552 The Erll of Fiff. Duncan de Fife, the young Earl, with his mother and step-father joined the Scots some little time before August 2, 1317, when his mother had her English manor forfeited (Bain, iii., No. 566). He came with a troop of five hundred armed men (Scotic., as cited).
575 Willyhame Syncler. William St. Clair was the brother of Sir Henry St. Clair of Roslin. He had been a canon of Dunkeld, and was elected Bishop in 1312 (Dowden in Scot. Hist. Rev., vol. i., pp. 316-17). On his return from Rome Edward II. tried to keep him in England (Bain, iii. 301). In the Wallace he figures as a Bishop already, and a friend of the patriot (vii. 932; viii. 1225). He was among the four bishops specially summoned to Rome to answer for their support of Bruce in defiance of the Church.
592-3 aucht weill to ma Of yhow. “Should think highly of you!”
596 The gilt spurs. The sign of knighthood; to hew them off was a ceremony of degradation (cf. line 598). So, too, in Scotic., as cited.
635 that yheit held unslayn. “That had held or kept themselves from being slain.”
676 the Scottis Se. The Firth of Forth. See on IX. 309.
BOOK XVII.
13 Redis Swyr. The pass over Cheviot to the valley of the Rede, a tributary of the Tyne. By it went the road from Jedburgh, and in it is the site of the Battle of Otterburn, 1388. Swyr is A.S. swira or swera, the neck.
15 Outakin Berwik, it allane. “One town in Scotland was left to the King” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 234). On September 20, 1317, and January 30, 1318, certain burgesses were going to England and France to purchase provisions “for the munition of the town” (Bain, iii., Nos. 575, 588). To save expense (Scala.), the defence of the town itself had been entrusted to the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses (ibid., No. 593; Vita Edw., p. 234; Scala., p. 148). According to Stevenson’s Chronicler, the citizens had begged to be entrusted with the defence because of their ill-treatment by the royal garrison, August 1, 1317 (p. 5).