Andrew de Rait

Arms: Argent, a cross indented Gules After Edward I sacked Berwick in March 1296 and the Scottish king John Balliol abdicated the following July, Edward held a parliament at Berwick on 28 August to receive the submission of the Scottish barons and clerics.

Sir Andrew de Rait and his older brother, Gervaise, paid homage for Nairnshire.

Although Edward’s contingent met with Moray near the River Spey on 7 July, they did not seize him, blaming the difficulties of the terrain for preventing further pursuit.

It would be too long a business to write, but we pray you to have the goodness to give evidence to Sir Andrew de Raite, your bachelor, who can tell you all these affairs in all points, for he was in person at all these doings.

[1]Euphemia, Countess of Ross and Malise III, Earl of Strathearn, also entrusted Sir Andrew with dispatches to the king, the latter writing, “Dear Sire, I pray you, if it please you, to have the goodness to believe Sir Andrew de Raite, the bearer of this letter, in the matter which he will tell you verbally from me.”[2] En route, Sir Andrew met with Hugh de Cressingham, treasurer of the English administration in Scotland, and showed him the bishop’s letter, but Cressingham reported to the king that the letter was “false in many points and obscure.” It has been argued that Cressingham believed that Chien, Comyn, and Mar were “exaggerating the value of the services they had rendered” in the hope that the king, in his gratitude, would reward them with “the estates of their rivals.”[2]