Killing Fields of Scotland

by R J M Pugh

  The new regent, Sir Archibald Douglas, was faced with a dilemma all too familiar for the time – the terms under which Berwick would surrender if these were not met by 11 July. In the game of war, the conditions were typical of sieges during the Middle Ages. Edward III dictated that Berwick would have to be relieved by a Scottish army on the north side of the Tweed. Alternatively, a division or ‘battle’ of at least 200 Scottish knights would have to enter Berwick between sunrise and sunset with the loss of no more than thirty men. If these conditions were not met then Sir Alexander Seton, the commander of the town, would surrender it. The truce negotiated by Seton was due to expire on 11 July; in a show of goodwill Seton offered his son as a hostage to Edward III. The deadline arrived; Berwick should have surrendered but Seton held out, knowing that help was at hand with the arrival of Sir Archibald Douglas, Guardian of Scotland and a strong army.

  To reduce the pressure on Berwick, Douglas led his force into Northumberland on 11 July, where he proceeded to destroy Tweedmouth in full view of Edward’s army. Edward did not move. Then a small party led by Sir William Keith managed to force its way into Berwick which technically met Edward III’s second condition. Douglas sent a message to Edward, demanding that the siege be lifted; Edward replied that in his eyes Berwick had not been relieved. Edward then began to execute Scottish hostages every day, one of whom was the third and last surviving son of Sir Alexander Seton. Seton watched his heir Thomas being hanged before the town wall. Atrocities such as these would only cease when Berwick was surrendered. Seton negotiated a second truce which stipulated that he would open the gates of Berwick on 20 July if the town was not relieved on that day. The loss of Berwick to the Scots in 1318 had become a matter of honour to Edward III; regaining it would restore his standing among the English nobility. Sir Archibald Douglas had little choice but to fight the English king on ground not of his own choice.

  Halidon Hill

  Edward III took up position on Halidon Hill, a 600-foot eminence two miles north-west of Berwick which offered him an excellent view of the town and the surrounding countryside. Douglas, still in Northumberland, re-crossed the Tweed to the west of Edward’s position, making camp at Duns on 18 July. On the following day he approached Halidon Hill from the north-west, occupying a higher eminence, known as the Witches’ Knowe from where he could study the size and position of the English army. The size of the respective armies is not entirely clear; some accounts give 13,000 Scots and 9,000 English; the former figure was probably nearer 18,000, the latter undoubtedly in excess of 9,000.

  Edward was accompanied by Henry de Beaumont who had been with Edward Balliol at Dupplin Moor the year before; de Beaumont would have advised Edward about the tactics which had given Balliol his victory. Edward organised his army in three divisions or ‘battles’; the left wing was commanded by Balliol, the right by Thomas Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk and Marshal of England, while Edward himself took the centre. Importantly, the flanks of each of the three battles were protected by troops of English and Welsh longbowmen; clearly, Edward had paid heed to de Beaumont’s advice about Dupplin Moor. (He would use his bowmen to even greater effect at Crecy in 1346.)

  Douglas drew up his forces in four battles of schiltrons; he commanded the left wing, Robert the Steward (the future Robert II) the centre and John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray on the right, with Hugh, Earl of Ross in reserve. Douglas had to descend from the Witches’ Knowe into a boggy plain before he could attack the English – uphill. Douglas knew this would be no cavalry battle but one dominated by England’s archers who had decimated Mar’s army at Dupplin Moor.

  As the Scots laboured across the marshy plain that lay before Halidon Hill, Edward ordered his packed wedges of archers to commence their deadly work. The arrows began to fall thick and fast, taking their toll of the Scottish spearmen in their unwieldy schiltron formations designed for stationary defence rather than as mobile formations. The Chronicle of Lanercost tells us that

  the Scots who marched in the front were so wounded in the face and blinded by the English arrows that they could not help themselves and soon began to turn their faces away from the blows of the arrows and fall …

  Yet still the Scots came on. Moray’s by now depleted battle closed with Balliol, with Robert the Steward attacking King Edward in the centre, followed closely by Douglas. Moray’s schiltron began to disintegrate in the vicious hand-to-hand fighting with Balliol’s troops; the Scots were exhausted after their struggle through the marshy terrain, then the uphill climb. Douglas and the Steward arrived too late to save Moray; his spearmen began to flee down the hill, showered by English arrows and pursued by Edward III’s by now mounted knights. The Scottish centre was constricted; as at Dupplin they bunched up and then panic set in, the entire front line collapsing in confusion. In the headlong flight only the rearguard commanded by Hugh, Earl of Ross and his Highlanders stood firm until they were overwhelmed. Robert the Steward and Moray escaped; Douglas, with three Scottish earls, Ross, Carrick and Sutherland lay dead on the field along with thousands of Scots; the lowest estimate was 14,000.6 Edward III’s casualties were light. The following day, 20 July, Berwick surrendered.

  In 1334, Robert the Bruce would have found much to disappoint him in Scotland. His son David II and the young boy’s English Queen Joan were sent to France out of harm’s way. Edward III was master of Scotland which would be ruled in his name by Edward Balliol. At an obsequious parliament held in Edinburgh on 10 February 1334, Balliol proclaimed Edward III as his Lord Paramount; then on 12 June, at Newcastle, Balliol ceded 2,000 librates (82,000 acres) nearly twenty-three per cent of prime agricultural land from the Solway Moss to the Firth of Forth to Edward III ‘for ever’. Included in this shameful transaction were the important castles of Roxburgh, Berwick, Dunbar and Edinburgh.

  In 1335, Edward came to Carlisle from where he mounted a robust campaign against Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell, now leading the pro-Bruce faction in Scotland. Murray was the son of the Andrew Murray who had fought alongside Wallace at Stirling Bridge and had lost his life in that battle. In July Edward moved into south-west Scotland, plundering many towns including Roxburgh. At the same time Balliol advanced from Berwick up the east coast, followed by his cousin Guy de Namur and 2,000 Flemish mercenaries. Namur had arrived too late in Berwick to join Balliol’s force; on his way to Edinburgh the Fleming was constantly harried by Douglas of Liddesdale, John Randolph, Earl of Moray and Patrick, Earl of Dunbar.

  Burghmuir

  On 30 July, Namur was attacked in strength on the Burghmuir of Edinburgh by Douglas, Randolph, Dunbar and Dunbar’s ally, Alexander Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie. A brief, running fight ensued and Namur lost several of his men.7 Forced to disengage, the Fleming led what remained of his 2,000 men down Candlemaker Row in Edinburgh where he prepared to make a stand in what today is the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, seeking refuge in that castle’s ruins. The beleaguered Flemish slaughtered their mounts to form a barricade, determined to resist their attackers to the bitter end. However, Namur and his force, disheartened by their losses and lacking food and water, surrendered the following day.

  Young John Randolph, who had inherited the Moray earldom after his brother’s death at Dupplin Moor chivalrously agreed to escort Namur to the Scottish border. Accompanied by James and William Douglas, Randolph was ambushed by an English raiding party from Roxburgh Castle; James Douglas was killed, William escaped and Randolph was taken in chains to the Tower of London. He would remain in custody there until 1341, although he was brought to Dunbar in 1338 as a bargaining counter during the siege of Dunbar Castle, defended by his sister, the famous ‘Black’ Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar.

  Despite minor victories the nationalist cause began to founder in the second half of 1335; there was disaffection among the nobles and a mini-civil war flared up between Balliol’s erstwhile supporters led by David de Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl. Strathbogie had been forced to transfer his allegiance from Balliol to David II but returned to the B
alliol camp after the Peace of Perth in August 1335 where he re-affirmed his allegiance to Balliol in return for the restoration of his earldom of Atholl. In addition Strathbogie was appointed as Balliol’s Constable of Scotland, a somewhat empty title, given the events which followed.

  Culblean

  In the autumn of 1335, Strathbogie raised an army of 3,000 and with some siege engines, set out to conquer the north-east of Scotland in Balliol’s name. His plan was simple – to eject the Bruce following there and replace it with the Disinherited nobles or their heirs from that region. Being autumn, every knight-tenant, landowner and humble cottar (crofter) was engaged in bringing in the harvest. Strathbogie’s campaign was marked by the smoke from burning hayricks, his men feasting off slaughtered livestock. Then Strathbogie laid siege to Kildrummy Castle, east of Aviemore, where David II’s aunt Christian Bruce was sheltering. (Christian Bruce was the wife of the Guardian, Sir Andrew Murray.) Strathbogie extracted a promise from Sir John Craig, commander of Kildrummy that unless a relief force arrived by 30 November (St Andrew’s Day), the castle would surrender to him.

