THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN. JUNE 24,1314

"You have bled with Wallace, now bleed with me". --Robert the Bruce




BATTLE LOCATION


There has long been confusion as to the exact location of the battle (see map). This is probably due to the fact that much of the site is now covered with the present village of Bannockburn, where one would find it hard to envision a midevil battle. For this reason, historian have preferred to put the site on the flat land to the north, bordering the River Forth. In the present day this idea would seem acceptable as the site is well drained agricultural land, perfect conditiions for battle. One must remember though, that in the 14th century it would have been the marshy wetlands of the River Forth flood plain, across which not even an incompetant fool like Edward II would choose to do battle. For this reason, and through the interpretaion of records, it is generally agreed that the battle site lay to the north of the Bannockburn gorge on relatively flat land between the marshland and Gillies Hill



BANNOCKBURN BATTLE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
Seige of Stirling and the pact with Mobray

In the year 1314, after 18 years of war, Scotland north of the Forth was free. Stirling, one of the few castles still held by the English lay under Scottish seige. Edward Bruce, the King's brother lacking in seige equipment remained there for many months in the hope of starving the English out. Sometime in the spring though, Edward, in the chivalry of time, made a pact with the castle's governor, Sir Philip Mowbray. It was agreed that if an English releiving force had not arrived by midsummer, the castle would be surrendered to the Scots. Robert, on hearing of this was furious with his brother. So far he had relied entirely on guerilla tactics to oust the English, and undoubtedly Edward II would send a force north, which would mean a pitched battle if Stirling was to be saved.

Edward II, on hearing this news, was only to happy to oblige, deciding he could finish his father's work in one huge thrust. He amassed an army of some 40,000 men with the intention of crushing the Scots once and for all.

His army was an enormous one, even by medievil standards. It included 2,500 heavy cavalry, 2,000 Welsh bowman and 500 light infantry, with the rest consisting of highly trained infantry. Edward felt openly confident that the might of his powerful army would easily overwhelm the Scots, who only numbered 13,000. Following this army, Edward has a huge train of equipment and supplies, which included weaponry, seige engines, foods, wines, and the riches of the Knights and Barons.

Edward had his army gather at Berwich-upon-Tweed. From there, some two weeks before the deadline, the crossed the border at Coldstream, and marched north to Stirling.


Randolph's encounter with Beaumont and Clifford

On the 23rd of June, 1314, the army of Edward II arrived at Bannockburn. As Robert the Bruce had anticipated, they had come by the old Roman road, so he had set his positions accordingly, his divisions lining the road under the cover of the forest. For him to win he would need to fight the battle on his terms, which meant confining the bulk of the English army to a gap to small for them to fight at full force. He hoped then that his schiltroms (men carrying 15ft spikes) could repel the thrust of the English, keeping his lines unbroken.

For the battle site, Robert had chosen a narrow gap between the woods surrounding the Bannockburn village and those on Gillies Hill,near where the road meets the Bannock Burn. Within the woods he blocked all paths with branches and dug pits which he covered with sticks, anti-cavalry traps intended to counter an outflanking movement. Then with his men in position he waited.

On the arrival of the English, Stirling Governor, Sir Philip Mowbray rode out to meet Edward. He pleaded that a force should be dispatched to releive the castles garrisons, to which Edward agreed, giving him 500 cavalry.

Mowbray knew the Scots positions, would make using the road impossible, so he led the force, under Sir Clifford and Sir Beaumont along a narrow bridle path leading from the village to the castle. Within the gorge, which the path followed, the English Knight's were well hidden from the Scottish positions. Luckily, just before they had managed to pass, Robert spotted them and immediately dispatched Randolph to intercept. Randolph quickly gathered his men and charged toward the English, blocking their path. He knew that they would have no option but to fight, as the English were 500 horse, and would be confident of breaking the Scots lines. So, as the English gathered for the charge, withing the Scots schiltrom spears were grounded and muscles strained in preperation for their impact. The first wave of cavalry hit the Scots with tremendous force. Their lines were sure though and many English Knights crashed to their deaths on the wall of spikes. The cavalry retreated, gathered and charged again, but they still could not break through. This continued for some time, each charge weakening as more knights fell, their own dead blocking their path.

Meanwhile, James Douglas, concerned for Randolph's men persuaded Robert to let him take a small division of reinforcements down to the battle. On the arrival though he was greeted by a surprise, it was not the Scots who were failing, but the English, who had given up charging and had now resorted to throwing their hand weapons at the Scots, though to little affect. So Douglas, seeing it was Randolph's fight and almost won, held his men and watched as his friend finshed the English himself. The English cavalry began again to retreat, and gathered again a small distance from the Scots schiltrom. Suddenly the Scots, confident now of victory, did something before unheard of...they charged the cavalry. For the English Knights this was the last straw. Tired and disoriented, they now found themselves swarmed by the Scottish infantry, and in a blind panic began to scatter. Of the 500 English Knights who set out to Stirling, only about 400 struggled back to the camp. As for Scots losses, Randolph reported 6. This victory, though small in the fact they were still outnumbered 3 to 1 , elated the Scots. Although they knew the worst maybe still to come, their victory would not only demoralize the English, but prove undoubtedly that a well diciplined schiltrom was capable or repelling heavy cavalry. James and Randolph returned, taking up their positions again within the Scots lines. On their arrival however, they were to be greeted with the news that Randolph's men were not the only ones to have seen some action. There had also been some skirmishing on the battle front, where the Bruce's division were in position. These skirmishes had been sparked by an incident which had undoubtedly been the tensest moment of the entire campaign for the Bruce's men, but with which any Scot with a knowledge of the King remembers with pride.

