Battle of Flodden The Battle of Flodden or Flodden Field or occasionally Battle of Branxton ( Brainston Moor ) was a conflict between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland . The battle was fought in the county of Northumberland in northern England on 9 September 1513 , between an invading Scots army under King James IV and an English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey . It was an English victory . In terms of troop numbers , it was the largest battle fought between the two Kingdoms . James IV was killed in the battle , becoming the last monarch from the British Isles to suffer such a death . Background . This conflict began when James IV , King of Scots declared war on England to honour the Auld Alliance with France by diverting Henry VIII ' s English troops from their campaign against the French king Louis XII . Henry VIII had also opened old wounds by claiming to be the overlord of Scotland which angered the Scots and the King . At this time England was involved in the War of the League of Cambrai — defending Italy and the Pope from the French ( see Italian Wars ) as a member of the " Catholic League " . Pope Leo X , already a signatory to the anti - French Treaty of Mechlin , sent a letter to James threatening him with ecclesiastical censure for breaking his peace treaties with England on 28 June 1513 , and subsequently James was excommunicated by Cardinal Christopher Bainbridge . James also summoned sailors and sent the Scottish navy , including the " Great Michael " to join the ships of Louis XII of France . Henry was in France with the Emperor Maximilian at the siege of Thérouanne . The Scottish Lyon King of Arms brought James IV ' s letter of 26 July to him . James asked him to desist from attacking France in breach of their treaty . Henry ' s exchange with Islay Herald or the Lyon King at his tent at the siege of Thérouanne on 11 August was recorded . The Herald declared that Henry should abandon his efforts against the town and go home . Henry angrily replied that James had no right to summon him , and ought to be England ' s ally , as he was married to his sister Margaret , declaring ; " And now , for a conclusion , recommend me to your master and tell him if he be so hardy to invade my realm or cause to enter one foot of my ground I shall make him as weary of his part as ever was man that began any such business . And one thing I ensure him by the faith that I have to the Crown of England and by the word of a King , there shall never King nor Prince make peace with me that ever his part shall be in it . Moreover , fellow , I care for nothing but for misentreating of my sister , that would God she were in England on a condition she cost the Schottes King not a penny . Henry also replied by letter on 12 August that James was mistaken and resistance to any of his attempts on England would be in place . A year earlier , Thomas Howard , Earl of Surrey , had been appointed Lieutenant - General of the army of the north and was issued with banners of the Cross of St George and the Red Dragon of Wales . Using the pretext of revenge for the murder of Robert Kerr , a Warden of the Scottish East March who had been killed by John " The Bastard " Heron in 1508 , James invaded England with an army of about 30 , 000 men . Invasion . On 18 August , five cannon brought down from Edinburgh Castle to the Netherbow Gate at St Mary ' s Wynd for the invasion set off towards England dragged by borrowed oxen . On 19 August two ' gross culverin s ' , four ' culverins pickmoyance ' and six ( mid - sized ) ' culverins moyane ' followed with the gunner Robert Borthwick and master carpenter John Drummond . The King himself set off that night with two hastily prepared standards of St Margaret and St Andrew . Catherine of Aragon was Regent in England and , on 27 August she issued warrants for the property of all Scotsmen in England to be seized . On hearing of the invasion on 3 September she ordered Thomas Lovell to raise an army in the Midland counties . In keeping with his understanding of the medieval code of chivalry , King James sent notice to the English , one month in advance , of his intent to invade . This gave the English time to gather an army and , as importantly , to retrieve the banner of Saint Cuthbert from Durham Cathedral , a banner which had been carried by the English in victories against the Scots in 1138 and 1346 . After a muster on the Burgh Muir of Edinburgh , the Scottish host moved to Ellemford , to the north of Duns , and camped to wait for Angus and Home . The Scottish army then crossed the River Tweed near Coldstream and on 24 August James IV held a council or parliament at Twiselhaugh and made a proclamation for the benefit of the heirs of anyone killed during this invasion . By 29 August Norham Castle was taken and partly demolished . The Scots moved south , capturing the castles of Etal and Ford . A later Scottish chronicle writer , Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie , tells the story that James wasted valuable time at Ford enjoying the company of Elizabeth , Lady Heron and her daughter . Edward Hall says that Lady Heron was a prisoner ( in Scotland ) , and negotiated with James IV and the Earl of Surrey her own release and that Ford Castle would not be demolished for an exchange of prisoners . The English herald , Rouge Croix , came to Ford to appoint a place