Battle of Flodden

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Flodden, battle of (1513). James IV of Scotland invaded England while Henry VIII was away in France. Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, responsible for the north of England, gathered 20, 000 men to oppose him. In medieval style, he challenged James to battle, but the battle probably owed more to the fact that the English had cut off the Scots' line of retreat northwards, and thus forced them to attack. Witnesses recalled seeing cartloads of arrows being ferried north for the English army. Late in the afternoon of 9 September 1513, the Scots attacked. The 8 foot (2.4 metre) English bill proved handier than the 15 foot (4.6 metre) Scots pike but the victory was won by the English archers. King James and 10, 000 of his soldiers and officers, including the flower of the Scots aristocracy, were killed. The lament ‘Flowers of the Forest’ recalls the tragedy which befell the Scots nation.

— Christopher Bellamy

Flodden, battle of, 1513. While the young Henry VIII was pursuing military glory against the French, his brother-in-law James IV of Scotland, an ally of France, declared war. He crossed the Tweed at Coldstream, and occupied the castles of Norham, Etal, Wark, and Ford. Lord Surrey (Norfolk), commanding the English forces, marched north from Newcastle to Wooler. The armies met on the 9th, on Branxton Hill, near Flodden. There was little tactical manœuvring, but four hours of desperate hand-to-hand combat. The turning-point was when James himself, in the thick of the battle, was cut down. The Scots sustained the heaviest defeat of their history, the flower of their nobility dying with the king.