Sack of Berwick (1296)

Coordinates: 55°46′30″N 2°00′47″W / 55.775°N 2.013°W / 55.775; -2.013
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sack of Berwick (1296)
Part of the First War of Scottish Independence
Date30 March 1296[1]
Location
Berwick-upon-Tweed
55°46′30″N 2°00′47″W / 55.775°N 2.013°W / 55.775; -2.013
Result English victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Scotland Kingdom of England
Commanders and leaders
William, Lord Douglas
Robert, Baron Clifford
Strength
10,000 soldiers[2]
12,000 civilians[3]		 30,000 soldiers
5,000 horses[4]
Casualties and losses
c. 4,000 to 17,000 civilian and military Light

The sack of Berwick was the first significant battle of the First War of Scottish Independence in 1296.

Background

Upon the death of

Guardians of Scotland were the de facto heads of state[5] until a king was chosen. The late king, Alexander III, had been married to Margaret of England, sister to Edward I, and he was asked to conduct the court proceedings in the dispute, though not to arbitrate; the decision was to be made by a jury of 104 "auditors".[6]

Carlisle.[5]

Battle

After the raid on Carlisle was committed by the seven invading Scottish earls (Buchan, Menteith, Strathearn, Lennox, Ross, Athol and Mar),

Easter Week), Edward passed the river Tweed with his troops and stayed that night in Scotland at the priory of Coldstream. From there he marched on the town of Berwick.[9]

Berwick, a

Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford. Contemporary accounts of the number slain range from 4,000 to 17,000. Women by some sources were spared.[9] Douglas surrendered the castle on the agreement that his garrison would be spared, but he was imprisoned.[11]

When the town had been taken in this way and its citizens had submitted, Edward spared no one, whatever the age or sex, and for two days streams of blood flowed from the bodies of the slain, for in his tyrannous rage he ordered 7,500 souls of both sexes to be massacred.... So that mills could be turned by the flow of their blood.

— Account of the Massacre of Berwick, from Bower’s Scotichronicon

The Battle of Dunbar led to the English occupation of the Scottish Lowlands.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-7679-1689-9
    . Retrieved 29 March 2011.
  2. ^ "The subjugation of Scotland – John Balliol and Edward I – Higher History Revision".
  3. ^ "Undiscovered Scotland: Timeline of Scottish History: 1200 to 1300".
  4. ^ "Journal of the Movements of King Edward I in Scotland, 1296 » de Re Militari".
  5. ^
    ISBN 9780748620227
    .
  6. ^ Powicke, F. M. (1962). The Thirteenth Century, 1216–1307 (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. OCLC 3693188.
  7. ^ Dunbar, Sir Archibald H., Scottish Kings – A Revised Chronology of Scottish History 1005–1625, Edinburgh, 1899
  8. ^ Scalacronica p. 14
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-300-07209-0
    .
  10. JSTOR 2846619
    .
  11. ^ John Parker Lawson (1849), "Siege of Berwick, 1296", Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland, and of the Border Raids, Forays, and Conflicts, pp. 113–116
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sack_of_Berwick_(1296)&oldid=1216362693"