Siege of Caerlaverock (poem)
Anglo-Norman poem composed soon after July 1300
The Siege of Caerlaverock (Le Siege de Karlaverok or Song of Caerlaverock) is a work written in Old French about the siege of Caerlaverock Castle in 1300 by King Edward I during the First War of Scottish Independence. The poem of 956 lines survives in a manuscript now held in the British Library in London. It was used by Michael Prestwich to characterise the army of Edward I. It pays great attention to heraldry (being in large part a roll of arms in verse), and may have been written by a herald.
The poem was edited and translated into modern English by Nicholas Harris Nicolas in 1828. An improved edition and translation was published by Thomas Wright in 1864. A verse translation was published by C. W. Scott-Giles in 1960, with heraldic illustrations by Royman Browne: this is described by the translator as "somewhat condensed", and as "an attempt to capture the spirit of the rime, not to translate it word for word".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Siege of Caerlaverock (poem)” as anglo-Norman poem composed soon after July 1300. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as anglo-Norman poem composed soon after July 1300. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q123240456. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1300, 1828, 1864 and 1960.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Siege of Caerlaverock (poem)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.