Page images
PDF
EPUB

possess civil offices, he had been advanced by Edward to that of High Treasurer in Scotland. His rapine and oppression had rendered him very detestable. The Scots, however, disgraced their victory, by their treatment of his corpse. They flayed off the skin, and cut it in pieces, to make girths and other furniture for their horses.

THE battle of Stirling was fought on the 13th of September 1297. The scene of action appears to have been about the place now called Corntown, and in a plain north of the river, opposite to the castle. It was the most complete victory that Wallace had ever gained in a regularly fought field. Nor was his loss considerable. Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell was the only person of note amongst the slain.

THE Earl of Surry, who, with the rest of the English army, was upon the south side of the river, beholding this disaster, immediately retreated southward, after having set fire to the remains of the bridge, to prevent

* HEMINGFORD. Tyrrel.

A a

a quick pursuit from the victorious Scots. He was greatly harrassed, however, in his march by the Lord High Steward, and the Earl of Lennox, who came upon him from behind the neighbouring mountains, where, with a large force, they had been posted in ambush. Wallace, too, having speedily crossed, soon joined them; and coming up with the main body of the retreating army at Torwood,* commenced a sharp action. The Scots obtained the victory; and Surry himself escaped with great difficulty, being so closely pursued, that the historians of those times have been careful to inform us, that, when he had arrived at Berwick, his horse was so fatigued as to be unable to eat.†

THIS signal victory so raised the fame of

* BLIND HARY. (Mr Chalmers remarks of Blind Hary, that the Scottish historians follow, without venturing to quote him; but that his assertions have been confirmed by the records in the Tower of London. Holingshed mentions a fact which is not altogether inconsistent with Hary's assertion, that "Wallace, after the battle, went, with sundry of his friends, into the castle of Striveling." Scottish Chronicle, Arbroath, 1806, 4to, Vol. I. p. 422. Editor.)

HEMINGFORD. (The distance is nearly a hundred miles.

Editor.)

Wallace, and struck the English with such terror, that they yielded up their forts, as soon as he had appeared before them. In a few months, all the places of strength in the kingdom were recovered, and scarce an Englishman was to be seen in the country.

THE Scots, also, looking upon the brave Sir William as the deliverer of their country, crouded to his standard; and an assembly of the states chose him to be General of the Army, and Protector of the Kingdom, under Baliol, who was still in a state of confinement.* This high office he executed with great dignity, though not without much envy

* HISTORIANS generally affirm that Wallace was elected Protector of the Kingdom by a convention of the states, though they do not fix the particular time of this election. Some affirm, also, that his commission was confirmed by Baliol; a statement far, however, from probable, when we recollect that, as that Prince was then in prison, such a step could not fail to prove fatal to him, had it been discovered by Edward. Others mention nothing of his being chosen Protector; amongst whom is Buchanan, who says that he had the title. of Prorex among his associates. Fordun gives him the title of Custos, but does not mention how he had obtained it. Charters, and letters of protection to religious houses in England, have been quoted to prove his having been invested with the office of Protector. In these, however, he only stiles himsel£ Pux exercitus Scotia.

and malevolent opposition from several of the chief nobility. He found, however, as many among the middle ranks, friends of liberty, as not only supported him in the internal government of the kingdom, but enabled him to penetrate into England.*

*(HEMINGFORD has inserted in his History, a copy of the protection, which Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, son and representative of the knight of the same name who fell in the battle of Stirling, and Wallace, when they had led their victorious army into Cumberland and Northumberland, gave to the prior of Hexhildesham. Moray's name takes precedence of Wallace's. We shall afterwards see that the latter was tenacious on this point, when it had become of importance. Perhaps his associates might have presumed upon his former facility. We may put the reader in mind of a fact stated in the foregoing section, that, in 1326, and in the Abbey of Cambuskenneth, Andrew Moray of Bothwell was married to Christian Bruce, sister of King Robert. This highly favoured subject, son, by Cumyn of Badenach's daughter, of the gallant Sir Andrew, who had met his death-wound in the battle of Stirling, was, till his decease in 1338, the protector of his lady's nephew, the infant son of Bruce. The Morays of Abercairney are descended from his full and younger brother John; who obtained from his father the lands of Drumsergard, and, by marrying the daughter of Malise Earl of Strathearn, acquired the estates of Ogilvie and Abercairney. Editor.)

SECT. VIII.

BATTLE OF FALKIRK,
22d JULY 1298.

THE news of this northern revolution, caused Edward speedily to listen to proposals. of a truce made him by France, that he might have leisure to reduce Scotland. Instantly on his arrival in England, he assembled a numerous and well disciplined army, amounting, according to the common counts, to above eighty thousand foot besides a fine body of cavalry, most of them veteran troops, newly brought over from the French war. He marched northward, at their head, having under him, as general officers, Bohun Earl of Hereford High-Constable of England, Bigod Earl of Norfolk Chief Marshall, the Earl of Lincoln, and Antonius de Beck the warlike Bishop of Durham. This numerous host arrived at Temple-Liston,*

(LIOS-DUN, "Garden-Hill," i. e. Cultivated Hill. It was called Temple-Liston, from being the property of the Knights

« PreviousContinue »