239 Johne Crab. A famous sea-rover of the east coast, as on the west was Thomas Dun (Bk. XIV. 376, note). In 1319 Edward was complaining to the Count of Flanders of his “outrages,” and the Count answered (November 19) that “Crabbe” had been banished for murder, and that “he will punish him on the wheel if he catches him” (Bain, iii., No. 673). He was captured in 1332 near Roxburgh, and because the “ungrateful Scots” refused to ransom him he transferred his services to the English (Lanerc., p. 270), and for his assistance at the Siege of Berwick in 1333 was pardoned “all his homicides, felonies, etc., by sea or land” (Bain, iii., 1090). He therefore cannot be the “Cryn, a Fleming, an admiral of the sea, a robber,” killed by Sir Thomas Gray in 1321-2, as is supposed by Sir Herbert Maxwell (Robert the Bruce, p. 267, note; The Scalacronica, trans., p. 63, note). Crab is on record till 1347 (Bain, No. 1504). But “Cryn” may be his nephew “John Crabbekyn” (Bain, iii., No. 417). The Scots slew his son (Lanerc., p. 270). A John Crab gets lands from Bruce in Aberdeen, which, with those in Berwick, are transferred to another in the reign of David II. (Robertson’s Index, 15, 21, etc. ... 32, 9), apparently on his going over to England. He is not, therefore, likely to be the John Crab, a burgess of Aberdeen in later times, and a member of Parliament (1365, 1367), as the editor of the Exchequer Rolls, II., postulates (p. lxxxii., note: Index).
245 engynis and trammys. “Siege-engines and structures of wood.”
246 grec fyre. In all probability “Greek fire,” as Skeat suggests; “t”and “c” are almost indistinguishable in the MSS. of the time. “Greek fire” was the mother of gunpowder; it was a liquid made of sulphur and saltpetre, with the addition of inflammable oils, and its purpose was to set woodwork on fire (cf. Oman’s Art of War, pp. 546, 547). It was used at the Siege of Stirling in 1304 (Bain).
247 Spryngaldis and schotis. The springal (espringale) was a great crossbow on a frame, whose cord was drawn back by a winch; the “shots” were its bolts, or “long darts”: springaldis, ad longa spicula emittenda (Lanercost, p. 231) at the siege of Carlisle in 1315.
250 gynis for crakkis. Contrivances for making explosions—i.e., guns, which at first seem to have been valued for this quality.
271 ger dik thame. I.e., the English were to surround their own encampment at Berwick with a rampart for further security, and to keep off the Scots who might come to its relief.
278 thoucht all suth. “Thought quite rightly.”
285 Of Lancister the Erll Thomas. Bain says that, though Lancaster was clearly summoned (Fœdera, iii., p. 784), “Walsingham, who was not contemporary, seems the only authority for his presence, and if his men had been there they would have been found on the roll,” where they are not given (iii., p. xxvi). But a letter from Hugh le Despenser, the younger, printed by Stevenson in his notes to the Chronicle of Lanercost, expressly names the Earl of Lancaster as having been present (p. 422). Despenser also was at Berwick, and his letter (Anglo-French) is dated September 21 at Newcastle. Strangest fact, Bain, who knew the Chron. de Lanerc., overlooked the mention of Lancaster having accompanied the King to Berwick on p. 239. In Vita Edw. Sec., too, Lancaster is among those at Berwick (pp. 241, 244). Also in Annal. Paul., p. 286; Illustrations, p. 56. Cf. notes below. Maxwell, too, cites Barbour only for Lancaster’s presence (p. 265, note).