June 24, 1314

Battle of Bannockburn

Scottish victory on the second day of the Battle of Bannockburn

Edward's men tore timber frameworks from nearby houses to lay walkways over the bog they camped in — and woke to Scottish spearmen advancing into that confined ground.

Morning of 24 June: the schiltrons come out of the trees

On the morning of 24 June 1314, Robert I's Scottish army emerged from wooded high ground and advanced in three divisions. Edward II's army had spent the night on low, constricted ground south of Stirling, where its cavalry and infantry could not deploy effectively.

Historic Environment Scotland estimates roughly 6,000–7,000 Scottish spearmen and 500 cavalry against about 16,000 English infantry and 2,000–3,000 heavy cavalry. Both totals are reconstructions rather than surviving muster counts.

This was the second day of a two-day battle that had begun on 23 June.

The cavalry breaks, then the whole line

An English cavalry attack led by Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, failed. Gloucester was killed while the Scottish schiltrons held and kept advancing — these were compact spear formations, moving offensively rather than standing as fixed squares.

Hemmed between burns and boggy ground, the English cavalry was driven back into its own infantry. The formation collapsed and the retreat became a rout.

A later Scottish source claimed the routed men filled the Bannock Burn so densely that a person could cross without wet feet — a vivid chronicle claim, not a literal casualty count.

Turned away from Stirling Castle

Edward II was escorted from the battlefield. Philip Mowbray, keeper of Stirling Castle, refused him entry because the fortress was now expected to fall, so Edward continued to Dunbar and escaped by ship.

Mowbray had agreed to surrender the castle if it was not relieved by 24 June. That agreement had been made with Edward Bruce, Robert's brother, who led the siege; with the relief force destroyed it went unfulfilled, and Stirling passed to the Scots in the battle's immediate aftermath.

Robert I gained effective control of Scotland. English legal recognition of Scottish independence did not follow until 1328.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited

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What the sources leave uncertain

The sizes of both armies are estimates; Historic Environment Scotland explicitly says losses are especially difficult to calculate.
The exact location of much of the second day's fighting remains debated. Current interpretation places it principally on the Carse of Balquhiderock between the Pelstream and Bannock Burns.
Detailed incidents often rely on John Barbour's The Brus, composed about sixty years later for a pro-Bruce audience. The Henry de Bohun encounter and the reported Scottish cavalry attack on English archers should therefore be attributed, not narrated as uncontested eyewitness facts.