English invasion of Scotland (1385)

In July 1385 Richard II, King of England, led an English army into Scotland. The invasion was partly retaliation for Scottish border raids but was mainly provoked by the arrival of an allied French army in Scotland in mid-1384. For the previous 50 years, England and France had been engaged in the Hundred Years' War, and France and Scotland had a treaty of mutual support. The English King had only recently come of age and was expected to play a similar martial role to that which his father, Edward the Black Prince, and grandfather Edward III had done. Although there was an appetite for war within the English nobility, there was disagreement about whether to invade France or Scotland. Richard's uncle, John of Gaunt, favoured invading France, which would gain him a tactical advantage in Castile, the throne of which he claimed through his wife, Constance, albeit so far with little success. The King's friends among the nobility—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 and it was unwise to ignore the wishes of the House of Commons. Without funding, the Crown could not afford a big campaign. Richard chose to summon the feudal levy. This had not been called for many years, and it was to be the last time it was. In the event, the summons caused such uproar that it was soon abandoned, and the Crown proceeded to raise troops through its tenants-in-chief as was by now usual practice.

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 even reached Newcastle. Once there, the leadership was divided and often occupied more in squabbling among itself than in attacking the Scots, who, with their French allies, had retired in the face of the English advance and refused battle. The Scots destroyed provisions and infrastructure as they retreated. The English swiftly exhausted their food and other supplies. By the time they reached Edinburgh, they had achieved little of military value, instead mostly burning churches. Gaunt may have proposed chasing the Scots into the mountains to force them to battle, but the King refused to countenance this, and the army withdrew to England. As Richard's force left Scotland, the Franco-Scottish army counter-invaded England from the West March, reaching the walls of Carlisle. During its return to Scotland, Cumberland and Durham were pillaged. Richard proposed another invasion of Scotland a few years later, but this came to nothing. The destination of the last foreign campaign was Ireland in 1399, and while he was there, he was deposed by Gaunt's son, Henry Bolingbroke, who took the throne as Henry IV.