Book XI…

Book XI

32 outrageous a day. “Day” has here the meaning of “a space of time,” as in Berners’ Froissart. “The truce is not expired, but hath day to endure unto the first day of Maye next” (I. ccxiii., N.E.D.): a sense of the Latin dies. For “outrageous,” see on Bk. III. 162.

44 Akatane. Aquitaine, the ancient southern duchy of France, the hereditary possession of the Kings of England.

46 The Lanercost chronicler affirms (1311) that in the war the Scots were so divided that sometimes a father was with the Scots and his son with the English, or brothers were on opposite sides, or even the same person at one time on the Scottish side, at another on that of England; but that it was a pretence, either because the English seemed to get the better or to save their English lands, “for their hearts, if not their bodies, were always with their own people” (p. 217). Thus, at this time, there were still to be found among supporters of the English King such names as Stewart, Graham, Kirkpatrick, Maxwell, St. Clair, etc. (Bain, iii., Introd., pp. xvi, xvii). As many of these were Border lairds--some, indeed, are of Annandale--even their Scottish lands were specially exposed to English attack. Late in 1313 (October or November) we have a Petition to the King (of England) from the People of Scotland, by their envoys, Sir Patrick de Dunbar, Earl of March, and Sir Adam de Gordon, complaining of the great losses they have suffered “by their enemies”--i.e., the Bruce party--also of the brigandage of the English garrison in Berwick and Roxburgh (Bain, iii., No. 337). One of the results of Bannockburn was to bring many of these waverers over to the national side. Adam de Gordon, indeed, was already under suspicion, and apparently was a waverer. He had, in fact, a grant of the lands of Strathbogie in 1309, according to Robertson (Index, p. 2; 40). Cf. also 103-4.* For Gordon, see also Bk. IX. 720, etc.; XV. 333; and on March, Bk. XIX. 776, note.

79-82 Cf., as bearing out Barbour’s assertion, the comment by the author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi on the army when assembled at Berwick: “There were in that assemblage amply sufficient men (satis sufficientes) to traverse all Scotland, and, in the judgment of some, if the whole of Scotland had been brought together, it could not make a stand against the army of the King (cf. line 150). Indeed, it was confessed by the whole host that, in our time, such an army had not gone out of England” (Chronicles of Ed. I. and Ed. II., ii., pp. 201-2).

91 Erll of Hennaut. Count William of Hainault, Flanders. Cf. on Bk. XIX. 262.

93. Almanyhe: Germany. Friar Baston says four German knights came “gratis” (Eng. Hist. Rev., vol. xix., p. 507).

100 of Irlande ane gret menyhe. In Foedera we have the list of twenty-five Irish chiefs summoned to the campaign against the Scots--O’Donald, O’Neil, MacMahon, O’Bryn, O’Dymsy, etc. The Irish contingent was commanded by Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, Bruce’s father-in-law (III., pp. 476-478).

*103-4 See note on 46.

103 Ane hundreth thousand men and ma. See Appendix C.

105 Armyt on hors. That is, the men alone wore armour, being thus distinguished from the knights “with helit hors,” or horses armoured also in bardings of leather or mail. Skeat rejects the reading of E in favour of “playn male,” taking “playn” to represent the French plein = “complete mail,” on the ground of Innes’s remark that the distinction between mail or ring-armour and plate, “if known, was not so specific in Barbour’s age.” But plates had been coming into use since the last quarter of the thirteenth century, and by 1300 the practice of attaching such additional defences was rapidly developing. See note on 131. In 1316 we read of “200 men armed in plate,” who were sent to Ireland from England (Bain, iii., p. 99, No. 519).

114 Of cartis. “The multitude of waggons (multitudo quadrigarum), if it had been extended in a line one behind the other, would have taken up a space of twenty leagues” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 202). The meaning of “league” is uncertain; apparently it was just a mile.

117 veschall. In Vita Edw. Sec. (pp. 206-7) the author speaks of “costly garments and gold (or gilt) plate” (vasa aurea). Baker of Swinbroke, in his Chronicon Angliæ (p. 55), also mentions the “plate of gold and silver,” and affirms that, in addition to an abundant supply of victuals, the English brought with them things which were wont to be seen only in times of peace on the luxurious tables of princes. Among the ornaments of the high altar of Aberdeen Cathedral in 1549 was “an old hood made of cloth of gold ... from the spoil of the Battle of Bannockburn” (Reg. Episc. Aberd., ii., p. 189).

119 schot. Arrows, and bolts for cross-bows. Cf. Bk. XIII. 311, and below, note on 544.

130 ryche weid. The rich flowing housings or drapery of the steeds, covering the armour, if any, as the “surcoat” of the knight did his.

131-*132. Armour was in a state of rapid transition, and so at this time is very complicated. An English brass of 1325 shows a knight wearing (1) a gambeson, or close-fitting quilted tunic, to ease the pressure of the armour; (2) a hauberk of banded or chain mail, with half-plates on the upper arm; (3) an habergeon (“hawbyrschown”), or lighter hauberk, apparently of small plates; (4) a haketon, another padded coat like the gambeson; (5) and a short surcoat. He has leggings of mail covering also the feet, and half-plates in addition from the knees to the toes: a hood of mail continued upward from the hauberk and a bascinet, or pointed, nut-shaped helmet, with no visor. Over this he would wear in battle such a heavy, closed, flat-topped helm as we see on the seal of Robert I. He carries a small triangular shield on his left arm, and his sword, a little more than half the body in length, hangs in front from a waist-belt. Such was probably the equipment of the leading knights at Bannockburn.

136 Till Berwick. The army was to assemble at Werk on the Tweed by Monday, June 10, 1314 (Foedera, iii., p. 481). But the start was made from Berwick on June 17 or 18 (Vita Edw., 201).

150 Mannaustt the Scottis. Cf. note on 79-82.

163 Glowcister. Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, nephew of the King, and a young man of twenty-three. Herfurd. Humphrey de Bohun, or Boun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and Constable of England. “The Earl of Gloucester and the Earl of Herford commanded the first line” (primam aciem, Vit. Edw. Sec., p. 202). The Scalacronica says Gloucester commanded “the advance guard” (p. 141), but does not mention Hereford (see note on Bk. XIII. 466).

174 Schir Gylys de Argente. Sir Giles d’Argentine, popularly regarded as one of the three most eminent men of the time, the others being the Emperor Henry and Robert Bruce (Scotich. Lib., xiii. 16). He “guided the King’s bridle” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 204). Cf. also Scalacronica (p. 143), votre reyne me fust baillez--“your rein was entrusted to me”: among others (p. 142).

210 the Torwood. Stretching north and west from Falkirk. It reached to near Bannockburn, a little south of which is “Torwoodhead” Castle.

237 See note on 103.

250 abaysing. Fear which grew to panic. Morale, or firm courage, is always an important element in warfare, but in medieval times it seems to have been specially important (cf. IV. 191-200, and XII. 184-8). The remarkable successes of the Scots against larger numbers were often due to the “abaysing,” for one reason or other, of their opponents. Footmen were peculiarly liable to this loss of nerve, as they received no mercy, as a rule, from the mounted knights. Bruce was all along most anxious to guard against the rise of any such spirit of “funk” among his men. “Success in battle,” said Napoleon, “depends not so much upon the number of men killed as upon the number frightened.”

277 the wayis. As Bruce explains in the lines that follow, there were two “ways” of advance to Stirling; one through the wooded New Park, and the other by the level below St. Ninian’s, extending to the “pools” or lagoons along the side of the Forth. The trees of the New Park seem to have extended from above the banks of the burn to St. Ninian’s on the one side and Stirling, or near it, on the other (cf. note on Bk. XII. 58). It was made as late as 1264 by Alexander III., and enclosed with a paling in 1288 (Excheq. Rolls, I. 24, 38); whence the name “New.”

291 licht armyng. “Everyone of them (the Scots) was protected by light armour” (levi armatura). (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 203). See further, note on Bk. XII. 448.

296 ficht on fut. Fighting was still regarded as almost entirely the business of armoured men on horseback, the footmen serving only for minor purposes. That an army all on foot should oppose chivalry was a new departure. Bruce was an original general. Sir Thomas Gray says that the Scots “took example from the Flemings,” who, in 1302, at Courtrai had in this way defeated the French knights (Scalacronica, p. 142). But this is an after-thought. The Vita Edwardi Sec. also draws the parallel with Courtrai (p. 206). But the Scots could take the hint from the tactics at Falkirk in 1298, where Wallace was only defeated by the English archers. An English chronicler of about 1330 suggests that the Scots were made to fight on foot to avoid the mischance at Falkirk when their little body of cavalry fled at the sight of the English advance (Annales Johannis de Trokelowe, p. 84).

300 the sykis. No doubt shallow lagoons with a muddy bottom, about the Bannock, where it entered the Forth, flooded by the tide. Jamieson, in his Dictionary, defines syk as “a marshy bottom, with a small stream in it.” A rivulet in Selkirkshire is known as the Red Syke (Chambers’ Popular Rhymes, p. 17, ed. 1826).

333-6 Pinkerton suggests in his edition that Bruce could not trust the Highlanders and Islesmen, and so put them in the rear, and stiffened their ranks with his own followers from Carrick. For this there is no warrant. The “barons of Argyll and Inchgallye” (the Hebrides) attended Bruce’s Parliament at St. Andrews in March, 1309 (Acts Parl. Scot., i. 99). Cf. also note on X. 14. In any case on the Sunday afternoon Bruce took the front position in the New Park with these very men (445, 446).

360 ane playne feld by the way. I.e., an open, level part by the road through the park, just outside the wood. The historians have shifted the position to suit their various and erroneous ideas of the field of battle. Barbour, it is to be noted, says nothing of bogs, nor of Buchanan’s “calthrops of iron” (Scot. Hist., ed. 1762, p. 213). Friar Baston, captured at Bannockburn, in his Latin poem, says there were stakes in the pits (Scotichronicon, lib. xii., chap. xxii.). Geoffrey Baker, of Swinbroke, enlarges them to long ditches covered with hurdles, an utter misapprehension (Chronicon, pp. 56, 57. Cf. notes on Bk. XII. 536, 537). At Cressy (1346) the English dug “many pits” (multa foramina) of the depth and width of a foot in front of their first line as a defence against possible pursuit by the French cavalry (Baker, p. 166). An analagous device is described by Herodotus as having been successfully used by the Phocians to destroy Messalian cavalry (Book viii., chap. xxviii.).

426 till ane vale. Apparently in the valley behind Coxet Hill. “Gillies Hill” is said to have taken its name from these “gillies,” or servants (Nimmo’s History of Stirlingshire, second edition, p. 219). Barbour never calls them “gillies,” and why a Gaelic name? The writer of the description of the district in the Old Statistical Account (1796) makes no mention of this “tradition,” and suggests a derivation from the personal name Gill or Gillies. “The names both of Gillies and Morison occur in the muirlands” (vol. xviii., p. 392).

437 the Fawkirk. A Scots translation of the original Gaelic name (in twelfth century) Eaglais breac, “the speckled or particoloured church,” in reference to the stone of which it was built. In “Falkirk” the “l” has been substituted for “w,” as a sign of length in the vowel (see Language l, App. G). Local pronunciation does not sound the “l.” The English chroniclers write the name Foukyrk (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 205), or Faukirke (Annales London., p. 104).

440-453 Acting on the information received, and unaware, as yet, which road the English would choose for an advance to Stirling, Bruce makes a fresh disposition of his troops, departing from that laid down in lines 305-347, so as to be ready for either line of advance. He himself occupies the “entry” to the Park road, which was a continuation of the medieval (Roman?) highway passing west of St. Ninian’s, with his mixed brigade of Highlanders and Lowlanders; while Randolph is posted at St. Ninian’s Kirk overlooking the level about seventy feet below. Apparently (see below) both divisions are masked by the wood. The others are in reserve to reinforce when it should turn out to be necessary. The historians, ignoring this alteration in dispositions, land themselves, as a result, in unintelligible confusion. Douglas later trapped an English column in the “entre” of Jedburgh Forest (Bk. XVI. 310 et seq.).

486 confort his men. See note on 250.

523 Aucht hundreth. Gray says they were only three hundred, under the command of Robert Lord de Clifford and Henry de Beaumont (Scalacronica, p. 141). We learn from the same author that Philip de Mowbray, constable of Stirling, went out and met Edward when the army was three leagues, or miles, from the castle, and suggested that he should advance no farther as, the English having come so far, and being within touch, he considered himself relieved; besides, he said, the Scots had blocked the narrow ways (lez estroitz chemyns) of the wood--i.e., of the New Park. But from the conditions, as we have seen (Bk. X. 822), the castle could not be held to be relieved so long as the Scots were in force before it. We note that Mowbray also expected the army to come by the Park roads. Now Barbour says that Clifford’s detachment left the main body two miles away (515). Apparently, then, this movement was the result of Mowbray’s information (see next note). However, it was known to Edward when he summoned his army that the Scots had taken up a position between him and Stirling in strong, marshy places difficult for horsemen (Foedera, ii., p. 481).

532 it suld reskewit be. So the Scots might conclude, but the version of the Lanercost chronicler better fits the case: “After dinner” (post prandium--say, about midday) “the army of the King (Edward) came to the neighbourhood of the Torwood” (he takes the Park to be an extension of the larger forest), “and when it was known that the Scots were in the wood” (from Mowbray), “the first line (prima acies) of the King, whose leader was Lord Clifford, wished to surround the wood so that the Scots should not escape in flight” (p. 225). This is in harmony with the self-confidence of the English, and explains why the horsemen did not, as they might have done, avoid Randolph’s foot, if they were only making for the castle. There was apparently no obstacle to Mowbray communicating personally with the relieving army, and he cannot have gone alone; so that the parties were actually in touch, and, as Mowbray argued, a technical “relief” had been performed.

536 thai wist weill. From Mowbray probably, but cf. note on 523. Aymer de Valence, too, had gone on before the army to prepare its line of march and carefully examine the stratagems of the Scots (insidias Scotorum. Vit. Edw., p. 201).

537 Beneth the Park. “Made a circuit upon the other side of the wood towards the castle, keeping the open ground” (as beaux chaumps. Scalacronica, p. 141).

544 thai so fer war passit by. The English writers report the matter as it appeared to them. “The Scots, however, suffered this” (Clifford’s advance) “until they had placed a considerable distance between themselves and their friends, when they showed themselves, and cutting off that first line of the King from the middle and rear divisions (a media acie et extrema), rushed on it,” etc. (Chron. de Lanercost, 225). “Thomas Randolph, ... who was leader of the advance guard of the Scots, having heard that his uncle had repulsed the advance guard of the English on the other side of the wood, thought that he must have his share, and issuing from the wood with his division” (Barbour says “five hundred men,” line 542), “took the level plain” (le beau chaumpe--Barbour’s “playn feld”) “towards the two lords aforesaid” (Scalacronica, p. 141). Note that both Bruce at the “entry,” and Randolph at “the Kirk,” were in the wood (see on this also note on Bk. XII. 58); and the reiterated use of the term “playn feld” for the level below St. Ninian’s.

546 ane rose of his chaplet. Hailes suggests a far-fetched explanation of this: “I imagine that rose implies a large bead in a rosary or chaplet,” when the dropping of a rose would imply carelessness of duty (Annals, ii. 51, note). The New English Dictionary defines chaplet as “A wreath for the head, usually a garland of flowers or leaves,” and cites this passage. Randolph in the wood, keeping his eyes on the main body, could easily miss an advance by his flank, which had started independently two miles away, and probably kept to cover as far as possible.

547 Wes faldyn. Skeat explains this form as “fallen” with an “excrescent d, due to Scandinavian influence,” citing also Bk. XIII. 632. A form, foolde, occurs in The Sowdone of Babylone, line 1428, where Hausknecht explains it as from fealden, “to fold,” meaning “folded, bent down, fallen”; citing also “Folden to grunde” and “Fiftene hundred Folden to grunden,” from Layamon, 23,894 and 27,055-6. The result as to meaning is the same either way.

548 war past. Clifford then had passed the Kirk before Randolph made a move. The scene of the conflict is usually placed at a position half-way between St. Ninian’s and Stirling, now known as Randolph’s Field. But this name is not older than the end of the eighteenth century (Old Stat. Acct., vol. xviii., p. 408). The origin of the nomenclature is two standing stones said to have been erected in memory of the victory (Nimmo’s History of Stirlingshire, ed. 1817, p. 216). But standing stones are no uncommon feature in Scotland, and various traditions attach to them; and why this preference in commemoration? “Standing stones,” on the other side of the Forth, are mentioned in the Wallace (Bk. v. 298).

557 In hy thai sped thame. Gray gives an account of this affair, in which his father was taken prisoner, in the Scalacronica (edit. Maitland Club. p. 141): “Sir Henry de Beaumont said to his men, ‘Let us retire a little; let them [the Scots] come on; give them room [donez les chaumps.]” His father, Sir Thomas, charging on the Scots, was carried off a prisoner on foot, his horse having been slain on the pikes. He, too, mentions the death of Sir William Deyncourt (line 573), and says the squadron was utterly routed. If Beaumont--to whom, with Deyncourt, Gray gives the command--proposed to allow the Scots more room by retiring, his detachment cannot have gone far past Randolph’s original position (cf. also line 538). The remark seems absurd if applied to the ground at Randolph’s Field. Buchanan says Randolph had horse, in which he is clearly wrong (Rerum Scotic. Hist., ed. 1762, chap. xxxix.), and he is followed on this point in White’s History of the Battle of Bannockburn (Edinburgh, 1871), p. 55.

573 Schir Wilyhame Dencort. See previous note.

598 Styk stedis, and ber doune men. An unhorsed knight in his heavy suit of full armour was a cumbrous unit, and if he fell, might find it impossible to rise in the press, or be assisted to do so, so as to be remounted on a fresh steed by his squire, whose duty it was to see to this, among other things. The author of the Vita Edw. notes as a mischance deserving remark that in this day’s fighting the Earl of Gloucester was unhorsed (p. 202; see also on Bk. XII. 504).

Book XII

22 quyrbolle. Cuir-bouilli, or “boiled leather,” was not really boiled, as in that case it would become horny and brittle and so quite unsuitable for the purposes to which it was put--the strengthening of armour in the transition period of the fourteenth century prior to the full use of plate, and the making of sheaths, bottles, caskets, etc. The leather was steeped in a warm mixture of wax and oil, which made it pliable and fit to receive the designs cut or embossed on it. It was then slowly dried. Helmet crests or other fittings were also made of it, as here.

29 the Boune. Henricus de Boun in Vita Edw. Sec. (see below). The name is variously spelled--Bowme (C), Bohun, etc. He was the nephew of Hereford. Barbour says “cosyne” in 31, but this, formerly, very frequently denoted a nephew or niece (N.E.D.).

33 merk-schot. Jamieson’s Dictionary gives as explanation: “Seems the distance between the bow markis which were shot at in the exercise of archery.” In the New English Dictionary: “The distance between the butts in archery” (citing this passage). E and H read bow-schote = 150 to 200 yards.

36 his men. That is, the men of his own battle at the “entry,” not the whole army drawn up in line, as is generally assumed. Cf. Bk. XI. 440-53, and note.

42 his hors he steris. Cf. with the account, professing to be based on Barbour, in Scott’s Lord of the Isles, canto vi., XV.: “The Bruce stood fast,” etc.

49 in-till a lyng. “They quickly took their positions so as to come at each other in a line.”

58 And he doune till the erd can ga. I.e., De Boun; but Sir Herbert Maxwell says Bruce! (Robert the Bruce, p. 205). With this Scottish version of the event cf. the following English one (c. 1326): “When the English had now passed the wood”--i.e., the Torwood--“and were approaching Stirling, behold! the Scots were moving about, as if in flight, on the edge of the grove” (sub memore, i.e., the wood of the New Park), “whom a certain knight, Henry de Boun, with the Welshmen, pursued up to the entry” (introitum, Barbour’s “entre”) “of the grove. For he had it in his mind that, if he should find Robert Bruce there, he would either slay him or bring him back his captive. But when he had come hither, Robert himself issued suddenly from the cover of the wood” (a latebris silvæ); “and the aforesaid Henry, seeing that he could not resist the crowd of Scots, and wishing to retire to his friends, turned his horse; but Robert withstood him, and with the axe which he carried in his hand, smashed in his skull. His squire, while endeavouring to shield and avenge his lord, is overcome by the Scots” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 202). Gray says the advanced guard under the Earl of Gloucester entered the road within the Park and were repulsed (tost furvont recoillez. Scala., p. 141) by the Scots; and that, as was reported, Robert Bruce here slew a knight, Peris de Mountforth, with an axe. A John de Mountfort was slain at Bannockburn, and in the list cited his name immediately precedes that of Henry de Boun (Annales Londonienses, p. 231, in Chronicles of Edward I. and Edward II., vol. i.). Buchanan places this incident at the beginning of the main battle on Monday as something scarcely worth mentioning (parum quidem dictu) (Rer. Scot. Hist., ed. 1762, chap. xxxix.). Barbour, of course, concentrates on Bruce’s performance, but the Vita Edwardi incidentally corroborates Gray in remarking that in this day’s fighting Gloucester was unhorsed (p. 202), which could have happened only in the Park affair.

