The Battle of Solway Moss, 1542

Fought on 24th November 1542, this was a battle between an English and a Scottish army. Relations between England and Scotland had been mainly peaceful since King James V succeeded his father in 1513, but tensions had risen ever since a new alliance had been forged between France and Scotland and the English King Henry VIII had engineered a religious reformation.

On 24^th November 1542, a Scottish force of about 18,000 men crossed the border. King James did not lead the invasion in person but remained in Scotland. Shortly before the battle, which took place at Solway Moss in Cumbria, Sir Oliver Sinclair had been declared general. Most of the other senior officials in the Scottish army refused to listen to Sinclair, who had little chance of creating any cohesion because each noble and gentleman had their own retainers who would only obey their orders.

Sir Thomas Wharton led a smaller English force of 3,000 from Carlisle to intercept the Scots. When the English cavalry attacked, it pinned the Scots between the boggy Solway Moss and the River Esk. Chaos ensued and many of the Scots fled. Rumours that another English army was approaching added to the panic. Several hundred Scots drowned in their retreat, and as many as 1,200 surrendered.

The English took Sinclair prisoner, as well as several other influential Scottish aristocrats. Three weeks after hearing of the defeat of his army, King James V died, leaving his six-day-old daughter Mary as Queen. Fighting continued with the English until 1547.

© John Welford

The treasure of Loch Arkaig

Some people believe that there is a hoard of gold that was buried somewhere near Loch Arkaig in the Scottish Highlands in 1746. However, the chances are that it disappeared a very long time ago!

The background

This is a story that begins with the Jacobite uprising of 1745, when the “Young Pretender” Charles Edward Stuart (otherwise known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”) tried to topple the government of King George II by invading England with an army of Scottish clansmen.

Charles, aged 25 at the time, arrived in Scotland having been ferried there in a French ship. Although he had the blessing of the Catholic French King, Louis XIV, in his ambition to topple the Protestant Hanoverian monarchy of Great Britain, he was very much on his own, having little more than promises of French troops and money to follow in due course.

Charles therefore had to get on with the job of raising an army from the clans of the Scottish Highlands, which he did with some success. He was eventually able to seize control of Edinburgh before advancing into England. He only turned back when he was persuaded that he had no chance of victory, although it is now thought that this was false advice. He had already reached Derby by this time, which was only 125 miles from London.

The end of the “45” was bloody defeat at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness, after which Charles was lucky to be able to escape back to France. 

French gold

But what about those promises of French troops and cash? The French ships that carried the promised soldiers were caught in a storm and forced to turn back, but shipments of gold did materialize. 

The first consignment of gold ended up in the wrong hands when it was delivered to Scotsmen who were loyal to King George rather than “Prince” Charles. However, two treasure ships, “Le Mars” and “La Bellone” did reach the Scottish coast in 1746. Unfortunately for Charles they arrived too late to be of any use, given that he had already been defeated at Culloden. However, the French sailors did not know this and they proceeded to unload the cargo of 40,000 “louis d-or”. 

Where did the gold end up?

That is the 40,000 louis d’or question. It is believed that the gold was buried near Loch Arkaig, a beautiful but remote place some 15 miles north of Fort William on the west coast of Scotland. The person responsible for this was a clan chief named Cluny Macpherson who, as a loyal Jacobite, was as much on the run as Charles himself. Macpherson clearly believed that his hiding place, known only to certain members of the Macpherson clan, would be safe enough to enable the gold to be recovered at a later date.

In 1753, while wandering around Europe (he had been kicked out of France in 1748), Charles sent his envoy Archibald Cameron to try to recover the gold, but Cameron was arrested as a rebel and was executed. Getting hold of the gold, when the area was firmly under English control, was clearly not going to be easy.

Charles, who was always desperately short of funds, came to suspect that Cluny Macpherson had spirited the gold away, and he may well have been right. Clearly there were people who knew where it was and who also knew that there was nothing at all that Charles could do about it. The chances of another Jacobite rising were vanishingly small, so the gold was never going to be used for its intended purpose. So what was to stop the local clansmen from helping themselves?

