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Two Groups of Documents, Relating to John Baliol, from the Vatican Archives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

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Extract

The two sets of documents described below were brought to the writer's notice by a lucky chance. Monsignor Angelo Mercati, examining the catalogue of manuscripts, from the Secret Archives of the Holy See, known as Miscellaneous Instruments, noted a document concerning John Baliol, and placed it before the only representative of the Scottish nation working among the Archives at that time. Later, he discovered a second group in the set of documents which formed the old Archives of Castel Sant' Angelo. Taken together, the two sources shed some welcome light upon Scottish history, and we are greatly indebted to Monsignor Mercati for bringing them to our notice, and generously permitting their publication.

This is a parchment, written in an English hand of the late thirteenth century, and embellished with miniatures and decorated capitals. It is an annotated genealogy of the Royal House of Scotland, from David I to John Baliol, with an account of the recognition of Edward as overlord, and Baliol's subsequent letter of grievances. The text reads as follows, and we have arranged the genealogy itself in a form suitable for a printed page. Plate XIV shows its actual appearance.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1932

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References

page 26 note 1 It is described in the catalogue as Exemplar litteris maioribus figurisque genealogicis exornatum. The colouring is in blue and red. The miniatures are painted against a blue background, bordered by circles of red, blue and red, with a margin of uncoloured parchment between them. Ruling: with a fine point. The upper part of the parchment is eaten away in a few holes, but without damage to the text. It measures about 23½ × 34½ inches. An account of the document, with a facsimile, was published in the Glasgow Herald, February 18 and 21, and in the Morning Post, March 18, 1930.

page 27 note 1 The letter which follows has been printed in Rymer's Foedera: tom. II., p. 707 (second edition, 1727).

page 27 note 2 The old form of the name, here used, is noteworthy. One wonders if it might afford a clue to the provenance of the manuscript.

page 28 note 1 Rymer (Foedera) gives nostro: lands held of you in our realm.

page 28 note 2 I.e. being members of household and in your retinue. (Menagium: see Blount's Law Dictionary.)

page 29 note 1 See SirDunbar, Archibald, Scottish Kings (second edition), 116Google Scholar; and authorities there cited.

page 29 note 2 ‘Toom tabard’ means an empty heraldic coat; in other words, a coat without a man behind it. One of those expressive phrases common in the Scottish language: cf. ‘tulchan bishops.’

page 29 note 3 Burton, Hill, History of Scotland, II. 170, nGoogle Scholar.

page 29 note 4 Baliol's letter was presented to Edward at Berwick, on 5th April, 1296. (Foedera, II., p. 707.)

page 29 note 5 This document belongs to the collection brought to the Vatican from the Archives of Castel Sant' Angelo, which, from the time of Sixtus IV to the French Revolution, was the repository of many records relating to the temporalities of the Church. The first of the series of notarial instruments has been printed, omitting the names of witnesses, in Caesaris Barroni, , Annales Ecclesiastici, XXIII., p. 249 (edition 1887).Google Scholar It consists of two parts, specified below, endorsed on the parchment as 417 1 and 417 2 respectively. The whole measures about 11 × 34 inches. Ruling: double margin on both sides, and lines, with a fine point. An account of this document was published in the Glasgow Herald of February 23, 1931.

page 30 note 1 Walsingham, , Historia Anglicana, I., 78 (Rolls Series).Google Scholar

page 36 note 1 For the identification of this castle I am indebted to the courtesy of Monsignor Pelzer of the Vatican Library and of M. P. Claudon, Conservateur des Archives du Département de la Côte-d'Or. M. Claudon writes: ‘La localité … s'appelle aujourd'hui Gevrey-Chambertin, mais Chambertin est une addition récente (1897) et correspond au nom d'un vignoble renommé situé sur le territoire de cette localité. Jusque-là on a dit Gevrey, ou Gevrey-en-Montagne. … L'abbé de Cluny en avait la seigneurie avec château: on y trouve mention d'un prieur au moyen âge.

‘Gevrey est une commune du département de la Côte-d'Or, arrondisement de Dijon, canton de Gevrey même: il est situé à 13 kilomètres au sud de Dijon. Mais avant 1731, date de l'érection de l'évéché de Dijon, pris de celui de Langres, il faisait bien partie de l'évêché ou diocèse de Langres.’

An old-world residence with square towers and surrounded by a high stone wall still exists upon this site among the vineyards: but the proprietor states that there are no remains of the thirteenth-century castle.

page 36 note 2 Apparently Dsola, suffragan of S. Severina. Bishop Hilary appears in 1297. (See Eubel, , Hierarchia Med. Aev. I. 296.)Google Scholar

page 38 note 1 See documents printed in Foedera, Vol. II., p. 835, etc.

page 39 note 1 This was expressly specified in the official documents, testifying to the delivery of Baliol. ‘Hoc est scire et intelligere, quod Dominus noster summus Pontifex non possit ordinare, nec dire de dicto Regno Scotie.’ (Foedera, II., 848; repeated in French, p. 849.)

page 39 note 2 Scottish Kings, 117 and n. The accounts given in the Dictionary of National Biography and Encyclopædia Britannica show how meagre is the information about the last years of Baliol's life.

page 40 note 1 The returns made by twenty-two Religious Houses have been published by Sir Francis Palgrave in the introduction to Documents and Records relating to Scotland. Bain remarks that the extracts from the chronicles ‘contain a curious mixture of historical facts and monkish legends.’ (Calendar of Documents, Scotland, II., Introduction, xix.)

page 41 note 1 See the list of the competitors enumerated by SirDunbar, Archibald from the Great Roll of Scotland (Scottish Kings, 111–13).Google Scholar

page 41 note 2 See ‘The Scottish Parliaments of Edward I,’ by Richardson, H. G. and Sayles, G., in Scottish Historical Review, XXV, pp. 300Google Scholar et seq. Mr. Sayles has given the present document his consideration, and I gratefully acknowledge my debt of obligation for his helpful suggestions, based upon his knowledge of the period.

page 41 note 3 Mlle Polaczek, archivist at Lemberg, who has made extensive studies in European heraldry, states that the hanging head was a common heraldic convention to denote lack of heirs; but no other pictorial device of the kind has come within the cognisance of the Lyon Office of Scotland.