BANNOCKBURN PART V

Most historians are in agreement that the Scottish army was made up almost exclusively of foot soldiers armed with axes, picks, and spears Its felt that swords were rather rare and only in possession of mounted Calvary which King Bruce had dreadfully few of.

However John Barbour, the fourteenth-- century historian, writes that....from the lowlands Bruce could boast of armored men, a full great host. From such chronicles of the battle as these comes reports that their was a charge against the English archers by a armored mounted Calvary. Who until then was kept in reserve as part of Bruce's personal reserve.

It is strikingly interesting that when the entire Scottish army was engaged and mind you we are talking a force of six to nine thousand soldiers against a force of thirty to thirty-eight thousand.....all of a sudden what the English regarded as a “ fresh force” erupted from the rear of the Scottish formation, with banners flying!

History states that this fresh force was made up of yeomen, camp followers, youngsters,and other non-combatants however this is a fairytale ,which does much to create patriotic zeal among the Scottish people.

However the fact of the matter is, that if this spontaneous fresh force was instantaneous, it would have surprised and startled the Scottish army as much as it did the English. That confusion didn't take place. Does that mean that the Scots were expecting the assassins charge from the rear of their echelon.

Panic swept the English ranks, the heavily armored English mounted Calvary made a hasty retreat, which would never have happened by an attack of foot soldiers, weather they were camp followers and peasants or not!

King Edward with five hundred of his mounted knights immediately departed the field. Thirty thousand foot soldiers following their King, took route. They abandoned their supplies, money, their Armour, weapons, silver plate and gold.

Some accounts speak of a dreadful slaughter, the fact is only one Earl, thirty eight Barron’s and knights were reported to have been killed. They did not die from a Scottish attack so much as from fear!

But what was the cause of this fear? Common peasants wielding pitch forks and axes, I think not. However under the banners of flying colors and the smock with red rosy cross over armored clad knights, mounting an assassins strike, where a regiment or in medieval times a contingent of mounted knights charging not the archers, spear men, and other unmounted and mounted elements of the English force, but making a deliberate and direct bee line for the command elements to include the King his Earls and Barron’s.

This is a technique learned from the Muslim Hashish eaters, or in Arabic, Assassins from the crusades. Where by sending a small force of highly trained killers, they take out the leadership of their opponent and strike fear into the opposing army. When this happens, with out their leaders, chaos usually occurs and the armies fall apart without leadership.

We use assassin strikes to this day we call them Special Operations Command .In the US they are also known as Delta Force, Seal Teams, Green Berets, Force Recon and other Special Forces to achieve the same outcome as what happened with the Battle of Bannockburn..