1336-8: PRINCE EDWARD GETS HIS WAR ON
"...Even as his ministers worked to build him an alliance, Edward busied himself preparing the kingdom for war, both materially and intellectually. At a great ceremony in 1336 to celebrate the return of the late Earl of Kent's bones, returned after his death from crusading in Granada three years previously[1], presided over by the Prince and his father, a new group of earls and barons were created, dominated by the Prince's intimates[2]. The most notable ones created in the ceremony from a historical perspective are doubtless his young half-brother Richard, created the Earl of Carlisle at the insistence of Edward II[3], and Gilbert Despenser, who would become Earl of Gloucester, but in truth the ceremony reads as a near-complete encyclopedia of England's major military and political figures of the next few decades. Even Henry of Grosmont, the future Duke of Lancaster and the future Edward IV are there, being created as the Earl of Derby and Chester respectively[4], in a pair of pious fictions... In the end the purpose of this was clear--rewards now to prepare for the greater rewards to come (theoretically), and a bit of theatre to advertise the glory of England. That they were doing so at a ceremony for a royal kinsman who'd raised a rebellion and whose body had spent the previous three years serving as a bargaining chip of the King of Castile's went uncommented...
"Other realities likewise remained uncomfortable. The conquest of Scotland that had started all of this was unraveling, with the Steward and his partisans inflicting a constant low-level warfare on English and Balliol holdings, while the Murrays and their allies bided their time[5]. French naval raiding was devastating the coast and weakening trade while spreading hysteria and uncertainty. Edward was running up debts pursuing an offensive war on three fronts, while defending the English coastline. At the Parliament of 1337--returned, significantly, to Westminster[6]--Prince Edward did his best to calm jangling nerves, worried over the menacing French and Scottish fleet assembling in the Channel and the impending threat to Gascony. It proved quite effective--he was voted a sizable subsidy[7]. In the end, John of France's overbearing manner was Edward's greatest ally. "Even the great men of England who did not want war saw no way to avoid it, for to submit to {John of France} on this would be to make him the master of all England, and they could not stand this," Jean Froissart would write many years later. While the Prince had his doubters, they kept to quiet murmurs, for now...
"Among those present at the Parliament were Edward Balliol and the Earl of Buchan, there to help provide Balliol's promised support in the upcoming war[8]. Balliol was there under protest--as he noted to his brother-in-law, he still felt the ongoing war required him to stay in his kingdom, even if it was relatively quiet at the moment. Besides which, his wife was pregnant, and Balliol, to the surprise of virtually all who knew him, was inordinately fond of young Eleanor. The Prince was having none of it. He was increasingly skeptical of Balliol's uses in Scotland and had more or less decided to use him as a symbol of English might and power, not unlike John of France's cultivating of John of Bohemia... Scotland, he assured his brother-in-law, would be safe under the direction of the Prince's able--and predominantly English--men on the scene...
"Edward's subsidy paid off some of his immediate debts. It was still abundantly clear that he would need a great deal more funds to pay for the war, not to mention the promised bribes he was hoping would net him allies on the Continent. The Prince had come up with an innovative plan to do this--indeed, one he hoped would pay for the entire war. Taking England's bountiful wool supply for the royal use, he would withhold it from the Continent, allowing the price to rise, then sell it at a hefty profit. This would be handled by a handful of English merchants headed by one William Pole, who had paid for this privilege with loans to the Prince. While the boycott was enacted with a great deal of success, especially against Flanders[9], gathering the wool still proved difficult in the face of farmers offended by the scheme of fixed prices that would be used to gather it...
"...It was weeks after his emissaries' success in crafting a Continental alliance that the Prince learnt of it from his brother, the Earl of Cornwall, John of Eltham having been detained by the need to avoid France's Channel fleet. By the time he learned of it, in late July, he found he was expected to bring his forces to meet with the allies in mid-September. In theory, as he had been gathering forces since the beginning of the year, this should have been manageable--however recruitment had been anemic at best, and he still lacked the ships to bring the troops there, especially in the face of French resistance[10]. First Prince Edward made desperate plans to make it in late September, then in October, and then finally, the plan was altered to go the next year... Of the troops that had been gathered, a small portion were sent north under Salisbury to besiege Dunbar thus "bringing an end to the problem of the Scots"[11], another smaller portion were sent to join Ingham in Gascony[12] and the rest were sent home. While some difficulty with his German allies ensued, it was at least mitigated by the fact that they were no more ready on the appointed date then the Prince was[13]...
"...The closing months of 1337 were a time of quiet desperation for the Prince, during which he entertained a peace delegation from the Papacy. The two learned cardinals who headed it made no more progress on the Prince than they had made on his cousin the King of France weeks earlier[14]... Edward was assured that he would more than make up for his failure to arrive this year by making a more impressive arrival early the next.
"Sadly for him, 1338 would prove almost as difficult as the preceding year, beginning with the news out of Scotland..."
--This Terrible Majesty (Vol. 1): Prince and Steward by Augusta Lyme (1978)
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[1] Well, now we know what happened to Kent. He really wasn't a man destined for glory, I'm afraid. To be fair to him, he's lasted a few years longer than his OTL counterpart, who was executed by Mortimer in 1330.
[2] A similar ceremony took place in the 1337 Parliament with its stated purpose to celebrate Edward's jubilee.
[3] The previous Earl of Carlisle, Andrew Harclay was also created by Edward II in 1321 OTL and TTL--and then uncreated rather definitively a year later when he signed a peace treaty with Robert the Bruce. Edward II seems to have taken a great personal delight in destroying the man--giving his title and lands to a young son seems in character.
[4] IOTL, the Black Prince was made Duke of Cornwall--the first Duke created in England, in point of fact. Here that's not an option, though Prince Edward does make sure his son is included. Both this and Henry of Grosmont's creation as Earl of Derby are "pious fictions" incidentally as firstly, they are simply being granted titles held by their fathers while their general situation remains unchanged--Prince Edward will continue to administer Chester for his son, and Grosmont is already running all of his father's holdings for him.
[5] Things are better than OTL, where Sir Andrew Murray was actively campaigning, taking castles and raising hell. But only somewhat better--England's situation in Scotland is becoming increasingly tenuous.
[6] This was also the case IOTL. Needless to say, it signified quite a change in priorities.
[7] Edward likewise got a subsidy with surprising speed IOTL. And likewise it didn't prove as helpful as he hoped.
[8] IOTL, Balliol likewise swore to serve Edward as needed in return for help. It was never called on, and frankly, he probably expected it never would be. But here, with the situation in Scotland better, but Edward increasingly doubting his use as a figurehead, it happens.
[9] This was Edward's plan to pay for the war IOTL as well. Quick, try to see the flaw in it! I'm betting a lot of you can.
[10] Though it wasn't Eltham who came to inform him, Edward likewise found himself out of the loop about the results of his diplomacy.
[11] More on this in the future. With that said, IOTL and ITTL, Dunbar was one of the only major fortresses to remain loyal to the Bruces in the south of Scotland and a major supply drop for the French.
[12] More on this in the even nearer future. This is slightly better for Gascony than OTL, where it was more or less starved of men and supplies. But only slightly.
[13] Well, not exactly, but again, the future. Still, the fact that his allies were no more ready to fight than Edward was probably helped save the alliance from unraveling completely at this point.
[14] We'll hear more of these learned gentlemen in--yes, that's right, the future. That said their OTL counterparts found it just as thankless a task.