Skirmish at Boroughmuir

Skirmish at Boroughmuir

Part of: Scottish Wars of Independence

date	July 30, 1335
place	Boroughmuir south of Edinburgh
output	scottish victory

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of Scotland	Kingdom of England
Commander
John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray	Guido II of Namur
Troop strength
unknown	about 250 men
losses
unknown	unknown

The battle at Boroughmuir was a military conflict during the Second Scottish War of Independence . On July 30, 1335 , a Scottish force defeated the Count of Namur , who was allied with England , at Boroughmuir , now a part of Edinburgh , and forced him to surrender.

prehistory

In the summer of 1335, the English King Edward III. a campaign to Scotland with a large army. He wanted to bring the country finally under English sovereignty and to secure the cession of large parts of southern Scotland, which the Scottish King Edward Balliol had granted him. The English army had already reached the Forth when the Dutch Count Guido II of Namur arrived in Berwick in July 1335 . The count was a cousin of the English Queen Philippa and wanted to join the English army with his retinue of seven or eight knights and about 100 other men-at-arms . He wanted to reach Stirling , where the English army was, by a quick ride . Some English knights and 123 archers joined him. The Earl of Moray , the Earl of March , William Douglas and other supporters of the fled Scottish King David II had learned of the arrival of the Count of Namur and tried to provide him and his forces.

Course of the battle

On the way from Berwick to the north, the forces of the Count of Namur were first caught in a Scottish ambush, but the troops were able to flee to Burgh Muir south of Edinburgh. There they were attacked on July 30th by Scottish troops under March and Moray, William Douglas, Alexander Ramsay and Lawrence Preston . The Scots put the forces of the Count of Namur to flight, who fled wildly to Edinburgh and holed up in the ruins of Edinburgh Castle . In the destroyed castle, however, they had neither water nor supplies, so that in view of their hopeless situation they surrendered the next day.

consequences

The Earl of Moray treated the prisoners chivalrously. The Count of Namur promised to pay about £ 4,000 ransom for his knights and squires. In addition, he swore never to fight again against the followers of David II. Then Moray, Douglas and others escorted them to the Scottish border, which they reached unchallenged. After releasing the Count, the Scots on their way back met an English force under Piers Paris , which had set out from either Roxburgh or Jedburgh to steal food. Presumably William Pressen , the commandant of Jedburgh , intervened in the fight, so that the Scots were put to flight. James Douglas , a brother of William Douglas, was killed while Moray was captured. Moray was brought to England and not exchanged until 1340. The Earl of Namur, however, returned to Berwick. From there he traveled together with Queen Philippa by ship to Perth , which was now owned by Edward III. had been occupied. The king made presents to the count, but he kept the oath he had taken to the Scots and left for the Netherlands around August 11th.

In 1867 earthworks in Boroughmuir discovered the remains of numerous bones, possibly from a mass grave of the victims of the battle of 1335.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Ranald Nicholson: Edward III and the Scots. The formative Years of a Military Career . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1965, p. 213.
2. ^ Ranald Nicholson: Edward III and the Scots. The formative Years of a Military Career . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1965, p. 214.
3. ↑ Entry on the battle at Boroughmuir  in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)