Family Lessons 152: Loudoun Hill

When I saw it, I was fascinated. It was still some miles away, but it stood out from the other hills, even inviting some speculation that it was manmade, though its size soon ruled it out. It was Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire, Scotland. The clouds swept its summit lending it an eery feel and the volcanic outcrop seemed to glower over the surrounding landscape. Was there some ancestral connection to this place, some ancient sadness passing through my blood? It all sounds very dramatic; it is a wonder what a bit of cloud and mist can do to the mind. Nevertheless, it was on a plain to the hill’s south, below, that a bloody fight was held between the Scots and English, the 1307 Battle of Loudoun Hill.

Sure enough, an ancestor of mine served in the English armies of that time. There are no records of who fought when and where, but William de Walton, my 21st x great-grandfather, was Lancashire’s Commissioner of Array back in 1315, a few years after this clash. This office had the job of supplying the king with sufficient fighting men from Lancashire for his wars, which at that time were chiefly in Scotland. It was generally conferred on one with obvious military experience and who knew what a good fighting man looked like and what equipment he needed. As he was only born in 1285, it is likely that the 22-year-old William gained some of his military experience at Loudoun Hill fighting for Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, on behalf of the English king, Edward II.

If Loudoun Hill was a place in which William de Walton learned the art of war, it would have been a hard lesson. Despite their superior numbers, the English well and truly lost, and the Scots' king, Robert the Bruce, began to gain the upper hand in his Wars of Independence. The English boasted 3000 men while the Scots had only 600, but thanks to a clever system of ditch digging and using the natural bogs to his advantage, Robert forced Pembroke to attack on a narrow front. This cost the English the benefit of numbers and hampered the knights’ terrifying charge, 100 of whom were dead by the battle’s end, alongside many infantry. If he was indeed present, then Grandfather William would have been pleased to escape alive.

Life’s defeats, routs, disappointments and retreats are deeply unpleasant but often make us stronger. The future Commissioner of Array would have been a smarter tactician for having been defeated before that great, brooding rock in Ayrshire. Pain is more eloquent than pleasure, and injury more persuasive than comfort. If Loudoun made my ancestor a greater warrior (and I cannot be certain that it did), we can be surer that God perfects our characters in the painful workshops of His providence.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Proverbs 27:6