King Robert the Bruce

The Irish expedition came to a disastrous close on the fatal field of Faughart, near Dundalk, on October 5 (or 14), 1318. A vastly superior English army, under Sir John de Bermingham, moved against the Scots; and King Edward the Bruce, wrathfully overruling the counsels of his staff, disdaining to wait for the approaching reinforcements from Scotland, and despising the hesitations of his Irish allies, dashed against the tremendous odds with his native impetuosity.

Barbour gives the numbers at 2000 against 40,000, no doubt with generous exaggeration. King Edward fell at the first onset, killed by a gigantic Anglo-Irish knight, Sir John de Maupas, who was found lying dead across his body. Sir John the Steward, Sir John de Soulis, and other officers were slain. Barbour tells how Sir Philip de Mowbray, stunned in action, was led captive by two men towards Dundalk; how he recovered his senses sufficiently to realise his position, shook off his captors, drew his sword and turned back towards the battle-field, and how he cleared a hundred men out of his way as he went. John Thomasson, the leader of the Carrick men, took him in charge, and hurried him away towards Carrickfergus. But the brave defender of Stirling had received a mortal wound. King Edward's body was dismembered, the trunk buried at Faughart, and the limbs exposed in Irish towns held by the English. The head is said to have been sent to England to Edward; but Barbour tells how King Edward the Bruce had that day exchanged armour with Gilbert the Harper, as he had done before at Connor, and how it was Gilbert's head that had been mistakenly struck off and despatched to England. The remnants of the Scots army reached Carrickfergus with the utmost difficulty, and hastily took ship for Scotland, where the news was received with great lamentation. Bermingham was created Earl of Louth for his victory. It is curious to observe that his wife was a sister of the Queen of Scotland.

The death of Edward Bruce disturbed the settlement of the succession, which was again brought under consideration of Parliament, on December 3, at Scone. Robert, the son of Sir Walter the Steward and the late Princess Marjory, was recognised as heir, with a proviso saving the right of any subsequent male issue of King Robert. In case of a minority, Randolph was to be guardian; and failing Randolph, Douglas.

No sooner had the sentences of excommunication been promulgated than King Robert took measures to have them revoked or mitigated. He had good friends at Rome. Letters from these had fallen accidentally into the hands of Edward, who, on January 12, 1318–19, sent them to the Pope by the hands of Sir John de Neville, and asked His Holiness to deal suitably with the writers. A few days before, he had urged the two Cardinals to press the Pope to reject the applications that he heard were being made on behalf of Bruce and his friends, and stated that he would presently send envoys to the Pope himself. Neville was graciously received, and the Pope ordered the Scots and their abettors at his court to prison. On April 24, the Pope granted Edward's request for a Bull permitting him to negotiate for peace with the Scots notwithstanding their excommunication. But the pressure was not all on one side; the nuncios in England boldly exercised their powers, and had often to be restrained even by royal menace, while every ecclesiastical office was steadily claimed for the papal nominee. Bruce appears to have deemed it prudent to raise little formal objection to the papal appointment of ecclesiastics up and down Scotland, though some of them evidently had but a seat of thorns.

From March to May there was an interesting correspondence between Edward and some minor states and municipalities on the other side of the North Sea, whose people, Edward understood, had harboured, or even assisted, his Scots enemies. They all denied the allegation. The statesmanlike answer of the Count of Flanders, however, is peculiarly notable. 'Our land of Flanders,' he wrote, 'is common to all men, of whatever country, and freely open to all comers; and we cannot deny admission to merchants doing their business as they have hitherto been accustomed, for thereby we should bring our land to desolation and ruin.'

But Berwick must be recaptured. On the loss of Berwick town, Edward had angrily summoned his forces to muster at York on July 26, 1318. So few of them appeared, however, that he was forced to postpone the expedition. On June 4, 1319, he ordered the Welsh levies to be at Newcastle by July 24 at latest; and, two days after, he wrote to the Pope that he hoped now 'to put a bit in the jaws of the Scots.' But another postponement was forced on him. On July 20, however, he issued a peremptory order for a muster at Michaelmas. His May parliament at York had granted him certain taxes, his treasury being 'exhausted more than is believed'; and his good friend the Pope had added a material contribution. But the levy could not be collected till Michaelmas, and meantime the King appealed for an advance. There must have been a favourable response, for early in September he encamped before Berwick with some 10,000 or 12,000 men, his fleet occupying the harbour. Having entrenched his lines, he delivered a general assault on September 7. The besiegers hastily filled the dykes and placed their scaling-ladders, but the garrison threw them down as fast as they were raised. The lowness of the wall was not altogether in favour of the assailants, for the besieged on the top could easily thrust their spears in their faces. In the course of the afternoon the English brought a ship on the flood-tide up to the wall, with a boat lashed to midmast, whence a bridge was to be let down for landing a storming party. They were embarrassed in their efforts, however, and the ship, being left aground by the ebb-tide, was burned by the Scots, the sallying party with difficulty regaining the town. The fight went on briskly till night, when the combatants agreed to postpone its renewal for five days.

Though King Robert had mustered a considerable force, probably as large as Edward's, he deemed it more prudent to despatch it on a raid into England than to launch it directly against the English entrenchments. He had, indeed, good reason to rely upon the skill and energy of the Steward. The five days' truce over, the English, on September 13, moved forward on wheels an immense sow, not only covering a mining party, but carrying scaffolds for throwing a storming party on the wall. By this time, John Crab, whom we have already met as a sea-captain or pirate, and whom the Count of Flanders presently assured Edward he would break on the wheel, if he could only get hold of him, had proved himself engineer enough to devise a 'crane,' which must have been of the nature of a catapult; and this engine he ran along the wall on wheels to encounter the sow. The first shot passed over the monster; the second just fell short; the third crashed through the main beam, and frightened the men out. 'Your sow has farrowed,' cried the Scots. Crab now lowered blazing faggots of combustible stuff upon the sow, and burnt it up. But presently another attempt was made from the harbour, and Crab's engine was hurried up to fight ships with top-castles full of men, and with fall-bridges ready at midmast. The first shot demolished the top gear of one of the ships, bringing down the men; and the other ships kept a safe distance.

