Clan Scott - Dangerous Liaisons Scotland's Clans

On the night of 13 July 1685,

Anna Scott, the Duchess of Buccleuch,

was ushered through these gates to the Tower of London.

Anna knew as she hurried into the Tower that the Scott family's future hung in the balance.

Just days earlier, she had been on the verge of being crowned Queen of England and Scotland,

but now, the family were tainted with treason.

Whether they survived, or lost everything, rested on her shoulders.

In this series, I'm going on a personal journey to reveal

the extraordinary stories behind the great clan names of history.

One of the most fascinating of all is that of the Scott family

whose influence would extend from their home in the Borders to the very heart of the Royal Court.

And who ultimately owe their success to two remarkable women.

Today, the Scotts of Buccleuch are one of the greatest landowners in Britain

with hundreds of thousands of acres of land and estates,

four major castles

and a vast art collection which is one of the finest in the world.

It may be hard to believe amongst all this wealth and grandeur,

but the Scotts weren't always quite so respectable.

For centuries, the borderlands between England and Scotland

were a lawless war zone

where riding clans like the Scotts launched horseback raids,

lifting cattle and property from their neighbours.

Raiding was very much a way of life in this part of the country in the 16th century.

And there are countless examples of the Scotts taking part in attacks on both sides of the border.

But in 1596, the head of the Scott family, known as the Bold Buccleuch,

launched a raid on an English stronghold here in Carlisle

which would cause a diplomatic crisis

and, as a result, transform the fortunes of the Scotts of Buccleuch.

The English, of course, had started it all.

Their underhand tactics during a truce had led to the capture of one of Buccleuch's men, Kinmont Willie.

Now, the imprisonment of this notorious, cross-border raider,

or reiver as they were known, led to a storm of protest in Scotland.

Kinmont Willie was held here at Carlisle Castle.

A stark and impregnable fortress.

But the Bold Buccleuch was determined to make a point and show

the English that if they could seize men illegally, then so could he.

In an incredibly daring move, Buccleuch stormed Carlisle Castle and freed Kinmont Willie.

Now, this prison breakout turned the Bold Buccleuch

into a local hero, but not everyone was so impressed.

Especially the Queen of England.

Elizabeth I was enraged by Buccleuch's raid and was quick

to communicate her fury to James VI, King of Scotland.

James was hoping to be named as Elizabeth's successor, but now,

thanks to Buccleuch's raid, it looked as if the furious Queen might change her mind.

Storming their way into Carlisle Castle, springing a prisoner,

it's an attack on the authority of the English Crown,

it's an act of military aggression, really.

It begins a process of a spiralling out of control.

There was genuine fears that it might actually

have resulted in outright warfare between Scotland and England.

'Buccleuch took shelter from the diplomatic storm he'd unleashed here at Branxholme Tower -

'his home in the Borders - where I've come to meet historian, Anna Groundwater.'

Anna, the whole thing seems to be coming quite a dangerous international incident?

Well, Elizabeth is absolutely furious.

It was an affront to her honour and she wasn't going to back down

until some recognition of that had been made.

And James seems to have been in quite an awkward position

because his honour's been affronted, yet he needs Elizabeth and she's pulling the strings.

Yes, Elizabeth had two holds over him.

Firstly, she hadn't yet confirmed who the succession would be to her throne

and he was quite desperate to get that confirmation.

And secondly, and perhaps more importantly at this moment,

she controls his pension and he's desperately in need of it.

And he held out for at least 18 months, but I think really in the end,

the combination of the succession question plus just he needed the cash

meant that in October '97

he basically ordered Buccleuch to surrender himself to the English.

Buccleuch was sent south to the Royal Court

to deliver an apology in person to the Queen.

What happens when Buccleuch eventually arrives in London?

He was summoned before Elizabeth and she asked him,

"How is it that you dare such an act so presumptuous, so desperate?"

And he turns to her and he says, "What is it that a man dare not do?"

And she said, "Well, with 10,000 such men as these, my brother, Scotland,

"might shake the firmest throne in Europe".

So, in a sense, he, she was bowled over by the Bold Buccleuch.

She was very much bowled over. He wasn't a courtly person.

He was very upfront, but he certainly charmed Elizabeth.

So instead of being sent home with a flea in his ear, he goes home with a feather in his cap.

He certainly does. He returns to Scotland and James' complete approval

and he really establishes, I think, the basis for the future fortunes of the Buccleuch family.

The Bold Buccleuch's audacity had won the Scotts the royal seal of approval.

In the following decades, the position as Crown favourites

allowed the Scotts to buy up vast swathes of land in the Borders.

By the time the Bold Buccleuch's grandson, Francis Scott, became the Second Earl of Buccleuch,

the family had put their raiding days firmly behind them

and become very much part of the establishment.

The Scotts were now one of the wealthiest families in the land.

And left behind their rough and ready home on Branxholme Tower

for a more refined residence in Dalkeith.

But no matter how much land and money the family possessed,

to survive and to prosper,

they still had to deliver one vital thing - a male heir.

But tragically, Francis Scott's only son died aged just one-year-old.

And a year later, Francis himself died leaving two young daughters.

Potentially, this had dire implications for the Scotts.

Without a male heir, there would be no-one to carry the family name on.

And it seemed inevitable that the vast Buccleuch estates

would be swallowed up and the two young girls

married into other families.

The daughter will obviously get married, that entire estate goes with her on her marriage to a new family.

And your own family's heritage really disappears.

Females led to splitting of estates.

Males preserved the succession.

That's really the difficulty if you have only daughters.

Throughout history, many great families and even royal dynasties,

had died out because of the failure to produce a male heir.

But the story of the Scott family would be very different.

Before he died, Francis Scott drew up a shrewd legal document

to guarantee the future of the Scott family.

Not only did he take the extraordinary step

of giving his daughters the same rights of inheritance as male heirs, he also made it a legal requirement

that whoever married either one of them would have to take on the Scott name.

Francis Scott had ensured the survival of his family name,

but he could do nothing to stop his young daughters becoming the prey of greedy and ambitious nobles.

Wherever these little girls go,

their wealth is going to go with them

and whomever they marry,

it will make that person enormously, enormously wealthy.

The richest men in the land, the most powerful men in the land,

they want them and they want control of them.

The man who would emerge as the most determined of all to get control of the Scott heiresses was their uncle,

the wealthy and powerful Earl of Tweeddale.

He is very much cast as the wicked uncle and he does seem to be doing

his absolute utmost to get control of the girls.

He becomes enormously desirous of getting a hold of one of those little girls

to marry his son so that money can come back into his family

where he believes it actually should sit.

The Earl set his sights on the young and vulnerable Mary,

who, at the tender age of four, had become the head of the Scott family and one very desirable heiress.

But standing between Mary's fortune and her uncle

was a woman determined to stay in control of the Buccleuch estates.

Mary's mother, the formidable Margaret Leslie.

Margaret Leslie is a cunning, determined woman

and she has occasionally, I think, been painted as a rather sort of grasping woman

that she's trying to ensure that she retains control over her daughters.

But, I think, wouldn't any mother try and do that?

Margaret hates the Earl of Tweeddale.

There's a massive rivalry between them.

She absolutely wants to ensure that he doesn't get his hands on little Mary.

On 9 February 1659,

aged just 11-years-old, Mary Scott walked down the aisle to be married.

But it was not the wedding that everyone expected.

It had been hastily arranged and there were no guests.

In fact, hardly anyone knew that the wedding was even taking place.

I'm meeting historian Kathy Callaghan

to find out about the cloak-and-dagger marriage

that Margaret Leslie had masterminded

to ensure that she, and no-one else, kept control of the Scott fortune.

But Kathy, can you explain how Margaret Leslie

was able to get this marriage off the ground so successfully and so secretly?

