Battle of Floddon Part 2

At first light Surrey had his men leave everything except their arms and march to the bottom of Branxton Hill. The rabble of camp followers began burning the remains of their overnight camp and the smoke from it helped obscure the various manoeuvres that both side were carrying out. An artillery duel followed as the English army advanced to the base of the hill. Seeing that the English line was not quite complete on the English right, James sent down his borderers under Huntly and Home.

The English started to f lee, as their leader Howard was surrounded. James seeing this, personally led his elite troops down the hill towards the English lines. The English archers stepped forward and began sending their rain of death towards the Scottish ranks. Only this time the arrow storm was not as effective as the Scots used heavy wooden shields to protect themselves against the English shafts.

The Scots continued downhill but at the bottom was marshy ground which came as a surprise and slowed down the charge considerably. Added to which was the fact that the Scottish pikes were no match against English Bills. Surrey's troopers were able to lop the heads off the Scottish pikes and then hack them down in a barbaric ritual of slaughter.

Up until now the Scots had the upper hand but from now on things started to change. Finally in a last desperate attempt James launched a suicidal charge towards Surreys banners. He fell in a welter of gore his trusty retainers around him. James died as he had led, like a common soldier, hardly noticed in the frenzied carnage.

On top of Branxton Hill the rest of the Scots were outflanked and fled. As a result the battle was a total disaster for Scotland, with nearly 10,000 Scots being killed including one Archbishop, one Bishop, ten Earls, nineteen Barons, three hundred Knights and of course one King.

The site today is marked by a large memorial cross on top of Branxton Hill, just off the A697 through Flodden. The most sombre memorial though is at St Pauls church in Branxton where a lot of those s laughtered in the battle are buried.

   Back to battle sites Index                    click on a photo to enlarge it.