Scotland in the Middle Ages excommunication of Bruce and his followers by Pope Clement V, his support slowly strengthened; and by 1314 with the help of leading nobles such as Sir James Douglas and Thomas Randolph only the castles at Bothwell and Stirling remained under English control. Edward I had died in 1307. His heir Edward II moved an army north to break the siege of Stirling Castle and reassert control. Robert defeated that army at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, securing "de facto" independence. In 1320 the Declaration of Arbroath, a remonstrance to the pope from the nobles of Scotland, helped convince Pope
Battle of Allt Camhna they were guilty of treachery, which is much worse than a defeat. The day and place were fixed for their meeting the Caithness men, and they did not appear, but allowed those to be cut down by a host which had laid their accounts to have the combined forces of Caithness and Sutherland to contend with"". 17th-century historian Sir Robert Gordon (1580–1656), who was living at the time of the battle and who was a younger son of Alexander Gordon, 12th Earl of Sutherland, wrote an account of the battle in his book "A Genealogical History of the Earldom of