Chronicle of Lanercost
The
Chronicle of Lanercost covers the period 1201 to 1346. The sections
given below involve the ongoing warfare in Scotland between Edward the Second
and Robert the Bruce. The author has a somewhat erroneous account of the
battle of Bannockburn, but also includes a description of the siege of Berwick,
which the author claims to have seen personally, and a ten day siege of
Carlisle.
The said Robert, then, taking note that the king and all the nobles of
the realm were in such distant parts, and in such discord about the said,
accursed individual [Piers Gaveston], having collected a large army invaded
England by the Solway on Thursday before the feast of the Assumption of the
Glorious Virgin [August 12, 1311], and burnt all the land of the Lord of
Gillesland and the town of Haltwhistle and a great part of Tynedale, and after
eight days returned into Scotland, taking with him a very large booty in cattle.
But he had killed few men besides those who offered resistance.
About the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
[September 8, 1311], Robert returned with an army into England, directing his
march towards Northumberland, and, passing by Harbottle and Holystone and
Redesdale, he burnt the district about Corbridge, destroying everything; also he
caused more men to be killed than on the former occasion. And so he turned into
the valleys of North and South Tyne, laying waste those parts which he had
previously spared, and returned into Scotland after fifteen days; nor could the
wardens whom the King of England had stationed on the marches oppose so great a
force of Scots as he brought with him. Howbeit, like the Scots, they destroyed
all the goods in the land, with this exception, that they neither burnt houses
nor killed men.
Meanwhile the Northumbrians, still dreading lest Robert should return,
sent envoys to him to negotiate a temporary truce, and they agreed with him that
they would pay two thousand pounds for an exceedingly short truce: to wit, until
the Purification of the Glorious Virgin [February 2, 1312].
Also those of the county of Dunbar, next to Berwick, in Scotland, who
were still in the King of England's peace, were very heavily taxed for a truce
until the said date.
In all these aforesaid campaigns the Scots were so
divided among themselves that sometimes the father was on the Scottish side and
the son on the English, and vice versa; also one brother might be with the Scots
and another with the English; yea, even the same individual be first with one
party and then with the other. But all those who were with the English were
merely feigning, either because it was the stronger party, or in order to save
the lands they possessed in England; for their hearts were always with their own
people, although their persons might not be so.
In the same year the said Robert de Bruce, King of
Scotland, came with a great army in the month of August to the monastery of
Lanercost, and remained there three days, making many of the canons prisoners
and doing an infinity of injury; but at last the canons were set at liberty by
himself.
Now, while the aforesaid things were getting done with
Piers, the march of England had no defender against the Scots, and therefore
they rendered tribute to Robert in order to have peace for a while. Meanwhile,
however, the Scots burnt the town of Norham, because the castle did them great
injury, and they took away men as prisoners and also cattle.
When Robert de Bruce heard of this discord in the
south, having assembled a great army, he invaded England about the feast of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and burnt the towns of Hexham and Corbridge
and the western parts, and took booty and much spoil and prisoners, nor was
there anyone ms. who dared resist. While he halted in peace and safety near
Corbridge he sent part of his army as far as Durham, which, arriving there
suddenly on market day, carried off all that was found in the town, and gave a
great part of it to the flames, cruelly killing all who opposed them, but
scarcely attacking the castle and abbey. The people of Durham, fearing more
mischief from them, and despairing of help from the king, compounded with them,
giving two thousand pounds to obtain truce for that bishopric until the nativity
of John the Baptist; which, however, the Scots refused to accept unless on
condition that they might have free access and retreat through the land of the
bishopric whensoever they wished to make a raid into England. The Northumbrians
also, fearing that they would visit them, gave them other two thousand pounds to
secure peace until the aforesaid date; and the people of Westmoreland, Copland,
and Cumberland redeemed themselves in a similar way; and, as they had not so
much money in hand as would pay them, they paid a part, and gave as hostages for
the rest the sons of the chief lords of the country. Having achieved this,
Robert returned to Scotland with his army.
