King Edward II had infuriated his barons by his refusal to consult with them or take their advice and instead was influenced by his coterie of hangers on such as Gaveston and Despenser. Revolt and open defiance of his rule was spreading throughout the old nobility and was to result in a crushing English defeat at the hands of the Scots.
Taking advantage of the unrest, Robert the Bruce of Scotland had not been idle and was gradually retaking the castles captured and garrisoned by Edward’s father and by 1313 only Stirling castle remained in English hands. The Scots besiegers were led by Edward, the brother of Robert Bruce.
Edward Bruce arrived at a compromise with the English governor Sir Phillip Mowbray and agreed to a year’s truce on condition that if the castle was not relieved by 24th June 1314, it would surrender.
Robert Bruce was furious with this arrangement, he realized that the English king would not let strategic Stirling drift into Scottish hands and that he would have to face an invasion and a pitched battle. Edward assembled an army which included over 1,000 heavily armed knights and more than 20,000 infantry and archers and marched north, ordering these forces to muster at Berwick on 10th June. On 12th June, the king continued northwards together with the Earls of Pembroke, Hereford and Gloucester.
It is recorded that behind his army trundled 110 supply wagons and 106 four horse carts. The English arrived in Edinburgh on 21st June and replenished their supplies with provisions unloaded from the fleet and moved on to Falkirk by 22nd June. Meanwhile, the Scottish army of around 500 cavalry and possibly as many as 10,000 infantry camped at Torwood and then moved on to a wooded plateau fronted by the marshy Bannockburn just two miles from Stirling and prepared for a defensive battle.
This English army was not the cohesive disciplined force of Edward I. The young king lacked the ruthless control of his father and there was much squabbling over precedence between the Earls. Edward was then contacted by Mowbray the keeper of Stirling castle, who asked for a force to be sent to relieve him. Edward’s plan was to split his forces and send Hereford and Gloucester straight up the Stirling Road and drive straight at the Scottish force while another force of 500 knights led by Sir Robert Clifford and Sir Henry Beaumont were sent up a bridle path, hidden from the Scots that led to Stirling.
Unfortunately they were spotted and Bruce sent Randolph, Earl of Moray and his spearmen to intercept them. Hereford and Gloucester meanwhile, moved off still at loggerheads, made worse by the sight of the foppish Henry de Bohun, a nephew of Hereford’s, prancing in all his finery 50 yards in front of the army. This young knight saw another horseman some way ahead who, upon closer inspection, rode “a grey palfrey, little and joly”and wore a gold circlet on his helm. This rider was Bruce himself checking on his troops hidden in the woods and seeing de Bohun bearing down on him, lance at the ready and not wishing to retreat from a challenge in full view of his troops, Bruce waited his moment and as de Bohun charged close, swerved his smaller more nimble horse and swung at his opponent with his battleaxe,” cleaving de Bohun to the brisket”.
The second English force under Clifford and Beaumont had ridden to the east, crossing the Bannock Burn lower down to reach the bridle path and outflanking the Scots. They then sighted the Scottish infantry under the Earl of Moray advancing on them from the woods. An argument broke out between Clifford and Beaumont as to whether they should delay attacking the Scots until more of them were in the open .The Yorkshire knight Sir Thomas Gray disagreed strongly and urged that the attack be made before the Scots could form up behind their pikes in the schiltron formation.
Beaumont angrily accused Gray of cowardice and without another word, Gray charged the Scottish line which by now had formed their squares and perished on the enemy spears, together with his friend Sir William Deyncort who had bravely tried to rescue him. The English, secure in their military superiority, charged the Scots who formed into the defensive schiltron hedgehog with their 15 foot spears pointing outwards. The schiltrons held and the English knights died on the points of their spears. Seeing the confusion, the Scots did the unthinkable and charged the cavalry and sent the remainder retreating back to the main force, leaving more than 100 dead on the field.
Edward decided that a frontal assault was too risky and moved his forces across the Burn to camp for the night, breaking up the nearby Bannockburn village and using doors and thatch to cover the “evil deep wet marsh”.
Meanwhile Bruce had turned his forces to face the new English position, dividing the troops into four divisions under Douglas, Moray, Edward Bruce and Bruce himself. Bruce knighted some of the squires in his force and the Abbot of Inchaffray gave the soldiers absolution as they muttered the Pater Noster. Edward, on seeing the Scots kneeling, joked that they were begging for mercy, but was reminded that, though they prayed, it was not to him. Bruce then gave the order to advance.
The English had also completed their formations, the front consisting of nine cavalry squadrons of about 250 men each, with the infantry massed behind. A further squadron, the vanguard, was stationed on the English right. Gloucester and Hereford continued to argue, this time about who should command the vanguard and the king, silencing them accused Gloucester of cowardice. Gloucester rode back to gather his troops and without waiting to don his surcoat, flew at the Scottish lines and died on the spear points of the schiltrons.
The four Scots divisions moved closer together as they neared the English line and this was the signal for the English cavalry to hurl themselves at the oncoming Scots. The chronicler of Lanercost records “The two hosts came together and the great steeds of the knights dashed into the Scottish pikes as into a thick wood, there arose a great noise from rending lances and dying horses, and they stood locked together”. Behind this clash the English infantry stood idle, some archers made an effort to shoot on a low trajectory over the heads of their own cavalry, but, as one chronicler reported “they hit some few Scots in the breast, but struck many more Englishman in the back”. Other archers rushed to the side and began to shoot into the Scottish flank so well that Bruce feared that they could turn the battle. He ordered his cavalry to scatter the archers who, without spearman to protect them, retreated.
The Scots, sensing victory, pressed their attack but the battle hardened English gave blow for blow until they sighted more troops appear on the ridge behind Bruce. Fearing that these were reinforcements, the English suddenly lost their nerve. These reinforcements were in fact the sutlers and grooms from Bruce’s baggage train who had come closer to observe the battle. Edwards’s personal guard fought their way through the melee to guide the king to safety at Stirling castle.
As in all battles of the time, once an army broke it was at the mercy of the enemy and the Scots pursued their foes mercilessly until darkness and weariness ended the slaughter. It was said that so great was the spilling of blood that pools of it stood all around, bodies lay half submerged in the mud around the burn and bridges formed of dead bodies stretched across the stream. The total English casualties are unclear, but reckoned to be about 700 cavalry and between 4,000 and 11,000 infantry, while records show that 22 barons and 68 knights surrendered to the Scots. It is thought that about 4,000 Scottish spearmen were killed, but only two Scottish knights were recorded as casualties.
King Edward and his party reached Stirling castle, but Mowbray, with the chivalry of the time, refused him entry stating that as the Scots had kept to their word regarding the siege, Edward’s defeat meant that the castle had not been relieved and Mowbray must therefore keep his word also. The king, dispirited, moved on to Dunbar and eventually took ship for England. The remainder of his army also headed for Stirling and again Mowbray refused admission to all but a few favoured knights, the remainder camped outside the walls and were again attacked by the victorious Scots with many English being slaughtered.
Bruce was now undisputed leader in Scotland and had won the crown by right of conquest. He wasted no time in starting a pitiless devastation of the north of England, wreaking his vengeance for all the sufferings of his people at the hands of the English.
Edward’s defeat made him more dependant on his barons than ever, but the barons jockeying for power and influence, were divided. Edward’s uncle, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, a great power in the land but with little ability, led a faction nominally loyal to the king but was suspected of making a secret understanding with Bruce.
Described in his own time as “immoral, quarrelsome and vindictive” and with a repulsive nature” Hereford was a great landowner, much favoured by Edward I and had become jealous at his perceived reduced influence under the new king. A counterforce arose under the leadership of Aymer Valence, the Earl of Pembroke, who, in his determination to frustrate Lancaster, backed the royal camp. With these two camps in open disagreement, Edward was to regain some little portion of his authority,
Lancaster became increasingly distanced from the king, ruling his lands like an independent state and in the words of McKisack, “the supreme example of an over mighty subject”. The weakness of Edward can be seen by the treaty contracted between him and Lancaster at Leake in 1318, resulting among other things in the banishment of a number of Lancaster’s enemies and paving the way for the rise of the Despenser family.
In 1322 Lancaster raised a rebellion, but did not receive huge support as he lacked the charisma or personality to achieve his aims and had raised only some 3,000 troops when he met with the king’s forces at Burton on Trent. Greatly outnumbered, he retreated northwards. Meanwhile, the king’s Warden of Carlisle Sir Andrew de Harcla had summoned “under heavy penalty, knights, esquires and other men of the border region” and with a force of some 4,000 men, marched south to block Lancaster’s retreat at Boroughbridge. When Lancaster reached Boroughbridge on March 16th 1322, he found the royal force deployed by the River Ure, with some knights and pikemen stationed on a bridge and more pikemen arrayed in schiltron guarding the ford from attack by cavalry.
