Adam does Galloway

At the end of December 1299 Edward I issued a summons for the feudal service to muster at Carlisle in the summer of the following year. The roll recording the response to this request shows that the unpaid service of forty knights and 366 sergeants was provided. Among them was - you guessed it - that man Sir Adam Gurdun, summoned under the general writ to perform military service against the Scots.

Adam had never served in Scotland before. It probably didn’t bother him very much: he was well into his eighties, and fifty-eight years had passed since he first saw action in Poitou. In 1255 Henry III had granted him exemption from military service, on condition he sent a sergeant to fight in his stead. Not once, in over half a century of campaigning, had Adam taken the easy option. Now this old, old man - certainly by the standards of the day - once again heaved his guts into the saddle, took spear in fist and went plodding off to fight the enemies of the lord king.

He was ordered to attend the general muster at Carlisle on 24th June 1300. There the cavalry forces were divided into four batailles or squadrons. Those performing feudal service, including Adam, either formed their own bataille or were integrated into the army as a whole. Within each bataille there were fifteen or twenty bannerets, each in command of a retinue of knights or squires. A total of 16,000 infantry were requested, but only 9000 turned up.

The main objective of the campaign was to march into Galloway and take Caerlaverock Castle, to ease the pressure on the English garrison at Lochmaben. Thus the army lumbered into southwest Scotland, in heavy rains, and sat down before Caerlaverock. An unknown herald or jongleur composed a long poem about the siege, praising the splendid appearance and brave deeds of Edward’s knights. He also supplied a vivid description of the castle:

“Shield-shaped, was it. corner-towered, gate and draw-bridge barbican’d. strongly walled, and girt with ditches filled with water brimmingly. Ne’er was castle lovelier sited : westward lay the Irish Sea, north a countryside of beauty by an arm of sea embraced. On two sides, whoe’er approached it danger from the waters faced; nor was easier the southward — sea-girt land of marsh and wood: therefore from the east we neared it, up the slope on which it stood.”