The Coronation of Robert the Bruce: March 25, 1306

The Stone of Scone imprisoned lay,
Trapped in Westminster’s chair tray,
Scotland sparked not liberty’s ray,
When Bruce was crowned at Scone.

Wallace’s head crowned London’s Tower,
To Edward, Lowlands did cower,
Then Bruce fled to maintain bower,
Scotland to bemoan.

Hunted by Edward all the while,
He sailed to the Rathin Isle,
There in peace to use his wile
On Highland war pipe drone

He mustered them; he returned to them,
He retook Stirling, England’s hem,
He cut short Edward’s royal stem,
Scotland was now its own.

Edward charged the burn of Bannock
But could not break Bruce’s block,
Scotland was free from hill to loch,
Even without the Stone.

Despite the Stone imprisoned lay,
Trapped in Westminster’s chair tray,
Scotland flared bright liberty’s ray,
For Bruce saved the throne.

Per Scriptum E. Wesley Reynolds

After the death of William Wallace in 1305, the cause for Scottish independence seemed all but lost. Claim to the Scottish thrown was divided between Robert the Bruce and John Comyn (who naturally despised each other). Bruce's grandfather had died, Bruce's father had fled to Norway, and later gave his lands and titles (the Earldom of Carrick, Scotland) to England. Now desperate, Bruce paid fealty to English King Edward I in 1302. Ironically, it would be the division in the Scottish throne that would later unite Scotland for its final push to independence.

The statuesque did not last long. Bruce eventually killed Comyn in a church some years after Bruce almost lost his own life when Comyn had previously attacked him. Facing imminent charges for murder and sacrilege, Bruce theorized that becoming king would be his safest way out of the situation. He made for Scone, and there was crowned on March 25, 1306 according to Scottish custom (despite the fact that the Stone of Scone, upon which Scottish kings were usually crowned, had been stolen by Edward I in 1299). Edward I was enraged, and mockingly called Bruce "king hob." Bruce was then excommunicated from the church, and under attack from the Earl of Pembroke.

Throughout Scottish history, those who are being chased have repeatedly looked to the Highlands for solitude or protection. Perhaps most famous of these flights to the mountains is Bruce's escape. The next two years were perilous. Bruce's wife and daughter were captured, and he himself narrowly avoided capture as he traveled the Highlands in search for clan support. He sailed on to Rathin Isle, where he fearlessly sent messengers to the Hebrides, all along the Scottish western coast. The Gaelic chiefs of the Hebrides were indifferent to the state of the Lowland Scots, who they viewed were just as Saxon as the English. However, they were of an independent spirit, and so supported the cause by and by. Bruce returned to Scotland in full vigor, mustered the Highland chiefs, and headed south (as Bonnie Prince Charlie would do nearly 440 years later). Bruce led a resounding victory at Loudon Hill against Pembroke, and with the aid of Angus Og (founder of the MacDonald clan), Mar, and Ross, he defeated Comyn's son at Inverurie. For the first time since William Wallace's death, hope for independence was in the air.

Meanwhile in England, Edward I died, leaving the thrown to his son Edward II. Edward II gave battle to Bruce, but Bruce would not be stopped. One by one, Bruce, his brothers, and clan allies regained the lost strongholds for Scotland. Bruce laid siege to the English garrison at Stirling Castle in 1314, which was the gateway to the highlands and consequently, the most important fortress in all of Scotland. It was agreed that if the garrison was not relieved by Edward II by midsummer, it would surrender. Edward II missed the deadline, and Bruce took the fortress, proving his abilities to the chiefs who reciprocated with utmost loyalty.

Edward II had only one option, meet Bruce on the open field of battle. He made straightway to the "burn" (little stream) of Bannock. Bruce and his men decimated the English in the ensuing Battle of Bannockburn. Bruce led the battle from the front. English knight Henry de Bohun spotted the Bruce and made for him with a spear. Bruce cleft the knight's helm with a battle-axe, and the Scottish cheered themselves to victory. The Battle paved the way for the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320. In 1323, Edward signed a peace treaty extending 13 years. Edward III took the thrown, and pushed into Scotland to no avail. He later signed the Treaty of Northampton, which formally acknowledged the legitimacy of an independent Scottish state and proclaimed Robert the Bruce, King Robert I.

As for the Bruce, he was now reconciled with the church and the first King of a recognized independent Scotland. On his deathbed, he requested that his heart be taken along on Douglas's crusade. At Bruce's death on June 7, 1329, his son David became king of Scotland. The pope issued a bull six days later, recognizing the sovereignty of Scotland. Bruce's life work had been accomplished.

Sources:
Image of Robertthebruce from Wikipedia
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2216&chapter=208199&layout=html&Itemid=27
http://www.heartoscotland.com/Categories/RobertBruce.htm
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/robert-the-bruce.htm

The Battle of Stow on the Wold: March 21, 1646

Yet now, division reigns over England,

And no sword can be pulled from hardest stone,
To softly quiet storms before death’s lean hand
Slays the rights of Englishmen, and claims the throne
As military anarchy.

