Bruce's Secret Weapon
by
Archie McKerracher
The Scots Magazine June 1991

Bannockburn is acknowledged as one of the most remarkable victories in the history of warfare. It is still almost unbelievable how Robert the Bruce's army of common folk, outnumbered three to one, took on the greatest war machine in medieval Europe and destroyed it so completely.

But there are many puzzling aspects to the traditional story of Bannockburn. Firstly, Bruce's small army of around 6000 was composed mainly of foot soldiers. These were highly trained and highly disciplined at a time when infantry was usually poorly led and disorganised, and took a secondary role in battles. IN fact, the Scottish troops were of a calibre never found again in any battle between Scots and English. The four battalions of spearmen, each formed into a 1000 strong schiltrom, moved and fought as one. Each man would place his left arm upon the shoulder of the man in front until the schiltrom formed a homogenous mass through which no armoured cavalry charge could penetrate.

The small troop of light cavalry commanded by Keith carried out their orders to the letter, no more, no less. They cleverly anticipated the tactics of the Welsh archers who tried to pour arrows on the Scots' flank, as they had done at the Battle of Falkirk 16 years before, and quickly put them to flight. It was as though someone who had fought on the English side at Falkirk was now directing the Scots' strategy at Bannockburn.

It is curious that the Scottish soldiers were so well equipped. Each man possessed several items: a leather headpiece and steel helmet; a thick padded leather coat; a pair of protective and flexible steel gloves for holding the shaft of his iron-tipped 12 foot spear; and knives, axes and swords as personal weapons. Where did all this equipment come from and how was it paid for? Swords, weapons, and spear shafts were usually imported from the Continent and cost a great deal of money. Even at Culloden in 1746 many of the Highlanders were armed only with scythe blades attaches to poles.

Scotland in 1314 was a land wracked by 20 years of war. Its economy and its agriculture were laid waste. Many of the wealthy Lowland nobility were fighting on the English side How then did the Scottish army receive such extensive and expensive equipment when the English fleet controlled both the Irish and North Seas, and how was the equipment paid for when our treasury was empty? How, too, did Bruce devise the brilliant tactics of this set-piece battle when nothing in his previous record suggests he was anything more than a competent guerilla commander?

It will be remembered that by mid-day on 24th June 1314, the 6000 Scots were utterly exhausted after fighting non-stop for eight hours in the summer heat. However, very few English had been killed by that time and only a small percentage of their 20,000 strong army had actually come into contact with the Scots. The steady pressure of the massed schiltroms simply pushed back the English armoured knights before they could move , penning the rest of their army behind them between the tidal Pelstream and Bannock Burns. Then came the renowned appearance of the Scots camp followers which caused the English ranks first to waver and then to break in panic.

It was really fear that destroyed Edward's army, but fear of what? Contrary to tradition, the so-called camp followers did not tie towels and blankets to poles and come running down Gillies Hill, and neither were they simply servants and cooks. The name of the hill and the story itself are 18th century inventions. Barbour's Bruce says they were yeomen with spears plus some lesser people who were stationed in the valley between Gillies Hill and Coxethill, through which the M9 motorway now runs. This then was part of the wooded New Park and so these 1000 men, mainly from Argyll, would not be visible until they reached the escarpment at St. Ninians leading down to the carse. Further, they were not running, but marching in military order behind captains, and the move was not impromptu, but apparently anticipated by the Scots. Yet these newcomers alone would not have inspired such fear for their numbers and quality would have been identifiable at such short range.

I suggest that what broke Edward's army was the sight of the men who led them, perhaps no more than 50 or 60 in number; men who wore their hair close-cropped and their beards long; who wore chain mail, and over it a white smock, the famous cross patte. They marched beneath their black and white banner called The Beauseant, and were instantly recognisable to the front rank of the English as the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon, or Knights Templar, the Warrior Monks. They were renowned as the most battle-hardened, highly-trained and ferocious fighters in the realms of chivalry, yet strangely, their Christian Order had recently been condemned to Hell by the Pope and excommunicated in every country in Christendom - except Scotland.

The Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Scotland was founded in Jerusalem in 1118 by nine Crusaders. Its specific purpose was to keep the highways safe for pilgrims in the Holy Land, and in recognition of this worthy cause the King of Jerusalem, Baudouin I, gave them a wing of the royal palace. This was reputedly built on the foundations of Solomon's Temple and from this the new Order took its name. The Order of Solomon's Temple grew in size and the sons of european nobility flocked to join. New knights took an oath of poverty, chastity, and obedience and were highly trained in all aspects of warfare. They were forbidden to shave and wore white surcoats with the distinctive splayed red cross. They were obliged to fight to the death and never retreat. They combined religious mysticism with a reputation as ferocious fighters and became famed as the Warrior Monks, or Knights Templar.

Pope Innocent II in 1139 issued a Bull stating the Templars were responsible only to the Pope, and not subject to secular or church authority in any country. Gifts of land and money were showered upon the Order which soon developed into an international empire headed by a Grand Master. Money could be deposited with a Templar bank in Jerusalem and withdrawn in London on presentation of a chit and secret gestures. In fact, the Order is credited with inventing the cheque. The Templars had their own fleet which initially transported pilgrims and, later, all manner of goods. They also had their own armourers, architects, stonemasons, hospitals, surveyors etc.

In Scotland the Templars held vast lands, more than 500 properties in country and towns. David I had invited the Order to his kingdom in 1128 and kept a number of knights around his person, "retaining beside him the most noble brethren of the distinguished military order of The Temple of Jerusalem, he made them by day and night the custodians of his morals", according to a contemporary writer. They were also, no doubt, the custodians of his person.

All parts of Scotland, except the West Highlands, contributed heritable property to the Order. The principal preceptory and Scottish headquarters was at Balantrodoch, now Temple, in Midlothian. The other preceptories included Temple Liston, or Kirk Liston, near Edinburgh Airport; Temple Denny near Falkirk; Thankerton in Lanarkshire; and Maryculter in Aberdeenshire. The latter name derives from the Chapel of St. Mary, founded by the Templars in 1187 after William th Lion granted them 8500 acres there. Templars' Park at Maryculter is now the name of a Boy Scout camping and training ground.

Brain de Jay, (He was the model for the sinister Templar Brain de Bois-Guilbert in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe) Master of the Templars in Scotland in 1298, brought north the large body of Welsh archers who fought in Edward I's army against William Wallace. The Welsh troops stayed first at Balantrodoch, the principal Templar base, before marching on to join the English army at the Battle of Falkirk in July 1298. During the battle it was Templars who directed the devasting arrow power that broke the Scottish spear schiltroms, and it was Templar Knights who led the final cavalry charge that destroyed Wallace's army. Templars in the British Isles came under the jurisdiction of the Master of the London Temple.

In 1291 the Holy Land finally fell to the Saracens with the capture of the fortress of Acre. The Templars defended the castle to the death after placing the women and children on the last galleys. The headquarters of the Order then moved to Cyprus, but with the loss of the Holy Land the Templars were obliged to find another reason for their existence. The Order was now unbelievably wealthy, dealing in commerce on a grand scale and lending vast sums of money to governments and kings. The headquarters in Britain were at The Temple in London where their typical circular church still survives. Here were kept the English crown jewels, pawned to the Templars in 1260 by Henry III to raise funds for his frequent warring expeditions.

However, as time went on the Templars became arrogant and dissolute and "to drink like a Templar" became a catch phrase. Strange rumours began to surround the Order. It was said the Knights repudiated the crucifixion, spat upon the cross and held all manner of obscene rituals. They had certainly absorbed both Judaic and Islamic beliefs, and esoteric knowledge, through their long connection with the Middle East and had adopted much that was alien to orthodox Christianity.

Their downfall came in 1306 when Philippe IV of France took refuge from a mob in the Paris Temple and was stunned by the wealth he saw. He was also aggrieved at being refused admittance to the Order and alarmed that the Templars intended forming an independent Kingdom in southern France. In October 1307, he ordered the arrest of all Templars in France. Many were hideously tortured although the Preceptor of France is said to have fled along with 18 of the Order's galleys and much of the Paris Temple's wealth. Pope Clement V was persuaded to excommunicate all Templars for heresy and ordered their arrest in every kingdom in Christendom.

In 1312 the Order was officially dissolved by the Pope, and in March, 1314 Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order of Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple, was roasted to death over a slow fire on the Ile de Seine de Seine in Paris. The Order was finished.

In January 1309, Edward II of England ordered Sir John de Segrave, his appointed Guardian of Scotland, to arrest all Templars still at large in the country and report them to the Inquisitor's Deputy. This latter official was Bishop William Lamberton of St Andrews who had been released from Winchester Castle the year before, after taking a new oath of allegiance to Edward II, and had gone directly from there to Rome to visit the Pope.

Back home, the wily Lamberton paid lip service to the Pope's edicts and the English king's instructions, but remained totally committed to the cause of the excommunicated Robert the Bruce and Scottish independence. It is not difficult to imagine the bargain Lamberton made with the two important Templars he interrogated at Holyrood in December 1309. Far from questioning them on heresy, it is more likely he made them an offer; "Supply us with arms, money and expertise and we will give the Templars sanctuary in the only land where the Pope's writ does not run." Because of condition in Scotland the Papal Bulls were never proclaimed here and legally the Templars were never dissolved.

From that time on the fortunes of Robert the Bruce took a dramatic turn for the better. War material began arriving in Scotland from Ireland in considerable quantity. This is so alarmed the English authorities that Edward II issued an edict in 1310 to his officials in Ireland, "prohibiting under the highest penalties all the exportation of provisions, horses, armour, and other supplies from ports where any vessel touches ... to the insurgent Scots which he hears is carried on by merchants in Ireland."

There was, however, no arms industry in that impoverished country and the principal towns such as Dublin were in English hands, so where were all these weapons coming from?

Only the Knights Templar had access to such large quantities of armaments and they had extensive holdings in Ireland including at least six preceptories and 11 castles. Although some of the Irish Templars were arrested in 1308 the rest seem to have moved to the country. It would have been a logical move for the Templar fleet, based at the French Atlantic port of La Rochelle, to slip away and sail to north-west Ireland. From there they could easily transport arms across to Scotland in secret. Certainly, the Templar fleet seems to have vanished completely along with the Preceptor of France and a number of Knights and lesser ranks and 50 horses. When the authorities later burst into the Irish Templar properties they found them empty of weapons, and as the historian H.Wood remarks in his tract "The Templars in Ireland," "It is extremely surprising to find the abodes of a military order so poorly equipped with arms." This was about the same period as Edward was complaining about the export of arms t Scotland! Thus there seems little doubt it was Templar arms that were being shipped to Scotland in Templar ships.

The logical route for a fleet sailing from north-west Ireland, and wishing to avoid interception, would have been into Loch Sween in Knapdale where Castle Sween had a substantial harbour, and arms could be transported over Kintyre for onward shipment. This area had recently been restored to sir Neil Cambell, Bruce's staunch ally, after Bruce had defeated the MacDougalls of Lorn at the Pass of Brander in August, 1308. It was an ideal location for refugee Templars to settle.

It seems more than coincidental that about this time a group of some carvers, known as the Loch Awe School, began work in this area and were responsible for the sophisticated stone carvings found in Argyll and the Western Isles, the earliest of which dates from the early 14th century. These carvings are unique in Scotland and of a remarkable quality for the period. It is also more than coincidental that many of the gravestones now gathered in Kilmartin churchyard from other churches in the area depict a simple carved sword, unmistakably the military gravestone of a Knight Templar. The sword emblem is unique to this part of Scotland as are representations of tau-headed staffs, used in eastern churches. At the little ruined chapel of Kilmory near Catle Sween is a Templar cross carved in stone, and another stone slab portrays a sailing ship of a size and design far larger than a west coast galley. The implication is that a group of immigrant artisans and craftsmen arrived in this area in the early 14th century and established themselves as stone carvers.

On the east shores of Loch Awe, just north of Ford and buried deep in forest, lies the ruins of Kilneuair Church. This is a strange building, barely marked on any map and yet of a beauty and size most unusual in the West Highlands. Information about it is very sparse. The stones are said to have been transported manually from a previous church at Killeven on Loch Fyne. Kilneuair was the principal church for the area until the mid- 16th century when the centre moved to Kilmichael Glassary. Most interestingly, the outlines of an earlier circular building can be traced on the west side, and this was the traditional design of a Templar church. Even more interestingly, a gravestone here bears the Templar cross patte.

Thus it seems likely that Bruce's army at Bannockburn was not only equipped by the Templars but probably trained by them, too. Bruce's dramatic encounter with de Bohun was an unheard-of move for someone trained in conventional European chivalry, but it was a manoeuvre common enough in the Middle east where the Saracens effectively used their nimble, smaller steeds against the steel-clad Crusaders on their heavy horses. Had Bruce been coached in that move and did he deliberately invite the attack to raise Scottish morale? (According to the Stella Templum Bruce was trained in the martial arts by Templars at Dalhousie in Midlothian, only a few miles from their headquarters at Balantrodoch)

Then there is the curious episode when Sir Alexander de Seton, a knight serving with the English, left Edward's army the night before the battle and brought the Scots vital information on the English forces disposition, size, and morale. Historians have long conjectured on the reason, but Seton had Templar connections and was undoubtedly acting under instructions.

After Bannockburn a few of the Templars and certainly many of their artisans seem to have remained in the area south of Loch Awe where they probably married into the local population. Some English and Scottish Templars may have joined the Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, a still extant charitable institution, to whom was transferred all the Templar properties after their dissolution. However, these properties seem to have been administered on behalf of the defunct Order and were never officially granted to the Hospitallers of St John. As late as the 16th century over 500 properties in Scotland are recorded at Terrae Templarie, Templar Lands, and thus not officially belonging to the hospitallers.

There is no record of the Templars' part in Bannockburn probably because Bruce was anxious to become reconciled with the Pope, and Archdeacon Barbour who wrote the definitive Bruce in 1375 would certainly not have referred to them either as the very mention of their name was anathema to the church.

Did the Order of the Temple go underground in Scotland and continue as a secret society? It is said that when Graham of Claverhouse fell at Killiecrankie in 1689 he was found to be wearing a Templar smock and cross beneath his clothes.

Baignet and Leigh in their best-selling book The Temple and The Lodge trace the rise of Freemasonry from the absorption of Judaic and Islamic beliefs by the Templars, and also from architectural practices of the Middle east which the Templar artisans adopted. The Templar refugees in Scotland, particularly the stonemasons, passed on these traditions and secret rituals to operative stonemasons in Scotland and also to an elite body of the nobility. The authors suggest that Freemasonry was taken over by the Jacobites and used as a secret society dedicated to preserving the Stuart dynasty. Certainly, the earliest surviving minutes of Dunblane No. 9 Lodge, dated 1696, are signed by some of the principal Jacobite conspirators. It was for this reason that Grand Lodge, the ruling body of Freemasonry was founded in 1717 in London as a Hanoverian attempt to counter the Jacobite monopoly.

It is interestingly that the higher degrees of Freemasonry, particularly the older Scottish Rites, were in existence long before the formation of Grand Lodge and even today remains independent of that authority. Final proof of the connection between the Knights Templar and Freemasonry can be seen on a 14th century Templar gravestone at Kilmory chapel which quite clearly portrays a masonic set square and a Templar cross.

So it seems the Templars who escaped persecution did flee to Scotland, bringing with them arms and expertise which secured Scottish independence. They brought with them, too, many traditions and beliefs from the Middle East which were preserved in Scotland and eventually adapted as modern Freemasonry. It is fairly generally accepted that Freemasonry began i Scotland and was exported to the Continent by the Garde Ecosse, the Scots Guard, the elite body guard of the French kings. Perhaps this small band of refugee Knights contributed as much to the heritage of the world as they did to Scotland's freedom.

The Scottish Knights Templar of the Chivalric Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem have a present strength of 150 selected members. They are a non-Masonic Order brought into the 19th century as the Militia Templi Scotia and are a repository of Scottish Templar tradition and relics of Jacobite Freemasonry. The Masonic Knights Templar, on the other hand, is one of the higher degrees of Freemasonry and was founded around 1810 as a specifically Christian Order.

The Scottish Knights Templar possess a secret and different version of Scotland's history which is contained in their Stella Templum, of which the above article forms part. The rest is considered too controversial for release at present. The Order have recently purchased Dull Church in Perthshire to hold the stone given into their care when St Columbia's Church in Dundee was closed in 1989. They believe this is to be the Stone of Destiny recovered from Westminster Abbey in 1950. It was found in Parliament Square, Edinburgh, in 1965 and given into the custody of the Rev. Mackay Nimmo of st. Columba's.

The Stella Templum refers to four stones: St. Columbia's Seat; the Pictish Stone; the Celtic Stone; and the Stone of Destiny. The author of this article believes the last three are one and the same, but that the true Stone still remains hidden at Dunsinnan.

Our Thanks To Greyfriars Preceptory For This History Lesson

For More Info On The Masons & The Templars