517 Besyde Cre. The River Cre divides Kirkcudbrightshire from Wigtown. Fordun says the battle was on the Dee, and dates it June 29, 1308 (Gesta Annalia, cxxv.). The Dee flows into the Solway at the town of Kirkcudbright. Though Barbour’s position is universally accepted, Fordun is probably right. See next note.
522 Buttil. Here, at least, C is more correct in a place-name than E, which gives Bothwell, on the Clyde, an absurd distance away, across mountains. The castle is that at Buittle, near Dalbeattie, a Balliol hold. It is a few miles east of the Dee, which seems to bear out Fordun as in the preceding note; cf. also lines 533-5. Edward’s operations by the Cree could hardly be seen from Buittle.
547 by Cre. A second battle by the Cree, or, more probably, one following on the English reverse by the Dee.
575 Schir Alane of Catcart. Cathcart is near Glasgow. Sir William de Cathcart (Kethker) is a knight of Roxburgh garrison (English) in December, 1309 (Bain, iii., No. 121).
610 “Directed their heads inwards again”—i.e., turned their horses to make a fresh charge from the rear.
658 Thretten castellis. Small castles, Border “peels”—ditch and palisade.
683 the wattir of Lyne. In Peeblesshire, flowing into the Tweed from the north, a short distance west of Peebles.
692 Alysander Stewart. In C, Alexander Bonkill. Son of Sir John Stewart, who married the heiress of Sir Alexander de Bonkyl in Berwickshire, and grandson of the fourth High Steward. He died, apparently, in 1319, and his son John was created by Bruce Earl of Angus (Scots Peerage, i. 13, 169).
694 Thomas Randole. Randolph. See note on Bk. II. 463.
695 Adame ... of Gordoun. See note on Bk. II. 463; XI. 46; XV. 333.