BOOK XII. 210-327

It is the privilege of early historians to equip their leading personages with speeches, and in its pertinent, practical character the speech here provided for King Robert is a good example of such--so good, indeed, as to suggest the probability that Barbour is working up some transmitted material. There is on record another speech attributed to Bruce, which formed part of a Latin poem on Bannockburn by Abbot Bernard of Arbroath, Bruce’s Chancellor, portions of which are quoted in the _Scotichronicon_.[58] This speech consists of twenty-five hexameter lines, and is a rhetorical flourish on Scottish liberty, the miseries inflicted by the English on the country, and the hapless condition of “mother Church,” closing in strains of ecclesiastical exhortation. Moreover, it immediately precedes the opening of the battle, while Barbour’s version is of the evening before. In the latter a special interest attaches to lines 263-268 and 303-317, which may be compared with the following extracts from a speech by Alexander the Great in _The Vowes_, one of the three romances which make up the Scottish _Buik of Alexander_, the translation of which from the French was probably the work of Barbour himself.[59] Alexander says:

“Be thay assailyeit hardely, And encountered egerly, The formest cumis ye sall se, The hindmest sall abased be.

* * * * *

Forthy I pray ilk man that he Nocht covetous na yarnand be, To tak na ryches that thay wald, Bot wyn of deidly fais the fald; Fra thay be winnin all wit ye weill The gudis are ouris ever ilk deill; And I quyteclame yow utrely Baith gold and silver halely, And all the riches that thaires is, The honour will I have I wis.”[60]

[58] Lib. xii., chap. xxi.

[59] See Appendix E.

[60] P. 318.

To the same purport as these latter lines is a portion of a subsequent address;[61] and lines 325, 334 find a similar parallel in:

“Thus armit all the nicht thay lay, Quhile on the morne that it was day.”[62]

Of the cardinal sentiment in the speech, the origin is probably to be found in the familiar story of the Maccabees, referred to more than once in _The Bruce_. Judas Maccabeus was one of the typical heroes of French romance, and had one metrical romance, at least, devoted to his career. And in 1 Maccabees, chap. iv., we have:

“17. (Judas) said to the people, Be not greedy of the spoils, inasmuch as there is a battle before us.

“18. And Gorgias and his host are here by us in the mountain; but stand ye now against our enemies, and overcome them, and after this ye may boldly take the spoils.”[63]

[61] P. 339.

[62] P. 350, lines 12, 13.

[63] _Cf._ also Neilson on _The Real “Scots Wha Hae”_ in _Scottish Antiquary_, vol. xiv., No. 53, July, 1899.

APPENDIX C

THE NUMBERS AT BANNOCKBURN

ENGLISH: _One hundred thousand men and ma._

SCOTS: _Thretty thousand, and sum deill mare._

These figures have given rise to much discussion, without any very certain result. Yet official data are not wanting--sufficient, at least, to check what is only another example of the wild conjectures of mediæval chroniclers when dealing with numbers. Hemingburgh gives Wallace at Falkirk “about three hundred thousand men”[64]--rather more, probably, than the whole male population of Scotland. We need not be surprised, then, at how all such estimates shrink in the cold light of Exchequer figures.

[64] II. p. 180.

Edward II. summoned all owing him military service,[65] which corroborates the statement of the author of the _Vita Edw. Sec._ that “the King exacted from all the service due,”[66] as well as that of Barbour--“of England hale the chivalry.” The Earls of Lancaster, Warenne, Arundel, and Warwick did not attend, for a particular reason, but sent their contingents.[67] Now, by Mr. Round’s calculations, the whole number of knights’ fees in England did not exceed 5,000;[68] Mr. Morris raises the figure to something short of 7,000.[69] The important point is, however, that in practice the assessment was only a nominal or conventional one. Thus Gloucester, with 455 fees, was assessed at ten knights.[70] Including all grades of horsemen, Mr. Morris puts “the maximum of the cavalry arm” at “about 8,000”; but, all things considered, no such number could ever take the field.[71] Edward I. had summoned his full feudal array (_omnes sui fideles_) for the Falkirk campaign, and Hemingburgh says that, when counted, it came to 3,000 men on armoured horses (Barbour’s “helit hors”), and more than 4,000 on unarmoured horses--say, roughly, 7,000 in all.[72] Mr. Morris, however, by a generous calculation from the rolls, arrives at 2,400 as the highest possible figure.[73] Now, it is to be noted that the author of the _Vita Edw. Sec._, while lauding the size and magnificence of the host that went to Bannockburn, gives 2,000 men-at-arms as apparently the total of the cavalry, since he simply adds “a considerable body of footmen.”[74] On the whole, 3,000 to 4,000 English horse is a higher limit for Bannockburn, when we consider all the difficulties of sufficient armour, remounts, and forage. Mr. Morris thinks 10,000 “impossible,” though he is here calculating on yards of frontage on a site where the battle was not fought.[75] About 7,000 is Mr. Round’s free estimate, adopting Hemingburgh’s figure for Falkirk.[76] Bain accepts Barbour’s 3,000 heavy horsemen, and suggests 10,000 light horse, but proceeds on no data.[77] Mr. Oman calculates that “three thousand ‘equites coperti,’ men-at-arms on barded horses,” means, probably, 10,000 for the whole cavalry,[78] but this traverses his Falkirk figures. England never put, nor could maintain, on the field such a mounted force, to say nothing of the difficulty of handling and manœuvring it.

[65] _Fœdera_, iii., p. 464, etc.

[66] P. 201.

[67] _Vita Edw._, p. 201.

[68] _Feudal England_, p. 292.

[69] _The Welsh Wars of Edward I._, p. 41.

[70] _Welsh Wars_, p. 59.

[71] _Ibid._, pp. 81, 82.

[72] II. p. 173.

[73] _Welsh Wars_, p. 292.

[74] _Peditum turba copiosa_, p. 201.

[75] _Engl. Hist. Rev._, vol. xiv., p. 133. _Cf._ Appendix A.

[76] _Bannockburn_ in _The Commune of London_, p. 298.

[77] _Calendar_, iii., p. xxi.

[78] _Art of War_, p. 575 note.

For the foot we have, fortunately, exact figures in the _Fœdera_[79]--21,540 men all told, which would include the archers. Only the northern counties--but not all--and Wales are drawn upon, as those of the south would be for a French campaign.[80] Such had been the practice of Edward I., whose levies from the northern counties and Wales ranged from 29,400 foot in 1297 to 12,000 in 1301.[81] Mr. Morris contends that not till 1322 were infantry drawn from all England for a Scottish campaign (_as cited_), but in this he is wrong. It was done by a special vote of Parliament, and according to a prescribed form, as early as March, 1316, when every township, with some special exceptions, furnished one soldier,[82] and again in 1318.[83] These are clearly new and special arrangements, and there is thus no reason to believe that the list in _Fœdera_, etc., is not complete, as Mr. Oman suggests, adding, accordingly, a southern contingent of about 30,000 men, though he doubts if “the extreme South” sent its full muster.[84] This is quite gratuitous. Lord Hailes, too, contended that the official records are imperfect, and that the numbers given by Barbour “are within the limits of probability.”[85] Bain’s authoritative reply is that, “as a rule, the writs were always enrolled, and the Patent Rolls of the time are not defective.”[86] This, however, is not always true, and Bain, applying this principle absolutely, is once, at least, led to a wrong conclusion.[87]

[79] Vol. iii., p. 482, etc.; also in _Rotuli Scotiæ_, i., p. 127; and _Parliamentary Writs_, book ii., div. 2, p. 117.

[80] _Cf._ _Commune of London_, p. 296; _Engl. Hist. Rev._, xiv., p. 133.

[81] _Bain_, ii., Nos. 956, 1202, 1092, 1136.

[82] _Writs as cited_, pp. 176, 177.

[83] _Trokelowe_, p. 102; _Rot. Scot._, i., p. 183.

[84] _Art of War_, p. 573 and note.

[85] _Annals_, ii., p. 48.

[86] _Calendar_, iii., p. xx.

[87] See note on Book XVI., 285.

