Could somebody tell me about Stirling?

[Linnaaa]

Hello!
I am 16 years,Norwegian,and I'm going the first year at St.Olav upper secondary school.
I have been to Stirlig once, bit that's a long time ago.So I hope someone maybe could tell me about Stirlings history.
Because I'm going to tell my class about it.

I hope you can help me

Linn from Norway

[ANDY-J]

Hi there.
I live about ten miles from Stirling.It is a large town on the banks of the river Forth in central Scotland.It's geographic position has made it a town of strategic importance since Roman times.It was the site of a ford and subsequently a bridge and whoever controlled Stirling controlled access to the Highlands.It is dominated by a large castle most of which is mediaeval and was often the site of the Scottish court,however a fortification of some sort has probably existed since the iron-age.The castle was added to by King James IV in the fifteenth century and he employed French architects who created an impressive work of renaissance architecture.Stirling has been the site of numerous battles and sieges particularly during the wars of independence when battles were fought at Stirling bridge and nearby Bannockburn.

[Dinja]

Originally posted by Linnaaa
Hello!
I am 16 years,Norwegian,and I'm going the first year at St.Olav upper secondary school.
I have been to Stirlig once, bit that's a long time ago.So I hope someone maybe could tell me about Stirlings history.
Because I'm going to tell my class about it.

I hope you can help me

Linn from Norway

the story of stirling bridge September 1297

Your intrest? if so, then I write you the story at evening
when a getting home.

regards william de geus

[Dinja]

Originally posted by Dinja

the story of stirling bridge September 1297

Your intrest? if so, then I write you the story at evening
when a getting home.

regards william de geus

[Dinja]

Hello Linn from Norway,

William Wallace defeat the English men by Stirlinge bridge
at 1297

The Story of Stirling Bridge

At Stirling the neck of Scotland between the rivers Forth and Clyde is narrow enough to be a chokepoint and anyone wishing to dominate the country must hold that chokepoint.
It was there, inSeptember 1297, that the clash came. Wallace's men were mostly of low social status and most of theire weopens were hand made.Few had even a simple steel scullcap to protect them and none hadarmour. They had been well drilled though and wieling 12ft pikes fought in the oval shaped spear-ring called the schilltron. None of Scotland's great lords stood with Wallace that day. The Scots were drawn up on the slopes of the Abbey Craig, a steep hill on which the Wallace monument now stands. Below them the river Forth wandered across the plain and curved into a large u-bend not a few hundreds of yards from the base of the hill. The river was crossed by a narrow bridge, only wide enough to permit the crossing of two horsemen abreast. When Surry and Cressingham arrived at the bridge they made a critical mistake. They had been advised that there was a ford some way upstream where a hundred horsemen could cross the river in line abreast, but they disdained to heed this advice. Perhaps they felt the Scot were little more than a rabble and would be unable to resist the armored knights and men-at-arms advancing on them. Some said the stingy Cressingham wished to waste no more of his king's money in needlessly prolonging the war. Whatever the reason, the decision to cross the bridge condemned the Englisgh to their fate. Wallace had told his men to stand firm until they heard the sound of his horn and then charge with all their might. It was Cressingham who led the the English vanguard across the bridge. When they reached the other side od the river the English knights found the ground there to be soft almost marshy and they had great trouble in deploying their great warhorses into any semblance of a line. With only half the army across the bridge and greatly frustrated by the softness of the ground, Cressingham heard the sound of a horn braying from the slopes above him and down from the Abbey Craig the Scots spearmen rushed forward. the English were trapped in the bend of the river, unable to properly form up and with no hope of aid from their compatriots on the other side of the river. It was all over in an hour. Pushed back by the spears, the English horses were stabbed or hamstrung and their rider' throats were cut when they fell from their mounts. Surry looked on in ompotent fury as his army was torn to pieces. Cressingham fought fiercely an until he too was dragged from his horse and slain. Perhaps, as the song suggests, it was Moray who cut him down: we do not know.
What we do know is that Anrew de Moray was severely wounded in the battle and died of these wounds little over a mounth later. It was a grievious blow to the Scots and when ten months later Edward himself came north to put down the rebellion personally, Moray would be sorely missed at the battle of Falkirk.