[1399/1/1]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†The council held at Perth in the month of January in the year '98 [1399], with the king being present, etc.
[1399/1/2]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The act of the general council held at Perth on 27 January in the year of grace 1398 [1399], upon various points touching our lord the king and the estate of his realm, given to the deliberation of the three communities† of the kingdom gathered there, where it is delivered that the misgovernance of the realm and the failure in keeping of the common law should be imputed against the king and his officers. And therefore, if our lord the king pleases to excuse his failings, he may at his pleasure cause summon his officers to whom he has given commission, and accuse them in the presence of his council. And, their answer heard, the council shall be ready to judge their failings, since no man ought to be condemned until he has been called and accused.
[1399/1/3]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, since it is well seen and known that our lord, the king, on account of the sickness of his person may not exert himself to govern the realm, nor restrain trespassers and rebels, it is seen as most expedient by the council that [David Stewart, 1st] duke of Rothesay, be the king's lieutenant generally through the whole kingdom for the term of three years, having full power and commission of the king to govern the land in all ways as the king should do in his person if he were present; that is to say to punish trespassers, to restrain trespasses and to treat and remit with the following conditions; that is to say that he is obliged by his letters and sworn to govern his person and the office committed to him with the general council, and in the absence of them with the council of wise and loyal men, the names of whom are here: first [Robert Stewart, 1st] duke of Albany, [Walter Stewart], lord of Brechin, [Walter Trail], bishop of St Andrews, [Matthew Glendinning], bishop of Glasgow, and [Gilbert Greenlaw], bishop of Aberdeen, [Archibald Douglas, 3rd] earl of Douglas, and [Alexander Leslie], earl of Ross, [Thomas Dunbar], earl of Moray, and [David Lindsay], earl of Crawford, [James Douglas], lord of Dalkeith, Sir Thomas the Hay, constable, Sir William of Keith, marischal, Sir Thomas of Erskine, Sir Patrick of Graham, Sir John of Livingston, Sir William Stewart, Sir John of Ramornie, Adam Forrester, [John de Leith], abbot of Holyrood, [James Borthwick], archdeacon of Lothian, and Mr Walter Forrester; which general and special council shall be obliged and sworn by their letters to give him loyal counsel for the common profit, not having eye for feud nor friendship. And afterwards the said duke [will] be sworn to fulfil after his ability all the things that the king at his crowning was sworn to do for the Holy Kirk and the people, since he is to bear the king's power in these things, that is to say to keep the freedom and right of the kirk undiminished, to cause the laws and loveable customs to be kept for the people, to restrain and punish manslayers, robbers, burners and all misdoers generally through strength, and especially to restrain at the request of the kirk cursed men, heretics and [people] excluded from the kirk. And that the king be obliged that he shall not hinder [the duke's] office nor the execution of it by any countermandments as sometimes has been seen; and if anything is done contrary to these letters or in any other way through our lord the king's bidding, that countermandment will be of no value or effect, and the aforesaid lieutenant not held to answer such countermandments, and excused† for not doing his office by virtue of them.
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Item, it is ordained that articles that are done or executed in the said office shall be put in act, with the day and place and the names of those that are councillors in that deed, so that the council being with him shall answer for his deed and be punished through the sight of the general council for this, as the cause requires.
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Item, it is ordained that, with the counsel of the greater and larger part of the said councillors, [they take] others to counsel about things that need to be done, as is seen as speedful for the common profit, according to the nature of the causes and the land where the lieutenant travels, etc.
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Item, it is ordained that all the lieges and subjects of our sovereign lord the king shall answer, obey, counsel, maintain and support the said lieutenant in his office, and travel with him as they should do with the king's person, notwithstanding any conditions of retinues, etc.
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Item, it is ordained that the lieutenant's letters shall be answered in all things that pertain to his office as the king's own letters [would be], and that the chancellor shall answer all his letters as to the king's letters under his privy seal in all articles comprised in this act, and give letters under the king's great seal thereupon (with the exception of remission, for which he shall write to the king, and the king's privy seal [precept will be sent] to the chancellor). And that all other officers, both within and outwith regalities, shall answer his letters as to the king's own letters in all things that pertain to [their] office, according to the tenor of this act. And also that he have power to make reward to those that are deserving of all escheats and forfeits falling to his office, as his council being with him at the time will avow and answer for before the king and his general council.
[1399/1/8]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, it is ordained that the lieutenant shall take his expenses and costs in his travels in the same manner as was ordained for [Robert Stewart, 1st] duke of Albany, in the last council at Stirling.
[1399/1/9]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, it is ordained that an embassy† shall be sent to England to receive the king's oath, as our lord the king has undertaken to do by his letters.
