The year 1316 was a bleak one for anyone who lived in the North of England. King Edward II had been humiliated at Bannockburn two years before, and appeared to be powerless against his cousin and political adversary, Thomas earl of Lancaster. Both men ignored the Northern counties of England as they continued their power struggle, leaving Robert Bruce a free hand to raid as widely and often as he wished.Only one man offered any hope to the beleaguered Northerners. Andrew de Harcla had led the defence of Carlisle the previous year, proving that the Scots were not invincible, but he had been betrayed by his own enemies in Cumberland, and was now incarcerated in a Scottish dungeon. But after one particularly devastating Scottish raid, Edward II managed to ransom Andrew, and re-instated him as commander of Carlisle. But it left Andrew with an almost impossible task, to safeguard not just Carlisle but the whole of the Cumberland border, but with no money or resources to do so. He had to rely on his wits, initiative and inventiveness at first, helped both by comrades who had fought alongside him in the siege of Carlisle and the wise advice of his friend and confessor, Simon Calder the prior of St Cuthberts. And from those blackest of days he evolved new ways to counter the Scots and once again provide the people of the Northern counties with some form of hope for a better future.