Certainly, she was a very cunning woman

and she worked very diligently to plan in the background

without letting people know - very secretly.

She worked to make sure the people around her were people that she could control.

And there would have been grounds to oppose this marriage, presumably?

Oh, absolutely. First of all, Mary's age.

She was clearly under-age, not yet reached the legal age of 12.

Also, there was the fact that the bridegroom

was not someone who brought anything to the marriage.

He had nothing. He was impoverished.

He was beneath her, in other words.

Margaret had struck a deal with a lower-status family.

The Scotts of Highchester who were more than willing to allow her to call the shots.

But when news broke that Mary had married aged just 11

people were scandalised, especially the Earl of Tweeddale

who was furious that Mary and the Scott fortune had slipped through his fingers.

He wanted his son to marry Mary.

He wanted the control of the Buccleuch money

and so, as a consequence, he begins to launch investigations

including "I'm going to the church and filing a protest"

so that the challenges began almost after the "I do's".

As Mary had married below the legal age of 12,

the Earl of Tweeddale tried to have her wedding declared unlawful.

Mary now became the central character in a world of murky intrigue and political manoeuvring.

But after a bitter legal struggle,

Margaret Leslie was triumphant and Mary's marriage was recognised as legitimate.

It was soon clear, however, that this was a hollow victory.

In the Spring of 1661, aged just 13,

Mary lay dying at the Scott family home in Dalkeith.

It seems that she probably had bone cancer in her arm.

Her mother spared no expense

in trying to make sure that Mary survived this.

She spent thousands and thousands of pounds in an effort to make life better for her daughter,

but, unfortunately for Mary, the cancer won.

On 12 March 1661, Mary Scott died.

Her 10-year-old sister Anna was now the new Countess of Buccleuch.

And the Earl of Tweeddale had a second chance to try and secure the Scott fortune

by forcing through a marriage between his son and Anna.

But incredibly, once again, Margaret Leslie pulled a move

which would leave even the shrewdest political operator standing.

Here in The National Archives of Scotland

is remarkable evidence of Margaret's audacity.

This time, she decided to change tactics.

In fact, she aimed much, much higher.

She wrote to the King.

This is a letter written by Charles II.

Now, he's written this in response to a letter he'd received from Margaret Leslie,

in which she'd offered her daughter, Anna, as a potential bride

to his illegitimate son, James.

Now, Charles is very quick to respond.

He seems delighted at the possibility of this marriage going ahead.

He says to Margaret, "I am very sensible of the affection which you showed to me in the offer

"you make concerning the Countess of Buccleuch".

Now, that's Anna. "Which I do accept most willingly".

The news of Anna's engagement to the King's favourite, albeit illegitimate, son

sent shockwaves through Scottish society.

The Scotts had gone from reivers to royalty in three generations.

No-one can believe Margaret was smart enough to do this.

Here was this woman operating behind the scenes with this great plan that she apparently hatched on her own

and, as a consequence, people were dumbfounded.

And now she is answerable only to the King.

In the Spring of 1663, Anna and her mother arrived in London.

Anna's husband to be was James Croft, born after the King's affair with his mistress, Lucy Walters.

Crucially, although he was illegitimate,

Charles had acknowledged James and had made it very clear that he was his favourite child.

The young couple were married in the King's private chambers

in the building behind me here at Whitehall.

It was the wedding of the season and was even mentioned by Samuel Pepys in his famous diary.

Now, following tradition,

the young couple were seen to bed by the wedding party,

but they were quickly separated on account of their ages.

James was just 14 and Anna merely 12 years of age.

The young and inexperienced Scottish heiress was thrust into

the glamorous and racy world of Charles II's Court.

In celebration of the marriage, the King showered the couple with gifts and honours.

He made James Duke of Monmouth.

And Anna became a Duchess.

The young couple enjoyed all the trappings of royal privilege.

The King lavished the pair with gifts.

They have beautiful houses, they have jewels, they have servants, they have carriages.

