Back to the border (1)

Shortly after the end of the war in Scotland in 1304, Stephen Brampton, the English constable of Bothwell, sought recompense from Edward I for his ‘painful’ service. Brampton claimed that he had defended Bothwell against the Scots for a year and nine weeks, until all the garrison were dead except himself and a few companions. These were kept in ‘dure prison’ in Scotland for three years.

This probably relates to the year 1300, when the Scots took Stirling, the key to the Forth. It would make sense for them to march onto Bothwell afterwards, and the siege may have begun sometime between January-April 1300. Edward’s intention to campaign in Scotland in 1299, aborted because most of his infantry deserted, gave the Scots a breathing space.

From January 1300 the gears of the English war-machine started to grind again. On 5 January the king wisely appointed John de St John as constable of the troubled West March, where English control was fragile: there was also a competing Scottish constable in the shape of Sir Adam Gordon (no relation to the famous outlaw Adam Gurdon of Hampshire). St John was one of Edward’s most competent lieutenants, and the king had paid an eye-watering ransom of £5000 to get him back from a French prison. St John and his colleague John of Brittany returned from Gascony in time to fight at Falkirk.

St John was given some intriguing private instructions. On 25 September he was paid over £413 in ‘secret expenses’ for performing some mysterious task, probably involving cloaks and daggers. Both English and Scots made effective use of spies, including women and children: one particularly enterprising ‘boy’ seems to have taken money from both sides.

St John also possessed a degree of charm, sorely lacking in most of Edward’s officials in Scotland. The gentry of Gascony had fond memories of his time as seneschal, and flocked to his banner when St John arrived in the duchy to repel the French: they even named a town after him on the edge of the Pyrenees. After the excesses of the vile Cressingham, Edward may have hoped St John would perform a similar trick north of the border.