Bruce and Edward Bruce invade Galloway
Edward the Second, who succeeded to the crown of England in his twenty-fourth year, was little calculated to carry into effect the mighty designs of his predecessor. His character was weak, irresolute and headstrong; and the first steps which he took evinced a total want of respect for the dying injunctions of his father. He committed his body to the royal sepulchre at Westminster—he recalled from banishment Piers Gaveston, his profligate favourite; and after receiving at Roxburgh the homage of some of the Scottish barons in the interest of England, he pushed forward as far as Cumnock, on the borders of Ayrshire—appointed the Earl of Pembroke Guardian of Scotland— and, without striking a blow, speedily returned into his own dominions.Upon the retreat of the English, the king, and his brother Sir Edward Bruce, at the head of a powerful army, broke in upon Galloway, and commanded the inhabitants to rise and join his banner. Where this order was disobeyed, the lands were given up to military execution; and Bruce, who had not forgotten the defeat and death of his two brothers by the men of this wild district, laid waste the country with fire and sword, and permitted every species of plunder, in a spirit of cruel, but, according to the sentiments of that age, not unnatural retaliation.