Scotland's greatest victory
At dawn on 24 June 1314, Robert the Bruce ordered his schiltrons to advance — a move that stunned both armies. The dense formations of Scottish spearmen marched downhill toward the English host, which was trapped in the low, marshy ground between the Bannock Burn and the River Forth. It was the most audacious tactical decision in Scottish military history, and it worked.
The English army was unable to deploy. The heavy cavalry, which should have been Edward II's decisive weapon, could not charge effectively on the boggy ground. As the Scottish schiltrons pushed forward, the English were compressed into an ever-tighter mass. Archers, who might have broken the spear formations, could not shoot without hitting their own men. The disciplined Scottish advance turned the English numerical superiority into a fatal disadvantage — more men simply meant more chaos in the shrinking space.
The critical moment came when Bruce committed his reserves and the "small folk" — camp followers, servants, and lightly armed men — appeared on the ridge behind the Scottish army. The English, already wavering, interpreted this as a fresh army arriving and broke. The rout became a disaster. Thousands of English soldiers drowned trying to cross the Bannock Burn and the Forth. Edward II himself fled the field with a bodyguard of five hundred knights, riding to Dunbar and then escaping by boat to England. His shield, his privy seal, and a fortune in baggage were captured.
Bannockburn was the most decisive Scottish victory in the Wars of Independence. It did not immediately end the war — England did not formally recognise Scottish independence until the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328 — but it shattered the myth of English invincibility and secured Bruce's kingship beyond challenge. The Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, with its ringing assertion of Scotland's right to freedom, was made possible by the men who stood in the schiltrons at Bannockburn. Today the battlefield, managed by the National Trust for Scotland, is one of the most important heritage sites in Scotland. The statue of Bruce on horseback, gazing across the ground where he won Scotland's freedom, is an image recognised around the world.