Part of the particular fascination of Flodden lies in the nature of that opening gun duel and the subsequent debate as to why the English fire proved so much superior. That armies of the day employed a whole range of artillery pieces is beyond doubt. An inventory compiled by Sir John Paston after the seizure of Caistor Castle, listing the defenders’ ordnance specifies:
Two guns with eight chambers shooting a stone seven inches thick, twenty inches compass. Two lesser guns with eight chambers shooting a stone five inches thick, fifteen inches compass. Three fowlers shooting a stone twelve inches in compass; two short guns for ships with six chambers. Two small serpentines to shoot lead pellets; four guns lying in stocks to shoot lead pellets; seven handguns with other equipment belonging to said guns.1
In the year before Flodden, on 11 April, was fought the great Battle of Ravenna where French guns inflicted a crushing defeat on their Spanish foes. Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours, deployed thirty of his own and two-dozen pieces supplied by an Italian ally. His frontal assault against a prepared position was preceded by two hour’s constant barrage and featured the use of enfilade fire. The age of the field gun had fully arrived. Sixteenth-century writers, such as Grose, in Military Antiquities observes that the Scots were quicker in terms of developing their train and that Henry VIII did not begin casting his own guns till probably a decade or so after Flodden.2
The Lord Treasurer’s list provides details of the Scottish guns taken in the wake of the disaster at Flodden. The heavier courtaulds or more tellingly named murtherers weighed in at 6,000lb (2,700kg) with a 6.5in (17cm) bore, throwing a 33.5–36lb (15–16kg) shot. A large cast culverin was of similar weight but longer barrelled and thus of smaller bore. The lighter sakers weighed some 2,850lb (1,300kg), throwing a 10lb (4.5kg) ball, cast bronze culverin moyanes were far lighter still, at some 1,500lb (680kg), of 2.5in (6cm) bore and throwing a 5lb (2kg) ball. A number of smaller falcons were recovered and these are described as breech loaders.3
It would seem likely that, whilst the handier pieces were mounted on wheeled carriages, bigger ordnance may still have been laid on fixed platforms. We know that two heavier guns were carried by cart from Threave to join the train and that cranage was employed to move the barrel from transport to firing platform.4 Given the rapidity with which all were moved prior to action, it would nonetheless seem reasonable that all were then mounted on carriages. The heavier guns required teams of three-dozen oxen, medium sixteen oxen and a single horse, the lighter pieces eight oxen and a solitary horse. It seems most likely that these single horses were placed between the shafts of the carriage.5
In July 1513, a larger piece was transported from Glasgow, en route to service in Ireland. This necessitated six carts with thirty-six draught horses, accompanied by eight ‘close’ carts, each transporting a single barrel of powder and a further pair laden with gun-stones weighing 33.5lb (15kg). The train that accompanied James included thirteen transport wagons, each laden with four barrels of blackpowder and twenty-eight draught animals loaded with shot crammed into panniers or creels.6 One Ottoman monster in the care of Royal Armouries in Leeds is a cast-bronze leviathan, manufactured in two halves then threaded together. Each section weights a full 8 tons (8,000kg) and the gun threw a stone ball weighing 670lb (304kg)! So effective was this massive ordnance it remained in service, guarding the Dardanelles for a full four centuries!
