Battle of Neville ' s Cross The Battle of Neville ' s Cross took place to the west of Durham , England , on 17 October 1346 . The culmination of a Scottish invasion of northern England , the battle ended with the rout of the Scots and the capture of their king , David II of Scotland . Background . In 1346 , England was embroiled in the Hundred Years ' War with France . In order to divert his enemy , Philip VI of France appealed to David II of Scotland to attack the English from the north in order to create a second front for the English . Despite Philip VI ' s especially desperate pleas in June 1346 ( when the English were amassing troops in southern England ) , David II of Scotland waited until October , when he felt few English troops would be left to defend lucrative Northern English cities . Waiting until he believed most English troops were fighting France and with winter approaching David II of Scotland invaded England . On 7 October , the Scots invaded England with approximately 12 , 000 men . They were expecting to find northern England relatively undefended because Edward III was by then conducting a major campaign in France . ( Philip VI went so far as to characterize northern England as a " defenceless void " . ) Unfortunately , David II ' s strategic and tactical abilities were not up to the task of making good use of the Scots ' element of surprise . Perhaps , though , they did not feel the need for haste . After taking Liddesdale ( and bypassing Carlisle after being paid protection money ) , the Scots moved on toward their ultimate goal of Durham and Yorkshire after more than a week ' s march . Along the way , they sacked the priory of Hexham and burned the territory around their line of march . They arrived at Durham on 16 October and camped at Beaurepaire , where the Scots were offered £1 , 000 ( £ as of 2018 ) in protection money to be paid on 18 October . Without the Scots ' knowledge , however , the English had already arrayed troops for just such an invasion . Once the Scots invaded , an army was quickly mobilized in Richmond under the supervision of William Zouche , the Archbishop of York . It was not , however , a large army and what men were available were split into two separate groups : 3 , 000 – 4 , 000 men from Cumberland , Northumberland and Lancashire , with another 3 , 000 Yorkshiremen en route . Given the demands of the Siege of Calais , no further men could be summoned for the defence of Northern England . Worse still , on 14 October ( while the Scots were sacking Hexham ) , the Archbishop decided not to wait for the Yorkshiremen and made haste toward Barnard Castle . The battle . The Scots only discovered the presence of the English army on the morning of 17 October . Troops under command of William Douglas stumbled upon them in the morning mist during a raid south of Durham . The two rearward divisions of the English army drove the Scots off with heavy Scottish casualties . Upon hearing Douglas ' s report , David II led the Scottish army to high ground at Neville ' s Cross ( site of an old Anglo - Saxon stone cross ) , where he prepared his army for battle . Both the Scots and English arranged themselves in three battalions . Though the Scots were in what is considered a rather poor position ( with various obstacles between them and the English position ) , they remembered well their defeats in the Battle of Dupplin Moor and the Battle of Halidon Hill and thus took a defensive stance , waiting for the English to attack . The English also took a defensive stance , knowing they had the superior position and likely knowing that time was on their side . The resulting stalemate lasted until the afternoon , when the English sent longbowmen forward to harass the Scottish lines . The archers succeeded in forcing the Scots to attack , but their initial hesitation in going on the offensive appears in hindsight to have been the correct decision . The Scots ' poor position resulted in their formations falling apart as they advanced , allowing the English to deal easily with the Scottish attack . When it became clear that the battle was going in favour of the English , Robert Stewart , the future King of the Scots , and the Earl of March fled the battle , abandoning David II ' s battalion to face the enemy alone . Late in the afternoon , the king ' s own battalion attempted to retreat , but was unsuccessful and David II was captured after he fled the field , while the rest of the Scottish army was pursued for more than twenty miles . Several Scottish nobles were killed , including : Scottish chroniclers Andrew of Wyntoun and Walter Bower both wrote that 1 , 000 Scots were killed in the battle , while the Chronicle of Lanercost said that " few English were killed " . The aftermath . David II initially managed to escape . However , legend has it that , while he was hiding under a bridge over the nearby River Browney , David ’ s reflection was spotted in the water by a detachment of English soldiers that was out searching for him . David was then captured by John de Coupland the leader of the detachment . Later , King Edward III ordered Coupland to hand him over . Edward then rewarded Coupland with a knighthood and a handsome annuity . King David was imprisoned at Odiham Castle ( King John ' s Castle ) in Hampshire from 1346 to 1357 . After eleven years , he was released in return for a ransom of 100 , 000 marks ( approximately £15 million in 2006 ) . The Battle of Neville ’ s Cross derives its name from a stone cross that Lord Neville paid to have erected on the battlefield to commemorate this remarkable victory . The fate of the unfortunate David II of Scotland is immortalised in Shakespeare ’ s play " Henry V " . In Act 1 Scene 3 , Henry says to the Archbishop of Canterbury : " For you shall read that my great - grandfather " / " Never went with his forces into France " / " But that the Scot on his unfurnish ’ d kingdom " / " Came pouring , like the tide into a breach , " / " With ample and brim fullness of his force ; " / " Galling the gleaned land with hot essays , " / " Girding with grievous siege castles and towns ; " / " That England , being empty of defence , " / " Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood . " But the Archbishop replies : " She hath been then more fear ’ d than harm ’ d my liege ; " / " For hear her but exampled by herself : " / " When all her chivalry hath been in France , " / " And she a mourning widow of her nobles , " / " She hath herself not only well defended , " / " But taken , and impounded as a stray , " / " The king of Scots ; whom she did send to France , " / " To fill King Edward ’ s fame with prisoner kings … "