had had hard work at the assault on the tower, and were meaning to be up
betimes to renew the attack), when the English were upon the camp,
crying, Percy! Percy! There was naturally great alarm. The English made
their attack at that part of the camp where, as before said, the
servants and foragers were lodged. This was, however, strong, and the
knights sent some of their men to hold it while they themselves were
arming. Then the Scots formed, each under his own earl and captain. It
was night, but the weather was fair and the moon shining. The Scots did
not go straight for the English, but took their way along by the marshes
and by a hill, according to a plan which they had previously arranged
against the case that their camp should be attacked. The English made
short work with the underlings, but, as they advanced, always found
fresh people to keep up a skirmish. And now the Scots, having executed a
flank movement, fell upon their assailants in a mass, from a quarter
where nothing was looked for, shouting their battle-cries with one
voice. The English were astounded, but closed up, and gave them Percy!
for Douglas! Then began a fell battle. The English, being in excess and
eager to win, beat back the Scots, who were at the point of being
worsted. James Douglas, who was young, strong, and keen for glory, sent
his banner to the front, with the cry, Douglas! Douglas! Henry and Ralph
Percy, indignant against the earl for the loss of the pennon, turned in
the direction of the cry, responding, Percy! Knights and squires had no
thought but to fight as long as spears and axes would hold out. It was a
hand-to-hand fight; the parties were so close together that the archers
of neither could operate; neither side budged, but both stood firm. The
Scots showed extraordinary valor, for the English were three to one; but
be this said without disparagement of the English, who have always done
their duty.
As has been said, the English were so strong that they were forcing
their foes back, and this James Douglas saw. To regain the ground, he
took a two-handed axe, plunged into the thickest, and opened a path
before him; for there was none so well armed in helmet or plate as not
to fear his strokes. So he made his way till he was hit by three spears,
all at once, one in the shoulder, another in the chest, another in the
thigh, and borne to the ground. The English did not know that it was
Earl Douglas that had fallen; they would have been so much elated that
the day would have been theirs. Neither did the Scots; if they had, they
would have given up in despair. Douglas could not raise himself from the
ground, for he was wounded to the death. The crush about him was great,
but his people had kept as close to him as they could. His cousin, Sir
James Lindsay, reached the spot where he was lying, and with Lindsay Sir
John and Sir Walter Sinclair, and other knights and squires. Near him,
and severely wounded, they found his chaplain, William of North Berwick,
who had kept up with his master the whole night, axe in hand; also Sir
Robert Hart, with five wounds from lances and other weapons. Sir John
Sinclair asked the earl, Cousin, how fares it with you? ‘Indifferently,’
said the earl; ‘praised be God, few of my ancestors have died in their
beds. Avenge me, for I count myself dead. Walter and John Sinclair, up
with my banner, and cry, Douglas! and let neither friend nor foe know of
my state.’ The two Sinclairs and Sir John Lindsay did as they were
bidden, raised the banner, and shouted, Douglas! They were far to the
front, but others, who were behind, hearing the shout loudly repeated,
charged the English with such valor as to drive them beyond the place
where Douglas now lay dead, and came up with the banner which Sir John
Lindsay was bearing, begirt and supported by good Scots knights and
squires. The Earl of Murray came up too, and the Earl of March and
Dunbar as well, and they all, as it were, took new life when they saw
that they were together and that the English were giving ground. Once
more was the combat renewed. The English had the disadvantage of the
fatigue of a rapid march from Newcastle, by reason whereof their will
was better than their wind, whereas the Scots were fresh; and the
effects appeared in this last charge, in which the Scots drove the
English so far back that they could not recover their lost ground. Sir
Ralph Percy had already been taken prisoner. Like Douglas, he had
advanced so far as to be surrounded, and being so badly wounded that his
hose and boots were full of blood, he surrendered to Sir John Maxwell.
Henry Percy, after a valorous fight with the Lord Montgomery, became
prisoner to the Scottish knight.
