It was in such circumstances, with the majority of the baronage in revolt and a foreign prince intent on gaining England’s throne, that John breathed his last. His successor was his nine-year-old son, Henry III, who was crowned at Gloucester on 28 October by the Bishop of Winchester in the presence of loyal prelates and barons. On the following day it was agreed that one of them, the veteran Earl of Pembroke, William Marshal, would serve as regent and take the lead in waging war on the youngster’s behalf.
In the ensuing fighting neither side really gained the upper hand. Then, in the spring of 1217, at the behest of some of his supporters, Louis agreed to divide his army. He remained in the south and proceeded to besiege Dover Castle—which had enjoyed a temporary respite from rebel siege operations—while the rest of his army under the Earl of Winchester and the Count of Perche moved to relieve Mountsorrel Castle in Leicestershire. The siege had been raised by the time they arrived. Hence they moved east and augmented forces investing Lincoln Castle from within the city.
News of events reached the regent at Northampton on 13 May and he decided to march against the enemy assembled in Lincoln. His forces gathered at Newark a few days later, and early on the morning of the 20th the regent arrived outside the north wall of Lincoln.
The north part of the city occupied high ground and was enclosed by walls dating from Roman times: on lower ground to the south was the medieval part of Lincoln. The castle was built along part of the Roman west wall and occupied much of the southwest quarter of the Roman city.
While part of the regent’s army assaulted the north gate of the city other troops entered the castle through the fortress’ west gate and proceeded to sally into Lincoln via the castle’s east gate. As this was happening, Lincoln’s blocked west gate—a short distance to the north of the castle— was forced open and the regent entered the city. He was subsequently reinforced when the north gate was at last forced.
In fierce fighting, the adherents of Louis were driven down into the lower part of Lincoln, and though they tried to regain the high ground were repulsed. Eventually, they fled southwards out of the city leaving behind many dead including the Count of Perche and many persons of rank captive.
The engagement was a disaster for Henry III’s opponents and was followed by peace negotiations. As D.A. Carpenter has observed: ‘The heart had been ripped from Louis’s party in England. The battle of Lincoln, one of the most decisive in English history, meant that England would be ruled by the Angevin, not the Capetian, dynasty.’
4
LEWES 14 May 1264
In 1258 a group of leading nobles who were disenchanted by Henry III’s irresponsible and ineffective rule, forced Henry to accept the Provisions of Oxford which resulted in significant changes. For instance, a council was established to control and reform the government. However, subsequent events showed that Henry—who had the support of the pope—was not prepared to abide by the Provisions and this led to civil war.
Fighting broke out in the spring of 1264. By this date the leader of the disgruntled members of the baronage was the king’s brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Simon left London on 6 May and moved south against Henry who was campaigning in the southeast. On 11 May he reached Fletching. On the same day the king arrived at the little town of Lewes some ten miles to the south, further down the valley of the Sussex Ouse.
During the course of the following two days, Montfort opened negotiations with Henry to avoid bloodshed, but when it became evident that the king was still not prepared to maintain the Provisions he decided to take the offensive. A great medievalist, Sir Maurice Powicke, has said of this period,
a sense of beauty lingers over those days in May when the great earl waited among the woods of the Weald. High spirits and anxious forebodings, eager exaltation and solemn resolve had brought bishops, friars, barons, and Londoners together in a transient mood of high purpose....In the words of the St. Albans chronicler, Earl Simon’s followers were united in faith and will and courage to die for their country.
During the night of the 13th Simon marched towards Lewes. At around dawn the following day he began deploying on high ground overlooking the town. He divided his army into four divisions. Nicholas de Segrave commanded the left wing, the Earl of Gloucester the centre, and Henry de Montfort the right wing: Simon led the reserve. The army probably numbered approximately 5,000 men, of whom about 500 were cavalry.
