FLODDEN, BATTLE OF. On the 24th Jan., 1502, a " perpetual peace" was concluded between England and Scotland. In the course of a few years, however, a series of petty quarrels had done much to bring this peaceable arrangement to a termination; and in 1513, on the invasion of France, Scotland's ancient ally, by Henry of England, a war broke out between the two countries. Jamei IV., the chivalrous but rash king of Scotland, summoned the whole array of his kingdom to meet on the borough or common moor of Edinburgh, which extended from the southern walls of the city to the foot of the Braid hills, and which was then "a field spacious, and delightful by the shade of many stately and aged oaks." Here an army, it is said, of 100,000 men assembled. With this force James crossed the border on the 22d Aug., 1513; but instead of advancing at once, and achieving a decisive success, he lingered in the neigh borhood of the Tweed until his army had become reduced by desertion to about 30,000 men. On the 6th Sept., James took up his position on Flodden hill, the last and lowest eminence of the Cheviots toward the n.e. On the morning of the 9th, the earl of Sur rey, lieut.gen. of the northern counties of England, at the head of an army of about 32,000 men; advanced from the s.e., crossed the Till by a skillful and unexpected move ment. and thus cut off all communication between king James and Scotland. While the English were crossing the Till, the Scots might have attacked them with every chance of success, and their not taking advantage of this opportunity was the first great mistake of the battle. Observing that the English were aiming at a strong position to the n.w. of Flodden hill, and desirous of preventing this, James, having ordered his tents to be set on fire, advanced against them in battle-array. The tWo armies were drawn up in similar order, each consisting of a center, a right and left wing, and a reserve placed behind the center. At about four o'clock on Friday, 9th Sept., the bat
tle commenced with cannonading on both sides. The earls of Huntly and Home, who commanded the left wing of the Scottish army, charged the English right, which was led by sir Edmund Howard, and entirely defeated it. Instead, however, of following up their success, Home's borderers commenced pillaging the baggage of both armies; and 1Iuntly, after his first charge, is said to have left the field. On the Scottish right, the clansmen under Lennox and Argyle, goaded to fury by the English archers, rushed forward, heedless of order, and fell with the greatest violence upon their opponents, who, however, received them with wonderful intrepidity and coolness, and at length put them to flight with great slaughter. Meantime, a desperate resistance was being made by the Scottish center, where the king fought on foot among his nobles. Scot tish history presents no instance in which the national valor burned with a purer flame than in this. Hemmed in by outnumbering enemies, the king among his slender group of lords fought manfully until, when the night was closing on F., he fell pierced by an arrow, and mortally wounded in the head. The bill was held during the night by the Scots; but at dawn, learning the state of matters, they abandoned their position. Their loss amounted to from 8,000 to 10.000 men. "Scarce a Scottish family of eminence," says Scott, " but had an ancestor killed at Flodden." Besides the king, the archbishop of St. Andrews-and twelve earls were among the slain. The English loss amounted to about 6,000 or 7,000; but Surrey's victory was so nearly a defeat that he was unable to prosecute the war with any vigor. The sixth canto of sir Walter Scott's poem of Itfarmiaa contains a magnificent, and in the main an accurate, description of the battle.