IN a bid to examine the supposedly forgotten battle of the Wars of Independence, historians and battlefield experts are to gather at historic Rosslyn Chapel evening in a bid to re-examine the Battle of Roslin of 1303.

Wednesday evening could see the busting of myths which have grown up about the battle which was downgraded in the annals of the Wars because the Scottish side was led by John Comyn, competitor to Robert the Bruce for the throne of Scotland. Comyn was murdered by the future king at Dumfries in 1306.

Roslin was one of the most devastating victories of the Wars of Independence and prompted a full-scale invasion of Scotland by King Edward I of England, yet the battle is also often dismissed because of the legend of English commander Sir John Segrave mounting the invasion of Midlothian because of his thwarted love for Lady Margaret Ramsay.

According to the tale for which the evidence is scanty, Segrave was thwarted in his ambition to wed Lady Margaret by Henry St Clair or Sinclair of Rosslyn, a dashing and handsome knight.

Segrave is supposed to have asked Edward Longshanks for permission to go and take her by force, and this is one of the legends which will be examined at the event which is a compete sell-out.

Arran Johnstone, battlefield historian, and David Caldwell, president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, will debate the battle with Fiona Rogan, learning manager of the Rosslyn Chapel Trust.

She told The National: “Since I came to work here at Rosslyn I have found the battle fascinating and it certainly deserves greater attention.

“From what we know of Henry Sinclair whose descendants built the chapel, there is at least a great deal of doubt about the story of his love for Lady Margaret Ramsay.

“Perhaps the story was embellished to make it more interesting, because a simple account of a battle in which the English were definitely well beaten might not have seemed very interesting.

“There’s also so much that needs to be established as fact. The chronicler John of Fordun who was writing many years after the events is often relied upon as a source for the history of the battle yet he says the battle took place in July when every other source dates it to February of 1303.

“Common sense also says the numbers in the battle, said to be 8,000 Scots against 30,000 English just cannot be true as there would not be enough food to feed such armies in February.”

What is not in doubt is that the Scots slaughtered their English enemies in what was effectively three battles in the one day.

The late John Ritchie, acknowledged as an expert on Rosslyn Chapel and its surroundings, wrote in 1999: “Only in retrospect can the Battle of Roslin be placed in its rightful place in the history of Scotland’s struggle for independence, and the confidence that it gave this small but defiant nation to retain the goal of travelling along its own God-given path to its own destiny, secured on Bannockburn field.”

The National’s history columnist Hamish MacPherson will be in attendance and will report more fully on the Battle of Roslin and the conclusions reached at Rosslyn Chapel on Wednesday in his column on Tuesday, May 9. -_____________________________________________________________

Teasing facts from biased accounts written decades later is a huge challenge

ANALYSIS by Hamish MacPherson

AS is so common with Scottish history of the early 14th century, there is a real problem with establishing the facts of the Battle of Roslin.

That is because we are so dependent on the chroniclers of the times, many of whom were writing decades after the event and were quite frankly biased.

It was a hugely important battle, of that there is no question. Since the disaster at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298, much of Scotland had been occupied by English forces. The main contenders for the Scottish throne, Robert the Bruce and John ‘the Red’ Comyn, had become joint guardians of Scotland until 1302 when Bruce resigned and made his peace with King Edward I of England.

Coymn also stood down but continued to plot against the English and was joined in this by Simon Fraser of Oliver and Neidpath, a fierce opponent of English rule who had been captured and imprisoned by the Edward’s army at the Battle of Dunbar in 1296.

The tale of female involvement is fanciful. For a start, Henry Sinclair married another woman, not Lady Margaret Ramsay, who was supposedly the object of his attention. There is also no real evidence that Sir William Wallace was at the battle.

What is fairly certain is that Edward Longshanks, after observing a nine-month truce, decided to send an army under Sir John Segrave, his commander in Scotland, to pacify the Scots. Segrave split his army into three, a not unusual tactic at the time, and one after another, the three divisions were utterly routed by the much smaller Scottish army at locations in and around Roslin.

The first attack on February 24, 1303, was a complete surprise and the Scots captured Segrave. The English forces, despite putting up a string resistance at two more sites, were beaten by the Scots under Comyn and Sinclair. Exact numbers are not known but thousands of English soldiers were slaughtered, mostly as they fled the battlefield.