Editing Wars of Scottish Independence (section)

==The Second War of Independence: 1332–1357==
{{Main|Second War of Scottish Independence}}
{{Campaignbox Second War of Scottish Independence}}
After [[Robert the Bruce]]'s death, [[David II of Scotland|King David II]] was too young to rule, so the guardianship was assumed by [[Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray|Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray]]. But Edward III, despite having given his name to the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, was determined to avenge the humiliation by the Scots and he could count on the assistance of [[Edward Balliol]], the son of John Balliol and a claimant to the Scottish throne.

Edward III also had the support of a group of Scottish nobles, led by Balliol and Henry Beaumont, known as the 'Disinherited'. This group of nobles had supported the English in the First War and, after Bannockburn, Robert the Bruce had given them a year to return to his peace. When they refused he deprived them of their titles and lands, granting them to his allies. When peace was concluded, they received no [[war reparations]]. These 'Disinherited' were hungry for their old lands and would prove to be the undoing of the peace.

The Earl of Moray died on 20 July 1332. The Scots nobility gathered at [[Perth, Scotland|Perth]] where they elected [[Domhnall II, Earl of Mar]] as the new Guardian. Meanwhile, a small band led by Balliol had set sail from the [[Humber]]. Consisting of the disinherited noblemen and mercenaries, they were probably no more than a few thousand strong.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maxwell |first1=Sir Herbert |title=The Chronicle of Lanercost |date=1913 |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |page=268}}</ref>

Edward III was still formally at peace with David II and his dealings with Balliol were therefore deliberately obscured. He of course knew what was happening and Balliol probably did homage in secret before leaving, but Balliol's desperate scheme must have seemed doomed to failure. Edward therefore refused to allow Balliol to invade Scotland from across the [[River Tweed]]. This would have been too open a breach of the treaty. He agreed to [[turn a blind eye]] to an invasion by sea, but made it clear that he would disavow them and confiscate all their English lands should Balliol and his friends fail.

The 'Disinherited' landed at [[Kinghorn]] in [[Fife]] on 6 August. The news of their advance had preceded them, and, as they marched towards Perth, they found their route barred by a large Scottish army, mostly of infantry, under the new Guardian.

At the [[Battle of Dupplin Moor]], Balliol's army, commanded by Henry Beaumont, defeated the larger Scottish force. Beaumont made use of the same tactics that the English would make famous during the [[Hundred Years' War]], with dismounted knights in the centre and archers on the flanks. Caught in the murderous rain of arrows, most of the Scots did not reach the enemy's line. When the slaughter was finally over, the Earl of Mar, Sir Robert Bruce (an illegitimate son of Robert the Bruce), many nobles and around 2,000 Scots had been slain. Edward Balliol then had himself crowned King of Scots, first at Perth, and then again in September at Scone Abbey. Balliol's success surprised Edward III, and fearing that Balliol's invasion would eventually fail leading to a Scots invasion of England, he moved north with his army.

In October, [[Archibald Douglas (died 1333)|Sir Archibald Douglas]], now Guardian of Scotland, made a truce with Balliol, supposedly to let the [[Parliament of Scotland|Scottish Parliament]] assemble and decide who their true king was. Emboldened by the truce, Balliol dismissed most of his English troops and moved to [[Annan, Dumfries and Galloway|Annan]], on the north shore of the [[Solway Firth]]. He issued two public letters, saying that with the help of England he had reclaimed his kingdom, and acknowledged that Scotland had always been a [[Fiefdom|fief]] of England. He also promised land for Edward III on the border, including [[Berwick-on-Tweed]], and that he would serve Edward for the rest of his life. But in December, Douglas attacked Balliol at Annan in the early hours of the morning. Most of Balliol's men were killed, though he himself managed to escape through a hole in the wall, and fled, naked and on horse, to Carlisle.

[[File:Battle of Stanhope Park.jpg|thumb|left|Edward III invades Scotland, from an edition of Froissart's Chronicles]]
In April 1333, Edward III and Balliol, with a large English army, [[Capture of Berwick (1333)|laid siege to Berwick]]. Archibald Douglas attempted to relieve the town in July, but was defeated and killed at the [[Battle of Halidon Hill]]. David II and his Queen were moved to the safety of [[Dumbarton Castle]], while Berwick surrendered and was annexed by Edward. By now, much of Scotland was under English occupation, with eight of the [[Scottish Lowlands|Scottish lowland]] counties being ceded to England by Edward Balliol.

At the beginning of 1334, [[Philip VI of France]] offered to bring David II and his court to France for asylum, and in May they arrived in France, setting up a court-in-exile at [[Château Gaillard]] in [[Normandy]]. Philip also decided to derail the Anglo-French peace negotiations then taking place (at the time England and France were engaged in disputes that would lead to the [[Hundred Years' War]]), declaring to Edward III that any treaty between France and England must include the exiled King of Scots.

In David's absence, a series of Guardians kept up the struggle. In November, Edward III invaded again, but he accomplished little and retreated in February 1335 due primarily to his failure to bring the Scots to battle. He and Edward Balliol returned again in July with an army of 13,000, and advanced through Scotland, first to [[Glasgow]] and then to Perth, where Edward III installed himself while his army looted and destroyed the surrounding countryside. At this time, the Scots followed a plan of avoiding pitched battles, depending instead on minor actions of heavy cavalry – the normal practice of the day. Some Scottish leaders, including the [[David III Strathbogie|Earl of Atholl]], who had returned to Scotland with Edward Balliol in 1332 and 1333, defected to the Bruce party.