Encounter of Bruce and De Bohun

The main bulk of the English van had crossed the Bannock Burn, and taken up position facing The Bruce's division. A younger English Knight, one Henry De Bohun, spotted a lone figure riding back and forth along the Scots lines. Moving closer, he noticed that the man carried no crest upon his helmet, but a crown. Seeing that it was none other than King Robert himself, De Bohun realized in his quest for glory, that he could end the battle in one go. Moving from the English lines, De Bohun, fully armoured and riding a heavy cavalry horse urged his beast to a gallop, and lowerering his lance he aimed straight for the King. Robert armed on with a battle axe and on a smaller horse, held his ground however until the last second. Just before De Bohun hit him, Robert quickly moved his horse aside and in one blow split open the young knight with his battle axe. The Scots gave a sigh of releif, many shouting about how senseless Robert had been endangering not only his life, but the future of their cause. The King however only replied with a complaint to the fact that he has broken the shaft of his favorite axe, which rather annoyed him. This incident could have had horrific consequences if The Bruce had been killed. It would have left the Scots both leaderless and Knightless on the eve of battle, probaly putting an end to their long struggle. Luckily Robert remained entirely unscathed to the great releif of his men. Later that night a young Scottish Knight, deserting the English side, rode into Roberts camp and asked to speak to the King, telling him he wanted to switch allegence. The King, always happy with new recruits, especially from his enemy, accepted and let the man pay homage. With him the knight also brought news, the English apparently were very demoralized by the events of the day and were unhappy with young King Edwards command. For Robert, this was the final factor in his decision. He spend the evening discussing the matter with each division in turn, and asked their opinions. For him, unlike many commanders of his time, the thoughts of his men were as important as his own. And to the main question, would they follow him and fight, their answer was a resounding "YES".

Main Battle...June 24,1314

At first light the Scots were already in position. Looking down towards the carse they could see the English hurredly preparing for battle, with the first of their cavalry making it's way across the gorge. Robert gave on final address to his troops before they were given their church blessing. Edward, watching the Scots kneeling in prayer, laughed aloud beleiving they begged for his mercy. A wiser man then told him; yes, they did beg, but not to him.
Soon the main bulk of the English van had crossed the gorge and formed up in preperation for the charge. Robert then ordered his troops to move out from the trees, and gathered into their schiltroms, they took up position to face the enslaught. Within the English cavalry there was confusion however, with two commanders arguing over who was to lead the charge. One called for an advance and rode forward, but was only followed by a few, the rest of the cavalry, momentarily confused, struggled to follow.
The impact as the English hit the schiltorms was tremendous, but the Scots held. Many of the English Knights, charging unorganized, were killed outright on the Scottish spikes, others fell or were dragged from their horses to be crushed by their own men, or killed by the Scots. The lack of English organisation, was now becoming horribly apparent to them. Most of their archers were now across the gorge in a panic someone had given the order to fire. Unfortunately for them, not only were they hitting the Scots, but much of their own retreating cavalry. The archers were bad news for the Scots who no longer had the cover of the trees, but Robert had planned for this. As soon as he gave the signal, Keith, the Marischal of Scotland, commanding some 500 mounted infantry charged out of the woods and routed the archers from the field. With the cavalry retreating, and the archers scattered, there was huge confusion amongst the English ranks. The Scots seeing this lifted their spikes and slowly advanced in perfect formation, driving their struggling enemy back towards to gorge. What remained of the English cavalry continued to retreat and charge, each time being beaten back by a wall of Scottish spikes. With the Scots forcing those who had reached the field further and further back towards the gorge, and at the same time the main bulk of the English infantry still trying to cross, those who were retreating were blocking those advancing. The English armys fate was sealed. The schiltroms pressed on, pushing more and more men into the horrific crush the gorge had become. Horses and men tumbled down the sides tripping over each other until as one witness described it, "bodies lay so thick a man could cross the burn dry-shod". Soon almost all of the English not even given a chance to fight, were scattering. Many drowned as they tried to cross the Forth, others were killed or crushed by their own companions in a mad race to escape. Those still left fighting on the battlefield, were few and Robert, seeing that victory was theirs gave the order to break up and give chase. Sir James Douglas, spotting the escape of Edward was given permission by Robert to follow. The young King quickly reached the gates of Stirling but no matter now much he pleaded, the governor, Sir Philip Mowbray, refused to let him in. Mowbray argued that he must hold his part of the pact as the Scots had been true to theirs. With Douglas on his tail, Edward has little time to argue, so gave up and set of south. After many days of hard riding, made hard by Douglas happily picking off any stragglers of the Kings party, he eventually made it Dunbar Castle. From there a ship took the English King, thourougly beaten and humiliated back to England. For the Scots, the battle was undeniably one of the greatest in history. Their King who for 18 years had fought for a cause once thought impossible, had led them to victory. Edward may have had the military might of all England behind him, but in the end in was no match for an army of freedom fighters distinctly lacking in blue blood.