Edward II.invades Scotland
On the resumption of hostilities, Bruce advanced upon Perth, and threatened it with a siege. This town had been strongly fortified by the English, and was intrusted to John Fitz-Marmaduke and a powerful garrison. Edward was at last roused into personal activity. He ordered a fleet to sail to the Tay—he issued writs for levies of troops for its instant relief,and he commanded his whole military vassals to assemble at Berwick on the 8th of September, to proceed immediately against his enemies. Disgusted with the presence of his favourite, Gaveston, some of the great barons refused to repair in person to the royal standard; yet a powerful array assembled, and the Earls of Gloucester and Warrene, Lord Henry Percy, Lord James Clifford, and many other nobles and barons, were in the field. With this great force, Edward, in the end of autumn, invaded Scotland; and Bruce, profiting by the lessons of former years, and recollecting the disastrous defeats of Falkirk and Dunbar, avoided a battle. It happened that Scotland was this year visited by a famine unprecedentedly severe; and the king, after driving away the herds and flocks into the narrow straits and valleys, retired, on the approach of the English, to the woods, and patiently awaited the distress which he knew the scarcity of forage and provisions must entail upon the enemy. The English king marched on from Roxburgh, through the forests of Selkirk and Jedburgh, to Biggar, looking in vain for an opponent.
From this he penetrated to Renfrew, and, with a weak and injudicious vengeance, burnt and laid waste the country, so that the heavy-armed cavalry, which formed the strength of his army, soon began to be in grievous distress; and, without a single occurrence of moment, he was compelled to order a retreat, and return to Berwick, where he spent the winter. Upon the retreat of the English, Bruce and his soldiers, leaving their fastnesses, broke down upon Lothian; and Edward, hearing of the reappearance of his enemies, with a great part of his forces again entered Scotland; but this second expedition concluded in the same unsatisfactory manner; whilst a third army, equally formidable in its numbers and equipment, which was intrusted to his favourite, the Earl of Cornwall, penetrated across the Firth of Forth, advanced to Perth, and for some time anxiously endeavoured to find an enemy ;but the Scots pursued their usual policy, and Gaveston returned with the barren glory of having marched over a country where there was no one to oppose him. J A fourth expedition, conducted by the Earls of Gloucester and Surrey, penetrated into Scotland by a different route, marched into the forest of Selkirk, and again reduced that province under a shortlived obedience to England.
On the return of the English king to London, Robert collected an army, and gratified his soldiers, who had so long smarted under oppression, by an invasion of that country on the side of the Solway, in which he burnt and plundered the district round Gillsland, ravaged Tynedale, and, after eight days' havoc,returned with much booty into Scotland