The Path to the Throne by H. A. Culley

Author:H. A. Culley [Culley, H. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orchard House Publishing
Published: 2014-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

At that moment William Wallace and Andrew Murray were watching as the English host spilled on the boggy plain below Stirling Castle. The latter very soon realised that they could only make slow and laborious progress away from the muddy road that bisected the plain. This led to a narrow wooden bridge over the River Forth and it was on the north bank of the river that the Scots had drawn up their meagre forces.

Wallace and Murray waited until nearly half of the English had crossed before they launched their attack. At this stage Hugh Cressingham, the Treasurer, was with the advance guard of about five hundred knights and five thousand infantry had reached the far bank, whilst the Earl of Surrey with the main body was still south of the river. The Scots were armed with long pikes and advanced steadily in schiltron formation. Schiltrons were large circles several ranks deep and consisted of one to two thousand men carrying twelve foot long pikes. They resembled hedgehogs and were almost invulnerable to attack except by archers. Unfortunately for the English, their archers were still on the far bank and couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting their own men.

The knights couldn’t charge into them because the pikes would kill their horses before their riders could get within range to use their lances and the infantry had the same problem with their spears and halberds. They were just too short.

Gradually the Scots forced the English back. The pikes were unwieldy but moving slowly enabled the Scots to keep formation, even when they were treading on the bodies of dead horses and men. Some were only wounded and managed to wound or kill the odd Scot before they had their throats cut. Soon there was nowhere for the English to go so they were either forced into the River Forth, where many of them drowned, or else they attempted to fight their way back over the bridge against the tide of men still trying to join in the battle. Eventually the weight of numbers on the wooden bridge was too much for it and the central span gave way, spilling hundreds of men in armour into the swirling waters of the Forth.

Seeing this the remainder of the knights caught on the wrong side of the river tried to flee but the Scots cavalry, more lightly armoured and mounted on more agile steeds in the boggy conditions, soon caught up with them and killed or captured many before the rest reached the ford two miles further upstream and splashed across the river to safety. One of those killed was Longshanks’ Treasurer of Scotland, Sir Hugh Cressingham.

Eventually John de Warenne acknowledged that the day was lost and led his remaining men back to Edinburgh. It was a tremendous victory for Wallace. Some five thousand of Warenne’s men had been killed or badly wounded, including two hundred knights, whereas the Scots had few casualties. The one thing that put a damper on the Scots’ celebrations

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