Edward I's opening move in the First Scottish War of Independence. After a brief resistance, Berwick was stormed and its population — men, women and children — were massacred. Contemporary chronicles report that 7,000 to 17,000 people were killed over three days. Edward finally stopped the slaughter when he saw a woman being killed while giving birth. Berwick was the most important commercial town in Scotland; its capture and the massacre announced the brutal nature of English intentions. The atrocity galvanised Scottish resistance.
Estimated 7,000–17,000 civilians massacred
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
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