"Iain's Notes"

Note: To get a feeling for the poem "Lochinvar" in context I decided to read Marmion by Sir Walter Scott.  Iain Campbell, trying to ease my burden, sent the following .  I would have been lost without it.

Introduction to Canto 1st

Lot of political compliments.  The whole poem narrates the events leading up to the great Battle of Flodden, (1513) when the power of Scotland was decisively and finally crushed.

Canto 1st:  The Castle

Lord Marmion arrives at Norham Castle.  Marmion is a big-time general.  His host kids him about a cute page he had before who is now missing, and suggests he was a “gentle paramour.”  Marmion retorts that the page is ill and tweaks Lord Heron with a suggestive question about his wife’s absence, at King James’ court.  Marmion offers to take a message to her, since that is where he is going.  He has been sent by his king to find out why Scottish troops are gathering as if for war.  Marmion asks for a guide, and is given a “holy Palmer”, (He carries a palm branch, a sign that he is a monk who has been to the Holy Lands.)  Suspiciously, he is tall and martial in bearing. In the morning they set out.

Intro to Canto 2^nd

We learn further that the Palmer is a mysterious fellow.

Canto 2nd: The Convent

Not far away, an Abbess and 5 nuns of St Hilda are on a boat, one of them is Novice Clare.  “Young and fair”, she is escaping a marriage not to her liking by entering a convent.  They arrive at the Abbey of Lindisfarne, dedicated to St Cuthbert.  Deep in the dark recesses of the abbey, we find Marmion’s page, actually a woman, Constance de Beverley, his lover who is a nun who has abandoned her vows.  She is sentenced to be immured.  Her only defence is that she loved him for 3 years, riding with him as a page, but he ditched her for Clara whose parents are rich. But Clara was promised to De Wilton and so she fled to Whitby.  King Henry promised Clare to Marmion after his current mission, so Constance got a monk to go to Whitby and poison Clare, but he betrayed her too.  She warns them that if they immure her, and Marmion learns of it, they will wish the Danes had attacked rather than he.  They do it anyway.

Canto 3^rd:  The Inn

Marmion and Co. arrive at the Inn at Gifford.  Marmion jokes with his men, a real soldier’s soldier.  The Palmer sits darkly staring at him.  Squire Fitz-Eustace sings a song about a dastard who dishonours a maiden then leaves her.  Marmion shows some sign of remorse.  He claims, during the song, to have heard a “death-peal”, which the Palmer tells him signifies the death of a dear friend.  Marmion muses that he had turned Constance over to the Church to get her off his hands, but he thought she would just be put in some convent, not killed.  The Host tells a tale of Lord Gifford, who had gone over to the “dark side”, used demons to construct his castle. The King jousted at midnight with one of Gifford’s demons.  He was wounded, and every year, on that night, his wound would bleed again.  But he had been granted a vision of the future.  Marmion goes to bed, but later arises to slip out and see if he too can force the demon to give him a vision of the future. Fitz-Eustace saddles up for him.  Marmion rides off, and when he returns, it is clear that he has been unhorsed in combat.  What was the question that Marmion wanted to ask?

Canto 4^th: The Camp

At dawn, it transpires that Blount’s steed has been ridden, another has lost a spear etc.  Elves at work, clearly.  They set out, and have not gone far when trumpets bray.  Sir David Lindsay, Lord Lion, King-at-Arms, arrives, and even Marmion dismounts in respect.  Sir David says the King has sent him to look after Marmion until he can find time to meet with him, because Lady Heron’s spying eyes are quite enough at his court.  So they head off to Crichtoun Castle.  No men are there, for the Lord has ridden off to join the king.  One night, as they walk the battlements, Sir David tells a tale to Marmion of how the Apostle John, appeared to King James to warn him not to go to war.  Marmion responds by telling Sir David the tale of the King who had been granted a vision by overcoming a demon, how he had gone out to try it too, had been unhorsed, and had seen that his opponent was a long dead knight – who spared him the sword’s coup de grace, sheathed it and rode off.  The next day they ride on to the capital, Edinburgh. From Blackford Hill, Marmion sees a great army gathering, and realizes that war is inevitable.

Canto 5^th    The Court

Descriptions of the grandeurs of James’s court, where Lady Heron is reputed to be the King’s mistress. Lady Heron in the 12^th scene sings the song “Lochinvar” (ironic, since Marmion is listening, and he whipped the lady away but only kept her for 3 years then discarded her.) Note that “Marmion and she were friends of old” and the king is a tad jealous.  King James tells Marmion that he has sent a herald to King Henry to tell him of his displeasure with the Border raids. He sends Marmion to stay with the old Earl of Douglas at Tantallon Castle until the herald returns with Henry’s response.  Meanwhile, the nuns of St Hilda have been captured by a Scottish vessel and taken to Edinburgh. Thence they will head south under Marmion’s care when he leaves.  The Abbess is deeply afraid, since she knows Marmion had instructed them to sequester Constance, not to kill her.  She communicates with the Palmer.  De Wilton and Marmion had each wooed Clara de Clare.  Wilton was falsely accused of treason. She tells how Clara fled to the nuns of St Hilda for refuge. A perjured nun (Constance) had written the letters which “proved” Wilton’s guilt.  She was Marmion’s paramour, and was willing to help him wed Clara, so as to keep her influence over him.  The Abbess gives to the Palmer a package of papers proving this story, and asks him to convey them to the king.  The Palmer’s discourse now becomes more warlike, and old Douglas notes how well he sits his horse.  The band proceeds southward, with Clara and the nuns a half hour behind the main body. Then they decide to wait in North Berwick for a boat, but Clara is not allowed to do so, and has to follow on with Fitz-Eustace, under the protection of Lady Angus.  They arrive at Tantallon, and wait while news of the Scottish incursion into England comes back, James’s support gradually dissipating while he dallies with Lady Heron.  Then Surrey draws up an army in front of the Scots, at Flodden.  Douglas and Marmion can wait no longer, and prepare  to join their respective armies.

