Robert The Bruce And The Battle Of Brannockburn
Bruce was born the first child and eldest son of Robert de Brus, 6th Lord of Annandale and Margaret of Carrick, daughter of Niall of Carrick and Margaret, daughter of Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland. From his mother he inherited the Gaelic Earldom of Carrick, and through his father a royal lineage that would give him a claim to the Scottish throne. Although his date of birth is definitely known, his place of birth is less certain: it was probably Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire, although Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire is another possibility.
The de Brus family held lands in the southwest of Scotland, their ancestry being Celtic, but their land grants and titles following in the wake of the Norman Conquest provided them with lands in both Scotland and England and thereby producing hard choices for the Bruces at the time of the Interregnum.
This struggle for control of Scotland began when Alexander III died in 1286, leaving as heir his grandchild Margaret, the infant daughter of the King of Norway. English King Edward, suggested that Margaret should marry his son, a desire consummated at a treaty signed and sealed at Birgham. Under the terms, Scotland was to remain a separate and independent kingdom. The original wording ran thus: "separate, distinct and free in itself without subjection from the realm of England". But Edward had other ideas and wished to keep English garrisons in a number of Scottish castles. On her way to Scotland the young Norwegian princess, also known as Maid of Norway, died at the age of eight, unable to enjoy the consignment of sweetmeats and raisins sent by the English King. The succession was now open to many claimants.
There were thirteen meetings from May to August 1291 at Berwick, where the claimants pleaded their claim before Edward in what came to be known as the 'Great Cause.' The claims of most of the competitors were rejected leaving Balliol, Bruce, Floris V, Count of Holland and John de Hastings of Abergavenny, 2nd Baron Hastings as the only men who could draw a direct descent back to David I.
King John Swore Homage To Edward I
On August 3, Edward asked both Balliol and Bruce to choose forty arbiters each, while he chose twenty-four, to decide the case. Balliol was chosen as king by a majority on November 17, 1292 and on November 30, he was crowned as King of Scots at Scone Abbey. On December 26, at Newcastle upon Tyne, King John swore homage to Edward I for the kingdom of Scotland. Edward soon made it clear that he regarded the country as his vassal state. Balliol, undermined by members of the Bruce faction, struggled to resist, and the Scots resented Edward's demands. In 1294, Edward summoned John Balliol to appear before him, and then ordered that he had until September 1, 1294 to provide Scottish troops and funds for his invasion of France.
On his return to Scotland, John held a meeting with his council and after a few days of heated debate plans were made to defy the orders of Edward I. A few weeks later a Scottish parliament was hastily convened and twelve members of a war council were selected to advise King John.
Emissaries were immediately dispatched to inform King Philip IV of France of the intentions of the English. They also negotiated a treaty by which the Scots would invade England if the English invaded France, and in return the French would support the Scots. It was not until 1295 that Edward I was even aware of the secret Franco-Scottish negotiations. In early October, Edward began to strengthen his northern defences against a possible invasion by a revitalised Scottish army.
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Edward was ready. He went north to receive homage from a great number of Scottish nobles, as their feudal lord, among them none other than 21 year-old Robert Bruce, who owned estates in England. Balliol immediately punished this treachery by seizing Bruce's lands in Scotland and giving them to his brother-in-law, John Comyn. Yet within a few months, the Scottish king was to disappear from the scene. His army was defeated by Edward at Dunbar in April 1296. Soon after at Brechin, on 10 July, he surrendered his Scottish throne to the English king, who took into his possession the stone of Scone, "the coronation stone" of the Scottish kings. At a parliament, which he summoned at Berwick, the English king received homage and the oath of fealty from over 2,000 Scots. He seemed secure in Scotland.
Robert Bruce And John Comyn The Joint Guardians.
The revolts which broke out in early 1297, led by William Wallace, Andrew de Moray and other Scottish nobles, forced Edward to send more forces to deal with the Scots, and although they managed to force the nobles to capitulate at Irvine, Wallace and de Moray's continuing campaigns eventually led to the first key Scottish victory, at Stirling Bridge. After his defeat at Falkirk, Wallace's military reputation was ruined, and he went into hiding, resigning the guardianship. Wallace was succeeded by Robert Bruce and John Comyn as joint guardians.
