page_title: History of Medieval Cumbria
section_title: The Scottish Wars of Independence
hierarchical_section_title: History of Medieval Cumbria / Later medieval Cumbria, 1272–1485 / The Scottish Wars of Independence
caption_attribution_description: English: Yanwath Hall, Cumbria
context_page_description: The history of medieval Cumbria has several points of interest. The region's status as a borderland coping with 400 years of warfare is one. The attitude of the English central government, at once uninterested and deeply interested, is another. As a border region, of geopolitical importance, Cumbria changed hands between the Angles, Norse, Strathclyde Brythons, Picts, Normans, Scots and English; and the emergence of the modern county is also worthy of study.
context_section_description: Towards the end of the 13th century, the peace between England and Scotland was shattered at the hand of Edward I, who wished to control Scotland. In 1286 he confiscated the manors granted in 1237, and in 1292 installed John Balliol on the Scottish throne. (The other contender, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, accepted this situation). Edward also took direct control of Carlisle in 1292, effectively denying the city's charter and municipal status. However, the outbreak of war between England and France in 1294 led Balliol to repudiate the agreement and in 1296 he invaded Cumbria (Carlisle holding out against him).  Edward defeated him and took upon himself the government of Scotland; the lands of those Anglo-Scottish nobles who had backed Balliol were confiscated.
  Renewed resistance came from Scotland in the form of William Wallace in 1297, (with Carlisle Castle withstanding a siege yet again), and with Robert the Bruce supporting Edward in the ending of the Wallace rising (1305). The death of Edward in 1307 and internal disputes in England under Edward II of England, allowed Robert the Bruce time to establish himself in Scotland after his having decided to renew his grandfather's claim to the Scottish throne (1306). After the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, border warfare took place mostly on the English side of the line, whereas previously it had been on the Scottish side. The Bishop of Carlisle came to private arrangements with the Scots in order to protect his lands. A three-hundred-year period of regular raids and counter-raids followed which effectively undid the years of economic progress since the Harrying of the North two centuries earlier.
  Two early raids of 1316 and 1322, under the leadership of Bruce were particularly damaging and were as far reaching as Yorkshire. On the second occasion, the Abbot of Furness Abbey went to meet Bruce in an attempt to bribe him into sparing his Abbey and its lands from destruction. The Scottish King accepted the bribe but continued to ransack the entire area anyway, so much so that in a tax inquisition of 1341 the land at nearby Aldingham was said to have gotten less and less in value from £53 6s 8d to just £10 and at Ulverston from £35 6s 8d to only £5.
  
  The system of the Wardens of the Marches came into existence as a result of this First War of Scottish Independence (1296-1328) with areas on either side of the border being entrusted to 'wardens' who did what had previously been done by sheriffs in terms of military functions. These were experienced military men drawn from the powerful local families (Dacres, Cliffords, Greystokes, Percies and Nevilles in Cumbria). They ran their own private armies, paid for by themselves at first, later paid for by the Crown, sometimes being offered plunder in return for their support. (Some failed to prosper in the role: the career of Andrew Harclay, 1st Earl of Carlisle, who had defended Carlisle in 1315 and became Warden of the West March, was a case in point). A type of customary law grew up (March law) whereby disputes and criminal cases were dealt with by the wardens, rather than by Royal justice as elsewhere in the country. The wardens recognized special border tenant rights, in return for the supply of military service.
  The border 'names' (magnates) and lesser families indulged in warfare and raiding across the border, the lesser brigands often receiving protection from the greater lords. As a consequence, throughout the 14th-century, there was an increase in the building of castles by the greater magnates, and in the building of fortified houses (peel towers, mostly built during c.1350-1600; semi-fortified houses, c.1400–1600; and bastle houses, mostly built c.1540–1640) by the lesser families. The authorities in Carlisle complained that the city's defences were being neglected as a result.
  The Church was not immune to the raiding: the monks of Holm Cultram even built a fortified church nearby at Newton Arlosh. Furness Abbey, St Bees Priory, Cartmel Priory, and, in particular, Lanercost Priory suffered : Lanercost in 1319 bein
caption: Yanwath hall - a semi-fortified house near Penrith
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