Intro to Canto 6^th

He chats on about the joys of Christmas!!

Canto 6^th: the Battle

As Clara wanders on the ramparts at Tantallon, she sees Wilton (whom she believes to be dead) doing vigil beside his weapons and armour. He tells her how he comes to be there. How his old servant saved him after he was injured, how he wandered as a pilgrim. The old servant asked him one favour, that if ever he had his worst enemy on the ground before him, he would put up his sword (and we all remember Marmion’s elfin assailant who mysteriously put up his sword)  He tells how he was ordered to accompany Marmion, how he got the package from the abbess to clear his name, how he fought him and defeated him, how Douglas is going to knight him again, and arm him, and allow him to join Surrey’s forces as an honorable knight.  When Marmion leaves in the morning, old Douglas refuses to shake his hand, Marmion calls him a liar, and Douglas in a rage tries to drop the portcullis, but too late.  Marmion’s squire Blount tells him he has seen “the Palmer” ie De Wilton, ride off in full armour.  Marmion realizes with whom he fought at midnight. He says in Section 17 “Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive”, and hastens on to Flodden.  Major descriptions of the forces, and how Scotland’s problem is James’s lack of leadership.  Marmion leaves Clare in the care of Blount and Fitz-Eustace, and joins Surrey’s vanguard.  The Scots fire their tents, and battle is joined.  First Blount leaves to join the fight, and when Eustace sees Marmion’s riderless horse gallop past, he too abandons Clare.  The two squires carry up the dying Marmion. He begs for water, and Clare runs to the stream for him. She tells him Constance died at Lindisfarne.  Marmion dies, brandishing his broken sword and shouting: “On, Stanley, On!”

The Scottish forces are firm around their king, but the English bows are deadly, and Surrey takes the day.

After being robbed and stripped, a lowly woodsman’s body is mistaken for Marmion’s, and properly buried, while Marmion’s goes to a nameless grave.  Wilton is of course the hero of the fight, regains all his honours and is married by the King to Clara.  And they lived happily ever after.

Further notes on Scotland v England

In my first draft of the Lochinvar entry I wrote that the battle of Flodden Field led to Scotland "knuckling under" to the English.  I sent a copy to Iain and he wrote back explaining that it was a bit more complicated than that.

The Scots like to think they held out a little longer before "knuckling under" to the Sassenachs (a dirty word, meaning an Englishman, hissed out and frequently followed by spitting) (kind of like the pronunciation of "Yankee" south of the Mason-Dixon Line??) The great events were:
1296: the Battle of Stirling Field, where Mel Gibson, sorry, William Wallace, defeated Edward I "The Hammer of the Scots"
1314: the Battle of Bannockburn, immortalized in Robbie Burns' powerful poem "Bruce's address to his army at Bannockburn", often called by its first line "Scots wha hae..."
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem334.html
1513: Flodden Field took place. The Scots, as Scott indicates, were numerically superior, but poorly led by King James IV, laden down with loot and exhausted by several weeks of raping and pillaging in the north of England. A weentsy bit undisciplined too.  The Highlanders were much better at guerilla warfare than at set battles.  Henry VIII ruled England at the time.
1603: the Union of the Crowns.  The Scottish James VI became James I of Great Britain.
1707: alas, the politicians stepped in and sold out the Scottish Parliament, moving down to London and assimilation.
1715: we have the first Jacobite Rebellion, when the traditional Scottish House of Stuart rose up unsuccessfully against the Hanoverian George I
1745: the Second Jacobite Rebellion was "led" by Bonnie Prince Charlie (Stuart) against George II. (Hanoverian) Also unsuccessful.
1746: the final crushing blow came at the Battle of Culloden, in the north of Scotland, the last battle to be fought on British soil.  After that defeat of "The Young Pretender" by English armies under Cumberland, Cumberland's troops hunted down all rebels and summarily killed them.  No "hearts and minds" campaign this. It is worthwhile remembering that underlying much of this was the heart of Lennon's "Imagine", yup, religion.  I realise you don't want an additional
lecture on the Scottish Reformation right now :)), but the Highlanders and Stuarts were Catholics, sheltered and abetted by England's traditional enemies, the Catholic Kings of France whereas the rest of Scotland was Presbyterian, and England was largely Protestant too, with certain returns to Catholicism at a monarch's whim.
1999: Scottish Parliament re-opened its doors.  (They are currently having an enquiry into cost of said doors!)  They've got long memories, these wee Scotties.  Despite popular agitation, Sean Connery was not crowned King of the Scots!

BTW: My wife says to remind you that my version of history is that of a person of Protestant stock who went to high school in Scotland.  She implies that I might show some bias.  MOI?