Henry’s force was around 10,000 strong and included some 1,500 or so cavalry. Prince Edward, Henry’s heir, seems to have attacked with the cavalry before the rest of the host was ready. He defeated the opposing left wing, and in the words of the Chronicle of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London, drove ‘the greater part of the Londoners...as well as certain knights and barons’ off the field. But while Edward was in pursuit, the remainder of the royal army, which consisted of battles (divisions) under Henry and his brother the Earl of Cornwall, was routed either after advancing up to engage the enemy or, as some historians think, after coming to blows with the Montfortians who came down to attack them. Thus, by the time Edward returned, Lewes was occupied by the enemy and his father was in the Cluniac priory on the southern edge of the town to where he had fled following his defeat.
Many prisoners were taken at Lewes, among them the king, (he soon gave himself up), Edward, and many other persons of consequence. The number of slain is uncertain, but included few persons of rank. However, the Battle Abbey chronicler relates that Royalists who ‘were dispersed through flight, were everywhere slaughtered by villeins living in the countryside.’
5
EVESHAM 4 August 1265
After Lewes, King Henry and Prince Edward were prisoners of Simon de Montfort and the country was governed by the earl and a number of associates, most notably the Bishop of Chichester and the young Earl of Gloucester. It was a provisional administration with the task of running the country until a settlement agreeable to all parties was reached.
But peace was far from the minds of some men. Hence in early May 1265 Simon moved to Hereford (with Henry and Edward), for a number of royalist exiles had landed in Pembrokeshire at the head of a small force, intent on joining other opponents of Montfort headed by Roger Mortimer of Wigmore. Then, on 28 May, Edward managed to escape from captivity at Hereford. He made his way to Ludlow where he was joined by Mortimer and Gloucester. By this date the latter had turned against Montfort. He had grown to hate Simon’s sons and to resent the dominance of the aged earl.
Faced with an increasing number of adversaries, Simon eventually decided to head east to join one of his sons—Simon the younger—at Kenilworth. On 2 August he crossed the Severn. On the evening of the 3rd he arrived at Evesham and settled down for the night at the head of a tired and hungry army of about 6,000 men.
Evesham was a death trap. It is virtually surrounded by the River Avon which loops around it in the shape of a U. This became all too obvious on the morning of the 4th. Edward trapped Montfort at Evesham after carrying out a night march from Worcester—it is said that Simon’s movements had been betrayed to the prince. Edward’s army probably numbered nearly 10,000 and the bulk of it was drawn up on Green Hill to the north of Evesham, with the Avon to the east and west. The remainder was stationed to the south, on the east bank of the river, to prevent Simon escaping via a bridge across the Avon.
Accounts of battles often differ, and so it is with Evesham. The generally accepted version is that Montfort moved towards Edward’s position at about 9.00am and that he formed his army into a column with cavalry in the van, English infantry in the centre, and Welsh spearmen to the rear, intent on smashing his way through the centre of the enemy line. The column clashed with the enemy at about the junction of Edward and Gloucester’s battles. At first, progress was made, but when the wings of the royal army moved against Montfort’s flanks the battle turned in Edward’s favour. Simon’s army began to collapse as the Welsh
broke and fled— many may have deserted before the battle was joined—and no doubt Englishmen likewise tried to escape. The rest fought doggedly but by about 11.00am King Henry had been rescued and Simon’s army destroyed.
Some favour another version of events: Montfort fought a defensive battle by forming his men into a circle which succumbed to charges by Edward and Gloucester.
The important fact is that Simon’s army was destroyed and that the earl and many of his supporters were among the slain, said to have numbered 18 barons, 160 knights and 4,000 soldiers, most of whom had belonged to the vanquished force. The great days of the baronial party were well and truly over.
