STRENGTH OF OPPOSING FORCES.

357

term fixed for negotiations respecting the preservation of Ford castle expired bootlessly on that day, Monday, the 5th of September, at noon, and the Scots immediately set to work to dismantle it. Then, having planted a battery to openly command the bridge, king James moved his headquarters to the camp on Flodden.24

Surrey meanwhile was marching on from Alnwick to Bolton, whence he sent a message promising to give the Scots battle 'by Friday next at the furthest.'25 At Bolton, too, he divided his troops into two divisions. The centre of the vanguard, in which was the banner of St. Cuthbert, was commanded by his elder son, Thomas Howard, the lord admiral; the right wing by his younger surviving son, master Edmund Howard; the left by old sir Marmaduke Constable.26 Surrey himself remained with the rear-guard, the right and left wings of which were entrusted respectively to lord Dacre and sir Edward Stanley. The strength of the two armies should be determined once for all by the clear contemporary statement that the English, though said to be 30,000, were really 40,000, while the Scots, said to be 80,000, were really 60,000.27 The latter discrepancy may be accounted for by the fact that 20,000 Scots deserted their king and made off home before the day of battle.28

A jealous enmity prevailed between the Howards and the Stanleys. Surrey could scarcely have forgotten that it was the defection of

ripis præaltis, ac nusquam fere vadosus nullum intra aliquot millia passuum, nisi per unum pontem, exercitui transitum daturus esset, paucos ibi tantæ multitudini posse obsistere: posse etiam, parte Anglorum transmissa, machinis commode locatis pontem interscindi.'-Buchanan, Rerum Scoticarum Historia, ed. Elzevir, pp. 461, 462. That the 'machinæ' here referred to were not mere honourable cannon, we shall presently see from the fact that James did defend this one approach to Flodden by marvellous and great ordnance of guns,' as the English well knew.

24 Buchanan, p. 464.

25 Letters and Papers Henry VIII. i. p. 667, no 4439.

26 Marmaduke Cunstable of fflaynbright knyght

At brankisto' feld wher the kyng of Scottys was slayne

He then beyng of the age of thre score and tene

With the gode duke of Northefolke yt iorney he hay tayn
And coragely avancid hy'self emo'g other there & then.'

-Monumental inscription on a brass plate in Flamborough church, copied by
Ed. Peacock, Gentleman's Magazine, 1864, i. p. 93.

Brian Tuke to Richard Pace, Tournay 22 Sept. 1513.-Cal. State Papers, Venetian, p. 134.

28They say that after the kyng of Scotts medelyd with Norham xxm1 of hys men went away from hym.'-Letter of Bishop Ruthal to Wolsey, Arch. Ael. N.S. V. p. 779.

sir Edward Stanley's father that caused his own father to be slain on the field of Bosworth. The Stanleys still remembered with pride how they had 'busked' their banner at the recovery of Berwick in 1482,29 and their Cheshire tenants chafed at the hard fate that condemned them to serve in one of the three divisions led by Howards.3

30

The English army, thus marshalled, proceeded to Wooler haugh, where they pitched their thousand tents. This is said to be within 'three miles' of the king of Scots; but these little miles' were no doubt the 'petits lieux' of the French, or two of our present miles.31 Every soldier on Wooler haugh 'might,' we are told, 'see how the king of Scots did lie with his army upon a high hill on the edge of Cheviot, whereunto he had removed from Ford castle over the water of Till, and was enclosed in three parts with three great mountains so that there was no passage nor entry unto him but by one way, where was laid marvellous and great ordnance of guns.'

$32

On the Wednesday afternoon, 7th September, the English lords, tired of waiting, drew up a formal challenge requesting that James ' of his noble courage would come down to the plain of Millfield where was convenient ground for the meeting of two armies, or to a ground (hard) by, called Flodden, or to any other indifferent ground for two battles to fight upon.'33 Rouge Croix, who bore this challenge, was not admitted into the royal presence, but received his answer from a Scottish gentleman. This answer, which has an important bearing on the subsequent tactics, has been so distorted by the later chroniclers that it is necessary to quote it at length in its earliest form. The king, my master,' so the gentleman told Rouge Croix, 'wills that ye shall show to the earl of Surrey that it beseemeth him

29because thé busked them at Barwicke: that bolds them the more.'Scotish ffeilde, 1. 364. Sir Edward Stanley is made to say:

'A scourge for Scots my father was;

He Barwick town from them did gain.'

-Floddon Field, 9th fit, v. 12, ed. Federer, p. 83.

30 theire chance was the worse;

because they knew not theire Captaine: theire care was the more,
for they were wont att all warr: to waite uppon the Stanleys.'

-Scotish ffeilde, 11. 265-267.

31 An English mile contains 1,000 geometrical paces, the French little league 2,000.-Chambers's Cyclopædia, 1781, vol. iii., sub voco League. This suggests that many of our English chronicles are translated from the French.

32 Trewe Encountre, Laing MS.; Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. vii. pp. 145, 146. 33 Ibid. p. 146.

Plate xxviii.

The King's
Stone

Moss

Brankston

SURREY MARCHES TO BARMOOR.

359

not, being an earl, so largely to attempt a great prince. His grace will take and keep his ground and field at his own pleasure, and not at the saying of the earl of Surrey, whom the king, my master, supposeth to deal with some witchcraft or sorcery because he prouveth to fight upon only the said ground.'34 Here is certainly no quixotic promise on James's part to place no dependence on any ground, and sorcery is only mentioned by way of taunting Surrey.

Surrey now perfectly well understood that James was not to be tempted to throw away the advantages of his position, he therefore advanced northwards on the Thursday in hopes of forcing the engagement he so eagerly desired. He crossed the Till no doubt at Doddington bridge, and continually all that day went with the whole army in array in the sight of the king of Scots.'35 He encamped that night under a woodside called Barmoor wood. As this was at least four miles from Flodden, we can hardly understand the special advantage of there having been a hill between the two hosts 'for avoiding the danger of gun shot.'36 The hill seems accurately described in a later chronicle 'as rising from the hither bank of Till water with an easy steepness, the height of a mile's space,' that is to say two of our miles, or thereabouts,' but we are still told that one camp was within culverin shot of the other.37 The condition of the English on this their fourth night of encampment was pitiable in the extreme. During their whole march there had been scarce one hour of fine weather, and even at Wooler the men were so 'clemmed' with the cold and wet that they threatened to return home unless they were at once led into action.38 Worse than all there was little or no wine, ale, nor beer for the people to be refreshed with but all the army for the most part were enforced and constrained of necessity to drink water, without comfort

or trust of any relief in that behalf."39 The Scottish camp on the contrary was well provisioned, the nobles reposed on 4,000 feather beds 93 Ibid. p. 147.

Si Ibid. 3 Ibid. p. 147. It seems probable that Surrey's camp was at Woodside, in the township of Barmoor, about a mile farther from Flodden to the north-east than the hill of Watchlaw in Ford parish, from which the lord admiral may well have reconnoitered the Scottish position.

37 Holinshed, Chronicles of England, ed. 1577, p. 1490.

38 there company was clemmed and much cold did suffer;
water was a worthy drink: win it who might.'

-Scotish ffeilde 11. 258, 259.

33 Trewe Encontre, Laing MS.; Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. viii. p. 147.