Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/128

 changes of generals indicate distracted counsels which in part account for the uninterrupted success that now attended Bruce's arms.

In the end of 1307 and again in May 1308 unless the chroniclers have made two expeditions of one, he overran Buchan and on 22 May defeated its earl, one of his chief Scotch opponents at Inverury—a soldier's medicine for the illness his hardships had brought on. Fifty years after, when Barbour wrote men still talked of the 'harrying of Buchan.' In the same year Edward Bruce again conquered the Galwegians, and Sir James Douglas took Randolph the king's nephew, prisoner, who afterwards atoned for this apostasy to the national cause by good service. Bruce next turned to Argyll, where the lord of Lorne his principal opponent in the west, met the same fate as the Earl of Buchan, his troops being defeated at the pass of Brander, and Dunstaffnage taken.

In March 1309 a truce with England was made through the mediation of Philip of France and the pope, and Lamberton bishop of St Andrews was released by Edward and allowed to return home, after receiving homage and pledges, which gave hope that he would act in Edward's interest. Further negotiations were carried on for the whole of the following year; but mutual surprises and breaches of the truce rendered it certain that the war was only interrupted.

On 24 Feb 1310 at a general council in Dundee the clergy solemnly recognised Bruce as rightful king of Scotland. It was a sign of the progress he had made that all the bishops joined in this declaration.

In the autumn of this year Edward, with a large force made an expedition into Scotland as far as Linlithgow; but Bruce evaded him and he returned without any material success, though a famine followed the ravages of his troops. A second projected expedition in 1311 did not take place. The next three years were signalised by the reduction of the castles still held by the English in Scotland. Linlithgow had been surprised by the stratagem of a peasant called Binney, in the end of 1310; Dumbarton was surrendered by Sir John Menteith in October 1311; Perth was taken by Bruce himself on 8 Jan 1312. It marked his position that he concluded on 29 Oct. at Inverness with Hakon V a confirmation of the treaty of 1266 between Alexander III and Magnus IV by which the Norwegian king ceded to Scotland the Isle of Man, the Sucheys, and all the other islands 'on the west and south of the great Haf,' except the isles of Orkney and Shetland (Acts Parl. Scot. i, 481). Encouraged by his success, he made a raid into the north of England. On his return he reduced Butel in Galloway, Dumfries, and Dalswinton, and threatened Berwick, where Edward himself was. In March 1313 Douglas surprised Roxburgh, and Randolph Edinburgh; in May Bruce made another English raid, failed to take Carlisle, but subdued the Isle of Man. Edward Bruce had about the same time taken Rutherglen, and Dundee, and laid siege to Stirling, whose governor, Mowbray, agreed to surrender if not relieved before 24 June 1314. All the castles were dismantled or destroyed; for experience had shown they were the points which the English invaders were able longest to hold. By the close of 1313 Berwick, the key to the borders, and Stirling, the key to the highlands alone remained in English hands. The disputes between Edward and his barons were now in some degree allayed by the institution of the lords ordainers and the execution of his favourite Gaveston, and it was felt if Scotland was not to be lost a great effort must be made. Accordingly, on 11 June the whole available forces of England with a contingent from Ireland, numbering in all about 100,000 men of whom 50,000 were archers and 40,000 cavalry, were mustered at Berwick, the Earls of Lancaster, Warenne, Arundel, and Warwick alone of the great feudatories declining to attend in person, but sending the bare contingent to which their feudal obligations bound them. They at once marched to the relief of Stirling, and punctual to the day reached Falkirk on 22 June. A preliminary skirmish on Sunday with the advanced guard, which attempted to throw itself into the town, was distinguished by the personal combat of Bruce, who raising himself in his stirrups from the pony he rode, felled Henry de Bohun with a single blow of his battleaxe. When blamed for exposing himself to danger he turned the subject by lamenting that the axe was broken.

It was the first stroke of the battle, with a direct effect on its issue as well as in history and drama Bruce's troops were one third of the English, but his generalship reduced the inequality. He had chosen and knew his ground—the New Park, between the village of St Ninian and the Bannock Burn, a petty stream yet sufficient to produce marshes dangerous for horses, while the rising ground on his right gave points of observation of the advance ot the English. He divided his troops into four divisions, of which his brother Edward commanded the right, Randolph the centre, Douglas the left; Bruce himself with the reserve planted his standard at the Bore