Wars of independence of Scotland

The Guerres of independence of Scotland were a series of military campaigns which opposed the Scotland to the England during the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century.

The First War (1296 - 1328) began with the English invasion from Scotland and finished with the signature of the treated of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328. The Second War (1332 - 1357) burst during the invasion of Edouard Baliol, supported by the English, in 1332, and finished in 1357 with the signature of the Traité of Berwick. These wars belonged to a great national crisis for Scotland and the time became decisive for the history of the country. At the end of the two wars, Scotland maintained its statute of nation free and independent, which was its objective throughout the conflict. These wars were notable for other reasons, like the emergence of the long arc as a key component of the medieval Armement.

First War of independence: 1296-1328

Preliminary events

The king Alexandre {{Romanian|III|3}} of Scotland died in 1286, leaving his/her little girl Marguerite, old only 3 years, like heiress. In 1290, the Gardiens of Scotland signed the Traité of Birgham, authorizing the marriage of Marguerite and Edouard de Caernarvon, wire of Edouard {{Ier}} of England, this last being the great-uncle of Marguerite, thus creating a union between Scotland and England. The Scot insisted on the fact that the treaty preserved Scotland as country distinct from England like its law, its laws, its freedoms and its habits.

However, Marguerite, at the time of her voyage towards her new kingdom, died shortly after to have unloaded with the the Orkneys in the neighborhoods of the September 26th 1290. With its death, the dynasty of the Dunkeld dies out and thirteen applicants with the Throne made known themselves. The two principal ones were Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale, grandfather of the future king Robert {{Ier}}, and Jean Baliol, lord of Galloway. Fearing the bursting of a civil war between the two families, the Guards of Scotland asked Edouard 1st to come to be used as referee between the various applicants. This one saw an occasion awaited a long time there to conquer Scotland as it did it with the Wales and to reign thus on the entirety of the British Isles.

Edouard 1st was carried out and entered to Scotland in 1291, applicant to come as “a Lord Paramount ” (“ lord prépondérant ”) and to act to advise some with the succession of the Crown of Scotland and was recognized like such, which put the Scot in a fragile situation. All the time what lasted the meetings, Edouard 1st and its army remained in the vicinity in the event of disorders. It gave three weeks to the applicants to accept its conditions. Without king nor armed lends, the Scot had only little choice, and the applicants with the Throne recognized the king of England as a Lord Paramount and accepted the result of its deliberation. Their decision could be influenced by the fact that the majority of them had vast domains in England, that they would have consequently lost if they had defied Edouard 1st.

The June 11th, acting as a Lord Paramount of Scotland, Edouard 1st ordered that, “ temporairement ”, all the castles of Scotland are placed under its control and that the civils servant Scot are dislocated and their functions redefined by itself. Two days later, in Upsettlington, the noble principal Guards and the Scot gathered to swear allégence with the king Edouard 1st like their superior and Lord Paramount . All the Scot also had to pay homage to Edouard 1st, either in person, or in a center spécifé before the July 27th 1291.

There were thirteen meetings from May in August 1291 with Berwick, during which the applicants pled to justify their claim in front of Edouard 1st in what later on was known under the name of “ Great Causes ”. The claims of the majority of the applicants were rejected because of their illegitimate descent and the choice was done between Jean Baliol, Robert Bruce and Jean de Hastings. This last wished that the kingdom was divided into three equal shares, for each one, while the two applicants objected that the country was to remain indivisible. The Scot wanted obviously to keep their linked nation, and Jean de Hastings was put at the variation. The August 3rd, Edouard 1st required of Jean Baliol and Robert Bruce to choose forty referees while it would choose twenty-four of them, in order to solve the question, which was finally deferred until June 1292. To this date, the 104 referees did not agree on the name of the successor. There was a new pause until the October 10th 1292, date on which Edouard 1st convainquit the referees that as a Lord Paramount of Scotland, he had the right to allot the Crown of Scotland as he would make it for a county or a baronnie.

