Arcadia Scotland

This Sunday marks the 705^th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn, a turning point in the First Scottish War of Independence, and one of the most iconic moments in the nation’s history. The death of Alexander III without heir in 1286 had created a conflict over who should succeed to the throne, with the Balliol, Bruce and Comyn families all making claims. The English king Edward I was asked to intervene in the matter, an ultimately fateful decision that would put the two kingdoms on the path of war. Edward I recognised the claim of John Balliol, an ultimately weak king known to his detractors as Toom Tabard (empty coat). As Edward systematically undermined the position of Balliol, the Scots appointed a council of guardians and negotiated an alliance with England’s old enemy France. In response Edward invaded Scotland in 1296 and quickly defeated the Scots at Dunbar, forcing Balliol to abdicate.

Edward’s rule over Scotland did not go unchallenged however. William Wallace led a rebellion in 1297, which only ended in 1305 when he was captured and executed. The death of Edward I the following year, and the ascension of his inexperienced son Edward II, did however provide the Scots with an opportunity. The cause of Scotland was left to Robert the Bruce, a somewhat unlikely hero given that he had ascended the throne after killing his closest rival in the sacred grounds of a Church. After several years of guerrilla warfare, the stage was set for a more decisive engagement in 1314 when the Scots lay siege to Stirling Castle. The castle’s English garrison agreed that they would surrender to the Scots by mid-summer if no help arrived.

Edward II eager to put an end to Bruce’s rebellion marched into Scotland with the largest English army ever to cross the border. Although there is some debate on the exact location of the battle, it is agreed that the engagement took place near the town of Bannockburn just south of Stirling. The battle began with Bruce himself killing the English knight Sir Henry de Bohun in single combat. Bruce apparently gave little significance to the affair, and merely lamented breaking the shaft of his axe on De Bohun’s skull.

Under Bruce an estimated 6,000 Scots faced an English army of 2,500 cavalry and 15,000 infantry. Decisive to the Scots’ victory was the terrain of the battlefield; the surrounding area was intersected with small streams, or burns, which severely limited the effectiveness of the English cavalry. Another factor in the Scot’s victory was the use of the schiltron formation, essentially a line several men deep with long spears, ideal for combating England’s superior cavalry. The fighting lasted two days and would leave over 10,000 dead, with many of the retreating English soldiers drowning in the battlefield’s many burns. Although Edward II escaped the battle, his ambitions in Scotland were put on hold, and his reputation as an effective ruler was irreparably damaged.

Victory at Bannockburn greatly helped to legitimise Bruce’s rather tenuous claim to the throne. Indeed the Declaration of Arbroath (1320) asserted that Bruce’s right to rule was dependent on him protecting Scotland’s sovereignty from English domination. The text reads: ‘Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours.’ Some have interpreted this as an early manifestation of ‘Popular Sovereignty’, and have even gone so far as to suggest that Arbroath influenced the American Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Although Scotland’s independence would not be affirmed until the Treaty of Edinburgh in 1328, today the Battle of Bannockburn is widely regarded as a watershed in the nation’s history. The battle itself is commemorated in Robert Burn’s Scot’s Wha Hae, and even in our national anthem Flower of Scotland. For anyone who wants to learn more about Bannockburn the National Trust for Scotland operate a visitor centre near the site of the battle, where you can see a 3-D exhibit of the battle, re-enact the fighting with the battle game, and try on Medieval armour and weaponry.