BOOK XIX.
6 a fell conjuracione. Barbour post-dates this conspiracy. It took place in 1320.
11 The lord of Sowlis. Probably the grandson of Sir Nicholas Soulis, one of the competitors in 1292. Sir Nicholas claimed through his mother, a niece of Alexander III. (Bain, ii., liv.). His forfeited lands in Liddesdale were given to Bruce’s illegitimate son Robert (Robertson’s Index, p. 12; 54, etc.); others to Robert Stewart, son of Walter (ibid., 10; 13).
16 Male-herbe. As in E, is the correct form; or Malerb (Fordun), Malherbe (Scala.) and on record in Bain, and in Robertson, where the Stirlingshire lands forfeited by “Gilbert de Malherbe” are gifted to another (Index, 21; 19). The land of “Malerbe” was in Perthshire (Reg. Mag. Sig., pp. 30, 61). The other names occur in these sources also, as in Barbour.
19 David the Brechyne. Cf. on Bk. VIII. 402; IX. 293. Some of the forfeited lands of Brechin, such as Rothmay, Brechine, Kinloch, etc., were granted to Sir David de Barclay (Robertson, pp. 26, 34).
23 Throu ane lady. The lady in the affair was Countess of Strathearn (Gesta Annal., cxxxv.). But Gray (Scala., p. 144) gives a different discoverer, Murdoch of Menteith, who was in the English service as late, at least, as January, 1317 (Bain, iii. 534). The Countess could not have turned King’s evidence, as she was condemned to imprisonment for life (Fordun. Ibid.). In an extract from the Cotton MS. in Stevenson, Menteith is again given as the discoverer (Illust., p. 55).
45 playn granting. Soulis made a full confession (Scala., p. 144).
49 plane parliament. At Scone, August, 1320 (Fordun; Skene, i. 348; Scala., p. 144). It was known as the Black Parliament.
51 Till his penance till Dumbertane. “Confined in Dumbarton Castle for punishment in prison” (a sa penaunz en prisoun.—Scala., p. 144); “for life” (Fordun; Skene, i. 348). Gray says that Dumbarton was the only castle in Scotland not now dismantled (ibid.).
56 thai drawin war. As in Fordun: “first drawn with horses and finally executed” (Skene, i. 348). Gray says Brechin, Logy, and Maleherbe were hanged and drawn in Perth. Fordun adds Richard Brown, a squire.
74 Scottis man. Umfraville was a prisoner since Bannockburn. At this date (1320) he was still in Scotland, though on July 24, 1314, Edward was granting safe-conducts to some of his friends for a journey to France in quest of money for his ransom (Bain, iii., No. 374). On April 20, 1320, there is a safe-conduct for Sir Ingelram de Umfraville, “a Scottish knight passing through England on his affairs beyond seas,” with a considerable following, which was cancelled for one in October (ibid., 694). Meantime his name is on the record of the Arbroath Parliament in April, 1320 (see below). On January 26, 1321, he is being restored to his estates, “as Ingelram, who was a prisoner in Scotland, has escaped, and shown that he never left his allegiance” (ibid., 721). These facts have been held to invalidate Barbour’s statement (Maxwell’s Robert the Bruce, pp. 276-7), but they have obviously a suspicious air. He appears to have somewhat prolonged his escape; there was clearly a doubt as to his loyalty; and the date fits in curiously with the narrative. Finally, it has to be explained how Umfraville’s name appears in the list of signatories to the famous letter to the Pope from the barons and Community of Scotland on April 6, 1320: “While there exist a hundred of us we will never submit to England” (Acts Parl. Scot., i., p. 114).
125 the Kyngis curtasy. Cf. note on Bk. XIII. 531.
131 oftsis. There had been frequent negotiations for peace since immediately after Bannockburn (cf. Fœdera iii., p. 495).
186 war trewis tane. The truce was arranged at Thorpe, near York, to last for thirteen years (see line 188) from June 12, 1323.
191-6 Bot Inglis men apon the se Distroyit, etc. Of such cases, probably those referred to here, we have precise details in Bain’s Calendar, vol. iii. On September 7, 1326, an inquiry is ordered by Edward II. into the case of certain Scottish merchants who, on their way to Flanders, took refuge in an English ship from fear of pirates, and were brought to Scarborough, where they were all arrested by the Sheriff of York and the magistrates of Scarborough, and put in prison (No. 887). On September 28 three justices are commissioned to inquire into the seizure of a Flemish vessel at Whitby, when nine Scottish merchants, sixteen Scottish pilgrims, and thirteen women were murdered (lines 195, 234), and the cargo and goods to the value of £2,000 carried off (line 196); the vessel being cast adrift, and afterwards captured by others, when the rest of the cargo was appropriated. Apparently this inquiry was fruitless, for another is ordered at Yarmouth on October 15 (No. 889). Then, on October 12, there was the case of a Scottish clerk arrested on the high seas, brought with his two servants and goods to Scarborough, and imprisoned by the Sheriff of York, to be discharged later by the King’s order (No. 889). And Adam Rolok and other Scots had been taken from a ship touching at Brunham and lodged in Norwich prison, from which they were not released till September 24, 1328 (No. 965). Neglecting Barbour’s full explanation, confirmed as it is by Bain’s Calendar, historians profess to find the origins of this campaign obscure, or lay all the blame upon the Scots (Hume Brown, History, i., p. 166; Lang, History i. 232; Le Bel, Chronique, ed. 1904, i., p. 37, editorial note).
205 Walter Steward. Died April 9, 1326.
230-1 twa yheir ... and ane half. Nearly four years after; cf. note on 188.
238 gaf the trewis up. Le Bel, the Flemish chronicler, says he “defied” Edward about Easter because he saw Edward II. deposed, his Government upset, and that the new King was but a boy; and therefore hoped to conquer a part of England (Les Vrayes Chroniques, i., p. 34, edit. 1863; Froissart, trans. Johnes, i. 15).
241 Donald Erll of Mar. Cf. note on Bk. XIII. 687. He had been brought up at the Court of Edward II., and had served for him against the Scots, but, on his deposition, returned to his native land. The Scots readily received him and restored him to his earldom (Gesta Edw. Tertii, p. 96; Bain, iii. 744; Scala., p. 151). He hoped to get Scottish aid in restoring Edward II. (Chron. de Lanercost, p. 259). The leaders of this expedition are given as in Barbour in Scalacronica, Chron. de Lanercost, and Gesta Edwardi Tertii, with the exception of the Steward, who is not mentioned. Le Bel, who was present with the troops of John of Hainault, names only Moray and Douglas, whom he erroneously styles William, here as elsewhere (i., p. 48).
248 In England. June 15; and a second raid to Weardale in August (Fordun. Skene, i. 351-2). Before July 20 (Lanercost, p. 259). By the West March, says Hailes, citing Froissart (i.e., le Bel), but this is certainly not clear. No one seems to have known how they came: “They had passed the river (? Tyne, Eden) so quietly that neither they of Carlisle nor they of Newcastle knew anything of it” (Le Bel, i., p. 46, edit. 1863).
250 ten thousand. Le Bel says there were three thousand men-at-arms, knights, and squires, and about twenty thousand variously armed upon little hackneys (p. 48). These numbers are clearly in excess. It is from Jehan le Bel in this connection that Froissart has taken his famous and familiar description of a Scots Border raid (Johnes, ch. xvii.).
254 Wardill. Weardale, in Durham (Fordun, Gesta Annalia, cxl.).
256 The King wes ded. Edward II. was in ward since January 7, but did not die till September 21.
257 that wes yhing. Edward III. was fifteen.
261 Isabel. Daughter of Philip IV. of France.
262 wes weddid. Not till January 28, 1328, to the second daughter (Philippa) of Count or Earl William of Holland and Hainault. Barbour, of course, writes about fifty years after.
267 Schir Johne of Hennaut. John of Hainault, lord of Beaumont, brother of the Count, then “in the flower of his age” (Le Bel, i., p. 12). He came at Edward’s request, and brought five hundred well-mounted men-at-arms from Hainault, Flanders, Bohemia, Cambresis, and Artois: later he was joined by fifty more (Le Bel, i. 36, 37). Jehan le Bel and his brother were in the company.
271 In-to York. The English army assembled at York, and there awaited the arrival of the Hainaulters (Le Bel, p. 36); or of the chief lords (Gesta Edw., p. 96). There was a wait at York of more than six weeks until news should come about the Scots (Le Bel, p. 45). The English preparations seem to have anticipated the Scottish raid, though Barbour puts it otherwise.
275 neir fifty thousand. According to Le Bel, it was said the English had seven thousand knights and squires, thirty thousand armed men, half of whom were mounted on little hackneys, and twenty-four thousand archers on foot—sixty-one thousand men (i., p. 49). The English were three times the number of the Scots (Murimuth, p. 53; Baker, 97). Froissart, modifying Le Bel, gives in another place more than forty thousand men-at-arms (i., p. 17).
278 Xviii yheir. Edward, born November, 1312, was only fifteen.
279 Cokdaill. The Cock flows into the Wharfe, a tributary of the Yorkshire Ouse. Sir Herbert Maxwell says Coquetdale (Robert the Bruce, p. 311).
287 sevyn battellis. According to Le Bel, the English were in three battles of infantry, each battle having two wings of five hundred men-at-arms (p. 49).
316 north half Wer, toward Scotland. Maxwell insists that the Scots were on the south bank, on account of an order from Edward on August 3, located at Stanhope, to which may be added a later reference to his having been there (Robert the Bruce, p. 312 and note; Bain, iii., Nos. 929, 933). But the Scots were certainly at Stanhope Park, on the north bank (see below on 490 and 513). Mr. J. T. T. Brown, also on the strength of the first citation from Bain, says that “Froissart and the Scottish poet are both alike in error in placing the Scottish army on the north bank and the English on the opposite of the Wear” (The Wallace and Bruce Restudied, p. 144). In what he writes, Froissart simply follows Le Bel, who was present. Neither expressly says that the Scots were on the north bank, but it is made clear in both that the river separated the forces. Nothing is said by Barbour of how the English hunted for the Scots, but could not find them; of their rough and hurried ride to the Tyne at Hexham to cut off the expected Scottish retreat; or of their rush south when it was discovered by a squire that the Scots were on the Wear—all of which is graphically described by Le Bel and transferred to his own work by Froissart (Le Bel, i., ch. xii.; Froissart, ch. xvii.).
322 Stude in a strynth. They were drawn up in three battles on the slope of the mountain on which they were encamped (Le Bel, p. 62). Gray says the Scots were in three divisions on a fine plain, and calls this first position also Stanhope (Scala., p. 154). But it is clear from the detailed accounts of Barbour and Le Bel that the Scots were on a hill.
328 Weris wattir. “Below this mountain was a strong, swift river” (Le Bel, p. 62). “The King took up a position before them on the Wear wattir for three days” (Scala., p. 154).
350 Archibald ... of Douglas. Youngest brother of Sir James, “the Tineman” (i.e., the Loser), afterwards Regent of Scotland; killed at Halidon Hill, 1333. His especial share in this raid was to plunder the bishopric of Durham (Scala., p. 154; Maxwell’s History of the House of Douglas, vol. i., pp. 70, 71, 75).
353-4 These lines appear to mean that Douglas alternately advanced and retired so as to draw the English on. The Scots on the next day, according to Le Bel, “ran forwards and backwards in skirmishing” (couroient et racouroient tout en eshcarmuchant, p. 64).
374 Schir Williame of Erskyn. It is noted that Bruce died in debt to Erskine (Excheq. Rolls, i., p. 404).
396 Tymbrys for helmys. Wooden crests on helmets, common in the fourteenth century. Apparently the novelty was not in the crests, but in the material; hitherto they would have been made of cuir-bouilli (see Bk. XII., 23, note). Edward III. bore an eagle: “Tymbre de legle (? l’aigle)” (Bain, iii., p. lxviii.).