He chooses Jean Baliol the November 17th 1292, and this one was crowned king the November 30th with the abbey of Scone. The December 26th, to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne, king Jean paid homage to Edouard 1st for the kingdom of Scotland. Edouard affirmed clearly thereafter that he regarded the country as his vassal. Jean Baliol was too weak to resist and the Scot were made indignant by the requests of Edouard 1st. In 1294, it convened Jean Baliol and ordered to him to provide Scottish troops for an invasion of the France before September 1st 1294.

On his return of Scotland, Jean Baliol met his council and after several days of stormy debates, a strategy was worked out to defy the orders of Edouard 1st. A few weeks later, the Parliament was gathered hastily and a council of war of twelve members (four counts, four barons and four bishops) was made up with an aim of advising the king.

Emissary were immediately sent to inform the king Philippe {{Rom|IV|4}} of France of the intentions of the English. They also negotiated a treaty in which the Scot would invade England if this one invaded France; France helping Scotland in return. This treaty would be sealed by the marriage arranged between Edouard Baliol, the son of Jean, and Jeanne de Valois, the niece of Philippe IV|4 . Another treaty, with the king Eric {{Romanian|II|2}} of Norway, was also concluded, in which, in exchange of the sum of 50 000 parts, Norway would provide hundred warships for four months of the year, as a long time as the conflict between France and England would last. Although Norway was never implied, the free-Scottish alliance, which will be known later on under the name of Auld Alliance (“ old woman alliance ”), until in 1560 will last.

Edouard 1st was not with the current of the negotiations between France and Scotland before 1295. At the beginning of ego of October, it started to make reinforce its northern border against a possible invasion of a reinvigorated Scottish army. It is at this period that Robert Bruce, 6th lord of Annandale and father of the king Robert {{Ier}}, was named leading castle of Carlisle. Edouard 1st ordered in Jean Baliol to give up his control on the castles and the burgh S of Berwick, Jedburgh and Roxburgh. In December, a militia of more than two hundred men was formed with the Newcastle-upon-Tyne and in March 1296, a naval fleet joined it.

The formation of English forces in the south of the anglo-Scottish border did not pass unperceived and was not left without answer. Jean Baliol asked all the Scot valid to take the weapons and to converge with Caddonlee, a city close to the border for the March 11th. Several noble Scot chose to be unaware of this request, in particular Robert Bruce, Count de Carrick, of which the father saw his possessions in Annandale confiscated and réattribuées with John Comyn, count of Buchan.

Beginning of the war: 1296-1306

detailed Article: First War of independence of Scotland (1296-1306) The First War of independence of Scotland can be divided into four phases: the victorious initial English invasion of 1296, campaigns carried out by William Wallace, Andrew de Moray and other Guardiens Scottish of 1297 to the tender of Scotland negotiated by John Comyn in February 1304, new campaigns of Robert Bruce between his crowning in 1306 and victory of the Scottish army with Bannockburn in 1314 and finally initiatives diplomatic and Scottish military campaigns in Scotland, Ireland and in the north of the England of 1314 to the signature of the treated of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328.

The war began with the bag of Berwick by Edouard 1st in March 1296, followed by the Scottish defeat to the battle of Dunbar and the Abdication of Jean Baliol in July. The English invasion subjected the broadest part of the country in August and, after the transport of the Pierre of the destiny of the abbey of Scone to that of Westminster, Edouard 1st convened the Parliament with Berwick, where noble the Scot paid homage as a king to him d' Angleterre. Scotland very safe was conquered.

