This week – 20 August 1299

Robert Hastang, sheriff of Roxburgh, sends a report to Edward I on the Scots’ activities in the area. He reports the inroad by the Scots under Ingram de Umfraville and William Balliol on Selkirk forest, which was held by Simon Fraser, and the meeting there of the bishop of St Andrews, the earls of Carrick, Buchan and Menteith, John Comyn the son, and James Stewart. Hastang had a spy in the camp who recounted the dissensions among them cause by David Graham’s demand for William Wallace’s lands and goods, as he was going abroad without leave, and his brother Malcolm Wallace’s objections, ‘when these two knights gave each other the lie, and drew their knives – Sir John Comyn’s taking the Earl of Carrick by the throat, and the Earl of Buchan seizing the Bishop of St Andrews.’ After this quarrel the nobles agreed that the Bishop Lamberton, Robert Bruce (earl of Carrick) and John Comyn would be Guardians.