| Battle of Roslin | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theFirst War of Scottish Independence | |||||||
 Battle of Roslin memorial | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Kingdom of Scotland | Kingdom of England | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lord John Comyn Sir Simon Fraser | LordJohn Segrave Sir Ralph Manton † Sir Robert Neville[1] | ||||||
| Designated | 14 December 2012 | ||||||
| Reference no. | BTL37 | ||||||
TheBattle of Roslin on 24 February 1303 was a Scottish victory in theFirst War of Scottish Independence. It took place near the village ofRoslin, where a force led by the ScotsJohn Comyn and SirSimon Fraser ambushed and defeated an English reconnaissance party under LordJohn Segrave.[2]
An Anglo-Scottish truce expired on 30 November 1302, and the English prepared for a fresh invasion of Scotland, withJohn Segrave as the king's lieutenant in Scotland.King Edward I ordered Segrave to carry out a large-scale reconnaissance as far asKirkintilloch, before the king himself fought a larger campaign. This force assembled atWark on Tweed and moved north.[3]
The English advanced in three divisions, harassed by the Scots. At night, they camped in three divisions, several miles apart. The two commanders,John Comyn andSimon Fraser, led a Scots force on a night march, fell on the English, capturing Segrave and several others. Robert Neville led his division towards the action. The Scots eventually freed Segrave, but the English paymaster Manton was killed.[3]
Scottish historianJohn of Fordun wrote a description of the fight:
...there never was so desperate a struggle, or one in which the stoutness of knightly prowess shone forth so brightly. The commander and leader in this struggle was John Comyn, the son... But John Comyn, then guardian of Scotland, and Simon Fraser with their followers, day and night, did their best to harass and to annoy, by their general prowess, the aforesaid kings officers and bailiffs... But the aforesaid John Comyn and Simon, with their abettors, hearing of their arrival, and wishing to steal a march rather than have one stolen upon them, came briskly through fromBiggar to Rosslyn, in one night, with some chosen men, who chose rather death before unworthy subjection to the English nation; and all of a sudden they fearlessly fell upon the enemy.
— John of Fordun,Chronicle of the Scottish Nation[4]
The battle was the subject of a fictional account written byWalter Bower in the mid-15th century. Like Fordun, Bower seriously exaggerated the size and importance of what was really a victory over a large-scale raid rather than an invading army.[3] The distorted impression of Roslin has lingered in the public imagination to this day.
A monument cairn erected by the Roslin Heritage Society at the end of the 20th century marks the site of the battle. At the start of the 21st century, the battlefield was under research to beinventoried[5] and protected byHistoric Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009.