General Notes

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Baron
Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 91SH-GB
via William V. Hopkins Jr at hopkins1314@@bellsouth.net
http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=wboth1252&id=I04545

Sir Robert Clifford died in the Battle of Bannockburn.

Battle of Bannockburn 1314

During the Wars ofIndependence, Philip de Mowbray agreed to surrender Stirling Castle if not assisted by England.
Edward II therefore came across the border and by the time he left Edinburgh for Falkirk on the 22 June, he had amassed an army of sixteenthousand infantry and two and a half thousand knights on horseback.

The army’s supply train was twenty miles long. Robert the Bruce prepared to meet him with six thousand spearmen, five hundred light horse and a few archers. He pitched in a deer park which had a half-mile of farmland on its east, a moor on itswest and Bannock Burn along its south.

The Burn flowed to a bog then into agorge, whilst the farmland ended steeply into the tidal Forth. The first contact was made on 23 June when English cavalry attempted a strategic strike and suffered badly.

The next day the cavalry initiated the fighting again. The Scots had grouped into four battails using their schiltron formations of spearmenin variable squares. The ground had been covered in balls of spikes called caltrops to disable the horses, and Edward’s infantry were inoperable on the narrowfront they were given.

The Scots forced the English back and into the Burnwhere self-defence was all but impossible. Edward meanwhile had fled with fivehundred of his knights to Stirling Castle.

Mowbray could see which side toback however and would not open the gates. Side-stepping the battle, Edward headed for Winchburgh, then Dunbar and escape, pursued by Douglas, while the Earlof Pembroke made for Carlisle with two thousand Welshmen.

Bruce ensured that those taken prisoner be treated well and he was remembered by them for his humanity.
via Larry Overmire at larryover@@worldnet.att.net


Note:
Note: DESCENDANT OF CHARLEMAGNE, ALFRED THE GREAT, WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, HENRY I, EMPRESS MATILDA, SIR WILLIAM MARSHALL, AND STRONGBOW DE CLARE

1ST LORD CLIFFORD, MARSHALL OF ENGLAND, SHERIFF OF WESTMORELAND, LORD OF APPLEBY, GOVERNOR OF NOTTINGHAM CASTLE, 1ST LORD OF SKIPTON, JUSTICE OF THE FORESTS BEYOND TRENT

ONE OF THE ENGLISH COMMANDERS WHO DEFEATED SIR WILLIAM "BRAVEHEART" WALLACE AT FALKIRK

ENGLISH CAVALRY COMMANDER AT BANNOCKBURN, KILLED IN BATTLE

Sir Robert was one of Edward I's most distinguished soldiers and administrators. He helped defeat Wallace at Falkirk and was rewarded with the Governorship of Nottingham Castle. In 1307, he was said to have been present at the deathbed of EdwardI. In 1310, Robert served his new king Edward II valiantly at the siege of Caerlaverock. In that same year, Edward II granted him Skipton Castle which becamethe principal seat of the family. In 1312, Sir Robert joined with Thomas Earlof Lancaster in the siege of Piers Gaveston at Scarborough Castle. Gaveston, despised by many for his meddling in the affairs of state, was murdered. Sir Robert was pardoned for his part in the murder in 1313.


THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK,JULY 12, 1298:
King Edward was determined to crush Wallace and on July 12, 1298, he defeated him at the Battle of Falkirk. The English forces were commandedby Humphrey de Bohun and the same John de Warenne who was defeated at StirlingBridge. Sir Ralph Basset of Drayton led a force of cavalry. The heavily armedEnglish outnumbered the Scots, composed mostly of peasants, 3 to 1. Few knightsand barons, jealous of his success, were willing to join Wallace. Falkirk wasa disaster for the Scots. Wallace, his military reputation ruined, gave up theGuardianship of Scotland, continuing to fight a limited guerilla war, but neveragain did he command a Scottish army. On Aug. 5, 1305, Wallace was betrayed bya Scots knight, Sir John Menteith, taken to London, drawn, quartered and beheaded on the 2