aleander nevsky

St. Alexander Nevsky was Russia's "knight in shining armor." His reputation as a man of exceptional valor and surpassing virtue inspired a visit by a German commander who told his people when he returned: "I went through many countries and saw many people, but I have never met such a king among kings, nor such a prince among princes." The Russians called him their "prince without sin."

He was born just four years before the fierce Tatars, under the leadership of Ghengis Khan, came galloping across the steppes of Kievan Rus'. The once flourishing city state--whose social, cultural and spiritual achievements boasted few rivals in Western Europe--had been weakened by quarrelling princes and attacks of warring tribes, and it was an easy prey for the massacring and pillaging Asiatic aggressors. Fortunately, the Mongol Horde's primary interest in conquest was financial gain, and although it imposed a heavy tax on its subjects, they were left to govern themselves and retained their traditions and religion intact, Nevertheless, the yoke of foreign sovereignty was burdensome; individual princes were reduced to acting as feudal landlords for their Mongol lords, and inclinations toward s national unity--the dream of Grand Prince Vladimir--were stifled. A strong leader was needed if the land of Rus' was to have any hope of healing internal strife, of throwing off the Tatar yoke, and establishing its identity as a nation state.

    The baneful effect of internal dissension was a lesson which came early to Prince Alexander, as he witnessed his father, Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, struggle with the proudly independent spirited boyars of Novgorod, It was there that the boy grew up. Like most noble youth s of his time, he had barely learned to walk before he was lifted into the saddle. Training in the martial arts was combined with an education based upon the Scriptures. Under the influence of his mother, who was popularly called "the holy queen" on account of her piety and charitable deeds, the young prince developed a profound spiritual life. He engrossed himself for hours in reading the Old and New Testaments.

    He was still an adolescent when in 1236 his father became Grand Prince of Kiev (a position of primacy among the princes), leaving Alexander in charge of Novgorod. Its characteristically unruly citizenry was gradually won over by the uncommon wisdom and youthful charm of its new ruler. Meanwhile, the Tatars were moving north; they overran Ryazan, Moscow and the Russian capital of that time, Vladimir. They were prevented from reaching Novgorod only by the surrounding marshes. But the city was spared this disaster only to face a greater threat, this time from the west.

    Encouraged by the Roman Pope who desired the conversion of Russia to Catholicism, the Swedes and Germans took advantage of Russia's weakened state and prepared to attack. As a staunch Orthodox Christian, Alexander recognized that conquest from the west would deal a mortal blow at the very heart of Russia—the Orthodox Church, a fate incomparably worse than political subjugation by the Tatars. In 1210, well armed Swedish troops moved onto Novgorod territory. Preparing his men to repel the invaders, St. Alexander encouraged them with his now famous affirmation: "God is not in might but in Truth. 'Some trust in princes and some in horses, but we will call upon the Lord our God.'" The Russian forces, their Prince in the lead, were crowned with success after a fierce battle on the shores of the Neva.

    Victories followed against the Livonian Germans and the Lithuanians. The Russian north-east, devastated by the Tatars, looked with hope upon the young warrior prince. His fame reached the ears of the Mongol lord, Khan Batu, who desired to see this Russian hero. It was a perilous honor. Before being presented to the Khan, the Russian princes--whose authority depended on his approval--were required to fulfill certain pagan traditions: walk through fire, bow down to a bush and to the shadows of deceased khans, etc. Alexander would in nowise consent to such idolatry and, strengthened by Holy Unction, prepared himself to accept the death penalty which Prince Michael of Chernigov had paid under similar circumstances.

    Arriving in the Golden Horde' s capital at the mouth of the Volga, Alexander at once confessed his Christian convictions: "O King," he said, bowing before the Khan, "I bow before you because God has favored you with authority, but I shall not bow before any created thing. I serve the One God. Him alone do I honor and Him alone do I worship." Khan Batu was so impressed by the courage and handsome demeanor of the young prince that to everyone's amazement he accepted his refusal and received him with due honor.

