Henry de Beaumont - Castles of Sand

Castles of Sand

In January 1333 Edward finally dropped the pretence of neutrality: Edward Balliol was formally recognised as King of Scotland and promised military aid. Subsidies were now paid to Beaumont and the others, to help prepare for a fresh invasion. In July a fresh Scots army was cut to pieces at Halidon Hill, just outside Berwick-upon-Tweed, using the same battle tactics as Dupplin Moor. Once again the disinherited advanced into Scotland. Henry Beaumont was able to return to Buchan where, according to Andrew Wyntoun, he repaired the old Comyn stronghold of Dundarg on the Aberdeenshire coast in 1333/4, which had been destroyed by Robert Bruce in 1308:

The Beaumont went intil Buchan; And there, Dundarg of lime and stane He made stoutly, and therin lay.

Even so, the hold of the disinherited lords was no more certain than before. By September 1334 Edward Balliol, faced with a full-scale revolt, sent urgent appeals to England for yet more assistance. To make matters even worse his followers, who had been brought together by greed for land, were driven apart by the very same greed. In a dispute over the estates of Alexander de Mowbray, killed at Annan in 1332, Balliol was unwise enough to quarrel with Beaumont who, in the fashion of Achilles, withdrew from Court in a fit of picque, to Dundarg.

Balliol's regime collapsed, and for the second time in his career he fled across the border. Beaumont, in the meantime, was besieged in Dundarg by Andrew de Moray, the new Guardian of Scotland. Under continual attack, and running short of supplies, he was compelled to surrender on December 23, 1334. After a brief imprisonment he was ransomed and returned to England in time for the summer campaign of 1335. While he came back to Scotland it is uncertain if he ever saw Buchan again. Dundarg was destroyed for the second and last time in its history.