Quote Originally Posted by jkdesq
Daz,

I agree with almost everything you say, except that, in my view, Bruce didn't really follow Wallace's example. Wallace was stuck in the mindset that armies needed to meet for pitch battles and "do war" the gentlemen's way. Bruce, ironically of far "nobler" blood, came up with the idea of fighting what was essentially a guerilla, and ungentlemanly, war against the English and the Comyn faction. Further, Bruce developped the strategy of knocking down castles that might fall back into English or Comyn control.

I guess my point is that it is well and good that Wallace developped the pike strategy to give infantry a means to with stand cavalry. But Bruce would never have been triumphant if he merely imitated Wallace. A lone Bruce in Craigencaillie with a pike would not have lasted long. Bruce had to innovate far beyond Wallace's tactics, in order to be successful.
Aye, and Bruce, like many other families of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy, sought alliances with the English when it suited his efforts. For instance, very little mention is made of the Battle of Roslin in 1303, when John Comyn and a Scottish army soundly defeated an English force, mostly because the Bruce wasn't there, because he was "riding the fence" and biding his time in the conflict over the throne of Scotland.

Recomended Reading: Allan Young's "Robert the Bruce's Rivals: The Comyns 1212-1314" (Tuckwell Press, 1997) -- one of the best, if not the best, Scottish history books I have read, which presents the Comyn POV and tears down some of the myths perpetuated by pro-Bruce propagandists like Fordun, Bower, et al.

Of course, as a Cumming (Comyn), I'm a wee bit biased! ;) And before anyone accuses me of "Bruce-bashing", our branch, the Cummings of Altyre, were pretty much left alone by the Bruce, unlike our Badenoch cousins.

Courage!

Todd