But Berwick must be recaptured. On the loss of Berwick town, Edward had angrily summoned his forces to muster at York on July 26, 1318. So few of them appeared, however, that he was forced to postpone the expedition. On June 4, 1319, he ordered the Welsh levies to be at Newcastle by July 24 at latest; and, two days after, he wrote to the Pope that he hoped now 'to put a bit in the jaws of the Scots.' But another postponement was forced on him. On July 20, however, he issued a peremptory order for a muster at Michaelmas. His May parliament at York had granted him certain taxes, his treasury being 'exhausted more than is believed'; and his good friend the Pope had added a material contribution. But the levy could not be collected till Michaelmas, and meantime the King appealed for an advance. There must have been a favourable response, for early in September he encamped before Berwick with some 10,000 or 12,000 men, his fleet occupying the harbour. Having entrenched his lines, he delivered a general assault on September 7. The besiegers hastily filled the dykes and placed their scaling-ladders, but the garrison threw them down as fast as they were raised. The lowness of the wall was not altogether in favour of the assailants, for the besieged on the top could easily thrust their spears in their faces. In the course of the afternoon the English brought a ship on the flood-tide up to the wall, with a boat lashed to midmast, whence a bridge was to be let down for landing a storming party. They were embarrassed in their efforts, however, and the ship, being left aground by the ebb-tide, was burned by the Scots, the sallying party with difficulty regaining the town. The fight went on briskly till night, when the combatants agreed to postpone its renewal for five days.
Though King Robert had mustered a considerable force, probably as large as Edward's, he deemed it more prudent to despatch it on a raid into England than to launch it directly against the English entrenchments. He had, indeed, good reason to rely upon the skill and energy of the Steward. The five days' truce over, the English, on September 13, moved forward on wheels an immense sow, not only covering a mining party, but carrying scaffolds for throwing a storming party on the wall. By this time, John Crab, whom we have already met as a sea-captain or pirate, and whom the Count of Flanders presently assured Edward he would break on the wheel, if he could only get hold of him, had proved himself engineer enough to devise a 'crane,' which must have been of the nature of a catapult; and this engine he ran along the wall on wheels to encounter the sow. The first shot passed over the monster; the second just fell short; the third crashed through the main beam, and frightened the men out. 'Your sow has farrowed,' cried the Scots. Crab now lowered blazing faggots of combustible stuff upon the sow, and burnt it up. But presently another attempt was made from the harbour, and Crab's engine was hurried up to fight ships with top-castles full of men, and with fall-bridges ready at midmast. The first shot demolished the top gear of one of the ships, bringing down the men; and the other ships kept a safe distance.
Meantime the general attack raged all along the wall. Sir Walter the Steward rode from point to point, supplying here and there men from his own bodyguard, till it was reduced from a hundred to a single man-at-arms. The severest pressure was at Mary Gate. The besiegers forced the advance barricade, burned the drawbridge, and fired the gate. Sir Walter drew reinforcements from the castle, which had not been attacked, threw open Mary Gate and sallied upon the foe, driving them back after a very hard struggle, and saving the gate. Night separated the combatants. Barbour tells how the women and children of the town had carried arrows to the men on the walls, and regards it as a miracle that not one of them was slain or wounded. But clearly the Steward could not sustain many days of such heavy fighting.
The Scots army under Randolph and Douglas had meanwhile followed the familiar track through Ripon and Boroughbridge, harrying and burning and slaying. They appear to have made a serious attempt to capture Edward's Queen, who was then staying near York; but the Archbishop, learning this intention from a Scots spy that had been taken prisoner, sallied forth and brought her into the city, and sent her by water to Nottingham. Trokelowe speaks of certain 'false Englishmen' that had been bribed by the Scots, and Robert of Reading specifies Sir Edmund Darel as the guide of the invaders in the attempt. Next day the Archbishop, with Bishop Hotham of Ely, the Chancellor of England, and an unwieldy multitude of clergy and townspeople numbering some 10,000, advanced against the Scots between Myton and Thornton-on-Swale, about twelve miles north of York. 'These,' said the Scots, 'are not soldiers, but hunters; they will not do much good.' For the English 'came through the fields in scattered fashion, and not in united order.' The Scots formed a schiltron, and set fire to some hay in front, the smoke from which was blown into the faces of the English. As they met, the Scots raised a great shout, and the enemy, 'more intent on fleeing than on fighting,' took to their heels. The Scots mounted in pursuit, killing (says the Lanercost chronicle) clergy and laymen, about 4000, including Nicholas Fleming, the Mayor of York, while about 1000, 'as was said,' were drowned in the Swale. Many were captured and held to heavy ransom. The Archbishop lost, not only his men, his carriages, and his equipment generally, but all his plate, 'silver and bronze as well,' which his servants had 'thoughtlessly' taken to the field; and yet the blame may rest elsewhere, for the York host appears to have fully anticipated that the Scots would flee at sight of them. The Primate's official cross was saved by the bearer, who dashed on horseback through the Swale and carefully hid it, escaping himself in the dusk of the evening. Then a countryman, who had observed the cross and watched the bearer's retreat, discovered it, wound wisps of hay about it, and kept it in his hut till search was made for it, whereupon he restored it to the Archbishop. Such is John of Bridlington's story. The whole episode contrasts markedly with the exploit of Bishop Sinclair in Fife. It was contemptuously designated, from the number of ecclesiastics, 'the Chapter of Myton.'
