by H A CULLEY
‘The English hide in their castles whilst the Scots in Lothian starve, too frightened to till the fields. Surely we can do something to help,’ he said, trying to get William motivated again.
William sighed. Then he began to think. The policy of depriving the mighty English army of food had worked, from what he could gather. Perhaps if he could strike at their lines of supply he might succeed where the sword and pike had failed.
Three days later he and his men crouched in hiding along the road that led from the border at Cater Bar to Jedburgh. At last the convoy of carts trundled up the winding track from Redesdale and down the other side into Wauchope Forest. The food convoy was guarded by a hundred mounted serjeants and two hundred men-at-arms on foot. Wallace had eight hundred men and the element of surprise.
The confident English had failed to send out scouts and thus were taken by surprise when the vanguard rounded a bend in the forest and found their way blocked by a pile of felled trees. Suddenly a shower of arrows fired from the roadblock and the right hand side of the track struck the vanguard and several men and horses fell to the ground.
At the back of the convoy the rear guard were also being ambushed and a net was pulled into the air, preventing escape back along the road. The commander of the convoy, a rotund knight with a face red with rage killed three Scots before William stepped in front of his horse holding his two handed broadsword in one hand. It sang through the air once, taking the head off the English knight’ destrier then, before the horse had finished collapsing onto the ground, it sang through the air again and the knight’s apoplectic head went rolling away into the bushes.
After that resistance crumbled and the remainder of the escort surrendered. That night Wallace’s men feasted whilst the English garrison in Jedburgh castle went onto half rations. This was the start of the guerrilla warfare that gradually wore down the English occupation of Scotland and enabled the Scots to effectively take government of the land back into their own hands. Regrettably the manner of that government left much to be desired.
~#~
In November 1298 the Scottish Parliament met again at the Palace of the Holy Rood in Edinburgh. Although the English held the castle, it was in a state of almost continual siege and they were unable to control what happened in the city. The main item on the agenda was the election of a new guardian or guardians to replace Sir William. Robert Bruce’s success in expelling the English from almost everywhere east of a line from Glasgow to Dumfries had enhanced his reputation, and hence his power, considerably. Furthermore he was supported by James Stewart, the High Steward and Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray and Lord Chamberlain of Scotland.
However, the most powerful family remained the Comyns, now headed by the Red Comyn – John, Lord of Badenoch and Lochaber. Although outranked by the Earl of Buchan, the Red Comyn had inherited his father’s claim to the crown and, since no-one now canvassed for the return of John Balliol from his retirement in France, he was backed by the whole Comyn faction for the vacant throne.
Bishop Lamberton had returned, without the hoped-for promise of French military aid, and once again took the chair. However, James Douglas was no longer with him. He had remained in Paris, officially to complete his education, but more for his own safety as he had been placed under attainder after the death of his father in the Tower. This effectively meant that he had been declared an outlaw. Robert thought that was very harsh as the boy was still only thirteen and the offence, if such it was, had been committed by his late father.
‘My lords,’ he bishop began. ‘Once again we find ourselves leaderless. Whilst Sir William Wallace is running a successful campaign harassing the English supply trains, he is no longer the Guardian and so, once again, we need to appoint someone to replace him.’
There was a great deal of discussion and quite a bit of heated argument, but eventually it was agreed to appoint Robert Bruce and the Red Comyn as joint Guardians. No-one was expecting it to work well as they were sworn enemies, but there didn’t seem to be any other solution. Pragmatically Comyn would rule the North and East whilst Bruce looked after the South and West. The parliament made a number of minor appointments and they all agreed to meet again in Peebles in August the next year. Bruce just hoped that he and Comyn hadn’t killed each other before then.
Chapter Nine – The Disputed Land – 1298 to 1300
Edward Bruce stormed into the great hall at Turnberry Castle and asked of no-one in particular, ‘do you know what that bastard Longshanks has done now?’
‘No, brother,’ Robert said with a tolerant smile, ‘but I’m sure that you are about to tell us.’
