Richard of Lundin

SOURCE: http://www.lundie.org/newsite/lundie_of_that_ilk/lairds/lundie_lund... (UNKNOWN IF ACCURATE OR SAME PERSON) "Sir Richard de Lundy Sir Richard is perhaps the most famous member of this family, due this his involvement with William Wallace and Scotland’s fight for independence from Edward I of England. After the treaty of Irvine, Sir Richard Lundie was so disgusted with the general attitude of the Scots nobility that he went over to the English side. At the time of the battle of Stirling Bridge, he was the leader of the English army. He advised Sir Hugh Cressingham, Edward I’s appointed Lord Treasurer of Scotland, that to cross Stirling bridge itself would result in certain loss. He has been attributed with the following speech. “My Lords if we go on to the bridge we are dead men; for we cannot cross it except two by two, and if the enemy are on our flank, and can come down on us as they will, all in one front. But there is a ford not far from here, where we can cross sixty at a time. Let me therefore have five hundred Knights and a small body of infantry, and we will get round the enemy on the rear and crush them” Cressingham ignored the advice of the skilful soldier Sir Richard, and the battle was lost. After this Sir Richard fought with Wallace and is believed to have become a good friend. Sir Richard is listed as one of the Nobles of Scotland who appointed Sir William Wallace to the position of Governor of the Kingdom. They fought together at Falkirk. The sword of Sir Richard de Lundie, laird of Lundin, friend of Wallace, was taken to the ceremony of laying the foundation stone for the Wallace Monument (Glasgow Herald, 25/6/1861). It and the swords of Sir William Wallace, King Robert the Bruce, John De Graham and the Black Douglas, were displayed at the summit of Abbey Craig. This sword is now at Drummond castle, ancestral home of the Earls of Perth, at one time descendants of Lundin of that ilk.

It is interesting to note that “Lundie” is described in Blind Harry’s depictation of the battle of Stirling bridge as being on the side of the Scots.

"The day of battle does approach at length,

The English then advance with all their strength.

And fifty thousand march in battle rank, 

Full six to one; yet Wallace never shrank. The rest they lay about the castle hill; 

Both field and castle thought to have at will.

The worthy Scots together close did bide, 

In the plain field, upon the other side. 

Hugh Kirkingham (Cressingham), the vanguard on led he,

With twenty thousand likely men to see; 

The Earl of Warren thirty thousand had; 

If all were good the number was not bad. 

Thus fifty thousand silly South'ron sots 

Proudly march up against nine thousand Scots. 

When Kirkingham his twenty thousand men  Had past the bridge, quite to the other end, 

Some of the Scots in earnest, without scorn, 

Thought it high time to blow the warning horn; 

But Wallace he march'd stoutly through the plain, 

Led on his men, their number did disdain; 

Till Warren's host thick on the bridge did go, 

Then he from Jop did take the horn and blow: 

So loud and shrill, he warned good John Wright, 

Who soon struck out the roller with great slight. 

Then all went down, when the pin was got out;  At which arose a fearful cry and shout. 

Both men and horse into the river fell,

Honest John Wright did act his part so well. 

The hardy Scots with heavy strokes and sore, 

Attack the twenty thousand that came o'er. 

Wallace and Ramsay, Lundie, Boyd, and Graham, 

With dreadful strokes made them retire - Fy, shame! 

The South'rons front they fought all face to face, 

Who to their ignominy and disgrace,  Did neither stand nor fairly foot the score, 

But did retire five acre breadth and more. 

Wallace on foot, with a great sharp sword goes, 

Amongst the very thickest of his foes; 

On Kirkingham there such a stroke he got, 

In spite of all his armour and mailcoat, 

That kill'd him dead; none durst him there rescue; 

Then to that valiant captain bade adieu. 

When Kirkingham dead on the spot to lie  The South'rons saw, then they began to fly: 

Who, though they had fought it most bloody hot, 

Ten thousand lost, and left dead on the spot; 

The rest they fled, nor none durst stay behind; 

Succour they sought, but none at all could they find. 

