Antoine d'Arces
Antoine d'Arcy,
The White Knight
Antoine d'Arces, or d'Arcy, is usually known as "De la Bastie" or "Labatie" in Scottish history. He was the son of Jesus d'Arces, sieur de la Bâtie and Anthoinette Baile (or Huguette). In his lifetime he was called the White Knight, (Chevalier Blanc), from his white clothes, white armour, or a white scarf worn as the favour of
He served in the Italian Wars and was captured at Agnadello in 1509 by the Venetians. Antoine married Françoise de Ferrières, dame de Livarol. They had two children; Jean d'Arces, baron de Livarol, and Anne.
Albany's Lieutenant
He came to Scotland immediately after the Scots' defeat at
Antoine was made Deputy Governor and
The Murder
In 1517, Antoine went to investigate the murder of a Frenchman who had been killed by the
"fearing ane conspiracie, he spurred his hors, and fled towardis the castle of Dunbar; thinking to have wone away, because he was weill horsed. But being ane stranger, and not knawing the ground weill, he laired his hors in ane mos, and thair his enemies cam upoun him, and slew and murthered him verrie unhonestlie, and cutted aff his head and carried with thame. And it was said that he had long hair plett in his neck quhilk David Home of Wedderburne knitt to his saidle bow and keipt it."[10]
John Lesley's version, also written in the 1570s, differs only slightly. Antoine came to break Wedderburn's siege of Langton Castle, lured by a false report by William Cockburn, tutor of Langton,[11] and according to his sixteenth century translator; "Bautie, tha heidet, and in the toun of Dunce his heid affixt on a staik, that all men mycht se it, September xix."[12] By all accounts, the head was taken to Wedderburn Castle, and remained there for three hundred years.
This was a significant international incident, as de la Bastie was both Border Warden and French ambassador. Francis I of France wrote to the Parliament of Scotland on 16 November 1517 urging punishment. In response James Hamilton of Finnart carried the reply at the end of March 1528 that his father the Earl of Arran had captured the Home family strongholds, one Home had been hung drawn and quartered, and the others had escaped into England.[13]
There is monument to Bastie at Preston, Scottish Borders, erected by General James Home in early 19th-century in honour of Antoine d'Arces. It consists of a square plinth and pedestal embossed with crosses with a classical cornice, topped by a stylised urn. Antoine's body was buried nearby, it is said, close to the scene of the murder in a field at Swallowdene farm.[14]
Portrait
A drawing of Antoine d'Arces made by an unknown artist in the 1560s is included in the album known as the Recueil d'Arras.[15] The inscription mentions that he was called the White Knight, and went into Scotland with M. de Saint-Maurice, Guillaume Dorberke, and Jehan Joffroy sieur de Dompierre who was killed in the jousting.[16][17]
Footnotes
- ^ Stuart, Marie W., The Scot who was a Frenchman (London, 1940), pp. 16-19: Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 3 (1901), pp. 358, 364-6.
- ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901), pp. lxvi-lxvii, 334, 338, 347: Macdougall, Norman James IV (Tuckwell, 1998), p. 255.
- ^ Marguerite Wood, Flodden Papers (SHS, Edinburgh, 1933), pp. lxxi-lxxii, lxxxvi, 87-92, 92-97.
- ^ Thomson, Thomas, Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1814), p. 281.
- ^ Hay, Denys, Letters of James V (HMSO, 1954), pp. 4-5, 16 January 1514: Ruddiman, Thomas, Epistolae Regum Scotorum, vol. 1 (1722), pp. 186, 189: Letters & Papers Henry VIII, vol. 1 (London, 1920), nos. 2578, 2579.
- ^ Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1908), p. 458 no. 2898.
- ^ Tabraham, p.102
- ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1903), pp. 128, 130, 148.
- ^ Buchanan, Patricia, Margaret Tudor (Scottish Academic Press, 1985), pp. 155-156.
- ^ Lindsay of Pitscottie, Robert, The Chronicles of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1814), p. 307.
- ^ Ken Emond, The Minority of James V (Edinburgh, 2019), p. 87.
- ^ Lesley, John, The Historie of Scotland, vol. 2 (STS, 1895), p. 170.
- ^ Hay, Denys, ed., Letters of James V (HMS0, 1954), pp. 56-8.
- ^ Stuart, Marie (1940), pp. 86-7.
- ^ Andrea Thomas, Glory and Honour (Edinburgh, 2013), p. 93.
- ^ ARRAS, Bibliothèque municipale: 0944.2 (0266) Recueil d'Arras, f.246r
- ^ Henri Bouchot, Les portraits aux crayons des XVIe et XVIIe siècles conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, 1884), p. 295.
Sources
- Buchanan, Patricia, Margaret Tudor, Scottish Academic Press, (1985)
- Wood, Marguerite, ed., Flodden Papers, Scottish History Society, (1933), diplomatic correspondence of James IV.
- Stuart, Marie W., The Scot who was a Frenchman, John Stewart Duke of Albany, Hodge, (1940)
- Tabraham, Chris (1997). Scotland's Castles. BT Batsford/Historic Scotland. ISBN 0-7134-7965-5.
External links
- Murder of Chevalier de la Bastie, Duns History Society
- Death of de la Beaute (traditional ballad), Duns History Society
- Genealogy of the d'Arces family
- Château Corbeau, Meylan-Bâtie, the de la Bastie Castle