fixed for its expiry. The renewal was
necessitated by various acts of hostility which had rendered it, in
effect, a dead letter. The English were still in possession of such
Scottish strongholds as Roxburgh, Berwick, and Lochmaben, and round
these there was continual warfare. The Scots sacked the town of Roxburgh
in 1377, but without regaining the castle, and, in 1378, they again
obtained possession of Berwick. John of Gaunt, who had forced the
government of his nephew to acknowledge his importance as a factor in
English politics, was entrusted with the command of an army directed
against Scotland. He met the Scottish representatives at Berwick, which
was again in English hands, and agreed to confirm the existing truce,
which was maintained till 1384, when Scotland was included in the
English truce with France. The truce, which was to last for eight
months, was negotiated in France in January, 1383-84. In February and
March, John of Gaunt conducted a ravaging expedition into Scotland as
far as Edinburgh. During the Peasants' Revolt he had taken refuge in
Scotland, and the chroniclers tell us that the expedition of 1384 was
singularly merciful. Still, it was an act of war, and the Scots may
reasonably have expressed surprise, when, in April, the French
ambassadors (who had been detained in England since February) arrived in
Edinburgh, and announced that Scotland and England had been at peace
since January. About the same time there occurred two border forays.
Some French knights, with their Scottish hosts, made an incursion into
England, and the Percies, along with the Earl of Nottingham, conducted a
devastating raid in Scotland, laying waste the Lothians. About the date
of both events there is some doubt; probably the Percy invasion was in
retaliation for the French affair. But all the time the two countries
were nominally at peace, and it was not till May, 1385, that they were
technically in a state of war. In that month a French army was sent to
aid the Scots, and, under the command of John de Vienne, it took part in
an incursion on a somewhat larger scale than the usual raids. The
English replied, in the month of August, by an invasion conducted by
Richard II in person, at the head of a large army, while the Scots,
declining a battle, wasted Cumberland. Richard sacked Edinburgh and
burned the great religious houses of Dryburgh, Melrose, and Newbattle,
but was forced to retire without having made any real conquest. The