Flodden: The Largest Battle Ever Fought Between Medieval England And Scotland | Warfare | Chronicle

The Battle of Flodden was a brutal defeat by The Kingdom of England against The Kingdom of Scotland. It was essentially a retaliation for King Henry VIII‘s invasion of France in May 1513. The invasion provoked the French King Louis XII to invoke the terms of the Auld Alliance, a defensive alliance between France and Scotland to deter England from invading either country, with a treaty that stipulated that if either country was invaded by England the other country would invade England in retaliation. The Scottish still remember the Battle of Flodden today with the haunting ballad and pipe tune “The Flowers of the Forest”. Written 300 years after Flodden, the lyrics are written to commemorate the fallen Scots.

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[Lady_Graham]

These documentaries are very nice to watch. I hate the overly dramatic style of newer documentaries, so this stuff is a welcome change for me

[steveforster]

Northumberland born Canadian sat watching in Alberta a long way from Northumberland

[FreeFallingAir]

This was absolutely fascinating. Just found the channel, I subscribed! Looking forward to more.

[Thomas-uuex]

Allways Brtish doc on History are interesting and brillant !

[Tsoiugidali]

Some time ago while working on my Scottish personal genealogy I curiously noted that a significant number of my lineage, all died in the same year. Then I learned about Flodden. I understood then. May they all continue to rest in peace.

[waynevaughan]

Fantastic vid. Make some more brilliant detail.

[maureenhaley]

Hi, thank you for this video. My ancestor James Henderson, died on the 9th September 1513 at Flodden. He was 62 years old which is amazing and quite brave to even go and fight.
His son George Henderson, born in 1495, was made of the same cloth because he died, at age 52, together with two of his sons, George (jr) and Henry William Henderson, on the 10th September 1547 at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh. Another great battle lost. I wonder if you have a video about that battle.

Sadly, in another branch of my family I have William Swynhoo (Swinhoe) living in Cornhill on Tweed, Northumberland, and whose letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury written in September 1557, is recorded in the Talbot Papers vol.D page 162
William is telling the Earl about the movement across the border of shot and barrels of wine "for the queen's own provision". He must mean the Queen dowager because Mary was in France at that time.
He has also learned that "they intend to besiege Wark" and that "The whole power doth muster upon Fawlawe (Fallowlese) more on Saturday next, and, as I am informed, setteth forwards on Sunday, and will be a greater power than ever I saw of Scotland together at one time."
William also talks about his plan to send a spy into the Scottish camps to "learn their intent".
Do you know what battle they were preparing for?

[samanthafischer]

Those are so cool! I think I'd do a combination of colors on the blanks to add to the stained glass effect

[paquitoignacio]

Enjoy watching medieval battles, interesting how they fight but the injury from the battle is very excruciating pain and slow death.

[edmundriddle]

As much as I love “Whistle, and I’ll come to You” why is it pictured in a advert for a history channel?

[gregsmith]

Hi love you history talks on London and the railways.

Could you do something on the ancient county of Middlesex that makes the bulk of London.,

Ps keep the good work up it’s very much appreciated.

[markharris]

33:19 Oh no, how terrible. They even were running out of beer!

[roberttelarket]

We hear of Henry VIII, his children etc. but never his sister!

[pbh]

I've been looking for this doc

Warfare was a very interesting period as it was a transitional period between the medieval levies to standing armies.

There were still Knights but there battlefield importance was greatly diminished due to firearms, canons and pikes.

[PortmanRd]

And it would be repeated again at Solway Moss and Pinkie Cleugh.

[psandbergnz]

There's often too much battle noise to hear what the speaker is saying.

[pedanticradiator]

Henry VIII was not a medieval king, historians usually regard the end of the Wars of the Roses as being the end of the Middle Ages in England

[amys]

So many of my ancestors died in the battle of flodden . Honestly surprised how I was made there was like no one left

[SuziQ]

The casualties and army numbers listed is not correct The English had between 19, 000-23, 000 men the Scots 30, 000-37, 000 the Scots lost between 7, 000-10, 000 men the English around 800-2500 The English fought the battle in the renaissance way with its commanders at the back giving orders and reacting to the battle as it progressed the Scots fought the medieval way even if they were equipped renaissance style their commanders fought from the front where they could not react to what was happing.

The casualties listed above include wounded the actual number of dead was around 7, 000 Scots and around a 1, 000 English but it does vary but most sources agree the Scots lost around 4x the amount of dead to the English this would be expected as the English would have killed any Scots wounded left on the battlefield.

[memofromessex]

Great stuff, I have read quite a lot about this - and obviously opinions and facts differ. The main issue have is that we are not entirely sure guns got to Scotland, and even if they did they were left at the port of Leith because the Scots weren't trained to use them - though other sources say they were left at the baggage train. I also can't remember reading much about the landsknecht.

I am descended the Humes and the Heron* - and other Border riding families (sometimes referred to as border reiver clans)

*It was William Heron of Ford Castle who had his castle - and his wife! - taken and it was his half-brother the John 'the Bastard' Heron who showed Surrey where to ford the river and also joined in the fight. John Heron was also a notorious Border Reiver