The Plantagenets: History of a Dynasty

by J. S. Hamilton

  Only Richard Bury and William Montagu were privy to this secret arrangement, which points to the growing desperation of the king. It was Montagu who is reputed to have challenged Edward with the blunt advice that: ‘It is better to eat dog than be eaten by the dog’. 3 Caution was needed, as Mortimer had planted his own spies in the king’s council, including a certain John Wyard. Moreover, Mortimer seems to have sensed the king’s increasing disaffection. In advance of a council meeting called for 15 October 1330, Mortimer and Isabella had taken up residence in the castle at Nottingham, and the queen mother took personal possession of the keys to the castle. Mortimer took council with his own inner circle, including Henry Burgersh, Hugh Turplington and Simon Bereford, while he also ordered the interrogation of Edward’s closest associates – William Montagu, Edward Bohun, Ralph Stafford, Robert de Ufford, William de Clinton and John Neville de Hornby. Having proclaimed their innocence, the conspirators were allowed to leave the castle and return to their lodgings in the town. On the night of 19 October, however, William Eland, described in Geoffrey le Baker’s chronicle as ‘speculator of the castle’, opened a subterranean passage that led under the castle walls and into the keep itself. Led by Montagu, who had apparently suborned Eland, the conspirators made their way to the queen’s chamber, where a brief but sharp struggle ensued. Hugh de Turplington was killed by John Neville, along with an usher and squire. Roger Mortimer was taken alive and unharmed, along with his crony Oliver de Ingham, seneschal of Aquitaine. Burghersh, too, was captured, having failed to execute a dramatic flight, attempting to make his way out of the castle through the privy, in which he became lodged. Isabella is famously recorded as begging Edward, ‘good son, have pity on gentle Mortimer’, but of pity there was none.

  The six conspirators who had been interrogated by Mortimer were assisted by several others, including John Molyns, William Latimer, Maurice de Berkeley, Robert Wyville, later bishop of Salisbury (and a favourite clerk of Isabella) and, most interestingly of all, Pancio da Controne, the royal physician. It has been suggested that da Controne provided Edward with a potion that made him appear ill and thereby allowed him to slip away from his mother and her lover at the crucial time. It may also be the case that Henry of Lancaster was aware of the plot, although he cannot have been directly involved. He was, by now, almost completely blind, and he had been forced by Mortimer to take lodgings in the town rather than the castle. Still, he would have taken pleasure in Mortimer’s fall. Edward was to show great generosity to his fellow conspirators, many of whom would continue to play major roles throughout the reign. It is significant, however, that no great nobles (with the possible, limited, exception of Lancaster) played a role in the coup to overthrow Mortimer. Edward was wise enough not to exchange one minder for another, and he had taken power by himself in such a way that he was not beholden to any individual or faction. He would set to work at once to bind the aristocracy to him through the creation of a court that exemplified the chivalric virtues of the age.

  Rather than hanging Mortimer immediately, as he apparently wished to do, Edward followed the advice of the earl of Lancaster and summoned a parliament to assemble at Westminster on 26 November. There, Mortimer was accused of having ignored the council of bishops, earls and prelates; of usurping royal power; of murdering Edward II and contriving the execution of the earl of Kent; and a variety of lesser charges. On 29 November, he was executed as a traitor after being dragged from the Tower to Tyburn. Along with the condemnation of Mortimer, this parliament is also noteworthy for the rehabilitation of the victims of the minority regime and even those of the reign of Edward II. Henry of Lancaster was pardoned for having taken up arms against the king in 1328, while Edmund, son of the late earl of Kent, was restored to his father’s earldom. Richard Fitzalan, son of the late earl of Arundel, who had been executed as a supporter of the Despensers in 1326, was likewise restored. Even Hugh Despenser, son of the younger Despenser, was pardoned and allowed to collect the quartered remains of his father for interment in the family mausoleum at Tewkesbury Abbey. Although ‘gentle Mortimer’ suffered a traitor’s death, Isabella was quietly removed from prominence, but well provided for. She continued to receive visits from her son, and even as late as the year of her death in 1358, she appears to have been playing an unofficial, but perhaps significant, role in Anglo–French diplomacy.

