This is a study of war and society in the British Isles. It began life as an Oxford D.Phil on the effects of Scottish raids on northern England, but since its completion in 1989 the following changes have been incorporated: a synthesis of recent research on the war in Scotland; additional sections on other theatres of war, namely Ireland, and the war in the North and Irish seas; and some consideration of the wider implications of the Wars of the Bruces, for England and Ireland as well as Scotland, as a phase in the political development of the British Isles. The emphasis on the wider implications of the war is justified by the fact that the vast bulk of the archive material relating to the war emanates from the English royal government which was unable to operate in Scotland from 1311.
My approach is to examine the Wars of the Bruces as a whole, to consider relationships between the various theatres of war and to take into account economic, social and geographical constraints and motivation. The effects of the Wars outside Scotland have never been systematically examined; but an excellent start was made in the transcending of national histories in Dr. Sean Duffy’s 1991 article ‘The Bruce Brothers and the Irish Sea World, 1306–29’, in Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies xxi (1991), 55–86. Endeavouring, however, to maintain a strong narrative thread and to keep the text comprehensible to the non-specialist, I have found it necessary to devote separate chapters to various theatres of war. I have striven to maintain a balance between integration and clarity. There is one theatre of conflict which I have not covered, namely the diplomatic wrangles at the French and papal courts. Lacking familiarity with the sources and finding it adequately covered in existing works, I have left the further elucidation of this aspect to other writers. I would venture to say that as a study of war and society in the British Isles, the present work has not suffered markedly from the omission.
The Anglo-Scottish wars of 1306 to 1328 have tended to be written of principally in terms of biographies of the major characters. Robert I, Edward I and the English earls of Pembroke and Lancaster have all been the subject of great biographies, and a biography of Edward II is forthcoming. To these the present work is heavily indebted; and as the title suggests, I have found it undesirable to suppress the role of the personalities. This book is a drawing together of the work of many scholars: Duncan and Barrow, Phillips and Maddicott, Prestwich and Fryde, Lydon and Duffy, to name only the main authorities. My debt to them will be readily apparent to the reader.
Furthermore, the writing of this book has been greatly facilitated by the appearance in recent years of several major contributions to the history of the period; these include the supplementary volume to Bain’s Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland; Duncan’s edition of the actae of Robert I, published as the fifth volume of the Regesta Regum Scottorum; Prestwich’s biography of Edward I and Barrow’s revised edition of Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland; and finally, the new edition of Barbour’s Bruce.
I have tried to make the history as comprehensible to as many readers as possible by reducing technical terms to a bare minimum, referring to translations of the narrative sources where possible, and using the more familiar forms of place and personal names (hence MacDowell rather than MacDoual, Harclay rather than de Harcla, and Larne rather than Ulfreksfiord). I strayed from this general rule in the case of Gaelic Irish forms, where I have abided by the usage of the New History of Ireland.
Manuscript references are to documents held in the Public Record Office, London, unless some other record repository is specified.