In the Shadow of Neville’s Cross (1346-57)
In the fourth part of his study of the Second War of Independence, Dr Iain A. MacInnes charts the changing fortunes of the Bruce Scots between the return of David II in 1341 and the disastrous defeat at the battle of Neville’s Cross five years later
In the fourth part of his study of the Second War of Independence, Dr Iain A. MacInnes charts the changing fortunes of the Bruce Scots between the return of David II in 1341 and the disastrous defeat at the battle of Neville’s Cross five years later
David II’s return to Scotland after seven years of exile in France should have been a crowning moment for the Bruce Scots. And in the short term it likely was. The availability of a young active monarch to take the field against an ageing Edward Balliol and increasingly disinterested Edward III was surely the perfect means to end the war in the Bruce favour. But things were not so straightforward. For David’s absence was itself a difficulty. Raised in France by Scottish tutors who taught him how to be a king, and influenced by the court of King Philip VI, Scotland may not have been all that David expected when he returned. Moreover, without a king to lead them during his period of exile, the Bruce Scots had taken military matters into their own hands and formed war bands to tackle the Balliol/English threats. Men had become powerful on the back of military success and were not necessarily keen to hand back control over military affairs to a teenage monarch about whom they knew relatively little. David II would have to act carefully to ensure that he kept his warriors on side.
The king’s war
An obvious way to do this was to continue the previous policy of Andrew Murray, to take the war to England. Raids into the English north provided Bruce warriors with the opportunity to gain important experience of working together militarily, developing bonds and networks that were an important part of a militarised society. These efforts also took the war to Edward III’s kingdom. And, more practically, they offered the opportunity to amass wealth through the seizure of booty and plunder. So, one of David II’s first undertakings was to launch a series of raids across the Anglo-Scottish frontier in 1341-42.The first of these entered Northumberland around Hexhamshire and
proceeded south in a raid in which the king may have fought under the banner of the earl of Moray as it was his first military encounter. This chivalric display of campaigning incognito did not end well, however, and the Bruce forces appear to have come off worst in an encounter with the troops of Henry Percy.
Edward III responded to this threat by taking a small army north and basing himself over the winter at Melrose. He may have hoped to tempt his enemies into an attack that he could win, as he sought a way to end the conflict and allow greater focus on events on the continent. Instead, however, the English base simply attracted an array of knights who sought to earn renown for themselves by participating in ‘jousts of war’.
These chivalric contests were spurred on by a desire to earn fame and renown, but they were no frivolous pursuits. Indeed, there were no half measures in such combats, which used fully bladed weapons. Men died in such contests, but the likes of Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, William Douglas of Liddesdale, and Earl Henry of Derby earned praise from their contemporaries for participating in, and surviving, these fights. Still, this was not why Edward III had spent several winter months in the Scottish borders, and
Thomas Gray wrote that the king returned home ‘half in a melancholy with those who convinced him to make that journey’.
The Bruce response to the English king’s withdrawal was immediate and they raided across the border once more in January and February 1342. A further raid led by David II followed in the summer, although it again appears to have been opposed by forces arrayed for English border defence and come off worse in an encounter with Robert Ogle in which several newly-knighted Bruce Scots were captured. In both 1342 raids, however, David II appears to have led his forces under his own banner, demonstrating to his troops that this was now his war, with the king fully in command of Bruce operations.
Peacetime for Scotland?
Such control may, though, have been an illusion. While positive developments in the war continued in 1342 – Stirling Castle fell in
April after a prolonged siege, and Hestan Castle was besieged in the same month – events elsewhere proved more damaging. In March, Alexander Ramsay captured Roxburgh Castle using the tried-and-tested Bruce methods of surprise and scaling ladders to climb the walls and catch the garrison unawares. This was an important target and, as a reward, David II granted Ramsay the keeping of the castle, as well as making him sheriff of Teviotdale. The intrusion of Ramsay into this part of the kingdom interfered, however, with William Douglas of Liddesdale’s area of influence and his desire to have such roles for himself. As a result, Douglas and his men attacked Ramsay, took him prisoner, and locked him away in Hermitage Castle. There he was left to starve to death.The result was a state of feud which erupted between the followers of Douglas and Ramsay, one which the king struggled to control. Indeed, the Scottish chronicler Walter Bower – writing in the 15th century – lamented that Ramsay’s death was a turning point for the Bruce Scots. As he stated:
And just as from the day of the battle of Culblean until the death of this Alexander everything at every stage of the war was carried to a successful end, so when he had been murdered exactly the opposite happened, and all campaigns undertaken for the benefit of the kingdom straight away took an unfortunate turn.
