History Of Scotland Vol. 1 - Part 9

( Originally Published 1909 )

Bruce returns to Scotland, lands in Arran, and passes from thence to Ayrshire—Success of his Adherent James Douglas—Capture and Execution of Bruce's Brothers, Thomas and Alexander—The English evacuate Ayrshire—Bruce's reputation increases—Edward I. marches against him, but dies in sight of Scotland—Edward ll.'s vacillating Measures—Bruce in the North of Scotland: defeats the Earl of Buchan, and ravages his Country—His further Successes—Defeat of the Lord of Lora at Cruachan-ben—Feeble and irresolute Conduct of Edward contrasted with the Firmness of Bruce and the Scottish Clergy and People —Inefficient Attempt of Edward to invade Scotland--Bruce ravages the English Borders: takes Perth—Roxburgh Castle surprised by Douglas, Edinburgh by Randolph, Linlithgow by Binnock—The Isle of Man subdued by Bruce—The Governor of Stirling agrees to surrender the Place if not relieved before Midsummer-Bruce is displeased with his Brother Edward for accepting these Terms, yet resolves to abide by them—King Edward makes formidable Preparations to relieve Stirling

WITH the return of spring, hope and the spirit of enterprise again inspired the dauntless heart of Robert Bruce. He made a descent on the isle of Arran, with the view of passing from thence to the Scottish mainland. A faithful vassal in his earldom of Carrick engaged to watch when a landing could be made with some probability of success, and intimate the opportunity to Bruce. The signal agreed upon was a fire to be lighted by the vassal on the cape or headland beneath Turnberry Castle, upon seeing which, it was resolved Bruce should embark with his men. The light, long watched for, at length appeared; but it had not been kindled by Bruce's confidant. The king sailed to the mainland without hesitation, and was astonished to find his emissary watching on the beach, to tell him the fire was accidental, the English were reinforced, the people dispirited, and there was nothing to be attempted with a prospect of success. Robert Bruce hesitated; but his brother Edward, a man of courage which reached to temerity, protested that he would not go again to sea, but being thus arrived in his native country, would take the good or evil destiny which Heaven might send him. Robert himself was easily persuaded to adopt the same bold counsel; and a sudden attack upon a part of the English, who were quartered in the town, gave them victory and a rich booty, as Percy, who lay in the castle, did not venture to sally to the relief of his men.

This advantage was followed by others. It seemed as if . fortune had exhausted her spite on the dauntless adventurer, or that Heaven regarded him as having paid an ample penance for the slaughter of Comyn.

Bruce was joined by friends and followers, and the English were compelled to keep their garrisons; until Sir Henry Percy, instead of making head against the invader, deemed it necessary to evacuate Turnberry Castle, and retreat to England. James Douglas penetrated into his own country in disguise, and collecting some of his ancient followers, surprised the English garrison placed by Lord Clifford in Douglas Castle, and putting the garrison to the sword, mingled the mangled bodies with a large stock of provisions which the English had amassed, and set fire to the castle. The country people to this day call this exploit the Douglas's larder.

The efforts of Bruce were not uniformly successful. Two of his brothers, Thomas and Alexander, had landed in Gallo-way, but were defeated and made prisoners by Roland Macdougal, a chief of that country who was devoted to England. He sent the unfortunate brothers to Edward, who executed them both, and became thus accountable to Bruce for the death of three of his brethren. This accident rendered the king's condition more precarious than it had been, and encouraged the Gallovidians to make many attempts against his person, in some of which they made use of bloodhounds. At one time he escaped so narrowly that his banner was taken, and, as it happened, by his own nephew, Thomas Randolph, then employed in the ranks of the English. When pressed upon on this and similar occasions, it was the custom of Bruce to elude the efforts of the enemy by dispersing his followers, who, each shifting for himself, knew where to meet again at some place of rendezvous, and often surprised and put to the sword some part of the enemy which were lying in full assurance of safety.

