[1385/4/2]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
In the general council of our lord King Robert II held at Edinburgh in the month of April in the year of our Lord 1385 and the fifteenth year of the king's reign, it was ordained that those greater and higher magnates to whom the same king has formerly committed certain bounds or regions of the kingdom to be governed in time and event of war, and whom he established to be in charge of his forces within those bounds or regions, assigning them the leadership and governance of these forces for the defence of the kingdom, shall now be urged to action by the king's letters, charging them under the penalty which applies to cause preparation to be made of themselves and of all sufficient men living within their bounds, both armed men and archers, and they should be arranged, prepared and ready with horses, arms and armour, and their vittles according to the custom of the kingdom, for making haste and travelling to the marches for the defence of the kingdom as soon and as often as they shall be forewarned. And that the community may not be destroyed or laid waste by the inhabitants of the kingdom while they ought to be making and bringing about a defence against the invasion or attack of enemies and foreigners; thus they should guide and regulate themselves while travelling though the country, as far as buying and obtaining necessities and in other matters, as it was ordained by the council at Glasgow in the past year, and under the penalties [appropriate], and as is contained in the king's letters patent sent to those higher lords concerning and upon the same ordinance.
[1385/4/3]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, because the prelates, nobles and many of the community of the kingdom often complain grievously of the lack of justice in the highland and northern regions, because many malefactors and caterans wander, dwell and are received there, who lay waste and exhaust both the clergy and the people by savage killing, pillaging and burning, it was delivered and expressly set forth to the lord [John Stewart], earl of Carrick, the king's firstborn (who, by the deliberation and ordinance of the whole general council held recently, namely in the month of November last past at Edinburgh, took upon himself the burden and care of support and regulation of certain matters which, for the speeding up of justice and more speedily obtaining access to having justice, at that time seemed necessary to the same whole council to be decreed and ordained for the common good) that he personally attack the northern regions with all possible haste, supported by an appropriate and sufficient force of men, and secured by prudent and faithful counsel, or nearby at an appropriate place convenient to him; and having summoned to his presence in that place certain notable persons, both clergymen and faithful people of those same highland and northern regions, as shall seem to him and his faithful council then to be sufficient and desirable to this end, then without loss of time, with his and their advice and council's decree, he should devise, ordain, procure and decree, and without any delay, sparing no person, he should actively pursue ways and means in which or through which those malefactors and caterans and their accomplices, and also their receivers, might be effectively pursued according to the aforementioned statutes, or in other ways if perchance it then seems more expedient to them to cause them to be punished in another way for this; with the proviso that such punishment as is to be imposed should be due and appropriate for their demerits and should provide hereafter an example for the rest.
[1385/4/4]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
In addition, it was ordained that all and singular those of the parts of Teviotdale who recently came from the peace of [Richard II], the king of England, to the peace and faith of our lord king, through the late William, earl of Douglas, having a commission for this from the king under certain conditions (which very conditions are more fully expressed in the letters of commission themselves), shall present their schedules to the lord chancellor within the next eight days containing the names of the lands and possessions which they claim ought to be theirs by hereditary right, wherever [they are] within the kingdom, along with the names of those people who now possess them, and with the names of the sheriffdoms in which they lie. With the proviso that those who are to receive the said letters of summons on behalf of the people of Teviotdale present the letters to the sheriffs to whom they are directed with such diligence and haste that the sheriffs themselves are able to make competent summons within another eight days. And that the chancellor [John Peeble, bishop of Dunkeld] should direct the king's letters of summons individually to the same sheriffs, instructing that they should summon by name all and singular who hold, possess or who now claim themselves to have a right in these same lands or possessions, that they they should compear in the presence of the king and council in the general council already ordained to be held at Edinburgh on 12 June next to come [1385] with continuation of days, as if at a peremptory day, with their evidences by which they claim that they hold and possess these lands and possessions, for hearing the determination of the king and his council upon the aforesaid lands, which the king with the council will then make final concerning the same. With this proviso, that whether the said people to be summoned compear or not, the king with the council will make a final execution then as far as all the things to be determined then for the same business, as, and as far as, pertains to him and seems needful to the whole council.