The revolts which burst with the beginning of the year 1297, carried out by William Wallace, Andrew de Moray and other noble Scot, forced Edouard to send more troops and to negotiate with the Scot, and, although they succeeded in forcing the noble ones with the capitulation with Irvine, the ceaseless campaigns of William Wallace and Andrew de Moray led to the first Scottish victory, with Stirling Bridge; were followed from there several raids Scot in the north of England and the nomination of William Wallace in Gardien of Scotland in March 1298. In July however, Edouard 1st carried out a new invasion with an aim of crushing William Wallace and his following, and overcame the Scot with Falkirk. Even if Edouard 1st does not succeed in subjecting the entirety of Scotland before his return in England, the military reputation of William Wallace were ridiculed, and due to resign itself to living hidden and renonça with its statute of Guard.

Under king Robert Bruce: 1306-1314

Robert Bruce and Jean Comyn succeeded William Wallace, both as Gardien, like by William Lamberton, bishop of Saint Andrews, named in 1299 in order to maintain the order between them. During this year, the diplomatic pressures of France and Rome persuaded Edouard 1st to slacken king Jean by putting it under the supervision of the Pope; William Wallace was sent in France in order to seek the assistance of the king Philippe {{Rom|IV|perhaps 4}} and travelled to Rome. New campaigns of Edouard 1st in 1300 and 1301 led to a truce between the Scot and the English in 1302. After a last campaign in 1303 - 1304, the Castle of Stirling, the large last place-strong Scottish, fell to the hands from the English, and in February 1304, the negotiations conduirent the majority of noble remaining to pay homage to Edouard 1st and the Scot with very safe with rendering. There, Robert Bruce and William Lamberton tied an alliance with an aim of placing Bruce on the throne of Scotland and of continuing the fight.

After the capture and the execution of William Wallace in 1305, Scotland seemed to be finally conquered and revolts it alleviated. But in 1306, at the time of a meeting between the last two applicants with the Throne, Robert Bruce disputed with Jean Comyn and killed it. It seems that this last had broken an agreement between them and informed Edouard 1st of the royal intentions of Robert Bruce. This agreement stipulated that one of the two applicants would give up the Throne but would obtain grounds by supporting the other claiming. Jean Comyn had seems it thought of obtaining the grounds and the crown by betraying Robert Bruce. A transporting messenger of the documents written by Jean Comyn and intended for Edouard 1st was captured by partisans of Robert Bruce, implying it directly. This last then gathered the prelates Scot and the noble ones who always supported it and crowned King of the Scot with Scone and began then a new campaign to release its kingdom. After a military defeat, it was expelled of British Scotland as outlaw. Whereas it hid in a cave and that it thought of the abandonment of its cause, Robert Bruce, according to the legend, would have looked at a small spider trying to weave a wire through a too broad vacuum. Whereas it looked at, the spider persevered and it thought that it was stupid. Suddenly, the spider succeeds in joining the other side. Robert Bruce considered that as an encouragement in that which it was him to also persevere in spite of the circumstances. He ceased hiding in 1307 and, joined by Scot, he demolished the English in several battles. The number of its troops continued to grow, in particular because of the recent death of Edouard 1st, in July 1307.

De Bannockburn in Edinburgh-Northampton: 1314-1328

In 1320, the declaration of Arbroath was sent by a group of noble Scot to the Pape in order to present to him the independence of Scotland on England. Two similar declarations were also sent by the clergy and Robert {{Ier}}. In 1327, Edouard {{Romanian|II|2}} of England was détrôné and killed. The invasion of the north of England by Robert 1st forced the successor of Edouard II|2 , Edouard {{Romanian|III|3}}, to sign the treated of Edinburgh-Northampton on May 1st 1328, grateful de facto the independence of Scotland and its king Robert Bruce. In order to seal still this peace more, the son and heir to Robert 1st, David, Maria with the sister of Edouard III|3 .

The Second War of independence: 1332-1357

After the death of Robert Bruce, the king David {{Romanian|II|2}} was too young to be able to reign and Thomas Randolf, count de Moray became Gardien. However, Edouard III|3 , although it signed the treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, was given to wash humiliation that the Scot had made him undergo. To arrive to its ends, it could hope on the support of Edouard Baliol, the son of Jean Baliol and claiming with the Throne of Scotland.

Edouard III|3 also had supports it of a certain number of noble Scot, carried out by Edouard Baliol and Henry Beaumont, also known under the name of the “ déshérités ” ( the Disinherited ). These people had already supported the English during the First War of independence and, after the Bataille of Bannockburn, Robert Bruce had deprived them of their titles and their grounds to give them to its allies. When peace was restored, they did not accept any compensation. These disinherited wanted to find their possessions and will become those which will break peace.

The Count de Moray died the July 20th 1332. The Scottish nobility joined together with Perth where she elects Donald Mormaer, Count de Mar at the post of Guard. During this time, an small group directed by Edouard Baliol taken sea since the river Humber. Composed of noble disinherited and mercenaries, they were not in all probability not more few hundreds.

Edouard III|3 was always officially in peace with David II|2 and its negociations with Baliol were thus voluntarily discrete. It of course knew what it occurred and Baliol probably paid homage in secrecy before leaving, but the plan of the latter was condemned to the failure. Edouard thus refused the authorization to invade to him Scotland while crossing the river Tweed; the treaty would have been too obviously broken. It agreed to close the eyes on a maritime invasion but was clear in the fact that it would repudiate them and confiscate all their grounds in England if ever they failed.

Disinherited unloaded with Kinghorn on the Fife the August 6th. The news of their projection preceded them and, whereas they went on Perth, they found on their way a vast army, made up mainly of infantry, under the command of the new Guard.

At the time of the Battle of Dupplin Moor, the army of Edouard Baliol, directed by Henry Beaumont, overcame the forces Scottish, however more. Beaumont used the same tactics that the English made famous at the time of the Guerre One hundred Year old, with knights with foot in the center and archers on the sides. Taken under a meutrière rain of arrows, the majority of the Écossais soldiers did not reach the enemy line. When the massacre was finally finished, Donald Mormaer, Robert Bruce, an illegitimate son of Robert 1st, the many noble ones and approximately 2 000 Scot had perished. Edouard Baliol courrona then king of the Scot, initially in Perth, then with the Abbey of Scone in September. The success of this last surprised Edouard III|3 who decided to go to north accompanied by his army, fearing that the invasion of Baliol is not transformed into invasion of England by Scotland.

In October of the same year, Archibald Douglas, recently promoted Guard of Scotland, concludes a truce with Edouard Baliol in order to let the Scottish Parlement gather and decide which would be the king. Edouard Baliol then dismantled large his English troops and went to Annan, on the northern coast of the Solway Firth. He wrote two public letters, in which he affirms that with the assistance of England, he asserted his kingdom once again, and that Scotland was always a Fief of England. He also promised grounds for Edouard III|3 along the border, including Berwick-one-Tweed, and that it would serve it for the remainder of its life. However, in December, it was attacked by Archibald Douglas in Annan in the first hours of the day. The majority of its men were killed, but it succeeds in escaping and flees with horse, with half-vêtu, towards Carlisle.

In April 1333, Edouard III|3 and Edouard Baliol to establish the head office of Berwick with a strong English army. Archibald Douglas tried to deliver the in July city, but its army was overcome and killed to him with the Bataille of Halidon Hill. David II|2 and its queen were sent in safety in the Château of Dumbarton, while Berwick went and was annexed by England. At this time, the major part of the Scottish territory was under English occupation, and eight counties of the Lowlands yielded to England by Edouard Baliol.

With the beginning of the year 1334, the king of France Philippe {{Romanian|VI|6}} proposed in David II|2 asylum for him and its court, and in May this last arrived at France, by constituting its court in exile with Castle-Strapping man in Normandy. Philippe VI|6 also decided to include in the peace negotiations which had course then - France and England were implied in conflicts which will lead to the Guerre One hundred Year old - in order to include in very treated between France and England the king of the Scot in exile.

In the absence of David II|2 , several Guards continued the fight. In November, Edouard III|3 a new invasion tried but obtained only few conclusive results and ceased its attacks in February 1335, because of the bad weather. With Edouard Baliol, it returned once again in July, carrying out a strong army of 13 000 men, and advanced in the middle of Scotland, initially with Glasgow, then in Perth, where it settled while its army plundered and destroyed the countryside around. At that time, the Scot followed a plan according to which they were to avoid the pitched battles and to evacuate as much as possible the inhabitants of Lowlands to take refuge them in the hills, surer. Some Scot chiefs, in particular David de Strathbogie, the Count d' Atholl and Robert, the nephew of Robert {{Ier}} of Scotland, submitted themselves however to Edouard III|3 in Perth.

Once Edouard III|3 was turned over to England, the last chiefs of Scottish resistance chose Andrew Murray as Gardien. He quickly negotiated a trève with Edouard until in 1336 during which many French and papal emissary tried to make sign a peace between the two kingdoms. In January, the Scot proposed an outline of treaty in which they agreed to recognize Edouard Baliol, old and without child, as king if David II|2 was its successor and that this last left France to live in England. However, David II|2 refused this proposal and the next truces. In May, an English army carried out by Henry de Grosmont, Duc of Lancaster invades Scotland, followed by another army under the command of king Edouard III|3 . Together, they devastated a big part of the North-East of Scotland, ransacking Elgin and Aberdeen, while a third army made in the same way in the south-west and the valley of the Rivière Clyde. Pushed by this invasion, Philippe VI|6 from France stated that it would make any possible sound to help the Scot, and that a broad fleet as well as an large army were ready to invade as well England as Scotland. Edouard III|3 its invasion fell through quickly; the Scot, under the command of Andrew Murray, captured and destroyed then the English fortresses, and devastated the English countryside, making it uninhabitable for the English.

Although Edouard III|3 a new invasion of Scotland tried, it feared a possible French attack more and more and, towards the end of the year 1336, the Scot had taken again control. Starting from 1338, whereas Agnes Dunbar, countess of Dunbar and March, continued to resist to the English besieging the Château of Dunbar, Scotland knew a time of peace, Edouard III|3 having asserted the Throne of France and having carried out its army in Flandres, thus beginning the One hundred Year old War.

Thus, in only nine years, the kingdom created so hard by Robert Bruce was destroyed. Many noble had died and the economy, which had hardly started to recover from the preceding wars, was once more reduced to nothing. It was a reduced to poverty country and needing peace and a good governance which David II|2 in June 1341 found.

When it returned, this one was given to be worthy of his/her famous father. He was unaware of the truces with England and wanted to help his Philippe ally VI|6 during the first years of the One hundred Year old War. In 1341, it carried out a raid in England, thus forcing Edouard III|3 to bring an army to reinforce its northern border. In 1346, after several other raids Scot, Philippe VI|6 called with an invasion of England so that it can remove the English bolt on Calais. David accepted with joy and directed an army of 12 personally; 000 men towards the south with the intention to capture Durham. It met an English army of 5 000 men, going up since the Yorkshire, against which it was overcome with the battles of Neville' S Cross. Its army counted many losses and itself was wounded twice by arrows with the face before being captured. After one period of convalescence, he was imprisoned in the Tour of London during eleven years, lasted during which Scotland was directed by its nephew Robert Stewart. Edouard Baliol returned to Scotland shortly after with a small force, in an ultimate attempt to regain Scotland. He succeeds in however controlling only part of the Galloway, his capacity decreasing until in 1355. He withdrew his claim with the Throne in January 1356 and died without child in 1364.

Finally, the October 3rd 1357, David II|2 was slackening pursuant to the Traité of Berwick, according to which the Scot agreed to pay the enormous ransom of some 100 000 Merk S for its release, payable in ten years. A heavy taxation was founded to find the required funds with the payment of the sum which should have been paid annually, but David II|2 the remainder of the population was alienated by using the money for its own interests. The country was then in sad state, the Black Death having also struck it the decade of front. The first annual installment was paid in time, the second late and more none could be paid thereafter.

In 1363, David II|2 went to London and accepted that if it were to die without child, the crown would go to Edouard, his brother-in-law or to the one of its sons, the Pierre of the destiny would return for its crowning. The Scot rejected this agreement, proposed to continue to pay the ransom, which had been then increased with 100 000 books, and threatened to deposit David II|2 . A twenty-five years truce was negotiated and, in 1369, the treaty of 1365 was repealed for new, the more favorable for Scotland because of the influence of the war with France. The new terms transfer the 44 000 merks already paid deduced from the original sum of 100 000, the complement having to be paid by annual installments of 4 000 merks during the fourteen following years.

When Edouard III|3 died in 1377, it remained still 24 000 merks had; they were never paid. David II|2 had lost its popularity and the respect of its noble after he married with the widow of a small lord with died of his English wife. He died in February 1371.

See too

Principal battles and events

Battle of Dunbar, 1296
Battle of Stirling Bridge, 1297
Battle of Falkirk, 1298
Battle of Roslin, 1303
Battle of Happrew, 1304
Fall of Stirling Castle, 1304
Battle of Methven, 1306
Battle of Dalry, 1306
Battle of Glen Trool, 1307
Battle of Loudoun Hill, 1307
Battle of Slioch, 1307
Battle of Inverurie, 1308
Battle of Step off Brander, 1308
Battle of Bannockburn, 1314
Battle of Connor, 1315
Battle of Skaithmuir, 1316
Battle of Skerries, 1316
Battle of Faughart, 1318
Capture of Berwick, 1318
Battle of Myton, 1319
Declaration of Arbroath, 1320
Battle of Boroughbridge, 1322
Battle of Old Byland, 1322
Treated of Corbeil, 1326
Battle of Stanhope Park, 1327
Treated of Edinburgh-Northampton, 1328
Battle of Dupplin Moor, 1332
Battle of Halidon Hill, 1333
Battle of Dornock, 1333
Battle of Boroughmuir, 1335
Battle of Culblean, 1335
Battle of Neville' S Cross-country race, 1346
Treated of Berwick, 1357

Important characters

Scotland

David {{Romanian|II|2}}
Jean of Scotland (Jean Baliol)
Edouard Bruce
Jean Comyn - Guard (1298-1301, 1304)
Douglas Archibald - Guard (1332-1333)
Douglas James, " the Black"
Agnes Dunbar
William Lamberton - Bishop of Saint Andrews (1298-1328)
Bernard de Linton - Chancellor (1308-1328)
Donald Mormaer, 8th Earl off Mar - Guard (1332)
Andrew de Moray
Sir Andrew Murray - Guard (1332, 1335-1338)
Thomas Randolph - Guard (1329-1332)
Robert {{Ier}}
John de Soulis - Guard (1301-1304)
Robert {{Romanian|II|2}} - Lieutenant (1346-1357)
Walter Stewart
William Wallace
Robert Wishart - Bishop of Glasgow (1272-1317)

England

Edouard {{Ier}}
Edouard {{Romanian|II|2}}
Edouard {{Romanian|III|3}}
Edouard Baliol
Henry Beaumont
Humphrey de Bohun
John of Brittany
Henry off Grosmont
David off Strathbogie (10 {{E}} Count d' Atholl)
David off Strathbogie (11 {{E}} Count d' Atholl)
Gilbert de Umfraville
Aymer de Valence
John de Warenne

Other important characters

Philippe {{Romanian|IV|4}} of France
Philippe {{Romanian|VI|6}} of France
Jean XXII

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