Steel strikes steel, arrows fly through the sky and gunfire sounds. The cries of men deafen and disrupt the peaceful surroundings as their lives drain from their bodies on the battlefield ground.
This was the conflict, five centuries ago, which saw the largest confrontation between England and Scotland in terms of troop numbers, the Treaty of Perpetual Peace torn to shreds and the last monarch on the British Isles to die in battle. This was the Battle of Flodden.
What started it?
1502 saw King Henry VII of England and King James IV of Scotland sign the Treaty of Perpetual Peace which was aimed at bringing an end to centuries of intermittent warfare between the two respective nations.
After relations soured not ten years later, conflict soon arose when the Scottish King declared war on England to honour the Auld Alliance with France, terminating the Treaty of Perpetual Peace in the process. England was part of the ‘Catholic League,’ defending Italy and the Pope against the French in War of the League of Cambrai, which is what saw the Auld Alliance invoked. As a result of Scotland’s offensive against England to divert their forces from their war against the French, James IV was excommunicated.
On a date generally accepted to be 22 August 1513, after raids and pillages of Northumberland by a 7,000 strong force of Border Reivers, Scotland invaded England and began capturing castles in the north of Northumberland.
On 4 September 1513, the Scottish army led by King James IV had taken up a strong position at Flodden Edge, a hill on which they could only be approached directly as the flanks were protected steep slopes on one side and marshes on the other. Unwilling to face James IV at his superior position on Flodden Edge, the Earl of Surrey who was commanding the English army, moved his forces north along the Devil’s Causeway and made camp at Barmoor near the village of Lowick so he could outflank the Scots. With Surrey’s men heading for Branxton Hill, less than two miles north of the Scottish camp, James IV ordered his army to head to Branxton Hill as well.
The battle itself
The battle, as most battles are, was a horrific and bloody affair. But it was also an unexpected one with disaster after disaster for the Scottish army and gave, from the perspective of the well-prepared positions and preparations of James IV’s forces, an unlikely English victory.
The Scots were equipped with deadly effective and modern weaponry; 18ft long pikes supplied by the French which had proved deadly in continental Europe, and with heavy siege guns, compared to the longbows and more old-fashioned light field guns.
James IV began the battle at 4pm on 9 September 1513 with an artillery duel in wet and windy weather. The battle initially well for the Scots who outnumbered the English, and forced them back. English archers had little impact on James IV’s heavily armoured men.
Despite initial success, an unforeseen circumstance brought this to a halt. At the foot of Branxton Hill, the ground became marshy and had been made worse by days of heavy rain. This caused the Scots, who were struggling to cross the terrain, to lose impetus and cohesion and to drop their long pikes as without the momentum they became an unwieldy impediment. Now having to rely on their side-arms (swords and axes), they were outreached by English bills in the close-quarter fighting.
English troops fired volleys of arrows into the Highlanders who lacked proper armour and suffered heavy casualties before scattering. King James IV himself was also killed with two arrow wounds, as well as wounds from bladed weapons.
The aftermath
The battle saw over 1,500 Englishmen killed and between 5,000 and 14,000 Scots killed, with many conflicting accounts of how many actually died.
The Scottish King died in the battle and a committee met to rule in the name of his wife, Margaret Tudor, and her son James V of Scotland. 21 September 1513 saw the full Parliament of Scotland meet at Stirling Castle where James V, the 17-month-old King, was crowned in the Chapel Royal.
Forty-five English soldiers were knighted by the Earl of Surrey after the Battle of Flodden which had resulted in a decisive English win; a victory known as a victory of ‘bill’ over ‘pike.’
Peace in our time
Now, the battlefield knows peace. A memorial monument stands atop of Piper’s Hill, looking down over the village of Branxton and the fields where the battle raged. The beauty is all around and the tranquillity of the area knows no bounds. You could be forgiven for not believing that such a peaceful and stunning place once heralded a loss of life of thousands of men in terrible circumstances. Branxton Hill: where the picturesque views hold a bloody and significant place in the history of two once warring nations, now at peace with each other.