In recent years, Royal Armouries has experimented with Tudor guns of the post Flodden era, inspired by those found by the wreck of the Mary Rose. They aimed to construct a working replica of an older-style gun, constructed of wrought-iron staves and hoops. An expert blacksmith and team carried out this work which relied upon as many historic methods and tools as was practicable (evidence suggests Tudor smiths did use water-driven trip hammers). The staves, nine in all, were heated and carefully beaten into shape around a solid timber core and held in place by temporary clamps. A series of wrought-iron hoops and rings were then fashioned and hammer welded, laid on heated so as to contract to a snug fit. Placed alternatively the rings would take up the entire length of the barrel and were fitted with the staves and core in a vertical position.7
The finished barrel, with simple sighting ring foremost, was fitted and lashed to a timber-wheeled carriage and moved onto a range for test firing. Loading was from the breech and not muzzle, as was indeed commonplace. The wrought-iron ‘beer-jug’ breechblock was part filled with powder, topped with sawdust and straw, wadded and then sealed with a timber bung. The beauty of this arrangement was that several chambers could be kept loaded to permit rapid fire and loading at the breech was far safer.8 Once the first projectile, lantern shot in this case, was loaded then the block was lifted into position (a substantial effort and four crewmen were required), the block was furnished with lifting rings and timber staves used to facilitate lifting. The first blast, effectively of grape, shredded a timber target and the death-dealing potential of lantern shot at close range was amply evidenced.
Next, solid shot. A stone ball from Mary Rose was fired. The weapon was aimed using the simple sight and elevated by means of a timber post and cross pin. To effect a tight seal at the breech the jug is buttressed with a timber forelock and then squeezed tight by an additional iron wedge. The ball easily punched through oak planking intended to match that of a man-o’-war.9 A vast cloud of smoke accompanied each discharge and we can easily envisage how the field would very quickly become shrouded in a dense blanket.
We are offered a valuable contemporary glimpse into guns, gun making and the Scottish train in the campaign by the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer. These record that, in the July, James had received a dozen cartloads of ‘harnes(s)’ from Denmark.10 John Barton had brought the king a handgun as early as 150711 and James was clearly fascinated, echoing the example of his unfortunate grandfather. At the outset it appears that most of the experts employed were continental immigrants, such as the ‘French gunner’ who was paid a handsome £3 10s per month, rather more than his Scottish comrades though rather less than those Flemings also in the king’s service.12
From 1508 onwards the Scots were casting guns at Stirling and, latterly, Edinburgh. One Alexander Bow, an Edinburgh potter, was placed in funds to the amount of £5 to buy metals for casting. Within a very short time, this sum had swollen to £65.13 Whilst Stirling was the first manufacturing centre to get underway, Edinburgh swiftly became the more important. The king’s obsession with firepower continued and we are told, in the accounts, of his setting up targets in the Abbey Close (doubtless to the great alarm of the Abbot). We also know that powder was being milled at the same time.14 We can further deduce from subsequent entries that the king had sourced canvas, six ells [45in or 137.2cm] of the fabric, to fashion into suitable targets ‘quhilk the king schot gunnies at’.15 James also experimented by using guns for stalking ‘ane deir’.16 These handguns clearly proved a favourite for we have record of the king commissioning several more at prices varying from £4–10.
From 1511, the serious business of gun founding got underway in Edinburgh Castle. Continental specialists such as Hans, Henryk and Wolf Urneburg were training up a generation of Scottish students; Seton, Nicolson, Baillie and Ormiston. Specialist craftsmen from Europe; one Gervase, John Garnere, Stephen Davennois and M. Jacat seem mostly to have been recruited from James’ ally France. Large sums were disbursed in buying in powder and shot – a mill was then established in Dundee where Urneburg was remunerated in the monthly amount of £4 4s,17 a substantial emolument by the standards of his day.
It was the Scot, Robert Borthwick, appointed ‘Master Meltar’ (i.e. in charge of casting guns) who, in turn, engaged a team of highly skilled Dutch and French artisans.18 By August 1512, the output from Borthwick’s foundry had been sufficient to equip the Scottish fleet with first-rate ordnance (each piece required six carts for transport to the docks).19 By spring of the next, fateful year he was employing ten master craftsmen and a quartet of smiths; these in turn would have their journeymen, apprentices and labourers attached. Carpenters were busy building wagons and carts and Barcar the smith was fitting sets of iron tyres to their wheels.20
It is from the Treasurer’s Accounts that our main listing of the Scottish ordnance derives: five large cannon, two ‘gros [large] culverins’, four ‘culverins-pikmoyane’, six ‘culverins moyanne’.21 This arsenal must have included Borthwick’s collective masterpiece, the Seven Sisters. Each of these monsters for the long, hot march south required a team of oxen which, for the smaller pieces required eight beasts, one trace horse and half a dozen pioneers. The really big guns needed up to thirty-six oxen and a platoon of pioneers, twenty-strong, presumably under an NCO or vintenar. The slow, plodding oxen averaged one driver for every four beasts. Eighty oxen were kept as a mobile reserve to make good losses and assist over the steeper gradients. The guns were secured by ropes front and rear to facilitate the uphill and control the downhill. Men were paid at the rate of 12d for service north of the border upped by fourpence once the line had been crossed.22 It seems likely that the train moved the 48 miles to Coldstream via Soutra (where those additional beasts would surely be urgently needed!
