Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/151

Rh general of the northern counties of England, advanced towards the position occupied by James's forces, with an army of thirty-one thousand men.

On the 7th of September, 1513, the latter encamped at Woolerhaugh, within five miles of Flodden hill, the ground on which the Scottish army was encamped. On the day following they advanced to Banmore wood, distant about two miles from the Scottish position, and on the 9th presented themselves in battle array at the foot of Flodden hill. The Scottish nobles endeavoured to prevail upon the king not to expose his person in the impending encounter, but he rejected the proposal with disdain, saying, that to outlive so many of his brave countrymen would be more terrible to him than death itself. Finding they could not dissuade him from his purpose of sharing in the dangers of the approaching fight, they had recourse to an expedient to lessen the chances of a fatal result. Selecting several persons who bore a resemblance to him in figure and stature, they clothed them in a dress exactly similar to that worn by the monarch, and dispersed them throughout the ranks of the army. The English army, when it presented itself to the Scots, was drawn up in three large divisions; Surrey commanding that in the centre, Sir Edward Stanley and Sir Edmund Howard those on the right and left, while a large body of cavalry, commanded by Dacre, was posted in the rear. The array of the Scots was made to correspond to this disposition, the king himself leading on in person the division opposed to that commanded by Surrey, while the earls of Lennox, Argyle, Crawford, Montrose, Huntly, and Home, jointly commanded those on his right and left. A body of cavalry, corresponding to that of Dacre 's, under Bothwell, was posted immediately behind the king's division. Having completed their dispositions, the Scots, with their long spears levelled for the coming strife, descended from the hill, and were soon closed with the enemy. The divisions commanded by Huntly and Home, on the side of the Scots, and by Howard on the side of the English, first met, but in a few minutes more all the opposing divisions came in contact with each other, and the battle became general.

The gallant but imprudent monarch himself, with his sword in his hand, and surrounded by a band of his no less gallant nobles, was seen fighting desperately in the front of his men, and in the very midst of a host of English bill-men. After various turns of fortune, the day finally terminated in favour of the English, though not so decisively as to assure them of their success, for it was not till the following day, that Surrey, by finding the field abandoned by the Scots, ascertained that he had gained the battle. In this sanguinary conflict, which lasted for three hours, having commenced at four o'clock in the afternoon and continued till seven, there perished twelve earls, thirteen lords, five eldest sons of peers, about fifty gentlemen of rank and family, several dignitaries of the church, and about ten thousand common men. Amongst the churchmen who fell, were the king's natural son, the archbishop of St Andrews, Hepburn, bishop of the Isles, and the abbots of Kilwinning and Inchaftray. James himself fell amidst a heap of his slaughtered nobles, mortally wounded in the head by an English bill, and pierced in the body with an arrow. It was long believed by the common people that the unfortunate monarch had escaped from the field, and that he had gone on a pilgrimage to Palestine, where tradition represented him to have ended his days in prayer and penitence for his sins, and especially for that of his having borne arms against his father. This belief was strengthened by a rumour that he had been seen between Kelso and Dunse after the battle was fought. That he actually fell at Flodden, however, has been long since put beyond all doubt, and the fate of his body is singular. It appears to have been carried to London, and to have been embalmed there, but by whom or by whose orders is unknown. In the reign of Elizabeth, some