Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Battle of Bannockburn was that such a fuU-scale confrontation between the amiies of Robert Bruce and Edward II ever took place. For his part,
Robert Bruce had learned the lesson of Falkirk (1298) and,
Aware of his force’s deficiencies, a lack of knights and a shortage of archers, had engaged primarily in surprise attacks and ambushes. The English chronicler’s comment in 1310 that Bruce ‘fled in his usual manner’ was as true after Bannockburn as before. Edward II, for different reasons, i. e. political squabbles in England and poor financial resources, avoided major confrontation. He soon abandoned the 1307 Scottish campaign organised by his father shortly before his death. Further, he failed to fulfil
Promises to his supporters in Scotland to mount military campaigns in
Both 1308 and 1309. When an expedition eventually materialised in 1310, it seemed less to safeguard the interests of his Scottish adherents than to protect Edward’s own political interests and the safety of Piers Gaveston from opposition in England. The 1310-11 campaign had a fairly restricted agenda — chiefly to consolidate English garrisons south of the Forth (though his army did, at one stage, reach Perth) — and started too late in the year to have any chance of pursuing and catching Robert Bruce.
As has been seen, Edward II was finally prompted into decisive action by Robert Bruce’s threat to his enemies in Scotland, in October 1313, to swear fealty to him as their king or be disinherited. Given Edward IPs failure since 1307 to respond adequately with military force to increasingly desperate pleas for assistance from Scottish opponents of Bruce, Edward II was now threatened with the entire collapse of his support in Scotland. He thus announced, on 28 November 1313, that he would arrive with an army in Scotland by 24 June 1314. As far as Robert Bruce was concerned, his piecemeal conquest of Scotland was progressing perfectly satisfactorily on his own terms as key castles of Linlithgow, Roxburgh, Perth and Edinburgh fell into his hands and his support in the country seemed to be growing. It was, by accident, that he was forced into a confi-ontation with Edward IPs anny as a result of his brother Edward’s arrangement, made with the constable of Stirling Castle, to surrender that castle by 24 June if it was not relieved by Edward’s army. Robert Bruce had left the siege of Stirling, which began during Lent 1314, and was undoubtedly angry' with his brother’s actions
Robert Bruce's statue, Stirling Castle. After Bruce’s victory at Bannockburn, he took Stirling Castle and proceeded to dismantle its fortifications.
World History
