Battle: Bannockburn, June 23-24, 1314

Edward II's reign was one crisis after disaster after drama but this battle in the otherwise costly endemic wars between Scotland and England was one of the lowest points of Edward's reign, both in men and money, as well as national and dynastic pride.

Each time the English concluded a campaign in Scotland, they liked to think that Scotland was conquered for good.  And, each time, the Scots rose under a new leader and gave them a nasty surprise.  Edward I's victories at Dunbar (1296), the Siege of Berwick (1296)) and Falkirk of 1297 gave the English much reason to think they had the job done this time.  Wallace had won a victory at Stirling Bridge (1297), but the English had captured and killed him and removed one claimant from the Scottish throne.  They had reckoned without Robert Bruce, a former vassal of Edward I's who had thrown in his lot with his native country in an effort to win the empty Scottish throne for himself.  Bruce, assisted by his brothers Edward, Thomas and Nigel began the piecemeal work of taking Scotland back.  Edward Bruce besieged the English garrison at Stirling Castle in 1314 and Edward II, never a keen military man, knew he had to answer the challenge.

Robert Bruce was aware that Edward II was on his way and began gathering his army.  Estimates of the two armies vary.  Probably, Edward II's army consisted of 2,000 cavalry and 15,000 infantry.  The Scots had 7-10,000 infantry, with maybe 500 cavalry.  On paper, Bruce's chances did not look good.  Bruce divided his army into three divisions known as schiltrons, each surrounded by pikemen meant to drive away the English cavalry.  Though archers were present in both armies, they relied primarily on slingers and crossbowmen.  Though a modern visitors center, monument and statue proclaim what many to believe the site of the battle, near Bannock, Scotland, the actual combat may have taken place nearby.  Unlike many Medieval battles, this one would take two days to complete. 

One the first day, the English vanguard under the Earls of Gloucester and Hereford advance, meeting up with a small Scottish advance led by Robert Bruce.  Bruce directed his attention to Hereford's nephew, Henry de Bohun, who charged at him.  Using his battle-ax, Bruce split de Bohun's head through his helmet, "knave to the chops", as one writer later put it.  Hereford and Gloucestor hurried to cross back over the small burn or stream, which gave the battle its name.  Another English advance then tried its luck, meeting up with the Scots vanguard under the Earl of Moray.  Thomas Gray, whose father Thomas Gray de Heaton was one of the leaders of this second English advance, later wrote of the mayhem caused when the English knights threw themselves against Moray's tightly packed formation with its pikemen and were scattered, several prominent English knights being killed or taken prisoner.

The English decided to regroup and try their luck next day.  They crossed the Bannockburn and encamped on the plain nearby, ready to advance next morning.  Robert Bruce received a tip from a Scottish knight who threw off his English alliance and deserted, informing Bruce that English morale was low.  At sunrise, Bruce had his spearmen on the move toward the English positions.  Edward II was surprised at the size of Bruce's force and at the fact that they dropped to their knees before continuing their advance.  "They cry for mercy," he said.  "They cry for mercy," an advisor replied," but from God, not you."  Bruce's spearmen finished their devotions, got on their feet and kept on coming.  Gloucester and Hereford chose that moment to quarrel about who should lead the vanguard.  When Gloucester threatened to sit out the battle altogether, Edward II accused him of cowardice.  The English mustered up a hurried and ill-planned charge against Bruce's pikes. 

It didn't go well.  The pikemen penned down the English knights.  English longbow men tried to get into the battle, but inflicted casualties on their own side, only making the mayhem worse.  The Scots Earl Marischal, Robert Keith, had mounted men at arms on lighter horses.  They road into the English and Welsh bowmen and disbursed them easily enough.  As the confusion worsen, the top priority became to get Edward II out of the area before he was captured.  The Earl of Pembroke and Giles d'Argentan guided Edward away from the fighting and turned back to join the battle.  Both were killed.  The king's flight led to fear and panic in the English lines.  Little by little the English resistance dribbled away before turning into a full-scale route.  According to sources at the time, about 7,000 English men at arms lost their lives.  So did several high profile English knights including the Earl of Gloucester, d'Argentan, one of the most famous knights in Europe at the time, Robert, Baron de Clifford, Henry de Bohun, William Marshal, descendant of Richard I's jousting partner, with the Earl of Hereford, Baron Seagrave, Baron Berkeley and others being taken prisoner.

The route of Edward's army and its pell-mell flight back to England opened up the North of England to raids from the Scots, which were not long in coming.  It also enabled Bruce to try to set up a satellite kingdom in Ireland.  Edward II would spend the rest of his hard-luck reign trying to clean up these messes, draining England's finances and deepening his own rifts with the barons and other members of his own Plantagenet family.  The English never stopped trying to get into Scotland.  There would be other battles and skirmishes just as bloody, but this was the first.