Berwick, in spite of the efforts of the English garrison, seconded by a fleet under William Gettour;[1] and, although in August Edward raised a large army and called out more ships, he effected little or nothing against the enemy.
In the winter of the year there occurred a tragedy which is singularly illustrative of the modes of thought of the time. A ship bound from Flanders to Scotland was driven by heavy weather into the mouth of the Thames, and lay for shelter in the Hope, off Cliffe, the inhabitants of which place summoned the strangers to surrender, and, upon their refusing, massacred everyone of them. For the service, Edward rewarded them with the whole cargo, worth £28 10s., taking the ship and her rigging, valued at ten marks, for himself.[2]
For the prosecution of the Scots war, greater sacrifices than ever were required in 1319. A fresh naval subsidy was raised, and the ports had to provide ships with double crews, and to maintain them for three or four months at their own expense, the king providing wages only after the expiration of that period.[3] A squadron was directed to cruise in the Channel under Simon de Dryby,[4] William de Thewell, and Robert Ashman,[5] who appear from the patent to have been invested with several as well as joint commands; and as these officers were commissioned to repress "the malice and rebellion of our Scots enemies and rebels," it may perhaps he assumed that Bruce's vessels had ceased to confine their operations to their own waters. On the west, the command was in the hands of John de Athy.[6] Later in the year, Simon de Dryby was made "admiral and captain of the king's fleet in Scotland."[7] We learn, incidentally, that Ashman's vessel was the Michael of Great Yarmouth, and that South Yarmouth provided two ships called the Bennet and the Garland.[8]
In 1320, the conclusion of a two years' truce[9] with Scotland
- ↑ Scots Rolls, i. 181, 184.
- ↑ Abbrev. Orig. Rolls, 12 Edw. II., 243.
- ↑ Scots Rolls, i. 192.
- ↑ Simon de Dryby seems have been a Lincolnshire or Norfolk gentleman. His only high command at sea was held in 1319. He died about 1323.—Scots Roll, i. 194
- ↑ Robert Ashman was Bailiff of Great Yarmouth in 1322. That of 1319 seems to have been his only high naval command.—Scots Rolls, i. 194.
- ↑ Pat. Rolls, 12 Edw. II. m. 29.
- ↑ Scots Rolls, i. 202.
- ↑ Ib., i. 195.
- ↑ 'Fœdera,' ii. 412.
