[MR] Battle of Roslin, 24 Feb. 1303

[Groff, Garth (ggg9y)]

Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots,

Sunday, 24 February, is the 710th anniversary of the Battle of Roslin during the First Scottish War of Independence. This was a minor battle between the Scots and the English, but an interesting one both in fact and for legend. The earliest surviving account of the battle was written by John of Fordun, and was very brief. It was later expanded and embellished by other writers, but nobody knows what really happened.

The battle has sometimes been portrayed as involving tens of thousands, but both armies probably number just in the hundreds. The English under Sir John Seagrave swept into this area of the Lothians (about 30 miles south of Edinburgh) with a plan to attack several small castles. According to most accounts he divided his modest force into three columns with different objectives. The Scottish defenders under John ("The Red") Comyn and Simon Fraser were a scratched together force, likely local peasants with a few knights and professional men. An account I read claims William Wallace advised the defenders, but took no part in the battle (dubious).

The Scots took one of the English units in a surprise attack on their camp at dawn. They sent a small force to one side of the camp to make a noisy and ferocious attack. The panicked English, not ready for battle, were routed and ran into the spears of the rest of the Scots waiting beyond the camp on the far side.

The Scots then turned their attention to the second English column. They were helped by the abbot of a local monastery who led them by obscure trails to meet the English on carefully chosen high ground. The Scots allowed the English to attack first. Then Scottish spearmen, supported by archers on the flank, turned the English line, then pushed them off the high ground into a gully where the men fell atop each other, causing many deaths by suffocation.

Whether there was a third skirmish that day, or the rest of the story is fictional is open to question. One account runs thus: Alerted to the Scots' attacks by a few English survivors, the third column broke off their castle attack and rushed back to confront the exhausted Scots in the late afternoon. The Scots were in no mood for another fight. The wily abbot had some of his monks spread canvas in the shape of a saltire cross on a distant hill. He then exhorted the Scots to rise up again, pointing to the cross gleaming in the afternoon sun and telling them it was a sign from heaven (it makes a good story, doesn't it?). The Scots then fell upon the remaining English soldiers in a narrow defile, pouring arrows on them from above as spearmen drove them back into a stream.

It is said only one in ten survived from the English army. Seagrave himself was wounded and captured, but later rescued by his troops. He later had a hand in the execution of William Wallace, as well as making a great deal other trouble for the Scots.

The net effect of this battle was to rouse Edward I's ire. He swore to conquer the Scots once and for all. In May 1303 he invaded Scotland with a two large armies, laying waste to the country, capturing castles and burning towns. Most Scots eventually surrendered, and for a time the English ruled Scotland without opposition . . . .

Yours Aye,

Lord Mungo Napier, The Archer of Mallard Lodge
Read "The Tale of Mungo Napier":
http://people.virginia.edu/~ggg9y/napier1.html