At length, after repeated actions and a long series of marching and counter-marching, Pembroke was forced to abandon Ayrshire to the Bruce, as Percy had done before him. Douglas on his part was successful in Lanarkshire, and the numerous patriots resumed the courage which they had possessed under Wallace. A battle was fought at Loudoun Hill, in consequence of an express appointment, between Bruce and his old enemy, the Earl of Pembroke, who was returning to the west with considerable reinforcements, the 10th of May, 1307, in which the Scottish king completely avenged the defeat at Methven. Pembroke fled to Ayr, in which place of refuge the Earl of Gloucester was also forced to seek safety. By these and similar skirmishes, in which his perfect knowledge of the principles of partisan warfare enabled him to take every advantage afforded by the excellence of his intelligence arising from the goodwill of the country, or by circumstances of ground, weather, weapons, and the like, the Scottish king gradually accustomed his men to repose so much confidence in his skill and wisdom that his orders for battle were regarded as a call to assured victory. He himself, James Douglas, and others among his followers, displayed at the same time all that personal and chivalrous valor, which the manners of the age demanded of a leader, and which often restored a battle when well-nigh lost. It was to these latter qualities also, as well as to precaution and sagacity, that Bruce was indebted for his escape from several treacherous attempts to take away his life, by the friends of the slaughtered Comyn, or the adherents of the king of England. Several of such assassins were slain by Robert with his own hand; and a general opinion, long suppressed by the former course of adverse events, began to be entertained through Scotland, that Heaven, in the hour of utmost need, had raised up in the heir of the Scottish throne a prince destined by Providence to deliver his country, and that no weapon forged against him should prosper.

The gradual and increasing reputation of Bruce, the renown of his exploits, the talents which his conduct proved him to possess, reached the ears of Edward the First more and more frequently, and stung the aged sovereign with the most acute sense of wounded pride and mortified ambition. In fulfilment of his romantic vow to Heaven and the swans, Edward had advanced as far as Carlisle, to open his pro-posed campaign against the Scots, but had been detained there during the whole winter by the wasting effects of a dysentery. As the season of action approached, and the rumors of Bruce's success increased, the king persuaded himself that resentment would restore him the strength which age and disease had impaired. It was, indeed, a mortifying condition in which he found himself. For the space of nineteen or twenty years the conquest of Scotland had been the darling object of his thoughts and plans. It had cost him the utmost exertion of his bold and crafty faculties blood had been shed without measure wealth lavished without grudging, to accomplish this darling plan; and now, when disease had abated his strength and energies, he was doomed to see from his sick bed the hills of Scotland, while he knew that they were still free. As if endeavoring to restore by a strong effort of the mind the failing strength of his body, he declared himself recovered, hung up in the cathedral the horse-litter in which he had hitherto travelled, but which he conceived he should need no longer, and, mounting his war-horse, proceeded northward. It was too forced an effort to be continued long. Edward only reached the village of Burgh on the Sands, and expired there on the 7th July, 1307. On his deathbed, his thoughts were entirely on the Scottish affairs : he made his son swear that he would prosecute the war without truce or breathing-space; he repeated the strange injunction, that his flesh being boiled from his bones, the latter should be transported at the head of the army with which he was about to invade Scotland, and never be restored to the tomb till that obstinate nation was entirely subdued. By way of corollary to this singular precept, the dying king bequeathed his heart to be sent to the Holy Land, in whose defence he had once fought.

Edward II., the feeble yet headstrong successor of the most sagacious and resolute of English princes, neglected the extraordinary direction of the dying monarch respecting the disposal of his body, which he caused to be interred at Westminster (by which means the bones of Edward L probably escaped falling into Scottish custody) ; and naming first the Earl of Pembroke, and afterward John de Bretagne, earl of Richmond, in his room, to be guardian of Scotland, he himself found it more agreeable to basten back to share the pleasures of London with Gaveston and his other min-ions, than to undertake the difficult and laborious task of subduing Bruce and his hardy associates.

The English guardian, however, did his duty, and soon assembled a force so superior to that of Bruce that the king thought it necessary to shift the war into the northern parts of Scotland, where the enemy could not be so suddenly reinforced. He left the indefatigable James of Douglas to carry on the war in the wooded and mountainous district of Ettricke forest.