It was a hard battle and well fought, but such are the turns of fortune
that, although the English were the greater number, and all bold men and
practised in arms, and although they attacked the enemy valiantly, and
at first drove them back a good distance, the Scots in the end won the
day. The losses of the English were put by their antagonists at 1040
prisoners, 1860 killed in the fight and the pursuit, and more than 1000
wounded; those of the Scots were about 100 killed and 200 captured.[160]
The Scots retired without molestation, taking the way to Melrose Abbey,
where they caused the Earl of Douglas to be interred, and his obsequies
to be reverently performed. Over his body a tomb of stone was built, and
above this was raised the earl’s banner.
Such is the story of the battle of Otterburn, fought on Wednesday, the
19th day of August,[161] in the year of grace 1388, as related by
Froissart (with animated tributes to the hardihood and generosity of
both parties) upon the authority of knights and squires actually
present, both English and Scots, and also French.
Wyntoun, ix, 840–54, 900f (Laing, III, 36f) says that the alarm was
given the Scots by a young man that came right fast riding (cf. #A# 20,
21, #B# 4, #C# 17), and that many of the Scots were able to arm but
imperfectly; among these Earl James, who was occupied with getting his
men into order and was “reckless of his arming,” and the Earl of Murray,
who forgot his basnet (cf. #C# 20). Earl James was slain no man knew in
what way. Bower, Scotichronicon, II, 405, agrees with Wyntoun. English
chroniclers, Knyghton, col. 2728, Walsingham (Riley, II, 176[162]),
Malverne, the continuator of Higden (Polychronicon, Lumby, IX, 185),
assert that Percy killed Douglas with his own hand, Knyghton adding that
Percy also wounded the Earl of Murray to the point of death.
That a Scots ballad of Otterburn was popular in the sixteenth century
appears from The Complaynte of Scotlande, 1549, where a line is cited,
The Perssee and the Mongumrye met, p. 65, ed. Murray: cf. #B# 9^1, #C#
30^1.[163] In the following century Hume of Godscroft writes:[164] The
Scots song made of Otterburn telleth the time, about Lammasse, and the
occasion, to take preyes out of England; also the dividing of the armies
betwixt the Earles of Fife and Douglas, and their severall journeys,
almost as in the authentick history. It beginneth thus:
It fell about the Lammas tide,
When yeomen wonne their hay,
The doughtie Douglas gan to ride,
In England to take a prey.
Motherwell maintains that the ballad which passes as English is the
Scots song altered to please the other party. His argument, however, is
far from conclusive. “That The Battle of Otterbourne was thus dealt with
by an English transcriber appears obvious, for it studiously omits
dilating on Percy’s capture, while it accurately details his combat with
Douglas;” that is to say, the ballad as we have it is just what a real
English ballad would have been, both as to what it enlarges on and what
it slights. “Whereas it would appear that in the genuine Scottish
version the capture of Percy formed a prominent incident, seeing it is
the one by which the author of The Complaynt refers to the ballad [The
Perssee and the Mongumrye met]:” from which Motherwell was at liberty to
deduce that #B# and #C# represent the genuine Scottish version, several
stanzas being given to the capture of Percy in these; but this he would
not care to do, on account of the great inferiority of these forms. A
Scotsman could alter an English ballad “to suit political feeling and
flatter national vanity,” as Motherwell says the Scots _did_ with Chevy
Chace. (See further on, p. 303.) There is no reason to doubt that a
Scots ballad of Otterburn once existed, much better than the two
inferior, and partly suspicious, things which were printed by Herd and
Scott, and none to doubt that an English minstrel would deal freely with
any Scots ballad which he could turn to his purpose; but then there is
no evidence, positive or probable, that this particular ballad was
“adapted” from the Scots song made of Otterburn; rather are we to infer
that the few verses of #B# and #C# which repeat or resemble the text of
#A# were borrowed from #A#, and, as likely as not, Hume’s first stanza
too.[165]
#A#, in the shape in which it has come down to us, must have a date long
subsequent to the battle, as the grammatical forms show; still, what
interested the borderers a hundred years or more after the event must
have interested people of the time still more, and it would be against
the nature of things that there should not have been a ballad as early
as 1400. The ballad we have is likely to have been modernized from such
a predecessor, but I am not aware that there is anything in the text to
confirm such a supposition, unless one be pleased to make much of the
Wednesday of the eighteenth stanza. The concluding stanza implies that
Percy is dead, and he was killed at Shrewsbury, in 1403.
