ART. XXX. -Notes on the Initial Letter of a Charter of Edward II. to the City Carlisle. By R. S. FERGUSON, F.S.A. Read at Keswick, October 5th, 1882. IN N looking over the Royal Charters in possession of the Corporation of Carlisle, I fell in with a charming little vignette representing the siege of a walled town. It is mainly framed in the initial letter, a capital chancery E, of a charter of 9 Edward II, but two groups of figures are outside the frame. My pleasure in this trifling discovery was much enhanced on noticing that the chief of the defenders, a knightly figure in complete armour, bears on his shield the well-known arms of Sir Andrew de Harcla, thus proving that the scene depicted is his gallant defence of Carlisle in 1315 against Robert Bruce and the Scottish army. As the vignette itself, and not De Harcla, is the subject of this paper, I shall only give a very brief account of that gallant and ill-fated soldier. He was Sheriff of Cumberland from 1 to 16 Edward II; Warden of the Marches 8 Edward II; created Earl of Carlisle in 1321, and executed on a charge of high treason in 1323. The story of his arrest in Carlisle Castle by Sir Anthony de Lucy, and of his subsequent execution on Harriby Hill near Carlisle, is told in the Chronicle of Lanercost, and from that authority I quote the following account of the siege just alluded to; I also give a translation taken from Jefferson's History of Carlisle : "Cito etiam postea eodem anno, in festo Sanctæ Mariæ Magdalenæ (Jul. 22, 1315), venit rex Scotia, congregata tota fortitudine sua, usque Karliolum; et circumdans civitatem diebus decem eam obsedit, segites omnes conculcando, et suburbia et omnia in circuitu devastando, et totam patriam concremando, et de Allerdalia, et Couplandia, et Westmerlandia, merlandia, maximam praedam pecorum exercitui adducendo. Omni autem die obsidionis fecerunt insultum ad aliquam trium portarum civitatis, et aliquando ad tres portas simul, sed nunquam impune, quia mittebantur eis de muro spicula sagittæ et lapides similiter tunc et alias, in tanta multitudine et numero quod dixerunt inter se, 'nunquid multiplicantur et crescunt lapides intra muros?' Quinto autem die obsidionis erexerunt machinam unam ad lapides jaciendos juxta Ecclesiam Sanctæ Trinitatis, ubi rex eorum se collocaverat, et projicierunt continue lapides magnos versus portam de Caldeu et ad murum, sed nihil vel parum nocuerunt intus existentibus, excepto hoc, quod unum hominem occiderunt. Intra civitatem vero erant consimiles machinæ septem vel octo, exceptis instrumentis aliis bellicis, quæ vocantur Springaldes, ad longa spicula emittenda, et fundis in baculis pro lapidibus jaciendis, quæ multum terruerunt et gravaverunt exterius existentes. Interim autem erexerunt Scotti quodam magnum berefrai ad modum turris cujusdam, cujus altitudo muros villæ notabiliter excedebat; quo viso, carpentarii civitatis supra unam turrim muri, ad quam oportuit illud instrumentum venisse, si ad murum accessisset, turrim ligneam erexerunt, quæ altitudinem alterius excedebat; sed illud instrumentum (vel) aliud nunquam ad murum accessit, quia cum traheretur super rotas per terram madidam et lutosam propter ejus gravitatem ibi stetit, nec ulterius duci potuit nec gravare. Fecerant autem Scotti scalas multas et longas, quo secum adduxerunt ad simul ascendendum murum in diversis locis, et suem unam ad suffodiendum murum villæ, si possent; sed sus nec scale eis valebant. Fecerunt etiam de segete et de herba fasciculos in magno numero ad implendam fossam aquæ extro murum ex parta orientali, ut sic eam sicco pede transirent. Fecerunt etiam pontes longos de lignis super rotas currentes, ut fortiter et velociter tracti cum cordis possent fossæ latitudinem pertransire. Sed nec fasciculi per totam moram Scotorum ibidem potuerunt fossam implere, nec pontes illi lignei foveam pertransire, sed ceciderunt præ pondere in profundum. Nono autem die obsidionis, cum cum essent omnia instrumenta parata, dederunt insultum, generalem in omnibus portis villæ et in toto muro per circuitum, et invaserunt viriliter, et cives se æque defenderunt viriliter; et die sequenti similiter. Scotti autem ibi consimili cautela, qua castrum de Edinburgh acceperant, utebantur, fecerunt enim majorem partem exercitus sui dare insultum ex parte orientali civitatis contra locum Fratrum Minorum, ut illuc traherent populum interus existentem. Dominus vero Jacobus de Douglas, miles baldus et cautelosus, cum quibusdam aliis de exercitu qui erant audaciores et agiliores, posuerunt se ad partem occidentalem contra locum Canonicorum et Fratrum Prædicatorum, ubi, propter altitudinem et difficultatem invadendi non non sperabatur insultus, et ibi scalas longas erexerunt et ascenderunt eas, et sagittarios in magno numero habuerunt qui sagittas spisse jecerunt, ne aliquis ibi caput porrigeret extra murum. Sed, benedictus sit Deus! talem resistentiam invenerunt ibidem quod usque ad terram cum scalis suis sunt projecti, et ibi et alibi circa murum sunt aliqui interfecti, et alii capti, et alii vulnerati; nullus autem Anglicus in tota obsidione interfectus est praeter unum hominem percussum sagitta, excepto homine supradicto, pauci etiam fuerunt vulnerati. Die igitur undecima, scilicet in festo sancti Petri ad Vincula (Aug. 1). vel quia audierunt de adventu Anglicorum ad amovendam obsidionem, vel quia ulterius proficere desperabant, redierunt mane Scotti in terram suam cum confusione, dimittentes retro se omnia instrumenta sua bellica supradicta. Quidam autem Anglici in sequentes eos ceperunt Johannem de Moravia, qui in praedicto bello apud Strivelyn habuerat pro parte sua tres et viginti milites Angliæ, exceptis armigeris et aliis simplicioribus, et redemptionem maximam receperat pro eisdem. Ceperunt etiam cum prædicto Johanne dominum Robertum Bardolf, virum utique erga Anglicos pessimae voluntatis, et ambos ad castrum Karlioli adduxerunt, sed postea pecunia non modica sunt redempti.” "Very shortly afterwards in the same year, on the feast of S. Mary Magdalene (July 22, 1315), the King of Scotland, having gathered together all his force, came as far as Carlisle, and surrounding the city, besieged it for ten days, treading down the cornfields and laying waste the suburbs and everything around, and burning the whole country; and collected for his army all the cattle they could steal from Allerdale, Coupland, and Westmoreland. "On every day they made an attack on some one of the three gates of the city, and sometimes on all three together; but not with impunity, for darts, arrows, and stones, as well then as at other times, were cast down upon them from the walls in so great abundance, that they questioned among themselves, whether the stones did not increase and multiply within the walls. But on the fifth day of the siege they erected an engine for casting stones near the church of the Holy Trinity (the Cathedral), where their king had placed himself, and continually threw great stones towards the Caldew gate, and at the wall, but did no injury, or but little to |