by R J M Pugh
When David II returned to Scotland from England, his need for money forced him to lean more heavily on the royal burghs to secure his income, known as the Great Customs, the taxes due to the Crown on goods bought and sold in the king’s burghs. (The taxes due to the royal burghs themselves were known as the Petty Customs, petty being a corruption of the French petit, or small.) In return for their increased tax burden, the royal burghs secured a right to send representatives to the Scottish parliament, becoming known as the ‘Third Estate’, the other two being the Lords spiritual and temporal.
The second half of David’s reign was beset by squabbling between himself and the nobles. After remaining in English captivity since his defeat at Neville’s Cross, in 1357 David returned to a kingdom racked by feuds and disease, notably the Black Death, the plague which had first arrived in Scotland in 1349, although that outbreak was less severe in Scotland than in England.
David II died suddenly on 22 February 1371. There is a great deal in David’s character which is hard to admire; arrogant, self-absorbed, quarrelsome, he alienated his nobles by his petty behaviour. Given his father’s achievements, he should have tried to live up to these but he was never the man his father had been. He died without a male heir and was succeeded by his nephew, Robert the Steward as Robert II, a man he detested. Although the third war of independence would flicker on until 1390, hostilities were limited to Border bickering for many years of Robert II’s reign, although full-scale war would erupt in 1385, as we shall see.
Notes
1 The Scottish duplicate of this indenture and Edward’s charters – both in French – are to be found in the National Archives of Scotland (quoted in Oliver, A History of Scotland, p.128.)
2 Balliol had English knights in his contingent, men such as Henry de Beaumont, Gilbert de Umfraville, Earls Talbot, Ferrers and de la Zouche, all of whom possessed lands in Scotland until Bannockburn (Pugh, Swords, Loaves and Fishes: A History of Dunbar, p.399.)
3 Pugh, op. cit., p.399.
4 Hume Brown, History of Scotland, vol. i, footnote to p.171.
5 Pugh, op. cit., p.101.
6 English chroniclers give seventy lords, 500 knights and 30,000 – 65,000 foot, the last figure being ridiculous. Fordun admits he gave up counting the dead as a pointless exercise. Equally ridiculous are the English casualties – one knight, one foot soldier and an unquantified body of reinforcements from Newcastle who arrived late in the action.
7 In 1867 a large quantity of human bones was uncovered about five feet below ground at the northern end of the Burghmuir. (Grant, Cassells Old and New Edinburgh.)
8 The figure of 800 is considered absurdly low by Dr W.D. Simpson in his account of Culblean; he considers this figure relates only to men of chivalry – knights etc., and that Murray’s force numbered 4,000, Strathbogie’s 3,000, the figure given for the siege of Kildrummy (Proc. of the Soc. of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 64, p.205.)
9 Hume Brown, op. cit., vol.. i p.177.
Chapter 7
The Stewart Dynasty: 1371 – 1541
It is not by mere chance that, having reached the mid-point of this account, it is appropriate that this chapter should begin with the reign of Robert II (1371 – 1390), the first monarch of the House of Stewart or Stuart which would govern Scotland for the next three hundred years or so, with a gap between 1688 and 1702 when, in the latter year, the last Stuart queen, Anne, ruled a united Britain until 1714. Thereafter, the German House of Hanover, in the person of George I, succeeded to the throne under the Act of Settlement of 1701.
To do full justice to individual Stewart monarchs would require a book for each reign; in this account, their histories are limited to the battles they fought on Scottish soil and the political events which brought about these conflicts. Many of the Stewart killing fields were occasioned not by war with England but by civil wars caused by pretenders to the throne, first of Scotland, then of England, Scotland and Ireland. English kings still led or ordered invasions of Scotland, particularly during the period known in Scotland’s history as the Rough Wooing between 1545 and 1547, when England meddled in the affairs of Scotland and attempted to dictate the line of succession to the Scottish throne in the lead-up to the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. The key events and conflicts of the Rough Wooing are examined in the following chapter. In this chapter we are concerned with the killing fields of Scotland leading up to the mid-sixteenth century.
A truce signed between Scotland and England in 1369 to last for fourteen years was hardly observed. In 1377, an equerry of George, 10th Earl of Dunbar and March was slain at Roxburgh Fair, Roxburgh being occupied by the English along with Berwick, parts of Teviotdale and the castles of Jedburgh, Annandale and Lochmaben. George Dunbar demanded redress for the murder of his retainer from Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, Warden of the English East March which included Roxburgh. When Percy refused, Dunbar took the law into his own hands. He set fire to the town of Roxburgh and slaughtered every Englishman he encountered.1 In response, Percy delivered a strong complaint to Robert II on 14 October 1377 which the Scottish King studiously ignored. This tit-for-tat situation resulted in a retaliatory raid by Percy on Dunbar’s earldom. This fiasco was known as the Warden’s Raid; when Percy and his knights were asleep in their camp near Duns, the ordinary folk loyal to Dunbar surrounded the camp under cover of darkness, scaring off the English horses with heavy wooden rattles used to drive away birds from the grain at harvest-time. Percy’s largely mounted force were forced to walk back over the Border in full armour, carrying their heavy lances on their shoulders.
