Battle of Sauchieburn The Battle of Sauchieburn was fought on June 11 , 1488 , at the side of Sauchie Burn , a stream about two miles south of Stirling , Stirlingshire , Scotland . The battle was fought between the followers of King James III of Scotland and a large group of rebellious Scottish nobles including Alexander Home , 1st Lord Home , nominally led by the king ' s 15 - year - old son , Prince James , Duke of Rothesay . Father and son . James III had faced rebellion for months , with a complicated series of events leading to Sauchieburn . The rebels having made Prince James their figurehead earlier in the year , James III became determined to get hold of his son and settle the matter . However he broke his written word that he would negotiate first , instead travelling south to Edinburgh from his stronghold in the north . This breaking of his word apparently caused some of his strong supporters to desert him , such as Huntly , Erroll , Marishal and Glamis ; they adopted a neutral stance on the issues . In May , James crossed the river to use Blackness as a base , with the prince at Linlithgow . However attempts to reach the prince at Linlithgow were defeated in a small skirmish , and James was forced back to Blackness , from where he fled , leaving behind those he had given as hostages to the rebels . By the 16th of May he was back in Edinburgh , and began spreading money around to raise supporters , including to his half uncle , John Stewart , 1st Earl of Atholl . At this point the rebels were geographically split , some at Stirling , some at Linlithgow . James again took the initiative with a sudden move over to Fife with his supporters and their men , advancing on Stirling , where on the 10th of June he took the rebels by surprise , driving them southwards . This left James with the town of Stirling , perhaps not the castle , from where he advanced on the 11th of June to meet the combined forces of the rebels driven from Stirling and those who had come from Linlithgow in support . To aid him in battle he had the sword of Robert the Bruce with him ; Dr John Ireland heard the Kings confession , his army was arrayed by the advocate John Ross of Montgrenan and battle began . The battle went badly for the Royalists . Persistent legends , based on the highly coloured and unreliable accounts of sixteenth century chroniclers such as Adam Abell , Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie , John Lesley , and George Buchanan , claim that James III was assassinated at Milltown , near Bannockburn , soon after the battle . There is no contemporary evidence to support this account , nor the allegation that he fled the battle , nor the tale that his assassin impersonated a priest in order to approach James . Pitscottie provided a story that , on the eve of the battle , his ancestor David Lord Lindsay of the Byres presented James III with a " great grey horse " that would carry him faster than any other horse into or away from the battle . Unfortunately , the horse threw the King during the battle , and James III was either killed in the fall , or was finished off by enemy soldiers . Prince James ascended to the throne , and reigned as James IV for 25 years . Throughout his reign he wore a heavy iron chain around his waist , next to the skin , as a constant reminder of his role in the death of his father . The battlefield is currently under research to be inventoried and protected by Historic Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009 . Participants . Some of the participants in the Battle of Sauchieburn included :