Now the oft-mentioned Robert, seeing that thus he had
the whole March of England under tribute, applied all his thoughts to getting
possession of the town of Berwick, which was in the King of England's hands.
Coming unexpectedly to the castle on the night of S. Nicholas [December 6th], he laid
ladders against the walls and began to scale them; and had not a dog betrayed
the approach of the Scots by loud barking, it is believed that he would quickly
have taken the castle and, in consequence, the town.
Now these ladders, which they placed against the
walls, were of wonderful construction, as I myself, who write these lines,
beheld with my own eyes. For the Scots had made two strong ropes as long as the
height of the wall, making a knot at one end of each cord. They had made a
wooden board also, about two feet and a half long and half a foot broad, strong
enough to carry a man, and in the two extremities of the board they had made two
holes, through which the two ropes could be passed; then the cords, having been
passed through as far as the knots, they had made two other knots in the ropes
one foot and a half higher, and above these knots they placed another log or
board, and so on to the end of the ropes. They had also made an iron hook,
measuring at least one foot along one limb, and this was to lie over the wall;
but the other limb, being of the same length, hung downwards towards the ground,
having at its end a round hole wherein the point of a lance could be inserted,
and two rings on the two sides wherein the said ropes could be knotted.
Having fitted them together in this manner, they
took a strong spear as long as the height of the wall, placing the point thereof
in the iron hole, and two men lifted the ropes and boards with that spear and
placed the iron hook (which was not a round one) over the wall. Then they were
able to climb up by those wooden steps just as one usually climbs ordinary
ladders, and the greater the weight of the climber the more firmly the iron hook
clung over the wall. But lest the ropes should lie too close to the wall and
hinder the ascent, they had made fenders round every third step, which thrust
the ropes off the wall. When, therefore, they had placed two ladders upon the
wall, the dog betrayed them as I have said, and they left the ladders there,
which our people next day hung upon a pillory to put them to shame. And thus a
dog saved the town on that occasion, just as of old geese saved Rome by their
gaggle.
Robert, having failed in his attempt on Berwick,
marched with his army to the town of St John, [Perth] which was then still in
the King of England's hands; and he laid siege thereto, and on Monday of the
octave of Epiphany [January 10, 1313] it was taken by the Scots, who scaled the
walls by night on ladders, and entered the town through the negligence of
sentries and guards. Next day Robert caused those citizens of the better class
who were of the Scottish nation to be killed, but the English were allowed to go
away free. But the Scottish Sir William Oliphant, who had long time held that
town for the King of England against the Scots, was bound and sent far away to
the Isles. The town itself the Scots utterly destroyed.
After the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist
[June 24th], when the English truce on the March had lapsed, Robert
de Bruce threatened to invade England in his usual manner. The people of
Northumberland, Westmoreland and Cumberland, and other Borderers, apprehending
this, and neither having nor hoping for any defence or help from their king
(seeing that he was engaged in distant parts of England, seeming not to give
them a thought), offered to the said Robert no small sum of money, indeed a very
large one, for a truce to last till the feast of St. Michael [August 15th]
in the following year.
Now at the beginning of Lent [February 28, 1314] the
Scots cunningly entered the castle of Roxburgh at night by ladders, and captured
all the castle except one tower, wherein the warden of the castle, Sir Gillemin
de Fiennes, a knight of Gascony, had taken refuge with difficulty, and his
people with him; but the Scots got possession of that tower soon afterwards. And
they razed to the ground the whole of that beautiful castle, just as they did
other castles, which they succeeded in taking, lest the English should ever
hereafter be able to lord it over the land through holding the castles.
In the same
season of Lent they captured Edinburgh Castle in the following manner. In the
evening one day the besiegers of that castle delivered an assault in force upon
the south gate, because, owing to the position of the castle there was no other
quarter where an assault could be made. Those within gathered together at the
gate and offered a stout resistance; but meanwhile the other Scots climbed the
rocks on the north side, which was very high and fell away steeply from the foot
of the wall. There they laid ladders to the wall and climbed up in such numbers
that those within could not withstand them; and thus they threw open the gates,
admitted their comrades, got possession of the whole castle and killed the
English. They razed the said castle to the ground, just as they had done to
Roxburgh Castle.
Having accomplished this success, they marched to
Stirling and besieged that castle with their army.
On Tuesday after the octave of Easter [April 16, 1314],
Edward de Bruce Robert's brother, invaded England by way of Carlisle with; army,
contrary to agreement, and remained there three days at the bishop's manor
house, to wit, at Rose, and sent a strong detachment of his army to burn the
southern and western districts during those three days. They burnt many towns
and two churches, taking men and women prisoners, and collected a great number
of cattle in Inglewood Forest a: elsewhere, driving them off with them on the
Friday; they killed few men except those who made determined resistance but they
made attack upon the city of Carlisle because the knights and country people who
were assembled the Now the Scots did all these wrongs at that time, because the
men of that March had not paid them the tribute which they pledged themselves to
pay on certain days. Although the Scots had hostages from the sons and heirs of
the knights of that country in full security for covenanted sums, yet they did
not on that account refrain from committing the aforesaid wrongs.
Now about the feast of Pentecost [May 26th]
the King of England approached the March of Scotland; also the Earl of
Gloucester, the Earl of Hereford, the Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of Angus,
Sir Robert de Clifford, Sir John Comyn (son of the murdered John), Sir Henry de
Beaumont, Sir John de Segrave, Sir Pagan de Typtoft, Sir Edmund de Mauley, Sir
Ingelram de Umfraville, with other barons, knights, and a splendid and numerous
army, if only they had had the Lord as ally. But the Earl of Lancaster and the
other English earls who were of his party remained at home with their men
(except those with whom they were bound in strict obligation to furnish the king
in war), because the king as yet had refused to agree with them or to perform
what he had promised before. Arid whereas when his noble father Edward went on a
campaign in Scotland, he used to visit on his march [the shrines of] the English
saints, Thomas of Canterbury, Edmund, Hugh, William, and Cuthbert, offering fair
oblations, commending himself to their prayers, and also bestowing liberal gifts
to monasteries and the poor, this [king] did none of these things; but marching
with great pomp and elaborate state, he took goods from the monasteries on his
journey, and, as was reported, did and said things to the prejudice and injury
of the saints. In consequence of this and other things it is not surprising that
confusion and everlasting shame overtook him and his army, which was foretold at
the time by certain religious men of England.
Thus before the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist [June 24th],
the king, having massed his army, advanced with the aforesaid pomp towards
Stirling Castle, to relieve it from siege and to engage the Scots, who were
assembled there in all their strength. On
the vigil of the aforesaid Nativity [June 23rd] the king's army
arrived after dinner near Torwood; and, upon information that there were Scots
in the wood, the king's advanced guard, commanded by Lord de Clifford, began to
make a circuit of the wood to prevent the Scots escaping by flight. The Scots
did not interfere until they the English were far ahead of the main body, when
they showed themselves, and, cutting off the king's advanced guard from the
middle and rear columns, they charged and killed some of them and put the rest
to flight. From that moment began a
panic among the English and the Scots grew bolder.
On the morrow an evil, miserable and calamitous day for the English; when
both sides had made themselves ready for battle, the English archers were thrown
forward before the line, and the Scottish archers engaged them, a few being
killed and wounded on either side; but the King of England's archers quickly put
the others to flight. Now when the two armies had approached very near each
other, all the Scots fell on their knees to repeat Paternoster, commending
themselves to God and seeking help from heaven; after which they advanced boldly
against the English. They had so
arranged their army that two columns went abreast in advance of the third, so
that neither should be in advance of the other; and
the third followed, in which was Robert. Of
a truth, when both armies engaged each other, and the great horses of the
English charged the pikes of the Scots, as it were into a dense forest, there
arose a great and terrible crash of spears broken and of destriers wounded to
the death; and so they remained without movement for a while. Now the English in
the rear could not reach the Scots because the leading division was in the way,
nor could they do anything to help themselves, wherefore there was nothing for
it but to take to flight. This account I heard from a trustworthy person who was
present as eye-witness.
