edinburgh29 AD 1314 The Scots Recapture the Castle from the English In 1296, Edward I of England invaded Scotland, besieged and captured the castle. On the night of 14 March 1314, Sir Thomas Randolph, King Robert the Bruce's nephew, and his men climbed the precipitous North face of the rock, took the English garrison by surprise and won the castle back. Robert the Bruce immediately ordered that the castle be dismantled "lest the English ever afterwards might lord it over the land by holding the castles". Three months later, on 24 June, the Scottish army crushed the English at the Battle of Bannockburn.