67 thai com on. As we see, the De Boun affair was part of a serious skirmish, an attempt to force the road to Stirling through the Park, in which the English van was repulsed. See above on 58, and hereafter on 176. This important fact is usually overlooked, as in Hume Brown’s History, i., p. 158.

140 The layff went. Some, says Gray, fled to the Castle of Stirling (au chastel), the others to the King’s host (Scala., p. 141).

144-6 “Quickly took off their helmets to get air, for they were hot, and covered with perspiration.”

176 twis. I.e., repulsed in the De Boun skirmish, and in that of Randolph and Clifford. These successes were clearly of the greatest importance, in so far as they put heart into the Scots, and prevented their being overawed, as they might well have been, by the greatness and terrifying appearance of the English host. The author of the Gesta Edw. de Carnarvon thus notes that at Bannockburn “they fought on both days” (utrisque diebus pugnaverunt), and the Scots “prevailed” (Chron. Edw. I. and Edw. II., ii. 46).

194 gif yhe think, etc. Bruce here offers his men alternative courses, either to stay and fight or to retreat. Gray tells us that the Scots were on the point of retiring to a stronger position in the Lennox, when Sir Alexander Seton, secretly deserting the English side--no doubt because he saw that the chances of success were now with the Scots--came to Bruce and told him of the shaken condition of the English army, pledging his head that if Bruce attacked next day, he would win easily, and with little loss (Scala., p. 141). Bruce did attack. Seton was an English partisan in February, 1312 (Bain, iii., No. 245). Later he appears on the Scottish side (ibid., 767, etc.).

210 Lordyngis, etc. For Bruce’s speech, see Appendix B.

255-6 The various readings here show that to the scribes the sense was somewhat obscure. Bruce says that, should the English find them weak, and defeat them, they would have no mercy upon them. Skeat, by reading To in 255, and putting a period after oppynly, misses the point. That happyn and that wyn are hypothetical subjunctives. E and H have altered 256.

290 my brothir Neill. Nigel Bruce. See IV. 61, 176.

302 enveronyt. “The strength of this place shall prevent us being surrounded”--always Bruce’s special fear, his men being few in comparison with the enemy. See note on Bk. XIII. 275.

357 The Inglis men sic abaysing, Tuk. Similarly Gray writes that the English had “sadly lost countenance and were in very low spirits” (etoint de trop mal covyne) from what had taken place (Scala., p. 142). “And from that hour,” says the Lanercost Chronicle, “fear spread among the English and greater boldness among the Scots” (p. 225). The rhetorical John de Trokelowe, however, declares that the English were “exasperated” (exacerbati), and firmly determined to be revenged or vanquished on the morrow (Chronica et Annales, p. 83). The last statement, though it would seem to be only a presumption on the chronicler’s part, may apply to the lords, who, Barbour says, urged on their men to “tak a-mendis.” Barbour, Gray, and the Lanercost writer speak for the general mass, and their agreement establishes the fact.

390 bot he war socht. The English certainly feared a night attack. According to Gray, they passed the night under arms, with their horses bitted (p. 142). In the Vita Edwardi also we read that there was no rest for them, and that they spent a sleepless night. “For they thought the Scots would rather attack by night than await battle in the daytime” (pp. 202-3).

392 Doune in the Kers. The Carse is the low-lying ground along Forth side, on which were the “pools” (see note on Bk. XI. 300), and which was thus in a generally marshy condition. The ancient limits of the Carse proper seem to be indicated in the O.S. map by the names Kerse Patrick, Kerse Mill, and Springkerse, all on the 40-feet level. Eastwards the land sinks towards the Forth; westwards it rises slightly to the 50-feet level at the foot of the ridge on which stands St. Ninian’s. This middle division is called “the dryfield lands” in the Old Stat. Act, xviii., p. 388. Friar Baston also has the name: “The dry land (arrida terra) of Stirling” (see note on XI. 360). The English had to keep to the marshy land of the east in order to be clear of the Scottish leaguer in the Park. They thus crossed the Bannock (see below), and kept the “dryfield land” between them and the Scots. Having crossed, they could advance to the “hard feld” (Barbour) from their front. It is of the first importance to understand that the English did camp here, for, if so, the battle was fought on the strip of level, firm ground separating the armies. Gray corroborates Barbour: “The host of the King ... had arrived on a plain towards the water of Forth, beyond Bannockburn--a bad, deep morass with pools” (ruscelle, Scala., p. 142.). Mr. Lang, seeing the difficulty of reconciling this statement with the site of battle as fixed by him and the other historians, says that Gray, in “beyond Bannockburn” (outre Bannockburn), must mean “south of Bannockburn, taking the point of view of his father, at that hour a captive in Bruce’s camp” (History, i., p. 221). But Gray’s hour of writing was forty years later; and Barbour, who says the same thing, cannot be explained away by supposititious hallucination.

407 quhen it wes day. “About the third hour of the day” (Trokelowe, p. 84). On June 24 the sun rises about 4 a.m.

413 Thai maid knychtis. A usual ceremony before an important battle. Those receiving the honour for distinguished conduct in the field were known as “knights-banneret.” Previously they had been only “bachelors,” for which see Glossary.

421 tuk the playne. Note the reiteration of this expression, and cf. what is said on Bk. XI. 544, and above on 392; also Vita Ed., p. 203: “When he (Bruce) learned that the English battles had occupied the plain (campus), he led out his whole army from the grove” (de nemore).

426 richt as angelis schane brichtly. Probably in reference to the white “surcoats” worn by the knights over their armour (cf. Bk. VIII. 232-35). Baston writes: “The English folk, like Heaven’s folk, in splendour shine” (Anglicolæ, quasi cœlicolæ, splendore nitescunt, Scotich. ed. Goodall, ii., lib. xii., chap. xxii.).

429 a schiltrum. A close-packed body of men of any order or size (see Glossary). Cf. Morte Arthure, line 2, 922: “Owte of the scheltrone they schede (separated themselves), as schepe of a folde”; also several other uses in the same poem. Hemingburgh says that Wallace’s “schiltrouns” at Falkirk were round (qui quidem circuli vocabantur “schiltrouns,” ii., p. 180). Skeat questions this, for philological reasons! (see note here).

448 apon fut. I.e., the Scots left the cover of the wood, and advanced to meet the English chivalry on foot, contrary to all contemporary rules of the art of war. Cf. what is said on Bk. XI. 296. “None of them (the Scots) mounted a horse, but every man of them was protected by light armour such as a sword could not easily penetrate.... They marched close-packed like a thick hedge, and such a body could not be easily broken into” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 203). Also of the Scots: “On their side all were on foot: moreover, chosen men of the highest courage, suitably equipped with very sharp axes and other weapons of war, packing their shields close together in front of them, made the column (cuneum) impenetrable” (Trokelowe, p. 84). The formation, in fact, was that of the famous “shield-wall” of Hastings and other early English battles.

477 Knelyt all doune. So, too, in Chron. de Lanercost: “But when the two armies had come very close all the Scots fell on their knees to say a Paternoster, and committed themselves to God, and asked help from heaven; when they had done this they advanced boldly against the English” (p. 225). This ceremony was directed by Maurice, Abbot of Inchaffray, afterwards Bishop of Dunkeld (Bower, Scotich., lib. xii., ch. xxi.).

488 dout of ded. “Fear of death.”

498 Schir Edward. The author of Vita Edw. says it was commanded by James Douglas, but in this he is wrong (p. 203).

504 frusching of speris, etc. The Lanercost writer, who derived his information, as he himself says, from a trustworthy eyewitness, has a very similar description. The English chargers, he writes, galloped against the Scottish spears as against a thick wood, “whereupon arose an exceeding great and terrible noise from breaking spears and steeds mortally wounded” (p. 225). The Scots, of course, would “stick” the horses, so as to unseat the heavily armoured riders--a serious accident for them (see note on Bk. XI. 598).

519 With speris ... and axis. Of the Scots it is said in Vita Edw.: “They had an axe by the side, and carried spears (lanceas) in their hands” (p. 203). For the “weill grundyn” axes, cf. Trokelowe above, line 448.

535 He held his way. The Scots appear to have attacked with successive battles, each coming up later than, and to the left of, its predecessor--in echelon by the right. So we may infer from Barbour, as well as from the rather obscure description in the Lanercost chronicle: “But they so ordered their army, that two divisions (duæ acies) of it should precede the third, the first on the flank of the second, so that neither should go in front of the other (una ex latere alterius, ita quod neutra aliam præcederet), to be followed by the third, in which was Robert” (p. 225). Gray simply says that the advance guard of the Scots came on in line of schiltrons and engaged the English (Scala., p. 142). Baker alone states that the Scots stood drawn up in solid array behind an artificial “hurdle” covered ditch, and waited the English attack (Chron., p. 56).

537 The nyne battales. Probably, as Mr. Oman suggests (Art of War, p. 574), in the way the French were at Creçy, in three lines of three battles each, the advance guard under Gloucester and Hereford thus forming a separate body (cf. lines 435-7). Mr. Oman gives the tenth, however, to “a reserve under the King” (ibid.). Baker, whose account is the latest and is really a summary essay on tactics, divides the English army into three “wards” (custodias): first, the heavy horsemen, which he tumbles into the “fragile” ditch (see above on 536, and note on Bk. XI. 360); next, the foot with the archers reserved to deal with the enemy in flight (see on Bk. XIII. 51); and, third, the King himself, with the bishops and other “religious” men (Chronic., 56-7).

Book XIII

32 tynt the suet. “Lost their lives.” The phrase in this sense occurs also in the Wallace: “The Scottis on fute gert mony loiss the suete” (The Wallace, Jamieson’s edition, Bk. xii., line 194).

36 slew fire. “Struck out fire.” Also in Wallace, iv. 285: “slew fyr on flint.” Cf. from The Buik of Alexander: “thare dyntis, That kest fyre as man dois flyntis” (p. 236, line 24).

51 the archeris war perelous. Baker says that the archers were not given a suitable position, as in his time, being placed behind the first line instead of on the wings (cf. note on Bk. XII. 537, and below lines 102-5, and note on 104). “Some,” he adds, “shot upwards so that their arrows fell fruitlessly (incassum) on the helmets of their adversaries; those who shot straight wounded a few Scots in the breast, but more English in the back” (Chron., pp. 57-58). At Falkirk (1298), after the failure of the first attack by the horsemen, Edward I. brought up his archers to play on the Scottish masses till these were broken, and then charged and dispersed them. Bruce anticipated this manœuvre, and made provision for it (see note on 98).

61 Robert of Keth. The Kethes or Keiths took their name from the barony of Keith, in Lothian. This Robert was still in the English service on May 23, 1308 (Bain, iii. 44), yet his name appears among those present at Bruce’s Parliament of March 16, 1309, as Robert de Kethe, Marshall (Acts Parl. Scot., i., p. 99). Elsewhere he is said to have joined Bruce at Christmas, 1308 (Bain, No. 245). He received from Bruce the office of Earl Marshall as its holders, one of the branches of the “Mareschals,” were adherents of England, and continued to be (Bain, iii., p. lxviii).

68 at a syde. “On one side,” as in line 163, “in-till a front.” This movement is too vaguely described to be located exactly. Most probably it was to the left of the three “battles” now engaged (English right), on ground presently occupied by Bruce with his own division.

98 nakit. “Without defensive armour,” as in Bk. VII. 330. The two previous lines mean that the Scottish horsemen did not have to stop a stroke or hold against a blow; i.e., the archers offered no resistance. Bruce’s intention, we may gather from lines 58-60, was so to harass the archers on the flank as to occupy them with their own defence and restrain their shooting. The attack, however, was so successfully pushed home that the archers were wholly scattered.

104 thair awne folk had no space. We gather that the archers had taken up a position on the right front of the main body, where they blocked the advance of the horsemen directly behind. These received the flying archers with blows, and pushed forward to take their place. The Lanercost chronicler says the battle began with a skirmish between the opposing archers, and that the Scots archers were driven back. This, again, suggests that the archers were somewhere in front. Mr. Oman follows Baker in placing them behind the first line. See note on 51.

132 on a syde. See above on 68.

162 All four the battelis. The Vita Edw. Sec. (p. 203) and the Chron. de Lanercost (p. 225) divide the Scots into three battles (turmas, acies), the usual medieval arrangement. The latter also gives Robert the rear division, as here.

175 in ane schiltrum all. Gray says that the “battles” of the English were crowded close together (entassez estoint), and could not repeat their attacks upon the Scots (remuerent devers eaux), as their horses were impaled by the pikes (p. 142). In the Lanercost chronicle we read that the English behind (sequentes) “were not able to reach the Scots because of the interposition of the first line, nor in any way to help themselves” (p. 224). The English, indeed, were too many to be manœuvred according to the simple tactics of the day, and were, in addition, crowded on too narrow a front. There was no generalship. These were Bruce’s chief advantages. He was protected by the hill and wood behind from being surrounded (cf. note on Bk. XI. 300). Besides, his rapid and successive advance prevented the English from developing any such intention. They could not well deploy among the “pools” and marshes.

183 quyntis. “Quyntis is merely the French cointises, signifying finery or quaint attire” (Skeat); generally, ornamental attachments to the armour. E reads quhytys, and H coates, so that we may have to do with the “white” surcoats. In viii. 232 Barbour speaks of hauberks “quhit as flour.”

208 the Scottis archeris. The effective part played by the Scottish archers is usually overlooked.

283 quhen the King of England saw his men fle. The English writers make no mention of the appearance of the camp-followers. They date the break-up from the failure of Gloucester’s attack with the van. As those behind, says the Lanercost chronicler, could not get forward (see note on 275), nothing remained but to take measures for flight (pp. 225-6). The front line had fallen back only to add to the confusion (cf. line 170, etc.). “When those who were with the King saw the Earl’s division smashed up (contritum) and their friends making ready to fly, they said it was dangerous to stay longer,” etc. (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 205). Gray says the King went much against his will (as Barbour reports one version in line 298), and that he knocked over with his mace the Scots that were catching at his charger’s housings (Scala., p. 142). Trokelowe affirms that he laid about him “like a lion,” and brandished a sword dripping with blood (Annales, p. 86).

297 By the renyhe. “Those who had been assigned to the King’s rein were drawing the King forward by the rein out of the plain (hors du chaumpe) towards the castle” (Scala., p. 142).

307 I cheis heir to byde and de. In Vita Edw. Sec. it is said he hastened to assist the Earl of Gloucester when he saw him fall, and perished with him, “thinking it more honourable to perish with such a man than to escape death by flight” (p. 204). Cf. also Scala.: “I have never been accustomed to fly” (p. 143).

321 thrid best knycht. See note on Bk. XI. 174. He is highly spoken of by both Baston and the Vita Edw. writer. According to Bruce’s English eulogist in the Scotichronicon, the other two were Bruce himself and the Emperor Henry (lib. xiii., ch. xvi.).

328-9 fra ... the King Wes fled, wes nane that durst abyde. “When the King’s banner is seen to depart the whole army quickly disperses” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 205).

335 Fled to the wattir of Forth. On no hypothesis other than that the battle was fought on the plain between the Forth and the Bannock can this fact be explained. Of the fact itself there is no question. The Lanercost chronicler, in his Versus, says: “Forth swallowed up many well furnished with arms and horses” (p. 227). They were probably seeking for a ford.

337 And Bannokburn. “The folk in the English rear fell back upon the ditch (fosse) of Bannockburn, one tumbling over the other” (Scala., p. 142). “Another unfortunate thing happened to the English, because, since a little before they had crossed a great ditch into which the tide flows--Bannockburn by name--and now in confusion wished to retire, many knights and others, on account of the pressure, fell into it with their horses (cf. Barbour, line 338), and some with great difficulty got out, and many were quite unable to clear themselves of the ditch; and on this account Bannockburn was on English lips for many years to come” (Lanercost, 226). In Vita Edw. also mention is made of a “certain ditch” (fovea) which “swallowed up (absorbuit) many,” and where a great part perished (p. 205). The Bannock turns sharply north near the English rear, but the description in Barbour and the reference above to the tide with the inclusion of the Forth, indicate the part nearer the mouth.

341 laddis, etc. I.e., the camp-followers.

352 Of slyk. In Chron. de Lanercost (p. 226) “Bannock’s mud” (Bannoke limus). Edmund de Malolacu (Mauley), Edward’s steward, met his death “in a certain slimy hollow” (in quodam antro lutoso. Flores Historiarum, iii., p. 159).

363 Philip the Mowbray said. Different interpretations were put upon Mowbray’s action, but the fact and the quite satisfactory reason given by Barbour are borne out by the English chroniclers. “When the King comes to the castle, thinking he will find refuge there, he is repulsed like an enemy; the bridge is drawn up and the gate closed. On this account the keeper of the castle was believed by many to be not unacquainted with treason, and yet he was seen that very day in his armour on the field, as it were ready to fight for the King. However, I neither acquit nor accuse the keeper of treason, but confess that in the providence of God the King of England did not enter the castle, because if he had then been admitted he could not have failed to be captured” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 205). In Gesta Edw. de Carnarvon the Governor is wrongly called Alexander de Mowbray, and the account is: “The foresaid keeper, knowing that his supplies were not sufficient for himself and his men, and also fearing that Robert Bruce, having got the victory, would attack and capture the castle, did not wish to expose his King of England to such great danger, and, preferring to incur misunderstanding, refused on this account to open the castle of the King” (p. 47). The castle was surrendered, and Mowbray entered the service of Bruce.

379 the Rownde Tabill. Usually and quite wrongly identified with the King’s Knot--i.e., garden--a regular mound below the castle rock. It is mentioned by Sir David Lindsay in the sixteenth century. In 1302 Edward I. had a “Round Table” (la table rounde) ordained (ordinari) at Falkirk (Ann. Lond., p. 104). To “hold a Round Table” was a sporting function among knights; here some sort of building may be referred to, like that described by Murimuth (1344), intended to be built for the purpose at Windsor (Chronicle, p. 155). Probably, in that case, it was only of Barbour’s own time. I incline, however, to the belief, from its associations in Lindsay’s verse, that it was a natural feature--the circular crags enclosing the western division of the modern King’s Park. It would thus be a place-name, like “Arthur’s Seat.”

380 the Park enveronyt thai. Gray says the King was taken round the Torwood and by the plains of Lothian (Lownesse, p. 143).

381 held in hy. The Lanercost chronicler says that they had “as guide a Scottish knight who knew by what route they could escape” (p. 227).

409 wes tane in. The Lanercost chronicler writes that Hereford and those with him were making for Carlisle when they were captured at Bothwell Castle: “For the sheriff, the keeper of the castle, who up to that time had held the castle for the King of England, seeing that his countrymen had been victorious in the war, suffered the more noble of them who had come there to enter the castle as if to have a safe retreat, and when they entered seized them,” afterwards surrendering them to Bruce (p. 228). In the anonymous chronicle used by Stevenson we have a similar account. Hereford and a few nobles were allowed to enter the castle, where they found themselves in custody. The rest remained outside the walls, and were suddenly set on by the Scots, who slew them, except a few who surrendered (Illustrations of Scottish History, p. 2). Barbour says three-fourths were taken or slain (416). In Ann. Lond. Hereford is said to have been accompanied by a thousand men-at-arms (p. 231). The Lanercost estimate is 600 horse and 1,000 foot, Umfraville being of the company (ibid.). Walsingham gives the total of earls, barons, and baronets captured and slain as 154; of clerics and squires an excessive number (Historia Angl., i., p. 154). The name of the keeper was Gilbertson as in E; he appears on record as “Fitz-Gilbert” (Bain, iii. No. 243, etc.). He joined Bruce and was the ancestor of the great Hamilton family. Bothwell Castle is on the Clyde.

417 Moris de Berclay. In Vita Edw. (p. 206) he is among those captured at Bothwell. According to the Lanercost historian, it was Pembroke (Valence) who fled “on foot” with the Welshmen, and escaped (p. 228). In Ann. Lond. de Valence is said to have fled nudis pedibus (bare-footed); that is, apparently, he removed his foot and leg armour (p. 230).

456 Thai dispendit haly that day, In spoulyheing. The author of Vita Edw. declares that it was the preoccupation of the Scots with the plunder that allowed many English to escape. In his precise way, he estimates that the valuable equipment which fell to the Scots was worth £200,000 (p. 206), or at the ratio of 1:15 about £3,000,000 present day (cf. note on 667-8).

463 spuris rede. I.e., gilt or gold spurs worn only by knights. The 700 pairs of C would give us 700 knights slain; E’s 200 is probably nearer the truth. In Ann. Lond., (p. 231) we get a list of thirty-seven knights slain at “the battle of Stirling.” Of the foot and squires, it is said, the most part (maxima pars) was not slain. Baker says about 300 men-at-arms (viri militares) were among the slain (57). Bower gives 200 knights slain besides Gloucester (Scotich. Goodall, edition 1759, ii., p. 250). Walsingham, from his MS. source, fixes the number of knights and squires who fell at 700 (Historia Anglicana, p. 141); Capgrave the lords, barons, and knights slain and captured at 154. More than 500 were reported dead who were afterwards found to be captives (Chronicle, p. 180) and had to be ransomed (Vita Edw., p. 206). Fabyan gives forty-two noblemen slain, and sixty-seven knights and baronets, while twelve “men of name” were taken prisoner (New Chronicles, p. 420).