No treasure to find

There are still some people who think that the Loch Arkaig gold is where it always was and is just waiting to be found, but this is surely a forlorn hope. Tantalisingly enough, a few gold louis were discovered in the area in 1850, but these did not lead anyone to find the whole hoard. Maybe these were merely a few coins that had been dropped when some enterprising Macphersons had been helping themselves a century previously. As it is, the final whereabouts of Charlie’s gold remains a mystery!

© John Welford

The Battle of Stirling Bridge, 1297

The Battle of Stirling Bridge was fought on 11^th September 1297. It was the first of the two major battles fought by an army led by Sir William Wallace, who has gone down in history and legend as “Braveheart”. The 1995 movie starring Mel Gibson presented some of the facts correctly but by no means all, and it is not safe to rely on the Hollywood version as a true account of what really happened.

William Wallace’s revolt

In 1297 William Wallace rose in rebellion against the overlordship of Scotland by King Edward I of England. Edward had taken advantage of a power vacuum in Scotland that had existed ever since the death of King Alexander III in March 1286. Edward had demanded the fealty of all the claimants to the Scottish throne (there were 13 of them) in exchange for his help in sorting out the succession, but had been greatly angered when the Scots made alliance with the King of France. Edward’s response had been to invade Scotland, showing no mercy to the towns and people in his way.

Of those who sought to fight back against the English, William Wallace was certainly the most effective. His origins are obscure, although it would appear that he was from Elderslie (west of Glasgow). However, this is not certain, and he could have been from Ellerslie in Ayrshire, depending on which Wallace family he belonged to. However, either way it is clear that he was not a Highlander as depicted in “Braveheart”. It is also not disputed that he had a relatively modest background, his father being a local landowner at best and not a member of the Scottish nobility.

Wallace was able to draw many followers to his side, based on his unshakeable conviction that he could defeat the English, which nobody else seemed able to do. He also seems to have had a considerable personal presence, being over 6 foot 6 inches in height and strongly built, so that when he told people that he could lead them to victory, they tended to believe him. Where his military know-how came from is a mystery, but he was able to train and discipline an effective fighting force, particularly in the deployment of “schiltrons”, which were formations of tightly-packed soldiers armed with spears which thus resembled giant hedgehogs.

Wallace was not the only general at Stirling Bridge, as he fought alongside Andrew Murray, a nobleman’s son with more conventional credentials as a soldier, whose troops had already captured a number of English-held strongholds further north in Scotland.

King Edward’s response

King Edward was at first dismissive of Wallace and his citizen army, and he dispatched an army, led by two trusted lieutenants, to deal with this minor inconvenience. These were John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, and Hugh de Cressingham. After Edward’s conquest of much of Scotland he had headed south late in 1296 to deal with more pressing matters, leaving Warenne as governor and Cressingham as treasurer, although neither saw any need to actually stay north of the border.

When it became clear that a sizable force was being massed against the English, Warenne and Cressingham led an army northwards, reaching the safety of Stirling Castle on the south side of the River Forth, while the Scottish forces were arrayed on the northern side on top of Abbey Craig, which is a rocky prominence that is now the site of the impressive Wallace Monument. From there, Wallace and Murray had an excellent view of the English manoeuvres.

Manoeuvres prior to the battle

The problem faced by the English was that there was only one bridge across the river, this being a narrow wooden structure that could only take three horses abreast. Warenne therefore first tried diplomacy, liaising with two Scottish noblemen whose loyalty was more with the English but who might be able to strike a deal with Wallace and Murray.

On the morning of 11th September Warenne got off to a bad start by oversleeping. By the time he had got out of bed and had some breakfast he found that some of his troops had already crossed the bridge but then returned on realising that he was not there. When Warenne was ready they crossed a second time, but then the two intended go-betweens turned up and Warenne supposed that they had come back with a deal agreed with the Scots, so the men were recalled once more.

