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The Capitulation of Irvine
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Since 1286, Edward I, king of England, had involved
himself in Scotland’s affairs, claiming to be overland of the country.
With the death of Alexander III, king of Scots, and in the absence of a
clear heir, Edward chose John Baliol as the new king, thinking to have
himself a puppet on the throne. However, after a string of offenses and
humiliations, Baliol refused to send troops for the English king’s war
against France. This provoked the sack of
Berwick in March 1296, the
vicious murder of the men, women, and children of the town of Berwick,
that is said to have ended only when Edward saw his troops butchering a
woman in the very act of giving birth.
By 1297, open revolt was
spreading across Scotland. During the winter of 1296-97, Andrew de
Moray, the younger, had escaped captivity by the English and begun
raising men against them. In May 1297, William Wallace killed the
English sheriff in Lanark, gathered like-minded men to join him, and
received the blessings of Bishop Wishart, the bishop of Glasgow, in his
stand against the English. Around the same time, Edward discovered that
William Douglas had defected to the Scottish cause, and sent Robert
Bruce, the young Scottish Earl of Carrick, to attack Douglas’s castle.
Instead, Bruce joined forces with Douglas and others standing against
England.
He soon found himself side by side with several Scottish
lords, William Douglas, James the
Steward (1), Bishop Wishart, and William Wallace. On July 9, 1297, they
gathered on the northern banks of a loch near Irvine, prepared to fight
the oncoming English. The English army, led by Henry Percy and Robert
Clifford, gathered on the southern banks.
One colourful, but
unlikely, version of the Capitulation at Irvine is that the bickering of
the Scottish troops became so intolerable to the English that they
simply left the field.
A more common story of what happened at
Irvine is that the Scottish lords objected to being led by one they
considered their social inferior. Infighting broke out among the
Scottish ranks, resulting in the Scottish lords capitulating to the
English, rather than being led by their inferior. Wallace, unable to
fight without the lords, disappeared into the north.
G.W.S.
Barrow, in Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland
paints a somewhat different picture, reporting that Douglas, as soon as
English troops were seen, sent envoys asking if they were authorized to
accept surrender. One Richard Lundie was so disgusted with this
immediate capitulation that he changed sides then and there and joined
the English.
However, Barrow points out that the Scots spun out
surrender negotiations for a month, during which, Wallace, unhindered by
the English, was busy elsewhere laying more plans and gathering men. The
end result was that the nobles once again agreed to swear allegiance to
Edward I. You’d think by now Edward would understand that forcing oaths
of allegiance from the Scottish nobles was an exercise in futility.
The English had already figured out that you couldn’t assume that
Scots would keep oaths taken by force of arms.
As part of the
surrender, both Robert the Bruce, Earl of Carrick, and Sir William
Douglas, le Hardi, agreed to turn over their eldest children as hostages
for their good behaviour. They agreed to do this.
They didn’t.
The Bruce hid his infant daughter, probably with one of his sisters. The
Douglas sent his eldest son, James,
(later, 'The Good') to France.
Within weeks both the Bruce and
the Douglas were in open rebellion once more. A short time later the
Douglas was taken prisoner and died from maltreatment in the Tower of
London, defying the English to his death.
Note:
1. William Steward was a
brother-in-law to William Le Hardi, as was Alexander de Lindsay, who was
also present.
2. The Capitulations of Irvine is housed in the National
Archives, Kew Surrey, England.
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Sources
Sources for this article include:
• Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland, G.W.S.
Barrow
• Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland, 1286-1306. Fiona
Watson (1998).
• The History of Irvine: Royal Burgh and New Town.
john Strawhorn (1986).
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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