[1399/1/10]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, it is ordained that [Robert Stewart, 1st] duke of Albany, [Walter Trail], bishop of St Andrews, [Matthew Glendinning], bishop of Glasgow, and [Gilbert de Greenlaw], bishop of Aberdeen, [Archibald Douglas, 3rd] earl of Douglas, [George Dunbar], earl of March, and [David Lindsay, 1st] earl of Crawford, [James Douglas], lord of Dalkeith, Sir Thomas of Erskine, Sir Patrick the Graham, Sir William Stewart, Sir John of Ramornie and Adam Forrester, with sufficient commission to be deputed, with [David Stewart, 1st] duke of Rothesay, are to treat all things which are to be treated at Edinburgh for the peace, and that, with the counsel of others who shall seem necessary to them, they give instructions to persons to be sent between, which persons shall be chosen by the persons written above. Which aforenamed persons, with the counsel that they will take to them, shall deliver at the end of that day whether the twenty-eight year truce be accepted or not. To which deliverance the present council consents.
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Item, it is ordained that from the end of that day a great embassy shall be sent to France, which embassy shall be chosen by the aforesaid commissioners, taking their instructions from them.
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Item, it is ordained that the three sons of Sir Alexander Stewart, who are now in prison in Stirling Castle, be delivered to the lieutenant, and that he be obliged to cause them to be kept firmly and not delivered without [the consent] of general council or parliament.
[1399/1/13]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, it is ordained that each year the king shall hold a parliament so that his subjects are served by the law, which shall begin on the morning after All Hallows' day [2 November], for the next three years.
[1399/1/14]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, it is accorded that the statute made last at Stirling†be continued and have force for three years with these additions, that is to say: whoever finds himself harmed in time to come by theft, robbery, slaughter, burning or destroying of the country, namely common,† that they give their complaints in writ to the lieutenant or his deputes at their pleasure, or else to the sheriff, which complaints shall have the same force and effect in causing the persons to be arrested as [did] the enquiry comprised in the Stirling statute. And the sheriffs and officers of regalities, each within his bailiary, shall do their job in arresting the persons given up in this way, by enquiry or complaint, and that they shall release them at pledge, each under the pain of £20, to appear before the lieutenant or his deputes upon the warning of twenty-one days, as a peremptory day, for undergoing the law there for their trespasses. And if they are not warned to appear before the lieutenant or his deputes, and do not suffer the law before them, they shall appear at the next justice ayre in the form comprised in the said statute.
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Item, as it was ordained in the said statute that the justice shall take cognisance of the officers, of how they behave in their offices, and to punish them for their failings. Also to punish all those who do not rise in support of the officers, just so the lieutenant and his deputes shall have power to know and punish the failings of officers as often as cause requires.
[1399/1/16]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
It is also ordained that if any trespassers are found by enquiry or given up by complaint who the sheriff and the officers of regalities cannot arrest, the sheriff and the aforesaid officers shall cause public proclamation in the principal places of their bailiaries of those that cannot be arrested, bidding them that they come and find pledges to the said statute within fifteen days. And whoever does not come within the said term shall be at the king's horn, and their lands and goods escheat.
[1399/1/17]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, it is ordained that a general contribution be raised of £2,000 of the money now running for the common needs of the kingdom and the common profit, that is to say the embassy and the treaties to be sent to France and England, as was said before. For speeding which, the clergy has granted at this time [to pay] as it may come to their part, with the protestations written below, that is to say that it not run to the prejudice of the clergy in future, nor hurt the freedom of the Holy Kirk, and [that the contribution] be raised by ministers of the Holy Kirk so that no king's officers nor any secular men intromit themselves in the raising of it. And that the said contribution be raised from all goods, cattle and lands, both demesne and other lands, excepting white sheep, ridden horses and drawn oxen. Also that the burgesses shall pay towards that contribution as much from their overseas goods as from those on this side, and from all other goods, the said burgesses making protest that they be kept in their freedoms and that they not pay customs for wool, hides nor skins above the sum that they were accustomed to pay in the time of King Robert [II] that last died of good memory, and that they be free from all manner of imposition set upon salmon. With these protests that the law be held for them as was said before, the three communities have granted the contribution, and for receiving the assessment of the aforesaid contribution there shall be three deputes from each of the three estates at Perth on the first Thursday after Easter [3 April 1399] for setting the yield that shall be raised upon the assessment.
[1399/1/18]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, upon the complaints of our lady, the queen [Annabella Drummond] concerning her pension of £2,500 merks year by year for the term of her life, to be raised from the customs of various burghs through the letters of our lord the king under his great seal shown to the communities in full council, in which pension she said and pleaded that she was hindered by the deputies of the chamberlain, item it is declared through the council that the king shall write by virtue of that declaration to the custumars of all and sundry burghs in which that pension is assigned to be paid proportionately to our foresaid lady the queen, or [to] his ministers of the said pension, that they answer, serve and pay, readily and duly, year by year, without and objection or hindrance, after the tenor of the aforesaid letters of our lord the king. And also the king shall cause a writ [to be sent] to the chamberlain, that he not hinder that payment, nor cause it to be hindered, disturbed nor delayed in any manner.
[1399/1/19]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Item, it is ordained that the statute made at Perth last April touching the paying of custom on English cloth brought into the land, and Scottish cloth, salted meat, tallow, butter, horses, nolts taken out of the land shall be paid as it was ordained in the aforesaid council.