After the capture and execution of Wallace in 1305, Scotland seemed to have been finally conquered and the revolt calmed for a period. But in 1306, during a meeting between Bruce and Comyn at Greyfriar's Kirk in Dumfries, the two surviving claimants for the Scottish throne, Bruce quarrelled with and killed John Comyn. Comyn, it seems, had broken an agreement between the two, and informed King Edward of Bruce's plans to be king. Robert was outlawed by Edward I and excommunicated by Pope Clement V.
His reign did not begin well. He was defeated by the English at Methven in Perthshire; his wife, daughter and sisters were imprisoned; and three of his brothers were executed by the English. Robert fled westward to the Antrim coast.
While hiding in a damp cave, considering giving up his seemingly forlorn cause, Bruce is reported to have watched a small spider trying to spin a line across a seemingly impossibly wide gap. When it failed, it simply started all over again. Bruce took that as a sign to change his tactics. The idea of guerrilla warfare was born.
Bruce later came out of hiding in 1307. The Scots thronged to him, and he managed a resounding victory over Pembroke at Loudon Hill and, of greater import, the great enemy Edward I died. It was left to his son Edward II to try to carry out his father's dying wish. He was no man for the task.
Most Scottish Strongholds Were Taken
Faced by too many problems at home and completely lacking the ruthlessness and resourcefulness of his father, the young Edward had no wish to get embroiled in the affairs of Scotland. Bruce was left alone to consolidate his gains and to punish those who opposed him. A series of successful campaigns against the Comyns and their allies left him in control of most of Scotland. In 1309 he was recognized as sole ruler by the French King and despite his earlier excommunication, even received the support of the Scottish Church. Thus emboldened, in 1311 Bruce drove out the English garrisons in all their Scottish strongholds except Stirling and invaded northern England. Stirling, one of the few castles still held by the English lay under Scottish siege. Edward Bruce, the Kings brother, lacking in siege equipment had remained there for many months in the hope of starving the English out. Sometime in the spring though, Edward, in the chivalry of the time made a pact with the castles governor, one Sir Philip Mowbray. It was agreed that if an English relieving force had not arrived by midsummer's eve, the castle would be surrendered to the Sots. Robert, on hearing of this was furious with his brother. So far he had relied entirely on guerrilla 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 too happy to oblige, deciding he could finish his fathers work in one huge thrust. He amassed an army of some 40,000 men with the intention of crushing the rebellious Scots once and for all, so finally putting and end to the dispute.
Edward had his army muster at Berwick-upon-Tweed. From there, some two weeks before the deadline, they crossed the border at Coldstream, and marched north to Stirling.
The force that left Berwick-upon-Tweed on 17 June 1314 was impressive: it comprised between two and three thousand horse and seventeen thousand foot, at least two or three times the size of the army Bruce had been able to gather. Edward was accompanied by many of the seasoned campaigners of the Scottish wars, headed by the Earl of Pembroke, and veterans like Henry Beaumont, Robert Clifford and Marmaduke Tweng. The most irreconcilable of Bruce's Scottish enemies also came: Ingram de Umfraville, a former Guardian, and his kinsman the Earl of Angus, as well as others of the MacDoualls, MacCanns and Comyns. Most poignant of all came Sir John Comyn of Badenoch, the only son of the Red Comyn, who had grown up in England and was now returning to Scotland to avenge his father. This was a grand feudal army, one of the last of its kind to leave England in the Middle Ages. King Robert awaited its arrival just south of Stirling near the Bannock Burn.
Army Chiefly Composed of Infantry
Bruce's army, like William Wallace's before him, was chiefly composed of infantry armed with long spears. It was divided into four formations or schiltrons. (A schiltron or shiltrom is a group of men carrying 15 ft pikes, forming an impenetrable wall of spears). Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, commanded the vanguard, which was stationed about a mile to the south of Stirling, near the church of St. Ninians, while the king commanded the rearguard at the entrance to the New Park. His brother, Edward, led the third division. By hereditary right the fourth was headed by Walter Stewart, the son and heir of James the Stewart; but owing to his youth and inexperience the real command was in the hands of his cousin, James Douglas. Bruce also had a cavalry force of some 500 men-at-arms under Sir Robert Keith, which was to play a small but crucial role in the coming battle. The army might have numbered as many as 9,000 men in all, but probably more of the order of 6,000-7,000. It was gathered from the whole of Scotland: knights and nobles, freemen and tenants, town dwellers and traders: men who could afford the arms and armour required. Barbour tells us that King Robert turned away those who were not adequately equipped. For most such equipment would consist of a spear, a helmet, a thick padded jacket down to the knees and armoured gloves. It is highly-probable that a large proportion of the spearmen would have acquired more extensive armour given that the country had been at war for nearly twenty years. The balance of the army consisted of archers and men-at-arms. Each of these troop types was indistinguishable from their counterparts in France or England. Many of the Scottish men-at-arms (recruited from the nobility and the more prosperous burgesses) served on foot at Bannockburn.
As Robert 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 schiltrons could repel the thrust of the English cavalry, keeping his lines unbroken.
For the battle site, Robert had chosen the narrow gap between the woods surrounding the Bannockburn village and those on Gillies Hill, near where the road fords 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.
Since he landed in Ayrshire in 1307 King Robert had demonstrated time and again that he was willing to take risks; but these were always measured and calculated. He had no intention of chancing all on the outcome of a day, as William Wallace had at the Battle of Falkirk. Almost to the last minute he was prepared to withdraw. He was persuaded to remain by news of the poor state of morale in the English army.
Warning Of Dangers Were Ignored
Sir Philip Mowbray, the commander of Stirling Castle, who had observed Bruce's preparations on the road, appeared in Edward's camp early in the morning, and warned of the dangers of approaching the Scots directly through the New Park. Mowbray also pointed out that there was no need to force a battle, as Edward was now close enough to the castle to constitute a technical relief in terms of the agreement with Edward Bruce. He then pleaded that a force should be dispatched to relieve the castles garrison, 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 Knights 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 down towards the English, blocking their path. He knew that there would be no option but to fight, as the English were 500 horse, and would be confident of breaking the Scots lines. So, as the English cavalry gathered for the charge, within the Scots schiltron spears were grounded and muscles strained in preparation for their impact.
English Cavalry Retreated
The first wave of cavalry hit the Scots with tremendous force. Their lines held sure though and many English Knights crashed to their deaths on the wall of spikes. The cavalry retreated, gathered and charged again, but still they could not break through. This continued for some time, each charge weakening as more knights fell, their own dead blocking their path. Randolph's action was to be a sampler of the main contest the following day: unsupported by archers the horsemen were unable to make any impression on the Scots spearmen, precisely what happened in the opening stages of Falkirk. But the difference now was that the schiltrons had learnt mobility and how to keep formation at the same time. The English squadron was broken, some seeking refuge in the nearby castle, others fleeing back to the army. The captives included Sir Thomas Gray, whose son and namesake was later to base his account of the Battle of Bannockburn in his book, the Scalacronica, on his father's memories.
The English cavalry began again to retreat, and gathered a small distance from the Scots schiltron. Suddenly the Scots, confident now of victory, did something before unheard of in medieval warfare, they charged the cavalry. For the English knights this was the last straw. Tired and disorientated, 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 around 400 struggled back to the camp. As for Scots loses, Randolph reported only 6.
James and Randolph returned, taking up their positions again within the Scots lines. Now one of the most memorable episodes in Scottish history occured. Sir Henry de Bohun, nephew of the Earl of Hereford, was riding ahead of his companions when he caught sight of the Scottish king himself. De Bohun lowered his lance and began a charge that carried him out of history and into legend. King Robert was mounted on a light horse and armed only with a battle-axe. As de Bohun's great war-horse thundered towards him he stood his ground, watched with mounting anxiety by his own army. With the Englishman only feet away Bruce turned aside, stood in his stirrups and hit the knight so hard with his axe that he split his helmet and head in two. This small incident became in a larger sense a symbol of the war itself: the one side heavily armed but lacking agility; the other highly mobile and open to opportunity. Rebuked by his commanders for the enormous risk he had taken the king only expressed regret that he had broken the shaft of his axe. Cheered by this heroic encounter Bruce's division rushed forward to engage the main enemy force. For the English, so says the author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi, this was the beginning of their troubles. After some fierce fighting, in which the Earl of Gloucester was knocked off his horse, the knights of the vanguard were forced to retreat back to the Tor Wood. The Scots, eager to pursue, were held back by the command of the king.
News Of Defeat Spread
News of the day's defeats soon spread, causing considerable unease in the main body of the English army, still approaching Stirling from the south. The experience of the vanguard confirmed the intelligence brought to Edward by Mowbray: Bruce's preparations had made the direct approach to Stirling too hazardous. It was now late in the day. The army needed to rest and the horses had to be watered. Having failed in a frontal attack Edward made the worst decision of all: after consulting with his commanders he ordered the army to abandon the highway and cross the Bannock Burn to the east of the Scots in the New Park, onto the firm but restricted ground between the Bannock and Pelstream burns, an area known as the Carse of Balquhiderock, where he made ready to spend the night of 23/24 June. (A carse is an area which is wet in winter, but hard in summer, and most of it was used for growing wheat, oats and Barley). It was a prelude to disaster. The general mood that evening was so bad that King Edward ordered heralds to travel the camp, explaining that the vanguard had only been involved in some unimportant skirmishing, and that victory was assured.
Bruce had been heartened by the day's successes, but he was still on the verge of ordering a withdrawal westwards into the Lennox, where the terrain was too difficult for the English knights to follow, rather than take the risk of confronting the main enemy force, humbled but still immensely powerful. But Sir Alexander Seton, a Scots knight, an early supporter of King Robert, but who had defected to the English, now changed sides again and brought news of the despondency in Edward's camp to Bruce. This helped him change his mind: he would neither withdraw nor would he wait for the enemy; when dawn came he would take the offensive.
At first light the Scots were already in position. Looking down towards the carse they could see the English hurriedly preparing for battle, with the first of their cavalry making their way across the gorge. Robert gave one final address to his troops before they were given their church blessing. Edward, watching the Scots kneeling in prayer, was even more amazed. The chronicler John Barbour reported him as saying: "They kneel and ask for mercy." To this Ingram de Umfraville responded, "They ask for mercy but not from you. To God they pray. For them it's death or victory."
Perceiving the danger of the English position both Umfraville and Gilbert de la Clare, earl of Gloucester, urged the king to delay giving battle. Edward promptly turned on Gloucester and accused him of cowardice. Angered by this taunt Gloucester mounted his horse and led the vanguard on a ruinous charge against the leading Scots schiltron, commanded by Edward Bruce. Gloucester, the last of the de Clares, was killed in the forest of Scottish spears. He died in the company of John Comyn, Sir Robert Clifford and many other prominent knights. King Robert ordered Randolph and Douglas forward in support of his brother, while he held his own schiltron in reserve. The remaining English battalions were now so tightly confined that they had to bunch together in a single mass, with the infantry impotently trapped behind the archers. The very size and strength of the great army was beginning to work against it. If Edward had been a bad king he was now showing himself a worse general. He must have heard his father talk of his triumph at Falkirk, but the archers who had enabled the cavalry to penetrate Wallace's schiltrons were now confined with the rest of the infantry. With casualties high and mounting Edward at last managed to deploy a company to the north of the Scots; but unsupported by cavalry or spearmen they were quickly driven off by the charge of Sir Robert Keith and the Scottish horse, which had been held back for just such an eventuality.
The Bloody Push Into The English Mass
Bruce now committed his own division to an inexorable bloody push into the disorganised English mass. All the reserves were now committed: the whole Scots army was fighting side by side across a single front. A small force of archers added to the misery in Edward's army, which was now so tightly packed that if a man fell he was immediately crushed underfoot. The knights began to give ground as the rear ranks did their best to escape back across the Bannock Burn. With the English formations beginning to break a great shout went up from the Scots, "Lay on! Lay on! Lay on! They fail!" This cry was heard by Bruce's camp followers, the poor folk of Scotland, who had been to the rear with the baggage on Coxet Hill. They promptly gathered weapons and banners and charged forward. To the English army, close to exhaustion, this appeared like a fresh reserve and they lost all hope. The end had come and Edward, whose personal courage in battle had done nothing to make up for his fatal mistakes, was forcibly taken from the field by the earl of Pembroke and his personal bodyguard.
Edward's enforced flight ended the remaining order in the army; panic spread and defeat turned into a rout. In trying to re-cross the Bannock Burn the English suffered their greatest casualties. The Lanercost Chronicle says, "Many nobles and others fell into it with their horses in the crush, while others escaped with much difficulty, and many men were never able to extricate themselves from the ditch."
Just to the north the king and his bodyguard arrived at the gates of Stirling Castle seeking refuge, only to be refused entry by Sir Philip Mowbray, who was now compelled to surrender by his agreement with Edward Bruce. Edward managed to circle round the victorious Scots to the west, escaping south and then east with James Douglas in close pursuit. He arrived eventually at Dunbar Castle, where he was admitted by his ally, Earl Patrick. From here he took ship to England.