6
FALKIRK 22 July 1298
Edward I was a prepossessing figure, tall and athletic, formidable and able, a man determined to uphold his rights. He regarded himself as the overlord of Scotland, and in early 1296 began planning a Scottish campaign after being angered by the refusal of Scotland’s king to obey summonses to his court, and by the fact that the Scots had decided to ally themselves to his enemy, Philip IV of France: a treaty of alliance between the Scots and French was ratified in February 1296, shortly after Edward had summoned his forces. A campaign that year led to the abdication of John Balliol, and Englishmen were placed in positions of authority. (For a fuller account see Chapter Seven). However, many Scots were not prepared to accept English domination. They revolted in 1297, led by William Wallace and Andrew Murray, and routed an English army at Stirling Bridge.
1297 was a year of political discord in England owing to disaffection with some of Edward’s policies. The defeat concentrated people’s minds: it had to be avenged. A formidable army was summoned to assemble at Roxburgh on 25 June 1298. The cavalry probably numbered 3,000, while pay rolls show that Edward had 14,800 infantry and about 10,900 Welsh foot.
On 15 July Edward arrived at Kirkliston, a few miles west of Edinburgh. Here he was rejoined by the Bishop of Durham, Antony Bek, ‘the most valiant clerk in Christendom,’ who had taken Dirleton and two other castles after being sent to clear the coastlands south of the Forth.
Supplies were scarce for the Scots had laid waste much of the countryside. Hunger led to depression and acrimony: bad feeling occurred between the English and the Welsh. In such circumstances, Edward decided to return to Edinburgh and await supplies. Upon hearing however that the Scottish army was near Falkirk, he moved against it and spent the night of 21/22 July just east of Linlithgow.
Before sunrise, Edward was on the move again. He soon caught sight of the Scots, whom Wallace had prepared for battle. It seems that they were arrayed on a natural defensive position immediately south of Callendar Wood where the ground slopes down to the confluence of two burns. He had grouped his men in four schiltroms—densley-packed formations bristling with spears, and in between these were companies of archers. Wallace also had some cavalry.
Two English divisions of cavalry, one under the Earls of Lincoln, Norfolk, and Hereford, the other under Bek, advanced to the attack, moving in respectively from the west and east after avoiding boggy ground before Wallace’s position. They converged and proceeded to drive off the isolated Scottish horse and overwhelm Wallace’s archers. In due course, the static schiltroms were destroyed, and this was most probably primarily due to the fire of the English archers. The Welsh, who stood aloof for most of the battle, joined in when it was evident that the Scots were beaten.
Only one knight perished on the English side but many others must have been wounded. Casualties among the foot probably approached 2,000. The number of Scots slain and wounded was horrific. Wallace escaped, but his military reputation was destroyed, or at least seriously damaged.
7
BANNOCKBURN 24 June 1314
‘From his youth he devoted himself in private to the art of rowing and driving carts, of digging ditches and thatching houses, as was commonly said...and other pointless and trivial occupations unsuitable for the son of a king.’
Lanercost Chronicle
Of whom was the chronicler speaking? None other than Edward, Prince of Wales, the unconventional son and heir of one of England’s most conventional kings, Edward I. In July 1307 the prince succeeded to the throne when his redoubtable father died on the eve of a Scottish expedition, an event which raised this question: would the new king follow in his predecessor’s footsteps and continue vigorously trying to hammer the Scots into submission?
But before dealing with this question, another should be asked: what had led to Edward I’s policy of attempting the subjugation of Scotland? This question has been touched upon in chapter six but for a fuller answer we need to go back to 1286, when that small but prospering nation was ruled by Alexander III. In March of that year he died after falling from his horse, leaving his young granddaughter Margaret as the rightful heir to the Scottish throne. Then, in 1290, an agreement was ratified whereby Margaret would marry Edward I’s heir, but in the autumn she followed her grandfather to the grave and with her death the royal line of Scotland failed.
Thirteen claimants to the throne came forward and overtures were made to Edward of England, requesting his involvement in the proceedings so that the succession could be determined without recourse to civil war. On 17 November 1292 Edward, who regarded himself as the overlord of Scotland and was accepted as such by the claimants, chose one of them, John Balliol, to be the new king and subsequently received his homage.
