K. MEMOIRS OF RICHARD SIWARD, AND WALTER DE HUNTERCOMBE. Page 97.

K. MEMOIRS OF RICHARD SIWARD, AND WALTER DE HUNTERCOMBE. Page 97.

We shall here insert some account of Richard Siward and Walter de Huntercombe, two characters who appeared on this occasion. The latter, besides being at the siege of Carlaverock, where he attracted the notice of the poet, who mentions him as the handsome Huntercombe, bearing “ermine with two red gemmells,” was also governor of Edinburgh castle, and engaged in almost every campaign which Edward made in Scotland. The following notice, therefore, abridged from Mr Nicolas, will be useful in supplying that information respecting him which it has been inconvenient to give in the course of the narrative. It is also the more necessary, from the circumstance of the writer being pledged, in the advertisement of the “Life of Wallace,” to furnish “biographical notices of contemporary English and Scottish warriors” who figured in the contest between the two countries.

Richard Siward.—“Though this individual is frequently spoken of in the records of his day, yet very few particulars are known that can throw much light on his family pedigree. It has been conjectured, that he was descended from Syward, the great Saxon Earl of Northumberland; but of this, however, there is little certainty. His importance appears to have been considerable; for we find that, on 18th November 1292, he was appointed by Edward I. (in his character of Umpire on the question of the Succession) to act as Governor of the Castles of Dumfries, Wigton, and Kirkcudbright. On the 22d April, 1294, he obtained a grant of the marriage of the widow of Simon Fresel, or Frazer; and on the 15th October, in the same year, he was summoned to attend the English monarch, with all his retainers, in the expedition to Wales. Towards the end of 1295, he affected to unite with the Scottish Barons in their attempt to restore their King to the dignity of an independent sovereign, and, in consequence, had the defence of the Castle of Dunbar assigned to him. How he conducted himself on that occasion, has already been noticed. His subsequent confinement in the Tower, has been adduced by some writers as a powerful argument against the charge of treason brought against him by his countrymen. We cannot, however, see it in that light. His treachery was of the most profligate description. By negociating the surrender of a fortress, which, from its strength and importance, was reckoned in those days the key of the kingdom, and also using it, at the same time, as a trap to ensnare the greater part of the nobility, was conduct that required the exercise of some ruse in order to lessen the odium it was calculated to excite even in the estimation of the English nobility, who must otherwise have looked with disgust on a man who could have acted in so base a manner towards his own countrymen. By the following lines of Peter Langtoft, Siward appears to have had for some time a private understanding with the enemy:—

“For the performance of this agreement, hostages were given to the English, and a messenger despatched to acquaint Baliol that a truce had been obtained; which he was instructed to say, was effected entirely by the dexterity of Siward, and his personal influence with a number of the English nobles. Baliol was also advised to advance and attack the English army while “at meat,” and that, at the same time, Siward would make a sally to assist him in destroying the enemy—which the messenger spoke of as a matter of certainty, and moreover counselled Baliol to proceed immediately afterwards and plunder Northumberland.

“On the third day, Siward, from the battlements of Dunbar, discovered the Scottish army rapidly approaching towards him; he therefore hastily sought the English head-quarters, and proffered to go personally and retard the advance of the Scots till the expiry of the time stipulated for by the agreement. The English, however, were not inclined to believe that he would carry his treason quite so far, and refused him permission to proceed to the Scottish lines.99

“Siward, on being relieved from his confinement in the Tower, rose high in the confidence of Edward. On 26th September 1298, 7th May and 16th June 1299, he was summoned, by the title “Baron,” to serve in Scotland. His name appears on several occasions in the Wardrobe Account of 28th Edward I. In that year he received 41l. 5s. for the services of himself and his followers in the garrison of Lochmaben. Also an allowance of 2l. 13s. 4d. for the value of a horse killed at Kirkcudbright; eight merks for a winter dress (robe); and the like sum appears to have been paid to him for a summer dress. In the same year he was again summoned for the Scottish war, and also in 1301. He was made sheriff of Dumfries-shire in 1305, and was also aiding in the suppression of Robert Bruce in 1308; in which year he was appointed to the charge of a district in Galloway, under Edward II. In 1309 he was governor or constable of Dumfries, and is supposed to have died in 1310.

By his wife Mary he had two sons, Richard and John. They both attained the age of manhood; and John, in particular, appears to have followed the crooked anti-patriotic policy of his father. He accompanied the Earl of Pembroke in his invasion of Fife, as has been already mentioned, and was rewarded by Edward with an appointment as Governor of Perth. Little appears to have been known of Richard. He was married to Elizabeth —— in 1296. The arms of Siward, as has been already noticed, were sable, a cross fleury, argent.

“Walter de Huntercombe succeeded his father in his lands in the 55. Henry III., at which time he was of full age; and shortly afterwards married Alice, third daughter and co-heiress of Hugh de Bolebec, and who, in the 2d Edward I., was found to be one of the co-heirs of Richard de Muntfichet, in right of her grandmother Margery, his sister. In the 5th Edward I. he paid 50l. for his relief of the barony of Muschamp; and on the 12th December in that year, was summoned to serve with horse and arms against the Welsh: he received similar writs tested 6th April and 24th May, 10th Edward I., and 14th June, 15th Edward I. He was one of the peers who were present in parliament in the 18th Edward I., when a grant was made to the King, for the marriage of his eldest daughter, of the same aid as had been given to Henry III. for the marriage of his daughter the Queen of Scotland; and shortly afterwards the Isle of Man was intrusted to his charge, but which he only held three years, as, in obedience to the King’s commands, he surrendered his trust to John de Baillol in the 21st Edward I. In the 19th Edward I., by writ tested the 16th April at Darlington, he was ordered to be at Norham, equipped for the field by the ensuing Easter; and obtained a charter of free-warren in all his demesne lands in the county of Northumberland before the end of that year. On the 26th June 1294, Huntercombe was ordered to join the expedition then made into Gascony. His military services, during the remainder of the reign of Edward I. were incessant, for he was in the Scottish wars in the 25th, 26th, 28th, 31st, and 34th years of that monarch; was Governor of Edinburgh Castle in the 26th; Lieutenant of Northumberland in the 27th Edward I.; and afterwards Warden of the Marches there. In the 28th Edward I. we find that he was at the siege of Carlaverock; and in the next year he was a party to the letter to Pope Boniface, in which he is called “Walter Lord of Huntercombe.” It appears from the Wardrobe accounts of the 28th Edward I., that he was allowed 10l. as a compensation for a black nag which was killed by the Scots at Flete, on the 6th August 1299. But the nature and extent of Huntercombe’s services are best shown by his own statement of them in his petition to the King in the 35th Edward I., praying a remission of his scutage for the expeditions in which he had been engaged, with which prayer the crown complied. He says, that he had been in all the wars of Scotland up to that time; namely, in the first war at Berwick with twenty horse; then at Stirling with thirty-two horse, in the retinue of the Earl of Warren; then at Le Vaire Chapelle with thirty horse in the retinue of the Bishop of Durham; afterwards at Gaway with sixteen horse; and that he sent eighteen horse to the last battle, though he was not present himself, being then Warden of the Marches of Scotland and Northumberland. From that year nothing more is known of this Baron, excepting that he was summoned to parliament from the 23d June, 23d Edward I., 1295, to the 16th June, 14th Edward II., 1311, and died in 1312; but after the 25th Edward I. he was probably prevented by age from taking an active part in public affairs, for even allowing him to have been but twenty-one in the 55th Henry III., he must have been above sixty in 1307; which calculation makes him to have been about fifty when he was at Carlaverock, and sixty-four at his decease. Though he was twice married he died without issue. His first wife was Alice de Bolebec, before mentioned; but we only know that the Christian name of his second was Ellen, and that she survived him. Nicholas Newbaud, his nephew, son of his sister Gunnora, was found to be his heir.

“The arms of Huntercombe were ermine, two bars gemells, gules.”