Writers & Poets

One aspect of castle life in the middle ages was entertainment. During feasts and celebrations the household would be entertained by minstrels. Playing music (which in this part of Scotland would normally be performed using a harp or small pipe-like instruments similar to flutes), telling stories and reciting poetry made them popular guests, but the news they would bring with them from other areas made them valuable visitors also. Some of these travelling musicians became so popular in fact that their work is remembered today. One such man was Henry the Minstrel or 'Blind Harry' as he is more commonly known, probably born into a noble family in Lothian. Much of what we know today about the Scottish hero William Wallace was written about 175 years after the events of his life by Blind Harry. His epic poem 'The Wallace' is a mixture of fact, fiction and folklore, and is coloured by the political mood of his day. James III was an unpopular monarch and was attempting to draw up an even more unpopular treaty with England. The English were still seen by many as Scotland's arch-enemy, and Harry was using the myth of Wallace as a political tool. As a minstrel, he may have been able to influence certain nobles who would have to sign such a document.

It was probably written in the 1470s, just after the Boyds of Kilmarnock had fallen disastrously from power and favour. Lord Boyd's regency of Scotland had ended with accusations of treason against the King. However, Blind Harry was an established performing minstrel before his poem was completed and would almost certainly have visited Dean Castle; the home of the Boyds, during the late 1450s and 1460s when the family were at the pinnacle of their power. This may be why the Boyd family are so prominent within the poem. Harry wrote "Robert Boid quhilk wald no longer bide under the thrillage of Segis of Ingland to that false King he had nevir maid band." This states that Robert Boyd rebelled against the English occupation of Scotland in the late 13th Century, which is true; and that he had never pledged allegiance to Edward I of England, which is not. Boyd, like the vast majority of Scottish knights, including the Bruces and most of the Wallace family had sworn fealty to the English King originally, but it is doubtful that Harry would have wanted to remind the present Boyd family of this; especially as they were the most powerful family in Scotland at the time. More probably, it may have been another device to try to influence his listeners in the 1470s: 'how dare James III sign a treaty with the English after disgracing a family whose forebears had fought for and helped win Scottish Independence from this same enemy.' Stating that the heroes in his poem "had nevir maid band" with the English, Harry could be implying that it would be unpatriotic of James III to now do so. James III's unpopularity came to a head in 1488 when he was found murdered in a barn after the Battle of Sauchieburn. It is difficult to find out what happened because many of his nobles including his own eldest son were involved in events leading to his death. Their main issue being that the King involved too many "low born" men in his government at the expense of the great nobles. The poem takes the form of twelve volumes and although it has many inaccurate facts it does contain a lot of information about thirteenth century life in Scotland and was a huge influence on both Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott. We know as little about Harry as we do about Wallace himself, however he is recorded as receiving payment for performing at the court of James IV between1473 and 1492.