Free Ireland by Vincent McDonnell

In 1272 he led a great army into Wales, conquered the country and declared himself king. He now built massive castles and from these impregnable fortresses his soldiers could ensure that any rebellion was quickly subdued.
    Edward knew that the Scots would not be as easily conquered as the Welsh. The Romans, who had conquered much of the then known world, had never conquered Scotland. So when Scottish king Alexander III died after falling from his horse, Edward I saw an opportunity for his own son to become king of Scotland.
    Alexander’s children had died before their father and his heir was his young granddaughter. Edward I arranged for his son to marry this girl, even though she was just six years of age. This would not have been a proper marriage, but still it would have been a terrible shock for the little girl. One day she’s happily playing with her dolls and the next day she is to be married and a queen. But in olden times, arranged marriages between royal children were common as a king sought to ensure that his family would continue to rule after his death.
    Unfortunately, this little girl died before she could marry. This, too, was quite common then. Even a simple illness could kill, as there were few medicines available to treat disease. When the child died, Edward nominated John Balliol to be king of Scotland. He was a weak man, and was Edward’s puppet. Under pressure from the Scots, who didn’t like him, Balliol resigned. Edward was furious and he led his army into Scotland and in revenge murdered thousands of people in the town of Berwick.
    This enraged the Scots, and one of them, William Wallace, rebelled against Edward, who now claimed to be king of Scotland. At first, Wallace was successful, but eventually he was defeated and executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered, not at all a pleasant way to die. After his death, Robert Bruce became the leader of the Scottish rebellion, but eventually was forced to flee Scotland. Legend claims that he took refuge in a cave on Rathlin Island off the coast of County Antrim, where he decided to give up his resistance to Edward. But then Bruce saw a spider trying to spin a web in a corner of the cave. Seven times the spider tried to spin the web and seven times it failed. At the eighth attempt it succeeded. This showed him that if you kept on trying you could succeed.
    Bruce returned to Scotland and renewed his fight against the English. This time he was successful in battle and was crowned king of Scotland at Scone in 1306. Over the next eight years he captured most of the English-held castles in Scotland. Meanwhile, Edward I died and his son, Edward II, became king of England. He was enraged that Bruce should claim the Scottish crown, and in 1314, Edward marched north with the largest army ever seen in England. He was intent on defeating Bruce and declaring himself king of Scotland.
    The Scottish and English armies met at Bannockburn, south of Stirling, on Sunday, 23 June 1314. The English numbered about 23,000 men, which included knights in armour and archers, while Bruce probably had about 9,000 men. He was greatly outnumbered, and seemed certain to be defeated.
    But a famous incident before the battle gave the Scots great heart. An English knight, Henry de Bohun, spotted Bruce sitting on his horse. Bruce was not wearing armour and de Bohun charged him, certain that he could kill his enemy and cause the Scots to lose heart. An armoured knight charging at full gallop on a huge warhorse would have terrified any man. But Bruce was a brave man and instead of galloping to safety, he stood his ground. While his soldiers watched on in terror, certain that their leader was about to die, Bruce nimbly turned his own horse aside as de Bohun reached him. As the knight charged past, Bruce struck him on the head with his battleaxe, slicing through de Bohun’s helmet and splitting his skull in two. Bruce’s reaction was to complain that he had broken his battleaxe and ask for