Chapter 13
Following his defeat at Crécy and the melting-away of his army, Philip of France found himself sorely pressed by the invading army of Edward III. He sought to relieve this pressure by urgently entreating David II, King of Scotland, to invade England in the hope of drawing Edward back to defend his realm. David succumbed to the lure and, in October 1346, he marched his army over the border and into England, being assured that Edward and his chief commanders were absent so that ‘… here are none to oppose our progress save churchmen and base artisans’. He crossed the Tyne at Ryton, above the town of Newcastle, and advanced into Durham to encamp, on the 16th of October, at Beaurepair (Bear Park), about two miles north-west of the city of Durham.
Within the city itself, the utmost consternation prevailed; it appeared to be at the mercy of the invaders. But things were not as bad as they appeared and the Scots were to be opposed by a force that was collecting with all speed and considerable zeal. This army, well armed and numbering about 16,000 men-at-arms, archers and infantry, was led by the northern barons – Ralph, Baron Neville of Raby; Henry, Baron Percy of Alnwick; Musgrove, Scrope, Hastings and the ubiquitous Edward Baliol.
The English force advanced slowly and cautiously eastwards; near the village of Ferry Hill they met and scattered a raiding party of about 500 men under Sir William Douglas. The latter, flying from the field and leaving more than 200 of his force dead, arrived breathless at Beaurepair to warn David that the English had formed an army and were advancing to meet him. Still moving slowly by the Red Hills on the west of the city of Durham, the English were coming up to the ground on which the forthcoming battle was destined to be fought. The battlefield lay west and west by north of the cathedral; it was a level ridge, since cut up into fields and partly built over; northwards there was a sharp slope forming a kind of trough into which a spur juts out – hereabouts the ground was covered thickly by Shaw Wood. In the trough and woody recesses was a little pear-shaped hillock known as the Maiden’s Bower, on the top of which the clergy from the city clustered to pray around the holy relic of St. Cuthbert.
David formed the Scots army into three divisions. The first was led by the high Steward of Scotland, the second by the Earl of Moray and Sir William Douglas of Liddesdale (then named ‘The Flower of Chivalry’), and the third division, consisting of select troops and a party of French auxiliaries, was led by the King in person.
The English were disposed so that Lord Percy led the vanguard which, in the battle, became the right wing and was opposed to the Scots left wing under the High Steward. The main body was commanded by Lord Neville and, as centre, in the battle joined issue with the Scottish main body and centre under King David. The English rearguard (the left wing) under Rokeby, was in conflict with the Scottish right wing led by the Earl of Moray. The English also had provided for that which the Scots had not – a powerful reserve of picked cavalry – mailed horsemen, under the command of Edward Baliol.
Still moving slowly, the English advanced and deployed for action; the Scots left their position on Durham Moor and moved forward to meet them. Sir John Graham, remembering how a quick cavalry movement against the archers at Bannockburn had decided the day, asked leave to attack them. ‘Give me but one hundred horse and I shall disperse them,’ he declared. King David refused and, at nine o’clock in the morning, ordered a general attack.
The Scots advance was sorely impeded by walls and hedges, behind each of which were stationed English archers, whose arrows galled and played the usual havoc with the advancing Scots. Flying as thick as hail, the destructive volleys, at long range, poured into the enemy so that their spearmen fell thickly without having been able to inflict a single injury upon the English. Graham, furious at this loss of men and sensible enough to realise that archers at ‘long bowls’ had a terrible advantage over men armed with sword, axe and spear, took matters into his own hands and struck the first blow. At the head of his own personal followers, he rode straight for the archers, charging down on them so quickly that his little band actually broke through in one place and dispersed the archers there. At short range, Graham’s horse was shot down and was wounded, but he managed to regain the Scots lines.
The High Steward, quickly grasping the situation, ordered his men to charge the partly disordered English right wing. Momentarily freed from the nagging arrows, the Scots came on with such impetuous fury that by sheer weight of sword and battle-axe they hurled the English column back in confusion against that of Lord Percy, whose wing was then in danger of rout. At this moment of crisis the value of possessing a cavalry reserve under a capable commander became apparent – Baliol, with great spirit, charged the Scottish troops threatening Percy. Not only was the Scots attack on the right wing repulsed, but that repulse was converted into a complete rout and within a brief space the division of the High Steward were a bunch of fugitives. The High Steward desperately worked to re-form and reorganise his troops, who were entangled among hedges and ditches, again being decimated by the fire of the now steady English archers.
The battle between the centres had been proceeding on almost equal terms. At a glance, Baliol took in the situation; refusing to succumb to the temptation of pursuing the beaten High Steward’s division, he wheeled his men and flung them into a charge on the left flank of the Scottish King’s division. The left flank of this formation, through the flight of the left wing, was left practically defenceless and Baliol’s move proved almost completely disastrous to the Scots. Their centre, attacked in front by Neville (whose men had poured through gaps in the enclosures to charge the Scots in a somewhat confused but nevertheless desperate manner) and on the left flank by Baliol’s cavalry, began to waver and slowly give way. The conflict was carried on relentlessly for some time, the English and the Scots hacking away at each other, the archers firing at whatever targets presented themselves and then laying on with their swords. In spite of the King, surrounded by his nobles, fighting bravely, his division began to break up, the fugitives taking off towards the right, where Rokeby was valiantly doing more than hold his own. But here the men of the Scots right division, hampered by the nature of the ground, could not retreat; caught in enclosures and between hedges, they were slain without mercy and died in heaps.
On all sides the Scots had now completely given way, but their King, by his exhortations and example, repeatedly brought masses of them back to the fray. It was in vain and at last, almost a precursor of Flodden, the remaining knights formed themselves in a ring around their monarch and stood at bay. In spite of their gallant defence, at noon the royal banner was seen to be beaten down; seeing it fall, the remnants of the Scottish army in all parts of the field fled in despair. Acknowledging that all was lost, the eighty or so knights remaining around David surrendered and, at last, the King himself was taken. His sword was broken in his hand and he was said to have had at least two severe body wounds, but proud, fiery and in the prime of life, David disdained captivity and tried to provoke his captor, Sir John Copeland, to kill him. Although he smashed his mailed gauntlet into that knight’s face, his action did not bring the death he desired and David II, King of Scotland, was conveyed in triumph through England to the Tower of London.
The English losses are not known, although in such a fiercely contested battle they must have been severe. The Scots undoubtedly lost the more. It is said that, out of 30,000 men, nearly half perished on the spot and many more in the subsequent pursuit.
And so the year 1346 became a year of victories; the Tower of London did not seem to have sufficient rooms to accommodate all its royal and noble prisoners of war. England was a young nation, only recently united and just finding her feet; the victorious exploits of her soldiers, which had given them a fearsome reputation in an amazingly short space of time, had aroused a spirit of national pride and consciousness never to be lost. By methods derived from his grandfather, Edward III had blended with skill and experience tactical methods that were to be forged in the fires of success at Halidon Hill, Morlaix, Crécy, Neville’s Cross and many subsequent victories. To carry out these methods, Edward had at his disposal men of the highest class – men-at-arms who were the pick of the country, and archers who had brought their craft to a peak of perfection by long practice. There are numerous French writings and chronicles that testify to the fearsome and deadly impression that these archers had made upon continental soldiery. It was indeed a time of national rejoicing that the lusty English infant had learned to walk and was now laying about him so that his presence was to be known through his power of arms for many centuries.