FREEDOM! Cries Mel Gibson, playing William Wallace, in the movie Braveheart as he is drawn and quartered near the end of the movie (spoiler).

The very end of the movie shows the beginning of the Battle of Bannockburn nine years later (23-24 June 1314) where the new King of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, exhorts the Scots to fight with him as they did with Wallace. They then charge the English and win freedom for Scotland.

Braveheart is not a very historical movie overall, romanticizing Wallace’s actions and leaning into some of the myths surrounding him. As noted above the movie skips nine years between Willaim Wallace’s death and the Battle of Bannockburn. It skips the history and breaks Bannockburn down into a single charge by the Scots, rather than telling the story of a multi-day battle.

Edward II had campaigned against the Scots in 1310 to 1311 with little effect. By 1313, King Robert I (the Bruce) had spent several years and captured much of Scotland. They were also raiding the north counties of England. The threat to the English stronghold at Stirling Castle was real, and King Edward II was most interested in regaining whatever reputation he had, most of it dissipated after his futile campaigns of 1310-1311. To counter the growing Bruce threat, Edward II gathered a quite large and fairly good army for the time (over 15,000 men). He then headed north to relieve the threat against Stirling and, Edward hoped, to smash Bruce’s much smaller force.

Edward, however, was in somewhat of a hurry and ignored the advice of his lords, many of whom were familiar with the Scots. Marching north at a brisk pace, his vanguard caught up with the Scots army just south of Stirling Castle, blocking the approach with the help of some heavy woods and a rather precipitous burn, a stream difficult to cross because of the heavy growth along its muddy and treacherous banks: The Bannock Burn.

The Earl of Gloucester and most of the English mounted men-at arms swung east and north, crossing over the burn at the village and making a rash attack against the command of the Earl of Moray, just south of St, Ninian’s kirk. As often happened in these days, the Scots went into schiltron and the charge was repulsed. King Robert did much for the morale of his army by defeating Henry of Bohun in a classic one-on-one battle. Henry lost when Robert’s battle-axe slammed through Henry’s helmet and cut his head in two. Very impressive.

While this was going on, Edward’s main battle force, his foot, marched and straggled in much disarray towards the battlefield, arriving in dribs and drabs through the late evening. With the Scots holding the road to Stirling, the infantry was forced to spend a brief night—at that time of the year it is dark only for about 4 hours—camped on the boggy, wet and uncomfortable portion of the Carse of Balquhiderock, or with Edward’s baggage train, some distance south of the burn.

At sunrise, much of the English infantry was still arriving, some were struggling to get up and onto the field, while the rest struggled to form some sort of line behind the deployed heavy cavalry. Exactly what then happened is difficult to determine.

However, it appears that an initial charge by the English mounted knights was thrown back, at which point the Scots went on the attack, pouring down from their position into the bedraggled, tired and still forming English foot, driving everyone from the field in a massive retreat.

The historical text above was lifted from the Men of Iron Battle Book’s Historical Background for the Battle of Bannockburn. There were several small engagements of the first day of Bannockburn that are omitted in the game as they are too small to work well within the game system. The battle in the game focuses on the second day of Bannockburn.

---

You can learn more or pre-order the Men of Iron Tri-Pack 2nd Printing here.