for battle on 4 September , with extra instructions that any Scottish herald s who were sent to Surrey were to be met where they could not view the English forces . Raphael Holinshed ' s story is that a part of the Scottish army returned to Scotland , and the rest stayed at Ford waiting for Norham to surrender and debating their next move . James IV wanted to fight and considered moving to assault Berwick - upon - Tweed , but the Earl of Angus spoke against this and said that Scotland had done enough for France . James sent Angus home , and according to Holinshed , the Earl burst into tears and left leaving his two sons , the Master of Angus and Glenbervie , with most of the Douglas kindred to fight . Battle . The battle actually took place near the village of Branxton , in the county of Northumberland , rather than at Flodden — hence the alternative name is Battle of Branxton . The Scots had previously been stationed at Flodden Edge , to the south of Branxton . The Earl of Surrey , writing at Wooler Haugh on Wednesday 7 September , compared this position to a fortress in his challenge sent to James IV by Thomas Hawley , the Rouge Croix Pursuivant . He complained that James had sent his Islay Herald agreeing that they would join in battle on Friday between 12 . 00 and 3 . 00 pm , and asked that James would face him on the plain at Milfield as appointed . Next , Surrey moved to block off the Scots ' route north and so James was forced to move his army and artillery two miles to Branxton Hill . The Scottish artillery , as described by an English source , included five great curtals , two great culverin s , four saker s , and six great serpentines . The King ' s secretary , Patrick Paniter was in charge of these cannon . When the armies were within three miles of each other Surrey sent the Rouge Croix pursuivant to James , who answered that he would wait till noon . At 11 o ' clock , Thomas , Lord Howard ' s vanguard and artillery crossed the Twizel Bridge . ( Pitscottie says the king would not allow the Scots artillery to fire on the vulnerable English during this manouevre . ) The Scots army was in good order in five formations , after the Almain ( German ) manner . On Friday afternoon the Scots host descended without speaking any word to meet the English . The English army had formed two " battles " each with two wings . Lord Howard combined his " vanguard " with the soldiers of his father ' s " rearward " to meet the Scots . According to English report , the groups commanded by the Earls of Huntly and Crawford and Erroll , totalling 6000 men , engaged Lord Howard and were repulsed and mostly slain . Then James IV himself leading a great force came on to Surrey and Lord Darcy ' s son who " bore all the brunt of the battle " . Lennox and Argyll ' s commands were met by Sir Edward Stanley . After the artillery fire ended , according to the English chronicler Edward Hall , " the battle was cruel , none spared other , and the King himself fought valiantly " . James was killed within a spear length from Surrey and his body taken to Berwick - upon - Tweed . Hall says the King was fatally wounded by an arrow and a bill . Meanwhile , Lord Howard ' s brother , Edmund Howard , commanding men from Cheshire and Lancashire , fought the section of the Scottish army commanded by the Chamberlain of Scotland , Alexander , Lord Home , and Thomas , Lord Dacre ' s force , who had been fighting Huntley , came to assist him . The Earl of Surrey captured the Scottish guns , including a group of culverin s made in Edinburgh by Robert Borthwick called the " seven sisters " , which were dragged to Etal Castle . The Bishop of Durham thought them the finest ever seen . Tactics and aftermath . Soon after the battle , the council of Scotland decided to send for help from Christian II of Denmark . The Scottish ambassador , Andrew Brounhill , was given instructions to explain " how this cais is hapnit . " Brounhill ' s instructions blame James IV for moving down the hill to attack the English on marshy ground from a favourable position , and credits the victory to Scottish inexperience rather than English valour . The letter also mentions that the Scots placed their officers in the front line in medieval style who were vulnerable and killed , contrasting this loss of the nobility with the English great men who took their stand with the reserves and at the rear . The English generals stayed behind the lines in the Renaissance style . The loss of so many Scottish officers meant there was no one to coordinate a retreat . However , according to contemporary English reports , Thomas Howard marched on foot leading the English vanguard to the foot of the hill . Howard was moved to dismount and do this by taunts of cowardice sent by James IV ' s heralds , apparently based on his role at sea and the death two years earlier of the Scottish sailor Andrew Barton . A version of Howard ' s declaration to James IV that he would lead the vanguard and take no prisoners was included in later English chronicle accounts of the battle . Howard claims his presence in " proper person " at the front is his trial by combat for Barton ' s death . Weaponry . Flodden was essentially a victory of bill used by the English over the pike used by the Scots . As a weapon , the pike was effective only in a battle of movement , especially to withstand a cavalry charge . The Scottish pikes