The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
David II was King of Scots from 1329 until his death in 1371. Upon the death of his father, Robert the Bruce, David succeeded to the throne at the age of five, and was crowned at Scone in November 1331, becoming the first Scottish monarch to be anointed at their coronation. During his childhood Scotland was governed by a series of guardians, and Edward III of England sought to take advantage of David's minority by supporting an invasion of Scotland by Edward Balliol, beginning the Second War of Scottish Independence. Following the English victory at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, David, his queen and the rump of his government were evacuated to France, where he remained in exile until it was safe for him to return to Scotland in 1341.
Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury was an English nobleman and magnate based in northern England who became a key supporter of the House of York during the early years of the Wars of the Roses. He was the father of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker".
John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu was a major magnate of fifteenth-century England. He was a younger son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and the younger brother of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker".
Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of WestmorlandEarl Marshal, was an English nobleman of the House of Neville.
The Battle of Neville's Cross took place during the Second War of Scottish Independence on 17 October 1346, half a mile to the west of Durham, England. An invading Scottish army of 12,000 led by King David II was defeated with heavy loss by an English army of approximately 6,000–7,000 men led by Ralph Neville, Lord Neville. The battle was named after an Anglo-Saxon stone cross that stood on the hill where the Scots made their stand. After the victory, Neville paid to have a new cross erected to commemorate the day.
Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, was an English magnate.
Patrick de Dunbar, 9th Earl of March, was a prominent Scottish magnate during the reigns of Robert the Bruce and David II.
William Ros, 3rd Baron Ros of Helmsley was a military commander under Edward III of England. He was knighted by the king in 1346, having helped raise the siege of Aiguillon. In the same year, he was one of the lords who led the second division in the Battle of Crécy, and afterwards commanded the fourth division of the English army against the Scots, near Neville's Cross, when David Bruce, with many of the Scottish nobles, was taken prisoner.
John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville, was an English peer, naval commander, and soldier.
Clan Bruce is a Lowlands Scottish clan. It was a royal house in the 14th century, producing two kings of Scotland, and a disputed High King of Ireland, Edward Bruce.
Sir William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale, also known as the Knight of Liddesdale and the Flower of Chivalry, was a Scottish nobleman and soldier active during the Second War of Scottish Independence.
Maurice de Moravia, Earl of Strathearn (1276–1346), also known as Maurice Moray or Murray, was a Scottish nobleman.
Sir Thomas Grey or Gray of Heaton Castle in the parish of Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, was the son of Sir Thomas Grey, an eminent soldier in the Anglo-Scottish wars in the reigns of Edward I and Edward II, and his wife, Agnes de Bayles. He was the author of the English chronicle, the Scalacronica.
Edward Balliol or Edward de Balliol was a claimant to the Scottish throne during the Second War of Scottish Independence. With English help, he ruled parts of the kingdom from 1332 to 1356.
The Neville or Nevill family is a noble house of early medieval origin, which was a leading force in English politics in the later Middle Ages. The family became one of the two major powers in northern England and played a central role in the Wars of the Roses along with their rival, the House of Percy.
The Second War of Scottish Independence broke out in 1332 when Edward Balliol led an English-backed invasion of Scotland. Balliol, the son of a former Scottish king, was attempting to make good his claim to the Scottish throne. He was opposed by Scots loyal to the occupant of the throne, eight-year-old David II. At the Battle of Dupplin Moor Balliol's force defeated a Scottish army ten times their size and Balliol was crowned king. Within three months David's partisans had regrouped and forced Balliol out of Scotland. He appealed to the English king, Edward III, who invaded Scotland in 1333 and besieged the important trading town of Berwick. A large Scottish army attempted to relieve it but was heavily defeated at the Battle of Halidon Hill. Balliol established his authority over most of Scotland, ceded to England the eight counties of south-east Scotland and did homage to Edward for the rest of the country as a fief.
John de Coupland, also known as John Copeland, was the squire from Northumberland who captured David II of Scotland after the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346. He was knighted for his actions, becoming a powerful figure in the north of England. However, his ruthless pursuit of power produced many enemies. He was ambushed and killed in 1363.
Burnt Candlemas was a failed invasion of Scotland in early 1356 by an English army commanded by King Edward III, and was the last campaign of the Second War of Scottish Independence. Tensions on the Anglo-Scottish border led to a military build-up by both sides in 1355. In September a nine-month truce was agreed, and most of the English forces left for northern France to take part in a campaign of the concurrent Hundred Years' War. A few days after agreeing the truce, the Scots, encouraged and subsidised by the French, broke it, invading and devastating Northumberland. In late December the Scots escaladed and captured the important English-held border town of Berwick-on-Tweed and laid siege to its castle. The English army redeployed from France to Newcastle in northern England.
Sir Robert de Ogle was an English soldier and feudal landowner in Northumbria who fought in the border conflicts with Scotland. He captured five Scottish knights near Newcastle in 1341 and was licensed to crenellate Ogle House. He distinguished himself in resisting the foray into Cumberland of Sir William Douglas in 1345, fought at Neville's Cross in 1346 and took three nobles prisoner, and held Berwick Castle against the Scots in 1355.
