A History of Britain, Volume 1 by Simon Schama

Author:Simon Schama
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2009-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

So as they emerged from the woods into the sight of the English, the Scots soldiers knelt to pray. Seeing this, amidst general merriment Edward asked his entourage: ‘What! Will those Scots fight?’ On being assured they would, the king assumed they were kneeling for mercy and was told by one of his Scots allies that they did, indeed, seek mercy, ‘not from the king but from God’.

From the beginning it was apparent that this was to be no repeat of Falkirk. Under the impact of the first tremendous charge, led by the Earl of Gloucester, the schiltrons stood fast, inflicting enormous damage by aiming their spears first at horses, then at the fallen riders. They were impenetrable to the mounted knights, and only the archers might have been able to break the tight cohesiveness of the schiltrons, but they were kept in the rear of the English attack until the battle was well under way. Perhaps it was hard to believe that, sooner or later, the repeated charges of the knights would not take their toll, as they had at Falkirk. When it became evident that this was not going to happen, the archers were belatedly moved up into firing position, but their passage was blocked by the debris of fallen horses and men, giving time for the small, mobile troop of Scottish cavalry to attack them headlong. Scattering, the Welsh and Gascon bowmen were taken out of the battle, and the conflict turned into an elemental hacking between the spears and axes of the Scots and the swords and lances of the knights. ‘Many a mighty splendid blow was struck by both sides until blood burst out of the coats of mail and ran streaming down into the earth.’ Gradually, the English vanguard became unhorsed, lost its coherence and turned into a disorganized mass, trapped between the now slowly advancing schiltrons and the deep, muddy ditch of the burn. At some point in the afternoon an irregular crowd of Scottish peasants and yeomen, whom Bruce had kept in reserve sensing that the English were on the defensive, and who were armed with flails, hammers and pitchforks, charged down towards the fray. In the confusion the English commanders might well have imagined this to be a second and fresh Scots army. More to the point, they were certain that the king was now in personal peril and urged flight before he was captured or killed.

Edward II, who had certainly not shrunk from combat and who had had horses killed under him, was finally persuaded to depart. He left behind on the battlefield his personal shield and seal (later gallantly returned by King Robert), his personal belongings and clothes, what was left of his reputation as a battle captain and 4000 dead – English, Welsh, Gascon and Scots enemies of the Bruces. The burn was ‘so choked that men could pass over it with dry feet on the bodies of horses and men’. ‘Maydens of Englonde, sore may ye morne,’ wrote the Scots author of Fabyan’s Chronicles.

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