Scottish Wars Research Articles

The Wars of Edward III: Sources and Interpretations

When Edward III came to the throne of England in 1327, England's military reputation had reached a low ebb. The young king's first campaign against the Scots was a complete failure, and the next year the 'shameful peace' set the seal on Robert Bruce's victory in the First Scottish War of Independence. Twenty-two years later, however, King Jean II of France and King David II of Scotland were both prisoners in London, an English army was camped outside Paris, and Edward was widely considered the most skilful warrior in the world. Clifford Rogers uses contemporary documents (campaign bulletins, administrative documents, and excerpts from 29 different chronicles) to tell the story of the battles, sieges, and chevauchees that produced this remarkable reversal - and the subsequent restoration of French fortunes under Du Guesclin and Charles V. The majority of the texts employed have never before been translated into modern English (and a number have never been published before in any language). Complementing these primary source materials are eight classic articles covering the Scottish Wars, the outbreak of the Hundred Years War, the recruitment, organisation and supply of English armies, English strategy and war aims, and the war's impact on French society and on the development of Parliament in England. Together, they provide a complete introduction to the topic. Dr CLIFFORD ROGERS teaches at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Medieval

Stoyanov, Yuri The Hidden Tradition in Europe: The Secret History of Medieval Christian HeresyBachrach, Bernard S. The Anatomy of a Little War: A Diplomatic and Military History of the Gundovald Affair (568–586)Halsall, Guy Settlement and Social Organization: The Merovingian Region of MetzConstable, Giles Three Studies in Medieval Religious and Social ThoughtBarry, Terry; Frame, Robin and Simms, Katharine (eds) Colony and Frontier in Medieval Ireland: Essays Presented to J. F. LydonTurville‐Petre, Thorlac England the Nation: Language, Literature, and National Identity, 1290–1340Paterson, Raymond Campbell For the Lion: A History of the Scottish Wars of Independence, 1296–1357Carpenter, Christine (ed.) Kingsford's Stonor Letters and Papers, 1290–1483Jordan, William Chester The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth CenturyPlatt, Colin King Death: The Black Death and its Aftermath in Late‐Medieval England

The War of the Scots, 1306–23

The life of Robert I, king of Scots, written by John Barbour archdeacon of Aberdeen is the fullest of any medieval king in the west, a chronicle of chivalry in vernacular octosyllabic couplets, on which much of our understanding of the events and ethos of the Scottish war depends. In this paper I discuss some aspects of the king's reign which Barbour ignored: pro-Balliol sentiment which lingered in Scotland and at the French and papal courts; and also aspects of the war where Barbour's narrative is incomplete or misleading, but which illustrate the growth of King Robert's military effort from that of a very uncertain factional rising to one which matched the rhetorical claims (in die Declaration of Arbroath) of a people at war. I shall be treading ground already mapped in Professor Barrow's masterly study, seeking only to point out features to which Barbour has, by omission or commission, drawn my attention.

The English Church and Royal Propaganda During the Hundred Years War

The main force shaping English institutional development during the late middle ages was the intermittent but seemingly endless war with France—a war that was occasionally expanded to include the struggle with France's enthusiastic Scottish ally. Hardly an aspect of English society remained unaffected by these conflicts: the crown was obliged to organize and manage the war effort; the nobility and many freemen had to fight; and most of the population, with few exceptions of class or status, bore the cost. Even if the average Englishman had been able momentarily to forget the continuing state of emergency prevailing in his country, such things as commissions of array, requests for subsidies, seizures of goods and services, alerts and alarms against invasion, and barrages of propaganda and counter-propaganda would have reminded him of the burdens of war. Especially after the formal beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1338, enormous pressures were placed on the institutions of English public administration by the demands of a war waged simultaneously on several fronts.Associated with the expansion of the wartime activities and needs of royal government was the emergence both in England and France of an official mentality attuned to the importance of public opinion for facilitating the exploitation of community resources for military purposes. The inherent nature of feudal monarchy, which was heavily dependent on the cooperation and voluntary service of the governed, had always obliged medieval kings to recognize and respect the vox populi; but official awareness of the value of favorable publicity for conducting the domestic and foreign affairs of the crown increased notably from the late thirteenth century as a result of the French and Scottish wars.

White Annays and Others

In 1364 a cause of divorce a vinculo was brought in a York court by a certain Edmund Dronesfeld against his reputed wife Margaret de Donbarr, on the grounds of her previous marriage in Scotland. The story unfolded by the witnesses, whose depositions are the only remaining record of the cause, is a strange one, which reflects the unsettled conditions of life on the border and in northern England during the long-drawn-out Scottish wars, and the further confusion introduced by the Black Death. The questions put by Edmund’s side were intended to prove that Margaret’s name was originally Agnes, that she had married in Scodand, eighteen years before, a man named William de Brighan, who was still alive, and that Edmund himself had not known this when he had ‘married’ her at Bedale six years later.

Wall-Breakers and River-Bridgers: Military Engineers in the Scottish Wars of Edward I

Welshmen and Scotsmen provoked their stronger neighbors of England in the late thirteenth century into wars that almost filled the reign of Edward I. Whether in keeping with “Manifest Destiny” or not, King Edward accepted the provocation of the Welsh and sent his troops into their land in an attempt to subjugate them; by a workmanlike series of campaigns he conquered and pacified them between 1277 and 1294. Then began an almost unbroken period of war against the Scots, a period lasting well beyond Edward's own death in 1307. By their persistence and by their tactics the Scots forced Edward and his people to a major effort, one that made every Englishman aware of his obligation, whether to fight, to feed the fighters, or to support the fighters with works.For medieval soldiers, like their modern descendants, war was mostly a matter of working and waiting. Battles punctuated the wars, then as now, and at these times the combat troops spent their strength. During the long stretches between battles, however, support elements continued to supply the troops and put them into position to fight. The men in the armies of Edward I who kept the war going in this way and kept going themselves were the auxiliaries: the ditchers, woodcutters, smiths, carpenters, paymasters, provisioners, and the engineers. Important as they were in medieval warfare, the engineers have received little credit for it. Their work, bridging, building fortifications, and operating artillery, rarely rates a description in a chronicle and they receive little notice in secondary works.

The Scottish War of Independence: A Critical Study

The Scottish War of Independence: A Critical Study

Reviews of Books

Reviews of Books The Scottish War of Independence: a critical Study. By EVAN MACLEOD BARRON. (London: Nisbet, 1914.) T. F. TOUT T. F. TOUT Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume XXIX, Issue CXVI, October 1914, Pages 755–757, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/XXIX.CXVI.755 Published: 01 October 1914