[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fy6oulildcg5h":3,"$f1vtzp765qw4ye":14},{"persons":4,"places":5,"events":6,"institutions":7,"groups":8,"titles":9,"houses":10,"sources":11,"artifacts":12,"librarySections":13},2709,7446,1661,1781,1942,129,107,98,3,6596,{"slug":15,"title":16,"subtitle":17,"excerpt":18,"coverUrl":19,"publishedAt":20,"contentHtml":21,"substackUrl":22},"the-battle-of-falkirk","The Battle of Falkirk","This week in 1298: Edward I of England brings his army north against William Wallace","On 22 July 1298, Edward I of England met a Scottish army under Sir William Wallace near Falkirk. It was the feast of St Mary Magdalene, an important day on the liturgical calendar. Wallace lost.The Si","https:\u002F\u002Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\u002Fpublic\u002Fimages\u002Ff2ed8642-a0bd-4281-b256-94b9a74e81b8_960x703.jpeg","2026-07-24T21:26:11.000Z","\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>On 22 July 1298, Edward I of England met a Scottish army under Sir William Wallace near Falkirk. It was the feast of St Mary Magdalene, an important day on the liturgical calendar. Wallace lost.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch2>The Situation\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>Scotland had no king. Edward I had deposed him (John Balliol aka John I of Scots) and left the throne vacant. A “Guardian” governed in John’s name, while he was in forced exile in London. After the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, William Wallace, a man of modest birth, was made Guardian. \u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>As part of a larger campaign, Edward and his forces mustered at Roxburgh on 25 June 1298. Almost all of these forces were Irish and Welsh. Scottish nobles with English land had been summoned, but didn’t show; therefore, they were disinherited from all of their lands and titles. Many of the men who went on this campaign were hoping for a reward of these now available lands and titles for their loyalty. Before the army crossed into Scotland, the earls Marshal and Hereford refused to go any further without being promised that the king would honor the charters (more about these later); four men swore on the king’s soul that he would (remember this). \u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>The campaign nearly failed before the battle even happened\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>The English army was advancing north in squadrons, burning and wasting everything as they went. However, they couldn’t find anyone who could tell them where the Scottish army was. Supplies started running very short; most of the supply ships couldn’t get to them because of bad winds. What little arrived was mostly wine. Two casks of this wine went to the Welsh fighters, who were starving and dying in droves. They drank heavily, brawling with the English and killing eighteen clergymen. The English cavalry therefore rode down the Welsh and killed eighty of them. When Edward was told that the Welshmen were threatening to leave and join the Scots instead, he reportedly said that he didn’t care at all if enemy joined enemy, for both the Welsh and Scots were his enemies. He said the Lord would cause his victory over both in a single day’s battle. However, there was so much death and famine in the camp and lack of supplies that Edward decided to fall back to Edinburgh.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>A false alarm\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>At dawn, two Scottish earls who had remained loyal to Edward came to the bishop of Durham to report that the Scots army was near Falkirk, in Selkirk Forest; they had heard that Edward planned to withdraw his army and intended to attack the English that night. Edward apparently made another speech here, saying that God had delivered him from everything so far, so no need for the Scots to come for he would go out to them that day. So the army marched, camping that day at Linlithgow. Everyone slept on the ground, dressed for battle with their shields for pillows. Cavalry and leaders kept their horses next to them. In the middle of the night, Edward’s warhorse kicked out and stood on Edward as he slept, breaking two ribs. Word spread that the king had been injured; a shout went out that there was treason and the enemy had come. The men prepared hastily in the darkness, but there was no treason and no opposing army… just a king with broken ribs and a horse to blame.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>The battle\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>On the morning of 22 July, Edward’s army came up past Linlithgow at dawn. They saw spears on the ridge, but found no Scots army there. So, they pitched a tent; the king heard the bishop of Durham give the Mass for St Mary Magdalene. During the service, the men in the congregation looked out and saw the Scots in the distance, preparing themselves for battle.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Wallace set his foot soldiers in four rings with spears pointing outward all the way around, like four hedgehogs. It was a good plan to counter the English cavalry: horses won't charge a wall of spear points, so each ring of spearmen could hold off the horsemen. The Scots archers stood in the gaps between the rings, and the small number of cavalry waited behind. However, here’s the rub: this ring of spearmen would only work if it holds still and holds tight… and a group of men standing still is an easy thing for English archers to shoot at.