Bannockburn Battlefield On History Visit To Stirling Scotland

Tour Scotland short travel video clip, with Scottish music, of Bannockburn Battlefield on ancestry, genealogy, history visit to Stirling. The Battle of Bannockburn took place on 23 and 24 June 1314. The general background to the Battle of Bannockburn is clearly established. The starting point was the accidental death of King Alexander III of Scotland in 1286. When his only heir, his young granddaughter, Queen Margaret, Maid of Norway, then died while sailing back to Scotland from Norway, it left Scotland torn between rival factions. The complex Wars of Independence that followed saw King Edward I fully justify the nickname of The Hammer of the Scots until his death in 1307. Robert the Bruce, or Robert I, had crowned himself King of Scotland in March 1306. The death of Edward I gave Robert a breathing space of several years, during which he sought to consolidate his hold on power in Scotland in the face of the largely ineffectual efforts of King Edward II of England. Edward then hastened to assemble an army of some 18,000 men: probably the largest English army to invade Scotland. They gathered in Berwick on 10 June 1314 and headed north. Late in the afternoon of Sunday 23 June the vanguard of the English army, following the old Roman road from Falkirk to Stirling, arrived at the ford over the Bannock Burn, a couple of miles south of Stirling. On the far side, in the New Park in which the Battle of Bannockburn Visitor Centre stands today, a Scottish army of some 6,000 awaited them. The English vanguard attacked immediately, discovering to their cost that the Scots had placed concealed anti-cavalry ditches across the obvious line of approach. But one knight, Henry do Bohun, did manage to mount a personal attack on Robert, which Robert fought off with an axe. A second English attack, which tried to outflank the Scottish forces via the low lying ground to the east, was also repulsed when it encountered a Scottish schiltron, a formation of spearmen trained to present attackers with an impenetrable barrier of spearpoints. It seems likely that Robert the Bruce only decided to attack the much larger English army after hearing overnight from a defector, Alexander Seaton, that morale in the English camp was very low following their setbacks on the first day and because of arguments between King Edward II and his senior commanders. Whatever the reason for his decision, very early the next morning the Scottish schiltrons emerged from the trees at the foot of Balquhidderock Wood, knelt briefly in prayer, and then advanced steadily on an English army that was forming itself up to attack to the north, towards Stirling Castle, rather than defend against a Scottish attack from the west. Attacks by English mounted knights on the advancing Scots were repulsed, and the small contingent of Scottish cavalry prevented the English deploying their archers effectively. The Scottish advance was unrelenting, and the English army was simply rolled back on itself, into the narrowing and ever more congested area between the Bannock Burn and the Pelstream Burn. Most of the English tried to escape the way they had come, by crossing the Bannock Burn, but in the panic of a rout, may died in the attempt. Edward II only just escaped after the battle: most of the English knights did not. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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