History of Scotland

Our ongoing history of Scotland that chronicles the events in Scotland over the past million years with a special focus on the last thousand as you might expect. We have also digitised a copy of Patrick Tytler's History of Scotland which is an eccentric but wonderfully written history of the the mediaeval years in Scotland. The project of chronicling Scotland's history is ongoing, as is the process of organising and structuring and linking the pages together.

English defeated at Mitton

Whilst thus occupied, some large stacks of hay were set on fire by the enemy,and, under cover of a dense mass of smoke, a strong column of men threw themselves between the English army and the bridge. As the smoke cleared away, they found themselves attacked with great fury both in front and rear, by the fatal long spear of the Scottish infantry; and the army of the archbishop was in a few moments entirely broken and dispersed.f In an incredibly short time, four thousand were slain, and amongst these many priests, whose white surplices covered their armour. Great multitudes were drowned in attempting to recross the river, and it seems to have been fortunate for the English that the battle was fought in the evening, and that a September night soon closed upon the field; for had it been a morning attack, it is probable that Randolph and Douglas would have put the whole army to the sword. Three hundred ecclesiastics fell in this battle; from which circumstance, and in allusion to the prelates who led the troops, it was denominated, in the rude pleasantry of the times, " The Chapter of Mitton." "When the news of the disaster reached the camp before Berwick, the troops began to murmur, and the Earl of Lancaster soon after, in a fit of disgust, deserted the leaguer with his whole followers, composing nearly a third part of the army.

Edward immediately raised the siege, and made a spirited effort to intercept Douglas and Randolph on their return, and compel them to fight at a disadvantage; but he had to deal with veteran soldiers, whose secret information was accurate, and who were intimately acquainted with the Border passes. While he attempted to intercept them by one road, they had already taken another, and leaving their route to be traced, as their advance had been, by the flames and smoke of villages and hamlets, they returned, without experiencing a check, into Scotland, loaded with booty, and confirmed in their feeling of military superiority. It may give some.idea of the far-spreading devastation occasioned by this and similar inroads of the Scottish army, when it is stated, that in an authentic document in the Foedera Angliae, it appears that eighty-four towns and villages were burnt and pillaged by the army of Randolph and Douglas in this expedition. These, on account of the great losses sustained, are, by a royal letter addressed to the tax-gatherers of the West Riding of Yorkshire, exempted from all contribution ;and in this list the private castles and hamlets which were destroyed in the same fiery inroad, do not appear to be included.

Bruce could not fail to be particularly gratified by these successes. Berwick, not only the richest commercial town in England, but of extreme importance as a key to that country, remained in his hands, after a siege directed by the King of England in person; and the young warrior, who had so bravely repulsed the enemy, was the Steward of Scotland, the husband of his only daughter, on whom the hopes and wishes of the nation mainly rested. The defeat upon the Swale was equally destructive and decisive, and it was followed up by another expedition of the restless and indefatigable Douglas, who, about All-Hallow tide of the same year, when the northern Borders had gathered in their harvest, broke into and burnt Gillsland and the surrounding country, ravaged Boroughon-Stanmore, and came sweeping home through Westmoreland and Cumberland, driving his cattle and his prisoners before him, and cruelly adding to the miseries of the recent famine, by a total destruction of the agricultural produce, which had been laid up for the winter.

It was a part of the character of Bruce, which marked his great abilities, that he knew as well when to make peace as to pursue war; and that, after any success, he could select the moment best fitted for permanently securing to his kingdom the advantages, which, had he reduced his enemy to extremity, might have eluded his grasp.

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A truce for Two years

The natural consequence of a long series of defeats sustained by Edward, was an anxious desire upon his own part, and that of his parliament, for a truce between the kingdoms; and as the Scots were satiated with victory, and, to use the words of an English historian, so enriched by the plunder of England that that country could scarcely afford them more, the Scottish king lent a ready ear to the representations of the English commissioners, and agreed to a truce for two years between the kingdoms, to commence from Christmas 1319. Conservators of the truce were appointed by England,and, in the meantime, commissioners of both nations were directed to continue their conferences, with the hope of concluding a final peace.

