Background
On a stormy March night in 1286, Alexander III, King of Scots, died when he fell off a cliff at Kinghorn in Fife. He had left Edinburgh Castle to return to his wife in Kinghorn. He crossed the river Forth safely, but became separated from his companions and plunged over the cliffs at Pettycur. (There is now a caravan site very near the point where Alexander died).
Alexander had decided to risk the journey because he wanted to be with his wife Yolande who, he believed, was pregnant. The issue of Yolande's pregnancy was important because Alexander had no direct male descendant. All his children from a previous marriage had died.
Alexander himself was descended from a long line of kings and the unbroken royal succession had brought Scotland a time of stability and peace. After Alexander III's death, writers of the time referred to the years before his death as the Golden Age of Scotland. It's certainly true that the death of Alexander was to lead to civil war in Scotland and wars with England, which lasted for more than a hundred years.
When the body of Alexander was found, Scotland was not immediately plunged into crisis. For a short time the Scottish nobles waited to see if Yolande produced an heir to the throne, but she did not. Attention now turned to Norway, where Alexander's granddaughter lived with her father, the King of Norway. The successor to the throne of Scotland was called Margaret (known as the 'Maid of Norway') but she was in no position to become Queen of Scotland. She was only three years old but there was no alternative other than to make arrangements for the Maid of Norway to become Queen of Scotland and travel to Scotland at some point in the future. In the meantime, several Guardians were appointed to govern Scotland until Margaret was old enough to rule herself.
As news of Alexander's death spread, Edward I of England, who had already invaded Ireland and conquered Wales, considered how events in Scotland might benefit him. So far there had been no long history of English/Scottish conflict and peaceful discussions were held with Edward I of England to prevent any instability.
The answer seemed to be the Treaty of Birgham, signed in 1290. It was agreed that the Maid of Norway was to marry Edward's own son, also called Edward. The Scots lords were quite willing to let the marriage take place, but they insisted that if Britain was to be ruled by one king, then Scotland must keep its own rights and laws. In other words, Scotland should keep its own identity. King Edward of England agreed.
The scene was set for a royal marriage that would link Scotland and England peacefully and arrangements were made to bring the seven year old Margaret to Scotland. Unfortunately, Margaret took ill on the voyage from Norway and died in Orkney. Scotland now had no clear ruler. The death of Margaret was to bring Scotland generations of misery and bloodshed.
After the death of Margaret, the Treaty of Birgham was obviously also dead and Edward of England had no easy way of combining England with Scotland. Edward now began to assert his claim to be overlord (or controller) of Scotland and he got every claimant to the throne to swear fealty to him (which means they accepted Edward as their leader) for the realm of Scotland if he chose them.
There were 13 claimants to the throne, although only two names were serious contenders. They were Robert Bruce and John Balliol. Both their claims were based on the family tree of the Scottish royal family and both did have reasonable claims for the throne. The problem was - which one to choose?
The Scots lords were unwilling to choose, partly since by choosing one man they were bound to anger the supporters of the other and that might lead to civil war. In the event, most men were pleased when Edward of England offered to act as judge and to decide which of the claimants had most right to the throne of Scotland. Edward of England was asked to choose between the men as a 'neutral referee'.
Eventually Edward chose Balliol. Some say it was because Balliol was an easier man to influence and Edward might use him as a 'puppet' but it was also true that Balliol also had a better legal claim than Bruce. In 1292 John Balliol was crowned at Scone on St Andrew's Day.
King John Balliol's reign lasted from 1292 to 1296 and from the start Edward I of England made it plain that he would do all he could to control Scotland. Edward treated King John as if Edward was superior in rank and power. In fact Edward ordered King John to formally accept Edward as his 'boss'. Balliol refused to do that and Edward was angry. In 1295, Edward gave the Scots an ultimatum. He wanted every Scottish nobleman to join the English army and support Edward's planned invasion of France. The Scots were furious. Instead of joining Edward's army, the Scots signed an alliance with France. This was virtually a declaration of war by Scotland on England. Edward decided to teach Scotland a lesson.
