The Battle of Brannockburn

The Second Day

Gang pack your bags, ye English loons, 
Gang tak' your banners hame, 
Just like the king, whae sought our croon, 
And lost the bloody game. 
Just like your king, whae sought our croon, 
And lost the bloody game.

    The sun came up bright and early on the morning of June 24th, 1314 and it promised to be another hot day. The first rays of the dawn shone on the faces of the Scots as they celebrated a pre-battle mass in the New Park. Below them on the sodden ground between the Bannock Burn and the Forth, the English were stirring after a damp if not sleepless night. It was a Monday and the feast of St. John the Baptist. The Scots breakfasted simply on bread and water and stood to arms. Bruce knighted James Douglas and Walter the Steward and after the ceremony the line of battle was formed and the order given to move down onto the Carse. It was no perfectly dressed line of soldiers that moved forward, rather a staggered grouping of four loosely-held together bands of men. Slowly they moved down the broken slope from the higher ground and towards their foe. Leading on the right was Edward Bruce's division. On their left were Douglas and Walter Stewart's Lanark men. Forming the left of the line was Randolph and the men of Ross and Moray. The king's own division of Islesmen, Highlanders and Carrick levies was behind in reserve. Somewhere on the advance from the New Park across the Carse, the Scots halted and seemed to kneel. Perhaps they halted for a last prayer before combat. The watching Edward II cried out that they knelt to beg for mercy. his more seasoned commanders, hiding their embarrassment, pointed out that if this were so , then the mercy the Scots begged was from God himself and not Edward Plantagenet. It does seem unlikely that the Scots, having already said Mass, would chance kneeling to pray in such close proximity to the enemy and most probably the movement seen by Edward was a last chance to straighten and tighten the schilltrons' formations before the clash of steel. 

    To match the skill of the Bruce and his trusted lieutenants, the English had only the folly of Edward and noble officers riven by petty jealousies. Gloucester and Hereford quarrelled over who should command the English Van and heated words and insults exchanged led Hereford to ride back to Edward and seek his adjudication of this puerile squabble. Before he reached the king, the Scots had appeared and Edward had sounded the trumpets ordering his knights to advance. Gloucester, eager to lead the charge without the interference of Hereford, spurred his horse forward without taking the time to don his brightly coloured surcoat bearing his coat of arms. Without this he was just another mailed, armored rider and many of the knights didn't recognise him at first. As such the charge he led was not as compact and cohesive as it should have been. It was still a terrible sight to behold and was powerfully heavy with the weight of iron suddenly propelled forward. The knights raced on, faceles men in iron helms, their lances lowered and their great warhorses pounding the earth with their iron-shod hooves. They crashed into Edward Bruce's division and, though Gloucester was plucked from his saddle impaled by a Scottish spear, the fury of the charge caused the schilltron to bend - but not break. The English knights were not lacking in courage and they drove their mounts onto the spears. Horses and riders fell with broken spears in their breasts, but some broke into the schilltron and flayed around with mace, battleaxe and sword, cleaving skulls, limbs and shoulders until they were dragged from their horses, their helmets pulled back and their unprotected throats cut. Douglas and Randolph brought their divisions up in support on Edward Bruce's left and the English knights pulled back a little, probably hoping to regroup for another charge. The Scots gave them no respite and pressed on their heels, unstoppable as an incoming steel tide.

     The sheer insanity of Edward II's choice of a campsite now became apparent. Caught between the Bannock Burn on their left and the Forth (or perhaps even the Pelstream Burn ) on their right , the English were caught in a space too constricted for them to manoeuvre. Although the three forward divisions of Bruce's army could have numbered no more than 4,000 men, they were enough to bridge the gap between water and water and trap the English where they couldn't deploy. The English knights had no room to adequately withdraw and reform for another charge. The great mass of English footsoldiers that outnumbered their Scottish counterparts by almost four to one were caught behind the cavalry and unable to even see the enemy much less come to grips with him. Even the archers, whose deadly shafts had won Falkirk for Edward's father, were impotent: the action was so closely joined that their falling arrows were as likely to strike their own knights in the back as the Scottish spearmen. And still the Scots pushed forward, driving their opponents back inch by inch to the water. The English had not given up, however and managed to extricate a body of archers from the great mass of the army and these were pushed to the right and forward, rushing along the banks of the river until they were in a position to enfillade the left flank of Douglas' division with their killing shafts. It was a critical moment, for a repeat of Falkirk was still not out of the question. This movement had not gone unnoticed by the Bruce and seeing the danger, he ordered Sir James Keith and his few hundred light horse to charge the English bowmen. Keith and his light horse flowed over the Carse as no armoured knight could do and he was entirely successful in his purpose. The Scots were never a nation of great mounted warriors and the later equine glory won by the Royal Scots Greys at Waterloo was more of an exception rather than a rule. The charge of Keith's men, however, held the fate of the nation between fingers and rein and was without question the most important mounted action in Scottish history. The English archers were utterly dispersed before they could bring their clothyard arrows to bear on the schilltrons and the Scottish line continued to advance without fear of flanking enemy archery. 

    It was the turning point in the battle. Bruce saw this and now flung his own division into the fray on the left of Douglas and the Steward. In earlier days Bruce had told Angus Og of Clan Donald "My hope is incessant in thee." and these words the MacDonalds chose to keep forever as their clan's motto. At Bannockburn he simply said, "Be cheerful and act valiantly." The MacDonalds and other Highlanders and the men from Bruce's own lands did both, cheerfully and valiantly rushing upon their foes, clambering over the slain horses and men and adding to the carnage with their spears, battleaxes and daggers. The Scots line newly strengthened pressed on and on, each step forward adding to the constriction of their enemy's power. At some point Edward's lieutenants realised the battle was lost and Sir Giles Argentine took his royal master's bridle and led him from the field. A large body of knights gathered round Edward and escorted him to Stirling castle. When Edward was safe, Sir Giles turned to the English king and said, "Sire.... I am not accustomed to flee and I will continue no further. I bid you adieu." He then turned his horse around and returned to the battle where he was slain. He had once been called 'the bravest knight in all Christendom' and the manner of his passing should serve to remind us that courage is never the monopoly of the victors, however much later generations might wish it so. Most of the English army saw Edward's standard leaving the field and saw no reason to stay themselves. The foot turned and ran, crossing the Bannock Burn and the Forth any way they could in their desire to flee. The 'small folk', the last reserve of the Scots, sensed the day was Bruce's and came pouring down from Coxtet Hill and their coming may have made the English think another Scottish army had arrived. With the foot fleeing behind them the English knights thought they finally had some space to withdraw and reconstitute the charge. It was a vain hope for as they pulled back the schilltrons felt the pressure on their front wane and exultantly called out,"On them. On them. They fail!" Later men talked of walking over the Bannock burn and other streams and keeping their feet dry, so thick did the English dead lie in the water. 

    Edward's army was completely destroyed. Some knights were taken captive and held for ransom, but the common soldiery were hunted down like wild dogs and slain by a populace bereft of pity after a generation of English depredations. It was a stunning victory, astonishing, against all odds and terribly complete. The day was won and though the war would continue, the initiative now lay with the Scots. The taste of victory was sweet indeed and perhaps for the first time the Bruce knew, rather than hoped, that the kingdom was his. The joy of his and his army's success ran through Scotland, for on that day we became a nation of free men and I would wager their are few Scotsmen today who have never, at some time in their dreams, stood with the Bruce on the Carse and gone forward with him to claw from the grasping hands of history a triumph that was surely his and his nation's due.

Information obtained from Alex Chirnside and used by permission