Meantime the general attack raged all along the wall. Sir Walter the Steward rode from point to point, supplying here and there men from his own bodyguard, till it was reduced from a hundred to a single man-at-arms. The severest pressure was at Mary Gate. The besiegers forced the advance barricade, burned the drawbridge, and fired the gate. Sir Walter drew reinforcements from the castle, which had not been attacked, threw open Mary Gate and sallied upon the foe, driving them back after a very hard struggle, and saving the gate. Night separated the combatants. Barbour tells how the women and children of the town had carried arrows to the men on the walls, and regards it as a miracle that not one of them was slain or wounded. But clearly the Steward could not sustain many days of such heavy fighting.

The Scots army under Randolph and Douglas had meanwhile followed the familiar track through Ripon and Boroughbridge, harrying and burning and slaying. They appear to have made a serious attempt to capture Edward's Queen, who was then staying near York; but the Archbishop, learning this intention from a Scots spy that had been taken prisoner, sallied forth and brought her into the city, and sent her by water to Nottingham. Trokelowe speaks of certain 'false Englishmen' that had been bribed by the Scots, and Robert of Reading specifies Sir Edmund Darel as the guide of the invaders in the attempt. Next day the Archbishop, with Bishop Hotham of Ely, the Chancellor of England, and an unwieldy multitude of clergy and townspeople numbering some 10,000, advanced against the Scots between Myton and Thornton-on-Swale, about twelve miles north of York. 'These,' said the Scots, 'are not soldiers, but hunters; they will not do much good.' For the English 'came through the fields in scattered fashion, and not in united order.' The Scots formed a schiltron, and set fire to some hay in front, the smoke from which was blown into the faces of the English. As they met, the Scots raised a great shout, and the enemy, 'more intent on fleeing than on fighting,' took to their heels. The Scots mounted in pursuit, killing (says the Lanercost chronicle) clergy and laymen, about 4000, including Nicholas Fleming, the Mayor of York, while about 1000, 'as was said,' were drowned in the Swale. Many were captured and held to heavy ransom. The Archbishop lost, not only his men, his carriages, and his equipment generally, but all his plate, 'silver and bronze as well,' which his servants had 'thoughtlessly' taken to the field; and yet the blame may rest elsewhere, for the York host appears to have fully anticipated that the Scots would flee at sight of them. The Primate's official cross was saved by the bearer, who dashed on horseback through the Swale and carefully hid it, escaping himself in the dusk of the evening. Then a countryman, who had observed the cross and watched the bearer's retreat, discovered it, wound wisps of hay about it, and kept it in his hut till search was made for it, whereupon he restored it to the Archbishop. Such is John of Bridlington's story. The whole episode contrasts markedly with the exploit of Bishop Sinclair in Fife. It was contemptuously designated, from the number of ecclesiastics, 'the Chapter of Myton.'

The Myton disaster occurred on September 20, and on September 24 Edward raised the siege of Berwick. Certain chroniclers speak of intestine dissensions, and particularly of a quarrel with Lancaster over the appointment of wardens of town and castle once Berwick was taken. The Lanercost chronicler says Edward desired to detach a body to intercept the Scots, and with the rest to carry on the siege; but his magnates would not hear of it. He accordingly abandoned the siege, and marched westward to cut off the retreat of the Scots. Randolph had penetrated to Castleford Bridge, near Pontefract, and swept up Airedale and Wharfdale; and, passing by Stainmoor and Gilsland, he eluded Edward's army, and carried into Scotland many captives and immense plunder. It remained for Edward but to disband his troops, and go home, as usual, with empty hands.

About a month later (November 1), when the crops were harvested in northern England, Randolph and Douglas returned with fire and sword. They burnt Gilsland, and passed down to Brough (Burgh) under Stainmoor; turned back on Westmorland, which they ravaged for ten or twelve days, and went home through Cumberland. They mercilessly burnt barns and the stored crops, and swept the country of men and cattle.

Edward began to think of truce. In his letter of December 4 to the Pope, he represents that urgent proposals for peace had come to him from Bruce and his friends. In any case, the step was a most sensible one. On December 21, terms were agreed on, and next day Bruce confirmed them. This truce was to run for two years and the odd days to Christmas. Bruce agreed to raise no new fortresses within the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, and Dumfries. He delivered the castle of Harbottle to Edward's commissioners, 'as private persons,' with the proviso that, unless a final peace were made by Michaelmas, it should be either redelivered to him or demolished. On August 25, 1321, Edward commanded that it should be destroyed 'as secretly as possible.'

In autumn 1319, the Pope, at the instance of Edward, had given orders for a revival of the excommunications against Bruce and his friends; but on January 8, 1319–20, he cited Bruce and the Bishops of St Andrews, Dunkeld, Aberdeen, and Moray, to compear before him by May 1. The summons went unheeded; he had not addressed Bruce as King. Excommunications were again hurled at Bruce and his bishops, and Scotland was laid under ecclesiastical interdict. Meanwhile, however, the Scots 'barons, freeholders, and all the community of the realm'—no churchmen, be it observed—assembled at Arbroath Abbey on April 6, and addressed to his Holiness a memorable word in season. First, as to their kingdom and their King:

