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.
Randolph Taken Prisoner by Douglas
Douglas soon after reduced to obedience the forests of Selkirk and Jedburgh; and, during his warfare in those parts, had the good fortune to surprise and take prisoners, Thomas Randolph the king's nephew, and Alexander Stewart of Bonkill, both of whom were still attached to the English interest. Douglas, to whom Stewart was nearly related, treated his noble prisoners with kindness, and soon after conducted Randolph to the king.Interview Between Randolph and Bruce
"Nephew," said Bruce, "you have for a while forgotten your allegiance, but now you must be reconciled."— "I have been guilty of nothing whereof I need be ashamed," answered Randolph. "You arraign my conduct; it is yourself who ought to be arraigned. Since you have chosen to defy the King of England, why is it that you debate not the matter like a true knight in a pitched field " That," said Bruce, with great calmness. " may come hereafter, and it may be ere long. Meantime, since thou art so rude of speech, it is fitting thy proud words meet their due punishment, till thou knowest better my right and thine own duty." Having thus spoken, he ordered Randolph into close confinement.It is pleasing to know that this lesson had its effect; for, after a short imprisonment, the young baron joined the party of the king, who created him Earl of Moray. Nor had he any reason to repent his forgiveness or generosity. Randolph soon displayed high talents for war; he became one of the most illustrious of Bruce's assistants in the liberation of his country, and ever after served his royal master with unshaken fidelity.
Bruce defeats the Lord of Lorn at Loch Awe
The king had never forgotten the attack made upon him by the Lord of Lorn, soon after the defeat at Methven, and he was now able to requite that fierce chief for the extremities to which he had then reduced him. Accordingly, after the junction of Douglas with his veteran soldiers, he invaded the territory of Lorn, and arrived at a narrow and dangerous pass, which runs along the bottom of Cruachin Ben, a high and rugged mountain, between Loch Awe and Loch Etive. The common people of Scotland were now, without much exception, on the side of Bruce; and although, in many districts, when kept down by their lords, they dared not join him openly, yet in conveying intelligence of the motions and intentions of his enemies, they were of essential service to the cause. In this manner he seems to have been informed, that an ambuscade had been laid for him by the men of Lorn, in the Pass of Cruachin Ben, through which he intended to march. The Lord of Lorn himself remained with his galleys, in Loch Etive, and waited the result. The nature of the ground was highly favourable for this design of Lorn; but it was entirely defeated by the dispositions of Bruce.
Having divided his army into two parts, he ordered Douglas, along with one division, consisting entirely of archers, who wero lightly armed, to make a circuit round the mountain, and to take possession of the rugged high ground above the Highlanders. Along with Douglas, were Sir Andrew Gray, Sir Alexander Fraser, and Sir William Wiseman. This manoeuvre was executed with complete success; and the king, having entered the pass, was, in its narrow gorge, immediately attacked by the men of Lorn, who, with loud shouts, hurled down stones upon him, and after discharging their missiles, rushed on to a nearer attack. But their opponent, whose soldiers were light^armed, and prepared for what oocurred, met his enemies more than half-way; and, not content with receiving their charge, assaulted them with great fury. Meanwhile Douglas had gained the high ground, and discharging a shower of arrows, attacked the Highlanders in the rear, and threw them into complete disorder. After a stout resistance, the men of Lorn were defeated with great slaughter; and their chief, the Lord of Lorn, had the mortification, from his galleys, to be an eye-witness of the utter rout of his army.
He immediately fled to his castle of Dunstaffnage; and Bruce, after having ravaged the territory of Lorn, and delivered it to indiscriminate plunder, laid close siege to this palace of the Island Prince, which was strongly situated upon the sea-coast. In a short time the Lord of Lorn surrendered his castle, and swore homage to the king; but his son, John of Lorn, fled to his ships, and continued in the service of England.
Whilst everything went thus successfully in the field, the Scottish king derived great advantage from the fluctuating and capricious line of policy which was pursued by his opponent.
