[CHAPTER VI]
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
In the midst of his new success, another severe family blow was impending on Bruce. On February 10, 1306–7—the first anniversary of the Dumfries tragedy—his brothers Thomas and Alexander made a raid on Galloway, with some 300 Scots and 700 Irish auxiliaries, landing at Loch Ryan, in the territory of Sir Dougal MacDowall. In a desperate fight, the force was completely crushed by MacDowall, who captured Thomas and Alexander, and Sir Reginald Crawford, Wallace's uncle, all 'wounded and half-dead.' Hemingburgh says the Scots were caught by surprise; Trevet adds 'in the night.' MacDowall delivered his chief prisoners, together with the heads of a baron of Cantyre and two Irish kinglets, to Prince Edward, at Wetheral, near Carlisle. These prisoners were all executed at Carlisle on February 17. Sir Thomas Bruce was drawn, hanged, and beheaded; Alexander Bruce, being a beneficed clergyman (Dean of Glasgow), was not drawn, but he and Sir Reginald Crawford, and apparently Sir Brice de Blair, were hanged and beheaded. Thomas's head was placed on the castle tower, and the heads of the others graced the three gates of the city. MacDowall was rewarded with the lands and possessions of Sir Robert de Boyd and Sir Brice de Blair, and on February 19, he received fifty marks and a charger; while on March 1, a profitable privilege was conferred, at his instance, upon his son.
According to Gray and Trevet, Bruce had sent his brothers to Nithsdale and Annandale 'to gain over the people.' It may be that the expedition was intended first to operate as a diversion, and then to join Bruce himself in Nithsdale. For Bruce, if not already in these parts, was moving thitherwards. On February 12, Sir John Botetourte, with a considerable force, including over a score of knights, started to make a raid on Bruce in Nithsdale; and on March 8, he was reinforced by 180 archers from Carlisle. The details, however, are not recorded.
It was probably in February, upon the landing of Bruce in Carrick, that Edward issued from Lanercost an ordinance intended to conciliate the Scots, while it graded carefully the degrees of punishment for the worst classes of delinquents. Contrary to the King's intention, the ordinance had been interpreted as too harsh and rigorous. On March 13, therefore, he materially modified it. A few days later, he directed steps to be taken for the repair and fortification of several castles on the east side beyond Forth, and ordered fresh levies from the northern counties of England to muster, 2300 strong, at Carlisle by a fortnight after Easter.
In a lull of the Nithsdale operations, Bruce is said to have reluctantly granted Douglas leave to proceed to Douglasdale, accompanied only by two yeomen. On arrival, Douglas disclosed himself to Tom Dickson of Hazelside, a stanch old warrior-tenant of his father's, who was overjoyed to see the youth, and introduced him to the other leal men of the land, one by one, at private conferences. It was quickly decided to fall upon the unsuspecting garrison of Douglas Castle in St Bride's Church on Palm Sunday (March 19). The countrymen would bring concealed weapons, and Douglas would appear, with his two men, in the guise of a corn-thresher, a threadbare mantle on his back and a flail on his shoulder. The moment he raised his war-cry, they would overpower the soldiers, and then the castle would offer no resistance. Everything fell out as planned, except that an over-eager friend prematurely raised the Douglas war-cry. Dickson instantly fell upon the English in the chancel, and a neighbour followed his example; but both were slain. At this moment Douglas came on the scene, raised his war-cry, and pressed hard on the English, who manfully defended themselves. About twenty were killed; the remaining ten were taken prisoners. At the castle, Douglas found only the porter and the cook; and so he barred the gates, and dined at leisure. After dinner, he packed up valuables, arms, and other portable things, and proceeded to destroy what he could not take away. He piled the wheat, flour, meal, and malt on the floor of the wine cellar, beheaded the prisoners on the pile, and broached the wine casks. This ghastly mess was locally designated 'the Douglas Larder.' He then spoilt the well by throwing in salt and dead horses. Finally, he set fire to the castle, and left nothing but stones. The party dispersed, and hid away their wounded. But Clifford, for whom the castle had been held, soon had it rebuilt and regarrisoned.
