During the first half of the 14th century the Scots were involved in a series of campaigns to secure their independence, following Edward I’s conquest in the 1290s. In 1314 Robert the Bruce had defeated Edward II’s army at Bannockburn and expelled the English from Scotland. He then captured Berwick on Tweed, which had been refortified in the last years of Edward I, as the key border town controlling the important east coast road between the two kingdoms.

In August 1319 Edward II besieged the town. Rather than sending a relief force against this major English army, an experienced Scottish army was sent into England by the west coast route, via Carlisle, in a diversionary attack. The Scottish army numbered perhaps 10-15,000 men, one account says 20,000 though medieval chronicles are notoriously inaccurate when it comes to numbers of troops involved in major actions. They were commanded by the Bannockburn veteran Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, and Lord James Douglas.

As with so many other Scottish forays into the North of England, this was a punitive raid causing destruction across the north. They crossed the Pennines heading into Yorkshire, plundering and destroying as they went, including at Ripon and then Boroughbridge before a local English response could be mounted. Intelligence from a captured Scottish spy revealed his army’s location and their intention to capture the English Queen, who was staying near to York.

Like Northallerton in 1138, with the King engaged in action elsewhere the Archbishop of York, as one of the greatest magnates in the north, took charge of the defence of Yorkshire. The Queen was whisked away to safety in Nottingham and an army rapidly assembled from the local populous.