were described by the author of the " Trewe Encounter " as " keen and sharp spears 5 yards long . " Although the pike had become a Swiss weapon of choice and represented modern warfare , the hilly terrain of Northumberland , the nature of the combat , and the slippery footing did not allow it to be employed to best effect . Bishop Ruthall reported to Thomas Wolsey , ' the bills disappointed the Scots of their long spears , on which they relied . ' The infantrymen at Flodden , both Scots and English , had fought in a fashion that in essence would have been familiar to their ancestors , and it has rightly been described as the last great medieval battle in the British Isles . This was the last time that bill and pike would come together as equals in battle . Two years later Francis I defeated the Swiss pikemen at the Battle of Marignano , using a combination of heavy cavalry and artillery , ushering in a new era in the history of war . An official English diplomatic report issued by Brian Tuke noted the Scots ' iron spears and their initial " very good order after the German fashion " but concluded " the English halberdiers decided the whole affair , so that in the battle the bows and ordnance were of little use . " Despite Tuke ' s comment ( he was not present ) , tactically , this battle was one of the first major engagements on the British Isles where artillery was significantly deployed . John Lesley , writing sixty years later , noted the Scottish bullets flew over the English heads while the English cannon was effective , the one army placed so high and the other so low . The Scots advance down the hill was resisted by a hail of arrows , an incident celebrated in later English ballads . Hall says the armoured front line was mostly unaffected , confirmed by the ballads which note some few Scots were wounded in the scalp and , wrote Hall , James IV sustained a significant arrow wound . Many of the archers were recruited from Lancashire and Cheshire . Sir Richard Assheton raised one such company from Middleton , near Manchester . He rebuilt his parish church St . Leonard ' s , Middleton , which contains the unique " Flodden Window . " It depicts and names the archers and their priest in stained glass . The window has been called as the oldest known war memorial in the UK . The success of the Cheshire yeomanry , under the command of Richard Cholmeley , led to his later appointment as Lieutenant of the Tower of London . Honours . As a reward for his victory , Thomas Howard was subsequently restored to the title of " Duke of Norfolk " , lost by his father ' s support for Richard III . The arms of the Dukes of Norfolk still carry an augmentation of honour awarded on account of their ancestor ' s victory at Flodden , a modified version of the Royal coat of arms of Scotland with an arrow through the lion ' s mouth . At Framlingham Castle the Duke kept two silver - gilt cups engraved with the arms of James IV , which he bequeathed to Cardinal Wolsey in 1524 . The Duke ' s descendants presented the College of Arms with a sword , a dagger , and a turquoise ring in 1681 . The family tradition was either that these items belonged to James IV , or were arms carried by Thomas Howard at Flodden . The sword blade is signed by the maker Maestre Domingo of Toledo . There is some doubt whether the weapons are of the correct period . The Earl of Arundel was painted by Philip Fruytiers , following Anthony van Dyck ' s 1639 composition , with his ancestor ' s sword , gauntlet and helm from Flodden . Legends of a lost king . Lord Dacre discovered the body of James IV at the battlefield . He later wrote that the Scots " love me worst of any Inglisheman living , by reason that I fande the body of the King of Scotts . " The chronicle writer John Stow gave a location for the King ' s death ; " Pipard ' s Hill , " now unknown , which may have been the small hill on Branxton Ridge overlooking Branxton church . Dacre took the body to Berwick - upon - Tweed , where according to Hall ' s " Chronicle " , it was viewed by the captured Scottish courtiers William Scott and John Forman who acknowledged it was the King ' s . ( Forman , the King ' s sergeant - porter , had been captured by Richard Assheton of Middleton . ) The body was then embalmed and taken to Newcastle upon Tyne . From York , a city that James had promised to capture before Michaelmas , the body was brought to Sheen Priory near London . James ' s banner , sword and his cuisses , thigh - armour , were taken to the shrine of Saint Cuthbert at Durham Cathedral . Much of the armour of the Scottish casualties was sold on the field , and 350 suits of armour were taken to Nottingham Castle . A list of horses taken at the field runs to 24 pages . Thomas Hawley , the Rouge Croix pursuivant , was first with news of the victory . He brought the " rent surcoat of the King of Scots stained with blood " to Catherine of Aragon at Woburn Abbey . She sent news of the victory to Henry VIII at Tournai with Hawley , and then sent John Glyn on 16 September with James ' s coat ( and iron gauntlets ) and a detailed account of the battle written by Lord Howard . Brian Tuke mentioned in his letter to Cardinal Bainbridge that the coat was lacerated and chequered with blood . Catherine suggested Henry should use the coat as his battle - banner , and wrote she had thought to send him the body too , as Henry had sent her