: IV. 1311. 1312. Jan. 8. the frontiers but the Scottish king had cauti- CHAP. ously retired before them; and both returned to England almost without seeing an enemy. In the mean time the fortresses, which commanded the country, fell in succession into the hands of the natives. The castle of Linlithgow was won by the artifice of a peasant named William Binnock. He concealed in a load of hay a few armed men, who, when the waggon entered the gate, mastered the guard, and kept possession till they were joined by their countrymen.21 Perth was surprised at night by Bruce himself. He waded through the ditch with a ladder on his shoulders, and was the second man who mounted the wall.22 Roxburgh was taken by escalade, while the rison indulged in the excesses of the carnival.23 Feb. 28. The castle of Edinburgh was the last which yielded. At midnight Randolf earl of Moray, with thirty companions, climbed up the rock; March 14. the alarm was given: the governor, who hastened to the spot, fell in the onset; and his men surrendered to the assailants.24 Alarmed by these losses, the Scots who still adhered to the English solicited assistance, and the inhabitants of the three northern counties complained that they were abandoned by the king to the predatory incursions of their neighbours. At length the news arrived, that Mowbray governor of Stirling 21 Barb. 199. 23 Barb. 205. 24 Ford. xii. 19. Ford. xii. 19. 22 Ford. xii. 18. Barb, 180. Lel. Coll. ii. 546. gar 1313. 1314. IV. CHAP. had consented to surrender that important fortress, if it were not relieved before the feast of St. John the Baptist. Edward, apparently at peace with his own subjects, judged the opportunity favourable for an expedition into Scotland. He summoned his military tenants to meet him at Berwick, ordered levies of foot soldiers in Wales and the northern counties of England, and demanded aid from the chiefs of the Irish septs. But all his projects were thwarted by civil dissension. In a parliament, which lasted seven weeks, the ordinances were defended by the barons, and opposed by the king: the clergy of both provinces refused an aid: and the earls of Lancaster, Surrey, Warwick, and Arundel, and probably many others influenced by their June 18. example, disobeyed the summons. A week before the day fixed for the surrender of Stirling, Edward marched from Berwick, and though the army was encumbered by a long train of provision waggons and military engines, reached the neighbourhood on the eve of the festival.25 Bruce 25 It is impossible to ascertain the number of Edward's army. By Fordun it is ridiculously multiplied to 340,000 horse, and an equal number of foot. But the verses which he cites as his authority may have a different meaning. Ford. xii. 21. As the most powerful earls did not attend (Wals. 104), and as some others were excused by the royal writs (Rym. iii. 476), it is probable that the cavalry was not as numerous as usual. The Irish do not appear to have arrived. The infantry summoned by writs to the sheriffs amounted to 21,540 men. Rym. iii. 481. Lord Hailes, in opposition to Hume, observes that these footmen were furnished by twelve counties and a few lords; and that if all the counties and barons in 403 IV. had employed the time to make preparations for CHAP. the combat. His army, consisting of thirty thousand picked men, stretched from the burn of Bannock on the right, to the neighbourhood of the castle on the left: 26 and was protected in front by narrow pits dug in the ground, and concealed by hurdles covered with sods, sufficiently strong to bear a man on foot, and sufficiently weak to sink under the weight of an armed knight on horseback. Douglas and the Stewart commanded the centre: Edward Bruce took charge of the right, and Randolf of the left wing. The men of Argyle, of Carrick, and of the isles, composed a body of reserve: and at a distance in a valley lay fifteen thousand followers of the army, whom the king dared not bring into the field, but whom he instructed to shew themselves in the heat of the conflict as a new army hastening to the aid of their countrymen.27 England furnished their quotas in equal proportion, the army must have amounted to an immense number (Annals, ii. 41). But there is no evidence that they did so. The counties in question furnished 14,500 men, because they lay nearest to the enemy: the remaining 7040 were required from Wales, and the marches of Wales, because the king wanted men accustomed to fight in forests and on mountains, and "able to drive the enemy a locis fortibus et morosis, ubi "equitibus difficilis patebit accessus." Rym. iii. 481. 26 Most writers describe the Scots as lying with their front to the south, and Stirling behind them. I have followed lord Hailes, who decided from his own inspection of the ground (ii. 42). It should, however, be observed, that Moor gives the very same position to the English. They fought with the morning sun in their eyes: had they waited till noon, it would have been on their right. Moor, 594. 27 Ford, cura Goodall, p. 256. not. D CHAP. On the eve of the batttle a warm action occurred between the advanced parties of the two June 23. armies, and terminated in favour of the Scots. Bruce with his battle-axe clove the scull of ་ Henry de Bohun, a distinguished knight: and his followers hailed the prowess of their sovereign June 24. as an omen of victory. At daybreak they gathered round an eminence, on which Maurice abbot of Inchaffray celebrated mass, and harangued his hearers on the duty of fighting for the liberty of their country. At the close of his discourse they answered with a loud shout: and the abbot, barefoot, with a crucifix in his hand, marched before them to the field of battle. As soon as they were formed, he again addressed them, and, as he prayed, they all fell on their knees. 66 They kneel," exclaimed some of the English; "they beg for mercy."-"Do not de"ceive yourselves," replied Ingelram de Umfraville, they beg for mercy: but it is only "from God." 28 Battle of Bannockburn. 66 From the discordant accounts of the Scottish and English writers it is difficult to collect the particulars of the battle. The Scots, with very few exceptions, fought on foot, armed with battleaxes and spears. The king appeared in their front, and bore the same weapons as his subjects. The attack was made by the infantry and archers of the English army: and so fierce was the shock, 28 Ford. xii. 21. IV. so obstinate the resistance, that the result long CHAP. remained doubtful. Bruce was compelled to call his reserve into the line: and as a last resource to order a small body of men at arms to attack the archers in flank. This movement decided the fate of the English infantry. They fled in confusion: and the knights with the earl of Glocester at their head rushed forward to renew the conflict. But their horses were entangled in the pits: 29 the riders were thrown: and the timely appearance of the Scots who had been stationed in the valley, scattered dismay through the ranks of the English.30 Edward, who was not deficient in personal bravery, spurred on his charger to partake in the battle: but the earl of Pembroke wisely interposed, and led him to a distance. Giles d'Argentyr, a renowned knight, had hitherto been charged with the defence of the royal person: now, seeing the king out of danger, he bade him farewel, and turning his horse, rode back to the enemy. He cried "An Argentyr,” rushed into the hottest part of the fight, and soon met with that death which he sought.31 It was in the full confidence of victory that Edward had hastened to Bannock-burn: he fled 29 Though Barbour is silent, the fact of many being destroyed in the pits is mentioned by Fordun, xii. 20. and Moor, 594. 30 Quibus ab Anglicis visis, putabant eos fuisse exercitum....qui Anglos ita stupidos, et herentes reddidit, &c. Ford. p. 256. 31 Walsing. 105. Moor, 594. Lel. ii. 547. Mon. Malm. 149, 150. |