The Sterling genealogy

28 THE STERLING GENEALOGY
one thrave of corn from every carrucate of his lands and of his
men, wherever they might be on the southern side of the Forth.
To that grant Galfred prepositus de Ochiltree was a witness.
John is presumed to have had three sons:
V 1 Alexander Striveling of Cadder, from whom descended
Janet Stirling, heiress of Cadder, who was mar-
ried to her kinsman, Sir James Stirling of Keir, as will
afterwards be seen.
2 Sir John of Carse and Alva, Knight, and William de Sniveling,
his brother, are witnesses in a charter by William
de Kymmonde, without date, but probably about the
year 1290. Sir John was present at the pleadings between
Bruce and Baliol for the Scotch crown in 1292,
and there, with the rest, gave his homage to Edward of
England as Sovereign and Lord paramount. 1 Crawford,
in his remarks on the Ragman Roll 2 (which was
subscribed by John de Striueling), says that he " is the
1 Upon the death of King Alexander III of Scotland in 1285 and the death shortly
after of his granddaughter Margaret of Norway, then only eight years old, Scotland
was left without an heir to the throne. In 1292, Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale,
a grandson, and John Bahol, Lord of Galloway, a great-grandson of King William
the Lion's brother, David, Earl of Huntington, met in the Castle of Berwick to urge
their respective claims to the Crown. The important Scottish lords and gentlemen
were summoned to act as arbitrators at this meeting. Both Bruce and Bahol had
recognized King Edward of England as Lord Superior and he acted as umpire between
the two, deciding in favor of Bahol. Edward then provoked Bahol into resistance to
his authority, whereupon he sent an army and fleet to conquer the Scots and add their
country to his domain. After the defeat of the Scots at the Siege of Berwick and the
Battle of Dunbar, when the flower of Scottish nobility was either slain or captured,
Bahol resigned the Crown into Edward's hands, 1296.
The fealty to Edward lasted but little more than a year, for the Scots arose under
the leadership of William Wallace, drove the English out of their strongholds and
at the Battle of Stirling, Sept 11, 1297, annihilated half the English Army of fifty thousand
men sent against them. Wallace, through the lack of support of the Scottish
Nobility, was defeated at Falkirk, July 22, 1298, eventually captured, and conveyed
to London in 1305 and murdered. Robert the Bruce, grandson of Bruce, who contested
the throne with Bahol, was crowned King of Scotland at Scone in 1306.
2 "The Ragman's Roll" was a list of the nobility and gentry of Scotland who
were compelled to acknowledge the sovereignty of Edward I of England and was
subscribed to in 1292 and 1296. It was signed by the following members of the Stirling
family: Adam de Strivelin, Berwick; John de Strivehn, Berwick; John de
Striuelin de Cars (the above) ; Master John de Stirling de Moravia, chevalier; Alexander
de Stirling, Lanarkshire; Andrew de Stirling, burgois de Ennerpethin; Master
Henry de Stirling, Stirlingshire ; Henry de Stirling, persone del Eglise de Upsetelyngton,
Berwickshire ; Master John de Stirling, chevalier, and William de Stirling, Wig-
tonshire. (The Scotch-Irish, Chas. A. Hanna, 1902.)