  Edward had already been hard at work to win the hearts of the aristocracy in the spring and summer of 1330, when he had participated in tournaments with them at Dartford, Stepney and Cheapside. A further expression of their sense of solidarity with him came at the parliament of September 1331, where they promised not to protect criminals from prosecution, but rather to aid the sheriffs and other royal agents in seeing that justice was done. Likewise, they would not infringe upon the king’s right to purveyance by themselves seizing the crops of their peasants.

  Still, even out from under the shadow of Roger Mortimer, Edward III faced enormous challenges. Philip VI had consolidated his position on the French throne, and he was dissatisfied with the simple homage performed in 1329. He demanded that Edward return to France and perform liege homage for Aquitaine and his other holdings. Ultimately, in April 1331, travelling in the garb of a merchant, Edward had made a secret trip to France and acknowledged, at Pont-Sainte-Maxence, that the 1329 homage should be taken as liege. Nevertheless, in September 1331, the chancellor, John Stratford, asked the same Westminster parliament that had agreed to support the king in restoring justice throughout the land whether the continuing dispute over the Agenais should be settled by recourse to war or to diplomacy. The king almost certainly favoured war, but parliament, despite their expressions of good will towards the king on other matters, counselled a course of negotiation.

  Scotland, too, posed problems for Edward III. Among other things, the treaty of Northampton had called for the restoration of Scottish lands to several northern English lords, including Henry Percy, Henry de Beaumont, David de Strathbogie, Gilbert de Umfraville and Thomas Wake. No progress had been made in restoring these estates by the time of Mortimer’s overthrow, and ‘the disinherited’ decided to take matters into their own hands. Henry de Beaumont arranged for the return of Edward Balliol, son and heir of John Balliol, from his ancestral estates in France, seeking to challenge the right of David II to the Scottish throne. Circumstances favoured the English cause in 1332. Robert Bruce had died in June 1329, but his son and heir, David II, was still a mere boy of 8 years old. Moreover, that great soldier Sir James Douglas had died in Spain in 1330, while in July 1332, Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, also died, robbing the Scots of their most experienced commanders. The presence of Edward Balliol – who almost certainly performed homage to Edward III for Scotland prior to the expedition – added legitimacy to the undertaking. Edward III was subtle in his support for the disinherited.

  Whatever negotiations were undertaken with Balliol were kept secret, and the English king was careful not to condone this venture publicly, which would have violated his oath to uphold the treaty of Northampton. He forbade the invasion being launched from England, but may have been complicit in providing shipping to transport Balliol’s army from Ravenser to Kinghorn; certainly, he did make a substantial gift of £500 to Beaumont as compensation for unspecified past losses. Walter Mauny’s participation in the expedition is a further indication of Edward’s tacit approval.

  After landing at Kinghorn, the small English force (perhaps 1,500 men in total) moved west to Dunfermline and then north towards Perth, but they were soon surrounded by two powerful Scottish armies. The Scottish chronicler Wyntoun reports that the Scots were so sure of victory that they sent to Perth for ale and wine, and passed the night of 10 August in song and dance. After fording the River Earn under cover of darkness, the English routed a small camp of Scots sleeping on Dupplin Moor. However, this merely raised the alarm, and they soon faced an army under the earl of Mar that likely outnumbered them by ten to one.

  The English formed into a very
thin defensive line flanked by archers and backed by a cavalry reserve of only 40 horses. A dispute between the earl of Mar and Lord Robert Bruce (illegitimate son of the late king) over priority, reminiscent of the English quarrels prior to Bannockburn, led to a hastily launched and poorly organized attack. The English archers proved decisive in stopping the charge of the earl of Mar’s schiltron, and the second unit under Bruce merely crushed their own compatriots under foot. Both the earl of Mar and Robert Bruce were killed in the mêlée, as were also the earls of Moray and Menteith, along with numerous knights and squires. The earl of Fife survived, only to be captured in fleeing the field. The total Scottish casualties ran as high as perhaps 3,000 dead. The English lost 2 knights, 33 esquires, and not a single archer or foot soldier (or at least none was recorded by the chroniclers). In the aftermath of the battle of Dupplin Moor, Perth surrendered without further resistance.

