Qualla: Battle of Neville's Cross

Battle of Neville's Cross: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BabelStone, CC BY-SA 3.0. Philip VI of France was desperate. In the summer of 1346, an English army under Edward III had landed in Normandy and was carving through his kingdom. Philip needed a diversion, and he knew exactly who to call. "I beg you, I implore you," he wrote to Scotland's King David II. "Do for me what I would willingly do for you in such a crisis." Philip promised that northern England was "a defenceless void." David believed him. It was a catastrophic miscalculation.

Image: BabelStone | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Neville's Cross: The Auld Alliance Calls

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gordon Griffiths, CC BY-SA 2.0. The bond between Scotland and France, known as the Auld Alliance, had been renewed in 1326 with a simple purpose: if England attacked either nation, the other would invade English territory. By October 1346, Edward III had committed troops to Normandy, Gascony, Brittany, and Flan...

Image: Gordon Griffiths | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Neville's Cross: Within Sight of the Cathedral

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Boffy, CC BY-SA 3.0. An English force of 6,000 to 7,000 men had assembled at Richmond under the Archbishop of York and rapidly marched to intercept. On the misty morning of 17 October, a Scottish raiding party of 500 men stumbled into the English army near Merrington, losing 300 men before racing bac...

Image: Boffy | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Neville's Cross: A King Under a Bridge

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Boffy, CC BY-SA 3.0. The advance shattered Scottish formation. Moray's division was cut apart. Seeing this, the largest Scottish division under the Earl of March broke and fled without closing with the enemy. David II's own division fought on in what chroniclers described as "ferocious" combat, but w...

Image: Boffy | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Neville's Cross: Forty Years of Peace

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Edward III refused to ransom most of the Scottish prisoners, wanting to cripple Scotland's capacity for war by keeping its leaders imprisoned. David II spent eleven years in English captivity before being released for a ransom of 100,000 marks. The payment schedule imposed a truc...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain