It may be the earls were really aggrieved at Edward’s failure to reward them while dishing out sweet land pie to others. Apart from the grant to Bisset, he granted forfeit Scottish land to Adam Swimburne, the Earl of Lincoln, the Earl of Warwick and Sir Robert Tony. Norfolk and Hereford, meanwhile, were left out in the cold. This was probably due to their behaviour in 1297, when their opposition to Edward’s policies scuppered the Flanders campaign and nearly triggered a civil war in England. Having been snubbed, they flounced off with their noses in the air and left Edward with the remnant of his army at Carlisle.
The king was not yet finished with Scotland. In late September he re-crossed the border with whatever was left of his infantry, and on 1 October laid siege to Jedburgh. Robert Low, a novelist, has described Edward randomly attacking Jedburgh ‘like a graceless old cat’. The king’s lack of grace notwithstanding, the siege was anything but random. Jedburgh was the only Scottish garrison in the southeast, so if Edward took it he would regain control of the area. The army was at Jedburgh until 18 October. Supplies of coal, iron and steel were ordered up for siege engines, and the Scots may have tried to break the siege: on 3 October one of the company of Sir Simon Fraser, at this point wearing his English hat, lost a horse in the king’s service in Selkirk Forest.
Finally Edward lost patience and offered the constable of Jedburgh, John Pencaitland, a bribe of 100 shillings to surrender. John accepted and would serve his new master faithfully in the Berwick garrison. The new constable, Sir Richard Hastangs, was installed at Jedburgh with twelve men-at-arms, forty crossbowmen, twenty archers, four miners, two masons, four diggers and one engineer.
But no cats.
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