Andrew Harclay, 1st Earl of Carlisle the Scots, under the command of Robert the Bruce, at the Battle of Old Byland in Yorkshire. The English commander, John of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, was taken prisoner, while the king himself barely escaped capture. It was the worst defeat the English had suffered in the wars since the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Harclay had received a summons to join the royal army, but had not been able to bring his troops south in time to come to the king's rescue. The event convinced him that the war against Scotland could not be won under the leadership of
Battle of Dalrigh Macdonalds of Islay and the Campbells of Loch Awe, whom he defeated in battle sometime in the mid-1290s. The outbreak of the War of Independence in 1296 placed the MacDougalls on the side of the Scottish patriots. This changed in the most dramatic fashion in February 1306, when Robert Bruce killed John Comyn. Soon after Bruce seized the crown, and the Macdougalls and other families with Balliol and Comyn associations became allies of the English. In June 1306, Robert Bruce and his army were caught unprepared at the Battle of Methven, west of Perth, by Aymer de Valence, an English