Edward I returns to Scotland with a vengeance!

‘I was just about to attack King Phil!

But my triumvirate was defeated by a Scot called Big Bill!

Now I will see the upstart Scot crushed by means of my iron will!’

What thoughts were going through King Edward’s head as he boarded the royal yacht back to England? The king was beside himself with fury at the news from Sterling Bridge.

‘How did those idiots de Cressingham and Surrey allow themselves to be defeated by a Scots savage going by the name of Big Bill Wallace? Now I have to leave France and hurry back to deal with a problem which should never have arisen .’

William ‘Big Bill’ Wallace.

His sombre mood was in marked contrast to that of the crew who had learned of his impending marriage to a woman forty years his junior. How they must have smiled wryly amongst themselves, the jokes about the nuptials became increasingly coarse. Their toothless mouths grinning broadly as they spoke of the elderly Edward and young Margaret getting together. The sailors nudging each other and nodding knowingly, the incredible energy of the lusty old goat, they must have thought.

‘The old king is getting ready to treat himself to a taste!

Of the King of France’s sister so young and chaste!

The king will carry her off to the royal boudoir with the utmost haste!

Wallace in the ascendency.

After his remarkable and unexpected victory at Sterling Bridge, ‘Big Bill’ assumed the title ‘Guardian of Scotland’. He was also knighted and became Sir William, this would have added insult to injury as far as Edward was concerned.

To the Sottish clans, Wallace was a saviour and they flocked to his standard. At the close of 1297, it appeared to the Scots that Wallace was the man who could guarantee the independence of Scotland. However, the euphoria would be very short-lived.

 

The Battle of Falkirk

Edward amassed his forces and marched into Scotland in July 1298. It was not an easy journey, and inclement weather had made it difficult to keep his large army supplied. The problem became so acute that Edward was on the point of calling the campaign off and returning to Edinburgh. The king changed his mind when he learned that Wallace and his army were located a mere thirteen miles away in an area of woodland known as Callendar. Edward knew that if he were to beat a retreat that Wallace would harry his army with guerrilla tactics on the way south. So, better to lance the boil without delay and go after Wallace now.

On July 22nd Edward’s army engaged Wallace’s at Falkirk. The Scots were at a disadvantage because the crown forces greatly outnumbered them, and the English army had a large contingent of cavalry and archers wielding the lethal longbow. Indeed, the Scots were probably outnumbered by as much as a ratio of 2-1. Furthermore, Edward’s army were greatly more experienced in warfare, having served under the king in France.

Wallace had a much smaller army and had conducted a guerilla campaign against the English. Why did he now decide to meet Edward in a pitched battle? This may well have been Big Bill’s thinking:

‘ True, yon Sassanachs are superior in numbers, but only last year at Sterling Bridge we Scots defeated a much larger army. With a wee bit of Gaelic ingenuity, we can do the same with Edward’s army. The Sassanachs are not going to go away of their own accord, they will have to be forced out! Better sooner than later!’

So battle commenced, as Wallace organised his pike men into hedgehog shaped formations known as schiltrons, which initially stood firm against the English assaults. Wallace ordered his light cavalry to attack the English mounted knights with disastrous results for the Scots.

The schiltrons were subjected to persistent attack from the English archers and the deadly rain of arrows wrought carnage amongst their ranks.

‘The English arrows constituted a veritable deadly rain!

Causing the Scots pike men havoc, and intense physical pain!’

The English and Welsh bowmen

With the Scots pike men in disarray from the avalanche of arrows, the English mounted knights, under the command of the Bishop of Durham Anthony Bek, moved in and soon crushed any futher resistance.

The English cavalry charge the Scottish schiltrons. 

The battle of Falkirk was a huge Scottish defeatbt Wallace himself managed to escape into the surrounding woodland.

From Guardian of Scotland to fugitive amongst the flowers of Scotland.

King Edward’s resounding victory at Falkirk left Wallace’s reputation as a military leader in tatters and he resigned his so very recently assumed title of Guardian of Scotland. Robert Bruce now succeeded him in that role. Little is known about Wallace’s activities after Falkirk but there is some evidence that he travelled to France to seek aid from the French king. However it came to nothing and Wallace’s role as a Scottish nationalist leader was over. In 1304 the Scottish nobility swore fealty to Edward and Wallace was now a fugitive in the land of which he had once been guardian. King Edward, resolute and thorough as ever pursued Wallace relentlessly, determined to bring him to what he considered to be justice.

William Wallace on the run.

‘Like a common felon, brave Wallace was hunted and put to the chase!

King Edward was resolved to place him in an English court where he would, in vain, plead his nationalist case!’

Wallace was captured in August of 1305 by a Scottish knight, John de Menteith who had defected to the English. One of Wallace’s servants had informed de Menteith of Wallace’s location and the former Scots leader was apprehended as he slept in bed.

When he heard the news, King Edward smiled grimly. He felt that Wallace had caused him enormous trouble and for that he must be put through the most humiliating and agonising ordeal that could possibly imagined.