Edward's invasion of Scotland began on March 26, 1296 and it marked the beginning of the wars of independence. By March 30 the town of Berwick fell to the English and Edward decided to send a message across all of Scotland. Berwick was destroyed and all its inhabitants killed. Reports of the time talk about streets running deep with blood, and writers reported between 8,000 and 15,000 people killed. A group of Flemish merchants were burnt to death in their hall on the orders of Edward. The dead were ordered to be thrown into the sea, or into deep pits. The message was clear. Edward would stand for no trouble from Scotland. Any resistance would be crushed. The killing of the merchants was a lesson to foreign traders to stay away from Scotland. With no trade, Scotland could not grow. A few days later an English army met the Scottish forces at Dunbar. The battle was brief. The Scots were defeated.
After the victory at Dunbar, Edward went on a 'victory' march through Scotland in order to assert his authority. Edward intended to destroy Scotland as a separate nation. Symbols of Scottish identity were stolen and taken to England, including the Stone of Destiny on which all Scottish kings were crowned. Finally John Balliol was stripped of his authority. He was nicknamed 'Toom Tabard' which meant 'empty jacket', - a comment on the badges and symbols of power that were torn from his clothes.
Now that he had defeated the Scots and seemed to control Scotland, Edward now demanded that all Scotland's nobles and landholders swear an oath of loyalty to him. The names of all those who took this oath were then put on a list which had attached to it all the seals and badges of the noble families. This list became known as the Ragman Rolls.
Despite the promise of loyalty from Scotland's nobles, Edward did not have a firm grip on Scotland. His troops garrisoned the castles but in the countryside English power was weak. When a leader emerged, the Scots were prepared to resist English attempts to control Scotland. Soon, two leaders emerged. In the north, Sir Andrew Moray organised resistance against the English, while in the south, William Wallace led a rising against Edward's power.
According to the writings of 'Blind Harry' who described the rebellion of Wallace in a long ballad written long after Wallace's death, Wallace's first action against the English was the murder of the English Sheriff of Lanark, who had killed Wallace's wife. Whether that is true or not doesn't matter. What is certain is that the rising of Wallace started a large scale resistance against English power which Edward had to crush if he was to reassert his authority over Scotland. To do that, Edward sent a huge army northwards.
At Stirling Bridge the Scots and English armies met. By careful use of position, and the fact that the English were trapped as they tried to cross the bridge, the English army was routed. After this victory, Wallace and Moray (who had been seriously wounded at Stirling Bridge) were appointed Guardians of Scotland. They organised raids into England over the winter of 1297/8 which caused widespread panic. Also around this time, Wallace was knighted.
In 1298, Edward decided to deal with Wallace himself. He led a huge army north and met Wallace's forces at Falkirk. The Scots were hugely outnumbered and Wallace had no way to fight back against the thousands of Welsh and English archers who poured arrows into the Scots. After weakening the Scots with a storm of arrows, the English knights charged again and the Scots were destroyed. However, Wallace escaped, resigned the guardianship and went to France.
As a result of Wallace's resignation, the Scots elected new guardians. Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick (grandson of the Robert Bruce who had claimed the throne) and John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and cousin of John Balliol. However the two men disliked each other and in 1302 Bruce resigned the guardianship and swore a new oath of loyalty to Edward.
A more important event, which had serious consequences for Scotland, also happened in 1302 and a long way from Scotland. One of the most decisive battles in the wars of independence took place in 1302. The battle took place not in Scotland but in Flanders (part of modern Belgium). At the battle of Courtrai, the French army was destroyed. Up to that point Edward was fighting a war against Scotland and a war against France. He simply did not have the resources to really hammer Scotland. However, with the French army destroyed, the French king asked Edward for a peace treaty. The Scots were now without an ally and Edward could turn all of his attention against the Scots. Faced with the might of England, the Scots surrendered in 1305. Edward, however, was still not satisfied.
