Text | Histories
Editor | Histories
Foreword
In 1333, the siege of Berwick lasted for four months. Berwick, a town controlled by Scotland , was occupied by the English army commanded by King Edward III (reigned 1327-1377).
A year ago, Edward Barrio seized the throne of Scotland with the secret support of Edward III.
Shortly thereafter, he was expelled from the kingdom by a popular uprising. Edward III used this as a reason to go to war and invaded Scotland. The immediate target was the strategically important border town of Berwick.
An advance guard surrounded the town in March. Edward III and the main English army joined it in May and the attack intensified. A large Scottish army advanced to relieve the town.
After losing the battle for position and learning that Berwick was about to surrender, the Scots felt compelled to attack the English at Halidon on 19 July. The Scots suffered a crushing defeat, and Berwick surrendered on terms the next day.
After ceding most of Scotland to Edward III and agreeing to serve as a counterbalance, Balliel returned to the throne as King of Scotland.
Background
The first Scottish War of Independence between England and Scotland began in March 1296, when England's Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) raided and sacked the Scottish border town of Berwick as a prelude to the invasion of Scotland.
After the ensuing 30 years of war, 14-year-old new crown King Edward III was nearly captured in the English Massacre at Stanhope Park. This brought his regents, Isabella of France and Roger Mortimer , to the negotiating table.
In 1328, they agreed to sign the Treaty of Northampton with Robert the Bruce (reigned 1306-1329), but the treaty was widely opposed in England and was often called the "Coward's Peace".
Some Scottish nobles refused to swear allegiance to Bruce, were disinherited, and left Scotland to join forces with Edward Barrio (r. 1292-1296), son of King John I of Scotland, who was deposed by Edward I in 1296.
Robert the Bruce died in 1329, and his heir was the five-year-old David II. In 1331, under the leadership of Edward Barrio and Henry Beaumont, the fourth Earl of Buchan, the disinherited Scottish nobles gathered in Yorkshire to plot an invasion of Scotland.
Edward III knew of the plan and officially banned it, writing to his northern officials in March 1332 that anyone planning to invade Scotland would be arrested. The reality was different and Edward III enjoyed causing trouble for his northern neighbours.
He insisted that Balliol could not invade Scotland overland from England, but turned a blind eye when his troops sailed from Yorkshire ports to Scotland on 31 July 1332. The Scots were aware of the situation and were waiting for Balliol.
David II's regent was a seasoned veteran, Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray. He made preparations for Balliol and Beaumont, but died ten days before setting sail.
Five days after landing at Fife, Balliol's force of about 2,000 men encountered a Scottish army of 12,000-15,000 men. The Scots were routed at the Battle of Duplin Moor.
Thousands of Scots died, including many of the kingdom's nobles. On September 24, 1332, Balliol was crowned King of Scotland at Scone, the traditional coronation place of the Scottish monarchs.
Almost immediately, Balliol granted Edward III a Scottish estate worth £2,000, which included the "town, castle and county of Berwick". Balliol had limited support in Scotland and fell within six months.
A few months after his coronation, he was ambushed by supporters of David II at the Battle of Annan. Belial fled to England on horseback, disheveled. He appealed to Edward III for aid.
Prologue
Berwick, on England's North Sea coast, lies on the Anglo-Scottish border, straddling major invasion and trade routes in both directions. In the Middle Ages it was the gateway to marches from Scotland to eastern England.
According to the English bishop and chancellor William Eddington, Berwick was "so densely populated and commercially important that it might well have been called another Alexandria, its wealth the sea and its walls the sea".
It was Scotland's most successful trading town and through its wool duties was the Scottish Crown's largest source of income. Its strategic value and relative wealth led to a string of raids, sieges and takeovers during the centuries-long war between the two countries. Fighting was rare as the Scots preferred guerrilla tactics and border raids against England.
40 years ago, Richard I of England sold Berwick to the Scots in order to raise funds for the Crusades. The town was captured and sacked by Edward I in 1296, the first major action in the First War of Scottish Independence.
Twenty-two years later, Robert the Bruce bribed an English guard to evict the last English garrisons from Scottish territory, thus regaining the lost territory.
King of England Edward II attempted to recapture Berwick in 1319, but at the Battle of Mitton the siege was abandoned when a Scottish army bypassed him and defeated a hastily assembled army commanded by the Archbishop of York.
1 In early 3333 the atmosphere on the borders was tense; Edward III abandoned all pretense of neutrality, recognized Balliol as King of Scotland, and prepared for war.
The British Parliament met in York and debated the situation for five days but came to no conclusion. Edward III promised to discuss the matter with Pope John XXII and King Philip VI of France.
Possibly to prevent the Scots from taking the initiative, England began to openly prepare for war, announcing at the same time that it was Scotland that was preparing to invade England.
In Scotland, Archibald Douglas was the guardian of the kingdom to the minor David. He was the brother of Sir James "The Good" Douglas, a hero of the First War of Independence.
