Just when King Edward III of England led the main force on an expedition to France and prepared to fight the French army, King Philip VI made a plan that the English commanders could not have imagined, that is, to contact King David II of Scotland and sneak into Edward III's hometown. Scotland and France had long been allies, so David II led a large army of twelve thousand people to launch a surprise attack, and the brave Scottish army was defeated by the numerically inferior English garrison at the Battle of Neville's Cross, and even King David II of Scotland was taken prisoner.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Anglo-French Conflict (Hundred Years' War), the Scots were ready to move, mainly because the English conquest strategy of Scotland caused dissatisfaction among the Scots, but because their army was not as large as England's, they could only deal with England in pieces, and it was completely impossible to form a climate. But as time began in 1345, as King Edward III continued to send large expeditions to France, the garrison of England became weaker and weaker, and the Scots saw a good opportunity to retaliate against the English. So under the leadership of King David II of Scotland, the Scottish army plundered the northern part of England in October 1345.
However, even in the case of such a backyard fire, King Edward III of England continued to win victories, and it had to be said that the French army had a huge number of excellent armor, sitting on the strongest and largest knightly troops in Europe, and one of the largest fleets in Europe, but successively defeated the numerically inferior English army with the advantage of numbers. But even so, King Philip VI of France showed his strategic talent, he had long been in contact with King David II of Scotland in the early stages of the war, and signed the "Olde Alliance Agreement", which stipulated that if one side of the agreement was invaded by England, the other party should provide as much military assistance as possible to the invaded party.
Philip VI, the king of France, who had failed one after another, wrote a secret letter to King David of Scotland, in which Philip VI said in a humble tone: "For God's sake, please, please, for my assistance in such a crisis, please help me as much as you can." The translation is something like "For God's sake, pull the brothers!" ”。
King David II of Scotland thought twice, and finally in June 1346, during a new expedition by Edward III, King David II of Scotland gathered an army to plan an attack on the northern part of England. At this time, Edward III's main army was in France, and the number of troops left in England was at most 6000 or 7,000, while the Scottish army had as many as 12,000 troops, which was overwhelmingly superior in numbers. And many Scots are also good at using the English longbow, not inferior to the English army in long-range firepower, the level of armor on both sides is also half a pound to eight two, the main cavalry units are equipped with lock armor, and the light cavalry is equipped with leather armor.
The Scottish army crossed the border between the two countries on 7 October, during which time Philip VI managed to provide the Scots with a batch of weapons and equipment, with some elite Scottish knights acquiring plate armor, some soldiers with superb combat skills receiving swords and shields made by French craftsmen, and even some knights from France joining the Scottish army. This army first besieged the Liddell Fortress on the border, which was heavily guarded by the British army and fell in just three days. Three days followed, and the border town of Durham was besieged, which upset the Archbishop of York, William Della, and Lord Ralph, who remained on the mainland.
Archbishop William and Lord Ralph gathered only 4,000 regular troops and 3,000 militiamen in Cumberland, Northeberland, and Lancashire, which was the limit of the force left on the mainland before Edward III's expedition. But the Scottish army had reached its doorstep, and it was impossible not to resist, but it was also impossible to delay negotiations, because the Scottish army was plundering the church, which was simply intolerable to the archbishop. So the Archbishop decided to lead his troops to Durham to stop the Scottish army, and sent a letter to King Edward in France for help.
The Scottish army was completely unaware that the British were approaching them, and they were still stationed near Merlington Forest south of Durham, where David II and his generals were plotting their next offensive objectives. On 17 October, thick fog rose around the forest, which was theoretically a good cover for the garrison, but somehow a 500-man English commando attacked the Scottish barracks and fled into the fog after inflicting more than 300 casualties on Scottish soldiers.
Early the next morning, a group of unsure priests came to negotiate with David II, hoping that David II would treat the residents of Durham and the surrounding villages well, and this group of unfortunate priests happened to bump into the angry David II and were dragged out by the angry Scottish king to kill the flag. Fortunately, the priests reacted quite quickly, and when they saw that the situation was not good, they immediately found a way to sneak out of the Scottish camp and escape.
The distraught David II simply led his troops to find the English army for a decisive battle, and they met less than half a mile west of Durham, and the two armies immediately began to fight. The Scottish army was attacked by the first echelon commanded by Earl John Randolph, with King David personally commanding the second echelon into battle, and The Earl of Terry Dunbar commanding the third echelon to clear the field. The Scottish infantry lined up in several horizontal formations, and the first row of soldiers in each group held shields and hand axes, which protected the soldiers' bodies from damage if properly used in the cold weapons era. The second row consisted of Scottish archers, and the third row consisted of spearmen. The Scottish cavalry was under the personal command of King David, and the troops were methodically advancing towards the British, but the Scots forgot one thing, that is, they needed to cross a ditch built by the ancients to reach the British position, which forced the Scottish army to take a detour.
The English were naturally delighted to see the Scottish army blocked by a ditch, Lord Henry was in charge of commanding the first echelon to organize the defense, Lord Neville was in charge of the second echelon, and archbishop York was in charge of the third echelon. The British longbowmen were located on both flanks of the formation, and the English always deployed archers on both flanks to fire the enemy's two men, so that the enemy had to adjust the formation and slow down the movement if he wanted to raise his shield to defend. If the enemy's second and third echelons cannot stop advancing in time, then the first echelon suppressed by fire can only choose between the collapse and the advance against the rain of arrows.
The English made up their minds and did not attack, they quietly waited for the Scots to attack, and when the exhausted Scots finally crossed the ditch, they were immediately hit by the English longbowmen, and Count Robert, who commanded the left echelon, saw his men being thrown to the ground by the bow and arrow, and simply fled with the men. King David II saw that the troops were shaken and the left flank of the first echelon collapsed, so he ordered the light cavalry to attack the British flank, interrupting the fire projection of the English longbowmen. However, the Scottish cavalry was held back by the English cavalry as soon as they rushed out, and after some fighting, the Scottish cavalry was defeated. Helpless, David II could only order the troops to retreat, while the English longbowmen began to alternate and release a rain of arrows, and soon the morale of the Scottish army was completely shaken, and the Archbishop of York and other commanders ordered a full pursuit after seeing the Defeat of the Scots, and promised to reward each soldier with a reward of 10 pounds.
As a result, the British army pursued and killed the Scottish army, and the wolf king David II of Scotland hid under the Bridge of the Brownie River and tried to hide, but he was betrayed by the reflection and taken prisoner by the British army. The Scottish army lost most of its noble leaders, such as the Earl of Roxburg, Lord Thomas, the Earl of Morris, the Earl of Strasson and other brave Scottish nobles, and even the bravest Scottish warrior William Douglas was captured. After the British army counted the battlefield, it was found that a total of 3,000 Scots had died, some of them prisoners who were executed at the end of the battle, and the British had only lost about a hundred. The Archbishop of York and the nobles relied on the British army's good defensive counterattacks and firepower projections to achieve another honor for England to win more than one victory.
The fiasco of the Scottish army deprived Scotland of its ability to fight against England for a long time afterward, and Edward III, after hearing of the capture of a large number of Scottish nobles, refused to accept the Scottish demand for ransom and took away Scotland's "Black Cross". The King felt that keeping the Scottish nobility in his hands would make the Scots more honest and control Scotland through these captured nobles. Edward III also had an even greater ambition to crown one of his sons as King of Scotland, merging the two kingdoms.
A Brief History of the Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War between England and France
Military History of Scotland in the 14th Century
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