Scotlandsmusic

At Bannockburn near Stirling, on 24 June 1314, a force of 30,000 Scots under King Robert the Bruce routed a much larger combined English, Welsh and Irish army. The English king, Edward II, fled the field leaving Bruce with a fine army which went on to secure independence for Scotland. Burns wrote the poem after riding over a desolate Scottish moor, basing it on Bruce's Address to his Troops before Battle.