Bruce defeats his enemies in Scotland 25219 Bruce

Bruce defeats his enemies in Scotland

25/2/19 Bruce defeats his enemies in Scotland AIM – Learn how Bruce overcame his Scottish enemies. SUCCESS CRITERIA – • Be able to describe how Bruce campaigned against his enemies in Scotland in 1308 -09. • Be able to explain how Bruce stamped out Scottish resistance to his rule in northern and western Scotland. • Be able to make a considered assessment of why Bruce acted as he did. TASKS 1. Copy today’s aim and heading into your jotter. 2. Through class questioning, recap the events of Bruce’s campaign in the north in 1308. 3. Discuss through plenary the answer to last lesson’s ‘big question(s)’. 4. Go through today’s PPt, taking notes of information given in bold. 5. Use what we’ve learned and apply it to today’s ‘big question’ and take a note of our homework. HOMEWORK (due in on Friday 8 th March) • Complete ‘Bruce adopts guerrilla warfare’ worksheet questions for Friday 8 th March (Miss Harrison will give reminders). • Make sure that the notes and ‘big questions’ from today’s lesson are complete in your jotter (use the PPt on the school website, if needed).

The Harrying of Buchan • Between 1298 and 1304, the Guardians of Scotland had fought a defensive struggle. By contrast, from 1307 Bruce now led a war of aggression – directed against those lords and families who had led that earlier struggle and later submitted to Edward. • Bruce’s victory over the Comyns at the Battle of Inverurie in May 1308 was a major achievement for his cause. • Afterwards, Bruce ordered his brother – Edward Bruce – to lay waste to the entire Earldom of Buchan as punishment for their resistance. There was no stopping him now: Chronicler John of Fordun saw Inverurie as the key turning point in Bruce’s career.

• The Harrying of Buchan, or ‘Herschip of Buchan’ lasted for weeks. Bruce wanted the main Comyn powerbase to be permanently smashed. • Everyone still loyal to the Comyn cause was killed. Houses and farmsteads were burned, castles pulled down, livestock slaughtered whilst crops were burned and the land tainted. “Leave nothing standing!”

No mercy: during the herschip, everything of the Comyns was destroyed. • The chronicler Barbour tells us that men grieved over the herschip for fifty years or more. As the agricultural heartland of Scotland, Buchan had been heavily populated. It was the end of the Comyn hold over Scotland’s northeast. • Bruce’s barbarous treatment of the north-east showed he could use terror effectively. It served as a powerful incentive to persuade others to come to terms. “Kill everything!!!”

• The Comyn defeat led to the Bruce capturing Aberdeen from its English garrison. • Out of range of English attacks, but with excellent North Sea trade links to German and Flemish merchants, the port quickly became Bruce’s gateway for supplies from the continent. “I’m loving this, its so roomy and breathable…”: Bruce’s soldiers discuss the hottest new trends in arms and armour being delivered to them from the continent. • This allowed Bruce’s army a vital opportunity to build its supplies of weapons and armour for the fight ahead.

The western campaigns • After defeating the Comyns, Bruce marched west to attack their powerful allies, the Mac. Dougalls of Lorn. • The Mac. Dougalls were a powerful Highland clan who did not fear Bruce. They had inflicted a stinging defeat on him only two years before, at Dalry. • The Mac. Dougalls were Lords of the Western isles, and they had only been part of the kingdom of Scotland since Alexander III had won them over in 1266. They had long viewed themselves as independent of the Scots kings. Big choppers: As Lords of the Isles, the Mac. Dougalls would have included the fearsome Gallowglass warriors amongst their ranks.

• In August 1308, Bruce asserted his power with speed and violence. Enlisting the help of the Mac. Dougall’s blood feud enemies - the Mac. Donald’s Bruce made straight for the Mac. Dougall heartlands and met their army at the Pass of Brander. • The battle took place to the north of Loch Awe, on the route west towards Oban. The aged chief of the Mac. Dougalls, Alexander Mac. Dougall, was too elderly and sick to lead their army. He lay in bed in Dunstaffnage Castle, leaving his son, John Bacach to lead the fighting. An eye for an eye: Mac. Dougall, do you remember that time at Dalry? Now its your turn. . .

