Berwick-traktaten

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Berwick-traktaten var en avtale mellom England og Skottland i 1354 som satte betingelsene for å løslate den skotske kongen fra fangenskap.

Etter at kong David II av Skottland ble tatt til fange ved slaget ved Neville's Cross den 14. oktober 1346. Deretter satt kongen 11 år i Tower of London mens Skottland ble styrt av hans stedsfortreder og nevø, Robert Stewart, den 7. High Stewart.

Den 3. oktober 1357 ble David II løslatt fra sitt fangenskap under Berwick-traktaten som avtalte at skottene måtte betale den umulige summen av 100 000 merker for ham (1 merke var 2/3 av et engelsk pund) i løpet av de neste ti årene:

[rediger] Avtalen

That is to say for one hundred thousand merks sterling to be paid during the ten years next following the making of this agreement by these installments, that is to say the ten thousand merks fo the first payment at the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist next to come (24 June), and other ten thousand merks on the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist thereafter next following, and so from year to year then thousand merks on the same Feast until the said sum of one hundred thousand merks shall have been full paid...

A truce shall be confirmed and observed by sufficient surety of letters and others between the king of England and all his good people in England and in Scotland, and also the Isle of Man, and the king of Scotland and all the other people of Scotland and their adherents, by land and by sea, in all parts and places, without fraud or guild, until the said sum shall have been fully paid. And the Edward Balliol and John of the Isles shall be included in the said truce...

In case of default of payment at any of the said terms, the said king of Scotland, without other request of delay, shall come to England and give himself up as a prisoner of the king of England in the castle of Newcastle on Tyne within the three weeks next following the said term at which payment is in default, to remain a prisoner until payment of the arrears be made.