John de Coupland

John de Coupland captured David II in the aftermath of the Battle of Neville's Cross on 16 October 1346.

Sources state that David had been seriously wounded, struck by two arrows in the head, but attempted to fight off Coupland and managed to knock out two of his teeth.

The King recognized that Coupland's deed outweighed his trespass and told him to return to England and give David to the Queen.

He continued in the King's service after the capture of David II and from 1347 to his death, was the Constable of Roxburgh Castle and Sheriff of Roxburghshire.

[1] Records also indicate that after his good fortune with the capture of David, John and his wife Joan became major landowners in Northern England along the Scottish border.

This resulted in more fines payable to the King and a pardon as well, except for those who committed treason or were responsible for the death of John de Coupland.

Michael A. Penman writes that, Coupland's infamous and ruthless pursuit of land, revenues and power in northern England betrayed a character driven by self-interest, a hard-man whom the English crown had been forced to replace in office periodically in the face of complaints about his role as escheator.

[3] As "John Copland" he appears in the Elizabethan play Edward III, in which he gives a series of chivalric speeches defending his honour.