Feudalism and Fords

In July 1307 Edward Plantagenet: Edward by the grace of God King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine, ‘Long Shanks’ but not in his presence or from sometime in the 16th Century onwards, ‘Hammer of the Scots’, died at Burgh on Sands, west of Carlisle. He was 67 and had been suffering from dysentery.

Invasion or chastising rebels?

Edward was in Cumbria leading an army to fight Robert the Bruce and others who in Edward’s mind were rebelling against their feudal lord, that is him. Edward’s response was brutal. He was in no mood to conciliate. He was dealing with traitors. Edward had spent the winter at Lanercost Priory. Though ruined the Priory is an impressive sight close to Hadrian’s Wall outside Brampton.

Lanercost Chronicle

The Chronicle of Lanercost, covers the period 1272-1346 and it refers to Edward and his last campaign. The entry for the Autumn of 1306 includes:

In the same year, about the feast of Saint Matthew, the apostle,  [21 September] the most noble, King Edward, being laid up at Newbrough near Hexham, his consort the illustrious, Margaret Queen of England, came to the house of Lanercost with her honourable household.

And my Lord the king came thither on the vigil of Saint Michael [28 September] next following, and remained there nearly half a year. And on the first day of March [1307], they left the said monastery for Carlisle, and there he held a parliament with all the great man of the Realm.

The Chronicle continues:

Howbeit, notwithstanding the terrible vengeance inflicted upon the Scots who adhered to the party of the aforesaid Robert de Brus, the number of those willing to establish him in the realm increased from day to day. Wherefore the King of England caused all the chief man of England, who owed him service to attend Carlisle with the Welsh infantry within 15 days after the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. But alas! On the feast of the translation of St Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Martyr, in the year of our lord aforesaid, this illustrious an excellent King, my Lord, Edward, son of King Henry, died at Burgh-upon-Sands, which is distant about 3 miles to the north from Carlisle in the 36 year of his reign.

Ford or Waths

So what was Edward and his army doing on the banks of the Solway, when they could have march north along the line of the old Roman road to Netherby or Birrens in Dumfrieshire?

Burgh lies at the most easterly of three Solway fords or ‘Waths’: Sulwath across the mouth of the River Esk, the Peatwath across the River Eden, and the Bowness wath across the Firth to Seafield. The fords could be dangerous: in February 1216 a Scots army, laden with spoils from pillaging Holme Cultram Abbey, were crossing the ford on the Eden when the incoming tidal bore overtook and drowned almost 2,000 men.  And in 1300, when English ships were provisioning the army, supplies on two carts and with seven horses to Lochmaben, were carried off by the Scots on the Sulwath.

The Sulwath led first across the River Eden and then the Solway proper to Lochmaben. Dangerous or not Edward preferred it to the peat bogs that made up most of the western Marches outside Carlisle.

There’s more about the Solway fords at https://solwayshorewalker.co.uk/2015/08/22/waths-ford-and-border and https://www.annan.org.uk/shorewalk/contact.html.

The photograph of the King Edward Monumnet at Burgh-on-Sands is by Robert Freeman, Creative Commons.

Peter Green