History of Scotland by Patrick Tytler 2

Defeated and Slain

But his fiery career was now destined to be quenched, and his short-lived sovereignty to have an end. On the 5th of October, 1318, the two armies joined battle, and the Scots were almost immediately discomfited. At the first onset, John Maupas slew King Edward Bruce, and was himself found slain, and stretched upon the body of his enemy. Sir John Soulis and Sir John Stewart also fell; and the rout becoming general, the slaughter was great. A miserable remnant, however, escaping from the field, under John Thomson, the leader of the men of Carrick, made good their retreat to Carrickfergus, and from thence reached Scotland. Two thousand Scottish soldiers were left dead upon the spot, and amongst these some of Bruce's best captains.J Thus ended an expedition which, if conducted by a spirit of more judicious and deliberate valour than distinguished its prime mover, might have produced the most serious annoyance to England. Unmindful of the generous courtesy of Bruce's behaviour after the battle of Bannockburn, the English treated the body of the King of Ireland with studied indignity. It was quartered and distributed as a public spectacle over Ireland, and the head was presented to the English king by Lord John Bermingham, who, as a reward for his victory, was created Earl of Louth.

Having given a continuous sketch of this disastrous enterprise, which, from its commencement till the death of Edward, occupied a period of three years, we shall return to the affairs of Scotland, where the wise administration of King Robert brought security and happiness to the people both at home and in their foreign relations.

Expedition of Bruce against Western of Isles

The ships which had transported Edward Bruce and his army to Ireland, were immediately sent home; and the king undertook an expedition against the Western Isles, some of which had acknowledged his dominion; whilst others, under John of Argyle, the firm ally of England, had continued for a long time to harass and annoy the commerce of his kingdom. Although constantly occupied in a land war, during the course of which he had brought his army into a high state of discipline, Bruce had never been blind to the strength which he must acquire by having a fleet which could cope with the maritime power of his rival; and from the complaints of the English monarch in the state papers of the times, we know, that on both sides of the island, the Scottish vessels, and those of their allies, kept the English coast towns in a state of constant alarm.

Their fleets seem to have been partly composed of privateers, as well Flemish as Scottish, which, under the protection of the king, roved about, and attacked the English merchantmen. Thus, during Edward Bruce's expedition, he met, when on the Irish coast, and surrounded with difficulties, with Thomas of Doune, a Scottish " scoumar," or freebooter, " of the sea," who, with a small squadron of four ships, sailed up the river Ban, and extricated his countrymen from their perilous situation.

In his expedition to the Isles, Bruce was accompanied by his son-in-law, the Steward of Scotland, and having sailed up the entrance of Loch Fine to Tarbet, he dragged his vessels upon a slide, composed of smooth planks of trees, laid parallel to each other, across the narrow neck of land which separates the lochs of East and West Tarbet. The distance was little more than an English mile; and by this expedient Bruce not only saved the necessity of doubling the Mull of Kentire, to the small craft of those days often a fatal enterprise, but availed himself of a superstitious belief then current amongst the Western islanders, that they should never be subdued till their invader sailed across the isthmus of Tarbet.

Imprisonment of John of Lorn

The presence of the king in the Western Isles was soon followed by the submission of all the little pirate chiefs who had given him disturbance, and by the capture and imprisonment of John of Lorn, who, since his defeat at Cruachin Ben, had been constantly in the pay of Edward, with the proud title of Admiral of the Western fleet of England.

This island prince was first committed to Dumbarton castle, and afterwards shut up in the castle of Lochleven, where he died. J After the termination of his peaceful maritime campaign, the king indulged himself and his friends in the diversion of the chase; whilst, at home, his army, under Douglas, continued to insult and plunder the English Border counties.§ On his return from the Western Isles, Bruce undertook the siege of Carlisle; but, after having assaulted it for ten days, he was compelled, by the strength of the works and the spirit of its townsmen and garrison, to draw off his troops. Berwick, too, was threatened from the side next the sea by the Scottish ships, which attempted to steal up the river unperceived by the enemy, but were discovered, and bravely repulsed.

Against these reiterated insults, Edward, unable from his extreme unpopularity to raise an army, contented himself with querulous complaints, and with some ineffectual advances towards a reconciliation which as yet was far distant.

Birth of Robert 2

About this time, to the great joy of the King of Scotland and of the nation, the Princess Marjory bore a son, Robert, who was destined, after the death of David, his uncle, to succeed to the throne, and become the first of the royal house of Stewart.

Death of the Princess Majory

But grief soon followed joy, for the young mother died almost immediately after child-birth.

The Scots attack Wales

Undaunted by the partial check which they had received before Carlisle and Berwick, the activity of the Scots gave the English perpetual employment. On one side they attacked Wales, apparently making descents from their ships upon the coast; and Edward, trembling for the security of his new principality, countermanded the Welsh levies which were about to join his army, and enjoined them to remain at home; but he accompanied this with an order to give hostages for their fidelity, naturally dreading the effect of the example of the Scots upon a nation, whose fetters were yet new and galling.