466 Gilbert of Clar. About twenty-three years of age (Ann. Lond., p. 231). He fell in the first charge (Vita Edw.; Baker). Baker says the Scots would have gladly taken him alive for ransom had they known who he was, but that he did not wear his surcoat (toga) with his coat of arms (p. 57). Cf. lines 510-11. That men callit, says Barbour, having in mind Ralph de Monthermer, his step-father who had previously borne the title.

468 Payne Typtot. Paganus Typetot (Vita Edw.) or Tybetot (Ann. Lond.). “Paganus Typetoft,” or “Typetot,” is the name in Chron. de Lanercost.

472 Wilyhame Vepownt. Sir William de Vepont (Veteriponte) was a Scotsman in the service of England till 1312, having been imprisoned on capture during the Comyn resistance in 1302. He was under Valence in Ayr in 1307 (Bain, ii., Nos. 1,283, 1,294; iii., No. 263). Walter the Ros was serving England in Linlithgow in 1312 (Bain, iii., p. 411).

486 at rebours. I.e., treated badly, held “in great dislike” (Skeat). See Glossary. Edward had a son, Alexander, by Isabella of Atholl (Exchq. Rolls, II. cxxxii.).

489-90 Erll Davy of Adell. Lord Hailes did not know “what judgment to form of this story,” in view of the fact that sentence of forfeiture was not passed against Atholl till 1323 (Annales, ii. 58 note). But his lands were forfeited by October, 1314, and granted to Sir Neil Campbell (Robertson’s Index, p. 26; ii. Scots Peerage), and he, then being in England, received three manors from Edward II. “till he recovers his Scottish possessions” (Bain, iii., p. 75). Atholl’s career is, however, puzzling. His wife was Johanna, daughter of the murdered Comyn of Badenoch. Up till 1312 he is a supporter of England, and in December of that year even seems to have sat in the English Parliament. But in the previous October he is among those present in Bruce’s Parliament at Inverness (Acta. Parl. Scot., vol. i., 103); next appears as Constable of Scotland, and, early in 1313, is a witness to charters to the Abbey of Arbroath (Scots Peerage). Then comes a blank till October, 1314, as above. There is thus room for Barbour’s story: Atholl did give a short-lived support to the national cause, and a forfeiture of his lands did follow soon after Bannockburn. He remained an active adherent of England till his death, January, 1327.

495 Wilyhame of Herth. Apparently William Mareschal of Erth (Bain, iii. 343; cf. note on 61). Sir William de Erth was a supporter of Comyn in the Barons’ War, and capitulated with him and others at Strathorde on February 9, 1304 (Bain, ii., No. 1,741). William de Erth, knight, was alive in 1333 (Bain, iii. 1,099). Erth, or Airth, is on the east of Stirlingshire, on the Forth.

510 somdeill anoyit. Cf. note on 466.

512 till a kirk he gert hym be Brocht. John de Trokelowe says that Bruce sent the bodies of Gloucester and Clifford to King Edward while at Berwick, to be buried as he wished, and this without demanding any payment as ransom (Annales, p. 87).

533 Betung in C is certainly wrong; E gives the correct form Twenge. Marmaduke de Twenge appears on the list in Foedera and elsewhere. He was the hero of Stirling Bridge (1297), who cut his way back over the bridge.

531 trete hym curtasly. Trokelowe says that Bruce caused his noble prisoners to be treated so becomingly and courteously (decenter ac civiliter) “that the hearts of many who were opposed to him he turned, in a wonderful way, to feeling an affection for him” (Annales, p. 87).

544 become of his dwelling. “Became one of his company,” as in Bk. IV. 481, where Bruce says of Douglas and his men in Arran: “Thai ar all of my duelling.”

553 Lowrens = Lawrence. Probably the same Sir Lawrence de Abernethy who in 1338 had provisions sent him by Edward III. for the Castle of Hawthornden. He was thus “Inglis man” again (Bain, iii., p. 235, No. 1,291).

578-85 He convoyit thame so narrowly, etc. “Some, however, lagging in the flight, were slain by the Scots, who followed them swiftly (velociter)” (Chron. de Lanercost, p. 227). “The King escaped with great trouble” (a graunt payn, Scala., p. 143).

587 Wynchburch. On the road from Linlithgow to Edinburgh.

592 so feill. According to the Lanercost historian, the King was accompanied by many knights and footmen (p. 227).

612 Erll Patrik. Of March. See note on Bk. XI. 46. “Patrick Earl of March received him honourably, etc., for at that time he was his man” (soun homager. Scala., 143.).

615-16 A bate, etc. “When he came thither (Dunbar) he embarked on a ship, and with his own company put in at Berwick” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 205). “Thence the King went by sea to Berwick and afterwards to the south” (Scala., 143). “At Dunbar the King, with his special friends, embarked on a boat (scapham) for Berwick” (Lanercost, p. 227). Barbour says they landed at Bamborough on the coast of Yorkshire, and in line 645 gives the number who thus accompanied the King as seventeen.

619-21 The laiff, etc. “The others (see above), not having a ship, come (to Berwick) by land” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 205). The King, says the Lanercost writer, left all the others to their fate, who, however, came safe and sound to England (p. 228).

631 The Kyng eschapit. According to Baker, “no mortal ingenuity, neither the swiftness of the horses nor the cover on the way (involucra locorum) could have kept the King from capture by the Scots,” had not Christ Himself, at the intercession of His Mother, brought him out of Scottish territory, as both the King and his companions afterwards confessed. In his peril Edward vowed to found a monastery dedicated to the “Mother of God,” where twenty-four friars might study theology (Baker, p. 58); and, in fulfilment thereof, established Oriel College at Oxford (Hailes, ii. 57 note).

667-8 The castell and the towrys ... doune gert he myne. Stirling Castle thus lay in ruins till 1336-7, when it was rebuilt for Edward III. “after the conquest,” probably on the old plan. Stone walls and towers were erected, a “peel” of wood, to the north the walls (parietes) of which were plastered over, and various inner buildings for the garrison, etc., also of wood daubed with mortar and roofed with turf (Bain, iii., pp. 364-8). The rebuilding and repairs cost £280, equal to about £4,000 now (Bain, lviii.).

676 he gaf. See note on 409.

687 The Erll wes changit. In Vita Edw. Sec. (pp. 208-9) is recorded the exchange of the Earl for the wife of Bruce and other Scottish captives, including the Bishop of Glasgow. On October 2, 1314, “Robert, Bishop of Glasgow, the Countess Carrick, wife of Robert de Brus, with his sister and daughter and Donald de Mar,” were at Carlisle Castle, “to be taken thence to a place arranged by the Earl of Essex and Hereford and the Sheriff” (Bain, iii., No. 393). Mar is, no doubt, the “young earl” referred to in the Vita Edw., which says further that Edward gave to his sister, Hereford’s wife, all the Scottish captives since the time of Edward I.--fifteen and more--to procure the release of her husband (p. 208).

695 wes King. Robert II.

697 Davy. David II. (June 7, 1329 to February 22, 1371). He scarcely deserved Barbour’s epithet “worthy.”

702 Fif yheir. In 1375 Robert was in the fifth year of his reign; he would not have “passit” it till February 22, 1376. He was born March 2, 1316, and in 1375 was in his sixtieth year. The year in Scotland, however, began on March 25, so that Barbour’s cross-dating really stands for what we should call the early spring of 1376. He was then engaged on The Bruce.

705-6 the gud King Robert. I.e., Robert I. the Bruce, dead forty-six years. It is curious to find this elaborate dating “of the compyling of this book” here, and not at the end. Evidently the mention of the marriage of the Steward, the reigning King’s father, is Barbour’s cue. There is no reason to suppose that this was a subsequent insertion, and we may conclude that the poem was completed somewhat later.

736 our-raid all Northumbirland. “They (the Scots) plundered the northern bounds of England as far as Richmond and returned, devastating the country with fire and carrying off with them many captives” (Gesta Edwardi, p. 47). Cf. Barbour, lines following. On July 1, 1314, the Bishop of Durham writes the King regarding Scottish preparations for an invasion of England, of which he has heard. On October 7, 1314, the Prior and Convent of Durham pay the Earl of Murray eight hundred marks to secure the bishopric immunity from invasion for a stated period (Letters from Northern Registers, Nos. cxliv., cxlix.). According to the Lanercost chronicler, the Scots entered by Berwick, and burned almost all Northumberland, spared Durham for a monetary consideration, penetrated to the Tees and to Richmond, and returned, via Lanercost, with a great body of cattle and captives (pp. 228, 229).

Book XIV

4 Scotland to litill wes. According to the Annalist, it was the Scots who were not satisfied with their own country; but this is merely a rhetorical comment (Annals of Ireland, p. 344). The anonymous Chronicle in Stevenson’s Illustrations says that Edward Bruce, elated by the success of the Scots, aspired to the name of King (ad nomen regium aspirans, p. 3). Fordun’s version is the same as that of Barbour: “Edward Bruce was not willing to live in peace with his brother unless he got half the kingdom for himself, and for this reason the war was started in Ireland” (Gesta Annalia, cxxxiii.).

8 had treting With the Erischry. It was afterwards (1316-17) made a charge against Walter de Lacy and Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, that they had sent messengers and letters to invite Edward Bruce to Ireland. The legal documents in the case are given in Chartularies, etc., of St. Mary’s Abbey (vol. ii., pp. 407-9). This charge is also noted in the Annals of Ireland (Fragment), under February 2, 1317, where it is said that, on inquiry, the Lacys were acquitted (p. 298). Nevertheless, they and their relatives were fined £200 (Preface, p. cxxix). The Chronicle in Stevenson appears to refer to the same case, when it says that Edward Bruce was persistently (sæpissime) invited by a certain Irish magnate with whom he had been educated in his youth (p. 3).

21 Maii. “The Scots first entered Ireland on May 26, 1315” (die Sancti Augustini Anglorum, mense Maii. Annals of Ireland, p. 344). The Annals of Ulster fix his landing at the beginning of the year (ii., p. 423); as do also Annals of Loch Cé (i., p. 563). Edward Bruce had a fleet of 300 ships (Annals of Clonmacnoise, p. 268).

25 Philip the Mowbray. Cf. Bk. XIII., line 544. Mowbray’s name does not appear in the Annals as accompanying Edward Bruce, nor that of Soulis or Ramsay, but others are mentioned (p. 344). Mowbray is mentioned later (Annals, Fragment, p. 299), and in Knighton, i., p. 411.

28 Schir Johne Steward. Brother of Sir Walter Steward. See Bk. XVIII. 33 (Annals, 344).

29 Ouchtirhouss, or Auchterhouse, is in the south of Forfarshire. From the Wallace we learn that this was Alexander Ramsay, son of Sir John Ramsay Wallace’s friend.

“His sone was called the flour of courtlyness; As witnes weill in to the schort tretty Eftir the Bruce, quha redis in that story.”

(The Wallace, Bk. vii. 900-2.)

31 Fergus de Ardrossane. Ardrossan is on the coast of Ayr. Fergus had at first joined Bruce, was captured, and procured his release by going over to Edward II., from whom he in 1312 received the “barony of Bisshoplande,” near Kirkintilloch (Bain, iii., Nos. 51, 227, 265). Probably he reverted to Bruce after Bannockburn. He is among those mentioned in the Annals (p. 344). He received a fresh grant of the lands of Ardrossan and others apparently in 1316 (Reg. Mag. Sig., pp. 10, 51).

33 Wokingis Firth. This name is evidently corrupt. Innes identifies it with Larne Lough, and so also do Bain and Skeat, citing from Reeves (Eccles. History of Down and Connor) forms such as Wolderfrith, etc., and the present Olderfleet Castle on that Lough (Bain, iii. xxxiv, note). In a letter of Edward II., 1311, we have “Wolrikesford, near Knacfergus (Carrickfergus), in Ulster,” whence a fleet is to sail against Robert Bruce (Bain, iii., No. 216). In 1327 King Robert is to get corn from the Ulster men delivered at “Ulringfirth” (ibid., 922). The Annals say, first, that the Scots put it at “Clondonne,” or Glen Dun, in Antrim, south of Torr Head, the nearest point (eighteen miles) to the Scottish coast, and, immediately after, that they entered Ireland “near Cragfergus, in Ulster” (p. 344). Robert Bruce was at “Glendouyne” when he executed the agreement mentioned above. Probably the Scots touched at Glendun, and then coasted down to Larne Lough.

38 sex thousand men. Six thousand is the number in the Annals (p. 344).

47 Maundvell. The Scots “drove out Sir Thomas de Maundevile and other loyal men from their own land” (Annals of Ireland, p. 344). The Bysets were descended from John Byset, who was banished from Scotland by Alexander II., and who got land in Antrim under the de Burghs. The Logans were large proprietors in the north of Ireland (Reeves’s Down and Connor in Innes), as also were the Savages (ibid.). John Logan and Sir Hugh Byset are the heroes of a great slaughter of the Scots in Ulster on November 1, 1316 (Annals, Fragment, p. 298). Sir Hugh afterwards joined the Scots (Bain, iii., No. 632).

80 In that battale. Near the river Bann (Annals, 344). “tane or slane.”--The Earl of Ulster, Richard de Burgh, was put to flight; his son, William de Burgh, and John de Statona were captured, and many English slain. The Scots were successful (Annals, pp. 344-5).

102 the kyngis. Reguli, petty kings or important chiefs, a usual Gaelic equivalent. Cf. Bk. XVIII. 9 and note.

105 Makfulchiane (C), Makgullane, Makgoulchane (H). Jamieson says Irish Macleans (MacGillian); Innes suggests MacCoolechan: “MacEthelan” is among the chiefs in Foedera (iii., p. 476). Most likely we have to do with O’Fuillchain in the form MacFuillchain, from which, by MacFhuillchain, could also come MacGuillchain, as in H.

106 Makartane, Makmartane (C), Macarthane (H). “Macartan” was one of “the septs of Ire, son of Miletus” (Annals of Clonmacnoise, p. 30).

113 Endwillane. Innes suggests “the Pass of Emerdullam” (1343), which he identifies with Moiry Pass, where Moiry Castle is about a quarter of a mile from Kilnsaggart, or Kilsaggart. Apparently this is Moiry Castle, north of Dundalk.

133 At Kilsaggart. Kilnasaggart (“cell of the priest”), about a quarter of a mile from Moiry Castle; for which see on Bk. XVI. 62.

135 Dundawk. Dundalk, within the English Pale. For spelling, cf. in XI. 437 and Appendix G.

138 Richard of Clare. Barbour has been censured by his editors, following the cue of Lord Hailes (Annals, ii. 70, note), for the prominence given to Richard de Clare in the opposition to the Scots. True, as Hailes pointed out and reasons from, he was not the Justiciar of Ireland, a post occupied at this time by Sir Edmund de Butler (Historic and Munic. Docts., Ireland, p. 328); after November 23, 1316, by Roger de Mortimer (Patent Rolls); and so was not technically “in all Irland luf-tenand.” Nevertheless it is perfectly certain that Clare took the leading part, at this stage at least, in the defence of English interests, and that Barbour’s statement to this extent is justified. Thus, in a letter to Edward of February 15, 1316, it is mentioned, with respect to the operations of the Scots, that the writer, to protect the King’s honour, will take counsel with certain lords and Richard de Clare, a reference which Bain (Index) interprets to mean that Clare was in command in Ireland. The writer, too, thinks it worth mentioning that Clare was not at the battle (of Arscoll). Again, on May 16, Clare is pardoned an ancestral debt for his great labour and cost repelling the disturbance stirred up in Ireland by the Scottish enemies” (Bain, iii., Nos. 469, 488; Patent Rolls, p. 459). And there is a further grant of same date to de Clare, “in consideration of his great labours as above,” of certain privileges, castles, and lands, “to hold during pleasure, and the continuance of the disturbance by the Scots, in aid of his maintenance on the King’s service” (Patent Rolls, p. 459).

142 Erll of Kyldare. The Geraldines, or Fitz-Geralds, had been Earls of Kildare since 1294 (Annals of Ireland, p. 323 and Index).

143 The Bremayne with the Wardune. This pair appear in later operations as “Richard de Birmingham” and “Robert de Verdon” (Annals, p. 350). But on May 18, 1316, Nicholas de Verdun gets 200 marks for losses sustained against the Scots (Patent Rolls).

145 The Butler. Edmund de Butler, Justiciary (cf. on 138).

146 Moris le Fyss Thomas. Maurice Fitz-Thomas, who married, in 1312, the daughter of the Earl of Ulster, and afterwards (1329) was created Earl of Desmond (Annals, p. 341).

172 on the morn. June 29, 1315 (Annals, p. 345).

188 Half-deill ane dyner. In the Alexander Clarus says of the army of Alexander:

“And thay ar anely till dynare To our great hoste” (pp. 308-9).

224-6 “The Scots took the town, spoiled and burned, and slew all who resisted” (Annals, 344).

252 Kilross. “(Cill-rois of Adamnan) is now Maghross, or Carrickmacross” (Innes).

254 Richard of Clare. According to the Annals, Edmund de Butler (p. 345).

257 A gret hoost. “A great army”; and Richard de Burgh with “an innumerable army” as well. They came together to the district of Dundalk (p. 345).

270 to ges. Barbour usually “guesses” ten thousand to “a battle,” as here and elsewhere.

280 gadering of the cuntre. I.e., “mere countrymen not skilled soldiers.” This great army was raised from Munster, Leinster, and Connaught (Annals, p. 345), and Edward Bruce’s description is no doubt right.

289 stedis trappit. See note on Bk. XI. 130.

300 fled scalit. “They fled--how is unknown” (Annals, p. 345). The date is circa July 22, 1315.

313 Judas Machabeus. See note on Bk. I. 466.

329 Odymsy. “Fyn O’Dymsy” among those summoned to Bannockburn (Foedera, iii. 476). O’Dempsy was “dux Reganorum,” or chief of the Ui’ Riagain; Iregan in Queen’s County (Annals, p. 333). In the Annals of Clonmacnoise Bruce is taken north “by the procurement of O’Neal and Ulstermen” (p. 269).

332 To se his land. I.e., in Leinster. He, of course, takes them out of the way (cf. on 360).

337 A gret revar. Skeat holds that this is the Blackwater flowing into the southern end of Lough Neagh, which was the boundary between the English Pale and the independent country of the Tyrone O’Neils, and was of old known as the Avon More, “the great river.” But this is inconsistent with lines 369-371, where one of the rivers is the northern Bann, “ane arme of se,” and Skeat’s ingenious explanation of the latter phrase, taking sea = Lough, Beg or Neagh, is quite superfluous. In fact, he is astray as to vital details, as witness what is said on Thomas Dun (line 376). Barbour himself is unsatisfactorily vague in his geographical matter, and none of the Annals makes any mention of the trick here descanted upon, nor of the intervention of the pirate Thomas. But the main features can be found in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, pp. 269-271, and Annals of Loch Cé, 265-7. The Scots and the Ulster men (Antrim and Down) were at Innis Kaeyne (Innishkeen), seven miles west of Dundalk. The English marched to Louth, just south of them. The Scots retired through Ulster (Antrim and Down), not, as Skeat suggests, by the west shore of Lough Neagh, until they came to Coleraine, not far from the Bann estuary. Then they crossed the river by the bridge, which they broke down so that the English who followed them could not cross, and the Bann lay between the two armies. Thereupon the English plundered on the Ulster side, apparently among the sympathizers with the Scots, finally retreating to Connor (cf. lines 396, 460). In the interval must have occurred the attempted drowning out of the Scots and the passage back over the river by means of Thomas of Dun, who had sailed up the estuary of the Bann (line 371).

354 The ysche of a louch. “The outlet of a loch”; from the hurried nature of the operation necessarily a small loch or a narrow outlet; possibly, too, a loch since drained off. It cannot be Lough Beg, for that would be too far away for Thomas Dun. On the other hand, they must have been brought some distance up the west side of the Bann, for after they had crossed it was still not known where they were (line 386), and they soon got in touch with the English, who were ten miles from Connor, to which they afterwards retreated (460).

360 With mekill payne. To add to the difficulties of this passage, the misleading of the Scots seems to be claimed for the Lacys in the case regarding them (see on line 8). The Lacys explain that on the occasion on which they had a conference (parliamentaverunt) with Edward Bruce they, by their cunning (per eorum cautelam), led Edward Bruce with his army among the Irish who were felons to the King--that is, apparently, the North Ulster men (see on 337). Among them Edward Bruce marched for fourteen days, and lost a great number of men and horses on the march towards Leinster, to which he could have come in two days if he had been rightly directed (Chartularies of St. Mary’s, I., p. 408). It is scarcely likely that Edward Bruce was twice tricked in this way, and the Irishman, Dempsy or another, may have been the agent of the Lacys. But to be able to follow the whole operation we should require much more information than is available.

373 Ullister. Ulster in the ancient sense of Antrim and Down.

376 Thomas of Dun. Skeat compiles an hypothetical biography for this “scummar of the se,” but Thomas was an uncomfortably well-known personage. He was the most notorious pirate on the west coast, as John Crab was on the east (see Bk. XVII. 239). We learn from Bain’s Calendar that on September 12, 1315, Thomas Dun and others, “with a great ‘navye’ of Scots,” plundered a ship in Holyhead Harbour (No. 451). He kept on his depredations with a crew of Scots (No. 549; Patent Rolls, i., p. 696). He was captured in July, 1317, and gave information about an intended attack by the Earl of Moray on the Isle of Man (No. 562). Thereafter he disappears from notice, probably via the gallows. He was hovering about between Ulster and Scotland at this time, and Edward was ordering the Mayor and bailiffs of Drogheda to chase him (Hist. and Munic. Docts., Ireland, p. 377).

