Dance New Park 4925

On Midsummer Day at the New Park Robert I defeated the English army under Edward II.

Crowned at Scone in 1306, Rbert I, known popularly as Robert the Bruce, had been driving the English steadily out of Scotland. One by one the militarily important castles held by Edward fell to the Scots. By March of 1314 only great Stirling Castle was still in the hands of the English, but it was under siege. Sir Philip Mowbray, in command of Stirling, said that if the castle was not relieved by 24 June he would surrender. Ths statement had two immediate effects. One, Edward hastily collected an army in the northern and midland counties of England and stormed northward. Two, Robert made his plans to meet the English army. As carefully as a coach plotting the manoevers of his team on a modern football pitch, Robert surveyed the terrain around Stirling and prepared for the battle to come.

The only route by which Edward could reach Stirling was the old Roman road from Falkirk. Robert reconnoitered the route and found the place where he would take his stand. He would stage the battle at the New Park above the Bannock burn, two miles south of Stirling Castle. The New Park was a hunting preserve established by Alexander III, a high wooded area some two miles wide. There his army would assemble when summoned and from there he would face the advancing English.

On 23 June, just in time to prevent Mowbray from surrendering the castle, the English arrived on the scene, exactly where Robert knew they would. On Midsummer Eve the Scottish army of some 6,000 men stood between Stirling Castle and over 21,000 English soldiers. After a preliminary skirmish at Tor Wood in which Gilbert Clare, 9th Earl of Gloucester was unhorsed and Sir Henry de Bohun was killed by Robert’s battle-axe, the king withdrew to his previously chosen spot and planted the Royal Standard at the Borestane just before the New Park. The next day, 24 June, the main battle was engaged.

With the English archers and foot-soldiers helpless agains the Scottish schiltrons, those hedgehog-like rings of pikemen, standing back to back, their pikes bristling out in all directions, with the English cavalry stumbling into the three-foot deep pits or potholes prepared carefully in advance by Robert, with the swampy land between the Bannock burn and the River Forth severely hampering the movement of the English, the battle turned into a wild melee. The final impetus to the total rout of the enemy was the “gillies’ charge”, when the camp followers placed by Robert out of sight behind Coxet Hill, charged down the slopes toward the English, with blood-curdling shouts and much blowing of horns. Thinking that vast Scottish reserves were upon them, the English army broke and fled. Stirling Castle was a Scottish stronghold once more. Scotland was independent.

Many contemporary ballads and songs must have arisen from the fertile field of Robert I’s great victory, but precious little remains today. There is one anonymous verse, but it does not deal with the heroes of the battle.

Maydens of Englonde, sore may ye morne
For your lemans ye have loste at Bannockisborne,
  With heve a lowe.
What wenyth the kynge of Englonde
So soone to have wonne Scotlande
  With rumbylowe.

A narrative poem and a song commemorate Robert’s address to the army before the battle of Bannockburn. The first, an excerpt from a long poem that covers the king’s entire career, especially the military side, is The Bruce. It was written about 1375, probably at the request of Robert II, by John Barbour (c. 1320–1395), poet, courtier and Archdeacon of Aberdeen. From “Bruce’s Address To His Bannockburn Army” is the following:

And when it cummis to the ficht,
Ilk man set his hert and micht
To stint our fais mekill pride.
On horse they sall arrayit ride,
And cum on you in weill great hy;
Meet them with spearis hardely
And wreik on them the mekill ill
That they and tharis has done us til,
And are in will yet for til do,
Gif they have micht til cum thare-to.
And, certis, me thing weill that we,
For-out abasyng, aucht til be
Worthy, and of great vassalage;
For we have three great avantage.
The first is, that we have the richt,
And for the richt ilk man suld ficht.
The tother is, they are cummin here,
Forlipning in their great power,
To seeke us in our awn land,
And has brocht here, richt til our hand
Riches into so great plentee
That the poorest of you sall be
Baith rich and michty therewithal
Gif that we win, as weill may fall.
The third is that we for our livis
And for our childer and our wivis
And for the freedom of our land,
Are streinyeit in battale for to stand,
And they for their micht anerly,
And forthat they leit of us lichtly,
And for them wad destroy us all,
Makis them to ficht; bot ye may fall
That they sall rue their barganing.
And, certes, I warn you of ae thing
To happen them, as God forbeid,
Who find faintness in our deed –
Gif so that they win us openly,
They sall have on us no mercy.

There is the celebrated “Bruce’s Address To His Army” by Robert Burns which appeared in James Johnson’s The Scots Musical Museum, Volume 6. Much discussion ensued before its publication as to the tune to be used for this intensely patriotic song, but Burns himself set it to the ancient “Hey, tutti taitie” because, as Burns said, “I have meet the tradition universally all over Scotland, and particulary about Stirling, in the neighbourhood of the scene, that this air was Robert Bruce’s march at the battle of Bannockburn.”

Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
  Or to victorie!

Now’s the day, and now’s the hour:
See the front o’ battle lour,
See approach proud Edward’s power –
  Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward’s grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave? –
  Let him turn, and flee!

Wha for Scotland’s King and Law
Freedom’s sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or freeman fa’
  Let him follow me!

By Oppression’s woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains,
We will drain our dearest veins
  But they shall be free!

Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty’s in every blow!
  Let us do, or die!