[MR] Stirling Castle siege

[Garth Groff]

Noble friends,

Today was a black day in Scottish history. On 20 July 1304 Stirling 
Castle surrendered, the last stronghold of resistance to King Edward I's 
conquest. For four months Edward's siege engines threw murderous weapons 
into the castle. Finally he had a giant engine built, The War Wolf. When 
the Scots offered to surrender, Edward stubbornly used the monster 
anyway so he could show it off to his queen and her ladies. With the 
castle walls breached, the Scots again offered to surrender, and were 
taken prisoner by the English.

I am very proud to say the 30 Scots survivors included at least one of 
my real-life ancestors, John de Napier of Kilmahew. He was fined three 
years rent from his estates and eventually released by Edward.

Edward soon had more trouble when Robert the Bruce had himself crowned 
King of the Scots and raised the flag of rebellion again in late 1305. 
The Bruce eventually chased the English out of Scotland and secured the 
country's independence.

Here's a brief Wikipedia page on the siege: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Stirling_Castle . There's more 
about Stirling Castle at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_Castle . 
The official castle web site, including some great video clips, is at: 
http://www.stirlingcastle.gov.uk/ .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot