The longbow's revenge
The Battle of Falkirk on 22 July 1298 was William Wallace's greatest defeat — the moment when the momentum of Stirling Bridge was shattered by Edward I's tactical genius and the devastating power of the English longbow. Wallace had been Guardian of Scotland since his triumph at Stirling Bridge the previous year. Now Edward I came north in person, with the largest army England had assembled against Scotland.
Wallace knew he could not match Edward in open battle. He adopted a defensive strategy, positioning his army in four great schiltrons — circular formations of spearmen bristling with twelve-foot pikes — on rising ground near Falkirk. The schiltrons were virtually impenetrable to cavalry, as the Scots had proved at Stirling Bridge. Wallace was betting that Edward's knights would break themselves on the wall of Scottish spears.
Edward I was too experienced to make that mistake. He sent his cavalry against the Scottish archers and light troops, who were quickly scattered. Then, instead of charging the schiltrons, he brought up his longbowmen. Rank upon rank of English and Welsh archers poured arrows into the massed Scottish formations from a distance the spearmen could not close. The schiltrons, immobile and unable to reply, were shot to pieces. When gaps opened in the formations, Edward's cavalry charged through them.
The Scottish army was destroyed. Wallace escaped the field but resigned the Guardianship shortly afterward. The defeat at Falkirk ended Wallace's military career, though his legend was only beginning. The tactical lesson of Falkirk — that the longbow could defeat massed spearmen at range — would be applied by the English at Dupplin Moor, Halidon Hill, Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. Wallace retreated into the shadows, conducting guerrilla operations until his capture and execution in 1305. But the resistance he inspired outlived him: Robert the Bruce would finish what Wallace had started.