The
Treaty of Westminster (or the Treaty of Westminster-Ardtornish) was
signed on 13 February 1462 between Edward IV of England of the House of
York and the Scottish Lord of the Isles, John of Islay, Earl of Ross,
Lord of the Isles. The agreement proposed that if Scotland was conquered
by England, the lands beyond the Scottish sea - beyond the Firth of
Forth - would be divided between the Lord of the Isles and the
Earl of
Douglas to be held from the crown of England, and the Earl of Douglas
would hold Scotland south of the Firth.
The
Scottish crown in the minority of James III of Scotland had taken the
Lancastrian part in the Wars of the Roses by welcoming the fugitive
Henry VI of England. Edward IV was forming an alliance with these
disaffected nobles to reduce the threat posed by the exiled former king,
now in the hands of James III's mother Mary of Guelders.
The Earl of Douglas and his brother
John Douglas of Balvenie made their
way to the west of Scotland with Edward IV's proposals. The highlands
lords gave their assent from Ardtornish Castle on 19 October 1461, and
sent Ranald of the Isles and Duncan, Archdeacon of the Isles, as their
envoys to London. The articles were finalised and sealed at Westminster
Palace on 13 February 1462 and signed by Edward IV on 17 March 1462.
John, Earl of Ross, Donald Balagh, and his son and heir John, with all
the people of the Ross and the isles would become subjects of Edward IV
on Whitsunday.
The historian Norman Macdougall thought that the
significance of the agreement was overplayed by earlier historians, such
as Andrew Lang, who described it as an attempt to "stab Scotland in the
back with a Celtic dirk." Its consequence was an attack by the Earl of
Ross on crown lands near Inverness in 1462 and 1463.
The Scotland crown allied with Edward IV by the treaty of York in
1464. The 1462 agreement was used against the John, Earl of Ross and
Lord of the Isles in 1475 when he was summoned for treasons including
making leagues and bands with Edward IV and the banished Earl of
Douglas.
The Douglases and England
It is notable that
Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Angus was to play a significant role in
the future Treaty of Perpetual Peace (1502) and its offspring, the
Treaty of Greenwich. The Douglases were generally at that time, the
heads of the pro-English party in Scotland, pushing for what eventually
became a Union of the Crowns and Kingdom of Great Britain.
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