EDWARD III AND SCOTLAND
1328-1399
Almost immediately after the conclusion of the Treaty of Northampton,
the conditions of government in England and Scotland were reversed.
Since the death of Edward I, Scotland, under a strong king, had gained
by the weakness of the English sovereign; now England, under the
energetic rule of Edward III, was to profit by the death of King Robert
and by the succession of a minor. On the 7th June, 1329, King Robert
died (probably a leper) at his castle of Cardross, on the Clyde, and
left the Scottish throne to his five-year-old son, David II. In October
of the following year the young Edward III of England threw off the yoke
of the Mortimers and established his personal rule, and came almost
immediately into conflict with Scotland. The Scottish regent was
Randolph or Ranulph, Earl of Moray, the companion of Bruce and the Black
Douglas[50] in the exploits of the great war. Possibly because Edward
III had afforded protection to the Pretender, Edward Balliol, the
eldest son of John Balliol, and had received him at the English court,
Randolph refused to carry out the provisions of the Treaty of
Northampton, by which their lands were to be restored to the
"Disinherited", _i.e._ to barons whose property in Scotland had been
forfeited because they had adopted the English side in the war. A
somewhat serious situation was thus created, and Edward, not
unnaturally, took advantage of it to disown the Treaty of Northampton,
which had been negotiated by the Mortimers during his minority, and
which was extremely unpopular in England. He at once recognized Edward
Balliol as King of Scotland. The only defence of Randolph's action is
the probability that he suspected Edward to be in search of a pretext
for refusing to be bound by a treaty made in such circumstances, and if
a struggle were to ensue, it was certainly desirable not to increase the
power of the English party. Edward proceeded to assist Balliol in an
expedition to Scotland, which Mr. Lang describes as "practically an
Anglo-Norman filibustering expedition, winked at by the home government,
the filibusters being neither more nor less Scottish than most of our
_noblesse_". But before Balliol reached Scotland, the last of the
paladins whose names have been immortalized by the Bruce's wars, had
disappeared from the scene. Randolph died at Musselburgh in July, 1332,
and Scotland was left leaderless. The new regent, the Earl of Mar, was
quite incapable of dealing with the situation. When Balliol landed at
Kinghorn in August, he made his way unmolested till he reached the river
Earn, on his way to Perth. The regent had taken up a position near
Dupplin, and was at the head of a force which considerably outnumbered
the English. But the Scots had failed to learn the lesson taught by
Edward I at Falkirk and by Bruce at Bannockburn. The English succeeded
in crossing the Earn by night, and took up a position opposite the hill
on which the Scots were encamped. Their archers were so arranged as
practically to surround the Scots, who attacked in three divisions,
armed with pikes, making no attempt even to harass the thin lines of
archers who were extended on each side of the English main body. But the
unerring aim of the archers could not fail to render the Scottish attack
innocuous. The English stood their ground while line after line of the
Scots hurled themselves against them, only to be struck down by the
gray-goose shafts. At last the attack degenerated into a complete rout,
and the English made good their victory by an indiscriminate massacre.
The immediate result of the battle of Dupplin Moor was that "Edward I of
Scotland" entered upon a reign which lasted almost exactly twelve weeks.
He was crowned at Scone on September 24th, 1332, and unreservedly
acknowledged himself the vassal of the King of England. On the 16th
December the new king was at Annan, when an unexpected attack was made
upon him by a small force, led, very appropriately, by a son of
Randolph, Earl of Moray, and by the young brother of the Lord James of
Douglas. Balliol fled to Carlisle, "one leg booted and the other naked",
and there awaited the help of his liege lord, who prepared to invade
Scotland in May. Meanwhile the patriotic party had failed to take
advantage of their opportunity. Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, the regent
chosen to succeed Mar (who had fallen at Dupplin), had been captured in
a skirmish near Roxburgh, either in November, 1332, or in April, 1333,
and was succeeded in turn by Sir Archibald Douglas, the hero of the
Annan episode, but destined to be better known as "Tyneman the Unlucky".
The young king had been sent for safety to France.
In April, Balliol was again in Scotland, and, in May, Edward III began
to besiege Berwick, which had been promised him by Balliol. To defend
Berwick, the Scots were forced to fight a pitched battle, which proved a
repetition of Dupplin Moor. Berwick had promised to surrender if it were
not relieved by a fixed date. When the day arrived, a small body of
Scots had succeeded in breaking through the English lines, and Sir
Archibald Douglas had led a larger force to ravage Northumberland. On
these grounds Berwick held that it had been in fact relieved; but
Edward III, who lacked his grandfather's nice appreciation of situations
where law and fact are at variance, replied by hanging a hostage. The
regent was now forced to risk a battle in the hope of saving Berwick,
and he marched southwards, towards Berwick, with a large army. Edward,
following the precedent of Dupplin, occupied a favourable position at
Halidon Hill, with his front protected by a marsh. He drew up his line
in the order that had been so successful at Dupplin, and the same result
followed. Each successive body of Scottish pikemen was cut down by a
shower of English arrows, before being able even to strike a blow. The
regent was slain, and Moray, his companion in arms, fled to France, soon
to return to strike another blow for Scotland.
The victory of Halidon added greatly to the popularity of Edward III,
for the English looked upon the shame of Bannockburn as avenged, and
they sang:
"Scots out of Berwick and out of Aberdeen,
At the Burn of Bannock, ye were far too keen,
Many guiltless men ye slew, as was clearly seen.
King Edward has avenged it now, and fully too, I ween,
He has avenged it well, I ween. Well worth the while!
I bid you all beware of Scots, for they are full of guile.
"'Tis now, thou rough-foot, brogue-shod Scot, that begins thy care,
Then boastful barley-bag-man, thy dwelling is all bare.
False wretch and forsworn, whither wilt thou fare?
Hie thee unto Bruges, seek a better biding there!
There, wretch, shalt thou stay and wait a weary while;
Thy dwelling in Dundee is lost for ever by thy guile."[51]
In Scotland, the party of independence was, for the time, helpless.
Edward and Balliol divided the country between them. The eight counties
of Dumfries, Roxburgh, Berwick, Selkirk, Peebles, Haddington, Edinburgh,
and Linlithgow formed the English king's share of the spoil, along with
a reassertion of his supremacy over the rest of Scotland. English
officers began to rule between the Tweed and the Forth. But the cause of
independence was never really hopeless. Balliol and the English party
were soon weakened by internal dissensions, and the leaders on the
patriotic side were not slow to take advantage of the opportunities thus
given them. It was, indeed, necessary to send King David and his wife to
France, and they landed at Boulogne in May, 1334. But from France, in
return, came the young Earl of Moray, who, along with Robert the High
Steward, son of Marjory Bruce, and next heir to the throne, took up the
duties of guardians. The arrival of Moray gave fresh life to the cause,
but there is little interest in the records of the struggle. The Scots
won two small successes at the Borough-Muir of Edinburgh and at
Kilblain. But the victory in the skirmish at the Borough-Muir (August,
1335) was more unfortunate than defeat, for it deprived Scotland for
some time of the services of the Earl of Moray. He had captured Guy de
Namur and conducted him to the borders, and was himself taken prisoner
while on his journey northwards. Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, who had
been made guardian after the battle of Dupplin, and was captured in
April, 1333, had now been ransomed, and he was again recognized as
regent for David II. So strong was the Scottish party that Balliol had
to flee to England for assistance, and, in 1336, Edward III again
appeared in Scotland. It was not a very heroic effort for the future
victor of Crécy; he marched northwards to Elgin, and, on his way home,
burned the town of Aberdeen.
As in the first war the turning-point had proved to be the death of
Edward I in the summer of 1307, so now, exactly thirty years later, came
another decisive event. In the autumn of 1337, Edward III first styled
himself King of France, and the diversion of his energies from the Scots
to their French allies rendered possible the final overthrow of Balliol
and the Scottish traitors. The circumstances are, however, parallel only
to the extent that an intervention of fortune rendered possible the
victory of Scottish freedom. In 1337 there was no great leader: the hour
had come, but not the man. For the next four years, castle after castle
fell into Scottish hands; many of the tales are romantic enough, but
they do not lead to a Bannockburn. The only incident of any significance
is the defence of the castle of Dunbar. The lord of Dunbar was the Earl
of March, whose record throughout the troubles had been far from
consistent, but who was now a supporter of King David, largely through
the influence of his wife, famous as "Black Agnes", a daughter of the
great Randolph, Earl of Moray. From January to June, 1338, Black Agnes
held Dunbar against English assaults by sea and land. Many romantic
incidents have been related of these long months of siege: the stories
of the Countess's use of a dust-cloth to repair the damage done by the
English siege-machines to the battlements, and of her prophecy, made
when the Earl of Salisbury brought a "sow" or shed fitted to protect
soldiers in the manner of the Roman _testudo_,
"Beware, Montagow,
For farrow shall thy sow",
and fulfilled by dropping a huge stone on the machine and thus
scattering its occupants, "the litter of English pigs"--these, and her
"love-shafts", which, as Salisbury said, "pierce to the heart", are
among the most wonderful of historical fairy tales. In the end the
English had to raise the siege:
"Came I early, came I late,
I found Agnes at the gate",
they sang as the explanation of their failure.
