In the meantime, the besiegers were relieved from the extremities of want, by the arrival of three ships with provisions; and the bishop, on receiving the king's message, took advantage of the renewed strength and spirits of his soldiers, to order an assault, which was successful; the garrison having stipulated, before surrender, that their lives should be spared. Edward, when at Kirkliston, had raised some of the young squires in his army to the rank of knighthood; and these new knights were sent to gain their spurs, by taking the other two fortalices. On coming before them, however, they found that the Scots had abandoned them to the enemy; and having destroyed them, they rejoined the main army.
These transactions occupied a month, and the army began again to suffer severely from the scarcity of provisions. The fleet from Berwick was anxiously looked for, and Edward foresaw, that in the event of its arrival being protracted a few days longer, he should be compelled to retreat. At last a few ships were seen off the coast, which brought a small supply; but the great body of the fleet was still detained by contrary winds, and a dangerous mutiny broke out in the camp. The Welsh troops had suffered much from famine; and a present of wine having been sent to them by the king, their soldiers, in a paroxysm of intoxication and national antipathy, attacked the English quarters in the night, and inhumanly murdered eighteen priests.
Upon this the English cavalry hastily ran to their weapons, and breaking in upon the Welsh, slew eighty men. In the morning the Welsh, of whom there were forty thousand in the army, exasperated at the death of their companions, threatened to join the Scots. "Let them do so," said Edward, with his usual cool courage; "let them go over to my enemies: I hope soon to see the day when I shall chastise them both." This day, however, was, to all appearance, distant. The distress for provisions now amounted to an absolute famine. No intelligence had been received of the Scottish army. As the English advanced, the country had been wasted by an invisible foe; and Edward, wearied out, was at length compelled to issue orders for a retreat to Edinburgh, hoping to meet with his fleet at Leith, and thereafter to recommence operations against the enemy.
Print
Email
At this critical juncture, when the military skill and wisdom of the dispositions made by Wallace became apparent, and when the moment to harass and destroy the invading army in its retreat had arrived; the treachery of her nobles again betrayed Scotland. Two Scottish lords, Patrick earl of Dunbar, and the Earl of Angus, privately, at day-break, sought the quarters of the Bishop of Durham, and informed him that the Scots were encamped not far off in the forest of Falkirk. The Scottish earls, who dreaded the resentment of Edward, on account of their late renunciation of allegiance, did not venture to seek the king in person. They sent their intelligence by a page, and added, that having heard of his projected retreat, it was the intention of Wallace to surprise him by a night attack, and to hang upon and harass his rear. Edward, on hearing this welcome news, could not conceal his joy. "Thanks be to God," he exclaimed, "who hitherto hath extricated me frem every danger! They shall not need to follow me, since I shall forthwith go and meet them." Without a moment's delay, orders were issued for the soldiers to arm, and hold themselves ready to march. The king was the first to put on his armour; and, mounting his horse, rode through the camp, hastening the preparations, and giving orders in person, to the merchants and sutlers who attended the army to pack up their wares, and be ready to follow him.
At length all was prepared, and at three o'clock the whole army was on its advance from Kirkliston to Falkirk, astonished at the sudden change in the plan of operations, and at the slow and deliberate pace with which they were led on. It was late before they reached a heath near Linlithgow, on which they encamped for the night. They were not allowed the refreshment of disarming themselves; but, to use the striking words of Hemingford, "each soldier slept on the ground, using his shield for his pillow; each horseman had his horse beside him, and the horses themselves tasted nothing but cold iron, champing their bridles." In the middle of the night a cry was heard. King Edward, who slept on the heath, whilst a page held his horse, was awakened by a sudden stroke on his side. The boy had been careless, and the horse, in changing his position, had put his foot on the king as he slept. Those around him cried out that their prince was wounded; and this, in the confusion of the night, was soon raised into a shout that the enemy were upon them," so that they hastily armed themselves, and prepared for their defence. Butthe mistake was soon explained. Edward had been only slightly hurt; and as the morning was near, he mounted his horse, and gave orders to march. They passed through Linlithgow a little before sunrise; and on looking up to a rising ground, at some distance in their front, observed the ridge of the hill lined with lances. Not a moment was lost. Their columns marched up the hill, but on reaching it, the enemy had disappeared; and as it was the feast of St Mary Magdalene, the king ordered a tent to be raised, where he and the Bishop of Durham heard mass. These lances had been the advanced guard of the enemy; for while mass was saying, and the day became brighter, the English soldiers could distinctly see the Scots in the distance arranging their lines, and preparing for battle.
Print
Email
The Scottish army did not amount to the third part of the force of the English; and Wallace, who dreaded this great disparity, and knew how much Edward was likely to suffer by the protraction of the war and the want of provisions, at first thought of a retreat, and hastened to lead off his soldiers; but he soon found that the English were too near to admit of this being accomplished without certain destruction; and he therefore proceeded to draw up his army, so as best to avail himself of the nature of the ground, and to sustain the attack of the English. He divided his infantry into four compact divisions, called Schiltrons, composed of his lancers. In the first line the men knelt, with their lances turned obliquely outwards, so as to present a serried front to the enemy on every side. In this infantry consisted the chief strength of the Scottish army, for the soldiers stood so close, and were so linked or chained together, that to break the line was extremely difficult. In the spaces between these divisions were placed the archers, and in the rear was drawn up the Scottish cavalry, consisting of about a thousand heavy-armed horse.
After hearing mass, the King of England, being informed of the Scottish disposition of battle, hesitated to lead his army forward to the attack, and proposed that they should pitch their tents, and allow the soldiers and the horses time for rest and refreshment. This was opposed by his officers as unsafe, on account of there being nothing but a small rivulet between the two armies. "What then would you advise?" asked Edward. "An immediate advance," said they; "the field and the victory will be ours." In God's name, then, let it be so," replied the king; and without delay, the barons who commanded the first division, the Marshal of England, and the Earls of Hereford and Lincoln, led their soldiers in a direct line against the enemy. They were not aware, however, of an extensive moss which stretched along the front of the Scottish position, and on reaching it, were obliged to make a circuit to the west to get rid of the obstacle.
This retarded their attack; meanwhile the second line, under the command of the Bishop of Durham, being better informed of the nature of the ground, in advancing inclined to the east with the same object. The bishop's cavalry were fiery and impetuous. Thirty-six banners floated above the mass of spears, and showed how many leaders of distinction were in the field; but Anthony Beck, who had seen enough of war to know the danger of too precipitate an attack, commanded them to hold back, till the third line, under the king, came up to support them. "Stick to thy mass, bishop," cried Ralph Basset of Drayton, "and teach not us what we ought to do in the face of an enemy," On then, replied the bishop—" set on in your own way. We are all soldiers to-day, and bound to do our duty." So saying, they hastened forward, and in a few minutes engaged with the first column of the Scots; whilst the first line, which had extricated itself from the morass, commenced its attack upon the other flank. Wallace's anxiety to avoid a battle had, in all probability arisen from his having little dependence on the fidelity of the heavy-armed cavalry, commanded by those nobles who hated and feared him; and the event showed how just were his suspicions: for the moment the lines met, the whole body of the Scottish horse shamelessly retired without striking a blow.
Print
Email
The columns of infantry, however, with the intermediate companies of archers, kept their ground, and a few of the armed knights remained beside them. Amongst these, Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, in marshalling the ranks of the archers from the forest of Selkirk, was thrown from his horse. The faithful bowmen tried to rescue him, but in vain. He was slain, and the tall and athletic figures of those who fell round him drew forth the praise of the enemy.On the death of this leader, the archers gave way; but the columns of the Scottish infantry stood firm, and their oblique lances, pointing every way, presented a thick wood, through which no attacks of the cavalry could penetrate.
Edward now brought up his reserve of archers and slingers, who showered their arrows upon them, with volleys of large round stones, which covered the ground where they stood. This continued and galling attack, along with the reiterated charges of the cavalry, at last broke the first line, and the heavy-armed horse, pouring in at the gap which was thus made, threw all into confusion, and carried indiscriminate slaughter through their ranks. Macduff, along with his vassals from Fife, was slain ; and Wallace, with the remains of his army, having gained the neighbouring wood, made good his retreat, leaving nearly fifteen thousand men dead upon the field.-f- On the English side, only two men of note fell; one of them was Sir Bryan de Jaye, Master of the Scottish Templars, who, when pressing before his men in the ardour of the pursuit, was entangled in a moss in Calendar wood, and slain by some of the Scottish fugitives. The other was a companion of the same order, and of high rank.
The remains of the Scottish army immediately rotreated from Falkirk to Stirling. Unable to maintain the town against the English army, they set it on fire; and Edward, on entering it on the fourth day after the battle, found it reduced to ashes. The convent of the Dominicans, however, escaped the flames; and here the king, who still suffered from the wound given him by his horse, remained for fifteen days, to recover his health. Meantime he sent a division of his army across the Forth into Clackmannanshire and Menteith, which, after ravaging the country, and plundering the villages, advanced in its destructive march through Fife. The whole of this rich and populous district was now regarded with great severity, on account of the resistance made by Macduff and the men of Fife at Falkirk. It was accordingly delivered up to complete military execution; and, to use the words of an ancient chronicle, "clene brent."
