History of Scotland by Patrick Tytler 2

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.

He Takes Perth

On his return, Bruce determined to besiege Perth, and sat down before it; but, owing to the strength of the fortifications, it defied for six weeks all the efforts of his army. It had been intrusted to the command of William Olifant, an Anglicised Scot, to whom Edward, in alarm for so important a post, had promised to send speedy succour; but a stratagem of the king's, well planned, and daringly executed, gave Perth into the hands of the Scots before such assistance could arrive.

The care of Edward the First had made Perth a place of great strength. It was fortified by a high wall, defended at intervals by stone towers, and surrounded by a broad deep moat, full of water. Bruce, having carefully observed the place where the fosse was shallowest, provided scaling ladders, struck his tents, and raised the siege. Hb then marched to a considerable distance, and having cheated the garrison into security by an absence of eight days, he suddenly returned during the night, and reached the walls undiscovered by the enemy. The king in person led his soldiers across the moat, bearing a ladder in his hand, and armed at all points. The water reached his throat, but he felt his way with his spear, waded through in safety, and was the second person who fixed his ladder and mounted the wall.

A little incident, related by Barbour, evinces the spirit which the example communicated to his companions, and the comparative poverty of the Scottish towns in those times. A French knight was present in the Scottish army, and observing the intrepidity with which Bruce led his soldiers, he exclaimed, " What shall we say of our French lords, who live at ease, in the midst of feasting, wassail, and jollity, when so brave a knight is here putting his life in hazard to win a miserable hamlet So saying, he threw himself into the water with the gay valour of his nation, and having passed the ditch, scaled the walls along with the king and his soldiers. So complete was the surprise, that the town was almost instantly taken. Every Scotsman who had joined the English interest was put to the sword, but the English garrison were spared, and the king contented himself with the plunder of the place, and the total demolition of its fortifications.

In the midst of these continued successes of Bruce, the measures of the English king presented a striking contrast to the energetic administration of his father. They were entirely on the defensive. He gave orders, indeed, for the assembling of an army, and made promises and preparations for an invasion of Scotland. But the orders were recalled, and Edward, engrossed by disputes with his barons, took no decided part against the enemy. He wrote, however, to the different English governors of the few remaining castles in Scotland, who had represented their incapacity of standing out against the attacks of the Scots, without a reinforcement of men, money, and provisions ; he directed flattering letters to John of Argyle, the island prince, praising him for the annoyance which his fleet had occasioned to Bruce, and exhorting him to continue his services during the winter; and he entreated the pope to retain Wishart bishop of Glasgow, as a false traitor, and an enemy to his liege lord of England, in an honourable imprisonment at Rome, fearful of the influence in favour of Bruce, which the return of this able prelate to Scotland might occasion. These feeble efforts were followed up by an attempt to conclude a truce; but the King of Scotland, eager to pursue his career of success, refused to accede to the proposal, and a third time invaded England, with a greater force, and a more desolating fury than before.

Bruce invades England

The towns of Hexham and Corbridge were burnt; and his army, by a forced march, surprised the opulent city of Durham during the night,slew all who resisted him, and reduced a great part of it to ashes. The castle, and the precincts of its noble cathedral withstood the efforts of the Scots, but the rest of the city was entirely sacked; and so great was the spoil, that the inhabitants of the bishoprick, dreading the repetition of sucli a visit, offered two thousand pounds to purchase a truce. The terms upon which Robert agreed to this, strongly evinced the change which had taken place in the relative position of the two countries. It was stipulated by the Scots, that they should have free ingress and egress through the county of Durham, whenever they chose to invade England; and with such terror did this proviso affect the inhabitants of the neighbouring country, that the counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, contributed each a sum of two thousand pounds to be included in the same truce.J During this invasion, Bruce established his head-quarters at Chester, while Sir James Douglas, with his veteran soldiers, who were well practised in such expeditions, pushed on, and having sacked Hartlepool, and the country round it, returned with many burgesses and their wives, whom he had made prisoners, to the main army.

Unsuccessful Assault of Carlisle

Thus Bruce was here only making a reprisal on his own English property enriched with a store of prisoners and plunder, the king returned to Scotland, and on his road thither, assaulted Carlisle; but he found the garrison on the alert, and a desperate conflict took place, in which the Scots were beat back with great loss; Douglas himself, and many of his men, being wounded. This want of success did not prevent him from endeavouring to surprise Berwick by a forced march, and a night attack, which had nearly succeeded. The hooks of the ropeladders were already fixed on the wall, and the soldiers had begun to mount, when the barking of a dog alarmed the garrison, and the assailants were compelled to retire with loss.

His Success in Scotland

This want of success did not prevent him from endeavouring to surprise Berwick by a forced march, and a night attack, which had nearly succeeded. The hooks of the ropeladders were already fixed on the wall, and the soldiers had begun to mount, when the barking of a dog alarmed the garrison, and the assailants were compelled to retire with loss.

On his return to Scotland, King Robert was repaid for this partial discomfiture, by the recovery of some important castles. Dalswinton, in Galloway, the chief residence of his enemies the Comyns, and soon after the castles of Butel and of Dumfries, which last had been committed to the care of Henry de Beaumont, were taken by assault, and, according to the constant practice of Bruce, immediately razed, and rendered untenable by any military force. Edwardnow trembled for his strong castle of Caerlaverock, which had cost his father so long a siege; and he wrote with great anxiety to its constable, Eustace de Maxwell, exhorting him to adopt every means in his power for its defence. In the winter of the same year, this monarch was driven to some mean compromises of his honour.

The English garrison of Dundee had been so hard pressed by the Scots, that William de Montfichet, the warden, entered into a treaty to surrender the place, and give up a number of Scottish prisoners, within a stipulated time. Edward was then at York, and having heard of this agreement, he sent peremptory orders to the warden to violate the truce, and, under the penalty of death to himself, and confiscation of his estates, to preserve the town by this flagrant act. Montfichet was also enjoined to warn the Scots, that if any of the English prisoners or hostages should be put to death, orders would be given for the immediate execution of all the Scottish prisoners in the hands of the English.

In addition to this, the king addressed flattering letters to the several officers of the garrison of Dundee, and to the mayor, bailiffs, and community, thanking them for their good service, and exhorting them to persevere in the defenoe of the town. It is mortifying to find Sir David de Brechin, the king's nephew, who had signalized himself against his uncle in his days of distress, and, when afterwards made prisoner, had been pardoned and received into favour, again in the ranks of the enemy, and acting the part of an Anglicised Scot. He was now commanded to co-operate as joint-warden with Montfichet, and earnest orders were despatched for reinforcements of ships, provisions, and soldiers, to be sent from Newcastle and Berwick.

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History of Scotland by Patrick Tytler 2

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