The victory of Bannockburn did not end the war, for the English refused
to acknowledge the hard-won independence of Scotland, and fighting
continued till the year 1327. The Scots not only invaded England, but
adopted the policy of fighting England in Ireland, and English reprisals
in Scotland were uniformly unsuccessful. Bruce invaded England in 1315;
in the same year, his brother Edward landed with a Scottish army at
Carrickfergus, in the hope of obtaining a throne for himself. He was
crowned King of Ireland in May, 1316, and during that and the following
year, King Robert was personally in Ireland, giving assistance to his
brother. But, in 1318, Edward Bruce was defeated and slain near Dundalk,
and, with his death, this phase of the Bruce's English policy
disappears. A few months before the death of Edward Bruce, King Robert
had captured the border town of Berwick-on-Tweed, which had been held by
the English since 1298. In 1319, Edward II sent an English army to
besiege Berwick, and the Scots replied by an invasion of England in the
course of which Douglas and Randolph defeated the English at
Mitton-on-Swale in Yorkshire. The English were led by the Archbishop of
York, and so many clerks were killed that the battle acquired the name
of the Chapter of Mitton. The war lingered on for three years more. The
year 1322 saw an invasion of England by King Robert and a
counter-invasion of Scotland by Edward II, who destroyed the Abbey of
Dryburgh on his return march.
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