The Battle of Flodden took place on 9th September 1513.
On the face of it this was nothing more than yet another instance of
Scots and English having a go at each other – just because they
were Scots and English, but this isn't so, even though both sides
were, on occasion, guilty of just that.
It was, in fact, part of the War of the League of Cambrai
(sometimes referred to as the War of the Holy League). This war,
believe it or not, was a major conflict in the Italian Wars. The
principal participants of the war, which was fought from 1508 to
1516, were France, the Papal States and the Republic of Venice; they
were joined, at various times, by nearly every significant power in
Western Europe, including Spain (Castile and Aragon, in actuality),
the Holy Roman Empire, England, Scotland, plus the Duchies of Milan,
Florence, and Ferrara. Not forgetting the army of Swiss mercenaries
hired by Pope Julius II.
How did Scotland get involved in this? Simply because of the Auld
Alliance which was basically a mutual self-defence
pact against England. How England got involved was by Henry VIII,
deciding that, as the French were busy elsewhere, he could use the
occasion to expand his holdings in northern France. He concluded the
Treaty of Westminster—a pledge of mutual aid against the
French—with Ferdinand II of Aragon in November 1511.
That's a little background to the blood-letting – which, I feel
is something often omitted in talking about battles(the background,
that is) – so, getting back to the battle (which we haven't as this
is only the lead-up). James IV of Scotland is asked by the current
French king (Louis XII) do something to distract the English.
James IV decided this distraction would take the form of an
invasion of England. He summoned an army of around 30,000, not all of
whom actually turned up, but he got support from the highlands in the
shape of MacLean of MacLean, with a thousand men, and 5,000
Frenchmen. So, at the beginning of the campaign he would have had
approximately 27,000. He also had the one of the best equipped
artillery corps in Europe – not that you'd know this from the
result...
I've seen some really laughable estimations of the numbers
involved, Sir Brian Tuke, Henry VIII's private secretary (who wasn't
there) reckoned the Scots put 60,000 men in the field, of whom 17,000
died. Other commentators are less extravagant with numbers. The
consensus seems to be an Allied force of 30,000 versus 25,000
English. For the times and equipment, that's a 50/50 chance.
Believe it or not, James informed the English four weeks before
the event that he would be invading. This was according to his
concept of honour (but not mine), anyway this gives the English time
to collect an army of their own. Now, as Bluff King Hal was away in
France doing nasty things to the locals, he wasn't available to
advise the northern magnates (on the other hand, they had been
fighting the Scots for years so they might just have known a bit
about what they were doing...).
However, given this warning the English manage to scare up a good
few thousand men of their own under the command of the Earl of Surrey
(Thomas Howard), Baron Thomas Dacre and strangely, the Lord High
Admiral of England (a different Thomas Howard). The Allies had around
27,000 to 30,000, making this the largest Scottish army ever to
invade England, while the English reportedly had 25,000.
The English forces are outnumbered by the Scottish/French army,
but not by much. On the other hand, the Allies have more and better
guns, the high ground and long pointy things known as pikes. But the
pike is something the Scots knew very little about. The French
contingent brought 20,000 or so of what was becoming the preferred
infantry weapon in Europe but it was strange to the locals. Given the
preferred heavy seven or eight foot spear a Lowland Scots schiltrom
was a match for anything except an arrowstorm - the pike however was
a new thing. While it had been issued and they had practised a bit
with it, they knew next to nothing about it's use in battle.
The English artillery, though inferior to the Allies, was better
placed, being on lower ground and not having to muck about with
powder charges was much more effective. The Allied artillery, being
on higher ground have to experiment with their powder charges and
are, therefore far less effective than the English. The Allied guns
are shooting over and not doing much at all to the English, yet the
English guns are having a field day as even if their shot falls
short, it bounces and, in effect they are firing grazing shots every
time a gun fires. Grazing shots are by far the preferred option
against ranked infantry at this period in time because of the damage
they do.
I've mentioned that the pike was a pretty new weapon to the Scots
(who preferred a shorter, heavier spear). I didn't mention the
weapon of the English infantry so I will now rectify that error. The
English foot were equipped with the bill. This is a weapon which is
far more useful than a pike at close quarters as it's shorter,
slightly heavier and far more manoeuvrable. The pike was best
employed against cavalry due to the number of sharp pointy things
which horses didn't like, but the bill was more versatile as it could
be used against both cavalry (with difficulty) and foot – with far
more effectiveness.
There is a famous Scots song (written in the aftermath of the last
Jacobite Rising, by Jean Elliot, a daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot of
Minto, the Lord Justice Clerk) about the battle in which the
following lines appear:-
“Dule and wae for the order
sent our lads tae the border
the
English, for aince
by guile won the day”
Dule and wae (Sorrow and woe), certainly, but totally wrong. It
wasn't “English guile” which won the day – it was the total and
complete incompetence of the Scottish commanders, especially one
named James Stewart, fourth king of that name.
For some reason unknown to me, but probably his unique view of his
personal honour (it has been suggested that he ordered this move
because he had been outflanked), James orders his army to advance
(from the high ground, where the English foot couldn't get near
them). As the English couldn't get near them, why bother advancing?
There is a sort of half-believed folk tale among historians on
both sides that before leaving their positions the Scottish lords in
James's division removed their footwear in order to gain better
purchase on the ground they were advancing into. This is total bloody
nonsense. A medieval battlefield was covered with sharp pointy things
(arrows, swords, daggers, axes and other bits of metal which are not
nice to bare feets). Plus, when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, bare
feet are a disadvantage when the opposition are still shod...
Anyways, the Scots are the recipients of a total ass-whuppin (see
Richard S, Ah kin spoked Appalaichin). The king, assorted nobles, a
bishop or two and some Highland chiefs are killed, as are
approximately 5,000 others. The English lost something between 1,500
and 4,000 (most of whom were of the “common sort”). This
discrepancy in the losses suffered by the nobility on both sides is
due to the fact that although the Scots had adopted the fashionable
European weapon, they retained their insistence on commanding from
the front whereas the English, while using their more traditional
billhook, were also using the new European command style where the
commanders stood back and supervised the battle.
This is the memorial to the battle It's inscribed “TO THE DEAD
OF BOTH NATIONS”. It wasn't erected until 1910.
This is a more recent commemoration:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/5335632.stm
Sources:
Kightly, C., Flodden-the Anglo-Scots War of 1513, 1975.
Barr, N., Flodden 1513, 2001