William Wallace was still free, and that angered Edward. There was a large reward offered for the capture of Wallace and he was eventually betrayed on 3rd August 1305 by his friend, Sir John de Menteith and taken to London.
Wallace was tried, among other things, for High Treason but to the charge of treason, Wallace replied, 'I cannot be a traitor, since I never swore fealty (loyalty) to the English King.'
Wallace was found guilty of all the charges against him. He was hanged and cut down while still alive and then his belly was cut open and his guts pulled out and set on fire. His genitals were sliced off. His heart was flung into a fire and then he was beheaded and cut into four pieces. Each quarter was put on public display in Newcastle, Berwick, Perth and Dundee respectively as a lesson to any other 'rebellious Scots'. Wallace's head was put on London Bridge.
Edward now believed that he was in control of Scotland.
Once Wallace was dead, Edward believed he could control Scotland as a province of England but, within a few months of Wallace's death, a new revolt against Edward's power had started in Scotland. This time it was led by Robert the Bruce.
Robert the Bruce is often described as an opportunist and a man who made and broke oaths of loyalty when it suited him, but there is one thread of consistency that runs through all of Bruce's actions. That is his determination to promote the interests of his family's claim to the throne of Scotland.
In 1306 he made his bid for the throne of Scotland. Whether he intended to take action so soon is not clear but a sequence of events left Bruce with little choice.
Bruce and the powerful Comyn family (closely related to King John Balliol) were not friendly.
In fact John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, is rumoured to have told Edward that Bruce was hatching a plot to grab the throne of Scotland. As a result, Bruce fled to Scotland. A short time later, an event happened that was to change the course of Scottish history.
In March 1306 Bruce met Comyn in Greyfriars church in Dumfries and argued with him. What happened next is not exactly clear but the result certainly was. After Bruce left the church, Comyn was found dead. Either Bruce, or one of Bruce's supporters, had not only killed Comyn but a great sin, called sacrilege, had been committed. Bruce had to act quickly or lose any chance of ever becoming king.
Bruce had to do two things. One was to be made king, the other was to gain forgiveness, or absolution, for the sacrilege committed at Dumfries.
Bruce hurried to Glasgow, gained some forgiveness from his friends in the church and then hurried to Scone, the historic site where the kings of Scotland were crowned. There, according to the chronicles of John of Fordun, Bruce 'was crowned in the same manner as Kings of Scotland usually were'.
However, shortly after being made king, Bruce and his followers were defeated by a small English force at Methven, outside Perth. Bruce went into hiding and so began many years of hit and run survival, not only against the English but also the friends of Comyn. Scotland was effectively suffering a civil war.
It's likely that Bruce hid in the western isles and spent time on Rathlin island but it is clear that when he landed near his family home of Turnberry in 1307, he found it overrun with English soldiers. Nevertheless, the year 1307 marked an improvement in the fortunes of 'the Bruce'.
At Loudon Hill in Lanarkshire, Bruce defeated a large troop of English soldiers. Edward was furious. He ordered an army to advance north to crush Bruce but Edward died on the journey. Edward I had been a consistent and ruthless enemy of the Scots. As he died he ordered that his body should be boiled and his bones taken into battle against the Scots. However Edward's son, Edward II, was not so hard and vengeful. He ordered the army to march south again.
Bruce was now free to deal with his enemies within Scotland. A battle on the slopes of Ben Cruachan in Argyll put paid to any involvement from the MacDougalls and then it was the turn of the Comyns.
During the later part of 1307 and into 1308, the lands of the Comyns in Buchan and Badenoch were raided, burnt and generally destroyed. Comyn land and property was seized and given out as rewards to supporters of Bruce. By 1309, Bruce was in control of Scotland and now he could focus on pushing the English forces out of Scotland.
Bruce was certainly helped by Edward II's poor military planning and lack of urgency. As Edward dithered in England, Bruce was growing stronger. By trickery, bribery and planning, Bruce captured almost all the castles in Scotland that had been held by English garrisons. Bruce called his war a 'secret war' - nowadays we would call it a guerrilla war in which Bruce hit and ran and avoided any pitched battles against the English. By 1314 only one castle remained in English hands - Stirling - and that lay under a Scottish siege led Edward Bruce, the King's brother.
The Scots lacked siege equipment and Scottish hopes of starving the English garrison into surrender had come to nothing. By the spring of 1314 Edward Bruce had a new idea. He reached an agreement with the castle's governor, Sir Philip Mowbray, which stated that if an English force had not arrived to relieve Stirling Castle by midsummer's eve, it would be surrendered to the Scots. When Robert heard of the agreement he was furious. The English were certain to send a large army into Scotland and that would mean a pitched battle if Stirling was to be saved.
Edward II 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 medieval standards. It included some 2,500 heavy cavalry, 2000 Welsh bowmen and 500 light cavalry, with the rest consisting of highly trained infantry. Following this army, Edward had a huge train of equipment and supplies, which included weaponry, siege engines, foods, wines, and the riches of the Knights and Barons.
Edward gathered his army at Berwick-upon-Tweed. From there, some two weeks before the deadline, they crossed the border at Coldstream, and marched north to Stirling. By June 1314 it was reported that as the head of the English army approached Stirling, the tail of the army was still in Edinburgh!
Edward was confident that his powerful army would easily overwhelm the Scots.
On the 23rd of June, midsummer's eve 1314, the army of Edward II arrived at the crossing point of the Bannock Burn - but Robert the Bruce had laid his plans well.
Robert Bruce knew the English army would approach directly up the old road to Stirling and that the English army would need a wide area in which the army could spread out before attacking the Scots. Therefore Bruce had to have a plan which would stop the English army from spreading out wide and using all their forces at once. The first thing that Bruce did was to block all paths and tracks with branches and fallen trees. He ordered deep pits to be dug on the paths, which he covered with sticks. These traps would force the English off the paths and later in the battle would stop the cavalry getting round the side of the Scots army.
When the English did attack he hoped that his schiltroms could resist the charge of the English cavalry. Schiltroms were basically a large circle of men who carried huge 15 foot pikes. They were trained to move across a battlefield in this formation with pikes outwards, forming an impenetrable wall of spears - just like a giant hedgehog. However the schiltroms were easy targets for the English archers. Bruce was not sure what to do about them. Once his men were in position, all Bruce could do was wait - or so he thought. His plans were about to change!
When the English drew near, Stirling's governor, Sir Philip Mowbray rode out to meet Edward. An English force of 500 cavalry was sent to the Stirling Castle to relieve it.
Mowbray knew the Scots positions would make using the road impossible, so he led the cavalry force along a narrow path which was well hidden from the Scottish positions. However, just before the English knights managed to pass, Robert spotted them and sent a Scottish force to stop them. As the English cavalry gathered for the charge the Scots schiltrom waited for the impact of the charge. The first wave of cavalry hit the Scots with tremendous force but they could not break through. Eventually the English cavalry began to retreat, and gathered a small distance from the Scots schiltrom. Suddenly the Scots, confident now of victory, charged the cavalry. Tired and disorientated, the English knights began to scatter.
Of the 500 English Knights who set out to Stirling, only around 400 struggled back to the camp. The Scots lost only 6 men. This victory boosted Scottish morale. They had proved that their schiltroms were capable of resisting heavy cavalry attacks. Meanwhile, another incident had happened which had also raised the spirits of the Scots.
