The Scottish king has popularly had a rather poor press since his death in battle at Flodden in 1513. He came to the throne at an early age after the sudden and unlamented demise of his father, James III, following the rout at Sauchieburn. The Stewart dynasty, established on the Scottish throne for nearly a century and a half, could claim its descent from Anglicised Norman knights who came north to Scotland in the train of the Anglophile David I. The latter had spent his early life at the English Court.1
It was Robert II ‘The Steward’ who came to the throne in 1371 on the sudden death of his childless predecessor David II. His reign was followed by that of the melancholic Robert III, rendered at least partially disabled by a kick from his brother’s horse, an experience which did not assist his depressive temperament. The three James who succeeded him all met violent deaths, the first to assassins’ knives, the second when one of his great guns exploded at the siege of Roxburgh and the third, also murdered. Scotland, throughout the fifteenth century, had been burdened with a series of minority kingships. However, despite his difficult start, James IV achieved much. He finally abolished the largely moribund title of Lord of the Isles in 1493.2 The MacDonald hegemony in the Highlands had been a near constant wellspring of fissiparous tendencies.3 His administrative reforms were comprehensive and it is probably due to this solid foundation that the country was able to function after the disaster and the loss of such a high proportion of the nobility.
James was a truly Renaissance figure, active in the lists, addicted to finery and seduced by the lures of war (Plate 1). He had, like his unfortunate grandfather James II, a fascination with artillery.4 By 1508 his master gunner, Robert Borthwick,5 was casting guns in Edinburgh. Ordinances seeking to promote practice at the butts in preference to more popular pastimes such as golf or football were enacted, even if, subsequently, they were rarely heeded. By 1502 he was able to dispatch a contingent of 2,000 spears to fight in Denmark and he invested heavily in the creation of a Scottish navy. The most potent manifestation of which was the king’s flagship, the Great Michael, launched in 1511, 240ft in length, with a beam of 56ft, mounting 36 great guns and 300 lesser pieces, and served by 120 gunners. With a crew of 300 mariners and carrying 1,000 marines, she was one of the most powerful man-o’-war afloat at the time.6
Shaky truce notwithstanding, James was prepared to connive at the piratical activities of some of his more flamboyant skippers, including Andrew Wood of Largo and the Barton clan. Of the latter, Andrew Barton remained one of James’ favourites until his death from wounds following an epic sea fight with the English Lord Admiral Edward Howard. Had James not engaged in battle in September 1513 and lived to die in his bed, history may well have judged his reign as a successful one. But the weight of his achievements could never balance the loss at Flodden and his conduct both during the campaign and on the field has been branded as rash and quixotic. The English Tudor chronicler Edward Hall summed up the prevailing view when he wrote: ‘O what a noble and triumphant courage was this, for a king to fight in a battle as a mean soldier. But howsoever it happened, God gave the stroke, and he was no more regarded than a poor soldier, for all went one way.’7
Margaret was Henry VIII older sister, whose great grandson James VI of Scotland was, in 1603, to unite the two realms as James I of England. When during September 1497, James IV’s commissioner, Pedro de Ayala, was negotiating the terms of marriage and truce, some English advisers were fearful this might bring the Stewart kings of Scotland directly into the line of English succession, Henry cannily responded:
What then? Should anything of the kind happen (and God avert the omen), I foresee that our realm would suffer no harm, since England would not be absorbed by Scotland, but rather Scotland by England, being the noblest head of the entire island, since there is always less glory and honor in being joined to that which is far the greater, just as Normandy once came under the rule and power of our ancestors the English.8
This was a most perceptive analysis, presaging historical reality by a century.
