William the Conqueror

William Wallace's invasion of northern England in the winter of 1297, in the wake of the Scottish victory at Stirling Bridge, tends to be described in general terms. For instance the Lanercost chronicle summarises the invasion thus:

“After this [the capture of Berwick] the Scots gathered together and invaded, devastating the whole country, causing burnings, depredations and murders, and they came almost up to the town of Newcastle, but turned away from it and invaded the county of Carlisle; there they did as in Northumberland, destroying everything, and afterwards they returned to Northumberland, to devastate more fully anything they had overlooked previously; and on the feast of St Cecilia virgin and martyr they returned to Scotland.”

More than enough information has survived, in the form of detailed chronicle and account sources, to paint a more complete picture. Equally, the parallel actions of Wallace's enemy Edward I on the Continent, while the Scots attacked the northern counties, are not generally described in any great depth. I have described Edward's doings in previous blog and Facebook posts, and this one will focus on Wallace.

The initial phase of Wallace's expedition took the form of scattered raids into Northumberland. These began in early October, but the Scots were not massed for a full-scale invasion until around the feast of St Martin (11 November). Several weeks of raiding had spread panic in the northern counties, and many towns and villages stood abandoned after their inhabitants fled to the safety of walled cities. The English were not entirely on the defensive; the garrison at Alnwick, for instance, is said to have ridden out to harass the Scots.

News of the disaster in the north had reached Westminster by late September. Nothing could be done until word was relayed to King Edward in Flanders, whose orders then had to be conveyed back to London. Writs went out for a general muster to resist the Scots on 23 October, but the actual muster date was fixed for 6 December. Wallace thus had plenty of time to wreak havoc before the English could mount an effective response.

Surviving tithe records paint a vivid picture of the damage caused by Wallace's troops. North-east Northumberland was especially badly hit, and a great number of mills and townships burnt. Tithe revenues and rents were cut dramatically; in many places it was said that rents had lapsed 'because the land was waste on account of the Scottish war'. Wallace's men employed the usual terror tactics of medieval warfare. Around the Cheviot hills, for instance, at the vills of Hethpool and Akeld, no bond rents were paid in 1298 because the bondsmen had been slaughtered or driven off by the Scots.

Some of this large-scale destruction was remembered in poetry. The Song of the Scottish War, allegedly composed by a prior of Alnwick, records how Wallace's men had given the town to the flames:

“These wicked men deliver Alnwick to the flames; they run about on every side like madmen...”

Edward's northern subjects would not, of course, have appreciated being reminded that Wallace was responding in kind: in 1296 the English had burnt and slaughtered in Scotland with equal abandon, and mocked the Scots as a 'sorry shower' incapable of defending their land. But that was politics. The real victims on both sides were the suffering peasantry, forced to flee their homes or butchered like animals by marauding bands of soldiers.

Wallace's own actions are of great interest. Shortly after Martinmas (11 November) he descended upon Carlisle and laid siege to the city. On arrival he sent a clerk to the citizens to demand surrender in the name of 'William the Conqueror'. The demand was refused, but it might suggest a nice touch of humour on Wallace's part, since the Conqueror was Edward's famous ancestor. Lacking siege equipment to storm Carlisle, he left a detachment to hold the garrison in check while he took his army through Inglewood, Cumberland and Allerdale all the way to Cockermouth, 'devastating everything' as he went.

Meanwhile Edward's captains in the north were struggling to muster their levies. Robert Clifford, ordered to assemble armed men at Carlisle, actually killed a man for refusing to join up. It seems the shocking defeat at Stirling Bridge had temporarily destroyed English morale, and that few were willing to ride out and face the invaders. The men of Newcastle proved the exception. Despite being outnumbered, they marched out to block the advance of Wallace's army:

“For the courageous men who were in charge of Newcastle braced themselves and went out of the city a little way, despite the fact that they were very few against many. Seeing this, the Scots veered away from the city, divided among themselves the spoils, and handing over to the Galwegians their share, they departed to their own regions.”
​
By this point Wallace's army may have been depleted by cold and hunger. The weather was appalling, and many Scots were said to have perished in a snowstorm sent by St Cuthbert to protect the bishopric of Durham. Faced with a mob of angry Geordies on the one hand and the fury of St Cuthbert on the other, Wallace chose to turn north and re-cross the border into Scotland on 22 November. Further Scottish raiding parties appear to have ravaged the northern counties after that date, but the English had found a second wind. Shortly before Christmas 1297 the pugnacious Clifford led a raid into Annandale, while Earl Warenne – smarting from his humiliation at Stirling Bridge – was given command of a second northern army to replace the one he had so carelessly lost.