Following Edward's return to England, the remaining leaders of the Scots resistance chose Sir Andrew Murray as Guardian. He soon negotiated a truce with Edward until April 1336, during which various French and Papal emissaries attempted to negotiate a peace between the two countries. In January, the Scots drew up a draft treaty agreeing to recognise the elderly and childless Edward Balliol as King, so long as David II would be his heir and David would leave France to live in England. However, David II rejected the peace proposal and any further truces. In May, an English army under [[Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster|Henry of Lancaster]] invaded, followed in July by another army under King Edward. Together, they ravaged much of the north-east and sacked [[Elgin, Moray|Elgin]] and [[Aberdeen]], while a third army ravaged the south-west and the [[River Clyde|Clyde]] valley. Prompted by this invasion, [[Philip VI of France]] announced that he intended to aid the Scots by every means in his power, and that he had a large fleet and army preparing to invade both England and Scotland. Edward soon returned to England, while the Scots, under Murray, captured and destroyed English strongholds and ravaged the countryside, making it uninhabitable for the English.

Although Edward III invaded again, he was becoming more anxious over the possible French invasion, and by late 1336, the Scots had regained control over virtually all of Scotland and by 1338 the tide had turned. While [[Agnes Dunbar|"Black Agnes", Countess-consort Dunbar and March]], continued to resist the English laying siege to Dunbar Castle, hurling defiance and abuse from the walls, Scotland received some breathing space when Edward III claimed the French throne and took his army to Flanders, beginning the [[Hundred Years' War]] with France.

In the late autumn of 1335, Strathbogie, dispossessed Earl of Atholl, and Edward III set out to destroy Scottish resistance by dispossessing and killing the Scottish freeholders. Following this, Strathbogie moved to lay siege to Kildrummy Castle, held by Lady Christian Bruce, sister of the late King Robert and wife of the Guardian, Andrew de Moray.  Her husband moved his small army quickly to her relief although outnumbered by some five to one.  However, many of Strathbogie's men had been impressed and had no loyalty to the English or the usurper, Balliol.  Pinned by a flank attack while making a downhill charge, Strathbogie's army broke and Strathbogie refused to surrender and was killed.  The [[Battle of Culblean]] was the effective end of Balliol's attempt to overthrow the King of Scots.

So, in just nine years, the kingdom so hard won by Robert the Bruce had been shattered and had recovered. Many of her experienced nobles were dead and the economy which had barely begun to recover from the earlier wars was once again in tatters. It was to an impoverished country in need of peace and good government that David II was finally able to return in June 1341.

[[File:BNMsFr2643FroissartFol97vBatNevilleCross.jpg|thumb|left|David II (lower left) captured at Neville's Cross, from an edition of Froissart's Chronicles]]
When David returned, he was determined to live up to the memory of his illustrious father. He ignored truces with England and was determined to stand by his ally Philip VI during the early years of the Hundred Years' War. In 1341 he led a raid into England, forcing Edward III to lead an army north to reinforce the border. In 1346, after more Scottish raids, Philip VI appealed for a counter-invasion of England in order to relieve the English stranglehold on Calais. David gladly accepted and personally led a Scots army southwards with intention of capturing [[Durham, England|Durham]]. In reply, an English army moved northwards from [[Yorkshire]] to confront the Scots. On 14 October, at the [[Battle of Neville's Cross]], the Scots were defeated. They suffered heavy casualties and David was wounded in the face by two arrows before being captured. He was sufficiently strong however to knock out two teeth from the mouth of his captor. After a period of convalescence, he was imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]], where he was held prisoner for eleven years, during which time Scotland was ruled by his nephew, [[Robert II of Scotland|Robert Stewart, 7th High Steward]]. Edward Balliol returned to Scotland soon afterwards with a small force, in a final attempt to recover Scotland. He only succeeded in gaining control of some of [[Galloway]], with his power diminishing there until 1355. He finally resigned his claim to the Scottish throne in January 1356 and died childless in 1364.

[[File:David Bruce, king of Scotland, acknowledges Edward III as his feudal lord.jpg|thumb|David II pays homage to Edward III]]Finally, on 3 October 1357, David was released under the Treaty of Berwick, under which the Scots agreed to pay an enormous ransom of 100,000 [[merk (coin)|merk]]s for him (1 merk was {{frac|2|3}} of an English pound) payable in 10 years. Heavy taxation was needed to provide funds for the ransom, which was to be paid in instalments, and David alienated his subjects by using the money for his own purposes. The country was in a sorry state then; she had been ravaged by war and also the [[Black Death]]. The first instalment of the ransom was paid punctually. The second was late and after that, no more could be paid.

In 1363, David went to London and agreed that should he die childless, the crown would pass to Edward (his brother-in-law) or one of his sons, with the Stone of Destiny being returned for their coronation as King of Scots. However, this seems to have been no more than a rather dishonest attempt to re-negotiate the ransom since David knew perfectly well that Parliament would reject such an arrangement out of hand. The Scots did reject this arrangement, and offered to continue paying the ransom (now increased to 100,000 pounds). A 25-year truce was agreed and in 1369, the treaty of 1365 was cancelled and a new one set up to the Scots' benefit, due to the influence of the war with France. The new terms saw the 44,000 merks already paid deducted from the original 100,000 with the balance due in instalments of 4,000 for the next 14 years.

When Edward died in 1377, there were still 24,000 merks owed, which were never paid. [[David II of Scotland|David]] himself had lost his popularity and the respect of his nobles when he married the widow of a minor [[laird]] after the death of his English wife. He himself died in February 1371.

By the end of the campaign, Scotland was independent. It remained thus, until king [[James VI and I|James VI]] of Scotland succeeded to the English throne in the 1603 [[Union of the Crowns]], and disputed efforts at political unification culminated in the [[Treaty of Union]] of 1707 which created the single [[Kingdom of Great Britain]].