However, Warenne was mistaken, and no deal had been struck. Instead, he sent over a couple of Dominican friars to try to arrange a settlement, but Wallace was in no mood to make peace, sending them back with a message that left Warenne and Cressingham in no doubt that there was no alternative to doing battle.

The English were quietly confident that their forces were superior to those of the Scots. Although the opposing forces were similar in number, the English were far better armed and trained. It should however be made clear that many of the “English” troops were in fact Welsh, having being forced to fight for King Edward after their own country had been conquered. It was, indeed, partly fear of the prospect of ending up fighting Edward’s foreign wars that had convinced the Scots that they must fight back against the invaders and succeed where the Welsh had failed.

Warenne’s confidence in victory was so strong that he ignored advice that there was a safe crossing point a mile or so upriver that the cavalry could use to outflank the Scots. Had he taken this advice, the outcome might have been very different. However, he gave orders to advance across the bridge.

With the bridge being so narrow, it would have taken half the day to get all the army across. As it was, the horsemen could only cross in such small numbers that they would always be vulnerable to a sudden attack. Added to this difficulty was the fact that the land on the northern side of the river was boggy and totally unsuitable for mounting a cavalry charge. Even worse, the river swung about in huge meanders, and the bridge led straight into one of these.

The first horsemen to cross were led by Cressingham, who was a very fat man, not built for speed, and who was recognisable at a considerable distance. He soon realised that any plans for deploying the cavalry would have to be revised. This would only be possible if they advanced on to drier land, which was only reachable via a narrow bottleneck between two sweeps of the river. There was no way back, because of the press of troops still coming across the bridge.

Battle is joined

Wallace and Murray advanced when they saw that about half the English army was now trapped between the bottleneck and the bridge, surrounded by a deep and wide river.

The result was butchery. The horses panicked and threw their riders, and other horsemen were pulled down and despatched. These included Cressingham himself, whose body was later skinned, the skin being used to make a sword belt for William Wallace. Some of the English troops tried to swim the river but many drowned in the attempt.

Warenne did not cross the bridge but made good his escape together with that part of the army that been lucky enough not to be involved in the slaughter. In all, some 100 English mounted knights and 1000 foot soldiers were killed, with very few Scottish casualties. It was an overwhelming victory. However, although William Wallace survived unscathed, and was knighted for his efforts, Andrew Murray did not. Although it is not clear exactly what happened to him, it would seem that he died of his wounds within a few weeks of the battle.

The Battle of Stirling Bridge had several consequences. One was that it angered King Edward to such an extent that he was determined to have his revenge on Wallace, which he eventually did. Another was that the Scots were given a new self-belief that convinced them that they could resist the English and regain their independence. Although Edward was able to reverse this defeat by victory at Falkirk the following year, he then lost interest in what he now knew would be a difficult cause to win. The defeat of King Edward II at Bannockburn in 1314 was made possible by the spirit engendered in the Scots at Stirling Bridge in 1297.

John Welford

The Battle of Falkirk, 1298

The Battle of Falkirk, on 22^nd July 1298, was the second and final battle fought by an army led by Sir William Wallace, who has gone down in history and legend as “Braveheart”.

Sir William Wallace

The 1995 movie “Braveheart”, starring Mel Gibson, presented some of the facts concerning the Battle of Falkirk correctly, but by no means all, and it is not safe to rely on the Hollywood version as a true account of what really happened.

In 1297 William Wallace rose in rebellion against the overlordship of Scotland by King Edward I of England. Edward had taken advantage of a power vacuum in Scotland that had existed ever since the death of Alexander III in March 1286. He had demanded the fealty of all the claimants to the Scottish throne (there were 13 of them) in exchange for his help in sorting out the succession, but had been greatly angered when the Scots made alliance with the King of France. Edward’s response had been to invade Scotland, showing no mercy to the towns and people in his way.

