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An Early Great Britain and its Failure
The Story of Scottish Independence; Part 1

The Story of Scottish Independence; Part 1

The hero round whom this national spirit gathered was Sir William Wallace. Wallace had slain an English sheriff in the streets of Lanark, and had taken to the hills. He was joined by a considerable force, though few nobles supported him; either they thought his cause too hopeless to risk their estates, and so were lukewarm, or they were jealous of him as an upstart. Warenne and Cressingham moved from Berwick in search of him, and Wallace posted himself near Stirling. Stirling Bridge was a place of great military importance in Scotland; below it the Forth could not be crossed by an army; close to the west lies a rugged hill district; consequently Stirling commands the only easy access from the south of Scotland to the north. Warenne and Cressingham completely mismanaged the battle; their advance guard was in time to seize the bridge, but retired again. The next day Cressingham insisted on an attack, though Wallace was now within easy reach of the bridge and the causeway leading northwards from it, and the English would have to cross it slowly, two by two, for it was narrow; not even when an easy ford close by was pointed out would Cressingham wait to use it.

Wallace coolly waited till a third of their force was over, then attacked, seized the causeway head, and cut to pieces the body who had crossed, while their comrades stood helpless on the other bank. Cressingham himself fell in the fight, and the whole force was scattered in headlong rout. One by one all the fortresses in English hands fell, and Wallace followed up his blow by leading his men to plunder in the northern counties. The pitiless ferocity of Edward's soldiers at Berwick found ready imitators among the Scots, who flayed the dead Cressingham and kept his skin as a token of their triumph, set fire to Dunottar Chapel, leaving the English garrison, who had taken refuge there, the choice between being burnt alive or casting themselves over the rocks into the sea, and slew unarmed men, women, and children in the northern counties. Wallace himself could not control his followers. "I cannot", said he to the priests at Hexham, "protect you from my soldiers when you are out of my presence". But for English soldiers at any rate he had no mercy. To those who shrank from the butchery at Dunottar, he cried: "I will absolve you all myself. Are you Scottish soldiers, and do you repent a trifle like this, which is not half what the invaders deserved at our hands"?

Chronology

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