ANSELM ADORNES OF BRUGES:

TRAVELLER IN THE EAST AND FRIEND OF JAMES III

Alan Macquarrie
The name of Anselm Adornes appears fleetingly in the pages of Scottish
historical writings.1 It is known that he was first sent to Scotland by the merchants
of Bruges during the ascendancy of the Boyds in the 1460s; that he sheltered the
banished Boyds at his home in Bruges while himself absent on pilgrimage to the
Holy Land in 1470-71; that he returned to Scotland with a descriptive account of his
pilgrimage which he presented to James III in 1472; that he later settled in Scotland
and was murdered by the king's enemies in 1483. Beyond these bare facts, historians
have little to say.2 The appearance in recent years of a full critical edition of
Adornes's account of his journey to the Holy Land, with a dedication to James III,
has revived interest in this obscure figure as the five-hundredth anniversary of his
death approaches.3 The objective of the present study will be to present the facts of
Adornes's life with particular relevance to Scotland, including some new evidence,
and to suggest some differences of emphasis from previous Scottish and continental
accounts of his career.4 It is hoped by so doing to cast new light on the problematic
reign of James III.5
Anselm Adornes's first visit to Scotland was made in the autumn of 1468.
Adornes was in his forty-fourth year, and had already had a distinguished career
among the mercantile community of Bruges; the Adornes family had occupied a
prominent place in this community ever since one of the wealthy Adorno family of
Genoa had emigrated to Bruges in the thirteenth century.6 The purpose of the
Brugeois mission to Scotland in 1468 was purely commercial. In January 1466/7 the
Scottish parliament, in the face of worsening relations between France and
Burgundy, had forbidden Scottish merchants to trade at Flemish ports;7 the effects
of this embargo were felt so severely at Bruges that the town resolved to send a
mission to Scotland in an attempt to have the ban lifted. The mission was successful,
in that it opened the way for negotiations between Scotland and Bruges for the
restoration of trading links,8 but much more interesting was the personal success of
Adornes himself. He won the trust of the Boyds, who were still in power, and also
seems to have befriended the young king James III; in January 1468/9 he was
knighted by the king's own hand and created a member of the king's council.9
Adornes was not the only, and perhaps not the most important, member of the
Brugeois mission in 1468, and it is not clear why he should have been singled out for
honour.10 King James was young and impressionable, and was probably at this time
reading the 'Travels of Sir John Mandeville', which he had had copied in the king's
chapel in 1467.11 It is known that James expressed ambitions to travel abroad
himself, which were discouraged by his parliaments of 1472 and 1473. Parliament
urged the king not to seek to increase his glory by travelling abroad, but to set about
the administration of law and justice in Scotland, whereby his fame would be carried
overseas.12 Adornes would have been able to tell the king about his father's two
pilgrimages to Jerusalem and the building of the family's church of Jerusalem in
Bruges; and he must already himself have been making plans for a similar
15
THE INNES REVIEW

pilgrimage to the Holy Land, on which he was to set out just over a year later. It
seems likely that his rapid advancement in Scotland was due to his friendship with
James III rather than to any relationship with the Boyds, whom he happily
abandoned in 1472, and at whose expense he was enriched.13
It is uncertain whether Adornes made a single visit to Scotland in 1468-69 or
whether he made a second, poorly documented, visit to Edinburgh late in 1469
following his well-documented trip the previous winter.14 At some stage he was
granted the barony of Cortachy in Angus, but this was probably not until 1472." It
seems that he was already making plans for his pilgrimage; on 10 October 1468 (on
his way to Scotland for the first time) he obtained a safe-conduct to visit the Holy
Sepulchre from King Edward IV,16 and he did not allow the arrival of the banished
Boyds at his house in Bruges in February 1470 to delay his departure on pilgrimage
shortly thereafter.17
What motivations prompted Adornes to undertake the long and hazardous
journey to the Holy Land? Mgr McRoberts's statement that 'Adornes was
commissioned by his sovereign, Charles the Bold, to go on a fact-finding mission
through the Mussulman territories bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, in
preparation for a crusade that Charles the Bold had long had in mind' must be
doubted.18 Charles is hardly ever mentioned in the Itinerarium, which is dedicated to
the ruler of a different country, and there is no evidence that he was ever sent a copy.
It has also been pointed out that the introduction nowhere appeals to the crusading
spirit;19 the recent editors of the Itinerarium are surely right in remarking that 'il
semble hasardeux de rattacher ce voyage des Adorni . au desir de preparer une
. .

croisade eventuelle'.20
What seems more likely is that the journey was undertaken out of a mixture of
family piety (the Adornes family's devotion to the Holy Sepulchre), a genuine desire
for travel to foreign lands, and the encouragement of the young James III. These
elements are all enumerated in the introduction to the Itinerarium, addressed to
James III. The writer, John Adornes, Anselm's eldest son, condemns those who
have no interest in countries other than their own, or who regard other countries as
inferior to their own through ignorance; such errors, he claims, are not made by
those who are well-travelled and experienced in other lands. Several classical savants
are cited as examples of widely-experienced men, and also Marco Polo, whom the
writer had clearly read and greatly admired. He goes on to explain that Anselm
Adornes had developed a thirst for knowledge of foreign lands, and especially the
Holy Places, which had daily increased until the day when James III had honoured
him with the belt of knighthood; thus honoured, he could present himself as a true
knight, as one in a thousand. His voyage, says the writer, was undertaken to
enhance the glory of the king of Scotland, which, though already considerable, has
now been further enhanced; Anselm has missed no opportunity to expound on
James's power, virtue and nobility among the barbarous and distant lands he has
visited. As a result, James is now more admired among these nations than any other
western prince, and his subjects with him. At the end of his journey Anselm
requested his son John to write down an account of their travels and to dedicate it to
the king of Scotland; he at first hesitated to do so because of his limited abilities, but
finally, trusting in James's clemency, he composed his account of his father's travels
in order to make the king aware of the ways and lands of the infidel.21 This
introduction throughout emphasises how men can improve themselves by increasing
their knowledge and understanding of foreign lands, and seems far removed from
the crusading ideal. It would appeal, on the other hand, to someone who had read
and enjoyed 'Mandeville's Travels'.
16
 ANSELM ADORNES OF BR UOES

