Hello, welcome to History here at Oak National Academy.

My name's Mr. Newton, and I've got an excellent lesson lined up for you today, and I'm here to guide you all along the way.

Right, let's get started.

We will be thinking about our big inquiry question.

What stopped Edward I uniting all of Britain? This is the question we will use to investigate Edward I's reign.

We know that Edward had a reputation as a fearsome warrior.

He had reasserted authority over England after a civil war had divided the country.

He believed he should rule all of Britain and had already conquered wales, and he became overlord of Scotland after a succession crisis.

But Edward had also shown he could be a heavy handed ruler and he was brutal in warfare.

Scottish anger was building and would soon break out into an open rebellion.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain why Edward I's attempts to conquer Scotland ended in failure.

Before we begin, there are a few key words that we need to understand.

A guerilla or a small war group is a small military force which make unexpected attacks on a larger army.

An outlaw is a person who has broken the law and who lives separately from the other parts of society because they want to escape punishment.

A schiltrom is a military tactic which involve using long spears to protect soldiers from cavalry charges.

A causeway is a raised path, especially across a wet area.

Chainmail is a cloth made of small metal rings that have been joined together to make protective armour.

So today's lesson is split into three parts.

We will first look at William Wallace, and then we will take a closer look at the Battle of Stirling Bridge and before ending the lesson, we will look at why Edward I became known as the Hammer of the Scots.

Right, let's start with the first part of the lesson, William Wallace.

Edwards Conquest and Rule of Scotland created resistance.

A Scottish knight, William Wallace became an important leader in the Scottish resistance against English rule.

Wallace had become an outlaw after murdering an English Sheriff.

Wallace had a reputation as a fearsome warrior and led several guerrilla attacks on English soldiers stationed in Scotland.

If we have a look at the mediaeval drawing on the left, we can imagine how a small guerrilla attack might look in mediaeval times.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What I want you to do is fill in the two correct missing keywords.

Pause the video, have a go, and then come right back.

Good.

Welcome back.

And well done if you knew these were the correct answers.

William Wallace became an outlaw after murdering an English sheriff and leading several guerrilla attacks on English soldiers stationed in Scotland.

William Wallace gained support from some of the Scottish Lords, including Robert the Bruce.

Robert the Bruce was the son of the Earl of Carrick.

We can see a mediaeval illustration of Robert the Bruce on the left.

In 1297, the Scottish resistance led by William Wallace defeated the English forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

We can see from the illustration on the left that the Battle of Stirling Bridge must have involved some fierce fighting.

Okay, let's have another check for understanding.

Which battle in 1297 saw the Scottish resistance led by William Wallace defeat the English forces? Was it A, the battle of Berwick; B, the battle of Falkirk; or C, the Battle of Stirling Bridge? Pause the video, have a think, then come right back.

Great.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew it was C, the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Okay, great.

Now we've reached task A.

What I want you to do is with your partner, take it in terms to describe William Wallace to one another.

Now, what you should try to mention is maybe something to do with his background, his reputation, and some of his actions.

Have a go at that task and then come right back.

Okay, great.

Welcome back.

Now, there's many things that you might have discussed or talked about and your descriptions might have mentioned some of what I have here.

Let's have a look.

William Willis was a Scottish knight turned outlaw.

He murdered an English sheriff and led guerrilla attacks on English soldiers in Scotland.

He had a reputation as a fearsome warrior and defeated the English forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Okay, good stuff.

Let's now move on to the second part of the lesson where we're gonna have a closer look at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

One of the most important battles of Scottish resistance was the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.

The photo on the left shows Stirling Bridge as it looks today.

However, it would've looked very different in Wallace's Day.

At this time, William Wallace and his supporters controlled most of northern Scotland.

You can see on this map of Britain from 1250.

It shows Northern Scotland as practically an island accessible by only one crossing.

We can imagine how important a bridge such as Stirling would be viewed during this time.

Wallace had laid siege to Dundee Castle, which was held by English soldiers.

With Edward fighting in France, an English army led by the Earl of Surrey was sent north to help free the soldiers.

And if you have a look at the illustration on the left, we can see the Earl of Surrey.

The English arrived at Stirling Bridge on the South Bank of the River Forth and spotted Wallace's army on the north side of the river.

Look at the map.

We can see the River Forth winding across the map, with a small wooden bridge, Stirling bridge in the centre.

We can also see Stirling Castle in the bottom left.

We can see the English in red arriving here on the south Bank of the river.

The Scottish army was on the north side of the river, and we can see, Wallace and the Scottish army on the top right hand of the map.

Stirling Bridge was important because it was the first bridge across the River Forth.

It was a narrow wooden bridge, the width of a pair of horses.

