Soon after the battle, the council of Scotland decided to send for help from
Christian II of Denmark. The Scottish ambassador, Andrew Brounhill, was given instructions to explain "how this cais is hapnit." Brounhill's instructions blame James IV for moving down the hill to attack the English on marshy ground from a favourable position, and credits the victory to Scottish inexperience rather than English valour. The letter also mentions that the Scots placed their officers in the front line in medieval style, where they were vulnerable, contrasting this loss of the nobility with the English great men who took their stand with the reserves and at the rear. The English generals stayed behind the lines in the
Renaissance style. The loss of so many Scottish officers meant there was no one to coordinate a retreat. However, according to contemporary English reports, Thomas Howard marched on foot leading the English vanguard to the foot of the hill. Howard was moved to dismount and do this by taunts of cowardice sent by James IV's heralds, apparently based on his role at sea and the death two years earlier of the Scottish naval officer Sir
Andrew Barton. A version of Howard's declaration to James IV that he would lead the vanguard and take no prisoners was included in later English chronicle accounts of the battle. Howard claimed his presence in "proper person" at the front was his
trial by combat for Barton's death.
Weaponry , reputed to have been used at Flodden. Flodden was essentially a victory of the
bill used by the English over the
pike used by the Scots. The pike was an effective weapon only in a battle of movement, especially to withstand a cavalry charge. The Scottish pikes were described by the author of the
Trewe Encounter as "keen and sharp spears 5 yards long". Although the pike had become a Swiss weapon of choice and represented modern warfare, the hilly terrain of Northumberland, the nature of the combat, and the slippery footing did not allow it to be employed to the best effect.
Bishop Ruthall reported to
Thomas Wolsey, 'the bills disappointed the Scots of their long spears, on which they relied.' The infantrymen at Flodden, both Scots and English, had fought essentially like their ancestors, and Flodden has been described as the last great medieval battle in the British Isles. This was the last time that bill and pike would come together as equals in battle. Two years later
Francis I of France defeated the Swiss pikemen at the
Battle of Marignano, using a combination of heavy cavalry and artillery, ushering in a new era in the history of war. An official English diplomatic report issued by
Brian Tuke noted the Scots' iron spears and their initial "very good order after the German fashion", but concluded that "the English halberdiers decided the whole affair, so that in the battle the bows and ordnance were of little use." Despite Tuke's comment (he was not present), this battle was one of the first major engagements in the British Isles where artillery was significantly deployed.
John Lesley, writing sixty years later, noted that the Scottish bullets flew over the English heads while the English cannon was effective: the one army placed so high and the other so low. The Scots' advance down the hill was resisted by a hail of arrows, an incident celebrated in later English ballads. Hall says that the armoured front line was mostly unaffected; this is confirmed by the ballads which note that some few Scots were wounded in the scalp and, wrote Hall, James IV sustained a significant arrow wound. Many of the archers were recruited from
Lancashire and
Cheshire. Sir
Richard Assheton raised one such company from
Middleton, near
Manchester. He rebuilt his parish church
St. Leonard's, Middleton, which contains the unique "Flodden Window." It depicts and names the archers and their priest in stained glass. The window has been called the oldest known war memorial in the UK. The success of the Cheshire yeomanry, under the command of
Richard Cholmeley, led to his later appointment as Lieutenant of the
Tower of London.
Honours was given an augmentation of honour to commemorate the Battle of Flodden As a reward for his victory, Thomas Howard was subsequently restored to the title of
Duke of Norfolk, lost by his father's support for
Richard III. The arms of the Dukes of Norfolk still carry an
augmentation of honour awarded on account of their ancestor's victory at Flodden, a modified version of the
Royal coat of arms of Scotland with the lower half of the lion removed and an arrow through the lion's mouth. At
Framlingham Castle the Duke kept two silver-gilt cups engraved with the arms of James IV, which he bequeathed to
Cardinal Wolsey in 1524. The Duke's descendants presented the
College of Arms with a sword, a dagger and a turquoise ring in 1681. The family tradition was either that these items belonged to James IV or were arms carried by Thomas Howard at Flodden. The sword blade is signed by the maker Maestre Domingo of
Toledo. There is some doubt whether the weapons are of the correct period. The
Earl of Arundel was painted by
Philip Fruytiers, following
Anthony van Dyck's 1639 composition, with his ancestor's sword, gauntlet and helm from Flodden.
Thomas Lord Darcy retrieved a powder flask belonging to James IV and gave it to Henry VIII. A cross with rubies and sapphires with a gold chain worn by James and a hexagonal table salt with the figure of St Andrews on the lid were given to Henry by
James Stanley,
Bishop of Ely.
Legends of a lost king Lord Dacre discovered the body of James IV on the battlefield. He later wrote that the Scots "love me worst of any Englishman living, by reason that I fande the body of the King of Scots." The chronicle writer
John Stow gave a location for the king's death; "Pipard's Hill," now unknown, which may have been the small hill on Branxton Ridge overlooking Branxton church. Dacre took the body to Berwick-upon-Tweed, where according to Hall's
Chronicle, it was viewed by the captured Scottish courtiers William Scott and John Forman who acknowledged it was the king's. (Forman, the king's sergeant-porter, had been captured by Richard Assheton of Middleton.) The body was then embalmed and taken to
Newcastle upon Tyne. From
York, a city that James had promised to capture before
Michaelmas, the body was brought to
Sheen Priory near London. A payment of £12-9s-10d was made for the "sertying ledying and sawdryng of the ded course of the King of Scottes" and carrying it York and to Windsor. James's banner, sword and his
cuisses (thigh-armour), were taken to the shrine of Saint Cuthbert at Durham Cathedral. Much of the armour of the Scottish casualties was sold on the field, and 350 suits of armour were taken to
Nottingham Castle. A list of horses taken at the field runs to 24 pages. Thomas Hawley, the Rouge Croix pursuivant, was first with news of the victory. He brought the "rent surcoat of the King of Scots stained with blood" to
Catherine of Aragon at
Woburn Abbey. She sent news of the victory to Henry VIII at
Tournai with Hawley, and then sent John Glyn on 16 September with James's coat (and
iron gauntlets) and a detailed account of the battle written by Lord Howard. Brian Tuke mentioned in his letter to Cardinal Bainbridge that the coat was lacerated and chequered with blood. Catherine suggested Henry should use the coat as his battle-banner, and wrote she had thought to send him the body too, as Henry had sent her the
Duke of Longueville, his prisoner from Thérouanne, but "Englishmen's hearts would not suffer it." In addition to these relics, the gold crucifix worn by James IV on the field of battle, set with three balas rubies and three sapphires and containing a fragment of the True Cross, was listed in the jewel book inventory of Henry VIII in the chapel of the
Tower of London. Soon after the battle, there were legends that James IV had survived. A Scottish merchant at Tournai in October claimed to have spoken with him, and Lindsay of Pitscottie records two myths: "thair cam four great men upon hors, and every ane of thame had ane wisp upoun thair spear headis, quhairby they might know one another and brought the king furth of the feild, upoun ane dun hackney," and also that the king escaped from the field but was killed between Duns and Kelso. Similarly, John Lesley adds that the body taken to England was "my lord Bonhard" and James was seen in Kelso after the battle and then went secretly on pilgrimage in far nations.
George Buchanan reported a rumour that James IV had escaped the field, leaving his Squire of Attendance,
Alexander Elphinstone, 1st Lord Elphinstone to fight on, and that the English may have mistaken Elphinstone's body for the king. A legend arose that James had been warned against invading England by supernatural powers. While he was praying in St Michael's Kirk at
Linlithgow, a man strangely dressed in blue had approached his
desk saying his mother had told him to say James should not go to war or take the advice of women. Then before the king could reply, the man vanished.
David Lindsay of the Mount and John Inglis could find no trace of him. The historian R. L. Mackie wondered if the incident really happened as a masquerade orchestrated by an anti-war party:
Norman Macdougall doubts if there was a significant anti-war faction. Three other portents of disaster were described by
Paolo Giovio in 1549 and repeated in John Polemon's 1578 account of the battle. When James was in council at the camp at Flodden Edge, a
hare ran out of his tent and escaped the weapons of his knights; it was found that mice had gnawed away the strings and buckle of the king's helmet; and in the morning his tent was spreckled with a bloody dew.
Scotland after Flodden The wife of James IV, Queen Margaret Tudor, is said to have awaited news of her husband at
Linlithgow Palace, where a room at the top of a tower is called 'Queen Margaret's bower'. Ten days after the Battle of Flodden, the Lords of Council met at
Stirling on 19 September, and set up a General Council of the Realm "to sit upon the daily council for all matters occurring in the realm" of thirty-five lords including clergymen, lords of parliament, and two of the minor barons, the lairds of
The Bass and Inverrugy. This committee was intended to rule in the name of Margaret Tudor and her son
James V of Scotland. The full
Parliament of Scotland met at
Stirling Castle on 21 October, where the 17-month-old King was crowned in the Chapel Royal. The General Council of Lords made special provisions for the heirs of those killed at Flodden, following a declaration made by James IV at Twiselhaugh, and protection for their widows and daughters. Margaret Tudor remained guardian or 'tutrix' of the King, but was not made
Regent of Scotland. The French soldier
Antoine d'Arces arrived at
Dumbarton Castle in November with a shipload of armaments which were transported to Stirling. The English already knew the details of this planned shipment from a paper found in a bag at Flodden field. Now that James IV was dead, Antoine d'Arces promoted the appointment of
John Stewart, Duke of Albany, a grandson of
James II of Scotland as Regent to rule Scotland instead of Margaret and her son. Albany, who lived in France, came to Scotland on 26 May 1515. By that date Margaret had given birth to James's posthumous son
Alexander and married the
Earl of Angus. A later sixteenth-century Scottish attitude to the futility of the battle was given by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, in words that he attributed to
Patrick Lord Lindsay at council before the engagement. Lord Lindsay advised the King to withdraw, comparing their situation to an honest merchant playing dice with a trickster, and wagering a gold
rose-noble against a bent halfpenny. Their King was the gold piece, England the trickster, and Thomas Howard the halfpenny. ==Casualties==