THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.
The county of Stirling has aptly been called the “Battlefield of
Scotland,” for no less than six memorable conflicts have taken place in
this district within historical times. During the wars with England, in
the period of the Stewart sovereigns, the Borders and the neighbourhood
of Edinburgh were the principal scenes of operations; but Stirling
Castle was the centre of hostilities in the stirring days of Wallace
and Bruce. Edinburgh, though an important fortress and town, was not
the capital of the country at the time of the War of Independence. In
later years, the armies of England did not need to advance any further
than Lothian. The heart of Scotland lay south of the Firth of Forth; a
blow struck there was felt throughout the kingdom. But in the beginning
of the fourteenth century no fixed seat of government existed; and thus
the chief aim of the leaders of both nations was to occupy the place of
greatest strategic value. The strong position of Stirling Castle, near
the head of the country’s most important estuary, guarding the fords
of the River Forth, and keeping watch over the passes leading to the
Highlands, made the castle the focus of the military operations of both
the English and the Scots. Seven times in half a century the veteran
fortress changed hands.
When Edward I. agreed to act as arbiter in the case of the
Scottish succession he startled the competitors by demanding their
acknowledgment of his claim to be Lord Paramount of Scotland. The
selfish disputants, each anxious to obtain the prize of even a vassal
kingdom, and not being stirred with the patriotism which was to be
born of the coming struggle, reluctantly consented to admit the
English King’s pretension, while the guardians of the realm apparently
saw no way of avoiding civil war except by concurring in this base
arrangement. It was agreed, therefore, in 1291, that Edward should
have seisine of Scotland and its royal castles until two months after
the award of his arbitrament; and in accordance with this compact a
southerner, named Norman Darcy, was placed in command of Stirling
Castle.
In November, 1292, judgment was given in favour of the feeble John
Balliol, who almost immediately swore fealty to the English King and
who was crowned soon afterwards at Scone. Weak though he was, however,
the new King of Scots could not endure the oppressive exactions of his
overlord. At first he obeyed when his suzerain summoned him to court,
but soon he renounced his allegiance and opened negotiations with
France, thus forming a friendship that developed into a close alliance
to last till the reign of Queen Mary. Edward invaded Scotland with a
powerful army to punish his perfidious vassal. The town of Berwick
was mercilessly sacked, the Scots were defeated by Surrey at Dunbar,
and the English monarch made a triumphal procession through Scotland,
arriving at Stirling in the middle of June, 1296. So dispirited had
John Balliol’s subjects become that the castle garrison fled at the
approach of the invading host, leaving only the porter to deliver the
keys of the fortress to the English King.[12]
[Illustration: THE ABBEY CRAIG AND RIVER FORTH.]
The rise of Wallace inspired the Scots with courage. They required a
man of might to lead them and not a “Toom Tabard,” or empty jacket,
as they called their English-made King. It was a fearless band of
patriots that was posted on the Abbey Craig on an autumn day of 1297,
waiting to swoop down on the troops of Warenne and Cressingham. The
English commanders made the mistake of attempting to cross the Forth
by Stirling Bridge, thus playing into the hands of Wallace, whose
spearmen rushed from the steep hillside and caught their foes in a
trap. A great many of the garrison, including the constable, were slain
or were drowned in this valley of death hardly more than half a mile
from their fortress.[13]
After the defeat, Sir Marmaduke de Twenge endeavoured to hold Stirling
Castle for King Edward, but, receiving no succour from the south,
he was soon obliged to retire from his dangerous seat, leaving it
to Wallace and the Scots. Falkirk, in the following year, avenged
the battle of the bridge. Wallace, with a number of fugitives, fled
to Stirling Castle, but realising the impossibility of holding the
fortress against the English army, he dismantled it and withdrew.
Edward pushed on to Stirling, where he rested for some days to recover
from a kick from his horse, his men being employed in rebuilding the
castle as a station for another English garrison.
Little more than a year elapsed, however, before the Scots laid siege
to the fortress. The defenders appealed to their King for aid; but the
winter had set in, and Edward could not induce his barons to advance
into the heart of Scotland. The only course open to him, therefore, was
to authorise the governor, John Sampson, to surrender. The garrison,
accordingly, some ninety in number, delivered up the stronghold to the
patriots, whose commander’s name of Gilbert Malerbe seems unsuited to
a leader of a band of Scots.[14] This same Gilbert proved faithless to
the Scottish cause, and years afterwards he was hanged at Perth for
treachery to King Robert the Bruce.
The custody of the perilous castle of Stirling was entrusted to the
chivalrous knight, Sir William Oliphant. He must have almost daily
expected his hour of trial to be at hand; but not until 1304 was the
stronghold besieged by King Edward, for on two previous occasions when
he journeyed past Stirling, the King was not prepared to attack the
strongest castle in Scotland. In that year, however, every effort was
made to secure the fortress for England. Oliphant informed the King
that he held the castle for Sir John de Soulis, one of the Scottish
guardians, who was at this time resident in France, and that if Edward
would grant him a truce to enable him to go abroad, he would bring back
word from his superior.
But the King, furious at the stubborn opposition of the Scots, replied:
“To no such terms will I agree; if he will not surrender the castle
let him keep it against us at his peril.” On receiving this answer
the garrison felt that their only course of action was to hold out
to the last extremity. The siege began on the 22nd of April, and for
three months the gallant defenders withstood the attack of the most
formidable artillery which the English King could command. Edward had
written to the Prince of Wales urging him to strip the lead from the
churches of Perth, Dunblane and other places--leaving only the altars
covered--in order to provide weights for the military engines.[15]
He commanded also the Sheriff of York to dispatch forty cross-bowmen
and forty carpenters to Stirling,[16] while the governor of the Tower
of London was required to send north all the ammunition that was
under his care in that arsenal.[17] So anxious indeed was the King
to secure the assistance of his most experienced soldiers, that he
forbade his knights to participate in tournaments without his special
permission.[18]
While the English battered the walls of the castle with stones and
leaden balls, and threw the combustible known as Greek Fire to damage
the engines and injure the men, the defenders kept up a constant
shower of javelins and other missiles. The King himself was struck
by a weapon that lodged in a joint of his armour, and once a large
stone fell so near his horse that the animal took fright and fell
with his royal master. At last the stronghold was rendered untenable,
for the walls were broken down in many places and the food supply was
exhausted; but before the starving survivors of the garrison were
allowed to issue forth, Edward experimented on the long-suffering
fort with his most formidable engine, the War-Wolf. The Queen and her
ladies viewed this assault from an oriel window constructed for the
purpose.[19]
The Scottish historians maintain that Edward broke his word to the
defenders, but they seem to have surrendered unconditionally, not
being in a position to make stipulations. William Oliphant, William de
Dupplin, William de Ramsay, Ralph de Halliburton, Alan de Vipont, John
Napier and others were led half-naked before His Majesty, who spared
their lives, but put them in chains and sent them to various English
prisons. The King entered into possession of the castle on July 24th,
1304.
All the Scottish fortresses were now in Edward’s hands, and in the
following year his arch-enemy, Wallace, was captured and put to death.
But Scotland, though crushed, was by no means conquered, for just at
this time rose Robert Bruce to kindle the almost extinguished sparks
of patriotism into an unquenchable flame. Stirling Castle, however,
remained for ten years in English keeping in charge of various
constables. John Lovel was the first to take over the fortress, but
he was succeeded next year by William Bisset, a Scot in the King of
England’s service. Another Scotsman was Philip Mowbray, who held the
castle for Edward II. after all the other strongholds in the country,
except Berwick and Bothwell, had been won for King Robert the Bruce.
The English tenure ceased the day after the decisive Scottish victory
at Bannockburn.
The great battle that established the freedom of Scotland was fought
almost under Stirling rock. Indeed, to reach the castle itself was
the object of the English invasion. The events leading up to the
conflict are well known. In the spring of 1313, Edward Bruce, brother
of King Robert, invested Stirling, but growing impatient with the
long-protracted siege, he imprudently agreed to the one-sided bargain
which Mowbray audaciously proposed. The compact was that the fortress
should surrender if not relieved by June 24th, Saint John the Baptist’s
Day, in the following year. Edward Bruce’s consent to this arrangement
may have been given in the hope that it would terminate the war by
bringing about a decisive pitched battle. Both nations, at any rate,
prepared for the coming struggle; for it was clear that the duty of the
English monarch was to succour his northern castle, while the Scottish
King’s task was to block the way of any relieving army.
[Illustration: STIRLING CASTLE FROM BANNOCKBURN.]
On June 23rd, 1314, Edward II., with his vast feudal host, amounting,
perhaps, to fifty thousand men, came in sight of Stirling Castle, but
between him and his goal lay Bruce’s Scottish troops, relying not upon
their numbers but upon their valour and the skill of their commanders.
The main body of the English army apparently kept to the low ground
near the Forth, while the advanced guard marched on the higher land to
the south, and encountered the Scots on the border of the New Park.
Here Bruce slew de Bohun in single combat, while Sir Robert Clifford,
with a troop of horse, pushed on to relieve the Castle of Stirling.
Randolph, with a company of spearmen, intercepted this English force,
and after a stubborn engagement drove them back on their own lines.
King Robert’s successful duel and the triumph of Randolph’s men caused
the whole of King Edward’s advanced guard to retreat before the elated
Scots. It was on the next day, the 24th of June, that the armies came
fully into contact. The English had passed the night in the carse,
which in those days, even in summer, was a marshy tract of country.
Barbour, the author of _The Brus_, was told that the Stirling garrison
assisted the movements of the Southrons by carrying doors and shutters
from the castle, under cover of darkness, and laying them over the
numerous pools.
The question of the exact site of the battle has provoked a good deal
of dispute. Tradition favours the ground between the Borestone Hill
and the burn, and this most likely was the scene of the skirmish that
followed the death of de Bohun. The great conflict of the ensuing
day, however, seems to have been fought out on the low land near the
confluence of the Bannock and the Forth, where the English, hemmed in
by the two streams, were unable to take advantage of their superiority
in numbers.[20] The Lanercost chronicler mentions that he heard from an
eye-witness that the English in the rear were unable to fight owing to
the leading division being in the way, and that there was nothing they
could do but take to flight.
Barbour states that after the battle the King of England fled to
Stirling Castle, but was counselled by Mowbray to depart with all
speed, as the place could no longer be held. There are people who
find it impossible to believe this and another statement by the same
writer to the effect that many fugitives sought refuge on the castle
rock, for the most obvious way of retreat would be south-eastwards,
across the Bannock. Great weight, however, must be given to Barbour’s
account, for the poet derived his information from men who had actually
fought in those wars, and in many cases his testimony is corroborated
by other records and documents. The _Scalacronica_ makes Sir Giles de
Argentine urge the King to flee to the castle. The author of that work,
Sir Thomas Gray, no doubt acquired his knowledge from his father, who
witnessed but did not take part in the battle, having been brought by
Randolph to the Scottish camp after the engagement with Clifford. Most
of the fugitives probably escaped across the Bannock, but doubtless
some found their way to the castle past the Scottish left flank; and it
must be remembered that King Robert kept his men well in hand and would
not allow them to begin the pursuit till the day was indisputably won,
lest their foes, realising the strength of their own numbers, should
make a successful rally. History furnishes other examples of portions
of defeated armies retreating round and behind their conquerors. It
is well known that after the Battle of Prestonpans, Sir John Cope’s
soldiers fled in all directions except towards the Firth of Forth.
[Illustration: THE PROSPECT OF STIRLING CASTLE.
From Engraving by Captain John Slezer, _circa_ 1693.]
Stirling Castle surrendered on the following day, and Sir Philip
Mowbray transferred his allegiance to the King of Scots when he handed
over the keys of the fortress. Bruce, in accordance with his policy
of dismantling all strongholds that might harbour English garrisons,
destroyed the fortifications, but in his later years he sometimes
resided within its weakened walls.
Although the War of Independence is usually regarded as having been
brought to a close at Bannockburn, it is more correct to consider the
latter part of Bruce’s reign as a break in the long-enduring struggle.
After King Robert had been laid to rest, Edward Balliol saw his chance
of winning his father’s crown, and soon the King of England advanced
the old claim put forward by his grandfather, The Hammer of the
Scots. Balliol’s victory at Dupplin in 1332 was followed a year later
by the Battle of Halidon Hill, the English revenge of Bannockburn.
Edward III. garrisoned the defenceless castle of Stirling in 1336,
placing Sir Thomas de Rokeby in command. The work of renovation was
straightway begun. New walls were at once constructed, two wells--one
in the castle proper, the other in the nether bailey--were cleared
out and deepened;[21] hall, pantry, kitchen, larder, etc., were all
repaired, and men were employed in Gargunnock Wood in hewing down
trees for the timber-work of the fortress. The Scots were not long
in attacking the strengthened castle, but before the defenders were
reduced to their last extremity, the King of England appeared upon the
scene and immediately raised the siege. Wyntoun and Fordun tell of a
Scottish knight named Keith, who, when attempting to scale the wall,
lost his footing and was killed by falling on his spear. Quantities of
provisions were thereafter sent to Sir Thomas de Rokeby, lest the Scots
should again surround the rock and cut off his supplies.[22] These
precautions were indeed necessary, for the patriots under Robert the
Steward renewed the siege towards the end of 1341, but so well had the
garrison been victualled that not until April of the following year was
it compelled by hunger to capitulate. The English garrison consisted of
Sir Thomas de Rokeby, Sir Hugh de Montgomery, fifty-seven esquires, ten
watchmen and sixty-two archers.[23]
According to Froissart, cannon were employed during this investiture of
Stirling. His statement is not substantiated by any other authority,
but as he was in the habit of enquiring eagerly for details about
the events of which he wrote, and as he visited Scotland before the
generation had passed away that had taken part in these wars, it is
probable that his information is correct. This seems to have been the
first occasion on which gunpowder was used in Scotland, for Barbour
mentions that the town of Berwick was not provided with “gynis for
crakkis” when the English laid siege to it in 1319, but he says that
during the invasion of England in 1327 the Scots saw for the first time
the mysterious “crakkis of wer.”
No further attempts were made by King Edward to regain possession of
Stirling Castle. His efforts to win the crown of France diverted his
attention, and the Hundred Years’ War had already broken out. No second
Bannockburn closed the latter portion of the War of Independence; such
a triumph could not take place under so unpatriotic and degenerate a
King as the son of the valiant Bruce. Yet Scotland wrestled through the
storm, though not until the High Steward had succeeded his worthless
uncle on the throne was the nation safe from the grasping hand of her
more powerful neighbour.