In the leading division were killed the Earl of
Gloucester, Sir John Comyn, Sir Pagan de Typtoft, Sir Edmund de Mauley and many
other nobles, besides foot soldiers who fell in great numbers. Another calamity
which befell the English was that, whereas they had shortly before crossed a
great ditch called Bannockburn, into which the tide flows, and now wanted to
recross it in confusion, many nobles and others fell into it with their horses
in the crush, while others escaped with much difficulty, and many were never
able to extricate themselves from the ditch; thus Bannockburn was spoken about
for many years in English throats.
The king and Sir Hugh le Despenser (who, after
Piers de Gaveston, was as his right eye) and Sir Henry de Beaumont (whom he had
promoted to an earldom in Scotland), with many others mounted and on foot, to
their perpetual shame fled like miserable wretches to Dunbar Castle, guided by a
certain knight of Scotland who knew through what districts they could escape.
Some who were not so speedy in flight were killed by the Scots, who
pursued them hotly; but these, holding bravely together, came safe and sound
through the ambushes into England. At Dunbar the king embarked with some of his
chosen followers in an open boat for Berwick, leaving all the others to their
fate.
In like manner as the king and his following fled in
one direction to Berwick, so the Earl of Hereford, the Earl of Angus, Sir John
de Segrave, Sir Antony de Lucy and Sir Ingelram de Umfraville, with a great
crowd of knights, six hundred other mounted men and one thousand foot, fled in
another direction towards Carlisle. The Earl of Pembroke left the army on foot
and saved himself with the fugitive Welsh; but the aforesaid earls and others,
who had fled towards Carlisle were captured on the way at Bothwell Castle, for
the sheriff, the warden of the castle [Sir Walter Gilbertson], who had held the
castle down to that time for the King of England, perceiving that his countrymen
had won the battle, allowed the chief men who came thither to enter the castle
in the belief that they would find a safe refuge, and when they had entered he
took them prisoners, thereby treacherously deceiving them. Many, also, were
taken wandering round the castle and hither and thither in the country, and many
were killed; it was said, also, that certain knights were captured by women, nor
did any of them get back to England save in abject confusion. The Earl of
Hereford, the Earl of Angus, Sir [John] de Segrave, Sir Antony de Lucy, Sir
Ingelram de Umfraville and the other nobles who were in the castle were brought
before Robert de Bruce and sent into captivity, and after a lengthy imprisonment
were ransomed for much money. After the aforesaid victory Robert de Bruce was
commonly called King of Scotland by all men, because he had acquired Scotland by
force of arms.
About the same time died King Philip of France.
Shortly afterwards, to wit, about the feast of St.
Peter ad Vincula [August 1st], Sir Edward de Bruce, Sir James of
Douglas, John de Soulis and other nobles of Scotland invaded England by way of
Berwick with cavalry and a large army, and, during the time of truce, devastated
almost all Northumberland with fire, except the castles; and so they passed
forward into the bishopric of Durham; but there they did not burn much, for the
people of the bishopric ransomed themselves from burning by a large sum of
money. Nevertheless, the Scots carried off a booty of cattle and what men they
could capture, and so invaded the county of Richmond beyond, acting in the same
manner there without resistance, for nearly all men fled to the south or hid
themselves in the woods, except those who took refuge in the castles.
The Scots even went as far as the Water of Tees on that
occasion, and some of them beyond the town of Richmond, but they did not enter
that town. Afterwards, reuniting their forces, they all returned by Swaledale
and other valleys and by Stanemoor, whence they carried off an immense booty of
cattle. Also they burnt the towns
of Brough and Appleby and Kirkoswald, and other towns here and there on their
route, trampling down the crops by themselves and their beasts as much as they
could; and so, passing near the priory of Lanercost, they entered Scotland,
having many men prisoners from whom they might extort money ransom at will. But
the people of Coupland, fearing their return and invasion, sent envoys and
appeased them with much money.
