544 thai so fer war passit by. The English writers report the matter as it appeared to them. “The Scots, however, suffered this” (Clifford’s advance) “until they had placed a considerable distance between themselves and their friends, when they showed themselves, and cutting off that first line of the King from the middle and rear divisions (a media acie et extrema), rushed on it,” etc. (Chron. de Lanercost, 225). “Thomas Randolph, ... who was leader of the advance guard of the Scots, having heard that his uncle had repulsed the advance guard of the English on the other side of the wood, thought that he must have his share, and issuing from the wood with his division” (Barbour says “five hundred men,” line 542), “took the level plain” (le beau chaumpe—Barbour’s “playn feld”) “towards the two lords aforesaid” (Scalacronica, p. 141). Note that both Bruce at the “entry,” and Randolph at “the Kirk,” were in the wood (see on this also note on Bk. XII. 58); and the reiterated use of the term “playn feld” for the level below St. Ninian’s.
546 ane rose of his chaplet. Hailes suggests a far-fetched explanation of this: “I imagine that rose implies a large bead in a rosary or chaplet,” when the dropping of a rose would imply carelessness of duty (Annals, ii. 51, note). The New English Dictionary defines chaplet as “A wreath for the head, usually a garland of flowers or leaves,” and cites this passage. Randolph in the wood, keeping his eyes on the main body, could easily miss an advance by his flank, which had started independently two miles away, and probably kept to cover as far as possible.
547 Wes faldyn. Skeat explains this form as “fallen” with an “excrescent d, due to Scandinavian influence,” citing also Bk. XIII. 632. A form, foolde, occurs in The Sowdone of Babylone, line 1428, where Hausknecht explains it as from fealden, “to fold,” meaning “folded, bent down, fallen”; citing also “Folden to grunde” and “Fiftene hundred Folden to grunden,” from Layamon, 23,894 and 27,055-6. The result as to meaning is the same either way.
548 war past. Clifford then had passed the Kirk before Randolph made a move. The scene of the conflict is usually placed at a position half-way between St. Ninian’s and Stirling, now known as Randolph’s Field. But this name is not older than the end of the eighteenth century (Old Stat. Acct., vol. xviii., p. 408). The origin of the nomenclature is two standing stones said to have been erected in memory of the victory (Nimmo’s History of Stirlingshire, ed. 1817, p. 216). But standing stones are no uncommon feature in Scotland, and various traditions attach to them; and why this preference in commemoration? “Standing stones,” on the other side of the Forth, are mentioned in the Wallace (Bk. v. 298).
557 In hy thai sped thame. Gray gives an account of this affair, in which his father was taken prisoner, in the Scalacronica (edit. Maitland Club. p. 141): “Sir Henry de Beaumont said to his men, ‘Let us retire a little; let them [the Scots] come on; give them room [donez les chaumps.]” His father, Sir Thomas, charging on the Scots, was carried off a prisoner on foot, his horse having been slain on the pikes. He, too, mentions the death of Sir William Deyncourt (line 573), and says the squadron was utterly routed. If Beaumont—to whom, with Deyncourt, Gray gives the command—proposed to allow the Scots more room by retiring, his detachment cannot have gone far past Randolph’s original position (cf. also line 538). The remark seems absurd if applied to the ground at Randolph’s Field. Buchanan says Randolph had horse, in which he is clearly wrong (Rerum Scotic. Hist., ed. 1762, chap. xxxix.), and he is followed on this point in White’s History of the Battle of Bannockburn (Edinburgh, 1871), p. 55.
573 Schir Wilyhame Dencort. See previous note.
598 Styk stedis, and ber doune men. An unhorsed knight in his heavy suit of full armour was a cumbrous unit, and if he fell, might find it impossible to rise in the press, or be assisted to do so, so as to be remounted on a fresh steed by his squire, whose duty it was to see to this, among other things. The author of the Vita Edw. notes as a mischance deserving remark that in this day’s fighting the Earl of Gloucester was unhorsed (p. 202; see also on Bk. XII. 504).
BOOK XII.
22 quyrbolle. Cuir-bouilli, or “boiled leather,” was not really boiled, as in that case it would become horny and brittle and so quite unsuitable for the purposes to which it was put—the strengthening of armour in the transition period of the fourteenth century prior to the full use of plate, and the making of sheaths, bottles, caskets, etc. The leather was steeped in a warm mixture of wax and oil, which made it pliable and fit to receive the designs cut or embossed on it. It was then slowly dried. Helmet crests or other fittings were also made of it, as here.
29 the Boune. Henricus de Boun in Vita Edw. Sec. (see below). The name is variously spelled—Bowme (C), Bohun, etc. He was the nephew of Hereford. Barbour says “cosyne” in 31, but this, formerly, very frequently denoted a nephew or niece (N.E.D.).