The Battle of Boroughmuir was fought on 30 July 1335 between Guy, Count of Namur, a cousin of Queen Philippa of England, and John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray and Guardian of Scotland.
Namur was on his way to join Edward III on his invasion of Scotland, when he was intercepted on the common grazing ground to the south of Edinburgh – the Borough Muir.
In 1335 King Edward decided to make one great effort on behalf of his hapless and unlucky protégé, coming to Scotland himself at the head of an army, the largest to enter the country since his father came to Edinburgh in 1322.
Edward marched through Nithsdale, bypassing Loch Doon castle, still held for King David, and overran Carrick, Cunninghame and Kyle.
In the Firth of Forth the abbey on the island of Inchcolm was destroyed by the English navy, which then proceeded north into the Tay, landing at Dundee, setting the town and its Franciscan friary alight.
The looting and destruction of the friary caused the English author of the Lanercost Chronicle to drop his usual patriotic cloak and express his disapproval in a brief flourish of Christian solidarity.
Namur's motives were firmly in the tradition of chivalry; to take part in a military adventure and to thereby enhance the chivalric reputation of himself and of the company of 100 or so men-at-arms who accompanied him.
His men gave a good account of themselves; but when Sir William Douglas arrived from the nearby Pentland Hills to reinforce Moray, they were in immediate danger of being overwhelmed.
Walter Bower, the chronicler, describes their predicament and the outcome; The men of Namur therefore, as they fled and fought bravely, kept together until they climbed the lamentable hill where there used to be the Maidens' castle of Edinburgh, which had been demolished earlier for fear of the English.
Tired out and distressed in this way, and with no hope of any help, they in the morning of the next day surrendered themselves to the Scots in capitulation, after an agreement had been reached about the ransom to be paid, provided that they could depart to their home country.