The defence of Dunbar was followed by the surrender of Perth and the
capture of the castles of Stirling and Edinburgh, and in June, 1341,
David II returned to Scotland, from which Balliol had fled. David was
now seventeen years of age, and he had a great opportunity. Scotland was
again free, and was prepared to rally round its national sovereign and
the son of the Bruce. The English foe was engaged in a great struggle
with France, and difficulties had arisen between the English king and
his Parliament. But the unworthy son of the great Robert proved only a
source of weakness to his supporters. The only redeeming feature of his
policy is that it was, at first, inspired by loyalty to his French
protectors. In their interest he made, in the year of the Crécy
campaign, an incursion into England, thus ending a truce made in 1343.
After the usual preliminary ravaging, he reached Neville's Cross, near
Durham, in the month of October. There he found a force prepared to meet
him, led, as at Northallerton and at Mitton, by the clergy of the
northern province. The battle was a repetition of Dupplin and Halidon
Hill, and a rehearsal of Homildon and Flodden. Scots and English alike
were drawn up in the usual three divisions; the left, centre, and right
being led respectively, on the one side, by Robert the Steward, King
David, and Randolph, and, on the other, by Rokeby, Archbishop Neville,
and Henry Percy. The English archers were, as usual, spread out so as to
command both the Scottish wings. They were met by no cavalry charge, and
they soon threw the Scottish left into confusion, and prepared the way
for an assault upon the centre. Randolph was killed; the king was
captured, and for eleven years he remained a prisoner in England.
Meanwhile Robert the Steward (still the heir to the throne, for David
had no children) ruled in Scotland. There is reason for believing that,
in 1352, David was allowed to go to Scotland to raise a ransom, and, two
years later, an arrangement was actually made for his release. But
Robert the Steward and David had always been on bad terms, and, after
everything had been formally settled, the Scots decided to remain loyal
to their French allies. Hostilities recommenced; in August, 1355, the
Scots won a small victory at Nesbit in Berwickshire, and captured the
town of Berwick. Early in the following year it was retaken by Edward
III, who proclaimed himself the successor of Balliol, and mercilessly
ravaged the Lowlands. So great was his destruction of churches and
religious houses that the invasion is remembered as the "Burned
Candlemas". Peace was made in 1357, and David's ransom was fixed at
100,000 marks. It was a huge sum; but in connection with the efforts
made to raise it the burgesses acquired some influence in the government
of the country.
David's residence in France and in England had entirely deprived him of
sympathy with the national aspirations of his subjects. He loved the
gay court of Edward III, and the Anglo-Norman chivalry had deeply
affected him. He hated his destined successor, and he had been charmed
by Edward's personality. Accordingly we find him, seven years after his
return to Scotland, again making a journey to England. It is a striking
fact that the son of the victor of Bannockburn should have gone to
London to propose to sell the independence of Scotland to the grandson
of Edward I. The difficulty of paying the yearly instalment of his
ransom made a limit to his own extravagant expenditure, and he now
offered, instead of money, an acknowledgment of either Edward himself or
one of his sons as the heir to the Scottish throne. The result of this
proposal was to change the policy of Edward. He abandoned the Balliol
claim and the traditional Edwardian policy in Scotland, and accepted
David's offer. David returned to Scotland and laid before his Parliament
the less violent of the two schemes, the proposal that, in the event of
his dying childless, Prince Lionel of England should succeed (1364).
"To that said all his lieges, Nay;
Na their consent wald be na way,
That ony Ynglis mannys sone
In[to] that honour suld be done,
Or succede to bere the Crown,
Off Scotland in successione,
Sine of age and off vertew there
The lauchfull airis appearand ware."
So the proposal to substitute an "English-man's son" for the lawful
heirs proved utterly futile. Equally vain were any attempts of the Scots
to mitigate Edward's rigour in the exaction of the ransom, and Edward
reverted to his earlier policy, disowned King David, and prepared for
another Scottish campaign to vindicate his right as the successor of
Balliol, who had died in 1363. But English energies were once more
diverted at a critical moment. The Black Prince had involved himself in
serious troubles in Gascony, and England was called upon to defend its
conquests in France. In 1369 a truce was made between Scotland and
England, to last for fourteen years.
