John de Soulis - Guardian of Scotland

• Preferred Name: John de Soulis - Guardian of Scotland^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}
  
• Gender: M
  
• Occupation: Appointed sole Guardian of Scotland in succession to Sir Ingram de Umfraville and William Lamberton, Bishop of St Andrews1301
  
• LdsBaptism: 28 JUN 1969 with note: GEDCOM data
  
• FSID: LZW3-1KC
  
• Fact: with note: Description: https://www.geni.com/people/John-de-Soules-Guardian-of-Scotland/6000000003827692183?through=6000000003827688036
  
• Occupation: Became joint Guardian of Sciotland with John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch1302
  
• LdsSealingToParents: 3 DEC 1970 with note: GEDCOM data
  
• Death: 4 JAN 1311 in Roxburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland at LATI: N5.5667 LONG: E2.4833 with note: Historical records to standardize
  
• Birth: 1252 in Roxburgh, Roxburghshire, Scotland at LATI: N5.5667 LONG: E2.4833
  
• Occupation: Deposed as Guardian of Scotland by Edward I of England who appointed John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond1304
  
• LdsEndowment: 14 OCT 1969 with note: GEDCOM data
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  Sir John de Soules (or de Soulis or Soules) (died 1310) was Guardian of Scotland from 1301 to 1304, at a crucial period in the Wars of Scottish Independence.
  There were two distantly related persons called John de Soulis during this period:
  
  John de Soulis was the younger son of the Lord of Liddesdale and married to the daughter of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland. John had previously protected Galloway from Sir Andrew Harclay, Earl of Carlisle and Warden of the English March. In 1301 after the resignations of Robert The Bruce and John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch he was appointed Guardian of Scotland. John, the Guardian, seems more likely to have been the diplomat of the family, staying in exile and dying in France, John II being the soldier.
  
  John de Soulis II joined Robert the Bruce, and was rewarded with a grant of the baronies of Kirkandrews and Torthorwald, and the lands of Brettalach, Dumfriesshire. He accompanied Edward Bruce to Ireland and was slain with him in the Battle of Dundalk, 5 October 1318. His brother William de Soulis was given John's lands and appointed Butler of Scotland, whether he was filling his brother's shoes as Butler or not is not a known fact.
  
  BIO
  BIO: from http://cybergata.com/roots/8840.htm as of 6/8/2019
  
  Sir John de Soules Knight
  Born: Liddesdale, Roxburghshire, Scotland
  Marriage: Hawise Stewart
  Died: 1318, Dunkerque 1177
  
  Another name for
  
  === SORLEY'S PEDIGREES (GS NUMBER Q929.242 S ===
  SORLEY'S PEDIGREES (GS NUMBER Q929.242 SO68) P.46;
  
  === Sir John de Soulis (d 1321?), ambassador ===
  Sir John de Soulis (d 1321?), ambassador and soldier, second son of Nicholas de Soulis (d 1264) and brother of Sir William de Soulis, justiciar of Lothian, belonged to an Anglo-Norman family which settled in Scotland under Malcolm III. In 1284 he negotiated a marriage between the Scots king and Joletta or Yolande, daughter of the Count of Dreux, As an official under the crown, he received on 5 Feb 1289 a fee of 20l. sterling from the chamberlain of Scotland. But he was also employed officially in England. In Feb 1292 he was custodian of the lands of Hugh Lovel, a tenant-in-chief of the king of England, and in March received from Edward I a writ of protection while staying beyond seas for a year. On 14 Nov he, with William de Soulis, obtained of Edward a pardon for Richard de Soulis (possibly brothers) for causing Richard le Tayllur to be taken by force from England to Scotland. On 6 Nov 1292 he, as one of the arbitrators in Edward I's judgement, assented to Balliol's claim to the Scottish crown. Wehn Balliol in 1295 decided to defy Edward, he sent de Soulis and three others to negotiate a treaty with France, which began a long alliance with between the two countries. Sir John submitted to Edward I in 1296 with the rest, and witnessed a charter of that king at Northallerton on 10 Oct. But he did not keep his oath to Edward long. In 1299 he was appointed by John Balliol, who had escaped, co-guardian of the realm of Scotland with John Comyn the younger. Accting as if he were sole guardian, he sent envoys to Boniface VIII complaining of the English king. In the same year he went on a embassy to France, and in June, July and August Edward commissioned ships to intercept Sir John and his companions on their return to Scotland. On the night of 7-8 Sept 1301 Soulis and Sir Ingram de Umfraville made a fruitless attack on Lochmaben Castle. The terms accepted by the Scots in 1304 included Soulis's banishment for two years. Soulis had crossed to France in 1303, and was still there in 1314. According to a charter of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, Soulis died in France in or before 1321. [Dictionary of National Biography XVIII:680]
  
