A Tale of Two Edwards

There are days of the year that seem to attract great events. It's perhaps not as mysterious as some might make it. For instance, many battles cluster around dates from late spring to early autumn for the simple reason that, historically, it was hard to do battle in two feet of snow. The campaign season tended to gear up again as forests and roads became easier for cavalry and men on foot to traverse. 

June 24 is one such date. It is in fact one of the most eventful of dates:

• 1314: The Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland
• 1340: The Battle of Sluys, England's naval victory
• 1509: Coronation of that most devoted of husbands, Henry VIII
• 1876: The Battle of Little Bighorn, General Custer's great defeat

There are a great many more battles that happened on that date. In addition to battles, June 24 is the traditional Midsummer Day of Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night's Dream. 

It is also the feast of St. John the Baptist.

If I were writing the story, I'd say that Robert the Bruce, being a devout man who ordered the relics of saints to be brought to battle, chose the feast of John the Baptist as an auspicious day for battle. However, I'm not writing the story, only relaying it. The truth is, June 23 just happened to be the day Edward II of England arrived. 

History, the more you study it, is really the story of personalities, egos, decisions. Behind Bannockburn lay the claim of Edward I to be Overlord of Scotland. That's another story. When he died on July 7, 1307--an early birthday gift to the Bruce, who turned 33 just four days later--his last wishes were to command his son, the not-so-highly regarded and largely incompetent Edward II, to carry his bones (or his heart, according to which version you hear) before the army as he conquered Scotland. And here's where the two Edwards come in. (Counting Edward I, that actually makes three. That's why we're not counting him.)

[For a deeper look at where it really started, see It All Started with Alexander and Longshanks.]

Edward II ignored his request. Instead of conquering Scotland, he occupied himself with fighting for the political elevation of Piers Gaveston, which led to fighting with his barons, who had nowhere near the affection for Piers that Edward, Jr. did. (Spoiler: it didn't end well for Piers.)

In the seven years Edward ignored his father's dying wish to conquer those pesky Scots, Robert the Bruce steadily took back all the Scottish castles Edward, Sr. had taken, until only Stirling remained.

Robert the Bruce sent his younger brother, Edward, to retake it. Edward Bruce had proven his ability to take castles: Galloway, Dumfries, Buittle, Dalswinton, Rutherglen, Perth, and Dundee. It was his personality that made him so good at taking castles. He was bold, fearless, and a risk-taker. 

He had one other quality that led to Scotland's greatest battle: impatience. Had Robert sent a patient man, it likely wouldn't have happened. However, Edward Bruce was impatient. Though he was good at siege warfare, he didn't like sitting still, especially as the siege of Stirling stretched out, longer than any he'd ever conducted. So, he made a deal with the English commander of Stirling:

If the absent Edward didn't show up by Midsummer's Day to relieve Mowbray, Mowbray would surrender and give up the castle to Edward Bruce. Robert, on hearing of the deal was not happy with his brother. In years of battling the much larger, better equipped, and more powerful England, he had survived by refusing to meet the English head-on. He had excelled at guerilla warfare. Now, if Edward of England came north, he would be forced to pit his smaller, ill-equipped troops against the most powerful army in the world, face to face.

One might have wondered if the English Edward's disinterest in Scotland would continue as it had for the previous seven years. Several factors motivated him to act, for a change:

1. Stirling was the last Scottish castle held by the English; it's loss meant England would lose Scotland entirely. Bruce's final and complete victory would be Edward's humiliation.
2. The Mowbray-Bruce pact laid down a hard deadline. It forced the English Edward into Now or Never. If he didn't act now, he would lose the last of the castles his father had taken, without even putting up a fight and he would be squarely blamed.
3. In the seven years since his father's death, he had alienated his barons, failed to lead any successful campaign against Scotland (or any campaign at all), and allowed Bruce to strip away all his father had gained. It was politically necessary, especially if he hoped to gain any credibility at all with his barons.
4. The barons themselves demanded he take action.

And so, about June 10-12, Edward headed north to Newcastle. where he gathered a massive force of 15,000-20,000. It was the largest English force ever to be sent to Scotland. It consisted of large war horses, a massive supply train that stretched for miles, and dozens of nobles and knights. He crossed the border, it is believed, on June 17, 1314. He reached Stirling with only hours to spare, on June 23. There he faced Robert the Bruce's meager army of approximately 5,000. It should have been an easy victory.

The first clashes took place that day. They did not bode well for England. A young English noble, Henry de Bohun, saw Robert the Bruce, king of Scots, across the field and saw his moment, not only of personal glory but of demoralizing the Scots before the battle even began. He charged, on his massive warhorse, against the king on his small garron. Things did not go well for poor Henry. Within minutes, he lay dead and the morale boost went to the Scots.

The following day, June 24, saw the bulk of the battle. While Robert the Bruce was forced into face-to-face battle, army against army, his years of guerilla warfare still came in handy. He was able to choose the ground where he would meet the English Edward, forcing them to do battle on ground damp with the nearby rivers, such that their heavy warhorses became a disadvantage, while the Scots' smaller, lighter garrons could maneuver over the soggy area.

He prepared the land, before Edward arrived, with murder pits disguised with foliage, into which charging horses would fall, and caltropes littering the ground, to stab the horses' hooves and disable them.

Bruce had been quite displeased with the Scottish Edward for forcing the confrontation. However, the end result, against all odds, was that a small, poorly armed force bested the mightiest English army to ever come against Scotland, sending the English Edward running from the field and having to be whisked away to safety. The unwanted confrontation became Scotland's greatest victory ever and sealed Robert's name as the greatest king of Scots in the history of the nation.

~ ~ ~

If you would like to follow this blog, sign up HERE

If you like an author's posts, please click like and share

It helps us continue to do what we do

If you like this article, you may also like:

Strategy at Bannockburn

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

The Bruce Brothers

If you'd like to see more of our animals at Glenmirril, check out my blog there.

If you'd like notecards, puzzles, and more with our Farm Photography, check out our store at Zazzle.

Find the Blue Bells Chronicles at amazon or order them at any brick & mortar store: