THE victor of Falkirk was received in London with
extravagant demonstrations of rejoicing. Little did the Fishmongers of the
city, who were foremost in ostentation, know that Falkirk was a lucky
accident, that the King and all his host had just previously been on the
point of retirement, and that after the battle they had had to beat a
decently expeditious retreat before the terrors of starvation. The north was
solidly in the hands of the Scots. The south, apart from strongholds, was
but nominally under the control of the English. The English, in fact, did
little more than hold the mere ground they stood on. Nor was the spirit of
the Scots broken.
On the
contrary, Edward no sooner commenced to retire than the Scots swarmed after
him over the Forth line. Within a fortnight of Falkirk, and only three days
after Edward had received homages in Newcastle-under-Ayr, they were in
Glasgow, before Edinburgh, and in Selkirk Forest. On August 9, Sir John de
Kingston, the Constable of Edinburgh Castle, wrote a most suggestive
despatch to the Lord Treasurer. 'The Earl of Buchan, the Bishop of St.
Andrews, and other great earls and lords, who were on the other side of the
Scots water, have come,' he says, 'to this side. To-day they are in Glasgow.
They intend to go towards the borders, as is reported among them and their
people who are in the Forest. They of the Forest,' adds Sir John, 'have
surrendered themselves to the Scots.' Besides, another party had 'suddenly
come before our Castle' of Edinburgh, and apparently had done some
execution, for 'Sir Thomas d'Arderne was taken.' Edward's mighty expedition
had, in fact, been no more than a huge foray.
This despatch of Kingston's is interesting also as
casting strong suspicion on a famous soldier of those times, Sir Simon
Fraser, whose loyalty to Edward since May 1297 had been conspicuous and
valuable. Fraser had accompanied Edward to Flanders, and won golden opinions
of the King, who had restored his lands in both countries and otherwise made
much of him. At this time he was Warden of Selkirk Forest. He had written to
Kingston to come to him 'on the day on which our enemies suddenly came
before our Castle, and on which Sir Thomas d'Arderne was taken; wherefore,'
Kingston warns the Lord Treasurer, 'I fear that he is not of such good faith
as he ought to be,' and 'I beg of you and the rest of the King's Council to
beware.' More than that:
'Whereas Sir Simon Fraser comes to you in such haste, let me inform you,
Sire, that he has no need to be in such a great hurry, for there was not by
any means such a great power of people who came into his jurisdiction but
that they might have been stopped by the garrisons if Sir Simon had given
them warning. And of this I warned him eight days before they came; and
before they entered into the Forest, it was reported that there was a treaty
between them and Sir Simon, and that they had a conference together, and ate
and drank, and were on the best of terms. Wherefore, Sire, it were well that
you should be very cautious as to the advice which he should give you.'
Fraser's view of the signs of the times, if not
mistakenly represented by Kingston, would further show how slight was the
English hold on Scotland.
During the remainder of the year, large quantities of provisions and war
material were pressed forward to the castles south of Forth; each castle
made a foray as it found opportunity; and occasionally combined forays were
made, with special precautions, particularly into Selkirk Forest. One of the
most important of these combined expeditions, devised at Berwick on December
r, was to start about the middle of the month for Stirling, which was in
want of supplies. Sir John de Kingston was head organiser, and horses were
requisitioned as far south as Norham. In these arrangements, full confidence
appears to be extended by the King to Sir Simon Fraser. It may also be noted
that on November 19, Earl Patrick had been appointed Captain of the Forces
and Castles on the East March of Scotland south of Forth.
The summonses for next year's expedition against
Scotland were issued in good time. On September 26, the army was ordered to
assemble at Carlisle on Whitsun eve. On December 12, orders were issued to
various sheriffs and other officers in England to forward provisions to
Berwick, and to the high officers of State in Ireland to forward provisions
to Skinburness, in each case by the same date (June 6). Edward was in hot
mood. He was determined to attack the malignant rebels next summer 'in great
power,' and to annihilate them (in eorurn summum exterminium). The language
of his writs is somewhat difficult to reconcile with laudation of his
tenderness and sense of justice. The great expedition, however, did not
start at Whitsunday, as Edward had proposed in the preceding September.
Barons had proved recalcitrant; and the King's wrangles with them over
further ratification of the great Charter had been kept up through the year,
till Edward was compelled to yield to their demands.
One of the annalistic records ascribed to Rishanger
states that Wallace, together with his brother—probably Sir Malcolm—the Earl
of Athol, and many others, lay in hiding after Falkirk. That is to say,
finding open opposition impossible, Wallace resumed his guerrilla tactics.
No doubt ho-had separated himself from the-' untrustworthy nobles, and
determined to maintain resistance as and- how his men and means would allow
him.
In the early summer of
1299, Lamberton had gone to the court of France, probably at the instance of
Wallace, to seek the aid of Philip. Edward got news of this, and between
June io and August 20, he issued safe- conducts in favour of the masters of
half a dozen vessels of Winchelsea and Rye, whom he had directed to keep a
look-out and intercept the Bishop and his company, 'who have already come
into Flanders, prepared to go into. Scotland.' The attempt was unsuccessful.
Lamberton's mission, however, did not prove fruitful, at least directly.
Through the good offices of the Pope, peace had been patched up between
Edward and Philip; and indeed there were already in negotiation two royal
marriages—one between Edward and Philip's half-sister Margaret, which was
celebrated at Canterbury in the following October; and one between Prince
Edward and Philip's infant daughter Isabella, who were betrothed on May 20,
1303, and married on January 25, 1308.
During Lamberton's absence, Wallace was no doubt
actively engaged, though there remain no records to show clearly how or
where. It may be that this is the occasion when John the Marshal, bailiff of
the Earl of Lincoln in the barony of Renfrew, despatched to Edward an urgent
request for aid. The Guardian of Scotland, with 300 men-at-arms and a
multitude of foot, who had lurked in Galloway, he says, had entered
Cunningham after the King's son, had taken his bailiffs, with other
freeholders there, and had made a fine for their heads, and had totally
rebelled against their late fealty. Unless he have immediate aid, he cannot
defend the barony against so many Scots. To the same time evidently belong
undated petitions to the King from the Abbot and convent of Sweetheart, and
from the Abbey of Our Lady of Dundrennan, which show that the English power
in Galloway was totally inadequate to stem the advances of the Scots. Was
Wallace still 'the Guardian of Scotland'? Or does the incident belong to
1300 or 1301, the (local) 'Guardian' being Comyn?
It was probably Lamberton's report that determined
Wallace to go to the Continent in person. In spite of occasional successes,
it must have appeared to him all but hopeless to maintain any effective
resistance to Edward in the divided state of the Scots counsels, unless some
external aid could be procured, either directly in support of the Scots, or
indirectly in restraint of Edward. On the failure of his envoy, he seems to
have resolved to sheath his sword for a time, and to proceed to Paris, and,
if need were, to Rome, in quest of support. There can indeed be no doubt
that the inherent weakness of the situation had been pressing severely upon
him ever since the battle of Falkirk; and it is likely enough that he had
already provided himself with letters of safe- conduct. Was it at this time
that he formally resigned the office of Guardian?
On August 19, 1299, there was a remarkable gathering
of the Scots nobles at Peebles. An account of the proceedings is given in a
letter of August 20, addressed to Edward by Sir Robert Hastings, the
castellan of Roxburgh, from information obtained through a spy. The Scots
had made a vigorous inroad on Selkirk Forest. The nobles present were 'the
Bishop of St. Andrews, the Earls of Carrick, Buchan, . . . and Menteith, Sir
John Comyn the younger, and the Steward of Scotland.' The council board was
ringed with dissension. Sir David de Graham demanded Sir William Wallace's
lands and goods, because 'he was going abroad without leave.' Sir Malcolm
Wallace, however, the hero's brother, interposed objections; and presently
'the two knights gave each other the lie, and drew their knives.' This was
but a prelude. Sir John Comyn took the Earl of Carrick, the future King, by
the throat and the Earl of Buchan laid violent hands on the sacred person of
the Bishop of St. Andrews.
The question that generated so much heat was an election to the
Guardianship. The physical encounters indicate clearly the division of
parties: it was a struggle between the Comyn and the Bruce influence.
Wallace himself, of course, had washed his hands clean of ambitious nobles,
but his Bishop naturally stood by Bruce against Comyn. The Bruce party
gained the day. The final agreement, as the letter correctly states, was,
that the Bishop of St. Andrews, the Earl of Carrick, and Sir John Comyn
should be Guardians of the realm, the Bishop having custody of the castles
as principal. Sir Ingram de Umfraville, who had taken a conspicuous part in
the inroad, was made Sheriff of Roxburgh, and Sir Robert de Keith Warden of
Selkirk Forest, with 100 barbed horse and 1500 foot, besides the foresters,
to make raids on the English march. Leaving a portion of their men with
Umfraville, the lords departed the same day; the Earl of Carrick and Sir
David de Brechin going to Annandale and Galloway, the Earl of Buchan and
Comyn to the north of Forth, and the Steward and the Earl of Menteith to
Clydesdale. The Bishop of St. Andrews was to stay in the meantime at Stobo.
The election was obviously a mere arrangement between the parties, backed by
their immediate henchmen; but that did not hinder them from speaking, in
their official documents, in the name of the community of the realm.
Edward was as eager as ever to quell the perverse
Scots. On September 18, he summoned a levy of 16,000 men to assemble at
Newcastle-on-Tyne by November 24. He was still delayed, however, by his
recalcitrant barons; and on November 16 he issued a fresh summons for his
army to meet him at Berwick on December 13. Meantime the Scots Guardians,
who were investing Stirling, had intimated to him on November 13 their
willingness to cease hostilities on the basis of the proposals the King of
France had made to him. Edward ignored their offer, however, and proceeded
to Berwick, with the determination to raise the siege of Stirling. But at
Berwick his magnates proved intractable; and he was compelled to abandon
Stirling to its fate, and returned to London. The garrison of Stirling soon
after surrendered, having suffered cruel privations.
Nor was Edward more successful at the other end of the
border. During the summer immense supplies had been landed at Skinburness
and stored at Carlisle, from which Lochmaben was largely furnished. Raids
had been made into Galloway in force; yet the Scots had cut off convoys at
the Solway. From Carlaverock Castle they had even seriously menaced
Lochmaben. Sir Robert de Felton tells how Carlaverock 'has done and does
great damage every day to the King's castle and people'; adding the
gratifying intelligence that on the Sunday next after Michaelmas he had had
the pleasure of adorning the great tower of Lochmaben with the head of the
Carlaverock Constable, Sir Robert de Cunningham, a near relative of the
Steward's. In December, Warenne, with some of the greatest English barons,
conducted to the western march an expedition consisting (or intended to
consist) of some 500 barbed horse (with 200 more, if they could be got), and
over 8000 foot. But this enterprise also proved abortive. The Scots were yet
to be subdued; and Edward, on December 29, issued summonses for next year's
campaign, 'the army to muster at Carlisle on July 1. Rishanger's summary of
the year is suggestive: 'Scotis perfidia notabilis.'