380 Thai knew him weill. See previous note.

382 According to the Annals, Edward Bruce cautiously or cleverly (caute) crossed the Bann in pursuit of the English army, retiring to Connor (Annals, p. 346).

383 in biggit land. “Land with houses on it”--i.e., cultivated.

389 With a gret host, Richarde of Clar. In the Annals it is the Earl of Ulster (Richard de Burgh), with the Justiciar (Butler) and other magnates, who had undertaken to bring Edward Bruce to Dublin alive or dead. So, too, in Annals of Clonmacnoise and of Loch Cé it is De Burgh, the “Red Earl.”

394 Coigneris. Connor, to the north of the town of Antrim. “Conyers” in Annals.

405 Alane Stewart. Cousin of Walter Stewart, and ancestor of the Darnley Stewarts, Earls of Lennox. He is mentioned later in the Annals among the Scottish leaders (p. 359).

406 Schir Robert Boyde. Both E and H read Robert, probably correctly, as there is no notice of the Gilbert of C.

447 On this wis. This, or one of the later skirmishes, must be that referred to in the Annals when the Earl and some of his side were put to flight, and several captured (p. 359).

460 Thair wayis towart Coigneris. After Edward Bruce crossed the Bann the English army withdrew to Connor (Annals, p. 359).

515 Fize Warin. No doubt the Alan FitzWarin captured later by the Scots (Annals, 349). See on xv. 75.

522 Nycholl of Kylkenane. Kilkenane was before the Reformation a parish in Island Magee, the outer limb of Larne Lough (Innes). A “Michael of Kylkenan” is on record in 1310 (Reeves, History of Down, etc., ibid.). Hart’s edition here gives Michell, which is perhaps the correct reading.

Book XV

8 In battale. The date of the English defeat at Connor is on or shortly after September 10, 1315. The Annals are not clear on the point, and the capture of William de Burgh on the 10th seems to refer to one of the earlier skirmishes mentioned in the previous book (Annals, p. 346).

39 The barell-ferraris. See Glossary. Cf. “Barell-ferrers they brochede, and broghte them the wyne” (Morte Arthure, line 2714).

56 Quha mast, etc. “Who most would get the upper hand.”

63 That evir durst, etc. “No one dared to wait for his comrade.”

75 Fizwarine. The Annals suggest that he was not captured till early in the following year, and he is not mentioned among the captives at “Conyers” (pp. 349, 346).

83 Mont-peleris. Apparently Montpelier, then famous for its School of Medicine, an Arab foundation.

98 Syne thidder. The account in the Annals states that “Baron de Donull” made head against the Scots, but that they chased his men boldly as far as “Cragfergus” (p. 346). The castle had been provisioned against the Scots (Bain, iii., No. 479).

100 Palmesonday. April 4, 1316. The garrison was suffering great privations from lack of food (Annals, Fragment, p. 297).

101 Tysday. Tuesday in Easter-week, 1316, was April 13.

105 Paske evin. Saturday night, April 10.

107 Devilling. Dublin. According to the Annals, Maundeville came with men from Drogheda, arriving at Carrickfergus on April 8, and inflicting a defeat upon the Scots, who lost about thirty men (p. 350).

111 The Mawndvell, ald Schir Thomas. So also in Annals (p. 350).

131 the day. April 11. The Annals place this (the second) attack on the Scots upon Easter-eve, April 10 (in vigilia Pasche., p. 350). Similarly St. Mary’s Annals, p. 282. Nothing is said about a breach of truce. Barbour, however, gives evidence of having been thoroughly well informed. See below on 205-9.

137 the Kyng. I.e., Edward Bruce, apparently not crowned King till some weeks later, May, 1316, “a little after the feast of Philip and James” (May 1). The Annals really seem to fix it in 1315 (p. 345), but they have already stated that Edward did not land till May 26. The chronology is confused (cf. on Bk. xiv. 21). See also line 161.

181 Gib Harpar. Probably Gilbert the Harper, or minstrel. His fate is told in Bk. XVIII.

183 of his stat. These words suggest that he was of some special class.

192 reft the liff. Sir Thomas Maundeville was slain (Annals, p. 350; St. Mary’s Annals, p. 282).

205-9 Skeat evidently thinks that these lines refer to the same incident as that described above in lines 190-2, and actually prints in his rubric “as I said” as a summary of Barbour, though Barbour has nothing to suggest these words. But the person previously slain is “the Mawndvell”--i.e., Sir Thomas himself, whom Barbour has already so denominated (111). The present victim is a Maundeville whose “propir nayme” he does not know, but who, we learn from St Mary’s Annals, was “John Maundevyll,” brother of Sir Thomas (p. 282).

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.

329 the nethir end of Tevydaill, etc. Teviotdale, locally so pronounced. The forayers went as far as “within two leagues (miles) of Melros Abbey” (Bain, 477). The Merse is South Berwickshire, the “March,” or frontier.

333 Schir Adam of Gordoun. See note on Bk. XI. 46. He became a “Scottis man” apparently after Bannockburn. His lands of Gordon were in East Lothian.

335 drif away thar fe. “They took many prisoners and cattle” (Bain, 470).

*337-*338. These lines mean that Gordon saw only small bodies (“scaill”; cf. line 344*) of the English in retreat, and the “swains” in possession of the prey--i.e., driving the cattle. Cf. lines *353-*354 and 339-341. “Scaill” is a noun here as in *353.

*354 a childrome. The scattered bands assembled in one body to deal with the Scots in pursuit, and sent on the cattle in front. For “childrome,” or “schiltrome,” see note on Bk. XII. 249.

341 made a staill. “Staill” is certainly to be preferred to “scaill,” which is contrary to the sense of the passage. Skeat, in his note, admits as much. Cf. similar use in Bk. XVII. 97. The forayers “made a stand” to defend the cattle from the Scots. The fight was at Scaithmoor. (Scala., p. 143).

351 on his luf, etc. “Let each man think on his love.”

375-6 thai wer, etc. “Though the English were very many more than the Scots.” Barbour’s usual reckless use of “thai.”

377 wes ded. The writer in Bain did not know whether Caillou was dead or only a prisoner (No. 470).

381 sum has slayne. The foragers lost 20 men-at-arms and 60 foot, killed or prisoners (Bain, No. 470). “The Gascons were slain to a man” (furount mors toutes playnes de Gascoins. Scala., p. 143). The Scots, of course, recovered the castle, and the Berwick garrison were soon dying of hunger on the walls (ibid., No. 477).

392 hap him fell. “If it so happened.”

393 That. I.e., the killing of the “cheftune,” or leader of his opponents.

405 full gret invy. Neville appears to have had a weakness in this way. He had already slain a cousin of Robert Bruce in a quarrel as to which was the greater lord (Scala., p. 143). He was known as “the Peacock of the North,” which significantly describes him (Bain, iii., p. xxv).

435 Befor Berwyk. The fight between Douglas and Neville took place at Berwick (Scala., p. 143; Gesta Edw. de Carn., p. 56). The Gesta dates it June, 1319; Barbour seems to place it in 1316, but says nothing definite; nor does Gray, “another time” (Scala., p. 143), introducing it, like Barbour, after the Skaithmoor fight, but unlike Barbour, also after Lintalee.

477 no mycht till us. “Douglas with his yeomanry shall have no power compared with ours.”

503 Schir Ralf the Nevell, etc. There is on record a petition by “Rauf de Neville” to the King asking for assistance in ransoming himself, and explaining that he, with two of his brothers, was taken prisoner on the day on which his brother Sir Robert was killed by the Scots (Bain, iii., No. 527).

504 the Baroun of Hiltoun. Apparently Sir Robert de Hilton, who is a witness in 1310 to a grant by the Bishop of Durham of a manor in Scotland (Bain, iii., No. 1147). Hilton is near Berwick.

505 othir of mekill mycht. “Many of his (Neville’s) company were captured, and the rest put to flight” (Gesta, p. 56). Cf. line 510.

Book XVI

8 in Scotland for till pas. Barbour, as he himself explains, now goes back to the beginning of the siege of Carrickfergus after the victory at Connor. According to the Annals of Ir., Moray crossed to Scotland on September 15, 1315, to procure more soldiers, “at which time the said Bruce was besieging the Castle of Carrickfergus” (p. 346). Moray was back in November with five hundred men (p. 347). Barbour mentions but one trip on which he returned with King Robert (line 43), but that would have to be a year later. Further, he dates this journey after the fall of Carrickfergus (see on 38).

16 till his schippes. He had four pirate vessels laden with Irish plunder, of which one was sunk (Annals of Ir., p. 346). The Scots had sent back their own ships (Bk. xiv. 35).

38 Till Cragfergus. According to Barbour’s chronology, Robert Bruce crossed to Ireland at some time after the fall of Carrickfergus, as related in the previous book. But the news of King Robert’s arrival appears to have reached Dublin about the first week in September, 1316. Carrickfergus fell some time later in the same month (Frag., p. 297). The Annals of Ulster date the arrival about the end of 1316 or beginning of 1317 (II., p. 429, and note). The Annals of Clonmacnoise (p. 279) and the Annals of the Four Masters (III., p. 515) place it in 1317, by which time Carrickfergus, of course, was in possession of the Scots.

62 Inderwillane. “Dr. Reeves believes this to be an old garbled name for that pass, known later as Bealach an Maghre, or Moyry Pass. It was on the old road; indeed, the only possible one, from Leinster to Ulster. It is in the parish of Killevy, county of Armagh, but only a few perches from the boundary of Lowth” (Innes).

63 the moneth of May. Must have been much earlier (see on 262).

74 The wardane thair. See on Bk. XIV. 638.

119 Schyr Colyne Cammell. Sir Colin Campbell, Bruce’s nephew, as son of his sister Marie by her marriage with Sir Neil Campbell (Robertson’s Index, p. 26; 11, 18). Bain strangely says that of Sir Neil’s two wives on record neither was a Bruce (Calend., ii., lix). Marie’s marriages are somewhat ravelled (see on Bk. viii. 397), but this one is certain. Colin got the grant of Lochaw (Robertson, ibid.). There was another nephew of the same marriage, John (Index, p. 19; 105), who also went on this occasion to Ireland (Annals, p. 344).

131 That he dynnit on his arsoune. “Knocked heavily against his saddle.” Cf. Alexander, where Gaudifer is struck with spears. “Quhill on his arsoune dintit he” (p. 99).

132 tyt hym doune. “The King bade (the others) remove him quickly from his horse,” apparently because his horse was killed (line 126) and he stunned; or, as Skeat suggests, that he should fight on foot, instead, I suppose, of being rash on horseback.

141 That we sall have, etc. “That we shall have plenty to do presently.”

150 In four battellis, fourty thousand. Cf. on Bk. XIV. 270. The numbers, of course, are improbable; but see next note.

179 So hard ane fichting. This battle I cannot trace in the Annals, but Butler, the Justiciary, is said to have assembled an army of 30,000 against the Bruces, which did nothing; not, however, till April (Fragment, p. 301).

182 thre yheir. Spring, 1315, to October, 1318.

185 trappit horse. See note on Bk. XI. 130.

187 quhen lest wes he. “He was always at the very least one to five.”

262 forrouth Devillyn. The Scots and the Ulster men were at Swords, eight miles north of Dublin (Hist. and Municip. Docts., p. 451); at Castleknock in the immediate neighbourhood on the west (St. Mary’s Annals, p. 282; Fragment, 299), on the eve of St. Matthew’s Day, February 23, 1317 (Fragment). They moved to a position in the vicinity, where they stayed for four days, burned a part of the town, and spoiled the churches (ibid.).

265 Lunyk. Correctly Limerick, which is not, however, the “southmast toune” in Ireland. The Scots came to Limerick, but were defeated at Castle Connell (Annals, p. 353).

293 Northwarde agane. On May 1, 1317, Bruce took the road to Ulster (Fragment, p. 302).

295 Conage. Connaught; Myth, Meath; Irell, i.e., Uriel or Oriel = Louth, Armagh and Monaghan; Munser, Munster; Lainenser, Leinster. Limerick is, of course, in Munster, which should come first.

301 The kyngis. See note on Bk. XIV. 102.

336 hawch of Lyntoun-le. A “haugh” is low-lying level ground, generally beside water, river, or sea. “Lentalee, in the forest of Jedworth” (Jedburgh), as Gray has it, is about two miles south of that town. Gray groups this incident, as Barbour does, with the Scaithmoor and Berwick fights, but in a different position (see note on Bk. XV. 435; and Scala., p. 143). “Lentelee” in Stevenson (Illustrations, p. 3). “Near Jeddeworth” is the location of the “foray” in Bain (iii., No. 576).

337 a fayr maner. The anonymous chronicler in Stevenson says that Douglas was passing the time (moram traxit) in a sort of fortification (municioni quadam) with 200 men (Illustrations, p. 3).

339 gert purvay him richt weill. The English found “much victuals” in the place (Stevenson, p. 3).

342 wonnand then. The date of the fight is about April 23, 1317 (Stevenson, p. 3).

343 Schir Thomas. Sir Thomas Richmond was not an earl, but a Yorkshire knight, owner of Burton-Constable, and a well-known figure on the Border (Bain, iii., p. xxv, No. 178). The “Earl” in command was the Earl of Arundel, appointed guardian of the district between the Trent and Roxburgh on February 2, 1317 (Rotuli Scotiæ, i. 169; Illustrations, p. 3). “Sir Edmund, Earl of Arundel, warden of the March” (Bain, iii., No. 576).

352 War passit than of the cuntre. That is, King Robert and many with him were in Ireland. So, too, in Stevenson: “The leaders of the Scots being then engaged in war in Ireland, and Scotland being almost destitute of men” (Illustrations, p. 3).

354-55 the cuntre was Febill of men. Cf. previous note.

357 of the marchis. But cf. note on 343.

360 ten thousand men. In Stevenson’s chronicler “thirty thousand men” (Illust., p. 3). Officially it was called “a foray” (Bain, iii., No. 576). The English exaggeration is worse than Barbour’s.

363 Till hewe doune Jedward forest. Since the time of the Romans and the disastrous march of Septimius Severus (third century) the forests of Scotland had been recognized as the natural defences of the country. They are, for the most part, the “strengths” which figure so prominently in Barbour. See on Jedward, Bk. VIII. 427.

375 And of archeris a gret menyhe. Cf. note on 377.

380 The entre. As in the wood of the King’s Park (Bk. XI. 446).

383 a penny-stane cast. A “penny-stane” was a flat stone used as a quoit, hence “as wide only as the throw of a quoit.”

384 Douglas thiddir yheid. “Douglas abandoned his position and retired” (Illustrations, p. 3).

406 on thame schot thai. In Stevenson this, the main attack, follows the surprise at Lintalee (p. 4).

418 reft the liff. Richmond was slain (Scala., p. 143; Stevenson, p. 4).

419 Ane hat. Hailes notes that “In Histoire de Bretagne par Lobineau, t. i., p. 665, there is a portrait of Arthur de Richemont, Duke of Brittany, with a furred hat, such as is described by Barbour” (Annals, ii., p. 82 note). Richmond was identified by the hat on the word of a prisoner. See lines 480-5.

441 ane clerk, Elys. “A clerk called Helias” (Stevenson, p. 3). Stevenson says he was a “noble ‘schavaldur.’” See on this Bk. V. 205 (note).

442 thre hundreth enymys. “With thirty comrades” (Stevenson, p. 3).

444 herbery had tane. Ellis and his companions occupied Douglas’s house, and took their fill (se saciavit) of the victuals there (Stevenson, ibid.).

450-1 with suerdis.... Thai servit thame. They despatched them with the sword (reliquos gladio jugulavit. Stevenson, p. 4). The head of Ellis was cut off, and placed in a humiliating position beside the body (ibid.).

458 “That addition to the repast was overmuch.”

472 Till wend hamward. “The said Earl (Arundel) retreated southwards without doing more” (Scala., p. 143).

504 forrouth. Before, in Bk. IX. 570-630.

509 Schir Johne de Sowlis. Cf. Bk. XIV. 25, and note.

512-4 With fifty men, etc. I.e., Soulis had the fifty, Harcla the three hundred.

518 Schir Androu ... has tane. Harcla was a prisoner with the Scots at some date in November, 1316, when he asks the King of England for help towards his ransom (Bain, iii. 514, 515, 697). He was ransomed with difficulty (Scala., p. 149). He was executed in 1323 for treasonable dealings with the Scots.

549 besyde Enverkethyne. Inverkeithing, Fife. Near Donibristle, says Fordun’s continuator, showing that here he follows another source than Barbour (Scotic., Bk. xii., chap. xxv.).

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).

17 That capitane was. Roger de Horslee, Keeper of the Castle (Bain, iii., No. 607). He had been appointed, August 19, 1317, to command the castle when the city was committed to the burgesses (Stevenson, p. 5; Rot. Scot., i., p. 175). Cf. on 224.

19 tretit thame richt ill. On February 4, 1318, Edward appointed a commission of three to “inquire into the disputes arisen, or likely to arise, between the burgesses and the garrison of Berwick, to the danger of the town” (Bain, iii., No. 589). Cf. note on 15.

23 a burges, Sim of Spaldyng. “Peter de Spalding” in Scala., p. 144; Lanerc., p. 234; Illustr., p. 5; Trokelowe, p. 103, etc. The Annales Paulini adds John Drory and other accomplices (p. 282). “Peter de Spalding” is on the roll of the garrison of Berwick in 1312 (Bain, iii., p. 399). He was an Englishman living in the town, and received a large sum of money in addition to the promise of lands (Lanercost, pp. 234-235). “A royal sergeant retained by the citizens in the defence of the town.” Douglas, it was said, “corrupted” him with promises of £800 (Stevenson, p. 5). Spalding’s request for his money was “obnoxious” to the Scots, and he was put to death on a trumped-up charge of treason (ibid.).

28 the marschall. Sir Robert Keith.

35 the Kow-yhet. Still the Cow-port (gate) in the middle of the north side of the town.

45 Ane or othir suld wrethit be. I.e., “if he chose anyone to help him, somebody else was sure to be offended.” Apparently he would have to choose between Moray and Douglas. Cf. lines 55-7.

64 Duns park. A favourite rendezvous in that neighbourhood for the Scots army. The “park” would be wooded. In June, 1315, Bruce was reported to be collecting an army in “the Park of Duns,” either to invade England or to besiege Berwick (Bain, iii., No. 440).

67 Athir with ane quheyne of men. Bruce gets out of the dilemma by choosing both leaders, each to bring a small party of his men.

72 the day. April 2, 1318 (Lanerc., p. 234; Ann. Paul., p. 282). Circa March 25 (Illustrations, p. 5). Edward is preparing to retake Berwick on April 18, 1318 (Rot. Scot., i., p. 181).

94 the nycht. The Scots entered “about midnight after the Sabbath day” (Lanerc., p. 234). Edward, “much enraged,” reports that the mayor and bailiffs “allowed the Scottish rebels to enter and take possession,” “through carelessness,” and orders goods belonging to the community of Berwick to be everywhere arrested; April 13, 15 (Bain, iii., Nos. 593, 594).

97 hald a staill. “Occupy a position.” Cf. Bk. XV. 341.

105 till the gude. “For the goods.” Singular form as plural; see Grammar. Cf. also twa part in 103 for two parts.

125 gat the castell. “Got to the castle.”

128 in the bargane slane. Few were slain apart from those who resisted (Lanerc., p. 235; Stevenson, p. 5). According to Baker, in the capture of the town and castle no one was slain who was willing to submit (qui voluit obedire, p. 59).

134 the baner. Apparently the Scots had assembled (“stuffit”) round their banner in the “staill” (97).

150-1 Wilyhame ... of Keth, and of the Gawlistoune. Sir William Keith of Galston, known by either surname, of Keith or of Galston (152). Galston was in Kyle, Ayrshire, and there were Keiths in it at least a hundred years after (Reg. Mag. Sig., p. 228; 17).

176 all that fell, etc. “All that would serve to provision the town.” Cf. on 15.

185 the Mers and Tevidaill. The part of Berwickshire next the Border, “the March,” and Teviotdale.

198 on the sext day. Gray says the castle held out for eleven weeks, and as his father was then in garrison at Norham, he is probably about right. The castle surrendered for lack of food (Scala., p. 144). The account in Stevenson’s Chronicle also implies a siege longer than five days; for he speaks of King Robert assailing the castle with siege-engines, and failing, and of the Scots then settling down to starve out the garrison (Illust., p. 5). Horslee was at Newcastle with the garrison on July 20--that is, about sixteen weeks after the fall of the town--so that the surrender of the castle must have taken place somewhat earlier in the month. Horslee and his garrison had to be supported by the town, and the account therefore would begin with their arrival (Bain, iii., No. 607). Cf. on line 226.

200 till thair cuntre syne went thai. Life and goods were granted them on surrender (Stevenson, p. 5). Cf. previous note.

203 soyn eftir. But, according to the account in Stevenson, King Robert assisted at the attack on the castle. See on 198.

