Latest / The Story of Scotland: Clans, Crowns, and the Fight for Identity — Fexingo History / The Battle of Flodden: Scotland's Great Tragedy
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Scotland's victories — Bannockburn, Nesbit Moor, even the rough defeats like Pinkie Cleuch. But there's one battle that sits differently in the Scottish memory, more like a national wound than a story of glory. I'm thinking of Flodden, 1513. Luna: Flodden — that's the one where James IV died, right? With almost the whole nobility? Lucas: Exactly. It's often called Scotland's greatest military disaster. On September 9, 1513, King James IV led perhaps the largest army Scotland had ever raised — maybe 40,000 men — across the border into Northumberland. By the end of the day, he was dead, along with twelve earls, a bishop, two abbots, and hundreds of lairds and barons. It was a generation of leaders wiped out in a few hours. Luna: Wait — why was James IV fighting England at all? I thought he was married to Henry VIII's sister, Margaret Tudor. Lucas: That's the terrible irony. James was indeed married to Margaret, Henry's elder sister — they'd wed in 1503 as part of a peace treaty. But by 1513, Henry VIII was at war with France, and Scotland had the ancient 'Auld Alliance' with the French. James was bound by treaty to invade England when the French were attacked. He sent messages to Henry asking him to call off the war, but Henry refused — in fact, he sent back a dismissive letter, calling James 'a false perjured man'. So James felt his honour was at stake. Luna: So he invaded, hoping to draw English troops away from France? Lucas: That was the strategic idea. James crossed into England on August 22, captured several border castles — Norham, Etal, Ford — and by early September he was camped on a hill called Flodden Edge, about two miles south of the village of Branxton. He had a strong defensive position, high ground, with a marsh in front. Meanwhile, the English army under the Earl of Surrey — Thomas Howard, an old campaigner — was marching north. Luna: So James had the better position. What went wrong? Lucas: That's the crucial question. For a start, James made a tactical error that seems almost inexplicable. Surrey sent a herald challenging James to come down from his hill and fight on level ground. James refused, but Surrey wasn't going to assault a fortified hill. Instead, he marched his army around the Scottish position to the north, cutting off James's line of retreat back to Scotland. James had to move. He ordered his men to set fire to their camp and march down the hill to a new position on Branxton Hill — a lower ridge, but still with some advantage. However, the manoeuvre was messy. The marsh that had been in front of the Scottish line now lay between the two armies, but the Scots got bogged down in it, and their formation was disrupted. Luna: How were the two armies equipped? I know the English had longbows, but at Flodden I think it was different? Lucas: Very different. This was the early 16th century, so the longbow was still around, but the English relied heavily on the bill — a sort of polearm with a hooked blade, used by infantry. The Scottish mainstay was the pike, a long spear up to 18 feet, formed into dense schiltrons — like they'd used at Bannockburn. But by 1513, pike tactics had evolved on the continent, and James had trained his men in the Swiss style of pushing forward with massed pikes. The problem was, the ground at Flodden was uneven, and the pikes were unwieldy on a slope. Also, James had artillery, but his guns were older and less mobile than the English ones. Luna: I remember reading that the English cannons were decisive. Lucas: They were. The English had brought light field guns — probably serpentines and falcons — which could be moved quickly and fired rapidly at close range. They opened fire on the Scottish formations as they came down the hill, tearing gaps in the packed ranks of pikemen. The Scots took heavy casualties before they even closed. But they did close — the right wing of the Scottish army, under the Earl of Huntly and Lord Home, actually smashed into the English left flank and drove them back. For a moment, it looked like victory might be possible. Luna: So what turned it? Lucas: The centre. James himself led the main body of pikemen down the hill straight at the English centre, where Surrey had placed his best infantry — billmen from Cheshire and Lancashire. The Scottish pikes had the reach, but as they advanced downhill, they lost cohesion. The English bills were shorter and more manoeuvrable. Once the two lines met, the pikes were too long for close combat — if an Englishman got past the point, the pikeman was defenceless. The bills hooked and hacked at the Scottish ranks. And James, in his full armour, fought in the front line — he was reportedly within a spear's length of Surrey. But he was killed, probably by a bill stroke to the head. His body was not identified until the next day. Luna: So the king died, and with him the entire command structure. Lucas: Exactly. Without James, the Scottish army disintegrated. The battle lasted maybe two or three hours of hard fighting, but by late afternoon it was over. Estimates vary, but the Scots lost between 5,000 and 10,000 men, including almost every nobleman of consequence. The English lost perhaps 1,500. It was a crushing defeat. And it wasn't just the king — the Archbishop of St Andrews, the king's illegitimate son, was killed. The Bishop of the Isles, the Earls of Argyll, Lennox, Morton, and many others. A whole generation of leaders gone in one afternoon. Luna: And James's body — what happened to it? Lucas: That's a grim story. The English took James's corpse to Berwick, then to Newcastle, and eventually to London. It lay unburied for a time, embalmed, and was eventually interred at the monastery of Sheen in Surrey — but that was destroyed in the Reformation, so the final resting place is lost. There's a legend that his body was never returned to Scotland, though there are stories of a mysterious grave in the grounds of Holyrood. Luna: It's like the country lost its heart. Lucas: In many ways it did. The aftermath of Flodden was a long, painful minority. James IV's son, James V, was only a year old when his father died. Scotland was ruled by regents, and the nobility was so depleted that there was a scramble for power. The English took advantage — Henry VIII's sister Margaret, now a widow, acted as regent briefly, but she soon remarried, which caused conflict. And the cost of the war crippled the treasury. Flodden marks the end of Scotland's medieval period, the end of the confident, Renaissance-style monarchy that James IV had built. It also deepened the bitterness with England. Luna: It's interesting how Flodden is remembered in poetry, too — 'The Flowers of the Forest'. Lucas: Ah yes, 'The Floo'ers o' the Forest' — that beautiful, haunting lament. It was written in the 18th century by Jean Elliot, but it captures the grief perfectly: 'I've seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling / I've seen the sweet flowers of the forest laid low.' That song became the unofficial elegy for Flodden. And it's not just poetry — the battle left a physical mark. The field at Branxton is still there, with a monument erected in 1910. You can stand on Flodden Edge and look across to the English border, and it's hard not to feel the weight of that day. Luna: You know, it's episodes like this that remind me why I love this show — we get to dig deep into moments that aren't just battlefield tactics, but the human cost. Lucas: Absolutely. And that's something we try to do episode after episode. Which brings me to something — actually, this is a good moment to mention that we deliberately don't run ads on these conversations. Not a single one. We keep the show ad-free on principle, because we think it makes for a better listening experience. But that means we rely on listeners who find value in what we do. If you'd like to support that choice, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to help keep this going, and we appreciate every bit of it. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. Every contribution helps us keep researching and telling these stories without any commercial interruption. Lucas: So, back to Flodden — one more thing that's often overlooked: the role of the Border Reivers. The English army at Flodden included many men from the borderlands, and the Scottish army did too. But after the battle, the reivers on both sides took the opportunity to loot and pillage. The Scottish dead were stripped of their armour and clothes, and the border became even more lawless in the years that followed. It's a reminder that Flodden wasn't just a national tragedy — it was a personal catastrophe for thousands of families. Luna: And it set the stage for the next hundred years of conflict, didn't it? The rough wooing, Mary Queen of Scots... Lucas: Exactly. Flodden weakened Scotland so much that when Henry VIII later tried to force a marriage between his son Edward and the infant Mary Queen of Scots — the 'Rough Wooing' — Scotland couldn't resist effectively. That led to the Battle of Pinkie Cleuch, which we've covered. So in a way, Flodden is the hinge point — the moment Scotland's medieval independence began to give way to the long struggle for survival as a Protestant or Catholic nation, and eventually the Union of the Crowns. It's a battle that still echoes. Luna: I think I need to go read some more poetry after this. But also maybe walk the field. Lucas: It's worth it. And if you ever do, stand on Flodden Edge and look north — you'll see Berwick, and the border, and you'll understand why that hill mattered so much. For now, though, I think we've given you plenty to think about. Luna: Thanks, Lucas. Until next time. Lucas: Take care, and keep stepping into history with us.