Battle of Dupplin Moor - Background

Background

The death of Robert I in 1329 left Scotland with a four-year-old king, David II (1329–1371). His right to the throne was far from absolute, and in the early 1330s was challenged by Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol. The rebels were known as "The Disinherited", since they lost their land as a consequence of the Battle of Bannockburn.

In the winter of 1331, in response to the urgings of Henry Beaumont, chief among the disinherited, Balliol left his home in France and came to England, where he settled in Standal Manor in Yorkshire. Beaumont then visited Edward III, the young English king. The purpose of the meeting was recorded in the Brut Chronicle: "So came Sir Henry of Beaumont to Kyng Edward of Engeland and praiede him, in way of charitie, that he wolde grant of his grace unto Sir Edward Balliol that he moste safliche gone bi land from Sandall for to conquere his ritz heritage in Scotland." Edward agreed to let him go, but by sea, not land.

By the summer of 1332 all of the preparations for the expedition were complete. The size of the force assembled by Balliol and Beaumont cannot be established with any real accuracy, but the sources all agree that it was fairly modest: the Bridlington Chronicle suggests a figure of 500 men-at-arms and 1000 foot; Henry Knighton, prone on occasions to wild exaggeration, puts forward a figure of 300 men-at-arms and 3000 foot; while the Lanercost Chronicle, probably the most reliable, suggests a total force in the region of 1500 to 2800. All agree that by far the largest proportion of the footmen were archers, armed with the longbow. By mid-July Balliol's little armada of some 88 ships waited for the right moment to sail. It came with the news that Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, the guardian of the infant David, had died suddenly on 20 July.