222 At = that. “That he took in hand to hold Berwick.”

224 Bath the castell, and the dungeoune. In his former references Barbour has used the term “castle” to include both the tower or “donjon” or keep and the surrounding wall, apart from the wall of the town proper. The wall (or “wallis”), he says in 169, 170, was not then in a very defensible state. Here he goes back to an older and more technical usage before these two independent elements--donjon and enclosure fortified with a wall--had quite coalesced. The evidence for this differentiation is given at length by Mr. Round in his Geoffrey de Mandeville, Appendix O. One of the citations is precisely parallel to Barbour’s expressions here, the description of a grant of Dublin--town, castle, and donjon--in 1172 to Hugh de Lacy:

“Li riche rei ad dunc baillé (has then entrusted) Dyvelin en garde, _la cité E la chastel e le dongun_, A Huge de Laci le barun.”

These, then, are the three elements here: the town, which had its own wall; the “castle,” strictly speaking, or walled enclosure; and the “donjon” within the latter.

226 Ryde in-till Inglande. The Lanercost writer places this raid in the month of May, and, it would seem, after the fall of the castle (see on line 198). The Scots on this occasion penetrated England farther than usual, reaching Ripon, Knaresborough, and Skipton, in Craven--i.e., covering a large part of Yorkshire (p. 235). The Gesta de Carn. also dates this raid in May, “soon after Easter,” and says the Scots went as far as Bolton Abbey (p. 55).

227 gret plente of fee. They brought back “a crowd of cattle past numbering” (Lanerc., p. 236). They searched the woods of Knaresborough for the cattle hidden there, and got possession of them (p. 235).

228-9 sum cuntreis trewit he For vittale. I.e., “he made a truce with some districts in return for a supply of victual.” The Scots spoiled Ripon, but refrained from burning the town on payment of 1,000 marks (Lanerc., p. 235).

236 But burges and but oblesteris. Skeat takes exception to “burgesses,” but the town had previously been defended by the burgesses (cf. on 15), and some, no doubt, were willing “to obey” the Scots (cf. on 128). E reads burdowys, which Jamieson supposed to mean “men who fought with clubs,” while Skeat suggests that it is “burdouis for burdonis--i.e., mules!” Mules are a less probable part of the garrison than burgesses. “Oblesteris” are arblasters--i.e., crossbow-men, a minor but constant part of both English and Scottish armies of the time.

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).

286 That syne wes sanctit. See note on 874.

295 all this menyhe. According to the pay-sheet, August 1 to September 24, 8,080 men, apart, however, from the following of Lancaster (cf. on 285 and 852) and the sailors (Bain, iii., No. 668). In Annal. Paul. 30,000 horse! (p. 286).

298 Ordanit ane felde. The “Magdalen Fields” surrounding the town. “The army was spread ont, on the land side, round the circuit of the town” (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 242).

306 all the havyn wes stoppit. “On the side of the sea the sailors present from the Cinque Ports (Quinque Portubus) so watched the entries and exits that no one could possibly get out” (Vita Edw., p. 242).

318-9 sib him ner, Or ... his allye. “Either near relatives or those closely attached to him by some personal tie.” “Allye,” Fr. allié, is a trisyllable. It does not seem to signify, as Skeat suggests, allied “by various marriages,” but only the latter part of the phrase, “relatives and personal friends.”

335 our Ladeis evin. September 7, 1319. So Despenser, in his letter, says Edward came before Berwick on September 7, and “laid siege to the town, with all his host, by sea and by land” (par myer et par terre. Lanerc., p. 422). The English army entered Scotland on August 29 (Ann. Paul., p. 286).

343 coveryngis. Special protective dresses, such as the miner’s “basket” of wicker for those breaching the wall.

344 howis ... staff slyngis. The first were possibly picks on long poles, so resembling hoes, used for pulling down defences. The staff-sling consisted of a wooden shaft about a yard long, to one end of which was attached a sling. The slinger held it by the other end with both hands, and so could discharge a stone or bullet with great force.

359 ilk kyrneill. Each casement or open interval of the battlement. In the repairs of the castle in 1344 the portion of the wall renewed was to be 8 feet broad at “the kernels” (Bain, iii., No. 1434).

380 Sa law. Edward I. had begun to surround Berwick with a stone wall, but Hugh de Cressingham, his Treasurer (1297), had not spent on it the money given for its completion (Hemingburgh, ii., p. 127).

409 the brighous. A barbican or outwork on which the drawbridge rested. In January, 1316, Bruce tried to enter Berwick inter brighous et castrum (Lanercost, p. 232).

421 scho ebbit. I.e., the tide ebbed, and she grounded. A ship grounding in a very low tide (neap) is still said to be “neaped.”

501 he wald nocht sa soyne assale. The English chroniclers say he would not venture to fight with the army of their King (Lanerc., p. 239; Illust., p. 6). On September 9 Edward writes to the Chancellor that “he hears that Robert de Brus and his allies and supporters (fautours) are bound by oaths and hostages to relieve the garrison of Berwick on a fixed day, and will do everything they can” (Bain, iii., No. 664). He therefore summons to Berwick the whole array of York, but Bruce took his own way of relieving.

505 lordis twa. As here, Moray and Douglas (Lanerc., p. 239; Gesta de Carn., p. 57).

508 xv. thousand. “A very great army” (Illustr., p. 6); “no small army” (Gesta de Carn., p. 57); “xx. thousand of the Scottis” (Capgrave, p. 184).

515 thair wiffis. In their previous raid (see on 226) the Scots took captive both men and women (Lanerc., p. 236).

528 it wes pite. “The Scots were raiding savagely in England” (Scotis in Anglia sæventibus.--Trokelowe, p. 103). “Clearing (depopulantes) Northumbria, the bishopric of Durham and Alvertonshire (York), they came as far as Burghbrig” (Illust., p. 66). “They burnt the country and took captives and booty of animals, advancing as far as Burghbrigge” (Lanercost, p. 239). “Burning and spoiling the country on all sides” (Gesta de Carn., p. 57).

535 Burrow-brig. Boroughbridge, on the Ure, near its junction with the Swale, Yorkshire; see previous note. According to Fordun, Moray was at “Boru-brig” at the end of the month of August (Gesta Annalia, cxxxiv.).

536 Mytoun thar-by. Myton is on the Swale, near its junction with the Ure, and so a little east of Boroughbridge.

541 Prestis, clerkis, monkis, and freris, etc. There were two abbots, monks, friars, many priests, with countrymen and townsfolk (Illustr., p. 7; Lanerc., p. 239; Scala., p. 148).

544 Weill twenty thousand. Ten thousand in Trokelowe, p. 103; both numbers excessive.

546 The Archbischop of York. William de Melton (Gesta de Carn., p. 57; and Lanercost, Illustr., etc., as cited). He lost much furniture in the battle, including silver and brass plate (North. Reg., p. 295).

552 other byschoppis. Only the Bishop of Ely, then staying at York (Illust., p. 7; Lanerc., p. 239).

559 in-till battellis twa. “The Scots gathered together, as their wont was, in a single schiltron” (Lanerc., p. 239). They “divided” to take up the chase (ibid.).

573-4 sic abasing Tuk thame. The English accounts give it that their men had no proper leader nor skill in war, while the Scots were excellently equipped in both respects. The strangely assorted array advanced in no proper order of battle, so that the Scots said: “These are not soldiers, they are sportsmen; they won’t be much good” (“Hi non bellatores sed venatores; non multum proficient.”--Vita Edw., p. 244). The Scots then gave a great shout, and the English in terror turned and fled (Lanerc., p. 239).

583 weill ane thousand. All accounts agree that there was a considerable slaughter of the priestly and inexpert warriors, but the English estimates of the slain are much higher than Barbour’s: more than a thousand, besides the drowned (Ann. Paul., p. 287); “2,000 slain with the sword” (Illustr., p. 7); 3,000 (Trokelowe, p. 103); 4,000 (Lanerc., p. 239); besides those drowned in the Swale, about a thousand, says the Lanercost writer (ibid.); “more than the sword slew” (Gesta de Carn., p. 58). There were also many captives, afterwards redeemed; cf. line 579 (ibid., Vita Edw., p. 244). A chantry chapel was afterwards erected for the souls of the slain, and endowed by their friends; to this end a piece of ground was asked from the King in October, 1325 (Bain, iii., No. 875).

597 Of gret gestis ane Sow. Probably, as Skeat hints, for “gestis”--i.e., joists, great beams, which is more likely than Fr. gestes, “deeds” to which it is hard to give, in this connection, a suitable meaning. The famous “Sow” is referred to in Lanercost (suem), p. 239. See below. It was otherwise known as the cat, and was constructed of stout beams, being strictly a penthouse or shelter for the men mining the wall. So here in line 600, and in the Lanercost account (ad murum suffodiendum, p. 239). But in the present case it is combined with the beffroi, or movable tower (lines 601-2), giving the “sow-castle” or “cat-castle” (cf. Oman’s Art of War, pp. 548, 549). Hailes and Skeat miss this point.

598 stalward heling. A strong covering of hides, or, possibly, of iron plates.

634 the Rude-evyn. The eve of the Exaltation of the Rood, September 13.

674 draw the cleket. Probably then “she” was a mangonel, in which a movable beam, between uprights, was pressed back by ropes, and then suddenly let go from a catch (“cleket”), discharges a stone; or a trebuchet, in which the same result was obtained by poising the beam in the middle, and loading the other end with a heavy weight, which added to the force of the missile.

689 set thar-to juntly. “Set close up to.” Cf. line 704. In the Wallace, Stirling Bridge “off gud playne burd was weill and juntly maid” (vii. 1148).

690 bend in hy. Cf. on 674.

691 wappyt. The correct Scots form. C has swappit. Cf. Gest. Historiale, “wappid (knocked) to ground” (7297), and “A wap wi a corner-stane o’ Wolf’s Crag wad defy the doctor” (Scott’s Bride of Lammermoor, Border edit., P. 349).

713 top-castellis. “Fighting-tops” on the mast, in addition to the structures rising fore and aft above the deck, “fore-castle” and “stern-castle.”

756 The barras. The “barriers,” a fortified post at the outer end of the drawbridge. See Glossary.

757 and brynt it doune. Skeat, in his rubric, explains that they “burnt the drawbridge”--a foolish thing to do if they wanted to cross the ditch! But what seems to have happened was this: the besiegers first seized the “barras,” then brought “doune” the bridge by burning the tackle, probably of ropes and beams, by which it was drawn up against the gate, and so were able to cross, and make their attempt to burn their way through the gate itself. So, too, they could retreat (790) over the fallen bridge. Cf. in Morte Arthure:

“Brittenes (destroys) theire barrers with theire bryghte wapyns, Bett down a barbycan, and the brygge wynnys.”

(2469-2470).

828 on the morne. I.e., of September 14, seven days after the first attack. Despenser says that the news from England came “before he had been at Berwick (demorce) eight days” (as cited), practically corroborating Barbour.

829 Thar come tithandis. So in Despenser’s letter; in Lanercost (p. 239); Gesta de Carn. (p. 58).

842 His consell fast discordit then. The Lanercost writer says the King wished to send a part of his army into England to deal with the Scots, and keep on the siege with the remainder; but the nobles were unwilling to divide their army and not fight with the returning Scots, and so the whole army started south for this purpose (p. 239).

852 Loncastell. Despenser attributes the raising of the siege to the “procurement” of Lancaster (Lanerc., p. 422). Stevenson’s chronicler says the siege would have been successful “had not disturbers of the peace sown discord between the King and the Earl of Lancaster” (Illust., p. 6). As is here suggested, the friction had been going on for some time according to the author of the Gesta, who explains in detail how the mischief-making was done (p. 57). In the Vita Edw. Sec. various accounts are collected regarding Lancaster’s action, including the “vulgar” story that he had been bribed by Bruce, and there is a discourse of several pages on treason and avarice (p. 244 et seq.).

855 he. Here is the King; in 858 he is Lancaster. The King was inclined to side with the Southerners, whose homes, of course, were in no danger from the Scots. Cf. previous note.

862 his way he tais. According to the Vita Edw., the King went one way to meet the retreating Scots, Lancaster another (as cited).

864 fell eftir sic debat. In 1321 Lancaster and his supporters took up arms against the King and his advisers, the Despensers, on account of misgovernment. Each party blamed the other for the misfortunes of the Scottish war. In March of the following year the Lancastrians were defeated at Boroughbridge by Sir Andrew de Harclay, himself afterwards executed for alleged treasonable dealings with the Scots. Lancaster was captured, and beheaded at Pomfret (cf. line 868).

869 on the hill besyde the toune. “On a certain little hill” (monticulo) beside Pomfret (Lanerc., p. 244).

871 syne drawin and hangit. Though this was in the sentence, it was, by special favour of the King, not carried out. Lancaster, being a relative, was simply beheaded. In any case the drawing and hanging would have come before the beheading. See on IV. 322.

872 a fair menyhe. Many others suffered capital punishment for their share in this rising. The Lanercost writer gives one baron and three knights as having been drawn and hanged in Pomfret at this time, with further details of other victims (p. 245). Cf. also Baker, pp. 65, 66. The names of five hanged on the same day at Pomfret are given in Annal. Paul., p. 303.

874 martir was, Wes sanctit and myraclis did. Lancaster was popularly regarded as a saint, a martyr for righteous government; he having been also a liberal man to the Church and the poor. There were, of course, doubters of his sanctity (Vita Edw. Sec.: contin., p. 290). A chapel was erected on the hill on which he was beheaded; crowds of pilgrims flocked to it, and miracles were said to be worked by God through him (Lanerc., pp. 244-5; Fœdera, iv., p. 421). There was a special service for him--an “Office of St. Thomas of Lancaster,” printed in Wright’s Political Songs (pp. 268-272). Edward III., whose accession was the triumph of the opposition to his father, requested the Pope to give Thomas regular canonization (Fœdera, iv., p. 421). Capgrave says he was canonized in 1389, when all concerned in his execution were dead (p. 253).

889 thai tuk westward the way. The Scots in England retired about September 14, going westwards (versus occidentem tendentes) by Airedale and Wharfdale, and so home by “Gratsehals” (Gesta Edw. Carn., p. 58). When they heard the siege was raised they returned to Scotland by Staynmore and Gillesland and “those western parts” (Lanerc. p. 240). Cf. also Illustrations, p. 7.

891 With prayis, and with presoneris. “With prisoners and plunder of cattle” (Lanerc., p. 240). Also Gesta Edw., p. 58; Vita Edw., p. 244. Prayis is a plural signifying different kinds of “prey.”

922-3 brynt had The brig. Cf. on 757.

940 Berwyk his toune. As the reading from E shows, this is a possessive of a type usually confined to proper names. Cf. III. 232; VI. 435, etc.; and Grammar.

946 Till help his brothir. Wrong by a year. The siege of Berwick was in September, 1319; Edward Bruce was killed in the previous year. The succours here sent were dispatched in September or October, 1318. See on Bk. XVIII. 3, 110.

Book XVIII

3 A day forrouth thair arivyng. So, too, Gray declares that Edward Bruce “from over-boldness (pur surquidery) was not willing to wait his reinforcements (soun poair) which had lately arrived, and were within six leagues (miles) of him” (Scala., p. 143)--i.e., within a day’s march. Gray, it will be observed, applies the same quality to Edward Bruce as Barbour does in line 183. The same explanation occurs in the Annals of Clonmacnoise (pp. 281, 282). The Lanercost chronicler, on the contrary, says that the “great army” which had “newly come” from Scotland to his assistance had joined Edward before his advance to Dundalk (p. 238).

8-9 twa thousand, Outane the Kyngis of Erischry. The Annals of Ireland give the Scots 3,000 (p. 359), so that Barbour is probably about right. The chronicler in Stevenson’s Illustrations makes the Scots 30,000 (p. 3)! The “Irish Kings” here include MacRory, “King” of the Hebrides (“Insi-Gall”), and MacDonald, “King” of Argyll, who were both slain (Annals of Ulster, ii., p. 433; Annals of Clonmacnoise, p. 281. Cf. note on line 443).

12 Richard of Clare. Barbour is misinformed; Richard de Clare was killed five months before, May 11 (Annals of Ulster, ii., pp. 433 and 432, note 5; Annals of Ireland, p. 35). The English were commanded by Sir John de Birmingham (Annals of Ireland, p. 359; Baker, p. 58).

17 tuenty thousand. Such a number of horse is obviously absurd, as is also the total of “forty thousand” below.

33 Men sayis. Cf. on 3: “My brothir” is Walter, the High Steward.

75 nane of us. Not true of the Scots-Irish. Cf. note on 8-9.

89 fourty thousand neir. Cf. line 93, and note on 17. The Lanercost chronicler says the English were but “a few country-folk” (paucis et popularibus; p. 238), probably an exaggeration the other way.

95 cot-armour. The surcoat over his armour, bearing his coat-of-arms.

101 till assemmyll. The battle took place near the hill of Faughard or Fagher, about two miles from Dundalk. The spot where Edward Bruce fell is still shown by the natives. The date is given by Hailes, Bain, and others, following the version of the Annals in Camden’s Chronicle as October 5; but in the later edition of the Annals and in the Annals of Ulster and of Clonmacnoise it is precisely fixed as Saturday, October 14, 1318, from which the Lanercost chronicler differs by a day only, October 13 (Lanercost, p. 238; Annals of Ulster, p. 433; Annals of Ireland, p. 359; Annals of Clonmacnoise, p. 281); Fordun also October 14 (Skene, i., p. 348).

104 ruschit with thair fais. In the Lanercost Chronicle it is explained that the Scots were in three battles too far apart, and that thus each as it attacked was disposed of before the next could come to its assistance. Edward was with the third battle (p. 238).

110 Johne de Sowlis als. But John de Soules appears to have been dead circa 1316, when the husband of his “daughter and heir” petitioned Edward II. for his Scottish lands (Bain, iii., No. 530). The date, however, is doubtful.

113 That few ... war slayne. According to the Vita Edw. Sec., five hundred stout men-at-arms (valentes armati) were slain, besides Edward Bruce (p. 238); almost all were slain, says Lanercost, except those only who escaped by flight (p. 238); not a single one escaped, declares Knighton (i., p. 412), but this is absurd. Two thousand, almost all the Scots, were slain, but a few got away (Annals of Ireland, p. 360). Only a few escaped out of thirty thousand (Stevenson, Illustrations, p. 3).

117 Johne Tomassun. No doubt the same John Thomson (Johannes videlicet Thomæ), a stout commoner (valens vernaclus), who in 1333 was holding out in the “peel” of Lochdoon against Edward III. (Scotichr., lib. xiii., chap. xxviii.).

123 Johne cummyn. Skeat prints the verb with a capital, as if “cummyn” was a personal name. Obviously “Johne” is Thomson.

125 Schir Philipe the Mowbray. The defender of Stirling Castle before Bannockburn: mortally wounded (Annals of Ir., p. 360).

167 strak his hed of. The Lanercost writer says Edward Bruce was beheaded after death, and his body divided into four parts, which were sent to the four chief towns of Ireland (p. 238). According to Barbour, it was Gilbert Harper’s head. For the beheading, see also Trokelowe, p. 103, and Stevenson’s Illustrations, p. 3.

183 owtrageous succudry. Cf. extract from Scalacronica in note on 3.

215 Richard of Clare. But see note on 12.

224 Johne Mawpas. According to the Annals, John Mawpas slew Edward Bruce, and was himself found dead over his body. John de Birmyngham brought the head to Edward III. (p. 360). Probably he thus earned the reward offered for injury to Edward in life or limb, on September 3, 1316 (Patent Rolls, p. 551).

225 Quhilk. Koeppel points out that this is the only example of this word otherwise than in the form the quhilk that, and therefore suggests that E gives the original reading (Englische Studien, x. 381).

230 tuk purpos. 1322. Barbour passes over four years, and says nothing of a destructive raid of the Scots on the West March in June-July of this year, in which they went as far south as Preston (Lanercost, p. 246; Knighton, i., p. 428; Bain, iii., No. 761; Fœdera, iii., p. 960).

235 richt gret hoost. “A very great army” (Lanercost, 247). “With a very large army ... having an armed foot-soldier from each town in England, besides his knights and esquires” (Scala., p. 149. So also Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvon, p. 78; Knighton, i. 428; Baker, p. 66).

249 with-draw all the catele. “The Scots fled with all their possessions, at their approach (a facie eorum), to safe places; stripped their own land wholly bare, and cleared the districts of all the goods” (Trokelowe, p. 125). “The Scots, having cleared away or conveyed with them beyond the Scottish Sea (the Forth) everything that could be easily carried, left for the English a land bare of victuals” (Baker, p. 66). Edward told the Archbishop of Canterbury that he found neither “man nor beast” (Bain, iii., No. 778). So also in Knighton, i., p. 428.

253 with his hoost als still he lay. “The Scots, in their usual fashion, withdrew, and did not dare to fight with him” (Lanercost, p. 247). The English traversed the country, meeting with no resistance (Baker, p. 66).

254 At Culros. In Fife, on the Forth, opposite Boness (cf. note on 249).

261 in Lowdiane. Edward was at Gosford, in Haddingtonshire, on August 5 (Bain, iii., No. 761). He had taken the coast-road in order to do more damage (ibid., 778).

262 till Edinburgh. Scala., p. 149; Fordun; Skene, i., p. 349. There is a record of a grant by Edward at Edinburgh on August 22, and of payments made at Leith on August 23, so that he may have been there longer than three days; cf. above on 261 (Bain, iii., Nos. 764, 765). On August 17, however, a pardon is dated from Lauder (ibid., 763).

