he had received would have equipped him, as a baron's son, with the skills to fulfill a leadership role in Scotland's feudal host and would certainly have included the skills to lead and direct large groups of soldiers on the battlefield.

Death

The National Wallace Monument standing atop the Abbey Craig.

There is contradictory evidence about the death of Moray. A formal inquisition into the affairs of Sir William Moray of Bothwell, who had died in poverty in England, was held in Berwick-upon-Tweed in November 1300. It was determined in these proceedings that Andrew Moray was: "slain at Stirling against the king." However, there is mention of him still being alive in two letters issued after Stirling Bridge. The first letter, sent from Haddington on 11 October to the mayors of Lübeck and Hamburg, two of the towns of the Hanseatic League, was issued by: "Andrew de Moray and William Wallace, leaders of the kingdom of Scotland and the community of the realm." The second was issued to the prior of Hexham on 7 November by: "Andrew de Moray and William Wallace, the leaders of the army and of the realm of Scotland." Moray's name does not appear on any subsequent surviving document. The interpretation put on this by most historians is that Moray was injured at Stirling Bridge and died of his injuries around November.

However, it has been argued that Moray was actually killed at Stirling Bridge. Evidence to support this view includes the failure of any chronicle source to place Moray at Hexham. Walter Guisborough's chronicle, which contains a detailed account of this invasion, makes it clear that it was led by Wallace. The letters issued to the prior of Hexham bearing Moray's name may have been issued in his absence. Wallace may have been compelled to continue to issue documents jointly in the name of his deceased co-commander. Moray's death not only robbed him of a comrade but also of a shield against the jealousies of the traditional Scottish feudal elites; without him, Wallace, possibly a former outlaw, was exposed to the political intrigues of nobles who felt he had usurped their right to exercise power. Wallace's continued association with the name of Andrew Moray added a much-needed measure of political gravitas to his actions prior to his appointment to the guardianship of the realm. Only once Wallace was knighted and appointed as Guardian of Scotland (sometime prior to March 1298) did it become unnecessary to issue letters jointly with Moray.

Legacy

Moray's early death has meant that his achievements are little known. This situation has been discussed in Scotland's parliament. In December 2009, Murdo Fraser, a Conservative List MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, called for a national debate on an appropriate monument to Moray. He stated that it should raise awareness of Andrew Moray's historical role. In the late 20th century there was increased recognition of Moray's role in events. One historian recently described his actions as "the greatest threat to the English government".

At Pentecost 1298, his widow bore him a son, also named Andrew. The child eventually acceded to the lordships of Petty and Bothwell. He played a major role in defeating the attempts of King Edward III of England to conquer Scotland in the 1330s and would twice be guardian for King David II.

See also

In Spanish: Andrew de Moray para niños