The Dark Fortress

The 14th century was a time of drastic change. By the end of the 13th century the once extensive English lands in France had been reduced to only Bordeaux and Bayonne. In 1299 was the start of ‘The Auld Alliance’ between Scotland and France.

King Edward 3rd came to the throne in 1327 and was determined to win back the lands in France but first he had to gain control of the north and secure the border between England and Scotland. By 1346 after war and numerous battles and skirmishes and the capture of the Scottish king David Bruce at the battle of Neville’s Cross, Edward could now turn his full attention to France. Thus started the Hundred Years War but by 1348 the Black Death – the bubonic plague - had arrived and by 1350 it had swept through England killing between one third and half the population, up to two million people. Even before then, after the battle of Crecy in 1346 the old order of feudalism was tottering.

Although a tenuous peace existed between England and Scotland, border skirmishes and fierce fighting was still carried on in the border marches by the notorious Border Reivers who raided and stole livestock from each other and from wherever they could on either side of the border.

Feudal power rested with the barons or tenants in chief and the church, all of whom were rich and powerful. The Lord of the Manor held his land from the king and in return he had to provide soldiers from those lands in time of war. Those soldiers were mostly from the tenantry who occupied the lord’s land. Cultivation of that land rested solely on the backs of the peasants, land ploughed and sown, grain harvested, wood hewn and sheep shorn. All these services were the labour rent by which they held their land from their lord. The lord and his steward controlled tithes and dispensed justice on their manor.

By the battle of Crecy in France, the longbow was proving that an English common man, if he was a good archer, could bring a lord, baron or armoured knight crashing to earth, a humbling experience for the nobility. So the medieval longbow was established as an effective killing machine and the English army at Crecy and Poitiers was composed of far more archers than armoured men. Therefore the archer was proving that he was the master of the field and the Black Death added to that ‘Jack is as good as his master’ feeling.

Because so many people had died of the plague labour became scarce and many a big landowner was ruined because his land was untilled and his crops rotted in the fields, sheep went unshorn and food prices rose. The greedy Church still demanded its various monies from the peasantry but if they couldn't pay, the land was confiscated and so the Church became even more grasping and wealthy. There were outbreaks of lawlessness and the country torn between riot and disorder. Peasants wandering in search of work and not finding it turned easily into the beggar or the bandit in the forests. Men formed organised bands threatening violence to anybody who had more than they did. The king still had dreams of regaining his lost lands and the huge costs of an army with all its baggage and equipment led to increased taxation to pay for it and thus military force depended more on peasants and yeomen who could handle the longbow than on lords and knights.