Battle of Falkirk (1298)

Battle of Falkirk (1298)

Part of: Scottish Wars of Independence

Bishop Antony Bek of Durham is actively fighting at Falkirk despite his status as a clergyman. Historicizing representation from 1873.

date	July 22, 1298
place	Falkirk ( Scotland )
output	English victory

Parties to the conflict
Kingdom of England	Kingdom of Scotland
Commander
Edward I.	William Wallace
Troop strength
between 16,000 and 28,000 men	between 6,000 and 20,000 men
losses
about 2000 men	high

The Battle of Falkirk on July 22, 1298 was a battle of the First Scottish War of Independence near the town of Falkirk . It ended with a clear English victory.

prehistory

In 1297 there was a comprehensive uprising against English rule in Scotland . Under the leadership of William Wallace and Andrew Morray , an army of Scottish peasants had defeated an English army under governor Earl Warenne at the Battle of Stirling Bridge . Morray died a few weeks later, presumably from the wounds he had sustained at Stirling. Wallace was then elected the undisputed Guardian of Scotland and sole leader of the Scottish Army. After the English King Edward I returned from his campaign to Flanders in March 1298 and concluded an armistice in the war against France , he raised a large army for the summer of 1298 to break the Scottish resistance.

Advance of the English army

The English army was to rally at Roxburgh on June 25th . The information about the strength of the army varies. They range from 2,000 horsemen and 12,000 foot soldiers, 10,000 of whom were enlisted in Wales, to 3,000 horsemen, 15,000 English and 10,000 Wealistic foot soldiers. In any case, it was certainly a very large army with which the English king marched through Lauderdale to Lothian at the beginning of July . Wallace had gathered a strong Scottish army to ward off the anticipated English attack, but he did not initially face battle. Wallace had used a scorched-earth tactic , and since the Scottish people had fled the English, no one could tell the English king where to find the Scottish army. In addition, the English could not supply themselves by looting from the country. While supplies of grain had been procured from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire , and food was also to be delivered to Carlisle from Ireland , these supplies were insufficient for the great army. In addition, the few ships that were supposed to transport provisions to the East Scottish ports were held up by a headwind. One of the few supplies the starving English soldiers reached was wine, which the king had distributed to his troops. This led to riots among the undisciplined foot soldiers from Wales, whereupon the king used his cavalry against the agitators. 80 Welsh people are said to have been killed. Edward I wanted to retreat with the army to Edinburgh to wait for supplies there. Then the Scottish Earl of Dunbar and the Earl of Angus , who were on the English side, arrived with the information that the Scottish army was only about 20 kilometers away in Callendar Wood near Falkirk . Presumably Wallace wanted to attack the English by surprise as they withdrew. Thereupon Edward I set his army marching west. The army spent the night in the open field near Linlithgow , and Edward I was slightly injured by a horse kick, but he was able to ride and thus refuted rumors that he was seriously injured. Bishop Antony Bek of Durham read mass at dawn, and then the English army passed through Linlithgow at dawn on July 22nd. A little later the English saw the Scottish army, which had already formed for battle.

Formation of the Scottish Army

There are also contradicting statements about the strength of the Scottish Army. It should be between 6,000 and 8,000 men. and 15,000 to 20,000 men strong. William Wallace had set it up in a strongly defensive position and was awaiting the English attack, although the exact location of the battle is not clear. Four years earlier, the English had defeated a defensive Welsh army at Maes Madog . Wallace tried to do the same, but better, than the Welsh. He had instructed his men to kill the horses first when riders attacked. He probably set up his army on firm ground on the flank of a hill facing southeast. Callender Wood lay behind him . In front of the hill flowed the West Quarter Burn and a stream flowing towards it, which created a damp subsoil in front of the Scottish line. The left flank was covered by a steep slope, there the road ran from Falkirk to Stirling . There was wood on the Scottish right flank. The bulk of the army consisted of spearmen fighting on foot, who were set up in four schiltrons . The Scots feared the attack of the mounted knights from England and Gascony , which is why they had rammed wooden stakes into the ground and created other obstacles to make it difficult to attack their positions on horseback. Between the Schiltroms stood the Scottish archers under John Stewart . The light cavalry, which consisted of the entourage of the magnates, was in the reserve. The English not only had a cavalry superior to the Scots, but also archers from Sherwood and Wales, and crossbowmen from Ponthieu and Guyenne , who were far superior to the Scottish archers.

