Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn Pt 3

A smaller number than anticipated made it onto the Bannock Burn. They had accidentally found the 'pots' free passage through the carseway, which would place the English precisely where Robert the Bruce planned for them to be.

As soon as they were through, these English knights didn't check that they were covered on their flanks and side. They simply thundered up the New Park to where the Bruce was still marshaling his spearmen. They couldn't even see the bulk of the Scottish army, concealed further along the ridge.

The plan was as easy as it was ill-considered. Each knight counted upon killing the Bruce before the battle even began. Then everyone could go home with Scotland safely held in English hands.

And Robert the Bruce waited.

Sir Henry fixed his lance in position and thundered towards the pretender to the Scottish throne. His confidence must have been immense.

The Bruce didn't even have a sword. He was merely brandishing an old-fashioned war axe, perched upon his insubstantial, little horse. Henry, himself, was mounted on a seasoned, large warhorse, and he was heavily armed.

From the periphery of their vision, both men must have seen the other Scottish generals screaming at their leader to take cover.  But Sir Henry de Bohun was gaining ground way too fast for that.

Robert the Bruce calmed his palfrey and sat still. Even as the English knight closed in, the Bruce did not shift an inch.

Then, at the last possible moment, when it seemed that the lance would skewer him into oblivion, the Bruce's palfrey moved aside.  The lance's deadly point penetrated thin air and unbalanced Sir Henry in his seat.

But the knight was a professional and experienced in both tourney and war.  He recovered swiftly.

Not fast enough. In those seconds of confusion, Robert the Bruce brought his war-axe down, with such a force that it cut through Sir Henry's helmet like a knife in butter. Nor did it stop at his skull.

Sir Henry de Bohun was dead before he hit the ground.

Those at the forefront quickly discovered that their hulking war-horses put them at a disadvantage, when there was little room for maneuver and hardly anyone to watch their backs. These English knights were massacred within seconds.

Survivors amongst the heavy cavalry soon determined that withdrawing was the only option. Where they could escape, they did, and galloped for their lives back across the New Park.

But they were pursued by the ranks of the swelled Scottish infantry, and many fleeing English knights didn't make it.

However, by now, Robert the Bruce was back in the fray and he signaled for a Scottish retreat too. His rationale was that a much larger English army was on the other side of the Bannock. Pursuing them there would undo the great work of all those placement 'pots'. The Scots could only have a chance to win, if they kept the battle site contained within the carseway and the New Park.

To the huge shock of the watching English army, the Scots obeyed the order to withdraw. Those two months of drilling had paid off.  The Celts were disciplined within the rules of Anglo-Norman warfare.

The opening skirmish was an unbridled victory to Robert the Bruce's Scottish Army of Independence.

The two English nobles gathered together a force of over five hundred mounted knights. Their goal was to find a way through the 'pots', thus forging a way to relieve the Stirling Castle garrison. Their route would by-pass the New Park above the Bannock Burn entirely, thus out-flanking the Scots.

This took a fair amount of time. The going was perilously slow, as each section of the roadway had to be checked for brush-covered holes. It was not at all conducive to their habitual cavalry charges.

Back in the New Park, the Scottish scouts didn't notice it occurring. There Robert the Bruce was being harangued by his generals, who were not at all impressed with how vulnerable his position had been at the out-set.

If the Bruce was killed, then the whole cause was lost. It was his head that wore the crown.

Shortly before Sir Robert Clifford and Sir Henry Beaumont finally led their cavalry clear of the carseway traps, Sir Thomas Randolph noticed what they were up to.

He didn't have time to raise a general alarm, but ordered his men into an immediate intervention. It wasn't a cavalry, but a schiltrom of infantry which charged down the escarpment to block the road towards Stirling Castle.

His troops formed a massive shield wall, bristling with spears and pikes, all pointing towards the oncoming English.

It must have been a frightening prospect for those standing there, to see hundreds of horses thundering towards them, knights in full armor riding down upon them.  But Sir Thomas Randolph ordered his Scots to stand firm, and they did.

The English might have been mounted on huge war-horses, but they were still only five hundred men. Nor did they have an easy route to retreat.

Thomas had brought around two thousand spear and pikes-men to form that schiltrom. As soon as the Scots reacted with discipline, it was largely over for the cavalry approaching.

Their horses were impaled upon the pikes and spears, cut down dead from under their riders. Those knights were dressed for mounted warfare, hot and dehydrated from the long journey through the 'pots'. On the ground, they were pretty much sitting ducks.

Meanwhile, the Scottish infantry were rested and highly mobile. They acted as one cohesive band, under the effective command of Sir Thomas Randolph.

In short, the English suffered extremely heavy losses, with their wealthiest nobles taken as prisoners for ransom. Stirling Castle was not relieved, and Scottish morale reached fever pitch.

The first day of Bannockburn was over, and the Scots had won it all so far.