  The earl of Dunbar appeared before Perth with a second Scottish army a week later, but he could not realistically besiege the city, especially when the English fleet prevented a Scottish naval force from completing the encirclement of the city. Soon, Scottish leaders, both lay and ecclesiastical, came to Perth to offer their homage and fealty to Balliol (the bishop of St Andrews being a notable exception). On 24 September 1332, the bishop of Dunkeld crowned Balliol as Edward, king of Scots, at Scone, in a well-attended ceremony. The disinherited were restored: Beaumont become earl of Buchan, Strathbogie earl of Atholl, and Umfraville earl of Angus, while other English lords received grants of land both old and new.

  Edward III was anxious to capitalize on Balliol’s success. At the York parliament in December 1332, he sought advice; parliament, however, demurred, citing their small numbers, and the session was prorogued until January. Meanwhile, on 16 December, Balliol was surprised at Annan in Galloway by a lightning raid led by the redoubtable Archibald Douglas. Many of Balliol’s followers were killed in their beds, while the titular king himself escaped only by breaking through a wall in his bedchamber and was forced to flee southward to Carlisle in total disarray. Although the January parliament advised Edward III to seek counsel from the pope and the king of France, the English king decided to back Balliol.

  The level of his commitment is clear from his order of 20 February 1333 to move the various administrative offices north to York. Balliol, meanwhile, renewed his homage and other commitments to Edward III and began to recruit an army from a broader community beyond the disinherited, including nobles such as Henry of Grosmont, son and heir of the earl of Lancaster, Ralph Neville, William Montagu and the earl of Arundel.

  In March 1333, Edward Balliol invaded Scotland for a second time, marching north from Carlisle and then east to Berwick, which he placed under siege. The Scots responded by raiding into Cumberland and Northumberland in an effort to draw the besiegers away, but to no avail. The Scottish raids afforded Edward III an opportunity to write to Philip VI, portraying the Scots as guilty of breaking the terms of the treaty of Northampton. The raids also, finally, convinced parliament that Edward should assist Balliol. He wasted little time in raising an army and, by 9 May, he had reached Tweedmouth. As the English siege proceeded, Archibald Douglas grew desperate to relieve the town. Appearing before Berwick on 11 July, the day the town had agreed to surrender if not relieved, he also sent another force to threaten Bamburgh, where Queen Philippa was currently resident, but this failed to draw the English away. The Scots launched an assault on one of the gates and a handful of Scots troopers did gain entry into Berwick, but the English argued that this did not fulfill the previously agreed terms of relief. Therefore, a second date of 20 July was set, with very specific criteria being agreed to by both sides as to what would constitute relief, and the siege continued.

  On 19 July, a Scottish force of perhaps 15,000 arrived at Tweedmouth, a force that was certainly larger than the combined strength of Edward III and Edward Balliol, perhaps half again as large. The battle began at noon, when the first Scottish schiltron advanced up the slope towards the English position on Halidon Hill. The combination of English archers and men-at-arms proved too much, however, and the Scottish formations quickly broke. A pursuit was maintained to a distance of 8 miles, producing more casualties that the battle itself. The steward, Archibald Douglas, was killed, as were the earls of Atholl, Carrick, Lenox, Ross and Sutherland. Balliol quickly overran the country, and Edward III returned to England from his second Scottish campaign, flushed with victory. He was hailed as a second Arthur. Bannockburn had, at last, been avenged and the north was finally secure. Or so it appeared.

  In February 1334, Balliol transferred the whole of Lothian to the king of England and, in June, he performed liege homage to Edward III at Newcastle for the throne of Scotland. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Edward Balliol’s grip on the Scottish throne remained tenuous and he faced mounting resistance from supporters of the Bruce kings. Although David II was sent to France for the sake of safety, and set up a court in exile at Richard the Lionheart’s Chateau Gaillard, his cause was steadfastly maintained by John Randolph, earl of Moray, and Robert Stewart. By September 1334, Balliol had fled south to Berwick, and once again implored the English king to secure his kingdom for him. A projected winter campaign in 1334–1335 got no farther than Roxburgh castle, which Edward III set about rebuilding, but, in July 1335, the king led a massive army of 13,500 men on a two-pronged attack that ranged north into Scotland from Carlisle and Berwick as far as Perth, meeting nothing more than token resistance. By August, virtually all of the Bruce supporters had come to terms with the two Edwards, including the earl of Moray, who had been captured, and Robert Stewart, who had negotiated a surrender. On 22 August, Edward III wrote to Philip VI, telling him that the war in Scotland was at an end and that peace had been restored.

