COMMANDERS

David, King of Scotland, was himself in command of the army, standing with the reserve in the centre. Prince Henry his son commanded the vanguard on the right.

TROOPS

Although the Scottish army had a small number of Anglo-Norman knights and men at arms, the Scottish kingdom was still in the process of transformation. There was not the high level of central, feudal organisation seen in England that could produce large numbers of armoured troops. The armoured knights and men at arms, wearing chain mail and a helmet, large shields and with an eight foot lance and a sword were relatively few in number. Some of these were Norman or Germanic mercenary forces, the rest Lowland feudal tenants. Although some were dismounted to fight on foot, Henry kept a small detachment of mounted knights on the right wing for what he hoped might be a late but decisive cavalry charge.

The infantry forces from Galloway, described as Galwegians, are suggested as having numbered as many as 7000, armed with spears about 12ft long and a few with axes, possibly with a helmet and a small round shield of wood or leather. They are said to have considered themselves the best fighters in Scotland but these unarmoured and ill disciplined troops would be no match for the English longbow and heavily armoured men at arms. There were other similarly armed troops from the Highlands.

In addition the Scots infantry included feudal levies from the Lowlands, some of them English speaking from the former territories of Northumbria which was now part of Scotland. These men, possibly numbering as many as 6000 have been suggested as being protected with mail jackets and large shields and armed with swords, axes and spears and a few with bows. But the Scottish infantry had probably not yet developed the ‘schiltron’ formation, in which a tight and disciplined formation of pikemen would prove able in later centuries to hold off determined attack even by armoured troops.