Independence come early

In the summer of 1244, while Prince Dafydd raised war in Wales, Henry III marched north to confront Alexander II of Scotland. Henry had already given orders to mobilise at Newcastle in preparation for a massive invasion, including the construction of siege engines and 30,000 crossbow bolts. If the invasion had gone ahead, the Wars of Independence might have come early with Longshanks (born in 1239) barely astride his first pony.

The cause of the trouble was apparently a statement by Alexander, who declared he held nothing of his realm from the King of England. There was also a hefty dollop of intrigue, with a band of Scottish exiles at Henry’s court accusing the King of Scots of plotting an alliance with France. As with Henry’s Welsh campaigns in this decade, the situation eerily foreshadowed the later conflicts under Edward I.

The details are confusing. Henry’s specific allegation against the Scots was that Walter Comyn and other Scottish nobles had fortified two castles in Galway and Lothian, to the prejudice of the king of England, and contrary to the charters of their ancestors. Comyn had also entered into a secret alliance with the French, and received outlaws and fugitives from England. He did this, Henry alleged, to draw men away from the king’s allegiance.

Alexander moved first and invaded England. According to Matthew Paris, he pitched camp near Newcastle with an army of a thousand mounted knights and a hundred thousand footsoldiers; an impossible figure, though Alexander had obviously come fully loaded. Henry advanced to confront him with five thousand knights, which again sounds impossibly large: Edward I could only raise two thousand knights for the Falkirk campaign in 1298, when he raised the largest army seen in the British Isles since 1066.

Battle was avoided thanks to the efforts of Walter Gray and Richard of Cornwall, Henry’s brother, who brokered peace between the two armies. Alexander promised not to enter into any foreign alliance against Henry unless he was ‘unjustly oppressed’ by him.

In the charter or peace agreement, Alexander referred to Henry as his liege lord. Possibly that only applied to Alexander’s lands in England, though the text doesn’t say as much. The pope was then asked to confirm the agreement, and to restrain and censure Alexander and his heirs if they ever deviated from it.