the Duke of Longueville , his prisoner from Thérouanne , but " Englishmen ' s hearts would not suffer it . " Soon after the battle there were legends that James IV had survived ; a Scottish merchant at Tournai in October claimed to have spoken with him , Lindsay of Pitscottie records two myths ; " thair cam four great men upon hors , and every ane of thame had ane wisp upoun thair spear headis , quhairby they might know one another and brought the king furth of the feild , upoun ane dun hackney , " and also that the king escaped from the field but was killed between Duns and Kelso . Similarly , John Lesley adds that the body taken to England was " my lord Bonhard " and James was seen in Kelso after the battle and then went secretly on pilgrimage in far nations . A legend arose that James had been warned against invading England by supernatural powers . While he was praying in St Michael ' s Kirk at Linlithgow , a man strangely dressed in blue had approached his desk saying his mother had told him to say James should not to go to war or take the advice of women . Then before the King could reply , the man vanished . David Lindsay of the Mount and John Inglis could find no trace of him . The historian R . L . Mackie wondered if the incident really happened as a masquerade orchestrated by an anti - war party : Norman Macdougall doubts if there was a significant anti - war faction . Three other portents of disaster were described by Paolo Giovio in 1549 and repeated in John Polemon ' s 1578 account of the battle . When James was in council at the camp at Flodden Edge a hare ran out of his tent and escaped the weapons of his knights ; it was found that mice had gnawed away the strings and buckle of the King ' s helmet ; and in the morning his tent with spreckled with a bloody dew . Scotland after Flodden . The wife of James IV , Margaret Tudor , is said to have awaited news of her husband at Linlithgow Palace , where a room at the top of a tower is called ' Queen ' s Margaret ' s bower . ' Ten days after the Battle of Flodden , the Lords of Council met at Stirling on the September 19 , and set up a General Council of the Realm " to sit upon the daily council for all matters occurring in the realm " of thirty - five lords including clergyman , lords of parliament , and two of the minor barons , the lairds of The Bass and Inverrugy . This committee was intended to rule in the name of Margaret Tudor and her son James V of Scotland . The full Parliament of Scotland met at Stirling Castle on 21 October , where the 17 month - old King was crowned in the Chapel Royal . The General Council of Lords made special provisions for the heirs of those killed at Flodden , following a declaration made by James IV at Twiselhaugh , and protection for their widows and daughters . Margaret Tudor remained guardian or ' tutrix ' of the King , but was not made Regent of Scotland . The French soldier Antoine d ' Arces arrived at Dumbarton Castle in November with a shipload of armaments which were transported to Stirling . The English already knew the details of this planned shipment from a paper found in a bag at Flodden field . Now that James IV was dead , Antoine d ' Arces promoted the appointment of John Stewart , Duke of Albany , a grandson of James II of Scotland as Regent to rule Scotland instead of Margaret and her son . Albany , who lived in France , came to Scotland on 26 May 1515 . By that date Margaret had given birth to James ' s posthumous son Alexander and married the Earl of Angus . A later sixteenth century Scottish attitude to the futility of the battle was given by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie , in the words he attributed to Patrick Lord Lindsay at council before the engagement . Lord Lindsay advised the King withdraw , comparing their situation to an honest merchant playing dice with a trickster , and wagering a gold rose - noble against a bent halfpenny . Their King was the gold piece , England the trickster , and Thomas Howard the halfpenny . Casualties . Surrey ' s army lost 1 , 500 men killed . There were various conflicting accounts of the Scottish loss . A contemporary French source , the " Gazette of the Battle of Flodden " , said that about 10 , 000 Scots were killed , a claim made by Henry VIII on 16 September while he was still uncertain of the death of James IV . William Knight sent the news from Lille to Rome on 20 September , claiming 12 , 000 Scots had died with less than 500 English casualties . Italian newsletters put the Scottish losses at 18 or 20 thousand and the English at 5000 . Brian Tuke , the English Clerk of the Signet , sent a newsletter stating 10 , 000 Scots killed and 10 , 000 escaped the field . Tuke reckoned the total Scottish invasion force to have been 60 , 000 and the English army at 40 , 000 . George Buchanan wrote in his " History of Scotland " ( published in 1582 ) that , according to the lists that were compiled throughout the counties of Scotland , there were about 5 , 000 killed . A plaque on the monument to the 2nd Duke of Norfolk ( as the Earl of Surrey became in 1514 ) at Thetford put the figure at 17 , 000 . Edward Hall , thirty years after , wrote in his " Chronicle " that " 12 , 000 at the least of the best gentlemen and flower of Scotland " were slain . As the nineteenth century antiquarian John Riddell supposed , nearly every noble family in Scotland would have lost