Mount, in his "Dying Papingo," alludes to it in the following stanza.

The site of the Castle seems to have been occupied as a Roman Station. Boece affirms that Agricola raised certain fortifications upon the rock; and it is highly probable that the Romans took possession of it as a military station, prior to their passing the Forth and invading Caledonia. In support of Boece's authority, we find that the Roman military causeway runs through Stirling from the south, and pursues its direction northwards from the opposite side of the Forth. Sir Robert Sibbald has preserved an inscription, which, though now obliterated, remained in his time upon a rock opposite the old gate of the Castle: "IN EXCV. AGIT. LEG. ;" of which the reading is supposed to be, In excubias agitantes legionis secunda; "for the daily and nightly watch of the second legion."+

The first historical fact we find recorded of Stirling, as a fortress, is in the year 855, when Donald III. on the death of Kenneth II. mounted the Scottish throne. Early in his reign the kingdom was invaded by two northern princes, Osbrecht and Ella. Uniting their forces with the Cumbrian Britons, and a number of Picts, who, driven from their native country, had taken refuge in England, they advanced to Jedburgh. Here Donald encountered them, and after an obstinate and bloody battle obtained a complete victory. Pushing, however, his advantage no further than making himself master of Berwick, he took up his station there in supine security, deeming himself quite safe from a foe he had so recently vanquished. The Northumbrians,

* "King Arthur kept the round table at the Castle of Styrlyng, otherwise called Snowdon-west-castell."-Worcester's Itin. p. 311. + Sibbald's Rom. Antiq. p. 35.

apprised of his imprudent posture, by a hasty march, surprised the fortress, dispersed the Scottish army which had so lately been victorious, and made the king prisoner. Pursuing their good success, they instantly marched northwards, and subdued all the country before them to the Forth and Stirling. The Scots, stripped of both king and army, sued for peace, which they obtained on condition of paying a large sum for the ransom of their king, and yielding up all their dominions south of the Forth to the Northumbrians, and those south of the Clyde to Dumbarton to the Cumbrians.

The Northumbrians, taking possession of their newly acquired dominion, rebuilt the Castle of Stirling, and fortified it with a strong garrison. They built a stone bridge over the Forth, and on the top raised a cross with the following inscription: "Anglos a Scotis separat crux ista remotos. Hic armis bruti; Scoti stant cruce tuti." The authenticity of the above account is confirmed by the arms of the town of Stirling, which have a bridge with a cross, and the last line of this distich for a motto around it.

Stirling Castle, after having been in the possession of the Northumbrian Saxons for a period of twenty years, was, together with the whole country south of the Forth, restored to the Scots on condition of their assisting the Saxons in repelling their turbulent invaders the Danes.

About the close of the tenth century, Kenneth III. when informed that the Danes had invaded his dominions, appointed Stirling Castle the rendezvous of his army, and in 975 he fortified the fords of the Forth.* It was on this occasion that he marched from Stirling to the battle of Luncarty, which proved so fatal to the Danes. Trial by Jury was first established at Stirling by Alexander II.

About the year 1174, the Fortress of Stirling assumed a more imposing and extensive aspect than that of the an

* Chalmers' Caled. I. 394. Hist. of Stirlingshire, Vol. I. p. 271.

cient Gothic structure erected by the Northumbrians. The Castles of Stirling, Edinburgh, Roxburgh, and Berwick, the four chief fortresses in the kingdom, were surrendered to the English as a ransom for their captive king, William the Lion. This is considered by historians as the first great ascendant that England obtained over Scotland, and as forming one of the most important transactions in the annals of these kingdoms, since the Roman conquest.

It was in Stirling Castle that this King held a parliament for payment of his ransom, and in 1212, he died in the Castle, having previously requested, during his last illness, to be carried thither for the benefit of the air.

*

Richard I. of England, on his accession to the throne, remitted what ransom money remained unpaid, restored the fortresses to the Scots, and discharged the concession of superiority extorted by his father Henry II. from the captive Lion.

Sir Robert Erskine was appointed governor of the castle, by King David Bruce, in 1360, and had a grant of all the revenues in Stirlingshire, with the wardships, escheates, and other emoluments annexed to them. The office of governor was continued in the same family till the forfeiture of the Earl of Mar, in 1715.

