Siege of Perth

The siege of Perth took place during the First Scottish War of Independence . After years of siege, Scottish troops conquered the city ​​of Perth, which was defended by an English garrison , on the night of 7/8 January 1313 .

prehistory

Perth was one of the most important Scottish cities at the beginning of the 14th century. After the start of the rebellion of Robert Bruce against English rule in Scotland, the English commander Aymer de Valence occupied the city on June 18, 1306. Robert Bruce tried to conquer the city and wanted to face the English troops with his supporters. However, he was defeated in the following Battle of Methven and was able to escape with only a few followers. From 1307, however, he was able to recapture Scotland piece by piece. After 1308, Perth was one of the few fortresses the English held north of the Tay . The city was strongly fortified by the English from 1304 with a stone wall reinforced with towers. In the east, the city bordered the Tay, on the other sides a moat enclosed the city. During the campaign of the English King Edward II to Scotland from 1310 to 1311, the English nobleman Piers Gaveston and his troops reached the city in February 1311 and strengthened the garrison. Since October 1311 at the latest, William Oliphant , the former defender of Stirling Castle , was in command of the strong garrison, which largely consisted of the English king who were loyal to Scots. In October 1311, however, Oliphant sent a report to the English government about the depressing situation of the occupation of the isolated fortress.

The city is captured by a nighttime surprise attack

In the spring of 1312 the Scots conquered Dundee , with which Perth lost its free access to the sea and the garrison could no longer be supplied by ships. In a further report at the end of 1312, the commandant Oliphant described the situation of the occupation as downright hopeless. Robert Bruce turned after the failed surprise attack on Berwick in December 1312 to the conquest of Perth, which had been besieged by Scottish troops since November 1312. At the beginning of January 1313 the king lifted the siege and withdrew with his troops. This probably made the English guards negligent, because the Scots carried out a surprise attack on the night of January 7th to 8th, 1313. Under cover of darkness, the lightly armored Scottish soldiers waded through the moat . To the amazement of a French knight involved in the attack, the king is said to have walked in the first row through the ice-cold water. With the help of ladders and rope ladders, the Scots climbed the city wall, the king being the second to reach the top of the wall. The crew, taken by surprise, surrendered almost without a fight. Several Scottish nobles who were in English service were taken prisoner, above all in addition to the commandant William Oliphant, the Earl of Strathearn and Sir Alexander Abernethy . The rest of the crew were allowed to withdraw freely. However, the king had some of the city's leading Scottish citizens executed . According to other historians, it is unlikely that the king actually fought in the front row. Probably David Strathbogie played a decisive role in the conquest, because the king rewarded him shortly afterwards with rich possessions in Perthshire . Since Strathbogie betrayed Bruce again the next year, the chroniclers withheld his role in Perth and instead stated that the king himself was in charge of the conquest.

consequences

The conquest of Perth was another example of how the Scots conquered numerous English-occupied cities and castles between 1308 and 1314. If the fortresses could not be starved, the Scots had to rely on surprise attacks because they had no technically sophisticated siege engines and their experienced operators. As with other previously conquered castles and cities Bruce left the fortifications of Perth grind . A month after the conquest of Perth, the starving garrison of Dumfries surrendered in March 1313 , and Caerlaverock , Buittle Castle and other smaller castles probably surrendered a little later . With this, Robert Bruce had recaptured almost all fortified places in Scotland since 1308, apart from a few strongly fortified castles. Conquering this large number of castles was one of the greatest military operations in British history.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ranald Nicholson: Scotland. The Later Middle Ages (The Edinburgh History of Scotland, Vol. II. ) Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh 1974, ISBN 0-05-002038-2 , p. 84.
2. ^ Evan Macleod Barron: The Scottish War of Independence. A critical study . Nisbet, London 1914, p. 401.
3. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 275.
4. ^ ^{A b} Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 130.
5. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 274.
6. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 279.