Chapter LXI

THE KING OF SCOTLAND, DURING THE SIEGE OF CALAIS, INVADES ENGLAND.

I have been silent some time respecting the King of Scotland, but until this moment I have not had any thing worth relating; for, as I have said before, mutual truces had been granted between him and the King of England, which had not been infringed. During the time the King of England was carrying on the siege of Calais, the Scots determined to make war upon him, thinking it a good opportunity to be revenged for the many disasters he had brought on them. England had at that time very few men at arms, as the king had a great number with him before Calais, as well as in his other armies in Brittany, Poitou, and Gascony. The King of France took great pains to foment this war, in order that the English might have so much to employ them at home as would oblige them to raise the siege of Calais, and return to England.

King David issued his summons for a parliament to be holden at Perth; which was attended by the earls, prelates, and barons of Scotland, who were unanimous for invading England as speedily as possible. Raynold, Lord of the Isles, who governed the wild Scots, and whom alone they obeyed, was sent to, and entreated to attend the parliament. He complied with the request, and brought three thousand of the wildest of his countrymen with him. When all the Scots were assembled, they amounted together to about forty thousand combatants; but they could not make their preparations so secretly as to prevent news of it coming to the knowledge of the Queen of England, who had taken up her residence in the North, near the borders. She wrote and sent summons to all that were attached to England to come to York by a certain day. Many men at arms and archers who had remained at home put themselves in motion, and advanced to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which the queen had appointed as the final place of rendezvous. In the mean while, the Scots set out from Perth, and advanced the first day to Dunfermline; the next day they crossed a small arm of the sea; but the king went to Stirling, crossed the water on the morrow, and came to Edinburgh. Here they halted, and numbered their men. There were full three thousand knights and squires, well armed, and thirty thousand others, mounted on galloways. They marched to Roxburgh, the first fortress belonging to the English on their road, under the command of the Lord William Montacute, who had lately erected it against the Scots. This castle is handsome, and very strong: the Scots therefore passed on without attacking it, and took up their quarters on the banks of a river between Precy and Lincolle, whence they began to destroy and burn the country of Cumberland. Some of their scouts advanced as far as York, where they burnt all without the walls and down the river, and returned to their army, within one day’s march of Newcastle.