The young queen’s arrival in her new realm was celebrated by William Dunbar, who had been involved in the marriage negotiations, in several adulatory poems including ‘The Thistle and the Rose’, ‘Gladethe, thoue Queyne of Scottis Regioun’, the song ‘Now Fayre, Fayrest of Every Fayre’ and ‘Blyth Aberdeane’, written on Margaret’s welcome to Aberdeen. In his ‘Thistle and the Rose’, the bard has forest birds serenading the conjoined York and Lancastrian roses, a symbol of Margaret’s dual lineage:
The merle scho sang, ‘Haill, Roiss of most delyt,
Haill, of all flouris quene and soverane,’
The lark scho song, ‘Haill, Rois, both reid and quhyt,
Most plesand flour, of michty cullouris twane;’
The nychtingaill song, ‘Haill, naturis suffragene,
In bewty, nurtour and every nobilness,
In riche array, renown, and gentilness.’9
Though born a Tudor (Plate 2) Margaret never deviated in her loyalty to Scotland. She, perhaps more than any of her court, understood the nature and character of her dangerous and mercurial brother. Margaret with Douglas and Bishop Elphinstone represented the voice of caution and compromise in the increasingly bellicose counsels of 1513.
One of the king’s principal divisional commanders in the coming struggle.scion of an ancient borderline. Lord Alexander occupied the crucial post of Scottish East March warden, an office which many of his forbears had previously held. He also succeeded his father as Chamberlain from 1506.10 The wardenship was no sinecure. In the rough and tumble of border politics diplomacy, open warfare and constant banditry were very much the norm. The Homes had frequently seen their lands (around Greenlaw in the Merse) wasted by the English. In the course of the riposte following James’ championing of the pretender Perkin Warbeck in 1497, Home had seen his castle at Ayton slighted.
Over a century before, an ancestor, Sir Alexander Home, had been one of the many Scottish knights captured in the rout of Homildon (1402).11 He had later died fighting for France against the English.12 The family had benefited from lands confiscated from their powerful neighbours, the earls of Dunbar, by James I in 1436. By 1473 Sir Alexander Home had attained a peerage and acted as an overseas ambassador to James III. He had, however, subsequently quarrelled with that doomed, hedonistic monarch over the transfer of revenues from Coldingham Priory.
Home and his border lances had ridden against James III at Sauchieburn. The dead king’s grateful son, who had, at least in name, led the revolt, quickly returned this lost source of income. Other rewards followed, the wardenship was restored and augmented with the offices of Grand Chamberlain and Keeper of Stirling Castle, both plum appointments. The 3rd Earl led a disastrous chevauchee13 into Northumberland in the summer of 1513, the first overt move in the campaign. His riders had been ambushed and roundly thrashed by English archers under Sir William Bulmer.
There is an enduring question as to the nature of his relationship with James IV. The Homes were never easy subjects and thoroughly steeped in the impenetrable web of cross-border alliances and discreet understandings. Home has been criticised for apparent inactivity after the early success against Edmund Howard’s wing of the English army and for failing to come to the aid of the king’s division at the crisis point. For a borderer, expediency usually, almost invariably, prevailed over the more remote national interest. Defeat for Scotland inevitably meant that the vengeance of the English would fall heavily on the marches and a careful warden would do best to husband his resources. It has even been suggested that Home had an arrangement with Lord Dacre, the English East-March warden, that the borderers on both sides would look to themselves. Such an understanding would not have been without precedent.14
One of King James’ senior magnates and a constant source of trouble, Douglas was aged 64 in 1513 and died of natural causes that November. He was one who, with the queen and Bishop Elphinstone, resolutely opposed the war. He spoke out to that effect in council, though Buchanan asserts he was reduced to tears by the king’s violent outburst.15 He did not fight in the battle though two of his sons did and failed to return. He was nominated to succeed Arran as admiral when the former exceeded his instructions (see Chapter 4).
He was dubbed the ‘Great’ Earl and more popularly as Archibald ‘Bell-the-Cat’.16 Famously, he had quarrelled with James III during the failed campaign of 1482, when Gloucester was before the walls of Berwick, his contribution being to lead the savage cull of the king’s favourites at Lauder. He later commanded those forces which defeated James at Sauchieburn. Appointed as a guardian of young James IV, he lost his seniority to the rising star of the Hepburns. Never averse to a measure of duplicity he was, in the 1490s, offering his services as an effective fifth column to Henry VII. Grim Hermitage Castle, formidable sentinel and gateway to Liddesdale, was to be handed over in return for estates in England.