David II died, unregretted, in February, 1370-1371. It was fortunate for
Scotland that the miserable seven years which remained to Edward III,
and the reign of his unfortunate grandson, were so full of trouble for
England. Robert the Steward succeeded his uncle without much difficulty.
He was fifty-six years of age, already an old man for those days, eight
years the senior of the nephew whom he succeeded. The main lines of the
foreign policy of his reign may be briefly indicated; but its chief
interest lies in a series of border raids, the story of which is too
intricate and of too slight importance to concern us. The new king began
by entering into an agreement with France, of a more definite
description than any previous arrangement, and the year 1372 may be
taken as marking the formal inauguration of the Franco-Scottish League.
The truce with England was continued and was renewed in 1380, three
years before the date originally fixed for its expiry. The renewal was
necessitated by various acts of hostility which had rendered it, in
effect, a dead letter. The English were still in possession of such
Scottish strongholds as Roxburgh, Berwick, and Lochmaben, and round
these there was continual warfare. The Scots sacked the town of Roxburgh
in 1377, but without regaining the castle, and, in 1378, they again
obtained possession of Berwick. John of Gaunt, who had forced the
government of his nephew to acknowledge his importance as a factor in
English politics, was entrusted with the command of an army directed
against Scotland. He met the Scottish representatives at Berwick, which
was again in English hands, and agreed to confirm the existing truce,
which was maintained till 1384, when Scotland was included in the
English truce with France. The truce, which was to last for eight
months, was negotiated in France in January, 1383-84. In February and
March, John of Gaunt conducted a ravaging expedition into Scotland as
far as Edinburgh. During the Peasants' Revolt he had taken refuge in
Scotland, and the chroniclers tell us that the expedition of 1384 was
singularly merciful. Still, it was an act of war, and the Scots may
reasonably have expressed surprise, when, in April, the French
ambassadors (who had been detained in England since February) arrived in
Edinburgh, and announced that Scotland and England had been at peace
since January. About the same time there occurred two border forays.
Some French knights, with their Scottish hosts, made an incursion into
England, and the Percies, along with the Earl of Nottingham, conducted a
devastating raid in Scotland, laying waste the Lothians. About the date
of both events there is some doubt; probably the Percy invasion was in
retaliation for the French affair. But all the time the two countries
were nominally at peace, and it was not till May, 1385, that they were
technically in a state of war. In that month a French army was sent to
aid the Scots, and, under the command of John de Vienne, it took part in
an incursion on a somewhat larger scale than the usual raids. The
English replied, in the month of August, by an invasion conducted by
Richard II in person, at the head of a large army, while the Scots,
declining a battle, wasted Cumberland. Richard sacked Edinburgh and
burned the great religious houses of Dryburgh, Melrose, and Newbattle,
but was forced to retire without having made any real conquest. The
Scots adopted their invariable custom of retreating after laying waste
the country, so as to deprive the English of provender; even the
impatience of their French allies failed to persuade them to give
battle to King Richard's greatly superior forces. From Scotland the
English king marched to London, to commence the great struggle which led
to the impeachment of Suffolk and the rise of the Lords Appellant. While
England was thus occupied, the Scots, under the Earl of Fife, second son
of Robert II (better known as the Duke of Albany), and the Earl of
Douglas, made great preparations for an invasion. Fife took his men into
the western counties and ravaged Cumberland and Westmoreland, but
without any important incident. Douglas attacked the country of his old
enemies, the Percies, and won the victory of Otterburn or Chevy Chase
(August, 1388), the most romantic of all the fights between Scots and
English. The Scots lost their leader, but the English were completely
defeated, and Harry Hotspur, the son of Northumberland, was made a
prisoner. Chevy Chase is the subject of many ballads and legends, and it
is indissolubly connected with the story of the House of Douglas:
"Hosts have been known at that dread sound to yield,
And, Douglas dead, his name hath won the field".
From the date of Otterburn to the accession of Henry IV there was peace
between Scotland and England, except for the never-ending border
skirmishes. Robert II died in 1390, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
John, Earl of Carrick, who took the title of Robert III, to avoid the
unlucky associations of the name of John, which had acquired an
unpleasant notoriety from John Balliol as well as John of England and
the unfortunate John of France. Under the new king the treaty with
France was confirmed, but continuous truces were made with England till
the deposition of Richard II.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 50: Douglas disappeared from the scene immediately after King
Robert's death, taking the Bruce's heart with him on a pilgrimage to
Palestine. He was killed in August, 1330, while fighting the Moors in
Spain, on his way to the Holy Land.]
[Footnote 51: Minot. Tr. F. York Powell.]