Print
Email
The city of St Andrews was found deserted by its inhabitants, and delivered to the flames. Beginning to be in distress for provisions, the English pushed on to Perth, which they found already burnt by the Scots themselves; so that, defeated in the hope of procuring supplies, and unable longer to support themselves in a country so utterly laid waste, they returned to Stirling, the castle of which Edward had commanded to be repaired. Having left a garrison there, he proceeded to Abercorn,-f- near Queensferry, where he had hopes to find his long-expected fleet, with supplies from Berwick; but his ships were still detained. He then marched to Glasgow, and through the district of Clydesdale, by Bothwell, to Lanark, from which he proceeded towards the strong castle of Ayr, then in the hands of the younger Bruce earl of Carrick. Bruce fled at the approach of the king, after having set fire to the castle; and Edward marched into Galloway with the intention of punishing this refractory baron, by laying waste his country.
Print
Email
The army however, began again to be grievously in want of provisions; and the king, after having for fifteen days struggled against famine, was constrained to return through the middle of Annandale, and to be contented with the capture of Bruce's castle of Lochmaben,§ from which he proceeded to Carlisle.
Thus were the fruits of the bloody and decisive battle of Falkirk plucked from the hands of Edward, by famine and distress, at the moment he expected to secure them; and after leading against Scotland the most numerous and best appointed army which had perhaps ever invaded it, and defeating his enemies with great slaughter, he was compelled to retreat while still nearly the whole of the country beyond the Forth was unsubdued, and even when that part which he had wasted and overrun, was only waiting for his absence, to rise into a new revolt against him. At Carlisle the Earls of Norfolk and Hereford left the army to return home, under the pretence that their men and horses were worn out with the expedition, but in reality because they were incensed at the king for a breach of faith.
Edward, when at Lochmaben, had, without consulting them or their brother nobles, disposed of the Island of Arran to Thomas Bisset, a Scottish adventurer, who, having invaded and seized it, about the time of the battle of Falkirk, pretended that he had undertaken the enterprise for the King of England. This was done in violation of a solemn promise, that, without advice of his council, he would adopt no new measures; and to atone for so irregular a proceeding, a parliament was held at Carlisle, in which the king, who as yet was master of but a very small part of Scotland, assigned to his earls and barons the estates of the Scottish nobles. These, however, as an old historian remarks, were grants given in hope, not in possession; and even the frail tenure of hope by which they were held, was sooii threatened: for on reaching Durham, messengers arrived with the intelligence that the Scots were again in arms, and the king hastily returned to Tynemouth, and from thence to Coldingham, near Beverley.
His army was now much reduced by the desertion of Norfolk and Hereford; and the soldiers who remained were weakened with famine and the fatigues of war. To commence another campaign at this late season was impossible; but he instantly issued his writs for the assembling of a new army, to chastise, as he said, the obstinate and reiterated rebellions of the Scots; and he appointed his barons to meet him at Carlisle, on the eve of the day of Pentecost. He also commanded the speedy collection of the money granted by the clergy of the province of York, to assist him in his war with Scotland; and despatched letters to the nobles of England, ordering their attendance in the army destined against Scotland. Patrick earl of Dunbar and March, and his son Gilbert de Umfraville earl of Angus, Alexander de Baliol, and Simon Fraser, all of them Scottish barons, were at this time friends to Edward, and resident at his court, and to them were the same commands directed.
Print
Email
Wallace, soon after the defeat of Falkirk, voluntarily resigned the office of Governor of Scotland. The Comyns had threatened to impeach him of treason for his conduct during the war; and the Bruces, next in power to the Comyns, appear to have forgot their personal animosity, and united with their rivals to put him down. To these accusations the disaster at Falkirk gave some colour, and he chose rather to return to the station of a private knight, than to retain an elevation, which, owing to the jealousy of the nobility, brought ruin and distress upon the people.
Print
Email
One ancient manuscript of Fordun asserts, that he passed over into France, where he was honourably welcomed and entertained by Philip, and increased his high character for personal prowess, by his successes against the pirates who then infested the seas; so that his exploits were celebrated in the French songs and ballads of the day. An examination of the valuable historical materials which exist in the public libraries of France, might perhaps throw some light on this dark portion of his story. It is certain that his great name does not again recur in any authentic record, as bearing even a secondary command in the wars against Edward; nor indeed do we meet with him in any public transaction, until eight years after this, when he fell a victim to the unrelenting vengeance of that prince.
On the demission of Wallace, the Scottish barons chose John Comyn of Badenoch, the younger, and John de Soulis, to be governors of Scotland,! and after some time, Bruce earl of Carrick, and William Lamberton bishop of St Andrews, were associated in the command.
Print
Email