Melrose and Benrig
In 1378 Sir Archibald Douglas and William, 1st Earl of Douglas, defeated Sir Thomas de Musgrave, governor of Berwick, at Melrose. Then skirmishing in the Borders continued. In 1380 William, 1st Earl of Douglas invaded the West March of England, while George, 10th Earl of Dunbar engaged a small English force of 200 led by Ralph, 3rd Baron Greystoke of Cumberland who was taking provisions to the English garrison of Roxburgh Castle. On 25 June Dunbar engaged Greystoke at Benrig, near St Boswell’s, where he defeated and captured the English knight. Dunbar took Greystoke to Dunbar Castle where, with supreme irony, he entertained the luckless knight with the food intended for Roxburgh. John of Gaunt, the Duke was then sent to Scotland with Richard II’s offer of peace or war; a treaty was signed at Berwick in 1380 for a peace which would last until 1383.
About the middle of April 1384, the French King Charles VI sent an embassy to Edinburgh to negotiate the recent treaty made with Richard II of England which would include Scotland. Disposed as he was to keeping the peace, Robert II received the French ambassadors cordially. At the same time, a party of thirty French knights and their esquires arrived in Montrose, Angus; they made their way to Edinburgh, announcing to Robert II that they wished to prove their prowess against England, which Robert sensibly refused to entertain. In defiance of his wishes, some of his barons held a secret meeting in St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh’s High Street and decided that they would support and encourage the campaign proposed by the French. They made a foray into the territories of the Earls of Northumberland and Nottingham which brought them much booty. For his part, Robert II the peacemaker despatched a herald to the English court, admitting that the French raid had been engineered by his own nobles but prayed that Scotland might benefit from the truce between France and England. Richard II granted this request but as the Anglo-French truce only lasted until October 1384, there was no guarantee of permanent peace. In June 1384 the Earls of Northumberland and Nottingham exacted their revenge – not on the French adventurers but on southern Scotland. The two earls led an army into Dumfries and the Lothians, which were devastated; Edinburgh suffered damage and Haddington was burnt to the ground.
The year 1385 might be termed the Year of the French in Scotland. The Anglo-French treaty, due to expire in October 1384, was extended to May 1385. Robert II decided he would throw in his lot with France, sending envoys to Charles VI and asking him to d
espatch a large force to Scotland to make war on their common enemy, England. Charles VI responded quickly; in the summer of 1385, he sent Sir John de Vienne, Admiral of France. De Vienne arrived in Leith with a force of 2,000 auxiliaries and 1,400 suits of armour. Money was also promised but not paid in 1385; that did not happen until a year later. In support of Vienne, a French fleet was ordered to attack southern England but this part of the strategy was never carried out.
The planned invasion of England took place but with limited success, much to the disgust of the French. Initially, de Vienne’s force received a warm welcome from the nobles in charge of the Scottish towns where they were billeted – Dunfermline, Queensferry, Dalkeith, Dunbar and Kelso. But the common folk did not share their feudal superiors’ enthusiasm for the French guests, knowing that their presence would mean retaliation from England. Many thought that their presence was as bad as being invaded by England; for their part, the French were increasingly dismayed by the coldness of their reception. Consequently they did nothing to ingratiate themselves with the local population, foraging for their food and taking whatever they pleased until, at one point, a hundred of the French ‘guests’ were slaughtered by the populace of individual towns.
From the outset, there was disaffection between the Scots and the French. The campaign that followed did little to improve Franco-Scottish relations. The truth of it was that Robert II neither wanted – nor could he afford – an all-out war with England. De Vienne and his knights anticipated brilliantly staged pitched battles; what they got was a mere Border raid. An army of 30,000 led by the Earls of Douglas and Moray invaded Northumberland, penetrating only halfway between Berwick and Newcastle. Learning of the approach of a counter invasion force numbering 67,000 under the Duke of Lancaster and the Earls of Northumberland and Nottingham, the Scots retreated; much to the disgust of de Vienne, the Scots laid waste to the countryside as they went.
Richard II had taken the union of the French and the Scots seriously, so much so that in addition to Lancaster’s force, he invaded Scotland with a second army. Richard did not spare Lowland Scotland; supported by a provisioning fleet, he put Melrose Abbey to the torch, then went on to burn Dundee, Perth and Edinburgh. To the amazement of the French, the Scots made no attempt to defend themselves; instead they avoided Richard and broke into Westmorland and Cumberland, securing much booty. The French had hoped to win battle honours; by the autumn, de Vienne had had enough of what he saw was not chivalrous conduct but common brigandage. To his credit de Vienne honoured a pledge to the Scottish King that he would pay for the expense of maintaining his force in Scotland himself or promise to make good the debt, which was met in 1386 by the French King. De Vienne then set sail for France. The sole gain for the Scots in 1385 was that peace with England was restored until 1388, although Border hostilities continued.
In 1390, the aged and ailing King Robert II died at the unusually ripe old age of seventy-five. He was succeeded by his third son, John, Earl of Carrick, who had been appointed regent in 1388. In that year John had been kicked by a horse and was badly lamed for the rest of his life. When he ascended the throne he decided to shed his name John, which was considered unlucky on account of John Balliol (1292 – 96) and was crowned at Scone on 14 August 1390 as Robert III. At least Robert II died consoled by a further treaty of peace between Scotland, England and France which would last until 1392. Even though the English still held Berwick and Roxburgh, it was hoped that the treaty might be the final chapter in what was known as the third war of independence, the Scottish equivalent of what became known as the Hundred Years’ War between England and France (1337 – 1453).
Nesbit Moor II
Robert III’s reign was fairly peaceful until 1402, when hostilities resumed with England, occasioned by what was in effect a spoiling raid by Patrick Hepburn of Hailes, a minor noble whose family occupied the strong castle of Hailes near East Linton, East Lothian. In 1402, Scottish nobles launched a co-ordinated invasion of northern England; some 12,000 troops crossed the Border into Cumberland, raiding and looting in the Carlisle area, returning north with their booty. This led to a further small-scale raid by Hepburn of Hailes, John Haliburton of Dirleton and Robert Lauder of Edrington in Northumberland. The small force of 400 was pursued by George Dunbar, son of George, 10th Earl of Dunbar and March. The 10th Earl had defected to England in 1400 due to a quarrel he had with Robert III. Dunbar’s daughter Elizabeth had been betrothed to Robert III’s son and heir David, Duke of Rothesay; obviously with an eye on the future, Dunbar had paid Robert a substantial dowry to ensure the marriage would proceed. At the eleventh hour, young Rothesay jilted Elizabeth Dunbar after enjoying her favours in a form of marriage which Robert III declared was illegal. Rothesay subsequently married Marjorie Douglas, the daughter of Dunbar’s most powerful rival in Scotland, Archibald, 3rd Earl of Douglas. The King refused to repay Dunbar’s dowry and, in a fit of picque, Dunbar declared himself for Henry IV of England. Branded a traitor, Dunbar lost his earldom and his lands in south-east Scotland, some of which were given to Hepburn of Hailes. George Dunbar and his sons were resolved to wreak vengeance on Hepburn; the latter’s raid gave them the excuse they needed. With his father’s blessing, George Dunbar, the future 11th Earl led 200 men from the Berwick garrison to punish Hepburn. On 22 June 1402, young Dunbar overtook Hepburn at Nesbit Moor, heavily defeating him at a place still known as Slaughter Field, Kimmerghame, about three miles south-east of Duns. Hepburn’s casualties were high; Hepburn himself was killed and three of his closest associates, Sir Walter Haliburton of Dirleton, his son Thomas Haliburton and Sir Robert Lauder of the Bass were taken prisoner.
A small but significant action, the second ‘battle’ of Nesbit Moor had far-reaching consequences. The Scots were incensed by Dunbar’s arrogance; Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas, led an army of 10,000 into Northumberland, intending to teach Dunbar a lesson. They were met by Henry Percy of Northumberland and George Dunbar on 14 September 1402 at Humbleton (Homildon) Hill, near Wooler. Dunbar knew the tactics used by the Scots and stayed the impetuous Percy’s hand, advising him not to attack Douglas but to allow the English archers to wreak havoc among Douglas’s troops. Homildon Hill was a decisive victory for Henry IV, one which ended any further hostilities between Scotland and England and allowed Henry to consolidate his hold on the English throne.
By 1406 Robert III was old and feeble, illness hastening his death. The government of Scotland was in the hands of his unpleasant, ambitious brother, Robert, 1st Duke of Albany. Towards the end of his life, Robert III’s Queen Annabella asked her ailing husband what he would like inscribed as epitaph on his tombstone. The sick king reputedly replied thus: ‘Here lies the worst of kings and the most wretched of men in the whole kingdom.’2
In the year of his death, Robert feared for the safety of his son and heir James at the mercy of Albany, so he sent the eleven-year-old prince to France. However, the ship carrying James was captured off Flamborough Head on 22 March 1406 by English pirates who handed him over to Henry IV, no doubt for a fee. When he received the news, Robert III could not bear the shock; he died on 29 March. James, heir to the Scottish throne, would spend the next eighteen years of his life as a prisoner of two English kings, the second of these being Henry V. When the news of James’s capture was made known in Scotland, Robert, 1st Duke of Albany was proclaimed regent of Scotland; during his regency, Albany ruled Scotland in his own name, not as representative of his nephew, the future James I.
Although there were no major battles fought between England and Scotland during Albany’s regency, the Scots attempted to recover Jedburgh, Fast and Roxburgh Castles and the town of Berwick. Jedburgh fell in 1409; Fast Castle in Berwickshire was taken by Patrick Dunbar, son of the 10th Earl, now re-instated in Scotland, pardoned by Albany, the following year. Yet civil war loomed in 1411 when Donald, Lord of the Isles was recognized as the champion of Celtic (Highland) Scotland. Donald was courted as an ally by Henry IV of England who saw in him a man of importance an
d one to be cultivated. In 1411 the earldom of Ross fell vacant and Donald demanded the title and lands from Albany; his claim was based on his marriage to a daughter of Robert II.
Harlaw