    Gaining the respect of the Khan was a triumph for Alexander, but it did not insure peace. The remaining course of his life as Grand Prince of Russia was spent in securing its western borders against persistent German campaigns, in subduing the Novgorodians' defiant opposition to the Khan's poll tax, and in diplomatically placating the Khan’s anger which flared intermittently in response to indiscretions committed by the lesser princes. Although it was 200 years before Russia was free of Tatar control, St. Alexander’s skill and self-sacrificing devotion which he brought to the Herculean task set before him as ruler, and his commitment to the preservation of Orthodoxy at the core of a growing national consciousness, made him a hero of both historic and spiritual dimensions. He died as he was returning from one of his exhausting journeys to the Khan, having taken the Great Schema on his death bed. His respected spiritual advisor, Metropolitan Cyril, was serving the Divine Liturgy in Vladimir when he saw the Prince’s soul being carried aloft by angels and announced to those present: “Brethren, know that the sun of the Russian Land has now set.” In 1547 St. Alexander was glorified by the Church which celebrates his memory on the day of his repose, November 23, and the day of the translation of his incorrupt relics, August 30, 1724, to the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, where they rest to this day.

crusadea

bannockburn

To avoid confusion,it should be noted that Robert Bruce, shown as a traitor in the film Braveheart, was no such thing. Never on any occasion did Bruce betray Wallace, since in actual fact, Wallace's support lay with the restoration of John Baliol as King, Bruce's rival claimant to the Scottish throne. Baliol was a weak man, this being the main reason that Edward of England favoured him. He was given the name " Toom Tabard" (empty coat) after his coat of arms was taken from him after backing down to English demands 

.Around Lent of 1314 Edward Bruce, brother of the Scottish King, began the siege of Stirling Castle, which was commanded by Sir Philip Mowbray. Unable to make any headway, Bruce agreed to a pact with Mowbray – if no relief came by midsummer 1314, the castle would surrender to Bruce. It was now two years since an English army had come to Scotland, and King Edward II of England had recently been on the verge of war with his barons after the murder of Piers Gaveston in the summer of 1312.

Stirling was of vital strategic importance and its loss would be a serious embarrassment to the English. The time allowed in the Bruce-Mowbray pact was ample for Edward to gather a powerful army. According to the historian and poet John Barbour, KingRobert Bruce rebuked the folly of his brother, even though Dundee had probably fallen to the Scots through a similar arrangement in 1312. Mowbray had a breathing space and looked forward to the summer of 1314. In England, Edward and his barons reached an http://arthuriad.carolan.info/indexuneasy peace and made ready.Edward came to Scotland in the high summer of 1314 with the preliminary aim of relieving Stirling Castle: the real purpose, of course, was to find and destroy the Scottish army in the field, and thus end the war. England, for once, was largely united in this ambition, although some of Edward's greatest magnates and former enemies, headed by his cousin, Thomas of Lancaster, did not attend in person, sending the minimum number of troops they were required to by feudal law.

Even so, the force that left Berwick-upon-Tweed on 17 June 1314 was impressive: it comprised between 2,000–3,000 horse (likely closer to 2,000) and 16,000 foot. The precise size relative to the Scottish forces is unclear but estimates range from as much as at least two or three times the size of the army Bruce had been able to gather, to as little as only 50% larger.

Edward was accompanied by many of the seasoned campaigners of the Scottish wars, headed by Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and veterans like Henry de Beaumont andRobert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford. The most irreconcilable of Bruce's Scottish (It is an ancient village lying three miles south of Cupar. Tradition says that the village and ancient cobbled bridge have been there for more than 650 years, that the men of Ceres marched across the bridge on their way to the battle of Bannockburn and on their return celebrated their victory with games on the village green. The Highland Games are still an annual event, on the last Saturday of June with the Ceres Derby the highlight of the day. Ceres is also well known for its beautiful cottages.)enemies also came: Ingram de Umfraville, a former Guardian of Scotland, and his kinsman the Earl of Angus, as well as others of the MacDougalls, MacCanns and Sir John Comyn of Badenoch, the only son of the Red Comyn, who was born and raised in England and was now returning to Scotland to avenge his father's killing by Bruce at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries in 1306.