Our nation continued to enjoy freedom and peace under the protection of the Papal See, till Edward, the late King of the English, in the guise of a friend and ally, attacked our realm, then without a head, and our people, then thinking no evil or deceit, and unaccustomed to war or aggression. The acts of injury, murder, violence, burning, imprisonment of prelates, burning of abbeys, spoliation and slaying of ecclesiastics, and other enormities besides, which he practised on our people, sparing no age or sex, creed or rank, no man could describe or fully understand without the teaching of experience. From such countless evils, by the help of Him that woundeth and maketh whole, we have been delivered by the strenuous exertions of our Sovereign Lord, King Robert, who, for the deliverance of his people and his inheritance from the hands of the enemy, like another Maccabeus or Joshua, cheerfully endured toils and perils, distress and want. Him the Divine Providence, that legal succession in accordance with our laws and customs, which we are resolved to uphold even to death, and the due consent of us all, made our Prince and King. To him, as the man that has worked out the salvation of the people, we, in maintenance of our freedom, by reason as well of his merits as of his right, hold and are resolved to adhere in all things. If he should abandon our cause, with the intention of subjecting us or our realm to the King of England or to the English, we should instantly strain every nerve to expel him as our enemy and the subverter of both his own rights and ours, and choose another for our King, such a one as should suffice for our defence; for, so long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we be reduced to any sort of subjection to the dominion of the English. For it is not for glory, or riches, or honours, that we contend, but for freedom alone, which no man worthy of the name loses but with his life.

With this noble and resolute declaration, they appealed to the Pope to 'admonish' Edward, who ought to be content with his own dominions, anciently held enough for seven kings, and 'to leave in peace us Scotsmen, dwelling in our poor and remote country, and desiring nothing but our own,' for which 'we are ready and willing to do anything we can consistently with our national interests.' But, further, as to the Pope himself:

If, however, your Holiness, yielding too credulous an ear to the reports of our English enemies, do not give sincere credit to what we now say, or do not cease from showing them favour to our confusion, it is on you, we believe, that in the sight of the Most High, must be charged the loss of lives, the perdition of souls, and all the other miseries that they will inflict on us and we on them.

This memorable declaration was not without effect. On August 13, the Pope earnestly impressed Edward with the duty of keeping on good terms with Bruce. And on August 18, he wrote that, on the prayer of Bruce by his envoys, Sir Edward de Mambuisson and Sir Adam de Gordon, he had granted suspension of the personal citation and of the publication of the sentences till the 1st of April next year.

CHAPTER XII
PEACE AT THE SWORD'S POINT

The Scots manifesto of April 6, 1320, presented a united and firm front to English pretensions and Papal intrigues. Yet there were traitors in the camp. Little more than four months had elapsed when the Black Parliament, held at Scone on August 20, was investigating a conspiracy to kill King Robert and elevate to the throne Sir William de Soulis. Sir William was a brother of Sir John, and a grandson of Sir Nicholas, one of the Competitors in 1292. Edward's emissaries had been tampering with the fidelity of King Robert's barons.

The plot still remains involved in obscurity. It was discovered to the King, Barbour heard, by a lady. Gray, however, as well as John of Tynmouth, states that the informant was Sir Murdoch de Menteith, who had come over to Bruce in 1316–17, and remained on the Scots side till his death some sixteen years later; but, apart from his name, there seems no reason to suppose that he was in Edward's pay. Sir William was arrested at Berwick, with 360 squires in his livery (says Barbour), to say nothing of 'joly' knights. He openly confessed his guilt, and was interned for life in Dumbarton Castle. The Countess of Strathearn was also imprisoned for life. Sir David de Brechin, Sir John de Logie, and Richard Brown a squire, were drawn, hanged, and beheaded. Sir Roger de Mowbray opportunely died; but his body was brought up and condemned to be drawn, hanged, and beheaded—a ghastly sentence considerately remitted by the King. Sir Eustace de Maxwell, Sir Walter de Barclay, Sheriff of Aberdeen, Sir Patrick de Graham, and two squires, Hamelin de Troupe and Eustace de Rattray, were fully acquitted. Soulis, Brechin, Mowbray, Maxwell, and Graham had all attended the Arbroath parliament, and put their seals to the loyal manifesto.

It is far from evident why Soulis escaped with imprisonment while Brechin and others were sent to the gallows. Robert may have judged that Soulis was a tool rather than prime mover of the plot; he may have regarded the long service of the culprit; he may have softened at the recollection of his brother Sir John's death by his own brother Edward's side. Brechin, no doubt, had considerable services to his credit. But his record shows grievous instability, and Robert probably had sound reasons for putting a period to his dubieties. His fate aroused painful regrets. Barbour narrates that Sir Ingram de Umfraville openly censured the sight-seers at his friend's execution, obtained leave to give the body honourable burial, and prepared to quit Scotland, telling the King he had no heart to remain after seeing so good a knight meet with such a fate. This story of Barbour's has been too hastily discredited.

The position of Bruce remained unshaken. On November 17, Edward instructed various high officers to receive to his peace, 'as secretly as they could,' such Scots as felt their consciences troubled by the papal excommunication; and, on December 11, the Archbishop of York was empowered to release all such renegades from the censure of the Church. Sir Ingram de Umfraville was re-established in his Northumberland estates (January 26), and Sir Alexander de Mowbray (February 18) and Sir William de Mohaut (May 20) obtained Edward's pardon. But Bruce was practically unaffected by Edward's subterranean diplomacy.

Openly, Edward maintained due observance of the truce, and by the middle of September 1320, had taken steps towards a final peace. The negotiations begun at Carlisle at Michaelmas were resumed at Newcastle on February 2, and continued for nine weeks; papal commissioners being present, and French envoys fostering the cause of peace. But the deliberations were fruitless. The Earl of Richmond's production of a mass of old parchments to demonstrate Edward's overlordship of Scotland indicates how little the English King and commissioners realised the facts of the situation.

Throughout the summer and autumn of 1321, Edward was in hot water with the barons of the Welsh border. At the July parliament at Westminster, he was compelled to banish the Despensers, and to send home the turbulent lords with pardon. These troubles prevented him from sending the promised envoys to 'enlighten the consciences' of the Pope and his Cardinals as to the wickedness of the Scots. On August 25, however, he wrote the usual denunciatory generalities, and yet again impressed on his Holiness the necessity of dealing severely with Bruce and his adherents. The summons of Bruce and his four Bishops had meanwhile been postponed to September 1; but even then they did not compear. Edward's envoys, at last despatched on December 8, were still in very good time. Having taken Leeds Castle in Kent and driven back the marauding Marchers to the Welsh border, he informed the Pope that his domestic troubles were settling down, and, in view of an expedition on the expiry of the Scots truce at Christmas, he appealed for a subsidy from Rome. But already Lancaster was stretching one hand to Bruce and the other to the malcontents of the Welsh March.