He gathered weapons and supplies as he prepared for the defense of Berwick Island. Berwick Castle's keeper, Patrick Dunbar, Earl of March, recently spent nearly £200 on the castle's defences.
Sir Alexander Seton was appointed governor of Berwickshire, responsible for the town's defense. After being sacked in 1296, Edward I replaced the old wooden palisade with a stone wall. These were greatly improved by the Scots in 1318.
The walls stretched for 2 miles and were up to 40 inches thick and 22 feet high. They are protected by towers up to 60 feet high. The south-west wall is further protected by the River Tweed, which is crossed by a stone bridge and enters the town at a stone gatehouse.
Berwick Castle is located to the west of the town and is separated by a wide moat, making the town and castle independent fortresses. Berwick was well defended and well stocked with provisions and supplies, and was expected to withstand a long siege.
siege
On March 10, Balliol led the disinherited Scottish nobles and some English magnates across the border. Edward III issued grants of over £1,000 to the nobles who accompanied him on his campaigns, and similar sums to Balliol's companions, Balliol personally receiving over 700 letters.
He marched through Roxburghshire, burning, looting, and occupying Oxham. He reached Berwick in late March and cut it off by land. Edward III's navy had quarantined it at sea.
It is said that Belial and the accompanying nobles swore not to retreat until the city of Berwick fell. After leaving Queen Philippa at Bamburgh Castle, 15 miles south of Berwick, Edward led the main English force to Berwick on May 9.
Beliel had been in Berwick for six weeks and maintained a tight siege of the town.Trenches were dug, the water supply was cut off, and all communication with the interior was cut off. A scorched earth policy was imposed on the surrounding area, denying the town access to supplies if there was a chance to break the siege.
The plundering of the countryside also increased supplies for the British army. Troops included those raised on Welsh marches and the Midlands, as well as levies from the north that had gathered in accounts of early Scottish raids.
At the end of the month, the force, which was augmented by a retinue of nobles, assembled in Newcastle, and the British fleet assembled on the Tyne. The army was accompanied by craftsmen who built siege machinery.
Thirty-seven stonemasons prepared nearly 700 stone bombs for the siege; these were shipped from Hull on May 16. Edward III had arranged for the combined forces to regroup from the sea through the small port of Twymouth.
Douglas raised a large army north of the border, but his inaction contrasted with Robert the Bruce's rapid response to the 1319 siege.
Douglas seemed to have spent his time gathering more troops rather than launching diversionary attacks with the forces he already had. Sir Archibald Douglas launched a small raid on Cumberland.
These were not enough to draw the British troops out of the siege. But this gave Edward III an excuse to invade, which he took full advantage of.
The success of Edward III's propaganda is reflected in contemporary English chronicles, which portray his invasion as revenge for the Scottish invasion.
With the arrival of Edward III, the attack on Berwick Island began. It was commanded by the Flemish soldier and merchant John Crabbe.
Crabbe, who had defended Berwick against the English in 1319 and was captured by the English in 1332, now used his knowledge of Berwick's defenses to defend the English.
Trebuchets and Trebuchets work well. During the siege, the British used some kind of firearm, and modern historian Ranald Nicholson noted that Berwick may have been "the first town in the British Isles to be bombarded with artillery."
In late June, the defenders floated burning bush soaked in tar in an attempt to repel the naval attack. Instead of the British ships, much of the town was set on fire. William Seaton, son of the town's mayor, was killed in a British naval assault.
By the end of June, land and sea attacks had left the town in ruins and the garrison nearly depleted. It is thought that the desire for respite from the onslaught of fire from the two large counterbalanced trebuchets used by the English was an important factor in Sidon's request for a brief truce from King Edward.
's request was granted on the condition that he must surrender if he was not relieved of his duties before July 11. Seton's son Thomas and 11 other men were to become hostages in the agreement.
Relief Force
Douglas now faced a situation similar to that faced by the British before the Battle of Bannockburn . Nicholson believed that "immediate action by the Guardian of Scotland was inevitable if Berwick was to be saved".
Douglas had to come to the rescue of Berwick out of national pride, just as Edward II came to the rescue of Stirling Castle in 1314. The army that Douglas had spent so much time gathering now had to take to the battlefield.
It is estimated that the English army numbered less than 10,000 men - about twice the size of the Scottish army. Douglas entered England on July 11, the last day of Seton's Truce.
He advanced eastward to Tweymouth, destroying it as the English army looked on, and Edward III remained untouched.
Sir William Keith, together with Sir Alexander Gray and Sir William Prendergast, led a Scottish cavalry force of about 200 men. They trudged across the ruins of the bridge to the north bank of the River Tweed and entered the town.
Douglas thought the town was relieved and he sent a message to Edward III calling on him to leave and threatening that the Scottish army would destroy England if he did not.
