Battle of Methven

Battle of Methven

Part of: Scottish Wars of Independence

date	June 19, 1306
place	Methven , west of Perth
output	Decisive English victory

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of Scotland	Kingdom of England
Commander
King Robert I.	Aymer de Valence
Troop strength
4500 men	3000 men
losses
over 3500 fallen	unknown

The Battle of Methven on June 19, 1306 was a battle of the Scottish Wars of Independence near the city of Perth . It ended with a clear English victory. According to older information, the battle should not have taken place until June 26th, but this is considered refuted.

background

Robert Bruce was crowned King of Scots as Robert I in Scone in March 1306 and thus began a new revolt against the rule of the English King Edward I in Scotland. Edward I then appointed the experienced Aymer de Valence as the new governor in Scotland and commissioned him to ruthlessly put down the Bruce rebellion. In Scotland, Valence received support from Scottish barons who remained loyal to the English king and who refused Bruce's claim to the throne. In June 1306, Valence and his army occupied Perth. The English king had called up his feudal army in England, but because of the advanced age of the king and because of his poor health, the army moved slowly north.

battle

In order to put the army of Valence into battle, Robert I and his army approached the city from the west over the hilly terrain. According to the chronicler Walter of Guisborough , Bruce ordered his knights to wear white robes over their tunics so that their coats of arms and thus the identity of the rebels would not be recognized. When the English did not show themselves up for battle, the Scots made camp south of the River Almond . Some of the Scots looted in the area to get provisions, others dispersed to look for better quarters. Valence recognized the Scots' indiscipline and surprisingly attacked the Scottish camp before dawn. The Scots resisted bitterly at first, but were quickly overrun and suffered heavy losses. Perhaps because he remained unrecognized because of his hidden coat of arms, Robert Bruce was able to flee with a few hundred soldiers, while many of his men were taken prisoner. Valence had already granted pardon to some like Thomas Randolph when he received orders from Edward I to execute the remaining prisoners.

consequences

With only a few followers, Robert I was able to escape persecution by the English and his Scottish opponents. For the next several months he lived in hiding, presumably in the Hebrides or Ireland, while the English conquered the castles of his followers. In the spring of 1307, however, Robert I returned to south-west Scotland and continued the fight against the English occupation.

Web links

• Battlefields of Britain: BATTLE OF METHVEN (1306)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow : Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 216n.
2. ↑ John Roland Seymour Phillips: Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, 1307-1324. Baronial politics in the reign of Edward II. Clarendon, Oxford 1972, ISBN 0-19-822359-5 , p. 24.
3. ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 507.
4. ^ Matthew Strickland: Treason, Feud and the Growth of State Violence. Edward I and the War of the 'Earl of Carrick', 1306-07 . In: Chris Given-Wilson, Ann J. Kettle, Len Scales (eds.): War, government and aristocracy in the British Isles, c.1150-1500 . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2008, ISBN 978-1-84383-389-5 , p. 85.
5. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 216.
6. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 226.