LATER SCOTTISH INVASIONS
1424-1542
When in 1424 James I., after his long captivity in England, took over
the government of Scotland, his energies were mainly directed to
internal reform, though he made in 1436 a fruitless attempt to recover
Roxburgh. James II. attacked Berwick in 1455, and raided the Border
next year. In 1460 Roxburgh was recovered, though James himself was
killed by a bursting cannon. England, involved in the Wars of the
Roses, could do little. As the price of assistance rendered to the
Lancastrians, Scotland regained Berwick, which was retained until 1482,
when Prince Richard, afterwards King Richard III., finally recovered it
for England.
For thirty years thereafter a precarious peace subsisted between the
two kingdoms, but dread and dislike of England were always strong in
Scotland, which was also more or less attached to England’s old enemy,
France. James IV. interfered in the cause of the adventurer Perkin
Warbeck in 1497 without effect, and the Earl of Surrey retaliated by
a raid. Hostilities were ended by the Peace of Ayton. In 1503 James
married Henry VII.’s daughter Margaret.
For ten years the peace subsisted, but the chronic Border feuds were
a constant source of trouble. Henry was suspicious of the frequent
passage through his realm of Scotsmen proceeding to France. James
was busy endeavouring to form a navy, and his captains, Andrew and
Robert Barton and Sir Andrew Wood, were often in conflict with English
vessels. It was the rule of those days that navy ships must support
themselves, and the English, who were often probably little better,
regarded the Scots admirals as pirates. There is little doubt that they
did occasionally behave as such.
Up to 1511 the peace lasted, though the fierce and resolute Henry
VIII. was a more dangerous neighbour than his father. But in August
came an event which precipitated hostilities. It appears that Andrew
Barton had made prize of English ships, and Lord Edward Howard, High
Admiral of England, with his brother Thomas, attacked him as he was
cruising in the English Channel. After a fierce struggle Barton was
slain, and his two ships, the _Lion_ and the _Jennet Perwyn_, were
taken. James protested, but Henry haughtily declined to treat upon a
matter of piracy. Yet it seems that he released the prisoners, and
certainly offered to make fair compensation for the unjustifiable
actions of Englishmen. In May, 1512, Lord Dacre and Dr. West appeared
in Edinburgh, but at the same time came the French Ambassador, De la
Motte, with instructions to enlist, if possible, Scotland on the side
of France in the impending struggle with England. The wisdom of making
a diversion on England’s rear was obvious. James informed Henry that
he could consent to no peace which did not include France. De la Motte
came and went between Paris and Edinburgh, and supplies of all kinds
were sent from France. To James’s romantic nature Queen Anne’s ring and
the message to ‘her true knight,’ begging him to invade England for her
sake, were perhaps dearer.
On June 30 Henry VIII. crossed to Calais to invade France, and on July
26 James sent Lyon King-at-Arms to declare war. A squadron of thirteen
ships, under the Earl of Arran, was sent into the Irish Sea, perhaps
to make a diversion by attacking Ireland. This attempt was a failure.
A futile attack was made on Carrickfergus, and then the Scottish fleet
disappears from the scene.
The whole fighting population of Scotland was ordered to assemble on
the Boroughmuir of Edinburgh. To-day the population of England is eight
times that of Scotland. In 1801 it was only five and a half times as
great, and in 1513 the discrepancy may have been less. Assuming it to
have been the same, and taking the population of England at 4,000,000,
that of Scotland would be about 700,000, and the number of fighting men
perhaps 100,000; but though this is the figure given by Hall, it is
unlikely that more than 50,000 took the field. The English chronicler
would naturally incline to exaggeration.
Still, the army was the most formidable that Scotland had ever
sent forth. Thanks to France, the Lowlanders were well equipped as
regards defensive armour. Hall says that the English arrows had less
effect than of old. The Highlanders however, as a whole, lacked mail
and consequently efficiency; and the Borderers were unstable and
turbulent, and attached more importance to pillage than fighting.
