Baliol was crowned at Scone , after having being chosen by Edward the first over Robert the Bruce, as King of Scotland. This had come about because of Alexander III's death in 1286. The only actual successor was Margaret � the Maid of Norway' but she had died on her trip back home to take over the Scottish crown. Edward I of England had been appointed as adjudicator for the vacant throne by the Bishop of Glasgow. It suited Edward to have John Baliol as King because Baliol's wife was directly related to Edward and because he thought that Bruce would be too much for him to handle. John Baliol was told in no uncertain terms why Edward had chosen him, and so that he might not forget his dependency, Edward recalled him into England , immediately after his coronation, and made him renew his homage and fealty at the City of Newcastle . He was soon loaded with fresh indignities. In the course of a year he received no fewer than six citations to appear before Edward I, in the English parliament, to answer private, unimportant and often trivial complaints which were preferred against him by his subjects. Although led by an insidious policy and his own ambition into the most humiliating and demeaning concessions, John Baliol seems not to have been without spirit, or to have received without resentment the indignities laid upon him. In one of the causes before the parliament of England, being asked for his defence, John Baliol in a loud voice declared� "I am king of Scotland," he said, "I dare not make answer here without the advice of my people."

"What means this refusal," said Edward, "you are my liegeman; you have done homage to me; you are here in consequence of my summons!"

John Baliol replied with firmness, "In matters which respect my kingdom, I neither dare nor shall answer in this place, without the advice of my people."

Edward requested that he would ask a delay for the consideration of the question; but Baliol, perceiving that his so doing would be construed into an acknowledgment of the jurisdiction of the English parliament, refused. So John Baliol was maybe not the way he is often portrayed in history. Scotland has much to thank Baliol for the treaty which became known as the �Auld Alliance' and helped Scotland in many ways over the years. John Baliol was eventually deposed from his throne by Edward, and spent the remaining years of his life in France where he had formed his famous treaty. The great Scottish freedom fighter Sir William Wallace, who the English murdered in 1305, spent many years in France and was fluent in their language. When on the run for offences against the English crown Wallace was welcomed to France and helped in many ways by the kings of France .

So the treaty was like an ancient form of N.A.T.O. without the expense of tanks, guns, and army exercises all over the world, but of course the English wouldn't be invited to join.

The Alliance made sense to the French for the reason being that if they were to help defend Scotland , then Scotsmen would be available to fight for the French Army, and as the Scots were renowned fighters, the French were getting a great bargain. Scotland 's soldiers were to play a huge part in French history over the years to come, up to and including the First and Second World Wars of the twentieth century. The chant could be heard whispering on the winds of time; VIVE I' ECOSSE, ALLIEZ FRANCE, VIVE LE VIELLE ALLIANCE.

England had a thriving economy and a popular king, Edward III, who was disposed to fight France, and his subjects were more than ready to support their young eighteen year old king. Edward invaded northern France in 1345. He marched at the head of his army as they moved deeper into French territory. A major problem, however, awaited Edward during his campaigning against the French. The Black Death had arrived and his army was weakened by sickness. At a place named Crecy, Edward decided to turn for home. As the English force tried to make its way safely to a fortified Channel port, the French, when they realised how weak the English army was, attempted to force them into a battle. The battle started and ended disastrously for the French. Their cavalry, bogged down in heavy ground, were decimated by the bowmen of England. The French force was forced to break off and withdraw and allow the English army to escape.

Nevertheless, facing much the same battlefield situation some ten years later, the French employed the same tactics they had used at Crecy, with the same dismal result, at the battle of Poiters in the year 1356, The French king and many nobles were captured, and many, many others were killed or incapacitated. Old fashioned feudal warfare, in which knights fought for glory, was ended. The first phase of the war ended with a treaty in the year of 1360, but France continued to suffer.

The signing of the Auld Alliance in 1295 might have given the Scots French support against England, but it also gave the Scottish merchants the privilege of selecting the first choice of Bordeaux's finest wines � this in it self was a privilege which was eagerly protected for hundreds of years, much to the annoyance of English wine drinkers who received an inferior product.

French wine was landed on Wine Quay of Leith docks and rolled up the cobbled (sometimes not) streets to the merchants' cellars behind the water front. The wine landed was mostly for the elite of Scottish society, with most commoners drinking whisky or beer, but it seems to have been popular with everyone for Hogmanay celebrations. Wine played a major part of the food intake in those days. Food was not of the same quality then, and so the poor drank beer which gave them their vitamins for the day and the rich did the same with wine.

Trade, especially of wine, has a tendency to fly in the face of political changes and any alliances. After the Reformation, the Auld Alliance was no longer feasible between Protestant Scotland and Catholic France, but the trade in Claret continued. People simply kept drinking it because it had become part of Scottish culture.

A prime example of this process can be seen in the post-Reformation destiny of St Anthony's fund: a charitable fund which was raised on the back of the wine trade. The fund was simply converted to Protestantism by King James VI and passed onto the Old Leith Parish Church. As late as the 1670s, Scots merchants were still going to Bordeaux to get their first choice of wine. Even after the Union of Parliaments with England in the year 1707, (when Scotland was betrayed by her Nobles who sold their soul's for a handful of English Gold,) Scots continued to smuggle Claret into Scotland to avoid taxes. Scots of all persuasions, Jacobite or Hanoverian, continued to drink Claret in preference to patriotic Port, but especially when toasting the exiled Stuart kings as �the King over the water'

Scotland and France had much in common too on an educational front. Both had an education system which was second to none, fine universities which produced great academics and military leaders, politicians, and teachers. These two countries were the backbone of world culture and refinement for many years. Their universities were far more advanced at that time than anything England could offer and this was another thorn in the side for any English monarch. The two universities mentioned were known as �Capitals of Enlightenment�. Scotland also set up a Scots College in Paris and Edinburgh, today, can boast to host an official French Institute.

Undeterred, the Scots in 1548 betrothed Mary to the French King Henri II's heir, the Dauphin Francis, and sent her to be brought up at the French Court. It is said that the spelling of the royal family name of Stewart changed to Stuart at that time, to suit French conventional spelling.

Tall, graceful and quick-witted, Mary married the Dauphin in Paris on 24 April 1558. He succeeded to his father's throne in 1559, making Mary Queen of France as well as Scotland, but his reign was brief for he died of an ear infection in 1560. The rest of Mary's story can be found in our section on the Scottish Monarchy. Sadly to say, Mary was finally executed at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire on 8 February 1587, at the age of 44. She was buried in Peterborough Cathedral, but in 1612 her son James VI and I had her body exhumed and placed in the vault of King Henry VII's Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

James VII, grandson of King James VI, was born in St. James Palace, London; James was the second son of King Charles I, succeeding his older brother King Charles II to the throne in the year of 1685. Although born an Anglican, he had converted to Roman Catholicism in the year 1668, and married the devoutly Catholic Mary of Modena in 1683. These acts, together made him very unpopular with the Church of England. However, he had allowed his daughter Mary to marry the Protestant William of Orange and the couple were assumed to be James' heirs presumptive. When a son was born to the King (James Francis Edward Stuart), he became heir apparent ahead of Mary. Events came to a head during an Anglican plot and James was deposed and exiled in the year of 1689. William III and Mary usurped the throne and went about the business of making themselves impregnable. They set in motion things which would destroy the way of life for many Scottish families. William III never once bothered to visit Scotland as he thought �it was a cold dismal place filled with uneducated heathens' He played a cruel ruse on Scotland with his Darien Scheme (see famous Scots section) which almost bankrupted the country. James tried to restore his reign by landing in Ireland, but this ended unsuccessfully at the Battle of the Boyne in the year of 1690, an event still prominent in Northern Ireland and Scottish politics today. Attempts at restoration continued as the Jacobite Cause , personified by James' son the � Old Pretender' , and his grandson �Bonnie Prince Charlie'. France and the �Auld Alliance� were now to play a major part in the Jacobite Struggle for Truth and Justice.

Charles Edward Stuart was staying in France; in fact he had been born in Rome on the thirty-first of December 1720and died there sixty-eight years later. He was no �Prima Donna� but a young man with fire in his blood that could fight and drink with the best of them. Often when writing about �Bonnie Prince Charlie' there is this certain romantic feeling attached to the words. �Charlie Is My Darlin', Over the Sea to Skye, Will Yea No' Come Back Again?� All great songs but nowhere near the truth. The truth is that the Prince was a man who went for what he wanted and could be ruthless until he had achieved his goal. He was just the type of person Scotland needed at that time. He endured the hardships of the men he led and would not take anything his men could not have. In 1744, after his father had obtained the support of the French government for a projected major invasion of England, Charles Edward went to France to assume command of the French expeditionary forces. Unfavourable weather and the mobilization of a powerful British fleet to oppose the invasion led to cancellation of the plan by the French government. Charles Edward, however, persisted in his determination to drive the usurper George II from the British throne and in the year of 1745, he arrived in his exiled homeland. A number of Highland clans came to his assistance and he raised the Jacobite Standard at Glenfinnan on the West coast of Scotland. He took Edinburgh, defeated a British force at Prestonpans, and advanced as far south as Derby, England, before being forced to retreat.

In April 1746, however, his forces were utterly routed at Culloden Moor. He was hunted as a fugitive for more than five months, but the Highlanders never betrayed him, and he escaped to France in September in the year of 1746. Two years later he was expelled from that country in accordance with one of the provisions of the second Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), which stipulated that all members of the house of Stuart were to be driven from France. For a number of years Charles Edward wandered about Europe. Secretly visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as London in 1750 (when he converted to the Church of England) and in 1754, he attempted without success on both occasions to win support for his cause. In 1766, on his father's death, Charles Edward returned to Italy, where he spent his last years. He died in Rome on January 31, 1788. The English propaganda at the time stated that when Charles then his Brother Henry died that was the end of the Stuart Dynasty, but this is merely good old propaganda. (See Prince Michael of Albany Section)

The Auld Alliance may have been formally signed in the year 1295 but the Union between Scotland and France goes much deeper than that. There have been marriages between the Royal Blood of both Monarchies and the mingling of the bloodline has ensured the perpetuation of the Alliance. The �Auld Alliance� was officially declared closed in the year 1906, but it may well be on the verge of a grand reopening, who knows what the future will bring for these two old friends. An interesting last relevant fact: Did you know that if you were a French Citizen born before 1906 that you had dual nationality with Scotland, and that Scots born before this time had the same privilege with French Nationality?

�Could this be the Antidote to Britishness!