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This remembered the fallen, but in practice the monument and the interpretive board added later did little explain what happened that day or why: As a result the story of what happened at Flodden is now much more clearly set out for visitors to enjoy and to appreciate for themselves. So what did happen? Well the outcome was a catastrophe for Scotland, and a triumph for England. The Scots lost up to 10, dead out of an army of some 25, The Scottish dead included King James IV himself, plus an archbishop, two bishops, 11 earls, 15 lords and knights: The English lost just 1, dead out of an army of around 20, What made things much worse from a Scottish point of view was that this was a battle that need never have happened.
In line with his perception of the rules of chivalry at the time, he notified the English of his intention to invade, and a month later did so, quickly taking Norham Castle amongst a number of other English strongholds in Northumberland. The English raised an army under the Earl of Surrey which, though outnumbered by the Scots, hastened north to give battle.
James had positioned his army on the strong defensive line of Flodden Edge. Surrey outflanked him to the east, crossing the River Till to take up positions to his north centred on the village of Branxton, which cut off the Scottish Army's lines of communication back to Scotland.
James responded by moving his army a mile north from Flodden Edge to a lower ridge that still overlooked the English positions to their north. This, then, was how things stood at 4.
The battle of Flodden, which took place on 9 September , is one of the bloodiest battles in British history. The Anglo-Scottish clash proved. The Battle of Flodden, Flodden Field, or occasionally Branxton (Brainston Moor) was a military The Battle of Flodden and the Raids of Edinburgh.
The English were lined up along a low ridge centred on Branxton facing south, and the Scots were lined up along the higher ridge to the south, facing north. Between the two armies lay a. In much of the valley floor was marshy. The battle started with an artillery duel.
Despite Tuke's comment he was not present , this battle was one of the first major engagements in the British Isles where artillery was significantly deployed. John Lesley , writing sixty years later, noted that the Scottish bullets flew over the English heads while the English cannon was effective: The Scots advance down the hill was resisted by a hail of arrows, an incident celebrated in later English ballads. Hall says that the armoured front line was mostly unaffected; this is confirmed by the ballads which note that some few Scots were wounded in the scalp and, wrote Hall, James IV sustained a significant arrow wound.
Sir Richard Assheton raised one such company from Middleton , near Manchester.
He rebuilt his parish church St. Leonard's, Middleton , which contains the unique "Flodden Window. The window has been called the oldest known war memorial in the UK. The success of the Cheshire yeomanry, under the command of Richard Cholmeley , led to his later appointment as Lieutenant of the Tower of London. The arms of the Dukes of Norfolk still carry an augmentation of honour awarded on account of their ancestor's victory at Flodden, a modified version of the Royal coat of arms of Scotland with the lower half of the lion removed and an arrow through the lion's mouth.
The family tradition was either that these items belonged to James IV or were arms carried by Thomas Howard at Flodden. The sword blade is signed by the maker Maestre Domingo of Toledo. A cross with rubies and sapphires with a gold chain worn by James and a hexagonal table-salt with the figure of St Andrews on the lid were given to Henry by James Stanley , Bishop of Ely.
Lord Dacre discovered the body of James IV on the battlefield. He later wrote that the Scots "love me worst of any Inglisheman living, by reason that I fande the body of the King of Scots. Forman, the King's sergeant-porter, had been captured by Richard Assheton of Middleton. James's banner, sword and his cuisses , thigh-armour, were taken to the shrine of Saint Cuthbert at Durham Cathedral. A list of horses taken at the field runs to 24 pages. Thomas Hawley, the Rouge Croix pursuivant, was first with news of the victory.
Brian Tuke mentioned in his letter to Cardinal Bainbridge that the coat was lacerated and chequered with blood. Soon after the battle there were legends that James IV had survived; a Scottish merchant at Tournai in October claimed to have spoken with him, [65] Lindsay of Pitscottie records two myths; "thair cam four great men upon hors, and every ane of thame had ane wisp upoun thair spear headis, quhairby they might know one another and brought the king furth of the feild, upoun ane dun hackney," and also that the king escaped from the field but was killed between Duns and Kelso.
A legend arose that James had been warned against invading England by supernatural powers. While he was praying in St Michael's Kirk at Linlithgow , a man strangely dressed in blue had approached his desk saying his mother had told him to say James should not to go to war or take the advice of women. Then before the King could reply, the man vanished.
David Lindsay of the Mount and John Inglis could find no trace of him. Mackie wondered if the incident really happened as a masquerade orchestrated by an anti-war party: Norman Macdougall doubts if there was a significant anti-war faction. When James was in council at the camp at Flodden Edge, a hare ran out of his tent and escaped the weapons of his knights; it was found that mice had gnawed away the strings and buckle of the King's helmet; and in the morning his tent was spreckled with a bloody dew.
The wife of James IV, Margaret Tudor, is said to have awaited news of her husband at Linlithgow Palace , where a room at the top of a tower is called 'Queen's Margaret's bower'. Ten days after the Battle of Flodden, the Lords of Council met at Stirling on the 19 September, and set up a General Council of the Realm "to sit upon the daily council for all matters occurring in the realm" of thirty-five lords including clergyman, lords of parliament, and two of the minor barons, the lairds of The Bass and Inverrugy.
