The Battle Begins

On 22 June, Bruce drew up his men on the ridge straddling the old Stirling-Falkirk road. To the south just at the bottom was the winding stream known as the Bannock burn. It joined the Forth River a mile or two north-east across some marshes. There, about 12,000 men waited, ready for battle under their commanders, Thomas Randolph, Bruce's nephew and Earl of Moray, Edward Bruce, James Douglas and Robert Keith. The English, meanwhile, were coming up alongside the the old Roman road from Falkirk towards Bannockburn. Edward II detached a strong force 3,000 of horsemen and infantry under the Earl of Gloucester, and sent it on a head to attack the Scots on their hill. Simultaneously, he sent a smaller force of cavalry round the back of the ridge to wait to deal with the fleeing Scots as they were dislodged from the hill by Gloucester, or so he anticipated.

Charge of English Heavy Horse
Led by Gloucester and Hereford, the English vanguard dashed with great bravery or foolishness at the right wing of the Scots, under Edward Bruce. A rivalry between these two Earls made this attack so precipitate as to diminish its effect. Firm stood the Scottish spearmen in their ranks, presenting a serried wall of steel which resisted the enemy. There was a great crash of spears at the first shock, and good many knights were dismounted and slain, while their horses, maddened with wounds, carried confusion to the rear. When the Earl of Moray saw the right wing thus successfully engaged, he brought up the centre to meet the main body of English with such spirit that he began to gain ground upon them and to pierce their masses at push of spear, "so that his men appeared to be lost amid the multitude, as if they had been plunged into the sea."

This initial cavalry "charge" however was repulsed by the steadfast Scottish schiltrons. The charge or rush was a failure. The Earl of Gloucester had been unhorsed, and the Scottish army had not wavered at any point.

In the meantime a small detachment of English cavalry under Clifford and de Beaumont, perhaps some 700 strong, felt their way along the withdrawn Scottish wastern flank, gradually easing themselves into a narrow funnel between Stirling and Bruce's army. Bruce, realising that he could not fill this gap, had left it open to trap this force and destroy them before the main English army could expolit this weakness. Bruce was clever and quick in his military decisions and this action probably saved many Scots from death and turned it into an opportunity for a Scottish rout of the trapped English force. The Scottish troops on the right flank now fell upon the English cavalry. Instead of making a tactical withdrawl, Clifford foolishly engaged two of the waiting Schiltrons. He was killed immediately, and the few survivors of his force were driven off -- some to returned to their positions in the main body of the army, others to take shelter in Stirling Castle.

Randolph Restores the Rose

Edward II ordered a flanking movement to the east, either to reconnoiter the Scots position, or to escort Philip de Mowbray back to his corner in the castle, where he should properly have been by rules of the day. Before they reached the castle, or upon their return, Thomas Randolph's lightning division came out of the Park and attacked them. Randolph, angered or humiliated by Bruce's taunt, that he had let a rose fall from the king's chaplet in allowing Clifford to pass, made up for it his swift attack. The sloping ground was broken, and Clifford drew back to bring the scattered attack further into the open. When he finally charged the spearmen they came together like iron dust to a magnet.

There was a bloody melee about the barbed and unbreakable Schiltron with unsaddled knights, skewered horses and masked in dust. As the Scots advanced in slow, pace-by-pace schiltrons, the English were shocked and horrified to see that the immobile schiltron that Wallace had developed was now a moving, offensive unit under Bruce. It came on slowly and unstoppably like a slow moving train. This was a new develoment in the use of the schiltron and the English were totally unprepared to fight against an offensive, mobile, speared unit which previously had been a stationary object.

The circling riders of the English hurled their lances and swords against the crawling schiltron in impotent fury, and then broke off the fight, some riding to the castle and others back across the carse. By the loss of only one man only, it is said, Randolph had restored the rose to Bruce's crown.

A Dark Wet Night

It was the only major action of the day, now dying in a sultry summer dusk. Before nightfall the English army began to move on to the carse, making camp three miles or less from the New Park on a narrow ground between the Bannock and a bend of the River Forth. Edward needed water for his parched men and horses, but it was an insane choice for a camp. Almost an island, the Forth to its right and rear, and the deep-sided burn on its left. The earth was marshy, veined by tiny streams and each a hazard to heavy cavalry.

