Date - 9th September 1513
Combatants - James IV of Scotland .v. King Henry VIII of England
Location - Flodden Moor, Northumberland, England
With
England committed in France the Scottish King attempted to take advantage
and aid the 'auld alliance' with France by invading England from the north.
He amassed an army estimated at 50,000 and headed south. James was a charismatic
leader. Unusually his army consisted of both Lowland and Highland Scots
he was one of the few Scottish king able to unite the two.
He quickly overwhelmed the English outposts but was delayed at the fortified
house of Ford where he allegedly flirted with the lady of the house, who
was reputedly an English spy.
The English had not wasted time and were busy raising an army under the
Earl of Surrey. This army numbering approximately 20,000 moved north to
deprive the Scots supplies from the countryside.
In consequence James's army began run low on supplies, large number started
to desert northwards in search of food.
When the armies met it is estimated that the Scots numbered between 30-40,000
and the English around 20,000.
The Scottish King who was no master tactician nevertheless took the sensible
decision to deploy his army on the high ground.
Surry thought this rather unsporting and asked the Scottish King to come
down for a fair fight. This request was refused.
The English army deployed on the plain of Brancstone. James missed a glorious
opportunity to attack the English army while it deployed in front of him.
The English artillery then engaged the Scots. The English artillery proved
to be more deadly than anything the Scots could muster and eventually
the Scots charged. It was there that their luck ran out.
The English beat the Scots in bloody hand-to-hand fighting mainly by use
of the Halberd, a particularly vicious weapon which combined the subtlety
of an axe with the finesse of a scythe. This weapon proved superior to
the sword and spear favoured by the Scots.
The Scots were routed and their King killed. He appeared to have been
attempting to reach Surrey for one to one combat, but never made it having
first ensured that he got most of the other Scots noblemen killed in the
process
An
old English poem about Flodden
The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
Date: 10th September 1547
Place: Musselburgh
Protagonists: Edward Seymour The Duke Of Somerset v James Hamilton 2nd
Earl of Arran
The background to this battle
was a complicated matter between royal families as was so often the case
in this period. The English wished to quieten this northern border by
marrying the infant king Edward to the equally young Mary (Queen of Scots)
except that the Scots had other ideas on the subject.
The armies that opposed each other were a strange mix of medieval and
modern. The Scots had a sizeable cavalry element and had arranged their
infantry into three large columns of pikemen. They did have more tradition
infantry at Pinkie but it was the pikemen which form the main part of
their plan, trained by foreign mercenaries the pike when used en masse
by well trained troops was a potent weapon. The use of mercenaries from
all countries was quite popular at this time.
The size of the armies is not exact but the Scots are thought to have
fielded around 26,000.
The English had more horsemen than the Scots but less infantry who employed
the medieval Bill and Hook. Firearms at this time were in use but they
were unreliable and slow to use. Pinkie was the swan song for the English
longbow. The English army is recorded at 16,000. They did however have
one important ally on their side. The English Navy had shadowed the army
and played a critical role at Pinkie by shelling the Scots and routing
most of the highland contingent.
The Scots pikemen charged, according to one eyewitness they moved as fast
as cavalry. For a while it looked as though they would smash through the
English lines but the English cavalry counter charged and checked them.
The Scots fought off the cavalry but their momentum had been lost. In
the intervening period the English had concentrated their bowmen who let
loose terrible volleys onto the Scots. This was followed by the cannon
and the Scots threw down their weapons and fled.
Pinkie had little impact politically, as Somerset managed to occupy Edinburgh
but could not control the surrounding territory. Internal strife in English
eventually forced a withdraw.
Though the English and Scot national armies would no longer meet in battle,
the English and Scots did fight again during the Civil war.
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