  Sir Andrew Murray was in Bathgate engaged in negotiations with Balliol’s commissioners when the news of Kildrummy reached him. Murray immediately broke off the talks and marched north with 800 knights and gentry including the Earl of Dunbar, Douglas of Liddesdale and Sir Alexander Seton along with about 3,000 infantry.8 Learning of the approach of the relief column, Strathbogie withdrew from Kildrummy and bivouacked in the Forest of Culblean, near Ballater on Deeside. Sir John Craig, Kildrummy Castle’s commander and his 300-strong garrison shadowed Strathbogie, linking with Sir Andrew Murray and his force on St Andrew’s Day.

  Early in the morning of 30 November, Murray split his force into two divisions, himself commanding one, Douglas of Liddesdale the other. A half-asleep sentry in Strathbogie’s camp heard the sounds of the approaching army. In the growing light, Strathbogie readied his men for an attack he expected to come from the rear of his camp. On that grey autumn morning nearly 4,000 men from the Lothians, the Merse and elsewhere stood in ordered lines among the trees of the Forest of Culblean; perhaps that November morning there was a mist which offered some protection from Strathbogie’s archers. Strathbogie attacked Douglas of Liddesdale in a headlong frontal assault, charging in force to disable the Scottish wing. As the two groups clashed, Murray pressed forward with his division. In the ensuing melee Murray’s men chased Strathbogie deeper into the wood. The battle was soon over; attended by five of his knights Strathbogie placed his back against a tree, fighting bravely until he was cut down, his body pierced by several swords.

  Culblean was no Bannockburn but it brought back shades of Bruce’s victories, giving Sir Andrew Murray the courage to continue the struggle. In many ways Culblean was the turning point in this, the second war of independence. The struggle was no longer one of loyalty to David Bruce or Edward Balliol but to the realm of Scotland. Culblean, a minor battle in the north, was won by men from the Lothians and the Merse, Lowlanders who had long been accused of being in the pocket of three English Kings – Edward I, II and III. The Lowlanders’ victory at Culblean restored their honour. Even the chronicles of later years would look back on Culblean as a deciding factor in the struggle for Scotland’s independence.

  As mentioned earlier, by 1337 Edward III had lost interest in Scotland, the year he arrogantly declared himself King of France, which began the conflict known to history as the Hundred Years’ War. Thereafter, Edward limited his intervention in Scotland’s affairs intermittently and half-heartely. Although the war between England and Scotland continued, it was no longer prosecuted with the same impetus and enthusiasm and scale as it had been in the days of Edward I.

  In a succession of skirmishes and sieges, the Scots gradually cleared the English out of most of Scotland, although the south-east still remained in their possession. By mid-1337, the disinherited nobles had been forced into a small corner of south-west Scotland. Edward III was increasingly absent from England on the Continent, eager to pursue his ambitions in France which offered better rewards than a Scotland impoverished by years of warfare. He paid Scotland little interest, knowing that Edward Balliol was now a spent force on whom he could no longer rely. But the English still occupied the Merse and Roxburghshire, reaping rich rewards from the fertile agricultural lands and lording it over the rural population.

  And then came a minor but significantly morale-boosting event in January 1338. After Edward III rebuilt Edinburgh Castle in 1337, he was content to rest on his laurels, losing interest in the subordinate or satellite castles in the south-east – Berwick, Roxburgh and Dunbar – as he considered Edinburgh the key to controlling the area and allowing his forces to continue their occupation of a rich agricultural region where his troops could subsist at little cost to the English Treasury. With Edinburgh Castle in English hands, Dunbar Castle assumed an importance for the Scots as it kept open lines of communication with France, Scotland’s ally. To allow him to further his ambitions in France, Edward appointed Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick as his lieutenant in Scotland.

  John of Fordun’s Chronicle tells us that in the summer of 1337, Lothian suffered wholesale destruction while Patrick, 9th Earl of Dunbar and March, was campaigning with Sir Andrew Murray in Fife and Lanarkshire, reducing every castle in those counties which still held out for Edward III or Balliol. In Lothian, the ineffective Earl of Warwick was replaced by Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel and William Montague, Earl of Salisbury; Arundel and Salisbury were appointed joint commanders of south-east Scotland. Salisbury would become the dominant partner in the events which took place in the first half of 1338.

  The centre of resistance in south-east Scotland was Dunbar, East Lothian, where its virtually impregnable castle was left in charge of Agnes Randolph, Patrick 9th Earl of Dunbar’s Countess. Because of the unrest in the south-east, Salisbury and Arundel decided that Dunbar Castle must be taken as it posed a threat to stability in the remaining English-held territory. Their strategy was also aimed at relieving pressure on castles in the vicinity still occupied by English or pro-English garrisons. While the siege of Dunbar Castle was in no sense a set-piece battle which qualifies as a Scottish ‘killing field’, it deserves a brief mention in this account because its successful defence prevented the need for a pitched battle by the Scots to regain control of the south-east of Scotland.

