Edward had marched north again in the spring; on his way, he had granted the Scottish estates of Bruce and his adherents to his own followers and published a bill excommunicating Bruce.

Bruce's queen, Elizabeth, his daughter Marjorie, and his sister Mary had been captured in a sanctuary at Tain, while his brother Niall had been executed., but the death of the sixty-eight-year-old English monarch on July 7 leaves Scotland only half-conquered and leaves Bruce opposed by the king’s twenty-three-year-old son, the feeble Edward II.

The odds now turn in Bruce's favor.