o
deceive the English cavalry. The choice of this narrow position not only
prevented the possibility of a flank attack, but also forced the great
army of Edward II into a small space, where its numbers became a
positive disadvantage. King Robert arranged his infantry in four
divisions; in front were three schiltrons of pikemen, under Randolph,
Edward Bruce, and Sir James Douglas, and Bruce himself commanded the
reserve, which was composed of Highlanders from Argyll and the Islands
and of the men of Carrick.[49] Sir Robert Keith, the Marischal, was in
charge of a small body of cavalry, which did good service by driving
back, at a critical moment, such archers as made their way through the
forest. The English army was in ten divisions, but the limited area in
which they had to fight interfered with their arrangement. As at
Falkirk, the English cavalry made a gallant but useless charge against
the schiltrons, but it was not possible again to save the day by means
of archers, for the archers had no room to deploy, and could only make
vain efforts to shoot over the heads of the horsemen. Bruce strengthened
the Scots with his reserve, and then ensued a general action along the
whole line. The van of the English army was now thoroughly demoralized,
and their comrades in the rear could not, in these narrow limits, press
forward to render any assistance. King Robert's camp-followers, at this
juncture, rushed down a hill behind the Scottish army, and they appeared
to the English as a fresh force come to assist the enemy. The result was
the loss of all sense of discipline: King Edward's magnificent host fled
in complete rout and with great slaughter, and the cause of Scottish
freedom was won.

The victory of Bannockburn did not end the war, for the English refused
to acknowledge the hard-won independence of Scotland, and fighting
continued till the year 1327. The Scots not only invaded England, but
adopted the policy of fighting England in Ireland, and English reprisals
in Scotland were uniformly unsuccessful. Bruce invaded England in 1315;
in the same year, his brother Edward landed with a Scottish army at
Carrickfergus, in the hope of obtaining a throne for himself. He was
crowned King of Ireland in May, 1316, and during that and the following
year, King Robert was personally in Ireland, giving assistance to his
brother. But, in 1318, Edward Bruce was defeated and slain near Dundalk,
and, with his death, this phase of the Bruce'