The Battle of Stirling Bridge

		With his army swollen to 40,000 lightly armed foot soldiers and about 180 horses, Wallace took up the postion on the steep sided high ground now known as Abbey Craig, looking across the Forth to Stirling and its vital castle. His men, who would have made the most of their own weapons, used 12ft long spears, axes and knives and wore rough hide tunics or homespun cloth; few would have had helmets or any form of body armour. The English Governor of Scotland, John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, commanded a force of mail-clad cavalry, skilled longbow men from Wales and well- weaponed infantry, in all numbering 60,000, with 8000 in reserve.
Wallace monument on the Abbey Craig, Stirling.

This was to be Wallace's first experience of a standing battle as against guerilla and harrying actions.

If Warenne, with his stronger and more disciplined force, could engage Wallace's men he would achieve a decisive victory, and, by killing or capturing Wallace, end all opposition to Edward. But he had a problem. The Forth lay between him and his objective, and there was just one narrow wooden bridge across it. He rejected the suggestion of using a ford frther upstream, which would have caught the enemy in thre rear, on the grounds that it would divide his army; it is more likely that he suspected treachery. While he hesitated, Hugh de Cressingham, Edward's Treasurer of Scotland, protested against 'the waste of the king's money, in keeping up an army, if it was not to fight'.
		The Stirling Bridge today, thought to be very close to where the original stood.

With that prod and the encouragement of his men, many of them seasoned veterans of Flanders and Wales, Warenne ordered that the infantry should start crossing the bridge at dawn the following day, 11th September 1297. He flat ground beyond the brudge was marshy, and any attack would have to be made along a causeway and then uphill. From Abbey Craig, Wallace had a perfect view of the thin file of English fanning out from the bridge to pick their way hesitantly over the treacherous ground while his force lay in hiding at the foot of the Ochil Hills on their flank. It was the perfect situiation for an ambush, with Wallace able to dictate the terms on which he would fight.

At the critical moment he gave the order and the Scots charged down the slopes to reach the bridgehead and trap a manageble number of the enemy who perished intheir thousands, caught between the Scottish spears and the river. What cavalry had crossed the bridge was son floundering in the boggy ground, and those fighting to get back over it were blocked by those still advancing. Only one, Sir Marmaduke de Twenge, succeeded; he spurrd his horse through the press at the bridge, no doubt killing and injuring many of them. His reward from Warenne was the order to assemble whatever forces he coud muster and occupy the now doomed Stirling Castle. Warenne himself then mounted his horse and rode forthe safety of Berwick. Cressngham, who had an odious reputation even among the English and had been particularly barbaic in oppressing the Scots, was killed in the battle.

The Scottish losses at Stirling Bridge were relatively light, but the great loss to Wallace was the death of his faithful friend and joint general Sir Andrew Moray. This victory, followed by a string of successes, including the surrender of Edinburgh Castle, quickly restored Wallace to the favour of the vacillating Scottish nobles. Campaigning in Flanders, Edward receieved the news that ' this leader of a little band of outlaws, this plebian without family, influebce or wealth, supported by merit alone, had wrenched from the English every fortress in Scotland'.