"Combat, you may die; escape, you will survive... at least for the time being, but many years later, you will die all the time. Are you willing to use these to exchange an opportunity today? Today, come back and tell Our enemies, they may take our lives, but they will never take ours - freedom!"
The words of Scottish independence movement leader William Wallace in the Hollywood epic "Brave Heart" have led countless people to remember the revolution in Scotland that broke away from England in the 13th-14th centuries.
Although Wallace was not ruined by the fate of the rebels, the independence of Scotland was ultimately successful. And leading the Scots to independence, it was the Scottish nobleman Robert Bruce who sold Wallace.
Selling hero Wallace
In 1274, Robert Bruce was born into a Scottish aristocratic family whose ancestors had Scottish-Norman (French-born Viking descendants) ancestry, followed by the French "conqueror" William from Normandy to Britain.
After defeating the Scottish throne with the Barry family in 1292, Robert Bruce swears to the King of England, Edward I, to pledge allegiance and to take the latter's hand to regain the throne.
However, after Edward I expelled Barry Orr, he did not hand over the throne to Robert. Instead, he declared that he had jurisdiction over the Scottish territory and even moved the Scone stone, which symbolizes the Scottish kingdom, to London.
Indignant Robert turned his finger and set off a Scottish armed riot in 1297, which was quickly suppressed by Edward I. At this time, the Scottish anti-riot movement led by the fallen Knight William Wallace won the victory and defeated the British colonial army at the Stirling Bridge. However, in the Falkirk battle on July 22 of the following year, Wallace was defeated, but Robert re-entered Edward I in 1304.
In 1305, John Mantis, the "double-faced spy" hired by Robert, discovered the location where Wallace was hiding, and then Robert assisted the English army in arresting him in Glasgow. As a reward, Edward I rewarded Robert with a large amount of land and enshrined Mantis as the chief executive of Dembatown.
On August 3, Wallace was beheaded at Westminster Square in London, and his body was dismembered into four pieces, which were sent to the four sides of Scotland and England to warn the people not to resist.
After the removal of Wallace by Edward's hand, Robert deservedly became the "co-owner" of Scotland. On March 25, 1306, he sat on the Scone stone and crowned himself as the King of Scotland, for Robert I. Edward I quickly sent troops to suppress, and Robert suffered many defeats. He had to organize a large number of guerrillas to make the rule of the English people difficult to stabilize.
Seeing that Robert was more and more fierce, Edward I decided to kiss, but he was infected with dysentery on the way. He died in Cumberland on July 7, 1307, at the age of 68. Edward II, who inherits the unification, is a blind man and does not care about the situation in Scotland.
The magical "Schille" square
Taking advantage of Edward II's no political affairs, Robert stepped up his offensive. He first destroyed the "Cretaceous" Barry family and accepted the two members of the family - James Douglas and Thomas Randolph, and then attacked the English army.
At that time, the English army used the castle as a chain to control the vast villages of Scotland. By the summer of 1313, the Scottish army had taken other castles than Sterling.
Edward II, who is far away from London, knows that if Strindberg falls, his throne will not be guaranteed, so he decided to assemble the army to rescue. According to records, England has assembled 100,000 troops, but many historians believe that the available strength of the English Army is estimated to be no more than 25,000. Others are temporarily recruited farmers who have no fighting power at all.
On June 17, 1314, Edward II was the pro-insurer. The forwards were 2,500 heavy cavalry, followed by infantry, including 3,000 formidable Welsh longbowmen, and 500 light cavalry for reconnaissance and alert. Wait for the task.
The English army moved quickly, and on June 21, it won the Scottish Army's occupation of Edinburgh and received a lot of supplies. The next day, the British arrived in Falkirk, just over 20 miles from Strindberg.
As long as there are people with weapons and armor in Scotland, the strength of Scotland is still only one-third of that of the British. After careful analysis, Robert decided to fight with the English Army in Bannockburn.
Bannockburn is a small village 2 miles south of Strindberg. There are two roads from Bannockburn to Strindberg, one is the ancient road of the Roman Empire, and the other is the narrow and rugged Burley's Trail.
Robert took the lead in occupying the Burley Dirk Trail and set a large number of obstacles on the ancient Roman road to seal it. In this way, only the hard-to-reach swamps remain for the road left to the English Army.
The Scottish Army has the strongest fighting power of 6,000 infantry with 12-foot spears, and 700 other heavy cavalry and a small number of short-bowmen. Compared with the well-equipped English army, the Scottish spearmen lack metal armor, only leather jacket shorts, and hand-woven knee-length skirts. Most people do not have shoes and can only play barefoot.
In order to facilitate the attack, Robert arranged the troops into four divisions, from the south to the north by Robert himself, his brothers Edward, Douglas, and Randolph.
In combat, the Scottish spearmen are usually lined up in a square called "Schieryan". This square is densely populated and has spears like a forest. It is a good fit for heavy cavalry in defensive operations. , but the mobility is very poor, can only passively wait for the opponent to attack, can not withstand the impact from the flank and behind, but can not resist the arrow rain from the other archer.
In order to eliminate the potential danger, Robert spent a lot of time to improve the mobility and coordination of the "Schieryan" phalanx.