Lancaster ordered an attack on the bridge to be led by his son in law, Roger de Clifford and the Earl of Hereford, a man much admired for his physical strength and the two carved their way on to the bridge as a rain of arrows were showered on them. Things were going well until “a worthless creature” in the manner adopted many years before at Harold’s battle at Stamford Bridge, “lurking under the bridge, and fiercely with spear smote the brave knight in the fundament so that his bowels came out there”. Sir Roger de Clifford was then badly wounded by the arrow storm and the remaining knights could make no headway.
The remainder of Lancaster’s forces were faring no better at the ford, unable to cross in force due to the royal archers. Lancaster sent a message to de Harcla requesting an armistice till morning, when he would either give battle or surrender. De Harcla was in no mood for soft words, and bellowed across the water “Yield Traitor, Yield”. Lancaster knew that the charge of treason hung over him and now knew that he could expect no quarter, he replied “Nay, traitors we are none, and we will never yield while our lives last”. Darkness was now falling and the overnight truce was accepted.
With hundreds already dead, Lancaster’s men knew that they stood little chance of victory, many crept away under cover of darkness and by dawn Lancaster could see that he did not have sufficient forces to continue. Many discarded their armour and fine clothes, donning rags to look like peasants and tried to escape, but it was said that “not one single well known man among them escaped”. Lancaster was found in a nearby chapel, on his knees praying, he was grabbed, stripped of his armour and dressed in the clothes of his squire and taken to prison at York.
Throughout this period the Scots had not been idle, becoming ever bolder and moving further south with their raiding. So destructive were these raids that in 1318, Pope John XX11 excommunicated Bruce and placed an Interdict on Scotland. In 1320 the Scottish barons and prelates drafted the Declaration of Arbroath to Pope John whose recognition they needed to declare an independent Scotland. The Declaration stated that “For so long as one hundred men remain alive we will never, in any way, be bound beneath the yoke of English domination, for it is not for glory, riches or honours that we fight, but for freedom alone”.
The Declaration fell on deaf ears however and it was not until the Treaty of Northampton in 1328 that the Pope lifted the Interdict. Some captured spies revealed to Edward a plan for the Scots to attack York and abduct Queen Isabella. By the time the king learned of this plot, the Scots were already at Myton, only 13 miles from York forcing the local Mayor and Bishops to raise what forces they could to from hastily co-opted “laymen, clerks and men of religion” oppose the Scots.
This rag tag army moved untidily, arriving at Myton on 20th September 1319. The Scots were delighted at the sight of such a shambles of a force sent against them and were mainly concerned that the English would scatter before they could be brought to battle. To hide their strength, the Scots fired a number of haystacks to obscure the English view of their opponents. Puzzled and unnerved by these events, the English moved through the smoke only to come face to face with the Scots, who, uttering bloodthirsty shouts charged.
This was too much for the poorly armed and untrained English who began to flee, but had failed to secure their line of retreat over the River Swale. Scottish hobelars galloped to cut of the only escape route over a bridge and many of the English (reckoned at 1,000) drowned trying to swim the river. The slaughter continued till dark with a reputed death toll of a further 3,000 with minimal losses to the Scots.
The defeat is described in The Brut Chronicle, written some hundred years after the battle and notes, “Alas! what sorrow, for the English husbandmen that knew nothing of war”, and goes on, “And when the great host had met, the Englishmen almost all were slain”.
This disaster was a further blow to Edward’s standing and resulted in raising the siege of Berwick and eventually agreeing to a two year truce. Edward paid lip service to the truce but allowed privateers to attack Flemish vessels trading with Scotland. The privateers would steal the cargo and kill any Scots found on board and matters worsened when privateers captured the Pelarym carrying a cargo worth £2,000 and all the Scots on board, including women, children and pilgrims were massacred. Bruce demanded justice and when his demands were ignored, he reopened negotiations with France, reforging the Auld Alliance at a meeting at Corbeil on 26th April 1326 and agreeing mutual military support to each other against the English enemy.
- Secret Weapons of Nazi Germany - November 30, 2020
- The Fall of Singapore - November 11, 2020
- The Coming of the Vikings - January 23, 2014