Here Bruce got to work, using the same ideas that he had developed at the Battle of Loudoun Hill-and hoped that it would not again be Pembroke who led the English. Deep lateral trenches were dug at irregular intervals across that triangle of green, with stakes in their foot, and all carefully covered with woven brushwood and then grassy turfs brought from areas out of sight. The wooded flanks were honeycombed with individual pits, and the glades sown with spiked iron caltrops. It was all done on a vast scale, ten times that of Loudoun Hill, with thousands of men working, Bruce and some of his lords amongst the others, like labourers; even bishops and abbots might be seen leading trains of packhorses laden with turf and brush. All men, great and small, knew that Scotlands continued existence was in the balance.
And still the English did not come. Large numbers had assembled at Wark, on the south side of Tweed, spies informed-but the main armies delayed. To some extent, Bruce was grateful for more time-Angus Og, after capturing Man, had returned to his Hebrides, and dispersed his host. Summoned again urgently, he had not yet put in an appearance. It was possible that he might be sulking. But in another respect, this delay was a problem, for the camouflage over his pits and trenches tended to dry up a day or two after it was cut, and constant replacement was necessary.
Bruce even had squads of men watering the turfs, like monks in a garden.
Then, in mid-June, word reached the King that the invasion had indeed started. The English had crossed Tweed with an incalculable host, its baggagetrain alone extending for twenty miles.
King Edward was leading in person, with the High Constable, the Earl of Hereford, and the Earl of Gloucester as deputies. Rumour had it that there were no fewer than ninety-three other English barons and lords present, with their levies, not to mention great contingents from Wales, France, Brittany, Guienne and the Low Countries. There were said to be twenty-three Anglo-Irish chiefs under the Earl of Ulster, Bruces own father-in-law. Total numbers were impossible to ascertain, accounts varying from 70,000 to 200,000. Not that such figures were really significant. None knew better than Bruce that the true worth of any army depended not on sheer size-since this could only add to the problems of commissariat and mobility-but on its spirit, leadership and composition.
It was that composition he demanded of his informants now; above all, what were the numbers of heavy armoured cavalry, and of long bowmen -the two vital arms in which Scotland was weakest Reports were now flowing in to the Scottish camp below the frowning battlements of Stirling, in a steady stream. The English were advancing, not by Berwick and the coast, but up Tweeddale and Lauderdale. They comprised ten distinct divisions, with Herefords and Gloucesters in the van. Cavalry might number 40,000 or 50,000, but the heavy armoured chivalry, the knightly host, would be perhaps a tenth of that. Archers could be put at 7,000. Infantry was without number.
These figures, although still vague, were daunting. In a set battle,
as this must be, the heavy chivalry were allimportantthat is, knights
and their like in full armour, mounted on destriers also fully
armoured. Since the mens full armour weighed up to too pounds, and
the beasts five times that, only the most powerful horses could carry
it for any length of time. Inevitably these were slow-but they were
almost impervious to any assault save of their own kind. And of such
Bruce would be hard put to it to raise too; Scotland just did not breed
such horses. Of light horse, moss-troopers and the like-hobelars, the
English called them-he had perhaps 4,000; but against armoured
chivalry these were of little avail, however splendid at mobile
warfare. As to archers, he did not have 500, and no long bowmen
And still no sign of Angus Og and the Islesmen -though it was known that they were on their way.
Bruce drew up his army in four main divisions, facing east so as to cover both possible approaches. The van, of picked infantry, with their long pikes for forming schiltroms, he put under his nephew Moray, as a sufficiently sober and steady man not to lose his head in the face of overwhelming odds. Edward, of course, wanted this place of honour; but his brother just did not dare risk it, with all at stake. Edwards brilliance was as a dashing commander of light cavalry, not the spearhead of a static and defensive host. He gave him instead half of the light horse, to hold the right flank, based on the line of the Bannock Burn. The other half was for Douglas, on the left-although nominally commanded by the High Steward; old James Stewart had recently died, and young Walter was now the Steward, a notable youth but inexperienced.
Bruce himself commanded the main body, not exactly in the rear but somewhat back on the higher ground, where he could survey all, and especially the approaches to The Entry. Randolphs van was based on St. Ninians Kirk, a strategic site above the Carse route.
It was Saturday, the Eve of the Vigil of St. John the Baptist, the 22nd of June-midsummer. Spies declared the English van to be at Falkirk, only ten miles away-though its rear guard and baggage was still rumbling through Edinburgh twenty-five miles to the southeast There was little sleep that night, and at four a.m. of a misty dawn, trumpets in the Scots host called men to Mass. There had to be, of course, many services-but there was an ample sufficiency of clergy, armed and armoured, to provide them. William Lamberton himself celebrated for the Kings company. He sternly prescribed only bread and water for the days substinence, as the Vigil required-poor fare as it was on which to fight a vital battle but he knew his fellow-countrymen, and the streak of fanaticism in them.
Bruce was still concerned to have detailed news of his enemys numbers and quality, assessed not just by spies but by experienced commanders. He sent out a swift-riding va dette under Douglas and Keith the Marischal, to gain him the information he needed, risky as this was.
Then, as they stood to arms, the King reviewed his whole force, riding
round the divisions, alone, on a small and wiry grey gar ron
He was clad in light chain-mail, under a gorgeous heraldic surcoat of the red Lion Rampant on gold, and on his helmet was a leathern crest of a demi-lion, ringed by a high crown. His review took a long time, with so many to exchange a word with-for surely never had a king and commander known personally so many of his host, veteran warriors with whom he had fought almost continuously for seventeen long years. Always concerned with the personal touch, today, which might well be the last for him as for them, he-desired his identification with all to be complete. Besides, this uneasy waiting period had to be got over.
As he went his rounds, however, Bruce looked all too often back over his shoulder, westwards. Had he misjudged one man, in all these-Angus Og MacDonald?
Then back through the secret glades of the Tor Wood came Douglas and Keith, grave-faced. They had risked much, got very close to the enemy, and spoken with many scouts who dogged the English columns. And what they had seen and heard obviously had affected them direly.
The van is not far off, Sire, Douglas reported, panting.