Robert I, King of Scots, 1274-1329; Scotland -- Kings and rulers -- Biography
The party dispersed, and hid away their wounded.
But Clifford, for whom the castle had been held, soon had it rebuilt
and regarrisoned.
A later petition, by Lucas de Barry, represents that Lucas had been
'under Sir Robert de Clifford in Douglas Castle when Sir Robert de Brus
and Sir James Douglas attacked it, the year when the late King died.'
But this does not necessarily mean that either Clifford or Bruce was
there in person.
On the same Sunday morning, Edward entered Carlisle with Peter,
Cardinal Bishop of St Sabine, a papal legate, who had just arrived to
arrange terms of peace between the English and French kings on the
basis of a marriage between Prince Edward and Isabella, daughter of
the King of France. On the Wednesday following, in the Cathedral, the
legate explained the objects of his mission, and, with bell, book and
candle, excommunicated the murderers of Comyn, with all their aiders
and abettors. The like denunciation was busily repeated through the
churches, especially of the north of England. On Friday, the peace was
proclaimed.
Towards the end of March, Sir John Wallace is said to have been
captured 'in the plain, pursued by the northeners,' and was taken
to Carlisle. Edward sent him to London, 'fettered on a hackney,' to
undergo the same barbarous death as his heroic brother. His head was
fixed on London Bridge, 'raised with shouts,' says Langtoft, 'near the
head of his brother, William the Wicked.' It could not have been more
nobly honoured.
By the middle of April, Bruce had moved to Glen Trool, where he was
hard beset for some three weeks by superior forces under a number of
able knights, young Sir John Comyn among them. The incidents of the
period have not been preserved. Barbour, indeed, tells how Valence and
Clifford advanced stealthily on Bruce, with over 1500 against less
than 300 men, and found him in a narrow pass, where horse could not
reach him. Valence sent a woman, disguised as a beggar, to spy out
the position; but Bruce saw through the dodge, and the spy confessed.
The English had to advance on foot. Bruce dashed upon them with fury,
seizing with his own hand their foremost banner. Some of his men,
Barbour admits, had gone off, but came back on seeing how the fight
went. The foremost English company being overpowered, the main body
retreated; and a quarrel between Clifford and Vaux seems to point to a
fruitless attempt of Clifford's to rally the fugitives. One can only
say that some such incidents are probable enough. Anyhow, Bruce appears
to have baffled all the attempts of the English in Glen Trool, and to
have got away towards Lothian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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