Bishop of Durham the left.  The Scottish defeat was the result of a combination of archers and cavalry.  The first attack of the English horse was completely repulsed by the spearmen.  “The front ranks”, says Mr. Oman, “knelt with their spear-butts fixed in the earth; the rear ranks levelled their lances over their comrades’ heads; the thick-set grove of twelve-foot spears was far too dense for the cavalry to penetrate.”  But Edward withdrew the cavalry and ordered the archers to send a shower of arrows on the Scots.  Wallace’s cavalry made no attempt to interfere with the archers; the Scottish bowmen were too few to retaliate; and, when the English horse next charged, they found many weak points in the schiltrons, and broke up the Scottish host.

As the battle of Stirling had created the power of Wallace, so that of Falkirk completely destroyed it.  He almost immediately resigned his office of guardian (mainly, according to tradition, because of the jealousy with which the great barons regarded him), and took refuge in France.  Edward was still in the midst of difficulties, both foreign and domestic, and he was unable to reduce the country.  The Scots elected new guardians, who regarded themselves as regents, not for Edward but for Balliol.  They included John Comyn and Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, the future king.  The guardians were successful in persuading both Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII to intervene in their favour, but Edward disregarded the papal interference, and though he was too busy to complete his conquest, he sent an army into Scotland in each of the years 1300, 1301, and 1302.  Military operations were almost entirely confined to ravaging; but, in February 1302-3, Comyn completely defeated at Rosslyn, near Edinburgh, an English army under Sir John Segrave and Ralph de Manton, whom Edward had ordered to make a foray in Scotland about the beginning of Lent.  In the summer of 1303, the English king, roused perhaps by this small success, and able to give his undivided attention to Scotland, conducted an invasion on a larger scale.  In September, he traversed the country as far north as Elgin, and, remaining in Scotland during the winter of 1303-4, he set to work in the spring to reduce the castle of Stirling, which still held out against him.  When the garrison surrendered, in July, 1304, Scotland lay at Edward’s feet.  Comyn had already submitted to the English king, and Edward’s personal vindictiveness was satisfied by the capture of Wallace by Sir John Menteith, a Scotsman who had been acting in the English interest.  Wallace was taken to London, subjected to a mock trial, tortured, and put to death with ignominy.  On the 23rd August, 1305, his head was placed on London Bridge, and portions of his body were sent to Scotland.  His memory served as an inspiration for the cause of freedom, and it is held in just reverence to the present hour.  If it is true that he did not scruple to go beyond what we should regard as the limits of honourable