View source for Battle of Stirling Bridge

{{Short description|Battle of the First War of Scottish Independence}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Battle of Stirling Bridge
| partof            = the [[First War of Scottish Independence]]
| image             = File:The Battle of Stirling Bridge.jpg
| caption           = A Victorian depiction of the battle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=James |title=British Battles on Land and Sea |publisher=Cassell Petter & Galpin |year=1873 |page=31}}</ref> The bridge collapse suggests that the artist has been influenced by [[#Popular culture|Blind Harry's account]].
| date              = 11 September 1297
| place             = Stirling Bridge, [[Stirling, Scotland|Stirling]], Scotland
| coordinates       = {{Coord|56.130|N|3.935|W|format=dms|type:event_region:GB-STG|display=inline,title}}
| result            = Scottish victory
| combatant1        = [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]]
| combatant2        = [[Kingdom of England|England]]
| commander1        = [[William Wallace]]<br/>[[Andrew de Moray]]{{DOW}}
| commander2        = [[John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey|Earl of Surrey]]<br/>[[Hugh de Cressingham]]{{KIA}}
| strength1         = 5,300 to 6,300 men
*~300 cavalry
*~5,000 to 6,000 infantry<ref name=bbc>BBC History Magazine July 2014, pp. 24–25</ref>
| strength2         = 9,000 men
*~2,000 cavalry<ref name=bbc/>
*~7,000 infantry<ref name=bbc/>
|map_type=Scotland|map_relief=1
| casualties1       = Unknown
| casualties2       = 100 cavalry killed<ref name=Cowan>Cowan, Edward J., ''The Wallace Book'', 2007, John Donald, {{ISBN|978-0-85976-652-4}}, p. 69</ref><br/>5,000 infantry killed<ref name=Cowan/>
| notes             = {{Infobox designation list
 |embed               = yes
 |designation1        = UK Registered Battlefields
 |designation1_date   = 30 November 2011
 |designation1_number = {{Historic Environment Scotland|num=BTL28|short=yes}}
 }}
}}
{{Campaignbox First War of Scottish Independence}}
{{Campaignbox Wars of Scottish Independence}}

The '''Battle of Stirling Bridge''' ({{langx|gd|Blàr Drochaid Shruighlea}}) was fought during the [[First War of Scottish Independence]]. On 11 September 1297, the forces of [[Andrew Moray]] and [[William Wallace]] defeated the combined English forces of [[John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey]], and [[Hugh de Cressingham]] near [[Stirling]], on the [[River Forth]].

==Background==
In 1296, [[John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey]], defeated [[John Comyn, Earl of Buchan]] in the [[Battle of Dunbar (1296)|Battle of Dunbar]]. King [[John Balliol]] surrendered to King [[Edward I of England]] at [[Brechin]] on 10 July, and the Scottish [[landholder]]s were made to acknowledge Edward's [[overlordship]]. In 1297, Moray initiated a revolt in northern Scotland and by the late summer, controlled [[Urquhart Castle|Urquhart]], Inverness, Elgin, Banff and Aberdeen. Wallace joined Moray in September near [[Dundee]], and they marched to Stirling. Stirling, in the words of [[Stuart Reid (Scottish historical writer)|Stuart Reid]], was "traditionally regarded as the key to Scotland." Meanwhile, Surrey had joined Cressingham in July and both had arrived at Stirling by 9 September 1297. By then, Moray and Wallace had already occupied [[Abbey Craig]].<ref name="sr">{{cite book |last1=Reid |first1=Stuart |title=Battles of the Scottish Lowlands |date=2004 |publisher=Pen & Sword Books Limited |location=Barnsley |isbn=9781844150786 |pages=13–19}}</ref>

==Battle==
[[File:The Goosecraft Friar.jpg|thumb|The Goosecroft Friar: A Memorial to a Dominican Friar who may have a witness to the Scottish Wars of Independence.]]
Surrey was concerned with the number of Scots he faced, separated by a long causeway and narrow, wooden bridge, over the River Forth near [[Stirling Castle]]. Determining that he would be at a tactical disadvantage if he attempted to take his main force across there, he delayed crossing for several days to allow for negotiations and to reconnoiter the area.<ref name="bbcsh">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/battle_of_stirling_bridge/ |title='The Battle of Stirling Bridge, 1297', Scotland's History, BBC |access-date=16 July 2015 |archive-date=11 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911114103/https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/battle_of_stirling_bridge/ |url-status=live }}</ref> On 11 September, Surrey had sent [[James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland|James Stewart]], and then two Dominican friars as emissaries to the Scots. According to [[Walter of Guisborough]], Wallace reputedly responded with, "We are not here to make peace but to do battle to defend ourselves and liberate our kingdom. Let them come on and we shall prove this to their very beards."<ref name="sr" />

While traditionally it has been argued that the Scots camped on [[Abbey Craig]], it may be more likely they were to the west on Spittal Hill where the road that becomes the [https://www.thenational.scot/news/25171419.scottish-archaeologist-excavate-william-wallaces-stirling-camp/ Causeway to the Bridge has recently been discovered by Dr Murray Cook]. The Scots dominated the soft flat ground north of the river. The English force of English, Welsh and Scots knights, bowmen and foot soldiers camped south of the river. Sir Richard Lundie,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lundie.org/newsite/lundie_of_that_ilk/lairds/lundie_lundy_lundin_ilk_sir_richard.htm |title=lundie.org |access-date=29 March 2018 |archive-date=14 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161014035229/http://www.lundie.org/newsite/lundie_of_that_ilk/lairds/lundie_lundy_lundin_ilk_sir_richard.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> a Scots knight who joined the English after the [[Capitulation of Irvine]], offered to outflank the enemy by leading a cavalry force over a [[ford (crossing)|ford]] {{convert|2|mi|km|0|abbr=off|spell=on}} upstream, where sixty horsemen could cross at the same time. Hugh de Cressingham, [[Edward I of England|King Edward]]'s treasurer in Scotland, persuaded the Earl to reject that advice and order a direct attack across the bridge.<ref name="alba" /><ref name="sr" />

The small bridge was broad enough to let only two horsemen cross abreast but offered the safest river crossing, as the Forth widened to the east and the marshland of [[Flanders Moss]] lay to the west.<ref name=alba>{{Cite web |url=http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandshistory/warsofindependence/battleofstirlingbridge/ |title='The Battle of Stirling Bridge', Foghlam Alba |access-date=16 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150716055249/http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scotlandshistory/warsofindependence/battleofstirlingbridge/ |archive-date=16 July 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The Scots waited as the English knights and infantry, led by Cressingham, with Sir [[Marmaduke Thweng, 1st Baron Thweng|Marmaduke Thweng]] and Sir Richard Waldegrave, began to make their slow progress across the bridge on the morning of 11 September. It would have taken several hours for the entire English army to cross.<ref name=bbcsh/><ref name=sr/>

Wallace and Moray waited, according to the [[Chronicle of Hemingburgh]], until "as many of the enemy had come over as they believed they could overcome". When a substantial number of the troops had crossed (possibly about 2,000)<ref>Reid, Stuart. ''Battles of the Scottish Lowlands'', Battlefield Britain. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2004</ref> the attack was ordered. The Scots spearmen came down from the high ground in rapid advance and fended off a charge by the English heavy cavalry and then counterattacked the English infantry. They gained control of the near side of the bridge and cut off the chance of English reinforcements to cross. Caught on the low ground in the loop of the river with no chance of relief or of retreat, most of the outnumbered English on the attacked side were probably killed. A few hundred may have escaped by swimming across the river.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/medieval/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=71 |title='Battle of Stirling Bridge', UK Battlefields Resource Centre |access-date=16 July 2015 |archive-date=8 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008205808/http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/medieval/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=71 |url-status=live }}</ref> Marmaduke Thweng managed to fight his way back across the bridge with some of his men.<ref name=sr/>