What stains the English cross deepest scarlet?
The sword of feathered capped Cavalier riding;
Or steel helm of Roundhead in night star net;
Or Covenanter’s blood dipped pen writing;
For or against the hierarchy?

Until on the wold north of village Stow,
A battle raged to end the First Civil War.
The King’s knights Astley and Lucas met their woe
With the charge of Brereton on the moor,
And fled the stow like a lark free.

Into the town the Royalists sped fast.
They moored where no moor lay to grace their stand.
And in the market square they stood their last;
Beneath the cross, Astley cast his sword from hand,
And surrendered honorably.

Per Scriptum E. Wesley - Mackinac Center Intern

The Battle of Stow on the Wold was the Royalists' last hopeful stand during the First English Civil War. After the Battle of Torrington and the resulting disbanding of the last Royalist army in western England, Lord Astley's Welsh and Midlands army became the last real resistance to Parliament. Astley made his way to the wold one mile north of Stow. There, he was met by the combined Parliamentarian forces under Sir William Brereton, Colonel John Birch, and Colonel Thomas Morgan. Parliamentarian victory at Stow on the Wold opened the path to King Charles I's vulnerable position at Oxford.

Before the battle, Astley moved from Bridgnorth to Worcester in an attempt to join forces with the King's 1,500 horses at Oxford (see map below). Astley had 700 English veteran cavalry and 3,000 troops from Wales and the Midlands under his command. In an attempt to cut Astley off, Col. Morgan and Col. Birch joined forces at Gloucester, and marched on with a force of 2,300. Avoiding the Parliamentarian outpost at Evesham, Astley slyly slipped around his enemies, crossed the Avon river near Bidford on a boat bridge, and continued south. While Astley was busy meandering, Sir William Brereton and 1,000 horse moved south to close in from the east. At Cotswolds, Astley's march was slowed by Parliamentarian skirmishers, but Morgan wished not a begin a full scale assault until Brereton closed in. On March 20th, Astley halted his troops at Donnington village about two miles away from Stow. That night, Morgan was finally joined by Brereton, and Astley moved his army to a steep hillside one mile north of Stow. Morgan, Birch, and Brereton formed up to face the hill.
At dawn, the organization of both armies could clearly be seen. Lord Astley held the Royalist center infantry, with Sir Charles Lucas's cavalry on the right flank and Sir William Vaughan's cavalry on the left. On the Parliamentarian left flank opposing Lucas was Col. Morgan's cavalry, and Sir William Brereton's horses on the right faced Vaughan. Col. Birch would oppose Astley directly with his center infantry. Morgan began the attack, but was thrown back twice by Lucas's counter-attacks. The Royalists were using the hill effectively to their advantage. Col. Birch launched his infantry at Astley's center, but could get nowhere. The bloody stalemate was finally broken when Brereton's horses overwhelmed and routed Vaughan's outnumbered cavalry. Brereton then turned in and fell on Astley. Lucas then decided to flee, leaving Astley the only option of a retreat back to Stow. Fighting to the last, Astley and his men made a valiant stand in the market square. It was too late of course, and being overrun, Astley surrendered seated beneath the cross in the market as if in judgment. Astley's sense of Christian honor was so true that he did not lift his sword against the Parliamentarians even during the Second English Civil War. Col. Birch described the victory in his Military Memoirs with these words (in original spelling), "And here, certainely, was a more then ordinary hand of God, which could not pass by without observance, being the last battle fought in England. a Nowe only remaynd to take in the garisons..."

This last battle led to the surrender of all the Royalist garrisons, and the New Model Army laid siege to the King's forces at Oxford. The King fled to Newark in Nottinghamshire in a servant disguise, and surrendered to the Scottish Covenanters in order to divide the Scots and Parliamentarians. Although the Royalists waged two more civil wars, they could never muster the momentum that had been so titanic during the First Civil War. The War had been long and bloody, and ended in a rather headlong, unstable fashion. Although Parliament seemed in control during the Commonwealth, it was really the New Model Army that became the pawn mover until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. As in every revolution except the American War for Independence, the Army seized power until Parliament agreed to share power with Charles II. Col. Birch was correct to assert the hand of God in the development of these affairs. Through war, England inadvertently steered its way toward a government system of separation of powers.

Sources:
Image of William Shakespeare- The Wounded Cavalier from Wikipedia
Stow on the Wold Battle Map from british-civil-wars.com
http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1646-torrington-stow-wold.htm
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conBattleField.38
http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=43
http://www.archive.org/stream/militarymemoir00camduoft/militarymemoir00camduoft_djvu.txt
http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/timelines/restoration.htm

The Martyrdom of Jean Calas, Voltaire, and Liberty of Conscience

Flute of the mournful, haunting note,
Why has thou forgotten,
To wail more light than minstrel’s throat,
Calas meek begotten?

