Courtesy of Bruce
The body of the young and noble Earl of Gloucester was reverently carried to a neighbouring church, and every holy rite duly observed. It was afterwards sent to England, along with the last remains of the brave Lord Clifford, to be interred with the honours due to their rank. The rest of the slain were reverently buried upon the field.Early next morning, as the king examined the ground, Sir Marmaduke de Twenge, who had lurked all night in the woods, presented himself to Bruce, and, kneeling down, delivered himself as his prisoner. Bruce kindly raised him, retained him in his company for some time, and then dismissed him, not only without ransom, but enriched with presents.It happened, that one Baston, a Carmelite friar, and esteemed an excellent poet, had been commanded by Edward to accompany the army, that he might immortalize the expected triumph of his master. He was taken; and Bruce commanded him, as an appropriate ransom, to celebrate the victory of the Scots at Bannockburn—a task which he has accomplished in a composition which still remains an extraordinary relic of the Leonine, or rhyming hexameters.
On the day after the battle, Mowbray, the English governor of Stirling, having delivered up that fortress, according to the terms of the truce, entered into the service of the King of Scotland; and the Earl of Hereford, who had taken refuge in Bothwell castle, then in the hands of the English, capitulated, after a short siege, to Edward Bruce. This nobleman was exchanged for five illustrious prisoners, Bruce's wife, his sister Christian, his daughter Marjory, Wishart the Bishop of Glasgow, now blind, and the young Earl of Mar, nephew to the king. John de Segrave, made prisoner at Bannockburn, was ransomed for five Scottish barons; so that, in these exchanges, the English appear to have received nothing like an adequate value. The riches obtained by the plunder of the English, and the subsequent ransom paid for the multitude of prisoners, must have been great. The exact amount cannot be easily estimated, but some idea of it may be formed from the tone of deep lamentation assumed by the Monk of Malmesbury. "O day of vengeance and of misfortune !" says he, "day of disgraee and perdition! unworthy to be included in the circle of the year, which tarnished the fame of England, and enriched the Scots with the plunder of the precious stuffs of our nation, to the extent of two hundred thousand pounds. Alas ! of how many noble barons, and accomplished knights, and high-spirited young soldiers,—of what a store of excellent arms, and golden vessels, and costly vestments, did one short and miserable day deprive us !"