Andrew Moray - The Battle of Stirling Bridge

The Battle of Stirling Bridge

By the late summer of 1297, King Edward possessed little authority over Scotland. The reality of the breakdown in royal control was described in a letter to the king from Cressingham:

Of the castles north of the River Forth, only Dundee remained in English hands. It was under siege in September 1297. King Edward could only reimpose his authority on Scotland by a full-scale armed invasion. Sometime late in the summer of 1297, King Edward's lieutenant in Scotland, the earl of Surrey, finally recognized the need to take decisive action against Moray and Wallace. He had previously done little against the rebels and was subsequently vilified for his indolence. One English chronicler, Walter of Guisborough, said:

Surrey now mustered an army and marched into central Scotland; Moray and Wallace responded by entrusting the ongoing siege of Dundee castle to the townspeople and marching with their army to Stirling, where they waited for his arrival.

Moray and Wallace deployed their small army to the north of the River Forth close to the old bridge at Stirling and under the shadow of Stirling Castle. Surrey's conduct of the ensuing battle, characterized by his arrogant and unimaginative adherence to chivalric convention, was inept. He sent the vanguard of his army across the narrow bridge under the Scots’ gaze, who, rather than wait myopically for the entire army to cross the bridge and deploy for battle, struck when it was only partially deployed. In the ensuing carnage of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, Surrey's isolated vanguard was hacked to pieces. The bulk of his army remained on the southern bank and it soon began to flee the scene as it became clear that Surrey had been outmanoeuvred and outfought by Moray and Wallace. The flight was apparently led by the inept Surrey, whose “charger never once tasted food during the whole journey” sneered Walter of Guisborough.

It is estimated Surrey lost one hundred knights and five-thousand infantrymen in the slaughter at Stirling Bridge. The most notable English casualty was Cressingham, who, according to the chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft unaccustomed "to the saddle, From his steed in its course fell under foot, His body was cut to pieces by the ribalds of Scotland" The Lanercost Chronicle records that Wallace had:

The Scottish army's casualties went unrecorded as it was composed largely of historically nameless infantry soldiers. There was, however, one irreplaceable loss: Andrew Moray.