Bower, of course, had the benefit of hindsight and knew what was looming in the Bruce Scots’ future. But at the time, David II took on Ramsay’s following as his own and worked to quell tensions between
DAVID II SUMMONED A HUGE ARMY FROM ACROSS THE LENGTH AND BREADTH OF THE KINGDOM TO LAUNCH WHAT AMOUNTED TO A LARGE-SCALE INVASION OF NORTHERN ENGLAND
these and other competing lords.
Events in Scotland were also increasingly bound up with those on the continent. Having begun what would become known as the Hundred Years’ War with his intervention in the Low Countries and France in 1337, Edward III was ever more wrapped up in European affairs. True to their alliance with the Bruce Scots, however, the French ensured that any European negotiations for truces between themselves and the English included the Bruce party, to avoid the latter facing Edward III alone. And so, in early 1343, in the wake of operations in Brittany, the Anglo-French truce of Malestroit was agreed, which was intended to last for three years. News of this may have taken some time to reach the Bruce Scots, who were still threatening English-held Lochmaben Castle around August 1343. After this, peace does seem to have broken out and events along the frontier quietened down somewhat as both kings looked to their own affairs at home. Nonetheless, Edward III obviously did not trust the Bruce Scots to keep to the agreement, and for the rest of 1343 and on into 1344, he ordered a series of arrays of northern forces for the border’s defence as he feared Bruce incursions. These came to nothing, but they were expensive affairs and will have convinced the English northerners that there was indeed something to fear. This reality reinforces an additional benefit of Bruce raids into northern England, which was the psychological effect they had on this region, even if no raid took place. The anxiety instilled in the English population was a benefit in itself to the Bruce Scots, as was the cost that repeated arrays of men had on the English exchequer.
This relatively peaceful period was not, though, without incident in Scotland. The fallout of the Douglas-Ramsay feud continued, and this was not the only issue faced by the young David II.
In his absence in France, his nephew and heir, Robert the Steward, had made use of his latter periods of guardianship to increase his political and territorial interests. He had equally aided the expansion of his extended family, and various lords allied to him. David was aware of such machinations before his return, and in the early years of his resumed kingship attempted to unpick the various grants made in his name by the Steward. But this proved difficult as the king faced concerted opposition from a coalition of nobles who were unused to not getting their own way, including the Steward, the earl of Ross and John MacDonald of the Isles. David reacted by promoting other men, those who were close to him or who he hoped to win to his lordship through martial displays and commitment to chivalric enterprise. This created, however, an increasingly divided aristocracy, while feuds and unrest at the local level continued to play out in apparent replication of the discord at the centre.
Renewed conflict with England could potentially act to bring these men together once more in a common purpose, one in which they all had a stake and from which they could all gain, but the period of truce denied David II the opportunity to use that to his advantage. These were difficult days for the king as he sought to impose himself as king over a noble class that was not always receptive to what he was trying to do.
War’s resumption
Opportunity for further military enterprise arose in 1345.While English fears of Scottish attack came to nothing while the peace held, the Truce of Malestroit was not fated to last its full three-year term. Indeed, Edward III had himself broken it with attacks
upon the French in the summer of that year. The Bruce Scots were, then, free to take whatever action they wished and they duly took advantage of the situation.
At the beginning of October, William Douglas led a raid on Cumberland, which was followed at the end of the month by a larger incursion led by the king into Cumberland and Westmorland. His ‘great army’ spent around six days committing widespread destruction around Carlisle and Penrith, but the English were quick to respond and launched their own raid into Dumfriesshire in retaliation. This resulted in more negotiations for a truce on the border and ended operations until a resumption once more in 1346.
