, along with Randolph, Earl
of Moray, was successful in Tweeddale. Thus, within three years from the
death of Comyn, Bruce had broken the power of the great families, whose
enmity against him had been aroused by that event. One year later the
other great misfortune, which had been brought upon him by the same
cause, was removed by an act which is important evidence at once of the
strength of the anti-English feeling in the country, and of the
confidence which Bruce had inspired. On the 24th February, 1309-10, the
clergy of Scotland met at Dundee and made a solemn declaration[48] of
fealty to King Robert as their lawful king. Scotland was thus united in
its struggle for independence under King Robert I.

It now remained to attack the English garrisons who held the castles of
Scotland. An invasion conducted by Edward II in 1310 proved fruitless,
and the English king returned home to enter on a long quarrel with the
Lords Ordainers, and to see his favourite, Gaveston, first exiled and
then put to death. While the attention of the rulers of England was thus
occupied, Bruce, for the first time since Wallace's inroad of 1297,
carried the war into the enemy's country, invading the north of England
both in 1311 and in 1312. Meanwhile the strongholds of the country were
passing out of the English power. Linlithgow was recovered in 1311;
Perth in January, 1312-13; and Roxburgh a month later. The romantic
capture of the castle of Edinburgh, by Randolph, Earl of Moray, in
March, 1313, is one of the classical stories of Scottish history, and
in the summer of the same year, King Robert restored the Scottish rule
in the Isle of Man. In November, 1313, only Stirling Castle remained in
English hands, and Edward Bruce rashly agreed to raise the siege on
condition that the garrison should surrender if they were not relieved
by June 24th, 1314. Edward II determined to make a heroic effort to
maintain this last vestige of English conquest, and his attempt to do so
has become irrevocably associated with the Field of Bannockburn.

In his preparations for the great struggle, which was to determine the
fate of Scotland, the Bruce carefully avoided the errors which had led
to Wallace's defeat at Falkirk. He selected a position which was
covered, on one side by the Bannock Burn and a morass, and, on the other
side, by the New Park or Forest. His front was protected by the stream
and by the famous series of "pottes", or holes, covered over so as t