Battle of Bannockburn celebrated instance of single combat. Bohun charged at Bruce and, when the two passed side by side, Bruce split Bohun's head with his axe. The Scots then rushed the English forces under Gloucester's and Hereford's command, who retreated, struggling back over the Bannockburn. The second English cavalry force was commanded by Robert Clifford and Henry de Beaumont. Their forces included Sir Thomas de Grey of Heaton, father of the chronicler Thomas Grey. The younger Grey described the battle: <section begin=Beaumont-vs-Grey /> <section end=Beaumont-vs-Grey /> During the night the English forces crossed the stream known as the Bannockburn, establishing their position
Robert the Bruce the heavy fighting. The historian Roy Haines describes the defeat as a "calamity of stunning proportions" for the English, whose losses were huge. In the aftermath of the defeat, Edward retreated to Dunbar, then travelled by ship to Berwick, and then back to York; in his absence, Stirling Castle quickly fell. Freed from English threats, Scotland's armies could now invade northern England. Bruce also drove back a subsequent English expedition north of the border and launched raids into Yorkshire and Lancashire. Buoyed by his military successes, Bruce's forces also invaded Ireland in 1315, in an attempt to free the country