Battle axe in its mighty head..." - "A Child's History of England" by Charles Dickens. Richard is, however, recorded as using a Danish Axe at the relief of Jaffa. Geoffrey de Lusignan is another famous crusader associated with the axe. Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland, used an axe to defeat Henry de Bohun in single combat at the start of the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Given that Bruce was wielding the axe on horseback, it is likely that it was a one handed horseman's axe. They enjoyed a sustained revival among heavily armored equestrian combatants in the 15th century. In
Robert the Bruce at Ramsey in the Isle of Man, laid siege to Castle Rushen in Castletown, capturing it on 21 June 1313 and denying the English the island's strategic importance. The eight years of exhausting but deliberate refusal to meet the English on even ground have caused many to consider Bruce one of the great guerrilla leaders of any age. This represented a transformation for one raised as a feudal knight. By 1314, Bruce had recaptured most of the castles in Scotland held by the English and was sending raiding parties into northern England as far as Carlisle. In response, Edward II