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Battle of Stanhope Park is in 1320-1329 Despencer War.
On 4th August 1327, during the night, James "Black" Douglas (age 41) ambushed Edward III's (age 14) camp at Stanhope Park Weardale [Map]. Douglas reached Edward III's collapsed tent nearly capturing the English King.
On 7th August 1327 the Scots quietly broke camp and returned to Scotland. The English did not pursue. The Weardale Campaign had been a success for the Scots. The campaign had been ruinously expensive for the English, costing about £70,000, with the cost of the Hainault mercenaries being £41,000. The campaign led to the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton that brought to an end the First Scottish War of Independence.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke [-1360]. After his coronation, the new king Edward, third of that name since the Norman Conquest, together with his mother and her aforementioned hired troops, assembled a great army and crossed into Scotland.1 Many joined this expedition more willingly than reluctantly. When the army reached York, a serious conflict broke out between the citizens of York and the Hainaulters,2 in which many citizens were killed at night and part of the city was burned. After peace was restored, though far too favourably to the Hainaulters, the army advanced toward Scotland, where the Scots were waiting at Stanhope Park [4th August 1327]. And although the English army was three times larger than the Scots', and, in everyone's judgment, composed of stronger and better-armed forces, yet the Scots, through the secret collusion of certain great men who treacherously allied themselves with them, without the knowledge of the king's friends, returned to their own lands unharmed. The king, returning to England from this feeble beginning, would soon go on to greater fortune. He sent back the Hainaulters and other foreign mercenaries to their homelands, allowing them to carry with them great sums of money and many fine jewels3 which had been given to them.
Post coronacionem suam novus rex Edwardus, huius nominis tercius post conquestum Normannorum, cum matre sua et stipendiariis cius predictis, congregato magno exercitu, versus Scociam transmeavit; cum quo plures iverunt magis voluntarie quam invite. Apud Eboracum exercitu profecto, fuit gravis conflictus inter cives Eboracenses et Hanonienses, in quo multis civibus de nocte peremtis atque civitate partim incensa, post reformatam pacem Hanoniensibus nimis favourabilem, ad partes Scocie "exercitus promovetur, quem apud Stanoppark Scoti expectarunt. Et, licet exercitus Anglorum fuisset Scotorum in triplo maior et omnium iudicio maiori firmitate composicior, attamen Scoti, permissione quorumdam magnorum prodiciose cum ipsis confederatorum, sine scitu amicorum regis Anglie ad sua sine lesione sunt reversi. Rex in Angliam, cum debili principio meliorem graciam precessurus, reversus, Hanonienses et alios stipendiarios ad suas partes remisit, magnam pecuniam et multa iocalia delicata sibi data secum deferentes.
Note 1. Brute chronicle (Harley MS. 2279.): "And atte Ester next after his coronacioun the kyng ordeynede an huge oste, for to fighte ayens the Scottis; and sir John, the erles brother of Henaude, [came] fro biyonde the see, for to fighte and helpe kyng Edward, and broughte with him v hundreth men of armes, and arryvede atte Dover; and thei had leve for to gone furth til that thei comen unto Yorke, ther that the kyng abode hem. And the Scottis come thider unto the kyng, for to make pees and accorde; but the acordement betwene hem laste but a litel tyme. And atte that tyme the Englisshe men were clothede al in cotes and hodes payntede with lettres and with floures ful semely, with longe berdes; and therfor the Scottis made a bille, that was fastenede up on the cherches dores of seint Petir towarde Stangate; and thus seide the scripture in despite of the Englisshe men:
'Longe berded, herteles,
Peintid hode, witles,
Gay cote, graceles,
Makes Engelonde thrifteles.'"
Note 2. Edward arrived at York towards the end of May and remained there till at least the 6th July (Rymer's Fœdera 2.706, 708). The chronicler Jehan le Bel served through this campaign in the company of John of Hainault, and has left us the very full particulars which Froissart has embodied in his work, Jean Le Bel 1.36.
The Eulogium Historiarum by a monk of Malmesbury (Rolls Series), 3.199.
Buchon, in his edition of Froissart, quotes the passage out of Leland's Collectanea, 1.307. It will be noticed that the date is wrong. The Brute chronicle (Harley MS. 2279) has this passage: "And the Trinite day [7th June] next comyng began the contak in the citee of Yorke bitwene the Englissh men and the Henoders. And in that debate were quellede of the erledome of Nicole and mordred IIIJxx; and, after, thei were beried under a stone in Seint dementis cherchehaw in Fosgate. And, for incheson that the Henawders comen for to helpe the kyng, her pees was criede, uppon payne of liif and lyme. And in that other half hit was founde, by inqueste of the citee, that the Englissh men begonne the debate." See also Leland's Collectanea, 1.475.
That the English archers and not the citizens (although the latter may to some extent have joined in) were the chief actors is proved by the commission which was appointed on the 14th June to enquire into the cause of the fray, wherein the soldiers of the counties of Lincoln and Northampton are expressly named. Rymer's Fœdera 2.707.
Note 3. Jean Le Bel 1.72.
John of Hainault held a pension of 1000 marks, granted by the king 7th February 1327 (Rymer's Fœdera 2.686). For the present campaign and previous assistance he appears to have received the following payments: 28th June 1327, a warrant was issued in his favour for £700 (ibid. 708); 20th August 1327, the sum of £4000 was ordered to be paid to him, the jewels in the Tower to be pledged, if needful (ibid. 713); 6th March 1328, the king undertook to pay him £14,406 6s. 9d. in two instalments, for twice coming to his assistance (ibid. 733); and ordered part-payment amounting to £7000 on 28th June (ibid. 745); the other £7000 appears to have been paid in May 1329, with money advanced by the Bardi of Florence (ibid. 764; Archaeologia, 28.257).
The Brut. [4th August 1327]. How þe Englisshe-men Stoppede þe Scottes in þe park of Stanhope, and How þai turnede aȝeyne into Scotland Capitulo CC xiiij.
Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough. Around Pentecost [summer of 1327], King Edward III set out with a large army of English and Hainault1 troops to attack Scotland. The Scottish commanders were Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, and James Douglas. The Scots moved into Stanhope Park in Weardale and for fifteen days were blockaded there by the king's forces. However, because the English troops were jealous of the Hainaulters, or, as was suspected, through the treachery of certain Englishmen, the Scots slipped away unharmed. James Douglas, the bold Scottish knight, even staged a night raid: with only a few men, he infiltrated the English camp almost to the king's own tent, apparently intending to kidnap or kill Edward. Douglas barely escaped back to his own lines after killing the king's chaplain, a courageous, armed man, and several others.
Hoc anno circa Pentecosten rex Edwardus tertius cum magno exercitu Anglorum et Hunaldorum Scotiam oppugnare proponebat, sed Scoti, quorum capitanei fuerunt Thomas Randolf comes Moravia, Jacobus Douglas, parcum de Stanhope in Wardale intrantes XV diebus a rege Angliæ sunt obsessi. Sed quia Hanoniensibus Anglici invidebant, vel, ut putabatur, quorundam Anglorum proditione, sine lædente Scoti libere manus illorum evaserunt. Jacobus autem Douglas, miles strenuus, exercitum Anglorum latenter nocte quadam cum paucis admodum intravit, et usque fere ad regis papilionem, ut regem surriperet vel etiam interficeret, appropiavit; sed capellano suo, viro audaci et armato, cum quibusdam aliis extincto, vix ad suos illæsus evasit.
Note 1. The men of Hainault, whom Edward had invited over to aid in the expedition against Scotland.