From the carnage of Bannockburn the rest of the army escaped as best they could. The Earl of Pembroke, acting with considerable coolness, managed to take charge of a large body of frightened Welsh infantry, leading them across the border to safety. Many others were attacked and killed by the country people as they fled south. Scotland had won the greatest triumph in her history; England had experienced one of her worst defeats. The Battle of Bannockburn was the greatest victory in all of Scotland's history and ensured the continuance of the Scottish nation for three hundred years.
Bannockburn A Milestone In Warfare.
Bannockburn had joined the earlier Battle of the Golden Spurs at Courtrai as a milestone towards a new age in warfare. Their example was to be followed in the next year when the Swiss defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Morgarten. In his History of the English Speaking Peoples, Sir Winston Churchill says of the Battle of Bannockburn: “No more grevious slaughter of English chivalry ever took place in a single day. Even Towton in the Wars of the Roses was less destructive. The Scots...feat in virtually destroying an army of cavalry and archers by the agency of spearmen must...be deemed a prodigy of war”.
The long day of feudal cavalry was over. Thirty years later the English took this lesson to France in the Hundred Years' War.
Freed from English threats, Scotland's armies could now invade northern England. Bruce also drove back a subsequent English expedition north of the border, and launched raids into Yorkshire and Lancashire.
Buoyed by his military successes, Bruce's forces also invaded Ireland in 1315, supposedly to free the country from English rule, but more probably, one suspects, to open a second front in the continuing wars with England.
Bruce Failed in Ireland
The Bruce campaign to Ireland was characterized by a great deal of initial military success. However, the Scots failed to win over the non-Ulster chiefs, or to make any other significant gains in the south of the island. In the end, Bruce became mythological only for Scottish Independence, though that was hardly the aim from his unheralded string of military victories from spring 1307 onward.
In 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath was sent by a group of Scottish nobles to the Pope affirming Scottish independence from England. Two similar declarations were also sent by the Clergy and Robert I. In 1327, Edward II of England was deposed and killed. The invasion of the North of England by Robert the Bruce forced Edward III of England to sign the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton on May 1 in 1328, which recognised the independence of Scotland with Bruce as King.
Bruce´s Death At Cardross
By that time, King Robert was seriously ill, probably with leprosy, and he died at Cardross, Dunbartonshire on 7 June 1329, aged 54. A few days later, in response to an earlier request by him, the Pope granted permission for kings of Scots to be anointed at their coronation. This was a clear acknowledgement that the Pope recognised Scotland's independence.
Robert I was buried at Dunfermline but before he died, King Robert made it his last request that Sir James Douglas, as his oldest and most esteemed companion in arms, should carry his heart to the holy land, and deposit it in the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. His heart was placed in a silver and enameled casket which Douglas placed around his neck. Early in 1330, James Douglas set sail from Scotland with six other knights and twenty six squires and gentlemen.
They stopped over first in Sluys in Flanders, where more men joined them. There they received news of a crusade by Alfonso XI of Castile against the Muslims of the kingdom of Granada. Accordingly, they sailed to Seville, where they were received by Alfonso with great distinction. Douglas and his company, having joined themselves to Alfonso's army, came in view of the Saracens near to Teba, a castle on the frontiers of Andalucia. The Moorish king had ordered a body of three thousand cavalry to make a feigned attack on the Spaniards, while, with the great body of his army, he made a circuitous route, unexpectedly, to fall upon the rear of Alfonso's camp. Alfonso, however, having received intelligence, kept the main force of his army in the rear, while he resisted the assault made on the front division of his army.
While the battle was brought to a successful conclusion in one quarter of the field, Douglas, and his brave companions, who fought in the van, proved themselves no less fortunate. He soon found himself hard pressed by the numbers who thronged upon him. Taking from his neck the silver casket which contained the heart of Bruce, he threw it before him among the enemy, saying, "Now pass thou onward before us, as thou wert wont, and I will follow thee or die." Douglas, and almost all of the men who fought by his side, were here slain. His body and the casket containing the embalmed heart of Bruce were found together upon the field. They were conveyed back to Scotland by his surviving companions. The remains of Douglas were deposited in the family vault at St Bride’s chapel, and the heart of Bruce solemnly interred by Moray, the regent, under the high altar of Melrose Abbey, Roxburghshire.
Postscript: An excavation was led to find the heart, and it was actually discovered by high school students involved in the dig. The heart was stored in a sealed metal cylinder, and was then re-buried in the abbey back at its proper resting place.