#A.# 3. Hoppertope hyll, says Percy, is a corruption for Ottercap Hill
(now Ottercaps Hill) in the parish of Kirk Whelpington, Tynedale Ward,
Northumberland. Rodclyffe Cragge (now Rothley Crags) is a cliff near
Rodeley, a small village in the parish of Hartburn, in Morpeth Ward,
south-east of Ottercap; and Green Leyton, corruptly Green Lynton, is
another small village, south-east of Rodeley, in the same parish.
Reliques, 1794, I, 22.
8. Henry Percy seems to have been in his twenty-third year. As for his
having been a march-man “all his days,” he is said to have begun
fighting ten years before, in 1378, and to have been appointed Governor
of Berwick and Warden of the Marches in 1385: White, History of the
Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 f. Walsingham calls both Percy and Douglas
young men, and Froissart speaks at least twice of Douglas as young.
Fraser, The Douglas Book, 1885, I, 292, says that Douglas was probably
born in 1358. White, as above, p. 91, would make him somewhat older.
17. The chivalrous trait in this stanza, and that in the characteristic
passage 36–44, are peculiar to this transcendently heroic ballad.
26, 27. The earldom of Menteith at the time of this battle, says Percy,
following Douglas’s Peerage, was possessed by Robert Stewart, Earl of
Fife, third son of King Robert II; but the Earl of Fife was in command
of the main body and not present. (As Douglas married a daughter of King
Robert II, the Earl of Fife was not his uncle, but his brother-in-law.)
The mention of Huntley, says Percy, shows that the ballad was not
composed before 1449; for in that year Alexander, Lord of Gordon and
Huntley, was created Earl of Huntley by King James II. The Earl of
Buchan at that time was Alexander Stewart, fourth son of the king.
Reliques, 1794, I, 36.
35^2. ‘The cronykle will not layne.’ So in ‘The Rose of England,’ No
166, st. 22^4, ‘The cronickles of this will not lye,’ and also 17^2; and
in ‘Flodden Field,’ appendix, p. 360, st. 121^4.
43, 49. It will be remembered that the archers had no part in this
fight.
45, 46. “The ancient arms of Douglas are pretty accurately emblazoned in
the former stanza, and if the readings were, The crowned harte, and,
Above stode starres thre, it would be minutely exact at this day. As for
the Percy family, one of their ancient badges or cognizances was a white
lyon statant, and the silver crescent continues to be used by them to
this day. They also give three luces argent for one of their quarters.”
Percy, as above, p. 30.
48. So far as I know, St George does not appear as Our Lady’s knight in
any legendary, though he is so denominated or described elsewhere in
popular tradition. So in the spell for night-mare, which would naturally
be of considerable antiquity,
S. George, S. George, Our Ladies knight,
He walkt by day, so did he by night, etc.:
Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, as reprinted by
Nicholson, p. 68, ed. 1665, p. 48; and Fletcher’s Monsieur Thomas, iv.
6, Dyce, VII, 388. In Nicholas Udall’s ‘Roister Doister,’ known to be as
old as 1551, Matthew Merrygreek exclaims, “What then? sainct George to
borow, Our Ladie’s knight!” Ed. W. D. Cooper, p. 77, Shakespeare
Society, 1847. The Danish ballad of St George, ‘St Jørgen og Dragen,’
Grundtvig, No 103, II, 559 ff, the oldest version of which is from a
16th century MS., begins, “Knight St George, thou art my man” (svend);
and in the second version, George, declining the princess whom he has
rescued, says he has vowed to Mary to be her servant.[166] In the
corresponding Swedish ballad, of the same age as the Danish, George is
called Mary’s knight (Maria honom riddare gjorde, st. 2): Geijer and
Afzelius, ed. Bergström, II, 402. This is also his relation in German
ballads: Meinert, p. 254; Ditfurth, I, 55, No 68.[167]
#B.# 1, 9, 14 nearly resemble #A# 1, 50, 68, and must have the same
origin. In #B# 9 Douglas is changed to Montgomery; in 14 Douglas is
wrongly said to have been buried on the field, instead of at Melrose
Abbey, where his tomb is still to be seen.
