The Battle of Bannockburn

In March 1314 Bruce started to drill his troops and to check the area. If Edward II had more men and horses, he had more military genius. Soon he found the perfect place to plant his men and to stop the English in their march to the Castle: it was the dense wood of the New Park, where Bruce had impassable scrub on his right and boggy ground on his left; the Castle was behind, and before him, the Bannock burn

This burn (now we say "brook") was not a great obstacle, but the English had to cross it on their way to the castle along the old Roman road, and Bruce dug ditches and put traps with spikes to make the cavalry useless. Such a problem would force the English to go towards the peat bog, where they would be less efficient. The Scots, on the other hand, took position on better and higher ground.

The day before (23 June) Bruce rode alone, armed with an axe, to see the arrival of the enormous English army: 2,000 heavy cavalry, 17,000 archers and foot soldiers with spears, and about 1,000 Scots who were anti-Bruce fanatics: Comyn's followers and the MacDougalls. Bruce's well-trained men were only 5,500, with 2,000 untrained volunteers who were left as the reserve forces. He had only 500 light cavalry.

When Bruce was spying on the English, one of Edward's knights, Sir Henry de Bohun, saw Bruce's Royal emblem and decided to attack: it was a one-to-one fight, and if he could kill the Scottish king, everything would be over. Bruce waited until Sir Henry, riding at full gallop, almost touched him. Just at that moment Bruce moved to one side and as the English went past, the king hit him with his axe so hard that he split open his armour and his head. The Scots reproached him for risking his life, but The Bruce only lamented that he had broken his axe shaft.

At dawn on 24 June, the Scottish troops got out of the wood and knelt to pray before starting the fight. Edward II, who was a bit too stupid to be the king of England, laughed at them thinking that they were asking him for mercy. Someone near him, a bit more clever, told him that the Scots were addressing God, not the English king.

The English had fallen into Bruce's trap, as they took their cavalry to the boggy ground. Bruce then divided his troops into four sections, and marched towards the peat bog. They marched in echelon, with their spears or pikes deployed, and this made each division look like an enormous iron hedgehog.

The peat bog where the English had been driven by Bruce was a very narrow area, difficult to ride on horseback and easier for foot soldiers with axes and spears. The Scots started to march. When the English cavalry were ordered to charge on the Scots, the horses couldn't break the Bruce's units as they crashed violently against the pikes: The impact of the horses as they hit the pikes was terrible, but the Scots resisted. Many English horses and knights died pierced with the pikes, crushed by the ones who came just after them, or slaughtered on the ground by the Scots. Most of the English cavalry was killed or held prisoner, and the man who commanded them, the Earl of Gloucester, was slaughtered. The retreat was instantaneous.

With nearly no horses left, the English archers started to open fire on the Scots. Bruce then brought his cavalry out of the forest and charged on them, making them leave their position. Now both archers and knights were running, chased by the Scots. Both units retreating, they were the unavolidable target of the English reserve division of archers, brought forward by Edward II as his last chance, knowing that he would kill his own troops, but also Scots. It was absolute chaos and confusion for the English soldiers, who were forced down the hill towards the Bannock burn and the River Forth. Many were slaughtered as they had no way out.

Edward II understood that he had lost the battle, and he abandoned the place and his men to save his life. He wanted to get into Stirling Castle, but its Governor denied him access, so he took refuge in Dunbar. The English found that they had no king, and then the Scottish volunteers charged on them. It was the perfect moment to start running !! The Scots went after them and they grabbed many hostages to be exchanged for Scottish prisoners in England.

After Bannockburn Scotland regained its independence, as England withdrew its claim to the Scottish throne. Now there was a strong king to the north, and a united country whose soldiers knew they could defeat the English neighbour at any time. Disputes with the English would go on and on, but London had to acknowledge the power of the Scots.

Robert I the Bruce died on 7 June 1329, aged 55. An offcial peace treaty had been signed between both countries just a year before his death. Bruce only had two ambitions to fulfill: One, the official recognition of the Pope, after the obscure episode of the crime in the church. The Vatican was preparing such a recognition to Bruce and his successors as legitimate kings of Scotland when Robert I died. Two: he would have liked to go on a Crusade. As he couldn't go, he ordered that his heart was to be removed and embalmed after his death, and taken to the Holy Land with the Scottish Crusaders. Today his heart lies buried somewhere within Melrose Abbey, in the south of Scotland.

THE END