The beginning of the Battle of Falkirk: the attack of the English horsemen on the Scottish Schiltrons and the escape of the Scottish cavalry

Course of the battle

Edward I initially wanted his army to have breakfast, but a majority of his commanders, the Earls of Norfolk , Hereford and Lincoln , considered this to be too dangerous and urged an immediate attack. Thereupon the king ordered the attack, for which he had his cavalry attacked in two divisions. The first division, led by Norfolk, Hereford and Lincoln, attacked from the west. They noticed the damp ground in front of the Scottish line late and swiveled west. The English right wing under Bishop Bek with 36 Knight Bannerets led the second division. These circumvented the damp ground on the eastern side. As a clergyman, the bishop struggled to keep the knights under his command. Baron Ralph Basset of Drayton told him to hold back and pray. The two English divisions met the two outer Scottish schiltrons. In view of the superior English cavalry, the Scottish cavalry fled in disgrace and panic without intervening in the battle. The often-raised accusation of treason is considered false. The chronicler John Fordun used it to discredit the Comyns , the future opponents of Robert Bruce .

How exactly the battle continued is unclear. First, however, the English rode down the Scottish archers, all of whom were killed. This isolated the four Schiltrons, who were now constantly attacked by English horsemen and foot soldiers. The ensuing shelling by English archers and crossbowmen, but also by slingshots, killed many of the only lightly armored Scots and weakened the Scottish lines, which got into disorder and then could no longer withstand the attacks of the English knights. According to another report, a cavalry attack at the rear of the Scottish positions was decisive. The English foot soldiers fought hard and suffered heavy losses with nearly 2,000 dead. The Welsh foot soldiers, however, were initially not used. Only when the Scottish army disbanded did they pursue the fleeing Scots and cut them down together with the horsemen. Since the Scottish horsemen fled early, hardly any Scottish nobles died, including John Stewart, who was killed with his archers, and Macduff , who led the squad from Fife . For the Scottish foot soldiers, the long battle became a slaughter. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Scottish foot soldiers were killed. Only two English Knights Templar , Brian le Jay and John of Sawtry were killed. However, 110 English horses are said to have been killed by the Scottish lances. Wallace and the magnates escaped into the forest of Tor .

Then the English horsemen, archers and foot soldiers constantly attacked the Scottish Schiltrons until the Scots fled

consequences

After the victory at Falkirk, Edward I moved on to Fife. Out of consideration for St. Andrew , St Andrews was not sacked, but Perth was . The English were able to get food from Stirling, which was still insufficient. Then Edward I divided his army. While the infantry was being sent to Carlisle, Edward I moved the cavalry to Ayr to subdue the areas where Wallace had the most support. Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, who, like his father Robert de Brus , had previously submitted to the English king, had changed sides. Carrick had burned Ayr Castle and retired to the hill country of south-west Scotland. Thereupon Edward I also withdrew to Carlisle. Thus, despite the victory at Falkirk, the English king had failed to achieve his goal of subjugating Scotland. Although the Scots had clearly lost the battle and suffered heavy losses, unlike in 1296, when the Scottish resistance collapsed after the defeat of Dunbar , the Scots continued the fight for the independence of their country. However, Wallace resigned as Guardian after failing as a military leader.

Edward I awarded extensive Scottish lands to the Earl of Warwick and other magnates in Carlisle on September 25, 1298 . He drove the Comyns and most of the Scottish magnates into further resistance. The magnates now took over the leadership of the struggle against the English and continued it bitterly for over five years. Despite the clear outcome, the Battle of Falkirk was not a decisive English victory. But it was a turning point in the war. For many years the Scots no longer dared to face the English in open battle. Instead, they embarked on a guerrilla war and a scorched earth policy against the English occupation.

filming

In the American film Braveheart by Mel Gibson (1995) Robert the Bruce is portrayed as a knight at King Edward's side. After a duel with Wallace, in which he knocks him down, he reveals himself and helps the injured Wallace to escape. The scene is to be understood more symbolically, however, and the film also contains a lot of dramaturgical freedoms in the reproduction of the actual historical course of the battle, such as the defection of the Irish troops to the Scots, which did not take place in this form.

Web link

Commons : Battle of Falkirk  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 139.
2. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 186.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 480.
4. ^ ^{A b} Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 142.
5. ↑ Michael Penman: Robert the Bruce. King of the Scots . Yale University Press, New Haven 2014, ISBN 978-0-300-14872-5 , p. 58.
6. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 143.
7. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, pp. 142-143.
8. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 144.
9. ^ ^{A b} Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 145.
10. ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . Berkeley, University of California Press, 1988, ISBN 0-520-06266-3 , p. 481.
11. ↑ Michael Brown: The wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 . Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2004, ISBN 0-7486-1237-8 , p. 187.
12. ↑ John Robert Maddicott: Thomas of Lancaster, 1307-1322. A Study in the Reign of Edward II. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1970, p. 69.
13. ^ Geoffrey WS Barrow: Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1965, p. 146.