Scotland in the Time of Queen Mary
All through the reign of Queen Mary there had been such constant quarrelling and fighting, that we are apt to think that people must have neglected their duties and led…
From: 1551 C.E. To: 1567 C.E.
Location: Scotland
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From A Short History of Scotland by Peter Hume Brown, 1908.
Scotland in the Time of Queen Mary
All through the reign of Queen Mary there had been such constant quarrelling and fighting, that we are apt to think that people must have neglected their duties and led very unhappy lives. We know, however, that this was not the case. Of course, the English invasions did a great deal of harm, especially in the country near the Borders; and, when battles had to be fought, men had to leave their work to fight whenever they were called.
But battles were not fought every day, and the English were not always invading the country, so that the farmer and the merchant and the craftsman could usually go on with their work in spite of the constant quarrelling of the great people about the Court.
About the year 1551, not long after the battle of Pinkie, there came to Scotland a French clergyman who wrote about what he saw in the country, and from what he says we may learn that, in spite of the many wars and English invasions, the people were not so badly off or so unhappy as we might have expected.
One thing that struck him was that every day the country was becoming richer and more prosperous. The people had not much money, but they had plenty of provisions, which were as cheap in Scotland as in any other part of the world. There was much corn and abundance of cattle, so that both bread and meat were cheap. The chief crops he saw were barley, peas, and beans.
Another thing he noticed was the great number of churches and monasteries, and he says that the clergy were richer than the nobles, which we know to have been the case. This was what a foreigner thought of Scotland, but let us see what the country looked like in the times of Queen Mary.
The surface of the country was very different then from what it is now. First of all, there was hardly a tree to be seen anywhere in the Lowlands. Round gentlemen's houses there were sometimes a few, but a traveller might walk many miles without even seeing a single bush.
As there were so few trees, there could be little wood for building houses and ships, and so the Parliament passed many laws to encourage planting, and to prevent mischievous persons from injuring young trees. If any one did damage to a young tree, he was to be fined £10 (Scottish money) for the first offence and £20 for the second; and, if he broke the law a third time, he was to be put to death, though this last punishment was never really carried out.
By another law, every one who had a certain amount of land was to plant three acres of wood round his dwelling. But in spite of these laws there was very little timber grown, and it was not till long after this period that Scotland became a well-wooded country.
In another way the surface of the country was different from what it is now. All over the Lowlands there were marshes and small lakes which no longer exist. The reason of this was that people then did not understand how to drain land as we do nowadays. If we could look at the country as it was in the time of Mary, another thing would strike us.
We should not see any fences, whether hedges or stone walls, round the fields as there are now. All the fields lay open, so that it was necessary to have herds to keep the cattle and sheep from trampling down the crops. We see, then, that from the want of trees, from the many marshes and lakes, and from there being no hedges or walls, the country must have had a very different appearance from what it has today.
We must not think, however, that Scotland was a mere wilderness in the time of Mary. In many places just as rich crops were raised as in any other country. The most fertile districts were the Lothians, Fife, the Carse of Gowrie, and Morayshire. Then on the hillsides great numbers of sheep were reared, and sheep-rearing was such a profitable business that the clergy, the nobles, and even the kings took an interest in it.
We know what a good farm was like at this time. There was the farmer's house, which contained a hall, a chamber, a pantry, and a kitchen. Near the farm was the barn for storing the corn, a byre for the cattle, and a dovecot for the pigeons, of which there were great numbers in those days. There was an orchard for the growing of fruits and vegetables, a rabbit-warren, and a fish-pond, for supplying the family with part of its food.
There was one great evil in Scotland, however, which lasted for a long time after the reign of Mary. The landlords would not let their lands for more than a few years, and at the end of that time they often turned the farmers out of their holdings. The result of this was that the farmers did not manure the land, or plant hedges, or improve their holdings in any way, as they would have done had they been certain that the landlord would not turn them off at the end of their lease.
It sometimes happened, also, that the farmer who lost his farm slew the one who took his place. It will be seen, therefore, that the short leases did much harm in more ways than one. They prevented the land from being properly cultivated, and they made the landlords and the farmers bitter enemies.
Brown, Peter Hume. A Short History of Scotland. Oliver and Boyd, 1908.
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