Bruce invades Yorkshire

On the other side, King Robert in person led his army, about midsummer, into Yorkshire, and wasted the country, without meeting an enemy, as far as Richmond. A timely tribute, collected by the neighbouring barons and gentlemen, saved this town from the flames; but this merely altered the order of march into the West Riding, which was cruelly sacked and spoiled for sixty miles round, after which the army returned with their booty and many prisoners. Bruce then embarked for Ireland; and soon after the English king, encouraged by his absence and that of Randolph, summoned his military vassals to meet him at Newcastle, and determined to invade Scotland with great strength; but the Earl of Lancaster, to whom the conduct of the enterprise was intrusted, and the barons of his party, having in vain waited at Newcastle for the king's arrival, returned home in displeasure; so that the original design of Edward broke down into several smaller invasions, in repelling which, the activity and military enterprise of Sir James Douglas and the Steward, not only kept up, but materially increased, the Scottish ascendency. In Douglas, the adventurous spirit of chivalry was finely united with the character of an experienced commander. At this time he held his quarters at Linthaughlee, near Jedburgh; and having information that the Earl of Arundel, with Sir Thomas de Richemont, and an English force of ten thousand men, had crossed the Borders, he determined to attack him in a narrow pass, through which his line of march lay, and which was flanked on each side by a wood.

Expoit or Sir James Douglas

Having thickly twisted together, the young birch trees on either side, so as to prevent escape,he concealed his archers in a hollow way near the gorge of the pass, and when the English ranks were compressed by the narrowness of the road, and it was impossible for their cavalry to act with effect, he rushed upon them at the head of his horsemen, whilst the archers, suddenly discovering themselves, poured in a flight of arrows, so that the unwieldy mass was thrown into confusion, and took to flight. In the melee, Douglas slew Thomas de Richemont with his dagger; and although, from his inferiority of force, he did not venture to pursue the enemy into the open country, yet they were compelled to retreat with great slaughter.

Soon after this, Edmund de Cailou, a knight of Gascony, whom Edward had appointed to be Governor of Berwick, was encountered by Douglas, as the foreigner returned to England loaded with plunder, from an inroad into Teviotdale. Cailou was killed; and, after the slaughter of many of the foreign mercenaries, the accumulated booty of the Merse and Teviotdale was recovered by the Scots. Exactly similar to that of Cailou, was the fate of Sir Ralph Neville. This baron, on hearing the high report of Douglas's prowess, from some of De Cailou's fugitive soldiers, openly boasted that he would fight with the Scottish knight, if he would come and show his banner before Berwick. Douglas, who deemed himself bound to accept the challenge, immediately marched into the neighbourhood of that town, and, within sight of the garrison, caused a party of his men to waste the country, and burn the villages. Neville instantly quitted Berwick with a strong body of men, and, encamping upon a high ground, waited till the Scots should disperse to plunder; but Douglas called in his detachment, and instantly marched against the enemy. After a desperate conflict, in which many were slain, Douglas, as was his custom, succeeded in bringing the leader to a personal encounter, and the superior strength and skill of the Scottish knight were again successful. Neville was slain, and his men utterly discomfited.

An old English chronicle ascribes this disaster to "the treason of the marchersbut it is difficult to discover in what the treason consisted. Many other soldiers of distinction were taken prisoners, and Douglas, without opposition, ravaged the country, drove away the cattle, left the towns and villages in flames, and returned to Scotland. So terrible did the exploits of this hardy warrior become upon the Borders, that Barbour, who lived in his time, informs us, the English mothers were accustomed to pacify their children by threatening them with the name of the "Black Douglas.

The Bishop of Dunkeld repulses the English at Dunybristle

Repulsed with so much disgrace in these attempts by land, the English monarch fitted out a fleet, and invaded Scotland, sailing into the Firth of Forth, and landing his armament at Dunybirstle. The panic created by the English was so great, that the sheriff of the county had difficulty in assembling five hundred cavalry, and these, intimidated by the superior numbers of the enemy, disgracefully took to flight. Fortunately, however, a spirited prelate, Sinclair bishop of Dunkeld, who had more in him of the warrior than the ecclesiastic, received timely notice of this desertion. Putting himself at the head of sixty of his servants, and with nothing clerical about him, except a linen frock, or rochet, cast over his armour, he threw himself on horseback, and succeeded in rallying the fugitives, telling their leaders that they were recreant knights, and deserved to have their gilt spurs hacked off. "Turn," said he, seizing a spear from the nearest soldier, " turn, for shame, and let all who love Scotland follow me!" With this he furiously charged the English, who were driven back to their ships with the loss of five hundred men, besides many who were drowned by the swamping of one of the vessels. On his return from Ireland, Bruce highly commended his spirit, declaring that Sinclair should be his own bishop; and by the name of the King's Bishop this hardy prelate was long remembered in Scotland.

Unable to make any impression with temporal arms, the King of England next had recourse to the thunders of spiritual warfare; and in the servile character of Pope John the Twenty-second, he found a fit tool for his purpose. By a bull, issued from Avignon, in the beginning of 1317, the pope commanded the observance of a truce between the hostile countries for two years ; but the style of this mandate evinced a decided partiality to England. Giving the title of King of England to Edward, he only designated Bruce as his beloved son, " carrying himself as King of Scotland;"and when he despatched two cardinals as his legates . into Britain, for the purpose of publishing this truce upon the spot, they were privately empowered, in case of any opposition, to inflict upon the King of Scotland the highest spiritual censures.

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History of Scotland by Patrick Tytler 2

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