  === Sir John de Soulis (d. 1318) younger son ===
  Sir John de Soulis (d. 1318) younger son of Nicholas de Soulis, competitor for the crown of Scotland in 1291, was in 1314 a leader of a Scottish host which in August of that year ravaged Richmondshire and levied blackmail on Copeland and the bishopric of Durham. Accompanying Edward Bruce on his expedition to Ireland in 1315, he was slain with the latter near Dundalk 14 Oct 1318. [Dictionary of National Biography XVIII:680]
  
  _____________________________
  
  Extract from Chapter 2 of Battle of Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland
  
  Edward's obsession now turned the Lowlands and the Borders into a devasted killing ground. Among the Scots, William Wallace now returned to his raiding: there would be no active key role for him in the remainder of his life.
  
  What Does a King Do with a Hollow Victory?
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  Bust of Edward I "Longshanks"
  The arrows of his bowmen had won Edward little. When he reached Stirling he found it a ruin, and the country wasted. He replied by burning St. Andrews, and then retired upon Edinburgh with aching ribs and a hungry and clamorous army. Only in his widely scattered garrisons was an Englishman safe. Between them was a hostile country, black fields and steadings. Edward went home, promising the governors he left that he would come again in the spring to punish the Scots and "put down their disobedience and malice." But he didn't come north again for three years, and in this bitter time Scotland had two governments, the English and the guardians. The flimsy alliance of the latter was soon broken. One of Edward's agents reported that when they met at Peebles, in August, 1299, Bruce and Comyn quarrelled fiercely over some property left by Wallace, and that in his anger the Red Comyn took Bruce by the throat. Lamberton and Wallace's elder brother, Malcolm, persmacded them to put duty before dignity, but neither forgot the incident. Within a year they quarrelled again, and this time Bruce resigned in disgust. A parliament of lords, meeting in the royal burgh of Rutherglen, replaced him with Ingram de Umfraville, the turncoat Angus earl who had fought for Edward at Berwick and Falkirk. De Umfraville's elastic conscience and dubious motives were perhaps too much for all to stomach, for there appears to have been one guardian only, the Liddesdale knight Sir John de Soules.
  
  Edward had won the battle but not the war. Though further resistance appeared pointless, Wallace never contemplated surrender and reverted to the life of bandit-cum-guerilla, enough to keep the tiny flame of defiance alive. The English, still hungry, fell back across the Border ravaging as they went. Life degenerated into a bloody saga of raid and counter-raid, terror and atrocity, the Lowlands and most of the Borders laid waste. Abandoned by the fickle nobility, Wallace never succeeded in rebuilding a viable powerbase -- but this is not nearly the end of the story. Wallace would become legend again, in his death an heir to his movement for independence would rise to the fore, in Robert Bruce.
  
  Extract from Chapter 3 of Battle of Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland
  
  Edward's troops captured Sir Robert Keith, the hereditary Marshall of Scotland who would, in time, take such an important role in Bannockburn. Edward drove off the Scottish army there commanded by the Earl of Buchan. Apart from these modest gains the campaign was a failure for the English, and by the end of August they were back in Carlisle.
  
  He came again the next year (1301) with two armies, angered by a letter from Rome informing him that Scotland was a papal fief.
  
  "By God's blood!" he swore, "I will not be at rest, but with all my strength I will defend my right."
  
  Bruce and Wallace, from a stained glass
  One army marched north from Carlisle, searched out Robert Bruce's position in the south-west, but met with little success as, once again, the Scottish army simply melted away before the larger English force. Edward himself led the other force up the Tweed valley, through the Selkirk forest, (a forest in which Wallace had been rumored to hide), to Clydesdale and then to Linlithgow.
  
