Although the War of Independence is usually regarded as having been brought to a close at Bannockburn, it is more correct to consider the latter part of Bruce’s reign as a break in the long-enduring struggle. After King Robert had been laid to rest, Edward Balliol saw his chance of winning his father’s crown, and soon the King of England advanced the old claim put forward by his grandfather, The Hammer of the Scots. Balliol’s victory at Dupplin in 1332 was followed a year later by the Battle of Halidon Hill, the English revenge of Bannockburn. Edward III. garrisoned the defenceless castle of Stirling in 1336, placing Sir Thomas de Rokeby in command. The work of renovation was straightway begun. New walls were at once constructed, two wells--one in the castle proper, the other in the nether bailey--were cleared out and deepened;[21] hall, pantry, kitchen, larder, etc., were all repaired, and men were employed in Gargunnock Wood in hewing down trees for the timber-work of the fortress. The Scots were not long in attacking the strengthened castle, but before the defenders were reduced to their last extremity, the King of England appeared upon the scene and immediately raised the siege. Wyntoun and Fordun tell of a Scottish knight named Keith, who, when attempting to scale the wall, lost his footing and was killed by falling on his spear. Quantities of provisions were thereafter sent to Sir Thomas de Rokeby, lest the Scots should again surround the rock and cut off his supplies.[22] These precautions were indeed necessary, for the patriots under Robert the Steward renewed the siege towards the end of 1341, but so well had the garrison been victualled that not until April of the following year was it compelled by hunger to capitulate. The English garrison consisted of Sir Thomas de Rokeby, Sir Hugh de Montgomery, fifty-seven esquires, ten watchmen and sixty-two archers.[23] According to Froissart, cannon were employed during this investiture of Stirling. His statement is not substantiated by any other authority, but as he was in the habit of enquiring eagerly for details about the events of which he wrote, and as he visited Scotland before the generation had passed away that had taken part in these wars, it is probable that his information is correct. This seems to have been the first occasion on which gunpowder was used in Scotland, for Barbour mentions that the town of Berwick was not provided with “gynis for crakkis” when the English laid siege to it in 1319, but he says that during the invasion of England in 1327 the Scots saw for the first time the mysterious “crakkis of wer.”