Feb 1297 – 2 July 1298
- Arnald and Etienne ride into Saint-Sever leading the chestnut mare from Navailles, find William and Jacques cleaning up the mess. They quickly figure out it was William who killed the men from Navailles. Arnald rushes home after Wm tells him Marg is in labor.
- The three women manage to get Marg through labor safely and Bernard is delivered. There is so much blood. Fayette is horrified by how much blood there is compared to the horse deliveries she has seen. She asks “Why is there so much blood?” Margaret gives birth to Bernard de Brocas, who will become a preeminent attorney in England as an adult. She has a very difficult time with this delivery. Arnald gets home just in time for the birth. Chased by a rabid wolf that William kills. Margaret is struggling to feed the growing horse herd of which many are too young to train/sell. Margaret realizes she realizes she is pregnant again, much to her horror.
- William is bent on revenge. After suffering a serious leg injury during the attack on Saint-Sever, William must face the fact that it impacts his ability to be Captain of the Saint-Sever military forces. He sends Jacques after GADN, to Sault. He writes an angry petition to King Edward describing how his parents and sister were killed in an attack by the King’s enemies. (read this, also check Gascon roles for GADN)
- Jacques, who figures out that Wm killed Helios and Fidel, goes after GADN, saying William sent him to find survivors. He’s really trying to find GADN. GADN has gone to Bordeaux, perhaps anticipating that William will come after him. Someplace where it can look like he’s doing business for King Edward. To talk to the seneschal and complain about William, trying to sow doubt in the King’s mind about William.
- Arnald, having been allowed temporary reprieve from his military duties, is able to help Margaret with the horses. He is haunted by the fact that he was gone when his family was attacked. His PTSD struggles worsen, causing Margaret much worry. In May 1297 he is called to Bayonne to assemble with troops.
- John de Warrenne has been appointed Scotland’s new royal governor, an office he doesn’t want. He hates it, says the weather is bad for his health. He spends most of his time in northern England. The Scots were being asked to supply money and materials to support war in France.
- May 1297: troops assembled in Gascony (Bayonne?). Arnald would have been called.
- Edmund Crouchback is in France trying to help with truce. Edward is there while the Wallace stuff above is happening.
- May 1297 – William Wallace: In Scotland, a young William Wallace, of minor nobility, has begun leading a small band and striking here and there (3E) in the wilds of Scotland. Strike and run guerilla tactics. One attack with 30 men on the headquarters of Heselrig and Lanark results in the death of the English sheriff. When he killed Sir William Haselrig, the English sheriff of Lanark, and members of his garrison at Lanark. It is possible Sir Richard Lundie helped in the attack.[5] When news of Wallace’s attack on the English rippled throughout Scotland, men rallied to him. The rebels were supported by Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, who longed for the defeat of the English. The blessing of Wishart gave Wallace and his soldiers a degree of respectability. Previously, Scottish nobles had considered them mere outlaws. He was soon joined by Sir William Douglas and others.[2][3]
- On hearing about the start of an aristocratic uprising, Edward I, although engaged in events in France, sent a force of foot soldiers and horsemen under Sir Henry Percy and Sir Robert Clifford to resolve the “Scottish problem”.
- On receiving reports that Sir William Douglas had defected to the rebels, Edward dispatched Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, together with his father’s vassals of Annandale, to attack Douglas’s stronghold in Lanarkshire. Whilst traveling north to face Douglas, Bruce began to think about where his loyalties truly lay. He decided to follow the Scottish cause, being quoted as saying, “No man holds his flesh and blood in hatred, and I am no exception. I must join my own people and the nation in whom I was born.”
- Wallace sweeps north as far as the Tay, pillaging. Scottish officials marched in, Scots gave in but Wallace wasn’t part of that. He continued attacking the lowlands. Treasurer Hugo de Cressingham sends overconfident reports to Edward, thinking the Scots had been broken. This caused Edward to focus on his problems in France. Wallace takes advantage of the English arrogance and takes over the common men of Scotland under his banner. He moves rapidly and lays seige to Dundee near Stirling Castle. English command forced to take action.
- August 1297 – Wallace and his popular army had moved into northern Scotland and joined with Murray’s forces. By then John de Warrenne had arrived at Berwick and realized there was an emergency. They set out to crush the rebels, tried to cross the River Forth at Stirling Bridge. 11 Sept 1297.
- John de Warenne takes 50k men and 1000 horse. He is late sixties, stiff, hates Scotland and sick of war. Wallace has 40K foot and 180 horse (optimistically), untrained but brave. Crude equipment, wore mostly wool or cloth tunics to soften sword blows. Long spears or axes. Very unorganized. Wallace however is a military genius.”
- Cressingham insisted they cross, Warren agreed. Wallace and Murray were waiting for him on the other side of the bridge.
- The Scots attacked, separated the ones who had crossed including Cressingham. Warenne could only watch the slaughter and ordered the bridge destroyed. They rode hard for Berwick, almost 100 miles, and the “old man” didn’t rest until he reached the border. Murray died from wounds at Stirling so Wallace was now in sole command.
- Wallace “Go back and tell your people that we have not come for the benefit of peace, but are ready to fight, to avenge ourselves, and to free our kingdom.”
- Wallace is not married and did not possess a home. He quickly gains a national reputation and he was a genius at warfare. Costain suggests lowly friars who traveled to care for the poor may have served as Wallace’s eyes. In spring, when Scottish nobility decided to revolt against Edward, they summoned Wallace. Wallace and his men went, and met with Sir William Douglas at Perth. Sir William Douglas had commanded the garrison at Berwick, been captured, and released after swearing an oath of loyalty to Edward. Together their men marched on Scone where they met no resistance. Edward’s justiciar gathered his documents and ran. This win for the insurgents cause rejoicing among the Scots. In response Edward confiscated all of Douglas’s estates in England and arrested his wife and children. Douglas is later arrested, sent to Berwick to the exact same cell he was in before, same chains, etc. He dies there within the year.
September 1297 – Battle of Stirling Bridge –
Wallace calculates that the English will be lazy and cross the bridge, which can only be crossed 2 abreast. He waits until about 5K have crossed, then at 11:00 he gives the signal. 5k English and Welsh soldiers killed almost immediately by swords, falling off bridge, drowning, trampling, axes. Fat Cressingham is the one who convinces de Warenne to cross. He is among those killed. He is knocked from horse, trampled, skinned and his skin iis given as souvenirs. De Warenne watches from the other side of stream, orders bridge burned if possible, then runs like hell for Berwick. He then runs all the way to York where he gets letter from E2 saying to stay in Scotland until insurgents are beaten/destroyed. English are chased down through rocky fields, roads, streams and killed. Wallace not only chased down de Warenne’s army but also pillage and burned 700 towns. In mid October he and his men went back into Northumberland and fire 700 villages.
The pope interferes, insists King John Comyn be released from prison.
9 October 1297 – Truce between Edward I and Philip Iv, through Pope Boniface VII. Two month truce. Truce did not include Scotland.
Mid-October 1297 – Only one week after this document was signed (announcing Scotland had been recovered by war from the English), Wallace picked up the sword to mount an invasion of England. Crossing into Northumberland, the Scots followed the English army fleeing south in disarray. Caught between two armies, hundreds of refugees fled to safety behind the walls of Newcastle. The Scots laid waste a swathe of countryside before wheeling west into Cumberland and pillaging all the way to Cockermouth, before Wallace led his men back into Northumberland and fired 700 villages, churches, and monasteries. On his return from England, laden with booty, Wallace found himself at the pinnacle of his power.Wallace invades and pillages northern England, fires 700 villages. By early October only a few outposts like Berwick and Roxborough remained in English hands. By end of November Wallace returned to Scotland laden with spoils.
Mostly from GTK:
“News could travel between London and Flanders in under a week” p 307