  But this campaign was no more effective and he wintered at Linlithgow with his young queen, not so much defeated by battle - as by lack of one. An English chronicler remarked, "As none of the Scots would resist, nothing glorious or even worthy of praise was achieved." Here, he set about organising the Scottish Marches on the Welsh model. Castles were constructed (which Bruce would later tear down), and garrisons were installed in the lands south of the Fourth, and sheriffs and wardens were appointed to administer the area. Now deserted by Pope Boniface and Philip of France, who seemed to find sympathy for Scotland a tedious complication of the quarrell between them, the Scots were dispirited and without direction. Clearly Wallace's influence was missed. Robert the Bruce, after some resistance, submitted and swore fealty to Edward, perhaps persmacded by his dying father, and certainly by the guardian's continued allegiance to Toom Tabard (John Balliol). If he hoped that Edward would support the Bruce claim to the throne, as it appeared on the surface he might, and destroy both the Balliol and Comyn factions, he received no written promise of it. Edward was again forced to leave Scotland to deal with a controversy over the French church.
  
  He was not able to return until 1303. Once again free from the convoluted intricacies and plots of church and state, he returned to Scotland when his viceroy and a body of spearmen were routed at Roslin by the Red Comyn and Simon Fraser of Tweeddale. He marched north in fury crossing the Forth river on three prefabricated floating bridges. From the captured Scottish stronghold of Stirling he marched directly north and took Perth. By September his troops were resting on the banks of the Moray Firth. He continued his advance, crushing all resistance that didn't retreat and burning barns and crops as he went. Brechin castle held out against the Royal siege engines for five weeks, but in the end this brave resistance too fell. The frightened Scottish lords now began to sue for peace, leaving Wallace to stand alone with solitary raids.
  
  Edward's resolve was so fierce that as he approached Dumferline, the Red Comyn, Sir John de Soules, and the bishops of Glasgow and St. Andrews came before him in fear, accepting their lives and freedom in return for an oath of allegiance. Sir Simon Fraser did not appear and would later pay as Wallace did - with his life.
  
  With Edward's clear control over all their actions, the Scots lords met in parliament at St. Andrews in March, 1304, under the direction of Edward, and until a permanent constitution could be established Robert Bruce of Carrick and Bishop Wishart were appointed dmacl guardians of the Realm of Scotland, with the English baron John de Mowbray. Eighteen months later, guided by Wishart, Edward framed his 'Ordinances for the Establishment of the Land of Scotland', proposing a government of twenty Englishmen and ten elected representatives of Scottish estates. It may have been a statesmanlike plan, under swordpoint, but it was premature in its vision of a united Scottish and English government, but it was based upon the presumptious premise that Scotland was "justly" an English province, a feudal barony and not a people intent, or deserving liberty.

• m. AFT 1274 in Castle Cary, Somersetshire, England
• m. 1284 in Liddesdale, Roxburghshire, Scotland

1. Isabella de Soulis, b. 1276 in Alba     d. 18 FEB 1317 in Castle Cary, Somerset, England
2. Muriel Soulis, b. 1276 in Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland     d. FEB 1318 in Castle Cary, Somerset, England, United Kingdom

1. Title: Legacy NFS Source: John De Soules -
   Author: "The Feudal Family of de Soulis" Transactions of the Dumbriesshire & Galloway Natural History & Antiquarian Society {1947, Page number: XXVI, 3rd series, pp 163-193
   Note: Source Media Type: Book
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736742717
   
2. Title: Legacy NFS Source: John De Soules -
   Author: Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom; GE Cokayne, Sutton Publishing Ltd, Page number: VIII:206
   Note: Source Media Type: Book
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736741118
   
3. Title: Legacy NFS Source: John De Soules -
   Author: Dictionary of National Biography, George Smith, Oxford Press, Vols 1-21 (Orignially published 1885-90),Ed by Sir Leslie S, Page number: XVIII:680
   Note: Source Media Type: Book
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736742373
   
4. Title: Legacy NFS Source: John De Soules -
   Author: The Scots Peerage; Sir James Balfour Paul {1904-1914, 2000 rev} with Addenda et Corrigenda {2000}, Page number: VIII:250
   Note: Source Media Type: Book
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736741135