Day of triumph at Stirling Bridge
Council archaeologist Murray Cook on how battle was won
Have you wondered why Wallace won at Stirling Bridge?
You all know the story: firstly, the English Commander John de Warrene, slept in and then his forces were advanced and then recalled.
Then the English troops cross the narrow bridge and are surrounded on three sides by the Forth. When half the army is over the Scots block the bridge and a narrow point of the river.
The English command is split and poor; they had apparently expected us to wait for them to assemble before fighting. To do otherwise just wasn’t cricket.
At that time, the English army was amongst the best in Europe. It had just beaten the official Scottish army at Dunbar in 1296 and would beat us in again 1298 at Falkirk. And, of course, the forces of the English controlled Stirling Castle.
This was an unofficial rebellion against the English and the Scots’ best tactic was the use of the schiltron, which was basically a corp of guys with big spears.
Yet we overwhelmed them. All they had to do was hold and wait and then they could cross the bridge and go back to the castle.
The Battle of Stirling Bridge is important in Scottish terms because it proved we could win, and in European terms it’s the first time an army of knights was beaten by footsoldiers.
So why did we win because the English certainly couldn’t explain it.
Excavations at Cambuskenneth’s medieval harbour reveal that the Forth’s contemporary tidal range was up to two metres higher, making it twice as wide, and remember all that mud. I think we won because the English panicked; they watched the tide rise and were trapped with troops at the back pushing forward while those at the front were retreating. If an army loses order it’s finished. People fell into the mud and were drowned and crushed. Armour in metre-deep mud is useless. So we won because the English panicked, they didn’t know how high the Forth would rise and order broke down with the resulting loss of 5000 souls in the cold, clammy mud of the Forth, the best ally Wallace ever had.