Throughout the whole of his tumultuous career Angus see-sawed between loyalty and dissent. In 1491 his ancestral hold of great Tantallon was forfeited but, back in favour, he served as chancellor for five years from 1494. Three years later, he was incarcerated for a period in the great rock fortress of Dumbarton. As difficult and contentious a subject as he was, the Douglas did give sage advice in 1513 but his moderating voice, along with that of Elphinstone, went unheeded in the feverish rush to war.
The Gordons were grand magnates of the north, Huntly’s descendant the celebrated ‘Cock of the North’ would lead the Catholic reaction during Mary’s reign, before being defeated by James Stuart, Earl of Moray at Corrichie.17 They held vast estates in the north-east. Alexander succeeded on the death of his father the 2nd Earl, who had previously fought for James III at Sauchieburn. The Gordons had for centuries been active in the patriot cause and had suffered in consequence. Sir Adam Gordon had died a heroic if futile death at Homildon in 1402 when he led a doomed charge of Scottish chivalry into the arrow storm. An earlier scion had fallen at Otterburn thirteen years previously.
His conduct on the field at Flodden was not distinguished as he appears to have been led by his co-commander Home. He had, however, previously seen active service, being instrumental in breaking the Donald Dubh rebellion.18 Having survived the battle, he became active in the affairs of the regency council and was apparently well regarded by his contemporaries. Holinshed confirms he was held: ‘in the highest reputation of all the Scottish nobility for his valour joined with this wisdom and policy’.19
The Stewarts were another fighting name who had more than ‘done their bit’ for the patriot cause. Sir Alan Stewart of Dreghorn fought for Edward Bruce during the latter’s ill-judged intermeddling in Ireland. He survived the disaster there only to fall at Halidon Hill in 1333. Sir John Stewart of Darnley served in a senior capacity with Scottish forces fighting in France in the wake of Agincourt, taking part in the victory at Bauge. Matthew Stewart’s father had enjoyed uncertain relations with both James IV and his father, leading to open rebellion and dishonour, albeit temporary.
Matthew succeeded his father on the latter’s death in 1495 when the long sought after earldom had been attained. Sometime in the 1470s, he married his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Lord Lyle. In 1494, he married for a second time. Elizabeth was a daughter of the Earl of Arran and was to bear Matthew two sons and four daughters. On the field of Flodden he was joint commander of the Highland division with Argyll and did not display any trace of distinction before falling to Stanley’s arrows. It is possible that Lennox may be the dead Scottish noble the English Clerk to the Signet refers to in his report of 2 September 1513 (this is discussed more fully in Chapter 9).
The Campbells (Gaelic Cam-beull or ‘wry-mouth’) have not enjoyed a good press, frequently viewed as the venal aggressors in inter-clan strife. This is only partly true of a name which claims descent from none other than King Arthur! After the forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles in 1493 the king had sought to exercise dominion over the fissiparous Highlands with local surrogates. The Campbells were one name which enthusiastically sought to fill the void. They were not wholly successful, ushering in an age of fearful internecine violence dubbed ‘the Age of Forays’. Archibald was the son of Colin Campbell and his wife Isabella and married Elizabeth Stewart who bore him four sons and five daughters. From 1499 to 1502 he was, to all intents and purposes, a lessee of the former lordship and put down a series of disturbances two years later.
Archibald was Matthew Stewart’s brother-in-law and had risen high in the king’s service; securing a plum appointment as Lord High Chancellor. He had acted as James’ Master of the Household and chief officer in the west where his predecessors were hereditary sheriffs of Lorne and Argyll. He may not have been entirely free of the taint of compromise, possibly being overly close to wilder spirits such as Torquil MacLeod, MacLean of Duart and that evergreen rebel Donald Dubh.20 Clan Campbell was set to rise, even the anarchy of the Age of Forays would not deflect their progress. Perhaps only the Gordons, in the east, rivalled their growing status.
