259 The castell till him yhalde. Carrickfergus Castle was surrendered (Annals, Fragment, p. 297; Bain, iii. 970) apparently in September, 1316 (Fragment, ibid.). Thus, if begun after Connor, the siege must have occupied the Scots for a year—the greater part of 1316.
260 Till sauf thame thair liffis. The defenders were granted life and limb (vita et membrum. Fragment, p. 297).
272 the Tarbard. Tarbert, Kintyre: Gaelic Tairbeart, a portage, an isthmus.
274 draw thar schippes. According to the Magnus Saga, chap. xx., Magnus, King of Norway, agreed with the King of Scotland, Edgar, in 1102, that he should have “all the islands to the west of Scotland, between which and the mainland a helm-carrying ship could pass.” Magnus then had “a small ship” drawn across the isthmus at Tarbert, with himself sitting at the helm, and so secured Kintyre. “There is a narrow ridge between it (Kintyre) and Scotland, so that ships are often drawn across it.”
292 Ald prophesy. This probably derives from the incident told of above.
299 Johne of Lorne. Barbour is quite wrong as to the career and fate of John of Lorn or Argyll (“de Ergadia,” “Daragille,” in records). He had escaped to England in 1309 (see Bk. 128), and was Admiral of Edward’s fleet in the west by 1311 (Bain, iii., No. 203). In the summer of 1314 he went to the Irish coast with a fleet (355), and was in command there in 1315-1316 (No. 479, Hist. and Municip. Docts., Ireland, p. 344). He returned from the Irish service in 1316 “impotent in body,” and received a pension from Edward II., but died a year and a half later, probably towards the end of 1317, in London (Bain, iii., No. 912).
318 the Forest. Ettrick Forest.
321 Eumond de Calion, a Gascoune. Correctly, as in records, “Remon Caillau,” or “Reymound Cailough” (Bain, iii., Nos. 470, 477). He was perhaps a relative of the Bishop of Durham who died in the same year, 1316, “Recardus Kellow” (Lanercost, p. 233). Other Gascons are mentioned as having taken part in this sally—Arnant de Poillant, Pierres de Logar, etc. (ibid.). The information in Bain is contained in letters from the Governor of Berwick (see next note), and petitions to the King from some of the townspeople.
325 He had than Berwik in keping. No; Sir Moryz or Maurice de Berkele(y) was “warden of Berwick-on-Tweed.” Caillou was only one of “the King’s sergeant-at-arms” (Bain, iii., No. 477)—i.e., an officer of the royal household.
327 a gret cumpany. A “great part of the garrison” went out on this foray. They had been forbidden to go out by the warden, but Berwick was in desperate straits for want of food, and they replied that “it was better to die fighting than starve” (Bain, 477). The date of the foray is February 14, 1316.