In 1300 the vexatious English raids were repeated,
with like results. In mid July Edward advanced from Carlisle and besieged
Lochmaben, which had fallen into the hands of the Scots. Having taken
Lochmaben, he moved on Carlaverock, which refused his demand of
unconditional surrender; whereupon he raged 'like a lioness robbed of her
whelps,' besieged the castle, and took it. He then marched into Galloway,
Prince Edward and Warenne with him. Lochmaben and Carlaverock
notwithstanding, he was in a very gloomy mood. The Bishop of Witherne and
two knights came to treat for peace: he would do nothing. Again they
approached him at the bridge of Dee: still he would do nothing. Then, at
Kirkcudbright, the Earl of Buchan and Sir John Comyn treated with him for a
day, and again for another day: all in vain. Their terms, it is said, were
these: that Balliol should be restored and the succession vested in his son
Edward (Sir John Comyn's wife was Balliol's daughter Marjory); and that the
Scots nobles should have the right to redeem such of their lands as Edward
had bestowed on Englishmen: otherwise they would defend themselves as long
as they might. Edward was exceedingly angry, and repelled their demands. The
Scots accordingly harassed his retreat. Some severe fighting took place; a
Scots deserter is said to have led some 200 of the English into a trap, on
pretence of enabling them to surprise the enemy; and though the Scots were
at last defeated and fled 'like hares before harriers,' Edward was not
comforted. Day by day he was eating out his heart because of his
ill-success. His Welsh troops deserted. Many of his nobles even, seeing the
futility of the enterprise, and writhing under lack of money and
necessaries, requested leave to go home, and, on the King's refusal, they
too deserted. In this emergency, baffled to know what to do against the
accursed Scots (contra nefandarn genielli Scoiorun), he appealed to his
friends for counsel. One noted the approach of winter; another recalled the
punishment inflicted on the enemy; a third impressed the expediency of
releasing at any rate some of his followers. The enterprise of the year was
clearly over. But Edward, with stubborn tenacity, not to say wilfulness,
would remain yet a while in Galloway. Then he would winter in Carlisle, and
return to crush the perverse nation in the spring. And some of his earls
stood by him in the dreary and futile delay. At last, on the interposition
of Philip, a truce was ratified at Dumfries on October 30, to run from
Hallowmas to Whitsunday. The expedition had proved an inglorious failure.
Rishanger's summary of the year is this: 'Solicilus proper rebellionem
Scotiae.'
On June 27, 1299,
the Pope had issued a Bull to Edward, claiming Scotland as from ancient
times and now a fief of the Holy See, and not now or ever a fief of the
English King; ordering the instant release of the Bishop of Glasgow and
other Scots ecclesiastics from English prisons; and demanding the surrender
of the castles, and especially of the religious houses, in Scotland. The
Bull was an abnormal time on the road: it seems to have taken the best part
of a year to reach the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was instructed to
deliver it into the King's own hand; and the Archbishop, whose adventures
Burton details with grave humour, did not succeed in executing his
commission till towards the end of August 1300. The barons took up the
matter with clear decision; 104 of them, in parliament at Lincoln on
February 12, 1301, firmly rejected the Pope's claim in the most absolute
terms. Edward, in outward respect for his Holiness, again had the
monasteries ransacked for information, sent to Oxford and Cambridge for
doctors of the civil law, and set forth an elaborate statement of his case,
concluding with the assertion of his absolute and indefeasible title to the
realm of Scotland in property as well as in possession. The document is
dated May 7, 1301. It is an extraordinary example of solemn diplomatic
fooling, in reckless defiance and omission of essential facts. The answer of
the Scots envoy, Baidred Bisset, partly followed the same lines, but dealt
fatal blows to every substantial element of argument. Edward's only firm
ground was conquest, and the conquest of Scotland was the one point in
practical dispute.
In May the
Scots and French envoys were to be in conference with Edward's commissioners
at Canterbury, with a view to peace with Scotland. The reference was
explicitly detailed :-
But early in April, Edward, to make sure of the event,
warned his magnates in the north, 'on the expiry of the truce to be ready on
the march to resist the attacks of the Scots, if necessary.' The expression
is curiously defensive. However, on May 12, he had become satisfied of the
necessity, and issued orders for a levy of some 12,000 men. His actual force
on the expedition consisted of little more than half that number— about
6800, all on foot, except their officers and a few light horsemen or
hobelars. On July 6-18, Edward was at Berwick; August 2-14, at Peebles;
August 21 to September 4, at Glasgow; September 27 to October 27, mostly at
Dunipace, also at Stirling; November i to January 3r, at Linlithgow, where
he built a peel; and on February 19, he repassed the border into England.
The main fact recorded by the chroniclers is the loss of horses through want
of forage and the severity of the winter.
