Berwick upon Tweed must be the most hotly contested town on the Scottish English Border.
Even today, it s technically in England, but that makes no geographical sense.
I ve already made a video about the massacre when Edward Longshanks captured it in 1296
so how did Robert the Bruce take Berwick back from the English?
If you re interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history then click
the subscribe button at the bottom right. In the meantime, let me tell you a story
First of all, I know this isn t Berwick upon Tweed,
but whenever I head down to Berwick, I like to stop off here and walk the
cliffs at St Abbs, and let s be honest,
it s a nice spot to give you the background Now if you re watching this, then you
probably know that the Scots won the Battle of Bannockburn in June 1314,
but that didn t end English claims over Scotland.
The English certainly weren t about to give up a walled town on this side of the Tweed
that Scots would use for profitable trade to the continent,
if the English didn t use it as a launchpad for further invasions.
So how to take it back? In January 1316
Robert Bruce and his right-hand man James Douglas
launched a surprise attack under the protective cloak of a winter s night ,
but as they crept up towards an unrepaired section of the wall by the harbour the moon came out
and they were spotted and driven back. This was a disappointment,
but things were worse for the inhabitants of Berwick.
The occupiers were English, but the inhabitants ?
It was even messier then than it is today Both citizens and garrison were cut off,
behind their walls, by a Scottish fleet blockading supplies.
For months they had been sending letters to Edward II of England complaining
that men were dying of starvation. The garrison were eating their horses.
Worse still, the peasantry were reduced to eating those marmite sandwiches at the back
of the fridge. Yauch
Edward had no response. He d been bested by Robert the
Bruce in battle and occasionally Bruce, but constantly Good Sir James Douglas,
were raiding deep into English territory. Edward decided his only hope was God.
For those of you who have watched my video on The Declaration of Arbroath
think back to these events a few years earlier. Have you logged that for later
In August 1316 John XXII had been
appointed as the new Pope in Avignon and seeing as the Scots couldn t speak to him,
having been excommunicated for following Robert the Bruce,
the English got in first, saying: Oh your popeyness
we d love to go on crusade to Jerusalem, but we re so busy trying to defend Berwick
and dealing with the Scots that we just can t fit it into the schedule.
What say you release a Papal Bull to demand that the Scots accept a truce
just for a year of two then we can get back to the fighting
and that s what the pope did. He sent ambassadors to deliver the bull,
though I would have thought cowboys would have been a more sensible option.
What do I know, I m not even religious?
They delivered the sealed letter from the Pope to Edward, in London, then
they headed north. When they got here, the Bishop
of Corbeil and the Archdeacon of Perpignan were cordially welcomed by King Robert and
they handed him the Pope s letters. King Robert took the letters and said:
Hold on! These letters from the Pope are addressed to
Our dearest son in Christ, Edward II, illustrious King of England ,
and to our dear son, the noble Robert Bruce. Well there s a tizzy and no mistake.
You see, said King Robert, there are several gentlemen in
Scotland who have the name Robert Bruce. It would be a bit embarrassing if I opened
a letter and it was meant for one of them. Now if they d been addressed to The King of Scots
then I would have known they were for me. Oh no, I can t open these.
The envoys said: Oh but the Holy Father couldn t
possibly employ denominations that committed him to one side or another in a temporal dispute.
Robert pointed out that in depriving him of the title of King
that s exactly what he had done. Everyone here knows that I m the King of Scots.
You should be grateful I m a nice bloke. If you d made the same mistake with some
monarchs, not a million miles south of here, you would have got a much more savage reply, so
sod off. And with that,
off they sodded
They then got the unfortunate Adam Newton, Superior of the Franciscans Monks at Berwick
and said: I tell you what,
you go and give him the letters. This is the parish of Old Cambus.
It s twelve miles from Berwick. This is where Adam Newton found the King of
Scots preparing siege engines to take the town. Robert the Bruce refused to meet him,
but when his letters were delivered Bruce noted that they still weren t addressed
to the King of Scots and he sent them back,
adding that so long as his royal titles were withheld there would be no truce,
and he would make himself master of Berwick.
Berwick by pier Berwick is still a walled town,
though nowadays the walls are more commonly used for a nice walk than defending anything
but Edward had to defend it somehow so he ordered a force to be mobilised.
Map Now here s a map of the
town of Berwick as it was. I m standing here.
Now it s not an olde worlde map. It was sketched and given
to me by Dr Fiona Watson no less. If you re interested in Scottish history
then you ve almost certainly heard Fiona Watson on the radio or seen her on the telly.
She s a proper expert professor and a bit of a hero of mine.
She s written loads of history books and is a particular expert on the wars of independence.
She s just written her first historical novel called Dark Hunter
set in Berwick at exactly the time we re talking about.
She drew the map for THAT book.
It ll be in all good bookshops in April 2022. That is proper exciting.
What s even more exciting is that I m meeting up with her on 25th October
as my guest for my monthly conversations with experts
that are available to my Patreon members. So if you are a Patreon member then send in
your questions on the Wars of Independence and I ll put them to Fiona on 25th.
If you re not already a Patreon member then why not join up by clicking the white tab up there.
So Edward s trying to get together a force, but inside the town there had been a bit
of bad blood between the good folk of Berwick and their occupying garrison.
The commander s defrauding the treasury, the troops aren t being properly paid,
Edward s given control to the Mayor, the troops aren t happy and the military
have been insulting a guy called Peter Spalding for being married to a Scotswoman.
He s so offended that he sends word to Sir Robert Keith, Marischal of Scotland,
who happens to be related to the very Scotswoman who s been disrespected.
Spalding gives the date of the next time he s on guard
at a particular section of the wall. If the Scots come then,
he ll let them pass. Sir Robert Keith gives this message
to Robert the Bruce. Hmmmm
Was it a trap? Was it genuine?
Let s take the risk, but keep the details to ourselves.
Sir Keith was told to take his men to Dunns, around 15 miles to the west.
On April 1, 1318 Sir James Douglas and Thomas Randolph
arrived to make fools of the English. Only then was the task revealed to the men.
They were to go over the wall unnoticed at the appointed place
and hold that section of the wall till Bruce arrived with reinforcements in the morning.
Now it seems that the prospect of plunder was too much of a temptation
and, instead of waiting, some of the infiltrators ran amok.
This nearly blew the whole game, because some folk, having been alerted,
grabbed weapons and fell back to gather in the castle.
Seeing that the Scots holding the wall were reduced to a handful
the governor of the castle sallied out with a much larger force
but, almost single handedly Sir Thomas Randolph and Good Sir James Douglas, the finest knight
in Christendom between them,
with the aid of William Keith of Galston drove the much larger force back to the castle,
holding the day just long enough for King Robert and his army
to arrive and secure the town. IT S LIKE A MOVIIIIIIIIIIE !
Before long the castle garrison gave in to hunger and Berwick
was Scottish once more. Now normally
Robert Bruce destroyed the walls in the castles and towns he took,
but this was Scotland s most important trading port.
So the walls were maintained and he left under the charge Sir Walter Stewart,
who had recently sired Robert Bruce s grandchild,
who would go on to be the first Stuart King of Scots
and King Robert headed south, to take the fight deep into England,
leaving many an Englishman to wish that the pope had addressed his letter properly.
A couple of years later the community of Scotland wrote
their own letter to that same pope demanding that he recognise
Robert the Bruce as king It was called the Declaration of Arbroath
and eventually the Pope recognised Scotland
and its king There s another video about Robert
the Bruce coming up on screen now. In the meantime