One great object of Bruce in consenting to a cessation of hostilities, was his earnest desire to be reconciled to the Roman desire which apparently was far from its accomplishment; for the pope, instead of acting as a peace-maker, seized this moment to reiterate his spiritual censures against the King of Scotland and his adherents, in a bull of great length, and unexampled rancour; and some time after the final settlement of the truce, the Archbishop of York, with the Bishops of London and Carlisle, were commanded and the order is stated to have proceeded on information communicated by Edward to excommunicate Robert and his accomplices, on every Sabbath and festival-day throughout the year.

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Letter from the Scottish Nobles to the Pope

Convinced by this conduct, that their enemies had been busy in misrepresenting at the Roman court their causes of quarrel with England, the Scottish nobility assembled in parliament at Aberbrothock,§ and with consent of the king, the barons, freeholders, and whole community of Scotland, directed a letter or manifesto to the pope, in a strain different from that servility of address to which the spiritual sovereign had been accustomed.

After an exordium, in which they shortly allude to the then commonly believed traditions regarding the emigration of the Scots from Scythia, their residence in Spain, and subsequent conquest of the Pictish kingdom; to their long line of a hundred and thirteen kings, (many of whom are undoubtedly fabulous;) to their conversion to Christianity by St Andrew, and the privileges which they had enjoyed at the hands of their spiritual father, as the flock of the brother of St Peter, they describe, in the following energetic terms, the unjust aggression of Edward the First:—
"Under such free protection did we live, until Edward king of England, and father of the present monarch, covering his hostile designs under the specious disguise of friendship and alliance, made an invasion of our country at the moment when it was without a king, and attacked an honest and unsuspicious people, then but little experienced in war, The insults which this prince has heaped upon us, the slaughters and devas* tations which he has committed; his imprisonments of prelates, his burning of monasteries, his spoliations and murder of priests, and the other enormities of which he has been guilty, can be rightly described, or even conceived, by none but an eye-.witness. From these innumerable evils have we been freed, under the help of that God who woundeth and who maketh whole, by our most valiant prince and king, Lord Robert, who, like a second Maccabaeus, or Joshua, hath cheerfully endured all labour and weariness, and exposed himself to every species of danger and privation, that he might rescue from the hands of the enemy his ancient people and rightful inheritance, whom also Divine Providence, and the right of succession according to those laws and customs, which we will maintain to the death, as well as the common consent of us all, have made our prince and king. To him are we bound, both by his own merit and by the law of the land, and to him, as the saviour of our people, and the guardian of our liberty, are we unanimously determined to adhere; but if he should desist from what he has begun, and should show an inclination to subject us or our kingdom to the King of England, or to his people, then we declare, that we will use our utmost effort to expel him from the throne, as our enemy, and the eubverter of his own and of our right, and we will choose another king to rule over us, who will be able to defend us; for as long as a hundred Scotsmen are left alive, we will never be subject to the dominion of England. It is not for glory, riches, or honour, that we fight, but for that liberty which no good man will consent to lose but with his life.

"Wherefore, most reverend father, we humbly pray, and from our hearts beseech your Holiness to consider, that you are the vicegerent of Him with whom there is no respect of persons, Jews or Greeks, Scots or English; and turning your paternal regard upon the tribulations brought upon us and the Church of God by the English, to admonish the King of England that he should be content with what he possesses, seeing that England of old was enough for seven, or more kings, and not to disturb our peace in this small country, lying on the utmost boundaries of the habitable earth, and whose inhabitants desire nothing but what is their own."

The barons proceed to say, that they are willing to do everything for peace which may not compromise the freedom of their constitution and government; and they exhort the pope to procure the peace of Christendom, in order to the removal of all impediments in the way of a crusade against the infidels; declaring the readiness with which both they and their king would undertake that sacred warfare, if the King of England would cease to disturb them. Their conclusion is exceedingly spirited:

"If," say they, "your Holiness do not sincerely believe these things, giving too implicit faith to the tales of the English, and on this ground shall not cease to favour them in their designs for our destruction, be well assured that the Almighty will impute to you that loss of life, that destruction of human souls, and all those various calamities which our inextinguishable hatred against the English, and their warfare against us, must necessarily produce. Confident that we now are, and shall ever, as in duty bound, remain obedient sons to you, as God's vicegerent, we commit the defence of our cause to that God, as the great King and Judge, placing our confidence in him, and in thefirmhope that hewill endow us with strength, and confound our enemies; and may the Almighty long preserve your Holiness in health."