Over the bridge on the North Bank, there was a mile long causeway leading north, which was surrounded by marshland.

The brown line represents the causeway.

Stirling Bridge was therefore a difficult location for an army to travel across.

A Scottish knight within the English army advised that there was a wider and safer crossing further up the river, but his advice was ignored.

We can see the grey paved forward crossing on the left side of the map.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

Why was Stirling Bridge important? Was it A, it was the first bridge across the River forth; B, it was the site of Robert the Bruce's coronation; or C, it was the tallest bridge of its time? Pause the video, have a think and then come right back.

Okay.

Great.

Welcome back.

Yes, well done if you knew that was A, it was the first bridge across the River Forth.

The English sent messengers across the river to Wallace to see if he was willing to accept surrender.

He rudely refused.

Wallace replied, "Tell your commander that we are here not to make peace, but to do battle, to defend ourselves.

Let them come on and we shall prove this." The photo shows a modern view of Stirling Bridge.

You can see a monument on the hill in the middle distance.

This has been built in remembrance of William Wallace at the battle of Stirling Bridge.

We can then look at this photo and imagine the English on the south side of the river on the bottom left hand corner there of the photo.

We can see Stirling Bridge in the middle of the photo with Wallace and some of his army hiding in a wood on the top of this ferry hill where the monument stands today.

Okay, let's go back to our map.

Wallace's rude response to the English message provoked the English army to cross Stirling Bridge.

We should say here that the English army also included Welsh and Scottish soldiers.

Look at the map and we can see the English forces making their way across Stirling Bridge.

Wallace and his army waited until a small section of the English army had crossed.

Then Wallace's army swooped down from the hill and soldiers with spears blocked the bridge, which forced the English soldiers back into the advancing English cavalry.

The rest of the English soldiers were trapped on the North Bank and outnumbered by Wallace's army.

Many English soldiers tried escaping across the marshland or swimming across the river, but the weight of their chainmail meant they drowned.

Over 5,000 English, Welsh and Scottish soldiers died.

The English commander was killed and his skin was stripped from his body and turned into a belt for Wallace's sword.

The Battle of Stirling Bridge represented an important victory because it boosted Scottish resistance against English rule, and William Wallace was made sole guardian of Scotland.

Okay, let's have another for understanding.

Why was the battle of Stirling Bridge an important victory for the Scottish resistance? Was it A, it ended English claims over Scotland; B, it led to the capture of Edward I and the defeat of his army; C, it strengthened Scottish resistance against English rule? Pause the video, have a think and come right back.

Okay, great.

Welcome back.

And well done if you need with C, it strengthened Scottish resistance against English rule.

Okay, let's move on to task B.

What I want you to do is use the words below to complete the boxes underneath, and you can see I've given you some words here.

Causeway, crossing, chainmail, narrow, spears and trapped.

I want you to use those words to complete these boxes with the gaps in.

Pause the video, have a go at that task, and then come right back.

Okay, great.

Welcome back.

Let's check those answers.

So for the first one, the wooden bridge was narrow.

Yes, that's why it was a narrow bridge, the width of a pair of horses.

The next one was the causeway was surrounded by marshland.

Of course, that made it a very difficult location to have this battle in.

The next box, the English army ignored the safer crossing, right?.

It was advised by a Scottish soldier within the English army that there might be a safer crossing further up the river, but this advice was ignored.

The next box, Scottish soldiers carrying spears blocked the bridge.

The next box, English soldiers were trapped on the North Bank.

They were obviously surrounded by Wallace's army.

And the last answer here, English soldiers drowned because of their chainmail.

That chainmail would've been very heavy indeed.

Okay, great.

So we've now built an understanding of the Scottish resistance, the importance of figures such as William Wallace, and we've had a closer look at the Battle of Stirling Bridge and why this would've been seen as an important battle as part of the Scottish resistance.

Let's now move on to the final part of the lesson where we will see how Edward I became known as the Hammer of the Scots.

Edward I was not at Stirling Bridge as he was fighting a war in France.

When Wallace invaded northern England and begun plundering and burning towns and villages, parliament finally agreed for Edward to raise an army, an English army, which included many English and Welsh archers.

In 1298, Edward forced Wallace to fight a pitched battle.

This forced William Wallace to not make guerrilla attacks and fight in an open pitched battle at the Battle of Falkirk.

Wallace first used the tactic of the schiltrom.

However, Wallace's schiltrom were defeated by Edwards superior cavalry and archers.

The image on the left is from a modern film, and it shows a schiltrom with the long spears to protect soldiers from cavalry charges.

At the battle of Falkirk, many Scottish knights left the battlefield.

This was because of a secret deal with Edward in which received land in England in return for ending their resistance.