The grand Lowland foot-spearmen were, as ever, the backbone of the
army, but it lacked anything like a proper proportion of archers and
arquebusiers. The artillery was largely composed of fine cast pieces,
the work of Robert Borthwick, James’s famous master-gunner. It appears
to have included some forty guns in all, but there were few trained
artillerymen.
To cover his concentration, James ordered a raid into Northumberland
under Lord Home, High Chamberlain of Scotland and Warden of all the
Marches. Home has gained a bad reputation in the annals of his country,
but it would seem that his fault was not treachery, but mere lack
of military capacity. He collected a force estimated by the English
writers--probably with exaggeration--at 7,000 men, and did much damage;
but on his retreat he was overtaken by a small English force under Sir
William Bulmer at Milfield-on-Till, and routed with a loss of 1,000
men.
[Illustration: THE VIEW NORTH-WEST FROM FLODDEN FIELD.
Across the slope in the foreground the Scots probably advanced to
meet the English, moving past Branxton Church, which is below
the hill to the right. This was the panorama which presented
itself to the eyes of the Scottish left wing. On the left are
the Eildon Hills, in the centre is Home Castle and a bend of
the Tweed near Coldstream, and on the right Dirrington Great
and Little Laws.]
Henry, to use Hall’s quaint language, had not forgotten ‘ye olde
pranks of ye Scottes,’ and had made dispositions for the adequate
defence of the realm during his absence. His general in the north
was Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, Lord Treasurer and High Marshal
of England, a veteran nearly seventy years of age, who had fought
for Richard III. at Bosworth, but had become reconciled to the new
conditions and commanded against James sixteen years before. Henry was
undoubtedly wise in leaving him to watch over England, but the old
warrior himself was disappointed at losing a chance of distinguishing
himself in France. He grumbled in good English fashion, and growled
that, if James did invade, he should meet more than he had bargained
for. ‘Sory may I se hym or I dye that is the cause of mye abydynge
behynde, and if ever hee and I mete, I shall doe that inne mee lyeth
to make hyme as sory if I canne.’ In July, as the danger became
more imminent, he established himself at Pontefract to organize the
defence of the north. The efficacy of his measures is apparent in the
remarkable rapidity of his concentration.
On August 22 the Scottish army occupied Twisel, and on the following
day began the siege of Norham, which had often defied the strength
of Scotland in bygone days. But James brought his guns to bear
upon the walls, and breaches soon began to appear. The garrison
fought desperately and repelled three assaults, but, in the effort
to keep down the Scottish cannonade, rapidly expended their stock
of ammunition. On the 29th, without further means of defence, the
castle surrendered. This was a considerable success for James, and
was improved by the capture of Etal and Ford Castles. The next object
of attack would probably have been Berwick, but already the English
Army of the North was on the way. James therefore took up a strong
position west of the Till, and awaited attack, his own quarters being
for some days at Ford. Round this latter circumstance has gathered the
time-honoured but baseless legend that he wasted weeks in dalliance
with Lady Heron.
Surrey heard of the Scottish advance on August 25, and promptly ordered
his forces to assemble at Newcastle. He directed his son Thomas, who
commanded the fleet on the coast, to join him with his marines. On
September 1 he advanced, but the weather was so bad that not until the
3rd did he reach Alnwick, where he halted to close up. On the 4th the
Admiral joined with 1,000 men. The army was now 26,000 strong.
[Illustration: WEAPONS NOW PRESERVED IN BAMBOROUGH CASTLE TYPICAL OF
BORDER WARFARE.
1 and 6. Axes. 2. A partizan. 3. A trident. 4. Lochaber axe. 5. A bill.