This memorable letter is dated at Aberbrothock, on the 6th of April 1320, and it is signed by eight earls and thirty-one barons, amongst whom we find the great officers, the high-steward, the seneschal, the constable, and the marshal, with the barons, freeholders, and whole community of Scotland.

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Conspiracy against Bruce

In the midst of these unsuccessful negotiations for peace, a conspiracy of an alarming and mysterious nature against the life of the King of Scots was discovered, by the confession of the Oountess of Strathern, who was privy to the plot. William de Soulis, the seneschal, or high-butler of Scotland; Sir David de Brechin, nephew to the king, an accomplished knight, who had signalized himself in the Holy War; five other knights, Sir Gilbert de Malherbe, Sir John Logie, Sir Eustace de Maxwell, Sir Walter de Berklay, and Sir Patrick de Graham; with three esquires, Richard Brown, Hameline de Troupe, and Eustace de Rattray, are the only persons whose names have come down to us as certainly implicated in the conspiracy. Of these, Sir David de Brechin, along with Malherbe, Logie, and Brown, suffered the punishment of treason.The destruction of all record of their trial renders it difficult to throw any light on the details of the plot; but we have the evidence of a contemporary of high authority, that the design of the conspirators was to slay the king, and place the crown on the head of Lord Soulis, a Jineal descendant of the daughter of Alexander II and who, as possessing such a claim, would have excluded both Bruce and Baliol, had the legitimacy of his mother been unquestioned.There is evidence in the records of the Tower, that both Soulis and Brechin had long tampered with England, and been rewarded for their services.

In the case of Brechin, we find him enjoying special letters of protection from Edward. In addition to these he was pensioned in 1312, was appointed English warden of the town and castle of Dundee, and employed in secret communications, having for their object the destruction of his uncle's power in Scotland, and the triumph of the English arms over his native country. It is certain that he was a prisoner of war in Scotland in the year 1315, having probably been taken in arms at the battle of Bannockburn. In the five years of glory and success which followed, and in the repeated expeditions of Randolph and Douglas, we do not once meet with his name; and now, after having been received into favour, he became connected with, or at least connived at, a conspiracy, which involved the death of the king. Such a delinquent is little entitled to our sympathy. There was not a single favourable circumstance in his case; but he was young and brave, he had fought against the infidels, and the people who knew not of his secret treasons, could not see him suffer without pity and regret. Senilis, who, with a retinue of three hundred and sixty esquires, had been seized at Berwick, was imprisoned in Dumbarton, where he soon after died; and Maxwell, Berklay, Graham, Troupe, and Rattray, were tried and acquitted. The parliament in which these trials and condemnations took place, was held at Scone in the beginning of August, 1320, and long remembered in Scotland under the name of the Black Parliament.

A brief gleam of success now cheered the prospects of Edward, and encouraged him to continue the war with Scotland. The Earl of Lancaster, who, along with the Earl of Hereford and other English barons, had entered into a treaty of alliance with Bruce, and concerted an invasion of England, to be conducted by the King of Scotland in person, j was defeated and taken prisoner by Sir Andrew Hartcla and Sir Simon Ward, near Pontefract; his army was totally routed, and he himself soon after executed for treason.

In the battle the Earl of Hereford was slain, others of the discontented nobility shared the fate of Lancaster, and the dangerous faction which had for so many years been a thorn in the side of the king, was entirely broken and put down. Exulting at this success, Edward determined to collect an army which should at once enable him to put an end to the war, and in a tone of premature triumph, wrote to the pope, who "was ignorant of Brechin's connexion with Edward, laments over Brechin, and creates an impression in the reader's mind, that Bruce was unnecessarily rigorous, and might have pardoned him ; yet, it seems to me, his case, instead of being favourable, was peculiarly aggravated. Brace's generous nature had passed over manifold attempts by Brechin against the liberty of his country: in the conspiracy of Soulis, any extension of mercy would have been weak, if not criminal."requesting him to give himself no farther trouble about a truce with the Scots, as he had determined to establish a peace by force of arms."

In furtherance of this resolution, he proceeded to issue his writs for the attendance of his military vassals; but so ill were these obeyed, that four months were lost before the force assembled; and in this interval the Scots, with their usual strength and fury, broke into England, led by the king in person, wasted with fire and sword the six northern counties, which had scarcely drawn breath from a visitation of the same kind by Randolph, and returned to Scotland, loaded with booty, consisting of herds of sheep and oxen, quantities of gold and silver, ecclesiastical plate and ornaments, jewels, and table equipage, which they piled in waggons, and drove off at their pleasure.

