BOOK XI

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32 _outrageous a day._ “Day” has here the meaning of “a space of time,” as in Berners’ _Froissart_. “The truce is not expired, but hath _day_ to endure unto the first day of Maye next” (I. ccxiii., N.E.D.): a sense of the Latin _dies_. For “outrageous,” see on _Bk._ III. 162.

44 _Akatane._ Aquitaine, the ancient southern duchy of France, the hereditary possession of the Kings of England.

46 The _Lanercost_ chronicler affirms (1311) that in the war the Scots were so divided that sometimes a father was with the Scots and his son with the English, or brothers were on opposite sides, or even the same person at one time on the Scottish side, at another on that of England; but that it was a pretence, either because the English seemed to get the better or to save their English lands, “for their hearts, if not their bodies, were always with their own people” (p. 217). Thus, at this time, there were still to be found among supporters of the English King such names as Stewart, Graham, Kirkpatrick, Maxwell, St. Clair, etc. (_Bain_, iii., _Introd._, pp. xvi, xvii). As many of these were Border lairds--some, indeed, are of Annandale--even their Scottish lands were specially exposed to English attack. Late in 1313 (October or November) we have a _Petition to the King_ (of England) _from the People of Scotland, by their envoys, Sir Patrick de Dunbar, Earl of March, and Sir Adam de Gordon_, complaining of the great losses they have suffered “by their enemies”--_i.e._, the Bruce party--also of the brigandage of the English garrison in Berwick and Roxburgh (_Bain_, iii., No. 337). One of the results of Bannockburn was to bring many of these waverers over to the national side. Adam de Gordon, indeed, was already under suspicion, and apparently was a waverer. He had, in fact, a grant of the lands of Strathbogie in 1309, according to Robertson (_Index_, p. 2; 40). _Cf._ also 103-4.* For Gordon, see also _Bk._ IX. 720, etc.; XV. 333; and on March, _Bk._ XIX. 776, note.

79-82 _Cf._, as bearing out Barbour’s assertion, the comment by the author of the _Vita Edwardi Secundi_ on the army when assembled at Berwick: “There were in that assemblage amply sufficient men (_satis sufficientes_) to traverse all Scotland, and, in the judgment of some, if the whole of Scotland had been brought together, it could not make a stand against the army of the King (_cf._ line 150). Indeed, it was confessed by the whole host that, in our time, such an army had not gone out of England” (_Chronicles of Ed. I. and Ed. II._, ii., pp. 201-2).

91 _Erll of Hennaut._ Count William of Hainault, Flanders. _Cf._ on _Bk._ XIX. 262.

93. _Almanyhe_: Germany. Friar Baston says four German knights came “gratis” (_Eng. Hist. Rev._, vol. xix., p. 507).

100 _of Irlande ane gret menyhe._ In _Foedera_ we have the list of twenty-five Irish chiefs summoned to the campaign against the Scots--O’Donald, O’Neil, MacMahon, O’Bryn, O’Dymsy, etc. The Irish contingent was commanded by Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, Bruce’s father-in-law (III., pp. 476-478).

*103-4 See note on 46.

103 _Ane hundreth thousand men and ma._ See _Appendix_ C.

105 _Armyt on hors._ That is, the men alone wore armour, being thus distinguished from the knights “with helit hors,” or horses armoured also in _bardings_ of leather or mail. Skeat rejects the reading of E in favour of “playn male,” taking “playn” to represent the French _plein_ = “complete mail,” on the ground of Innes’s remark that the distinction between mail or ring-armour and plate, “if known, was not so specific in Barbour’s age.” But plates had been coming into use since the last quarter of the thirteenth century, and by 1300 the practice of attaching such additional defences was rapidly developing. See note on 131. In 1316 we read of “200 men armed in plate,” who were sent to Ireland from England (_Bain_, iii., p. 99, No. 519).

114 _Of cartis._ “The multitude of waggons (_multitudo quadrigarum_), if it had been extended in a line one behind the other, would have taken up a space of twenty leagues” (_Vita Edw. Sec._, p. 202). The meaning of “league” is uncertain; apparently it was just a mile.

117 _veschall._ In _Vita Edw. Sec._ (pp. 206-7) the author speaks of “costly garments and gold (or gilt) plate” (_vasa aurea_). Baker of Swinbroke, in his _Chronicon Angliæ_ (p. 55), also mentions the “plate of gold and silver,” and affirms that, in addition to an abundant supply of victuals, the English brought with them things which were wont to be seen only in times of peace on the luxurious tables of princes. Among the ornaments of the high altar of Aberdeen Cathedral in 1549 was “an old hood made of cloth of gold ... from the spoil of the Battle of Bannockburn” (_Reg. Episc. Aberd._, ii., p. 189).

119 _schot._ Arrows, and bolts for cross-bows. _Cf._ _Bk._ XIII. 311, and below, note on 544.

130 _ryche weid._ The rich flowing housings or drapery of the steeds, covering the armour, if any, as the “surcoat” of the knight did his.

131-*132. Armour was in a state of rapid transition, and so at this time is very complicated. An English brass of 1325 shows a knight wearing (1) a _gambeson_, or close-fitting quilted tunic, to ease the pressure of the armour; (2) a _hauberk_ of _banded_ or _chain mail_, with half-plates on the upper arm; (3) an _habergeon_ (“hawbyrschown”), or lighter hauberk, apparently of small plates; (4) a _haketon_, another padded coat like the gambeson; (5) and a short _surcoat_. He has leggings of mail covering also the feet, and half-plates in addition from the knees to the toes: a hood of mail continued upward from the hauberk and a _bascinet_, or pointed, nut-shaped helmet, with no visor. Over this he would wear in battle such a heavy, closed, flat-topped _helm_ as we see on the seal of Robert I. He carries a small triangular shield on his left arm, and his sword, a little more than half the body in length, hangs in front from a waist-belt. Such was probably the equipment of the leading knights at Bannockburn.