Scots are asked to do their best. Defenders argued that under the terms of the truce, Keith's 200 cavalry formed the relief and therefore they did not have to surrender.
Edward III claimed that this was not the case: they must have received reinforcements directly from Scotland, indeed from the direction of Scotland, while Keith, Gray and Prendergast approached Berwick from the direction of England.
Edward III ruled that the armistice had been violated, the town had neither surrendered nor been disarmed, a gallows was built just outside the city walls, and Thomas Seton, the highest ranking hostage, was hanged while his parents watched.
Edward III issued an order that every day if the people in the town did not surrender, two other hostages would be hanged.
Keith took over command of the town from Seaton and negotiated a new truce on 15 July, promising to surrender if not disarmed by sunset on 19 July.
The armistice consisted of two deeds, one between Edward III and the town of Berwick, and the other between Edward III and March, the keeper of Berwick Castle. It defines the circumstances under which relief will or will not occur.
The terms of the surrender were not unconditional, the town would be returned to British lands and laws, but the inhabitants would be allowed to leave, with their goods and chattels, in a safe act from Edward III, and all members of the garrison would also be given free passage.
The relief is defined as one of three events: the march of 200 Scottish soldiers into Berwick, the forced passage of a Scottish army through a specific section of the River Tweed, or, the defeat of an English army in open battle on Scottish soil.
After the new treaty was concluded, Keith was allowed to leave Berwick immediately, go to the seat of the Guardian of Scotland, inform him of the terms of the treaty, and return to Berwick safely.
By this time Douglas had marched south to Bamburgh, where Edward III's Queen Philippa still lived, and besieged it; Douglas hoped this would free Edward III from the siege.
In 1319, Edward III's father, Edward II, lifted the siege of Berwick after a Scottish army advanced on York, where his queen was staying, and devastated Yorkshire.
However, whatever concerns Edward III may have had about his queen, he ignored the threat to Bamburgh. The Scots had no time to build the equipment needed to capture the fort by attack.
The Scots devastated the countryside, but Edward III turned a blind eye and positioned his English troops on Mount Haledon, a small hill of about 600 feet 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Berwick that afforded good views of the town and surrounding areas.
From this vantage point, he controlled the crossing of the Tweed provided for in the indenture, and was able to attack the flanks of any soldiers who attempted to enter Berwick. Having received the message from Keith, Douglas felt that his only option was to engage the British.
On July 18, the Scottish army crossed the Tweed River west of the English position and reached the town of Duns, 15 miles away from Berwick. The next day it approached Haledon from the north-west, preparing to fight on a position selected by Edward III.
Edward III had to face the Scottish army at the front and defend the rear against a surprise attack by the Berwick garrison. According to some reports, a large portion of the British army was left to guard Berwick.
In order to engage the English, the Scots had to advance down the mountain, through a large swamp, and then up the north slope of Halliden Hill. The Battle of Duplin Moor the previous year had shown how vulnerable the Scots were to arrows.
The prudent approach was to retreat and wait for a better fighting opportunity, but this would guarantee the loss of Berwick. Around noon on July 19, the two armies encountered each other's scouts , and Douglas ordered an attack.
Lanacost Chronicle reported: The Scotsmen who were ahead were wounded in the face and blinded by the arrows of the English. They could not control themselves and soon began to turn their faces to avoid the blows of the arrows and fell down.
The Scots suffered heavy casualties, and the lower reaches of the mountain were littered with dead and wounded. According to an unnamed contemporary quoted by Nicholson, the survivors continued upward, past arrows "as thick as dust in the sun" to the waiting spears.
The Scottish army broke up and the followers of the camp fled on horseback. The fugitives were chased by English knights on horseback. The Scots suffered thousands of casualties, including Douglas and five earls who died on the battlefield.
The surrendered Scots were killed on Edward's orders, and some were drowned as they fled into the sea. British casualties were reported as 14, with some chronicles giving a lower figure of 7.
The next morning, July 20, about a hundred captured Scots were beheaded. This was the date on which Berwick's second truce expired, and the town and castle surrendered in accordance with the terms of the deed.
Aftermath
After the surrender of Berwick Island, Edward III appointed Henry Percy as Sheriff, with Sir Thomas Gray as his deputy. Considering that his mission was accomplished and he was short of money, he went to the south.
1334 On June 19, after the eight counties of southeastern Scotland were officially ceded to England, Balliol paid tribute to Edward on behalf of Scotland. Balliol ruled a truncated Scottish state from Perth, where he attempted to suppress the remaining resistance. Sidon in turn paid tribute to Belial.
Balliol was deposed again in 1334, restored again in 1335, and finally deposed in 1336 by those loyal to David II. Berwick served as the military and political headquarters of the English Marches until 1461 when it was returned to the Scots by King Henry VI (reigned 1422-1461).
Clifford Rogers noted that Berwick "remained a bone of contention throughout the Middle Ages" until it was finally recaptured in 1482 by Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