The Myton disaster occurred on September 20, and on September 24 Edward raised the siege of Berwick. Certain chroniclers speak of intestine dissensions, and particularly of a quarrel with Lancaster over the appointment of wardens of town and castle once Berwick was taken. The Lanercost chronicler says Edward desired to detach a body to intercept the Scots, and with the rest to carry on the siege; but his magnates would not hear of it. He accordingly abandoned the siege, and marched westward to cut off the retreat of the Scots. Randolph had penetrated to Castleford Bridge, near Pontefract, and swept up Airedale and Wharfdale; and, passing by Stainmoor and Gilsland, he eluded Edward's army, and carried into Scotland many captives and immense plunder. It remained for Edward but to disband his troops, and go home, as usual, with empty hands.
About a month later (November 1), when the crops were harvested in northern England, Randolph and Douglas returned with fire and sword. They burnt Gilsland, and passed down to Brough (Burgh) under Stainmoor; turned back on Westmorland, which they ravaged for ten or twelve days, and went home through Cumberland. They mercilessly burnt barns and the stored crops, and swept the country of men and cattle.
Edward began to think of truce. In his letter of December 4 to the Pope, he represents that urgent proposals for peace had come to him from Bruce and his friends. In any case, the step was a most sensible one. On December 21, terms were agreed on, and next day Bruce confirmed them. This truce was to run for two years and the odd days to Christmas. Bruce agreed to raise no new fortresses within the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, and Dumfries. He delivered the castle of Harbottle to Edward's commissioners, 'as private persons,' with the proviso that, unless a final peace were made by Michaelmas, it should be either redelivered to him or demolished. On August 25, 1321, Edward commanded that it should be destroyed 'as secretly as possible.'
In autumn 1319, the Pope, at the instance of Edward, had given orders for a revival of the excommunications against Bruce and his friends; but on January 8, 1319–20, he cited Bruce and the Bishops of St Andrews, Dunkeld, Aberdeen, and Moray, to compear before him by May 1. The summons went unheeded; he had not addressed Bruce as King. Excommunications were again hurled at Bruce and his bishops, and Scotland was laid under ecclesiastical interdict. Meanwhile, however, the Scots 'barons, freeholders, and all the community of the realm'—no churchmen, be it observed—assembled at Arbroath Abbey on April 6, and addressed to his Holiness a memorable word in season. First, as to their kingdom and their King:
Our nation continued to enjoy freedom and peace under the protection of the Papal See, till Edward, the late King of the English, in the guise of a friend and ally, attacked our realm, then without a head, and our people, then thinking no evil or deceit, and unaccustomed to war or aggression. The acts of injury, murder, violence, burning, imprisonment of prelates, burning of abbeys, spoliation and slaying of ecclesiastics, and other enormities besides, which he practised on our people, sparing no age or sex, creed or rank, no man could describe or fully understand without the teaching of experience. From such countless evils, by the help of Him that woundeth and maketh whole, we have been delivered by the strenuous exertions of our Sovereign Lord, King Robert, who, for the deliverance of his people and his inheritance from the hands of the enemy, like another Maccabeus or Joshua, cheerfully endured toils and perils, distress and want. Him the Divine Providence, that legal succession in accordance with our laws and customs, which we are resolved to uphold even to death, and the due consent of us all, made our Prince and King. To him, as the man that has worked out the salvation of the people, we, in maintenance of our freedom, by reason as well of his merits as of his right, hold and are resolved to adhere in all things. If he should abandon our cause, with the intention of subjecting us or our realm to the King of England or to the English, we should instantly strain every nerve to expel him as our enemy and the subverter of both his own rights and ours, and choose another for our King, such a one as should suffice for our defence; for, so long as a hundred of us remain alive, never will we be reduced to any sort of subjection to the dominion of the English. For it is not for glory, or riches, or honours, that we contend, but for freedom alone, which no man worthy of the name loses but with his life.
With this noble and resolute declaration, they appealed to the Pope to 'admonish' Edward, who ought to be content with his own dominions, anciently held enough for seven kings, and 'to leave in peace us Scotsmen, dwelling in our poor and remote country, and desiring nothing but our own,' for which 'we are ready and willing to do anything we can consistently with our national interests.' But, further, as to the Pope himself: