How a loving king and one battle sealed the fate of Scotland

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

King James IV of Scotland came to the throne in 1488 after rebel lords defeated his father's troops at the Battle of Sochibern, and the king himself, who tried to take refuge in a nearby mill, was killed despite the prince's protests. The new king was fifteen years old - quite a mature age in order to understand the whole unseemly act that made him a ruler. It was even rumored that throughout his life Yakov, as a penance, wore an iron chain, to which he added a link every year.

One way or another, but he was a good king, and during his reign, trade developed at a rapid pace, the navy was strengthened, and the system of justice was significantly reformed.

Synchronous sources, which left us with a description of the king at the age of about 40, that is, shortly before his death, claim that he was of average height, with a strong body and red hair, did a lot of physical exercise and ate moderately. It is also known that among his contemporaries, Yakov was considered a handsome man and a very enviable groom. He himself was deeply in love with Margaret Drummond, whom he even intended to marry, but ill-wishers poured poison on her food, and Margaret, along with her two sisters, was poisoned one day at breakfast. As a result, the prince in 1502 married the English princess Margaret Tudor. Margaret was a passionate and strong-willed woman, and in general she and Jacob got married pretty well, which, however, did not prevent the loving handsome king from systematic left.

How it all began

After Jacob's father-in-law, the English king Henry VII Tudor, died in 1509, his son Henry VIII ascended the throne. At first, relations between the two neighboring states developed well, but in 1511 continental politics intervened. By that time, France, which was a long-standing and consistent ally of Scotland, was literally an iron ring surrounded by unfriendly states - the Papal States, Spain, Venice and the Holy Roman Empire. Henry VIII also wished to join this union. All this overnight complicated relations between England and Scotland, on the border between the two states, blood-spilling skirmishes broke out every now and then, but it did not come to an official declaration of war.

Relations between the two monarchs also escalated to the limit - it even went so far that Henry declared his sister Margaret's dowry the property of the English crown. He at all costs intended to carry out an invasion of France, taking advantage of the convenient international situation, and the intervention of Scotland in the war as an ally of the French was extremely disadvantageous to him. Jacob, on the other hand, did not want to fight with the Sanglicans, but the centuries-old allied obligations to France simply did not leave him a choice, and in July 1512 he made a fateful decision for his country.

Either peace or war

Nevertheless, by the beginning of 1513, both states were still officially at peace, and their rulers were extremely courteous in dealing with each other. Heinrich tried to influence his neighbor through his sister Margaret, the wife of Jacob, but, despite all her efforts, she failed to persuade her husband not to get involved in a big war. In turn, the Scottish diplomats in London were unable to dissuade Henry from fighting France. Thus, it turned out that the two countries, extremely uninterested in war with each other, were smoothly sliding towards open armed conflict. But the ambassador of Louis XII in Edinburghmessier de la Motte was much more fortunate. The dashing Frenchman began by boarding several English merchant ships on his way to the Scottish shores, which he brought with him as a gift to the king. Of course, this act was nothing more than piracy, and Jacob, who was still formally at peace with Henry, should have condemned the actions of the French ambassador in every possible way. But the king of Scotland, and himself distinguished by daring, appreciated de la Motta's actions extremely highly, and without hesitation accepted gunpowder, wine and weapons seized from the British.

Looking for a woman: wife of Louis XII, Anne of Breton

The odious French queen, wife of Louis XII, Anne of Breton, who, allegedly insulted by Henry VIII, asked Jacob to become his knight-protector and fight for her honor, and so that knightly feelings in the Scottish king woke up faster - added a generous gift to the request in 14,000 gold, plus a turquoise gold ring from his hand. Finally, by the summer of 1513, Jacob, who had been cultivated from all sides, had finally matured, and when in June Henry, at the head of a large fleet, crossed the English Channel to begin hostilities in France, Jacob hastily began to prepare an invasion of England. On July 26, he sent a messenger to Henry, who by that time was already on the continent, with the notification of the beginning of the war. Tudor responded on August 12 with his characteristic arrogance - in particular, he said that he was not at all surprised by the action of his northern neighbor and was not worried about the safety of his possessions, and therefore he was not going to curtail hostilities in France, because he did not consider Yakov a threat worthy of his personal monarch's attention. Henry played, and in fact he took the Scottish threat more than seriously - in honesty, even before sailing, he admonished the Lord Lieutenant of the North, Earl of Surrey, with these words: "Lord knows, I do not believe the Scots, so I beg you not to be negligent."

On the battlefield

During the first two weeks of August, the bulk of the Scottish forces approached Edinburgh. It was the largest and most equipped army that Scotland has ever assembled. However, the large number, oddly enough, also covered the weakness of this army, since it was motley, and included both the inhabitants of the plains and the mountaineers and inhabitants of the Borderlands. In addition, the Scottish army had a limited contingent of allied French troops under the command of Count d'Aussie - mainly the French played the role of military instructors, teaching the Scots modern continental military techniques, including working with a long pike and servicing modern artillery. There are many points of view regarding the number of the troops assembled by Jacob in the summer of 1513, however, there is no doubt that the army that advanced from Edinburgh towards the border, and the army that crossed this border, differed in number in favor of the former. The fact is that the Scottish king almost immediately faced such a problem as mass desertion, and if initially the number of his army could be estimated at 40,000 people, then no more than 30,000 people appeared on the field near Flodden with him.

The Scottish king took on the campaign and artillery, including - two of the newest French coolers, presented to him by Louis XII. The artillery of those years was used mainly for sieges, and was too heavy and unwieldy to play a significant role on the battlefield. So, the Scots needed about 400 oxen and 28 pack horses to carry guns and ammunition for them. The first to open hostilities was Lord Home, the commander of the light cavalry of the Borderlands - while the main forces were just getting ready to march, he made a raid on English Northumberland, but on the way back 13 August was suddenly attacked by the British at Milfield. Sir William Balmeran's archers inflicted significant damage on the Scots, and Home's "border guards" were forced to abandon their prey in order to be able to escape from the battlefield. This failure was the first wake-up call, but Yakov, confident in his army and in his powerful guns, did not think to abandon the invasion plan. On August 22, Yakov crossed the Tweed River near Coldstream, and moved downstream, intending to attack Norham Castle. The Bishop of Durham, who owned this castle, considered its fortifications impregnable, but the powerful cooler of the Scottish king forced the bishop to change his mind. After six days of siege, the castle capitulated, and the Scottish king moved on, ravaging the lands of England.

At this time, Surrey was gathering an army at Alnica, where he arrived on 3 September. His eldest son, Sir Thomas Howard, Lord Admiral, who had brought with him about 1,000 men gathered from the ships, approached the same place. Of course, the main British forces at that time were with Henry VIII in France, so Surrey was able to hold a weapon. The backbone of the army was made up of the lords and nobles of the North, as well as local yeomen and peasants. They were not professional soldiers, but in those days in England there was a law that obliged the male population to practice archery. In addition, Surrey had a bodyguard detachment - 500 people who were well-armed professional soldiers. As a result, the British managed to scrape together about

26,000 people, where the base was militiamen and archers on foot, there was a certain amount of light cavalry, and there was almost no heavy cavalry.

The messenger decided everything

Finally, on September 4, Surrey sent a messenger to Jacob with a message in which he accused the king of a treacherous attack and of many atrocities committed by the Scots on English soil. In conclusion, the Englishman said that they would meet on the battlefield very soon. Two days later, Jacob, who was very fond of medieval knightly etiquette and the like, sent his herald to the British with the message that he, Jacob, accepted the challenge.

Soon, Surrey indignantly learned that the Scottish army had taken an advantageous position on Flodden Holm, and on September 7 he wrote a stinging letter to Jacob, in which he reminded the king that he himself had not taken a call to battle a few days ago, and now, instead of waiting for the enemy in an open field, he dug in on a hill - in the apt expression of Serrey, "hid in the ground, like in a fortress." The English commander suggested that the king go down into the valley to resolve the conflict in open battle, but Jacob was offended by such a tone, saying that he was extremely outraged by the words of the lord lieutenant, and in general, monarchs, albeit strangers, did not talk like that.

After it became clear that the Scottish king would not come down the hill, Surrey decided to take a trick to lure the enemy out by deception. He split the army in two and began crossing the Till River in two places at once in order to maximize his maneuver. Jacob, who saw all this scholm perfectly, hastily gathered a council in order to discuss further actions. The aged Earl Angus convinced the monarch that the British decided to take advantage of the inaction of his army and move to Scotland, and therefore they had to immediately withdraw from the camp and go home - to defend their homeland from plunder. Jacob, who never got along with the old man, dismissed him, saying that if Angus wanted to, he could roll home, since he was no use anyway.