Now about the feast of St. Michael [September 29th]
the Earl of Hereford, who had married the King of England's sister, returned
from Scotland, and in exchange for him were released the Bishop of Glasgow, the
Earl of Mar (who had been reared in England), and the wife, sister, and daughter
of my lord Robert de Bruce. Howbeit,
the Earl of Mar, having arrived at Newcastle, refused to go with them into
Scotland, preferring to remain in England.
From day to day sundry prisoners were released from the hands of the
Scots, but only through very heavy pecuniary ransoms. About the
feast of our Lord's birth [December 25th] the Earl of Angus was
released, also Sir John de Segrave, and a little later Sir Antony de Lucy.
Meanwhile the Scots occupied both north and south
Tynedale: to wit Haltwhistle, Hexham, Corbridge, and so on towards Newcastle,
and Tynedale did homage to the King of Scots and forcibly attacked Gillesland
and the other adjacent districts of England.
At this time also the Scots again wasted
Northumberland; but from the aforesaid Nativity of Our Lord until the Nativity
of St. Johns the Baptist [June 24, 1315] the county of Cumberland alone paid 600
marks in tribute to the King of Scots. The
Scots, therefore; unduly elated, as much by their victory in the field as by the
devastation of the March of England and the receipt of very large sums of money,
were not satisfied with their own frontiers, but fitted out ships and sailed to
Ireland in the month of May, to reduce that country to subjection if they could.
Their commanders were my lord Edward Bruce, the king's brother, and his kinsman
my lord Thomas Randolf, Earl of Moray, both enterprising and valiant knights,
having a very strong force with them. Landing in Ireland, and receiving some
slight aid from the Irish, they captured from the King of England's dominion
much land and many towns, and so prevailed as to have my lord Edward made king by the Irish. Let us leave him reigning there for the
present, just as many kinglets reign there, till we shall describe elsewhere how
he came to be beheaded, and let us return to Scotland.
The Scots, then, seeing that affairs were going
everywhere in their favour, invaded the bishopric of Durham about the feast of
the Apostles Peter and Paul [June 29th], and plundered the town of
Hartlepool, whence the people took to the sea in ships; but they did not burn
it. On their return they carried away very much booty from the bishopric.
Also, a little later in the same year, on the feast of
S. Mary Magdalene [July 22nd], the King of Scotland, having mustered
all his forces, came to Carlisle, invested the city and besieged it for ten
days, trampling down all the crops, wasting the suburbs and all within the
bounds, burning the whole of that district, and driving in a very great store of
cattle for his army from Allerdale, Copland, and Westmoreland.
On every day of the siege they assaulted one of the three gates of the
city, sometimes all three at once; but never without loss, because there were
discharged upon them from the walls such dense volleys of darts and arrows,
likewise stones, that they asked one another whether stones bred and multiplied
within the walls. Now on the fifth day of the siege they set up a machine for
casting stones next the church of Holy Trinity, where their king stationed
himself, and they cast great stones continually against the Caldew gate and
against the wall, but they did little or no injury to those within, except that
they killed one man. But there were seven or eight similar machines within the
city, besides other engines of war, which are called springalds, for discharging
long darts, and staves with sockets for casting stones, which caused great fear
and damage to those outside. Meanwhile, however, the Scots set up a certain
great berefrai like a kind of tower, which was considerably higher than the city
walls. On perceiving this, the
carpenters of the city erected upon a tower of the wall against which that
engine must come if it had ever reached the wall, a wooden tower loftier than
the other; but neither that engine nor any other ever did reach the wall,
because, when it was being drawn on wheels over the wet and swampy ground,
having stuck there through its own weight, it could neither be taken any further
nor do any harm.
