Back to the border (5)

Over the winter of 1299-1300, the English continued to lose ground in the western marches of Scotland. Their main problem was the Scottish garrison at Caerlaverock, which launched a series of attacks on the rival English garrison at Lochmaben, about seventeen miles to the north.

Caerlaverock

On 4 October 1299 the Scots sallied out of Caerlaverock and attempted to storm Lochmaben. Robert Felton, the English constable of Lochmaben, reported to Edward I that he had repelled the Scots and killed the constable of Caerlaverock, Robert Cunningham. As a symbol of his ‘great success’, Felton stuck Cunningham’s head on the great tower of Lochmaben.

Felton then gave the game away by admitting that he was unable to venture out of Lochmaben to buy a new robe for himself. If he had won such a great victory, why was he stranded inside his outpost, begging the king to come and rescue him? The payrolls for the English garrison paint an equally bleak picture. Between 28 September and 19 October, their numbers were cut from a total strength of 303 to 141, including the loss of several officers. Between 20 October and 19 November this number was reduced again to 101.

The letter from Felton

It is always difficult to account for decrease in garrison numbers, but the likelihood is that most of these men were casualties. The slightly desperate tone of Felton’s letter, pleading with the king ‘to turn his face towards Scotland’, implies that Lochmaben was in serious danger.

Peter Langtoft, a rabidly pro-English chronicler, poured scorn on the garrison at Caerlaverock. He claimed it was a ‘poor little castle’ occupied by a few insignificant ‘ribalds’. On the contrary, it was an important Scottish strongpoint and a major thorn in the side of the English in the west.

Edward was certainly under no illusions. As early as late August 1299 - even before he received Felton’s report - the king placed Sir John Dolive in charge of the construction of siege engines at Carlisle. These were intended for the assault on Caerlaverock in the summer and named Belfry, Multon and the Cat. Belfry was an enormous siege tower and, along with War-Wolf, would become one of Edward’s favourite toys. When in doubt, build a really big siege tower.