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Edward 2 invades Scotland

Meanwhile Edward continued his preparations, which, although dilatory, were on a great scale. A supply of lancemen and cross-bowmen was demanded from his foreign subjects of Aquitaine, along with a due proportion of wheat, and a thousand tuns of wine for the use of his army; every village and hamlet in England was commanded to furnish one foot-soldier fully armed, and the larger towns and cities were taxed proportionally to their size and importance. A parliament held at York, in the end of July, granted large subsidies from the nobles and the clergy, the cities, towns, and burghs; a fleet of transports, with provisions, was sent round to enter the Forth; and an offensive squadron, under the command of Sir John Leybourn, was fitted out for the attack of the west coast and the islands.

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Judicious policy of Bruce

All things being ready, Edward invaded Scotland at the head of an army of a hundred thousand men ; but the result of the expedition was lamentably disproportionate to the magnitude of his promises and his preparations; and manifested, in a striking manner, the superior talents and policy of Bruce.

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Retreat and loss of the English

The cattle and the sheep, the stores of corn and victuals, and the valuable effects of every kind, throughout the districts of the Merse, Teviotdale, and the Lothians, had entirely disappeared; the warlike population, which were expected to debate the advance of the army, had retired under the command of the King of Scotr land to Culross, on the north side of the Firth of Forth; and Edward having in vain waited for supplies by his fleet, which contrary winds prevented entering the Firth, was compelled by famine to give orders for a retreat. The moment the English began their march homewards, the Scots commenced the fatal partisan warfare in which Douglas and Randolph were such adepts; hung upon their rear, cut off the stragglers, and were ready to improve every advantage, An advanced party of three hundred strong, were put
to the sword by Douglas at Melrose; but the main army, coming up, plundered and destroyed this ancient monastery, spoiled the high altar of its holiest vessels, sacrilegiously casting out the consecrated host, and cruelly murdering the prior, and some feeble monks, who, from affection or bodily infirmity, had refused to fly. Turning off by Dryburgh, the disappointed invaders left this monastery in flames, and hastening through Teviotdale, were overjoyed once more to find themselves surrounded by the plenty and comfort of their own country. Yet here a.new calamity awaited them; for the scarcity and famine of an unsuccessful invasion induced the soldiers to give themselves up to unlimited indulgence; and they were soon attacked by a mortal dysentery, which rapidly carried off immense numbers, and put a finishing stroke to this unhappy expedition, by the loss of sixteen thousand men.

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Defeat of Edward II.at Biland Abbey

But Edward was destined to experience still more unhappy reverses. Having collected the scattered remains of his army, and strengthened it by fresh levies, he encamped at Biland Abbey, near Malton, in Yorkshire; and when there, was met by the intelligence that King Robert, having sat down before Norham castle with a powerful force, after some time fruitlessly spent in the siege, had been compelled to retire. Scarce, however, had this good news arrived, when the advanced parties of the Scottish army were descried; and the English had only time to secure a strong position on the ridge of a hill, before the king was seen marching through the plain with his whole forces, and it became manifest that he meant to attack the English. This, however, from the nature of the ground, was no easy matter. Their soldiers were drawn up along the ridge of a rugged and steep declivity, assailable only by a single narrow pass, which led to Biland Abbey. This pass, Sir James Douglas, with a chosen body of men, undertook to force; and as he advanced his banner, and the pennons of his knights and squires were marshalling and waving round him, Randolph, his friend and brother in arms, with four squires, came up, and joined the enterprise as a volunteer.

The Scottish soldiers attacked the enemy with the utmost resolution, but they were received with equal bravery by Sir Thomas Ughtred and Sir Ralph Cobham, who fought in advance of the column which defended the pass, and encouraged their men to a desperate resistance. Meanwhile, stones and other missiles were poured down upon the Scots from the high ground; and this double attack, with the narrowness of the pass, caused the battle to be exceeding obstinate and bloody. Bruce, whose eye intently watched every circumstance, determined now to repeat the manoeuvre, by which, many years before, he entirely defeated the army of the Lord of Lorn, when it occupied ground similar to the present position of the English. He commanded the men of Argyle and the Isles to climb the rocky ridge, at some distance from the pass, and to attack and turn the flank of the force which held the summit. These orders the mountaineers, trained in their own countrv to this species of warfare, found no difficulty in obeying; and the enemy were driven from the heights with great slaughter, whilst Douglas and Randolph carried the pass, and made way for the main body of the Scottish army.

So rapid had been the succession of these events, that the English king, confident in the strength of his position, could scarcely trust his eyes, when he saw his army entirely routed, and flying in all directions; himself compelled to abandon his camp equipage, baggage, and treasure, and to consult his safety by a precipitate flight, pursued by the young Steward of Scotland, at the head of five hundred horse. It was with difficulty he escaped to Bridlington, having lost the privy seal in the confusion of the day.f This was the second time during this weak and inglorious reign, that the privy seal of England had been lost amid the precipitancy of the king's flight from the face of his enemies. First, in the disastrous flight from Bannockburn, and now in the equally rapid decampment from the Abbey of Biland.J In this battle John of Bretagne earl of Richmond, Henry de Sully grand butler of France, and many other prisoners of note, fell into the hands of the enemy. Richmond was treated by the king with unusual severity, commanded into strict confinement, and only liberated after a long captivity, and at the expense of an enormous ransom. The cause of this is said to have been the terms of slight and opprobrium with which he had been heard to express himself against Bruce.Â§ To Sully and other French knights, who had been taken at the same time, the king demeaned himself with that chivalrous and polished courtesy for which he was so distinguished; assuring them that he was well aware they had been present in the battle, not from personal enmity to him, but from the honourable ambition that good knights, in a strange land, must ever have, to show their prowess ; wherefore he entreated them, as well for their own sake, as out of compliment to his friend, the King of France, to remain at head-quarters. They did so accordingly; and after some time, on setting out for France, were dismissed, not only free of ransom, but enriched with presents.

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Truce of thirteen years

After this decisive defeat, the Scots plundered the whole country to the north of the Humber, and extended their ravages to Beverley, laying waste the East Riding with fire and sword, and levying from the towns and monasteries, which were rich enough to pay for their escape from plunder, large sums of redemption money.The clergy and inhabitants of Beverley purchased their safety at the rate of four hundred pounds, being six thousand pounds of our present money. Loaded with booty, driving large herds of cattle before them, and rich in multitudes of captives, both of low and high degree, the Scottish army at length returned to their own country .

The councils of the King of England continued after this to be weakened by dissension and treachery amongst his nobility. Hartcla, who, for his good service in the destruction of the Lancastrian faction, had been created Earl of Carlisle, soon after, imitating the example of Lancaster, entered into a correspondence with Bruce, and organized an extensive confederacy amongst the northern barons, which had for its object, not only to conclude a truce with the Scots, independent of any communication with the king, but to maintain Robert Bruce and his heirs in the right and possession of the entire kingdom of Scotland. On the discovery of the plot, he suffered the death of a traitor, after being degraded from his new honours, and having his gilt spurs hacked off his heels. Henry de Beaumont, one of the king's councillors, was soon after this disgraced, and committed to the custody of the marshal, on refusing to give his advice in terms of insolence and audacity;so that Edward, unsupported by an army, disgraced by personal flight, and betrayed by some of his most confidential nobility, whilst his kingdom had been incalculably weakened by a long and disastrous war, began to wish seriously for a cessation of hostilities. Nor was Bruce unwilling to entertain pacific overtures. He repelled, indeed, with becoming dignity, a weak attempt to refuse to acknowledge him as the principal leader and party in the truce, and insisted on his recognition as chief of his Scottish subjects; but he consented, by the mediation of his friend, Henry de Sully, to a thirteen-years' truce.

This truce, however, he ratified under the style and title of King of Scotland, and this ratification Edward agreed to accept;thus virtually acknowledging the royal title which he affected to deny. But although desirous of peace, the conduct of the English monarch at this time was marked by dissimulation and bad faith. While apparently anxious for a truce, he employed his ambassadors at the papal court to irritate the Holy Father against Bruce, and to fan the dissensions between them; he summoned an array of the whole military service of England during the negotiations; and he recalled Edward Baliol, the son of the late King of Scots, from his castle in Normandy, to reside at the English court, with the design, as afterwards appeared, of employing him to excite disturbances in Scotland.

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