It is uncertain to what extent Adornes was acting on James's behalf on his

foreign travels. Possibly the grant of knighthood, and the safe-conduct that must
have accompanied it, may have constituted him in some sense an ambassador to the
foreign courts which he visited. In a safe-conduct issued to Adornes by the king of
Tunis he is styled 'Anselm Adornes of Flanders, knight of the king of Scots'22 and in
a document issued in his favour two years later, James III describes Adornes as one
'who was the honour and ornament of us and of our kingdom, not only before the
pope and in Christian lands, but also among the remote lands of saracens and
Turks.'23 Taken with Adornes's assertion that he had propounded James's virtues in
these lands, the implication seems to be that he was acting on James's behalf to a
greater extent than has been recognised by many Scottish and continental scholars.24
Anselm Adornes and his retinue left Bruges on 19 February 1470. He reached
Rome on 18 April, where he had an audience with the pope, possibly acting as James
Ill's ambassador. Then he turned north to Genoa, which he reached on 2 May. Here
he lodged in the house of the Dorias, one of the chief commercial families of the
city, but was also feted by members of the Adorno family, from whom the Adornes
family of Bruges was descended. The pilgrims boarded the Genoese galley of
Lodovico de Inghiberti on 7 May, bound for Tunis, and called at Corsica (12 May)
and Sardinia (18 May) before arriving off Cape Carthage on 25 May. On 5 June
1470, Anselm presented himself before the customs officers of Tunis as miles regis
Scottorum, and received the king's safeconduct.25 On 15 June, Anselm and John
Adornes boarded another Genoese galley, whose master was Cosimo de Nigrono,
and sailed for Alexandria. The ship was full of Moslems making the pilgrimage to
Mecca, as well as Jews and Christians; according to John Adornes, the sabbath was
celebrated three times weekly, on Friday by the Moslems, on Saturday by the Jews,
and on Sunday by the Christians. The ship waited at Carthage for two days for
favourable winds before sailing, and called at the Aragonese islands of Pantalleria
(28 June) and Malta (3 July). On the 12th the ship was delayed off Crete by contrary
winds, so that it did not arrive at Alexandria until 17 July. The travellers noted that
Alexandria was less attractive at close range than its external appearance had
promised, chiefly because of the destruction wrought 'by a certain king of
Cyprus'—a distinctly unfavourable allusion to the raid on Alexandria by Peter I of
Cyprus in 1365.26 The fact that Adornes was the knight of the king of Scotland and
carried a safe-conduct from the king of Tunis did not impress the emir of
Alexandria, who had the little group placed under watch and forbade them to leave
the city until they had paid a large sum of money. Adornes was glad to set out by
mule for Cairo on 2 August.
The party travelled up the Nile (which, according to John Adornes, rises in India
and descends through Ethiopia on its way to Egypt), arriving at Cairo and its suburb
of 'New Babylon' on 7 August. Like any modern tourist in Cairo, Adornes visisted
the pyramids, which he attributed (following a tradition current in the Middle Ages)
to the pharaoh who enslaved the Israelites in Egypt. He rightly considered, however,
that the Mamaluk sultan of Egypt was the most powerful of all Arab rulers,
although even he feared the Ottoman Turks. In the royal guest-house the Adornes
felt themselves constantly watched, cheated and overcharged; but they were able to
go about the streets of Cairo unremarked, because of the crowds constantly
thronging the public places. In Cairo, they made the preparations for the journey
across the desert which they were about to undertake. It was necessary to engage
trustworthy guides (here they did not feel that they were successful), to procure
provisions for the journey through inhospitable country, and to obtain beasts for
the journey; camels were found preferable to mules or horses. On 15 August they set

17
THE INNES REVIEW

out from Cairo towards Mount Sinai in the wake of a large caravan, enduring a
dangerous and uncomfortable journey, and arrived at the monastery of St Catherine
of Mount Sinai on 24 August 1470. Here they stayed, visiting the monastery and the
surrounding holy sites, while their guides camped nearby; on 30 August they
rejoined their guides, and, accompanied by Brother Laurence de Candia, a monk of
the monastery, set off north towards Palestine. After another disagreeable journey,
made easier by the monk's presence, they arrived at Jerusalem on 11 September.
The Adornes party visited all the traditional sites of Jerusalem; as a family with a
tradition of devotion to the Holy Sepulchre, they paid particular attention to the
church of the Holy Sepulchre, which they visited on the feast of the exaltation of the
Holy Cross (14 September). Outside the walls, the pilgrims visited the holy sites
round about, including Mount Sion and the Mount of Olives; further afield, they
visited the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem and made a trip to Bethany, the
Jordan, and the Dead Sea. On 22 September they left Jerusalem and headed north
again towards Damascus, visiting Nazareth on 10 October and the Sea of Galilee on
the 11th, reaching Damascus on the 16th. Jüst outside the city, which impressed
Adornes for its commercial vitality and the opulence of its palaces, he was shown the
site of the conversion of St Paul. In Damascus, they lodged in the substantial
Venetian quarter, where the merchants were allowed to come and go at will during
the day but were subject to a curfew at night. For this reason the party did not stay
in the Venetian quarter during their last night in Damascus (27 October) but in a
stable at the edge of town, so that they could travel at first light. On 29 October they
arrived at Beirut after travelling through a terrifying thunderstorm over high
ground. After a disagreeable scene with the local emir, who extorted money from
them to be allowed to leave the land in peace, they boarded a Venetian galley at
Beirut; they gave thanks to God, St John the Baptist, St Catherine and all the saints
for their safe delivery from the land of the Mauri, who had been extortionate and
treacherous throughout.
Their Venetian galley was bound for Rhodes but called first at Cyprus en route;
after a near encounter with a Turkish ship, they arrived at Rhodes on 10 November.
Here they were well received by the grand master, John-Baptist de Orsini, who
assigned some of the brothers of his household to attend on them.27 Adornes
expressed admiration for the work of the knights in holding the might of the Turks
at bay in the Aegean archipelago, and he commented on the system of promotion
among the brothers, whereby the younger knights undertook military tasks while the
older ones were promoted to benefices when they had reached a fitting age. Anselm
and John Adornes sailed from Rhodes on 14 November for Brindisi, where they
arrived eleven days later. The latter pages of the Itinerarium contain short
descriptions of all the towns in southern Italy which the Adornes visited on the
homeward journey. The manuscript ends with a short conclusio, which returns to
the moralistic tone of the opening, urging the reader to seek treasures in heaven
rather than on earth. In the conclusion, James III is not mentioned by name.28
The Itinerarium is, in some ways, a work of curious contrasts. The writer speaks
in the introduction with a voice of enlightened tolerance of the advantages of a wide
knowledge of foreign lands and customs, and of the error of asssuming the
superiority of one's own nation over those one has never visited. But he is in no
doubt that Islam is ilia perfida secta, despite providing a long, detailed, and
reasonably accurate description of Islamic belief and custom. Apart from the king
of Tunis, whom he admired, John Adornes had little good to say about any Moslem
ruler. It is also curious to contrast the Adornes's family piety and devotion to the
Holy Land with their relief at their departure from 'the land of the Moors' (patria
18
 ANSELM ADORNES OF BR UGES

Maurorum), where they were so badly treated. John Adornes expresses admiration
for the work of the Knights of Rhodes in holding at bay the Turkish menace in the
Aegean, but he devotes only a little over three pages of his manuscript to a
description of the knights and their island stronghold, and much of that is devoted
to the island's agriculture. Had the Itinerarium been intended as a crusading
document, certainly John Adornes would have gone into some detail about the
knights' military position and strength; he might have devoted rather less than
twelve full pages to 'the faith and customs of the pagans', in the course of which he
shows more interest in superficial aspects of cult than in doctrinal differences,
though he does show some interest in the law of Mohammed. John Adornes even
attempted to reproduce the Arabic alphabet, and slipped up by explaining that
Arabs do not write, as Europeans do, from right to left, but rather from left to
right!29
Anselm Adornes arrived back in Bruges on 4 April 1471, and work on the
Itinerarium probably commenced soon after. The Boyds were still residing in his
house in Bruges, and Charles the Bold, anxious to win Scotland away from the
French alliance, saw the reconciliation of James III with the Boyds as an
opportunity to move towards this end. On 25 July 1471 Charles the Bold issued a
safe-conduct for Adornes, Lord Boyd, his son the earl of Arran, and the latter's
wife, Princess Mary, to go to Scotland, with a view to reconciling the king with his
sister and the Boyds.30 It was not until 4 October 1471 that the group sailed from
Calais.31 It is thus possible to date the composition of the Itinerarium to between
April and October 1471. Perhaps the delay between Charles the Bold's safe-conduct
in July and Adornes's departure for Scotland in October was allowed for the
completion of the manuscript.32
Adornes's mission to Scotland in the winter of 1471-2 had only limited success.
James accepted a reconciliation with his sister but refused to allow Boyd to return to
Scotland; the latter had discreetly remained in England while the negotiations were
in progress. James Ill's letter to the duke of Burgundy, dated 14 February but
without year-date, should certainly be ascribed to 1472 (n.s.) and not to 1471 as its
editor thought.33 This letter states that Adornes presented the duke's letter
requesting a reconciliation between James and the Boyds 'some time ago'
(iamdudum); this need mean nothing more than that James delayed in replying while
taking advice on the matter. The Scottish parliament met in February 1472,34 and
probably we should see James's letter to Charles the Bold in relation to that meeting.
Although James rejected Charles's request that he should restore the Boyds to
favour, Anselm Adornes was as successful on this occasion as he had been on his
first visit to Scotland. James told Charles that Adornes deserved some reward for his
diplomatic skill, but he was not slow to reward Anselm himself. The grant of the
barony of Cortachy almost certainly belongs to 1472, and in the same year Adornes
was rewarded with property confiscated from the Boyds.35 On 10 June 1472 James
created Adornes conservator of the privileges of Scottish merchants in the lands bf
the duke of Burgundy, because among other things he had contributed to the king's
honour before Christian rulers and also in the barbarous lands of Turks and
saracens.36 These ample rewards contrast with the failure of the basic purpose of the
mission; they suggest that Adornes was not tainted with the treason of the Boyds,
and that James had quite different reasons for continuing to honour him as he had
done in 1468. Important, possibly chief, among James's reasons for rewarding
Adornes was the latter's presentation to him of the Itinerarium with its flattering
dedication.
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THE INNES REVIEW

Adornes's career continued to prosper after his return to Bruges in mid-1472,

both at the hands of James III and of Charles the Bold. James continued to make
use of his services in Flanders, as is evident from James's letter to him of 4
September 1473: this concerns the restoration of goods of Scottish merchants seized
by Portuguese pirates in Flemish waters, the sending to Flanders of a musician, John
Brown, to acquire skill in playing the lute, and the purchase of spears from the
Rhineland.37 Early in 1474, Charles the Bold appointed Adornes ambassador to the
court of Uzun Hasan, king of Persia, in an attempt to draw him into an alliance
against the Ottoman Turks.38 Adornes was recalled before he had gone beyond
Prussia, and in the end it was only the patriarch of Antioch, as envoy of the Holy
See, who arrived at Uzun Hasan's court at Hamadan. He was unsuccessful in
persuading the king to renew war against the Ottomans, by whom the Persians had
been defeated in 1461.39 Adornes's abortive share in this mission was probably
prompted by his previous experience of foreign travel, but the reason for his recall is
not clear. What is clear is that he was now high in the trust both of Charles the Bold
and of James III and entrusted with delicate missions by both rulers. In 1475 his
career reached its apex when he was elected burgomaster of Bruges.
Charles the Bold's policy of war with France and his other neighbours was
unpopular in the mercantile cities of Flanders; it required high taxes and customs
and restricted trade. Charles's death at the battle of Nancy (5 January 1477) was
followed by unrest in many Flemish towns, including Bruges, in which his loyal
supporters were victimised. Adornes was arrested on charges of maladministration
in the spring of 1477 and was luckier than some of his fellow-burgesses to be
acquitted with no more serious sentence than to appear before the populace in the
garb of a penitent and to be excluded from public office for life.40 As a result of
these setbacks, Adornes decided to leave Bruges and to further his career at the court
of James III of Scotland.
He was back in Scotland in the autumn of 1477, when he appears to have been
made custodian of the royal palace of Linlithgow.41 His office of conservator of
Scottish privileges in the duchy of Burgundy, of which he had been relieved when he
became burgomaster of Bruges, was restored to him.42 By 1480 he had acquired a
substantial house at Blackness, in which he entertained the king.43 He also appears
to have built a mill at the east end of Linlithgow, which was subsequently
destroyed.44 Clearly he returned quickly to the position of favour and trust which he
had acquired on his earlier visits to the court of James III.
Adornes's loyalty to the king and the fact that he was a foreigner (though neither
young nor lowborn) made him a natural target for James's enemies. He was not
among the victims of the coup d'etat at Lauder in July 1482,45 but he was sufficiently
alarmed by that event to draw up his will. This document declares that Adornes
knew that there were those in the kingdom who sought to kill him, but that he was
prepared to die for his king, as Our Lord had given his life for those whom he came
to serve.46
Flemish accounts of Adornes's death are circumstantial and combine credible
accuracy with some statements which are more difficult to accept. One
contemporary Flemish account states that Adornes was sent by James III to effect a
reconciliation with his brother Albany in January 1483 but was murdered near
North Berwick by unnamed horsemen. This account states that the murder took
place on 23 February at the Cistercian monastery of Calstrem, where Adornes and
the bishop of Lachacensis had gone to pray to the Virgin of Obserdleton by
Noordberrewyk.47 Calstrem is probably Coldstream, where there was a Cistercian
nunnery. Obserdleton is more puzzling; the church of Upsettlington (now Ladykirk)
20
 ANSELM ADORNES OF BRUGES

was dedicated to Our Lady, and became a popular place of pilgrimage during James
IV's reign. It is near Coldstream, but could not in any sense be described as near
North Berwick. Upsettlington is, however, also near Berwick on Tweed, and the
Flemish writer may have confused Berwick on Tweed with North Berwick. A less
likely possibility is that Obserdleton could be a very corrupt form of Dirleton. which
is unquestionably 'by' North Berwick. The identification of the bishopric in
question is even more doubtful.48 Another Flemish source states that the murder was
carried out by Sander Gartin49 who should probably be identified with Alexander
Jardine, an incorrigible partisan of the banished Douglases who was specifically
excluded from a general amnesty offered by Parliament in March 1482.50 Adornes's
body was taken to Linlithgow for burial, and his heart removed and taken to Bruges
for burial in the family's church of Jerusalem beside the body of his wife.51
Perhaps the strange career of Anselm Adornes can help us to understand some of
the problems of James Ill's reign. Adornes was not a 'lowborn favourite' or 'young
counsellor', of the kind who adorn Pitscottie's account of James Ill's court;52 but he
was an outsider who rose rapidly in royal favour for no reason other than his
personal relationship with the king. This relationship was based on Adornes's
respect for monarchy (he suffered also because of his conspicuous loyalty to Charles
the Bold) and the common interest of foreign travel which he shared with James. He
never developed a power-base in Scotland, and thus was always vulnerable to attack
from the king's enemies: his death was probably not part of a personal vendetta but
part of a general attack on the king's friends. The rapid rise of an outsider in
James's favour was bound to arouse resentment. It is to Adornes's oredit that he
continued to work for the king's interest through the crisis years 1482-83, but little
credit to James that, having promoted Adornes, he did little to protect him; there
seems to have been no attempt to bring the murderers to justice, and the event
passed almost without notice in Scotland. These considerations are symptomatic of
the fatal weaknesses in James's personality and his government. Adornes has left a
more positive record: an example of courage and loyalty to the monarchs whom he
served; additions to the Jerusalem church and surrounding buildings at Bruges,
including his own fine tomb; and a splendid account of his pilgrimage to the Holy
Land for James Ill's consumption, which, thanks to its editors, can now be studied
in detail by Scottish historians for the first time.

Dr Macquarrie has recently completed a thesis at Edinburgh University on the

impact of the crusading movement in Scotland.

