BANNOCKBURN has long been heralded as Scotland’s finest victory over the English.
The battle has been celebrated in verse and song ever since Robert the Bruce defied the odds to send King Edward II’s army “hameward tae think again” in 1314.
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However, a historian now claims the credit lies not just with the Scots but with a band of Templar knights from overseas.
Robert Ferguson, an American lawyer, says a new “statistical analysis” shows that a significant number of Templars arrived in Scotland from other parts of Europe and that they tipped the balance in Bruce’s favour.
Ferguson claims, citing a statistician he hired for his research, that at least 29 battle-hardened knights and sergeants would have ended up in Scotland, based on 335 avoiding capture, and that they influenced Bruce’s tactics. And he argues that the real figure could even be as high as 48.
He said Bruce progressed with unusual speed from small encounters with the English to a full-blown battle at Bannockburn with an army that had been well-trained in the latest techniques of the time. This, he says, was the work of the exiled Templar knights…