• The Mac. Dougalls had sought to ambush the Bruce. Their army lay in wait, hiding in the trees on the hillside overlooking the road at the Pass of Brander. They hoped for a repeat of their victory over Bruce at Dalry. • This time however, Bruce was experienced enough to avoid the trap. He sent James Douglas with a band of Highlanders even higher up the sides of Ben Cruachan, taking up a hidden position behind the Mac. Dougalls. • When the Mac. Dougalls sprung their trap to attack Bruce as he marched by, they found themselves instead caught in a trap between Bruce to their front and Douglas to their rear. “Hush now, lads. . . ”: Douglas manoeuvred his men into a commanding position on the hillside of Ben Cruachan, undetected by the hiding Mac. Dougalls below.

• Caught in an ambush this time of Bruce’s making, the Argyll men wavered then broke. • The Mac. Dougall soldiers fled and were chased all the way back to Dunstaffnage Castle by Oban. • John Bacach took to his galley on Loch Awe and fled south. He eventually took refuge as an exile in England. • Alexander Mac. Dougall, the elderly Lord of Argyll soon surrendered his castle and forces and did homage to Bruce. This marked the fall of the last Comyn stronghold in Scotland. Dunstaffnage Castle today: The Mac. Dougalls would have to wait until 1463 to reclaim their ancestral stronghold, and even then only briefly. • To enforce his authority, Bruce ordered the Mac. Dougall lands in Argyll and Kintyre to be harried just as he had those of the Comyns in Buchan.

• With the Western Isles in hand, Bruce sent his last brother – Edward Bruce – along with Sir James Douglas south-west to deal with the Comyns of Galloway. • Along with their prosperous heartlands in the north-east, the Comyn family also held lands in Galloway, neighbouring the Bruce’s own powerbase at Carrick. • Bruce and Douglas’ attacks there were so violent that some Gallowvidians fled across the border to England for safety. It is said that the ravaging carried out in Galloway was worse than that endured in Buchan. • Some Gallowvidian communities sought to buy off Bruce’s attacks rather than see their homes destroyed. Bruce used this money to pay for mercenaries. “Did I hear you say the Black Douglas is coming? ? ? !”: The inhabitants of Comyn lands in Galloway knew their card was marked when Douglas and Edward Bruce arrived at their door.

The Declaration of the Clergy • One by one, the Scottish nobles were declaring their support for Bruce. He had demonstrated his competence by defeating both Scottish and English opponents in battle. • To show his new authority, Bruce held his first official parliament at St. Andrews in March 1309. • The French King, Philip IV, sent an emissary officially recognising Bruce as the new king over John Balliol. St Andrew’s Cathedral today: Ransacked by a protestant mob in 1559, it was abandoned and fell into decay, with locals carrying of its stone to use in their own buildings across the town.

• Scotland’s bishops also publicly proclaimed the Bruce’s right to succession, once again publicly granting him absolution for his sacrilege in murdering the Red Comyn. • The bishops issued a joint declaration of approval of the Bruce’s kingship, called the ‘Declaration of the Clergy’. You watch our back and we’ll watch yours: As long as the Bruce kept Scotland independent from the English crown, he met the Scottish Church’s goal to continue free of influence from the English Church. • This saw Bruce starting a propaganda campaign to legitimize himself as the rightful King of Scotland.

“I’m coming up, so you better get this party started…”: By 1309, Edward II was ready for another bite of Bruce’s apples. • The Parliament of St. Andrews is significant as it shows how much of Scotland supported Bruce by early 1309. It also shows by omission however, that many powerful nobles were still opposed or indifferent towards him. • By August 1309, Bruce held all of Scotland north of the River Tay. Edward II’s loyalists and garrisons still held all of Lothian and the Borders, with outposts at Dundee, Stirling, and Perth. • By 1309, Scotland’s civil war seemed over, but the war with England would soon heat up again.

Today’s ‘Big Question(s)’ • Take note of the questions in your jotter and write an answer drawing upon the notes you have taken today: • Was Bruce right to be so harsh in his treatment of his Scottish enemies in 13081309? • In your own words, explain the indicators which show Bruce’s tactics were a success in 1308 and 1309.