In Aberdeenshire King Robert was joined by Sir Alexander and Sir Simon Fraser, sons of the gallant hero of Roslin. But he was opposed by Comyn, earl of Buchan, who to party hatred added an eager desire to revenge the death of his kinsman slain by Bruce. The time seemed favorable for his purpose, for Bruce was at this time afflicted with a lingering and wasting distemper, which impaired his health and threatened his life. In this condition, he thought it wise to retreat before the Earl of Buchan, who at length pressed so closely on his rear as to beat up their quarters in the town of Old Meldrum, and cause some loss. "These folks will work a cure on me," said Bruce, starting from the litter which he had been of late compelled to use; and rushing into battle, though obliged to be supported in his saddle, he was so actively seconded by his troops that he totally defeated the Earl of Buchan; and in reward for the pertinacity with which that lord had pursued him, he ravaged his country so severely that the herrying of Buchan was the subject of lamentation for a hundred years afterward, and traces of the devastation may be even yet seen.

After this action Sir David de Brechin, the Bruce's nephew, who had formerly taken part with the Earl of Buchan, is said to have joined his uncle; yet in 1312, nearly three years afterward, we find him again employed by Edward; so sudden were changes of party in these unsettled times, even among men who held a high character for faith and honor. In the "Rotulae Soothe," as quoted by Mr. Tytler, Edward employs David de Brechin as joint warden with Montfichet. The citizens of Aberdeen also declared in Bruce's favor, and adding acts to professions, stormed and took the castle, and expelled the English garrison. The citadel of Forfar was also taken, and both fortresses were demolished by order of Bruce; a course of policy which he always observed, because, as the English were more skilful in the attack and defence of fortified places, the existence of such afforded them facilities both in gaining and securing their possessions in Scotland which could not have existed if the country had been open and not commanded by citadels or castles.

While victory thus attended his own banners in the north of Scotland, King Robert despatched parties of his followers, under his best leaders, to spread the insurrection into other districts, and by diverting the attention of the English invaders, prevent them from assembling a large force and finishing the war by a single blow, as at Dunbar and Falkirk. Edward Bruce fought and won several actions against the English in Galloway, as well as against the natives of that barbarous country, who had always taken part against the Bruce's interest. He gained these successes through exertion of a reckless courage which defied all the usual calculations of prudence. At length, after a severe defeat given to the native chiefs and their southern allies on the banks of the Dee, June 29, 1308, Edward expelled the English entirely from Galloway, and brought that rude province into submission to his brother.

Douglas again retook and dismantled his own fortress of Douglas, upon which he had now made three attacks, two of which were completely successful. He then proceeded to scour the hills of Tweedale and the forest of Ettricke. In reconnoitring the country on the small river of Lyne, the Douglas approached a house, in which a spy whom he sent forward heard men talking loudly, one of whom used the "devil's name" as an oath or adjuration. Conjecturing they must be soldiers who dared make familiar use of so formidable a phrase, Douglas caused his attendants to beset the house, and made prisoners therein Thomas Randolph, the king's nephew, and Alexander Stewart of Bonkill, both of whom, since the battle of Methven, had adhered to the English interest. They were well treated, and sent to the king, who gently rebuked Randolph for breach of allegiance. "It is you," said the haughty young warrior, "who degrade your own cause by trusting to ambuscades instead of facing the English in the field." "That may happen in due time," replied Bruce : "in the meantime, it is fitting that you be taught your duty by restraint." Thomas Randolph was sent accordingly to prison, where he did not long remain. He was reconciled to his uncle, whom he ever after served with the utmost fidelity : indeed, Douglas only, among the followers of the Bruce, was held to equal him in military fame.

Bruce's successes now enabled him to chastise the Lord of Lorn, by whom, after his defeat at Methven, he had been so severely persecuted. He marched toward Argyleshire, and arrived at Dalmally. Here he learned that John of Lorn and his Highlanders had stationed themselves in a formidable pass, where the great mountain of Cruachan-Ben sinks down upon the margin of Loch-Awe, so that the road passes among precipices on the left hand and the deep lake on the other. But Bruce understood as well as any modern tacitician how such difficulties were to be overcome. While he himself engaged the attention of the mountaineers by threatening an assault in front, he despatched Douglas, with a party of light troops, to march round the mountain, and turn the pass, thus attacking the defenders in front, flank, and rear at once. They were routed with great slaughter. The lords of Lorn, father and son, escaped by sea. Their castle of Dunstaffnage was taken, and their country pillaged, August, 1308.

Thus did Robert Bruce, with steady and patient resolution, win province after province from the English, encouraging and rewarding his friends, overawing and chastising his enemies, and rendering his authority more respected day by day. The profound wisdom and resolute purpose of Ed-ward I. would have been required to sustain, against Bruce's talents, the conquests he had made; but the weak and fickle character of his son was all that England had to oppose to him.

The measures to which Edward resorted were imperfect, feeble, hastily assumed, and laid aside without apparent reason. At one time he put his faith in William de Lambyrton, the archbishop of Saint Andrew's, whom his father had cast into prison. This prelate being liberated and pensioned by the second Edward, volunteered his services to promulgate the bull of excommunication against Robert Bruce : but if the bull had made but slight impression on the Scots during the king's adversity, it met with still less regard when the splendor of repeated success disposed his countrymen in general to blot from their remembrance the deed of violence with which so brilliant a career had commenced. The death of John Comyn was but like a morning cloud which is for-gotten in the blaze of a summer noon.

The king of France, who had deserted the Scots in their utmost need, now began to be once more an intercessor in their behalf ; and the English king consented to offer a truce to Bruce and his adherents; but the Scots, on their part, required payment of a sum of money before they would grant one. Edward's measures showed a predominance of weakness and uncertainty. Commissions to six different governors were granted and recalled before any of those appointed had time to act upon them. General musters of forces were ordered, which the haughty barons of England obeyed or neglected at their pleasure. All showed the marks of a feeble and vacillating government, unwilling to resign the kingdom of Scotland, yet incapable of adopting the active and steady measures by which alone it could have been preserved.

All public measures in Scotland, on the other hand, were marked by the steadiness of conscious superiority which they borrowed from the character of their sovereign. The estates of the kingdom solemnly declared the award of Edward adjudging the crown of Scotland to John Baliol was an injustice to the grandfather of Bruce. They recognized the deceased lord of Annandale as the true heir of the crown, owned his grandson as their king, and denounced the doom of treason against all who should dispute his right to the crown. The clergy of the kingdom issued a spiritual charge to their various flocks, acknowledging Bruce as their sovereign, in spite of the thunders of excommunication which had been launched against him.

At length, in 1310, Edward, roused into action, assembled a large army at Berwick, and entered Scotland, but too late in the year for any effective purpose. Bruce was contented with eluding the efforts of the invaders to bring on a general battle, cutting off their provisions, harassing their marches, and augmenting the distress and danger of an invading army in a country at once hostile and desolate, and by this policy the patience of Edward and the supplies of his army were altogether exhausted. A second, a third, a fourth expedition was attempted with equally indifferent success. What mischief the Scots might sustain by these irruptions was fearfully compensated by the retaliation of King Robert, who ravaged the English frontiers with pitiless severity. The extreme sufferings of Bruce himself, of his family and his country, called loudly for retaliation, which was thus rendered excusable, if not meritorious. The Scots obtained money as well as other plunder on these occasions; for, after abiding fifteen days in England, the northern provinces found it necessary to purchase their retreat.

King Robert left the borders to present himself before Perth, which was well fortified, and held out by an English garrison. In one place the moat was so shallow that it might be waded. On that point Bruce made a daring attack. Having previously thrown the garrison off their guard by a pretended retreat, he appeared suddenly before the town at the head of a chosen storming party. He him-self led the way, completely armed, bearing a scaling-ladder in his hand, waded through the moat where the water reached to his chin, and was the second man who mounted the wall. A French knight, who was with the Scottish army, at the sight of this daring action, exclaimed, "Oh, heaven ! what shall we say of the delicacy of our French lords, when we see so gallant a king hazard his person to win such a paltry hamlet?" So saying he flung himself into the water, and was one of the first to surmount the wall. The place was speedily taken.

The confidential friends to whom Bruce intrusted the command of separate detachments in various parts of Scot-land, among whom were men of high military talent, endeavored to outdo each other in following the example of their heroic sovereign. Douglas and Randolph particularly distinguished themselves in this patriotic rivalry. The strong and large castle of Roxburgh was secured by its position, its fortifications, and the number of the garrison, from any siege which the Scots could have formed. But on the eve of Shrove Tuesday (March 6, 1312-13), when the garrison were full of jollity and indulging in drunken wassail, Douglas and his followers approached the castle, creeping on hands and feet, and having dark cloaks flung over their armor. They seemed to the English soldiers a strayed herd of some neighboring peasant's cattle, which had been suffered to escape during the festivity of the evening. They therefore saw these objects arrive on the verge of the moat and descend into it without wonder or alarm, nor did they discover their error till the shout of Douglas! Douglas ! announced that the wall was scaled and the castle taken.

As if to match this gallant action, Thomas Randolph possessed himself of the yet stronger castle of Edinburgh. This also was by surprise. A soldier in Randolph's army, named William Frank, who had lived in the castle in his youth, had then learned to make his way down the precipice on which the fortress is built, by clambering over at a place where the wall was very low. He had used this perilous passage for carrying on an intrigue with a woman who resided in the city, and as he had often left the fortress and returned to it in safety, he offered himself as a guide to scale it at that point. Randolph placed himself and thirty chosen soldiers under the guidance of this man. As they ascended under the cover of night, they heard the counter-guards making their rounds, and challenging the sentinels as usual in a well-guarded post. The Scots were at this moment screened by a rock from the sentinels and from the counter-watch. Yet one man of the patrol at that awful moment called out, "I see you," and threw down a stone. But this was only a trick for the purpose of alarming his companions, not that he had taken any real alarm, though he had so nearly discovered what was going forward. The watchmen moved on, and the Scots, with as much silence as possible, renewed their toilsome and dangerous ascent. They reached the foot of the wall where it was twelve feet high, and surmounted it by a ladder of ropes. The guide Frank mounted first, then came Sir Andrew Gray, and next Randolph him-self. The English sentinels now took the alarm in good earnest; but the boldness of the action was the cause of its success; and though the garrison resisted bravely, yet, being unaware of the very small force opposed to them, the castle was at length taken. This was the 14th March, 1312-13.

It was not princes and warriors alone who were roused to action on this glorious occasion. The exploit of a hardy peasant, Binnock or Binning by name, is as remarkable as the surprise of Roxburgh or Edinburgh. This brave man lived in the neighborhood of Linlithgow, where the English had constructed a strong fort. Accustomed to supply the garrison with forage, Binnock concealed eight armed Scots in his wain, which was apparently loaded with hay. He employed a strong-bodied bondman to drive the wagon, and he himself walked beside it, as if to see his commodity delivered. When the cart was in the gateway beneath the portcullis, Binnock, with a sudden blow of an axe which he held in his hand, severed the harness which secured the horses to the wain. Finding themselves relieved from the draught, the horses sprang forward. Binnock shouted a signal-word, and at the same time struck down the porter with his axe. The armed men started from their concealment among the hay. The English attempted to drop the portcullis or shut the gate; but the loaded wain prevented alike the fall of the one and the closing of the other. A party of armed Scots, who lay in ambush waiting the event, rushed in at the shout of their companions, and the castle was theirs.

The Bruce's success was not limited to the mainland of Scotland; he pursued the Macdougal of Galloway, to whom he owed the captivity and subsequent death of his two brothers, into the Isle of Man, where he defeated him totally, stormed his castle of Rushin, and subjected his island to the Scottish domination.

When Bruce returned to the mainland of North Britain from this expedition, he had the pleasure to find that the energy of his brother Edward had pursued the great work of expelling the English invaders with uninterrupted success. He had taken the town and castle of Rutherglen and of Dundee; the last of which had during the previous year resisted the Scottish arms, in consequence, partly, of a breach of compact, which we shall presently notice.