For a while relations between Edward and Balliol were cordial, but the Scots in general were not prepared to accept Edward’s suzerainty and were not impressed by their new king who was no born leader. In mid 1295 the Scottish parliament wrested power from Balliol and vested it in a council which proceeded to ratify (February 1296) an alliance with the French— with whom Edward had been at war since 1294—promising mutual support if needed. This development, combined with Balliol’s failure to appear at Edward’s court to answer charges brought against him by a Scot, resulted in an English invasion of Scotland in March 1296.
The campaign led to the defeat of a Scottish force at Dunbar and Balliol’s subsequent surrender and abdication in the summer, after which Edward held a parliament at Berwick where he received the homage of many important Scots. He then returned to England leaving the governance of Scotland to trusted English subordinates.
However, in 1297 widespread rebellion broke out and an English army was routed at Stirling Bridge on 11 September by a force under William Wallace, a man of knightly family, and the aristocratic Andrew Murray. In response, Edward led a campaign in Scotland the following year and inflicted a major defeat on Wallace at Falkirk on 22 July. Nonetheless resistance continued, and though many Scots of consequence subsequently surrendered, Wallace remained a thorn in Edward’s flesh as a guerrilla leader until his capture and execution in 1305, by which date Scotland had been to all intents and purposes subjugated.
But then, suddenly, the situation was transformed. By whom? By Robert Bruce, the grandson of one of the claimants to the Scottish throne in the early 1290s. Where, when, and how? At Dumfries and Scone in February and March 1306. Firstly, when Bruce murdered Balliol’s nephew, John Comyn, following an argument in which the latter evidently refused to support a plan by Robert to seize the throne. And secondly, when Bruce was enthroned as King of Scotland at Scone.
News of events in Scotland infuriated England’s aging and increasingly vengeful king. Once again he made plans to crush his Scottish enemies. His kinsman, Aymer de Valence, (who was married to a sister of Comyn), and Henry Percy were appointed to command forces in operations against Bruce. In early June, Aymer arrived at Perth. His advance had been unopposed. Indeed, he had been augmented en route by relatives of Comyn. He secured the town, with an army some 6,000 strong. On 19 June Bruce arrived outside Perth with an army mainly raised in the northeast of Scotland. Lacking siege engines, and sufficient manpower, Bruce could not attempt to take Perth and so fell back for the night
near Methven, after challenging de Valence to either come out and fight or surrender. Aymer had replied that he would engage Bruce in battle the following morning. But, at dusk, he fell upon the Scottish camp and shattered the surprised Scots.
Bruce managed to flee the battle, but within months was forced to shelter in Ireland or the Inner Hebrides. In early 1307 he returned to Scotland and, in the spring, defeated Valence at both Glentrool and Loudoun Hill before putting a force under the Earl of Gloucester to flight. According to Walter of Guisborough, Edward I was ‘much enraged’ by Bruce’s successes and understandably so. Although the encounters had been little more than skirmishes their outcome had undermined English morale and had brought fresh recruits to Bruce’s side: the tide had turned. But had it turned permanently?
Edward was determined that it had not. But he was nearing his end—he had just spent several months in poor health at Lanercost Priory near the border. Nevertheless, the tenacious but weary old warrior set out from Carlisle on 3 July to campaign in Scotland. But, on the 7th, he expired nearby at Burgh-upon-the-Sands.
This brings us back to the question raised earlier: would Edward I’s successor continue vigorously trying to subjugate Scotland? At first necessity demanded otherwise. Matters such as a state funeral, coronation, and consequent holding of a parliament, required his attention—the planned Scottish expedition was abandoned. Nonetheless, Edward II showed that he was not indifferent to affairs north of the border for he appointed Aymer de Valence and the Earl of Richmond as his lieutenants in Scotland to continue the struggle against the nationalists under Bruce.
Hastings to Culloden - Battles in Britain 1066-1746 Page 4