Battle of Stirling Bridge

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Battle of Stirling Bridge

• Historic Battles

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The Battle of Stirling Bridge. 11th September
1297 (near Stirling in Scotland)
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This was one of a number of battles which took
place during the Wars of Scottish Independence
in the 13th century. In numbers the Scots had
around 15,000 and the English possibly 60,000,
but probably 50,000. Andrew De Moray led the
Scots with William Wallace as his captain, and
their forces had come from Dundee and stood on
the high ground of Abbey Craig, across the River
Forth and to the north of Stirling. The English
forces were massed on the south side of the
bridge and sought to cross the single narrow
bridge and engage the Scottish force. The English
army was led by John De Warenne (the Earl of
Surrey).
About the armies
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The location is extremely important in this
battle and in fighting the battle you will be
expected to make use of the fact that a lot of
the ground is marshy and the single bridge is the
only means of crossing. There was a second
crossing not far away which would have allowed
20 horsemen abreast to cross at a time but this
crossing was ignored by the English commander.
Note that the marshy ground would be a disability
to heavily armed knights who would not be able
to move freely or quickly in the mud and that
the bridge itself would not afford a quick means
of escape if you were required to do so. As for
others battles we will fight this one with the
piece of mathematical theory which follows.
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Mathematical Theory
There is a theory which says that the rate at
which the size of one group changes is directly
proportional to the size of the opposing
group. Consider two opposing groups of sizes
n and m where we assume that n is greater
than m. Then and
where c1 and c2 are constants.
On multiplying both sides of the first equation
by 2c2n and both sides of the second equation by
2c1m we obtain
which integrates to give c2n2 c1m2 constant
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This can be rewritten as
where c is a constant.
The ratio will give a measure of the
relative strengths of the two groups for if c1
lt c2 then group n is the superior group in
battle, and if c1gtc2 then group m is the
superior. If c1 c2 then the two groups (or the
sum of the individual units which make up the
groups) could be considered to be of equal
strengths. If at some stage of a battle n N
and m M, say,
then we can calculate the constant c.
We have and so
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Using this equation we can find the number of
survivors S in a battle. Letting n S when
m 0 , the number of survivors S is given by S
int ( N2 M2 1/2) where int is the
integer part of the number if we consider whole
survivors only.
You are going to select values for the ratio
and fight the battle of Stirling Bridge. Use
your own tactics, take control of the Scottish
army and win the battle. To help you choose the
ratio, the table shows the number of survivors
for different values of , if 50 Scots
infantry went into battle against 40 of
English infantry.
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Remember the terrain conditions and the bridge as
you devise a strategy to fight the battle. See
if you can adopt a strategy to win this battle.
The obvious thing you will need to consider is
when to attack. In the conditions given, your
army is superior to the heavily and better armed
enemy. You will have to get the timing of your
attack right to make full use of the bridge as a
barrier to the enemy. Choose your value for the
above ratio taking into account the ground
conditions and the bridge and proceed with the
battle.
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The actual battle - So what did happen in the
actual battle of Stirling Bridge?
The English army proceeded to cross the bridge.
Wallace had told his men to stand firm until
they heard the sound of his horn and then to
charge with all their might. It was Cressingham
who led the English attack across the bridge.
When they reached the other side of the river the
English knights found the ground there to be
soft almost marshy and they had great trouble in
getting their horses into a formation.
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As soon as Wallace judged a sufficient but
manageable number of troops had crossed the
river he ordered two charges one straight into
the massed English force and another to cut off
their route of escape back across the bridge.
The Scottish spearmen caught and destroyed the
English vanguard, the English cavalry proved
ineffective on the boggy ground and many were
killed. The bridge collapsed as reinforcements
tried to cross and the English on the opposite
side of the river then fled the battlefield. The
English were trapped in the bend of the river,
unable to escape and with no bridge there was
now no hope of aid from their compatriots on the
other side of the river. It was all over in an
hour. Pushed back by the spears, the English
horses were stabbed or hamstrung and their
riders' throats were cut when they fell from
their mounts. Surrey looked on in as his army
was torn to pieces. Cressingham fought fiercely
on until he too was dragged from his horse and
slain. Andrew de Moray was severely wounded in
the battle and died of these wounds little over
a month later. After the Battle of Stirling
Bridge, William Wallace was knighted and put in
sole command of the Scottish troops.