The Marchers rose, but Edward proved himself the stronger, and by the third week of January received the submission of the Mortimers. On February 8, he tried conciliation with Lancaster, and also authorised Harcla to treat with Bruce for 'some sort of final peace.' Lancaster, however, received the Welsh insurgents, and harassed Edward's advance, but was compelled to fall back on his castle of Pontefract.

Lancaster's negotiations with the Scots had begun as early as December. His emissary, Richard de Topcliffe, an ecclesiastic, had obtained a safe-conduct from Douglas (December 11) to visit Jedburgh, and one from Randolph (January 15) to come to him wherever he could find him. Randolph was then at Corbridge on a swift raid, while Douglas and the Steward advanced, the one towards Hartlepool and the other towards Richmond, harrying or taking ransom. Immediately on the junction of Hereford and his Marchers with Lancaster at Pontefract, in the beginning of February, before they went south to oppose Edward's advance, the rebel chiefs despatched John de Denum with a letter to Bruce, Randolph, and Douglas, 'or which of them he shall soonest find,' asking an appointment for a final agreement. The precise terms proposed were presently found on the dead body of Hereford at Boroughbridge. Bruce, if not detained by illness or other serious cause, and Randolph and Douglas, with their power, shall join the Earls in their enterprise 'in England, Wales and Ireland, and with them live and die in the maintenance of their quarrel, without claiming conquest or dominion in the said lands of England, Wales, and Ireland.' The Earls, on their part, shall never aid Edward against the Scots, and, their quarrel ended, shall do their best to establish and maintain peace between the two countries on the footing of independence. Fortunately for Edward, John de Denum lost ten days in his peregrinations. He missed Douglas on February 7, and was unable to obtain his reply till February 17. On February 16, Randolph, then at Cavers, near Hawick, had issued a safe-conduct for Sir John de Mowbray and Sir Roger de Clifford to come to him in Scotland. In either case, the ten days were gone. But for this accident, the history of the English crown would probably have been turned into another channel.

The approach of the royal troops decided the insurgents to retire towards the Scots, to Lancaster's castle of Dunstanburgh. At Boroughbridge, however, they were confronted by Harcla on March 16, and disastrously defeated. Hereford was slain on the bridge; Lancaster was captured, tried, and beheaded. Harcla was created Earl of Carlisle. 'Do not trouble yourself,' wrote Edward to the Pope (March 25), 'to proclaim a truce between me and the Scots. Formerly some exigencies inclined me to a truce, but now, thank God, these no longer exist, and I am constrained, by God's help, to war them down for their broken faith.'

Edward at once summoned his army to muster at Newcastle by the second week in June; but early in May he postponed the assembly till July 24. By that time, however, the Scots had completed another destructive raid. Before mid June, a force had crossed the western March; and in the beginning of July, Robert himself, with Randolph and Douglas, penetrated beyond Preston and ravaged the length and breadth of Lancashire and the archdeaconry of Richmond, burning Lancaster town and castle 'so entirely that nothing is left,' and carrying off what cattle had not been driven for safety into the remoter parts of Yorkshire. They do not seem to have encountered local opposition. As they returned, they lay five days before Carlisle, without drawing forth the prudent Harcla; and on July 24, they struck their tents for home.

The English army followed them, entering Scotland by the eastern March in the first days of August. Robert withdrew both men and cattle from the Merse and the Lothians, either to the strongholds or beyond the Forth, and lay with his army at Culross. Barbour tells how an English foraging party found but one lame cow at Tranent: 'It is the dearest beef I ever saw yet,' remarked Warenne, 'it must have cost £1000 and more.' Edward himself subsequently wrote that he had 'found neither man nor beast' in the Lothians. The English fleet failed to bring up provisions, and, on August 23, Edward found himself with some 7000 men at Leith, in like predicament with his father before the battle of Falkirk. He was starved into retreat. Immediately the Scots hung upon his rear, and Douglas cut up an advance company of 300 men near Melrose. The English had sacked Holyrood; they now sacked Melrose Abbey, killing the prior and others; and they burnt to the ground Dryburgh and other monasteries. 'But,' says Fordun, 'God rewarded them therefor.'

Bruce instantly followed up his advantage. By the middle of September, the Scots were before Bamborough and Norham. Bamborough bought off the invaders; and on September 26, Sir Roger de Horsley, the constable, as well as the constables of Warkworth, Dunstanburgh, and Alnwick castles, received a severe wigging from Edward for not showing fight against such an inferior force. Norham was defended by Sir Thomas Gray the elder against an inadequate body of 200 Scots. Edward displayed great energy of rebuke and counsel, while Robert steadily advanced southwards. On October 14, the English army barred the way on the ridge of Blackhowe Moor between Biland and Rievaulx; but Bruce's rapid action enabled him to strike a decisive blow before the Earl of Carlisle, who was at Boroughbridge with 2000 (surely not, as some say, 20,000) horse and foot, could effect a junction, if indeed he really meant to do so.

