About - page 2

Avoch was the focal point of insurrection in the north. De Moray's revolt quickly gathered support among the locals of Inverness and surrounding areas. These northern troops' activities mirrored much of what was going on in the south, with guerrilla tactics widely used to unsettle Edward I's army and score small but psychologically significant victories. At one stage, King Edward I and the English travelled as far as Elgin, only to be beaten back by de Moray and his band of local freedom fighters.

The uprising soon gathered pace and by the late summer of 1297 King Edward I had little, if any, authority over much of Scotland. The reality of the breakdown in royal control was described in a letter to the king by Hugh Cressingham, his treasurer for Scotland:

“by far the greater part of your counties of the realm of Scotland are still unprovided with keepers, as [they have been killed or imprisoned]; and some have given up their bailiwicks, and others neither will nor dare return; and in some counties the Scots have established and placed bailiffs and ministers, so that no county is in proper order, excepting Berwick and Roxburgh, and this only lately.”

Documents Illustrative of Scotland, ed. Rev.J.Stevenson, vol.2, CCCCLV, p.207.

Of the castles situated north of the River Forth, only the castle of the port of Dundee was still in English hands. The only means by which this situation could be reversed was through a full-scale armed invasion of Scotland to defeat the rebels and to reimpose King Edward’s authority over Scotland. For Moray and Wallace to have any hope of meeting that threat, they had to combine their individual forces into a single army. It is not known exactly when and where the two rebel commanders met, but it is possible that it was in the vicinity of Dundee castle, which was besieged by the Scots in early September 1297.

King Edward I's lieutenant in Scotland, the earl of Surrey, had finally awoken to the seriousness of the crisis for England and mustered an army to march into central Scotland. Moray and Wallace, hearing of the army's advance marched to Stirling where they waited for it north of the River Forth close to the old bridge at Stirling.