An important question now suggests itself, but no one has so far raised it: did the levies in these full numbers turn up? They are allotted in round figures: what proportion was actually furnished? That there would be some trouble in securing the conscripts is anticipated and provided for in severe measures for the contumacious.[88] This was usual, and even the strong hand of Edward I. could not prevent men from deserting after they had received their wages.[89] Here we have, also, a sufficient basis for an estimate. On May 12, 1301, Edward I. summoned for midsummer 12,000 men from nine of the counties included in the Bannockburn levy--York, as in that case, being assessed at 4,000.[90] On July 12 we have the numbers from these counties as they appear on the pay-roll, when it is stated that they had contributed in proportions which give only 5,501 all told; York having sent only 1,193, and Northumberland, assessed at 2,700, providing the largest proportion--2,019.[91] The numbers vary slightly on other days, but seem never to have exceeded, if they reached, 50 per cent. of the nominal levy. Mr. Morris works out the same result for the Caerlaverock Campaign of 1300.[92] There are no grounds for assuming that things went differently in 1314, and thus over 21,540 men are reduced by about half. It is quite a fair conclusion that not more than 12,000 English foot--which exceeds the proportion above--were actually present at Bannockburn.

[88] _Writs_, ii., p. 185.

[89] _Palgrave_, cxxvii.; _Welsh Wars_, pp. 95, 98.

[90] _Bain_, ii., No. 1202.

[91] _Bain_, ii., 1229.

[92] _Welsh Wars_, p. 301.

For the foreign contingents no figures exist. Bain thinks they were not “more than a few thousands.”[93] The Gascon corps in the Falkirk army should have been 106 mounted men.[94] The Hainault and Flanders auxiliaries who shared in the campaign of 1327 amounted to 550 men-at-arms, and were an expensive item.[95] The Irish contingent which came to Edward I. in 1304 amounted at most, for a few weeks only, to 3,500 men,[96] but to merely 361 in the army of 1300.[97]

[93] III., p. xxi.

[94] _Welsh Wars_, p. 289.

[95] _Cf._ Book XIX., 267 note.

[96] _Bain_, ii., p. xxxix, note.

[97] _Welsh Wars_, p. 301.

I would suggest, therefore, for the English army the following round numbers: 3,000 to 4,000 horse of all sorts, 12,000 English and Welsh foot, 3,000 (?) Irish, 1,500 (?) foreigners, or, in a lump sum, 20,000 men of all arms, to which must be added a crowd of non-combatants--servants, traders, and camp-followers generally. Bain (as cited) proposes 50,000; Round, 30,000; Oman, 60,000 to 70,000. I consider 18,000 to 20,000 the most probable range. With even the lower of these numbers, the English commanders in organization and commissariat would have rather more than they could manage.

Barbour’s figure for the Scottish army must be similarly reduced. More than 30,000 would be a huge proportion of the Scottish population of that time, especially as the whole does not seem to have been drawn upon, and of that, as Barbour insists, a good many were still hostile.[98] William the Lion was credited in 1173 with a national host of 1,000 armoured horsemen, and 30,000 unarmoured footmen,[99] and the latter unit is surely over the score. At Halidon Hill, 1333, the Scots are said to have had 1,174 knights and men-at-arms and 13,500 light-armed men or foot;[100] and this chronicler consistently exaggerates. Yet these figures represent a united kingdom. Forty thousand at Bannockburn is the estimate for the Scots of the _Vita Edw._ writer, but the English writers, on their side, grossly overstate the numbers of the enemy, as witness what is said of Hemingburgh above. Bain’s figure of 15,000 to 16,000 is no doubt nearer the mark; “perhaps twenty-five thousand men in all” is Mr. Oman’s conjecture.[101] Possibly 6,000 to 7,000 is as near as we can go, adopting Barbour’s ratio, which gives a proportion of 1 to 3 of the English army. The non-combatants here, too, would be numerous. Up to this time Bruce’s men in the field could be numbered only in hundreds, so that as many thousands would represent a very special effort. And note that after Murray’s success over Clifford nearly the whole Scots army gathered round him to see him and do him honour--a fact which is suggestive[102] as to its size.

[98] See note on 46.

[99] _Chronique de Jordan Fantosme_, lines 328-9.

[100] _Hemingburgh_, ii., pp. 308-9.

[101] _Art of War_, p. 575.

[102] XII. 159-164.

APPENDIX D

THE THROWING OF THE HEART