The Battle of Bannockburn. Robert the Bruce s finest hour.
You might think that it ended there, and all of Bruce s great gains were made on
the Battlefield... but you d be wrong...
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In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
Bannockburn is a name that s famed wherever Scots go.
I ve filmed videos about the battle on location near Stirling.
I ve filmed one in Bannockburn, Otago in New Zealand.
So I suppose I better make one
in Bannockburn, Victoria, Australia. If that s unexpected then I m betting...
so is the story itself. Bannockburn ended with the
small folk coming round a nearby hill as the shilterns of Robert the Bruce
drove the English into the Pelstream burn and proud Edward
turned hameward tae think again... all the while being chased by Good Sir
James Douglas all the way to Dunbar where he took ship,
leaving his army slaughtered on the battlefield. Well bits of that s true...
but there s a little twist... and a completely different location for the final...
and most important act surrounding the battle.
First let s think about Edward s flight to Dunbar.
The truth is that many English men-at-arms managed to escape the battlefield at Bannockburn.
Edward II was famously dragged away from the fight by his bodyguards,
though not before a horse was killed from under him.
If HE was captured it would be a disaster.
The Scots could demand a huge ransom that every English noble would end up paying for.
So Edward s retinue got him out of there before he had time to think
let alone think again... and James Douglas with the
Scottish cavalry followed in hot pursuit. We probably have an image of Edward and his
men getting to Dunbar and jumping on a ship with Douglas arriving at the pier like Gene
Hackman looking out to the departing boat in the French Connection.
More likely was that during that nearly 70-mile horse race there were pauses.
There must have been skirmishes. Some horses must have tired.
Stragglers would have been left behind and fallen into Scottish hands for ransom later.
When Edward got to Dunbar it wasn t a pier that was waiting,
but a castle. If you ve watched my video on
Black Agnes you ll have heard of this castle in the context of the second war of independence.
Agnes s husband, Patrick of Dunbar,
wasn t the loyal Bruce supporter at his point. If he was,
Edward wouldn t have headed there for certain capture.
Earl Patrick took a pragmatic approach, by recognising Bruce as his sovereign...
as soon as he d put Edward on a boat south.
Bruce was deprived of England s most valuable hostage... Dammit!
Patrick, wasn t punished, ...although he never won much
favour the rest of Bruce s life... ...but THAT wasn t the end of things
Possibly the most significant event of Bannockburn...
happened a long way from Dunbar, miles from the battle site...
and days later... and, once again, a huge thanks to my old mucker Craig Connor
About two thousand of the English army, mostly Welsh infantry,
with a few hundred mounted men at arms managed to get off the field intact...
and retreated in a different southerly direction to Edward
under the leadership of a bloke called the Earl of Hereford and several other gentry.
Struggling for supplies and worried about being harried and harassed by Bruce s forces
they were headed south, towards Carlisle.
The force stopped at Bothwell Castle in Lanarkshire a couple days after the battle.
Now this castle was still held for the English by a local baron, Walter Fitz Gilbert.
Remember these guys were on their way from a battle the English were expected to win.
Fitz Gilbert would have no reason to suspect that these were vanquished forces
creeping out of Scotland like Dundee fans in the midst of a 7-2
New Year drubbing by St Johnstone
Some bits of history are more enjoyable than others
Looking for rest and safety inside the red-sandstone walls,
Hereford and the other nobles asked for shelter,
Walter Fitz Gilbert, of course, agreed but explained he had limited accommodation,
so could only invite the leadership inside the walls,
the majority of the force would have to camp outside.
This could be genuine; it could be that Fitz Gilbert didn t fancy the power dynamic
of a couple of thousand of somebody else s hungry troops inside his walls
with his own small garrison or could he have got early notice of
the result of the battle... and was hedging his bets in the
opposite direction of Patrick in Dunbar. He certainly wouldn t have needed
to be detective Columbo to think: There s just one thing that bothers me...
What the hell are two thousand stragglers from the English army
doing wandering the countryside hungry if they ve just won the battle?
The compromise was agreed and about 50 men entered the castle,
whereupon Fitz-Gilbert seized them as his prisoners and closed his gates.
You sly old fox! Of course, the army outside was much
bigger than the castle s garrison, but it was leaderless, hungry,
and in no position to lay a siege whilst waiting for the Scots to surround them.
The force broke apart as groups of men fled south to the English border.
Lots of them were killed or captured on the way south by locals
(including local women if you d believe the Lanercost Chronicle).
Hereford and several other barons were duly handed over to King Robert,
along with Bothwell castle which, as was his wont, Bruce destroyed.
Walter Fitz Gilbert was richly rewarded and gained barony of Cad-yow
or Cadzow as some will now pronounce it You ll see that name all around the
Hamilton and Motherwell area today. In fact you ll see me in the area when
I perform my show Stories of Scotland at Motherwell Concert Hall on 27th October.
You re probably wondering where to get tickets. Click the link up there... or
there ll be a ticket link in the description to get details and tickets for all the tour dates.
So, King Robert had every reason to be generous to Fitz Gilbert.
Patrick Earl of Dunbar had let the most valuable ransom prisoner go then switched sides...
Fitz Gilbert CAPTURED valuable ransom prisoners then switched sides.
The haul of senior prisoners captured at Bothwell
meant Bruce could negotiate the release of his own imprisoned loyalists,
not least of them his Queen, Elizabeth de Burgh, and his daughter lady Marjorie.
It s only because they were traded and released that Bruce was able to ensure his succession,
with the conception and birth of the future David II.
Without his daughter s release she would never have married Walter the Steward
and given us Robert II and the Stewart dynasty. So, in a way, Bruce s greatest gains from our
glorious victory at Bannockburn weren t so much won by Scots on the
field of battle itself, but afterwards
from the treachery of Fitz Gilbert on the English side at Bothwell...
without whom maybe the Stewart dynasty wouldn t have happened.
Not only that, but Fitz Gilbert s decedents continued to grow in stature.
The family name was later changed to Hamilton. A family more intertwined with the Stuart
Dynasty are hard to find,
whether you re talking about their defence of Mary Queen of Scots at her last battle of Langside,
or the position as Lord high Admirals of Scotland, with the title of Earl,
later Duke of Arran, who headed that family being the second ranked in the nation
after the monarch s son, the Duke of Rothay So you see, sometimes
Bannockburn delivers things you don t expect. There s another unusual Bannockburn story
coming up on screen now. Support the channel and get
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