Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Bannockburn

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Sometime late in 1306, Robert the Bruce landed on Rathin Island, a tiny speck of land off the Irish coast. Barren and windswept, the island was as bleak as his political prospects. A fugitive in his own land, a declared traitor to the king of England, he recently had been defeated in battle and ousted from a precarious throne.

Only a few months before, on March 25, he had been crowned King Robert I of Scotland, at that northern realm’s traditional place of coronation, Scone. Unfortunately for him, that event sparked the ire of King Edward I of England. Called ‘Longshanks’ for his exceptional stature, Edward, one of the mightiest monarchs of the Middle Ages, was bent on making Scotland an appendage of England. He had spent more than eight years trying to crush the last Scot who opposed that plan — finally seeing Sir William Wallace drawn and quartered in London on August 23, 1305 — and he was not about to let another upstart Scottish knight get in his way now.

Edward invaded Scotland, smashed all resistance and executed as many of Bruce’s followers as he could find, including two of Robert’s own brothers. And Bruce was double damned, having been excommunicated by Pope Clement V for the sacrilege of killing a political rival, John Comyn the Red, on the consecrated ground of Greyfriars Church on February 10, 1306. With church and state united against him, Bruce seemed a poor standard-bearer for Scottish independence.

Against all logic, though, Bruce began a single-minded campaign to win back his throne. And his seemingly quixotic quest appealed to a nascent Scots nationalism. After harsh English rule won many converts to his cause, Bruce and his armed bands began a series of guerrilla actions against the occupying English.

Edward I, warrior and lawgiver, could defeat every enemy but time. In 1307 he was old and ailing, having attained the then advanced age of 68. The ‘Leopard of England’ still had sharp claws — his feudal hosts — but he lacked the strength to use them effectively, as of yore.

On July 7, 1307, Edward died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, Cumberland, while en route to yet another Scottish campaign. His mind and will strong to the end, he had ordered that after his death his bones should be carried in front of his troops, as a kind of talisman to victory, while his heart be buried in the Holy Land. His wishes were not obeyed — he was buried at Westminster Abbey in a plain black marble tomb, later marked with the Latin words, Scottorum malleus (’Hammer of the Scots’) and Pactum serva (’Keep troth’).

Edward Longshanks’ son and successor, Edward II, inherited little from his royal sire save his name and great height. The new king was a dilettante and suspected homosexual, more interested in revels and male favorites than in the arts of government. Among his first acts after being crowned was to invite Piers Gaveston, an exiled Gascon knight suspected of being his lover, back to England. Although he was not a coward, Edward II had no stomach for the martial arts or active campaigning — a fatal flaw for a monarch in the hard-fighting Middle Ages. Edward’s favorite pastimes were fancy clothes and such odd hobbies as digging ditches. Even so, if would fall to the new king to take over where his formidable father had left matters undone — as in the case of a restive Scotland.

A series of English-held castles dominated Scotland, each fortress a link in the chain that held the country captive — Edinburgh, Berwich, Perth, Stirling, Linlithgow and a host of smaller strongholds. The rebellious Bruce knew he must take those castles, but their strength posed a problem. The accepted method of seizing castles was the siege, but Bruce lacked the resources for such costly affairs. Siege engines were expensive, sophisticated machines and required skilled men to operate them. Penurious but proud, Bruce was forced to rely on his own native intelligence for an alternative solution.

Partly through Bruce’s use of the blockade and partly through unorthodox tactics such as stealth and surprise, the English castles began to fall like ripe fruit. King Robert personally directed a blockade of Perth for six weeks, then broke camp and made a great show of retreating, with the jeering catcalls of the castle’s garrison ringing in his ears. On the dark night of January 7, 1313, however, Bruce stole back with a large force of knights and men-at-arms. In a scenario worthy of a Walter Scott novel, the fully armored Scottish king lowered himself into Perth’s moat, spear in one hand, ladder in the other. The nearly freezing water almost reached to his neck, but Bruce waded on until, by sheer grit and determination, he reached the far bank and managed to secure his latter against Perth’s brooding walls. Following his example, other Scots waded the moat and hooked ladders against the battlements. Robert and his men were over the walls in a twinkling, well before the slumbering garrison knew what was afoot. By sunrise, Perth was in Scottish hands.

Inspired by their leader, Bruce’s followers used trickery of their own to eliminate enemy fortresses with astonishing results. Linlithgow was taken when a hay cart was jammed against a portcullis gate to prevent it from lowering. Then, in an even stranger incident more than a year later, James Douglas’ men donned cowhides and crawling on all fours, pretended to be cattle roaming around Roxburgh Castle at night. When they came close enough, they threw grapnelled scaling ladders over the battlements and overpowered the startled English garrison.

By the summer of 1313, the only castle of any real consequence still in English hands was Stirling. With its lofty towers perched on a craggy hill, that fortress seemed impregnable, yet its strategic position made it the key to Scotland. Edward Bruce, the king’s last surviving sibling, invested the castle, but to no avail.

Restless and bored with the static nature of siege warfare, Edward struck a deal with the constable of Stirling, Sir Philip Mowbray. A year-long truce would be declared. The Scots would not try to take Stirling, but if the king of England did not relieve it by midsummer of 1314 — June 24, which was also the day of the Feast of St. John the Baptist — the garrison must surrender.

King Robert was not at all pleased when he learned of his brother’s negotiations. Edward II might be indolent, but if he failed to respond to this challenge, power could be snatched form his feeble hands. The English would try to relieve Stirling with all the might they could muster.

The Bruce’s concerns proved all too accurate. The king of England issued a royal writ ordering an army to gather at Newcastle. Nearly 100 barons were summoned, to be accompanied by all the men-at-arms and retainers they could muster.

It was a measure of his growing unpopularity that Edward had to issue two more such summons — each more urgent than the last — before his tardy nobility answered his call. Although they despised their monarch, a number of great feudal magnates finally presented themselves. After all, fighting was their business and Scots-baiting their stock in trade. The English army grew into a mighty host, which contemporary chroniclers put at 100,000, but was probably more like 25,000. There might have been thousands more, but those were peasant conscripts of little use in a pitched battle.

When all had assembled, the English headed north along dust-choked roads toward Scotland. The knights and feudal barons took the van, perhaps two or three thousand mounted warriors. Though it is not recorded, the knights probably rode palfreys on their journey, smaller than the huge, muscular destriers they used in battle. Their warhorses were bred to carry an armored man into battle and provide the brute force necessary to smash an enemy line, but they were not noted for their comfortable ride.After the mounted noblemen came the infantry, including Welsh and English bowmen. Their weapons, reputedly of Welsh origin, had been readily and widely adopted by their English overlords. Rumor had it that a skilled bowman could keep five arrows airborne at once, so rapid was his rate of fire.

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Tags: Ancient-Medieval, Historical Conflicts

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