Of those who sought to fight back against the English, William Wallace was certainly the most effective. He was no saint, in that his behaviour towards the English was no less cruel than Edward’s was towards the Scots. Although he was clearly a man of violence he also had the good sense to make his attacks where they would be most beneficial, such as raiding the English-held treasury at Scone to give himself a fighting fund.

King Edward was at first dismissive of Wallace and his citizen army, and he dispatched an army, led by two trusted lieutenants, to deal with this minor inconvenience. The armies met near Stirling Castle on 11th September 1297 at what became known as the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Victory for Wallace was made easy by the crass stupidity of the English, who walked into a trap of their own making and were promptly slaughtered. Whatever the reason for the victory, it was remarkable and overwhelming, with the result that Edward’s war machine, which had enjoyed victory after victory against both the Welsh and the Scots, was brought to a grinding halt by a bunch of amateurs led by an unknown warlord.

In Scotland, the victory gave fresh heart to the rebellion and considerable kudos to Wallace, who was lionised and knighted, thus joining the ranks of the nobility.

Edward fights back

However, King Edward was now determined to rid himself of this thorn in his side. As the “hammer of the Scots” he was embarrassed by this reverse and would not stop until he had his revenge. This had to wait for a while, due to having to fight a war in France, but as spring turned to summer the following year he was ready to get the job done properly, leading a huge army northwards into Scotland. One important feature of this new army was the inclusion of longbowmen, which were to prove decisive in English military tactics for centuries to come.

The progress of Edward’s army was not a smooth one, due partly to Wallace having laid waste vast areas of southern Scotland in a bid to deny food and supplies to the invader. Another problem was dissension in the ranks between the English and Welsh elements of the army. However, just as it seemed as though Edward would have to withdraw from his base near Edinburgh, he learned that Wallace’s army was at Falkirk, only 20 miles away. The opportunity for a pitched battle was one that Edward could not resist.

The Battle of Falkirk

As dawn broke on 22^nd July 1298 the two armies were able to see each other for the first time. Wallace had formed several huge schiltrons (defensive formations of tightly packed spearmen that resembled giant hedgehogs) with archers between them. His lightly-armed cavalry patrolled the area, ready to be deployed where most needed, and particularly useful as protection for the archers.

The English cavalry, mounted on much larger and heavier horses than the Scots, were held at bay for some considerable time by Wallace’s schiltrons and were targets for the Scottish archers. However, the stalemate was broken when the Scottish cavalry suddenly decided to desert the field. The reason for this desertion can only be guessed at, and accusations of treachery have been made, but it turned out to be the factor that turned the tide of battle.

The English cavalry could now charge at the Scottish archers who had lost their protection, and they were promptly cut down. The English archers then let fly on the schiltrons, from a distance of several hundred yards, and caused carnage in the Scottish ranks. Having no means at their disposal to fight against the archers, the Scottish spear-carriers could do nothing to save themselves apart from running away, which is what they did. The Battle of Falkirk was over, being as complete a victory for Edward as the Battle of Stirling Bridge had been for Wallace.

The fate of William Wallace

Wallace himself escaped from the battle and turned to diplomacy rather than warfare in his attempt to save Scotland from domination by England. He travelled to France to try to persuade King Philippe to come to Scotland’s aid, but Philippe was not interested.

Edward was not particularly interested, either, in continuing to hammer the Scots. He had got what he wanted at Falkirk, namely revenge for Stirling Bridge, and he was prepared to leave matters at that, apart from one thing, namely bringing Wallace himself to book. This he did eventually when Wallace was captured on 3^rd August 1305 and taken to London.

After a short show trial by a kangaroo court, Wallace was condemned for treason and executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Although Falkirk was a crushing defeat, it served to make the Scots determined to fight for their independence. This they were able to do after King Edward died in 1307 and was succeeded by his far less able son. The Scots, under Robert the Bruce, were able to repeat the success of Stirling Bridge at Bannockburn in 1314 and this time there was to be no Falkirk to reverse the result.

© John Welford