The count, desperate to persuade the king, really left the camp, leaving two sons in his place - as it turned out, by this decision he doomed them to death. As a result, the king decided not to go anywhere at all and remained on Flodden Hill, ordering some of his troops to move to the eastern slope in case Surrey tried to attack the Scots from the flank.

Branchon hill

The British, however, continued to move on, and then Jacob decided that Surrey was trying to take another advantageous position - Branxton Hill. Then he, YakovYu will be forced to attack the enemy who has fortified himself on the summit, and will be completely deprived of his trump card - large-caliber coulevrin. The king ordered the troops to hastily withdraw from the camp and march to Branxton, until the English arrived there. As they left, the Scots set fire to the remnants of the camp, and this acrid smoke made the cloudy September day only darker.

The Scottish army marched in five columns, and was supposed to reach the destination by two o'clock in the afternoon. On the left walked Lord Home with his "frontier guards", as well as the Earl of Huntley from the Highlanders, in the second column were the Earl of Errol, the Earl of Crawford and the Earl of Montrose, the next was the column of the king, the largest. Finally, the earliest column on the right was led by the Counts of Argyll and Lennox, and one more was at a distance, as a reserve, led by the Earl Bothwell and the Frenchman Count d'Ossy. Noticing that the Scots had descended the hill, Surrey began to deploy his troops, lining them up for battle. … It was especially hard for the English gunners, who had to quickly prepare their guns for battle. It was the cannonade that gave rise to the battle - it happened at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

Despite the fact that the fire of the guns practically did not cause serious damage to both armies, the shooting of the British cannons considerably shook the morale of the Scottish "border" light cavalry. on the English right flank. This attack had considerable success, largely due to the fact that the British on the right flank were untrained militias from Cheshire, who almost immediately backed away. Some of them tried to resist, but when their commander, Sir Edward Howard, was wounded, the Cheshire people wavered and fled. This was a critical moment of the battle, and if Lord Home had continued to flank the British, the Scots would almost certainly have won the battle. However, the light frontier cavalry did not differ in discipline, and after the first success, the Scottish horsemen immediately rushed to plunder the English convoy. They were so carried away by this that they completely missed the counterattack of the English cavalry of Lord Dakre, who had previously been in reserve. The blow was so powerful that the Scots were thrown away, suffering serious losses. But King James did not see how the attack of his cavalry ended, and he hardly could - the epicenter of the battle was too far away, and the smoke pouring from Flodden Hill only exacerbated the situation. Deciding that his cavalry would be successful, and she was crushing the enemy flank with might and main, the king ordered his infantry to pack.

And again, like the first time, the Scots were initially successful. Their infantry, armed with long pikes, managed to push the British, but Surrey and his officers were able at this critical moment to calm the troops and regain control of the army. The advance of the Scottish infantry slowed down, and Jacob, wanting to put the squeeze on the British, ordered Lord Bothwell, whose column was the Scottish army reserve, to advance and support his comrades in battle. At this time, the left flank of the British, under the command of Lord Stanley, began shelling the highlanders of the Earl of Argyll with bows, eventually forcing the retreat.

And there was a victory …

Having won this episode, Stanley began to bypass the Scots, trying to get them to the rear. The same thing, but on the other hand, was done by the cavalry of Lord Dacre, who had just defeated the "border guards" and at full gallop flew into the column of Bothwell, who was hurrying to the aid of his king. The Scottish Reserves could not withstand such a blow and began to crumble, and the two English flanks were able to complete the encirclement of the remaining forces of Jacob.

From that moment on, the fate of the battle was a foregone conclusion - the Scots were slowly but surely pushed aside in the direction of a nearby swamp, where they, who had finally lost their strength and fighting spirit, were killed almost without exception. In this massacre, King James IV himself, his illegitimate son Alexander Stuart, as well as many noble lords of the kingdom, died.

Surrey lost from one and a half to two thousand people, while the losses of the Scots were simply monstrous - twelve to seventeen thousand. Scotland has not recovered from such a blow, and it was the battle of Flodden that became the starting point for the crisis that gripped the kingdom for many decades.

And today Scotland has a new calling card - cute ponies in wool sweaters.