399 crakkis of war. Early cannon (cf. on Bk. XVII., line 250). It is not easy to understand how the English carried these with them in their forced marches over hill and dale. Le Bel does not mention them. They do not appear again in warfare till Creçy (1346), if then (Oman, Art of War, p. 611).
402 That nycht. “The night of St. Peter in August” (la nuit Saint-Pierre d’aoust, Le Bel, 64). St. Peter’s Day was August 1, but as Mass was heard on the morrow, the “night” was probably that of July 31, St. Peter’s Eve.
405 The Inglis men. Le Bel (Froissart) does not relate the incidents given by Barbour, or these operations, except in general terms. Many “companions,” he says, with the assistance of their horses, crossed the river, and some on foot; prisoners were taken, and others wounded or killed on both sides; and this went on continuously for three days (p. 64). The English learned from their prisoners that the Scots had neither bread, salt, nor wine, and so they hoped to starve them out; but they had plenty of beef, and were not particular about how they ate it, without salt or bread, “boiled or roasted as it liked them;” as well as some oatmeal, of which they made cakes (i., p. 65).
431 all arayit. Each of the first two days, Le Bel tells us, the English were drawn up in order of battle, though it came only to fruitless skirmishing.
482 Fyres in gret foysoun. The Scots, writes Le Bel, always made a wonderful number of fyres between night and morning; and by this and their blowing of horns and shouting together it seemed as if all the devils of hell were assembled there (pp. 64, 65; Johnes, i., ch. xviii.).
486 Twa myle. “Two small leagues” (Le Bel). “A short league” (Scala.). “League,” as usual, signifies just a mile, as when Le Bel credits the Scots with an average day’s march of from twenty to thirty-two “leagues” (p. 4).
488 defend thame bettir. “A much stronger place than before” (Le Bel, 65).
490 a park. Stanhope Park, a hunting-ground of the Bishop of Durham, on the north bank of the Wear. “The Scots entered the park of Stanhope and there lodged; likewise also the English on the other side of a certain stream pitched camp and rested” (Gesta Edw., p. 96). The Scots moved to “within the park of Stanhope” (dedenz le park de Stanhope, Scala., p. 154). “The Scots betook themselves to the park of Stanhope” (Lanercost, p. 259). The Scottish army was “at Stanhope Park” (apud Stanhop park, Contin. Chron., Murimuth, p. 53; Chron., Knighton, i., p. 445; Baker, p. 97; Hemingburgh, ii., p. 298). And those who have rejected Barbour’s statement as to the northward position of the Scots, resting on a single citation from Bain (see on 316), would have found, a few pages farther on, an express reference to the time when the Scots were surrounded and beset (circumdati et obsessi) in the park of Stanhope by the King’s army (Bain, No. 957, June 29, 1328). Edward, being so near, could very well speak of himself as “at Stanhope.” Bain later admits the Scots were at Stanhope (Edwards in Scotland, p. 77).
492 full of treis. At Stanhope Park “they were lodged in a wood” (Le Bel, 65). “In the woddys of Stanhop park in dyverse busshementis” (Fabyan, p. 439).
495 Be nychtyrtale. I.e., by night-time, as in Chaucer:
“by nightertale
He sleep namore than doth a nightingale.”
(Prologue, 97, 98).
501 Upon the wattir. “On another mountain ... also on the river” (Le Bel, i. 65).
503 on the morn. Barbour gives the Scots only two days in the first position opposite the English, not saying how long they had been already “liand” there, which Le Bel says was eight days. Le Bel says, further, that they left on the third, not the second, night, and that their departure was discovered on the morning of the fourth day (p. 65). If the English arrived on July 31 (cf. on 402), and Edward was at Stanhope on August 3 (cf. on 316), this would be right. Gray says the Scots shifted camp on the fourth night (Scala., p. 154). Fordun suggests only one position, the second (Gesta Annalia, cxl.).
