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
Battle of Dalrigh Macdonalds of Islay and the Campbells of Loch Awe, whom he defeated in battle sometime in the mid-1290s. The outbreak of the War of Independence in 1296 placed the MacDougalls on the side of the Scottish patriots. This changed in the most dramatic fashion in February 1306, when Robert Bruce killed John Comyn. Soon after Bruce seized the crown, and the Macdougalls and other families with Balliol and Comyn associations became allies of the English. In June 1306, Robert Bruce and his army were caught unprepared at the Battle of Methven, west of Perth, by Aymer de Valence, an English