The Battle of Falkirk, 22 July 1298 – William Wallace’s Last Stand as Guardian of Scotland
Eleven months after the triumph of Stirling Bridge, William Wallace suffered the defeat that ended his career as commander of Scotland’s armies.
At Falkirk, on a hot summer Tuesday in 1298, King Edward I of England brought the full weight of his military machine to bear.
Wallace’s army was shattered, his reputation as an invincible leader broken, and he resigned the Guardianship shortly afterwards. Yet the battle was far closer than the eventual result suggests, and it revealed both the strengths and the fatal limitations of the Scottish resistance in its early phase.
The Road to Falkirk
After Stirling Bridge, Wallace had raided deep into northern England (October–November 1297), burning as far as Hexham and Durham. The campaign enriched the Scots but exhausted them.
By spring 1298 Edward I, furious at the humiliation of the previous year, assembled one of the largest armies ever seen in medieval Britain: perhaps 2,000–2,500 heavy cavalry (including almost every major English and Welsh Marcher baron) and 12,000–15,000 infantry, of whom at least 10,000 were Welsh and the rest northern English levies. Crucially, Edward brought several thousand longbowmen – the weapon that would soon dominate European battlefields.
Wallace, now sole Guardian after Andrew Moray’s death, could raise nothing like those numbers. His army is usually estimated at 6,000–8,000 spearmen, a few hundred archers from the Ettrick Forest, and only a tiny cavalry contingent under Sir John Stewart of Bonkyll and possibly the Red Comyn.
The Battlefield
Falkirk lies on gently rising ground south-west of the modern town. In 1298 the area was open, with patches of boggy ground and small streams. Wallace chose a strong defensive position between the Westquarter Burn (to his front) and a low ridge at his rear. He drew his spearmen into four great schiltrons – huge circular or square “hedgehogs” of 12-foot ash spears bristling outward – anchored by ropes and stakes. Between the schiltrons he placed his archers, and behind them his tiny force of cavalry.
His plan was simple and defensive: let the English knights exhaust themselves against the spear rings while Scottish bowmen harassed them, then counter-attack when the enemy faltered. It was the same tactic that had worked at Stirling Bridge, adapted for open ground.
The Battle
Edward’s army arrived late on 21 July and camped near Linlithgow. At dawn on the 22nd they marched the last few miles in three great “battles” (divisions). The vanguard, led by the Earl Marshal Roger Bigod and the bishops of Durham and Lincoln, mistook a marsh for solid ground and became bogged down. Edward, when told, simply replied, “Let them pull themselves out as best they can; we will do our own work.”
By mid-morning the English were deployed. Edward, ignoring advice to let his hungry and tired men rest, ordered an immediate attack – a decision that almost cost him the battle.
- First Phase – Cavalry Charges
The English heavy horse charged in waves. They crashed into the schiltrons and were stopped dead. Horses recoiled from the spear wall; riders were unhorsed and speared on the ground. Contemporary English chronicler Walter of Guisborough wrote: “The knights’ charge was brought to nothing; they could make no impression on the Scottish circles.” - Second Phase – The Longbow
Seeing the failure of cavalry, Edward pulled his knights back and brought forward his longbowmen. For the first time on a major battlefield in Britain, massed archery was used decisively. Thousands of Welsh and English archers poured volley after volley into the motionless schiltrons from beyond spear range. The Scots had almost no armour; arrows found flesh between the spear shafts. The Ettrick archers tried to reply but were ridden down by cavalry. - Collapse
Once gaps appeared in the schiltrons, the English knights charged again. The circles broke. Scottish cavalry fled almost immediately (John Stewart was killed with most of his men). The spearmen, unable to retreat in formation, were cut down in thousands as they tried to escape across the Carron valley or into Falkirk itself. Wallace escaped with a small bodyguard, probably towards Tor Wood.
Casualties and Aftermath
Scottish dead are impossible to verify; English chroniclers claimed 10,000, which is certainly exaggerated, but losses were unquestionably heavy – perhaps 2,000–4,000 killed, including much of the minor nobility who had followed Wallace. English losses were remarkably light: Walter of Guisborough says only 28 men-at-arms killed, though Welsh infantry suffered heavily in the initial bogging.
Edward captured the Scottish supply train and the sacred relic known as the Black Rood of Scotland, but he failed to trap Wallace himself. The king advanced as far as Ayr and Stirling, burning both castles, yet by August his army was starving and mutinous; he was forced to retreat to Carlisle.
Within weeks Wallace resigned the Guardianship (probably under pressure from jealous nobles such as the Comyns). He disappears from Scottish records for several years, re-emerging on diplomatic missions to France and Rome before his final guerrilla campaign and eventual betrayal in 1305.
Legacy of Falkirk
- It proved that the longbow, used en masse with heavy cavalry, could break even the best static spear defence – a lesson that would be repeated at Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt.
- It exposed the political fragility of the Scottish cause: without noble unity, Wallace’s popular army could not survive a direct confrontation.
- It did not end the war. Robert the Bruce and others learned the lesson: avoid pitched battle unless the ground and numbers overwhelmingly favoured the Scots. That opportunity came at Bannockburn sixteen years later.
Visiting the Battlefield Today
The battlefield is largely built over by modern Falkirk, but key remnants survive:
- The high ground where Wallace’s schiltrons stood is now Falkirk High School and residential streets, but interpretive boards mark the site.
- The best viewpoint is from the top of the Falkirk Wheel or Callendar Park, looking west across the presumed killing ground.
- A stone cairn and plaque on Glenbrae Road commemorate the battle.
- The most atmospheric spot is the Westquarter Burn and the wooded slopes of the Carron glen where the Scots tried to escape.
Stand there on a quiet evening and you can still sense the tragedy: a brilliantly conceived defence undone not by cowardice or poor generalship, but by the brutal mathematics of arrows against unarmoured flesh. Falkirk was not Wallace’s disgrace; it was the end of an era in which courage alone could defeat the military might of Plantagenet England.