  The siege of Dunbar began on 13 January 1338;9 it would last for twenty-two weeks. ‘Black’ Agnes successfully withstood every attempt made by Salisbury and Arundel to capture the castle, by both fair means or foul; Salisbury tried bribery and blackmail to no avail. (Agnes’s sole surviving brother John was brought from the Tower of London and displayed before her, Salisbury threatening to execute him if she did not surrender. Agnes simply replied that were he to do so, she would inherit the earldom of Moray!) In June 1338, Agnes was relieved by Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, much to the annoyance of Edward III.

  The elation of the Scots occasioned by the successful outcome at Dunbar was marred by the death of the regent, Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell; he was replaced by Robert the Steward. The town of Perth remained in the hands of the English, so the new regent concentrated his resources into recovering it. For some unknown reason, Edward III recalled Edward Balliol to England before Robert the Steward began the siege of Perth; perhaps the English king had lost any residual confidence in Balliol, or he wished to spare him the embarrassment of possible defeat. Perth had been placed in the charge of a Thomas Ughtred, who may have been a Northumbrian, given his surname; Ughtred was a common name in that region of northern England during the time of the Bernician Angles.

  Perth was a strongly fortified and walled town; however, the Scots aided by some French auxiliaries experienced little difficulty in bringing the pro-English garrison to the negotiating table. In August 1339, Ughtred capitulated and was permitted to march out of Perth with his force intact and return to England. The subsequent re-capture of the castles of Stirl
ing and Edinburgh meant that by 1341, it was deemed safe for David II and his Queen Joan to end their exile in France. David Bruce was hampered by two incompatible political ends when he began his reign in 1341 at the age of seventeen. Scotland’s ties with France through the Auld Alliance remained an obstacle to possible peace with England. David II could not feel secure on the throne of Scotland until England’s claims to overlordship of the country were rescinded, which Edward III would not abandon until Scotland’s alliance with France was terminated.

  In 1346, Philip VI of France called upon David to relieve the pressure on France by Edward III who in August 1346 had scored a spectacular victory against the French at Crécy. David responded by raising an army and invading England with a formidable army in the autumn of 1346. He engaged the forces of Edward III at Neville’s Cross, near Durham, on 17 October; decisively beaten, David was taken prisoner along with four of his senior earls and the Bishop of St Andrews. In addition, fifty barons were taken into captivity. Among the fatal casualties was John Randolph, 4th Earl of Moray who had been unceremoniously dragged before his sister Agnes during the siege of Dunbar in 1338. David II would spend the next eleven years in English captivity; in his place, Scotland was ruled by the weak Robert the Steward. Ironically, it was the battle of Neville’s Cross which brought hostilities between Scotland and England to an end.

  Nesbit Moor I

  In August 1355 the first of two battles at Nesbit Moor took place; the Scots were driven to conflict due to the breakdown of negotiations for the release of David II from English custody. A raid on the lands of Patrick, 9th Earl of Dunbar led by Sir Thomas Gray of Heton and Lord Dacre, Warden of the English East March brought retaliation from Dunbar and William, 1st Earl of Douglas. The Scottish force was small but included a contingent of sixty French knights anxious to prove themselves against the English. The Scots burnt Norham village on the English side of the river Tweed, hoping to draw Sir Thomas Gray out of Norham Castle. Retiring with their booty, the Scots were pursued by Gray and Dacre who fell into a trap set for them by Dunbar and Douglas at Nesbit Moor. Although the number of troops on both sides was small, the English suffered the greater casualties; Gray and Dacre were taken prisoner and later ransomed. While Dunbar was content with the outcome, southern Scotland would suffer for his affair of honour. After a successful assault by Dunbar on Berwick in November 1355, Edward III recovered the town in January 1356, then led an army into Berwickshire and East Lothian, burning villages and towns up to Haddington. Edward’s winter campaign is known in Scottish history as the Burnt Candlemas (2 February 1356); it was during this campaign that the famous and historic church of Haddington, the Franciscan Minorites or Grey Friars’ Lamp of Lothian was destroyed.13 However, the months of January and February 1356 were stormy and Edward’s supply ships were wrecked, forcing him to retreat across the Tweed. Later that year, after his crushing defeat of the French at Poitiers, Edward could afford to be magnanimous to France’s ally Scotland and he granted a truce with the no doubt relieved Scottish nobles governing the country.