Battle of Halidon Hill, 1333 - England Awakens!

Three years into the reign of the young Edward III, the beleaguered folk of the town of Berwick awaits relief from a brazen Scots army, under the command of Sir Archibald Douglas. Trusting to their numbers, the Scots divisions head straight for the smaller English host, on Hallerdon Hill. To meet them, King Edward has arrayed his smaller army between his prize and the determined ranks of their foes. Included are the famed and deadly English longbowmen. Very soon the Scots will feel the fury of their volleys. The battle for Berwick, and perhaps the very fate of Scotland itself, will be bloodily decided in Edward III's first battle. The beginning of Edward III's reign was hardly auspicious. Edward's father had been ingloriously deposed in late 1326 by his queen Isabella, with Edward's mother subsequently having his father murdered the following year. A period of effective usurpation then ensued. Isabella, known to posterity as the She-Wolf of France, would rule alongside Roger Mortimer, her lover and fellow enemy of Edward II, for the next three years. Their invasion and de facto rule of the kingdom were all, of course, in the name of the young Edward III. The teenaged monarch was merely a political pawn at this time, and would suffer three significant humiliations that would forge his character and destiny going into his more golden years to come. A major foreign policy problem confronting the power couple in 1327 was the war with Scotland. The days of Edward's grandfather hammering the Scots into submission were long gone. The period beginning with the rise of Robert the Bruce to the throne of Scots in 1306 had seen English fortunes in Scotland plummet. Bruce had gradually consolidated his hold over Scotland between his early victories and 1314 when he smashed the army of Edward II at Bannockburn. Edward II had not, however, relinquished his claim over Scotland, and this recognition was a key desire of the ailing Scottish king. Capitalizing on the civil strife in England, the Scots attacked Norham Castle on the very day of young Edward's coronation. Though aging and ill, Bruce piled on the pressure by sending a Scots army to invade England in mid-June of 1327. Initially eager to combat the encroaching Scots to legitimize his own new regime, Roger Mortimer gathered a large army at York, and with Edward in tow, headed north. However, if the young Edward expected his first campaign to be a glorious one, he was to be bitterly disappointed. Centred around the Weardale region, the Scots had initially been mobile and elusive, yet after some cat and mouse manoeuvres, the English finally pinned down the Scots army near Stanhope Park on the River Weir. Moving to the area, they found the Scots, under the infamous Black Douglas, arrayed in a strong position on the south bank. However, though Edward was keen to test the Scots in battle, Mortimer's concern was for the safety of his young monarch, as well as to prevent the further ravaging the north, and hopefully to get them to withdraw to their own lands, without too much loss, so as to encourage a favourable peace. Some English archers had snuck across the Weir to try and flush the Scots out of their high position, but had merely been driven back to their camp by the Scots cavalry. Mortimer assented to envoys being sent across to request a battle on more even ground. However, the Scots' reply only enraged the young king further. The King of England could see that they were in his lands, burning his villages and slaying his subjects, and if he wanted to do something about it, then he should cross. A more impetuous man may have taken the bait, but Mortimer was no fool, and understood the Scots' position made this suicidal, and so a three-day stalemate ensued, in which the English men-at-arms remained armoured and at the ready, while the Scots tormented them in the night by banging drums and lighting huge fires. Happy to wait out the Scots, this small hope too was dashed when Douglas moved his host to an even more unassailable position. The English dutifully redeployed too, encamping opposite. Their intent was not to necessarily commit to battle, but was to simply pin down the invaders, to starve them into submission. This based on the word, that the Scots were low on certain foods. However, the Scots maintained the initiative, and on the night of the 2nd to 3rd of August, they struck into the very heart of the English camp itself. Slipping across the river with around 200 or so knights and men-at-arms, the black Douglas fell upon the mostly silent and sleeping English. Cutting the ropes of their tents before thrusting at the writhing bodies beneath, English screams and yells to bear arms were interspersed with Scottish cries of, A Douglas! A Douglas! You shall all die, English thieves! The attack was as successful as it was stunning, the enemy even reaching the very tent of King Edward himself. Perhaps history would have been quite different if the blade of the black Douglas had tasted Edward's throat, or better yet, if he had been presented to the Bruce himself as his captive. Luckily for Edward however, he was only shaken, and his chaplain had concealed him, leaving Douglas empty-handed. The English rallied, though before they knew it the Scots had melted back across the weir as quickly as they had come. The days following Stanhope were relatively uneventful, the standoff resuming, and though Mortimer could technically claim he had prevented the Scots from doing further damage, as they had withdrawn back north, Edward's close shave could not be construed as anything other than a humiliating episode, and one Edward would certainly not forgive or forget. The Scots were undoubtedly the victors in 1327, if anything Mortimer and Isabella had blackened the reputation of their new regime rather than legitimized it, and the campaign itself had cost some £70,000 and reaped little benefit. Edward's second great and related humiliation of his early reign came with the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Northampton the next year, in which he had no part, but was forced to accept nonetheless. The treaty ended the long first war of Scottish independence, though to Edward his grandfather's work in subduing Scotland had been shamefully undone. 