English invasion of Scotland (1385)

In July 1385 Richard II, King of England, led one of a long series of 14th-century invasions of Scotland. The campaign was retaliation for Scottish border raids but was also provoked by the arrival of an allied French army in Scotland in 1384. England and France were engaged in the Hundred Years' War, and France and Scotland had a treaty of mutual support. Richard had only recently come of age and was expected to emulate his father Edward the Black Prince's, and grandfather Edward III's martial success. The English nobility had an appetite for war but they disagreed on whether to invade France or Scotland. Richard's uncle, John of Gaunt, favoured France, which would gain him a tactical advantage in Castile, the throne of which he claimed through his wife, Constance. The King's friends—several of whom were also Gaunt's enemies—preferred Scotland as a target. The previous year's parliament had granted funds for a continental campaign; it was deemed unwise to ignore the House of Commons. Without funding, the Crown could not afford a campaign. Richard chose to summon the feudal levy, which had not been called for 58 years, and was never to be again. The summons caused uproar and was abandoned; the Crown raised troops the usual way, contracting with its tenants-in-chief to raise and arm their tenants and receive wages for doing so.

Richard promulgated ordinances to maintain discipline in his invasion force, but problems beset the campaign from the start. One of Richard's knights was killed by the King's half-brother before the army reached Edinburgh. There, the leadership was divided and often occupied itself more with infighting than with campaigning. The Franco-Scottish army retired in the face of the English advance and refused battle, destroying provisions and infrastructure as they retreated. The English swiftly exhausted their food and other supplies. Little of military value was achieved, apart from burning private property. In late August the army withdrew to England. As it did, a Franco-Scottish force raided England from the West March, reaching Carlisle, and pillaging the region. Richard launched few military campaigns following this; his last, to Ireland in 1399, saw his deposition in his absence by Gaunt's son, Henry Bolingbroke, who became Henry IV.