Douglas at once offered to storm the English position, and Randolph, leaving his own division, led the way up the hill as a volunteer. The Scots were strongly opposed by Sir Ralph de Cobham, who was held to be the best knight of his day in England, and by Sir Thomas Ughtred, constable of Pickering, whose gallantry in the fight raised him to a higher position than even Cobham. The assailants were grievously embarrassed by stones rolled down upon them and by the fire of the archers. Robert supported them by sending 'the Irishry,' the Argyll Highlanders, and the men of the Isles to scramble up the crags in flank. At the top they were confronted by the main body under the Earl of Richmond, but they charged with such impetuosity as broke the English ranks and scattered them in flight; Gray even uses the conventional expression, 'like a hare before hounds.' 'In these days,' says John of Bridlington, 'the Lord took away the hearts of the English.' Richmond was captured and held to heavy ransom (14,000 marks). Lord Henri de Sully and other French knights surrendered to Douglas; by arrangement with whom, King Robert soon released them by way of diplomatic compliment to the King of France. Edward narrowly escaped from Biland Abbey and fled through the night to Bridlington, whence the prior conducted him to Burstwick. Sir Walter the Steward pursued as far as York. Robert occupied the abbeys of Biland and Rievaulx and divided the spoils of the English camp and the king's baggage. Then, making Malton his headquarters, he wasted Yorkshire at his will, taking ransoms from Ripon, Beverley, and other towns, and despoiling religious houses; and he returned, with immense booty, to keep Christmas in Scotland.

Three calamitous invasions in one year might well have induced reflection in a statesmanlike mind. They merely excited Edward's impotent eagerness for revenge. But the Earl of Carlisle, as doughty a warrior as the best, saw that the contest was both hopeless and ruinous; and on January 3, 1322–23, he was closeted with Randolph at Lochmaben. There and then they drafted an agreement. The fundamental provisions were: (1) that each realm should have its own national King; (2) that the Earl should aid King Robert in maintaining Scotland against all gainsayers; and (3) that King Robert and the Earl should maintain the realm of England under the direction of a council of twelve, six to be chosen by each party. Then, if the King of England should assent to these conditions within a year, King Robert was to found an abbey in Scotland, of 500 marks rent, for the souls of the men slain in war, and to pay an indemnity of 40,000 marks within ten years; and the King of England was to have the marriage of the heir male of the King of Scotland under advice of the council of twelve.

Harcla at once published the terms of the agreement, and they were received with intense satisfaction on the Border. He appears to have acted in concert with the chief officers in these parts, and to have believed, or at least professed, that he acted within the terms of his commission. Edward, however, on January 8, ordered that no truce be made without his knowledge, and summoned Harcla to his presence; and on January 19, he sent a copy of the Lochmaben indenture to his Council at York, with the comment that it appeared to him 'fraught with great danger.' He had already (January 13) instituted a search of the Chancery rolls for any authorisation to Harcla to treat with the Scots. On February 25, Harcla was arrested in Carlisle Castle; and on March 3, he was tried, condemned, and barbarously executed. The charge of treason, though formally too well grounded, was essentially baseless; otherwise it is unintelligible that Harcla should have limited his measures of self-defence to the procurement of the formal oaths of the northern sheriffs to stand by him 'in all things touching the common good of England and the said peace.' His action was simply the action of a strong, business-like, and patriotic man, forgetful of finesse. His mistake lay in omitting to obtain express authority to treat, and in neglecting either to veil his contempt for the King, or to provide against his natural resentment, inflamed as it was sure to be by the envy of personal enemies.

The death of Harcla, the keenest and ablest warrior in England, did not remove the difficulties from Edward's path. In a fortnight he was treating for peace—'was frightened, and begged for peace,' according to the Flores Historiarum—though in his own perversely maladroit fashion. On March 21, Robert wrote to Lord Henri de Sully, Edward's envoy, in substance this:

The King of England's letter, of which you sent me a copy yesterday, bears that he has granted a cessation of arms to the people of Scotland at war with him. This language is very strange to me. In former truces taken between us, I was named principal of the one part, as he was of the other part, although he did not vouchsafe to me the title of King. But on this occasion, no more mention is made of me than of the least person in my realm; so that, in case of a breach, I should be no more entitled than another to demand redress. Do not be surprised, then, that I do not agree to this truce. If, however, it were put before me in the proper way, I should willingly sanction it, as I promised you. I send you a copy of the King's letter; for I imagine you have not seen it, or, if you have, you have paid but scant attention to its terms.

After some futile negotiations at Newcastle, a truce was at last concluded at Bishopsthorpe, near York, to last till June 12, and for thirteen years thereafter. On May 30, 1323, Edward ordered it to be proclaimed throughout England; and on June 7, Robert ratified it at Berwick. Each party was to evacuate all lands of the other by June 12; neither party was to build or repair fortresses on the March, excepting constructions in progress; and Edward was to interpose no obstacle to any attempt of Robert and his friends to obtain absolution at Rome. During the negotiations, Edward had been summoning his forces in England, Ireland, and Gascony, in the belief that the Scots were really purposing another invasion; but in the first days of June he countermanded the muster.

King Robert was sincerely anxious to set himself and his people right with the Church. He despatched Randolph as his ambassador. On his way south, Randolph, with the Bishop of St Andrews, treated with Edward's commissioners for a final peace; and, at any rate, on November 25, he got Edward to write to the Pope and the Cardinals in favour of a grant of absolution to the Scots during the peace negotiations. How Randolph fared at Rome we learn from a letter of the Pope's to Edward, dated January 1, 1323–24. First, he begged for the usual indulgences necessary to enable him to fulfil his vow to go on a crusade. The Pope refused: there would be little good to the Holy Land or to his own soul, while he lay under the Church's censure; but the request might be reconsidered if he would effect a permanent peace with England and satisfy the Church. Secondly, Randolph prayed for safe conducts for Bruce's envoys, presently to be sent to procure reconciliation with the Church. The Pope refused, for the present, but he agreed to direct the usual application to the princes on the line of route. Thirdly, Randolph put forward Robert's readiness to join the King of France in his proposed crusade, or, if the King of France did not go, then to proceed himself or send Randolph instead. The Pope replied that reconciliation with the Church was an indispensable condition precedent. Fourthly, Randolph declared that King Robert and himself desired above all things to obtain peace and reconciliation, and that it really lay with His Holiness to bring their ardent desires to fruition. Let him address himself to Robert as King, and Robert would readily respond to his wishes; it was the reservation of the royal title that blocked the way. The Pope consented to address Robert by the royal title.