‘He has declared that Scotland is no longer a kingdom, not even a country, it is, he says, merely a part of England. To give credence to his claim he has melted down the Scottish Royal Regalia and carted off the Stone of Destiny from Scone to London. Not only that, but he has applied to the Pope to declare that the Bishop of St. Andrews is no longer Primate of Scotland but is now subservient to the Archbishop of York!’
There was a stunned silence until Robert asked his brother where his information came from.
‘From the bishop himself,’ he replied, shaking a parchment to emphasise the truth of what he said.
‘Was that addressed to me by any chance, brother?’
‘Yes, so what? You know I can read much better than you can.’ Edward replied with a touch of belligerence. Robert decided to let the matter drop and have a word with him in private later.
Bruce knew that Wallace was still leading the life of an outlaw, moving from forest to forest and glen to glen to keep his enemies from finding him. Edward Longshanks had put a price on his head and there were plenty of Scots who would be prepared to betray him for enough silver. However, his reputation as a folk hero was growing with each successful raid and every supply column captured. He had captured the imagination of his countrymen in a way that he hadn’t before, even immediately after winning the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
There were other instances of rebellion as well. In many places the English were almost prisoners in their castles. The trouble was that the land was despoiled, no crops grew and livestock only existed in hidden glens and the remote mountain slopes. As a result many Scots were starving.
However, Edward Longshanks had other problems as well. He was always short of money to pay for his military adventures in Wales, France and Scotland. In 1297 matters had come to a head, firstly with the clergy who he was trying to extract taxes from, and secondly with his earls, who refused to take part in yet another expedition to recover Edward’s Duchy of Gascony.
Robert took some consolation from the fact that his lands in the South-West were unaffected by the scorched earth policy adopted in the Borders and Lothian. With the fall of Ayr there were no English garrisons in his territory; the nearest being that at Hermitage Castle, twenty five miles east of Annandale and seven miles from the border with England, which ran along the top of the Lauriston Fells. Hermitage had been the stronghold of Sir John de Soules and so Robert rode over to Liddesdale to discuss its recapture with him. Sir John had been reduced to living in a small tower in the forest after he was ejected from Hermitage; it was humiliating for the Lord of Liddesdale and he was only too eager for Robert’s help in recovering his home.
Hermitage Castle was a grim edifice with only a few arrow slits showing in the forty foot high exterior walls. It looked impregnable. The only entrance was a small postern gate in the south wall. The stables, brew house and other ancillary buildings stood on their own inside a palisade against the south wall. So to get to the only entrance into the castle the attackers had to capture that area, which was right underneath the top of the wall and exposed to arrows fired from the various slits. He didn’t have the time to starve the garrison out, so the only hope seemed to be to trick their way in.
Two weeks later a supply convoy arrived from the direction of the Kielder Gap. From the arrows sticking out of some of the carts and the bandages sported by some of the es
cort they had been attacked in the short distance from the border to the castle. The Constable of Hermitage Castle recognised the banner of the knight in command of the escort but it wasn’t someone he knew personally. The gates in the palisade swung wide and the column entered the bailey. The postern gate opened and the constable stepped out. The knight in charge of the resupply column noted that the small gate hadn’t been shut behind him and nodded at three knights who casually sauntered towards the door.
The escort started to undo the tarpaulins on the carts then threw them back. Armed men leaped out of the carts and the convoy’s supposed escort ran towards the gate whilst the men from the carts dealt with those in the bailey. The two sentries standing inside the postern gate tried to slam it shut but the three men who had strolled towards it cut them down with their swords. The constable died as John de Soules, masquerading as the English knight in charge of the escort, chopped his sword into his neck. The three knights who had seized the gate – Robert, Neil and Edward Bruce – charged inside the castle followed by their men. They found themselves in an inside courtyard. As de Soules had briefed them, the castle was a hollow square with the great hall and the kitchens to the east and the rest of the rooms and stores to the north and south. The west wall had originally housed a large gate but this had been filled in at some stage.
