Chapter 9
With the notable exception of Bannockburn, for the two centuries that followed the Battle of Falkirk, its characteristics were almost monotonously repeated whenever Scots and English met in battle. Only in smaller forays did the Scots leaders, in the same way as the Welsh before them, manage to evade and draw the enemy into their unknown and difficult country so that their unmounted spearmen could bring disaster to the heavily armoured English knight. With these almost insignificant exceptions, the battles of Halidon Hill, Neville’s Cross, Homildon and Flodden were all variations on the same theme. The steady but slow-moving masses of the Scottish infantry fell a sacrifice to their own persistent bravery as they staggered forward in vain attempts to reach the well-chosen position lined by archer-flanked men-at-arms. The English bowman might well boast that he carried twelve Scots lives at his girdle; he had but to launch his shaft into the easy target presented by the great surging mass of pikemen and it was certain to do dreadful execution.
In 1333 King Edward III of England decided to aid Edward Baliol in his attempt to wrest the Crown of Scotland from the young King David II, a minor who ruled with the aid of a Regent. The capture and reduction of the town of Berwick was Edward’s first objective; with a powerful army he laid siege to the town, investing it by land and sea. Following the slaughter of a number of Scots hostages before the walls of the town, the Governor, Sir William Keith, gave one of the conditional surrender promises characteristic of the time. He agreed unconditionally to surrender before the hour of vespers on the 19th of July unless the Scots, in the meantime, could reinforce the garrison with 200 men-at-arms, or defeat the English in a pitched battle. To prevent the loss of this important frontier town, the Scottish army, under the Regent, crossed the Tweed on the 18th of July and encamped at Dunse Park, a few miles north of Berwick.
The Scots leader – Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway – was a brave man but an imprudent leader. He had heard but failed to observe the dying advice of King Robert: ‘… the fate of the kingdom should never, if possible, depend upon the doubtful issue of a general engagement.’ Douglas determined on just such a course of action, apparently confident that both he and his army would be victorious. He found the English strongly positioned on the crest of an eminence called Halidon Hill, situated to the westward of the town of Berwick. Little is known of the specific nature of the English position or their dispositions, save that Baliol commanded one of the wings and that a marshy hollow lay in front of their line.
The first of the four columns into which the Scottish army was divided was led by John, Earl of Moray, assisted by John and Simon Fraser of Oliver Castle; the second by the Steward of Scotland, a boy of sixteen years but assisted by his uncle, Sir James Stewart; the third was led by Douglas himself, having with him the Earl of Carrick, and the fourth column, in reserve, was led by Hugh, Earl of Ross. The numerical strength of the Scots army is variously recorded by the historians. It is believed to have been larger than the English, and the Continuator of Hemingford, a contemporary chronicler, gives it as 14,655 fighting men. These consisted of 55 knights, 1,100 mounted men-at-arms, and 13,500 lightly armed foot soldiers.
It was noon on the 19th of July 1333 when this force moved forward to decide the fate of Berwick, and possibly Scotland. They received an early set-back when they came up to the English position, finding that it was posted in such a way as to be impossible to attack with cavalry. The whole of the Scottish knights and men-at-arms therefore dismounted, sent their horses to the rear with their pages and prepared to fight on foot. The order was given to advance and the force ponderously lurched forward; up the slope of Halidon Hill they plodded, heads down and sheltered by their upraised forward shoulder. Nevertheless they were severely galled by the fierce fire of the English archers. In spite of this, they managed to reach the marsh, spreading before the English position without losing their order, but here the disasters of the day began. The soft, boggy ground exacted its toll upon the heavily clad men, impeding them and slowing them down so that the stronger pressed forward and the weaker lagged back and the ranks became broken. All the time, without cessation, the archers poured in their volleys from the crest of the hill; they fired with certain aim and fatal effect at such close range. An ancient writer, quoted by Tytler, says: ‘These arrows flew as thick as motes in the sunbeam.’
The struggling Scots began to fall in their dozens, scores and then hundreds; but the still-strong survivors battled their way through the marsh to struggle laboriously and wearily forward. Their long pikes held in front of them, levelled points unwavering, they gained encouragement from the now-nearness of the English. Mustering their strength, they made a furious uphill charge. The impact was noisy and breathtaking, so furious was it that the English line momentarily wavered and stepped back. It was, however, only as if they had stepped back in admiration of the strength and courage of the Scots, whom they now found to be breathless and disordered by their climb and struggle through the marsh so that their fighting was but briefly fierce and spasmodic. The ill-fated and ill-led Scots were unable to sustain their initial impetus and in a short and sharp struggle were remorselessly borne back in a slow pageant of desperately struggling men, to be finally forced back into the deadly embrace of the cloying marsh.
The Earl of Ross led the reserve to attack the wing of the English army led by Baliol, but he was soon killed and the attack petered out. Fighting in the van, Douglas received a mortal wound and was captured, together with the Earls of Sutherland and Monteith. The Scots now were beginning to give way on all sides; to make matters worse, the pages at the foot of the hill, seeing the day going against their masters, panicked and fled with the horses; the weary knights and men-at-arms now had no means of escape as they were too spent to run far in their armour. This meant that very few of the nobles or men-at-arms escaped in the bloody pursuit that followed; it only ended when 4,000 or more Scots lay dead on the slopes of Halidon Hill and in the fields around it. English historians of the day claim that the English lost only one knight, one esquire and twelve foot soldiers.
‘Nor will this appear incredible,’ said Lord Hailes, ‘when it is remembered that the English ranks remained unbroken and that their archers, at a secure distance, incessantly annoyed the Scottish infantry.’
The town and castle of Berwick surrendered on the 20th of May, according to the agreement.
After the dust had died down at Bannockburn, nineteen years before, it was realised that it need never have been such a dreadful defeat; that the English possessed the tactical combination to destroy the advance of the Scottish spearmen. In the years between Bannockburn and Crécy there was a decisive difference, a difference ably exploited at Halidon Hill. It was a tactic that utilised the old method of receiving the enemy’s attack by dismounted men-at-arms drawn up to exploit the advantages of mass and density, coupled with the innovation of having archers drawn up on the flanks to inflict maximum damage on the advancing enemy before he could come to grips. As early as 1322, Andrew Harcia, fighting for Edward II, had used archers and dismounted men-at-arms when disputing the passage of the river Ure with Thomas of Lancaster and the Earl of Hereford. Ten years later Edward Baliol, invading Scotland to claim the throne, stood on the defence on Dupplin Moor; the shooting of his archers from the flanks enabled his dismounted centre to win the day. Halidon Hill, in 1333, gave Edward III the opportunity of practising the same tactics but with greater elaboration; the King was soldier enough to know what he had at his disposal.
The means had been devised to overthrow the schiltrons – if the Scottish spearmen stood firm they were decimated by archery until the English men-at-arms came into the assault.
If the Scots attacked they were beaten by dismounted men-at-arms, flanked by archers. In these early years of Edward III the essential military conditions of success in the Hundred Years War, both in tactics and in organisation, had already been prepared.