1328 was in fact a year of woes for the young Edward, as he was deprived of an even greater prize in the Kingdom of France. His uncle Charles IV had died without a male heir, and though Edward, as the son of Isabella and the closest male relative of Charles, had a strong claim, the French nobles were unwilling to allow the accession of the foreign King of England as their monarch. The Salic law not only barred women from succeeding there, but it was also agreed that no claim could pass through the female to her male offspring. And so Philippe, Count of Valois, as the next closest male relative, succeeded to the throne instead, and wasted little time in demanding Edward, already an anointed King, pay homage to him for his French lands. On June 6th 1329 Edward did just that, though by all accounts this was hurried and half-hearted at best. Some suggest that Edward refused to place his hands between those of Philippe, or that he had refused to swear fealty, and so would not fight for Philippe in wartime. Perhaps Edward had been summoned home by his mother, or maybe Edward had gotten word of his imminent arrest by Philippe. Whatever the case, he was back in his own kingdom within six days. His brief time in Amiens must also have imprinted itself on Edward's mind, he, a King, having to forge his claim to a greater realm and pay homage to a mere Count. However, whatever his thoughts, he had bigger immediate troubles to ponder back in England. If he had been unceremoniously ordered home, then his days of reigning under the thumb of Mortimer and his mother were fast coming to an end. Gathering his own supporters, the 18-year-old Edward struck at Nottingham on the 19th of October 1330. Surprised and overwhelmed in his chamber, Roger Mortimer was arrested, ending the regency of Isabella. Mortimer would have the distinction of being the very first traitor to be hung at Iberne. Now Edward ruled indeed, as well as name, and his vengeful thoughts would soon concentrate north of the border. Right then... So, recently I watched a popular Spanish action TV show on Netflix with a few friends. You may have heard of it. Well, it occurred to me that after watching the entire season 1, I haven't learned a single word of Spanish. But there's actually an app where you can do this. Today's sponsor Lingopi is the world's only language learning application that uses real TV shows and movies to help you learn a new language. So, for example, you can play the show and turn on double subtitles, which then shows English and Spanish simultaneously. 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Lingopi with its simplicity and user-friendly design combined with its comprehensive learning tools is definitely worth it. And since you can test-drive it for free, there's no reason not to try Lingopi for your next movie night. Happy language learning! For Robert the Bruce, the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton had been the crowning political achievement of his reign. Though crowned King of Scots in 1306 and having doggedly reclaimed the kingdom piece by piece, even his great victory at Bannockburn had failed to compel Edward II to acknowledge the independence of his realm. However, though in 1328 he was finally acknowledged as the independent King of Scots, the Bruce would die just a year later, leaving his realm in the vulnerable hands of his very young son and heir, David II. It would be a mistake to believe that the English had been the only bar to Scots' independence, as the Bruce himself had famously had rivals to his crown from the start. In the early reign of his son, the Balliol claim to the throne was far from dead, and now that the Bruce was safely gone, Edward Balliol, son of the former King John Balliol, plotted to stake his own claim to Scotland. Balliol was not short on supporters either. Many Scots nobles who had refused to accept Robert as their King had been disinherited, and this faction of malcontents were more than willing to back the Balliol claim for their own restoration to power. In league with the Earl of Buchan, Balliol sought the blessing of Edward, which was quietly given, though Edward still publicly refused aid to the pretender. On August 6th 1332, the Balliol army of around 1500 lords and men landed at Kinghorn. Unfortunately for King David's cause, his regent the Earl of Moray died just before hostilities broke out, and to compound Bruce's misfortunes, his army under his new regent the Earl of Mar was defeated at the Battle of Duplin Moor on August 11th. This largely English force had crushed a numerically superior foe, and allowed Edward Balliol to crown himself King of Scots in Scone on September 24th. Yet Balliol's spectacular and sudden rise to the Scottish throne was largely unsupported, and only matched by his equally sudden and dramatic fall from grace just under three months later at Annan. In the intervening period King Edward Balliol made no friends amongst the Davidian loyalists, by granting Edward Scottish lordships, including the county of Berwickshire, while also offering to marry his now disinherited sister, who had been wed to David as part of the hated treaty of