The Bruce
257 _that wes yhing._ Edward III. was fifteen.
261 _Isabel._ Daughter of Philip IV. of France.
262 _wes weddid._ Not till January 28, 1328, to the second daughter
(Philippa) of Count or Earl William of Holland and Hainault. Barbour,
of course, writes about fifty years after.
267 _Schir Johne of Hennaut._ John of Hainault, lord of Beaumont,
brother of the Count, then “in the flower of his age” (_Le Bel_, i., p.
12). He came at Edward’s request, and brought five hundred well-mounted
men-at-arms from Hainault, Flanders, Bohemia, Cambresis, and Artois:
later he was joined by fifty more (_Le Bel_, i. 36, 37). Jehan le Bel
and his brother were in the company.
271 _In-to York._ The English army assembled at York, and there awaited
the arrival of the Hainaulters (_Le Bel_, p. 36); or of the chief lords
(_Gesta Edw._, p. 96). There was a wait at York of more than six weeks
until news should come about the Scots (_Le Bel_, p. 45). The English
preparations seem to have anticipated the Scottish raid, though Barbour
puts it otherwise.
275 _neir fifty thousand._ According to _Le Bel_, it was said the
English had seven thousand knights and squires, thirty thousand armed
men, half of whom were mounted on little hackneys, and twenty-four
thousand archers on foot--sixty-one thousand men (i., p. 49). The
English were three times the number of the Scots (_Murimuth_, p. 53;
_Baker_, 97). Froissart, modifying _Le Bel_, gives in another place
more than forty thousand men-at-arms (i., p. 17).
278 _Xviii yheir._ Edward, born November, 1312, was only fifteen.
279 _Cokdaill._ The Cock flows into the Wharfe, a tributary of the
Yorkshire Ouse. Sir Herbert Maxwell says Coquetdale (_Robert the
Bruce_, p. 311).
287 _sevyn battellis._ According to Le Bel, the English were in three
battles of infantry, each battle having two wings of five hundred
men-at-arms (p. 49).
316 _north half Wer, toward Scotland._ Maxwell insists that the Scots
were on the south bank, on account of an order from Edward on August
3, located at Stanhope, to which may be added a later reference to his
having been there (_Robert the Bruce_, p. 312 and note; _Bain_, iii.,
Nos. 929, 933). But the Scots were certainly at Stanhope Park, on the
north bank (see below on 490 and 513). Mr. J. T. T. Brown, also on the
strength of the first citation from _Bain_, says that “Froissart and
the Scottish poet are both alike in error in placing the Scottish army
on the north bank and the English on the opposite of the Wear” (_The
Wallace and Bruce Restudied_, p. 144). In what he writes, Froissart
simply follows _Le Bel_, who was present. Neither expressly says that
the Scots were on the north bank, but it is made clear in both that
the river separated the forces. Nothing is said by Barbour of how the
English hunted for the Scots, but could not find them; of their rough
and hurried ride to the Tyne at Hexham to cut off the expected Scottish
retreat; or of their rush south when it was discovered by a squire that
the Scots were on the Wear--all of which is graphically described by
Le Bel and transferred to his own work by Froissart (_Le Bel_, i., ch.
xii.; _Froissart_, ch. xvii.).
322 _Stude in a strynth._ They were drawn up in three battles on the
slope of the mountain on which they were encamped (_Le Bel_, p. 62).
Gray says the Scots were in three divisions on a fine plain, and calls
this first position also Stanhope (_Scala._, p. 154). But it is clear
from the detailed accounts of Barbour and Le Bel that the Scots were on
a hill.
328 _Weris wattir._ “Below this mountain was a strong, swift river”
(_Le Bel_, p. 62). “The King took up a position before them on the Wear
wattir for three days” (_Scala._, p. 154).
350 _Archibald ... of Douglas._ Youngest brother of Sir James, “the
Tineman” (_i.e._, the Loser), afterwards Regent of Scotland; killed at
Halidon Hill, 1333. His especial share in this raid was to plunder the
bishopric of Durham (_Scala._, p. 154; Maxwell’s _History of the House
of Douglas_, vol. i., pp. 70, 71, 75).
353-4 These lines appear to mean that Douglas alternately advanced
and retired so as to draw the English on. The Scots on the next day,
according to Le Bel, “ran forwards and backwards in skirmishing”
(_couroient et racouroient tout en eshcarmuchant_, p. 64).
374 _Schir Williame of Erskyn._ It is noted that Bruce died in debt to
Erskine (_Excheq. Rolls_, i., p. 404).
396 _Tymbrys for helmys._ Wooden crests on helmets, common in the
fourteenth century. Apparently the novelty was not in the crests, but
in the material; hitherto they would have been made of _cuir-bouilli_
(see _Bk._ XII., 23, note). Edward III. bore an eagle: “Tymbre de legle
(? l’aigle)” (_Bain_, iii., p. lxviii.).
399 _crakkis of war._ Early cannon (_cf._ on _Bk._ XVII., line 250). It
is not easy to understand how the English carried these with them in
their forced marches over hill and dale. Le Bel does not mention them.
They do not appear again in warfare till Creçy (1346), if then (Oman,
_Art of War_, p. 611).
402 _That nycht._ “The night of St. Peter in August” (_la nuit
Saint-Pierre d’aoust_, _Le Bel_, 64). St. Peter’s Day was August 1, but
as Mass was heard on the morrow, the “night” was probably that of July
31, St. Peter’s Eve.
405 _The Inglis men._ Le Bel (_Froissart_) does not relate the
incidents given by Barbour, or these operations, except in general
terms. Many “companions,” he says, with the assistance of their horses,
crossed the river, and some on foot; prisoners were taken, and others
wounded or killed on both sides; and this went on continuously for
three days (p. 64). The English learned from their prisoners that the
Scots had neither bread, salt, nor wine, and so they hoped to starve
them out; but they had plenty of beef, and were not particular about
how they ate it, without salt or bread, “boiled or roasted as it liked
them;” as well as some oatmeal, of which they made cakes (i., p. 65).
431 _all arayit._ Each of the first two days, Le Bel tells us, the
English were drawn up in order of battle, though it came only to
fruitless skirmishing.
482 _Fyres in gret foysoun._ The Scots, writes Le Bel, always made a
wonderful number of fyres between night and morning; and by this and
their blowing of horns and shouting together it seemed as if all the
devils of hell were assembled there (pp. 64, 65; _Johnes_, i., ch.
xviii.).
486 _Twa myle._ “Two small leagues” (_Le Bel_). “A short league”
(_Scala._). “League,” as usual, signifies just a mile, as when Le
Bel credits the Scots with an average day’s march of from twenty to
thirty-two “leagues” (p. 4).
488 _defend thame bettir._ “A much stronger place than before” (_Le
Bel_, 65).
490 _a park._ Stanhope Park, a hunting-ground of the Bishop of Durham,
on the north bank of the Wear. “The Scots entered the park of Stanhope
and there lodged; likewise also the English on the other side of a
certain stream pitched camp and rested” (_Gesta Edw._, p. 96). The
Scots moved to “within the park of Stanhope” (_dedenz le park de
Stanhope_, _Scala._, p. 154). “The Scots betook themselves to the
park of Stanhope” (_Lanercost_, p. 259). The Scottish army was “at
Stanhope Park” (_apud Stanhop park_, _Contin. Chron._, _Murimuth_, p.
53; _Chron._, _Knighton_, i., p. 445; _Baker_, p. 97; _Hemingburgh_,
ii., p. 298). And those who have rejected Barbour’s statement as to
the northward position of the Scots, resting on a single citation
from Bain (see on 316), would have found, a few pages farther on, an
express reference to the time when the Scots were surrounded and beset
(_circumdati et obsessi_) _in the park of Stanhope_ by the King’s army
(_Bain_, No. 957, June 29, 1328). Edward, being so near, could very
well speak of himself as “at Stanhope.” Bain later admits the Scots
were at Stanhope (_Edwards in Scotland_, p. 77).
492 _full of treis._ At Stanhope Park “they were lodged in a wood” (_Le
Bel_, 65). “In the woddys of Stanhop park in dyverse busshementis”
(_Fabyan_, p. 439).
