Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/618

Rh 594 ROBERT on 7th June 1307. By his dying wish the inscription "Edwardus Primus, Scotormn Malleus, Pactum Serva" was put on his tomb. In a moment all was changed. Instead of being opposed to the greatest, Bruce now had as his antagonist the feeblest of the Plantagenets. Quitting Rathlin (after a short stay in Arran), Bruce had before Edward's death attempted to take Turnberry and Ayr, but had failed, though he defeated Pembroke at Loudoun Hill. No sooner was his father dead than Edward II. recalled his banished favourite Gaveston. After wasting the critical moment of the war in the diversions of a youthful court, the new king made an inglorious march to Cumnock and back without striking a blow, and then returned south to celebrate his marriage with Isabella of France, leaving the war to a succession of generals. Bruce, with the insight of military genius, seized his opportunity. Leaving Edward, now his only brother in blood and almost his equal in arms, in Galloway, he suddenly trans- ferred his own operations to Aberdeenshire. In the end of 1307 and again in May 1308 he overran Buchan, where at Inverury on 22d May he defeated its earl, one of his chief Scottish opponents. Then crossing to Argyll he surprised Lord Lorn in the Pass of Brander and took Dunstaffnage. In 1309 a truce, scarcely kept, was effected by the pope and Philip of France, and in 1310, in a general council at Dundee, the clergy of Scotland all the bishops being present recognized Bruce as king. The support given him by the national church in spite of his excom- munication must have been of great importance in that age, and was probably due to the example of Lamberton. The next three years were signalized by the reduction one by one of the strong places the English still held, Lin- lithgow in the end of 1310, Dumbarton in October 1311, Perth by Bruce himself in January 1312. Encouraged by these successes, he made a raid into the north of England, and on his return reduced Butel (in Galloway), Dumfries, and Dalswinton, and threatened Berwick. In March 1313 Sir James Douglas surprised Roxburgh, and Randolph surprised Berwick. In May Bruce was again in England, and, though he failed to take Carlisle, he subdued the Isle of Man. Edward Bruce about the same time took Ruther- glen and laid siege to Stirling, whose governor, Mowbray, agreed to capitulate if not relieved before 24th June 1314. Bruce's rapidity of movement was one cause of his success. His sieges, the most difficult part of mediaeval warfare, though won sometimes by stratagem, prove that he and his followers had benefited from their early training in the wars of Edward I, We know that he had been specially employed by that king to prepare the siege-train for his attack on Stirling. By the close of 1313 Berwick and Stirling alone remained English. Edward II. felt that if Scotland was not to be lost a great effort must be made. With the whole available feudal levy of England, a con- tingent from Ireland, and recruits even out of jails for murderers were pardoned on condition of joining the army he advanced from Berwick to Falkirk, which he reached on 22d June. After a preliminary skirmish on Sunday the 23d, in which Bruce distinguished himself by a per- sonal combat with Henry de Bohun, whom he felled by a single blow of his axe, the battle of Bannockburn was fought on Monday the 24th ; and the complete rout of the English determined the independence of Scotland and confirmed the title of Bruce. The details of the day, memorable in the history of war as well as of Scotland, have been singularly well preserved, and redound to the credit of Bruce, who had studied in the school of Wallace as well as in that of Edward I. He had chosen and knew his ground, the New Park between St Ninian's and the Bannock, a petty burn, yet sufficient to produce marshes dangerous to heavily-armed horsemen, while from the rising ground on his right the enemy's advance va.s seen. His troops were in four divisions ; his brother com- manded the right, Randolph the centre, Douglas the left. Bruce with the reserve planted his standard at the Bore Stone, whence there is the best view of the field. His camp-followers on the Gillies' Hill appeared over its crest at the critical moment which comes in all battles. The plain on the right of the marshes was prepared with pits and spikes. But what more than any other point of strategy made the fight famous was that the Scots fought on foot in battalions with their spears outwards, in a cir- cular formation serving the same purpose as the modern square. A momentary success of the English archers was quickly reversed by a flank movement of Sir Robert Keith. The Scottish bowmen followed up his advantage, and the fight became general ; the English horse, crowded into too narrow a space, were met by the steady resist- ance of the Scottish pikemen, who knew Bruce told them truly that they fought for their country, their wives, their children, and all that freemen hold dear. The English rear was unable to come up in the narrow space or got entangled in the broken ranks of the van. The first re- pulse soon passed into a rout, and from a rout into a headlong flight, in which Edward himself barely escaped. Like Courtrai and Morgarten, Bannockburn marked the momentous change from mediaeval to modern warfare. The armed knights gave place to the common soldiers led by skilful generals as the arbiters of the destiny of nations. In the career of Bruce it was the turning-point. The enthusiasm of the nation he had saved forgot his late adhesion to the popular cause, and at the parliament of Ayr on 25th April 1315 the succession was settled by a unanimous voice on him, and, failing males of his body, on his brother Edward and his heirs male, failing whom on his daughter Marjory and her heirs, if she married with his consent Soon after she married Walter the Steward. The last part of Bruce's life, from 1315 to 1329, began with an attempt which was the most striking testimony that could have been given to the effect of Bannockburn, and which, had it succeeded, might have altered the future of the British Isles. This was no less than the rising of the whole Celtic race, who had felt the galling yoke of Edward I. and envied the freedom the Scots had Avon. In 1315 Edward Bruce crossed to Ireland on the invita- tion of the natives, and in the following year the Welsh became his allies. In autumn Robert came to his brother, and they together traversed Ireland to Limerick. Dublin was saved by its inhabitants committing it to the flames, and, though nineteen victories were won, of which that at Slane in Louth by Robert was counted the chief, the success was too rapid to be permanent. The brothers retreated to Ulster, and, Robert having left Ireland to protect his own borders, Edward was defeated and killed at Dundalk in October 1318. On his return Bruce ad- dressed himself to the siege of Berwick, a standing menace to Scotland. While preparing for it two cardinals arrived in England with a mission from Pope John XXII. to effect a truce, or, failing that, to renew the excommunication of Bruce. The cardinals did not trust themselves across the border; their messengers, however, were courteously received by Bruce, but with a firm refusal to admit the bulls into his kingdom because not addressed to him as king. Another attempt by Newton, guardian of the Friars Minor at Berwick, had a more ignominious result. Bruce admitted Newton to his presence at Aldcamus, where he might see the works for the siege going on by night and day, and was informed that Bruce would not receive the bulls until his title was acknowledged and he had taken Berwick. On his return Newton was waylaid and his papers seized, not without suspicion of Bruce's connivance.