Surrey, who was left with a small contingent of archers, had stayed south of the river and was still in a strong position. The bulk of his army remained intact and he could have held the line of the Forth, denying the Scots a passage to the south, but his confidence was gone. After the escape of Sir Marmaduke Thweng, Surrey ordered the bridge to be destroyed, retreated towards Berwick, leaving the garrison at Stirling Castle isolated and abandoning the Lowlands to the rebels. [[James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland|James Stewart]], the High Steward of Scotland, and [[Maol Choluim I, Earl of Lennox|Malcolm, Earl of Lennox]], whose forces had been part of Surrey's army, observing the carnage to the north of the bridge, withdrew. Then the English supply train was attacked at ''The Pows'', a wooded marshy area, by James Stewart and the other Scots lords, and many of the fleeing soldiers were killed.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://my.stirling.gov.uk/services/community-life-and-leisure/local-history-and-heritage/local-history/the-wars/the-wars-stirling-bridge?theme=MyStirling |title='The Wars – Stirling Bridge', Stirling Council |access-date=16 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150716105235/http://my.stirling.gov.uk/services/community-life-and-leisure/local-history-and-heritage/local-history/the-wars/the-wars-stirling-bridge?theme=MyStirling |archive-date=16 July 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Stirling Bridge of that time is believed to have been about {{convert|180|yd|m|abbr=off}} upstream from the [[Stirling Old Bridge|15th-century stone bridge]] that now crosses the river.<ref name=bbcsh/> Four stone piers have been found underwater just north ({{coord|56|07|45|N|03|56|12|W|type:landmark}}) and at an angle to the extant 15th-century bridge, along with man-made stonework on one bank in line with the piers. The site of the fighting was along either side of an earthen [[causeway]] leading from the [[Abbey Craig]], atop which the [[Wallace Monument]] is now, to the north end of the bridge.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-753-1/dissemination/pdf/1990/1992.pdf |title=Ancient Bridge, Stirling (Stirling parish) |author=Page, R. |journal=Discovery and Excavation in Scotland |year=1992 |pages=17 |access-date=14 December 2011 |archive-date=30 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630093720/https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-753-1%2Fdissemination%2Fpdf%2F1990%2F1992.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-753-1/dissemination/pdf/1990/1997.pdf |title=Stirling Ancient Bridge (Stirling; Logie parishes) |author1=Page, R. |author2=Main, L. |name-list-style=amp |journal=Discovery and Excavation in Scotland |year=1997 |pages=80–81 |access-date=14 December 2011 |archive-date=11 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911232709/http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-753-1/dissemination/pdf/1990/1997.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=BTL28|desc=Battle of Stirling Bridge|access-date=1 April 2019}}</ref> The battlefield has been [[Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland|inventoried]] and protected by [[Historic Scotland]] under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/heritage/battlefields/battlefieldsunderconsideration.htm |title=Inventory battlefields |publisher=Historic Scotland |access-date=12 April 2012 |archive-date=16 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016125748/http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/heritage/battlefields/battlefieldsunderconsideration.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Aftermath==
Surrey left William de Warine and Sir Marmaduke Thweng in charge of Stirling Castle, as Surrey abandoned his army, and fled towards Berwick.<ref name=sr/>

The contemporary English chronicler [[Walter of Guisborough]] recorded the English losses in the battle as 100 cavalry and 5,000 infantry killed.<ref name=Cowan>Cowan, Edward J., ''The Wallace Book'', 2007, John Donald, {{ISBN|978-0-85976-652-4}}, p. 69</ref> Scottish casualties in the battle are unrecorded, with the exception of Andrew Moray, who was mortally wounded during the battle, and was dead by November.<ref name=sr/>

The ''[[Lanercost Chronicle]]'' records that Wallace had a broad strip of Cressingham's skin, "...taken from the head to the heel, to make therewith a [[baldric]]k for his sword."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maxwell |first1=Herbert |title=The Chronicle of Lanercost |url=https://archive.org/details/chronicleoflaner02maxw/page/164/mode/2up?q=cressingham |via=Internet Archive |publisher=James Maclehose and Sons |access-date=26 June 2020 |page=164}}</ref>

The Scots proceeded to raid the south as far as [[Durham, England]]. Wallace was appointed "[[Guardian of Scotland|Guardian of the kingdom of Scotland]] and commander of its army." Yet, Edward was already planning another invasion of Scotland, which would lead to the [[Battle of Falkirk]].<ref name=sr/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Michael |title=The Wars of Scotland, 1214–1371, Volume 4 in The New Edinburgh History of Scotland |date=2004 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press Ltd. |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9780748612383 |pages=184–188}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Chris |title=Scottish Battlefields, 500 Battles That Shaped Scottish History |date=2008 |publisher=Tempus Publishing |location=Stroud |isbn=9780752436852 |pages=126–128, 270–273}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200" heights="160">
File:SterlingBridge.jpg|The present-day Stirling Bridge
File:Stirling Bridge and Wallace Monument.JPG|Stirling Bridge from the south bank of the [[River Forth]] with the [[Wallace Monument]] in the background
</gallery>

==Popular culture==

The exploits of Wallace were passed on to posterity mainly in the form of tales collected and recounted by the poet [[Blind Harry]], the Minstrel (d. 1492), whose original, probably oral sources were never specified. Blind Harry was active some 200 years after the events described in his ''The Acts and Deeds of the Illustrious and Valiant Champion Sir William Wallace'', c. 1470. The tales were designed to entertain the court of [[James IV of Scotland|James IV]] (r. 1488–1513) and are undoubtedly a blend of fact and fiction. Like most of his other episodes, Blind Harry's account of the battle of Stirling Bridge is highly improbable, such as his use of figures of biblical magnitude for the size of the participating armies. Nevertheless, his highly dramatised and graphic account of the battle fed the imaginations of subsequent generations of Scottish schoolchildren. Here is his description:

<blockquote>On Saturday they [Moray and Wallace] rode on to the bridge, which was of good plain board, well made and jointed, having placed watches to see that none passed from the army. Taking a wright, the most able workman there, he [Wallace] ordered him to saw the plank in two at the mid streit [middle stretch], so that no-one might walk over it. He then nailed it up quickly with hinges, and dirtied it with clay, to cause it to appear that nothing had been done. The other end he so arranged that it should lie on three wooden rollers, which were so placed, that when one was out the rest would fall down. The wright, himself, he ordered to sit there underneath, in a cradle, bound on a beam, to loose the pin when Wallace let him know by blowing a horn when the time was come. No one in all the army should be allowed to blow but he himself.

Hugh Cressingham leads on the vanguard with twenty thousand likely men to see. Thirty thousand the Earl of Warren had, but he did then as wisdom did direct, all the first army being sent over before him. Some Scottish men, who well knew this manner of attack, bade Wallace sound, saying there were now enough. He hastened not, however, but steadily observed the advance until he saw Warren's force thickly crowd the bridge. Then from Jop he took the horn and blew loudly, and warned John the Wright, who thereupon struck out the roller with skill; when the pin was out, the rest of it fell down. Now arose an hideous outcry among the people, both horses and men, falling into the water. (...)

On foot and bearing a great sharp spear, Wallace went amongst the thickest of the press and aimed a stroke at Cressingham in his corslet, which was brightly polished. The sharp head of the spear pierced right through the plates and through his body, stabbing him beyond rescue; thus was that chieftain struck down to death. With the stroke Wallace bore down both man and horse.

The English army although ready for battle, lost heart when their chieftain was slain and many openly began to flee. Yet, worthy men abode in the place until ten thousand were slain. Then the remainder fled, not able to abide longer, seeking succour in many directions, some east, some west and some fled to the north. Seven thousand full at once floated in the Forth, plunged into the deep and drowned without mercy; none were left alive of all that fell army.<ref>Sir William Wallace, His Life And Deeds By Henry The Minstrel in Modern Prose By Thomas Walker, Glasgow 1910</ref></blockquote>

As well as the bridge ploy, Wallace's use of a spear appears to be a fictional element. A two-handed sword [claidheamh dà-làimh, in Gaelic, more commonly claidheamh-mòr or claymore meaning great sword], purporting to be Wallace's, which may contain the original metal from his sword blade, was kept by the Scottish kings<ref>"To bynding of Wallass's sword with cordis of silk and new hilt and plomet, new skabbard, and new hilt to the said sword, XXVj.sh.", entry in James IV's Household Book for 8 December 1505, in E M Brougham, News Out of Scotland, Heinemann 1926</ref> and is displayed as a relic in the [[Wallace Monument]].

The potency of these tales can be gauged from the following statement by the poet [[Robert Burns]], writing some three centuries after they were first related.

<blockquote>The two first books I ever read in private, and which gave me more pleasure than any two books I ever read again, were ''The Life of Hannibal'' and ''The History of Sir William Wallace'' [a modernised version of Blind Harry by [[William Hamilton of Gilbertfield]]]. Hannibal gave my young ideas such a turn that I used to strut in raptures up and down after the recruiting drum and bagpipe, and wish myself tall enough that I could be a soldier; while the story of Wallace poured a Scottish prejudice into my veins which will boil along there till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest.<ref>letter to Dr. John Moore, dated 2 August 1787, quoted in M. Lindsay, Robert Burns, London and New York 1979</ref></blockquote>

The Battle of Stirling Bridge is depicted in the 1995 film ''[[Braveheart]]'', but it bears little resemblance to the real battle. Significantly, there is no bridge in the movie<ref name="The Telegraph 2020 v411">{{cite web |last= MacLellan |first=Rory| title=Mel Gibson versus history: how Braveheart got William Wallace so wrong | website=The Telegraph | date=May 28, 2020 | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/mel-gibson-versus-history-braveheart-got-william-wallace-wrong/ | access-date=February 8, 2024}}</ref> (due mainly to the difficulty of filming around the bridge itself), and it replaced the tactics of the battle with ones resembling the [[Battle of Bannockburn]].{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Armstrong, Peter. ''Stirling Bridge and Falkirk 1297–98: William Wallace's rebellion'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012).
* Barrow, G. W. S., ''Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland,'' 1976.
* Brown, C., "William Wallace" 2005.
* Cowan, Edward J., ''The Wallace Book'', 2007, John Donald, {{ISBN|978-0-85976-652-4}}
* Ferguson, J., ''William Wallace: Guardian of Scotland''. 1948.
* Nicholson, R., ''Scotland-the Later Middle Ages'', 1974.
* Prestwich, M., ''The Three Edwards: War and State in England, 1272–1277'', 1980.
* Spiers, Edward N. et al. ''Military History of Scotland'' (2012) 912pp.
* Traquair, P., ''Freedom's Sword''

==External links==
* {{Historic Environment Scotland|num=BTL28|desc=Battle of Stirling Bridge}}
* [http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/battle_of_stirling_bridge_summary.pdf/ Historic Scotland site report and area map] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030212309/http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/battle_of_stirling_bridge_summary.pdf |date=30 October 2012 }}

{{Portal bar|England|Middle Ages|Scotland}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stirling Bridge, Battle Of}}
[[Category:1297 in England]]
[[Category:1297 in Scotland]]
[[Category:13th-century military history of Scotland]]
[[Category:Battles between England and Scotland]]
[[Category:Battles of the Wars of Scottish Independence]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1297]]
[[Category:History of Stirling (council area)]]
[[Category:Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland]]