Lost teeth and longbows

#OTD in 1346 King David II of Scotland was defeated and captured at Neville's Cross, west of Durham. The Scots apparently tried to attack across broken ground, and were shot to bits by English longbows before the men-at-arms moved in to finish them off. This combined-arms tactic worked very well for England for about thirty years, until the French figured out ways of countering it.

David was caught hiding under a bridge by John Coupland, a squire of Northumberland, though not before the king knocked out two of his front teeth.

Coupland was an interesting character. He drove a hard bargain with his prisoner, refusing to yield David up to anyone save Edward III in person. Edward forgave his insolence and made him a knight banneret, heaping him with rewards and titles: Sheriff of Roxburghshire, custodian of Berwick, Sheriff of Northumberland, among other things, and a fat salary of 500 quid a year.

Beware the friendship of kings. Coupland's ruthless pursuit of cash and power made him lots of enemies, on both sides of the Border. Too many. In 1363 he was ambushed and murdered on Bolton Moor by a band of eighteen men with lances and bows. The killers fled to Scotland and were never punished, despite a string of official enquiries.

By this point David had been released. One theory, which doesn't seem at all unlikely, is that he and King Edward had a hand in Coupland's death. The man had outlived his usefulness, and his greed and corruption were threatening to 'shake loose the border', as they said. Hence, he was disposed of.

Third pic shows the two kings shaking hands on a deal.