Northampton. For Edward III's part, he was eager to dispense with the shameful treaty entirely, and wanted to reassert his own claim of overlordship over the lands his grandfather, Edward I, had fought so hard to subdue. Around about the same time, Edward pondered his own reaction to Balliol's suggestions. This was all made moot by Balliol's equally sudden and unceremonious deposition in the Battle of Annan. Distracted by the Christmas festivities, Sir Archibald Douglas, among others, led a night attack, killing the majority of Balliol's men in their night clothes, while the newly minted king was forced to flee half-dressed on his horse and bear back into the night. Balliol fled to Carlisle and then pleaded with Edward to restore him. Dropping all pretense at neutrality, Edward duly obliged and set about preparing for war. By April of 1333, the kingdom was geared towards the enterprise. Just like his grandfather the Hammer of the Scots, Edward set his sights on conquering Berwick-upon-Tweed. Contingents of men concentrated from across England and Wales, while the Archbishops of Canterbury and York encouraged their clergy to pray for the success of the oncoming siege. On April 10th, Edward himself did his bit to secure the favour of God, with his gift of a red and silk cloth embroidered with gold to Durham Cathedral. The siege itself was underway prior to Edward's arrival, and with Edward's arrival at Tweedmouth on the 9th of May, the siege truly began. With their water supply cut, Edward's siege engines and guns proceeded to relentlessly pound the walls and homes of the townsfolk. Homes and even churches were not spared indiscriminate destruction, while Edward's own city of pavilions outside were neatly defended by ditches to avoid any nasty surprises. Yet despite all of this and a growing shortage of food supplies, the brave people of Berwick held on, perhaps hoping for relief from the gathering Scots army. On June 27th, a direct assault was begun, with the English hitting Berwick with a combined land and seaward attack. In response, the defenders flung tar-soaked missiles at the attacking vessels that had lined themselves against the walls at high tide. However, this backfired literally and disastrously, when the fire spread into the town itself, which promptly erupted into flames, and immediately drove the Scots to seek a truce to combat the flames. Having not yielded the town the next day, a second truce was agreed soon after, by Sir Alexander Setton, commander of the town defence. Edward granted the reprieve, but demanded 12 child hostages of the prominent men of the town, including Setton's last surviving son of three. Setton's other boys had died recently in defence of Scotland. If relief had not arrived within 15 days in the form of the Scots army, it was to be surrendered on pain of death for the unfortunate hostages. Alas for Setton, events would spiral out of his control. On the final day of the truce, the Scots army under Sir Archibald Douglas approached the town. Fording the Tweed to the west, they vengefully razed the English settlement of Tweedmouth. In the afternoon of the same day, not only was food lobbed over the walls, but Sir William Keith, along with around 200 men, made their way across the ruined bridge to fight their way into the town. Many engaged some of the English ships in the estuary, while Sir William Montagu circling around the seaward side of the town also contested this action. Though killing and capturing many, while more Scots had drowned in attempting to retreat back across the river, Keith had made it through. Undaunted and unaffected by the long rigours of the siege, Keith swiftly took over command from Setton and declared the town relieved. Edward of course was incandescent with rage, citing that the relief had originated from the English held bank of the river, and was therefore illegitimate. Aside from this, Edward was furious because the Scots were brazenly unafraid and unimpressed by the barely grown English monarch. Could this new Edward merely be a copy of his weak and ineffectual father? They tested this notion by further rubbing Edward's nose in it. Word was sent to Edward that now the Scots would invade England again, striking Bamburgh Castle, where Edward's queen was placed. Edward, for his part, was determined to show the Scots this was not the boy whom they almost captured at Stanhope six years before, let alone a shadow of his father. Edward resolved to show them he was the successor of his grandfather, a new hammer of the Scots. In this spirit, he demonstrated his own capacity for complete ruthlessness by having Thomas Setton dragged out in full sight of the walls and, using a particularly high gallows, hung him for all, including his parents, to see. Edward furthermore pledged to hang two more hostages every day until their lives were spent as punishment for the breaking of the agreement. Perhaps not cowed, but given sufficient food for thought, Keith brokered another truce with Edward, agreeing that if the castle and town had not been relieved by the 19th, that Edward would receive both. Keith departed the town and reunited with Douglas further south at Morpeth, and, confident in their numbers and track record of humbling English forces, the larger Scots army recrossed the Tweed and approached Edward's position from the north. The idea was to mask their deployment with the higher ground, and appear fully arrayed and angry to hopefully petrify the smaller English force. Edward III, however, was no Edward II, and was kept abreast of enemy movements by his scouts. The longed-for battle was on. Edward deployed his own army on Halladon Hill a little north of Berwick. To offset Scottish attempts to wheel around his position