136 _Till Berwick._ The army was to assemble at Werk on the Tweed by Monday, June 10, 1314 (_Foedera_, iii., p. 481). But the start was made from Berwick on June 17 or 18 (_Vita Edw._, 201).

150 _Mannaustt the Scottis._ _Cf._ note on 79-82.

163 _Glowcister._ Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, nephew of the King, and a young man of twenty-three. _Herfurd._ Humphrey de Bohun, or Boun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and Constable of England. “The Earl of Gloucester and the Earl of Herford commanded the first line” (_primam aciem_, _Vit. Edw. Sec._, p. 202). The _Scalacronica_ says Gloucester commanded “the advance guard” (p. 141), but does not mention Hereford (see note on _Bk._ XIII. 466).

174 _Schir Gylys de Argente._ Sir Giles d’Argentine, popularly regarded as one of the three most eminent men of the time, the others being the Emperor Henry and Robert Bruce (_Scotich. Lib._, xiii. 16). He “guided the King’s bridle” (_Vita Edw. Sec._, p. 204). _Cf._ also _Scalacronica_ (p. 143), _votre reyne me fust baillez_--“your rein was entrusted to me”: among others (p. 142).

210 _the Torwood._ Stretching north and west from Falkirk. It reached to near Bannockburn, a little south of which is “Torwoodhead” Castle.

237 See note on 103.

250 _abaysing._ Fear which grew to panic. _Morale_, or firm courage, is always an important element in warfare, but in medieval times it seems to have been specially important (_cf._ IV. 191-200, and XII. 184-8). The remarkable successes of the Scots against larger numbers were often due to the “abaysing,” for one reason or other, of their opponents. Footmen were peculiarly liable to this loss of nerve, as they received no mercy, as a rule, from the mounted knights. Bruce was all along most anxious to guard against the rise of any such spirit of “funk” among his men. “Success in battle,” said Napoleon, “depends not so much upon the number of men killed as upon the number frightened.”

277 _the wayis._ As Bruce explains in the lines that follow, there were two “ways” of advance to Stirling; one through the wooded New Park, and the other by the level below St. Ninian’s, extending to the “pools” or lagoons along the side of the Forth. The trees of the New Park seem to have extended from above the banks of the burn to St. Ninian’s on the one side and Stirling, or near it, on the other (_cf._ note on _Bk._ XII. 58). It was made as late as 1264 by Alexander III., and enclosed with a paling in 1288 (_Excheq. Rolls_, I. 24, 38); whence the name “New.”

291 _licht armyng._ “Everyone of them (the Scots) was protected by light armour” (_levi armatura_). (_Vita Edw. Sec._, p. 203). See further, note on _Bk._ XII. 448.

296 _ficht on fut._ Fighting was still regarded as almost entirely the business of armoured men on horseback, the footmen serving only for minor purposes. That an army all on foot should oppose chivalry was a new departure. Bruce was an original general. Sir Thomas Gray says that the Scots “took example from the Flemings,” who, in 1302, at Courtrai had in this way defeated the French knights (_Scalacronica_, p. 142). But this is an after-thought. The _Vita Edwardi Sec._ also draws the parallel with Courtrai (p. 206). But the Scots could take the hint from the tactics at Falkirk in 1298, where Wallace was only defeated by the English archers. An English chronicler of about 1330 suggests that the Scots were made to fight on foot to avoid the mischance at Falkirk when their little body of cavalry fled at the sight of the English advance (_Annales Johannis de Trokelowe_, p. 84).

300 _the sykis._ No doubt shallow lagoons with a muddy bottom, about the Bannock, where it entered the Forth, flooded by the tide. Jamieson, in his _Dictionary_, defines _syk_ as “a marshy bottom, with a small stream in it.” A rivulet in Selkirkshire is known as the Red Syke (Chambers’ _Popular Rhymes_, p. 17, ed. 1826).

333-6 Pinkerton suggests in his edition that Bruce could not trust the Highlanders and Islesmen, and so put them in the rear, and stiffened their ranks with his own followers from Carrick. For this there is no warrant. The “barons of Argyll and Inchgallye” (the Hebrides) attended Bruce’s Parliament at St. Andrews in March, 1309 (_Acts Parl. Scot._, i. 99). _Cf._ also note on X. 14. In any case on the Sunday afternoon Bruce took the _front_ position in the New Park with these very men (445, 446).

360 _ane playne feld by the way._ _I.e._, an open, level part by the road through the park, just outside the wood. The historians have shifted the position to suit their various and erroneous ideas of the field of battle. Barbour, it is to be noted, says nothing of bogs, nor of Buchanan’s “calthrops of iron” (_Scot. Hist._, ed. 1762, p. 213). Friar Baston, captured at Bannockburn, in his Latin poem, says there were stakes in the pits (_Scotichronicon_, lib. xii., chap. xxii.). Geoffrey Baker, of Swinbroke, enlarges them to long ditches covered with hurdles, an utter misapprehension (_Chronicon_, pp. 56, 57. _Cf._ notes on _Bk._ XII. 536, 537). At Cressy (1346) the English dug “many pits” (_multa foramina_) of the depth and width of a foot in front of their first line as a defence against possible pursuit by the French cavalry (_Baker_, p. 166). An analagous device is described by Herodotus as having been successfully used by the Phocians to destroy Messalian cavalry (