Bruce and his adherents excommunicated
To complete the ruin of Bruce, it only remained to dispose of his great estates, and to excommunicate him, as guilty of murder and sacrilege. His lordship of Annandale was bestowed on the Earl of Hereford, his maternal estate of Carrick given to Henry Percy, and the Lord Robert Clifford, with others of Edward's nobles, shared the rich English estates, which had long been hereditary in this powerful family.In the end of February, the Cardinal St Sabinus, the legate of the pope in England, with great pomp repaired to Carlisle, in which city Edward then kept his head-quarters, and with all those circumstances of terror which such a sentence involved, the Scottish king and his adherents were excommunicated by book, bell, and candle.
Meanwhile, out of the reach of the papal thunder, and ignorant of the miserable fate of his friends, Bruce, during the winter, remained in the little isle of Rachrin. On the approach of spring, having received some assistance from Christina of the Isles, he began to meditate a descent upon Scotland, and first despatched Sir James Douglas and Sir Robert Boyd on an adventure to the island of Arran. Douglas found it occupied by Sir John Hastings, an English knight, who held the castle of Brodick with a strong garrison; and having laid an ambuscade, he had the good fortune to surprise the under-warden of the castle, and, after killing forty of his soldiers, to make himself master of a valuable cargo of provisions, arms, and clothing.