In 1511, he was one of those Scottish commissioners listed to meet with Lord Dacre and Sir Robert Drury to discuss the wild state of the borders – his is the first name listed, an indication of high status. Two years later Campbell was also one of those who treated with English ambassador Nicholas West, essentially a strategy of prevarication. West found Campbell rather trying as the latter refused to provide any assurances – ‘no answer could be given till they knew what justice they should receive in England … how justices should be administered in the borders’. Infuriated by these perceived obfuscations, West spoke ‘roundly and sharply’ to Argyll. This does not seem to have assisted the diplomatic process.
Yet another fighting line, coming originally from Northumberland, where their castle still stands, the Hepburns featured in many border skirmishes. Adam’s father, Patrick, had earned his earldom after siding with James against his father at Sauchieburn. The rise of the Hepburns was very much linked to royal patronage. The 2nd Earl inherited in 1508 and married his wife Janet Stewart (born c. 1480), natural daughter of James Stewart, Earl of Buchan, three years later. She survived not only him but another three husbands, living till 1557. The marriage was something of a royal connivance as Janet already had an illegitimate child by the king. Adam surrendered some lands which James then passed to her as a dowry. Hepburn was something of a royal favourite, one who hunted and hawked with his monarch21 and served in a diplomatic capacity, as ambassador to France in 1492. His uncle George Hepburn held high ecclesiastical office as Abbot of Arbroath (1504), Bishop of the Isles (1510) and also as Treasurer from 1508–10. He too fell at Flodden.
Crawford may have had a hand (abetted by his brother-in-law) in the suspicious death of his elder brother in 1490. He certainly undertook a pilgrimage to Amiens in 1506, possibly a gesture of repentance? Thirteen years previously he had married Home’s daughter Mariota and, though the marriage proved childless, he had at least one acknowledged bastard, also named John, whose mother is referred to as ‘Maukyne’ Deuchar.
The king’s biographer describes his subject as a ‘knight errant’. Henry was indeed addicted to romance and chivalric feats. Yet, like his brother-in-law, he was also held up by contemporaries, even those as eminent as Erasmus, as the model of the Renaissance prince. He loved finery, the tilt, vast excesses of gaming, gorging and bling. In his youth his physique and prowess at arms were impressive, a mirror of his grandfather Edward IV, the greatest knight of his age. He craved military glory and renown though, in reality, these eluded him. He never led an English army to victory on any field and his expeditions proved expensive fiascos. He was immensely sociable, his court a blaze of pageantry and excess but all this outward show hid a markedly dark side. He is described as being ‘highly strung and unstable, hypochondriac, with a strong steak of cruelty’. The arm he draped around the neck of Thomas More as he walked with him in his garden would latterly be employed in signing his death warrant. Two of his six wives went to the block.
In terms of his relations with Scotland and his attitude to his brother-in-law, these were never cordial. He had spitefully withheld his sister’s legacy from their father’s estate for no better reason than he could. Henry had effectively winked at Bastard Heron’s killing of Ker, the Scottish warden, a matter which rankled with James, and had ignored his protests over the death of Barton. Henry advised he did not care to be troubled over the fate of mere pirates. There was a great deal of truth in this; Barton was well aware of the risks he’d been running and the likely consequences. Henry’s eyes were always fixed on the greater game in Europe. Scotland was an irritation, albeit a potent one which had to be guarded against. Surrey’s great victory was in fact bitter gall to Henry. He hungered for renown and the idea that the honours from the campaign should be vested in a subordinate, particularly one who had been cast aside and relegated to managing a sideshow, was humiliating indeed.
