The Battle of Bannockburn

 At the battle of Banockburn in 1314, the Templar’s were a strong part of Robert the Bruce’s army, The English were 38,000 strong and Robert the Bruce’s force was 9,000.

 The Templar’s used a Technique called a decapitation assault that they learned from the Muslims during the crusades.  Instead of sending hundreds or thousands of soldiers into battle you send in { assassins} which is Arabic for hashish eaters.  They were to eliminate the leadership of the opposing force.

  By eliminating the leadership of the opposing force usually they are fairly undisciplined and the force falls apart.

The Knights Templar encountered this technique frequently during the crusades.  Not only did they fight their enemy the Muslims but they learned from them also and not limited to battle technique, as we shall soon see.

  There are many different accounts of the battle of Bannockburn  but what is consistent is that Robert the Bruce had a highly untrained force. They were unarmed except for farm tools, axes and clubs.  And a force of about nine thousand men.

  The English had a force estimated between twenty thousand and thirty eight thousand depending on which account you read. It is said that the Templar’s had a small force but highly disciplined, trained and experienced.  This would be the force from the missing Templar fleet in addition to which there were at least two Irish contingents of Templar's in the area for at least several years prior to the Battle of Bannockburn.

  Each contingent of Templar's is about one hundred and fifty Knights, and each knight had a support team of six to ten individuals. They would be the Calvary, there was a force of light artillery with light cannons, perhaps a sling shot apparatus, and then the foot soldiers most with spears, ax’s, and farm tools, but some also had long bows and cross bows, these warriors were also known as Infantry.

  All of these elements make up a contingent which accounts for a bought 2500 men. In today’s army a contingent would be similar in size and organization to a Regiment under the command of a General Officer.

 My thought on the battle of Bannockburn is that Robert the Bruce probably had the two Contingents of Templar's and around one Thousand to three thousand untrained local militia to make up a force between six and nine thousand warriors.

  Edward came to Scotland in the high summer of 1314 with the preliminary aim of relieving Stirling Castle: The real purpose, of course, was to find and destroy the Scottish army in the field, and thus end the war.

   England, for once, was largely united in this ambition; although some of Edward's greatest magnates and former enemies, headed by his cousin, Thomas of Lancaster, did not attend in person, sending the minimum number of troops they were required to by feudal law.

  Even so, the force that left Berwick-upon-Tweed on 17 June 1314 was impressive: it comprised between 2,000–3,000 horse (likely closer to 2,000) and 16,000 infantry.

  The precise size, relative to the Scottish forces is unclear. The estimates range from as much as at least two or three times the size of the army Bruce had been able to gather, to as little as only 50% larger.

  Edward was accompanied by many of the seasoned campaigners of the Scottish wars, headed by the Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Veterans like Henry de Beaumont and Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford. The most irreconcilable of Bruce's Scottish enemies also came:

  Ingram de Umfraville, a former Guardian of Scotland, and his kinsman the Earl of Angus.  Others of the MacDougall’s, McCann and Sir John Comyn of Badenoch.

 John Comyn was the only son of the Red Comyn, who was born and raised in England and was now returning to Scotland to avenge his father's killing by Bruce at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries in 1306.

  This was a grand feudal army, one of the last of its kind to leave England in the Middle Ages. King Robert awaited its arrival south of Stirling near the Bannock Burn in Scotland.

  The English army marched rapidly to reach Stirling before Mowbray's agreement expired on 24 June. Edinburgh was reached on 19 June and by 22 June, it was at Falkirk, only 15 miles short of its objective.

  Edward's host followed the line of the old Roman road, which ran through an ancient forest known as the Tor Wood, over the Bannockburn and into the New Park, a hunting preserve enclosed at the time of Alexander III.

 Bruce's army had been assembling in the Tor Wood, an area providing good natural cover, from the middle of May. On Saturday, 22 June, with his troops now organised into their respective commands, Bruce moved his army slightly to the north to the New Park. Which was a more heavily wooded area, where his movements could be concealed.

   Bruce's army, like William Wallace's before him, was chiefly composed of infantry armed with long spears. It was probably divided into three main formations.  Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, commanded the vanguard, which was stationed about a mile to the south of Stirling, near the church of St. Ninian.

  king Robert Bruce commanded the rearguard at the entrance to the New Park. His brother, Edward, led the third division. According to Barbour, there was a fourth nominally under the youthful Walter the Stewart, but actually under the command of Sir James Douglas.

  The army might have numbered as many as 9,000 men in all, but probably more of the order of 6,000–7,000. It was gathered from the whole of Scotland: knights and nobles, freemen and tenants, town dwellers and traders:  men who could afford the arms and armor required.

 Barbour tells that King Robert Bruce turned away those who were not adequately equipped. For most, such equipment would consist of a spear, a helmet, a thick padded jacket down to the knees and armored gloves.

  It is highly probable that a large proportion of the spear men had acquired more extensive armor given that the country had been at war for nearly twenty years.

 This is in contrast to the modern romantic notion of the Scots army, which depicts its foot soldiers clad in kilts, painted wood and little else. The balance of the army consisted of archers and men-at-arms.

   The Scottish archers used yew-stave longbows and it is not to be thought that they had weaker or inferior bows but rather had inferior numbers.

 Consisting of possibly only 500 archers, They played little part in the battle. There is first hand evidence from the captured Carmelite friar, Robert Baston.  Friar Baston wrote a poem just after the battle which states that one or both sides employed slingers and crossbowmen.

  Each of these troop types was indistinguishable from their counter parts in France or England. Many of the Scottish men-at-arms (recruited from the nobility and the more prosperous burgesses) served on foot at Bannockburn.

                               To be Continued