BANNOCKBURN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 118, 24 June 1914, Page 6

BANNOCKBURN.

A KING'S BATTLE.

[To-day is the six hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn.J

On a quiet Sabbath morn six hundred years ago to-day; watchers on the ramparts of Stirling- Castle gazed down upon a glorious display of the rude panoply of war. It was summertime, and the peaceful vale of the Bannock was bathed in warm sunshine. Through the green jnosses, past woody banks, winding hither and thither ran a silver thread, linking itself anon with the sunlit Forth. .Qn_jthat peaceful Sunday it was an unknown country sUeam; a still dimpled water known best by the trout that rose lazily in its shaded pools. On the morrow, the fateful 24th, its clear, waters were clouded red with the blood of men of Albion and Caledonia. It was the stern baptismal ceremony that was to. enrol for all time Bannock burn, among the classic waters of the world.

I Far off, the Avatchers from the cast! , would see a great mast upreared, an y | presently the ruddy folds of the Scol Itish lion rampant would reveal th = I whereabouts The Bruce. Where th • shadow of this flag fell is saere tj ground; there is no more revered spo - lin all Scotland. • | THE COMBATANTS' STBENGTH. ' I In the mists of time the war streugt' } of the two armies become matters o ' conjecture. The Scots' strength, how ever, has been put at about 20,000, am J the English Army probably numberei 1 (50,000, the flower of Edward's knight ' hood and chivalry. In the Englis] • Army there Avere .'ontingents fron ' Wales and Ireland and Argyle, France Hainault, Bretagne and Gascony. Tin outfit of Edward's Army Avas magnifi ; cent. A contemporary chronicler tell; us that "the multitude of Avaggons i: ' extended one after another in file wouk ! have extended over sixty miles." Thi: I assertion was. borne out by the evidence of Roberjt Baston, a Carmelite Friar whom Edward brought with him to eele brate the English victory. By th< irony of Avar Baston Avas captured I>a the Soots, and as ransom, was made tc sing a Scottish triumph! - THE FYEST STEAK. It vras> the vigil of St. John, and from the vastle battlements the Avatch ers could hear th,e priests chanting tht Holy Mass to the army of the Scots One can scarcely the sight that met "the anxious eye of Bruce as he gazed on the serried ranks of his enemies. A boundless wilderness ol spears, lances, bills and banners stretched aAvay over hill and dale until lost at. the horizon.' A mist of dust hung over the combatants. Then came the fust striking incident of the day. Putting his horse through the Bannock Avater the fierce de Bohun spurred towards the Bruce. This man, cousin to the Earl of Hereford, or as an old chronicler puts it "to ye Erie of Hurfurd Cusyne," thundered down unsupported upon tjie Scottish king. The king sgung his battleaxe and de Bohun, Edward's friend, dropped lifeless to the ! earth. Again the old AA'riter speaks saying "this, Avcs the fy-rsfr strak of the fycht." The English writer- puts it according to his Aiew and Avrites "Initium malorum hoc" (this was the beginning of evil). ,A SHAMBLES. It was the old Abbot of Inchaffray, Avho performed the Holy Rites of Mass in front of the Scottish lines, and as he blessed the stern knights and men at arms the Avhole host knelt in prayer. Then came down England's might like some fierce irresistible tide but the God of Battles had heard the I prayer of the Scots and nerved their | hearts and anus. From early dawn till eventide the struggle raged, and the ground became slippery _ with blood. Shouts of triumph and groans of pain joined in a ghastly chorus and every now and then the 'death shriek of some great panoplied Avar horse 'would- .prevail OA-er the din of the melee. As | r.ight fell the Scottish' camp followers 'appeared on the Gillies' Hill (the name ! —gillies or serving men —connnemo- : rates the position to this day) and the English, mistaking them for a fresh force, faltered, broke, and fled. The "Bloody Faulds," as the place is still called, speaks grimly to us to-day of the butchery that folloAved. THE GRAVEDIGGEES' TALLY. A contemporary gi\ T es the number of the English slain as ."10,000, which, if correct, would be about half the host. Hundreds, possibly thousands of the poor straggling men at arms, Avould be killed by the Scottish peasantry after the battle, and many must have perished miserably in their flight to England. With, regard to the barons and knights Ave are on surer ground. Twenty-one English barons were slain; forty-two knights perished and sixty i Avere taken, and -upwards of COO Eug- j lish gentlemen of coat armour lost their lives. Twentyrt.Avo barons, t.Avo earls, sixty knights, and many clerics fell prisoners to the Scots. On the other side the only knights of reiiOAvn who fell were Sir William de Vipont and Sir Walter de Ro«, the friend of Edward Bruce, the king's brother.

Bannockburn was a God-send to Scotland. The booty that fell into the hands oi ! the Scots was immense, and even down to the reign-of Queen Mary there are records of costly vestments " frae tlie fight at Bannockburn. *' But the booty was of secondary importance to the great gain. The Siots were free.