Latest / The Story of Scotland: Clans, Crowns, and the Fight for Identity — Fexingo History / The Battle of Dupplin Moor: Shakespearean Betrayal and Scotland's Bloody Kings
Transcript
- Lucas: When Robert the Bruce died in 1329, a lot of people breathed a sigh of relief — the man who'd humiliated England was gone. But his successor was his five-year-old son, David II, and that created a power vacuum that ambitious neighbours couldn't ignore. Luna: A child king, right when Scotland needed a warrior. Lucas: Exactly. And the biggest threat didn't come from England directly at first — it came from a group called the Disinherited. These were Anglo-Scottish nobles who'd lost their lands in Scotland because they'd sided with England during the wars. Their leader was Edward Balliol — son of that John Balliol who'd been humiliated by Edward I back in the 1290s. Lucas: Balliol had a chip on his shoulder and a claim to the throne. So in the summer of 1332, he gathered a fleet of about eighty-eight ships — mostly crewed by English and Flemish mercenaries — and sailed for the coast of Fife. Luna: Eighty-eight ships — that's a serious invasion force. Lucas: It was, but the numbers weren't huge — maybe fifteen hundred men. What mattered was the quality. Among them was Sir Henry de Beaumont, a veteran of the Scottish wars who'd learned some hard lessons. He knew the Scots relied on the schiltron, those dense spear formations, and he'd seen what English longbows could do at Bannockburn — from the losing side. Lucas: So Beaumont had an idea. Instead of letting the Scots charge downhill — which they always did — he set up his archers on a slight slope, behind a small burn, and had his men at arms dismount and stand in a tight line. The archers would shoot from the flanks, angling inward. Luna: That sounds like the tactic the English would later use at Crécy and Agincourt. Lucas: Exactly right. Dupplin Moor is the first real test of that defensive longbow tactic in a pitched battle. And it worked almost too well. The Scottish army, commanded by the regent Donald, Earl of Mar, had maybe ten thousand men — vastly outnumbering Balliol's force. They camped near Perth, on the north side of the River Earn. Balliol crossed the river at night, surprising the Scots, and took up position on a hill called Dupplin Moor. Lucas: On the morning of August 11th, the Scots advanced, but they had a problem. The ground was narrow, flanked by woods and a steep ravine, so their huge army couldn't spread out. They came forward in a single, dense column — perfect target practice. Luna: So the archers just mowed them down. Lucas: Pretty much. The longbowmen fired volley after volley into the packed ranks. The Scots pushed forward anyway, desperate to close the distance, but the dead and wounded piled up, tripping those behind them. Some chronicles say the bodies were stacked as high as a spear-length. Then, when the Scots finally reached the English line, they were exhausted and disorganised, and the men at arms held them easily. Luna: What about the earl of Mar? Did he survive? Lucas: No, he was killed along with most of the Scottish nobility present. Estimates vary wildly — one English source claims thirty-five thousand Scots died, which is absurd. Modern historians think maybe a few thousand. But the key point is that the entire leadership of the Bruce party was wiped out. The earls of Mar, Menteith, Moray, and Carrick all died. Plus dozens of barons and knights. Luna: So Balliol essentially won the crown in a single morning. Lucas: He did. He marched to Scone and was crowned King of Scots within weeks. But his victory was hollow — he had no real support outside his own faction, and the Bruce loyalists regrouped under Sir Andrew Moray and Sir Archibald Douglas. Within months, Balliol was ambushed at Annan and barely escaped with his life, riding naked to England, they say. Lucas: Still, Dupplin Moor was a watershed. It showed that the old Scottish way of war — the mass charge — was now suicidal against disciplined archery. And it opened the door for Edward III of England to openly invade, starting the second phase of the Wars of Independence. Within a year, Edward had besieged Berwick and won the naval battle of Halidon Hill using the same tactics. Luna: So in a way, this one obscure battle changed everything. Lucas: It's one of those battles that doesn't get the fame of Bannockburn or Culloden, but it shaped the next three hundred years of warfare. And it's also a story about how fragile a kingdom can be when the king is a child and the nobles are willing to betray each other for a crown. Lucas: If today's episode helped you get a handle on that messy period — and I hope it did — the way we keep this show ad-free and independent is through listener support. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it really helps us keep digging into these lesser-known stories. Lucas: And speaking of lesser-known stories — one of the wildest details from Dupplin Moor is that the Scottish army actually had a contingent of men from the Isles, led by a certain John of Islay — yes, that Lord of the Isles we talked about in earlier episodes. They arrived late and ended up slaughtering their own countrymen in the confusion because the battle was over so fast. Luna: Friendly fire in the fourteenth century — imagine trying to explain that back home. Lucas: Exactly. So when you think of the great battles of Scottish history, remember Dupplin Moor — the one that almost nobody talks about, but that taught the English how to win.