a member at Flodden . The dead are remembered by the song ( and pipe tune ) " Flowers of the Forest " : Contemporary English ballads also recalled the tragedy of the Scottish losses : A legend grew that while the artillery was being prepared in Edinburgh before the battle , a demon called Plotcock had read out the names of those who would be killed at the Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile . According to Pitscottie , a former Provost of Edinburgh , Richard Lawson , who lived nearby threw a coin at the Cross to appeal from this summons and survived the battle . Branxton Church was the site of some burials from the battle of Flodden . After Flodden many Scottish nobles are believed to have been brought to Yetholm for interment , as being the nearest consecrated ground in Scotland . Names of Scottish casualties from property records . A number of subsequent property transactions give names of the fallen . A register of royal charters was kept and published as the " Register of the Great Seal of Scotland " . The battle was mentioned because of the declaration James IV had made at Twiselhaugh respecting the heritage of the heirs of potential casualties , which waived feudal fees . Some of the lands noted were those held under Matthew , Earl of Lennox , who died in the battle of Flodden Field , " in campo bellico de Flodoun " ( in the field of war at Flodden ) . Other great seal charters mentioned an altar dedicated for remembrance at St Giles ' , Edinburgh and the effect of the battle on Selkirk , a border town . The " Exchequer Rolls of Scotland " , a record of royal income , also gives names of the fallen . These were feudal tenants who held their lands from the King , and would pay their dues directly to the exchequer . The names of landless men or those who held their lands from a landlord would not appear in this record . The preface to the published volume of the " Exchequer Rolls " gives this explanation and guide to the variety of Latin phrases used to describe deaths in the campaign ; " The usual form of entry is " qui obiit in bello " ( who died in the war ) , " in campo bellico " ( in field of war ) , or " in campo " ( in the field ) ; but the forms also occur " qui obiit sub vixillo regis " , ( who died under the king ' s banner ) which probably denotes with certainty that the death was at Flodden , or " qui obiit in exercitu in Northumberland " ( who died in the army in Northumberland ) , which perhaps indicates that the death occurred elsewhere than at Flodden , or that the place of death was unknown . In the Responde Books the earlier Sasines ( property documents ) are silent as to the campaign . The later Sasines refer to it as " bellum " , or " campus bellicus , " and it is not till 1518 that Flodden is named , and then only about half - a - dozen times . . . . , It must be borne in mind that it is only the King ' s vassals or tenants who left heirs in lands in the comparatively small portion of Scotland then held by the King , whose names can be expected to appear in the present Accounts . Besides the names in the following list , there are many other instances of Sasines taken in favour of the heirs of persons whom we know from other sources to have died at Flodden . " p . clxii English soldiers knighted at Flodden . Around forty five English soldiers were knighted by the Earl of Surrey after the battle . Edward Hall mentions some of their positions in the army ' s advance from Newcastle . Battlefield today . The battlefield still looks much as it probably did at the time of the battle , but the burn and marsh which so badly hampered the Scots advance is now drained . A monument , erected in 1910 , is easily reached from Branxton village by following the road past St Paul ' s Church . There is a small car park and a clearly marked and signposted battlefield trail with interpretive boards which make it easy to visualise the battle . Only the chancel arch remains of the medieval church where James IV ' s body was said to have rested after the battle — the rest is Victorian , dating from 1849 in the " Norman " style . Each year , the neighbouring Scottish town of Coldstream marks the Battle of Flodden by a traditional horse - ride to the battlefield and then having a service to mark all those who perished during the fight during the town ' s " Civic Week " — held on the first week of August . 500th Anniversary . The Quincentennial of the battle in 2013 was commemorated by a programme of projects and events bringing together communities from both sides of the border . A number were funded by an £887 , 300 Heritage Lottery Fund grant including the expansion of the Flodden 1513 Ecomuseum and archaeology , documentary research and education projects , exhibitions and a solemn commemoration . References . The earliest accounts of the battle are English . These contemporary sources include ; the " Articles of the Bataill bitwix the Kinge of Scottes and therle of Surrey in Brankstone Field " said to be a field despatch ; Brian Tuke ' s news - letter to Cardinal Bainbridge ; an Italian poem , " La Rotta de Scosesi " in part based on Tuke ' s letters ; a news - sheet printed in London , " The Trewe Encountre " ; another lost news - sheet printed by Richard Pynson which was the source used in Edward Hall ' s " Chronicle . " These sources are compared and contrasted in the 1995 English Heritage report .