Some east come west, and some fled to the north 

Seven thousand flutter'd all at once in Forth, 

Who from that river little mercy found; 

For few escap'd, and most of all were drown'd. 

On Wallace's side, no man was killed of note, 

But Andrew Murray, a true hearted Scot. 

When Warren's men saw all was lost and tint,  They fled as fast as fire does from a flint; 

Ne'er look'd about, nor once a Scotsman fac'd, 

But to Dunbar march'd in devilish haste." 

Sir Richard is believed to have married Margaret de Dunbar, daughter of Patrick Dunbar, Earl of Dunbar and Marjorie Comyn, herself the daughter of Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan. He was succeeded by his son Walter, who married Euphemia Graham, daughter of Sir John Graham."

SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stirling_Bridge (UNKNOWN IF ACCURATE OR SAME PERSON) "Battle of Stirling Bridge.... The main battle[edit]

The Earl arrived at the narrow, wooden bridge over the River Forth near Stirling Castle and delayed crossing for several days to allow for negotiations.[3] On 10 September Warenne gave orders to cross the river the next day. At dawn the English and Welsh infantry started to cross only to be recalled due to the fact that Warenne had overslept.

The Scots arrived first and encamped on Abbey Craig which dominated the soft, flat ground north of the river. The English force of English, Welsh and Scots knights, bowmen and foot soldiers camped to the south of the river. Sir Richard Lundie, a Scots knight who joined the English after the Capitulation of Irvine, offered to outflank the enemy by leading a cavalry force over a ford two miles upstream, where sixty horsemen could cross at the same time. Hugh Cressingham, King Edward's treasurer in Scotland, persuaded the Earl to reject this advice and order a direct attack across the bridge.[4]

The small bridge was only broad enough to allow two horsemen to cross abreast, but offered the safest river crossing as the Forth widened to the east and the marshland of Flanders Moss lay to the west.[4] The Scots waited as the English knights and infantry made their slow progress across the bridge on the morning of 11 September. It would have taken several hours for the entire English army to cross.[3]

Wallace and Moray waited, according to the Chronicle of Hemingburgh, until "as many of the enemy had come over as they believed they could overcome". When a substantial number of the troops had crossed (possibly about 2,000)[5] the attack was ordered. The Scots spearmen came down from the high ground in rapid advance and fended off a charge by the English heavy cavalry before counterattacking the English infantry. They gained control of the east side of the bridge, and cut off the chance of English reinforcements to cross. Caught on the low ground in the loop of the river with no chance of relief or of retreat, most of the outnumbered English on the east side were probably killed. A few hundred may have escaped by swimming across the river.[6] Surrey, who was left with a pitiful contingent of archers, had remained to the south of the river and was still in a strong position. The bulk of his army remained intact and he could have held the line of the Forth, denying the triumphant Scots a passage to the south, but his confidence was gone. After the escape of Sir Marmaduke Tweng, an English knight from Yorkshire, Surrey ordered the bridge's destruction and retreated towards Berwick, leaving the garrison at Stirling Castle isolated and abandoning the Lowlands to the rebels. James Stewart, the High Steward of Scotland, and Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, whose forces had been part of Surrey's army, observing the carnage to the north of the bridge, withdrew. Then the English supply train was attacked at The Pows, a wooded marshy area, by James Stewart and the other Scots lords, killing many of the fleeing soldiers.[7]

The location of Stirling Bridge at the date of the battle is believed to lie about 180 yards upstream from the 15th century stone that still crosses the river today.[3] Four stone piers have been found underwater just north (

56°07′45″N 3°56′12″W) and at an angle to the extant 15th-century bridge, along with man-made stonework on one bank in line with the piers. The site of the fighting was along either side of an earthen causeway leading from the Abbey Craig, atop which the Wallace Monument is now located, to the northern end of the bridge.[8][9][10] The battlefield has been inventoried and protected by Historic Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009.[11]"