Bannockburn

Author- Eleanor of Castile

Disclaimer-I don’t own any of the characters from Scottish history as they all belong to themselves.

Rating- K

Summary- The story of the Battle of Bannockburn, the most famous of King Robert’s battles.

Characters

Robert- King of Scots

James- James ‘The Black’ Douglas who was one of Robert’s generals.

Thomas- Thomas Randolph was Robert’s nephew and a general of the Scottish army.

Edward Bruce- Brother of Robert Bruce

King Edward of England- Led the English army at Bannockburn.

Bannockburn-24th June 1314

Light seemed to steal slowly over the carse that summer morning and the damp mist still hung thickly in the air.

The Scottish king had risen early, and stood on the hillside to watch the vast army that had assembled beneath him. He smiled to himself as he realised that his English counterpart, stationed on the boggy marshland at the foot of the hill, must have spent a far less comfortable night than himself. James had insisted on stealing down to the enemy camp during the night and, though Robert had been against it, the news he had returned with had caused much laughter amongst the small Scottish force. By all accounts, the English cavalry, certain of a night attack by the Scots, had stood all night in their armour, which had even begun to rust because of the wet ground!

"Admiring the view my lord?" A voice called to the King from a short distance away and Robert turned to find the said James Douglas climbing steadily uphill towards him.

He laughed. "I was hoping they’d had a good nights sleep!" He liked James, he’d known him for seven years now, or was it eight? He couldn’t quite remember but the dark-haired man, who was about 15 years his junior, was the only one who had stuck with him from the very start and through the first difficult years of his kingship.

James was laughing as he reached him. "Of that, I can be certain you are wrong!" he said, reaching his King’s side and turning to look at the field. They stood in silence for a few moments, watching the sluggish English war machine make its first movements of the day.

"Their whole army is disorganised," he reported, "there isn’t enough room for them all down there so they can’t deploy. The nobles are unhappy and they’re blaming Edward and on top of that, Edward isn’t sure what to do." Robert smiled, recognising the younger mans attempt to reassure him.

"It’s a fine day for a battle, James" he paused "Where is Thomas?"

"Moray," James used Thomas’s newly created title as Earl of Moray with friendly mocking "is giving your brother some advice on the techniques of siege warfare"

Robert chuckled. "A lesson that is well needed I think"

James gave a wry smile. The King had been furious when his brother, Edward Bruce, who had been laying siege to the castle at Stirling a year before had made a deal the English garrison there. Edward had given them almost a year to summon help from their king and now King Edward of England had reacted in spectacular style. James knew Robert had been avoiding such a direct confrontation with the massive English army but, when his brother had issued such a direct challenge, Bruce had had little choice but to begin preparing for battle.That was a year ago and though Robert’s anger with his brother’s foolishness had abated Thomas Randolph, the King’s general alongside James, made sure to remind Edward of his mistake on a daily basis.

James heard the man next to him sigh wearily and he turned to look at his king. Robert was gazing out across the battlefield at the English force. "Seven years avoiding a direct battle," he said, "then the largest English army to invade my kingdom crosses the border and I choose to fight"

"We have 6000 men as well as cavalry, my lord, and the better ground" James said encouragingly.

"And how many English?" Robert asked him solemnly.

"At least 20,000" James replied

To be continued?

Historical note:

Bruce had been avoiding a pitched battle against the English since his coronation in 1306 as he was well aware that his army was a tiny force in comparison to the vast English army. The carse was the marshy area of land that lay at the bottom of the hill and round the edge of the carse ran the Bannock Burn. The English army was forced to spend the night before the battle on this marshland while the Scots were stationed on the much drier and more comfortable hillside. Though Bruce’s army was hugely outnumbered, out of the mistake of his brother came an unexpected benefit: Bruce had over a year to prepare the ground for the battle and to train his troops. As a result the huge but unwieldy English force came across a highly trained and manoeuvrable Scottish army.