The main bulk of the English forces had crossed the Bannock Burn and taken up position facing the Scots. A young English Knight, Henry De Bohun, spotted a lone figure riding back and forth along the Scots lines and recognised the figure as Robert the Bruce. De Bohun realised this was his chance of glory.
De Bohun, fully armoured and riding a heavy cavalry horse, charged straight for the King. Robert, armed only with a battle axe and on a smaller horse, sat still 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's head with his battle axe. The Scots gave a sigh of relief. If the Bruce had been killed it would have left the Scots both leaderless and Kingless on the eve of battle, probably putting to an end their long struggle. Luckily for the Scots, Robert was unharmed.
That night it was a time to make some very important decisions. Bruce had at first intended to fight on the higher, drier land of the wooded hills near the main roadway but Edward's army had camped on a flattish area of rough fields called a carse. The battle would inevitably have to take place there. This meant that the battle front was to be much larger than Robert would have liked. However, Bruce had scouted the area around the Bannock Burn carefully. He knew that if he could force the English army to move east towards the Firth of Forth they would be trapped with the river behind them, marshy ground on one side and the small but steep banked gully of the Bannock Burn on the other side. Although it was not particularly deep, the gully's sides were steep and it would be a slow process for the large English army to cross safely. Robert knew that if he could attack the English as they were still crossing, he might be able to drive them back upon their own men still trying to cross the gully. This would cause confusion and disorganisation among them, exactly what Bruce needed.
At first light on the morning of June 24, 1314 the Scots were already in position and soon the main bulk of the English cavalry prepared to charge. The impact as the English charge hit the Scottish schiltroms was tremendous, but the Scots held. Many of the English knights were killed outright on the Scottish pikes, 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 obvious. English archers were ordered to fire but they were hitting many of their own retreating cavalry. The archers were bad news for the Scots but Robert had planned for this. Scottish cavalry charged out of the woods and chased the archers from the field.
With the cavalry retreating, and the archers scattered, there was huge confusion among the English ranks. The Scots slowly advanced, driving their struggling enemy back towards the marshy gully of the Bannock Burn. What remained of the English cavalry continued to retreat and at the same time the main bulk of the English infantry tried to advance. Those who were retreating were blocking those advancing.
The Scottish schiltroms pressed on, pushing more and more men into the horrific crush around the Bannock Burn. Horses and men tumbled down the sides tripping over each other. Soon almost all of the English were scattering. Many drowned as they tried to cross the Forth, others were killed or crushed by their own companions in the mad race to escape.
King Edward had to ride hard to escape the battlefield disaster and he eventually found a ship at Dunbar Castle which took him back to England. For the Scots, the battle was undeniably one of the greatest in their history. Their King, who for 18 years had fought for a cause once thought impossible, had led them to victory.
After the battle, King Robert tried to rebuild Scotland. One of the first things he did was to make all Scots landholders who also owned land in England decide which lands they wanted. This meant if they wanted their Scottish lands then they forfeited their English lands and vice-versa. Now Scottish knights did not find themselves torn between loyalty to the English king because of the land they held in England and loyalty to the Scottish king for the lands they held in Scotland.
However, one of the biggest problems that faced Bruce went back to the murder of Comyn away back in 1306. It was vitally important for kings at that time to be approved by the Pope. At that time the Pope was the leader of all Christians and because Bruce had committed murder in a church, the Pope would not recognise him as the Scottish King.
In 1320, the Scottish nobles and bishops met at Arbroath. Their intention was to write a letter to the Pope explaining that Scotland was a free country and that the Scottish people all accepted Robert the Bruce as their lawful king. The letter asked the Pope to accept Bruce as the proper King of Scotland but the letter also did something else. It explained why the Scots wanted to be free. The Declaration of Arbroath has become one of the most famous documents in history, not only in Scotland, but also the world. Its explanation of how important freedom was to the Scots has become famous all over the world and inspired many people to fight for their own freedom.
Its most famous words are these:
'For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom - for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with his life itself.'
