The Wars of the Bruces

389 Pages·2014·4.16 MB·English

THE WARS OF THE BRUCES
For Dorothy

This eBook edition published in 2012 by
Birlinn Limited
West Newington House
Newington Road
Edinburgh
EH9 1QS
www.birlinn.co.uk
First published in 1997 by Tuckewell Press
This edition published in 2006 by
John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd
Copyright © Colm McNamee, 1997, 2006
The moral right of Colm McNamee to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without
the express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-0-85976-653-1
eBook ISBN: 978-0-85790-495-9
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Maps and Charts
Abbreviations
Introduction: Lordship and Nationality in the British Isles in the Early
Fourteenth Century
1. The King of Summer: the Bruce Coup d’Etat in Scotland, 1306
2. Robert I, Edward II and the Kingdom of Scotland, 1307–1314
3. The Raiding of Northern England, 1311–1322
4. The Defence of Northern England, 1311–1322
5. The Bruce Intervention in Ireland, 1315–1322
6. The North Sea Theatre of War and the Towns
Conclusion: The Climax and Collapse of the Scottish Hegemony in the
British Isles, 1322–1330
Bibliography
Index
Preface
T
his is a study of war and society in the British Isles. It began life as an
Oxford D.Phil on the effects of Scottish raids on northern England, but
since its completion in 1989 the following changes have been incorporated:
a synthesis of recent research on the war in Scotland; additional sections on
other theatres of war, namely Ireland, and the war in the North and Irish
seas; and some consideration of the wider implications of the Wars of the
Bruces, for England and Ireland as well as Scotland, as a phase in the
political development of the British Isles. The emphasis on the wider
implications of the war is justified by the fact that the vast bulk of the
archive material relating to the war emanates from the English royal
government which was unable to operate in Scotland from 1311.
My approach is to examine the Wars of the Bruces as a whole, to
consider relationships between the various theatres of war and to take into
account economic, social and geographical constraints and motivation. The
effects of the Wars outside Scotland have never been systematically
examined; but an excellent start was made in the transcending of national
histories in Dr. Sean Duffy’s 1991 article ‘The Bruce Brothers and the Irish
Sea World, 1306–29’, in Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies xxi (1991), 55–86.
Endeavouring, however, to maintain a strong narrative thread and to keep
the text comprehensible to the non-specialist, I have found it necessary to
devote separate chapters to various theatres of war. I have striven to
maintain a balance between integration and clarity. There is one theatre of
conflict which I have not covered, namely the diplomatic wrangles at the
French and papal courts. Lacking familiarity with the sources and finding it
adequately covered in existing works, I have left the further elucidation of
this aspect to other writers. I would venture to say that as a study of war and
society in the British Isles, the present work has not suffered markedly from
the omission.
The Anglo-Scottish wars of 1306 to 1328 have tended to be written of
principally in terms of biographies of the major characters. Robert I,
Edward I and the English earls of Pembroke and Lancaster have all been
the subject of great biographies, and a biography of Edward II is
forthcoming. To these the present work is heavily indebted; and as the title
suggests, I have found it undesirable to suppress the role of the
personalities. This book is a drawing together of the work of many scholars:
Duncan and Barrow, Phillips and Maddicott, Prestwich and Fryde, Lydon
and Duffy, to name only the main authorities. My debt to them will be
readily apparent to the reader.
Furthermore, the writing of this book has been greatly facilitated by the
appearance in recent years of several major contributions to the history of
the period; these include the supplementary volume to Bain’s Calendar of
Documents Relating to Scotland; Duncan’s edition of the actae of Robert I,
published as the fifth volume of the Regesta Regum Scottorum; Prestwich’s
biography of Edward I and Barrow’s revised edition of Robert Bruce and the
Community of the Realm of Scotland; and finally, the new edition of Barbour’s
Bruce.
I have tried to make the history as comprehensible to as many readers as
possible by reducing technical terms to a bare minimum, referring to
translations of the narrative sources where possible, and using the more
familiar forms of place and personal names (hence MacDowell rather than
MacDoual, Harclay rather than de Harcla, and Larne rather than
Ulfreksfiord). I strayed from this general rule in the case of Gaelic Irish
forms, where I have abided by the usage of the New History of Ireland.
Manuscript references are to documents held in the Public Record
Office, London, unless some other record repository is specified.
Acknowledgements
P
rofessor A.A.M. Duncan of the University of Glasgow was the prime
mover behind this present work. He wrote to me in September 1995
encouraging me to publish my doctoral thesis. He has read draft chapters
and has made many invaluable suggestions and comments. I think Professor
Duncan had in mind a book very different to this when he first wrote to me,
and I hope he finds no cause to regret his encouragement. Dr. David
Ditchburn of the University of Aberdeen has been extremely helpful. He
very kindly obtained material to which I would not otherwise have had
access, and read and commented on a draft chapter. Dr. John Maddicott of
Exeter College, Oxford, supervised the original thesis, and Mr. James
Campbell advised and commented on the same. I am very grateful to both.
At the Queen’s University of Belfast, Professor Bruce Campbell made
available to me information from Inquisitiones Post Mortem contained in his
Pre-Black Death Database; Dr Kay Muir and her team at the Ulster
Placenames Project advised on problems relating to Irish placenames and
personal names; Dr. Judith Green and Dr. Marie Thérèse Flanagan
provided advice and encouragement. In a very real way Anthony Sheehan
made it possible for me to write this book by providing access to
wordprocessing facilities and by finding solutions to innumerable technical
problems. Dr. Janette Lee provided similar assistance in the production of
maps. Anthony and Estelle Sheehan very kindly assisted with translation of
several awkward passages of Latin.
I acknowledge the assistance of the Department of Education for
Northern Ireland who awarded a Major State Studentship (1982–1985);
and the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University Belfast, where I was
Junior Research Fellow (1990–1991).
I am also very grateful to the following who helped in various ways:
Professor David Harkness, Dr. Mary O’Dowd, Paula Gibson and John and
Gerard McNamee. Above all I thank my wife, who has supported me during
the writing of the present work and to whom this book is dedicated.
For any mistakes which this book may contain the responsibility is
entirely my own.