But these good news were checkered by others of a more doubtful quality. After his success at Rutherglen and Dundee, Sir Edward Bruce laid siege to Stirling, the only considerable fortress in Scotland which still remained in the hands of the English. The governor, Sir Philip de Mowbray, de-fended himself with great valor, but at length, becoming straitened for provisions, entered into a treaty, by which he agreed to surrender the fortress if not relieved before the feast of St. John the Baptist, in the ensuing midsummer. Bruce was greatly displeased with the precipitation of his brother Edward in entering into such a capitulation without waiting his consent. It engaged him necessarily in the same risk which had so often proved fatal to the Scots; namely, that of perilling the fate of the kingdom upon a general battle, in which the numbers, discipline, and superior appointments of the English must insure them an advantage, which experience had shown they were far from possessing over their northern neighbors when they encountered in small bodies. The king upbraided his brother with the temerity of his conduct; but Edward, with the reckless courage which characterized him, defended his agreement on the usage of chivalry, and rather seemed to triumph in having brought the protracted conflict between the kingdoms to the issue of a fair field.

If Robert Bruce had finally determined to avoid the conflict, he had a fair excuse to do so. In the preceding year (1313), as we have already hinted, William de Montfichet, the English governor of Dundee, had entered into terms similar to the treaty of Stirling, to surrender the place unless relieved at a certain stipulated time. But he had broken his agreement, and resumed his defence, under the express injunction of Edward his sovereign. So that if Bruce had refused to sanction his brother's agreement with Mowbray, he might have fairly pleaded the example of Edward his antagonist. But King Robert saw that this mode of eluding the treaty could not be acted upon without depressing the spirits of his followers, and diminishing their confidence, while it must have lost him the services of the hasty but dauntless Edward, of which his cooler courage knew how to make the most important use. Besides, his own temper, though tamed by experience, was naturally hardy and bold, and little disposed him to avoid the arbitrament of battle when his character as a soldier and a true knight recommended his accepting it, To all this must be added that the prescient eye of Bruce saw and anticipated circumstances which, if made of due avail, might deprive the English of the advantage of numbers, discipline, and appointments, in all of which they might be expected to possess a superiority. He prepared, then, with the calm prudence of an accomplished and intelligent general, for the mortal and decisive conflict, the challenge to which his brother Edward had accepted with the wild enthusiasm of a knight-errant.

Meantime Sir Philip de Mowbray, governor of Stirling, availed himself of the truce which the treaty had procured for the garrison under his command, to hasten in person to London, and state to Edward and his council that almost the last remnant of Edward I.'s conquests in Scotland must be irretrievably lost, unless Stirling was relieved. The king and his barons, through the misconduct of the former, were at the time upon very indifferent terms. But this news was of a nature to arouse the spirit of both. The king could not without dishonor decline the enterprise; the barons could not withhold their assistance, without being guilty of treason both to their sovereign and to the honor of their country. The time allowed by the treaty, including several months, was sufficient for collecting the whole gigantic force of England, and the disposition both of the king and his nobility was earnest in employing it to the best advantage.

The preparations of England for this decisive enterprise were upon such a scale as to stagger the belief of modern historians, yet their extent is proved by the records which are still extant. Ninety-three great tenants of the crown brought forth their entire feudal service of cavalry, to the number of forty thousand, three thousand of whom were completely sheathed in steel, both horses and riders. The levies in the counties of England and Wales extended to twenty-seven thousand infantry. A great force was drawn from Ireland, both under English barons, settlers in that country, and under twenty-six Irish chiefs, who were ordered to collect their vassals and join the army. The whole array was summoned to meet at Berwick on the 11th day of June (1314), the period being prolonged to the last limits Sir Philip Mowbray's engagement would permit, in order to give time to collect the vast quantity of provisions, forage, and everything else required for the movement and support of a host, which was indisputably the most numerous that an English monarch ever led against Scotland, amounting in all to upward of one hundred thousand men.