genius, seized his opportunity. Leaving Edward, now his only
brother in blood and almost his equal in arms, in Galloway,
he suddenly transferred his own operations to Aberdeenshire.
He overran Buchan either once or twice, and after a serious
illness defeated the earl of Buchan, one of his chief Scottish
opponents, near Inverurie on the 22nd of May 1308. Then
crossing to Argyllshire he surprised another body of his enemies
in the pass of Brander early in 1309, took Dunstaffnage, and
in March of this year held his first parliament at St Andrews.
In 1309 a truce scarcely kept was effected by Pope Clement V.
and Philip IV. of France, and in I3IO, in a general council at
Dundee, the clergy of Scotland, all the bishops being present,
recognized Bruce as king. The support given to him by the
national church in spite'of his excommunication must have
been of great importance in that age, and was probably due to
the example of Lamberton. The next three years was signalized
by the reduction one by one 'of the strong places still
held by the English: Linlithgow towards the end of I3IO,
Dumbarton in October 1311, Perth, by Bruce himself, in January
1312. Previous to these two latter successes the king had
made two raids into the north of England; after which Buittle,
Dalswinton and Dumfries were reduced, and Berwick was
threatened. In March 1313 his lieutenant Sir James Douglas
surprised Roxburgh, and Thomas Randolph surprised Edinburgh.
In May Bruce was again in England, and though he
failed to take Carlisle, he subdued the Isle of Man. About the
same time Edward Bruce took Rutherglen and laid siege to
Stirling, whose governor, Sir Philip de Mowbray, agreed to
capitulate if not relieved before the 24th of June 1314.
Bruce's rapidity of movement was one cause of his success.
His sieges, the most difficult part of medieval Warfare, though
won sometimes by stratagem, prove that he and his followers
had benefited from their early training in the wars of Edward I.
We know that he had been employed by that king to prepare
the siege-train for his attack 'on Stirling in 1304. By the close
of 1313 Berwick, Stirling and Bothwell alone remained English.
Edward II. felt that if Scotland was not to be lost a great effort
must be made. With the whole available feudal levy of
England, and a contingent from Ireland, he advanced from
Berwick to Falkirk, which he reached on the 22nd of June
1314. After a preliminary skirmish on Sunday the 23rd, in
which Bruce distinguished himself by a personal combat with
Sir Henry de Bohun, whom he felled by a single blow of his
axe, the battle of Bannockburn was fought on Monday the
24th; and the complete rout of the English determined the
independence of Scotland and confirmed the title of Bruce.
The details of the day, memorable in the history of war as well
as of Scotland, have been singularly well preserved, and redound
to the credit of Bruce, who had studied in the school
of Wallace as well as in that of Edward I. He had chosen and
knew his ground, lying between St Ninians and the Bannock,
a petty burn, yet sufficient to produce marshes dangerous to
heavily armed horsemen, While from the rising ground on his
right the enemy's advance was seen. His troops were in four
divisions: his brother Edward commanded the right, Randolph
the centre, Douglas the left. Bruce with the reserve planted
his standard at the Bore Stone, whence there is the best view
of the field. His camp-followers on the Gillies' Hill appeared
over its crest at the critical moment which comes in all battles.
The plain on the right of the marshes was prepared with pits
and spikes. But what more than any other point of strategy
made the fight famous was that the Scots fought on foot in
battalions with their spears outwards, in a circular formation
serving the same purpose as the modern square. A momentary
success of the English archers was quickly reversed by a flank
movement on the part of Sir Robert Keith. The Scottish
bowmen followed up this advantage, and the fight became
general; the English horse, crowded into too narrow a space,
were met by the steady resistance of the Scottish pikemen,
who knew, as Bruce had told them truly, that they fought for
their country, their wives, their children, and all that freemen
hold dear. The English rear was either unable to come up in
the narrow space, or got entangled in the broken ranks of the
van. The first repulse soon passed into a rout, and from a
rout into a headlong flight, in which the English king himself
barely escaped. In the career of Bruce, Bannockburn was the
turning-point. ' The enthusiasm of the nation he had saved
forgot his tardy adhesion to the popular cause, and at the
parliament of Ayr on the 25th of April 1315 the succession
was settled by a unanimous voice on him, and, failing males
of his body, on his brother Edward and his heirs male, or failing
them on his daughter Marjorie and her heirs, if she married
with his consent. Soon afterwards she married Walter the
steward (d. 1326). As a result of Bannockburn, Bruce's queen
was restored to her husband; Stirling was delivered up to the
Scots; the north of England was ravaged, and Carlisle and
Berwick were besieged.
The last part of Bruce's life, from 1315 to 1329, began with an attempt which was the most striking testimony that could have been given to the effect of Bannockburn, and which, had it succeeded, might have altered the future of the British Isles. This was no less than the rising of the whole Celtic race, who had felt the galling yoke of Edward I. and envied the freedom the Scots had won. In 131 5 Edward Bruce crossed to Ireland on the invitation of the natives, and in the following year the Welsh became his allies. In the autumn of 1316 Robert came to his brother, and together they traversed Ireland to Limerick. Dublin was saved by its inhabitants committing it to the flames, and, though nineteen victories were won, of which that at Slane in Louth by Robert was counted the chief, the success was too rapid to be permanent. The brothers retreated to Ulster, and, Robert having left Ireland in May 1317 to protect his own borders, Edward, who had been crowned king of Ireland, was defeated and killed at Dundalk in October 1318. On his return Bruce addressed himself to the siege of Berwick, a standing menace to Scotland. While he was preparing for it two cardinals arrived in England with a mission from Pope John XXII. to effect a truce, or, failing that, to renew the excommunication of Bruce. The cardinals did not trust themselves across the border; their messengers, however, were courteously received by Bruce, but with a firm refusal to admit the papal bulls into his kingdom because not addressed to him as king. Another attempt by Adam Newton, guardian of the Friars Minorite at Berwick, had a more ignominious result. Bruce admitted Newton to his presence at Aldcamus or Old Cambus, and informed him that he would not receive the bulls until his title was acknowledged and he had taken Berwick. On his return Newton was waylaid and his papers seized, not without suspicion of Bruce's connivance. In March 1318 the town and soon afterwards the castle of Berwick capitulated, and Bruce wasted the English border as far as Ripon. In December he held a parliament at Scone, where he displayed the same wisdom as a legislator which he had shown as a general. The death of his brother and his daughter rendered a resettlement of the crown advisable, and it was settled on his grandson, Robert, son of Marjorie and Walter the steward, in case Bruce died without sons, with a provision as to the regency in case of a minor heir in favour of Randolph. The defence of the country was next cared for by regulations for the arming of the whole nation, down to every one who owned the value of a cow, a measure far in advance of the old feudal levy. Exports during war, and of arms at any time, were prohibited. Internal justice was regulated, and it was declared that it was to be done to poor and rich alike. Leasing-making—a Scottish term for seditious language-was to be sternly punished. The nobles were exhorted not to oppress the commons. Reforms were also made in the tedious technicalities of the feudal law. In September I3IQ an attempt to recover Berwick' was repelled by Walter the steward, and Bruce took occasion of a visit to compliment his son-in-law and raise the walls 10 ft.
The king's position was now so strong that foreign states began to testify their respect. Bruges and Ypres rejected a request of Edward II. to cut off the Scottish trade with Flanders. Pope John, who had excommunicated Bruce, was addressed
