A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



to Durham, whence they were brought back under armed escort by the Earl of Lancaster 

 to Boroughbridge ; here they were received by the Earls of Hereford and Pembroke and by 

 them conducted to York, where the king met them." During this year the quarrel between 

 the king and his uncle of Lancaster reached a climax, intensified by the action of one of the 

 king's firmest supporters, John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, who had stolen the Countess of 

 Lancaster from her husband.^* When a Parliament was summoned early in the summer of 1 3 1 7 

 the Earl of Lancaster did not appear, and sent word that he was afraid of treachery. It was then 

 agreed that a conference should be held ; but the earl, still fearful, not only assembled armed forces 

 at his castle of Pontefract, but, by virtue of his office as Steward of England, disarmed all persons 

 going to the king's court at York.*^ Finally it was settled that a Parliament should be held in 

 January 131 8 at Lincoln. At the beginning of October Edward marched south, and as he 

 approached Pontefract put his forces in battle array for fear of an attack.*' Two or three days 

 later, on 5 October,*' John Lilleburn, an adherent of Lancaster's *' and constable of the Earl of 

 Pembroke's castle of Mitford ^ before it was seized by Gilbert Middleton, came by night to 

 Knaresborough and seized the castle.'' Roger Damory, the expelled constable of Knaresborough," 

 and the Sheriff of York" besieged the castle, but it was not until 4 March 1318 " that Lilleburn 

 surrendered to John Mowbray and William de Roos on condition of a free pardon." Just about 

 this time the Scots captured Berwick and came down into Yorkshire, burning Northallerton, 

 plundering Bolton Abbey, and extorting ransom from the monks of Fountains." On 8 June the 

 local forces were called out to defend the county," but the invaders ravaged as far south as 

 Pontefract, and turning west made their way back through the hills of Craven." During their 

 raid they had seized Ripon and threatened to burn the place if 1,000 marks were not paid them ; " 

 to secure payment they took nine hostages, of whom three afterwards escaped ; ^^ by November 

 1320 only 240 marks had been paid," and some time after this the wives of the six hostages still 

 in the hands of the Scots petitioned the king to bring pressure upon the burgesses to pay off the 

 ransom and obtain their release.'^ The state of public affairs was now so bad that the king was 

 forced to come to terms with the powerful Earl of Lancaster, and at a Parliament held at York in 

 November 1318 charters of pardon were issued to the earl and a large number of his supporters, 

 many of whom came from this county.*' Soon afterwards the private quarrel between Lancaster 

 and Earl John de Warenne was appeased by Warenne's grant, for the term of his own life, of 

 the castles of Conisbrough and Sandal and other estates in Yorkshire.'* 



At another Parliament, held at York in Alay 131 9, plans were laid for retaking Berwick, and 

 accordingly in July the army assembled at Newcastle and marched to the Border. The Chan- 

 cellor, John de Hotham, Bishop of Ely, remained at York, and King Edward sent orders to him 

 on 9 September to raise all the armed men available in the county and to send them, with 

 a hundred ditchers from Holderness and all the engines of war then in York Castle, to Berwick." 

 But just about the time that this order arrived a Scottish spy was brought' into the city and 

 revealed a scheme of James Douglas to capture Queen Isabel, who was staying at some small 

 town near York. The queen was at once brought under escort into York and sent thence to 

 Nottingham.'" Meanwhile the news of the Scottish advance had reached the king, and on 

 18 September he sent orders to the chancellor and the archbishop to assemble all available troops 

 and repel the invaders.*' The county had already to a large extent been denuded of its soldiery, 

 1,740 Yorkshiremen being at this time with the army at Berwick,"' but a force of some size was 

 hastily collected and, possibly with some reminiscence of the battle of the Standard, a large number 

 of clergy accompanied the troops when they set out to attack the Scots. The enemy, under 

 the Earl of Murray, were found, fully prepared, at Myton, on the farther side of the Swale, and 

 as soon as the English forces had crossed the river they set fire to a number of haystacks, and 

 concealed by the dense smoke got between the English and the river, cutting off their retreat. 



" Cirm. Mm. de Melsa (Rolls Ser.), ii, 333. « Chron. Edze. I and II (Rolls Ser.), ii, 23 3. 



« Ibid. 230. " Ibid. 



" Cal. Close, 1318-23, p. 271. *' Cal. Pat. 1313-17, p. 25. 



" Ibid. 396. " Cal. Close, 1313-17, p. 575. 



" Ibid. 1318-23, p. 160. " Ibid. 1313-17, p. 575. 



"Ibid. 1318-23, p. 271. '^ Cal. Pat. I3i7-2i,p. 123. 



* Ckron. Edw. I and II (Rolls Ser.), ii, 55 ; Chron. Man. de Melsa (Rolls Ser.), ii, 335. 



" Cal. of Doc. Scot, iii, 114. '^ Chron. Mon. de Melsa (Rolls Ser.), ii, 335. 



" Ibid. ; Letters from Northern Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 274. 



" Cal. of Doc. Scot, iii, 133. " Ibid. 



" Ibid. ii7. ° Cal. Pat. 1317-21, pp. 227-35. 



" Ibid. 264 ; Ciron. Edtv. I and II (RoUs Ser.), ii, 240. 



" Cal. of Doc. Scot, iii, 1 24. « Chron. Edw. I and II (Rolb Ser.), ii, 243. 



^ Cal. of Doc. Scot, iii, 124. "* Ibid. 125. 



404 



