The Battle of Bannockburn 1314. What Caused it?
A look at why it happened and who was involved
Edward II had last invaded Scotland in the years 1309 and 1310, but every time he rode north, the Scots seemed to disappear into the landscape after laying waste to everything in Edward's path. Therefore, without an army to fight and a lack of supplies from Bruce's scorched earth policy, the English army was forced to march back home again. These campaigns, like those his father waged before him, were very costly financially. In fact Edward was so broke that he couldn't even pay his troops.
Edward’s favourite, Gaveston, Causes Division Amongst the Nobility
This, of course, did not weigh very favourably with his barons. Many were already in opposition to the showering of affection, gifts and the title of the Earl of Cornwall on his favourite, Piers Gaveston, and the latest miserable state of financial affairs did nothing to strengthen Edward's hand against those who already saw him as a weak and inefficient ruler.
At the Parliament of 1311 it all came to a head, and the majority of his barons drew up a list of Ordinances - things they wanted changed about the way the country was run - and presented them to Edward. One of these Ordinances was that Gaveston should be sent into exile (again! He had already been exiled twice before). Edward raged and ranted against the imposition but in the end had no choice but to accept the barons' demands.
Gaveston was exiled to Flanders but returned secretly after three months, most probably to see his newborn daughter (but also, of course, to be with Edward!). When the barons heard of this, they turned on Edward and demanded that Gaveston be handed over to them and and put on trial for coming back to the realm illegally. Instead of bowing to their demands, Edward fled north and left Gaveston (who had become ill) at Scarborough castle while he rode south again to try to raise an army. While he was away, Gaveston surrendered to the earl of Pembroke who had promised that he would be safely conducted to London. While Pembroke was trying to be his usual honourable and moderate self, the earls of Lancaster, Warwick and Hereford had other ideas. On an overnight stop off, Pembroke left his prisoner with a guard while he visited his wife; Gaveston was seized by Warwick's men and taken to his castle. There he was given a summary trial and taken out to a piece of nearby land owned by Lancaster where he was beheaded.
A distraught and angry Edward vowed vengeance on those who had taken his beloved's life, creating worse fractures in the governance of the realm than there had been before.
Robert Bruce Takes Advantage
In Scotland, Robert Bruce, who had had himself crowned king of that land in 1306, watched with interest as England's dysfunctional nobility shook itself apart. With Edward in a severely weakened position he had no fears of an imminent attack from England and so began to raid its northern borders with impunity, reaching as far as the Palatinate of Durham. The people of the borders, realising that there would be no help from their king, were forced into a 'truce' with Bruce, paying him 'protection money' not to attack them.
In the meantime, Bruce busied himself with retaking the strongholds that Edward still held in Scotland. Castle by castle, they fell to his surprise attacks or sieges. Once the castle was taken, Bruce gave orders for it to be destroyed so that it could not be manned against him by the English again. Throughout 1313-14, Bruce and his commanders took the town of Perth, and the castles of Roxburgh and Edinburgh. The oft disputed border town of Berwick, though, managed to hold out after a Scottish night attack was discovered when a dog started barking.
The Siege of Stirling Castle
After the fall of Edinburgh castle, Bruce turned his attention to Stirling Castle - a formidable fortress important for its strategic position on the Roman road from England to Scotland. He entrusted its capture to his brother, Edward - an experienced general and veteran of many battles. However Stirling was built to withstand a long siege and Bruce lacked the siege weapons needed to bombard its walls. Realising this, Edward Bruce came to a truce with the castle's custodian, Philip Mowbray, that Mowbray would surrender the castle without a fight if it was not relieved by Edward II by 24th June the next year (1314). Philip de Mowbray was actually Scottish by birth, but during 1314, he was in service to the English. At the time of the truce, there was no question about his loyalty to the English crown, but he later defected to the Scots and died alongside Edward Bruce at the Battle of Faughart in 1318.
This chivalric agreement did not find favour at all with Robert Bruce, but the deal had been struck and now both sides had to make the best of it. Edward II meanwhile, had made his own truce with the rebel barons, even Lancaster and Warwick, and decided the time had come to go to war against Scotland again. Ostensibly this was to relieve the border lands from Bruce's oppression, but it was also to an opportunity to prove his strength as a king to those who had opposed him. After all, if he won a victory in Scotland, no-one would be able to criticise his rulership again. And so it was that Edward II and Robert Bruce started to prepare their respective armies for the coming clash at Midsummer.
The English Army
By the autumn of 1313, Edward and his rebellious barons and earls had entered into an uneasy truce, which found Edward even forgiving those who had had Gaveston murdered (probably with his fingers crossed behind his back!). Some had been easier to persuade back into the fold: Pembroke and Gloucester had been disgusted by the actions of Lancaster and Warwick, and Hereford, too, seems to have had enough of opposing the king. Lancaster and Warwick, despite their pardons, still seemed to hold a grudge, a fact which became obvious very shortly.
With his nobility seemingly under control again, Edward had the chance to look towards Scotland and the plight of those suffering Bruce's oppression through raiding and protection money. The people of the north had sent him a letter begging for help and now it seemed that Edward was determined to do something about it, as well as relieve Stirling castle.
As early as November 1313, the king sent out writs to his earls and barons, ordering that they attend a muster at Berwick on Tweed by 10th June 1314. On March 9th demands were sent to the counties of the Midlands and the north for 4500 men, but this was superseded by another writ on March 24th for a levy of 16,000 foot from 13 counties. Throughout the rest of March more orders were issued: north and south Wales were to provide 5000 archers and spearmen, and Edward also sought help from the Irish. A summons was sent to the earl of Ulster and other Anglo-Irish and Irish lords. It is known that Ulster answered the call, and would have brought men with him, but it is less clear how many other Irishmen were at the battle.
If, in a perfect world, if the levies had been filled and there were no deserters, then Edward could have expected to have had around 21,600 infantry and archers mustering at Berwick. However, it is certain that nowhere near that number actually got there. Sheriffs, overseeing the levy, were often unable to find enough men fit enough and of the right age. There was also a high rate of desertion at all stages.
Historians' estimates of the final number at Bannockburn range from about 5000 - which I think is far too low - to 16,000. This latter figure, based on previous summons and numbers of troops at muster is the most likely to be close to the actual number. It is also difficult, in the absence of specific records, to estimate the ratio of archers (both longbow and crossbow) to spearmen, as they are often both termed as 'infantry'. It is thought though, that Edward certainly had a large contingent of archers, the only effective weapon against Scottish schiltroms, as show in the battle of Falkirk in 1298.
The Cavalry
As with the infantry, it is impossible to know an exact number of mounted troops who fought for Edward at Bannockburn. In 1314, the cavalry charge was still the main method used for attacking an enemy - and usually the most effective. Edward had one of the best trained and equipped cavalries in Europe, something that should have been an asset to him against Bruce. For other battles, a fairly accurate estimate of mounted knights can be made through marshals' rolls, scutage and lists of warhorses taken to the campaign (as well as accounts of recompense for any horses lost afterwards). But for Bannockburn, we have none of these, mainly because there was no formal consent by parliament for raising the feudal host.
However, a start can be made by looking at the names of earls and barons that were there and coming up with at least a minimum number of the mounted troops they brought with them under their feudal duty to military service. From the accounts of contemporary chroniclers we know that five of Edward's earls, despite the peacemaking that had previously taken place, refused to attend in person. Instead Lancaster, Warwick, Arundel, Surrey and Oxford sent only the minimum troops required under the terms of their feudal duty. This means that these men, some of the mightiest in the realm, with some of the largest retinues, sent only about 60 knights to aid their king. Another small number of knights were also sent by prelates owing feudal service. This made a total of 150 from those two sources.
Luckily, Edward still had other earls and barons who stayed loyal and were present at Bannockburn, and they brought larger contingents of mounted troops with them. One record in the Rotuli Scotiae (Rolls of Scotland) does help us know the names of some of the knights present as contained in it are letters of protection for the earls of Gloucester and Hereford and other nobility, as well as nearly 900 men riding with them (their knights, esquires and lightly armoured horse-soldiers). However, this is not all of Edward's cavalry. Historian John Edward Morris has speculated that in addition to these names there would probably have been at least another 1000 -1500 mounted troops, making Edward II's cavalry around 2000-2500 in strength - a formidable killing machine when let loose on a battlefield.
Foreign Mercenaries
In most battles you find foreign mercenaries, and Bannockburn was no exception. In his epic poem The Brus, John Barbour mentions that the English numbers were swelled by knights from France, Gascony, Flanders, Germany and Brittany as well as Aquitaine and Bayonne. Again, we have no record of the actual numbers, but they are probably of no great significance.
The Scottish Army
The army opposing Edward II was different to his own. The wilder landscape of Scotland and guerilla tactics that Bruce was so fond of dictated a different kind of soldier. Heavy horse cavalry was useless on mountainous, wooded and boggy ground, so this was one element of contemporary warfare that Bruce didn't possess. Instead he maintained a smaller contingent of lighter horses, with lightly armoured troops that could cope with the conditions that Bruce fought under. His men were mostly toughened, experienced fighters, used to discipline and working as a team. His commanders, too, accepted Bruce's command and did not fight amongst themselves to the detriment of the rest (unlike Edward's). Morale was high: Bruce knew the landscape well around Stirling, controlled the high ground on the approach and had time to drill his troops into a co-ordinated, deadly fighting force.
This was just as well, as Bruce was at a disadvantage when it came to numbers and equipment. Barbour mentions that Bruce had 6000 men in the field, however it is possible that he under-reported the number in order to enhance Bruce's reputation and victory. Once more we have to fall back on calculated guesswork. It has been estimated that, at that time, the total population of Scotland would have been around 400,000. G.W.S. Barrow estimates that out of that number around 80,000 to 100,000 would have been men of fighting age. However, nowhere near that number would have been able to have been called up, supplied and trained. Barrow is of the opinion that the largest number of men that Bruce could have practically fielded is 10,000, and that to have repulsed the English cavalry so proficiently, the ratio of Scot to English had to be at least 1:2.
The main weapon of the Scottish infantry was the long, iron tipped pike (used to such brutal effect in the schiltrons), axes and swords. Bruce had archers too, but fewer than Edward's number of bowmen. As mentioned earlier, Bruce also had a small contingent of 500 light horse commanded by his marshal Sir Robert Keith. These animals were certainly not destriers because, as mentioned before, they were pretty useless on much of the Scottish landscape, plus a destrier's need for large amounts of good food would have been problematical in the harsh Scottish winter. Bruce's beasts were probably tough moor ponies, used to tough conditions, easy to manoeuvre, and inexpensive to keep.
Wow, you're on fire at the moment! ;-) Two terrific, informative posts in two days! Just brilliant.
Fantastic account, with an incredible amount of detail.