The campaign, in fact, was conducted at
cross-purposes. The Scots avoided the English army, and practised guerrilla.
In September Sir Robert de Tilliol, the castellan of Lochmaben, was in great
straits, and thankful for a promise of relief. 'And we give you to
understand as a certainty,' he writes to the King, 'that John de Soulis and
the Earl of Buchan, with their power, are lying at Loudon; and Sir Simon
Fraser at Stonehouse, and Sir Alexander de Abernethy and Sir Herbert de
Morham.' If the King would only send a hundred armed horse, with a good
leader, to-morrow at the latest! But'—and at this time Edward was probably
in Glasgow—' be informed that all the country is rising because we have no
troops to ride upon them.' On September 7, Sir John de Soulis and Sir Ingram
de Umfraville,with over 7000 men, actually burnt Lochmaben and assaulted the
peel, and next day they made another attempt. Sustaining some severe losses,
however, they turned away towards Nithsdale and Galloway. 'They cause to
return to them,' says Sir Robert, 'those persons who had come to the peace,
and they are collecting greater force to come to our marches.' A few days
later Sir Robert Hastings was on the outlook for this body of Scots about
Roxburgh.
Again, on October
3, the Constable of Newcastle-on-Ayr wrote to the King that 'the Scots were
in Carrick, before the Castle of Turnberry, with 400 men-at-arms, and within
these eight days had wanted to attack Ayr Castle.' He accordingly begs for
speedy succour, 'for the Scots are in such force that he and the other
loyalists there cannot withstand them.' In February Newcastle-on-Ayr was
besieged by the Scots, and the garrison 'could noways go out with safety,
and lost some in their long stay.'
But in all these excursions and alarms there was
nothing decisive. One cannot imagine that, with anything like 7000 men at
his back, Wallace would have allowed Edward, with only a slightly larger and
not so very much better armed force, to winter comfortably at Linlithgow.
Edward, in any case, went bootless home. On January 26, at Linlithgow, on
the interposition of the French King, he had ratified a truce with the
Scots, to last till St. Andrew's Day (November 30), 1302. The year,
according to Rishanger, had been ' Scotis suspiciosus Eurbidus inquietus.'
Edward himself clearly felt that nothing solid had
been accomplished, and bent again to the task. He had only reached Morpeth
on his return journey, when, on February 23, he expressed to a large number
of his lords his wish to prepare—in case the truce worked no amendment in
the Scots—for an expedition that should be vigorous and final. The high
Irish officials, in particular, were directed to bestir themselves.
In 1302, Lamberton again paid an official visit to
Philip, and brought back a letter with him dated April 6. Philip's letter is
addressed to the Guardians, the magnates, 'and the whole community, his dear
friends,' to whom he 'wishes health and hope of fortitude in adversity.' The
Calendar summarises it thus:-
'He received with sincere affection their envoys,
John, Abbot of Jeddwurth (Jedburgh), and John Wissard, Knight, and fully
understands their letters and messages anxiously expressed by the envoys. Is
moved to his very marrow by the evils brought on their country through
hostile malignity. Praises them for their constancy to their King and their
shining valour in defence of their native land against injustice, and urges
them to persevere in the same course. Regarding the aid which they ask, he
is not unmindful of the old league between their King, themselves, and him,
and is carefully pondering ways and means of helping them. But, bearing in
mind the dangers of the road, and dreading the risks which sometimes chance
to letters, he has given his views by word of mouth to W[illiam], Bishop of
St. Andrews, for whom he asks full credence.'
Philip would an if he could, at any rate in words; but
his truce with Edward had been steadily renewed, and restrained his ardour
in the cause of Scotland. He had already burnt the Pope's offensive Bull,
however, and the great quarrel between these potentates was hot. Boniface
accordingly had drawn towards Edward. On August 13 he had addressed Bulls to
the Bishop of Glasgow (for whom he had doughtily taken Edward to task in
1299) and to the other Scots bishops, menacingly exhorting them to peaceful
ways, and administering a special wigging to the shifty Wishart, whom he
likened to 'a rock of offence and a stone of stumbling.' But Edward, his
'dearly-beloved son in Christ,' astutely temporised with his urgent
representations in favour of a resumption of war with France. Still the
Pope's anxious desire for Edward's favour relaxed the modicum of restraint
he had exercised upon Edward's aggression on the Scots.