513 on othir half the wattir of Wer. Cf. Gesta Edwardi in note on 490. In Le Bel the river is still between the armies, (pp. 65, 66).
516 Aucht dayis. Maxwell affirms that, in saying this, Barbour “either draws on his imagination, or has been misled by his informants” (Robert the Bruce, p. 314); and the chronology of the various writers is hard to reconcile. Gray gives six days for the second position (p. 154); Le Bel (Froissart) eighteen (68); Knighton fifteen (Leycestrensis Chron., i. 445); Hemingburgh says the Scots were besieged for fifteen days in Stanhope Park (ii., p. 298). But the author of Gesta Edwardi agrees with Barbour in assigning eight days (octo diebus dicursis, p. 97), and so does the Lanercost writer (p. 259) and Fordun (Gesta Annalia, cxl.). Yet Mr. Brown accuses Barbour, in fixing that term, of “always lauding his own side,” though these English chroniclers support him (The Wallace and The Bruce, p. 145). One document suggests that Edward was at Durham on August 5 (Bain, iii., No. 930), but dates and places on legal documents do not always signify what they suggest. The order from Durham was issued in the King’s name. Edward was still at Stanhope on August 7 (Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III. s. d.).
520-1 ilk day justyng of Wer. And scrymming. “Every day skirmishing by those who wished to skirmish” (Le Bel, 67). Cf. throughout Froissart, ch. xviii.
527 on the nynt day. “The first night that our lords were lodged upon this (second) mountain” (Le Bel, p. 67). In Scala. apparently the third night (p. 155).
533 V. hundreth. “Two hundred men-at-arms” (Le Bel, p. 67). “A few” (Lanercost, 260; Gesta Edw., 96).
534 in the night. “About midnight” (Le Bel).
535 so fer he raid. “He passed this river a good distance (bien loin) from our host” (Le Bel).
538 slely can he ryd. “Wherefore no one perceived him” (Le Bel).
541 hew rapys. See below on 561.
550 no vachis. “He suddenly passed through the sentinels of the English” (Gesta Edw., pp. 96-7).
560 He ruschit on thame hardely. He fell on the English host most boldly, crying: “Douglas! Douglas! you shall die all, lords of England” (Le Bel, ibid.). In Froissart it becomes “thieves of England” (Berners, Johnes), a version due, apparently, to Froissart’s later re-editing of his own work. In Lettenhove’s edition (1863) it is “’Glas, ’Glas” (i., p. 102). Knighton says that when Douglas was seen by some English he began to cry in English (Anglica voce), “‘No warde a seynt Jorge!’ as if he were an Englishman” (i. 445).
561 doune he bare. Le Bel (Froissart) says Douglas got so far that “he cut two or three cords of the King’s tent.” “He penetrated (intravit) a great part of the army of the King, and came nearly to the King’s tent” (Lanercost, 260). “He passed through the midst of the English army” (Gesta Edwardi, 97).
565 Thai stabbit, stekit, and thai slew. “They began, he and his company, to make a great attack. (À faire une grand envaïe et à coper et mehagnier gens et à abatre (car ce fus sus le point dou premier somme) et porterent grand damage a l’oost” (Froissart in Vatican MS., ed. Lettenhove, i., chap, xxxiii., p. 102. 1863).
567 A felloun slauchtir. “Douglas and his company slew more than three hundred” (Le Bel). “Some he slew, some took captive” (Gesta Edw., p. 97). They “slew a great part of the people of the Earls” (Scala., p. 155).
568 liand nakit. I.e., unarmoured. “And he slew or he seased ccc. men, some in their beddes, and some skant redy” (from Berner’s Froissart, but not in Johnes nor in any of the known editions of Froissart nor in Le Bel; not, however, a very unusual exercise of the imagination). Barbour’s descriptive detail is evidently due to his information. “He gave very many a rude awakening” (plurimos terribiliter evigilavit. Gesta Edw., p. 97). “On his return he slew many in their amazement” (attonitos. Lanercost, 260).