This was a grand feudal army, one of the last of its kind to leave England in the Middle Ages. King Robert awaited its arrival south of Stirling near the Bannock Burn in Scotland.The English army marched rapidly to reach Stirling before Mowbray's agreement expired on 24 June. Edinburgh was reached on 19 June and by 22 June, it was at Falkirk, only 15 miles short of its objective. Edward's host followed the line of the old Roman road, which ran through an ancient forest known as the Tor Wood,
over the Bannockburn and into the New Park, a hunting preserve enclosed at the time of Alexander III.

Bruce's army had been assembling in the Tor Wood, an area providing good natural cover, from the middle of May. On Saturday, 22 June, with his troops now organised into their respective commands, Bruce moved his army
slightly to the north to the New Park, a more heavily wooded area, where his movements could be concealed and which, if the occasion demanded, could provide cover for a withdrawal.

Bruce's army, like William Wallace's before him, was chiefly composed of infantry armed with long spears. It was divided into three main (infantry) formations, a force of light cavalry, and the camp followers (who took part at the end of the battle).

Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, commanded the vanguard, which was stationed about a mile to the south of Stirling, near the church of St. Ninian, while the king commanded the rearguard at the entrance to the New Park. His brother, Edward, led the third division. According to Barbour, there was a fourth nominally under the youthful Walter the Steward, but actually under the command of Sir James Douglas.a man now known to the English as 'The blak Dowglas', a sinister and murderous force "mair fell than wes ony devill in hell."  It would seem in this that Douglas was an early practitioner of psychological warfare – as well as guerrilla warfare – in his knowledge that fear alone could do much of the work of a successful commander.

Sir, you see,

How the English tyrant forcibly
Has dispossessed me of my land
And you are made to understand
That the earl of Carrick claims to be
The rightful king of this country.
The English, since he slew that man,
Are keen to catch him if they can;
And they would seize his lands as well
And yet with him I faith would dwell!
Now, therefore, if it be your will,
With him will I take good or ill.
Through him I hope my land to win

Despite the Clifford and his kin

The army might have numbered as many as 9,000 men in all, but probably more of the order of 6,000–7,000. It was gathered from the whole of Scotland: knights and nobles, freemen and tenants, town dwellers and traders: men who could afford the arms and armour required. Barbour tells that King Robert turned away those who were not adequately equipped. For most, such equipment would consist of a spear, a helmet, a thick padded jacket down to the knees and armoured gloves. It is highly probable that a large proportion of the spearmen had acquired more extensive armour given that the country had been at war for nearly twenty years. This is in contrast to the modern romantic notion of the Scots army, which depicts its foot soldiers clad in kilts, painted woad and little else. The balance of the army consisted of archers and men-at-arms. The Scottish archers used yew-stave longbows and it is not to be thought that they had weaker or inferior bows but rather had inferior numbers. Consisting of possibly only 500 archers, they played little part in the battle. There is first hand evidence from the captured Carmelite friar, Robert Baston in his poem, written just after the battle, that one or both sides employed slingers and crossbowmen.

check out the fantastic Knights of Avalon Each of these troop types was indistinguishable from their counterparts in France or England. Many of the Scottish men-at-arms (recruited from the nobility and the more prosperous burgesses) served on foot at Bannockburn.