They are the envy of the Court.

I've come to meet historian, Richard Oram to get an insight into Anna and the man she'd married.

This must be Anna Scott.

-Yes.

-How old do you think she is there?

Probably in her early 30s. She had her first son when she was 21.

What kind of woman do you think she was?

We first come across her, she's very much a controlled and manipulated individual.

She's pushed forward, put into a marriage really by her mother's design.

So this is not a marriage of love and romance.

-This is a strategic marriage, a marriage of convenience.

-Yes.

And this is the greatest marriage that they could have hoped for.

You're bringing together the greatest heiress in Scotland

with the King's favourite illegitimate child.

James has been built up and built up by his father,

showered with offices, showered with titles, great marriage arranged

and Anne is brought into the royal family, effectively, through this marriage.

Yeah, this lady is the nearest there is to a princess in waiting.

Their children,

as children of the acknowledged royal bastard, have royal blood,

so prince and princess by default.

And she is beginning to emerge as a self-confident woman in the glittering Royal Court.

To all accounts, Anna was a rather wonderful character.

Different diarists talk about her

and they all talk in terms of prudence and sagacity.

A woman of wit and intelligence.

Being daughter-in-law to the King certainly had its advantages,

but Anna soon realised her marriage was no fairytale.

Monmouth was a 17th century playboy.

He knew how to have a good time

and no-one was going to stop him from having a good time.

Monmouth begins to be serially unfaithful to her.

He's constantly choosing mistresses.

Spending, of course, he has huge amounts of money

to lavish presents on any pretty girl who might catch his eye.

She spends the first few years really having to come to terms with the fact that

the dashing young Duke of Monmouth is a philanderer,

a scoundrel, a rogue,

a conspirator and not an altogether pleasant individual.

But Monmouth's most dangerous quality was his ambition.

His greed for power would bring Anna within a heartbeat of becoming Queen.

But also place her and the Scott family on the brink of complete ruin.

Charles indulged James, Duke of Monmouth, so much over his life that

I think James felt that anything he wanted he was going to get.

And as a consequence, when his father died, he believed that he should have the throne.

But the fact remained that Monmouth was illegitimate.

So when Charles II died in 1685, he was succeeded by his brother, James.

Scotland and England, both Protestant countries,

now had a Catholic on the throne -

a situation that not only caused much unrest across the country,

but further fuelled Monmouth's ambition.

He became increasingly obsessed with the idea that he, and not his Uncle James, was the rightful heir.

And with his Protestant faith as a selling point,

he became the focus for those determined to overthrow the Catholic King.

In May 1685, Monmouth and his supporters launched a rebellion to overthrow James.

Monmouth declared himself to be the rightful monarch and was crowned King by his followers.

His actions would have enormous significance for Anna and her family.

The Scotts were on the verge of becoming the new royal dynasty.

In the event of Monmouth's rebellion actually working in 1685,

and the Coronation that he pronounced

when he was in Taunton, that he had become King,

Anna would of course become his Queen.

But Anna was under no illusions.

She realised the folly of Monmouth's actions and the potential danger to her and her family.

OK, if it succeeded she would have been Queen.

But she sees it as ruinously dangerous because if this misfires, you're talking about

the fall of the family of Scott and she sees what Monmouth's doing as basically a recipe for disaster.

In the end, Monmouth's rebellion failed to secure the support he'd hoped for.

He stood little chance of success and after just one battle, he and his followers were defeated.

Monmouth was captured and sent here to the Tower of London.

With a husband now in prison for treason, the fortunes of Anna Scott and her family hung in the balance.

This is treason, where the penalties are forfeiture and execution.

The loss potentially of life and limb, but certainly of all their landed property and possessions.

So you're looking at utter ruination.

This could spell disaster for Anna. She could lose everything.

Her children, her fortune, her power, her prestige and her life.

Anna's life was unravelling before her eyes.

The King sent her children to the tower to ensure that they could not

be used as pawns in any further rebellion.