In 1296, Edward I. enraged at Baliol's renunciation of his allegiance, marched into Scotland with a great army, carrying every thing before him. The strongest fortresses surrendered, and Stirling, deserted by its garrison, made no resistance. After the battle of Stirling, in 1297, Surrey, being forced to retreat, left the Castle garrisoned under Sir Marmaduke de Twenge, who was obliged instantly to evacuate it before Sir William Wallace, and after the battle of Falkirk, Wallace found it necessary to demolish it. It was repaired by Edward II. but he did not long retain possession of it, for in the following year it was recovered by the Scots.‡ In 1300, after a siege of three months, Sir William Oli

*Fordun. + Crawford's State Papers. + Hemingford.

phant capitulated to the usurper, by whom the Castle was held till 1303, when the Scottish chiefs, having compelled the English general to surrender it, reinstated Oliphant in his former command. Edward having entered Scotland, procured the outlawry of Sir William Wallace, Simon Fraser, and the garrison of Stirling Castle. During three months every effort was exerted to reduce the fortress, and at length Edward succeeded by storm, and sent the brave garrison whose offer of capitulation he had spurned, to different jails in England, and the governor was immured in the Tower of London. The heroic Wallace still remained, unsullied in warlike fame, and unconquered in spirit, until he was arrested and carried to London in fetters, where he was cruelly condemned and executed on the 23d August 1305. The Castle at this time remained in the hands of the English, even after the battle of Bannockburn, so glorious to the Scotch. In 1333 it yielded to Edward Baliol; and in 1336, after having been repaired by Edward III. it was besieged by Sir William Douglas and Sir Andrew Moray, the friends of David Bruce, when Edward relieved it in person. Sir Robert Keith Marischal, one of the chief heroes of Bannockburn, was killed on this occasion. The following year the Castle was blockaded by the same party, and again relieved by Edward, and in 1339 it was captured by Bruce's friends.*

The Kings of Scotland frequently held their courts and parliaments in Stirling Castle, and it became the stated residence of the Stuart family. Indeed, Stirling Castle, like the other palaces, is indebted for its principal embellishments and extension, to this unfortunate dynasty. It was the birth-place of James II. who, on the murder of his father, was put under the government of Sir Thomas Livingston, who had the keeping of Stirling Castle.† The young king,

*Fordun. Hemingford.

+Chalmers' Caled. Vol. II, p. 569.

by the contrivance of the chancellor, was afterwards kept prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, until the Queen mother, resolved on transferring the charge to Livingston, succeeded in bringing him back to Stirling by sea.* He was, however, soon after seized by the Lord Chancellor, while hunting in the woods near Stirling, and reconducted once more to his former place of durance.

Stirling Castle is well known as the scene of a deed of blood, which fixed an indelible stain upon the reign of this monarch, the murder with his own hand of William Earl of Douglas, in February 1452, in violation, it is said, of his writ of safety.†

The Royal apartments were then in the north-west angle of the Castle, and are now partly occupied as the residence of the Fort-Major. The closet in which the murder was perpetrated is still distinguished by the name of" Douglas' Room." The following authentic account of the mutual atrocities of Douglas and the King, connected as it is with the Castle of Stirling, may not be altogether uninteresting:

Earl Douglas, it appears, had entered into a confederacy with the Earls of Crawfurd, Ross, Moray, and Ormond, against the Crown, and into which he had forced the greater part of his own vassals. One M'Lellan, however, a near relation of Lord Gray, being obstinate, he was seized by Douglas, who conveyed him to Douglas Castle. Sir Patrick, Lord Gray's son, to save his captive friend, had arrived at Douglas Castle with a mandate from the King, and he was convivially entertained by the Earl. After dinner, Sir Patrick Gray produced the King's letter. His host received it with every apparent mark of respect, and said he was indebted to him for bringing him so gracious a

* Vide Historical Description of Edinburgh Castle.

+ This has never been properly authenticated, although it is said that a paper purporting to be such, was dragged at a horse's tail through Stirling by the friends of Douglas after the assassination.