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They were recreating the siege of Caerlaverock castle 1300 (Dumfries)in which Edward the first of England brought enormous siege engines to bear when trying to recapture Scotland. It was a defeat for the Scots but a bit like the Alimo for those state side, an historic and brave stand.
When we arrived it was warm and sunny, just the thing to stroll around the medieval market place where vendors sold their handicrafts dressed in costume. The local community were heavily involved in the exercise and even the children were well dressed up and so so sweet. Around the outskirts the English soldiers drilled and fought, punished traitors and even had a mad monk ( well he looked mad) to preach to them.
We were given a run down of the weapons to, including little tips for archers like. Your bow wont work right if your bow string is damp or damaged in some way, so a a good archers secret was to have
A spark of excitement, a runner from the castle was carrying a lit torch, what was he going to do? He made it, he set one of the siege engines on fire, but died for his trouble. Edward was fed up and ordered the siege engines be used. Balloon after balloon ward hurled at the palisade. A small rubber balloon filled with water. Who would have thought, they would have made such a sound, such a thunderous sound, such a bang when they landed. It was indicative, and only that, of what the noise of a big boulder would have made.
And still the attacks and defences went on. At times the knights would engage in single armed combat, replete with chain mail and sur coats, but by the time the rain was on, an the grass was very slippy underfoot, particularly for people wearing polished leather soles on their shoes. The poor souls were slipping all roads. Added to that the water balloons were still firing and believe me they were indiscriminate in their accuracy.
Eventually the siege ended, as it did 700 years ago, the English won, there were 2000 of them to 80 Scots. Nearly a fair fight (-: Maxwell was beheaded and his good lady taken as a guest of Edward. Many of the Scots soldiers were hung, but many were allowed to live, because they had fought so bravely, this was not a magnanimousact, they lived to spread the word of Edward's powerful siege engines.
Throughout the market they sold leather wear and crockery and made candles, and gave falconry displays and archery lessons but mostly there was evidence of the Christian Church at this time. Wooden crosses and thing decorated with church iconography. As the commentator later told us the church was all important in those days. You could be fined for not going to church, your own death was an acceptable excuse however, but only just.
Sermons lasted for two hours and you had to stand the whole time. If you were ill there were small benches at the wall which for a small fine you could go sit on, but it was a horror of horrors and gave rise to the expression
Caerlaverock Castle as one may imagine was very very busy on Saturday so I was not able to get into the gift shop and buy a guide book full off fascinating facts to beguile you with. So I am doing this off the top of my head. After the death of Alexander the 3rd ( he fell of his horse one dark night when returning home, fell over a cliff) and the loss of his dtr Margaret Maid of Norway, her ship floundered in the Firth of Forth during a storm, the Scots nobles asked Edward the First of England ( aka Edward Long shanks, hammer of the Scots) to decide on the next king. The royal lineage was not very clear. He chose John Balliol (sp?) because of the three main pretenders to the throne he was the only one who would swear loyalty to England. This worked for a while but then the Scots nobles started objecting to being turfed out of their castles and what have you. Edward invaded Scotland and after a blood bath at Berwick( in Scotland at the time), when every man woman and child was slaughtered the Scots nobles were brought to heel and made to swear allegiance at the point of a sword to Edward.
Eventually a hero arose, like most heroes he was a reluctant one, he was a bit of a rogue and his first act against the English was the ambush of the Sheriff of Ayr at Loudon hill, this was a personal attack, the sheriff had murdered Marion ( not Mirren) his wife /girlfriend. Although this was a personal revenge it was seen as an act of defiance by the whole of Scotland and thrust William Wallace into the lime green light. At first it was just the peasantry who flocked to Wallace's green clad side and hid in the forrest of Ettric, but eventually the nobles, despite their oath to Edward, (sworn at sword point infront of God) started to follow the Wallace. I would just like to point out at this time, Wallace himself never swore any oath of loyalty to Edward, at knife point or otherwise, though at his trial it was conveniently assumed by the English that he had and this was their justification for trying him for treason. Wallace got rid of the English from Scottish soil
In the year 1300 Edward had had enough, he decided to hammer the Scots into submission and he gathered his knights and his welsh bowmen and his foot soldiers and went invading. The first castle he came to, an important one tactically speaking was Caerlaverock. This castle belonged to Maxwell and had a garrison of 80 troops at this point in the story. It was uniquely and strongly designed in the shape of a shield, the front was almost pointed and the back spread out behind it. Edward could see that they could hold out for a long time in a siege. But Edward had a cunning plan, he brought a huge big siege engine which could fire great big boulders over 200 feet. The Scots had held out bravely, they had tasted Edward's rule and they did not like it, but one pounding from that engine
on their walls and they knew it was time to surrender.
At the re enactment a false palisade had been built in wood in front of the actual castle, no one wanted to harm the actual castle or indeed any individual. The siege began with a call from Edward to Maxwell to surrender, and he was reminded that he had sworn an oath under god, of fealty. Naturally the Scots refused to surrender. Ate first the walls were attacked by foot soldiers carrying ladders. (The were solid structures, the rope type siege ladder was not invented until Bruce's time by the Black Douglas and Andrew de Moray) although everything was scaled down it did let you see how difficult warfare was at this time. The ladders went up, the Scots threw them back down again. The Welsh bowmen sent their arrows over the walls, the Scots picked them up and fired them back. The English withdrew. Every so often the fighting would pause and children ( dressed authentically) would run across the battle field and pick up the arrows. This always looked strange, but in truth, this is actually what would happen. 
The Scots came out of the gates and fired some more arrows at the English, The English charged, I suspect in reality knights would have done this on horse back, but there were no horses present this day, not even a wee boy with a set of hollowed out coconut shells. The Scots went back into their castle This went on for sometime the English would attack and the Scots would defend, sometime the scots would win and sometimes the English, in this instance though it would seem all the participants were called Duncan McLeod of the Clan McLeod ( no one died)
gettin in the spirit o things
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