After Bannockburn Read online

  That summer William joined James Douglas in a major raid into England. Edward the Second was prevaricating over the release of King Robert’s wife, daughter and sister in exchange for some of those captured at Bannockburn and Robert felt that he needed a little encouragement. He therefore dispatched James and a force of six hundred mounted men to raid deep into Northern England.

  Having burned, raped and pillaged their way across Northumberland they were met by a delegation from Durham just after they had crossed the Tyne to the west of Newcastle. The Bishop of Durham, the landowners and people of the county paid Douglas two thousand marks for him to leave them alone for the next year and the Scots continued through the county, leaving it largely unmolested, to cross the River Tees into Yorkshire. They skirted the town and Castle of Richmond before raiding along Swaledale until they reached the village of Ryecroft, just south of the town of Brough. Here they were met by a force put together by the constable of Carlisle Castle.

  Edgar had accepted the destruction of villages in the county of his birth but he had managed to prevail upon William Keith to allow Powburn to pay a ransom in terms of livestock, rather than suffer the treatment meted out to other places. Once again he came into contact with his father, who was still the bailiff. William Keith made sure that the man understood that his village had only been spared due to the intercession of his son. His brute of a father had seethed with fury at being beholden to the boy who he had treated worse than a dog and this gave young Edgar a feeling of bitter satisfaction.

  At Ryecroft he armed Sir William ready for the battle to come. The Scots force consisted of six knights in total, twenty serjeants armed with crossbows that they were trained to use on horseback, and nearly six hundred hobelars and borderers. The latter lacked discipline but made up for that in terms of courage. Edgar was left with the other squires and a few of the lightly wounded from earlier skirmishes to guard the massive herd of cattle and flocks of sheep that they had stolen.

  The English had managed to muster twenty knights, a similar number of mounted serjeants, fifty archers and nearly a thousand foot soldiers armed with everything from halberds to pitchforks.

  Douglas used a time honoured ploy that the inexperienced Englishman fell for. He pretended to charge with his handful of knights then, when the English cavalry were committed, he and his men turned tail and began to flee. The Cumbrians charged after them, jeering at them for cowardice, until they entered a narrow defile. Then the Scottish knights turned and were joined by a hundred hobelars and the mounted crossbowmen. At the same time another hundred hobelars closed the trap behind them. By the time the surviving English cavalry had fought their way out of the defile half of them were dead for the loss of one Scot.

  Douglas then returned with his six hundred men and gave the thousand remaining Cumbrians an ultimatum. He had no wish to lose men fighting them and there was nothing to gain by slaughtering them in any case. An hour later the Cumbrian men-at-arms and peasant militia marched away home leaving their armour – such as it was – weapons and other possessions behind.

  James Douglas then proceeded to burn the nearby town of Brough to the ground before taking and destroying the small castles at Appleby and Kirkoswald. The remaining villages and towns along their route through Cumbria paid ransoms totalling another six hundred marks in value before the raiding party crossed back over the border at the end of August.

  ~#~

  In the middle of November Simon met his brother at the Scots camp outside Carlisle. This time the Scots weren’t besieging the town but had gathered to exchange some of the prisoners taken at Bannockburn for Elisabeth de Burgh, Queen of Scots, Princess Marjorie Bruce, Robert’s only child by his first marriage, and his sister Mary Bruce, all of whom had been held in captivity by the English for the past eight years.

  Edgar was delighted to see Simon again. He ran up to him and threw his arms around the older boy.

  ‘Tush, Edgar. We’re not young boys any more,’ he reproved him but he was secretly delighted.

  After the coolness of their relationship the last time they were together, he welcomed the renewal of the closeness that they had enjoyed in the past. It probably helped that Simon wasn’t a virgin any more, and so he no longer felt jealous of his younger brother. They made their way, chattering together nineteen to the dozen, to watch the exchange.

  Edward of Caernarvon had found himself in an even worse position in England after Bannockburn. The Earl of Gloucester, one of the few earls who had remained loyal to him throughout his turbulent reign, had been killed and the Earl of Hereford was a prisoner, leaving only the Earl of Pembroke as a supporter on his council. He was therefore desperate to secure Hereford’s release as quickly as possible. Hereford and the members of his mesnie captured with him had been given fresh clothing, including surcoats embroidered with the appropriate heraldic arms, and rounceys to ride, though none were given armour or weapons. In contrast, the Bruce women and the captive Scots nobles were on foot and dressed in barely more than rags. Robert was furious and as he rode towards the English king his eyes flashed his anger. A few of Edward’s escort took fright and drew their swords but Robert ignored them.

  ‘You see with what respect I treat my captives, Sir King, and I see with what contempt you treat my family and nobles. I swear to you that England will pay in blood, coin and destruction for your disrespect to me and mine.’

  With that he signalled for carriages to be brought forward to carry the released Scottish captives back across the border but, before they entered them, he dismounted and hugged and kissed his wife, daughter and sister in turn.

  Chapter Two – The Invasion of Ireland

  1315-1316

  Robert was a little apprehensive that first night after his reunion with Elizabeth. They hadn’t seen each other for eight years and it was difficult to regain their former intimacy; so much had happened in the intervening period. He was still furious over the way that Edward of England had treated his womenfolk and this made it even more difficult for him to relax.

  Eventually he took his wife’s hand and led her over to the bed.

  ‘Well, I’m not getting any younger and Scotland needs an heir so we had better get reacquainted,’ he told her awkwardly. He realised that what he had said in his nervousness sounded crass as soon as he had uttered the words.

  ‘Oh, is that all you want from me? Not love, not someone to cherish, just a woman to produce babies to preserve the precious dynasty of the Bruces! Is that all those years of my imprisonment in England means to you?’

  ‘I’m sorry, that came out all wrong. I was trying to lighten the atmosphere.’

  ‘Well, you failed spectacularly!’

  He sat down on the bed sighing.

  ‘I’ve dreamed of this night for years, all the time we were fighting to clear the English and their allies out of my country; wondering if we would ever get back together again. Now I seem to have upset you and ruined our first night back together.’

  The queen relented and sat beside him, stroking his cheek.

  ‘No, you haven’t. I’m sorry. I think I’m a little on edge too. Come on, let’s get to bed and try for that heir you’re so desperate for.’

  Later that night, feeling somewhat exhausted by the intensity of their lovemaking, Robert lay beside his wife, unable to sleep. His mind kept going back to Edward of Caernarvon and his supercilious attitude at the exchange of captives. Elizabeth had said little about her years in England but his daughter Marjorie just sat sobbing, refusing to be comforted, after their arrival at Lochmaben Castle and his sister Mary seemed to resent him, blaming him for the years she had spent locked in a cage, albeit an inside one, unlike poor Isabella of Buchan. What was worse, she held him responsible for the deaths of their three brothers.

  Both women slowly recovered but they remained somewhat subdued compared to the vivacity of their personalities before their capture. Then Robert noticed that Marjorie suddenly started to brighten up and even began to laugh and te
ase him. Something had made her turn a corner but at first he wasn’t sure what it was.

  One day he was sitting with Elizabeth and Marjorie in the solar when Walter Stewart, the High Steward, walked in and bowed low, asking to speak to the king. Immediately Robert’s daughter brightened up and her eyes sparkled. She couldn’t take her eyes of the youth, who was eighteen, one year older than Marjorie. Robert didn’t notice but Elizabeth did and she mentioned his daughter’s interest in Walter to Robert as soon as they were alone.

  ‘Well, she could do worse. He is the head of the house of Stewart and a powerful baron.’

  ‘Mainly because you have given him many of the old Comyn lands to add to his estates in Renfrewshire.’

  ‘I need to make my friends powerful, Elizabeth, and what better way to do that than at the expense of my enemies.’

  ‘Oh, I’m not disagreeing with that. I’m just pointing out that, if he is a suitable suitor, you have made him one.’

  ‘Perhaps, but it is still a good idea to bind him even closer to me and, if I can make Marjorie happy in the process; well, that’s just a bonus. I’ll speak to Walter tomorrow and see how he feels.’

