For the lion

"Seven hundred years ago King Edward I of England crossed the Scottish border with a powerful army and began one of the epic struggles of the Middles Ages - the Scottish Wars of Independence." "For England the aim of the war was simple: to establish an imperial sway over the whole of the British Isles. Scotland had to prevail against its powerful southern neighbour or face national obliteration." "The Anglo-Scots conflicts can be divided into two distinct phases: the First War of Independence, which concluded when England recognised Robert Bruce as King of Scots in 1328; and the Second War of Independence, in which the English tried to oust Bruce's son and successor David II, and place their own puppet king, Edward Balliol, on the throne of Scotland." "This book is the first attempt to embrace in a single volume the whole course of the wars from the invasion of 1926 to the release of David from English captivity in 1357. It aims to bring alive to a modern audience one of the great dramas of British history, and to help them understand what was one of the most formative periods of the whole Scottish national experience."--Jacket.