B E R 



324 



B E R 



it wu iwfcmd by Richard Creur de Lion in 1189. In 

 1216 Kinsj Jolm led an army to the north to chastise his 

 disaffected barons and also the king of Scotland, who. it 

 would seem, had espoused their cause. On this occasion 

 the town and castle of Berwick were taken by storm, and 

 the most horrible cruelties inflicted on the inhabitants by 

 the English soldiers. After perpetrating similar outrages 

 at Dunbar and Haddington, they returned to Berwick, and 

 committed it to the flames, the English king commencing 

 by setting fire to the house in which he had been lodged. 

 During the reign of Alexander III., Berwick seems to have 

 attained its highest pitch of improvement and prosperity as 

 a commercial and trading port. A company of Flemings 

 had settled there, who, as well as the native merchants 

 carried on an extensive trade in wool, hides, salmon, and 

 other commodities ; and such was their success, that a con- 

 temporary chronicler, who had been an eye-witness toils 

 grandeur, denominated it a second Alexandria. During 

 the competition between Baliol and Bruce for the Scottish 

 throne, the English parliament sat at Berwick, and Ed- 

 ward I. finally gave judgment in favour of Baliol in the hall 

 of the castle. 



In 1296 Edward commenced his unjustifiable and syste- 

 matic attack upon the liberties of the Scottish nation by be- 

 sieging the town of Berwick both by sea and land. It was 

 bravely but unsuccessfully defended by a powerful garrison. 

 Edward took both town and castle, put the garrison to the 

 sword, and butchered the inhabitants without distinction ol 

 sex or age. Notwithstanding the capture of the town, the 

 Flemish company nobly continued the fight for the pre- 

 servation of their principal establishment, called the Red 

 Hall, until the building was set on fire, when they all 

 perished in the flames. Up to this date the burgh of Ber- 

 wick, though now within the diocese of Durham, was within 

 the archdeaconry of Lothian, in the diocese of St. Andrew's, 

 and was under the rule of a mayor and four bailiffs, and 

 subject to the jurisdiction of the justiciary of Lothian. 

 There were, besides, a governor of the town and another of 

 the castle, and a sheriff, whose authority extended also over 

 the county of Berwick. 



Edward I. gave the town a charter for its internal govern- 

 ment, containing the privileges and immunities usually in- 

 serted in similar grants to English boroughs, but without 

 altering materially, if at all, its antient constitution ; and 

 he confirmed to it the enjoyment of the Scottish laws as 

 they existed in the time of Alexander III. 



In September, 1297, the Scots, under Wallace, gained a 

 signal victory over their invaders at Stirling bridge. The 

 English army retreated to Berwick, but soon deserted it, 

 though the garrison retained possession of the castle. In 

 the following spring, on the approach of a powerful army 

 from England, the Scots evacuated the town, after which 

 Berwick remained in the possession of the English for 

 twenty years, and during that period large sums of money 

 were expended in fortifying both it and the castle, and a 

 numerous garrison was employed in its defence. 



In 1318 it fell into the hands of the Scots, through the 

 treachery of Peter de Spalding, an English soldier, who en- 

 abled a body of troops, cautiously assembled, to scale the 

 walls secretly by night, and to become masters of the town. 

 The English fled to the castle for safety, but the Scottish 

 army, which soon afterwards arrived, compelled them to 

 capitulate. The acquisition was of immense importance to 

 Bruce, then king of Scotland : it was the key to the sister 

 kingdom. While in possession of the English it had contri- 

 buted largely by its customs and other duties to the public trea- 

 sury, for it was one of the richest commercial towns then in 

 England. Bruce confirmed by charter its antient privileges ; 

 the walls and other fortifications were strengthened and ex- 

 tended ; the valuable services of John Crabbe, a foreign 

 mercenary, who was famous for his skill as an engineer, were 

 secured for its defence, and the efforts of the English army, 

 who attempted to retake it in the following year, were un- 

 availing. It thus remained in the possession of the Scots until 

 the fatal battle of Halidon Hill, an eminence within the liber- 

 ties of the borough, almost close to the Scottish border, and 

 distant about two miles north by west from the town. After 

 this battle, which was fought in July, 1333, Berwick again 

 fell under the dominion of the English, and so continued 

 until the month of November, 1355, when it was surprised 

 in the night by the Scots, under the command of the earls 

 of Angus and March, assisted by French auxiliaries. The 



inhabitants fled to the castle, leaving the ti>wn 

 uiiil Forilun, the Scottish hictDrian, refers with more than 

 ordinary exultation to ' the gold and silver and infinite 

 riches' which became the ]>re\ of his countnnieii. In the 

 following January Edward 111. invested the tuwn with ;\ 

 powerful army, and the Scots, being unable to retain it, 

 agreed to articles of capitulation, and were suffered to de- 

 part with all their effects, almost every individual soldier, 

 according to the same authority, being made wealthy with 

 the booty he had obtained. 



In 1378 the castle of Berwick was taken by a small band 

 of Scottish adventurers, who slew the constable, Sir Robert 

 de Boynton, and kept possession of it upwards of a week : 

 it was then retaken by the Earl of Northumberland, at tlie 

 head of 10,000 men, and here his eldest son, the celebrated 

 Hotspur, afterwards governor of the place, comment-, 

 military career. 



In 1384, during a truce, the Scots repossessed theme 

 by night of the castle, which had been committed by tin- 

 English king to the custody of the Earl of Northumberland, 

 and burnt the town ; but the offer of a sum of money soon 

 induced the enemy to abandon their conquest. After the 

 accession of Henry IV. the earl, believing that Richard II. 

 was still alive, adhered to his fortunes, and in 1405 sur- 

 rendered Berwick to the Scots, who pillaged and once mere 

 burnt it The English king, with an army of 37,000 

 fighting men (according to Walsingham), besieged the 

 castle, the carl and his adherents having previously de- 

 serted the town and fled to Scotland. The garrison hesi- 

 tated to surrender on being summoned, but a single shot 

 from H large piece of ordnance threw down one of the 

 towers, which so terrified the defenders that they in- 

 stantly gave up the castle, and all of them were either 

 beheaded or committed to prison. In 1416 the Scots 

 attempted the recovery of Berwick, but without success. 

 Henry VI., after his defeat by Edward IV. at Towton in 

 1461, fled to Scotland, and, with the consent of his council, 

 surrendered Berwick to the Scots, who continued masters of 

 it and the castle for twenty-one years. In July, 1482, the 

 town again surrendered to the English, but the castle held 

 out until the 24th of August following, when, through the 

 intrigues of the Duke of Albany, the brother of James 111., 

 both town and castle were finally surrendered to Edward 

 IV., and were never afterwards recovered by the sister 

 kingdom. 



After the conquest of Berwick in 1296, and of the other 

 southern parts of Scotland, Edward I., whose example was 

 followed by his successors, continued to that kingdom its an- 

 tient laws and officers of state, though the latter were gene- 

 rally selected from his own subjects. In process of time, as 

 their Scottish acquisitions fell one by one from the hands ot' 

 the English, the great officers of state, who at first were 

 designated as of the kingdom of Scotland at large, became 

 known as superintending only those portions of the realm 

 which were stiH under subjection to England, and when 

 Berwick only remained of these conquests, the officers were 

 described of that borough alone. Accordingly, we find the 

 chancellor and chamberlain, or treasurer, first called ' of the 

 kingdom of Scotland;' next of ' Berwickshire, Jcdburgh, 

 Selkirk,' &c. ; and, lastly, their only title was 'chancellor and 

 chamberlain of Berwick.' These two offices were retained 

 from the reign of Edward I. to the accession of James VI. of 

 Scotland to the English throne. To the chancellor, who had 

 his chancery, master of the rolls, clerks, &c., and a Dooms- 

 day Book at Berwick, was committed the duty of preparing 

 and sealing all grants and other official documents cin: - 

 nating from the crown: the chamberlain had the ma- 

 nagement of the royal revenue, besides a judicial power in 

 his itinera* or circuits, as the justiciary of Lothian also 

 had. There were also an cscheator, an exchequer, an ex- 

 change, and a mint at Berwick the last in existence during 

 the reign of William the Lion), and the usual o1Iice:s 

 found in other ports of England and Scotland, such as cus- 

 tomers, collectors of customs, controllers, troncrs of wool, 

 clerks of the cccket, and the like. . The military officers 

 (the governors of the town and castle, the marshal, &c.; 

 were likewise continued ; and, in a word, the whole civil, 

 judicial, and military establishment of the borough re- 

 sembled that of a kingdom. The first Edward, as already 

 i I'liiinned the antient liberties and customs of the 

 borough, and in this he was followed by most of his suc- 

 cessors, ending with (jucen Elizabeth, who granted con- 