There were three doors leading off the courtyard and the men of the garrison, who had gathered in the courtyard ready to unload the wagons, were desperately trying to re-enter them. They only succeeded in closing and barring one of these before Robert’s men captured them. An hour later the castle had fallen and the few members of the garrison who had survived were traipsing up the path to Kielder Gap and England.
The supply wagons and the clothing borrowed for the deception had been taken from a supply column attacked a few days previously. Pleased with the day’s work Robert Bruce and his men retrieved their own surcoats and tunics from the wagons, bade farewell to a very happy Lord of Liddesdale and rode back to Lochmaben.
The war of attrition against the English army of occupation continued for the rest of 1298 and the beginning of 1299. In August the Red Comyn and Robert Bruce called another parliament, which met at Peebles. Robert and John Comyn had managed tolerably well as joint Guardians, mainly by having as little to do with one another as possible, but now a real problem had arisen between them which would have to be resolved during the parliament.
Part of Robert’s Annandale inheritance had been a manor which King Edward had taken away from him after the debacle at Irvine and given to the Lord of Badenoch. After Falkirk it had been given to an English knight, who Robert had driven out. Now both Bruce and Comyn were claiming the manor as theirs.
The matter was on the agenda on the second day. Bishop Lamberton was presiding and he asked Robert to present his case first.
‘This manor was part of my grandfather’s estate and came to me when he died. Longshanks had no right to take it away from me and give it to John Comyn of Badenoch. In any case, it was taken away from Comyn and given to an Englishman so he has no residual claim. I have reclaimed the manor from the English usurper and, as far as I can see, Comyn’s claim is thus based on a grant from the King of England, later rescinded, and is therefore totally spurious. He is trying to cheat me of what is mine, which is typical of the man.’
Robert had no need to add the last and all it did was to inflame the Red Comyn. He drew his dagger and rushed at Robert Bruce with a cry of rage. Luckily Edward Bruce had been watching Comyn warily and was half expecting him to lose his temper. As he tried to stab Robert Edward hit him a hard blow to the face and snatched the dagger from his hand whilst he was stunned. However, Comyn quickly recovered and, shoving Edward out of the way, seized the startled Robert around the throat with a vice like grip.
By this time others had recovered from their shock and helped Edward to drag Comyn away, leaving Robert coughing and spluttering after being half choked to death. The judgement was given to Robert Bruce as Comyn couldn’t advance any real reason why he had a better claim to the land, but this just made the bad blood that already existed between the two men even worse.
It was obvious that their joint Guardianship was fatally compromised as anything one proposed was immediately blocked by the other. The solution the parliament came up with was to appoint the Bishop of St. Andrews as the third Guardian so that decisions could be reached by a majority vote. This didn’t please the Comyn family overmuch as Bishop Lamberton was known to favour the Bruce’s claim to the throne over John Comyn’s and often sided with him.
As the turn of the century approached the situation sank into stalemate. Supply columns were so strongly protected that to attack them led to a pitched battle. The scorched earth policy meant that the Scots people were starving, at least in Lothian and along the border. They therefore started to raid into Northumberland and Cumbria with increasing frequency and in greater strength. The English didn’t know where they would strike next and so were impotent against them.
Eventually King Edward realised that he had to act and in November 1299 he called a muster at Berwick upon Tweed but his nobles were in no mood for a winter campaign and he reluctantly agreed to postpone it until the spring of the following year.
This time the muster point was Carlisle and Edward set off accompanied by his son, the Prince of Wales, now a boy of sixteen, and the Earls of Surrey, Lincoln and Gloucester. The army consisted of nine thousand foot and a thousand cavalry organised into four battalions.
‘I presume you’ve heard?’ Sir Neil Bruce walked into the great hall of Lochmaben Castle, pulling off his gauntlets. Robert and Edward sat at the high table busily talking and drinking wine from silver goblets.