The ordnance was dragged from the castle by sweat and muscle till the pieces could be harnessed and got underway. Borthwick commanded twenty-six gunners plus ancillaries, the former being paid 2s a day, a single crane for loading/unloading was carried by the train and twenty-eight pack horses, loaded with heavy panniers, carried the shot. A tail of carts would transport powder, mobile forges and blacksmithing gear, additional stock of pioneer tools. At least one ox was lost at Dalkeith, run over by the huge weight of the piece it was hauling, perhaps a case where the restraining process failed? It was not all bad news however, for a replacement was sourced at 32s and the men ate well that day!23
We also know that charges were incurred for the sewing and transport of quantities of tentage, both leather and canvas, with a team of forty labourers to pitch and strike the gear. Banners too, the panoply of war were not forgot, even if left to the last moment. Two great flags one for St Margaret, the other St Andrew were designed and made, heavily fringed and using four ells of blue taffety, trailing three ells in length. James’ own standard, slightly smaller, was in red; all came in leather cases.
Whilst we have no specific note from chroniclers of the employment of handguns we do have one tantalising reference from immediately after:
That I, John Cragges, laid out at Barwyk [Berwick] for carriage of the king’s ordnance from the field [Flodden] to the town, viz; carriage of 16 pieces of guns of brass and two cartloads of hagbushes [Hagbut] and pellets in 18 wains from the field to Barwyk town, 21s. Prests to 11 German gunners at Newcastle, 41s. Storing the pellets and hagbushes in a house and shipping the ordnance 23s 4d. Attending at Barwyk and homewards, 40 days, 26s 8d. Boat hire from Barwyk to the Islands, to go aboard a crayer that carried the ordnance, 5s.
A hagbut was a particular type of early hand-held firearm, barrel hooked to project over fixed defences. This account would clearly suggest such weapons had been present in the Scots’ arsenal, thought it cannot confirm the weapons were necessarily used on the field.25
NOTES
1. Quoted in Boardman, p. 152.
2. Rogers, Colonel H.C.B., Artillery through the Ages (London, 1971), p. 28.
3. Ibid., p. 29.
4. Ibid., p. 30.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Hall, N., Building and firing a Mary Rose port piece (Royal Armouries Year Book, no. 3, 1998), pp. 57–66 and Hall, N., Casting and firing a Mary Rose culverin (Royal Armouries Year Book, no. 6, 2001), pp. 106–16.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Balfour, Sir J., Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. IV: 1507–13 (Edinburgh, 1902), preface, p. XXXVII.
11. Ibid., p. LXIII.
12. Ibid., p. LXIV.
13. Ibid., p. LXV.
14. Ibid., p. LXVIII.
15. Ibid., p. LXX.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid., pp. LXXII–LXXIII.
18. Ibid., p. LXXIII.
19. Ibid., p. LXXIV.
20. Ibid., p. LXXV.
21. Ibid., p. LXXVI.
22. Ibid., p. LXXVI.
23. Ibid., p. LXXIX.
24. Ibid., p. LXXXII.
25. Henry VIII; February 1514, Letters and Papers, Foreign & Domestic, Henry VIII, vol. I: 1509–14 (1920), pp. 1153–63.