In 1513 Henry left his queen, Katherine of Aragon, as regent and she proved highly capable. She wrote fulsomely to her husband in praise of his petty skirmish at the ‘Battle’ of the Spurs. But she could also send him the bloodied surcoat of his dead brother-in-law and announce a signal victory won during her regency. Henry’s role in the events in North Northumberland was essentially peripheral though it was he who, by his conduct, set the whole dire process in train. James was not a warmonger and can be said to have exercised all reasonable endeavours to maintain the fragile peace. James has been damned for his perceived impetuosity yet his conduct appears more balanced and statesman like. Henry was a headstrong, spoilt and, at this early stage, rather a naïve young man, let loose with his father’s substantial inheritance.
Despite the weight of his 70 years and affliction with gout so severe that he was frequently obliged to travel by carriage, Thomas Howard remained a powerful figure. His career in arms had begun over forty years previously when he had fought for the Yorkist king Edward IV in his victory over Warwick the Kingmaker at Barnet in 1471. He had remained loyal to Edward’s brother Richard III and had been present on the fateful field of Bosworth on 22 August 1485 when both Richard and Howard’s own father, the 1st Duke, had perished. The penalty for supporting the loser had been three and a half years’ incarceration in the Tower and the loss of his estates. When questioned, Howard had summed up his reasons for championing Richard succinctly: ‘[because] he was my crowned King and if parliamentary authority set the crown on a stock, I will fight for that stock. And as I fought for him, I will fight for you.’22
Having been offered and declined an opportunity to secure freedom by throwing in his lot with Lincoln’s rebels in 1487, Howard began his rehabilitation. Released and partially re-instated in 1489 he quickly proved his worth, swiftly suppressing disturbances in the north. Henry VII now appointed him as lieutenant general of the border with further devolved responsibility for the middle and east marches (young Prince Arthur was nominal warden).
With his titles if not yet all of his estates returned to him, Howard confirmed the king’s sound judgement when he dealt speedily with fresh troubles in 1492. In his prime, he was now regarded as England’s premier general and a close counsellor to Henry. It was Howard who brokered the truce and royal marriage in 1502 and, in the following year, accompanied Princess Margaret north to Scotland. There he met James and the two men may have formed an instant bond, to a degree which sparked a jealous complaint from the bride! Within five years all of his family’s lands were back in his possession. The old Yorkist had come full circle. On the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, Howard might have expected to continue in the role of senior advisor but found his position challenged by the parvenu Thomas Wolsey. Although his talents were still useful (he headed the peace delegation to France in 1510), the earl found himself increasingly sidelined. Peevishly, he flounced out of the court two years later.
It was probably, certainly in Howard’s eyes, Wolsey’s pernicious influence with the king that denied him a command in the forces being mustered for France. Manning the border against possible Scottish incursion appeared a far drearier prospect with little chance for spoil or glory. Ironically, Wolsey had done his perceived rival a considerable favour for it was on the despised frontier that the only martial glory of 1513 was to be won. He was clearly the best qualified of the English magnates to hold the northern command. He knew the marches, he knew the borderers and he knew the man against whom he would have to fight. On 1 February 1514, in consideration of his great victory, he was created 2nd Duke of Norfolk.23
In 1513 Thomas Howard was forty, ‘small and of spare stature’, dark haired like his father. His early career had rather been overshadowed by the more swashbuckling persona of his brother Edward. Both were accomplished in the lists, Thomas the more so, but Edward had that swagger that Henry admired. As Lord Admiral, he defeated and killed Andrew Barton and went on to blockade the French fleet in Brest on the outbreak of hostilities. It was in the course of a typically buccaneering cutting out action that Edward was killed24 and Thomas succeeded to his high office.
The campaign of Flodden was to be the first major test of his leadership skills and he would not be found wanting. In due course he succeeded to his father’s dukedom and was active in putting down the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536–37. A staunch recusant he remained a powerful figure at court though his plans to marry the ageing king off to his nubile niece. Katherine Howard backfired horribly. On the night of Henry’s death, Howard was in the Tower awaiting the executioner’s attentions in the morning. Reprieved by fate, he went on to play his part in the reign of Mary Tudor.
