Battle of Bannockburn

In 1314, after 18 years of war, Scotland North of the Forth was free, and Stirling was one of the few remaining castles still held by the English. Edward Bruce, Kind Robert's brother, lay in wait for months with his army outside the castle, hoping to starve the English out. In the spring, though, according to chivalric code of that time, he met with the castle's governor, Sir Philip Mowbray, and agreed that if relief troops had not arrived by midsummer's eve, the English would surrender. Robert was enraged with the arrangement, and recognized it would force him into a full-scale siege by the English army. Edward II planned just that, and amassed an army of 40,000 men to fight against Bruce's 13,000 Scots. Bruce knew he would have to use guerrilla tactics to whittle down the size of the enemy forces, so he carefully selected a flat, narrow meadow between a marsh and a large hill, just north of Bannock Burn Gorge as the battlefield. Bruce's troops dug deep holes and camouflaged them to stop any troops who attempted to leave the narrow path on the field. Those who left the path in the other direction were forced into the bog. These strategies were crucial in allowing the outnumbered Scots their victory at the Battle of Bannockburn.