7. A spear.]
Surrey organized his force in two corps. The Vanguard was commanded
by the Admiral, who led his main body in person, with his brother
Edmund in charge of his right wing and the venerable Sir Marmaduke
Constable[G] leading his left. The Rearguard was under Surrey’s
personal control. Lord Dacre led its right wing, composed mainly of
Border horsemen; and Sir Edward Stanley its left, consisting chiefly of
the fine archers of Lancashire and Cheshire. The artillery train was
under Sir Nicholas Appleyard. For the last time the famous banner of
St. Cuthbert was carried into action.
[G] This ancient warrior was buried in Flamborough Church seven
years later, and in his long and quaint epitaph appear the
lines:
‘At Brankiston feld, wher the kyng of Scottys was slayne,
He, then beyng of the age of three score and tene,
With the gode duke of Northefolke yt jurney he haye tayn.’
On September 6 Surrey reached Wooler, ‘three lytel miles, from the
King of Scots,’ says Hall. Counting upon James’s reputation for rash
chivalry, he sent him a formal challenge to fight on the 9th. The
Admiral added a provocative message of his own, informing James that
he was there in person to answer for the death of Barton. All this
‘quarrelling by the book’ was quite in the style of the times, a fact
which Mr. Andrew Lang and other modern writers who have commented upon
the ‘insolence’ of the Howards, appear to have forgotten.
The Scots were encamped upon a mass of hilly ground lying three miles
above the junction of the Glen with the Till. The southern portion
of this mass is roughly circular at the base, from two to three
miles across in every direction and 700 feet high. On the north and
north-east it sinks somewhat sharply 400 feet to a valley, across
which a saddleback runs to a second mass, roughly quadrangular, nearly
four miles long and two in breadth. The western portion is 800 feet
high; Barley Hill, the southern spur, is 582; Flodden Edge, on the
north-east, overlooking the Till, is 509. The northern spur is called
Branxton Hill; it drops from 500 feet to 227 feet at Branxton Church,
just below.
If only three miles separated the armies, the Scots must have been
stationed on the southern mass, between Milfield and Kirknewton. The
artillery was at the foot of the slope. On the 7th there was a distant
cannonade, but no further fighting. The Scottish position was far too
strong to be attacked. On the 8th, therefore, Surrey moved to his right
across the Till to Barmoor. He was, so Hall says, only two miles from
the Scottish front. This must mean that the English outposts on the
ridge between Ford and Doddington were about two miles from the Till.
The English main army, however, was behind the ridge, out of view of
the Scots.
From the ridge--perhaps the part above Fordwood--Surrey and his son
reconnoitred James’s position. Holinshed says that it was the Admiral
who advised his father to make a turning movement across Twisel Bridge,
and so plant himself on the Scottish communications. Hall, who is very
detailed as to the Admiral’s doings, does not say so; in any case, the
decision rested with Surrey. The momentous resolution was taken, and at
daybreak the English army marched for Twisel.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE FLODDEN MANŒUVRE.
Showing the English flank march behind the screen of hills.]
The Scots committed a fatal blunder in leaving Twisel Bridge unguarded.
It can, of course, be said for them that strategy so bold as that
of Surrey was almost unheard of in mediæval warfare. But there does
not appear to have been a picket at the bridge, nor does any attempt
seem to have been made to keep in touch with the English army by
means of the light Border moss-troopers. Either the Scottish leaders
were incapable of penetrating a skilful but hazardous design, or the
Borderers were surprisingly useless for scouting.
From Barmoor to Twisel Bridge is about nine miles. Wet weather had
rendered the tracks very difficult, and progress was doubtless slow.
Hall also says that the English were starving, but this statement
cannot be accepted; the vigour with which they acted sufficiently
disproves it. The bridge was found unguarded, and the Vanguard began to
stream across. The artillery train followed. The Rearguard appears to
have crossed chiefly by Mill Ford, a mile above Twisel. As the armies
were not in contact until about 4 p.m., it cannot be doubted that the
passage was not detected by the Scots until after midday.
The Scottish army was probably watching the line of the Till above
Ford, with its artillery at the foot of its strong position. Its
order of battle can only be surmised. The common idea that it was ill
supplied seems to be baseless; the Bishop of Durham, who had means of
knowing, stated that the Scottish camps were full of provisions. France
had sent shiploads of supplies, and the army had only been eighteen
days in the field. Assuming that James had commenced the campaign with
50,000 men, he must still have had 40,000 at least.
[Illustration:
_A. Rischgitz._
THOMAS HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY, SECOND DUKE OF NORFOLK (1443-1524).
The Victor at Flodden over James IV. of Scotland.]
The Scottish scouts appear to have interpreted the English movement as
a counter-invasion of Scotland, and so it was reported to James.
Tents were hurriedly struck and parked, and the unwieldy host proceeded
to change front to the north. The varied and undisciplined character of
the Scottish army must have rendered the complicated manœuvre slow and
difficult. It is possible that James intended to recross the Tweed at
Coldstream in order to deal with the supposed invasion. On the other
hand, it is probable that Surrey hoped to encamp for the night on
Branxton Hill, and not to engage until next day.
About 3.30 p.m. the English Vanguard was passing Branxton Church. The
Scots were still scattered over the upland in five great masses, three
of which were moving over Branxton Hill. A division under Lords Home
and Huntly was leading on the left; next came another under the Earls
of Crawford and Montrose. On its right rear was the centre, under King
James, with Lord Sinclair in command of the artillery. The Earl of
Bothwell’s division, and the Highlanders under the Earls of Lennox and
Argyll, were still far behind. The English order of battle has already
been given. There was a considerable interval between the Vanguard and
Rearguard. The artillery was with the Vanguard.
James, seeing from the heights the English passing Branxton, ordered
the rubbish in the camps to be fired, that the acrid smoke, borne on
the south-west breeze, might drive in the face of the foe, and under
cover of it the three Scottish divisions began to advance. Probably
the smoke confused them as well; it must have put the English on the
alert. Still, the silent advance was to some extent a surprise. As the
English van reached the Branxton brook the smoke cleared away, and they
saw the Scottish ‘battles’ bristling with pikes in their front. The
peril was imminent. Taking the _Agnus Dei_ from his neck, Lord Thomas
sent it to his father, begging him to hasten into line, and hurriedly
fronted up the Vanguard. The artillery, coming into action on the left,
pounded furiously at the Scots pouring down the hill.
[Illustration: AN ENGLISH BILLMAN.]
Howard’s bold show had good effects. James halted to allow his guns
to come into action, but Borthwick’s beautiful pieces, worked by
ill-trained gunners, and badly placed on a slippery hillside, were
rapidly silenced or dismounted. Lord Sinclair was slain directing his
batteries, and the English guns soon gained the complete mastery. Then
Surrey hurried into line with his son, and James’s great opportunity
was gone. The English main-battle closed up on the Admiral and
Constable; Dacre took post behind Howard; Sir Edward Stanley was
hurrying to form on Surrey’s left. The English fire was directed
with deadly effect on the heavy masses of the Scottish centre; the
Scottish artillery was almost all out of action. Much has been said of
the rashness of the Scots in charging, but in truth there was little
alternative.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN.
Each block represents about 1,500 men. No attempt is made to
differentiate infantry and cavalry; the Scots were all on
foot during the battle and probably most of the English also.
English movements shown with dot and dash, Scottish with dashes
only.]
At first, all went well for Scotland. Home and Huntly bore down on
Edmund Howard’s division, while Crawford and Montrose charged the
Admiral. The two English divisions became separated from one another,
and Lord Edmund’s was completely broken and scattered, though he
himself cut his way through a body of Homes,[H] who endeavoured to stay
him, and joined his brother. The success of Home and Huntly was locally
complete; but they could not control their undisciplined followers,
many of whom scattered to plunder. Dacre hurried up his reserves,
and, though his Bamboroughshire and Tynemouth troops wavered and broke,
succeeded in checking the Chamberlain’s advance, and kept him at bay
throughout the battle.
