THE BATTLE OF BYLAND 

It was the wet and the cold that was the worst of it. Sodden to the skin we were, trudging through the mud and the filth, fording rivers waist high in the water, sleeping under hedges, wherever we could find. It seemed like it would never stop raining that October in 1322. We’d started out to conquer Scotland, but there we were, bedraggled, ill disciplined, going south to York. They promised us reinforcements there, and food from the rich monasteries. The smoke billowed up behind us from Northallerton and the villages. We knew the Scots weren’t far behind. Every day some men would slope off, like rats leaving a sinking ship, and every day we left some dead from disease and some dying. At last we came to the south of the moors to the area known as Byland. We could see the huge abbey building in the distance.

The rumour went round that the king was there. As we shivered and starved we thought of him there, in front of a roaring fire, being royally fed with meats and pies and fish, washed down with the best wines that the monks kept just for royalty. Don’t suppose he gave much of a thought for us. He wasn’t that kind of leader.

That terrible day the Earl of Richmond’s men were attacked by the Scots up in that gully over Kilburn way. Then it was out turn. With Robert the Bruce, leading the way the valley and cliffs echoed with their shouts and war cries. Blood curdling it was. They charged out of the smoke on their highland ponies. On they came, smashing into our lines. It would have taken a better army than us to withstand it. Men were trampled under foot. All them round me ran, and so did I.

Edward ran too, or rather rode. Out there on his horse as fast as he could for York, never stopping until he reached the safety of Bootham Bar.

The Scots, they went on slaughtering all the English until the battlefield was strewn with bodies. Then they turned their attention to the abbey. Everything was taken, even the monks’ garments. Indeed it was a very sorry time for the people and monks of Byland in those days.