The General Council of Lords made special provisions for the heirs of those killed at Flodden, following a declaration made by James IV at Twiselhaugh, and protection for their widows and daughters. The French soldier Antoine d'Arces arrived at Dumbarton Castle in November with a shipload of armaments which were transported to Stirling. The English already knew the details of this planned shipment from a paper found in a bag at Flodden field. Albany, who lived in France, came to Scotland on 26 May A later sixteenth-century Scottish attitude to the futility of the battle was given by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, in the words he attributed to Patrick Lord Lindsay at council before the engagement.
Lord Lindsay advised the King withdraw, comparing their situation to an honest merchant playing dice with a trickster, and wagering a gold rose-noble against a bent halfpenny. Their King was the gold piece, England the trickster, and Thomas Howard the halfpenny. Surrey's army lost 1, men killed in battle. A contemporary account produced in French for the Royal Postmaster of England, in the immediate aftermath of the battle, states that about 10, Scots were killed, [3] a claim repeated by Henry VIII on 16 September while he was still uncertain of the death of James IV.
William Knight sent the news from Lille to Rome on 20 September, claiming 12, Scots had died, with fewer than English casualties. Brian Tuke, the English Clerk of the Signet, sent a newsletter stating 10, Scots killed and 10, escaped the field. Tuke reckoned the total Scottish invasion force to have been 60, and the English army at 40, As the nineteenth-century antiquarian John Riddell supposed, nearly every noble family in Scotland would have lost a member at Flodden. A legend grew that while the artillery was being prepared in Edinburgh before the battle, a demon called Plotcock had read out the names of those who would be killed at the Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile.
According to Pitscottie, a former Provost of Edinburgh , Richard Lawson, who lived nearby, threw a coin at the Cross to appeal against this summons and survived the battle. Branxton Church was the site of some burials from the battle of Flodden. After Flodden many Scottish nobles are believed to have been brought to Yetholm for interment, as being the nearest consecrated ground in Scotland. A number of subsequent property transactions give names of the fallen. A register of royal charters was kept and published as the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland.
The battle was mentioned because of the declaration James IV had made at Twiselhaugh respecting the heritage of the heirs of potential casualties, which waived feudal fees. Some of the lands noted were those held under Matthew, Earl of Lennox, who died in the battle of Flodden Field, "in campo bellico de Flodoun" in the field of war at Flodden. Other great seal charters mentioned an altar dedicated for remembrance at St Giles', Edinburgh and the effect of the battle on Selkirk , a border town.
The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland , a record of royal income, also gives names of the fallen. These were feudal tenants who held their lands from the King, and would pay their dues directly to the exchequer. The names of landless men or those who held their lands from a landlord would not appear in this record. The preface to the published volume of the Exchequer Rolls gives this explanation and guide to the variety of Latin phrases used to describe deaths in the campaign;.
The usual form of entry is "qui obiit in bello" who died in the war , "in campo bellico" in field of war , or "in campo" in the field ; but the forms also occur "qui obiit sub vixillo regis", who died under the king's banner , which probably denotes that the fallen man was killed at Flodden, or "qui obiit in exercitu in Northumberland" who died in the army in Northumberland , which perhaps indicates that the death occurred elsewhere than at Flodden, or that the place of death was unknown.
In the Responde Books the earlier Sasines property documents are silent as to the campaign.
The later Sasines refer to it as "bellum", or "campus bellicus," and it is not till that Flodden is named, and then only about half-a-dozen times. Besides the names in the following list, there are many other instances of Sasines taken in favour of the heirs of persons whom we know from other sources to have died at Flodden. Around forty five English soldiers were knighted by the Earl of Surrey after the battle.
The battlefield still looks much as it probably did at the time of the battle, but the burn and marsh which so badly hampered the Scots advance is now drained. A monument, erected in , is easily reached from Branxton village by following the road past St Paul's Church. There is a small car park and a clearly marked and signposted battlefield trail with interpretive boards which make it easy to visualise the battle.
Only the chancel arch remains of the medieval church where James IV's body was said to have rested after the battle—the rest is Victorian, dating from in the "Norman" style.
Each year, the neighbouring Scottish town of Coldstream marks the Battle of Flodden by a traditional horse-ride to the battlefield and then having a service to mark all those who perished during the fight during the town's " Civic Week "—held in the first week of August. The stained-glass Flodden Window in Middleton Parish Church, reputedly the oldest war memorial in Great Britain, was constructed by Sir Richard Assheton in memory of the Battle of Flodden and the archers from Middleton who fought in it.
The Quincentennial of the battle in was commemorated by a programme of projects and events bringing together communities from both sides of the border. The earliest accounts of the battle are English. These contemporary sources include; the Articles of the Bataill bitwix the Kinge of Scottes and therle of Surrey in Brankstone Field said to be a field despatch; Brian Tuke's news-letter to Cardinal Bainbridge; an Italian poem, La Rotta de Scosesi in part based on Tuke's letters; a news-sheet printed in London, The Trewe Encountre ; another lost news-sheet printed by Richard Pynson which was the source used in Edward Hall's Chronicle.
These sources are compared in the English Heritage report. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. War of the League of Cambrai. This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. September Learn how and when to remove this template message. Elizabeth Guthrie and her husband, Alexander Maule.
Edited by Jeremy Black. Pages 95 to Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland , vol. Union of the two noble and illustrious Houses, , London , pp.