‘What? About Edward’s invasion? Yes. He appears to be heading for Caerlaverock Castle.’
Caerlaverock was unusual in that it was triangular in shape. The stronghold built of stone and surrounded by a wide moat, almost a lochan. It was the principle castle of the Maxwells and sat at the southern end of Nithsdale, which divided Annandale from Galloway.
‘Let’s hope that Sir Eustace and the Maxwells can delay the English long enough for us to muster our men to defend Annandale and Carrick.’ Edward Bruce banged his goblet down and motioned for a page to refill it.
‘But which do we defend? We don’t have enough men to even harass Edward’s army if we divide them between the two.’ Neil came and sat down with his two brothers and the page on duty scurried away to fetch another goblet.
‘Annandale I think. Lochmaben is the obvious target after Caerlaverock. He’ll want to subdue Galloway before he heads north into Carrick, so we’ll have sufficient warning.’
‘Will you go to the aid of the Maxwells?’
‘We can certainly raid their supply columns but there is plenty of food around if they forage for it. We must get the livestock in Nithsdale rounded up and moved to a safer location, perhaps in the Western Cheviots.’
Edward was the more charismatic of his brothers but Neil the more dependable, so he was dispatched to sort out the livestock. Edward set off to get a more exact picture of what was happening at Caerlaverock, accompanied by his sixteen year old brother, Thomas, who had been a squire up to now but who Robert wanted to prepare for knighthood as quickly as possible.
The land around the castle was flat so the two brothers and their escort couldn’t get near the castle, but from the safety of the far side of the River Nith they could see that the area around the castle and its moat was occupied by the besieging army. It looked as if King Edward was content to starve the garrison into surrender. There were several cogs anchored in the river with small lighters ferrying supplies to the shore where carts were waiting to convey them to the English camp. As they watched a small fleet arrived and anchored, awaiting its turn to be unloaded.
Four days later Edward and Thomas lay in wait with a dozen war galleys manned by the Douglases and the men of Galloway. They hid in Rascarrel Bay several miles to the west of the entrance
to the channel through the treacherous sands of the Solway Firth. They had positioned a fishing boat offshore to keep watch for the next fleet of English cogs sailing up the Cumbrian coast. Suddenly the fishing boat hauled in its nets and started heading westwards to its home port of Kirkcudbright. This was the signal that the supply fleet was in sight.
As the convoy neared the Mersehead Sands the Scots war galleys hove into view. The wind was quite light and the galleys were travelling at more than twice the speed of the unwieldy merchant cogs. By the time that they had reached Southerness Point the galleys were in amongst them. Some of the cogs had fore and aft castles mounted which were manned by archers. These inflicted some casualties on the Scots but it made little difference to the outcome. Each galley came abreast of one of the cogs and grappling hooks sailed over the gunwales to tie the two vessels together.
Edward Bruce was the first onto the deck of the cog his galley had latched onto, only to be met by a large English knight wielding a battle axe. Thomas was right behind him and, as Edward took the axe on his shield – a blow which nearly split it in two – Thomas thrust the point of his halberd into the armpit of the Englishman. The man dropped his axe and Edward thrust his sword through the chainmail protecting his large belly and into his intestines. The man collapsed and the two Bruce brothers leaped over him to take on their next opponent, leaving one of the men following them onto the deck of the cog to finish the knight off.
The fight was over quickly. There were only a few soldiers and archers on each cog, the rest were sailors who were no match for the Scots. Within an hour the fleet was tacking back the way they had come, escorted by the galleys, heading for Kirkcudbright.
Edward Bruce tried the same tactic a week later but this time the cogs were escorted by several English warships. Instead of trying to capture the merchant cogs Edward contented himself with throwing flaming torches onto their decks and beating a hasty retreat before they became engaged in a full-scale battle. About half the cogs were set on fire for the loss of one galley. This time the English warships started to chase the Scots galleys but they slowly dropped behind and eventually disappeared over the horizon.