The younger and less distinguished son, he fought valiantly at Flodden but never enjoyed the favour and advancement of his older brothers though he did father a future if disastrous queen, Katherine Howard. He died before she married the king and seems to have been regarded as something of a wastrel by contemporaries, amassing large debts and spending much time avoiding his creditors.25
The Stanleys were a martial family whose decisive intervention on behalf of Henry Tudor at Bosworth had changed the course of English history. Hitherto, they had been staunch Yorkists and Sir Edward was a worthy heir to this tradition, acting as a pallbearer at Edward IV’s funeral. His ideas were, for the period in which he lived, unconventional; ‘this most martial and heroic captain, soldier-like, lived for some time in the strange opinion that the soul of man was like the winding up of a watch, that when the spring was down, the man died and the soul determined.’ He was appointed, in 1485, High Sheriff of Lancashire and also served as Commissioner of Array for Yorkshire and Westmorland.
He was of mature years at Flodden though his father, the Earl of Derby, was still actively campaigning in France. Sir Edward was in fact the earl’s fifth son. Although his contingent was late in arriving on the field, mislaid temporarily in the fog of war or, in this case, the mist and rain of wet Northumberland, he and his affinity did good service, turning the probability of English victory into a certainty. It was Bishop Ruthal of Durham who recommended his elevation to the peerage.
The Dacres were a famous Cumbrian name, active throughout the Border wars.26 Randolph, Lord Dacre of Gilsland had died fighting for the House of Lancaster at Towton in 1461. Thomas fought for Richard III at Bosworth, though his backing of the wrong side didn’t appear to spoil his prospects under Henry Tudor. The successful usurper recognised Dacre’s talent and the importance of his name on the marches. In May 1486, Thomas was appointed deputy warden in the west and served as full warden from 1509. He was admitted as a Knight of the Bath in 1503 and latterly to the order of the Garter.
A canny borderer, there was always the suggestion that he and Home had colluded prior to Flodden. Such private arrangements would not be, by any means, unusual. Surrey, who admired the Cumbrian’s ready courage, was less impressed by his organisational skills, ‘a peerless knight but neglectful of order’.27
Sir Marmaduke Constable stout
Accompanied by his seemly sons
Sir William Bulmer with his rout,
Lord Clifford with his clapping guns
Ballad: Battle of Flodden Field
Known as ‘the little’; Sir Marmaduke was a Yorkshire knight whose seat was at Flamborough. Another who had fought for Richard III, nonetheless he enjoyed favour with both Henry VII and his son; serving from time to time as High Sheriff of both his native county and of Staffordshire. At Flodden, his affinity not only included three of his sons but also his son-in-law, William Percy, and a brother, Sir William Constable. Ironically one of his descendants, another William, became one of the regicides in 1649.
Black sheep of an English gentry family, Heron resided at Crawley Tower near Wooler. Perhaps the most notorious incident in a career of thuggery was the killing of Scottish Middle march warden, Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, at a Truce day in April 1508. Ker was the King’s Butler, Master of Ordnance and royal favourite. Nonetheless, ‘he seems to have drawn great odium from the borderers of both kingdoms by the severe and rigorous manner with which he exercised his jurisdiction’.28 Both of Heron’s seconds or accomplices, Lilburn and Starhead, paid for participation in this crime with their lives, though John apparently evaded all attempts at justice. Despite James’ voluble protests, Heron’s depredations appear to have been winked at by the English authorities.