In April, Bruce appears to have gone over to Edward
again. On the 28th Edward writes of 'his liege Robert de Brus, Earl of
Carrick,' and of special favour he restores to Bruce's tenants their lands
in England lately taken for their rebellion, and grants to Patrick de Trumpe
the younger and his aunt Matilda de Carrick, two of such tenants, certain
lands in the manor of Levington in Cumberland, to which they had fallen
heirs.
The campaign of 1302
was entrusted by Edward to Sir John de Segrave. On September 29, Segrave was
ordered to execute with all haste a foray, lately arranged with Sir Ralph de
Manton, by Stirling and Kirkintilloch. On January 20, Edward sent to his aid
Sir Ralph Fitz William, having heard from Segrave and others 'that for
certain the Scots rebels, in increased force, have broken into the lands
there in his possession, occupied certain castles and towns, and perpetrated
other excesses; and, unless checked, they may break into England as usual.'
He was destined soon to hear worse news. Segrave's army, marching in three
divisions, was suddenly attacked by Comyn and Fraser, who made a forced
night march from Biggar, and came upon the first division at daybreak of
February 24 in the neighbourhood of Roslin. The division was totally
defeated, and Segrave himself was seriously wounded and captured. The second
division coming up, shared the fate of the first. The third division, who
had meanwhile been at their devotions, succeeded (according to the English
accounts) in repulsing the Scots 'in great measure,' and in recovering some
of the prisoners. The Scots chroniclers make a big affair of it and report
the English as worsted in all three encounters. In any case, it was the main
body of the English army that was surprised and routed, and it must have
been a fight of considerable magnitude. Sir Ralph de Manton, the Cofferer or
Paymaster, was among the slain.
Rishanger attributes the rising of the Scots to the
action of Wallace, who had been appointed their leader and captain; but
there is probably some confusion in this, and stronger authority is needed
to induce belief in any association of Wallace with the movements of Comyn.
Rishanger sums up the year as 'Sco (is odibilis, detestabilis, et invisus.'
In the meantime, seven envoys from Scotland were in
Paris with the object of gaining effective aid from Philip. They were
William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews; Matthew Crambeth, Bishop of
Dunkeld; the Earl of Buchan; the Steward; Sir John de Soulis; Sir Ingram de
Umfraville; and Sir William de Balliol. They appear, as Hailes judges, 'to
have been the dupes of the policy of the French court.' On May 25 they
report to Sir John Comyn the conclusion of a final peace between France and
England (May 20), the Scots being excluded. That very significant omission,
they urge, should not alarm their friends in Scotland. For Philip will at
once despatch envoys to Edward to draw him back from war on the Scots, and
to procure a truce, pending a personal conference of the Kings, when a peace
favourable to the Scots will be concluded, if not previously effected by the
envoys. Philip had positively assured them on this point. The real reason
for the exclusion of the Scots is simply this, that their case will be more
easily settled between the two Kings when these are united in friendship and
affinity; Prince Edward and the Princess Isabella being now betrothed. They
are urged by Philip to remain so as to carry back a good result of their
errand—not, of course, to keep them out of the field against Edward. The
fame of the late conflict has spread over the whole world; let them,
therefore, in case of Edward's refusal of a truce, for the Lord's sake, not
despair, but act with resolution. As Hailes remarks, the letter 'exhibits a
characteristical portrait of fortitude and credulity.' Edward ratified his
treaty with France on June (?July) io, at St. Johnston!
On April 9, Edward ordered a levy of 9500 men in
England, and about the same time summoned Bruce to bring i000 foot from
Carrick and Galloway, and Sir Richard Siward to bring 300 from Nithsdale. On
May 16 the King was at Roxburgh, where he remained to the end of the month.