577 That lord, etc. I.e., “First one lord and then another was aroused.”
614 cummyn ar thai. “He himself (Douglas) returned unhurt to his own army” (Gesta Edw., 97); “with very great difficulty” (Knighton, i. 445).
638 ilk day growis. Edward was still summoning men to his host. Such a summons is dated at Stanhope, August 3 (Bain, No. 929).
639 vattale has. Le Bel, on the contrary, says the English army was suffering severely from want of food, and that provisions were at a famine price (toudis avions nous paour de plus grand famine, pp. 66-68). The final Froissart does not have these passages, but suggests the same thing (p. 24). The Lanercost chronicler speaks of their failing victuals (p. 259).
644 Sic as we haf. See notes on 405 and 735. Le Bel says the English expected the Scots would be forced by famine to make a night attack (p. 68; Froissart, Johnes, p. 24).
667 thou mon heir out. “You can get out only here.”
712 thai sall let thame trumpit ill. Evidently in allusion to line 680. “Trumpeting” seems to have been the prelude to any operation. Or the phrase may be in French idiom, introducing the verb tromper, to deceive, which, however, would be unusual for Barbour.
731 blew hornys and fyres maid. Cf. note on 482.
735 the nycht wes fallyn. According to Le Bel, a Scottish knight was that day captured, who, much against his will, informed them that in the morning the Scots lords had arranged that every man was to be armed at vespers (68), and that each was to follow the banner of Douglas wherever he should go, and that every man was to keep it secret; but the Scots knight did not know for certain what their purpose was. The English judged that the Scots, forced by unendurable famine, were about to make an attack on their host (p. 68). Next day it was found that the Scots had departed “before midnight” (p. 69), “leaving the park by night” (Gesta Edw., p. 97). Certain allusions would lead us to infer that the English had, to some extent, got round the Scots. Le Bel declares that the Scots were thought to be planning an attempt to break through the English on two sides (brisier nostre ost à deux costés, pp. 68-9). The Lanercost writer says the Scots got away to their own country “by moving round the army of the King” (circueundo regis exercitum versus Scotiam pertransirent, p. 259). They were surrounded, according to Knighton (i., 445). Cf. also extract 957 from Bain in note on 490, and lines 800, 801. Le Bel says that he and some “companions” had to cross the river next day to get to the Scottish encampment, where they found abundance of beef in various forms. The account in the Scalacronica is simply that, the third night after the Douglas affair, the Scots broke camp and marched to their own country (Scala., p. 155). Several English chroniclers attribute the escape of the Scots to treachery on their own side (Murimuth, 53, 64; Knighton, i. 445; Gesta Edw., 97, etc.).
746 summer. “Sumpter-horse,” as, with a different spelling, in Wallace, iv. 53; “Thar tyryt sowmir so left thai in-to playne.”
766-7 till consale, etc. “When the lords heard this they took counsel ... and said that to chase after the Scots would profit them nothing, for they could not be overtaken” (Le Bel, p. 69).
770 Kyng Robert than. If so, Bruce must have hurried back from Ireland, for on July 12 he granted a truce of one year to the people of Ulster (Bain, iii. 922). This Irish campaign appears to have been a failure (ibid., 1191). These are our only allusions to it. In Scala. it is said that it was the Earls who heard they were besieged (p. 155).
774 tuenty thousand. “Five thousand” (Scala., p. 155).
776 Marche and Angous. “Patrick, Earl of March, and John the Steward, who styled himself Earl of Angous” (Scala., p. 155). March (cf. note on Bk. XI. 46) had joined the Scots some time before February, 1317 (Bain, iii. 536). Sir John Stewart of Boncle, or Bonkill, son of Sir Alexander (see on Bk. IX. 692), was created Earl of Angus by Bruce (Scots Peerage, i. 169).
781 the sammyn day. “The very day of their departure” (Scala., 155).
798 Had vittale with thame. On the contrary, Gray declares that if they had had enough provisions they would have gone back; they were such fierce warriors (p. 155).