11 September in military history: the Battle of Stirling Bridge, 1297

On 11 September 1297, at the narrow wooden bridge over the River Forth at Stirling, in Scotland. Historic Environment Scotland counts it among the most prominent Scottish victories of the Wars of Independence.

William Wallace and Andrew Moray led the Scots. John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, led the English army; Historic Environment Scotland names Hugh de Cressingham, the treasurer of Scotland, as his fellow commander.

They waited at the foot of the Abbey Craig while the English crossed the narrow bridge. When as many had crossed as they believed they could overcome, they came down and blocked the bridge, trapping the men on their side of the river. Many fell from the bridge and drowned.

The sources differ. Walter of Guisborough writes that nearly 100 men-at-arms and about 5,000 foot fell. Historic Environment Scotland, working from much lower modern estimates of the English army and assuming, with Reid, that few of those who crossed escaped, puts English losses in the battle itself at around 1,650; none of the sources it quotes gives a figure for Scottish losses.

He was killed in the battle. English chroniclers wrote that the Scots flayed his body, and the Lanercost chronicle claims that Wallace had a strip of the skin made into a sword belt, a story the National Wallace Monument tells as a legend.