He marched north by Edinburgh and Linlithgow, and stayed at Perth, with
occasional excursions, from June 10 to the end of July. By Brechin and
Aberdeen, he passed on to Banff Cullen, and Elgin, and rested at Kinloss in
Moray from September 13 to October 4. On November 6 he was back at
Dunfermline, where he remained till March 4, 1303-4.
Edward's progress through Scotland met with no
opposition; except at Brechin, where Sir Thomas de Maule maintained a heroic
resistance, till he was killed on the castle wall. Hemingburgh says the
advance of the army was marked by burning and devastation. Burton, however,
thinks such violence was inconsistent with Edward's policy, which then led
him to avoid exasperating the people. 'Had there been much wanton cruelty or
destruction,' he says, 'it would have left its mark somewhere in
contemporary documents.' The inference is hardly a safe one, in any case.
There does exist, however, another significant record—an order of Edward's,
dated Dunfermline, November 18, 1303, directing his Chancellor to issue a
pardon in favour of Warin Martyn. Martyn, it is recited, had very often been
leader of the Welshmen in the King's army in Scotland, and had represented
that these men, in coming and going, had perpetrated murders, robberies,
arsons, and other felonies, under his leadership, and that he could not
altogether do justice on them. He had therefore supplicated a pardon,
fearing that these deeds might subsequently be brought up against him. It is
not readily credible that Edward could keep a tight hand on his soldiery,
any more than Comyn or Wallace— or Warm Martyn. And then there is the
burning of Dunfermline Abbey.
For several weeks negotiations for a peace were
carried on between Edward and Comyn, and at length a peace was settled at
Strathord on February 9. The terms were remarkably easy for the Scots,
possibly because Edward was in a benignant mood, much more probably because
he felt that the coming siege of Stirling Castle would absorb his undivided
attention. The one prorninent Scot that did not submit was Sir William
Wallace. The terms of peace will be more conveniently noted in the next
chapter, in connection with the striking basis laid down by Edward for their
eventual mitigation.
It was
in March 1303-4, on Edward's departure, that 'Dunfermline saw its Abbey red
with flames.' The burning of this magnificent house has been variously
characterised as 'atrocious,' 'barbarous,' 'unscrupulous and vindictive,'
and so forth. A Westminster chronicler appears to hold undisputed the bad
eminence of attempting to justify the deed. The Abbey, he explains, was
spacious enough to lodge at one and the same time conveniently three mighty
kings and their retinues. But there was an accursed taint on the place. Its
size had rendered it suitable for the Scots nobles to hold their meetings
there; and there they had devised machinations against the English King; and
thence, in time of war, they issued as from ambush, to harry and murder the
English. What then? The King's army, therefore, perceiving that the temple
of the Lord was not a church, but a den of robbers, a thorn as it were in
the eye of the English nation, fired the buildings. The church and a few
cells for monks—this was all that remained of the venerable and magnificent
Abbey capable of receiving three mighty kings together.
But there was another thorn in the eye of Edward, and
that was the Castle of Stirling. On April i, he commanded the Earls of
Strathearn, Menteith, and Lennox to see to it that none of their people
should go to the castle to buy or sell provisions or merchandise, to carry
any victuals to the garrison, or indeed to hold any communication with them.
On April 6, engines were shipped from Edinburgh; on the same day, engines
and materials were despatched from Berwick; on April 16, Sir John Botetourte
is directed to aid Bruce in forwarding 'the frame of the great engine of
Inverkip,' which Bruce had just reported as unmanageable; and on April 21,
Sir Robert de Leyburne, Constable of Inver- kip Castle, gets a wigging and
is ordered 'to arrest at Glasgow all the iron and great stones of the
engines there, and forward them to Stirling, without any manner of excuse or
delay,' for by the inaction in these parts 'the siege is greatly delayed.'