Edward was keenly annoyed. The Pope, after setting forth the facts of Randolph's interview, had earnestly begged Edward not to take it ill that he had consented to address Robert as King. It could do him no harm; it could do Robert no good. He was intensely anxious for peace, and, if he did not give Robert the royal title, Robert would not look at his letters any more than he had done before. But Edward did not agree. He bluntly urged that the concession would prejudice his right and his honour, bring discredit on the Church, and enable Bruce to make capital of his wrong-doing. He recapitulated his claims to Scotland, contended that no change should be introduced during the truce, and pointed out that the concession would be popularly construed as a papal confirmation of Bruce's title. Let the title therefore be reserved as before.

Then Edward played another card: he invited Edward de Balliol, son of ex-King John, to come over to England. The safe-conduct was issued on July 2; and it was not Edward's fault that Balliol postponed his visit. Meantime, in the midst of conflict with France over Aquitaine, Edward continued negotiations with Robert for final peace. But no agreement could be reached. The true cause appears in Edward's letter of March 8, 1324–25, to the Pope. There had recently been a meeting of envoys at York, but the Scots would not yet budge from their old position, and 'I could not meet their wishes without manifest disherison of my royal crown.' His envoys had proposed to refer the knotty point to the decision of His Holiness; but 'this they absolutely declined.' The Scots, indeed, had apparently stiffened their demands. According to the Monk of Malmesbury, they had claimed not only the independence of Scotland, but also the north of England down to the gates of York (by right of conquest), and the restoration of Bruce's manor of Writtle in Essex, as well as of the famous coronation stone.

In May, Scots envoys were again on the road to Rome, and Edward wrote to the Pope, informing him that he was sending ambassadors to guard his own interests. Again, on September 23, he wrote to the Pope and the Cardinals urging them not to recall the sentences of excommunication till the Scots should surrender Berwick to him—Berwick, captured treacherously in defiance of the papal truce. The Pope consented, and on October 18 Edward expressed effusive thanks. But he reaped no advantage from the diplomatic victory: in three months he was deposed by his Parliament for notorious incompetence.

On January 25, 1326–27, Edward, Prince of Wales, a boy of fifteen, was proclaimed King. He presently confirmed the thirteen years' truce (February 15), and appointed envoys to treat for final peace (March 4). The meeting was to take place on the March on May 17. But, on April 5, Edward III. summoned his power to be at Newcastle by May 18, averring that he had sure information that Robert was massing his troops on the Border with the intention of invading England if his own terms of peace were not conceded. It seems much more likely that Robert's action was purely precautionary in view of the disturbed condition of the English March; but a hostile construction was favoured by the fact that many of the most turbulent fellows in Northumberland were Scots. On the other hand, Barbour is likely enough to be right in asserting that Robert was unable to obtain redress for the seizure of Scots vessels in English and Flemish waters; and it may be, as he says, that for this reason Robert openly renounced the truce. At the same time, Robert must have heard of Edward's warlike preparations by land and sea. This may be what Fordun has in view when he says that the duplicity of the English was at length laid bare. Edward's summons was issued on April 5, and Froissart places Robert's formal defiance 'about Easter' (April 12); but this date must be nearly two months too early. One thing is certain: Robert was in no aggressive mood, and would not have resumed hostilities without really serious provocation.

About the middle of June a body of Scots crossed the Border, and on July 4 they were at Appleby, almost in touch with the Earl Marshal. Edward was at York, where he had been joined by Sir John of Hainault, Lord of Beaumont, with a body of heavy cavalry, between whom and the English archers much bad blood had been spilt in the streets of York. His army was very large—Barbour says 50,000; Froissart says upwards of 40,000 men-at-arms; Murimuth says three times as large and strong as the Scots army—a force difficult alike to handle and to feed in a rough and wasted country, especially in face of the Scots veterans. On July 13, Edward had reached Northallerton, and had learned that the Scots intended to mass their forces near Carlisle.

By this time the Scots army, under Randolph and Douglas, had ravaged Coquetdale and penetrated into the Episcopate of Durham. When Edward reached Durham city, he was apprised of the passage of the Scots by a track of smoking ruins and devastated fields. He decided to bar their return. Advancing with his cavalry, he crossed the Tyne at Haydon Bridge (July 26), leaving his infantry on the south side. But the Scots did not come, and between drenching rains and lack of provisions his troops were worn out in body and in temper. The men, says Froissart, 'tore the meat out of each other's hands'; and 'great murmurs arose in the army.' After a week's distressful experience, he determined to seek the enemy southwards, and offered a reward of £100 a year in land, as well as knighthood, to the man that should bring him in sight of them 'on hard and dry ground' fit for battle. He crossed the Tyne at Haltwhistle fords, losing many men in the swollen river. On the fourth day, Thomas de Rokeby reported the Scots, and brought Edward face to face with them on the Wear.

The Scots were strongly posted on a rising ground on the south bank: Froissart numbers them 24,000; Barbour, much more probably, 10,000. Douglas made a reconnaissance, and reported a strong army in seven divisions. 'We will fight them,' cried Randolph, 'were they more'; but Douglas counselled patience. Presently Edward sent heralds, offering to retire far enough to allow the Scots room to array themselves for battle on the north side on the morrow; or, if the Scots preferred, to accept like terms on the south side. It was an unconscious repetition of the offer of Tomyris, Queen of Massagetai, to Cyrus, on the Araxes river. But the Scots, evidently too weak to fight in a plain field, replied that they would do neither the one thing nor the other; that the King and his barons saw they were in his kingdom and had burnt and pillaged wherever they had passed, and that, if this displeased the King, he might come and amend it; for they would tarry there as long as they pleased.' That night the English lay on their arms. Part of the Scots also kept themselves in readiness, while the rest retired to their huts, 'where they made marvellously great fires, and, about midnight, such a blasting and noise with their horns that it seemed as if all the great devils from hell had been come there.'

The next two days the Scots and English lay watching each other across the Wear. On the first day, a thousand English archers, supported by men-at-arms, attempted to draw the Scots. Douglas, planting an ambush under the Earl of Mar (who had at length joined the Scots) and his own son Archibald of Douglas, rode forward, with a cloak over his armour, and gradually gave way to their onset, till he had enticed them within reach of the ambush. At Douglas's signal, the ambush broke upon the pursuers, and slew 300 of them. Next day, the English put 1000 horsemen in ambush in a valley behind the Scots position, and delivered a front attack. Douglas was advancing to repel the assailants when he was informed of the force in rear, and instantly drew back his men. 'They flee,' cried some Englishmen; but John of Hainault explained the manœuvre, and, according to Barbour, pronounced the Scots captain fit 'to govern the Empire of Rome.'

On the following morning—probably August 3—the Scots were gone. They had moved about two miles along the river, and occupied a still stronger position in Stanhope Park. In the afternoon the English were again facing them. About midnight, Douglas, with 200 horsemen—Barbour says 500—crossed the Wear, and rode boldly into the English camp. 'No guard, by St George!' he exclaimed, on being discovered, as if he were an English officer. He made right for the King's pavilion, and, shouting his war-cry, actually 'cut two or three of its cords.' The King most narrowly escaped capture or death. Douglas got clear with but insignificant loss, and, collecting his men by a prearranged note of his horn, he returned to camp. Randolph, who was waiting under arms, ready for rescue or aid, eagerly asked the news. 'Sir,' replied Douglas, 'we have drawn blood.'

The success of Douglas suggested to Randolph that a larger party might have inflicted defeat on the English. Douglas had his grave doubts. Randolph again proposed a pitched battle. Douglas objected, in view of the disastrous effects in case of defeat. No; better treat the English as the fox treated the fisherman. The fox had entered the fisherman's cottage and was eating a salmon. The fisherman discovered him, and stood on the threshold with a drawn sword in his hand. The fox, seeing the fisherman's cloak on the bed, dragged it into the fire. Thereupon the fisherman rushed to save his cloak, and the fox bolted out at the unguarded door. Douglas, in fact, had planned a mode of escape, and, though somewhat wet ('sumdele wat'), it would serve. Randolph gave way. So the Scots made merry in the day time, burnt great fires at night, and blew their horns 'as if all the world were theirs.' Occasional skirmishes took place, and the English drew round the Scots on both sides, leaving their rear open on a morass believed to be impassable. Meantime Douglas made his preparations.

It was probably on the night of August 6–7 that Douglas led the Scots army out of Stanhope Park. He took them across the morass, about a mile wide, over a causeway of branches, which the rear demolished as they passed. The men led their horses, and only a few baggage animals stuck fast. By daybreak the Scots were far on the way homewards. The English had been completely outwitted. On the day before, they had captured a Scots knight, who told them that orders had been issued 'for all to be armed by vespers and to follow the banner of Douglas,' he did not know where. The English lords suspected a night attack, and remained under arms. In the morning, two Scots trumpeters, who had been left to blow misleading blasts, were brought into camp. 'The Scots,' they said, 'are on the march home, since midnight; they left us behind to give you the information.' The English, fearing a ruse, continued to stand to their arms till their scouts confirmed the mortifying intelligence.

The Scots were soon met by a considerable body of their countrymen under the Earl of March and Sir John the Steward. They all hurried back to Scotland by the western march. The English retired to Durham, and then to York, where the army was disbanded on August 15. Edward is said to have shed bitter tears over the collapse of his expedition. Some of the chroniclers allege unsupported charges of treachery, and mistakenly accuse Mortimer of accepting a heavy bribe to wink at the escape of the Scots. But the plain fact is that the English were outgeneralled at every turn.

It was neither age nor sickness, as the chroniclers allege, that prevented King Robert from leading the Weardale foray. He was away in Ireland, creating a diversion. On July 12, at Glendun in Antrim, he granted a truce for a year to Henry de Maundeville, the English seneschal of Ulster, and his people, on condition of their delivering a certain quantity of wheat and barley at Lough Larne. The expedition does not seem to have been directly prosperous; the Irish, whom he had expected to rise and join him in Ulster, having apparently broken faith.

Immediately on the return of the Scots from Weardale, King Robert passed into Northumberland. He sent Randolph and Douglas to besiege Alnwick Castle; set down another division before Norham Castle; and, with a third body, himself overran the neighbourhood. He even granted away the English lands to his chief followers. The attempt on Alnwick was unsuccessful, and, the open country having bought a truce, the leaders concentrated on Norham. On October 1, while Bruce still lay before Norham, Edward appointed commissioners to treat with him for final peace. After negotiations at Newcastle and York, the treaty was signed by Robert at Edinburgh on March 17; confirmed by the English Parliament on April 24; and finally, on May 4, signed by Edward at Northampton. Edward conceded in the fullest terms the absolute independence of Scotland as the marches stood in the days of Alexander III., and agreed to deliver up all extant documents relating to the overlordship, and in any case to annul them; and he consented to aid Robert to obtain the revocation of the papal processes. Robert agreed to pay £20,000 sterling in three years. And the peace was to be cemented by the marriage of David, the Scots heir-apparent, a boy of four, with Joan, King Edward's sister, a girl of six. In England, the peace was freely stigmatised as 'shameful,' and the marriage as 'base'; partly on patriotic grounds, partly from dislike of Queen Isabella and Mortimer, who guided the policy of the King. The news of the death of the King of France no doubt gave an impulse to the English decision, for it would be necessary for Edward to have his hands free to assert his claim to the succession. The conditions were alike 'honourable for the Scots and necessary for England.'

