Ten Minute English and British History #13 - The First Scottish War of Independence.

1286 and scotland is in crisis this crisis with the result of the untimely death of King Alexander the third who had no direct male heirs this crisis brought to the forefront of Scottish politics the problems surrounding Scotland's position relative to England since 1066 Scottish Kings had regularly pledged their loyalty and had sometimes outright submitted to the kings of England to the kings of England this meant that Scotland could not appoint a new king without their say-so and importantly a new king would have to recognise the superiority of the English monarch both the kings of England and the kings of Scotland held lands in each other's kingdoms English owned lands in Scotland was subject to English law whereas the Scottish owned lands in England were also subject to English law so before he died Alexander the third had his granddaughter Margaret the daughter of the King of Norway acknowledged as his there Margaret was only three at this time and so the governance of Scotland fell to a group of six men known as the guardians until she was old enough to make the journey back they had several responsibilities the first was to govern the second was to appoint a regent to rule in Margaret's name until she was of age the third was to find her husband the Guardians approached it with the first of England to arrange a marriage between Mark Orton Edwards eldest son Edward the arrangements were finalized in the 1290 Treaty of Bergen which stipulated that the kingdoms of Scotland and England would remain entirely separate and the ingham was not Scotland superior remember that any children of the marriage between Edward and Margaret would inherit both England and Scotland which had the potential for political union this concerned the Scottish who weren't particularly keen on the idea of being Wales the worries around future offspring became moot after Margaret died later in 1290 this had the effect of plunging Scotland into another succession crisis which are two major claimants the first was John Balliol and the second was Robert Bruce the process of choosing a new king is often referred to as the great Corps since it was kind of important there were worries about the potential for civil war and so Edward the first was invited to adjudicate and select one of the two as the next king of Scots he did so on the condition that the claimants acknowledge him as their rightful Lord which they did in 1292 Edward sided with John Bailey oh so King John's reign was overshadowed by Edward who often asserted his own authority over Scotland as its rightful lord one way he did this was to give English courts jurisdiction over Scotland he also demanded that Scotland as his vassal had to provide men and money for the war with France the war had started because Philippe therefore for France had declared Edward's possessions in France were forfeit and war with France was expensive hence why the Scottish wanted no part of it the continued humiliations by Edward were too for John's Lords to bear and so in 1295 they took over governing the Roman appointed 12 men as its Guardians one of the first acts by this Council of Guardians was to sign a treaty of alliance with France in the same year the next J King John renounce his homage to Edward which was to put it lightly upsetting to him to Edward this was nothing short of treason and so invasion the English and Scottish armies clashed at Dunbar which was an overwhelming English victory in the wake of Dunbar the Scottish army collapsed and was scattered and many prominent Scottish Nobles were imprisoned Edward then took several castles the most notable being Edinburgh which held out for only five days within five months of the first English troops crossing the border King John Balliol had abdicated soon after this the Stone of Destiny an important part of the coronation ceremony and a symbol of Scottish independence was taken to England by Edward Bailey Oh was locked up in the Tower of London and Edward took over the running of Scotland John de Warenne was appointed as the guardian of Scotland and Hugh decreasing him was appointed as its treasurer in 1297 most of the Scottish nobility submitted to wet wooden pledged their fealty not all Scots were willing to do this and resistance to English rule began to pick up in the second half of 1297 in the north where English authority was weaker the resistance was led by Andrew Moray whereas in central Scotland it was led by William Wallace these two joined forces and launched numerous raids against English held towns and the Scottish regained control of important cities and castles they eventually cleared the English out of all of the north barring Dundee which they then laid siege to it would toss war em was relieving the siege who assembled an army march north in order to get to Dundee this army needed to cross the river forth and chose to do so here at Stirling it was here the English army met the Scottish one at the Battle of Stirling Bridge was crossing the bridge the English including Hugh decreasing him were slaughtered whereas the Scottish only suffered minor casualties which happened to include Andrew Moray were in retreated and as a result the English had basically abandoned Scotland this left William Wallace is the primary leader of the Scottish resistance he started to reach out to foreign kingdoms to re-establish diplomatic and trade links and he also began to administrate the areas of Scotland which were under his control Wallace began raiding across the border and following the retreating English the Scottish burned hundreds of villages before they themselves turned back to Scotland Wallace was appointed as the guardian of Scotland and began to prepare for Edwards inevitable retaliation Edward was at this point fighting in France and after making peace with the French he returned to York and in mid 1298 he and his army crossed into Scotland the English and Scottish clashed at the Battle of Falkirk which the English won handily mostly due to Edward's use of longbowman Wallace was forced to retreat and his reputation was in ruins he was replaced as the guardian of Scotland by two men the first being a man called Robert the Bruce and the second being John Comyn the two hated each other and it wasn't long before Robert the Bruce resigned fortunately Wallace's early diplomatic efforts have paid off particularly those with France in the papacy the French came to custody of John Balliol and the Pope ordered Edward to halt his advance which Edward promptly ignored fighting continued intermittently