The king's right eye

In early 1302 French agents were supposed to arrive in Scotland, to take custody of all the lands Edward I had conquered in the southwest since the previous summer. The deadline for their arrival was “the fortnight after Candlemas” or 16 February.

Philip le Bel

The 16th of February passed without a Frenchman in sight. Edward, who had stopped at Roxburgh on his way south, was left secure in all the lands and castles in question. He quickly pressed his advantage and ordered Master James of St George, who had worked on the great chain of castles in Wales, to set out for Scotland.

Philip le Bel’s failure to send any men to Scotland exposed the emptiness of the Franco-Scots alliance. It had terrible consequences for the patriotic cause. Robert de Bruce had already defected to the English, convinced that Philip was about to send an army to restore John Balliol on the Scottish throne. Other Scottish knights, namely Simon Fraser and Herbert Morham, had left English service in the expectation of a permanent French alliance and final victory over Edward. Now they were left to face the wrath of the Plantagenet alone.

Why Philip made this decision is uncertain. Either he never meant to honour the agreement in the first place - which begs the question of why he bothered to implement it - or his circumstances had changed.

The answer probably lies in the talks that took place at Asnières in France between the English and French envoys. The English envoys were led by Walter Langton, a supremely able diplomat labelled “the king’s right eye in all matters” by Edward’s queen, Margaret of France. His counterpart on the French side was the no less able Pierre Flote, a brilliant lawyer and fanatical advocate of French expansionism.

Between them these two massive brains probably cooked up a cynical arrangement, whereby Philip agreed to dump the Scots if Edward dumped the Flemish. They could come to no agreement on the status of John Balliol, who was elegantly shoved aside. If Philip had gone ahead with his threat and sent Balliol back to Scotland, it is quite feasible a pitched battle would have taken place between Balliol and his supporter William Wallace on the one side, and Edward and Bruce on the other.

That could have been interesting.