  During the Christmas celebrations at the end of 1314 the couple’s betrothal was announced and they were wed early in 1315.

  Robert had been worried about his sister Mary. Her confinement in a cage had nearly sent her mad and, even after she was transferred to a convent in 1310, she had bouts of demented rage. She had been married in 1295 to Sir Neil Campbell, Lord of Lochnow, chief of Clan Campbell. He had been thirty seven and she thirteen when they wed; now he was in his late fifties and an old man.

  She had delayed her return to her husband, even though she was anxious to see her son, John – now a youth of sixteen – but she realised that he would hardly know the mother he had last seen as a boy of four. Eventually she travelled to Argyll to spend Christmas with him and her son. If Neil Campbell was glad to see her, he hid it well. Unlike the night of tender lovemaking Elizabeth had experienced with Robert Bruce, his sister was treated to a brutal expression of lust to celebrate her return.

  It was therefore with mixed emotions that Mary woke up one morning to find her husband dead in bed beside her. Her son’s welcome had been dutiful but lacked any display of affection. She had resigned herself to this as they didn’t know each other at all. A week after Neil Campbell’s funeral, she and her son, who was now the clan chief, set off for Stirling to attend the wedding of Walter and Marjorie and so that John Campbell could pledge his fealty, as the new Lord of Lochnow, to his uncle, King Robert.

  At the wedding Mary caught the eye of the Lord Chamberlain, Alexander Fraser, Lord of Cowie, a cousin of one of Robert’s foremost supporters - Sir Simon Fraser. Although Mary was only recently a widow, Fraser made no secret of the fact that he wanted to marry her. The loyalty of the Frasers had been crucial in the early years of Robert’s reign and had remained so. Therefore Robert readily agreed to the match the following year, once he had confirmed that Mary was agreeable.

  Alexander was in his early thirties, and so a similar age to Mary, and he was handsome. She welcomed the proposed match but then she found out something she hadn’t expected. She was pregnant.

  At first King Robert was furious as he assumed that Fraser hadn’t been able to wait for the wedding but Mary convinced him that the father had to be Neil Campbell. Dubhghall Campbell was born the following December and Mary married Alexander three months later.

  Shortly after the exchange of prisoners near Carlisle in November 1314 Robert called a parliament at Cambuskenneth Abbey near Stirling. This was promised to be a momentous meeting but he raised his proposals with his council first .

  ‘The time has come,’ Robert began, ‘to put an end to the divided loyalties that have resulted in so many of those who hold Scottish lands supporting Edward of England.’

  He looked around the table of those on his inner council: his brother Edward, Earl of Carrick; Walter Stewart; Alexander Fraser; Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray; Jamie Douglas; Simon Fraser, Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, and Richard Keith.

  ‘What do you have in mind, Robert?’ Edward asked curiously.

  ‘Simple. All the nobles who have lands on both sides of the border are given a straightforward choice; either they swear fealty to me, keep their Scottish lands and give up their English ones, or else they keep their English estates and forfeit their holdings in Scotland.’

  There was a stunned silence. The concept of landholders being forced to confine their property holdings to one particular country was a new one. Many of those who had come over with William the Conqueror had been landless fortune seekers but quite a few of the earls and senior barons had also been major landholders in Normandy. Over the years war had increasingly robbed them of their estates on the continent but the same thing had happened again when King David of Scots had recruited Normans to his side to help control an unruly Scotland. There were many, like the d’Umfravilles and David de Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl, who owned extensive estates both north and south of the border.

  ‘Most of those who have fled to England during the recent struggle won’t return, Sire.’ Walter Stewart said uncertainly.

  ‘Nor do I want them to. What I want is the legal excuse to deprive them of their titles and lands so that I can reward those who have remained loyal to me.’

  Slowly those around the table started to grin at each other, realising that some of the confiscations might well come their way.