In the early months of the year, William Douglas and John Randolph, earl of Moray, crossed into Cumberland and laid siege to the small fortress of Liddel. But, as a clear demonstration that political in-fighting continued within the Bruce noble class, dispute between the commanders led to the siege’s abandonment. A second raid progressed through Cumberland in July, committing further destruction. Again, however, it was to be continental events that would influence a Scottish response. For in July 1346, Edward III sailed for France at the start of his expedition that would culminate in the battle of Crécy and the ultimately successful capture (around a year later) of the city of Calais after a prolonged siege. The English king’s absence provided impetus for the Bruce Scots and David II led a large-scale incursion into England in the same month.
This was only the prelude, however, for what came next. Edward III’s continued absence in France, along with a good proportion of his military strength and prominent captains, appears to have encouraged the Bruce Scots to think bigger. Letters also arrived from King Philip VI – his forces in disarray following defeat at Crécy, and fearing the loss of Calais – begging David II to take action to divert Edward III’s interests elsewhere.
Although the French have often been blamed for encouraging the Bruce Scottish effort which followed, it is highly likely that the king was already engaged in planning his next move. This was to be unlike the raids of previous months and years. Instead, David II summoned a huge army from across the length and breadth of the kingdom to launch what amounted to a large-scale invasion of northern England. Local arrays were held regionally, with these forces all marching to more centralised muster points before the entire army gathered in the borders ahead of the invasion. Even here, though, divisions within the Scottish military broke out into violence.William, earl of Ross marched south with his troops to muster at Perth, but also in the vicinity as part of the same array was his regional rival, Ranald MacRuaridh. Ross took advantage
These were difficult days for the king as he sought to impose himself as king over a noble class that was not always receptive to what he was trying to do
of the opportunity afforded to him by having MacRuaridh assassinated as he resided at Elcho Priory. Ross and his men fled in the aftermath of the murder, and the leaderless MacRuaridhs may have similarly withdrawn. This was a blow to David II before his army had even gathered as it robbed him of important forces to aid his campaign.
The army that did finally gather in the border region crossed the frontier on 6-8 October 1346 and first targeted Liddel (besieged earlier in the year). Here it was denied an easy victory by stubborn resistance on the part of the fortress’s commander, Walter Selby. After around four days, the castle was taken by storm, but David II’s displeasure may be seen in the fact that he had Selby executed in the aftermath of Liddel’s capture. For English chroniclers, this was the action of an evil king, denying chivalric convention to a defeated opponent who begged to die honourably but was instead executed as a traitor. To David
II, however, it may have been the justified actions of a monarch towards a man who had switched sides during an earlier period of conflict. Indeed, Selby had fought alongside the Scots during the reign of Edward II, although his return to English allegiance and loyal service to Edward III saw him become a thorn in the side of Bruce Scottish raiders. Either way, the taking of the castle by storm meant that, by the laws of war, any retributive action was allowed in the aftermath of the siege, and so Selby may simply have paid the ultimate price for his defiance when surrender had been an option.
The battle of Neville’s Cross
Following Liddel’s capture, the Bruce Scots sacked Lanercost Priory and began to devastate Cumberland, but these activities ceased when the local communities negotiated a peace with the invaders at the cost of 300 marks. Heading east into Northumberland, the Bruce Scots took the surrender of Aydon Castle, near Corbridge, and sacked Hexham Priory. It was around this time, according to Walter Bower, that David II had a dream in which he was visited by St Cuthbert.The saint apparently requested that the Scottish king should not invade or damage his lands. Such pious intervention was, however, ignored by the king and the Bruce Scots headed southeast into County Durham. David II may have planned to use this part of England as a base from which to supply his army.The Lanercost Chronicle suggested that the king ‘strictly ordered that four northern towns should not be burnt, to wit, Hexham, Corbridge, Darlington and Durham, because he intended to obtain his victual from them in the winter season’. Akin to the Cumberland negotiation, such supply would undoubtedly have been in return for being left in peace. This ability to re-supply would have allowed David II more time to spend ravaging other parts of the north, and to progress even further south. Walter Bower’s 15th-century chronicle certainly suggested that York was the king’s ultimate target. The Lanercost Chronicle even stated (somewhat unbelievably) that the Scottish king intended to march on London. Whatever the ultimate goals of the campaign, the Bruce Scottish army reached Durham by 16 October and camped outside the town at
the bishop’s manor of Bearpark.
