Siege of Stirling Castle
View of Stirling Castle (2009)
| date | April 22nd to July 24th, 1304 |
|---|---|
| place | Stirling |
| output | Handover of the castle |
| consequences | Scotland occupied almost entirely by England |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 140 | unknown |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
Battles of the First Scottish War of Independence
Berwick - Dunbar - Stirling Bridge - Falkirk - Roslin - Stirling Castle - Methven - Dalry - Glen Trool - Loudoun Hill - Inverurie - Brander - Perth - Bannockburn - Berwick - Berwick - Myton - Byland - Weardale
Battles of the Second Scottish Revolutionary War
Kinghorn - Dupplin Moor - Annan - Berwick - Halidon Hill - Boroughmuir - Culblean - Neville's Cross
The siege of Stirling Castle was a battle of the First Scottish War of Independence . It ended on July 24, 1304 with the handover of the castle.
prehistory
After the large-scale English campaign from 1303 to 1304, the Scots' military situation was almost hopeless, as France, allied with Scotland, had also made peace with England in 1303 . In February 1304, after negotiations, the Scottish Guardian John Comyn of Badenoch surrendered, after which almost all of the remaining Scottish rebels surrendered. Only William Wallace was excluded from the mercy of the English king. In addition, the crew of the mighty Stirling Castle refused to hand over. The castle was of great strategic importance. During the campaign of 1303, the English army had to circumvent the castle extensively because it guarded an important crossing over the Forth . The English King Edward I therefore began extensive preparations for a siege of the castle.
Course of the siege
Arrows and crossbow bolts were procured from London, Lincolnshire and Northumberland for the siege . Not only soldiers, but also workers and carpenters were called to Stirling. A Reginald the Engineer brought siege engines and other equipment from Berwick to Stirling, two more siege engines were brought to Stirling from Brechin and others from Aberdeen . On April 12, the king ordered his son Prince Edward to remove the lead roofs of the churches in the Perth and Dunblane region and bring them to Stirling , with the exception of the roofs over the altars . The English used the lead to manufacture counterweights for the trebuchets . Sir Alexander de Abernethy searched the Perth area for the fugitive Wallace with 40 men-at-arms . The actual siege of Stirling Castle began on April 22nd. As was customary in the Middle Ages, negotiations were initially held about a non-fighting handover. William Oliphant , the young commandant of the castle, refused to hand it over, as he had never recognized Edward I as overlord of Scotland. However, he suggested asking the former Guardian John de Soules for permission to surrender, as he had given him command of the castle. Since Soules was in exile in France and the answer would take several months to arrive, the king refused this request. Since the negotiations had failed, the siege began. The English tried to bring the castle walls down with a battering ram and shot the castle with their catapults. The catapults not only hurled stones, but also clay pots with an explosive mixture of cotton, sulfur and saltpeter at the castle. For this, the king had taken Jean de Lamouilly , who came from Burgundy , into his service. This is believed to be an early use of gunpowder in the British Isles. The siege of the castle on this scale was a spectacle, which was also attended by Queen Margaret of England . She had come to Scotland in the winter of 1303 to 1304, and a convenient lookout point was built for her. During the bombardment, the castle's crew sought protection in the deep caves of the castle rock, where they also stored their supplies. But they also defended themselves resolutely and in turn fired at the besiegers with crossbows. Edward I encouraged his soldiers by riding himself to the front line of attack. He was once struck by a crossbow bolt , which hit his clothing and got stuck in the saddle, but did not injure the king. Another time his horse shied and threw the king off when a stone thrown from the castle struck in the immediate vicinity. Presumably at least once the remaining Scottish rebels tried to terrorize the castle, but an English counterattack under the Earl of Hereford dispersed the attackers. The use of a battering ram against the castle walls was unsuccessful. The king then ordered the construction of a new, large trebuchet, which was called the Warwolf . Before the machine could be used, however, the castle's crew offered to hand it over on July 20. The king refused this because he first wanted to test the effects of the warwolf fire. Only when the bombardment had caused great damage to the castle wall did the king accept the surrender of the castle. The king had the castle occupied by an English garrison and had the survivors of the Scottish garrison, including Oliphant, incarcerated in English castles.
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consequences
With the conquest of Stirling Castle, the English king had conquered the last castle held by Scottish rebels. Only a few rebels supported William Wallace until he was captured in August 1305. In February 1306, however, the Scottish nobleman Robert Bruce , who in 1304 had taken part in the siege of Stirling on the English side, began a new revolt against English rule in Scotland. The crew of Stirling Castle did not surrender to the Scots until 1314 after the Battle of Bannockburn .
Individual evidence
- ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 500.
- ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , pp. 95.
- ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California, Berkeley 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 501.
- ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , pp. 95.
- ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 181.