Escape of the Elector of Bavaria (1702)

"Our proceedings soon attracted a number of the burghers, one of whom, becoming impatient at seeing our examination of the place, began to abuse us, and eventually so lost his self control, that he took aim at the Elector, declaring that he would smash his "Shrove Tuesday Mask" for him.
Happily a worthy lawyer was of their number, who knocked aside the gun and advised the man to be careful what he was doing, saying that the Bavarians wished for nothing better than to have such a pretext for ravaging their own towns and lands.  But the brute was obstinate and aimed a second time at the Elector, exclaiming that the mask annoyed him, and that he did not care for consequences of any sort.  The lawyer, who kept a sharp eye on him, once again prevented him from firing, and thus saved the life of the Elector.  It made one tremble to learn from the burghers, after the surrender of the town, the risk His Highness had run.  Had not the lawyer prevented this single shot the Bavarian War would have come to an end."

Quote from pg. 93, Chronicles of an Old Campaigner by M. De la Colonie, translated by Walter C. Horsley

Image by Richard Knotel

Battle of Bannockburn--Part 6 of 6

Betrayal

If Scotland was independent in 1314, why is it under English rule today?  In 1606, Queen Elizabeth I of England died childless and James VI of Scotland became king because he was the nearest heir.  James was crowned James I of England while remaining James VI of Scotland.  England and Scotland were united, but only because they shared a king.  They were united like this until 1707.  In 1707, the English Parliament proposed an “Act of Union” to the Scottish Parliament, but bribed them to accept it.  After the Act of Union was passed, the English fired most of the Scottish Parliament.  A 1791 poem by Robert Burns contrasts the honor of Bruce and his men with the treachery of the Scots in Parliament:

“What force, or guile, could not subdue,

Through many warlike ages,

Is wrought now by a coward few,

For hireling traitors’ wages

The English steel we could disdain,

Secure in valor’s station;

But English gold has been our bane—

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!”

Bannockburn won Scotland’s independence, and Scotland would become one of the most Reformed countries in the world.  Scots like John Witherspoon and Lord Stirling influenced the founding of this country.  But without God’s Providence at Bannockburn, none of this would have happened.

1. Numbers taken from In Freedom’s Cause by G. A. Henty, pgs. 175-6

2. This tactic is depicted in at least two scenes in the movie Pendragon: Sword of His Father: once at 11:15 and again at 1:27:11.

3. Quotations taken from en.wikisource.org/wiki/Declaration_Of_Arbroath