During that short simmer night the English nobles had taken what they saw as the best of the terrible ground around Bannockburn for their brief rest. The archers and foot-soldiers had been forced to lie on soggy, marshy land near the stream.

The cavalry were forced back even farther into the deep waters of the burn as the press of the infantry had left no room and dry ground was nowhere to be found. The knights were forced to either stand and sleep against their horses. Several men drowned that night in the black cool burn and stream. That night, according to their own chroniclers, many of the English foot-soldiers were drunk, but others made fascines of wood and brush to fill the brooks in the morning. On their front to the south-west, the dark rise of the New Park was highlighted by Scottish campfires. During the dark hours before dawn, Airth, another Scots commander, and his men at Cambuskenneth were attacked and killed by the Earl of Atholl, who thought this a favourable moment to gratify his family's quarrel with Bruce.

The night for the English army was a disaster as was the battle of the previous day. According to English chroniclers, foot-soldiers were drunk and morale was low. The entire army had been forced back by the Scots, and now had to camp in the chilly wet burn and many English lost their lives in the crush of horses and men being pushed into the burn where many drowned. The knights, having no where to rest tried vainly to get sleep by leaning against the weary and startled horses. Others simply climbed onto the backs of their mounts and tried to sleep sitting up, further stressing the nearly panicked beasts in the foot deep marsh and bog.

The English chronicler, Sir Thomas Gray, said that Bruce was doubtful of the next day's fight and talked of retiring southward, over the Campsie Fells and into the strong ground of Lennox. He decided to stay after he had spoken with a deserter from Edward's camp. This man was a Scottish knight, Sir Alexander Seton, who sweetened his shameful arrival with news that although the English were demoralized they could not believe that Bruce would leave his postions in the Park, to come against them. He offered his head if this were not so. "If you attack them in the morning you will defeat them easily and without loss." I've not been able to confirm it.

That account comes from Gray's 'Scalachronia'. He had heard the story from his father, who was taken prisoner in Clifford's fight. No other chroniclers mention it. Moray McLaren, who wrote "If Freedom Fail", suggests that Bruce had already made up his mind to attack and what Gray's father heard was a discussion on a possible line of retreat in the event of disaster. Again, this is somewhat speculative.

The English army, its nose bloodied and its morale shaken, sheltered for the night in the marshy ground around the Bannock. The following morning after a miserable and exhausting night, Sunday 24 June, Midsummer Day, the Scottish priests said mass before each of the Scots schiltons. The English also prepared themselves in prayer. Despite the difficulties of the previous day, the English thought it was possible that Bruce would withdraw his army and surrender his position before Stirling. But Bruce had decided to risk all in one battle, and as the English took their positions they found the three Scottish divisions advancing towards them.

June 24, The Next Morning

The Scots rose early on the day, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, another day of sun and heat. They took an early Mass then broke their fast with bread and water. When Bruce had knighted the Steward, James Douglas, and others, he ordered his army forward on the carse. Edward Bruce's division led the advance, followed on his left by Randolph and the Steward, with Bruce and his Gaels closely in the rear. They formed a staggered line, scracely a mile across, approaching the narrow neck of marshy ground where the English stood between the River Forth and the burn.

In the dawn light, the English knights impatiently mounted their horses, keen to avenge the humiliation they suffered the previous day. They expected Robert to remain in his defensive position, awaiting their attack. They would be surprised.

The Scots arrived on the carse with four coloured divisions with banners and steady spears, marching upon armoured cavalry, the heavy horse of the English. Edward II was rightly astonished. "Will they fight?" he asked.

"They will fight", said Ingram de Umfraville, once the guardian of Scotland and now its enemy. The king could not believe it, and was soon sure the Scots were yielding. Some distance across the carse they halted, probably to tighten their formation. With good discipline they crouched or knelt with spears thrust into the earth to take a sudden charge. "They kneel!" said Edward. "They ask for mercy!" Not from you, he was told by de Umfraville.

"To God they pray, for them it's death or victory." So be it then, said Edward, and ordered his trumpets to sound.