Since his landing at Ayrshire in 1307, King Robert had demonstrated time and time again that he was willing to take risks, but these were always measured and calculated. He had no intention of chancing all on the outcome of a day, as had William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk.The Scots army, again made up chiefly of spearmen as at Stirling, was arranged in four great armoured 'hedgehogs' known as schiltrons. The long spears pointed outwards at various heights gave these formations a formidable and impenetrable appearance. The gaps between the schiltrons were filled with archers and to the rear there was a small troop of men-at-arms, provided by the Comyns and other magnates.

On Tuesday 22 July, the English cavalry, divided into four battalions, finally caught sight of their elusive enemy. The left was commanded by the Earls of Norfolk, Hereford and Lincoln. The right was under the command of Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham, while the King commanded the centre, still a little distance to the rear of the vanguard. Once in sight of the enemy, Norfolk and his colleagues began an immediate attack, but on encountering a small marsh to the front of the Scots position, made a long detour to the west before being able to make contact with the right of Wallace's army. Bek tried to hold back his own battalion to give the King time to get into position but he was overruled by his impatient knights anxious to join their comrades on the left in an immediate attack. In a disorganised pell-mell the cavalry finally closed on the Scots, on the right and left. The ground thundered as the schiltrons braced themselves for the impact. The party of men-at-arms under John Comyn, outnumbered about 30 to one, left the field immediately. The Scots bowmen commanded by Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, the younger brother of the High Steward of Scotland, stood their ground and were quickly destroyed. But the schiltrons held firm, absorbing the shock of the impact. The knights made no impression on the dense forest of long spears and were soon threatened with impalement. A large number of riders were killed under their horses. King Edward arrived in time to witness the discomfiture of his cavalry and quickly restored discipline. The knights were ordered to withdraw and Edward prepared to employ the tactics that the Earl of Warwick had used to defeat the Welsh spearmen at the Battle of Maes Moydog in 1295.

Edward's archers were brought into place and went to work with their deadly longbows, and quickly overcame the much smaller force of identically-armed Scottish archers. Their hail of arrows was supplemented by crossbow and slingshot. The schiltrons were an easy target; they had no defence and nowhere to hide. Unable to retreat or attack, the battle was lost for the Scots almost as soon as the first arrows began to fall. The cavalry waited, this time observing the King's command, until the Scots ranks were thin enough to allow them to enter and finish the job. A great many Scots were killed, including Macduff, son of the Earl of Fife. The survivors, Wallace included, escaped as best they could, mostly into the nearby forest of Torwood where their pursuers could not safely follow. Historian Stuart Reid says, "Wallace's army may have been scattered rather than destroyed". Michael Prestwich says that the English army lost "approaching 2,000" men. This was testimony to how fiercely the schiltrons had fought until their final rout. Almost to the last minute, he was prepared to withdraw. The Chronicle of Lanercost seems to confirm that the English also believed he would seek to retreat as it states that " . . . the king’s [Edward's] advanced guard, commanded by Lord de Clifford, began to make a circuit of the wood to prevent the Scots escaping by flight". King Robert was persuaded to remain by news of the poor state of morale in the English army. But undoubtedly the most important factor in persuading him to make a stand was the ground before him.

The Bannockburn, over which the English army had to cross on the way to Stirling, and its sister streams flowed over the Carse of Stirling. A carse is an area which is wet in winter, but hard in summer, and most of it was used for growing wheat, oats, and barley. With the trees of the New Park covering Bruce's army to the west, the only approach apart from the Pows to the east was directly over the old road from Falkirk. If this route, virtually the only solid ground on which heavy cavalry could be effectively deployed, were to be denied to the English, they would have no choice but to wheel right to the north-east, on to the Carse.

To force Edward to take this route, Bruce adopted tactics similar to those he had used at the Battle of Loudon Hill: both sides of the road were peppered with small pits or 'pots', each three feet deep and covered with brush, which would force the enemy to bunch towards the centre of a dangerously constricted front. Once on the Carse, the English army would be caught in a kind of natural vise, as the main action on 24 June showed, with waterways to the north, east, and south. Such natural advantages were not easily obtained, and were unlikely to occur again.