Moreover the Scots had made many long ladders, which
they brought with them for scaling the wall in different places simultaneously;
also a sow [A siege engine which was constructed to contain men, who, when the
sow was wheeled up to the wall, should proceed to sap the foundation under
shelter] for mining the town wall, had they been able; but neither sow nor
ladders availed them aught. Also they made great numbers of fascines of corn and
herbage to fill the moat outside the wall or, the east side, so as they might
pass over dry-shod. Also, they made long bridges of logs running upon wheels,
such as being strongly and swiftly drawn with ropes might reach across the width
of the moat. But during all the time the Scots were on the ground neither
fascines sufficed to fill the moat, nor those wooden bridges to cross the ditch,
but sank to the depths by their own weight.
Howbeit on the ninth day of the siege, when all the
engines were ready, they delivered a general assault upon all the city gates and
upon the whole circuit of the wall, attacking manfully, while the citizens
defended themselves just as manfully, and they did the same next day.
The Scots also resorted to the same kind of stratagem whereby they had
taken Edinburgh Castle; for they employed the greater part of their army in
delivering an assault upon the eastern side of the city, against the place of
the Minorite Friars, in order to draw thither the people who were inside.
But James of Douglas, a bold and cautious knight, stationed himself; with
some others of the army who were most daring and nimble, the west side opposite
the place of the Canons and Preaching Friars, where no attack was expected
because of the height [of the wall] and the difficulty of access.
There they set up long ladders rich they climbed, and the bowmen, whereof
they had a great amber, shot their arrows thickly to prevent anyone showing his
head above the wall. But, blessed be God! they met with such resistance there as
threw them to the ground with their ladders, so that there and elsewhere round
the wall some were killed, others taken prisoners and others wounded; yet
throughout the whole siege no Englishman was killed, save one man only who was
struck by an arrow (and except the man above mentioned), and few were wounded.
Wherefore on the eleventh day, to wit, the feast of S.
Peter ad Vincula [August 1st], whether because they had heard that
the English were approaching to relieve the besieged or whether they despaired
of success, the Scots marched off in confusion to their own country, leaving
behind them all their engines of war aforesaid. Some Englishmen pursuing them
captured John de Moray, who in the aforesaid battle near Stirling had for his
share twenty-three English knights, besides esquires and others of meaner rank,
and had taken very heavy ransom for them. Also
they captured with the aforesaid John, Sir Robert Bardolf, a man specially ill-disposed
to the English, and brought them both to Carlisle Castle; but they were ransomed
later for no small sum of money.
In the Octave of the Epiphany [January 14, 1316] the
King of Scotland came stealthily to Berwick one bright moonlit night with a
strong force, and delivered an assault by land and by sea in boats, intending to
enter the town by stealth on the waterside between Brighouse and the castle,
where the wall was not yet built, but they were manfully repulsed by the guards
and by those who answered to the alarm, and a certain Scottish knight, Sir J. de
Landels, was killed, and Sir James of Douglas escaped with difficulty in a small
boat. And thus the whole army was put to confusion.
About the feast of the Nativity of S. John the Baptist
[June 24, 1316] the Scots invaded England, burning as before and laying waste
all things to the best of their power; and so they went as far as Richmond. But
the nobles of that district, who took refuge in Richmond Castle and defended the
same, compounded with them for a large sum of money so that they might not burn
that town, nor yet the district, more than they had already done. Having
received this money, the Scots marched away some sixty miles to the west, laying
waste everything as far as Furness, and burnt that district whither they had not
come before, taking away with them nearly all the goods of that district, with
men and women as prisoners. Especially were they delighted with the abundance of
iron which they found there, because Scotland is not rich in iron.
Now in that year there was such a mortality of men in
England and Scotland through famine and pestilence as had not been heard of in
our time. In some of the northern parts of England the quarter of wheat sold for
forty shillings.
After the Scots had returned to their own country,
their King Robert provided himself with a great force and sailed to Ireland, in
order to conquer that country, or a large part thereof, for his brother Edward.
He freely traversed nearly all that part of it which was within the King of
England's dominion, but he did not take walled towns or castles.
From: The Chronicle of Lanercost 1272-1346, translated by Sir
Herbert Maxwell (Glasgow, 1913)