| Copyright | ||
|
Home An Early Great Britain and its Failure The Story of Scottish Independence; Part 5 |
The Story of Scottish Independence; Part 5Step by step Bruce won his way. Aberdeen came into his band; his brother Edward reduced Galloway to his obedience; the French king gave him secret aid; in 1310 the clergy declared him - excommunicated man as he was - the lawful king of the land. One by one the castles in Scotland were wrested from English hands. Lord James Douglas surprised Roxburgh; Randolph, Earl of Murray, captured Edinburgh by leading thirty daring men to climb the Castle Rock; but all the exploits were not left to the knights and men-at-arms. A farmer named Binnock, engaging a body of countrymen to aid him, seized Linlithgow by driving a wagon of hay under the gateway, so that the portcullis could not be let down. These and many like exploits mark the heroic age of Scottish history, when the fierce unruly courage of its people was expended against a national foe instead of being squandered in private feuds and struggles with the Crown, when even merciless exploits like the "Douglas Larder " become pardonable, since they were patriotic.In 1314 Stirling Castle alone held out. Edward II led a huge army northward to relieve it. Bruce, with far smaller forces, determined to give battle. It was daring, for the English were two to one; but in the continuous warfare of the last seven years Bruce's men had grown into fine soldiers, confident and experienced. Bruce showed no foolhardiness. He drew up his men to block the roads leading into Stirling from the south. Across his front ran the little stream of the Bannockburn; marshy ground protected his flanks, and on the left he dug pitfalls as an additional safeguard. He adopted for his pikemen the same circular formation used by Wallace at Falkirk, but kept his horsemen in reserve-While Bruce was thus careful to make the best of ground and men, Edward II threw away every opportunity that his numbers gave him. He sent forward his archers unprotected, and so allowed them to be rolled up by a charge delivered by the Scottish horse from the right flank. He then committed his whole force to a charge full on the Scottish front. Some got entangled in the pits and marshes; even those who reached the Scottish line came on without impetus up the rising ground, and could make no impression on the pikemen. The English knights fought fiercely, but with no common aim, and so far as mere valour went were matched by the Scots, who had taken the field determined to conquer or die. They were burning to set their country free; they fought to protect their homes, their wives, and their children, and to pay back the terrible wrongs they had suffered. The English attack was beginning to waver, and the Scots themselves were advancing, crying: "On them, on them; they fail"! when a body of Scottish camp followers were seen pouring down from the Gillies Hill, The English, already disheartened, took them for a fresh force arriving to support their comrades. They fled in terrible confusion. The king himself rode in hot haste to Dunbar, and took ship to Berwick, leaving his army to the unhappy fate of a broken force in a hostile country. |
Chronology |
| copyright by uus-ununseptium.info |