[H] This body was commanded by Sir David Home, the father of
the famous ‘Seven Spears of Wedderburn.’ He himself was
slain by Howard in single combat, and with him fell his
eldest son. At Wedderburn Castle is a portion of a standard
which was probably the rallying-point of this unfortunate
detachment. After the fight it is said to have served as
Sir David’s winding-sheet.
[Illustration: A SCOTTISH PIKEMAN.]
The Scottish centre, moving down the hill, was met with a hail of
cannon-balls and arrows, but the sturdy yeomen came on with the finest
spirit, doffing their shoes to obtain firmer footing, never halting or
wavering. They closed upon the English centre, despite its heavy fire,
and under the weight and impetus of the charge it was forced backward.
But it was not broken, and the fight raged fiercely along the line,
James and his picked troops making repeated and desperate attempts to
pierce the stubborn English front.
The non-arrival of Bothwell and the Highlanders left James’s right
entirely uncovered, and Sir Edward Stanley, coming up from the Mill
Ford, was directed against it. His left reached the crown of Branxton
Hill without meeting any foe, but before he could develop his attack he
was charged by the Highlanders, who had at last arrived, while Bothwell
passed behind them down the slope to support the King.
It was bow against claymore. Again and again the wild Highlanders,
stripped to their shirts after their fashion, ‘like wave with crest of
sparkling foam,’ hurled themselves with fiery impulse upon Stanley’s
division--in vain. Their desperate courage availed nothing against the
deadly arrow flight of the best archers of England and, after both
their earls had fallen, they broke and fled westward over the space on
which the Scottish centre had stood, leaving the hillside heaped with
slain.
Somewhere about the same time, as it would seem, the Admiral had
succeeded in breaking the division of Crawford and Montrose; the earls
had fallen, and their followers were streaming away to the rear, and
becoming intermingled with the fleeing Highlanders. The sight of the
crowd of fugitives cannot but have had a fatal effect upon such troops
as Home and Huntly had succeeded in keeping together. Howard turned
the bulk of his victorious division against the uncovered left of the
Scots’ centre, while Stanley wheeled round upon its right and rear.
[Illustration:
BROWN BILL FROM NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE AND A BILL OF THE TIME OF HENRY
VIII.
(_From the Museum of Artillery, Woolwich._)]
These movements decided the battle. The Scottish centre and Bothwell’s
division were probably equal in number to the troops that assailed
them; but they were practically surrounded, destitute of artillery,
and with few arquebusiers and archers to respond to the steady fire
from the English guns, matchlocks, and bows, while the unwieldy
dimensions and density of their defensive formation made manœuvring
impossible. Possibly the mass made endeavours to move to its left, but
for all practical purposes it was stationary, and nothing was left to
the gallant spearmen but to fight to the last. King James was in the
front rank, and so long as he lived he never ceased to lead desperate
attempts to break the English line. If he was no general, at least he
wielded his ‘vain knight-errant’s brand’ as became a king. Wounded
again and again, he was slain at last, within a few yards of where his
aged opponent sat in his chariot[I] directing the battle. Still his
followers fought on desperately. Scott has told the story of their
great stand in glowing verse. The last stages of the battle must have
taken place in ever-growing gloom, and when there was no longer light
to direct the charges Surrey drew off his troops. Under cover of night
the Scottish centre, shattered and broken, but unconquered still,
struggled away to Coldstream and so across Tweed, to tell Scotland the
story of disaster.
[I] Pitscottie calls him ‘an old crooked carle lying in a
chariot.’
[Illustration: KING JAMES IV. (1488-1513).
The last King of Scotland to lead a great national invasion of England.
_From the painting in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery,
Edinburgh._]
The English passed the night in bivouac on the field. All around the
Borderers of both armies were plundering indiscriminately, stripping
the dead, and committing, doubtless, nameless atrocities. They
impartially made prize of Surrey’s tents and baggage and the Scottish
artillery oxen, for want of which nearly the whole train had to be
abandoned. When morning came it was seen that the Scots’ centre had
disappeared. Home had got some of his troops in hand again, and was
in line towards the west, perhaps covering the retreat of the centre.
His demoralized and half-hearted men were scattered by artillery fire,
and drifted away across Tweed; and then Surrey could take stock of his
victory. On the slope of Branxton Hill the victors found dead the King
of Scots, his natural son Alexander, Archbishop of St. Andrews, two
bishops, two mitred abbots, twelve earls, fourteen lords, and hundreds
of scions of every noble house in Scotland. The whole Scottish loss can
hardly have been less than 10,000; the unmailed Highlanders had been
mown down in thousands. The English superiority in troops armed with
missile weapons must have had terrible results; and it should be
remembered that as a rule quarter was neither asked for nor given. The
English put their own losses as low as 1,500. Except in Edmund Howard’s
division, they must have been far lower in proportion than those of
the Scots; perhaps 4,000 in all is a fair estimate. Prisoners in such
a conflict could not have been numerous; the only definite record
is that of about sixty taken by the Scottish left wing. Surrey took
possession of nearly all the Scottish artillery: five ‘great drakes’
(? 24-pounders), seven ‘great culverins’ (18-pounders), four ‘sakers’
(5-pounders), and six ‘serpentines’ (? 4-pounders)--all beautiful brass
pieces wrought by Borthwick’s skilled hand--besides light guns.[J]
[J] Hall gives the total of large pieces at seventeen,
including two culverins; but Holinshed says that the ‘Seven
Sisters’ were all taken, and it is most unlikely that the
Scots could have saved any of these heavy guns.
So ended the Battle of Flodden. On the Scots’ side it was a magnificent
display of fruitless courage, very little aided by military skill. On
the part of England, all the commanders on the field worked together
as one man to gain the victory; and though some of the hasty county
levies showed unsteadiness, on the whole they admirably seconded their
leaders. The boldness of Surrey’s strategy is remarkable in such an
aged man. Napoleon was emphatically of opinion that military leaders
lose their boldness with advancing age. Tried by this standard, the
only modern leader who can challenge comparison with Surrey is
Suvórov, whose greatest triumphs were gained when he was almost seventy.
In Scotland the tendency has been to throw the blame for the
catastrophe upon Lord Home. That his Borderers and Huntly’s Highlanders
largely dispersed after their successful charge is no doubt true; but
seeing how entirely unstable and unreliable they always were in battle,
the chiefs can hardly be blamed. After Flodden Home became a partisan
of the English alliance, and has therefore been condemned by many
writers who regard his action from a narrowly patriotic standpoint.
He was clearly not a man of military ability, but there is no reason
to doubt that he did his duty. Lord Dacre’s letter to his Government,
dated May 17, 1514, effectually disposes of the idea that Home looked
on at the defeat of the Scottish centre and right. It was unfortunate
for him that he survived the battle only to be put out of the way by
the Regent Albany three years later.
Flodden as regards the courage displayed on the field was honourable
to both nations. In a sense it was a decisive battle, for it seems
to have brought home to public opinion in Scotland that the country
might do better than sacrifice itself for France. There were no more
great invasions of England. In 1522, and again in the following year,
the Scottish nobles refused point-blank to cross the Border against
England. But James V. was still disposed to adhere to the French
alliance, and Henry VIII.’s somewhat truculent diplomacy did not tend
to improve matters. With brief intervals of truce, the weary Border
warfare went on for many years. James’s marriage to Marie de Lorraine
in 1538 accentuated his leaning to France. In 1542, in order to make
a diversion in favour of François I., James drifted into open war. A
small English force invaded Scotland, but was badly beaten at Haddon
Rigg in Teviotdale. A larger expedition under the Duke of Norfolk (the
Admiral of Flodden) was more successful, but had no great results.
To cope with Norfolk, James collected a large army on Fala Muir.
Finding that Norfolk had already retired, he would have invaded
England; but once more the nobles declined to rush into disaster
for the sake of France. Bitterly mortified, James fell back on the
assistance of the great Churchmen, upon whom his Gallicizing policy
chiefly depended, and raised a new army, variously estimated at from
10,000 to 18,000 men strong. On November 24 it crossed the Border north
of Carlisle. The result was the disaster of Solway Moss, the most
melancholy affair in Scottish military annals.
James himself did not accompany his army, but remained at Lochmaben.
It was thus without a responsible commander, and not apparently until
the last moment was it announced that the King’s choice was Sir Oliver
Sinclair, Standard-Bearer of Scotland. The effect was disastrous. The
nobles present were exasperated at being placed under a mere knight,
whose only distinction was that he was his master’s favourite, and the
army became an incoherent mass of ill-disciplined contingents without
a responsible head. In this condition the Scots were attacked by the
English. Sir Thomas Wharton, Deputy-Warden of the Western Marches, had
collected 3,000 men at Carlisle; and informed by Thomas, a bastard
Dacre, and ‘Jacke’ of Musgrave, of the state of the Scots, advanced
against them.
The demoralized Scottish force was in a very dangerous position. Some
miles behind them were the Esk and the dangerous bogs of Solway Moss.
Their van was charged by a detachment of English cavalry and thrown
into disorder, and then the whole army, as it seems, began to retreat
in a huddled mass to the Esk. In vain the nobles present endeavoured
to rally their followers, and dismounted to set them an example. ‘In
a shake all the way,’ the demoralized Scots crowded back towards the
only point of passage across the Esk, a narrow ford near the hill of
Arthuret. The confusion grew worse and worse: prisoners were taken and
men lost in the marshes. At the ford every trace of order was lost, and
the English, making a final charge, thrust the army into the river and
Solway Moss. The rout was piteous. Only twenty men are said to have
been slain in fight, but hundreds were drowned and suffocated in the
bogs; and 1,200 prisoners taken, including the unfortunate Sinclair,
two earls, five barons, and hundreds of gentlemen. Twenty-four cannon,
the Royal Standard of Scotland, and all the Scots’ baggage fell into
the hands of the victors.
Solway Moss was the cause of the premature death of James V., and more
than ever must have convinced the Scots that the French alliance was
the ruin of the country. But the blundering violence of England roused
the spirit of the nation, and repeated harryings of Lothian and the
disastrous defeat of Pinkie only fired its stubborn pride. For thirty
years, thanks to the blunders of her rulers, England was still to have
Scotland as a potential enemy. But after 1550 hostilities practically
ceased, and the growing strength of Protestantism in Scotland drew
the two countries slowly together. The Border disturbances gradually
died down; the presence of French mercenaries taught the Scottish
Protestants that French domination was more to be feared than that of
England. After the expulsion of Mary, a succession of rulers worked
steadily towards a closer friendship with England, and when the last
and greatest of the Tudors ended her life, the sceptre which she had
wielded so well passed quietly to the King of Scotland.
While the Scottish invasions were a perpetual menace to the peace of
the North, they cannot be said, in the slightest degree, to have really
threatened the national stability. Man for man, Scot and Englishman
were well matched, and in minor frays, in which individual and reckless
courage counted for much, the honours were fairly divided. In the
great invasions the political and economic conditions in Scotland were
never sufficiently favourable to allow of the formation of a properly
organized and equipped army large enough to make a serious impression.
The most effective Scottish invasions were those of Robert Bruce, but
the most dangerous of these only penetrated as far as York. After
Halidon Hill had taught the English generals what an effective weapon
they possessed in their archery, they never hesitated to give battle,
however great might be the odds against them.