NOTES
1. W. H. Finlayson, 'The Boyds in Bruges', Scot. Hist. Rev. 28 (1949) 195-96; C. A. J. Armstrong, 'A Letter of James 111 to the Duke of
Burgundy', SHS Misc. viii (1951) 19-32; D. McRoberts, 'Scottish Pilgrims to the Holy Land', IR 20 (1969) 80-106; R. Nicholson,
Scotland: the Later Middle Ages (Edinburgh, 1974) 419-20, 442-43, 514; N. Macdougall, James HI: a Political Study (Edinburgh 1982)
89, 190-91.
2. The late Mgr McRoberts commented that 'Anselme Adornes deserves attention from some Scots student of this period' ('Scottish
Pilgrims* 96, n. 72); it was he who first stimulated my interest in the subject.
3. Itineraire d'Anselme Adorno en Terre Sainte. 1470-1471. ed. J. Heers and G. de GTogr (Paris, Centre nationale de la recherche
scientifique, 1978).
4. Continental studies include: le Comte de Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes, ou un Voyageur Brugeois au XVe siecle', Messager des
Sciences historiques 49 (1881) 1-43; R. Brunschvig, Deux Recits de Voyage inedits en Afrique du Nord au XVe siecle: Abdalbasit b.
Halil et Adorne (Paris, Institut d'Etudes Orientales de la Faculte des Lettres d'Alger, 1936); A. Storme, 'Des Pelerins Brugeois ä
Jerusalem en 1470', La Terre Sainte (1981) 133-38; A. Storme, 'Le Voyage d'A. Adornes en Terre Sainte (1470-1471)', Studium
Biblicum Franciscanum. Liber Annuus 31 (1981) 199-216.
5. For the reign of James III, see Macdougall, James 111, where the author has considerably revised the conclusions of his thesis 'James
III—a Political Study' (Glasgow Ph.D. 1968). His conclusions about James's relationships with Adornes (James 111, 190-91) differ
somewhat from my own.
6. Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes', 1, 9-10.
7. Acts Pari. Scot, (hereafter APS) ii 87.
8. Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes', 11-14.

