Thus ended the Barons’ Wars, no patriotic resistance of an opposition who used sword and lance instead of the tongue and the pen, but the factious jealousy of men who became ferocious in their hatred of favoritism.
CAMEO XLI. GOOD KING ROBERT’S TESTAMENT. (1314-1329.)
Kings of England.
1307. Edward II.
1327. Edward III.
1322. Charles IV.
King of Scotland.
1306. Robert I.
King of France.
1314. Louis X.
1316. Philippe V.
Emperor of Germany.
1314. Louis V.
Popes.
1305. Clement V.
1316. John XXII.
As England waxed feebler, Scotland waxed stronger and became aggressive. Robert’s queen was dead, and he married Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Ulster, thus making his brother Edward doubtful whether the Scottish crown would descend to him, and anxious to secure a kingdom for himself.
Ireland had not been reconciled in two centuries to the domination of the Plantagenets. The Erse, or Irish, believed themselves brethren of the Scots, and in all their wanderings and distresses the Bruces had found shelter, sympathy, and aid in the wild province of Ulster. It seemed, therefore, to Edward Bruce a promising enterprise to offer the Irish chieftains deliverance from the English yoke; and they eagerly responded to his proposal. In 1314, he crossed the sea with a small force, before any one was ready for him, and was obliged at once to return, having thus given the alarm; so that Sir Edward Butler, the Lord Deputy, hurried to the defence, and had mustered his forces by the time Edward Bruce arrived, the next spring, with 6,000 men. He was actually crowned King, and laid siege to Carrickfergus, while the wild chieftains of Connaught broke into the English settlements, and did great mischief, till they were defeated at Athenry by the Earl of Ulster’s brother and Sir Richard Bermingham. After the battle, Sir Richard Bermingham sent out his page, John Hussy, with a single attendant, to “turn up and peruse” the bodies, to see whether his mortal foe O’Kelly were among them. O’Kelly presently started out of a bush where he had been hidden, and thus addressed the youth: “Hussy, thou seest I am at all points armed, and have my esquire, a manly man, beside me. Thou art thin, and a youngling; so that, if I loved thee not for thine own sake, I might betray thee for thy master’s. But come and serve me at my request, and I promise thee, by St. Patrick’s staff, to make thee a lord in Connaught of more ground than thy master hath in Ireland.” Hussy treated the offer with scorn, whereupon his attendant, “a stout lubber, began to reprove him for not relenting to so rich a proffer.” Hussy’s answer was, to cut down the knave; next, “he raught to O’Kelly’s squire a great rap under the pit of the ear, which overthrew him; thirdly, he bestirred himself so nimbly, that ere any help could be hoped for, he had also slain O’Kelly, and perceiving breath in the squire, he drawed him up again, and forced him upon a truncheon to bear his lord’s head into the high town.”
These notable exploits were rewarded by knighthood and the lordship of Galtrim.
Robert Bruce brought a considerable army to the assistance of his brother, and wasted the country up to the walls of Dublin; but Roger Mortimer coming to the relief of the city, he was forced to retreat. It was a horrible devastation that he made, and yet this was only what was then supposed to be the necessity of war, for it was while burning many a homestead, and reducing multitudes to perish with famine, that Bruce halted his whole army to protect one sick and suffering washerwoman.
“This was a full great courtesy,
That swilk a king and so mighty
Gert his men dwell on this manner
But for a poor lavender.”
Bruce was one of the many men tender to the friend, ruthless to the foe; merciful to sufferings he beheld, merciless to those out of his sight. He returned to Scotland, and Mortimer to England, both leaving horrible hunger and distress behind them, and Mortimer in debt £1,000 to the city of Dublin, “whereof he payde not one smulkin, and many a bitter curse he carried with him beyond sea.”