264 Thair schippes. At some date in August, probably later than above, for the King, it would appear, had left, a cargo of medicine came by sea to Edinburgh (Leith) from Newcastle (ibid., 766). Fordun speaks of a vast multitude of ships (copiosa multitudine: Fordun, i. 349).

268 Thair vittale. “Having used up the food on land, and that by sea everywhere failing them” (Trokelowe, p. 125).

276 Tranentis corne. Tranent is between Musselburgh and Haddington.

283 derrest beiff. In Bower, “That this beef was too dear,” Warenne punning in the Latin, Quod illius tauri caro erat nimis cara (Scotichr., ii., p. 278).

289-290 of fasting had gret payne, etc. “A very great part of the army was wasted with hunger, and a great number perished from want of food,” and so they returned (Trokelowe, p. 125). The Lanercost writer speaks of lack of victuals, and illness, dysentery, among the soldiers, from both of which many died (p. 247). Scalacronica concurs (p. 149), also Fordun (Skene, i. 349). The English were thus forced to retreat (ibid.). Knighton puts the English losses at about fifteen thousand (i., p. 428); 30,000 (!) from starvation (Flores Hist., iii., p. 210).

291 In-till Melros. “The King’s hobelers (light horse) foraging at Melrose were defeated by James Douglas” (Scala., p. 149). Cf. lines 292-3. Knighton says the English came to Melrose, when, most unexpectedly, the Scots rushed on them from the mountains, and slew three hundred and more (i., p. 428). According to Fordun, the English slew and wounded several of the monks, and committed other sacrilege (Gesta Annal.; Skene, i., pp. 349, 350).

339 by Driburgh. They burned the monastery to the ground (Fordun, ibid.).

341 till Ingland. Edward is at Fenham, on the coast of Northumberland, by September 4, or thereabout (Bain, iii., No. 767).

346 our the Scottis Se. Cf. note on 249.

349 Auchty thousand. Certainly an exaggerated number. Each “battle,” as almost invariably with Barbour (cf. note on Bk. XI.), represents ten thousand men. Bruce had, however, a considerable force (exercitu non modico; Gesta Edw. de Carn., p. 79), having, according to Gray, assembled the whole power of Scotland, of the Isles, and of the Highlands (dez autres pays hautz; Scala., p. 149). Exactly parallel is the statement in Lanercost, p. 247.

352 on to Ingland. By the Solway on October 1, 1322 (Lanercost, p. 247; Gesta Ann., p. 350).

355 to Byland. Byland is in the North Riding of Yorkshire, near Helmsley, on the right bank of the Rye. In Gesta Edw. “Bella-landa” (p. 79). The affair at Byland was on October 21 (note in Stevenson from Cotton MS., c. 1325, p. 55); October 14 (Flores Hist., iii., p. 210).

356-7 wes liand The King of Ingland, etc. So placed, too, in Gesta Edw. de Carn.: the King “in monasterio de Bella-landa,” and the army on a high mountain above the monastery (p. 79); by Fordun (Skene, i. 350); and by Higden (Polychron., viii., p. 316). Trokelowe, too, suggests the same, saying the Scots followed the King as far as Byland Abbey, in the district of “Rye Valley” (Realis Vallis, p. 125). The escape was “near Byland, close to the Abbey of Rievaulx,” when the King was crossing over (Flores Hist., iii., p. 210). But the Lanercost chronicler locates the King in Rievaulx Abbey (Rievaulx = Realis Vallis), on the opposite bank of the Rye (p. 247); and an order from Edward to the Earl of Pembroke “to raise the country towards Byland” is dated from Rievaulx, October 13 (Bain, iii., No. 790). In Stevenson’s Chronicle, too, the King is at Rievaulx, while Pembroke (Valence) and Richmond and other lords are at “Beghland” (Illustrations, p. 7).

365 Ane craggy bra. Cf. preceding note. “A strength (un forteresce) on a hill near Biland” (p. 149). “A certain mountain between the Abbey of Biland and the Abbey of Rievaulx” (Lanercost, p. 247).

366 a gret peth. “A certain path (viam) on the mountain, narrow and confined” (arctam et strictam; Lanercost, p. 247). “A very narrow road where scarce ten could go abreast” (vix 10 in fronte meabile. Stevenson’s Illustrations, p. 7).

373-4 Went to the path, etc. The Earl of Richmond, John of Brittany, was sent with his followers to examine the Scottish army “from a certain mountain, etc.” (cf. on 365. Lanercost, ibid.).

409 Thomas Ouchtre(d). “Arthyn,” as in C., is not known, and is clearly wrong, for Sir Thomas Ughtred, or Ouchtred, was captured here, as Barbour says in line 426 (Bain, iii., No. 806).

419 Stanis apon thame. “He (Richmond) strove with them by throwing down stones” (per lapides projectos. Lanercost, p. 247).

427 he wes tane. Cf. on line 409.

443 all the Erischry. I.e., the Highlanders and Islesmen, who spoke Gaelic or Irish. Cf. on line 349.

454 aboun the bra. The Scots ascended above them (super eos. Lanercost, ibid.).

458 the hycht has tane. “The Scots ascended between the trees through the middle of the grove” (Gesta Edw., p. 79). The fight took place “on the summit of a hill near Byland” (ibid., p. 82).

462-4 Johne Bretane, etc. Cf. on line 373.

469 thar wes tane. John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, a prisoner in Scotland, October 27 (Bain, iii., Nos. 792, 793). Still detained in Scotland, December 10 (ibid., No. 795). Captured at Byland (Stevenson, Illustrations, p. 7).

472 lord of Souly. Henry, Lord of Sully, a prisoner (Bain, No. 796): “the lord of Sully, a baron of France” (Scala., p. 149); “the lord of Sully (Siliaco), an ambassador of the King of France” (Baker, p. 66).

478 yheit at Biland. But cf. note on 356-7.

480 in full gret hy. “The King himself scarcely escaped from Rivaulx” (Scala., p. 149). “The King fled swiftly from Biland” (Gesta Edw., p. 79; cf. also Lanercost, p. 248; Baker, p. 66). “To Scarborough Castle” (Stevenson, Illustrations, p. 7).

489 Till Yorkis yhettis. The Scots made their way to York (Scala., p. 150; Lanercost, p. 248; Gesta, p. 81).

493 nane wald cum out. The English were quite demoralized. They had fled like “a hare before the hounds” (Scala., p. 150). “The people were collapsing (corruentem) before the enemy like sheep without a shepherd” (Gesta, p. 81).

498 Rivens. Rievaulx; see above.

500 The King of Inglandis ger. A note in Bain describes the harness lost at “Ryvaux” by the sudden attack of the Scots there on October 14 (iii., No. 791). According to Lanercost, the King in his hurry left in Rievaulx Monastery his silver plate and great treasure, all which the Scots carried off, spoiling the monastery besides (p. 248). The royal treasure taken at Byland (Higden, viii., p. 316).

520 Lang eftir. In October, 1323, and May, 1324, negotiations for Richmond’s release were still in progress (Bain, iii., No. 829; Pat. Rolls).

543 but ransoun free. This seems to have been the transaction which resulted in the “Emerald” charter of the Douglases, giving them extraordinary powers of jurisdiction within their territories. The grant was in lieu of 4,400 merks sterling, the ransoms of three (not two) French knights and their valets captured by Douglas at Byland, and liberated at the instance of the King of France, “our very dear friend” (Fraser’s Douglas, Bk. iii., p. 11).

553 Byrnand, slayand, and distroyand. From all accounts the Scots did terrible mischief. “They did damage at their pleasure, with no one to oppose them” (Scala., p. 150). They spoiled and burned the neighbouring districts, carried off the cattle, and wasted on all sides with fire and sword (Gesta Edw., p. 80; Trokelowe, p. 126; Northern Registers, p. 318).

555 to the Wald. The Yorkshire Wold (Scala., p. 150). “Le Wald” (Lanercost, p. 248; Stevenson’s Illustrations, p. 7).

558 The vale ... of Beauvare. The valley of the river Hull in which is Beverley. “They destroyed that country to about the town of Beverley, which purchased immunity from being burned” (Lanercost, p. 248). Murimuth and Baker say it cost Beverley four hundred pounds sterling (Baker, p. 66).

561 Till Scotland. They returned on October 22 (Gesta, p. 80). In Lanercost, November 2 is given as the date (p. 248). It may be inferred, from a reference in Bain to the Earl of Richmond as “a prisoner in Scotland” on October 27, that the Scots had got home by that date.

Book XIX

6 a fell conjuracione. Barbour post-dates this conspiracy. It took place in 1320.

11 The lord of Sowlis. Probably the grandson of Sir Nicholas Soulis, one of the competitors in 1292. Sir Nicholas claimed through his mother, a niece of Alexander III. (Bain, ii., liv.). His forfeited lands in Liddesdale were given to Bruce’s illegitimate son Robert (Robertson’s Index, p. 12; 54, etc.); others to Robert Stewart, son of Walter (ibid., 10; 13).

16 Male-herbe. As in E, is the correct form; or Malerb (Fordun), Malherbe (Scala.) and on record in Bain, and in Robertson, where the Stirlingshire lands forfeited by “Gilbert de Malherbe” are gifted to another (Index, 21; 19). The land of “Malerbe” was in Perthshire (Reg. Mag. Sig., pp. 30, 61). The other names occur in these sources also, as in Barbour.

19 David the Brechyne. Cf. on Bk. VIII. 402; IX. 293. Some of the forfeited lands of Brechin, such as Rothmay, Brechine, Kinloch, etc., were granted to Sir David de Barclay (Robertson, pp. 26, 34).

23 Throu ane lady. The lady in the affair was Countess of Strathearn (Gesta Annal., cxxxv.). But Gray (Scala., p. 144) gives a different discoverer, Murdoch of Menteith, who was in the English service as late, at least, as January, 1317 (Bain, iii. 534). The Countess could not have turned King’s evidence, as she was condemned to imprisonment for life (Fordun. Ibid.). In an extract from the Cotton MS. in Stevenson, Menteith is again given as the discoverer (Illust., p. 55).

45 playn granting. Soulis made a full confession (Scala., p. 144).

49 plane parliament. At Scone, August, 1320 (Fordun; Skene, i. 348; Scala., p. 144). It was known as the Black Parliament.

51 Till his penance till Dumbertane. “Confined in Dumbarton Castle for punishment in prison” (a sa penaunz en prisoun.--Scala., p. 144); “for life” (Fordun; Skene, i. 348). Gray says that Dumbarton was the only castle in Scotland not now dismantled (ibid.).

56 thai drawin war. As in Fordun: “first drawn with horses and finally executed” (Skene, i. 348). Gray says Brechin, Logy, and Maleherbe were hanged and drawn in Perth. Fordun adds Richard Brown, a squire.

74 Scottis man. Umfraville was a prisoner since Bannockburn. At this date (1320) he was still in Scotland, though on July 24, 1314, Edward was granting safe-conducts to some of his friends for a journey to France in quest of money for his ransom (Bain, iii., No. 374). On April 20, 1320, there is a safe-conduct for Sir Ingelram de Umfraville, “a Scottish knight passing through England on his affairs beyond seas,” with a considerable following, which was cancelled for one in October (ibid., 694). Meantime his name is on the record of the Arbroath Parliament in April, 1320 (see below). On January 26, 1321, he is being restored to his estates, “as Ingelram, who was a prisoner in Scotland, has escaped, and shown that he never left his allegiance” (ibid., 721). These facts have been held to invalidate Barbour’s statement (Maxwell’s Robert the Bruce, pp. 276-7), but they have obviously a suspicious air. He appears to have somewhat prolonged his escape; there was clearly a doubt as to his loyalty; and the date fits in curiously with the narrative. Finally, it has to be explained how Umfraville’s name appears in the list of signatories to the famous letter to the Pope from the barons and Community of Scotland on April 6, 1320: “While there exist a hundred of us we will never submit to England” (Acts Parl. Scot., i., p. 114).

125 the Kyngis curtasy. Cf. note on Bk. XIII. 531.

131 oftsis. There had been frequent negotiations for peace since immediately after Bannockburn (cf. Fœdera iii., p. 495).

186 war trewis tane. The truce was arranged at Thorpe, near York, to last for thirteen years (see line 188) from June 12, 1323.

191-6 Bot Inglis men apon the se Distroyit, etc. Of such cases, probably those referred to here, we have precise details in Bain’s Calendar, vol. iii. On September 7, 1326, an inquiry is ordered by Edward II. into the case of certain Scottish merchants who, on their way to Flanders, took refuge in an English ship from fear of pirates, and were brought to Scarborough, where they were all arrested by the Sheriff of York and the magistrates of Scarborough, and put in prison (No. 887). On September 28 three justices are commissioned to inquire into the seizure of a Flemish vessel at Whitby, when nine Scottish merchants, sixteen Scottish pilgrims, and thirteen women were murdered (lines 195, 234), and the cargo and goods to the value of £2,000 carried off (line 196); the vessel being cast adrift, and afterwards captured by others, when the rest of the cargo was appropriated. Apparently this inquiry was fruitless, for another is ordered at Yarmouth on October 15 (No. 889). Then, on October 12, there was the case of a Scottish clerk arrested on the high seas, brought with his two servants and goods to Scarborough, and imprisoned by the Sheriff of York, to be discharged later by the King’s order (No. 889). And Adam Rolok and other Scots had been taken from a ship touching at Brunham and lodged in Norwich prison, from which they were not released till September 24, 1328 (No. 965). Neglecting Barbour’s full explanation, confirmed as it is by Bain’s Calendar, historians profess to find the origins of this campaign obscure, or lay all the blame upon the Scots (Hume Brown, History, i., p. 166; Lang, History i. 232; Le Bel, Chronique, ed. 1904, i., p. 37, editorial note).

205 Walter Steward. Died April 9, 1326.

230-1 twa yheir ... and ane half. Nearly four years after; cf. note on 188.

238 gaf the trewis up. Le Bel, the Flemish chronicler, says he “defied” Edward about Easter because he saw Edward II. deposed, his Government upset, and that the new King was but a boy; and therefore hoped to conquer a part of England (Les Vrayes Chroniques, i., p. 34, edit. 1863; Froissart, trans. Johnes, i. 15).

241 Donald Erll of Mar. Cf. note on Bk. XIII. 687. He had been brought up at the Court of Edward II., and had served for him against the Scots, but, on his deposition, returned to his native land. The Scots readily received him and restored him to his earldom (Gesta Edw. Tertii, p. 96; Bain, iii. 744; Scala., p. 151). He hoped to get Scottish aid in restoring Edward II. (Chron. de Lanercost, p. 259). The leaders of this expedition are given as in Barbour in Scalacronica, Chron. de Lanercost, and Gesta Edwardi Tertii, with the exception of the Steward, who is not mentioned. Le Bel, who was present with the troops of John of Hainault, names only Moray and Douglas, whom he erroneously styles William, here as elsewhere (i., p. 48).

248 In England. June 15; and a second raid to Weardale in August (Fordun. Skene, i. 351-2). Before July 20 (Lanercost, p. 259). By the West March, says Hailes, citing Froissart (i.e., le Bel), but this is certainly not clear. No one seems to have known how they came: “They had passed the river (? Tyne, Eden) so quietly that neither they of Carlisle nor they of Newcastle knew anything of it” (Le Bel, i., p. 46, edit. 1863).

250 ten thousand. Le Bel says there were three thousand men-at-arms, knights, and squires, and about twenty thousand variously armed upon little hackneys (p. 48). These numbers are clearly in excess. It is from Jehan le Bel in this connection that Froissart has taken his famous and familiar description of a Scots Border raid (Johnes, ch. xvii.).

254 Wardill. Weardale, in Durham (Fordun, Gesta Annalia, cxl.).

256 The King wes ded. Edward II. was in ward since January 7, but did not die till September 21.

257 that wes yhing. Edward III. was fifteen.

261 Isabel. Daughter of Philip IV. of France.

262 wes weddid. Not till January 28, 1328, to the second daughter (Philippa) of Count or Earl William of Holland and Hainault. Barbour, of course, writes about fifty years after.

267 Schir Johne of Hennaut. John of Hainault, lord of Beaumont, brother of the Count, then “in the flower of his age” (Le Bel, i., p. 12). He came at Edward’s request, and brought five hundred well-mounted men-at-arms from Hainault, Flanders, Bohemia, Cambresis, and Artois: later he was joined by fifty more (Le Bel, i. 36, 37). Jehan le Bel and his brother were in the company.

271 In-to York. The English army assembled at York, and there awaited the arrival of the Hainaulters (Le Bel, p. 36); or of the chief lords (Gesta Edw., p. 96). There was a wait at York of more than six weeks until news should come about the Scots (Le Bel, p. 45). The English preparations seem to have anticipated the Scottish raid, though Barbour puts it otherwise.

275 neir fifty thousand. According to Le Bel, it was said the English had seven thousand knights and squires, thirty thousand armed men, half of whom were mounted on little hackneys, and twenty-four thousand archers on foot--sixty-one thousand men (i., p. 49). The English were three times the number of the Scots (Murimuth, p. 53; Baker, 97). Froissart, modifying Le Bel, gives in another place more than forty thousand men-at-arms (i., p. 17).

278 Xviii yheir. Edward, born November, 1312, was only fifteen.

279 Cokdaill. The Cock flows into the Wharfe, a tributary of the Yorkshire Ouse. Sir Herbert Maxwell says Coquetdale (_Robert the Bruce_, p. 311).

287 sevyn battellis. According to Le Bel, the English were in three battles of infantry, each battle having two wings of five hundred men-at-arms (p. 49).

316 north half Wer, toward Scotland. Maxwell insists that the Scots were on the south bank, on account of an order from Edward on August 3, located at Stanhope, to which may be added a later reference to his having been there (Robert the Bruce, p. 312 and note; Bain, iii., Nos. 929, 933). But the Scots were certainly at Stanhope Park, on the north bank (see below on 490 and 513). Mr. J. T. T. Brown, also on the strength of the first citation from Bain, says that “Froissart and the Scottish poet are both alike in error in placing the Scottish army on the north bank and the English on the opposite of the Wear” (The Wallace and Bruce Restudied, p. 144). In what he writes, Froissart simply follows Le Bel, who was present. Neither expressly says that the Scots were on the north bank, but it is made clear in both that the river separated the forces. Nothing is said by Barbour of how the English hunted for the Scots, but could not find them; of their rough and hurried ride to the Tyne at Hexham to cut off the expected Scottish retreat; or of their rush south when it was discovered by a squire that the Scots were on the Wear--all of which is graphically described by Le Bel and transferred to his own work by Froissart (Le Bel, i., ch. xii.; Froissart, ch. xvii.).

322 Stude in a strynth. They were drawn up in three battles on the slope of the mountain on which they were encamped (Le Bel, p. 62). Gray says the Scots were in three divisions on a fine plain, and calls this first position also Stanhope (Scala., p. 154). But it is clear from the detailed accounts of Barbour and Le Bel that the Scots were on a hill.

328 Weris wattir. “Below this mountain was a strong, swift river” (Le Bel, p. 62). “The King took up a position before them on the Wear wattir for three days” (Scala., p. 154).

350 Archibald ... of Douglas. Youngest brother of Sir James, “the Tineman” (i.e., the Loser), afterwards Regent of Scotland; killed at Halidon Hill, 1333. His especial share in this raid was to plunder the bishopric of Durham (Scala., p. 154; Maxwell’s History of the House of Douglas, vol. i., pp. 70, 71, 75).

353-4 These lines appear to mean that Douglas alternately advanced and retired so as to draw the English on. The Scots on the next day, according to Le Bel, “ran forwards and backwards in skirmishing” (couroient et racouroient tout en eshcarmuchant, p. 64).

374 Schir Williame of Erskyn. It is noted that Bruce died in debt to Erskine (Excheq. Rolls, i., p. 404).

396 Tymbrys for helmys. Wooden crests on helmets, common in the fourteenth century. Apparently the novelty was not in the crests, but in the material; hitherto they would have been made of cuir-bouilli (see Bk. XII., 23, note). Edward III. bore an eagle: “Tymbre de legle (? l’aigle)” (Bain, iii., p. lxviii.).

399 crakkis of war. Early cannon (cf. on Bk. XVII., line 250). It is not easy to understand how the English carried these with them in their forced marches over hill and dale. Le Bel does not mention them. They do not appear again in warfare till Creçy (1346), if then (Oman, Art of War, p. 611).

402 That nycht. “The night of St. Peter in August” (la nuit Saint-Pierre d’aoust, Le Bel, 64). St. Peter’s Day was August 1, but as Mass was heard on the morrow, the “night” was probably that of July 31, St. Peter’s Eve.

405 The Inglis men. Le Bel (Froissart) does not relate the incidents given by Barbour, or these operations, except in general terms. Many “companions,” he says, with the assistance of their horses, crossed the river, and some on foot; prisoners were taken, and others wounded or killed on both sides; and this went on continuously for three days (p. 64). The English learned from their prisoners that the Scots had neither bread, salt, nor wine, and so they hoped to starve them out; but they had plenty of beef, and were not particular about how they ate it, without salt or bread, “boiled or roasted as it liked them;” as well as some oatmeal, of which they made cakes (i., p. 65).

431 all arayit. Each of the first two days, Le Bel tells us, the English were drawn up in order of battle, though it came only to fruitless skirmishing.

482 Fyres in gret foysoun. The Scots, writes Le Bel, always made a wonderful number of fyres between night and morning; and by this and their blowing of horns and shouting together it seemed as if all the devils of hell were assembled there (pp. 64, 65; Johnes, i., ch. xviii.).

486 Twa myle. “Two small leagues” (Le Bel). “A short league” (Scala.). “League,” as usual, signifies just a mile, as when Le Bel credits the Scots with an average day’s march of from twenty to thirty-two “leagues” (p. 4).

488 defend thame bettir. “A much stronger place than before” (Le Bel, 65).

490 a park. Stanhope Park, a hunting-ground of the Bishop of Durham, on the north bank of the Wear. “The Scots entered the park of Stanhope and there lodged; likewise also the English on the other side of a certain stream pitched camp and rested” (Gesta Edw., p. 96). The Scots moved to “within the park of Stanhope” (dedenz le park de Stanhope, Scala., p. 154). “The Scots betook themselves to the park of Stanhope” (Lanercost, p. 259). The Scottish army was “at Stanhope Park” (apud Stanhop park, Contin. Chron., Murimuth, p. 53; Chron., Knighton, i., p. 445; Baker, p. 97; Hemingburgh, ii., p. 298). And those who have rejected Barbour’s statement as to the northward position of the Scots, resting on a single citation from Bain (see on 316), would have found, a few pages farther on, an express reference to the time when the Scots were surrounded and beset (circumdati et obsessi) in the park of Stanhope by the King’s army (Bain, No. 957, June 29, 1328). Edward, being so near, could very well speak of himself as “at Stanhope.” Bain later admits the Scots were at Stanhope (Edwards in Scotland, p. 77).

492 full of treis. At Stanhope Park “they were lodged in a wood” (Le Bel, 65). “In the woddys of Stanhop park in dyverse busshementis” (Fabyan, p. 439).

495 Be nychtyrtale. I.e., by night-time, as in Chaucer:

“by nightertale He sleep namore than doth a nightingale.”

(Prologue, 97, 98).

501 Upon the wattir. “On another mountain ... also on the river” (Le Bel, i. 65).

503 on the morn. Barbour gives the Scots only two days in the first position opposite the English, not saying how long they had been already “liand” there, which Le Bel says was eight days. Le Bel says, further, that they left on the third, not the second, night, and that their departure was discovered on the morning of the fourth day (p. 65). If the English arrived on July 31 (cf. on 402), and Edward was at Stanhope on August 3 (cf. on 316), this would be right. Gray says the Scots shifted camp on the fourth night (Scala., p. 154). Fordun suggests only one position, the second (Gesta Annalia, cxl.).

513 on othir half the wattir of Wer. Cf. Gesta Edwardi in note on 490. In Le Bel the river is still between the armies, (pp. 65, 66).

516 Aucht dayis. Maxwell affirms that, in saying this, Barbour “either draws on his imagination, or has been misled by his informants” (Robert the Bruce, p. 314); and the chronology of the various writers is hard to reconcile. Gray gives six days for the second position (p. 154); Le Bel (Froissart) eighteen (68); Knighton fifteen (Leycestrensis Chron., i. 445); Hemingburgh says the Scots were besieged for fifteen days in Stanhope Park (ii., p. 298). But the author of Gesta Edwardi agrees with Barbour in assigning eight days (octo diebus dicursis, p. 97), and so does the Lanercost writer (p. 259) and Fordun (Gesta Annalia, cxl.). Yet Mr. Brown accuses Barbour, in fixing that term, of “always lauding his own side,” though these English chroniclers support him (The Wallace and The Bruce, p. 145). One document suggests that Edward was at Durham on August 5 (Bain, iii., No. 930), but dates and places on legal documents do not always signify what they suggest. The order from Durham was issued in the King’s name. Edward was still at Stanhope on August 7 (Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III. s. d.).

520-1 ilk day justyng of Wer. And scrymming. “Every day skirmishing by those who wished to skirmish” (Le Bel, 67). Cf. throughout Froissart, ch. xviii.

527 on the nynt day. “The first night that our lords were lodged upon this (second) mountain” (Le Bel, p. 67). In Scala. apparently the third night (p. 155).

533 V. hundreth. “Two hundred men-at-arms” (Le Bel, p. 67). “A few” (Lanercost, 260; Gesta Edw., 96).

534 in the night. “About midnight” (Le Bel).

535 so fer he raid. “He passed this river a good distance (bien loin) from our host” (Le Bel).

538 slely can he ryd. “Wherefore no one perceived him” (Le Bel).

541 hew rapys. See below on 561.

550 no vachis. “He suddenly passed through the sentinels of the English” (Gesta Edw., pp. 96-7).

560 He ruschit on thame hardely. He fell on the English host most boldly, crying: “Douglas! Douglas! you shall die all, lords of England” (Le Bel, ibid.). In Froissart it becomes “thieves of England” (Berners, Johnes), a version due, apparently, to Froissart’s later re-editing of his own work. In Lettenhove’s edition (1863) it is “’Glas, ’Glas” (i., p. 102). Knighton says that when Douglas was seen by some English he began to cry in English (Anglica voce), “‘No warde a seynt Jorge!’ as if he were an Englishman” (i. 445).

561 doune he bare. Le Bel (Froissart) says Douglas got so far that “he cut two or three cords of the King’s tent.” “He penetrated (intravit) a great part of the army of the King, and came nearly to the King’s tent” (Lanercost, 260). “He passed through the midst of the English army” (Gesta Edwardi, 97).

565 Thai stabbit, stekit, and thai slew. “They began, he and his company, to make a great attack. (À faire une grand envaïe et à coper et mehagnier gens et à abatre (car ce fus sus le point dou premier somme) et porterent grand damage a l’oost” (Froissart in Vatican MS., ed. Lettenhove, i., chap, xxxiii., p. 102. 1863).

567 A felloun slauchtir. “Douglas and his company slew more than three hundred” (Le Bel). “Some he slew, some took captive” (Gesta Edw., p. 97). They “slew a great part of the people of the Earls” (Scala., p. 155).

568 liand nakit. I.e., unarmoured. “And he slew or he seased ccc. men, some in their beddes, and some skant redy” (from Berner’s Froissart, but not in Johnes nor in any of the known editions of Froissart nor in Le Bel; not, however, a very unusual exercise of the imagination). Barbour’s descriptive detail is evidently due to his information. “He gave very many a rude awakening” (plurimos terribiliter evigilavit. Gesta Edw., p. 97). “On his return he slew many in their amazement” (attonitos. Lanercost, 260).

577 That lord, etc. I.e., “First one lord and then another was aroused.”

614 cummyn ar thai. “He himself (Douglas) returned unhurt to his own army” (Gesta Edw., 97); “with very great difficulty” (Knighton, i. 445).

638 ilk day growis. Edward was still summoning men to his host. Such a summons is dated at Stanhope, August 3 (Bain, No. 929).

639 vattale has. Le Bel, on the contrary, says the English army was suffering severely from want of food, and that provisions were at a famine price (toudis avions nous paour de plus grand famine, pp. 66-68). The final Froissart does not have these passages, but suggests the same thing (p. 24). The Lanercost chronicler speaks of their failing victuals (p. 259).

644 Sic as we haf. See notes on 405 and 735. Le Bel says the English expected the Scots would be forced by famine to make a night attack (p. 68; Froissart, Johnes, p. 24).

657 A nycht. “One night.”

667 thou mon heir out. “You can get out only here.”

712 thai sall let thame trumpit ill. Evidently in allusion to line 680. “Trumpeting” seems to have been the prelude to any operation. Or the phrase may be in French idiom, introducing the verb tromper, to deceive, which, however, would be unusual for Barbour.

731 blew hornys and fyres maid. Cf. note on 482.

735 the nycht wes fallyn. According to Le Bel, a Scottish knight was that day captured, who, much against his will, informed them that in the morning the Scots lords had arranged that every man was to be armed at vespers (68), and that each was to follow the banner of Douglas wherever he should go, and that every man was to keep it secret; but the Scots knight did not know for certain what their purpose was. The English judged that the Scots, forced by unendurable famine, were about to make an attack on their host (p. 68). Next day it was found that the Scots had departed “before midnight” (p. 69), “leaving the park by night” (Gesta Edw., p. 97). Certain allusions would lead us to infer that the English had, to some extent, got round the Scots. Le Bel declares that the Scots were thought to be planning an attempt to break through the English on two sides (brisier nostre ost à deux costés, pp. 68-9). The Lanercost writer says the Scots got away to their own country “by moving round the army of the King” (circueundo regis exercitum versus Scotiam pertransirent, p. 259). They were surrounded, according to Knighton (i., 445). Cf. also extract 957 from Bain in note on 490, and lines 800, 801. Le Bel says that he and some “companions” had to cross the river next day to get to the Scottish encampment, where they found abundance of beef in various forms. The account in the Scalacronica is simply that, the third night after the Douglas affair, the Scots broke camp and marched to their own country (Scala., p. 155). Several English chroniclers attribute the escape of the Scots to treachery on their own side (Murimuth, 53, 64; Knighton, i. 445; Gesta Edw., 97, etc.).

746 summer. “Sumpter-horse,” as, with a different spelling, in Wallace, iv. 53; “Thar tyryt sowmir so left thai in-to playne.”

766-7 till consale, etc. “When the lords heard this they took counsel ... and said that to chase after the Scots would profit them nothing, for they could not be overtaken” (Le Bel, p. 69).

770 Kyng Robert than. If so, Bruce must have hurried back from Ireland, for on July 12 he granted a truce of one year to the people of Ulster (Bain, iii. 922). This Irish campaign appears to have been a failure (ibid., 1191). These are our only allusions to it. In Scala. it is said that it was the Earls who heard they were besieged (p. 155).

774 tuenty thousand. “Five thousand” (Scala., p. 155).

776 Marche and Angous. “Patrick, Earl of March, and John the Steward, who styled himself Earl of Angous” (Scala., p. 155). March (cf. note on Bk. XI. 46) had joined the Scots some time before February, 1317 (Bain, iii. 536). Sir John Stewart of Boncle, or Bonkill, son of Sir Alexander (see on Bk. IX. 692), was created Earl of Angus by Bruce (Scots Peerage, i. 169).

781 the sammyn day. “The very day of their departure” (Scala., 155).

798 Had vittale with thame. On the contrary, Gray declares that if they had had enough provisions they would have gone back; they were such fierce warriors (p. 155).

Book XX

1 Soyne eftir. “Not long after” (nec multum post. Gesta Edw., p. 97). It was “lately,” on September 22, 1327 (Northern Registers, p. 344).

5 A gret host. “With a great army” (North. Reg., p. 344).

7 to Norhame. Besieged Norham Castle (ibid.; also Fœdera, iii., p. 975; and Scala., p. 155). Robert himself was at Norham (Scala.). For this and next note, cf. Scotichronicon, ii., p. 288.

10 Awnwyk. Alnwick. “Besieged the castle of Alnwick for more than fifteen days” (Gesta Edw., p. 97). Alnwick besieged by Moray and Douglas (Scala., 155).

15 mony fair gud chevelry. At Alnwick “there were great jousts of war by formal agreement” (estoient grantz joustes de guere par covenaunt taille. Scala., p. 155).

23-25 The landis of Northumberland ... gaf he. “And lands, it is claimed, within the kingdom of England, the said King Robert confers on certain of his followers, and causes charters to be prepared for the grantees” (North. Reg., p. 344; cf. “thai payit for the seliys fee”).

27 raid he destroyand. The Scots “destroyed Northumberland almost entirely, except the castles, and remained there a long time” (Lanercost, p. 260).

31 Ledaris of hym. “The Queen and Mortimer arranged everything” (la royne et le Mortimer le firent tout, Scala., 156). “By the evil advice of his mother and Roger, Lord of Mortimer” (Lanercost, p. 261); “his mother then ruled the whole kingdom” (ibid.).

33 Send messyngers. The “messengers” (nuntios; in Acts., messages) and procurators of the King of England were the Bishops of Lincoln and Norwich, Henry Percy, William of Ashby-de-la-Zouch (a Mortimer), and Geoffrey Scrope. The negotiations took place at Edinburgh, and were concluded March 17, 1328 (Gesta Edw., p. 98; Acts Parl. Scot., i., p. 124). A parliament at Northampton finally agreed to the treaty, May 4, 1328 (Exchequer Rolls, i. ciii.).

38 fiff yheir ... scarsly. David Bruce was born on March 5, 1324.

39 Johane ... of the Tour. Having been born in the Tower of London. “Johanam de Turre” (Lanercost, p. 261); “Johannam de Turribus” (Scotich., ii., p. 290).

43 sevin yher. Born 1321.

44 monymentis and lettrys ser. Especially the Ragman Roll (Icelandic, ragmanr, a coward?), containing a list of the homages to Edward on August 28, 1296, at Berwick, by the churchmen, earls, barons, knights, burgesses, and whole community of Scotland, as well as earlier submissions (Bain, ii. xxv., pp. 193-214; cf. also Lanercost, p. 261; Knighton, i. 448-9; Scotichr., ii., p. 289; Baker, p. 103). Baker says the Roll was publicly burned at the marriage at Berwick (ibid.). The only copies of it that exist are in the Tower Rolls (Bain, ibid.), with portions of the original instruments of homage; so that this stipulation was never carried out (Acts Parl. Scot., i., p. 19).

48 all the clame. “Omnem clameum (sic) seu demandam” (Lanercost, p. 261). Cf. for terms of the “Relaxation of Superiority.” Fœdera, iv., p. 338; York, May 1, 1328.

53 Fully xx thousand pund. Twenty thousand pounds sterling to be paid in three years (Acts Parl. Scot., i., p. 125). Fordun says 30,000 marks out of King Robert’s “mere goodwill,” in compensation for English losses (Gesta Annalia, cxli.). The last payment was in 1331 (Excheq. Rolls, cx.).

67 for the mangery. The Exchequer Rolls, I, cxiv.-cxvii., contain a long list of purchases in the Low Countries for the household of the young people--food, furniture, utensils, etc.

73 male es. Fr. mal aise, illness. According to Le Bel, Bruce was suffering from the “great sickness” (la grosse maladie) in 1327 (p. 48; see also 79). The Lanercost chronicler says it was leprosy (factus fuerat leprosus, p. 259). Johnes translates Froissart’s “grosse maladie” as leprosy (i. 18, 26).

79 Cardross. On the Clyde, half way between Dumbarton and Helensburgh, acquired by the King in 1326 in exchange for other lands (Exchequer Rolls, I., cxix.).

83 To Berwik. The marriage took place on Sunday, July 19, 1328 (Lanercost, p. 261); July 17 (Gesta Annalia, cxlii.).

85 the Queyne and Mortymer. Edward III. himself was not present (Lanercost, p. 261).

125 At that parliament. The arrangement as to the succession of the Steward and a possible regency were made in a parliament of 1318. Randolph was to be regent, and, failing him, Douglas (Acts Parl., i. 105). Barbour divides the regency; Fordun makes no mention of this (Gesta Annalia, cxxxix.).

*129 Maid hym manrent and fewte. Some such ceremony in all likelihood did take place; Barbour’s statement is not to be rejected lightly. Le Bel (Froissart) says that when the King felt the approach of death he summoned his barons (see below), and charged them, on their fealty, to guard loyally the kingdom for his own David, and when he came of age obey him, and crown him King, and marry him suitably--in which last detail Le Bel is, of course, astray (p. 79; Johnes, i. 27).

151 Till Cardross went. He had paid a visit to Galloway, and was at Glenluce on March 29, 1329.

158 For the lordis. See note on 129.

167 Lordingis. An alternative account of this speech and of the whole circumstances up to the death of Douglas is given by Le Bel (ch. xxv.), and adapted from him by Froissart (Johnes, i., ch. xx.). Divergencies or close parallels are noted as they occur. See on these Appendix, F. vi. Baker also has a brief account, citing, as a witness of the doings of Douglas in Spain, Thomas Livingstone, a Carmelite friar, at that time a civilian serving under his command in the Christian army (p. 104).

177 my trespass. This sounds like a clerical interpretation; cf. Bk. II. 43-5 for a similar comment. In Le Bel Bruce opens with the remark that all knew that he had much to do in his time, and had suffered much to maintain the rights of this kingdom (as cited).

178 my hert fyschit firmly was. “I made a vow which I have not accomplished and which weighs upon me” (Le Bel). “I vowed,” etc. (Baker, p. 105).

181 to travell apon Goddis fayis. “To make war upon the enemies of our Lord and the adversaries of the Christian faith beyond the sea” (Le Bel). Froissart does not have the closing phrase. “That I would fight with my body against the enemies of Christ” (Baker, p. 105).

183-5 the body may on na wis, etc. “Since my body is not able to go or accomplish that which the heart has so long desired, I wish to send the heart for the body to make satisfaction for me and my wish” (pour moy et pour mon vueil acquittier. Le Bel, 1904, I., chap. xv.); “to fulfil my vow” (pour mon voeu achever. Froissart); “Because alive I shall not be able”--i.e., to go (Baker, 105).

188 cheis me ane. Le Bel and Baker represent Bruce as himself choosing Douglas for the mission; so, too, does Bower (Scotichr., ii., p. 300).

191-2 On Goddis fayis, etc. Cf. above on line 181. Le Bel gives the commission differently and in fuller detail: “That you take my heart and have it embalmed, and take as much of my treasure as will seem good to you for performing the journey, for yourself and all those whom you will wish to bring with you; and that you will carry my heart to the Holy Sepulchre, where our Lord was buried, since the body is not able to go thither; and that you do it as magnificently (si grandement) and as well provided with all things and with attendance sufficient, as belongs to your estate; and wherever you come let it be known that you carry as a commission (comme message) the heart of the King of Scotland for the reason that his body cannot go thither.” In Johnes it is, from Froissart, “you will deposit your charge at the Holy Sepulchre”; in Berners, “present my heart to the H.S.” The Vatican (final) MS. of Froissart, however, has “that you carry (the heart) beyond the sea against the heathen (mescreans) and as far as to the Holy Sepulchre and leave it there, if you have the fortune to go so far” (si l’aventure poes avoir d’aler si avant, Lettenhove, I., chap. xxxviii., p. 119). Bain summarizes a Protection “for seven years,” given by Edward III. on September 1, 1329, for James Douglas, “on his way to the Holy Land with the heart of the late Robert K. of Scotland, in aid of the Christians against the Saracens” (No. 991); who also, on the same date, commends Douglas, on this mission, to Alfonso K. of Castile, Leon, etc. (990). In the Pope’s absolution for the ecclesiastical offence of mutilating a dead body, dated at Avignon, August 6, 1331, which, of course, proceeds on a narrative furnished from Scotland, it is explained that King Robert had expressly commanded that “his heart should be carried in battle against the Saracens” (in bello contra Saracenos portaretur), and that, in accordance with the wish of the King himself, it was carried by Douglas into Spain in battle against the said Saracens (Theiner, Vetera Monumenta, No. 498). Baker has it, “that you carry my heart against the enemies of the name of Christ to Gardiavia on the frontier” (ad fronterii Gardiaviam, p. 105). Later chroniclers distort the details somewhat, Bower alleging that the heart was to be buried in Jerusalem, and sending both Alfonso and Douglas to the Holy Land; referring the reader, nevertheless, to “Barbour’s Bruce” (“Barbarii Broisacus,” Scotichr., ii., p. 301); while the Book of Pluscarden simply paraphrases Bower, expanding the reference to the Bruce (legendam dicti excellentissimi principis in nostro vulgari compositam). Cf. also note in Brown’s Wallace and Bruce, pp. 136-7, where, however, Mr. Brown’s hand is being forced by his theory. Doubtless Bruce’s words might be alternatively interpreted; but, from what we know of Douglas, we may conclude that he fulfilled his commission to the letter, and that Barbour is, so far, right. The Vatican Froissart shows us how, also, the confusion arose. Scott, in his final note on The Abbot, prints a commendation (May 19, 1329) of Melrose Abbey by Bruce to his son David and his successors, in which he says that he has arranged that his heart should be buried there, but makes no mention of a prior destination. Edward I. also had “bequeathed” his heart to the Holy Sepulchre (Trivet, p. 413; Wright’s Political Songs, p. 247).

197 greting. “All those who were there began to weep with much compassion” (Le Bel).

212 his bounty. “I shall now die in peace, when I know that the most suitable man in my kingdom and the most worthy will perform that which I have not been able to perform” (Le Bel).

223-231 “Noble sire, a hundred thousand thanks for the great honour you do me, when you charge and entrust to me so noble and so great a thing and such a treasure; and I shall do very willingly what you command concerning your heart, doubt it not, to the best of my power” (Le Bel). In Baker, “I swear by the heart of Jesus Christ that I shall carry your heart as you have asked me and die fighting with the cursed enemies” (contra prædamnatos hostes moriturum, p. 105).

253 he wes ded. June 7, 1339, aged fifty-four years and eleven months.

276 all for his persoune. This, as may be gathered from all that here precedes, was fully the case. Le Bel, in his earliest reference (ch. i.), refers to him as “the noble King Robert the Bruce, who was King of Scots, and had given often so much trouble to the good King Edward, spoken of above” (Edward I.); and later says that from their exploits these two Kings were reputed “the two most worthy in the world” (p. 107). On the English side: “Indeed, I would speak of Lord Robert the Bruce with the greatest praise, did not the guilt of his homicide and the knowledge of his treason compel me to be silent,” and the writer drops into a couplet to the same effect (Vita Edw. Sec., p. 166). Baker is of the same mind; Bruce was “every inch a soldier” (per omnia militarem), save that he was disloyal to his natural lord, which no knight should be (p. 101).