  In January 1335, negotiators agreed to a draft settlement, by which Edward Balliol would adopt David Bruce as his heir, and the 12-year-old David would be raised at the court of Edward III. When he succeeded Balliol to the Scottish throne, David would hold the kingdom from Edward III on the same terms as Balliol had. Not surprisingly, perhaps, these terms proved unacceptable to David and his advisors, who rejected them out of hand. At the same time, David’s ally, Philip VI, was preparing a fleet to launch an invasion to restore the Bruce king to his rightful throne. When the truce expired in May 1336, therefore, hostilities immediately recommenced, with Henry of Lancaster leading one force in the highlands and Edward Balliol another in the lowlands. Edward III himself marched north to Perth with a very small escort, with the strategic objective of preventing a French invasion. From Perth, he launched a chevauchée to lift the siege of Lochindorb Castle and rescue thereby the countess of Atholl, Catherine de Beaumont. This has generally been seen as a piece of romantic chivalry on the king’s part, but Edward did manage to project English power into the far north, even if he failed to bring any significant Scottish force to battle. More importantly, by burning Aberdeen and much of the east coast, he made a French invasion, or the raising of a substantial Scottish army, much less likely, and could return to Perth with a sense of accomplishment. The king then initiated a building programme, hoping to emulate his grandfather’s success in securing Wales by fortifying his own position in Scotland.

  Meanwhile, negotiations between England and France over the situation in Agen, as well as a proposed joint crusading venture between Edward III and Philip VI – negotiations that had been continuing since the start of Edward III’s personal rule – foundered. Philip VI would not abandon his Scottish ally, David II, and on 20 August 1336 he broke off negotiations with a startlingly blunt conclusion, telling the English ambassadors that ‘It seems that all will not be well between the realms of England and France until the same man is king of both’. 4 This was quickly reported to the English chancellor, Archbishop Stratford, who took it as a virtual declaration of war. The king quickly journeyed south to meet with his Great Council, which granted him a tenth and a fifteenth in support of his wars in Scotland and Gas
cony. He briefly returned to Scotland to oversee the reconstruction of Bothwell Castle, but by mid-December he had returned to England once again, now focusing all of his energy and resources on France.

  In October 1337, Edward III sent a diplomatic mission to Paris, the purpose of which was to announce to ‘Philip of Valois who calls himself king of France’, the renunciation of Edward’s homage. This was, effectively, a declaration of war. Aquitaine had once again been confiscated, along with the northern county of Ponthieu, this time on the grounds that Edward was harbouring Robert of Artois who had been sentenced to death by his brother-in-law, the French king.

  Traditionally, it is Robert of Artois who is said to have convinced Edward to seek the throne of France, famously serving the king a dish of heron, a notoriously cowardly bird. It is difficult to imagine, however, that Edward genuinely considered the French crown within his grasp in 1337. Although his claim was a legitimate one, it was not necessarily stronger in law than the claim of Philip VI, or for that matter the similar claim of Charles of Navarre. Before his renunciation of homage to Philip VI, Edward had already laid much of the groundwork for war with France. The parliament of March 1337 had given its assent to the war, and the subsequent parliament in September 1337 provided the king with a grant of a tenth and a fifteenth for a period of 3 years. Further financing for the war was to be secured through royal intervention in the wool market, but the king’s attempt to set up a monopoly on wool proved far from successful, either financially or politically. Nevertheless, Edward marked his preparations with the promotion of his son Edward to the unprecedented rank of duke of Cornwall, while elevating six new earls. These included several of the trusted friends who had helped him to liberate himself from Roger Mortimer: William Montagu became earl of Salisbury; William de Clinton, earl of Huntingdon; Robert de Ufford, earl of Suffolk; and William de Bohun, earl of Northampton. At the same time, Edward also conferred the earldom of Derby on Henry, son and heir of the earl of Lancaster, while Hugh Audley received the earldom of Gloucester, which had been denied to his family by the Despensers in the previous reign. All of these men had campaigned repeatedly in Scotland, and they provided Edward with a solid core of experienced military commanders. The king was generally successful in associating the aristocracy with him in his cause, although there was general surprise at the suggestion that he might revive his claim to the French crown. Despite this support, however, the early phase of the war did not go well, as the king himself seems to have been inconsistent and indecisive in articulating and pursuing his war aims.