A later petition, by Lucas de Barry, represents that Lucas had been 'under Sir Robert de Clifford in Douglas Castle when Sir Robert de Brus and Sir James Douglas attacked it, the year when the late King died.' But this does not necessarily mean that either Clifford or Bruce was there in person.
On the same Sunday morning, Edward entered Carlisle with Peter, Cardinal Bishop of St Sabine, a papal legate, who had just arrived to arrange terms of peace between the English and French kings on the basis of a marriage between Prince Edward and Isabella, daughter of the King of France. On the Wednesday following, in the Cathedral, the legate explained the objects of his mission, and, with bell, book and candle, excommunicated the murderers of Comyn, with all their aiders and abettors. The like denunciation was busily repeated through the churches, especially of the north of England. On Friday, the peace was proclaimed.
Towards the end of March, Sir John Wallace is said to have been captured 'in the plain, pursued by the northeners,' and was taken to Carlisle. Edward sent him to London, 'fettered on a hackney,' to undergo the same barbarous death as his heroic brother. His head was fixed on London Bridge, 'raised with shouts,' says Langtoft, 'near the head of his brother, William the Wicked.' It could not have been more nobly honoured.
By the middle of April, Bruce had moved to Glen Trool, where he was hard beset for some three weeks by superior forces under a number of able knights, young Sir John Comyn among them. The incidents of the period have not been preserved. Barbour, indeed, tells how Valence and Clifford advanced stealthily on Bruce, with over 1500 against less than 300 men, and found him in a narrow pass, where horse could not reach him. Valence sent a woman, disguised as a beggar, to spy out the position; but Bruce saw through the dodge, and the spy confessed. The English had to advance on foot. Bruce dashed upon them with fury, seizing with his own hand their foremost banner. Some of his men, Barbour admits, had gone off, but came back on seeing how the fight went. The foremost English company being overpowered, the main body retreated; and a quarrel between Clifford and Vaux seems to point to a fruitless attempt of Clifford's to rally the fugitives. One can only say that some such incidents are probable enough. Anyhow, Bruce appears to have baffled all the attempts of the English in Glen Trool, and to have got away towards Lothian.
In Lothian, Bruce found friends. The people, Hemingburgh explains, had been exasperated during the preceding year by the justice of the English justiciars; and, therefore, 'as if unanimously, they rose and went with Bruce, willing rather to die than to be judged by the English laws.' Thus reinforced, Bruce turned back to meet Valence. Perhaps it was now that he over-ran Kyle and Cunningham. Valence, says Barbour, despatched from Bothwell 1000 men under Sir Philip de Mowbray, whom Douglas with 60 men met at Ederford, a narrow pass between two marshes, and, by skilful strategy, totally defeated. Stung by this ignominious reverse, Valence challenged Bruce, who lay at Galston, to meet him on May 10, at Loudon Hill—the scene of Wallace's father's death and of Wallace's first victory. Bruce accepted the challenge. Choosing his ground between two stretches of moss, he cut three deep trenches (with adequate gaps for the passage of his men) across the hard moor between, and marshalled his 600 followers, so that Valence's 3000 men could come into action only in detail. He ordered a fierce onset on the foremost, with the view of discouraging the rest—the successful tactic in Glen Trool; and Sir Edward and Douglas, as well as himself, are said to have performed prodigies of valour. The English gave way, and, despite his utmost efforts, Valence was driven from the field. Barbour says he retreated to Bothwell; Gray states that Bruce pursued him to Ayr. Three days later, Bruce also defeated the Earl of Gloucester with even greater slaughter (says Hemingburgh) than had reddened Loudon Hill, and besieged him in Ayr Castle.