Fleeing the battlefield, Wallace escaped and for five years, he and many other Scots continued to resist Edward's rule.

Ultimately, though Edward was able to pour more money into the conflict, finally, securing victory in 1304.

Edward's brutal campaign in Scotland later earned him the nickname, Hammer of the Scots.

In the following year, 1305, Wallace was captured after being betrayed by his fellow countrymen.

William Wallace was hang, drawn and courted.

After this, Edward then showed signs of softening his rule.

He returned Lance to Scottish Lords, promised to maintain Scottish law and involved Scots in how he ruled Scotland.

For example, 18 out of 22 sheriffs were Scottish.

Edward believed that he had completed a successful conquest of Scotland.

However, the determined resistance against Edward's brutality had strengthened people's sense of sharing a common Scottish identity, often defined by their opposition to the English invaders.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

How did the Scottish resistance respond to Edward I brutality? A, they developed as common Scottish identity; B, they formed an alliance with England or C, they surrendered and accepted Edward's rule? Pause the video, have a think and then come right back.

Okay, great.

Yes, well done.

If you knew it was A and they developed a common Scottish identity.

In 1306, Robert the Bruce murdered a rival Scottish claimant and declared himself king of Scotland.

This caused a Scottish civil war.

Edward I response was typically brutal.

He even imprisoned Bruce's sister in a cage suspended from the walls of Roxburgh castle.

By 1307, Edward I was an old man, and as he prepared another invasion of Scotland to put down Bruce's rebellion, he caught dysentery and died.

The story goes that his final wish was that his body should be boiled until his flesh was removed from the bones so that his skeleton could be carried by every English army until the Scots were finally defeated.

Edward I never fully achieved his dream of becoming Rex totius Britanniae, King of All Britain.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What happened to Edward I in 1307 as he was preparing for another invasion of Scotland? A, he caught dysentery and died; B, he conquered Scotland and ended Bruce's rebellion; C, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered? Pause the video.

Have a think and come right back.

Okay, great.

Welcome back.

Yes, well done if you knew it was A.

He caught dysentery and died.

Robert the Bruce went on to defeat the English at Bannockburn in 1314.

In the illustration, we can see cavalry fighting at the Battle of Bannockburn.

Okay, let's have a check for understanding.

What happened to the Scottish resistance after Edward I death in 1307? A, Robert the Bruce became the Hammer of the Scots; B, Robert the Bruce went on to defeat the English in 1314; C, the Scottish no longer resisted English rule? Pause the video.

Have a think.

Then come right back.

Okay.

Welcome back.

Well done if you knew it was B, Robert the Bruce went on to defeat the English in 1314.

Okay, let's finish the lesson with task C.

Starting with the earliest, sorts these events into time order.

Then you can see I've given you some events on the left that you can place into the boxes on the right.

Pause the video, have a look at the task, then come right back.

Okay, great.

Welcome back.

Let's check those answers.

So the first event was Wallace defeats the English forces at Stirling Bridge.

Then Edward defeats Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk.

Then Edward dies of dysentery.

And finally, Robert the Bruce defeats the English at Bannockburn.

Okay, let's move on to the second part of task C.

What I want you to do here is explain in one paragraph why Edward I's attempts to fully conquer Scotland ended in failure.

In your answer, include as many of the following words as you can.

So I've given you these words to help you complete your paragraph.

These should act as prompts to get you thinking.

So you've got brutality, outlaw, guerrilla, resistance, and Robert the Bruce.

Have a go at that task and then come right back.

Okay, great.

Welcome back.

Now, there are many ways you could have answered that paragraph, and hopefully you used as many of those words as I provided as you could.

Compare your answer with the one I have here.

Edward I attempts to conquer Scotland ended in failure because his brutality increased Scottish resistance.

A key leader of the resistance was William Wallace, who became an outlaw after murdering an English sheriff.

Wallace led several successful guerrilla attacks and defeated the English forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

Edward's brutal campaign in Scotland earned him the nickname Hammer of the Scots and caused a more determined Scottish resistance.

This ultimately led to further rebellion from Robert the Bruce, who went on to defeat the English at Bannockburn in 1314.

Okay, let's summarise the lesson, Scottish resistance to Edward I rule.

William Wallace and the Scottish resistance had victories against the English at Stirling.

Stirling Bridge was important because it was the first bridge across the River Forth.

The battle of Stirling Bridge was an important victory because it boosted Scottish resistance against English rule.

Scottish resistance helped to develop a common Scottish identity.

And Edward I first died in 1307, and Robert the Bruce continued the Scottish resistance.

Well done on a brilliant lesson, and thank you for joining me for this.

And I hope you've learned a lot.

I will see you next time when we can finally make some decisions about what stopped Edward Uniting all of Britain.

See you in the next lesson!.