7 is founded upon a tradition reported by Hume of Godscroft: “There are
that say that he was not slain by the enemy, but by one of his owne men,
a groome of his chamber, whom he had struck the day before with a
truncheon in the ordering of the battell, because hee saw him make
somewhat slowly to; and they name this man John Bickerton of Luffenesse,
who left a part of his armour behinde unfastned, and when hee was in the
greatest conflict, this servant of his came behinde his back and slew
him thereat.” Ed. 1644, p. 105.
11. The summons to surrender to a braken-bush is not in the style of
fighting-men or fighting-days, and would justify Hotspur’s contempt of
metre-ballad-mongers.
12, 13. #B# agrees with Froissart in making a Montgomery to be the
captor of Henry Percy, whereas #A# represents that Montgomery was taken
prisoner and exchanged for Percy. In The Hunting of the Cheviot Sir Hugh
Montgomery kills Percy, and in return is shot by a Northumberland
archer.
#C.# Scott does not give a distinct account of this version. He says
that he had obtained two copies, since the publication of the earlier
edition, “from the recitation of old persons residing at the head of
Ettrick Forest, by which the story is brought out and completed in a
manner much more correspondent to the true history.” #C# is, in fact, a
combination of four copies; the two from Ettrick Forest, #B a#, and the
MS. copy used in #B b# to “correct” Herd.
8, it scarcely requires to be said, is spurious, modern in diction and
in conception.
19. Perhaps derived from Hume of Godscroft rather than from tradition.
When Douglas was dying, according to this historian,[168] he made these
last requests of certain of his kinsmen: “First, that yee keep my death
close both from our owne folke and from the enemy; then, that ye suffer
not my standard to be lost or cast downe; and last, that ye avenge my
death, and bury me at Melrosse with my father. If I could hope for these
things,” he added, “I should die with the greater contentment; for long
since I heard a prophesie that a dead man should winne a field, and I
hope in God it shall be I.” Ed. 1644, p. 100.
22 must be derived from the English version. As the excellent editor of
The Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland, Glasgow, 1871, remarks, “no Scottish
minstrel would ever have dreamt of inventing such a termination to the
combat between these two redoubted heroes ... as much at variance with
history as it is repulsive to national feeling:” p. 431.
Genealogical matters, in this and the following ballad, are treated, not
always to complete satisfaction, in Bishop Percy’s notes, Reliques,
1794, I, 34 ff; Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1833, I, 351, 363 ff: White’s
History of the Battle of Otterburn, p. 67 ff; The Ballads and Songs of
Ayrshire, I, 66 f.
#A# is translated by Doenniges, p. 87; #C# by Grundtvig, Engelske og
skotske Folkeviser, No 12, p. 74, and by Talvj, Charakteristik, p. 537.
A
#a.# Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv, leaf 64, of about 1550. #b.#
Harleian MS. 293, leaf 52.
1
Yt fell abowght the Lamasse tyde,
Whan husbond_es_ wynnes ther haye,
The dowghtye Dowglasse bowynd hym to ryde,
In Ynglond to take a praye.
2
The yerlle of Fyffe, w_y_t_h_owghten stryffe,
He bowynd hym over Sulway;
The grete wolde ever to-gether ryde;
That raysse they may rewe for aye.
3
Over Hoppertope hyll they cam in,
And so down by Rodclyffe crage;
Vpon Grene Lynton they lyghted dowyn,
Styrande many a stage.
4
And boldely brente Northomberlond,
And haryed many a towyn;
They dyd owr Ynglyssh men grete wrange,
To batell that were not bowyn.
5
Than spake a berne vpon the bent,
Of comforte that was not colde,
And sayd, We haue brente Northomberlond,
We haue all welth in holde.
6
Now we haue haryed all Bamborowe schyre,
All the welth in the worlde haue wee,
I rede we ryde to Newe Castell,
So styll and stalworthlye.
7
Vpon the morowe, when it was day,
The standerds schone full bryght;
To the Newe Castell the toke the waye,
And thether they cam full ryght.
8
S_yr_ Henry Perssy laye at the New Castell,
I tell yow w_y_t_h_owtten drede;
He had byn a march-man all hys dayes,
And kepte Barwyke vpon Twede.