  Only Ingram d’Umfraville and half a dozen other lords opted to transfer their loyalty to Bruce and retain their Scottish estates. Robert didn’t trust Ingram; the only reason he had chosen to give up his English lands was because the alternative was to rot in a dungeon for years. Nevertheless, Robert had made a general offer and the man had accepted, so his hands were tied. The rest chose to remain in England and four months after the parliament, and a week after John Campbell had come in to bend the knee to his uncle, John was made Earl of Atholl in David de Strathbogie’s place.

  ~#~

  ‘It seems that Edward is a very slow learner.’

  King Robert was annoyed. Edward the Second was still insisting on describing himself as Lord Paramount of Scotland and he had reiterated his refusal to acknowledge Scotland as an independent country or to recognise Robert as its king.

  ‘It’s the obstinacy of a weak man,’ James Douglas opined.

  ‘Maybe, but he is causing us trouble. Ever since William Lamberton arrived back in St. Andrews three years ago Edward has been agitating for him to recognise the Bishop of Durham as his superior, and now I understand that he has written to the Pope asking for William’s removal from his bishopric.’

  ‘That will just unite the Church in Scotland behind you even more, Sire,’ Walter Steward told him.

  ‘Especially as Robert Wishart has arrived back an old, broken and blind man,’ James added. The Bishop of Glasgow had been one of Robert’s staunchest allies before he had been carted off to England as a prisoner by Edward Longshanks eight years before.

  Yes, he is extremely frail and I fear that he is not long for this world. Heaven knows what dire conditions he was held in.’

  ‘It’s time for another raid into England,’ Robert said decisively. ‘This time I want us to bring back as much iron as we can from Corbridge. We are desperately short of the ore and it will deprive the English of it at the same time. If we wait until late summer, opposition will be less as the population will have dispersed to get the harvest in. Crops can be carted back here, burnt in their barns or, if still in the fields, destroyed there. Livestock are to be taken in exchange for sparing the villages and towns. I want the population to rise in rebellion this winter because they are starving. That should keep Edward too busy to bother us.’

  He smiled grimly as he looked around his council before continuing.

  ‘Jamie, I want you to lead the raid and to rule as viceroy whilst my brother and I are away.’

  ‘Away, Robert? W
here?’

  Robert and Edward Bruce looked at each other and smiled.

  ‘Responding to an invitation from the petty kings and chieftains of Ireland for Edward to become their High King. That will cause even more trouble for Edward of Caernarvon and he will have to divert resources to hold onto his Lordship of Ireland. In contrast we propose to only take our own mesnies and a thousand men with us. We will use the local kerns and galloglasses to fight our battles.’

  ‘I agree that it will cause King Edward a major headache but why do you need to go as well as your brother, Sire? What happens if you are both killed? Scotland will be without an heir yet again,’ his brother-in-law, Andrew Fraser, asked.

  ‘Oh, I shan’t stay away from Scotland for long but I do want to ensure that the Irish know that I personally support their bid to oust their Anglo-Norman rulers. In any case, the Lady Marjorie is now free and will rule, with the High Steward as her consort, in the unlikely event that both my brother and I fall.’

  ~#~

  Robert’s decision did not sit well with Elizabeth. Not only was Robert deserting her so soon after their reunion but there was no sign of a baby as yet. She felt aggrieved that, after so many years of degrading captivity in England, her dreams of a settled life as wife and queen didn’t look as if they were about to be realised. It didn’t help that Robert seemed far more excited by the thought of the invasion of Ireland than he did about making love to her. Most nights he was busy plotting the Irish campaign with his brother. When he wasn’t doing that he was spending time with James Douglas discussing the government of Scotland whilst he was overseas. He had created James Baron Douglas of Douglasdale as a reward for his loyal service and to give him the status of a noble whilst he was away.

  Finally she had had enough and expressed her unhappiness to Coira, the maid who had served her and been her confidant in England until they were separated and all her Scottish servants sent home. That had been the worst period of her captivity. She had no-one she could talk freely to and no way of obtaining news about what was happening in the outside world. It wasn’t until after Bannockburn, when she was moved north prior to her release, that she knew that her husband was still alive.