On April 12, the King had ordered the Prince of Wales 'to procure and take
as much lead as you can about the town of St. John of Perth and Dunblane,
and elsewhere, as from the churches and from other places where you can find
it, provided always that the churches be not uncovered over the altars.' In
the first half of April, Edward had spent several days before the walls, and
on April 22 he definitely opened the siege.
In the immensity of war material that had been
laboriously brought up, there were at least thirteen powerful engines,
capable of throwing weights of 100, 200, and 300 lbs. - besides the
'War-wolf,' a novel machine, which apparently was not quite ready for
action. The garrison appear to have improvised some machines of offence; for
both Rishanger and Hemingburgh record that they killed many of the besiegers
with their engines. Edward entered into the conduct of operations with the
old fire of younger times. One day, as he was riding about and directing his
men, he was shot with an arrow or quarrel, which stuck in his armour, but
did not wound him. In Homeric fashion, he loudly menaced the shooter with a
good hanging.
Towards the end
of June, the English appear to have been hard pressed for forage. The King's
horses, according to one correspondent, 'have nothing to eat but grass';
there is 'the utmost need of oats and beans.' And in another letter of the
same date, the same writer urges the addressee—probably Sir Richard de
Bremesgrave—' to send all the King's stores he can find in Berwick, in haste
by day and night, to Stirling, for they can find nothing in these parts.' At
the same time Edward was still summoning from England cross-bowmen and
carpenters.
The garrison made
a spirited and resolute defence. Every day Edward had the dykes filled with
branches of trees and logs of wood; and every day the garrison fired them.
Then he filled up the dykes with stones and earth, and pushed the scaling
machines up to the walls. Thereupon the garrison, who were in desperate
straits from hunger, offered to capitulate on terms of life and limb.
Edward, however, insisted on absolute submission. At last, on July 20, 1304,
the garrison surrendered at discretion. They are said to have numbered 140;
but, besides the gallant Constable, Sir William Oliphant, there are only 25
others, including two friars, mentioned in the instrument attesting the
surrender. Before evacuation, a strange ceremony took place, partly for
scientific experiment, partly to amuse the English ladies. The King ordered
that none of his people should enter the castle till it should be struck
with the 'War-wolf'; those within might defend themselves from the said
'Wolf' as best they could! Oliphant, who had been captured in Dunbar Castle,
and kept in prison in Devizes Castle till September 8, 1297, was now sent
back to England and lodged in the Tower of London. The rest of the garrison
were distributed to various English castles. Edward returned to England
towards the end of August.
The four years' warfare of the barons—we may say, of Comyn—had not advanced
the cause of independence. Still it had deferred submission. Bruce,
apparently influenced by some trumpery matter of property in England,
possibly galled by friction with Comyn, had again bent the knee to Edward
early in 1302. Lamberton had confined himself to diplomacy and
administration; Comyn had practically the whole direction of military
affairs. Both had exerted themselves creditably; but both of them submitted
to Edward in 1304. They displayed neither brilliance nor endurance. They
lacked the qualities of leaders in the forlorn state of the kingdom.
From the autumn of 1299 to 1303-4, no definite share
in the desultory warfare can be assigned confidently to Wallace. If the
movement that culminated in the victory of Roslin in 1302 may be ascribed to
him, on the authority of Rishanger, yet it would be rash to believe that he
was on the field of battle. It may, rather, be taken as certain that he did
not act in concert with Comyn. Nor is it easy to suppose that Wallace was in
Scotland in 1301 and 1301-2, when Edward was allowed to stay comfortably
some three months in Linlithgow with a very small force—a force little
stronger than Comyn's officers had about the same time in the south-west. It
may be that such points indicate the exhaustion of the country as much as
the incapacity of the generals: Langtoft says Cornyn and his men (1303-4)
'have nothing to fry, or drink, or eat, nor power remaining wherewith to
manage war.' One can only fall back on the conviction that Wallace could
have used the available materials to far greater advantage; and that, in the
circumstances, he had at any rate been doing his best for his country. The
surrender of Comyn in 1304 again brought him to the front as the one Scots
leader that stood immovably against the invader, resolute to live or to die
a free man.
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