With Anna's husband facing almost certain death and her children imprisoned,

the Scotts were on the brink of losing everything that generations of the family had built up.

The marriage that had elevated them from wealthy landowners to royalty

had become an albatross around their neck.

Anna's only hope was to prove that she was not involved in the ill-fated plot.

Just days before Monmouth was due to be executed,

Anna made a desperate trip to the Tower of London to try and save her family from ruin.

And it's here that I'm meeting historian Kate Williams to find out why this was such a crucial visit.

That night in the tower was the most important night of Anna's life.

She had to get Monmouth to say that she had nothing to do with the conspiracy. It was utterly vital.

So she was really desperate?

Everything was riding on this.

Her future, her children's future, her family's future. He was going to be executed and she would be tainted.

She would be seen as a traitor's wife and their children, worst of all, would be traitor's children.

They would have traitor's blood and they would not be allowed to inherit the estates.

Anna persuaded one of the King's most important officials,

the Lord Privy Seal, to come with her to witness Monmouth's statement.

But with death staring him in the face, her husband had little interest in Anna's plight.

Monmouth is exhausted, he's terrified of dying.

And she says to him, "Tell him we had nothing to do with it".

He kinds of says, "Well, you know, you were always a dutiful wife

"and you told me to be dutiful to the King".

And that's all she can get out of him.

Monmouth's grudging acknowledgment of Anna's innocence

was communicated to the King.

While she and her family's future was still to be decided,

Monmouth's fate was already sealed.

On 15 July 1685, Monmouth left the Tower of London to meet his death.

Now, not many executions went terribly smoothly in those days,

but Monmouth's must go down in history

as one of the most botched ever.

It's claimed it took up to eight blows of the axe to sever his head

and make Anna Scott a widow.

It was not, however, the end of Anna's ordeal.

A few weeks later, her daughter aged 10, who was still being held in the tower, died.

This was surely the lowest point in Anna Scott's life.

She'd lost her home, her husband and her position.

But Anna would use all her skills of diplomacy and charm to regain her status.

In May of the following year, the King made his decision.

In his words,

Anna's exemplary loyalty, unblamable deportment and constant duty

meant she should be allowed to keep all of the Scott estates and remain the Duchess of Buccleuch.

Anna's desperate trip to the tower had paid off.

Somehow, she manages to claw her way back to a position of respect,

get her titles back, get the credibility back

and essentially she gets her status back.

I mean, this is amazing.

She's a survivor.

She recognises how power is made and how to hang on to it.

In 1701, Anna came back to Scotland.

Aged 50, she was returning for the first time to Dalkeith - the family home

she'd left when she was just a child.

And she returned determined to build on the wealth and power that she'd fought so hard to protect.

To get a personal insight into the extraordinary life of Anna Scott,

I've come to Drumlanrig Castle to meet her direct descendent, the current Duke of Buccleuch.

She was a remarkable woman, was she not, Duchess Anna?

Yes, I think Anna was absolutely pivotal to the happy

outcome at least from the Scotts of Buccleuch's points of view.

And it was because of her

that the disaster which her husband brought not only on himself

but many other innocent people did not lead to the downfall of the House of Buccleuch.

Amazingly, Anna Scott lived for more than 40 years after her husband's failed rebellion.

And it's largely thanks to her that today the Scotts of Buccleuch

are the largest private landowners in Scotland.

I can't but look at portraits of her

and see in her the person who really, after all the reiving and everything else that had gone in the past,

she was in many ways the one who really laid the foundations for the future.

Anna died in 1732 just before her 81st birthday.

For me, what makes her life so unique is that at a time

when men still very much called the shots,

she was clearly a single-minded, determined and shrewd woman

who deserves her place in history.

Despite her royal connections and vast fortune,

Anna Scott chose to be buried here in Dalkeith.

Instead of an imposing mausoleum,

this unassuming churchyard of St Nicholas

is the final resting place of the woman who so very nearly became Queen.

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