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 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