Chapter 13

Near Carlisle, England

August 1385

Jean de Carrouges sat at his morning campfire, sipping slowly on a flagon of watered wine, contemplating the disaster this Scottish expedition had become. When he had left France in early Spring, he had command of nine good squires, all well-trained heavy horsemen, and two score foot soldiers and archers. Six of the squires and over half the men-at-arms lay buried in English graves, along with Jean’s aspirations of wealth.

“Riches!” Robert de Thibouville, Marguerite’s youngest brother and Jean’s newest squire, said as he picked at the bones of a roasted capon. “King Charles promised us riches! Where are they? I have seen nothing but mud, blood, and death on this campaign.”

“Aye, and only homely women to boot,” added Pierre Talbot, another of Jean’s squires. “The English women are all fat cows with ugly faces and crooked teeth.”

“Which is a far cry better than the Scottish women,” replied Henri de Ferrieres, Jean’s second in command. “I’d sooner kiss my horse. What I wouldn’t give for a good French whore right now?”

King Charles, the boy king, whose uncles were the real powers behind the French throne, had filled Jean and his men with the dream of plunder and wealth. Jean was enthusiastic when the King’s messenger delivered the personal request of the King for Jean to join the legendary Sir Luc de Vienne to attack the English at home, instead of on French soil. The Scottish King Robert II promised the French could keep any loot they took in England, even promising captured lands to the French nobles for their support.

King Charles was anxious to end the English threat once and for all. By attacking them on their lands, instead of in France, they could pay back much of the hardship the English had brought on the French people, with their invasion of Normandy and Brittany years earlier. Jean felt joining the expedition and plundering English villages was his best chance to earn enough money to make him a wealthy man. He had lost lands, titles, and money to Count Pierre and his rivals at the Court of Argentan. With this campaign, Jean could earn enough money to more than compensate for those losses.

The Scottish King has been ineffective and unpopular ruler most of his long reign. He was the grandson of Robert the Bruce, but on his mother’s side. His father, Sir Walter, had been knighted at Bannockburn and served the Bruce as High Steward of Scotland. He was one of Robert’s most trusted advisors and went on to marry the King’s daughter Marjorie. When King David II, the Bruce’s last son, died without a male heir, the crown passed to Robert.

By the time of Jean’s arrival in Edinburgh, King Robert was nearly seventy and had ruled for almost twenty years. He was a weak man and a puppet to the English. When the French camped on his doorstep with thousands of men, eager to invade England, King Robert was not ready. In fact, he may have regretted his invitation to the French.

The French were forced to sit outside the walls of Edinburgh Castle, while slowly the Scottish gathered their army and prepared for war. Finally, in July, they marched south, into Northumberland. They raided village after village, taking booty and burning the towns to ashes. All was going well, and Jean was filling chests with treasure to take home to Marguerite. The French filled their wagon train with the spoils from English villages and castles.

Unfortunately, due to Scottish reticence, the expedition had been poorly planned and even more poorly executed. However, the worst mistake was to underestimate the English. As the combined army of Scots and French marched south, King Richard II, called the Heart of the Lion, rode north at the head of a column to meet them.

The French invaders fought ferociously against the English. The Scots, on the other hand, favored hit and run tactics, and had little interest in a long, protracted campaign, far from home. When Richard appeared determined to drive them out of England, the Scots fled north, abandoning their French allies. Badly outnumbered and out supplied, the French were forced to flee north as well.

King Richard was reluctant to pursue the French back into Scotland. By the time the French made their escape back to Edinburgh, the English killed or captured more than half the French forces. Fortune, it seems, had betrayed Jean and his men. An even greater betrayal was about to befall them.

Upon their arrival, the Scottish King, fearing further reprisals from the English, barred the gates and refused to allow the French army into the city. To add insult to injury, he refused even to give them food. The French army was starving and became increasingly desperate.

Knowing they would get nothing from the Scots, and realizing that King Richard had returned to England, the French turned their focus on Northumberland again. This time, however, they decided to avoid KIng Richard’s troops, by attacking the west and the prosperous city of Carlisle. Along the way, they sacked every minor castle, plundered every village, and burned all the fields after taking what food they could gather. Finally, on the tenth of August, they reached the walls of Carlisle. When the occupants refused to surrender, the French laid siege.