CHAPTER XIII
THE HEART OF THE BRUCE

King Robert the Bruce died at Cardross on the Clyde, on June 7, 1329, a little more than a month before the completion of his fifty-fifth year. The cause of his death is said to have been leprosy. Barbour says it was the development of a severe cold, a benumbment contracted in the hardships of his early wanderings. Apart from specific disease, the strain of his laborious reign of nearly a quarter of a century would have shaken the strongest constitution of man.

In the last three years he had been struck by two severe bereavements: the death of his son-in-law, Sir Walter the Steward, a knight of great promise, on April 9, 1326; and the death of the queen, at Cullen, on October 26, 1327. In the latter year, indeed, in spite of increasing illness, he had taken the field in Ireland and in Northumberland. But he had been unable to attend the marriage of David and Joan at Berwick in July 1328. Still he continued to move about quietly. When, however, Douglas brought him back from a visit to Galloway in the end of March 1329, it was not to be concealed that 'there was no way for him but death.' And, accordingly, he set his house in order.

On October 15, 1328, the Pope had at last granted absolution to Robert from the excommunication pronounced by the cardinals, and, on November 5, authorised his confessor to give him plenary remission in the hour of death.

At a parliament held on November 14, 1328, at Scone, it had been settled that, in the event of David's dying without heir male of his body begotten, Robert the Steward, son of Marjory, should succeed; and that, if King Robert died during David's minority, Randolph should be regent, and, failing Randolph, Douglas. David and Joan were crowned, and David received homage and fealty.

On May 11, 1329, the King assembled his prelates and barons to hear his last wishes. He gave directions for liberal largess to religious houses, with special consideration for Melrose Abbey, where he desired his heart to be buried. He declared his long-cherished intention—Froissart says his 'solemn vow'—after bringing his realm to peace, 'to go forth and war with the enemies of Christ, the adversaries of our holy Christian faith.' As he had been unable to carry out his fixed purpose, he wished his heart to be taken and borne against the foes of God. On Douglas was laid this great and noble charge. Froissart mentions a specific instruction: 'I wish that you convey my heart to the Holy Sepulchre where our Lord lay, and present it there, seeing my body cannot go thither. And wherever you come,' added the King, 'let it be known that you carry with you the heart of King Robert of Scotland, at his own instance and desire, to be presented at the Holy Sepulchre.' Douglas solemnly pledged himself to this last faithful service.

On the death of King Robert, his heart was embalmed, and enclosed in a silver casket 'cunningly enamelled,' which Douglas bore always about his neck. Strangely enough, even in death, the King came in conflict with Rome; for the excision of his heart was a breach of a Papal Bull of 1299, involving excommunication of the mutilators, and excluding the body from ecclesiastical burial. On August 13, 1331, the Pope, at the prayer of Randolph, granted absolution to all that had taken part 'in the inhuman and cruel treatment' of the King's body.

The body was embalmed, and carried through the Lennox, and by Dunipace and Cambuskenneth, to repose with the body of the Queen in Dunfermline Abbey—since Malcolm Canmore, the last resting-place of the Kings of Scotland. Over the King's grave was erected a marble monument, which he had ordered from Paris a twelvemonth before his death. It might have been supposed that never in time would any Scotsman lay a rude hand on the sepulchre of the greatest of Scottish kings; yet on March 28, 1560, an insensate rabble of 'Reformers' razed the abbey to the ground, and broke in pieces the royal monument. In 1818, when foundations for a new church were being cleared, there were found, in a grave in front of the spot where the high altar of the Abbey Church had stood, the bones of a man whose breast-bone had been sawn asunder, and who had been buried in fine linen shot with gold thread. The probability that these were the bones of Bruce was enhanced by the surrounding fragments of black and white marble, well-polished, carved, and gilt. There lay also a mouldering skull, which five centuries agone may have held the powerful brain that dominated the field of Bannockburn.

Douglas set about his preparations. Now that peace with England was established, and Randolph held the reins of State, there was no national reason why Douglas could not be spared for a time. Nor would warriors like Bruce and his paladins have ever weighed for a moment the risks of the sacred mission. It seems a misapprehension to suggest either selfishness or ingratitude on the part of the dying King. Nor is there any substantial ground for imagining that Robert feared any lack of harmony between his two great lieutenants. Barbour's casual suggestion of petty rivalry between them cannot weigh for a moment against their constant association in scores of enterprises. Their rivalry was of noble quality. The King had made a knightly vow, and that vow he must, as far as might be, perform; it was hardly less a national than a personal obligation.

On September 1, Douglas obtained from Edward III. letters of protection for seven years, and a letter of commendation to Alfonso XI., King of Castile and Leon. On February 1, 1329–30, the day of the patron saint of his house, St Bride, he bestowed lands on the Abbey of Newbattle to secure her special intercession in his spiritual interests. Shortly thereafter he set out on his mission, with 'a noble company'—one knight banneret, seven other knights, twenty-six squires, and a large retinue. According to Froissart, he sailed from Montrose to Sluys, where he lay twelve days, thinking he might be joined by other knights 'going beyond the sea to Jerusalem'; and then to Valencia in Spain. According to Barbour he sailed from Berwick direct to Seville. In any case, he proceeded to the camp of Alfonso, then on his frontier warring against Osmyn, the Moorish King of Granada, and was received with honour befitting his fame and his mission. The knights with Alfonso were eagerly curious to see the famous Scot; and one notable warrior expressed his great surprise that Douglas's face was not seamed with scars like his own. 'Praised be God!' said Douglas, 'I always had hands to defend my head.'

On August 25, 1330, the Christian and Moorish armies faced each other near Theba on the Andalusian frontier. Froissart states that Douglas mistook a forward movement of the Spanish troops for the onset of battle, and charged the Moors furiously; but the Spaniards had halted and left him unsupported. The story seems little consonant with Douglas's warlike intelligence. Barbour says that Alfonso assigned to Douglas the command of the van—which is very unlikely, unless he also assigned him an interpreter. He also asserts that Douglas hurled the precious casket 'a stone-cast and well more' into the ranks of the enemy, exclaiming—