9
To the Newe Castell when they cam,
The Skottes they cryde on hyght,
‘Syr Hary Perssy, and thou byste w_i_t_h_in,
Com to the fylde, and fyght.
10
‘For we haue brente Northomberlonde,
Thy erytage good and ryght,
And syne my logeyng I haue take
W_y_t_h_ my brande dubbyd many a knyght.’
11
S_yr_ Harry Perssy cam to the wall_es_,
The Skottyssch oste for to se,
And sayd, And thou hast brente Northomberlond
Full sore it rewyth me.
12
Yf thou hast haryed all Bamborowe schyre,
Thow hast done me grete envye;
For the trespasse thow hast me done,
The tone of vs schall dye.
13
‘Where schall I byde the?’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘Or where wylte thow com to me?’
‘At Otterborne, in the hygh way,
[T]her mast thow well logeed be.
14
‘[T]he roo full rekeles ther sche rinnes,
[T]o make the game a[nd] glee;
[T]he fawken and the fesaunt both,
Among the holtes on hye.
15
‘Ther mast thow haue thy welth at wyll,
Well looged ther mast be;
Yt schall not be long or I com the tyll,’
Sayd Syr Harry Perssye.
16
‘Ther schall I byde the,’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘By the fayth of my bodye:’
‘Thether schall I com,’ sayd S_yr_ Harry Perssy,
‘My trowth I plyght to the.’
17
A pype of wyne he gaue them over the walles,
For soth as I yow saye;
Ther he mayd the Dowglasse drynke,
And all hys ost that daye.
18
The Dowglas turnyd hym homewarde agayne,
For soth w_i_t_h_owghten naye;
He toke hys logeyng at Oterborne,
Vpon a Wedynsday.
19
And ther he pyght hys standerd dowyn,
Hys gettyng more and lesse,
And syne he warned hys men to goo
To chose ther geldyng_es_ gresse.
20
A Skottysshe knyght hoved vpon the bent,
A wache I dare well saye;
So was he ware on the noble Perssy,
In the dawnyng of the daye.
21
He prycked to hys pavyleon-dore,
As faste as he myght ronne;
‘Awaken, Dowglas,’ cryed the knyght,
‘For hys love that syttes in trone.
22
‘Awaken, Dowglas,’ cryed the knyght,
‘For thow maste waken wyth wynne;
Yender haue I spyed the prowde Perssye,
And seven stondardes wyth hym.’
23
‘Nay by my trowth,’ the Dowglas sayed,
‘It ys but a fayned taylle;
He durst not loke on my brede banner
For all Ynglonde so haylle.
24
‘Was I not yesterdaye at the Newe Castell,
That stond_es_ so fayre on Tyne?
For all the men the Perssy had,
He coude not garre me ones to dyne.’
25
He stepped owt at his pavelyon-dore,
To loke and it were lesse:
‘Araye yow, lordyng_es_, one and all,
For here bygynnes no peysse.
26
‘The yerle of Mentaye, thow arte my eme,
The fowarde I gyve to the:
The yerlle of Huntlay, cawte and kene,
He schall be w_y_t_h_ the.
27
‘The lorde of Bowghan, in armure bryght,
On the other hand he schall be;
Lord Jhonsto_u_ne and Lorde Maxwell,
They to schall be w_y_t_h_ me.
28
‘Swynton, fayre fylde vpon yo_u_r pryde!
To batell make yow bowen
S_yr_ Davy Skotte, S_yr_ Water Stewarde,
S_yr_ Jhon of Agurstone!’
29
The Perssy cam byfore hys oste,
Wych was ever a gentyll knyght;
Vpon the Dowglas lowde can he crye,
‘I wyll holde that I haue hyght.
30
‘For thou haste brente Northomberlonde,
And done me grete envye;
For thys trespasse thou hast me done,
The tone of vs schall dye.’
31
The Dowglas answerde hym agayne,
W_y_t_h_ grett wurd_es_ vpon hye,
And sayd, I haue twenty agaynst thy one,
Byholde, and thou maste see.
32
Wyth th_a_t the Perssy was grevyd sore,
For soth as I yow saye;
He lyghted dowyn vpon his foote,
And schoote hys horsse clene awaye.
33
Eu_e_ry man sawe that he dyd soo,
That ryall was euer in rowght;
Eu_e_ry man schoote hys horsse hym froo,
And lyght hym rowynde abowght.
34
Thus S_yr_ Hary Perssye toke the fylde,
For soth as I yow saye;
Jh_es_u Cryste in hevyn on hyght
Dyd helpe hym well that daye.
35
But nyne thowzand, ther was no moo,
The cronykle wyll not layne;
Forty thowsande of Skottes and fowre
That day fowght them agayne.
36
But when the batell byganne to ioyne,
In hast ther cam a knyght;
The letters fayre furth hath he tayne,
And thus he sayd full ryght:
37
‘My lorde yo_u_r father he gretes yow well,
Wyth many a noble knyght;
He desyres yow to byde
That he may see thys fyght.
38
‘The Baron of Grastoke ys com out of the west,
Wyth hym a noble companye;
All they loge at yo_u_r fathers thys nyght,
And the batell fayne wolde they see.’
39
‘For Jh_es_us love,’ sayd Syr Harye Perssy,
‘That dyed for yow and me,
Wende to my lorde my father agayne,
And saye thow sawe me not w_y_t_h_ yee.
40
‘My trowth ys plyght to yonne Skottysh knyght,
It nedes me not to layne,
That I schulde byde hym vpon thys bent,
And I haue hys trowth agayne.
41
‘And if that I w[e]ynde of thys growende,
For soth, onfowghten awaye,
He wolde me call but a kowarde knyght
In hys londe another daye.
42
‘Yet had I lever to be rynde and rente,
By Mary, that mykkel maye,
Then ever my manhood schulde be reprovyd
Wyth a Skotte another day.
43
‘Wherfore schote, archars, for my sake,
And let scharpe arowes flee;
Mynstrells, playe vp for yo_u_r waryson,
And well quyt it schall bee.
44
‘Eu_e_ry man thynke on hys trewe-love,
And marke hym to the Trenite;
For to God I make myne avowe
Thys day wyll I not flee.’
45
The blodye harte in the Dowglas armes,
Hys standerde stode on hye,
That eu_e_ry man myght full well knowe;
By syde stode starrës thre.
46
The whyte lyon on the Ynglyssh perte,
For soth as I yow sayne,
The lucett_es_ and the cressawnt_es_ both;
The Skott_es_ favght them agayne.
47
Vpon Sent Androwe lowde can they crye,
And thrysse they schowte on hyght,
And syne m_er_ked them one owr Ynglysshe men,
As I haue tolde yow ryght.
48
Sent George the bryght, owr ladyes knyght,
To name they were full fayne;
Owr Ynglyssh men they cryde on hyght,
And thrysse the schowtte agayne.
49
Wyth that scharpe arowes bygan to flee,
I tell yow in sertayne;
Men of armes byganne to joyne,
Many a dowghty man was ther slayne.
50
The Perssy and the Dowglas mette,
That ether of other was fayne;
They swapped together whyll that the swette,
W_y_t_h_ sword_es_ of fyne collayne:
51
Tyll the bloode from ther bassonnett_es_ ranne,
As the roke doth in the rayne;
‘Yelde the to me,’ sayd the Dowglas,
‘Or ell_es_ thow schalt be slayne.
52
‘For I see by thy bryght bassonet,
Thow arte su_m_ man of myght;
And so I do by thy burnysshed brande;
Thow arte an yerle, or ell_es_ a knyght.’
53
‘By my good faythe,’ sayd the noble Perssye,
‘Now haste thow rede full ryght;
Yet wyll I never yelde me to the,
Whyll I may stonde and fyght.’
54
They swapped together whyll that they swette,
Wyth swordës scharpe and long;
Ych on other so faste thee beette,
Tyll ther helmes cam in peyses dowyn.
55
The Perssy was a man of strenghth,
I tell yow in thys stounde;
He smote the Dowglas at the swordës length
That he felle to the growynde.
56
The sworde was scharpe, and sore can byte,
I tell yow in sertayne;
To the harte he cowde hym smyte,
Thus was the Dowglas slayne.
57
The stonderd_es_ stode styll on eke a syde,
Wyth many a grevous grone;
Ther the fowght the day, and all the nyght,
And many a dowghty man was slayne.