Following a standoff between Scottish and English forces at Irvine in July 1297, the leaders of the Scottish army who were in revolt against Edward I submitted to the English commanders in what became known as the “Capitulation of Irvine”.
In the Spring of 1297, several revolts had broken out across Scotland in response to Edward I of England’s dethronement of King John Balliol and his conquest and occupation of Scotland the previous year. In southwest Scotland, the rebellion was led by local magnates including James Stewart, High Steward of Scotland, Robert Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, William “the hardy”, Lord of Douglas, Alexander Lindsay, Lord of Barnweill and Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick.
Men of lesser standing such as Ayrshire knight William Wallace were also taking up arms in their own right and leading the lesser landowners and common folk.1 Wallace had begun his rising against the English in May 1297 when he and his followers attacked Lanark and killed the English sheriff of Clydesdale before he joined with William Douglas for an attack on Scone.
The nobles of the southwest gathered their forces near Irvine in Ayrshire and set up a camp northwest of the town on high ground at Knadgerhill, overlooking Irvine Loch. There was infighting among the leaders over who should take command and the direction of the upcoming campaign. Wallace might have travelled with William Douglas from Scone to the gathering at Irvine while he was en route to the Forest of Selkirk and perhaps left shortly after arriving due to the disagreements among the leadership.
Edward I was preparing for a campaign against the French in Flanders and he ordered John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey to take command and deal with the situation in Scotland. Hugh de Cressingham, the English treasurer in Scotland, set about raising a large force at Roxburgh for the pacification of the country and the northern barons Henry Percy and Robert Clifford were instructed to gather their forces at Carlisle and march against the rebellion in the southwest.
On 24 June 1297, Percy and Clifford issued summons for the levies of Cumberland to assemble at Carlisle for an expedition “against the enemies of our lord the king in Scotland”.2 With a force of horse and foot Percy and Clifford set off to confront the rebel lords in Ayrshire. Marching rapidly through Annandale and Nithsdale they entered Ayrshire and arrived outside Irvine on or before 7 July. They encamped to the south of the town on the open ground at Tarryholme between the River Irvine and the Annick Water.
Caught out by the rapid advance of the English forces and with dissension still rampant among the leaders, Wishart, Stewart and Bruce opted to negotiate with Percy and Clifford rather than risk a battle. The place chosen for the talks to be held was Irvine Castle (now Seagate Castle) and on 7 July a truce was agreed and the Scots aired their grievances over English governance which would be laid out in the first of two documents that would make up the Treaty of Irvine.
Henry de Percy and Robert de Clifford make known that lord Robert, bishop of Glasgow, Sir Robert de Bruce, earl of Carrick, and Sir James Stewart [have risen against Edward], king of England, lord of Ireland and duke of Aquitaine, burnt and destroyed towns and castles, […] the king and his council had ordained certain matters to the great damage of them and of many others of the realm of Scotland, […] desiring that this disturbance and disagreement should be appeased in some good way, to avoid greater peril, have removed the said bishop […] who were of their party and on their side on their enterprise, as well [as] the people of Galloway as elsewhere […] lord the king, their lives, limbs, lands, tenements, goods and chattels, and that they be not imprisoned for any trespass nor for any [wrongdoing?] since the Sunday in the evening in the feast of the translation of St Thomas of Canterbury, in the year of the reign of their lord king Edward too much damaged and dishounoured. And they have in a like manner received into the king’s peace Sir William of Douglas, Sir Richard of [Lundie] are and have been by the same condition, of their lives, members, lands, tenements, goods and chattels as aforesaid. They have […] Earl Robert and James Stewart and all the community of the realm of Scotland, that they have fully from this hour henceforward all the […] by their lord king of England. On the other part, they have granted to the said bishop, the earl of Carrick and the Steward, and the said lords who with the one or the [other? …] his ministers to pass the sea in his war in Gascony against their will and pleasure. And they have undertaking and granted in good faith that no one in England or Scotland […] upon them nor upon their lands to do harm to them or their people for any trespass which may have been done within the time above limited. And to keep this matter […]3
Two days of negotiations followed and on 9 July the Scottish lords affixed their seals to a second document which was their formal submission to Edward I and which brought to an end their uprising against him.
Robert de Brus, earl of Carrick, James Stewart of Scotland, Alexander Lindsay, John, brother of the Stewart, and William Douglas make known that they, together with the community of their country, have risen against their lord, Sir Edward, king of England, lord of Ireland and duke of Aquitaine and against his peace, [and] have in his lordship and land of Scotland and of Galloway committed arson, homicide and divers robberies; they now submit themselves to the will of their lord the king, to make full amends, saving the terms contained in a document which they have from Sirs Henry de Percy and Robert de Clifford, captains of the army of the king of England in Scotland. They append their seals.4
Sir Richard Lundie who is mentioned in the first document was so disgusted by the surrender that he promptly changed sides stating that “he could no longer war in company with men in discord and at variance”.
Wallace heard of the submission of the Scottish lords while he was in the Forest of Selkirk and placing the blame for the surrender on Bishop Wishart attacked his palace at Ancrum near Selkirk, plundering its valuable contents and carrying off the Bishop’s family and servants as captives. Wallace then headed north to Dundee where he joined forces with Andrew Moray who had been leading the resistance to Edward north of the Forth.
On 11 September 1297, Moray and Wallace defeated the forces of Surrey and Cressingham at the battle of Stirling Bridge. Lundie who had gone over to the English side at Irvine was present at Stirling Bridge and before the battle had offered to lead the English cavalry to outflank the Scots.
Notes:
- William Skene (ed), John of Fordun’s Chronicle of the Scottish Nation, (Edinburgh 1872), p 321. ↩︎
- Joseph Stevenston (ed), Documents Illustrative of the History of Scotland from the Death of King Alexander the Third to the Accession of Robert Bruce, (Edinburgh 1870), vol 2, p 186. ↩︎
- Ibid. p 192. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
Cite this article: Ritchie, N. (12 July 2024). The Capitulation of Irvine. https://www.scottishhistory.org/blog/capitulation-of-irvine/
