Battle of Flodden

In 1513, with Henry VIII fighting in France, James IV of Scotland led a large army across the border to support his French ally. The Earl of Surrey met him in Northumberland with an English army, and James moved his men from a strong hill to a lower ridge near Branxton. The English artillery out-shot the Scots, and when the Scottish pikemen advanced downhill on soft ground their ranks broke up, while English billmen cut into them. The king fought on foot and was killed, along with many nobles, bishops and a large part of the Scottish leadership. It remains among the worst defeats in Scottish history.

Flodden is remembered in Scotland as a national catastrophe, but historians caution that its effects have been exaggerated: Scotland did not collapse, and the new regime under the infant James V held together. The death toll is uncertain and widely repeated figures should be treated as estimates. The usual explanation for the defeat blames the pikes and the mud, though some argue that the English artillery and Surrey's tactical skill mattered as much. The battlefield is on Historic England's Register of Historic Battlefields, and a memorial cross at Piper's Hill records the fallen of both sides.