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THE INNES REVIEW

9. Bruges, Stadsarchief, Fonds de Limburg Stirum, 15 Jan. 1469. Though issued under the privy seal, it is not in the printed Reg.Sec. Sig.
The text is edited in A. D. Macquarrie 'The Impact of the Crusading Movement in Scotland, I095-cl56O' (Edinburgh Ph.D. 1982) Vol.
2, App. I, no. 3.
10. For other members of the embassy cf L. Gilliodts-van Severen, Inventaire des Archives de la Villede Bruges (Bruges, 1871-85) vi, 25-26.
11. Exch. Roils (hereafter ER) vii 500; cf Mandeville's Travels, ed. M. C. Seymour (Oxford, 1967).
12. APS ii, 104.
13. Reg. Mag. Sig. (hereafter RMS) ii no. 1060.
14. Armstrong, 'Letter of. James III', 22-23; Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes', 13. Armstrong comments that 'to demonstrate
satisfactorily that in the autumn of 1469 Adorne went to Scotland as a ducal ambassador (besides being the envoy of Bruges) is not
easy'. But there may be no evidence, apart from the Comte de Limburg Stirum's assumption, that there was a second visit in 1469.
15. The letter creating Adornes a councillor on 15 January 1468/9 does not mention the grant of Cortachy; nor is it mentioned in the
dedication of the Itinerary, written during 1471. So it is not certain that the grant was made before Adornes is styled 'de Cortachy' in
royal letters of 1472.
16. Cal. Pal. Rolls, 1467-77, 97; Armstrong, 'Letter of James III', 21.
17. Nicholson, Later Middle Ages, 419-20.
18. McRoberts, 'Scottish Pilgrims' 97.
19. Brunschvig, Deux Re"cits de Voyage, 144.
20. Itineraire, 3, 12-17.
21. Ibid. 26-32. The only surviving contemporary MS is Lille, Bibliotheque Municipaje, MS 330: 'ltinerarium Anselmi Adournes Militis in
Asiam et Africam descriptum a filio ejusdem Johanne de Brugis, post annum 1470, et dedicatum Regi Scotiae'. There also exists a 19th-
century copy of another MS: Lille, Bibliotheque des Facultes Catholiques de l'Universite de Lille, MS 1 M 24. A third MS was in the
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris in the 19th century, but it has disappeared: 'Anselmi Adurni, Equitis Hierosolymitani Ordinis Scotici et
Cypriae, Jacobi III Scotorum Regis et Caroli Burgundici Ducis Consiliarii, Baronis in Corthuy et Eilikins, Domini in Ronsele et
Ghendbrugge, ltinerarium Hierosolymitanum et Sinaicum, 1470*. Cf Biographie Nationale de Beigique, s.v. Adornes.
22. Itineraire, 138. John Adornes provides a Latin translation of the document, which was originally issued in Arabic.
23. Bruges, Stadsarchief, Cartulaire Rodenboek, fo 270rv: 'Qui nedum apud pontificem summum christianasque regiones verum etiam in
exteris barbarijs sarazenorum et turchorum nacionibus nos et regnum nostrum decorauit el honori fuit.' Though issued under the great
seal, it is not in the printed Reg.Mag.Sig. The text is edited in Macquarrie 'Impact of the Crusading Movement', Vol. 2, App. I, no. 6.
24. Cf Brunschvig, Deux Rfcits de Voyage, 144; Itineraire, 12-17; Storme, 'Le Voyage d'A. Adornes', 201-03.
25. Itineraire, 138; the date is discussed in Storme, 'Le Voyage d'A. Adornes', 205.
26. See Guillaume de Machaut, La Prise d'Alexandrie, ed. L. de Mas Latrie (Geneva, Societe de I'Orient Latin, Serie historique, I, 1877).
27. The only Scottish-brother residing at Rhodes at this time was Patrick Scougal (Malta, National Library, Archives of the Knighis of St
John, codex 380, fo 137v.).
28. This summary of the journey has been taken from the Itineraire, passim, compared against Lille, Bibliotheque Municipale. MS 330.
29. Itineraire, 94.
30. Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes', 22-23.
31. Ibid. 23.
32. The editors of the Itineraire consider that the Lille MS shows signs of hasty composition but doubt if it was the copy presented to James
III; it must, however, be contemporary with it and was .probably copied simultaneously or nearly so. Cf Itineraire, 18.
33. Armstrong, 'Letter of James III', 24-27. Dr Macdougall (James III 72-73) accepts Armstrong's date of 1471.
34. APS Ü, 102-03.
35. RMS ii, no. 1060; cf also no. 1123.
36. Bruges, Stadsarchief, Cartulaire Rodenboek, fo 270rv (see n. 23).
37. Bruges, Stadsarchief, Fonds de Limburg Stirum 4 September 1472. The correct date of this letter, 4 September 1473, is fixed by a record
of a payment made to John Brown, 'lutare', being sent abroad to learn his craft, on 3 September 1473 (Treasurer Accts. i 43). The letter
is edited in Macquarrie, 'Impact of the Crusading Movement', Vol. 2, App. I, no. 5.
38. Limburg Stirum, 'Amselme Adornes', 24-26, 41-43.
39. Limburg Stirum calls him "Ussum-Cassan". His career is discussed in D. N. Wilber, Iran, Past and Present (8th edn. Princeton. 1976)
59.
40. Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes', 27-30.
41. ER viii, 512.
42. RMS ii, nos. 1234, 1548.
43. ER ix, 105.
44. Ibid. 400, 466. Cf also Reg.Sec.Sig.i no. 417.
45. See Nicholson, Later Middle Ages. 501-05; Macdougall, James III, 162-65.
46. Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes', 34.
47. The contemporary Flemish account of his death is printed ibid. 38-41.
48. Catanensis, Caithness, is perhaps closest but the bishop of Caithness at this time was Prosper Cannillo of Genoa. He may have been in
Scotland in September 1481, when he was admitted to the temporalities of his see (RMS ii, no. 1489); he seems to have resigned the see in
1484 (Dowden, Bishops 246-47). He and Adornes would have had foreignness and Genoese origins in common, but that hardly suited
either of them for a mission from James to the xenophobe Albany. The Flemish writer may not haye perfectly understood Scottish
events.
49. Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes', 35; Finlayson, 'The Boyds in Bruges', 195-96; the same author in Scot. Hist. Rev. 29 (1950), 120.
50. APS ii, 139; Nicholson, Later Middle Ages, 514 n.
51. Limburg Stirum, 'Anselme Adornes', 35-36.
52. See Macdougall, James III passim, especially 99-102, 271-85.

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