Who won the Battle of Bannockburn?
Scotland under Robert the Bruce won a decisive victory at Bannockburn over two days in June 1314, breaking a much larger English army led by Edward II. Fighting on ground of his own choosing, Bruce shattered the English cavalry on the spears of his schiltrons; it is one of the most celebrated victories in Scottish history and secured the country's independence in practice.1
Over two days in June 1314, near Stirling in central Scotland, a Scottish army under Robert the Bruce faced a much larger English army led by King Edward II. Fighting on ground of his own choosing, Bruce broke the English cavalry on the hedgehog spears of his schiltrons and drove the enemy into a rout. Bannockburn is one of the most celebrated victories in Scottish history and secured, in practice, the country's independence.2
The road to Stirling
By 1314 Robert the Bruce had won back nearly all of Scotland from English control, and only a few great castles held out. Edinburgh and Roxburgh castles had been retaken, and Stirling Castle, the key to the crossing of the Forth and the gateway to the north, was under siege by the king's brother Edward Bruce. Seventeen years earlier, at the bridge over the Forth nearby, William Wallace and Andrew Moray had won the first great Scottish victory of the war at Stirling Bridge.3 › Battle of Flodden, 1513
The castle's English governor, Sir Philip de Mowbray, struck a bargain that set the date of the battle: he would surrender Stirling if no English army relieved it by 24 June 1314, Midsummer Day (all dates here are in the Julian calendar used at the time). Raising the siege became Edward II's first objective. The king gathered a large army and advanced from Falkirk along the old Roman road toward Stirling, intending to save the castle and crush Bruce in the field.4
Two armies, two kings
Edward II led a large and well-equipped host. Britannica estimates some 13,000 infantry, Welsh archers among them, and roughly 3,000 cavalry. Historic Environment Scotland's battlefield inventory gives 2,000 to 3,000 heavy cavalry and about 14,000 to 16,000 foot, including up to 2,000 archers and an Irish contingent, and rejects the chronicler John Barbour's figure of 100,000: the army was, it concludes, no more than around 20,000 strong. With it came great nobles, among them the earls of Gloucester, Hereford and Pembroke, and a long baggage train.5
Bruce had far fewer men: perhaps 6,000 to 7,000 spearmen, about 500 light horse under Sir Robert Keith, and an unknown number of irregulars, the "small folk," camp followers and poorly armed volunteers. His commanders included his brother Edward, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, and Sir James Douglas. What he lacked in numbers he made up in preparation. He chose the New Park, a royal hunting preserve a mile or two south of Stirling, where trees and wet ground would funnel any attack, and had pits dug and staked across the approaches to break up a cavalry charge.6
His strength lay in the schiltron, a tight block of spearmen bristling like a hedgehog, deadly to horsemen if it held its nerve. Bannockburn would show that a well-drilled schiltron could do more than stand: it could advance as a moving formation and attack.7
Day one: de Bohun and the New Park
On 23 June the English vanguard under the Earl of Gloucester reached the New Park. Bruce was out in front of his lines when the English knight Sir Henry de Bohun charged at him with his lance. Bruce avoided the charge and killed de Bohun with a single blow of his battle axe that split his head. Both armies saw it. The English vanguard then attacked the Scottish line, could not break it and fell back.8
Meanwhile about 300 English horse under Sir Robert Clifford and Sir Henry de Beaumont tried to skirt the Scottish position to the east and reach the castle. Moray's schiltron came down to block them. The two sides fought to a standstill until Douglas came up with a second schiltron; he held back to let Moray finish the fight, and when Moray's men pushed forward the horsemen broke and fled. By nightfall every English attack had failed and all the English troops had fallen back on the main army.9
The night decided much. Scottish morale was high, and Bruce raised it further with a speech to his men. The English crossed onto the Carse, the low, wet ground between the Bannock Burn and the River Forth, and spent much of the night awake and under arms, fearing an attack in the dark.10
Day two: the knights are broken
On the morning of 24 June the Scots heard mass and then did what the English did not expect: they came out of the woods and advanced to attack. Edward II, Britannica notes, was at first confused by the way the Scottish spearmen were drawn up, and the English had expected Bruce to avoid battle. The Earl of Gloucester, angry after a quarrel with the king, led a headlong charge against Edward Bruce's schiltron. It held, and Gloucester was among the first to die.11
The English were now, most likely, crowded onto the narrow, wet ground between the burn and the river and could not deploy their numbers. Their archers began to shoot at the Scottish spearmen, but Keith's light horse rode them down and scattered them. Historic Environment Scotland notes that this episode comes only from Barbour's poem and that its importance is debated.12
The schiltrons kept moving forward, pinning the English cavalry against its own infantry, which was hemmed in behind streams and bogs. Charges came again and again and broke on the spears. Horsemen who fell into the Scottish ditches could not get out again. When Bruce's reserve and the small folk appeared on the high ground behind the Scottish line, the English host, already losing cohesion, broke and ran.13
The rout
Edward II was led from the field by his household knights. He rode to Stirling Castle, but Mowbray refused to let him in, and Edward made his way to Dunbar and escaped by sea to England. Behind him his army dissolved. Many of the fleeing men died in the steep gorge of the Bannock Burn or drowned in the Forth. Local tradition places a further slaughter at a spot still called the Bloody Fould, near Bannockburn House.14
English losses included 34 barons and knights, Gloucester, Clifford and Sir Giles d'Argentan among them, as well as thousands of foot soldiers killed or captured in the flight. The Scots claimed to have lost only two knights and several hundred infantry. The Earl of Hereford and his party were taken prisoner at Bothwell, and the chronicles say the captured nobles were well treated until they were ransomed. Exact totals are unknowable; Barbour's 30,000 English dead is far too high.15
Aftermath: a kingdom secured
Bannockburn did not end the war, but it changed its nature. Bruce's domestic enemies, chiefly the Comyn faction, were driven out, and in November 1314 a parliament at Cambuskenneth stripped the lands of anyone who would not swear fealty to him. Berwick fell in 1318, and in 1320 the barons and community of Scotland asked the pope to recognize the kingdom's independence and Bruce as its lawful king in the letter now known as the Declaration of Arbroath.16
Edward II never recovered his authority. He was deposed in 1327 and died at Berkeley Castle the same year. Under his son Edward III, England accepted the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328, which recognized Scotland as an independent kingdom with Robert I as its king. Four years earlier the pope, who had called Bruce only governor of Scotland, had recognized him as king.17
Infantry against knights
Like the battle of the Golden Spurs at Courtrai in 1302, Bannockburn has been credited with opening an age in which infantry, not cavalry, dominated European battlefields. The lesson was learned fastest by the losers. Henry de Beaumont, who had ridden with Clifford on the first day, took its lessons home and used them against the Scots at Dupplin Moor in 1332 and later against the French.18 › Battle of Crécy, 1346
Legacy and memory
Bannockburn became the founding victory of Scottish national memory. John Barbour's long poem The Brus, written about 1375, gave the story its heroes and its scenes, from the axe blow that killed de Bohun to the small folk on the hill. Robert Burns visited the field in 1787 and later wrote his poem "Scots Wha Hae" about the battle, and it is remembered in songs from ballads to the modern anthem "Flower of Scotland," in films and once on Scottish banknotes.19 › Battle of Culloden, 1746
Where exactly the second day was fought is still argued. Historic Environment Scotland lists eight proposed sites. Some historians favor the Dryfield, the firm ground above the Carse, because chroniclers describe hard ground and the burn as a great ditch; others favor the Carse itself, where the English camped. The inventory judges in 2023 that the Carse has the stronger case, but no battle artifacts have been found to settle it, and the pits the Scots dug have never been located.20
Visiting the battlefield today
Much of the battlefield now lies under the town of Bannockburn and the edge of Stirling. The first day's ground at the New Park is protected and owned by the National Trust for Scotland. A flagpole put up in 1870 stands inside a concrete rotunda built in 1962, and nearby stands the bronze statue of Robert the Bruce by Charles d'Orville Pilkington Jackson, made in 1964 and modeled on a reconstruction of the king's face. The Trust's visitor center is closed for redevelopment and is planned to reopen in mid-2028; the monuments and grounds remain open.21
