Games of Otterburn 1388

It all started and ended in the month of August, 1388. The sons of Bannockburn thought to raid northern England, forcing London to pay attention to their demands for Scottish independence, which was the same reason their famous ancestors had raided there in 1314. King Richard II of England was the grandchild of Edward III, he being the one who had placed Scotland’s freedom on the executioner’s block and chopped it off after King Robert the Bruce and James Douglas and many, many more great patriots had won that freedom in 1328. What became the battle of Otterburn began as an idealistic punitive raid on the part of the Scots into northern England. But nobody was counting on the impetuousness of England’s Lord Henry “Hotspur” Percy and his brother, Ralph. They had other ideas that turned the Scottish raid into a major hand-to-hand battle fought for the whole of the night by the light of the full moon. The successful raid, the subterfuge to protect the plunder and the subsequent battle of unusual proportions spawned diverse consequences unimagined by any of the participants. But the various historical records will attest to the base and content of this novel and will forever be an important part of our Scottish and English heritage despite those who would rather have it hidden.