Fluctuating Policy of Edward 2
In less than a year Edward appointed six different governors in Scotland; and to none of these persons, however high their talents, was there afforded sufficient time to organize, or carry into effect, any regular plan of military operations. His enemy, on the other hand, betrayed no want of activity, and about this time laid siege to Rutherglen, in Clydesdale—a castle considered of such importance by Edward, that he despatched Gilbert de Clare earl of Gloucester, with a strong force, to raise the siege; but either the expedition never departed, or it was too late in its arrival; for Rutherglen, in the beginning of the next year, appears to have been one of the castles in the hands of the Scots. Indeed, Edward's measures seem to have mostly evaporated in orders and preparations, whilst he himself, occupied with the pleasures of the court, and engrossed by his infatuated fondness for his favourite Piers Gaveston, dreamt little of taking the field. Alarmed at last by the near approach of the Scottish army to the English border, he consented to accept the mediation of Philip king of France, who despatched Oliver de Roches to treat with Bruce, and Lamberton bishop of St Andrews, upon measures preparatory to a reconciliation, This able and intriguing prelate, on renewing his homage to the English king, had been liberated from his imprisonment, and permitted to return to Scotland; but his fellow prisoner, Wishart the bishop of Glasgow, considered too devoted to his country, was still kept in close confinement. De Roches' negotiation was soon followed by the arrival of the king's brother, Lewis count of Evreux, and Guy bishop of Soissons, as ambassadors, earnestly persuading to peace; commissioners from both countries were in consequence appointed, and a truce was concluded, which, if we may believe Edward, was ill observed by the Scots. A trifling discovery of an intercepted letter clearly showed that the King of France secretly favoured the Scottish king. The Sieur de Varrennes, Philip's ambassador at the English court, openly sent a letter to Bruce under the title of the Earl of Carrick; but he intrusted to the same bearer secret despatches, which were addressed to the King of Scots. Edward dissembled his indignation, and contented himself with a complaint against the duplicity of such conduct.
Nearly a whole year after this appears to have been spent by this monarch in a vacillating and contradictory policy with regard to Scotland, which was calculated to give every advantage to so able an adversary as Bruce. Orders for the muster of his army, which were disobeyed by some of his most powerful barons— commissions to his generals to proceed against his enemies, which were countermanded, or never acted upon—promises to take the field in person, which were broken almost as soon as made—directions, at one time, to his lieutenant in Scotland, to prosecute the war with the greatest vigour, and these in a few days succeeded by a command to conclude, and even, if required, to purchase a truce; such is the picture of the imbecility of the English king, as presented by the public records of the time.
Its Important Proceedings in Favour of Bruce
It seems probable that these resolutions of the clergy were connected with the deliberations of a parliament which assembled at the same time, and in which an instrument of similar import was drawn up and signed by the two remaining Estates, although no record of such proceedings remains. These solemn transactions gave strength to the title of Bruce, and increased a popularity which was already great. The spirit of the king had infused itself into the nobility, and pervaded the lowest ranks of the people—that feeling of superiority, which a great military commander invariably communicates to his soldiers, evinced itself in constant and destructive aggressions upon the English marches; and upon the recall of the Earl of Hereford and Lord Robert Clifford from the interior of Scotland, they were necessitated to advance a sum of money before their enemies would consent to a truce.Meeting of the Scottish Estates at Dundee
To this everything in Scotland offered a striking contrast. Towards the end of the year 1309, on the 24th February, the prelates and clergy of Scotland held a general council at Dundee, and declared, that Robert lord of Annandale, the competitor, ought, by the ancient laws and customs of that country, to have been preferred to Baliol in the competition for the crown; for which reason, they unanimously recognised Robert Bruce, then reigning, as their lawful sovereign. They engaged to defend his right, with the liberties and independence of Scotland, against all opponents; and they declared all who should contravene the same to be guilty of treason against the king and the nation.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
Bruce ravages the Bishorpric of Durham
Edward, in a letter to the pope, complained in bitter terms of . the merciless spirit evinced by the Scottish army during this invasion; but we must recollect that this cruel species of warfare was characteristic of the age; and in Robert, whose personal injuries were so deep and grievous, who had seen the captivity of his queen and only child, and the death and torture of his dearest relatives and friends, we are not to be surprised if, in those dark days, revenge became a pleasure, and retaliation a duty.
Not satisfied with this, and aware that the English king was exclusively engaged in contentions with his barons, Bruce and his army, in the beginning of September, again entered England by the district of Redesdale, carried fire and sword through that country as far as Corbridge, then broke with much fierceness and rapacity into Tynedale, ravaged the bishoprick of Durham, and, after levying contributions for fifteen days, and enriching themselves with spoils and captives, marched back without opposition into Scotland. The miseries suffered from these invasions, and the defenceless state of the frontier, induced the people of Northumberland and the lord marchers to purchase a short truce from the Scottish king; a circumstance strongly indicative of the increasing imbecility of the English government.