Battle of Halidon Hill - Advance To Bamburgh

Advance To Bamburgh

In an attempt to draw Edward away from Berwick, Douglas entered England on 11 July, the last day of Seton's truce. He advanced eastwards to the little port of Tweedmouth, in contested Northumberland. Tweedmouth was destroyed in sight of the English army: Edward did not move. A small party of Scots led by Sir William Keith managed with some difficulty to make their way across the ruins of the old bridge to the northern bank of the Tweed. Keith and some of his men were able to force their way through to the town. Douglas chose to consider this as a technical relief and sent messages to Edward calling on him to depart. This was accompanied with the threat that if he failed to do so the Scots army would continue south and devastate England. Again Edward did not move, so Douglas marched south to Bamburgh, perhaps hoping for a repeat of the events that led in former years to the Battle of Myton. Whatever concerns the king had for his queen he knew that Bamburgh was strong and could easily withstand a siege. The Scots, moreover, did not have the time to construct the kind of equipment that would be necessary to take the fortress by assault. For Berwick, on the other hand, time was definitely running out.