There is some confusion over the exact site of the Battle of Bannockburn, although most modern historians agree that the traditional site, where a visitor centre and statue have been erected, is not the correct one. Although a large number of possible alternatives have been proposed, most can be dismissed and two serious contenders can be considered:

• the area of peaty ground known as the Dryfield outside the village of Balquhiderock, about three-quarters of a mile to the east of the traditional site, and
• the Carse of Balquhiderock, about a mile and a half north-east of the traditional site, accepted by the National Trust as the most likely candidateIt was on the old road that the preliminary actions of the Battle of Bannockburn took place on Sunday, 23 June. For the English, things started to go wrong before the first blow had been struck. Sir Philip Mowbray, the commander of Stirling Castle, who had observed Bruce's preparations on the road, appeared in Edward's camp early in the morning, and warned of the dangers of approaching the Scots directly through the New Park.
  Mowbray also pointed out that there was no need to force a battle, as Edward was now close enough to the castle to constitute a technical relief in terms of the agreement with Edward Bruce. But even if the king was disposed to act on Mowbray's advice, it was already too late; for he was showing signs of losing control of his formidable but unwieldy host.
  The vanguard under the earls of Gloucester and Hereford, appointed to joint command by Edward after a quarrel about who would take the lead – a compromise that satisfied no one – were already closing in on the Scots from the south, advancing in the same reckless manner that had almost brought disaster at Falkirk. Following the line of the Roman road, they crossed the ford over the Bannockburn towards King Robert's division at the opening of the New Park.
  There now occurred one of the most memorable episodes in Scottish history. Henry de Bohun, nephew of the Earl of Hereford, was riding ahead of his companions when he caught sight of the Scottish king. De Bohun lowered his lance and began a charge that carried him to lasting fame. King Robert was mounted on a small palfrey and armed only with a battle-axe.He had no armour on. As de Bohun's great war-horse thundered towards him, he stood his ground, watched with mounting anxiety by his own army. With the Englishman only feet away, Bruce turned aside, stood in his stirrups and hit the knight so hard with his axe that he split his helmet and head in two. This small incident became in a larger sense a symbol of the war itself: the one side heavily armed but lacking agility; the other highly mobile and open to opportunity. Rebuked by his commanders for the enormous risk he had taken, the king only expressed regret that he had broken the shaft of his axe.Horses in the Middle Ages differed in size, build and breed from the modern horse, and were, on average, smaller. They were also more central to society than their modern counterparts, being essential for war, agriculture, and transport.
  Cheered by this heroic encounter, Bruce's division rushed forward to engage the main enemy force. For the English, so says the author of the Vita Edwardi Secundi (Life of Edward II), this was the beginning of their troubles. After some fierce fighting, in which the Earl of Gloucester was knocked off his horse, the knights of the vanguard were forced to retreat to the Tor Wood. The Scots, eager to pursue, were held back by the command of the king.
  In the meantime, another English cavalry force under Robert Clifford and Henry de Beaumont skirted the Scottish position to the east and rode towards Stirling, advancing as far as St. Ninians. Bruce spotted the manoeuvre and ordered Randolph's schiltron to intercept.
  Randolph's action was a foretaste of the main contest the following day: unsupported by archers, the horsemen were unable to make any impression on the Scots spearmen, precisely what had happened in the opening stages of Falkirk. The difference now was that the schiltrons had learnt mobility and how to keep formation at the same time. The English squadron was broken, some seeking refuge in the nearby castle, others fleeing back to the army. The captives included Sir Thomas Gray, whose son and namesake later based his account of the Battle of Bannockburn in his book, the Scalacronica, on his father's memories.
  