Killing Sir Robert Ker, whether this was plain murder or the outcome of a duel, ranked as a clear and serious breach of the prevailing accord between both kingdoms. Sir William Heron of Ford, the Bastard’s half-brother, was apparently handed over as a surety and found himself confined within the barren reaches of Fast Castle, perched dramatically above the North Berwickshire Coast. Legend (largely apocryphal) asserts John swiftly moved to enjoy the favours of his sister-in-law, Lady Heron at Ford. Edward Hall is adamant that it was Heron who rescued Edmund Howard at Flodden whilst Dacre’s men stood idly by.29
Though a mere stripling of seventeen, John led the contingent raised by his father, the Bishop of Ely, also Sir John Stanley. The younger John was knighted by Surrey for his services during the fight. He’d apparently vowed to endow a chapel if he survived the campaign and a memorial in Manchester cathedral attests to this fact. Shortly after his return he married the 12-year-old heiress of William Handforth who had been killed in the battle. In 1528 the couple parted by agreement in order that both could enter holy orders.30
Our main source for all alleged intimacy between the King of Scots and Lady Heron is Pitscottie. She was married to William Heron, whose older brother John had been English East and Middle march warden. John died at the age of 26 in 1498, leaving William as his heir and successor as Middle march warden. William may not have been as disreputable as his notorious half-brother but he may have been equally involved in border skulduggery. He was handed over as hostage after the killing of the Scottish warden and not released till after Flodden when he was exchanged for George Home.
Pitscottie avers that: ‘the lady of Ford was a beautiful woman, and that the King meddled with her, and also his son, Alexander Stuart, bishop of St. Andrews with her daughter which was against God’s commandment’. This is all rather soap opera and has no corroboration. Sir William himself died in 1535 leaving a widow Agnes, clearly a second wife. No daughter is mentioned and his son, another William, had predeceased him.31
NOTES
1. It was David I who began filtering Anglo-Norman barons into Scotland.
2. The Lordship of the Isles was the princely status enjoyed by chiefs of Clan Donald, inheritors of Somerled.
3. The Battle of Harlaw 1411 marked the major clash of arms between the Lordship and Crown forces under the Earl of Mar.
4. His grandfather James II had been killed at the siege of Roxburgh in 1461 when one of his own cannon exploded.
5. By 1512 he was described as ‘master meltar’ of royal ordnance; Caldwell, D.H., Scottish weapons & fortifications 1100-1880 (Edinburgh, 1981), pp. 73–93.
6. Macdougall, N., James IV (Edinburgh, 1989), pp. 235–6.
7. Edward Hall, King Henry the VIII, vol. 1 (London, 1904), p. 109.
8. Polydore Vergil, Historia Anglia 26, chap 41.
9. Tasioulas, J.A. (ed.), The Makers (Edinburgh, 1999), p. 277 stanza 25.
10. Macdougall, p. 254.
11. The Battle of Homildon Hill 1402, a major defeat for the Scots near Wooler.
12. The Scottish contingent defeated the English at Bauge but were decimated at Verneuil in 1424.
13. A ‘chevauchee’ was a substantial raid aimed at inflicting economic damage; it derives from the time of the Hundred Years War.
14. Home died a traitor’s death in 1516.
15. Buchanan, History, II, pp. 253–5.
16. This epithet is said to derive from Douglas’ willingness to slaughter the king’s favourite, Robert Cochrane and others.
17. The Earl of Moray, with Queen Mary’s blessing, defeated Huntly’s Catholic rising. ‘The Cock of the North’ died, probably from natural causes in the aftermath.
18. Macdougall, pp. 188–90.
19. Taylor, J., The Great Historic Families of Scotland (1889), vol. II, p. 298.
20. Macdougall, pp. 184–6.
21. Ibid., p. 306.
22. Campbell, W., Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, vol. II (1877), p. 480.
23. Scarisbrick, J.J. Henry VIII (London, 1968), p. 39.
24. Ibid., p. 34.
25. See Bindoff, S.T., The House of Commons 1509–1538 (London, 1982), p. 564.
26. Dacre’s famous Red Bull banner would fly over many a border fight.
27. Gibbs, V. (ed.), Complete Peerage (1916), vol. IV, p. 20.
28. Wright T., History of Scotland (London), vol. I, p. 279.
29. Bates C.J., History of Northumberland (London, 1895), pp. 206–8.
30. See, Ferguson, J.A., Lords to Labourers; the named English participants in the 1513 Flodden campaign (Northumberland, 2011), p. 25.
31. Hedley, Percy W., Northumberland Families (Newcastle 1970), vol. 2, p. 43.