Battle of Bannockburn for the night. Sir Alexander Seton, a Scottish noble serving in Edward's army, defected to the Scottish side and informed them of the English camp's position and low morale. Robert Bruce decided to launch a full-scale attack on the English forces and to use his schiltrons again as offensive units, a strategy his predecessor William Wallace had not done. The English army was defeated in a pitched battle which resulted in the death of several prominent commanders, including the Earl of Gloucester and Sir Robert Clifford, and capture of many others. The victory against the English at Bannockburn is the
Robert the Bruce a period with one or more allied English noble families, such as the de Clares of Gloucester, or perhaps even in the English royal household. Sir Thomas Grey asserted in his "Scalacronica" that in about 1292, Robert the Bruce, then aged eighteen, was a 'young bachelor of King Edward's Chamber'. While there remains little firm evidence of Robert's presence at Edward's court, on 8 April 1296 both Robert and his father were pursued through the English Chancery for their private household debts of £60 by several merchants of Winchester. This raises the possibility that young Robert the Bruce was on