POLITICAL HISTORY 



Preston on the 4th. With banners flying they routed a small force sent by 

 the earl under Sir Adam de Huddleston, Sir Walter le Vavasour and Sir 

 Richard le Waleys, Vavasour being mortally w^ounded; but the sheriff coming 

 up later in the day an engagement was fought between Preston and Deep- 

 dale which ended in their complete defeat after less than an hour's fighting.^"^ 



Sir Thomas Banaster was taken, and Adam Banaster and Henry de Lea, 

 after hiding for a week in woods and moors, were betrayed to Sir William de 

 Holland at Charnock, by Henry deEufurlong, perhaps one of Banaster's tenants, 

 in whose house he had taken refuge, led out to Leyland moor and beheaded 

 (11 November) by Robert son of Jordan le Prestsone of Manchester.^"" 

 Bradshaw managed to escape from the county. Their adherents were treated 

 with great severity. Some were beheaded.*"" Goods to the value of ^^5,000 

 are said to have been taken from them in the wapentake of Leyland alone. ^^° 

 The fines exacted ranged as high as 200 marks."" 



The distrust with which Edward and Earl Thomas regarded each 

 other invited attack by the Scots, and was largely responsible for the terrible 

 ravaging to which the northern counties were subjected in the years which 

 followed Bannockburn. It was two years before these raids reached Lanca- 

 shire. At Midsummer, i 3 1 6, when England was suffering from a pestilence 

 and famine unparalleled within living memory,"" a Scottish force under a 

 leader whose name has not been preserved penetrated as far south as Rich- 

 mond, and then struck across country into Furness, burning and plundering."*' 

 This raid only touched the northern fringes of the county, but six years later 

 it did not escape so lightly."" Two Scottish columns invaded the West 

 March. Bruce himself led a force through Copeland and over Duddon Sands 

 into Furness. The abbot redeemed his fief from a second harrying, and 

 entertained Bruce at the abbey, but his followers were hard to restrain, and 

 some places were burnt. Crossing Leven Sands into Cartmel, where nothing 

 but the priory was spared, and the cattle and movable property were carried 

 off, the raiders traversed the sands of the Kent to Lancaster, where they 

 burnt town and castle, leaving only the religious houses. Here they were 

 joined by the second column under the earl of Moray and Lord James 

 Douglas, which had probably been ravaging Lunesdale,"*' and pushing 

 southward burnt Preston. Fugitives laden with goods fled before them 

 over the Ribble, some of whom found the inhabitants there hardly more 

 merciful than their pursuers. A small body of Scots apparently crossed the 

 river and advanced five miles beyond it, but the retreat was ordered, and 

 on 24 July the army re-entered Scotland."" In October their victims were 



'" Coram Rege R. 254, Rex m. 51, 52. Their forces were ofBcially estimated at 800 men, horse and 

 foot {Cal. Pat. 1313-17, p. 421), but as the sheriiF is said to have had only some 300 (Coram Rege R. 254, 

 Rex m. 51), perhaps there is some exaggeration here. 



"^ Ibid. m. 52 ; Leland, op. cit. i, 249. '"' Coram Rege R. 254 Rex m. 51. 



""Ibid. "' Ibid. Rex m. 61. 



'" In the north of England wheat fetched 40/. a quarter ; Chron. de Lanercost (Maitland Club), 233. 



'" Ibid. 



'" Trokelowe, Ann. (Rolls Ser.), 102, speaks of a Scottish raid almost as far as Lancaster in 13 18, but 

 it is nowhere else mentioned, and as chronology is not his strong point he may have postdated that of 1316. 



'" Hornby Castle was plundered and Quernmore Forest destroyed ; Assize R. 425, m. 13. 



"° Chron. de Lanercost, 246 ; on 5 Aug. the burgesses of Lancaster complained to the king that his officers 

 would not allow them to take wood in Quernmore Forest to repair their burgages. Fugitives from Cumber- 

 land and North Lancashire were robbed at Lostock Bridge near Croston (8 July) and at Anderton by 

 Horwich ; Coram Rege R. 254, m. 42 ; Rex 52 d. 



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