His hair was crowned in brilliant white,
Before his son betrayed
And fleeing the family’s table bright
Perished in the way he laid.

Then the people and judges all,
Took his aged estate,
To satisfy bigotry’s call,
Killed Calas in life late.

To the wheel he innocent went,
And to his mockers shame,
Swore his vindication, then lent
A prayer to lift their blame.

But lest thou accord him no note soft,
Christ’s passion shall keep him
Justified until Counsel aloft,
Will trumpet truth not dim.

Per Scriptum E. Wesley - Mackinac Center Intern

Jean Calas's death demonstrates that false charges based on hatred and partiality are the hallmarks of tyranny to individual liberty of conscious. When Jean Calas's son Marc-Antoine was found hanged in Calas's textile shop on October 13, 1761, the entire Roman Catholic population of Toulouse, France became incensed. Marc-Antoine had separated from his family's Huguenot (French Calvinist) faith, and converted to Roman Catholicism. His death proved the perfect excuse to kill some more French Protestants. Marc-Antoine had committed suicide, but Jean Calas was arrested, convicted for murdering his son on erroneous charges, and executed on the wheel on March 9, 1762. French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire took up the Calas cause and led a vigorous press campaign which led to the creation of a 50-judge panel to re-investigate the case. The panel ruled in favor of Calas's innocence on March 9, 1765, and gave an indemnity to the family. Voltaire's popularizing of the Calas affair led to great strides for liberty of conscious in France during the 1780s.

In his Treatise on Tolerance, Voltaire gives himself no direct credit for his efforts in reasoning with the French government, but rather presents his readers with a pitiful account of the injustice done to Calas and the effects that such an event had on Europe. With the facts of the case, Voltaire clearly establishes Calas's and his family's innocence of the alleged murder, and shows the bigotry and irrationality of their accusers. According to Voltaire, the judges believed that Calas, as a sixty eight year old man, would confess before the magistrates and in the cathedral under compulsion, but the faithful Calvinist would never lie before God. Voltaire writes, "They [the judges] were therefore somewhat abashed when he, with his dying breath, summoned God as witness to his innocence and asked that His forgiveness be extended to his misguided judges" (ibid). The judges were so convicted by Calas's faithfulness that they let his son Pierre off with banishment instead of death. This verdict, Voltaire argues, renders the court inconsistent; because if Pierre was guilty, he should have been killed with his father; if innocence, he should have suffered no punishment. Pierre was sent to a Dominican monastery to observe Catholic customs. "Part of their objective in so doing was to make him avenge their religion as the price of his father's blood; religious feeling was thereby appeased" (ibid). Calas's daughters were likewise taken to a convent, and their mother was left destitute. "As for this wretched woman, who had been virtually bathed in her husband's blood, who had held the body of her eldest son in her arms and seen another sent into exile, who had been robbed of her daughters and stripped of all her goods, she was now quite alone in the world, without subsistence or hope and almost dead with the weight of her misery" (ibid). She resolved to petition the King of France for grievances, and found Paris sympathetic to her plight.

From Paris, and with the help of Voltaire, the story spread all across the Continent, and "the whole of Europe was moved to pity by her plight and joined her in demanding justice" (ibid). Mrs. Calas still had enemies, but finally she was allowed the release of her daughters. The tragic story brought about temporary reforms in France during the 1780s, before the storm of Revolution whisked them away again. However, the story remains a beacon for truth, and a charge to stand as firm as the sixty-eight year old hero against impenetrable evil. Voltaire concludes that the corruption of Christian truth was to blame, "...the abuse of the most holy religion has resulted in a terrible crime. It is therefore in the interest of mankind to examine whether the true religious spirit is more consistent with charity or with cruelty" (ibid). This exhortation and the heroism of Jean Calas deserves to be sung in defiance to all those who would thwart liberty of conscience: the liberty to do and believe what is right.

Sources:
Image of JeanCalas from Wikipedia
http://assets.cambridge.org/052164/0172/sample/0521640172WS.pdf
http://www.idehist.uu.se/distans/ilmh/Ren/idehist-voltaire-calas.htm

The Sound of Music: Released March 2, 1965

Per Scriptum E. Wesley - Mackinac Center Intern

Today marks the 45th anniversary of the release of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. No, The Sound of Music wasn't an event of liberty, but rather a movie about family victory over impending tyranny. Moving from the internal to external, the movie depicts how Maria brings joy and love to the broken Von Trapp family, and unites them just in time to escape the clutches of the Nazi takeover. Captain Von Trapp marries Maria before Germany's first real step to takeover Austria. The Captain's unwavering patriotism and resistance to Nazism combined with Maria's unfailing love for the Captain and his children overcome the evil of Hitler. At heart, The Sound of Music is a face-off between the virtuous Christian family and the tyrannous state. It is a classic in every sense of the word.

Source:
Image SoM1 from Wikipedia
Note: This image is property of Twentieth Century Fox. It is being used for nonprofit educational purposes only, as it qualifies as fair use under copyright law. See here and here.