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>The battle began. The English cavalry came barreling at the rings of spearmen, but they couldn't break in, exactly as the Scots had planned. So, they went for the softer target and rode down the vulnerable archers in the gaps. The Scottish cavalry left the field early. (No one knows for sure why they left. Personally, I would assume they saw that the battle was going against them and left while they still could.) Then, with the archers defeated and now no one protecting the spearmen, the English brought their own archers and slingers forward, shooting the stationary rings to pieces from a safe distance. Once the rings broke, the English cavalry rode back in and finished the Scots.\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>We don't really know how many died. The chroniclers’ accounts conflict, giving numbers for the Scottish dead that range from fifty thousand to a hundred thousand… that's more men than Wallace ever had. However, they do all insist almost no Englishman of rank was killed. We can trust one figure, because it comes from official financial records: Edward paid compensation for 111 warhorses lost in the battle. \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>Why did the Scots cavalry leave?\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>No one knows for sure why the Scots cavalry left the battle. A contemporary chronicler says with contempt that they left without a single stroke of a sword. To me, that reads as cowardice. Other sources call it betrayal, as if they were defecting to the English; Marc Morris calls this a persistent myth (it’s even in Braveheart!). The Scottish nobles had defied Edward from the start, and they didn’t go and join him. According to Morris, if these nobles (including Wallace) had been captured, Falkirk would have been the end of the Scottish resistance. \u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch2>The aftermath\u003C\u002Fh2>\u003Cp>We don’t know whether he resigned or if he was pushed out, but William Wallace lost the guardianship of Scotland soon after Falkirk. Robert Bruce was one of the men who replaced Wallace as Guardian. (Therefore, he obviously didn’t defect to Edward.) Edward chased after him and his forces; rather than let Edward capture and use it, Bruce burned his own castle at Ayr and disappeared. The English were still dangerously short on supplies; weather prevented ships from their rendezvous points, so famine returned and Edward was forced to quit Scotland that October. John Balliol was still alive; the Guardians ruled Scotland in his absence. The year after the battle, so in 1299, Balliol was transferred to the custody of the Pope’s nuncio (a representative), on the condition that this transfer happen outside of the British Isles. He went to France, never to return. Wallace never held command again, but we do know that he kept fighting in Scotland and in England for years before his capture and execution in 1305. Robert Bruce would be crowned King of Scots in 1306. \u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Remember the earls Marshal and Hereford worrying whether the king would honor the charters? He didn’t. The charters, Magna Carta and the Forest Charter, promised (among other things) that the crown couldn’t tax or seize goods without consent. But when Edward reconfirmed them, he added four words at the end: “saving the right of the crown”. That clause let him do anything he chose by calling it a royal right, which made all the promises in the charters pretty much worthless. When the charters were read out at St Paul’s, the crowd cheered at the seals, then cursed the king when they heard the ending.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The earls themselves had their own grievance. The earls Marshal and Hereford, the same two who’d demanded the oath before the campaign and fought in the front line at Falkirk, found Edward handing out Scottish land to his favorites without the consent he’d promised them. They made their excuses and went home.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>That’s the thing about Falkirk. Edward won, and it bought him almost nothing. He couldn't hold Scotland, and he couldn't keep the trust of the men who had won it for him. The war would grind on for years, and in the end it was Robert Bruce who won it.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Ch3>What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!\u003C\u002Fh3>\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmegloveshistory.substack.com\u002Fp\u002Fthe-battle-of-falkirk\u002Fcomments\">\u003Cspan>Leave a comment\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmegloveshistory.substack.com\u002Fsubscribe?\">\u003Cspan>Subscribe now\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmegloveshistory.substack.com\u002Fp\u002Fthe-battle-of-falkirk?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share\">\u003Cspan>Share\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Ch4>\u003Cem>If you enjoyed this and want to support the research, please leave a tip on \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fko-fi.com\u002Fmegmcguirt\">Ko-fi\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fh4>\u003Chr \u002F>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Sources\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cul>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Walter of Guisborough, \u003Cem>The Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough\u003C\u002Fem>, edited by Harry Rothwell (Royal Historical Society, Camden Series vol. LXXXIX, 1957)\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>\u003Cem>The Chronicle of Lanercost, 1272–1346\u003C\u002Fem>, translated by Herbert Maxwell (1913)\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Marc Morris, \u003Cem>A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli>\u003Cp>Fiona Watson, \u003Cem>Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland, 1286–1307\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Ful>","https:\u002F\u002Fmegloveshistory.substack.com\u002Fp\u002Fthe-battle-of-falkirk"]