Friday, February 21, 2014

In Freedom's Cause

Archie captured the castle with little resistance. Douglas captured another castle which made Randolph anxious to capture one as well. Archie and Randolph also bagged one by climbing a wall that was supposedly impossible to climb. (This was repeated many years later by the British to capture a French castle.)
Now almost all of the castles were in the hands of the Scottish. England was stricken by civil war, and her king was rather bad at the time. Finally Edward the 2nd decided to crush Scotland once and for all. He sent a huge army to invade Scotland. They met at a place by Bannock's burn, hence the name Bannockburn for this battle. Bruce formed his men in ranks four deep, so that they were all engaged at once. The English had too many men to all fight at once, so they were unable to use their strength to the best advantage. The English archers weren't able to shoot or they would hit more of their own men than the Scottish. They tried what had proved disastrous to the Scottish before: going around their flank and shooting from at their side. This time, however, the Scottish cavalry were not commanded by traitors. They chased the archers off and the Scottish archers took the field.

The Scottish won the Battle of Bannockburn.
End of Book
Bell

No comments:

Post a Comment