vengeance on Bruce’s supporters when death seized him, at Burghon-Sands, A.D., 1307. He was succeeded by his eldst son, Edward Caernarvon, Prince of Wales.
7. Edward II.—The new king had few of his father’s great qualities. He was an idle, frivolous youth, fond of gaiety and low companions. He was brave enough when roused; that, however, seldom happened. His father had left him three commands: to subdue Scotland, to send his heart to the Holy Land, and never to bring back Gaveston, a banished and profligate favourite. Not one .of these did he carry out. He left the Scotch war to take care of itself, and so Bruce won back nearly all he had lost to Edward I. He buried his father at Westminster, and he recalled Gaveston. Gaveston soon got Edward into trouble by his insolence and wastefulness. He was twice banished, but Edward brought him back. Then Parliament put the government into the hands of a number of bishops and peers, called “Ordainers,”'who tried to control the King. Once more Gaveston was exiled and recalled, and then the barons took the law into their own hands and beheaded him.
8. Battle of Bannockburn, June 24, 1314.—Bruce in the meantime had been winning town after town from the English, until near all Scotland was in his hands, save Stirling Castle, which was closely pressed. To save this fortress Edward went into Scotland with an army of 100,000 men. He met Bruce with his army of 30,000 Scots at a little stream or burn called the Bannock, near Stirling Castle. The battle was fought on June 24th, 1314, and was to determine whether Scotland was to be free or not. Everything. seemed in favour of the English, with their large army of brave knights and. archers. Bruce, however, had dug pits in the space between his army and the English, and in them had placed sharp stakes, the whole being covered over with turf. The Bannock flowed between the armies and on each side of it was a low boggy piece of land in which horses sank. Bruce knew he had most to fear from the English horsemen, and made his spearmen in the front rank kneel to meet their charge. When the English knights charged the Scots, after the English bowmen had thinned their ranks, their horses plunged into the concealed pits, and floundered in the oogs, and so became an easy prey to the Scotch archers and spearmen.
