Sieges of Stirling Castle

Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The... castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs, giving it a strong defensive position. Its strategic location, guarding what was, until the 1890s, the farthest downstream crossing of the River Forth, has made it an important fortification from the earliest times. Most of the principal buildings of the castle date from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A few structures of the fourteenth century remain, while the outer defences fronting the town date from the early eighteenth century. Several Scottish Kings and Queens have been crowned at Stirling, including Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1543. There have been at least eight sieges of Stirling Castle, including several during the Wars of Scottish Independence, with the last being in 1746, when Bonnie Prince Charlie unsuccessfully tried to take the castle. Stirling Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is now a tourist attraction managed by Historic Scotland.
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The First War of Scottish Independence lasted from the invasion by England in 1296 until the de jure restoration of Scottish independence with the... Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton in 1328. De facto independence had been established in 1314 at the Battle of Bannockburn. Throughout Scotland, there was widespread discontent and disorder after the supposed conquest, and acts of defiance were directed against local English officials. In 1297, the country erupted in open revolt, and Andrew de Moray and William Wallace emerged as the first significant Scottish patriots. Andrew de Moray was the son of a northern landowner, Sir Andrew de Moray of Petty. Andrew and his father were both captured in the rout after the Battle of Dunbar in April 1296. Andrew the younger was initially held captive in Chester Castle on the Anglo-Welsh border, from which he escaped during the winter of 1296-97. He returned to his father's castle at Avoch on the northern shore of the Moray Firth, where he raised his banner in the name of Scotland's king, John Balliol.
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