over the coming years and it was during this in 1302 when Robert the Bruce pledged his loyalty to Edward in 1304 Edward struck a decisive blow and the Scottish nobility submitted again William Wallace did not submit however and he continued to harass the English this harassment continued until 1305 when he was captured just outside of Glasgow taken back to England given a show trial and executed shortly afterwards Edward issued the ordinance for the government of Scotland which gave Scottish Lords some autonomy but Scotland was legally considered a conquered territory during the peace Robert the Bruce or an opportunity for himself the Scottish King was gone and Bruce was a relative of the previous king Alexander the third meaning he had a claim only one other man could contest the throne and that was John Comyn and Robert found a subtle and clever way of getting around Commons claim he murdered him Robert made the mistake of murdering him in a church which the Pope did not like and so excommunication a month after Commons death Robert the Bruce was crowned King Robert many of the Scottish nobility weren't happy with this and after some fighting Robert fled into exile in 1307 Edward the first died and was succeeded by his son Edward the second unlike his father Edward the second was not exactly the martial type and did little to challenge Robert Robert now had a free hand in Scotland my 1308 he was in control of this territory in by 1309 the Scottish Nobles had been brought to heel being much more secure in his position Robert started to concentrate in the running of his kingdom and he established links with France the papacy in Norway he held Parliament as st. Andrews here but his main focus was on war with England and the recovery of the southern Scottish lands so in 1310 King Edward ventured north but this invasion came to nothing primarily because Edward was on the brink of civil war with his Lords Edwards conflict with his Nobles lasted until 1313 and during this time Robert capitalized and retook all of these lands he then demanded that the remaining Scottish Nobles renounce their homage to Edward and give it to him so Edward was now unable to ignore the Scottish threat and in 1314 he marched a large army into Scotland the two it's met here at Bannockburn in England with its much larger and better-equipped army seemed certain to win yet due to immense tactical errors by the English the Scottish were victorious in the English army was scattered and retreated after Bannockburn the vast majority of Scottish territory was firmly under Roberts control robert began to take the fight to the English and invaded Roberts brother Edward Bruce was ordered to invade Ireland in 1315 in the hopes of setting up his own Kingdom there furthermore Edward was also made the heir to the Scottish throne since Robert didn't have any children the reason for the invasion of Ireland was to cut off Irish taxes to England and to open up a second front which would cost the English a lot more money long story short I didn't go too well in in 1318 Edward was killed at the Battle of folk art and with him died the idea of a Scottish ruled Ireland Robert task men like James Douglas with increasingly ambitious raid into England and in 1318 he retook Berwick the war was fairly quiet for the next two years barring the Scottish victory at the Battle of might'n in 1320 his clergyman and his Nobles sent a declaration called the Declaration of Arbroath to the Pope this declaration stated that Scotland was an independent kingdom that Robert was its rightful king due to his actions and the Edward the first and second were unjust in any attempt to conquer Scotland the papacy officially considered Edward Bailey or the son of the now dead King John to be the rightful king of Scotland though in 1320 King Robert also uncovered a plot against him by William two souls who was likely working on behalf of Edward Bailey Oh Robert had William brought before him and he was tried found guilty and spent the rest of his life locked up in 1320 for the issue of the succession was dealt with when Robert Sayre David was born and two years later the Scottish renewed their alliance with the French with the Treaty of Corbeil 1327 saw a major upheaval in England which greatly affected the Scottish Wars this upheaval was the ousting of edward ii by his wife Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer Edward was forced to abdicate the first English King to ever do so and he was replaced with his son Edward the third Edward was too young to govern on his own and so the running of the kingdom fell to Isabella and Mortimer both Mortimer and Edward wanted Scotland back under English domination so in 1327 invasion this invasion went terribly in the English were forced to suit for peace this culminated in the 1328 Treaty of Edinburgh Northampton in which both sides agreed that one Scotland was independent and not under English overlordship to Robert the Bruce and his heirs were the rightful kings of the Scots and three it set with the border between England and Scotland as being this ie the pre-war border meaning everyone for nothing in return for all of this the English were to get a sack of cash Edward also agreed to return the Stone of Destiny but that took a bit longer than expected by which I mean it wasn't returned until 1996 so the English nobility saw this treaty is completely humiliating which is why ultimately the peace between England and Scotland wouldn't last there are many important legacies to the first Scottish war of independence two major ones were the affirmation of a Scottish identity in the establishment of the old alliance which meant that any English war with either France or Scotland would become a war on two fronts which unsurprisingly happens many times in the coming centuries yet as far as England was concerned it made it clear that the English were not the uncontested Lords of the British Isles and that the future English Scottish relationship would operate within the framework of war at least for the next three centuries I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching there are some books in the description if you'd like to learn more you

Channel: History Matters

Views: 1,125,569

Keywords: Ten, Minute, History, 10, English, British, documentary, animated, Scotland, England, Scottish, Wars of Independence, Edward I, Edward II, Robert the Bruce, John Balliol, King, William Wallace, Guardian, First War of Independence, Braveheart, Edwardian, Conquest, Sterling Bridge, Bannockburn, Falkirk

Id: KlXobRvePyQ

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2018