286 bawlmyt syne. According to Le Bel, the heart was taken out and embalmed (p. 81).

292 solempnly erdit syne. “He was buried in the honourable manner that became him, according to the usage of the country” (Le Bel, ibid.). Froissart adds that “he lies in Dunfermline Abbey.” His skeleton was brought to light in digging in the Abbey in 1819, showing the breastbone sawn up to get at the heart. It is that of a man about six feet high. The mass of the wide, capacious head is to the rear, and the forehead is rather low; the marks of the muscles on the head and neck are very pronounced, and the cheekbones particularly strong and prominent. Four front teeth in the upper jaw are missing, three, apparently, as the result of a blow, the socket being much fractured. The lower jaw is exceptionally strong and deep. For full details see Archæol. Scot., vol. ii., pp. 435-453. The fair toume was brought from Paris to Bruges, and thence, by England, to Dunfermline; the expense of this conveyance and of many other items in connection with the interment are to be found in the Exchequer Rolls, vol. i.

318 To schip till Berwik. “En Escoce” (Le Bel, i., p. 83); “Montrose,” adds Froissart (Lettenhove, I., chap. xxxix.)

324 the Grunye of Spanyhe. Bain makes this comment, reading Grunye from E. “The ‘Grunye’ is probably Coruna, called by sailors the ‘Groyne.’ Mr. Skeat’s text makes the word ‘grund,’ taking no notice of the other reading” (iii., p. xxxvii, note). Le Bel takes Douglas first to Sluys in Flanders, making him hear in that port of the operations in Spain (p. 84). In Sluys, he says, he hoped to meet with some going to Jerusalem (p. 83).

326 Sebell the Graunt. Seville the Grand, on the Guadalquiver. “First at the port of Valence (Valentia) la Grande” (Le Bel, 84). Seville was then the base of operations against the Moors.

336-7 a fair company, And gold eneuch. According to Le Bel, Douglas had with him the knight-banneret and six others of the most distinguished men of his country. His plate was of silver (and gold, adds Froissart), and all of his own rank who visited him at Sluys were treated to two kinds of wine and two kinds of spices (ch. xvi.; Johnes, i., ch. xx.).

338 The Kyng. Alphonso XI. of Castile and Leon, to whom Douglas had been commended by Edward III.; see note on 190. There was another Alphonso, IV. of Arragon, but he gave no assistance on this occasion (Mariana, Bk. xv., ch. x., p. 255).

361 The Inglis knychtis. Prussia and Spain were the favourite resorts of English knights anxious to war against the infidels. Chaucer’s knight had been in both countries on this errand (Prologue, 53-56).

393 Balmeryne. A Moorish kingdom in Africa; or, more correctly, of the reigning dynasty, the Banu-Marin. In Chaucer’s Prologue it is “Belmarye” (line 57); in Froissart the name appears more correctly as Bellemarie (Johnes, ii., p. 484; Letten., I., p. 121, chap. xxxix.).

401 The vaward. In Le Bel (Froissart) Douglas betakes himself to one of the wings “the better to do his business and display his power” (son effort, p. 84).

402 the strangeris with him weir. So we gather also from Baker, whose informant served under Douglas. Cf. note on 167.

403 mastir of Saint Jak. The Master, or head, of the Order of St. James.

407 To mete their fayis. On March 25, 1330, at Tebas de Hardales, a strong town in Granada (Mariana, Bk. xv., ch. x., p. 255). Fordun, however, dates the battle August 25 (cxliv.).

*421-32 Bot ere they joyned, etc. See on these lines Appendix D.

431 So fer chassit. The account in Le Bel is to the effect that Douglas attacked prematurely, thinking that Alphonso was about to do so, and that he was being followed up. But Alphonso did not move for the reason, we learn from Mariana, that the frontal attack of Moorish cavalry was but a feint, and that the real attack, as the King said, was to be in the rear on the Christian camp (Le Bel, p. 84; Mariana, as cited). Alphonso was better acquainted than Douglas with the Moorish methods of fighting. Fordun’s narrative is that Douglas and his company were cut off by an ambuscade which, though superior in numbers, they readily attacked (Gesta Annalia, cxliv.).

440 That relyit. I.e., the Moors rallied. It was their usual tactics to attempt to draw after them a body of the enemy in pursuit, and then surround the pursuers.

467 ilkane war slayn thar. “Not a single one of them escaped, but they were all slain” (Le Bel, p. 84).

521 the leill Fabricius. Roman consul, 278 B.C. A traitor offered to poison Pyrrhus, but the Roman refused the proposal, and sent information to Pyrrhus (Plutarch).

585 the kirk of Dowglas. St. Brides, Douglas.

587 Schir Archibald his sone. Skeat, in his note on this passage, is all astray. He says that Douglas was never married, that he left only a natural son William, and that this Archibald was his third or youngest brother. But Sir William Fraser is of opinion that Sir James was married, though Sir Herbert Maxwell doubts, and certainly no record of it survives; but he was succeeded in the estates by William, while his brother Archibald “Tineman” (Loser) was killed at Halidon Hill in 1333. He, however, had another son, certainly illegitimate, the Archibald referred to here, who succeeded in 1388 as third Earl of Douglas, and died, after a varied career, in 1400 (Fraser’s Douglas Book, I., 188-9; Scalacronica; Maxwell’s History of the House of Douglas, i., p. 67 and 114-124; Acts Parl., i. 193-4; Reg. Mag. Sig., i., p. 177). Archibald was known as “the Grim.” Mr. Brown cites Fraser to the effect that Archibald erected the tomb “probably about the year 1390, after his succession as third Earl of Douglas” (Douglas Book, I., p. 181); and adds the proposition that he could not have done so before his succession, because, according to the Book of Pluscarden (1462), his friends “held him in small account because he was a bastard,” and because his succession to the estates was disputed (Acts Parl. Scot., i., p. 194; The Wallace and Bruce, pp. 154-5). Mr. Brown’s contention, therefore, is that the statement in the text could not have been penned by Barbour in 1375, and that it is not due to him, but to his redactor. The reasoning is not all conclusive; against the plain statement of Barbour there is only an assumption on Fraser’s part, and inferences on the part of Mr. Brown which are not necessarily contained in his premisses. Archibald was, no doubt, only a child when his father was killed; but he became Lord of Galloway in 1369, and Earl of Wigtown in 1372. What was there to prevent his erecting a tomb for his distinguished father, except a delicacy of feeling on the side of the “legitimates,” which is rather modern than late mediæval? Archibald bought his earldom, built and endowed a hospital near Dumfries, erected Thrieve Castle, and had extensive lands in various parts of Scotland, so that he must have been a man of considerable wealth, besides being, as Warden, the most important figure on the Border. Who or what was then to prevent him honouring the congenial memory of his great father before 1375-6?

600 Melros. Cf. note on 191-2.

604 And held the pure weill to warrand. I.e., “And carefully guarded or looked after the interests of the poor.”

609 poysonyt was he. Moray died at Musselburgh, July 20, 1332. Fordun says nothing of poisoning (Gesta Annalia, cxlvi.). But there appears to have been a popular story to this effect, to which, later, was added the detail that his poisoner was an English monk (Scotichr., ii., lib. xiii., ch. xix.). Moray died of the stone from which he suffered towards the close of his life; the rest Hailes considered “a silly popular tale” (Annals, vol. iii., App. 2).

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

THE SITE OF THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN

It will be noticed that the conception of this battle, alike as to position and tactics, elaborated in the notes in strict conformity with Barbour, differs entirely from that now universally accepted. The engagements of the first day (Sunday) were the outcome of attempts to clear the two paths of approach to Stirling--that through the New Park, and the other on the level below St. Ninians. Both failed, and the means by which their failure was brought about determined the operations of the following day (Monday). This main engagement, however, it has been hitherto held, took place on the banks of the Burn, below or in the neighbourhood of Brock’s Brae, with the Burn separating the forces. This is pure misconception. There can be no doubt that the battle was fought on a position roughly at right angles to this--on “the playne,” “the hard feld,” or level ground east of St. Ninians, reaching back into the angle formed by the Forth and the Bannock. The main data for such a conclusion are these: (1) The English passed the night on the Carse, having crossed the Bannock; (2) the Scots attacked early next morning, and to do this “tuk the playne,” leaving their camp-followers in the Park, so that they astonished the English by their audacity; (3) in the rout many English were drowned in the Forth and in the Bannock; (4) Edward II., unable to get away, fled to the castle; (5) so did many of his men, as the castle “wes ner.” These facts, fully substantiated from both sides, are wholly inconsistent with a site of battle south of St. Ninians, and fix its position between the Forth and the Bannock. Barbour’s “pools” are the “polles” in which, according to Hemingburgh,[57] the English baggage was bogged and captured after the battle of Stirling Bridge. The English and French (and Irish) chroniclers invariably speak of the battle as that of “Stirling,” and Trokelowe calls it the Battle of Bannockmoor. For a full discussion of the matter, see my paper on “The Real Bannockburn” in Proceedings of the Glasgow Archæological Society, 1908-1909.

[57] Vol. ii., p. 140.Return to passage

APPENDIX B

BRUCE’S SPEECH AT BANNOCKBURN

XII. 210-327

It is the privilege of early historians to equip their leading personages with speeches, and in its pertinent, practical character the speech here provided for King Robert is a good example of such--so good, indeed, as to suggest the probability that Barbour is working up some transmitted material. There is on record another speech attributed to Bruce, which formed part of a Latin poem on Bannockburn by Abbot Bernard of Arbroath, Bruce’s Chancellor, portions of which are quoted in the Scotichronicon.[58] This speech consists of twenty-five hexameter lines, and is a rhetorical flourish on Scottish liberty, the miseries inflicted by the English on the country, and the hapless condition of “mother Church,” closing in strains of ecclesiastical exhortation. Moreover, it immediately precedes the opening of the battle, while Barbour’s version is of the evening before. In the latter a special interest attaches to lines 263-268 and 303-317, which may be compared with the following extracts from a speech by Alexander the Great in The Vowes, one of the three romances which make up the Scottish Buik of Alexander, the translation of which from the French was probably the work of Barbour himself.[59] Alexander says:

“Be thay assailyeit hardely, And encountered egerly, The formest cumis ye sall se, The hindmest sall abased be.

* * * * *

Forthy I pray ilk man that he Nocht covetous na yarnand be, To tak na ryches that thay wald, Bot wyn of deidly fais the fald; Fra thay be winnin all wit ye weill The gudis are ouris ever ilk deill; And I quyteclame yow utrely Baith gold and silver halely, And all the riches that thaires is, The honour will I have I wis.”[60]

[58] Lib. xii., chap. xxi.

[59] See Appendix E.

[60] P. 318.

To the same purport as these latter lines is a portion of a subsequent address;[61] and lines 325, 334 find a similar parallel in:

“Thus armit all the nicht thay lay, Quhile on the morne that it was day.”[62]

Of the cardinal sentiment in the speech, the origin is probably to be found in the familiar story of the Maccabees, referred to more than once in The Bruce. Judas Maccabeus was one of the typical heroes of French romance, and had one metrical romance, at least, devoted to his career. And in 1 Maccabees, chap. iv., we have:

“17. (Judas) said to the people, Be not greedy of the spoils, inasmuch as there is a battle before us.

“18. And Gorgias and his host are here by us in the mountain; but stand ye now against our enemies, and overcome them, and after this ye may boldly take the spoils.”[63]

[61] P. 339.

[62] P. 350, lines 12, 13.

[63] Cf. also Neilson on The Real “Scots Wha Hae” in Scottish Antiquary, vol. xiv., No. 53, July, 1899.

APPENDIX C

THE NUMBERS AT BANNOCKBURN

ENGLISH: One hundred thousand men and ma.

SCOTS: Thretty thousand, and sum deill mare.

These figures have given rise to much discussion, without any very certain result. Yet official data are not wanting--sufficient, at least, to check what is only another example of the wild conjectures of mediæval chroniclers when dealing with numbers. Hemingburgh gives Wallace at Falkirk “about three hundred thousand men”[64]--rather more, probably, than the whole male population of Scotland. We need not be surprised, then, at how all such estimates shrink in the cold light of Exchequer figures.

[64] II. p. 180.

Edward II. summoned all owing him military service,[65] which corroborates the statement of the author of the Vita Edw. Sec. that “the King exacted from all the service due,”[66] as well as that of Barbour--“of England hale the chivalry.” The Earls of Lancaster, Warenne, Arundel, and Warwick did not attend, for a particular reason, but sent their contingents.[67] Now, by Mr. Round’s calculations, the whole number of knights’ fees in England did not exceed 5,000;[68] Mr. Morris raises the figure to something short of 7,000.[69] The important point is, however, that in practice the assessment was only a nominal or conventional one. Thus Gloucester, with 455 fees, was assessed at ten knights.[70] Including all grades of horsemen, Mr. Morris puts “the maximum of the cavalry arm” at “about 8,000”; but, all things considered, no such number could ever take the field.[71] Edward I. had summoned his full feudal array (omnes sui fideles) for the Falkirk campaign, and Hemingburgh says that, when counted, it came to 3,000 men on armoured horses (Barbour’s “helit hors”), and more than 4,000 on unarmoured horses--say, roughly, 7,000 in all.[72] Mr. Morris, however, by a generous calculation from the rolls, arrives at 2,400 as the highest possible figure.[73] Now, it is to be noted that the author of the Vita Edw. Sec., while lauding the size and magnificence of the host that went to Bannockburn, gives 2,000 men-at-arms as apparently the total of the cavalry, since he simply adds “a considerable body of footmen.”[74] On the whole, 3,000 to 4,000 English horse is a higher limit for Bannockburn, when we consider all the difficulties of sufficient armour, remounts, and forage. Mr. Morris thinks 10,000 “impossible,” though he is here calculating on yards of frontage on a site where the battle was not fought.[75] About 7,000 is Mr. Round’s free estimate, adopting Hemingburgh’s figure for Falkirk.[76] Bain accepts Barbour’s 3,000 heavy horsemen, and suggests 10,000 light horse, but proceeds on no data.[77] Mr. Oman calculates that “three thousand ‘equites coperti,’ men-at-arms on barded horses,” means, probably, 10,000 for the whole cavalry,[78] but this traverses his Falkirk figures. England never put, nor could maintain, on the field such a mounted force, to say nothing of the difficulty of handling and manœuvring it.

[65] Fœdera, iii., p. 464, etc.

[66] P. 201.

[67] Vita Edw., p. 201.

[68] Feudal England, p. 292.

[69] The Welsh Wars of Edward I., p. 41.

[70] Welsh Wars, p. 59.

[71] Ibid., pp. 81, 82.

[72] II. p. 173.

[73] Welsh Wars, p. 292.

[74] Peditum turba copiosa, p. 201.

[75] Engl. Hist. Rev., vol. xiv., p. 133. Cf. Appendix A.

[76] Bannockburn in The Commune of London, p. 298.

[77] Calendar, iii., p. xxi.

[78] Art of War, p. 575 note.

For the foot we have, fortunately, exact figures in the Fœdera[79]--21,540 men all told, which would include the archers. Only the northern counties--but not all--and Wales are drawn upon, as those of the south would be for a French campaign.[80] Such had been the practice of Edward I., whose levies from the northern counties and Wales ranged from 29,400 foot in 1297 to 12,000 in 1301.[81] Mr. Morris contends that not till 1322 were infantry drawn from all England for a Scottish campaign (as cited), but in this he is wrong. It was done by a special vote of Parliament, and according to a prescribed form, as early as March, 1316, when every township, with some special exceptions, furnished one soldier,[82] and again in 1318.[83] These are clearly new and special arrangements, and there is thus no reason to believe that the list in Fœdera, etc., is not complete, as Mr. Oman suggests, adding, accordingly, a southern contingent of about 30,000 men, though he doubts if “the extreme South” sent its full muster.[84] This is quite gratuitous. Lord Hailes, too, contended that the official records are imperfect, and that the numbers given by Barbour “are within the limits of probability.”[85] Bain’s authoritative reply is that, “as a rule, the writs were always enrolled, and the Patent Rolls of the time are not defective.”[86] This, however, is not always true, and Bain, applying this principle absolutely, is once, at least, led to a wrong conclusion.[87]

[79] Vol. iii., p. 482, etc.; also in Rotuli Scotiæ, i., p. 127; and Parliamentary Writs, book ii., div. 2, p. 117.

[80] Cf. Commune of London, p. 296; Engl. Hist. Rev., xiv., p. 133.

[81] Bain, ii., Nos. 956, 1202, 1092, 1136.

[82] Writs as cited, pp. 176, 177.

[83] Trokelowe, p. 102; Rot. Scot., i., p. 183.

[84] Art of War, p. 573 and note.

[85] Annals, ii., p. 48.

[86] Calendar, iii., p. xx.

[87] See note on Book XVI., 285.

An important question now suggests itself, but no one has so far raised it: did the levies in these full numbers turn up? They are allotted in round figures: what proportion was actually furnished? That there would be some trouble in securing the conscripts is anticipated and provided for in severe measures for the contumacious.[88] This was usual, and even the strong hand of Edward I. could not prevent men from deserting after they had received their wages.[89] Here we have, also, a sufficient basis for an estimate. On May 12, 1301, Edward I. summoned for midsummer 12,000 men from nine of the counties included in the Bannockburn levy--York, as in that case, being assessed at 4,000.[90] On July 12 we have the numbers from these counties as they appear on the pay-roll, when it is stated that they had contributed in proportions which give only 5,501 all told; York having sent only 1,193, and Northumberland, assessed at 2,700, providing the largest proportion--2,019.[91] The numbers vary slightly on other days, but seem never to have exceeded, if they reached, 50 per cent. of the nominal levy. Mr. Morris works out the same result for the Caerlaverock Campaign of 1300.[92] There are no grounds for assuming that things went differently in 1314, and thus over 21,540 men are reduced by about half. It is quite a fair conclusion that not more than 12,000 English foot--which exceeds the proportion above--were actually present at Bannockburn.

[88] Writs, ii., p. 185.

[89] Palgrave, cxxvii.; Welsh Wars, pp. 95, 98.

[90] Bain, ii., No. 1202.

[91] Bain, ii., 1229.

[92] Welsh Wars, p. 301.

For the foreign contingents no figures exist. Bain thinks they were not “more than a few thousands.”[93] The Gascon corps in the Falkirk army should have been 106 mounted men.[94] The Hainault and Flanders auxiliaries who shared in the campaign of 1327 amounted to 550 men-at-arms, and were an expensive item.[95] The Irish contingent which came to Edward I. in 1304 amounted at most, for a few weeks only, to 3,500 men,[96] but to merely 361 in the army of 1300.[97]

[93] III., p. xxi.

[94] Welsh Wars, p. 289.

[95] Cf. Book XIX., 267 note.

[96] Bain, ii., p. xxxix, note.

[97] Welsh Wars, p. 301.

I would suggest, therefore, for the English army the following round numbers: 3,000 to 4,000 horse of all sorts, 12,000 English and Welsh foot, 3,000 (?) Irish, 1,500 (?) foreigners, or, in a lump sum, 20,000 men of all arms, to which must be added a crowd of non-combatants--servants, traders, and camp-followers generally. Bain (as cited) proposes 50,000; Round, 30,000; Oman, 60,000 to 70,000. I consider 18,000 to 20,000 the most probable range. With even the lower of these numbers, the English commanders in organization and commissariat would have rather more than they could manage.

Barbour’s figure for the Scottish army must be similarly reduced. More than 30,000 would be a huge proportion of the Scottish population of that time, especially as the whole does not seem to have been drawn upon, and of that, as Barbour insists, a good many were still hostile.[98] William the Lion was credited in 1173 with a national host of 1,000 armoured horsemen, and 30,000 unarmoured footmen,[99] and the latter unit is surely over the score. At Halidon Hill, 1333, the Scots are said to have had 1,174 knights and men-at-arms and 13,500 light-armed men or foot;[100] and this chronicler consistently exaggerates. Yet these figures represent a united kingdom. Forty thousand at Bannockburn is the estimate for the Scots of the Vita Edw. writer, but the English writers, on their side, grossly overstate the numbers of the enemy, as witness what is said of Hemingburgh above. Bain’s figure of 15,000 to 16,000 is no doubt nearer the mark; “perhaps twenty-five thousand men in all” is Mr. Oman’s conjecture.[101] Possibly 6,000 to 7,000 is as near as we can go, adopting Barbour’s ratio, which gives a proportion of 1 to 3 of the English army. The non-combatants here, too, would be numerous. Up to this time Bruce’s men in the field could be numbered only in hundreds, so that as many thousands would represent a very special effort. And note that after Murray’s success over Clifford nearly the whole Scots army gathered round him to see him and do him honour--a fact which is suggestive[102] as to its size.

[98] See note on 46.

[99] Chronique de Jordan Fantosme, lines 328-9.

[100] Hemingburgh, ii., pp. 308-9.

[101] Art of War, p. 575.

[102] XII. 159-164.Return to passage

APPENDIX D

THE THROWING OF THE HEART