495 _Be nychtyrtale._ _I.e._, by night-time, as in Chaucer:
“by _nightertale_
He sleep namore than doth a nightingale.”
(_Prologue_, 97, 98).
501 _Upon the wattir._ “On another mountain ... also on the river” (_Le
Bel_, i. 65).
503 _on the morn._ Barbour gives the Scots only two days in the first
position opposite the English, not saying how long they had been
already “liand” there, which Le Bel says was eight days. Le Bel says,
further, that they left on the third, not the second, night, and that
their departure was discovered on the morning of the fourth day (p.
65). If the English arrived on July 31 (_cf._ on 402), and Edward was
at Stanhope on August 3 (_cf._ on 316), this would be right. Gray says
the Scots shifted camp on the fourth night (_Scala._, p. 154). Fordun
suggests only one position, the second (_Gesta Annalia_, cxl.).
513 _on othir half the wattir of Wer._ _Cf._ _Gesta Edwardi_ in note on
490. In Le Bel the river is still between the armies, (pp. 65, 66).
516 _Aucht dayis._ Maxwell affirms that, in saying this, Barbour
“either draws on his imagination, or has been misled by his informants”
(_Robert the Bruce_, p. 314); and the chronology of the various
writers is hard to reconcile. Gray gives six days for the second
position (p. 154); Le Bel (Froissart) eighteen (68); Knighton fifteen
(_Leycestrensis Chron._, i. 445); Hemingburgh says the Scots were
besieged for fifteen days in Stanhope Park (ii., p. 298). But the
author of _Gesta Edwardi_ agrees with Barbour in assigning eight days
(_octo diebus dicursis_, p. 97), and so does the _Lanercost_ writer (p.
259) and Fordun (_Gesta Annalia_, cxl.). Yet Mr. Brown accuses Barbour,
in fixing that term, of “always lauding his own side,” though these
English chroniclers support him (_The Wallace and The Bruce_, p. 145).
One document suggests that Edward was at Durham on August 5 (_Bain_,
iii., No. 930), but dates and places on legal documents do not always
signify what they suggest. The order from Durham was issued in the
King’s name. Edward was still at Stanhope on August 7 (_Calendar of
Patent Rolls_, Edward III. _s. d._).
520-1 _ilk day justyng of Wer. And scrymming._ “Every day skirmishing
by those who wished to skirmish” (_Le Bel_, 67). _Cf._ throughout
Froissart, ch. xviii.
527 _on the nynt day._ “The _first_ night that our lords were lodged
upon this (second) mountain” (_Le Bel_, p. 67). In _Scala._ apparently
the third night (p. 155).
533 _V. hundreth._ “Two hundred men-at-arms” (_Le Bel_, p. 67). “A few”
(_Lanercost_, 260; _Gesta Edw._, 96).
534 _in the night._ “About midnight” (_Le Bel_).
535 _so fer he raid._ “He passed this river a good distance (_bien
loin_) from our host” (_Le Bel_).
538 _slely can he ryd._ “Wherefore no one perceived him” (_Le Bel_).
541 _hew rapys._ See below on 561.
550 _no vachis._ “He suddenly passed through the sentinels of the
English” (_Gesta Edw._, pp. 96-7).
560 _He ruschit on thame hardely._ He fell on the English host most
boldly, crying: “Douglas! Douglas! you shall die all, lords of England”
(_Le Bel_, _ibid._). In _Froissart_ it becomes “thieves of England”
(_Berners_, _Johnes_), a version due, apparently, to Froissart’s later
re-editing of his own work. In Lettenhove’s edition (1863) it is
“_’Glas, ’Glas_” (i., p. 102). Knighton says that when Douglas was seen
by some English he began to cry in English (_Anglica voce_), “‘No warde
a seynt Jorge!’ as if he were an Englishman” (i. 445).
561 _doune he bare._ Le Bel (Froissart) says Douglas got so far
that “he cut two or three cords of the King’s tent.” “He penetrated
(_intravit_) a great part of the army of the King, and came nearly to
the King’s tent” (_Lanercost_, 260). “He passed through the midst of