to relieve the town, a small guarding force of 500 men were set to prevent this. Halladon Hill presented a steep incline, with the ground between the English and Scottish positions being marshy and treacherous. Edward had divided his men into three battalions, the right under his uncle the Earl of Norfolk, the left under the pretender Edward Balliol, while the king himself took direct command of the centre. Edward was well aware of the nature of Balliol's stunning success at Duplin Moor, his use of the English longbow proving decisive against vastly superior numbers. Hoping to mimic this victory, he placed these deadly archers on the flanks of his battalions. Edward, in addition, had ordered his proud knights to dismount and fight on foot, the king briefly remaining on horseback himself, if only to ride along the lines to boost morale, and urge that they fight to avenge the constant incursions and depredations of the Scots. Then dismissing his own warhorse, the 20-year-old monarch took his own place in the front line of his battalion, and waited for the Scots to make the first move. The Scots had delayed, still confident that their numbers could force the English into the river. As was the case with many great battles of history, before hostilities erupted, two champions would square off, and in this case, Douglas sent her Scots champion Turnbull to meet an Englishman man to man. Sir Robert Benhale, a knight of Norfolk, eagerly answered the challenge, and emerged triumphant, killing both Turnbull's dog and hacking off the giant's limbs. The Scots, nevertheless, advanced, their three divisions poised to smash through the feeble lines of the English blockade. In a mirror to Edward II's ill-fated march to relieve Stirling Castle in 1314, now the grim ranks of the Scots were determined to rescue their starving and desperate compatriots in Berwick. Within earshot, King Edward must've felt a spasm in his bowels at the words of ''no prisoners'' bellowed by Douglas. If so, this was coldly mirrored with his own call of the same. The fight at Hallerdon Hill now became one for life as well as for Berwick, and perhaps the fate of Scotland itself. Once the thick ranks of the Scots' divisions were undoubtedly committed to the charge, Edward's longbowmen loosed their deadly arrows, shredding the Scots' front lines. Reeling from this onslaught, Edward Balliol then ordered his men to engage, while the Scottish front lines were understandably reluctant to get stuck in. Likely exhausted by the slog through the marshy ground, as well as the ascent towards their English foes, the Scots nevertheless pushed on, and soon the hillside was awash with the gory spectacle of the clash. King Edward himself had been the first to get to grips with his enemies. To their credit, though tormented by storms of arrow volleys and stonewalled by the stubborn English infantry, the Scotsmen endured, fighting hard, but ultimately in vain to relieve their countrymen beyond. Perhaps divining how the battle would proceed, the grooms and reserves were the first to flee, with the rear lines of Scots also seeing the writing on the wall, and breaking off little by little. As the evening loomed, Edward knew the breaking point was imminent, and indeed on the left the pretender Balliol broke through the wearied Scots. At the same time, Edward screamed his own encouragement for his warriors to fight on, while the Scots army began to crumble. Despite the general disintegration however, the Earl of Ross had remained rooted and determined. He shouted for all brave Scotsmen to fight to the death, and though many of the cream of the Scots' nobility did so, both he and his men were inevitably cut down. King Edward was certainly not in a magnanimous mood. Perhaps hot-blooded by both the frenzy of battle and with memories of his past humiliations urging him on, he called for the horses to be brought up, and now a vigorous pursuit of the remnants of the Scots was conducted. Among the slain at Hallerdon Hill were the earls of Carrick, Ross, Lennox and Menteith. Even Sir Archibald Douglas himself had fallen, his own call for no quarter, perhaps regretfully ringing in his ears as he fell into darkness. Thousands of Scots are thought to have fallen with their nobles that day, and Barrick fell soon afterwards. To hammer home his own point on his longshanks-like ruthlessness, Edward had 100 captives beheaded following the victory. Any embers of immediate resistance were snuffed out by the restored Balliol and his supporters. The restored King of Scots set about rewarding those disinherited men that supported his previous ascension to the throne. Ominously for the dream of a free Scotland, Balliol willingly ceded a great chunk of the south to his overlord Edward, swearing homage to him the next year. However, the Bruce claim would not so easily be swept aside, and in the following years David II's cause would endure. Despite repeated setbacks, including a prolonged period of captivity in England, David would die in Edinburgh as King of Scots in February of 1371. As for the Bruce claim to the Scots throne, David was succeeded by Robert II, a maternal grandson of Robert the Bruce, and the founder of the long line of Stuart monarchs, that would eventually come to rule England too after 1603. As for Edward in 1333, Hallidon Hill significantly broadcasted his prowess as a war leader, setting himself apart from the failures of his father's reign and the humiliation of the Weardale campaign. This first great success on the field was merely the first in a golden reign that would lead to Sloyce and Crecy, among other triumphs. For Edward, his time as England's premier warrior-king had only just begun… As always, I'll see you in the next one!