EXAMPLE ‘HOW USEFUL’ QUESTION
Sample question on the battle of Dunbar
From the Chronicle of Walter Bower, the Scotichronicon
Then after the capture of the town of Berwick by the English and the piteous
slaughter of the Scots from Fife became known, the Scots who were sent by
King John to help the town of Berwick fought in the same year on 27th April
with the English at Dunbar. Where Patrick de Graham and many nobles fell
wounded. And very many other knights and barons, on fleeing to the castle of
Dunbar in the hope of saving their lives, were received there with ready
welcome. But the custodian of the castle in question, Richard Siward by
name, handed them all, to the number of seventy knights, besides the Earl of
Ross and the Earl of Mentieth, to the king of England, like sheep offer ed for
slaughter. Without pity, he handed them over to suffer immediately various
kinds of death and hardship.
Question: How useful is this source as evidence of Edward I’s success in the
invasion of Scotland 1296? (5 marks)
Example answer
This source is quite useful in explaining the important events at the Battle of
Dunbar in 1296. The author of the source is the famous Scottish chronicler,
Walter Bower. Bower wrote his book sometime after 1437, almost 145 years
after the events within the source. While he has the benefit of hindsight to
help him write his chronicle, he must rely on sources that are older, as there
is no possibility of getting an eyewitness account. Bower’s account of the
battle is therefore second-hand at best and will unfortunately have missing or
inaccurate information. Bower has also been described as not very accurate
and most of his work was taken from other chroniclers.
Bower worked for King James I and was very keen on upholding the rights of
Scotland and showing Scotland’s important place within Europe. Many of the
passages in his books contain sermons that reflect this . Therefore much of his
work can be described as biased in favour of Scotla nd and its place within
Europe.
The source does have some valid points about why Edwa rd was so successful.
Firstly, the source tells us that Edward was able to capture Berwick, and
slaughter the inhabitants. Berwick only held for three days before Edward’s
siege engines were able to breach the weak defences. The source also shows
that the Scots sent the army to help relieve the siege of Berwick, but that they
did not arrive in time. Bower tells us a lot about the fate of the nobility at the
battle: instead of trying to save the day, the nobility fled to Dunbar Castle but
WARS OF INDEPENDENCE (H, HISTORY)
© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2009
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EXAMPLE ‘HOW USEFUL’ QUESTION
they were betrayed by Richard Siward at the castle of Dunbar and handed
over to Edward. Some were killed.
However, the source does have some important limitations about the events at
Dunbar. Firstly it makes no mention of what happened to the majority of the
Scots in the common army. There were at least 10,000 commoners fighting
for the Scottish king, and the source fails to mention that they were for the
most part untrained farmers who had little or no experience in battle.
Secondly, it fails to explain how the Scots lost the battle. It doesn’t tell us,
for example, that the Scots leaders mistook simple manoeuvres by the Earl of
Surrey for an English retreat, and ordered a fatal charge that saw the Scots
soldiers easily cut down by the English knights. Finally, the source m akes no
mention of the capitulation of the Scottish resistance after Dunbar. Most of
the nobility were either killed or captured at the battle, and that left a vacuum
in the leadership of the Scots. Important castles like Stirling and Edinburgh
gave up with only a limited attempt at resistance.
The source is therefore only partly useful as evidence of the Edward’s
success as it fails to provide much detail beyond the capture of Berwick and
the battle of Dunbar. It fails to show that the Scottish spirit ha d been crushed
and the rest of the invasion was a formality.
How the marks are allocated:
Provenance – up to 2 marks can be given for origin and purpose . Here the
candidate shows a lot of knowledge about Bower and the limitations of his
writing (1 mark), and demonstrates a possible purpose of the source, a desire
to place Scotland in a European context in the best possible light ( 1 mark).
Up to 2 marks can be awarded from the content of the source . The student
explains that the source does have some usef ul points about the battle,
pointing out that the Scots were sent to relieve Berwick but did not arrive in
time, that many died, although only one is named, and that the nobles were
betrayed after the battle when they fled to Dunbar ( 2 marks).
Up to 2 marks can be awarded for recall. The answer demonstrates the
limitations of the source by explaining that it had very little information
about the weakness of the common soldiers ( 1 mark) and that it did not
highlight effects Dunbar had on the Scottish resist ance (1 mark).
Total 5 marks
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WARS OF INDEPENDENCE (H, HISTORY)
© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2009