  
  Not long after daybreak on 24 June, the Scots spearmen began to move towards the English. Edward was surprised to see Robert's army emerge from the cover of the woods. As Bruce's army drew nearer, they paused and knelt in prayer. Edward is supposed to have said in surprise "They pray for mercy!" "For mercy, yes," one of his attendants replied, "But from God, not you. These men will conquer or die."^[23]The English army was still approaching Stirling from the south. Bruce's preparations had made the direct approach to Stirling too hazardous. Edward made the worst decision of all: he ordered the army to cross the Bannockburn to the east of the New Park.
  One of the English earls, Gloucester, asked the king to hurry up, but the king accused him of cowardice. Angered, the earl mounted his horse and led the vanguard on a charge against the leading Scots spearmen, commanded by Edward Bruce. Gloucester, who according to some accounts had not bothered to don hisd strength of the great army was beginning to work against the English king, as his army could not move quickly and lost a lot of time in getting into position.
  Bruce then committed his whole Scots army to an inexorable bloody push into the disorganised English mass, fighting side by side across a single front. Edward's army was now so tightly packed that if a man fell, he risked being immediately crushed underfoot or suffocated and the English and Welsh longbowmen failed to get a clear shot in fear they might hit their own men. After some time they moved to the side of Douglas's division and began shooting into its left, but upon the command of Robert the Bruce who foresaw this, the Scottish 500-horse light cavalry under the Marischal Sir Robert Keith dispersed them. The returning fleeing archers then caused the infantry itself to begin to flee. Later the knights began to escape back across the Bannockburn.
  With the English formations beginning to break, a great shout went up from the Scots, "Lay on! Lay on! Lay on! They fail!" This cry was heard by Bruce's camp followers, who promptly gathered weapons and banners and charged forward. To the English army, close to exhaustion, bannockburn village this appeared to be a fresh reserve and they lost all hope. The English forces north of the Bannockburn broke into flight. Some tried to cross the River Forth where most drowned in the attempt.Others tried to get back across the Bannockburn, but as they ran, “tumbling one over the other” down the steep, slippery banks, a deadly crush ensued so that “men could pass dryshod upon the drowned bodies”.
  Edward fled with his personal bodyguard, ending the remaining order in the army; panic spread and defeat turned into a rout. He arrived eventually at Dunbar Castle, from here he took ship to England. From the carnage of Bannockburn, the rest of the army tried to escape to the safety of the English border, ninety miles to the south. Many were killed by the pursuing Scottish army or by the inhabitants of the countryside that they passed through. Historian Peter Reese says that, "only one sizeable group of men—all footsoldiers—made good their escape to England. These were a force of Welsh spearmen who were kept together by their commander, Sir Maurice de Berkeley, and the majority of them reached Carlisle.Weighing up the available evidence, Reese concludes that "it seems doubtful if even a third of the footsoldiers returned to England."Out of 16,000 infantrymen, this would give a total of about 11,000 killed. The English chronicler Thomas Walsingham gave the number of English men-at-arms who were killed as 700, while 500 more men-at-arms were spared for ransom. The Scottish losses appear to have been comparatively light, with only two knights among those killed.
  A modern, abstract monument stands in a field above the battle site, where the warring parties are believed to have camped on the night before the battle. The monument consists of two hemicircular walls depicting the opposing parties. Nearby stands the 1960s statue of Bruce by Pilkington Jackson. The monument, and the associated visitor centre, is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area.The Scottish victory was complete and, although full English recognition of Scottish independence was not achieved until more than ten years later, Robert Bruce's position as king was greatly strengthened by the outcome.
  In 1932 the Bannockburn Preservation Committee, under Edward Bruce, 10th Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, presented lands to theNational Trust for Scotland. Further lands were purchased in 1960 and 1965 to facilitate visitor access.
  "Scots Wha Hae" is the title of a patriotic poem by Robert Burns.The chorus of Scotland's unofficial national anthem Flower of Scotland refers to Scotland's victory over Edward and the English at Bannockburn.