I’m delighted to welcome J R Tomlin to the blog to tell us all about the historical background to The Douglas Bastard.
The Second War of Scottish Independence is a war that should never have happened. (Admittedly, that is true of quite a few wars) It happened simply because England’s King Edward III was pissed off at the Scots.
Remember that the famous Battle of Bannockburn was not the end of the First War of Scottish Independence, although many think it was. The Scots launched numerous chevauchees into England, believing the destruction of the north of England would force the English to the peace table. It did not work. The war continued for another decade, with the English forced out of Scotland but refusing to sign a peace treaty or recognise Scotland’s status as an independent kingdom.
However, in 1326, the rebellion by Queen Isabella and her lover Mortimer overthrowing King Edward II changed England’s political landscape. In June of the next year, James, Lord of Douglas, Thomas, Earl of Moray, and Donald, Earl of Mar, gathered a large force, as many as 10,000 men, and led a chevauchee across the border into England. They carried no supplies but lived off the land as they moved across a wide swathe of northern England. Perhaps in order to bring legitimacy to the new regime, Mortimer and the sixteen-year-old newly crowned King Edward III assembled an even larger army, much better equipped than the Scots, and led it north. They probably believed they could defeat the Scottish force in England, leaving Scotland undefended so they could go into Scotland.
It was a long and complex campaign in which the Scots outran the English, who quickly ran low on food and supplies. The Scots also had an unassailable position on a rocky height overlooking the fast-flowing River Weir. They even took an English scout prisoner and sent him with their position since the English seemed incapable of catching up with them. On the last day of July, the English army arrived on the other side of the Weir. They sent heralds, inviting the Scots to abandon their position and engage in battle. The Scottish leaders replied (and this sounds like James Douglas) that they were happy where they were, and if the English King and his council were unhappy with their lands being burnt before them, they should cross the river and do something about it. Mortimer and the young king refused. Crossing the Weir would allow their vanguard to be attacked before the rest of the army could cross, so they were certainly right to refuse.
The standoff lasted for three days before the Scots moved during the night to an even more unassailable position within an area known as Stanhope Park. At daylight, the English shifted their position but still dared not cross the Weir. Although the Scottish position was unassailable, it also appeared to have the Scots trapped with no way of resupplying. The English believed all they had to do was starve the Scots out, and they would win.
On the night of the 4th of August, James Douglas led a night attack, penetrating to the very centre of the English camp. They rode in, cutting guy ropes and firing tents. There was panic in the camp. Douglas himself collapsed the King’s tent with the terrified king inside, his confessor killed protecting him. By that time, the English were organising for defence, so the Scots returned, untouched, to their own camp.
The next day, a Scot allowed himself to be taken prisoner to give the English word that the Scots would try to cut their way free the following night. The English, believing the story, spent the night in their armor with bonfires lit to see during the supposed coming battle. And the Scots retreated, picking their way through what the English had believed was an impenetrable marsh.
The English King wept in fury and humiliation.
He also never forgave the Scots. He was even more angry when his mother and Mortimer negotiated a peace treaty with Scotland which he and King Robert the Bruce signed in March 1328.
Only four years later, King Edward repudiated the treaty he had signed, backing an invasion by the pretender to the Scottish throne, Edward Balliol. Then began the totally useless Second War of Scottish Independence, which cost countless lives on both sides and eventually gained England nothing.
It did, however, provide stories of treachery, battle, bravery, defeat, and triumph that beg to be told.
Thank you so much for sharing the background to your new book. It sounds fabulous.
Here’s the blurb
Young Archibald, the Black Douglas’s bastard son, returns from exile to a Scotland ravaged by war. The war-hardened Knight of Liddesdale will teach him what he must learn. And with danger on every side, he must learn to sleep with one eye open and a claymore in his hand because even their closest ally may betray them…
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Meet the author
J R Tomlin is the author of twenty historical novels.
Her historical novels are mainly set in Scotland. You can trace her love of that nation to the stories of Robert the Bruce and the Black Douglas that her grandmother read her when she was small and to her hillwalking through the Scottish Cairngorms where the granite mountains have a gorgeous red glow under the setting sun.
In addition to having lived in Scotland, she has traveled in the US, mainland Europe and the Pacific Rim. She now lives in Oregon.
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