On the morning of 17 October, William Douglas rode out with a scouting party to reconnoitre the area to the south. He was about seven miles from the main host when, out of the morning mist, appeared a fully-arrayed English army under the leadership of the archbishop of York. The Bruce Scottish forces were defeated in the skirmish that ensued, but Douglas was able to escape and ride quickly back north to warn David II of the imminent arrival of the English host. Supposedly abandoning breakfast in order to prepare for the battle to come, the Bruce Scots moved out of Bearpark.When they located the English army, they found their opponents drawn up and prepared for battle, yet again dictating to the Bruce Scots where and how the battle would be fought. Still, the latter do at least appear to have learned some lessons from the crushing defeats of the early 1330s. When the English archers opened fire on them in the opening shots of the confrontation, the Bruce Scots apparently lowered their heads so that their helmets deflected the arrow fire.When John Graham, earl of Menteith, sought permission from David II to take a cavalry force, like Robert Keith had at Bannockburn, to attack the English missile troops, the king refused. This may be seen as a mistake, considering that Keith’s actions had ensured that the Scots were not subject to the danger of English arrows. But David’s intention may have been to keep his forces in order and ensure structural cohesion amongst his forces. This was especially important when utilising the large infantry formations knowns as schiltroms, which were the standard form Scottish divisions normally took. If the king had learned lessons from past defeats, it is clear that Graham had not. Undeterred by his king’s refusal, he rode against the English alone, but his horse was shot from under him and he struggled to make his way back to the Bruce Scottish line.
Forced once again to go on the offensive, the Bruce Scots had some initial success, apparently pushing the English line back several feet at the first clash of the two armies. But their ability to manoeuvre was restricted by the site of battle, where ditches and hedgerows restricted freedom of action. And, once again, the static English defensive line successfully held the enemy in place, while the archers on the flanks rained arrows into the stationary Bruce divisions. As the tide of battle appeared to be turning, the rear Bruce division (led by Robert the Steward and Earl Patrick of March) withdrew. English chroniclers crowed at the cowardly flight of these apparently fearful Bruce commanders. Scottish writers instead reflected on a sensible withdrawal to protect what remained of the Bruce army. Whichever we choose to believe, the rear division’s withdrawal abandoned the rest of the Bruce Scots to their fate. Many nobles and important figures were killed in the ongoing action, including the earls of Moray and Strathearn, the marshal, the constable, the chancellor and the chamberlain. Many more were taken captive in the battle’s aftermath, including the earls of Wigtown, Menteith and Fife, as well as William Douglas of Liddesdale. Also captured was David II himself, grievously wounded by two arrows to the face. Some English accounts suggested that the king was found cowering under a bridge, but other descriptions suggest a warrior fighting to the last, punching out the teeth of his eventual captor, John Coupland, in his determination to fight to the end.
Neville’s Cross was a disaster for the Bruce Scots. After several years of recovery and increased confidence as they rolled back the Disinherited/English hold on Scotland and moved onto the offensive by taking the war to England, this defeat turned the clock back once more to the early 1330s. David II would survive his injuries, helped in part by barber surgeons from Newcastle who treated him as he made his slow way south to public humiliation and imprisonment in London. He would remain in English captivity for the next eleven years. Some of his Scottish rivals, like the Steward, had escaped the battlefield intact and would make hay while their king spent long years as an English captive. Others, like the earl of Ross, had not participated in the battle at all. Moreover, beyond the internal divisions within Scotland, the kingdom was left rudderless once more in the face of a revitalised Edward III and the alternative king of Scots, Edward Balliol. The victories at Crécy and Neville’s Cross showed that the English king was in the ascendent. And he would look to take advantage of the victory won for him at Durham to invade Scotland once more as he sought to finally bring the conflict to a satisfactory end. Still, the possession of David II caused its own problems. Although a valuable captive, his ultimate worth lay in what concessions and ransom the Bruce Scots would trade for his release. But while Edward III still supported Balliol as king, David II’s value was less evident. Victory in the conflict to come would have to be swift, therefore, if the English king was to benefit fully from his forces’ success at Neville’s Cross.